[To the question, Suletta says nothing. She merely lies there, exhausted and wan, her eyes still closed. Out of the severe and unflattering clothing she wore, with her hair down and tangled, the strands coated in drying sea salt, she seems older somehow. This effect is not helped when her eyes open again and she stares at the woman in front of her. She looks exhausted in ways that seem beyond her near-drowning and their fight.]
That's not true. [She'd heard this before from other people, so many of them. And all of them, like this creature, had hurt her in the end. Only her mother loved her. Only her mother cared. She was the only one who understood.]
It's not comfort. You'll only hurt yourself more if you try. There are worse things than what you feel right now.
[A pause. She considers something.
The cage was some of her mother's more inventive spellwork, though like all things, Suletta had needed to find her way around it at one point or another. If asked, she'll say that the pain drove her lady to madness, and while death could be cheated, insanity could not. She would say this to explain what she does, say that she was afraid that it would break her.
She'll say, I wanted to be kind, and her mother would look over at her for a long long time. Then she would nod, unsmiling, and their work together and separately would continue as it always did.
In the present, Suletta limply extends an arm, beckons for Zero with waving fingers.] If you could please come a little closer? I won't hurt you.
[ She sneers, clearly dissatisfied with that answer. How many times would she be confronted with this same scenario: trapped by someone who endowed her with humiliating misery, refusing to let her die with any dignity?.
She snaps, angry and quick, like a thread pulled too taught. ]
You don't need to tell me what I already know! Your mother isn't the first freak who got something out of torturing and humiliating me- hell, she probably won't be the last.
[ Suletta's hand is so far away but Zero pulls back regardless, shying away from it as if it were a strike. Despite her posturing she is just as much of a jittery, easily spooked animal as Suletta; her suspicion is apparent.
She considers it for a moment and decides to relent: if it's a trap they are equal in strength, if it isn't it may be an opportunity later- she would need to assess whatever help Suletta claimed to offer.
Zero seats herself in front of her, as far away as she can possibly be while still within range of Suletta's hands. ]
Whatever you're about to do.. just remember there's a tub in the bathroom over there and I'm willing and able to make good use of what you've already told me.
[The acknowledgement of everything Zero has told her, the threat included, is given without so much as a twitch of her mouth. It isn't flippancy — quite the opposite. She understands the situation they are in will guarantee mutually assured destruction if one or the other has a misstep. In a way, this is a relief: how many people had been convinced of her kindness before? Her gentleness. How many of them had pitied her and vowed to save her even as she begged them to stay away, to run, to leave her to the fate she'd chosen?
This is easier. She is a loathsome creature, and so is the woman in front of her. At last she has an equal.
When Zero seats herself in front of her, Suletta finally sits up. Her posture straightens as she folds her legs in front of her. She closes her eyes.
Her mother will immediately know she's tampered with the cage. What she will do falls under a list of possibilities that are unpleasant but manageable. She'll be able to explain it. The bruises on her neck would do the job that her voice couldn't.
She breathes in and out slowly. She speaks with her eyes still closed.]
Try to relax your body. Think of... a tree branch swaying in the wind. Breathe in when it sways left, out when it sways right. You have to be calm or I won't be able to do what I need to do without hurting you.
[She waits until she feels her advice has been taken. Slowly, the gem encased at the center of Zero's chest begins to glow — not red, but blue. Suletta's body tenses infinitesimally. She sees it in a place in her mind — the ugly red spiderwebs connecting themselves to Zero's nerves, to the muscle and bone beneath the cage. Gradually, the pressure crushing her ribs and spine begin to abate. Not enough to free her, no. But enough to be a reprieve from the constant agony. To the last bit of degrading sexual cruelty, she removes entirely. It takes the longest, and so it's the last thing she does.
Fix release.
Her forehead is covered in a fine sheen of cold sweat by the time she's done. She sways unsteadily. She had used more magic today than she had in a long time, say nothing of undoing her mother's work without killing the girl in front of her outright, and like any underused muscle, it brings with it pain and exhaustion.
The gem returns to its blood red shade as the last of her own magic leaves it.]
[ It gets worse before it gets better. The shackles, briefly imbued with a new more forceful life constrict around her like a hungry snake and steal the breath from her lungs, threatening to crush her bones into the same sort of ivory splinters that had created the cage itself.
And then, suddenly its gone.
Zero gasps for breath, her desperate need for oxygen at odds with the burning pain in her lungs. In the process of it all she's fallen against the floor. The cool marble on her face is some sort of relief all of this feels like a terrible fever being broken. The pain is still present but it's more an annoying, persistent electrical zap rather than scorching suffocation.
Belatedly, she notices the most humiliating part of it is gone.
Zero lifts her body first though her head feels too heavy to pick up and stays against the floor. She has to twist her head to look at Suletta, it looks almost like her neck is broken when she's like this. ]
You got rid of it.
[ She is of course, referring to the worst part. ]
[ Suletta’s closed her eyes again, her throat still aching and now exhaustion taking over to fill in what spaces the pain did not. She is close to drifting off when her work is complete when Zero speaks up. Her eyes crack open slowly: a moment’s flash of dulled-over turquoise in the gloomy dark.
Her gaze tilts sideways when she is done with her perfunctory observation of Zero, seemingly disinterested.]
That part is gone. It won’t come back.
[She has not stammered in some time. Not since she’d begun the work.] The rest will be a few days… a week or so. It takes a while for the spell to bind to you again.
[ For some time they both sit there, breathing in time, struggling to funnel air into their bodies. Zero stands first, pushing herself up with both hands before standing up, feet wobbling.
Without warning she reaches for Suletta and picks her up with an ease that someone of her stature should not be capable of. She throws her over her shoulder with a grunt, walking just a few steps forward so she can fling her onto the bed- it is plush enough that there is no impact, just a bit of bounce.
Silent still Zero leaves Suletta so she can rifle through her dresser, flipping through lace and chiffon until she finds something suitably simple enough to be comfortable. She returns with a simple night gown: soft cotton, enough to keep her warm. ]
[It had been her expectation that she'd be left alone until, exhausted from the burden she'd amassed with her overuse of magic, she'd be allowed to float restlessly into unconsciousness until her mother inevitably arrived. She can feel her magic even at this distance, can almost see — provided she focuses hard enough — the tumultuous smoky red of it flaring in angry and jagged arcs around her as she speaks with another silhouette, one that doesn't shine nearly as brightly. She was livid even from floors away. It was like heat coming off a furnace.
Suletta is distracted by her growing unease when her Lady lifts her with no problem at all. She tenses, as terrified as a hunted rabbit and still soaked to the bone with salt water. When Zero tosses her unceremoniously on the bed, she's surprised it doesn't hurt. She forces herself up to take the night gown with hands that twitch and shake like an old woman's.]
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no subject
That's not true. [She'd heard this before from other people, so many of them. And all of them, like this creature, had hurt her in the end. Only her mother loved her. Only her mother cared. She was the only one who understood.]
It's not comfort. You'll only hurt yourself more if you try. There are worse things than what you feel right now.
[A pause. She considers something.
The cage was some of her mother's more inventive spellwork, though like all things, Suletta had needed to find her way around it at one point or another. If asked, she'll say that the pain drove her lady to madness, and while death could be cheated, insanity could not. She would say this to explain what she does, say that she was afraid that it would break her.
She'll say, I wanted to be kind, and her mother would look over at her for a long long time. Then she would nod, unsmiling, and their work together and separately would continue as it always did.
In the present, Suletta limply extends an arm, beckons for Zero with waving fingers.] If you could please come a little closer? I won't hurt you.
no subject
She snaps, angry and quick, like a thread pulled too taught. ]
You don't need to tell me what I already know! Your mother isn't the first freak who got something out of torturing and humiliating me- hell, she probably won't be the last.
[ Suletta's hand is so far away but Zero pulls back regardless, shying away from it as if it were a strike. Despite her posturing she is just as much of a jittery, easily spooked animal as Suletta; her suspicion is apparent.
She considers it for a moment and decides to relent: if it's a trap they are equal in strength, if it isn't it may be an opportunity later- she would need to assess whatever help Suletta claimed to offer.
Zero seats herself in front of her, as far away as she can possibly be while still within range of Suletta's hands. ]
Whatever you're about to do.. just remember there's a tub in the bathroom over there and I'm willing and able to make good use of what you've already told me.
no subject
[The acknowledgement of everything Zero has told her, the threat included, is given without so much as a twitch of her mouth. It isn't flippancy — quite the opposite. She understands the situation they are in will guarantee mutually assured destruction if one or the other has a misstep. In a way, this is a relief: how many people had been convinced of her kindness before? Her gentleness. How many of them had pitied her and vowed to save her even as she begged them to stay away, to run, to leave her to the fate she'd chosen?
This is easier. She is a loathsome creature, and so is the woman in front of her. At last she has an equal.
When Zero seats herself in front of her, Suletta finally sits up. Her posture straightens as she folds her legs in front of her. She closes her eyes.
Her mother will immediately know she's tampered with the cage. What she will do falls under a list of possibilities that are unpleasant but manageable. She'll be able to explain it. The bruises on her neck would do the job that her voice couldn't.
She breathes in and out slowly. She speaks with her eyes still closed.]
Try to relax your body. Think of... a tree branch swaying in the wind. Breathe in when it sways left, out when it sways right. You have to be calm or I won't be able to do what I need to do without hurting you.
[She waits until she feels her advice has been taken. Slowly, the gem encased at the center of Zero's chest begins to glow — not red, but blue. Suletta's body tenses infinitesimally. She sees it in a place in her mind — the ugly red spiderwebs connecting themselves to Zero's nerves, to the muscle and bone beneath the cage. Gradually, the pressure crushing her ribs and spine begin to abate. Not enough to free her, no. But enough to be a reprieve from the constant agony. To the last bit of degrading sexual cruelty, she removes entirely. It takes the longest, and so it's the last thing she does.
Fix release.
Her forehead is covered in a fine sheen of cold sweat by the time she's done. She sways unsteadily. She had used more magic today than she had in a long time, say nothing of undoing her mother's work without killing the girl in front of her outright, and like any underused muscle, it brings with it pain and exhaustion.
The gem returns to its blood red shade as the last of her own magic leaves it.]
no subject
And then, suddenly its gone.
Zero gasps for breath, her desperate need for oxygen at odds with the burning pain in her lungs. In the process of it all she's fallen against the floor. The cool marble on her face is some sort of relief all of this feels like a terrible fever being broken. The pain is still present but it's more an annoying, persistent electrical zap rather than scorching suffocation.
Belatedly, she notices the most humiliating part of it is gone.
Zero lifts her body first though her head feels too heavy to pick up and stays against the floor. She has to twist her head to look at Suletta, it looks almost like her neck is broken when she's like this. ]
You got rid of it.
[ She is of course, referring to the worst part. ]
How long? How long will it last?
no subject
Her gaze tilts sideways when she is done with her perfunctory observation of Zero, seemingly disinterested.]
That part is gone. It won’t come back.
[She has not stammered in some time. Not since she’d begun the work.] The rest will be a few days… a week or so. It takes a while for the spell to bind to you again.
[Her eyes close again.]
no subject
Without warning she reaches for Suletta and picks her up with an ease that someone of her stature should not be capable of. She throws her over her shoulder with a grunt, walking just a few steps forward so she can fling her onto the bed- it is plush enough that there is no impact, just a bit of bounce.
Silent still Zero leaves Suletta so she can rifle through her dresser, flipping through lace and chiffon until she finds something suitably simple enough to be comfortable. She returns with a simple night gown: soft cotton, enough to keep her warm. ]
You smell like a fisherman.
[ Is all she has to offer. ]
no subject
Suletta is distracted by her growing unease when her Lady lifts her with no problem at all. She tenses, as terrified as a hunted rabbit and still soaked to the bone with salt water. When Zero tosses her unceremoniously on the bed, she's surprised it doesn't hurt. She forces herself up to take the night gown with hands that twitch and shake like an old woman's.]
Ah... thank you.