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 Posted: Thu Aug 21, 2014 7:35 pm
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Troubled, the Faun Chieftain paced his study deep in thought. From time to time, he would pause, seeming to entertain some thought, then sigh and shake his head as if dismissing it and resuming pacing. After some time, he sat at his desk in an attempt to stop feeding the nervous energy, picking up a quill and twirling it idly between his fingers.
It was a risk, yes, but one that he felt was acceptable. Even if this venture failed completely, there was little but circumstantial evidence to tie it back to the Faun. And no real loss for their part. But, if it succeeded, then perhaps, this was what Laisidhiel had in mind all along.
He wasn't going to deliver the order himself. Not only wasn't that his job to do such tasks, but from what he'd heard from the Seer, his Captain had seemed to form some sort of understanding with the Blood Pae during the brief interview. He had understood the Seer's concerns and shared them. The thought that one of his own Circle could possibly defend the actions of a Blood Pae made sickness churn in his gut. But...he was still a Brother; he deserved the benefit of a doubt. He had never seemed to grow as close as the others had. But it made sense that the Captain, being the one typically out in the field away from the Tree, would seem the most distant of those in the Circle, right?
Right?
Pushing down the growing sense of doubt and unease, Rais began penning a letter to Gulliver.
-----
Brother Gulliver,
I have a request to make of you. In light of recent events, we can no longer sit idly by without knowledge of the Blood Paes' movements. We have perhaps waited too long already. At this point, they have drawn blood and we must find out why. We will not act in blind vengeance for our Brother's family, but we will take action to prevent such cruel acts from happening to any other Faun beneath Laisidhiel's branches. By her blessing, no worse harm will come to any of our kin.
I believe we have a gift from the Great Tree. Rather than risk one of our own, I want you to contact the Blood Pae'il who sought us out over his own kind. The time has come to test his loyalty. Inform him that he is to be our agent. He will investigate the Blood Pae'il's movements and find out why they have been attacking our people and stealing protection tokens from travelers. If he succeeds in finding this information, then we have done so without risking any of our own. If he fails and is discovered, he will have no obvious ties to us. If he claims otherwise, without proof, perhaps they will believe them only the desperate accusations of a traitor.
Contact the Blood Pae'il, Thom, and send him on this mission to test his loyalty to the Tree. Make sure that he understands, if he fails or is otherwise discovered, he is on his own.
- Chieftain Rais
-----
((Thom's task is to infiltrate the City, find information on the Squires and their plans, and return it to the Faun without being discovered. Please do not wait for staff to guide you, this is Thom's quest and it is up to you to come up with a way for him to prove his loyalty to the Faun to Rais and Laisidhiel first of all. You will be responsible for his success or failure. While you may RP with others to reach this end, excuses that you did not finish because of other people will not be accepted. If you believe you will be unable to complete these RPs with others in time, you will need to find a different way to complete the task on your own. Therefore, it is recommended that when possible, you work on this task primarily in SOLO RPs.
Some things to keep in mind:
Thom's missing wings will be a major red flag to ANY Pae'il in the City. It is likely best he try to remain undetected.
Thom has forsaken the Light Faction by sacrificing his wings, so he has lost his previous Guardian-granted ability and is currently powerless until accepted fully by another Faction.
If Thom has any sort of inside contact in the City, perhaps best to be careful to make sure of which side they're on...
If at any point the Squires catch wind of Thom's inquiries and suspicions are aroused, he will be apprehended on suspicion of being a traitor, or at best, a heretic-sympathizer and will be incarcerated, failing his mission.
Any RP relating to this task will be closely watched to make sure that settings rules are followed, that the fourth wall is not broken (primarily in characters knowing things without a reason why they should know them), and that actions and consequences make sense. In the case that any of these are broken and staff NPC intervention is required, Thom will also fail.
Staff may intervene as needed in this trial, but you should not stop and wait, assuming staff will post. This is Thom's challenge to convince Chieftain Rais and Laisidhiel of his complete and utter devotion.
If at any point in this quest, Thom is incarcerated or killed, he will fail.
Thom has until the end of the Squires' Final Test to complete his mission. After that, Chieftain Rais will have to assume that Thom has either been captured, killed, or betrayed them by that point and he will fail.
Good luck.))
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Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2014 3:04 pm
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Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2014 12:11 am
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Thom had healed, and he had gotten used to not flying. Celaeno had taken to helping a bit more though she still pushed his buttons to get just about anything she wanted. What worried him more though was Ama's absence. Udara had grown up and 'left the nest' but Thom couldn't account for where his fiancee had vanished to.
He still waited almost impatiently for how he could prove himself for weeks, after a couple months he stopped looking expectantly towards the door for a messenger, or a note of some kind and after a year he'd almost given up completely. And then he showed up, the faun's captain of the rangers Gulliver as he had introduced himself. He seemed wary of the situation, wary of Thom, and certainly not thrilled to be the messenger of the message to an angel regardless the fact it came from Gulliver's own chieftain.
The faun's agent he was now, though if it came down to it the fauns would deny any knowledge of this. He'd been told this outright and he supposed he could understand why. What Thom didn't understand is why his own pae were attacking the faun, why they felt the need to steal the tokens from the faun travelers. The captain had revealed a little of what has happened, so that Thom had a place to go from. He mentioned a sever attack, coins taken, even the mention of some kind of protection spell that had been reported.
Thom had seen the captain off after he'd gotten all the information and instruction he was going to get. Now the wingless angel had to figure out how he was going to do this, obviously some way to disguise the fact he had no wings was in order, no way he'd be able to move about in the city the way he was. He hadn't left the cave in ages, he'd had cela get everything they needed for ages. Only pae he knew who knew of his wingless situation was the faun and his harpy daughter. And even his daughter still thought he'd been attacked. No he'd have to disguise his wingless form somehow and now that Gulliver was gone he was setting about figuring out how to do that with a newly motivated spirit. Maybe he could succeed in this mission and find out what had happened to his beautiful Ama.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:26 pm
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It was at least a good weeks' hike to the landing pad up to the city, he hadn't ran as important as it was he was trying to not draw attention to himself. He'd fashioned himself something of a cloak with some bulkiness under it to hide his lack of wings. It was a typical looking, earth toned travelers cloak with it's hood down and fastened securely around his neck. He planned to stay out of sight in the city, he still had no idea how he was going to get the information he had to get but he had to at least try. He carried very little, he already had eaten everything he'd brought with him. Once he got close to the landing pad he slowed and stayed out of sight, making sure no pae was near the spot before he moved to make his jump. Thom made sure his cloak was pulled securely around himself before making the attempt, it was all that hid his lack of wings.
He had to pull back into the safety of the shadows one more time before he was able to get over to the jump point and head up into the city. He stuck really as much as he could to the shadows as he moved deeper into the city. He waved off a beggar, sad even up here not all pae lived in luxury, but the fact the beggar had noticed him made him be even more wary of his movements.
Thom had never been to the city before, it was huge, and this bothered him, how would he find out just what was going on and why his kind was attacking the fauns. It was nearing the end of the first day in the city that Thom came across a notice, pinned to a post near the market of the city. Attention Squires of the Holy Order of the Light: it read, well this looked promising. He lifted his hand and ran his finger along the list on the notice. A cup, coin, sword and a wooden rod... rod ? why would they need a rod? to fish? but that didn't make sense. He pulled out a small roll of parchment to quickly make notes. Then he saw the additional notes, well that would explain why it seemed to be random pae from what he'd been told.
As Thom stared at the notice a small fairy watched him, her eyes narrowed a little, it had been quite a while since these notices had been posted why was this pae only just making note of it. He looked like a traveler but surely even a traveler would have heard something yes? "Can we helps you?" her squeaky voice pipes up from one side of Thom.
Thom nearly jumped from the startle, he really had to pay more attention. He looked at the little fairy and smiled softly trying to hide his fright "No, thanks, I just came back from a journey and saw these notices. I'd like to help so I figured it best to read thoroughly so I don't miss anything. Thankyou though" he was desperate to get away from this fairy. He turned to move away from the market place as if to head homewards and waved to the fairy who seemed to watch him closely till he turned the corner. It was only then that Thom exhaled the breath he'd been holding.
The angel moved through the city in the shadows until he found a secluded place to hide away for the night, he didn't want to leave this fast, if that fairy were watching for him it would be too suspicious. It was in this little secluded place that Thom stayed for the night and the better part of the next day. He then moved trying to find more information, he thought he spotted a female angel that was familiar, but it had been so long since he'd been in contact with anyone he wasn't sure.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:27 pm
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He found one more secluded corner to hide away in after sneaking a bun cooling with some other buns and bread on a window sill in the residential area. It was good, and it stopped that irritating rumble that has started to take place in his belly. He was going to leave after one last night's rest, but just before the sun set there was shouts and cheers coming out windows and Thom couldn't ignore it. It was celebrations of a hero, a hero who had done damage to the Great Tree the faun lived in, a demon they were calling Raken. This worried Thom, what if Ama was in the tree, what about the others, surely this was bad, very bad. So instead of hunkering down for the night he headed for the gates. It seemed most pae in the city were celebrating, talking animatedly among themselves, he heard smatterings of talk of a child having been taken and but mostly about the hero pae who had served a great blow to the faun, punishing them for crimes against the angels and demons. And as much as there was anger about the child it seemed the demon was getting much praise and celebration, there was word of some castle wardens sending another pae to finish the task, that the child would be rescued from those 'savage' faun. Thom didn't know what or who a castle warden was, but the fact that they sounded to be planning to send another pae towards the tree was info that Thom knew needed to be passed.
Thom stopped a few times on his way out of the city, a couple times to back into the shadows as celebrating pae made their way down streets singing their own songs of praise for the hero. At one point he had a drink shoved at him by a pae who had certainly had had too much and was stumbling along with a couple glasses and a bottle of wine. He took it pretending to join in the celebration but ending up pouring it out after the celebrating pae continued his stumble down the road. He abandoned the glass on a ledge and finished his trek to the gates. Thom wasn't going to be at ease until he was out of this city and he knew it, and not only just out of the city but into the protection of the trees.
Thom had to wait for some time before it was clear enough for him to slip out the gates, he did this as soon as he could, moving as quickly as he could without seeming to be in a rush. Once on the ground though there was no pretenses he ran, into the woods and away from the landing zone. He wanted to go home, but things had changed and he knew it, he knew he had to tell what he read and what he had heard as soon as he could. Thing was he wasn't sure how to contact the faun named Gulliver. He ran towards the Tree, stopping just to take gulps of air as he tried to catch his breath.
By early light he was nearing the edge of the forest, the wingless angel had moved as fast as his legs could carry him. He stopped mostly to catch his breath but also to try and sort out his next move. He was in a hurry but still without a plan he knew it pointless to go running further. He straightened the cloak he still had on his back though now with a few snag-holes along it's hem from catching twigs as he ran. He stared towards the distant tree he could see the smoke still slowly rising from it. His chest tightened, the shouts in the city were true, they'd done some massive damage. As the sun climbed higher in the sky Thom was readying to move out of the forest when he saw movement in the corner of his eye. Turning he saw a bow pointed directly at him, and then a second one.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:28 pm
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The holders were faun and they looked none too happy about seeing a blood pae. They motioned him at arrow point into the woods telling him to keep his hands were they could see them. After a few feet a 3rd ranger joins them and with a scowl pulls his hands from where they were, binding them tightly together with no gentleness in front of him leaving a couple feet of loose rope for a lead. The third ranger takes hold of the loose lead of rope pulling roughly "Don't try anything, or you will have arrows in you faster then you can blink" he said gruffly as he heads into the trees pulling Thom behind him purposefully yanking hard on the rope as they moved causing their prisoner to stumble several times.
Were these Gulliver's men? Thom didn't know and it scared him, he knew he couldn't be caught or he'd fail, but here he was caught, though it wasn't a demon or angel pae it still scared him, what if they didn't take him to see Gulliver or any of the other Faun he knew. "But, but you don't understand! I need to..." He started to stammer stumbling along behind the faun yanking him through the trees ahead of the other two faun.
"Quiet!!" the faun pulling him along snapped at him cutting his sentence short and backhanding Thom across the face hard "We understand just fine, you.. you angels.." the ranger nearly spat the words out at him "Think you are better then us, we will just see what the Captain thinks. If it were up to me you'd be drawn and quartered. Here and now. But I have orders..." He didn't elaborate, he just stopped talking becoming silent as they continued the trek.
Thom reeled back a bit at the blow to his face, it stung painfully. Each and every time he stumbled back he felt the point of an arrow. It was like they were telling him to hurry up, and yet the faun who was pulling him along seemed to be trying to take him through the roughest terrain possible. He tried a few more times to try to find out if these were Gulliver's men, but each time he tried he was met with a backhand to the face and soon he stopped trying. By the time he was pulled into the camp he had a few good bruises and very sore feet from the terrain. He was shoved into a tent and secured to the center post with his hands near the base forcing him into a kneeling position. The faun who had pulled him to this camp then went to fetch the captain in question.
Still feeling the pain of Laisidheil, Gulliver was more then happy with the idea of interrogating one of the pae who may have been party to the crime against his home. With the ranger who fetched him hot on his hooves he headed directly for the tent where the angel in question was secured. Throwing the flap to one side he took one look at the angel inside and set his expression in a tight line looking at the other rangers "OUT!" he hollered at them shooing them all out before closing the flap behind him. His rangers sneered at Thom on their way out of the tent, they had wanted to watch but they were just content in knowing that they had caught one of the angels. He recognized Thom even with the cloak and it's fake bulk to hide his lack of wings, he had not shared information about this angel with his rangers.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 11:29 pm
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Thom glances towards the tent as the flap opens he feels a wave of relief seeing Gulliver, but then the faun bellows at the other rangers. Did the captain not remember him? This surely couldn't be true, or did he think like the other fauns that Thom had something to do with the tree's damage. He winced and looked down towards his bound hands unsure but still expecting Gulliver to release him.
Gulliver looks down at the angel tied to the post, his voice eerily calm as he began to speak "The fact you were anywhere near when this went down does not look good for you. You better not have had anything to do with this at all Thom" he said not releasing the captive pae from his bonds. He bends over slightly looking at the angel who wasn't looking up at him, he grabbed Thom's hair and forced him to look up and meet his gaze "You better be fast in giving me one good reason to believe you didn't."
Thom winced it was painful having his hair pulled in such a way "I been to the city!" he squeaked out in a pained tone "They, they are celebrating" he was trying to lift up a bit to try to releive the pull on his hair. He couldn't raise up far with how his hands were tied near the base of the pole "Please, ow.. please let me tell you. It's info like you asked for!"
The faun ranger captain looked the pained angel in the eye, he could see that his men had 'roughed' Thom up some, and after the attack on his home he was ready to do the same. "Laisidheil gave you the benefit of the doubt offering you the chance to prove yourself. And while you were on this mission she was attacked. You may think you have information we need but at this point I'm not inclined to believe you." he gave a sharp tug and gave Thom a swift punch in the gut before pulling out a knife and cutting the tie holding the cloak on then letting his hair go.
Thom doubled over in pain as the faun's fist met his gut. He felt his cloak slid off his back exposing his wingless self once again. He didn't understand how the faun couldn't or wouldn't believe him, it was after all Gulliver who had sent him on the mission to begin with. He tried to regain his composure and tell what he knew but it was met with another punch to his gut and a couple kicks in his side causing him to wind up on the ground trying in vain to get away from Gulliver's attack but unable to move far with his wrists bound so tightly to the pole.
This went on for most of the evening until the sun went down, this wouldn't be known to the angel as the tent and the trees blocked out the sun's rays. Gulliver eventually got hungry from exerting the energy he was using to beat on Thom. He left the angel who now bore many bruises whimpering on the floor of the tent beside the pole. Taking the angel's cloak with him to leave nothing that could be used as a covering for him in the night. "Things are not the same as they were last we spoke angel. I'll be back in a while..." After he left he searched the cloak for evidence against the angel. Finding the piece of parchment Thom had used to make notes from the notice he tossed the cloak aside leaving instructions for his rangers should Thom feel inclined to make noises before entering his own tent once more to read the parchment and regain more energy.
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Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2014 8:18 pm
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Gulliver let Thom alone for the rest of the night. He returned to the tent at first light and entered the tent carrying a couple items. The angel was shivering on the ground of the tent much where he had left him the night before. He reached down and pulled Thom off the ground. "Today you will answer questions, but not right now or to me. I don't want to hear your excuses." He let go of Thom leaving him in a kneeling position once again.
Thom whimpered slightly as he was pulled upright, he was fully expecting to be hit again. When he didn't get hit he relaxed slightly. But if Gulliver wasn't going to beat on him he didn't know what to expect now. Nothing about the situation was what Thom expected, he'd expected simply to infultrate the city and try and get the information, and then report it to the fauns. But here he was tied by his wrists to a pole in a tent a captive of those same fauns.
Gulliver was looking down at the wingless angel, he was waiting for the male to do anything to provoke him, but Thom stayed pretty still. He took hold of the angels hair making him look up again "We're going for another walk today and I don't want you making a sound." He pulled out a piece of fabric from the small bag he had and he made quick work to gag Thom so he didn't make more noise then needed. Then he dropped the bag over Thom's head obscuring the angel's vision. "Pretty sure others will have questions for you, especially after the parchment I found on you last night" He sneered. Releasing Thom's hands he made sure they were secure once more and led the angel stumbling out of the tent.
Gulliver and his small group of rangers set out back to the Great Tree with their captive in tow. None of the faun were too kind to Thom, it took a couple days hike but soon they arrived at the still pained Laisidheil. The feeling of the pain still angered Gulliver, and even if Thom wasn't directly involved, he was an angel... and that was more then enough reason for Gulliver to distrust him even more then usual. Thom was placed in a cell the bag and gag removed from his head, but his hands held fast by the rope. Gulliver left his prisoner and took the parchment to see if Rais had yet returned.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2014 4:24 pm
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Inquiries for the Chief were answered with gestures towards the still-gaping hole at the back of Laisidhiel.
Outside, the Faun Chieftain worked tirelessly, hauling limbs of healthy wood towards the hole that would have taken a score of normal Faun to move. He worked alone, waving away any offers to help. They'd only be in the way anyway. Best they focused on other tasks; he could handle this much.
Not that it was any sort of business that the Chieftain would normally be doing. However, with this much work to be done, he was not about to sit around anywhere idly. He'd lose his mind. And the rare quiet times when he didn't have a simple, physical task to focus on, his thoughts turned towards darker places...towards thoughts of revenge if he ever got his hands on the Pae responsible for this pain and destruction. Eyewitness accounts had mentioned a demon in a ridiculous get-up acting suspicious shortly before the blast. Demon. Of course. Curse those Blood Pae! How many times had he spoken out against their kind? Tried to warn others to be wary of them? That nothing good would ever come of them?
Dropping another limb near the hole, he happened to glance up, catching sight of partial cavities that had once been Faun alcoves within. So many injured and missing. A majority of those who lived in the Tree had been accounted for by now...but not all. The sight of the ruined chambers refreshed an especially personal worry that flared brightly in his mind.
His mother had still not been seen since the blast.
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Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2014 9:01 pm
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Left on his own Thom made his way to the far side of the cell he'd been placed on and using the wall for support slid down to the floor to sit. His feet hurt and he didn't want to keep standing if he didn't have to. He didn't know what fate was in store for him anymore and parts of him regretted even starting all this. And then he thought about how much he loved Ama, regardless of her absence. He didn't know what happened to her and in the end he hoped he could find out.
Gulliver thanked the fawns who gave him direction to their chieftain's location, and making his way through the tree he made his way to Rais' location. The Chieftain was busy Gulliver could see this, but he still needed to speak to him, "Hello Sir, can I trouble you for a moment of your time?" He said while standing out of the way of the male who was carrying yet another hefty load towards the hole in the pained Tree. He waited a moment for Rais' attention before holding the parchment towards the Chieftain. "Some of my rangers caught an angel in the forest, it was the one called Thom that we had sent to get us information" his voice bit at the word 'angel' and it was obvious in his tone that he was none too pleased with the blood paes in general. "He had this on him", being as close to the hole as they were, it made the pain of Laisidheil feel stronger then from the distance he had been the past few days, or maybe that was just how it seemed since he hadn't been looking at the hole and only feeling the pain. He did not know how many were missing or if all had been found in the time he'd been out scouting.
Teigra The note contains the jotted list of the items being requested, notes to himself (Thom) questioning the rod. and notes about the additional notes for non-squires. As well as very fastly scribbled notes about what he heard that led him to leave the city as quickly as he could (regarding the 'hero pae' and the child)
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Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2015 11:42 pm
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The Ranger Captain's answer only deepened the Chieftain's frown. He didn't get around to finding out what was on the parchment, yet he felt it important enough to rush it back here to the Chief? The Captain had been gone for days...yet he'd had no time to question his prisoner?
"So, you're telling me you have no idea what he has to report then, if anything?" Was he involved with this? Clearly, the one directly responsible had been some demon in a costume of sorts, yet...he couldn't have operated alone. As quickly as the blast had happened, he had to have been caught in it, yet they'd found no sign of the scum afterwards. Someone had helped him escape. And someone had to have helped him plan all this as well.
The thoughts had haunted Rais night after night. Images and shadows at the edge of his mind, just out of sight, always out of reach, but always there, lurking, searching for a way to hurt the dear Faun under his protection. Never again. He'd never let anything even a fraction of this scale happen to them ever again, be it in his power.
After a moment of staring at the scribbles in frustration, he huffed, "Take me to him. I have a few questions, then I need to get back to work. We're still too exposed," he growled, eyes flicking upwards towards the gaping hole in the Tree's side.
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2015 1:35 pm
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Following his Captain deep into the roots of Laisidhiel, the Chieftain tried to keep his thoughts from growing as dark as his surroundings. The torch light flickered below, casting eerie shadows from the exposed root structures.
Reaching the Cellar proper, Rais cast a judgmental look over the wingless angel. The two may never have spoken before, but he'd been present when the angel had lost his wings. It had been by the Seer's mercy that he'd been given something for the pain, likely sleeping through the experience. He had to note...the angel likely looked about as bad now as he had then after the removal.
It did little to stir any feelings of pity, considering he'd seen far worse done recently to his own people.
"I want answers," he stated, stepping forward to the root 'bars', his voice cold and deceptively calm. "And for your sake, you'd better hope you have the right ones."
"We'll start with this," he tossed the parchment onto the floor of the cell. "What the hell is it? And what did you learn?"
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