With as much composure and dignity he could muster, the fat man, wearing dull, brown leather clothes, steadily walked forward without breaking eye contact with Nyx.

However, with each step he took, more and more beads of sweat started forming on his forehead, displaying the effect that Nyx's gaze was having on him.

Stopping before the stone table in the centre of the room, the hesitated for a moment, opening and closing his mouth, before waving his hand over the counter.

The reason he was in charge of the kidnapped women was that, even though he seemed to have a significant presence, he was extraordinarily gutless and easily scared. This made him useless for other tasks, but in a position where he held power over others, he excelled in breaking down his captives, breaking their will to fight.

With a small flash of light, the ring on his middle finger glowed and on the table, a metallic sound rang out as a tray piled with simple food, mostly fruits and vegetables, appeared. Next was a jug of water. However, the man was forced to use his spare hand to stop it from toppling over and spilling.

The seemingly abundant amount of food wasn't special treatment to Nyx. It was because the captives often required healing and so, needed to be fed well or the effort they would need to expend to keep them alive would double.

The scene before her caused Nyx's eyebrows to twitch, having never seen a storage ring before.

A new found sense of cautiousness filled her heart, as Nyx thought about what kind of background the man might have.

The fat man hesitated again, seemingly trying to find the willpower to carry out his previous plan. However, even when he had displayed his storage ring, the only response from the woman in front of him was a twitch of the eyebrows, observing his ring for a second before returning her gaze to his.

Losing his confidence, the man walked backwards, refusing to turn his back on Nyx, before quickly escaping to the other side.

As the door slammed, Nyx released a deep breath, feeling as if an enormous weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

Not only was the man gone, without trying anything, but he had also left what she needed most — food and water.

After listening to the door being hastily locked, Nyx collapsed on the straw cot as if her strings had been cut.

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As Nyx was still too weak to use her elemental senses, she didn't realise that leaning on the wall of the other side of the door; the man displayed a very similar reaction.

While he couldn't put his finger on the cause, he felt that there was definitely something incredibly wrong with the woman.

When she first arrived, she had been nothing but a sobbing mess. After a few days, she had already fallen into, and it became less and less fun to play with her.

In fact, a few days ago, she had been so unresponsive when he was fucking her, that, in a drunken stupor, he had attempted to elicit some response through violence.

At the time, he had panicked after smashing her head against the table too hard, but luckily one of his supervisors had been visiting and, with a strange stone, had seemingly brought her back from the dead.

The man was overjoyed, yet there was still a slight shadow over his heart, and so, after thanking his superior profusely, he had fucked her none stop until she woke up, seemingly wanting to prove that it wasn't this act that had threatened her life.

However, the end result wasn't the shadow dispersing but growing instead.

With the desire to control and manipulate, he had thought it over and decided the best way to destroy his developing heart demon, was to completely dominate the woman and make her a slave to his whims.

That idea had dwindled with each step into the room, finally evaporating before he quickly completed his duty and left.

Slamming his fist into the wall, the fat creases of his face twisted in anger, the man snorted once before turning back down the dimly lit, stone corridor.

It wasn't like negotiations for her release were going well, and the man knew that he still had time to resolve this issue.

Inside the cell, Nyx had been listening for a while, waiting for the man to leave. As the seconds ticked by, a hint of worry appeared on her features, only to evaporate as she heard him start to shuffle away.

Seeing that he had not continued his deliveries, Nyx decided that she must be in the last cell of a long corridor.

The sound of a door being violently opened, quickly followed by the scream of a woman, echoed through Nyx's door and around the small room.

The sounds progressively got worse, forcing Nyx to plug her ears, trying to distract herself with the thought that maybe she did have elven ancestry considering how good her hearing was.

Honestly, Nyx didn't care what the man did as it wasn't to her yet the sounds triggered memories she wanted to forget and so until she was sure it was over, Nyx could only roll into a ball with her fingers in her ears.

She hadn't always been like this, only out for her self, but after many bitter experiences, Nyx had come to the conclusion that she was only able to protect and look after herself. Trying to help others would only lead to pain and suffering.

A low, depressed chuckle escaped her lips.

That didn't mean Nyx didn't crave human interaction and companionship. However, it just never seemed to work out.

Nyx momentarily considered what she would do concerning relationships now she was a woman, before throwing the thought that brought up the image of the fat man to the back of her mind.

Deciding that she had given it enough time, and not hearing any other noises, Nyx rolled over and pushed herself to her feet before staggering towards the stone table.

To Nyx, all those problems could wait until she had the luxury of doing something about them. For now, she just needed to get stronger.