Interrogation

Xilian sat in handcuffs, facing a stern-looking man named Dailin.

After Dailin had stopped him, Xilian had no time to take in the true face of Confluence City Hel before these people from the so-called City Guard Bureau brought him into this interrogation room.

He waited several hours before Dailin finally came in and began questioning him.

"Name."

"Xilian."

Dailin started taking notes without looking up.

"Surname?"

Xilian fell silent for a moment, then said, "I'm an orphan. I don't have a surname, just a given name."

Dailin glanced up at him. There were plenty of people like Xilian in Her City, so he didn't dwell on it.

"Age."

"Seventeen."

Dailin studied Xilian's face. Days of wind, sand, and blazing sun had left him looking rough, but Dailin could still see the youth beneath it.

"Only seventeen? Surviving in the Wilderness at your age is quite a feat."

Dailin's tone softened, losing its earlier edge.

"You're a Transcendent too?"

Xilian admitted it readily. "Yes. I'm a Torchbearer."

"Where are you from?"

"I was traveling with a caravan, but a while ago, we ran into a Source-Energy Tide. I got separated from the others that night."

Xilian answered without a flicker of emotion.

He had come up with this story on the way to Her City.

Then Xilian asked, "Is there some city-state law I've broken? Is that why you're interrogating me?"

"No. We're questioning you as a safety precaution."

Dailin went on, "You're only seventeen. Not only are you a Torchbearer, but you survived alone in the Wilderness... and even had the spare capacity to bring a dog."

As he spoke, Dailin glanced at the corner of the room. A filthy big white dog lay there, seemingly curled up asleep. Its ears, however, remained pricked as it listened in on their conversation.

"It's hard not to wonder whether Chaos has corrupted you."

Dailin toyed with his pen. "As you know, for a city-state standing on the Outer Flame Frontier, the threat of Chaos is never far away."

Xilian agreed with him and played along. "Then how do I prove I'm clean?"

"You don't have to. We have a way to test you." Dailin checked his watch. "But the colleague who handles the tests seems to be busy with something else. We'll have to wait for her."

"All right."

Xilian settled in to wait.

He had always been intensely curious about the outside world and eager to see it. But he also understood that it was no fairy tale. Reality could be a hundred times crueler than he imagined.

Still, this seemed like a decent start.

He hadn't been tortured. Dailin showed no obvious hostility toward him. If anything, the man had been quite friendly.

While they waited, Dailin struck up a conversation, asking how Xilian had spent his nights in the Wilderness and how he had become a Torchbearer.

Dailin never pressed too hard, which made it much easier for Xilian to lie.

"Sorry I'm late."

A tall woman pushed open the interrogation room's iron door. She had curly blond hair and wore understated makeup, and there was an effortless charm in the way she moved.

"Anya, where have you been?" Dailin frowned when he saw her. "Do you know how late you are?"

"I had a date tonight." Anya raised an eyebrow at Dailin. "He was quite handsome. I was having so much fun that I lost track of time."

"Well, I'm here now. Let's not waste any more time."

Anya opened her case, took out a syringe, and rolled up Xilian's sleeve.

"What's that?"

Xilian pulled his arm back warily.

Anya gave the syringe a little shake. "Soul Marrow Agent. It's one of the ways we test for Chaos corruption."

She channeled the Source Energy within her. A faint glow spread over her hands, revealing luminous capillaries beneath her orange-red skin.

Anya was a Torchbearer too, and her rank was clearly higher than Xilian's.

"Once this goes into your body, any Chaos power inside you will make it ignite. It'll burn you from the inside out until you're an empty husk."

Anya slipped the needle into Xilian's vein.

"But if you haven't been corrupted, nothing will happen. The agent will leave your system within a week. Even if you have a reaction, it'll just be a little nausea. Drinking plenty of warm water will help."

"I'm a Torchbearer too," Xilian said.

"So?" Anya asked. "You think Torchbearers can't be corrupted?"

The image of the Deathbird flashed through Xilian's mind, followed by a piece of history... the Year of Rebellion.

"If anything, a corrupted Torchbearer is even more dangerous."

Anya's smile vanished, and her gaze sharpened. "People are quick to trust Torchbearers because of who they are and the Soul Marrow within them. That makes them lower their guard."

"There." Anya withdrew the needle. "Now channel your Source Energy."

Xilian didn't immediately do as she said. "If I were corrupted by Chaos, what would you do?"

Anya paused, then covered her mouth and giggled.

"What a silly question."

She gently stroked Xilian's filthy hair. "We'd kill you, of course. What else would we do, toss you back outside?"

Dailin nodded in agreement. "I'd usually break your neck before you caught fire. That should at least spare you some pain before you die."

"Afterward, this interrogation room would be sealed off. Specialists would clean up any lingering Chaos contamination, and your body would go into an incinerator for a thorough burning, so no trace of Chaos power remained."

Xilian fell into an even deeper silence.

Dailin and Anya's friendliness wasn't pointless kindness. It was simply the ease of people who knew they had the situation under complete control.

They could chat with him while smiling, and they could kill him the same way.

Xilian sighed helplessly and awakened his Source Energy. His Soul Marrow burned, and the temperature of his skin rose rapidly.

"He seems fine."

After observing him for a while, Anya exchanged a look with Dailin.

Dailin stood and removed Xilian's handcuffs.

"Do you put every visitor through this?"

Xilian flexed his wrists and immediately felt much better.

Dailin shook his head. "Most visitors arrive with caravans and carry documents from the city-state where they set out. Those establish that the caravan is clean and safe."

"Visitors who come alone, like you, are rare."

Dailin couldn't help smiling. "When we found you, we were almost certain you were a Chaos Follower. Only those lunatics travel through the Wilderness alone at night."

A chill ran through Xilian. "What changed your minds?"

Dailin tilted his head and looked past Xilian at Bruce, curled up in the corner.

"Simple. Even the craziest Chaos Follower wouldn't bring a dog along."

The more Dailin spoke, the more animated he became, his eyes bright with curiosity. "Besides, even if you really were a Chaos Follower, I'd still have had to catch you and ask what you were plotting... and why you brought a dog."

Xilian took a deep breath and covered his face with both hands. He wasn't ashamed; he just had no idea what expression to make.

The absurdity of his life showed no sign of letting up.

Never in his wildest dreams had Xilian imagined he would survive for such a ridiculous reason. Nor had he imagined someone would pursue him so relentlessly because of it.

"Well, traveling alone through the Wilderness gets lonely."

Xilian stared blankly ahead and started talking nonsense. "With a dog along, at least I have someone to talk to, right?"

Dailin froze. He looked at Bruce, then at Xilian's earnest expression.

"Talk? To a dog?" Dailin burst out laughing. "Anya, this guy—hahaha!"

Xilian silently clenched his fists. All he wanted was to leave this damned place and put this bizarre humiliation behind him.

After three minutes of Dailin's rambling, Xilian was released from the interrogation room to retrieve his motorcycle and other belongings.

Bruce followed obediently behind him, without so much as a wag of his tail.

Dailin and Anya watched Xilian leave. The moment he disappeared around the corner, Dailin's grin vanished.

"Xilian wasn't telling the truth," Dailin said coldly. "If he'd traveled with a caravan, he couldn't possibly have never seen Soul Marrow Agent."

"But he passed the test. That's enough to prove he isn't a Chaos Follower," Anya said. "He must have lied about where he came from."

Dailin thought for a moment, then shook his head.

"Let it go. All sorts of people visit this city. We can't investigate every last one of them. As long as we know they aren't Chaos Followers and pose no clear threat to the city-state, that's enough."

"Besides, we have something more troubling to deal with, don't we?"

Anya opened her case and took out a stack of documents and photographs.

"Tonight's 'date' didn't go well. Apart from being handsome, the man had nothing going for him."

Anya picked up a transparent evidence bag and handed it to Dailin. "It took a lot of effort to deal with him. I peeled this off his back."

Dailin took the bag. Inside was a bloody piece of skin bearing a tattoo.

A black claw drawn in jagged, haphazard lines.

Anya sank wearily into a chair, picked up a mirror, and touched up her makeup.

"The Chaos Followers have become active in Her City again. I thought the Reverse Falcons wiped them out decades ago."

Dailin put the bag back in the case and murmured, "Chaos is like a force of nature. Do you think you can kill a tsunami or an earthquake?"

"No matter how many times we defeat them, they always come back."

Dailin paused, then sighed. "But in this mad age, that lunatic traveling with a dog is a first for me."

Anya chuckled. "Go on ahead. I'll tidy up here."

"All right. Sorry for the trouble. I need to take this to the records room."

Dailin straightened Anya's case, then pushed open the door and left.

Anya was alone in the interrogation room. After a moment of quiet, a feverish look crept into her eyes, and she swallowed against her dry throat.

She lowered her head. The used syringe lay on the table, a trace of Xilian's blood still clinging to the tip of its metal needle.

She picked it up as though about to lick the blood from the needle. A stifled sound rose from her throat.

"Xilian..."