Upstairs were several rooms, a few of them were even empty, still lacking residents, and it was in one of those rooms our uninvited guest waited. Isabel had explained that the house was designed to house a full team of adventurers, which meant six rooms for residents and two guest bedrooms.

I took a deep breath as I stopped outside the uninvited guest's door. Turning to Malik, I said, "I will incorporate you into the illusion, Malik. Just stand in the back and look stoic. I will make you look like a huge scary being made from shadows." Malik raised an eyebrow and smirked a little but didn't comment other than a nod. I gave him a nod in return and summoned my mask. Grim's voice sounded in my mind, "Oh my, here we go again. You do keep busy, partner!"

Ignoring Grim's comment, I focused on conjuring my images. Grim took one of them, and then I sent him through the wall, only partly, just enough for me to see the room through his vision. The man inside was sitting in a chair, beaten and bruised. Isabel hadn't held back, and it showed. The man seemed to notice nothing of our presence.

I decided to try something new. I cast an illusion through my image with Grim as my connection. To my delight, it worked. The room began to darken, and what seemed like living shadows snaked up the walls, soon enveloping the man in a small circle of light.

He looked up, disoriented, but then his eyes darted from side to side, and he began to struggle against his bonds. It was time to begin.

I slowly opened the door, maintaining the illusion and stepped into the room. The man didn't react, but his eyes flickered around, searching for any sign of danger. The images were spread out around the room, and Malik had taken up a position against the closed door, his expression stoic.

I closed my eyes and let Grim's voice fill my mind, "So.. You refuse to talk?" My vision blurred and I appeared next to the man, just out of his line of sight. "Perhaps you should reconsider..." It blurred again and I appeared to be behind him. "It would save you at least a little pain..." The man's head swiveled around, trying to locate the source of the voice.

I returned to my own body and stood in front of the man, who looked terrified. "Nothing to say? Then let us begin." I said, summoning a small knife and waving it in front of him. The man sneered, "I know these are just illusions! You think you can trick me with cheap tricks?"

I had Grim laugh from the side, filling the room with the sound. "Illusions, you say? Could illusions do this?" I activated my title ability and sliced a shallow gash in the man's cheek. He grunted, "This... isn't real." Grim laughed again, "You think I can fake the taste of blood?" A thin line of blood ran down the man's lips and his tongue licked at it involuntarily.

"So now you know. Illusions are not always what they seem, it can be difficult to discern what is real and what is not," I said, plunging the knife into the man's leg. This time, it was just an illusion, but I activated Phantom Pain and the man grunted in agony. I pulled the knife back, leaving a fake wound in its wake.

The man scowled from one side to the next, ‘’you won’t get anything from me!’’

Grim laughed quietly, mockingly. ‘’That is fine, I prefer it that way. So here are the rules, I will begin cutting into you a bit at a time. Should you feel the urge to spill a few secrets, perhaps a name, then all you have to do is speak. It ends in one of two ways, either you talk, or you pass out. Then we feed you a potion, and we restart the process. I have certain abilities I only rarely find chances to level, so you see this is just the kind of situation I have been waiting for!’’

I spent the next half hour or so giving the man one illusionary wound after another, but he screamed and writhed without giving up any information. Once my ether began to drop a bit too low, I took a break, drank a potion, and then continued. It was the most horrible thing I had ever done in my life, and I did not enjoy it.

Over the course of the next few hours, I had to steel myself several times by imagining the lives of innocent people at risk. This man was not a good person, in fact, I would argue he was downright evil. After about an hour, I asked Malik quietly whether he knew the rune on the man's forehead, but he told me it was a body-enhancing tattoo and not a control mechanism. I had worried that perhaps the man was a slave, but Malik dismissed that possibility.

After two hours, I was exhausted, and even though potions helped in the immediate situation, fatigue began to mount. The man was a mess, covered in layer upon layer of my illusions. I had cast phantom pain so many times at this point that I had trouble finding new places to inflict. Finally, the man spoke in a raspy voice, ‘’enough.. Please.. I will talk!’’

His voice was hoarse from screaming, barely audible as he murmured, "Sigen... Amelia... Christof..." I stepped forward, finally coming into view for the man. He flinched at the sight of me. "Good. What are you planning to do with the cores?" I asked.

"I... I can't tell you!" he protested.

I shrugged, dismissing the illusions I had placed on him. The blood vanished, the wounds became nothing, and the pain dissipated. The man let out a relieved sigh, but then horror dawned on his face as he realized what had happened. "None of it was real," I said, "but we can repeat this again and again without any risk to your life." Tears welled up in his eyes, and I felt a twinge of guilt. He was breaking like an egg beneath an anvil.

"Answer my questions, and it ends," I told him.

The man slumped, whispering, "Meaning you'll kill me."

Grim chuckled quietly from behind the man, making him flinch. "No," I said, "it means you'll be given a chance to be useful to us."

The man's head snapped up. "How?" he asked.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I shrugged. "However we see fit."

After a long moment of silence, the man nodded. "I will talk."

I stepped back into the shadows, beckoning for the man to follow. "Let's talk, then. What is the plan?"

Once we were back downstairs, Isabel and Lyra were waiting for us. Lyra looked pale and disturbed. "What did you do to him?" she asked, eyeing me warily. "The sounds... they were horrifying."

I didn't answer her, just sat down next to her with a heavy sigh. Malik spoke up for me, "He performed a very efficient form of mental torture. The only blood drawn was a small cut on the man's cheek. Not sure how it works exactly, but the man is no worse off physically than when we started."

Isabel's eyes widened in shock and confusion as she looked at me. "How!? We heard the screams!" I nodded, "I can show you, if you're willing. It won't be exactly like he felt, but it'll give you an idea." My voice sounded hollow, even to myself, and Lyra looked concerned. "David, are you okay?" Isabel cut Lyra off, "show me!"

I glanced up at her and conjured the same small dagger, simple in design and nothing special. "This is only an illusion, Isabel. No matter what you feel or see, it's not real." Isabel nodded, "hold out your hand."

She did as I asked, and I used the knife to make a cut in her palm, leaving an illusion of a wound. "I don't feel anything," she said with a frown. I nodded, then activated phantom pain. Isabel hissed in pain from the sudden stabbing sensation. I immediately dismissed the effect and looked at her with a small, weary smile. Isabel, for her part, stared at her now uninjured hand in shock. "That's what I did to him, Isabel. I did it a whole lot of times."

Lyra put her hand over mine and squeezed. "It was necessary, David," she said. I gave her a small smile. "I know. I just wish it wasn't. I made a promise to not kill him, so I'll leave how to deal with him to you guys." Isabel rolled her eyes but nodded. "I'll take care of it. Now tell me, what did he say?"

I was about to start explaining when Malik put a hand on my shoulder. "You've done enough, lad. Let me take it from here, at least." I nodded gratefully, and Malik began to explain.

"The man's name is Armin Gintz. He's a member of a group of mercenaries called 'The Shadowed Hand.' They were hired to keep an eye on a group of smugglers who are bringing in the cores from outside the city. He didn't know where they were from, but they assisted in spreading them throughout the city," I said, relaying the information I had gathered.

Isabel hissed and started pacing. "What else?"

"Quite a few people are involved," Malik said, his expression turning angry. "Sigen, for one, Amelia, who is a noble of House Tarkest, and Cristof, a high-ranking member of the Governor's guard."

Lyra looked shocked, while Isabel's expression grew increasingly tense. "Armin didn't know how many cores have been distributed, but they count at least in the low hundreds."

We all fell silent, taking in the gravity of the situation.

"None of those names were on the lists," Isabel said slowly, breaking the silence. "I think we're still missing something."

"What lists?" Malik asked, his frown deepening in disapproval.

I explained how I had obtained the list of Rune mages, causing Malik's disapproval to deepen even further. "That's not just illegal, Isabel. That's--"

"Yes, yes, I know, but we needed the information, Malik!" Isabel cut him off, her tone insistent.

He studied her for a few moments before nodding in agreement.

Isabel turned to Malik. "Two of the people you mentioned earlier, though, they were on the lists."

Malik raised an eyebrow. "Which ones?"

Isabel sat down, looking at him intently. "What happened to Aric and Bishop after that disaster?"

Malik's eyes hardened a little as he answered, "I don't know why you're suspecting those two. They went through a lot, and--"

"What happened to them, Malik?" Isabel cut him off again, her tone insistent.

The big man scowled and spoke in a measured tone. "Bishop left. He went south and last I heard, he's been escorting caravans over the Dead Sea for about a year now. Aric left the guild soon after returning. He joined the Governor's personal guard, but he wasn't happy with the guild. He felt that the leadership was responsible for the fiasco. Later on, he left the guard too. The governor, as you know, is a staunch supporter of the guild, and Aric decided he couldn't work for him any longer. I'm not sure where he went after that."

We all turned to Isabel for her reaction, and she nodded. "Alright, I don't know if that helps us or not, but at least Aric has a motive."

Malik's eyes narrowed. "Aric was a good man, Isabel. The loss of his team hit him hard. He isn't the kind of man to put innocents in danger for some extravagant plot for vengeance."

Isabel remained unfazed. "Perhaps you're right, Malik. But we need to keep our options open. Right now, we have very limited evidence of anything, but it's something to investigate later." Malik appeared as though he wanted to argue, but he took a deep, calming breath and nodded in defeat.

"Alright, enough about Aric for now. Let's focus on the immediate problems," Isabel said, throwing up her hands. "We need a plan to find these cores, but not only that, we need a way to stop them from activating."

Malik nodded. "There are other means. I might know an enchanter who could help."

Isabel looked at him with a glimmer of hope in her eyes, "Okay, that's a good first step. But we can't comb the city ourselves, we'll need help." Lyra nodded in agreement and turned to Malik, "What about the main branch? Can we ask for their assistance?" Malik shook his head, "It would be too slow. We need to act quickly." Lyra's disappointment was palpable as she asked, "What about the governor?"

Malik considered her suggestion but ultimately shook his head, "He should know about this, but It would be difficult to gain the governor's support without more hard proof. I know of some people in the guild who we can recruit to help us. People I believe we can trust with this information."

Isabel raised an eyebrow, "Who?"

Malik gave her a small smile, "Landvin's group, for one. I know he can be arrogant, but he's also a Creston local. If he knew the city was in danger, he would defend it with his life."

Isabel and Lyra both looked skeptical, but Malik continued, "There are a few other teams I might be able to get on our side. There's one team visiting from the main branch, and some other locals as well." Isabel sighed but nodded, "Alright, we'll make that our main priority. Give us the name of the enchanter, and we'll handle that part."

After discussing our plans a little while longer, we concluded the meeting and everyone went to work. Isabel took a drugged Armin with her in a wagon to speak with the governor, while Lyra and I went to find the enchanter Lorik.