Taking Prisoners

Jonas watched Elmo meet with the strangers heading towards the back gate. Jonas couldn't think of how these people wouldn't be hostile towards them, given whoever was behind this hadn't seemed to take anything for granted. Or at least what was immediately apparent, given the rear gate had been left unattended up until now.

As such, Jonas felt he had to assume that all the servants that had driven the carriages that brought the guests here, that weren't a part of this conspiracy, were either held captive or were dead. Jonas wasn't sure which was more likely, but was certain that none of them would be allowed to roam freely if they weren't a part of this conspiracy.

"Who are you and what are you doing?" Jonas heard Elmo ask.

"We weren't told anyone would be positioned here," the man replied, sounding rather suspicious of Elmo, confirming to Jonas what he had suspected, though he doubted Elmo would pick up on the subtle implication of what had been said.

"I came from the party and am helping the guests escape," Elmo said and Jonas knew it was only a matter of time until the men in front of Elmo attacked.

"That was the wrong choice for you," the man said as he started drawing his sword. Jonas wasn't sure if Elmo saw it, but he didn't react. If Elmo didn't get what was happening, then he would only be a danger to himself the longer this went on. Though, so long as Elmo didn't die, Jonas was willing to let him deal with this himself.

Jonas just hoped he wasn't going to regret doing this. After all, he couldn't be sure they'd have to deal with other people like this before they were done with these stupid challenges, while at the same time he couldn't be sure that this wouldn't be necessary in the end anyway.

"Dark Impact!" Elmo suddenly called out, the dark energy of his spell not only momentarily blocking out the light that allowed him to see what was going on in the distance, but also the ability for him to see with his Shadow Sight ability before it collided with the men in front of Elmo.

Jonas could hear their grunts of pain as they were caught off guard at Elmo's spell, though Jonas was fairly sure that they were still alive. If only just barely alive. Not that he had any actual evidence to think that. Just that he doubted Elmo would have put his all into that spell if he thought it would kill them, but he also was sure Elmo couldn't be sure what would or wouldn't kill others. Although, he didn't care to be the one to deal with the fallout if Elmo proved to be wrong with that.

"It's over," Jonas remarked to Elin. He was aware of Elin looking at him, but he didn't care to show any signs that he noticed it. "Lets see if these people survived Elmo's spell." Jonas then started walking towards where Elmo was. He was sure that Elmo was probably going to be emotionally worn out. At least for a few minutes, which he was quite sure they could afford to take.

Elin followed Jonas and he smiled to himself. He was confident that Elin was probably at least annoyed with him, not that he really blamed her. After Elmo left, he probably could have told the girl what he suspected would happen, but he didn't want to risk the chance of Elmo hearing what he said to Elin. If he did, then it might affect his confidence and make it less likely that he'd have survived in that encounter.

When they arrived, Elmo was staring at the men in a daze. Jonas doubted that Elmo had thought through what it was that he wanted to have done, but had to do something to protect himself. Though, while he didn't think Elmo or Elin realized it, but the two men were still alive, though they were knocked out cold by Elmo's spell.

Idly he wondered how much HP Elmo had taken off of their life with that spell, but he doubted that it mattered. Especially since he planned on tying them up and seeing what information they could get out of them.

After all, why not? It would allow them to know more about not only why this was happening now, but also what else was planned for this night. It was possible that they hardly knew anything, which Jonas was certain of, but it was hard to say what they might actually know. In fact, it was possible they might know things that they weren't even aware of that they knew.

Jonas knelt beside the two men, not sparing a glance for Elmo, and checked their pulse. He had a feeling that Elmo wasn't going to be useful anymore that night if he didn't make it clear to him that he hadn't killed the men by accident.

Which really was a pain. However, as he heard others coming up behind him, he realized that he'd forgotten about the other guests that they had been helping escape the death trap.

"Are they alive?" Jonas heard the king ask.

"Yeah, they are," Jonas allowed. "Though, it might be good to let them rest for a minute before we wake them up."

"Why should we?" Jonas heard Lance ask. "They tried to kill my sister!"

"Because they might know more about what's going on," Jonas explained. He then looked at the king. "If you offer something to get them to talk, they might be willing to offer more than the usual nonsense they'll probably spout when they first wake up."

"What do you have in mind?" the king asked.

"They tell us everything," Jonas answered without missing a beat. "If they hold anything back, then we let them know that the deal will be off the table. If what they tell us holds up, then we'll ensure that they get whatever it is they agreed to."

"What kind of 'deal' are you thinking of?" the king asked, his tone indicating he hadn't decided if he would agree to Jonas' suggestion.

"Whatever you think will get them to work with us," Jonas said. "You can also point out what'll happen to them if they don't work with us. Such as execution, since they were part of an attempt on your life and your son's."

The king smirked. "So, we offer to let them live to get them to tell us something?"

"Pretty much," Jonas agreed. "You never know what they might know. Such as if they know who's in charge of this operation. If they do, then we'll have an easier time finding them and keeping them from escaping. If not, then they still might know some of what was supposed to happen and maybe some of the back-up plans."

"Back-up plans?" the king echoed.

Jonas nodded. "Elmo was able to destroy the catapults, but they might still have other ideas of how to burn the building down, so that would be a possible 'back-up plan' that would be good to know so we don't inadvertently either set it off or pas it by without realizing it," Jonas answered.

"What if we can't be sure if what they're saying is true or not?" Lance demanded.

"Well, we make it clear that if what they say doesn't pan out, then you get to do whatever you want to them until they die," Jonas answered calmly.

Lance looked a little confused, but Jonas wasn't that surprised.

"Why would they worry about what he would do to them?" the king asked.

Jonas chuckled. "Because they were part of the group that tried to kill his little sister. If they don't want him to do whatever he might think of doing to them, then they will want to cooperate fully with us and not hold anything back," Jonas replied. "I'm sure they're fully aware of the consequences of failing in their job, including if they got captured."

"Why not try to get them to help us directly?" the king asked.

"Because if we do that, then we risk them squealing to the enemy about what they know about us. Right now I don't think that we can afford to let our enemies know any more than they have to, but we also need to know more before we can make our next move."

"What 'moves' is there other than to eliminate all of those attacking us?" Lance growled.

Jonas sighed. He wished he could talk to the king privately at the moment. At least the king was calm enough to keep from being as stupid as Lance was right then, letting his emotions control himself.

"One problem with that is we can't be sure where the ringleaders are," Jonas said. "They may have already made themselves look like captives, or left this place altogether. If those are what has happened, then we need to get them squared away before we finish this. Otherwise, we'll be giving them another opportunity later on to try again."

The king nodded. "Alright, that's a good point," he said. "Only, what will we do if they don't really know anything?"

"Then we'll have to let them know they should have tried to learn something as we let Lance do whatever he wants to them," Jonas answered. "Especially since we can't be sure that they would only try to convince us that they wouldn't know anything. If that's the case, then eventually they'll come clean to get Lance to stop doing whatever he might be in the middle of doing."

The king sighed. "I don't like the idea, but you do make some good points. When do you want to start on that?"