Manipulation and confusion are the best tools to use when dealing with a reluctant prisoner. Psychomancy is a valuable option as well, but it requires a Psychomancer properly trained in informational extraction, and also that the prisoner has not had their minds or memories modified in any form or fashion. Torture should be disregarded entirely, unless used as a special interrogation technique to provoke someone to action.

The essentials for misdirection are as follows. First, it is best for your prisoner to be confused about your allegiance. This will allow them to reveal things they otherwise wouldn't to you. Second, make them think you know more than you already do. This way, they can easily let slip essential details, assuming that you already know about them.

From then on, make them paranoid. Make them think that some of their fellow prisoners have already spoken, have already betrayed their cause. Failing that, make them think that you don't believe them.

But above all, offer them a string of hope, the belief that they can be released, or a tangible goal they can work towards. A despairing prisoner is a prisoner willing to go to extremes. A hopeful prisoner will find that last shred of weakness in themselves and finally commit to a most personal betrayal.

-Aviary Training Course: "ENHANCED INTERROGATION"

147 (I)

Confessions

"I am no traitor!" Master-Inquisitor Sijik shot up from his seat. His chair went flying behind him, slamming against the wall with a resounding clang. An eruption of ashen magic exploded out from his body—then shattered and rebounded back into him.

The inquisitor reeled back, and just then one of Uva's mana strands pierced his skull. He let out a shriek, and thereafter Sijik dropped, spasming, while Uva remained seated.

The Owl didn't move, but his expression was one of absolute dread. His eyes flicked between Uva and the twitching Master-Inquisitor, and Shiv watched the Aviary agent swallow. The Deathless nearly spiked himself into the cell, but Adam placed a hand on his chest. He pointed to a pair of manacles attached to the downed Inquisitor's legs.

"Focus-breaking enchantment," Adam said. "It's what the Umbrals usually apply to prisoners who are powerful magi."

After a few moments of shaking and shuddering, Uva ripped her strand out from Sijik's head, and the Inquisitor let out a wet cough. His eyes rolled. The smell of piss stained the air with a hint of putrescence.

"I have been exceptionally kind to you." Uva's voice was that of coldest winter. "And now I have remained kind. I have not broken anything essential in your mind. You are right. Whoever warded your thoughts and memories did an exceptional job. I cannot get to them, at least not immediately. I can, however, break the parts of you that remain. Nod, if you understand."

Sijik didn't nod. He simply spat on the ground and forced himself to stand. There was absolutely no fear in the man. His eyes were bloodshot with hatred. Rather than direct his ire upon Uva, he turned his miserable stare on the Owl.

"You," he growled out. "What lies have you been peddling? What falsehoods have you been spitting to spare your own cowardly existence?"

The Owl didn't say anything at first, but slowly his mouth opened. "I didn't lie about the Educator." And Shiv noted how strategic his words were. He also noticed several of Uva's mana strings draw taut within the Owl's mind.

"I think I kind of get what she's trying to do," Shiv said, folding his arms. "It's like she's trying to get the Inquisitor to reveal more than we actually know by pretending we're Compact and getting him confused." Adam's face scrunched into a relatively sour expression, but he didn't say anything for or against Uva's strategy.

"More lies!" the Master-Inquisitor roared. He turned a finger on Uva. "And you! Release his mind! Release his mind, and let us see if he speaks the same! Or better, send for your guards. Release me from your gate. I need only a moment on the surface to confirm my identity, to confirm—"

"You will do nothing," Uva cut him off. "You will do nothing except tell me what I want to know." Uva arose from her seat, standing a good head taller than the Master-Inquisitor. Sijik wasn't a large man, but something about him made Shiv think of a cornered dog, always on the verge of snapping. "We do not trust you, surfacer. We do not trust your Republic for what your people have done to us. For the transgressions that had been committed against both Compact and Lord Scorn. The orcs were merely a sampling of our power. We have an arrangement with the Challenger himself, an arrangement that will be unleashed against Fortress-City Diego, and your main force, should you not answer my questions."

"You wouldn't dare." Sijik's voice dropped to a vicious snarl. "You wouldn't dare! If you do this, then it is war between the surface and the Abyss. War!"

"War? You threaten me with war after attacking us, after we have already suffered casualties? After all that we have lost?"

Sijik's face contorted. "That was not us."

"Then who was it? I have a witness. I have memories from this Owl and your Educator." She let out a bitter chuckle. "She revealed many things to us. We know very little of the inner machinations of your Ascendants, and nor do we care. However, what does matter to the Lords of Law is our sovereignty? Our sovereignty, which has been offended. And so we want to know for what reason these transgressions were committed. You claim not to be in league with the Owl," she turned and faced the agent, "yet you worked with an agent of the Inquisition to breach your gate, didn't you?"

"Yes," the Owl said. A technical truth. Uva was covering all her bases, even against the prisoner.

"Lies!" Sijik roared. "Where is she now? Where is the Educator? I wish to talk to her. I wish..."

"There will be no speaking to the Educator," Uva sat back down, her posture relaxing. "Gate Lord Confriga has made sure of that."

Sijik's mouth fell open. His eyes grew wide. Shiv watched the man take two steps back, and the chain on his manacle drew taut. "That's not…"

"I assure you, it is very much possible, and it very much has happened. You can claim that we are lying to you and continue throwing your tantrum like a child. Or you can plead your case. You can make plain why you are here. Why your agent, if she truly is rogue, did the things she did."

Master-Inquisitor Sijik grimaced. "We are here to subdue a traitor to the Republic." Shiv saw Adam's fists clench in the corner of his eye. "We are not here to raid or take your gate. Think of this. My expeditionary force was only two thousand Pathbearers."

"Two thousand Masters, High-Adepts, and quite a few Heroes," Uva shot back. "That is substantial. That is a mighty force. It is enough to take a great many Towns."

"Gate Theborn is no Town!" Master-Inquisitor Sijik snarled. "We are no fools. I came here to retrieve one Master-Advisor Oldsmith, another traitor to our Republic. He was tasked originally with securing an Animancy Core." At his own mention of the core, Master-Inquisitor Sijik's eyes twisted. He looked at the corner of the room. "The Animancy Core, is it still here?"

Uva didn't answer. She leaned forward. "Continue about Oldsmith."

For a moment, it seemed like Sijik would remain quiet out of spite, but he proceeded, illustrating multiple points Shiv and Adam already knew. Oldsmith was the Republic representative placed in Gate Theborn. The Inquisition had a cell operating here, meant to hold potential dissidents and dangerous figures, Pathbearers deemed too risky to hold on their territories on the surface.

"Bastards," Adam snarled under his breath, but then Sijik continued on, and his revelations reached new territory.

"We came to stop Roland Arrow from starting a new war, a transgression that will drag the rest of the Republic into the very hells behind him."

Uva regarded him for a moment, letting the silence stretch. "What kind of war?"

"A war between the surface and the Abyss."

Shiv and Adam shared a glance.

"Elaborate," Uva said. "We have received no intelligence regarding Roland Arrow's intent to raid the Abyss." She let out a scornful laugh. "In fact, he seems to be relatively indisposed. Indisposed because Vicar Sullain is too busy trying to sack Blackedge in retribution for what happened to his Submission."

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Sijik hesitated. There was something on the tip of his tongue that he wanted to say, but he wasn't sure about admitting.

Uva sighed. "No matter. If this is all you can say, then we will leave you here. You will remain for a time, and after that, we will send you back to the capital, along with a proper representative, where we will go over everything that has happened."

"He intends to make himself a god," Sijik finally spat. "He intends to invoke a Ritual of Remembered Ascension and claim part of a True God's power for himself, a right he has no right invoking, a divinity he is wholly undeserving of."

"True God?" Shiv asked. "The hells is he talking about?"

"The Composer is a True God," Valor said, his voice taking on a contemplative quality. "Though her power is limited, in the eyes of the System, she is truer than your Auroral Ascendants are. She did not ascend or gain power to reach her current state. She was divine by inception. What the Inquisitor claims is fascinating. To steal a god's power is more than unnatural—it requires one to defy the System itself. And often comes with brutal consequences."

"Why?" Shiv asked. Adam glared unblinkingly at Sijik beside him.

"Because it is not your story," Valor intoned. "An experimental Skill Transplant on this scale can only result in madness and destruction. The experiences and legends accumulated within the divine do not belong to you, and any attempts to brute-force an absorption will cause a volatile reaction on the soul level."

"But you said he was about to start a war," Uva continued, guiding the conversation back to coherence. "Why are we talking about Roland Arrow's desire for godhood?"

"These two things are tied," Sijik spät, scowling. "For years, he has operated in secrecy, serving the Starhawk." And Master-Inquisitor Sijik seemed impossibly awkward when speaking of the Starhawk. "He must have poisoned the mind of the Ascendant, or perhaps he has fooled the Starhawk. Regardless, they have gathered relics that do not belong to them, that should have been destroyed or kept hidden from the world."

"More Sacred Phylacteries," Uva finished.

Sijik swallowed. "The Republic's Sacred Phylacteries. These things were meant to be given unto the Ascendants for proper disposal and..." And Sijik stopped there. He didn't finish that sentence. "Instead, Roland Arrow has gathered them. He likely intends to descend into the Abyss soon, taking Starhawk's Perch with him, down into the deepest depths of its darkness, so that the Ritual of Remembered Ascension can be performed."

Uva cocked her head at the Master-Inquisitor. "Ritual of Remembered Ascension? You mentioned it before. Elaborate."

"Do we know what that is?" Adam suddenly asked.

Shiv shook his head. "No idea."

"Yes," Valor replied with a sigh. The other three outside the cell looked at him. "The Ascendants had reached the deepest depths of the Abyss in the past. They managed to greet the heart of the Great One before they returned. A great many believe they performed a ritual to obtain their power—that they took something from the Great One. But all this is without definite proof, and my own memories regarding the Ascendants are lacking. But why would Roland descend with the Perch? With all the other relics? The Ascendants did not need to make an offering before. Something is missing from Sijik's explanation."

"And are you certain of this?" Uva asked after Sijik gave her a shortened version of what Valor had told them. "That Town Lord Roland Arrow truly seeks to do such a thing?"

"Of this I have no doubt," Inquisitor Sijik declared. He puffed his chest out. "The Ascendants themselves told me."

"But is the Starhawk not another one of your Ascendants?"

"He is," Sijik snarled. "He is merely... merely lost. His perfection has been tainted by human avarice, human deception, by Roland Arrow's vile tongue, and by love."

"Love?" Uva laughed. Her mocking chuckle earned her a reproachful glare from the Inquisitor.

"You insult me, but I speak true. The Starhawk cared deeply for Town Lord Arrow. He had shown him his favor for years, seeing him as a disciple, a faithful man. But the war against the Abyss…" Sijik closed his eyes. "It ruined things. It twisted the Town Lord. With his unlawful and brutal sacking of Submission, he lost his way. And we all paid for his avarice. Thanks to him, the brutality of the war continued on, costing the lives of so many sons, daughters, and automata of the Republic, and countless more Abyssals. Yet, despite this, despite the Ascendants having every right to punish him, the Starhawk intervened and protected his chosen Champion from any retribution. Love… love has undone one of my gods."

Now, it was Shiv holding Adam back from pushing his way into the cell. Shiv could practically feel the anger vibrating off the Gate Lord's flesh. "He spits nothing but lies and falsehoods," Adam snarled.

"Yeah. Maybe. But we want all his bullshit out first so we get a picture of just how felling insane he is. Or whatever we're missing."

Adam was practically rigid with anger. But the Deathless was fascinated by the conversation. Master-Inquisitor Sijik seemed entirely earnest and, on some level, kind of lost as to why he was actually doing this.

"And how do you know this?" Uva asked again.

"Because it came from the lips of an Ascendant," he snapped. "I told you!"

"Which Ascendant?"

"It was Kathereine, the Songbringer, who told me! She revealed herself, revealed herself to me, and to a few she trusted. A great scheme is unfolding, a grand conspiracy that is sweeping through the heart of my beloved Republic. And now I stand in this cell. I am castigated by an Abyssal. An abyssal I had no intention of facing, no intention of offending." Master-Inquisitor Sijik's lip curled, and a single tear fell from his eye. "And now my fellow inquisitors have given all, given all they have. Within the Ascendants' glory, they rest. But their deaths were unjust."

"Their deaths came as a consequence of an unneeded attack," Uva hissed. She put on a good play, pretending to be angered. But the Master-Inquisitor simply looked down.

"Contact City Lord Stormhalt. There is much he can tell you. There is much I am not at liberty to say, but I must beg you. I must swallow my jagged pride and beg. You must release me, and you must surrender the Animancy Core to my custody. It is the only way that things will end well, that things do not escalate. This is not a threat. This is me pleading, begging. This is me asking you to spare your own lives. Sullain is beyond control—a mad dog. I know that you do not wish for the surface to descend. Please… spare your own lives. Do not let people like me enter your homes."

The sheer passion in his words left Shiv speechless. It left Adam speechless as well. "It sounds like he actually believes all that shit," Shiv commented.

Uva drew in a long breath. "Should we give you the Animancy Core, what will you do with it?"

"We will use it to bring the travesty at Blackedge to a righteous end. We will use it to save what lives we can, subdue Roland Arrow, secure Starhawk's Perch, and satisfy Vicar Sullain while keeping him still controlled. We must take back the Perch, take back all Sacred Phylacteries that Roland Arrow has stolen. Then and only then can this crisis be brought to an end and a civil war be averted."

"And this civil war is to be caused by Roland Arrow's ascension to godhood," Uva asked.

"Godhood?" Inquisitor Sijik sneered. "No. Even if he gained the power of the Forgotten—" He he caught himself. "O-of the abandoned Sacred Relics, he cannot be a god. He will never be a god. No faith will flow towards him. He will not be elevated by our mana. He is not remembered by the System. He will never be remembered by the System. We will make sure to strike every memory of him from the record. He will be forgotten. Utterly. Completely."

"Remembered by the System?" Shiv muttered. He turned to Valor with a questioning look, but the Legendary Pathbearer stared through the glass with rapt attention as well.

"Forgotten like the other former Ascendants?" Uva breathed. Sijik's eyes widened.

Sijik looked at the Owl for a moment. "How do you know? What do you know?"

Uva leaned back. "A bit more than you think, I suspect. Your Educator told us much."

And for the first time, the Master-Inquisitor seemed scared. He fell to his knees and clasped his hands together. "Listen to me. Listen to me. I beseech you. I need to secure Blackedge. I need the core. I need to bring it back to City Lord Stormhalt. There is no more time. We cannot afford a civil crisis in the Republic, not now! We are surrounded on all sides by enemies. It is not only New Albion that gnaws at us. The Atlantic, the Pacific, they are filled with nightmarish dangers held at bay only because they fear our Ascendants! The Dread North, choked by its eternal winter storm, batters at our doors, and the cruel fae carried in its wake are only held at bay by our Ascendants! South, where the orcs rage, and further south yet, where the blood-soaked empires of sacrifice run vast, constantly pushing outward, seeking slaves and sacrifices to sate their vile serpent god, we have more enemies still!"

Sijik was outright crying now. Tears ran down his face, and Shiv and Adam stared at the scene, transfixed. "The Republic is forged of faith," he sobbed, "faith in our Ascendants! And it is all that spares our people from oblivion and damnation, that grants prosperity in strife!"

"It is not our faith," Uva said quietly, "and they are not my Ascendants."

"Oh, but we have kept you safe for so long," Sijik cried. "Without us, you would have been ravaged countless times over. Without us, the treaties do not stand, and if we are struck down, the rest of the surface nations will descend! You know my words ring true, Abyssal! They will march across the world with their armies millions strong, and they will flood down into the Abyss with nothing held back! They will butcher your peoples, and they will take what our Ascendants have once claimed, have guarded through treaty. They will take your Great One. Think of that. Be selfish if you cannot be noble, but make the right choice." And with those words finished, Sijik sagged. He looked two centuries older. His eyes were sunken, his face a mask of sweat and exhaustion.

Adam and Shiv stood frozen, and even Valor was entirely still. Uva briefly placed a strand against Sijik's mind, but then retracted it. She rose, and with a gesture of her hand, the Owl left the cell first. As he merged through the veil, Adam shaped a spell and let the Aviary agent through. A second later, Uva followed. Only after that did they slam the cell wall shut in place.

"Shiv," Uva said, slightly surprised. "You're here. When did you arrive?"

"Before either of you started talking." He looked in the direction of Master Sijik, who was currently huddled as a ball next to the wall of the cell, as far as his manacle would allow. His gaze was distant, and Shiv could practically taste the trauma radiating from the man's body.

"At minimum, he believes what he said," Uva said. "Every single word."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.