0017 Interrogation, Regret and Flames

 

"Wake up the three, let's interrogate them...
... You there, find out what's in the other corridor, you've got ten minutes...".

The Envoy leaned against one of the stone tables in the underground salon, while Alicia went to sit in a corner a little away, watching with apprehension what would happen.

"Ahh! Shit, don't do this to me!".

One of the would-be soldiers passed by slapping the three bound young men in the face, each of them was lying on a stone table, the tallest young man woke up tense watching the people around, the girl woke up scared and the last young man woke up complaining about the slap.

"Confessor, from the information you've gathered, who are these three special heretics?".

^"Confessor?"^.

"The girl's name is Sara, the youngest daughter of the Marquis Honorato...
... The blond boy, his name is Ronan, the only son of the regent of Marro, who is currently taking over the town...
... The last one is Thomas, son of the Marquis' butler...".

The three youths looked up in amazement when they heard the word 'Confessor', if there was anything or anyone that their mentors mentioned not getting close to, it would be a Confessor, and hearing the whole introduction about who they are, showed how dangerous this kind of church person was to them.

"So we are seeing that the main nobles are involved with the supernatural and heresy...
... This is very good, so the enemy that the superiors spoke about has always been in the government of the city...
... Or is the regent and his ambitious son trying to seize power?".

"My investigations only brought information about training, festive moments and community aid...
... Maybe one of the three has some more relevant information...".

"Community aid?
Ha hah ha ha hah... Heretics helping people?
Do they think they are the church? How bold!".

Hearing that they failed to investigate them, Thomas looked at Sara at the table next to him and shook his head slightly to try to calm her down, but the Envoy's displeasure inquiries brought them a bad feeling, and even Alicia felt uncomfortable, after all, she experienced the experiences of those young people through her memories and knows that they are not bad people.

"Well, let's start with the Marquis' daughter, take her clothes off!".

"No! Nooo!". "Do not do this!".

"Stop!".

Sara and Thomas went into despair seeing the men heading towards Sara ready to take off her clothes, but just in time, they saw the Confessor leap among the men, preventing any from approaching Sara, in a way they were both grateful that the woman had intervened.

"Confessor, what do you think you're doing?".

"How good do you think you are if you want to do things that even heretics don't do?".

Alicia's excuse was improvised, but it took the men by surprise, but the Envoy did not care for her and only watched the expressions of the would-be soldiers hesitant to take any action that would be so bad that they would be worse than the heretics.

"It seems that the miss Confessor thinks ill of me, but no matter, as she is the Marquis's daughter, it is best to leave her alone...
... You can take her to the side with you...".

Alicia was enraged at the Envoy's insanity seeking out the heretics at any cost, but the constant change of mood between anger and satisfaction he displayed, made her afraid of him, so she helped the girl to her feet, and with one of the would-be soldiers, they took her to one side, where Alicia sat nearby to watch the interrogation.

"So... The regent's only son or the butler's son?
Let's start with the humble...
... After all, he's just a butler's son and having a mind block means he knows something he shouldn't...
... Boy, blame yourself for not knowing your place and mixing with the nobles... Start!".

"Leave him alone!".

The would-be soldiers lifted Thomas, Sara screamed beside Alicia to leave him alone, while Thomas himself didn't say a word looking coldly into the eyes of the Envoy who seemed happy to torment common people.

Urgh!...

"No!".

"Now that we've started, let's get down to business...

... Where are the other heretics?

Where is your base? Is the Marquis involved?".

Thomas had one of his legs pierced by a sword causing him to groan in pain as he tried to keep his eyes on the Envoy, Sara continued screaming, and so the Envoy began his questions.

Over time, Ronan grew increasingly frightened by the torture of his friend at his side, he could no longer count how many times Thomas was perforated from side to side by the swords, and yet he didn't say a single word, his eyes got deeper and deeper, almost closing, and seeing that Thomas was going to pass out, the only thing Ronan could think of was that he would be next.

Just as Sara was getting her voice weak from screaming so much, Alicia was sad and felt that it was wrong, the suffering young man was the most active of the group in relation to companionship, he was the most serious too, but deep down she saw in the memories of others how much he cared about everyone and the citizens, as well as the girl Sara next to her.

After several minutes footsteps were heard coming from the corridor, everyone was so absorbed in the boy's torture that they forgot that one of them went to investigate the other corridor and when he came back scared everyone.

"Sir Envoy sorry for the delay but the path is extremely long, I couldn't get to the end of it so I decided to come back to report.".

"Couldn't make it to the end?".

The Envoy watched the man beside him, and then looked at the young man with blood running all over his body, the girl fell asleep from crying on the other side, and then he looked at the last one, the regent's son who was huddled and pale looking at him.

Smiling he walked towards Ronan who went into despair, as he waved his hand calling the would-be soldiers holding Thomas who was now untied and also unconscious, and they soon understood the situation, letting go of Thomas who slowly fell flat on the table he was on.

"No! Please! I tell you everything! Don't touch me!".

"Sir son of the regent, take it easy, I know you will tell...
... Start with the arms...".

Getting very close, Ronan screamed in despair as the men lifted him up and began slashing sword slashes across his shoulders and arms.

Ronan's screams woke up Sara who soon looked for Thomas and saw him lying on the table full of small cuts and blood running everywhere, then she went back to crying again, Alicia sat down next to her and put her hand on the shoulder of the girl who looked to be the same age as her, making Sara look at Alicia's face and realize the sadness that the Confessor was hiding in her eyes.

"Yees! The Marquis knows everything!
My father knows too, they are part of the faction!
I was forced to participate, I have nothing to do with it, please!".

"Wait!".

Ronan caught everyone's attention by starting to tell the secrets hidden by his group, even more compared to his friend who passed out without saying a single word, Sara on the other side of the room stopped crying and trembled with anger, Thomas' sacrifice was in vain.

The Envoy sat down beside Ronan, placed his hand on his head, stroking his hair like a proud father of his child, and continued.

"So they really know everything huh...
... And what the fuck is that in the shed above? And that endless corridor?".

"I... I... I don't know where these things come from...
... The corridor leads to a magical passage...".

"Which? Magic passage? How it is?".

Apparently no one knows what a magical passage means, looking around, the Envoy realized that the Confessor was interested in the passage but showed that she did not know its meaning either, his heart fluttered at the discovery, so he smiled once more and used more force to rub the young man's head, scaring Ronan to the hilt.

"A... A... A... A dark blur... Where... Where the person enters and appears in another... Another place...".

 

Pah! 

"Get ready, let's explore the corridor way...".

The Envoy hit Ronan's head on the stone table causing him to pass out instantly, and got up preparing his men to head towards that magical passage, his display of violence was aimed at intimidating the two girls, he was holding back from so much excitement, for he has just encountered not only a heretic faction but an Inheritance as well, and he doesn't want the Confessor getting in the way of his plans.

Alicia hugged Sara looking at the Envoy, she didn't say anything, she was scared but she wouldn't let him do something with the girl on her side, and with each step the Sent One approached, the more she squeezed Sara in her arms.

Bruumm!!!

The ground began to shake violently like an earthquake, the loud noise represented something they didn't have the strength to resist, everyone ducked in fear of the ceiling collapsing, while Alicia dragged Sara under one of the tables and so everyone waited for the shaking to stop.

Vroommm!!! Kaboomm!!!

The noise roared like a terrible monster to those people who were underground and with the last crack everything calmed down, but in the next second several slight tremors with other smaller noises happened, as if various things were falling on their heads.

With one more minute, everything stopped once more, dust permeated the air, the salon dimly lit by the large oil lamp at the end of the salon looked like a catastrophe scene where one by one people stood up looking sideways and coughed from breathing in all the dust.

"The entrance! The entrance has been blocked!".

A few would-be soldiers appeared entering the salon, their clothes torn or messed up as if they had rolled down the stairs, they were scared and anxious.

"And this now? Does anyone have any idea what happened?".

"We didn't see anything, sir Envoy...".

The Envoy became serious again, stopped in the middle of the salon and thought for a few seconds before deciding what to do.

^"No use exploring the possible Inheritance now...
... With all this confusion, soon other groups will gather here, and if it find out that I chose to explore the Inheritance before reporting the discovery, I could end up being hanged..."^.

"All right, let's go upstairs and see what happened...
... Tie this heretic tight and leave her here...".

The Envoy passed looking at Alicia and Sara still crouched, and continued walking towards the exit, one of the would-be soldiers came to them and tied Sara's legs, then followed the rest of the group down the corridor, falling behind, Alicia looked into Sara's tearful eyes and helped her to a sitting position.

"Sorry, I didn't know it would end like this...".

"With the church involved, how else would it end?".

Alicia who prepared to leave was surprised by Sara's response, and stopped to look at her once more, she felt deeply guilty for everything that happened to the group of friends, so she looked at the two who were tortured and decided to check out their situation, passing Ronan first and Thomas last.

"They're alive, just passed out...
... I have a Healer friend in my group, I'm going to pick her up and make sure your friends are going to be okay...".

"Thanks...".

Alicia smiled at Sara, she decided to do the right thing and save this group, so after the last exchange of glances between them, Alicia followed the corridor towards her group.

There, Sara sat looking at Thomas anxiously, sometimes looking angrily at Ronan, the echo of the men walking or arguing was already barely audible, and then she closed her eyes wearily.

Vrrou!

She was startled by the noise that the flame of the lamp 'The Light of the Guide' made, the fire grew amazingly, coming out of the oil lamp, its color changed from the color of normal fire, and turned into gray fire, the whole salon was lit with pale color.

Sara was frightened by the phenomenon happening, but preferred to remain quiet avoiding attracting attention from the men of the church, she looked with hope at the fire that came out of 'The Light of the Guide' and rose without stopping like a waterfall of fire that rose taking the entire ceiling of the salon, and up there, it was bubbling down and rising again to the ceiling.

In a few seconds a large bubble of fire appeared in the lake of fire on the ceiling, and from within, a humanoid body made of light and gray fire emerged from the bubble, his body seemed to scream but no sound came out of his mouth, only more fire flowed from his eyes and mouth, and the fire in his head burned upwards as if it were his hair.

Sara was horrified at the sight, but soon she remembered the conversation she had with Thomas about 'The Light of the Guide' and its effects, then coming out of fear, she stopped and tried to recognize the possible person coming out of the gray flames, but the only thing she could recognize was that the humanoid being looked like a young male.

After the gray colored flame body formed, small drops of fire fell from all over the ceiling, some of the drops fell on Sara's body, but she didn't feel that it was hurting and soon the flames were gone, but on the tables, Thomas and Ronan were getting hit far more than she was, and the gray humanoid was closer to Thomas's body.

Vrrou!

"No! Thomas!".

With another wave of fire from the oil lamp, the gray fire humanoid broke up into fluid fire and poured completely over Thomas' body, the entire stone table on which he was lying was covered by fire, and his body was completely covered.

Sara went into despair, her voice was not loud as she managed to contain herself, but still watched in concern the fire taking over her friend, within few seconds the fire was gone inside Thomas's body, and the fire in the ceiling had quieted, just bubbling from side to side.

"Thomas? Can you hear me?".

She called out in her very low voice with apprehension and waited for something to happen, but Thomas didn't move and gave no other sign that he would, however, another thing else happened on the ceiling, the fire began to swirl again forming another big bubble, and from there, another fire humanoid slowly began to form.