There, another hung dead again; It seems I’ve majorly underestimated the usefulness of the Menatu Guild. If only Zo’Nuh Dro’Seh had been guild representative, Lixiss contemplated as she looked upon the dozens of dead traitors.
"No, please, I’ll talk. I will. Just ask what you want!" Ymna Dreksa shouted in fear. He was strapped in a gurney, being pulled from a dreadful waiting room into this one. He had been slowly prepared for this moment by the uselessness of his predecessors. Their screams had filled the hall before the operating room, with only a momentary glance allowed whenever the next victim entered. Ymna’s face read of the terror; one’s imagination must be allowed to run for this torture to take full effect. It’s not that the ones before him weren’t willing to talk; after the first dozen, none put up even a smidgeon of resistance. The operating room was large and cavernous, with a high vaulting ceiling and several long metal rods running vertically along it. A pulley system allowed someone to easily attach a person to a hook on the far end of the room and hang him along a line with the rest of the victims. The room was covered with blood, and the hardboiled leather restraints had been replaced several times, evident from the blood-soaked ones scattered near the operating table.
"Please just tell me what you want to know. I don’t need convincing; I’m yours! Whoever you are, I’m yours!" Ymna shouted, nearly turning manic in the uttering.
"Was it just as easy to lay betrayal upon the house that has kept you and protected you and all other dark-elves for all this time? Are you so easily broken?" Lixiss’s voice dripped with a venom potent enough to kill. Ymna was being strapped to the operating table, the doctor taking their time to carefully lay out the implements they chose for this subsequent interrogation.
"You? Lixiss, the false blade!" Ymna said, his fright having turned to courage. He was going to be a more challenging case to crack. Yet his attitude has revealed one crucial thing: he knows something valuable to me. Lixiss thought
"Long shall the Visinet guild reign! Damnation upon you and your line of succession, fraternizer with the lesser races! You who’ve come with no true proof of your deeds, who destroyed our old ways and weakened us all!" Ymna shouted almost religiously. So one who clung to the old ways, like so many others. I liked it no less than any other dark-elf to work with others, but why seek to destroy those who work towards the same ends as you? Why should you destroy those who are different? That would make an unwinnable war. Yet hate I did harbor for Carl, not for his race, but for his foolish, cowardly ways. If we had destroyed the Demonic Duke when we had the chance, I could’ve taken its head to drop on the council table with my band of loyal followers; then, I wouldn’t have a full-blown rebellion on my hands now. Lixiss reflected.
"Do not worry, he will talk in the end. They all do." Zo’Nuh Dro’Seh said coldly. They took out a concoction unbeknownst to Lixiss and dipped a small needle. Already, the expression on Ymna’s face changed; there was only so much religious shouting one could do before remembering the hours of muffled shouts one heard on the other side of the doors.
"This is rock-wurm poison. It is little more than a concoction that has preserved the properties of the creature’s digestive floods, strong enough to dissolve rocks in mere moments." Zo’Nuh explained to no one in particular. Sweat was already starting to form on Ymna’s brow in anticipation.
"Only a smidgeon of it is on the tip of this needle, which I will insert directly under your fingernail." Zo’Nuh declared coldly, but underneath that cold began to lay a deep pleasure.
"What do you want to…" Ymna started, only for his question to be interrupted by his screaming as Zo’Nuh began to insert the needle, making Ymna’s fingernail look like it was melting within seconds.
"You may start your questions if you’d like, Mastress Lixiss," Zo’Nuh said as they carefully prepared nine more needles.
"I already know Visinet are the instigators. I know the Fulekh, Artek, Magmea, and Prodis guilds are involved, but I want to know who in the Visinet guild gave the order?" Lixiss asked in a cordial, knowing tone, realizing that her venom might seem like a relief compared to the concoction chewing through his finger.
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"I’ll never give them up! Do with me what you will, but I’ll never tell! Ymna seemed fiercely defiant. He does know, unlike the rest, Lixiss realized.
"You heard him, Zo’Nuh. You can have fun with him for a while, and I’ll pick out the next one." Lixiss declared a cruel smile on her face.
"Take your time; I want to try a few things," Zo’Nuh said, almost purring.
Lixiss stepped out of the operating room and into the waiting room, dozens shackled to the wall, hundreds down in the dungeons. Each bears the mark of their guild—the mushroom and rake on a grey; Fulekh, agriculture. The Artek guild was easy to pick out, a brush on red, green, and blue artists and artisans. Red flames with a magic symbol within on black: Magmea guild, workers of metal, and magic infusers. Lastly, there were those of Visinet, a hammer and chisel on brown, the builders. After this, I’d have to find a way to get most of these guilds back under my reign. Lixiss contemplated, well aware of the fickle balance this system brought. It had allowed dark-elves to be in their most fortuitous fields instead of those chosen for them by birth like many of the surface dwellers, but this also bought the guilds immense power and influence, some more than others. A minor guild such as Fulekh was crucial for survival.
"One of you may earn your freedom today. Can anyone tell me more about Ymna?" Lixiss asked, careful to sound both intimidating and approachable. It took far too long for any to speak to Lixiss to her liking; she saw fear but, more importantly, defiance. She would have to show them that fear for her should win out from any of their lesser emotions. Lixiss had been experimenting for a while with certain darker magic available to her. She was uncertain what would happen if she used it. But what choice do I have? I need to make them relearn their respect for me! Lixiss thought, letting her anger win. She drew the runes in the air, using two extra eighth legs to draw them out faster. The chosen target of her spell grew increasingly alarmed; as Lixiss added arcane incantations to the runes, the runes became corporeal, floating in midair, glowing and crackling with energy—a horrid cracking of bone as the spell started taking effect. The dark-elves seated nearby pulled with all their might upon their shackles, trying to escape; panic overtook the room. The target of Lixiss’s spell screamed in horrible pain as he was transforming into something so grotesque several of the chained dark-elves regurgitated what little they had gotten as food upon themselves; others shook wildly with fear, and some others were staring off into nothing, trying to escape what was right in front of them. As the spell completed, Lixiss looked again around the room, each broken in their way. Some might find their defiance again, given time, but Lixiss would have her answer now.
Lixiss reentered the operating room with a man dragged in by her. Ymna lay on the operating table, all of his fingers in various states of being chewed through, one where the needle had fallen out of was broken horribly at an almost 90-degree angle. Multiple bits of skin were missing from his knee as Zo’Nuh inserted tiny needles into the exposed muscle.
"I’ve brought incentive, but perhaps it is unnecessary now?" Lixiss looked towards Zo’Nuh, somewhat perturbed by the lack of screaming.
"A potent paralyzing agent, it enhances the pain that is felt but renders the subject incapable of any action save for the necessities for sustained life. It should wear off any second now; I couldn’t risk him struggling too much as I removed the skin." Zo’Nuh said, entranced by their work.
"Ymna, I have Ykwi Dreksa, your husband," Lixiss said, holding Ykwi tightly as she waited for Ymna to move his head. Ymna looked, pained as he was. He seemed close to biting through his lip as he held back the pain, trying to form a response that would be anything other than howling in pain, but it seemed he wasn’t strong enough. As with a chunk of the lip, the screams came like floods when the dam broke.
"Something for the pain, doctor Dro’Seh," Lixiss said with as much courtesy as one would’ve expected in a house of healing instead of one given here in a house of pain.
Zo’Nuh injected a liquid into the exposed muscle of Ymna.
Ymna, a mess of tears, sweat, and piss, looked upon Ykwi Dreksa, his husband.
"His name was Arathorn Sylgolor."
End Of Chapter 9 - Lixiss 3