42 Not quite an interrogation

--------------------Lillian groaned and pulled herself off her bed. (Lillian) "Fine."-------------------

Lillian and Liz walked down the stairs to find Liana already there, talking with Robyn and Ruby.

(Liana) "Hey. You took a while. Is everything okay?"

Lillian smiled and nodded, but Liana's eyes narrowed slightly, though she didn't comment.

Liz immediately made her way towards Ruby and sat on her lap, seeing as it was a seat for one person. Lillian sat on the seat beside Liana.

Robyn's face darkened as she noticed the way they were all sitting. Then, to her surprise, there was a knock on the door and Kristen walked in.

(Kristen) "Hey guys. Can I come in?"

Lillian raised an eyebrow.

(Lillian) "Why do you bother asking when you're already inside."

She said it as more of a statement than an actual question, and Kristen deliberately ignored her statement and took the seat beside Robyn. Liana chuckled lightly and asked,

(Liana) "Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be doing something right now?"

Kristen shrugged.

(Kristen) "I was bored, so I told someone else to do it."

(Kristen) "Ow!"

Robyn had just reached over the gap between them and pinched her side, hard.

(Robyn) "How could an Empress be so irresponsible?"

Everyone around raised an eyebrow at the interaction between the both of them. Everyone was wondering the same thing: Since when did they get so close?

*

Truthfully, there was no time for them to ever had gotten so close. But no one would have ever thought that Kristen and Robyn would have decided to start a link between themselves after the first time they met. Since that day when they had gone over to the Vayithen Empire, Kristen and Robyn had been talking, though through the link. One thing they really bonded over was Lillian.

To the both of them, she was like a little sister that seemed to need protection but quickly surpassed their abilities. They shared concerns and discussed things about Lillian, which led to them talking about other things, including their skills, finding out that they had a lot of similarities, skills and other things alike. All in all, they got much closer since they had first met.

*

(Kristen) "I am not. I've done what I need to, and everything else they can handle. Besides, I wanted to come over to spend time with you people."

Robyn rolled her eyes and the other four watched them with confused looks, though Ruby seemed to know what was going on, even if it was only because of her skill.

Still, no one commented on anything, as Lillian spoke again,

(Lillian) "No one objected to the terms?"

Kristen shook her head.

(Kristen) "I don't think many of them actually understood the full impact of it. None of them asked me, so I didn't explain it."

Lillian nodded slowly. She was still processing their discussion from earlier, but she supposed she'd just let it play out and see how it goes.

*

She turned to Robyn and asked,

(Lillian) "Would you like to come with me to talk to the assassins?"

Although she directed her question at Robyn, everyone else nodded. Merely raising an eyebrow, Lillian stood up and walked towards the door, everyone else following suit.

*

When they reached the dungeon, the two guards posted outside bowed and greeted Lillian.

(Guard #1) "Chief."

Lillian nodded and waved a hand. The guards stood up and opened the door for Lillian and the others. Inside, Jasmine appeared and bowed before addressing Lillian.

(Jasmine) "Chief. Right this way. We haven't done anything to them yet."

Lillian nodded and followed her. She was not concerned about Liana seeing anything like this happen since she already knew she was even responsible for similar things. Liz had been exposed early on as well, due to her curiosity. Thankfully for Lillian, Liz's mentality had always been more mature, and she understood certain things that some might not. As for the other three, well, Robyn was a Chief, Kristen was an Empress, and Ruby was a battle maniac. Nothing else needed to be said, really, but Lillian still warned them before they entered the section that they were keeping the assassins in. Of course, none of them changed their minds about going in, and a couple of them even started buzzing with excitement.

*

They walked through another door into a circular room, with cells lining the walls. Each of them had a few assassins inside, some unconscious and some awake. Lillian observed them for a while, then spoke.

(Lillian) "Take him out."

She pointed at an unconscious guy lying in one of the cells. The guards did as she commanded and chained him to a chair before backing away. Lillian stepped towards the guy and performed a spell to wake him up.

(Guy) "Wha─ Who─ You!"

Lillian smiled.

(Lillian) "It seems you recognize me. Now I just need to know who you are."

The guy's eyes narrowed.

(Guy) "I'm not telling you anything."

Lillian shrugged and turned around.

(Lillian) "Kristen? Robyn?"

It wasn't as if she couldn't have done it herself, but she decided to let them do it since they had the skill or skills for it anyway.

(Kristen) "You want the surname?"

Lillian shrugged.

(Kristen) "Trey Orran,"

Robyn picked up where she left off:

(Robyn) "Third in Command of the Azure Blood Squad and their most powerful mage."

(Lillian) "Thank you."

She turned back to the guy, Trey, who was watching them with wide eyes.

(Lillian) "Why would a member of the inner circle of the Second Largest Gang be here in person?"

She spoke more to herself than anything, but also as a question to Trey that she knew he wasn't going to answer.

(Liana) "It might have been because they needed to get rid of him and thus sent him on a sure-fail mission. Then again, that would be a huge mistake, seeing the depth of this guy's loyalty."

(Liz) "Maybe they're scouts."

(Robyn) "So basically the same thing as what Liana said."

Liz nodded.

(Liz) "They could be trying to see just how strong this Clan is, since they didn't seem to know Lil was well, Lil."

Trey had recognized Lillian as the Phoenix the moment he laid eyes on her but was incredibly confused when he remembered that he was taken captive by the Loyal Eagle Clan. It was only now that he was listening to their conversation that he finally connected the dots. Unfortunately, he also knew that Lillian would never let him leave alive.

*

(Lillian) "There's something else… I see. This guy is really being used."

The others nodded in agreement.

(Lillian) "What do you think I should do?"

(Kristen) "What about finding out why this guy's really here instead of just randomly guessing?"

Kristen didn't actually belong in this Empire, let alone this Clan. But then again, neither did Liana, Robyn or Ruby. Besides, Lillian trusted them and that was all that mattered.

(Lillian) "I guess we should do that."

The other girls all gave her a look of disbelief, which she ignored and turned back to the guy.

(Lillian) "Why are you here?"

(Trey) "I already said I'm not telling you anything. You're not getting anything out of me."

Lillian tilted her head slightly to the side.

(Lillian) "Thanks."

She turned back around.

(Lillian) "He's a scout. They didn't realise the Chief of the Tribe was also the Phoenix, the alias I am told I am known by."

(Liz) "What are they intending to do?"

(Robyn) "They wanted to see if this Clan was one that they could take. They sorely overestimated themselves purely because they had a man on the inside."

(Liana) "Did you catch the guy?"

Jasmine spoke up, having had just quietly been listening to their conversation all this time.

(Jasmine) "Yeah. He was the first guy we caught. The moment we detected the assassins, Chief Lillian instructed us to get that guy."

(Lillian) "Take him out."

She turned around, thinking for a moment before ordering one of her soldiers:

(Lillian) "Go fetch General Collinia. Tell her to come immediately."

The guard bowed and left to fulfil Lillian's orders. Lillian turned back to see strange expressions on every single one of the girl's faces. Although Liana's and Kristen's were more confused than anything, the others who had all been there when Ruby confronted her, were more worried than anything. They weren't sure if the time was too close together, seeing as it was just earlier that same day.

(Liana) "What's going on here?" (Kristen) "Why did all of you react like that?"

Liana and Kristen spoke at the same time, both asking different questions, but both would have had the same answer.

(Lillian) "They're feeling awkward because they just confronted Stella about something a few hours ago."

Everyone turned to look at Lillian again.

(Lillian) "What? Isn't that what's going on here?"

In all honesty, Lillian knew there was more to it and even had a few guesses, but she knew they wouldn't want to answer so gave this vague answer that they had to accept since it wasn't technically wrong.

Most of those closer to Lillian knew that she knew more than what she let on but didn't say anything since they knew Lillian well enough to know that she wouldn't say anything more if she didn't want to.

(Liana) "Okay…"

She knew from comparing the emotions of everyone around that there was a lot more going on than appeared so on the surface. However, like everyone else, she didn't say anything and instead opted to just ask Lillian later if she still wanted to know then.

*

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door and Stella walked in. She bowed and greeted Lillian, keeping her head lowered.

(Stella) "You asked for me, Chief?"

Lillian nodded and gestured towards Trey.

(Lillian) "What do you make of him?"

Stella observed him for a moment, then turned back to Lillian.

(Stella) "Does the name Rita Collier ring a bell?"

Trey's face paled drastically. Lillian raised an eyebrow.

(Lillian) "Rita Collier… The Second in Command, if I remember correctly."

Stella frowned and thought for a moment. Then started chuckling softly.

(Stella) "It's a love triangle. I never thought I would actually see this happen."

Lillian raised an eyebrow.

(Stella) "Both this guy and another guy both like the same girl but it so happens that the other guy is this guy's boss."

Although her sentence made very little sense by itself, everyone listening understood what she meant.

Liz started laughing as well and said,

(Liz) "Wow. He really was sent to his death."

Liana shook her head.

(Liana) "His boss is really dumb. This guy's loyalty to him is definitely stronger than his feelings for the girl."

They all shook their heads, then started laughing.

*

It was then that another guard opened the door, dragging another prisoner with him.

(Guard) "Chief, we brought him."

Lillian nodded.

(Lillian) "Thank you. Just put him in the room."

The guy was neither unconscious nor tied up very well, as they had taken him out in a rush to get him to Lillian, but Lillian wasn't concerned. Even if the guy tried to attack them, he probably wouldn't be able to move more than a step in their direction before being annihilated.

(Robyn) "Bruce. Too lazy to find out his last name."

Lillian faced him and simply asked one question.

(Lillian) "Why?"

The guy replied with a sneer on his face,

(Bruce) "I would never serve a weak woman like yourself. Besides, they promised me safety and a huge reward."

Lillian blinked in surprise. She definitely hadn't expected this answer even with her ability to read thoughts.

(Lillian) "Who exactly were you talking to? You do realise their second in command is a lady too, right?"

The guy's eyes twitched, but he tried not to show any other reaction.

The damage was done.

(Bruce) "How could you!?"

This wasn't directed at Lillian but at Trey. He broke out of his sloppy bonds and threw himself onto Trey, throwing punches at him in a rage.

Lillian activated a spell that lifted Bruce off of Trey and simply said,

(Lillian) "Just so you know, Trey wasn't the one that betrayed you. In fact, the same thing happened to him."

Her smile turned sharp as she continued,

(Lillian) "This is what happens when someone betrays me or my Clan. You should be glad this happened because you wouldn't like it if I was the one giving you the punishment."

There was a pause as Lillian's eyes narrowed dangerously.

(Lillian) "You wouldn't survive it."

It was then that everyone in the room found out how angry Lillian really was. Even Liana and Liz were surprised when they were hit full force with the feeling of Lillian's anger. Their eyes met and they were both thinking the same thing:

(Liana's and Liz's thoughts) 'No one should ever get on Lillian's bad side. She's scary.'