Dzan might not be moving through altruism alone; Ajax’s aura while giving his commands was truly fearsome. He understands that Ajax is a benevolent man for as long as he’s known him, but he is also Shaula’s trusted comrade.
Shaula… The strong, glorious woman who was able to make me think, made me sincerely believe that I was about to die.
Dzan knows in his heart that Ajax has almost as much power as she does. Or at least even. He does not wish to find out what might happen to him if he doesn’t do what Ajax wants. Both what he might do, and what Shaula might do. Sigvor signals to him to look towards the apartment that the group of eight had paused at.
“They’re trying to break into that apartment unit.” Sigvor warns. She can see from afar as the group of people use magic to crack the apartment lock and barge their way through.
Are they going to hole up in there while setting up their ‘human bomb’ or whatever? Should we confront them right now?
Sigvor’s instincts tell him that they should wait. How would their group be able to gain maximum damage within a single apartment? They would have held a position in the hallway so they could feed their fire weapon to all apartments more equally.
Sigvor and Dzan wait at their current position, their bodies tensed and ready for a fight, until they see the group bring out a child and her mother. The two of them are struggling but their hands are tied with restraints and their mouths are muffled by cloth gags. Dzan is angered while Sigvor is only confused.
“I-I thought they were going to do some kind of terrorist attack. They look like a group of serial killers or some kind of crazy cult, you know?” Sigvor argues, his eyes sharp. This was not within his expectations. He wonders if they’re taking hostages.
“What do we do? How can we help them!?” Dzan whispers, worried about the mother and son.
“There are eight people there, all of them having unknown strength. I… I think we should…”
***
Cariha looks at the young, yellow-haired beastkin child, a boy about six or seven years old. Her smile is warm towards the child. The boy is sitting in front of her, tears running down his cheeks.
His light yellow-haired mother is seated behind him, staring with fear and hatred towards Cariha. Her eyes dart between Cariha’s warm smile and the back of her child’s head. Her husband is at his job right now, otherwise he would have gone far enough to give his life to protect the both of them from these home invaders.
Though, she fears how even he would fare against these people. He is a strong man who loves both her and their child, but against eight individuals armed with the sharp and intimidating helix knives that they’re holding…
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“Hello, young man, what’s your name?” Cariha asks, softly.
The boy doesn’t wish to answer, though he cannot answer anyways considering his mouth is gagged. His tears briefly stop as his fear is switched by outrage. How could these disgusting strangers do this to his mother and him? If his father were here, they would all be beaten up and sent directly to the nearest guards’ station.
Cariha touches her chin deep in thought about whether she should remove the boy’s gag. She decides to do so. While she pulls off his mask, he struggles against her hands. He tries to bite her hand, but Utha grabs him by his hair, forcing him to wince in pain. A defiant demihuman child is going to be troubling for her and her family.
What can she do in order to force him to be more reasonable? Her eyes light up as she considers what she can say to him to make him comply. Without any sign of the previous annoyance in her expression, she speaks calmly.
“If you scream or make too much noise, your mother’s… left eye is going to be removed from her head by one of the two men standing beside her. You wouldn’t want that, would you? She’s going to be very mad at you if you scream and she loses her eye, don’t you think?”
“…” The boy stops moving and the tears come back.
However, he feels like he shouldn’t break eye contact with her. Her gaze is “kind” currently, but there is still a warning within it. Cariha pouts as the boy refuses to answer her with his words. She wonders if perhaps he doesn’t fully comprehend what it would mean for her mother to be blind in one eye. So, she decides to explain.
“Would you wish to be blind in one eye? You would lose your ‘depth perception’, you know? You would do much worse in any game you play with your friends, right? Well, think about how your mother would not be able to play any games with you if she loses her eyes. You like being with your mother, right? Things would be horrible for her…”
The boy quickly nods in agreement and is scared into silence by the incongruity between the words that Cariha is saying and the calm, reasonable expressions on her face. To his mother, she has to wonder if she has fallen directly into a nightmare, one with a similar level of randomness and chaos as an average dream.
The beastkin mother has become unmoving, realizing that it would be in her best interest not to anger or even annoy this maniac. This human is not one to give her or her young child any leeway. She decides not to antagonize her or struggle. If she were to attempt a reprisal against her captors, the woman would simply go after her child in order to punish her.
Cariha meanwhile looks back and forth between the boy and his mother.
She wonders if she can have any fun here. Though she doesn’t like admitting it, she does enjoy torturing the demihumans who are unfortunate enough to cross her path. She already torments herself every so often for her own sins, including that one unforgivable one.
Her madness stems from the guilt she feels over how she has disobeyed Osva during her past. In some ways, she believes that the current state of her life when she is in a state between pain and agony is because of how Osva has punished her for her disgraceful actions.
Yet, here these demihumans walk around unperturbed, completely comfortable in their own sins. The mother as well, to dare to breed in this world not made for her. She has not been punished enough. Cariha wouldn’t mind giving her punishment for her sins, just punishment of course.
After the punishment is administered, she could always baptize her in the… Well, where would the point be in that? It’s not like there will be a place for her in the true heaven.