132

Queen Evaine commands the Lord Constable to take you to the citadel dungeons which are located several levels below the State Hall. Here, shackled to the dank stone wall of a rat-infested cell, is the man who was caught in a Garthen tavern plotting your murder. Limp and unconscious, he hangs by his wrists in chains, his emaciated body showing all too clearly the signs of recent tortures. A pot-bellied gaoler scoops a bucket of foul water from a trough by the cell door and revives the prisoner by pouring it unceremoniously over his head. Coughing and spluttering, the wretch stirs to consciousness. He raises his face and you sense that he recognizes immediately who you are; his eyes blaze with an undisguised hatred.

‘He’s a tough un,’ growls the gaoler. ‘I’ve used all o’ me skills on ’im but ’e won’t say who ’is paymaster be.’

The fat gaoler reaches for a pair of long-handled pincers which are protruding from a brazier of hot coals.

‘Perhaps you’ll be wanting to interrogate ’im yourself, sire?’ he says, offering you the pincers. Wisps of smoke curl from their sharpened tips which are red and glowing.

‘Aye, gaoler, there are questions I’d like this man to answer. But I’ll not be needing those,’ you reply, declining the use of the cruel pincers. ‘I prefer to rely on my own methods of interrogation.’

If you possess Kai-alchemy, turn to 79.

If you possess Kai-surge, turn to 254.

If you possess neither of these Grand Master Disciplines or choose not to use them, turn instead to 95.