Laok is a dick

Rain was sheeting out of the heavens with the endless abandon of a sky that was crying her heart out. Thick blackish green clouds roiled overhead, shifting endlessly and growling with what sounded to Shoda like a primal, malicious intent. But that could just be her mood. She sat with her back pressed up against a cold and clammy wall, slippery with years of mossy slime that had accumulated. A trickle of rainwater traced its icy path down her back, between her shoulder blades, but she was beyond the ability to care. Her arm throbbed with a dull red heat as sticky yellow ichor seeped from the week-old wound. Trying desperately to heal the loss of her limb.
“Psst.” A voice drifted into her cell, sounding like the barest dream, something out of her fever-induced nightmares. But it came again, “Psst.”
She cracked open her swollen and red-rimmed eyes, crusty from blood and sweat, “Whut?” she croaked around her freshly swollen lip.
“S-Shoda? A-are you there?” It was Laok.
“Yea… are you OK?”
Her brother grunted, scraping noises from the adjacent cell sounded like he was shifting position, “I can’t think Shoda, I c-can’t see… I… I think they took my eye…”
It came back in a flash, the swords glinting in the firelight, the rows upon rows of tents. Shoda groaned, “The arm…” Eyes already raw from the beating she had received began to well with tears once again as she thought of her village, and the burning shambles it must be by now. Her rivers clogged with bodies and the little earth and thatch huts burning. She thought of Roburt and couldn’t stand the memory anymore. She began to howl, a hollow, desperate, and hopeless sound. She howled with rage and sorrow. She howled until her throat was raw and she could only lean over on the dirty floor, her chest shaking with wracking sobs she was too spent to utter.
It didn’t help matters that Laok was so silent in the adjacent cell, only uttering an occasional whimper when he bumped into something.
She didn’t know what time it was, it was impossible to tell. The only window that she could tell was very far up and it looked like the path to it was crooked, so only the barest hint of light filtered down. She got more light through the tiny barred window in her cell door, through which she could just discern the light of a torch far down the hall.
She didn’t know how long she laid there, passing in and out of consciousness. The back of her head was throbbing and whenever she tried to sit up it exploded with pain. If she could just get to Laok they could help each other.
Eventually someone came and slipped a narrow tray of food under the door. It was thin porridge with a tough hunk of bread and a small tin cup of water. They were going to starve her! She wrestled with burning anger for a moment before it collapsed back in on itself and gave way to despair again.
“Why am I here? I didn’t do anything to deserve this!” She yelled at her door. Only her echoes were there to answer her. “Laok? Are you awake? Laok? Laok!” She couldn’t hear his breathing from the other cell; would she even be able to? But he wasn’t answering, had he fallen unconscious? Was he… was he dead? She threw herself against the thick iron-bound wooden door, trying to make enough noise to wake her brother up if he had fallen asleep. But the doors were thick, and didn’t echo. She fell back when the pain in her left arm wouldn’t let her continue. She kept calling his name. She called until her throat was raw with effort, until she collapsed into tears again.
She woke with a start. The tray of food was gone, and there was a scratching on the other side of her cell wall. “Shoda? Shoda please don’t leave me…”
“Laok!” She scrambled to the other side of her cell, pressing close to the wall, trying to get as close to her brother as she could, “Laok…” she sobbed, “I thought you had passed out… or died…”
He managed to laugh feebly, “I thought… I thought you had…” It was a feeble joke, but some combination of stress, pain and exhaustion made them laugh. The two Jothani sat side-by-side in adjacent cells laughing, releasing pent-up frustrations. It helped, it didn’t make the pain or hunger any better, but it went a long way to dispelling some of the despair the both of them felt.
“Laok, we have to get together somehow maybe…” She paused, uncertain.
“What Shoda? Spit it out!”
“Well, maybe, do you remember what you used to do to the fish?” Her tone was cautious, like she was probing the edge of an idea that didn’t bear thinking about.
“Yeah, what are you on to?”
“Maybe, could you do it to a- a person?”
“I can try.” He said simply, in a dead-sounding voice.
Shoda sat back, leaning against the wall and thought about what she had asked her brother to do. Finally, she voiced her thoughts again, “You’re actually scaring me a little Laok.”
“Why?”
“Roburt made us promise only to use our ability to help people I do-“
“We are, we’re helping ourselves.” Laok’s tone was unexpectedly sharp.
“That’s not what I meant” Shoda began reasonably.
“I know what you meant,” he snapped, “They put my eye out Shoda! Took your arm! What makes you think they’re planning on being any kinder now that we’re stuck in here huh? I don’t know about you but I’ll gladly do to them what they did to us and more to get out of here.” He lapsed into an angry silence while Shoda sat, stunned.
“I- I don’t want to fight” She whispered.
“Then don’t.”
Shoda sat, staring at the wall for a long moment before she crawled to a pile of moldy straw and curled up. Shivering, it was many hours before she managed to find sleep.