Heirot

Jhaptal closed the brace over his remaining hand, then closed one around his neck as well. These then molded themselves around the bound parts without being too tight. Instead, they were meant to create a higher sense of being trapped. "Now, if you cooperate with me and answer my questions, there will be no need for me to use any tools," he said.

A cold chill went up Soran's spine as he felt the metal melt coolly against his features, especially over his throat. He experimented with moving his head, with little success. "Get on with it, then," he said flatly.

Jhaptal decides to start with things that Soran would be able to recall more readily from recentness. "I would like you to tell me the lineage of the two children you travel with, Rai and Blade."

Soran narrowed his eyes, wondering what the ninja was up to. "Rai's family name is Sunstorm. Her parents were killed by Shea a few months ago." He conspicuously skipped the proper reverant title of the Queen of Arken as "Queen Shea". "Blade is the son of Mizuki and a dark angel called Gabriel, who is now deceased."

Jhaptal nodded, satisfied with the answers. If Reya wanted to know more, he would come back with more questions. He ignored the lack of a title for Shea, he had no real allegiance to her more than what was demanded of him when he served Reya. "Lady Reya also wishes for me to ask you how you came to meet her." The question sounded strange to Jhaptal, even as he had asked it, but he decided to indulge Reya this time, figuring she had some sort of ulterior motive in doing so.

Soran blinked. "I've never met your 'Lady Reya'," he said evenly.

"It wouldn't be very good for your health to lie you know," Jhaptal said. Honestly, he was somewhat confused about this. This piece of information was probably worth less to him than the information about Rai and Blade, yet the elf wouldn't tell him. Jhaptal begins to start a fire in the fireplace that was in the room and puts a poker into it. "Perhaps I'd be able to jog your memory," the ninja offered.

"I'm telling you I've never heard of her," Soran growled.

Jhaptal took a look down at the shirtless elf before him, trying to figure out what to do first. He withdrew the poker from the fire, now red hot, and pointed it right at the side of his arm. "Are you sure you want to continue lying?" he asked.

Soran could feel the heat glowing off the metal near his skin. "There's nothing to tell," he said, dread building in his gut.

Jhaptal pressed the hot poker into Soran's arm, then brought the metal pole up, tracing it around the upper circumferance of his arm. He stopped this as soon as he reaches the place where the inner arm pressed against the elf's torso. "How about now? Do you remember anything?"

Soran convulsed instinctively against his restraints as the poker bit into his arm, restraining his voice. He didnt want to give the bastard the satisfaction of hearing his pain. This was ridiculous. If the ninja wanted a story that bad, he'd just give him one. "A shop...in Aerroes," he ground the words out through his gritted teeth as the poker lingered cruelly on his inner arm.

"Are you sure about that?" Jhaptal asked. He began to drag the poker across his torso, watching the skin blister and pop beneath it. "It doesn't sound like you're telling me the truth there."

Soran felt a wave of nausea as the smell of his own flesh burning overwhelmed him. It was hard to think about much besides the instinct to pull away from the scorching heat on his chest, which of course he couldn't act on. He knew nothing about this Reya person...struggled to think of an explanation that would fit whoever she was. "A fight broke out outside, and we took opposite sides," he growled.

Jhaptal finished running the poker across his torso and ended it right before he burned the other arm. "Anything else?" he asked. He would relay this information back to Reya later, in case he was lying. Well, if the reason Reya wanted him to ask the elf these questions was because she forgot, then he wouldn't be able to confirm it, but oh well.