“How are you, Agent Bozeman?” when Professor Tony Barnes came into the special secret prison holding the agent who tried stealing from the academy and framing a couple of audit students, and worst of all, tried murdering Professor Kapur. This was also the reason that neither of the Headmasters and Headmistress Professor Dorothea Clarkson had any reservations on their treatment of the agent.

Agent Bozeman raised his head from his weary shoulders, his face was wrinkled like an old man, and his eyes were bloodshot as if he had not slept for days and weeks. He sighed and lowered his head again.

“I get it, you’re tired. I would be if I was in your place.” Professor Barnes sat down in front of the metal cage and said: “And lucky you, we’re able to put a stop to the toxin that was in your body without actually having to operate on you or giving you your power back. It cost us a whole lotta expensive medicines and potions. I guess that we can say you owe us one. Which makes me wonder, why are you serving her, this Lady Vyn? I just heard from a friend of ours, that she had kept a whole bunch of hostages in her dungeon and pumped them full of toxins and drugs to keep them at bay. What does she have on you? Is your family locked up somewhere as well?”

Agent Bozemen sniffled and coughed, but still did not answer.

“You know, I for one, am quite simple and not that worldly. I am especially not very familiar with all the customs and politics of dealing with civilians and glorified merchants and mercenaries. So before the day before yesterday, I knew only that there was this group called Exalted Bondsmen, and that there were these ‘High Brokers’ in charge of handling requests and organizing the forces. But after some reading and research, and some intel gathering, I found that this world is indeed very small. For example, did you know that Lady Vyn, aside from being one of these ‘High Brokers’ and a crime lord in the civilian world and ‘Mama Reaper’ in the underground mercenary rings, is also a Hellinger?”

Agent Bozemen’s arms and shoulders twitched, then he looked up and finally opened his mouth: “How did you know?”

“Oh, you CAN talk, huh?” Professor Tony Barnes chuckled: “And seems like a big secret as well. I felt like I needed to send my friend a fruit basket. And you know what? They just gave us their permission to spread the word that we are the ones who found this out. And guess who we found that out from?”

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“What - how could you!?” Agent Bozeman stared at Professor Tony Barnes and spoke through his teeth: “This won’t work! She knows I will never betray her!”

“But that’s not what we gathered from you.” Professor Barnes leaned in slightly and asked: “I can tell that you fear her, but there was not much respect. And from the fact that she holds the families of her employees in a fucking dungeon speaks volumes about her ruling styles, doesn’t it? To someone who rules in fear, suspicion and paranoia is the default, while loyalty is seen as ruses or idiocy. So whatever she has on you, you’re just lucky it’s not been used up to this point.”

“Does this bring you joy?” Agent Bozeman asked: “Seeing that I am held here with my life laid bare and raw in your hands, which you can crush like a bug at any second? Is that what you’re trying to do here?”

“I understand why you feel this way and presume this of us. Being accustomed to the rule of fear can do that to a person. It’s not your fault.” Tony Barnes shook his head: “And trust me on this, the answer is - you might be somewhat right. This is not because we’d enjoy it if it was anyone, we enjoy it because you tried to murder our dear mentor. But on the other hand, though we don’t care about you, we would still hate to see you destroyed by a few horribly bad choices you made. If you are willing to help us, then we can do you a favor like my friend did to one of their captives who once worked for Lady Vyn: they rescued her family from a dungeon and reunited them. We could do the same for you, as long as you talk. You know what we want to know already: tell us everything about your mission here, and what you know about the circulation of the contaminated materials that plagued our school”

Agent Bozeman went silent and did not respond.

“Well, you think about it.” Professor stood up: “But don’t take too long, you know time is not on your side - the information you hold right now will lose value, while your situation gets worse by the second.”

“I want out of these shackles.” Agent Bozeman said all of a sudden: “And I want to be out of this cage, and I want food.”

“Best I can do is the shackles and food.” Professor Barnes smiled: “But the cage - like we told you many times before, it’s for both your protection and ours. In this cage, the gag curse won’t take effect, and even if you reveal the information you’re not supposed to, you won't be smited.”

Agent Bozeman let out a long sigh, as Professor Barnes walked out of the room.

“Professor.” Professor Barnes’ assistant came to his side: “Headmistress Clarkson wanted to meet you, she said she just received some critical intelligence.”

“Okay, did she say what about? And where?”

“The hospital, with Professor Kapur.” the assistant said, shaking his head: “But she didn’t say what about. It sounded really urgent though.”

“Okay, I’m on my way.”