Chapter 32 - Mountainside Camping (General Aeithne POV)
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I raised my gaze from the papers on my desk and looked at the entrance of my tent when I heard a voice from outside saying, “General Aeithne. I am Major Cadby. I have important news regarding griffon squadron R-17’s mission.”
“Come in.”
The major, a man in his mid thirties who was sporting the usual uniform of the air force of the kingdom, entered my tent and walked in front of my desk before standing to attention and saying, “Ma’am.”
“Rest, Major,” I said. Being saluted used to make me feel proud when I first became an officer, now I wished we could do without those wastes of time.
“What happened to griffin squadron R-17?” I inquired him.
My tone might have been a bit too harsh because he flinched a bit before saying, “They have managed to capture an enemy spy, Ma’am.”
“Where?”
“In the northern section of the Last Valley.”
(That’s way too close for comfort.)
“Is this spy still alive?” I asked him, not letting my worries transpire.
“Yes, we have removed any means for him to kill himself.”
“Perfect. Where is he now?”
“He is currently detained in the temporary prison.”
“Inform the prison that I’ll be visiting in twenty minutes. Bring the spy to the interrogation room.”
He stood to attention again and said, “yes Ma’am,” before exiting my tent. I could hear a sigh of relief escape his mouth as his head passed the cloths that marked the entrance.
“Am I really that scary?” I asked my aid, Captain Camellia, who was sitting at a small table next to my desk, as I went back to read the reports of the day. She was a couple of years older than me but had refused many promotions throughout the years to be able to work as my aid.
“You are the ‘dragon slayer’ after all.”
My eye involuntarily twitched a bit and I said, “please, not you too.”
She laughed and said, “well, you could always order them to stop calling you that.”
“As if that would help. No, they have to understand that no one can beat a dragon, or we’ll just keep piling reports of soldiers missed in action,” I said, moving the sheet of paper I had in my hands to the pile of those I had already read.
“You slaying those wyverns as if it was a walk in the park didn’t really help.”
I sighed and said, “those are just overgrown lizards, you know that well.”
“And that’s exactly why you’re scary, miss ‘dragon slayer’.”
“I’m seriously going to demote you one of these days.”
“As if you could do without me, roomie.”
“We’re not at the academy anymore, Camellia.”
“Unfortunately,” she said, a hint of nostalgia in her voice.
“Yes, yes, it’s a real pity. Could you write a letter to General Beval asking for another two squadrons now? Precise that I want people who know what ‘flying low’ means this time, I don’t want to have to ask again in a week.”
“Yes ma’am.”
I started looking for something between the papers on my desk but, when I didn’t find it, I asked Camellia, who had started writing the letter, “did we receive no new report on project Aether?”
She looked up and pointed the quill at her lower lip, leaving a thin spot of ink on it, before saying, “no, if I remember correctly, the one we received last week about the prototype was the last one.”
“Send a letter to the laboratory too then. I want project Aether to be given maximum priority,” I said and went back at reading the few remaining papers on my desk.
After I had finally done a good part of the paperwork left I said, “get my robe, we have a spy to interrogate.”
I got up from my chair and stretched a bit before taking the grey robe Camellia was holding and putting it over the standard white shirt and grey pants issued to the arcane branch.
I exited my tent with Camellia following me and started walking through the tents illuminated by the torches towards the prison that was built for situations like this. As I passed by the soldiers in the camp they saluted me before going back at their mansions.
(Really a waste of time.)
We soon arrived at the prison, the only stone building in a camp otherwise consisting only of tents. The torches at the entrance and the silvery dragon peaks looming in the distance gave the one story building a really eery feeling this late in the night.
I entered the building ignoring the two corporals of the army saluting me and went towards the first room, where the commanding officer of the prison was stationed.
When I entered the army first lieutenant jumped up from his chair and saluted me before I said, “rest.”
“Where’s the prisoner?” I asked him.
“In cell number two.”
“Has he undergone a truth stone reading?”
“Yes,” he said before passing me a piece of paper.
I looked at the sheet in my hand and read its contents,
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Name: Thractalex Race: Demon (Sub: Erepyr) Age: 29 lvl: 31 Class: Magic Rogue
Notable skills: stealth lvl 3 | shadow magic lvl 4 | fire magic lvl 2 | darkness magic lvl 1 | dagger mastery lvl 3 | night vision | throwing weapons mastery lvl 2 | hand to hand combat lvl 2
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Titles: none
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“Very well, prepare the interrogation room and bring him there.”
“Yes, Ma’am,” he said, before saluting me again and exiting the room.
“So, what do you think?” Camellia asked me once we were alone.
“His level is too low to have passed over the Dragon Peaks. He either is extremely lucky or he was the only one we found of a much larger force.”
“Or they actually found a safe route.”
“Camellia, I’ve already said this, there is no safe route over the Dragon Peaks. I’d consider it more likely if they digged all the way down to a dwarf tunnel and digged out on this side away from the main entrances of Tureg.”
“A silver,” she said, a smug smile on her face.
“Deal.”
After our short exchange I went back to reading the papers about the prisoner. Apparently they had found various concealed weapons on his person, along with some documents, that had caught fire as soon as they got in human hands and weren’t able to be saved, and a capsule of poison behind his teeth.
I had just finished reading the report when the lieutenant got back to the room we were in and saluted me saying, “Ma’am the prisoner is in the interrogation room.”
“Very well,” I said, putting down the sheet of paper on the table.
I exited the small room and headed to the room next door. Two sergeants were stationed at the sides of the door and saluted me as I entered, followed by Camellia.
Inside the room we found the captured demon, a creature not dissimilar from a human in form but with a black skin, with red lines running across it, black hair and two black horns over his head, with his hands and feet tied to two poles. Four magic stones the size of a small pebble were embedded in his hands and feet, the fresh wound carved in his flesh to make room for the stones still bleeding lightly.
I went to sit on a chair in front of him while his gaze was fixed at me, a stern look in his eyes.
“Do you know my language?” I asked him.
I waited for a few seconds but he didn’t answer my question so I said, “fine, we will speak in yours.”
He immediately tried to jump at me but was restrained by the bindings so he said, “don’t you dare speak in the language our Lord gifted us with, filthy human.” His speech was slightly impaired by a smaller magic stone than the previous, not bigger than the one that could be found on an earring, that was mounted on a small mithril needle that stabbed his tongue.
(A religious fanatic, I can work with that.)
I bent towards Camellia and whispered to her ear to go fetch something for me before telling the demon in front of me, “so… do you know my language?”
“Yes… I know,” he said, hesitant.
“Good, now, would you be so kind to tell me how you got on this side of the Dragon Peaks?” I asked him.
In response he spat in my face, the glop of saliva mixed with blood hitting my eyebrow.
I took an handkerchief out of my robe and cleaned the spit away from my face before getting up and saying, “alright, I really hoped we could have ended this talk quickly without getting dirty but apparently that isn’t an option.”
“Do you worst, human. I no say.”
I got up from my chair and walked towards him in silence as he glared at me. Once I was right next to him I grabbed his left hand and took a small dagger out of my robe.
With a smug look on his face he said, “what you doing human? Asking hand in marriage? Sorry but I do not accept. If you want to put bag on head I can,” I peeled off two of his nails in a single motion, “fuck you bitch!”
“No, thanks,” I said, before peeling off the nail from his thumb, which cause him to let out a groan of pain.
“So, do you want to collaborate now?” I asked him.
“This pain, so little. Foot banging against furniture is badder,” he said, regaining his smug grin.
I peeled off the remaining two fingers, slowly this time, as his groans of pain continued. When his left hand had no more nails but only black blood over his fingers I said, “you were saying?”
“You not only ugly, also stupid.”
I ignored him and said, “oh, look, you’re bleeding so much from your fingers, we better heal them, right?” before using holy magic on them.
Instead of healing its fingers though, the light started eating at its flesh like acid, causing him to finally scream in pain.
“Oh my, really how stupid of me, I had almost forgot what holy magic does to you demons,” I said as I stopped casting.
“I tell already, you stupid,” he said, trying to keep his act as he panted heavily.
At that moment Camellia entered, holding something as tall as her torso and about half as wide wrapped in cloth. She set it on the the chair and removed the cloth, revealing a wooden statuette in the form of a naked demon with shoulders and legs covered in fur, hooves instead of feet, goat horns coming out of his reptilian face and strange symbols tracing his chest and arms. In his hands was an enormous battle axe, too big to be wielded effectively, raised over his head ready to strike down at his enemies.
The eyes of the demon I was interrogating widened and I asked him, “you do recognise him, don’t you?”
“You filthy humans! Don’t you dare touch the figure of our Lord!” he shouted in his language.
I walked up to the chair, picked up the wooden statuette and said, “sorry, what did you say? You want to tell us everything?” as I planted the tip of the dagger in its stomach.
“The Lord will not forgive your blasphemy! You’ll die an atrocious death for this!” he shouted as he trashed around, trying to free himself from the bindings.
I walked up to him, holding the figure in my hand, this time positioning myself on the side of the still healthy hand. I reached for his palm and removed the magic stone embedded in the flesh, making sure to make it as painful as possible. Despite the pain, he kept glaring at me with hatred in his eyes, not even groaning.
I threw the magic stone at Camellia and placed my now free hand on his wrist, before saying, “I really wonder what would happen if someone was to burn this statue then.”
“They would see his divine wrath in all its might!”
“Good,” I said and forced his mana out of its palm, willing it to create a small fire as I slowly moved the statuette towards his hand.
“What are you doing? Stop!” he shouted, terror in his eyes.
“Nothing, I’m just holding a statue, you’re the one who’s conjuring this fire. You can feel it, right? This is your mana, your own will, and it’s about to burn your precious god.”
“No! You’re lying, this is not true!”
“Talk!” I shouted at him, the statue now only a couple of centimeters from the flame.
“Yes! Yes! I’ll talk!”
I stopped manipulating the mana inside his body and let go of his wrist saying “it’s good to see you’re willing to collaborate.”
I left the statue on the floor, facing him, and turned towards Camellia, who was about to pass me the small magic stone. At that moment the demon threw a fireball at me.
Instead of hitting me the fireball flew right through me, robe and uniform included, leaving a faint blue light that immediately dimmed out on my body where it passed, before crashing against the stone wall of the room.
(Weird, there was nothing hinting at him being able to silent cast,) I thought before taking the pebble from Camellia and sticking it again in his hand, before he could recover from the shock of seeing his spell having the same effectiveness on me as a light breeze.
I went to sit down on the chair and said, “so, care to tell us how you managed to get on this side of the Peaks?”
“You… You’re a monster!” he said, his eyes wide.
“Oh, it’s been a while now since the last time, are you still counting, Camellia?” I said, a grin on my face.
“Yes, this should be the one-hundred-thirty-second time,” she said.
“That’s a lot,” I told her, then, turning back at the demon, “anyway, we were talking about you little hike, weren’t we?”
After that the interrogation lasted another twenty minutes, I still had to convince him a bit more from time to time but he ended up telling us everything we wanted before we left, which resulted in Camellia saying, “I win, one silver.”
I sighed and said, “we still have to confirm if what he said is true, you haven’t won yet.”
“You’re just a sore loser.”
“No, I’m not!” I said, almost shouting.
She laughed a bit and said, “sure, sure.”