Chapter 38 You’re Only Human, Eve #2
Neither of them will notice what I didn’t send, that I removed the only piece of information that decides whether people vanish without a trace or bleed out in public.
I haven’t lied. I have just decided which facts are allowed to arrive together.
I take a deep breath as the upload completes. I wipe my hands on my trousers even though they aren’t dirty.
Whatever happens next, no one will be able to say I acted blindly.
My shift is almost over. But before it ends, I receive a message, but it’s not from Terra Ka or the Sovereigns.
A wave of anger washes over me. I’m going to be humiliated in front of everyone. Of course, they know about the fight.
Lira interrupts my thoughts. "Want to walk to High Table together?"
"Yes," I say, then add, "I'm to be made an example of."
"Whatever happens, remember most people will think Rae deserved it. And don’t worry about being naked. Humans are considered good-looking, and remember you’re considered one star in the galaxy."
I know she’s trying to make me feel better, I’ve seen most of my colleagues naked now for one mistake or another, but for it to happen to me makes me nervous. So nervous I can’t answer her. I’m terrified of how badly this punishment is going to hurt.
When we arrive, the dining hall is already full with hundreds of staff arranged in rigid tiers. At the apex, the High Table glows under its spotlights. The Sovereigns’ throne-like chairs are empty, but I know they’ll come. My sadistic masters wouldn’t miss this.
I descend to my usual table with Lira, aware of every eye following my movement. Rae is already at her table, a spectacular bruise darkening her grey cheek, and her nose is covered with a white gauze. She could have gone to the medical center; she’s choosing to make a show of this.
The Sovereigns enter soon after we sit. The hall rises in silence, every head bowed as Lorian begins the invocation.
“Goddesses who see all, judge us by our devotion. Strip away deceit, expose rebellion, and make pure again those who defile your order.”
His silver eyes lock on mine as he speaks the last words, and my heart begins to hammer. Is this the moment he calls me out for what we did earlier? The Eclipse Kiss?
Then Rafe adds, “The goddesses do not forgive easily. Nor do we.”
But the prayer ends, and the hall exhales as if released from a grip.
Platters of food glide across the tiers, the meal beginning as if nothing has changed.
I can’t touch the food placed before me.
Instead, I drink the wine, telling myself it’s liquid courage even though I know it’s only medicinal desperation.
Whatever waits for me tonight, it will not be merciful.
As the meal winds down, Rafe says, “Eve, Rae. Approach the High Table for punishment.”
The clatter of cutlery and conversation dies around me. Hundreds of eyes follow us as we climb the central steps, two condemned women ascending to judgment.
We kneel before the Sovereigns.
“Staff are forbidden from violence,” Rafe’s voice cuts through the hall. “Yet you disgraced yourselves in the canteen.”
“I was provoked, Sovereigns,” Rae says.
“Silence.” Rafe gestures to the guards, and the Collar of Contrition is locked around her throat. With one soft chime, she chokes mid-breath, clutching at it.
Then his gaze falls on me. “And you, Eve. You struck a fellow employee, breaking her bones. Do you deny this?”
“I do not, Sovereign,” I say, louder than I intended to.
“Do you repent?”
I feel every eye in the hall drilling into me. Rae’s green eyes shine with hatred beside me. But I will not take back what I said. Not to her or to anyone. “I regret nothing.”
The hall gasps.
“Then you will be made an example of.” Rafe nods to the Umbral Cohort.
Faceless, in black armor and red visors burning like predator’s eyes, they come for me.
My arms are seized and yanked behind me.
My wrists are bound with luminous restraints.
Gloved fingers tear at my uniform, splitting the tunic down the front, fabric shrieking as it gives way.
My trousers are wrenched from my hips and stripped to the floor.
In seconds I’m naked, shackled, and trembling, my breasts bare and heaving, the damp heat of my sex exposed.
The Shroud of Shame is dropped over my shoulders, a translucent veil that magnifies me, displaying my naked human body to all. I should feel humiliated to be on display like the slaves in the lobby, but surprisingly I’m not.
“Confess,” Lorian commands.
“I struck Rae in the canteen,” I say shakily.
“And?”
I meet his eyes. “I do not repent, Sovereign.”
The shroud pulses violently, shocking me with a thousand needles of pain. My body convulses, breasts tightening under the translucent fabric. The hall watches me shake, whimper, and cry. Still, I don’t take it back. Rae deserved what she got.
“Do you repent, Eve?”
“I. Do. Not.”
“Public penance,” Rafe declares. “Until Eve learns humility.”
The Cohort drags me to the center of the floor, where a transparent cage descends from the Staff Dining Hall with a hiss. This must be the Scorn’s Cage.
They shove me inside, still naked beneath the burning shroud. The door seals, and I can no longer hear anyone.
“Confess,” the cage demands in a shockingly loud, emotionless female voice.
“I struck Rae in the canteen,” I say.
“Repent,” it says.
“No.”
A shock rips through me that sends me sprawling to the transparent floor.
“Repent.”
“No.” My voice cracks.
The shocks intensify until I can barely breathe.
My whole body writhes, pinned by the cruel currents.
I even lose control of my bowels and vomit, but I don’t care.
I can see Rae, her throat still banded by the collar, staring at me wide-eyed.
Her punishment is easy and already done. And I hate her even more.
I will never repent.
The cage answers my defiant thought with a final surge that makes me wonder if I died. My vision sparks white, and for a split second, I think I’ve gone blind. I lie sprawled in the transparent prison with my body twitching with painful aftershocks.
Suddenly the cage rises back into the ceiling with a hiss, leaving me collapsed on the floor before the Sovereigns. The shroud is stripped away. Cohort soldiers seize my arms and haul me upright. My head lolls, but I force myself to lift my chin.
“She refused repentance,” one guard reports.
“Then she is unrepentant,” Rafe says. “But her penance is complete. Return her to her place.”
A ripple of murmurs passes through the hall. Staff know what that means; I endured the full force of the cage and still refused to break.
I feel proud.
The Cohort awkwardly puts my clothing on my soiled body and drags me back toward the receptionists’ tier. My legs can barely hold me, but I keep my gaze forward.
As I sink into my seat beside Lira and put my head on the table, making my plate hit my empty glass, I hear her whisper, “You’re mad. You’re absolutely mad.”
Maybe I am? But I needed to do this for myself. To channel my anger and frustration about everything I’ve seen and done.
The room swims and my body aches from the cage, every nerve still raw from its shocks. I’m trembling and drenched in sweat, but at least I’m seated again, hidden among the receptionists.
It’s over, and I survived.
Only then does it settle in—Rae is watching. Waiting for me to fold.
She can stare at me for the rest of the night. I will not be beaten by her.
Then, my name is spoken again.
“Eve Eden. Stand,” Rafe says.
For a second, I don’t believe it. I think my mind has slipped into a dream, and that the echoes of pain I just suffered are making me hear things that aren’t real.
Lira grips my arm under the table, whispering, “Eve, you have to stand up.”
Slowly, unwillingly, I rise.
Rafe says, “The human employee has committed not one violation, but two. She has broken staff decorum with violence. And she has defiled herself in the forbidden act of the Eclipse Kiss.”
My knees nearly give way. The Eclipse Kiss. God help me—how could he know? I feel the heat of shame climb up my throat. Not only does he know, but he is going to make me pay for it. Here. Now. In front of everyone. And this punishment may actually kill me.
Whispers ripple through the tiers. Rae, still wearing the collar, tilts her head toward me, her eyes gleaming with triumph.
“Approach,” Rafe says.
It is a punishment in itself that I thought I was finished, I think as I walk back up to the Sovereigns' tier.
Each step up the tier feels heavier than the last. My torn uniform hangs in tatters from the earlier punishment, fabric sliding off my shoulders.
The Cohort is waiting, faceless helmets glowing red.
I glance toward the Sovereigns. Lorian leans back casually. I wonder if he’s daring me to name him as the one I committed this act with. Rafe’s gaze is cold, fixed on me like I’m a problem to be solved.
“Eve,” Rafe says. “You will confess and repent, or the punishment will continue until your body is broken enough to teach others what words cannot. The Eclipse Kiss is a desecration of the sacred order.”
I’m stripped of what’s left of my uniform, and the shroud is put over me again. It shocks me until I cry out.
“Repent.”
I shake my head, tears spilling hot down my cheeks.
“I… I can’t.” I don’t know if I’m supposed to say it was with Lorian, or if everyone understands that I was giving a blowjob to one of the Sovereigns because they aren’t standing here with me?
But I’m not going to be sold to Kamos over a blowjob.
No fucking way, so I am keeping my mouth shut.
I will endure this like I’ve endured everything else in my life. Even if it kills me.
The shocks intensify, crawling over every inch of me until I’m convulsing on the floor, naked and sobbing. Everything seems surreal now.
“Repent.”
“I can’t.” I make eye contact with Lorian.
His face is serious now as he watches me.
Then we both look to Rafe as he raises his hand, and the Cohort seize me by my arms and drag me up onto the dais itself, forcing me forward until my face is pressed against the cold black stone of the High Table.
My ass is raised high, my body fully displayed to every witness.
A Cohort guard produces a rod glowing with blue energy.
“Repent, Eve Eden, or you will receive the rod,” Rafe says.
“I do not repent,” I say, looking at Lorian, and it occurs to me through the pain, I might as well be saying I love you, Lorian.
The first strike lashes across my back, sending a crackling arc of pain into my flesh, and I scream, the sound echoing through the hall.
Another strike. And another. The shocks make my body buck and spasm against the table.
But I will not admit what I did to prove my loyalty to Lorian.
Let them whip me and think this is all I’ve done to break their rules.
By the fifth lash, I can no longer feel my legs. By the seventh, I’m sobbing into the stone, my cheek wet with tears and saliva. By the ninth, I’m certain I will faint.
But I don’t. I endure every strike. I love you, Lorian.
When at last the rod falls silent, Rafe gestures for me to be released. I collapse to the floor, trembling uncontrollably. My body is marked with glowing red welts and it no longer feels like my own.
It feels like a tool I’ve used. A device to prove that I’m not afraid of their punishments.
Because that’s all they are, punishments.
Dr. Veil can fix all of this. It’s all transitory.
They just want to shame me, but I’m already shamed for being born human.
I can go no lower in the eyes of the galaxy.
My status is almost higher for being punished in the same way any other staff member would be punished.
I smile deliriously at my thoughts.
The hall is utterly silent.
“Her penance is rendered,” Rafe declares. “Let every staff member remember this night. Defilement will not be tolerated. Blasphemy will not be excused.”
The Cohort drags me back down the steps because I can’t walk; my naked body hangs limp between them. They dump me in my chair at the receptionists’ tier, where I slump forward, my face in my arms, and my whole body shakes.
It’s over. For now.
“You’re so strong, Eve,” Lira says under her breath and I think I hear the other receptionists agree quietly.
Did Lorian purposely plan this?