A Long Time from Home Ch. 29

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 :)

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

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."