Interlude: The Tale of Jastira: Part 4 – The Hunt Continues

Jastira and Berold travelled for several days. As they moved further north, they started to see more signs of life. They passed more people as the travelled. Those they came across were just as wary of Berold and Jastira as Berold and Jastira were of them. But on occasion, they were able to convince each other that the other meant no harm and Berold and Jastira were able to gather useful information. It seemed the orcs had not ransacked much of this region of Jorshah. Though there had been isolated attacks, the orcs had eventually turned their attention away, likely so that they could conquer the elf world, Jastira assumed. It meant that there were even some small settlements of people they came across. Everyone seemed terrified that that the orcs would eventually return. But so far, they had been lucky.

The temple that was their destination was immediately adjacent to a village. And after travelling for several days, Jastira and Berold had finally reached the village. As they entered the village, the saw people milling about. They had seen small settlements of people, but this was the largest village they had found so far that was not abandoned. As Berold and Jastira walked through the village, a number of people gave them wary glances. With Jastira’s elven ears, it was hard not to draw attention to themselves.

As they walked further through the village, a man approached them. “You are travelers?” he asked. “What brings you here to our village?”

Berold told them they were looking for the temple of the Cult of Ug’dromon. As soon as he said those words, the other man gave them a suspicious look. “You aren’t with those zealots, are you?” he growled.

Berold shook his head. “No, not at all. And we are no friends of them, either. We seek information, and we assume we are going to have to capture one of them to get it. The information we want includes what they have been doing with women they have been abducting and where they are taking them.”

The man nodded. “Well, if you are coming to find them in the temple just outside of this village, it is abandoned, and has been for some time. But come. I want to introduce you to someone that can probably help you. You aren’t the first ones to come here looking for the cult and in search of the women they took.” Berold and Jastira began to follow the man.

…………….

Nimeroni sat in the dungeon and tried to ignore the pain that racked her body. For the last several days in the dungeon, she had been brutally punished and tortured. Soon after the torture had started, she had promised to be a good and obedient slave, desperate to do anything to make the torture stop. But it had not stopped. Enzorhan and other men had continued brutalizing her. They wanted more than just her submission. They wanted answers about the map. And finally, Nimeroni had broken. That morning, she had told them everything. About the elven runaways finding the refugees from Penrith. And she told them about their quest and how they had split up to try to find cult members and learn how to take the portal from the orcs. She had been forced to talk by the brutal torture she suffered. But it still felt like a betrayal. And she was wracked by guilt. The guilt hurt more than the torture. As she knelt on the floor of her cell, she hung her head in shame.

Nimeroni tried her best to pull herself together. She knew she needed her strength for whatever further tortures and punishment that the humans of the Oasis had in store for her today.  She lifted her head and stared longingly at the bowl of water sitting on the other side of her cell, just out of her reach. Normally, Nimeroni had to earn water or food by using one of her orifices to give her human captors pleasure. She was quite thirsty and hoped she would be given the opportunity soon.

The metal door to Nimeroni’s cell opened and she quickly sat on her heels and parted her legs widely, just as she had been taught by the orcs. It seemed the humans here enjoyed their slaves kneeling in the same position, with their pussies on display.

Enzorhan entered the cell, along with another man she did not recognize. “Greetings, Master,” Nimeroni said, staring down submissively at the men’s feet, her voice trembling in fear.  All of the men who visited her here were cruel.  Enzorhan was the cruelest.

“Greetings, slave. I have considered what you told me yesterday, and I have decided you were being truthful,” Enzorhan said. “So as reward, you will be permitted to leave the cell and begin your service as a slave. This man here with me is named Atkin, and he is the Oasis’s head slaver. You will report to him and he will keep you in line and assign you your duties each day. Is that understood, slave?”

“Yes, Master,” Nimeroni said softly. She was overjoyed that she was finally being allowed to leave this horrible torture-filled dungeon. But she was still overwhelmed by guilt at what she been forced to divulge to earn her way out of the dungeon. She prayed her friends did not end up dead or in here because of what she had been forced to divulge.

“Are you going to show me your appreciation, slave?” Enzorhan asked her.

“Yes, Master,” Nimeroni said and she quickly crawled over to Enzorhan. She lifted up on her knees and fumbled with Enzorhan’s belt, unbuckling it and opening his pants. She fished his cock out his pants with her hand and immediately wrapped her lips around it, taking his still-soft cock fully into her mouth. It did not stay soft for very long. Nimeroni began sliding her mouth and tongue up and down along his shaft and within less than a minute his cock was rock hard. Nimeroni now massaged the erect cock with her mouth and tongue, letting her tongue glide along the shaft of his cock as her head bobbed up and down, and each time her head rose, she swirled her tongue around on the tip of his cock. Then back down her head bobbed, taking Enzorhan’s cock fully into her throat. Enzorhan grunted in pleasure as Nimeroni slurped away on his manhood. He was pleased with her skills as a slave, first taught to her by the orcs and quickly returning to her now that she had returned to bondage.

Enzorhan let the elf maiden work his cock with her mouth for a couple minutes before he grabbed the back of her head with both his hand and then began thrusting, fucking her mouth and throat. Nimeroni allowed her tongue to slide up and down the thrusting cock, enhancing the High Priest’s pleasure as he fucked her mouth. He groaned loudly and his cock erupted, spewing cum into Nimeroni’s mouth and down her throat. She swallowed all of it and then licked and sucked the last bit of it from Enzorhan’s cock.

Enzorhan put his cock away and re-fastened his belt. “Now show your appreciation to Atkin as well, slave,” he commanded.

“I don’t want to use your mouth slave,” Atkin said. “I will use your cunt. Present yourself on all fours to be fucked.” Nimeroni quickly got into position and she felt Atkin positioning behind her. He didn’t waste any time. Nimeroni felt his cock began to slide between her labia and then push inside her. He pushed himself inside her slowly, grunting in pleasure as he felt her pussy squeezing around his cock. “Nice and tight cunt you have, slave,” he remarked. Once he had buried his cock fully inside her, Atkin drew back and thrust again, hard, causing Nimeroni to lurch forward as his hips slammed into her ass cheeks. She grunted as he thrust again, even harder. And again. He picked up his pace, slamming into her over and over., his hands tightly gripping her hips as he pounded her. Nimeroni hated every moment of it as she was raped by this human, but her body reacted differently than her mind. Soon, her pussy began to grow slick and the wet sounds of Atkin’s thrusts into her pussy filled the dungeon.

Keeping one hand firmly gripping her hip, Atkin took his other hand and roughly grabbed Nimeroni’s hair, using it as reins as he pounded away into her now sopping wet cunt. He drove his cock into her with a savage frenzy and Nimeroni could only grit her teeth and wait for him to finish. Thankfully, he did not last long and groaned loudly as he tensed up, his cum exploding inside her.

The man withdrew his cock from Nimeroni’s pussy and he moved forward in front of her and used her hair to wipe off his cock. “Alright slave, you have proved your worth and your obedience. You have earned your way out of the dungeon and it is time for you to start serving the citizens of the Oasis,” Atkin said.  He clipped a leash onto Nimeroni’s collar and yanked it to direct her to her feet. Then he led her from the dungeon.

…………….

Jastira and Berold had been taken to a tavern in the village. The man had them sit down inside and said he would return. After he departed, a young woman came over and asked them if they wanted any food. It was the first opportunity for either Berold and Jastira to have a hot, homecooked meal since they had departed on their quest and they both ordered hot stew. The woman went into the kitchen to fetch their food.

Shortly after, the man returned, and he was with another man. That second man sat down with them. “My name is Rolant. I am a soldier and I was told, sir, that you are as well. So, you are investigating the cult like we are?” he said to Berold.

Berold nodded and told Rolant about their quest, as well as what they had witnessed with the cult taking women. He explained the were hoping to find cult members at the nearby temple.

“They are not there, but you can see for yourselves. Maybe you will find something in there that we missed that offers some clue on their whereabouts. Myself and other soldiers have been hunting them, just like you. And like you, we have been unable to find them. They were here until a few months ago. There were even reports that they were taking captured women to the temple. Myself and others formed a militia, originally to fight back against the orcs. But the orcs never came and so we focused on this cult instead. And we went to the temple but they were all gone. They just suddenly vanished. The people here in the village panicked, thinking maybe the cult had gotten word that the orcs were heading north in this direction, and that is why they fled. But the orcs never showed up. Still, the cult members that were in that temple never returned. We have no idea where they went.”

Jastira told Rolant about the house they had seen the cult members and soldiers enter and then seemingly disappear without a trace.

Rolant did not seem at all surprised. “That is the same report we have heard from others. They show up and raid, stealing away stores of food, livestock, or women, and then no one can track them or find where they have gone. And stranger still is how widespread it is. It is not just in this area of Jorshah. They have been spotted all throughout the kingdom. Stranger still, it seems like they have been attacking people in other kingdoms. A reckless thing to travel that far and risk being seen by orcs. Yet they are doing it. People have reported seeing them with captive women from other kingdoms. Yet like always, they disappear soon thereafter.”

Berold told Rolant that some of the captives they had seen were from the kingdom of Nyllenor.

Rolant shook his head. “It is completely baffling. We will find them eventually. They can’t stay hidden forever. With as many women as they have taken, they cannot be hidden away in some small hideaway. We will find them eventually. If you find them before we do, come to see me in the city. We have many men and are recruiting more every day. Our focus is on finding and capturing some of these cult members.”

The woman returned and served Berold and Jastira. They ate their stew. They ate quickly as they wanted to check the temple for any clues before they departed.

…………….

The slaver Atkin led Nimeroni through the city on her leash. He brought her to a large crowd of people. They were all crowded in a large city square. In the center of the square was a natural pool of sparkling blue water. There were smaller pools and springs dotted around the larger pool. “This is what supports our Oasis, slave. We must import much of our food and supplies, but we have an abundance of water from these natural springs. It is the only source of water in this desert but it is more than enough to sustain us,” Atkin told Nimeroni.

“Please fuck me, Masters,” a female voice called out behind them. Nimeroni turned and saw a slave. Nimeroni immediately recognized her as the brunette slave that had been brought in with her. She was standing there, dressed in a silky pink tunic that barely concealed her body. Her fists were clenched in anger. Tears stained her cheeks. She was clearly humiliated. In a bitter, angry tone she was calling out, to no one in particular, “This slave begs a Master to fuck her! This slave begs a Master or Mistress to let her worship you with her mouth! This slave begs a Master to fuck her ass.” Her angry tone did not match her pleas for sexual use and Atkin frowned. Most in the crowd around the slave were not paying attention to her. Those that were looking at her were giving her annoyed or angry looks. It was clear they did not appreciate her lack of enthusiasm.

“Slave! You are not being very pleasing, you ungrateful slave!” Atkin snapped.  “What is your name?”

Hearing his voice, the slave spun around, her eyes widening with fear when she saw Atkin glaring at her. “My name is Isolde, Master. I am sorry, I am tired and sore. It is hard for me be enthusiastic to be fucked again,” she replied.

“Then you need more motivation!” Atkin growled. He turned to the crowd. “Would someone like to take this ungrateful slut to the dungeon and whip her?” he called out.

A man in the robes that the cultists wore stepped forward. “I will happily oblige!” he replied grinning, and he grabbed Isolde by the arm and began to drag her off. She started sobbing and pleading she would be a good slave, but it was already too late. Nimeroni pitied the poor woman, knowing the ordeal she would suffer in the dungeon. All for the transgression of not being enthusiastic in pleading to be degraded and abused.

“As you can see slave, we do not tolerate laziness and we demand enthusiasm and eagerness and passion from our slaves.” Atkin said. “That slave will learn that the hard way. But life is not so bad for slaves that are pleasing. Take this elf slave for example...” Atkin led Nimeroni over to a young woman that Nimeroni recognized as Aelina, the daughter of the king, who had brought cake out to one of the guards while Nimeroni was chained at the gate to wait for Enzorhan’s return. It was clear the princess enjoyed elf slaves just as much as her father did. There was a slave, a blonde elf maiden, crouched down at Aelina’s feet, licking in between Aelina’s toes.

“Do a good job worshipping my feet slave. If you do a good, I will let you worship my ass. And if you do a good job worshipping my ass, I will let you worship my pussy,” Aelina said in a mocking tone as she looked down at the slave. The slave lifted up her head briefly and looked up at Aelina.

“Yes, Mistress,” the slave said before her head dipped down and she began pushing her tongue in between Aelina’s toes. When her head had briefly lifted, Nimeroni realized the slave was Almithara, one of the slaves she had met in King Gaviunus’s throne room.

“This is a good, obedient slave here, and her life will not be too harsh,” Atkin said to Nimeroni. “Come. I will show you more of the city.” Atkin tugged at Nimeroni’s leash and led her away.

…………….

Jastira and Berold wandered through the empty temple. It was just as Rolant had described to them: completely abandoned. However, they searched every room to confirm. When they opened a set of double doors, Jastira immediately smelled the strong odor of smoke and soot. As Berold threw open the doors and stepped inside they saw a large pile of ashes in the center of the room. The room was filled with empty shelves. Jastira bent down and examined the ashes, seeing various pieces of charred paper among them. “It looks like this is where they kept their books and scrolls,” Jastira remarked. “But they burnt them all.”

“In the first temple, someone ransacked the library. And in this one they burnt everything. It is like they were trying to make sure certain information was removed or could not be found,” Berold replied.

“Probably the same information we are looking for. How to open and close the portal to my world,” Jastira said, bitterly. “We can check more of these temples but I fear it will be the same result.”

Berold nodded. Jastira could see by the look on his face that his hope of finding cult members or a way to open and close the portal was quickly fading. “Come, there is clearly nothing of value to find here,” he murmured angrily, and he and Jastira started to move toward the exit. As they reached the exit, Jastira saw someone standing in the doorway. It was a woman. As they moved closer, Jastira recognized her. It was the young woman who had served them stew in the tavern.

“Hello again, Lady,” Berold said as the reached her. “Did you follow us out here?”

The woman nodded. “I did,” she said softly. “We did not get to speak in the tavern, but my name is Muriel. I wanted to speak to you about this place, but I did not want to talk around others.” She looked between Berold and Jastira and Jastira saw the nervousness in her eyes. “I know about this place and about the cult you seek. I used to be a priestess here. Let’s go back inside the temple. I have some information I think you want.”

…………….

Atkin led Nimeroni through the sprawling city and to the gate. He pointed out to the vast desert surrounding the city. “Slave, you may feel distraught or humiliated that you have been once again reduced to slavery. But there is one thing we provide you that your other human friends could never have provided you. Safety from the orcs. This oasis is surrounded by hundreds of miles of barren desert. No one would risk travelling through it. And neither the orcs nor anyone else would ever think to even find us here. This was once a flourishing city named Kam Ladur many decades ago. Since then, it was abandoned. No orc has any idea we moved here.”

“Nimeroni looked out at the reddish sand, for as far as the eye could see. “How did everyone get here, Master? How did I get here, in only a few hours?” she asked.

Atkin chuckled. “You need not concern yourself with that slave. All you need to do know is that the way we came, no orc can come that way. No one can come that way that we do not allow. Only the priests of the Cult of Ug’dromon can show someone the way here. And through their powerful magic, not only can they allow us to travel here; they can also allow us to travel to many places in Aegor quickly. It allows us to collect the food and supplies we need and bring it here, as well as to collect slaves from throughout this world and bring them here. We have some slaves from our own kingdom of Jorshah. But most of the free men and women here are from Jorshah and they prefer we take slaves from other kingdoms. No one wants to see their former neighbor as a slave. And you elves provide an even better solution. It is much easier on some humans’ conscience to enslave some other race like elves, and not their fellow humans. But it is for your benefit too. Only here will you be safe from the orcs.”

Nimeroni know the man was being purposely vague about how she had been taken here. And there was perhaps some relief that she might not ever be discovered by the orcs. But she knew it also meant that she had no way of escaping.

“Master, who built this place?” she asked.

Atkin frowned at her. “You ask too many questions, slave. I brought you here to show you that you have no way of escaping, but that you would also be safe from the orcs. That is what you need to know, nothing else. But I will indulge you this one time. Kam Ladur was built many centuries ago by another kingdom. It used to trade in certain minerals that were mined here and hundreds of caravans would travel to and from the city through the desert. But the orcs sacked this city many decades ago. And so, the city sat empty and abandoned. The orcs had no use for it and it is not a place that could sustain itself without importing the food and other supplies it needed. So, it was abandoned for decades, until the cult priests learned a way to travel to and from here quickly and without detection by the orcs who patrol the outer borders of the desert. But enough questions. Come.”

Atkin tugged at Nimeroni’s leash and took her back into the city. He showed her a row of wagons. “There, you can see cargo is being unloaded now. We have brought in rice and grain, and slaves.” Nimeroni watched as slave girls were made to unload large sacks of what she assumed were rice and grain from a pair of wagons.

From another wagon, men were unloading naked and bound women. “New captives from a faraway kingdom. And now your slave sisters,” Atkin explained to Nimeroni as a man pulled one of the bound captives, a young woman, off the wagon and threw her over his shoulder. She started thrashing around and screaming into her gag as she was hauled away. The man carrying her grew annoyed and slapped her hard across her as. Another woman, older than the first and still bound on the wagon, also started bucking against her bindings and yelling incoherently through her gag, staring sorrowfully at the man carrying away the younger captive. Nimeroni wondered if the older woman was perhaps the mother or older sister of the younger one. Next to the protesting woman were other bound slaves. One was bent over the end of the wagon, barely moving, her ass and thighs coated in globs of cum. 

 Atkin saw Nimeroni staring at the woman’s backside. “They must have used her while they were transporting them,” he said. “Go clean her off with your tongue slave so that the cum does not stain a man’s clothes when he transports her.”

“Yes, Master,” Nimeroni said softly, her cheeks reddening. She hurried over and stared down at the bent over woman. Leaning down, she pressed her tongue against the woman’s flesh and begin to glide it up and down, sucking as she did, to lick and suck up the cum from her skin. The strong taste of sweat and cum filled Nimeroni’s mouth as she licked the woman’s skin and cleaned up the cum. Nimeroni quickly licked up the cum on her skin, but then she saw the rivulets of cum flowing from her vagina and anus. Nimeroni sighed and leaned in, pressing her mouth to the woman’s sex and pushed her tongue into her slit so she could lick and suck up that cum. Nimeroni despised these cruel men who were treating her and these other captives in such a cruel and degrading way. But it was clear she had no way of escaping. She despised slavery but she knew she was now a slave again, whether she liked it or not. She was starting to accept that this was now her fate and that she had just better try and be as pleasing and obedient as possible, to avoid punishment. At least this was better than the orc fuck pit, she thought to herself as she lifted her mouth higher and began to suck the remaining cum from the captive’s ass.

…………….

Muriel sat cross-legged on the floor across from Berold and Jastira. “What I am about to tell you, no one in this village knows about me. I am afraid to tell them. Afraid what they will think of me,” she said, nervousness in her voice.

Jastira studied the young woman. She did not seem dangerous. She did not seem fanatical. Yet she was a member of this dangerous cult that had been committing such horrible things. And had opened up the portal to Jastira’s own world so that Jastira and other elf maidens could be enslaved. The girl sitting in front of Jastira did not seem like the sort of person Jastira had imagined would be in such an evil cult. She withheld her judgment for the moment as she waited for Muriel to continue.

“Several years ago, when I was a child, my mother joined the cult. She took my older sister and me and fled my father to take us to this temple.” Muriel said, her eyes tearing up as she spoke of her past. “My mother sold my sister to the cult to be sacrificed. But I was spared, to be raised as a priestess in the cult, along with my mother. I hated them! I hated everything about this cult. I hated my own mother for subjecting my sister and me to our cruel fates here. But I did what I had to in order to survive and I studied hard to become a priestess. It was only here for a few years. After the orcs attacked, our temple fled. But I used that as a chance to slip away. I went to the village and pretended to be a refugee. I was too afraid to tell them I was from the cult. They set me up to work in the tavern and I am so grateful. But that cult was so evil, I am afraid to tell them I was affiliated with it, even against my will.”

Jastira sympathized with Muriel as she thought about, she herself had been taken by the orcs and forced to do degrading and awful things. This young woman had been taken as a child and forced into her life, not that differently from Jastira’s fate. “I understand what it is like to be taken and forced against your will into a horrible situation,” Jastira said.

Muriel gave Jastira an appreciative nod. “I was very young and new to the cult and that made me very low in seniority. I am afraid I do not know many of the cult’s secrets. But I know some things that might help you. Before our former king told the orcs of the portal into your world, cult members went through the portal and captured some elf maidens. One of our cult’s temples was led by a man named Enzorhan. He was one of the priests that went into your world. He found someone in your world that divulged certain secrets to him, secrets that he did not even share with the High Priestess, Daerenica. After Daerenica was killed, he declared himself the new High Priest. And what he learned is what has enabled many of the cult members to remain undetected.”

“And what is that?” Berold asked as ne looked intently at Muriel.

“He learned how to open portals. Not a portal between our world and the elf world. But to open up portals between two points in one world, in this instance, our world. It allows someone to travel across a great distance in the world instantly. And many of these portals can be opened throughout the world. As I said before, when the orcs were attacking, our temple fled as did many of the others. The plan was to coalesce somewhere and to use the portals to evade the orcs. Perhaps they are using them now to travel throughout Aegor and capture women, and to remain undetected.”

Berold looked to Jastira. “Does your world have such portals? Someone from your world taught them this, according to this woman.”

Jastira shook her head. “Not that I am aware of. I was just an innkeeper’s daughter, certainly not privy to all the magical abilities of our own priests and priestesses. But I think I would have known if elves could travel instantly through some kind of portal from one place to another.”

“Well, regardless of how they learned this magic, it would explain how everyone disappeared inside that building,” Berold said. Perhaps they opened some portal inside, went through it and closed the portal behind them. I know the portal between the worlds can be opened and closed by the one who controls it. Perhaps these portals work the same way.” He looked to Muriel. “How are these portals created? And how are they opened or closed?”

Muriel shook her head. “That I do not know. Until Daerenica was killed, only Enzorhan knew, as far as I know. But afterwards, I believe he told others. But only a few high-ranking priests and priestesses.”

“And what did they burn in their library? Would they have kept information in the library about these portals?” Berold asked.

Muriel replied, “I think they burned our papers that discuss the cult’s rituals, which would have included how to open the portals between worlds. I suspect that they did not want anyone seeing any of their rituals. But the opening of portals within a world did not come from our rituals. It came from someone in the elf world.”

Jastira frowned. They now had a good idea about how the cult members were able to move around without being tracked. But if what Muriel said was true, it meant that it would be even harder for them to confront or capture any of these cultists to learn their secrets. And it seemed that before they fled, they had taken care to destroy the knowledge of how to open the portals between the two worlds, which is originally what Jastira and Berold had sought to learn. Jastira suspected they would find the same in every temple they checked. Their quest had been for nothing.

Berold seemed to recognize the same thing. “There is no sense in exploring these temples. Our only chance of learning what we seek is to capture some priests or priestesses and force them to show us how to open these portals. Be they the portal between our world and the elf world, or the portals they are using to travel through Aegor.”

Jastira nodded. She reached out to gently take Muriel’s hands. “Thank you. That was very helpful. And we will not tell anyone your past. But with what you told us, perhaps we can rescue the women that the cult has taken. And use this magic against the orcs.” But even as she spoke the words, Jastira was less and less optimistic that they would succeed in their quest.

…………….

As Atkin continued showing Nimeroni through the city, he spoke to her about her various duties. Her main duty would be offer sexual service to the free citizens of the Oasis. But she would also be expected to do manual labor, namely transporting goods to the city that it needed to sustain itself. Nimeroni tried to convince herself that this was a much better fate than being an orc slave. This was all she could do to prevent herself from breaking down and crying. It may have been better than slavery to orcs. But it was still awful and humiliating. She thought of Isolde, who had been dragged off to be whipped because she was not enthusiastic about her rape.

As Nimeroni was led through the city by Atkin, she saw a crowd gathered in a circle. Atkin saw it too and he said, “Ah this will be a good lesson for you about the consequences of trying to escape,” he said. As he led Nimeroni closer, she saw that the humans were circled around Enzorhan and a slave, whose wrists were bound. When Nimeroni saw the slave, she could not believe her eyes. The slave had pointy ears, just like Nimeroni. But her skin was a bluish hue. It was a race of creature that Nimeroni had never seen before, but had read about and heard about in stories from her parents. A dark elf! Dark elves lived in Elevosia, but on a distant island that was off the mainland continent that all the elves lived. Centuries ago, the elves and dark elves had been in occasional conflict, but the two races largely kept to themselves now. Few if any elves ever traveled to the dark elf island.  Occasionally, dark elves supposedly travelled to the mainland. But Nimeroni had never seen one nor met anyone else who had ever seen one. Yet this elf maiden’s pale bluish skin was unmistakable. This was a dark elf and somehow, she had ended up in the Oasis.

Enzorhan was standing next to the dark elf in front of some kind of wooden contraption that Nimeroni did not recognize. It was an upright wooden frame with a slotted hole at the bottom. And at the top of the frame was a large, sharp-looking blade. The blade itself was stained red. Perhaps with blood, Nimeroni thought. Whatever the device was, it looked ominous. And the dark elf was staring at it with fear in her eyes.

“Any last words, Lirsharu,” Enzorhan growled to the dark elf.

“Please I will not try to escape again!” the dark elf, apparently named Lirsharu, cried.

“You promised that the last time you tried to escape, slave,” Enzorhan snapped. “And you were fiercely whipped that time. And you were told then that would be your only warning. And yet you tried to escape again. So, an example will be set.”

“Please, you need me!” Lirsharu cried. “I showed you how to open the portals! I will be an obedient slave, I promise!”

“You have already proven you are not an obedient slave. And it was through interrogation and torture that you reluctantly divulged your secrets about how to open portals,” Enzorhan snapped. “And it was not just you. Your sister, Dhenzuba, also divulged those secrets. But unlike you, she was not foolish enough to attempt escape. Not even once, let alone twice. And after she sees what has happened to you, she will think twice about ever trying to escape.  All the slaves will.” Enzorhan grabbed Lirsharu by the arm and shoved her forward towards the contraption. He kicked the back of the legs to send her falling to her knees, and then Enzorhan grabbed Lirsharu by the hair and pushed her head down and through the slotted hole at the bottom of the contraption. He pushed down on the wooden slot to constrict the hole more, holding her head in place.

“Please!” Lirsharu cried as she started squirming and tried in vain to pull her head out from the slot. “I will be a good slave! I will be a good slave!” Enzorhan ignored her. He stepped back and then reached for a lever on the side of the contraption and pulled it. The blade suddenly fell rapidly, and clean through Lirsharu’s neck. She instantly went silent, her body fell limp, and her head rolled away on the ground. She had been decapitated.

Nimeroni gasped, horrified at what she had just witnessed. Enzorhan stepped over and picked up Lirsharu’s severed head. He held it out for a soldier to take. “Put this on a spike, for the other slaves to see” he commanded. “So that they will understand the consequences of trying to escape.”

Atkin turned to Nimeroni. “Serve well and strive to be pleasing, slave, and you will be treated well. Defy us or try to escape, and now you have seen what happens.”

“Yes, Master,” Nimeroni whimpered. She knew her fate was sealed and her only option was to strive to be a good slave.

(End of Part 4, to be continued...)