There was nothing quite like the feeling of laying down after receiving so many injuries. Their bodies were throbbing. Their vision was hazy. But, they knew that it was over, and that was enough to feel a hint of joy. The healing stone working its magic helped too of course. Healing stones are very useful when it comes to closing wounds, but the one thing they cannot do is replace the blood you have lost. Violet was feeling better now that her laceration was closing, but she would need a lot of rest to fully replenish her vigor. Another thing that healing stones cannot do, which Kenrich was just now beginning to realize, was regrow your teeth. Kenrich felt his tongue over the empty space that once contained one of his incisors and pushed out a pained chuckle. Sometimes when bad things happen, all you can do is laugh. There were so many questions that they both had, but the fact was, they were finally going to get some answers.
The two masked attackers who had been frozen were still stuck in place and as far as they knew, they would stay that way until touched again while holding the freeze stone. This is why they felt enough safety to catch their breath and tend to their wounds. They both knew that they could not leave these masked men alive, which is something Kenrich tried to push out of his mind, while Violet, on the other hand, felt nothing of ending their lives, especially since they did everything in their power to end theirs. Their next move was simple. They would tie up the masked men and get the information they wanted out of them. Who are you? Why are you hunting us? (They were pretty sure of the answer to that). And a follow up, what do you plan to do with the ring? Violet was sure they would think of more questions as the interrogation went, but this was a good starting point in her mind. After around ten minutes of lying on the ground, Violet’s wound was fully closed, and she was able to get back onto her feet. Kenrich was already sitting up at this point. He looked over at Violet.
“Are you okay to stand?” he asked her.
“It’s going to take a lot more than a hole in my stomach to keep me down. How about you? Can you stand?” Kenrich nodded and got to his feet with a wobble. “That was nice work, Ken. You passed your exam.”
“Fuck the exam! How did they find us?”
“Calm down. We’ll get our answers here, shortly. I’m not at full strength yet, so help me tie these two up.”
Kenrich tied the two masked men up and fastened them around a sturdy looking tree they found with Violet’s instructions. Thanks to the freeze stone, they were able to manipulate their bodies easily and disarm them of all of their weapons and gems, rendering them powerless to both escape and fight back.
“Did you double-knot it?” Violet asked. Kenrich nodded.
“I don’t think they’ll be going anywhere,” he said. “We’re not going to…torture them, are we?”
“We’ll do what we have to in order to get the info we need. You can wait by Atlas if you want.”
“No, no. We’re in this together. I’ll help.”
“Just remember that they would do this to us in a heartbeat. They might try to make you pity them, but we can’t, and we won’t. They die here.”
“O-okay…”
“I’m going to unfreeze them now.”
Violet gripped the black stone that had won them the battle and touched each of the masked men lightly on their shoulders. They rustled a bit then fixed their gazes on their captors. Kenrich looked especially nervous, while Violet had intense hate and bloodlust in her eyes.
“Good morning, sleeping beauties! We have a lot of questions for you! And you’re gonna answer them all for us, okay?” Violet said in a cute voice that slightly disturbed Kenrich.
They sat there motionless, waiting for Violet to make her first move. She walked over to the masked men and grabbed a hold of each of their masks. She ripped them both off easily and exposed a sight that Kenrich wished he had not seen.
The masked attacker on the left was a young woman. She had a small scar on her cheek and her brown hair was cut very short. She looked no older than eighteen, which Kenrich hated. The attacker on the right was an older man. He had short black hair and many scars on his face. He looked like the dictionary definition of a hardened war veteran. Each scar almost certainly had a story behind it.
“Now we can talk face-to-face,” Violet said. “Here’s the deal, we want to know who you are, and how you found us, okay? Tell us now, or your deaths will be slow and painful.”
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“W-we ain’t tellin’ you nothin’!” the young woman said.
“Calm down, Iris,” the older man said. “Let me handle this.” The older man looked at the young woman with genuine affection in his eyes. The kind you see a father give to his daughter. “Miss, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know. All I ask is that you let her go. You can take all of our weapons, all of our gems, and I promise on my honor that she will leave and will not be a threat to you anymore.”
“H-hey! What’s the big idea?! You can’t just go deciding that for yourself, Alfie! We’ll make it out of this somehow!” the young woman said.
“Quiet, Iris. Just let me handle this…please.”
“I’m going to make this really simple for you two,” Violet said. “Tell us everything we want to know, and you’ll die painless deaths. That is the most you will get from us. You came out here and tried to kill us. Giving you a quick death is more than you deserve.”
“I know,” the man said. “And I am fully to blame as their commanding officer, but she was only following orders. She did not choose to join the Coalition of the Full Moon. It was forced upon her. Please…have mercy. I won’t ask for any for myself. Only for her. She’s too young to throw her life away like this. I’m begging you.”
“If you truly believed that you wouldn’t have had her out here trying to assassinate us. You did answer our first question though, so you’re both much closer to earning a painless death. What is this Coalition of the Full Moon? What’s its purpose?” Violet asked.
“I’ll tell you everything, I promise. Just let her go…please.”
Kenrich could not stand to look at them. Seeing the man begging for that young woman’s life was too much for him to handle. Violet had said to not pity them, but he could not help it. Even though he knew that he was the man who had broken his teeth, and she the girl who was toying with an injured Violet. Human emotion is a tough thing to kick without enough experience. Violet had a lot of that experience, but Kenrich only had a little, with most of it coming during this journey.
“You know I can’t do that,” Violet said. “Just accept your deaths with honor like true warriors. I’d advise that you start with answering the questions sooner rather than later if you want to meet your loved ones in one piece.”
Kenrich knew that what they were doing was for the greater good, but he could not help but feel like a villain in this moment. All he could think about was how glad he had been that the masked man that he exploded into bloody chunks never showed him their face.
“Please…She is only a child,” the man pleaded.
“A child that seemed to have a lot of fun with me while I was bleeding out back there. Enough begging. This is your last warning. Answer our questions, or else-” Violet brandished her dagger in one hand while using a flame stone to ignite the end of her fingertip with the other.
“I-I’m sorry, Iris. This is the end of the line for us. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise. Do we have your word that our deaths will be painless?”
“I’m very well trained. I promise you won’t feel anything,” Violet said.
“A-are you giving up, Alfie?! We always manage to make it out! W-we just need to come up with a plan!” Iris said. Her voice was shaking.
“They have us, Iris. I’m sorry. Just close your eyes and think of home. I’ll tell them what they want to know.”
Iris let out a small, wet snort and tears started to run down her face. She closed her eyes.
“The Coalition of the Full Moon is a secret organization that has been around for hundreds of years,” the man started. “It has never been under the control of any nation’s government and has members spread out through all of Nebulan. Its only purpose has been to usurp the governments of each nation in order to unite the world under one flag. This world is broken. War rages in every corner of the globe and every nation cares only for their own ends. This division will keep taking lives, destroying families, and creating orphans until the end of time until real stability manages to bind everyone together. The coalition was made for that exact purpose. Our founder has a lot of skilled warriors and powerful gems under her control and her connections are far reaching. Information is power, and information within the coalition is spread quickly.”
“What does this have to do with us, though?” Violet asked.
“I’m sure you have some idea. That ring you two are hiding, it’s much too powerful to just keep under your control while parading around the land. If any nation comes into possession of that ring…it would be calamitous. The power to undo death with no consequences…no one nation should hold such power. That’s why the coalition needs it! To keep it out of the wrong hands!”
“You say that like you are ‘the right hands’,” Violet retorted. “You all just go out and indiscriminately kill people who you see as in your way! You trashed that gem shop back in Fril! You killed me! And I’m sure you’ve killed a lot of innocent people along your journey for ‘unity’. Don’t make me fucking laugh, trying to act so noble!”
“Do you really think you can keep the ring safe on your own! It’s only a matter of time before the Admian military captures you! Hell, they probably wouldn’t even do that! They’d just kill you both on sight!”
“Sounds like you two aren’t too different after all then,” Violet said. “Enough stalling. Tell us more about the ring. It’s plain to see that you know much more about it than us.”