ROLEPLAY

                
Eeri, still groggy after hours of being suspended, had no choice but to follow the two guards without reacting. She was then dragged through a labyrinth of small, narrow corridors carved into the wood. After about ten minutes of walking, she finally saw daylight at the end of a corridor. An exit to the outside. Just before entering the passageway, one of the guards glanced outside and then beckoned his companion to stop. A few seconds later, a buzzing sound rose up from the canyon. It consisted of a strange, shrill sound that Eeri had never heard before, along with a multitude of clanking and galloping noises, which she knew very well this time were from kitins. The shrill noise increased in intensity and a spindly form passed at full speed in front of the recess in which the three homins were waiting, raising a cloud of dust in the process. A Marauders' craft? Probably. Or from the Karavan? And on its heels, about thirty kitins, each bigger than the next... The two guards waited a good minute for the canyon to to recover its quietness, then pushed the prisoner forward. Eeri could then glimpse some carcasses of kitins, abandoned here and there all along the gigantic canyon. The guards ordered her to move on, while they themselves headed for another recess, on the opposite cliff of the canyon. She followed them without delay: it was definitely not necessary to linger in this place.

The two homins and their prisoner had to walk for another twenty minutes, passing through a few labyrinths of corridors and small rooms, before arriving in a larger and brighter room, lit by a few torches. If up to this point, all the rooms they had passed through seemed to be mere crossing points, this one was slightly decorated. The two guards made her sit on her knees, and positioned themselves behind her. Eeri had barely had time to observe the few pieces of furniture in the room when she noticed a small group of homins on the other side of the room.

"Here is the spy," said one of the guards.
"Has she spoken so far?"
"No, she hasn't."
"Then what do you want me to do with her?"
"Let's interrogate her," said a third voice. "If she persists in saying nothing, then we'll see."

The few homins, all dressed in light, medium and heavy Maraudeur armors, approached Eeri, and positioned themselves in an arc, facing her. The homine who started speaking, in the center, was clad with a large black cloak that hid her face and covered an armor also black. From the muffled sound of her voice and her accent, Eeri could not distinguish if she was a Fyrossa, a Matissa or a Zoraia. But she was definitely too tall to be a Trykera.

"We're listening," she said.
"I am not a spy," Eeri said curtly.
"What else?"
"No matter what I say, Azazor sold me out. He used me to gain your trust. He wants to go on alone. He doesn't need me anymore."
"We listened to him, and his reasons are respectable. But he didn't speak against you. Do you have anything different to tell us about him?"

Eeri shook his head no.

"He spoke the truth. His truth."
"Good. For now, we believe him."
"You can. I'm the one who has been wrong about you Marauders."
"What do you mean, you were wrong?"
"I thought this crystal could help me."

A homin stepped forward to speak, but the homina in black stopped him with an authoritative wave of her hand and went on:

"Here, stealing a crystal is a crime. If you have get it regularly, you must belong to a clan. Which clan?"
"None."
"Then how?"

In front of the silence of Eeri, she says in a threatening tone:

"Lying to us more won't help you. The truth will be much more useful, to avoid we condemn you."
"I am from the Federation. Before that, I fought and learned with the Rangers, and spent my youth in the Desert serving the Fyros Empire. Before undertaking this journey, I joined the Marauders in the New Lands, undercover, to obtain a crystal. But I have never been a Marauder."
"We read your journal, we know all that."
"Then you also know that I am a Seeker of Elias, and that my purpose here is not to infiltrate or harm you."

The homina laughed:

"A Trytonist... Can't you think of something better?"
"Talking like that would cost me my life in the New Lands. I have spent my life hiding my beliefs, even from those closest to me. In here too? You disappoint me."
"Let's admit it. And this Mazé'yum? We've heard a lot about him."
"He gave me the job of delivering some notebooks to his former clan, The Horizon Surveyors."
"We know that."

The homina turned, and a Tryker spoke:

"Yes, we were given these notebooks. A bunch of obscene stories without any interest..."
"Can't you read between the lines," cut off the Fyrossa, snarling? "Years of research..."

The tryker smiled, a bit surprised.

"Of course we can. We're working on it. So you know what these books contain?"
"I did some research with Mazé'Yum. That's gotten me into a lot of trouble already. Yes, I've read and studied these notebooks."
"This Mazé'yum is not one I'm too fond of," continued the Tryker, this time addressing the black Marauder. But he has got talked about recently in the New Lands, and his researches seems all in all noteworthy. Just like the goo bomb we found in his stuff.

At these words, the group became chaotically agitated, each one began to whisper to his neighbor. After a few seconds, the hominid stopped them with a wave of her hand.

"So here we have a scientist in search of the truth. Do you buy that?"
"I don't think Maze'Yum would be foolish enough to entrust her notebooks to just anyone. Especially to a spy from the Ash," said the tryker.
"So your'e not Akilia Ash Storm?" asked Eeri.
"Shut up!" she shouted before making a sign to the group around her to move back a few steps to exchange some whisperings.

"And take her back to her cell. I don't need her anymore."