The Conspiracy [Quills]

[Anonymous]

After Evadne had changed the sheets on her bed and added another two pillows to it, she sighed and looked around the room. At least everything was in order. There was a second set of washing equipment on the small table on the right side of the chamber -- washcloth, ewer, bowl, soap -- and she had taken one of her father's nightshirts from his closet. After all, she had no idea if Tayr had brought anything of her own, and anything of Evadne's would most definitely be too small for her.

When she got back in the kitchen/living room, the wonderful smell of dinner came towards her, and to her surprise she had to conclude that her father was actually making dinner while that had not been part of the plan. Wisely, she kept her mouth shut.

"Ah, Evadne," said Arthur. "Perhaps you could go and close the shutters. We do not need to make ourselves paranoid by shadows and reflections." Evadne nodded and gazed around the room quickly, looking for her dagger. Ah, there it was. She mostly used it for opening letters and such, but it was still in a good state. She pushed the knife down her boot and left again through the front door.

Arthur watched his daughter disappear with a mixture of worry and concentration on his face. "The best we can do now is just to do what we normally do. And as I understand it, this person or those people that have killed the entire squad --" he swallowed, the severity of their deaths finally dawning on him "-- are not after my daughter. They are after you and me. They have not killed the families of the others, have they?"

With hope in his eyes, he locked gazes with Tayr.

[Anonymous]

Tayr blinked and turned back to the room. Closing the shutters was a decent plan; they wouldn't be able to see out, but nor would anyone else be able to see in, which was something of a blessing as they hunkered down for a siege. She wasn't really comfortable with letting Evadne leave on her own, but the man had been her commander and he knew what he was doing. Besides, the girl wasn't a target, so she might be the safest. That seemed to be his line of reasoning too, not that he was all that sure of it.

"I've not heard anything of that nature, sir," she assured him, although she felt the need to temper it with a caution. "Should still take care. We're the last. Can't say how desperate they may get. We know they's here, they got nothin' to lose." She couldn't quite look him in the eye; as an intelligent man who cared for his daughter, Arthur didn't strictly need to hear it and most likely didn't want to, but she felt it still had to be said. They didn't know their enemies' motives, and couldn't predict how they would react. After all, the others seemed to have gone down without a struggle, as if they hadn't seen it coming, and it was impossible to say what the enemy would do if they were met with a fight.

The creature outside continued its wary circuit of the house, but darted back out of sight when the front door clicked open. A moment later, it peered around the corner, its bristled face dark in the shadows. The girl, apparently unarmed this time, sent out into danger alone. Unforgivable. It scowled, and weighed up its options. She was uninvolved, an innocent, and shouldn't be hurt... But that didn't mean she couldn't be scared a little to flush out the prey. It stretched out, winced in pain as its form changed and looked back at her again, waiting for the right moment. Arthur Gabor would show himself.

[Anonymous]

Arthur rubbed his face. It was true what Tayr said. Though Evadne might not be a target, they still had to be careful. She had to be careful. And it was his duty as a father to look out for her. He mumbled something to himself, knowing he would not rest until she was back inside. Though Evadne was the most accomplished markswoman he had ever known, that was no use right now. She hadn't brought her bow outside, and inside it was almost useless in the cramped space between the four walls.

In the mean time, Evadne moved to close the last of the shutters. It was the one before the window of her own bedroom. She paused a second, leaning on the window sill, and stared at her reflection in the glass. Funny how this morning everything seemed to have been peaceful while now they suddenly found themselves in apparently lethal danger. Evadne grabbed the shutters and was about to place them before the window when something in the reflection moved. In a split second, she had spun round, and scanned the surroundings meticulously.

Nothing.

Of course, that didn't mean nothing was there. Good thing she wasn't scared that quickly. Evadne averted her eyes from the landscape for a second, and closed the shutters with a bang.

[Anonymous]

The girl had almost seen him, but the creature was fast, and able to duck out of sight when she turned. She'd been wary, and obviously taught well, and this was the last and only chance he would have before she went back inside to safety. What a chance it was, though. She turned her back to him for a mere second, but that was more than enough time. As the shutters slammed closed, so too did his hands slam onto the walls on either side of the girl, the stone cracking slightly under huge black claws.

The creature itself was a sight; over seven feet tall, his limbs far too long for his torso, and well-muscled. A sparse coating of coarse hair covered his naked form, halfway between man and beast. This wasn't his favourite shape, as it was painful to hold and lacked some of the strength of his animal form, but there were some things only a human could do. "Good evening, little girl," he growled, a horrible grin twisting his features. "Is daddy home?"

((lol so cheesy, I can't write scary at all XD))

[Anonymous]

Evadne heard a scream when the black claws crashed into the walls beside her, and for a split second she wasn't sure it was even her own. She didn't want to know what else was attached to those claws, but instinct took over and she spun round. Wide-eyed, she pressed herself against the shutters and stared at the beast before her. Never in her life had she seen anything like this, and she could only oppress a second scream by pressing her hand against her mouth. He was like the monster from her nightmares, the one that used to hide beneath her bed when she was little, only now he was magnified and scarier than ever. His face might have been human once, but it was completely void of anything that resembled humanity.

Then he spoke.

Everything was suddenly amplified. Evadne could hear her heart pounding in her ears, heard her own ragged breathing as an upcoming storm and saw the beast's chest go up and down each time he inhaled in the form of a live mountain. It was then that she recovered her common sense, and all her father's lessons poured back into her mind. In a singular movement, she fished the dagger out of her boot and planted it firmly in the monster's thigh, ducking beneath his arm, and she made a sprint for the front door.

But she never made it.

Inside, Arthur and Tayr hadn't missed the scream. Furiously, Arthur had grabbed a sword from the stand in the hallway and made for the door. But when he got there, his daughter was already gone.

[Anonymous]

The creature cried out and recoiled, giving the girl a moment of escape. The blade was small, and mere steel wasn't any real threat, but godsdamn it still hurt. He wrenched the dagger from his thigh to let the wound begin to heal and flung it to the ground, snarling. The other two would surely show themselves now, but was it worth it? The man at least was a legend and the woman had to have seen her share of action, and facing them in a straight fight with even a minor injury was too risky. This called for a change in plans.

Thankfully, his speed and reach gave him the advantage, and the girl barely had time to wrest the door open before he hauled her off her feet and disappeared into the cornfields. He'd fight them, but on his terms. Healthy and rested, he could use her to lure them into an ambush and they'd have no chance. For now, it would have to do.

Inside, Tayr leapt to her feet as soon as she heard the scream, snatching her glaive from its resting place against the wall and following Arthur to the hallway. She was ready to thrust the blade out past the man and into whatever waited in the darkness... But there was nothing. No Evadne, no enemies... It was almost like she'd never been here at all. Almost. Tayr's eyes fell onto the knife lying abandoned on the ground, its metal stained with blood, and she knew he had to have seen it too. "Sir, I..." she began, then fell silent. No words of apology or comfort would be good enough. They needed action, and reckless though it was, it was all they could do. "We follow 'em?"

[Anonymous]

Arthur stared at the bloodied knife, holding on to the door frame. "Evadne..." he breathed in horror. Suddenly he resembled nothing of the famed Captain and proud man he had once been, but merely a father who had just lost his daughter, the most glorious product of his entire life. He clasped tightly to the door frame, seeming to hope that if he held on long enough Evadne would suddenly appear before his eyes again, as if nothing had happened. But as moments passed, Arthur knew holding on to this was useless. Finally, he found the courage to look at Tayr again. She had warned him, told him they should look out for Evadne even though she wasn't a target. And he had ignored her council, going against his own gut as well.

"She... she might still be alive," he said with difficulty, his shoulders hanging down in defeat. "Whoever it was, they have taken her and left, instead of facing us now that there's only two left. She might still be alive." Arthur knew he would never forgive himself if something happened to her. If something had happened to her. He also knew he would already never be able to face himself again for letting her out of his sight just now.

Still breathing heavily, he gazed at a trail of blood that led into the fields, a red thread that would lead the way to his daughter. Then he shook his head, rediscovering his reason. "No, we cannot follow," he said, looking up at the sky. "It is already dark, and going in now would be reckless. The people that... took Evadne know we'll be coming after her, and they'll have come up with some kind of plan. We must prepare ourselves. We must wait until morning."

Arthur swallowed, knowing his decision would not only have consequences for himself - as he was condemning himself to a restless and horribly worried night - but also for Evadne. They might be doing heaven knows what to her... and if they hurt her, or if she would die, it would be his fault. But he also knew that Evadne would stand a better chance when they could actually see what they were doing and where they were going.

Defeated, Arthur turned around and got back inside.

[Anonymous]

Tayr listened patiently as Arthur tried to convince himself that the worst hadn't just happened. He wasn't doing a bad job of it, though, and his rationalisations were really quite reasonable. If the girl had been killed or otherwise incapacitated, they'd have had no reason to take her. Even laying a trap would be pointless in such a situation, considering that they could have easily beaten the two of them. No, something else was going on here, and anathema though it was for her to sit back when a comrade was in danger, perhaps it was best to wait until they were in a better position to deal with it. It'd do Evadne no good if they got killed before her rescue.

He finished talking and she stood back, gently laying her hand on his shoulder as he passed. He still didn't sound completely sure of his plan's wisdom. This was his daughter, after all, and nothing would be good enough until she was safe. Attempting to ease the man's worries, she smiled slightly. "The lass has some sense in her, she'll know what to do, aye? She'll be right as rain when we find her."

Leaving her weapon in the hallway, she trailed back into the kitchen behind the man and pulled the oven open, where their dinner was waiting. Three meals still, but only two to eat them... She looked over her shoulder at Arthur and said, "We should eat now and get some shut-eye, be ready to go at crack o' dawn." It was obvious really, but simple things needed reminding at times like this, so that they'd actually get done. How easy it was to forget, when a person had larger worries.

[Anonymous]

Arthur hoped to his very core that Tayr was right, and that Evadne would be fine when they found her, if they would find her at all instead of be killed first. He shook his head. No, that will not happen. He would find his daughter and set her free, if the quest would claim his life. There was nothing that could be so unbearable as her death.

He listened to Tayr's fussing over all those common things with only one ear, all the sounds around him seemed muffled somehow, while the wooden chair he went to sit on and the wooden table beneath his palms were objects that seemed extra pronounced, their structure amplified. Arthur had never really felt this way, but now that he did, he knew beyond any doubt what it was.

Fear.

The glorified Captain Gabor was afraid. He swallowed, forcing himself to focus on innocent things, things like dinner and sleeping, like Tayr had said. "Thank you," he muttered when she put his share before him. "I should have listened to you," he said after a long moment of staring at the crusty bread.

[Anonymous]

Slowly, Tayr considered Arthur's words, working out what best to say. Maybe if one of them had been with Evadne, she would have been safe, but maybe she wouldn't. Maybe it would have been worse, and they would have been killed anyway. They didn't know what had happened out there, couldn't know what might have been, and it was pointless to dwell on maybes.

Besides, it didn't matter whether he was right or wrong. What mattered was getting through as best they could, and dealing with what was in front of them. Anything else could wait until later. She fetched her own food and sat at the table opposite him, with a solemn shake of her head. "No use blamin' yerself, sir, not now. Won't do you no good, nor her. You needs to be thinkin' right when we face 'em tomorrow."

Her hunger made even this simple meal seem like a feast, but she merely picked at it for now, carefully watching the devastated man. She respected him far too much to begin eating before him. "You needs to be Cap'n Gabor. Aye?"

[Anonymous]

He knew she was right, but this did not make him feel any better. Captain Gabor was lost in him. Now, he was only a father. A father who had not taken enough care where it concerned his daughter. His only hope was that she would be alive still, first, and that if she was she would find the strength to defeat whoever had taken her captive and could escape to come back to him. Arthur cringed. He wondered if he could ever face Evadne again. Nevertheless, he nodded meekly and poked at the food before him. He didn't feel like eating at all, his stomach filled with worries and regret, but he knew he would have to if he wanted to stand a better chance against whatever they would be facing tomorrow.

Quietly, he broke off a piece of breath and slowly started chewing it.

They ate their dinner in silence -- what was there to say? -- and with difficulty Arthur finished the last of his plate. He sat back in his chair and stared ahead for a while, appearing to be troubled still, but in fact he was trying his best to think rationally. What would they do tomorrow morning when they found Evadne? What would they find? Arthur sincerely hoped it wouldn't rain tonight. That would mean the trail to his daughter would be swept away, and that she would be nigh unfindable for them.

Arthur cleared his throat.

"I... uhm... I think... that we should just make sure we're well rested tomorrow, for starters," he commenced. "And we need to make sure our armour is in good shape, as well as our weapons." He turned his head to face Tayr.

"I do not ask you to come with me, Tayr," Arthur said, uncharacteristically quiet. "This whole situation is my fault, and Evadne is my daughter. You would be well within your rights to stay here, so please don't feel obliged to risk your own safety if you don't want to."

[Anonymous]

Tayr ate quickly, glad for the wholesome meal, then sat quietly as Arthur finished his. He had a lot on his mind, and she'd let him think it over for as long as he needed tonight. It was the thinnest sliver of a silver lining, that they could work in their own time for now. Finally he seemed to come to a decision, and she smiled wryly at his words. "I'm a soldier, sir, your soldier. This is what I came for, and I'm not lettin' you fight 'em alone."

"I'll sort my equipment now, so's it don't hold us up in't morning," she decided, stepping out into the hallway for a moment to grab her weapon. "Don't suppose I could borrow your whetstone? Mine got lost on't way." A hint of shame permeated her voice; misplacing such an important tool wasn't something even a novice would do, and she hated to admit to it. All right, so she knew exactly where it was, and she hadn't wanted to hang around the smouldering embers of her campsite to dig it out. Her blade could go dull for a few days and still be capable of protecting her.

For tomorrow, though, she'd want it the sharpest it had ever been.

[Anonymous]

Arthur didn't bother to remind her that he was retired, and that she hadn't been his soldier for a long time. He could see Tayr had made her choice. Besides, it had never been a matter of choice to her, she was simply sticking to the code. To her he was still sort of her Captain, and Evadne had been turned in one of her people by being taken away. No one got left behind if they could help it.

"Yeah, of course," he said slowly, still dazed by what had happened. Standing up, he opened a cupboard beneath the kitchen counter and took out a basket with some cleaning and polishing equipment for blades, and handed it to Tayr. "It should be in there," he added, looking around for his own sword only to realise it was still in his hand. That could use some sharpening as well.

After a while of looking to Tayr's movements, Arthur cleared his throat. "What do you reckon took her?" he asked, unable to stand the silence any longer.

[Anonymous]

"Cheers," nodded Tayr, digging around in the basket for a flat grey stone before sitting herself back down to work on her weapon. It'd need a decent amount of effort to get it to proper fighting condition, but it was second nature to her and she barely had to concentrate. When Arthur asked her opinion, she answered immediately, not missing a single rhythmic swipe of the stone. "Couldn't rightfully say, sir. Whatever 'tis, it's stealthy, and quick, and if it's a team they're right well coordinated. Can't have been more'n a few moments between -" She stopped and looked down at her blade again, still bringing the whetstone across it in broad strokes. "And we still didn't see hide nor hair of 'em."

She paused to blow a fine layer of dust off her sharpened weapon, then added, "They're smart, we knows that from their methods. They've..." The next part wasn't something she wanted to put into words, to highlight her part in the girl's disappearance, but it could have been a necessary clue to work out just what they were up against. With a quiet sigh, she steeled herself and admitted her guilt. "They've followed me all the way here, and I ain't seen 'em once."

Even as she pushed the stone across the table towards the man, she couldn't look him in the face. It didn't matter that they would have come anyway; she brought them here today, and tomorrow might have been different. All they could do now was hope that it was.

[Anonymous]

Arthur shook his head, a little bit of the old Captain seeping back into him. "Don't blame yourself, Tayr. If you hadn't come, we wouldn't even have known about any of this, and might have been taken by surprise in such a way that we would both be dead by now. There still is hope."

He remembered her when she was still a young soldier. Quietly, he had always been proud of her. This conspiracy against them had to come organised, or they wouldn't have managed to fool one such as Tayr. The creature, or creatures, were probably magical, given the tiny amount of time between Evadne's scream and disappearance. She would not have been taken away so easily by any random person, or even more. She knew how to handle herself.

Arthur took up the whetstone and set to sharpening his own sword, and a couple of knives he would take with him as a backup. He seemed to stare through the blade as he worked, his muscle memory making it unnecessary to focus on what he was doing. "I think we are safe tonight," he mused, not taking his eyes of the invisible point beyond his blade even once. "They've got my daughter. And she's likely alive. They're waiting for us. Even so, I think we should both sleep in the living room or something. Being apart would only increase any possible risk of.. well, them slitting our throats in our sleep."

[Would now be a good time to see how Evadne is doing?]

[Anonymous]

((I was gonna drop in on the other two when Tayr + Arthur went to bed which is, like, now... So yes! XD))

"Aye." Tayr quietly accepted the captain's assurances, as he'd accepted hers before. There was no point in dwelling on actions already taken. What was needed was simply to do better in the future, in the light of day. And they would. She stood, shrugging off her overcoat and loosening her breastplate in preparation for sleep. Proper rest was essential, and she wouldn't get that while encased inside a hunk of metal. The tunic underneath would more than preserve her modesty, not that she was concerned with such trivial things right now. "A sound plan, sir," she said with a tight smile. "I'll fetch blankets, then, and you can join me when yer done."

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The creature ran through the darkness, ignoring the girl slung over his shoulder. His wound still hurt, making him limp and slowing his movement, but so long as he didn't have to fight with it he wouldn't worry too much. Besides, the blood he'd shed on the way was something of a help – it would lead the two soldiers right into his hands. The flow was slowing now, matting in his fur before it reached the ground, but that was all right. It would take them far enough.

He stopped suddenly, a short way up a mountain pass, and peered upwards. At this point, the path was hemmed in on both sides by steep rock walls, carved out no doubt by a river many ages ago, and the perfect place to set up his trap. Though the gloom made human sight near-useless, his heightened senses aided him and he grinned to himself as he worked out his plan. Everything was here. However, if he was to take advantage of this he would have to get to higher ground. He loped onward, a few dozen yards further up the path, then leapt at one of the cliff walls.

Releasing his grip on the girl to dig all his claws into the rock for easier climbing, he snarled at her, "You better not do anything funny. I fall, you fall too. Got it?"

[Anonymous]

During the creature's escape with her on his back, Evadne had had some time to gather her wits and think about stuff. Her father would not rest until he had freed her, she knew that, so it was only a matter of time until he would come for her. Conveniently the creature, half man, half beast, was leaking blood from the hurt she had caused him, and left a perfectly good trail. That was, as long as it wouldn't rain. But the troubling thought was that the creature seemed to WANT Tayr and Arthur to follow. Evadne feared the worst. She was afraid of what he was going to do to her, but she was more afraid for her father and his friend.

She tried to move on the creature's shoulder so that air would stream back into her lungs, but his hold on her was immense. And when he did let go of her, she nearly fell on a bed of razor sharp rocks and boulders. Evadne gasped, her arms around the creature's neck even though she was appalled by it, and nodded while her vision became blurry. Falling from the side of the cliff would NOT be a good idea. And it would make her father's attempt to rescue her a useless one.

[Anonymous]

Almost ignoring the girl clinging to him, the creature climbed higher, his claws screeching shrilly on the rock as he hauled himself along. Eventually he reached the top, forty or fifty feet off the ground, and pulled his body up onto a shelf. A moment to roll his massive shoulders and catch his breath, and he gazed around to better survey his surroundings.

Yes, here was good. He had a clear view of the path almost all the way to the bottom, as well as the loose rocks above it, and even though there wasn't anything on the thin ledge that could be used for cover, the cloudless sky said it wouldn't be a problem. Satisfied, he set the girl down and slumped back heavily against the cliff wall, his yellow eyes closed before he hit the ground. All there was to do now was wait. He barely even had to worry about watching her. She wouldn't be leaving; with sheer rock on all sides, there wasn't anywhere for her to go.

[Anonymous]

Evadne's legs were trembling. Crouching low on the ground, her hands found support on the stone platform. As thankful as she was to have solid ground beneath her feet again, she had hoped it would be somewhere else than here. Somewhere less trapped. Somewhere she could at least escape from.

She closed her eyes for a moment. She had to do SOMETHING. Her father would be following her, of that she had no doubt, and when he walked in here with Tayr, they were pretty much trapped. The creature had room to surprise them, and his position on the cliff was advantageous. Evadne swallowed nervously, eyeing the creature tentatively. He was sitting against the cliff wall with his freaky yellow eyes closed, probably knowing she couldn't go anywhere.

I have to do something!

Evadne looked around her, searching for a weapon of sorts. The only thing that even came close were the sharp-edged and pointed stones that were scattered across the platform. Well, at least it was something. She snatched two of them closest to her, and let them fall in her pockets. She could only hope the creature wouldn't realise they were there somehow.

[Anonymous]

Though he couldn't see her, the creature could hear Evadne's movements just fine. It wasn't possible to make out just what she was doing, but that she was doing anything at all was enough. Without once stirring or opening his eyes, he addressed his hostage, "Sit down, girl. Hours 'til dawn yet, don't wear yourself out." He chuckled, a rough, scratchy noise in the still night air. "Unless you want to, that is."

If she wanted to exhaust herself before the final showdown, that was fine by him. He'd rather not have to deal with a third opponent, especially one he had no intention of harming – unless absolutely necessary, of course. Still, the less she moved now, the less chance there was that she'd slip on rubble in the darkness and fall. Even though she was the daughter of his enemy, she was an innocent in her own right. He had no hate for her, and didn't want her hurt. So he just wished she'd settle down.