Trudging through the jungle the next morning, Dan was glad they had spent the night in the demolished Tellask camp. His ribs were still sore, but the nanites fixed his burned and cracked skin. He noticed that a scar from where he fell off his bike as a kid still remained, hinting that the nanites would only heal more recent injuries.
He sighed and looked back at the rest of their column. Rogge died in the fighting, but everyone else survived. Will and Sam were more than a little worse for the wear, their multiple severe breaks not repairing overnight. He still didn’t know what to say to Sam when she woke up. It was time for them to talk, but he struggled to put his feelings into words. Other than the first time she let the System shock him, she never used it against him. Still, not letting him know the depth of the controls woven into the System was a major problem.
Worse, it wasn’t a completely isolated incident. Once Dan allowed himself to feel upset with Sam, his mind kept skipping over other incidents where she had spoken over him or demeaned him. Allowed. He winced at the word. That was how he ended up in this situation. Rather than genuinely respond to people, he internalized everything. Even if he should be angry at someone, he clamped down on the emotion and simply let the world happen to him.
He had believed in the Thoth Foundation. It was stupid, he knew. Henry was effusive, friendly, and larger than life, but why would an enigmatic billionaire care about him? The entire time he was training at the Foundation, they kept him so busy that he didn’t have a moment to sit back and reflect on things. He was only surrounded by true believers who spoke about how great the organization was.
He was in a fucking cult. The charismatic leader, not letting him leave campus, the apocalyptic threat, the sense of overwhelming purpose, and the constant monitoring. Every bit of it was brainwashing 101. It worked, too. Despite the obvious issues with Henry’s mental health and erratic actions, he had been loyal. He didn’t ask questions that he should have, and he normalized toxic and harmful behaviors. Before he found the organization, he was directionless, and they gave him a purpose.
The Foundation was still probably right. Enhancing and training humans to fight with a combination of magic and weaponry was the best chance that Earth had to maintain its independence. The rest of its actions however were more questionable.
Dan couldn’t understand why the Foundation didn’t solely awaken and train military personnel. Really, the only thing he could think of was that the Foundation wanted a source of mages loyal only to it, which was more than a little unsettling.
Even then, the way the Director more or less kidnapped people and forced them into the program didn’t make a whole lot of sense. That wasn’t a recipe for loyalty.
The only way the Foundation made sense is if Ibis planned on using the compulsion protocols on anyone who stepped out of line. Rather than Earth’s final line of defense, that made Dan and the Starshield candidates disposable slave commandos. Once again, he pondered leaving the Thoth Foundation. It wasn’t the sort of organization you just submitted two week’s notice to, but on the other hand, there really wasn’t any way he could keep working for Ibis.
Dan shook his head, clearing the thoughts. All of that was a problem for later. Right now, his main concern was the unconscious elf being carried gingerly by two of the ten surviving Imperial soldiers. Reluctantly, he used his root access to remotely incapacitate her, putting her in a coma until they could deal with her more properly. He wasn’t looking forward to it. She wasn’t quite as powerful as Daeson, but she still almost single-handedly ended his entire squad. Even with the System restricting her, interrogating a mage of her capabilities would be a harrowing experience.
Finally, they reached the camp. An anxious-looking Dietrich jogged up to them, his wound healed by the System, and approached Dan.
“Did everything go well?” the man asked hopefully, the slight hint of his accent barely distracting Dan. “Can we trust the Imperials? Staring at them and hoping they don’t double mutiny and turn on us as well has been nerve-wracking to say the least.”
“I think we can trust them as much as we can trust anyone,” Dan shrugged. “They’re all under a death sentence for allowing the capture of an elf. Sam got a powerful mage with a syringe full of the System. As far as I can tell, she’s as enslaved as we would have been. None of us have any idea what the penalty is for letting an elf get enslaved, but I’m pretty sure it involves being tossed into the belly of a monster in a desert somewhere to be slowly devoured over the course of 10,000 years.”
“I am not sure how I feel about that,” Dietrich frowned. “I would prefer that my allies were motivated by something more than just fear. The present situation seems as if it will only work so long as they aren’t given a better offer.”
“Right now, I’m the only one that can offer them survival,” Dan replied. “Their runes will kill them in the next five to ten days, unless I can reverse engineer the runescript and disable the harmful portions. Once we get some breathing room, we can talk about what to do with them, but until then, I don’t think anyone is going to give them a better offer than ‘their lives.’”
“Still,” Dietrich’s expression turned sour. “It doesn’t sit right with me. Using the System on the elf and threatening these soldiers with death. It feels too much like the situation the Thoth Foundation forced upon us.”
“I know.” Dan stopped in the small clearing they turned into their camp and looked around. With ten more people, they would need to expand it. Another problem for tomorrow.
Abe led the two former Imperials carrying the elf over to a tree. He began tying her to it with vines while Dan watched on. The vines were better than nothing, but a mage of her caliber almost certainly had a strength rune powerful enough to escape in fairly short order. Still, without her necklace of attunement stones, she hopefully wouldn’t be able to use any mana affinities. Dan wasn’t completely sure about their current course of action, but he was hopeful that he would be able to immobilize her with root access before she was able to escape.
Finally, Dan prepared to wake her, both Abe and Rose behind him with their rifles aimed at her extremities in case things got out of hand. Silently, he activated his own spellshield. He trusted their aim, but if the elf moved at full speed, he was more than a little worried he would get shot in the crossfire. Out of excuses to delay himself, Dan opened his menu and disabled the elf’s immobilization.
At first, nothing happened. Dan leaned forward and slapped her across the face gently to wake her only for the elf to lunge at him, her knifelike teeth snapping shut just shy of his rapidly-retracting hand.
“What have you done, manling?” Her eyes darted around the clearing as she shifted against her bonds. After a quick glance at Abe and Rose, she frowned and stopped fidgeting. “You would forsake an honorable duel to hold me prisoner like a common criminal? At a minimum, you could give me the honor of dying in combat.”
“I’m going to ask you some questions, and I would be grateful if you answered,” Dan responded, ignoring her words as he directed her System to begin making a recording of the entire session. “Please state your full name.”
“Merella Amberell,” she spat the words out. “Is it safe to assume that you and the apes behind me will be torturing me if I fail to answer your questions?”
Dan nodded. As far as he could tell from her System, neither her heart rate nor her brain waves had spiked while she answered. He supposed that he was only hoping that elven physiology resembled a human’s. For all he knew, elves could lie without their body betraying any sign.
“Fine then,” she closed her eyes and squared her back against the tree. “Do your worst. I’ve been worked over by torturers who have spent longer holding their instruments than the time you’ve been alive. Inflict your crude punishments on me so we can be done with this farce.”
Dan shrugged and activated Discipline level 3 to start. Merella bucked against the vines as her heart and brain went wild. Clearly, however elven physiology worked, its reaction to pain was fairly similar to a human. When she stopped shaking and hung limply in the vines, he continued.
“I would like to know how many elves are on Earth,” Dan asked, trying to keep his voice steady. Even though he physically wasn’t acting, activating the discipline function drained him emotionally. She wasn’t a direct threat to him any longer, and but for a quirk of fate, it could have been him tied to a chair and one of Ibis’ goons frying him.
“Enough to find everyone you love and rip their bones out one by one in front of you,” she spat at him, her eyes open and wild. “If you are foolish enough to let me escape, I will destroy you and your entire line with joy, you puss soaked, infant eating–”
Dan triggered Discipline level 4. Technically she had answered truthfully, but he didn’t think that her response was terribly useful. About a minute later she hung against the vines, sweating and shaking. At some point, Sam had approached him from behind. Her hand was across her mouth and unshed tears shone in her eyes.
“Please give me a number that I can use,” Dan sighed. “I don’t enjoy doing this, but your people threaten my entire planet, and I will do what I must.”
“Two hundred.” There was still defiance in her voice, but at least this time she answered. Unfortunately, her heart stuttered. Dan frowned.
“Please give me the correct number,” Dan replied, triggering Discipline level 4 once more. Again, her body shook. He averted his gaze.
“Three hundred and fifty give or take,” she whispered, staring at him fearfully. There wasn’t a change in her heart rate. Dan exhaled in relief.
“Thank you for your honesty,” he replied, nodding to her. “We need to know the location of all Tellask and Amberell bases that you know of in the Jungle.”
“No,” she looked up at him fearfully with a haunted gaze, her previous haughtiness gone. “I can’t betray my people like that.”
“Neither of us have that option.” Dan shook his head sadly. “It was never my people’s choice to be attacked by yours, but if you are going to force this war upon us, we will win it. Maybe once your people understand that Earth isn’t to be trifled with, we can negotiate some sort of agreement, but first, we will have to teach you to respect us.”
“Respect?” There was venom in her voice. “You make me a prisoner in my own body after you violate the sacred covenants of the duel, and you ask me for respect? How could you understand the horror you’ve inflicted upon me? You may be able to compel me to answer, but you will never have my respect.”
“The same thing was done to me,” Dan responded softly. “I understand what you’re going through, but please understand that my people will have no sympathy for yours after you used the death bloom on us. Committing an atrocity to match yours isn’t very enlightened of us, but civilization is a luxury we cannot afford at the moment. Please answer my question, or I will have to hurt you again.”
“I would rather die an elf than sink to your level.” Her spit stung as it landed on Dan’s cheek. He wiped it off and sighed. He would rather fight a thousand enemies than continue this conversation.
“So be it, elf,” he responded as he activated Discipline level 5. Her screams filled the clearing.
Two hours later, she was unconscious once more, and they had a map. Abe was on the satellite phone calling in the locations, but Dan was busy being sick in some nearby bushes. None of the former Imperials would approach him, their eyes clouded with fear as they eyed both him and the unconscious elf. Sam walked up behind him, visible but silent as he stood up and wiped the acidic bile from his lips.
“Dan,” her voice was more subdued than he had ever remembered. “We need to talk.”
“I’ve learned over the years that it’s usually not a good sign when a woman says that to you.” He cracked an exhausted half smile at her.
She smiled back.
