The Eating Woods, #2
Eldritch
by Keri Lake
Contents
Chapter 20
Overview
In a past timeline, General Loyce takes custody of chained Zevander and subjects him to calculated humiliation and sexual coercion in a lavish bathhouse. When Zevander defies her, soldiers choke and submerge him until he submits to darkness. This episode crystallizes Loyce’s predation and deepens the origins of Zevander’s trauma and rage.
Summary
In the past, Zevander is led in chains by Warden Vicarek into an opulent, sun-baked chamber resembling an observatory. Young, scantily clad attendants lounge around a central bath beneath explicit murals. General Loyce arrives without armor, appraises Zevander like property, and orders him bathed and groomed, disgusted by his scar but impressed by his strength.
When Zevander questions her, Loyce answers with a blade at his throat and commands Zephromyte soldiers to strip him. Zevander fights, but a metal neck clamp on poles crushes his windpipe, forcing compliance. Displayed and bound to a hook over the sunken bath, he is submerged on a bench while attendants begin to wash him.
Loyce turns the bath into ritualized domination. She instructs the women to touch Zevander, mocks his involuntary arousal, and cuts his thigh when he resists. Threatening the incinerator for the sick, she demands his seed; Zevander declares he prefers death. Intrigued, she escalates the cruelty.
On her order, the soldiers tighten the cuff and push Zevander’s head below the surface. Starved of air, he thrashes until a stranger’s voice urges surrender to the darkness. Zevander stops fighting and lets oblivion close in, the scene fixing the depth of Loyce’s predation and the formative violence shaping his hatred.
Who Appears
- ZevanderPrisoner taken to a luxurious bathhouse; humiliated, assaulted, and nearly drowned by Loyce.
- General LoyceSadistic commander who claims Zevander, orchestrates his degradation, and orders his near-drowning.
- Warden VicarekDelivers Zevander to Loyce, sneers, and departs, predicting Zevander won’t survive a year.
- Zephromyte soldiersHeavily muscled guards who subdue, strip, clamp, and hold Zevander underwater.
- Blonde attendantsYoung women ordered to bathe and sexually touch Zevander under Loyce’s command.