Chapter 9: Twisting the Knife
"The undead labor is working remarkably well, isn't it?" Neia asked Gilcrest as they rode on horseback through the Capitol's streets.
"Agreed." He said, as his armor clinked with the slow up and down motion of the beast beneath him. "With their help, we'll have almost all the remainder of the city rebuilt before you ride out that gate." He said with a broad and sincere smile, just as a skeleton carrying three times the load a human could, walked past them in the opposite direction towards a construction site.
"True," Neia said, "but that is only part of what I mean." Her face took on a clever expression, which prompted a confused look on Gilcrest's face.
"Did you notice what that skeleton was wearing?" She asked.
"...Just what it died in." He answered. "Well, that and marked with a yellow X over the front and back to identify it as a dead traitor...oooohhhhh." He finished as the realization dawned.
"Exactly. All of these were part of the attack on our position, and not only did we crush them, killing most and leading to a fair number of the few survivors being captured and hanged, but now they're serving us as free undead labor, subject to our orders thanks to the generosity of the god of justice. They serve as a constant reminder of our victory over our enemies, but also of what it means to cross Black Justice. It's a fitting end for the people who would betray their own, and it is a particularly horrific end for the fanatics who hate the undead, to know, not fear, but to know...beyond any question, that when they die at our hands, they will serve at our god's will."
Gilcrest's expression turned dark, it was hard to argue the point, so he decided to change the subject. "The people are getting quite accustomed to them." He said.
"Another added bonus," Neia's smile did not wane, and her enthusiasm picked up. "Familiarity with danger brings contempt for it, and as people grow more and more used to seeing undead servants in the streets laboring for their benefit, they will open themselves up to expanding that use dramatically. Of course...we couldn't possibly do this in the Southern Kingdom...not like this at least." She said.
"Why not?" Gilcrest asked.
"Because the people of this region have had more exposure to nonhostile and tightly controlled undead, the undead saved untold thousands of them. Remember when he left our city, the cheers for him were louder than for the coronation of our own King. We can test the limits of the applications of undead labor, starting with reconstruction and expanding into normal usage."
"I see." He said, "So this is a template for the future."
"Precisely." Neia replied. "The Capitol is the fertile ground from which the seeds of change will sprout, the rest of the kingdom, North & South alike, can either ride the tide of change or be swept aside by it."
He nodded in thought as he imagined the tireless undead being used to alleviate the weariness of the living. He imagined undead groomsmen, guards like those the Sorcerer King used to crush demihuman warriors, undead construction workers, undead miners, undead horses pulling carts...the living gaining a comfortable and contented life, and when it ended, serving the comfort of the next generation as an undead...it provoked...mixed feelings within him.
Neia learned the power of examples firsthand from three sources. The first was from the Sorcerer King, his noble use of power, his argument against giving in to hostage demands, which he demonstrated his commitment to by putting down the hostages and saving countless lives, and his willingness to walk forward first into danger. The second example, ironically enough, was Jaldabaoth, his viciousness and cruelty were truly terrible things, but they allowed him to gather an army that 'almost' brought the Roble Holy Kingdom to its knees. His use of hostages to accomplish this with reluctant allies served as a counterpoint to the arguments of the Sorcerer King. Lastly, she learned from the example of Remedios Custodio...though in her mind, little enough of that example was positive, but all of those played into her request that the Sorcerer King turn the dead attackers into undead servants, it prompted a profoundly wicked smile from Demiurge when she'd made the request, and it was happily granted.
With less construction to do, Neia had time for something else, something far more important in her own mind. "So, where are we going?" Gilcrest said as Neia slipped into silence.
"I am going to the castle to speak to the King. You are going to meet with Robel and go drinking." She said.
"We're going to a tavern?" He asked.
"Yes, several of them, you're going to be drinking quite a bit, but I'm afraid I have to deprive you of some of the enjoyment of doing so." Neia said, and she reached into her pocket and pulled out two rings, simple gold bands but with small engravings on them, and handed both to Gilcrest. "Put one on, give the other to Robel, these will...in the words of Lord Ainz, 'give you the liver of a hundred men.' I have no idea what that is supposed to mean, but he did clarify that it has something to do with the fact that you're not going to actually be able to get drunk. Still, act as if you are." She said.
"What do we do while there?" He asked as his curiosity grew.
"You're going to be a very generous patron, go to the bar, buy drinks for tables. Then you're going to let it slip that I've got an informant who is going to provide me with information on who helped Remedios get what she needed for her raid on our position." She said.
"Do you have such an informant?" He asked.
"Hell no." She replied. "However, you're going to let it out that I do, nothing obvious, mind you, just that I've got a lead."
"And what is Robel going to be doing?" He asked.
"He'll be watching the door to see if anyone leaves after you do." She said with a grin.
"I'm the bait, aren't I?" He asked.
"Exactly. But don't worry, we'll do our best to protect you." She said, reaching out and touching his shoulder. Her eyes met his, and she said sincerely, "You won't be alone out there. Robel knows who to contact already, everything will be fine."
He nodded and swallowed hard, battle was easier to cope with than covert operations.
An hour later, Gilcrest found himself shaking hands with Robel in a middle-tier tavern, covertly passing him the ring before going to settle in at the bar. The place was nice, not fantastic, but well maintained, tables and chairs intact, clean enough, and a bearded bull of a man stood behind a bar lined with patrons, serving a sweet smelling brew, it was the sort of place that merchants, midrank adventurerers, and well paid staff could afford to eat and drink, its only drawback was the low lighting, reflected by the positioning of the tavern to the street, with only a few windows letting light come in. Robel looked around briefly to ensure there were no other evident means of entry or exit, and then he sat in a corner and watched. Gilcrest spent the next two hours buying drinks for strangers and talking about how well things were going for Black Justice. He praised the leadership of Neia Baraja, and he praised the Sorcerer King, and he praised the will of those who worked to complete the Capitol reconstruction...in sum, he left no doubt as to whose man he was.
But as he drank and appeared to be more and more intoxicated, he muttered to the bartender about how much the people behind the recent attack needed to pay for what they'd done.
"Wasn't Remedios sentenced to death, and weren't almost all those in her band killed off or captured?" The bartender asked.
"Shure!" Gilcrest said, putting a slur to his voice as he pounded on the bar, and then he leaned in and added, "But thash jusht those...she Remedios had help, an Nei-Nei knows it!" he said with a dark conspiratorial giggle at the nickname. Privately...he thought it was a nice touch, though Neia would no doubt roll her eyes at the ridiculous nickname.
"How could she know that?" The bartender asked.
He hiccuped for effect and gave a ridiculous grin as he leaned over, "Cuzsh sheesh got a source. See I sheen em comin from"r offish t'day, now sheesh goin t'the king, they'll let'r take'im in an then they'll know everthing cuz it'll be easy t'know who to snap up, they'llav all th'evidence they need." He giggled maliciously, and then said..."ay I'm ungry, you serve food or what?" He asked.
"No...sorry, but there is a place down the street that does, 'The Red Bird' has damn good food. Tell the guy at the counter that Kalin sent you, he'll set you up right and give you a discount." The bartender said.
"Aye, thanks." Gilcrest said, and half walked, half staggered out the door.
Robel watched Gilcrest leave, and at first, he saw nothing unusual, but after a time, he saw a man approach the bar, speak, and quickly leave. Robel quickly sent his message and then left shortly after, taking a roundabout route to the Red Bird.
Gilcrest felt himself being followed after a few minutes, so he kept up his drunk act, stopping several times along the way and leaning up against the wall, or leaning over into a barrel to vomit as if he'd had far too much to drink, idly wondering where his promised backup was.
Skana was actually glad she wasn't especially pretty. Oh, she wasn't ugly, another thing she was grateful for, but she was completely ordinary to look at in every way, a glance at her features in one moment, and her face would be forgotten the next. She was, in a word, very generic, even her brown eyes were common-looking. She wasn't especially tall or short, thin or fat, you could see her every day for a year and not be able to think of a single remarkable thing about her to describe her to people. As a younger maiden who developed no interest in boys, but found herself instead preferring the same sex as herself, this had begun as something she appreciated, not caring for the lusts of men, but it became a burden even with other women, who considered her wholly unremarkable.
However, as she had come to find, what lay within her was something quite remarkable, she was uncommonly stoic about pain and she was skilled at blending in, and excelled at learning and responding to change. All this was very useful in responding to the demihuman invasion of Jaldabaoth. She had avoided capture for an extended period of time and, in the end, had only been captured because she had tried to help someone else and been taken with them. In the prison camp, she used her ability to blend in and remain unnoticed to avoid the hungry eyes of demihumans looking for those it would be amusing to torment, she simply looked boring even when they noticed her. This meant that she had survived better than others and was still at least somewhat stronger than the other captives when the Sorcerer King had liberated her from her captivity. Soon after, she'd begun to follow Neia Baraja, and all this time later, she was now a skilled scout and trusted to lead the whole of them herself. Now she looked casually ahead, her eyes scanning the entire area. She exercised caution to not look directly at the target, she knew quite well that people could feel themselves being looked at, and she was too good at this to give herself away like an amateur. The same was true of the rest of her party. They were dressed in casual commoner clothing, but beneath the cloaks they wore for protection from the weather, there were several weapons of excellent quality, and the fabric of their clothing was woven with magic thread, which gave their clothing the strength of leather armor...nothing fantastic, but sufficient for throwing people off while offering at least some protection.
Her crew had been hand-picked by Neia Baraja for this mission, and during their training as scouts, they had acquired skills that let them double as a kind of 'tactical hit squad', removing sentries and tracking the movements of individual targets, and in the course of that training, they learned a number of unknown techniques for shadowing a target. Their method today was simple: each one of them shadowed the other, the lead member of the team would follow discreetly until or if suspicions were evident in the target, then the lead would turn into a shop or down a road, ending suspicion as the lead was no longer 'with' the target. The next person would then take up the task of observation and pursuit, while the lead would move to a discreet intersection point where they could take up the tail position of the pursuit. If suspicion was evident of the next person in line, as evidenced by behavior in the target, the new lead would repeat the action of the first person, and turn off elsewhere, leaving the next behind them to act in the role of chief tail. This would repeat itself until observation was ended.
Skana grinned as she executed her part. When the target seemed to pause and look around, she didn't hesitate, she simply turned into a shop. The fellow she was watching was probably waiting for her to come out, so she didn"t linger. She bought a small item and then came out of the shop, and turned a corner going down the street away from where the target stood. She could feel the suspicion melt away. It wasn"t that far to the Red Bird, but the bustling streets of the Capitol made it difficult to move at a great pace in the evening. This worked to the advantage of Skana's band, and they used the cover of the crowd to hide themselves. Skana took advantage of her departure from the route to buy a new cloak of a different color, then went to an alley, discarded her old one, put the new one on, and then she rushed to the nearest intersecting point.
The rest of her crew performed well in her absence, executing the departure maneuver so well that their target had begun to relax, driving them to conclude he had come to consider himself pointlessly paranoid, and this continued all the way to the time they arrived at the Red Bird. The Red Bird sat at an intersection, a large central fountain that was clearly of new construction, a point of pride for Black Justice and its labor force, provided clean water to the city, and between this and its centralized location, the area was a hub of activity as taverns, restaurants, and commercial enterprises thrived anew. Confident voices hawked wares, and trade was conducted on dozens of different goods. The observers watched as Gilcrest stopped in front of the restaurant, a relatively large building with one single swinging door, it had two floors, the second story of wood, the first of rounded stones held together with mortar, and the smell of fresh-cooked meat wafted into the street for all to find.
When Skana rejoined her people, she quickly learned that their target had not gone into the Red Bird after Gilcrest but instead had gone into another two-story building across the street. She acted quickly and sent a runner to Black Justice to request some heavy support, she was certain they'd found the primary base of operations.
She divided her group and had one half watch each building, and after a little while, their efforts were rewarded. Because coming out of the Red Bird was the same man who had been their target of pursuit. Her eyes narrowed. He had not gone IN to the Red Bird...so how had he come OUT of it? There was only one clear answer.
"The buildings are linked." She said softly to herself.
"Shit." She said under her breath as she realized that made this a little harder. She turned to one of her scouts, "You, go into the restaurant, see if Gilcrest is present." The man nodded and walked casually into the swaying door. Skana waited and waited, and after several minutes, he walked out and back to where she sat.
"Well?" She asked.
He shook his head. "I told them I was to meet a friend there, I described Gilcrest, but the attendant said he hadn't arrived, he offered me a table, but I said I would just go shopping and return later."
"OK..." Skana said, "New plan, people. The Red Bird isn't just a convenient location, it's part of the enemy operations. That gives us two targets, not just one. It also means they've already got Gilcrest, and they've probably moved him to the primary target building. We have a few hours, they won't move him till the Sun goes down, but they will also want to know who the leak is, and that means we can't take that whole time, you can put a lot of hurt on somebody in a little time if you're good at it." She said, and the group of scouts nodded.
It was then that a seemingly ordinary patrol of Black Justice soldiers, her backup, appeared down the street marching in her direction, and Skana knew it was time to spring the trap. She quickly approached the lead element before they could enter the square where they'd be easily observable. It was the only real blind spot.
"Listen and follow quickly," she said, her soft voice carrying a note of iron, "There are two target locations, not just one. The Red Bird is part of their operation, they have a tunnel leading from the main building across from it to the restaurant itself. We don't know where the tunnel comes out in the buildings, but it must be from below somewhere. With the Red Bird, you have only a front and rear entrance, since it shares walls with other establishments, so send a half a dozen men to the back, and some more out front, the rest of you loudly storm the main target building. We know they have Gilcrest, but we don't know where he is in there. They may abandon him, they may not. If they fight, great, but their primary building is a corner location, so surround all three sides and storm the front. If they flee, they'll flee to the tunnel and come out into our waiting arms. If they don't, we'll take as many alive as you can, we need answers more than we need more skeletal laborers."
She said, it was a lot to take in, but these were hardened veterans of the war with Jaldabaoth, they were not about to shrink from difficult tasks. The group was quickly split up, with a few minutes" head start given to allow a detachment to go to the rear of the Red Bird. Skana parted from them and returned to her group, and she quickly gave instructions.
"They're about to move, so I want you all to take up perimeter positions just beyond this operation area. Anyone slips past the more heavily armored soldiers, you take them down, captives are needed, but don't die over it." She said and whispered, "Justice prevails," to which they responded, "by strength". And they split up.
It was very loud. Skana didn't much care for loud, she preferred more stealthy operations and had developed a taste for clean, quiet, unfair kills. She'd gotten some disagreement for this, but she eloquently argued that fair fights are for suckers, and death struggles had to be won because they were for a cause, not for the self...but even so...she couldn't deny that these loud, noisy operations were an effective attention getter. The Black Justice fighters stormed the ground-level entrances of the unassuming building with battle cries and swords out, giving only scant notice to the people inside, who were not generally prepared for battle.
Skana couldn't see what was going on, but the crashing and breaking and screams told an eloquent story that the whole square could hear, it was so loud and distracting that as crowds paused to watch the fighting, nobody even noticed as people trying to exit the Red Bird found themselves held at the entrance by a series of very pointy halbards. The shouts of surprise caught a few eyes to turn back to the restaurant as the narrow door became a bottleneck, and the soldiers who had stormed to the front of it became a stopper. Nobody out front heard the shouts in the back as soldiers there pulled the same maneuver.
The prey had fled from one trap to be caught in another, and that left only one option, an option not many would have the courage to take...but as Skana watched the upper floors, a few DID have that will, and the fact that it was several, told her how important they were. Several figures leapt out the windows of the upper floors to land in the street, thinking they would be behind the soldiers and be able to escape...and that was when Skana's people acted, executing their own martial arts on the ones who thought they escaped the net.
Skana found herself confronting one of them, a woman with fire red hair wearing a plain brown cloak and fairly nice tunic of green and black that molded closely to her body, she didn't waste any words when Skana put herself in the way of escape, instead she drew out a short blade, evidently realizing she would have to go through the plain looking female confronting her.
They struck out at the same time, Skana brought her blade down in an angular slash meant to connect at the shoulder, and the woman ducked low and thrust her blade at Skana's exposed side, however Skana used her momentum from the failed slash to carry her out of the way, spin, and struck out with a kick to the woman's knee, it wasn't painful, but striking the side of the knee through her off. Her target rolled with the blow and came up like a spring, leaping towards Skana, intending to open her guts. Skana, however, was a practitioner of the Black Justice fighting style and used her free hand to grab the woman's wrist and pull her off balance as she herself used that leverage to get out of the way. The woman staggered forward a few steps as her balance was lost, and Skana responded to the opportunity by grabbing her dagger with her left hand, pulling it out, and throwing it at the woman's head. It struck her pommel first, and the woman fell forward, unconscious on the cobblestone steps.
The rest of the fighting had started to die down, a few clashes rang out as she secured her captive, but those too faded relatively quickly. Those who had made the rather daring leap to escape from the second-story rooms found that they'd just leaped from the fire into the cook pot, and the elite scouts of Skana were prepared to bring them down. There were twenty-three people in the primary building, eight of whom had died fighting and had evidently been security for the location based on their arms and equipment.
Of the fifteen survivors in the main building, nine had been dispatched inside, though none without resistance and few without some form of injury, despite clearly not being what one would call 'warriors'. The six remainder who had leapt from the second floor had all put up some firm resistance, however, they were outnumbered by the elite scouts, and extra soldiers had been able to participate to bring down those who resisted most firmly.
In the Red Bird restaurant, things were a different story. Several people from the main building had tried to use the restaurant to escape, bursting in among surprised diners, panicked people drew swords or knives, uncertain of who was friend or foe, or simply sprinted for the front or rear entrance...only to find the tips of very sharp halberds at their throats. When the main building was secured and the captives firmly bound, soldiers went to the restaurant through the secret path, and the serving staff and other employees, who now recognized the jig was up, tried to flee upstairs to make their own dramatic leaps...only to find themselves landing with soldiers waiting to arrest them.
As Skana noted when she took charge and entered the restaurant, the greatest problem was what to do with the diners. Chaos had ensued when people had tried to escape through it, plates had toppled, outraged patrons had attempted to respond, only to have swords drawn on them, and the shouting and screaming of people ranging from panic to outrage were all blending, though the soldiers exercised little concern over that except for watchfulness as they secured the serving staff.
Skana rolled her eyes and climbed on top of the bar, quickly making a decision that she was sure was the right one, and the most troublesome one at the same time.
"Citizens of the Holy Kingdom, your attention please!" she shouted, drawing her sword and, in one swift motion, throwing it into the opposite wall with a very loud THUNK noise. It vibrated audibly as the noise began to die down.
"An emergency of the most dire sort has happened here, and your patience and attention are required for us to sort the matter out. Almost all of you, I am sure, have come to this place simply because the food is good and were just hoping to enjoy a meal. However, you have been caught up in the games of nefarious persons hoping to harm your neighbors, and it may be that some of those nefarious people are trying to use the rest of you as a means to conceal themselves and blend in. All of you will have to come with us while we sort out who is an innocent patron and who is a suspicious and nefarious person out to hurt the people of this great Kingdom. All innocent parties will be compensated reasonably for their time, whether it be through lost wages or appropriate rations. Understand this is not an option, I am informing, I am not asking."
Her voice was iron as she jumped down and went to the wall, and took her sword out with a quick wrenching motion. "Stand up and line up against the wall." She said, and gradually, reluctant patrons followed her guidance.
As the last were secured, Skana was approached by Robel.
"Did you find him?" He asked, Skana didn't need to ask who Robel was talking about, Gilcrest...she was just about to tell him no when a soldier came up and said, "Ma'am, we found a man tied up and unconscious in a room that had been prepared just off the tunnel."
"So he's alive then." Skana said, relief in her voice, "Good. Robel, why don't you go see to him? We'll finish up here."
"I will, thank you." Robel replied and quickly departed.
After considerable time bringing everybody back to the Black Justice headquarters area, Skana divided up the interrogation teams and separated the captives to keep them from communicating with one another.
She stood in front of the door of the nearest building, a simple structure of stone, but enchanted against attempts at using magic or martial arts to break it down. Thinking about it, she considered it 'probably' couldn't hold an adamantite adventurer...but it should be good enough for their purposes now. The door was double layered, on the outside, iron bars that had been added on, and behind that a heavy wooden door, offering a double layer of protection, it was awkward to open, with the bars opening out, and the wooden door opening in, but then, that wasn't a show stopper, so they'd lived with the solution to their basic security needs without resorting to using the castle dungeon.
She straightened her tunic with a slight tug and took a deep breath as she got out of the mindset of physical combat and into the mindset of mental combat.
Then she opened the door and walked in. She recognized the woman immediately, the flaming red hair was now much messier, and her cloak was gone, but she wore a foul expression on her face as she stood chained against the wall. She tried to lose herself, pulling against her bonds, only for them to snap taut as Skana locked the doors behind her. There was a table between them, simple rough wood and two chairs of equally crude construction.
Skana didn't say anything, she just approached the table and sat down.
"It won't do any good, you know." She said to the chained-up redhead.
"It doesn't hurt to try either." The woman spat back.
"You sure about that?" Skana said, "It could be made to hurt if necessary."
The woman went quiet, and then she stopped pulling on her chains and relaxed.
"Smart." Skana said. "I don't like pointless things, and struggling against those would definitely be pointless, it's much easier for you and me both if you simply cooperate."
"I won't tell you anything." The red-headed woman said.
"You don't need to say much anyway," Skana said, "After all, we already caught you, think about what that means just by itself."
There was silence in the room.
"Right." Skana said, "We had enough soldiers to handle you, we captured the entire 'staff' at the Red Bird, and we caught everybody who took that noteworthy window leap, pretty impressive resolve, I'll grant you all that. The people who died were all obviously there only to serve as a defense team, but even the weaker people tried to resist. For what it's worth, you did as well as could be expected, we were just too well prepared for anything you might have done."
The woman stayed quiet and stared daggers at Skana.
"It's OK, you don't have to talk, just listen." Skana said with a smile, "The fact that you were allowed to be captured means only one of two things: either your entire operation was a sham and you were supposed to get caught, or your people expected you to kill yourselves rather than be captured. Either way, they obviously don't give a rat's dung about your lives being thrown away. Now that you have been captured, there are, of course, only two possible options. Either they leave you here, hoping none of you give up any information, which is unlikely unless you have nothing of value to say...or they have you all assassinated or rescued. Tell me the few tidbits of information that I want to know...and I will stake my life on your continued survival. Neia is a hard woman, but she respects her followers' convictions, and if I tell her I gave my word, she'll accept it. However, this only applies to those who cooperate, those who don't, I can personally assure you, will just end up as more skeleton laborers working to better this city." The woman's eyes went wide with shock at the promise and the threat...there was a fire in her eyes that matched her hair, and then she slumped as if the fight had gone out of her.
"What do you want to know?" She asked.
"Let's start with your name." Skana said, "I'd rather not just have to keep referring to you as the redheaded prisoner."
"Torli." She said.
"Alright Torli, we're getting somewhere." Skana said. "Which nation sent you to us?"
"The Re-Estize Kingdom" She said.
Skana hid her surprise and leaned back in her chair.
"And your mission?" She asked.
"Varies. Mainly observation, but we also handle providing support to potentially friendly parties." Torli said.
"Kind of seems like you overreached with supporting Remedios, doesn't it?" Skana said.
"What do you mean?" Torli asked with doubt in her voice.
"Remedios was widely known to be brave, powerful, filled with conviction, and a complete idiot. There was no way she managed to get that many people together so quickly. I heard she said in the court of the King, it would take her a month to three months to get her people ready for an expedition to hunt down demihuman stragglers and survivors. Not unreasonable given the logistical need for supplies, but it takes competence to organize a raid like that so quickly, it might have been believable if it had just been members of the Paladin Order, but there were known criminals in their number, and we know some of the lords contributed soldiers as well, Remedios couldn"t have coordinated that on her own, that meant she had outside help. It tipped us off that she had outside assistance."
Skana chuckled, "If you hadn't been so dead set on killing us all, quite frankly, you could have remained hidden for years. Once we knew there was outside support, we knew there were outside agents here, and finding you was as simple as sending different teams to different taverns and seeing who reacted by tracking the agent."
Torli looked surprised. "You're...very good at this."
"I was taught by the best." She said simply. "So, you're in charge of everything?"
"Yes." Torli said with a small nod.
A knock on the door interrupted them.
"Excuse me." Skana said politely and went to unlock the door. A thickly muscled man stood outside it, and Skana stepped outside, leaving Torli alone.
"What do you have to report?" Skana asked.
"All the interrogators are reporting the same thing." He said. "All the prisoners identify themselves as the citizens of Re-Estize Kingdom, here to observe and run operations leading to a favorable outcome for their national interest."
"I see." Skana said. "Well, since they're cooperating so much, I'd say it is time to allow them some small reward. Take them out to the baths, keep the chains on, but allow them to be bathed and fed by members of their own sex, do not allow them to be abused in any way."
The soldier nodded politely and departed, and Skana returned to Torli.
"Apologies for keeping you waiting." She said to the chained woman, who did not try to leap at her again. "I had to confer with my colleague, the rest of your team is cooperating, and we appreciate that. You're going to be rewarded, given food, and time at the baths, your chains will stay on, of course, but to protect your dignity, you will be taken care of by members of your own sex, none of your women will be mistreated, I swear it, afterwards you'll return here, and we can continue our discussion." Skana said kindly.
Torli looked surprised. "Th-thank you." She said in reply, and a few minutes later, several females came in, secured Torli's bonds at wrists and ankles, and led her out. She had enough slack to feed herself, but could take only small steps and couldn't hope to strike any blows or resist in any significant way.
While she was out, Skana turned things over in her mind, and eventually she reached a decision. She went out and purchased a large thick white cloth, several knives, and a set of paints, and she went to work drawing out the designs she had in her mind, and then she secured it to a piece of thick wood and hung it on the wall in Torli's cell, she then moved the table against the wall farther away from the door, and took a seat, she propped her feet up on the table and looked at her handwork on the wall opposite herself, thinking it would do nicely.
When a much cleaner and less sweaty Torli was returned to her cell in the care of her female guards, Skana through a knife at her work, and it sank into the thick wood.
Torli saw the gesture and paused in a moment's confusion before it was repeated, as Skana took another knife and threw it towards the opposite wall. Skana watched Torli's eyes when the confusion hit, and she continued to watch as Torli's gaze followed the motion of Skana's hands, saw the knife fly, and sank through the cloth to the wood beneath with a satisfying thunk. On the wall, the first dagger stuck out of the decently drawn face of Surshana, and the second dagger had sunk into the face of Alah Alaf.
Skana watched Torli's face change to shock as she saw the two rows of the six gods faces, set next to a drawing of the Slane Theocracy's flag, and she drew another dagger, and threw it as she had the others, this one hit the center of the Slane Theocracy's symbol, and she asked Torli, "Would you like to play? I'll bet you can't hit the Slane Theocracy's emblem dead center." Skana's question was asked in a casual tone, but the response she received was very much the opposite.
Torli screamed in rage and tried to leap away from her handlers, regardless of the chains, and get herself to the blasphemous Skana."
Skana didn't even startle. She stood up casually, flung another dagger, and hit another of the six gods' faces, and then said simply, "Put her down. I got what I needed."
Torli was in such a state of rage that she barely felt the sword pass through her throat from behind her, and when she noticed the feeling, her eyes went down to the blade protruding from her throat as if she couldn't understand where it had come from. She fell to her knees as her handlers let her go, and when the sword was removed, she fell over the rest of the way, as she choked on her blood, she managed to look over to the wall, at the white fabric containing the emblems of all that she held faith in, she tried to utter a prayer that the god's receive her spirit, but it came out as a mere gurgling sound, that was itself interrupted by a thunk as another dagger sank into the face of another of her gods. Then she knew no more.
"Well, that was informative." Skana said. "Inform Gilcrest and Robel that they need to report this to Neia immediately, waiting to be heard at the castle can take quite some time, but do not waste a moment, they need to know that the Theocracy is...or was...active in this city."
There was not a moment's time wasted in carrying out that order, and Skana looked down at the dead red-headed woman, and then crouched over her, she reached down and grabbed her by the hair close to the scalp, turning her lifeless face upwards so that their eyes met. "I wonder if Torli was even your real name?" She said quietly. "I guess that doesn't matter now. All that matters to you anymore is how much your skeleton can do to improve our nation." Skana unceremoniously released her grip, letting the head fall back down, creating a small splash of blood as she did so, some got on her boots as a result, but that was the very least of her concerns.