Amelia stared down at the ground, futility trying to break the shackles that bound her. The cage disappeared and the shackles remained. Softly padded leather boots made little noise as they came into view. She tried to look up at her ambusher, but she received a closed fist to the back of the head.

“Listen here, girlie. We need you alive, that’s true, but that doesn’t mean you need to be whole to do it.” The smell of shit and flowers wafted into her face and her pupils dilated.

“I-I th-thought you were dead,” Amelia whispered in fear.

The soft leather boots slammed into her face and sent her flying onto her back. Her nose broke and bled profusely. She groaned in pain, eyes tearing up, and stared up at someone who should be dead.

“Amelia, I really have missed you,” Shidan - known commonly as The Rat for his rat-like features, interest in diseases and rats, and incredibly awkward social skills - grinned down at her. “You wouldn’t believe how excited - yes, I was truly honored - that the asshats in Association came looking for me, of all people, to hunt you down.”

Shidan leaned in close to her and smelled her neck, wrapping his hands around her neck, all the while groping her chest. She spit a glob of bloody mucus into his face and he reeled away from her. He wiped it off with his sleeve and looked back at her, “Now, that’s no way to play nice.”

A Yolin-drawn cart approached, coming to a stop next to Shidan, and he went into the back of it and fiddled around with the contents. He exclaimed happily when he found what he looked forward, placed whatever it was behind his back, and walked back over to Amelia.

He pulled to rats, clearly diseased, from behind his back, “Now, my friends here will have to keep you company. I’m sure they’ll play nice, but maybe not. You haven’t been very friendly, after all.”

He placed one on her chest and one on her groin where they began sniffing around hungrily.

Amelia’s heart raced and she tried to shake the rats loose, but their little claws managed to keep them rooted on her clothes. She didn’t want to show Shidan how afraid she really was, but they looked like they would start biting her any second. She didn’t want to know what kind of nasty diseases he’d given his pets this time around, but there was little she could do. Her Essence couldn’t escape the bindings and sapped her of her strength.

“Rat, quit playing around fool. We have orders,” someone called out to Shidan. “We have a deadline to meet.”

Shidan glared back at the man with great hostility. He turned away and let the true hatred that burned deep within show for only a brief moment before he turned back with a smile and gave the other man a thumbs up.

He turned back to Amelia and grabbed his pets off her, “Don’t worry, Amelia, you’ll have plenty of time to spend with my friends later. This trip will be a smooth ride for us out here, but you’re in for the time of your life. I promise that much.”

The color drained from her face, the truth of her situation dawning. Shidan reached down towards her, and she struggled to get as far from his reach as she could. She didn’t get far before he grabbed her by the hair and started dragging her towards the back of the cart, clutching his pets in his other hand. They crawled onto his shoulders and perched there, looking down at Amelia like she was a snack.

“Okay, Amelia, here we are. Your temporary home, and it even has some interesting accommodations. Look there,” Shidan lifted Amelia to her feet and pointed up toward several items placed with similar spacing from one another, “those are a nice surprise for when you get tired. There’s the pot for your business. And don’t worry, I’ll be keeping watch over you personally. We’ll be spending a lot of time together, Amelia.”

She resisted the urge to spit and vomit at the same time. She stared at the back of the wagon, another magical cage already being established, and then back at Shidan who leered at her. His perverted gaze made her fear for more than her life, so she quickly climbed into the back of the wagon. She winced as Shidan’s hand slapped against her ass, sending sharp stinging pain through the whole area.

She held back the tears that threatened to fall freely as she stepped into the cage. She sat in the middle and refused to look back at the worst scum in this world. Her fury burned deep within, overshadowing her fear by a large margin.

The wagon lurched forward and her journey back to Ghulda began. She had hoped that she would never have to go back. ‘I wonder what Obsidian is doing.’

The wagon’s travel was rather smooth. Amelia tried her best to fight back the boredom and exhaustion that threatened to claim her, but she could only be so vigilant for so long.

As she felt the embrace of sleep wrap its warm arms around her to take her away from the nightmare that was her reality, the items that Shidan pointed out before exploded into a brilliant radiance that both blinded her and caused adrenaline to send her body into fight or flight mode.

‘This…’ The tears Amelia fought back flowed freely as the exhaustion drained her of her ability to remain calm. The reality of her situation sank in and she came to a realization very slowly, ‘They need me alive, but they’re preparing me for torture.’

She had learned several methods to make people break without ever touching them, and starting by having them so tired that they didn’t know up from down was a good place to start. No matter what she did, she couldn’t avoid her body’s natural inclination. With her Essence cut off, she couldn’t do anything to help herself.

The wagon stopped and she heard boots crunching through tall grass. Shidan leaned around the corner and stuck his head through the opening of the wagon, calling out to her. “Tired already, Amelia? Seems like you’ve had a busy day, but we can’t have you feeling too comfortable back here. You understand, right?”

She avoided his gaze, doing her best to calm her heart that threatened to jump free of her chest.

“It’s almost as if,” he paused and looked around then back to her, “we’ve been here before. It’s a little different. It’s a bit airier than the stuffy dungeon you kept me in. It feels nice to be on this side of the cage this time around.”

Amelia grit her teeth and glared back at him. She stood up shakily and slowly made her way to the end of the cage. “I would do it all over again,” she slowly said through grit teeth, “and, if I had the chance to do it again, I would make sure to leave you in tiny rat-sized pieces. I will flay you alive if I get free of these shackles.”

Shidan’s face fell and he looked at his pets, speaking to them softly, “She’s just talking big. She doesn’t have the stomach for that kind of a mess, though daddy would be okay if he fed his babies. Are you hungry?”

They both looked up to him and then took a bite out of his hand, chewing slowly before staring back at Amelia. “I’d do anything for my babies, but it’s funny that you talk so high and mighty.”

He put his pets back on his shoulder and jumped into the back of the wagon, “Maybe I should break you of that attitude. Would it hurt so much to,” he stared at her chest and groin, “blow off some steam while disciplining the prisoner? I just might help mysel-”

“Rat, what’s the holdup?!” a voice called out from the outside of the wagon.

“Oh darn, time’s up,” Shidan said as he looked behind him towards the hooded figure that appeared, “but maybe next time. Keep up with all that unfriendliness, and I’ll make sure to take your tongue with me.”

He winked at her and then left the wagon. In only moments, they were traveling once more.

“He will die, even if it kills me,” Amelia said through clenched teeth. “Sorry Obsidian, but I have no choice.”