Author's notes:

Happy New Year

About the language and notation:

The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :)

That being said, I run everything I make through a text editor (Word) as well as reading it through several times. Now, being a non-native English speaker, some errors I wont catch no matter how many times I read it. Sorry about that and I hope for an editor to show up at some point and give me a much needed hand.

P.P.S. While you're here anyway, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

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Chapter 29 - Flashback: Interrogation

The Baylon Empire.

It was good to be back on Baylon again, I decided, as I sat on the terrace of the restaurant Dulcis Vitae, which happened to be my favourite restaurant in the Capitol.

It was also good to have a few days off duty and as I had spent a couple of days in Grove with my family, I had few days of rest here, before I had to report for duty. I ate one of the stuffed dates and leaned back in the chair with a cup of cider in my left hand.

The last few years had been a strange mix of doing missions (Though all but a few of the insane mages had hunted down and killed by now), training new skills and learning new Ars Mentalis tricks, while trying to get the new department up and running. Only time would tell if the new department was going to be a success, but at least I had found the first twenty candidates and judging from the results so far, it seemed promising.

"< Spectre, this is Adept Marcius of the Ordo Praesidium calling with an important message for you >" said a voice in my head.

"You got to be flaming kidding me." I mumbled, causing a father to look disapproving at me as he dragged his daughter away.

I sighed. I might as well answer, since they apparently knew, that I was here. "< Good morning, Adept. This is Spectre. How may I help you? >"

"< I have a request from the Imperial Guards. A small group of people tried to break into the Ordo Magica facility in Gideon during the night. They were discovered and the mages managed, with some help from the Imperial Guards, to catch one of them and they have politely asked for an Inquisitor to assist them >"

"< And I guess I'm the only Inquisitor in the area? >"

"< That is correct, sir. Sorry about ruining your vacation >"

"< Not really your fault, Adept. >" I sent. "< When and where? >"

"< They expect you in the prison later today. The duty officer will give you some more details >"

"< You can tell them that I'll be there within in a glass >

"< Sorry sir, but the prisoner is not in the prison of Gideon. They hold her in the prison of Drusus. I will have a mage from Ordo Vectio standing by to gate you >"

Drusus was a town two days travel south of Gideon that I had visited several times before. Not big enough to be called a city; it was big enough to have a sizable Imperial Guard group and a prison as well.

"< Then I will be at the Ordo Vectio building in a glass >"

"< Thank you, sir >"

I closed the connection and walked towards my house. I needed to change into a uniform and get my gear, before traveling to Drusus.

Trouble rarely comes alone and the result of the many deaths from the Disease was that there were of a lot of political unrest in Baylon. Most of it was centered around a single question: Should Baylon return to its home dimension now or should we wait the six hundred years it would take before the stars were right again?

The problem was that Baylon was moved to this dimension to avoid a magical storm that would have torn it apart. However, the magi had calculated that the storm should be over now, which conflicted with the priest's calculation, which showed that the was a good chance the storm hadn't completely died out yet.

The Senate had debated this issue for years, but was almost evenly divided, while the High King had taken the stance, that it was better to be safe than sorry, and had declared that the first attempt at sending Baylon home, would happen in six hundred years.

Most people trusted the High King to do the right thing, but the snag was the word 'attempt'. If, for some reason the attempt wasn't successful, it would take about three thousand years before the planets aligned again.

For that reason, some wanted to take the chance and return Baylon to its home dimension later this year, instead of waiting the six hundred years.

Since that was directly against the wishes of High King and the High Priestesses, they kept a low profile, but the opposition was there and while most of them preferred to debate in the senate, a few wanted action now. That had resulted in several break-ins at various facilities, but so far nobody had been able to determine who the culprits were, who was behind them or why they were breaking into the facilities in the first place. Only one thing was certain: The criminals were impossible to locate by Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica.

All in all, I could understand why the Imperial Guard would want my help with the interrogation. Any information gained from that, would not only benefit the Imperial Guard, but also help capturing the rest of the criminals.

With a bit of luck, this would be over in a few days and I could go back to enjoying the rest of the vacation.

The prison in Drusus was a not a big building when seen from the outside, but since I knew most of prison complex was underground, I didn't even try to find my own way.

Instead, I asked a guard and was shown into the duty sergeant's office, after placing my sword in the front office.

As he saw me, he stood up. "Ah, you must be the Inquisitor I asked for."

"Indeed, I am, sir." I answered with a nod and introduced myself, before I sat down as he gestured towards a chair. "What do we know about the criminal?"

The sergeant sat down as well. "Not much. She hasn't told us her name, but she has dark red hair, pale blue eyes and according to the rapport, she is capable of using Ars Mentalis." He frowned. "Personally, I think that she is a half-breed of some kind, but the important part is that our Mentat have tried to read her mind, but according to him, the prisoner is totally immune to mind affecting Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica, and I know that Inquisitors are specialists in questioning people, so I need your help."

"Rare, but not unheard of." I said slowly. "Let's go see the prisoner, but if I decide to help you with this, I will take over the interrogation completely. "

"That is not a problem, as long as we get the credit." He said as he stood up. "Please follow me."

-------------------

As we entered the prison cell holding the criminal, she was blindfolded and bound to a chair in the middle of the cell, naked except for the collar that blocked her powers.

I looked at the sergeant. "May I?"

He nodded, and I walked over to the woman to do a quick examination of her. She was barely conscious and in much pain.

"What happened?" I asked the sergeant.

He shrugged. "Combat. She looked like this when they brought her in, and our healer is busy treating our own people."

I nodded. "Understandable, but I'll have to heal her, before I can ask her anything. For that, I'll need hot water and something to clean her with."

"It shall be here shortly." He said, "Anything else?"

"No, sir. I think that is enough for now."

The Sergeant nodded and walked out of the door again, leaving me alone with the criminal.

I walked over to her and removed the chains that linked her to the chair, before I telekinetically lifted her to a wooden bench. It wasn't exactly a bed, but it would have to do for now.

Then I chained her arms and legs to the bench, so she couldn't hit me while I was healing her and examined her again.

Luckily, she didn't seem to have any permanent internal injuries or broken bones, so I gathered the Vis Vitae and entered the meditative trance required for healing, which caused the outside world faded away, as I let the Vis flow into her. My senses followed and I directed the flow of power towards places, where her life force had been interrupted due to injuries. As the lines of Vis in her body started to return to normal, her body began healing itself. Slowly at first, but as I poured more Vis into her the healing picked up the pace and it went faster and faster.

About four glass later there was nothing left to heal, so I stopped the flow of Vis, and retracted my senses from her.

I opened my eyes again and looked at the woman. She was still dirty and covered in dried blood, but her injuries had disappeared.

Satisfied I looked around in the cell and saw a bucket full of water, a sponge, and some towels, which somebody must have placed there, while I was healing.

That's the problem with Vis-healing: While it's efficient, you're not aware of the world around you, because your senses are inside the one that you're healing, making you extremely open for attacks. That is why most healers, including me, normally use a trick that allows them to feel a hostile presence near them, but there are ways to avoid that trick, if you know what you are doing, and most Vis users only do healing, if they have another person to guard them while they heal.

Naturally, after almost four glass the water in the bucket was rather cold, but that was something I could fix with Ars Mentalis and a short while later it was nice and warm.

I could have used an Ars Mentalis trick to clean her, but there's was always a chance that she would resist it and besides, the act of washing someone is more friendly gesture than simply using a power to do the work.

Suddenly, I became aware of a pair of pale grey eyes looking at me. The criminal had finally woken up and was watching me with suspicion when I lifted the wet sponge from the bucket.

She opened her mouth. "What the fuck is that? Acid?"

Her Baylon was fluent and without any accent, I could determine.

"No." I answered as I placed the sponge on her arm, "Warm water and soap."

As she watched in disbelief, I carefully washed the blood of her arms and dipped the sponge in the water again, before I started on her upper body, which included her breasts.

She snorted. "Having fun, you bastard?"

"Well... I dislike cleaning almost as much as cooking." I tilted my head a bit. "But I do think that you have a beautiful pair of tits."

"Pig." she mumbled. I ignored it and slowly continued to wash her body.

She had a firm, well-trained and well-shaped body, with nicely curved hips, long legs and soft skin. It reminded me of the female fighters in Feminae Bellum, with the exception that she had no marks on her skin from wearing armor.

As I had hoped, she broke the silence first. "Who are you? And why are you doing this?"

"Ohh, I'm here to ask you some questions about your actions, but I don't like talking with people who have been beaten half to death, since it tends to be kind of boring." I said and stepped backwards. Using telekinesis, I unchained her from the bench, lifted her up and turned her around in the air - which caused her to yelp - before I gently lowered her in the bench again and chained her arms and legs, so I could wash her back side without being hit.

"What the fuck!" She cursed and turned her head to look at me "You're a Mentat!"

"Brilliant observation." I said with a slight smile and stepped back to the bench again.

She snickered. "Haven't the idiots told you that Ars Mentalis doesn't work on me?"

"Yes, I do believe that they said something to that effect." I shrugged. "They're wrong."

There was a sudden glint of fear in her eyes, before she snorted again. "Yeah, right."

"Well, I just lifted you with Ars Mentalis and that worked quite fine." I said pleasantly. "Ars Mentalis may not work on your mind, but it works on your body."

She was silent, when I started to wash her back, but then said, "So when are you going to start torturing me?"

"I'm not going to hurt you." I answered, while I moved the sponge down her back towards her butt. It was a nice, firm butt, so I rinsed the sponge and continued to wash it with slow, soft moves. "I generally don't hurt people I'm talking with."

The sponge slid down between her legs, which caused her to stiffen and snort "Pig!"

"You have a dirty mind." I said and gently cleaned her butt. "I'm just washing you."

"Yeah right." She snorted. "Any excuse is a good excuse, right?"

Instead of rising to the bait, I ignored her and carefully cleaned her butt before I moved on to her legs. She didn't say anything, when I finished with the legs and poured the water over her body to clean it.

"I'll be right back." I informed her and walked out of the room, without waiting for her to answer.

She needed some time to cool down and I needed to think. The redhaired reminded me of someone, but I couldn't quite determine who it was.

It kept nagging me as I walked over to study the clothes she had been wearing when she was caught, but except that they clearly had been made in Baylon, there was nothing special about them and the same went for the necklace, she had been wearing.

Giving up on trying to remember who she looked like for now, I ordered some food and walked back into the room, carrying a cup of tea.

She didn't say anything when I came in, but her grey eyes followed me, as I walked over to her and sat down in the air.

She did blink a few times, when she saw me sitting cross-legged half a meter into the air, sipping my tea. I've been able to levitate myself since I was a teenager and over the years, I've discovered that it's quite useful as a subtle reminder, that I am indeed a Mentat.

"Now that you're clean, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Ivah."

She snorted, so I continued. "Most people around here seem to think that you know where the rest of your group are and so I have been tasked to ask you some questions." I sipped some more tea. "However, while I do think, that you know where they were, I don't think that they're there anymore. Your group simply aren't stupid enough to stay in one place for long or they would have been caught a long time ago."

That statement made her lift her eyebrows.

"That means that our talk is going be about other things." I finished the rest of my tea, placed the cup on a nearby table and stood up. "But first I want to have something to eat and drink. I reckon that you must be quite hungry and thirsty by now."

With a simple Ars Mentalis trick, I opened the chains and they fell clattering to the stone floor.

She looked surprised and before she could do anything stupid like attacking, I used Ars Mentalis to lift her into the air and over to chair in front of table.

Leather bracelets closed around her ankles, making sure that she couldn't attack me, but it was still a much more pleasant position than before. "Please don't try to open the bracelets. If you do, I will have to chain you down again."

She snorted again "And here I thought that you would unchain me!"

"Patience is a virtue." I said and opened the door.

Two orderlies came walking in with trays with food and drinks. "Just place them on the table and leave." I told them and a moment later, we were alone again.

I sat down at the other side of the table, looked at her suspicious expression and spread my hands. "You chose which one that you would like, and I will eat the other one. That way you can be somewhat certain, that there's no poison in the food."

She looked dazed, but finally chose the one to the left and started to eat some of the seared pieces of melon.

I took two sets of eating knives and forks from a pouch by my belt and presented them to her. "Here you go."

She looked at the metal eating tools with disbelief, but then took a set. "How do you know that I won't attack you or kill myself with these?"

"I don't, but it's barbaric to eat roast pig with your fingers." I said with a slight shrug. In truth, she couldn't do that even if she had tried, as all four was spelled with Ars Magica so they couldn't harm living flesh. Nobles used them all the time at banquets to ensure the safety of their guests and after having seen them, I immediately ordered two pairs, since they were extremely useful in situations like this.

I gestured towards the two bottles. "Cider or wine? And no matter what you chose, I will have the cider."

"Ehh wine would be fine."

I nodded and poured some wine for her before I placed the bottle back and poured cider to myself. I'm not a great fan of wine and have been drinking cider since I was a kid.

We ate and drank in silence for a while before I chuckled as if a funny thought had just hit me.

"What is it?" She asked as I expected. The great thing about being civilized to people is that people feel obliged to act by the same civilized rules and that included asking such questions.

"Oh, just a thought." I said and gestured at the torture chamber around us. "I was thinking that except for the surroundings, this is a good meal."

She looked around and actually smiled. Considering she had been brutally beat up and was just out of healing, that smile spoke volumes about her mental toughness. "Yeah. The interior design leaves a lot to be desired."

I nodded back with a smile and made a mental note, that she was better educated, than I had thought. "That can be fixed."

With some concentration, I created an image around us and suddenly it looked like we were sitting in one of the most popular restaurants in the Capitol. It was only an illusion, but it did hide the rest of the room.

Her eyes widened as she looked around. "Nice!"

"You'll have to imagine the sounds, but I hope that it is better than before." I said as I made a new mental note. It seemed like she had recognized the place, which meant that she had been to Fishers Restaurant in the capitol and judging by the speed of which she recognized it, she had either been there recently or many times. It seemed like I was in luck. Reaching out with my mind, I contacted Ordo Praesidium in Gideon.

"< This is Spectre. I need someone to go to Fisher's restaurant in the capitol and ask the staff about this woman. *mental picture of the woman in front of me* I need to know her full name if possible, whom she was with and everything else that you can discover >"

"< Right away, Vice-Captain >"

I closed the connection and started to eat a piece of fried veal as she nodded. "Anything is better than before, and this is actually quite nice."

"Good." I said and drank some more cider. "But if you want to look at something else, just say so."

She shook her head and ate some more, so I filled her cup with wine again, before leaning back in the seat to watch her, while I ate some stuffed dates.

For while she ignored me, but finally she looked up and said, "Yes?"

"Just wondering where you got that red hair from." I said with a smile. "It's not exactly something that you see every day." I sipped some cider. "And yes, I'm painfully away, that you must have gotten that question like a thousand times before."

She smiled slightly. "Maybe not a thousand times, but close. The simple answer is that I don't know where it came from. None of my parents have red hair."

"Ita erat quando hic adveni! (Baylon: 'It was that way when I got here!')" I quoted with a grin.

The classic excuse made her giggle slightly and nod. Either she was an excellent actor, or she was getting tipsy from the wine. My guess was on the first since it seemed unlikely that she would this relaxed.

Time to put it to the test.

I ate some more dates, while I activated all combat orientated Ars Mentalis I could think of. Power surged through my body as I stretched and stood. "Well, you have had a long day, so you better get some sleep. Please follow me."

With a thought, the bracelets that tied her ankles to the chair opened.

Again, I seemed to have caught her by surprise, but she quickly regained her wits and walked around the table.

As soon as she was clear, she snatched the two eating knives and looked at me. "You know... I could kill you now if I wanted to."

Since I had been expecting an all-out attack, the clear statement surprised me pleasantly. She had a keen brain under that red hair.

"Hmm... That is a possibility... but it won't get you out of here." I said with a slight smile. "And that is most likely the reason why you didn't attack and decided to test me instead."

She nodded silently and placed the knives back on the table before she followed me to the door. I had mentally warned the two guards, that we were coming out and they were ready.

"Lead her back to her cell." I told them and looked at her. "Thank you for today. I will talk with you later."

That caused the guards to look at me strangely, but they were taught to follow order and a moment later, she was being led away.

Thoughtfully, I cancelled the illusion of Fishers, walked upstairs and out in the courtyard.

Judging from the sun, it was afternoon and I sat down on a bench to enjoy the heat from the sun for a while.

A mental call disturbed the peace. "< Captain Spectre, this is Adept Marcius, with the information you requested. >"

"< Good afternoon, Adept. What do you have for me? >"

"< According to the waiters at Fishers, the woman's name is Chuzara or something close to that. She has been there at least two times and each time she ordered the fish. However, according to the waiters, the fish is the most popular dish, so I don't know if that is of any help. >" He paused a moment. "< She was seen in the company of two other men,*two mental pictures followed* whom she called Kruse and Piler, but they didn't seem romantically involved in any way. >"

"< Impressive memory those waiters have >" I remarked with a mental chuckle.

"< Yes sir. Our people thought the same, but apparently, one of the waiters had a weakness for redheads and kept close to the table in hope of getting a date. He eventually did get around asking her, but she politely declined >"

"< Well, that explains a lot >" I thought back. "< Anything else? >"

"< Not yet, sir, but I will notify you immediately, if anything shows up >"

"< Thank you. Oh... Send a description of all three of them to the other chapters and see if anybody knows anything >"

"< Right away, sir >"

"< Spectre out. Have a pleasant afternoon >"

"< Thank you and likewise, sir >"

The connection closed, and I took a deep breath of the fresh air.

One of the things about being in a dungeon is that since there's no natural light, it screws with your sense of time. I was pretty sure that Chuzara thought, that it was late night, when I sent her to her cell. That also meant that I could wake her up in about ten glasses and she would think that it was morning.

The bench squawked as somebody sat down and when I looked, I discovered it was the prison warden and he looked dissatisfied.

Without saying hello, he said, "I hear from the guards that your 'interrogation' involved healing, food, wine and polite conversation."

I nodded. "Yes, sir, and if the Imperial Guards hadn't beaten the crap out of her during the capture, it would have involved a massage as well."

"Funny way to treat a criminal." He said with a sneer. "And an even stranger way to conduct an interrogation."

He must be really pissed, I decided. Not many government officials had the balls to talk that way to an Inquisitor, who had the power to get them arrested. That meant that he was most likely an honest and competent prison warden that worried about the way things were done.

I leaned back again and gathered my thoughts.

"Your prisoner is about twenty years old and from her lack of taboo against nudity, she's used to talk while being naked, which means that she's most likely used to frequent a public bath. Along with her speaking Baylon without any accent, that makes it likely that she's from the Island of Baylon itself and not one of the colonies. She has been to the capitol twice recently on business unknown, but most likely connected with the criminals. Judging from the calluses on her hands, she is trained in both armed and unarmed combat, but not archery. She's mentally tough and can take a lot of pain, but she's not trained in wearing armor."

I glanced at the warden, who was looking at me with lifted eyebrows, and continued. "Put that together and we're looking at someone trained in Lescarian fighting styles, which worries me greatly, since you don't normally train these alone. That means that there are more people out there with the same fighting ability. Most likely, the criminals she is connected with and we need to find those as well. Fortunately, I know her name and I know the names of some the people she relates to." I smiled to him. "Do you still think it's a strange way to conduct an interrogation?"

The warden swallowed something. "I apologize."

"No need for that, sir." I said, "We all have our area of expertise."

"And obviously, this is yours." He replied. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

I thought for a moment and nodded. "Yes sir, I need a room that doesn't resemble a dungeon, but it must be below ground and somewhat soundproof. In that room, I need a table with two chairs and a bed. All of the items must be suicide proof and have places where reinforced leather bracelets can be connected... and I need it in about eight glass if that is possible."

He looked like he went over the list in his head and finally nodded. "Consider it done."

While the warden arranged for the things that I needed, I went to check on the prisoner. Not that I was really worried about her, but sometimes it pays off, to do that little bit extra.

As I looked through the little window in the door, I was suddenly extremely glad, that I had decided to go down here. I had expected her to be asleep on the wooden bed, but instead she was sitting cross-legged on the bed with the blanket draped over her shoulders and her hands in her lab, meditating.

I turned and leaned against the wall, while swallowing a curse.

Mentally tough, intelligent, quick, trained in Lescarian fighting styles, excellent acting skills, and the ability to use Ars Mentalis. Add that to training in meditation, which perhaps even included training in Vis Vitae, and the result was... a person with some of the same skills as a member of Ordo Gladius.

Somebody out there was extremely well informed, had excellent organization skills and was giving at last some people some rather advanced training, which took both time and a lot of money.

All in all, it was bad news.

I turned and looked at the meditating woman again. She had the information I needed, and I had to pick it from her brain.

Unfortunately, that would take time and required building a certain level of trust.

Seeing her meditate gave me an idea. Unless you had a lot of practice at mediating, the muscles tend to become stiff after a while. Especially when meditating for a longer period of time or if you meditate in cold places. Meditating, instead of sleep, was a fast way of regaining one's strength, but it took time and the quickest meditation I had been able to do, took about eight glasses, which left her with at least seven glass of meditating.

Quietly I opened the door and silently walked into the cell.

Since meditating put the mind and body in a condition much deeper than normal sleep, I wasn't really worried about being heard, but it is always wise to be careful.

When I reached the middle of the room, I knelt, touched the floor, and used Ars Mentalis to cool it down to just above freezing, where it would stay for four glass.

I could see my own breath in the cold when I walked out again.

Unless I missed my guess, she would really need a massage when she came out of that meditation and that would fit my plan perfectly.

Now it was time to inform the local chapter of Ordo Praesidium, that the danger was much worse than they thought.

---------------

I was severely disappointed when I walked back into the prison six glasses later.

Not only did the captain of the local Ordo Praesidium not believe me, when I reported my suspicion about the prisoner, he had even laughed at me, refused to beef up the security at the prison and denied my request for moving the prisoner to another place.

I had even considered taking out my Inquisitorial Seal, but unfortunately, this wasn't about a magical threat, so I didn't have any authority.

There wasn't much more I could do there, so I said, "Yes, Captain." and walked away, silently cursing his arrogance.

Instead, I had contacted Ordo Gladius relayed the information to them and while they seemed to take the danger seriously, they would need a few days, before they could overrule the captain.

Unfortunately, that left me with the feeling of not having enough time to get the information I needed, to prove my claim. If I was in a group, acting against the will of the High King and one of the members were caught and held for interrogation in an ordinary prison, I would have broken the person out as fast as possible.

Looking around I checked the security and sighed. Good as it was, it wouldn't be enough if her friends had the training that I feared they had.

Varro, Verina and I could have liberated the prisoner in two glass. Three glass, if we had to kill all the guards to make sure that nobody sounded an alarm until we were long gone. There was nothing I could do about the security, so I pushed the thought away and went to work.

First, I made sure that a guard would come down with breakfast, if I ordered some food. Then I had a big bathtub carried into the room and had it filled with warm water.

Reaching into my belt pouch, I found a vial of oil. Besides having a pleasant smell and being an excellent soap, the oil had the ability to make the skin extremely sensitive to the touch and it was used by many nobles to enhance their sexual pleasure. Of course, anybody could use it, but it was quite expensive and thus mostly used by nobles.

I added some of the oil to the tub and put the vial back.

The last thing I did was to ask the guards to look to the prisoner and bring her to me as soon as she woke up.

Then I sat down in one of the chairs and relaxed with a cup of tea, while I waited.

About a glass later, there was a knock on the door and two guards came in, almost carrying Chuzara between them.

I didn't have to act surprised, because while I had expected her to have some stiff muscles, I hadn't imagined that it would be this bad. It looked like most of her muscles had totally cramped up.

"Good morning." I said politely to her and looked at the guards. "What happened to her?"

"I don't know, sir. She was like this when we saw that she had awakened." Stammered the left guard and the other one nodded.

"Okay. First things first." I said, as I stood up and looked at Chuzara, "Can you walk?"

"No." she said with clenched teeth.

I nodded to her and looked at the guards again. "Please place her on a chair and leave."

They did as I had ordered, and then we were alone.

I looked at her seriously. "Are you sure that nobody beat you up or something, because I've never seen anybody in that condition after they have slept."

Her whole body was stiff as a statue when she answered, "I'm sure."

"If you say so... but this needs to be healed. There's no way we can talk with you being all cramped up like that." I gestured at the tub. "I did think that you would like a bath after you have slept, but more to be clean and not to treat a medical condition. One moment. I'll heat the water."

She was silent as I walked over and used Ars Mentalis to reheat the water, before I turned, lifted her mentally and gently placed her into the hot water.

"Now relax there, while I get us something to drink. Do you want tea or cider?"

"Tea." She managed to say.

I nodded and walked out of the door.

The oil I had used in the water, needed to be absorbed into the skin before it really worked and when used in a bath that takes about a glass. She would also need some time for the hot water to loosen her muscles.

I used some time getting the tea done and walked back into the room.

She looked a lot more relaxed than when I left, so I showed her the two cups. "Right or left?"

"Left." She said and I handed her the left cup, before sitting down in the air by the side of the tub, out of reach of her arms.

"If you weren't beaten up, what happened?"

"I don't know." She said with a grimace. "I sat down to meditate and when I woke up, I was stiff all over and had cramps in muscles I didn't even know existed." She drank some of the tea. "Thanks for the bath, though. It helped a lot."

"No problem. Is it hot enough?"

She hesitated and then shrugged. "It's fine."

Sensing she would like to have warmer water, I extended my thoughts again and heated the water as I drank some more tea.

With a sigh, she leaned back in the tub. "At some point, I might understand why you're doing this... Unless it is to get my guard down."

"There're herbs that can do that both faster and better than a bath and a kind word." I said with a smile. "But I will have to interview you at some point. I'm just not in a hurry." I leaned forward a bit. "Nothing really happens here and the more time I can spend with you, the less time I have to be bored. That's why I'm not in a hurry."

"And what do you do here, when you're not bored?" She asked with a slight smile. "For a living, I mean."

"Believe it or not, I'm a doctor." I said truthfully.

She must have sensed the truth in the answer because she lifted her eyebrows in surprise. "And why is a doctor interviewing a prisoner?"

"Well, there isn't many good Mentats around here and I'm pretty perceptive." I said.

"Oh... well tell me something about me then."

"I'll try." I said with a smile and studied her, while I drank some more tea. My brain went to high speed with the focus on her. Baylon parent, sweet little girl, red hair, the colour of... of what? Sweet and dark red... the colour of ripe cherries. Cerasis (Baylon: 'Cherries').

I slowly asked. "Did anybody in your family call you Cera or Cerasis?"

She almost dropped her teacup in surprise. "Yes... Cerasis... How did you know?"

"I'm being perceptive... and your hair have the same colour as cherries." I said with a grin. "Let me guess: You name is close enough to Cerasis for them to use it often?"

She hesitated, but then nodded. "Yes. I guess it won't hurt to tell you, that my name is Chuzara, so yes, it's close."

"Nice to meet you, Chuzara." I said with a little nod, and placed my feet on the floor again, so I could walk over and put the empty cup on table. "Are you done with the tea?"

She nodded.

"Excellent." I said and used telekinesis to lift her out of the water and over to the bed, where I gently put her down.

Alarmed she asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm a doctor, remember? Hot water might have helped somewhat, but your muscles are still stiff, and I will give you a massage to loosen them up." I took a flask of oil from the belt pouch. "If you don't get a massage, they will continue to be that way for almost a week."

"And if I refuse?"

"Why would you want to refuse medical aid?" I asked innocently. "That really doesn't make sense to me."

She looked at me, considering the situation.

While she thought, I found a towel and threw it over to her. She caught it, but the fast movement made her wince.

I shook my head. "This is ridiculous. Lay down on your chest."

Resigned she did it and I walked over to her with the flask of oil.

It was ordinary massage oil, but mint had been added, which would not only warm the skin, but also interact with the oil, that was now absorbed in her skin, enhancing the effect a lot.

I poured some oil on her back and started to spread it gently. At first, she was stiff as a board, so I let my hands work her muscles, until she relaxed. Then I started to dig a little deeper, hitting the nerves that were connected to the pleasure-centers, while seemingly doing a normal massage.

That made her squirm, but I pretended that nothing was amiss and continued the massage.

Her breathing was becoming heavier, and I could smell that she was becoming aroused. Most likely against her will and better judgment.

I moved down her body and started to massage the soles of her feet for a while before I moved to her lower legs.

It didn't take long, before she was breathing raggedly as my fingers found the right pressure points along the backside of her leg, sending pulses of pleasure to her brain.

By now, her backside was covered with oil and I let my hands slide over the firm muscles of her butt, applying just enough pressure to make it a massage and not a lover's touch.

The gliding movements made her inhale sharply and finally she said. "What the fuck are you doing to me?"

"Well, at the moment I am massaging the largest muscle on your body." I replied calmly. "When I'm done with that, I will start on your back."

I noticed her hands gripping the edge of the bed tightly, as I dug my fingers into her buttocks, massaging them, but she didn't say anything.

She moaned almost silently, while I worked my way up to the small of her back, hitting pressure points all the way. Her self-control was excellent, as she still didn't say anything even as she must have been close to an orgasm.

I kept her in that state, massaging the upper part of her back, her shoulders and finally her neck.

Then I stopped and took a step back. "Try moving now. Isn't it better?"

Surprised by the sudden stop, she did what I said and nodded. "It is better."

"Excellent." I said and gently lifted her up with my mind. "Then I will continue with the front of the body."

"No!" she said quickly, causing me to stop while she was still hanging in the air.

"No?" I asked. "But didn't you say that it is better now?"

She sighed. "Yes, but I don't want any more massage."

With a shrug, I placed her on the bed again.

"For a bright woman, you really don't sense." I said with a smile and walked back to the table, where I sat down in the chair. "But as I have said before, it's your choice. Are you hungry?"

"What?"

"Do you want some breakfast?" I asked. "And no matter what you say, I am going to eat something, so you can join me or not."

"I'm hungry." She stated, but I continued to look at her, since it wasn't an answer and finally, she said, "Yes, please."

"Good. It's boring eating alone." I contacted the guards and asked them to bring in breakfast with tea. That done, I looked at her. "You might as well come over here. I don't think I can persuade the guards to serve you breakfast in bed."

That actually got a little laugh, as she swung her legs over the edge of the bed, but then she grimaced at the pain in the muscles on the front of her body.

Saying nothing, I watched her while she slowly crossed the floor and sat down on the chair with a sigh. Then she stiffened again. The oil had done its job and I knew that the feeling of the chair against her skin, must have felt like the gentle touch of a lover, sending a shiver to pleasure to her brain.

She opened her mouth but closed it again as the guards came in with the food.

"You looked like you were about to say something just before the guards came in." I said when they had left the room again.

"Oh... just wondered what kind of oil you used." She said.

I took the bottle and placed it on the table. "This."

"Can I?" she asked, gesturing at it.

"Sure. Help yourself." I said and poured some tea. If she wanted to check for drugs in the oil, she was way too late, since that had been in the water.

She reached out and took the bottle, again stiffening as the movement shifted her position on the chair. She shivered shortly and opened the bottle to inhale the fumes. "Smells nice, but there's something I can't recognize. Do you know what it is?"

"Most likely the mint. It helps warming the skin and muscles." I said and handed her a cup of tea, which she accepted without even having been given a choice.

I looked at the two plates. "Which one would you like?"

She chose the left one and a moment later, we were both eating.

I used the break to analyze the pattern of the situation and realized she was trying to play me in an effort to draw out time. After we had eaten, she would most likely complain about pain in the muscles and ask to have the front massaged. She might even try to seduce me, since having sex would again take time, delaying any questioning from my part, but also because her body was screaming for sex right now and the need to delay was a good excuse for having it.

Well, if that were the case, I could take it easy and let her walk into the trap of her own free will, with a little bit of encouragement of course.

We talked a bit while eating, but she avoided saying anything useful, so when I was done eating, I took a fresh piece of papyrus from my jacket as well as a pen and placed them on the table before I went back to drinking my tea.

She swallowed the food and nodded at the papyrus, before saying, "For the interview?"

"Yeah. " I said, drank the last tea and then poured some more. "Sooner or later I really do have to ask you some real questions. "

She smiled a bit. "But you're not in a hurry."

"Correct." I said and smiled back.

She stretched a bit and shivered when she came into contact with the chair again. "In that case, can I accept your offer of massaging the front, before we go to the interview?" She grimaced. "I can really feel the difference now."

I pretended to think about it and said, "Yeah, why not."

"Thanks." She stood up and walked over to the bed. Swaying a little bit more than she had done before. Put a dress on her and that was how many women would walk, when they were trying to get attention from a man.

I took the massage oil from the table, walked over to her, and started doing the massage.

The next glass became more and more fun, as she tried just about anything to get me to take the first step. Whispering "Oh that feels sooo nice!", groans, subtle movements of the body to get my fingers to touch her pussy while massaging her legs, biting her lower lip and so on.

She did it very well and I could feel my body responding to her teasing.

Unfortunately for her, I ignored both my own body and her teasing, while adding to her frustration by hitting nerve after nerve, sending shivers of pleasure through her body, making her more and more aroused, but not enough to give her an orgasm.

Finally, she crossed the line. "You're making me so turned on. Can't we just have sex?"

"I really can't do that." I frowned. "You might knock me out and hold me as a hostage or something. It's hard to do Ars Mentalis when you're having sex."

"Please!" She breathed and now I was sure that the frustration in her voice wasn't faked. She needed to come, and she needed to draw out the time, however having her asking me for sex wasn't a game. It was important for her sub-conscious resistance, that she had been the one to ask me and not the other way around.

She looked around in the room, seeing the table, the chairs, the leather straps and a moment later, she said the exact sentence that I had been hoping to hear. "You could tie me up, so I couldn't hit you."

If I had suggested it, the sex act would be a bit like rape and again add to her sub-conscious resistance, but since she was the one asking to be chained up, that wouldn't happen.

Nodding, I took a step back and said, "One moment." Then I walked over to the table and cleared it, before turning towards her. "Two things. First, you will be chained to the table. Secondly, I will do as I please, though I will promise you that it won't hurt at all." The last thing I said with a smile.

She didn't even ask questions, but just nodded.

"I would like to hear the answer to each of these."

Frustrated she said, "Yes, you can chain me to the table and yes, you can do what you want, as long as it doesn't hurt."

"Good. Come over here and lay down on the table."

She did it and using Ars Mentalis I secured the straps to the table, so she was lying on her back, with her legs spread and tied down, so she couldn't move.

Another Ars Mentalis trick cleaned the massage oil from her body.

It had done its job and besides, it tastes awful.

She was looking expectantly at me as I undressed, but instead of taking her immediately as I'm sure she had expected, I bowed down and kissed her breast.

"Oh, come on. " She groaned. "Just fuck me!"

I slapped her lightly on the inner side of the leg and said "Shyyy. Shut up and enjoy it instead." before I continued to play with her breasts a little while.

Then I slowly worked my way down her body.

By now, she was moaning constantly, so I started kissing her inner thigh, before moving on to the genital area.

To my surprise, she suddenly asked "What are you doing?!"

I looked up at her. "Don't tell me that you have never been licked before?"

"Not there, I haven't." She said in a voice that indicated that it was something she couldn't even imagine being done.

"Well." I said with a grin. "Good thing that you can't move then, for you are in for a pleasant surprise."

I went to work with my tongue and fingers, using slow movements and gentle pressure.

Unless they have studied anatomy and nerve lanes, few people know that the love-pearl is a network of nerves, with no less than eighteen distinct parts and I took my time to stimulate most of those, as I slowly build up intensity.

She started to sweat and shake all over her body as the pleasure became more and more intense and when I at last used fingers and tongue at exactly the right spots, she screamed, as she came in a mind-blowing orgasm.

Mind-blowing being the important word here and it was the reason for doing all this teasing: When anyone gets an orgasm of that magnitude, their self-control is shattered for a few heartbeats. That doesn't mean that their mind is unprotected, since all the natural defenses are still in effect, but these natural defenses are concentrated against mental attacks.

The trick I was using wasn't an attack. It was a subtle and superficial mind scan, designed to pick up the memory of a significant event in her recent past. A thought image flashed into my mind, but since I didn't really have time to study it, I put it away in my memory. There would be time enough later and right now I had other things to do.

She was still stunned and shaking from the orgasm when I without warning slid my dick into her wet pussy. It was wonderful tight and she was so aroused, that her inner muscles immediately grabbed the shaft, massaging it as I went in and out of her.

Almost without thinking, my hands found her beautiful breasts and fondled them, teasing the nipples to add even more pleasure.

Within a minute, she exploded again in a scream, bucking her hips against me, as the orgasm ripped through her body. I repeated the mind trick and got another image.

I continued in the same rhythm, letting my hands wander on her body, caressing every inch I could reach. This time it took a bit longer, but eventually she came again. She screamed with pleasure, but instead of begging for me to stop, she begged for more.

However, I needed more time to get more information from her mind, so I went back to use my tongue and fingers. She liked that a lot, but when I tried to use the mind scan trick, it simply didn't work, so I continued alternating between licking and fucking her, while trying the mind scan from time to time.

She tasted good and pussy felt good around my dick, but aside from that, it wasn't much fun as I was too occupied with getting the results I needed to really enjoy it.

-------------------------

Four glass later I had only succeeded in getting one more thought image from her and by that time I was convinced that she wasn't human, or even Baylon for that matter. No-one was able to orgasm that many times and still be awake. The nerve system simply couldn't take that much stimulation and any normal person would have passed out or had a heart attack after two glass of the treatment I had been given her.

Add to that that her mind shield was incredible hard even during orgasms and it just wasn't natural.

I got an idea and activated another Ars Mentalis that enhance tactile sensitivity. Normally I used it, if I'm doing something with my fingers that I can't see with my eyes, like feeling for a splinter inside a wound. This time however, I applied the sensitivity to her nerves instead, as I used my fingers and tongue on her.

She howled, screamed, orgasmed, and then went limb, but not before I had succeeded in getting a fourth thought image from her.

Exhausted, I checked her vitals to make sure that she wasn't dying, but she had only passed out.

"Unbelievable." I mumbled to myself, as I loosened her and carried her to the bed, where I sat down and relaxed for a while.

Feeling a bit better, I got dressed again and recalled the mental images that I had received.

The first looked like a meeting of some kind, with a group of people sitting around a table. One of them was a middle-aged Baylon man that was dressed like a noble and wore a mage ring on his left hand.

The next two persons matched the description of the persons that Chuzara had been in company with, when she visited Fishers in Capitol. The ones called Kruse and Piler. The last person was a dark-haired and grey-eyed man, with angular features.

I studied them for a while. Each person had features that indicated a mixture with a human race and half-breeds was not that common here on Baylon. Yet here was four, all connected to the same Baylon noble mage and that simply couldn't be a coincidence.

The next thought-image nearly made me fell of the chair.

The image showed a monument consisting of two circles of large stones, with other stones on top to connect each circle and I recognized it immediately. Located in Albion and for that reason known as the Northern Anchor, the structure was one out of three Anchors that held Baylon in this dimension, the others being positioned to the west and south. There used to be a fourth anchor, located on the island of Thera in the Middle Sea, but that anchor was destroyed when the island blew up a few hundred years ago.

The next two thought-images were the other two remaining anchors and that worried me. It was rare for anybody to have seen all four anchors in person, especially the Southern Anchor. Located on a small island in the middle of the ocean, nobody ever came there and getting there wasn't easy, since few ships travelled to that location. The only practical way to get there was to be gated by a mage and that required that the mage had been on the island before.

My brain went into high speed.

The only way Chuzara could have seen all three anchors, was if she had been transported by a mage. The Baylon noble was a mage.

A mage could use magical gates or teleport spells to transport a smaller force around, so the Imperial Guards couldn't find it, which fit perfectly with what I had heard about the criminals so far.

The Opposition wanted to return Baylon to its home dimension as soon as possible and one way to do that, was to destroy at least two of the Dimensional Anchors.

The Anchors were well guarded, so to get to them you needed either a large force or a small group of specialists, like the Ordo Gladius.

Enter Chuzara, Kruse, Piler and Angular Guy and you had such a group. Being half-blooded, they would also be considered expendable by most Baylon nobles.

Sighing I stood up and got dressed. The problem with all this analysis was that I could easily convince myself, but convincing my superiors about the possibility of this, would be next to impossible without proof.

I might as well try to convince them that dogs were going to take over the world.

In short: As so often before, I needed a good plan.

"Going away again?" Chuzara said tiredly from the bed.

When I looked her, somewhat in shock that she was already awake, she smiled. "You are an absolutely fantastic lover, Ivah. I never tried anything like this before."

"My pleasure." I said with a smile. "But you did wear me out, so we will have to wait with the interview until tomorrow."

Her smile became a little wider. "I can live with that. Can I sleep here? It's warmer than the cell."

"Sure." I took the magical cutlery from the trays, before warning the guards that I was coming out. Then on second thought, I picked up the trays and carried them with me. "Sleep well."

"Sweet dreams." She answered and closed her eyes again.

I watched her for a few heartbeats before walking out, marveling that she was not only alive, but only had passed out for half a glass or so. I really needed to examine her later, coz that was way beyond normal.

The smiles on the guard's faces clearly told me that they had heard her screams of pleasure.

I stopped right outside and placed the trays on the floor.

"Gentlemen, if someone body is going to break her out, it's going be tonight." I looked from one to the other. "Keep your eyes open."

They nodded and one of them said, "We shall pass that on, sir. Our watch ends in a glass."

"Thank you." I said, placed a hand on the door and used my mental powers to make the door expand slightly. A moment later, it was jammed in the doorframe and would stay that way for a day or until I came back, whichever came first. It wouldn't stop a determined group, but it would slow them down and perhaps make them create some noise.

In the ideal world, I would have stayed and helped defend the prison, but I wasn't even sure that an attack was coming and getting this news to the headquarter was more important than the possibility of an attack. As they usually say in plays, 'The future of Baylon is at stake!'.

I nodded to the guards and walked out, stopping only by the by the office on the way to retrieve my sword.

The first thing I did was to go to the local Ordo Praesidium chapter and file a report that included everything that I had discovered, but without any analysis, which didn't belong in this form for report anyway. Putting it all together took almost four glass, so when I was done, I told the clerk that I wanted two copies of that report as soon as possible. One for the Gideon chapter and one for the head chapter.

Then I delivered the same report once more, but this time as a mental communication to the Ordo Praesidium headquarters.

They had a lot of analysts there and somebody higher up the food chain, should be able to reach the same conclusion as I had done.

After that was done, I was so out of mental energy that I had to wake up a mage from the Ordo Vectio, so she could transport me to Gideon and the Ordo Gladius chapter there.

Once there I made a new report, but this time I included my analysis, along with the recommendation that to stop this plot from happening, the Unknown Noble Mage should be caught and put to trial for treason.

Again, I asked the clerk to make copies. One for the local chapter, one for the headquarters and one for the Dominus Grande personally.

Finally, I made the same report as a mental communication, to be sent to the same places as the paper reports.

Then I double and triple checked that I hadn't forgotten anything.

When I was done with all that, it is was morning, so I found a quiet spot and sat down to meditate. There simply wasn't time to sleep as I was pretty sure, that shit would start to fall on my head, as soon as people got around to reading my report.

-----------------

The sight that met me when I opened my eyes again was an unexpected one, since I was looking directly at Dominus Grande Maximus and behind him stood no less than four soldiers from the Feminae Bellum.

When he saw me open my eyes, he smiled slightly. "You sure know how to piss in an anthill, Spectre."

"Well, sir, if it is my job to piss in an anthill, that is what I'll do." I said and yawned. Then I noticed that I had a collar around my neck. One of those collars that blocked the use of power. Apparently, there was a lot of pissed off ants out there and the downside about using meditation instead of sleep, was that you didn't noticed things.

Another thing I noticed was that the Dominus Grande looked old and tired. Of course, he had been old when I was five, but now he really looked to be almost three hundred years old, as I knew that he was.

The smile disappeared when he said, "It's my duty to inform you that you are under arrest for Slandering against Ordo Ars Magica, for Misuse of Inquisitorial powers and for falsifying reports."

I snorted. "That's bullshit and they dragged you all the way from Arcem Discendi for that?"

The Dominus Grande shrugged. "You're a vice-captain and that means that that only another Inquisitor Captain or somebody of higher rank can arrest you. The other captains are away on missions and thus they got hold of me."

"Fair enough." I said and stood up. "Can we get some tea? It was a really bad day yesterday."

"Hmm. That shouldn't be problem." He stood up. "Please follow me."

I nodded and followed, causing the four female soldiers to take a step backwards.

"I feel notorious." I remarked with a grin.

"As from this morning, you are." Maximus said drily as we walked into the mess hall and sat down in the corner, far away from any windows and doors. "According to rumours, Grand master Julius Nigrus Cor of the Ordo Praesidium have taken a personal interest in the case."

I blinked in surprise. "Why would he do that?"

"Politics." Maximus said with a shrug. "It's the first time in years that an Inquisitor vice-captain has been arrested."

"Good point." I said and nodded thanks to one of the waiters as they placed two cups of tea on the table. Taking a cup, I asked. "What's with the 'Misuse of Inquisitorial Powers' charge?"

"Well, according to the Captain of the Ordo Praesidium in Drusus," Said Maximus as he drank some of his coffee. "You grossly overstepped your jurisdiction, when you almost ordered him to increase the security at the prison and when that was denied, you requested that a prisoner should be moved to a more secure holding."

"You can't be serious." I said with a chuckle. "Almost isn't the same as actually doing it."

"Emilian, this is politics... and that is always serious." He said with a sigh. "Yes, I know that even if you're guilty in that one, it's just a small fine, but it's the principle of dragging an Inquisitor to court that all this is about."

I leaned back in the seat and looked at him. "Have you even read my report?"

"Yes. Both of them in fact... and they do seem a little far out." He smiled a bit. "I mean, a plot involving five bastards and an unknown mage that could result in the destruction of the Anchors and the subsequent return of Baylon to our own dimension. Come on, Emilian, even you would think that it was far out if you weren't the one that had made it."

"Yes," I said quietly, "but then, I would have done the calculations instead of dismissing it as speculation and falsifying reports. These people are nothing like any human that we have ever encountered before. Remember Paula Flavia Pulcher? The half-breed mage from the Alashiya mission?" He nodded and I continued. "She was another half breed with a Baylon training." A thought suddenly hit, making me blink a few times, as I realized who Chuzara reminded me off.

With a sigh, I breathed. "Shit and flames!"

"Yes?" said the Dominus Grande calmly.

"When I first saw Chuzara... the prisoner in Drusus... she reminded me of someone and it just occurred to me that she looks so much like Paula Flavia Pulcher, that they could be sisters... or at least closely related."

"Well, the Pulcher family can't be behind this. They're either dead or in prison."

"Yes, but we always assumed that there were other people besides the Pulchers behind the Disease and I think we might have stumbled upon their work."

"Well, that can easily be checked." said the Dominus Grande. "Starting with determining if the prisoner is related to Paula Pulcher."

"Only if we still have her." I said calmly. "And unless I miss my guess, we don't."

With perfect timing, an alarm-bell sounded and suddenly I had four aggressive looking women pointing swords at me.

I lifted my cup of tea in a toast towards them and drank. It was actually a good tea for once.

That caused the Dominus Grande to look even more irritated than before. "You seem awfully calm. Why is that?"

"We're in the well protected city of Gideon, in the equally well protected local chapter of the Ordo Praesidium and yet an alarm bell is ringing, indicating an attack in the area." I said taking another sip of the tea. "Unless I've grossly overslept, there was a change of the watch in Drusus not long ago, so they have most likely discovered that the prison has been attacked by three or four unknown persons and that the prisoner has escaped. Considering it was only discovered now, I'm guessing that none of the guards survived." I lowered the cup to the table. "And the only people, who could have stopped it from happening, got tangled up in politics instead of doing their flaming job."

The Dominus Grande opened his mouth, but then his eyes shifted as if he was listening to somebody and he closed it again.

I drank some more, waiting for the mental communication to stop as possibilities ran through my mind. With the attack being public known, they were limited to a few and all of them good for me.

Finally, he said, "I once heard Varro tell you that you're irritating good at this and he was right." He sighed. "The guards at the Drusus prison were killed to the last man and all the prisoners escaped by means unknown at this time."

"Shocking." I said sarcastically. "Am I still under arrest?"

He nodded. "Yes... Even if the Charge of Falsifying report is now dropped, you're still under arrest for Slandering and Misuse of Power."

"Ah. Well, that's okay. Then I have time to drink another cup before the next thing happens." I raised my hand to catch a waiter's attention and ordered another cup.

"When you're done showing off, would you please tell me what you think will happen." Said the Dominus Grande with a slight smile. "Or I will add Obstruction of justice to your charges."

"I don't know what will happen next, but I can guess."

"Please do."

"About now it's morning in Mordcha and with the apparent seriousness of my crimes, somebody will express deliver my report along with the charges to the Grand Master of Ordo Arbites. He will read it, consult Lex Imperialis and then laughingly dismiss the Slander charge from the mages, due to the fact, that I never stated it was a member of the Ordo Ars Magica that was in the thought-images."

I nodded a thanks to the server as a new cup of tea arrived, and then continued. "Then two things can happen: Either Securitas Interna will show up at the prison or they won't. If they do, they'll look back in time and discover that the perpetrators can't be detected my magic, which makes it an Inquisitor case, and the charge is null and void." I drank from the cup. "If they don't show up, somebody in the Ordo Praesidium is involved and is obstructing justice, because the law clearly states that Securitas Interna must be involved in any investigation of Misuse of Power, since that is our primary jurisdiction." Placing to cup on the table, I said, "Somebody is playing politics when they should be considering the fate of Baylon and I have a sneaking suspicion, that whoever is behind this is the cause of that."

The Dominus Grande was silent for a while and then, much to my surprise, I heard an unknown voice in my head. "< Inquisitor Captain Ivah Chila Emilian. This is Grand Master Vibius Nonius Orator of Ordo Arbites. I have read the case as well as your reports, listened to what have been said and I agree in your reasoning and conclusions, especially in the light of the disaster in Drusus. All charges are dismissed, and you are reinstated as a captain with full honours. All concerned parties have been informed. Grand Master Orator out >"

"< Excuse me, sir >" I said hurriedly before he could close the connection. "< I think you got the rank wrong. I'm a vice-captain and not a captain, sir >"

There was silence for a moment, then he said "< Not anymore, Captain Emilian... As I just said, all concerned parties have been informed. Grand Master Orator out >"

I blinked in surprise, looked at the Dominus Grande, who was smiling at me, and realized that I had managed to underestimate a Dominus Grande's ability to play politics, which made me feel rather stupid. "You are a cunning man, sir. Have he been listing in all the time?"

The smile grew a bit wider when he nodded. "Yes. I too know how to play politics when my people are harassed unfairly."

I laughed. "Very smart, sir. Now can I get this collar of?"

There was a 'click' the collar opened and fell off. I caught it and handed it to him. "Here you go, sir."

"Thanks... and you weren't calling me 'sir' a moment ago."

"Back then I was a prisoner, sir. Now I work for you again."

He laughed and shook his head. "Get a spare uniform from the store along with the captain emblems and then go find these people, Spectre. We need that mage found and the escaped prisoner arrested... along with whoever helped them."

I stood up, saluted him, and then looked at the guards. "You better come with me as witnesses that I have been cleared of all charges... and in case that we need to arrest someone, that doesn't like being arrested."

The sergeant glanced at the Dominus Grande, who nodded, before she smiled and said, "Of course, Captain."

"What's your name, Sergeant?"

"Octavia Varus, sir."

"All right, Sergeant Varus. Let's go."

-------------------------

Two glass later, I was standing in the dungeon of the Prison in Drusus again.

As I had expected, the door I had jammed with Ars Mentalis had been smashed to bits and the only thing that was left in the cell except the furniture, was the collar Chuzara had worn.

A Securitas Interna agent was shaking his head as he looked at me. "Captain. This is not good... In fact, it's catastrophic!"

"Show me."

He nodded and sent the vision of what had happened.

The door was closed and the guards outside looked like they were bored. Suddenly arrows came out of nowhere and hammered into one of the guards, while the other fell over like he had been hit with a sword, but neither the sword nor the attacker could be seen clearly. There was just a glimpse of a blurry shadow behind the guard the moment the sword connected and then it was gone. The guard hit the ground silently and there was a fatal wound in his back.

Then everything was silent again.

The world returned to normal, making me sigh. "You were right. This is not good, but it's what we have to work with."

"Yes, sir."

I nodded to him and thought about what I have seen. That they didn't show up on a vision, meant that they were undetectable. Several magical items, Ars Magica spells and Ars Mentalis could do that trick, but Chuzara had been undetectable as well, and she had been butt naked and couldn't use any Ars Mentalis with the collar on. That meant that her ability to be undetectable was a natural thing, just like mine.

That was an extremely rare ability to have and the odds of all of them having it, were so low that I couldn't even calculate it. That meant that they had been picked for that exact reason, again showing that a lot of thought had been put into this.

"Captain!" a voice called from outside the cell.

I walked into the hallway again. A Securitas Interna agent was standing outside the last cell.

"I have something to show you, sir." He said as he saw me.

"What is it?"

He opened a mind contact and I accepted.

First there was an empty courtyard, but suddenly a shimmering gate in reality appeared in the middle of it and when the shimmering cleared, I could see a dense forest on the other side of the gate.

A moment later, it disappeared.

I blinked, as the world returned to normal and then nodded to the agent. "Nice work, Agent. Please report this when you are done here, but not until a glass has passed. There are some people I need to talk with."

"Yes, sir."

I turned and looked at Sergeant Octavia, before looking at the agent again. "Oh, would you please show the sergeant the same? I need to contact some people and that will lessen the need for explanations."

"Yes, sir." He said again.

A commotion at the other end of the hall, made me look that way. It was the prison warden, and he was shouting at the Feminae Bellum.

"What do you mean that I can't go down there, Private? This is my flaming prison and I demand to know what is going on here."

He sounded sincerely angry and slightly confused, so I walked towards them.

"Warden." I greeted as I came closer.

Surprised, he looked my way and then nodded. "Inquisitor, can you tell me what is going on here? Because nobody wants to tell me anything."

"Prison break, sir." I explained shortly. "Warden, who is this?" I sent him a mental picture of the middle-aged women from the vision.

He only needed to think for a moment before saying. "Livia Pissarro. She's a merchant and was arrested for smuggling. Securitas Externa has already spoken to her, but it proved that she had a special permission to import the wares." He shrugged. "They left after that."

"Thank you." I said and looked in the direction of one of the guards. "Would you please escort the Warden? He can go anywhere and have answers to any question."

She nodded, and I looked at the warden again "One thing, sir. Do not talk with anybody about this yet."

He nodded shortly and they walked away, as I leaned against the wall, thinking again.

Livia Piso had known the mage, but if she had a special permission, why was she still here in the prison?

Somebody had messed up bad and chances were that it was Captain Piso from the Drusus chapter of Ordo Praesidium. Luckily, that wasn't my problem right now, as Securitas Interna would handle that.

Reaching out with my mind, I contacted the Ordo Praesidium in Gideon and to my surprise, it was Adept Marcius that had the duty again. "< Good morning, Adept Marcius >"

"< Good morning, Inquisitor Captain Spectre. How may I help you today? >"

"< The Mage we are looking for, is connected to a merchant named Livia Pissarro. I want her found and I want her family, employees and friends questioned to see if they know the name of our unknown mage. >"

"< I shall pass it on, sir, but I'm quite sure that it will take some time >"

"< No problem, Adept. Now for the other people we're looking for. Please add a note the report that they're all undetectable by Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica >"

There was a moment of silence, before Adept Marcius said, "< Please repeat that, sir >"

"< You heard correctly, Adept. They're all undetectable by Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica. Yes, I know that is highly unlikely, but it's the fact. What I don't know is the cause of this and it might simply be magical items. Just add it to the report. >"

"< As you order, sir >"

I looked around. Since the mage had gated people out, it was impossible to track those people using ordinary means, just as it was impossible to determine where the other side of the gate was, as there had been no distinct landmarks on the other side.

Unless... some of the prisoners had been wearing a collar and had been stupid enough not to show or say anything about it, because those collars could be tracked magically.

Getting hold of the Warden, I quickly explained to him what I was looking for and a glass later, I stood in a clearing of a rain forest, along with several others, and studied a scared young man. He had been stupid enough to put a bracelet, which worked in the same way as the collars, into a pocket, since it was made from gold.

'Avaritia facit bardos' (Baylon: 'Greed makes you stupid'), as the saying goes. Especially since theft was the reason that he had been in the Drusus prison in the first place. Some people never learn.

Leaving the young man to the Feminae Bellum, I followed his tracks back to where the Gate had emerged and found the rest of the tracks.

The young man had explained that he had hid, when the mage had opened a new portal and disappeared through it along with the freed prisoners, but that the four others had walked off as a group.

I smiled to myself, as I saw the deep footprints of a heavy man among the prints of three others, one of them a woman. These would not be hard to track.

After checking that I had everything I needed, I contacted the mage that had gated us out here. "< This is Spectre. Thank you for the Gate, Mage Gaius, but I will continue on foot. Please just gate the rest home again >"

"< No problem, Spectre, but according to my orders, I'll send reinforcements. Good hunting >"

Closing the connection, I studied the tracks. They weren't that far ahead.

----------------------

Tracking the group turned out to be so easy, that it made me suspicious, and I made sure to avoid every spot that looked like a good place for an ambush.

Still, it went reasonable fast, and I was stalking around a large bush, when I heard some voices speaking. It was two men and a woman debating something from the sound of it, but I wasn't close enough to hear the words.

I activated the chameleon power and blended in with the surroundings, making me practically invisible, before silently and slowly moving nearer the sounds, being careful not to disturb anything that could give away my presence.

A bit later, I was lying under a bush and was not only close enough to hear the words, but I could also see the trio.

They were sitting on some rocks, eating dinner, while they talked.

The woman was Chuzara and to the left of her sat a friendly looking guy. He had light hair, a goatee in the same colour and he was drinking from a wine skin. I recognized his face from the mental pictures I had been given. It was Kruse.

The last was a giant of a man with light brown hair and an impressive body. He was easily two heads taller than I was, and incredible wide. He was also wearing a full chain and carried two war hammers in the belt. It could only be Piler.

That left only one unaccounted for and I was pretty sure that the only reason they were sitting here, was that they were waiting for him and that enabled me to gather some information.

"... see you again." Said Piler as he took a bite of a chicken wing. "Though you don't really look worse for wear despite having been caught and imprisoned for two days."

Kruse nodded. "Yeah, I have been wondering about that too."

"Well... It was very strange." Said Chuzara and sipped some wine. "I was rather beaten up, when I was caught, but when I woke up, I was healed and there was a young Mentat there, who were washing the blood of me."

"Say what?" Exclaimed Piler.

She nodded. "As I said, it was strange, and it gets worse. Next day he gave me a massage and all the while he was friendly and polite."

"And he was a Mentat?" asked Kruse.

She nodded, which made him roll his eyes as he said, "Are they idiots? Ars Mentalis doesn't work on us!"

"Actually, it does." Said Chuzara slowly. "The Mentat used Ars Mentalis to lift me up at one point. It's only our minds that are somewhat protected and not our bodies. I thought that he would use Ars Mentalis for torture, but he never did." She shrugged.

"Good." Said Kruse. "We still have a job to do in the north."

I suddenly felt a familiar chill down my spine. Something was wrong.

In the clearing, Kruse was suddenly on his feet with two drawn swords. "Incoming!"

The two others jumped to their feet and at the same time five large creatures charged into the clearing. They were black, a head taller than me and had long white hair growing only from the back of their heads. A huge mouth filled with sharp teeth dominated the head and they had no eyes, nose, or ears. Their bodies were humanoid, but the arms ended in a hand with three long powerful claws.

On their forehead glowed the sign of Ordo Mechanicus (Baylon: Order of Mechanical Engineers), the Ordo responsible for the construction and maintenance of mechanical structures such as wind -- and watermills, cranes, and machines of war. This included all magically created artificial creatures and these were some the Ordo's creations.

I cursed silently. The creatures were Nequam: Artificial creatures created by an ancient and complex magical ritual to act as a kind of magical guard dogs. Nequam have only one purpose and that is to kill any humanoid they encounter.

From time to time, some Nequam managed to get away from their posts, so the Inquisitors had been taught about them in order to be able to neutralize them.

In case of Nequam, 'neutralize' means hacking it to bits or smashing their heads. They have no internal organs that can be targeted, but the nerve center that controlled the body was still located in the head. Unfortunately, it's just that: A nerve center and not a brain. They are almost mindless, so mind affecting Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica don't work on them.

The really bad thing about them showing up, was that their perceptive organs were based on heat and electricity, instead of sight, and that meant that they could easily see through my camouflage.

Two of the Nequam totally ignored the trio in the clearing and went straight for me, which limited my options to two: Fight or die, since outrunning a Nequam is close to impossible. They are extremely fast, and they do not get tired.

I jumped up and drew the Shadow Fang in the same movement, just in time to parry a clawed hand. Entering Mutatur Tempus Mente enabled me to dodge a bite attack, but the creature still took a piece of my jacket.

I parried another attack and slashed at the creature, but it dodged out of the way.

That's the reason I absolutely positively hate Nequam: With their skin being natural armor and no internal organs, they can take a lot of damage, and they are just as fast as I am. Even in the state of Mutatur Tempus Mente as I was now, they seemed to move at normal speed.

The only chance I had was to parry for my life, while I used Ars Mentalis on myself to become stronger and faster. Then I could go on the offensive.

Another parry and then mental energy surged through my body, making me stronger as a claw ripped the other side of my jacket, but didn't connect with my skin.

It also threw my attack off target, and the creature easily avoided it.

More mental power ran through me, this time making me faster.

Remembering Shadow Fang's power, I channeled mental energy into the sword, and I could feel the blade contract as it got sharper.

Now I was ready and as I dodged the next attack instead of parrying it, the adrenalin hit my nerve system.

Shadow Fang moved in a blur and I hit the creature in the leg, cutting right through it. It still managed to launch an attack. A claw came close to taking my eyes out, but I retaliated by hitting it squarely in the head. The force from the blow drove Shadow Fang right through the skull and it dropped to the ground trashing.

I whirled around and faced the other creature. Unfortunately, it dodged my attack, and while I succeeded in parrying its claw, the force from the blow sent me reeling back.

It leaped after me, but I rolled to the left, forcing the creature to go around a tree, which gave me enough time to catch my footing again.

This time I timed the attack with another whirl to get out of the way, as I hit the arm and cut it clean off.

Any normal creature would have screamed or shown some signs of being wounded, but the Nequam just darted in with a bite instead.

I quickly dodged to the side and attacked. It had to extend the neck to bite at me and the blow landed exactly where neck and head connected. A moment later, the head of the Nequam rolled down the hill, while the body lay trashing on the ground.

I didn't have time to feel any triumph at that, because right at that moment a claw hit me in the back, cutting through the rest of jacket and deep into the flesh.

I could hear several ribs crack even before I was thrown to the ground by the force of the blow. Desperately I rolled forward, ignoring the spike of pain from the wound, but the moment I stood up, another claw hit me across the chest, ripping the rest of the jacked completely off and made three long bleeding wounds.

Running on mental power and adrenalin as I was, I ignored the wound and dodged the next attack.

Then I concentrated on my sword and said, "Verum Forma." (Baylon: 'True Form')

Vis energy flowed from me to the sword as time seemingly stood still for a heartbeat. The sword changed into its true form as it contracted yet again, and the hand guard changed from oval to two claws with a skull in the middle.

The world returned to the slow crawl of Mutatur Tempus Mente as the creature attacked again. Adrenalin hit my system and in a moving blur, I dodged under the arm and cut deep into the creature's leg before I moved away from the following bite.

It didn't kill the creature, but the leg strike had slowed down a bit, which gave me an idea. I moved to the attack again and when it tried to dodge out of the way, I changed direction of the cut in the last moment, hitting it right in the knee of the unwounded leg. The knee shattered and gave away, which made the creature stumble.

For a few heartbeats, its speed was gone, and I used the time to hit it in the head. The sword went right through and sent the upper part of the skull flying. It went down.

I took a few steps back to avoid being hit by the trashing body and glanced into the clearing to see how the trio was doing.

To my surprise, all three were alive and were fighting a single Nequam. The two other Nequams lay still on the ground. One of them with the head bashed in from what looked like a double blow from two war hammers, while the other was just hacked up.

Suddenly, my senses screamed that a blow was incoming and with lightning speed I dodged and turned at the same time. It wasn't fast enough as a long slim blade flickered through the air, cutting my throat.

Reacting on instinct, I counter-attacked, going for the head in the belief that it was yet another Nequam, and recognizing the face of the Angular Guy a fraction of a heartbeat before Shadow Fang split the head in two.

Blood gushed from the cut in my throat and I couldn't breathe. Thankfully my dodge had caused his blade to miss the big veins, giving me a little time before my body started to shut down to minimize blood loss.

Using an Ars Mentalis trick, I teleported to a spot some hundred paces away and let myself fall into the cover of some bushes, where I would be harder for the trio to find.

My consciousness was fading fast and with the last ounce of willpower, I reached out with my mind "< Inquisitor down. Throat cut! >"

Then the world faded into black.

--------------------

The feeling of someone stepping on me, followed by the words. "Found him, but I think that he's dead, sir." brought me back to reality.

There was a disbelieving snort and then I heard Verina's voice say: "Not a chance. Not only is he a Mentat Healer, but dead people don't heal themselves. Take a closer look at his wounds."

I heard somebody kneel beside me. "They are not bleeding, sir. "

"Exactly." Said Verina. "And yes, I know that dead people don't bleed, but I can see blood where there's no wound and that means that there was a wound and that he has healed it himself."

"Yes, sir."

"You might be mistaken, Inquisitor." Said a respectful voice that I recognized as belonging to Sergeant Varus. "I can't detect any signs of life."

"When healers are seriously wounded, they go into a coma so deep that life can be hard to detect." Said Verina and vent into command mode. "I'll levitate him, so we can take him with us to the Healers." There was a slight pause. "Trooper. Take his sword, but for the love of the Goddess, don't touch the hilt."

"Yes, sir." Said an unknown male voice. "Sir, what are those creatures? Besides being magical creations, I mean. With no eyes, ears and nose they can't be natural."

"Flaming dangerous, that's what they are!" Inserted Sergeant Varus. "I looked at the tracks and they moved like a tornado. They must a nightmare to fight against."

"They are." Confirmed Verina and continued. "They're Nequam: The finest magical guard dogs of the Ordo Mechanicus. Incredible fast, strong, deadly and resistant to magic, they're designed to kill any humanoid they encounter."

"Which apparently included Inquisitor Spectre." Said the unknown male voice.

"No." Said Varina calmly. "If you look at the combat scene, Spectre took out two of them, before he was attacked from behind, and had his throat cut, by the dead guy." She paused and then continued. "A guy that didn't leave tracks, which makes me wonder about his training."

It was clear that the thought didn't sit well with her.

"Anyway. Lets get Spectre back to the healers and then you guys can examine the area for more clues."

"Yes, sir."

Verina, I owe you so many kisses that I can't even begin to count them, I thought and faded into unconsciousness again.

------------------------

The words "I think that he's dead, Sir." Brought me back to reality.

This time it wasn't a voice that I recognized, but the words made me feel like someone had implanted a memory in my head and programmed it to repeat over and over again.

"Yes, you're right." Another voice said, older than the first "A bit of a shame, really. So young and so full of promise."

I'm not fucking dead! I tried to shout, but not a word came out. I tried to reach out with my mind to contact them, but without luck. I must have used all my mental energy on healing.

The elderly one spoke again. "But with a wound like that, there wasn't much we could do."

"Nobody blames you, Master Healer." Said the younger voice again. "His family was notified yesterday."

Unless you wake me up and start healing me, I will blame you! I thought. Now get your ass in gear and start doing your job.

"Thank you. Will you please make sure that the body is disposed of in the normal way?"

"That has already been arranged." Said the younger of the two voices.

You don't flaming dare burning my body before I'm done with it! I thought with a raising sense of panic.

"Good. Now let's see the next one."

"Yes, sir." There was the sound of two people walking and to my surprise the sound came towards me.

The young voice spoke again "This patient is.." there was a rattle of paper. ".. Ivan Emilian from Securitas Interna."

"Ah yes." The elderly voice said. "How is the patient doing?"

"Perfectly, Sir. " Answered the younger voice. "He's a Mentat Healer and had pretty much healed himself, so we're just watching and waiting for him to wake up."

"Good, good. Let's go on then."

I stopped listing as the footsteps faded away. Instead, I passed out from sheer relief.

The dream blurred, flickered, and disappeared as the darkness came back.