~~
Trinity
~~
Gabriel and I went into the room that I had been talking to Gustav in. He was still sitting on the floor and rocking from side to side.
“Dang Trinity, I didn't think that you meant you were going to completely break him mentally. I thought that cracking him meant that he was going to spill the beans.” I wanted to laugh. Hearing Gabriel sound like he was Shane or something, that was enough to make anyone want to laugh. And then to instantly tell him to stop.
“I am not going to destroy his mind or anything. He is just having a hard time with something that he learned recently. I am going to offer him solace, but I need to know whether he is telling me the truth or not.”
“OK, not a problem.” Gabriel looked at the man with a calm face.
.....
“Gustav.” I called out to him, and he instantly looked at me. “This is my friend Gabriel. He has been blessed by the gods and has a special ability. He knows when someone is lying to them and whether their intentions are for or against someone.”
“He can detect a spy or a traitor?” He sounded worried.
“In a way, yes.” There was no way for me to deny it without lying to him.
“I just want to know if you can be trusted, Gustav.” Gabriel's soft voice started to sooth the man. Gustav didn't speak in response, but he nodded at him and rose to his feet. I guess he was done looking like a broken man on the floor.
“I am going to ask you this question again, Gustav.” I approached him cautiously. “Have you ever killed anyone? One of my people or anyone else?”
“No. I have never hurt anyone. But I have watched over the men that did kill them, and that makes me just as guilty, doesn't it?” He was on the verge of tears again. “I..I did so many bad things. I am a horrible person.”
“One more question Gustav, if you were given a chance to redeem yourself, to help us stop the murders and turn your back on the Jaegan, would you do it?”
I could literally see the man's eyes go wide. I could hear it too. And the slow, startled gasp that he sucked in like he wasn't able to process the information at first. It was all a little overwhelming for me. A complete and total sensory overload for a werewolf.
“I..I don't know.” He was still in shock. “I..I have not hurt anyone, and I don't want to. B..but if they find out about this they will kill me. I..I don't want to die.”
“We will protect you, Gustav. We are protecting some of the others as well. We will protect you too.”
“I..is that even possible?” He was not ready to accept it.
“Yes, Gustav, it is.” I gave him my most sincere and honest tone of voice.
“Why, though? Why would you do that? Why protect me?”
“You haven't killed my people.” I looked at Gabriel for confirmation. He hadn't told me that it was a lie, so I guessed that it was true. “And you don't want to hurt people. That means that you are not safe with your family. And I will protect you from them.”
“You are not what we were taught that you were, Queen Trinity. You are not the monster that they say that you are.” I could see the relief in him now.
“I know, Gustav. I do not know why they think these things about me. My people are not monsters. We live with humans every day, if we hurt them for no reason, we would have the police after us at all times.”
“Thank you. I..I will work with you.”
“And with that, I will take my leave.” Gabriel confirmed that the man was telling me the truth. “I have a few more interviews to conduct. I will see you later, Trinity.” As he walked out of the room, I saw that Gustav was worried about him.
“Don't worry, he gave you his seal of approval and went back to work. That was all.”
“O..oh.”
“Now, Gustav, I need you to tell me where the leaders of your family are. Not so that I can hurt them, but so that we can arrest them.”
“I..I understand.” He nodded at me. “Th..they need to pay for what they have done, but I am worried that you will not be strong enough to fight them.”
“I am sure that we can handle it, Gustav. I have a lot of people to help us.” I needed to put this man's mind at ease.
“I do hope so. They have some reinforcements that I have not seen, but I know that they are powerful.”
“We will be careful, Gustav. I promise that we will.” I was using his name to put him at ease. It was showing that I was comfortable and familiar with him, and I was hoping that he was receptive of it.
“Th..they are in the mountains. I do not know the exact location, but I know that they are in a luxury cabin in the woods. I could sense it and find it if I needed to, but not while I am in here. Your magic is blocking my rune.”
“It might have been that this rune was changed to another one as well.” I didn't want to break him here, but Shawn and Dietrich might have modified this rune for him. And then he wouldn't be able to sense them ever again.
“No. This rune has been etched onto my eyes. Quite literally. They put the runes onto my eyes, and I will never be able to lose it. It only works for finding the Jaegan family rune, though. It is useless for everything else.” He looked so sad at that moment. I didn't blame him though. I mean, seriously, they carved a rune onto this man's eyes. How in the hell did they even do that?
“Well, I am sorry that they did that to you, Gustav. That sounds intensely painful and traumatic.” That was pure honesty from me just then. I would literally want to beat someone if they put a knife or magic pencil like this to my eye. They would see just how monstrous that I could become.
“Thank you, Queen Trinity. I..I..I was a little boy when it happened. Just seven years old at the time because I was told I had a good eye when it came to finding things. Thankfully, I do not remember the pain. It is not as hard on me as it was at the time. I remember my fear from that time, but not the pain.”
“They won't hurt you again, Gustav.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “You and the others will be safe here. We will take care of you. All of you will be free from them forever. You can live your own life. You will have the chance to go anywhere that you want to after this is all over.”
“What about my crimes?” He was still hung up on that. He really thought that he needed to be punished for not stopping something. That would have cost him his life though, so that wasn't an option for him.
“Do not worry about that. I will take care of everything.” I urged him to follow me. “Come on. Let's go.”
“Go? Go where?” He was scared again. He probably thought that he was going to another cell.
“I am going to take you to see the others. The ones that want to be free of the Jaegan. You will all be protected by us. And I will see to it that you have the future and a life that you want.”
I created a door in the room to take me to where Clovio, Warrick and Armina were. I didn't know which apartment that Vincent had put them in, so I needed to use magic to do this.
“What is that?” Understandably, the door scared Gustav as it appeared out of nowhere.
“I used magic to make a door. This will take us to the place that the others are. You won't be a prisoner in a cell like this. However, I will ask that you not leave the castle for the time being. I want to make sure that the others don't find you. You will be free to go once this is all over.”
“I don't think that this could be worse than growing up in the orphanage.” He hung his head in shame. “We were all related, but we never knew how. Parents were not allowed to raise their own kids. They were all raised in the orphanage, no questions asked.”
“That is horrible.” It truly was.
“It was our life.” He was explaining this as he walked through the door.
“And it was how we learned to survive.” Clovio added as he looked at Gustav. “Hello Gus.” They clearly knew each other. “I didn't know that you were in town.”
“We are all in town.” Gustav sounded ominous at that moment. “But I want to be away from the family.”
“Us too.” Armina smiled at him. “Are you staying here with us?”
“Y..yes.” He nodded at her in reply.
“That's good. We will show you around. Thank you, Queen Trinity. Thank you for saving another one of my family members.”
“I want to help you all see reason, Clovio.” I told him after his thanks. “I don't think that I can help them all though. Some are just beyond reasoning.”
“I know.” He looked heartbroken. “Some are better than none though. So, thank you.”
“You're welcome.” I nodded at him before waving to them. It was time for me to return to the others. There was still more work for us to do.
