"Suthe?"

Ulsper's brow creased as he registered the crick in his neck, and his eyelids flickered open as he realized he had let the name slip out in his half-conscious state. Slowly, he raised his head, taking note of the straw-littered floor, the high-beamed ceiling, and the bored-looking guard standing across the way by a wide wooden door.

Ulsper's eyes narrowed as he assessed the guard. He couldn't afford to be mumbling things in his sleep with one of Kalasha's lackeys looking on. He'd have to be careful, especially with residual snorpvine sap running through his veins and making him sluggish.

Rolling his neck to ease the crick, he continued to lazily assess his surroundings, trying to figure out how long it had been since he'd lost consciousness. The whole night must have passed by now, given all that had already transpired. There had been no dignity in being stunned by one of Kalasha's henchmen, tied up and blindfolded, loaded onto a hand cart, and dragged to an empty barn on the outskirts of the city to be interrogated.

Though perhaps 'interrogated' was too nice of a word for it. Judging by how he was currently tied to a chair set in the middle of the room, Kalasha's team had something more akin to torture in mind than just asking questions nicely. Ulsper also caught sight of a table to the right with a few metal instruments laid out across its surface, further supporting his theory.

Definitely torture. He supposed it wasn't so surprising. Kalasha was always one for drama and excitement – he had read her reports, and just bringing prisoners back to Sylterra for the government to take care of would be far too dull for her taste.

At that moment, footsteps sounded outside, and the guard at the door straightened to attention as the door swung open.

"I knew we were in the right place when we heard about a foreigner breaking the fingers of a poor man just trying to have some fun at a brothel a couple weeks ago," Kalasha gloated as she strode in, flanked by two of her soldiers.

Ulsper tried to catch a glimpse outside, but unfortunately, Kalasha also knew the importance to a prisoner of getting one's bearings, and quickly shut the door before Ulsper's eyes could adjust to the brightness.

"So, would you like to tell me what you've been up to?" the captain asked, stepping forward until she was only a few feet away. Ulsper caught the way her eyes flicked to the table at the side of the room – she was eager to get started. He gritted his teeth. She had always had a morbid appetite.

"I had a great night's rest," Ulsper replied slowly, testing the bonds at his wrists. Rather than rope, they were leather straps, which meant he would have a harder time of getting loose from these than Uhi's stonemason knot, but it was better than being in iron shackles. "Thank you for providing such luxurious accomodations."

Kalasha's smile was cold. "I did my best."

"I'm sure you did. The atmosphere is quite rustic, and we must be safely out of the range of any wandering clockwork soldiers. How far from Fai are we? Somewhere down the mountainside – on the western slopes, perhaps? I've heard they have talented tapestry weavers thanks in part to all their sheep – "

"Enough with the chitchat, Ulsper," Kalasha interrupted. "I haven't gone to all this trouble just to talk about Andilirish shepherds."

"Oh?" His feigned nonchalance must have been wearing on her patience. So she had taken them west – if he had been wrong, she would have just laughed in his face. "What do you want to talk about, then?"

Kalasha crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, staring him down with a rather haughty look. "I suppose we could start with the simple questions," she said. "How long have you been hiding out in Andilir?"

Ulsper shrugged. "I've been in Fai for about a sixth of a season." There was no point in being tortured for answers of little consequence like that one. "Really, Kalasha, if you wanted to know about my vacation plans, you could've just asked."

Kalasha continued to stare him down. "I didn't ask about Fai," she said. "I asked how long you've been in this country."

"Well, that doesn't change my answer."

"That doesn't make sense," she snapped. "No passenger ships come this far up the central fjord, which means you can't have just appeared in the middle of the country overnight."

"Do you want me to lie?" He shrugged. "If that's the case, then, sure – you got me. Where should I say I've been hiding? In Sang Bur, right under the king's nose?"

That earned him a slap across the face, the impact made greater by Kalasha's heavy leather riding glove. Ulsper's head snapped to the side, and he paused, opening and closing his jaw to ease the pain before turning back to the woman before him.

"I'll take that as a no," he said, slowly and steadily. He couldn't help his tone sounding a bit like that of a disapproving teacher—perhaps it was from all the times he had disappointed his own instructors at the academy. But there was really no need for Kalasha to show such violence so early on, especially when he was being compliant.

"Do you take me as a fool?" Kalasha spat. "You've been on Sylterra's most wanted list since the branches of the Celestial Tree last faced North--ever since you brought copies of that journal back. You must have been hiding somewhere."

Ulsper barely suppressed a sigh. "I suppose I just don't see why where I've been staying is important in the grand scheme of things," he said.

"Because if you've only been in Fai for a fraction of a season, I want to know the need for the sudden change!" Kalasha spat, quite literally. Ulsper could feel little drops of moisture landing on his cheek. "Don't play dumb with me," she continued. "Sylterra's sent soldiers looking for you everywhere but you manage to go undetected for almost a year. And now suddenly you get caught after a handful of days in a new location?"

Behind Kalasha, Ulsper noticed the man who had stunned him the night before – Ethran – shift uneasily at his captain's increased ire.

Ulsper decided to see how far he could push it. "I can't get tired of my surroundings?" he asked with as best a shrug he could manage with tied hands. "Besides, who's to say I was only in one other place? It might just be that I was moving around the whole time, and I got unlucky on this particular move."

If her plan was interrogating him for information about the Twin Blades, it would be best to spend as long as possible drawing out his answers to her first, less-important questions. That would give him more time to think of an escape – or a lie – by the time the questions got trickier. For now, he would lead her on with the intrigue of half-answers, and see how long she would get sidetracked chasing down the full response.

"Well then wouldn't it be kind of you to enlighten us," Kalasha, growled, inches from his face, "as to whether you have been moving around or not?"

Ulsper shrugged again. "Depends on your definition of moving."

"Enough!" Kalasha straightened and turned to the two soldiers behind her. "Lieutenant Nothedge, get a fire going and heat up the brand," she snapped. "If he won't tell us, we have no other choice."

"Well, you do, actually," Ulsper ventured. "You could uh, not torture me, and just deliver me back to Sylterra for a fair trial and interrogation."

Kalasha let out a short, derisive breath. "The Sylterran Council doesn't understand the resilience of the Imperial Guard," she said. "As if someone like you would just give in and tell them the truth if they asked nicely."

"Perhaps it is you who does not understand," Ulsper muttered, but his words went unheard as Kalasha was busy ushering Ethran—or rather, Lieutenant Nothedge—to the side table, where he and the other soldier were to start readying the instruments of torture. Her shoulders were back, and her gestures hasty and tense. She wasn't just eager to get started – she was desperate.

He decided to change tactics.

"I was in Sylterra before traveling here," he called out, and Kalasha paused, turning back to look at him before taking a slow step forward.

"Where? In Iltspring?"

"I...yes." It was a plausible location, so he decided to go along with it.  Iltspring was distant enough from the rest of the region to be seen as a good place to hide, and it also had a relatively large Esper population.

Kalasha took another step, tilting her head as she studied him, eyes sharp and looking for a hint of a lie. Ulsper stared back coolly, focusing on keeping even, slow breaths.

"What made you leave?" she asked.

"I thought I could find the swords here."

Her face was expressionless, without even a twitch of an eyebrow to let him in on her thoughts. But her arms were crossed, and her right index finger was tapping impatiently. "And why did you suddenly become so agreeable to my questions?"

"Something's changed, hasn't it?"

The tapping stopped.

Kalasha lowered her arms and clasped them behind her back. "You got us into this predicament." Her words were harsh and resentful.

Ulsper let out a breath and tried to reposition himself more comfortably on the chair. He never should have brought back the report of that blasted journal. "How so, exactly?"

"How so?" she rounded on him fully, fire flashing in her eyes. "You knowingly withheld information from the Council and in doing so set us at a disadvantage."

"I did no such thing, as I've told you and the Council several times already," Ulsper shot back. "The journal described the swords being taken west out of Pretia at the end of the Dragon Age. That they were dismantled and scattered is the most descriptive the monk was in his writings. He believed, rightly so, that no one should have that much power, so of course he would be purposely vague." Ulsper paused for a breath. "Yet all of you seem to think there's more to it than that. How many times must I tell you the truth before you believe it?"

"It cannot be the complete truth." Kalasha's reply was icy. "There must have been more information, or else Montmyth would not have already made such progress in their recovery."

Ulsper tried to ignore the sinking sensation in his stomach. "How so?"

"You truly don't know?" Kalasha drew back with a scoff, looking up at the rafters before beginning to pace back and forth, in what Ulsper assumed was an attempt to collect herself. At the side of the room, Ethran and the other soldier were standing by the table, watching silently.

Finally, the captain stopped pacing and turned to face him.

"They've found a piece of one of the swords."