Chapter 0 - First Do No Harm

"Wake up." The stern voice ordered.

"Wha-?" The other voice answered drowsily.

"Wake up!" The first voice repeated. An audible smack resonated through the chamber. The orc's eyes flew open at the shot of pain. 

Amber Hawood observed her captive, naked besides a loincloth and restrained with tight ropes around the wrists and ankles. His legs were tied apart too. Crude, but it'd work. Amber wasn't in a position to nitpick anyway. In truth, she enjoyed seeing a man at her mercy like this. But this wasn't about pleasure; this was about something much more important to her.

"Took you long enough. Your name?" She asked him casually.

The orc just told her. "Go to hell."

Amber slashed him across the left cheek with the dagger in her right hand, barely looking at him. "I doubt that. Your name!"

"Heh... I doubt you went to the trouble of capturing me to find out my name." The orc taunted.

Amber kept herself from glaring at him, and struggled to keep her voice steady as she answered. "Fine. Leon Wingrun. Tall, blonde and handsome. Demon hunter. Came after your clan, got captured. Where is he?"

"Probably dead." Was the answer.

"Not good enough!" Amber told the orc, the dagger cutting across the other cheek. "Where's your clan's hideout?"

The captive smirked. "You don't really think it'll be that easy, do you? Go ahead-stab or slash me with that dagger as many times as you like. I won't tell you. You're wasting your time." 

The orc's smugness was grating Amber's already fried nerves. "No; you are. If you want to skip to the suffering, I'm happy to oblige." Amber ran her finger along the dagger's edge. "Let's get started."

She didn't know how much time she had, so she'd use her most painful options first. She doubted it would work-orcs were known for their natural pain resistance-but she had to try. If things got really bad, she could heal him and do it again. There were some advantages to healing.

Healing... maybe she could start there. She knew firsthand what overcharging a healing spell could do. She snapped her left fingers and the familiar light green orb manifested in her palm. She channeled additional magic into it and it changed colours: first to a darker green, then to a light brown that matched her skin, then the brown went darker, then it finally changed to a deep red colour.

Amber held the spell towards the orc and the red instantly connected to a wound on his chest. The wound turned red and swelled up, sore. The burning pain was etched on the orc's face. Amber intensified the spell and he bit his lip to keep himself from crying out in pain. Amber kept up the spell, but broke it after a few seconds-channeling it for too long would kill him. The irony of dying to healing magic still tickled Amber.

Without warning or preamble, the healer plunged the dagger into the orc's left hand and he shouted his pain aloud. Amber twisted the handle and his scream reverberated around the cavern. She twisted it yet further but he gritted his teeth and glared at her, willing himself to block out the pain. She pulled the weapon out forcefully and shook the blood off. 

So he knew how to ignore pain. That ability only worked against huge amounts of it-if she covered his body in cuts, it would have no effect. Amber began walking around his body, making slashes. In random places, of random lengths and random deepness at random intervals. Blood slowly trickled onto the floor of the cave, disappearing between the cracks and loose stone. 

She voiced as she walked behind him. "Don't worry-I won't cut off anything important. Though I can't imagine there's anything big enough to miss anyway."

Before he could answer, she jammed the dagger into his side and pulled it out sideways, leaving a huge, gaping wound. Blood spurted out, and Amber did nothing but stop the bleeding. She did this in another two places-on the other side at a higher angle and on his left leg. She took a second to look over him. Almost every inch was covered in marks.

"Hmm..."

...

"ARGH! FUCK!"

Okay, now every inch was covered in marks. His light panting gave away his exhaustion from trying to block out all of it. Amber backed away and began thinking. Admittedly, this was very fun; to see him in such agony. But it wasn't working. She needed that location, and she needed it now. Amber internally cursed herself as she realized he was a warrior; used to pain. He might have even lived for it. The answer wasn't in pain; she had to take away what he prized. 

What, then, did warriors prize? The answer came in one fell swoop. 

Without a word, Amber walked to her captive and placed the dagger against his left index finger. "Talk. Or it goes." Amber threatened.

"You... you wouldn't." The orc rebutted confidently.

The dagger cut downwards and the finger fell to the floor. Red splattered the floor, but the orc only flinched in answer to the pain. Amber was slightly impressed at his tolerance. She repeated the threat and action on each of his left fingers, and each time he refused. But he was clearly cracking at the loss of his fighting ability.

"Okay, enough fucking around." Amber told both herself and the orc.

She moved to his other side, switching the dagger in her hand so she held it upside down. Studying his right arm, she picked her target. The dagger descended into the inside of the elbow and the orc shouted in pain. An ugly, jagged line was formed as Amber pulled it down the arm. She pulled it near to the wrist, savouring the orc's cries of agony, before pulling it out roughly. Before the orc could even breath out, Amber held an open left hand towards the wound. Green light shot into the gash. The skin sealed up but it also turned slightly inwards. 

"Try to move your fingers." Amber challenged him, wiping the blood off the dagger.

The orc looked at his hand and made an attempt to do something. Nothing happened. He visually struggled to make his arm do...anything. All in vain. Amber internally smiled; her purposefully botched healing had worked. The orc glared at her and screeched "You witch! You've ruined my arm!"

"Good luck finding a healer who can undo that." Amber told him dryly. "I'll ruin yet more if you don't tell me what I want to know."

The orc stayed defiant "Fuck you."

"I know you'd like to do just that, preferably as painfully as possible. But let's not joke around any further: you're on your last legs, and if you still refuse to talk, I'll make them useless too!" Amber told him. It was now or never. "Where. Is. Your. Clan?"

"I would rather die than tell you." The orc answered "And if you do anything more, you'll grant that wish!" Amber nearly plunged the dagger into his eye. But a final idea shone in her head at his words. If this didn't work, nothing would.

She fought a smug smirk as she asked "Is that so?" and channeled her healing magic around his body. After a few seconds, the wounds from the torture sealed back up. Even the fingers she'd cut off  began to grow back. Amber was slightly surprised-it turned out sheer rage amplified healing magic too. It didn't heal the sabotaged arm though. The orc's eyes went wide as the healing process finished and Amber spoke, arms crossed. "I'm a healer. I can bring you all the way to Messorem's door, then pull you back before you can knock. Just how long do you think you can hold out against that?!" Her voice became louder with every word.

He stammered. "You wouldn't."

She stepped up to him, locking eyes. He flinched slightly at the sight of her face. "You have no idea what healers are capable of." Her voice was deadly and full of malice. "You have even less idea of what I can do."

The orc was shocked. "I... I swore, on my ho-"

"Is preserving your honour worth feeling your life slip away so many times you're literally begging me to just let you die by the end?" Amber interrupted him. "Or should I start cutting off your fingers one by one again? Maybe your whole hand? An eye? There is no limit to what I can take away from you."

"You... You'd just get bored eventually..." The orc was clearly running out of arguments.

"Wrong again." Amber replied, smiling maliciously. "I get off on watching people suffer. I already had two orgasms with the first torture session." To illustrate her point, her left hand moved downwards and wiped some of her slick juices from her otherwise untouched pussy. She pushed the covered fingers into his mouth forcefully.

The orc's eyes went wide at the taste as the fingers retracted. Amber internally smiled: she'd put fear into him. "You... you're an animal. A fucking animal!" The orc cried out, realizing how deep in it he really was.

"An animal who will do whatever it takes to get her lover back." Amber didn't miss a step in her answer. "Now tell me where he is, or we go to round two!"

The orc clearly underwent an internal battle between his fear and his sense of honour. Finally, at long last, he sighed resignedly. "...The Lost Vale. Our clan makes camp... at the Lost Vale."

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" Amber asked, already slinging her bag over her shoulders. "Now you earn yourself a rest." One final snap of her fingers and the orc was out colder than the northern snowstorms. 

Amber untied his good arm and set off; out of the cave and into the sunset. She had her location. All she could do now was head to the Lost Vale and hope... hope that Leon was still alive. "Hold on, my love... I'm on my way." she whispered to the wind, before running down the dirt path.