Page 188 of Light Leech

“Promise to restore me to my full state, Dear Leader?“ He said the title with more belittlement than when Don had spoken it.

“Of course. I will return my fragment with pleasure.”

Dokkaebi pointed a clawed finger at Ralia. “And her implant? My prison that she calls her ‘Bite?’”

“All of it.”

“Delightful.”

Dokkaebi’s words were a venomous blade to my core. Not only was the initial puncture a searing pain, but the longer the implications of his words marinated in my thoughts, the more I wanted to cry out in agony.

I would not let her suffer.

I ran towards her.

Dokkaebi shot me a piercing glare. Violet light shot out from the prism, then reflected to link me to Kim’s hand. The Dear Leader laughed with Ralia on her knees before him and my autonomy in his possession. The light line that connected me to his glowing hand imprisoned me in a faint violet shell that gave everything I saw a rose tint.

Zhu, do something!

“He is holding me as much as you, bakuh!”

“No more disruptions, you Medislav rat,” said Kim. He glanced at another man on the council whose facial structure was unmistakably slavic. “No offence to you, Ljubo.”

He pulled on my line. “Come, sit with your companion.”

My body moved to his command. I knelt beside Ralia and wanted to turn my head to see her, but my body was no longer mine to control.

“Are you going to listen?” Kim asked.

He forced me to nod my head.

He clapped and laughed. “Look at him now. What an obedient little pig.”

“Why not get rid of him if he’s such a bother?” a woman asked. “We only need her, right?”

“No, no, no,” Kim said. “You know well, Karen, that we are not to dispose of tools before using them. Maybe it is better to say we should not toss this lumen card before spending everything on it. I digress. Dokkaebi will explain it better without my rambling. On with it then.”

He forced my head to look up at the goblin. I could only see Ralia in my peripheral view, but he had forced her to do the same.

“The Journeyman Gui is mine as well, Kim,” Dokkaebi said.

“Yours, ours. It’s all the same.”

“As is your Light Leech, homunculus. That is mine and it always has been.”

“How dull do you think I am? I have always understood this. I do not need it to live.”

“But to use light lines…”

They rambled on for another minute. I had thought Dokkaebi would be some supreme leader, but Kim spoke to him as if he were just another coworker. Was that because he was a part of the goblin Gui? Was Dokkaebi a Gui? I tried to open my mouth to ask, but all that came out was a muffled shout through my sealed lips.”

“Explain it already,” Kim said as he kicked me from behind. “I want to get this one on track to fusion before he tries to think of something desperate.”

“It’s not my fault you never explained everything to your underlings,” said Dokkaebi.

“I already explained why we couldn’t reveal anything! You’re–”

“Enough. I’ve had it with your complaints, Kim.” He turned to face us. “Ralia.“ As he spoke her name, Ralia’s head snapped. I still couldn’t see her face but heard her sharp moan as they forced her attention.