Limited Freedoms
88. Ch11 S14-18
Good Sci-Friday Sparks, and a very merry unbirthday to you!
Kinda forgot about this part this week. Nothing personal to say other than I’m so glad halloween is over.
As for the story…
INDEX | Chapter 11 | Scene 1 | Scenes 2 & 3 | Scenes 4 - 6 | Scene 7 | Scenes 8 - 11 | Scene 12 | Scene 13 | Scenes 14 - 18 | Next Scene → Coming soon.
Previously: Misty asks Luke for help processing some of the memories that haunt her, getting off to a traumatizing start and Luke needs a break before continuing. But Misty has just gotten started and the next fragment she shares is of the punishment she got for losing her first sparring match.
Teag walked slowly towards where the chain was secured with a hook on the wall behind me. He used it to hoist the hook that the rope was tied to, until my feet dangled a few centimeters from the floor. He stood behind me and said, "This is what happens when you loose," then brought the whip down hard. I felt the metal beads on the end of those long leather thongs dig into the skin between my shoulder blades. I couldn’t help but cry out and writhe on the chain.
He waited until I stopped swinging before striking again. By that time the blood had started to run down my bare legs and drip into the drain.
In all, the whip sang through the air twenty times, each stroke evenly spaced. I stopped screaming around the tenth one. At some point I noticed that I could barely feel it at all. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as the energy eating through my body before going to the gym. I just watched the blood drip until it dribbled then ran. I felt very tired, my arms and legs were numb, even the cold didn’t bother me anymore.
I remember Teag shouting at someone to clean me up after he lowered me to the ground, smiling as he looked into my eyes. I remember being wheeled along the corridors, the lights passing overhead and the doctors talking. Something about lacerated muscles and nerves needing to be replaced before they could put me in the tank.
I remember breaking the tank when I woke up.
* * *
I knew that Luke probably wouldn't want to stay connected throughout my punishment. I held on so he couldn’t let go. I distanced myself from the memory, for Logan's sake and didn’t let myself feel it like James always did but my face was still wet by the time we came out.
Luke wasn't in the room anymore. Logan just stared into space, unbelieving. I sat up and wiped away the tears from my face.
"I am sorry Logan." I say softly, still drawing my words out of his mind.
"There aren't even any scars." His voice breaks through the tension, low and rough with pity.
"I’m Teleran,” I whisper, “My body heals. Completely."
* * *
Luke is cold towards me for the rest of the day. The both are. I don’t know if they will return to the tower. I haven’t asked. In passing I hear them talking amongst themselves, but when they see me they go quiet and give me this look, like I’m broken or something. Logan seems to have given up on our sense sync. He isn’t reaching out to me anymore, he isn’t listening. I feel lonely.
For something to do I turn back to the gym.
I stare into the Library’s ornate fireplace, watching the flames dance, and think of that whip—how it danced through the air, how Misty danced on the chain, her small body twisting helplessly to get away from the lash. Goosebumps prick across my arms as every hair on my body stands up in protest. She was four. Barely more than a baby. He flayed the skin from her back, drove through the muscles beneath it… and he smiled as he looked into her eyes afterward. What kind of monster…
“Don’t, son,” Luke says quietly, shifting in his chair beside me. I know he’s picked up on my thoughts without a telepath’s nudge. He tightens his jaw as he meets my gaze.
I swallow, thinking about explaining myself, wondering if it would make any difference, then glance away muttering, “I can’t get it out of my head.”
Luke lets out a slow breath. “I know, but it’s hers, don’t make it your own.”
I blink, staring at him. “How can I not? It’s… unthinkable. Something out of a horror film. Things like that—they don’t happen in the real world.” I shake my head, my fists clenching as I fight to make sense of what I witnessed—what I experienced through her.
Luke’s gaze hardens. “Well, apparently they do. We have living proof.” He says with a wry smile and a storm in his eyes.
“Shouldn’t we do something?” I shake my head, running a hand over my face.
Luke sighs, holding his palms up helplessly. “Well, given that it happened something like twelve years ago, no, not really.”
“Then, why do you think she showed it to us?” Frustration surges through me.
“That’s the right question to ask, I think.” Luke shakes his head, his expression wary. “Maybe it’s her way of showing us where she came from, what made her the way she is.”
“I get that, but it’s not exactly what I mean.” I glance back at him, my voice wavering as I insist. “Why that memory? What did she want us to understand?”
“Well, what did you see?” Luke’s voice is calm, almost challenging, his fixed gaze studies me.
“What did I see? Wha—- Luke! How could you—” I grit my teeth, taken aback. “We saw her being tortured! A child, a tiny child, humiliated, whipped like an animal!”
Luke nods slowly, as if he’s coaxing something deeper out. "Yes, I saw that too but what else?”
I blink, the flicker of firelight washing over his face makes his patient expression almost ghoulish. I wonder where he’s going with this, but try to push past the emotion and think practically.
“I saw… A family, warm, normal, until the soldiers came. The telepath was there, to investigate?” Luke nods his approval at the question in my voice. “James.” I shudder, remembering how it made her feel to think of him. “He forced his way into her head, took over her mind, manipulated her body, her power… While her family just stood and watched.”
“And what do you think it was about?” Luke asks, his eyes narrowing.
I swallow, feeling his gaze on me as I work through it. “It’s… about you, and me. What we did, her first time in the tower.”
He gives a slow nod, fingers tapping against his mouth in thought. “And this last session.”
I hesitate, reluctant to replay the memory in my mind. “It’s how she was trained—or punished when she failed. The consequence of a mistake, even though the odds were stacked against her. It’s what she was running from when we found her.”
Luke leans back, studying me with a glimpse of something, perhaps admiration. “Alright. Let me tell you what I saw.” He takes a steadying breath, eyes fixed on the fire. A flash of compassion is followed by cold calculation as his analytical brain kicks in.
“Son, I know what you felt from Misty—the horror, and fear. But behind all that, there were things, details. Details Misty herself might not even realize she showed us. I’ve always been an interrogator. I know what to look for, and as such, those details jump out at me.”
He pauses, gathering his thoughts, while I try to keep an open mind.
The flames calm me, slow down the storm of ideas that threaten to consume me. My mind is inundated with all the details Misty dropped in those heavy memories. Every memory containing layers she couldn’t have anticipated; fragments of her life, her training, even the cadence of her mind under pressure. A wealth of information—useful to a fault.
She’s exactly what Morgan hoped she would be. I could already give him more than what he ever asked for. Troop formations, strategy, protocols. Their medical tech - everything, right down to the tank, to Teleran healing. That telepath…
But I can’t think of that now. We are finally free and clear of that Planetary Guard shadow, and I won’t betray her trust. Misty is who’s important now. This is about helping her, not old ghosts.
Logan shifts beside me, his gaze still intent on me and I know he can tell I’m holding back.
“In that first memory,” I say at last, watching the flames as they shift and curl, “the telepath. He was more skilled than you might think at a glance. He had his in before he even touched her. That moment,” I smiled remembering it, despite Logan’s intense gaze, “when they were talking about forms, some kind of Tai Chi, he already had enough influence to control her.”
Logan’s brow furrows as he considers the thought.
“He’s like you.” He says, meeting my gaze and I feel the weight of it settle between us.
“Oh, I think he might be even better.” I pause, unsure of how the admission makes me feel, then continue, my voice lowering. “The way he handled her… Masterful, like he’d done it it a hundred times before. And her parents…” I hesitate watching the flames dance along the logs. “They just stood by and watched, all quiet, in spite of her reaction. They knew better than to cross him.” I let another beat pass, “James was there, not just to investigate the incident with the neighbors’ kid, he wanted to assess her, see if she was worth their time. They wanted to see how she’d respond.”
Logan’s expression shifts, the dawning understanding flickering in his eyes, like the flames in the fireplace. “You’re saying they were waiting for her to do something? Give them an excuse to take her?”
I nod, the pieces fitting together with a grim sense of certainty. “Exactly. It’s an autocratic society, we’ve always known that, but… They knew what she could become in their hands even at the tender age of four. She wasn’t a child to them, Logan, She was… potential.”
Logan goes quiet, and I press on.
“The second memory, the flogging, so-called ‘training’—” I feel my jaw tighten, the words leaving a bad taste in my mouth. “On the surface it looked like punishment. But think about it: Teag counted each lash, spaced them evenly. He wasn’t just a brute. There was a ritual to it, a rhythm. It was all part of the conditioning. Ritualizing pain, forcing obedience. How many times did it happen afterward, exactly like that.”
I lean back, the flames casting light on thoughts better kept hidden. “Control, Logan. Every lash, every command, every scar they knew would heal— it was all to break her down, shape her into something that wouldn’t even consider defying them, because they knew that little girl could become a weapon if they molded her right.”
“Do you think she knows? What they were doing to her?”
“Maybe, on some level at least. But the fact that she came through it with any part of herself intact? Logan that’s the one thing they never counted on.”
A shadow passes by the door, and I catch a glimpse of her. A part of me aches, knowing what they tried to do to her, and I know Logan senses it too. I try not to let my pity show. I don’t think I succeed.
I stare at my feet in the water of the pool. It is cool and refreshing on my skin. It’s been a week since we were in the tower. I have been thinking of what to show them next, if they ever let me…
* * *
At the end of my first cycle of training at TTH, I, like every other child, had been looking forward to Graduation Day. Everyone got a visit from their parents on the day that the fifteenth cycle students graduated to take their place in society. It was traditional, so that the parents of the graduates got to attend the naming ceremony. I had been on my best behavior for twenty days before, but instead of getting to see my parents, as a reward, I got to be locked up in my dirty, smelly, too small cell, all day without food or water. I didn't even have my usual fruit and milk breakfast because no one was there to bring it to me.
I didn't behave after that. I cried and I didn't get up when I was told and I wouldn't stay still for the men to drug me... Teag had his hands full.
It was ten days later that they had finally had enough.
Next Time: Logan and Luke finally agree to do just one more memory share with Misty. What they witness will haunt them forever.
Thanks so much for reading! If you like, please:
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and as always, I love hearing what you think so, feel free to:
Not only is this a stunning release, Jenny, putting aside yet another maddening cliffhanger, I'm beginning to understand how hard it must be for you to summon in yourself all the emotions necessary to tell this story. Damn...
OMG Jenny, perfectly graduated reveal...we learn more fine detail, and we get the benefit of Logan's, and more importantly, Luke's perspective and analysis now at this critical juncture! But with Luke already committing to himself that he won't betray Misty to the PG, how does this affect the future of these three who are so tightly bound together now. And I can hardly wait for the next reveal from Misty! The path forward has to be a mutual decision, whatever that may be. I can speculate to my heart's content to a multiple of options, but I won't at this point. I want to see this play out as you are channeling these three lives to their fate...