People always talk. Jaeger thought as he listened to the endless flood of words from the kneeling man. Some remain tight-lipped for a time, and others speak immediately. The ones who remain tight-lipped, while requiring more work, usually speak bluntly and truthfully. It’s the ones who speak immediately who are a problem, because they’re one of two types: the cowards and the liars. A coward will say anything and everything they think you want to hear, while a liar will tell you only what they want you to hear.
As he stood straight-faced before the babbling man, for the first time in his life, Jaeger wished he’d had some training in interrogation. As it stood, all he had was a very basic understanding of questioning people, and even that was more intimidation and force.
“…he would get visitors from all across the realms, even from far-off Xaneeo and Turbik. My master, my former master, was a wealthy and important man. He had many estates, in many cities, and each was more grand than the last.”
As the man took a breath, Jaeger interrupted him.
“Enough.” He slapped his hand against the man’s mouth to prevent him from speaking. “I don’t particularly care about all the reputation and fame of your master. I only want to know about one thing. His. Estate. Now, when I remove my hand, you’re going to talk about that, and only that, or my companion is going to take you into the storefront, and you can speak to her.”
He gestured towards Kaeleth, who had drawn out a jagged, saw-toothed scalpel and was flipping it between her fingers. After making sure the man understood, Jaeger took his hand back. Silence passed between them, a space that he wasn’t eager to fill with words. Only after opening and closing his mouth a few times did the man speak.
“The Ma…my ex-master’s estate in the city borders the noble district, as close as a non-native noble can get. He employed a retinue of guards, all former deep-sea pirates and Ice Land bandits; all unknown to the city, or noble, guards.”
“Magical traps or alarms?”
The man shook his head.
“He never said it outright, but it was clear he believed that magic was inferior, and he preferred that any intruders who managed to get past his guards reach him; he called them ‘quality goods’.”
Jaeger considered the Flesh Trader’s disdain of magic, and something slipped free from the confines of his subconscious and rose to the forefront of his thoughts. It wasn’t that he was disdainful of magic; he couldn’t use it. Being an outsider, or whatever he was, he was unwelcome in this world, and its magics refused to work with him, leaving him with only the inhuman abilities and magics he brought across with him. Ignoring the slight headache, he felt building, Jaeger motioned for the man to continue.
“He has a treasury, a trophy room, a private office, and a laboratory on the estate. I can lead you to, and even get inside, everything but the lab.” Anticipating the follow-up, the man wrung his hands together. “Only the master had access to the laboratory; no one else went in, or if they did, they never came out. I watched more than one foolish attendant accept an invitation inside only to never leave.”
The man seemed to fold in on himself after that, as though memories or his imagination were showing him the horrors behind that door. Jaeger considered for a moment, then turned to Kaeleth.
“Any questions?”
“How does he plan to get us into the estate?”
Jaeger turned back to the man and waited for an answer.
“…”
“…”
The man was still lost in his thoughts, with a shake of his head, Jaeger slapped him across the face, eliciting a startled screech.
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“Did you hear her question?”
The man gave a muted shake of his head.
“How do you plan to get us into the estate?”
“I don’t?”
Jaeger slapped the man again.
“Think of a way, or I’ll give you to the ex-slaves.” Holding up a hand to stop the man from speaking. “I have made this threat once already, I know, but know that this is the last time before it becomes an action.”
The man’s eyes widened, darting back and forth. He stuttered and stammered as Jaeger simply stared at him. The man finally steadied his voice and spoke.
“I can walk you and your partner onto the property. I’ll tell the guards you two are new hires; the master had a habit of sending me off for menial work like this. It won’t be the first time I brought back new guards; he goes through them fast.”
Raising a single eyebrow, Jaeger questions him.
“You have that authority?”
Trying, and failing, to dust himself off, the man raises his nose.
“I’ll have you know I am not some slave rabble like the others here. I am a due-fully employed member of the master’s staff. I handle all his lesser work, the procurement of his slaves, and even some of his ‘exotic’ punishments.” He turned his face towards the ex-slaves behind him. “They would not have turned on me so quickly if I’d been able to give them a taste of the lash, but the master ordered me to move amongst them and find any rabble rousers.”
Jaeger almost shook his head at the man’s change in attitude. Clearly, he thought himself above any threat now that he had a way to get the three of them onto the estate. This kind of man brought out the worst of Jaeger’s ire. But he tamped it down, for now the man was necessary. But the moment he wasn’t, was the moment he died.
“Good enough for me then. Kaeleth, keep an eye on our new guide, would you?”
“And if he tries to run?”
“I wouldn’t want to limit your options, do what you like.”
“With pleasure.”
That aside handled Jaeger went up to the group of ex-slaves and motioned them to follow him.
“You all might be free now, but I wager if we were inclined to set you free here, you’d be back in bondage before the night passes.” A murmur of agreement came from the group. “So, for now, you all will come along and stow away on our ship. Once we’ve handled our business, we’ll take everyone out of this city and drop you all off at a free city.”
Calling over his shoulder to Kaeleth, Jaeger asks her the name of the nearest free city that is on their route to Danse Macre.
“MacGrigor. A slaver hunter free city, it’ll only add a day onto our journey.”
“Excellent.” Clapping his hands, Jaeger turned to the slaves. “There you are. Any questions?”
“Can we not stay in the city?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“The first two rules of your freedom, of course. Not to mention the whole, enslaved before nightfall. I prefer any slaves I free to remain free longer than a day.”
“What will we do in a pirate city?”
“I don’t know, nor do I care. I assume whatever you were doing here.”
As another ex-slave opened their mouth, Jaeger interrupted him.
“Is this about why you can’t be free, what you’ll do after you leave here, or anything along those lines?”
The man nodded. Jaeger motioned for him to stop.
“No more questions.’ For a moment, he let the overly friendly tone he’d been using drop. “Freeing all of you was not an act of charity; it was part of the job. Had there been a simpler way to get what we needed, I cannot say if we would have bothered to free you.”
He let that comment sit in the air.
“Worry not, though, now you are free, and while my friend and I are a lot of bad things…”
“Killers, thieves, assassins, mercenaries, poisoners, robbers, bandits, pirates, looters, headhunters, arsonists.”
Kaeleth, helpful as ever, interrupted Jaeger to list off a series of accomplishments? The pride with which she stated them did seem to indicate accomplishments. He felt a need to deny some of those as not being his own, but through the course of his bounty hunting, he had at one point or another done all of them. Did it matter that most of them were done as a part of a successful hunt or done to his target? A philosophical question he didn’t feel like he needed to answer.
“Yes, thank you, Kaeleth. As I was saying, while we are many things, we aren’t slavers. So no matter what comes next, do know that you are free, and while everything has a price, because of your most recent occupation...”
“Being slaves,” Kaeleth said.
“The price of your freedom is simply time and confinement to a ship. Hell, if you take to it, you might even find yourself a new career path.”
That seemed to perk up a couple of the slaves, who had the look of sea dogs. A particularly muscular one, even accounting for the gaunt look he had, called out.
“Who do ya sail with?”
“I did say no more questions.” A sharp tone to his words, Jaeger spoke without turning around. “But that was a good one. We sail with a crew from the Ice Land Colonies. I won’t share any more details until we’re away from any prying ears.”
Kaeleth, catching the subtext of his words, did a quick sweep before sweeping done an alleyway. She emerged seconds later, wiping done the Spine with a torn and dirty rag, which she tossed to the side as she caught up.
