Noth’s short circuiting mind didn’t regain its consciousness until almost a half hour later, when he found himself standing in someone’s office. Apparently while his mind had been preoccupied he’d been running on auto-pilot, and had followed the man into a room outside of the dungeon. Across the desk that was piled with contracts and folders, Noth’s target sat, busily scanning over a stack of documents, and signing off on a few of them. The boy whose mind wasn’t completely recovered trudged his way around the desk and read off the signature. 'Therrus'. So the man’s name was Therrus? Noth ran his eyes over a few of the other easily visible pages, noticing Therrus’s signature on a good number of them. However, even more of the papers were signed by someone named ‘Thergurd’. Did that mean Therrus wasn’t the one in charge here? Noth’s gummed down mind worked overtime to remind him that the man had earlier mentioned a ‘father’, the same father who had mutilated the poor child he’d seen in the dungeon. It would make sense that ‘Therrus’ would be the son of ‘Thergurd’, if the typical naming conventions of the country were being followed. Adding on top of that the fact that the majority of the signatures belonged to ‘Thergurd’, it all made too much sense to not be true.

As Noth’s foggy consciousness cleared up more and more, he started to actually read some of the papers in front of him. The papers that Therrus was currently looking over all seemed to be letters that were either being sent out, or that had been received. The letters that were going to be sent all seemed to be advertisements for a slave auction, or replies to the letters that had been received, stating that yes, they did in fact have the particular ‘product’ the recipient had inquired upon in stock at the moment. Upon further investigation, it seemed that most if not all of the papers that were signed by ‘Thergurd’ were actually slave contracts, or bills of purchase.

Honestly, Noth was still very furious reading about all of this, and with this evidence atop of the literal kidnapped people and children he’d seen just before this in the dungeon, he should have been absolutely livid. And he was. Noth was completely and utterly enraged, but funnily enough, it was the type of anger that was so intense that it actually circled back around into calmness, or at the very least a quiet, unshowing simmer.

Noth coolly turned his head to Serris, his eyes blazing with a question. She giggled and took a few steps back, raising her hands in a show that he was free to do as he liked; There would be no resistance from the angel this time. Noth slowly turned his gaze back upon Therrus, casually making his way to the front of the desk. The boy’s bracelet had been tingling the whole time since he first made the invisibility wish, and as Noth suddenly slammed both of his hands down on the desk with a loud noise, both the tingling and the invisibility vanished. A startled Therrus stared across the desk at the tall teen who was leaning on the other side. He hadn’t heard anyone open the big, sturdy door, let alone the sounds of someone’s footsteps echoing from the stone bricks lining the floor. How did this person get here? Was it their [Gift], maybe? Who would do this? Perhaps a rival slave trader?

Before the man could ask any of his questions, Noth straightened up, glaring icily at his opponent. The air grew chilly in an instant, and the strange, glowing eyes that were gazing down at Therrus full of distaste froze him in place. It felt as if Therrus speaking a single word would somehow break something intangible. And yet, completely unaffected by the atmosphere, Noth’s mouth readily opened up.

“Therrus, right?”

Therrus’s tiny nod to the question was all he was allowed before Noth continued.

“Just in case I’ve somehow misunderstood something, you were the one who kidnapped and damaged those kids you have trapped in your little dungeon, right?”

The man was shocked to hear the dungeon mentioned. No one but their clients and their enemies knew that it existed, and you’d have to go pretty deep into the facility and past many guards to get there. Therrus’s assumption that this boy across from him might be from a rival slave trader strengthened. He quickly stood up from his chair, an accusatory look on his face, and opened his mouth to call the guards. However, the teen across from him who had been anticipating such a reaction, acted much more quickly.

“ right back down. You haven’t even answered my question, how rude.”

Therrus’s mouth clanked shut as his body slammed back down with a jarring force. His teeth hurt from the sudden way they’d clinked together on his impact with the chair. He sucked on them reflexively as his mind desperately tried to catch up with what had happened. The scary thought that the teen across from him had used some kind of [Gift] against him rattled Therrus, and he tried once again to leap up and call for the guards, banking on the hope that whatever strong skill he’d been struck with wasn’t usable in rapid succession.

…But his legs refused to move.

It was almost like he was fused to the chair.

He desperately struggled and resisted against the invisible hold, but nothing seemed to be working.

In awe, he looked up at the boy who’d attacked him, forgetting any possibility of being allowed to call protection, lest he be forced into something even worse.

The boy’s predator-like gaze had never left him this whole time.

Despite the warm, rust-orange glow they were giving off, the look in his eyes was absolutely chilling to Therrus.

Noth was getting tired of waiting.

“You’re still not going to answer my question?”

The man silently shook, the chair he was sitting on instead filling the silence with little tapping noises. Noth slowly strode around the desk, watching the fear blossoming on Therrus’s face as he drew closer. Small beads of sweat began to roll down the man’s face, and he screwed his eyes shut as Noth reached out a hand towards his face, certain that the boy was about to harm him, but instead he opened his eyes to a gentle hand wiping the sweat away from his brow. Noth gazed down at Therrus with a slightly annoyed look as he thoroughly wiped his hand off on the man’s vest. He lowered his head to an even level with the man, and spoke a dispassionate command.

“Answer me.”

Therrus’s mouth didn’t open even a single millimeter, his panic holding too tight of a grip for him to manage to do anything but fist his hands around the arms of the chair. Noth’s impatience continued to rise at the lack of response he was receiving. Why did everyone always make him take the hard road to get any kind of real answers? He was sick of playing these kinds of silly games. Noth stood up straight with a sigh, and glowered down at Therrus. If the man wanted to be forced, then Noth would simply have to oblige.

“ me.”

With a loosening feeling, Therrus’s mouth and tongue immediately started moving unbidden. It all felt so uncontrollable and odd, that the man completely stopped shaking from how absolutely astonished he was. His voice came out so willing and even eager sounding, that for a second Therrus genuinely questioned whether or not it was really his voice.

“Yes! I’m Therrus! I am the one who beat those dirty little children up, although someone else actually brought them in.”

“Wonderful. And what might a barbarian such as yourself’s [Gift] be?”

“I’m a [Greater Assistant]! Father chose me to help his business over all my other siblings, because my [Gift] fit so well with the work he needed done!”

“So those kids weren’t so damaged because of some kind of enhanced strength, but because you just hit them that much.”

The way Noth’s words were practically growled out didn’t go missed by Therrus whatsoever. He knew that the teen across from him must have been well and truly enraged by that fact, and yet his damned mouth still spouted out a reply as if possessed.

“Yes, well, I really wanted some answers from them, but they just wouldn’t tell me what I wanted to hear!”

“Oh.”

Noth’s face morphed instantly, first turning into a purely livid look before smoothing out into something more sinister.

“That sounds like a wonderful idea, maybe I should have copied your style of getting information. This one was starting to feel too nice.”

Therrus tried to swallow to fight back his fear. His terror and worry were increasing exponentially the more questions he was forced to reply to. Unfortunately for him, however, his throat was far too busy saying the absolutely worst truths, and there was no swallowing to be had.

“Actually, funny you should mention that, because if my father had any say in this, those kids would have ended up way worse. I mean, just look at my hand for instance. When I was younger he took a few of my fingers off because I was lazy with a contract once, and then he ate them in front of me. And I’m his own son! If my father had gotten angry and took those kids to the end of the hall then they’d end up much worse off than some bruises and swelling. In a way, I was the lesser of two evils!”

Noth’s visage grew even colder at the man’s words. His mind easily remembered the broken and incomplete girl he’d seen in the cell next to the beaten children. The disgust he’d felt before came roaring back at him. Evils the man had said. Evils. Yes, that term was exactly right. He was dealing with a pair of evil monsters, the next more evil than the first. How grotesque that such things were allowed to just run free and commit whatever horrors they pleased.

Even though the boy was already boiling over with his silent fury, his inquisitive and calculating mind was still in full effect. This oh so special sounding room at the end of the hall had caught Noth’s attention and seemed in need of inspection. Of course he’d heard enough to be completely sure that he knew what he was dealing with, and he could easily take this moment to remove one of the two monsters that were currently inhabiting his list right now, but a twisted and morbid part of him wanted to see just how far their atrocities had actually gone.

When Therrus received Noth’s demand to lead him to the aforementioned ‘End of the hall’, he gained a fleeting hope that he could perhaps use this chance to escape and save himself now that he was no longer bonded to the chair. However, his body was moving in such a mechanical and unsolicited way, that any thought of him successfully wrenching back control and using his own legs to run away was quickly forgotten. Therrus knew that they would have to pass at least 3 guards in the direction they’d be heading, so perhaps he could call for their help when they came near? And yet, as soon as this thought crossed his mind, the teen gave him a shark-like smile.

“I do so wish that you’d stay quiet until we get there.”

The sealing feeling that suddenly filled Therrus’s throat told him exactly how that second plan would go.

~~~

Therrus stiffly led Noth. The guards they passed by didn’t even bat an eyelash at the two; The fancy clothes that Noth was wearing made them believe he was simply a buyer that was here to peruse their wares first hand. The familiar door to the dungeon made Noth pull a face, his body swiftly tensing as he walked inside of it once again. He already felt sick, knowing the sights that he’d have to witness all over again. The thought crossed his mind to just close his eyes until his little puppet told him that they’d reached their destination, but something strange happened before he could make up his mind; The caged imp started speaking as they walked by. It was staring right at the now visible Noth, and its eerie voice seemed to be repeating itself endlessly as it clasped its small spiked hands together.

Noth was deeply confused as to why the imp was suddenly so enraptured by him, but when his angel flew between them and told him not to forget why he was here, the boy refocused his attention back on Therrus. The mystery of the imp could wait; He had much bigger fish to fry.