Return to Sender

They wasted no time asserting their authority. They took me directly to the cracking chair, stripped me of my clothing, and strapped me into the device, a giant spoon on either side of my head.

"Why is there a mirror on the ceiling?" I asked.

"Ask someone sane." Nurse de Rollo replied. "My answer is because the doctor wants one there."

It wasn't comforting, to see the apparatus, knowing that heads literally as hard as rocks had been broken open by the slow turning of levers.

My head was not shaped like those of the dwarves; the device pinched the sides of my snout. It pinched the gums and pressed upon teeth. I could taste blood, even if I could not feel it.

"Dame Doctor?" Nurse Shondru called from the doorway. "The patient is secure, doctor."

She took less than a minute, but I knew this because of a system clock warning me about damages I would take if I remained in the position I was.