"We believe he is still there and might have knowledge we need to attain," she said. Her voice was too calm for the weight of her words, and it made my skin crawl.
Each one of us was digesting the information, making it difficult to give a response. The silence in the room felt heavier than chains, pressing down on all of us.
"So, you need us to gain knowledge on how to save your realm and help you find the human, right?" I asked to confirm. My voice came out steadier than I felt.
"Right on point. Is it so hard? The way I see it, it is a win-win situation. You gain. We gain. We all gain," she laughed as she spoke. Her laugh didn't reach her eyes. It sounded rehearsed, like she'd said it a hundred times before.
"But before that, we will need each one of you for something else, Darok!" she called out. The way she said his name made it sound like a summons, not a request.
"Yes, Leader," he answered. No hesitation. No thought. Just obedience.
"I need the _thing_," she smiled, waving her hand for him to leave. Even her smile felt like a threat.
"You know, this place wasn't supposed to be only your prison, no. This is more like a research lab. You guys are test subjects. Nod if you are alright with it, and blink if not," she said, her tone friendly. Friendly like a knife before it cuts.
The meaning of the message was not the only thing that scared us, but the way she put it. Just looking at her sent shivers down my spine. She didn't need to raise her voice. The quiet made it worse.
"We are test subjects. We are both slaves and test subjects. What a truly fulfilling end," I said sarcastically to myself. The joke felt hollow in my head.
Within a few minutes, Darok appeared out of nowhere and brought a chair. None of us knew the use of the chair, but just looking at it, everyone knew it was dangerous. It didn't look like a chair. It looked like a verdict.
We repositioned ourselves when we saw the sight of the chair. Selka, seeing us, just smiled toward us as if this was a normal occurrence. Her smile was the worst part. Like she enjoyed our fear.
"This here is the Truth Seeker. It was created by our brilliant scientists and has been given to me to test the results. And since you guys are perfect test subjects, why not use it on you?" she smiled. She said it like she was offering us a gift.
As she spoke, my brain began to reimagine this beautiful woman. This woman is not beautiful; she is sadistic, devilish, and ruthless. Just seeing her smile made me shiver uncontrollably. Beauty meant nothing when it hid something like her.
"Am I right, Darok?" she looked at Darok, playing the cute little girl who had done nothing wrong. Her act was flawless, and that made it worse.
"Yes, my Leader. You are absolutely right," Darok began to praise her. His voice was thick with devotion, the kind that had been broken and rebuilt to serve only her.
What do you expect from a person who obediently follows her commands? Nothing, absolutely nothing. He would say anything just to please her, whether he likes it or not. He wasn't a man anymore. He was an echo.
She started walking in our direction, steady and in control. She moved with an unhurried step, glanced at us, and said: "No need to worry. It will be harmless, but first..." She paused and shifted her gaze to Quinn's side. The pause stretched too long, dragging dread with it.
She scanned him, noticing his downbeat behavior. Since the time we had been captured, Quinn had been like this—unresponsive, never bothering with anything except for a few responses. It was like something inside him had gone quiet.
Her gaze lingered on him for only a few seconds before a look of disdain followed. "Wow, isn't it the cunning fellow who thought he had outplayed us? But look at him now, groveling in his own defeat," she said. The mockery in her voice was sharp enough to draw blood.
"Well, nobody blames you. Darok, put him on the chair," she added, instructing Darok. Her tone made it sound casual, like she was asking him to pass a glass of water.
Darok immediately obeyed and held Quinn, forcing him onto the dental chair. At first, I expected Quinn to resist, but he did nothing. He carried the same indifferent expression, as if what was happening didn't bother him. The emptiness in his eyes was unsettling.
_What's wrong? Just one moment of defeat can cause this? No, there is something more,_ I guessed. Something had broken him before we even got here.
My eyes turned toward the dental chair. The base was matte black metal, no vinyl. It looked like it was carved from obsidian. It still had that whirr when it moved because Selka liked control. Every movement felt calculated, deliberate.
The restraints weren't straps. The armrests flowed like liquid gold—same as her throne—and hardened around the wrists when someone sat. The patterns moved, like sand, like shackles with a mind of their own. Watching them shift made my stomach turn.
The headrest didn't have a pillow but a circlet of floating gold shards. They hovered an inch from the skull. No touch needed. The air around them felt wrong, heavy with heat and pressure.
The lights weren't a dental lamp but Selka's moonlight glow, focused into a beam. Cold instead of hot. It made your eyes water. It felt like being stared at by the moon itself.
Tools: there wasn't a single drill there. Darok stood by with his blindfold off—his eyes were white. His eyes had an unimaginable suction that pulled people straight into unconsciousness when they stared at them. Just meeting his gaze made my head feel light.
_Who really are these people?_ I said with a hint of surprise as I looked at the leader and Darok. Nothing about this felt human anymore.
Quinn was forced onto the black chair.
_Shhhh..._
It reclined on its own, sand whispering under metal. Quinn was too exhausted to fight, too empty. The armrests flowed like oil, then locked. The sound of them sealing was quiet, but it echoed in my head.
"No," he mumbled. "I'm not—"
"You are," Selka said softly as she looked at him. "You are the leader. The one who got them lost. The one who carries them." Her words landed like a strike. Precise. Cruel.
Quinn flinched. Direct hit. His mental fortitude was already cracked. Selka didn't need to dig; she just needed to press. She knew exactly where to push.
The circlet of gold shards drifted down, orbiting his skull, one inch away. Not touching. They didn't need to. The threat of it was enough.
"Comfortable?" Selka asked. "You know, you people have similar chairs for teeth. Mine is for revealing secrets." Her smile never faded, even as the air grew colder.
Darok removed his blindfold. His eyes were... just white, like polished bone. When he looked at Quinn, Quinn's vision doubled. His breathing hitched, and sweat beaded on his forehead.
"Darok will ask," she said. "You will answer. Lie, and the chair will know. The shards get... what do they do again? Yeah. Hot." She said it casually, like she was discussing the weather.
One shard dipped closer to Quinn's temple. The air around it shimmered with heat. I could feel it from where I stood, dry and burning.
"Question one," Darok intoned. His voice wasn't his. It was hollow, like the wind in a tomb. "What is your business here?"
Quinn's mouth opened, but closed again. Then he opened it only to pause. He wanted to say, "I don't know," but he couldn't. It felt like a force was forcing him to say the truth. His body was betraying him.
He wanted to put up resistance, but the force was driving him to say the truth. He couldn't compete against it. The struggle was written all over his face.
Until the shard seared, and a scream awakened his focus. The sound tore through the room, raw and broken.
"Truth," Selka whispered. "It is easier." Her voice was almost gentle, like she was comforting him.
Nobody knew how long he could fight against the pain, but any minute from now... The tension in the room was suffocating.
"I was sent by Norman Corporation to watch and protect Edward," he replied. The words came out torn, dragged out of him.
The shards seared again, and his scream reverberated everywhere. It bounced off the walls and refused to die.
"Wrong. Why don't you try again?" she said, presenting a pleasing smile. The smile never left her face, not even when he screamed.