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Aurelius had dreaded home before. Now, he’d give anything to go back.
He had no idea where he was when they traveled since he was kept in a locked boxcart, and a shackle around one wrist prevented him from reaching the back doors. Not that he would have been able to force them open. He searched for weak spots in the walls, floor, and chain, but everything was solid. A tiny hole in the corner served as a privy, but it was too small to get through. With no magic or weapons, he couldn’t properly fight back against Corvo either.
He came in at night and did what he wanted with his new toy. Even when the group stopped traveling, Aurelius wasn’t removed from the cart. His only light came through faint cracks in the boards, the hole in the corner that served as a privy, or the doors when they were thrown open so food and water could be given to him. He assumed he was in some sort of army camp and off to one side because it wasn’t that noisy. Sometimes, he heard men’s voices that sounded like they were quite a ways off, and it was obvious he’d been brought here to be broken over time.
Corvo tried to bribe him and didn't believe Aurelius who lied and said he didn't know what Corvo was talking about.
King David obviously knew nearly everything about Eurig’s ability and the two items he had. What he didn’t seem to know was that Aurelius couldn’t gild anything despite the key that he bore in the socket of his missing eye. Perhaps King David believed that Eurig, in a particularly bad fit of insanity, only removed his oldest son’s eye to mark him as the heir, and the ability to gild was more like a hereditary thing.
Eurig hadn’t been able to use the key at first until he was nearly eighteen. If Aurelius could gild, he’d have already done itto Corvo and killed him. He fibbed by saying he’d never be able to do such a thing.
If Aurelius could do as he was told, he knew that wouldn’t get him out of his current situation. He’d be used until he went completely insane. King David would collect the gold and gain wealth without a care for the person doing it. Aurelius would end up driven so mad by the ability, he’d be worse than Father.
They could give him breaks in between to ensure the insanity didn't come as fast. That meant he'd spend years gilding things, and in the meantime, he'd likely still be raped and used. Why not get more than one use out of him and keep him compliant and half-broken?
Corvo was never going to release Aurelius no matter what he did.
***
Two months passed before Aurelius was finally dragged out of the boxcart, shackled, and forced into a small home. It looked like it had been hastily built, and it was too dark to tell much about the area.
The house became one of torture for him. Usually, he was beaten until he couldn’t stand while questions and demands came. Corvo always healed any injuries, and he'd tsk afterward.
“Your life would be so much easier if you obeyed me. It's not like it'd be much effort for you to gild one little thing to start with. If you did that, I'd give you a proper meal. The more you do it, the more you’ll be allowed to have. A blanket, a bed, more food, maybe some clothes. It'll get cold in that cart.”
Corvo was a rather average man with dark hair and orange eyes. He was one of the fairies with moving tattoos on his torso, and overall, Aurelius wouldn’t have looked twice at him if they had passed each other on a street.
When he asked the Prince to gild something, a feverish glint would grow in his eyes as if his greed was about to drive him mad. King David must have promised him a mighty reward if he managed to get the Prince to obey.
Aurelius prayed to Elira that someone would find him. The weeks blurred into each other as winter came, and huddling in the corner of the cart didn't keep him from shivering. Corvo raped him nearly every night, and his moods blurred too. Aurelius never knew what to expect first when he saw Corvo. Sickening sweetness while he offered useless things to tempt him? Brutality and a beating? The latter always came at some point.
The absolute worst thing was that when he was raped, Aurelius’s body responded to the stimulation despite the shame and pain. He tried to stop it because he didn’t want those disgusting hands on him while he was used. He could also finish even with the pain. Corvo rarely ever used oil, and he often said Aurelius must like it hard and rough.
His tears and insistence that he didn’t enjoy it were brushed aside, and Aurelius soon learned to stop bothering. After a while, he also learned to stop hoping for someone to save him.
He stopped eating his pitiful meals after a year out of desperation to make it end. That only lasted for a couple of days. Several men came into the cart, held him down, and forced the food down his throat. The threat that all of his meals would be fed to him that way wasn’t mentioned, but he knew.
They couldn’t force words out of him, and at that point, why speak? There was no point in prayers, hopes, or words anymore. He already knew that nobody was coming to rescue him, Father must not care, and he couldn’t save himself. Mother was also surely dead by then. All he had to look forward to was death, and maybe he'd see her again.
After three months of not saying a word, Corvo’s threats and fury grew worse. As punishment for still refusing to speak, the whole camp was permitted to use Aurelius one night while Corvo watched.
He further retreated into himself while an endless line of men used him.
Since he still refused to speak, and he wouldn't gild anything, Corvo started cutting him to drink his blood.
“If you won’t do it, I’ll get this from you somehow,” he said with the usual feverish glint in his eyes as he wiped the blood from his mouth one evening. “I'll drink the power from you bit by bit until I can do it myself.”
Aurelius said nothing.
“You know what? You’re selfish, and you’ve disappointed me. I wouldn’t hurt you at all if you simply gilded shit when you're fucking asked. You're a source of limitless wealth, and it's of no difficulty to you, yet you still refuse.”
Aurelius, lying in the cart, stared at the ceiling as his forearm stung. A lantern on the edge of the open cart lit the bleak space, and Corvo’s shadow was monstrous on the boards.
Aurelius was selfish? He only wanted to die. Was that too much to ask when his life held nothing else?
“If the men had their way, they’d fuck you every night and leave you to bleed on the ground. I heal you. I feed you. You get to cum damn near every night, and I don’t leave you with a torn ass afterward. I take care of you, and you still refuse and think you’re so clever with your silent treatment. I know you’re in there.” Corvo brushed his sealed eyelid. “What if King David orders your other eye to be taken as punishment? I never do anything so cruel, but you keep refusing. I'm supposed to keep you in one piece, but what if he changes his mind? He might even demand that the sealed one be cut open and left like that. Do you want two, gaping holes in your face?”
If they found the key, so be it. Aurelius didn’t care anymore. Once Corvo healed his arm and left, Aurelius would stare at the dark and be nothing. It was easier that way.
