The Starry Maiden

Specimen

I've completely lost all sense of time... There have been so many times where they've had me completely unconscious for extended periods of time.

But...

Those are the times I prefer.

Because the other times... Those are when Ilios deals the most pain doing his sick experiments.

There was a while that I think I was catatonic from everything... I don't remember much, but now if I just act it, they leave me in the quiet and dark cell for a while. Although, I have also learned some things about myself that I wouldn't have learnt otherwise... Not that I needed to learn them. For the past while it seems as though Ilios has been testing limits and my adaptability. Which exceed what I even thought possible... He's tested starvation, drowning, freezing, and other extreme conditions that I had never intended on exposing myself to.

I can go huge amounts of time without eating; where at some point I enter a sort of comatose state until nutrients are reintroduced to my system. I can last for a few hours under water before my body enters a similar state until I am brought to air. There were similar results with extreme cold, where I go through all the typical stages of hypothermia for an extended timeline until again, I enter a sort of sleep until my body is warmed back up.

He has also tested how well I heal. I already knew that I heal better than any human does. Not instantly, mind you, but minor cuts and bruises would be gone in a few hours instead of a few days.

Ilios, again, went for the extremes. He has inflicted progressively worsening wounds just to see how long it takes them to fully heal. Each time, I wonder if this is the time he maims me permanently. If perhaps this is the time that he severs a limb. I have a feeling that I can't grow back limbs...

Luckily, after inflicting a wound he leaves me alone, only having his servants do a check of my body while he processes data from his experiment. Hence my current isolation. And in my times alone I have developing another skill. It is something I had noticed a few times in sparring matches or testing other skills. But the time I've had in this dark cell has made it easier to hone. So far as I can tell, it is a way to extend my senses. Every time I use it I can 'see' farther. As I am, I can see the way to the main areas of Ilios' secret lab, including one main exit as well as a few smaller exits that are presumably used by the human servants he deems unworthy of using the same paths as a higher being such as himself.

And he treats them horribly. Arguably worse than any Illuminat caste member I've ever seen. Another thing that he had done to deceive me was to treat humans fairly... Apparently all this time he has been just another prideful, arrogant Isu, only pretending otherwise to earn my trust. And to my own irritation and self-disappointment I believed it all. Quite completely.

Although, there is no sign that Ilios has noticed this ability I've been nurturing on the sly. And so I intend on using it in my escape. I tried twice nearer the beginning to escape, both ending in failure and a change of scenery; presumably making my cell deeper into the mountain. At the beginning, I'd been getting taken quite a distance downwards to the main lab, but now it is only a few levels below me. Ilios explained that his reasons for a lab deep in a mountain were twofold. Firstly, so that none could feel the energy of his equipment from the surface. And secondly, to use energy from inside the earth as part of his power supply. He quite marveled at his own cleverness when he recounted it all to me.

"Thank you..." I pass the empty tray to the young slave girl who comes to collect it, these slaves have it rough here, and they don't need me being harsh. They aren't to blame for my imprisonment. The Isu guards on the other hand...

"Did you need any water?" The slave asks holding a pitcher of water towards me.

"Yes, thank you..." She pours some into a cup and places it on the small table before bowing and leaving the cell.