>>5195885>>5195888>>5195934>>5196012>>5196090You scratch your bearded chin in thought. No option is perfect, but the woman is so very pale. Well acquainted with blood loss, you see all the signs. A sigh leaves your lips, admittedly performative. "Hold off for now Alys, I have a few ideas." She blinks as if surprised and you approach the prisoner again. "Vera, was it?" The girl looks surprised you bothered to remember her name. "I'll be honest, I've been on battlefields most of my life. I've seen wounds like that and I doubt we'll get to execute you even if my liege comes down here and does it himself this very night. Tell me something useful, anything but this insipid silence, and I'll have the surgeons do what they can. I cant give you much, but I can give you a chance." She looks green at this news, which surprises you. Was she not a healer herself? Surely she saw her own dire condition. "I suppose you'll also promise me a reprieve, you lying murderer?" Her voice is broken, but you almost respect the commitment to act. Still, this was little more than a child playing at hero, you suppose. You chuckle without mirth. "No, I shan't promise you what I cannot give, lass. I doubt anything you give us will change the final result. How you get there, how painful it is, that's the difference." You shrug to her still unconscious companion. "That goes for him too, you seemed so very close with your friend in the throne room. So if what mercy I can give you doesn't appeal, we can always see how much of him my friend here can remove before he bothers to wake up. Not that it would stop her." The fury again, this time directed at you. "Harain is defenseless, you disgusting creature!" You sigh again. "I doubt that headless old man upstairs put up much of a fight. He was old, spent most of his life building roads and aqueducts. Hardly a warrior you lot killed. Who's the murderer here, Lass?" The answer, you, was clear on her quivering features. "I've been patient, but your time is going to run out before my forbearance does in any case. Answers, now, and no harm will come to him or you. At least until the Emperor sees fit to deliver justice."
She bites her lip, clearly fighting with herself over what you have offered. You've made your play, now to see the outcome.
