TRIGGER WARNING: This chapter contains rather graphic discussions of torture and hints at abuse/manipulation. Please proceed with caution.
Jim shuddered awake. He felt dreary, his head heavy. His wrists were freezing cold. He could feel thawing ice dripping down his arm like tears down someone's face. Droplets of water trickled down off his stone flesh and gathered at his feet, forming a small puddle underneath.
It was highly unpleasant.
The room he was suspended in looked vaguely familiar, but he felt too out of it to pinpoint what it was. The wirey fur on his scruff bristled from the cold. A smooth, cold hand brushed across his left cheek. Fingers like icicles almost caused instant frost bite.
"Enough poking and prodding at the creature, Skrael. He looks tired." A crisp, clear voice spoke up.
Skrael?! Jim's internal monologue panicked. Alas, he couldn't speak aloud. He felt too weak.
The hand pulled away from his face and the cold drifted away with it. Jim took a moment to try and properly clue into his surroundings, starting to recognise them as the cave that Morgana had once resided in. Then he remembered the voice. The calm clarity of that menacing tone. Morgana was here with him, also apparently Skrael.
"Bellroc will be most pleased with you witch. I will see to it they reward you handsomely when the time comes. Now, if you'll excuse me, this spell is rather exhausting so I shall release my astral form and leave you be. We await you and your prisoner in due time." Skrael's chilly tone announced.
"Do not worry Skrael, you and Bellroc shall have this...thing...to yourselves soon enough. Thank you for your assistance with capturing it." Morgana bowed her head deeply to show respect to one of her masters.
Jim weakly lifted his head and tried to pull free from his restraints. Despite his otherworldly levels of strength, the ice wouldn't even chip. Morgana floated down to where he was suspended, looking down upon him as if she viewed him as lesser. Which, if Jim was honest, seemed about right for her. He winced, bracing himself for some sort of attack.
However to his surprise, she just stood there, leaning into his face for a closer look. Her irises were full of curiosity.
"You are a most curious creature," She spoke softly, "Not like any I've encountered before. Please forgive the circumstances of your capture...those I work under can be a tad...dramatic. Bellroc has always been a bit theatrical, though they won't admit it."
Jim shifted his jaw and grunted an answer, "What the fuck do you want with me, witch? Whatever it is, just get it over and done with."
The sorceress looked taken aback. Yet, she didn't seem deterred. Instead she moved even closer and ran her fingers across the grooves that spanned the length of Jim's torso. The semi translucent stone skin allowed her to see the complicated map of webbing scars that lay under the surface. Some were deep, as if they'd been there for some time. Others were only shallow and small, little chips and cuts. Morgana was fascinated by him. She checked his aura, he was human, troll and something more. But not a changeling. He was different. It intrigued her.
"I have a question or two, if I may?" She asked, keeping her gaze trained on the scarring.
"I thought you brought me here to kill me, not reenact the Spanish Inquisition." Jim huffed in annoyance.
Morgana snapped her fingers, releasing the restraints. The toll hybrid flopped to the floor, his face smacking into a puddle in front of him. Jim groaned from the impact, rubbing his head as he staggered to his feet. He noted the woman had a slight smirk on her face. He so wanted to wipe that stupid little grin off her visage.
She brushed some of her hair from her face. Her hand reached for Jim's chest.
Upon contact, Jim felt something flare up inside him. Something similar to the feeling of the previous night, before he'd blacked out. It wasn't overly painful, but felt more like a fog that was clouding his mind. A green haze began to pulse around the edges of his field of view. His body grew warm to the touch, the cracks in his skin blaring a lurid green. Morgana seemed strangely intrigued.
"It appears you carry a curse of sorts within you, my dear." She kept her voice gentle.
"A fucking curse? What sort of curse? What did you do to me?" Jim hissed, unable to hide the anger in his voice.
"Me?" Morgana almost looked offended, "I did nothing! I know the means of getting you here weren't...the best...but I assure you, I mean you no harm."
"You're in league with the fucking Arcane Order. You've tried to kill me and many people I love over and over again. Why the fuck should I trust a single word that leaves your mouth?"
Morgana remained silent. Jim snarled at her. She lowered her hand to where his heart was.
"His verbis declaravit, maledictionem auferte, quae desperationem fecit."
A golden yellow glow spread throughout him, seeping into every part of his body. Jim wanted to struggle, but to his surprise, he felt the unusual ache of his supposed 'curse' subside. The sorceress pulled away, drifting a few yards and taking a seat on a nearby rock. Her head was lowered. She was clutching her stomach and grimacing, as if in pain.
"You must have had contact with an ancient artifact called the Kronisfere. It contains the very essence of time itself. Some stories tell of the power within it warping the minds of those with torturous pasts and turning them into monsters driven by the anger of their traumas. I removed the worst of it and transferred it to myself...but there is something darker lurking deep within you child and I cannot remove that."
Jim noted the green vein-like pattern that spread from her left eye and down her neck, the tips darkening to a charcoal black. He rose to his feet and shambled over to where she sat. He shrank back to his human form as he reached her. Over her shoulder, Jim could just about make out what seemed to be burn marks and scarring etched deep into the skin on her arms. He managed to muster up some empathy and sat himself beside her. He couldn't access her mind, but could sense her discomfort. This wasn't the same Morgana he'd battled over and over.
"What happened to you?" He questioned quietly, "You don't have to tell me, but you can trust me. I've been captured, tortured.etc, just for existing."
She momentarily shook her head dismissively, until she made eye cotnact with him. Seeing his human guise baffled the witch, but he seemed strangely familiar. Not like an old friend, but some acquaintance she'd met once in passing. She sensed a strange kinship between them. There was something comforting about his presence, also something ominous.
"They were caused by cuffs. Iron. Forged specifically to prevent any creature of magic using their gifts," Her eyes were hollow, "I was born with magic in a kingdom that had outlawed it. Even worse, I was no commoner. I was the eldest child of the king, the heir to the throne. My father learned of what I could do far before my gifts manifested and sought to keep them locked away. So he did...he commissioned a witchfinder to create a set of heavy chains and cuffs to bind my magic. Any time I tried to use my abilities...they burned my flesh."
"I had...no idea." Jim suddenly felt a pang of guilt.
"Most don't. But it's why I fight so hard to protect that which is most dear to me, those like me, lest I go the same route as my brother. I cannot let the pain of my past turn me into a monster like him."
Something about that statement made Jim freeze up. He cast his mind back to the thousands of time loops he'd endured, the pain and trauma he'd had to go through over and over. Was he becoming a monster? Part of his brain was urging him to kill her, whilst she was vulnerable, weak. The other part of him felt compassion. The Jim part of him. But it was becoming harder to distinguish the messed up thoughts from the other ones.
Jim shifted to be within the witch's line of sight and spoke to her, "I kinda get that. I'm sure you've been able to tell I don't quite fit in by this point. When I first became a troll hybrid, I had people mistreat me for being different. I never fit into either world and...I kinda got hurt for that. I never went through anything like you did though...I can't even imagine what it was like."
"A living hell," She answered him coldly, "A torture I wouldn't wish on even my worst enemies. Helping others like me escape this pain is the only way I can distract myself from the constant pain I feel inside."
Jim fell silent. Why did he even think that comparing their struggles was a good idea? Her clear frostiness towards him now had evidently been caused by his disrespectful statement. Guilt crept up inside. He stood up and offered her his hand.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have compared our struggles. But...why don't you come with me? I know somewhere we can go that's safe, with people who won't be scared of you, no one will know you."
Morgana raised an eyebrow at him, "A strange proposition indeed. Alas, whilst I do appreciate your offer youngling, you should not linger here. You can leave...before Bellroc and Skrael reach their full power."
"How long will that take? Do you know?" Jim queried.
Morgana shook her head, "I'm afraid I cannot provide an accurate timeframe for that my dear. But they wouldn't dare strike for the next few weeks at least, they are still weakened. They only come to see me every now and again, Skrael leant me a hand to find and retrieve you, but he wasn't able to help me long."
"I won't go," Jim stated adamantly, "I'd like to have a talk with Bellroc and Skrael, eventually. But for now, you shouldn't be alone unless you genuinely want to be. I can sense how alone you are in this place and everyone back home can just wait for me."
Morgana tried repeatedly to make Jim leave, until she eventually realised the young man wasn't budging. He'd made his mind up and frankly, she wouldn't shy away from the company. She shifted herself over to make space on the rock she was sitting on, patting the spot beside her. Jim smiled, seating himself at her side. He wasn't sure if it was sympathy or the thought that he could use Morgana's current trust in him to his advantage. After all, of he could get her to ally with him, that was one less being that would stand between him and saving Toby. His curse was now part of her, it weakened her and unbeknownst to both Jim and Morgana, it was allowing him to slowly leech off her magic until she'd be completely drained dry.