Interrogation

Edwards took us to an inn called The Horn. It seemed much better than the one we stayed in Lorel city. Cleo was still carrying the female bandit so we decided to rent a room where we would interrogate her. The room we rented was sufficiently big for 4 people to stay.

We entered the room and Cleo placed the bandit on the bed. Since we didn't want to risk her attacking us, we decided to leave her tied up but undid her gag. The bandit started taking deep breaths and then started coughing. Captain Edwards gave her some water to drink which she did hungrily. I guess she was starving after not eating all this time. We hadn't even risked removing her gag once we captured her, let alone feed her.

She calmed down after drinking the water and then started staring at me with a hurt expression. This surprised me since I didn't know why she would focus on me specifically. She looked at me with a gaze as if I had betrayed her. But she was a bandit and I didn't even know her at all!

"Why did you do this to me?" she asked me with tears brimming in her eyes.

"Uh.. I am not sure what you are talking about. What did I do?" I asked confused as to what I had done.

"You snuck into our camp and kidnapped me." she answered.

"I don't think I am strong enough to kidnap you." I didn't want to bring up the fact that it was Cleo that carried her.

"It was me who you should be angry at. I was the one who knocked you down and carried you here" said Cleo calmly. It seems she didn't like me being blamed for something she did.

"Of course I know that! But I saw this little boy inside the cave. I didn't say anything because I thought he was just a lost child and I didn't want him to be caught by my queen. So I let him stay hidden, but he ..." The bandit suddenly seemed like she was ready to cry.

Somehow my image of her shattered in an instance! Was this the same guard that helped the bandit queen rape Tien and Nina? She doesn't seem evil enough to do that. Then I suddenly remembered the important thing she had said.

"Wait… you saw me in the evening when I was hidden behind the barrels?" I asked in surprise.

"Of course, you were sitting there in plain sight behind the barrels"

I scratched my chin in embarrassment and thought 'I am not that good at stealth after all'. I thought it was dark enough. Maybe this woman has very good eyesight.

"Uh… then why did you not expose me? You let Tien and Nina get raped right? Why does it matter if another person is hurt as well?"

The bandit did not say anything but simply stared down and bit her lip. After half a minute she finally said "I… I do what my queen asks of me. I am just her servant ...But I didn't want a child to be hurt… so … I did not mention it. I…. I didn't think any harm would come of letting a child go ..."

The woman seemed around 30 years of age. Maybe there was some history here that I didn't know about? Maybe she had a kid herself. Her child could be around 12 or 13 and I look around that age myself.

"Umm… what is your name?" I asked gently.

She looked at me and said "I am Sheila"

I looked around to see why no one was saying anything and saw that they were looking at me with a surprised expression. Captain Edwards even had his eyebrows raised.

'Did I do something?'

I was not sure what was happening but since Sheila was willing to talk with me, I continued asking her more questions.

"So who is the queen that you serve? Why are you so loyal to her?"

"She… she is my mistress and I am her loyal servant…" replied Sheila.

"Yes, I already know that. But who is she? What is her name?"

"She…. Her name is Ifera."

"And why are you so loyal to her?"

"Uh…. why… she… she raised me since I was young. She saved me when my village was attacked. I lost my family and my village but she cared for me all these years."

"But she must have been a child at the time as well right? She didn't look older than you to me. If anything, she looked even younger."

"Mistress doesn't age… she has looked the same all this time."

Everyone was surprised at this revelation.

"How old were you when she found you?"

"Uh.. I am not sure... I think I was around 5 years old..."

"And how old are you now?"

Sheila looked embarrassed. Did I ask something wrong? I looked around and saw Leana shaking her head but Cleo seemed to focused on the conversation.

After a while Sheila replied, "I… I am 27 now ok? I am not that old!"

So bandit queen Ifera hasn't aged in 22 years at least? We need to talk with High Priestess Eliena about this. She was able to remove the demon curse from Tien and Nina. Maybe she would know if this is somehow related to that curse.

"Uh.. can you take these off? I promise I won't hurt you..."

Finally it was someone else's turn to speak. I looked at Cleo who was calmly looking at Sheila. To my surprise she nodded her head and said "If you promise to cooperate and not try to return to Ifera, we will free you for now. Keep in mind, you will still need to go with Captain Edwards who will interrogate you further."

"Ok but I already told you what I know." replied Sheila meekly.

"We need a lot more information before we can say you have told us what you know," said Edwards.

I had a lot of questions as well but somehow I realized that Sheila didn't know a whole lot. She was just a blind and loyal follower and did not ask any questions. She did what she was told. It looks like Ifera trained her since young in this manner.

Cleo removed the ropes on Sheila's arms and freed her. With three strong fighters, it seemed unlikely that she would be able to escape anyway.

I hadn't realized at the time that I was quite close to her. I had been further away in the beginning but had moved closer as we talked. Just as Cleo freed her arms, Sheila quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me over. She was still on the bed, so she pulled me over on her lap with my back facing her. She then put her arms around me and hugged me tightly!