NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 23.3 Interrogation
Cold hard stone did not make for the best of beds.
Sade groaned as her mind slowly clawed its way to wakefulness. Her body ached like she had done a double round of physical training and somehow forgot to get Lilie to heal her. It wasn’t the most pleasant batch of sensations to wake up to, but Sade would take feeling battered and bruised over shattered and broken any day.
“It seems you are finally awake.”
Sade groggily looked up from where she lay on the hard floor to see a familiar woman glaring down at her through thick metal bars.
“Lady Rivenmoor, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Sade said with a slight slur. It seemed her tongue had lagged behind the rest of her body in the wakeup process.
“Do not get flippant with me, slut!” The older woman spat with enough venom to kill a cave troll outright. “I require information. Which you will provide in a civil tone.”
The urge to tell the haughty bitch off, to shout with every obscenity she knew about how knocking out and kidnapping a woman then locking her in a dungeon cell was hardly the behavior that invoked civil discourse, flooded out of the deepest recesses of Sade’s heart to the point that it was nearly overwhelming. The fact that she was stripped bare, leaving all her glorious lady bits flapping in the nonexistent wind on top of all the previously listed injustices, only compounded the issue of holding back her vitriol.
Sade wanted nothing more than to verbally, if not literally, tear the woman's throat out with her teeth. And while the raging inferno of her indignation would be satisfied with either outcome, her intellectual side knew she was better served by keeping a cool head. The woman wanted to talk, and for the moment, that’s exactly what Sade would do.
And so she repressed the anger. Threw it down into the furthest depths of her mind, ready and waiting for the perfect moment for it to be unleashed.
“What would you like to know?” Sade asked once she regained full control of herself.
Lady Rivenmoor gave a self satisfied smirk. One that said she knew full well what sort of mental battle Sade had just waged and had just gotten exactly what she wanted from the exchange. That simple quirk of her perfect lips nearly sent all the bottled up feelings to explode out from their confinement. With a supreme force of will, the tide of fury was stopped before it could show on Sade’s face. It was not yet time to strike.
“That man you and your… friends hang around with. Are you four the only ones tainted?”
“Tainted?” Sade asked. Out of all the possible lines of inquiry the woman could ask, Sade never suspected she would ask about her relationship with Rick.
“Oh please. It is obvious at a glance that your bodies are artificial. Twisted and warped by your lustful acts and his profane magic.” Lady Rivenmoor sneered while gesturing to where her prisoner still lay naked on the stone floor. “And that is not even accounting for the absolute reek his kind produce. I swear the stench of his kind lingers absolutely everywhere like a toxic miasma.”
That last part sounded oddly familiar to Sade. It took some time, but eventually her powerful mind conjured an image of a sneering overweight man, one who ran an establishment within a small trading outpost.
“I did not realize there were those who could smell magic.” Sade said, trying her best to be careful with her words, lest she give away too much information.
The high elf scoffed. “Of course you would not. Only this land’s true guardians and their chosen few are blessed with the ability.” Lady Rivenmoor’s amusement seemed to rapidly evaporate. “But you are stalling. Answer my question!” She demanded.
Sade sighed. She was honestly surprised she managed to string the woman along as long as she did. “The five of us are the only ones who have used the power.” She admitted.
The older woman stood up straighter and smiled. “Good. That means there is still time to root out this infestation before it spreads.”
With that cryptic remark, Lady Rivenmoor turned on her heels and started to walk away from the cell.
“Hold on!” Sade shouted after the woman. “Are you saying you did all this because of my future husband and not because I was about to beat your daughter in front of the whole school?”
The woman stopped and slowly turned her blonde head back towards Sade. While her face remained impassive, her eyes blazed with a hatred far beyond anything the younger woman had ever seen.
“While I will freely admit you have some skill, you are still no elf, and certainly not a magus.” She replied coolly. “I was surprised that a whore like yourself managed to resist that little drug we gave you and still managed to win against that shy pup. Cleverness and tenacity aside, you were never going to beat my daughter.” She paused as if in thought. “In fact, you should thank me for taking you out of the tournament when we did. A prideful slut like yourself could never bear the shame of losing so spectacularly to your superiors.”
“Is that why you locked me in a cell enchanted with magic nullification?” Sade shot back. From the moment she woke up, she had been channeling numerous spells of various intensities. While there were no issues with cycling her mana through her body, the moment she tried to manifest the magic outward the spell would unravel like an old scarf. This was unsurprising, as the method was standard practice for detaining a convicted mage.
But that didn’t make the situation any less annoying or dangerous.
Lady Rivenmoor gave a wide smile, showing off her perfect pearly white teeth. “It has nothing to do with you, and just a simple precaution. Now without further ado, I must take leave of your… delightful company.”
She gave a dainty wave and once more strolled away.
“Crazy bitch…” Sade muttered under her breath once the sound of footsteps faded away.
She would have liked to say more, but chose to keep her more colorful opinions to herself for the moment. Sade unfortunately lacked Daniela’s talent for identifying if an area was enchanted or warded, let alone actually deducing their function. For all she knew her jailers could be listening in on what she said at that very moment. People could sometimes let something important slip in moments they thought they were alone.
Was that line of thinking overly paranoid? Yes, yes it certainly was. But Sade had thought herself safe while her professors and classmates were nearby, and yet she was taken right from under their noses. She was not keen on making the same mistake twice.
Still, the conversation was quite fruitful. To start, it seemed there were those who both knew about and could identify intimancy. That wasn’t the most concerning tidbit of information Lady Rivenmoor let slip however. The real issue was how she said that only the ‘land’s true guardians’ and their chosen servants could receive the ability. No high elf would ever group themselves with those they considered beneath them, which was virtually everyone else. That meant Lady Rivenmoor considered high elves to be the kingdom’s caretakers rather than their cousins.
It was possible the conflict between the two major elven tribes went a lot deeper than anyone ever realized, and somehow intimancy was involved. Sade would have to deal with that implication later.
The other major bit of information was no less interesting. While the good lady never outright admitted to anything, it was what was purposely left unsaid that caught Sade’s attention. The desire to kidnap Sade was a reaction to Rick’s presence and not a contingency in case Sade proved to be too strong for Ariwyn to handle. This meant the plan was rushed. And rushed plans often led to mistakes being made. Mistakes that could be utilized to turn the tables.
Once more Sade was amazed at the insight her lover brought with him from his old world. During their quiet moments of rest, he would often retell the various stories and legends he had grown up with. Rick loved tales of mystery and suspense, and often explained that a good interrogation was often one that had one or more of the people involved not even realizing they were being pumped for information in the first place.
This concept had confused many of them, Sade included. So Rick had also been forced to recreate a game from his world that he and his family used to play often. It was painfully simple in concept, everyone played a suspected murderer and each would take a turn trying to guess who had actually committed the crime, how they did it, and in what location. Even accounting for random bouts of luck and his greater experience at the game, Rick had won a concerning number of times.
When asked, he would explain that the most important part of the game wasn’t what he asked on his own turn, but what everyone else asked on theirs. It was after that realization that Sade began to see just how complex the seemingly simple game truly was. Rick would sometimes lament that as skilled as he was, he could never reliably outwit his father.
With that bitter thought out of the way, Sade turned to examine the place of her confinement. There was admittedly not much to analyze. Five out of the six sides of her small space were all the same featureless hard stone she woke up on, with the sixth composed of the iron bars she was leaning up against. The metal was spaced so close together that Sade could barely squeeze her hand through, let alone her muscular forearms.
In terms of amenities, she had exactly two. A scatting of hay to lay on, and a bucket to collect waste. All of the furnishing budget went into keeping her and her magic contained it seemed.
Sade clicked her tongue in annoyance. Barring any other nasty surprises Lady Rivenmoor had in store, her stay here still was not going to be a pleasant experience. She padded over to the center of the small room and sat down. One unintended benefit of all her self modification was that her rump had plenty of padding to combat the hard and unyielding surface.
That thought sparked an idea in the back of her mind. Breathing in and out slowly, she mentally checked on the small pool of coital energy she had accumulated before her capture. There wasn’t much. It became standard practice for her to spend it as soon as it was earned. The last thing anyone wanted was her to overdose on pleasure and go insane. If it wasn’t for the tournament distracting them all, Sade was unsure she would even have this small amount.
With a mental nudge, a single point of energy flowed into her body, nourishing her sore muscles and causing them to mildly swell with greater strength. The effect wouldn’t be noticeable to anyone watching, which is why she chose to increase her muscle mass in the first place. As the secondary effects of using coital energy kicked in, Sade was incredibly grateful her complexion made it difficult to see the flush of arousal in her cheeks, and the cool air already had her dark nipples stiff and puckered. To the casual observer, it would be as if she had done nothing at all.
But something had indeed happened. Sade forced herself to hold back a wide grin that threatened to split her face in two. She may not be able to cast spells, but an intimancer was more than just a spellcaster.
Slowly, as the surge of arousal began to fade, a plan began to form and take root in her mind. Depending on what happened next, she had a chance to escape her confinement. It would not be pleasant. In fact, it would be downright awful, demeaning, and could even threaten her very sanity. But it was still a chance. No matter what, she would break out of this place and return to the people she loved even if she had to debase herself repeatedly in order to do it.
She just hoped they would still love her when it was all said and done.
