Chapter 91: You Will Tell Us
There was a knock on the door, a voice Tom didn't recognize yelling from outside, “Breakfast is on, if you want any.”
“Coming,” Tom replied, stretching out lazily. His head didn’t feel too bad though it was definitely throbbing slightly, he felt a little sick too and he was quite thirsty. So nothing out of the ordinary. Noting the absence of snoring from his right, he poked at Jacky a bit, to try and see if she was awake.
“Tom?” the long drawn out reply came. “I feel like shit.” Short on ways to articulate ‘breakfast time,’ he just patted her on the side as he got up, hoping she would follow along eventually.
He only got on the essentials, leaving the armor off for the time being. He had to admit, he too felt rather stiff and sore. As he was doing up his boots he blinked a few times, his eyes messing with him and refusing to focus. All in all though, he was doing fairly okay. It was pretty clear the same couldn’t be said for Jacky, as she still laid sprawled across the mattress, buck nude and unmoving.
“I don’t want to go, everything hurts,” she protested, reaching for the blanket lazily, not even managing to grab it.
“Oh come on you lazy sod, can't be that bad,” Tom went as he grabbed her by the shoulder, rolling her over. She just flopped onto her back like a ragdoll whining loudly. “Please don’t dude, that hurt.” He picked up her arm, also not receiving any resistance, dangling it around a bit. He let go, watching it bounce off the mattress as she let out a distressed groan.
“You are a fucking mess arent you?” he questioned, giving her a light smack on the butt, as he started gathering up her clothes and laying them in the bed for her.
He picked up her crown, putting it on without much success. It was sort of on there but it was more laying on top of his head. Looking to Jacky she was at least looking at him now as he struck a pose for her, doing his best to look like a girly idiot. It did land him a chuckle from her as she slowly began moving. She winced as she sat up and began stretching everything that could be stretched right down to her toes.
Getting up, she scooped up his helmet and placed it on her head, even if the horns did kinda ruin the experiment. The tip of the helmet fell down in front of her eyes and made her look like an absolute idiot. “Look I’m the crazed killing machine. YAHHH, bang, bang, bang,” she went, doing the finger guns, pretending to be firing around the room, though she was still rather lacking in the enthusiasm department.
Tom really wanted to reply, shoulders sagging a bit at the thought that he couldn't. Jacky took off the helmet and continued doing stretches even if it was clear from all the wincing and slow movements that she was not enjoying it. “How can a night with you leave me in worse shape than the most insane battle I have ever taken part in?” She went with some annoyance in her tone.
Tom scratched the back of his neck, trying to look innocent, as he went about inspecting a very interesting wooden figurine on the window.
“Screw it, that was so worth it, it’s ridiculous. Now small steps Jacky,” she continued as she started to walk over to the washbasin. She looked truly ridiculous as she inched forwards bow legged. Tom eventually grew sorry for her, going over to lend a shoulder. “And of course you're completely fine. I don't like not being the awesome one you know that… and that’s mine,” she playfully protested, taking the crown and putting it on. “You are just a copper, remember?”
‘If only you knew how awesome you are, miss silvered huntress,’ Tom thought to himself with a smile as he helped her freshen up a bit and get into her clothes. After she had gotten ready and he got everything he didn't need sorted and stowed away they set off, making it just shy of the stairs.
“Oh this is gonna suck,” Jacky let out, stopping. Tom pondered the situation for a second before picking her up in a bride carry, going down the stairs with her as she slung her arms around his neck.
“...Just for today I will allow this,” she went, sounding more than a little sarcastic as they made it to the hall. Most of the people were well into their breakfast, though nearly all eyes turned to the two of them as they entered.
“Morning,” Tom let out, staring back at the mixed collection of faces. Some looked curious, others uncomfortable, one guy gave them a thumbs up and a smirking nod, and Jarix looked like he wanted to be somewhere else while also having several questions. ‘Oookay,’ Tom thought, screaming internally. He had guessed someone would have heard them. This was a lot worse than even he had thought; this was catastrophic.
Looking around, Zarko had her face buried in her food, sitting at the table closest to Jarix. Unkai looked away when Tom caught him staring. Going over, he deposited Jacky next to Zarko before getting some food for the two of them.
He came back with a plate of mostly smoked and salted meats with bread and some fairly nice smelling cheese. Jacky dug in with a voracious appetite, Tom joining her and trying to ignore the people who were staring.
Silence reigned at the table until Zarko elected to open the conversation, for once.
“So, feeling well-rested?” she questioned. Her expression perfectly plain as she continued eating.
“Yup, feeling much better. Weren't you supposed to be on the wing by now?” Tom replied, trying to seem nonchalant about it.
“Yes, but the lady overruled me, apparently her precious little huntresses need a good meal before such a flight,” she replied, seeming none too pleased as she scowled at the kind old lady before turning to Tom. "She still can’t hear us, right?”
“Nope. Deaf as can be sadly.”
“Excellent, let me give you a bit of advice: whatever you did to her, you might want to consider telling her to quiet down a bit… somehow,” Zarko continued, getting eye contact with him then looking Jackalope over, clearly thinking. “I wanna ask a favor.”
‘I do not like where this is going,’ Tom concluded, rather desperately looking around for a way out of this. Zarko clearly figured out where his mind had gone at that, her expression turning to one of disgust.
“No, you idiot. I want the most dangerous person I know to owe me a favor… In exchange for not letting a certain someone know what happened here, and embellishing some details.”
‘Godfucking dammit,’ Tom cursed to himself, looking at the now grinning second lieutenant. He did not like the prospect of what would happen if Zarko just started telling stories back at the keep. “What kind of favor are we talking?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I’ll think of something… eventually” Zarko replied, seeming very pleased with herself. ‘Oh god damn you,’ Tom cursed.
“Fine, don’t keep the deafness a secret though that’s just too obvious.”
“I won’t don’t you worry, but I gotta ask. What the hell did you do to her? More out of morbid curiosity than anything else.”
“And why would I tell you that?” Tom replied in an annoyed tone.
“Well I might be persuaded to keep those two from blabbing too loudly as well,” she replied, pointing at the two huntresses Tom suspected were gonna be joining her.
Looking around, it was clear the battle of this not being a topic was lost in advance. ‘Screw it, might as well have fun with it, Shiva is gonna try and kill me anyway,’ Tom mused to himself, looking to Zarko.
“Well, there is not much too it, I just rode her for all she was worth” Unkai nearly choked on his food at that.
“I think they heard us last night,” Jackalope tried to whisper as she leaned over to Tom, of course doing so loud enough that it wasn’t hard to hear for anyone at the table. Tom cracked a smile at that, trying to not laugh, nodding slowly while looking down. “Dammit, I even tried screaming into the pillow and everything,” she continued, looking around at the people staring. Tom wasn’t sure if she believed she was talking to herself or what. He gave her a little poke to the side, earning him a wince in response, “Please don’t, that still hurts.” Tom patted her on the back a bit to say sorry.
“I will try to keep her more quiet next time,” Tom promised as he looked to Unkai, who was sitting across from them. The healer damn near had his head below the edge of the table, looking extremely uncomfortable.
“For the record, I think whatever you two did was counter to my medical advice,” he peeped out after Tom stared at him for a bit.
“I was fairly gentle with her, I didn’t want to open up the wound on her back… You might need to take a look at that actually… She got a little... carried away.” If the dragonettes could blush, he was damn sure Unkai would be competing with Jarix for most blue individual right now, his ears completely flat against his neck.
“Sure thing.”
“That was gentle?!” Jarix finally broke out, looking at Tom with disbelief. “Do you know how you two sounded? I could hear everything godsdammit!” The dragon shuddering as he said that. Well, the few faces who hadn’t been giving them weird looks before sure as fuck were now.
Tom had to give it to the dragon, he hadn’t thought of that. “Sorry not sorry, I can try to make you some earplugs if you want, we can’t be the first ones you have heard,” he tried with a shrug. Jarix opened his mouth to speak thinking better of it.
“I would like that actually,” the dragon replied eventually, his expression rather ashamed as he looked away.
Looking back to Unkai, Tom asked the healer. “In your experience how bad it is when you people get hot… like you know, too hot?”
“I mean hot enough will kill you eventually, you faint long before that though.”
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“Just checking. Getting that hot a few times in a row, is that bad?”
Unkai gulped, as he stared at Tom. “I don’t think I would recommend it,” he finally went, sounding ready to bolt.
“Noted,” Tom replied, putting an arm around Jacky’s waist.
“How did you manage that? I mean you were going at it for a while, but you held breaks, we could hear that much. How did she get so hot so fast?” Zarko questioned.
'Were you standing outside the door or something?’ Tom cursed, debating whether the comeback to that was worth the possible fall out with Jacky. ‘Yeah sure, this ship has sailed,’ he concluded.
“Oh, those were when she fainted, or you know just locked up completely. Then she needed a bit of a cool down.” That finally got a reaction from the normally stoic Zarko, as she turned to look at him wide-eyed. Jarix’s jaw hung open looking like he just witnessed his parents having sex, and Unkai froze in place as if something just broken inside him.
“What did you just say?” Jackalope questioned looking to Tom, clearly picking up on all that. She did not sound entirely pleased either.
‘Right, that’s fair,’ Tom concluded to himself, getting out the notebook, pondering how to spin this. He couldn’t outright lie, and she definitely knew what the subject was currently.
“That you are the most awesome thing both in the sky and the bedroom,” Tom wrote down, feeling proud of himself, doing his best Fengi impersonation as he showed her, trying to look cute.
Jackalope looked at the notebook slightly skeptical for a second or two, eyes flicking between it and him. “I’m on to you,” she finally replied, going back to her food, Tom letting out a slight sigh of relief.
“More like on top of you,” he retorted, chuckling at his own joke.
“Oh god, Tom please,” Jarix protested, sounding more than done with this conversation.
“Come on, you’re eighty and a combat vet now. Deal with it,” Jarix just stared at him, looking distinctly unimpressed as Tom just leaned on Jacky with a shit-eating grin on his face and went about his food. Ironically enough though he was struggling a bit with his appetite, having stacked up a sizable plate. Jacky eventually nicked a few things from his plate, much to her delight.
__________________________________________________________________________________
The questioning of both the man and woman they had captured had proved fruitless. They hadn’t even gotten a name out of them. Eventually they had just given up, leaving the city guard to it.
Sapphire and Dakota had been given bunks to sleep in at the Stockade on account of Sergeant Lanok having grown a lot more confident since Victoria departed. He refused to let them leave. Even if they weren't really locked up, it was still pretty damn annoying, not to mention belittling. It was a fine enough place to get a few hours of sleep though.
Maiko had woken them up a while later, Sapphire blinking the sleep from her eyes. This was not enough sleep for a night. Judging by the sun outside the window it was very early morning. “That was quick,” Sapphire noted, rubbing her eyes.
“Well we have a job to do, and possibly people trying to outrun us. So let’s go, chop-chop,” Maiko replied, yanking the blanket of Sapphire. “Seriously?” Sapphire protested, looking up at the bemused corporal who just moved to Dakota and repeated the maneuver.
They got up, donning their armor, and collecting their things.
“Do you think she found some village crazy woman?” Sapphire questioned, glancing at the equally sleepy-looking Dakota.
“No idea, we better not be late though. Let’s get down there,” Dakota answered, getting to her feet. Sapphire noticed a slight smile on Maiko’s face as they made their way to the interrogation room. Both of the kidnappers had been brought in there, the city guard sergeant joining them shortly after they arrived. He was suddenly looking very nervous not saying a word as they waited.
It took a few minutes before a tall slim woman, clad in the Hashaw family uniform, stepped into the room. Victoria followed behind her flanked by a captain of the city guard.
“Meet Inquisitor Joelina Hashaw. She has agreed to assist us moving forward,” The Colonel went in a distinctly smug tone as Sergeant Lanok stared in awe.
“I agreed to interrogate your prisoner, Victoria, nothing more, I have work to do” the tall woman replied in an ice-cold tone. “And only because the Lady required it. Tie them down tight, suicide is not acceptable.”
“Oh fuck me,” the female kidnapper let out as they began strapping the two of them to their chairs with leather straps and rope. Sapphire had no clue how many inquisitors there were, but they were rare as could be, she knew that much. 'Yup, they're fucked,’ she concluded, not sure if she wanted to watch this.
“Before we start you should know, I will learn what I want to know, so you might as well make this easy. If you don’t I won’t be able to guarantee your safety. I’m sure you don’t want to end up a drooling mess. Of course, you could just tell us right away.”
“She’s joking, don’t tell her anything.. ahrg!” the male let out, thrashing at his restraints. As the inquisitor dug her claws into his skull and squeezed, the guy’s head snapped back to look her in the eyes, pupils wide. She was clearly concentrating, her eyes burning vivid green as she stared into the guy’s eyes and began speaking.
“Let’s see here. Oh stop thinking about your crush that won't help you, she’s not even pretty… Who sent you?... Hello. You look familiar, so you worked for Gyros then? Noted… You didn't question someone willing to pay that much for a kidnapping job? Good god, you’re an idiot. Yes, yes, you lost three friends. I don’t care. Where were you supposed to deliver him?... I see.” The inquisitor let him go with a dejected sigh, the guy’s head slumping over to the side, a distant expression on his eyes as he twitched a bit.
“Well that was disappointing, so little discipline,” she went, taking out a notebook. “His name is Hinato, he was contracted through a gentleman named Gyros, whom I know rather well, by an anonymous beneficiary. Their destination was an abandoned warehouse where they would hand off the target to said beneficiary. Here it is, they met there yesterday day to discuss things you're looking for a woman in a hooded dress, her face was covered” She continued, tearing out a page from her notebook and handing it to Victoria. “I say you hurry up and pray they are waiting confused that their shit mercenaries haven't shown up yet, and remember Victoria: favor for favor.”
“This is on my mother's orders, take it up with her,” Victoria responded, inspecting the piece of paper. “You know this would have been so much easier if you had woken up when I told you to.”
“I still have a day of work ahead of me, speaking of which, let's see what she knows.”
“No need, I’m fine to talk!” the woman let out, looking terrifiedly at the guy strapped down next to her. “I’m Thalrex. I have been with this company for 2 years. I was paid 63 silver for my share, which is the most I have ever been paid for a one night job. We were waiting outside the window for half the night, we were supposed to be back by sunrise and the guy who got away is called Hjortun, he’s a coward, I have a flying lizard named Skitters and I swear I don’t know anything else!” Sapphire was wondering whether a fresh set of undergarments would be necessary for the mercenary, but she certainly put on a convincing performance if she wasn't actually scared shitless.
“Were you the ones who tried to scare the shit out of us at the tavern a few nights ago?”
There was a bit of a pause before Thalrex answered. “No… We just had to kidnap a dude for ransom” She sounded genuinely confused at that so she might actually be telling the truth.
“Ransom?” Dakota questioned, thinking for a bit. “Never mind I get it, drop the charges and we get him back” She continued, nodding to herself
The inquisitor looked back at them, looking very smug. “Anything else I can do for you?”
“No, I think we have places to be. I do owe you for this.”
“I’ll be sure to cash in when I need a place burnt to the ground... Toodeloo,” she went as she waltzed out the room. The City Guard captain followed her out, asking questions about if she could be persuaded to help with some of his other prisoners.
“Thanks for your cooperation,” Victoria went, looking at Thalrex. “They’re all yours Sergeant.”
“Wait, you promised to pay for my jail time. I don't want to be a slave!” Thalrex protested, fighting her restraints.
“And I didn’t want to be indebted to the inquisition, we can't all get what we want,” Victoria replied, turning to leave. Thalrex continued to protest loudly, sounding ready to break down completely as the door was shut behind them. Victoria turned to Sapphire and Dakota, her expression turning worried from her previous stone-cold professionalism.
“You two okay?”
“We're fine. Balethon is a bit worse for wear. He's being looked after though,” Sapphire replied, trying to hide the shock of what she had just seen.
“Actually he should be up and about by now. The poison should not last more than a few hours,” Dakota interjected. “We might need his nose for this. That snout of his is good for more than helping with cooking after all.”
“Let’s go pick him up then, we have transport on the roof. Don’t worry he doesn't stain. He’s just the sweetest in fact, so try to be nice,” Victoria replied, before making for the infirmary.
The rather bewildered Balethon was indeed up and about, even if he still looked a little stiff in his movements. The mercs had actually been very professional with the poison, only giving him a shallow cut to the base of the neck where it would act quickly but heal easily.
Making it to the roof, it was indeed Tiguan who was sitting perched on the landing platform. Sapphire knew he was on their team, but the sight of a jet black dragon sent shivers running down her spine. She stopped in her tracks for a second before forcing herself to move forward. Even if he shone like obsidian, clearly freshly polished, everything in her was screaming ‘RUN!’ at the sight of him.
“Yilditz, we have a warehouse that needs a visit, double time. The bastards we need might still be there,” Victoria shouted out as they made it out onto the roof.
“Roger that. See, I promised we didn’t just have to sit around and look scary,” Ylditz went in an encouraging tone, clearly directed at the dragon.
“Yeah yeah, that’s me, look scary and run errands.”
“Oh come now, you were the one who wanted some actual work,” Ylditz replied. “I’m sure you will get the chance to do some good today. Right, Victoria?”
“Well, we are chasing kidnappers. It doesn’t get much more pure-hearted than that”
“I thought you caught them?” Tiguan questioned, sounding more interested as Victoria helped Balethon aboard, the guard clearly struggling with what he was climbing upon. Tiguan seemed too distracted to notice though.
“We did, and now we are after the ones who hired the mercs, a proper bad guy just like you wanted.”
“I see... Well, let’s go then!” The dragon let out, jumping off the roof, suddenly in a big hurry, his crew plus Balethon and Victoria aboard. The rest of the dragonettes on the roof took to the sky under their own power.
“This day is getting strange real quick!” Sapphire shouted to Dakota.
“Just go with it. Not like we are gonna be attacked in this formation.”
“True, people tend to steer clear of me, now let’s go see about fucking up some bad guys!” Tiguan shouted back to them.
“Hear, hear!” Echoed out from a fair few of the other people in the formation. Not counting Tiguan and his now 5 person crew, they had half a dozen dragonettes here, seemingly all members of the family or guards from the estate.
The sun was still low in the sky as they soared over a not so desirable part of town. The skies were still quiet, most people weren’t gonna be up for at least a few more hours. They eventually found a building that matched the description, A large squat wooden warehouse, the number 6 marked on the roof, even if the paint had started to fade.
Tiguan had started relaying orders from Victoria so all could hear.
“Victoria is running interception with all loose flyers, in case someone runs. I will smash in the front door and give them a bad day. All good?” the dragon questioned, looking about the formation, receiving thumbs up all around. “Good, let’s go be heroes!” Tiguan let out with considerable enthusiasm as he went into a dive.
Victoria had disembarked, taking the lead of the dragonette formation, leading them down over the warehouse. The black dragon went into a steep dive with his wings tucked in, pulling away from the formation. Sapphire could just about make out someone shouting on Tiguan's back as he sped off; it sounded almost like Ylditz. “No, we can’t do that!”
Sapphire had expected him to land and then perhaps knock in the doors, but he didn’t do that. He was apparently very confident that this was the right building as he let loose a stream of acid aimed at the roof, covering it in the sickly gray gooey substance that quickly began eating away at the wooden structure. He spread his wings to slow down before landing on the roof, smashing through it with a resounding crunch of snapping wooden support beams.
“Well that is one way to do it,” Sapphire let out, staring in disbelief at the sight of the ruined building.
“Godsdammit Tiguan!” Victoria shouted out from ahead loud enough that it carried.
“Hands where I can see them and wings folded!” the dragon roared out from inside the warehouse, Sapphire not able to see anything through the hole except a cloud of dust slowly rising.
Victoria ordered the formation broken up into three wings and placed Dakota in charge of the third. Victoria taking the first wing inside with two and three holding the perimeter.
“Uhm… No one here,” Tiguan eventually bellowed out from inside, sounding more than a little disappointed.
“I am not paying for this,” Dakota stated disheartedly. “What does a warehouse even cost?”
“More than a few dencils I’m guessing,” Sapphire replied, shaking her head.