The Dao of Magic

64 - Interrogation

I decide to brute-force the information from this fellow. I sealed him inside an odour barrier, he can soak in his own stench without annoying me with it for now. I pull a small phial from my ring and use qi to guide a single drop of liquid into the mage's mouth. He is still unconscious but it will take effect quickly. I have ten minutes left before keeping all these people frozen starts becoming uncomfortable, so I decide to hurry the process along.

I ignore the giggling students and slap the mage awake. His bleary, unfocused eyes are proof that the serum has taken effect. He will answer any question I ask of him without fail for the next ten minutes or so, that should be enough to get a basic idea of the local power structure.

"Report anything of note over the last year."

The mage wobbles his head in my direction. His face turns into a petulant scowl. "Those ignorant fools from the Capillary faction have started stirring up trouble again. Some of our charges disappeared under the waves for no reason. Ozone are still not getting off their asses. Wave and absence have colluded in taking over the mana mine, Ferro and Strata watched it happen so they got bribed. We don't know what percentage. No Flight sightings last year, we have only been holding out because of the fire dragon corpse. The main shield of Disintegration Island is slowly being sabotaged, maybe from within. Shi-eit is steady and under control, Beastkin are unruly with a slight chance of a local rebellion. The other kingdoms..."

At this point, I hold up my hand. This one for the big drawbacks of this truth serum, the victim just spouts whatever is bothering them without any context. And instead of nice, clear and concise speech, the stuff also messes with short term memory, so slurred and halted speech are very common.

I have to praise my translation process for keeping up with this rambling guy, the names are approximations of their literal translations. I can infer some meaning, but let's ask for some clarification.

"Give a novice introduction to the mage politics."

The mages glassy eyes wander across the deck for a moment. He looks over the frozen figures of the crew until his eyes snap back to me.

"Each faction has a well protected main island, attacking it with a different mana affinity is suicide because of the mana gathering formations. Half of the mana around Disintegration Island is fire, so it's easy for us to replenish while defending."

The mage pauses here, rolling his eyes around. He must be getting his thoughts in order, which is harder to do when stoned out of your mind on truth serum. He continues ten seconds later.

"My faction, Disintegration, is the fire faction, ranked as one of the most powerful in fighting force. Capillary..." He attempts to spit on the ground, but his poor coordination causes the drool to dribble down his chin. "...are the water mages. Ozone is thunder, they are very close to Suspension, which is wind, due to similar affinities. Strata is earth and useless but they make nice buildings. Wave and Absence are located on opposite sides of the Isles, and they ignore each other because they can't really attack each other. Those are light and dark. Ferro are also useless, but they make nice weapons and armour. A lot of wind apprentices are available for hire as sail guides and wind changers, their big shots have not shown their faces for years."

He trails off as his eyes close. I slap his face lightly to keep him awake. "How do I join a mage faction?"

"Trained as a child, no adults, they are too unruly." He looks me in the eyes and starts snoring. I slap him again to wake him up.

"What do the flags signify?"

"Captains quarters, book of flags..."

I look at my students. "Can you guys come up with any good questions?"