Chapter 402: 402. One Finger Snapped When He Didn’t Answer The Question I Gave Him

Kregg started to answer and then stopped, which Rex had anticipated would happen. The Balance Keeper was apparently a subject whose conditioning was so deep that the information did not come freely, even under direct coercion, indicating to Rex that whatever the Balance Keeper was, she had altered the Legion’s loyalty structure in a way that went beyond simple organizational authority.

Rex waited three seconds after the hesitation. Then he looked down at Virella’s right hand, which he’d shifted his telekinetic attention to while keeping the physical grip on her throat, and applied a controlled compression to her index finger.

CRAACCKKK!

The crack was small and precise. Virella screamed with pain.

"AAGGGHHH!!!"

"That’s one," Rex said to Kregg. "You have nine more before all her fingers are snapped."

"Each one comes after three seconds of silence from you," Rex frowned. "Answer my question without hesitating and her fingers will stop snapping."

Kregg’s jaw was clenched tightly, reflecting the intense effort he was exerting to maintain his composure, although he was clearly struggling to succeed.

"You don’t have to do this," Kregg said.

"I know," Rex said.

"There are other ways to get information."

"There are slower ways, yes," Rex said. "But... I don’t have the time for that fucking shit when I have the source right in front of me right now..."

Kregg looked at Virella’s hand, at the angle of the broken finger, and Rex watched him process it the way someone processes a cost they calculated wrong the first time.

"She is a woman," Kregg said. "She founded the Legion approximately thirty years ago."

"The original group was seven people, all native Erosyne, all of them who had lost something directly attributable to reincarnator activity." He stopped for a breath. "She calls it balance."

"She believes that the world was functioning within its own developmental arc before the divine framework began importing external consciousnesses and that the accumulation of system-granted and knowledge-granted advantages in individual reincarnators produces a structural imbalance that the native population can never close without direct intervention."

"That’s ideology," Rex said. "I want specifics."

"Name first."

"The ideology matters," Kregg said. "If you understand why she built this, you understand what she’s capable of."

"I’ll decide what matters," Rex said. "Name."

Kregg looked at Virella again. Virella’s expression had gone inward, the face of someone managing pain while declining to let that management be visible.

"The name," Rex said.

"We don’t use her name," Kregg said. "She prohibited it..."

"Within the Legion she’s addressed as the Balance Keeper exclusively. I have heard her given name spoken once, in a conversation I was not meant to be part of."

"Then tell me what you heard," Rex said.

"I’m telling you the structure first," Kregg said. "Because the name without the structure means nothing to you."

Rex considered this. It was either a stall or it was accurate.

He paused for two seconds and determined that Kregg’s approach was likely accurate. Kregg had consistently provided information in a specific manner throughout the exchange—focusing on operational context before going into specifics.

This was characteristic of someone trained to brief rather than merely report.

"Then finish the structure," Rex said. "Quickly."

Rex applied the second compression.

CRACCCKKKK!!!

"Nrrrggghhhhh...!"

Virella made a noise that was sharper than the first, prompting Kregg to say, "Stop, stop," in a manner that was different from his earlier speech—quicker and less deliberate, with the words coming out like a reflex rather than a conscious choice.

"I said quickly," Rex said.

"I understand," Kregg said, his voice shifting in pitch, losing its earlier deliberateness. A raw urgency underlay his words. "So please... stop hurting her."

Rex waited.

"Then tell me about the reincarnators she uses," Rex said. "One of your men told me in the chamber that the Legion recruits specific ones."

"Gelion Amorphis was one of your contacts. How many others are there?"

Kregg exhaled slowly through his nose. "The Balance Keeper maintains a small number of reincarnators within her operational structure."

"Not as Legion members, but as assets with specific capabilities that native talent can’t replicate..."

"They operate under the understanding that their cooperation extends to her and that their usefulness determines their continued existence."

"Let me guess... she kills them when she’s done with them, right?" Rex said.

"She kills them when their advantage has been extracted or when the risk of their continued presence exceeds the value of keeping them." Kregg spoke without any particular emotion, suggesting that he had processed this information long enough for it to become a fact rather than a judgment. "None of them know they’re operating under a terminal arrangement. She is persuasive about the terms she offers."

Rex considered Gelion Amorphis, reflecting on his fourteen months of independent infrastructure-building within the Underlayer and his specific arrangement with the Legion’s east approach network, as well as whether Gelion was aware of the actual terms of his operation.

’Probably not.’

"And the reincarnators she uses," Rex said. "Do they know what the Legion does to the others? The ones it removes?"

"Some suspect," Kregg said. "Those who have been with her longer tend to rationalize their actions."

"How."

"The same way people rationalize most things," Kregg said. "They convince themselves they’re unique."

"That their situation is distinct, and... they’ve achieved something others haven’t." He paused. "She fosters that belief. She’s skilled at making people feel uniquely valued."

"A useful skill," Rex said.

"She built an organization that has operated for thirty years without a single internal defection," Kregg said. "It’s more than a skill."

Rex noted this and moved on.

"How many?" Rex said.

"I don’t know the current number... I’ve known of four across the years I’ve been with the Legion. Two are no longer in her service." The pause before the phrase "in her service" was the type that served as a direct translation.

"When did you join?" Rex said.

"Fourteen years ago," Kregg said.

"What did you lose?"

The canyon was quiet for a moment. Kregg looked at the space between them rather than at him, and Rex read this as the look of someone accessing a specific memory rather than a general one.

"My sister," Kregg said. "She was involved with a reincarnator..."

"The man had been in this world for eight years when he met her, telling her things about where he came from and making her feel like she was part of something larger than herself..."

"When his system indicated it was time to move on, he complied. She was left behind, unable to heal. She didn’t recover in the way that truly counts."

Rex said nothing.

"I’m not asking for your sympathy," Kregg said. "I’m answering your question." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"I know," Rex said. "Keep going."

"Gelion," Rex said. "Does she know about him specifically?"

"She knows about every asset she’s working with," Kregg said. "She identified him during the Underlayer’s coordination period."

"His intelligence network inside Mordecai’s infrastructure was useful for mapping the reincarnator concentration in that region."

"How long has he been her asset?"

"Approximately twelve months," Kregg said. "She identified him as an asset when he was fourteen months old."

"She observed him for the first two months. Then she made contact."

Rex filed this. This information was useful and aligned with what Kael had provided him during the chamber, suggesting that both pieces were likely accurate.

Gelion’s arrangement with the Legion had been initiated at the direction of the Balance Keeper, indicating that Gelion’s timeline was already in motion in ways that he likely did not comprehend.

He would deal with Gelion separately, later, after the expedition returned to Aethelgard. The information was time-sensitive but not immediately critical.

"Does Gelion know what happens to assets when they stop being useful?" Rex said.

"No," Kregg said. "He believes the arrangement is mutual."

"He thinks he’s the one managing the relationship."

"She allows him to believe that."

"She permits all of them to think that," Kregg replied. "It yields better outcomes than compliance through coercion."

"People who believe they’re partners work harder than people who know they’re tools."

Rex considered the irony of receiving that specific piece of analysis from a man whose throat he was currently controlling and decided it wasn’t worth commenting on.

"The Balance Keeper’s location," Rex said. "Where is she operating from?"

Kregg was quiet for longer than three seconds.

"Another finger then..." Rex looked at Virella’s hand.

"Don’t," Virella said. Her voice was steady even with two broken fingers and the grip on her throat. "Kregg, don’t answer that... just forget about me..."

"Virella," Kregg said.

"He’s going to kill us anyway," she said. "Don’t give him anything that costs more than we’ve already given."

"She’s making a reasonable argument," Rex said to Kregg. "So convince me that she’s wrong about it."

"Give me the location and I’ll let you both walk out of this canyon."

"And if I don’t," Kregg said.

"Then she was right, and the cost keeps going up until one of two things happens," Rex said. "Either you give me the location or there’s nothing left of her hand to compress."

"Your call."

Virella said, "Kregg." It was a warning rather than a plea. The tone was specific, indicating that she was instructing someone she cared about to stand firm in their position.

"I know what you’re doing," Kregg said to Rex. "You’re making me choose between protecting her and protecting my loyalty towards the Legion and the Balance Keeper."

"You want me to see her as more important than the mission, so I’ll break."

"Is she?" Rex said.

Kregg didn’t answer that.