Chapter 58

**Thyrion**

I didn’t like leaving Merianna’s side, but knew that she would eventually find my constant hovering annoying. It felt so good, finally having her within arms reach again. To see her smiling, laughing and joking with everyone again without having that cursed spell killing her all over again. The guilt of letting Orbus get away with having that hold over me was still gnawing at my guts. For the hundredth time I wondered why the hell I hadn’t come to Noch and the others about this earlier.

The rage that crept up every time I thought of those days and every time I was used like a dog on a leash to do Orbus’ bidding, made me want to flay the weasel alive while soaking the bastard in salt water. Killing him outright for all the grief he had caused felt like too soft of a punishment. I was more than happy to torture the asshole enough for the both of us.

“Where is Merianna? I figured the both of you would be wandering around together.” Fog’s voice drifted down the corridor to me.

“Morning to you too Fog. She went with Jasnine to figure out a different way to track Orbus.” I shrugged.

“Oh, that sounds intriguing. Something that not even Raska and Jasnine didn’t think of trying, is it?” He asked with a raised brow.

I chuckled. “When she suggested using the effects of the active protection spell on Orbus to create a spell that’ll reverse track the source of the effects and bounce straight back to the caster, Jasnine looked like she stumbled across gold.”

Fog hummed thoughtfully at the idea. “How interesting, that might actually work.”

“Yep, that’s what Jasnine said too.” I grinned.

“Since she’s with Jasnine, where are you off to then? Can’t resist being a part of the interrogation?” Fog eyed me knowingly. I hated how he always somehow knew what was on a person’s mind. It always made me wonder if his uncanny instincts were to do with experience gained from age or if it was just part of him being half-fae.

“Yes, I’m going to go to the dungeons. No, I’m not going to kill the guy. Killing him won’t help get us closer to catching Orbus regardless of Merianna and Jasnine’s spell working.”

“That’s all well and good then. I shall see you all later.” Fog’s smile didn’t reach his eyes as he breezed past me.

Fog was most certainly one of the most ordinary people in the Order, but on the other hand also one of the strangest. Shaking my head, I started walking towards the dungeons again. I wondered if Noch and Raska had been able to get anything out of the guy yet.

Grabbing hold of the heavy doors, I heaved them open and walked through to the damp and cold stoned stairway that led down into the area I wanted to be. As the doors swung closed behind me, the torches on the walls automatically flickered to life with magically produced fire.

It still boggled my mind sometimes how the Castle itself was pretty much sentient. When something moved spots, torches suddenly lit up, temperatures evened themselves out throughout the structure and so on, it wasn’t the doing of ghosts, spells or Dorris. Those were all done by the castle itself. And if someone other than members of the Order ever tried breaking in, or causing trouble, the castle could decide to literally swallow them whole.

But it had its obvious limits though. Just like it was unable to assist in anything that happened outside its doors. Like that day we were ambushed by the Hunters. The barrier warned us about incoming threats, so everyone fought on the borders or on the fields inside the barrier. Barely any skirmishes reached the doors of the castle itself.

A sudden yelp snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Oh come now we barely started doing anything.” Raska’s voice echoed out.

“More like we barely even did anything yet.” Noch muttered dryly after.

I raised my eyebrow at their comments. Had they not even started with the interrogation yet? What was the yelp for then?

Once I reached the cells I saw Noch and Raska looking disappointed, like they had just been cheated out of something.

“What’s going on?” I asked curiously.

“Oh you came.” Raska perked up.

Noch lazily turned his attention to me. “We seem to have a screamer.” He said disappointedly.

“Ah.” Yep, that was all the explanation I needed. Raska and Noch were disappointed that they didn’t need to torture the captive, and the captive had probably spent all night long mulling over his knowledge of the Order and whatever Noch had told him last night.

“Did he already spill everything?” I asked curiously.

“Everything from his birthday to the shit he and Orbus chats about in their get-togethers.” Noch sighed.

“Anything noteworthy?”

“If you call everything we already know about Dark Warlocks noteworthy, then sure. Although it’s nothing new.” Raska piped up.

“Yep, everything he thought was useful is everything we already know. The only thing we still need to know though is Orbus’ location.” Noch sighed.

“The only problem is that even he doesn’t know. Apparently their get-togethers are very ‘spur of the moment’ and they don’t know each other’s locations until a week before.” Raska added.

“And that ‘week before’ can be anytime from now to the end of the year?” I asked.

“Maybe even up to a few years in between." Noch grumbled.

“Which means we might have gone through all this trouble for nothing.” Jasnine looked like she was just about ready to break someone’s nose.

“I see. At least you and Jasnine were actually able to find someone connected to Orbus so quickly. We all figured that the whole ordeal would take you guys at least a few days.” I shrugged.

Raska scoffed. “Back in the day sure, but we had picked up a few new tricks over the years.” She grinned proudly.

“And all those new tricks were useless against Orbus’ shielding spell.” Noch rolled his eyes as Raska shot him a glare.

“So, what are we going to do with this guy then?” I asked, nodding at the terrified captive. “Should we just let him go?”

Hope seemed to glimmer in the poor guy’s eyes at my suggestion that I knew full well won’t even be considered.

“Nope, we’ll keep a hold on him for a while longer.” Noch smirked and leaned lazily against the cell’s bars.

“For all we know he might just be acting and we’d need to get more out of him a little later.” Raska’s grin was positively dark as she said that.

The poor guy suddenly broke out in a cold sweat and looked panicked. “I’ve been telling the truth! There’s no way I would lie about these things!”

“Oh? How are we supposed to know that? Lies generally let you Warlocks get away with quite a few things. It most certainly wouldn’t be the first time that we’ve been lied to.” Noch seemed to be enjoying making the guy squirm. Well, he generally always liked to make people squirm so this wasn’t new.

“Hmmm, I have a bit of frustration to work off. Should I see if anything new can pop up?” I asked while methodically rolling up my sleeves.

“Oef, you think you can keep him alive?” Noch cringed dramatically.

“Debateable.” I popped my knuckles and glared down at the terrified and confused captive.

“You’re wondering who this guy is right?” Raska asked the captive while pointing at me.

“This is the bastard I told you about last night. The husband of the member your friend had that spell on. He’s been dying to snap Orbus’ neck for the longest time now.” Noch’s dark grin was far from reaching his eyes.

The guy suddenly blanched as white as a paper and tensed up into a tight ball. His eyes took in the whole sight of me. I was sure I didn’t look all too friendly, I certainly didn’t feel friendly. I was ready to draw blood the moment I started walking towards the dungeons.

The captive suddenly flopped limp to the floor, a damp patch suddenly appearing on his pants. I lifted an eyebrow and looked over at Noch who looked perplexed.

“What on earth did you tell him last night?”

He shrugged in answer. “Exactly what I told you this morning. Nothing graphic at all, just a lot of empty suggestions.”

“Maybe he’s one of those guys that have a very active imagination?” Raska asked, looking peeved.

“Is it just me or do the new generation warlocks seem a lot weaker, mentally speaking, than the ones we remember?” The possibility was somewhat disappointing.

“If that’s the case then he really might not have any more information for us than what he’d already shared. Now I’m disappointed.” Raska pouted.

“Where have the good old days gone?” Noch mused.

“So there wasn’t any new information?” I asked curiously.

“Nah, just the same old spiel. We’re preparing to summon our deity of origin. We want our deity to rule over all existence. I only see Orbus once every few years. No we don’t work with demons. The only weakness of Orbus I know of is that he loves women.” Raska air quoted each part lazily.

“Yeah.” I sighed. “That all just sounds like old news. Hopefully Merianna will have better luck on her end.”

“What do you mean?” Noch asked.

“Merianna made a suggestion to Jasnine to reverse track Orbus’ shielding spell by cancelling out the active effects to strip them down to the actual source.” I answered.

Both Raska and Noch blinked at me blankly.

“Why didn’t we think of that first?!” Raska yelled then zipped past Noch and me to zoom straight up the stairway, Clearly on her way to go and harass Merianna and Jasnine.

“Now I’m also curious. Let’s go have a look see at what the Demon Spawn can come up with.” Noch grinned happily and practically skipped towards the exit too. Giving the captive in the cell one more frustrated glare, I sighed and followed the two of them out.