Chapter 7
Better to Give than to Receive
Location Unknown
There was darkness and there was cold. When Mariana opened her eyes, the cold remained, but the darkness was replaced with a blinding light, prompting her to quickly shut her eyes again.
A woman's voice spoke in a language Mariana did not understand. Another woman responded and as she was speaking, her words began to sound more like something Mariana could understand.
"If you can understand me, say something."
Mariana tried opening her eyes again, slowly that they might adjust to the light.
"Bright..." she said in a hoarse whisper. "Too bright..."
"Well, the adjustments seem to have worked," the second woman said. "We're still getting used to your language. Perhaps if I had bothered to study French, it would be quicker. Even knowing the roots, a language can change quite a bit in three hundred years. All these linguistic mishmashes and hodgepodges are infuriating, let me tell you. Can you imagine how much trouble it would be if the computers weren't doing most of the work for us?"
The language sounded like Venturi, but a lot of it did not make any sense. Three hundred years? That would be around the time of the Cataclysm...
The realization started to sink in as Mariana's last memories were coming back to her. The lights in the sky, the black figures...
By this point she could see more of her surroundings, not that there was much to see. White walls slick like porcelain, that damnable light overhead, humanoid shapes dressed in white...
She then realized she was cold for good reason. She was laid out naked on some sort of hard table, almost as if she were a sacrifice on the altar. Her wrists, ankles and head were held in place by what seemed to be metal fetters fused to the table. When she tried wiggling her hand, the fetters tightened.
"If you struggle, it will be more uncomfortable for you," the woman said, "though discomfort is going to be the least of your worries. You should be thankful I was assigned to you. Unlike some of my colleagues, I'm willing to show you some mercy, depending on how well you cooperate, that is. Let's start with your name."
Mariana's first instinct was to use her identity as the Count's daughter for leverage, but she immediately realized it could work against her if her captors knew her value. She did not know what they intended, but it did not seem like a good idea to cooperate too easily.
The woman only waited a few moments for an answer before saying, "Are you going to tell me it is manners to introduce myself first? You can call me Maki. Now, what is your name?"
Still, Mariana said nothing.
"Alright," Maki said. "I see you're not taking this seriously. Let's get you in the right mindset."
She then took a small box and placed Mariana's hand inside.
"You are probably not familiar with nerve induction," Maki said, "but it is a technology that we have been refining for hundreds of years, since the days of the Union before the Second Emperor rose to the throne. It can be used to simulate all manner of experiences. This box is a portable version that is handy to carry around, if you'll pardon the pun.
"Let's begin with a simple demonstration. Heat..."
Maki had something that looked like a polished slate chalkboard, the sort you would see schoolchildren use when practicing their letters or working simple arithmetic. She traced along the surface with her fingertip and slowly Mariana could feel her hand get warmer.
"Cold..."
The temperature suddenly seemed to drop, even colder than the already chilly air around her.
"Pressure..."
Now it felt like a weight was bearing down on her. In each case, it did not feel right. There was something missing.
"And... pain..."
It felt like a pin pricked Mariana's finger, a quick, sharp pain. That was what was missing. Natural sensations are never so isolated. When you feel things like heat, cold and pressure in rising intensity, pain accompanies it as a warning.
"We can refine it more, but I usually keep it on a scale of one to a hundred," Maki said. "One you barely feel and a hundred so intense that your brain shuts down. How much can you endure? Do you want to find out, or will you tell me your name?"
Despite the demonstration of the little box's power and the threat of what it was capable of, Mariana was nevertheless reluctant to give her name. She did not trust the woman's promise of more favorable treatment if she cooperated. More than that, she had to protect the family. She did not know if Iliana had been taken or not, or if these people had gotten to young Joseph. If they had not, she could not allow these people to learn about them through her.
Maki sighed.
"It seems I haven't made myself clear. You are going to suffer for what you've done to Imperial citizens, but how much you suffer at present is entirely in my hands. How about we break one of those fingers?"
Her hand hovered over the slate.
"Last chance."
Mariana remained silent.
"Alright."
Maki's fingers danced across the slate and then Mariana felt the sharp pain in her pinkie finger between the first and second knuckles. There was no sound of the bone breaking, but Mariana had already forgotten that the box only gave the illusion of sensation. She gasped, but promptly gritted her teeth to keep from crying out.
"Do try not to bite down so hard you break your teeth," Maki said. "Dr. Bashar gets so annoyed at me when I give him extra work. I would give you something to bite down on, but I don't want it to get in the way of you talking when you come around. And you will come around. You're going to feel ever so disappointed when you realize all this was for nothing. Shall we continue?"
The only thing Maki stood to lose was time and patience. Mariana knew this as it had not been that long since she was in the same position. In Mariana's case, though, no one was willfully resisting her, but there was no guarantees her honest answers would avail her any more than it did for them.
"Let's see how you like losing a fingernail."
Mariana felt the fingernail of her index finger get wrenched before being yanked out. She stifled her cry but unwittingly tried to twist free of her restraints, causing the fetters to tighten further.
Unlike the previous time, Maki did not wait before moving on to the next step.
"And let's peel off the skin while we're at it."
There was certainly pain, but worse was the sick sensation of naked meat being exposed to the air. It made Mariana's stomach lurch. It took all her willpower to keep from vomiting.
"How about a little slow roasting?" Maki asked.
Next came heat and pain as the skinned finger was brought close to an open flame, or at least that was how it felt. Hotter and hotter. More and more pain...
Amid Mariana's stifled cries through clenched teeth, Maki said, "I got to spend some time with the old man before coming here. So many people who engage in... enhanced interrogation can dish it out, but they can't take it. Would it make you happy to hear how well he resisted? He's strong for an old man, but he's still just an old man. The will might resist, but the body might fail first."
It was indeed gratifying to hear that Mr. Geoffries could resist their torture, but surely if Maki wanted to torment her, she would have brought up Iliana first. Did she escape capture? Was she still alive? Surely death would be better than capture like this, but the thought of her sister being dead was like a knife in the heart. It was nearly enough for her to forget about her finger.
Anyone who was not Iliana was merely a tool. Even Joseph, the only other person besides Iliana and her mother who she professed to love, could be cast aside for Iliana's sake. That being said, Mariana found her resolve wavering when she thought of Mr. Geoffries suffering. To suffer and die for the sake of House Ladrieu would be his duty and one he would fulfill gladly, yet even though Mariana thought herself free of any foolish sentimentality, her mind was flooded with memories of the kindly old gentleman who tended to her and her sister for as long as she could remember.
"He... he can tell you nothing," Mariana said. "He was only... He was only following orders..."
Maki tilted her head.
"Maybe you don't know the history of 'only following orders'," she said. "All that excuse will get you is two necks in the noose: the one who followed the orders and the one who gave those orders. But don't worry. We aren't going to be stretching necks anytime soon.
"Now that you've shown me that you care about that old man enough to loosen those tight lips of yours, you've given me more options. You both resist fairly well for your own sakes, but how well can you resist for each other? If I were to put you two together in the same room and take turns with you, who do you think will break first?"
It was the same trick Mariana had used against the Ancients. The scales of Fate were tipped against her. Did Maki know of this? That knowledge certainly seemed to be behind her cruel smile as her fingers moved slowly across the slate.
The heat of the fire increased and Mariana could not bear it any longer, finally screaming out loud. Satisfied with her accomplishment, Maki slowly turned down the fire until only a faint residual heat remained.
"Are you going to tell me your name now?"
"Mariana... Mariana de Ladrieu..."
Maki's smile was now bright and cheery as she said, "Well, that wasn't so hard, now was it?"
She pulled away the little box and Mariana looked in disbelief at her hand, which did not have a single spot on it. She tentatively flexed her fingers. No broken bones, no missing nail, no peeled skin or burnt meat...
Maki placed her hand on Mariana's, intertwining their fingers and gripping tight.
"We've got a lot more talking to do, Mariana de Ladrieu," she said. "There's going to be more pain, but if you're a good girl, there will be less of it. You may wish you were dead, but we're not going to let you die. Arcanists are too valuable a resource. We're going to remake you, remold you like clay. By the time we're done with you, you're going to love His Majesty the Emperor with every fiber of your being and you're going to serve him with all that you have, body, mind and soul."
Although she felt like a glass vessel about to shatter into a million pieces, a defiant part of Mariana continued to lurk in the depths of her heart. Let them try to mold her according to their design. A part of her would remain, waiting for the opportunity to get her revenge. And if she should fail, it would fall to Iliana and her generations to take up the cause.
Cut off one head and two shall grow in its place...