Debrief

On June 16th, while he was having a lovely dinner at home, Aleksei received a Sending.

*Prince Abernathy, please report to the military museum. General Jasper needs your assistance debriefing a prisoner.*

Aleksei wiped his mouth and took a drink of water. He was surprised General Jasper needed him; the general was usually pretty good at getting people to talk. “I’ll be there momentarily,” Aleksei said.

He was pretty fucking curious why they needed him.

--

When he reached the military museum, it was almost nightfall. Aleksei nodded to the woman at the front desk, and she let him past. A guard escorted him through the museum and into the fort, then down the stairs into the cells.

Aleksei calmly stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.

The prisoner was a scruffy-looking half-elf. Dark hair and shadowed eyes. Cleric robes, but no obvious holy symbol. Hard to tell if he had wood elf ancestry or high elf ancestry. He grimaced at Aleksei.

The general had his feet propped up onto the table. “Oh, there you are,” the general said, waving him over, smiling at him. “Listen, Abernathy, I need you to do me a solid--”

“Mhm.”

“I heard your family has some sort of weird abilities,” Jasper said, swinging his legs around. He clapped them on the ground and looked directly at Aleksei. “I heard you can, like… get into people’s heads. Right? Fuckin’ creepy.”

Aleksei shrugged. “A lot of spellcasters can read minds.”

“Yeah, but you… you fuckin’ specialize in that shit, right? You can get deep in there.”

“Mm. Mhm.”

General Jasper waved to the young man. “This fucker broke into the museum, yelling about how everything in it belonged to him. Then once we arrested him, he Sent to somebody. Called for help. Now, obviously this son-of-a-bitch is a high-level caster and obviously he’s working for somebody, and we’re worried they’re gonna try to break in here and bust him out and steal everything that isn’t nailed down. Get inside his head. Tell us who.”

The young man’s eyes bugged out. The whites of his eyes were visible all the way around. He shuddered. General Jasper obviously had him under some sort of holding spell, or domination spell, because it looked like he couldn’t move.

“Sure,” Aleksei said, amused. “I can do that.”

He leaned forward, and, very lightly, touched Goro’s temples.

It took a while. There was something blocking him from reading the young man’s thoughts. Aleksei frowned. “Young man, what’s preventing us from reading your thoughts?” he asked mildly. He glanced at Jasper. “Can you make him tell us?”

“No. I can tell him what to do, though.” Jasper leaned forward. He gave a clear, direct order. “If there’s anything preventing us from reading your thoughts, get rid of it. An item. A spell. Anything like that.”

The young man paused, obviously fighting as hard as he could. His face twisted up in rage and terror. Then, hands shaking, he reached out his right hand, and made a motion like he was removing an invisible ring.

It turned out he was, in fact, wearing an invisible ring. It became visible as soon as he took it off and set it on the table.

“Neat,” Aleksei said, pleased. “What’s that? A ring of mind-shielding? Oh, and you turned it invisible to hide it from us. Precious. Poor baby.”

Aleksei touched his forehead again. The young man had a lot of willpower. It took several attempts to break into his mind, even with Aleksei fighting as hard as he could, and once he got in, he could feel terror coming off him in waves.

He was screaming at Aleksei internally, screaming get out get out get out. He was thinking-- for some reason-- about a woman with dripping black eyes and a honeyed voice.

Aleksei sifted through a few recent memories. He took his time, going through them slowly.

The young man’s name was Goro. Voronin, or… Bell… or.... Sterling, maybe… Flatflower? That one was further back. It was unclear which one was his real name. “His name is Goro,” Aleksei said distantly. “He’s changed identities a few times, I think. Some type of con man or criminal, I assume.”

*Get out of my head! Get out, you son-of-a-bitch! You have no fucking right!*

“Calm down,” Aleksei said comfortingly. “Once I’m done, I’ll just wipe this little interaction away. You won’t even remember it.”

That, unfortunately, seemed to distress him even more. It was amazing how just a couple sentences could freak some people out.

Aleks continued sifting through memories. Goro came here to find some letters from his father, a deceased wood elf. He came here with a small gang of criminals. Some of them had to disguise themselves. One of them was a half-orc, and he used a magic mask to get in. The mask belonged to Mishka, who refused to disguise himself like a fucking chump--

The mask belonged to Mishka.

Aleksei’s eyes flickered open, and he studied the young man in front of him, who glared at him furiously, obviously fighting the spell as hard as he could.

“Find anything out?” General Jasper said.

“Yes. Another moment, please.”

Aleksei continued working through recent memories. There were a small handful of people with him: A half-orc named Hansel, a tiefling cousin named Larkin, a tortle named Roddy, a pureblood high elf named Raef Chastain-- ah, Chastain… and Mishka, a high elf sorcerer with a taste for expensive clothing. Goro tried to talk Mishka into disguising himself, but Mishka refused, saying something about scaring the high elves. Mishka seemed nervous about coming home. Upset. But covering it up. Not wanting to talk about it.

Goro’s eyes widened a little as he felt what Aleksei was looking at.

Aleksei went a little farther.

Graverunners. The half-orc and Mishka were married. Betrayal. Mishka stabbed him in the back years ago-- wasn’t his fault, though. Something about the dragon. Half-orc was devastated, tried to drink himself to death. Looked half-dead when Goro met him. Goro always had his back. Always loyal. Helped saved his kid from Mishka when Mishka fed the kid poison. Fiance. Getting married. Kissing, underwater. In bed. All three of them. Nicknames. Krishi. Koshka.

The tortle. Mishka’s son. Roddy proudly proclaiming to everyone who’d listen that Mishka was his dad now. Mishka getting jumpy and protective of the kid.

Two other kids. Luci and Jonn. Stepchildren. Mishka was fond of the girl. The boy tried to kill him. Patting his pockets, looking for a vial. Dread. Sewing his pockets shut for weeks. Mishka with wet black eyes, moving like a puppet.

Cousin. Basha. Mother. A woman with dark hair and dark eyes spitting at him, telling him he was weak and she’d done what was best for him. A little girl with the same dark brown eyes, clinging to Goro’s thigh, making motions with her hands. A tiefling girl who loved him. Larkin always said blood family was everything.

A baby half-orc with the mark of the Scion of Gruumsh. Raef Chastain sitting on a bed on a ship, holding a jawbone, begging Goro to bring his husband back to life. A scruffy-looking boy saying, “You’re early,” and tapping his pocketwatch.

Mishka. Holding Goro’s face and saying, “You did so good. So good for me, koshka.” Pleased and relaxed in bed, naked together. Mishka’s skin was so pretty, covered in scales and tattoos and freckles. He had three scars on his arm and a lightning bolt across his chest where they killed him.

Aleksei let go.

He swayed a moment, overwhelmed, and rested his head in his hands.

“Anything?” Jasper said.

Aleksei wet his lips. “His name’s Goro. He has a lot of last names. Voronin, Bell, Sterling, Flatflower, Ripley. Some sort’ve con man, looks like. He works for a group called the Runners. He came to get some letters from the museum. They belonged to his father.” He shook his head. “That’s all I managed, I’m afraid.”

He touched Goro’s face again, and his time, his hand glowed with memory modification magic. “Nothing happened,” Aleksei said. “General Jasper called a man in to try and read your mind, but he couldn’t, because you were wearing a ring that blocked it. He gave up and left, and you were relieved.”

Aleksei slid the ring back onto Goro’s finger. He wasn’t sure which finger it was supposed to be on, so he guessed at random and put it on the right hand, on his middle finger.

Aleksei rose to his feet and left. He was pretty sure he had everything he needed.