Chapter 74: 70 – (Content warning) Folie à Deux

*** Content Warning***

This chapter will touch on torture and mention rape. 

The spoiler box below has a summary for those who wish to skip this chapter.

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POV - Ailine

Navi and I made our way through the dark town with the metal box on my back. Less than ten minutes later, we were at the church I had spent so long trapped beneath. 

Under the cover of night, we made our way to the back of the church. I stopped in my tracks as I looked at the cellar doors I had been forced through all those years ago. 

With nobody around, I took the backpack off. (Navi, please open it.)

(Sure thing, Ailine!) she said as she got to work. 

Within a few seconds, the lid was off, displaying the man within, wearing only his nightclothes. Without hesitation, I grabbed a leg and roughly pulled him out. Navi stored the box once he was clear. Using the leg that was now dislocated, I dragged him behind me as I walked up to the doors. 

By the morning, people at the mansion should be frantically looking for this piece of human garbage. When news gets to the guards, there will be word of a female holy knight that entered town at his request. The unknowns should leave all parties confused and with plenty of questions about his whereabouts or the identity of the knight, as well as how someone as sickly as the bastard was able to disappear from his room along with no other sightings of the knight being reported.

Thanks to the helmet, he was completely silent. Navi had tightened it so that it couldn't be removed without earth magic. With my free hand, I opened one of the doors and proceeded to walk down the jagged stone stairs, dragging the man behind me. Navi slipped in just as I let the door close. The heavy doors shut hard on one of his arms, but a hard tug and a popping sound later and he was through with a dislocated shoulder. 

Taking my time, I dragged him down the stairs. I made sure that the stairs cut him as much as they did for me when I was dragged on them. When I got to the bottom, I thought about that time. Being dragged down the stairs might be less painful than being dragged up them. Just to make sure he received the full experience, I turned around and walked up the stairs, continuing to pull him behind me. Once at the top, we went back down again.

While I was walking up and down the stairs, Navi was sealing the doors to the outside to make sure we wouldn't be interrupted. Everything was completely dark, but that had no effect on our vision. 

At the bottom of the stairs was a landing and a heavy door. Past this door was a short corridor with another door. The room we were kept in is deeper in the cellar, far enough to block sound with the couple doors needing to be passed through. It was made so that screams don't reach the outside. Navi added a soundproofing enchantment powered by some cores to all of the doors just to make sure. Perfect.

We walked through the hallway, coming to the large room and cell that I was once kept in. Thanks to the soldiers from Midnight, it was cleared of any of the remains of the poor souls that were left here to suffer. However, the bed and many of the chains remained. 

I brought him over to the chains hanging from the ceiling against a wall. I shackled his wrists, and hoisted him up. He was wearing a loose fitting shirt and comfortable trunks for his nightclothes, so I took out a knife and cut the shirt off of him, not caring if I happened to slice into his skin or not. Whenever I cut him, he would flinch or writhe, making it harder to cleanly cut his clothes. That's fine. I cut even more carelessly to make up for it.

Once done, I took a step back and looked at the skinny, sickly, helmeted man hanging by his chained wrists in front of me. How many times was I strung up here as knights and priests punched me in the stomach until I had a miscarriage? How many women did I watch get beaten here or have knives thrown at their stomachs? 

Almost before I could register my own actions, my fist impacted his gut. 

I've loved children ever since I first saw Brother after he was born. I love Anastasia with all my heart. When I think about what this man and his ilk have done over the years… My fist rammed into his gut once more.

When I was first taken, I wasn't even an adult yet. I wasn't even the youngest from our village, either. Thinking about the lives of the children that this trash was responsible for breaking… I punched him again.  

Before I accidentally killed him, I took a step back. "Navi, would you please heal him?"

"Yuppers!" She flew over and I watched as his cuts and scrapes all closed and his limbs evened out.

As I stepped forward, I quickly double checked that my armor was all equipped. I could almost hear my precious Lia in my head. 'Don't take unnecessary risks. What if he launches a lucky fucking light beam at you? Don't get hurt for a stupid fucking reason.' She would be so worried if I was injured for a preventable reason like not wearing my armor. Especially when it's still so easy to move in and will completely negate anything this man can do, and can be fully equipped in an instant.

"Remove his helmet, please." I asked.

"Sure!" Navi cheerfully replied as she adjusted the bottom of the helmet with earth magic so it could be removed.

I grabbed his helmet and took it off, along with the gag. Taking a moment, I stared at the face of a man I haven't seen in years. Even though his illness has obviously taken a toll on his strength, his face has remained almost the same, just with sunken cheeks. His eyes are still the same. I'm relieved that after a dozen years, this man is still the same. 

His expression was furious, but there was a tinge of fear to it.

He started to yell, "How dar—" 

Before he could say more, I shoved my hand into his mouth and grabbed his tongue roughly with my thumb and forefinger. Using my thumb and pointer finger on my free hand, I held his mouth open, allowing me to stretch out his tongue as far as it could go.

"Navi, if you would be a dear and remove this thing," I said. "He won't be needing it any longer. Just cap it off so he doesn't lose too much blood. I lived for years without mine, he can live for however long I decide without his."

"You got it!" She flew over to his mouth. Using her cute tiny sword, she swiftly removed his tongue and healed it closed.

Navi was also in her armor. Likely for a similar reason as I was. I had thought about placing a light in the room but decided against it. I learned years ago how much more disturbing it was to be abused in the dark. Having your senses robbed is unsettling.

As tears formed in his eyes, he may have finally realized the situation he was in. With his tongue sealed off, not even magic could grow it back. That doesn't happen to someone that's intended to live. He must've come to the conclusion that this isn't an abduction for something as simple as a ransom. It's a drawn out execution. 

I clapped my hands together. "Now then! Let's begin your purification. You enjoyed it when I was purified. I remember that very clearly." 

I took out a long strip of leather and tied it around his neck to be used as a collar and leash. The knot was tied so as to tighten when pulled pard enough, but not loosen easily. 

I said, "Now, I don't have a collar with a buckle like you gave me when I was here. Sorry about that. We'll just have to make due with this."

I unshackled him and let him drop the couple inches to the ground. Almost immediately, he launched a flash of light magic and began to try to pull off what was essentially a noose. Unfortunately, all of his efforts were completely useless. 

I punched him in the gut, making him double over. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. We can't have any of that. Navi, could we please get some light?"

She did as I asked and the room lit up around the pitiful man cradling his stomach and curled into a ball on his side. I waited a minute for his eyes to adjust and he glanced around the room and looked at me.

I squatted down and waggled my finger in front of him. "Now, you see, tricks like that are pretty useless. Navi, please shoot me with a light beam comparable to someone at whatever level he is."

"Pew pew!" she said as a light hit my armor and did absolutely nothing.

"Now, unfortunately for you, this armor was given to us by the Goddess of Chaos and the God of Order." I cupped his chin and lifted it "You see, no magic that someone as worthless as you can use will have any effect on it. Even that flash you tried couldn't blind us with these helmets. Isn't that wonderful?"

I released the chin of the frightened man. "However, I remember something happening to me and any of the others that tried to fight back or run…" I tapped my finger on my chin. "What was it again… Oh! You did something like this."

I used my foot to roll him to his stomach. I put a knee in his back and grabbed each foot and cut his ankle tendons. Even without his tongue, he screamed out, making a slightly unsettling sound. Navi darted over to heal the cuts, but left the tendons separated.

"That's better." I picked up the end of the leash. "Now, crawl to the bed, like you made me, so that you can be purified. Paise Sol that you'll be so blessed."

He laid there for a moment until I tugged on the leash, making it tighten. With shaky tears and on his hands and knees, I led the man to the dirty bed with a layer of dust. I yanked him up by the hair and tossed him onto the bed. 

Using the ropes that were still in place, I strapped him to the bed. After his arms were tied, I yanked off his pants and underclothes before strapping his legs to the bed. He was now completely naked with his legs spread apart.

Navi still had her light active so he could look at us. His face was terrified. Almost as terrified as me and all of the other women he raped. I remembered seeing Ma held down, unable to do anything.

"Navi, do your thing," I said.

"Woot woot!" she shouted as she darted forward. 

In one swing of her sword, his penis and testicles were separated from his body. She used magic to only stop the bleeding. As he began to yell, she skewered the penis with her sword and flew over to his head. Using her foot while cackling, she pushed the dirty thing off of her sword and into his mouth that she forced open when he tried to shut it. Without his tongue, he had almost no way to spit it out.

"Shall we begin?" I said as I took out a thick spiked rod. 

As I was about to begin purifying the trash in front of me, I stopped. I had imagined doing to him what he did to all of us. Defiling him just like we were. Making him feel the same as we did. 

I stood there with the implement to do just tha. I imagined the pain something as simple as this could put him through. The expression he would make… My stomach suddenly churned. 

I hate this man. With every fiber of my being, I want him to suffer. For raping and killing Ma. For doing the same to so many others. He deserves anything I do. For all the suffering he has inflicted, he deserves for it to be done to him.

I have no issue with hurting him, breaking him and healing him. I'm going to kill him, that goes without saying. But this? 

I released a breath and sat down at the foot of the bed and looked at the rod in my hands. I feel like a fog covering my mind began to slowly clear. If I continued with this thing, what would my Lia think? I… Don't want to do that to another person with this thing, even if a bastard like this deserves it. 

I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. What was I about to do? I think I might've come close to crossing a line Lia wouldn't want me to cross. A line I don't necessarily want to cross. 

Really, why am I doing all of this? No matter how much I torture this man, none of the others will come back. Ma and all of the others from the village will still be dead. I'll still feel broken inside.

How broken am I still? For years now, I've been able to live happily with my Lia. Then we found Anastasia. With her memories permanently blocked, she can live so happily. She is always smiling and is curious about everything around her.

I held the rod in front of me. What would Anastasia say if she saw what I was about to do? How about Ma? Or Da and Brother? This isn't simply killing an enemy anymore. This is… I am… My heart hurts.

I dropped the rod and began crying on the foot of the bed with my head in my hands. This isn't me. This isn't the girl Ma and Da raised or the girl Brother followed around. Right now, I'm not the woman Lia fell in love with or that Anastasia loves. 

It hurts. I miss them. I miss Ma. I miss Da. I miss Brother, my friends, and my neighbors. I miss the old woman who would always give me an extra carrot when I bought some. I miss the hunters that praised me when I learned archery. I miss playing with dolls, exploring the area around the village, digging in the dirt with my friends. 

It hurts. I miss the other women in the cell that helped me when I was broken. When I laid there waiting for my turn with crushed hands and ears while missing my tongue, I miss the woman who helped pour dirty water into my mouth so I could make it through one more day. 

It hurts. I miss the gently smiling woman in the wagon before I met Lia. The one who gave me her stale bread and laid my head on her lap. I never even knew her name, but that little bit of extra food and water could've been why I was barely able to hold on to meet Lia. 

It hurts. I'll never see any of them again. I'll never talk to them, hear their voices, get to know them, or anything else. It hurts. It hurts, it hurts, it hurts! This pain in my chest hurts so much!

I kept loudly weeping. I miss them all so much. I want them back! I want to see them all again! They didn't deserve to die like they did! They shouldn't have gone through that! Why? How did this man's decisions lead to so much pain?

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I began breathing faster and faster, nearly hyperventilating. This was a mistake. I want Lia. I want Lia to hold me. I want to feel her comforting embrace. I want Lia to tell me I'm alright. That everything is going to be okay. I miss Lia. I want Lia to be here. Why didn't I bring her with me? Why was I so stupid? I wish Lia was here!

Suddenly, I felt a pair of tiny armored fairy arms hug my head and I heard Lia's voice in my head. (It's alright, Ailine. I love you. You're going to be alright.)

(Lia?) I hesitantly asked mentally. I was thankful for the ability to talk nonverbally. I was in no condition to use my physical voice.

(I'm here, Ailine,) she said. (Even if I'm not there physically. I love you, Ailine. I love you so very much.)

(Lia… I miss them… And it hurts so much…) I whimpered mentally as snot and tears flowed under my helmet.

Lia's voice was gentle. (I know, my love. You aren't alone. You have me, Anastasia, Steph, Sara, and everyone else in Midnight. You have Navi, Lala, Tsuki, Carmen, Talon, and Mitena. We all love you. I know it hurts, but know that we're all here for you.)

Navi squeezed me tighter and talked over the FCN to be heard over my crying. (Let it out, my girl. Just let it out. Twelve years, and I've never seen you cry for yourself. You cried when scared of losing Lia to a bug, but never for your own pain. Everything you've kept inside, just let it out. Take your time. Vamps and I are both right here. You're never alone.)

"N-na… N-nav… ee!" I manage to say between sobs. 

For a long time, I sat there. Navi hugged my head and they both whispered comforting words to me. At some point, I fell asleep.

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POV - Navi

I took out a soft bed from my storage space and used dark magic to gently move Ailine to it. I tucked her in under the clean blanket, and took out another pillow for her to hold onto while she slept.

I looked back at the garbage human that caused my girl to hurt so much. His face was a complex of confusion, fear, freight, and just a hint of arrogance.

(Is she asleep, Navi?) Lia asked.

(Sure is, Vamps. Don't you worry. I got her moved to a nice bed and will watch over her,) I said.

(Thank you, Navi. Thank you for being there with her,) Lia said, sounding a bit pained herself. 

(Don't mention it,) I sent back. After a moment, I started again. (Hey, Lia? I'm mad. Like really, really, mad…)

(I am too, Navi,) she said.

(You know, I've been thinking about something for a while,) I said. (When Chaos made me, I think she went light on some things. Or heavy on some, I'm not sure. 

(You know all of us fairies are always flying around happily, right? Well, compared to the memories of emotions and reactions I got from you back on Earth, I think Chaos made two alterations.

(Either we don't have as many inhibitions as I know we should from your memories. Or we have stronger emotions. Maybe it's both.

(Coming up with a new joke, watching the flowers and other plants grow, playing harmless pranks, and everything else. Even in the dungeon, I never wanted to kill something so much.)

(I know,) Lia said. (All of you always seem to be having fun flying around Midnight.)

(Well, I'm not right now. Right now, I'm really fucking pissed,) I said, swearing for the first time in my dozen years of life. (Lia, I don't have as many of those mental blockers that you and Girlie here do. Ailine is my family, too. While she's sleeping, I'm going to make this trash know what it means to hurt the family of a fairy.)

Lia was quiet for a few seconds. (I know I can't tell you when too much is too much. Just make sure you keep a sound barrier. Whatever you're going to do, I don't want Ailine to see.)

(Hahaha!) I started laughing mentally. (Oh, Vamps. You two love bats were made for each other. You're both way too worried about the other and both try to shield each other. You both are crazy.)

(Aren't you crazy as well?) she quipped back.

(Ha! Probably so. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that this guy will get what's coming to him. I have some tools, smelling salts, healing magic, second-hand memories of anatomy classes from the viewpoint of a mediocre student, and my sword is sharp to beat the band.)

(That reminds me,) Lia said. (I don't think you've ever named it, have you? I have the Godsword Seren, the dwarves have Cailla, and the elves have Nyota. Name your sword.)

Hmm…Vamps had a point. Toothpick wouldn't be a good name. Neither would Martini Pick… My naming sense is on par with that walrus, but she'll never know. 

(How about Hoshi?) I asked.

(Sounds fine to me. You do your thing. Just be sure to protect Ailine from whatever shit you're going to do, you scary fucking fairy,) Lia said.

(Sure, sure. I'm just glad that my girl might be able to take a step forward after this. She finally let go of so much. Coming here might've helped her close the door on that chapter of her life and hopefully she can finally move forward.

(Now let me work, you darn elephant! I've got poop to take care of before she wakes up!)

(Fine, you scarry ass mosquito. Let me know if anything comes up.)

I flew over to Mr. Penis Mouth. I put a sound barrier around us before detaching the ropes and binding him to the bed with dark magic. This way I can control him with the magical bindings. I made sure he was looking at me.

"Hi there! I'm a fairy, and guess what! You made someone I care about cry themselves to sleep. Congrats! The prize you won is to spend an evening with the cute, little ol' me! We're going to have so much fun together."

I turned the light off, plunging everything into darkness. As he tried to struggle, I flew to the hallway between the two doors. Using my dark magic, I brought the worthless human with me. After making sure both doors were closed, I sealed them shut with magic and reactivated the quick enchantment to block sound that I made earlier. This way, Ailine could rest peacefully.

In the dark, I flew over to the guy. Rightfully, he was scared out of his mind. I've always wanted to say this, and will probably never have another chance better than this. 

I fluttered close to his ear and whispered, "Do you wanna play a game?"

I will teach him not to mess with the family of a fairy.

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POV - Ailine

I woke up and took in a sharp breath as I momentarily panicked. I was back in the room below the church. For a second, I wondered if my life since meeting Lia was a dream. 

Navi flew down and grabbed my hand. "It's alright, my girl. You're okay. Take deep breaths… Yes, just like that. You're safe. You're alright."

After a few moments more, I finally caught my breath and remembered the events that led up to me waking up here.

I looked around the room and saw the man inside of the cell, laying on his back with a blank expression and glazed eyes staring at nothing. If it wasn't for his chest moving, I would think he was dead. 

As I looked at him, I still wanted to kill him. That hasn't changed. However, I no longer feel the need to torture him like I did before. I just wanted to be done with this trash and get back to Lia.

"Navi, did you do something to him?" I asked.

"Yup!" she said from my lap. "Don't worry about it. He's all healed for our plan after this. Well, besides his tongue, ankles, and ding-a-ling, but he didn't need any of them."

"Then what did y—" I started to ask.

"Don't worry about it!" she cheerily interrupted.

"..."

"..."

We stared at each other for a few seconds. Yeah, better not to worry about it.

I stood up and walked over to the cell. I stepped inside and pulled out one of Talon's large water troughs.

Grabbing the man by the back of the neck, he didn't struggle as I dragged him to the trough. Unceremoniously, I shoved his head under the water. Even in his current state, he began to jerk his head and attempted to pull back.

As I held him firmly under the water, it didn't take that long for him to stop moving. I remember when the paddlegator had a hold of me and how terrifying drowning was. Right now, I think quietly drowning in a monster's water trough, inside of the cell he abused so many people, was a fitting end.

Once he stopped moving, I left him slumped in the water with his face still submerged. Standing up, I took a steadying breath. There was no elation. No feeling of accomplishment or closure. 

I just want Lia and Anastasia. To hold them and spend time with them. I want to hurry up and finish with the last part of this so I can get back to them. Yet, there was one final thing I wanted to do down here.

I looked over at the tunnel that stretched farther into the cellar. To this day, I still don't know where Ma and the others were dragged off to. 

Leaving the cell, I made my way to the tunnel. After a few minutes of silently walking down it, I came to a closed door. After opening it, on the other side was a sewer.

I see… So that's where everyone ended up…

I closed the door and numbly walked back to the cell room. Navi had packed up our bed and the water trough. She was busy dressing the dead man in the ornate robes we nabbed from his room that only someone of his standing could wear.

I sat on the ground against a wall. "...Are we ready for this next part?"

"Yup!" Navi said. "We have a couple hours until early evening, so plenty of time for me to go place what we wanted to," 

With the corpse almost dressed, I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes to wait until Navi was done. Even after sleeping for what must have been more than half a day, I still feel completely drained mentally.

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