Chapter 22:
Trials
Chained against the wall of the bunker, Yana was in a bad mood.
Stalking before her was Jonathan Pym, and the lunatic was ranting as he tried to justify his actions.
“-you see? The Aegis protects humans more than monsters! They hand out licenses for men to enslave these poor girls!”
He’d been at it for only a few minutes that morning, but Yana was already fed up.
She gave a snort of derision.
“You’re a fool. The overwhelming majority of crimes committed against monster girls are by people without proper licenses from the Aegis.”
Jonathan clutched at his hair in consternation.
“No, no, NO! That is wrong! You are just another poor girl duped by a corrupt organization!”
The warleader gave him a look of contempt.
“Says the madman abducting bonded monsters from their families.”
Jonathan’s eyes boggled at her words.
“We’re not abducting anyone! We’re freeing slaves!”
The Amazon warrior looked to the Antlions all around her.
“Funny, all I see here are more slaves.”
The dark eyed girls wore placid expressions on their faces as she spoke.
Following her gaze, Jonathan shook his head again.
“Soon you’ll understand, you’ll stand with them and help us. And when it’s over, I promise you: you’ll awaken to a better world, one where you are truly free.”
Her eyes narrowed and she raised her chin proudly.
“When this is over, I will kill you, Jonathan Pym. I have endured far worse than whatever one feeble coward of a man such as you can inflict upon me. Your dark whore was right, you will never break my mind.”
“You will thank me one day for-”
She turned away before he finished, her eyes going distant, as if he were gone from the world already, or simply unworthy of her notice.
“I will hear no more of your words. You are Neucta, and your ancestors are ashamed of you.”
He pursed his lips and nervously fingered the platinum-blue anklet containing her heartstone. Seeing him holding it made her heart burn with rage, but she harnessed it, as a warrior should; tempering and focusing it within herself.
After several seconds he sighed and drew himself up before her.
“Then I suppose we’d better begin.”
Every muscle in her body tensed up as she steeled herself against whatever he intended to do.
His eyes became unfocused and drifted closed, then… nothing happened.
They stayed like that for ten minutes, she had no idea what he was even doing, she didn’t feel any different.
But gradually as she waited her thoughts darkened, pessimism and anxiety seeping into her mind as she dwelled on mistakes from her past: Juni being burned, taking her husband’s eye, the death of Kar, shouting at Milly…
Failures.
She was a failure, a failure as a warleader, as a warrior period.
She drew in a sharp breath and rapidly shook her head from side to side in a vain attempt to cast away these thoughts clinging to her mind like cobwebs.
Then her eyes widened, and she barked out a harsh laugh.
“Is this it? Is this what you intend? To show me things I know already?”
She spat at him, the spittle striking his cheek and making him flinch as his eyes flew open.
“Failure is part of life. We learn from it, we grow from it! No wonder your dark whore thinks so little of you! You are a child!”
He wiped off his cheek with a frown, his cheek twitching slightly as she struck a nerve.
“I didn’t really think that would work, but it was worth a shot. Now we do it the hard way.”
“There is no hard way! You are a fool if you think-”
Abruptly her words cut off as her eyes grew distant, mirroring his as he invaded her mind directly.
Yana was seeing herself from the inside out; equipment racks filled with training gear were everywhere, while echoing all around were the sounds of disciplined Amazons crying out as they thrust in unison, practicing with their mighty spears.
The memories of her failures were still fresh and playing out in the background, but they had no more effect on her here than they did in the world outside her psyche.
But she was not alone and she braced herself as she felt Jonathan’s presence.
His mental form was emaciated, starved for love and affection by Evadne, but as wiry and stubborn as a gnarled root.
He made a vague gesture around them and his words echoed from everywhere in her mind.
You know, this is exactly how I ended up in a coma for a decade.
They were circling each other in the training ring, her form stalking with the confidence and surety of a goddess of battle.
By being foolish enough to violate the mind of a warrior?
But he shook his head as he stopped moving.
She wasn’t a warrior. She was just a Lapine, no mental training, no discipline. But she was so stubborn! And I was exhausted, keeping the Aegis working to save the Tenebrae I created was almost a full time job, especially when I had to maintain the farce by helping Sadie ‘cure’ them.
You vile little snake!
She lashed out, throwing her battle rage at him as she charged towards him, kicking up the memory of sand under her sandaled feet.
But even though he lacked the protection of a Valkyrie, he had his own tricks. Her mental assault slid around his oily presence and she found she could gain no purchase on his mind.
It won’t work. I’ve learned a lot since then, you won’t hurt me the way the Lapine did.
After several bitter minutes of trying to force him out of her head by doing just that, she had to stop to collect herself, finding that it was surprisingly draining.
Why are you telling me any of this?!
At her words he reeled on her and all but screamed into her mind.
Because I want you to understand what it is I’m trying to do! I will save you all! We will END it all! No more bonds, no more Tenebrae, no more SLAVES!
She felt his emotions hit her like a blow to the gut, a ball of foiled lust, ambition and determination, as well as a genuine, if perverse, desire to save her.
After a minute or so he recovered his composure and gestured at her mental form.
You are strong, Yana of Brael, I don’t doubt that. In your mind I can see every muscle, every part of you. A beautiful warrior, forged by decades of training and combat. But there are cracks in your façade.
He smiled a predatory smile and once again he gestured at her, this time she couldn’t help but follow his gaze down at her body.
Just as he said, her mental form had splinters spidering across it, self doubt, regret, remorse.
And guilt, always guilt.
Tell me about this, why weren’t you able to save her?
While she was looking down he had pulled a memory to the forefront of their shared mind.
Kar stood between them in the ring, but she immediately fell to her knees, her own spear lodged between her breasts.
Yana flinched back from it, but stood straight and snarled at him.
I won’t play your sick game!
I don’t need you to. But you feel it don’t you? Feel her dying, over and over. You dream of it, not a day goes by where you don’t dwell on it. Why didn’t she catch the spear? It was her spear, you yourself taught her how, so why didn’t she?
He twisted the memory so that Kar did just that, dodging to one side and seizing the spear mid-flight, spinning gracefully with its momentum.
And smiling as she did it.
Yana sobbed at the sight of it, her iron will cracking slightly.
Jonathan was relentless as they watched, his words never stopping.
She really was quiet beautiful, wasn’t she?
With an enormous effort, she forced the memory aside, but when it was gone she was panting on her hands and knees from the exertion.
All the while he circled her, an oily snake, probing for weakness.
N-neucta!
Yes. Shame of my ancestors, you’ve said. Still, you haven’t answered my question: why didn’t she catch it?
But though Jonathan was working hard to keep her attention where he needed it to be, she slipped free of him long enough to draw strength from another memory, letting it play out in another part of her mind while she strove to show him nothing but weakness.
The memory was faint, clouded with time, but the parts that mattered were sharp and distinct: her mother’s smell, the warmth of her calloused hands gripping Yana’s tiny wrists, and the feeling of her juvenile muscles as she was guided through one of her first stretching exercises.
“That’s my girl.”
Jonathan flinched back as the words echoed around them like thunder, his eyes wide as his machinations broke apart under the weight of one of Yana’s dearest memories.
In one fluid movement, she rose to her full height, towering over the simpering snake that had dared to slip inside her.
It seems that two can play at this game.
A cold smile spread across her face as she drew upon another memory, focusing on it with every ounce of her will.
An Amazon toddler wielding a little spear with growing confidence stood before him, blocking him from reaching Yana, the girl’s youthful face filled with the unshakable stubbornness of a child.
He opened his mouth to spealk, but Yana couldn’t hear him.
Instead her mother’s voice echoed around them again.
“Now my darling, like I showed you: plant your feet and thrust!”
Doing as her mother bid, the toddler drew her arms back with a sharp ululating cry just as she had heard the adults around her make, her aggressive little vocalization echoed from all sides by her grown-up self in the countless skirmishes she had seen in service to the Aegis.
All of it was directed at a suddenly staggered Jonathan.
The infant Amazon thrust, her spear striking his wiry form with enormous force and hurling him from her mind.
Yana drew in a sharp breath as she became aware of her surroundings again. She was still chained against the strange wall of the underground bunker, still surrounded by dark-eyed Antlions.
But now Jonathan was sprawled out at her feet, holding his head in his hands and groaning.
She began to laugh, low at first but rising quickly as she watched the dark Empath try to recover his faculties after her mental assault.
By the time he managed to pull himself to his feet, she had tears of mirth streaming down her face.
“Truly your ancestors are ashamed of you, but not for the reasons I had thought! You are so weak! Beaten by the mere memory of a child! I don’t know why anyone holds any fear of you, Jonathan Pym!”
He ground his teeth together as he glared at her.
“This is just the beginning, we will-”
But his shaky words were cut off when she lunged forwards as far as her chains would allow, letting loose with the war-cry of a fully-grown Amazon.
He flinched away, stumbling over his own feet as she laughed at him again.
With cheeks burning with embarrassment, he fled, her taunting words chasing him.
“Come back any time, little Yana will be sharpening her spear for you!”
Her humour was short-lived without his presence though, the chains binding her were strong and the vigilance of the Tenebrae was unflinching.
She looked them each over, her heart heavy at the sight of them, some bore minor injuries from their brief struggle with her, and she wasn’t soon to forget the one she had killed.
Dropping her head she spoke in a fervent whisper.
“I’m sorry for what has happened to you, sisters. I swear to you, I will be free of this and do everything I can to save you.”
But the dark-eyed girls remained unmoving.
__________
“Get up.” Nina said coldly.
Flat on her face before her, Escrya didn’t move.
“M-mercy.” She begged.
“No such thing, not when you might be all that stands between my master and death. Now get up.”
Escrya had barely returned to the Amazons’ camp before Nina surprised them all by showing up and immediately challenging her to a fight.
Both Myrina and Tiana had tried to intervene, but one glare from the mountain had them backing off immediately.
Tiana especially knew what Nina could be like if angry, having once felt the tiny giant’s wrath nipping at her heels as she chased her up a tree after she had inadvertently interrupted a tender moment between her and Milly.
But the contest between Nina and Escrya couldn’t rightly be called a fight: it was really more of a never-ending beating.
The Gigas held back her true strength of course, she wanted to test the Amazon, not kill her.
With blood and sweat streaming off her brow and stinging her eyes, Escrya managed to push herself up on to one knee, but Nina immediately swept her arms out from underneath her with one tiny yet implacable foot, causing her face to land back in the dirt.
She was relentless, pacing around the downed Amazon as she once more struggled to rise.
“You think because I let you fuck my master that makes you worthy of him? Quit wallowing in the dirt and get up.”
“I... I never said I was w-worthy.”
Nina’s response was to kick her in the ribs, sending her tumbling into the air only to land heavily, the wind gone from her lungs.
“Then what the fuck am I doing here?”
“Stop this! Please!” Kaylee begged from the circle of grim-faced Amazons around them.
Nina’s answer came as the low rumble that warned of an impending avalanche.
“I’ve told you already not to interfere.” Without looking away from Escrya’s prone form she leveled her hammer at Kaylee; “Next one who interrupts me can join her in the dirt.”
But the other Amazon wasn’t deterred, not with Escrya in such evident peril.
“You’re killing her!”
This time Nina did look up, her glare causing Kaylee and those around her to pull back warily before the giant shifted her focus back to the battered Amazon.
“Is that true Escrya? Is this all it takes to kill you? Are you this weak?”
Her words were as much a challenge as they were a taunt, and in either case they had the desired effect, galvanising the wounded girl to plant her fists in the dirt again as she struggled once more to her knees.
With a final sharp cry she got all the way to her feet, one hand gripping her ribs as she spat blood to the side and matched the mountain’s placid stare.
“What this? Th-this is nothing.” She panted out.
Nina waited, it was clear that the Amazon had more to say.
Rising as tall as her injuries would allow, Escrya drew in a breath before speaking in a clear and steady voice for all to hear.
“I am Escrya, daughter of Alcaia. And I swear upon the stories that we cherish, the ones that bind us together, the ones that my grandmother entrusted to me before her death-” Her intonation rose as the teller spoke the most important oath she had ever made; “On the lives of my people, both our mothers and our daughters yet to be!”
Her eyes narrowed as she brought her oath full circle back to Nina.
“On the life of he who is most beloved, our Valkyrja-datta... I swear to you, giant: I AM worthy!”
The corner of Nina’s lip twitched; the barest hint of a smile showing at her opponent’s resolve.
“Then show me.”
And she did.
For another hour Escrya repeatedly rose time and again only for Nina to mercilessly knock her down.
There were no further interruptions from the others, the Saenga and the Brael having come to accept that, despite how difficult it was to witness, their sister had accepted this trial.
To interfere would disgrace her.
It therefore did not end until Escrya was finally unable to rise again, having fallen into unconsciousness from the countless injuries the Gigas had inflicted on her.
Silence reigned in the impromptu arena as Nina loomed over the fallen warrior, staring down at her with an inscrutable expression on her face.
For a long time she stared, until finally she gave a single nod of satisfaction.
“Gracious in victory, proud in defeat.” She murmured before turning to face the Amazons; “Take care of her. I’ll be pretty annoyed if you let her die.”
With that she stalked away, the circle parting to let her through as Myrina and Tiana raced to Escrya’s side.
“What was the point of this madness?!” Kaylee shouted after her.
Nina spoke without turning around.
“When she wakes up, tell her I’m okay with it.”
Nothing left to say, she left the Amazons to tend to the proven warrior.