Shadar wondered why the only person sitting in the room was the prisoner. Seemed unfair, but perhaps that was because he was getting old. Or lazy.

“So she has strange mana, so what?” Eva crossed her thin, pale arms across her chest. Her skeletal face betrayed her annoyance, though she wasn’t trying particularly hard to hide it.

“She destroyed the entire Lost Arena by herself.”

“So? The Hydra was only an Adept, I doubt his monsters were particularly high ranked either. Besides, you took her down without incident, right?”

Here Digartoth cut in. “I’d thank you not to use that term, Eva.” His quiet, measured voice didn’t sound angry, but Eva looked instantly abashed.

“I’m so sorry, Dig. It won’t happen again.”

Shadar had been about to speak himself about the same thing, but didn’t comment on the exchange. It was easy for humans like Eva and Shadar to forget how brutally some of Massahn’s Children had been treated over millennia of unending struggle. No human that called them ‘monsters’ had treated them as respected opponents, and some were very sensitive to the term. Shadar himself sometimes thought the word, but he never said it.

Best to move on now, though. “The woman is exceptional. Master level, I believe, perhaps even more than halfway to Grandmaster. I simply had the perfect abilities to counter hers.”

Eva stayed quiet, perhaps out of embarrassment for her earlier insult. However, Silence decided to speak for the first time, ugly goblin face twisted into a quizzical expression. “Mayhap that is true, but prithee, why should we spare her the final embrace? Tis simple sense that the sharpest bade bites deepest, and that one ought to be wary of the Silthid held to one’s bosom.”

After a moment to decipher the goblin’s strange words and metaphors, Shadar replied. “I was getting to it. She’s been dosed with manticore venom, so she’s no threat at the moment. I want to question her at the least. The Hydra claimed that his Dungeon had been attacked frequently lately. I do not want to deal with a push at my back while the business in Hankor is going on. And her magic is strange.

Shadar glanced down at the woman again. She rivalled Eva for pallor, but her skin was not the flawless alabaster of the Lich--it was covered in grime from her battle, and seemed heavily blemished underneath that. Her hair hung in tangled strands, reaching down past her rather long neck and to her narrow shoulders. She had a wiry build, Shadar suspected, though her black robes hung off her frame and obscured any muscle her limbs might have had.

She was also completely still, barely breathing as her poisoned mana constricted her body’s movements. Her eyes were closed, and though she may have been concscious it would be difficult for her to make sense of anything around her. A quick look with the eyes of a Mana Worm told Shadar that the poison would wear off in a few minutes at the soonest, as expected. However, there was no sense in taking chances, so he took advantage of the lull in the speech of his council to retrieve a vial from the table to the left of the woman. This room was one of the darkest, most disturbing in the Dungeon, but it was intended to be that way. However little one used it, a torture chamber could not be open and inviting.

Unstopping the vial carefully so as not to get any of the reagent on his hands, Shadar tipped the mage’s head back and poured the vial's contents down her throat. Her throat muscles had loosened enough to allow her to swallow but her chest was still to constricted for a cough. Very convenient, but Shadar had worked hard for a high enough rank in Manticore Tail to give him some control over the poison in her body. With her head back, the woman was forced to swallow in small sips or choke. After a moment of no sound, she did so, some of the liquid dribbling out of the corner of her mouth. After ensuring she swallowed enough, Shadar turned back to the group.

Eva had a disgusted look on her face. Shadar supposed the process was rather distasteful, though he would have expected a necromancer-queen to be less squeamish than that. Usually, Eva couldn’t be phased by anything.

“Now you’ve gone and wasted the Black Dragon Essence! You know how ridiculously difficult it is to get that stuff?”

Oh. That made more sense. “I’ll get more.” He certainly had the appropriate connections to obtain that particular substance, though even he did not usually have more than a few vials in his possession at a time.

“It does seem a bit wasteful for such a minor incident.” Digaratoth put in. He wasn’t Shadar’s bookkeeper--one of Silence’s subordinates did that--but he tended to micromanage whatever he had in front of him.

“It is necessary. I’d rather not have wreck the Dungeon when the poison wears off.”

At that moment a strange choked hacking sound started up from the woman, body jerking erratically. The hardened leather straps holding her to the stone chair prevented too much movement, but clearly the venom was beginning to wear off completely. After a minute or so--the Dragon Essence would have reduced the venom’s efficacy--the sound resolved into breathless laughter. The woman spit black essence and saliva from her mouth, most of it landing on her filthy robes, and gave her four captors a wide grin.

“Hello! Would you like to die today?”

The grin turned smug, the woman yelling, “Everything is Dust!”

Nothing happened of course, at which Eva cracked a smile of her own. “Oh no my sweet, we’re not the ones on the chopping block.” She had turned on her unnerving Lich persona, speaking in a soft voice just above a whisper, smile stretched just past the point of true mirth. She still managed a Dungeon at the heart of a dead forest, though she often left it to her subordinates these days--few were strong enough to make it near the final room and face her in combat. Shadar remembered his own first encounter with her, when she’d tried the same act with him. It had taken his defeating her and convincing her to swear allegiance for her to drop it.

Shadar decided to let her keep it up, though he didn’t think it would have much of a effect.

“Calm down, Eva. We simply wanted to have a talk with you. Why don’t you start by showing us your Name. Here, I’ll start.” The words had come from Digaratoth, who’d jumped in just before Shadar himself had been about to. It appeared the two of them would be playing ‘kind captor and bloodthirsty jailor.’ Fine. Shadar’s part would simply be to appear menacing and aloof, then.

Green words appeared above the Saurian’s head. Digaratoth-Journeyman Saurian Nightclaw. It had taken Shadar dragging the lizardman along on several Dungeon raids early in the campaign to get him even that far. He was a fairly mediocre fighter, Dexterity-based and focused on stealth, but not particularly suited to combat. Saurians were all either Nightclaws, Irontails, or Earthspeakers--Irontails were simple Strength-based warriors and Earthspeakers were earth elemental mages. That diversity made their tribes quite powerful in aggregate compared to most of Massahn’s children, but not particularly impressive individually. It was Digaratoth’s competence and intelligence that made him so useful though, not his combat prowess.

The woman’s filthy face was now twisted in a snarl, but as the moments stretched on, a Name eventually appeared above her head. Yonlin-Master Desidomancer. So, she was likely from the Empire, with a name like that. But he had never heard of a Desidomancer before, not even in lore. Shadar supposed that was to be expected, though. Human titles tended to vary across regions, and even within one area there were often dozens, if not hundreds, of common titles among a population. But as he considered, Digaratoth flicked a tongue out in a Saurian smile, responding.

“That’s good, now then--”

“--I believe it is time to end her, she’s clearly of no importance.” Eva interrupted in a voice close to a his. Even as she said the words, she glided over to the rack of weapons by the side of the table. All were wickedly curved, serrated, or otherwise terrifying knives. Eva touched the longest, and it began to pulse with dark energy. It floated off the rack and slowly but surely began to drift towards Yonlin.

“Now wait, I wanted to--” Digaratoth trailed off as the tip of the knife stopped a scant centimeter from Yonlin’s eye.

Eva looked at the Saurian expectantly. “Yes? Hurry up, Silence is hungry.”

“Yes, very hungry!” Silence added in a voice completely unlike his actual mellifluous tones.

They were playing her. Shada wasn’t sure if Digaratoth had been in on the ploy at first, but now he surely realized what was happening. After all, Silence didn’t particularly like human flesh, and he certainly never acted like a simple goblin grunt. That had been Eva’s signal to Digaratoth that a game was afoot. It was a good strategy--best to start with the threat of imminent death, then portray Digaratoth as the only hope for survival.

“I...well I’d never heard of this ‘Desidomancer’ title before.” Digaratoth’s voice was unsure, even slightly unnerved. He was acting now as well, making Yonlin think he would be easy to sway if she cooperated.

The bound woman’s expression flashed into a quick predatory smile before morphing into a rictus of fear. “Yes, yes I’ll tell you, just please, oh please, don’t kill me!”

She was laying it on a bit thick, but then perhaps she thought that would work on the Saurian. Digaratoth spoke again, voice hesitant. “So then, how does your magic work?”

“I turn everything to dust. Oh please sir.” She didn’t offer any more explanation, just continuing to beg, but Digaratoth answered with interest overcoming his pretended hesitance.

“Oh? What does that mean, exactly?” He glanced at Eva. “Maybe you ought to move the knife away from her eye?”

A little early for that, Shadar thought, but Eva looked back at the lizardman with cool condescension and made no move to call back the possessed blade. Ah. More bait.

“Oh please, oh please sir... I make things become what they’re meant to be, kind sir. I-I suppose they say I age them. ”

Oh. That made a good deal of sense, based on what Shadar had seen. The woman literally turned living things into dust because flesh became dust over time. Her magic hadn’t affected the stone of the Arena much, but it had degraded the Hydra’s magic effectively. That aspect of her abilities was the truly potent one. There were certainly some defensive titles that could neutralize magic, though none as well as the black dragons. However, Shadar had never seen someone capable both of completely negating spells thrown at them and attacking with powerful spells of their own. This woman’s title, though simple in concept, was potent, likely an Epic one.

“Ah. Fascinating. And what exactly were you doing in the Lost Arena?” Digaratoth increased the note of interest in is voice.

Before Yonlin could speak though, Silence grumbled in his ugliest goblin tones, “Hungry…”

“Yes, now that we’ve satisfied your curiosity Digaratoth, I believe it is time--” Eva’s voice was cut off as the woman nearly screamed.

“Please sir! I escaped, I escaped! They kept me in the dark and cold and then I woke and I-I turned them to dust. And then I turned myself and I left, and I stayed. And then they came for me, so I ran away again, and I found the little Dungeon and thought I’d have some fun and--”

Shaar stopped listening to the babbling, frowning. If he understood what she’d said-... using Eyes of the Mana Worm, he examined the woman closely. Her hands… they glowed faintly orange, completely different from the bruised purple magic that suffused the rest of her.. Artificial. There were some Clerics of Hudith that could do that, though it was an unknown skill in many parts of the world. So she had disintegrated her own hands, presumably to escape some sort of bond? That seemed exceedingly grisly, but something else was occupying more of Shadar’s attention--what idiot thought to imprison a Master mage? That was practically impossible without resources that very few had access to, and apparently they had just left her alone in a dungeon of some sort, strung up by her wrists. Foolish. They deserved their deaths at her hands, whoever they were.

This woman however… she might not have the same fate ahead of her. Shadar held up a hand.