Lucien King of Arlorne

The Return pt.22

As Morrigan had not been elsewhere in the estate aside from the baths and the great hall, the harlot and the creature were forced to wander aimlessly, continuing to slaughter all they came across. Room by room they went until Lucien paused in front of one closed door, “This one seems to hide a great many.”

Even with the door shut tight and likely barricaded from the other side, the smell of heavy perfumes hung lightly in the air. Morrigan and Lucien could smell it, with neither needing to speak a word. They had come across the slave quarters and Morrigan was licking her lips, eager to settle a few grudges.

Without wasting time Lucien stepped back from the door before putting all his might into his left foot and kicking the door perfectly in its center. The hurriedly made barricade does nothing to stop the monstrous strength of Lucien or the wood fragments from the door. Screams ring out from inside the room as several people find themselves victims of the wood shrapnel.

Stepping into the room with Morrigan following closely in his steps, Lucien looks around taking in the sight. Three women lay bleeding out from the wounds caused by the door fragments while one guard lies dying on the floor from the same door fragments. Two other guards, having taken shrapnel in their legs, limp over helping up some of the more lightly wounded women and pulling them to assumed safety.

The room itself was quite extravagant for slave quarters, clearly done to make them more willing and loyal. The walls were painted in various reds, pinks and purples giving the room the aura of a brothel. Beneath their feet the stone floors and the stone ceiling above their heads were made to match the walls with various depictions of beautiful women, gods, the duke and much more. All of it trimmed in gold. The conflicting imagery was almost amusing.

The beds of the many women were kept in small rooms lining the walls, with the only separation from the smaller rooms and the main room being sheer curtains of similar hues to the rest of the room. Not even the illusion of privacy was present in this room. Alongside the beds in these small rooms was a vanity with various cosmetics for each woman and several wardrobes, no doubt full of the finest fabrics, giving the women barely any room to move outside the main room. The beds themselves were covered in fine bedding that matched the rest of the room, though a few odd colors shown through due to the personal taste of the woman using that particular room.

It was obvious to Lucien and Morrigan just how the duke was able to keep the women so willing and content. It was quite grand for a nobleman in the east. Even if the grandeur present here in these quarters was astounding to many, Morrigan herself was not impressed. Her daily life was tending to a castle full of single treasures worth entire cities and a treasury that could buy over half the continent with ease, making the display of this room insignificant to her. When one of the slaves dared to ask if Morrigan could now see why she should have just submitted, all Morrigan could do in response was spit on the floor before staring with contempt into that woman’s eyes. After all she knew what true grandeur and wealth looked like, these women did not.

“Point them out.”

Immediately Morrigan pulls one of her daggers from a slave woman and points with it to three more, “The two standing behind the one in from enjoyed trying to train me and beat me often.”

Shoving the one woman out of the way, Lucien steps up to the other two, “You like beating others, do you?” Neither could answer as their bodies released their liquid in fear. Lucien then smashed his right fist into the face of one, nearly obliterating her face. The second woman was frozen in fear as she watched, blind to Lucien’s left hand swinging out in a backfist that would strike just in front of her left ear, destroying her as well. It is now that everyone realizes just how real Morrigan’s words and threats were, and many began to pray for salvation from this terror before them.

Looking over to his left Lucien finds a guard standing ready for battle but to Lucien’s eyes it was quite clear that this man was frozen in fear. As Lucien approached this man began to tremble in fear. Leaning into the man’s ear, Lucien whispers “You can end this yourself if you wish to escape me.” Without another words Lucien moved on to the next guard as this one turned his sword around and drove it deep into his own neck.

Stepping over to the second guard, Lucien sees empty eyes staring past him. Slowly he reached up to the guard’s neck, only to find fleeting warmth as the man was already dead. Fear had claimed his life, and a disappointed Lucien pushes the corpse over causing it to crash to the ground.

“I challenge you creature.”

The sudden declaration drew Lucien’s full attention as he looked towards his right to find a guard dragging one leg behind him as he approached Lucien with his weapon drawn. Lucien’s eyes widen in his surprise, “Now this is different.” Spitting on the ground, the guard hobbled closer with a raised voice saying, “I said I challenge you creature, respond damn it.”

Morrigan looked over as she drew daggers from another slave woman’s stomach, “That’s Tomas, my lord. He’s a good man that should be spared. Unlike the others.”

“Damn you. Don’t spare me. Spare the other women and kill me instead.” Tomas spit this out at not just Morrigan but Lucien as well. He was intent on dueling Lucien to save the others, knowing it would kill him.

Lucien looks Tomas up and down before looking into his eyes “Now why should I kill you when my servant says you should be spared?”

“I beat her. I beat her until her face was broken and she was nearly unconscious.”

The expression on Lucien’s face grows cold once more as he looks to Morrigan, who nods her head confirming that it had happened. “He only beat me when I tried to escape. I broke his nose using my head while trying to escape. He never did anything wrong towards me outside of that one time. I reiterate my lord that he is a good man and should be spared.”

Looking back to Tomas, Lucien finds a disgusted look on his face. This Tomas was certainly bold, perhaps foolishly so, but there was loyalty hidden here and that interested Lucien.

“Why do you wish me to spare the women and to kill you instead? Which one is she?”

Tomas hesitates to answer the questions, but his eyes cut towards Bethany off to his right, hiding in her room. This does not go unnoticed by either Lucien or Morrigan. Disgusted by this Morrigan rolls her eyes and looks away as she continued avenging so of the wrongs perpetrated against her while Lucien looks over to Bethany and nods his head before turning back to Tomas “Who is she?”

Swallowing hard, Tomas answers “Bethany Kooresen. I was going to buy her freedom from Duke Castellen and ask for her hand.”

“Are you unmarried?”

A quiet nod of his head was followed by “My wife died from the plague five years ago when it spread through our home village. I moved here to Salver in search of mercenary work a few years later.”

“Children?”

“My daughter,” was all Tomas could say as he looked down at the ground.

Lucien acknowledged what Tomas had just said with but a sound before walking over to Bethany.

Within a few quick steps Lucien had walked over to Bethany, asking “Would you have gone with this man?” The hesitation was enough of an answer for Lucien, but the simple one word lie that flowed from her lips after was almost too much for the creature. Shifting her eyes around, Bethany was looking for anything she could use to save her life.

Now annoyed by the woman before him Lucien grabbed her by the jaw and forced her to look him in the eyes. “You know the answers I want. Tell me.”

Understanding an order when she heard one, Bethany tells him with some pride in her voice “Duke Castellen didn’t trust the sell swords he hired as his bodyguards. He had several of us get close to them as spies. I reported everything to him. He thought it quite hilarious that Tomas got so attached.”

The sudden sound of metal ringing out drew everyone’s attention to Tomas, who had dropped his sword. It was clear he was heartbroken for a second time but also embarrassed to have been made a fool by Bethany. Her explanation would not help matters “I love my life here. Why would I ever leave it? Everything I could ever want is provided for me and I don’t have to do anything but experience and give pleasure. What could possibly be easier?”

Proving herself to be either quite bold or deaf to the situation, Bethany began attempting to seduce Lucien, failing to the look on Lucien’s face. Her attempts would be stopped when se saw Morrigan walking up to their side “Bethany don’t think you will survive after all you’ve done.”

Quickly realizing something was going wrong for her, Bethany turned her eyes back up to as angered Lucien as he said “Loyalty is something to be treasured. Love of a partner something to be honored. Yet you show neither. And worse you actively use it against someone else. I will never understand how some can regard such things so little as to abuse them. It just proves that you are of lesser quality as we Dharans would never dream of it.”

Terror filled her eyes as she realized her death was here and there was no escaping it. A sudden immense pressure was felt in her neck as Lucien used both hands to twist remove her head from her shoulders. The body collapsed to the ground as Lucien turned to Tomas and found a beautiful woman trying to console him. With a light flick of his wrist Lucien sent the head soaring across the slave quarters before approaching Tomas and this other slave woman.

“You all warned me. I should have listened.”

The slave women consoles him best she can but fears for her own life as well. Morrigan herself walks over while simultaneously goading him and consoling him over this betrayal. As she rests a hand on the man’s shoulder, Morrigan looks to the woman “Back away Krystyna.” Slowly Krystyna backs away knowing what’s about to happen is not going to be pleasant.

Walking up to Tomas, Lucien places his left hand on the man’s shoulder, “My servant says that you should be spared but I still think you need to be punished. I will compromise between the two and leave it to your will whether you live or die.”

Nodding his head as tears fall heavily from his eyes, Tomas asked “Can you please keep me from disturbing my daughter if I should die?”

“You have my word, Tomas.”

With those words Lucien rends apart Tomas’s steel armor on the man’s left before reaching in and tearing out one of the man’s lower ribs. The screams coming from Tomas would haunt all who heard them, except for the two Dharans in the room. And when Tomas was finally allowed to collapse to his knees, Krystyna ran up to him and began doing her best to stop the bleeding as she tried to comfort Tomas with her words.

Lucien looked around the room asking of the others “Anyone want to be honest, or should my servant guide me to you?”

Not one volunteers themselves to face Lucien’s wrath after the displays of violence from him and Morrigan, giving Morrigan the chance to point out one of the more petite women. This woman collapses to her knees in fear as the others around here quickly evacuate the area. But before Lucien can close in, Morrigan tells him “That’s Elizabeth my lord. She should not be harmed.”

The look on Lucien’s face was clearly of the question, why, leading Morrigan to answer “She’s a pleasant woman and never once did me wrong. She always treated me well. Out of all of them she is the one I would welcome most as an adopted Dharan.”

This was certainly high praise for Elizabeth coming from Morrigan and it carried great weight with Lucien. So much weight that when he kneeled before her, Lucien gently raised her head by using her chin so that he could look her in the eyes.

“Thank you, Elizabeth. Now turn and face the wall dear. I do not want you to see any more of what is to happen. I give you my word that you will live and be free from this day on as thanks for your treatment of Morrigan.”

Quietly Elizabeth turns herself on her knees and buries her face into the stone wall, covering her ears with her hands. Lucien gently pets her head before standing and facing the rest of the women. His face was now enough to finally make the women’s instinct of self-preservation come forward.

Stepping forward a woman points to another trying to hide in a room at the other end o the main room, “She talked about wanting your servant to end up a toy for others and enjoyed beating her.”

The accused woman screams out in fear as Lucien closes in. He had to reach underneath the blankets and pulled her out by the throat. Holding her high above him, Lucien looks over to Morrigan wanting confirmation of the accusations. With a simple nod of her head Morrigan sentenced the woman to death. In an instant Lucien crushed the woman’s throat and dropped her to the bed. Lucien then stepped back into the main room and looked around for the next person to be punished.

With the winds changing another woman steps forward accusing a different woman. Before Lucien could even attempt to close in on the accused, she promptly fell to her knees profusely denying the accusations levied at her. Looking over to Morrigan, Lucien watches her shake her head no, denying the accusations.

In an instant Lucien is in front of the accusing woman asking, “Why lie?”

Knowing it is too late for her; the accusing woman looks away as she answers “I wanted to protect myself and didn’t think your servant would remember everything. But it looks like she does so you might as well kill me now. Save me the pain of waiting.”

Nodding his head in understanding Lucien quickly ended her against the stone wall. Lucien moves on leaving this woman on her knees, folded over dead.

"Honesty. It will go a long way with me."

Lucien's voiced rang out loudly in the room forcing the rest of the women and guards in the room to realize that their best option for survival or a quick death was to step forward of their own volition and confess their crimes against Morrigan. Carefully watching over everything was Morrigan who continued providing confirmation to Lucien with each new confession.

Out of the fourteen surviving slave women, five admitted to their crimes against Morrigan and killed for it. Three surviving guards stepped forward as well. Two were killed immediately as Morrigan cut their throats personally without waiting for confessions. The last guard was spared any retribution as he was a recently hired mercenary, the youngest of minor noble family, who had only been working for the duke for less than a week.

The surviving eleven women and the one guard gathered around Lucien while keeping their eyes fixed on the ground. Their fear kept them from fleeing as whatever punishment they were going to receive was far more palatable than fleeing a few steps before death. Even Krystyna had briefly ceased tending to Tomas to stand here before Lucien.

“How is Tomas?”

Krystyna clenched her teeth and her fists as she answered, “He is on the verge of death after what you did.”

As calm as he could be and ignoring the attitude of Krystyna, Lucien told her “As I said he will live as long as he has the will to.”

It was then Lucien looked over to Krystyna as he said “Just be sure to take his daughter with you when you leave this city. If you leave her behind to become an orphan in this city, pray I do not learn of it.”

Krystyna and the other survivors swallowed hard, ignoring Lucien’s spoken thoughts “How to punish you all without crippling you?”

But Lucien's thoughts were to be interrupted by Morrigan shouting out "I see you trying to escape. Don't think you were hiding from me." Quickly releasing a dagger from her hand, Morrigan threw it ahead of the woman, who was trying to silently crawl away and out the door furthest from Lucien, and rushed over to grab the screaming woman by the hair. "Give it up. You have no chance of escape now. Remember those words? You'll truly understand those words now. I'm free and you're not."

A smile forms on Morrigan’s face as she drags the woman over to Lucien, who briefly ignores them to speak more to Krystyna “Why did you allow other woman to get so close to Tomas if you care for him the way you do?”

Krystyna's attention was forcibly drug away from Morrigan by Lucien's question, "I don't care for him in that way. He's a good man and I don't like to see men like him fall in with such bad influences."

The look on Lucien’s face clearly showed he did not believe her and unknown to Krystyna, her voice was making it hard to believe her. But through the grinding of her teeth, she furthered tried to convince the creature “He reminds me of my older brother. As a child I watched my brother get beheaded because he got involved with a devious, degenerate woman like Bethany. Tomas was getting pulled along like my brother did and would suffer while Bethany saw no consequences.” What went unmentioned and was unneeded to mention was Bethany would not have to lie about her involvement.

Morrigan had finally drug the women over to the others as Krystyna looked up into Lucien’s eyes and firmly stated “Besides Tomas deserves a better woman than me. I’ve been here far too long and have been corrupted by this place. I may not have directly caused Morrigan any harm, but I only looked out for her to serve my interests. I encouraged her behavior because it got her heavily punished and annoyed that damned duke and his people. That was my entertainment while held here and looking for a way out of this hell.”

Lucien lowered his head in a brief nod of acceptance. Honesty did go a long way with him, and he could detect no lies in what Krystyna had told him. Though there were no lies, Krystyna did not realize that her words revealed her feelings for Tomas. And Lucien was not going to press further as he turned his attention to Morrigan and the woman she was holding on her knees.

“Who is this Morrigan? I could barely notice her presence she is so meek.”

Brushing her hair out of her face, Morrigan answered, "This is Anabelle. She was a slave of one of the noble friends of that swine.”

Intrigued by this, Lucien's eyes fell down to the woman being forced to sit on her knees as Morrigan continued "When I first woke in mercenary captivity, she was next to me in a separate cafe. She told me there was no escape and that I should just give up. The next I meet her is when she arrives as the slave of another nobleman. She would start of meek and cowardly but soon she began to revel in my torture and actively participated."

A small storm quickly formed upon Lucien hearing this, frightening all except Morrigan. He wanted everyone who had done such acts dead, but Morrigan's next words forced him to restrain himself, "I want her punished but death is too much. She needs to live with her punishment."

Anabelle squirmed and tried to pull away as Morrigan began to tap a dagger against the kneeling woman's face. As Morrigan thought over how to punish Anabelle, Lucien was asking the other survivors some small questions so that he could punish them without making it impossible for them to survive. If he wanted them to die, he would just kill them outright. With neither quite sure how to proceed with punishments, an eerie silence came to hang over the slave quarters.

After what felt like an eternity Lucien finally spoke up, telling the survivors "Hold out your left hands. I will be taking a finger from each of you."

Hesitantly every survivor with the exception of Anabelle waited for Lucien to deliver punishment upon them. None resisted as this was their one path for survival and they were going to take it.

Krystyna was the first to submit for punishment as she gritted her teeth through the initial pain, only to be filled with warmth and surprise when Lucien used his magic to soothe the pain. Though one of her fingers was now missing, it now appeared to be an old, healed injury rather than something seconds old. Looking up into Lucien’s eyes for answers all she saw a simple nod of his head before moving on to the next. One by one each survivor had had the middle finger from their left hand removed and the wound left behind healed over.

Meanwhile just mere steps away Morrigan was smiling as she looked down at Anabelle, “I know just what to do to you.”

Moving the tip of her dagger closer to Anabelle’s right eye, Morrigan tell her “Every time you look at your reflection, you’ll remember this.” Without another word Morrigan removed an eye from Anabelle, who screamed out in unimaginable pain. The Dharan woman taking a small amount of pleasure in the act.

Holding the blue eye above her, Morrigan inspected it before dropping it onto the writhing Anabelle. “You can have it back. You can look at it whenever you need a reminder of your weak will and torture of me.”

Lucien stepped over with a sigh and knelt down next to Anabelle. Taking the removed eye in one hand and placing a finger from his other against the now empty socket. Lucien uses his magic to heal her eye socket the same as he did the fingers of the others and preserves her eye.

Setting the now preserved eye in her hands, Lucien tells Anabelle “Keep the eye with you. If you ever somehow fight your way to Syrndharas, I may return your sight to you. My healing magics should be capable of doing that for you.”

With nothing more needing to be said, Lucien pulled the now furious Anabelle to her feet before turning to find Elizabeth standing before him. A look of determination was on the petit woman’s face as she held out her left hand. “Me too.”

Lucien looked down at her in confusion. This confusion only furthered when she shoved her hand against his armor. “Punish me too.”

“You did not wrong Morrigan. Why should I punish someone who has done no wrong?”

“Punish me!”

Tears of rage were beginning to well up in her eyes as she repeatedly shoved her hand up against his armor. Lucien could not believe this petite little woman was so determined to suffer as the rest. And as she continued to push her hand into Lucien’s armor demanding the same punishment, he looked over to Morrigan wanting an explanation.

An explanation from Morrigan would follow an escaped sigh, “She’s a stubborn woman, my lord. Elizabeth is certainly loyal like a Dharan to those she views as friends and desires no special treatment from others. I fear that if you don’t punish her now, she’ll find a way to punish herself.”

Disbelief continued to rise in Lucien as he returned his eyes to Elizabeth. The continued insistence was growing in its brazenness, and Lucien began to think Morrigan was quite correct. This petite woman would remove her own finger if Lucien did not. Not seeing another way out of this Lucien reluctantly agreed to punish the woman who had done no wrong.

Taking her small hand in his, Lucien quickly removed the same finger from her as he had done the others. Her screams of agony hurt everyone in the room as they were all aware of how sweet Elizabeth was. But before Lucien could heal her new wound, Elizabeth pulled away from him.

“Let me heal the wound you stubborn girl.”

Shaking her head, Elizabeth tells him “Not yet. There’s something I need to do first.”

With Lucien moving out of the determined Elizabeth’s way, she stepped over to the other survivors. There she resembles a great queen addressing her loyal subjects, “We’re all family. We share our burdens, and we never turn our backs on each other.”

Unable to deny this unusual forcefulness from Elizabeth, Krystyna sighed before agreeing. And with Krystyna’s agreement the other survivors slowly agree with this as well. Elizabeth then presses the issue further by moving from survivor to survivor including Anabelle, rubbing her bleeding hand on their hands. The message was as clear as it was symbolic, her blood was on their hands and their words were now bound by that blood.

Only now does Elizabeth turn back to Lucien and hold her hand out for him to heal. Greatly impressed by what he had witnessed from the petite woman, Lucien could not help but smile. So impressed was he that despite his hand being covered in armor Lucien still had Elizabeth mark it with her blood. Then when he looked over at Morrigan, she understood the message and willingly accepted the blood mark as well. Now that everyone was marked, Lucien raised Elizabeth's hand as high as she could and licked the blood from it, before healing the wound over.

Reaching up Elizabeth’s arm towards her shoulder, Lucien asks “Would you mind if I gifted you something?”

Elizabeth quickly agreed with a simple nod of her head, not understanding what was about to happen. After moving some of her clothes out of the way so he could inspect her shoulder, Lucien decided on something else. Taking her left hand in both of his, Lucien used his magic to slowly carve an old Dharan symbol into the back of Elizabeth’s hand.

“If you ever find yourself in need of great need, ask those that recognize this symbol where you can find Syrndharas. They will lead you to me and I will aid you in whatever trouble you find yourself. Gods willing you will never need my aid.”

A smile came over Elizabeth’s face as she nodded her head, wiping away a few tears that had sprung up. This was a path to escape trouble should the need ever arise. It was clear to all why Lucien offered this to her and she was grateful for the gesture.

Their business in the slave quarters now finished, Morrigan performed a quick head count of the slaves before telling Lucien "This is nice and all my lord, but there's still some missing. Not all the slave women are here."

Lucien's angered gaze quickly fell on Krystyna, who was quick to answer with ease "Fifteen should have been in the great hall for the feast." Understanding what was meant Lucien added "There was two with the priest." This allowed Krystyna to finish the head count by adding "Then there should be five with Mis...Livia."

“Who is this, Livia?”

This question was easy enough to answer for every person in the room, Livia was the mistress of the duke’s harem. Krystyna would further explain that Livia had been unable to leave her room for long since Morrigan had poisoned her. Even the correct medicinal and magical treatments were unable to help her heal properly.

Glancing over to Morrigan, Lucien watched her shrug her shoulders as she said with a few added theatrics in her voice and body language "She told me to kiss her as a sign of my submission.

An exasperated Krystyna was quick to add the detail that Morrigan had bitten off parts of Livia's fingers with a mouthful of poison. All Morrigan could do was shrug her shoulders in confirmation when Lucien looked to her for it.

"Was it made from Hawliday flowers?"

"I like to keep a small vial in my mouth for emergencies."

A chuckle escaped Lucien as he shook his head upon hearing this. "It was always the favored poison of your teacher. I'm not surprised it's also yours. She must have taught you how to cultivate it as well."

With this new information Lucien looked to Krystyna, asking her “Do you know where this Livia is?”

Following a simple nod of her head, Lucien told Krystyna “Lead us to her.”

Quick to rush to the door, Krystyna turned to find Lucien telling Elizabeth “Gather everything you will need to survive outside once you leave. Once I’ve finished my business here, I will lift the barrier I placed around the mansion. You can all leave then.” Then pointing at all of the survivors Lucien reminded them “Tomas’s daughter goes along with you. Do not forget that.”

No more needed to be said as Lucien turned and finally followed Krystyna out of the slave quarters with Morrigan right there behind him. As they followed her through the mansion towards Livia’s quarters, Elizabeth was quick to follow Lucien’s orders. She may not have been used to such a role, but the others were willing to listen to her, as she was clearly the strongest of them all having survived this place with her mind mostly intact.