Closed

[keenly]

WHO: Wysteria, Sonia, John, Colin.
WHAT: Damsels take a road trip
WHEN: Bloomingtide 1-3ish
WHERE: The Crossroads
NOTES: This post.

Dramatis Personae:

Cato
(non-mage)
The ranking infantry officer. Most seem to follow his orders.

Octavia
(mage)
The chief Venatori overseer. She has the power to override Cato's commands, and lets him know it.

Claudia
(mage)
Venatori. Specializes in glyphs, spirit magic, and entropy.

Flavius
(mage)
Tevinter infantry healer

Aurelia
Venatori mage

Marcus
(non-mage)
Tevinter infantry

Rufus
(non-mage)
Tevinter infantry

Philo
(non-mage)
Tevinter infantry, very young and patriotic, didn't expect he'd have to commit atrocities.

 

Comments

capture

[keenly]

Most of the time, the person in the back of the party doesn't have to worry too much about traps. Colin isn't even looking when he steps right into one. His connection to the Fade narrows and nearly shuts, an unsettling and familiar feeling. Thinking one of their own might have left an active glyph, he looks down at his feet and before he can say anything, a knife is at his throat.

Eight Tevinters appear, surrounding the group, weapons drawn. An arm hooks around Colin from behind, pressing the dagger closer to his throat.

"Weapons on the ground," barks the man holding him. Colin's eyes widen in fear and he holds very still. "Your mage is useless to you now."

[vorbratta]

Somehow, even knowing the dangers of being in Riftwatch, the idea of real, immediate danger always seemed a distant prospect in Sonia's mind. Now, faced with it for the first time in a very long time, she freezes immediately, heart in her throat. Ser Ellis has been doing his valiant best to teach her swordplay, but her grasp of combat is still weak. The short sword she's carrying might as well be a joke.

"Please," she says quickly, lowering her weapon carefully to the ground, and she keeps her open hands visible as she straightens back up. Her hands are shaking slightly. Racing thoughts overtake her mind -- What do they want? What are they going to do? "Wait -- there's no need to hurt him, please."

[heirring]

As the head of their little expedition group, Wysteria had just a moment ago been busying herself with the examination of a decidedly nervy looking stone footpath leading from this particular landmass filled with crumbled old columns and a series of twisting stone walls, across a great chasm of nothing in particular to an island that might be described as a verdant valley were it not so dreadfully washed out. The path presents a few problems, namely that is is narrow and the first stone has fallen away under her foot when she'd first begun to traipse across it. And while there must be a trick to keeping it in place so they might pass - a point she has been discussing out loud for at least the past minute, which may or may not have anything to do with how easily they are located by certain marauding bands of Venatori -, it is hardly one so immediate as to be obvious.

At the first sound of trouble, Wysteria seems at first put out - less frightened and more irritated as she turns from the puzzle path back to face whatever ruckus is occurring to the rear of their scouting party. But she's a sensible enough girl ([citation needed]), and the sight of a knife blade against anyone's throat has a way of sobering up any situation.

Wysteria holds up her hands, then remembers the dagger at her belt and tosses it away. Her hands promptly return to the appropriate 'I surrender' position.

forgive mE the latest arrival

[hornswoggle]

Fear sparks and recedes to some far off corner of his mind as John considers the situation at hand. He's vastly outnumbered, the only other person with some combat capability is useless to him now, and even if he cared to tip his own hand, could he kill eight people quickly enough to make a difference?

No, he cannot. The burn of Flint's censure doesn't affect that calculation. He could kill one or two, but not enough to matter. Not when he can't tell which of them are mages. (They could very likely all be mages.) He hesitates for a long moment, watching the man poised to open Colin's throat before he twitches his coat open and pulls his sword free to toss alongside Wysteria's dagger.

"I'll keep the crutch, if it's all the same to you."

He suffered the last kidnapping leaning on a borrowed stick. If he has to suffer this indignation again, he's going to keep one advantage. (And one concealed advantage, for the time being.)

for Sonia

[keenly]

They'd been travelling for almost a full day, hands bound before them, before finally stopping to rest for a few hours. The iron collar preventing Colin from casting has already rubbed him quite raw and he is distracted with trying to find some way to pad or lubricate it when one of the infantry trips over Sonia's outstretched foot.

Naturally, everyone is on edge, including their captors. The instant Rufus regains his footing, his hand is on Sonia's collar, yanking her halfway off the ground till her face is inches from his own.

"What the fuck was that?" he snarls, causing Colin to snap his attention toward him. Cato and Octavia, the leaders, are at some distance, conversing with one another, and don't notice that one of their own has gone off-script.

[vorbratta]

Sonia is exhausted, inside and out. Other members of Riftwatch are far more prepared to weather situations like this, she knows, and she knows, too, that she should have been prepared -- that something like this could have happened. She feels like a child, scared and cowed into submission by the very real threat of violence, cutting deep into her dignity under all the fear. By the time they finally stop, her feet are impossibly sore -- these boots were not made for walking these distances -- and she's grateful to collapse in a heap on the ground, burying her face in her arms. She doesn't even realize that one long leg is extended just far enough for someone to trip on until she feels that foot connect with hers, but she hardly has any time to react before Rufus hauls her up by the collar, so fast and so furious it steals the breath from her throat. 

"I -- " Her hands scrabble uselessly under her as he hauls her up, trying to find purchase on the ground. She grimaces in pain as the collar pulls against her neck, jaw clenched, breath short. Her hands close over his in desperation, to keep herself upright. "No, I didn't mean to -- "

He's so close, so close it makes her mouth go dry, and she's tried not to show any tears to their captors, but oh, she's always cried so easily. She can feel the sting of fresh tears at the corners of her eyes, and after it, a sudden surge of wild indignation and anger. She pulls at his hands, trying to break from his grasp. If you lay your hands on me -- "Let go!"

[keenly]

It would be a lie to say Colin is not tempted to cower and let this play out. Sonia and Wysteria are unlikely to be badly harmed; he and John, however, are the ones most often threatened with death to keep everyone in line. They are valuable, unless they cause too much trouble to get the other two home.

"Shut your mouth," growls Rufus before immediately contradicting himself. "Did you think you could put me on the floor and jump me?" He raises his hand to strike her. It's too much.

"If she did do that, you'd have set her straight in no time," Colin hears himself saying, though he can't bring himself to look at Rufus. "Wouldn't you? You're much stronger than she is, that's evident to all."

There's some length of silence. Colin knows Rufus' type--he's embarrassed that he tripped, and wants to take back his dignity by marring her face. Simply giving him his dignity without a fight has, perhaps, a fifty percent chance of avoiding further violence and an equal chance of getting him even angrier. Folded in is a gentle reminder that such dignity would only be compromised by striking a helpless woman. The rest of the group is, by now, watching quietly, and Octavia has a displeased look.

At last, Rufus' grip loosens. He drops Sonia back to the floor.

"That's right," he says. "Watch yourself." His pride collected once more, he storms off.

Colin releases a long breath before looking at Sonia and mouthing, Are you all right?

[vorbratta]

Sonia flinches back immediately when Rufus raises his hand, squeezing her eyes shut in expectation of the blow that doesn't come, and then she hears Colin's voice. She opens her eyes and follows Rufus's gaze towards him, suddenly terrified that their captor will take out his anger on Colin instead. They haven't exactly been shy about threatening Colin and John. But then Rufus abruptly lets go of her collar, and she barely catches herself with one hand, stopping her face from hitting the ground. She sits back, covering her face with a long, shuddering breath as she tries to suppress any further tears. God, this is terrifying.

She lifts her head enough to catch Colin's look and she bites her lip, nodding slightly. As alright as she's going to get, anyway. She waits until their captors have turned their attention away from them for the most part, then shifts closer to Colin, careful to draw her legs in closer this time.

"Thank you," she breathes, just enough for him to hear.