faderift | Not Quite Damsels, Definite Distress

Ciri only spares the two the quickest of glances, frowning before her look turns dark and she steps away from their group. She could laugh at Ashton decision to use a word like 'decent' to describe the current situation but whatever floats their shitty boat.

"If we decide to be aggressive then you better hope you're faster than a split second."

Because she moves to put herself at the front of the group, keeping a respectable distance from the one speaking but making herself known. She was one of the faster ones here, faster still with her alchemical mixtures and there won't be anything happening without her seeing it first.

Offering? She could spit but instead she holds her ground, arms crossed and glaring up a storm.

Still holding Purrelden, Merrill ignores the comments of the captors for now. Instead, she pushes her way up to the front, to Anders' cell. The cat is set down and Merrill hopes that she'll make her way through the bars to her human.

"Look, Anders," Merrill says, quiet, offering him a soft, gentle smile. "Purrelden was very smart and came right up to us."

She straightens, however, at the mention of negotiating -- of what they are willing to offer. Her eyes flash as she turns, staff moving from her back to her hand as she makes sure her body is between the cells and the village mages.

"You lured two Grey Wardens and allies to the Inquisition here under false pretenses and proceeded to drug and psychologically torture them. More than that, you did it to my friends, my clan." Surprise Alistair, you've been clan-dopted. "If we did the same to your people, would you offer us something to get them back? I doubt it."

Fingers tap against the wooden haft of her staff. She can make all of them sleep in a moment, too. She can use roots and tree limbs to rip this building apart. She is getting upset, but Merrill sucks in a breath and tries to channel every ounce of training she had for her lost future as a Keeper.

"Give them back to us. What you and your village need can be discussed after they are free and have been treated to try and repair what you did to them while trying to pretend you're any better than those who have oppressed you for years."

Quietly and helpfully, with his head compliant in Teren's unusually gentle hands, Alistair—helpfully! so much helping—gives a low whistle that clearly means daaamn.

Velanna is quiet, although the expression on her face is one of quietly simmering anger. They hadn't just locked them up somewhere, they'd hurt them.

She lets the others talk for the moment, although she's absently tapping the blunt end of her staff against the floor of the prison they're standing in. It's a subtle movement, probably looks like nervous twitching to anyone who doesn't know what she's doing. Merrill alone might know that she's looking for weaknesses in the flooring where roots can force their way through.

They are leaving no one here.

Nate's hands are warm on his cheeks and Anders leans into the contact, listening to the conversation going on around them. It's tense. He's weirdly torn, thankful for the response of their friends while feeling guilty for the whole mess, but then his cat's climbing his leg into his lap and the guilt fades away.

"Thank you." It's little more than a whisper, and he doesn't know if Merrill hears it before she's speaking again but it's said.

Taking note of the way people are talking and moving around, and taking strength from Nate, Anders looks up at Jovian. "You might want to hear them out. We did tell you this was a stupid move." There isn't a lot of strength to his voice, but he's all right now. He has support.

Catching sight of Anders responding to Nate, Teren finally begins to relax. They're safe. They're safe and they're right here.

As Merrill and Ciri stand against the mages, she smirks faintly in silent approval-- her instincts about them have been correct, and she's glad they came alnog. If her thoughts are unusually tender, perhaps the reasons go no further than that she is present, in control of her own decisions, and within touching range of people who may otherwise have disappeared. Never again.

She idly shushes Alistair, but curls her hand to bring him a little closer to the bars, where she can help support his weight without him having to lean too uncomfortably on the metal. "We'll get this sorted, hundehvalp" she mutters, still managing to sound a bit gruff, though it's likely only Alistair, Nate, and Anders can hear it. She meets her accomplice's eyes, if he looks her way: they're not leaving here without both, no matter how many they have to kill.

There's some quiet from the mages as Velanna moves around and they consider the words being said. Kian and Vidal are noticeably between Jovian and Ashton, while Ashton and Jovian are looking at each other.

Ashton finally glances out toward Aleigh, who nods and makes a gesture off to the side.

Kian clears his throat. "What do we lose in opening up the cells?"

"We still have numbers," Vidal adds.

"If we keep giving in and giving in, we won't have any ground left to stand on." Ashton's expression is ice. "You talk about your people being hurt, but they're alive and there's been nothing permanent done here. I say we stick to giving them one unless there's a good reason to do more."

Jovian listens to them all before looking at the assembled group. "We would negotiate if you had one of ours. We would trade what we had, because that's what we do for our people."

Kian shifts where he stands, Jovian ignores it and continues on. "Both drugs wear off. Neither of them needs immediate treatment. You can fuss over them here, or pick one to fuss over outside, and then we talk."

"You do not have numbers," Nathaniel growls lowly. Anders is melting into his touch, but clinging so tightly to his hand that it hurts. "We have others outside. And if you believe I am bluffing, I will not try to persuade you. I don't care anymore whether you believe me. I am only giving you fair warning, because I was taught to have honor even when it is inconvenient. You are not being given a choice. We will leave here today with both prisoners. You may decide how, and what you receive from it."

He is bluffing, sort of. They have two people on the outside. But they also have a great deal of talent on the inside. And he is done with this nonsense.

"The Hero of Ferelden did not kill the Archdemon or the Mother alone," Velanna adds calmly, still tapping her staff against the floor, still with that oddly intense expression on her face.

"You have... four people here now, who fought with him. We were never not outnumbered. The fact that you are mages means nothing to us. You took people we love, and if you want to stay alive, you will give them back."

"Nothing permanent?! By that line of thought, none of your abuses by the Templars were permanent." Merrill is, obviously, shocked -- her voice is shrill. She cannot believe the nerve of this woman, and her grip on her staff tightens. "They will have to live with this for the rest of their lives -- the way they came to help and were betrayed. Just as you have to live with what happened in the Circles."

She takes a deep breath, trembling slightly -- she is furious, but someone in the group has to have a cooler head. She turns her attention to Vidal, trying to catch the other woman's eye.

"We would have helped as best we could had you only just asked. I understand panicking, doing things you regret as a result, but keeping them is only making it worse. Sometimes you have to stand up against those you would rather get along with because it's the right thing to do."

Another breath, this one a little less shuddering. "Help us help our friends and we will remember it. Do the right thing and we can do right by you."

"What you do for your people? What about what they've done for your people?"

A spark of rage ignites, leaving her taking in a shuddering breath of air and taking an angered step closer despite the ones that have also moved forward from the other party. Her eyes are on Ashton and Jovian who are clearly issuing the orders here. A glance is spared between Kian and Vidal, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword, with teeth bared.

"Alistair helped save Kinloch Hold from abominations and the Right of Annulment while Anders is the only reason you're out here making such laughable stupid decisions for your people."

Ciri is ultimately rather glad for Merrill. Her cooler tone is perhaps the only reason she hasn't started yelling or thrown a very needed punch in someone's direction. Instead, she takes another step forward and puts herself not far from reach of the two acting as protection, hoping (even praying) they would make a move against them.

"You might actually make your Templar abusers proud with this by turning out no better than them."

Kian looks stressed, breathing heavily now, lips pressed together to the point of being white. Vidal can't seem to look away from Merrill with guilt written all over her face.

"You're actually listening to what they're saying." Ashton's voice is mocking as she looks at the two. "You can't still be young enough to believe there can be honor and the right thing in a fight for freedom and our future."

Vidal now breaks her gaze away to look at Javion. She doesn't find help there. His expression is calm and calculated as he pulls the staff off of his back.

"We can't," Vidal says. "They're right.."

"I'd hate to be known as a mage who changed sides when things got complicated," Javion replies. "Do you think they'd really trust you?" He looks back at the gathered visitors. "At least two in here you'd have to fight. Several dozen more outside, some of whom don't even know what's going on. You'll face off against innocents who will only know you've killed some of their friends."

"We don't have to fight." From the look on Vidal's face she already knows this isn't going to work, but she's trying anyway. "They're worried about their people the way we've worried about ours. We can stop this now and no one loses anyone and no one gets more hurt."

"Aren't you an idealist." It's not a compliment the way Ashton says it, looking at Javion.

Kian takes a shaky breath. "Yeah. Yeah, that's why we're here. We're supposed to be idealists and different. We release them both. Right here and now. That's my vote."

"Seconded," says Vidal.

Barriers flare up... around Javion and Ashton, and Ashton hurls a sleep spell randomly as she charges to the side.

It takes no time at all for Nathaniel's bow to be out and strung, and an arrow in it. Mages aren't the only ranged fighters here. He's going to get that bitch Ashton if it's the last thing he does.

"Get behind me!" he shouts to Kian. The boy didn't ask for this. Nathaniel looses an arrow at Ashton, but it ricochets off the barrier she has up. He swears and nocks another.

Great, the bloody mages are bloody fighting and there's spells and--

Teren at first flattens herself against the bars, then rolls her eyes. "Careful," she mumbles to Alistair as she slowly lowers him to rest against them, then withdraws a thin blade from her sleeve, clearly intended to be a lockpick. Since Anders is closer to the the chaos, she slips behind Nate to begin working at his lock first, periodically glancing in at him to make sure he isn't panicking or.. dead or something.

The moment that Ashton looks to Javion, Ciri draws her sword and removes a flask at her hip. Fire erupts from the flask of fire, bringing light into the space as she reaches out and tugs both Kian and Vidal forward roughly by their robes. She's hoping it'll be enough to get them moving, forcing them back to a safer distance and away from two attacking.

She meets Jovian's barrier with a hard strike as Nathaniel's arrow ricochets off the other barrier. It doesn't seem to throw her off and she pushes forward, pushing more and challenging the barrier's strength.

Velanna has had her hackles up since they walked into this village, so the second barriers flare she's moving, her staff coming up to aim at the offending mages. She doesn't dare start slinging fireballs until she's sure where everyone is going to settle themselves in this fight, but she can take out defenses, and that's what she aims to do, casting Dispel, attempting to angle the spell so she can hit both mages at once, but focused more towards Ashton.

Kian freezes as he stares at Nathaniel before he and Vidal are both yanked forward by Ciri. Then he's running behind the archer, expression defeated. Vidal makes a choked noise as she staggers to the side before she's suddenly vanished. In her place is a swarm of insects that promptly starts harassing Javion.

As the arrow bounces uselessly off her barrier Ashton snorts. "Careful where you aim--" The Dispel hits her barrier and Ashton stops talking for now. Ice shoots out from her, spikes spreading across the floor and aimed for Velanna and Nate.

Javion, on the other side of the room, looks more disappointed than anything else as Ciri and Vidal batter his barrier down. He casts an earthquake, shaking the building and making Kian cling for dear life to the bars of a cell. It's followed up with a slowing spell cast wide just as his barrier cracks.

From outside there's a wave of force magic, sent in through the door and meant to pin some of the party against the cells. Aleigh doesn't know all of what's going on out there, but
it's not hard to tell when something's going wrong.

Careful where you aim, she says as she gives Nathaniel a perfect line to shoot. She might as well have drawn a target on her heart. Children can hit a target like this.

He has to do it quickly, aiming along the line of spikes before they reach him. As soon as he looses the arrow, he steps out of the path of the ice and drags Kian with him.

MAGES

Teren prevents herself from getting too aggravated by staring at Anders in the cell, the lock on which clicks open and allows her to slip inside. Of course, this is at the exact moment that one of them casts fucking earthquake, so she promptly ends up on the ground beside Anders, remarking rather impolitely and under her breath. She withdraws from her belt pouch a small, roundish object, which she lobs into the fracas: a smoke bomb, for the purpose of both confusing everyone long enough to let her pass, and to prevent them from seeing what she's doing. Who knows if it'll work, if mages even have to see before they shoot their bloody spells around?
She stoops to hook her arms under Anders' and straightens, utilizing the majority of her limited strength to now pull him backward, out of the cell and toward Alistair's. When they reach the second door, she props Anders against the bars, behind her, and begins to work on Alistair's lock.
"Don't suppose you can make us a barrier," she murmurs to Anders, whom she knows is there despite the dissipating smoke, though she isn't sure of his level of consciousness.

He's no sooner landed on his ass than he has Teren there, and while he tries to help her move most of his attention is on trying to figure out when exactly Nate left and when she showed up. It doesn't happen. His mind's in too much of a haze to figure out the whole sequence of events, and he's too tired from the stress of being in a cell all over again to do more than slump against the bars.

At least he can figure out that Teren's talking to him. "I can't." There's apology in his weary voice. "Magebane. It's been in the water they've given me." Which means he's useless, and he feels it too.

"Unless you brought a lyrium potion?" It's unlikely, but at least there's a small chance he can help out somehow.

Throughout all of this Jamie is simply doing his best to avoid getting hit, the mess of spells and arrows and smoke bombs making it so he's not entirely sure who's throwing what at any given time - except for two things.

One is the earthquake, which he sees Javion cast a few seconds before it knocks him down. He's near to the back of the room, his original intention stay mostly out of the way of everyone else, and it's when he's on the ground that he catches sight of the second thing - Aleigh, glimpsed through the door as he gestures and casts...something.

The last thing the group needs is to have attacks coming from both sides, and right now until their men on the outside are able to get to them, Jamie thinks he's got the best chance of stopping that. He rolls to one side, using his momentum to try and get out of the way of anything else headed in his direction. As he does so, however, he yanks the glove from his shard hand, a glint of green coming from it before it winks out again, hidden temporarily by the floor as he uses it to give him some leverage while getting to his feet.

The whole thing's slower than he'd like, but he's nothing if not stubborn - and lucky enough to have missed getting forced up against the bars by Aleigh's spell. With a bit of luck he'll be able to make it to the door before the other man has any notions about following up that first spell of his.

Velanna tries to get clear of the ice as it shoots towards her, but she doesn't make it, spikes hitting her in the side and knocking her from her feet. She lets out a growl, more anger than pain, and pushes herself back up, ignoring the ice sticking out of her hip. She slams her staff into the floor, this time all the tapping earlier becomes more or less apparent as roots rip up from the cracks in the stones, creating a path of destruction on their way towards Ashton.

Aleigh frowns as he sees Jamie headed out; of course it's the guy with the sword. What even happened? One minute everyone was being civil enough, and now it's chaos. Maker's breath. A swirl of ice and snow surrounds him.

"I hate people," he mutters, before looking directly at Jamie. "Want a truce? We both walk away? I'll leave if you promise not to pursue." It probably won't work, but what are his options?

Inside things are spiraling out of control. Nathaniel's arrow goes deep into Ashton's chest, making her stagger back. A bloody mist stretches from the wound to her hand as if she can do something with an arrow there, but the roots put an end to it as they drag her down and finish her.

"No. No, no, no." Javion looks beyond distressed as she falls; he can't see much in the smoke but he can see her being dragged down. Kian's squeezed his eyes shut by now, curling up fairly uselessly as he drops where Nate's hauled him away from Ciri. A pair of stone fists sprout up for the earth, grabbing for Teren and Velanna this time, while a hailstorm of rocks are launched at Vidal's swarm, knocking the whole group back a little.

MAGES!!

With a click, Alistair's lock gives as well, and Teren's plan is going fine. She nudges the door open with her foot and has Anders under his arms again, dragging him into the cell so they can stake out all together. She gets him into the corner farthest from the giant stupid mage fight, and is about to approach Alistair with a similar plan, but she's barely got her arms under his when suddenly a big stupid fist emerges from the fucking ground and catches her straight around her skinny middle.
"BOLLOCKS," she barks, though the second syllable is a bit strangled as she finds herself rapidly running out of breathable-- or speakable-- air. She's either forgotten to let go of Alistair or is using him as a weight to keep herself from getting pulled back and gripped more tightly. There's an audible crunching sound as one of her hipbones gives way, and she mashes her forehead against Alistair's shoulder, grinding her teeth in silent distress.
But it's all right, she has healing potions. Fool her twice, and so forth-- that and she figured she'd need them for the boys, which fortunately it seems she doesn't, at least yet. She just has to... not... be getting crushed before she can use one.

Meanwhile, outside of the room...

"You know I can't do that." There's a touch of regret underlying the words on Jamie's end, even so. Aleigh may be a jerk, but that doesn't mean that Jamie wants to kill him, and right now it shows. "But I don't want to fight you, either."

Granted, his hand is right by his sword, but he hasn't actually drawn it yet. If there's still a chance, small as though it may be, to get Aleigh to see some sort of reason, he knows he's got to try that first. Maybe it won't work, but there's been more than enough killing since he's come here. Maybe this time he can avoid having there having to be more - at least, any more than's already happened.

"You could always stand down. Or-" Someone cries out from the other room, although he can't tell if it's someone from his side or not, thanks to the noise from the fight. The voice is female, though, and if he can tell that, he reckons Aleigh can tell that too. "You could help us stop this before your friends wind up dying. Maybe you don't like most people, but you must like someone here, or you'd have left a long time ago."

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