Cut Scene — The Interrogation of George

The storm had not yet fully passed.

Rain still whispered against the stone walls of the outpost, finding its way through cracks and seams in the ancient structure. Inside, a single chamber had been cleared and prepared.

George sat bound to a heavy wooden chair bolted to the floor. Her cloak had been removed. Her boots taken. Her wrists tied with rune-etched cords that pulsed faintly with pale blue light. A basin of meltwater sat nearby. Cold. Deliberately cold.

Above her hung a lantern fitted with a shard-glass lens — its light unnaturally bright, steady, and unblinking. It forced her eyes to squint and water.

Across the chamber stood Rennick Vale. Beside him was another Shardbound operative — a tall, broad-shouldered woman with iron-gray hair tied in a severe knot. Her name was Maelis Thorn. Maelis looked like a fortress given human form.

She struck a metal rod against the stone wall. The sound rang out — sharp, jarring, relentless. George flinched. Only once. Then she smiled.

“Your mistake,” Rennick said quietly, “was thinking we would be impatient.”

He stepped closer. Water still dripped from the hem of his cloak.

“We have time. You do not.”

George leaned forward as much as the bindings allowed. “You have nothing,” she said.

“You have a prisoner whose death will mean nothing. You have a house that guarded a shard and pretended otherwise. And you have no idea what you have begun.”

Maelis lifted the basin and poured its contents slowly over George’s bare feet. Ice water splashed across the stone floor. George’s breath hitched. Her jaw tightened.

But she did not cry out.

Maelis spoke for the first time. Her voice was low and steady. “We do not need to hurt you. We only need to make you wish we would.”

She nodded toward the lantern. The shard-glass flared brighter. George shut her eyes.

The metal rod struck the wall again.

CLANG.

CLANG.

CLANG.