Red Feline was left alone to spend the night? day? She wasn't going to find out because the darkness in the dungeon was not as dark as her night. She remained unconscious, perhaps a relief, for quite a while.

She was both a witness and a participant of another event. She could see from the distance how Piroska's body was lowered from her cross and as her body reached the ground, she also felt the relief on her arms, even if they were still attached to the timber.

For a moment there was complete silence, everyone was looking at the naked body on the ground. The soldiers stood silent, waiting for instructions. Piroska's aunt was sobbing uncontrollably. The voice of the Governor crossed Red Feline's ears as if he was speaking to her.

"Take her to the dungeon and place her in the Fosa!", he ordered "So the insects and rats can eat her body.".

The soldiers grabbed the timber to drag her away when Piroska let out a moan, revealing to all that she was still alive. "Wait!", the Governor yelled. "She lives!".

Red Feline felt a hand grabbing her hair and was back in the dark room where the Man in Black unceremoniously lifted her head and dropped it.

Red Feline, absorbed as she was with the fate of her alter ego, the young slave, hadn't heard the ominous steps of her torturer who returned to continue his work, because, for him, that's what it was, work.

He checked to see if she was still breathing. She was resilient as she was stubborn and courageous. Red Feline knew those thoughts as she knew what the Governor thought of Piroska who moved her head and opened her eyes to see the sky above and the soldier looking down. She heard the Governor as he ordered again. "Take her to the dungeon and you...", he turned to Piroska's aunt, "...you keep her from dying today...but only today". Saying this, he walked away as the soldiers dragged Piroska, followed by the crying aunt.

Red Feline felt the pull on Piroska's arms as her own arms were pulled up.

The Man in Black pulled the horse from under Red Feline, pressing it against her wounded flesh. She reacted momentarily by pulling herself up, more an instinct than anything else. She could still gather some strength.

Slowly, she felt herself being pulled away from Piroska's body as she was painfully dragged to the Fosa. As she left the yard, she passed through a path that led to an entrance and some steps into what before was a large cave.

The merging of these worlds in Red Feline's mind was not a strange event for her. She often exchanged fantasies in her head, playing with them, making them interact. It was especially true when she was in physical distress, as when she hung from her tree.

She was familiar with the young slave and that cross where she had been lashed, she knew the horse where she sat all this time, under the whip. She knew them well, she had fantasized often about them and she was curious to know why it was all becoming so real. Had she finally lost her mind?

As the wooden horse was pulled away, a sudden relief came over Red Feline, followed by a sharp pain on her labial lips where blood returned to a normal flow. She let out a soft moan.The wood forced her legs to open wide, and as it was pulled, splinters and wires scratched her legs as the torturer finally dismounted her from the horse. She felt her weight pulling her arms, her wrists.

Her body twisted slowly in the air. She was feeling her body while, at the same time, feeling Piroska's body dragged into a large cell inside the enormous cave, slowly recovering her consciousness and the feeling in her body.

The soldiers dragged the young slave inside a cell and placed her in the center of it, face-up, her wrists still attached to the timber. One soldier pulled Piroska's aunt into the cell. "What do you need?", he asked. "Water,", she replied, "and a bag of healing herbs I have in my room, you can ask one of my apprentices for it and bring it quickly, please.". The woman sat by the side of the tortured slave and tried to release her wrists from her bonds. She couldn't.

Red Feline looked down at the body of the young slave for a brief moment. It was her own body she was seeing, still hanging in the dark room.

Piroska looked up from her unconscious state and saw her aunt over her, crying softly, while at the same time the body of Red Feline, hanging from her wrists, twisting in mid air, and beyond, her own body resting on the ground of the cell.

"Cut the rope.", her aunt requested from the soldier, "I can't help her like this.". The soldier cut the ropes that held Piroska's thin wrists. Large incisions were uncovered by the ropes. They had cut deep, almost to the bone, the blood was dry by then but as the ropes were pulled away, some of the dried blood and skin were pulled away as well. Piroska bled again.

Her aunt ripped her own garments and began to wrap pieces of them around the bleeding wrists.

Piroska turned again to see Red Feline hanging in the dark room. Her feet almost touching the strange wooden floor, her arms stretched, her breast pierced by the long nail, her eyes close, her breathing low.

"Where did she suffer the most?", Red Feline asked herself. She didn't know.