Disclaimer: I do not own the Fable universe. Characters you do not recognize were created by me for the purposes of this story. Story contains scenes of a very mature nature, do not continue if anything of that nature could offend you (sex, violence, sub/dom, non-con). This story will be quite dark at times, you have been warned.
***A special warning: this chapter contains scenes of both physical and emotional/mental torture.
Thank you for all the lovely reviews – they spur me on...and I've certainly been on a roll lately ;) - Fallon.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
In the dungeons of Reaver's Manor...
His head ached with a viciousness he'd never though physically possible, but he took that as a sign that he was at least alive. Not sure where he was, Von tried to stand, only to discover he couldn't.
He forced his eyes open and groaned as his swollen eyes fought him all the way. He peered down and saw that he was completely naked and tied to a chair. He took in a few deep breaths and leaned his head back. He was covered in sweat and filth but was freezing.
His shoulder throbbed and he remembered the events leading up to his current predicament. The sharp bite and stinging slashes of Malakai had brought him to this moment. Where he was or better yet, were Maya was, was a complete mystery.
"Awake I see?" A familiar voice taunted from the dark, "Good."
Von forced his head forward and struggled to see who was speaking, "Where...where am I? Where is...Maya?"
Reaver stepped forward, "You don't need to worry about her anymore, dear Kaiser."
Von growled, "What have you done with her!"
The tycoon chuckled and tapped his cane on the cold stone floor, "Nothing, actually. She was crowned Queen of Albion a few days back...lovely affair. Poor dear was quite distressed though, seems she lost someone dear to her."
Von's heart ached as fiercely as his mangled shoulder. He had no idea what she'd been forced to endure, what she'd been told. But she'd been crowned, so that meant the fighting was over and Logan was gone. He cursed under his breath – how many days had passed?
Reaver sauntered forward, eager to inflict more pain on the already defeated man, "You see, Ezra came up with this lovely plan to snatch you away and fool her into thinking you were dead. Seems our dear Malakai killed some poor old sod, burned his body, and told a heartbroken Maya that it was you." He laughed, "Brilliant, really! A page from my own book, I might say."
Von's breathing was laboured as he tried to process everything Reaver was saying. Maya thought he was dead? His heart fell into his stomach. For so long he had told her that he'd never leave her, now he essentially had.
He feared for her.
"What does Ezra want?" Von dared to ask.
Reaver sat down on the chair across from him and Barry Hatch hurried over to hand him a glass of wine.
He sipped it calmly, "Why, her, dear boy. And I must say, he's quite determined to have her...if you catch my meaning."
Von struggled against the restraints that bound him, "If he so much as lays a finger on her I'll -"
"What?" Reaver teased, "Run him through? You're hardly in the position to make threats, Von. Look around you."
He did and realized to his horror that he was in a torture chamber. He spotted a rack not too far from him, seemingly well used. Next to it were two tables full of devices for implementing pain including thumbscrews of various designs. He tried to think back to the night he'd spent with Maya in Aurora, tried to find a safe place to hide, but Reaver's laughter pulled him back.
"Don't worry, I have a special use for you in mind so many of these fine instruments won't be used."
Von shivered but he tried to tell himself to ignore the cold, "What...what do you want from me?"
Reaver leaned forward in his chair, "I bought you from your brother, Von. You're going to the arena."
His eyes opened wide.
The Silverpines Arena was a despicable place were creatures from all regions of Albion were pitted against each other for the entertainment of the masses. People paid to see exotic creatures fight each other, and often paid extra for the honor of slaying the creature of their choice. It was one of the conditions Maya agreed to when the Family had sworn their allegiance. Among other things, she had sworn to be rid of it once she became Queen.
It was common knowledge Reaver bought balverines to throw into the ring, as they tended to draw the crowds and thus increase his profits.
Von hung his head.
Maya thought he was dead and now he was going to be thrown into the arena to face a gruesome death and receive a undignified burial.
Reaver smirked, "Malakai was there when Maya saw your "body"."
Tears welled up in Von's eyes though he wanted to show no weakness to the deviant.
"He told me she wept like a child, pleading with you to come back to her," he laughed, "saying "don't leave me, don't leave me!". It'd have been so nice to see her so defeated, I envy Malakai really. I'd bet she's positively broken...maybe she's taken that Captain of her's for comfort."
While Von knew she'd never do that, it still stung. He wanted desperately to be by her side to protect her and feared she would withdraw from those around her who could help her in her grief. Reaver could do as he wanted to him, all he wanted was for Maya to be alright.
And if Ezra was allowed to go through with his plans, she wouldn't be.
Reaver stood and accepted a blade from Barry. He approached Von from behind and pressed it to his neck, "Frightened, balverine?"
Von closed his eyes and thought of Maya.
Reaver frowned then began to roughly hack at Von's hair. He sawed the blade through Von's black hair, getting too close to his scalp in places and drawing blood. Reaver tossed the hair to the ground and stood back to admire his work.
"Perfect," he beamed, grasping Von's shoulder, "I always found it too obnoxious anyway."
Von cringed and tried to shake off Reaver's touch, but the man just laughed and ran his hand across his chest.
"One can at least see why the Princess was so taken with you," his eyes dropped to Von's groin, "you certainly are...gifted."
Reaver grinned and dropped his hand down to cup Von's manhood. He jumped at the unwanted contact and growled a warning to the deviant but it was callously ignored. Everywhere Reaver's hand went, he felt a slime cover his skin.
"Hmm, the things I'd do to you if we had more time, Von..." Reaver pondered aloud as he continued to grope the restrained balverine. He yearned for a reaction from him, wanted nothing more for Von to harden at his touch.
Mercifully, Reaver withdrew his hand after giving him a few more rough strokes and Von was allowed to exhale for the first time since Reaver closed the distance between them.
Reaver shot a glance to Barry who then produced a long metal rod he'd been holding in the fire in the corner of the room. Von looked up and saw a brand on the end of it...a brand that was red hot.
"I do like to mark my property, Von. People tend to steal what isn't marked...much like Ezra is going to steal your little Princess." Reaver walked around him and gestured to Barry to force Von's head forward.
Von fought against the man's grip but felt fingers jab into the wound on his shoulder and he relented. His head forced forward, Reaver had more of his back to mutilate.
He tried to prepare himself for what he knew was about to come.
Reaver positioned the brand at the base of Von's neck between his shoulder blades and, without warning, pressed it into his flesh. The sizzle of burning flesh soon joined Von's screams of agony and both Reaver and Barry started to laugh. Though the pain was being inflicted to his back, it permeated his entire body, seeping down into his toes.
"Gaaaahhhhhhhh! Damn you Reaver!" Von screamed over the sound of his own flesh burning.
With a stiff jerk, Reaver pulled the brand from his skin, tearing the flesh that had begun to melt onto the metal.
Von panted heavily, gasping to fill his lungs with precious air.
Reaver took a step back to admire his handiwork. Amongst the scars of Von's back sat the raw burn in the outline of Reaver Industries logo. Surely none would doubt who owned Von Kaiser.
"My finest work, if I don't say so myself!" He beamed.
Von spit at him as he walked around to face him, "Damn you...to hell, Reaver!"
Reaver clicked his tongue and wagged his finger, motioning for Barry to bring him a tray from the table near the rack.
"If you're so desperate to continue this pettiness then I'll give you good reason to stop."
He selected something from the tray and held it up for Von to see. It was a narrow splinter of wood and as Reaver reached for his hand, he knew what it was going to be used for.
"Hush now," Reaver soothed, "accept your punishment with some grace, Von."
He positioned the sliver of wood at the tip of Von's index finger and began to force in under his nail. It took some encouraging, but the splinter soon eased under his nail, drawing blood immediately and causing Von to throw his head back in one long howl.
Reaver removed the splinter, then forced it under the nail of Von's thumb, grinning as he drew more blood and screams from the defeated man.
After all of his fingers had been subjected to the treatment, Von hung his head, exhausted and unable to fight any more. His hands ached badly and he struggled to retreat into the safe recesses of his mind.
Reaver too was exhausted and whipped the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief, "You're a fighter, I'll give you that. But that will only keep the gold flowing into my coffers, keep that in mind when you're in the arena, will you. I'd hate for you to lose your motivation."
Warm tears began to fall down Von's cheeks.
"Content yourself with the knowledge that Maya will soon forget about you," Reaver teased, "Ezra will make sure she never has so much as a passing thought of you."
Reaver and Barry left Von alone then, not giving him any food, water or clothes as they locked the door behind him. With only the light from the fire in the corner, Von was lulled into a restless, pain induced slumber.
Days later...
Von was marched into the cages under the arena by two well armed guards. He'd still been given no clothes and had been forced to walk past his fellow arena combatants in nothing but his skin. He was pale and had begun to develop sores over much of his body, but he had become numb to the pain.
He'd found a safe corner in his mind to hide, but reminded himself often that he couldn't trap himself there indefinitely. Escape was his goal and he knew he needed to get to Maya before Ezra did. He could only hope she remained in the safety of the castle, surrounded by Walter and her guards.
One of the guards unlocked a cell at the end of the hall and pushed him into it, locking the barred cell door behind him. As the metal clanked together, he could not help but fear it was closing on his future.
"Hey...hey you!" A voice whispered from the cell next to him, "what manner of creature are you?"
Von forced his head to turn and saw a older man looking at him through the bars between them. He seemed to be in a similar state as Von, naked and covered in welts and sores. His grey hair was filthy and matted to his neck.
"Balverine." He answered, not seeing the point in concealing it any longer.
The man didn't seem phased, "Thought as much, you have a wolfish look about you. I'm in here for making the mistake of bedding a councilman's daughter. Bastard sold me off to Reaver...I'm Eli."
"Von."
Eli nodded, "What got you stuck in this place, friend?"
Von sunk into the straw in the corner. He didn't want to talk about her, not to someone he'd just met. His thoughts of Maya were what kept him going, they were his secret, and he didn't want to share that with anyone.
"Stole from the wrong person," he lied, not caring if it was believable or not.
Eli could tell he was lying, but given the state he was in decided Von was entitled to have a secret or two. He sat down in the small pile of hay that was his bed, "They're going to make you fight. Some people who come here think they won't have to...but I doubt they'll let you rest beyond tonight."
"I've found no rest since being in Reaver's care," he said coldly.
Eli understood, "Bastard gets off on hurting people. You're not the only balverine here though. Look at the cell across from yours."
Von did and noticed a small figure huddled in the hay. He realized it was a young boy, barely into his teen years, who was sickly thin. Patches of flesh had been torn from his body and had left open sores that smelled like they were festering. His hair was thin and filthy, just like the rest of him.
"He's been here a month," Eli explained, "hasn't told anyone his name but I saw the guards force the change on him as he was lead out of his cell one day. They pitted him against a balverine three times his size and he managed to kill it somehow. I heard the guards talking...they said Reaver walked away with a small fortune that day."
Von shook his head. Nothing Eli said surprised him – he had been under the care of Reaver after all and knew full well how mad he was.
"How often do the guards come in here?"
Eli thought about it for a moment, "One passes by to make sure we haven't killed ourselves every ten minutes or so. They're on a rotation I think."
"Has anyone ever gotten out?"
Eli chuckled, "Plenty have tried but none have succeeded. They don't kill those who try to escape, but by the time they finish with you you wish they had..."
"You've tried?"
Eli nodded, "Three weeks in to my stay here. Bastards kept me in the torture room for a long time after that."
It was then that Von noticed Eli was missing an eye. The lid had been crudely stitched together and it looked like a hot iron had been pressed over it to seal it closed.
"Gods..." Von gasped before he could stop himself.
"They could have done far worse," Eli admitted, "bloke who was in your cell before you got castrated. He died three days later of infection. It...it wasn't pleasant watching him go like that."
Von could only imagine.
"When do the fights happen?"
Eli crossed his arms, "Every day really, but there are so many of us here that most only fight once a week...unless Reaver holds a special event. You though, I'm sure he has plans for you. I don't see him leaving you be for very long...the man loves his gold too much."
"How often do you fight?"
"About twice a week," Eli said calmly, "he seems to like using me when he stages troll fights. He likes to send in about twenty of us and see how long it takes a forest troll to smash us all into pulp."
"How many fights have you been in?"
Eli sighed, "Too many to count. I've lost track of the fights, the years, and the names of those I've killed. I've thought about just letting the troll kill me many times, but your body just sort of...takes over when your fighting and your drive to live is intense."
Von rested his head on the cold stone wall. He was living with a death sentence literally above him.
"You got people waiting for you on the outside, lad?" Eli asked quietly.
Tears welled up in his eyes and he looked away from Eli to hide them.
He nodded, "Hopefully."