The boy swallowed hard. He had to warn someone! Dark Eldar in the city walls?! He spun about to flee, perhaps to make it to the south road gate but froze in horror. Something black and terrible pounced upon him, clamping a hand over his mouth, stifling his scream. Arms with muscles like corded steel held fast his arms, pressed back against the stone. The apparition that was their leader appeared, viewing him through her fiery amber eyes, "Good job my Mandrakes…you have found our first sacrifice…the one required to open the Warpgate." She reached out to tenderly stroke the boys chest, "And then Byzantium will know Nwalcalindë has come…"
The whip opened a fresh laceration across her bare back, and Rebecca screamed. Each time the whip retreated, she gasped in a shaky breath, wondering when the punishment would end. The sound of the whip rushing through the air was torturous on its own, knowing it presaged another strike. She didn't try to stifle her howls of agony…there was no use in it. It only would have made her tormentor angrier and thus her penance longer. It was the way of Slaanesh to indulge in all experience, to moan shamelessly when pleasured, and cry out when in pain.
She was kneeling on the cold stone floor of the natural cavern, her ankles bound in razor wire. She was bent over with her arms wrapped in more wire, suspending them out to the sides. Her right arm was severed at the elbow, the wound still unbound, blood dripping onto the floor. Every shuddering breath stretched open the wounds on her back, more stinging pain shrieking through her nerves.
Gaius coiled the whip in his hand, dressed solely in a loincloth of violet suspended from a belt of gold, "You failed to kill Canoness Katherine."
Rebecca grit her teeth, breath hissing through them, "Yes, master. I would have finished her, but with Eve and Harodiah there as well…"
"Excuses, Rebecca?" Gaius raised an eyebrow, pouring alcohol on her savaged back.
When she could stop screaming, Rebecca answered, her voice hoarse, "Not…excuse…explanation. Together…the three of them…too much."
"Especially when you only have one arm?" Gaius shrugged. "You are right…that is too much for you at once. Perhaps I should have my girl on the inside eliminate Katherine's supporting cast." He glanced down at the stump of her arm, "And I suppose we shall have to rectify this, to bring you back to full combat efficiency."
He snapped his fingers and a Daemonette slinked over to him, inhumanly long tongue licking her lips. Without warning he grabbed her arm above and below the elbow, and with a terrible twist, ripped it in twain. With a howl the Daemonette disintegrated, her corporal form disrupted and her spirit sent back to the Eye of Terror. In his hand, the arm remained, his psychic power anchoring it. Returning to Rebecca, he pressed it against her stump. The former Sister of Battle screeched as the daemonic forearm extended tendrils of unnatural flash burrowing into her own. After a full minute, her screams stopped, leaving Rebecca panting like a dog. She turned her head slightly to look upon the pale demonic arm, slender fingers tipped in claws of deep purple. "Th…thank you, master."
Decimus Ovidius Malleolus strode quietly into the cavern, cocking his head slightly at the sight of Rebecca's penance for her failure. Around the cave were a dozen of her fellow former Sisters of Battle and a like number of Daemonettes, watching with sadistic interest…and a healthy amount of fear of their Messiah. Decimus bowed low, "A shame she failed to kill that Bitch…this is what you get for using second-hand help. These…girls are too fragile…"
"I'll show you fragile, you pompous dilettante!" Rebecca hissed.
"Do show me, little Emperor's whore," Decimus taunted. "You have…what…a little over a hundred of these abominations?" He gestured toward the Sisters that were now vessels for Daemonic spirits. "The convent now holds maybe fifty sisters? You outnumber them two to one now?" He shrugged. "I should think even failures like yourself can overcome these bitches of battle with such odds…"
Chapter 24: Lovers Reunion
Start from the beginning
