Lile wailed through gritted teeth as Haizea laid a hot blade across her back. She could not stop the tears from flowing. They drenched her sheet as she sobbed into its scrunched folds. She lay, bare-back and bare-chested, with nothing but a sheet for decency, on the floor of the cabin by the fire. Haizea and Maeve were with her, the most brutal pair of doctors a patient could suffer. They were cauterizing Lile's wounds and it was now the second most painful experience of Lile's life.
The men were outside, keeping busy, giving the half-naked Lile privacy. She could hear them chatting, enjoying the afternoon sun, completely unphased by the muffled screams that must be escaping the cabin.
Shortly after Hodei had informed her and Maeve that he could tell them no more regarding Lile's new ex
