C1E19 - Cut and Run

One lucky bolt found a chink in my armor, but the other
bounced harmlessly off my plate and magics as I charged forward. The thrill of
battle was upon me. These six guardsmen were nothing before me. My next breath
felled two of them and charred two more. The screams of the burned men echoed deep
inside me as their comrades tried to pull them to safety, giving me a moments
hesitation before I charged in with my sword to finish them.

More bolts futilely flew past me as I cleaved through the
thin chains protecting another guard’s chest. I was unstoppable. *He is*
nothing. End him and finish the others.Destroy anything that stands in
your way. *But as I raised my sword for the finishing blow, I could see the terror*
in his eyes as he desperately tried to pull his friend to safety in the face of
a raging monster. I paused. The other guards in the courtyard were just as
terrified. Through the red haze, I could just make out the common people
fleeing from my wrath, as reinforcements began to approach.

Is this what I had become? The terrible monster, to be put
down by heroic guards protecting innocents. I was supposed to protect the
innocent. Instead I had become the thing I feared. Proved true all those in
Argentax who said I was too dangerous and needed to be put down. I had failed
Torinn.

It was all true. I could not bear to hold the blade which
has allowed this to happen. I tried to drive it into the ground, seal it away,
but the stone courtyard foiled me even in doing that much good. I turned and
fled. Pain shot through my side a bolt pierced my armor, but I was too
distraught to care. I kept running.

Then the world seemed to twist out around me. The raging
inferno quieted, almost vanishing completely. A different voice entered my mind.
*Take off your armor. Do not resist.* A calm flowed over me, and it seemed
the most reasonable thing in the world. I turned back and began the process of
removing my plate as guards surrounded me. Whatever spell had controlled me
faded after a minute or two, but by then my hands were bound with manacles, and
a robed figure stood before me, with a shaved head and no discernible gender.

“Who are you?” I asked.

*I am Tranquil*, the figure replied. *Now come. There*
are things that must be done now. Do not resist. The queens’ will will be done
and peace will be restored to their streets.

“As it should be,” I replied. I was a threat. It was their
duty to keep the peace.

*Indeed. Now, do not resist. Sleep.*

The figure made a few more motions in the air, and I felt
sleep begin to take me. *Do not bow to this creature who would toy with your with.*
Resist! *The voice of the inferno surged within me giving me strength, and I*
tried to fight the magic. But my powers were not enough, and I slipped into
unconsciousness.

I woke to cold stone against my face. I was alone in a small
stone cell that looks like one of the cells in the prison where Price was being
kept. All of my equipment had been confiscated, and I had been left with only
ill-fitted prison rags. On the other side of the rusted iron bars sat Tranquil,
waiting patiently for me to awake. As soon as I began to shift upright, I heard
their voice in my head once more.

*Well. What are we going to do with you?*

“You could start by taking my warning seriously. I may have
lost myself a little bit, but I swear to you. The threat from Bakrimathis is
real.”

*Yes. I will investigate those concerns. But first I am*
investigating you. You drew a blade on the magistrate Purcell. Is that true?

“Yes”

*And you demanded that he write you a message that would allow*
you to free one of the prisoners. Is that true?

“I demanded he do what was right, yes.”

“What is the purpose of this?”

*The purpose of this is to seek truth. I am humble*
functionary, but I consider myself a siv where lies dissembling, prevarication,
complication, is strained out of the world. I bring simple clear truth, and you
are going to provide me with that truth and then I will move on and I will
continue to siv the world. So I will ask a again, did you demand that he write
you a message that would allow you to free one of the prisoners?

“Yes.”

*Where is that note now?*

“I don’t have it.”

*Where did you put it?*

“I’m not sure why I should tell you that”

*You will tell me, whether you tell me through*
questioning, whether you tell me through questioning or through extraction, you
will tell me.

“Let’s move on try another question I might be more inclined
to answer”

*That’s not how this is going to work.* The Tranquil
began casting another spell, and strange tendrils seemed to extend from a
symbol in their forehead to connect with my own head, and I could feel them
prying into my thoughts, trying to understand me against my will. It was
disgusting, this invasion of my mind.

 “Stop!” I put as much
magic into the word as I could manage, trying to bend the creature to my will. They
were not the only one able to toy with someone’s mind. That was my goal. The
Tranquil seemed to shrug off my influence with barely any effort. All I seemed
to achieve was a brief respite from the interrogation. And the cold voice
returned to my head.

*You misunderstand. I am the one who gives the commands. I*
am the one who asks the questions. And by the time this night is over, there
will be nothing in the world that you know that I do not. *And so they began*
again.

Resisting their probe demanded my full concentration, and
even then, despite my best efforts to clear my mind of any relevant information,
I could feel them digging, grasping at my stray thoughts for whatever could be
gleaned. Whenever possible I answered their questions to the best of my ability,
but I did not trust this creature who would violate my mind to have the best
interests of Squad 13, or even the city, at heart. So I gave them as little as
I could about my companions. I do not know if I was successful.

The only pause was brief. The Tranquil extracted some
silvery fluid from their head, put it into a small vial, and handed it off to a
guard to be taken to the Inkwell. Some sort of record of the memories they had
seen. Then it resumed.

The interrogation seemed to go on for hours, although time
held little meaning in that dark prison, hidden from the light of day. Perhaps it
was a blessing, keeping my mind from the darker thoughts of what I had done and
what I had become.

Shouts and sounds of battle outside brought respite from the
endless questions. The Tranquil spoke again.

*I believe our discussion will need to be postponed. But I*
would rather that in the event of a problem. That problem be minimized. *I*
could not tell what it was, they tried to cast some other spell upon me. When I
resisted, they turned to face the more immediate threat at the door. *Well, I*
shall just need to make sure that such a problem does not occur.

I head a loud crack from the ceiling above me, and chips of
wood and slate from the roof clattered to the floor. I heard the doors of the
compound broken down, and knew it was time to make my escape. My companions
had, for some reason, decided I was worth rescuing. I tried to pry open of door
to my cell, but I was tired and worn, and it barely budged.

Unable to join my companions in the battle outside, I could
at least create a distraction. I called upon the flames of a brazier to flare
up and ignite the ceiling before I turned to the hole in my ceiling to find a
now familiar Loxodon staring down at me.

Climbing quickly, I knew I needed to do everything I could
to rescue Price as well. If we could not get her information, all of this would
be for not, and it may have been better for me to rot in prison. Milady had
shared my goal in this, and we worked together to break open the roof above
Price’s cell and help her climb to safety.

I could see Agate, Nix struggling with an unconscious
Orentha on the north end of the compound, and started towards them to join in
the battle, perhaps even find the equipment which had been taken from me. Then
Price jumped off the roof and began to run, and I knew keeping hold of her was
more important than anything else. She was our key to Bakrimanthis. So I went
after her.

It did not take long to reach her, and she seemed inclined
to remain with me, so over the next hour or so we made our way to quietly to
the docks, where Jamra was waiting with Captain Harkin and a ship to lead us
out to sea. Last to arrive was Milady, followed by the Lieutenant from the
jail, and a strange pair of glowing eyes which could only be the work on the
Tranquil.

Finally, as the night enveloped us and swallowed the city,
there was a moment of calm, for the first time in what felt like an eternity. I
could no longer ignore it. I had to face my friends, and what I had become, and
find some way forward.