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  ———————————


  Capturing Delphine wasn’t easy, she was a fighter and a good one at that. Her resources and connections were vast but once she was put in chains, there were no more leeways.

  In her mind, those captors could be anyone or anything. She was worried over the Greybeards and the Dragonborn being all a big scheme of rumors and false news but the involvement of the Thane of Winterhold didn’t make anything understandable. Either way, if there is a Dragonborn, then she should be the one who guides them as the last sworn Blade…… or something along those lines.

  But now everything evolved into the worst-case scenario. She was captured after a tough chase, she was shipped on a boat to a large vessel, thrown in a cage and next thing she knew, she was in Winterhold.

  It was all too infuriating to be captured by the likes of those superstitious Nords. Winterhold is now a Stormcloak territory which is not entirely safe for a Breton like her who may get treated as a Western Spy. Well, at least it is not the Thalmor who got her.

  Either way, Delphine soon realized that it is Jon Dare who is her captor. The ship she was led down from was a Dare Fleet ship, one with no sail. Also, those who escorted her were the rumored Black Pigeons, a shady group of people that operate in the Underworld actively. After her last encounter with Jon Dare when she stole the Dragonstone, she tried to purchase as much information as she could on him from Riften but she found herself under the scope of the Black Pigeons since that day, it was alarming but now that she discovered that they work for Jon Dare, it all became easy to put together.

  Still, she can’t be interrupted by those narrow-minded people. There is a greater cause she is fighting for and she can at least make a deal with those people if possible. The world is facing a great danger with those abominable Dragons on the loose, the pride of a warlord can’t be what dooms the world now.

  Gagged and chained, Delphine was led to the Black Room, Winterhold’s infamous underground prison. She was put in a room with one table and two chairs, chained to the table and left for a few uncomfortable hours alone. A usual interrogating strategy but very effective nonetheless.

  Eventually, her interrogator walked in. A tall beautiful Dark Elf with eyes of mismatched colors and an expression that can’t be read. Her face was beautiful like a doll…… not in a good way. She was giving bad vibes to Delphine every time their eyes met. Delphine didn’t want to talk first so Jullanar wasn’t talking rather…… just simply staring.

  *knock* *knock*

  The door of the room has two light knocks sounding but didn’t open up. Jullanar didn’t want to react to them but in the end, she dropped her shoulders.

  "Sorry about that. My sister is very impatient…… sane people, you see." She spoke to Delphine then looked closely, "Hungry?"

  Delphine didn’t try to react but suddenly the smell of the room changed as if a hundred corpses passed by. Delphine’s empty stomach felt like it was turning on her as she unintentionally fell from the chair in a sudden reaction.

  "See…… you would have withstood that with a stable stomach. My spiders hate washing up so…… it is a bit hard to clean them when they have to nest in the caves across the hold and hunt the whole time." Jullanar said mindlessly, making Delphine whose stomach fluids were out of control glare at her with a grudge.

  "Don’t worry, they can’t eat humans. We put a curse on them so that they don’t threaten the surface. Their main diet is Falmer though."

  Jullanar went on and on about her inhumane practices and experiments with Spiders and Falmer. Delphine took each and every word as a threat but it was just Jullanar letting off some stress. In the end, Jullanar switched topics.

  "So…… now you know this much about me. Tell me about you." She said gleefully.

  "……" Delphine kept with her silent treatment but felt that the look on Jull’s face was still as apathetic as ever.

  "If you’re still hungry, I can ask them to make you a sandwich…… maybe some hot cocoa."

  "I want to speak to the one in charge!" Delphine finally spoke.

  "Oh! It speaks." Jull clapped her hands in surprise.

  "Who is the one in Charge? This is Winterhold! It is Thane Jon Dare, right? I want to see him."

  "Hey, are you hearing this? It wants to speak with Boss." Jullanar laughed as she looked towards the door.

  "I know you hear me, whoever you are out there. Thane Jon would be interested in what I have to s……"

  *punch*

  Out of the blue, Jullanar punched Delphine right in the face causing her to break free from the table she was chained to and crash into the wall.

  "YOU FUCKING SPEAK TO ME IN HERE."

  For no apparent reason, Jullanar was totally pissed as if the demons were raving in her head.

  She walked to Delphine, picked her up and threw her across the room then back on the table and put her on the chair once more. Delphine expressions formed the images of pain, shock, fear, questioning then finally worry.

  "I am sorry, what were we saying?" Jullanar was sitting in front of her as if nothing had happened.

  Actually, Delphine found herself chained once again as if she was never thrown off the table in the first place. There was no blood on her face and her nose wasn’t broken.

  "I tend to forget stuff a lot. I am not so good at interrogating people so I just hope you help me out. So…… let’s continue…… The spiders, right? They live around here or there. They are really a free-spirited bunch, nothing like rumors about them. Raised them myself you see……"

  Jullanar kept going on about her spiders and ranting about meaningless stuff. Delphine was stealing some glances around trying to figure out what kind of cursed place she is in or figure out what she experienced just now. This is not something she can just walk out from easily at this rate.

  "Look, I don’t want you to worry. The Spiders, sometimes they speak but just ignore them. They say all manner of idiotic stuff…… and don’t let them near your ear. They are very curious about ears. Oh! If you are a Thalmor agent, you are dead meat as well……"

  "No, no, I am not Thalmor. That’s what I wanted to say."

  "Oh! I see…… you should have started with that. I’m truly sorry. I am not good at this you see…… Thalmor, Blades, Spies…… it all confuses me. Well, even if you are a former member of the Blades, you don’t need to worry, my spiders won’t harm you for……"

  "I didn’t say that." Delphine denied.

  "Hm?"

  "I didn’t say I was a former member of the Blade."

  "No…… you said so."

  "I didn’t."

  "No…… wait! Maybe the spiders. They heard you say it in your head. They can read thoughts too." Jullanar said apologetically.

  "I didn’t say that in my head either." Delphine was firmly denying her identity as a Blade member.

  "Oh! Too bad……" Jullanar stopped the clumsy act and returned that scary apathetic look again.

  Sharp pain!

  That’s all that Delphine felt. It came from her arm. She looked towards the table where her arms were chained and found a bloody knife that cut off her right wrist along with a part of the table.

  She lifted her right arm up and went pale as she felt the phantom pain of losing a hand followed by the real pain.

  She screamed from the dreadful sensation but her arm was grasped by Jullanar who was still holding the bloody knife.

  "Did you lie to me? Did you just lie?"

  *Slash*

  And the other wrist was cut just like the first!

  "YOU FUCKING WHORE! NOBODY LIES TO ME! NOBODY!"

  A series of slashing and stabbing followed right on. Delphine fell on the ground trying to fend off the attacks as Jullanar rode her with eyes that carried a hint of mad ecstasy. Her pupils shrunk as her smile widened thinly revealing the most insane psyche a person can have.

  In the end, Delphine’s eyes were stabbed and she was blinded but while she was choking on her blood, she opened her eyes.

  She was there. Just sitting. Still sitting as if nothing happened. As if it was all a bad dream.

  "I know it is hard. Being the last member of a hunted organization, I really really sympathize with you. Now you know about me and I know about you, let’s be friends, okay? When Jon comes home from his trip, I’ll tell him about you. Don’t worry, you’ll be moved upstairs. Good cell, clean air, no spiders. You don’t have to……"

  "NO! GET AWAY! GET AWAY!"

  And it happened.

  Delphine freaked out.

  She struggled, screamed, and tried to break away. It was all pointless. The chains were too strong, she was too tired.

  "Hey, what’s wrong?"

  Jullanar tried to comfort her but the latter was cowering away as if she was avoiding a monster but suddenly, Delphine saw a third shadow in the room.

  A shadow that looked exactly as if it was Jullanar…… and it was holding a knife…… right behind her.

  *SCREAM*

  ***

  In the next room, three figures were watching how the interrogation was going.

  "Did we break her?" Jullanar asked.

  "Oh, we did. We did long ago." Alina replied.

  "It is fun." Miranda added.

  Alina was standing in the middle holding the [Skull of Corruption] in one hand and Jull’s hand in the other drawing nasty thoughts from her mind.

  The Skull of Corruption has the ability to clone people and cause nightmares to come to life. Alina used Jullanar as a medium to let her crazy come to life in two images, the Loveable Chatterbox and the Obsessed Psychopath.

  Meanwhile, Miranda was here just for the horror show, her favorite genre.

  "Remind me again why we’re doing this?" Jull asked.

  "Jon wanted us to give her some special treatment until he returns, remember?" Alina said.

  "I just…… I hoped I could really do that, not have some illusions doing it for me." Jullanar complained.

  "We still want her alive."

  "Tsk! Let’s stop screwing around. We have duties to attend to."

  Strange enough, Jullanar was bored from the show and went away causing Alina’s magic to stop functioning. Alina didn’t really care so she hid the staff away and followed Jullanar out leaving Delphine in the holding room.

  "What’s wrong?" Alina asked.

  "Too many spies are roaming the Hold recently. Some are even recruiting locals." Jullanar spoke her concerns.

  "So we have traitors?"

  "Yes. It is problematic since we do not target our people so we need hard evidence to draw them out."

  Alina and Jullanar fell to silence. They were expecting to deal with such cases after the recent rise of the population as those who are not natives to Winterhold and those who came with hidden agendas from the start are acting right now.

  "Our enemies are moving together again? What could be their motive this time?" Alina asked.

  "Jon’s investment bank is making the others scared. We are now moving on a rapid pace outside the Hold and will eventually control a large chunk of the Stormcloak territory before going into the New Holds."

  Alina nodded.

  "But such a move would need a whole lot of funding. We are the experts of money and we know about every Septim going in and out. This can only be done by someone with heavy pockets."

  "You suspect the faction that keeps sending killers?" Jullanar asked.

  "Maybe…… listen, I have a plan. Do you have a location on any cell of those Assassins?" Alina questioned.

  "We suspect a place. Why?"

  "I have some ideas for a counterattack and……" Alina walked by to Delphine’s cell, "I think our new best friend in here can have a role to play in the bigger scheme of things. Jon wouldn’t mind, right?"

  Jullanar shrugged her shoulders as she handed Alina the key to Delphine’s cell. Alina effortlessly opened it and stepped inside to see Delphine standing in the furthest corner of the room holding a chair as a weapon and drenched in a cold sweat.

  "You…… you’re real?"

  "Heh!" Alina grinned widely and shrugged her shoulders, "Don’t know. Maybe you can tell me. Am I real? Or am I in your head?"

  "……"

  "To be honest, I was real~ly in your head just a while ago. Those illusions and stuff but I think we got off on the wrong foot. Now how about this? You do something for us, and we let you meet our Dragonborn. Wasn’t that what you after all along?"

  Jon may have said to keep Delphine locked and spoiled but Alina had another thing in mind. Something that may be way worse than just some torturous lodging.

  ———————————


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