The first sensation Wylan felt was pain. It radiated from his neck into his head and shoulders. He groaned quietly and blinked several times before processing the room around him. A small lamp in the corner of the room barely illuminated the space enough for Wylan to see a large metal structure opposite him. Coming to, he realized he was standing already. His hands and feet held in place by shackles. As he craned his neck he came to the unsettling realization that his head was also held in place by a cold metal band. Panic sent a shudder through his body. The room started to spin. He couldn't breathe.
Close your eyes. Inej's voice in his head.
Take a breath. Then another one. Jesper's voice. and one more. There you go.
Now open your eyes. Kaz's familiar rasp. Open your eyes and assess the situation.
Wylan opened his eyes, though they stung with tears. The structure on the other side of the room was made of some sort of metal. Fabricator made no doubt. He couldn't make out the intricacies of it because of the low light. What he could see was an apparatus with an arm extended toward him. At the end of the arm, the light reflected off a sliver of metal. Cold realization dawned that it was a needle. Wylan could guess whatever it was meant to inject wasn't a painkiller that he so badly wanted.
Behind him he heard a door open. Light flooded the room for a brief moment and he could see the apparatus properly for the first time. Dozens of different colored bottles lay on a conveyor belt under the arm, ready to be administered through the needle. Wylan felt sick. The door closed and the room was plunged into darkness for a brief moment before his eyes adjusted to the lantern light again.
A man in a baby blue lab coat stopped in front of Wylan and gave a sickening smile. The man's dark eyes and black hair revealed he was Shu.
"Young master Van Eck. How lovely to meet you at last." The man said, his accent heavy, but his kerch fluent.
"What is this place?" Wylan asked, fighting to keep his voice steady.
"I am so glad you ask." The man pulled a chair away from the wall and took a seat in front of Wylan. "This is a research laboratory."
Wylan's eyes flicked once again to the apparatus behind the man's chair. Even in the burst of light from the door, he couldn't read the labels on the bottles. He took a steading breath to keep his imagination in check and his heart from beating out of his chest. "Research on what?"
"The effects of Jurda Parem." The scientist said with a smile.
"I'm not Grisha," Wylan said, "and you don't have parem." It was a gamble, to call his bluff, but if Wylan had learned anything about his time with the crows it was to project confidence, real or not.
"No, you're not grisha, but you do have something we want."
"I'm not going to give you anything." Wylan was surprised when his voice held.
The scientist grinned. Wylan's stomach turned.
"I think you may feel differently once you've experienced a measure of... persuasion." Before he said the last word, the scientist wet his lips with his tongue, the grin only widening.
Wylan's eyes flicked again to the apparatus at the back of the room. "I think you may feel differently once my friends are done with you." This time his voice did crack.
"Not so sure about that one are you?" The scientist laughed. He stood with a flick of his white coat and took a step toward the metal frame holding Wylan. "Don't you want to know what we want?"
"It doesn't matter. You won't get it." Wylan smiled before spitting in the scientist's face.
Cursing roundly in Shu and wiping the spit off his face, the scientist stormed out of the room.
Wylan felt a moment of relief, even let a small breath out before the apparatus began to move toward him. The arm lowered with a whine. He tried to squirm away from the needle, but the constraints held him in place. He didn't feel the prick because his hands were tingling.
Then the real pain started. Lancing through his arm, his spine, lighting his whole body on fire.
The minute it lasted was eternity. Then the void. The sweet release.