Jade's tedious toil with the recent prisoner was having no obvious outward appearance of fortune. It wasn't that he was a frail elder, apt to expire at the most subtle twinge of pain. No, indeed. He proved to be a figure who's body had become a convex shell containing an obstinate mind licked by the power of time and an inconceivable wealth of knowledge, stood unyielding to the very torture that would take the heart's and will's of most mortals. The figure was not gnarled, but retained the polish of youth, a spring apple hurling defiance into the very teeth of winter's chill frost. In fact, much to Jade's perplexment and increasing chagrin, the old man was surprisingly stalwart in his continuous silence. "Are you absolutely positive that you don't want to tell me where she is?" he cajoled in a wheedling tone. The man shook his head in a vigorous affirmative. "Please?" Again the irksome denial. "Please?" he said, allowing the foul words to singe his lips once more.

His tone had taken on the quality of a weary and put-out child. Again the firm head movement of grim defiance. Jade sighed. "Screw this," he snapped, striding to the man ensnared with bondage, and enclosing his hand in his grasp. "I suck at begging," he supplied, and, with an indolent, causal air, rather like one exchanging their opinion on the weather to a casual passerby, he took a spindly, arthritic-beset finger and coerced it to double back upon itself in a manner nature never intended. A minute crack resounded audibly, and the man's visage contorted in an onslaught of agony. A small whimper, finally turned out of the stubbornly silent maw, forced its way past clenched jaws and compressed lips. Jade smirked, a small thrill caused his slight frame to convulse in pleasure as he reveled in the man's agony and terror.

The elderly man was so petrified. It was desirous. "Finally, a squeak from the miserable rat. Now, I can end this torment any time...or not," he contradicted, snapping yet another finger with a chilling cavalier manner. "It depends on your...cooperation. Another strident report of shattering bones, with each spoken word. At length, the man's left wrist, hand, all five fingers, and arm had been shattered with a precise, calculated, methodical manner. "Now, are you going to disclose her location, or shall I start on your other arm?" Jade inquired, his tone a mocking parody of civility. The elderly man's tongue quested about within his maw, until a reserve pocket of salvia was located. As he gathered the gossamer foam upon the tip of his tongue, he maintained his silence, until he ejected the spit with a damp report onto Jade's shoe in rejoinder. "Ah. Interesting. That's...very interesting," Jade mused.

"Smith!" He cried stridently, causing the bound man to take fright and wince visibly. "Sir?" rejoined a voice from the bowels of the shadows, as smooth as an oil slick stealthily overcoming the tide, slick with cunning. "See to it that our most cherished guest is well accommodated and his every whim tended to. Once he's rested...whim him until we wrest the information we required from his forked tongue...or until he departs the mortal world. Whichever comes first. He pressed his lips in a parody of deep thought. "I'd prefer the latter, however," That said, he crossed over to the elderly fellow and lightly pressed his lips to the man's balding pate. "Sleep tight...father," he crooned. That said, he retired to the upper levels of his business.