Welcome back gentle reader
Republished this one to fix all the italics {hopefully}.
Once again the standard disclaimer, multiply ages by roughly two to get equivalent Earth ages. Everyone is a consenting adult. There's also a section where the sex gets maybe a little rough.
-- Chapter 6: Bh'orel Academy --
-- Fifth Tenday of Antaen 813 AGR --
There's no such thing as gravity, the Earth sucks - unknown
The morning following what was already being called 'The Battle On the Promenade', Jebidiah and Dana found themselves traversing back across the Promenade. This time on horseback, with another company of soldiers as guard and reinforced with a few evokers. They were forced to slow when they came upon the scene of the battle from the day before. A group of artisans and stonemasons were busy shoring up shops and clearing debris while shopkeepers were setting out mounds of half burnt merchandise. Everyone paused as their entourage approached and many bowed or knelt as they passed.
Dana snorted "Must think we are nobility with this amount of guards." Jebidiah had not considered before how disruptive the nobles and royals must be to the average person trying to go about their day. Those workers probably spent ten minutes distracted from their work they really needed to be doing.
When they reached the Keep they entered the Lower levels back to the guard room Jebidiah had been sent to after the assassin was caught. They entered to find Master Standing already present and another face Jebidiah recognized. "Well me, Captain Irons."
"I heard about your escapades on the Promenade Mast Overton, and I heard you gave a good accounting for yourself. Not bringing me another invisible suspect from the battle?" asked the Captain.
"No. This time we killed who we could." Jebidiah said without bravado.
"I see." the Captain responded. "I was instructed to allow you to interrogate the prisoner you brought us. We have not had much luck cracking that one. The diviners say her name is Sally or something similar and that she is a Dark rogue Talent with an assassin specialization. Nasty business that. They are also as certain as they can be that she is not from Tonstar. She talks funny too, like she's not used to commonspeak. We have some Indexers trying to match Change, Talent, and approximate age combinations for possible identities in the Tally records in case she was born Human. Will you require anything?"
"I'm not sure. Can you set her up in an interview room so we can begin?" Jebidiah asked.
"She already is." The Captain pointed out a door. "Through there, down the hall, fourth door on your right. The sign says A8."
Jebidiah, Dana, and Standing followed the directions to the door marked A8 easily enough, the two posted guards drew attention to it. One of the guards unlocked the door and followed the three of them into a smaller room with a table and four chairs. Three on the side of the room with the door and the fourth on the opposite side, currently occupied. The guard stayed at the door, Dana and Standing took a seat and Jebidiah was about to sit but stopped. The others looked up at him in confusion.
The girl seated across from them was quite charming in that childlike way Halflings have about them even though she was chained to the seat and table. With a little maturity she could be labeled beautiful. Proud cheekbones, rounded chin, full lips, a button nose and large brown eyes much like Joy's filled her face. She also sported the same curly black hair Joy had, just a tad longer and more unruly. But none of that is what caused Jebidiah to pause before sitting. That would be the gray haze coating her body and the similarly sized gray haze moving slowly towards the guard at the door. He finally took his seat and pushed back from the table slightly.
The plan was for Dana to be her aggressive self to start the questioning with George finally stepping in as the older, mature, voice of reason to try and befriend the prisoner. Jebidiah thought it was dumb idea but Standing assured him it was a standard practice that had resulted in many confessions so he went along with it.
Dana began harshly, "Your friend's attempt to kill us yesterday failed as badly as your own attempt. Unfortunately for you, while they missed us they did kill quite a few civilians and some soldiers. We have some of your friends being questioned just so you know. That leaves you, as an accessory, to about thirty deaths which some were royal guards meaning capital offenses. They will hang you if you are lucky. The only real option you have is to cooperate with us."
Jebidiah watched the girl in the chair. She didn't really react to what Dana was saying. Her lack of reaction caused Dana to begin to display anger until she was nearly growling at the end of her opening dialogue. The gray shape against the wall kept slowly creeping towards the door and the guard. When Dana finally lost her anger and stood to slam the table top, Jebidiah calmly said, "Please, whoever you are, have a seat. I just have some questions for you. If it helps I won't ask them to put the restraints back on."
Dana, George, and most pointedly, the guard looked at Jebidiah like he had grown horns but the gray shape stopped moving. Dana sat back down looking unsure if he had asked her to sit.
"I mean it. We just want to talk. I would hate to resort to violence again but I did just lose several friends because of your people and, while I'm not prone to violence, I wouldn't be bothered starting with you. My patience will only go so far. Please, sit." Jebidiah said the last in a frightfully commanding tone Dana had never heard out of him. He noticed she squirmed a little in her seat.
The girl in the chair disappeared at the same time she materialized in the spot the gray shape had occupied. Jebidiah imagined it must have looked like teleporting to everyone else and from the gasps and swearing by the guard it probably did. The girl grinned, showing two wonderfully cute dimples, and took her seat. She looked exactly as she had when they entered but without the restraints.
"Thank you," Jebidiah said. "A little honesty will go a long way here."
The girl couldn't help but release a giggle at that. "Admit I must, Valor, you have a habit of surprising me. But 'honesty' I've been told isn't your strong point, no? Considering how much is wrong about what I was told, a lot you must be hiding. I wager more than I am guessing. Doesn't sound very honest to me."
"You have a knack for hiding as well." Jebidiah shot back. "Even so far as hiding your wizard Talent from the diviners. Though the mass Dispel on the light globes was pretty strong magic, too much I am told for one such as yourself. Let's start with your name and we'll go from there." Jebdiah was gambling now, the jab about not being Talented enough was thrown in by instinct. He tried to center his focus solely on the girl and was rewarded by regaining the hyper focused feeling.
She smiled sheepishly at Jebidiah, flashing those dimples once again, and said "My name is Monica. And you are right, Abjurationist I be."
Dana, who had retaken her seat and lowered her anger muttered, "if that isn't the sappiest pile of horse shit."
With better awareness, Jebidiah noticed a small tic of muscle under her ear when she answered. "Let's try again, shall we? Nothing you just said is correct." He motioned towards where Dana sat beside him, "While what my friend here was saying does hold true, more importantly for you, what she does not know is I won't need a court magistrate to determine guilt or administer punishment. We have moved past that stage I'm afraid."
For just the briefest instant the girl looked unsure then resumed her casualness. The other's wouldn't have caught the change, but Jebidiah did. She kept smiling and said "Odd way to haggle you have. Starting at the extreme without working up. What's a girl to do with a threat like that? Where is the carrot that goes with the stick?"
"I apologize," Jebidiah replied sincerely, "that was not meant to be a threat. I was not trying to be intimidating. I do not like nor have time for games so I will just rely on the direct approach and I am simply telling you what is going to happen."
The girl looked briefly at Dana. "Your little drama wasn't intimidating. A lot from him you should learn." She looked back to Jebidiah. "Fine, Mila."
"That wasn't so hard Mila, was it?" Jebidiah gave his own smile. "Now let's try the second part. I am well aware you are not an Abjurationist."
She sighed and lost her smile. "Illusionist, happy?"
"No, it will be some time before I am happy again. Now that we have preliminaries out of the way, Who sent you after me? I know the why so we can skip that part."
She smiled again and said, "Private contract, dead drop communications, that sort of thing. I had no contact with who hired me." The muscle tic under her ear made another appearance.
Jebidiah sighed again. "Lying is not helping anyone here, and I really do mean to help you get out of here and on your way." He leaned back and rubbed at his temple. His internal calculator was working hard and he was biding time for an answer to pop out.
Mila started to lose some of the calmness she was trying to keep. "How? On my way I should have been if not for you."
Jebidiah waved absently, "As I said, lying is not helping anyone and I was not lying before. I am here to judge you and determine what justice requires."
"Judge me, eh? So, big man are you, here to punish the little girl." She sniped, composure lost.
Jebidiah leveled his gaze at her. "I judge everyone and everything. Judgment is not just about determining fault, it equally applies to merit. Justice is about determining the amount of fault or merit, nothing more. While everything has to either be good or bad, right or wrong, there are degrees." And just then his calculator provided an insight for later.
"So, Mila, I am running under the assumption you used an illusion to illegally smuggle your weapons into the keep, illegally used an illusion to lure me to the lower levels, illegally used scrolls to dispel the lighting, all with the intent to kill me. What I need from you is your help. Explain to me where I am wrong, or give me a valid reason why you did all of that?"
"Valid reason?" surprisingly came out of Standing. He had been following the questioning intently but had not felt the need to interject, amazed at Jebidiah's handling of the interrogation.
