“Hey!” The sound of a male voice as he slammed his palm against the cell door woke Gilliam up with a jolt. The startled motion also moved around his leg and hand, bringing its own experience along with it.

Barely tilting his head towards the voice he saw Ibela, smiling back into the cell.

“So, how are you doing? Well, I hope. Thank you for the information you shared so willingly.” He had a sadistic smile on his face, though it came nowhere near the same level that Gilliam’s torturer had.

“You know, if I make it out of this, I will kill you.” A moment of insanity flashed in his mind, wanting to torture Ibela as well as the sadistic man.

Though as weird as it sounded, Ibela was not directly involved in the torture, so he was absolutely going to die, but there was no need to torture him to death. Gilliam felt no pleasure in killing anyone so when the time came there was no need to torture the other man either. Killing them would be plenty, after death no pain was remembered anyway so this wasn’t exactly punishing if the result was going to be death.

Ibela’s answer was a mocking laugh. “You, with all your wounds, broken body and no magic. What can you do?”

“Right now. Nothing. But when help co-” Gilliam’s retort was interrupted by Ibela laughing.

“When help comes?! Your little bird might make its way back to the city, but we’re far away from the cities, hidden. There is no way they can find their way back. You’re fucked, just accept it.” The level of certainty was strong, Ibela knew this as fact.

Gilliam smirked a bit. Hidden locations didn’t mean shit for Savia, her teleportation would bring them back exactly where she wanted to, especially now that she had been here and seen the place. Though depending on who she brings it might be very different.

“She’s good at remembering places, I think I’m fine on that point.” Gilliam replied, not lying but playing into that they didn’t know she was a teleporter as that would most likely change the dynamic considerably.

He also felt that it was taking a long time now, though he didn’t know how long it had been since he was drifting in and out of consciousness.

“Since you seem in such high spirits, why don’t we go for a round two with our friend, hmm?” Ibela didn't specify who he meant, but given the situation, it wasn’t hard to guess who he was referring to.

“We have a few new questions for you, and he had such a success last time.” The sadistic tone was back.

Gilliam tried to stay strong but he felt himself breaking at the thought of going through that again. Holding himself back the best he could, he decided to not respond. Both out of wanting to try to keep his mask so Ibela didn’t get the satisfaction, but also out of fear that if he said something wrong, whatever the torturer would do to him could be worse.

“Come on, why are you doing this?!” Rhyan tried to break in. “He’s already hurt, leave him alone, he’ll die if you continue like t-” Rhyan’s attempt to stall was interrupted by Ibela.

“If you continue like this, I’ll have you go through the same as him. We might have questions for you as well, so stay calm and wait your turn.” He looked at Rhyan with distaste in his eyes, having his fun interrupted didn’t seem like something he was fond of.

Rhyan stopped talking. Gilliam couldn’t blame him, just seeing what they had done to him for some questions made a clear threat.

It didn’t take long before the sadistic asshole came back in, this caused Gilliam’s attempt at a stoic face to break, just remembering last time was enough to have him almost go there and this just became too much.

He haded his lack of strength, his lack of non-magical skill. He could feel that his boundary was full of energy and ready to go, but the pipe was plugged, the wall in the way. He was a thirsting man in a desert looking at freshwater through his metaphorical blocking bars, keeping it just out of reach.

The man walked up to Gilliam’s cell and looked down on him with a psychotic smile. Ibelin stepped aside allowing him to get closer to the door properly. “Oh, don’t cry, we’re going to have such a good time.” His smile didn’t waver.

“Or, if you prefer, I can take one of your friends instead.” He turned around almost like a predator looking at his options.

“No.” Gilliam blurted out before he managed to properly process what was going on. He didn’t want more pain, he didn’t want this at all, he wanted anyway to get out of it, anything. But some part of his subconscious didn’t want this for them even more.

At this exact moment, he hated himself, if he could share the pain it could be a little better, right? If one of them took just a little of it then he didn’t have to go back in there with him... No... That was worse in a weird way. The pain was unbearable but the thought of them going through it for his sake felt worse. He hadn’t known them for that long, a few days? A week? He had lost track of time in here, he didn’t know if it was one day or three, they were fed at random times. And though they could see light outside through the air slit, it didn’t seem that the light ever went dark so it might not lead directly outside or they had some artificial light. In short, this didn’t let them estimate time in any proper way.

But, though their time together had been relatively short, he didn’t want them to go through this, he also didn’t want to go through this himself but... They didn’t deserve this. He freed Cera who chose to go with him, and Rhyan was with him due to work reasons. Though all of them, Gilliam included, didn’t deserve this level of pain, the others deserved it less in Gilliam’s mind.

“Oh, good, let’s get started then.” The man commented as he took out a key from under his robe and unlocked Gilliam’s cell door.

As he stepped inside towards Gilliam, Rhyan did his best in trying to get hold of him through the bars but there was too much distance. Gilliam couldn’t do shit in his weakened state and just tried to hide further away.

Since there wasn’t anywhere to go, the man just at the foot of Gilliam’s shattered shin and started pulling him along. The pain was indescribable, he couldn’t do anything but scream out in agony, all remaining strength faded from his entire body letting the man easily overpower Gilliam and drag him out of the cell. Gilliam did his best to try and get hold of his leg, to somehow lessen the pain, or to grab the man and do something, but nothing helped, he didn’t have the strength to do anything and the jolts of pain through his body made him more or less limp.

The sadistic smile was already burned into Gilliam’s soul, but that didn’t mean it was horrifying to see if every time he looked in the man's direction, dragging him along the cold stone floor through door after door. And suddenly, as if both no time and hours had passed, he found himself in the room that had given him so much pain before. A leather padded metal collar had been placed around his neck, and through some pulley and crank system, the man reeled the chain into the table, locking his head and upper body back to the table. Gilliam’s lacking strength and energy versus the man’s healthy body had Gilliam lose the wrestle for control spectacularly and both his arms, legs and waist were back at being strapped to the table.

“Now... We have some questions.” The man smiled at Gilliam as he walked casually to his table of tools, surveying it almost like he was weighing his options before continuing.

“Please, no. I’ll answer... anything... Just don’t..” Gilliam had stopped trying to hold back his tears, his voice cracked as he spoke. He didn’t care anymore, the man knew he had won, so trying to hold back was just a waste of effort.

“Oh, I expect you will, but.” The man faked a sigh. “This is my job, after all.” The faked sigh aside, the rest of his statement also had a faked tone of only doing this because he had to. His expression told a different story entirely.

“Now, when you were captured you had two things with you we wonder about. A ring and your coat. We found out that the ring was spell-storing, and the coat was something similar, but where did you get them?”

This caused Gilliam to stop for a brief moment. The ring was spell-storing? But it was item storing, could it do more things?

His train of thought was explosively derailed as his toe was cracked to shit by the man turning around and swiftly swatting at it with a long wooden stick. This was the same toe he had previously pulled the nail off with pliers, though it didn’t make the situation better or worse, a part of the back of Gilliam’s head somewhat knew he was doing this to preserve as much as possible for future pain.

Gilliam started answering, there was no way he could hold back during this. “I... Please, stop... I got the ring from a Fracturian in the Fractured Lands. And the coat from Alleyan in Mazewares.” He breathed heavily through his tears and gasps of air through the waves of pain.

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The man leaned in and supported himself on Gilliam’s shattered shin, causing Gilliam to again fail to hold his voice, the moving bones within the fracture and re-tearing of muscle which had tried to at least begin healing. The sounds from the pressure were horrifying, but through the pain, Gilliam barely noticed any of it.

“Interesting.” He stated casually as he pondered something. “Now, let’s learn a bit more about you.”

The torture continued, and Gilliam was punished for not answering properly, when the man liked the answers he held back, giving Gilliam a reward of ‘not more pain’ for a moment. This brief moment of pause became almost like a drug to him, it was impossible to lie, or rather he could lie but when he even considered it, the man seemed to know and something new was broken.

When he was about to pass out, a potion was poured on him which healed him and took the pain down just enough that he didn’t bleed out, pass out or straight up die. He was in this for the long run.

Now and then the man gave Gilliam a longer break where nothing happened, just letting him breathe and relax. Gilliam didn’t know if this was to make sure he stayed awake through more or just his way of raising Gilliam’s anguish of the time to come.

Another problem was that some of his claims were too outrageous for the man to accept, the fact that Gilliam handled the counter-invasion of the demons with just a team of three. The man clearly believed this to be a lie and forced Gilliam to ‘tell the truth’. In the end, Gilliam got through with a lie, ironically enough. He had to lie about the grander things, he was no hero, he didn’t beat the fracturians, and he wasn’t a super-powerful mage. The lie the man believed was that Gilliam used his powerful magical items to take out the first underground location, the spell-storing ring had powerful spells within it that let him do it with ease. There was no way the man believed Gilliam to be a Heptagon mage, but he accepted the lie of him being a failed student with just a few elements.

In the end, Gilliam stopped telling the exact truth and just answered what the man wanted to hear. No matter what it was. As long as the pain stopped it didn’t matter.

When it came to who he hoped would come to his rescue if the little bird managed to find someone. He explained that he expected the guild master in Fairviig, or perhaps some of the teachers or fighters in the Helvan Shores Academy in V’ida. He didn’t have many friends he expected her to somehow get hold of, but he just hoped for anyone. The best was if she could persuade the guildmaster in Fairviig who could come with a larger group of officials or adventurers.

The man seemed to accept this, and like last time the whole event ended with a blow to his head, knocking him out.

Gilliam slowly awoke in his cell like last time. The damage this round was substantial but he wasn’t bleeding, though he had open wounds with exposed nerves, it was healed with potions just enough that he wouldn’t bleed out. Though the wounds were still open enough to get infected.

More of his ties, his already damaged leg and foot, his hands, his body and arms. The man had done considerable damage to all of these. But he had left most of his face and head undamaged, most likely to make sure that his mind was clear and his mouth worked for answering and consuming sustenance. The man knew his craft well, sadly.

“Good gods... Gilliam...” Rhyan commented, seeming to have more to say but not sure where to begin.

Gilliam had stopped caring, his tears flowed and he wanted to just bang his head against the stone floor hard enough that he’d die from a head injury, but he didn’t have the strength to do that even if he wanted to. Parts of him wondered if he could persuade Rhyan to just break his neck, that would solve it in an instant, but right now he didn’t have the energy to move his body at all.

Ironically enough, his mind was awake and he didn’t feel tired, probably something his torturer put in him, he poured several potions both on his body and in his mouth. So it was anyone’s guess what he was currently on.

“R-Rhyan..” Gilliam halfway whispered. He could see that Rhyan noticed and was looking at him with painful and slightly panicky eyes.

Gilliam tried to scuttle closer to his cell but wasn’t able to do so. “If... if you can... Get hold of me... Can you please ... kill me?” It was hard to talk, the pain and his lack of energy didn’t make anything possible.

“I... Gilliam... I...” He tried to answer, and Gilliam could see it in his eyes. Rhyan wanted to help, he had zero doubt of that. But he wasn’t able to agree to it, but at the same time, it didn’t seem like he wanted to just straight out say no. In hindsight, Gilliam also considered that if he died, Rhyan would most likely be punished by taking his place... Which didn’t seem too bad of an idea right about now. He hated that he was thinking like this but he didn’t want to go back in there, for any reason.

Gilliam cursed internally. On one hand, he couldn’t blame Rhyan at all, really, killing should be hard, so it was a good thing that he didn’t just say yes. But in this context, it wasn’t a trait Gilliam was too fond of that his ally had.

As he was trying to think of something else, anything, his mind wandered back to Petal. How things changed from the moment they met with her chained up as a prisoner of war. The willing enslavement of her to Gilliam. The eyes were on them as he had a demon, an enemy in tow as they wandered around the academy. His first time in the Fractured Lands being chained up. But mostly he considered how Petal started as an enemy but became nothing short of his demon girlfriend. He missed her more than ever, he regretted staying in Lisica rather than the Fractured lands, just because he wanted something fun to do because he was bored. He had it well there, not counting the subservience of everyone in that whole world, but once they got used to him and his way of doing things the place became more friendly. Learning about their culture and norms, adapting to them and them adapting to him... He missed them all right now, and that wasn’t to mention the harem of various demons that Petal, his girlfriend, had set up for him... It was surprisingly nice and weird at the same time.

“Foodtime!” A male voice barked even before the door was open. The same man who had fed them before came in with a pot, ladle and a few bowls. He looked over them and didn’t seem to care even in the slightest that Gilliam looked like he had been run over by a train.

He placed the pot in the middle between them, ladled up food into a small bowl and forced them to step away from the cell before he placed the bowl within range of their reach. Once he had stepped away they were allowed to get their bowls and eat. There was no cutlery, so the simple stew of just random shit thrown in a pot was to be eaten or drunk from the bowl. Once they were done he demanded the bowls back, inspected them for damages and if anything was amiss he threatened with no food for several days.

Since Gilliam couldn’t eat, he just took the bowl back and left. Rhyan asked to feed Gilliam, he could even be chained up with armed people around him, but it fell on deaf ears as the door closed without any food for Gilliam.

Cera muttered to herself, the only word Gilliam could make out was her referring to him. “Master...” a silent word halfway for herself, she said something else as well but the ringing in his ears from the blows to the head made it so low sounds like that were impossible to make out.

The best moment of his day was when he finally managed to pass out.

Waking up to the sound of louder than normal speaking in the room, he saw Ibela again being an ass and ‘accidentally’ waking up Gilliam with his volume. “Good morning, sleepyhead.”

“Why are you... doing this..?” Gilliam asked.

“Because I think you deserve it, also it keeps my clients happy, it’s a win/win, don’t you think?” He looked surprisingly satisfied with his answer.

Gilliam wanted to come up with a retort but struggled with manifesting words. He wanted to call him something but his mind refused for several reasons. However, he did notice a familiar ring on Ibela’s hand. Trying to comment out that it was his ring also failed to come out at all.

“Let us out, you’ve had your fun.” Rhyan broke in as he shook his door, seemingly trying to break it loose or gain some attention, his eyes looked almost a bit desperate even all things considered.

“Well, it doesn’t matter, you’ll be dead or part of their experiments so-” Ibela kept gloating but suddenly stopped himself as he turned towards the door.

Gilliam couldn’t hear anything, but then again his ears had been ringing since Mr. Sadist knocked him out with a blow to his head, twice. His body was healing but without magical or medical aid, his leg would probably never return to its proper use. The level of damage to it was immense. However, he did take an interest in Ibela’s expression, it had changed from gloating to uncertainty, and he was focusing on the door.