Chapter Ten
Questions Part Two
Not long after Nivenna left Ladro`n and Sam in the Underworld sewers.
Nivenna had met up with a group of Underworld troops and joined them in the search for the Overworld spy. Since her rank wasn't that high yet, she couldn't order them around. In fact the one leading the group was one rank higher than Nivenna, so she had to follow his orders. She might be Takinom's apprentice, but that didn't give her Takinom's rank in Chaor's military. At this time she is still technically a Corporal, but according to Underworld law, since she is Takinom's apprentice, she gets special treatment.
It was like she had two different ranks, one being Takinom's apprentice and the other being a Corporal.
Being the apprentice to Takinom, Chaor's right hand, gave her a lot of privileges that most other soldiers higher rank then her didn't have. But Takinom didn't want Nivenna to be spoiled by that, so she made it clear to her that she better follow all orders given to her superiors and not to abuse her power or she will be punished.
After a few hours of pointless searching, the soldier in charge of the group disbanded the search, after receiving a message from Rother to stop the search for now. Apparently ,since no one has seen the Overworld spy in hours, it's believed he is no longer in Underworld City. So, Chaor has called of the search in Underworld City and ordered the soldiers in other close locations to keep an eye out for the spy.
"At least I don't have to search for Sam when I know where he is." she thought, walking home.
Walking inside her home, she goes straight to her room and was getting ready for bed. That pointless search party she joined took forever, leaving her no time to go back and ask Sam more questions. She only has five hours of sleep, before she needs to leave for another one of Kopond's lessons.
Cursing at the fact she missed dinner, she rolled into bed and quickly went to sleep.
Back under the city with Sam still tied up.
The two guards that were staring at Sam as if daring him to make a move, had left when a different guard came to watch him. It was just his luck that it was Ladro`n that took the watch. The funny part was that Ladro`n was eating in front of him when he know that Sam was starving and to top that off, he was eating Sam's own food that he get from Sam's bag.
"So, what are these things called again?" Ladro`n asked eating a red apple.
"It's an apple. There are different kinds of apples, but I only brought those red ones." Sam explained.
"They sure do taste good," he said, before taking another big bite "and I like the color." Taking one more bite, the red apple was completely gone, so he took out another one from the bag.
"Oh come one! That's my last apple." Sam thought as Ladro`n took a bite out of it. His stomach continued to growl.
The next day at Nivenna's home.
"Noo!" Nivenna screamed, waking up from another nightmare. Her eyes looking around the room, she sighed when she realized it was just another dream. The dream or nightmare was the same one from the night before and it felt just as real and scary as the least time.
Taking in deep breaths, she calmed herself down and get ready for the day ahead. Looking through her wardrobe, she sees the uniform, Kopond, had given her.
"Only five more days until I go to the Underworld Mugic Academy. I wonder if this robe will be too big for me to wear." she thought.
The uniform was meant for a creature much older than her, but the Academy only had students that were at least eight solans older than her. Some were even, Kopond's age, which explains why they didn't have uniforms for creatures her height. Sure there were creatures H'earing's height that went to the Mugic Academy, but Kopond said that they had theirs costume made.
"Maybe later I can get Lorqa to fix the uniform to fit me." she thought while putting on her cloths.
After eating a small breakfast, she went to go meet Kopond at his castile for a mugic lesson and to do some work for him. Arriving at the front door, she took out her key, Kopond had given her and let herself in.
She has been here so many times she knows it like the back of her hand. There is some places she isn't aloud to go into like Kopond's bed chamber or his study, but those kinds of places didn't matter. The only places she cares about is the library and mugic lab.
The deal Kopond and Nivenna have says that she can get into the library without Kopond around. As for the mugic lab, Kopond made it clear to her that she was only allowed in there if he gave her permission. With all the dangerous chemicals, poisons herbs and deadly mugix; it was no wonder why he didn't want a child in there without supervision.
As she made her way to the library she couldn't help, but to think of what to do with, Sam.
"I have got to find a way were I know without a debate that what he tells us is the complete truth. But how can I do that?" she thought, walking into the library, she saw Kopond siting at a table, reading some books.
"Hello, Nivenna. I hope you slept well." he greeted her, as she sat down on the opposite side of the table.
"So, what are we going to do first?" she asked.
"It's your decision. You could work on the list of chores I have written on this scroll," he tossed a red scroll to ,Nivenna who caught it with ease. "or I can teach you the mugic lesson. Which one would you like to do first?" he asked.
Looking at the scroll that had over fifty different things to do, she thought she might as well get the chores done first. Most of them were small things that wouldn't take to much of her time. She was happy that it was fifty and not a hundred things like what ,Kopond , normally gives her.
"He either is busy with something today and wants me out of his hair quicker or he wants our lesson to be longer. I guess I'll get the lesson over with if it's longer." she thought.
"I would like to have the lesson first." she stated.
"Alright then let's begin." he said picking up a book that was on the table. "Today, I will be teaching you the basics of the other Tribe's mugix and how they make theirs."
Nivenna was a bit surprized what the lesson was about. If anything she thought he would teach her about Underworld mugix first.
"Kopond, would it not be best for you to teach me the basics about Underworld mugix first?" she asked. Kopond looked up from the book and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"I thought you already know the basics for Underworld mugix. If you don't then please explain to me how you have been able to make the simple mugix for two solans?" he asked.
Nivenna was a little shocked of what he said. Sure she has studied under Takinom and did some independent studying be herself, but she always thought what she had learned was not all the basics.
"I have learned some, but I don't think I know enough of Underworld mugix to move on with the other Tribes' mugix." she honestly said.
"Nonsense. You may only know enough to make the simpler Underworld mugix, but you do know all the basics. Normally after Underworlders learn the basics of Underworld mugix then they start on the other Tribes' basics. Now let's start, we have a lot to go over, today." he said, then they stared the lesson.
Kopond was not kidding when he said that they had a lot to learn in the lesson. By the time they were down, Nivenna thought she needed an extra brain to keep all the knowledge in. It had taking over five hours just to go over the basics of Overworld and Danian mugix; Kopond was hoping that they could also go over the Mipedian's mugix, but it was taking longer then he thought and Nivenna needed to start on that list of chores for him.
So now, Nivenna was doing the first thing that was on the list: putting up the books that she had taken of the shelves to study for the Plata test. There was not many, so it wouldn't take her long.
As she was putting the books back her mind began to think of what she should do to Sam. " It's obvious that he's trying to hide something from us, but what and why?" she inwardly asked herself.
Putting a book back on the shelf, she saw another book that caught her attention. The title of the book was: Interrogating Prisoners and gathering Information.
"How convenient." Nivenna mused as she pick up the book from the shelf. She knew must of the tactics in the book, but there was a few that Takinom hasn't taught her, yet. Looking through a few pages there was one that was perfect to use on Sam.
If she asked, Kopond if she could borrow the book that would raise suspicion. There would be no reason for her to want or need the book. Kopond knows all the subjects and classes that she'll be taking at the Mugic Academy and none of them would involve anything the book had to offer.
She had to quickly memorize the pages down to every word in a few minutes. If she lingers there too long, Kopond may notice her reading and not working, which will make him angry, then demand to know why she stopped to read that book and what the book was about.
After only five minutes, she had memorized every single word on the pages that had what she needed to know for it.
"Now, I just need to get all the necessary things for it. That should not be a problem; I can get most of them from the market and Kasai can hock me up with the harder to find ones." she thought, putting the book back and going onto the next chore.
Later that day, Nivenna was finally done with least chore on the list and was on her way to the market to buy what she needed. There was twenty things she needed, but she know that only twelve of those things could be found in the market. The rest would be in the black market, but she couldn't openly go there. Chaor has strict orders for everyone to not go to the black market and if she is gets caught, Takinom might not be able to save her from going to the Pits (Underworld jail).
"Let's see,where should I look first?" she inwardly asked herself as she looked at all the different shops and food stands. It didn't take long for her to see that one of the stands had two of the things on her list, on display.
Walking up to the stand she asked the creature working the stand: "How much one Gemerik root and three Vlaraks plants?"
The creature that looked like he was made of stone looked at her and replied: " Fifteen silver coins."
Nivenna really didn't like the price; it was way over priced.
"Great, way can't they just give me a fair price, so I don't have to haggle every time?" she thought. "No deal. Make it five silver coins." she demanded, hitting her palms on the table to emphasizes the her demand.
"You're crazy, if you think I'll drop the price that low. Twelve silver coins." he said. She know he wouldn't sell them for that extremely low price; it did get him to lower the price, but she wanted it down even lower.
"These Vlaraks plants look like they have been picked weeks ago. Look they have all ready started to turn yellow. I'll give you eight silver coins." she argued her case, pointing at the spot were the plants had a bit of yellow on them.
"They are fresher than anywhere else you can find them in the Underworld. Chaor's raiders took them just last week from an Overworld farming village and I just bought them today. Ten silver coins and that's my last offer. Take it or leave it." he sternly said.
"Fine here." She gave him the coins, then cursed when she realized she forget to bring something to carry the items.
"Need this?" the creature asked, holding up a brown bag wear this big grin on his rock face that made, Nivenna want to hit him with a powerful attack.
"Yes." Nivenna said through gritted teeth.
"Five silver coins." he smugly said.
Shaking with rage, Nivenna took out the five silver coins and gave them to rock creature. Putting her items in the bag, she then walked off to get the other things on her list.
Later that day, Sam was still being held prisoner by Ladro`n.
" Pretty please!" Sam bagged.
"No." Ladro`n said, turning a page from what looked like a comic book. He was not even looking at Sam.
"Come on, I really need to use a restroom, soon." Sam said, trying to hold it in.
"That's your problem. Stop whining like a baby, before I really give you I reason to wet your pants." Ladro`n threatened looking straight into Sam's eyes. Sam wisely stopped speaking and broke eye contact by turning his eyes to the floor.
Sam was too busy trying to hold it in to notice that Ladro`n's ears perked and turned his head to the door.
Putting the comic book down, Ladro`n said: " Looks like we got a friendly visitor."
What he said got, Sam's attention causing him to look up at the door too. A second later, the door slammed open by an angry Nivenna. Slamming the door back, almost tearing it from the hinges.
"How was your day, Nivenna?" Ladro`n asked. Giving, Ladro`n a snarl in response, then walked toward Sam.
"Drink this." she ordered, holding up one of those scientific test tubes that had a dark, green liquid inside of it that had bubbles moving to the top of it. Removing the cork, the bubbles began to rise to the top like if you opened a shaken can. Grabbing Sam's jaw open, Nivenna poured the liquid down his thought, before he could protest.
Within seconds, Sam could already feel his mind going numb.
Seeing, Sam's face turned from afraid to somewhat relaxed and how he didn't seem to be fighting her hand anymore let her knew that the potion she used was working.
"Umm, Sis what was that you just gave him?" Ladro`n asked, now standing next to her.
Looking away from their prisoner, Nivenna said: "It's a truth potion. I fond it in one of Kopond's books along with all the ingredients and how to make it. It was a major headache to get ever single item needed; that's way I was not in a good mood coming in, but now that it seems to be working, I don't mind all the hassle as much."
Ladro`n wasn't sure if Sam was or wasn't faking it, but it would be hard to fake something that you wouldn't know how to fake.
"Is he suppose to act like a mindless idiot." he said, poking Sam's face.
"Yes, he should only say something if you ask him a question." she said.
"Then let's test it." Ladro`n said. Think for a minute, he asked: " Where were you born?"
"United States of America in Jacksonville, North Carolina." Sam replied, not having any control over what he was saying.
Ladro`n looked back to Nivenna with a puzzling look, which Nivenna also had.
"Never hear of it. What about you?" he asked, Nivenna.
Shaking her head, she said: "No. I have studied many maps for all the Tribes, but never once have I seen or heard of this North Carolina."
"You think he might be faking it?" he asked.
"No, if he was then he would just say some Underworld location that we have heard about."
Looking back and the zombie like Sam, he said: "Maybe he's just crazy."
Nivenna thought that could be a possibility. If he really was mentally ill and thought he was born in a place called North Carolina then he won't be lying to them even if the place didn't exist.
"There's only one way to find out for sure. Ask a lot of questions about his life." she said.
And so they would spend the rest of the day and some of the night asking Sam hundreds of questions that would lead up to Nivenna's answers.
Author's Note
Hello readers. Hope you liked this chapter.
Don't know if the Underworlders have Corporals in their ranks, but I wanted to give Nivenna a low rank, since she shouldn't be a Lieutenant, yet. I may change her rank later if need be.
About the Underworld black marked, the reason it's a black market is because raiders have to give half of their loot to Chaor, but some raiders don't making it illegal in the Underworld. This doesn't really have anything to do with the story, but I just wanted to tell you the difference between the two markets.
Chapter Eleven: Answers and Denial
I tried to make this chapter have some humor in it, but humor isn't my best writing skill.
Thanks for reading and please leave a review.