Ok, so this chapter grew way longer than intended. Almost reaching 15 000 words. Decided to split it up. The next one will be released on Monday.

I rarely like to explain the story in these boxes but I might need to clear one thing up right here in order to avoid confusion. This is a chapter between arcs, just like "Before the plunge" was. All the scenarios in this two-part chapter take place BEFORE chapter one of this story. These are scenarios that I wanted to write but couldn't really fit into something like a flashback. I hope you enjoy.

-Intermission- (1/2)

An evening in the chambers

"I don't even understand why he is here?" the torture master complained and gestured towards Tatsumi. The man was giant and muscular. Wearing no shirt and having a large helmet on his head. The attire of the torturers of the capital's dungeons. "We have been trying to find government secrets from these traitors all day. He shouldn't be here."

Tatsumi was sitting on top of a torture bench on the other side of the room. His arms wrapped around his legs. His coat wrapped around him. His mouth concealed by his knees. His angry eyes slowly moving to the torture master.

The eye sockets of the torture master's helmet met Tatsumi's eyes for some seconds before his head turned to Esdese. "This might be a safety risk."

Esdese's eyes did not leave her work. She was standing with her back against both the torture master and Tatsumi. She was currently wearing her more clinical uniform. Looking something like a nurse's uniform. With long plastic gloves that reached past her elbows and her hair in a ponytail. She reached out with a hand to the torture master. "Pincer." she said without looking at him.

The torture master quickly gave her the tool she required. Carrying a small tray with different tools for her in one hand. After that, he looked at Tatsumi again. "He shouldn't be here." he said lowly and shook his head.

"For once, I actually agree with you." Tatsumi said. Looking at him. "You pathetic excuse for a jailer."

"I am not a simple jailor. I am a torture master. I am an expert in my field." the man said in disdain. "Not that I would expect someone like you to understand the difference."

"I was being courteous when I called you a jailer." Tatsumi said. "But maybe I was just insulting all the jailers in the world. Most of them aren't as deplorable as your kind."

The big man puffed up his chest as he turned entirely towards Tatsumi. "Are you looking for a fight, little man?"

"Maybe I am." Tatsumi said. Beginning to emit hostility. He started to very slowly straighten up.

Esdese's eyes moved away from the body in front of her. "Tatsumi." she said and looked at him. The word said as a warning. He returned her gaze and then mellowed out. Returning to his original position. Esdese held his gaze for some moments.

He had been a bit troublesome during these last days. It had now been three months since he had accepted her offer to join her. And while he had done so, it had not been an easy road from there. It was actually just a couple of weeks ago that he had finally stopped fighting her and trying to hinder her when she was working down in the torture chambers. But he still made it very clear that he hated these halls and what happened in them.

She herself actually enjoyed Tatsumi's little attacks. She found her matches with him gratifying and entertaining. To her they were nothing more than playful training. She could tell that he was only trying to stop her with what she was doing. He wasn't seriously trying to challenge her. So she let him have his little fights. Always ending them by putting him back in his place with some tough love. And after some time, he stopped trying. Realizing the futility of it.

But while Tatsumi hadn't gotten Incursio back yet, Esdese was well aware that he was still very dangerous for many of her subordinates. And while she felt a certain primal pride over that, she wouldn't let him hurt her underlings. Not if he wasn't sufficiently provoked. And in this case, he had been the initiator.

She looked at him for some more seconds and then turned her head back towards her work.

The torture master nodded behind her back. "He should leave."

"Would like nothing more." Tatsumi sighed with irritation.

"Then why don't you. You are clearly not wished for here."

That actually made Tatsumi smile. "You assume a lot."

"What do you mean?" the torture master said. His voice irritated.

Tatsumi just nodded towards Esdese's back. "It is not that I don't want to leave. I am not allowed to."

The torture master looked at Esdese's back and then at Tatsumi again."What?"

"Tatsumi is not allowed to leave my direct vicinity, torture master Gregor. I will not suffer his absence." Esdese said in an empty voice without moving away from her work.

The giant helmet that was a part of the torturers attire concealed all of the man's expressions. Yet it was easy to see that he was a bit confused. "Ehhh... Sorry if I step out of line here, general. But why? I think his presence down here is just a risk."

"Fully agreed." Tatsumi said. Glaring at Esdese's back.

She could feel his gaze, even with her face turned away from him. But it didn't bother her in the slightest. "You know very well why I won't risk it another time, Tatsumi." she said in a hard voice. "And I don't need to satiate your petty curiosity, torture master."

"N-no no. Of course not. My apologies, general." the big man said hastily and bowed down to her back.

"You're quite a bootlicker, aren't you?" Tatsumi mocked from where he was sitting. "Cruel to those you can afford to be cruel to and just fawner to everyone more powerful than you. Not much of a spine in you, is there?"

The big man took some seconds to answer. "That's rich. Hearing that from someone who switched side in a war. Simply because it had become favorable for him to join the empire. You don't have any moral authority here, Tatsumi the traitor."

Tatsumi turned silent at that.

Esdese gave him a quick glance. For many different reasons.

She knew that Tatsumi didn't enjoy hearing about that. She was unsure if he might attack her subordinate for that. Even without Incursio, he was still a highly trained assassin. He might be hiding his intentions from her and be preparing to strike. But when she looked at him she could immediately tell that wasn't the case. His gaze had moved down to his knees and his expression had gotten blank and empty.

Which was the other thing Esdese had been looking for.

She knew that Tatsumi's betrayal of Night raid was a sensitive issue. For both of them. She even avoided the topic for his sake. Not talking about it when she didn't have to. A sort of consideration that she rarely displayed. For her, the mere memory of his betrayal filled her with happiness. But she knew that it still hurt him to think about it. And she didn't want to make him feel pain for becoming hers. She didn't want him to associate becoming her partner with the pain of what he had to give up to do so. She wanted him to not look back so much.

So when she saw that the torture master's jab had hit a tender spot, she returned her eyes to the body in front of her. A bit of annoyance showing through in her expression. Irritation that her subordinate didn't realize what a delicate issue he was meddling with. The body strapped to the torture bench in front of her was long dead. She was simply testing some things out on the body. So it didn't really draw her attention away from the argument behind her.

The torture master seemed to pick up on Tatsumi' sensitivity. "Not much to say, all of a sudden? Traitor?"

Tatsumi looked up at him. "I would probably say that being viewed as a traitor is still better than being viewed as a torturer."

"Tchh. Even a hard job such as mine needs doing. As a professional murderer, you should understand that. If you are loyal, you are willing to do dark deeds."

"You know little about dark deeds." Tatsumi said silently. "All you understand is pain."

"It seems to me like you don't understand pain enough. Otherwise, you wouldn't say things like that." the torture master said and took a step towards Tatsumi. "But I could teach you if you are so ignorant."

Tatsumi started to smile again. He was about to invite the torture master to try something but was interrupted before he could begin. Both he and the torture master turned their heads towards Esdese at the sound of a loud crack. The sickening crunching of a larger bone being snapped stopping them both in their tracks. Both of them looking at Esdese's back. But she neither said anything or turned around. Not giving them any signs of her interest at all.

After some moments, Tatsumi turned his eyes from her back and looked at the big man again. "Have you ever been tortured yourself?"

"Of course not. I am an honest citizen of the empire. There is no reason for why I would ever be tortured."

Tatsumi just sighed and shook his head. "You have never stared death in the eyes. You have never risked your life for anything. You know little of fear or suffering."

"Are you trying to insult my professional integrity? I have studied pain and its effects my whole life. I am one of the bests in my field." the big man said. His voice growing more and more flustered while Tatsumi's remained calm.

"If you don't fully grasp the concept of compassion and love, then you can never fully understand suffering. You have studied pain in its most basic and crudest form. You are like an architect that is trying to learn how to build a palace by staring at a stone." Tatsumi said in a relaxed tone.

"I serve the highest of leaders in the empire."

"You are one of the highest of the lowest then. Taking care of the work that the most distinguished people usually don't want to dirty their hands with. You're like a garbage man. Just an unusually proud one, without any moral center at all."

Tatsumi had been unable to see just how far he had driven the man. Since his helmet obscured his face. He didn't think that a torturer could have much pride. So when he suddenly lashed out, Tatsumi was not ready for it.

The giant muscular man threw the tray that he was holding towards Tatsumi. Its tools flying everywhere. The attack was so unexpected for Tatsumi that it actually hit him right in the forehead. Causing his entire head to jolt backward by the impact.

He was down from the torture bench in an instant. His temper flaring.

He moved up to the torture master quickly in one long leap. The man was almost twice as tall as him but he felt no worry.

When he got close, the big man raised his fist. Intending to strike at Tatsumi. But before his swing had even gotten halfway, Tatsumi had moved under it. Sliding down on the floor on one knee, while delivering a hard kick to the other man's leg with the other.

The bigger man had clearly not expected the attack. Not being able to react to it fast enough. The well-placed kick swiped his legs away from under him. With a loud thump, the man fell down on his back on the cold brick floor. All the air going out of him by the impact.

He started to slowly get up but before he got anywhere, Tatsumi's knee came down on his throat. Pinning him down. He started to raise his arms up but he couldn't get far before Tatsumi's fist hit his helmet. Causing his entire head to ring with the sound of the impact. Disorienting him. Making his arms lose all coordination.

Tatsumi grimaced from the hit. Shaking the hurting hand that had hit the cold metal. He decided for a different approach and raised both his hand over the helmet. Intending to go for the eyes. But before he could deliver the attack, his entire body started to move upwards.

Esdese's hand grabbed the neck of Tatsumi's cloak and lifted him up from the torture master. Hoisting him up until his feet were dangling in the air. She turned around and carried him away through the room like that. Walking with him still hanging an arms length away from her. He tried to struggle against her but stopped himself when he looked up at her eyes. She was not going to accept behavior like this and it showed on her face. Her hard and threatening eyes meeting his. Making him mellow out and submit quickly. When he lowered his eyes from hers, she sighed lightly.

"You act like you're in kindergarten, Tatsumi. I thought you would have realized that I won't tolerate you behaving like this."

She put him down on the torture bench he had been sitting on but when she had done so, the hand that had been holding him up moved around him and placed itself on his chest. Slowly but firmly pressing him down. Forcing him to lay down on the torture bench. When his back was against it, she started to lock him to it. Closing the fastenings around his arms, legs and chest. When most of them were closed, she straightened up a bit. Standing beside the torture bench.

"You will stay like this for the rest of my time down here today."

"He was the one that got physical! I was just talking." Tatsumi spat out in his defense.

Esdese grabbed his chin between her thumb and index finger. Bending his face in her direction. Unsmiling. "Understand your position, Tatsumi." she said in a cold and hard tone. "I already have a hard enough time defending you against all the restrictions and confinements that the imperial court wants me to put on you. Rumors about you fighting with my subordinates doesn't help."

With those words, she let go of him. She turned around and walked over to the torture bench that she had been working at. When she reached it, she started to open the clasps and locks that held the dead body in place.

The torture master slowly started to stand up behind her. Grabbing his head with a hand. "God damn, he is a quick piece of shit." he said in an angry voice. "I couldn't even see him."

"He is powerful even without his teigu." Esdese said plainly. "Though not nearly enough for myself to be bothered by it."

The torture master nodded to her. Then turning to Tatsumi. "Guess you are not so tough when an imperial general is here to put you in your place, huh, assassin?"

Tatsumi just glared at him in response.

"You were a fool to strike at me. Here in the middle of all the imperial power." the torture master said and took a couple of steps towards Tatsumi. "You should have realized that you are still seen as an enemy here."

"No." Esdese said without turning around to the torture master. "He is not."

The torture master stopped immediately. Turning around to Esdese's back. "I'm sorry, general?"

"Tatsumi should not have attacked you. You are correct about that." Esdese said and worked with the locks on the torture bench in front of her. "But that is simply because he doesn't have the authority to do so. He is not in a position to administer punishments. He must leave that task to his superiors. He is not allowed to do it himself." she lectured nonchalantly. She lifted the dead body from the bench with a hand and threw it to the side. The body landing with a light thump in the corner of the room.

"He.. h-his superiors?" Gregor asked. His voice filled with uncertain trepidation.

Esdese turned around to him with a warm smile. Taking a step to the side of the now empty and bloody torture bench. Gesturing to it with an open hand.

"Come on, torture master Gregor. Your turn."

Ten minutes later, torture master Gregor's screaming had become incoherent.

Fifteen minutes later, Tatsumi was yelling at her to spare the man.

She was satisfied after thirty minutes.

She then released the man from the torture bench and walked over to Tatsumi. The torture master falling down on the floor behind her. She freed Tatsumi and then took his hand. Walking out of the torture chamber with him following her.

Tatsumi could only look at the man that he had argued with half an hour ago. He was on his knees, trying to pick up the remains of his teeth that were scattered around the torture bench. But his fingers were so damaged that it was hard for him to do. None of them had nails on them and some of them were way worse off. Even though the man was a torturer, Tatsumi couldn't help to feel a deep sting of pity for the man as he listened to his pathetic sobbing.

He looked at Esdese's back when they had left the room. Being dragged behind her slightly by her hard grip on his hand.

"You are a monster, Esdese." he said silently

"And you are mine, Tatsumi." Esdese said casually without looking back at him. Saying the words she would repeat endless times. Taking him with her to her next appointment.

Small comment: I wanted to write a bit about the time when Tatsumi was still not allowed to leave Esdese' presence. And his experiences in the torture chambers. It has been referred to a lot before. It struck me just how different Tatsumi was at the first chapters in this story. He was not nearly as jaded and hardened as he is in the more recent chapters. He was much more innocent.

Bones in ash

Tatsumi sneaked through the dark streets down in the military district. Keeping quiet and trying to not attract any attention to him. He didn't want anyone to know that he was there.

He was in one of the military districts that were placed in the industrial slums of the capital. The night had emptied out most of the people from this part of the city. Since no one actually lived there and most of the industrial activity stopped at night. Now the area was mostly deserted. But Tatsumi was was still nervous. No one must identify him here.

He was actually in kind of a hurry as well. Esdese would notice his absence pretty soon. He needed to be back to her side before that. Otherwise, she would try to find out where he had been.

So he moved as quickly as he could through the empty and silent street. The blowing of the wind the only sound except the echoes of his footsteps.

After another ten minutes, he found his destination. A big concrete factory. Walled off from the houses around it by a big wall. A little smoke trailing away from the huge chimneys that could be seen over it. But Tatsumi knew that the factory's activities were finished for the day. There should be no one there.

He looked up and down the street and then jumped up over the wall in a quick leap. Easily jumping over the four-meter tall wall.

He landed in the courtyard of the factory. Quickly looking around. But to his relief, there was no one there. The entire factory seemed deserted at the moment. Tatsumi had already reasoned that it would be empty. There was no reason for people to guard this place after dark. It was already in the middle of a military district. There were regular patrols on these streets anyway.

He moved up to the building. Walking around it. Searching for a door. He found a gate on the opposite side of it. It was heavily sealed. He had hoped for something a bit smaller. He didn't have Incursio so it would be hard if he was going to bash it in.

He took a couple of steps back from it and looked up at the building.

He had to go for one of the windows. The troublesome thing was that he couldn't see what was on the other side.

He picked one of the windows above him and then jumped up to it with a quick and silent leap. Using his elbow to slam through the glass as soon as he reached it.

When he got through it, he was surprised to find that he had entered a rather large hall. Falling down for some meters before he landed on the floor. Falling down to ground level again. The window positioned rather high up.

He quickly looked around in the dark hall. He had clearly entered the furnace room. He could see that much from the moonlight that came in through the windows. The left side of the room was occupied by large incinerators. Closed by large metal doors. Pipes leading out from the top of them. Going out of the room through the ceiling.

The other side of the room was occupied by large metal containers. Aside from that, the room was empty. He stayed low and listened for any alarms or sounds. But everything remained silent. He could here no reaction to the sound he had caused by breaking the window. He looked at the incinerators for some moments. He didn't want to go there yet.

He walked over to the containers. There were four of them there. Long rectangular metal boxes. With doors at the end of them. It was clear that they were delivered to this room. They were built so that you could move them around.

He moved to the door of the one closest to him. He grabbed it with his hand. He dreaded what would come next. But he had to do it. He needed to. She deserved some sort of closure. He didn't want her to just become one in the masses.

He opened the door to the first container.

It was hard to see what was inside of the container at first. Since not much light got into it. But after some moments his eyes adjusted enough to see the entire inside of the container.

The first side of the container was empty. The other end of it was filled with bodies. People piled up on each other. All dead. Fully clothed.

Tatsumi took a deep breath and then walked into the container. He couldn't see her at first glance. He moved up and started to work his way through the pile. Moving and lifting the bodies around. Searching for her.

The bodies were cold but it seemed like they hadn't been given much attention after their deaths. Men, women and children. Of all ages. Some of them had visible explanations for their deaths. Traces of their executions. But some lacked any hints of what it was that had killed them.

Tatsumi pretty quickly realized that she wasn't there. None of these people had come from the torture chambers. They were too untouched. After a little while, he threw down the last body he was holding into the pile again and turned around.

He walked out of the metal container and walked over to the second one. He took another deep breath and opened it.

The first thing that struck him was that there were a lot more of people in this container. They reached all the way up to the top of it and the pile began half a meter into the container. All the bodies were naked in this one.

"Hehhhh.. goddamit." Tatsumi sighed and pressed his thumb and index finger into his eyes. Even with his long experience as an assassin, the scene was still deeply disturbing to him. He took some time to stabilize himself and then got to work. Starting to search through the bodies.

However, this time it took a lot more work. The container was literally filled to the brim with corpses. So he had to throw more and more of them out of the container behind him as he got deeper into it. Some of the bodies had severe wounds on them or signs of torture. But most just had the traces of crucifixion and hanging on them. Yet nonetheless, when Tatsumi was halfway through, he was walking through blood. The entire floor of the container filled with it to the brim.

After half an hour, he had searched through the entire metal container. He had not found her. He gathered his nerves and walked out of the container. The area outside of it covered with the bodies that he had been forced to throw out. Strewn out around its entrance. He walked up to the last one of the containers.

She had to be in this one, he reasoned and opened the door. He immediately had to stop and look down at the floor for some moments. Gathering his strength again before he walked into it.

This container was not as full as the second one. But its content was much worse off. These were the ones that had come from the torture chambers.

Their bodies ruined beyond recognition. Most corpses so mutilated that it was hard to tell which gender they once had. Empty eye sockets staring back at him. Most of the bodies drained of blood. Many of them missing limbs. In some cases all that remained was limbs.

He clenched his teeth and walked up to the pile.

He walked out of it after ten minutes.

He had not found what he was searching for. His boots and the gloves he was wearing were red with blood and gore. He took off his gloves and threw them to the side.

He looked over to his last alternative. He knew that she had been sent here earlier today.

He stared in horror at the large oven like incinerators at the other end of the room. He swallowed and started to walk over to them. He would not leave her here. She deserved to end up in a better place.

He opened the door to the first one of the large metal furnaces.

And found what he was looking for.

He felt his tears well up at the sight of it.

He wouldn't had been able to tell that it was her if it wasn't for some of the accessories that hadn't been fully burnt. Her belongings thrown into the furnace with her body when. Some torn remains of pink cloth lay at the edges of the interior of the incinerator. Nothing remained of her though. Nothing but bones. Bones in ash.

Tatsumi just stared at them for a long while. Not moving a single muscle. Unaware if he was breathing or not. The world stood still for him. He felt how something disappeared inside of him. Something that he had been desperately clinging to. Something that now was dead.

He realized just how stupid this was. Just how futile his idea was. She was already gone. Never to come back. He would never meet her again. These remains were nothing but just that. Remains. And no matter what he did with those remains would change that.

Yet despite that, he still found himself reaching in and starting to take out her bones.

Brushing the soot and ash from them.

He did it in silence for a long while. But when he tried to move the spine out, the bone broke off into several pieces. And with it, his composure.

The bone hadn't hit the ground before he smashed his fist into the door of the furnace. Over and over again.

"DAMNIT!DAMNIT!DAMNIT!DAMNIT!DAMNIT!DAMNIT!DAMNIT!DAMNIT!" he screamed out as he damaged his fist against the hard iron. If he had had Incursio equipped, then he would have made short work of the metal structure. But now he was just damaging himself. Yet the physical pain didn't register with him. His mind in a frenzy and his heart in ruin.

He had tried so hard to make things work out. He had tried so hard to show everyone that he wasn't just a traitor. He had tried so hard to save her.

After some moments, he stopped and fell down on his knees. Just sitting there and staring at nothing for some moments. Then he slowly started to move.

He scooped up the bones that lay on the ground around him. The bones that he had picked out. Her bones.

He held them close to his chest. Pressing them into himself. Getting soot and ash on his clothes. He sat there for what seemed like an eternity to him. He felt that it maybe would be better if he just crawled into the oven himself and awaited his end there. Yet he didn't.

He didn't know why or how he managed, but he finally rose up. Still holding her bones close to him. Then he slowly started to walk. One step after another. And before he knew it, he was wandering the streets towards the palace again. Holding her bones close.

When he thought back to that night, he often wondered how he had managed to go unseen when he returned. He couldn't remember even looking around for any followers or civilians during his entire walk back. But by some extreme stroke of luck, his entire visit down to the military district was never discovered.

He hid her bones away in the quarters he shared with Esdese. Keeping them close for months.

Small comment: A dark but necessary scenario. The words "bones in ash" is something that Tatsumi has been referring back to in his head when he thought about the past in earlier chapters. This is what it was. And its consequences and effects will be explored a little bit further in the next arc. See you in a day or two.