@MadEmperor [Continued from here (https://www.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=27123.0)]
With Kit pushing himself, just a bit, the dragon and two riders made it to the Connlaothian border in a little over a day. Kit insisted on flying partway through the night to get them to the edge of Vythe before finally setting down--Kiara only agreed because the dragon aptly pointed out that with their dreaming selves now more "linked", their timeframes seemed to have settled more accurately against each other.
Meaning they only
had a few days before Dan and the other Kiara would reach his estate. And that was only because
their Kit still had an injured wing and couldn't fly for long stretches.
"I really wish we had more time to gather intel," Kiara muttered as she paced around their camp, uselessly arranging and rearranging a pile of firewood. "We only know what this place is like from
their world, not ours."
"Us? Knowing what we're walking into? That's crazy talk." He smirked from his seat by the fire, but his usual irreverent frivolity was missing something that made the joke seem forced.
"Yeah. The situation..." he sighed slowly, "... could be better."
He perked himself up. "But hey, we've walked in with less information than that and things worked out. "We didn't even know Volke's research outpost was there."
"You were shot and almost died, and I did actually die for like five minutes," Kiara replied, deadpan. Kit shot her a warning look accompanied by a low growl and she threw her hands wide. "What?! It's true! Never talking about it doesn't mean it didn't happen," she snapped.
Clearly, the situation was getting to her. Though less "puppyish" than Grav, her preferred method of coping had always also been humor. Focusing only on the negative had never been her go-to.
"We're going in practically blind and I can't even light a fucking campfire without switching realities," she growled, glaring at the fire that Kit had lit as though it personally offended her.
Grav looked like a puppy that just got scolded. He knew it was true, but he also thought he knew her well enough to know that her outburst was really about how powerless she must feel without her magic.
Gaining some resolve, he stood up and walked over to her to put a hand on her shoulder. "It sure as hells can't be much comfort, but look at it this way: the way the link is working now, that might actually be an advantage. Well, if we can learn how to use that without anyone falling unconscious, anyway."
"...Right."
She reached up to cover his hand on her shoulder with her own, then made a noise that was caught halfway between a sigh and a groan and turned to let her forehead rest against his shoulder.
"Sorry," she mumbled, both to him and to Kit, who she reached out toward with one hand until she felt the dragon press his muzzle into her palm. "I'm...I just...sorry."
Grav put his arms around her, holding her close. "Hey. I get feeling like a stranger in your own skin. It sucks enough when it makes you stronger."
"So... What do you say after this we find an adventure that doesn't place us in lethal danger?" he joked.
She laughed--tired and a little sharp, but it was a laugh--and nodded against his shoulder. "Yeah. That sounds good."
Kit crooned quietly and arched his neck back as he settled himself more comfortably around the campfire. "Maybe there's a trade job in Yoreiq. That place is pretty quiet, by all accounts."
"Ooo... A tropical vacation sounds amazing." Grav grinned at the thought. "I'm actually sad my first trip outside of Serendipity is freaking Connloath."
"We're so doing that, right? Right?" If he had a tail, it would be wagging furiously.
Kiara laughed quietly and Kit huffed, flicking his tail out to scrape over the top of Grav's head.
"Don't see why we can't at least look, Puppy," Kiara chuckled, shaking her head. "Though that does mean getting through our current situation, y'know...alive."
"If we can best a lich, we can best a minor noble," he assured with a certainty he didn't quite feel. She was worried enough for the both of them, so he had to be optimistic.
"So what if we basically have to face him twice? There are six of us."
He gave a chuckling groan. "Okay, this may be a bit of a headache to plan even if we had intel."
"Again, I don't know if that's your strongest argument, seeing how close you came to dying in that particular venture," Kiara grumbled, but the bite had bled from her tone.
Chuckling, she shook her head and noted, "It might be considered facing him...half-way? Partially? Damn, yeah, I don't know."
Kit groaned and let his head thump onto his front paws. "Would the two of you get some sleep already?"
Grav laughed out loud. "Okay, okay, we're going. Don't get your scales in a bunch."
"Off to dreamland then?" he asked Kiara.
"You know, I can't wait until that phrase is significantly less literal for us," Kiara sighed. "Most people don't actually go anywhere in their sleep."
"World's weird," Kit commented as she settled herself into the curve of the dragon's body, still holding one of Grav's hands as she did. "Who knows? Maybe we're not the only ones."
She huffed a laugh. "Gods help the poor bastards."
Grav nestled against her side, chuckling all the while. "It could be worse; our other selves could be assholes. Or worse; boring."
He yawned. "But enough banter. It's sleepy time."
"Dreamland", for once, looked much the same as the world in which they had fallen asleep.
"We need to have a more detailed plan than just walk in and hope for the best," Kiara said, pacing in front of a campfire much the way her counterpart had been doing—though this fire was lighting a gloomy dawn rather than a star-strewn evening.
"Then we are lucky that I know the place like the back of my hand," Dan said with a light smirk as he dutifully turned the spit over the fire, where upon was skewered the wild hare Kit had somehow brought them in one piece. The last thing she had probably expected was that he could cook; that was servant's work, after all. It would have seemed odd, had he only known, that his counterpart's attempts tended to cause property damage.
"I know where my brother takes people when he seeks to gloat, for instance. And I know where all the secret passages are to said place. Of course, he does too, but he underestimates me; he always has. That is the advantage we have. And if my counterpart is listening right now, they will share some of that advantage."
Kiara groaned and ran a hand back through her hair—something she'd been doing so much lately that rather than being a somewhat untamed mass of curled it was essentially just one big ball of frizz.
"Gods. Forgot about that. Guess we're being spied on all the time now too." She paused, then cut her eyes sidelong toward Dan. "Did you, uh...have one of those dreams last night?"
"I did. She is concerned about going in without intel, and he is trying to stay positive," Dan reported. "Apparently they are quite used to danger."
"More curiously, my counterpart suggested we try to master this world-swapping business and use it to our advantage. I rather agree that it is worth attempting. It would become much easier to coordinate our actions." The puppy did, it seemed, in fact have a brain.
Kiara breathed out heavily through her nose. "Yeah... Okay, yeah, I can see the benefits," she admitted after a moment, "but how are we supposed to do that? My dreams are...different. Fuzzier, not as clear. I have no idea if the other me is experiencing the same thing, but I don't get the kind of clarity you and Kit seem to."
She looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers a few times before muttering, "And we can only...switch, properly switch, when she tries to use her magic. Which, what with her seemingly not having any magic anymore, seems like a hazardous process. How do we make that happen?"
"That..." he sighed. "... would be much easier to work out if the two of you could talk to each other. I believe we will just have to hope it is less hazardous than the purpose for which it will be put."
His lips curled into a thoughtful frown. "Of course, that is easy for me to say when the risk is yours."
"The risk is hers," Kiara corrected with another heavy breath. "Me, I'm..." She looked down at her hands again, brow furrowed. "Well. I am what I am now, I guess. But if something with this switch goes wrong, it'll kill her. I'll be fine."
It was something of an assumption, but one made with as much information about the frankly insane situation as she had available.
Kit huffed quietly and nosed at her shoulder. She reached up to pat his cheek, but shook her head. "Guess it's a good thing we can only switch when she chooses it then. I think."
"Rest assured, my counterpart would do anything within his power to stop her from taking that risk if it did not prove absolutely necessary," he reassured her.
He tested the meat with a knife. Satisfied, he nodded. "For now, we eat."
"Preparing wild game is not something I have done much of, but I believe I have seasoned it well enough with what is on hand."
"Hey, I've lived off camp rations half my life." Kiara admitted defeat to the pacing and sat down at the campfire across from him with a small smile. "Smells good to me."
Kit huffed and shuffled his wings slightly as he settled himself to sit more comfortably. "Don't understand why you humans feel the need to smother everything you eat with plants."
"The answer is simple, my draconian friend. It is because it tastes better to us," Dan answered as he cut off a strip of meat. "And we prefer to savor our food rather than swallowing it down as fast as possible."
"Plus, rare spices let us feel important," he joked.
Both Kit and Kiara snorted in unison as the fae woman accepted her portion of the meal. She started picking at it with her fingers, evidently uncaring of the fact that it was so hot it steamed in the air.
"Remember that spice merchant from southern Adela?" Kit asked his rider as he dropped his head down beside her.
Kiara snorted again and rolled her eyes. "Talk about feeling important. Prick."
"Is this a story worth sharing, then?" Dan asked before taking a bite of his meat. He had to say that he outdid himself with the hare; it was quite delicious considering the limited herbs in the wild. It could use salt, though.
Kiara waved a hand. "Oh, just some toff jackass--"
She cut herself off as she seemed to remember she was speaking to a "toff" and stumbled a bit. "Errr, I mean--just some big-for-his-britches type who hired us on to protect a spice shipment a couple years back. Turned out he was more concerned with the safety of his product than the people transporting it. He docked our pay because we saved some of the caravanners from a bandit raid at the cost of a few bricks of spices."
She shrugged. "Not exactly the kind of guy you go back to for work."
"He sounds like a fine, upstanding gentleman," Dan said sarcastically.
"Is it any wonder people hate the rich? People like my brother, of course, assume the poor are simply jealous of what we have. It could not possibly be what we do with our position that draws the people's ire." Perhaps his counterpart has a better life, not in spite of his common upbringing but because of it.
Kiara shrugged. "I mean--yeah. But I'm not such an asshole that I don't recognize no one chooses to be born where and who they are. You didn't ask to be noble anymore than I asked to be...this." She gestured vaguely toward herself with one hand.
Leaning back a bit and bracing her other hand behind her, she cocked her head and mused, "Guess it's what you do with it, really. How you play the cards you're dealt."
"You are absolutely right," he agreed wholeheartedly. "And it is high time I play my hand, if I may stretch the metaphor."
The earnest nobleman studied her for a moment, just long enough to be awkward. "You are not, you know? An 'asshole', I mean. I apologize for ever thinking you were anything of the sort."
Kiara blinked at him, then swallowed her half a mouthful of rabbit awkwardly. "Well. Ahem. Thanks, I guess."
She let her eyes flicker toward him, then refocused on the fire. "You, ah--you're not so bad either. Under the noble veneer, I mean."
Dan chuckled at the qualifier she felt she needed to add. "I do try."
He allowed a companionable silence to settle over them as they consumed the remainder of the adorable forest creature. Once the meal was concluded, he began describing the layout of the manor in exhaustive detail, complete with stick drawings in the dirt.
"And this passage here connects his private study, where he will no doubt take me, to the sitting room, where you will likely be if he does not just bring you along to rub my naiveté in my face. If, for some reason, he has us taken straight to the small dungeon he had installed in the basement, there is a secret escape tunnel he does not think I know about. Unfortunately, I do not know where it lets out or if it is accessible or even visible from the outside. Unless you have a way of discovering it, we cannot just sneak in that way."
"I can do that," Kit spoke up. "If you know the likely area it lets out, it shouldn't be too difficult for me to find it, and then I can tell Kia."
Kiara nodded slowly. "Dragons do tend to have a knack for finding cave and tunnel systems. An escape route from a dungeon isn't all that different, I suppose."
Dan blinked. He hadn't thought of that. "Then perhaps we do not need to attempt the bounty subterfuge. If we can get in that way, we will only need a way to force him where we can get to him."
"I am not accustomed to such cloak and dagger, so this is where I need your experience as a... well, as a criminal."
Kit snorted, and Kiara smiled crookedly. "Only a Connlaothian criminal," she pointed out. Then she thought for a moment and amended, "Well...mostly. Okay, only a criminal when the law in question is stupid."
Kit rumbled a low chuckle. Still technically crime.
Hush up. Frowning down at the plans Dan had drawn in the dirt, she said slowly, "I think the front gate is still the best way in. We try to sneak in and get caught, we're pretty much fucked. If something goes south once we're already inside, we have more options--plus, sneaking Kit close enough to break in is kind of a non-starter, and we definitely want a dragon as backup if we need it."
"So what you are saying is that we have Kit wait near the secret exit in the event we come out hot?" he asked, unsure he was getting it.
Kiara nodded. "Yes--it'll be much less obvious for a bored dragon to go wandering the estate grounds while his rider is collecting payment than it would be for the three of us to try to locate and sneak in through the underground exit."
Kit nodded an agreement. "Most Connlaothians view dragons as just very large mounts, anyway. They usually underestimate how intelligent we are, they won't think I'm up to anything."
Dan released a slow breath. "I suppose I am just as guilty of that bit of human arrogance. My apologies, Ser Kit. My kind indeed tend to assume they are the only truly intelligent species."
Looking uncomfortable, he said, "We never did discuss what exactly we will do with my brother when we find him."
Kit and Kiara exchanged a look, though neither said anything for a long moment.
Finally, Kiara sighed and muttered, "I guess...that's up to you, really. He is your brother."
Dan sighed heavily and a little sadly. "I am not so naive that I am not aware that he may give us no choice but to do to him what he would do to us. But perhaps if we can prove to my parents that I ran because of his attempt on my life, then it won't come to that. Then I could become the heir and try to make my small part of Connloath a safer place for mages. I couldn't change the law, but I could see to it that no one in the area is abused simply for being different."
"Well." Kiara shrugged. "Good luck to you with it--wouldn't want that to be my life's task. It's not gonna be easy."
She didn't comment on the fact that there was a very good chance they would have to kill his brother; despite the fact that she didn't actually know the man, and from the way Dan talked it wasn't like there was a lot of lost love there, still...it was his brother.
We can do it, Kit whispered in her mind. She glanced sidelong at him. He was watching Dan carefully, with a hint of something like sympathy. If he can't. I mean--he shouldn't have to. It's not fair to ask that of someone, no matter who their family is.
She nodded once. If it comes to that.
"No task worth doing is," he answered as if echoing the sentiment of another.
"Well, aside from breathing and other basic life functions, that is." He smirked lightly in a faint mirror of his smart-ass counterpart.
Life functions his brother might no longer find so easy.
"If only it were in my power to change the disproportionate response to magic, even if it harms no one. I have never understood how we determined that magic drained life from the planet when so much of it is a natural part of the world. Why would the Creator build a world that devours itself?" he continued. He had never been able to talk freely about his doubts before he met her.
Kiara huffed and shrugged. "Hey, search me. Magic has always been a part of who I am." With a quick glance down at her still vaguely gold-glimmering fingers, she added wryly, "Now more than ever, I guess."
She shrugged again and leaned against Kit's leg. "Look, I dunno if this is the sorta conversation you want to have with someone from a race of creatures literally older than Connlaothians' stories of their god. I'll probably end up offending you," she said, as though what she'd just said wasn't already heresy.
Dan shrugged. He knew full well that the Fae have been around since before humanity itself, so of course they are older than any human religion. "Why would I be offended? I suppose you would think that being from a noble family that guards a saint's relic would make me rather devout, but really, I just pay lip service."
Kiara shrugged again. "I dunno. People can be fidgety about stuff like that. Religion and all." Spending her formative years in Adela, raised by a woman who had an ongoing romance with a fae prince, her own "religious education" had been scattered at best.
"You do not need to tell a Connloathian that people can be weird about their religion," Dan chuckled.
"But I guess we should get going before we start burning daylight." He stood up and started kicking dirt into the fire to put it out.
Kiara sighed, then stood as well. "Yeah. Guess we should."
Gods she didn't want to say it. She didn't, but...
"Do you think we should..." She screwed her face up in distaste. "We should try to practice this switching thing?"
"I thought we decided that was the other you's call," he responded. "She'll pay the cost if there is one."
She sighed and rubbed at her temples. "I know. But...if the other you and the other Kit are our main methods of communicating that... I'm just thinking, maybe we should be a little slower with approaching the estate. Give it another night or so, a chance for them to...catch up, if that makes sense?"
Kit cocked his head. "Do you think it works if we, like, nap?" he asked suddenly. "I mean, if Dan or I got knocked o it right now, would we see them?"
Kiara blinked at him. "I—huh. That is a good question."
"Well, I think the hope is that we can do it without anyone being unconscious. But I think we would, provided the magic forces them to wake up," Dan theorized.
"I don't suppose either of you knows how to test that without me getting punched? It will be a while before I can make myself sleep."
Kit looked at Kiara meaningfully. She frowned in confused at him, then suddenly it clicked. "Oh!"
She glanced at Dan. "Ahhhh...how do you feel about faerie magic? Putting people to sleep is pretty standard, I should be able to manage it without too much trouble."
Dan frowned. He had said he didn't believe all magic was evil, but now that he was faced with subjecting himself to it, the lapsed Ansgarian hesitated. Gathering his courage, he answered, "I trust you. Any reservations I have are purely conditioned. So let us proceed."
Kiara swallowed. Though she had been the one to suggest it, she was nervous—her magic had always been a relatively modest elemental gift. It was only in the last year or so that it had started giving her trouble, growing too powerful to contain.
She'd certainly never done anything like this. But she remembered hearing it described once in her time at the Autumn Court.
It's fine. This is fine.
"Okay. Just, ah...lay back and close your eyes? I guess?" she muttered as she cautiously approached and knelt beside him. She took in a breath, then reached out to touch two fingers lightly to the center of his brow.
"Sleep," she intoned, reaching carefully for her magic. Her voice seemed doubled, a soft chime echoing beneath the vowels. Heat gathered in both palms, and she sucked in a sharp breath before quickly redirecting it to the hand not touching Dan.
Flames sparked around those fingertips, but the two she kept pressed against his brow only warmed and glowed with a faint gold light.
Dan was as relaxed as he could be, and still wondered if the spell was actually wor—
Grav sat up, momentarily confused. "Well, that was new."
He turned and gently shook Kiara. "Hey Kia, wake up."
"Mmm." Kiara frowned and shifted sleepily, but it was simply a distaste for the waking world this time, not a terrifying magical backlash. Since their "switch", neither she not her counterpart had particularly clear dreams, so she was groggy and confused when she finally blinked her eyes open.
"Wasswrong? Wha' happened?" she mumbled as she sat up with a quiet groan.
Curled around them, Kit still slept deeply, without even a twitch of his tail.
"Nothing's wrong," Grav assured. "They just wanted me to say they're up for experimenting with switching. But they get that the risk is yours."
"She used her Fae powers to put him to sleep, thinking it would trigger me to wake up. Annoying, but it is a way to communicate with each other."
"Also... Do you have any paper? I need to draw something before it fades."
"Paper?" She blinked then reached blearily for her pack. "Um, I think so? You could use the—" She yawned as she sat up. "The back of the map?"
She passed the pack to him and scrubbed at her eyes, trying to wake herself up properly. "What do you need to draw?" she asked through another yawn, before glancing at Kit.
Still out. Well, she supposed that made sense, if Grav was only awake because Dan was now asleep.
Weird.
"A map of Vannier Manor," he answered as he rummaged through the pack for the map. "Obviously there are going to be differences, but it's way better intel than nothing."
After searching the edges of the fire for an appropriate charred stick with which to draw, he placed the map on a flat rock and began to draw on the back. "Apparently, my brother is sort to build escape tunnels. We find that, we can sneak in. Chances are it won't be in the same place, but Dan doesn't know where it lets out yet anyway."
"Sneak in?" She was coming awake much more quickly now, leaning over his shoulder to look at what he was drawing. "I mean...yeah, that's a hell of a better plan than just storming the place. I know a dragon is a big advantage, but it's still just the three of us."
The other stuff he had said finally started to process and she frowned. "Wait—they think we should...try to switch? Me and her?"
Grav nodded. "If you think you can do it without hurting yourself."
"He says as they plan to do other incredibly dangerous things."
She frowned, turning the idea over in her mind for a few moments.
"I mean..." She glanced down at her hands, flexing her fingers. "I guess the real problem is knowing when to do it?" She looked to Grav. "I mean, are they safe right now? If I just...tried to switch."
Grav nodded. "Oh, yeah, they're perfectly safe right now. Haven't even broken camp yet."
He gave her a supportive squeeze. "We don't have to try this if you don't want to risk it. We can find another way through this."
Kiara shot a quick glance at Kit, knowing he'd be telling her not to risk it. But...
But it was probably the best chance they had.
Wasn't that depressing.
She gave herself a little shake and leaned into Grav's side for a moment before pulling away.
"I can do it." She nodded stiffly. "Just..."
She glanced at Grav, and her mouth twitched on one side. "...Y'know, I'd really like to kiss you, but it's sorta weird knowing you have a, ah, passenger at the moment."
Grav smirked mischievously. "I mean... you already kissed him once. Sure, you thought he was me at the time, buuut..."
"Can't be any weirder than that."
Kiara huffed, rolled her eyes, and leaned in to peck his cheek. "I am so ready for that vacation," she sighed as she pulled away, straightening her shoulders and placing her hands in her lap. "Okay. Well. Here it goes, I guess..."
She closed her eyes, hesitated a moment, then reached for the emptiness where her magic used to be.
The world dipped and whirled around her, and she gasped, eyes flying open to find herself suddenly seated in front of a freshly sparked campfire, rather than the one that Dan had just dampened.
Kiara blinked and looked down at herself. Yep, still her--same clothes, same faint golden glow.
Same her, different world.
She released a low breath, looking around. "Well. That was...weird."
"It worked, I take it," Grav said, looking over her change of appearance. The physical swap was new. "And I didn't pass out this time."
Dan was snoring in a very familiar rhythm. If he woke up, though, what would happen?
"I see that." Kiara glanced over at Kit--not her Kit, gods that was still a blow to the gut when she saw him--and frowned slightly. "Nor did he wake up, it seems."
She pursed her lips. "So. That switch happens independent of when we switch. I guess that's probably a good thing?"
Kiara looked around to find Kit--but not her Kit, ouch--staring at her.
"Your ears," the dragon blurted, and one hand flew up to touch them.
"What? Oh. Right." She shrugged, tracing the unfamiliar rounded edge before dropping her hand. "Yeah. Properly human, me."
She looked down and realized she was kneeling in front of a sleeping Grav--Dan. Damnit.
"Ah...think I should...try to poke him awake?"
"We were hoping to find that out, yeah," he responded. It was just as much a blow for him to see a Kiara that wasn't 'his' Kiara.
"Now if we can just figure out what happens when everyone is awake. If we can manage that, then we'll know if it's a card worth playing."
Dan kept sleeping!
Welp. Only one way to find out what would happen.
Kiara glanced at other-Kit, then leaned over Dan and shook his shoulder lightly. "Oi. Pup--er, Dan. Can you hear me?"
Dan slowly stirred awake. "Mnn... What's happenin'...?"
Apparently he talks like Grav when he's a groggy pupper.
"Well, at least I can wake you up," Kiara sighed, mildly relieved. She glanced back at Kit--still awake--then back to Dan.
"Do you, ah, feel weird? I mean--hi." She waved awkwardly as she sat back on her heels. "Er, nice to...see you again?"
Dan blinked, the fog of magically-induced sleep lifting. "Right... you did the switch. Sorry, her sleep spell is still wearing off."
"Yes. Well met. And at least this time we meet under less confusing circumstances." He smiled.
"However, it is rather more important that you do not feel strange, yes?"
Kiara shrugged, looking around. "I feel fine..."
She frowned, and Kit huffed, glancing a little awkwardly at Dan, as though he might have any better idea of what was going on.
"This is...actually really close to where we're camped, I think," she murmured, then quickly gave herself a little shake. "Yeah. I'm fine. I mean, I'm not about to keel over."
Kit snorted. Clearly, even though this wasn't technically his Kiara, he didn't much like those kinds of jokes.
"I suppose it is only logical that you two would have the same criteria for a good campsite," Dan commented.
"So, what now? Do you switch back or is there something you wish to ask me?"
Grav gave Kit's snout a shake. "Wakey, wakey, sleeping drakey."
"I...don't really know." Kiara frowned. "I mean, I guess—huh. Gods this whole situation is just so damned weird."
Beside her, Kit suddenly wove his head back and forth, blinking rapidly. Automatically, she started toward him. "You okay?"
The dragon shook his head, answering in a slightly slurred tone, "Yeah, just...drowsy, all of the sudden."
Kit snorted sleepily and clearly worked to force his eyes open. Evidently not even wanting to bother with verbal speech, he asked mentally, Wass'appening?
"Try to stay awake, Ser Kit. We need to be able to all stay awake," Dan urged.
Of Kiara, he inquired, "That is the plan, yes?"
The switch worked. The other Kiara is here.
Dan raised a brow. "Did anyone else hear that?"
Kiara nodded slowly, automatically reaching out to offer Kit a steadying hand against his shoulder before she jerked it back quickly.
"I mean...inasmuch as there is a plan, yeah, I guess so," she replied to Dan with a slightly nervous laugh.
Kit blinked, still seeming foggy, and they both looked at Dan like he'd grown a second head. "Hear what?"
"I thought I heard the other me... in my head, now that I think about it." Dan's confusion quickly gave way to a realization. "Crazy thought. Could it be that link you three share, bleeding through?"
"I--I don't know." Kiara frowned, considering. "Maybe... Are you getting anything else?"
A significantly more glittery Kiara had settled into her own pacing, glancing over at Grav every few seconds.
"Is it working? Can you tell?"
Grav had his eyes shut in concentration as he called for his Kiara over the link.
"I honestly have no idea."
"I think he's calling for you. Maybe?"
"Calling for me?" Kiara's frown deepened. "Then how come I can't hear him?"
She couldn't hear her Kit either--though she supposed he might still be asleep.
No sooner had the thought crossed her mind when this Kit snorted and shook his head, some of the dazed look bleeding from his eyes.
"Wait," the dragon mumbled. "I...hear something too..."
Kit snorted and blinked, concentrating hard. "Grav," he rumbled slowly. "I think...I think I'm getting...it's not Kia, it's--it's like me." He huffed and shook his head, struggling to focus. It was so difficult to stay awake, it felt like his mind and body knew he should be sleeping. "Don't try reaching for her, try...reaching next to her."
Grav blinked. "Next to her? Like for myself?" He shrugged and gave it try.
Dan? Can you hear me?
Dan's eyes widened in surprise at how clear the voice was. "Now I know I'm hearing him. Try talking to yourself like you talk to Kit."
Yes! I do!
"Like I talk to--?" Kiara frowned, trying to focus, to find that connection, but...
She growled in frustration and shook her head. "I can't feel anything."
"Maybe...because you're in the wrong place?" Kit suggested. "You and she can...physically switch. Maybe that means you can't connect...mentally?"
Kiara sighed, scrubbing a hand down her face. "Well. That makes just as much sense as anything else about this situation, so it's probably right," she grumbled.
Kit snorted quietly. "I can...hear mine, too. The other me." He looked between not-his-Kiara and Dan. "Should we...tell them something? Make sure this works?"
"Like what? Say hello to our Kiara for us?" Dan asked.
Having no better ideas, he thought loudly, Grav? If you hear me, tell everyone that the human Kiara is unharmed.
Grav chuckled. "The ridiculously formal version of me says the human Kiara is fine. Good to know."
The fae Kiara huffed quietly despite herself. "He is ridiculous about that, huh? You'd think roughing it would have bled some of that out of him."
She resumed pacing. "I still can't connect to her—but you two don't seem to have an issue?"
Kit nodded agreement. This Kiara can't contact her other self. Any luck with ours?
"It seems she can't contact you, either," Kit noted to the human Kiara.
She nodded. "But you two can." A breath. "I mean—that's definitely something. And we're all still awake."
Although that seemed to be taking a toll on this Kit, from the way his tail and wings were drooping. Maybe it was only something they could do for a limited time?
Dan yawned. "Well, for now anyway. I am starting to feel whatever is tugging on Ser Kit's eyelids."
Are you feeling sleepy?
A bit. Maybe it's time to switch back?
"But we can't switch places. And you don't seem to be fighting off sleep like Dan and the other Kit."
Fae-Kiara shook her head. "No, I'm not. I feel...fine, actually. Normal. Well, whatever passes for normal for me these days."
Kit huffed and ducked his head to nose her shoulder lightly. She may not have been his Kiara, but she was still Kiara. She smiled slightly and reached up to pat his cheek over her shoulder. "You're definitely holding on by a thread here, Kitten," she chuckled. "Probably time to call it."
"Yeah, no offense but you both look like you could use a break," human-Kiara noted as she looked between Dan and Kit. "I guess that means...I should try to switch us back, right? We'll be no use if the two--or, four--of you can barely keep your eyes open."
Dan nodded in tired agreement, his usual puppyish energy rapidly depleting. "Yes. I believe we have learned all we can from this first attempt."
"Okay, Dan's telling me that this experiment is taking a toll on him and the other Kit too. So get ready to be switched back," Grav reported.
"Get ready?" Kiara huffed. "And how am I supposed to do that--?"
She suddenly gasped and staggered, doubling over. Kit rumbled in concern, ducking his head to catch at her shoulder--but before he could she straightened up again. That faint glow was gone from her skin, and when she shook her head to orient herself the tossing back of her curls revealed rounded, human ears.
"Woof." She blinked rapidly. "Okay. Apparently doing that too many times too close together is...rough. I'm seeing stars."
She wavered, and Kit caught at the back of her shirt with his teeth to keep her upright.
Grav stepped close and placed a hand on her shoulder. Smiling tiredly, he said, "I'm glad you're okay."
"She's so much like you without being you that it hurts to be around her. Know what I mean?"
"Yeah." She smiled tiredly back, though she didn't feel the same supernatural exhaustion that seemed to affect the rest of them when they were all awake. "Yeah, I know what you mean."
She leaned into his hand for a moment, then let her head come to rest on his shoulder. "C'mon. We should...actually rest while we can."
"Good idea," he yawned, giving her a peck on the cheek before walking over to Kit.
He smirked at the dragon. "Okay, big guy. I could really use a nice, warm dragon right about now."
Kit yawned so wide his jaw cracked--which on a dragon was loud--and nodded groggily. "C'mere, scaleless," he mumbled, settling himself back down and lifting a wing in invitation to his companions.
Kiara chuckled and tucked herself into the curve of his belly before reaching up to drag Grav down next to her and pulling his arm around her waist.
"Well. Guess you two will have to give me an update in the morning," she half-laughed, half-mumbled. "Seems my dreams are just dreams again..."
"I've had scales. I gotta tell ya, they're massively overrated," Grav managed to quip before Kiara dragged him down.
He smiled and kissed her before snuggling in. "Lucky you."
Then he was out like a snuffed torch.
Dan suddenly and dramatically rallied. "Whoah... Grav must be asleep, because I feel wide awake."
Kit snorted and shook his head, eyes abruptly much brighter. "Yeah. Me too."
Kiara looked between the two of them, still adjusting slightly to the abrupt switch in realities. She didn't think she was ever gonna get used to that. "Well, that's...good? Right? I mean, at least we know it doesn't have lingering effects."
"Considering the fact that Ser Kit could not be awoken at all the first time, perhaps it will only get easier," Dan theorized, rubbing his chin.
He looked her over like a concerned puppy, but without the invasion of personal space. "How about you? Are you feeling the same as before? No strange feelings?"
"I'm..." Kiara rubbed one thumb into the opposite palm, brow slightly furrowed and lips pursed. "Tingly," she sighed after a moment. "Like...pins and needles in my hands and feet. But otherwise fine."
She shrugged, casting a quick look in Dan's direction before summoning up a semblance of her usual deflection-smirk. "That's probably more to do with being in our Mortal Realm than it is the switching, I'd bet. "
"How much longer do you think you can hold out in the Mortal Realm, anyway?" he asked curiously as he checked the supplies.
He frowned. "Assuming you would even know such a thing."
She huffed and shrugged while Kit rumbled, clearly not happy to be thinking about that.
"I guess it depends?" She flexed her fingers in and out carefully. "The more I use Fae magic, the harder it will be to hold my place in this world. At least, I think that's how Da explained it."
Dan gave an acknowledging nod. "So, the less our plan requires, the better. Got it."
With everything packed neatly, the three were off.
Over the next few days, the twin sets of adventurers practiced coordinating with each other. Slowly, they grew accustomed enough with the switch to use it for a few precious minutes without sacrificing any ability to remain alert.
Team Grav spent another couple of days gathering information in town while the Kits hunted down their respective hidden exits, which turned out to be the same. When everyone was as prepared as they could afford, the festivities began.
Twilight darkened the forest as Grav studied the well-hidden trapdoor nestled in a crevice in the ground, disguised by both the undergrowth and the carpet of leaves tossed over it.
"Kudos to dragon senses for finding this. We silly humans could only find this by tripping over it."
"I do believe that is the point of it," Kit noted wryly, and dropped his head to nose at the covered entrance. With a snort, he shook his head and pulled back slightly. "Yeah, it's definitely deep. And long. I followed the trail at least to the edge of the estate grounds, but it definitely goes further."
Kiara gave him a quick, vaguely worried look. "How far did you follow it?"
Kit rolled his eyes. "I was careful, mum. Nobody saw me."
Grav kneeled down to test the door. As he expected, it was held firm by a crossbar of some kind. "We're not going to get this open quietly without magic. At least, not that--"
He chuckled. "Right. Magic sword. No switching required."
Unsheathing Brightedge, he slid the blade into the crack. When it lit up, he deftly sliced through the crossbar like it was made of butter. He re-sheathed it and opened the door. "Voila."
"Handy to have around, that thing," Kiara noted with a quiet chuckle. She glanced down into the darkness of the tunnel.
She couldn't see anything. Not even hints of shapes in shadow.
Damn, this whole "being fully human" thing was getting really annoying.
"Maybe you should lead," she huffed. "Brightedge is probably a better light source than a torch."
"You're damn right it is," he responded with a cocky smirk.
He descended first, almost disappearing into the gloom. As he lifted Brightedge aloft, he willed it to light, banishing the darkness.
The passage was hewn from the stone of some natural continuation of the cleft that concealed the trapdoor. Every dozen or so paces, a wooden brace had been constructed. The wood seemed old, but it appeared safe to proceed.
"Shall we, then?"
Kiara smirked and hopped down after him. She looked around, then called up quietly, "You're definitely not fitting down here Kit. Be ready for takeoff if we come out hot?"
"If?" the dragon snorted wryly in response.
She sighed. "Fine. Probably when."
"That much depends on what we end up doing. The gossip in town was mostly about some enclave of non-practicing mages not far from town. I don't like the way my long-lost brother has been stirring up paranoia about them, but that's not enough to justify anything that happens without doing some snooping for the skeletons in his closet," he answered.
He hadn't really thought through what level of hell they'd be in if they got caught. Or what they might end up having to do to prevent whatever it was his brother had planned. Unlike their doubles, they hadn't really talked about it.
Kiara nodded in agreement, dropping her previous dry humor. She needed to be taking this seriously. "We might have to do this a couple times," she noted with a low exhale. "Unless we get lucky and find something incriminating right away. Or unless we're planning to hide out in the basement during the busy hours on the estate."
"If this version also has a private dungeon, we might just find someone who knows more than they should waiting for us," Grav answered as he walked ahead.
He released a rueful chuckle. "Of course, I doubt we'll be that lucky. We never have been."
"Well, maybe we're due some good fortune then," Kiara muttered, though she didn't sound entirely convinced about it. She was still squinting into the dark of the tunnel like her eyes might suddenly regain their old usefulness.
One of the few things he missed about being an alchemical mutant was his own ability to see in the dark. Brightedge was handy for that, but such a bright light would draw unwanted attention after they left the tunnel. Hopefully, though, they wouldn't need help seeing inside the manor.
Eventually, they reached a brick wall. Luckily, the means of opening it was an obvious lever on one side of the passage. But before pulling it, Grav pressed one ear to the wall to listen for anyone who might spot them emerging.
Kiara waited by the lever for Grav to give the all-clear, one hand resting in the hilt of her enchanted dagger.
She knew Grav was listening for any potential threats. But despite herself, she found herself smirking a bit and couldn't stop herself from whispering, "Do you think my dagger is jealous that your sword has a name?"
They'd received the weapons at the same time, after all.
Grav looked back at her with a shrug. "Nah. If you name the darkness, it loses its power."
"That said, I still think 'Shadowfang' is the way to go," he added with a smirk before putting his ear back against the wall.
"Well, look at you quoting bedtime stories," Kiara chuckled. Not that she really had any room to judge—considering their relationship with the Fae, Serenian bedtime stories probably had quite a bit of good advice when it came to esoteric magics.
She kept watch while Grav listened; they'd left Kit at the exit of the tunnel, and she trusted him to let them know if something happened, but it paid to be cautious.
After nearly a minute and Grav didn't sound any alarm, she asked, "Think we're clear?"
Grav pulled back and gave her a nod. "All clear, as best as I can tell."
He prepared his body for the possibility that he was wrong and waited, sword at the ready, for her to pull the lever.
Kiara nodded and leaned her weight onto the lever. It jammed for a moment and she grunted, wishing she had the ability to heat the mechanism. But then something cracked and the lever abruptly moved downward in a sharp jerk.
Stone ground against stone as the wall started to slide downward. Kiara winced; she couldn't see anyone on the other side, but none of that had been exactly quiet.
Grav gave her a nervous look before silently slinking into the basement.
It was indeed a dungeon, judging by the two cells along the wall opposite the secret door. This was made even more evident by the various torture devices and implements furnishing the room. It seemed that Lord Augustine Vannier was a bit of a sadist.
"Is someone there?" a raspy voice implored from one of the cells.
Oh holy shit.
She had expected anyone to be down here.
Kiara looked over at Grav, wide-eyed. They should keep moving; if they stopped, if they spoke to someone, their chances of being caught rose exponentially.
Of course, logic and pragmatism had rarely—she doubted ever—stopped Grav from being stupidly noble.
"We can't just ignore them, can we? What if they need help?" his eyes somehow conveyed. Or, perhaps, she simply knew him well enough to predict what he was thinking.
So, true to form, he quietly creeped up to the bars. He still couldn't make out the shape inside, but the silhouette wasn't quite the right shape to be human. His voice a whisper, he responded, "Shh... Yes, but be quiet; we aren't exactly supposed to be here."
Kiara looked upward, mouthed a few curses, then bit back a groan and followed Grav toward the cell. The could have come back once Grav's jackass brother was dealt with, but noooo...
Inside was a woman, huddled over a bit and chained to the wall by both wrists and ankles. Her face was dirt-smeared, dark hair unkempt, but not in a way that suggested she'd been there for weeks--days, probably.
"Oh shit," the woman sighed roughly, voice clearly disused. "You're kids. Fuck, how'd you two get in here?"
"You know these manors; nobles love their secret escape tunnels," he answered quietly.
"Although, how you got in there seems the more pressing question. Did you actually do anything, or did you just piss off Vannier? From everything I've heard about him, he's a spiteful toff."
The prisoner sighed and leaned back against the wall. "Wrong place, wrong time, I suppose you could say," she chuckled, entirely unamused. "And Vannier's got a lot of ghosts. They wouldn't shut up, and before I knew it..."
She spread her hands, chains clinking. "Here I am."
Kiara frowned. "Ghosts?" she whispered to Grav.
That sounded like necromancy. In Connlaoth. Did the woman have a death wish?
Necromancy was dangerous enough in Serendipity, and even there, many—Grav included—don't understand the difference between spirit magic and necromancy.
He shuddered. He was open to magic, but not that open. "You... can hear the dead?"
Shit. They were looking for the skeletons in Augustine's closet; he just didn't expect to run into someone who could hear the literal ones. It was distasteful, but it was tempting, and he just knew Kiara would be annoyingly pragmatic about playing the cards they'd been dealt.
The prisoner chuckled, raspy, either not noticing or unbothered by their wariness. "I can when they're chatty," she replied. "And the ones around these parts? Chatty like you wouldn't believe."
That...actually could be very promising. Kiara glanced at Grav, eyebrows raised: I mean...do we have any other leads?
Grav sighed, giving Kiara a look of reluctant agreement. She was obviously right, but... a necromancer? Really? Could they even trust the elf?
Turning to the prisoner, he asked, "Is that why you're in here and not in more official confinement? You heard something incriminating?"
The elf woman snorted. "You could say that. Unfortunately it was more a fear of what I might have heard than what I actually heard."
Kiara frowned slightly. "So...you don't actually know anything?"
She shrugged. "I mean, I can guess." She tilted her head, and the dim light in the dungeon fell across her eyes, revealing that they were jarringly different colors. "Why? The sorta information useful to you two?"
"You could say that. We're here to stop him from achieving whatever it is he's planning. We only know it's bad, even by Connloath standards." If his Serenian accent hadn't given it away, the way he said 'Connloath' like it was some backwards foreign land made it clear he was only Connloathian by blood.
The prisoner nodded. "Well. Sounds like you two have your work cut out for you," she noted dryly. "Don't suppose there's room on the list for freeing wrongfully imprisoned medium
Kiara quirked an eyebrow. "Do you know where the key is?"
The elf snorted. "You got in here through a secret tunnel and you need the key?"
"Well, I guess if she's gone, they'll know someone was here anyway," he said to Kiara.
He turned back to the prisoner. "There is. But, of course, we could use any information you can give us. And any other help you have the energy to provide."
The elf woman shrugged, chains clinking against stone. "Haven't had a proper meal in four days, but I can still hold my own."
She glanced down the hall of the dungeon, frowned, then shook her head. "You're coming back out this way, right?"
Kiara nodded, guessing where she was going with this. "That's the plan, yeah."
"You can get me out then," the medium said firmly. Now that she'd been talking for a bit, Kiara was staring to think that husky scratch under her voice was just how she sounded. "No use me tagging along when I can just point you in the right direction."
Kiara frowned. "But—if something goes wrong, we might not be able to come this way..."
The woman shrugged again. "Sounds like you'll have bigger problems to worry about than me, in that case."
"We'll do everything we can to keep our part of the deal. You have my word on that," Grav responded with gratitude.
"So, uhh, when you said you could guess at what Vannier was hiding, what did you mean?"
"I mean this guy's had half his staff assassinated in the last ten years," the elf huffed, with a quick roll of her eyes. "And quite probably his parents, too."
Kiara froze, cutting a quick glance toward Grav. She had enough sense not to say anything, but her expression showed a flash of concern and confusion before she shuttered it.
Grav wasn't nearly as skilled at hiding his emotions, and, so, the disbelief and anger were evident on his face. If that were true, then this just became a whole new level of personal. "What makes you think that?" he asked, fighting the urge to hit something.
Kiara shifted subtly closer to him, reached out to wind her fingers through his and squeezing lightly.
"One of the ghosts," the medium answered. Her eyes flickered over Grav's face, reading his seemingly disproportionate response and adjusting her tone slightly. "He said something about...finding a contract. Something he wasn't supposed to see. It's what got him killed."
Grav gripped Kiara's hand tight. He hadn't imagined that his long-lost brother had been directly responsible for what happened to his birth parents. It was too sad and terrible to contemplate.
"Did he give any clue as to where? That kind of evidence is exactly what we need," he asked. If she had actually seen Augustine, the medium might have noticed a bit of a resemblance.
"...Somewhere in the old Lord's study," the woman answered slowly. She looked between the two of them. "You're not just here for the information, are you? This is personal."
Kiara looked at Grav again; they were his secrets to share.
Grav exhaled slowly, regretting his tendency towards honesty. "It's a long story you probably wouldn't believe most of, but, yeah, it's personal. Especially now. Long story short, I'm the little brother he apparently failed to kill with our parents."
He chuckled ruefully. "Funny thing is, I was already planning to ruin him."
"Ouch." The elf woman winced. "Well...sorry. That sucks."
Kiara wanted to say something comforting, but she didn't know what—and they didn't have time. "We should see if we can find the contract," she murmured. "He probably destroyed it, but any incongruous records from that time would be helpful."
Grav sighed again and shook himself. Determination replaced his conflicted emotions as he returned to the moment. "Right. We shouldn't dawdle a moment longer. We've got a job to do."
"Wish us luck; we're going to need it," he told the medium before nodding to Kiara.
The elven woman nodded. "Gods grant you speed," she murmured.
Kiara nodded back to her before taking Grav's hand properly and starting back down the dungeon hallway. She waited until they'd gotten a bit of distance before risking a soft question:
"You doing okay?"
"There'd be something wrong with me if I was." He squeezed her hand firmly, his own shaking with righteous anger. "I just... I knew he was a bad guy... but it never occurred to me that it went back that far; that someone I'm related to could do something that vile to their family..."
"I don't think I can leave without learning why."
Kiara held his hand a little tighter and pulled him in so she could bump her shoulder lightly against his.
"I know," she murmured. After hearing that, she hadn't imagined Grav would be able to leave the estate without some answers. "I—I'm just so sorry, sweetheart."
She pressed herself closer against his side for a moment, then stepped back, releasing his hand, and started walking again.
If he wanted anything resembling justice, they needed evidence.
Grav jogged to catch up, but he didn't say anything until they had climbed the stairs to a door. "You should take the lead. I'm too distracted, and you're better at sneaking anyway," he suggested quietly.
His mind was too occupied with a sense of loss that losing his birth parents had previously not burdened him with. He couldn't even picture their faces, so why did knowing that his own brother likely arranged that loss make it so much worse?
Kiara nodded in both acknowledgement and agreement and took the lead as they made their way through the dungeon.
It was mostly one long hall, cells arranged to either side. It didn't seem like there were any current prisoners aside from the medium—though Kiara did notice a suspiciously still bundle of rags in the corner of one cell they passed.
Once they reached the staircase leading up into what she assumed was the manor's basement proper, she paused. "We should have a rendezvous point," she murmured. "In case something goes wrong and we get separated up there."
Though she was being pragmatic, she kept her voice gentle, and there was still that flickering concern as her eyes moved over his face. Gods she wished they could actually talk about this, but it really wasn't the time or place.
Grav thought it over. It couldn't be in town; they'd search there. Wasn't there a—"What about that glade we camped in the night before we came into town? It's just enough off the beaten path, don't you think?"
He was glad one of them was still on the ball. Left to his own devices, he worried he'd do something stupid, like confront his brother alone. So, he all the more hoped they didn't get separated.
Kiara nodded. "That should. A last resort, mind—we're sticking together as much as we can."
She gave him a hard stare. "I mean it, Grav. No running off for a heroic death on my watch, got it?"
Grav shrank back, unable to respond with a dismissive quip for once. She had all but read his mind.
He nodded. "Got it."
The basement proper was much less dismal, being used for storage of things rather than people. It didn't seem to have any guards, at least not inside the basement itself, but a servant could come through at any moment.
As they neared the stairs to the manor itself, the door opened. Grav pulled Kiara behind some boxes as the housemaid descended into the basement on some errand. She moved distressingly close, grabbing something near their position and almost finding them. They were a sneeze away from failing before they even truly began.
Kiara held his eyes a moment longer, making sure he heard her, then nodded briskly as they kept moving.
She kept in the lead as they crept through the basement, but didn't protest when he suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her behind a stack of long-disused boxes; she figured he'd seen or heard something she hadn't, and sure enough the housemaid appeared a moment later.
Damned human senses. She didn't realize how much she'd relied on her slightly heightened eyes and ears until she didn't have them anymore.
And she couldn't use magic to cause a distraction. She looked to Grav, just a bit wide-eyed, and mouthed, Ideas?
Grav, equally wide-eyed, just shrugged and put his finger to his lips. All they could do was remain quiet and hope they weren't found.
The sudden, miraculous appearance of a rat scared the woman off from investigating the odd shadow behind the boxes. She snatched one last item and left in a hurry.
Grav exhaled a quiet chuckle. "I've never been so happy to see a rat in my life."
Kiara let out a low, relieved breath of her own and nodded with a tight smile. "I never realized just how much I would miss my magic," she muttered. "That would have been an opportune moment for a small, well-placed spontaneous fire."
She shook herself briskly. Don't linger on it, at least you're alive. "C'mon, we should head up before someone else comes down those stairs."
"You read my mind."
Out of the basement, the layout continued to match the manor from the other reality. So it seemed that the best way to get to the study was to use the passage in the less-guarded sitting room, assuming it was still there. Getting there, however, required them to take a gamble on whether any guests were currently using said room.
"I feel like disguises would be helpful about now," Grav mused quietly as they creeped through the halls.
"Mmmm." Kiara nodded agreement, pausing as they neared the sitting room. She looked around, brow furrowed. "Place this big...they probably have at least a dozen folks on staff, right? They must keep spare uniforms somewhere, probably close to the servants' quarters?"
She jerked her head toward the thin door where they'd just come up from the basement, then down the smaller hall that led away from it. "That way?"
Grav did a quick check of the map and nodded. "Yes."
The pair managed to get to the servants' changing rooms without being seen. But, before changing into a footman's uniform, he stopped to ask, "Shit. What do I do with Brightedge?"
"Shit," Kiara echoed, frowning slightly as she looked him over. They definitely couldn't leave it behind--there was every chance he would need the sword. "Okay, um...y'know, I bet there's a--aha!"
She rummaged through the closet for a few moments, then came up with a decorative scabbard. She passed it over with a shrug. "It's probably for the house guard, but it at least looks like it goes with the uniform--hopefully we'll be in and out quickly enough that no one will be paying that close attention."
He didn't like the idea of potentially losing the fancy scabbard Brightedge came with, but the young adventurer didn't have any better ideas. Taking it from her with a nod, he said, "And footmen are sometimes used as guards. It should work."
He disappeared from view, and, after a few minutes, he emerged as Grav the footman. Gods, he would have to fight the urge to laugh at whatever Kiara came back wearing.
"Not. One. Word."
Kiara ducked out from behind the changing screen in the estate's livery for a lower-ranked housemaid. It was a simple enough blouse and skirt in the family's colors, but the sleeves actually puffed at the shoulders. And she'd had to force her mess of curls as much tucked into a kerchief as she could manage.
She scowled, arms folded. "I know. I look like a damn milkmaid."
Grav didn't say a single word. His smirking face, which was busy choking back laughter, however, said more than enough.
When he finally reined himself in, he said, "Let's... just hope we can fake the manners long enough to get out of any conversation we come across."
Kiara continued to glare at him, though she could admit there was a funny side to it.
She'd be damned if she admitted it out loud, though.
"Let's hope we don't come across all that many conversations," she agreed, poking her head back out into the hallway from the servants' dressing room before nodding to him that it was clear.
Avoiding the guards, the duo made their way to the sitting room. Unfortunately, the room turned out to be occupied by a visiting lord and lady. The present footman, who was engaged in pouring them tea, looked over at the disguised trespassers with curious disapproval.
He didn't speak, but his expression said that they should go back to their duties and stop embarrassing his lordship with their laziness.
Kiara winced internally when they made it into the sitting room only to find visiting nobility. She ducked her head and lowered her voice as much as she could while still letting Grav hear her:
"Talk our way through, or try to circle around and hope they've left?"
"Hey, this is your area. I'm just the pretty face," Grav answered discretely.
They had the visiting lord's attention now, which was never a good thing.
Kiara spared the moment it took to roll her eyes at him, before she straightened up from her awkward half curtsy. Keeping her eyes downcast, she approached a few steps to murmur as demurely as she could managed, "Excuse the interruption, but Lord Vannier asked us to retrieve something from the sitting room. He said it was a matter of some urgency--we never would have dreamed of interrupting otherwise."
It wasn't a job that would typically require two people, but she was hoping they wouldn't examine that too closely.
The servant raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering what sort of item of such importance could possibly be of such urgency.
Grav spoke up in his least irreverent tone and his best Connloathian accent. "Lord Vannier gives his apologies, but the item in question is of a... sensitive nature. He asks that you wait in the game room while we search for it."
The lord and lady were bemused, but began to rise. "Well, if it is a private matter, then we shall not intrude. Come, Dorothea."
"Thank you, thank you so much," Kiara murmured, dipping back into a curtsy and keeping her head bowed until the guests and the servant had filed out passed them.
She straightened up with a relieved breath and shot Grav a look. "Okay. I'd bet that buys us five minutes. Let's get looking."
Grav took out the map again and compared the crude drawing to the room. Scratching his chin, he said, "It should be somewhere to the left of the fireplace."
Moving to that corner, he started investigating anything that might open the secret door. Alas, the obvious candelabra hid no mechanism (and his detection stat was too low to find anything else).
"Little help, oh sneaky one?"
"Sneaky one?" Kiara repeated incredulously as she approached. Her own search of the window ledges had yielded nothing illuminating.
She took Grav's place in front of the fireplace and started feeling around the edges of the molding. The candelabra was too obvious, as was the ornate display of books just above the mantel, but...
Click.
She straightened up from pressing the far-too-smooth pattern molded just beneath the lip of the mantel. Too smooth because generations of fingers had been pressing it to open the door that now slid slowly ajar.
"Amateur," she scoffed at Grav, smirking.
"I mean... that's what I've been saying." Grav smirked and opened the door so that they could slip inside.
Closing the secret door behind them, they were left alone in the gloomy passage. It smelled of dust and just a little mold. And, if the cobwebs were any indication, it hadn't been used in a very long time.
At least, Grav hoped they were just unoccupied webs. He didn't do creepy crawlies.
Kiara took the lead automatically before remembering yet again that her eyes were no longer anymore use than Grav's in the dim light. She muttered a Fae curse under her breath and put one hand out to feel along the wall as they moved.
"How far does this passage go?" she asked softly over her shoulder. Her voice moved the dry, disused air in an odd way, an echo that was somehow muffled.
Grav unsheathed an inch of glowing steel to give them just enough light not to reveal their presence. They still had to feel their way, but at least they could see a little.
"Not far. There should be a ladder to the second floor, just past an intersection. After we climb, we take a left to reach the study, if it still is a study on this side of the mirror.
He froze; something with too many legs skittered onto Kiara's shoulder. "Umm... Kiara?" he hissed quietly. "There's a, um... there's a spider... on your shoulder."
"Mm?" Kiara glanced at her shoulder, then raised one eyebrow. "Oh. Hey, little guy, not a free ride, alright?"
She reached up and let the spider skitter onto her hand, then brought it to the opposite wall. Looking back at Grav, she started, "Let's keep—"
His expression registered and she stared, then started to grin. "Grav...are you afraid of spiders?"
Oh gods, how had she not known this?
Grav felt his face warm. "Of course I am. They can kill you before you even know they're there. And they're super creepy."
Still marveling at her fearlessness, he asked, "How are you not?"
"Grav, there aren't that many species of poisonous spider," Kiara laughed, and beckoned for him to follow as she started off again. "Especially not this far north."
She shrugged in answer to his question, brushing a cobweb out of their way. "I dunno, they just...never bothered me. Might have something to do with how many insectile kinds of Fae there are, I suppose."
She decided to keep it to herself for now that while spiders and other many-legged critters didn't particularly bother her, she was deathly afraid of small spaces. The passage itself wasn't the worst thing, but she wasn't comfortable.
"Great, now I'm imagining spiders that think they're better than me," Grav joked as they progressed further into the passage.
Kiara's hand found nothing but air as they finally reached the intersection. That meant the ladder was close.
"I think we're nearly there." Kiara's stopped, squinting around for a moment before she gave up and looked back at him.
"Can we risk you drawing Brightedge a little more? I can barely make anything out."
"I think so." Grav nodded, drawing out another couple of inches.
The blade chased away just enough of the gloom to make out the rungs of the ladder, and one shy centipede that Grav was happy to see go.
Kiara let out a low, slow breath of relief when she finally spotted the lowest rung. She moved to start climbing, glancing down at Grav after a few steps.
"We know if the exit is locked? I can probably pick it, but it's gonna take me a minute doing it from the ladder."
"Dan didn't say anything about a door between the floors," Grav answered with some concern. Could the layout be different? They couldn't have made a wrong turn.
"Yeah, but in Dan's world his brother didn't...actually succeed in assassinating their parents," Kiara said carefully, not risking looking down at him. "This version of Auguste might have...more damning secrets to keep hidden. Might have added some extra security."
Grav held Brightedge a little higher to help her see. "Fair enough. Dan did make him sound like the paranoid sort."
While the door was indeed locked, the lock was easy enough to open for an experienced lockpick. The passage above the door was just as dark as the one below.
"Fucking hells," Kiara grumbled as she heaved herself up into the passage. "Was the designer of this place allergic to torches?"
Maybe spending so much time in Serendipity had spoiled her; even aside from her own eyes serving well in dim light until recently, it was rare to find Serenian locales that didn't spot some sort of magical illumination system that usually went on when it detected a living presence.
"Why bother keeping torches lit in a secret passage?" Grav asked in a smartass tone as he climbed up after her.
But, Gods, it was somehow darker on the second floor. "If I didn't know better, I'd think there was a darkness spell up here."
Kiara grumbled something about his smart mouth getting him—and them—into trouble, but she snorted at his comment on the pitch black around them.
"That would be just perfect," she muttered. "Though I can't say I'd be surprised to learn this asshole is a hypocrite—but from how Dan talked about it, I think this household has rather traditional Connlaothian values."
"Except Augustin's values are decidedly bloodier than what the church promotes. Although, that actually makes using magic less likely," he thought aloud quietly.
Before long, Kiara found the door to the study. A quick listen and peek revealed that, for the moment, the coast was clear for snooping.
"C'mon." Kiara waved for him to follow her in, then carefully closed the study door behind them, moving slowly so as not to allow the latch to make an audible click.
She cast a first, quick look around the room, trying to decide where they best had a chance of turning up something incriminating. The piles of papers on the desk seemed too obvious...
And she had to wonder if there would even still be record of an assassination contract from almost two decades ago.
Grav started searching the desk drawers. Nothing of interest was in any of them, but one was locked. "Seems way too obvious, but I've got a locked drawer here. Think you can pick it before someone comes in?"
He gazed around the room while he waited for an answer. "Unless there's a safe behind one of those paintings..."
"I'll give it a shot." Kiara sidled up next to him and knelt in front of the drawer. "You can check the paintings while I'm at it--there's nothing off about the two closest to the door, but I didn't have time to look at the others."
She glanced warily toward the door. "...Actually, maybe one of us should keep watch. My ears aren't as good as they used to be."
Grav nodded. "Then I'll do that."
He took up a position at the door, opening it just a crack to peek into the hall. Still clear.
Kiara nodded, most of her attention on the lock in front of her. She silently cursed herself for not having the foresight to invest in a proper lockpick set the last time they'd been in a town--but it was a suspicious sort of purchase, and she never wanted to bring that sort of attention.
Still. Might have been worth it for this tricky bugger.
Click.
"Got it!" she whisper-called to Grav, shimmying the drawer open. "No guarantee I can lock it again, but..."
She pulled out the stack of papers that had been stashed in the drawer; most seemed old, yellowed and brittle, but there were newer sheafs on the top.
"Anything?" he mouthed as he glanced back at her.
In the stack:
On top, a bunch of documents about the state of Vannier finances. A quick glance revealed nothing damning or even interesting.
Correspondence with a Father Nazan about werewolves, of all things. And a lot of fearmongering about magic that even Augustin probably didn't believe.
At the very bottom was a contract—not for a deal with the pirates that killed Grav's birth parents, but for something much more recent. Mercenaries had been hired—an unscrupulous band of cutthroats even Grav had heard of... The Black Talon. It wasn't evidence of anything specific, but it was alarming.
"Maybe," Kiara whispered back. They didn't have time for her to memorize the information--she'd have to take it with them. Hopefully, Vannier didn't check this drawer with any real frequency, or at least not the bottom of the stack.
She quickly folded up and pocketed one sheet of correspondence with this "Nazan"--the one that mentioned "actions taken outside the general purview of the Church"--and then the contract with the Black Talon. Maybe it didn't prove anything, but it was suspicious as all hells.
Hopefully the necromancer--medium in the dungeon might be able to get more specifics from her...contacts.
She nodded at Grav as she replaced the other papers as exactly as she could and slid the drawer shut. Now she just had to lock it again...
Turning his attention back to the hallway, he started. Someone was coming. "Shit! Forget locking it! We need to hide!" he whispered urgently as he hurried over to her. He didn't know if there was time to slip back into the secret passage, but hiding behind the curtains was risky as well.
He hated this cloak-and-dagger nonsense. Give him a straightforward fight any day.
"With me," Kiara hissed, unconsciously reaching for their mental connection even as she spoke the words aloud. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him down under the desk with her.
It was an ornate thing, so the space beneath it was deep--deep enough for two people if they squeezed.
It was far from perfect, but it was better than the curtains. Barely. They just had to hope Augustin wouldn't need to actually sit at the desk.
The closeness would almost be romantic if it wasn't such an uncomfortably tight fit. As it was, all of his focus was on hearing and not being heard.
"Close the door behind you, Mister Ballentyne," an arrogant voice said from near the desk.
The door clicked shut. A second, rough voice replied, "Alright. We're in your sanctum now. Do you want my report or not?"
"I suggest you keep in mind what I'm paying you people and mind your tongue," Augustin warned. "But, yes, do go on."
"Everything is ready. No one will believe they didn't start the fire themselves. No one who matters, anyway. Even if one somehow gets past us."
"See that none do. That many mages in one place can't possibly be up to anything innocent. It's better to burn out the rot entirely."
Grav almost cursed. What diabolical plot had they walked in on?
Kiara pressed back against the very back of the desk, pulling Grav in with her as tight as they could feasibly manage.
Burn out the rot? What was he talking about?
She wracked her brain, trying to remember any rumors she'd heard of a mage group in the area, even a non-practicing one. A left-over refugee camp, maybe?
There had been a lot of paranoid rumors around town about a small gathering of mage refugees that had settled nearby during the war. They hadn't broken the law as far as anyone knew, but most in town believed they were dangerous and up to something. Vannier would be within his rights to force them off of his family's land, but then he might make them look like victims. The Augustin Dan described couldn't stand for that.
"With all due respect, we don't care why you're doing this. As long as we get paid, we're happy to do your dirty work," Ballentyne said curtly.
Augustin chuckled. "And that is why you people are worth the price. You have no pesky moral code gumming up the works."
If Grav hadn't been smooshed under the desk in front of her—and if her self-preservation instincts had been slightly less—she might have lunged for the lord of the manner.
Trembling with the effort it took to stay still, she grabbed for Grav's hand and held tight to help anchor herself.
Don't look under the desk, don't look under the desk...
Grav was even closer to blowing their cover, but her hand in his managed to keep him grounded. He wasn't going to throw both their lives away on a whim.
The nobleman and the mercenary spent the next few minutes going over the final details of their insidious plan to set strategic fires in and around the mage refugee camp. Anyone who managed to escape the flames would be cut down by Ballentyne's men and thrown back in to burn. Afterwards, the story would be that the mages underestimated the volatility of a spell, with disastrous consequences. The mercenaries were never there.
And it was happening the following night.
Alright, well. That might throw something of a wrench into their plans.
Even before she'd met Grav and had that unfortunate bleed from his nobler intentions, after hearing something like that Kiara never would have been able to just sit by and let it happen.
So they needed to stop this. Probably faster than taking Augustin down with evidence would permit.
Grav was a hundred percent on the same page; they couldn't sit by and let this atrocity happen. Being on a dangerous mercenary band's shit list would have to be problem for another day, assuming they lived that long. Still, they couldn't take both men on without bringing the whole household down guard down on them. They needed to choose their moment.
"Now... If that's all, I need to get some sleep. I suggest you do the same," Augustin said, still irritated.
Ballentyne grumbled. "Until tomorrow, then, my lord."
The larger pair of legs exited the room, leaving Augustin unprotected. Would our heroes seize the opportunity or bide their time for a more strategic opportunity?
Kiara tightened her grip on Grav's hand when they were left alone with Augustin, meeting his eyes and shaking her head fractionally.
She told herself it was because it was too risky, but...if she was honest, she didn't think Grav should have to kill his own brother. Even one that had tried to kill him.
Grav looked at her like she was crazy. The mastermind of this madness was right there. They could stop it here and now by... well, he didn't know what, but they had to do something.
Augustin started to walk for the door when he abruptly stopped. "Perhaps a nightcap first."
Grav's eyes went wide as his brother walked towards the desk. The lord stepped around to access the drawers and suddenly froze. The dust on the desk had been disturbed. Immediately, he went for the formerly locked drawer... and noticed the peculiar shadow that disappeared as Grav pulled Kiara out the front to huddle against the far side.
"Who's there?" Augustin demanded.
Shit!
Shit shit shit.
Kiara scrambled around after Grav, forcing her breathing to remain even in an effort to keep them hidden.
She flicked her eyes toward the door, trying to judge the distance. If they could make a run for it—the path back to the sitting room was a straight shot.
The door was a little more than a dozen feet away. They might make it, but it would be a very close thing. Whatever they did, they had to decide now.
Augustin was paranoid enough to keep a sword handy, even in his own home. He drew it now, steel gleaming in the moonlight coming through the windows. "Show yourself! I don't know how you made it this far, but you cannot possibly escape," he demanded.
Says you.
Kiara caught Grav's eye and jerked her head toward the door, mouthing, Now!
She was faster, but she wasn't willing to go first. She knew Grav too well--he would have given himself up to make sure she got out safe.
Grav bolted for the door, closing the distance quickly.
"Not to fast, thief!" Augustin actually vaulted over the corner of the desk, showing that pointless acrobatics were apparently a family trait. Unfortunately for him, this left him wide open for a sneak attack from Kiara.
Kiara didn't even wait for both his feet to touch the ground after that stunt before she was up and jabbing her shadow-touched dagger toward his ribs.
She felt blade meet flesh, but was moving so quickly she didn't have time to sink it in too deep before she was tearing after Grav. "Move, I'm right behind you!"
Augustin hissed in pain, but he swiftly swung his blade after her without delay. He was fast—too fast to entirely avoid without stopping to block.
Grav yanked open the door and glanced back to see if Kiara was safe.
The lord's strike veered away from his target as he saw Grav's face. "Who...?"
Kiara was forced to bring her blade up to block the strike; Augustin's blade was heavier, and he had a height advantage on her, which meant she was stuck essentially just holding him at bay.
She twisted her head to shout to Grav, "Go!" before shoving forward with all her strength in an effort just to get the sword away from her body long enough to make a break for it.
Augustin's sudden hesitation upon seeing Grav's hauntingly familiar face gave them the advantage they needed to reach the hallway before he called for the guards.
They even made it halfway down the stairs to the first floor before armed men in Vannier colors blocked their intended path to the basement. "This way!" Grav shouted, guiding her with him as he vaulted over the rails on the side opposite the guards.
Trusting him, Kiara went vaulting after Grav without a moment's hesitation.
Unfortunately, she hadn't calculated the distance quite right. She hit the ground hard—too hard, one ankle twisting painfully beneath her body. She cried out, going down on one knee.
Grav cursed, stopping to quickly help her back to her feet. Leaving her behind was never going to be something he'd do. It didn't take long, but it was enough time for them to find themselves surrounded.
"I guess our luck just ran out," he sighed.
"No, just go--!"
Too late.
Kiara leaned into Grav's shoulder as she looked at the guards surrounding them. Yeah, definitely too many for them to take out.
She could feel Kit's worry tugging at the back of her mind, and quickly threw out a warning: Stay back, stay hidden.
One lone dragon probably could take on the estate, but not without serious injury. Or getting himself killed.
The guards closed in, quickly disarming them with a punch to Grav's gut for good measure. They roughly wrenched the intruders' arms behind their backs and forced them to the foot of the stairs.
Augustin made a 'tsk' sound as he descended the stairs. "I don't know what this sorcery was meant to accomplish. Did you truly believe that face would help you?"
Now that they had gotten a better look at the lord of the manor, the familial resemblance was strong. While less attractive than his brother, he had the same handsome bone structure and bright blue eyes, but those eyes had none of the kindness that dwelled within Grav's. This man was a creature of schemes and grudges, who would do nearly anything to get what he wanted.
"Aw, what's the matter, Auggie?" Kiara asked, apparently genuinely unable to stop her own snark. "You look like you've seen a ghost."
One of the guards holding her arms glanced at the lord of the estate, looking both a little confused and also like he was ready to gag her at a moment's notice.
Grav wasn't exactly any better at keeping his mouth shut. Staring Augustin in the eyes, he smirked defiantly. "No magic disguise here, brother. Your cut-rate pirates missed one."
Augustin paled a little. How much did they know about the assassination of his useless parents? Was this truly his brother, Gravaudan? Why come back now? Regardless, they knew about the plot to put the refugees to the torch. Brother or not, he couldn't let them leave alive.
"Take them to the cells," he commanded, "I'll question them myself in the morning."
Kiara spat an insult in Sulvan as the guards started to haul them off. It apparently sounded just enough like a spell that a few of them exchanged nervous glances—and then one of them did try to gag her.
She caught his hand between her teeth and bit down until she tasted blood, ignoring his shouting until his other hand cracked across her face and she saw stars.
"Some forgiving Ansgarian you are, beating up defenseless prisoners," Grav commented sarcastically. This earned him his own crack to the jaw.
"Shut it, criminal. Lord Vannier didn't say anything about leaving you in one piece," the guard sneered.
The pair were unceremoniously tossed into the two empty cells. "Enjoy your family reunion," one guard laughed cruelly as he locked Grav in.
Once alone with the medium, Grav sighed. "Well, that didn't go as planned."
Kiara sighed and leaned back against the wall of her own cell, tenderly poking at the beginnings of a welt on her cheek.
"Does it ever?" she pointed out wryly.
The medium seemed to be taking the rather bleak odds of her actually escaping now rather well, as she snorted quietly.
Grav chuckled ruefully. "No, I guess it doesn't. But, hey, nobody's turning me into a lizard monster this time. I think that counts as an improvement."
He looked over at the doubtlessly perplexed medium. "Long story. The important part is, we have a secret weapon for just such an occasion."
"I hope you're not referring to our other lizard monster," Kiara told the wall between their cells wryly. "Kit may be impressive, but he's still just one dragon."
The medium blinked. "A dragon," she repeated flatly. "Sure. A dragon."
"I would never refer to Kit as a monster," he answered, slightly offended that she thought he would.
"I meant, our other you, love." He smirked. She couldn't see it, but she knew.
"I refer to him as a monster all the time," Kiara chuckled--it was always in jest, of course, and usually in the fond tone with which one might call a younger sibling an urchin.
She sighed. "Right. Other me."
Their fellow prisoner looked back and forth between their cells. "...Alright, I'm lost."
Grav smirked. "Oh, you know, just your typical dream-linked Fae double from an alternate timeline where we're also going after my asshole brother. Nothing special."
"Better sooner than later, Kiara. We only have a day to stop a massacre," he said to the wall between them.
"...You two are bonkers, aren't ya?"
Kiara exhaled heavily. "Yeah," she agreed, then added to Grav, "It's almost midnight, which means it's probably near noon for them—what if they're in the middle of their plan?"
Grav frowned. "I didn't think of that. So, what, we spend the night in a dungeon? We don't want to be here when Augustin comes to 'question' us. Not with all that torture equipment handy. He'll probably have his crooked Mordecai friend with him, assuming they know each other here too. He might not be able to block her magic, but I doubt we could get the best of both of them."
"...Go to sleep."
Kiara suddenly sat up straighter. "Grav, go to sleep. You can see what's happening with them, we can make sure this works!"
The imprisoned medium blinked at them. "...Do I even want to know?"
"You wouldn't believe us anyway," Grav answered with a chuckle.
"Okay, going to sleep." He laid down on the stone floor and made himself as comfortable as possible.
"Do you really have to tie my hands so tight?" Dan complained. "I thought the point was for me to be able to slip free after we got inside."
They were preparing to infiltrate the Vannier manor in the safety of a copse down the road from the gates.
"You big baby." Kiara rolled her eyes, but loosened the knots just a bit. "They have to be tight enough that your brother actually buys the whole charade," she pointed out. "And here, see this loop? This is your escape loop--just tug it, and the whole thing will come undone."
Kit rumbled worriedly, cycling between eyeing the tree line and looking them over worriedly. "What do we do if he doesn't buy it?"
"He will," Kiara replied firmly.
"He has a blind spot for anything that affirms his worldview, where everyone is in it for themselves and anyone who says different is either fooling themselves or running a con," Dan explained. "He will, as they say, eat it up."
"The moment he thinks he has won is when he is at his most vulnerable."
"Which is exactly what we need," Kiara said with a firm nod. She finished fiddling with his bonds, then stepped back. "Right. Well, if you're my prisoner, you'll be riding ahead of me on Kit."
She glanced at the length of the dragon's side and frowned. "Maybe I should've waited to tie your hands until you were already up there..."
Dan groaned at the oversight. "Perhaps we simply walk, then? That way, Ser Kit can keep an eye on me in case I try to escape."
"Maybe--"
"You're both idiots," Ser Kit huffed, and craned his neck down to clamp his teeth on the back of Dan's jacket, like a mother cat grabbing her kitten by the scruff, then lifted him up and deposited him on his back.
Kiara stared at them for a moment, then snorted. "Well. Yeah, I guess that works." She vaulted up onto Kit's back behind their "prisoner"--a movement made with more ease and grace than any human could have managed. "Right. Let's be off, shall we?"
Dan barked a laugh as he was unceremoniously lifted onto the dragon. "A warning next time, Ser Kit!"
"Yes. Let us get this performance started."
"Halt! Wh--who g-goes there?!" one of the guards flanking the gate to the manor grounds nervously demanded as the dragon approached.
"Who do you think?" Kiara demanded, swinging down from off Kit's back and dragging Dan with her. She managed to keep them both steady easier than she would have thought--seemed that the enhanced physical abilities being fully fae gave her could be practical.
"Heard there was a bounty on the toff," she said with a shrug. "Not worth taking the heat that keeping him around brings. May as well collect the coin myself."
"Unhand me, you duplicitous woman!" Dan protested, playing the part a bit too well.
The guards exchanged perplexed glances. Didn't she have a bounty too? The looks grew ambitious as they wondered if they would get a reward for turning them both over.
"Stay right there. We'll fetch the captain," one said. The other hurried off.
The pair was led across the estate by an armed escort of half a dozen men. The dragon, of course, had to stay behind. As they neared the manor, Augustin stepped out with a self-satisfied smirk.
"Poor little brother, betrayed by his own savior. Now do you see how the world works?" the older Vannier chided, relishing the moment.
Dan believably pretended to look downcast, as if ashamed of his naiveté.
Duplicitous woman?
Dear gods. If he didn't get them killed, she was going to finish the job herself.
Kiara was less than thrilled to leave Kit behind, but she knew she had to appear unbothered by it to help sell the farce. So she waited for the elder Vannier with her "prisoner"--and just hoped that the hasty glamour she'd thrown over her now distinctly Fae appearance would hold long enough to get them through this. She'd never had the ability to glamour before, much less the need.
Thankfully--sort of--Dan's brother made a rather quick appearance.
She tried to seem bored but unbothered by the posturing, rolling her eyes and cutting in sharply, "Yeah, yeah, you were right, he's an idiot, blah blah. Can I have that coin now?"
"While you should consider it reward enough that I don't call the Mordecai down on you, I would rather not deal with an angry dragon today," Augustin responded dryly. "You'll have your reward in full."
Dan tensed ever so slightly. It wasn't like his brother to set aside his prejudices so easily. Something else was going on here. He didn't like it.
Kiara felt her own hackles starting to rise. From what Dan had said, she hadn't expected his brother to fork over coin to a proven mage so easily.
Still...an angry dragon was a rather universal deterrent.
"Good." She nodded briskly, then gave Dan's shoulder a slight shove to move him forward. "Take him then. Sooner he's in your custody, sooner I can get out of this backward-ass country."
The guards took custody of Dan, who made himself just the right amount of uncooperative to get a blow to the gut. As he was taken inside, Augustin nodded to his valet. The servant produced a bag, which he tossed to Kiara's feet with the sound of loose coins.
"Your payment. Count it and be out of my hair," the nobleman said impatiently.
"Yeah, yeah." Kiara waved him off as she set about making a show of counting out the coins. "Why's he worth so much, anyhow?" she asked abruptly. "I mean, I get he's your brother and all, but it's not like you were overly fussed about him being turned in safe and whatnot."
"I need to know why he decided to betray his duty to family and faith by running off with you," he lied. He knew that she knew the truth of the events at the tomb, but one had to maintain appearances.
"I don't suppose you brought back the saint's hand. I'll even deign to pay you for its return." Again, appearances. They both knew that he didn't care about some dead man's hand.
"Sorry, gov." She shrugged. "Lost it in the tussle of getting him bound up. Those are the risks you take when your primary form of transportation is a flying lizard."
Sorry, Kitten. Better they think he was no more intelligent than a beast of burden, for now.
"So why do you really want Danny Boy back so bad?" she pushed, unthinkingly using the nickname that she and Kit had taken to calling Gravaudan.
Augustin raised a brow but if he was suspicious, it didn't show on his face. "I do not believe that is any business of yours. But if you must know, his death no longer benefits me. He is more useful as a scapegoat."
That... couldn't be a good thing. Just what did he want Dan blamed for?
"How practical," Kiara noted dryly, not bothering to hide the disgust in her tone. For all he knew, she was out of here the second her coin was counted.
She allowed the pieces to drop back into the purse one by one. Would Dan be in the dungeons by now? She didn't know how much longer she could stall.
Meanwhile...
The guards led Dan into the dungeon, where he froze. No.. that wasn't possible. Why were they locked up? Was his brother insane?
"Move!" One of the guards prodded him forward.
He stumbled against the house guard in front of him, freeing himself and grabbing the man's sword in one smooth motion. He spun on the other, surprised guard, and cut him down. Pointing the sword at the unarmed guard, he demanded, "Open the cells. Now."
The guard, taken by surprise, had his hand halfway to the empty hilt at his hip before he seemed to realize what was happening.
His eyes flickered from Dan to the cell door and back. "I—" He swallowed nervously. "I can't do that. Your brother would have my head..."
It seemed that August had manipulated the estate's guard with a combination of coin and fear; perhaps not all them were exactly happy with the recent turn of events.
"Not if I have his first," he answered coldly, nearly enraged by the discovery of his parents in the dungeon.
Looking at the guard's face, he asked, "Bayard, correct? Do you really want a man like him in charge of this House? I guarantee you that he doesn't care about any of you, certainly not enough to bother learning any of your names."
Bayard swallowed again, and once more his eyes flicked to the lord and lady of the estate in their cell. They appeared to be unconscious, though they hadn't been stripped of their typical finery, despite the dismal surroundings.
"...He—he said he'd put my boy in the fire with them," the guard whispered, looking at Dan desperately. "He said if I didn't do as I was told he'd...he's only seven, m'lord, please."
Dan swore; Augustin had truly gone mad. He didn't want it to come down to slaying his brother, but he wasn't being given much choice. No one else should be burdened with the task.
"I understand. I will make it look like you resisted," he said before knocking the man out with the pommel of his purloined sword.
Taking the keys, he rushed to the cell holding his parents and slipped inside. He shook his parents in an attempt to wake them. "Mother, Father, wake up, please."
The lady of the house began to stir first, groaning quietly and one hand fluttering toward her head. "Mmm...Jean?" She blinked. "Jean-luc, what—Gravaudan?"
She seemed to be struggling to focus. "How are...your brother said..."
"I know not what he told you, but it was most certainly a lie," Dan answered. "More urgently, what vile treachery transpired to leave you in this state? What fire was poor Bayard in fear of?"
"Fire..." his mother repeated fuzzily, clearly still coming back to herself. "There was...a contract. It mentioned a fire. Your father found it in..."
She blinked, then looked to her husband. "Jean? Jean, wake up." She shook his shoulder lightly, but the more of the manor just groaned and stirred only a little.
"The...the brandy," Isobel whispered. "Your father wanted to confront Augustin, and he...there was brandy, and..."
She squeezed her eyes shut, pressing fingertips to temples.
Dan clenched his fist until his knuckles turned white. "It seems he has been plotting against all of us. I will not let him get away with this outrage; I swear it."
He shook his father more roughly than his mother had. When the man still did not wake, he told his mother he would be right back and that he wouldn't be far. He searched through the drawers of ghastly torture implements until he found what he was looking for. Returning, he passed the smelling salts under his father's nose.
Jean-luc Vannier came awake with a quiet snort when his youngest waved the smelling salts beneath his nose; like his wife, his eyes remained bleary and unfocused even as he struggled to sit up.
"Gravaudan? What...?"
"Jean, we have to get out of here." Isobel seemed to be recovering her faculties, taking her husband's arm and looking to her son pleadingly. "How--how did you get in here? You're not chained..."
"Trick knot. They only thought they had me," Dan answered. "The person who 'turned me in' is a friend. But I do not know for how long she can stall Augustin. You should use the escape tunnel and find someplace to hide. If you make yourself visible to the sky, I can find you."
"Visible...to the sky?" his father repeated, clearly confused.
Isobel was shaking her head, though all the color had gone from her cheeks and she was clearly terrified. "No—no, we will not leave you here. Come with us."
Dan shook his head with a look of determination they had never seen from him. He had grown much since they last saw each other. "I cannot; not until Augustin is prevented from achieving whatever dark deed he is planning."
He looked his father in the eyes. "I need to know what secret he imprisoned you to keep. What contract did mother speak of?"
"A...bargain," his father replied foggily, even as Isobel helped him to his feet. "With some—some mercenary outfit. They're planning to...set the camps afire. The refugee camp at the edge of the estate..."
"Ansgar's mercy... he has truly gone mad," Dan responded, horrified.
"The refugees don't deserve such a fate. I have no choice but to stop him by any means necessary. For far too long, I thought simply not participating in injustice was enough to keep my conscience clear. But it is not; not when I have the power to fight against it."
"But what can you do from the dungeons?" Isobel demanded. She reached for his shoulder, gripping it with a surprising amount of strength. "I thought I lost you already," she whispered fiercely. "I will not do it again."
Dan put a hand gently on his mother's arm. "And you will not. I have the keys, I know the secrets of this manor better than he does, and I have a pair of strong allies. I am going to be fine."
"I cannot leave them in the wind to save myself. A true noble would not abandon his friends."
Isobel seemed ready to argue further, but her husband took her arm gently--his eyes starting to clear--and nodded once at Dan.
"God be with you, my son," he said softly. Looking back to his wife, he urged, "We can try to reach the camp before his men. Give them some warning."
Isobel hesitated, then relented with a nod and a sigh.
Dan wanted to argue against that plan, but he couldn't ask them not to do exactly what he would do in their situation. "Stay safe," he said, handing his father the sword. "Take it. I can easily find another. Though, I hope you will not have need of it."
Jean-luc nodded as he accepted the blade, but reached out with his other hand to clasp Dan's shoulder. "Move swift, and be careful, son."
Isabel nodded, drawing him into a brief, tight embrace before she parted with a kiss on his cheek and followed her husband out of the cell.
"Do not fear for me, I will not die today," he answered as he grabbed the sword of the other, fallen guard. With a newfound sense of determination, he opened up the secret passage to the armory and vanished inside.
Augustin was clearly losing his patience with the slowest coin counter he had ever seen. With a huff, he asked, "Are you just about finished? I do not have all day."
"Oh, don't you?" Kiara smiled at him sweetly as she flicked one of the last three coins into the bag. "Don't tell me the lord of the estate can't take his time if he wants to."
C'mon, Dan, hurry up...
"God, do you ever stop talking?" he groused. "You are as bad as my fool brother."
A fully equipped guardsman stepped out of the house, his face hidden by the faceplate of his helmet.
Augustin didn't even turn to look. Frowning, he asked, "Yes, what is it?"
A gruff voice answered, "The prisoner has been secured. The coward didn't even put up a fight." The guardsman nodded to Kiara, signaling his identity.
Kiara nodded back as subtly as she could, flicking the last coin into the bag. "Right!" She clapped her hands together before dipping into a bow toward Augustin that was so theatrical it couldn't be anything but sarcastic. "Been a pleasure, your lordship, but I'll be taking my leave now."
As she straightened up, she glanced at the "guard" and flicked her eyes toward the door, silently indicating that he should block Augustin's escape route.
Dan the guard positioned himself in front of the door. He placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to draw the second she made a move. They only had one shot at this before Augustin's men came down on them.
Sensing something amiss that he couldn't identity, Augustin started to turn.
Kiara moved quickly—so quickly that she lost her focus in her glamour, revealing her fully fae form as Augustine started to turn, only to find her dagger pressed to the small of his back.
"Now, I'd be very careful, your lordship," she murmured in a sugar-sweet voice. "We wouldn't my hand to slip here, would we?"
Augustin stiffened, glaring at the guard in irritation. "Don't just stand there, you fool! Do something!"
"I believe I finally am..." Dan said, gradually dropping the fake voice, "... brother."
Augustin clearly couldn't quite believe this turn of events. "You mad little..."
Dan glared and stepped closer. "Plotting to murder an entire refugee camp and locking up our parents when they found out, with every intention of adding them to the pyre to cover your tracks? No, brother, it is you who have lost his mind."
"And what will you do to stop me? Will you kill me?" Augustin scoffed. "Neither you nor our parents have the spine to kill for your beliefs."
Dan stared him down and drew his sword. "Paying others to do your dirty work doesn't make you brave or bold. It merely reveals your own cowardice. That said, of course I don't want to kill you. Unlike you, I find family worth fighting for. But you've gone too far this time. And I don't trust the law to find justice for all the people you have hurt and would hurt if given the chance."
Kiara kept quiet, but she also kept her blade pressed firmly to the small of Augustin's back. She looked at Dan over his brother's shoulder, taking her cue from him.
To be perfectly honest, she would have been happy enough to end the odious lord right there. But...that seemed like it should be Dan's decision, ultimately. If he died--and how he died--should be up to the brother he betrayed.
Augustin's haughty expression became one of fear as he saw the intent in his brother's eyes. "You wouldn't... Surely there's something you want?" he pleaded. "I can let you have the inheritance! I can just leave and never come back."
Dan shook his head. "No, brother, you've never kept your word once in your life. This ends today."
Kiara's sensitive Fae ears picked up the tightening of a bowstring just before the projectile flew at her.
"Down!" She ducked instinctively as she cried out--she didn't even really know how she knew, she just knew the arrow was coming. What she didn't know was if there was another archer possibly aiming at Dan. "Down, now!"
A lot happened very quickly. The arrow flew over her, Dan moved for cover, and Augustin lunged for him. The treacherous noble drew a hidden dagger and thrust it towards Dan. The two collided, there was a grunt of pain, and blood dripped onto the front stairs. For a moment, it was unclear who was hurt, but then...
Augustin fell back, clutching the blade piercing upward through his ribs in wide-eyed disbelief. He tripped on the bottom stair and collapsed, falling still after one final, bloody cough.
The archer, a mercenary by the look of him, cursed and dropped his bow in surrender. He wasn't going to fight for a dead employer.
Kiara sprang back up quickly once the arrow had flown, moving inhumanly fast toward the archer with her blade drawn.
She had her dagger to his throat when Augustin fell back, and risked looking over to Dan. There was concern in her eyes, though she quickly tried to hide it as she looked back to the mercenary.
"Any other weapons, drop 'em," she commanded harshly, pressing her blade a little more firmly to his throat.
The mercenary undid his sword belt with one steady hand and let it fall to the ground. "We have no further quarrel with you, not with our client dead on the ground. But you need me alive if you want the job called off before people start dying."
Dan barely heard the man. He was reeling over having killed his brother. Through one final act of treachery, Augustin had left him with no choice but to defend himself. Perhaps it was a blessing to not have done the deed in cold blood, but he was in no emotional position to yet see that.
Kiara glared, but she knew the man was probably right. "Move one muscle, and we'll just have to find another way to stop the fire," she warned as she drew her dagger back slowly, then inhumanly quick snatched a length of rope from out of the pouch constantly at her hip.
"Hands," she demanded, and began binding the mercenary's wrist.
She glanced at Dan as she worked; she didn't know what to say to him, and she did wish she could give him time to process what had just happened—but unfortunately time was in short supply for them.
"Hey, Puppy. Think you can keep your sword on this guy?"
"Yes," Dan answered distractedly. Shaking himself, he straightened up and focused on the task. "Yes. I can do that."
Rather than extract the sword from Augustin, he appropriated the mercenary's dropped blade. Aiming it at the man, he glanced at Kiara. "What now? Do we get this man to lead us to his boss?"
Kiara scowled at the mercenary, considering. "Unfortunately, I don't have any better ideas--but we should get back to Kit to do it."
In her experience, even the most uncooperative individuals found themselves feeling suddenly helpful when faced with a dragon's teeth.
Dan nodded and prodded the mercenary forward.
Grav woke up. "Yeah, I think they're good now," he said, distracted and a little sad. "Dan killed him. Self-defense, ultimately, but he's dead all the same."
Kiara had taken to chucking small pebbles through the bars of her cell toward Grav, trying to wake him, when he came awake himself quite abruptly.
She blinked as he relayed the situation, her stomach twisting a bit. "That...shit, Puppy, I'm sorry..."
The medium in the cell over quirked an eyebrow, seeming vaguely incredulous, but said nothing.
Kiara huffed and scooted to put her back to the wall. "Well. If we're doing this, guess I should do it now. Wish I could give them some better warning, but oh well."
"See you on the other side," Grav said, wishing he could kiss her for luck first. He would just have to have faith that they would see each other again.
"Just come back to me, okay?"
She smiled faintly, even though she knew he couldn't see it. "Love you, Puppy."
The imprisoned medium nodded to herself. Yeah, that makes sense.
Kiara closed her eyes and reached for her magic. The moment she did, she pitched sideways--before before she hit the stone floor, her hand shot out to stop the fall, reflexes too fast to be fully human.
Kiara groaned quietly and shook her head. "What in--oh, great." She scowled at her cell bars.
"So. I take it you two got yourselves in a jam?"
"Yeeaah..." the adventurer answered sheepishly. "Our Augustin caught us snooping and we were surrounded before we knew it."
"So, if you could break us out before he tortures us, that'd be great."
Kiara sighed and shook her head, but she was already moving toward the cell bars.
"I can't believe how useless I am without magic," she muttered.
The medium cleared her throat lightly. "Hi, quick question--what the fuck just happened?"
Grav smirked. "I told you, she swapped places with a different version of herself."
"Long story short, a magic crystal granted Kiara's wish to save my life and ever since we've been linked to ourselves from a different timeline."
"And this Kiara is Fae." He grinned.
"...Sure. Of course she is. Why not."
"And who's she?" the Kiara in question asked as she wrapped her fingers around the bars of her cell and closed her eyes, drawing up magic from in her core.
The bars began to glow, first red and then almost white hot. Once she felt them start to give, she yanked them apart and slipped through the gap to stride over to Grav's cell and repeat the procedure.
"A mage he locked up because she can hear the literal skeletons in his closet," Grav answered as he carefully slipped between the hot bars. "We promised her we'd free her on our way out. Which, I suppose, is now. He's on alert, so we're not getting to him right now."
"But we know what he's planning—the same thing he was in your world. I don't know how, but we're going to stop him here, too."
Kiara, who had started moving toward the last occupied cell when he indicated they were saving its occupant, glanced up from where she was heating the bars.
"What about her Kit?" she asked, biting down in the lurch in her stomach that still came with reaching for a link that didn't connect to anything. "Mine is still at the estate—is this one?"
"He's waiting outside the escape tunnel," the young man answered as he moved to search the dungeon's chest for their things.
"Shit. Of course it's locked." He looked back at Kiara with a silent request, not unlike a dog.
Kiara rolled her eyes—evoking much of the early half-far adventurer he'd first met—and moved to kneel beside him.
"Move your hand," she recommended. "It'll be faster for me to melt it off than to pick it, and you don't want your skin near that kind of heat."
She placed her palm over the locked and concentrated, channeling heat into the metal until it began to glow white-hot and...drippy.
Grav needed no encouragement to move his hand the hells away. He opened the lid of the chest, carefully avoiding the heated lock. He breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the contents.
"Good, our weapons are here," he said, fishing out his sword. Sure, he lost the original scabbard, but the sword was the priceless part.
"The daggers are yours," he told Kiara. "Well, hers. She'd be cross if we left them behind."
"I gathered." Kiara fetched out the weapons--then paused. "I know this one," she said with a small frown, carefully lifting the sylverite blade. "But...where did she get this?"
She drew the shadow-magic dagger, and her eyes widened a bit as its magic surged against hers. "Whoa."
Grav blinked, not recalling his Kiara knowing the weapon. "You... do? A Serenian noble gifted them to us, along with this sword, after we rescued him from a crooked alchemist."
"If you ever run into an Anton Volke, don't trust him. Better yet, kick his ass."
"A noble?" She frowned. "Wait—not the guy with the manticore problem, right?"
Damn. Seemed like she should have just taken the job.
"That'd be the one. Volke had set the whole manticore problem in motion for reasons that were never clear. Kiara hired me on as an extra sword and we killed them, but I got stung. The employer called the nearest healer... Volke. He cured me, but something was off with him, so we grabbed the lordling and ran. After we cleared up that we hadn't just kidnapped him and got him to his family, they gave them to us."
"What are you noticing about it that my Kiara didn't? Or, at least, she didn't share. We hadn't gotten close yet," he added.
"I don't think she could have," Kiara murmured slowly, turning the blade over in her hand carefully. "It...I don't think I would have noticed before I was...y'know. But it's..."
She frowned and lifted it up slightly. "This magic feels...Fae."
"As interesting as that is, I suppose we should continue this after we escape the creepy torture dungeon," Grav quipped before the medium could say it.
"Anything in here yours?" he asked the elven woman.
The medium shrugged. Now that she was out of her cell, it was more clear what several days with no food and minimal water had done to her--her skin was sallow, face going gaunt, but she managed to half-smile at them.
"I don't carry weapons."
Kiara blinked at her. That was either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid.
Or...she didn't need to carry weapons. Which was a mildly terrifying possibility. She looked at this world's Dan--Grav--and muttered, "How well do you know this lady again?"
"Not remotely, but no one deserves a torture chamber, let alone an unofficial one," Grav whispered.
He closed the chest with a quiet thunk and said to the medium, "Then stick close. I don't expect any trouble on the way out but you can never be sure."
Kiara shrugged—she didn't disagree—then rose to her feet.
"Alright. Do they know how you two got in here?" she asked Grav with a slightly tilt of her head. "If they do, the tunnel's probably got a guard at the end. But if they don't, we can probably still make it out that way."
"I can't discount the possibility he'll just cover every exit out of paranoia but, no, there's no way they could know," Grav answered as he led the way to the secret passage.
Pausing at an unremarkable section of wall, he took a moment to recall what Dan had said about the mechanism. "Hrm... how did I open this ag-" He snapped his fingers. "Right."
He counted as he moved his hand along the wall and pressed a brick. The section of wall sank back and slid open. "Ladies first."
Kiara rolled her eyes at him, then looked to the medium and noted, "You should keep to the middle."
The elven woman nodded, clearly not much inclined to argue in her current state. Both Kiara and Grav were in a much better place to defend themselves than she was. With a last glance over the two of them, Kiara headed into the dim tunnel--moving with much more confidence than her human counterpart had.
Grav! Kit's voice seemed to echo with the force of it. I've been calling you! Why isn't Kia answering? Are you two okay?
Grav visibly started at the sudden, loud voice in his head. Not so loud! You startled me.
We're both fine. She had to switch to get us out of... well, the cells. We got caught. But we're fine! he answered. In fact, we're coming out now. Stay back a little, though; we rescued someone and I don't know how they'll react to a dragon.
Grav said, "Fair warning, our friend outside is a dragon. But don't worry, he won't hurt you."
The medium sighed heavily and shook her head. "Y'know what? At this point I'm not even surprised."
Kit's voice was accompanied by a small snort, but it was softer this time when he replied, Must be why I couldn't reach you easily--her being over there seems to mess with our connection. There was a pause as presumably the young dragon shifted to give them room at the mouth of the tunnel. And who the hells did you rescue now?
Remember when we considered the idea of hunting down a spirit medium? Well, we sort of found one in my brother's dungeon. Grav's tone grew serious. And, thanks to her tip, we found out that he... he had my parents killed, Kit.
He stepped out, looking as grim as his revelation suggested. There wasn't any other way to look unless you were a sociopath. And the young man was far from that.
Waiting some few paces back from the entrance to the tunnel, Kit crooned in quiet sympathy and lowered his head slightly toward Grav.
...I'm sorry.
Kiara helped the medium climb out of the tunnel behind him--the older woman was clearly starting to flag, her days of imprisonment taking their toll.
Thanks, big guy. Unfortunately, we have bigger things to worry about at this moment, Grav said, filling the dragon in on the crisis at hand.
He looked at the medium. "We need to get you somewhere safe before we can do anything else. Do you know of anywhere you can go?"
The elven woman nodded, clearly somewhat the worse for wear for her whole ordeal but trying to keep her head up. "I'll start making my way back home--we're camped at the fairgrounds outside Uthlyn for the moment. Should only take me a few days, if I'm lucky."
Kiara frowned a bit at that, but wasn't sure she should say anything. Not to mention she was now wondering if there was an equally tormented medium in the dungeon back in her world.
Grav gave the weary elf a skeptical look. "You sure you're okay to travel alone? Though we can't go with you right now, we've got to stop Augustin and his mercenaries from killing a lot of people."
The medium nodded, clearly tired but resolute. "I'll be fine--you lot go take care of what needs doing."
Kiara was still frowning a bit, but she didn't argue with her; they were working with a rather tight timeline, and she had to assume this woman was cognizant enough of her own abilities to know if she really could make it to where she was going on her own.
"Good luck," Grav told the woman as he watched her leave.
"So..." he said, turning to Kiara, "While I believe we can handle our own world's problem, "Having your help would definitely simplify things."
She sighed and ran her fingers back through her hair--a gesture that evidently crossed universes, and made Kit shuffle his front paws and glance away as that strange-familiarity of her swept over him yet again.
"Yeah, well." She shrugged. "I'm stuck until she decides to try using magic again, so... Guess I'm here to help."
"Thanks," he said with a small smile.
"Okay, planning time. Should we try to warn the camp or set up some kind of ambush for the mercenaries? Though... I'm not yet sure how we can fight an entire mercenary squad with just the three of us, not one with their reputation."
Kiara's near-perpetual frown--it seemed to be her default when she was universe-hopping--deepened an inch. She glanced at Kit, then back to Grav.
"We don't have time, but we should at least try to start evacuating them," she muttered. "And I can...I can do things now. Things I couldn't before, with glamours. Maybe I can...hide us. Hide them."
Grav nodded. "Right. We save as many as we can, however we can."
Heading towards the location of the camp, he said, "Let's go. We should go on foot. Flying would be faster but the mercenaries would notice that."
"Ah--" Kiara increased her pace slightly to catch up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. It was what she would have done with Dan, and the motion was almost instinctive at this point.
She glanced between Grav and Kit. "That's...sorta what I meant. About glamours. It'll be difficult, but...I think I can hide us. If we fly."
Grav stopped and turned, momentarily perplexed as he followed her gaze. "Ohhh... You sure? I'd hate to find out mid-air that you can't keep it going."
He was surprised that he missed the implication. He and his Kiara were usually on the same wavelength, though he supposed he was just unused to factoring in Fae magics other than fire.
She shrugged. "I mean, sure? No. Pretty sure? Yeah, I think so. Besides, if it does fail early, hopefully we'll be close enough to the refugees that it won't make much difference."
Kit snorted quietly. "Whatever we're doing, we need to decide fast. We shouldn't linger here."
Grav nodded. "Right. Time is the most important thing here. Let's get flying."
"Besides, rushing headlong into things is exactly my usual move. Why start being cautious now?" he smirked.
"Oh gods. Let's just get moving." Kiara rolled her eyes, turning toward Kit--and then hesitating. The young dragon had already started to crouch down so they could mount, but it seemed to strike him at the same time it did her that...they had never done this. Not really, not the two of them.
Riding her own Kit was second nature to her--to them both. But this wasn't her Kit.
Oblivious to the thoughts running through the minds of his companions, Grav climbed on without a moment's hesitation. Looking down at her, he raised a brow at her delay. "Well? Hurrying was your idea, wasn't it?"
"...Right." Kiara shook her head briefly. "Yeah, right."
She climbed up onto Kit's back--both young woman and dragon pretending it didn't feel familiar-but-alien--and settled herself where she would normally have sat just above the dip of Kit's shoulders.
She took a breath and started to draw on her magic. "This'll take me a minute," she warned in a mumble, her skin already starting to glow with that faint golden glimmer that now seemed to indicate her use of magic.
Meanwhile, in the other world...
Dan and Kiara approached the mercenary encampment, prodding their prisoner ahead of them. As soon as they were noticed, bows were drawn and they were commanded to halt.
"You must have a deathwish coming here with only one hostage," said a tall bearded Connloathian man as he approached. Kiara recognized the voice from Augustin's study; he could only be Ballentyne, leader of the Black Talon.
Well.
Time to bluff.
Kiara shot her strange Grav-but-not companion a look that pleaded,Play along, and just had to hope he understood it.
"I'm afraid the deal's changed, Ser Ballentyne," she said with a shrug—one that casually displayed the sharp glint of her counterpart's dagger. "Augustine's had a change of heart. We're merely returning your man."
Ballentyne frowned suspiciously, filling the air with a sense of danger. "He wouldn't send some rando I've never laid eyes on to tell me that. Besides, Vannier isn't the type to get cold feet. Try again."
Dan managed to keep his mouth shut. Even he knew it would be dangerous to inform the mercenary that he had killed his employer. No doubt their prisoner would tell him once he was released, but hopefully they would be some distance away before that happened.
"Who said anything about cold feet?" She lifted one brow, head cocked to the side. "I said change of plan--which is where I come in. And that's all you need to know, serrah."
She pushed their prisoner forward a step, waving her other hand airily. "Now take him so I can be done with this."
Ballentyne sneered unhappily. With a snap of his fingers, he sent the men flanking him to retrieve the prisoner. Yet he was still suspicious. More so when his eyes fell again on Dan and something seemed to click.
Dan noticed the look of dawning realization and he glanced at Kiara, wondering how she would cover for his familial resemblance. If she couldn't, things were about to get ugly.
Shit.
Shit shit shit.
Thinking fast, Kiara allowed a deliberate air of laziness to saturate her posture and looked from Ballentyne to Dan and back.
"Oh, him? Clever work, isn't it?" She grinned. "Like I said, the plan has changed. Good thing a mordecai's field can't affect faerie glamour, huh?"
She really, really hoped this mercenary had been briefed on her counterpart's run in with Dan's—or rather his brother's—mordecai friend. And that he wouldn't require more "proof" from her.
"So your plan is what—to frame his idiot brother for the slaughter?" Ballentyne asked, still suspicious. "Not much of a change of heart, I have to say. Unless you mean to tell me his lordship is suddenly above using our services."
The powerfully built mercenary was on the edge of anger, but whether this was from having his payday threatened or from being lied to was anyone's guess.
It took pretty much all her willpower to keep any of her panicked thoughts from showing in her expression.
She shrugged in the face of Ballentyne's anger. "Not my plan, I'm just doing what I'm paid for. Vanier said to return your man, and tell you to--what was it? Ah, yeah." She dropped her voice into a bad imitation of Dan's brother's. Though her Connlaothian accent was actually passable. "Wait for further orders, and you can collect your coin when the new plan is done." Another shrug. "Couldn't tell you what it is. Something about meeting at your second rendezvous point?"
Ballentyne didn't appear completely satisfied, but he relaxed a bit. Apparently, there actually was a second rendezvous point. The mercenary would, of course, eventually figure out that he'd been misled, but it would be long enough to allow Dan and his parents to think of a solution that didn't involve paying off the unscrupulous mercenaries.
"You heard the woman!" Ballentyne called out as he turned. "Pack up and move out!"
Kiara nodded briskly. "Pleasure doing business, serrah."
Holy shit holy shit holy shit did that actually work?!
She looked back over her shoulder at Dan and arched one eyebrow before nodding away from the mercenaries' now bustling encampment. "Shall we?"
Please just let us walk away, please please please...
When the pair were some distance away and well out of earshot of even the most sensitive of ears, Dan started laughing hysterically. He couldn't believe that bluff worked. "Ansgar's beard—I thought for sure he would kill us on the spot! You are either incredibly lucky or the gods are looking out for you. Maybe both."
Kiara leaned back against the nearest tree, a vaugely shaky and just slightly too high laugh of her own catching in her throat.
"Fucking hells." She snorted and scrubbed both hands down her face. "Would you believe I'm out of practice at that? And shiiiit you're lucky it was me with you--I'd bet you solid copper the other me has the whole Fae-can't-lie thing going on, doesn't she?"
"She always seemed bluntly honest, at least with me. But, yes, I suppose she's gotten more so since her Fae side took over," he answered after a moment's thought.
"We should... probably rendezvous with Ser Kit before he dies of worry. My parents too, for that matter, as hard as it will be to face them after what I had to do."
"Right. Right, yeah, we should." It felt so strange that she couldn't simply reach out to Kit and assure him of their safety--or that Grav couldn't.
Dan.
Whoever.
The hysterical laughter dried up quickly, and she rolled her shoulders back as she shrugged away from the tree. "C'mon, let's get moving."
After reuniting with the young dragon, the group headed back towards the manor. As they traveled, Dan turned to her with a question likely also on Kit's mind. "So... I suppose it is time for you to return your world and stop your version of my brother."
Li it very clearly tried not to let his wings sag in relief as Kiara nodded. "I just...hope they've had enough time," she murmured with a small frown down at her feet. "We were in a pretty bad spot when I...left."
She shook her head briskly and glanced up at them. "And you? You going to find your parents at the refugee camp, when, ah, she gets back?"
Dan nodded. "Yes. Then discuss how to handle the mercenaries when they realize they have been duped. Paying them off certainly does not sit right, but in the end we may have no better alternative. But that is a matter for us, not you. We will likely not meet again after this."
"I wish you luck and a decisive victory."
Kiara smirked a bit and shrugged at his declaration that this was likely to be their last meeting. "Oh, that's just asking for trouble," she chuckled wryly. "Never say never."
She took a few steps back from him and not-her-Kit, then closed her eyes and started to reach inward, to where her magic should have been.
A slight shimmer rippled over her form from head to toe—the faintest light under her skin, the pointed tips returning to her ears—and her knees buckled.
Dan rushed in to support her as she regained her balance. "Welcome back. You will be pleased to know that immediate danger has passed."
Grav held his Kiara much the same, but with a more loving air. "Easy, I'm here."
They were in an unfamiliar tent, being watched by a pair of human strangers: a resolute older woman and a scholarly young, bespectacled man. "I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't just seen it myself," said the man.
"Ah. Good." She blinked and quickly tried to shrug away from him, reaching out with relief as her bond with Kit was once more a strong thrum in the back of her mind. "So. What about the not immediate danger?"
Kiara exhaled heavily and tried to sit up properly, though she squeezed Grav's shoulder gratefully and gave him a quick, soft look as she did.
It didn't last long, as she quickly realized they were not alone. "Ah...hello," she said slowly, looking between the pair. "What's going on here...?"
Dan quickly obliged her need for personal space. "We managed to stall the mercenaries, so we have a little time to figure out what to do about their inevitable poor reaction to having their payday ruined. We're headed to the refugee camp to talk to my parents about our next move."
Grav cleared his throat. "Right. Kiara, these are Beatrix and Lowell, the de facto leader of the refugee camp and her right-hand man. Beatrix and Lowell, this is my—our world's Kiara."
Beatrix nodded. "I'd say it's a pleasure, but considering the danger we are supposedly in, pleasantries will have to wait."
"Okay." Kiara blinked, shook her head, then nodded briskly. "Right. Okay. Where are we now, exactly? And where's--?"
Here.
Relief swamped her at the familiar feeling of the bond and she smiled slightly. "Kit's on his way."
"Pleasantries. Waiting. Right." Kiara blinked, shook her head, then nodded briskly. She pushed away from Grav a bit--though not before giving him a quick, grateful smile--and got waveringly to her feet. "I'm guessing Grav told you, well...what we know. About the lot of you being in immanent danger?"
They were merely in the forest, heading to rendezvous with Kit. The dragon was apparently already coming to get them. Dan couldn't blame him for wanting to see his Kiara again.
"Good. Now we have no need to look for him."
The woman nodded. "Yes. We didn't know if we should believe him, but the fact that he was with someone openly magical proved he wasn't from the Church so we decided to listen. His story seemed insane, if I'm honest. Yet we just watched this swap of yours happen and, more importantly, felt it happen. That could be no illusion."
The man looked at her briefly before nodding. "What is it you suggest we do? There are few places we can go."
It didn't take long for Kit to find them, and once he had he immediately curved his neck around Kiara and tugged her into his chest with a low, thrumming croon.
"Easy," Kiara chuckled softly, though she was clearly just as happy to see him.
"Well, you could...ahh..." Kiara pressed a hand to her temple, brow furrowed. "There was--in the other world, there's this artifact. The other me was hired to, ah, acquire it so that this rebel group could help you all..." She sighed, shoulders slumping and shaking her head slightly. "But I never got the message. So maybe Vanier's stranglehold on the region is too strong in our world...shit, I'm sorry, it's all I can think of."
Dan smiled at the rather heartwarming moment before becoming more serious. There was much to do. "As much as I am loathe to shorten your tender reunion, we need to make haste to the refugee camp to meet with my parents. There is no telling how much time our subterfuge has bought us."
"Can this rebel group get us somewhere safe, assuming they are still around? It's clear that simply keeping our heads down and obeying the law wasn't ever going to be enough for some of our countrymen, not as long as men like Lord Vannier target us for merely drawing breath." Lowell sounded bitter and it was clear from Beatrix's weary sigh that they had had that discussion many times in the past.
Only now, the idealism and righteous anger of the young seemed more undeniable. Something had to change. Beatrix straightened up. "It seems we have no choice but to reach out to these rebels of yours if we want to survive this."
"Yes. Of course." Kiara pulled back from her dragon quickly and nodded at him. "Let's get moving—here." She swung up onto Kit's back and held a hand down to Dan. "Flying is always fastest."
"Right. The rebels." Kiara glanced at Grav, her expression caught somewhere between concerned and hopeful. "I mean I guess we could... We know some names? Maybe that necromancer could help us, if we find her?"
Dan took her hand and, with her help, climbed into position on Kit's back. Once they were in the air, he asked, "How would you handle the mercenaries when they return to demand what my brother promised them?"
Both mages went wide-eyed. "Nobody said anything about necromancers," Beatrix said, aghast at the idea.
Grav put up a placating hand. "I reacted the same way, but she's more of a spirit medium. She hardly goes around raising corpses for fun. That said, I don't know if getting her involved would accomplish anything but put a bigger target on her back."
Kiara sighed and shook her head. "Honestly? I don't know—I've only ever dealt with mercs from the perspective of another blade for hire, never the employer. Something tells me the tenuous wouldn't exactly translate." She frowned and glanced back at him. "How did you two convince them to back off, anyway?"
Kiara shook her head slowly. "No, I'm not thinking we should try to drag her back into this—but she's the only other unaffiliated mage in the area we know. She might have an idea about this rebel group, right? Where we could find them?"
"Your double is either a very adept liar or we were insanely lucky. She convinced them that plans had changed and to wait for the new plan. It won't delay them long once they piece together that my brother is dead."
Grav exhaled and nodded. "Right. It can't hurt to ask. Of course, that's only if we can find her again while also not letting the mercs know we're sneaking around."
Kiara sighed and shook her head wistfully. "I miss lying," she muttered.
Drumming her fingers on Kit's scales, she started thinking aloud, "We need some sort of...backup. The refugees can't defend themselves on their own, once the mercs..."
The idea occurred to both her and Kit at the same time. They both groaned. "We have to find the rebels."
She nodded, starting to climb to her feet. "Regardless, the lot of you should be ready to move," she said to Beatrix and Lowell. "The mercs in our world haven't been called off--they're supposed to be setting the fires tonight..."
She trailed off and glanced around, realizing that in all the world-hopping and imprisonment, she'd quite lost track of time. And--
She looked at Grav. "You doing okay? You and Dan have been awake at the same time for a while now--can you keep it up?"
Dan raised an eyebrow. "You mean the rebels that tried to kill us? Those rebels?"
Grav was, indeed, looking a little worn out. Still, he nodded. "I can't afford not to. Not until we end this."
Beatrix watched him for a moment and seemed to resolve herself to something. "I vowed long ago to not use my magic, even when no one could possibly find out, but this... is a unique situation. I can give you an energy boost to compensate for your fatigue, at least for a time."
Grav blinked. "You don't need to put yourself at more risk than you al-"
She cut him off. "It's alright. What's the worst they can do that isn't already being attempted? Besides, I'm old. The remainder of my life is worth risking to protect everyone here."
"Yes. Those rebels." She sighed. "I know it's kind of mad, but...what choice do we really have right now?"
Kiara frowned, though the expression was more confusion this time than anything else. "Wait wait wait—what do you mean the remainder of your life?"
Dan didn't like it at all—not one bit—but he had to admit that they had few options. Convincing his parents of that, however, was a whole different matter.
"I was hoping to avoid the fighting altogether." He sighed. "But if it comes to that, House Vannier isn't so prosperous that we have the manpower to defend against a seasoned mercenary brigade. And involving duchy soldiers is likely a bad idea. So, it certainly can't hurt to propose such an unorthodox solution."
The old woman chuckled. "Nothing so dramatic as giving the young man my life force. I just mean, if anyone here is to be caught using magic, it's better if it's someone with less life to lose."
"I mean, the rebels probably won't want to fight either," Kiara noted pointedly. "They might have...I dunno, escape routes. Some sort of plan in place to get the refugees over the border before the mercs close in."
"Well...I mean, ideally we'll be able to keep you lot safe from these stupid backward laws, so..." Kiara shrugged. "Go for it, I guess?" She glanced at Grav for confirmation.
"Right." Dan nodded. "I think I can convince my parents to look the other way long enough for that to happen."
"Which begs the question of how to contact them."
"Go ahead," Grav answered.
"Then I suggest you brace yourself. I'm told it can be quite intense," Beatrix advised. When he nodded that he was prepared, she placed a hand over his heart and pushed glowing energy into him.
He gasped as his entire body became energized. "Wow... Yeah, I'm not tired now! Woo!"
"...I should be able to handle that part," Kiara said, her tone going expressionless and hard. "But I'll need to be on the ground to do it. And as close to where we wanna have this meeting as we can manage--I don't want to potentially get the refugees caught in crossfire, but we should be close to them if we wanna head off the mercs."
"Puppy?" Kiara started forward slightly, worried by the way he shuddered and gasped. But--no, he just seemed alert. Much more alert.
She still eyed him warily for a moment. "Sooo, you good?"
"You heard the lady, Ser Kit. Bring us close to the refugee camp but far enough away not to be a danger ourselves." It was, perhaps, a bit presumptuous for him to tell Ser Kit to do anything, but he had become somewhat attached to the young dragon in the short time he's known him.
Grav seemed almost too energized, but was quickly leveling off. "I'm better than good." He grinned. "I feel like I could take the Black Talon on by myself. I mean, obviously, I won't try that, but I feel amazing."
"Thank you, Beatrix. That helped a lot," he told the woman.
Turning back to Kiara, he asked, "How do we find the medium again? The only thing I can think of is hoping dragons can track by smell."
"Ser Kit" snorted, but neither he nor Kiara commented, both more focused on the task at hand. The dragon banked to begin flying in the direction of the refugees' encampment.
"Well, we know the general direction she went," Kiara murmured, eyeing him a bit warily for a few moments longer before she seemed to decide not to worry about the way the magical pick-me-up was affecting him. Not for the moment, at least. "And...I mean, yeah. Kit can track pretty well. It should be enough--it hasn't been that long, she can't have got too far."
As soon as they landed, Dan dismounted and took a moment to stretch. "I should go fill in my parents while you get started."
Grav nodded, clearly itching to get moving. The energy boost was making him more of a puppy than usual. "Let's get going then. There's no time to waste, right?"
Kiara nodded briskly as she slid down from Kit's back. "Keep watch for me?" she asked the dragon quietly. He nodded with a small huff, curling his body protectively around her, and she knelt to place one hand on the earth.
She could do this. Her father had explained it to her--years ago, but she remembered how it was supposed to work. She was fae now, properly fae. She could do this...
She closed her eyes, then let her magic start to spread out from her fingers, bleeding into the dirt, then the roots of the trees around them, then further.
Where are you...?
"Right." Kiara bit back a small smirk. Looking to their hosts, she assured, "We'll be back as soon as we can--but you should start getting your people together, get them ready to move."
Meanwhile, Dan hurried to the camp to fill in his parents. He was optimistic that they would agree to the plan.
The two mages nodded resolutely and disappeared from the tent to get started.
Grav followed Kiara back to Kit and explained to the dragon what they needed him to do. He was a little worried that his winged friend would resent being asked to play the bloodhound but it was the best idea they had.