Demonthorn 7

Jolie’s sense of time was off. She didn’t really know when it happened but she supposed in the end it wasn’t surprising. There was no sunlight Below to judge the days. Nor was her internal clock correct anymore. She thought that being hit on the head so many times knocked that loose.

The time was spent with her dozing and then being rudely awakened by the malevolent demons. There was pain and pleasure and she seemed to float in a never ending sea of it.

This particular time period was almost pleasant. She had actually felt rested, so she believed that she had been allowed a full 8 hours of sleep. She had been fed something that was cooked halfway decently. The strips of jerky she was fed were far superior to the singed cuts of meat she had been fed previously.

Then Gortelesque walked in.

“I believe you are well rested?” He said with a smile in his booming voice.

“Go to hell.” She said without much vehemence.

“I have been there already thank you very much and I have no intention of returning there. Imagine the worst thing you can imagine and then imagine worse. Then double that. Eternal torment is just that, eternal and painful.” The demon licked his lips. “I worked harder than I have ever worked to get out of there, to prove myself to The Master.”

“Well good for you. I suppose you should get a medal or something.” Spat Jolie.

“I was gifted with a second life, an opportunity to make my mark on the world. I would be a fool to waste it.”

“I think you are already a fool. What do you think the God and Goddess will do to you when they smash this place open with the fury of righteousness? Do you think you won’t go back to that hell you were at before?”

Gortelesque stepped up closer to Jolie.

“What makes you think they would win?” He said in a whisper.

Jolie didn’t answer.

“The God and Goddess are weak. They are as flawed as the creatures they created. Perfection is an illusion they use to control all of you pathetic people who live Above. They never answer your prayers. They never come to your aid. They only revel in their power over creation.”

“Yeah? Then how come we are up there and you are down here?” Asked Jolie.

Gortelesque brought his face to within inches of hers.

“You forget my dear, you are down here too.”

“Oh for the love of the Goddess just kill me already!” Moaned Jolie. “I have no information for you and I will never turn on my beliefs. Are you keeping me here for your own sadistic pleasure? Do you enjoy causing pain?”

Gortelesque backed off and raised an eyebrow.

“You do know I am a demon, right?” The demon chuckled. “I have suffered far worse pain than you ever have and yes, I do enjoy dealing pain. At least to those that deserve it.”

“And what did I do to deserve it? I have slaughtered countless demons in the name of my God and Goddess. I should be up there with them right now, serving with the anjels. Let me go there if you have any humanity left in your heart!” Sobbed Jolie.

Gortelesque reached to a table near him and pulled off as small stick with a pointed tip. He traced it along the woman’s body, tracing scratches along her body to match the battle and torture scars that now crossed over her body. Jolie shivered as the point reached some of her more sensitive areas.

“You do deserve pain Jolie. Because pain is the crucible from which we emerge as a new being, cleansed of doubt and reservation. I much prefer inflicting pleasure, especially on you. But we need to get all of the pain out of the way before you can see what you truly are.”

“I don’t want to change. Just let me die you miserable bastard!” The rage welled inside of her, overflowing. “You have no right to make me something else. Destroy me if you must but let me die as a whole woman and not a monster!”

“Do you think I am truly a monster? If I was do you think I would have dragged you back here and cared for you?”

Jolie laughed hysterically.

“You call this caring for me? Torture mixed with rape and brainwashing tactics are not in my definition of caring!”

“Were your parents strict?” Asked the demon.

The question caught the Fury off guard.

“Y-Yes.” She stammered.

“They punished you when you were bad?”

Jolie didn’t answer, but shivered when the point of the stick ran over her left nipple.

“They taught you their values? They raised you in the way that they wanted you to be raised, regardless of what you wanted?”

Jolie was still silent.

“Parents are all the same. They try and mold their children to become like them, but to fix the mistakes that their parents made with them. What I am doing is that I am stripping away all of that weight you have to bear. You bear the weight of their failures, their expectations. You bear the weight of the sisterhood that molded you again. Of the expectations that are placed upon you by them and everyone Above.” Gortelesque smiled. “Once you have stripped off everything that weighs you down and confines you, then what is left?”

“Myself.” Whispered Jolie.

“Yes!” Said Gortelesque excitedly, the tip of the stick slightly puncturing Jolies belly near her navel and drew blood. “We are trying to see what you are underneath all of the rules and restrictions that bind you and keep you from being the wonderful being that you could be.”

Gortelesque couldn’t help himself anymore, he stepped forward and tossed the stick away, pressing his face to the woman’s belly and began to slurp up the blood that was leaking from there. Jolie crooned as the pressure felt sensual and she began to feel the prickle of desire crawl it’s way around her body.

The woman was tired. She was tired of holding out for rescue. She was tired of holding to the expectations of deities. She was tired of holding up the Valkyrie sisterhood. She was tired of the battles she couldn’t choose, of the indifference of the people she saved. She was a Fury, it was expected of her.

After the last of the blood was gone, Gortelesque pulled his head back and looked the woman in the eye.

“Do you know who I was before all of this?” He gestured to his muscled body.

Jolie shook her head and bit her lip.

“I was a farmer out near Ravencrag. My family had farmed there for generations and dutifully paid our taxes, kept our heads low and caused no trouble in all that time.” The demon shuddered. “Then my two daughters were taken. The Valkyries rode out of the Citadel and conscripted them to put down a rival faction that had split off.”

“You were there for the Amazon Civil War? That was over three hundred years ago!” Said Jolie.

“Yes I was.” Said the demon thoughtfully. “It was not our war, but something you hateful women created because you couldn’t agree on how to recruit people to your cause. My daughters went willingly enough. They were going to be heroes and put down those who would dare to disagree with the God and Goddess. Neither of them came back. My wife took it worse than I did.”

Jolie could feel her heart ache for the demon. She was repulsed by it, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel for the creature.

“She took a lover. Not because she didn’t love me you understand, but because I couldn’t give her any more children, as hard as we tried. I caught them and I dispensed a man’s justice upon them.”

“The Valkyries caught you.” Jolie said.

“Yes they did. I was murdered for defending my own honor as a result of what the witches did to me and my family. Is that the way that the God and Goddess treat the faithful?”

“Usually not.” Said Jolie in a whisper.

“I beg to differ. There are millions of demons. Most of them affected by that sisterhood you belong to. I have heard of men being raped by gangs of soldiers and then murdered to say that they had attacked them. Some of these demons had their families murdered when they wouldn’t send their daughters off to Ravencrag or when they couldn’t pay their taxes.”

“No, we don’t-” began Jolie.

“You don’t what?!” Roared the demon, causing the fury to squirm. “I was there, I should know better than you. Your sisterhood is about preserving power for usurpers and nothing else. They were created to keep control of Above and to keep the people they have wronged away.”

Jolie was silent with her thoughts again. The demon picked up his stick and began tracing the lines along the Fury’s body. After a while the demon seemed to calm down.

“I know why the God and Goddess don’t want to have you Valkyries have sex.” Said the demon.

“To keep us pure. To remove distraction and attachment so we can serve them better.”

“Was that you saying that just now? Or were you told that by your sisterhood?” Asked the demon.

Jolie was silent.

“It is because they don’t want you to have children. People with attachment don’t want to risk losing what they have. Children are powerful creatures that make their parents happy. They want to deny you happiness Jolie.”

“Happiness makes a soldier weak. We should be content with a job well done and a life of service. At least that is the creed.” The woman hung limply in her restraints.

“Did you know they sterilized you when you became a Fury?” Asked Gortelesque.

Jolie looked up in surprise, her jaw hanging open.

“Yeah, that wasn’t even part of the process of becoming a Fury. The elders sterilize the Furies because if they have children, then they would have powers too. But the Goddess decreed that none should have powers except for those chosen by her and her husband. So you will never have children Jolie, as much as you want to.”

“I never wanted children.” The Fury said as she gritted her teeth. “I gave my life to the sisterhood. That was enough.”

“Before you were a Valkyrie you did though.” Gortelesque said, lowering the stick from her body.

“That doesn’t matter.” Said the Fury, shaking her head. “I am a Fury of the Valkyrie sisterhood and nothing can change that. I am what I have been forged into by my choices and the people I have surrounded myself with. Those experiences don’t hold me back, they define me!”

The demon was silent and could see the defiance etched on her face. But in her eyes Gortelesque could see that there was pain and a longing to let go of all of the responsibilities she had shouldered.

“A pity.” Gortelesque said. “I thought we were getting somewhere.”

“Not with me!” Said the Fury, her face feral in it’s ferocity.

“Oh, you will transform Jolie. The seed of doubt has already sprouted and soon it will be a strong sapling and then a mighty tree to shade you from the lies from Above.” Gortelesque took the woman’s chin in his hand. “You will see in time, as I did, that in order to be free, you must shake off the control of those who lie to you.”

“You lie to me.”

“I have never lied to you.” The demon said earnestly. “I am trying to turn you into the raging warrior you want to be, unrestrained by the shackles of your oppressive beliefs. To do that I am completely honest.”

“How many women have you seduced through this manner? You expect me to fold like a common bar wench?” The woman laughed again. “You have no idea who you have on this table here!”

“I have seduced twenty eight women, convincing them to be my Harpies. I keep a pool of twelve for consideration and to replenish the ranks. I do not expect you to fold, I expect you to break free.”

“I don’t believe a word you say!” Jolie said with defiance in her voice.

“That is up to you. I can only tell you the truth and hope that you will hear it.” The demon licked his lips.

“Leave demon, before I waste more words on you!”

The demon turned and left the room, closing the door gently behind him. Only then did Jolie let herself cry. She let the tears flow down her scarred body and drip to the floor.

THE END OF CHAPTER SEVEN