Zanthrisya - DND Inspired Adventures

Snakes

Prompt: Start or end your story with someone saying, "We have all the time in the world."

A/N: Content Warning: Some depiction of torture. Proceed at your own risk.

Although the prisons of Thradnyss are tucked safely underground, Prince Narkykos has authorized a more imaginative location for interrogations of prisoners: an enclosure made of vines woven between three baobab trees, high above the ground. Soundproofing spells keep the enclosure safe from eavesdroppers, but many gaps between the vines allow a dizzying view to the streets below. Three humanoids sit at the center of the enclosure, which dips a bit under their weight. They are tied together with thorny vines and shift uncomfortably, trying to avoid being pierced and cut by their bindings. A forest gnome sits nearby, watching them intently with grass-green eyes; she holds a wooden staff that emits a faint green glow.

A platform on one of the baobab trees provides seating for four Eladrin, each with their eyes on the prisoners. Of the four, only Guildmaster Aithlin Ralotris is choosing to stand. Their attention shifts to a hulking black dragonborn on a narrow wooden bridge between two of the support trees, twitching with suppressed energy, axe in hand.

"Rhogar. Am I to understand that you would like to take the lead with the interrogation of the prisoners?" the guildmaster prompts.

"Gladly, so long as we can keep 'em from speaking snake," the dragonborn growls.

"If they do, I will translate," a captivating female wood elf volunteers as she seems to materialize from a different baobab's platform.

"I don't know that I trust your translations, Naivara, after–"

"I can also translate," Aithlin's assistant, a frosty Eladrin called Vulwin, calls from his seat on the platform. "Though I refuse to get anywhere near those...abominations." He glares with prejudice towards the prisoners. One of them hisses at him in reply.

"We are not abominations," she sneers.

"Iuz willing, we are on the path to being perfected," another of the prisoners spits between too-sharp teeth, allowing onlookers a glance at his blue, forked tongue.

"You will not need to get near them," Naivara assures Vulwin. "I will do what must be done to get the information we seek from our...guests."

"Lorilla? Darrak? Vladislak?" Rhogar asks the others who assisted in the capture of these prisoners that morning. Lorilla, the forest gnome with the glowing staff, glances at him.

"I have already told you what my contribution would be," she says. She lifts a finger towards the prisoners, and the vines around them tighten. One of them hisses as a thorn pierces his skin.

"I know it must be done, but my oaths forbid that I participate," Darrak, a heavily armored and bearded dwarf, grumbles from the third baobab's platform. Beside him, Vladislak, a handsome half-elf, offers a smile that's meant to be charming but reveals nerves.

"I'm here if you need me, but you and Naivara seem like the best interrogators in our team," he offers.

Rhogar grinds his teeth. "Is no one else concerned that she–"

"Now is not the time," Guildmaster Aithlin interrupts. His fiery eyes defy argument.

"Indeed. Prince Narkykos is expecting me to bring him a report by midafternoon," the autumn Eladrin beside the guildmaster adds. She's as beautiful as Naivara and as charming as Vladislak, in her own way, which is how Zilyanna became an advisor to the supreme ruler of Thradnyss in the first place.

"And he shall have it" the fourth Eladrin, whose skin gleams burnished copper around his armor, declares. "I'm sure we are all most interested in what these snakes have to say. I know my men and I want to know how we can keep plague-spreading vermin like this out of the city."