The birdlike alien on the floor had begun to rouse themselves from the unconsciousness I had forced them into with my fist, so we hoisted them up and placed them onto a chair. I conjured some more ropes and wound them around their entire body, securing them easily to the chair. There was no way they were going anywhere.

The varied level of life on this planet never ceased to amaze me. You had aliens like Akash who literally looked like a tree come to life, and yet you also had aliens like Yr'Arl who practically looked like Puss in boots from the Shrek movies, but taller and with more clothes than just a pair of boots.

Then there were aliens like this one. They were wearing a set of clothes that were almost reminiscent of Han Solo. A leather jacket cut off at the arms with a cream white shirt underneath. Jeans and a pair of boots. Gloves over five-fingered hands. If you were unable to see their head, you would probably mistake them for a human.

Their face was mostly human too. A normal human mouth, two eyes and a nose. But around that face was a crest of feathers instead of hair. Bird-like, but only in that very specific way. I almost wondered if they were some sort of half breed or experiment. Though in truth, none of that actually mattered to me.

I sat down on the opposite side of the table, with Yr'Arl stood behind me. Together we would probably look like the final boss of a mafia movie, and that was exactly the sort of vibe I was going for.

Impatient, I grabbed a glass of water from a nearby table and tossed the contents at the bird's face. They woke with a squawk and immediately began to struggle against their bonds. Their attempts were futile. I'd poured enough of my manna into those bonds that they'd probably have stopped anyone short of the Squadron Leader from ripping free of them.

They settled down after a few minutes and narrowed their eyes at me.

"You're not going to survive this, yah know," The bird spat, "As soon as my employer finds out what you've done to me, you're dead."

"Big talk for someone who's wrapped up like you are," I shot back. "Your concern is touching, but I'd be much more worried about what I could do to you, rather than the other way around."

The bird snorted. "What're you gonna do to me? You're just the guard's pet human, you've got nothing mate."

I kicked my feet up onto the table and leaned back in my chair. I wanted to give this alien the idea that I was completely at ease with the unfolding situation, even though inside my heart was racing at about a million beats a second.

For something like this I really needed the guidance of BB, they would have been able to tell me exactly what to say and how to say it, but with the AI in our synchro mode just so I could keep up my bindings.

"Hmmm, pet human," I said, "I suppose that's one way that you could look at it."

I took my feet down from the table and leered menacingly across it, showing the alien my teeth in a sinister grin.

"Either way, I'm on a mission here, and I've been given leave to do anything it takes to get my associates back to the Guard's HQ nice and safe. So you're going to tell me exactly what I want to know, or… things… are going to start happening to you."

The bird alien swallowed hard, I had them exactly where I wanted them. Humans were still the second most feared species in the entire galaxy. Sure, I wasn't actually going to do anything as crass as torture the alien in front of me, but they didn't know that. If I could play on their natural fears of my species, then I'd be able to extract the information I needed with ease.

"Would it hurt," I pondered out loud, "if I started removing those feathers on your head one by one?"

The alien shivered at that, clearly I had touched some sort of a nerve, and so I pushed on.

"I mean, other than that you actually look quite a lot like me. If I were to get rid of each one of those feathers… would you look so different from a human?"

They started struggling again. I had a distinct impression that ripping out those feathers would be incredibly painful.

"Though, you know, we don't need to go down that path. We don't need to do anything like that. I just need to know… who hired you to kill the girl, and how do I find them?"

They stopped struggling almost immediately.

"If I told you any of that my reputation would be over. Done. You're not getting anything out of me."

I cracked my neck from one side to another. It was something I had done frequently in my previous life, and my bones still gave the same satisfying crackle.

I was on the alien in a moment. I leapt up onto the table, kicked them square in the chest so the chair they were on toppled over. The hop back down to the floor was given a little more weight by the added pulse of propulsion I gave myself from above. I landed with a thud, one foot heavy on the alien's chest.

"Tell me what I need to know," I growled.

"They'll kill me," they croaked.

"I'll kill you first," I emphasised with a little more pressure.

The alien coughed.

"Fine… I'll tell you what you need to know… Just move your foot… Can't…. Breathe."

I felt bad for having to lean into exactly the idea that other species had of the human race, especially in front of someone who actually had some faith in my like Yr'arl. But stereotypes were there for a reason, and playing into this one had gotten me exactly what I wanted.

I lifted my foot off the alien and righted the chair that they were sitting on.

"Now talk."