It took Zahra a minute to realise that Joe was clean-shaven, at which point she realised that the hair that had come off during the dip, before her flaying, had not returned either. Only the areas covered by the cap and goggles grew back.

Nothing happened for a while. Long enough for two sets of meals to be served. Then the door opened again. The ominous sight of two lines of troops entering the room told everyone what they needed to know. The torture routines were going to start again.

Although she knew it was coming the confirmation was like a blow to the stomach. Zahra felt physically sick, knowing what she would have to go through again. Hoping F Company would be first to go, and feeling guilty about it, she looked to the senior officers for their orders.

"D Company platoon commanders. You have one minute to select somebody from your ranks to go and due their duty today."

The phrasing raised an angry noise from the assembled soldiers and civilians. What they would be going through was not a duty and the matter of fact way the order had been given only angered the men more.

Zahra, however, didn't join in. With a nod to Sergeant Mantle she joined Joe in heading over to the guards, some of whom she recognised from her last time here. Noting one of the regulars had a new insignia on his tunic she nodded to him.

"Congratulations, on what I assume is a promotion." She said quietly to him. The elf gave her a startled look and blushed at the unexpected comment.

"Thank you." He muttered.

Eventually the other eight were selected and the group were marched down to the central room of the prison, before being led off to the fates.

Again she was led to a cell and ordered to strip. As she stepped into the centre of the room the guard stepped up to her and punched her in the stomach. As she folded over he grabbed her by the hair bringing her head down to meet his rising, armoured, knee.

Zahra's nose shattered with the impact, blood exploding everywhere. Clutching her face she collapsed to the floor, earning herself half a dozen powerful kicks to the ribs as well.

Leaving her on the floor the elf retrieved the human sized helmet that she would be wearing and put it on her head. With it sealed over her face he grabbed her by the breasts and used them to drag her to her feet. Once she was standing he attached the helmet to its cable before chaining her arms, above her head, to the relevant cable. Before leaving the cell he kicked her between the legs, causing her legs to give way and her to vomit into the helmet. Collapsing to her arms' full stretch, jerking the muscles and tendons, sending burning pain through her arms.

When she hid her wits about her she managed to get her feet back under her to support her weight, though the vomit and blood that had collected in the chin piece of her helmet made breathing difficult. Ironically the damage done to her nose left her unable to breath through it and smelling the concoction.

Instead of the usual whippings, this time Zahra was used as a punching bag. And the elf doing it meant to do her real harm. She wasn't just punched, but kicked and beaten with a rod as well.

Unable to see or hear each blow was a surprise. One that prevented her from tensing up her body in preparation for it. The blows also seemed to get more powerful, though this may have been the effect of receiving blows on already damaged parts of her body.

Then she felt a rib break. Screaming with the pain she couldn't help rotating her body to protect the injury, only for another blow to break a rib on the other side of her chest. Breathing was now not just difficult but also very painful.

"This bastard's going to kill me here." She thought, sadly. Realising as she did so that she had not given up the idea of escaping this hell and getting home. Then came the blow that would mean her death. The rod crashed into her right knee breaking bones and leaving it unable to take her weight. There was no way she was going to be able to hold her weight on just one leg, especially if they damaged it as well, and hanging from her arms made breathing impossible with the broken ribs and other injuries to her upper body.

The blows stopped then and Zahra was able to get her body in a position where she could breathe relatively painlessly, though she doubted she could hold the pose for hours, even without more damage.

Even knowing she wasn't going to make it out of this room alive she still couldn't find it in her to pray to the god she had been brought up to believe in.

Sensing another person in the room she tried to brace for the next series of blows. That never came.

Instead the elf, she assumed, walked halfway around her before stopping. She then felt hands both sides of her supporting her weight as she was released from the ceiling chain. The helmet was removed and she was lowered to the ground. Even the relative gentleness of being lowered instead of being allowed to fall, sent wave of agony through her broken body and, try as she might, she was unable to prevent herself from screaming at the pain.

As the pain subsided she could hear elves talking to each other and tried to get a look at who was there.

"By the gods of vengeance. What have you done to it? " Demanded one of the new elves, coming into view. Zahra could just make out that he was wearing more ornate clothing than the guards, with a crowned skull emblem on his left shoulder.

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"It was disrespectful towards the Clan-Father." Answered the guard who had brutalised her, with a slight hint of sulkiness in his voice.

"Not that we doubt your word, but we will be checking the video footage to ensure that your treatment of it was merited by its actions." Purred the new voice as though the speaker sensed a calamitous error on the guard's part. An error he planned to exploit to the fullest.

"You know the rules. No playing with them without them being connected up, for everyone to benefit from. I really hope you didn't overstep your limits."

"Dose it with healing spray and get a healer to check it over, before we move it. The prince will not be happy if it dies before he gets to play with it."

The last was said in a very pointed way at one of the guards. Not the one she had congratulated on his promotion, she noted.

Liberally sprayed she could feel most of the damage healing itself, until her nose, ribs and leg were the only things feeling the effects of her beating. Those and a pain in her abdomen that radiated to her back.

She was left laying on the floor of the cell for a length of time she couldn't quantify before she could hear voices again.

"The guard did it some serious damage. Even after the spray the leg is damaged and I think there is some internal injuries as well."

"It's unlike one of you to care about the well being of a slave, Captain. " Came a woman's voice. One not filled with the meanness most elves had. "Normally your master has you hurting them."

"The prince has some plans for this one, and wants it to be able to enjoy them. Like this it will die long before he has had his fill and that wouldn't be good for anyone."

With that, she could feel cool hands checking her over.

"She could do with better care than I can give her here, but I'm guessing my brother wants her right away."

"You know your brother, Princess. He wanted it there before he even gave the order."

"You hold her leg there, and when I say so, pull it straight, and hold it there. Pull too hard and you risk killing her and I will tell Korsephan you killed her.

"You two hold her under her arms, as a brace."

"I'm so sorry for this." Zahra heard, gently in her ear, before. "Now!"

Excruciating pain blasted into her knee as the elven warriors pulled her, as directed. Again her scream filled the room. That agony was soon followed by a different pain as she could feel her broken bones moving inside her, back to where they belonged. With a gasp she felt them line up correctly and a warm sensation chased away the pain as the Healer worked her magic repairing the breaks.

The elf then turned her attention to Zahra's ribs and nose. The bones in her chest were manipulated by a medical device hovering over her skin, rather than by the soldiers, before being welded together. Her nose the Healer positioned before fixing.

"Anything else?" Zahra was asked.

"Yes, Mistress." She managed to croak through a throat raw from the screaming she had done. "I think there is some internal damage about here."

Running a scanner over her elicited some choice words, under her breath.

"If my brother doesn't deal with the idiot that did this adequately, I might."

Again, Zahra could feel the warm numbness of the machine doing its job, followed by the lack of pain that signalled another healed wound. This time the Healer ran her scanner all over Zahra's body before declaring her fit to go, though not until she had fixed Zahra's throat.

This allowed Zahra to get a good look at the young woman, and was shocked to see a face filled with compassion and kindness. Emotions she thought unknown to these cruel creatures.

With this was done, she was allowed to dress before being ordered outside to where there were four elves, all in the more ornate uniforms than the guards, with the crowned skull logo.

Instead of the black with red edging that the prison guards wore these had purple trim. They were also more like parade uniforms than the guards' working dress. Each had a the skull logo on their upper left arm, though three of these were on a green background as opposed to the fourth's yellow. This one seemed to be in charge, obviously the captain, with two red bands across each of his epaulettes.

The four soldiers, as Zahra considered them to be, formed up around her and started marching towards one of the other exits to the room, the one that led outside, Zahra realised. Forced to keep up with them she meekly went along.

Taken out of the prison she was led to an air car and transported to a palatial mansion. Dying of curiosity Zahra didn't dare ask her escorts what was going on, she was just grateful to be alive. All the way there had been silence between the elves, and none of them so much as acknowledged her existence.

Taken in to what was obviously a side entrance she was led down into a basement area by her escorts. Not a direction that instilled confidence in the young woman. Once underground she was taken into a an all white room with what looked like two operating tables in it and a large tank of clear liquid, with a step ladder by the side. On one of the tables was the sleeping form of a female elf, totally naked except for one of the torture helmets over her head and a light sheen of liquid over her body. The other table just had a helmet sat on it.

Finally one of the guards spoke to her, though without looking directly at her.

"Take off your rags and get in the cleaning solution."

With no choice Zahra complied with the order, stacking her clothes neatly in the corner of the room before climbing the steps and letting herself into the liquid. Like everything else in this god forsaken realm the liquid was lukewarm, though considering the alternatives she wasn't unhappy at that. Once in the tank she used her hands against the sides to submerge herself until her feet touched the floor, before swimming back to the surface.

Clearing the surface she looked to the lead guard for permission before hauling herself out of the tank. Unlike water this liquid totally failed to cling to her, leaving her completely dry, except for a slight sheen over her body.

Without further instruction, Zahra walked over to the empty table, shaking with fear, put the helmet over her head and laid down. Hoping, the whole time that a guard would stop her, knowing whatever came next was not going to be pleasant. Waiting for one of the guards to strap her down and close the helmet she realise that there were no straps. This caused a faint glimmer of hope.

Laying there, with the helmet still unsealed she could hear footsteps behind her.

"Is this the one?" Asked an unhappy voice. "I have better places to be than here, doing this."

"It is and it is now your responsibility, Healer." Came the reply, before Zahra heard the guards leave the room.

"I'm sorry you got selected for this, human." Said the healer, before the sharp pinch of a needle entering her skin and then nothing.