DOOM SAGA I - I'll be home tomorrow

Day 89

Argent d'Nur

It was night and the planet's creepy moon shined not much light. She staggered down the dim hallway. Her joints were stiff and hurting, especially her legs, from the hard work of the day. She had taken her usual rest after she got her evening mush, and now that most of the folk was asleep or at least gone home she was allowed to the new Deaks library. She carried a heavy book with yellowed pages pressed to her chest. She would not show the pain open to them.
Only a handful of men came from the inner of the building at such a late hour, some whispered, most didn't even care and spoke out loud about what they thought about her. She recognized words that were only spoken in her presence. She kept her eyes to the end of the hallway, her expression unbothered and cold.
She entered a small door, not the library's main entrance. Behind was a half-open room that was part of the priests' private studies. A gentle yellowish light shined from the many lamps in the area. A man in a long gown sat in a chair at the other end of a low table that had two comfortable couches to each side. A can of hot liquid and a pastry were set on the table for her, and every time she saw that her chest hurt, and all she wanted was to cry in thankfulness. But her mouth was tightly shut by a clenched jaw.
She calmly sat down and gave the book to the priest. He was a handsome man, not as old as many of the soldiers. His face wore a long scar that reached from below his chin across his mouth, where a tiny part of it was missing and showing his teeth, just beside his eye up until it vanished in his hairline. It was old as you could see how it had been stretched with the skin.
He looked at her, she shook her head. He started thinking and got up to bring the book back to its place. She poured the 'tea' into the dark clay cup to cool down and took a small bite out of the sweet pastry.
"I honour your strength. Not many could hold back being as hungry as you are."
She glanced at him and she huffed. She sat straight, her feet together, the hot cup in her lap.
"You know that I wish the others could see your arrival the way I do. But old men learn slow."
She let out the breath as she relaxed, and she enjoyed the warmth given to her. He placed a new book on the table in front of her and laid his hand on her shoulder for just a moment before he left. This gentle touch felt like needles bored into her chest. But not a single muscle moved.

A hand shook her awake. She fell off the couch and landed on the priest's feet.
"Io! It's morning!"
Seconds later she was running down the hallway back outside, down and down more stairs than she could count until she reached the level on the ground. She ran into the flat building where a big man was already waiting. Sweat ran down her neck as she paced inwards to grab the tools for her work but a growl made her freeze in place. She didn't dare to look up to him, and she hoped she did not look frightened right now. He hated that. He hated her language.
He hated her.
WACK
Her head hit the floor as the world had blackened for a moment. The burning sensation on her face grew stronger. She struggled to get up, if she could not, then she wouldn't get her rations today. She barely managed to stand, her body shaking.
"No morning ration for you."
She didn't speak or move, not even nod. Just stare at the floor in front of her.
"NOW WORK!", the man yelled at her and stomped out again.
She wiped the drips of blood away from her lip that was split open. The old wound had not even healed yet, though it had been two weeks. Her body found no energy to restore. She felt her eye swell up once more. She was glad she had no mirror to see her shitty appearance.

Every single day she had to remind herself that finding the Slayer was the most important thing she had to do in her life. If not to bring her back, then to save the lives of millions. Why else would they need him again?
But the Deaks and others didn't listen to her, saying the Slayer's deed is done, all evil forces vanished. Earth had shielded itself from any outside intruder, the former portals were all useless now.  They said she might be a spy from earth to copy their technology or even start a war to conquer their realm, now that they knew about it, if not just a mistake, an experiment gone wrong in the search for new worlds to reign, like the humans liked to do.
She was neither.
They kept her away from the normal citizen, as her presence would unsettle an already beaten community just as they had only begun to restore their cities. She had to do all sorts of nasty work or work that was found where none had been, keeping her busy all day hoping she would be too tired to sniff around at night.

She had never seen any kind of slave or prisoner, even though her accommodation signed their former existence. Her aching body fell onto the hard mattress creating a little cloud of dust. Two meters by three meters were all she had. The clean rags she had put around her knees in the morning were soaked in blood, soap water, and sweat. Little slimy bits came off her sore skin when she finally pulled them off in the evening. The ration was standing on the askew cupboard waiting to be eaten. Her scalp itched and she felt the relief after taking off the cloth scarf that was bound around her head all day with her long thinning hair tied up into it. She washed at a wooden tub and changed out of her working clothes that were little more than a ragged old dress and an apron. She did a quiet prayer to whoever god was listening, before forcing the meal down. In a few hours, it would be time to continue her reading. She knew she was still getting weaker every day, the meals were just enough to keep her alive.
They didn't care. They couldn't simply kill her since she had done no crime and also was just a woman. They couldn't send her to Earth, not just because the portals weren't working, but also because she knew too much. She couldn't return to the Fortress since she had nothing left to eat. So they let her die slowly, making them feel better thinking they helped her.
But she needed to keep going. For him. For herself. And maybe even for them.