Emerge: The Captive: (Book 3)(77)

“Relax, Sasha. You have a collapsed lung. It will heal on its own in a few hours.”

Sasha closed her eyes and focused on her right lung, imagining it expanding and contracting, giving her the oxygen she needed while her left lung recovered. The sensation of not getting enough air soon passed.

“The final marma located in the foot is the kurchashira.” His thumb found the center point just above her heel at the base of her arch. The pressure of his thumb made her uncomfortable.

“Are you ready, Sasha? This will cause muscle spasms along the sciatic nerve.”

“Do it.”

He held her foot steady and brought his thumb down on the sensitive spot. Sasha felt something pop as heat spread up her leg, causing her muscles to spasm from her calf to her hip.

The pain chased all sense from her mind as she twisted her body, bringing her left foot up in a swift kick to his temple. But Jayesh caught her foot before she could strike him.

Sasha curled in on herself as her right leg spasmed out of control.

“Breathe.” Jayesh applied small amounts of pressure to the kurchashira point until the nerve began to relax and the warmth receded. “Better?”

“Yes.” She nodded, wiping the sweat from her brow as she lay on the ground, panting.

“You tried to kick me.” He looked down at her with an amused smile.

“I meant to. It’s really annoying the way you always seem to be one step ahead of me.”

“Five steps, actually.”

“Your gift?” she asked. She’d often wondered if he had some talent for seeing ahead.

“Only in battle. I’m always five steps ahead of everyone else. It makes me the best at what I do.”

“And what is that, exactly?”

“International man of mystery.” He winked.

“You’ve watched one too many spy movies.”

“We’ll do one more pressure point today, and then tomorrow you will perform each of these marmas on me to exact your revenge.”

“This wasn’t so bad,” Sasha said as Jayesh stood, offering her his hand. “It wasn’t a picnic at the mangrove forest, but it wasn’t awful.”

“We will always begin slowly, never taking it beyond what you can bear. For today, I simply want you to get a feel for how these vital pressure points can affect the body. It is not meant to give you pain for the sake of suffering, but so that you may understand better how the body functions and can use it to your advantage when it becomes necessary to protect yourself. Marmas should only be used in self-defense and only when our opponent gives us no other choice. A Chola assassin will always seek to kill quickly and mercifully with the blade first, but when all else fails, we use the lethal marmas with precision.”

Sasha brushed the grass from her tunic and her hair. Her breath still uneasy. She was a bit of a mess from just these first four marmas.

And only a hundred and four left to go.

“Stand opposite me,” Jayesh said, moving to face her. “I will strike you here.” He pointed to the soft place just behind her ear. “The vidhuram.”

She barely felt it when he brought the fleshy side of his palm down against the spot behind her ear. The instant he struck her, her chin lolled against her chest and she could no longer move her head.

“I’ve paralyzed the muscles used to support your head.” He reached behind her to massage the area, bringing it back to life until she could finally lift her head again. “Good job today. That wasn’t so bad.”

“At this rate, we’ll be here for months. Isn’t there a crash course where we could blow through all these in a week? Just to get it done?”

“No. Marma manipulation is an art form and it takes time to master. This will not be easy, Sasha. I’m going to have to kill you. Many times. And recovery will take time, given your age.”

“I hear a ‘but’ coming.”

“But when it is over, your training will be nearly complete.”

“I thought this was it. Once verumkai is done, we’re out of here.”

“Once this is behind us, you will be even more profoundly altered than you are now. You will need time before you can return to your old life. Before either of us can go back to the real world. The final stage of kalaripayattu will be a time of healing. A way of coming to terms with who you are now. Our training is brutal and it can break something inside of you. Before the mother will release you, she needs to know you are healing up here.” He brushed his palm across her temple.

“So after you all have made me kill my family, kill myself and pushed me so hard I no longer recognize myself, you want to put me back together again?”

“It is the only way you will come full circle.”

“I know, but it’s absurd. Tear me down to the studs only to build me back up again.”

“Absurd? This is a chance to truly see yourself for who you are. You came to terms with that during ankathari. You have the chance to walk out of here a stronger, much more capable version of the lost, mouthy little girl who arrived here all those months ago. Don’t be like me, angel. Don’t waste this opportunity by not learning anything. I would hate to see you miss the true point.”

~~~

Jayesh did his best to teach her slowly, letting Sasha experience several new marmas each day. They always began with something mild, like a momentary loss of hearing, followed by something more painful that usually involved some sort of muscle spasm. He could touch her wrist and give her seizure-like convulsions. To give her a break from anything painful, Jay would desensitize her by activating the apastambha point just below her breastbone. The respite was brief, but it helped her through the worst moments.