Can you believe it’s time for the final (final!) Meet&Greet already? My, where has the time gone! Like every week there’ll be a complete list of all previous introductions at the bottom, just in case you missed any or want to revisit someone.

Before we continue, let me just say THANK YOU to everyone who’s read these every week and left feedback. I’ve gotten some great comments and have gained a better understanding of my characters as well in the process. Closer to the publishing date there’ll be some more character snippets, but that’s a little way off yet 🙂

Now, let’s not waste more time! The man I’m introducing today isn’t known for his patience or his mercy, as you’ll see if you read on 😉

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“Bring him in.” Commander Videl rose from his chair in the torture room, eyeing the many tools he had laid out an hour before. He had sat and waited afterwards, planning the many things he could do to his prisoner. His suspect. They needed answers, and there was no better way to tickle them out of someone than by torturing them.

The hot iron sat ready in the fire, the pincers still had skin flakes and blood dried on them from the last man whose fingers he had broken.

A smile slithered across his face. King Aeric would have answers before long. He might even hear them screamed all the way to his throne room.

The Commander cursed under his breath, frustrated by his restrictions. He couldn’t allow this man to scream loud enough for King Aeric to hear him begging for mercy. Their King, his King, was soft and too lenient. He would never allow the means which were necessary to run his country as he wanted.

No, he would need to be careful. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy himself.

The door creaked open as two White Guards dragged the prisoner into his chamber. Accused of murder, ruining crops across Rifarne, and directing bad luck to people who didn’t deserve it. The people had accused him of being a vile sorcerer, a servant of evil, yet he looked like nothing as much as a filthy peasent to him.

Commander Videl spat in his face.

“Let me go, m’Lord! I’ve done nothin’!”

Ignoring his pleas he walked over to his tools, gesturing at the still empty chair. “In here.”

His men dragged the prisoner over to the chair. He tried to resist – they always did, it was part of the appeal – but he was no match for his well-trained soldiers.

“Please! M’Lord! I got children at home, a pregnant wife!”

An excited grin reached his eyes as he picked up the first tool. The man was terrified, knowing fully well that he wouldn’t leave this room again.

“Tell me why you did the things you did.” A long time ago he had tried to keep his voice calm and be professional, but those days were long gone. He was excited and let it show. There was no point giving people like this dirty street rat hope. They didn’t deserve any.

“I didn’t! I’d never hurt anyone!” The sound of the first finger bone snapping sent shivers down his spine. He had tortured his first prisoner like this, many years ago when he had been a new soldier to the White Guard. It had remained his preferred method ever since. Sentimental reasons, perhaps.

He watched and waited for the man to stop writhing in his chair, screaming loud enough for every other prisoner to hear their own inescapable fate echoing off the walls.

Teasing, Commander Videl brought his tools up close to the man’s face.

“Tell me what I want to know, or I will have to pay your family a visit. Who can scream louder, I wonder? Your youngest child or your wife?”

The man went pale when he realised that the threads weren’t empty.

“Please. I don’t know anything! I’m loyal to King Aeric, I-”

The snapping of the second finger was too good to stop. He broke the third for good measure.

It seemed the prisoner really wasn’t an evil sorcerer after all.

“I believe you.” The man cried with relief until he saw the hot iron smouldering in front of his eyes.

Whether he had been accused correctly or not didn’t matter. They always knew something, and he would squeeze every last bit of information out of him.

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Again, thank you for taking the time to read these every week ❤ Your support means the world to me and it’s been amazing to see some of you feeling for my characters already. There are more main characters, of course, but I wanted to keep some surprises for the actual book at least 🙂

Previous Meet&Greets: Rachael, Cephy, Cale, Aeron

For all other Excerpts from my book or other related information, take a look here.

All content belongs to the author, Sarina Langer.