NOVPUBMoments after the apprehension of the spies...
[I’m sorry, young Master, but you want me to do what?]
[I know what I’m asking is weird, Archanidame.]
[Weird is an understatement,] Lacerage interjected, [I normally like seeing blood, guts and pain, but even I think this sounds unnecessarily cruel.]
’I...huh. I thought you’d be arguing that she wasn’t able to turn herself into a swarm of spiders.’
[Oh no, she can. She uses her little swarm formlings to keep an eye on the estate in key areas and coordinate the zakos you left here. By the way, the amount of bandits that thought they could raid the estate while you and the main pillars are away have dropped dramatically.]
’Dare...dare I ask why?’
[Long story short, the children are enjoying using their new practice dummies to sharpen their knife throwing skills and archery lessons?]
’What the fuck?!’
[It’s not what you think, we didn’t use captured bandits as target practice dummies...their bodies were too mangled to do that anyways...I just made sure to deliver their remains to the local bounty offices and collected the reward money.]
’Oh, so you just bought new practice dummies with the bounty money?’
[Partially, I used a majority of the money to actually invest in some local business ventures, strengthen ties with the Diggers Union and fund a couple expeditions into a wandering ruin that popped up recently. The Zhen Clan of Stampeding Bison is now even wealthier and I have a neat present for the elders when they return.]
’Wow, that’s grea-wait a minute...don’t you need grandfather’s signature to approve such ventures?’
[Oh, I learned how to forge his signature when I first met him.]
’I...you know what, I’m just going to ignore that right now and deal with the spies in lap. Archanidame, are you going to help me with my weird horror story torture scene or not?’
[Oh very well, young master. But don’t blame me if they end up blabbering messes with deep seated arachnophobia.]
’Yahtzee.’
[Well then, go have fun you massive wei-]
’Oh no you don’t, you’re participating in this too!’
[I’m a lacewing, not a spider, how will I be scary?!]
’You...you say that, but your core is violence and I know damn well violence is innately terrifying.’
[I mean...you right, but still.]
[Besides, I am genuinely curious as to whether or not people find the idea of things crawling into a mouth or flying into someone’s mouth is more terrifying.]
_____________________________________________
Couple minutes later...
"Xiao Liu, I need to ask."
"Hmm? What’s up, Jin Fang?"
"How come you haven’t told your cousins about all of...this?"
"You referring to the powers or the weird performances I do to try and make myself look and be more intimidating?"
"Both and if you find what you’re doing weird, why do it?"
"Well, I think I answered that first question before so I will just reiterate. I have no idea how they’ll react to the fact that I can make an army of monsters on the fly, and I don’t think I want to know...yet. I have been drip feeding them the truth of my abilities bit by bit, but I don’t want to risk overloading them. Especially with all of the weird information available in this cuckoo library."
"That’s...fair. And the second question?"
"I partially don’t trust them to not share a word about this with anyone, I also partially don’t trust them not to mess with my flow."
"Your...flow?"
"That creative side of me that helps me come up with this weird shit. Now should the swarm of spiders come in before or after I have one of the kaijin jump down their throat?"
"You...could technically do both at the same time, have one of the kaijin jump down their throats without making any obvious sound indicators, by turning into a swarm of spiders. ’
_____________________________________________
Showtime!
"HELLO THERE!"
"HMMM?!"
"MMMPH?!"
"FWUCK?!"
In a dimly lit, featureless room, seven strangers found themselves gagged with thick strands of silk, locked in place with manacles of ice and stone, and bound to chairs that were...surprisingly comfortable.
It should be noted though that these seven people weren’t complete strangers to one another, a few members of this group recognized one another as they were actually colleagues. Granted, this knowledge wasn’t exactly useful in this situation since they were all captured.
Making that particular factoid even worst, absolutely none of them knew who had captured them.
Once the realization they were captured though, these seven strangers proceeded to react in a variety of ways.
One attempted to free themselves via overpowering their restraints through brute force, another tried to dislocate their limbs and finesse their way to freedom, while several of them just sat there, their gags indicating that they were looking for something in their teeth.
Unfortunately for all of them, none of these actions succeeded.
The strangers kept at their chosen course of action for a couple of minutes, until they were interrupted by a powerful, booming voice.
"I’d give up on either trying to escape or killing yourselves at this point, ah wait, sorry..."
<<I suggest you give up on trying to escape or killing yourselves at this point. My...associates, have gone through the great trouble of removing any weapons, poisons and/or aether array scrolls you may have had on your person. When I get information from someone, I want them to at least focus on my questions and not on trying to escape, ya dig?>>
The strangers all momentarily paused at the announcement, noticing right away that whomever had captured them probably wasn’t one of the native powers of Roaring Tide. From that short snippet of a voice, they could all guess that whomever has them captive was from Stampeding Bison.
At least, they assumed the voice was from Stampeding Bison based on the accent they heard.
<<Now then, you lot are probably very curious about where you are, about who everybody else is, why you ended up here and whether or not you can escape or free yourselves from this place with the usage of violence and whatnot. If that is indeed the case, then please allow me to elucidate.>>
*CHOOM! CHOOM! CHOOM!*
"MMMMMPPOH?!"
From above their heads, powerful spotlights activated one after the other and focused on each of the strangers individually, allowing everyone in the room and beyond it to see just how these strangers looked like to each other and the world.
As the strangers sized each other up though, they soon realized that every single last one of them were all people who’s main occupation involved the usage of espionage.
Whether or not they could determine if the person was an assassin, a spy or a hired rogue was unknown to one another, but they could at least recognize that they gave off the aura of those who work in shadows.
<<As you can plainly see, I am not going to reveal your location, all you need to know is that you’re on a private room where no one can hear you scream. Now, in order to keep y’all identities secret, I will not be naming who belongs to what organization, but I will be listing off who you guys work for: the Zhen Clan, the Imperial Family, and the last one was...what were they called? Oh yes, the Fallen Clans.>>
"MMMPH?!"
"HMMM?!"
Soon after the voice made the announcement, the espionage workers began to stare daggers at each other, unaware about who’s allegiance was who’s and whether or not someone’s a turncoat.
They only quieted down when the voice continued speaking.
<<It’s a bit weird that these three forces, one’s that were either at odds or allies with one other, would all be in this shared space, no? Well the answer to that is simple, y’all decided to go and spy on, kill or sabotage the members of a certain branch clan of exiles, and y’all just so happen to carry out this plan while I was in the area. I’m not going to answer the question of who I was, but I will be explaining on how y’all can get out of here...alive at least.>>
"Hmm?"
When the promises of freedom from this predicament fully processed in the minds of the bounded up rogues, they began to grow still in order to figure out what this voice’s motive truly was. Depending on what was going to happen next, perhaps they could use that opportunity to find a way to escape, or possibly even overpower someone to use as a counter hostage.
Spoiler alert, it wasn’t going to pan out that way.
<<Now, ladies and gentlemen, in the next few moments some associates of mine will make an appearance and she will ask you a series of simple questions that y’all need to answer. Easy, right? But she can tell if you’re lying and if you happen to lie to her face, she will inflict a rather...nasty punishment upon you and your person. Feel free to nod if you understand.>>
The espionage workers all nodded at the voice’s statement.
<<Good. Now keep your eyes on the ceiling, she will be arriving shortly.>>
"Hmm?"
