Lear took the water, watching her for a moment. He glanced at Romulus and nodded in her direction. Can she stay?
Romulus considered it. She was already privy to what was going on, the entire camp was. She was also a part of this particular interaction, since she'd been with them.
He turned to her. "As long as you're quiet, you can stay." He wasn't rude about it, but what they were going to do might become unpleasant if the would-be assassin wasn't cooperative.
Lear nodded and finished his water. He set the cup down on the cot, and both men turned to focus on the man slowly coming awake on the ground.
~~~~
The man came to sitting somewhere he didn't recognize. There was no noise, nothing to alert him to where he was. He opened his eyes, and looked up into the faces of two tall men, one willowy and intelligent looking, and the other built like a brick wall.
He immediately recognized them, and tried to scramble away. The big man reached down and grabbed his collar, lifting him like he weighed no more than an errant child.
"Name." It was a demand, not a question, and with his feet dangling, the man was in no position to refuse.
"Direm! My name is Direm!" His dark skin was beginning to flush red with the fear coursing through him.
"Well, Direm, I'm going to tell you this once. Sit still." The brick wall dropped him on his rump in the dirt, and Direm didn't move.
It was only then that he noticed the woman sitting on the cot behind them both. She was watching, and he couldn't read her expression, but he immediately relaxed slightly. They wouldn't torture him with a lady present.
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Lear looked down at the Venian sitting in the dirt. "Care to tell us who you are and why you're here?" The man looked up at him, seemingly calmed by something, and responded sullenly. "I've told you my name, and I'm here because you brought me here."
Romulus stepped forward and placed a foot on Direm's ankle, slowly leaning his immense weight on it as he spoke. "Why don't you try again, a little more polite and helpful."
Direm flinched as something popped in his ankle, and nodded his head. "I work for one of the businessmen whose door you kicked in yesterday morning. And I'm here because I was sent to collect on that debt." He relaxed a little as the brick wall stepped back, though his ankle didn't fell better.
Lear narrowed his eyes. "By businessman, I can only assume you mean criminal. And by 'collect', I assume you were sent to kill me."
Direm nodded. "You're smarter than you look."
It felt like a thunderbolt landed on his head just then, as the bigger man slapped him with an open palm.
Romulus kneeled and got down in Direm's face. "Listen closely: say what you like to me, but you disrespect one of mine, and I'll send you back brain damaged, do you understand?"
Direm's head cleared slowly, but he got the point. "I understand."
Lear just watched. Romulus was mildly terrifying when he made threats, even if you weren't the one being threatened.
"Why did you come? You had to know you were no match for us?"
And here, Direm sneered. "Ah, yes, the mighty Haradrim, invincible, unassailable, unbeatable, right? How could I, a lowly Venian, ever hope to kill you, right?"
Lear didn't rise to the bait, instead egging the man on to get him to talk more. "Exactly."
Romulus stood as Lear did is work. The Venian went on.
"You're not as god-like as you think. Why should we fear you, people who sneak about in the night and slay others unsuspecting. No honor, no sense of glory, just snakes in the grass. I remember a Venian on the throne, and I know how you took what was his." He was frowning now, his face twisting in anger. "The King may not have been a great king, but at least he was from here! And he never would have done what you're doing, we had his support!" Direm was past speaking, he was spitting. "He saw our poverty, and rather than condemning us for the measures we took to survive, he enabled us to live well! We have a large, successful city, Calegon, a jewel in the midst of these pig-sty farms, and you would seek to ruin what makes us great! Our children may suffer, but the futures of their brothers and sisters are secured with their sacrifices!"
Lear eyes widened. There it is. The man had just admitted to the fact that Calegon trafficked its own children, and that the former Crown had not only done nothing, but had encouraged it. Lear knew first-hand about that side, but it was still jarring to hear.
Romulus's face had hardened as the man spoke. He interrupted the tirade with a low question. "So there are more of you?"
Direm glared up at him. "Of course, you bumbling oaf! We are all throughout the city. Our leaders may negotiate for peace with you, but our businesses will not close their doors. And you know that we will continue to have customers." A sick smile crossed his face. "I know your reputation, Prince. I know you single-handedly keep many of the whore-houses in the country in business. How low do your standards drop? How young will you stoop to screw, like a bitch in heat? Perhaps you have even been a patron of ours, indirectly, by supporting a place buying one of our wares! I suppose I sould be thanking you!" A coarse laugh left his throat, his nerves and rage mixing together to make him sound slightly crazy.
Romulus knelt again, down in Direm's face. He didn't respond to the accusation.
He did reach out and break Direm's arm in one hand, like a smaller man might break a bothersome stick in his way.
The Venian yelped, and immediately swallowed his laughter, the fear igniting in his eyes again.
"You're going to tell us everything you know, every location, every person involved." Romulus said evenly. "Or so help me, your family will regret it more than you."
Direm's glare returned. "You would threaten my family?? Your colors are showing. You pretend to be about righteousness and justice, when it's nothing but ego and pride fueling you! A desire to squash us under your boot heel! Well, let me tell you, Your Highness, that we will never bow to a Harad on the throne!"
Romulus again ignored his tirade, and merely reached down and bent one of his fingers the wrong way. Direm yelped and went quiet.
"I'm only threatening your family with having to care for you." He rested his thick palm on Direm's thigh, much too high for comfort. "You wouldn't want them to have to care for a castrated, addle-brained, wheelchair-bound blind man, would you?"
Lear piped up. "You'd better do what he asks, he'll take you apart with just the one hand."
Romulus slid his hand slowly up the man's thigh, a decidedly threatening gesture.
And Direm caved immediately.
