"Would you mind explaining this, however?" Ir'Houwl picked up the dagger that had been strapped to the living's forearm, an unfortunate position for it to be as he had lost an arm from the very start and had never gotten the occasion to even unsheath it as a result, it was a simply blade with slight curvature, the craftsmanship was good, and it seemed to have been crafted from the same sort of metal as the hammer and sword wielded by the knight, whomst was now for certain a servant of Watchful Undeviginti.
"Hold on- Did that filthy witch just say that-" the living was more focused on the sentence that had come before that question however, she had not said it in absolutely clear terms, but it was rather obvious that Ir'Houwl had just implied that she was planning on having Undeviginti work for the empire.
He did not know what the empire was, but judging by the foul corpses that were standing around and the bird-headed cadavers twirling a scalpel around, it did not seem like the most pleasant of places.
But before he could continue speaking, the doctor grabbed him by the head and stuck the scalpel into his mouth, right into a space in between two teeth, making a subtle movement that would dislodge one of them if it was just a little bit stronger.
"Answer Lord Ir'Houwl's question"
He removed the scalpel, but not without leaving a small incision upon his gum, just enough for the living to have the taste of blood permeate his mouth.
"This is a dagger…" it felt like holes were being drilled right through him as every single corpse within the tent seemed to not take kindly to his lack of cooperation with their questioning, and seemed especially willing to strike if he dared to say anything unsavoury about their lord, whilst she herself seemed to not care much at all, which was only natural, assumed the man, Ir'Houwl was clearly much stronger than everyone present, she had barely even needed to try to suppress him and take both of his arms off.
Under the scrutiny, he elaborated.
"...The majority of us followers of Undeviginti, regardless of which one he swear allegiance to- Only a few can channel the vapour on their own, the rest of us need not only to have a strong belief in our Undeviginti, but also need to use a special weapon decorated with images of them, they typically also include Prime Undeviginti even if we don't follow it specifically as most consider it to be the father of all others and thus, deserving of respect" he explained, looking into the nestling darkness of Ir'Houwl's mask.
"I see, so it basically serves as a catalyst… And without it, you can not manifest vapour at all? How tragic"
He frowned at the ridiculing language, wishing that whatever was causing him to comprehend her strange tongue would stop functioning, getting insulted whilst bound and unable to answer back was most infuriating.
"Very well, if all of the orcs have been made to sign the binding contract, get them out of here and lead them back to the abandoned town- I take it that they all read and understood the terms?" she did not directly address them but the orcs all nodded, as they had been pretty much forced to read through the contract entirely, and its most harsh conditions and punishments.
The contracts were strict and devoid of loopholes, ensuring that the orcs would be toiling away until they ended, that they would work their hardest without any room for slacking.
"As for you, living human of the desert, you shall make a demonstration of Illusory Undeviginti's vapour to us, as a sign of good will, our good doctor will put your arms back on, you shall see, it will be like they never left you in the first place.
"And why would I agree to that? I'll only show you the vapour in action if-" he thought back the contracts the orcs had signed, he didn't quite understand was a binding contract was, but judging by how certain she seemed of the loyalty they supposedly ensured, he assumed that it was an object of witchcraft, after all, this woman could wield an unnatural red sand, so clearly, the corpse-like people here had access to means beyond the vapour.
"-If you sign a contract to let me go, alive and without any injuries!" he precised, feeling like they would dump him as a corpse or chop his legs off before letting him crawl away if he didn't.
"Do you really think you are that valuable? I now know that there are plenty of other livings nearby, towns and a city even, many candidates to get answers from, if I can't get them from you, then I could get them from someone else, a non-combatant perhaps? An elderly? Or maybe a child? Children are unlikely to be resistant to brutal torture, now are they?"
"You… You wouldn't dare commit such atrocities, right?"
"Of course I would dare, I already have, plenty of times in fact… What sort of monster would I be, if I denied the right of being blessed to some of you livings? Especially the youngest and oldest, one can be spared from living for too long, and the other has suffered for long enough already"
"You are a fucking lunatic!"
"Very few are those who are lost cause amongst the living, so I shall forgive your crude language, once your precious, Illusory Undeviginti because part of the undead sky, you will surely see the truth that lies in the dark… Now, free up some space" she called out to her soldiers, who removed the wooden poles which had only served the purpose of keeping prisoners in place, whilst the human living was untied and taken to the middle of the tent, forced to his knees and bound to the ground with chains he had certain had not been there moments prior.
The bird-headed doctor walked up to him, waving his disembodied arms around.
"Now, be nice or I can not certify that I won't make a small mistake and reattach them the wrong way" he said, his beak opening and shutting in some sort of mimicry of a laugh, which was odd as he could just laugh with his normal voice.
With an expert's dexterity, both arms were sewn back in place, and then, a green liquid that strung immensely was doused over the sectioned areas, followed by a white gel that felt soothing on the skin, the doctor removed the stitches a few second later and somehow, his arms were working again, there was no discomfort whatsoever, no slugginess or phantom pain.
The doctor stepped away, and the living remained bound to the ground as his dagger was thrown over to him, blade decorated with an image of Illusory Undeviginti on one sides, filled with wavy images of mirages, and on the other side, an image of Prime Undeviginti, representing it with two of its decoys on each side.
'They won't be able to tell when I am done showing them what I can do… I'll just buy time and figure out how to escape, with my arms back on, I should be able to…'