"Oooh, what a collection! Looks like Mrs. Nerisa-Zhen is a bit of an enthusiast in the interrogation arts," Matilda exclaimed with glee as she pulled out what looked like a demented pizza cutter from the box, "very well taken care of, but you can still feel the wear on the grips. Looks they haven’t been used for a few years though."
As Alicia and Bellona looked at the implements with a mix of fear and curiosity, all the while re-evaluating their initial impression of their possible future in-law, Zhen Liu was dealing with slight amount of revelation shock, mixed with realization.
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=If anything, the fact that Jin Fang knows how to use this stuff suggests she is still involved in such activities...and has been passing it on to Jin Fang...milord how much do you know about your mother’s and Jin Fang’s relationship?=
’More than I thought...less than I knew. I’m now under the impression she might be spying on me for mother’s sake...hold up.’
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Jin Fang was just about to pick up one of the hostages and began to exercise her understanding on how to use a chain whip, when Zhen Liu placed a hand in her shoulder in order to stop her.
"Huh? Oh, did you want to do the honors?," Jin Fang asked while presenting the whip for Zhen Liu to wield...a little too eagerly.
Zhen Liu decided it was smarter to just...ignore the question for now, and address another that had just occured to him.
"Jin Fang, do you remember how the Wolfe Family apparently had spies keeping watch on the compound? And they used a weird tool to project the image from a distance?"
"Yes, I remember being told...and was unfortunately rendered unconcious during the affair," Jin Fang grumbled, a tad crestfallen.
On the night of Stone Claw’s rather dramatic power shift, Jin Fang was unfortunately relegated to housekeeping duty that night due to still being a maid for the Zhen Clan. This location and timing unfortunately meant that she was knocked out by that weird drug smoke that was employed by the Wolfe Family’s assailants. Granted, if the attackers were as dangerous as Zhen Yue stated...maybe it was a good thing...in Zhen Liu’s opinion.
"Right...anyways, well...the "main branch" of the Zhen Clan are significantly wealthier and powerful than the Wolfe Family, right?"
"From what the elders told-oh, I see your point," Jin Fang realized halfway through her statement.
The two of them shared a look, before turning back to Alicia, Bellona and Matilda, who were now admiring a tool that looked a pear made of iron.
"Hey, ladies, real quick, did you make sure these two were unconcious and blindfolded the whole time?," Zhen Liu asked, "actually better question, how did you know to bring them here?"
"Yes...," two of them answered half paying attention, half learning that the pear opens like a claw. As for the one opening and closing it, they provided a more concrete answer...albeit equally worrying.
"This wasn’t the first time I had to handle an unconcious spy and/or assassin, sir. I made sure to keep them gagged, blindfolded and ear stuffed all the way here. Also, to answer your second question, Lady Bellona and Lady Alicia had both thought to drag their respective spy to your estate and then the three of us ran into Miss Jin Fang. She instructed us to go to this quarry," Matilda answered while handling the only "normal" piece of torture equipment in there, a pair of brass knuckles.
"Right...," Zhen Liu nodded while thinking what to do next, and also asking Logos and Pathos if his guess was correct.
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’Okay part of me was pulling my reasoning out of my ass, is there a way to check if these two are actually being used as walking-talking camera people?’
’Yup, and they might be related to me.’
=Okay, milord,=Logos interjected, =the most popular tools used by clandestine organizations in Roaring Tide include the Swamp Hag’s Eye orb, the Clear Heart Lake basin and the...Frozen Reflection mirror. Each of them fulfill the criteria of being able to use another person as a "camera", but they all have different indicators that show up in the marked person.=
’Figured as much, okay what am I looking?’
=You want this in order of ease of access or in order of quality?=
’I...what do you mean by ease of access?’
=The Swamp Hag’s Eye orb leaves a mark on the imprinted’s eyes, the Clear Heart Lake basin is on the chest and the the Frozen Reflection mirror is right on the forehead. Please note that this information might be outdated, but a majority of aether tools that work this way leave an imprint on those parts.=
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Zhen Liu looked over the two hostages and noticed that the two were surprisingly bundled up for being in the desert of all places.
Without saying a word to anyone, Zhen Liu made his way over to the case of his mother’s torture tools and looked inside, making sure that the current on-lookers weren’t disturbed.
’Of course this was included,’ Zhen Liu thought to himself as he saw what he was looking for.
He reached down and pulled from the case a plain looking featureless mask, the type that can cover someone’s face completely.
This little action didn’t escape the notice of Alicia, Bellona and Matilda, so all three of them now had their eyes on Zhen Liu as he donned the mask and made his way over to the tied up hostages.
Under the watchful gaze of four different women...Zhen Liu began to strip down the stalker Bellona brought over, or to put it more bluntly, ripped the man’s shirt open like it was a bad romance novel.
"Zhen Liu! What are you-"
Before anyone could say anything else, Zhen Liu quickly moved to check the man’s forehead, and found as plain as day, a strange looking symbol made of aether in the shape of three crystal shards. It was faint, but in the right light, it was visible.
"Ok looks like we have ourselves a bit of an audience then...might as well make a show of it."
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A little bit before Bellona and Alicia showed up to Zhen Liu’s place with hostages, at the time they knocked their stalkers out...
Zhen Wang and his disciple kept close watch on their mirror’s display, making sure that nothing went awry among their "eyes"...and then something did go awry...very awry.