Page 17 of Gift from the Stone

The others, like the little shits we brought back from the mission where we rescued Tillman and Caspian, are calm, stoic, some even getting a workout in. Those are the trained soldiers. Those are the ones we’d get the most valuable information from.

“Are we only dealing with Jarod today or are we gonna hit more while we’re here?” I know we have a job to get done, but I want my little wanderer. We’ve only been gone long enough for us to go to the academy, gear up, then get out here, but I’m ready to go home and gather my girl in my arms.

“She’s going to be fine. Gaster has a whole day planned out for them.” Tillman looks at me in understanding, but that doesn’t help. I know she’ll be fine. I’m not fine.

We continue through the labyrinth of cells before reaching the end of the hall where Codi and Blaze, two Palace E.F. members, stand in front of the interrogation room, waiting for our arrival.

“Any news?” Corentin questions as a way of hello. Ass.

“No, sir. Most are grunts and don’t know anything of any use, but after checking everyone on your orders, we’ve found fifteen others who bear the mark on their chests. The ones who don’t, I believe were in a recruitment stage,” Codi reports.

With those numbers, that means that only a handful of the guards we brought back from our rescue mission were fully fledged Mastery members.

“Bring those to us one by one. We’ll start with them and end with the wolf,” Corentin orders as we file into the interrogation room.

We spend hours working through the first fourteen who come through. All are lower-level soldiers who know fuck all nothing about the inside operations and were only responsible for kidnapping and then transporting hostages to whatever location they’d been given. They’re never given the same location twice, and there are multiple stopping points from the start to the final destination. Just like my smart as shit little wanderer thought.

If they aren’t shifters, I can’t force the locations out of them, but Tillman can see into their minds and he’s making a mental list of those locations, no doubt already planning missions to infiltrate to see if there’s any activity still there.

As Blaze brings the fifteenth rebel in, Caspian suddenly pushes off the wall and begins beating into the guy before he’s even secured in his chair. I let out a booming laugh as Corentin and Tillman jump into action, pulling Caspian off the chump before he can kill him.

“Caspian, what the hell?” Although Corentin’s words are firm, I see the sly smile on his lips. He doesn’t give a fuck if Caspian beat this scum to death. He just wants answers first.

“This is one of the fuckers who tried to torture me for answers. I didn’t realize any of you survived.” Caspian’s eyes hold a dark promise, letting everyone know that this is borrowed time, and he’ll be joining his buddies soon.

“You ripped my brother to pieces, you sick bastard.”

Spit and blood fly from his mouth as he bucks, attempting to break his restraints and attack. Caspian doesn’t respond, but he graces him with a sweet and dreamy, sadistic smile, like he’s reminiscing about doing just that. I laugh at the horror-stricken look on the guy’s face as Corentin and Tillman shake their heads.

“Answer our questions, and maybe your fate won’t be so gruesome. How does that sound?” Corentin asks, picking an imaginary piece of lint off his suit.

“What do you want to know?” How quickly they all cave when given the choice not to be ripped apart.

“Let’s start off easy. Who are you, your gift, and element?” Corentin asks.

“Henry. Shield. Earth.” He answers, clipped.

“A shield, a strong shield at that. Pretty convenient gift for this line of work,” I say after I push my magic out toward his, getting a feel for his power’s resistance.

“Who was the man who gave you and the others orders to get information from me?” Caspian asks.

Henry doesn’t answer, just stares. Disdain and disgust bleed from his eyes.

“He’s calling him the Deinde-Master. So we can assume he’s running the show,” Tillman chimes in, informing us of what’s running through little Henry’s thoughts. “Ah, nope, another above him. Summum-Master.”

“Mind reader. Should’ve known.” Henry snarls. “We aren’t given their names, just titles. We don’t know anything about them. We’re nowhere near high enough in ranking to be privy to that information.”

We had assumed there was a ranking system in place seeing as some knew nothing, while some knew things of value.

“What’s your ranking?” Corentin asks.

“My Nexus were enforcers. We got the information we needed from certain hostages who caught the eye of the Masters.”

“How do you become a Master? How many Masters are there?” I fire off.

“Work your way through the ranks, doing as you’re told. And I have no clue, a good bit, but we only dealt with one of the Deinde-Masters. Only one Summum-Master.” Tillman stares into Henry’s eyes for a moment before nodding at us.

“There’s nothing else of value in his mind. They spent most of their time torturing and killing innocent people and turning over those with powerful potential, all for the hope of moving higher through the ranks.”

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