Chapter Thirty-Nine

It might have been twenty minutes, it might have been twenty hours. No one really seemed to have an objective opinion on just how long Eve's interrogation lasted… probably because the horrific Charr screams filtering through the academy from the hold were unnerving to the point that no one wanted to look at a clock or timepiece.

"Is… she killing the damned thing?" Devona asked nervously.

Coran rubbed the warrior's arm tenderly, finding it quite pleasing how her head fit so nicely in between his chin and shoulder, content with his current situation despite the frightening bellows of torment issuing from below.

"If she were killing it, it would be dead by now… and I'm not sure I'd complain." Coran answered ruefully.

Their tender scene was interrupted by Acting Headmaster Ouda, who Coran had to admit probably was not having much fun in the role for several reasons. "Headmaster, I must insist you do something about this infernal noise. Several professors have already complained that it is making teaching lessons impossible, the cooks claim they can't concentrate on the meals over the racket, and to be perfectly honest… it's scaring the life out of me."

Coran took a deep breath, and nodded, "All right, I'll call Eve's experiment to a halt. Begging your pardon, Ouda." He expected Devona to remain where she was, and was startled when he turned around to assure her that he would return to find the warrior literally one step behind him. He waved off her silent concern, and then opened the door, gesturing for her to exit and following behind.

Not even two steps down the hall, they bumped into Mhenlo and Cynn, both of whom appeared rather ashen, clinging loosely to each other. "Are you going to stop Eve?" Mhenlo asked expectantly.

"That is my plan, yes." Coran admitted, finding it amusing that after all that both heroes had been through and seen that they'd be so rattled by this… of course, they all were still recovering from their ordeal in the Seers' cavern, so they might still be a little prone to being disturbed.

"Good." Cynn added. "To those that know me, they'll understand just how terrible this is when I say that… well… I feel sorry for the prisoner right now."

Down through the stairwell to the hold Coran went, Devona still tagging directly behind. There was a momentary break in the screams, and for that moment, the pair thought that maybe Eve had accomplished her task… only to be disappointed by another barrage of agonized bellows, even louder than before.

Coran then pushed open the door, and began, "Alright Eve that's… by the gods, be he Charr or pin cushion?"

The necromancer had been in the process of pushing another needle into the Charr's flesh, which was at the moment riddled with tens of such implements. Surprise at the headmaster's entrance had temporarily overridden pain in the Charr's mind, as it stopped screaming to look towards the doorway, only to start screaming again when Eve finished the puncture.

"I don't see why he can't be both." Eve hummed sweetly, literally skipping towards the cloth bundle on the cot she had been lying on earlier, which still seemed to be quite full at this moment in time.

"Well, as much as it pains me to terminate your entertainment, I'm afraid to say that if you haven't gotten him to break by now, you probably never will." Coran continued, raising his voice over the howling prisoner, still aghast at what he was seeing. "I'm going to have to ask you to stop."

Eve paused, blinked, then grabbed another needle, carefully calculating where to maximize the effect of her next piercing. "Oh, that… he was ready to tell me everything he knew fifteen minutes ago."

"What?" Coran demanded, aghast. "Why didn't you inform me immediately?"

The necromancer pursed her lips, and frowned. "I was having too much fun."

"Alright, that is enough! Cease this instant!" Coran ordered angrily.

Eve pouted like a child told she had to stop playing and go to bed. "Very well… I suppose you want me to remove the pins then too?"

"Yes!"

Another forlorn expression, and with great reluctance, she then asked, "And I also suppose you want me to end his torture in a prompt manner too?"

Coran clenched his jaw, and tried to tell himself he couldn't see Devona smiling in amusement next to him. "That would be preferable, yes."

"I had held hope you were a fun person, Headmaster Coran." She mumbled bitterly. "I can see I was mistaken. Oh well, most people usually are dreadfully boring." Eve removed the needle from the Charr's temple, and that served to almost instantly dampen the screaming. Coran didn't force the issue, even as he was rather certain Eve was dawdling in the process of removing the implements, as she did indeed clear the prisoner of the pins, and even tended to the occasional bleeding that emerged from the narrow wounds.

"Very well, you may ask what you will of the prisoner. There's no fun left here anyway." Quite indignantly, Eve strode out of the hold, Coran delivering a quick prayer to anyone or anything that crossed the necromancer's path in the near future.

Coran focused his attention back on the prisoner, who he had to admit, was in terrible shape, huddled in the corner of his cell whimpering like a lost puppy, face in hands and buried between his knees.

"While I shall acknowledge that my necromancer friend perhaps went a little too far…" Coran began, his voice gentle yet stern, "I will not hesitate to bring her back in here and let her have all the fun she wants if you do not answer my questions thoroughly and promptly, understand?"

The Charr shaman nodded meekly, slowly lifting its face, radiating fear, torment, and indescribable agony. Coran forced the concern from his mind… now was not the time to take pity on the monster. "When did the Seer approach your caste?"

"At… at the start of the season. It said it would deliver us an older, greater god than all that had come before, beyond the Destroyers, beyond the Titans, even beyond your human gods… the true 'god of the gods' itself." The shaman cringed, afraid he hadn't answered well enough.

"What else did it tell you about this god?"

"Nothing… we didn't need anything more. We saw the chance to reclaim our power and our position, and we took it."

Coran took a step forward, intentionally trying to intimidate the shaken Charr. "And how exactly were you and your kin going to free this god?"

"I do not know… we were not told it was imprisoned. We assumed it would come when we had cleared the way." The prisoner whimpered, coiling into a tighter ball.

"And how were you going to get to its lair?" He asked further. "I've been to that god's domain. There's no way you could have hoped to navigate it without assistance."

"We were not told anything about its lair… or about anything other than its power and that it would show us mercy if we granted it with our worship. We were merely told to clear the path, and that it would come."

"So you know absolutely nothing of value to me." The headmaster snarled, and called to the guard that had stationed himself just inside the door once Eve had left, "Inform Kreweman Norritt that I want this… thing… released into Pyre Fierceshot's custody. I have no doubt that this shaman had committed plenty of crimes against the Charr people… let it be their problem."

He slipped out of the hold thoughtfully, Devona right behind. "Seems like such a waste now… Eve tortured that thing to the brink of insanity and we got nothing from him." She said, hoping to placate the man in front of her.

"On the contrary, my dear… I learned plenty… I just didn't want that shaman to know that. I now know that the situation is quite dire. If this 'god of the gods' is not truly a prisoner in the sense that something else controls its state, we have an extremely limited timetable in which to act. We also need to prepare contingencies to hopefully slow its movement when it decides to act against us."

"Like what?"

"That's what I need to find out… and I suppose there no avoiding what I have to do now."

Devona blinked. "What do you need to do?"

"I need to pray."