Chapter 2

Mind Games

"You think to challenge me, pitiful human? Me, the bane of empires, the father of pain?
Let me educate you; I need a new pet..."
— Archon K'shaic of the Kabal of the Bladed Lotus

AS I AWOKE the next day, I immediately remembered everything that had happened and what my current situation was. It did not lift my mood whatsoever. I lay on my back, opened my eyes and noticed with surprise and relief that he was not beside me. Nevertheless, I quickly realised that he was not too far away, because I could hear him say in a scornful tone, "Good morning."

I raised myself to my elbows and saw that he sat by the table and was obviously having breakfast. I now sat up completely and wanted to move backwards to lean my back against the back of the bed, but I stopped with a small cry of pain. I cursed silently, because I had completely forgotten about my injured leg. He looked at me and said, "You truly are beautiful when you are in agony."

I froze in mid-movement, looked at him bewildered and replied, "This is the most disturbing thing you have said until now."

He laughed and responded, "Don't forget from which race I originate. Some, who did, lost their minds over such petty things."

He continued eating delightfully, then said, as a sideline, "Are you hungry? If so, come here."

I laughed bleakly and stated, pointing to my leg, "And how do you think I shall manage that?" He just grinned at me viciously. I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes and I replied with repressed annoyance, "Oh, I see, we are playing this game. The slave has been naughty, so we humiliate her a bit." I smiled joylessly and continued, "Believe me, to really humiliate me, you have to do better than that. I have been humiliated for the past 20 years."

He laughed. "Refreshing. It doesn't matter how impudent you are, you don't cease to entertain me. Who did that to you?"

"My parents did."

He seemed to be surprised and said, "You are quite stable if so. Usually, your race tends to be rather disturbed if their upbringing was unsettling."

"Oh, you know, a bit of therapy and everything's fine. I've always been a survivor." The irony of those words hit me right after they had left my mouth. It had occurred to him too, because the smile he now flashed into my direction did not bode well for me.

I clenched my teeth and slid to the edge of the bed. Even the slightest movement of my foot was punished with waves of pain rippling through my whole body. I tried to hide my discomfort as well as possible; I did not want to give him the satisfaction of seeing me suffer, but I managed quite badly, because I wheezed like a stopping bus as I arrived at the edge of the bed with sweat on my forehead. I did not have to look at him to know how much he enjoyed watching this.

That was why I was extremely surprised when he came to me, lifted me and carried me to the table, seating me gently on one of the chairs. I looked at him in surprise and asked, "No mind games?"

He smirked and replied, "Such petty humiliation is wasted on you. You are too clever for that. I will find ways to punish you without damaging you physically in time; I can assure you of that."

"In that case, I won't spoil the fun for you."

He looked down at me coldly and stated, as cold as his stare, "Don't press your luck, little one! You've earned a lot of my favour quickly, but you can lose it just as quickly. And believe me; I have enough methods at my disposal which will punish you badly without ever letting Asdrubael know what I did to you."

I bit my tongue to hold it, for he just revealed something to me. I was quite sure that not a lot of Dark Eldar dared to speak the name of the Supreme Overlord. This fact just added to my theory that he stood high in the Overlord's esteem. That or he was just unbelievably idiotic not to fear and respect the Overlord.

Meekly I replied, "Forgive me, my lord. I think I still have to find my place."

He flicked his right index finger against my temple, which made me jump more than I would have liked, since his pointed fingernails made it quite unpleasant, and he said, "You will learn fast enough, child. If not, I will show you your mistakes very closely. I can't give a badly trained slave to the Overlord." He then seated himself again and continued eating. I inspected the dishes and recognised some things which could have been found on a human breakfast table, but also many I did not know. I had always been a curious person concerning culinary art and therefore I decided to taste every dish. I did not like that he watched me with a broad grin. He really was wearing me out; I wanted to scream in his face why he was grinning like a cat with a big, fat mouse in its claws all the time. The moment I thought about it, it occurred to me that the comparison actually made sense.

Although I should have known better, I asked cautiously, "My lord… may I ask what the dishes are made of?"

His smirk widened and he replied, "Are you concerned about eating the flesh of your own kind?"

I nodded slowly.

He laughed. "Well, don't be! Your meat doesn't taste good if cooked or prepared otherwise. We only eat chunks of human flesh if they are ripped out of the still living, agonised being. It has to be… bleeding fresh."

I swallowed heavily, tasting bile on my tongue, and I almost lost against my roiling stomach, because it was apparent how much he had enjoyed his last words. Though I knew that humans were nothing but cattle for Dark Eldar, it still appalled me intensely.

I took a deep breath, fighting down nausea and disgust and started tasting all of the Dark Eldar dishes. I was really surprised that I liked most of it, though some things were very intense, especially for breakfast, but there was nothing I entirely disliked. He warned me of one dish especially, Mironin Haras (this meant something like 'conserved blood', not a nice name, but all Dark Eldar dishes had such charming names). This dish was a brownish paste, shimmering in all different colours. Before I tasted it, I had to promise him to not swallow it quickly, but leave it on my tongue, no matter how intense it would be. Though I should have known better, my curiosity got the better of me and I tried it.

My eyes grew wide as I tasted a tiny spoonful.

At first, it was so hot that tears welled up in my eyes, then it tasted incredibly salty, my salivary glands seemed to explode, finally it went bitter as hell. I let the paste melt on my tongue, though this was very unpleasant and I would have loved to swallow it. After this trial, I was rewarded for my patience, because those three components mixed to a really astonishing taste, not describable with words. "Interesting," I said, as I had swallowed it.

He stared at me piercingly and approved, "Indeed. You are the first human I know to keep her stomach contents after tasting it."

"Thanks for the warning," I retorted sourly.

The captain chuckled. "It will be hard to make life difficult for you. It is a custom among my kind to feed only this dish to disobedient slaves for a while. Of course, we don't tell them how to eat it. Most of them lose a lot of weight on that diet."

"And you enjoy every second of it, I bet." This race really consisted only of sadists. Considering that this was the only way for them to prolong their life, it was no surprise at all.

"Of course, why should we come up with such ideas if not to use them afterwards?" He smiled and commanded, "Take another spoon!"

"Oh, now you really want me to push my luck?" I scoffed.

"Do what I say!" His voice made it clear that disobedience was a stupid notion. I therefore wisely followed his command and was surprised, for now, it tasted just great. "See? You have to trust me a little bit, child!" he said, his tone as taunting as ever.

I could not help it; I had to laugh because of the sheer irony in his words.

Trusting a Dark Eldar.

Sure.

However, this was a grave mistake. He jumped to his feet furiously, grabbed me by the throat, lifted me and threw me on the floor. I let out an anguished cry because my injured leg dashed against the floor. I had trouble breathing, because he knelt on my chest with one leg. I realised in horror that he suddenly had a dagger in his right hand and at my throat; his left hand had grabbed my hair firmly and nailed me onto the floor. I breathed heavily in sheer agony and fear clung to my bones like ice for the first time, as I looked into his black eyes while he sized me up coldly and maliciously, snarling with rage. I dreaded what was to come next for me.

"Out of words, are we?" he growled. He took the dagger off my throat, turned around on my torso and I winced as I could feel the cold metal of the weapon against my hip. He did not allow even the faintest movement, because he wheeled around again, slapped me in the face with the back of his hand, seized me at my chin, pulled me so close to him that the tips of our noses almost touched and hissed, "Don't you dare to move!"

He let go of me again, I tried to hold as still as possible, though I was trembling in fear and I was in terrible agony. Then he turned his attention back to my lower body and 'freed' me from my underpants. Somehow, I no longer had the capacity to feel embarrassed. He said to me, "It's time to show you what it truly means to be the slave of a True Eldar."

He reached onto the table and fetched a metal choker and a delicate chain. I really tried to figure out why I had not noticed those in the first place. He put the dagger aside, seized me by my hair again, lifted my head a bit and donned the choker around my neck. I did not struggle. As he closed it, I felt that it was unpleasantly tight. On the front of the choker sat a small eyelet, at which he now attached the chain. Then he got off me and stood up, the other end of the chain in his hand and commanded, "Get up!"

Because I did not obey immediately – how could I, disoriented and dazed as I was because of sheer pain – he pulled me up with the chain, which made me gasp in agony, and snarled, "I said, get up!"

He pushed me onto the bed and gave my back a hit with the chain. I cried out in pain, though I had clenched my teeth. He was beside me immediately, spun me onto my back and pulled me close to him with the chain again. Obviously satisfied he looked into my fearfully widened eyes and said, "See, little one? This happens if you make me mad. I'm sure that you won't repeat this mistake again, am I right?"

I only wagged my head, silently and intimidated.

"Good. It would be a pity if I had to treat you like a regular slave; you are too promising for that. But if you should dare to mock me again, I will do some really unpleasant things to you. Keep in mind that this was just a small reminder."

He left me through a door I had not seen until now, because it was behind a corner on the left side of the room. I guessed that it led to the bathroom. I was alone for quite some time and used this time to take a look at my back, seeing and feeling all too well that I had a welt there. I snorted angrily. Who could have known that he was that humourless? Yesterday it had felt different, but then again, who could know how strong the mood swings of Dark Eldar were?

As he came back, obviously showered, because his hair seemed to be still damp, I had regained my composure somewhat. I only took a short and frightened look at him, and then went back to staring into thin air. He dressed and donned his armour except the helmet and I had to admit that he looked even more impressive in his ornate armour.

He came to me once again, seized me by my collar and I was taken by surprise as he kissed me. I struggled at first, but his vice-like grip made clear that I would go nowhere. He did not hesitate, forced my jaws apart with his other hand and led me into a quite passionate deep kiss, which showed me that he knew very well what he was doing. Again, I fought against him, still not able to break his touch and absolutely appalled by him – in the first few seconds. Then I tried hard to push away the thought of who he was and what this could mean for me and let it sink in what I was actually feeling. His lips and his tongue felt so different, warmer, softer, just more… perfect than those of a human, his pointed teeth were a bit disturbing. Though the situation was quite grim, I somehow enjoyed what he did, while pushing the thought of my situation into the far back of my head.

At least I enjoyed it until he ended the kiss, because shortly before, he bit my tongue so hard that I shrieked and started bleeding. Briefly, he licked the blood off, but then he released me, laughing viciously and also loosening the chain from my collar. He left without a word with my horrified gaze on his back.

So I sat there, swallowing my own blood, breathing heavily, trying to grasp what just had transpired. It was not pleasant at all, and I had a hard time keeping from laughing maniacally. It just kept getting worse by the minute. Obviously, it was not enough that I was in the hands of the Dark Eldar, no, I also had to be with one that apparently showed some sexual interest in me, in addition to the sadistic joy he did not hide at all. The only faint hope I had was that he would not rape me because I was not meant to be his, however, it remained to be seen how far the influence of the Overlord truly reached.

I was also aware that he had to be quite mad with me because he dared to hurt me that crudely. I did not know how long this journey would still take, but I guessed that all my wounds would have healed by the time we arrived in Commorragh. If he really wanted to dare to give me not unscathed to his lord, then he had to be truly unwise.

I was surprised as the Haemonculus entered after a short while. He looked different today; the lower half of his face was covered with a black mask, which just underlined his intense, black eyes. "See? I told you that we would see each other again," he said, his covered smile apparent in his inflexion.

"Unfortunately, the circumstances are not as pleasant as anticipated," I replied with a sullen tone.

"How come, my child?" The Haemonculus truly seemed to be curious and seated himself beside me on the bed, looking invitingly at me.

"Well, I think I've angered the captain quite badly," I began hesitantly.

He asked, again with a smile in his voice, "What makes you think that?"

I told him what had happened. While I did this, he examined the welt on my back and assured me that it would be gone in a week.

When I was done, he shook his head and said, "Don't fret, child. He isn't actually mad at you; this was just a flash of irascibility, nothing more. If he had been truly mad, I can assure you that we wouldn't have this nice chit-chat, but I would rather fix your wounds and see to it that no scars remain from your punishment."

I replied sarcastically, "Now I feel reassured!"

He chuckled. "Let me tell you a few things about the good captain. His name is Archon Verisael Chu'uk, young for his position, an upstart, who has impressed the right people with his intelligence and ingenuity and was cunning enough to overthrow the last Archon before him. Because of that, he is extremely unrestrained and it is also the reason why he is so impatient with his men. He wants to prove himself, this mission is of utter importance, and he wants to do everything right, a lot of pressure is on his shoulders. Additionally, if you are insolent on top of that, this is just the final straw to make him explode. But I am sure that he enjoys your courage."

Archon.

That explained a lot. He was one of the highest of the Kabal, above him stood only the Supreme Overlord himself. If he were not in the Kabal of the Black Heart, he would have been the head of a Kabal.

"Well, yesterday he seemed to enjoy my presence and the fact that he could have some decent conversation with me. That is also why I was surprised by his anger," I explained.

The Haemonculus shook his head and elaborated, "Never forget that our emotions are far stronger than those of your kind. You have to get to know your boundaries and you should never dare to overstep them. Who knows who your master in the future will be and how impatient he or she may be with you?"

"I thought I was meant for the Supreme Overlord?" I asked, now confused.

He sniggered. "Yes, of course, you are, smart child. But if he should tire of you someday, you may be given to another master and as it is with you humans, we also all have different personalities. But there is one thing I can tell you about the Overlord: he appreciates intelligence and ingenuity and he will like yours. Time will show how long you will be able to entertain him with that."

I was really surprised that he told me such valuable information. I said, "May I ask you something, my lord?"

"Go ahead!" His eyes flashed in amusement.

"Why are you helping me?" I truly wanted to know.

He looked at me, interested, and then said, tilting his head, "Does it make a difference?"

"No. Yes. Seriously, I don't get it. Of course, I am grateful for every ounce of help I can get, but I simply don't understand why you are doing it. What can move someone like you, who is possibly thousands of years old, towards helping such a young human like me, who is nothing more than another slave? Yes, I may have more potential than most of my kind and yes, I may be of use to you, but I simply can't imagine that this is enough reason for you."

He chuckled mysteriously. "You wouldn't understand the answer if I gave it to you. Let me put it that way: it is refreshing to be reminded of what it is like to be… young."

"But this is only one part of the answer, am I right?" I replied, somewhat knowingly.

"Yes, my little one." His gaze was now piercing, then he said cryptically, "You have some merit, child. We will see how far you will go."

Then he turned towards my leg and said, "Try to hold still now! I will look after your wound." He produced a casket made of ebony, which contained his instruments. He removed the bandage and the fixation. I could not see what he did in detail, since he sat in front of me. The procedure was painful, because he cleaned the wound again and applied a gel onto it, which burned like fire. I gritted my teeth and tried to hold as still as possible, but it was not always possible for me.

When he was done, he said, "Well, to be bold, I'm not satisfied. You shouldn't put weight on that leg for at least a week."

Sourly, I replied, "It is not like I had a choice. The Archon threw me."

He nodded. "I see. Then try and don't anger him more than is inevitable. Nevertheless, I will talk to him, otherwise, he will have to present a limping slave to the Overlord and this will definitely be on his head."

"Thank you again." My gratitude was sincere. Being patched up by a Haemonculus was an honour after all.

"Oh no, don't thank me, because in the long run this would fall back onto me since I am the physician on this ship. And I can't have that." He patted my shank and said cheerfully, "Well, time to go, my child. I'll be back tomorrow. Have fun!" I drew a face and he left me with the sound of his cackling and horrid laughter.

Again, I was not alone for a long time, because shortly after the Haemonculus had left, a very unsure looking girl came through the door. She was human, not older than sixteen years and definitely a slave. She said to me, "Um… hi! I was told that you would need my assistance in moving around in the quarters and I am here for exactly that."

I sighed with relief and said, "Hey, I'm really happy to see you, because – to be bold – I really have to go to the toilet!"

She came to me and helped me out of the bed and into the bathroom, which was quite small and which contained a shower, a washbasin and a toilet. When I was done, she wanted to help me back, but then said, "Oh, and I also was told which items you are allowed to use in the bathroom." She showed me, which that were.

I nodded and replied, "Thank you. I so need to refresh myself. I'll call you when I need you." She nodded and left me.

After what felt like a quarter of an hour I limped back to the bed, she helped me with that. I felt better, though I would have killed for some clothing. I had a bad feeling that it would take some time until I would get some again – if ever. Since there was nothing to do for me, I started talking with the girl.

"Are you allowed to talk to me?" I asked her.

"Yes. Oh dear, I thought I'd never see another human again," she replied.

"So, are you from earth or from the Imperium?" I wanted to know.

"Imperium?" The confusion was apparent on her face.

"Alright, question answered," I said with a sigh.

"God, what are these… things?" she said with a shudder.

"I fear, I have bad news for you…" I told her about the Dark Eldar and about the universe they came from and it was no surprise that she was not quite stable after I had finished. I understood her fear, because I was quite sure that I was only that calm because I knew I would stay mostly unharmed until we arrived in Commorragh.

"Oh god, I… I don't want to die!" she cried out, tears welling up in her eyes.

I laid an arm around her shoulder and said, "Hey! Hey. Come here." I hugged her, stroked her hair and said, "There, there. It will be alright, you will see." I knew that this was a terrible lie, but I had to tell her exactly that. "You see, you have to calm down. If they see you cry, they'll only enjoy it," I explained to her. It took me quite some time to calm her down again – at least that much so she stopped crying, and it took me even longer until she did not look like a picture of misery.

I knew that her reaction was normal and my calmness was not. I too should be such a crying mess, but somehow, my situation did not affect me as much as it should.

When I had managed to calm her somewhat down, the Archon came back. Isabelle (this was the name of the girl) had a hard time keeping calm. I looked at him defiantly, but also afraid, too stubborn to just fear him, though I had a queasy feeling in my stomach. I had not forgotten what he had done to me, though I knew that he could do much worse. However, my injured pride was much more painful than my physical wounds.

I did not alter my gaze as he smirked at me. Then, his attention wandered to Isabelle, his facial expression grew contemptuous and he said to her, "Oh, you are still here, I forgot. Leave! The guard will take you back to your cell." She literally fled the room.

When she had left, he shook his head. "You mon-keigh are so pathetic. I still wonder why you make up most of our slave population," he said with a still disdainful huff.

I shrugged and stated, "We must be good for something, apparently. Also, there is a thing I wonder about, my lord, if I may ask?"

He nodded while he took off his armour.

"When you are talking to me, you don't call me a 'mon-keigh', which really surprises me. May I ask why?"

He snorted scornfully and explained, "Don't let it go to your head, slave, but you are not the average slave from your race. Therefore, I decided to call you a human."

I knew better and was sure that he was lying, just to keep me under his thumb. It was not ordinary that Dark Eldar really called a human 'human'. If they did, the one concerned had to be something special. This was good for me.

Unexpectedly he said, "Did you like your fellow slave?"

Truly puzzled, I asked, "Why would you care?"

He was at my throat in only one fluent, quick movement. His eyes flashed angrily at me and he said with a snarl, "You don't have to know why. Just answer!" I had been far too disrespectful. I needed to stop this cheeky behaviour, otherwise, he would discipline me.

Ruefully and scared I replied, "I'm sorry, my lord. Yes, I like her."

His eyes flashed and I did not like the way he looked at me. "Oh, then you will be even more sorry to hear that when you no longer need her, she will be my torture slave. She disgusts me and the thought of ripping her intestines out delights me" he said in a cruel tone.

I looked at him horrified, I could not do anything else, and the fear had my stomach in its icy grip once again.

He fed on my horror for a while and then he declared, while raising an eyebrow, "What, you won't beg for her life? You are even more interesting than I originally thought."

I gasped, "Where would be the sense in that? You will do as you please, my word won't change it."

He laughed maliciously. "True words indeed. We will see how stable you are after you are done listening to her screams," he said. Then, he let go of me.

I swallowed. It looked as if my journey would be much more unpleasant than I had originally anticipated.