The Simulacrum - Chapter 118 - Part 3 (Patreon)

No matter how I looked at it, our makeshift dungeon was living up to its namesake quite admirably. The air of the chamber was stale and smelling faintly of urine, thanks to the authentic wooden bucket latrine in the corner of the only 'cell' in use.

Unfortunately, the torches had to go, as while they really helped to tie the ambience of the place together, without any windows to the outside and only a single vent, carbon-dioxide buildup became an issue. As such, while it didn't really fit the aesthetics, I had the Fauns use a pair of standing lamps Raven Boy bought at a local thrift store, currently sitting in the far corners.

They were called 'mogul lamps' if Morgana was to be believed, and each one of them had four separate bulbs under large, floral-print shades. They might not have fit the theme of the room, but at the very least the lighting they provided was more than adequate.

More importantly, a dungeon was nothing without a prisoner, and ours was currently sitting on the very same bed he used in the Dracis mansion.

Everyone's favourite Uncle Percy had seen better days. His hair and beard were frizzled and still mottled with dried-up blood. His face, while less swollen than the last time I'd seen him, was covered in bruises, and while Cal's focused healing effort somehow reset his broken nose, it remained slightly crooked. He was also still wearing the same blue bathrobe he had on him when I kidnapped him from the mansion, though by this point it was considerably less fluffy than it used to be.

The time in captivity also had a visible toll on him, as his eyes were dull and his cheeks sullen, and while I wasn't exactly feeling sorry for him, I had to admit that he was quite depressing to look at. That didn't last long though, as the moment the only door leading into the room opened, his eyes regained their focus and he immediately assumed his harmless old man façade, only for it to instantly crumble when he his gaze landed on the girl in the doorway.

"You…?" he hissed as he got up from the bed and turned to face his interrogator.

"Good afternoon, Sir Percival," Snowy purred in a low voice, and with a single wave of her hand, Hrul and Rabom left the room. "I hope you don't mind if I won't call you Uncle Percy, considering the… circumstances."

She flashed a disarming smile, and slowly sauntered towards the old man's cell, causing me to let out a shallow groan in the next room. I told her not to overdo it, because I knew that the whole 'vamp' thing made her uncomfortable, but by the looks of it, she decided to go the full mile. At least I could convince her out of using her Abyssal form, since even after our concerted efforts to make it less stripperific, it was still far from modest.

She was wearing her Magiformer school uniform instead, as it allowed her to access the brunt of her power without looking like a dominatrix. After the upgrades, it also provided marginally more protection, so I would've probably insisted on her wearing it anyway. While I was fairly sure that Percival didn't pose any real threat to her without his gear, and I had the Fauns do a full body search on him to make sure he didn't have any more poison or other items stashed on his body, it never hurt to be careful around a conniving old fox like him.

Snowy came to a halt on the other side of the bars, just out of arm's reach, and she had a confident smile on her face that didn't quite touch her cold eyes. On the other side, Percival was visibly on guard, but at the same time, he put up a strong front and approached her with a displeased frown.

"I knew it. You were working for Bel of the Abyss from the very beginning, weren't you?"

My sister cocked her head to the side, her smile gaining a slightly amused bend, and she wiggled her finger in front of her chest.

"Tsk-tsk. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Sir Percival. I'm afraid you won't be the one to ask the questions today."

"What? Are you here to interrogate me?" The old man scoffed and defiantly crossed his arms.

"And what if I am?" she asked back with a sultry voice, and Percy let out another scoff.

"You're a bit young for my tastes. If you want to seduce me, come back in a decade."

That comment made Snowy blink in surprise, but it didn't knock her out of her act, and she raised a hand to her mouth to stifle her giggles.

"Oh my, Sir Percival. You might think that now, but it's not wise to underestimate the charms of an Abyssal Seducer." Using the same hand, she extended a finger in his direction and made an odd swirling motion with it. "Do you want to bet how long it will take to wrap you around my pinky?"

"I'm trained to resist your mind games, witch," the old bastard growled, accompanied by a glare that could make water boil faster. "Stop playing around and tell me what you want."

Snowy paused for a moment and then assumed a more neutral pose, apparently switching tactics on the fly.

"Everything you know," she said in the same purring timbre, though this time it was hiding a steely undertone. "I want to know about your mission, your collaborators, what you know about your Celestial masters, and why you betrayed my brother."

That last one wasn't in the script, but if she wanted to improvise, I wasn't going to blame her.

"Your brother?" Percival echoed her with an incredulous expression, seemingly holding back the urge to laugh out loud. "Stop with the pretences, little missy."

"There's no pretense in my words, Sir Percival," Snowy emphasized with a hint of a glare, and when the old man continued to leer at her, she wiggled the fingers of her right hand in a complex motion and made a wave in his direction. Without warning, about two dozen thin and sharp icicles formed on the bars, all of them shooting out towards the startled old man. They stopped midway, but it still caused him to stagger back and stare at my sister with a mixture of surprise and outrage, which turned into unease as she coldly stated, "Leonard is my family. My only family. If it was up to me, I would have ended your miserable existence for selling him out, but fortunately for you, you're worth more alive than dead."

"That was unexpected," Percival responded a tad shakily, but he quickly readjusted his robes and lightly poked at one of the icicles. "Nice trick you've got here, missy. Must be really convenient for making ice cubes. Have you ever thought about making a career in bartending?" I immediately recognized this as a Refuge in Audacity tactic, and it bought him enough time to catch his breath and collect his thought. Once he rebalanced himself, he flicked the same icicle and aimed a frown at the girl on the other side of the bars and lowered his voice. "You speak of 'betrayal' and 'selling out', but does your precious 'brother' know about your allegiance to Bel of the Abyss?"

He probably hoped to use the question to unbalance her, but Snowy remained calm and flippantly answered with, "Of course."

"He… what?"

"Why so surprised, Sir Percival?" she pressed on, breaking out the seductress voice again. "Did you perhaps think that little old me was scheming behind my brother's back?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I thought," he admitted, and his eyes remained glued to her face. "It seems Leonard was much closer allied to Bel of the Abyss than I ever considered."

"There's so much you don't know," Snowy continued with a conceited smirk and punctuated it with a derisive chuckle.

"And what do you know?" Percival scoffed back, visibly agitated. "I raised the boy. I know him better than anyone."

"Do you truly? Are you still under the impression that you are well-informed? That you perfectly understand the people around your and their motivations? That the Celestials holding your leash can be trusted?" Snowy bombarded him with a series of questions, and delivered the coup de grace with a much more subdued, "Do you even know what happened to my brother after you betrayed him?"

Percival remained quiet for a moment, but then his expression eased up and he answered, "He should be in Elysium… but I'm sure you already know that."

"Of course. But do you know what he's doing there?" she asked back, and I had to admit, the way he baited the old man was fun to watch.

"He's getting his memories restored," he stated, and when Snowy shook her head, he immediately doubled down. "Director Mensah himself assured me of this, and I would've noticed if he lied. I've known the man since he was just a trainee agent."

"Oh, I'm sure you're very confident in your people skills, Sir Percival," my Abyssal sister purred and leaned forward to strike a provocative pose. "But what if he wasn't lying to you but simply not telling the whole truth?"

"Just spit it out," the old bastard blurted out and pointedly avoided meeting her gaze, causing Snowy to giggle. I could already see a thin thread of magical light forming between the two of them, which meant she already opened the back door to his psyche. I wasn't really happy about that, but she promised me that she would cut the connection the moment the interrogation was over.

"Have you ever heard of Polemos, the Second True Archon?"

The question made immediately turned Percival's head, and for a few seconds he only blinked uncomprehendingly.

"I've… yes, I've come across the name a few times. Some kind of ancient peer of Deus, and…" His words trailed into silence, and then his face slackened as he began to connect the dots. "Is this related to Leonard and his memories?"

"Naturally."

The elderly Knight fell silent again, his thoughts ultimately congealing into a small soliloquy.

"So, what you're trying to imply is that Polemos, just like Deus, has a second advent, and it is Leonard. And the reason why the Celestial Intelligence Network was so eager to take him into custody wasn't to reassert control over the Draconic Federation, or to learn more about Bel of the Abyss, but to ensure his return. And the memories Mensah was talking about weren't Leonard's own, but this Second True Archon's?"

As usual, the man was pretty quick on the uptake, and while it surprised Snowy, she quickly adapted to the situation.

"How does it feel to be the one to be kept in the dark and betrayed for once? It's not very nice, is it? Your Celestial friends lied to you, used you, and then ignored you in favour of your own agendas. It would be sad if it wasn't so ironic."

"Yes, go ahead. Keep laughing," the old man griped, even though my sister wasn't even smiling. "I presume the reason why you allied yourself with Bel of the Abyss was so that you could get him back." He paused and crossed his arms, levelling an intense gaze at Snowy. "While he's certainly powerful, I'm sure breaking into Elysium and kidnapping a VIP is beyond even his reach."

"What is or isn't in his reach is none of your concern," my Abyssal sister stated and tried to change the flow of the conversation, but the old man didn't relent.

"No, I believe it is. You want me dead. You said so yourself. Yet, I'm still breathing, and you are bothering to interrogate me so long after I was taken captive." Percival uncrossed his arms and pointed a finger at the girl on the other side of the bars. "That means you need me, or at the very least you need my knowledge."

Once again, the old bastard was vastly overestimating his value. However, instead of denying his words, Snowy pretended to flinch and averted her eyes.

"I hit the nail on the head, didn't I?" Percival grinned, grabbing at the small sense of control her reaction gave him like a drowning man grabbing at straws. "I already told Bel of the Abyss that I'm willing to make a deal, and now I have even more of a reason."

"State your terms," Snowy responded at once, causing the old man's smile to widen even further.

"Aren't you too eager, little missy?"

"I just… want my brother back," she responded, sounding genuinely pained, and with that, the grin on the old man's face got just a little dampened. Did she just pull a Wounded Gazelle Gambit on the old bastard? Nice.

"Now, now. Believe it or not, we're on the same side, at least in this matter," he told her, lapsing into his affable grandpa persona. "I want to see Leonard safe and sound just as much as you do."

"Then why did you betray him?"

While the words themselves appeared accusatory, the way she delivered them sounded more confused than anything, and even a blind man could've seen that she was setting him up for a monologue. Percival didn't, and whether that was because of her magical influence or his own hubris was an academic question we didn't have the time to delve into at the moment.

"I didn't betray him, I tried to help him," the old man protested and exhaled an annoyed grunt. "I asked my contacts in the Celestial Intelligence Network if they had the means to recover lost memories, and they immediately gave me a positive answer. In retrospect, I should've realized something was off back then and there. They were never so eager to provide support before."

"So they used you," Snowy pointed out, and it made him flinch, though it was almost imperceptible. "They wanted to get their hand on Leo, and you provided them the means and the excuse."

"Yes, it certainly seems like it," Percival grumbled, and she hit the iron while it was hot.

"That means the one who got betrayed was you, after all."

"Yes, you… I guess you're right," Percival nodded, his expression looking a bit lost, as if he had a hard time believing he was saying that.

"You said you want to help Leo as much as I do," Snowy pleaded as she stepped closer to the bars, and with a wave of her hand, she dispelled the icicles still clinging to the iron. "If you weren't lying, then I implore you to tell me everything you know."

"I…" Percival hesitated, but ultimately shook his head and exhaled hard. "No. I said I'm willing to make a deal, not to divulge information for free."

"Then tell me what you want."

He looked around the cell, his eyes lingering on the bucket in the corner, and looked my sister in the eyes, "I'm sure that you can't let me go, so how about some better accommodations, for a start?"

"We can arrange that," Snowy responded with a relieved smile, further baiting the old man.

"Also, some real food. Not this canned crap." That seemed to be the end of it, but then he hurriedly added, "And protection."

"From the Celestials?"

"From everyone," he stressed. "At least until Leonard comes back to clear things up."

The fact that he had this unwavering trust in me would've been heartwarming, if it didn't also make my stomach turn. As for my sister, she remained silent and crossed her arms while simultaneously massaging her temple.

"That's reasonable," she nodded along and gestured his way. "Now, I would like to hear what you can offer in return."

"I can give you names," he answered without missing a beat. "Agents and collaborations on the island. Draconians, Magi, as well as civilians. I have a whole list hidden away, but I can recall the most important one from memory. I can also share what I know about the current plans of Director Mensah and what I was supposed to do in Leonard's absence."

"Sounds fair," Snowy nodded and looked at the man expectantly.

They locked eyes for a few long seconds, and at last, Percival let out a long sigh and launched into a long and detailed elaboration of the above-mentioned topics. Snowy listened closely, though I could see her tune in and out of focus as he went into excruciating details. That said, I couldn't pay much attention to her, as I was busy dividing my attention between listening in on them and taking notes.

In the end, this first info-drop lasted for about twenty minutes, and while I didn't learn much new, having secondary sources was never a bad thing, and the names could be cross-referenced with the Celestial Hub's database later. In any case, once he deemed that he talked for long enough, Percival crossed his arms and set his mouth into a thin line.

"Thank you for your cooperation," Snowy purred, harkening back to her initial demeanour, and the old bastard scoffed at her and turned his head to the side, like a pouting child.

"Instead of your words, I would rather appreciate if you kept your side of the bargain."

"Of course," my sister flashed a full-faced smile and gestured towards the door. "I'll make sure to tell my Fauns to make your stay a little more comfortable." Saying so, she turned on her heels, only to glance over her shoulder and add, "I'll come to talk with you again once we verified what you told us."

"If you want me to tell you I'll look forward to it, I'm afraid I'll have to disappoint you."

Instead of responding, Snowy let out a soft giggle and walked to the door, hips swaying like she was on a catwalk in a fashion show. However, the moment she was out of the room, she let out a pent-up breath, her body language completely changed, and she made a series of complex gestures, which caused the thin line connecting her to Percival to snap like a fishing line trying to reel in an orca.

In the meantime, I also returned to my body and mirrored my sister's actions by exhaling a long sigh and rolling my shoulders.

"Are they done, your majesty?" Morgana inquired on my side, and as if to respond to her question, Snowy entered the room, looking downright exhausted.

"Great work," I praised her as I stood up and gestured for her to come over to my side.

"Um… I think I could've done better, but I didn't want to be too forceful…"

"Nonsense. You played him like a fiddle," I told her and rubbed her noggin.

"But… he didn't say anything we didn't already know…" my sister sulked, so I took things a step further and pulled her into a hug.

"You did well, sis. Nobody expected you to pull every single secret out of him on your first try."

"I know, I just…"

I patted her back for emphasis, and she fell silent, seemingly enjoying the physical contact. It also drew out various responses from the people around us.

The Fauns and Morgana seemed to find us wholesome. Raven Boy was looking at me like I was some kind of weird space alien, but to be fair, I never expected better from him. As for Roland…

"If you showed half this much affection to Penelope, we could've avoided her developing half of her complexes."

"Hey. I'm trying, all right?" I protested, which my Abyssal sister found amusing enough to stifle a giggle over.

"What now?" Agrawain cut in with a frown, and after some consideration, I shrugged.

"If you meant Percival, give him some clean clothes and order him a takeout or something."

"Yes, I meant him, but I wasn't talking about that," Raven Boy protested and animatedly gestured towards the door. "You just said you couldn't learn anything new, so why are we still keeping him captive."

"Don't put the cart before the horse," I said and let go of my sister. "For now, he only talked about things directly related to my kidnapping and the state of the island. What we actually want to know is just how entrenched the Celestials were in the Brotherhood, and how much you guys were influenced, but that'll take a bit more softening up. Right, sis?"

"Y-Yes. I found the best way to open him up, but if I wanted to learn about his past actions, I would need at least two or three more sessions like this."

"Just keep at it," I told her, stroked her head again, and then turned back to Raven Boy.

"As for the other answer to your 'What now?' question…" This time, I faced Roland and said, "We'll have to let the rest of the world know that I'm alive and well, so I'll go and get my props, and see you at the meeting."

Our Sir Griffon's face tensed up for a second, and then slacked just as abruptly as he uttered, "Please, don't overdo it."

"Don't worry. Just stick to the script, and everything's going to be juuust fine."

And with those final words, I Phased out of the room to prepare for my next performance.