Chapter 192: The Librarian (2/2)

“I’m looking for the woman I talked to yesterday. Brown hair and white glasses?” She asked and saw him smile a little. Not the good kind of smile.

“Oh yes, I recall her. She’s in the dungeons now, a traitor. The final proof found, I believe thanks to you.” The man said.

“Interesting story. I was looking for someone, perhaps you can take over the work she left.” Ilea said, pretending not to care. The man was gloating about his victory and obviously disliked her as well. Perhaps she could get some more information out of him before she ripped open the metal wall and smashed his skull against it.

“The work… she. No, no I’m afraid we can’t help you anymore. What again is your connection to Virilya anyway? Ilea was it?” He asked. So they knew who she was, which meant there was a chance they got it out of Elise.

“I’m here on a mission to look for the person I told Elise about. Now if you’re going to waste my time I’ll have to look somewhere else.” Ilea said, acting impatient.

“The dungeon is the only place you’ll find help.” He said and chuckled while Ilea walked towards the door, exiting with a heavy sigh.

The Golden Lily intervened? Or was it someone else. Something unrelated to her and Eve perhaps? Now where to find the dungeons. The man had given her enough information to work on. Ilea walked down the street and stopped near a group of soldiers.

“Where are the dungeons? I’m looking for a traitor. They owe me a service.” Ilea said, the group stopping their conversation to look at her.

“Dungeons are that way. Traitors and others alike. Should be quick about it, they don’t last long in times of war.” The man said seriously, Ilea rushing off in a sprint. The directions were simple but they served their purpose, Ilea finding a big sign only a couple streets further, indicating exactly the way the soldier had implied.

Another couple minutes of running and she came up on a stairwell leading downwards, the word dungeons barely readable written on an aging sign. Rushing down, Ilea ignored the guards and people around, blinking first into a cell, surprising the resident before she vanished again, going further down into the structure as she looked for Elise in her Sphere. There were no shouts coming from above, the guards on duty either not having seen her or simply not caring about a break in.

Unsurprisingly the dungeons were rather vast, leading down for over a dozen floors, hundreds of cells on each floor with differing amounts of residents. There were very few guards, some floors even completely empty other than the dying criminals. Hygiene was certainly not a highly prioritized concern, mold and piss damn near everywhere, only getting worse the further she went.

Finally on the fourteenth floor, in a closed up room she found who she had been looking for. Blinking inside, Ilea gently smashed the torturer’s head and started healing the woman strapped on the table in the center of the room.

There were cuts and bruises but nothing life threatening. Ilea made a double take when she identified the woman and looked at the torturer again, concerned her instincts had failed her. Stopping in her motions for a second, she scratched her helmet and shook her head, checking around Elise. There you are. She thought, seeing the runes below the table. The woman was a mage at level 211, not something the torturer at level eighty should really be able to restrain. Touching one of the runes, Ilea felt her magic drain. Instead she just unshackled the healed woman and moved her to a chair also standing in the room.

“Y… you.” Elise stammered but Ilea just put a finger on her mouth.

“Just tell me if it’s a trap, otherwise you need to recover. Meditate.” Ilea said and Elise nodded weakly, closing her eyes. She couldn’t find any increased commotion both visual or audible. Perhaps this really was it. Nobody cared about the woman as soon as she had been strapped to that table. To think that a runed device like that could take out an above level two hundred mage that easily. Investing some of her stat points into Strength wasn’t the worst idea then.

But to only have one guy at level eighty in the room with her? It was war after all and all resources not desperately needed were reallocated towards the enemy. It seemed the empire really trusted their enchantments.

The torturer groaned and slowly got up. “I wouldn’t m…,” Ilea didn’t get her sentence out before a red beam of energy damn near pulverized the man’s head, blood and bits of brain and flesh landing on her quickly expanding Veil.

“Could’ve fucking warned me.” She said to the woman whose extended arm slowly sunk down.

“He just did his job. Sadly it got personal.” Elise said and tried to get up.

“We have time, don’t worry. The center is under siege anyway, we’re not going to escape easily. You’ll have to be at full strength.” Ilea said. “And while we’re here, where nobody cares about us, I’d like to have a little talk.” She said, sitting down on the table.

“You know your mana is draining right?” Elise asked with one eye open, cracking her neck.

“Easy way to build resistances. I’m sure you would’ve escaped eventually.” Ilea answered. She already had a rather high level of Mana Drain Resistance at 18, making the device somewhat ineffective. Still it canceled out her recovery without Meditation. Add a mage or two and they could even leave her powerless down here, at least when it came to Mana related spells.

“I forgot for a second that you’re from the Shadow’s Hand. Plus you’re young, I don’t want to know what the hell you’ve been through.” Elise said.

“Haven’t been tortured yet.” Ilea said with a smile, removing her helmet and holding it in her hands.

The woman grunted. “Not very pleasant I tell you. Not the worst I’ve had though.” She said and smiled back. “Now where the hell are my glasses.”

“On the table in the next room. Should I get them for you?” Ilea asked but the woman shook her head.

“It’s fine. I just really like them. Now Ilea, why did you come to these lengths to save me?” Elise asked, smirking towards her.

“Well for one thing, you wanted to help me find out more about Eve. For another, the guy at the library was the most insufferable little shit. It’s worth it just to spite him really.” Ilea said, Elise starting to laugh. “And last but not least I like you. Seem like a decent witch.”

“Witch? I prefer Arcanist but when do I ever get anything I want.” Elise said sighing.

“A good friend is a witch, take it as a compliment. So did you find out anything about Eve?” Ilea asked, constantly checking if anybody was around. She didn’t know when the torturer’s shift ended or if anybody even started to miss him at some point.

“I did, albeit not much. There are different records we have that fit well enough with the woman you described. She was a high level illusionist and mind mage but she hasn’t always been. Assassinations or rather murders from six and more years ago associated with some of the records make her out to be a somewhat sloppy killer. Apparently she learned. Was never caught, even in her early years and the records dry up around four years ago. I don’t have to tell you that there are plenty of dead around where it’s impossible to find the killer, let alone anybody that cares to find out.” Elise explained. “Do you have something to drink?” She asked, her voice drying up.

Ilea summoned some water but decided otherwise, filling a cup with ale and handing it to the woman.

“Wow, that is some good ale. Where did you get it?” Elise asked after finishing the cup.

Ilea chuckled and refilled it. “Friendly Dark Sorcerer and dare I say professional brewer.”

“Definitely, this is some of the best I’ve ever had.” Elise said, drinking a little from the second cup.

“Well I’d assume after being released from torture even piss tastes good.” Ilea said making the woman chuckle.

“I’m not going to try.” She said. “Anyway, the fact that she’s so young leads me to believe she’s one of seven possible people, all of them commoners, all of them having a reason to go after nobles. That’s what they all did, mostly. Criminals and human traffickers, slave traders and just generally horrible people protected by the law or paid by influential officials. They took it into their own hands to deliver what they thought to be justice. Some ore successful than others. Your friend, if she really managed to join the Shadows, was one of the more successful ones.” Elise explained.

“The records are in the library if you want to find out where they were from and additional possible leads. Sadly there’s nothing about recent times, not for a lack of dead nobles, that’s for sure. No idea who would’ve killed her at last but all of the people I researched for this certainly had enough enemies.” Elise finished.

“The Golden Lily.” Ilea said, watching Elise’s face turn even more serious.