Zhao Si tossed the snake's corpse into a corner and continued forward.
Up ahead, the darkness gave way to a wash of red, the color of lava and flames.
He hid behind a corner and peered out. He could see Effigies of winged snakes along the corridor, while Inquisitors carrying instruments of torture pushed prisoners with black sacks over their heads into the torture chambers.
According to the intelligence Crepus had provided, Rykard's Volcano Manor concealed a special torture area designed specifically for nobles. More precisely, for noble heretics.
These people were innocent. Search every law in the Lands Between, and not one would reveal any crime they had committed. But that did not matter. Lord Rykard would not even waste time inventing charges; he simply had them seized and brought in to be tortured.
Nor was this done to extract any information. It was simply sadism.
Yes, they had become psychologically twisted. There was no reasoning with a bunch of people who derived pleasure from inflicting suffering. These Inquisitors had lost the most basic humanity a person should possess, so this secret torture facility was their paradise.
The prisoners who endured all this torment would never face a trial, only scream again and again. Their lot was even more wretched than that of actual convicts.
As for the hoods... one had to admit that this was one of Rykard's ingenious ideas. When people lost their sight, their other senses became heightened, making torture feel even more painful. This gave the Inquisitors greater pleasure, but that was secondary.
Putting a hood on someone also signified that they were "not human." Humans perceived the world around them; they could recognize their own kind and themselves. For novice Inquisitors, inflicting violence on living people could cause considerable psychological strain. Given that the