Trigger Warning: This chapter contains depictions of torture. (Not in that much detail, but it still happens 'On Screen'.)
That night, one of the male slaves came for Sibby.
He grabbed her, and turned her over. Sibby couldn't claw him, or bite him, or do anything with her traitorous body. However, once he made contact with her...
Sibby smiled as her influence spread out over him. He wasn't like the stupid roads, or the annoying collar she now wore. He was no more resistant to her powers than anyone else had been before she'd arrived in this world.
It would be a simple matter to allow his waves to just... lose cohesion. She just needed to do it the way William had taught her. She would grasp the waves with her power and force them to still.
The man let her go, and her power vanished with the lack of contact. He pulled one of the strips of cloth down, held a glowing stone to it, nodded, and put it back. He then repeated the process with her other injuries.
Oh. He was like a stupid, pathetic, much less skilled Riley. She felt no sympathy for him. There were lots of people that shared the same interests as her daughter. That didn't mean they were worth anything.
The man left, and Sibby waited for someone else to approach, but no one did. They were all asleep.
She didn't need to sleep, and she wished she could un-summon herself, but that would just undo the damage she'd managed to inflict to her traitorous body. Should she try sleeping? Panda did it, so she should be able to also. The throbbing ache in her ankle, knees, and palms probably wouldn't let her.
It was so tempting to let herself reform and thus erase all of the injuries she'd allowed her body to accumulate. But those were her punishment, or at least her traitorous body's punishment. She could still control herself for some things, but refusing an order, or trying to run, or trying to attack, or trying to remove her collar...
Her limbs refused to obey.
Sibby was more than her perfect body. She was also her perfect power. Without those two parts working in tandem, her body was nothing special.
...Okay. That wasn't true. Her body was STILL perfect. It was stronger, tougher, and better colored than anyone else!
And it hurt.
It hurt. It hurt. It hurt.
She could just reform, and make the pain go away... but then she wouldn't be rebelling against Riqre.
Or, at least, not as effectively. She could still refuse to use her power, but her undamaged body would still obey him.
She just needed to do something about the pain!
It hurt. It hurt. It hurt.
If only Riley was here... No, it was better if Riley wasn't here. She wouldn't want her daughter to see her like this. She was never less than perfect in front of Riley. She didn't get hurt. She never failed. ...Except those times that she got popped.
Although...
Sibby understood pain. Not personally, like she was experiencing now, but as an... uhm... academic? Yes. That was the right word. As an academic. She knew how to inflict pain on others. William had explained how to do that to her.
Riley had also been taught the same lessons by Jack, and Sibby had paid attention then as well.
So... what was made to hurt, could be made to stop hurting.
It was like what Riley had been teaching Panda. Sibby hadn't paid much attention, but she had watched her two daughters playing together. Pain came from electrical impulses that traveled along the nerves and into the brain.
Sibby could stop electricity. She knew lots of ways to make it unable to flow across a given substance. That meant... she could block pain.
What was it Riley had said? She closed her eyes and thought back. The memory came to her in perfect clarity. Riley sat on the special table with her shoes and socks off. Panda was on a stool, and looked sleepy. Riley took a scalpel and made two quick incisions before peeling away the skin on her foot.
'First we have the epidermal layer, just like before.'
Right. Sibby frowned and sought the specific details that were relevant to her.
'This is the Medial plantar, and this is the Lateral plantar. They are the two main nerves in the foot and together they branch off here, here, and here. They are-'
Okay. Sibby focused inward. She usually treated herself as a single 'object' for her power, but, since she wasn't using her power on her traitorous body at the moment, she started identifying her different internal parts. It would be hard to do that on someone else, but Sibby knew her own body.
Skin. Tissue. And... the Medial plantar and Lateral plantar. Which to block?
Eh. She'd do both.
It took a subtle twist, and her nerves quit being able to conduct electricity. No amount of... uhm... the small things. Well, not the SMALL small things. The mostly small things. Uhm... What had William called them? Hmmm... Ions! No amount of Ions could get past.
Sibby's foot felt numb.
She frowned. Her ankle still hurt.
Still, progress was progress! She was a patient huntress. She was on the right track, she just needed to block the ions somewhere else. Let's see...
'An ankle sprain can damage the common peroneal nerve, or its branches, the superficial peroneal or deep peroneal nerves as well as the sural, saphenous or tibial nerves. Or, more likely, its a combination of them.' Riley was so smart. Sibby decided to try and remember more, just to make sure she had the right part this time. 'The peroneal nerve is a branch of the sciatic nerve. It supplies movement and sensation to the lower leg, foot and toes.'
Well, sensation sounded good. She didn't want to stop her movement...
Wait. No. She did want to stop her movement!
Sibby smiled as she shifted her focus... and... there!
The pain stopped!
...Or at least the pain in her ankle. The rest of her injuries still hurt. She tried to stand up, and fell over.
Hah! THAT would show him! Let him see how much control he REALLY had over her body!
Sibby smiled.
She then poked her leg. It felt odd.
She tried to move it.
Nothing.
...Nope!
This was no good!
Disabling her traitorous body was one thing in theory, but this felt worse! It was like clothing she couldn't remove! The restriction. The limitation. She couldn't stand it!
Sibby blinked.
Hey! That was a pun!
That distracted her, and made her feel better, but the root cause remained. She couldn't bare the thought of being restrained. Yeah, what good was revenge that hurt her more than her target?
Sibby grumbled to herself as she started tracing the 'peroneal nerve'. She'd find where it split, or what parts of it sent 'pain', or something. She had the time.
But first, those stupid 'bandages' had to go.
"From now on, your name is 'Siti`medaale', creature. Do you understand?" Riqre was happy to be back home, but his Djinni was still... broken. Even the Djinni's new name didn't bring him joy. It meant 'Slave of Medaale', in Roshal's old tongue. It was an extra piece of magical binding, and a stark reminder of what the Djinni was, and whom it belonged to.
Siti began what could be considered a nod before its head lolled backwards. It raised an arm, only for the hand to spasm and fall to its side.
He glared at it, and then motioned to Fhonte. The former [Mage] of the Hundred Thousand Tomes Academy leapt at the chance to serve. Riqre watched him start to cast diagnostic [Spells] before turning away. He needed a long sit in his sauna after being on the road for so long, and the site of Fhonte still distressed him.
Getting [Mages] trained at one of the greatest magical schools in Chandrar, must less the world, was a difficult task. Riqre, himself, had only ever managed to acquire three. The third he'd sold for a high profit. The second he'd kept for himself. The first...
He let out a sigh as his [Slaves] undressed him.
It was a shame she hadn't survived the training process. Male [Slaves] had their place, but unless they were [Guards], females were better. While Fhonte was every bit as skilled of a spellcaster... he was not as pleasing to the eye.
Still, he was loyal, and that was the most important criteria. Other [Slave Masters] were so cruel. They forced their [Slaves] to serve, to grow, to level, but they didn't force them to love. What could be worse than doing something that you didn't like? Or serving a Master that you didn't adore?
He closed his eyes, and let the steam and sweat start to remove the dust from the road. His two attendants lovingly scraped away the filth from his body, and then dutifully stopped. They knew him so well. A lesser [Slave] might try to curry favor with him by escalating things, but his [Slaves] were better trained than that.
They lived to serve, and they held him above all else. They knew that he did not wish to be distracted, and so, they simply cleaned.
Riqre let out a content sigh.
This was how the world was meant to be.
He wished he could stay in here longer, but Sitchfolk disliked humidity almost as much as they feared fire.
...
"Nothing?"
"A hundred-thousand apologies, Master!" Fhonte prostrated himself on the floor. "My meager talent could not find any issue in the binding spells."
Riqre sat in his lounge and drummed his fingers. Fhonte looked tired, which wasn't a surprise. He'd been awake for days while he rigorously examined every part of Siti`medaale's invisible shackles. Siti, on the other hand, hadn't moved - as he'd commanded.
Not really.
It had fallen down after less then a day, and... twitched?
Riqre could not believe that it was the same killer that had terrorized Lailight Scintillation!
Still...
"What good news!" Riqre smiled.
"Good news, my Master?" Fhonte asked. It wasn't curiosity that prompted him. He cared about the Djinni no more than how much it would effect Riqre. No, like everything else, the interrogative statement was for his benefit. An excuse to explain things.
Riqre leaned back. "Of course it is, Fhonte." He would go into the details of the situation. After all, who didn't like displaying their brilliance? "The bindings are a tool, no more, no less."
"A tool, Master?"
"Yes, a tool." Riqre chuckled. "A true [Slave Master] shapes their [Slaves]. Everything else, from collars, to shackles, to magical spells, to [Classes] are just tools for them to use! The shaping. The molding. The training. Those are the heart of my [Class]!"
"As you say, Master."
Riqre sighed. "Fhonte, you agree with me, because I am right. But you do not see HOW I am right."
"You are correct, my Master." Fonte continued to bow and look at the floor. "Your eyes see what mine cannot!"
"The Djinni's disobedience, whether it is caused by a lack of control of its aspects, or if its the creature's subconscious lashing out... is a good thing."
"A good thing, Master?"
"Indeed. Djinni aren't like us, but they can play at behaving like us. The older they are, the more practice they have. No Djinni is truly loyal." At least not until Riqre was finished with Siti's training. "But the older ones hide their traitorous impulses better." Riqre smiled. "You see, its 'ineffectiveness' is a common way for Djinni to rebel. We, of course, are not fooled. We know what they are in general - and what Siti in particular - are capable of! Our eyes cannot be deceived!"
"Your eyes are the greatest in all of Roshal, Master!"
Riqre glanced over. Fhonte was starting to let his adoration get the better of him. He should finish up with his explanation.
"In the ancient texts, it speaks of binding the first Djinni. The spells used were not as advanced as what we have in modern times, but they still were effective at preventing the creatures from causing havoc on their own. In that age, Djinni were confined to lamps or rings when bound. They were only released when their owners had need for their magic."
"I... do not understand, Master."
"And that is why you are not a [Slave Master]!" Riqre shook his head. "To be one, you must understand your possessions. They may hate me at first, but there are things they hate more. Ancient Roshal used confinement and boredom." A trick he'd taken and adapted for his jars. "If a Djinni is only granted freedom when they are using their magic for their Master, then they start to associate the act with the sensation of freedom. After enough time, that association becomes a part of themselves."
"You are amazing, Master."
"Yes," Riqre stood up. "I am. All I need to do is discern what Siti wants. After I figure that out, everything else will fall into place."
Riqre nodded to himself. He'd have the creature accompany him throughout the day. He would be able to see what peaked its interest... and then twist that to his own ends.
He'd start with paying a visit with it to Rophir. Fhonte still needed to reanimate the half-elf's parents, so the boy could kill them again.
Conditioning... it was the key to both training animals and [Slaves].
Zehia ran across the countryside. She was no [Runner], but that didn't mean she was slow.
The new muscles she'd sewn into herself slowed her down, but her original ones still worked just as well. That meant she could run faster and jump higher than anyone without a dedicated [Skill].
With her speed, she'd reach Riqre's mansion by nightfall. Then, she'd have her revenge.
...Or, more likely, she'd wait and watch. Killing a [Slave Master] was no small feat - especially in the middle of his personal army of [Slaves]. However, unlike an attack on one in Lailight Scintillation, it would be possible.
The capital of Roshal was a cut-throat place. Those that lived there knew how to smile to your face while they figuratively (and sometimes literally) stabbed you in the back. Zehia had done plenty of both for her job, and for her personal affairs. And, while she had never killed a [Slave Master] before, she'd disrupted their businesses, stolen their treasures, and killed their [Slaves] & [Slavers].
The reason she'd survived so long was because she knew what sort of jobs to refuse. Those taken on behalf of the Emirs couldn't be turned down, but they could be attempted in a less risky way.
That was why she was only going after Riqre. She knew, or at least strongly suspected, who had been behind her arrest in Lailight Scintillation. As much as she'd love to kill them for what they'd done, she knew that wasn't possible. It was enough to deny them the satisfaction of actually killing or enslaving her.
Riqre... that was personal.
Simple revenge wasn't her only goal. If she was going to escape from Roshal, she'd need artifacts, gold, and other resources. She could kill multiple birds with a single stone.
...
It was dark when she'd arrived, but Riqre'ma Medaale's estate was illuminated with thousands of light stones.
Zehia did not approach the edge of the darkness. She had too much experience. Being in the light made it impossible to see in the gloom. That meant, that the first line of defense would be [Rogues] and [Scouts] hidden in the outskirts.
She found them easily enough as she crept along the perimeter.
One by one, she marked them. None of them was even level twenty. They didn't need to be high level for their purpose as being sacrificial pawns. They would either see others sneaking inside, or their deaths would be noticed the next day.
Zehia considered her options. She could kill one, and try and take their place. Her [False Face] skill would work well enough for that, but it wasn't foolproof. Truth stones and other precautions might blow her cover.
She could kill one, and make it look like a wild animal or monster had done it. Roshal had fewer such dangers, as [Slave] armies habitually swept its countryside, but they did exist - especially this close to the border. It would still be risky and attract attention.
No. The best option would be to wait, and watch. She had a good view of everything that happened on top of the surrounding wall. That would be enough. She would bide her time, and make her next move once she learned the patterns of the [Guards].
Sibby followed Riqre.
Or rather, her body followed Riqre, and she didn't bother to prevent it. She could've made it trip. Or made it incapable of getting any traction. Or broken its leg.
But she hadn't.
The simple reason was... she was bored. It was one thing to be a patient huntress that stalked their prey. You had the anticipation. The maneuvering. The chance to see what the prey did when they thought they were all alone.
Being sprawled on the ground to keep her traitorous body from obeying had none of that. It was tedious. She could only take so much pleasure in how it must be frustrating the fat bastard.
Compared to that... following him around didn't seem so bad. How else could she disobey orders if he wasn't there to give them?
The fat man ate. He took his [Slaves] to bed. He shat. He had people clean him. The thing he didn't do was order her to do anything more than follow him.
...Oh, that and take a new name. As if. Her traitorous body might respond, but she would always be the Siberian!
Or Sibby to her friends.
For how little Riqre did, she still learned things. Not from him, but from his [Slaves]. They all seemed... off. Their eyes were too open. Their smiles were too wide. They were absolutely far too happy with what they did.
It reminded her of Heartbreaker.
That... had been a different kind of ordeal. He'd died easily enough, but after they'd left Kevin had been in a bad mood. Or, at least, as bad of mood as he ever got. That was the nice thing about Kevin - he was so consistent.
Well... Sibby smiled to herself. It was one of the nice things about Kevin. It was also fun to... break that complacency.
Regardless, it was clear that Riqre was a supervillain of the 'go ahead and eat him slowly' sort. Sibby looked forward to the day he'd no longer be in this world.
"Rophir." Riqre smiled at the young boy. "It's time again." He motioned to two people that smiled and waved at the child. "Kill them and get food. Don't, and get lashed."
Sibby watched as the blank-eyed boy took the offered dagger and advanced on the two grownups that knelt down and spread their arms - as if they were going to hug him.
Something was... off. Their movements weren't natural. The light they reflected was strange somehow. It felt... similar to the stones in the city, or the collar around her neck. Similar, but different.
Rophir stabbed the woman. He stabbed her over and over until she fell. The man wrapped his arms around him, but it did little to hamper his attack. In fact, it looked more like a loving hug than a restraining one.
Rophir turned on him next.
By the time he was done, he was covered in blackish blood. He then fell to his knees and just... stared at the two people he'd killed.
"Good job, Rophir." Riqre beamed from the side. "Excellent job! Now, come. Come and claim your reward." The child didn't move. He didn't react like he'd heard anything at all. "Hmpf. Still not holding up, eh? Well, I'm a man of my word. Your food awaits you in the dining hall... No? Well, I won't lash you either." He turned to the man who'd been mumbling over Sibby when she'd refused to move. "Put him in a jar for eight hours. After that, fix his parents so that they're ready for the next time!"
His parents?
He was forcing him to kill his parents?
That was like what Jack had done to Riley!
Sibby clenched her fist.
...Before it relaxed as her body betrayed her, yet again.
Riqre was already walking away.
Sibby followed.
Every person they passed smiled adoringly at Riqre, and quickly bowed. Their only hesitation seemed to be that they didn't want to stop looking at him. Sibby noticed that after they passed, the people raised their heads just enough to watch him walk away.
They didn't resume whatever it was they were doing until he'd passed out of sight.
Riqre and Sibby exited from the building and entered into the inner courtyard. There was a tall stone wall that blocked out most of the compound. It was bigger and stronger than the wooden wall that surrounded the entire estate. Sibby noted that the people on top of the stone wall kept looking in their direction also.
It seemed stupid to have your guards so obsessed with you that they neglected their duties.
They walked around the front of the building before coming to an area that had large clay jars, and tall metal cages. Ten of the cages contained naked and gaunt-looking people. Their arms and legs were so skinny, that Sibby could barely see any muscles on them at all.
"Ah." Riqre smiled. "Yes, they look just about ready! I'm glad I got back in time." He turned to one of the people that had followed them. "Which one?"
"The third cage, Master." The girl didn't take her eyes off of him as she pointed to one of the cages.
Sibby looked over. The person there wasn't moving. He wasn't even breathing.
"Excellent!" Riqre clapped his hands together. "Call Unate. This is a job for a [Butcher]."
The girl bowed, and then sprinted away as if her life depended on getting Unate here as soon as possible.
While he waited, Riqre strolled up and down the line of cages. He stopped at each one and examined its occupant before he moved on. Before he was done, the girl and a burly man with a roll of cloth over his shoulder, and a cleaver in his other hand, arrived.
"Master!" They both bowed and remained that way until Riqre wandered back over to them.
"Ah, you brought the tools, Unate." He smiled. "Good job."
Unate seemed to glow with pride. "Thank you, Master!"
"Yes." Riqre nodded at him. "Now get started while I explain things to them."
"Yes, Master!" Unate unfurled the cloth by the third cage, took out a key, opened the door, and dragged the body out. He then took his cleaver and hacked at one of its arms. Once it was chopped off, he pulled out some sharp-looking knives and started stripping what little meat remained.
While that was going on, Riqre raised his voice. "Everyone, I hope you are doing well!" His voice sounded like he honestly cared about the welfare of the caged people. "I am happy to tell you that you will be getting food today!" That got the imprisoned people's attention, as their heads swiveled towards Riqre. "It will be a very special meal too!" Riqre laughed. "Now, I know what you're thinking. You'd want to eat something else. Do not turn down my generosity, for there will not be any other type of food provided. Eat, and enjoy!"
The girl grabbed the first strip of meat that Unate had flayed. She scurried over to the first cage and placed it inside.
Riqre sat back and watched.
...
The next place they visited was back inside of the compound. It wasn't in the opulent halls, but was underground. A place that was dark and cramped, and only had a few glowing stones to provide light. The butcher had accompanied them.
"Laila!" Riqre smiled and spread his arms to the side, as if he was going to hug the chained girl. "My dear, Laila! I had given up all hope of possessing you again, you know? You are the first, but you won't be the last. Unate!"
Sibby looked at the girl who looked like her. 'Laila' paled in comparison, of course, but she was still a far more striking figure than anyone else.
...Except for Panda, but she was cute, not striking.
"Please, Master Riqre. Please! I'll do anything you want, just please don't..." Laila cried as she fell to her knees and begged. "Please. Please! Please!"
Riqre motioned to some of the slaves that accompanied them, and they lifted Laila up, placed her on a stained slab of stone, and then pulled at her shackles until her arms and legs were spread open.
Unate then began to cut into her - the same way he'd peeled away the layers of the corpse.
Sibby generally didn't care much about others, not in a personal sense. She loved Riley and Kevin. She was a good mother. She felt empathy for the woman who was being tortured, but it was more like a dissatisfaction than the rage that she would've felt on behalf of a real person.
And... she'd also had done worst things in the past. Things that had made Kevin sad. Things that she didn't like to think about now.
She was better now. She wasn't indiscriminate. The people she hunted all deserved her actions.
She wanted to leave.
She didn't want to listen to Laila's screams that were still intermixed with begging and crying. She didn't want to smell her blood. She didn't want to see the fresh red liquid seep into the stone and stain it more.
It was strange.
It made her sick to her stomach.
That was odd. She shouldn't have minded. She wouldn't have minded if she was the one doing it. She hadn't minded seeing the man outside chopped up or eaten.
But...
Being forced to watch it. To be powerless to do anything. To be unable to stop what Kevin would've objected to...
Sibby found herself hating it for some reason. This... wasn't the way things were SUPPOSED to be!
People were hurt and died all the time. Sometimes at her hands, but always because she allowed it. Or condoned it? Or something?
The point was, that she was capable of changing the things she wanted to... but not now.
Thinking back, even the food that the others had been given had felt... wrong. She couldn't say how or why. Eating humans wasn't wrong. They weren't completely bland, like everything else, and she missed having some flavor. Any flavor. If you were going to kill someone, why not eat them? Kevin had tried explaining why he didn't like it, but it had never made sense to her. Sibby had (mostly) stopped because it had made him upset, and because Kevin's food was much, much better.
She missed him. She wondered when she'd see-
A particularly loud scream pulled her back to what was happening. Unate had reached Laila's head.
His knives cut away her skin in a single, long, connected piece. The other people dripped a nice smelling green liquid on the places where the most blood flowed. Whatever it was, it stopped the bleeding.
Sibby thought back to another one of Riley's lectures to Panda: 'The epidermis contains no blood vessels, and cells in the deepest layers are nourished by diffusion from blood capillaries present in the upper layers of the dermis.'
That must be why there was so little blood compared to when Sibby had done similar things. She wondered why William had never explained that detail before? He must have known. Jack had also skinned people alive, so he had known, and William had been smarter than Jack.
Sibby clenched her fists.
She wanted to do something. She needed to do something! ...But what?
Huh?
Her hands hadn't loosened. Her traitorous body had obeyed her.
Why?
Could it be because she wasn't thinking of hitting anyone?
Her hands went limp.
Interesting.
And it was something she could distract herself with.
...
Sibby followed Riqre as he went back outside. They toured the rest of his house - mainly the outside area.
It was separated from the inside area by the stone wall, and it was larger. There were a lot more people in collars and chains here, and they didn't look happy.
At least they weren't screaming like Laila.
All the guards wore the same, wide smile as those inside, but the rest of the enslaved people looked like how Sibby would expect them to: Angry. Sad. Desperate. She'd gotten better at recognizing people's emotions, even if they weren't real.
The outside was grouped into multiple areas. One for fighting. One for farming. One for mining. Riqre said something about training his slaves to have the right 'classes', but Sibby wasn't paying attention.
Her mind kept on going back to Laila.
And that made her think about the Slaughterhouse Nine.
And that made her think about what they'd done to Riley.
On one hand, it wasn't as bad since they'd only hurt her parents. On the other hand... it was Riley. Riley was real, but Sibby hadn't realized it at the time.
Back then... she'd been just another... thing.
William hadn't cared about her, and so Sibby hadn't either. Jack was the one who'd decided what to do, and to take her with them.
That was how she'd become more-real. Not as real as William, not at first, but Bonesaw was a part of their group and not a thing. Eventually... Riley had become family. Had become real.
Riqre finished doing whatever it was that he was doing by ordering some of the wide-smiling people to hurt the non-smiling ones. He went back inside, and had Sibby follow.
He sat in a hot, wet room, and had Sibby follow.
He took some of the wide-smiling women into his bed, and had Sibby follow.
Sibby didn't care. She still thought about Laila. Was she actually real? What made one person real and another one not?
William had been real. Jack had been real. Crawler, Crimson, Mannequin, Shatterbird, Winter, Chuckles... The rest of the Slaughterhouse Nine had... kinda been real?
Riley was real. Kevin was real. Panda was real. Dragon, Noelle, Marrissa, Chantilly... The other people that she occasionally interacted with were also... kinda real?
Sibby would be upset if they died. She'd be upset if they were hurt.
If she was upset that Laila was hurt, did that make her kinda real too?
She didn't know.
Riqre was asleep in his bed with the wide-smiling women. Sibby thought about running away.
Her body didn't move.
She thought about following Riqre from a distance. He hadn't said that she needed to be close to him. The space between them had varied throughout the day. She'd still be 'following' him if she was there when he moved, right?
She took a step.
Good. Sibby smiled. She could use her power to move her traitorous body, but it would be hard to allow the proper forces to propel her while negating the ones that would stop her. It would be possible, but hard to do. Gravity was the strongest force, and the rest of them didn't have enough power to do much without negating virtually everything else.
Once she built up momentum, she could move fast, but for turning and stopping...
Ugh.
Plus, she'd have to stop focusing on negating the electrical charges in the nerves that were hurting. She didn't want to do that.
So, tricking her traitorous body into listening to her was the better idea. She was so smart!
Sibby slipped out of Riqre's room without making a sound. It hurt to focus on negating her vibrations as she opened the door, but that was a price she had to pay.
Once she was in the hallway, she went back to blocking her pain. Her bare feet made a soft sound as she limped towards her destination, but if anyone heard her, they didn't investigate.
She went to the heavy doors that opened into the stairs that led underground. Even from here, she could hear the quiet sobbing.
Step by step. It was frustrating. She SHOULD be able to move around without any resistance from the air or anything else, instead she moved painfully slowly.
After an eternity, she reached her target.
Laila was still chained to the table. The bleeding had stopped, but what remained of her skin was still attached in a single, long strip. She must have been in too much pain to fall asleep.
Sibby looked down at her.
Yes. She was real.
Or at least kinda real.
Sibby placed her palm on Laila's chest. The girl's skinless eyelids opened and looked at her as she gasped. "Wha?"
It was barely more than a whisper, and was probably the loudest sound she could make after screaming for so long.
Sibby smiled at her and focused on her body. It was different from hers. It was different from Riley's. The similarities were there. Blood vessels. Muscles. Bone. Even if they weren't really the same, they acted like it. That meant that she also had... nerves.
Sibby stopped focusing on blocking her own electrical impulses.
It hurt.
It hurt. It hurt. It hurt.
She found the ones from all over Laila's body that were still bombarding her brain.
Sibby blocked them.
Laila gasped again, and then her body sagged. "Tha..nk... yo..."
She fell asleep.
Sibby stood over her and kept the pain away.
She could reform, and not have to deal with her injuries, but not doing so was sort of a point of pride by now. Besides, she'd just have to hurt herself later if she got rid of them.
Still...
It hurt.
It hurt. It hurt. It hurt.
But, it was a price she was willing to pay for someone that was kinda real.
[Flayed Slave Level 9!]
[Skill Change – Lesser Pain Tolerance → Greater Pain Tolerance!]
[Skill Change – Greater Pain Tolerance → Ignore Pain!]
Summary:
Riqre has one of his [Mages] examine Sibby to try and identify what's wrong with it. The bindings are working with no flaws. He resumes his various 'experiments', including skinning Laila alive.
Zehia arrives at Riqre's compound and plots how to infiltrate it.
Sibby experiments on her body while remember Riley's lectures to Panda. She figures out how to precisely block the pain signals she gets. She makes her body incapable of moving, but eventually lets up and follows Riqre out of boredom. She's disturbed by the atrocities she sees, which remind her of things she's done, but doesn't want to think about. She visits Laila during the night, and decides that she's 'kinda real', and blocks her pain - at the expense of no longer blocking her own.
Laila gets another powerful new, and rare [Skill].