Square One (Elise)

oh darling, just let me hear you scream

[attr="class","monalisa"]It was always disappointing when she had a slave returned. Ordinarily, she wouldn't have accepted a return like this one, but this particular customer had been a good one in the past. She wanted to keep his business. That was why she'd decided to take this one back, in the hopes that the pathetic zero Magi hadn't ruined her future dealings. The whole situation left her feeling cross, considering that this one had shown no signs of defiance until he had left her tutelage. Clearly, she needed to be more thorough with this one. She waited patiently in one of the training rooms, inspecting the edge of one of her skinning knives.

When he was finally dumped at her feet, she pulled the bag off of his head, looking at him with cold eyes. She knelt down to where he lay on the ground, glancing up for a moment at her guards, who gave her a single hard nod. So he'd fought back on the way here, then. He looked much the same as the last time that she'd seen him. Still scared and weak. But this one had tried to run, just as soon as he'd gotten the first opportunity. She would have to break his spirit, then. Because of how small he was, she couldn't just beat him unconscious. She could very well kill him with that tactic. No, she would have to be more... circumspect about things.

"I am ever so disappointed in you, my dear," she said, shaking her head. "You've cost me a transaction, and therefore money. Almost a customer. We'll just have to keep you here until you figure out where you stand in the world. Or... lay, rather."

Her gloved fingers stroked his chin as she spoke, and she stood up again, her hand resting on the whip. She nodded to the guards again, and they pulled him up by his armpits, dragging him along behind where Elise was walking. She stopped in the middle of the arena, which was empty for the moment. In the evenings, slaves were forced to fight in this arena, for nothing more than the amusement of the guards. For now, it would serve a more direct purpose. The wooden stage was lined with a half dozen hatches down the center of it, and Elise opened one, to reveal a space no larger than three feet by three feet, and only two feet high. The stone beneath had no padding of any kind, but it was stained with old blood.

"This is the cell where you will be staying until I decide what to do with you," she told him. "I'd recommend you don't try to move too much. The rats won't like it."

As she stepped away from the opening, the guards pushed Luca into the small crawl space. There wasn't enough room even to sit up, and certainly not enough to stretch out. When the hatch closed on top, it was locked into place, blocking out the sunlight. There were footsteps overhead, and then nothing at all.

oh darling, just let me hear you scream

[attr="class","monalisa"]A few days passed. The hatch only opened twice in that time, both times to drop a water bottle down for the trapped Magi. Elise knew what she was doing, and she knew the effect that the dark, cramped space could have on people. To make matters worse, the fights happened every evening, until well after midnight. With only a few inches of wood between Luca and the arena, people would walk over his hiding space, or worse, grapple over it. Blood dripped through the thin cracks of wood, from when the fights got deadly. The guards cheered whenever it happened. And no matter how much noise or commotion Luca made, no one would pay him the least mind. A cruel tactic, perhaps, but she'd broken more than a couple of slaves that way. It didn't even leave a mark.

By evening on the fourth day, she figured that he was ready to be taken out. He had to be hungry by now, but all she'd given him was the two bottles of water. It was enough to keep him alive, if only barely. That place of weakness was where Elise liked to operate, especially when the Magi wasn't a physical powerhouse to begin with. She stood over the hatch as the men unlocked it, and she almost smiled at the stench that arose from the tiny hatch. It was always the same. It wasn't as if there were any bathrooms down there. She'd get another misbehaving slave to clean up the mess, once she was done here.

Her men dragged Luca up out of the hole, and she looked at the pitiful slave with a practiced eye. He'd still had some fight left when he'd gone into the hatch, but what about now? Would she have to resort to some more physical forms of punishment? She lifted the slave's chin with her gloved fingers, feeling the pulse of his neck as she did so. It wouldn't do for him to die on her, after all. It would be such a wasted investment.

"Let's see what you remember of your etiquette," she said quietly, lifting his chin a couple more degrees to look at his eyes. "What is my name, dear one?"

For all the gentleness of her hand, he knew as well as any other that those same hands were capable of the basest violence and sadism. It was a lesson that most slaves learned very quickly.

oh darling, just let me hear you scream

[attr="class","monalisa"]At the word, a smile spread on Elise's lips. "That's a good slave," she said, as if praising a child.

She dropped his chin and looked to her guards, nodding at them. He hadn't earned the right to shower yet, and it would be a waste anyway, with what she had planned. No, he would have his turn at tending the generators now. After the last few days of treatment, the ordinarily repetitive and slightly strenuous job would feel borderline torturous. But what could he expect, after what he had done? The money that he'd cost her? He was just lucky that he hadn't cost her a contract. That delicate skin of his would have learned a whole new pattern if he had. Instead, she followed the guards into the room near the back of the headquarters.

From here, she couldn't even hear the usual cacophony that she'd heard described as "the choir of the damned." Here, there was a new series of sounds. The generator itself had a loud hum that never ended, along with the crackle of electricity. There were four other slaves here, all of them chained to their own metal bar that they pushed around the spire in the middle. The bars protruded like the spikes of a wheel, and they functioned like a massive hamster wheel to power the generator. It wasn't all of the fuel, but it was a nice supplement, and Elise liked to keep it to train the slaves who would be in manual labor for the rest of their lives.

Perhaps after a few days of that, this slave would realize what a cushy life a medic lived. Maybe he would appreciate how much worse he could have it.

The chains on the wrists kept the slaves attached to the machine, but it was the other slaves themselves that would keep him moving. No one wanted to have to do all the work themselves, after all. As the guards attached Luca to his spoke on the wheel, Elise addressed the rest of them.

"Whoever works hardest will finish an hour early," she told the slaves, and they all turned to look at the new addition. "The Overseer will be the judge. I recommend you keep him happy."

That should keep up a grueling pace.

oh darling, just let me hear you scream

[attr="class","monalisa"]Elise watched Luca go around the mechanism a couple of times, then nodded in satisfaction. Her overseer knew better than to allow any of them to die. He would give them water and a little bit of bread, at intervals that would make the task possible, even for a slave as weak as this one. She left to attend to other matters, matters that she deemed to be somewhat more important. But Luca would remain at the wheel for four more hours before he was taken back to a cell much like the ones he'd had when he first had come into Elise's care. It was small, and it was dark, but there was straw for bedding, and it wasn't the arena pit. After all, it was the last that she could do to reward him for a hard day's work.

The wheel treatment lasted only a few days, though it probably seemed like more to Luca. By the end of the week, Elise had him healing damaged slaves again, although she also gave him other tasks just to drill into him the idea of obeying. Even the mildest look of defiance or hesitation was punished harshly, with either a beating or more time in the pit. She would not brook any resistance from someone who had proven to be a flight risk. She kept a close eye on his body language, trying to decide when he was thoroughly defeated. Trying to decide when he would give up. He was harder to read than someone who would be obviously resistant to her methods, but she was keeping a closer eye this time. Nothing would get past her razor focus. She was leaning against the wall that afternoon, though he had no way of knowing the time of day.

For once, he was finishing up delivering one of the Magi babies from her slave pen. Even if the University liked to receive every pregnant Magi they could, she kept some for herself. It was two Magi for the price of one, after all. But the mother wouldn't be raising this one. She had people for that. This particular mother hadn't taken it well, and had panicked upon seeing the child disappear into the other room, but she slept now. It was Luca that Elise was watching.

"You've done well," she said, ignoring the sleeping mother. "Good to see you earning your keep."

Although he might not have realized it, he'd made her money that day, by keeping both mother and child alive. The mother could conceive again, and earn her even more money, or Elise could sell her and make double the investment because of the child.

oh darling, just let me hear you scream

[attr="class","monalisa"]Elise smiled at his response, satisfied. There was no way of knowing if he would make trouble for her again, but he had the same dead-eyed look that she'd come to expect of anyone who had been in her care long enough. He hadn't shown any sign of emotions during the delivery, and didn't seem much fazed by the woman's clear emotional response as her baby was taken. He didn't even seem to be processing it. Perfect. No one needed an emotional slave. They needed one that would obey without thought or question. They were much less likely to disobey because they disagreed with an order. And they were less likely to try to escape.

In another couple of weeks of this, she would probably be satisfied. But she wasn't taking any chances this time. He'd not fought back last time either, but he'd still tried to escape. That meant that she would keep up the training for longer than was probably necessary. It didn't pay to be sloppy. For today, though, he'd earned himself food and water. Not spectacular food or water, granted, but food and water all the same.

"When you're finished sanitizing your equipment, you will be escorted to mess," she informed him. "Get yourself some stew."

Stew was the only source of protein that she gave to her slaves, and only those who were doing well. It would give them the strength to continue. It was also what the guards got to eat almost every day. Luca hadn't had any since the ordeal began. But he was doing well, and she rewarded good behavior. It encouraged it to happen again. Admittedly, she used the stick more than the carrot, but she was hoping she could move past that soon.

The mother would stay here under guard, and Luca would be returning for a while, while she was recovering. But Elise had other business to attend to. Unfortunately, Luca was just one of a few dozen that she was training. She gave him one last look and left the room.