Chapter 3

From Toreas

She knocked on the door to the dungeon as she always did. The man looking through the small opening had a face that even his mother must have had a hard time trying to love. That was probably one of the reasons why he had an occupation where he rarely saw daylight.

As always, she did not resist in the least. The jailer though warned her every time not to try anything and then started making lewd comments right after that. The man knew that she had no intentions to try anything, but she figured he did it out of routine more than anything else. There were not many prisoners in the past few months except herself. She figured the jailer was bored and felt important when he said those things to her.

Both knew that the man also wouldn't try to do anything to her. She would report it to the baron and the jailer would find himself quickly in the clutches of his professional companion, the barons torturer.

She had met the man who took a delight in inflicting as much pain as humanly possible without killing them. She never heard a name but then she doubted even Jeremias would know it. The torturer was put in charge by the general, as well as the jailer. For a long time the torturer was the only person she had seen.

It happened shortly after her old master died.

Jeremias older brother, Theodore Moran had been the baron and her master for a long time. He was a good man and tried his best to rule the city according to the wishes of the king and to the benefit of it's citizens. Being the younger brother, Jeremias was jealous and killed Theodore to gain the seat of power for himself.

The castle had been cold on that night. Theodore had her chained by an iron collar to a pillar in his bed room. He always said that he chained her there because he was afraid that one night she would just get up and walk away, just as easy as she had walked into his life. He was not the most secure man she had ever met, but she knew him as kind and caring. Secured as she was, she was able to sleep on the bed but half the room, including the door, was unreachable for her.

It was already late and Theodore had come to his chambers after a long discussion with his administrators. Taji'ra was laying in bed as Theodore entered. Immediately, she got up stood beside the bed and looked down. She remembered how he smiled, that fond and loving smile of his, and gestured her to get back under the furs. Of course she complied.

A knock on the door stopped him from disrobing. His brother called to him to open up, he had some important message.

The moment the door opened, Jeremias plunged a dagger into his brothers heart. She felt a fine sharp pain at his death in her. There was nothing she could have done. It happened too fast too far away and she was still chained.

Instantly, she slipped out of bed and knelt on the floor.

"What are your wishes master?" she called to Jeremias.

He eyed her suspiciously.

"Ha, the old fool made sure I get you once he dies. What an idiot."

"You are my master now. Would you like me to explain to you..."

"No", he cut her off. Jeremias always hated to have things explained to him.

And so she never got to tell anything of importance to her new master. She was glad now, as he had no idea what he had missed.

General Olstead entered the room, dragging the body of a dead peasant with him. He dumped the body next to the corpse of Theodore, pulled his sword and stabbed it a couple times in the back.

"This peasant has killed Theodore Moran and I have brought him to justice. You are our new Baron now, Jeremias Moran. What are your orders my lord?"

Her new master ordered her to not speak to anyone about what happened here, then she was bound, stripped and thrown into the dungeons. After what seemed like an eternity, guards came and dragged her to the torture chamber.

The new baron was standing there together with the torturer. She had seen the man before but her old master did not approve of torture, so he was just another jailer and occasional the henchman at an execution. The guards leading her pushed her hard to the floor, making her stumble. She came to rest on her knees and barely avoided falling on her face, with her hands still tied behind her back.

"Obey his commands as if they were my own", the new baron told her, then turned to the torturer.

"Don't disfigure or kill her, otherwise do as you please with this creature. Get me all the answers I want from her. They say it's impossible, prove them wrong."

Without even as much as a glance for her, he moved his considerable weight out of the dimly lit room.

She had seen rooms like this before. Small, stinking of sweat, blood, feces and chard flesh. A gloom of despair hung in the air, compressed violence waiting in the corners. Some fresh blood stains on the wall spoke of the room being in good use. Probably someone from the former baron's staff with information the new one wanted. Or he simply wanted to exact some revenge for a supposed wrong doing.

Petty as he was, he didn't need much reason to display his power, even just for his own amusement. Without his older brother to keep him in check, he could do anything he pleased. Neither the short temper, nor the impatience made him any more agreeable. Jeremias was not stupid, in fact he had been planing the coup for a long while.

She was left in the hands of the torturer. He cut her, hit her, broke bones, set them and then broke them again. He used every instrument for whipping and beating he could find. With needles, he punctured her skin all over her body and was especially attracted to her more sensitive and private areas. Not once did he burn her though or cut any part of her body clean off, the baron had not permitted that.

She was kept in the nude and always tied or chained in some way, mostly aiming to cause even more discomfort than the last time she was bound.

Then he had tied her wrists above her, ankles together and pulled the rope so high up that the balls of her feet never were able to touch the ground. She hung more than she was actually standing. This made breathing first hard, then painful and finally into an anguishing procedure. It felt like she was in this private nightmare for ever when the torturer entered with the baron right behind him. It could have been days or months since she had been brought into the room, she just did not know anymore.

Jeremias looked her up and down. She could see the lust in his eyes that was always there when men looked at her nude body.

"Did she tell you anything?"

The torturer stood next to her and shook his head.

"I apologize lord, she never answered any of your questions. All she said was that she was unable to answer and that was that. No matter the torture, she wouldn't spill it."

"Are you sure, you used all your skills to coax it from her?"

Without a warning, the torturer punched Taji'ra in her gut. She wheezed, pulled herself up to gain some air and collapsed again in her bonds, just to try again for more air.

"Any more than this and she will die, my lord. If she was able to tell, she would by now."

The fat man nodded to himself.

"Yes, very well then. Clean her up, throw her in a cell. Let her rest a day, then have her ready for my bed in the evening."

She lost consciousness shortly after hearing that bit of her future.

With a start she woke in the cell again. Still naked and still chained, but her body had been washed and there was a simple cloak next to her that would hide her body from neck to just below her knees. After a while guards entered and removed the chains, telling her to get dressed. Although they leered at her, they also were a bit unsure how to handle a woman that was not ashamed of showing her body bare of all clothing.

They led her to the bed chamber she had last seen with her masters blood pooling on the floor. She did not glance at the spot where he died, that was not important.

The new baron was already waiting for her. He locked the iron collar with it's chain around her neck. The heavy chain dangling from her neck and connecting her to the pillar in the corner. Only then did he dismiss the guards.

What followed was a lot of him pawing her, him ordering her to touch him there stroke this, move that way. He seemed troubled through it all and although she gave her best to please him, it took a while before he collapsed on top of her. After he woke, he called the guards to take her away and put her back in the dungeon. Before they could leave he changed his mind, as he did so often, and commanded them to give her to the torturer, so he could have some fun with her for a week.

This time the torturer did not ask questions. He just caused her pain, made her scream and writhe in agony and violated her body in every way she could imagine. He even showed her a few she had not known or thought of before. And then he did it again.

After her torment was over, she was tossed dirty and sullied back into her cell. Always the same cell. It was like her own room in the castle.

She had lost a lot of weight. That she was constantly chained or otherwise bound did not make it easier on her body either. It went through her mind, if the baron now would simply let her wither and die down here.

Laying there on the dirty floor, chained, bruised and abused, she thought about the past. She had been through similar experiences before, but this one was the worst. Then she remembered that the last time it had been the worst up until that point as well and that she had similar thoughts like she did now.

Not once did Taji'ra shed a tear.

Since then she gradually was let out of her cell more and more. Her armor was given to her and the sword as well. The main function she had to fulfill was stand there and be an unspoken threat mostly to anyone in the barons presence.

Twice he had sent her to a village. Behind her were each time fifty soldiers, who could have done the same task, but he wanted it to be her. She had to kill everyone in the village except two healthy young people. She had gone into the village alone, the soldiers just surrounding it and throwing people that tried to flee back into the village. There she told them what her master had commanded. Both times they refused.

Very swiftly she dispatched everyone, man, woman and child in each village. The ones that were intentionally left alive, were given some coins and food, then sent of in different directions to spread the word of what happened. And that it did.

Twice more she was sent to villages. The first time she had to ask. The second time, the villagers just had to see her walking towards the village to lay down their weapons. Since then the threat of using her had been the barons best weapon.

Never was she allowed to wander around. One time she informed the baron that she needed to train in order to keep up her strength and skills. He had sent her to the barracks in the castle, but that did not go over so well. After a few broken bones and many bruised egos among the soldiers, the baron bought a house in the city with a courtyard. From that point on, this was her training ground. So she spent her days training or standing in the throne room at the castle to intimidate people. The night always chained in the dungeon.

Back in her cell she was only allowed a simple garment. The jailer put a chain around her neck, her wrists behind her back and pulled everything so tight that she just could lay below the ring in the wall and not move the slightest bit.

As so often in the past years, even in the best of times with her master Theodore, she thought back to the man that was her master before that. Although she shouldn't, she missed him. Before her minds eye she could see his face, his eyes how they looked into the depths of her soul and his lips that softly spoke her name with such a deep affection. Although he wasn't dead, he might as well have been, for there was no chance that he would ever be close to her again.

A single tear found it's way down her cheek, clung desperately to her jawline for a second then dropped on the stone floor of her cell.