The cold

The bull's belly

Nerezza's eyes were drawn towards the sack the man had dropped, it had made a pretty metallic sound when he dropped it. The man's face paled when she opened it, holding up each of the things in the sack for a second or two. It was a complete set, knives , runes, iron, everything one would need to do one of those sacrifices and many other things that weren't really needed like a thumbscrew ,cat-o-nines and a few things she'd never seen in her life. "Heading somewhere?" Nerezza asked with a smirk on her face "Didn't know you were the one to be hunted for a change, hmmm?"she said, her grin growing wider as she noticed the thin layer of sweat on his face, getting tortured was probably hard work, knowing one was going to be tortured was probably worse.

" It won't really help you to know where she  is, you're not getting it from me anyway, not that you can do anything if you did know so you might as well kill me now."The man had made it pretty much official that he had no brains, none at all if he thought he was going to get a quick death, where was the fun in that? It wasn't like the place had a shortage of tools,the house could almost pass for a museum exhibiting medieval torture devices, it had almost everything in the book from a brazen bull, a scold's bridle to a heretic's fork,even a few devices Nerezza thought wouldn't exist now,Nerezza swapped her knife with a heretic's fork , placing the device between the man's breast bone and throat just under the chin and securing the device with a leather strap around the neck. She left a little gap between the fork and the man's throat, just barely enough to let the man whisper, provided he was very very careful. She could almost see the man shaking now, guess he wasn't that ready to die after all.To further encourage him she held the naval cat in her hand, a little flogging from this nine corded cat would definitely kill the man, merely because it would make him scream which would in turn make the fork pierce his throat. The man gulped slightly before giving them the answer, which was a shame of course, he couldn't even take a little mental hit but oh well, she needn't hold back now."Magpie lives in Crossuire, she's built a small house there"  he whispered trying his best to control his body, to not shake in fear. Crossuire was a part of the kingdom that was generally avoided , due to the old dark rumors that surrounded the place, added to that was the fact that literally nothing lived there, even the birds and animals avoided the place like a plague, not a single plant within a mile of the place. It was just the perfect place for someone to hide or perform rituals that needed particularly big circles , after all what better than a place that no one stepped foot in? After that, the man answered her questions like clockwork, probably in the hope that she would let him go, the silly thing. She didn't tell him that that wasn't the case though, there was no need for that, it was something he'd find out soon enough anyway. Nerezza laughed when she realized that the man actually wet himself, such was his fear . It was ironical, this was a man that held power over young weak boys like Andrew, a man that killed people on whim, a man who was a part of the dark side. She expected a little more, no , a lot more from any person who called himself a decent villain, at least a bit of dignity, a little less begging, a little more work on her part. He was just a big fat disappointment. 

"Bless you for talking like a good boy, now I can finally try the brazen bull, never actually tried it, will your screams really sound like the bellowing of a bull?" Nerezza asked while removing the heretic's fork carefully before pulling him off the chair , the twine flames still intact. She ripped the clothes off his body and shoved a struggling and begging "master" through the door of the bull before locking him in the bull, she didn't like beggars anyway.

Damien and Abbadon stared at Nerezza wide eyed and shocked. She didn't have any sort of remorse painted on her face while she walked around the house calmly looking for things to help make a fire beneath the bull, not an ounce of indecision or guilt on her face . She finally settled for a large heap  of books,piling them under the bronze bull and lighting it on fire, adding a little wood and pretty much anything inflammable that she found in the house into the pile.  It took almost a minute for the man inside to start screaming, which did indeed sound like the angry bellowing of the bull. The bronze bull turned a glowing red because of the intense heat and the bull actually appeared to be shaking a little , probably a result of the man thrashing about. 

Damien sighed in relief when the bellowing stopped,   every scream had made him flinch , he was looking away from the bright bull, at the door actually, wanting to get away from the place as fast as possible . The smell of charred flesh made him nauseous , the thought of what was happening to the man made him sick. He didn't stop Nerezza though, this was her own sick version of justice and it often worked. The man did tell them all they needed to know after all and Nerezza wasn't someone you could really put conditions to, she either helped in her own terms or she didn't at all. It was nice enough that she was on their side.

They left the house, leaving a very dead 'master' in the belly of the brazen bull, to find Neil and Andrew sitting on the floor, Neil drawing meaningless patterns on the ground, utterly bored with the wait. Neil's nose crunched up in disgust, before he quickly covered it with both hands asking what in god's name that awful smell was. Damien visibly winced while Nerezza's face lit up in a very creepy grin, a grin that sent a few uninvited chills up Neil's spine.