Haelith's heart pounded. The room she was in was small, plain, and circular, with only a wood and steel chair in the middle. Forced to sit down, heavy leather straps were fastened onto her wrists and ankles. But that wasn't what scared her. What scared her was the stone floor, which was stained red with blood in many places. The wood, which was worn down, but still scratched and splintered. The door, though it was heavy solid steel, it had a pale outline of a man as though they were burned to the metal. The fire pit that housed crackling coals, which caused several metal poles to burn red hot. And the men, who sneered and held a number of wicked looking implements. Behind them stood Erisdar, who wore a wicked smile. "Haelith. I want to make this very easy." he said, walking around the room. "You have information. Information that I need. Give me that information, and you can leave this room with your scales unharmed. Withhold it, and you will find out just how much practice we have with delivering pain."

"I'll tell you anything! Please just let me go!" she cried, eyeing the blades and hot brands that moved around her.

"You grew up with Commander Leonard Brundt, correct?" He began to circle her, slowly and carefully. Though the rest of the men went one way, he went the other, and she quickly lost track of which way she was actually facing, even though she knew she wasn't moving.

"Yes. He saved my life."

"Why? Why would he save your life?"

The question caught her off guard. "Why does it matter? I was a child who was ready to throw myself off of a building, why does it matter why he saved me?"

"Oh? He saved your life more than once? I did not know that, thank you. But that is not what I am talking about. Just under a year ago, on the day you ran away, he saved your life again. He stood up to the …at the time… Grand Templar. Why would he save the life of a servant like you? Why would he choose to die to let you escape?"

"Because he cared about me. He treated me like… like the daughter he never had."

"And why is that?"

"Because he loved me!" she shouted. "He loved me, he treated me like a daughter because I never had a father! He loved me because he knew he could never have children of his own! He loved me because he rescued me from death! He loved me because he would always see me as a helpless child who just needed someone to love her!"

Erisdar was quiet, taking it all in, and formulating his next questions. "And… he had no ulterior motives?"

"What?! He was my family! He was like my father! Why would he-"

"Because he was a traitor!" Erisdar shouted as he leaned close. "He was helping those useless fleabags escape! For years he would hire 'new slaves' only for them to vanish within weeks! He released them, and smuggled them back to Keidran territory!"

"Then he was a good man!" Haelith shouted, pulling at the leather straps, wishing she could feel her fist collide with his head. "Better than you will ever be!"

Erisdar's heavy armored hand came fast across her face. "You know nothing of what I have done. You have no idea how much I have done to prove myself, to show my loyalty. I have done things that would make you never want to sleep again." He sighed, and turned away. "Now, tell me what I want to know, or my friends will not be as gentle as I was. Why did Colonel Leonard Brundt stand up against Trace Legacy? Why did he choose to die, rather than turn you in?"

Tears rolled down her face in pain. "Because he loved me."

"Love drives men to do many things. But I suspect you know more than you are letting on. Tell me, while you were there, what did he talk about?"

"What?"

"He talked, didn't he? Tell me what he said, tell me everything you remember."

"I was a child. He talked with me about a lot of things. He taught me medicine. He taught me to read and write. He taught me Keidran and Basitin, he played with me, he was my father! What else would he have talked about?!"

"Names. Places. Surely there were some."

"Even if I remembered them, he would have said so many I wouldn't know where to begin!"

"There is one I must know if he ever mentioned. Did he ever mention the name 'Thandolin'? Does that mean anything to- oh?" Haelith's eyes were wide and her breathing was shallow. Her entire body shook as the name rang through her head.

"Th- Tha- Thandolin?" she barely breathed out. "N-n-no. He n-never m-mentioned it."

"But that name means something to you. Tell me what you know of him. Everything."

"I… I heard it a few weeks ago. Thandolin. He… he's credited with the destruction of Nemurnal. I've just… heard that name a lot in the last few weeks." she lied, hoping that her fear was convincing enough to make him not question too much.

"Who told you this? Barret?"

"No. It was someone in Hatchet's Harbor. A… a historian trying to sell me a book. I didn't buy it, but for as much as I've heard that name, I probably should have."

"Who else has talked about him?"

"There was the historian, a… an old man in the northern tribe, but I don't know his name… Barret told me about the last time he fought a Sentinel, but that's it."

Erisdar was silent, looking at her closely. Finally he sighed. "Brundt never mentioned the name?"

"No. Again, I was a child. I didn't care about the Templars. I just wanted to live, and he just wanted to have a daughter."

"You said he never could have children. Why is that?"

Haelith blushed and turned away as much as she could. "He… he was infertile. He had tried before with his wife before she died, and they never could conceive. He even tried using magic to heal himself, but it didn't work."

Erisdar resumed walked around her. For several long minutes, there was silence. "Thank you for cooperating. I look forward to when we speak again." He waved his hand, and two soldiers walked over, loosening the straps on her wrists, but putting the steel binders back on her. "Take her back to her cell."

Pressed towards the door, Haelith suddenly resisted them, and turned around. "What will happen to Barret?"

The guards stopped, and turned to see if Erisdar wanted to respond. "That remains to be seen."

…

It poured outside. The wind howled through the window, and Barret wished he had his hammock. He grew tired of waiting for Haelith to be brought back, and laid down, only to find that his tail was in the way. There was nothing for him to do, so he laid on his side and waited. He wasn't tired, but his eyes grew heavy as he laid still, waiting. Finally, he heard the stomping of boots, and walked over to the bars. Haelith was being brought back. He didn't dare say anything, but tried to reach his arm as far as he could through the bars, hoping to reach her and give her comfort. The guards didn't let her close enough though, and pushed her back into the cell without a word. As they removed the bindings, they closed the gate, and left her in a heap on the floor. "Haelith? Are you alright?"

"I… I'm fine." She managed to squeak out as she sat up, retreating to the farthest corner of the cell.

"I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. What did they want to know?"

"They asked me about Brundt… and Thandolin."

"What? Thandolin? Why do they need to know about him?"

"I don't know. But I told them what I knew, but I said I learned it from a merchant in Hatchet's Harbor."

"Good. Best not to mention Raine too much, or they might chase her down too."

"You should get some rest." Haelith pulled herself onto the wooden cot, and rolled over to face the wall. "It's only a matter of time before they come for you too." He could hear the pain in her voice, the worry. Barret sat down on the floor and watched her as she lay there, wishing for nothing more than to go to her side, to hold her close and be there for her. But as the storm raged outside, it swirled inside him too. Worry, anger, hatred, fear, all turned into a mixture of dull aching pain in his heart, and as he sat, his mind wandered to what might have been, and what he would try to make still be.