Chapter 146: Searching for Traces, Finding the Cause (Part 2)

The back of his neck ached with the specific quality of pain that said: you were hit there, and hard, and recently.

Theo opened his eyes. His hands were behind him. His ankles were fastened to the chair legs. The room was small and abandoned — broken plaster on the walls, half a marble statue decomposed to its lower half, dust in the corners thick enough to have been aging for years. No windows. One oil lamp on the wall. He had no read on the time.

“He’s awake,” said someone behind him.

A woman stepped in front of him and lifted his chin. She was masked — a cloth that covered her from nose to brow, robes that hid her build. She wanted not to be identified. He catalogued this and moved on.

“Your name,” she said. “Don’t lie.”

“Theo.” He gave it cleanly, without pause.

“From Fallen Dragon Ridge to Silver City, that’s a significant distance.” Her voice had been sharpened by some recent emotion — not anger, but the effort of maintaining composure over something she was angry about. “Why were you looking for us?”

“I wasn’t looking for you. I was looking for witches.” He kept his voice level. “The Witch Cooperation Association sent me.”

“The Association.” A silence. “They’re in the Seawind Region. In the east. You’ll have to do better than that.”

“They were in the east. They’ve been in the Western Territory since before last winter. They were trying to reach the Holy Mountain, couldn’t find it, settled in a town called Border Town at the foot of the Impassable Mountain Range, and discovered that the Demon’s Bite stopped.” He watched her face and saw nothing helpful behind the mask. “Since then they’ve been trying to reach other witches. I helped them once — I drew off a Judge pursuit when one of their members was being tracked. They trusted me enough to send me here.”

“The names,” she said. “If this is true, you’ll know them.”

“Cara. Snake witch. Her ability involves a construct she calls Nothingness — it neutralizes poison. Wendy. Scroll.” He paused, then added: “Cara goes by the Snake Witch. I’ve seen the construct working. It’s real.”

Behind him, a second voice — quieter, the one who had been called Shadow. The two of them were whispering in the particular register of people who wanted to deliberate without appearing to deliberate, which told him they were new to this. He had been interrogated by professionals and he had watched professionals conduct interrogations, and the first error amateurs made was exactly this: binary questions with no space between kill him and let him go.

He kept his body language frightened. Slightly. The amount that would make them confident without making them certain.

“You’re not afraid of us,” the masked woman said suddenly. It wasn’t quite an accusation.

“Should I be? Witches have abilities I don’t. But they don’t hurt ordinary people for no reason.” He let a small amount of the truth into his voice, which was the most reliable kind of lie. “And the ones I know are the opposite of frightening. If I feared them, I wouldn’t have traveled this far to deliver their message.”

“If someone went to Border Town,” the masked woman said, “how would they find the Association?”

“Some witches can see magic. There are several in Border Town now. If a witch arrived, she’d be found.”

“Shadow,” the masked woman said, without looking away from him. “Your thoughts.”

“I’m not sure.” Shadow’s voice was younger. “Shouldn’t we wait for our sister? She’ll know what to do.”

“All right.” The masked woman took a clean chair from the room’s edge, placed it across from him, and sat. Her posture had shifted — less interrogator, more person with a question she was genuinely curious about. “Our guide will take us out of the city. She’ll know what to make of your information.”

“Where are you going?”

She shook her head.

“You’re not from Silver City,” he said. “Your accent — Silver City imitates the King’s accent. You don’t.”

A hesitation. “The south.”

Witches from all over the kingdom, converging on a city, waiting for someone to take them somewhere. Another organization, then. Another network of women trying to stay alive in a world that spent considerable effort on the opposite outcome. He wondered where they were going, and who the guide was, and what the organization on the other end of the journey looked like.

Footsteps outside.

“Sister!” Shadow’s voice had the quality of relief.

The door opened.

The woman who entered was not masked. She was perhaps twenty-five, dark-haired — hair that fell nearly to her waist — and had the particular quality of someone who moves through rooms as if they’re already familiar with what the room will try to do to them. Her eyes caught the lamplight in a way that made Theo look twice: golden irises, clear and light in the dim room, like coins seen through water.

There was a scar above her left eye, beginning at the brow and running to the cheekbone. It had been there long enough to have settled into her face without diminishing it.

She looked at him with the directness of someone who has already made a preliminary assessment and is now checking it.

“He’s the one who spread the news through the underground channels?” she asked. Then, to the masked woman: “What did you learn?”

The masked woman summarized. The woman with golden eyes listened without interrupting, then walked past Theo and stood in front of him, looking at him the way a person looks at a map — not at the map’s appearance but at what the map tells them about where they are.

“If the Witch Cooperation Association had genuinely found safety,” she said, “they would never have advertised their location. Not with the same name they were already known by. A public announcement would bring the Church as surely as it brought this man.” Her voice was steady, and the steadiness had a quality of authority rather than coldness. “Either the Association has collapsed and someone is using their name as bait, or—” she paused “—they’ve found a protector. Someone who has calculated that the benefit of drawing witches in outweighs the cost of the Church learning their location.”

“That’s a lord’s calculation,” Theo said. “Not a witch’s.”

She looked at him.

“I know,” she said.

She stepped back and addressed the other two. “The ship arrives at midnight. You’ll leave on it tonight. I’ll escort you to the harbor.” She turned to Theo. “I’ll be following you to Border Town. Separately.” She glanced at him. “If this is a trap, it won’t end well for anyone involved.”

“If it’s a trap, I’m already in it,” he said. “They sent me, and I came.”

“When you return, tell Tilly I’ll be late. A few days — possibly more, if I find other witches on the way.”

He filed the name away. “I’ll tell her.”

Shadow made a sound of concern. “But if it’s—”

“Then I go, and I find out, and I come back.” The woman with golden eyes said it simply, as one states a fact about the weather. “Someone has to.”

She began to move toward the door. Then she paused and looked back at Theo.

“Your ropes.”

“I can manage,” he said.

A sound that might have been amusement. She left, and the other two followed, and the door stayed open behind them.

He began working the knots.

Chapter 146 Searching for traces, finding the cause (Part 2)

When Theo regained his consciousness, he could still feel a stabbing pain from the back of his neck.

Damn, that brute of a woman had hit him really hard. He opened his eyes and tried to move, only to discover that his hands were tied behind his back and his legs were tied to the legs of the chair he was sitting on.

“He woke up,” suddenly the voice of a woman could be heard.

“What is your name?” One person stepped in front of him and raised his chin. “I suggest that you do not lie, or tomorrow you will already have become just another floating corpse in the moat.”

Theo had to blink to see clearer, the woman in front of him was wearing a veil, and her body was shrouded in a robe, apparently, she didn’t want him to be able to recognize her appearance.

“Theo,” he answered truthfully, at the same time he secretly looked around.

It was a narrow room, and his surrounding was covered in dust and pieces of plaster from a broken statue, even though it was once complete, now merely one-half of it was left. The accumulated dust and plaster had already begun to turn brown as if it had already been abandoned for a long time. The room was without windows, so no sky could be seen and he could only speculate on how late it was. The only light in the room came from an oil lamp hanging on the wall.

“From the Fallen Dragon Ridge to Silver City, such a long way,” continued the woman in a cold voice, “Why are you looking for us?

“I am not looking for you, it’s the Witch Cooperation Association who is looking for you.”

“What is an Association?”

“It’s a group of witches just like you. They had entrusted me with the task of spreading their news.”

“Nonsense,” the woman snapped, “I do not know where you had heard their name, but they are located far to the East, in the Seawind Region. Do you think that just by randomly throwing names into the room we would believe you?” The Women drew a knife from her waist and Theo had to discover that it was the knife that he had previously used. “I’ll give you one last chance, don’t challenge my patience!”

“What I said was the truth!” He stated in a loud voice, he wanted to continue to shout, but in the end, he didn’t dare, so he said with a suppressed voice, “They had originally intended to go into the Impassable Mountain Range, trying to find the Holy Mountain, unable to find the Holy Mountain, they had to settle down in Border Town, only to discover that the symptoms of the demon’s bite had disappeared. When they realized this, they naturally wanted to save other witches, I swear I did not lie!”

“Then why would they send you?”

“’Cause I helped them, I helped them when one of their members was chased by the Church’s Army of Judges, I helped her by distracting her pursuers. Their mentor is called Cara, and there are also Wendy and Scroll, they asked me to go! ”

After listening to his explanation, the masked woman turned silent, she put the dagger back to her waist and stepped behind him. Soon, Theo could hear how the two women whispered behind his back.

Fledglings, he commented in his heart, even though the two of them act like criminals, it is still clear that they are entirely new to interrogating.

During an interrogation, it is absolutely taboo to ask questions that had only one answer, in the case that they didn’t get their answer, the questioner only had the choice to kill or not to kill? If they decide to kill, they will lose any further possibility of receiving any more information, if they didn’t kill, it’s

is equivalent to losing their threat of dying. This would severely damage the interrogator’s position of power, and the effectiveness of the next threat would be substantially reduced.

If he were the interrogator, he would start the torture with the fingers, for every lie one finger would be cut off. So even if there were an error in judgment, it would become a big problem. Under this threatening atmosphere the enemy’s heart would quickly collapse, but without professional training, it would be very tough to carry out such a trial.

As long as he would show a frightened look, the interrogator would become unsure, which is equally to exposing that they just cannot tell whether he was lying or telling the truth.

And Cara, Holy Mountain, and the Witch Cooperation Association were reliable and genuine information, which would further strengthen the persuasiveness of his information.

It didn’t take long before the masked woman appeared once more in front of him, “When was it that they entered the Western Territory?”

“Two or three months before the Months of Demons, and directly after the end of winter, they returned to the town, claiming that they had found the Holy Mountain.

“How many people are they?”

“Up to 40? I’m not sure of it, in addition to Cara, there are almost no other witches who decided to show themselves,” Theo decided to add another bit of information, “Cara the Snake Witch, have you heard of her? She has the ability to summon magical snakes, one of them is called ‘nothingness’. With her, she can quickly erase every toxin. I have seen it myself, it was very powerful.”

“You actually do not fear the witches?” The woman’s voice seemed to be a bit puzzled.

“Why should I be afraid, the witches are very… beautiful, they don’t possess claws like demonic beasts, and furthermore they don’t hurt ordinary people. If I feared them, I would have never gone so far to spread the news.”

“If someone went to Border Town, how could they contact them?”

“Some of them can naturally see magic, so if there is a witch, they will find her.”

“Shadow, what do you think?” The masked women looked into the direction behind Theo.

“I’m not sure,” the witch, known as Shadow, hesitated. “Shouldn’t we wait for our sister and then make a decision? She surely will know what to do.”

“All right.” She nodded and took a clean chair, sitting herself in front of Theo.

“Who is your older sister?”

“The guide,” the masked woman’s attitude had softened a lot compared to before. Probably his statement that he didn’t fear the witches, changed her thoughts and feelings a lot, “she will take us away from here.”

“You will leave? Where will you go to?”

The spoken too just shook her head and didn’t answer.

“You are not a witch from Silver City, right?” Theo continued, “Your accent is not the same as the accent of the King. Silver City was near the capital, so the inhabitants here are proud of imitating the king’s accent.”

She hesitated for a moment, “I… am from the South.”

Witches from all over the Kingdom have gathered here, and soon they will be lead away from here… Theo thought to himself, there is no doubt, they are another witch organization. They are also attracting witches, just like the Witch Cooperation Association had done before. However, in the end, where do they want to go?

At this moment, from outside the sound of footsteps could be heard.

“Sister came back!” Shadow shouted cheerfully. With the creaking sound of the door opening, Theo began to hold his breath.

“Is he the one who has been using the underground channels to spread the news?” The newcomer’s voice was mature and steady. “What have you asked him?”

“What he had said seems to be true.” Began the masked women to explain how she saw the questioning, “He could not have been so clear in his explanation if he had not been in contact with the Witch Cooperation Association.”

“Well, there’s that,” she went by Theo, stepping in front of him. There was a big difference between her and the masked woman, she didn’t hide her face. Her long black hair nearly reached her waist, and she seemed to be around twenty-five years old. Taking her in whole, the most eye-catching part of her were her eyes. Theo discovered that she unexpectedly had golden irises, even standing in the dim light, her eyes were still clearly visible just like the stars during the night.

Theo had often been at His Highness side, but the unknown woman’s appearance could still be considered as belonging the top category. She had a visible scar over her left eye, beginning at her brow and going down to her cheek. This scar not only did not destroy her beauty but instead added another harsh touch to it. From the first moment that he saw her, Theo felt that this woman was a full-fledged warrior.

“If the Witch Cooperation Association had indeed found the Holy Mountain, they would have never sent people to spread such news.” She shook her head, “This wouldn’t only let the Church getting wind of it and let them arrive, no they would even have to leave Border Town as soon as possible, I’m afraid they would only bring a great calamity over themselves.”

“Then… what should we do?” Shadow asked.

“The ship will arrive today at midnight, and you aren’t the only witches, so you will have to leave,” she said without hesitation, “I’ll escort you to the ship. As for the Wi…” The black-haired woman looked at Theo who was still tied to the chair, “Please help me to say hello to Tilly, tell her I’ll be late for a few days and perhaps I’m even be able to bring some more witches with me.”

“You want to go with him to Border Town?” Shadow asked surprised, “But, in case this is a hoax…”

She smiled a little and said full of confidence, “if that were the case, it would be the same as killing oneself.”