249: Interrogation
As we stood there while Milo was creating the houses, forming them around the trees as best he could, I reached down, giving Lily a scratch as she stood next to me, her eyes locked on Gilain, who was still sitting on the floor.
His eyes, however, were glued to me, which made me feel uneasy.
“Perhaps you’ll entertain a curiosity of mine,” Gilain said.
Realising he was talking to me, I shrugged.
“What is happening here, with this group, this escort?” he asked, gesturing out.
I looked at him, confused about what he meant. “I thought merchant caravans with guards were commonplace. Is it not where you come from?”
Gilain let out a laugh. “I figured it was a ruse, but I witnessed your merchants selling items, so they are real merchants. Who is the adventure party to you? I have so many questions.”
What did he mean? Did he think this was all an act?
Jen spoke up for me. “Trev is part of the group. We’re on a job escorting this group, and truthfully we shouldn’t be stopping here to have a conversation, as we’re now going to be an afternoon behind schedule.”
“Wait, you’re telling me this is your normal group, and you’re running escorts? Do the merchants understand who’s taking them?” Gilain asked, looking shocked.
“No, they don’t, and we’d like to keep it that way,” Jen said bluntly.
Gilain shook his head, pointing at Crisplet. “And what sort of fire elemental is that?”
“That’s Crisplet,” I simply said.
Crisplet clearly flared up though, as there was a clear burning red flame that moved through the mix of black ash and char that made up a lot of his body right now.
Gilain let out a sigh, clearly not the answer he was looking for.
“Okay, and who is Crisplet? How are you travelling with a fire elemental? They enjoy isolation more than that one,” he said, pointing to Lily, who just let out a deep, unsettling growl.
Again I reached down to scratch her, whispering, “It’s okay. If he tries to attack, you don’t need to hold back this time.”
I noticed Gilain’s eyes opened wider, but he didn’t comment on it. I ignored the question about Crisplet, seeing no reason in sharing information with someone who could easily be an enemy of mine, even if I didn’t understand why.
There was an awkward silence as the houses were finished and the merchants went into theirs before Milo came over, ready to enter our own. I noticed no one had touched his blade besides Lily, so perhaps my belief about it being cursed wasn’t so far from the truth.
“We’re going to leave the sword out here. I assume no one will be able to steal it, correct?” Hari asked.
Gilain nodded. “You’re correct, though I would prefer it not just sitting on the dirt.”
Milo then encased it in rock.
Gilain let out a sigh. “Not what I meant.”
“Right, let’s get this over with. We have a schedule to keep and didn’t plan for diplomatic issues,” Hari said, coming out of the merchants’ house.
Inside, I was surprised it was set up like a true interrogation, with one seat facing the rest of us. The house itself was very simple, just a roundish room with two trees intersecting the walls. It didn’t appear to be reinforced stone, but honestly, it’s not like it mattered anyway.
“I’ll start. Why exactly are you following us and watching us? You mentioned a small bit, but I want the full explanation,” Hari said.
Gilain, who leaned back in the chair, let out a sigh. “I was tasked with killing him. I refused the task. I don’t kill children, so instead they sent me here to observe him and knew if I witnessed a threat to the nation, I’d be oath-bound to attack.”
“So you attacked?” Hari asked.
Gilain laughed. “I wasn’t going to, but a certain beast snuck up on me, and we got into a little bit of a brawl.”
Luis, who was standing to the side, “You got knocked out.”
Gilain waved it off. “I have no fault with the boy, or his friends. I’d rather be home meditating, and I certainly don’t want to fight the stronger of your friends.”
“So what did you hope to achieve by watching me? This isn’t the first time. You watched during the quill beast attack,” I asked.
Gilain smiled. “Noticed me then too, did you? Interesting. Honestly, I kept watching out of curiosity. I felt like you were not a threat when I saw you rushing to heal the farmers, but you’re a curiosity all the same.”
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“And you couldn’t just approach?” Jen asked.
Gilain laughed at that. “Generally, people don’t react calmly when I approach, especially if it’s on a random road in the middle of a forest. My aura and reputation often get the better of me.”
I shrugged. “You seem fine to me? Like any other warrior, I suppose.”
Gilain studied me for a long time before he spoke again. “And you all don’t see that as odd, right? The rest of you seem like seasoned adventurers. You understand how auras work. I’m not holding mine back, and no one in this room is affected by it.”
This had been something I had been noticing, admittedly, though I just assumed Lily was controlling her aura more, but from what froze the group initially now seemed to barely bother them.
Gilain took our silence as an invitation to continue. “I’ve had people around me for close to a century. Pure proximity doesn’t remove their ability to feel the aura, even if they become better accustomed to handling it. A new aura would always cause problems. You, however, have no such issues. How?”
Hari ignored the question, carrying on with his own. “What was your end goal?”
Gilain sighed again. “Satisfy my curiosity, then likely spend a year or two in the kingdom as the ambassador I was sent here for, before returning home. But I really would like you to answer about the aura.”
Lily growled again, clearly unimpressed.
Luis spoke up again. “You didn’t alert the capital of your arrival as an ambassador, which is part of the agreement.”
“No, I didn’t, and truthfully, it’s because I wasn’t sure how much you knew about the assassination attempt. If you’d worked out it was from us, then I doubt I would have had much freedom to roam around,” Gilain said.
Luis nodded. “You’re correct, which brings me to another point. Who is your insider who got you access to the palace for the assassination?”
Gilain laughed. “I’m not an assassin, boy. I don’t have access to their network. When they wanted me to come and kill him, any subtlety was gone. A last resort, if you will.”
“What’s stopping you from trying then?” I asked.
“Besides the fact that I don’t kill children? How about the cat? Or do you think I don’t notice that you’re wearing some of the best armour this kingdom has? Would I kill you? Perhaps… would I die in the process? Absolutely. Would my nation be wiped out as a result? Probably. I’m no fool, although getting caught here has been rather foolish,” Gilain said.
There was silence again, as I didn’t really know what to ask. It felt like he was being honest, but then the real question came. I guess the only question is.
“Why is your nation trying to kill me?”
Gilain let out a laugh. “That’s the real question, isn’t it? And I’ve not worked it out yet. If I were to guess, you’re a threat, a beacon of change, and if there is one thing the Thelran Conclave don’t like, it’s change.”
“And you?” I asked.
He laughed. “Bring on the change.”
“The question now is, what do we do with you? Are you going to keep following us?” Hari asked.
“You know, it’s rather odd, almost novel, but I don’t remember the last time that someone was able to decide my fate such as this. I didn’t think I’d find it exciting. As for whether I’ll follow you, probably. You’re a curiosity I’m very interested in, and you have a partner who is able to best me. That’s not something I’ve experienced in a very long time,” Gilain began.
Lily again let out a growl before Gilain raised a hand.
“How about this? I join you on your path north, and I’ll swear to you that I will cause you no harm, provided you take no action against my homeland. Consider it a diplomatic escort or something,” Gilain said.
I truthfully didn’t know how to respond to that. It wasn’t what I was expecting him to suggest. Also, being so calm about a bunch of people deciding his fate was strange to me. If the roles were reversed, I feel like I would be panicking.
Looking around, however, I saw conflicting faces on everyone except Liane, Crisplet and Lily. All three still looked angry and ready to fight, though the cut on Lily’s paw didn’t go unnoticed by me. If he could hurt her, I suspected Liane and Crisplet wouldn’t even register as a threat.
Hari shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. We don’t know your intentions, and an oath to not hurt us doesn’t protect us from information you’ll send back home.”
Gilain took his time before responding, a grin coming across his face. “Alright. Well, I submit myself to the royal family member here as ambassador of the Thelran Conclave. In our agreement, I shall travel with you until we reach the capital.”
Luis was about to respond, but Liane beat him to it. “Lily could just kill him, and we’ll be done with the problem altogether.”
Gilain’s face fell at that as Lily took a step forward.
“Stop. No, we can’t kill him, but what I can do is turn around and head directly to the capital now,” Luis said, holding a hand up.
Somehow Gilain looked even more put out now.
“Not what I expected,” he muttered.
It was Luis’s turn to smile now. “But you’ve submitted yourself to this now, so you’re bound by the agreement to follow. Then we can discuss the actions of the conclave when we reach the capital with my father.”
“Wait. How about this? I’ll swear no harm, and to keep everything I learn during our journey together a secret. I’m really just curious. I don’t actually want to get dragged to the capital and sit in a palace for the next decade discussing the breach of agreement,” Gilain said, now with actual panic in his voice.
Luis shook his head. “You have to do it eventually, anyway.”
While the interaction was going on, I reached out to Crisplet to get his thoughts, but I just got an incredibly strong feeling of wanting to punch him, along with pride and anger.
I could tell Lily wasn’t a huge supporter of the idea either, but I couldn’t tell if it was worry about me, or because he cut her paw.
I knelt down next to her, whispering, “If he joins us, you could spar with him and get some payback.”
Lily turned towards me, looking me in the eye for a moment before taking a step back and sitting down. I took this as her considering the option. I also realised that Gilain’s hearing was exceptional, because he looked directly at us with wide eyes.
Looking to Hari and Luis now, I said, “I’ll leave it to you two. Even if he doesn’t swear, attacking me will just result in his death. I’m not concerned about that, but he will have to be sworn to secrecy on any information he learns.”
Gilain looked at me again. “Such confidence.”
I didn’t say anything more. I knew I had more than the armour and Lily to protect me. Alira said, after all, that the feather would save me once, not that I wanted to force his hand and test it.
As I saw Hari and Luis move off to the side, I noticed a fine layer of dust move across the floor around them as they were surrounded by an air pocket that blocked their conversation.
“Now we wait, I guess,” Gilain said with a laugh.