"I did it." Fluffy whined. "I raided the pantry."
"Fluffy!" Garrik dropped his cutlery in shock. "How could you do that? What about your diet?"
"The diet is the problem. I was so hungry I couldn't sleep!" The Byk whined, rolling on his back and exposing his soft belly in submission.
"Thanks for your honesty." Lith said, staring at Selia. "I appreciated it."
***
"Hey, Lith, aren't we forgetting sothing?" Solus asked after checking the Fusion Reactor's status and restoring the full power in the rest of the tower's floors.
"Not that I'm aware of." He replied.
"What about our prisoners in the Pits of Agony?" She said. "It's been over a week, and we haven't interrogated them once."
"Oh, right!" Lith nodded. "Since the Reactor is fully charged, we can skip the paper trail of the Gate and Tower Warp to the Desert. Do you want to do it now, or after the morning training?"
"Now is better." She replied. "Those people may be scumbags, but I don't want them to suffer more than necessary."
Lith felt no sympathy for his prisoners nor regret for missing the deadline to interrogate them, but he kept quiet in respect for Solus' feelings.
For that sa reason, he pulled all the prisoners out of the Pits of Agony and handed them plenty of food and water once they arrived.
The Awakened looked as if they had been stranded in the Blood Desert for months, their faces gaunt and their body thin from malnourishnt. Salaark's Pits kept their prisoners alive and sane, but barely.
The Awakened received only enough nourishnt to survive the daily tortures and not faint from hunger or thirst. Everything else was a luxury that their cris denied them.
The Awakened's first reaction to the absence of pain was fear. The Pits also cycled between tornt and rejuvenation to ensure that no one would lose their mind or beco numb to the pain.
All the Awakened were terrified of the sudden relief because they knew what would co next. It was a false hope that only fueled their despair and broke their will with each cycle of torture.
The second reaction was confusion, followed by hunger.
Without the pain, their bodies focused on the greatest source of discomfort at hand. The weakness from their prolonged starvation made them dizzy, while their parched lips ached from their many cracks.
The Awakened would have done anything for a morsel of rotten food and said anything for a single drop of water. It was the reason they noticed the trays before them almost imdiately despite their precarious sanity.
Lith had prepared good food and plenty of water for them, and the Awakened threw themselves at the trays like hungry animals. They had cutlery and glasses, yet they ate with their hands and drank straight from the jugs.
Lith waited for the Awakened to be done with their al before addressing them, aware that his prisoners lacked the lucidity to see or hear anything until their condition improved.
The Awakened licked their plates, their hands, and then growled at each other, hoping to find soone who had so food left.
"I would like to apologize for leaving you in the Pits of Agony for so long." Lith's cold voice expressed no remorse.
It felt akin to a knife stabbing at the Awakened's brains that forced them to forget about the food and focus on him. Lith had the power to set them free, kill them on the spot, or prolong their misery, and the Awakened knew it.
Their defiance had been broken and ground into dust over the long days spent in the Pits of Agony. All the Awakened had left was a tiny hope and the will to bargain their way out of their predicant.
"You see, I have fulfilled my promise and delivered a powerful Blade Weapon to Faluel the Hydra." Lith conjured the images of the demonstration and the crowd that had attended the event from his Council Amulet.
This way, the Awakened knew it was public news and not just a lie to tornt them.
"I've triggered the largest manhunt Garlen has ever seen. Every Council Elder, Representative, and Divine Beast is scouring the continent for those like you. As you can imagine, the information you possess has already lost much of its value.
"I forgot about your existence because I don't need you anymore. Your collaboration is irrelevant to . I don't care whether you tell what you know or keep your mouth shut anymore.
"The only reason I'm here today instead of letting you rot in the Pits of Agony for the rest of your miserable lives is that I don't like to leave a single stone unturned. Those of you who are willing to talk, step forward and open a mind link with .
"I won't believe a word you say, but your thoughts cannot lie. You can still omit sothing, but you also have to pray I don't notice. Everyone else will return to the Pits of Agony imdiately and will stay there until I rember about you again."
The Awakened exchanged nervous glances, not knowing what to do. They wanted to co forward and put an end to their suffering, but they were afraid of what would happen once they outlived their usefulness.
Every second they spent outside the Pits was a small miracle, so they tried to stall for ti. Nobody moved or said anything, testing the confines of their new cage.
"I see." Lith flicked his finger and threw one of the Awakened back in the Pits of Agony. "You've mistaken my patience for rcy. You are wrong. I have no rcy for the likes of you, and my patience is already running thin.
"Answer now or I'll take your silence as a refusal to cooperate." The pained screams of the hapless Awakened as his body lted like wax in the roaring sea of the Pits snapped the other Awakened from their delusion.
"I'll talk!" A man said first, throwing himself at Lith's feet with his mind link at the ready.
The others ford an orderly line as they wondered whether those who went first would be allowed a respite until Lith finished interrogating everyone, or would be thrown back into the Pits imdiately.
The answer pleasantly surprised them.
The Awakened received a second serving of food, and so did all the others as soon as they had nothing more to reveal. Lith's face remained a stone mask the entire ti, making it impossible to understand if he had learned enough to quell his thirst for revenge.
Without that knowledge, most of the Awakened felt compelled to reveal as much as they could to placate their captor. A few of them, however, kept the most valuable information for themselves to use as a bargaining chip.
"And with this, we are done for today." Only the final Awakened received no food and was imdiately tossed in the Pits along with the others. "I don't trust any of you. Maybe you've co clean with , and maybe not.
"I'll go check on your information, and if it turns out to be true, I'll move on to the next step of your sentence. If you've left out important details, however, or you have pointed at people irrelevant to my investigation, I will make you pay."
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