AN: This chapter contains somewhat graphic torture.

As it was, no one in the infirmary deigned to tend the wounds, as was expected. Pride out the window, Lyris offered her body in return for supplies, but apparently she wasn't Doctor Naevin's preference. So instead she hid around the corner and played the waiting game.

Hours later, after sundown came, Naevin finally left the infirmary. Lyris pressed herself against the wall as he passed her, hardly daring to breath as the tall human passed her. When the sound of his footsteps faded into obscurity, she darted over to the room. The wooden door leading in was secured with a padlock. Just her luck.

Lyris glanced around in desperation, looking for something, anything that could help. She noticed one of the stones in the wall to her right was loose. She grabbed it and pulled. It barely budged. She tugged on it again, leaning back. It came out an inch.

Lyris braced one foot against the wall and pulled again. It shot loose from the wall, Lyris tumbling backwards onto the ground from the momentum. The impact knocked the wind out of her lungs. But she didn't care, because in her hands she held her key into the infirmary.

The padlock broke easily under the stone. She dropped it to the floor, and pushed open the door.

The room was more haphazardly organised than she thought it would be-immediately facing her was a desk hidden beneath piles of paperwork. Mounted onto the wall on her left over an operating table was a cabinet filled with tiny bottles, each bearing a hand-written label. Underneath it were bushels of herbs-eucalyptus, moon-blossom, aconitum, vale tears and others she did not recognise. A tray rested on the table with surgical instruments. Judging from the stench, they had just been sterilized. Next to it was a box of bandages. She grabbed a handful then walked over to the cabinet, examining the bottles. She scanned them until she saw one she recognised for healing and pain-relief- "Berronar's Blessing Extract", a rare creeper plant that grew in snowy mountainous areas.

She snatched the bottle of the shelf and laid her arm down on the table, yanking the cork out with her teeth. She braced herself, gritting her teeth before slowly pouring the contents of the bottle onto her arm. The sting would have been overwhelming but the numbing sensation came quick. With as much finesse as she could manage, she wrapped up the injury with the bandages. It was a bit sloppy but it it got the job done.

Lyris checked the bandages were as snug as she could manage as she quickly headed for the door. A part of her considered taking more supplies in case but she didn't want to test fare.

She opened the door, and came face-to-face with Naiven.

'Well, well what have we here?' He wrapped a hand around her bandaged forearm, squeezing it tight. Fortunately she was numb to pain right now, but nothing could deaden the icy terror she felt as she stared up at him. 'The Ambassador will be very interested to hear what his slave has been up to.'

Silence hung heavy over the Ambassador's study as he regarded her across his desk coolly. Ever since Naevin dragged Lyris to him, he had said nothing, and his expression remained unreadable throughout.

After what felt like an eternity, Andro sighed, stood up and walked over to a small desk bearing a jug of wine. He poured himself a goblet and drank deeply.

'You disappoint me, Lyris. I paid a lot of money for you. For that kind of investment, I expected a good, hard-working slave. Yet you go out of your way to undermine me, and steal from me.'

'I had no choice. I was wounded and the surgeon-'

'You are given all you need! And what you need right now...is punishment. Usually, for thievery, hands are taken. But then you wouldn't be such a good slave. Maybe a finger? I daresay you could still work.'

Lyris's hands clasped around each other. He wasn't be hyperbolic, he looked completely serious.

'You can't actually-'

Andro stood up, chair falling to the ground from his sudden movement. 'Don't presume to tell me what I can and can't do!. I plucked you from that horrendous pit of a city, give you shelter and food and this is the thanks I get?' His entire body shook from rage. He closed his eyes, and balled his hands into fists.

'You took me by force, bought me as though I was nothing more than a commodity. You have imprisoned me, and you expect me to thank you?' Lyris maybe shouldn't have poked the tiger, but she was pissed. She thought of Nerissa, small sweet Nerissa and thought of the torment she endured, and it only fuelled the fire.

Andro rounded the desk to where Lyris was, and slapped her hard enough to knock her to the floor. Hot pain bloomed across her cheek, and soon it tingled like a thousand tiny hornets biting into her skin.

'It would seem you need help in learning your place. I am more than happy to educate you.'

Andro grabbed her arm and muttered a word Lyris didn't understand. The study faded from existence, replaced by a dimly-lit dungeon. When she raised her head, she was horrified by what she saw: an iron maiden, a pulling rack, an enormous brass bull, weapons and what were undoubtedly torture instruments lining the walls; pliers, scalpels, a bonesaw, a collar with a double-ended fork attached, another collar but its inside was lined with sharp spikes, an unnaturally large pair of shears and a complex multi-tiered device with a screw on top. Lyris dreaded to even learn what horrors these objects could inflict.

He pulled her up by her hair and thrust her into a chair. Locks came down to bind her by her wrists, ankles and neck.

Andro grabbed another chair and dragged it over to face Lyris. He sat down on it.

'Which is your dominant hand?'

'W-what?'

'Which hand is the strongest? The one you use the most?'

'I'm ambidextrous…'

'My choice then? Marvellous.'

Lyris then noticed the gleaming scalpel in his hand. He was purposefully twisting it side to side so it caught the light cast by the torches.

'But which do I pick?' he murmured. He gently examined the fingers of each hand. No matter how gentle his touch, she still felt fear prickle, rolling down her back in the form of cold sweat. 'Such beautiful hands you have...smooth, unblemished, even after all the work you've been doing. It almost seems a shame to main them...' He flashed a smile that turned her blood to ice. 'Shall we begin?'

The scalpel bit into her skin. It didn't hurt at first, but as he began to drag the blade down her skin, the pain mounted, until her fingers flexed, her other hand gripping the armrest for dear life.

Andro's eyes switched from her hand to her eyes as he worked. Lyris grit her teeth, holding back the pain as he cut a small square into the back of her hand. She would not give him the satisfaction. But as he began peeling the skin away, nothing could hold back her screams.

Lyris was hardly conscious when Andro was done. A patch of skin has been torn from the back of both of her hands. They twitched and shook from the pain, blood still teadily dripping from the ends of her tensed fingers.

'Lyris?' Her vision was blacking out, his voice becoming lost to obscurity. He slapped her face. She blinked. Her vision was doubled. Her eyes started closing again. 'Oh for heaven's sake.'

He undid the fastenings on the chair and pulleded her out of it. She barely registered her feet dragging across the floor. Suddenly her head was dunked in a trough of ice-cold water. She involuntarily gasped, dragging in a lungful of the water. She reemerged, coughing up the water. Her throat burned so bad she could hardly breathe.

'Feeling more awake are we?'

'Why are you doing this?' she rasped. Speaking felt like she swallowed a mouthful of molten metal.

'You know why. To rid you of that foolish elvish pride. To allow you to see yourself for what you really are. You deserve this. And deep down you know that, don't you?'

When Lyris didn't respond he grabbed a handful of her hair and forced her head back underwater.

'I asked you a question!'

'I...I…' her voice faltered, too weak to finish her thoughts.

'Yes?' Andro prompted.

'I'm going to kill you...slowly...the more horrors you inflict on me the more creative I get with my methods, too.'

Andro scoffed. 'Still, you cling to these foolish ideologies. There is no escaping. Soon you'll realise. And I will relish seeing the light in your eyes finally die as you succumb to that truth.'

He pushed her head back under water, and held her there until she finally stopped thrashing.