Valerie let out a low groan as she stirred into consciousness. Her head was throbbing and her stomach wasn’t just doing somersaults, but performing an entire cirque du Soleil act. She tried to shift her hand, so that she could move her chair and rush to the bathroom in case she vomited, which was feeling very likely right about now, but her hand refused to move.

She tried a few times, each time barely getting an inch of movement as something clattered against the arm of her chair.

"Ah, Finally awake. Very good, then we may begin." She heard a voice say, not one that she recognised.

She peeled her eyes open, her mind still filled with grogginess from the drugs and her body in shambles for more than the usual reasons, as she finally saw the owner of the voice.

A man sat across from her, wearing a crisp black suit and who had short cropped hair that showed off the metallic implants peaking through the side of his head as well as screamed of a military service of some kind.

His back was rigid straight, his hands clasped as they sat on the table patiently next to a jug of crystal clear water, which had droplets of condensation dripping down the side as if to tempt her to delight in its chilling refreshment.

Her heavy, lead filled eyes drifted down to her own arm, which was shackled to the arm of her wheelchair. Shackled, not handcuffed, as the tools they had used were much heavier duty than standard police handcuffs and were specially made with heavy, reinforced alloy that Valerie recognised not from the look of it, but the feeling it gave her.

This stomach churning sickness was the result of these shackles, and she had felt it just hours before. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Ditainium?" She muttered groggily, causing the man across from her to raise a well groomed eyebrow.

He picked up a pen and jotted down a few things on a tablet in front of him, before placing it down again and smiling warmly.

"We apologise for the rough treatment. It was not our intention, but you gave us few other options. Had you simply taken the sedative yourself, this could all been carried out without any need for violence."

"Heh... Yeah. Just throw myself into the Lion’s mouth so he doesn’t have to waste energy chasing me. That’s definitely my fault."

"Yes, I’m glad you understand." He replied with a tight, unamused smile as he completely ignored her attempt at sarcasm.

"Let’s start with something simple, shall we? Why were you at that house? Your file doesn’t indicate that you would have any reason to be there."

Valerie frowned and scoffed at the question, "What? Seriously?! That’s what you kidnapped me to ask? Couldn’t have just knocked on the front door and asked me that?

I was there because I know the owners. They invited me. Simple as that."

"Do you now?" He replied with a smirk and another raised eyebrow. He quickly jotted down something again, before continuing with his questions.

"Are you sure that it wasn’t to slip your surveillance? How did you detect and take that out, by the way? I’m still curious about that one."

"I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Hmm, I’m sure you don’t. Well, Since you seem to know some important people, why don’t you tell me about your relationship with a Mister... Klein McLean?" He asked after briefly checking his notes, as if he didn’t already have it all memorised.

"Who?"

"Please... Don’t play coy with me. Just answer honestly and we can get this over with nice and quickly."

"No seriously, I have no idea who the hell that is. I’ve never met anyone with that name, and if I have then I clearly don’t remember them well enough to have some kind of relationship with them.

So if that is what this is all about then you got the wrong girl."

The man across from her narrowed his eyes at her answer, glaring at her intently as if he was staring into her soul, before raising an eyebrow again. He turned to his tablet, making yet another note.

He went on to ask her a dozen more innocuous questions, ranging from details of her life to what she had been doing in Dawd. Each more strange than the last, with no clear thread between them all.

Since he mentioned a ’file’ on her, it was undoubtedly the case that he already knew most of this information about her, yet still he asked it and still he took notes after every answer. His face twisting with clear curiosity and confusion the more notes that he took.

The entire time Valerie tried to stir up her mana, to wrestle control of it back from the Ditainium that was wreaking havoc in her system. But it was no use.

Any attempts to control it was just making her situation worse, with even the smallest grasp on her mana making her stomach churn and the nausea try to climb out of her throat and fly across the table into the face of this strange man.

While that might have been entertaining to see, she currently wasn’t in the mood to perform such an act, and so soon her magic attempts became all about attempting to keep the bile down.

"Well..." The man said once again, reviewing his notes before standing up with a smile,

"It seems that we have everything we need, or at least everything that we can get out of you in here. So how about we take a walk and continue this conversation outside, hmm?"

Valerie rolled her eyes at his choice of words, something that seemed intentional instead of the usual slip of the tongue, and she was about to say that she could not move with the cuff on.

She had the hope that if they removed it to allow her to move, then she would be able to access her magic and possibly get out, or at least not be completely vulnerable to whatever this man had in store for her.

However she didn’t get the chance to say it as she started to move backwards as a pair of hands grasped the handle of her chair. The individual appeared out of nowhere, turning Valerie around and then started to move them both towards the door.

Valerie couldn’t help but look over her shoulder at them with a slight hint of horror, as even when she was looking at them she could barely feel their presence.

This person hadn’t appeared out of nowhere... They had been there the entire time, simply undetectable to her. If she hadn’t answered their questions the way they wanted... would this person have been her executioner?

Was it possible that she might have died without even realising what had happened? Just who in the world were these people?