Chapter 71 A Heart that Keeps Beating, Eve #2
However, I don’t make it very far when I hear, “Containment override engaged.” An AI says, its voice calm.
Then a spotlight and security guards surround me. Above me, I see Gai looking down at me, his silhouette framed by the violet light.
“You still don’t understand obedience.” He gestures with something, and I’m hit with a blast of blinding white pain behind my eyes and then nothing.
I wake and my wrists are cuffed behind me, the restraints humming with a low current—enough to sting whenever I shift. And I notice something. The familiar weight of Rafe’s ring is gone. I lost it. Tears begin streaming down my cheeks. How could I have lost my one possession?
Gai enters the room and says nothing about my crying. “Eve, I’ve had to formally cite this.” And then reads off his datapad.
Then he leaves and the door seals. I lie there listening to the hum of the cuffs and wonder what’s going to happen next.
I’m not allowed to wash. Apparently, Gai wants the smell of failure still on my skin when the guards escort me into the Hall of Judgment.
Two guards drag me by the arms through a corridor that I have never seen before. Every step of their boots echoes off the narrow walls, and I try to keep my head up, but one of them presses his hand against the back of my neck, forcing me to bow as we pass through the great doors.
The hall is smaller than other important rooms in the palace, and it’s circular, carved into black stone shot through with organic veins of light. Inside, there’s only myself, Gai, Autumn, and the guards who brought me here.
Gai stands at the center beneath the goddesses’ emblem—twelve starbursts circling a silver womb.
Autumn kneels beside him, her hands folded, and her eyes fixed on the floor.
In front of Gai waits a low platform of transparent alloy.
I know what it is even before the guards push me toward it. The Scorn’s Cage.
“Remove her restraints,” Gai says.
The guards obey. The moment the cuffs release, the current burns across my skin, leaving bright lines of pain down my wrists.
“Human Eve Eden,” Gai announces, his voice carrying easily through the silence. “You were granted shelter and leniency following your sentence at the Intergalactic Court. Yet you have chosen sabotage. You corrupted safety protocols, endangered personnel, and attempted escape.”
“I only wanted—”
“Silence.” He gestures to the cage and the floor panel slides open. The device rises: a glass cylinder large enough for one person, its inner walls traced with faint circuitry. The guards lift me inside. The floor seals beneath my feet with a hiss.
Gai approaches the control console. “The Scorn’s Cage is both discipline and education. It teaches sincerity through repetition.” He touches the panel. The glass flares with pale light, wrapping me in its glow.
“Eve Eden, confess.”
I swallow. “I… attempted to escape.”
The cage hums. Insincere. A shock lances through my legs and up my spine. I cry out before I can stop myself. The pain is intense and lingers hotly like being burned.
“Again,” he says, perfectly calm.
“I tried to escape.”
Insincere. The current hits harder. My knees buckle, but the field holds me upright.
“Again.”
My voice breaks. “I wanted to go home to Earth. I wanted to forget all of this. All of you. I wanted this all to be a terrible nightmare that I woke up from.”
The light flickers crimson, then steadies. Acknowledged.
“Better,” Gai says. “Now tell us what you have learned.”
“I learned—” I force the rest out. “This is my home. The Obsidian Palace.”
The field hums approvingly.
“Exactly,” he says. “You were reborn here. You belong here. Remember that. You will stand for one full day inside as your punishment for trying to escape.”
The cage dims but remains sealed. And I watch as everyone leaves the Hall of Judgement.
Hours pass, or maybe minutes. Time in the cage stretches and folds. Every time I try to fall asleep, the cage shocks me and makes me repeat my sins. Again and again, for an entire day that feels like a week.
When the release finally clicks, I’m delusional. I don’t know if I’m just imagining my freedom from the cage or if it’s actually real. But when I step out onto the stone floor, my legs falter and I fall to my knees. Then I begin to cry. My howls echoing off the walls.
How did I get here?
Suddenly, Autumn appears out of nowhere, and helps me to my feet.
“Is it really you?” I ask, my voice hoarse.
“Yes, I’m real. I didn’t want to leave you here all night. I figured if I didn’t come, you’d do exactly what you’re doing right now, and then just sleep on the floor.” She helps me remain upright, and we start walking slowly back to our room.
“How many times have you been punished in that medieval sci-fi device?” I ask, realizing Autumn might not have always been as obedient as she is now.
“Too many times to count, but never enough. That’s the trick here. Don’t let the punishments become addictive.”
“Addicted to punishment?”
“Yes,” she says, pushing the door to our room open. “Sometimes pain is the only reminder that I’m real, that I’m seen, and I crave the attention and authenticity of it, like a thirsty man in the desert. The pain lessens the potency of the goddess’ milk. Old memories will become sharp again.”
Once in our room, Autumn helps me to my mat and gives me a glass of water.
I look up at her and say, “I want out before that happens to me. Before I become like you.” I regret the words as soon as I say them. I can hear Sister Agnes in my head, You’re a wicked girl, Eve. But still, I don’t apologize for my honesty.
“Then play by their rules and serve out your sentence. You’ll still be young.
Only thirty years old. That’s nothing in the galaxy.
With galactic medicine, you can live for centuries.
I’m going to live for centuries, you know.
And when Commander Gai dies, Rafe and Lorian will inherit me with this house. ”
I’m stunned by her coldness about her fate.
Centuries as a pet.
Here.
I shake my head. I can’t comment without being a terrible person. So I say, “But I can still get back to Earth. I have about a month left before it’s been five hundred and thirty-five days.”
She shakes her head. “Even if you could get on a ship and get home, it’s doubtful the Alliance Force, the Imperial men who guard Earth, would allow you to repatriate. You’re a galactic criminal, Eve.”
“How would they know what I’ve done here?”
“Because they have galactic communications and guard Earth like it’s Imperial territory.
” She sighs. “I know you don’t believe me, but you should.
You don’t think this is what every new human in chains talks about?
Take my advice, serve out your sentence and then see where things take you.
In my experience, things are hardly what they seem on this side of the galaxy.
And really, it’s not that bad; we’re together. ”
I realize then she doesn’t want me to leave.
At least not yet, and something comes over me, a desire to remain with her as well.
As odd as it is to say, Autumn is my first real friend, besides Lira.
But Autumn is human, and that alone makes her different.
That, and we have formed a kind-of trauma bond now.
But my suffering pales to what she has been through.
“I’ll see if I can control myself from trying to escape. ”
“If you do, then the punishments will become addictive, and I will promise to bring you back here after each time.”
“And if I succeed in escaping, do you want me to come back for you?”
She doesn’t answer me for a long time, but then says, “No. I resigned myself to Gai and him to me. I’ve been here for over thirty years, and I’ve become accustomed to life here.
But when you leave, and you will, one way or another, just promise me that you’ll be strong.
No weeping over these alien men and their strange decisions.
Their love doesn’t have to define you. Don’t let any of us caged humans down by doing that. ”
I hold eye contact with her and understand what real freedom is for the first time. It’s not about the collar around my neck or the person who keeps me locked in this palace; it’s about how I allow others to make me feel and think.
And this is why the pain is addictive: because it brings clarity to this situation. I can’t pretend any of this is okay when I’m in pain. I hate it all.
I fall asleep thinking about escaping and whether I’ll ever see Rafe and Lorian again. And if I do, what will I say?