Ray felt as if he was going to drown, felt as if blood was flooding his lungs as Lady Corivan tinkered with the chains around his arms, smiling as he coughed and gasped. His arms were held above his head, and great welts were scored across his chest.
"You love me, don't you, Ray?" She cooed, and he choked out a breathless, silent reply. She grinned wider and slashed the lash she held firmly in her hands across his chest again. "Don't you?"
"I do," Ray coughed, his voice heavy and wet as he tried desperately to bring air into his lungs, his head spinning. He couldn't recall how he had gotten down here. He did know that after they had talked in the garden things had taken a sudden turn. She had acted particularly fond of him. They had spent hours together, and it nearly felt like before. He had even started calling her Rosana again.
But as the night grew later a certain theme began to crop up. She had started it with just a few simple words. "Don't you love me, Ray?" He had assured her that he did, and the moment that was made certain she made it certain that he would need to prove himself.
"I think he's had enough," Lady Corivan told Volbert with a strange sort of smile as he stood at grim attention in the back of the room. They were in the basement, but it was a different part than where he had found himself previously, and she had been far more interested in giving him attention here. Only he wasn't sure if he liked the kind of attention she gave him.
"If you're not careful you're going to kill him," Telago informed her with a sort of frown on his face, and Ray could feel his face heating up.
"I can handle it," he gasped. "I've handled worse." He could feel drool and blood running down his face, dribbling from his mouth, and he couldn't help but feel angry and embarrassed, knowing that Volbert was staring at him with his unsympathetic eyes. He was aware that the wizard was likely thinking of how he had warned him of this, and how he didn't heed him, and that this was his fault that he was here. "I like it," he informed him.
Telago didn't say anything, and Ray wasn't sure if this was a mercy or proof that the wizard didn't think he was worthy of a response. He simply touched his chest lightly. The moment he did Ray could feel relief spreading through him like cold water over a terrible burn. The chains were removed, and he relaxed.
"Isn't that better?" Rosana purred, now running her hands through his hair as Telago did his work. "Doesn't this make the pain worth it? You can always rely on the pain to go away as long as you trust me when I'm hurting you."
"It is good. Thank you so much, Rosana," Ray hiccuped, but the moment her name left his lips he cried out painfully, the lash going across his face and leaving a bloody gouge. She snapped her fingers, and Telago immediately healed it so there would be no traces left behind of what she had done.
"When you are down here and we're playing this game you will call me nothing other than Master Corivan. Is that understood?" She snapped, and he nodded. The lash hit the wall beside his head, and he cried out, startled.
"Understood," he cried, realizing she wanted an audible response.
She smiled, caressing his chest after, a quiet laugh spilling from her lips as she told him, "I'm so glad we're on the same page now. It was rather tedious beforehand. I want you to know that there is nowhere in this whole world that will heighten you to any higher order than here. No one loves you more than I do, and so you may as well consider yourself condemned if you ever consider leaving."
He felt strangely frightened, but not at the idea of not being able to leave. "Please don't say that," he whimpered. "Please don't imply that I would want to be anywhere other than in your arms, Master Corivan. I don't want to be alone again."
She held him as he slid down the wall into the stool that was set for him, running her hands through his hair as she told him, "As long as you do as I say and promise always to adore me I will never send you away. You are very precious to me, Ray, and it's very important that I know that you won't betray me."
"I promise," he choked out, tears running down his face and she smiled. She kissed his cheek lightly. His sobbing grew quieter until he finally slipped into unconsciousness.
"You're going to ruin him," Telago told her. "There are better uses for him than this."
"I don't see any better uses for him. He will be useful to me as long as he's under my control and loyal," she told him. "Does it matter if he's ruined after? What do I care what happens to him after he's no longer mine?"
"You should care, my Lady Corosia. If you keep destroying everything around you, you're going to find yourself with nothing or worse," Volbert told her matter of factly.
"No matter what you say about it, I don't really care. If I end up destroying everything around me I should expect that I'll be destroyed as well. What does it matter if there's nothing left of me after if I'm no longer around to see it?" She scoffed.
"I suppose I shouldn't expect you to see the value in others at this point. You killed your own father and fiance before. I can't imagine you wouldn't do it again if given the chance," he sighed, staring at Ray, and grimacing as he studied the network of scars left on his chest even after he had taken the time to heal him.
"Don't say that as if you or anyone else had any love for either of those men. My father was greedy and murderous just like I am, as well as responsible for killing his wife, and my fiance was a weak-minded fool who only wanted one thing out of me other than money," she answered.
"Don't think I'm criticizing you, per se. I just want to understand how other people think now and again. It just all seems rather whimsical," he replied, "such as how you can mock a man for wanting something that you give so freely now."
"And what wasn't whimsical about teaching Ray how to perform magic? I don't see how it could possibly benefit you in the end," she retorted. "It seems you are looking out for him more than you let on."
"Well," he answered. "If you and I can't have our alone time anymore, and you're going to put all your energy into sculpting a self-proclaimed Zamorakian with the mentality of a child mixed with a hardened killer as well as an abuse magnet then I may as well invest a bit in it as well. If things go wrong I would prefer to be on the side of the helper rather than the side of the antagonizer." He shrugged. "It's all very impersonal to me."
She rolled her eyes and stared at Ray. He noticed how her fingers seemed to trace his scars as well, her head tilting just a bit, a frown creasing her lips.
"And what does that look mean, may I ask?" He said, his eyebrows raised, his voice as monotone as ever.
"Do you think he thinks of the last one who hurt him? Do you think it would have been easier if he hadn't been broken at all when he arrived here? Maybe things would have been better if he was a better man arriving here, and not someone else's used up scrap. Maybe things could have been different this time around," she sighed.
"I don't believe he would have made it here in the form he's taken if he was," Volbert told her simply. "I doubt he would have stood for the way you've treated him if he was already aware that there was something better for him to begin with."
"You're always so blunt," she answered.
"I have to be, really. I don't see the point in being otherwise. What kind of man do you think would stay here under these conditions otherwise?" He said.
"You stayed, didn't you?" She answered. "What does that make you then?"
"I will always have a choice in the matter no matter what you choose to do. There isn't an instant in which you will have more power than me even when I surrender power to you," he answered simply. "Being humbled by someone that wouldn't have the power to otherwise is almost gratifying."
"And I suppose I feel the same when it comes to Ray. If not for the things he has suffered prior to me finding him he would never be in my complete control. Now, however, there's nothing he can hope to do to escape my influence," she told him.
"I hope you enjoy it when while it lasts," Volbert snorted. "All things come to an end one way or the other."
