Rhyan opened the door as silently but as fast as he could without slamming it into the wall. Gilliam stepped in and in the split second he had to react he only got to notice that the room looked very conference room-like. The cloth hanging around to cover the stone walls was giving it a slightly better atmosphere, a large table in a square room with a lot of papers and stuff on the table he didn’t get time to identify as there were also two men in there and three zombies looking at something seemingly random, being mentally vacant.
Gilliam didn’t hesitate. Both his hands were currently free which made this easier. Triggering the Aether Dart spell like he did with the Dreadfangs he targeted the three zombies as well as one of the men. The spell activated in a split second and shot only the needed four darts. The zombies stood motionless and had the top section of their chest penetrated with such force that the head and neck fell off from the rest of the body. The targeted man tried to dodge but as the darts were homing, this changed nothing. The dart impacted his chest and pulsed with magical energy the very next split second after penetrating his chest, rupturing most organs in his chest.
The last man found himself the target of Gilliam’s other hand, at the same time that he sent out the Aether darts, he had also sent out a tendril of mana, connecting to him with an unstructured Telekinesis spell. Turning to run he found himself floating in the air, constrained as if a massive hand was holding him.
“If you scream, you die.” Gilliam commented, gently squeezing his telekinesis hand for effect.
This caused the grasping energy to also pulse gently, closing the invisible fist around the man enough to make it almost painful.
He seemed to take the point.
The man nodded rapidly but barely made a sound in doing so.
“Gods...” Rhyan commented as he let go of the door. The entire event took no more than a second or two before Gilliam warned the man.
Gilliam ignored Rhyan and focused on his captive.
“Mind telling me what’s going on down here?” Making a light-pulling motion with his hand, the man came floating closer to Gilliam, though still being held in the air.
“I... I... Please don’t kill me.” The man pleaded, tears gathering in his eyes, looking like he was about to soil his pants.
Gilliam didn’t really care, this man’s entire value was dependent on the information he gave him.
“Then you better give me some good information.” Gilliam replied surprisingly expressionless. He didn’t enjoy killing but as the previous seconds showed, he didn’t have a problem with it if needed.
“Wh.. what do you want to know?” The man replied, trying his best, and failing, to recompose himself.
“As much as you know, really. The undead, why undead, what the plan is, who’s behind it. Everything.” Gilliam shrugged. He knew this was perhaps too vague and asking to know everything about a topic could either give them exactly what they needed, or four hours of seemingly random information, or just nothing.
“I... I don’t know that much, I’m just doing as I’m told.” The man stopped speaking for a moment, seeming to expect this to be a good answer. Gilliam didn’t respond and looked back in an expectant way, which caused him to panic.
“Listen... I... I don’t know much... But... if I give you what I know, I’ll even tell you where the treasury is, there’s not much in there now but there is some neat shit there. Will you let me go?”
“You’re in no position to bargain.” Gilliam commented, halfway wondering if it would motivate him to hurt him a bit. However, as soon as he considered that thought he knew that torture is rarely if ever, a good tool for information. In the end, they will tell you whatever you want just to make the pain stop. The best is motivation, making them want to keep their side of the bargain. “But if I’m satisfied, we might come to an arrangement.”
He wasn’t lying, parts of him didn’t imagine a problem letting this person back on the streets, murderer or not. Another part of him considered recruiting him of sorts as a man on the inside, but it depended on what he answered.
“Ok... ok... fine..” The man was still panicky but was able to calm down a little. “I don’t know why they are doing it, but they are having us go out and get body parts for... something... We started digging them up, which was fine for a while, but they wanted fresh parts. At first, we didn’t want to go out and kill someone... I mean, graverobbing is bad enough but to kill someone without knowing why was a bit... But, we didn’t have a choice.”
“So, nobody stopped you dragging a corpse, or... I dunno, a bag of body parts through the street, through a warehouse district and into a warehouse?” Gilliam had some thoughts on this but it was best to get it straight from the source.
“The people in charge have a deal with the guy owning this place, we only come in at midnight, and he makes sure that people are focused elsewhere or just a few of the people in on it are working then.” He seemed to try and adjust himself in the telekinetic grasp. Gilliam rewarded him and loosened the grip ever so slightly, not enough for him to be able to move but at least to make it ever so slightly better.
“We just put the parts in a waterproof leather bag, it’s enough to get us down here.”
“What about the corpses?” Gilliam wondered, they couldn’t just be shoved in a bag just like that.
“They come in through the outside or are dressed up to look like people and are walked the shortest way here. Or they just come from the outside like the corpses.”
This talk lasted for a while, the man became more and more squirmy as time went on. Not odd as he was literally being held tied up, weirdly. So blood was probably restricted to several places in the body. He shared some more information, though he didn’t have anything on his superiors as they were careful, using drop-points, masks and proxies. He had no idea about the hierarchy of the group or organization he was in. He used to be a small-time crook, barely eating when he managed to pickpocket someone. He had killed before but it was a self-defence thing. He became a criminal out of necessity once he was alone on the street after his parents died, and his uncle sold the house, booting him out.
Though extra shady, even for a thief and small-time criminal, this job gave them food, a place to stay and a small salary. Weirdly it was work stability and safety within the line of his work.
Turning to Rhyan, Gilliam wanted his thoughts on things, but he found him looking at the papers and things on the table. It at least looked like he was somewhat paying attention to what they were talking about.
During all of this, Cera had just been trying to figure out what to do with herself, and was staying close enough to Gilliam to trip over, had he not noticed that she was there.
“What have you found out?” Gilliam asked.
“They are kind of dumb, I think. There are maps with markings, written orders, what looks like some messaging pad items and a small bag of jewellery.” He ended his explanation by poking a small leather bag large enough to house an apple or two.
The way he talked about the messaging pad sounded like more than just a place to write down memos, but Gilliam was more interested in other things.
“Go on.” He walked over to him, eyeing the maps.
A glance showed three marking styles. A small circle, a small X, and a small square.
“The X’s and Circles, if I remember correctly are where the map we got was marked with kidnappings and mutilations. I don’t know exactly what the squares are, but since one is on the warehouse we entered through, I’m guessing that it’s other entrances?”
Gilliam just looked at their captive, who nodded repeatedly.
“Our guy here agrees with you.” Gilliam commented as he looked back down at the map as Rhyan continued.
“That’s good, then we know where to go next. I assume the jewellery is from the dead people or body parts, probably for smelting or something to remove identifying markers-”
Gilliam looked back at their friend, who again agreed. Gilliam confirmed with a “Yup.” as Rhyan continued.
“-And the messaging pads, they are a neat magical tool, a bit expensive and usually just has a few sends per day, but.” He took them and opened them like a book on its side.
The top and bottom of the fold had the same layout, a small square in the upper left corner, and a large piece of paper covering most of the rest.
He squiggled in a symbol in the small square on the top page of the first notebook, then the same symbol in the small square on the bottom page of the second book. Then he wrote a new symbol in the square on the top page of the second notebook.
Proceeding to write the word ‘hello’ in the second notebook, it disappeared a few seconds after Rhyan double-tapped it, alongside the little icon in the square which matched the first notebook. A few seconds later the message appeared on the top page of the first notebook, prefixed with the unique symbol of the second notebook.
Leaving it a few seconds Rhyan double-tapped the received message, and it disappeared. But this time the receiving self-identification symbol remained.
The simplest comparison Gilliam could consider was an SMS service, just instead of phone numbers it used a self-made icon. You put your own in the identifier field on the top and put in the identifying icon, or number, of your receiver at the bottom, then just write a message. It was a simple concept but had a bit of thought put into it. Rhyan double-tapped the received message and it blanked out.
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“You can make a symbol, some code, something is written like random words and letters, anything as long as it’s identifiable, and you can send messages. I find them kind of neat but haven’t gotten to use them that much.” Rhyan seemed interested in them.
This did give Gilliam an idea, a simple one but still practical enough.
Turning back to his captive. “I have an idea.” He pulled the man in closer. “How’s about you work for me, now?”
Gilliam knew he was smiling, but it might have been a weird smile as the man looked a bit freaked out.
“Wh... what do you mean?”
“I’ll give you one of these pads, I’ll take one. Then you’ll try to find out what’s going on, or who’s in charge, or if something interesting is happening.” Gilliam sat him down and released the telekinetic grasp on him entirely. He felt zero threat from this person just based on him perhaps only having a knife or something and the fact that he just saw Gilliam clear the room in a second or two. However, the man being freed did seem to make Cera uneasy.
“I will mark you so I can find you whenever I want, and I’m not dumb enough to expect you to do this for free, if you do this well I will listen to you if you want some reward.”
Gilliam didn’t plan to give him any choice, and if worst came to worst he could just kill him as well.
Manifesting a large dominantly yellow circle in the air, it had traces of other colours in it as well, Gilliam started filling it out with runes. This was a spell he had considered but hadn’t tested more than a few times before. It was a circle that contained a collection of runes that wrote out ‘passive echolocation target’. The circle was quite large but he had a solution for that; he just shrunk it!
It shrunk down to the size of two thumbs next to each other and sort of hovered above Gilliam’s finger. And stepping towards their new friend, Gilliam grabbed him with telekinesis again and pushed him against the wall.
The man panicked and tried to struggle free, but this didn’t go anywhere, as Gilliam made a motion with his non-spell-circle hand which seemed to grab his mouth and open it. The spell circle started glowing slightly, almost as if it was incredibly hot.
“G.. Gilliam, what are you doing?” Rhyan asked nervously as he got up from the chair.
Gilliam didn’t respond.
In a single movement, Gilliam put the spell circle in the man’s mouth and pressed it against its roof. This prompted the man to let out a grunt of pain as if he were being burned, but the ordeal was over in less than a second. Letting go of his telekinesis the man fell to a knee as he grabbed his mouth with his hands. Knowing this didn’t do anything Gilliam decided to at least be slightly nice, and channelled a small stream of healing energy into him, this didn’t remove the brand but would at least take care of most of the pain:
It seemed to work as the man calmed down a bit.
“What... what did you do?” He asked with a strong dissatisfaction in his voice.
“What do you mean? I explained it, right? You’re now branded and I can find you whenever I want, wherever you are in the world. The brand will never properly heal and thus always work, it’s passive so it can’t be detected with any magic sense. Should work well for both of us, no?”
Gilliam had that smile again, he was kind of proud of this one. Much like the RF-ID technology in the modern world, the spell circle now in his mouth was passive, it couldn’t be detected to give off any energy. But compared to the RF-ID, it wouldn’t be detected by any metal detectors or anything of the kind, as it was a scar. However, if pinged correctly, much like technology using frequencies, it would respond and give Gilliam the location of where he was at the time. Due to the soul bond with Savia, she would know where this ping came from as he did and could teleport there with familiarity.
Noticing Rhyan looking less than pleased, Gilliam decided to continue explaining.
“Now, this doesn’t compel you to do anything, it only lets me track and find you. I’m not going to involve myself in your life more than I need to, and I consider this community service for the things you have done.”
This seemed to mellow out Rhyan ever so slightly, but he still didn’t look happy. Cera didn’t seem to react to it more than surprise at the suddenness of his movements.
“Now, what’s your name?” Gilliam’s smile had changed to a slightly more empathetic one, he knew that most criminals ended up there out of desperation and whatnot, rarely choosing it. Though this man wasn’t enslaved by him he was basically under threat of death and fear... So it was not much different than a slave.
The man got properly up and seemed to use his tongue to feel the brand for a few seconds before reluctantly answering. “Et’amir.”
He sighed after pondering this for a second or two. “You know... I don’t like this at all... If they find out I’ll end up as one of... those things.” He pointed at one of the dead zombies.
“Oh, then I suppose you’ll work to not be found out. I’ll do my best to protect you as long as you work under me and do your job. Once this job is done and the undead thing is handled, I’ll remove the brand, effectively freeing you, with a reward you agree to.” He smiled.
He expected the man to want a sizeable monetary reward, probably much higher than the Guild job rewarded them. He didn’t care for money at the moment, money was to be spent and he already got a massive reward for handling the invasion.
Rhyan seemed to have held back from breaking into the discussion but couldn’t continue. “Gilliam, this man is a murderer, you want him to keep killing or worse?”
“Well, yes.” Gilliam answered bluntly. “I know this will be a hard thing to accept but I imagine that if he has to kill one or two, to save tens, hundreds or more, it’s a decent trade.”
Gilliam could see Rhyan’s distaste for the comment, but after a second of processing, Rhyan seemed to both get more and less angry at the situation.
Gilliam didn’t wait for Rhyan to comment and turned back to Et’amir. “Now, I expect you to do what you need to, but do your best to avoid killing, and to avoid the others killing if you can. Now... I don’t want to see you killed, I value my allies and I’ll do what I can to help you. If you need to escape once this is done I have friends in V’ida, and as a powerful mage I have enough social pull to make sure you’re fine.”
“W... Will you really protect me... and reward me when this is done?” Et’amir sounded slightly hopeful but there was a lot of hurt in his tone.
“I will do my best, but only as long as you are useful. I will keep my word as far as possible.” Gilliam honestly replied.
The latter explanation seemed to put Et’amir ever so slightly at ease. Gilliam felt confident that catering to his life's stability was the way to go. Gilliam walked over to the table where Rhyan showed how the notepads worked and took the one which wasn’t used to send the test message, handing that to Et’amir and the other he took for himself.
Gilliam wrote his name in English as his identifying mark, the English letters and words didn’t exist in Lisica as far as he knew, so it should be relatively safe to assume that it wouldn’t reach anyone else.
Et’amir used a simpler sign seeming like some Alothian symbol for his name, using E and A with a random-looking symbol behind it. Gilliam wrote that down in his notebook so he had that down, and they spent some time making sure that he could consistently write Gilliam’s name in English so the plan would work at all. Gilliam put his notepad in an inner pocket of the coat, to make sure it remained ‘in this world’, as the ring was an extradimensional storage space thing. Et’amir did something similar.
“Now, let me know if you need anything for this plan to work, for now, I have bad news.” Gilliam ended with.
This caused some confused expressions.
“I can’t let you just walk out of here, that might have them think you turned on them or something, it’ll also be safer for you. So I’m going to have to knock you out.”
Before he got to react or process this properly, Gilliam cast a blunted Aether dart at his head. As it made contact it bonked him backwards into the wall, knocking him out.
He had made sure to use as little power as he could to get this working, just hoping that there wasn’t any irreparable damage done to him.
“Good gods, Gilliam, why did you do that.” Rhyan commented in surprise. “He could just have faked it, have left and lied or something.”
Rhyan did have a point, but this felt like the simplest way to handle it. “Nah, this is easier, also gives him a perceived and kind of real motivation. I did hurt him, after all, meaning that if he has to lie about wanting to find me it’s not entirely a lie.”
Gilliam knew... sadly... from experience that these kinds of lies feel more honest if there is at leats some truth to them.
“Now, there are more doors here, let’s continue exploring and see what else we find.” Gilliam’s smile had returned as he walked over to one of the two other doors leading out of this room.