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Chapter 23: Simple cruelty

Ginevra escorted Cael aside from the camp and bound his hands again. He still was a head taller than her when they both stood, but Ginevra\'s height came from the way she held herself. She had the *presence*.

But instead of all she could do to him, Cael\'s thoughts returned, over and over, to her hair. It was bound in a thick braid, which went around the top of her head like a crown. It didn\'t look like a lot of hair, but Cael wondered how wavy those locks would look when set free.

"Now tell me, Oliveira, which one of Gianni\'s spawns you are? Did I hear wrong that the younger one reached the second rank? Or were the rumors true about the older one?"

Cael returned to the present. This information he could give out freely. What he couldn\'t speak about were his father\'s war plans and the composition of his forces. He had to answer questions, to ask his own. He also had to goad Ginevra… but not too much.

"I am your prisoner, but that doesn\'t mean we should forget about etiquette," Cael said, smirking with assurance he didn\'t feel. "You hadn\'t introduced yourself yet, lady."

Ginevra\'s response was a slap. But it wasn\'t something offended women gave to rebuked suitors. This slap landed on Cael\'s cheek like a sledgehammer, almost sending him stumbling to the ground.

His ears ringed, his lip was cut on his teeth, and his cheek stung like doused first in ice, then in boiling oil. If he could get a concussion from a single slap, Cael just got it.

"I don\'t know what you want to achieve by being cheeky, but it won\'t work," Ginevra said, shaking her hand. "You answer my questions, not the other way around. Now. What\'s your name?"

She meant business, and Cael didn\'t need System to tell him that. He gingerly touched his lip.

"Cael. Cael Oliveira."

Ginevra grinned. "So you learn. When have you got that?" She pointed at the Mage\'s Mark on Cael\'s chest.

"A couple of weeks ago. What, didn\'t your spies tell you?" Cael raised his brows, since smirking now hurt a little too much.

Ginevra raised a hand, and this time it was clenched into a fist. Cael tensed, but she didn\'t move.

"I only need you conscious to write a message to your father. But I could just send him your finger instead."

Cael\'s inner sense twinged. There was a sliver of a half-truth here. No, Ginevra needed him for something… Something so insignificant, she barely paid it any notice herself. Maybe it was something as simple as indulging her curiosity. It certainly wasn\'t anything strategically important.

He frowned. "Don\'t you want to know about my father\'s plans?"

"Oh, I know them already, Cael." Ginevra scoffed. "They became obvious when he moved his forces. Actions speak louder and truer than any words any prisoner can share."

Inwardly, Cael smiled. Ginevra answered his question, and didn\'t hit him again. Yet. Still, this was a win.

His elation died as quickly as it appeared. She didn\'t lie; she believed her words, whether or not they were true. And she clearly had a way to counteract Gianni\'s advance. Something that included Cael acting as a hostage…

Ginevra and what army? Or, more likely, Ginevra and where army?

"How did that happen? Tell me. Everybody in this county and the next knew that you were born manaless, Cael. An extremely rare occurrence, from what I caught. What kind of fortune, which the Oliveira family wouldn\'t have, did you spend on the cure?"

Cael looked Ginevra straight into the eye with his most honest look. It didn\'t work on his mother before, but maybe it would work now? "I don\'t know. It was a genuine miracle! I just fell asleep suddenly and woke up with a full mana pool."

Sadly, unlike his mother, Ginevra wasn\'t willing to let Cael keep his secrets. Her fist slammed into Cael\'s stomach, protected only by a thin layer of his undershirt.

Cael had time to brace himself for that strike, but it didn\'t help him much. He keeled over, pressing his bound hands to the hurt spot, but kept the contents of his stomach inside. And he still stood on his two feet.

"Don\'t give me this bullshit, Cael."

*I don\'t think you\'d believe the truth if you heard it…* Cael thought. He frantically wracked his head for a more believable line. Fortune, fortune… She mentioned a fortune. Fine.

"Father sold several old magic items to a dark mage for a cure. Old, precious family heirlooms."

Ginevra huffed and stepped back from him. "Much better. You must\'ve shown him some real promise if he bothered when you have a brother who\'s already second rank. If you got to the first rank in a month, maybe you\'d get to the third one in a few more years. Of course, that\'s only if you live this long. I doubt that."

"Will you kill me?" Cael asked.

"No. I won\'t say the same about my father, though. You wanted my name, Cael? It\'s Ginevra. Ginevra Nuvoloso."

Cael gave her the brightest smile he could muster with a split lip, and said the words his mother once taught him. "Pleasure to make your acquaintance, signora."