Ichor Cell

“What?” Alex repeated as he stared at the shackles wrapped around his wrists, binding him to the interrogation table before him.

Rewinding a few minutes prior, a guild enforcer had led a team to ‘apprehend’ him in the main guild hall.

“What do you mean I’m being detained?” Alex backed up, flicking his eyes over the group.

A small crowd had gathered at the mention of the guild master’s disappearance, and the gazes directed his way were not very friendly. As he threw a quick glance at the gathered adventurers, he couldn’t help but freeze. There, standing just behind and to the left of the enforcer squad, was Remus.

The man had changed out of his armour and cleaned the blood and grime off himself, but the gory hole he had for an eye was still untreated. When he saw Alex looking, he offered a helpless smile and shrugged, mouthing, “I tried.”

Alex tried not to make any assumptions, but he would be lying if he said he didn’t feel betrayed.

His attention was brought back to the enforcer, who also had a helpless expression on his face. “As the only witness to the guild master’s disappearance, we have some questions for you. Please come with us.”

Alex, in his hubris, had chosen to trust them.

The same guild enforcer was now sat across from him inside one of the guild’s truth chambers, hands steepled and an apologetic expression on his face.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions right now, and I’m sure this feels very sudden, but we cannot leave any stone unturned under these circumstances.” The man said. “I’m sure you understand.” Alex tugged at his restraints and raised an eyebrow. “This seems a bit excessive if you’re just gonna ask me some questions, no?”

The apologetic expression intensified. “We need to take as many precautions as we can in situations like this. If you are found to be innocent, you will be duly compensated for the discomfort. Please understand.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it already. I understand.” Alex leaned back in the chair and raised his arms. “So? What do you want to know?”

The other man seemed to appreciate his candour as he too relaxed a little. He pulled out a small device which he placed on the table.

“In that case, let’s get started.” He cleared his throat and injected a strand of mana into the device on the table, lighting it up. “My name is Hayk, I’m an enforcer from the Luterra adventurer’s guild. I am here with Alexander…?”

“Just Alexander.” Alex shook his head. “Alex for short.”

“Very well, then.” Hayk shrugged. “I am here with Alexander, who has been brought into an interview room to report on the circumstances of guild master Eve’s disappearance. First things first, could you please give a truthful report on last night’s events?”

Although he found the whole situation rather dumb, Alex obediently retold the night’s events without hiding anything apart from his personal secrets.

Starting with the first reports of the goblin variant and ending with the moment the air fractured and the guild master vanished, he retold everything. He skipped the gore, trimmed the heroics, and kept to the order of things as best he could.

Hayk listened without interrupting, eyes fixed on the device as it pulsed steadily on the table. Now and then, he glanced up, raising an eyebrow at something Alex said, but he didn’t interrupt. When Alex finished, the room fell quiet.

“Thank you,” Hayk said at last. “I’m going to ask a few follow-up questions. Some of these may seem… particular.”

Alex shrugged. “Knock yourself out.”

Hayk nodded once and glanced down at the device again. “Let’s start with something simple,” he said. “Your position during the engagement. You stated you were on the front line, engaging the variant up close while the guild master worked from range.”

Alex frowned slightly. “That’s right.”

Hayk raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “You are aware that those were two high-rank Disaster-level combatants.”

“Painfully,” Alex said. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Most people wouldn’t survive even being near such a battle, much less right in the middle of it.” Hayk said. “Even Mr Kazarian was gravely injured after a short battle.”

“Kazarian?” Alex asked, confused.

“Mr Remus.” The enforcer clarified, then continued. “But wouldn’t you say it’s quite suspicious that a powerful combatant such as yourself joined our guild a mere few days before the discovery a dangerous goblin nest outside our city? One that, if I’m not mistaken, was actually reported by you?” The man gave him an unreadable look. “Quite suspicious indeed.”

‘Shit.’ Alex froze at the unexpected line of questioning. He had to admit, while he knew that he was actually innocent, he probably didn’t look it to an unbiased third party.

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“Suspicious,” he repeated as his mind raced. “Sure. I can see how it looks on paper.”

Hayk didn’t react, simply watching him, fingers resting lightly against the edge of the table. The recording device between them kept pulsing steadily.

“But let’s be clear about something,” Alex continued. “If I were actually planning something like that, announcing the nest’s existence to the guild would be a pretty strange first step. Especially when the end result is me sitting here, chained to a very expensive table.”

“I’m not accusing you. I’m establishing possibilities.” Hayk pretended to back down. “Plus, I never said this was your plan. For all we know, you could be an expendable chess piece sent here to take down the guild master.”

Alex was really not liking where this was going. “Okay, look, I know the circumstances around this aren’t looking good, but I can promise you that I genuinely did not intentionally cause the guild master’s disappearance, not did I join this guild as part of some plan to sabotage it.”

Hayk looked genuinely surprised when the room’s enchantments didn’t detect any lies in his statement.

“Huh.” The man intoned. “Very well, then, please tell me why you did join the guild. All you’ve said so far is why you didn’t.”

Alex let out a slow breath and leaned back against the chair, the restraints clinking softly as he did. “Because it was convenient,” he said. “I was new in the city and I needed work. All I had to offer was my power and skills, and the guild looked like the best place to put them to good use. At least it seemed better than just turning into a criminal and robbing people for a living, at least that’s what I thought.”