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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Abciximab" data-source="post: 5609603" data-attributes="member: 46017">Interlude~Interrogation~The sun slides through the slats of the shutters of the warehouse windows.  It is hot, and the five figures stand over their bound captives.  Kay’Es, looking like some kind of unearthly demon, licks his lips. His diabolic eyes flickering in the dim light. Both prisoners are tied to chairs and have been conscious for about an hour.Arendel points with his thumb over his shoulder to Max, who is standing silently behind him, towering over Arendel by at least a foot. "See this guy? This is my friend Max. He likes to do things the hard way. Me? I prefer the easy way. The easy way of course is you answer my questions quickly and honestly and you go on your merry way. The hard way? That's when I try to stop Max from breaking all the bones in your body from your toes to your head, in that order. And then he just get's mean..."The bound captives are silent."Are bones the things that crunch when I twist?” asks Max. “Sorry I'll wait for you do be done talking to the guy I knocked out... I always wondered why people had twigs in them, but could still be quiet in the forest."Sitting off to the side, Ace and Kay’Es watch. Sharing a glance with Kay'Es, and perhaps some telepathic communication, Ace smiles wickedly as the eidolon begins slinking about staring at the prisoner. He licks his lips. Kay'Es looks at Arendel, and asks, "After max finishes with them, can I eat what's left?"Arendel speaks to the prisoners once more, “Who are you and who are you working for? What did you expect to accomplish by all this? The prisoner on the right is the first to speak.   "My name is Pilar.  I am the son of Phila and Drestus, and my people have hunted the M'neri Plains since before the invasion of the Pale Ones.  I was taken into slavery by a Bekyar slaving squad when I was ten years old.  They slaughtered my parents in front of me.  "I worked the salt mines with Umagro outside Kalabuto.  During a siege of the city by the Mzali, Umagro led a revolt; we fled to Eleder, where we joined the Freeman Brotherhood.  Umagro found it too passive, and when the last leader died about two months ago, he took over.  He was right! You Pales can only leave the Mwangi upon a barge of your own bones, floating upon a river of your own blood!"  He spits at the floor in front of Arendel.Arendel just shakes his head, “If your group hadn't resorted to violence, your fellow Freemen would still be alive. We didn't come here to kill or enslave you. We, in fact, sympathize with your plight. Your action have only shown those that hate you they are right to do so and also have alienated those who might help you.”Arendel pulls out the medallion bearing the symbol of the Aspis Consortium.  “What do you know of this symbol? It was on your leader. Was Umagro working for someone else? I think your leader was taking money from a group that wishes to do nothing but ravage these lands and use your people as slaves and he was using you and your brothers to do their dirty work.”The prisoner in the chair to the left raises his head. "Friend?  Umagro, like brother Pilar here, is no friend but an upstart, a hothead too impatient to learn how the world works.  He paid his dues in blood and sweat, but not yet in words or deeds.“I am Vardamann, and my ancestry is moot.  I knew the last Fallen Brother well, and his spirit writhes with the machinations of Umagro and his ilk. Pilar speaks the truth, though his loyalty to our fallen brother is but a cataract upon his judgment.“Men wearing cloaks clasped with the same symbol, a serpent upon a shield, visited our encampment two days ago.  They met with Umagro.  He then gathered us and declared war upon Eleder.  We were ordered to release his wild dogs upon the Warehouse District, and then to set fire to several specific buildings.  It was his grand scheme, not mine.“I have no faith in you, foreigners.  My loyalty lies with my brothers and sisters still in chains.  Kill me if you must, but to do so will betray the spirit of freedom."Arendel smiles grimly, “I expect you have met many more foreigners that have given you reason to distrust them than the other way around. Vardamann, what would you do if we released you? And Pilar... whatever are we to do with you? Vardamann, you seem displeased with the direction the Freemen have taken, is there any way we can help get them back on the right path? Do you think you can guide your lost brother Pilar back onto the just path?”Vardamann gives a derisive laugh, "You would find only a fool before you if I were to tell you of my next move.  If I leave here, I will melt into the crowd, into the earth and stones, the air, wind, water and stars.  The Brotherhood is everywhere, and nowhere.  We exist to end slavery; that is all I can tell you.  Umagro was his own man, his own type of leader.  He sought no counsel from me, or any others.“I am wise enough to ask for my release, and also humble enough to accept it.  But not naive enough to tell you what is next to secure that.  You speak of travel, Northerner, of paths? I will tell you that my path is one of peace, but also one of resistance.  I will tell you, too, that I will take young Pilar with me; though if he steals away from me in the night, he is neither my ward nor worry.""I am indeed not your ward old man,” answers Pilar softly. “But I swore to my mother and father that I would uphold the sacred traditions.  Perhaps I put my hope in a false prophet.  Perhaps I need more time along these paths you speak of.  Mine has been a short, violent life. To watch you, Vardamann, not strike to kill these slavers but to speak as equals, I must admit I admire that reserve."Arendel and the others move away from the prisoners to a point where their words won’t be overheard, but they can still keep an eye on them.“So what do you think?” Arendel asks. “Even if they were not wanted as escaped slaves, their actions have surely made them fugitives now. I find killing them at this point distasteful and would very likely be considered murder within the bounds of Eleder. Our other choices are to turn them over to authorities, or let them go. I suspect letting them go would also be viewed as a crime by local authorities, probably aiding and abetting or some such.“I believe in what they stand for, though I disagree with their current methods.  It sounds to me as though this is a recent change in methodology and related to interference by the Aspis Consortium. Given the circumstances and even though it may technically be a crime, I vote to let them go. What say you?”Ace is the first to speak, “I agree. And you never know, we may find ourselves in a position where we might need a friend in the Freeman Brotherhood.” Kay’Es remains silent, though he looks a little disappointed. He still hasn’t figured out that the threat of allowing him to eat the prisoners was just a bluff.</blockquote>

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