[ CLOSED ] The Buck Stops Here

[sulahnan]

WHO: Athessa, Bastien, Byerly, Colin, Deimos, Flint, Raas, Thranduil, Yseult
WHAT: Revenge for past trauma reveals a sinister plot
WHEN: The Month of Guardian (aka now)
WHERE: The Gallows and Hightown, Kirkwall in general
NOTES: CW: This plot deals with sexual assault, revenge, and murder. Mostly the aftermath of the assault, no graphic descriptions that I can foresee, but be cautious. Opting out and hand-waving is fine.

By and large, the beginning of the month of Guardian in Kirkwall is unremarkable. Business as usual, even with the ever increasing cost of sugar, coffee, and tea. But for the inhabitants of Lowtown, it comes with signs that their waking nightmares persist.

For the past few months of winter, Lowtown locals have been whispering about a rash of murders and disappearances among the Alienages. Deaths previously attributed to exposure to the harsh winter weather are rumored to be far more insidious; some have claimed that they noticed wounds on the bodies as they were being disposed of, but any attempts to bring this information to the City Guard have been met with indifference or empty platitudes.

Less widely noted, and harder to attach to a pattern, are the instances of working girls being hired to entertain at private functions and coming back...different. Or not at all. To the average person, it’s barely even news, but to anyone who spends time in the brothels and listens to the chatter within, it’s clear that these are not isolated incidents, nor are they without concern.

While the alleged murders in Lowtown have no clear culprit and thus are blamed on anyone from random strangers to demons and Crows, the goings-on at the brothels go hand-in-hand with mention of one name in particular: Devigny.

Comments

[keenly]

"Will he recognize you?" Colin breaks away far enough to peer at her face. It's a real question. It's not like rapists care about looking you in the eyes while they're doing it.

[sulahnan]

She shakes her head, but it's not a no.

"I don't know. I don't want to be close enough to find out."

[keenly]

"All right. Let's get going. Do you have a plan?"

[sulahnan]

This time, it is a no. "I guess just find a good vantage point and watch until we see him."

[keenly]

Colin nods, helping her onto the ferry. "Then that's what we'll do, but I want to find the spot and come back for you. That way you're not wandering round where he lives and I can find a way to get you up there without being seen."

[sulahnan]

"Okay. I'll...I'll wait at yours until you find a good spot."

Once on the ferry, her jitters come back and she can't stop bouncing her leg. As they get closer to the docks, she's losing the tiny shreds of hope she clung to that it's not really Devigny, that maybe it's just someone with the same name. And she's trying to come up with a plan, but honestly, the likeliest outcome of seeing that bastard's face again would be her shutting down completely, or getting sick, or potentially, trying to kill him.

If only. She wouldn't want to get within arm's reach of him.

"Kind of feels like those dreams happened for a reason now..."

[keenly]

"Hey." Colin reaches out to squeeze her hand. "That's not your life. Remember that. It will never be your life. You're safe and loved."

There's only so much he can do, really. Seeing Lutair again had brought back all the old feelings. He only hopes to give Athessa the lifeline his own friends were to him at the time.

[sulahnan]

"But what if it was a warning or something? How am I supposed to do anything worthwhile for Riftwatch if I can't even set foot in Kirkwall without being terrified that I'm going to see him, or bump into him or his footman on the street?"

[keenly]

"I don't know. But whatever's next, we're in it together."

[sulahnan]

It's a comfort to know she isn't alone, as she once was or might have been if she hadn't joined Riftwatch. Not that staying in Rivain would have served her any better, if the nightmares are even remotely accurate to alternate outcomes, but outright death would be preferable to living under torment.

At Colin's apartment, while he scopes out a perfect vantage for their stakeout, Athessa soon gets too restless to simply sit and wait. She can't even try to sleep, and doesn't have anything to smoke, so she busies herself with stretching, looking at books but reading none of them, and sitting upside-down on the couch, with her head hanging over the edge of the seat cushion.

[keenly]

Spending a year or so in the Scouting division has taught Colin the basics of reconnaissance. He returns with a solid idea of how to go about this, but also with a deep, shaking feeling. Byerly had called him a man who takes down wicked men, but this will be his first time doing so without holding the silken hand of Alexandrie. He has seen Devigny in the Fade, has experienced the depravity of men like him. This won't be easy. And yet, he reels when he tries to imagine what Athessa is going through. He had sought out his rapist for justice. She has been blindsided by hers.

The door opens. He moves to sit by her on the couch.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

[sulahnan]

"I have to," she says after a moment of hand-wringing and thought. "Otherwise I might just be spooking at shadows."

Noticing that she's wringing her hands, she forces herself to stop by reaching up--well, down--to plant them on the floor. From there it's simply a matter of rolling off the couch into a handstand, then dropping her feet. She stands slowly, transitioning into a slow pace in front of the sofa.

"And I was thinking...what if I'm not the only one? What if he hurts someone else, or is planning to?"

[keenly]

"You're not the only one," Colin sighs. "Anyone happy to do it once isn't going to stop with once. Men like him think they're entitled to whatever they want. But there's no shame, and no judgment from me if you decide you don't want involvement in this."

[sulahnan]

She shakes her head, frowning. "How can you say that? After saying exactly why I need to do this? If there's even a tiny chance that I'm the only one who got away, the only one who can fight, then I have to not just see that it's him, but I have to find a way to stop him."

Because it's not just about her, it's about everyone else he's hurt, too. They deserve avenging, they deserve justice as much as she does, and she knows first-hand what it's like to live with the aftermath of his abuse. She doesn't want anyone else to be subjected to that.

[keenly]

Colin nods gently. "You're braver than I am, then," he says, his eyes turning away for a moment. "I...all right. When I went after Lutair, it was a different situation. Devigny's cut from the same cloth, but Lutair is just a brute and a narcissist. He isn't smart like Devigny. So we can't go at this in that direct way. Tonight needs to be about gathering information and that's it. Anything more and we risk losing the element of surprise, which we need. Any hint something's up, he could flee town or have us followed."

[sulahnan]

Athessa is nodding along with what Colin says, still pacing but markedly calmer--or at least less frenetic--with something to focus on other than her own downward spiral. Something like a plan is forming, and that is enough.

"He's already left town once," she says, conceding his point that caution is necessary. "And he has city guards in his pocket. I don't know which ones, but that's something we can find out just by watching his estate enough. Based on Byerly's reaction when I talked to him earlier, Devigny still has ties with the Madame at the Crimson Cat, too. We might want to get someone in there to ask some questions."

Someone with tact, preferably, and who isn't as recognizable to the Madame as Athessa.

[keenly]

A pause.

"Byerly mentioned him? Why?"

[sulahnan]

"I don't know. I tried to get him to tell me but--" She shrugs. Byerly's not one to give up information he knows someone wants unless he knows all the angles and can be sure it's not going to somehow work against him. "I was just cutting through the dining hall and heard Devigny's name and everything just...stopped."

[keenly]

"I understand." He stands up and gestures toward the door. "Let's go. Wear your hood up."

He picks up his staff. He doesn't like carrying it, doesn't like having a mark that reveals he is a mage, but it's better to come prepared for anything.

[sulahnan]

-

Once in place at their stakeout location, tucked away behind the railing of a balcony on some abandoned house, it becomes quite clear that they'll be waiting a while. There's very little activity to witness mid-evening, which is the only portion of their casual espionage that Athessa can safely take part in for an extended duration. As soon as the light gets low enough her eyes start to shine and, lest she give away their position, she takes to sitting with her back to the railing.

"What makes a staff a staff?" She asks quietly, having been focusing her attention halfway between the reflections in the glass-paned door to the balcony and Colin's staff where it lay. "Can you use just any old stick?"

In the reflection, a lantern bobs with a guard's easy gait, going past Devigny's estate without hesitation. Possibly not one of his, then.

[keenly]

The staff in question is lying out of sight on the floor of the balcony. Colin would rather keep it hidden than pick it up to show her.

"It's infused with lyrium," he explains. "That focuses and amplifies our magic. Otherwise you might as well just have no staff at all."

[sulahnan]

She hums thoughtfully and tilts her head. "I wonder if you could infuse something other than a staff with lyrium and use that as a focus instead of having to carry around a big chunk of wood..."

[keenly]

"Breathe."

[sulahnan]

"Sorry," she sighs, and turns to glance towards the estate out of the corner of her eye. "Anything yet?"

Barely before she's finished speaking, the clip-clop of hooves on cobblestone and the creak of a carriage heralds the arrival of visitors to the estate. She turns a bit more, still looking sidelong but so she can see more clearly. The huge front door to the house opens, and a servant steps out to greet the visitors at the carriage, opening the door for them and bowing his head.

"That's the footman," Athessa whispers. "Can you see who's in the carriage?"

[keenly]

"You're the one who can see in the dark," Colin whispers back, squinting at the carriage.