CHAPTER 86: PRISONER

Their prisoner, or guest as Sylara started calling him, woke up two days before the festival, and was surprisingly calm about his predicament.

"He wants to speak with the person who knocked him out." Sylara informed Calen and his companions. "He was surprisingly polite about it."

"Wouldn’t that be you though? The powder was what knocked him out, I just scattered it." Calen pointed out.

"Well, I already talked with him, so it’s your turn - maybe he’ll tell you something useful."

"Fine, where’s he?"

***

On Sylara’s command, Alison led him to a large building behind the Verdant Watch’s headquarters.

"This is the city prison." She informed him. "It’s way bigger than we actually need, so we had no problem putting our new prisoner in a secluded part of the structure."

"Do you often get prison sentences?" He asked as they matched through the rows of mostly empty cells.

"No - in fact only the worst crimes result in long detention, manpower is far too precious to just lock people up."

"What other punishments do you use then?"

"The lighter crimes almost always result in community service, there’s plenty of work nobody wants to do and criminals are perfect for that. The punishments for crimes with medium severity are decided on case-by-case basis - if the offender has a very important profession, then they usually end up working for the city without any compensation."

"And if they don’t?"

"... let’s just say they get to live, but their circumstances are rather unpleasant."

’Creepy.’ Calen thought.

"Anyway, We’re here." Alison stopped in front of a heavy steel door in an isolated part of the prison. "He’s restrained with enchanted handcuffs, the Blight-mitigating collar, the mobile cell is inside a double layered barrier and the door is rigged with that powder from Lady Sylara."

"Isn’t that a massive overkill?" He raised an eyebrow. "He’ll die the moment he’s out of the cell, and he probably wants to end himself as well - anything outside the metal box is pointless."

Alison shrugged.

"Lady Sylara’s orders, not mine." She stood next to the open door. "I’ll stay here until you’re finished."

"Okay, whish me luck." He mumbled and entered the cell.

The steel box from the mobile cell was taken off the platform with wheels, and secured to the stone ground with four large bolts. Through the singular smal opening in the box a pair of alien gray eyes was observing him keenly.

"Are you the one who bested me?" The Blightborn voice strange, but somewhat cordial.

"I suppose you could say that - although I don’t think that ambushing you with far superior numbers can be considered ’besting you’."

"A triumph achieved through trickery and cunning is no less valuable than one gained by directly defeating the opponent." The Blightborn stated. "May I know your name?"

"It’s polite to offer your own before asking for one."

"I am Kaerith, the Mindcarver of the Blood Battalion belonging to the Seventh Imperial Army."

"Quite the title." He nodded. "I’m Calen."

"Well met." Kaerith grinned, revealing dozens of razor sharp teeth. "I assume you have questions for me?"

"That depends whether you’re willing to answer them."

"That depends on the questions."

"Let’s start with something simple then - Mindcarvers are supposed to be advisors, the ’second in command’s on any given rank, so why are you here, on a glorified shepherd duty?"

"I’m afraid I don’t actually know the specifics, of our orders - only my commander has the access to them." Kaerith answered calmly. "But from the context I gathered that they were motivated by an issue higher up the chain of command."

He didn’t look like he was lying, bit then again he was an alien, and Calen didn’t have anything to compare him to.

"Alright... what about your disappearance? How will it affect the actions of your people?"

"As long as I’m alive our fortress won’t learn about my fate until my commander returns successfull from his mission."

"Why does he have to be finish the mission first? Shouldn’t he return immediately to report your mysterious disappearance?"

"Our society is more focused on achieving goals benefitting all of us than the well-being of any of any individual." Kaerith hummed. "My commander won’t abandon the mission just because I disappeared."

"Huh." Calen nodded. "Is that why you’re so relaxed despite the fact that you’ve been captured and we’ve prevented you from taking your own life?"

"No, I’m not particularly interested in the success of this mission to be completely honest." The Blightborn chuckled. "We haven’t managed to destroy a single settlement of yours in over four hundred years, and I don’t think we’ll have any more luck this time."

"Why are you this calm then? Shouldn’t you be panicking about the fact that you can’t ’end it’ before we have the chance to interrogate you?"

"I should, but I’m not - and it’s all because of my curiosity."

"Curiosity?"

"Yes." Kaerith held up his cuffed hands and pointed at the collar. "You’ve gone to great lengths to ensure that I remain alive, and frankly it has made me curious as to what you have in store for me."

"So you’re not going to try to escape or something?"

"That’s a pointless question, don’t you think? If I was going to escape why would I tell you, my jailor, about it?"

Calen was silent for a bit.

"You’re very different from what I expected."

"Oh? And what did you expect?"

"I don’t know, for you to call humans inferior, scream about how this is beneath you, stuff like that."

"Humans are inferior to the Serakhiin." He said. "But I am also not conceited enough to think I am better than someone who managed to catch me completely unaware and imprison me."

"So what, the Serakhiin are better than humans but humans are better than you? That doesn’t make much sense."

"There are brilliant and foolish individuals among any group, perhaps you are the former for humans, and I am the latter for Serakhiin."

"That still doesn’t explain why you’re so talkative."

The Blightborn looked him straight in the eye.

"Well to tell you the truth, I’m being forthcoming with you in hope that you will share with me what are you planning to do with me."

Calen fell silent - he had to think his next words through very carefully. The chances of Kaerith escaping his cell and returning to his commander with information were pretty much zero.

All in all, he wouldn’t loose anything by just telling him - and perhaps he could get even more information from him in exchange.

"Alright, I’ll tell you - were going to try to remove the Blight from your body."

"Remove the...?" Kaerith scoffed. "I’m sorry to tell you but that’s impossible, once the Blight takes root it is irreversible."

"We’ve already succeeded on an almost gully corrupted creature."

The Blightborn’s face became more serious and he carefully studied Calen for any hint of a lie.

"...How?" Kaerith asked in a low voice.

"With this." Calen summoned a small ball of flames in his palm.

"This colour..." The prisoner’s eyes widened. "You’re the Ashwalker - to think that the stories were true, that’s unbelievable."

"What’s the Ashwalker?"

"A fairytale that spread among my kind, a rumour based on some whispers from the few of your brethren that we didn’t kill immediately - a made up story about someone capable of wielding the power of the sun, a person who could not only oppose the Blight, but could actually destroy it. Although it seems it was never fake to begin with."

"So I’m the boogie man for your people?"

"I do not know that term."

"You scare kids with my existence."

"Yes, I suppose that’s an apt description." Kaerith nodded. "Say, were you the one to activate the golden over the temple not far from here?"

"Yeah..."

The Blightborn’s smile widened.

"And did you kill a monstrous human in an destroyed village?"

"Yes? What is this about?"

"I can’t believe it!" The prisoner laughed. "Me and my commander were tracking you since you’ve killed that bug, and we thought that we have lost you, but as a cruel twist of fate I end up as your prisoner!"

"Um, I’m glad you didn’t succeed I guess." Caleb shrugged. "Don’t you have any comments about the fact that we might purify you?"

"I don’t particularly care, I’m dead either way."

Calen frowned.

"I think there’s quite a big chance you’ll survive."

"No - the person you’re talking to know will cease to exist the moment Blight is removed from my body. I’m me because of it, I might have free will and my own thoughts, but it is ultimately a crucial part of my very being - whatever is the result of your crazy experiment won’t be me, but at most a replica holding my memories."

"Well, you have a few more days of love left then, because we have to finish some things first." He turned to leave but Kaerith’s voice stopped him.

"You can tell that other girl I’ll answer her questions if she comes, as a thank you for you answering mine."

"I’ll tell her." He threw over his shoulder as the door closed behind him.

"Everything okay?" Alison asked.

"Yeah, let’s just meet with the rest and I’ll explain everything."