NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3: The Prisoner
The human in him simply couldn’t abide by leaving a prisoner to Salem’s tender mercies for one more second. While he’d certainly made the decision to stand by Salem and attempt to… change her, albeit with a heavy hand, Jaune wouldn’t abide by her torturing someone. If nothing else, any prisoners needed to handled and squared away immediately.
Honestly, it was a little surprising that she only had one prisoner on the premise… and at the same time, given what Jaune knew now about how the Grimm operated and how the Grimmlands were run, not surprising at all. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more he began to wonder exactly why Salem had left a human alive at all. What was so special about this prisoner of hers?
Well, one way or the other, he would find out soon enough he supposed.
“Take me to the prisoner immediately.”
Salem bows her head, a small smile playing across the Grimm Queen’s face at his domineering tone. Their new dynamic would likely take time to settle in, but it seemed that Salem at least was quite happy being reduced to nothing more than his servant. Jaune himself still wasn’t sure what to feel about that, but in the end it felt right. Salem needed a firm hand… and no one else was stepping up to the plate. Though to be fair, no one else was capable of doing what he’d done since awakening in this new body.
As Salem leads him out of the bedroom and down a dark corridor, Jaune finds his attention split. Half of his focus is of course on her. She’s swaying her hips suggestively in a way that reminds him of what they’d just been doing and seems intended to provoke him into pushing her up against the nearest wall or tackling her to the ground so he can fuck her again.
Certainly, some instincts in him rise up urging him to do just that, but Jaune has better control then that. Luckily, the millions of Grimm who make up a good majority of his memories were not sexual creatures by nature. Unluckily, they still had a need to dominate and conquer that appears to be mixing with his human side, that of a teenage boy with a healthy libido to say the least.
If he wasn’t careful, he might end up giving in to his worst impulses. He had to watch himself and watch his thoughts, which was where the other half of his focus was. Even as his feet moved with surety while his eyes stayed on Salem’s voluptuous, sashaying body, his mind was turned inwards, some of his focus on his own body, on this new form he found himself in.
The power that he now had at his fingertips produced a heady feeling, to be sure. Not just whatever control he might be able to exercise over the Grimm, but the very literal personal power that he now wielded. He felt like he could do anything, like he could accomplish any goal. He’d never been strong before… but whatever Salem had done to him, it had made him very strong indeed.
Before he can think much further on it however, they descend a spiral staircase and arrive in what can only be the dungeons of the castle. Because of course the castle has dungeons. Coming to a stop outside of one door amongst many, Salem turns to him and nods to the door.
“In there, my King.”
He’s frowns slightly at that, but when she makes no move to open the door for him, he reaches out to test it. It’s not locked… or, alternatively, his control extends further than he thought. Either way, the door swings open, and he steps into the dungeon cell, not sure what to expect, not sure what he’s going to find.
Even still, nothing could have prepared him for what he does find. The smell is bad enough… but the state of Salem’s prisoner is… worse than just her stench. Against the far wall hangs a naked woman, dangling from chains around her wrists that keep her upright. Her legs look ready to give out on her, and it’s obvious she would be on the floor if not for the shackles keeping her up against the wall.
She looks bad, obviously. Tortured, clearly. But amidst all of the caked-on grime and blood from what looks to be several rounds of torture, one injury stands out the worst of all of them. The blindfold covering her eyes does nothing whatsoever to hide the scarring around its edges, revealing Salem’s greatest crime against this woman, save for her continued imprisonment. She’s been blinded, her sight forcibly removed from the look of things.
Before Jaune can even finish cataloging all of this and deciding how he feels and how he’s going to react, the lips of the prisoner part and the faintest murmur comes from her.
“… P-Please… m-mercy, Mistress… please…”
Salem steps past him, suddenly seeming like the regal Queen of the Grimm once again. Stalking up to the prisoner, she places a single finger under the dangling woman’s chin, lifting her head and staring at her blindfolded face.
“Mercy? Does Slave think herself deserving of such a thing?”
“S-Slave will be good. S-Slave promises, p-please no more p-pain… slave will be good…”
When Salem looks back at him with a smug smile, Jaune realizes in that moment that despite what’s happened between them so far… the Grimm Queen truly doesn’t see this as wrong. She doesn’t see anything she’s doing here as a crime, as a horror. The realization sends a jolt through Jaune, and he steps forward, his lips thinning out.
“Salem…”
“Does she not please you, my King? I will dispose of her immediately if-!”
“No! Salem… what you have done to this woman is wrong. Hurting her like you did, like you have… it’s WRONG.”
There, he’s said it. Part of Jaune, the human part, worries that Salem will turn on him here. That he’ll push his new power over her too far and piss the Queen of the Grimm off. She calls him King, she labels herself his slave, but how much is that based on a whim? How much control does he really have over this situation?
As it turns out, a surprising amount from the way Salem reacts. Rather than anger, Salem looks taken aback… and then distressed. She immediately let’s go of the human woman, backing away from her as if burned. Wringing her hands together in front of her, the Grimm Queen looks to be very nearly on the verge of tears.
“I-I… y-you don’t understand! I did this for us! I had to! She was one of Ozma’s Silver-Eyed Warriors! She represented a danger to you, to me, to all of us!”
Salem sounds like she’s on the verge of a breakdown, but Jaune can’t spare the time to comfort her. He’s too busy processing her words. Specifically, the mention of ‘Silver-Eyed Warrior’ sparks something in him. Something in his Grimm memories. Millions upon millions of Grimm make up that side of him. Some were flashes in the pan, some lived for decades, some even for centuries.
Many… many of them met their ends at the hands of Silver-Eyed Warriors. Among the hunters and huntresses that Jaune could ‘remember’ fighting over the eons of memory he had from his Grimm side, those with Silver Eyes stood out the most. Their power was immense, and their ability to annihilate Grimm was incredible. As strong as they were, they had killed hundreds of thousands of his individual Grimm selves throughout history.
But even then, as strong as they were… Jaune remembered killing quite a few of them as well. He distinctly remembered destroying an entire tribe of them at one point, finding their home, their hidden place, and being sent in by Salem in a thousand-thousand bodies to wipe the Silver-Eyes out once and for all.
That was a long time ago though, or it was supposed to be. For Salem to have found another Silver-Eyed Warrior in the modern time… it actually sent a thrill of fear up Jaune’s spine. He assumed that came from his Grimm half, but honestly, he hadn’t thought his Grimm half could feel fear like this. Or perhaps this was another case of his two sides mixing and melding. His Grimm memories knew the danger that Silver Eyes represented for him. His human side knew how to feel fear over that.
Even… even still. Torture was not the answer. He would have accepted killing, in that situation it seemed to him that it was kill or be killed when it came down to Grimm or Silver-Eyed Warriors. But Salem hadn’t killed this one. She’d captured her. She’d blinded her… and then she’d tortured her for who knew how long.
A whimpering moan draws Jaune out of his thoughts, and for a moment he thinks it came from Salem. But no, it’s coming from the prisoner.
“D-Did I do something w-wrong, Mistress? P-Please, I’m s-sorry. Slave is s-sorry! Please!”
Salem’s face twists into something hate-filled and wrathful, as if she blames this blinded woman for the fact that she’s suddenly in her King’s bad graces. Her hand comes up in a clawed position, but before she can bring it down on the chained-up woman, Jaune interposes himself. His physical speed and strength are far above that of the Grimm Queen, and he catches her wrist with ease, halting her hand’s downward trajectory before she can do whatever she intended to the prisoner.
“No, Salem.”
Salem shatters, letting out a choked sob… and Jaune can’t help but pull her into his chest, holding her close and hugging her to him as he lets her have a minor breakdown. He’s chosen this. He’s chosen to try and make things right, and as he stands there with the Queen of the Grimm crying on him, he realizes he’s now standing in a room with two broken women. Whatever Salem has done to this woman, it will be Jaune’s duty to fix it, to try and make it right… while also tending to Salem’s needs and attempting to fix Salem’s own deep trauma.
It’s a lot to put on a young man’s shoulders. But the rewards are great, if he can succeed. He’ll be saving the entire world, if he can neutralize the Grimm completely, right? All he has to do… is be the conscience to a woman who seems to have long lost her humanity.
“P-Please… please, m-my King. Do not abandon me. I-I beg of you, p-please…”
“I am here, Salem. I will not leave you. I promised, didn’t I? You are mine, and nothing will change that, alright?”
His consoling words have the intended effect of calming Salem down. She’s soon nodding frantically into his broad chest. But just because he’s handled her, doesn’t mean things are okay.
“… Go draw a bath for our guest. From this moment on, she is no longer your prisoner. She is mine to do with as I please. Is that understood?”
Salem shivers and then nods again, as he lets her pull away from him.
“Of course… my King.”
And then she’s gone, leaving Jaune with just the blinded Silver-Eyed Warrior. Except, she clearly doesn’t see herself as a warrior anymore. Calling herself ‘Slave’, labeling Salem her ‘Mistress’…
Grimacing, Jaune moves to the prisoner. When he places his hands on her, she stiffens and then relaxes, as if she’s ready and waiting for him to hurt her. The words she murmurs certainly seem to speak to that as well.
“A-Apologies mistress, this one is sorry for being useless. P-Punish Slave as Mistress sees fit…”
“No.”
His voice, which she has to have heard by this point, seems to startle her quite badly all the same. As if she was completely blocking him out this entire time, and only focusing on Salem. Now though, she can no longer ignore him, and her head swivels this way and that, even as he reaches up and uses his strength to break the shackles around her wrists, one by one.
“You are not a slave. You are… a guest. My… Queen is apologetic for what has been done to you. She will make things right, in time. For now… let’s get you to a bath.”
“T-This one is not worthy of such things. M-Mistress would not like it if Slave accepted such a generous gift…”
“Your Mistress answers to me. She will not protest this.”
Even that isn’t enough to please the blindfolded woman, but she’s as weak as a kitten and Jaune is… many magnitudes stronger than her. Lifting her into his arms as she struggles and squirms is easy enough, and carrying out of her cell and back up the stairs to the castle proper only takes a little bit longer than descending into the dungeon depths in the first place.
Eventually, Jaune backtracks to the master bedroom and is able to find the bath off of it. Luckily, that was where Salem had gone with his orders, because he didn’t know where else to get a bath in this place. By the time he and his cargo arrive, the Grimm Queen has already drawn the back and even added bubbly soap to it. The massive bathtub is big enough for half a dozen people at least, and so Jaune doesn’t hesitate to climb in with Salem’s prisoner still in his arms.
He realizes then that they’re all naked, as a matter of fact. Neither he nor Salem had bothered getting dressed before heading down to the dungeons. A simple oversight, but a potentially worrying one. Regardless, the water feels warm and good against his skin, and even better against the human woman’s if the amazed noise she makes is any indication. Her breath hitches and she tenses up in the warm bubbly bath water, as if she expects it to begin burning her skin off any second, or something else to go wrong and ruin the pleasant sensation.
As he begins to wash her and she still fails to relax, Jaune lets out a low sigh and looks to Salem, who appears to be nervously fretting next to the tug.
“Salem. Explain to her our relationship.”
This is a test, truth be told. Jaune needs to know how much Salem means it when she says she wants him to have all the control, all the power. He needs to know she’s willing to give him this, willing to give him his way in all things. Otherwise, he’s not sure how he’s going to begin saving the world from his new Grimm lover without killing her.
Luckily, Salem doesn’t even hesitate.
“In the same way I am your Mistress… this is my King, my Master. I am his slave, as you are mine. His authority supersedes mine entirely.”
Jaune winces at that, not quite liking how the Queen of the Grimm explained it, but also acknowledging that he didn’t do a very good job of telling her what he wanted her to say. Meanwhile, the human has gone still in his arms… before slowly turning her head to regard him with sightless blindfolded eyes.
“S-Slave understands now. Master… Master’s word is key. Slave will do a good job of ensuring that M-Master is happy with her.”
And then, out of nowhere, the tortured, blinded woman reaches down beneath the water and curls her hand around his cock, beginning to give him a handjob on the spot. Jaune freezes in place, not having expected THAT at all. However, when he looks to Salem… he finds the Grimm Queen watching with a fond smile on her lips, as if… as if she was pleased with what she was seeing. In that moment, he realizes what sort of things Salem must have left this Silver-Eyed Warrior alive for, and the true nature of their relationship.
In that moment, Jaune isn’t entirely sure what to do. The prisoner that Salem had spent who knew how long torturing was finally relaxing… but only because she thought she understood why she was being given such luxury as this bath. Because she thought that he wanted her to pleasure him. He… he should stop this, should try and explain… but there was no denying how good her hand felt on his cock.
More than that, the sudsy, bubbly water of the bath was doing an excellent job of wiping away the blood and grime that had caked the woman’s body. She was, as it turned out, incredibly beautiful, a mature and feminine figure in spite of the scars crisscrossing some of her flesh.
It couldn’t just be outright rejection or complete acceptance though. He had to be able to find a middle ground here, right? All he wanted was to make this woman feel safe, feel free. Perhaps that was too much to ask, but there had to be a way to navigate this minefield without setting too many explosions off.
He just had to figure it out… and fast.