the command, I willed my being into every part of it. I let myself believe .
I'm not sure if it was that; the belief. Belief is a tangible thing. To truly believe you become one with the belief itself. I became one with the belief that this would work. That I actually had the ability to connect with my Element and use it against my captor. I didn't allow a shadow of doubt to enter my mind, I just believed .
And the vision, the hallucination, shattered, with a curse in Greek and a muffled cry of pain from my interrogator.
The cool, dark room coalesced around me, including the panting, sweating, angry face of my Gi tormentor.
He was several feet away, hunched over, hands to knees, breathing too rapidly. His green blazing eyes on my trapped form. Tied to a wooden chair, no hope of escape should he lash out.
"How did you do that?" he demanded, straightening up and attempting to hide the grimace of pain the movement caused.
I had no answer, and I thought silence was my best defence right now.
He tilted his head and studied my blank face. Then in a rush he was on me. His arm pulled back before I even registered what he was doing. The smart of the slap making me cry out in pain. He didn't stop. Another backhanded slap across my cheek and jaw. Another scream of agony, followed by splatter of blood arcing through the air, to the side of where I sat trapped, and up the wall.
Again and again he struck, making my head whip from side to side as he put every ounce of his physical strength into beating me. I counted thirteen strikes before I lost consciousness. Thirteen screams, which became cries, and then finally whimpers.
I'd succeeded in something today. Something I had not managed to do for three months.
I broke a Hederin induced hallucination.
And I broke my Gi interrogator’s composure.
I woke back on my hard bed, a cool cloth wiping carefully against the skin on my neck. Without windows I couldn't tell what time it was, how long I had been out. From the ache in my body, not just my face, my tormentor had progressed on from cheek slaps, to full body punches. I sucked in a shallow breath and realised I probably had broken ribs as well as a bruised jaw now.
I whimpered as the cloth was dragged across sensitive flesh, then wrung out in a bowl of water to my side. I hadn't yet opened my eyes. I don't think it was intentional. My lids felt a little too puffy to be normal right now.
"Sorry," my carer whispered. "He made a mess of your face."
A sliver of light appeared along the bottom of my vision; the gap my swollen eyelids allowed me to see through. The Gi doctor sat on a chair beside my bed, gently tending to my sorry state.
"I pissed him off," I mumbled, perhaps incoherently.
"You shouldn't do that," he replied neutrally, but didn't stop cleaning up the blood with tender strokes of the cloth.
"How long was I out?" I asked, a little more light seeping through my half closed lids. I could make out the broad chest of the doctor now, not quite his face. But I knew him. He'd tended to my injuries in the past.
"It's late afternoon," he surprised me by saying. "I've only just now been called in and you were still unconscious when I arrived. I'm uncertain when Davos left you, but he wasn't seen in the hallways until one hour ago."
It was the most the doctor had ever spoken. Usually his answers were oblique and short. He hadn't even called my interrogator by name before, and as the doctor and my tormentor were the only two Gi I ever saw, my conversations had been limited. Until now.
I'm not sure why he was in a talkative mood, but despite the pain of my injuries I decided it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.
"Will he back?" The most important question.
The doctor grunted. It was an unamused sound he'd never made before. "Oh, he'll be back, little one. He's feeding his Stoicheio so when he returns he can really let you have it. What were you thinking?"
Another surprise. The doctor had never asked me a question
I'm not sure if it was that; the belief. Belief is a tangible thing. To truly believe you become one with the belief itself. I became one with the belief that this would work. That I actually had the ability to connect with my Element and use it against my captor. I didn't allow a shadow of doubt to enter my mind, I just believed .
And the vision, the hallucination, shattered, with a curse in Greek and a muffled cry of pain from my interrogator.
The cool, dark room coalesced around me, including the panting, sweating, angry face of my Gi tormentor.
He was several feet away, hunched over, hands to knees, breathing too rapidly. His green blazing eyes on my trapped form. Tied to a wooden chair, no hope of escape should he lash out.
"How did you do that?" he demanded, straightening up and attempting to hide the grimace of pain the movement caused.
I had no answer, and I thought silence was my best defence right now.
He tilted his head and studied my blank face. Then in a rush he was on me. His arm pulled back before I even registered what he was doing. The smart of the slap making me cry out in pain. He didn't stop. Another backhanded slap across my cheek and jaw. Another scream of agony, followed by splatter of blood arcing through the air, to the side of where I sat trapped, and up the wall.
Again and again he struck, making my head whip from side to side as he put every ounce of his physical strength into beating me. I counted thirteen strikes before I lost consciousness. Thirteen screams, which became cries, and then finally whimpers.
I'd succeeded in something today. Something I had not managed to do for three months.
I broke a Hederin induced hallucination.
And I broke my Gi interrogator’s composure.
I woke back on my hard bed, a cool cloth wiping carefully against the skin on my neck. Without windows I couldn't tell what time it was, how long I had been out. From the ache in my body, not just my face, my tormentor had progressed on from cheek slaps, to full body punches. I sucked in a shallow breath and realised I probably had broken ribs as well as a bruised jaw now.
I whimpered as the cloth was dragged across sensitive flesh, then wrung out in a bowl of water to my side. I hadn't yet opened my eyes. I don't think it was intentional. My lids felt a little too puffy to be normal right now.
"Sorry," my carer whispered. "He made a mess of your face."
A sliver of light appeared along the bottom of my vision; the gap my swollen eyelids allowed me to see through. The Gi doctor sat on a chair beside my bed, gently tending to my sorry state.
"I pissed him off," I mumbled, perhaps incoherently.
"You shouldn't do that," he replied neutrally, but didn't stop cleaning up the blood with tender strokes of the cloth.
"How long was I out?" I asked, a little more light seeping through my half closed lids. I could make out the broad chest of the doctor now, not quite his face. But I knew him. He'd tended to my injuries in the past.
"It's late afternoon," he surprised me by saying. "I've only just now been called in and you were still unconscious when I arrived. I'm uncertain when Davos left you, but he wasn't seen in the hallways until one hour ago."
It was the most the doctor had ever spoken. Usually his answers were oblique and short. He hadn't even called my interrogator by name before, and as the doctor and my tormentor were the only two Gi I ever saw, my conversations had been limited. Until now.
I'm not sure why he was in a talkative mood, but despite the pain of my injuries I decided it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.
"Will he back?" The most important question.
The doctor grunted. It was an unamused sound he'd never made before. "Oh, he'll be back, little one. He's feeding his Stoicheio so when he returns he can really let you have it. What were you thinking?"
Another surprise. The doctor had never asked me a question
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