As soon as we were through, I found a quiet place and gave Hayek another dose of the paralytic agent. With that taken care of, we pressed on, using the drones to avoid larger groups of patrolling guards. Once again, I marveled at the difference in cleanliness between the three rings. In the Noble Ring, I didn’t see a single beggar or piece of trash on the streets, while in the Commoner Ring, such sights were part of daily life.
Luckily, we were able to get to Venari’s residence without any further incident. Looking around, the estate’s sentries ushered me in and out of sight.
“I hope that your return indicates good tidings?” the butler asked politely when the mansion doors closed behind us with a solid click. In the back of my mind, I wondered how a man who appeared to be in his mid 60s could open and close the large doors with such ease.
“Have a look,” I smirked, ignoring the thought for the time being. With a mental order, the Enforcers dropped and unrolled the mound of fabric. Hayek, while still fully conscious, was unable to move in the slightest, not even to stop the line of drool leaking from the side of his mouth. The sight reminded me of when I was taken from my father, and I unconsciously clenched my fist.
“Lady Stratis has been informed of your success. Please bring him to the library, if you would be so kind. Allow me to lead the way.”
The soft carpet muffled our footsteps as Hayek was dragged to the library. Remembering how easily he moved the doors, I started paying more attention to the butler. His movements were fluid and light, and he had the grace of an experienced fighter.
As we passed an intersection of hallways, another servant came running through, holding a tray of glassware. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw us, and he tried desperately to avoid running into the butler, tripping himself up in the process. “Woah!” he exclaimed with panic clear on his face.
With reactions quick as lightning, the butler caught the falling servant in one arm while stabilizing the tray of glassware with the other. I was about to bring his attention to a cup that had fallen off of the edge of the dray, but my voice died in my throat when I realized he had caught it on the tip of this leather shoe.
“I am so, so sorry, sir,” the servant apologized profusely, stacking the glassware back onto the tray. With a quick kick, the butler sent the cup flying into the air, where he effortlessly caught it.
“Please, do be more careful in the future,” he lightly reprimanded the servant, handing the cup back to him. Noticing that the servant’s clothing was ruffled, he tugged at the bottom of his vest to straighten it out. “There we go. All better now.”
“Of course. Thank you sir,” the servant muttered before scurrying off.
“Fast reactions,” I commented with a raised eyebrow. The butler’s only response was a mysterious smile and a slight readjustment of his clothes.
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“Woah…”
I was awestruck with the extent of Venari’s library. Circular bookshelves stretched upwards, supporting the glass ceiling overhead that let in plenty of sunlight. The walls were lined with not only spaces for more books, but also honeycomb-shaped cubicles where yellowed scrolls and manuscripts were placed. Each area was neatly labeled by subject, such as history, the Laws, mathematics, and the scientific arts.
“Lady Stratis has always placed an emphasis on collecting knowledge. In fact, when she was just a child, I would often find her in her family’s library late at night, reading by candlelight,” the butler commented, almost like a tour guide.
“Hngggg…” Hayek groaned, breaking me out of my reverie. Remembering the purpose of my visit, I continued following the butler to the back corner of the library.
Venari sat on an expansive table, her head obscured by a tower of books. Even from a distance, I could hear the distinctive scratching sound of a quill on paper. The butler cleared his throat, drawing her attention to us.
“What is it, Gaius?” she asked, materializing an orb of water to wash off the ink that had accumulated on her hands. Even though the display isn't something particularly grand or striking, I still marveled at the sight, realizing how much I still had to learn about the Laws of the world.
“Your hired help has returned with his prey.”
With a mental order, the Enforcer dragging Hayek dumped him unceremoniously on the hardwood floor. Seeing him, Venari’s gaze hardened instantly.
“What’s wrong with him?” she inquired, noting his limp body. “He’s not dead, is he?”
“Nope. I just injected him with a little something to make him easier to transport. It should wear off in about half an hour, so you can question him then.”
“No need. Put him there,” she jerked her chin at an empty chair. The Enforcer looked at me, as if it were looking for permission. I gave a barely perceptible nod, so it picked Hayek up and placed him in the chair.
Venari made a circular motion with her finger, causing bands of water to spring up and tighten around him. Although they looked thin, I suspected that they would be difficult to break.
Stolen story; please report.
“Now, let’s get down to business. You may begin, Gaius. No need to be gentle.”
“Of course, my lady,” Gaius said, placing his hand on Hayek’s head. Venari looked at me and made a shushing motion as her butler closed his eyes. I waited patiently for something to happen, but I wasn’t prepared for the horrifying screech of pain Hayek let out. His limbs flailed wildly, but his restraints kept him in place.
“How is he moving?!?! Isn’t the drug still in effect?”
“[I do not know.]”
I looked at Venari to see her reaction to the disturbing scene, but I didn’t see any sympathy in her gaze. Looking back at Hayek, I noticed that his clothing was drenched in sweat. The only time the screams paused was when he took several rapid, shallow breaths before starting again. Even though I had killed many people before, none of them had suffered like this before their deaths. The spectacle continued for a couple minutes, and the indecisiveness in me finally broke.
“That’s enough!” I shouted, running forward and shoving the butler away from Hayek. Gaius blinked several times, yet his eyes remained slightly unfocused.
“What are you doing?!?” Venari demanded angrily.
“You’re just torturing the guy!”
“Wrong. We are extracting information.”
“How is this ‘extracting information’?” I replied, outraged.
“Gaius here,” she gestured at the butler, “Is a mage of the Law of the Mind. Before you so rudely interrupted him, he was taking the information we needed directly from his mind.”
“What?” I muttered in confusion. “But isn’t…isn’t there a less painful way to do it?”
Venari marched over and leaned in closely. “I don’t know where you’re from, sir, but you will learn that this is a ruthless world. This man tried to kill someone I care about, so frankly, I do not care about the suffering he is enduring right now. This is the price he will pay.”
“Well I happen to be against torture,” I responded angrily. The face of the mage I had abducted and later killed flashed before my eyes, and I felt a pang of guilt in my heart.
“Justify it all I want, I have committed some deplorable acts since getting here. I need to be better…”
“[That attitude may get you killed.]”
“Oh, trust me, I’ll do whatever I need to do to survive. But I won’t stand by when this kind of needless cruelty is happening right in front of me.”
“Look,” I relented, “I have a way to get the information you need without causing him this much pain. Just wait a little bit for the effects of the drug I gave him to wear off, and I can start. Does that sound like a fair compromise?”
Venari hesitated for a moment. “Fine. But I want to verify the effectiveness of your methods while we wait..”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I’ll tell you a story from my childhood. Occasionally, I will lie about certain parts of it. If you are able to tell when I am lying, we will use your method.”
“Sounds fair.”
Venari grabbed a chair and sat down, crossing one leg over the other. Looking around, I had an enforcer bring me one as well. “Let’s see, where shall I begin…” she said under her breath.
“I’m gonna have to leave this one to you, Eve.”
“[Understood. Analyzing tone and facial expression.]”
Using her advanced analyzation capabilities, as long as she was focused, Eve could identify the small changes in others expressions and voice to tell if they were being truthful or not. Even minute details such as the rate at which they breathed, or how often they blinked were taken into account.
Venari took a deep breath before she began. “When I was a young girl, I went on a hunting trip with my family. My father was quite the active trophy hunter in his younger years, and his trophies are still mounted in his office. Anyway, we were led deep into the heart of a forest near the Akatosian border called the Boartusk Woods. We set up camp near a natural spring on the border of the forest. My mother stayed behind with her guards while my father, brother, and myself rode into the woods with a small entourage of soldiers for protection. The Boartusk Woods, as you may guess, were infamous for their monster boars. My father was hoping to kill and eat one to increase his strength,” she recalled with a faraway look in her eyes. “Unfortunately for him, his wish was granted. We had tracked a boar to his den, but we had underestimated its cunning. It knew it had been followed, and while we prepared to set a trap, it charged from behind and decimated our men. I had been placed the furthest in the back for safety, and my horse ended up taking the brunt of the attack. I was launched off and tumbled down the side of the mountain, collecting scratches and cuts as I went. By the time I stopped, I was lying on the edge of a small stream. I learned that day that monsters are sensitive to the scent of blood, because within a minute, another boar showed up. Armed with only a dagger, I attacked the boar, but it was too strong for me. It charged at me and tossed me into the stream, cutting my arm as it did so. I could see in its eyes that it thought it had won, but as it approached, I felt my vitae inside me for the first time. I used it to make a bolt of water, and shot it right through its skull. That was how I killed a monster for the first time,” she finished. “Now, what did I lie about?” she asked, leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees.
“Hmm…” I chewed on my lip.
“Eve?”
“[The following parts of the story have a 98.72% chance of being false…]”
“Lets see here, your mother didn’t stay behind with her guards, you weren’t placed in the back, and it wasn’t a boar that you killed,” I said, ticking each point off my fingers as I counted them off. “That about right?”
“Impressive,” she raised her eyebrow. “You would be correct. My mother abhorred my father’s hunting trips so she never accompanied us. The boar actually charged from the side, where I just so happened to be.”
“And the last one?” I questioned. “What kind of monster did you kill?”
“Well,” she smiled ruefully, “It wasn’t actually a monster. It was a bear that was close to evolving into a monster.”
I stared at her in stunned silence. “You killed a bear? How old were you?”
“I was 9 years old.”