SAGE (under edit)

Chapter Nineteen

Sage couldn't move.

Her body protested even as she lay on the ground of her cell, the cold stone pressing into her spine as her eyes stared, unfocused, at the ceiling above. There was a numbness through her limbs, the type of numbness that came from spending too long bracing against pain.

She had lost track of time again. Had another day passed yet?

After meeting Bryce's colleagues, Darian had subjected Sage to what she could liken to electric shocks coursing through her body. He had bound her to one of the chairs in that makeshift boardroom and injected her with a drug that had dampened her Kyra but not disabled it completely, and then with his Kyra alone he had sent waves of pain through her body like electric pulses.

Each time the jarring, paralysing sensation ebbed away, Darian would do a once-over medical check of her and then take notes, but Sage could tell his checks weren't to monitor her health or how extreme he was hurting her; it was as if he was searching for something, like her body's response to the treatment. Anything she said was ignored, and her attempts to break free of her restraints grew weaker and weaker the more Darian tested her until eventually Sage had passed out.

When she woke, Sage had found Darian hovering over her. It had taken her a moment to realise she had been back in her cell and that Darian was healing her, removing the pain lingering in her body and reversing whatever damage the internal shocks had done to her.

But the torture had started all over again.

After being healed, Darian had taken Sage to the same room and bound her again. She hadn't been subjected to the same shock treatment though; instead Darian had meticulously used a scalpel to create cuts along the inside of her forearms and biceps like a coroner undertaking an autopsy. He had checked her over each time, taking down notes, his expression occasionally twisting with impatience or disappointment.

Then Sage had been deposited back in her cell, the cuts left open with rivulets of blood creating patterns down her arms. The cuts varied in length and depth, but none were deep enough to cause fatal blood loss. She had slept again, only to wake up however many hours later with bandages around her arms but no signs of formal healing from Darian.

Through the haze of lethargy and discomfort, Sage tried to make sense of what was happening. Not once had Darian asked her about Lion Crest or the Shadow Soldiers; he had only been interested in whatever results her body was producing from his studious forms of torture. She couldn't help but feel as if he was researching her, like a scientist conducting an experiment, but she couldn't figure out just what he was trying to discover.

When the echo of footsteps sounded down the corridor Sage felt her numbness abruptly disappear, each muscle tensing with sudden fear. Get up, she told herself. Do something!

Sage bit back the sob which thickened in her throat at the pain shuddering through her when she pushed herself up, arms quivering. It wasn't Darian or Bryce who appeared at her cell, but two of their Soldiers wearing the RedEarth symbol in red and black. They filed into the cell, crowding Sage, and with what little strength she had Sage kicked out her foot straight into one of their ankles.

The Soldier's leg slipped out from under him and crashed onto one knee, but there was barely a flick of pain on his face. The other Soldier grabbed Sage under the arms and hauled her upright as the other rose to his feet, limping now.

With her arms pulled tight behind her back, Sage was pushed out of her cell and back to the upper levels of the building. By the time they arrived at the third floor from the stairwell, Sage's legs could barely hold herself up and it was only by the grips of the two Soldiers escorting her that she remained upright, even as her feet stumbled and dragged across the stone floor.