Closed Cat Got Your Tongue? [Maya, Shiress]

[Shiress]

Shiress would have laughed had her stomach not been in knots.

The slave watched the man sputter and cough as his head resurfaced, then her eyes moved to study the woman. This one was not a slave, but still, the female somehow knew slavery and held an air of command. But, then again, Shiress was a slave, who didn't own an air of command that wasn't a slave? One last glance around, and she was back to sorting, cursing her damnable curiosity, as she fought back the bile in her throat.

Shiress studied the tongue before her, it was somewhat human looking, as in it was pink, or once was pink, but it was swollen, as if it had been cut out of a mouth some bells into a hanging. Shiress pressed her mouth into the fold of her arm, swallowing hard, and tossed it into the human pile. The next was a blackened, forked tongue, this went into the non-human pile, or, what didn't slither off into her hand as she attempted to throw the vile thing, went into the non-human pile. Shiress's body lurched with another violent gag, but steadying herself, her stomach contents remained intact, for what was left of it, but her green eyes watered as if she'd been crying for days.

Looking around for more disembodied speakers, she found herself surrounded by mounds of sorted organs. Following orders, Shiress filled two baskets with her sorted tongues, one with what she thought might be human, the other with the non-human guesses. Climbing from the boat, Shiress glanced to the armed woman, giving her a 'I really wish I didn't have to this' look, then followed the other female up the stairs.

Slightly winded, the slave left the stairway, and trailed the small Konti to the man at the door. Daring a glance at the odd doctor, Shiress frowned in puzzlement at the man's widened eyes as each of the baskets passed beneath his gaze. Shiress turned to look over her shoulder and whispered to the taller woman as as soon as they were out of earshot. "Does he seem a little too excited to you?" When Shiress faced forward again, her steps froze, having expected to walk into some sort of exam room. Instead, it looked as if the three women had just been led into a torture chamber.

Shiress turned a look on Maya that was pure trepidation, before moving into the room. Cautiously, eyes darting from instrument to instrument, the slave chose a table, and began unpacking her baskets.

Beautiful Boxcode Credit: Rohka

[Maya Lark]

Maya winced once again and swallowed what tiny bit of contents were left in her stomach. The girl was glad that she had not eaten a large breakfast. She hoped that her body would become used to the smell quickly. Her father had always shouted about her needing to just sit and smell the filth of every day slave life, but that was far FAR different from the scent of decaying tongues. Taking a deep breath, she walked up and crinkled her nose holding her breath some while putting each one in a different spot. It did not take long before each human tongue was put in its own pile of decay. Each nonhuman tongue the girl had come across was tossed over to the dark haired slave to put in her piles. Once everything was out of the ravosala was out, the other female slave that appeared to be konti had started sorting the pile below them.

“Weirdo,” Maya whispered to herself while moving backwards.

She allowed the man to go over all of the piles that had been made. His excitement for the appendages seemed very creepy to her so the Lark tried to stay clear of him. The woman rolled her neck popping it as he seemed pleased then told them to go fetch the baskets against the wall. Rolling her eyes, the woman barked at the Konti girl to bring her one as well. With an eep the girl hurried back with two baskets one for each of them. The woman quickly put all the tongues within the container and picked it up. She grunted some and managed to get the item on to her back and followed him up the winding staircase.

“I do not like the feeling I am getting,” Maya stated more to herself than those around her.

She took a deep breath in order to control her breathing as they stopped. The doctor opened the door to a room and let the three women enter. Looking around Maya's skin crawled seeing the different medical instruments that were laying around them. Her paranoia was beginning to kick in as the two slaves could easily team up and stab her in the neck with something. Then the doctor would have a fresh corpse to study on.

“What is your fascination with these tongues if I may ask doctor,” Maya called.

She glanced over to the slave when the young woman whispered making light of his enjoyment and excitement. It was very unsettling as the lark began to unpack her tongues on a table trying to once again ignore the smell. Looking up at the sound of gagging, she winced seeing the Konti hurling again on the man's floor. Shaking her head, the girl forced herself to focus on what she was doing so that she would not hurl again. Once her piles were done again she stepped back away from the piles and looked at him.

“Now what exactly are we to do now?” Maya asked with an irritated growl.

[Prophet]

The man with perfectly smooth skin was standing over the Konti woman as she sorted the tongue by state of decomposition. He eagerly made mental notes and even put a thin hand on the woman’s shoulder with a whispered ‘Good job’. He caught a bit of chit-chat from the other two and ignored it at first but was diligent and so he began to make his rounds to the other table. While he stood next to the human slave with emerald eyes and brown hair, he looked only once as the small Konti was on her hands and knees retching up the last of her stomach’s contents. He brushed against the slave next to him, his body heavy and cold like stone against her arm but he was not being forceful. In fact, he held his hands behind his back and simply poured his gaze over the way the tongues were being displayed almost by race. With a raised brow, he looked down his straight nose at the young woman. “Interesting choice, dear. Why have you decided to divide the organs up in this manner?”

While he waited for an answer, the Konti woman had sat back on her bottom to catch her breath as a wheezing growl had replaced her previous silence as the small body struggled to recover. She stared at the bile and partially digested food and noticed something in the floor. There were markings, scratches, but there was a pattern. Trying to be clever, she rose and began to sort the tongues once more but knocked a small pile over and several fell to the ground. The doctor heard this and rolled his eyes with an exasperated gasp. “Uggh. I’ll be right back. Pick that up, you idiot!” He left Shiress’ side and walked past the tall one sent to corral the slaves. Hearing her question he paused and straightened his upper lip to show his lack of amusement. “Figure it out, slaver. And for the love of all the gods- don’t mess with anything.”

He stormed out and the Konti dropped back to her knees to pick up the misplaced lickers. She fiddled with the markings on the floor and after tracing a certain pattern, it began to glow- a circle with uneven edges that shifted like a flame and in the center was a single character that seemed to be both ancient and important. She she placed her hand upon it, the glowing disappeared in what sounded like the air being sucked through a tube. The woman tilted her head and leaned closer to the now dark etchings in the floor. Without any warning, a blast of fire exploded from the ring straight up like a volcano. The torch lasted for several ticks and when it was done, the smoldering remains of the Konti lay on the floor with only her lower half still being recognizable- all else was ash.

The doctor had heard the mechanism engaged. He had built the glyph and created the shield within the pit that leeched djed and converted it to res. He was standing in the doorway when the pyre was engaged. With one hand, he called res to his fingertips, an orb forming in his palm, and in the other he held a cat o’ nine tails, each tail being capped off by some kind of tongue; each one petrified and hardened. “Stupid whore!” He spat. First, his eyes went to Maya and he converted the res to air then shoved it at her with a force that would clear her table of the tongues and likely take her off her feet. Many of the stray tongues would fly clear to the back wall. The man wasted no time, his foot coming up and kicking backwards to close the heavy door. It quickly shut with a thud and the sound of a latch.

Moving laterally, he made his way towards Shiress. Each step allowed him to draw up more res into his hand but he wouldn’t waste such power on an unarmed slave. No, he flicked his wrist back and forth which caused the severed tongues affixed to his weapon to sway. “Fight if you want to, bitch. It makes it more fun for me.” Once he was within reach, he lashed out in an attempt to catch her across the face with the weapon. The large tables created obstacles for him but it also allowed him the freedom to engage one woman at a time. The door was locked, a secondary mechanism triggered by the Konti’s curious exposure of the glyph in the floor.

[Shiress]

A shiver of unease ran down Shiress back as the strange man stepped up to her. Fighting back the urge to sidestep away from the looming figure, she stared down at the piles of tongues, contemplating the answer to his question. "I.." she began, but paused, not knowing herself why she was sorting them by race, or even if she had gotten the guesses of race right, "I don't know, it just seemed...."

The doctor's attention left Shiress for the Konti, and she all but sighed in relief as he walked away from her. For an instant Shiress contemplated helping the woman gather up her tongues, had even moved to step around the table, but seeing that the slave's attention was on the floor and not her mess of spilled organs, she went back to sorting. A moment later, the floor began to glow. Dropping a tongue into the human pile, Shiress moved sideways, leaning slightly over the table to get a better look. She could see patterns, but had no idea what they were. The blonde was placing her hand down...

Shiress screamed as a flame shot up from the floor, the heat from it hot on her skin even from where she stood at a distance. Slowly, the slave pressed the back of her wrist across her mouth, eyes wide, staring in horror at what was left of the other slave. Then a sudden blast of air came from the doorway, blowing loose strands of hair off her shoulders. Green eyes darted from the tall woman, now on the floor, to the crazed man coming toward her.

Finally coming to the realization that the man was a mage, numbing fear surged through her, rooting her feet to the floor, eyes staring at the swaying whip. The man spoke and at the last chime, Shiress darted sideways, feeling the bite of the whip against the side of her face and burn across her neck. Pulling the dazed woman to her feet Shiress fled to the opposite end of the room from where the man stood, half dragging the other along with her, hand pressed against the blood now trickling down her cheek and neck. The wound burned and felt deep beneath her fingers. She winced glancing to the tall woman. "I don't know what the petch is going on, but you still got that knife, I hope?"

Beautiful Boxcode Credit: Rohka

[Maya Lark]

Rolling her eyes when the doctor barked at her, the girl did not really care for anything beyond the fact that they had finished sorting the tongues. A shiver ran down her spine at the creepy feeling that was coming off from the man. The woman made a mental note to look into the strange man when they finished and were allowed to leave. The konti began to behave strangely after spewing her guts on to the ground. Shaking her head dark black locks floated around her head making the woman blow some air out of her mouth making her hair float in the air for a moment. Raising a hand, she moved the strands out of her face and watched the girl. The young slaver had no sympathy for those with a weak stomach. Although the appendages were very grotesque to look at and deal with.

“Ugh, weakling. Stop your whining and clean up this mess!” Maya snarled at the slave.

The girl felt a shudder go down her spine watching the man as he got close to Shiress. She went to tell him to back off only for him to turn on the other girl. Maya was not bothered by him going for the Konti seeing as how, she had begun to get rather annoying and useless. The dark haired woman had proven to be very useful and resourceful. Blue eyes watched as he stormed over to the girl when she “knocked” her tongues on the ground. Moving one foot behind her, the girl leaned back on that leg while popping her neck. Looking towards the fair skinned woman, a strange look crossed Maya's face. She was acting odd as if tracing something on the ground.

“Get those tongues off the floor fool!” Maya snarled.

Shortly after a bright light caused the woman to shield her eyes before looking back over. A gasp left her lips seeing the bottom half of the girl's body that was left. While the top part of her had been completely removed by what ever kind of magic had been activated. Turning to speak to the doctor, the girl was blasted off her feet. Hitting the ground, she slid a very short distance with a grunt trying to shake her head. The sound of a latch locking made her stomach drop, that meant they now knew who was taking peoples tongues. But the real question was how the bodies were appearing somewhere else. Perhaps he was removing the appendages in a different location and hording them, before sending them to the city to trap new subjects.

The feel of two hands pulling the girl up caused an instant reaction, she grabbed at her fan only to meet eyes with Shiress. A sigh of relief left her body as the woman tried to keep her feet under her. The Lark was in an unfamiliar situation; she was not used to being the one attacked. Her mind raced trying to find some way out of the predicament. Her first reaction was to drop her last name, but there was a good chance it would not work so they needed a back up plan. Lowering her voice, the girl took the dagger in her boot and handed it to the slave.

“Here, I am going to try and distract him. Get to the door and figure out how to open it yes?” Maya stated really giving her no room to argue.

The slaver knelt down staying out of his sight so that she could move to where his back was to the door. Taking a deep breath, the woman stood up making sure to have his full attention. A soft smirk played on her lips as if everything that had happened did not bother her in the least.

“I have to say doctor, you are very brazen. Kidnapping and killing slaves is one thing, but kidnapping the heiress to the Lark family estate is another. You have guts thinking my family wont come looking for me. If you release us, everything that has happened will never be spoken of again,” Maya stated with confidence while slowly opening her fan blade.