One week.

One week on the road with the Seiryuu warriors, and Mari felt like she would go mad with the machinations of the cunning group. After Yui and Nakago had left her shivering in the dark, she had hung from her chains for longer than she cared to estimate, skin crawling, fear bubbling in her chest at what would come next. With no marker of time, her sense cut off but for the chill of the breeze across her barely covered skin, every little bruise was a gaping wound. Every sound was Tomo finally come to force his way into her mind. Nakago here to end it all.

In the first few hours in the interminable hell, she wished he would.

It was somewhere between watching them walk away and the flare of icy cold pain that had woken her mid-way through the next day that she realized that she didn't wish for her own death. She craved theirs. The realization kicked her mind into high gear, analyzing every fact she knew about Seiryuu, about the warriors, about the circumstances of Yui's decision to so easily go along with being their priestess. She began to hatch a plan there in the dark, the renewed hope invigorating her mentally. Her brain whirred, plotting and re-plotting, calculating moves, cause and effect, and boiling it down to a solid course of action. She ran it over in her head, poking it for holes over and over until she slipped into a half-sleep, hands numb and pained above her head.

The pain woke her suddenly. Ice cold water flushing through her veins and head, numbing her extremities as a voice boomed, wrathful and cruel in its commands.

The girl, she will lead you to them. Now go, and do not fail me again, Ayuru! Mari shook in her bonds as the voice subsided, swallowing back the taste of bile in her throat. It couldn't be more perfect, she thought hazily. She let herself fall weak and limp in her chains, ignoring her shoulders crying out against the pain. It mattered more that she presented the right picture to the visitors she was soon expecting. They didn't disappoint. Mere minutes later Nakago strode into her cell, crazed anger evident in his eyes. Tomo slunk in after like a cocky painted lap dog. Nakago's evil little shadow. She shoved the angry thoughts down, allowing the very real fear at his close presence to shine through as Nakago walked right up to her, hand painfully seizing her chin.

"The Dragon God says you know more than you are letting on." he spat the words out, searching her eyes with his own. "He says you will be the one to lead us to the shinzaho. That you must help us in summoning him." She glared into his mad eyes, pulling at her stores of bravery, and spat in his face.

"Never." she rasped. Behind Nakago, she could see Tomo practically vibrating with glee at the scene that unfolded before him. Perfect. Nakago wiped the mess from his face, studying it on his hand. His breath came hard and fast as he struggled to control the rage that threatened to boil over and burn down his iron-held façade. He met her eyes as he struck her across the face, open palm connecting with the side of her head in a ringing blow. Her body wrenched in the chains that held her, shoulders screaming as the blow brought tears to her eyes. When his voice came again, it was low, grinding the words out over his fury.

"You will help us. You will take us to retrieve the shinzaho. And you WILL be the fall of Suzaku." He grabbed her by the neck, his grip tightening, bruising over the delicate muscles of her throat. "And after you do, I will make you watch as I burn their kingdom, as I raze their land, as I kill every one of those that you hold dear slowly and painfully before your eyes. And you will know that it is because of you that they suffer. It is because of your arrogance and foolish pride that I will wring screams from their throats until they have nothing left to give but their souls." She struggled against his hand, struggled to breathe, her eyes painful and heavy in their sockets, her lungs burning as a red haze descended on her. His breath was hard and fast in her face as he shook her by his hold on her neck, forcing her to meet his eyes as he whispered to her. "And then, and only then, will I make you pay for your 'never'. I will take more than your life, girl. I will take all that you have and more, and make you pray and beg that you could have killed them with your own hands only to make the pain stop." He threw her back, hand finally leaving its steel grip on her throat as air rushed into her lungs in huge painful gasps that made her retch and cough. When she managed to bring her eyes up to him again, his breathing had calmed, belying the insane fury in his eyes. He gazed at her a long moment before addressing the man who still stood behind him, Tomo waiting patiently like the ever disciplined painted soldier. "She will be in your charge, Tomo. Do with her as you see fit. Just keep her mind whole for me."

Whirling, Nakago strode from the rooms, leaving the girl alone with the man she feared most. They considered each other for a moment. His head tipped to the side, eyes narrowed as one long nail tracing over his bottom lip in thought. After a moment his smiled and approached her where she still hung, aching and bruised in her chains. Mari suppressed a shudder as he curled his hand behind her head, long nails tracing along the nape of her neck. It was time to move her plan another step across the board. If Tomo wanted intrigue and games, she was more than happy to oblige, whatever the cost it wrought on her body. It only mattered to move her plan into action and destroy the Seiryuu warriors from the inside out.

"I... I want your help." her voice rasped, hoarse from Nakago's abuse. She peered at him through her lashes, every inch the little lost girl she wanted him to believe her to be. Tomo cocked his head again, raising a bemused eyebrow at her. His nails tapped a staccato on the back of her neck as he waited for her to continue. "After what you... showed me. I... I couldn't believe how real it felt." She swallowed, allowing a very real flush to surface on her cheeks. He didn't have to know the color was the result of the anger and rage burning deep within her. She raised her wide eyes to meet his narrowed ones, hoping she looked innocent enough, naïve enough, for him to believe the words that tumbled from her lips. "I... want to know how you did it. Since I came here, I've found myself with such strange powers. I'm only learning how to control them and... and you seem so powerful, so capable. Please? Please train me? I'll do anything." She gulped back her fear at the last statement, dropping her eyes as her stomach clenched in terror.

"And what of Lord Nakago's demands? What of the Suzaku?" his cold voice inquired, breath stirring her hair and lapping at her face. She shuddered in disgust, praying he thought it in reaction to his question, fear brought on by the punishment dealt to her.

"I will do what he commands. I only care for the life of my friend." she lied, twisting her mouth into a fierce scowl. "The warriors, they weren't the kindest of hosts." Tomo's lips curled, seemingly satisfied at this turn of events. He trailed his nails from the back of her neck down under her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes again. She could tell he was seeking out evidence of her claims in her mind, his power a cold, slimy hand pawing at her memories. She eagerly brought them forward, rushing to cover her very real loathing and frustration in a protective sphere within her mind, turning her strange powers inward and trying not to tremble from the effort. One by one, she pulled the memories she wanted him to see forward. Her powers lashing out at Su and the Suzaku. Hotohori, sword in hand as he glared at her across her cell. Tasuki's fire as it roared as it roared all around her. Chichiri face, staring back at her in horror as he discovered who and what she was. Tomo lingered over this last one, interested.

"And I thought you had feelings for the damaged monk." he mused, lips pursing.

"I did... I do." she forced herself to answer honestly, weaving the truth into the tapestry of lies she presented to Tomo. "What I feel doesn't matter. He showed his true side. He's just like the rest of them." She dropped her eyes, apologizing to Chichiri over and over in her mind. "Revenge is closer to my heart now." Tomo considered her once again, seeming to collect his thoughts, weighing the visions he had seen moments earlier.

"After all you've done to thwart us, why now? What are you playing at, little girl?"

"They've left me here to die. I'm not ready to do that, yet." The fierceness of that last truth was enough, Tomo feeling her conviction as he withdrew from her head. "Teach me, please! Show me how I can destroy them from the inside out! If you teach me how to control my magic, I... " she braced herself for her next words, locking her emotions, her revulsion at the declaration, away within the depths of her mind. "I will be yours. Your slave. Anything you want." Tomo let go of her, pacing away across the room. Mari schooled her face into an eager, angry mask, reaching for memories fueled by rage should he need more proof. As he spun back to face her, his lips pulled into an elegant sneer, and she knew she had him.

"Then, my dear, you shall have your revenge." A quick gesture of his longer fingers released her bonds, and she fell to the floor, arms screaming as the blood rushed back into them. Her shoulders cracked and creaked with long disuse. Gathering herself to her knees, Mari bowed at his feet, touching her forehead to his boots in subservience even as her actions made her sick inside.

"Many thanks, Lord Tomo." She lifted her head once more to stare adoringly into his painted face. "I shall not disappoint." He laughed, peals of scratchy high-pitched evil.

"Oh, I should hope not, my girl. I should hope not."