"Let's try this again," Owen was saying when Jonas entered the room. "Why do you feel like you have a right to be in charge?"
"I'm telling you, I have no idea what you're talking about!" the chamberlain for Lance's family protested.
Currently he was chained up in a chair. He had brown hair and brown eyes, with skin so tan Jonas wouldn't be surprised if he spent more of his days outside.
"So, how's it going?" Jonas asked Owen as he walked over.
"Please! Tell him that I have no idea what you're talking about!" the chamberlain cried before Owen could respond. "I was tied up with the other servants when all of this happened!"
Jonas nodded, as if he was inclined to believe the chamberlain. "Alright, let's say that you're telling the truth here," Jonas said calmly, getting a look of relief from the chamberlain. "If that's the case, then why didn't you stay with the group when they were led out the back gate?"
The chamberlain's expression darkened for a moment before he seemed to think better of it. "I didn't stay with the group because…" the chamberlain paused and Jonas was sure he was trying to come up with some excuse. "…because I'm not as fast as I used to be. I fell behind the servants you led out to the back gate and then got turned around." The chamberlain paused for a moment, looking like he was actually sobbing, though with his keen ears, Jonas could tell he was just putting on an act and wasn't really crying. Just making the sounds as if he was. "Then when I finally reached the back gate, I was tied up because they wouldn't believe that I wasn't part of the attack."
Jonas turned to Owen. "Get anything new out of that?" he asked calmly.
Owen merely chuckled. "Actually, I really don't think he knows just how much I've gotten out of him already," Owen remarked. "This was almost too easy. I had more difficulty telling who was telling the truth when we were sharing how we got pulled into this right after the portal that let the goblins into the dungeon had appeared. This is almost like predicting what's going to happen on a show that you've already memorized."
Jonas nodded. "Okay, so what've you been able to get out of him so far, without him realizing it?" he asked, wondering what the chamberlain's reaction to learning that Owen could hear his thought would be. If either Jonas and Owen felt like divulging that information with him and were able to convince him of that.
"Nothing too much so far. Just that he'd been part of the group that had been planning this night for years. He'd paid a servant who didn't like the king's brother in the palace to poison him so he wouldn't be well enough to attend last night, but not so he wouldn't die. He'd been teamed up with the captain of the guard of this estate from the beginning, but when the captain of the guard went missing, the duke went looking for him, which made the chamberlain feel the need to take care of things himself, rather than letting himself get tied up with the servants," Owen replied, stating each item like he was ticking items off of a list.
"What're you talking about? All I ever said was that I was friends with Bruce. I have no idea where he went!" the chamberlain protested.
"There's just a few things I haven't been able to get him to think about," Owen replied, ignoring the chamberlain's outburst.
"What's that?" Jonas asked. "Maybe I can think of how to get that to come across his mind."
"What are you two talking about?" the chamberlain asked, sounding a little incredulous. "What does me thinking about anything have to do with what you're asking me? What do you have against me?"
Jonas was sorely tempted to go off on the chamberlain in response to his last question, but he knew that it would only give the chamberlain more information than he needed to know. Not to mention the fact that it would also make it clear that the chamberlain was getting to Jonas.
There was generally only one time you would let the person being interrogated know things they didn't need to know. Which was when you had reason to believe that it would get them to reveal something you wanted to know. Although, having someone who could read the thoughts of the person present certainly seemed to help. They didn't need to get the chamberlain to even say what they wanted to know, so getting him to admit to what he'd been a part of wasn't something they had to deal with.
"Here's something I'd like to know," Jonas merely replied, doing his best to show a calm bearing. "How did you become acquainted with doppelgangers?"
The chamberlain shook his head. "Seriously? How would I know any of that?"
"You know, you might be on the right track with the doppelgangers," Owen remarked. "Keep going on that subject. Maybe it'll get him to think about some of what I need to know."
Jonas nodded. It didn't matter so much to him what information that Owen was trying to get, just that the chamberlain hadn't given it up yet. Which meant that they still had to deal with him for the time being.
"Well, you didn't just know one doppelganger, but you knew four of them," Jonas said. "The nearly had my friends, but they just weren't up to the job in the end."
There was no way Jonas was going to mention how close it was for Kim and Elmo. With Elin, he wasn't sure that he was really needed, since Elin seemed to have found a way to turn the tables on the doppelganger herself. Not that Jonas or Kim had known that at the time.
"I'm telling you, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Jonas nodded, like he might actually believe the chamberlain. "Alright, so you don't know the doppelgangers. So, why is it that we've gotten information from others that they saw you with the doppelgangers?"
The chamberlain gave him an incredulous look before turning away as he shook his head. "How would I know what doppelgangers look like? Unless they've taken someone's image I wouldn't have done anything with them." The chamberlain's face lit up, clearly having thought of something. "That must be it! One of the doppelgangers had to have turned into me and set this whole thing in motion. I may not have seen them before, but I have heard of them. They are heartless and will kill anyone as soon as they'll kill anyone in their way."
"You know, I can't believe that's all it took," Owen remarked, earning a confused look from the chamberlain. "He apparently raised the doppelgangers from when they were young, at the end of whatever happened that ended up with the king being crowned in the first place. The chamberlain felt like he should have been given power, despite not having actually done anything to have helped anyone but himself."
"So, in other words, he was just jealous of those who did something and wanted to share in their glory without actually having done anything to have deserved that?" Jonas asked, feeling even more revulsion towards the chamberlain than he had before.
Owen nodded. "Yes. It would seem like he's been harboring these delusions for quite some time. Even before that, but it wasn't until things actually began to become more peaceful that he was able to try and act on those ambitions."
Jonas sighed. It was just his luck that the competition started just in time for the chamberlain's plans to start getting put into action. What were the chances?
Yet, as soon as he had that thought, he suddenly realized that whoever was running this competition already knew about the plans, which was why it was one of the set challenges. Which meant that they knew so much more than he had originally thought.
"What is it?" Owen asked. "Your thoughts suddenly started getting a little scrambled."
Jonas shook his head. "Nothing much. I'll tell you later. Just not in front of this piece of trash. There's no need to letting him something that he really doesn't need to know. It might actually give him ideas. Which isn't something I'd care to do."
Owen nodded like he understood. Not that Jonas cared if he did or not. He just wanted to be done with this already. He'd learned more than he cared to already. He would just as soon move on and leave this issue behind.
"Anything more you need to get from him?" Jonas asked.
Owen shook his head. "While I'd like to get more, there's nothing that we really need to learn from him. So, if you're done, I can be done too," Owen answered. "Although, dealing with someone like this is more tiring than I'd expected. Almost like just listening to his thoughts takes more effort than it does with others."
Jonas nodded, turning towards the door. "Yeah, I can imagine. Just talking with him made me feel like I need to take a nap. Completely uninteresting and full of his own self-importance. Not a shred of empathy for those whose lives he ruined," Jonas commented. "Just like others in my own world who would start a protest as a pretext to run rampant and cause mayhem and disrupt other people's lives just so they could feel like they were doing something, even though all they were doing was callously hurting others for no reason." Jonas paused for a moment. "Or well, for no good reason, I should say. I'm sure in their minds there was a reason for them to hurt others capriciously. Only I'm sure I'd find them just as contemptible as that chamberlain."
Owen sighed as they left the room and the chamberlain behind them. "So, what was it that caused your thoughts to become so disorganized? It must have been big."
Jonas nodded and started to explain his realization about those running the competition. After all, if Owen turned into an enemy down the road, it wasn't like this information would help him in that confrontation. If nothing else, it could help them deal with the competition overall.