Summary - Episode Seven: Swords and Secrets

Season One, Episode 7: Swords and Secrets

J – Per your request, here is the transcript of the traitor Kaden’s testimony. – C

[K]aden: Thanks for getting me out of there.

[C]: Thank you for your cooperation. My assistant told me some of your story, but I want you to start with why your sister Norah spooked you.

[K]: My mother had just gone missing and I was searching for her. I hadn’t seen Norah in years, I wasn’t expecting her and then when I noticed her hunting me like an animal through the streets.

[C]: Your mother went missing?

[K]: Yes. After the Frumentarii found me again, I decided that my wife, my children and my mother were safest with my in-laws, who had just moved from Tribute to the new village that Commander Lucian founded.

[C]: Char-lay?

[K]: Yes, my father in law dyes leather. But my mother doesn’t get along with my mother-in-law and I had just gotten a letter from my wife that she had run off. I figured that she was back in Tribute where she had lived or was looking for me.

[C]: You hadn’t been contacted by the Frumentarii for some time?

[K]: For a couple of years. I was almost out of the Everburning Cinder, and then out of nowhere an agent contacted me and threatened my family if I didn’t cooperate.

[C]: And then your sister found you?

[K]: The next week, it was terrifying. I was almost out, I had almost gotten out and then the Frumentarii found me and then Norah tracked me down and made it very clear that she considered me scum, a traitor. I asked for her help, for money to escape, but she wouldn’t help at all. Not even though I was family.

[C]: You didn’t tell her about your wife, your children, your mother?

[K]: She made it clear she knew about my working as a mole, that she was part of some part of the Everburning Cinder, I didn’t want them to have more leverage over me.

[C]: How did you know about John Barker?

[K]: From Everburning Cinder files.

[C]: Why did you go to him?

[K]: He wasn’t part of the Everburning Cinder or the Frumentarii, as far as I could tell, and I thought he would help me get my family to safety in the Free Valleys in exchange for my information.

[C]: Was he willing to help?

[K]: I think so. Norah and her thugs showed up before we had finalized the deal.

[C]: Your sister brought thugs?

[K]: Yeah, they killed all of Barker’s men, one tried to kill me. [Kaden indicates a large chest wound that was bandaged] They tortured Barker in front of me and another man, who had been come with Barker as a porter.

[C]: What did they want from Barker?

[K]: I don’t think they know. One wanted to know who some promiscuous Northern Noblewoman had taken as a lover, they wanted to know about some Glendower name that I didn’t recognize. [Laughs]

[C]: Why are you laughing?

[K]: I don’t think they realized how much that rogue Barker was lying to them. He was a tough son of a bitch and they were far from skilled torturers.

[C]: How do you know about skilled torture?

[K]: When the Frumentarii first found me, they tortured me until I agreed to infiltrate the Everburning Cinder.

[C]: What happened then?

[K]: Barker died, then they demanded the other man join their organization or die and then after he agreed, they killed him anyway. I begged for my life and they agreed to spare me and give me to the Everburning Cinder. They talked about the situation in Manc. I don’t remember, I was in so much pain.

[C]: Thank you.

[K]: Thank you. Is everything ready for my family to go North?

[C, to bodyguard]: Kill him.

[K]: What? I told you everything, I cooperated. Please. Please.

--Transcript Ends—

Postscript: J, I am having Kaden’s family taken care of. I was careful to make sure that no one aside from my scribe and my guard know that I saw Kaden in his cell before he “disappeared”.

Closing Credits: "We No Who U R" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds from Push the Sky Away