A.N. (4/10/23) - Missed one chapter last week, but still managed to get this one out at least.
Atlas (18) - Interrogation
The pair continued to their destination.
Only a second earlier, the both of them were walking on a busy street filled with dozens of people. And yet, the presence of other people abruptly vanished once they turned around a corner. Rather than being anything supernatural, it was more accurate to classify it as the nature of this place. Like the graveyard from before, their current location was something that naturally repelled people away without the aid of a bounded field or spell protocol.
Of course, that changed the closer they drew to her workshop.
It was an unassuming place based on appearances alone. Through some legal loopholes and paperwork, Rin acquired a small former apartment building for herself without anyone the wiser. The large space was useful for conducting multiple experiments at once without risking them interfering with one another. Not only was it situated on top of a particularly strong leyline, but if needed, her workshop was also capable of erecting a powerful bounded field that would turn the building into an impenetrable fortress against nearly anything save possibly Salem herself.
With permission, Rin pulled out a knife and slit a small part of Ironwood's skin to collect some blood. Throwing the knife toward the building, it froze midair until the blood on the blade started to dissipate. Muttering a few words under her breath, she relaxed once she felt her protections accept Ironwood as a guest.
"Alright, you should be safe when entering."
"Thank you. Hopefully, this won't take long. I expect Marrow to report his results within the next few hours, and I'd rather hear it from him in person once he does."
"Well, that depends on how cooperative Black is going to be."
They entered together, and Rin led the older man to the closest room to the entrance before asking him to wait for her.
"Should I expect anything?"
"We're not going to be talking to him directly," Rin answered. "Although I captured him, it wasn't like I could just leave him alone once I moved to Atlas. I won't get into all the technical details, but I was forced to put him to sleep while I was away. Waking him up will take some effort, and he's still a dangerous individual. So I'll set up something that will allow us to speak with him without having to worry about him trying anything while we interrogate him."
"Then I'll leave that to you. Although, if I may be presumptuous, I believe it would be best to leave the questioning to me. While I can trust your magical capability, I'm not sure if you're the right person to lead the conversation for something like this."
"No, I agree. That would be for the best."
"I'll mainly be asking him about his connection to the Crown and his knowledge of their abilities. You claimed to have done so in the past, but not intensively if I recall."
"That's right. The Crown wasn't exactly a priority to me back then, so I didn't ask him too much about them."
"Unfortunate, but I understand your reasoning."
"Do you think we'll learn anything new though?"
"If anything, we can at least ask about the qualifications one must need to gain access to Gillian's Semblance. Considering the fact that he had not been forced into their service while managing to acquire their help, we might get a hint at what the mindset behind their leadership is like."
He stopped in front of a door.
Moving past him, Rin opened it and went inside before immediately moving toward a nearby table with multiple tools and equipment on it. The size of the room was small, only three meters wide and long. The lack of space was justified if this was merely a storage room, yet Ironwood noticed a large magic circle etched on the floor obscured by dust and scattered papers.
Ignoring the mess and plucking something from the table, she came back with a few items that made Ironwood blink in surprise.
"Why exactly do you have that…?"
His surprise was somewhat justified, for Ironwood had never known the girl to be someone to collect dolls or stuffed animals, let alone something as outlandish as a Pumpkin Pete mascot plushie. Seeing the young girl holding an oversized bunny in her arms was honestly quite jarring to him.
Rin didn't even blink as she gave him a somewhat amused look. "It was a prize from an arcade game," she replied dryly. "I do go out with friends occasionally. But the reason I'm bringing it out is for another purpose."
Setting it on the ground, she unceremoniously ripped open the back before stuffing her fist inside and pulling out. A quick patch later, Rin stepped away as she pointed her index finger in the direction of the plushie's forehead.
-Start-
"—Anfang."
Nothing happened at first. Then, the doll twitched as life began to fill its body. Flopping around momentarily, it shakily stood up and turned to face the two of them with an annoyed look on its face.
His gaze turned to Rin. "Oh, you're back. What, has it been that long already?"
"His spirit is only temporarily placed in the doll," Rin explained. "The plushie is only a relay while his consciousness talks through it. This way, he can't cause any trouble while he's like this."
Ironwood nodded. "Marcus Black, we have some questions for you."
"I'm sure you do. After all, that's pretty much the entire reason I'm still alive, aren't I? That girl standing next to you is so full of them." Even as a bunny, Marcus' mannerisms showed through. "At least that's better than when she's in the mood to poke and prod me with the needle. Let me tell you, that girl is no different than a mad scientist."
"Just ignore him." Rin rolled her eyes. "He's exaggerating how bad the experiments I conduct are."
"You cut off my fucking legs, bitch!"
"It's not like you felt pain when I did it. I made sure of that."
"That's not the point!"
"Enough!" Both grew silent at his voice. "Tell me everything you know about the Crown and their leaders."
Marcus smirked, although it lacked impact on the face of the rabbit plushie. "Bring out all the torture devices you have if you want me to snitch. I want to see what exactly you're going to do to a stuffed animal like me."
Ironwood blinked, then turned to face Rin. "Can he feel pain when he's like this?"
"I can make him feel pain if you want."
For a moment, he seriously considered it. "No, I question whether it will be effective if he intends to maintain this behavior."
"Then we'll use a different method." Rin rolled her eyes before facing Marcus. "Right, I should warn you that I don't particularly care if you end up dying from torture. There are ways to get information out of a corpse's brain, and I can even hold a seance to keep your spirit captive. Do you think that you'll be able to resist as a ghost? Not even the promise of an afterlife will save you from me if I continue to pursue this."
Ironwood felt a chill go down his spine at her words. Even Marcus seemed to understand that she was being serious, although it was hard to get a read on his expression when he was inhabiting the body of a stuffed bunny.
"You're bluffing," he said. "You have to be. After all, I still got your friend's precious Semblance. What happens to that if you kill me?"
Before Ironwood could ask about that, Rin continued. "Give me a day, and I can probably steal it back from you without trouble. It's safely implanting it back that I'm worried about, which is the only other reason why you hold value to me. Your Semblance is a convenient avenue, but not the only solution available to me."
"If that were true, then why haven't you simply mind-controlled me into doing so already?" He smirked once again. "No, there's something else. Whatever you're hiding, you need me alive for some reason. All those experiments you conducted on me aren't just because you want to know how my Semblance ticks. In that regard, you're just like Merlot."
That drew a look from her, but Ironwood interrupted before they could veer away from the topic any further. "All we want you to tell us is how much you know about Jax and Gillian Asturias."
For some reason, that caused Marcus' mood to dampen. "Feh, don't bring up her name around me. That woman is more troublesome than she's worth."
"Her Semblance empowered you when you were still under Merlot's employ. How did you convince her to do that when you were not a part of their organization."
"It's because I was more convenient as a free agent." Marcus shrugged. "The Crown wanted to gather people with unique Semblances, which is how Merlot came to learn about them. Since he had that whole business of gathering kidnapped faunus, he made a deal of exchanging favors with the Crown by sending their way a couple of people who caught their interest. One of those favors called for me to work with them temporarily, which is how I got to know their group."
"Does that mean you were a part of the Crown for a while?"
"I suppose so. To be honest, I never really interacted much with the two brats running things. Merlot had me doing some things all over Mistral, but I also worked with a couple of their so-called Crownsmen before. Even made a friend or two, if you could believe it."
Rin spoke up. "You also had a mystic code that protected you from mental interference. I initially assumed that it was one of the artifacts unearthed from Kuchinashi, but how did you even know that it would protect you from Jax's Semblance?"
"That?" Marcus laughed. "Well, that's an interesting story. See, I always assumed that Merlot was a bit of a loon at first. But then, he started looking into things that weren't exactly something you'd expect a scientist to look into. Ancient civilizations, myths and legends, tales of magic and mystery. Then one day, he sent me out on another task…"
}-{
Vacuo was a dry and unforgiving desert to those unprepared for its nature. Marcus learned that long ago the kingdom was founded in a large oasis with lush jungles and abundant resources. But as years passed and the other kingdoms continued to exploit those same resources, it gradually transformed into its current state.
In a way, it symbolized how those with strong desires preyed on the riches of others. As a person who lived on the side of society where such occurrences were uncommon, he thought that it was deserving that Vacuo lost its prosperity.
Marcus breathed heavily as he trekked through the sand. Merlot had sent him here on another inane mission to seek out information from a list of hidden ruins that he had his eyes on. Whatever he was looking for was supposedly linked to some long-lost ancient civilization whose technology and culture far surpassed modern times.
Either way, Marcus wasn't expecting to find anything here other than some boring murals and dusty ruins.
This wasn't his first time visiting the kingdom, but it was the first time he was so far away from the main cities. If forced, he would admit that he had gotten lost on the way to his destination and was simply wandering around until he found shelter. His Aura protected him from the worst, but without food and water, he feared that things would get dangerous for him.
It was while Marcus was traveling through one of Vacuo's many wastelands that he met her.
"—!"
The voice of an unknown individual echoed ahead of him, and Merlot found this unusual. His mission was located in a part of Sanus that generally had no presence of other people due to its distance from the main cities and villages. Not to mention the path he had taken here was one that only those with Aura and experience going through rough terrain could reach. The chances of running into anyone else here were supposed to be astronomically low.
Unable to hold back his curiosity, Marcus sped up until he was close enough to see who was there. Once he did so, he stopped in his tracks as his gaze locked onto the figure ahead of him.
A fairy.
That was the impression that he got when he first encountered that person. Standing in the middle of nowhere, her figure was ethereal and unearthly with her closed eyes and arms outstretched to the sides. Her voice from before was clearer now that he was close, and his ears were met with the sound of humming. It was the first time Marcus had been entranced by anyone or anything in his life, and he found his gaze fixated on the girl.
She noticed him, and her face morphed from a soft expression into one of fear. Without warning, she turned around and fled in the opposite direction.
"Wait!"
Marcus was already running after her before he realized it, and somehow, he spent the next few minutes chasing the unknown girl. It was impossible to explain for the professional assassin, but something about her called out to him. As if seeing her alone was a miraculous moment, and if he allowed her to leave, this miracle would escape his grasp forever.
But fortune was not on his side. Something caught on his foot, and even his trained instincts were unable to detect it as he gave out a surprised yell while falling to the ground below. He would later learn that it was a naturally made trap that the locals had warned him about before. A form of dry quicksand that was made from the abandoned habitats of various wildlife where silt and sand created the illusion of a solid surface.
He sank faster than he could react, and sand was already filling his mouth as he struggled amidst the pit. Marcus was suffocating beneath the earth, and even Aura could do nothing against the fact that he was losing precious oxygen. His feet were kicking at seemingly nothing, and he realized in fear that he was still sinking despite the majority of his body already being taken by the pit.
Something tugged at his arm, the sole limb that poked above the surface. Like any drowning man, he grabbed on desperately to that source of freedom and felt himself being pulled with great force.
It was the girl from before. Despite her dainty body, she somehow pulled him out with enough strength that his arm almost popped out of his socket. Gasping and hunched over, he took a few seconds to recover from the ordeal he just went through.
When he finished, he finally spoke to his savior.
"T-Thank you," Marcus rasped. "Y-You saved my life."
"No problem."
She turned around to leave, but he called out to her desperately. "W-Wait, I need to know your name. W-Who are you?!"
Pausing, she turned around to give him a wary look. An eternity must have passed before she finally answered his question.
"My name is Emilia."
If anyone's wondering why there wasn't a Friday post, it's because I caught a fever on Wednesday when I accidentally fell asleep underneath the shade of a tree (although if anyone in my family asks, the fever totally came out of nowhere). Let me tell you, the next few days were not fun for me, and I was in no state to write a new chapter.
So yeah, I'm still feeling the aftereffects of the fever even though I mostly healed over the weekend. Not sure if this persisting headache is a sign, but it should go away over the next few days.
