NABC Chapter 394: Interrogation
Chapter 394: Interrogation
Chapter 394: Interrogation
“Anger... Hatred... Slaughter...”
“About what I would expect out of a demon,” Ludger grumbled from the sideline.
“Shush,” Amarantha told the Bulwark as she watched the scene with fascination. “I am trying to see if I can pick up on how they are communicating.”
“A lot of it’s body language,” Syd whispered to the Lares from where she stood nearby. “But there’s also a lot communicated by taste or smell, which I can’t really parse. Sound doesn’t play into their language at all.”
“That makes some sense,” Wilhelm commented as he rubbed his chin with thumb and finger. “Demons do not have ears in their natural state, after all.”
“I said shush!” the flaming cat demanded as her squeaky voice rose in pitch. “I can’t concentrate if you keep distracting me!”
Syd obeyed Amarantha’s command as she focused on the “conversation” happening between Alex and the possession Demon. Not that much information had been revealed since they had begun. The Demon had been less than forthcoming with Alex so far, which was something that Jadis had expected. There really wasn’t much reason for the demonic squid to cooperate with them, after all. Straight answers were never her expectations, though. Jadis hoped that Alex would be able to glean some useful information just from communicating with a creature that likely wasn’t used to being “verbally” deceptive.
The small but hostile Demon had been placed on a table in the middle of the dress shop. Alex stood before it, fully focused and engaged with the creature, while Jay stood just to the side of her, ready to act if necessary. While her Syd self, Wilhelm, Ludger, and Amarantha stood a distance back to give Alex room to work, Lucia and Halvor had stationed themselves close to the table in case the Demon tried to escape.
Well, the Demon had tried to escape, several times in fact. But Alex was faster than the smaller Demon and she had kept it on the table with her superior speed and strength. According to Alex, the Demon hadn’t said much at first. After a few minutes of fruitless attempts it had stopped trying to escape and was instead venting its anger at Alex, while also tossing abuse at the gathered force.
“Your flesh... Is food... For worms...” Alex translated the latest round of hurled insults. “Die... Crumble... Rot... Feed for insects... And fungus...”
“Is that really what this scum is saying?” Halvor asked with one lip curled as he stared at the pale green eye of the Demon.
“That does come across as far more coherent than I would expect,” Lucia commented, her stance wary but less on-edge than Halvor. “I would have thought its vocabulary more limited.”
“Words are difficult...” Alex said as she glanced up at Halvor and Lucia, though Jadis noticed that her middle eye stayed focused on the Demon. “Concepts... Emotions... Intentions... We speak clearly...”
Halvor snorted, but he didn’t say anything further.
“Oh, that twist of three tentacles!” Amarantha exclaimed suddenly. “It keeps doing that! What does that mean?”
“Betrayer...” Alex answered. “She calls me... A Betrayer... Because I will not... Follow Samleos...”
Jadis had heard that more than a few times so far during the course of the interrogation. While a good amount of the angry sentiments being expressed by the Demon were directed towards the group at large, the bulk of the hatred was focused on Alex in particular. It, or she, knew that Alex was the enemy of Samleos, likely due to Samleos pressing his thoughts upon her.
“Perhaps I should begin searching for the cultist hiding in the crowd below?” Lucia asked the room at large as she watched Alex and the Demon continue their exchange. “It does not seem as though much information of relevance will be forthcoming, at least not immediately.”
“That’s a fair point,” Wilhelm told the pale therion. “I will send for you if we gain some information that will aid you in the search.”
With a silent nod, Lucia took her leave as she politely pushed past the guard captain who had stationed himself near the doorway leading to the stairs.
For his part, the guard captain looked equal parts confused and disturbed by the scene, but he had the good sense to keep quiet. Jadis could sympathize with the man. He looked like he had been dragged into a situation that had gone way over his head. She knew the feeling.
“You are certain that the people downstairs unknowingly harbor a cultist still, yes?” Wilhelm asked as the Paladin’s footsteps echoed behind the closed door.
“As certain as I can be,” Syd shrugged expressively. “Someone slipped that cursed pendant back onto my other self. It’s possible they managed to sneak away already, but the guards were pretty careful to keep everyone together.”
When Syd shrugged, her ruined dress lifted high, exposing more of her already exposed thighs. Fortunately, Jadis had worn some very comfortable underwear on her bodies that night, but Syd’s long legs were still on full display thanks to her having torn her skirt to wrap the material around Severina’s injury. It really wasn’t an issue for Jadis to be so exposed since she didn’t have a problem with others seeing something as relatively innocent as her legs, but she noticed that Wilhelm was being exceedingly careful to keep her thighs outside of his peripheral vision. He really was blushing like a schoolboy over the smallest hint of sexuality.
Sure, Jadis knew she had a trio of killer bodies, but she didn’t think her beauty was that distracting.
“This isn’t working,” Halvor grunted with impatience. “A brainless slug like this isn’t going to have anything to say worth hearing. We should kill it and be done!”
“Keep your panties on,” Jay frowned at the barbarian. “It’s only been fifteen minutes.”
“Still a waste,” the copper-haired man said as he paced back and forth like a dog on a chain. “Even if it has something to say worth hearing, it’s not going to betray its own for no reason. Tell the damned thing that I’ll crush it to paste unless it voices something worth saying in the next minute!”
“That will... Not work...” Alex carefully shook her head at Halvor. “She would... Prefer Death... To being here...”
“She prefers death?” Jay asked with a raised eyebrow. “She wants to die?”
“Death... Is a Return... To the Father...”
“If all these Demons want is to return to their father, why don’t they all toss themselves into a fire and be done with it?” Ludger asked with his arms folded. “It would save us all a lot of trouble.”
“They want... To please... Samleos...” Alex said as she turned to look at the Bulwark. “They will... Kill... Many... Before dying... If Possible...”
“And why do you not want to please Samleos?” Amarantha abruptly asked.
“Ama,” Wilhelm said quietly in a scolding tone. “That’s not polite.”
“My apologies,” the Lares said, though she didn’t sound terribly sorry. “Just a question I had nibbling my ear. Feel free to ignore me.”
“Samleos desires... Destruction...” Alex answered Amarantha’s question without any sign of being offended. “He is... Wrong... I wish... To please... Jadis...”
“Hm, I’m sure you do,” Amarantha hummed as her two-toned eyes flicked between Alex and Jay.
“Getting back on track,” Jay coughed into her fist. “We’re trying to figure out how to get answers out of the that Demon, not this one.” She placed a hand on Alex’s shoulder for emphasis. “None of you have any other suggestions, do you?”
Wilhelm shook his head in the negative while Ludger shrugged. Amarantha’s expression was contemplative, but she didn’t voice any ideas.
“If death doesn’t scare it, maybe pain will,” Halvor said as he pointed one of his axes at the Demon on the table. “I bet if I start chopping off tentacles, it’ll be of a mind to talk.”
Both Jay and Syd grimaced at the suggestion. The idea of torture didn’t sit well with Jadis, not after her previous experience with threatening the act back in Weigrun. Her temper back then had been at its worst and she’d been raw with pain and emotion, so torturing someone who she blamed for a lot of the trouble she’d gone through had seemed reasonable. In hindsight, not as much. Even if the Demon was a truly evil creature that wouldn’t hesitate to kill everyone she loved if given half the chance, it was still an intelligent, living being. Hacking limbs off until it talked felt... well, it made her feel like she wasn’t the good guy in the situation.
“And there’s nothing else the Demon can tell us about the cultists?” Amarantha asked after a pregnant pause. “No further information on their whereabouts or how we can identify them?”
Alex shook her head firmly before answering.
“Nothing... More...”
So, that avenue was a disappointment. The Demon couldn’t tell them who the cultists were individually. But still, the interrogation had given them some good information to act on. They could at least start their search now that they had a better understanding of just how big of a problem they were dealing with when it came to the network of cultists. Jadis doubted even Kestil, as devious a man as the prince was, had any inkling to just how large of a threat the cult of Samleos had become.
“Any... More questions?” Alex asked the room at large.
“Nothing more I can think of,” Jay said as the others murmured similar sentiments.
“Good...”
With that pronouncement, Alex suddenly whipped one of her large tentacles down at the smaller Demon on the table. A blue flame of burning magic cracked like lightning as the possession Demon was splattered to pieces across the wooden surface.
“What the fuck, Alex!?” Jay and Syd both exclaimed.
“Our bargain... Was complete...” the demonic paladin said as she faced Jay fully. “She wished... For death...”
“Good riddance,” Halvor spat at the smeared remains.
“We might have had follow-up questions later, Alex,” Jay chided the Demon.
“It was... A bargain...” Alex argued back. “I Promised...”
“Okay, well, next time,” Jay sighed as she pulled Alex closer for a hug, “Give me some warning, okay?”
“Okay...”
While Jay and Alex hugged, the Hero’s party started talking as they moved towards the stairs. Wilhelm and Ludger were already talking to the guard captain, giving him orders on who to send information to so they could start the search for anyone involved in the transportation of the Demons immediately. Halvor was talking about heading into the reservoir to search for leads, with or without the army’s help. Even Elodie was adding to the mix of voices as she told Ludger about some merchant connections her family had that might offer some insight into the underbelly of smuggling that could have been involved in the transportation of Demons.
“A shame that we could not learn anything to narrow down who the cultist might be downstairs,” Amarantha’s voice came from somewhere around Jay’s feet. “But not to worry. Lucia is the tenacious sort. She will sniff them out.”
Jay looked down to see the small fiery cat sitting on the floor. She was poking at one of Alex’s black tentacles with her paw, like she was curious about the texture.
“Hopefully she can,” Jay said. “If he or she hasn’t already managed to slip away in all the chaos.”
“A distinct possibility,” Amarantha agreed. “If they are a master of illusions, as it seems likely they are, then they could have escaped using some form of invisibility or deception.”
Leaping up from the ground to land on a clean spot near one corner of the table, the Lares looked up at Jay and Alex with an earnest expression on her feline face.
“Do you remember anyone? Anyone at all who could be a stronger suspect than just the crowd at large? Your memory may be the only evidence that we have to go on, if Lucia cannot identify anyone.”
Jay shook her head slowly as she went over the events of the evening. Her memory was a little muddled from the frantic activity and her own growing exhaustion, but nothing immediately came to mind.
“There were a lot of injured people around my other self. I was helping move people where and when I could, so any of them could have slipped the bracelet back onto my wrist when I wasn’t looking. Especially if they were using illusions to hide their movements.”
“Was there anyone you interacted with more than once?” Amarantha pressed. “If the cultist was trying to get the item back onto you, they might have had to try more than once before getting the right opportunity.”
“That doesn’t narrow it down too much either,” Jay shrugged. “With how chaotic it all was, I was talking to just about everyone multiple times while we tried to keep everyone safe. I was helping everyone from Lords to guards to servants; anyone who was injured. And there were plenty of people who were helping me, too. I just can’t think of anyone who stood out more than anyone else.”
“Fair enough,” the Mystic sighed. “I suppose that was a little too much to ask. In any case, it looks like the others are leaving us behind. We should get downstairs and see what more needs to be done.”
Jay nodded along with the Lares’ words as she moved towards the stairs where her Syd self was already waiting. There was still a lot to do, even if her more active role was over for the time being. Sure, she wasn’t going to be running out and fighting any more Demons for the moment, but she wanted to make sure that all of her friends and family were safe. She couldn’t rest until she knew that was the case, even with all the injuries that she had piled up over the course of the evening.
“I hope we can get Sabina to some better healing soon,” Syd commented tiredly as she shuffled down the stairs. “Eir’s doing the best she can, but we need someone who can purge whatever poison is in her system out of her. And out of me, for that matter.”
“I’m sure Jocelyn will be able to handle that issue once she arrives,” Amarantha said as she balanced on the stair banister. “It’s a good thing you are so sturdy. I do not think many people could handle being as injured as you are, even with three bodies.”
“Thanks,” Jay let out a weary half-laugh. “I’m glad for a lot of things tonight. My own big health pool is one of them. Alex’s health is another.”
“She was in the jaws of another greater Demon,” Syd explained when she saw the question on Amarantha’s face. “And that was after she spent I don’t know how many minutes defending a woman on the stairs from dozens of Demons attacking her. She really had me worried that she wasn’t going to be able to survive all that damage.”
“But Alex is tougher than she looks,” Jay smiled as she walked down the stairs with the Demon held close against her side. “And she already looks tough. Right Alex?”
“Man...”
“Hm?” Jay gave Alex a confused look. “What was that?”
“Man...”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jay clarified her confusion as she slowed her pace on the stairs. “Why are you saying that word?”
“I defended... A man... On the stairs...” Alex slowly explained. “I thought... He was you... But that was... An illusion...”
“Right,” Jay said as she frowned down at her demonic lover. “It was an illusion making it seem like that woman was me. But it was actually an elf woman, a servant, you were protecting.”
“No...” Alex said with perfect confidence as she looked Jay in the eye. “That was... Not an elf... Or a woman... That was... A human... Man... I tasted... Him... When I... Touched him...”
There was a short, tense silence as Jay and Syd both stopped walking down the stairs. It was broken by an exclamation that echoed in the stairwell and could also be heard a couple floors down inside of the bakery where Dys sat staring with her eyes wide.
“Motherfucker!”