Bound Together

V

LANYING KIR-ZHENGYI AWOKE, EVERY BONE IN HER BODY ACHING AND A FIRE RAGING THROUGH HER VEINS --- as she found herself imprisoned within the Menagerie, her body bound by golden shackles that glimmered in the dim light. The chains were a cruel reminder of her captivity once more. But Lanying refused to succumb to their demands.

Lanying glared at the blurry face that stood before her with fire in her eyes despite the pain that still wracked her body. Poison. She'd been Poisoned.

"So. Messenger..." The voice drawled in a Kaelish accent. Pekka Rollins. "Here you are...bound by chains of gold once again. This time, my indenture." A hand traced her face and Lanying tried cringing away but she couldn't. She was helpless. "I promised didn't I?" Pekka Rollins continued. "I promised you'd be back here in chains of gold and wearing red silks before long."

Lanying spat in his face, "Go to hell."

Pekka Rollins tsked and wagged his finger in her face as if she was being a naughty child. "That isn't how you address your superior." He said as he wiped his face with a handkerchief

Lanying glared at him, her eyes filled with defiance. "I will never bow to the likes of you, Rollins. No matter what you do, I will not yield." She fixed him with a stare and raised her chin. "I hold no loyalty to anyone but Kasper Brekker."

Rollins laughed, the sound echoing throughout the chamber. "We'll see about that, my messenger." His left hand shot out to grasp her chin tightly. "We have ways to make even the strongest bend to our will."

Pekka Rollins let go of her chin and motioned to one of the men in the room. Lanying recognized him. Doughty. Doughty reached inside his pocket and produced a corked vial of liquid. "This was a gift from you attacker. A poisoner named Anton." Pekka Rollins said evenly. "It's called the Withering Petal. It slowly kills the victim unless the antidote is administered. So unless you join me, you'll be in pain until that poison consumes you."

Lanying seemed unfazed by the name and couldn't help but smile at the irony of that name. Withering Petal. How fitting for her. Her name, whose second character, ying, meant flower and this poison was aptly named "Withering Petal". Lanying whispered into the silence of the cellar. In Shu, "Flowers bloom and flowers fall...according to their own time."

Pekka Rollins blanched. Unsure of what the phrase Lanying had whispered meant. But before he could ask, Lanying lifted her head to meet his gaze. "You can break my body, but you will never break my soul." She smiled at him then. Something Pekka Rollins found unnerving. "You cannot break something which is already broken."

Pekka Rollins's eyebrows had knitted together then and Lanying explained. "I've been though more trials than I can count. Bound in servitude to a more terrifying man than you." Pekka raised an eyebrow at her statement. "I served General Kirigan, the Darkling, the shadow summoner."

Rollins' face twisted with rage, his eyes filled with malice. "You insolent wretch!" he bellowed. "You'll regret insulting me."

Lanying's body shook with pain as the effects of Anton's poison coursed through her veins. She gritted her teeth, refusing to give Rollins the satisfaction of witnessing her suffering. She ground out defiantly, "No, I don't think I will regret insulting you."

Pekka Rollins motioned for Doughty to move forward and give Lanying the poison. In her weakened state, she couldn't fight him off. Her chin was grabbed and the poison was forced down her throat. It burned and Lanying could feel it's fire licking hungrily as it started to course through her body.

"Any last words before I leave you? For now?" Pekka Rollins asked with that horrid smirk on his face.

"I want a cat. I want to name it Volcra." Lanying choked out not giving Pekka Rollins any satisfaction of seeing her in pain.