The Skillful Torturer

As Malinda lounges inside the rolling carriage, she grumbles to herself. That foolish SLO girl was quite bold, which has her in a sullen mood. But a sigh escape between her scarlet lips as she leans to rest, feeling the cushions under her buttocks and on her back. Malinda has her eyes closed while she’s trying to think about something other than that girl.

She needs to be completely calm when she meets up with Xe’Reth.

While breathing in and out, she gains control of her emotions; an image pops up in her mind, an image of Xe’Reth’s smile looking directly into her azure globes while he’s walking toward her direction. Walking with the eyes of a beast.

He grabs her shoulders as he pushes his lips onto hers, to kiss her with all the might of his being.

“Ah!” Malinda snaps out of her trance, tracing her fingers on her petals while nostrils flare. “What is the matter with me?”

Malinda’s hands grab the crimson drapes to draw them to the sides so she can gaze out onto the street, a street with people who’re disappearing one after the other as the carriage goes to her destination. The stores are open which burst with people browsing its merchandise. People gawk with wide eyes at the golden carriage, and Malinda sees the festivities that's going on.

It is the regular festival in the outer layer that occur every time victory happen on the Ebon Wall. The commoners clap along with the instruments as musicians play their tunes of various music and the choral groups who verse the different victorious battles of the ages.

A cheerful giggle escape from Malinda’s lips, because she’s ecstatic since she’s going to meet up with Xe’Reth, who’s in love with her, and she too loves him.

Malinda desires for Xe’Reth to be hers.

That necessity she needs. To share her pains with someone, and he needs someone to share his sorrows with. Those pains of the mind that eat away at her after every battle down by the middle gate… The blood, the corpses, the mutilations, but surprisingly, she isn’t as anxious by it at this moment.

The component that she has been searching for to ease her troubled mind of war… has finally been found. She’ll embrace it with all her influence, he’ll be hers, and she’ll be his.

“Hehe, Xe’Reth just you wait, I’ll be right there to tell you my response,” Malinda chuckles with such a face of joy, a face of ruby cheeks, the mouth which has curves bending upwards, and her pure emotions that beat inside her pulsating chest.

She’s looking forward to seeing his expression when she says the words. Oh, the words of bliss that’ll come out from her two rose petals, her forbidden fruit that’ll form the words inside her mouth…

The carriage continues on…

The driving handmaiden gains a scowl on her expression as she drives the horses toward the destination her Miss instructed her to go to, and the scowl becomes deeper and deeper as closer the carriage rolls near Xe’Reth’s neighborhood.

The festival’s sounds have now disappeared, only to be replaced by silence other than the galloping horses and trundling wheels. A slight sickening feeling, not an odor, but something is oozing in the air of this district of the outer layer of the city. Flowing as if death itself surround this place, calling it home.

The handmaiden herself has never been to this part of the city… where the poor people live; a very disgusting place she thinks as she watches the men and women whose worn-out clothes of poverty display fully in her eyes. Individuals that haven't washed for days… weeks… months.

As she makes eye contact with one of its inhabitants, she averts her head to not witness those blank eyes of… melancholy.

‘How could Miss find someone that lives here? Preposterous!’ she rages with a worrisome expression as she curses inwardly at herself for allowing this to happen. ‘One day… A single day... Dammit, Celyssa, this is all your fault. If you didn’t need help at the office yesterday, this wouldn’t have happened!’

As she continues to drive the horses of terror down the low-spirited lane of the street, the handmaiden hears the knocks from Malinda. She pulls the reins for the horses to stop their movements, then quickly jumps down from the driver’s seat to go and open the door for Malinda, but she has already opened it by herself as she can’t keep herself in check.

She wants to meet with him as soon as possible.

“Miss, is this really the neighborhood where he lives?” she asks out of worry, because now that the sun watches from the Divine Sky, they can see how rundown it is. The broken down houses, the people who wear rags for clothes, those who’re very skinny and hollow-cheeked because they can’t even get regular food.

“Yes, this is where he lives. Ah, there is the doo—huh…?” she becomes silent, peering at the door which’s damaged and broken into; an entrance that stands open.

Her eyes become like two large spheres as she watches that door… That door she knocked on yesterday… That door where she saw him bare-chested, and that door where he confessed his feelings to her.

“Miss? What is the matter? Miss!? Miss!” the handmaiden yells as Malinda dashes with such haste toward the door that hang by a thread. She, too, sprints after her to see what’s happening while lifting up her dress.

As Malinda opens the broken door, her face turns to pure panic. Her breath accelerates… She sees the simple furniture that she had caught a glimpse of yesterday. They’re broken and scattered all around the kitchen. Her eyes then gaze at the blood that has been dragged on the floor while she traces the blood marks with her eyes.

‘No… no… no… no… no… no… no, no, no, Noo!!’

Malinda witnesses Xe’Reth leaning toward a door. He’s covered in cuts. He’s damaged. The clothes on his body have been ripped apart which shows the crimson blood that seeps out of his wounds… His head has inclined forward so his face isn’t showing, only his cut up and injured body display in front of Malinda, who’s shaking in fear while an arm has risen toward him, trying to reach out.

That horror, thinking that he’s dead.

He’s leaning there completely motionless against the door that leads into his mother’s and his room.

“Xe’Reth! Nooo!!” Malinda finally wails, seeing him there in his broken state. She sprints to him not caring where she steps, and her handmaiden, too, sees this scenery that’s displaying in front of her, but all she can think about is that he has black hair.

“Xe’Reth! Xe’Reth, I’m here! Wake up!” she shouts as she holds his head, looking directly at his slightly deadened open eyes. “Xe’Reth… please… you’ve to wake up. You have to wake up!!”

She hugs him as she can’t control her feelings anymore, lying there in a pathetic state all sprawled on the floor while holding him in her embrace. Her eyes have now formed a river that runs down her pale face.

All of her pent up emotions that she has held in, in all of these years of battling down by the middle gate is streaming out of her. Her face shows such a grimace of sadness. Her chin spasms violently as she begins to snivel while her eyes exude even more tears.

She starts to cry out all of her sufferings that she has seen and done. So excruciating that it sounds out into the street. It’s such a painful scream of emotions which makes her handmaiden show a saddened face of worry while she doesn’t know what to do in this kind of unexpected situation.

But as Malinda’s weeping continue, Xe’Reth’s body moves with a slight twitch, and she feels it as she holds him in her most desperate clasp she can muster, “Xe’Reth…?! Xe’Reth! Wake up, wake up, you! Please wake up…”

“Mm… M-Malinda, wha-what is—?” Xe’Reth asks but stops his aching verse as she holds his head so he can look directly into her flooding eyes, those eyes of serious concern. His eyes wander to the opened door where the light shine in and where the handmaiden stands with an expression of bafflement because he has wounds all over his upper body.

It looks as if he has been tortured.

Small stab marks where the blood seep out of, but not too deep, otherwise Xe’Reth’s blood would’ve been all over the floor where he lies, but it isn’t… It’s as if it was done by a professional torturer. He has slight bruises all over, a bloody lip that glitter terribly, and his clothes which are torn up; he’s in a complete messed up state at this moment.

As Malinda hears him say her name she becomes joyous but her heart still feel the sadness of looking upon his damaged state. He can barely stay awake, his eyes are closing and opening slowly while he breathes in shaking breaths.

Xe’Reth’s dark eyes gaze at Malinda’s, and as she sees his downright humiliating eyes, she becomes utterly furious at the perpetrators. She wants them found and killed by her own hands…

“Who did this to you—Xe’Reth open your eyes and listen to me!” she shouts out for his eyes closed shut, so he won’t fall asleep in this kind of state. With her yell, he opens them again, tiredly. “Tell me who did this to you, I’ll make them pay. …Xe’Reth?”

He gazes away in shame as if he doesn’t want to speak. Like if he talks, he would be killed by those who hurt him. The false threats Xe’Reth shows on his face which he had practiced over and over again so it would become insanely believable.

But he has over done it, he’s bleeding too much from the wounds he inflicted on himself. He isn’t the best torturer, no, he doesn’t even know how to torture anyone. This is the first time he does something like this… to himself even. What if he stabbed the wrong area? A vital point on the body?

He does know the human body somewhat because he has read the teachings of medicine, which had become popular a few hundred years ago. First, it was a sick profession where only those who were mad would practice it, but now? It’s like any other profession out there in the Kingdom.

It’s actually highly sought out because healers are always wanted on the Ebon Wall, down by the gates, for there is where people die the most.The book that he read isn’t for torturing, only how the body works, and all the parts of where one could easily die if it were cut open. A book of a gate-surgeon who had been there in the clashes of the armies, who had seen the horrors of what war brings.

It was an interesting book Xe’Reth had thought because he reads so fast that it only takes around ten minutes to read any book that he reads. All the information is pretty foggy, but he understands the most important parts if he lingers on the book, to read it over again.

First, he had thought that this was how everyone’s speed was, but oh he was so wrong. His mother had warned him to not speak about his… enhanced features since it would only bring more harm than good.

“Please tell me, Xe’Reth, who was it?” her eyes goes wide as she remembers something, something she did yesterday, and what Xe’Reth said to her: That it would only bring him harm if people were to see her walk with him. And that she had thrown that fat man inside the prison, his daughter even tried to plead for his release which didn’t go so well.

She thinks about countless possibilities. Who could’ve done this? Why would they do this kind of hideous act? Her eyes go deeper into sorrow as she sees this young man who sits there leaning with his back toward his and his mother’s chamber. His eyes are full of fake shame and fear, for if he spoke, it would mean his and his mother’s doom.

This just makes her extremely mad, but she doesn’t show it… Though she wants to squeeze their necks and see them die in front of her. She can’t just kill people out of hate, she knows that there are laws one must follow, and she has already broken one of those laws from just putting that fat man in prison.

Who is Malinda?

She’s one of the rulers of this city, yes, that’s who she is. Why does she need to show her act, she can just order…? No! Malinda shakes her head to get out of those horrible thoughts. But maybe? No!

She’s in conflict, but she becomes happy all of a sudden. She can use the law to find these people, and then put them to trial on the pedestal! Where she has the support of her wealth and power. There she can make them pay for their crimes! But she needs to find them first. She needs Xe’Reth testimony to achieve her powerful ideas.

If he doesn’t speak, she won’t be able to find the criminals who had done this to him… her first lover she has ever had! He’ll say yes to her reply, she knows that, because he was the first one to say it, and she’s just giving him her answer, her answer that’ll be accepted.

“Don’t just stand there all aloof! Do something, help him!” Malinda barks at her handmaiden who stands there speechless, though now surprise fills her face because she has never been yelled at so fiercely before. She gulps and quickly runs out to the carriage to get some supplies, which are under the seats.

It is medical supplies which Malinda keeps where she knows best, inside her carriage. Her family normally has everything in their estate by the Ebon Wall, but Malinda likes to keep them in her carriage, where she can change clothes in peace, away from prying eyes.

Though she could also do that in their estate. However, it’s much faster to change inside the carriage since it’s stationed near the middle gate where she would come from when the battle would be over.

Yesterday her handmaiden didn’t come along since she was needed in the castle.

As part-time she helps with the accounting of the city, she helps like everyone else who’s honorable enough to be a handmaiden to one of the Honored Ones. Malinda also has other handmaidens but compared to the main one who’s like Malinda’s left hand, they can’t match her.

The handmaiden comes back with full hands.

She’s carrying a box of the medical equipment. She too has read and studied the arts of medicine, but she isn’t the best, only an average healer. Though she knows a fair deal nonetheless.

*Cough* Xe’Reth looks at his hand as he removes it from his coughing mouth.

Blood…

So he did puncture something vital.

‘Dammit, I shouldn’t have done anything and just waited for her to come instead,’ Xe’Reth curses at his inability to make the right choice.

Though as Malinda sees the blood on his hand, her face turns paler than snow as if he’s just about to die from his self-inflicted wounds.

“Help him now, hurry, damn you!” she shouts at her handmaiden who’s now taking out a small knife out of the box. She then goes to Xe’Reth, who’s leaning against the door, to remove his tattered shirt so she can get a clearer view of his state of being. She gives out a slight worrisome gasp as she sees all of the wounds.

‘Disgusting… Who can be this mad?’ She ponders as the blood seep out from him while he’s very pale now that she takes a closer look.

“Miss, light up the room with something so I can see better,” she says with lowered eyebrows because she’s angry at how the people that did this to him can be so cruel to such an extent.

She can see why her Miss fell for him, even in this kind of state. He’s very attractive, even for her who’s soon reaching thirty years of age. She has never felt love toward a man, that love which she too wants but cannot have.

Though, some handmaidens have been given permission to wed and get children, though that’s only the Head-Handmaiden of Celyssa’s. And one of Malinda’s handmaidens.

Celyssa is the mother of the entire family of the Tertins’, and the rest are her children, even her husband… For he’s a kind, a generous, and a charismatic man, though he’s too much of a man-child. All he knows is fighting, killing for the Ebon Wall, to be kind to everyone, to make his wife do most of the City’s chores, and to be… just himself.

The room is now lit up with a brightness which Malinda made through the candles she found in one of the closets of the kitchen. First, she had started a fire inside the stove, then just dipped the tips of the candles to make them burn, she did it a lot of times, not caring that it’s Xe’Reth’s candles.

Her handmaiden then begins to clean his wounds with a towel and hot water which Malinda had prepared through using the stove. Malinda knows her way around the kitchen because she does dabble in cooking from time to time, even though that’s something for the lower servants or handmaidens of the Citadel.

Xe’Reth watches with intent eyes as the handmaiden begins to clean his wounds while Malinda herself is seated beside Xe’Reth. She’s holding his hand in worry. Her now slightly bloodied clothes with light-plate are showing all of her features; her lean curves of a goddess, her deep red lips, her beautiful blond hair, and her eyeliner that has run down her face, but as she isn’t crying anymore, it has dried up.

Even though she’s so alluringly attractive, Xe’Reth just watches the handmaiden with prying eyes, though his eyes are showing his current half-fake weakened state. He never lets his guard down against people, especially if they’re intelligent, which this handmaiden seems to be just from her way of things.

His head turns to Malinda and asks with such a weak voice, “Who is… she?”

He knows that she must be some kind of servant or something, maybe her handmaiden? Yes, that’s what she most likely is. A mere servant who follows her master faithfully. Before yesterday, Xe’Reth had only seen Malinda alone, so this servant is completely unknown to him.

Servants who have given up on any other life…

‘Well it’s better than to live in this kind of state... She probably lives without any worries,’ Xe’Reth thinks because he can’t stand servants of any kind who would bow before another person… willingly.

He had bowed when he needed to, but Xe’Reth always despised those who he bowed before; the nobles… and the regular people who have decent professions… like the city guard.

“She’s my Honored Handmaiden and a dear friend of mine who I’ve known my entire life,” Malinda says with a smile beaming at her friend, and she smiles back with such a soft upward curve, continuing to tend to Xe’Reth. “Her name is Taryna, you’ll be seeing her a lot from now on.”

“A… lot?” Xe’Reth replies in a weak voice, but he already knows the answer from how she has been acting towards him. She wouldn’t hold his hand this casually and so affectionately if she wanted to reject his confession that he gave yesterday. This is the emotion of someone who’s in love.

‘I have her now…’ he rejoices with such unclean thoughts inside his head, thoughts of success which burn inside him.

Malinda doesn’t even notice her mistake of the tongue, nor his inquiring remark.

“Mm… I see now,” Xe’Reth says as he turns his head back to look at what Taryna is currently doing.

“How can this be…?” Taryna utters in shock, watching Xe’Reth’s wounds healing at a faster rate than anything she has ever seen before.

“What is the matter?!” Malinda shouts in an alarming voice as she thinks that something dire is happening to Xe’Reth while clenching his hand in dreadful concern.

But, Taryna just responds with a misleading voice, “Oh, it’s nothing, my mistake.”

She had just said it out of astonishment, though now that she has seen Xe’Reth’s increased healing… she locks her words away because she doesn’t want to worry her Miss about something she can’t even explain.

‘Damn, I forgot about it,’ Xe’Reth distresses, seeing Taryna’s expression, but instead of revealing it, she didn’t say anything. ‘Why didn’t she say anything…?’

Malinda gives out a sigh of relief, her worries go out the window, but no windows are there, only a door, a broken down door that leads out to the brightly lit street… where people are starting to gather.

The carriage of gold, the purebred horses of terror that are fully armored to the teeth stand outside this rundown house, and it’s only bringing in more people to stare at its marvel. But then, another carriage pulls up beside it, though not with the same luxurious decoration upon it. Compared to the golden one… it’s pretty much dung.

It has a brown wooden foundation with little carvings upon the outside of the carriage, and two horses in front, which is only clad in its braces and fastenings that connect to the carriage.

A gray-haired man sits in the driver’s seat, who guides it next to Malinda’s carriage.

As the door to the carriage exposes the inside with a slight creaking noise, a woman steps out and onto the street while going wide-eyed at the golden carriage two meters away from her face; a face of beauty, a face of nobility, and a face of real arrogance.

‘Why would such an expensive carriage be down here, in my slum?’ The woman wonders, but with worry too upon her flawless yet lowering eyebrows, because she doesn’t need someone poking around down here in the slums of the city.

“It’s by Xe’Reth’s house… Heh, has he made one of the nobles angry perhaps?” the woman asks out loud as she recognizes the home, her rundown house she has rented out. She’s the landlady who owns almost all of the houses in the slums. She even thinks that she owns Xe’Reth.

The taxes aren’t high so she takes advantage of it. She has bought all of the houses, no, her father had bought all of the houses down here when he was still alive, and then rented them out for people to live in, though at a higher price than the regular rent.

This woman had taken over her father’s business when he died and lived life as she saw fit. By robbing people of their money from the increased rent, though it hasn’t given that much of profit. Over the years, however, she has amassed a wealthy sum of coins, plus her inheritance.

It's not really illegal what she does, but with prying eyes around, she can’t feel good about it, only worry.

She walks around the golden carriage with head high while pale-skinned hands hold her beautiful long dress, pulling it up so no dirt touch the lower rims. Her brown hair is in a high braided ponytail that hangs down her spine, and her facial features show every nook and cranny from her hair uncovered face.

She’s very slim, attractively so, though her bosoms are rather large. They poke out from her dress like two giant mountains, but they aren’t gigantic, they’re temptingly attractive. She’s in her early twenties, an age where one should experience the wonders of the Kingdom or other sensations which she has already felt. She has glittering Jewelry on her ears and neck, seeming expensive…

As she sees the broken door she becomes slightly worrisome; have Xe’Reth gotten himself into such a dangerous situation? She’s a noble, but she has always found Xe’Reth to be… enthralling to be with.

She comes up to the door and peeks inside while the man who drove the carriage stands behind her, a rather old fellow in his sixties. He’s full of pride and has an air of strictness, but yet a gentle expression display on his wrinkled face. He doesn’t say anything, he only follows behind her quietly with a hand holding onto his sword which’s hanging on his waist.

The woman’s eyes widen as she sees the kitchen which is riddling with spread out things, damaged furniture, and Xe’Reth who's beside two women. One holding his hand while the other is cleaning his… wounds.

“What is going on here?!” she yells, catching the women holding his hand in an affectionate way while looking at him with a face of relief and high regard as if it’s someone precious to her.

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to voice your thoughts.

If you're wondering if this is going to turn into a harem, then I can say no. This Story isn't going to turn into a Harem, it just looks like it at the current time, or does it?

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