Kitra shuddered again before attempting a snappy retort. "I think you would prefer me alive to being dead. No precious blood to sustain you." She winced as she heard Allison's voice. She wasn't in any better of a position. Her frustration continued to mount as Zelek kept talking.

She was pissed off, and there wasn't anything she could do. Or could she? Kitra carefully pulled her arm to see how it was chained. Oddly enough there was shackles on her but she wasn't getting resistance. She eyed Zelek as he drifted off into his thoughts. Kitra paused a moment, thinking on how stupid she was going to be.

She lunged for Zelek one hand slashing towards his face, hell he might heal but it would still be painful. Her aim was to cut open his face or possibly his neck with her nails. She had kept them sharp and razor thin simply for another weapon. Well multiple weapons. Her other hand was right behind the first aiming for a second attack.

The next thing Allison shouted was the same length, volume and tone as the first, but less child friendly. And, sort of, less painful; it still hurt, but either it hurt less or she was just paying less attention.

Allison… could recognize taunts. It was harder not to react to them, especially when they were true, or close to it. He should have been dead. “Everyone has a limit.” Her voice was closer to a normal volume, still growling but more human, and less painful. “Several, for that matter.”

Hopefully, Zelek’s ‘several’ wasn’t all variants of that wooden stake she’d left in his hand.

…Why the ** had she left that in his hand? No one was weak to their hand. What was wrong with her? Allison… had no idea. Arrogance, probably; too much confidence in her mutation’s ability to solve everything. She’d have thought Aurion would have fixed that, but apparently not. Well, fine. Then she’d correct it. No one ever failed to make any mistakes; Zelek would slip up eventually, and she’d just keep trying until he did. She knew already that he could be hurt just as well as anyone else could; all she had to do was find a way to stop him from healing. Wear it out, maybe.

That would mean harming him first. Allison had no problem with that; physics, it seemed, did. Allison tugged on the chain and growled. Those would have to go, somehow. They felt like stone; they were probably mutation made, then, so a key was unlikely… stone was brittle, though; much more so than metal. Allison slammed her wrist, and the stone around it, into the wall.

That hurt, but not much. Only as much as if she’d been punched, and only by a human, too. That was no problem at all. Allison slammed both wrists against the wall; harder, this time, now that she knew it wouldn’t hurt.

They say that true bravery can only present itself in the presence of fear, and his Kitra was showing such courage in the face of a life of torment. He was proud of her, but she made too many assumptions. “Oh, Yes I prefer you alive. But one can be alive and in pain, on can be alive and starving, one can be alive and so very miserable, or one can be alive and pampered because they are obedient.”

She lunged at him and he pulled his face away, but her nails still streaked across his face leaving four red lines dripping on his cheek. He let out a wince and took another step, his hand going to his face, he watched as he smeared the crimson from finger to finger.

He smiled at Kitra. “Observe your punishment for such foolishness.” He raised his hand as if he was going to strike her. and then turned toward Allison pacing closer as she spoke.

“That is a good point Allison, so many limits, but then? Who has limits that allow them to transcend death? You? Kitra? Moi? Oh!” His hand sprang into the air. “Its Me, I do!”

“But lets explore your limits ink? Kitra deemed it necessary. Have you heard of a whipping boy? You are hers and she is yours. When one of you does something that displeases me, I will punish the other. She just cut my face, what should your punishment be?”

He snapped his fingers and smiled. “I’ve got it.” He stared at her for a moment and the manacles around her wrists grew heavier, not by much by lifting a pound or two more would becoming tiring after awhile and after several punishments movement would eventually become impossible.

“I would much rather be exploring how we could all get along better, but if you two insist on taking the long route, so be it.”

Kitra felt the blood drain from her face as Zelek laid out his ultimatum. Kitra would take Allison's punishments and vice versa. Not a nice situation to be in. For Allison's sake she would behave, unless he showed weakness. And was perhaps stupid enough to leave wood in his abode.

Kitra tried swallowing and had to do so twice as her throat was very dry. "How do you suggest we get along better then Zelek?" Thank goodness her voice didn't tremble, it sounded calm even for her being somewhat terrified as to what he could do to Allison. Stone could get very heavy, and she knew Zelek wouldn't stop unless they played his sick and twisted game.

Allison was not particularly surprised that Kitra’s punishment was directed at her, considering his initial comment about her ink. It was an effective strategy, if a bit too cruel for most people to be comfortable using. She cringed, not sure what would happen, though not particularly upset; she could deal with some pain if it meant Zelek was in pain too. Nothing happened, though, and it took her a moment to realize what he’d done. When she did, she laughed.

That was his idea of a punishment? True, Kitra hadn’t done very much, but still. You weren’t supposed to let captives get away with anything, even if it was minor; it only encouraged them to keep testing. Punishments should be proportional, so that no one decided to act because their punishment couldn’t get any worse, but they should still start high enough to deter captives from doing anything they weren’t supposed to.

Making her chains heavier? Well, sure, it could get annoying, but it really wasn’t that bad. And, for that matter, she could use it. Allison had never been strong, but had often tried to use weapons that were a bit too heavy for her; it was easy, with that practice, to let the added weight add force and momentum as her arm swung again and crashed against the wall. She lacked control like that, which was why she’d never used such weapons, but what did that matter? If her knuckles or elbow got bruised a bit, well, she probably wouldn’t notice, much less care. And she couldn’t think of what else would happen.

She tried again, then swung her other arm into the wall. It was easier to get more force if she swung one arm at a time, but she didn’t really want one to break long before the other did. That wouldn’t be particularly useful, and might be quite noticeable.

Though what she’d do with her feet… Allison paused, frowned, and then smiled and swung her arms down, hitting the stone on her wrists against what was on her ankles. That was… painful; much more than just her arm against the wall.

If it worked, though…. Allison tried it again. Still painful, but she could deal with it. If the chains would just break…! She could deal with Zelek then. She wasn’t sure how, exactly, but if nothing else she could just keep killing him until his mutation ran out, or he starved. She hadn’t heard of a mutant yet who didn’t need energy in some way.

Ink fell, landing on Allison and the stone around her as she focused solely on trying to break the stone chains. Kitra could distract and appease Zelek for now; as soon as she was free, she’d kill him.

Zelek held up a finger toward Kitra obviously showing her she would have to wait a moment. He was busy at the moment he was beginning to see Allison more clearly. The sun would not be his friend in this endeavor of capturing thralls and getting them to behave, he had learn over the past three years that it typically only took a week or two for them to fall in line, but most of them were already defeated when he captured them.

These two however would take more practice. She laughed at the consequences. Laughter mocked the kindness of the slow and steady breaking of them, perhaps allison wouldn't appreciate the pace at which she was accelerating their sorrow. She started to bang the stone manacles into the wall and then into the ones on her Ankles. That wouldn’t be comfortable for too long.

“Stop that.” He stated coldly. Waiting for the moment her wrists collided with her ankles the second time, fusing wrist to ankle on both sides via her confines, he would see how she liked that for a little while. “I’m afraid escaping and attempting it is against the rules as well Ink. Which makes it Kitra’s turn to learn from your mistakes.”

“I appreciate your willingness to be civil Kitra, Attacking me aside. For Starters, I think you should explain to dear sweet Allison, why it’s a good idea to abandon hope and her ink, and after that is settled perhaps Why you should both settle in and accept the fact that you belong to me now.”

“And because you are being so well behaved I will go easy on you.” At the foot of the stone alter that Kitra was laid out on started to form a large stone cylinder held up by a pair of legs with four spokes sticking out of it. “this is called a winch and it is your punishment, for now it will just sit there with out any of your chains attached. I think you should find a way to get Allison to behave, don’t you?” His words dripped with Honey.

He turned away from Kitra to let her look at the potential of her horrible fate, he paced over to his throne to sit and observe.

Kitra gulped as she stared at the nasty looking winch and was grateful she wasn't attached to it. Though she could easily be with a twist of Zelek's fingers, or a mere thought of his. Kitra was pretty sure she had heard Allison swear and mutter something about her shackles getting fused together. However she did note something interesting. Zelek hadn't hurt either one of them yet.

Well whatever, if Kitra was going to die she would do it with as much taunting as possible. "So Zelek, guess you can't handle fighting me one on one." Kitra paused for a moment before continuing in a taunting tone, "Without either of our powers." That winch really did not look pleasant. She swallowed and spoke up again, "Also, I really don't think you want to make me bleed too much. You would be letting it all go to waste if you used that thing. "

Kitra had decided that she was definitely insane. "Allison, don't behave too much. I don't think he will really truly hurt either of us to the point of possibly bleeding us out." Her mouth quirked into a frightening smile. "It would be such a pain to have to go find other victims I'm sure." With that Kitra went silent and kept as much emotion of her face as possible. There, let Zelek mull that one over.

Allison’s immediate reaction to the chains fusing together was to swear, growl, and glare at Zelek. She pulled on them again, got no result, and attempted to shift into a slightly less awkward position. That failed, so she went back to glaring at Zelek. And, when he punished (sort of; Allison really didn’t think much of Zelek’s punishments) Lady Kitra, growled again. “It does not! You already did this,” she tugged at the chains again. “That’s a punishment. You don’t get to give two punishments for one thing.”

Lady Kitra’s order was… a relief, primarily. Allison was somewhat hesitant to get someone else punished for her stubbornness, if not hesitant enough to refrain from being stubborn at all. With Lady Kitra’s permission, though, and the implied promise that she’d be doing the same… Allison had no reason to hold back.

Especially since all she really needed was to get Zelek into her range. Just a few steps too close, and she could kill him, and keep killing him, until either his energy ran out or the other Amazons arrived. She tossed her head, letting her hair fly away from her face, and smirked at Zelek. “I wasn’t planning to, don’t worry.”

There was, however, not a whole lot she could do until Zelek was in her range--and enough into her range that she could get the ink to him before he could get away. It was a shame that Lady Kitra wasn’t in her range; it would have been useful for him to be scared of going near either of them… but she wasn’t, so they’d just have to deal with that. And Allison needed to tempt--or better, provoke--him into her range some other way.

Well, she was fairly good at provoking people. “So then, what do you know about his mutation? And its limits?”

“I don’t get to give two punishments for one thing? Odd, I didn’t think you got to make the rules.” He pantomimed opening a book and running his finger down the page and licked and then flipped the page. “Interesting, it says here that you don’t.”

The sun was up now and the room was lit by the magic of reflection, it wasn’t an extremely powerful light but Allison would now be able to see what was happening clearly.

“oh I don’t think it would be a fair fight, how would you protect yourself right now all chained up.

“Your thinking isn’t doing you any favors, all you need to do is obey. Funny thing about stretching, it doesn’t cause you much external damage all the fun happens inside. And it sounds like I am not doing a good job of showing you the dire situation you are in and could have completely avoided. He glanced at Kitra with a detached look on his face as a stone link of chain attached her legs to each other and then to the crank at her feet.

“Kitra, don’t you think that Allison should be on her best behavior. It would be a pain to find others, but they are out there, more than you would think.” He turned the wheel once and then twice, the wheel pulled in the slack that she had taken advantage of earlier, He clicked it once gear further and the chains started to pull on her extremities at this point she was simply in a permanent stretch it wouldn’t be comfy but the pain was just threatening to begin.

“You are both right, don’t take me seriously, its much more fun.” He pushed the wheel and listen to it clack three more times simultaneously pulling her wrists and ankles so that her body left the stone beneath her. if she could grit her teeth through this and still talk trash he would be impressed.

He then glared at Allison. My mutation, I manipulate minerals, stone, metal, natural materials, and I heal from everything but attacks from wood. However,” he walked over to a table and threw something at Allison’s feet. “When someone stabs your hand through with wood and you r hand won’t heal. You can always cut off the hand and grow a new one.” the something in question was already begging to decompose. His former hand had a hole through the middle. “Now then surrender your ink, or Kitra gets taller.” He walked over to the winch and put his hand on the wheel, daring Allison to disobey.

Kitra let out a low hiss as she felt stone wrap around her legs and then felt herself being pulled. She ignored Zelek as she didn't have anything to say. However once she felt herself leave the stone slab she had been laying on. Well, she didn't panic, but hell it didn't feel good. And then when he cranked it even further. No she didn't scream then, her body had gotten used to pain.

Kitra blinked and noted that Zelek was right next to the wheel, looking more then ready to stretch her further. She laughed grimly, "Guess you like your women taller then you eh Zelek?" She took a few sharp breaths, "I thought you liked your women playful too. Not quiet and obedient." She was wincing, however she refused to scream out. No reason to give this twisted bastard more fun then he was already having.

“I don’t need to make the rules, you need to follow the ones you make. Why should we obey if you just punish us as much as you feel like anyway, whether the rules say it or not?” Which wasn’t exactly how it could work; he hadn’t punished them without any reason yet, technically. But Allison was willing to believe that amplifying punishments could lead to completely unearned punishments, too. And it wasn’t like he could realistically expect them to be completely cooperative. Not if he had any concept of what he was getting into, anyway.

Not that she was sure he did… the Amazons were a powerful, destructive group, and no one who actually knew what they were getting into provoked them. Zelek was going to be destroyed one way or another. Still, he could have missed that detail and still been aware that captives generally weren’t inclined to be cooperative.

Regardless, Allison didn’t look at Lady Kitra during her punishment. She could be stubborn, and would, but that didn’t mean she wanted to know exactly what was happening.

Now if Kitra could just provoke Zelek into doing something to her, maybe she could pretend to be hurt enough to be unaware, and he’d approach. Or they could simply enrage him.

…Or perhaps, she could taunt him more. She turned her head to eye him, keeping her attention carefully focused on him instead of Lady Kitra, and smirked.

The ink on the floor lifted into the air, shortly followed by (almost) all of the ink on her body; leaving a stripe going up her spine, and a line that crawled up her neck to hide in her scalp. Neither was, really, a lot of ink; maybe a teaspoon followed her spine, and half that hid in her hair. Both were quite a bit more than she needed to kill, though. The pain as the ink moved was normal, reassuring, and her smirk widened as the pulled the ink up, into a shining fan that curled above and around her head. “Come and get it, then.”