As Honey snuck across the rooftop, she quickly saw that the city was in upheaval. The streets were swarmed with all manner of guards and knights.

She knew that she had been more than lucky so far. She had just reached the rooftop at the back of the alley when she heard the old paladin rushing back to see the toppled boxes and trash. She had just managed to flatten herself behind the flat-topped roof's edge in time to not be seen by the domineering paladin.

Honey had spent the last few hours slowly making her way to the next building's roof, only to notice the havoc below.

The streets were impassable to her now, and all she could do was wait.

And wait she did. Night fell, and the forest capital city darkened under the thick canopy of leaves. This would play to her benefit and allow her easier travel, jumping from shadow to shadow. The downtime had allowed her to rest and recover her stamina, but did nothing for her mental fatigue. With the streets crawling with a policing force that would certainly kill her on sight, she had been on edge for the entire day.

The by the end of the day, she was mentally exhausted. She hadn't expected her charm magic to fail so utterly against the royal paladin. And when her old-fashioned wits and intimidation had succeeded, when by all rights it shouldn't have, she almost didn't react in time. Now that she had hidden for most of the day, she knew that if she didn't move now, she wouldn't get another attempt at escaping.

She edged herself close to the lip of the roof she was on, and scanned the street below.

It appeared all clear, but alarm bells were going off in her mind. This wasn't a spell or ability, just a well-trained instinct and a healthy dose of paranoia.

She had stretched her luck at her initial escape, and waiting here on the roof was not going to increase her odds of survival. If she stayed here, they would check the roofs eventually. Better to go now, while she wasn't over-tired from remaining awake and on alert all night.

Honey slipped off the top of the two-story building, and slowly lowered herself on to the balcony below.

The room behind her was unlit, but her eyes could see perfectly in the dark. Normal elves could only see by a dim light as well as she could in the dark. This fact made it all the more alarming that when she turned to look in from the open balcony, she saw a dark figure with a piercing glare looking directly at her.

It suddenly dawned on her why she wasn't found immediately after hiding, and why the knights and old paladin had come to Tylin's aid so quickly. The building she was on top of; The one next to the dead end of the alley she was cornered in; Was an infamous guard post, and interrogation facility. The man in which her gaze was now locked with, was none other than the chief interrogator, a Dark Elf by the name Machais.

Machais was known for his brutal and effective torch-... Interrogation techniques. He was not looked upon favorable in the city, but that led to even more effective information gathering. Most criminals repented at the mention of him, and never even needed to see him to coax a confession.

"Umm... this isn't what it looks like." Honey tried.

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Machais sighed and gestured to the room behind him. "By all means, come on in and explain." The Dark Elf had a tired look on his face and a slouched posture.

Honey pushed past the sheer curtains and walked in to what looked like a lavish office. She quickly made herself at home in an over stuffed chair next to an open bottle of wine and an open romance book on the end table. Her amused smile at the book did not go unnoticed by her host.

"So tell me, little mouse, why have you snuck into the viper's lair?" The Dark Elf walked with an unnatural grace and appeared just as poised and deadly resting on the lip of his desk than if he were to be holding a rapier to her throat.

"I... This is all a misunderstanding. I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't know anything about any assassination!" Honey blurted out in a rush. She was about to try to think up a plausible lie, when all her words just spilled out.

"Who said anything about an assassination?" The dark elf grinned with an evil sneer.

Honey thought fast, trying to come up with a way to tell the truth in a way that put her in the best light, when her mouth started moving again against her better judgment. "Gods-Forsaken-Tylin Told me!"

Confusion splashed across Machais' face for the first time. "How do you know Tylin?"

This time, Honey didn't even try to stop herself. "Everyone knows some guy named Tylin! They're all snot-nosed, winy, pricks! Tell me right now that you have ever met a guy named Tylin, that didn't match that description!" Fuming mad, Honey let out a huff.

"That doesn't seem fair. There has to be plenty of people named Tylin that are perfectly fine." Machais seemed more confused than concerned at this point. "But, what does this have to do with the assassination?"

"I don't know. Some idiot named Tylin tried to arrest me in an alleyway for being an assassin out of nowhere. I barely got out alive!"

"Wait. You're the rogue with the poisoned soup from the Alley? The one that cast some sort of vanish spell and caused the Apprentice Paladin of Sarinday to piss himself on his first day out of training? And you've been, what, hiding on the roof next to the alley this entire time? The roof of the Interrogation building? While everyone in the city has been out looking for the rogue that assassinated the prince? Looking everywhere, but on top of the jail they were going to bring them to?"

Honey clamped her mouth shut. She had quite enough of all this compelled truth malarkey. Her taunt lip's and cold stair only seemed to make the situation worse as the Evil looking torturer shifted from a look of consternation to out-right laughter.

"That is the funniest thing I've heard since this afternoon when I was told that, that insufferable prick apprentice pissed himself in front of the Knight Commander!" Honey wasn't sure if Machais looked more evil crying tears of laughter, or less. "Elder Richard is going to murder me when I tell him that the rogue that got away from him was just sitting on the roof this entire time!" Once Honey caught a glimpse of his smile, showing Machais' pearly white teeth contrasting his pitch black skin, she started leaning towards 'more evil'.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Honey protested. "All I did was trick an evil old lady into volunteering at a soup kitchen!" Honey slapped her hand over her mouth at that last part.

Machais' eyebrows shot up at that. "That is a story I would very much like to hear! Don't worry about proving your innocence, there is a truth field in my office. Although, I've never seen anyone resist it as well as you have." Machais gave an askance brow raise, then moved along the conversation, "I'm sure with this compelled truth interrogation and a quick mental scan, I could vouch for your innocence."

Honey pressed her back deeper into her chair as Machais stepped forward with an outstretched hand and worming fingers. His cold eyes and creepy smile had her instincts fighting to have her escape, but her body betrayed her as a sudden influx of magic froze her to the seat.

When Machais' hand made contact with her forehead, she could feel his magic washing over her. In a last ditch attempt, she threw all the horrifying and corrupt imagery she could muster at his forced mental link.

His concentration didn't waver in the slightest.

As Honey's eyes went unfocused, and she started to lose consciousness, the last thing she could make out, was a wide, toothy smile spreading across Machais' face.

"Gods Forsaken Tylin" was all that she could think to mutter as her mind faded to black.