Catalyst

Chapter 34: Advantage

The Swarm had never made a thorough examination of the terran prison system. They just hadn't needed to, really. They knew the basics, of course. They took the non-conformists of their species and either replaced their memories before sending them into combat, or just sent them into combat as they were. Considering their average lifespan on the frontlines was measured in seconds, it was a rather efficient method. It removes weakening elements and provides cannon fodder, all at the same time. While the strategy was of no use to the Swarm, they had still taken a note of its efficiency, before focusing on more important matters. There was never a pressing need for the details.

Currently, this oversight was causing Thenabar no small amount of distress. He had been in this cell for several days. He had no way of knowing whether or not this was normal, he had no idea what to prepare for, and he didn't even know when Dumbledore would come to see him next. He was entirely without information, and he despised every moment of it. Even worse, he was perfectly capable of just turning into something small enough to escape and returning to the Forest. The only thing stopping him was the Evolution Master's orders, and those was absolute. Still, Thenabar found himself hoping that something would happen soon.

As if summoned by his thoughts, there was a knock at the door of his prison. A second later, Dumbledore walked past the threshold. Thenabar took a quick glance at his surface thoughts. He was taking a moment to check the... monitoring wards? Oh, he had put them up yesterday. Thenabar hadn't noticed them at all. For that matter, he hadn't been aware wards could accept sensory input. The Evolution master would be pleased.

"Hello, Thenabar." Oh, right. He was here. Thenabar honestly wasn't sure what to do with him. Manipulate him, eliminate him, infest him, the Evolution Master didn't have an endgame in mind. Right now, Thenabar was more a proxy than a pawn. Which meant he didn't have any specific orders to follow, and needed to determine his own path to the objective. What a novelty.

"Headmaster," Thenabar replied, then paused. What exactly did he want to do here? He had already shown himself to believe that the headmaster had wanted to kill him, but repeating it after the multiple denials would paint Thenabar as either deaf or an idiot, neither of which was particularly appealing. Then again, humans were disturbingly slow to change their minds. He could pretend to be a fanatic, that would work. "Are you here to kill me?"

A wave of melancholy washed over Dumbledore. Thenabar really wished that would stop happening, it always screwed with his hormonal systems. A weakness of baseline boggarts, perhaps. He would mention it to the Evolution master later.

"No, I am not, Thenabar. And I really do wish you would believe me when I have no plans to harm you," Dumbledore responded.

"Then why come here? You don't like talking to me, and, actually, the feeling is mutual," Thenabar shot back. He was still supposed to be in the sullen prisoner phase, after all.

"I was wondering if you'd be willing to answer some questions for me." Thenabar decided to stay silent. Of course he wasn't. Did the human honestly expect to get anywhere with this? Unfortunately, Dumbledore seemed to take his lack of protest as encouragement. "Questions about Abathur."

"What do you want to know about him?" Thenabar asked, somewhat surprised.

"There are a great many things," Dumbledore said. "I would appreciate knowing where he came from, what he and his kind can do, or any other information you can provide."

"Interesting. I'm not going to tell you any of that," Thenabar said.

"Would you prefer to exchange information then?" Dumbledore proposed. "If you will consent to share information with me, I will in turn tell you whatever you wish to know."