By the time Aselia and Xiran descended the stairs, Carios had propped a chair outside the house and bound the prisoner on it, he was still unconscious.

Aselia had brought a vial of the serum with her, which prevented creatures from shifting and immobilized them.

They walked outside where Frila and Carios stood, watching him with hateful eyes. Carios had a jug of water in his hands. Frila’s eyes lit up seeing Aselia and she greeted her:

"Good morning! Good to see you."

"Good morning guys," Aselia replied with a smile as her eyes went to the man tied to the chair, from his unkempt hair to charred skin, he wreaked of trouble and filth.

"I think this is the wendigo Irlana had told us about, he is the henchman. Well, only one way to find out. Carios wake him up," Xiran ordered.

Carios nodded and threw the cold water on the Wendigo, who jerked awake from the sudden sensation. His head whipped toward Aselia as her scent hit him full force and he gasped. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Recognizing her from that town he had seen a month and a half ago, she was a hunter and an elf, but also with Xiran. This was so confusing and he couldn’t help but gawk at her, while she watched him with an amused expression.

A sharp slap resounded all around and his ear began to ring from the force while his left cheek singed from pain. A squeal escaped him when Xiran snarled:

"Keep those foul balls you have as eyes lowered... Or nothing of similar shape will remain in your lousy body. I will pluck them with my bare hands."

Panic and fear rippled through his frame as his troubled gaze met Xiran’s angered one. He struggled to set himself free as Aselia attached a syringe to the small vial she was holding. She stepped closer.

"Just to be sure," she said and plunged it into his neck. A sharp pain coursed through him and his body went limp.

"So, Hudias. Isn’t that what your name is? What are you doing in my city?" Xiran inquired grabbing him by his hair and yanking his head back. Hudias winced and his eyes couldn’t help but dart to Aselia but he lowered them instantly.

"He is here for me," Aselia spoke in an amused voice as if enjoying it.

"You know she is a hunter?" Hudias finally spoke to Xiran in a trembling voice, astonishing them. Frila’s hand flew to her mouth.

"How do you know I am a hunter? And yes, he knows," Aselia stepped closer to him, her eyes scrutinizing him from head to toe.

"I saw you on a mission," his hair was yanked with such force that his scalp burned. The pain blinded him for a second.

"What have you told my father about her? How much he knows?" Xiran was yelling, his face was inches away from Hudias, and the menacing look he carried made Hudias flinch.

"I... only knew she was...a hunter. Didn’t know...she was...your girl," he stammered trying to escape Xiran’s hold.

"HOW MUCH MY FATHER KNOWS ABOUT HER?" Xiran’s words reverberated all around the area and Hudias explained how his master thinks that she is two girls instead of one.

"And what plans he has for both girls?" Aselia asked in her calm tone, in contrast to Xiran she was laid-back today.

"I...don’t know," he squeaked.

"You don’t know or you won’t say?" Xiran grabbed his arm and twisted. Wendogi writhed in the pain he caused.

"Break his arm, Xiran. Maybe that will refresh his memory," Aselia requested softly as if asking her boyfriend for chocolate. Hudias’s expression turned to a shocked one seeing how calmly she spoke those words.

"With pleasure," Xiran twisted it further, and the cracking sound of bone breaking mixed with his agonized screams filled the air.

A small yelp escaped Frila. She was not a violent person and this frightened her. Aselia sensed that.

"Carios, take Frila inside. She doesn’t need to watch this," Aselia instructed before turning to Frila and asking:

"Can you go make breakfast for me?" Frila vehemently nodded with fearful eyes. Carios took her trembling hand and guided her inside. Aselia then diverted her attention back to Hudias.

"So, where were we," she gave him an evil grin while he watched her with horror. How could an innocent-looking elf be so brutal?

"I can’t... go against...my master," he stammered in pain.

"Break his fingers, one by one. Let’s bet how many bones we will have to break before he will reveal the truths we seek," Aselia placed her elbow on Xiran’s shoulder and asked in a matter of fact tone.

"I would say 10," Xiran answered seizing Hudias’s hand and breaking his index finger with one prompt move. This made the fearful wendigo shudder and cry out in pain.

"Nah, he won’t hold for that long, he has a low tolerance for pain. So I would say 7," Aselia chuckled seeing his horror-stuck face. It merely took 6 more bones before Hudias begged them to stop and began to spill the secrets of his master.

Hudias knew one way or the other he was as good as dead and his master would be crueler if he returned empty-handed or he discovered that he had spilled his secrets. He would be skinned alive by him so he wanted to take his chance with Xiran.

"So my father doesn’t know she is my girlfriend but he suspected thanks to you and now you were here to kidnap her," Xiran was so furious, he couldn’t bring himself to think what his father would have done to Aselia. He knew he had made the right decision when it concerned her.

"And what about Irlana and her mother? Where is he keeping her mother? And what plans he has for them?" Xiran inquired next.

"Irlana will...be used to blackmail you, now that you know she is your sister, and he... keeps her mother in one of his... underground facilities near the Schime Sea. Security is very... tight there and anyone approaching it would be detected from miles away," Hudias warned them.

"And why is he preparing an army of medically engineered species?" Xiran questioned next.

"I don’t...know, I swear I don’t know. He doesn’t share... all his plans with us," Hudias voice was breaking due to the pain he was experiencing.

Xiran broke a couple of more bones but he couldn’t provide the answer Xiran was looking for. Though Xiran knew the answer in his heart.

"I.....I just spy for him...help him find people....he is looking for," Hudias informed them, hoping they would stop with the torture.

"How many elves he has? And does he experiment on them all?" It was Aselia who asked the question about her kind with a heavy dread falling over her.

"A lot, hundreds.... maybe thousands. I don’t know, I haven’t seen... all the facilities. Some he experiments on...others he uses for their blood and... se*ual pleasures," the raw rage Aselia coursed through Aselia. It made her fist her hands into a punch which landed on his left cheek with such force that he sputtered out blood.

"You ugly piece of shit, may you rot in hell and I will make sure to send your master packing behind you soon," Aselia growled at him and he flinched away from the mad elf.

Xiran had purposely brought Hudias here, he wanted Aselia to punish him, knowing that Hudias will provide them with sensitive information. But with what he had planned, Xiran knew Aselia won’t be able to do much with that information.

They questioned him some more, extracting all the required information before Xiran got up and stepped away from him and spoke in a low voice:

"You sealed your fate the day you set your eyes on the love of my life and came to kidnap her. I have purposely let you see her and told you what she means to me because this information will never be forwarded to my father. This information will die and be buried with you and your wretched existence."

Xiran tilted his head at him, a sadistic smile enveloping his curved lips, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

"Noooo, I told you people, everything. Have mercy on me, I promise I will disappear. I will never be seen near your city or your girl," his pleas fell on deaf ears as Xiran called Carios who hurriedly stepped outside.

"Sire."

"I don’t want your filthy blood to be spilled in my friend’s home so I am giving you a quick death. I have places to be or I would have enjoyed torturing you for days," with that said Xiran stepped closer to Hudias, who watched him with fear-stricken eyes.

"NOOOOO," his shouts came to an abrupt end as Xiran reached out and wrung his neck, crunching the very bones that supported it and his head fell on his shoulder.

"Dispose of his body where no one will find him," Xiran ordered stepping back. The animosity and anger his eyes held had darkened them and he was barely able to hold onto himself.

Aselia’s hands slipped around his waist and she guided him inside, up to her room, silently.