In the following week, Azina told her assistants and community leaders that she had personal affairs to attend to for the next month and will not be bothered. She locked her home away from public view and never left the estate. She quickly adjusted to everything about the routine of torturing her captives - drugging them before cleaning them and their cells, carving out bread and spooning in meat slop for them, inspecting and securing every entrance before entering and exiting, the pain she felt from taking the black liquid before entering Tini’s cell, binding them in a way that was proper for their respective torture methods, treating the injuries that she inflicted, and, best of all, the gratification she felt from ruining their lives in a miniscule way that they had ruined hers.

        Glowi would fight her the moment that Azina opened the peering window to shoot her poisoned blow dart at him. He would claw his fingers through the hole for any chance of scratching her, spit at her when he woke up and found himself completely bound and unable to move, and by the end of their session together he would curse her with a cut tongue and through salty tears that stung the incisions she’d made on his face. Despite his outrage and attempts at provoking her, she said nothing. She knew that it made him angry and his struggle gave her a twisted sense of satisfaction.

        Tini, on the other hand, was docile at every step. She would simply stare at Azina the moment that the peering window opened, as if examining her. She didn’t move when Azina pushed the blowgun through the hole, nor did she squirm when she awoke from her drug induced sleep. The entire time the room was quiet, with the only exception being when Tini let out a high pitch grunt as Azina slowly and carefully tugged a tooth out. This was the only time that Azina felt gratification from her sessions with Tini.

        But at the beginning of the second week, Azina broke her silence. When Glowi finally came to and struggled against his bindings as usual, Azina sat in front of him with her hands on the table that held her torture instruments. She watched him struggle and examined the cuts from the sides of his eyes and mouth. He was beginning to look unrecognizable from his usual coy and handsome demeanor. Now, he was unsettling to look at - his eyes extended as if to see in a greater degree and his mouth wider looking as if to swallow prey whole. 

        “The fire haired woman. She knew that you had Representative Bisnira’s husband killed, didn’t she?”

        “I had no such thing ordered!” Glowi shouted at her, trying to avoid the sores she gave him on his tongue. She reached for a small pallet knife that she’d been using to carve him.

        “Wait, wait, wait, please. Yes, I had Tesded killed. Is that what you want to hear? Are you his kin? Please, I will pay restitution to everyone who has been affected by his death. Please, just stop this madness,” Glowi said in a shaky voice.

        “The fire haired woman. She knew you had Tesded killed. And not only that, you had him chopped up and fed to Bisnira in what was supposed to be a dinner of grief for her! The fire haired woman, she knew all of this. That’s why you slept with her, right? To silence her. You knew that she admired you, that she wanted your love,” Azina said, now staring at the wall. She couldn’t bear to look at him and confront the monstrous look she’d given him.

        “She knew too much, Azina! You know that no one is safe from the Coalition, not even their own members!” Azina reached for a pallet knife and clenched it tightly, her fist shaking and her chest rising and falling rapidly. 

        “And when she didn’t adhere to what you wanted, you had her silenced. A woman who genuinely loved and cared for you. You killed her because you couldn’t live up to your own mistake. You betrayed someone who loved and trusted you,” Azina raised her voice, holding back angry tears. She raised the pallet knife and stabbed at the table.

        “Please, mercy! Maybe I can help you work through all of this. How do you know all of this? Who are you?” Glowi asked through his sobbing

        “Do you even remember her name, you scum?” Azina looked him straight in the eye and resisted the urge to plunge the pallet knife into him right there. He trembled and his face contorted and tears burst out. He cried out and tried to squirm out of the clamp holding his head. She brought her face closer to his and whispered in shaky words.

        “Her name was Azelle Flameheart, you miserable excuse for a human being. And I am here to carry out righteousness on my mother’s behalf,” Azina, shakily dragging the pallet knife where the cuts she’d made before had scabbed over.