WHO: Athessa, Madi, Lucien, Skull, and YOU!! WHAT: catch-all WHEN: mostly Satinalia and later WHERE: Kirkwall and The Gallows NOTES: post-murderhaus h/c is gonna go here
It's subtle enough that Athessa nearly misses it, or passes it off as a side effect of the climb. But then he relaxes and that confirms it. She pats his shoulder, reassuring.
"Handled and axed and burned along with the inn he owned."
“Good,” Bastien says, with more relief than vengefulness.
He’s not still a danger. Athessa still has all her major pieces. If anyone else had died he would have already heard about it right now. It’s very possible he would have pressed for the full story anyway, if she hadn’t just told him how little she wanted to talk about it, but since she has—he nods, and gives her knee a friendly one-two squeeze where he’s holding it to help keep her on his back.
“Do you think there was anything you could have done to stop it?”
There are many ways the man could have been stopped, over the years. Because it was years, based on the extensive work put into that inn, that he was doing this undeterred.
He could have been caught. He could have kidnapped the wrong elf. He could have let one escape. He could have kidnapped a band of rough sorts far earlier. He could have taken ill and died. There could have been rumors about elves disappearing — but not in any circles they have ears in. Any one of their number could have caught wise before the sleeping gas filled the rooms. Or gotten up to take a piss, or wandered aimlessly in the throes of insomnia.
Athessa has given it plenty of thought, and her conversation with Isaac just confirms the conclusion.
"No," she says. "We were lucky, and more skilled than he planned for, I think. Not his usual fare."
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"Handled and axed and burned along with the inn he owned."
no subject
He’s not still a danger. Athessa still has all her major pieces. If anyone else had died he would have already heard about it right now. It’s very possible he would have pressed for the full story anyway, if she hadn’t just told him how little she wanted to talk about it, but since she has—he nods, and gives her knee a friendly one-two squeeze where he’s holding it to help keep her on his back.
“Do you think there was anything you could have done to stop it?”
no subject
He could have been caught. He could have kidnapped the wrong elf. He could have let one escape. He could have kidnapped a band of rough sorts far earlier. He could have taken ill and died. There could have been rumors about elves disappearing — but not in any circles they have ears in. Any one of their number could have caught wise before the sleeping gas filled the rooms. Or gotten up to take a piss, or wandered aimlessly in the throes of insomnia.
Athessa has given it plenty of thought, and her conversation with Isaac just confirms the conclusion.
"No," she says. "We were lucky, and more skilled than he planned for, I think. Not his usual fare."