Irene barely recognized her. Thalia Greevson had been a fellow student, long ago, though she’d disappeared a few years back. But the Thalia that Irene could remember was prim and poised, always impeccably dressed, with a serene expression on her face. Now she looked hollowed. An empty shell of the girl she had once been.
Wesley and Violet had explained their interrogation tactics.
Violence first, questions later.
Apparently, Thalia was part of that same mysterious third coalition Mateo had mentioned the previous afternoon, the one forming in the outskirts of purgatory. According to Wesley and Violet, Thalia had information that could lead them to their base.
“Notice how her defenses have grown weaker?” Violet asked now, looking between Irene, Samira and Everly. Samira pulled the spear away from Thalia, who whimpered and clutched her side with a trembling hand.
Irene cautiously dipped into Thalia’s mind, feeling her way through her mental wards. Violet was right. When they’d first arrived, Thalia’s wards had felt solid and resolute. Like an impenetrable fortress. But now, after enduring Samira’s torture, they felt pliable…more susceptible to moving and bending.
“But I still can’t cross through them,” muttered Irene. Samira and Everly must have sensed it too. Samira looked merely disappointed, while Everly looked positively enraged, her arms crossed indignantly over her chest.
Wesley pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He leaned in toward the bars of the cage, staring down at Thalia with a detached pragmatism that made him look as though he were staring at the results of a lab experiment, as opposed to the aftermath of invasive torture.
“In most cases, with this level of pain, you’d be able to successfully dismantle those mental wards and access her memories. But…Thalia here is different.” Wesley closed his eyes, humming in fascination. “She hasn’t just placed the wards around her mind…but threaded themthroughit. Think of it almost like a maze. And in my professional opinion, even if we weaken her further…the maze will hold.”
“There has to be a way to solve it, then.” Everly huffed in annoyance. “I mean, if it’s a maze or whatever.”
Wesley slowly slid off his glasses, wiping them against the hem of his wrinkled shirt.
“Magic of the mind is far more complex than that of the body. With something this elaborate, I’m afraid the best we can hope for is her physical form breaking before her mind. If we can cause enough physical pain…perhaps she’ll simply tell us.” As he spoke the words, Thalia’s eyes flitted to him. Irene had expected to see fear reflected inside them—a sense of panic at knowing whatawaited her…but instead, there was nothing but stone-cold resolve blazing there.
“She’s not going to break,” Irene whispered. She was certain of it. But Everly seemed undeterred, shoving Irene out of the way with her elbow.
“We’ll see about that,” she sneered, snatching the corporeally infused spear from Samira’s hand. The Housemasters made no attempt to stop her, merely taking a step back as they silently observed.
Everly approached the iron bars of the cage slowly, head tilted.
“How about you play nice, Thalia. Tell us what you know and I won’t have to use this.”
But Thalia’s response was simple and straight to the point. She lifted her head an inch off the floor, clearly using all the energy she had left to look Everly in the eye, and spat blood directly onto the other girl’s feet.
Samira stifled a cackle of laughter. Irene sucked in a sharp breath.
And then, with a feral scream, Everly thrust the tip of the spear straight through Thalia’s ribs. The crackle of corporeal magic was instantaneous—bright silver flashes lighting up the room as Thalia’s entire body began to violently convulse, white foam sputtering from her lips, and her eyes rolling back into her head.
“BREAK!” Everly bellowed over the crackling magic. “Tell us what you know!”
After a few more seconds, she yanked the spear out, chest heaving. Irene held her breath, waiting to hear what Thalia would say, but the other girl simply lay there…motionless. Her limbs had gone unnaturally stiff, her skin pallid, almost translucent, as if her form was slowly fading away.
Violet sucked her teeth. “And here we have a lesson onlimitations…” She walked closer to the cage, snatching the spear out of Everly’s hand before the girl could protest. She used the end of the spear to poke at Thalia’s unmoving body. “If you push the pain too far…if you accidentally enter the core of a soul…you can destroy it.”
Irene’s chest tightened. “Are you saying…Did she just—”
“Shatter the core of Thalia’s soul?” muttered Violet with a defeated sigh. “That would be correct.”
Everly flushed. She staggered backward.
“I didn’t mean to…I just…I thought maybe I could…” Her voice trailed off as she stepped away from the cage.
Samira snorted. “Way to go, Everly. Now all our interrogation was useless.”
“It’s quite all right,” Wesley said, peering down at Thalia’s fading body with a deflated frown. “It happens every now and then. Truthfully, I doubt we could have gotten anything out of her. Headmaster Silas might not be too pleased, though—he was really hoping this one would give us something concrete.”
“What happens to her now?” Irene heard herself ask.
“I can already sense her soul fading,” Violet said matter-of-factly. “I’d give it a few minutes. And then the fragments of her soul will disintegrate. She’ll simply…cease to exist.”
