The broken man cast a glance up at Piro after the man returned alongside the ring, a wary look on his face at the question but seeming to shake his head briefly and relax his expression, drawing a long breath.<strong>"I figure this place is getting to me. I got a feeling you are going to just leave me to rot after I tell you what you want. I am not happy about this, but I ask you to swear it that you'll let me out of here after I tell you."</strong>The man stared at Piro a moment, but finally sighed loudly again, whether or not he got the oath, it seemed he had little choice but to try and provide his share of help.<br/><br/><strong>"The wards call for a living Master, someone that answers when they call. Something gets messed up? The master gets to wake up with a sense of what is wrong. Something tries to intrude in the wards? The master gets a nasty jolt. Guess its mostly the devil's own essence fuelling the wards through the ring... but the damned cant use them. Faustians can, since they are 'honorary devils' here. Heard that some of the ... 'crusaders' can but I'd be doubtful of that. Then again, the wards dont affect the 'truly living' the same way here."</strong>He snorted derisively and sighed leaning back to the wall behind him.<br/><br/><strong>"This place produces Illiaster, and its worth a lot to the devils, but they'll never have enough. No, but then again the damned tend to <em>deserve</em> all they get. You'd be hard pressed to find an innocent here, but if you did you'd have your hands full of money fast... truly <em>pure good</em> can be <em>drained</em> for exquisite Illiaster through torment... and hence are treasures the devils can wage war over... same as the <em>truly darkest of the dark</em> souls... but for most of the damned, the difference in the taint of their soul hardly matters. Its only the extremes which give a big enough difference to be worth pursuing. A man who murdered his wife is easily damned but produces lackluster Illiaster, a pirate captain that robbed and raped, murdered and marauded would probably bring in a nice harvest, but hardly world-shattering... now a cult-leader that turned young children into blood-thirsty weapons and used them to kill their own families, that would probably impress some of the... higher ranks."</strong>He finished, sighing wearily after that bit of explanation.<br/><br/>His eyes turned towards the grate and noticing the figure up at a higher level probably addressing the oracle rather than him, but choosing to answer regardless.<strong>"Some here... are worth keeping your word to... others... would sell you to a soul-mill for a good amount of coin, and a chance to get the first taste of your illiaster. I'd take this place myself if I could, but to the fiends, its true value is not in the wards... but the resources... the illiaster... and lethe production."</strong>