บท 4: 4. At Their Mercy

Time in slavery passed by in a crawl of misery, as the months turned into years that were all confined in the stone walls and iron shackles of suffering.

The pain that steeped the air was disheartening and many had lost hope of ever reaching freedom. Many tried to escape, but all were caught. At least those that had died manage to escape the pain, but many were simply tortured and thrown back into work with new limps and scars.

It didn't matter who you were, whether you were a child or a grown adult, the cult treated us with zero mercy. If you stopped working for any reason for any amount of time you were electrocuted without fail, just like I was when I was captured and right before I met Jellal and Simon.

Those two, just thinking about them made me feel nostalgic. They worked hard to help me cope with the environment, even if Simon appeared at the same time I did. William, on the other hand, tried to make sure I had kept eating. And yet, no matter how hungry I was, I just couldn't keep down the white grewal they tried to feed us.

The taste was simply too foul, and no matter how much I tried I just couldn't eat it. Me skipping meals combined with the manual labour had made me weaker and weaker. When the guards noticed, they used that electricity spell until I couldn't think and forced me to continue working.

As Simon said, we were given different tasks each day. Some days I'd be working with them and others I'd be by myself with others that I didn't know. It was those days, where I had no one to support me, I'd come back covered in bruises and burns from the electricity that torched me from inside out. It was those nights that William would worry over me and treat my injuries.

I didn't try to hide my tears, the pain was too much and was physically debilitating. Even as William and Bosco placed wet rags to try to calm the inflammation, their mere presence on my skin made the pain worse. I was tired, and weak, and deeply afraid. It felt like if I tried to sleep to rest that I wouldn't wake back up.

William had tried to force me to eat what food he had. Despite my disgust he continued, and while it felt good to have something in my stomach, the vile taste still stained my mouth and prompted me to vomit it all out onto the edges of the cell.

"Shit! If she continues like this she is goin' to die."

"Can't you do anything?"

"I would have already if I could," Bosco answered with a raised voice, "The fact that she isn't eating is bad enough already. If she wants a chance to live then she'll have to adapt to this place…"

"Hey, whats going on in there?"

From my position on the ground I opened my eyes to see William turned to the man that had come to cell, with Bosco on my other side.

"Nothing," William replied.

A tense silence passed through the air for several moments, and with each second that passed I prayed that he would just go away. But the sound of keys jingling and the door opening dispelled the little hope I had.

"What is that smell?"

Nausea washed over me when he stepped in, causing me to curse inwardly as I closed my eyes shut on instinct.

"Alright, why did one of you disrespect our hospitality and throw up all over the floor?" His voice dripped with sarcasm as he talked, which only served to make William mad.

"Does it matter who? Anyone would after having to taste that garbage!"

The familiar sound of the electricity magic sounded through the cell, as well as the sound of William's grunts of pain. In the next instant, I could hear him dropping to the ground.

"Tsk, tsk. You're supposed to treat your hosts with respect. Maybe you need to be treated to some disciplinary action to correct that behaviour."

"L-Let me go, you asshole."

Hearing the sound of clothes shuffling, I opened my eyes only for them to widen as I saw the guard dragging away a struggling William. When I saw this, I felt my heart drop.

They are going to torture him…for something I did…

I forced my body to move, weakly rolling onto my shoulder when I felt Bosco's hands on my shoulder. With his help I was able to stand up, although I was still swaying in the knees.

"W-Wait," my meak voice called out, "It…it wasn't him…it wasn't him!"

The guard and William both turned to look at me. William was shocked, and the guards face was unreadable under the mask. Stepping out of Bosco's hold I held my legs, weak and wobbly from going weeks without eating food.

"It was me. I'm the one that vomited on the ground. Let him go, please. I'm the one you want."

William was silently begging for me to shut up, but I wouldn't. I couldn't let him take responsibility for my actions. It was something the old matron had beaten into us, practically. To always take responsibility, no matter how serious the problem. Even if you lied at the start.

"Well what do you know," the guard said with a smile on his face, "All of this started because you weren't honest with me. You have good friends, little girl."

Then, a sudden surge of pain penetrated every fibre of my being. I couldn't even hold in a scream, as the spontaneous attack caused every vein in my body to feel alight in flame. I could hear someone screaming my name, but I couldn't tell who…

When the pain my left my body I collapsed to the ground and could hear William yelling and fighting someone, as well as the guard calling for so something, but the ringing in my ears overpowered my senses. The familiar sensation of Bosco holding my face and trying to check up on me bought me back to the surface of the numbing fog. When I did, I noticed the two guards had dropped their swords and were pinning William to the ground. But more importantly…

The cell door was still unlocked.

Bursting forward with strength I didn't know I had I ignored Bosco's screaming and grabbed one of the swords from the ground and stabbed it through the unaware guard's spine. The sound of Bosco's yelling and the blood splattering the ground alerted the other guard. William used the distraction to break free from his grasp and hit him in the throat.

William grabbed the guard's sword and readied himself as the commotion drew the attention of several guards. I moved to grab the staff they use to cast their magic but red energy came out of the cuffs around my wrists and started to drag me away.

"WILLIAM!"

I yelled at the top of my lungs as the familiar electric magics forced him to the ground, drool leaking from his mouth in the form of foam. Then something hit me in the back of my head, eliminating my vision and casting me into a sea of darkness.

— * —

As consciousness slowly ebbed its way back into me, I blinked slowly and was able to take in where I was. My entire body was suspended and I could feel the cuffs on my wrists cutting into my flesh. I was suspended on something in a Y shape, and I couldn't feel or move my arms except for my fingers.

Taking in the room, a large collection of blue crystals were seated in the middle of the room with the cult's symbol underneath it. Everything was dark and purple, the only light was the few blue lacrima the were glowing atop stands on the edges of the room.

When the door opened a man walked in, and the familiar sounds of those heavy boots made my insides freeze. It was the mage that led the raid on Rosemary Village years ago. Fear weaved itself around my heart and constricted my throat making it hard to breathe.

"You caused quite a mess four days ago."

Did…he just say four days? I've been unconscious for four days.

"Its a good thing you woke up, too. I was getting impatient and theres nothing I hate more than slaves who don't know their place!"

A burning sensation crawled over my body in an instant, but I gritted my teeth and didn't scream. He must have noticed that I wasn't going to scream, and released the spell. A small whimper weasel its way out when he grabbed my face and made me look him in the eye.

"Hmm, a stubborn one aren't you. It would appear you've grown…resistant to your medicine. Most grown adults would be crying right now, but here you are, a mere child showing a stronger will than them. No matter, we can always find you a stronger medicine."

He leaned closer and observed my face before a wicked grin appeared on his face.

"You know, you have quite unique and beautiful eyes. A vibrant purple like the most glorious amethyst. Maybe…"

The feeling of something cold on my face alerted me to sparkling glint of a knife that immediately made me panic.

"What should I do to deliver your medicine since the previous treatment isn't working anymore?" he murmured silently as the blade slide to my neck, "Shall I slit your throat?"

The blade rose to my lips.

"Or your tongue?"

Then it was placed next to my left eye.

"Hmm, I think I might just take one of those gems in your eyes as a trophy. Go ahead and tell me, child, which place would you like your treatment administered? And do speak quickly. You annoyed me and I can imagine how easily it would be for me to get carried away…"

My eyes were wide open in horror. It was written as clear as day on his face that he wasn't bluffing. He was going to do it, and he wanted me to pick…

"Y…You're insane…"

The wicked smile on his face grew.

"An eye it is." He raised the blade towards my face and pointed inwards towards the corner of my left eye and I shrunk back on instinct, however, the table I was strung on prevented me from moving backwards.

"Oh, you don't want it?" he asked, "You don't want me to collect my rightful property?"

I shook my head, eyes watering and body trembling.

"Then beg me not to."

Tears were falling freely from my eyes at this point. I was helpless. I was a child in a hopeless situation. No matter how much I wanted to, I couldn't fight back.

A sharp pain slid down my arm in a slow movement, blood trickling down my arm as the knife separated skin from skin and pooled around my neck. The first of many scars I would gain today.

"I'm not patient. Beg!"

"P…Please…Please don't…"

I barely managed to choke it out when another slice ripped itself across my thigh.

"I can't hear you," pure joy reverberated through his voice.

This…this asshole!

"PLEASE DON'T CUT OUT MY EYE!"

My yell echoed around the large room. His laughter boomed just as loud as he set the knife aside and lowered his face next to my head. My body was trembling with choked sobs, and tears were mingling with the blood from my arm.

"Now, was that so hard?"

Then he took a fistful of my hair and pulled my head back, slamming the back of my head against the torture table. His eyes were staring at me with mirth and pride, showing me how much glee he was taking in asserting power over me.

"But you used a poor choice of words," he said reaching his fingers towards my eye.

"NO! PLEASE!"

His fingers wiggled their way into my eyes socket and bringing with them a violating misery. I screamed and tried to do what I could to get him off, but my child body was weak and he was a healthy adult. Tears, blood, and discharge slimed down my face as he pulled it out. With a tug, my optic nerve was yanked out causing gore to splat on the floor.

Viscera leaked out of my socket and stained my face while tears streamed out of my right eye. My body was shaking uncontrollably. Pain, it was all I felt. But hate, an all consuming hatred was lying beneath the surface ready to burn when it got the chance.

"That will teach you to know your place. I'll keep this eye as a trophy, one that I can show to you if you ever try to fight back again, and whenever you feel that hole where it once was you'll remember that your master has that eye. You'll remember that you are nothing more than a slave, and that this life is all that you'll see."

The torture spell activated again and sent a wave of misery through my body again. Just as I gave in to the pain and was about to black out, he used the knife to send a new spark of pain through my body and prevent me from blacking out. He refused to let me rest and used pain to keep me awake for hours before my body just couldn't stay awake anymore…

— * —

"Here's a new playmate."

I was forced into consciousness when I was thrown into a cell. My body throbbed with pain as wounds reopened and leaked what little blood I had left in my body. Everything hurt. Even my bones.

"Grandpa Rob, is she okay?" a young and shocked girl said.

"I don't know, dear. I don't know," an older, more kind voice answered.

"It looks like she came from one of the torture chambers," said a familiar voice.

"J…Jell…al?"

I heard a shocked gasp before hurried steps approached me. I was lying on my right side, and couldn't see from my left anymore, so all I had to figure out that one of the boys I had become close friends with all these years was his voice alone.

"N-No way. Lyssa?"

"Do you know her?" the older voice asked.

"Yeah…she's usually with me and Simon when we work the lower levels, but she…hasn't been there for the past 9 days…What have thy done to her?"

"Go get me some bandages Erza."

"Y-Yes!"

"Forgive me, but I will have to take care of the wounds."

"S'Okay…"

That was all I said before I blacked out again.

When I woke again, I was lying on the ground and staring at the ceiling. I sat there for a few moments, already noticing the smaller depth of field I had. I glanced to my side and saw a head of red hair and curious brown eyes. Seeing me glance at her she smiled.

"Oh good, you're finally awake!" she said happily, her hands clapping together in excitement. "You were sleeping for the past six days. Simon and Jellal were extremely worried…even Grandpa Rob was getting worried that you wouldn't wake up. When you passed out everyone was worried that you had died, but Grandpa Rob said that you were just really tired."

"W-Where…" I tried to talk but ended up coughing due to how dry my mouth was. Even when I tried to lick my lips my tongue felt like it was covered in mud. She realised what was happening and handed me a small cup, leaning it toward my face.

"Here, its some water Grandpa Rob set aside. We also tried to feed you as much as we could while you were asleep."

I managed to drink the entire thing, letting the slightly dirty water hydrate my throat. I sighed softly and fell back against the wall and turned my attention to the red-head as she put the cup on the ground.

"What's your name?" she asked.

"Lyssa, and you?"

"Erza…Scarlet."

"Scarlet?" I repeated mindlessly, "Kind of like your hair…"

"Mhmm!" she exclaimed happily.

I couldn't help but notice how happy she was at such a comment, and it made me curious.

"Is there something special about it?"

At that, her face turned as red as her hair and she looked down, her hands twisting the ends of it.

"Well, Jellal was the one that chose that name. I guess…I'm still getting used to it."

I couldn't help but chuckle, a small smile on my face.

"Yeah, that's definitely something he would do."

Jellal was the type to do whatever it takes try and put a smile on someone's face. He was selfless and good natured. It's the version of Jellal I still hold in fond memory. Shortly after my brief conversation with Erza sleep claimed me once again.