I followed Airsidh back to the castle and met up with the rest of the group… Which was surprisingly busy while we were gone. When we walked in one of the knights was tied up with rope, and to my surprise it wasn’t the reptilian, it was the human that used the great hammer.
“Ok, someone explains...” I groaned. The castle was even more beaten up than when Lu went through it, and there were clear signs of a major conflict as though it had been through three wars and taken a light cannon barrage.
Finlo did a perfect flip off the wall, landing squarely on his feet to show off before casually walking over. Seeing it just made my joints ache even more though. ‘This is going to make my head hurt…’
“Well, you see first I didn’t like the red guy because I thought he was stupid but it turns out he wasn’t bad just stupid which I guess is better than being bad but still not great because he’s stupid. I did a little digging around and found out that one of the other knights was bad though, they were doing all sorts of shady things like working with the country to the south to help round up runaway slaves and even working with a bunch of thugs to plan an uprising and kidnap you and your siblings so that they could leverage the lord into doing something about the food problem or some nonsense. To be honest the whole plan seemed pretty half-baked, and if you ask me it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, it just kinda seemed like they were trying to stir up unrest.”
I lifted a hand to my head, only feeling even more fried than before. “And this knight… He was the one in charge?”
He nodded.
‘I doubt that… There's no reason for him to be staging a revolt to solve a problem that isn’t affecting him... The plan feels half-baked because it’s fake… It’s an excuse… Finlo was guessing he was just trying to cause unrest… But the only ones benefiting from that would be foreigners, right? It’s just a question as to which ones… I feel like I’m starting to crash again. Well, I can make it through one more thing at least…’ I walked over and squatted down in front of the prisoner. “Ok, tell the truth, who are you working for.”
He gave me nothing but a scowl.
‘Geez, seriously? Well… If Bhaltair taught me one thing, it’s how to make people nervous...’ I felt my eyes twitch as the whole world started to turn a golden orange again and I let out a sigh. “Let's play a game. My oldest brother used to love this game, see. Either you say what I want to hear, or you don’t, oh but every time you don’t I get to hurt you. I’ll start by cutting off a finger, then a toe. Eventually, I just started having fun.” ‘of course… That’s not exactly how he played it… But he might as well have…’
I stood up and turned Tofino, grabbing his knife and using it to cut open the prisoner's cheek. As he stared back into my eyes the intensity of the orange tint through which I saw the world increased. It was as if my eyes themselves were roaring. Pure terror covered his face and he stiffened up in an instant.
“Like I said before… I’m a part of a group of rebels, we just wanted to do something about the food.”
‘Except you are a knight, and you aren’t struggling with food at all, and neither would your family.’ My hand moved down until I grabbed one of his fingers and scraped the knife across it, slicing slightly into it. “Oh, sorry, I guess I just thought you would be as easy to cut through as butter. I guess I should have put more force behind it...”
He started to break down, finally caving. “OK! OK, I’ll talk. It was… The empire to the west. They gave me a large sum of money, and let my whole family move there in exchange for my service to them.”
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‘Geez… So much for loyalty… I guess the empire is known for having some pretty sweet living conditions though, seeing as how they use magic… And don’t starve to death…’ I let out another sigh. ‘Public relations are about to plummet to the west too… Not they’ve been good anyway since the last war…’ “Obviously this needs to be reported to my father, and probably the king.” I handed Finlo his knife back.
He wiped the blood off on his sleeve before shedding it. “Ok, I took him alive, and we got the information, now what? Do I kill him?”
I felt a shudder run through me before I smacked him. “No! Just… I don’t know, put him in a labor camp or something. Put him to work farming or fishing, make him ACTUALLY help fix the food issue…”
He rolled his eyes. “It’s annoying how much more practical that is… What if he tries to run away?”
“Ugh… Then you can–” The red tinge of blood on his sleeve suddenly leaped out at me as if it was a stain directly on my eye. “We won’t be here to deal with it anyway, someone else will take care of it… Besides… He won’t run. It’s a long way for a fugitive to travel on his own, through plenty of monster-infested roads… He’d be better off serving a couple years sentence and then going west to rejoin his family.” ‘Why do you want to kill something so bad anyway?’ “Where's the bathroom?” ‘I feel sick again…’
Finlo grabbed my shoulder, holding me back a moment, placing a hand on my forehead before letting me go. “Just checking.” He said as he backed away.
“Whatever…” I muttered. The girl in charge of the fort showed me the way and when I was finally alone I nearly collapsed. My breath was suddenly shaky and my whole body felt cold. ‘I was just imitating Bhaltair… But I don’t know what I would have done if he still refused to talk. I don’t think I would have been able to actually torture him, no matter how sure I was he was lying… And, if I could… In some ways that scares me even more…’
The tint in my eyes lightened again and I threw up. It wasn’t just the fact that acting like Bhaltair brought back painful memories… But it felt almost like the dragon inside of me was starting to influence my actions… Sure, I wouldn't have actually tortured him… But even if that was true, while I was holding the knife, and when I cut him, I felt an undying rage toward all of humanity burning within my chest. It was even targeted at me…
The sound of the wolf's neck snapping as I twisted it rang through my ears and sent another shiver down my spine as I splashed cold water on my face. ‘Taking a life is all too easy… But then again I should have learned that when I died…
Eventually, I just sat on the floor, resting my aching legs and leaning my head against the wall. ‘I’ve been on my feet too long… This is supposed to be a road trip so why am I doing parkour through the city, fighting mages, debating economics, and torturing criminals…’ I let out a long groan, finally starting to calm down. ‘Oh yeah… When I jumped off that building, that’s probably why my knees hurt…’
Just when I was finally ready to come out. Lu walked in the door with blood covering her entire right arm, spiraling down and around from a massive gash in her shoulder, no doubt from a sharp blade.
She turned on the faucet and scrunched up her face as she started to pour cold water over it. ‘I’m surprised she’s so used to running water. We didn’t have it at the castle.’ I started trying to think of why, or how, but my brain just jumbled everything into a nonsensical mess. There was no point in thinking about anything anymore, I was fried.
“Oh, hey Siya, you doing alright? You look a little pale… Like, more than usual I mean.”
‘Shouldn’t I be asking you that?’ I slid up the wall, pushing myself to my feet. “What kind of blade was it?”
“Oh, uh. A dagger I guess, but it wasn’t a normal one.”
“Was the blade clean?”
“Yeah…” She looked confused like she didn’t understand why I was even asking, but I continued regardless. Grabbing her shoulder and inspecting the wound.
“Looks like the blade was serrated, it tore into you pretty good.” ‘It hardly even looks like a cut, as much as a gouge…’ “Here, let me.” I grabbed the cloth she had brought in and properly cleaned the wound. I thought for sure she would have complained about the pain. Her face was making it pretty clear how much it hurt, but she didn’t say a word. ‘Why do I feel so lightheaded…’
I brushed my nose as it started to itch. “Can you still move it alright? It isn’t numb or anything?”
She slowly moved it around. “Yeah, it’s alright.”
‘So no nerve damage at least, that’s a relief.’ I stepped away, suddenly feeling my manna change in the way it was flowing, realizing I had been subconsciously healing her with my magic that whole time. “We should…” I lifted my hand to wipe my nose again as it started to burn. ‘The cloth must be made from wool… I didn’t think I was this allergic to it though…’
I rubbed my nose again and let out a heavy groan. “We should get you bandaged up, to make sure it doesn’t get infected or…” I pulled my hand away from my face after wiping my nose a third time, only then seeing the blood. ‘Fairy dust… Well… I guess on the bright side she probably doesn’t need a bandage…’