Sentinels Of Discord - Chapter 70

MasterEnvi The story here gets very dark and uncomfortable. If you are not comfortable with mind control or people being mentally controlled while they’re forced to watch as a passenger in their own body this might be something to gloss over. There are sexual tones in this chapter, but otherwise nothing explicit here.

I started getting more anxious as I stood there. Looking at the sword. I identified it just to make sure.

[Blade of the Warden] -

A blade crafted by the Elven Warden of the Citadel of Nalthien. Its sharpness is unmatched and unquestioned. The Blade of the Warden has a natural affinity for the primary elements and their derivatives.

Yep, that was it. Unless there just happened to be another warden of Nalthien just running around making weapons for people.

The commander sat there patiently, looking at me as my brain struggled to come up with an answer that would both satisfy him and not give away too much at the same time.

“It would be in your best interest to be completely honest with me. Your life is only in danger if you lie to me.” Drikith said, insidiously.

Well, that wasn’t unnerving at all.

“I received it from my mentor,” I said simply, barely managing not to stumble over my words.

“Your mentor?”

I nodded, “Have you identified the blade?”

He didn’t answer, nor did he look away from me. “I’ll handle the questions here, you just need to worry about answering the ones asked, not asking your own.”

I held his gaze as levelly as I could, but I wasn’t feeling particularly confident at the moment.

“So your mentor is the Warden of this citadel then?”

Hmmm… We were starting to get into questions about the citadel, and I did not like that. How much should I say? How much was I allowed to say? Is there information I was capable of giving that Illesea would not be happy to have let out to the world at large? If so, what knowledge was that?

I really did not know how I was supposed to navigate this conversation. If I wasn’t a prisoner then I would just walk away or refuse to answer, but that wasn’t really an option here.

“Yes.”

Drikith nodded slowly, he took his time between each question. He was careful with every motion, every word he spoke. Nothing was out of order in the way he did things.

“And where is this citadel located?”

Well fuck. How was I supposed to answer that? I knew where it was located, but that’s definitely something I probably should keep to myself. I’m sure that the elves would have wiped my memory when I left, whether I had wanted them to or not. But they hadn’t really had a chance to do that with them getting wiped out.

Maybe it was time to get snarky.

“The Nalthien Forest.”

Drikith’s eyes narrowed in annoyance.

“And where is this forest located?”

“On Kelthas,” I replied, trying to not smile a little.

“Do not force my hand elf. I’m giving you a chance to answer voluntarily, but I can and will force the answers from you if I must.”

“I would love to, the problem is that you’re asking me to bite the hand that feeds me. On top of that, it’s hard to feel amenable to your questions when you abducted me in the first place, I’m supposed to be in a cell in Verdanst where I would eventually be released once they realized there’s no possible way I committed the crime they arrested me for. Yet here I am now, I don’t know how or why I ended up here, but it’s a disgustingly gross oversight in your system.”

The words kind of flowed out of me before I could really stop them from happening.

Drikith stayed focused on me with laser precision during my little rant, he didn’t interrupt and allowed me to finish before speaking again.

“Indeed. Have a seat.” He said while gesturing to the chair I had been standing next to that was situated in front of his desk.

As I sat down he called out again, not really raising his voice so much as just allowing it to carry his intent across the room.

“Lurks.”

I heard the door open and close behind me softly as Lurks entered the room. She walked over, her steps clicking softly on the wooden floor.

“Yes, commander?” Lurks asked in that same deferential tone.

“The elf is being uncooperative, thus I require your assistance.”

My eyes narrowed. How did he plan on forcing this? I didn’t know how well I’d hold up under torture.

Probably not very well.

Would I be able to make a break for it? If I could get out the door, potentially I could get out by making use of several of my abilities. Barriers, wood manipulation, and a couple of other things along with my speed. It just depended on how fast Lurks was, I  doubt Drikith would deign to chase after me when he had people for that sort of task.

I saw Lurks smile out of the corner of my eye. It was extremely unnerving.

“Can I keep him for a while after?”

Keep me? What?

Drikith looked thoughtful at the question, tapping one of his fingers on his arms as he leaned back in his chair.

Eventually, he nodded, “You may. He needs to stay sane and he still needs to be capable of performing, I believe he was to be one of your contestors, yes?”

She nodded, “He has healing magic from what I’ve heard, so if necessary he should be able to heal himself from most injuries. From what I can see with his arm though, he can’t recover limbs. So that’ll probably be the only thing to watch out for.”

Drikith nodded, “Go ahead then.”

Lurks turned to me. My heart was currently pounding in my chest. It was beating so harshly it hurt, and a dark pit of anxiety pooled in my stomach making me feel sick. My eyes were wide and alert as I pulled in every scrap of information I could, from how she was breathing, how she looked at me with a perverted desire, and how she moved as she stepped closer to me and leaned over.

“Tell me, elf.” She asked with an intoxicating whisper as she leaned in close.

“What do you know about mind magic?”

I moved immediately. I slammed my fist into her side, one, two, three times, and poured all of my mana into summoning multiple barriers in between us as she stumbled back a step. I manipulated the floor with my mana calling on that little connection that I had with the Heart to do so with even more speed and precision than I should have been able to.

I wasn’t sure how I did it in the moment but it would be something I had to worry about later.

The floor rose up in between us shaking everything and creating uneven footing as I created tendrils that lashed out trying to bind her in place.

And then I poured every bit of speed and effort I had in sprinting towards the door. With every step I took, I placed another barrier. I crossed the room in under a second and had 27 barriers in between myself and Lurks.

She recovered as I grabbed the doorknob, she didn’t chase after me she didn’t move she just smiled. She had been expecting this, but to her, it didn’t matter. She’d already won.

I felt an overwhelming force slam into my mind. I was completely unprepared given that I had never been trained on how to protect my mind, not that I would’ve been a challenge for someone a tier higher than me to begin with.

She tore through my mind like it was a piece of paper and once she rooted herself in deeply she gave one command.

“Stop.”

My entire body halted against my will. I strained against my own mind, but I was no longer in control of the situation. Lurks was. I was a prisoner in my own mind.

“Fix the room and return to your seat.” She said.

I turned around and did as she said, even though I was screaming and trying to do the exact opposite, my body showed none of what was happening in my mind. Lurks’ smile grew.

I railed against the barriers, but it was like I was watching my body move through a monitor. I could see everything clearly, and I felt everything my body felt, but I was sitting in the pilot seat of a mech while someone else operated it remotely. It made me want to puke. This was one of the things I was most terrified of.

Someone with absolute strength and the ability to command me to do whatever they wanted with no way of protecting myself. If someone had this kind of power the only thing stopping them from using it to their own benefit was their own conscience. And I didn’t trust anyone with this kind of power except myself.

And yet now I was on the receiving end. If I could cry I would. But my body denied me even that.

Eventually, the tendrils melded back into the floor and everything was situated again and I sat back down in my seat.

Drikith nodded to Lurks, “Thank you for your assistance. Now, where is this citadel located.”

“Where is the citadel located?” She asked, and this time I noticed she wasn’t actually moving her mouth to speak. The command was just echoing in my mind like the thought had originated from inside my head.

And my body complied against my will.

“It’s located in the forest to the south of Seltas. I don’t know the exact location.”

Drikith nodded, “How did you get here if you don’t know where it is?”

Lurks once again repeated the question in my mind, her voice was overwhelming in my mind and drowned out everything else as it reverberated around in my head.

“I was teleported out after we were attacked.”

This caused Drikith to frown slightly.

“Who attacked you?”

“I’m not entirely sure.”

“Who do you think attacked you then?” He asked instead.

“The Sentinels of Discord.”

His eyes widened at that.

“What makes you think it was them?”

“The citadel was hidden from view, no one would’ve been able to make it there alive. And no human army would’ve been strong enough to ever lay siege to it. The elves are too strong for that. There were also only three people I saw attacking the citadel and we lost. My Mentor also referred to them as ‘The Seven’.”

‘The Seven’ he mouthed silently as he tapped his finger thoughtfully again.

He leaned forward again and changed his line of questioning, “Do you think your mentor knows you're here and would they come save you?”

Each question was repeated into my mind, and each time it eroded a little more of my will, making me a little more subservient each time Lurks twisted my mind with her skills. Her tendrils of thoughts probed through my memories as she found the information Drikith was looking for and forced me to regurgitate the information. Her touch across my mind felt disgusting, and she seemed to be making it intentionally uncomfortable. She seemed to get some perverted enjoyment out of making her touch as disgusting and violating as possible, and she also seemed to enjoy the struggle I put up against her in vain.

I shook my head, “I’m not sure.”

“Why are you not sure?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know enough of her personality to say whether she’d be willing to save me or let me die.”

Lurks frowned slightly as she probed closer to my memories of my relationship with Illesea.

There were so few of those that she was bound to find this one before, and all I could do was pray that she didn’t find it. But the questions being asked led her straight to it.

“Commander.”

He looked at her without saying anything and gave her a slight nod that she returned.

“The elves gave me a gift.” I started saying.

I immediately began slamming against the constraints of my own mind. I could NOT let them learn about this. I couldn’t. I pulled on whatever mana I could within myself and slammed it against Lurks’ control of my mind. She winced slightly as I caused her concentration to waver.

And I struggled and wiggled just enough through her grasp that I almost gained control of my own body again, right before she redoubled her concentration and tore through my mind. Previously she had just been overwhelming and powerful.

This time she made it hurt.

My body remained perfectly still during the entire time, while within I screamed as she tore me apart. It was like she was ripping my limbs from their sockets one at a time, except they would then reform and she’d do it again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

She continued until I could barely tell what was going on anymore.

And then she stopped and I experienced blessed relief from the agony she had made me endure. I sank into the deepest corner of my little prison in an attempt to avoid anything that would cause me that pain again.

I felt her slimy tendrils filter through my mind, it felt like they were coated in oil as they stained every memory I had within my mind. No part of my sanctuary was left untouched as she took in everything.

“The elves gave me a gift.” My voice repeated.

I didn’t struggle this time.

“What gift did they give you?” Drikith asked.

“A Heart. The Heart.” I whispered.

“Tell me more about this Heart,” Drikith ordered.

And I did. I told him everything about it. How I had originally been a human. How I’d been pulled out of my world by the elves due to some prophecy or desire to save something. How they had turned me into an elf by giving me the heart.

My escape from the Sentinels and being teleported onto the road to Vinwood, how they had killed the adventurer party there. How I met Garrus, Penny, Karif, and George. How I joined their party.

I told them about saving Penny and losing my arm. How our relationship started to grow. Lurks ravenously tore through the memory of the night we spent together before we parted. I told them about seeing Illesea again after I thought she had died and what she was planning on doing.

I told them about everything all the way until the attack from The Harbinger. But Lurks didn’t stop there, she wasn’t done violating and defiling my memories with her probing. Every memory she touched she didn’t leave the same, they were broken slightly, disrupted, or out of sequence. She had little care for my mind and its sanctity.

She moved before I had been pulled into this world. From my time on Earth. She delved into my memories of my parents. Their names and what they looked like. She went through my friends and my experiences with family, my happiest moments of success, to the parts of my life where I felt I was the biggest failure.

She went through the first time I had fallen in love, she sipped on the memory of my first kiss when I was a teenager.

And for each memory she opened I experienced them again. Fully. Completely. With every emotion I had felt in those moments amplified a hundred times over. The overwhelming love I felt for my friends and family was so powerful I thought my heart would burst. The heartbreak of watching a family member die as I stood on the other side of a glass window, and all the helplessness that entailed made me feel like I was drowning in an unfathomable ocean of grief.

The pain I felt as I suffered various injuries in my life felt like the most debilitating form of torture that could ever be conceived.

She took everything from me as she mentally raped me, from the moment of my birth up to the moment I had arrived here and now. She knew every thought that had gone through my mind, every desire and ambition I had cultivated over my life.

And she made sure to enjoy every. Single. Moment.

I could see it in her expressions, the perverted satisfaction she got from seeing my most intimate experiences with people, how she reveled in the moments I felt had been my most humiliating. I could feel her excitement in her nauseatingly disgusting probes as she tore away my dignity and took whatever she wanted without a single iota of restraint.

I had struggled initially, but after the immense pain she caused me for struggling against her before I couldn’t muster up the will or the courage to defy her again. And with every memory I experienced again, with every bit of pain and pleasure that she amplified through my mind, it broke me down a little bit further each time.

It broke me until I no longer cared to struggle and just let her have whatever she wanted at that moment. Anything that would make it easier to bear, anything that would make it stop just a little bit sooner.

Eventually, Drikith felt like he had whatever information he wanted.

“I believe I have what I want for now.” He said while raising a hand to forestall the information I was regurgitating to him.

“Then, if I may?” Lurks asked.

“You may go. Remember, I still want him to be somewhat sane in case I have other questions for him.”

Lurks nodded, “I will try, although even now he is very weak in his own mind. He has not retained much from the questioning.”

Drikith frowned slightly, then sighed. “It can’t be helped then. Do your best, that’s all I ask.”

Lurks smiled greedily.

“As you will, Commander.”

I knew what Lurks meant now by asking if she could keep me. And in that moment.

I wished for death.

MasterEnvi A lot of people didn't like this chapter on royal road... I couldn't possibly imagine why. See y'all tomorrow!

MasterEnvi The story here gets very dark and uncomfortable. If you are not comfortable with mind control or people being mentally controlled while they're forced to watch as a passenger in their own body this might be something to gloss over. There are sexual tones in this chapter, but otherwise nothing explicit here. I started getting more anxious as I stood there. Looking at the sword. I identified it just to make sure. Blade of the Warden - A blade crafted by the Elven Warden of the Citadel of Nalthien. Its sharpness is unmatched and unquestioned. The Blade of the Warden has a natural affinity for the primary elements and their derivatives. Yep, that was it. Unless there just happened to be another warden of Nalthien just running around making weapons for people. The commander sat there patiently, looking at me as my brain struggled to come up with an answer that would both satisfy him and not give away too much at the same time. It would be in your best interest to be completely honest with me. Your life is only in danger if you lie to me. Drikith said, insidiously. Well, that wasn't unnerving at all. I received it from my mentor, I said simply, barely managing not to stumble over my words. Your mentor? I nodded, Have you identified the blade? He didn't answer, nor did he look away from me. I'll handle the questions here, you just need to worry about answering the ones asked, not asking your own. I held his gaze as levelly as I could, but I wasn't feeling particularly confident at the moment. So your mentor is the Warden of this citadel then? Hmmm We were starting to get into questions about the citadel, and I did not like that. How much should I say? How much was I allowed to say? Is there information I was capable of giving that Illesea would not be happy to have let out to the world at large? If so, what knowledge was that? I really did not know how I was supposed to navigate this conversation. If I wasn't a prisoner then I would just walk away or refuse to answer, but that wasn't really an option here. Yes. Drikith nodded slowly, he took his time between each question. He was careful with every motion, every word he spoke. Nothing was out of order in the way he did things. And where is this citadel located? Well fuck. How was I supposed to answer that? I knew where it was located, but that's definitely something I probably should keep to myself. I'm sure that the elves would have wiped my memory when I left, whether I had wanted them to or not. But they hadn't really had a chance to do that with them getting wiped out. Maybe it was time to get snarky. The Nalthien Forest. Drikith's eyes narrowed in annoyance. And where is this forest located? On Kelthas, I replied, trying to not smile a little. Do not force my hand elf. I'm giving you a chance to answer voluntarily, but I can and will force the answers from you if I must. I would love to, the problem is that you're asking me to bite the hand that feeds me. On top of that, it's hard to feel amenable to your questions when you abducted me in the first place, I'm supposed to be in a cell in Verdanst where I would eventually be released once they realized there's no possible way I committed the crime they arrested me for. Yet here I am now, I don't know how or why I ended up here, but it's a disgustingly gross oversight in your system. The words kind of flowed out of me before I could really stop them from happening. Drikith stayed focused on me with laser precision during my little rant, he didn't interrupt and allowed me to finish before speaking again. Indeed. Have a seat. He said while gesturing to the chair I had been standing next to that was situated in front of his desk. As I sat down he called out again, not really raising his voice so much as just allowing it to carry his intent across the room. Lurks. I heard the door open and close behind me softly as Lurks entered the room. She walked over, her steps clicking softly on the wooden floor. Yes, commander? Lurks asked in that same deferential tone. The elf is being uncooperative, thus I require your assistance. My eyes narrowed. How did he plan on forcing this? I didn't know how well I'd hold up under torture. Probably not very well. Would I be able to make a break for it? If I could get out the door, potentially I could get out by making use of several of my abilities. Barriers, wood manipulation, and a couple of other things along with my speed. It just depended on how fast Lurks was, I doubt Drikith would deign to chase after me when he had people for that sort of task. I saw Lurks smile out of the corner of my eye. It was extremely unnerving. Can I keep him for a while after? Keep me? What? Drikith looked thoughtful at the question, tapping one of his fingers on his arms as he leaned back in his chair. Eventually, he nodded, You may. He needs to stay sane and he still needs to be capable of performing, I believe he was to be one of your contestors, yes? She nodded, He has healing magic from what I've heard, so if necessary he should be able to heal himself from most injuries. From what I can see with his arm though, he can't recover limbs. So that'll probably be the only thing to watch out for. Drikith nodded, Go ahead then. Lurks turned to me. My heart was currently pounding in my chest. It was beating so harshly it hurt, and a dark pit of anxiety pooled in my stomach making me feel sick. My eyes were wide and alert as I pulled in every scrap of information I could, from how she was breathing, how she looked at me with a perverted desire, and how she moved as she stepped closer to me and leaned over. Tell me, elf. She asked with an intoxicating whisper as she leaned in close. What do you know about mind magic? I moved immediately. I slammed my fist into her side, one, two, three times, and poured all of my mana into summoning multiple barriers in between us as she stumbled back a step. I manipulated the floor with my mana calling on that little connection that I had with the Heart to do so with even more speed and precision than I should have been able to. I wasn't sure how I did it in the moment but it would be something I had to worry about later. The floor rose up in between us shaking everything and creating uneven footing as I created tendrils that lashed out trying to bind her in place. And then I poured every bit of speed and effort I had in sprinting towards the door. With every step I took, I placed another barrier. I crossed the room in under a second and had 27 barriers in between myself and Lurks. She recovered as I grabbed the doorknob, she didn't chase after me she didn't move she just smiled. She had been expecting this, but to her, it didn't matter. She'd already won. I felt an overwhelming force slam into my mind. I was completely unprepared given that I had never been trained on how to protect my mind, not that I would've been a challenge for someone a tier higher than me to begin with. She tore through my mind like it was a piece of paper and once she rooted herself in deeply she gave one command. Stop. My entire body halted against my will. I strained against my own mind, but I was no longer in control of the situation. Lurks was. I was a prisoner in my own mind. Fix the room and return to your seat. She said. I turned around and did as she said, even though I was screaming and trying to do the exact opposite, my body showed none of what was happening in my mind. Lurks' smile grew. I railed against the barriers, but it was like I was watching my body move through a monitor. I could see everything clearly, and I felt everything my body felt, but I was sitting in the pilot seat of a mech while someone else operated it remotely. It made me want to puke. This was one of the things I was most terrified of. Someone with absolute strength and the ability to command me to do whatever they wanted with no way of protecting myself. If someone had this kind of power the only thing stopping them from using it to their own benefit was their own conscience. And I didn't trust anyone with this kind of power except myself. And yet now I was on the receiving end. If I could cry I would. But my body denied me even that. Eventually, the tendrils melded back into the floor and everything was situated again and I sat back down in my seat. Drikith nodded to Lurks, Thank you for your assistance. Now, where is this citadel located. Where is the citadel located? She asked, and this time I noticed she wasn't actually moving her mouth to speak. The command was just echoing in my mind like the thought had originated from inside my head. And my body complied against my will. It's located in the forest to the south of Seltas. I don't know the exact location. Drikith nodded, How did you get here if you don't know where it is? Lurks once again repeated the question in my mind, her voice was overwhelming in my mind and drowned out everything else as it reverberated around in my head. I was teleported out after we were attacked. This caused Drikith to frown slightly. Who attacked you? I'm not entirely sure. Who do you think attacked you then? He asked instead. The Sentinels of Discord. His eyes widened at that. What makes you think it was them? The citadel was hidden from view, no one would've been able to make it there alive. And no human army would've been strong enough to ever lay siege to it. The elves are too strong for that. There were also only three people I saw attacking the citadel and we lost. My Mentor also referred to them as The Seven'. The Seven' he mouthed silently as he tapped his finger thoughtfully again. He leaned forward again and changed his line of questioning, Do you think your mentor knows you're here and would they come save you? Each question was repeated into my mind, and each time it eroded a little more of my will, making me a little more subservient each time Lurks twisted my mind with her skills. Her tendrils of thoughts probed through my memories as she found the information Drikith was looking for and forced me to regurgitate the information. Her touch across my mind felt disgusting, and she seemed to be making it intentionally uncomfortable. She seemed to get some perverted enjoyment out of making her touch as disgusting and violating as possible, and she also seemed to enjoy the struggle I put up against her in vain. I shook my head, I'm not sure. Why are you not sure? I don't know. I don't know enough of her personality to say whether she'd be willing to save me or let me die. Lurks frowned slightly as she probed closer to my memories of my relationship with Illesea. There were so few of those that she was bound to find this one before, and all I could do was pray that she didn't find it. But the questions being asked led her straight to it. Commander. He looked at her without saying anything and gave her a slight nod that she returned. The elves gave me a gift. I started saying. I immediately began slamming against the constraints of my own mind. I could NOT let them learn about this. I couldn't. I pulled on whatever mana I could within myself and slammed it against Lurks' control of my mind. She winced slightly as I caused her concentration to waver. And I struggled and wiggled just enough through her grasp that I almost gained control of my own body again, right before she redoubled her concentration and tore through my mind. Previously she had just been overwhelming and powerful. This time she made it hurt. My body remained perfectly still during the entire time, while within I screamed as she tore me apart. It was like she was ripping my limbs from their sockets one at a time, except they would then reform and she'd do it again. And again. And again. And again. She continued until I could barely tell what was going on anymore. And then she stopped and I experienced blessed relief from the agony she had made me endure. I sank into the deepest corner of my little prison in an attempt to avoid anything that would cause me that pain again. I felt her slimy tendrils filter through my mind, it felt like they were coated in oil as they stained every memory I had within my mind. No part of my sanctuary was left untouched as she took in everything. The elves gave me a gift. My voice repeated. I didn't struggle this time. What gift did they give you? Drikith asked. A Heart. The Heart. I whispered. Tell me more about this Heart, Drikith ordered. And I did. I told him everything about it. How I had originally been a human. How I'd been pulled out of my world by the elves due to some prophecy or desire to save something. How they had turned me into an elf by giving me the heart. My escape from the Sentinels and being teleported onto the road to Vinwood, how they had killed the adventurer party there. How I met Garrus, Penny, Karif, and George. How I joined their party. I told them about saving Penny and losing my arm. How our relationship started to grow. Lurks ravenously tore through the memory of the night we spent together before we parted. I told them about seeing Illesea again after I thought she had died and what she was planning on doing. I told them about everything all the way until the attack from The Harbinger. But Lurks didn't stop there, she wasn't done violating and defiling my memories with her probing. Every memory she touched she didn't leave the same, they were broken slightly, disrupted, or out of sequence. She had little care for my mind and its sanctity. She moved before I had been pulled into this world. From my time on Earth. She delved into my memories of my parents. Their names and what they looked like. She went through my friends and my experiences with family, my happiest moments of success, to the parts of my life where I felt I was the biggest failure. She went through the first time I had fallen in love, she sipped on the memory of my first kiss when I was a teenager. And for each memory she opened I experienced them again. Fully. Completely. With every emotion I had felt in those moments amplified a hundred times over. The overwhelming love I felt for my friends and family was so powerful I thought my heart would burst. The heartbreak of watching a family member die as I stood on the other side of a glass window, and all the helplessness that entailed made me feel like I was drowning in an unfathomable ocean of grief. The pain I felt as I suffered various injuries in my life felt like the most debilitating form of torture that could ever be conceived. She took everything from me as she mentally raped me, from the moment of my birth up to the moment I had arrived here and now. She knew every thought that had gone through my mind, every desire and ambition I had cultivated over my life. And she made sure to enjoy every. Single. Moment. I could see it in her expressions, the perverted satisfaction she got from seeing my most intimate experiences with people, how she reveled in the moments I felt had been my most humiliating. I could feel her excitement in her nauseatingly disgusting probes as she tore away my dignity and took whatever she wanted without a single iota of restraint. I had struggled initially, but after the immense pain she caused me for struggling against her before I couldn't muster up the will or the courage to defy her again. And with every memory I experienced again, with every bit of pain and pleasure that she amplified through my mind, it broke me down a little bit further each time. It broke me until I no longer cared to struggle and just let her have whatever she wanted at that moment. Anything that would make it easier to bear, anything that would make it stop just a little bit sooner. Eventually, Drikith felt like he had whatever information he wanted. I believe I have what I want for now. He said while raising a hand to forestall the information I was regurgitating to him. Then, if I may? Lurks asked. You may go. Remember, I still want him to be somewhat sane in case I have other questions for him. Lurks nodded, I will try, although even now he is very weak in his own mind. He has not retained much from the questioning. Drikith frowned slightly, then sighed. It can't be helped then. Do your best, that's all I ask. Lurks smiled greedily. As you will, Commander. I knew what Lurks meant now by asking if she could keep me. And in that moment. I wished for death. MasterEnvi A lot of people didn't like this chapter on royal road... I couldn't possibly imagine why. See y'all tomorrow!