The Gathering of the Hunt

CHAPTER THREE

⚠️TRIGGER WARNING FOR EXTREME VIOLENCE! Keep scrolling down to the three triangles if you want to skip it. ⚠️

The Emperor nodded to General Karakka, who was still restraining her with a vice-like grip.

She heard the unmistakable sound of the whip being slowly unravelled, and the iron tips hitting the floor with a dull clink. The sound scared her so much more than she wanted it to.

She took a deep breath, preparing herself. Aesira should've known better. Known that her freedom from the continuous cycle of pain couldn't possibly have lasted. Known that the week long reprieve from the daily beating and hours of torture were just another phase of the game, a new level with harder obstacles and many, many more rules. But she wasn't sure how much more she could take.

The whip cracked.

Her back arched in pain. It took everything that she had to not scream.

Gods, she swore silently. The iron burned. It settled in a bone deep ache, causing her skin to tickle in discomfort as blood dripped down her back.

Her back was already a mess of scars and barely set lash wounds, curling in ugly welts and her whole abdomen.

Aesira braced herself for the next lashing but when it didn't come she forced herself to raise her head to meet the Emperor's eyes again.

"Did that hurt?" The Emperor asked with false, mocking concern lining his words, "Do you want me to do it again?"

Aesira turned her head to the side and spat out a mouthful of blood.

She hadn't even realised that she had bitten down on her lip so hard that it had drawn blood.

Oh well. At least it added to her dramatic performance that she was keeping up.

Raising a shaking hand to wipe away the sweat that had built up on her forehead, she laughed, the sound not entirely sane.
"Clearly I must do on some level, considering the fact that I keep purposely provoking you."

She risked a glance sideways to gage Talen's reaction.

She could almost read the words in his eyes. We've talked about this already. Gods, Aesira don't antagonize him. He's a psychopathic, murderous Emperor hellbent on your destruction.

It almost felt as if everything was normal again.

Almost.

But it wasn't. How could anything possibly be again?

The Emperor growled at her, baring his teeth. Aesira could have sworn that he was more animal than he was human.

The whip fell once more.

And again.

And again.

And again.

The room was filled with the wet sound of the whip slamming into her back and the sick sound of the Emperor's laughter.

Tears ran down her face

She lost count of how many blows rained down on her.

By now, her consciousness floated above her, as if her mind was not entirely part of her body. Pain truly was an ephemeral thing. Sometimes she felt the pain of the weight of the world upon her shoulders, shown through scars and blood and pain. Sometimes she felt nothing. Just a complete numbness that settled over all her senses, stealing away the ability to ever feel anything. It was always the numbness that she craved, even if the pain allowed her to finally feel something.

The whip fell against her bloodied slab of flesh that was her back. This time, it was as if it went bone deep. A muffled moan left Aesira's lips hanging in the air, it's haunting sound refusing to fade. It was the first noise that she had made since this had begun, the closest sound she would ever make to a scream.