"Turn to the left."
And the seven foot, green and ivory scaled Dragonborn did exactly as he was told, noticing the immaculate green tapestry as he did so. Arching patterns reached themselves up the cloth like spiderwebs, graceful in their bitter simplicity. Master Ranclyffe, who stood on the other side of a book in which words seemed to appear when she spoke, sighed as she took in the view.
"Scales dull, but no further deterioration. Right."
The male shuffled a bit, and the older mage moved around the book to look over the entire side with an eye so sharp that it could have taken flesh away with it when she tore her gaze away.
"Green scales, color faded," she pronounced as she returned to the other side of the book. "Silver scales, dull. How many people do you remember harming during your stay?"
Aleksei's gaze floated slowly to the ceiling. "Two- one is dead."
"Lucid- for now. Thank you; move along."
"Mne budet vas ne hvatat'."
Soft spoken though it was, the mage's ears still caught the sentimental phrase. She glowered at Aleksei, who smirked sheepishly. When she turned herself away, his right shoulder was pushed at by the only guard in Urmlaspyr who was anywhere near his size- a lumbering Human who seemed to care very little about the proceeding.
Aleksei and his lack-luster attendant plodded at an agonizing pace, and got to the apprentice mage much more slowly than was obviously intended. Pohatkon, who'd been waiting there with arms crossed five minutes before the Dragonborn had even appeared before Master Ranclyffe, had a glare of his own for the guard.
"Oh, come up for supper, I see," the high captain remarked sharply. "His name's already in the register. Clan, patronymic and all. The only one of its kind in there for years. If finding it overtaxes your competence, just ask me for the torture records when I get back, since he was there, too."
Without bothering to get an answer from either the Human guard who stood like a stone or the Eladrin male that withered under the weight of his voice, Pohatkon turned on his heel and marched out toward the courtyard.
Outside, the freshly minted lord captain had taken a stand between an older Dragonborn and Aleksei's grindstone-like advance toward the five purple and gold clad guards that waited with their commander beyond him. Grinding his teeth, the high captain marched directly toward the confrontation.
This early morning, the orange-scaled wyrmkeeper sported light blue robes that appeared to be mere pajamas compared to his normal clothing. Even though the hemlines sparkled with quartz, gold and sapphire, it seemed less ridiculous and more along the lines of an actual sacred vestment- though one probably reserved for some high service. Upon Pohatkon's advance, the older Dragonborn turned his attentions and unfortunately caught sight of Aleksei behind him. Ignoring the high captain completely, he shouted shamelessly at the captive behind him.
"The works of your hands- the desires of your heart- you cannot escape them!" he hollered, distracting nearly every inner guard within earshot with the strain of his voice. "Your choices will haunt you everywhere you go!"
"And what about that makes him different from you, or me?" Pohatkon shot back immediately. "All males and females I have had the displeasure of knowing have made choices that they later come to regret."
The wyrmkeeper scoffed, barely casting a glance at the sharp featured Human. "You know nothing of-"
"I'm tired of you running around here telling folks what they know nothing about," the high captain sighed, his left arm and open hand flicking upward in a sudden gesture of dismissal. "No matter what he's done, you're no longer each other's concern, so get gone. No, don't say something else; go away, please, thank you."
Two inner guards stopped talking to each other farther away in the courtyard and, upon hearing the last phrase, nodded to each other. Without so much as a courtesy warning, they flanked the wyrmkeeper and began walking him out of the courtyard. Pohatkon nodded slowly.
"Thank you two- and wash your hands before you come back!"
As Aleksei finally made it all the way to the center of the courtyard, where the Human guard stopped moving as though he'd been a golem whose enchantment was hardly powerful enough to move the stone, Karth trotted around the gathered purple-plated guards and met Pohatkon with an outstretched hand.
"Congratulations, man," he breathed with a smile as the two shook hands. "I'd hoped you'd be up for a promotion soon- not this way, of course, but, 'tis good all the same."
"You've gone up the ladder of importance yourself, MacSairlen," Pohatkon nodded. "Not every soldier goes straight from firstsword to roadcaptain like that."
"What they've gone and done is given me fourteen men to lead to a maukit death chasing a blasted vampire witch," the Human sighed, scrubbing his right hand through his wealth of red hair. "Could use a hand with that, really."
"So thinks Master Ranclyffe, who bid me scrape up some scabs that nobody'll miss when they drop," Pohatkon nodded. "I can do you one better. There's half a dozen men in irons whose only crime was to be without money. Most of them can fight, but some of them need a flagon or two first. Shall I send them with you?"
"Not without giving them a proper deal," MacSairlen urged. "If they come back, they come back freed."
"Debt paid, and free to go wherever their hearts desire, the hells included," Pohatkon smirked. "Done. You're as good man as any I've worked with. Sir, I've not yet had the pleasure?"
"This is Swordcaptain Akrias Shesua, who's been through the hells coming through slaver raids to get here," Karth explained. "Cart what was brought for the biggun's smashed to bits, and twa of his men're already dead."
Shesua, who was either a tall Dwarf or a short and incredibly hairy Human, marched over with Luvec and offered his hand, which Pohatkon carefully took. The vise-like grip brought a wince to the Human's face, which Luvec tried not to laugh at.
"Quite a task ye have before ye, Sir Sakoda, in this Urmlaspyr," Shesua noted gravely as the two let go of each other. "I bear ye no envy. 'Tis a pity the Crown would not send a greater number with the roadcaptain, that he may in his absence defend this place against such as I saw in my travel here. I fear my men, though brave and well-tested they be, be not prepared for what this place has in such short order become."
"I'll do my best, gods aiding and permitting," Pohatkon replied in a professional tone that Luvec was certain he'd never heard before. "Yet, as for this creature, he is powerful when he is in his right mind. I have little doubt that he should even come to defend you, if the need presented itself."
"And if it doesn't, he'll be otherwise as docile as a trained pup," Luvec added. "Rae did as much weaving with him as with Terry these few days gone."
"Well enough," Shesua nodded. "I shall allow my men to-"
"Excuse me, I'm sorry," an inner guard breathed as she jogged toward the gathering of commanding officers. "We've got a Dark Quarter Drow out front, saying he's got something for the Dragonborn. Won't let us see it or touch it. Says it's dangerous for the likes of us; that only the-"
"It's frenzywater," Luvec smirked wryly. "One of your favorites, wasn't it?"
And Aleksei, who didn't feel much like speaking at the moment, simply nodded.
"Let him pass, and any that says they knew him," Pohatkon replied. "We don't know what Ranclyffe's father's going to do to the male- may kill him."
As the guard bowed and trotted back the way she'd come, Shesua turned his attention back to the sharp brown eyes of the high captain.
"Battlemage Ranclyffe is a capable man," he said in a strange cross between a consilatory tone and a threatening one. "It is not like that he should kill him with poor practice."
"No, no, none of that," Pohatkon remarked as he watched two guards return, escorting a dark Elf who sported an apron and a small, bottle-shaped cloth bag. "I'm thinking it'll be a mercy killing, if those worms Master Ranclyffe is talking about get him crossed up. Hail, ser; what's in the purse?"
"All the wishes of all the Dark Quarter," the Drow replied. "It's quite potent; one must be very cautious, you understand. Every other patron I've seen couldn't have taken much more than a sip of it, but this soul ordered a proper shot of it every morning- for breakfast."
"This is expensive," Aleksei noted immediately. "It is honor greater than my actions deserve."
"You can say that because you hadn't lived long among us, suffering the way we did with that lot beneath and around us, before you took action," the Drow said, shaking his head as Shesua gingerly took the bottle from him. "Wendre put in the order, but Illie can't keep a secret. Once everyone else found out- well, now it's from all of us."
"If she is long staying with you, she will learn to better keep her secrets," Aleksei laughed.
"There's only so much to be done with my darling," the dark Elf smirked, truly amused. "A proper matron mother she'll never make, but I am Drow enough for both of us. May you die swiftly at the hands of your closest friend."
"Don't worry," Luvec whispered to Pohatkon and Shesua. "For a Drow, that's a blessing."
"It is my privilege to speak with you, Valryn."
And with that, the Drow left, again escorted on either side by a inner guard. Shesua put the bottle of frenzywater into his pouch and lifted his hand to motion to his men. Quietly and seriously, the men brought over a lead chain and manacles to replace the set that Aleksei was already wearing. While mildly offended by the idea that Urmlaspyr's chains were not good or strong enough for them, Pohatkon managed to be quiet about it. Just before Aleksei got down to one knee to receive a chained collar, two females appeared without any guard escort- one Tiefling in a loose and lovely scarlet dress that ended at her knees, and one Shadar-kai with a dark grey dress that played about her calves. Around and ahead of them charged a short-haired, light tan dog with swirling red battle tattoos. Pohatkon was just going to ask who they were when MacSairlen crossed his arms and addressed them.
"Mi'ishaen- Silveredge. You're lucky to not be yet in the cells," he laughed, apparently unable to hold a straight stare. "And have we nae talked about keeping that pup on a strap?"
"Well, we had to move quickly," the Tiefling shrugged. "Our husband is being walked to Cormyr in chains, and no one bothered to tell either of us."
Pohatkon watched Aleksei waver for the first time since the torture chamber, his tone stretched somewhere between surprise and concern. "You are leaving from where you are now to come find me?"
"Well, since you're no better than these milk-sponge brains, knowing you're going to be moved to an entirely different country, at five days' distance, without saying a blasted word to either one of us," the Tiefling charged. "What did you expect us to do when we found out, paint our nails, prance about and twirl our fingers in each other's hair?"
Pohatkon and Luvec looked at each other strangely. Shesua raised an eyebrow at them, then turned his attentions to the Dragonborn.
"And so, by the count of this man," he began, referring to Luvec, "you have two girlfriends and two wives? It seems to me that worms in the head isn't the only malady you suffer."
"That every man should suffer so dearly," Pohatkon whispered jokingly, provoking Luvec to give him a sharp slap to the back of the shoulder.
"You had girlfriends, too?" the Tiefling charged, hands on her hips as she leveled a glare at Aleksei's one functional eye. The Dragonborn, catching a familiar glint in her lovely crimson eyes, merely smiled.
"Let us have Master Ranclyffe examine them both for the sickness," Luvec suggested. "Perhaps that might explain their actions as well?"
"They were both examined before they left the cells- and this one was in and out twice," Pohatkon reminded. "Ranclyffe gave each girlfriend a once-over as well. If any of them were suffering the same illness, she would have said something."
"Illness or no illness, chains or no chains, we go where he does," Mi'ishaen stated flatly. "And this girlfriend conversation is not over, m'lord. I want details."
"I am much missing you, and not able to find you," Aleksei finally managed to reply quietly. "Maybe I am spending too much time in tavern?"
"You get out of the lockup for public drunken carousing, and you go back to a tavern!" the dark-haired Tiefling huffed, crossing her arms.
"Is she the only one of the two of you that gets to tear into him like this?" Pohatkon asked the Shadar-kai with a smile. "She sounds like my wife."
"She is the first, and I honor her," Silveredge replied, as though that explained everything. The perfectly executed way in which she lowered her eyes as she curtsied left Pohatkon with a strange feeling in his chest.
"Come, get up," he urged, not wanting to even explain to himself what he'd felt.
"Shall they go with him?" Shesua asked Pohatkon simply. "And if they do, shall they also share his chains?"
"They are not needing chains," Aleksei interrupted calmly as he received his collar and stood to his full height again. He looked like a dangerous beast- chained by his neck to one guard, by his hands to another, and by his waist to still two others. "Every time I am being made prisoner, they are not leaving me. When I am free, this is not always true."
"There you have it, Swordcaptain," Pohatkon shrugged. "May as well move out while you have the power of the day on your side."
Luvec thought for a few moments, then interjected. "If there's any trouble, bind them up to either side of you; that should do it."
"This is very dangerous thing you are asking him," Aleksei smirked. "They are not delicate."
"He's got that right," Pohatkon sighed, remembering meeting Mi'shaen in the torture room. "He's got more feeling for this one than she has for herself. Go on- if you're going with him, then go. You're wasting daylight, and you know the Semmites have been bold of late."
"I humbly thank you," Aleksei rumbled with as much of a bow as he could. "As I am leaving here, the Reaver is leaving with me. May your people grow stronger, and put off their enemies like one is shaking off old robes."
Saying nothing, Pohatkon raised his arm, and Shesua turned to bark orders to his soldiers, who obediently marched. Karth marched to the gates of the courtyard with them, then stood at attention to watch them go without him. As Aleksei, Mi'ishaen and Silveredge left- with the hound still going without a lead or collar- Luvec leaned his head back slightly.
"You've realized something- what?" Pohatkon asked.
"What he said- sounds like he thinks he's the Rooftop Reaver himself," Luvec noted. "You heard that, right?"
"And I ignored it," Pohatkon admitted. "Talk to your daughter about what he'd just come out and say sometimes- it's baffling, really. That kind of thing makes me think those worms are real and dangerous. The Rooftop Reaver killed people while he was sitting in jail. How he thinks that we now no longer have to bother with that creature just because he's leaving- it's beyond me."
"Well, that's the last of them," Karth sighed as he walked back into the courtyard. "We'd better get to work- what've you done with Ntoru?"
"Oh!" Pohatkon grimaced, remembering. "Give me about a half hour; I forgot to turn her right side up."
He turned and trotted toward the jail, and Karth pegged Luvec with a look of confusion.
"They call him 'Ser Sadist,' " Luvec explained as they turned to follow the high captain's path.
"Master Ranclyffe didn't stop him from getting her into the-"
"She isn't much for warning or protecting people," Luvec admitted. "When Ntoru wouldn't name who she was working with, Master Ranclyffe got up and left the cell without saying another word."
"So, with a borderline sociopathic court mage and a high captain so zealous in his torture methods that he's actually called Ser Sadist, no one on the council has thought to temper-"
"That, MacSairlen, would be my job," Luvec laughed as the two began the long descent to the torture chamber. "Welcome back to Urmlaspyr."
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