“How many of you practice the forbidden magic? Tell me,” Daes ordered.

Aven said nothing. What could he say? Daes would hardly believe the truth, and what good would a lie do? Should he tell him everyone in all of Akaria knew, perhaps?

In response, Daes leaned forward and pressed the poker to the inside of Aven’s left thigh, face emotionless and cold as a slab of marble.

Aven yelped before twisting away, out of reach. “What forbidden magic?” he panted against the wave of pain.

“How many of you practice the forbidden magic?” Daes repeated, calm and cold as ice. He pressed the poker to Aven’s right thigh now, briefly making contact before Aven twisted away again.

“You will tell me.” Daes came down to one knee. Good idea—this might take a while.

“Not used to people not following your orders, huh?”

Rage flickered in the dark man’s eyes for the briefest moment. But then it was gone—contained, bottled up. Aven had found another soft spot. But by the ancients, he did not want to be there the moment that dam burst.

“How many?” Daes said again instead, moving toward his ankle with the poker.

Aven kicked at Daes’s temple, sending his tormentor scuttling back and saving his ankle for the moment.

“Must we really persist in this?” Daes sat back down on the stool for a moment. “You may not know me, but I do not quit. I will not stop until I know every bit of the forbidden magic is gone. Eradicated. I will not risk everything I have worked to build here. Tell me what I need to know.”

Aven met his gaze levelly. He said nothing because there was no point. No matter what he said, Daes would not believe him. Truth or falsehood, he would have no way to verify.

“I’m only out to protect my country. Just like you are,” Daes said. Then he waited. Aven could wait just as long. With a sigh, Daes again rose and coldly, brutally applied the poker at his shoulder. The heat made contact between his neck and collarbone, and a bellow escaped Aven, something between a groan and a war cry. After Daes withdrew it, Aven sat panting, trying to recover for several moments.

“There’s only me,” he said, trying to let the pain taint his voice as much as he could stand.

“That’s not possible—someone must have taught it to you.”

“I swear it to you. I discovered it in the library by myself only last week.”

Daes’s eyes flickered with confusion. “But, only last week—” Aven knew his words would ring true—since they were true—and he could see Daes stumble. Because he was buying the truth of it. But his story was also what seemed like the best lie. Of course he would claim Akaria was helpless. Daes had to be suspicious of such a claim.

Unfortunately, that was also the truth. Akaria was helpless.

Even more unfortunately for Aven at this point, there was almost no way to convince Daes of the truth.

Daes moved forward again, but before he could apply the poker, Aven cut him off.

“Listen, you want to talk noble to noble?”

“No, as a matter of fact, I don’t—”

“Soldier to soldier, then?”

Daes stopped, then grunted. “Fine.”

“We don’t practice magic,” Aven spat. “Do your nobles? I should think not. Do your soldiers? Anyone? I couldn’t share my powers with anyone. For obvious reasons. All magic may not be forbidden, but it is certainly taboo. The knight was the first to discover my powers in over a decade.” Well, that was mostly true. If Fayton and the others had known, Aven had had no idea.

Daes paused, seeming to consider this. There was too much of a feeling of truth in Aven’s words, most likely. “You said you discovered it in the library. Discovered what, exactly?”

Damn him and his tongue. He had acknowledged too much already. He should have continued to play dumb as to any knowledge of anything. But would Daes have ever believed that? He highly doubted it.

But he could not tell him about the map. He could tell the truth about some things but absolutely not that. Nothing was worth revealing it. It seemed to be the only way Aven had defended himself, and for the moment, it was still out there. For the moment, someone could still find it, read it, and do what Aven had done, resisting the enslavement.

And then—finally—Aven understood.

Of course. Daes did not know the specifics, but he knew there was a way to break his power. Aven had proved that much. And Daes was after it. Understandably. Any way to destroy his power must be his primary objective.

Before he could decide how to respond, Daes gave him a little added motivation with another prod near his right hip. The pain was starting to addle him, which was of course the idea. Oh, to be a creature mage and be able to heal himself.

“How did you discover the star magic?” Daes pressed. Ah, so he knew it was of the stars? Daes did know some of the details, then.

“A book. The library. I told you.” He was panting with the effort and the pain, without much breath to speak clearly at this point.

“You’re lying,” the dark man said. “I don’t believe any of it.”

“No. It’s true. I was reading the book on the balcony where Miara found me. Send her back, it might still be there.” This was the problem with torture, he thought. Beyond the obvious cruelty, it was almost useless. He was telling the man the damned truth, and his torturer still couldn’t believe him. The easiest thing for Aven to do right now would be to make up a plausible lie, something that would make more sense than the truth did. It’s been handed down in my family for generations and generations and we’ve all been secretly training to… what exactly? He had no idea.

But he didn’t want to lie. He was too foggy with pain to think through the possible ramifications before choosing a story at this point. Damn it all, perhaps he could go down with that one thing to lord over this fool—that he’d told him the truth all along.

“Where did you really learn? Who taught you? There must be others.” He jabbed the poker into Aven’s side. Aven finally let out a short scream before biting it back—there was no dodging or relieving the pain of this one.

Daes withdrew the poker and waited for Aven to recover for a moment.

“You will tell me everything you know about the star magic.”

“I already have,” Aven grunted through clenched teeth.

“We’ll see what you say when the pain has driven you mad. Or perhaps I should bring the mage slave in here and apply this poker to her and see what you say then?” Daes looked delighted with himself at that idea.