"I said, what do you want to know?" Khaller asked again, as my mother hadn't responded the first time. Her brows were furrowed as if in deep thought. When she still didn't answer him, he shrugged and took another chug of the ale. Then he kept shaking it into his mouth; the tankard was now empty. He muttered a curse I didn't quite catch, although I would later hear more of it from others, as it was quite a common curse.
My mother finally shifted. She seemed to have been done with whatever she was thinking.
"You. Tell me about you."
Khaller was clearly unnerved by this, as he shifted nervously.
"Me? What about me? Not much to tell."
My mother gave him a small smile.
At this, Khaller averted his gaze. The ale had made him less of a man; he was now completely intimidated by her. "What do you want to know?" he asked.
"Everything. From your childhood to how you became a high-ranking soldier in your king's army."
Khaller frowned. "I don't see how this helps you. I doubt any event I was a part of would be of significance to your plans, whatever it is you're planning. And..."
He sniffed the air. "... That's the smell of Cross Harbor. We're really close to land now; are you sure this is what you want to know?"
My mother nodded. Khaller shrugged in resignation, then shook the tankard in his hand.
"Give me a moment," he said as he got up. "I need to be drunk for this."
"You're already drunk," I said. The first words I ever spoke to the man. It would also be the last thing I would ever say to him, right before I would slit his throat.
"We need more drunk then," he said, irritated. I don't think it even registered in his mind that it was me who spoke.
I studied him as he staggered out of the room. His big frame was sullen, his steps unsteady. He had less than half his wits. But I still knew that he would decimate most men in single combat, even in that state.
Such is the strong. Altered physical and mental state or no, they remained strong.
My mother turned to me. I could tell she was about to impart another lesson, so I straightened myself. By this time, I had regained some function of my limbs.
"Do you know why I asked him for a summary of his life?"
"No, mother," I shrugged.
"Well, think. For what purpose is the head above your shoulders?"
'To keep me alive?' I thought to myself and chuckled internally. I would never have said it out loud, of course; drawing my mother's ire was something I avidly avoided.
I noticed something in that moment; I had begun to sense it earlier, but I fully noticed it now.
The changes in the mask I wore before and the new Lothario mask I had on now.
The other me would have never spoken to the commander at all. It was the same way I never spoke to Aidra and Mouk, or any of the other people I encountered.
This Lothario was still much reserved, but it seemed capable of speaking to somebody else that was not my mother.
I also noticed it was capable of humor. This was a foreign feeling to me, and it intrigued me endlessly.
I wanted to explore the many more changes in this new mask but could not afford to do so yet. My mother demanded complete attention when we conversed, so I forcefully dragged myself away from my thoughts and focused on her.
She had asked me what I thought about why she asked the commander to narrate his life events to her.
Truth be told, I didn't really know, but one thing that was for certain was that my mother seldom did things without reason.
So, I recollected all the events I could remember of her scheming and tried to relate it to her current question. It was a rather easy task for me; the other mask would never have been able to do that. No, it wouldn't even have thought to do it. This mask was also smarter, I noted, significantly so.
I came to a conclusion, but I didn't immediately blurt it out. While I was mostly certain about my evaluated assumption being correct, I also had to account for the possibility of being wrong.
No matter how carefully you evaluate an assumption, it will still remain so, as you cannot be absolutely certain. One must always account for the possibility of error when accounting for things you do not see with your own eyes. And even the things you do see, you must still scrutinize. You'll see why later on.
"We have limited time. This is the best way to gather the most information."
My mother blankly stared at me, her face betraying none of her thoughts. "How so?"
"You can ask him for individual aspects of this kingdom, but in isolation, it would take too much time. A summary of his life would encompass everything you need for now."
"How so?"
"Khaller is no highborn, meaning he once lived as a common folk. He is now a high-ranking soldier, which means he has valuable knowledge in both their military and court politics."
"And?"
"The perspectives he'll give us, talking about when he was a common folk and when he became a soldier, will be crucial to gauge how both sides view their kingdom."
"And?"
"His military rank would give you valuable knowledge about their strange weapons."
Her face remained blank; whether she was impressed or not, I could not tell. But she was satisfied enough to speak about something else.
"Remember what I told you on Lothario's Mask Island about you no longer being a child?"
I nodded.
"Good," she said. "You will be doing more of this from now on. You must watch out for everything: how a person walks, how they speak, how they dress. You must pay attention to the littlest and most seemingly useless of details. Then you must cross-reference, check for inconsistencies, understand why they're there and what they hide.
"When Khaller returns, I want you to study every aspect of him: the way his body and eyes move, the way he speaks, the tonal changes, and in what part of his story these changes occur. What he's saying, and by extension, what he isn't."
She sighed and rubbed her temple.
"Lothario, knowledge is but one form of power, and there are many forms. But depending on how we use it, it can become the most deadly, even more so than any blade. And this is the only form of power we have going into these unknown lands; we must polish it as best we can. Do you understand?"
"Yes, mother," I said.
She gave me a small smile and turned back to face the door. We waited for Khaller to return.
Thankfully, we didn't have to wait long as he stumbled into the room moments later.
In his hands were two tankards filled to the brim with ale.