A bright light woke her up. Joan didn’t want to open her eyes; the room was hot and dry causing her body to become sore and sticky. Joan had been placed in this cell for a week and four days now.

She called it a cell but was more like an isolation room two by two meters with only one door, no windows, and the only source of light was a hole on the roof the size of her fist. She was not left there to rot; it was all part of an initiation ritual according to Jacob.

After the events of that night, she had been transported to a desert somewhere. During the journey she had been locked up on a metal structure so she could not see the road or signal anyone. It had been traumatic, several days without light and throughout the journey she had been slammed continuously with each bump of the road. She had also been sick several times over while she was transported via boat, no one really cared to open the box or clean. The only voice she head was Jacob singing from time to time and some updates when he gave her food though a latch on the top of the box.

When she arrived at her destination and was let out of the box Jacob explained her situation as briefly and directly as possible without letting her say a word, not that she had any energy to do so.

“Ok so here is how this is going to go, first you have to pass a ritual of sorts, it is not complicated you just have to survive four weeks. After that we gonna talk about your future. Don’t try to escape, it is useless, all that drama with the inquisitor and the killings is so you may never return to your old life as you are now a wanted criminal who would be executed if caught. Even if you decide it is worth the risk the guards have been trained to incapacitate you in the most painful way possible with the least amount of damage and if you manage to escape there is nothing but desert in a three-hundred-kilometre radius. Good luck and have fun.”

With that description she thought it would be worse. It was horrible, there was no doubt about it, all the walls were made of steel meaning they would be too hot to touch during the day and as cold as ice in the night. However, the room had a toilet and she was given two meals a day. The food was limited but she could ask for as much water as she wanted so dehydration was not a problem.

After the third day she understood the plan. This was no test just a way to weaken her for something. The heat during the day made her lose a lot of fluids and maintained her mind in a state of exhaustion. The cold at night made her tremble until all her muscles arched. The unlimited amount of water and the limited calorie consumption, this all summed up to only one thing.

This was a brutal but effective way to make her lose weight as fast as possible with the added bonus that she will be too weak by the end of the four-week period to oppose any deals or proposal given to her. By now she was already exhausted and felt there was no real reason to fight or even move.

Knocking on the door made her rise her head from her improvised pillow. It was weird, no one ever knocked, the guards threw the food inside with no plates nor any possible weapons but she wouldn’t waste energy asking so she placed her head on her pillow once more.

Three more knocks came.

“Hola, are you still alive chica?” The voice seemed deep but feminine. It was a combination of her tongue Brimish and what she believed was Zybish.

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“I am, just too tired to give a dam about any of you guys” She responded hoping this will be last of it so she could try to sleep some more before breakfast, her voice was weak and coarse.

“Perfecto, I got a present for you from the boss, normally we give em at the end of the training but he seems to have something for you chica” He added before the door opened.

At the other side one of the guards awaited with a plate too high to see its contents and an enormous man not in his height but on his built, probably of southern continent heritage because of his contexture and bronze skin.

This man was unusual in every sense of the word, at about one point seven meters he was not tall by male standards but his body was huge, his arms where thicker than her legs and all his muscles comparable to the biggest fighters she had ever seen. This was amplified by the extremely tight white outfit that contrasted with his dark skin and a white crown like ornament on his forehead partially covered by his shoulder long curly black hair.

Joan was too exhausted to move freely and the man seemed to notice it as he winked at her and came close. This is something no guard had done, most of them didn’t want any contact direct or indirect with her.

“My name is Cadem; I am one of Jacob’s fractions so no worries” He said as he sat cross legged at her side. “By the look on your face you got no idea what I’m talking about cierto? Well basically he works for the boss and I work for him, anyway I brought your bracelets, you will need to use from today to the day the boss decides you a trustworthy. Keep in mind that day may never come like with that bastardo of Bartolomeo”

He extended his arm showing the bracelets, made of some white ceramic material and decorated with a steel ball on one side. They were not like any jewellery she had ever seen but she never really had any interest on those things of left the country so it could be something local. Joan extended her right arm knowing that if she opposed, he would force them anyway. He smiled and placed the first one locking it in place, before he placed the second one, he added,

“They are basically explosives” He locked the second one before she could take her arm away. “We all had them placed at first, they will only activate if you go against the boss, and will not kill you only a small dismemberment”.

She tried to reply but her voice was not able to leave her body, she was well hydrated she maintained that in check so what kept her from talking was sheer lack of energy due to malnutrition and exposure to the environment.

“You must have a lot of questions, sin embargo, I am not authorised to answer any of them, you will have to wait until this trial is over and you are relocated to the camp” Before standing he gave Joan a wink, as if those words meant something, stopping at the door he turned to send her a kiss and finished with “Good luck, chica”.

This was the one and only conversation she had during her imprisonment in this location. As the days passed, she felt more and more exhausted. She slept as much as she could during the day to avoid wasting energy and at night, she tried maintain constant movement to keep her temperature steady. By the end of the third week, she was not able to stand, she had lost a lot of weight, she could not measure the amount but by the size of lose skin she estimated a twenty-five to thirty-kilogram loss in fat and muscle.

But what scared her the most was the mental issues; the heat and the cold made her go a little mad. She started to talk to herself, at first it was something like a hallucination of people she knew but by the end she didn’t even know who or what she was speaking too. The only thing she knew was it she felt at ease when she spoke to him or it. And the guards normally seem to have gone o a walk, their armour clanking loudly, when the conversation started.

Joan had lost the sense of time; her mind entered a state of unconsciousness at random intervals so keeping track of time during the final days was difficult.

She thought of taking her own life but knew it was futile, she had no energy to do it and had no power of will to stop eating to die in a hunger strike.

Finally, the day came, the door opened without warning and the guards lifted her up. Her mind was collapsing to the point that she only remembered sections of the journey into the depths of the fortress.