"Pelia! Look!" A tiny voice matching the tiny hands held up a frog croaking in distress. The mud covered little body made the young girl sigh but smile. She grabbed the wooden bucket freshly cleaned from the laundry.
"Put it in here you little devil." The cherubic face broke into a smile that was stark against the dirty face it sat in. The frog was carefully put in and Pelia helped put so stones, moss, and water for the new addition to be comfortable.
The smooth operation was clearly a long standing arrangent. The two children walked the dirt path back to the village. The serene mont was t with smiles from passerby and even a Soul Realm cultivator waved at them as they passed.
Pelia suddenly slowed down. A feeling rose in her and made her stomach churn. She suddenly saw the turn to the lane for their ho. It was a simple cabin with a barn to hold so cows and chickens.
It was a wonderful place no matter how small it seed compared to others. She loved the cozy fireplace as their parents told them stories or taught them skills to help out with the animals.
Pelia normally would pick up the pace on the worn path through the grass to her ho, but not now. Now she wanted to go anywhere else.
"Big sis?" The small voice spoke up but Pelia was starting to hyperventilate. She wanted to pull her sibling away and run! Yet, she could not move!
She wanted to call out to the cultivator they had passed but when she looked down the dirt road, all of the people and animals were gone. Darkness was closing in!
There was sothing in the darkness and it was coming for her entire world!
"NO!" The scream freed her but it was not her own. She was suddenly covered in blood and mud as her cabin burned. Her parents were dismbered as they had tried to hide them from the soldiers in dark tal armor.
Pelia saw her sibling, who was distorted beyond their small form twisting futilely to escape.
"MOM! DAD! PELIA! HELP !" Snickering laughter was followed by a sudden chop to the neck. Pelia realized her throat was raw from smoke and screaming of her own. Shadow lood over her and that was the last she saw of the place she had been born.
She awoke in darkness. It was damp too but the chains were the focus. Her arms and legs were held down tightly and she was not alone. She could see shadows moving due to a single candle burning just beyond so bars.
Whimpering, prayers, and other things filled the silence. Pelia wanted to call out for her sibling yet she knew in her heart there was no point. The shadows were all roughly the sa size as herself.
There were no smaller figures.
Tears ford but they were short lived as a bright light flashed into the cell. She then saw haggard forms and a lot of blood. There were demons, humans, and even aether children.
They were all very young.
Hooded figures swept into the cell with no explanation. Pelia wanted to hide but it was as if so list had been chosen beforehand. She and 5 others were whisked out roughly but without hurting them further.
Everything beca a blur until they ca to a small room lit by glowing orbs on the walls.
It made the shadows darker and she felt like sothing was watching from them.
A strange language was spoken and so of the demons reacted. It had to be a dialect they knew but she had never heard it before.
Cultivators might be able to interpret or learn many languages but she was only a child!
A new shadow lood over her and she finally saw a face inside the crimson hood. It was a human!
He looked at her like she was nothing! Like how soone would look at felling a tree or using a tool! She wanted to run, yet the chains weighed her down.
He nodded and that was when the true nightmare began.
She was taken to strange places and felt very sick as a glowing surface distorted several tis. She sohow moved and ca to more fantastical cities yet she took none of it in. She was only able to see the inside of the wagon with the 2 others taken with her.
They ca to a stone room and then the torture followed. Vials of blood, creatures in jars, and the blades ripping into her body beca her world. She wanted to die but they would not let her die.
The demon girl had bit her tongue in an attempt to die but they healed her instantly. There was no escape!
At so point, the pain lessened. She was still being worked over, yet it was more like they were trying to get so kind of balance. It was only after a long stretch of being kept for observation that she realized she had grown.
Had it been years? How long?
She tried to rember her family but it was all shadow and distortion. She wanted to cry but pain lanced through her head when she tried! She was not even allowed to cry!
She still had her na but as she looked at her body, horror welled in her. She had fur like an animal coming out of her left arm and right ribs. She was also full of pressure in her stomach that hurt badly if she tried to focus on it.
How could it react to her mind?!
The final humiliation was when she was left stark naked on a stage with others like her. They were all part animal and part human or demon. She did not see any aether children.
The language was still alien but soone finally spoke words she knew.
"Will they really work like a thrall?" It was a robust man and his presence seed to hurt her for so reason. He also felt unreal. "Will they survive where we need them, too?"
One of the hooded figures nodded and a glowing stone shimred with unknown characters and images. Pelia recognized herself and so kind of breakdown!
They put things inside her! She wanted to cry but the pain stopped her once more.
The robust man smiled and nodded at a figure holding a plate. The robust man distorted and vanished. A projection!
Pelia was then taken by the young man and put into so kind of casket. She wanted to resist but it was like her own body would not obey her commands! The casket slid shut and darkness ca for her.
The next ti awoke was the last ti she experienced the world herself. The robust man was smiling as he placed a glowing bracket on her skull. The scene then seed to fall away.
She then could only watch sotis as she did horrible things! She tore apart stone and steel like they were nothing to her. She kidnapped people, cultivators, trying to enter a sect.
Nothing they used could stop her and so part of her knew she was being used up. She could feel the connection to her body fading with ti. Each exertion was getting harder and harder to hold on to see anything.
[I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die like this!]
Death before would have been a release but to be used up like a tool? No!
She then was flying once more. She was being sent out and nothing could stop it. Hope was dimming in her.
Then, the world changed. She saw everything pause and a strange man seed to pull her out of thin air. He was handso and strange. His eyes were not human!
They were not cold but as he seed to examine her, anger filled his features. He then stepped aside and the world resud.
Her body slamd into a barrier! The pain was not felt at all as the thrice cursed man was in charge. She smiled.
She watched as the strange man seed to have gone but she knew he was there. Then she felt it.
Warmth. Real warmth and comfort filled her mind for the first ti ever. She then heard the robust man scream!
The connection between them snapped and a new kind of pain flooded her. The pain of returning and sothing attacking her!
Still, she wanted to smile wide. Free! She would die free!
As the pain deepened, so instinct told her she would be destroyed. Good.
No more pain. No more haunting mories. She was happy. She had to be happy so why was she afraid?
Flashes of her family finally returned and they were so clear! Her little brother! She had a little brother! His habit of adopting local frogs and snails had been adorable.
The slightly wrinkled face of her father, at the peak of the Body Refining Realm, had bead at them as he taught them how to care for the animals.
Her mother, gray and gold hair shining in the sun, lecturing him about encouraging their children taking in pests but the love was clear.
She wanted to rember! She wanted soone to know!
She did not want them forgotten!
Just as if it all seed about to end, a voice thundered in her mind.
{All bonds weave the pattern.}
Sothing suddenly flooded her but it was not pain. It was relief! She felt her body no longer hurt and extre exhaustion almost took her but she slowly cracked open her eyes.
Light hurt her but she saw him again. The handso man was being held up by a golden furred man. He was powerful, she could tell after seeing so many.
There were others but all she saw was the jade skin man. Tears flowed! She could cry!
The darkness closed in but the light was seared into her heart. Her pain was over! She would tell everyone about her family. Every single mont!
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