User blog:Psychomantis108/Daggerfall: Chapter 8 - Truth

Agatha found herself unable to break eye contact as she stared into the mirror, there before her stood an impeccably groomed young woman, with hair elegantly platted, wrapped in the finest formal dress she’d ever encountered...

When she looked at the finely dressed woman, she felt the overwhelming urge to punch through the mirror and hit her, square in the cheek, so that she could knock her out cold for being so bloody stupid.

Agatha found herself scowling again, she really hated formal dress and she knew that Dodger would likely hate it as well. She sighed, heavily, turning back around before stepping forward, she got the impression that this dress would better suit someone who did little to no walking and pathetically whimpered upon meeting an enemy. She’d only ever wore a dress twice before this, both times she despised it and oddly enough, she did this time as well.

The Breton stepped out of her room, at the inn and descended down the stairs, like a toddler, going two steps at a time. She was tempted to rip the dress and just walk normally but she knew that it would significantly devalue it and she’d need to sell it later to get any semblance of her money back.

As she arrived downstairs, she noticed that Dodger was stood before her, she was wearing a cleaner outfit but had done little with her hair and face. This was somewhat annoying as the Bosmer was sent to the same place Agatha had just been to receive a similar makeover and from the looks of it, she hadn’t even set foot in the place.

“What in Obliv... Urgh, Dodger, I told you go to the hair people, so they could make you look a little less like...”

“Well, I did but they tried to take my eyepatch off, so I told them what they could do with their scissors!” Dodger snapped before pausing and gently rubbing her neck, awkwardly.

“I also might have punched one of the hair ladies in the face...”

“Dodger...” Agatha sighed, stepping off the bottom step.

“Why wouldn’t you take it off? I mean... It can’t be that bad, surely, you removed the eyeball, so it’ll just be a closed eye with a few scratches around it at worst, right?”

“I shouldn’t  have to take it off, if I don’t want to! It’s... Awful to look at...”

Agatha pause, sighing heavily as she looked over her shoulder, she realised that she could address this now and probably should...

“I could... Take a look?” She suggested, gesturing upstairs with her head.

“Alone...”

“No! I don’t want...”

“Dodger, you need to be honest with me.”

“I am!”

“You didn’t tear your own eye out, did you? You didn’t cut yourself either, you would’ve passed out from the pain after half of those scars! Someone or something did this to you and if I don’t know, I can’t help you.

I need to know, I won’t tell anyone, I won’t even mention it again but this whole thing has gone on long enough and for all I know it could endanger the mission.”

Dodger paused, sighing heavily as she glanced down, her eye trailed the floor as if she was discretely reading a manual of some sorts as to how to deal with the situation.

“Fine...” She murmured, stepping past her.

“My room... Two minutes.”

Without another word or even a single glance, Dodger quickly made her ascent, dissappearing from Agatha’s line of sight and vanishing into her room, perhaps it was the Breton’s imagination but it sounded like the Bosmer was on the verge of tears.

Feeling... somewhat guilty, Agatha stepped on, after her companion, ready to finally face the truth.

Agatha leant her shoulder against the door of Dodger’s room, taking a deep breath and exhaling heavily as she got ready to step inside, those damn stairs had taken quite a bit out of her as well as the overall strain of this situation.

She grit her teeth, took a few deep breaths and then slowly opened the door, simply pushing it down and allowing it to lightly swing open, revealing that the Bosmer was already stood at the center of the room, staring at herself in the mirror.

“I... haven’t seen it for a few years.” Dodger admitted, not even bothering to look at her companion as she stared at herself in the mirror, Agatha then noticed that the eyepatch was in the Bosmer’s hand, prompting her to look up and gasp as her head slowly turned to face her. She looked straight into Dodger’s right eye, seeing the heavy burns around the socket, the eyelid and ball were gone, leaving only a black socket and the skin around it was purple, black and some of it was even a crimson red. Despite everything she’d been put through, during her time facing Tharn, Agatha couldn’t help but gasp upon seeing it, she’d never treated anything like that before, it was... as Dodger said, it was awful to look at.

“Dodger...?” Agatha whispered, taking a step forward as she tried her best not to look at it.

“Told you...” She mumbled, glancing back over to the mirror.

“Now do you get why I tell people... Sounds better than ‘it was burnt out by... some mad bastard with a fire poker.”

“Who was the mad bastard? You?” Agatha asked, this question may seem a number of things, silly, insulting even but Dodger understood that she may have been talking in the third person.

“No, my... My ‘mentors’ as they called themselves, they did this to me. I... Was always rebellious as a child, they didn’t like that, so they taught me a lesson. One that should’ve stuck with me my whole life, convinced me to keep out of trouble...” She explained before slowly looking over to Agatha and furrowing her brow.

“It only pissed me off...”

“Who were these Mentors?” Agatha asked, stepping around and leaning against a chest of draws.

“They sound more like... Slavers or something.”

“Yeah, that’s more or less what they were but they were special... Special in the sense that they managed to take their horrendous business to a whole new level.” Dodger explained, shuddering a little before sniffing and gently rubbing her eye.

“The Mentors, they’re part of an... order of some sort, who breed slaves. They bring babies into the world and make them slaves, the day they’re born. They teach you how you’re worthless, how some are meant to serve their betters... they told us how our lives didn’t matter, how we were just... things to be used and thrown away. Everyone bought into that crap but me, I... I bid my time and then I tried to escape. I was caught and got dozens upon dozens of lashes for my trouble before I was put in isolation.

Someone bought me, eventually, after I ‘rehabilitated.’ The man who bought me was... cruel, wicked even... He used tease me with... menial tasks. He’d do things like tell me to pick something up that he’d just dropped and then kick it away as I tried...

One day, he... invited me to his bed chambers, told me that he wanted to ‘reward’ me but really, he was just trying to mess with my head, claiming my virginity as some sort of trophy. I told him who he could... well, screw as a replacement and he was... less than happy about that.

He grabbed the fire poker, tried running me through with it but I was too quick. We’re well trained in combat see, we’re bodyguards, prostitutes... the works. Not all of us got with the program, clearly.

I leapt aside and the poker burnt my hip but I managed to wrap my hands around his head and jam my thumbs into his eyes... Gods, it was worth it, I could feel them crush, like jelly... glorious!” Dodger held her hands up, closing them and grinning up to the ceiling, a tear slowly forming in her glistening eye and dripping down her face.

“Then... His son came in, with his guards. They seized me and I was hit several times with the poker that killed his dad, was even smacked across the face with it... which is how I lost the eye.” Dodger explained, gently tapping burnt skin around it, in case Agatha managed to miss it the first time.

“He wanted to kill me but his advisor told him to lock me up instead, biggest mistake of his life... little did we know. Y’see... the son wasn’t his only son, he was the eldest of three and the second eldest desperately wanted to be the man of the house, believing that the dipshit who destroyed my eye was... well, going to ruin the family’s good name or some shit. So, he came down to my cell and ‘accidentally’ dropped the key and a knife in my room.

I remember him from before, not a terrible guy really, he was a lot less proud, though he seemed like a schemer, all smiles and charm until your back is turned and then he’d plant a knife in it. That’s what happened to his brother, he set me, an insane, broken slave after him...

I ran through the house, redecorating it, painting the walls blood red as the Guards went for me. They were... shitty guards, I was too quick for them and then there was the Lord’s Son, Tomur, I think his name was?

I had some fun killing him, sliced his stomach open and watched his guts fall out onto the floor before I broke a nearby table and bashed his head in with it. I cackled, wildly, as I did it. It was... forced, I was terrified but I wanted to convince the guards outside that I was still a threat, nobody screws with a girl who laughs as she bludgeons a man to death.”

Agatha knew this too well, nobody messed with Urzoga... well, nobody still living did.

“Dodger I... Didn’t know about any of this, I’m... really sorry...”

“Thanks... It turned out okay though, that Brother? The one who gave me the knife? I found him and he let me take him hostage. Gave me some coin and broke the window in his room, told me to run and to never come back. He made... little to no effort in looking for me, sent his men on wild goose chase after goose chase until I had eventually fled the region.

I took my name, my history... everything I’ve ever said and done and left it behind that day. I didn’t lie about my eye, I... just said what I’d preferred to have happened. What people would be afraid of if I said it casually.” Dodger paused to smile a little before kneeling down and slowly picking up her patch and gently pulling the strap back, over her head.

“So...” She sighed, slowly looking to Agatha as she let it go.

“This is me... The me I’ve never told a soul about... Except your’s...”

Agatha nodded, falling silent as she glanced away.

“I’ve... heard stories like that before...” She admitted before looking up to her.

“We had a guy in our group, Kessen... a group member saved the life of his former owner, so he sold him onto her... Well, gave him to her as a gift. It’s like you said, he was... programmed? Like... He took the program so seriously that it was like his entire moral code.”

“Wait... Kessen? I... I’m surprised he’s alive.” Dodger admitted, smiling a little.

“He was always the kind of guy I could imagine impaling himself if asked, so... loyal to the slavers and to his masters. Poor sod...” The Bosmer paused, sighing heavily before chuckling faintly.

“He was my first shag.” Dodger said, somewhat fondly before sighing, shaking her head.

“Shame he was no good... should’ve faked it, lied for him but... I was quite young at the time, thought I was doing him a favour by being honest, though... got him dozens of lashes, a burn and a toenail removed.”

Agatha winced, shivering, she hated anything like that, she had no idea that people were capable of being so cruel, until she joined Talin and saw it for herself.

“Well, he’s free now, to. Took us a while but... He fell in love with one of his ‘owners’ as he called her, they were... really intimate and close and eventually he married her, living happily ever after and whatnot.” The Breton explained, with a faint chuckle, realising that it must’ve seemed like quite the abbreviation of their entire romantic struggle.

“Well, we... Should probably go, we can talk about this later or... not if you...”

“No, it...” Dodger admitted, with a smile as she gently rubbed her arm over her eye.

“It was nice, talking about it... I’m... Really glad we did this, actually.”

Agatha gave her a faint nod, giving the Bosmer a quick nod and slowly breaking a smile as she patted her on the shoulder.

“Right... Now, let’s get you spruced up. We’ll get you something to cover your eye up on the way, alright?”

“Sure, get me a blind fold... If I see what they’re doing, another hair lady might get punched.” Dodger giggled as they two of them stepped outside, slamming the door shut behind them.