Aethisia PoV
Watching Dama leave the prison cage with a conflicted look on her face, I couldn't help but shake my head and let out a quiet chuckle at the sort of shenanigans that followed her and the rest of our family without any sort of action on our part.
It didn't seem to matter that we wanted no trouble because trouble decided it wanted to come around and find us, and that was somewhat amusing... let alone how funny it was that Dama had been seduced by some Goddess taking a ride inside of some mortal.
That was the sort of thing that would definitely only happen to us because of Mother, so I couldn't even really be mad about Dama almost getting got by some hidden, nefarious Goddess that apparently thought sucking her cock would lead to... something.
And yet even as I was chuckling about the stupidity of what happened I couldn't help but immediately notice that my hands were still shaking and that the dark corners of the cell were just... inky.
When I turned to look at them myself I was confident in saying that there was nothing there, but the instant I looked away again the darkness became... insidious, to the point that I was thinking there actually was something there.
My body was cold and my hands wouldn't stop shaking, and whenever I just stopped thinking about the inky black corners of the cell the only thing that filled my mind were the slack faces of the people I had just killed.
I knew for a fact that they were bad, I knew that there was no other way forwards, that the only option I had was the one where I survived and they died, and yet... I really couldn't just get over it like that.
It wasn't that simple, and no matter how hard I tried to convince myself that it was it just didn't change the truth, which was that I had killed those people... and not only had I killed them, but they had barely been able to put up a fight.
In the midst of my rumination I saw something move, which at first had me worried I was going insane only to breathe a sigh of relief when I saw that the movement came from the now conscious leather clad minx, who was trying to sit up.
"You're awake faster than I thought you'd be..."
Trying to push my emotions away and instead focusing on her, I pushed myself off of the wall and stepped closer to her, staring down at her and finding a bit of a thrill in the way this powerful opponent now had to look up at me.
At the same time though the way she immediately smirked and said "And you are apparently a 'virgin', huh~? Shaking like a damn leaf in the wind, barely able to stand straight... paler than the corpses you just left behind~! Oh this is so rich~! Yet... it fucking infuriates me that some backwater virgin managed to take me down..."
She started with a gloating, light tone before it devolved into a vicious, irritated growl at the realization that she wasn't as impressive as she thought she was... or that I was that much better than she was.
"What, can't stand the idea that you're actually not that talented of a fighter? All you have is speed, and even then you're so fucking predictable it actually pains me when I look back at what you did. All I needed to do was just stand there and put my spear in front of myself and you almost impaled yourself every single time..."
That growl worsened as she glared up at me, thrashing around desperately and trying her damndest to break free so that she could attempt to kill me for insulting her and wounding her pride so deeply.
It was somewhat amusing honestly, and even as her mana flooded her body to allow her to crack some of Dama's restraints I just tilted my head, calmly lifted the spear and rested its point against her brow, causing her to stop immediately.
"You do understand that the one thing I learned from 'popping my cherry' was that this... it's far easier than it has any right to be. Something so consequential and drastic can be completed with minimal amounts of pressure..."
Putting just a bit of pressure on the spear, I drew a small bead of blood from her brow and watched in slight interest as she stiffened completely, her pupils dilating to the size of saucers as her breathing caught in her throat for a moment.
"All it would take me is to lean on this spear and I could end your life here and now. Not difficult whatsoever... and it would be so quick for me yet so painful for you... Do you understand that?"
She stared up at me for a few seconds before attempting to nod, only to belatedly realize that pushed the spear deeper into her flesh and got her intimately acquainted with the pressure that was applied directly onto her skull.
"It's good that you do. Now... I don't want to have to constantly knock you out, nor am I going to be as inhumane as you were to your own captives... sadly. All I need from you is answers to my questions, after which the soldiers sent by the Duchesses will come and collect you. What they'll do to you is unknown to me, but it matters not."
The minx stiffened up again, uncertainty wracking her mind and body as she weighed everything for a few seconds, only to finally slump against the solid rock restraints and seemingly give up; I wasn't buying it completely though, so my guard remained up even as she bitterly asked "What do you want to know?"
"There's more of you coming, aren't there? Mercenaries sent to some random town in the middle of nowhere... the resources here are nice, sure, but they aren't that amazing, and there was no noteworthy people listed here, so it has to be for something else. A staging ground, most likely."
The mask of acceptance slipped a little as her lip curled at that, making me chuckle slightly since that answered my question immediately, earning myself another glare before she tried to return to tricking me with her expression... and trying to distract me as she pleaded "Please, go ahead and use me..! Just don't kill me, please!"