“I know about all your women. You are an intelligent charmer. How you woo a woman so quickly is a mystery to me. My daughter wasn’t the needy, ins...cure type.”I flexed my fist and Cina realized the pain she was inflicting on me. A bit of blood slipped between her fingers. She grinned at my pain for a moment. Cina seemed to register the inappropriateness of it and lightened her hold, but didn’t release me. Her body language was like a warship radiating betraying emissions before a blast of. “Jeez, thanks.”She laughed then, only to grow more serious. “Let’s just hope he really meant what he said, about only wanting to thank the Impaler. It’s good you didn’t admit it, or else we may have discovered that he was trying to bait you.”“Yeah, that’s true,” I agreed. “But I wouldn’t have admitted it either way.”She smiled. “It really does make me feel special, you know -- knowing your secret. Like, the fact that you haven’t even told Serenity is kind of a big deal. Granted, I know you. Liana stares behind them to see a vast black emptiness. “Well, this is more straightforward.”“Yeah, let’s hurry we should be close to the center, right?”“No idea. Most people don’t make it past the second floor here.” Liana says. “And the people that do almost never come back.”Elinore looks down the path and walks forward. “We’re not going to get anywhere just standing around. We have to move forward!”“Eli?”“Elinore, what’s wrong?” Kaito asks.“I’m nervous. Like something in here is watching us. "Bernadette...make him pretty."With that, I blacked out.---III came to on a raised dais in the center of a large, white room. Allsorts of shiny metal machinery hung from the ceiling as I slowly raisedmy head and looked around. I tried to move, and found that I couldn't;my body was firmly held in a kneeling position with both knees on thefloor by some sort of metal frame. I was also naked, judging from thefeeling of cold metal across my body.My hands, bloodied and burned, were wrapped tightly.