"We could consult with Mistress Acantha. She seems to like to torture people." Jon half jokingly suggests. "No matter what, these other captives can be put to good use somehow, I'm sure." How about we take the girl and three others just in case.
After a bit of weaving through the mostly deserted streets of Old Korvosa, the mantises reach a building abandoned during the recent plague. Setting up in the dingy interior, they find the structure has a damp, dripping basement, several adjoining rooms, an upstairs with a balcony that would have once had a nice view if another building hadn't been built up between it and the ocean, and an attic crawlspace.
The students come to after a short while, but are easily bound and gagged. Orisini, having taken quite a beating and having lost a lot of blood, is still groggy even after the infernal healing.
In the minutes before Orisini comes to, and while you are setting up, three mantises from the battle appear. Unrecognizable from behind their masks, they make a move to collect Orisini. "Step back. We located him first, so we get the first crack at him."
"Yet it was us that actually, you know, captured him" Eris counters, casually relaxed in the face of three fellow Mantis."I can assure you that our team are perfectly capable of getting any answers that you seek, but I have no intention of you ruining our chances with a haphazard one of your own. You are welcome to put the questions you would like us to ask in writing, but otherwise, you can get out of our way."
The one who spoke, who is tall and barrel-chested, continues in his gruff, rumbling bass of a voice. "You sound cute. So, I'll give you one more chance to follow orders, here. My team has the job of finding the seneschal. Your team has the job of doing what you're told. So, get out."
Another pair of mantises arrive, slightly out of breath. The slender one has a lock of hair showing from beneath her mask, which is bright red. "Jagen--" she starts.
The speaker cuts her off with a slash of his hand. "Quiet. We're about to start our work, once these newcomers get out of the way."
Jon puts a calming hand on Eris' shoulder and a placating hand up to Jagen. "Jagen? She called you Jagen, right. You are obviously The Man here and are fully in charge. Let us have first shot at getting the information we want. If we fail, he will still be here for you, in full... health, or whatever. And when we succeed, you can return to the nest and report your success. Look, all I'm really asking is a chance to actually be useful to you and not just be in the way. We are, after all, on the same side here. Aren't we?" Jon isn't worried that he'll lie in his report. He figures that Mistress Acantha will see right through them. And if Jagen insists on interrogating Orisini and kills him before getting any information, Jagen will probably take the fall. Mistress Acantha will be angry, but she will be angry even if they succeed. Jon loses nothing in either case.
Jon will also offer up healing to any who need it (starting with himself).
Kage didn't say anything but he stood beside Jon-Wyn as he talked to the other Mantis. This was Kage's way of putting everyone on notice he agreed with what Jon-Wyn was saying. Hopefully Jagen would see reason, if not this could get very dangerous fast. Fighting between the Mantis wasn't supposed to happen, officially. Unofficially they were a pretty cut-throat bunch, at times quite literally.
Yanmei delicately placed the red clay tea kettle on the tray. The steam wafts from the spout and smells of herbs. The geisha lays out the tea cups on crisply folded handkerchiefs. Pricking her finger, she smears her blood into one cup. She let it dry before picking up the tray and carrying in to where the Red Mantis argued. She set it own on a table and began to pour the tea. Yanmei wanted to be as unimposing as possible, hoping to lull the other team into ignoring her as a threat. She was hoping to give her team the edge if they needed.
Jagen shakes his head. "You lot are Vespid's brood aren't you? Yeah, I heard about her failed experiment."
He looks down at the tray of steaming cups that Yanmei set down. "Are you serious? Tea time? Unbelievable. We're here to do the Mantis god's work, not invite the man to a party."
Astrid clears her throat. "Orren's gone, Jagen."
That got the big mantis's attention. "What!?!"
She nods. "He had the armor with the three black stripes in a 'z' pattern, right?"
Jagen stares at her. "No. I don't believe it. A bunch of snot-nosed students couldn't take him down. No!" He looks ready to do extreme violence to the captive students.
"Cool your jets corkey, lets not get over emotional" Eris remarks casually in response to Jagen's outburst, as she leans against the side of the nearby wall. "Its clear you don't have the emotional control for an interrogation at the moment - you should probably excuse yourself and let someone more qualified take over. We wouldn't want Acantha getting upset now would we?" she finishes in a bored tone.
Jagen paces back and forth like a caged animal, his scowl somehow obvious despite the mantis mask over his face. He picks up a chair and flings it hard across the main room smashing it hard against the wall mere feet from where Eris is leaning.
"More qualified?" he finally says, completely unaware of how his actions are supporting Eris's point. "What will you do? Talk to him? Seduce him? No, that one is a fighter, so the only thing he'll respond to is PAIN!" He draws a dagger in a blur and throws it at Orisini. It lands between his feet, sticking into the wood with a loud thunk, quivering.
Jon interposes himself between Eris and Jagen so that Jagen focuses on him rather than Eris. "You're right. We are going to talk to him. And I get the impression that he won't be able to talk very well after you're done with him, so let us try first. OK? We have other prisoners. Why don't you start in on them. Make it slow and painful as you remember your team mate that didn't make it."
Kage stares at him unblinking with his blood red eyes before arching one eyebrow. When he spoke, it was soft and dangerous, "They have a point. If the Verni is forced to interrogate a corpse... She will be. Most. Unpleased."
His words where punctuated by little hand movements that any normal person would ignore...
:GOOD COP, BAD COP:
The infuriated Red Mantis holds up a hand. "Five minutes." Then he turns to grab one of the other students, and then drags the struggling figure upstairs.
If Orisini isn't conscious yet, I tap him again with the healing wand.
BTW anyone else need healing?
Orisini groggily returns to consciousness and looks around. He eyes the figures around him, and quickly sets his jaw. "Rather extreme tactics to get a free swordsmanship lession, isn't it?"
"A sense of humour! I think I like him.", Kage remarked to John-wyn. Frankly under the circumstances Kage thought that was pretty remarkable, clearly the fellow had balls of steel. Kage wondered if Orsini knew something they didn't and had to stifle a chuckle because that was exactly why they were here.
Mastering himself, Kage continued "Speaking of lessons, I must congratulate you. Your students acquitted themselves well, and showed uncommon devotion." He paused slightly, thinking how to frame this.
"Perhaps a little too well, they managed to kill someone who mattered to that rather charming man who left just now. I'm sure you noticed him, he left the dagger embedded in the floor just there between your legs."
Kage sucked in his breath, wincing in sympathy.
"Another inch, and well... I suppose a career as a soprano. Anyway I must apologise for his unprofessional behaviour, I don't approve. I suppose I can understand him wanting to rip your lungs out but taking it out on the students like that really isn't on. I want it to stop, but my hands are tied without your help. I understand you might not be at liberty to discuss what we need to know. I have good news and bad news about that, the good news is we already know everything. The bad news is we need to hear you say it. The rules are the rules and the contract was most specific. We are going to ask you a series of questions, you can choose not to answer or lie, but if you do so we can't help you. Like I said we know everything anyway so lieing is pointless."
Outside the room, Eris shapeshifts into the female student, and quietly whispers to Jon to drag her in. As Jon does so (I'm assuming), Eris visibly struggles, flailing around and attempting to slap Jon as much as she can while in the viewpoint of Orsini. "Let me go she yells, before swiveling her head slightly to look at Orsini in despair. "Oh, don't say that they managed to get you as well"
Jon 'punches' her twice to shut her up.
Orisini takes a look at the dagger between his legs and then back up to Kage. He nods slowly. "So, you assaulted my school, attacked my students, let my building burn down, and kidnap me, all for information you already know?" He puts on a defiant smile. "Makes sense! Let's get started!" He takes a look around at his surroundings, his eyes lingering at the tea service set out.
Then Eris is dragged in by Jon-Wyn, who makes a convincing show of roughing her up.
He struggles at his bonds and shouts at Jon. "Hey! Leave her alone!" Orisini then glances over to Sa'Kage. "So, is this your definition of professional?"
"I'll...I'll be fine, don't tell them anything" Eris mutters, rolling around on the floor, trying to get back to her feet, before (probably), proving the statement utterly wrong as she gets hit again for speaking out of turn. Groaning slightly, she slumps to the floor again.
Grinding his teeth and surprising the sigh, Kage looks Orsini in the eye and says mildly, "Such devotion in your students! She keeps on trying to steal his weapon. That's ... Unwise for her. Could you please ask her to stop?"
He meets Kage's eye contact with a level gaze. Somehow, even bound and roughed up, he looks deadly. "Once she regains consciousness, I'll consider it."
Still masked, Jon wears the master swordsman's belt and signature weapon casually. In clear sight of the man. To help maintain his anonymity, he also disguises his voice when he talks. [b]"I want you to know that you will live through this. We will deliver pain upon you, sure, but you will live. The same can not be said for her or the others in the other room. You hear their screams? They denote the end of their lives. But we won't stop there. We'll also kill their friends, and their families, and their friends' families. And the whole time we will tell them that you have what we want and that you refuse to give it to us. We will let the entire city know that you are our enmy and there will be noplace for you to hid.
The swordsman glowers at Jon-Wyn, but the threat against his students seems to have him cowed. "What do you want, then?" he rasps.
"Neolandus Kalepopolis" He says simply. "Deny that you know where he is and the cost will be three lives, starting with her." Jon draws the ornate sword he took from Orisini and places its point onto Eris' breast pinning her to the floor. "If he's not where you say he is, that cost will be tripled and we'll ask again. Do you understand?"
Orisini's eyes grow wild with fear mixed with anger as Jon-Wyn dangles his sword over the woman at his feet. "And if I truly don't know where he is, what then?" he cries out. "Will you spill all this blood you've promised, for nothing?"
His face grows red and he spits at Jon. The wad of phlegm falls far short of its mark. "You deal with me! Take out your frustration on me, you arrogant buffoon! I don't have what you want!"
Jon's tone is calm and casual with Orisini. Like none of this is a bother to him. "Yes. The streets will run with rivers of blood." Jon stops for a moment. "Could someone please get that dagger away from him? He is a master swordsman, after all. It would not do to be forced to kill him because we were arrogant buffoons he says we are." Once the dagger is removed. "Now think real hard. I'm sure you can come up with a better response than that. And whatever you say, I'll believe you and either one person or three people will die."
Kage removes the dagger in one smooth motion. It was embedded deeply in the floor, and took surprising force although there was always a technique for such things.
With an air of inevitability, Kage folds his arms and adds, "The contract was quite specific about that as well. It also mentioned that if you cooperate you and your companions are to be spared. The queen in her wisdom is magnanimous. As a foe however, she is as implacable as the desert sun and with less mercy."
Kage's eyes flick to the door and back again, he adds, "It's gone silent. He'll be back at it soon, all you have to do is say the word and the contract muzzles him. For piety's sake man, help us help them!" Kage let a little anger bleed through towards the end as if deeply uncomfortable with Jagen's behavior.
When Kage reaches for the dagger, Orisini bursts into action, kicking at the tray of still-hot tea. He sends it splashing over Kage and in the confusion tries to cut the ropes around him on the dagger between his legs. Unfortunately for the swordsman, the dagger is not as sharp as he'd hoped and the rope manages to fray a bit but remains secure around his wrists.
Seeing his bid for freedom evaporate, he shouts to Eris, "Janna! Now! Run!" in the hopes she was faking her injuries.
"I understand why you did that." Jon says leaning a bit more on the rapier so that it 'digs deeper' into Eris' prone form. "But it is going to cost you or rather, its going to cost her. With each death, she's going to lose a piece of her. A finger tip, an ear, a bit off her thigh. She may even be made to eat it too. Just to be vindictive and heinous." He lets the scene hang there for a while before escorting Eris out of the room.
Orisini squeezes his eyes shut for a moment as he absorbs the results of his failure. After shaking his head a few times, he finally looks up and glares at Sa'Kage. He takes a deep breath and a calm settles over him.
"I suppose congratulations are in order. I've never before had an opponent's shoddy equipment thwart me before."
He looks at Kage evenly, and spares a glance at any other Mantises who remain in the room. "You have correctly surmised that I hold my students' lives and welfare in high regard. But you are incorrect in assuming that I will not sacrifice them for the good of Korvosa as a whole."
He swallows hard before continuing. "Queen Ileosa is not simply a despot. There's something dark, and evil surrounding her. I don't know what it is, exactly, but it has to be stopped. And Seneschal Kalepopolis is the only one with legal authority to remove a corrupt monarch.
"So, I ask you, is there any other reason why the Queen wishes him dead so? He is the only legitimate threat to her rule. And what I told you is true -- I do not know where his is. I've been seeking him myself, hoping to help him remain safe and secure until the time is right to remove Ileosa."
He holds up his bound hands. "So kill me if your masters require it. Hunt down my students one by one, and their families. It's no less than what will happen to them if Ileosa remains on the throne. Or, you can help me. Help me remove an insane pretender to the throne who has some unholy power that will suck Korvosa's very soul."
Unfazed by the attempt to escape, Kage listens carefully to what Orsini has to say. He even more carefully notices the way he says it.
Jon listens to his plea before taking his 'prisoner' out of the room. He waits for a 150 count, giving Eris time to change appearance, then returns.
"I find it poetically ironic that your lack of cooperation is what brings about the death and doom to this city that you are so worried about. Return him to unconsciousness. He will remain alive to see the end."
I could just give them Salvatore, but there's no way the artist could hold up -- if he knows where Kalepopolis is. I just hope he manages to stay hidden. I might be able to goad them into killing me before it gets too bad. I doubt they'll go against 'her majesty.'
Eris rolls her eyes as she walks in alongside Jon. "Orisini, I'm a big supporter of honesty, I really am, but I don't feel that you have particularly convinced me that you have been strictly truthful with us today. Maybe you answered the questions directly, but I feel you might be holding something back. So, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. I'm going to bring in this charming individual back into the room, and give him free reign to do whatever he wishes with all of your captive students. I will, of course, insist that you remain unharmed throughout the entirety, so you can watch it happen over and over again. Then, when it's all finished, we can bring in the next batch of students, and the families, and their friends and you can suffer this ad infinitum. You claim to not care, and I guess thats just who you are, but how do you think your students are going to feel, how about their families, their friends, knowing your choice is going to put them into this position?"
Eris pulls out a slip of paper. "I think you know exactly what we want, and I think you have information on it or relating to it, so, every minute, I'm going to write a name on a piece of paper. That name represents a student. Then, a minute later I'll add another one, until I run out of names and just start writing numbers. I can do this for an hour, and then we can bring them all in, you can watch what happens, and then I'll come back in and we can start the process anew. Of course, if at any stage, you feel the need to offer any sort of useful information, I can stop writing down names. I leave it up to you."
Orisini looks at Eris with a sneer. "Now who are you?" He listens to her threats with a look of contempt. "You don't get it, do you? I don't know where he is! And even if I did, I'm not telling you! And you cannot possibly follow through with your threat. You burned down my academy! How are you going to find my students? And even if you take the time to track them all down, you'll learn I train the children of some of the most influential families of Korvosa. I expect the queen will object to you killing the sons and daughters of the nobility, a third of the Korvosan Guard and half of Sable Company!"
He laughs bitterly. "DO IT! I suggest you start with Sabina Merrin! She's one of my first students and I believe the queen just appointed her general! Go ahead, march into her highness' throne room and tell her that you need to disembowel Sabina in front of me!"
Orisini leans back and starts to chuckle.
Jagen then appears, spattered with blood. "Your five minutes are up."
Eris smiles pleasantly at Jagan. "Unfortunately, he hasn't said anything worthy of interest, outside of the fact that he claims he knows nothing. Feel free to have better luck"
Eris heads out the door, before signals her team to follow before she turns to them in a suitably private location.
"So, the bad news is that he was probably telling the truth about not knowing where Kalepopolis is. The good news, is that there is an artist named Salvatore that I managed to pick out of his mind who might know where Kalepopolis is. The other good news, is that I didn't even have to lie to Jagen moments ago. I mean, if we like, I could go back in and tell him that I might have a possible lead but personally, I'd rather investigate this possible line of inquiry alongside a team I can trust. Still, democracy in action and all of that."
"My only concern is that I do not also wish to do wrong by Astrid. Her and her group have been very welcoming to us."