Qualin
I was led into a holding cell with nothing but a place to relieve myself. As the guards left, they entered a code into a key pad and a forcefield trapped me inside.
I heard their footsteps recede and slumped against the wall, sliding down to the floor.
"Hey, that you?"
I knew that voice. So boss man and the others really were caught.
"Answer me!"
"Yeah, it's me."
"Fuck! You worthless piece of shit. Well, guess we couldn't have really counted on you to break us out of here in the first place. But if you'd done a better job wreaking havoc, maybe that freak would have been too busy dealing with you to come after us. That was your job, or did you forget?!"
"Maybe protecting the crown prince was a higher priority than a few guards, or even say, the treasury?"
"You giving me lip!?" He snapped. "You don't question me. Just do as you're told and don't worry about the rest. And now that you're here, just remember to keep you damn mouth shut!"
"Whatever." I just wasn't in the mood for his threats.
"Jixai!" His command activated the lowest setting of my collar, which still hurt like a bitch. "Don't you forget who you're dealing with, you bastard. And don't think for a second that you're safe in that cell."
"Got it." I choked out between ragged breaths. it's not like a had any information to give. Apparently, I didn't even know the actual job.
The conversation ended there as footsteps approached. A man in fine LaMihinnian garments with long red hair walked passed my cell, followed closely my Minor's father. I still couldn't understand how he had beastling features when Minor looked LaMihinnian. Maybe he was adopted?
"Are you the one in charge?" The red haired man stopped in front of what I guessed was boss man's cell. There was no reply. "You have quite a record, Murkoross. You and Orash are wanted on several outer planets of Alawayia, not to mentions charges of theft, piracy, kidnapping and murder in two other systems. Suriah is also wanted for conspiracy, fraud, and a few other charges. This one is a bit of a mystery." He glanced over at me. "There are reports of a 'beastling' believed to be working with your group, but there are no pictures or official reports."
"That's because I'm a sneaky bastard."
"What did I say about keeping your mouth shut!?"
I clenched my jaw. It was just hard to give a shit anymore.
"You're scared of him?" Minor's dad stepped in front of my cell. I could feel his eyes on me but I kept my head down.
"Are you able to read his mind?" The other man asked.
"Yep. He doesn't have whatever is blocking those three. Wonder why that is?"
I suddenly realized why I was kept out of the loop for this job. They knew about this man, or that someone here had mind reading capabilities. Rare but not unheard of. They must have gotten protective tech or something. Pretty expensive, and I apparently didn't warrant the cost.
"So it's tech, huh? That means I can probably remove it."
"You useless shit! Can't you keep that freak out of your head!? What the hell good is that magic shit you do?"
"I don't know shit about clairvoyance or how to stop it." As if I cared about protecting any of them.
"I see, it's that collar."
I looked up in surprise at Minor's dad.
"So that's it. He owns you. If you disobey, you get shocked. It's got a tracker and is rigged to kill you if you try and remove it."
"How did you...?"
"I don't just hear surface thoughts, I can look through all your memories. Your whole life is an open book. And I see why he's nervous. you may not know about this job, but you know plenty of other stuff. But, how about we start by figuring out how to get that collar off."
Could he actually do that? My collar was made with fairly sophisticated tech that takes a voice coded command to deactivate or reprogram, or a very skilled hacker like the boss man.
Unfortunately, I didn't have time to ask how he intended to remove it.
"Karaxai!"
The pain was immediate and intense. Like nothing I'd ever felt before. I could feel my bones cracking and my muscles tearing from the power of the electric shock. In an instant, it felt like my organs were going to explode. That bastard actually used the kill command. I was really going to die.
***
Minor
Dad told me to stay away from the holding cells. I needed to respect Romnoe's jurisdiction. He did promise to see if there was any way to help my new friend, but ultimately it wasn't up to us; it was best to focus on the threat to Jarai.
But I just couldn't stop thinking about Qualin. I should have read his mind when we first met. Something had felt off. If I had realized he was mixed up in something bad, I could have helped him before he had gotten into real trouble.
I buried my face into my knees as I sat on the roof of the palace. I could sense Qualin far below where prisoners were held in the palace for questioning before being sent to the prisons for sentencing. An attempt on a member of the royal family traditionally meant life imprisonment or execution, depending on the situation.
The thought made me feel sick to my stomach. Callie and Romnoe were very kind people, surely they would be compassionate. Although, it was one of their children that was targeted. My parents tend to react quite viciously when one of us kids is involved.
Though, in our kingdom, there was no such thing as prisons or sentencing: enemies were either killed when they attacked, or if they surrendered, allowed to retreat. Subsequent attacks were met with harsher consequences. Qualin had surrendered, and didn't want to attack again...
As I began to bemoan the cultural differences between the kingdomd of beasts and men, I felt a cry of agony deep within my heart and mind. It wasn't from a familiar source, at least not from anyone I was connected to in the normal way. This was different. I didn't think about who was in trouble or what I should do. I just reached for the source of the pain, as if it was a part of me.
My hands were getting the collar around Qualin's neck before I knew where I was. I had teleported right in front of him. I felt the electricity course through my body from the moment of contact. It was excruciating.
My dad was there too. I could feel his anger and pain, he'd tried to help Qualin but recoiled from the electric shock. I had no instinct to pull away. Instead, all I knew was that Qualin's heart had stopped and his body was being fried. I didn't know if I'd be able to revive him if he died. I couldn't let that happen and with my own body being electrocuted it might take a moment too long to break the collar.
So I started healing him. I just needed to heal the damage as it was done to keep him alive. I also had to heal enough to keep myself alive. It was a lot of energy. I didn't care. Rather than carefully drawing from the deep well of energy within me, I bought it all to the surface and let if flow freely between me and Qualin.
I'm fairly certain it only took a few heartbeats before I managed to destroy the collar and heal the damage it had done.