“Cattle shouldn’t talk in front of their owners. Be thankful Lord Tyranus has allowed you to speak.” Maria said, directing a glare at Faera. Now that Sam thought about it, the rest of the prisoners were gagged. Billy wanted him to talk to Faera, hoping they would complement each other’s suffering, like fish and beef.

From what Sam understood, most people would die pretty quick if you cut off their arms and legs, stuffed a rag in their mouths and fed them once a day, but after who knows how many molts, these people were the picture of health despite the squalid conditions.

“So, it looks like Tyranus’s plan for you has finally come to fruition as a vessel for his Ascention. Not so arrogant now that my lord has withdrawn his blessing, are you?” Maria said, standing outside his cell, hand on her hip and smirking as six grim-face musclemen opened Sam’s cell and took him by the arms.

Holy crap, she knows i can harness Nuetta and she’s such a believer that she didn’t even question it! For her all magic absolutely comes from her god. That’s hilarious! One word and i’d be in shackles and dead.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you sound really crazy?” Sam asked. Maria responded with a slap. Sam was momentarily tempted to bite a finger off, but he decided to let it hit his cheek.

That was a mistake.

Sam had momentarily forgotten the woman was physically stronger than he was, and the impact rocked his head to the side, making him see stars and briefly wonder if he felt his implant jostling around his brain. Would it smell like an anyeurism?

“Be thankful to my lord that you get to keep your tongue. I tried to persuade him that you can communicate without it.”

Sam stuck out his tongue.

Maria punched him in the balls.

“You don’t have to keep those,” Maria said as Sam slumped in his captor’s arms. “But we need bargaining chips, don’t we?”

Sam had taken nut shots before, but nothing could quite prepare you for it. He focused on regaining control of his lungs while they dragged him out of the room.

“Be right back,” he rasped.

As they dragged him through the stone hall, Sam was thinking as fast as he could. If he could stall for time and spend time getting ‘fattened up’ he would Molt a few times, vastly increasing the amount of power he could bring to bear, but the only way he saw that he could do that was let them cripple him.

Can you fix amputated limbs? Sam asked Gurd internally

I could become an armband and hide myself near your smelly armpit, and sure, I could guide your flesh to regrow, but I don’t recommend it. It’s not fast or easy with the limited size of your Yuenan. Certainly not fast and easy enough to surprise them and make a daring escape.

Can you maintain an illusion hiding my regrown limbs?

That... might work. Are you sure you want to do this?

Yeah, I’m sure. If that bastard wants to grow my Yuenan so he can eat me, I’m gonna make him choke on it. If i want to sell the idea that i’m helpless, I’m going to have to bleed. Once this is over, I’m going to walk up to Billy and I’m going to make him regret hurting my crush. Both crushes, I guess.

This is gonna suck. Gurd complained.

At least I’m not going to hide you in my ass like the other rings. That and you’ll get to meet new people.

How’s that?

You’re going to regrow Faera’s limbs too, at least.

Never worked for a woman before. Gurd’s voice sounded intrigued.

Word of advice, keep it professional and women will find you more attractive.

Seems counter-intuitive.

The door at the end of the hall opened, revealing a bloodied solid steel table with steel beams to restrain stronger-than-human victims.

Time to get busy, make yourself into an armband.

Sam telekinetically grabbed the invisible ring as it widened and slipped it up to his armpit, while sliding the other two rings off his right hand and under his arm, into his clothes and up his butt.

We’re not telling people about this when we’re telling this story years from now, are we? Gurd asked.

We’ll keep it vague.

The musclemen hauled Sam up to the table, and Sam struggled to make it convincing, but he was alarmed to discover he couldn’t shake them off on his best day. These men must have a lot of Molts under their belt as well. It made Sam wonder. They weren’t all wizards, were they? It was an unusual feeling, not being the strongest man in the room. Sam didn’t like it.

They hauled him, kicking and straining, up to the table, and locked him down one limb at a time.

“Now, we’re going to make you a more presentable offering for our lord.” Marie said with the hint of a smile. “You should have taken my offer. Both of them.”

“I think I’d rather have my arms and legs cut off.” Sam said, rolling his eyes, glancing over at the muscleman retrieving a rather large axe from the wall.

“And so you shall. Not that one,” She said to the looming figure. “The saw.”

The man frowned, but he didn’t question her, simply turning and retrieving a large, jagged saw.

What a bitch.

“I’m wondering,” Sam said. “Since people get smarter when they’ve molted, but those fellas don’t seem particularly bright, did they get lobotomised or something?”

Another brute came and shoved a rag in Sam’s mouth.

“So you don’t bite your tongue.” He said, patting Sam on the cheek as the other one placed the saw against his left bicep.

Don’t worry, I can stop the pain. Gurd said.

Don’t bother, we gotta make it convincing. Just make sure I don’t shit myself.

As you wish.

After an hour of hacking his limbs away while Marie healed the wounds shut, they delivered his torso back to the cell. Sam lost consciousness after the first leg, and they’d seen fit to finish the job while he was out.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself on his back, staring up at the ceiling, much like Faera had been.

“You still there?” Sam asked.

Yep. Gurd responded.

“Yeah.” Faera said.

Sorry, were you talking to her?

Doesn’t matter.

“So now what?” Sam asked.

“I assume he’s going to give you a few months or years as a limbless invalid to crush your spirit, get everything he wants to know out of you in exhange for a blanket, and then eat you.”

“Perfect.”

“How’s that?”

“Trade secret.” Sam said, struggling to turn onto his side and look at Faera. Finally he gave up and simply turned his head.

“When I break out, I want you to be ready. Then we’ll kill his ass and consumate on the corpse.”

Faera laughed and looked at the ceiling.

“If you break us out of here, I’ll let you consumate anywhere you want.”

“Deal.” Sam said, looking at the ceiling.

How long is it going to take to fix my arms and legs? Sam asked Gurd.

At the current rate? Two years.

Sam felt a cold sweat on his forehead as the powerful Nuetta flowing through the room triggered the beginning of a molt.

I think we can do it in a month.

The time spent in prison was boring, and painful, Sam was kept in a state of near-perpetual fever for the first three days, as one Molt after another piled on top of each other until they finally slowed down and stopped after the fourth. Between the Molts, and the sails around his Yuenan, Gurd estimated it would still take two months to grow his limbs back completely.

Every day Sam was hosed down after having a cupful of salty, fatty goop and water spooned into his mouth. There wasn’t much light to photosynthesize, so he gradually lost weight, until his body became a truncated stick figure of its former self.

The first week, Sam caught Faera up on where he’d been, and what he’d been up to. The second she told him about her family, her friend from her home, the one she was trying to save.

“Haleia?” Sam asked, searching his memories. “Yeah, she was with the group of elders and children that went across the river. Not really the fighting type.”

Faera sighed in relief.

A week later he gave them the location of a supply warehouse for the Fabricator after they cut his dick off.

A week later, Sam’s arms and legs were skeletal things wrapped in a thin layer of skin, only visible to him. He’d lost an eye.

Sam wished they would feed him more.

He was running out of dirty jokes to tell Faera.

A week later, Sam’s limbs had grown just enough muscle to move when Faera gave up.

“I don’t think I can do this anymore, Sam.” She said, tears streaming from her eyes, and pooling on the ground. “I thought I cared enough to do anything, but I’d put a bullet between the eyes of everyone I love if someone would put me out of my misery.”

“You’re going to make it through. I’m going to get us out of here.”

“Stop! Stop trying to make me feel like we could ever get out of here! You’re just building me up so they can knock me down again! I want out of here! I don’t care who does it, just kill me!”

“They can hear you!” Sam hissed.

“I don’t care! I just wanna die!”

“Hey!” Sam said. “Look at me.” Faera turned her head toward him, her eyes dead. “If you wanna die more than you want to get revenge, go ahead and bite your tongue off, bleed out that way...otherwise...” Sam had Gurd make his right arm visible and put his finger to his lips before it blinked out of existence again.

Faera blinked, staring at his arm, as if doubting her sanity.

“You with me?” he asked.

She nodded.

The door clanked open, causing everyone in the room to tense. It wasn’t the right time of day for food and cleaning, and that only meant someone was going away to be tortured or eaten. Tehre was a certain solidarity in the prisoners, but Sam knew everyone was secretly hoping that it wasn’t their turn.

The door swung open and Maria walked in, smiling as she greeted them.

“Good evening.”

Crap,crap,crap.

“Is it?” Sam asked, peering against the light of the lamp in Maria’s hand.

“I’m here for the black offering’s confession.” Maria said, and Sam relaxed. Billy just wanted to pry some information out of him.

“But,” she said, a sadistic smile growing “I heard some rather plaintive pleas for mercy, perhaps it’s time for you to be offered to my lord?” Maria stared at Faera like a predator.

“You might not see it, but I’m flipping you off right now.” Faera said.

“Me too.” Sam said, using his invisible, bony hand to give her the finger with all the power he could muster. It didn’t seem to stick. To all appearances it looked like he was simply lifting a stump.

“I suppose that’s a yes then,” Maria said, nodding to the men beside her.

“Wait!” Sam said, his heart hammering. “I’ll give Tyranus a location, before you even start cutting, I’ll give him a treasure trove, just leave her here.”

Maria studied him with a narrowed eyes. “She’s that valuable to you? I’m glad to see you’ve come around. Then we will take both of you, and if your answers fail to impress, i’m sure my lord will know what to do with your friend.”

She nodded to her lackeys, who threw Sam and Faera over their shoulders. Sam carefully kept his regrown limbs from touching them, which was a hell of a challenge.

“This bastard’s still heavy.” The man hauling Sam complained.

“Of course he’s heavy, he’s huge.” Maria said, walking behind them as they made their way down the hall. “Forgive me, you were huge.”

“What’s a little castration humor between friends?” Sam said with a grin.

“You seem intent on making my lord regret leaving you your tongue.”

“Guess you got me figured out.”

Maria frowned. “Why have you decided to speak this time? Nothing but your cock seemed to motivate you.”

“Uh, because you threatened one of my clone’s girlfriends? Huh, I guess Faera wasn’t his girlfriend. Hey Faera, screw that other Sam, wanna be my girlfriend?”

“What’s in it for me?” Faera called from the shoulders of the other brute.

“Back in the day, I was feared as a killing machine, but did you know there were also quite a few people who called me a sex machine? That’s right, I’ve got five million years of sexperience in this implant and the body of a genetically engineered super soldier. I’ll do things to you you didn’t even think were possible.”

“Linquala would be ashamed.”

“She acted like I smelled like shit!” Sam said, breaking into a cackling laugh, interrupted by a backhand from Maria.

“We’re here.” She said, leading them into the gold lit chamber. Now that the dragon was back in residence, the braziers were lit, casting a warm golden color across the marble cavern. Sam cast an eye around the room before he was dumped in the floor. It looked like Billy hadn’t gotten his loot back yet. Good sign. Sam briefly considered that the dragon might hide the stolen treasure from Sam to keep him as uninformed as possible, but Sam dismissed it. Billy wasn’t taking Sam seriously.

“Welcome back.” Billy said, peering down at the two of them. His gaze travelled to Faera, and Sam saw his teeth shimmer with drool. Not good.

Maria walked up the mountain of gold and Billy bent his neck low to listen to her whispers.

“Ah.” He said, glancing at Faera. “So you wish to give me information to delay her fate?”

“Well, yeah. I’m gonna need women for that island we agreed on.” Sam looked around the room. “Is there paperwork I need to sign or someth-UURRG” Sam was interrupted by a black claw as long as a scimitar puncturing his abdomen.

“I think we can move past the bravado. Heal him.”

Maria knelt beside Sam, putting a palm on his chest as the dragon withdrew his claw, leaving a puckering scar behind. Sam didn’t even lose much blood.

“Now, tell me something interesting or I’ll take her tongue. I’ve heard you two enjoy your conversations. That is a luxury I have allowed until now.” Billy placed a claw meaningfully beside Faera’s head.

“Secret bases and labs, eh? I know just the one you need. There’s one in Nebraska under a bigass cornfield, called Whisky Able six. One of me used to guard there. Just off highway one eighty three, north of Ansley.”

“And what did the base do?”

“They never told that Sam, but cross referencing faces that Sam knew with facts the others were aware of, including personelle and supply shipments, there’s a damn good chance they were working on natural male enhancement for dragons.

Billy’s eyes narrowed, and he lifted his claw, forcing it past Faera’s teeth until she was sobbing and gagging.

“Fine, it was experimental weapons! Same people that made the vampire you smashed. If you don’t want some farmer from Missippi blowing you out of the sky fifty years from now, you’ll want to melt that place into slag.”

“That is interesting information,” Billy said. “But I can’t have you talking to a god like that.” Billy’s claw twitched, the tip puncturing the side of Faera’s cheek before he withdrew it, a piece of ragged meat hanging from the tip. Bastard.

Faera cried into the stone floor, blood oozing from the hole in her cheek.

“Next time it’s your other eye.” Billy set two fingers on Sam’s stomach, their claws resting on either side of his head.

“You got it, Billy boy.”

“NEVER CALL ME THAT!” Billy roared, his blood-scented breath tickling Sam’s skin. His teeth almost closed down on Sam’s neck before he stopped, which was good, because Sam was a hair’s breadth away from shooting a Jyin Suata into the dragon’s mouth and taking his chances with the rest.

The earth-shaking growl calmed, and Billy pulled his head away. Sam noticed the dragon’s gaze dart to his follower, but she was too busy sneering at Sam. Sam supposed that had she been looking at Billy at all, she would have been killed.

Billy took a deep breath. “You’re trying to make me lose control and end your life, but dozens have tried that before. I’m used to it. I swear that you will live a long time in the darkness.”

“Dozens, huh? I’ve been tortured to death hundreds of times, so it’s gonna take a little more-“ The last thing Sam saw was a claw, point-first, then the hair raising sensation of a smooth claw sliding into his ocular cavity,

Along with pain. Lots and lots of pain.

“GAAAH!” Sam screamed, trying to remove the claw with an animal frenzy, his mission forgotten. The only reason his arms weren’t revealed was because the dragon literally couldn’t feel sam’s forearms beating agains his claws.

“Heal him.”

Sam felt Maria’s hand on his shoulder, and the pain in his eye faded, but he was still cast in complete darkness, a dragon looming over him. Sam could feel his breath.

Sam could feel his whole body shivering as he panted. His heart hammering in his chest.

“-Than this.”

Billy chuckled, the sound high above him.

“I admit, you’re the most interesting person to talk to I’ve met in the last four hundred years.”

“It’s the company you keep.” Sam jerked his head toward Maria’s Last Known Location.

Doesn’t get much weaker looking than this. Sam thought to himself.

“Let’s get back to the important matter. Where. Are. The. Jeeps?”

“The ones filled with treasure, yeah?” Sam asked.

“There were ten, and in a matter of seconds, they vanished while I was distracted by the tenth.”

“What’s it worth to you?” Sam asked.

“Tell me or I’ll make you experience liver failure for the next month, and eat the girl. Or maybe I’ll make you eat her. She’s nearly outlived her usefulness, as you can’t see what I’m doing to her.”

That’s what you think, asshole. Sam thought, watching the dragon through his floating eye. Time to check the situation. Sam sent the floating eye to the Fabricator in the corner of the room and was pleased to discover a discarded tanker-trailer beside it. It was full, or close to it.

Looks like he went and got the supplies for me. What a nice present.

“All right, just keep her alive and I’ll give you something new every day. I’ll tell you what you want to know.” Sam withdrew the floating eye and planting it just in front of his face, narrowing its field of view until he couldn’t see himself.

“You remember the silver scorpion?”

The dragon nodded. “I see, one of the elves used the Torensaga to make the jeeps portable. Where did they go?”

“They got drawn back to First word by Theold. Kind of an emergency get out of jail free card in case we were attacked.”

“I see.” The dragon tapped his claws on the marble floor, heat radiating outward from his blood-red scales.

“I find it irritating that I have to win back my own property, but I suppose that’s the way it goes. Tell me about this Theold fellow that can teleport people.”

“Well, he’s-“

Faera shouted wordlessly before Maria clapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes pleaded with him not to tell the dragon about what Sam could only assume was their strongest wizard.

“I assume he’s their strongest wizard. They expected him to beat Kein’Maddal back when Sam Classic was killing monsters for their amusement, if that gives you any ballpark estimate of how dangerous he is.”

“It does.” Billy said with a grin. “He’ll be the key ingredient for a new Molt.”

Billy stretched lazily, gave a great yawn and settled on his bed of gold.

“Send him back, leave the other one. I’m hungry.” Maria motioned for the brutes to pick up Sam. Crap. Was this where Sam would have to make a break for it? It was cutting it far too close for comfort. Sam wasn’t even sure if he could stand; he hadn’t tried.