Cracks of convergence. (10)

I'm gonna put a slight warning here, just in case. This chapter probably isn't suited for people who are squemish or aren't too good with depictions of cruelty.

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Gabriel didn't voice a response to Nerissa's order, his head tilting slightly as he approached Karnaka. His head remained tilted, quietly observing the man as he walked around the chair in a counter-clockwise circle. From head to toes, he inspected him. His clothes, his skin, his nails, the state of his hair, Gabriel observed it all so that he could understand what kind of life Karnaka lived.

But the main reason he walked the way he did was to walk himself back. It had been… a while since he last had to interrogate someone like this. Ever since he became Gabriel it had always been a different style, a swift brutality or insidious plotting where he didn't really have to use his own hands. And back when he still did things in the other style, he was just a tool, a handy weapon that was left lying around. Now Alice had helped him become something of a person so he first had to get into the right, if it could even be called that, state of mind to ensure that he did a proper job.

Eventually, his eyes drooped slightly. The gaze he used to observe Karnaka couldn't even be called cold, it was more akin to indifferent, as if he was looking at a pile of hay. His feet stopped and his knees bent as he crouched in front of the tied-up man, his hands resting on Karnaka's knees as he looked up to meet his eyes.

"You're going to live, Karnaka. No matter what happens, you will live through today, through tomorrow, and even through the day after tomorrow. Head Inquisitor Nerissa has ordered it, so you will live."

Gabriel stated the order plainly. The final line that he wasn't allowed to cross was death, he wasn't allowed to let Karnaka die. Naturally, something like that was excellent news for the one being interrogated. Well… The truth was that it wasn't always the case.

A glimmer of light flashed in Karnaka's eyes when Gabriel laid the truth so bare. But before that light got to grow too bright, Gabriel's hand moved. It landed on Karnaka's tied up hand, a gentle touch enveloping his pinky. And then that gentle touch twisted and pulled. From sprain to dislocation to breaking, Karnaka's finger hopped from stage to stage until it lost all power.

Naturally, Karnaka groaned at the unexpected pain that shot up his arm, a bit of spittle shooting out from between his teeth because of the shock. He braced himself for the next move, but Gabriel didn't follow it up. He simply looked at Karnaka, looking eyes with him while barely blinking.

He didn't say anything, he just looked at him. Even breaths. Quiet breaths. Steady blinks, an unmoving gaze. He just crouched there for a few minutes, as if his legs were locked in a vice. And then, just when a breath escaped from Karnaka's clenched teeth, Gabriel moved. His hand slid over to a different finger, the thumb this time, and touched it gently.

Karnaka's jolted for a second as he braced, but Gabriel stopped again. He simply allowed his touch to rest on Karnaka's thumb, never once breaking eye-contact as he resumed just crouching there, unmoving.

Ten minutes later he turned that gentle touch into another abrupt twist. Karnakas grunted again, his pinky had already started to go numb so this second broken finger was almost as bad as the first. And then there was silence again for a moment as Gabriel simply looked at Karnakas.

The seconds flowed and became minutes, another handful of minutes passing before Gabriel suddenly stood up. Karnakas braced, as one was want to do, but Gabriel simply turned to Nerissa.

"Head Inquisitor Nerissa, could I request something to drink? If there was something to eat then I would also appreciate that."

Naturally, it wasn't just Karnaka who was surprised by the sudden change, the other inquisitors weren't faring much better. But Nerissa simply waved her hand, her expression unchanging as she sent out one of the inquisitors.

While they were off fetching food, Gabriel made his way over to the wall and picked up two of the chairs that had been put aside, dragging them over so that he could sit down right in front of Karnaka. The inquisitor returned shortly after, bringing a jug of water and some cooked chicken.

Gabriel placed a handkerchief over the second chair, which he had placed next to him, and used it as a table. He picked at the chicken, placing a few small pieces in his mouth and chewing them without a care in the world. Karnaka looked at him strangely, as if he was observing him to understand what was going through his head. 

Gabriel simply ignored him and picked up some more chicken. But just as he put another piece in his mouth, his foot rose quickly and was brought down sharply, stomping Karnaka's toes. His soft shoes couldn't hide the sound of bones cracking as three of his toes crumbled, a bit of blood slowly starting to seep out from his shoes.

He groaned in pain, but Gabriel just looked at him quietly, never once breaking eye-contact. He picked at the chicken and slowly drank the water, his every move so carefree and slow that you'd think he was on vacation. It was only after a few minutes that he once again broke the silence.

"Sorry, Head Inquisitor Nerissa, but could I borrow a dagger, or a similarly small knife?"

Naturally, Karnaka winced at the request, you'd have to be an idiot to not understand what a knife would be used for in a situation like this. But when Gabriel received the dagger, he simply used it on the chicken, freeing the thighs and wings.

He slowly gnawed on the small wings, scraping them clean with his teeth before tossing the bones aside. When he raised the first thigh, he held it towards Karnaka.

"Has it been long since you ate? You're probably hungry, no?"

He held the thigh right up to Karnaka's mouth, putting down the dagger as he raised the other thigh to his own mouth. He didn't push Karnaka to eat, nor did he pull back the cooked thigh, he simply held it in place as he chewed on the other one. As one would expect, Karnaka didn't just go ahead and dig into the meat, looking at it suspiciously for more than a few minutes.

But in the end, he cautiously opened his mouth to take a bite. And then Gabriel struck. The other thigh he was holding was pointed down and then slammed down, the bone in it smashing into the fingertip belonging to one of Karnaka's untouched fingers.

The nail split and was torn under the force, both the bone in the thigh and the fingertip shattering. Chicken bones were very brittle so it would obviously break apart without much effort, the jagged shards embedding themselves in the rest of Karnaka's finger. 

A yelp of pain escaped him, Gabriel silencing it by pushing the presented chicken thigh forward and blocking Karnaka's mouth with it. His teeth scraped at the flesh, the force of the push causing some of his teeth to get pushed back until they fell out or broke. 

He naturally vomited when the chicken was pushed back far enough, but the size of the thigh meant that the contents of his stomach could barely leave his throat, much less his mouth. In the end, it was forced back down, some of it going down the wrong pipe and ending up in his lungs, resulting in a violent coughing fit. Gabriel did not let him rest, pulling out the thigh before forcefully pouring water into his mouth, ensuring that it went the same way as the vomit, some to the stomach and some to the lungs.

"Godsdamn… What in the… Hells do you… You want from me?!"

He forced the words out between grit teeth and heavy coughs. Gabriel hadn't even asked him a single question so far, hadn't given him a chance to make a single excuse. Hadn't given him a single way out.

Gabriel lowered his hand as the man coughed, placing the ruined chicken thigh in Karnaka's lap. He reached over and picked up the dagger, toying with it in silence as he ignored Karnaka, still not breaking eye-contact. After a few minutes, Karnaka could finally stop coughing, but the vile taste remained in his mouth.

He was just about to speak up again when Gabriel moved. He bent down and removed one of Karnaka's shoes, the one on the untouched foot, and then slid off his sock. Clean feet, albeit somewhat sweaty. His nails were neatly cared for, a small scar on his heel. Gabriel looked at the foot for a few minutes in silence before he moved the dagger. He nimbly positioned the tip underneath the toenail of Karnaka's big toe, and with a few pushes and twists he lopped the toenail off.

As Karnaka was huffing and grunting in pain, Gabriel sat back down on the chair and wiped a bit of blood off of the dagger. He was once again locking eyes with Karnaka, who was breathing heavily. And finally, finally, he spoke up.

"There are four things I consider vital for any interrogation. The first is hope. If the other party has no hope of getting out of their horrible situation, why would they bother saying a single thing? The second is patience. People are stronger than most people expect, they're also hardy and can easily adapt. So you need to be patient. Do things slowly so that they can't get used to it, don't let them go numb."

The rules had been drilled into his head time and time again. He'd have to experience them with his own body so that he would know how to use them, know why they were so important. Hope was especially important, because if the target had no hope then they wouldn't even feel any despair, they would just shut down.

"The third is surprise. If the other party knows what is going to happen and when, well then they can just brace and prepare. You need to keep them thinking, you need to have their mind run around, wondering when the next move is made. It wears them out, both physically and mentally, it doesn't give them any time to rest."

A tired mind was a careless mind, and a careless mind was far more likely to let things slip. Back in his previous life, it wouldn't have been unusual for Gabriel to force his target to stay awake for several days at a time to wear them down. Naturally, he also couldn't sleep during that time because he more often than not worked alone, so it involved a lot of drugs.

"And fourth is escalation. Again, people can adapt surprisingly well, if you just do the same thing over and over again then they'll get used to it, they'll get numb."

The dagger moved as Gabriel spoke, the tip resting on Karnaka's finger.

"You can start with a finger. A quick bruise or break, just a single finger. Then you do the wrist, then maybe the elbow. But eventually, they'll get used to the sensation so you need to break the bones in different ways. Then you can go for the fingernails or fingertips, or perhaps move on to the toes."

The dagger traced across Karnaka's skin as Gabriel spoke, drawing a thin red line wherever it moved. He shuddered lightly, especially when Gabriel moved the dagger upwards.

"I don't really like going for the stomach. A lot of organs, go a bit too hard and  you can cause damage that swiftly becomes fatal. The thigh is the same, there's a really dangerous vein just hidden in there. The head however…"

The dagger came to a halt on Karnaka's temple, small drops of blood leaking out as he pressed it into his flesh.

"Surprisingly enough, the head is rather easy to work with. Nose, ears, mouth, eyes, all of them are rather easy to deal with. The eye especially, a lot of nerves, a lot of 'cables' to handle. A knife makes it quick, severs them. But it can go too deep, it can cut something you want left alone. A spoon is generally better there, it twists and grinds the veins while being too big to go too deep. In the end, a quick scoop and it goes plop."

The dagger kept drawing lines across Karnaka's face as Gabriel spoke, circling his eyes and nose while also prodding his ear canal. And of course, Gabriel refused to break eye-contact so Karnaka could only tremble as he looked upon the sheer indifference with which Gabriel looked at him. It was as if he was looking at that chicken from earlier as he plucked at the flesh.

"I'm patient, Karnaka. Very patient. And as I already said, Head Inquisitor Nerissa said that you had to live. So live you will, no matter what."

He just repeated what he said earlier, but it took on a whole new meaning this time, sending an unearthly chill down Karnaka's spine. He wanted to flee and jump out of the window, but he was tied up so he could forget about even attempting it. But finally… Gabriel gave him a way out.

"We don't need much, Karnaka. We don't even need you to tell us who is at the head of it all. Just tell us where you pick up the orders, and about who hands them over to you."

His voice was low, his words slow. With each syllable he spoke, the knife in his hands moved slightly. It slid down Karnaka's body, gently prodding his broken fingers and the crushed stump that remained of one of his fingertips.

Karnaka was silent for a few moments, trapped by Gabriel's gaze. That empty gaze without emotions, that indifferent stare that just seemed to look right through him, he shivered at the sight of it. His every groan and huff from pain, it couldn't even move a single hair in his eyebrows. The man in front of him was as empty as the dagger that caressed his skin.

"There's a coffee shop close to the central plaza… Thousand Delights. On days when we get a request for certain types of people, there's a temporary waiter there who'll bring me certain drinks to signify what they need. He's slightly aged, his back bent ever-so-slightly. He's got brown hair, but it looks dyed, and a mustache that reaches just past the edges of his mouth. Black eyes and a round pair of glasses… Ah, he also has a mole just behind his right ear, I only saw it on accident once."

Karnaka spilled the beans straight away when he got a chance out, a gleam in his eyes. The fact that he was willing to spill it so quickly made Gabriel guess that he probably didn't know who was behind the old man who delivered the orders. Well, that was until now.

"I don't know about the dyed hair, but a mole behind his right ear… One of the butlers working for Duke Sorin's third son does indeed have something like that, I caught a glimpse of it once when we questioned some of their other servants."

Nerissa tapped her chin as she muttered to herself, eyes narrowing sharply. It naturally wasn't enough to form anything close to a case, but it was more than enough to start an investigation, and it definitely was a clue that could point them in the right direction.

Naturally, hearing who he might have just snitched on, Karnaka grew rather pale, his mouth slightly agape. Gabriel looked at him one last time before he stood up and turned around, walking over to the inquisitor he borrowed the dagger from.

"Thank you for lending it to me, it served me well."

As he spoke, his mind moved. Ice gathered within Karnaka's mouth, small tendrils quickly reaching out and coiling around his teeth. Before anyone could see, they snapped his mouth shut with such force that everyone could hear his teeth shatter. Parts of the ice then turned into a sharp blade and sank down, severing Karnaka's tongue at the base and causing blood to pour out.

"He's trying to kill himself!"

Nerissa and the others naturally sprang into action immediately, but the ice inside his mouth scooped up the severed tongue and shattered teeth and pushed them down his throat. The broken teeth and ice flowed down first, shredding his throat and lungs from the inside while his severed tongue blocked his airways and choked him.

By the time the inquisitors pried open his mouth, the ice that had slid down his throat had become water that mixed with what Gabriel had forced down his throat earlier. They quickly cleared his airways by forcing out the tongue, but his lungs were already shredded so he could only gasp powerlessly, choking while tied to the chair.

He looked around with a helpless and despairing gaze, once again meeting Gabriel's gaze. The indifference was gone, replaced by a coldness that almost felt worse. He opened his mouth, but all that came out was sputters of blood and violent gasps. In the end, he couldn't even say anything and simply choked to death.

They shouldn't have made Teresa cry, they shouldn't have angered his Alice.