Author's notes:
Happy New Year
About the language and notation:
The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.
Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"
Some warnings
:
This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.
This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.
P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :)
That being said, I run everything I make through a text editor (Word) as well as reading it through several times. Now, being a non-native English speaker, some errors I wont catch no matter how many times I read it. Sorry about that and I hope for an editor to show up at some point and give me a much needed hand.
P.P.S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)
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Chapter 29 - Flashback: Interrogation
The Baylon Empire.
It was good to be back on Baylon again, I decided, as I sat on the terrace of the restaurant Dulcis Vitae, which happened to be my favourite restaurant in the Capitol.
It was also good to have a few days off duty and as I had spent a couple of days in Grove with my family, I had few days of rest here, before I had to report for duty. I ate one of the stuffed dates and leaned back in the chair with a cup of cider in my left hand.
The last few years had been a strange mix of doing missions (Though all but a few of the insane mages had hunted down and killed by now), training new skills and learning new Ars Mentalis tricks, while trying to get the new department up and running. Only time would tell if the new department was going to be a success, but at least I had found the first twenty candidates and judging from the results so far, it seemed promising.
"< Spectre, this is Adept Marcius of the Ordo Praesidium calling with an important message for you >" said a voice in my head.
"You got to be flaming kidding me." I mumbled, causing a father to look disapproving at me as he dragged his daughter away.
I sighed. I might as well answer, since they apparently knew, that I was here. "< Good morning, Adept. This is Spectre. How may I help you? >"
"< I have a request from the Imperial Guards. A small group of people tried to break into the Ordo Magica facility in Gideon during the night. They were discovered and the mages managed, with some help from the Imperial Guards, to catch one of them and they have politely asked for an Inquisitor to assist them >"
"< And I guess I'm the only Inquisitor in the area? >"
"< That is correct, sir. Sorry about ruining your vacation >"
"< Not really your fault, Adept. >" I sent. "< When and where? >"
"< They expect you in the prison later today. The duty officer will give you some more details >"
"< You can tell them that I'll be there within in a glass >
"< Sorry sir, but the prisoner is not in the prison of Gideon. They hold her in the prison of Drusus. I will have a mage from Ordo Vectio standing by to gate you >"
Drusus was a town two days travel south of Gideon that I had visited several times before. Not big enough to be called a city; it was big enough to have a sizable Imperial Guard group and a prison as well.
"< Then I will be at the Ordo Vectio building in a glass >"
"< Thank you, sir >"
I closed the connection and walked towards my house. I needed to change into a uniform and get my gear, before traveling to Drusus.
Trouble rarely comes alone and the result of the many deaths from the Disease was that there were of a lot of political unrest in Baylon. Most of it was centered around a single question: Should Baylon return to its home dimension now or should we wait the six hundred years it would take before the stars were right again?
The problem was that Baylon was moved to this dimension to avoid a magical storm that would have torn it apart. However, the magi had calculated that the storm should be over now, which conflicted with the priest's calculation, which showed that the was a good chance the storm hadn't completely died out yet.
The Senate had debated this issue for years, but was almost evenly divided, while the High King had taken the stance, that it was better to be safe than sorry, and had declared that the first attempt at sending Baylon home, would happen in six hundred years.
Most people trusted the High King to do the right thing, but the snag was the word 'attempt'. If, for some reason the attempt wasn't successful, it would take about three thousand years before the planets aligned again.
For that reason, some wanted to take the chance and return Baylon to its home dimension later this year, instead of waiting the six hundred years.
Since that was directly against the wishes of High King and the High Priestesses, they kept a low profile, but the opposition was there and while most of them preferred to debate in the senate, a few wanted action now. That had resulted in several break-ins at various facilities, but so far nobody had been able to determine who the culprits were, who was behind them or why they were breaking into the facilities in the first place. Only one thing was certain: The criminals were impossible to locate by Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica.
All in all, I could understand why the Imperial Guard would want my help with the interrogation. Any information gained from that, would not only benefit the Imperial Guard, but also help capturing the rest of the criminals.
With a bit of luck, this would be over in a few days and I could go back to enjoying the rest of the vacation.
The prison in Drusus was a not a big building when seen from the outside, but since I knew most of prison complex was underground, I didn't even try to find my own way.
Instead, I asked a guard and was shown into the duty sergeant's office, after placing my sword in the front office.
As he saw me, he stood up. "Ah, you must be the Inquisitor I asked for."
"Indeed, I am, sir." I answered with a nod and introduced myself, before I sat down as he gestured towards a chair. "What do we know about the criminal?"
The sergeant sat down as well. "Not much. She hasn't told us her name, but she has dark red hair, pale blue eyes and according to the rapport, she is capable of using Ars Mentalis." He frowned. "Personally, I think that she is a half-breed of some kind, but the important part is that our Mentat have tried to read her mind, but according to him, the prisoner is totally immune to mind affecting Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica, and I know that Inquisitors are specialists in questioning people, so I need your help."
"Rare, but not unheard of." I said slowly. "Let's go see the prisoner, but if I decide to help you with this, I will take over the interrogation completely. "
"That is not a problem, as long as we get the credit." He said as he stood up. "Please follow me."
-------------------
As we entered the prison cell holding the criminal, she was blindfolded and bound to a chair in the middle of the cell, naked except for the collar that blocked her powers.
I looked at the sergeant. "May I?"
He nodded, and I walked over to the woman to do a quick examination of her. She was barely conscious and in much pain.
"What happened?" I asked the sergeant.
He shrugged. "Combat. She looked like this when they brought her in, and our healer is busy treating our own people."
I nodded. "Understandable, but I'll have to heal her, before I can ask her anything. For that, I'll need hot water and something to clean her with."
"It shall be here shortly." He said, "Anything else?"
"No, sir. I think that is enough for now."
The Sergeant nodded and walked out of the door again, leaving me alone with the criminal.
I walked over to her and removed the chains that linked her to the chair, before I telekinetically lifted her to a wooden bench. It wasn't exactly a bed, but it would have to do for now.
Then I chained her arms and legs to the bench, so she couldn't hit me while I was healing her and examined her again.
Luckily, she didn't seem to have any permanent internal injuries or broken bones, so I gathered the Vis Vitae and entered the meditative trance required for healing, which caused the outside world faded away, as I let the Vis flow into her. My senses followed and I directed the flow of power towards places, where her life force had been interrupted due to injuries. As the lines of Vis in her body started to return to normal, her body began healing itself. Slowly at first, but as I poured more Vis into her the healing picked up the pace and it went faster and faster.
About four glass later there was nothing left to heal, so I stopped the flow of Vis, and retracted my senses from her.
I opened my eyes again and looked at the woman. She was still dirty and covered in dried blood, but her injuries had disappeared.
Satisfied I looked around in the cell and saw a bucket full of water, a sponge, and some towels, which somebody must have placed there, while I was healing.
That's the problem with Vis-healing: While it's efficient, you're not aware of the world around you, because your senses are inside the one that you're healing, making you extremely open for attacks. That is why most healers, including me, normally use a trick that allows them to feel a hostile presence near them, but there are ways to avoid that trick, if you know what you are doing, and most Vis users only do healing, if they have another person to guard them while they heal.
