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i_read_whatSo last time, we finally caught up to Alec, only to see that captivity kind of sucks. Beka's pretty awesome though.
Content warning for Chapter Thirty-Nine, by the way. For sexual assault, among other nastiness.
This chapter reunites us with Seregil and Micum. For some reason, Seregil is underwater and drowning. Then he wakes up to Micum's frantic concern. They're aboard ship, and apparently Seregil's been having these kind of nightmares a lot.
It's pretty public and notable aboard ship, but Rhal is a mensch, and willing to threaten extra duty for any sailor who has time to gawk. He does however express some exasperation with Seregil for not staying below in the cabin. Apparently his behavior is causing some of the crew to see him as bad luck.
Apparently Seregil talks in his sleep, but only to say "no, I can't" over and over again. He can't remember much about the dream either, only that he's drowning and sees someone looking down at him. It's pretty scary.
Micum wonders if Nysander might be trying to reach them. Seregil thinks he'd be able to tell if it was. He does feel a "wrongness" in the fact that neither Nysander or Alec are present. And well...
“You never said anything to him, did you?” asked Micum. “About your feelings for him, that is?”
“No, I never did.”
His friend shook his head slowly. “That’s a pity.”
I mean, to be fair, while SOME of Seregil's lollygagging was silly angst, there IS the factor of Alec's age to consider. So I can't judge the guy for taking it slow. That said, missed opportunities do suck.
Seregil, meanwhile, prays for Aura Elustri to watch over Alec until he can plunge his knife into the hearts of Alec's enemies. Aw.
The next morning, they catch sight of enemy sails. They realize that the Plenimarian ship must be trailing them. Outrunning doesn't seem to be an option. Rhal thinks they should take the offensive.
Seregil, meanwhile, wonders if their ship would sail with Plenimarian sails, leading to this cute bit of banter:
Rhal grinned, catching his drift. “In the proper navy they’d call that a dishonorable trick.”
“Which is why I stick with privateers,” Seregil replied, grinning back. “The closer we get to Plenimar, the less attention we’d attract, at least from a distance.”
That said, they'll need to be careful which weapons they'll use if they want to keep the sails intact.
Seregil, by the way, goes down and re-emerges with Alec's bow, giving it to Micum. Micum being the better shot of the two. Seregil goes to help one of the catapult crews.
So fight scene now. It's quite fun. Not going to recap much of it. Sorry. If you like naval battles, you should read the book! The Plenimarians are using "Sakor's Fire", which burns men alive. It's pretty gruesome sounding. Seregil helps drag wounded men away from the flames.
They also manage to shatter the Lady's main mast. That can't be good. The fighting intensifies - soon Micum and Seregil are back to back. Not sure where they put the bow. I hope it's okay.
It goes on for longer but eventually one of Rhal's men manages to kill the enemy commander, and the Plenimarinas surrender. For their part, Micum and Seregil make it out with only a few cuts.
So they've got the enemy, but there's also twenty prisoners. Rhal makes it clear right away that he's not on board with executing them. Seregil agrees. They'll also need a day to replace the mast and rig the new sails.
At least they can put the prisoners to work.
--
So Chapter Thirty-Nine gets us back to Alec, and well, you saw the content warning above...
Mardus and his people were subtle in their methods; in all the terrible time since his capture they hadn’t once broken the skin, or drawn so much as a drop of blood. But inside he hurt.
Oh, yes. He hurt very much.
The dyrmagnos Irtuk Beshar, a walking nightmare, had straddled him with her withered hams, flaking fingers scrabbling over him in a grotesque parody of lust as she ripped her way into his mind, raping the memories from him. She’d kissed him afterward, thrusting a tongue like a ragged strip of moldy leather against his clenched teeth.
The necromancer, Vargul Ashnazai, assisted her in these interrogations and Alec soon came to fear him on a deeper level than he did the dyrmagnos or Mardus.
Yeah, so this is unpleasant.
Alec hasn't seen Thero since that first night. He's not doing well. Mardus, in particular, is doing a number on him. Even though he's the one ordering the torture, he's weirdly solicitous otherwise, and in the worst moments of torment, apparently Alec's caught himself looking to Mardus for some kind of rescue.
That can't be good.
Ashnazai is the most active torturer. He's the one who gleefully gloats about how the Cockerel folk died. He also adds a creepy sexual element to the taunting, talking about Cilla's heaving breasts and the men wanting to take her, then asking Alec if he'd ever slept with her. All while creepy bad touching Alec's chest.
Anyway, apparently the torture lasts for several days, and by the end, Alec understands why Nysander was so secretive: they'd gotten everything he knew out of him. Poor kid. I suppose this somewhat vindicates Nysander's dickishness, though I still think he didn't have to be such an asshole about it.
Also, there's still no excuse for being a dick to Thero.
Now that the torture is done, Alec gets to be generally tormented by the soldiers guarding him. It sounds pretty hellish too:
A harsh, brutal lot, they’d crowded to the grate to listen when he was tortured. Now they were the ones who dragged him above for the daily airings on deck that Mardus insisted upon. They stood over him at meals, sniggered when he begged for a pail to relieve himself. Few of them spoke any Skalan, but they managed to get their crude jests and insults across.
Apparently they also get handsy. There's one in particular who is holding a grudge for Alec having smashed his front teeth during the initial capture.
We then get a pretty nasty incident where the man, Gossol, taunts him with a cloak - apparently the only garment he's allowed. Then he pins Alec to the wall and forces a kiss on him, while feeling him up. Alec fights back, biting him on the lip first and then breaking his nose.
There's some grappling after, in which Alec is thrown to the bunk and nearly strangled. The guy is then pulled off him. The Captain, Tildus, freaks out when he sees blood on Alec:
He barked an order to another soldier in the companionway, then rounded on Alec again. “If any of this is, yours, you dead as Gossol. No good if damaged. Mardus slice you up like an eel, eat your rezhari for dinner!”
That...is not reassuring. They clean Alec up, while Alec processes that Mardus wanted him with a "whole skin". He thinks that explains their torture methods, but not why it was necessary.
Around this time, Mardus shows up to be creepy and ominous. He takes Alec to see something he'll enjoy.
It was an achingly beautiful day. The sky arched over the rolling sea like a deep blue bowl. The ship cut through the white-capped waves, her striped sails filled by a sweet following wind that sang through the yards and seemed to cleanse some of the stench of captivity from his skin.
A large square of white canvas had been nailed to the deck just below the forward battle platform.
Irtuk Beshar knelt at the center of it in an attitude of meditation, her hideous hands curled on her knees.
I feel a little guilty for the "hot lich lady" joke I was going to make.
That's not why he's here though. He's here to see another prisoner! Thero!
Alec’s relief at seeing him was short-lived, however. The young wizard’s face was as vacant as before beneath the iron bands of the branks, and there was the gleam of madness in his wide, staring eyes. A grizzled man in nondescript robes stood just behind him; another necromancer, he guessed.
Oof, Thero is also not having a fun time, it sounds like.
So there's a ritual now, as the items: the Crown, Cup and Eyes (wooden disks) are set before the dyrmagos. Everything is place within the cup.
Mardus decides to try a guilt trip of sorts:
Mardus turned to Alec. “You recognize those, I’m sure. Just think, if the two of you hadn’t stolen one, you and poor Thero would not be standing here now. All those lives lost, all that destruction, Alec, because of that one impetuous act. Ah, but I’m forgetting that it was Seregil who committed the actual theft. That’s what you told Irtuk Beshar, that you simply helped. But it all comes out the same in the end, doesn’t it. Here you are with me, and there he is, safely back in Rhiminee, no doubt thinking himself very lucky. Can you still be loyal to this faithless friend of yours?”
Alec, in a show of bravado he doesn't feel, says yes. He thinks about all the days with Seregil taken for granted. Aw. Poor kid.
It gets worse, because it's time for a sacrifice. Gossol actually, stripped to the waste. Per Mardus, Alec saved him the inconvenience of a lottery. Gossol is going to be a preliminary sacrifice, as he has neither the "power nor purity" of a half Aurenfaie boy or an Oreska wizard.
Ah, so that's the plan for them. Yikes. Apparently Alec and Thero are being reserved for the big moment, due to the "long years sacrificed."
Fun. Poor Alec tries not to watch, but he hears the screams choke off to a gurgle, bones break, and then the "west suck of a carcass being opened". Ew. Poor kid passes out, and the chapter ends.
That kid is going to need SO MUCH THERAPY.
Content warning for Chapter Thirty-Nine, by the way. For sexual assault, among other nastiness.
This chapter reunites us with Seregil and Micum. For some reason, Seregil is underwater and drowning. Then he wakes up to Micum's frantic concern. They're aboard ship, and apparently Seregil's been having these kind of nightmares a lot.
It's pretty public and notable aboard ship, but Rhal is a mensch, and willing to threaten extra duty for any sailor who has time to gawk. He does however express some exasperation with Seregil for not staying below in the cabin. Apparently his behavior is causing some of the crew to see him as bad luck.
Apparently Seregil talks in his sleep, but only to say "no, I can't" over and over again. He can't remember much about the dream either, only that he's drowning and sees someone looking down at him. It's pretty scary.
Micum wonders if Nysander might be trying to reach them. Seregil thinks he'd be able to tell if it was. He does feel a "wrongness" in the fact that neither Nysander or Alec are present. And well...
“You never said anything to him, did you?” asked Micum. “About your feelings for him, that is?”
“No, I never did.”
His friend shook his head slowly. “That’s a pity.”
I mean, to be fair, while SOME of Seregil's lollygagging was silly angst, there IS the factor of Alec's age to consider. So I can't judge the guy for taking it slow. That said, missed opportunities do suck.
Seregil, meanwhile, prays for Aura Elustri to watch over Alec until he can plunge his knife into the hearts of Alec's enemies. Aw.
The next morning, they catch sight of enemy sails. They realize that the Plenimarian ship must be trailing them. Outrunning doesn't seem to be an option. Rhal thinks they should take the offensive.
Seregil, meanwhile, wonders if their ship would sail with Plenimarian sails, leading to this cute bit of banter:
Rhal grinned, catching his drift. “In the proper navy they’d call that a dishonorable trick.”
“Which is why I stick with privateers,” Seregil replied, grinning back. “The closer we get to Plenimar, the less attention we’d attract, at least from a distance.”
That said, they'll need to be careful which weapons they'll use if they want to keep the sails intact.
Seregil, by the way, goes down and re-emerges with Alec's bow, giving it to Micum. Micum being the better shot of the two. Seregil goes to help one of the catapult crews.
So fight scene now. It's quite fun. Not going to recap much of it. Sorry. If you like naval battles, you should read the book! The Plenimarians are using "Sakor's Fire", which burns men alive. It's pretty gruesome sounding. Seregil helps drag wounded men away from the flames.
They also manage to shatter the Lady's main mast. That can't be good. The fighting intensifies - soon Micum and Seregil are back to back. Not sure where they put the bow. I hope it's okay.
It goes on for longer but eventually one of Rhal's men manages to kill the enemy commander, and the Plenimarinas surrender. For their part, Micum and Seregil make it out with only a few cuts.
So they've got the enemy, but there's also twenty prisoners. Rhal makes it clear right away that he's not on board with executing them. Seregil agrees. They'll also need a day to replace the mast and rig the new sails.
At least they can put the prisoners to work.
--
So Chapter Thirty-Nine gets us back to Alec, and well, you saw the content warning above...
Mardus and his people were subtle in their methods; in all the terrible time since his capture they hadn’t once broken the skin, or drawn so much as a drop of blood. But inside he hurt.
Oh, yes. He hurt very much.
The dyrmagnos Irtuk Beshar, a walking nightmare, had straddled him with her withered hams, flaking fingers scrabbling over him in a grotesque parody of lust as she ripped her way into his mind, raping the memories from him. She’d kissed him afterward, thrusting a tongue like a ragged strip of moldy leather against his clenched teeth.
The necromancer, Vargul Ashnazai, assisted her in these interrogations and Alec soon came to fear him on a deeper level than he did the dyrmagnos or Mardus.
Yeah, so this is unpleasant.
Alec hasn't seen Thero since that first night. He's not doing well. Mardus, in particular, is doing a number on him. Even though he's the one ordering the torture, he's weirdly solicitous otherwise, and in the worst moments of torment, apparently Alec's caught himself looking to Mardus for some kind of rescue.
That can't be good.
Ashnazai is the most active torturer. He's the one who gleefully gloats about how the Cockerel folk died. He also adds a creepy sexual element to the taunting, talking about Cilla's heaving breasts and the men wanting to take her, then asking Alec if he'd ever slept with her. All while creepy bad touching Alec's chest.
Anyway, apparently the torture lasts for several days, and by the end, Alec understands why Nysander was so secretive: they'd gotten everything he knew out of him. Poor kid. I suppose this somewhat vindicates Nysander's dickishness, though I still think he didn't have to be such an asshole about it.
Also, there's still no excuse for being a dick to Thero.
Now that the torture is done, Alec gets to be generally tormented by the soldiers guarding him. It sounds pretty hellish too:
A harsh, brutal lot, they’d crowded to the grate to listen when he was tortured. Now they were the ones who dragged him above for the daily airings on deck that Mardus insisted upon. They stood over him at meals, sniggered when he begged for a pail to relieve himself. Few of them spoke any Skalan, but they managed to get their crude jests and insults across.
Apparently they also get handsy. There's one in particular who is holding a grudge for Alec having smashed his front teeth during the initial capture.
We then get a pretty nasty incident where the man, Gossol, taunts him with a cloak - apparently the only garment he's allowed. Then he pins Alec to the wall and forces a kiss on him, while feeling him up. Alec fights back, biting him on the lip first and then breaking his nose.
There's some grappling after, in which Alec is thrown to the bunk and nearly strangled. The guy is then pulled off him. The Captain, Tildus, freaks out when he sees blood on Alec:
He barked an order to another soldier in the companionway, then rounded on Alec again. “If any of this is, yours, you dead as Gossol. No good if damaged. Mardus slice you up like an eel, eat your rezhari for dinner!”
That...is not reassuring. They clean Alec up, while Alec processes that Mardus wanted him with a "whole skin". He thinks that explains their torture methods, but not why it was necessary.
Around this time, Mardus shows up to be creepy and ominous. He takes Alec to see something he'll enjoy.
It was an achingly beautiful day. The sky arched over the rolling sea like a deep blue bowl. The ship cut through the white-capped waves, her striped sails filled by a sweet following wind that sang through the yards and seemed to cleanse some of the stench of captivity from his skin.
A large square of white canvas had been nailed to the deck just below the forward battle platform.
Irtuk Beshar knelt at the center of it in an attitude of meditation, her hideous hands curled on her knees.
I feel a little guilty for the "hot lich lady" joke I was going to make.
That's not why he's here though. He's here to see another prisoner! Thero!
Alec’s relief at seeing him was short-lived, however. The young wizard’s face was as vacant as before beneath the iron bands of the branks, and there was the gleam of madness in his wide, staring eyes. A grizzled man in nondescript robes stood just behind him; another necromancer, he guessed.
Oof, Thero is also not having a fun time, it sounds like.
So there's a ritual now, as the items: the Crown, Cup and Eyes (wooden disks) are set before the dyrmagos. Everything is place within the cup.
Mardus decides to try a guilt trip of sorts:
Mardus turned to Alec. “You recognize those, I’m sure. Just think, if the two of you hadn’t stolen one, you and poor Thero would not be standing here now. All those lives lost, all that destruction, Alec, because of that one impetuous act. Ah, but I’m forgetting that it was Seregil who committed the actual theft. That’s what you told Irtuk Beshar, that you simply helped. But it all comes out the same in the end, doesn’t it. Here you are with me, and there he is, safely back in Rhiminee, no doubt thinking himself very lucky. Can you still be loyal to this faithless friend of yours?”
Alec, in a show of bravado he doesn't feel, says yes. He thinks about all the days with Seregil taken for granted. Aw. Poor kid.
It gets worse, because it's time for a sacrifice. Gossol actually, stripped to the waste. Per Mardus, Alec saved him the inconvenience of a lottery. Gossol is going to be a preliminary sacrifice, as he has neither the "power nor purity" of a half Aurenfaie boy or an Oreska wizard.
Ah, so that's the plan for them. Yikes. Apparently Alec and Thero are being reserved for the big moment, due to the "long years sacrificed."
Fun. Poor Alec tries not to watch, but he hears the screams choke off to a gurgle, bones break, and then the "west suck of a carcass being opened". Ew. Poor kid passes out, and the chapter ends.
That kid is going to need SO MUCH THERAPY.
Off topic, but:
Date: 2024-01-01 02:23 am (UTC)= Multi-Facets.
Re: Off topic, but:
Date: 2024-01-01 06:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-02 05:56 pm (UTC)Also a happy new year, Kalinara!
no subject
Date: 2024-01-03 01:59 am (UTC)