“You have been remarkably silent.”
There was arguing outside but it was faint, barely noticeable past the lead-lined walls. Relkir had been handcuffed to the table in front of them and had said barely anything. Despite the forced prodding and poking they had been put through. A blood sample had been taken, they had sat through various medical tests and there were talks of putting Relkir into a quarantine box just in case they were dangerous. But Relkir had remained quiet, holding in to their right to remain silent, waiting for the state to appoint them a public defender.
Twelve hours later, and Relkir was holding fast. And currently, they were locked in a room with one person. The Master of Generals had stated that Relkir was too dangerous to be looked after by normal vok, so they were being watched by General Ritlir. And the reason for that was because apparently Ritlir had some sort of hidden ability of their own.
“You have said nothing.”
“I am holding my right to remain silent.”
“You have said nothing apart from that.”
Ritlir sighed. They understood what Relkir was going through. Admittedly, Ritlir had been in the subject of a Hidden Anomalous Abilities case before. But Ritlir’s time in that case was brief, because it turned out their only hidden ability was the fact that beings with telepathy couldn’t easily read Ritlir’s mind, and they constantly set off metal detectors, even before the injury that had caused Ritlir to have a metal plate inserted to cover a hole in their skull. It just turned out, Ritlir was oddly magnetic themselves.
Also admittedly, Ritlir really wanted Relkir to speak. They had so many questions, and they didn’t want to see Relkir suffer. Yes, Relkir was a bit weird and asocial, but they were a good person. They didn’t deserve to be stressed. And despite Relkir looking like they were saying calm, Ritlir was trained in interrogations and getting information and they could see the little shakes and shudders of nervousness bubbling underneath the surface.
“I am sorry about this, by the way. Should you have told us about your new potential powers? Probably. But I get it. You are scared. You can talk, you know.”
Relkir glanced at Ritlir, looked down, then grunted.
“I am using my right to remain silent.”
“I know you are. You are doing a remarkably good job of that. But you have not asked to make any of your three phone calls, you have not made any of your legal requests for food or drink and you have not used your ten minutes of free speech. You are just remaining silent. You have remained silent for twelve hours now.”
More glances. Ritlir could tell that Relkir wanted to say a lot. They swallowed awkwardly.
“Do you want to use your ten minutes of free speech?”
Relkir looked up at Ritlir. “You guarantee that my words will be made null and will not be used against me in any way? That I may speak freely, without consequence?”
“That is what the ten minutes of free speech is for. That is within your rights.”
Relkir hesitated, then sighed. “I would like to use my ten minutes of free speech.”
Ritlir nodded, then pulled out a small digital clock with a timer on it. They set it to ten minutes then started the timer. “What do you want to talk about, Relkir?”
“She… she told me to keep it all secret.”
“The Lady of Time?”
“Yes. I was just following her instructions. She told me that, if I kept everything hidden and secret, if I did my best to not use these stupid abilities at all, I would be free to just live my life normally. So I did as she told me to. And she… pulled the rug from under me, ruining my life in the process.”
“So you can… manipulate time?”
“I cannot manipulate time.”
“What is it that you can do that makes the Lady of Time so… worried about you? Because we heard the entire conversation you had with Her. She was scared. She thinks you are as powerful as she is.”
“I cannot manipulate time!” Relkir repeated themselves. “I just… see things before they happen, sometimes. But I did not see the Lady of Time doing what she did to me. I did not see myself ending up here. But here I am. I do not even like these… ‘powers’ if you want to call them that. It bothers me greatly. Even more so because the Higher Gods now see me as a problem…” Relkir trailed off, then sniffed. “I did not want any of this. I just wanted to do a cool, interesting before I started my new life as a father, but no, instead, I nearly witnessed the end of the universe and was cursed because of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“The last thing I remember seeing is Litvir, battered and broken. The last thing I remember hearing is a dragon saying something about destroying time and killing us all.”
“Ah…” Ritlir wasn’t sure what to say. So they decided to ask the one thing that they really wanted to know. “So… was… was what Litvir said about the whole thing… was that the truth? That the Whenvern threatened to destroy the entire universe? And that you… you…”
“I did not kill the Whenvern. But I dealt the blow that allowed the gods to end the threat to all of existence.”
Ritlir stared at Relkir for a little too long. Relkir sighed again, wondering whether what they had said could still be used against them, due to how significant it was. After a moment though, Ritlir reached forward and undid Relkir’s handcuffs.
“What are you doing?”
“I do not think the person who helped save the universe should be held in chains. I need some time to work out what to do, so you can walk free, but I promise I will help however I can…” Ritlir glanced at the clock. It had a minute left. “I recommend you save that last minute and continue staying silent.”
“Thank you, Ritlir.”
Ritlir shook their head and grunted. “No, thank you, Relkir. If it was not for you, it is possible none of us would be here right now…”