[Only reason I didn't put this in before was due to a conversation springing up on msn]

Not bothering to put the books away, as they would be soon picked up by one of the keepers, he noticed that a few guards were collecting themselves, no doubt from meeting the knight commander. Kon held a begrudging respect for the man.

He was an effective psychological torturer by simply being in the same room, but he did not understand the joy of pain and the pleasure it brings. That and he never gave Kon a chance to actually torture his prey with a goal in mind. They were broken by the time he got to them, so it was pointless. Kon was not sure exactly how old he was, as he was there when Kon was finally allowed into the tower itself, but he was already sixteen by then. The man could have been there the day before, or he could have been there since before Kon was even born.

Breaking himself out of his musings, he found he had reached the archives, and checked the records for any reference to anyone killed in the past thirty years. Noting only a handful that were registered as alive, and most of them loyal to Valcenz, he jotted down the names of those living and thief family members. He noted the last check in, not necessary but a constant performance can help for an alibi, and left a note at the archives desk.

The guards would draw straws to see who went to see his lord to deliver the news, and the 'winner' would wet himself, cry, and hope that his lord did not kill the poor man. And that he did not fall into an iron maiden. Series of 'accidents'. No one questions that Kon always checks the ones where the bodies are found, simply out of a desire not to be broken on the wheel. A crude, but effective, method of torture. Kon was lucky that there was such a surplus of guards that they were disposable at the rate that they were used; otherwise he would need to be careful and lengthen the lifespan of those he got.