The Order of Ja’el — Chapter Ten

A Weekly Sci-fi Fantasy Story Series

Read from Chapter One here. Prefer audio? Find my podcast links here.

“Hello, is someone there?”

An unfamiliar voice cut through the darkness of Millow’s semiconsciousness. Millow tried to will herself to speak. A painful sound was all she could manage.

“I am so sorry for whatever they’ve done to you,” The empathetic stranger continued. “That must mean you also hear Ja’el’s voice, but you must hold out, okay? I know it’s hard… I failed at the start…”

“Also?” Millow weakly murmured. Then, as it dawned on her who the stranger must be, a small surge of strength flowed through her. “You’re… you’re the Siddhi they captured?”

“Yes… I’m Julien,” He replied with a somewhat sorrowful edge. “It’s, uh, nice to meet you, neighbour?”

Millow opened her eyes. She was suddenly aware that they’d been closed since Elian’s men deposited her battered body into the cell. Since then, she’d drifted in and out of consciousness as, between the forced drugs and the torture, the three days since her capture had taken their toll. Thankfully, Elian and Toma finally paused their rotating shifts just when she felt she couldn’t handle anymore. It was probably to strategise a new approach to breaking her. Still, the respite of the cell from the torture in the chamber had felt like mercy to Millow.

The cell was mostly dark, but the outlines were clear. A light somewhere along the corridor had illuminated the crack between the bottom of the heavy iron door and the stone ground. It spat light directly into Millow’s eyes. She shut them tightly again, squeezing as waves of pain radiated through her head.

Rubbing her temples, she finally said, “I’m Millow. It’s a little hard to concentrate right now… the pain…”

“Try to slow your breathing, Millow,” Julien suggested. “Like this…”

As he counted the seconds of long inhalations and even longer exhalations, Millow felt the migraine ease enough for her to open her eyes once again. “How am I hearing you?” She asked, surveying the small space.

“I was able to pickpocket a dull knife from a meal Toma had while supervising me. It wasn’t sharp enough to…