Interrogation

Dr Seon allowed himself to be pushed to sit against the wall. Well, he didn't have much of a choice in the matter; Jack's ability with Eight Trigrams, although slightly dulled from not practicing often in the last few years, was still at the level to easily incapacitate any foolhardy opponent. After all, he had used this technique for almost eight thousand years.

Even though he hadn't had his jaw immobilised and he could still speak, Dr Seon didn't try to plead or negotiate with Jack; in fact, he barely made a sound besides the suppressed coughs that came unwillingly to him. He knew very well that the kind of person to do this kind of act always had a very specific objective in mind, and the longer Dr Seon could draw matters out, the more chances there were the other party would ask for his help themselves.

Jack gave the immobilised man a cursory glance before turning to the few furnishings within the room itself. Now that he'd successfully captured his target he could afford to go through his possessions with a much greater degree of detail and hopefully find what he was looking for. That being said, Jack wasn't hopeful in the least.

He first moved towards the bedside table. There was a worn-out copy of a booklet whose cover had long faded to oblivion. He examined it briefly, only to discover, to his dismay, that it was a very poorly written manifesto about the necessity to have centralised standards within the industry of inns and other similar establishments; evidently a piece written by the owner of the Brink of Dawn. Jack dropped it as if it were a red-hot piece of iron and headed towards a small desk which had been purposefully brought up to the room, in lieu of the distinct lack of dust on it.

This piece of furniture held a lot more evidence. There was writing apparel neatly poised around the top of the desk and, upon close inspection, Jack was able to find a letter hidden between the desk and the wall. He opened it up and read its contents with one look: it was a note to the man's sister telling her that he had no intention of coming back home and that she should move on to find a suitable husband far away from the kingdom of Tambor and that he would soon return to bring honour to their family. It was a rather emotive piece of prose.

Jack brought the letter up close to his face and sniffed it a few times. He started to look for the smallest of signs and evidences, the little pieces of invisible information that told a story in and of themselves. The devil is in the details, after all.

Jack smiled after a moment and proceeded with his search. He went up to the man's knapsack and emptied its contents entirely. There was a variety of outfits all carefully tended for and tailored for the man, clearly indicating wealth. Furthermore, Jack found a leather pouch between the man's belongings with a large amount of silver coins as well as a few gold ones. Quite the

small fortune.

Overall, everything that Jack found told the story of a once wealthy noble family that had fallen in disgrace and that the first-born son was doing his utmost to bring back the honour of the old days. It seemed like the perfect conclusion to the mountain of evidence in the room.

And Jack didn't buy it for half a second.

He grabbed the only chair in the room and placed it heavily in front of Dr Seon. Then, he sat down with one leg crossed over the other as he folded his hands over his knee and leaned forward enough for his eyes to be level with Dr Seon's.

For a few moments, neither of the two said anything as they exchanged glances. Then, Jack lowered his eyes and examined every detail of Dr Seon. He wasn't tall, but he wasn't short, either, and his figure was lanky. The face was elongated and he had sharp, angular features with a prominent nose in the middle of his face.

"You almost had me fooled." Jack suddenly in a mocking tone. "But the letter was a dead give-away."

"Excuse me?" Replied the captive Dr Seon.

"The clothes and the money I can get behind. It's a good set of planted evidence." Jack started examining his fingers. "But the letter was too obvious."

"I- I don't follow." Cold sweat started to drip down Dr Seon's back. There was something in the way Jack spoke that sent chills down his spine.

"The paper is, at the very least, several weeks old, judging by the decolourisation of it surface. That only happens if it's left unprotected for some time and left to the influence of the elements." He explained. "Granted, it could possibly be that you've neglected it. However, there's a large and very noticeable callus almost at the tip of your middle finger, between it and your index one. You can only get that type of callus by writing on a daily basis for long periods of time."

Jack stopped looking at his own fingers and moved his gaze right into Dr Seon's eyes. "I refuse to believe that someone that works regularly with paper would treat it like that by accident."

"I..I-"

"And then there's the ink." Added Jack, not letting Dr Seon get a word in sideways. "The ink is, at the very least, more than a couple weeks old. Why would someone write a letter and keep it on themselves for weeks without sending it? Let's assume you're too much of a coward to send it; a plausible explanation. In that case, you wouldn't have hidden it like that; the letter would be out in the open or crumpled up and tossed to the side, not concealed." Jack rose to his feet, pulled back the chair, and crouched right in front of Dr Seon in a manner that their faces were only separated by a few short inches. "The only explanation that remains, then, is that you planted it to fool anyone that came looking for you."

"What are you talking about? Who are you? Who sent you?" Said Dr Seon as he panicked visibly. "Do you know who my father is?!"

"Frankly, no." Remarked Jack as he pulled up Dr Seon's hand. "But judging from the marks on your hand, he's no noble. It's faint, but you still have the remains of calluses you get from using a hoe on a field. My guess is he's a farmer, and from the distinct lack of injuries maiming your body's integrity, I assume the farm is in an area close to a city and far from demonic beasts. Probably the kingdom's capital." Jack let go of Dr Seon's hand. "And the gravel on your shoes comes from the Groam pass, meaning you come from the East."

"Wha- What the…?" Dr Seon was completely stunned. Jack was completely on point.

"And from the faint traces of chemical burns on your left hand, the conclusion is you're a well-educated scientist, and have at least ten years of experience in the field. Not to mention that there's a very distinct herbal smell on your body from the various alchemical decoctions that you mostly likely specialise in." Jack smiled evilly.

At this point, Dr Seon realised that there was no use feigning ignorance anymore because the boy in front of him was someone truly terrifying that had managed to see completely through him in matter of a few short minutes.

"What do you want?" He dropped his head in defeat.

"The antidote."

"Ha! Good luck with that, I don't have it."

"I thought as much."

"Why?" Dr Seon was surprised that Jack hadn't insisted he was lying.

"Because that's the only assumption that makes sense." Explained Jack. "The herbal scent on you isn't one tantamount with poison. Furthermore, those who mess around with poison always have small traces of it on their body: decolouration of the nails, black spots on their skin, etc, etc, etc. You have none. Hence, the only conclusion that makes sense is that you didn't create the poison."

Jack held Dr Seon's face by the chin and moved his head from right to left. "And before you say something along the lines that they could have given you the antidote, let's be serious; whoever sent you here did so with every intention for you to die, they never gave you any antidote."

"You're lying!" Dr Seon struggled to fight against Jack's grip but failed miserably. "They didn't send me here to die!"

"Of course, they did!" Smiled Jack evilly, wanting to use Dr Seon's emotions into manipulating the man into revealing as much information as possible. "You arrived in Groamburk a month ago, and in all that time no one came to save one. No one bothered to give you an antidote to save yourself. You were abandoned, tossed aside like a rotten piece of fruit."

"That's not true!" Dr Seon's mind was in a turmoil. He had those same suspicions that Jack had raised after spending such a long time by himself whilst suffering from the effects of the poison but he still ultimately chose to trust in his companions and Dr Murf.

"You know it is." Jack chuckled. "Let me guess, the only reason you're still alive and haven't succumbed to the poison yet is because, before you left, they injected you with an antidote under the guise that it would eventually make the poison wear off and that you would survive and become immune to it."

"How..? How do you know that?" Even with Jack's strong grip, Dr Seon was able to turn his head ever so slightly to lock eyes with Jack and stare at him with astonishment.

Jack let go of Dr Seon and rose to his feet. "Because that's what I would have done if I wanted you dead but also wanted you to comply with my desires." He said in a chilling voice. "The end result would be you surviving long enough to reach your destination as well as being able to spread the poison whilst ensuring that you would not survive."

Jack walked back to the chair and sat back on it. He leaned back and looked up to the ceiling as he crossed his hands behind his head. "I just sent some qi to probe your body." He explained. "I warrant you only have a week left to live. Ten days at most."

"How could this happen…?" Dr Seon lowered his head as he paled and tears came to his eyes. He didn't doubt Jack's words because of how accurate they had been up to this point. Furthermore, there was no apparent benefit for Jack to tell him this. "What do you want from me?"

"Information." Said Jack. "I want to know who sent you and what they want."

"This…"

"Don't even think about lying to me." Jack said as his eyes turned as cold as eternal ice. "You do not want to know the consequences of lying to me."

Dr Seon gulped and struggled with his conflicting thoughts. Obviously, there was a part of him that wanted to tell Jack what he had asked for, while another part struggled to betray the organisation he had belonged to for the vast majority of his adult life.

"Let me try to guess." Jack saw that Dr Seon was still on the fence and so he decided to give him another nudge. "The people who sent you aren't the government. There's no reason for the empire or the kingdom to act in such an underhanded manner as there is too much of a risk that it could go wrong. It's a powerful organisation that isn't overtly criminal and enjoys a good reputation amongst the people. Am I mistaken?"

Dr Seon sighed. He had finally been convinced. "No, you're not wrong. It's the Church."

This revelation shocked Jack. He had had a faint suspicion, but he hadn't dared to consider it seriously because of the implications it would have meant. Still, he didn't allow the surprise to show on his face. "Who in the Church?"

"I work in the archaeological remains research division of the kingdom of Tambor." He explained. "And my title is Dr Seon."