This time Gabriel was more careful when waking up, he didn’t move much, and it seemed that the person who was watching over him didn’t realize that he was conscious. Still looking down, he scouted the room, which was very different from his last experience.

The dark, cold room from last time greatly contrasted from a golden-red carpet lit by sunlight coming from his back. The room was at an enjoyable temperature and Gabriel could even hear some music playing not too far away.

His view was limited, so he tried moving his face a bit to explore more of his surroundings, alas a magic alarm set to watch over his body movements rang and the young guard who hadn’t recognized him being awake came to him. He moved Gabriel’s face touching his chin to see whether he was awake or not and Gabriel bit him.

- Ow, fuck! – He reacted in pain and punched Gabriel instinctively – What the fuck man?

- I could say the same to you. – Gabriel retorted and utilized this time to see more of the room. It was quite spacious. So spacious, in fact, that his whole house fit in here.

There were big windows and expensive-looking furniture. Who was so rich but also would care about him? What could this person even want? He wasn’t rich or powerful or good-looking. He was an anomaly and if this person was interested in him because of this…

Gabriel had to leave. He tried escaping, but he was binded to this place and in a sitting pose magically. Not very comfortable, taking into consideration that he still had to apply force with his now sore muscles to maintain it. While thinking this the guard had been calling for more people.

- He has woken up! Call the master! Bring more guards! He is fucking feisty, the first thing he did was bite my fingers!!!

After a while a group of guards had made their way to the room, which had now made a circle around Gabriel and pointed their weapons towards him. They seemed to be nervous and didn’t really do much, so Gabriel had now ‘free’ reign to observe them and the room.

The guards were wearing light chainmail armor with green and yellow clothes beneath this protection. Their weapons of choice were swords, albeit some of them were a bit different than the others. One had a special handle, and two others were slightly curved.

The room, as said before, was colored red and gold on the ground, but now that he could see more, he saw that this pattern expanded all over the room. This room appeared to have been emptied beforehand, because the only furniture in the room was the one near him.

There was a wooden table, three chairs and a pedestal table which had three different drawers. As he kept looking around the room, he realized that unluckily for him, his view through the windows supported no information on where he was. All he could see from his limited viewpoint were a few white clouds and the sky.

- Hello there. – A man wearing a white robe walked into the room and greeted his prisoner.

- General Kenobi. – Gabriel replied.

- What? – the man was confused.

- What?

- You won’t trick me into wasting time. I am no fool, I know you have some peculiar knowledge that I want to acquire. – The serious man had a stern face as he talked – Bring it in! – He commanded.

Meanwhile, Kupi was making his way towards Gabriel’s house and was shocked to find the door opened. Gabriel always tried to keep everything under control and leaving a door open wasn’t predictable, so he always closed them.

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- Gabriel? Are you there? – Kupi inquired, closing in towards the door. Without hearing an answer, he entered the house, but a trap fired against him. Luckily it was made for taller people, to hit them on the heart, so it went over his shoulder.

Still, he was now alerted that something bad may have happened to him or that he was mad. Mad in anger that they had lost his sister. He had trusted Kupi and Ted, after all. In fact, Kupi was here to apologize to Gabriel, but now Kupi realized that he was gone too.

- Fucking shit. What the hell am I going to do now? Ted can’t help at all and there is no one else to help us… Unless I ask him… But it’ll be difficult to convince him… - Kupi talked to himself as he planned to save the siblings. He was alone once more, but he had really enjoyed their company and had even promised one to take care of the other.

As soon as Gabriel saw “it” his eyes widened in anger. This man right here had captured his sister and considering the situation he was in right now; he was most likely responsible of her situation inside her mind.

- Bastard! – He screamed. – I can’t believe you fucking did this! I don’t know who you are, but you will pay. At that point you’ll think of what we did and realize your mistakes!

- Ah, I see you recognize it. Are you two family? – He mockingly asked. – After all, you both look so monstrous… and so red and so emotional. – He paused for a second and started caressing Arabelle’s face. – And, of course, so caring towards each other. It was quite tough diminishing your influence over this thing’s mind… You must be very important to it…. And it to you, seeing how you’re reacting. You’re not trying to get the same hue as her, are you? – The man finished his speech as he started it, treating Gabriel and his sister like less than human, objects, albeit the man respected Gabriel more, because he believed that he was quite knowledgeable.

Gabriel was, predictably, maddened by this man’s behavior, directly falling into his bait. He let a bit of proudness show in his face and as soon as Gabriel saw that he realized he had been had. Or this man thought he had caught him. If he played his cards right, he might even get out on top of this conflict.

He kept making wild noises, appearing like a maddened dog which had just met his archenemy, growling, shouting and crunching his teeth acting as if he wanted to bite the man in front of him. To this reaction one of the guards commented what he had done before.

- Hey, he might really bite you, master. – He explained – He bit Tommy before.

- – The man murmured. – Give him a calming potion every five minutes until he stops behaving so… savagely! – He then ordered one of the butlers at the entrance of the room.

And so they did, injecting Gabriel once, twice and three times to calm him down. In reality these had little effect, because they weren’t injecting into his blood but into a muscle, because he had managed to move his veins enough to manage it. The injection directly into his muscles caused him pain, but at least his mind would stay intact.

But Gabriel didn’t know much of the effects of the potion, so he could only guess by name and expectations how he should behave. He stopped behaving so wildly and was now sitting with his gaze towards the floor, breathing quite calmly, given the situation he was in.

- Now tell me about this thing’s head – The man ordered while pointing at Arabelle.

- It’s a nice head. Reddish. The hairstyle looks cute. She used to be smart, but now… something else is in her head. But it still is functional. – Gabriel tried tricking the man ‘controlling’ him by giving simple, correct answers or things he couldn’t prove or disprove. It seemed to work, as he wasn’t questioned for his answers, but the man looked doubtful for a second before continuing the session.

- Focus on what’s inside its head. What is that? Where does it come from? – He inquired.

- She has a brain. And also, mana. Not only the normal mana, but spell mana. Something for controlling. I was trying to take it out, but I can’t understand it and I want to keep her safe. – Gabriel answered as a matter of factly.

This distressed the man as he expected Gabriel to be the creator of the mind control spell that plagued his sister’s mind. But he didn’t give up yet.

- Where does it come from? When did it appear? Where? – He barraged questions. Gabriel didn’t know whether to answer these truthfully or not, but after short considerations he decided that he wouldn’t lose much if Grumbonk had another enemy. In fact, it may be good.

- It… It comes from the forest. A dangerous man. We barely escaped from him; we could’ve died. – Gabriel stopped for a second and breathed deeply before continuing. – It was on the southern forest, a big building. I don’t know much else. I’m sorry… but please let us go.

Gabriel wasn’t really sure whether he should’ve included this last wish on a whim because it may show that he was out of the control of the potion, but the man didn’t react much. He just ordered his subordinates once more.

- Take them to the black room. I’ll question them once more and then I’ll see what to do with them…