Completed [The Docks] Caught in the Web

[Vanari]

"Done."

She grasped Ria's outstretched hand for a third time that night, every fiber of her being resonating with a thrill of excitement she hadn't felt in ages. Vanari didn't even blink as she consented to what was perhaps the most daunting task ever demanded of her. Never mind that the person dictating it was a near complete stranger. The Vantha could care less. All that mattered now was this single, incredible secret, and she would do anything--absolutely anything--to gain access to it.

Her first thought was that next Spring felt much to far away. Vanari wondered briefly if they could leave sooner, then decided it would be best to save that discussion for a different time. They were, after all, still sitting on a roof, not ten strides away from a scene of gruesome butchery.

She cast one mournful glance at the ransacked brothel, telling herself for the hundredth time that there was nothing she could've done. Come morning, she would have to down a large breakfast, take a jog, busk a little--anything--to wash the night's horrors as best she could from her mind. Her only consolation was that she lived, and had gained a new friend for it.

Vanari clung for a moment to this shred of hope, then tucked it away in the corners of her mind, felt her heart harden in resolution as she turned back to Ria's intense, green gaze.

"Nyka isn't too far--we could get there quickly on horseback. Can you ride?"

For an instant, she regretted having traded in her horse and gear for the caravan ride to Ravok. The whole lot had been rather expensive, but there was still plenty of mizas in her pockets and plenty more opportunities to earn it all back.

The Vantha realized, much to her own chagrin, that she had gotten too far ahead of herself. Again. She didn't even know what her next step should be--literally, in this case--let alone what they ought to do come next Spring. That was still more than an entire season away, and she could feel a growing ache in her belly protesting of hunger.

You numskull, this is no time to be thinking of food, Vanari admonished herself as she peered cautiously over the edge of the rooftop. "So, um...how do we get down from here?"

[Kit Rowan]

x

Kit's heart jumped up into her throat. It'd worked! It'd worked! If her eyes changed as the Vantha's did then her joy would have lit up the street light lightning. Her key out of this mess, assured! At last! The Vantha's question made her smile. "I don't, Ari. Afraid to say, I barely know a horse's front from its rump."

In the adrenaline of the first moment of the Ebonstryfe's raid and the giddiness of having wrangled the answer she wanted out of Vanari it had never occurred to Kit that maybe the older woman couldn't actually get down. "Hmm"" Kit sat up in a crouch, reached back and touched her scraped legs again. Was it safe to jump down on these. . . ? Yes. This was what she did!

Kit cut off the glamours that had been meant to blend the pair of them into the roof—it would be counter productive on the ground, and Kit still did not trust herself to keep her illusions changing fast enough to hide them while actually moving—turned her head around, raised two fingers to her lips and simply . . . Jumped down.

She trusted her legs, there were strong and built for over ten years of training and conditioning to endure this very thing, but today they were a little cut up and Kit elected to help a a bit. She hit the ground and let herself fall forward, slapping her feet deliberately on the ground so that the could absorb some of the impact Kit's legs had meant to withstand. She made no sound at all, as was always true when she did a proper landing.

Kit stood up, dusted off her trousers and looked toward Vanari on the roof. She held out her hands. "I'll try to slow your fall a little, come on."

[Vanari]

Even in the dark, Vanari saw the change in Ria's features. It was like a light had been set ablaze somewhere behind the lithe girl's wary, green eyes--a light not so different from that which burned in the Vantha herself, as though both companions had been holding something back, not daring to believe. To hope.

And yet, here they were, each throwing in their best chip in hopes of getting an even better one in return. It defied every rule of practicality and survival. To any sensible citizen of Ravok, it would have even seemed shamelessly greedy, a ridiculous bet against probable likelihoods, a reckless gamble in a place that often rewarded carelessness with an early demise. A sensible citizen would think this, and she would probably be right.

But, as things stood, neither party appeared to care. From the dramatic transformation of Ria's severe visage, Vanari hazarded to guess that getting out of this city was as fierce of a desire as her own goals of learning more of Ionu and The Inverted. What each wanted was so much more than a mere step up in life, so much greater than the price to be paid that failing to grab hold of an opportunity the gods themselves seemed to have arranged would be a crime in and of itself.

Vanari sniggered at Ria's comment, none too forgetful of her own ineptitude not half a season ago, and watched her sure-footed partner touch the back of her legs. Frowning, the Vantha wondered if Ria had been hurt somehow during her impromptu rescue, but swept such thoughts aside as the girl rose nimbly to her feet and...

Breath caught in her throat, Vanari scrambled to the side, expecting to see Ria's splayed, broken body on the cobbled streets. She let the breath go in a whoosh as the girl's familiar features looked back up at the bewildered Vantha. Ria held out her hands--Vanari had a feeling this would be far from the last time, too--and urged the older woman to follow her lead.

Gulping once, Vanari nodded, then slowly lowered her legs over the edge one at a time like some kind of large, wounded animal. There was a moment of absolute terror as her legs swung free, almost loosening a few tiles, but she managed to hold her grip on the edge of the roof and straighten her body against the wall. She looked down to make sure Ria was still there, then gradually, bit by bit, allowed her fingers to loosen. Squeezing her eyes shut, she felt a firm grip wrap around her calves, then suddenly her hands slipped free of the edge and she was sliding at an alarming speed down the wall, landing awkwardly but alive and in one piece.

"I get the feeling I'm not going to stop thanking you anytime soon," Vanari grinned sheepishly, doing her best to avoid looking at the pile of corpses nearby. "So, what's our next move?"

[Kit Rowan]

x

Kit tried to understand Vanari's hesitance as blue fear crawled back into her eyes while Kit shifted from foot to foot, glanced side to side for watchers. The rooftops had been her childhood playground, the high places of Alvadas her perch. Vanari's feet were clumsy and uncomfortable on the rooftops. "Come on," Kit urged, bouncing on her toes, grabbed hold of Vanari's legs. "Come on . . . Ooof!"

However long Vanari had kept from dropping, gravity pulled her just as hard. Kit had seen acrobatic troupes in the streets of Alvadas, watched them throw each other in the air, catch them on the way down and place them easily on cobble before their bows. But Kit was not prepared to be one of them; much of the Vantha's weight was still pressed up against the wall, she had had time to grab and firm her grip. Still Kit felt her legs buckle under the weight, her arms screamed in the languages of firing neurons to stopstopstopstopSTOP!

Kit's hands slipped and she felt a panic rise through her as she tried to hold Vanari tighter. Kit had meant to grab her, lower her to the ground; instead the Vantha squeezed between her fingers, descent slowed but not stopped and Kit felt an awful panic rise in her chest.

But just slowing her descent had, evidently, been enough. Kit let go of Vanari and smiled a shaky smile; if Akajia's darkness had not shrouded her face, then Kit's relief and new-faded fear would be as obvious as Ari's shifting eyes. Kit took a step back, ran a hand over her forehead, looked left and right by turns. No one.

"Now we get out of here." Where exactly they went was of no importance. Kit peered around the corner. The Ebonstryfe had gone that way, and while it was quiet she wasn't eager to dog their shadow. The other direction . . . Kit smelled death. The corpses of the slaughtered had lost the dignity to care where they relieved themselves, and the stench of their waste was enough to make Kit's nose wrinkle. Disgusting! If it had just been Kit, she would find her own road in the high places and avoid both. But it was not.

Kit pulled her cloak closer out of habit, pulled her hood back over her head. She turned to Vanari and made a beckoning gesture, this is the safest way. She started in a swift walk past the corpses. Kit stepped around a pool of blood, lifted her cloak so that it did not skirt it. She curled her toes, tensed her shoulders, tried otherwise to pretend that the bodies did not exist.

"Do you have a place to go? Kit asked, too fast. "Somewhere safe?" She had just found her ticket out of this godsdamned city, and she was hardly about to lose it to a traveler's misstep. Kit considering inviting Vanari to stay with her, but no. That room did not just belong to Ria. Ari would see Kit in her natural mien, as Shy, see all the various things she had accumulated, and Kit was not keen on the questions that would follow that.

[Vanari]

Vanari choked back a surge of horror. Her eyes, now dark pools of mournful indigo, watered with effort and her face scrunched as though she'd bitten into a giant lemon. Now that they walked close enough to touch the bodies, it became clear there was more than just blood mixed in with the slew of mangled corpses. She shuddered violently behind Ria, every inch of her being twitching and crawling with revulsion.

"Place...y-yes," the Vantha stuttered, her voice muffled through the folds of her cloak. The smell was growing unbearable, and it was all she could do not to spill the contents of her stomach right then and there.

No sooner had she thought this than she suddenly pitched to the side, her eyes shut against the sight of a streak of fresh blood, and vomited onto the already slick, sticky stones. Her whole body worked in concert to dispel the last of her recent dinner, heaving and convulsing and setting fire to her throat.

When it was finally over, she was left weak and light-headed, but at least a little less nauseous than before. "T-Tarsin's...Boarding...House," Vanari managed between gasps, spitting once before wiping the edge of her mouth with her sleeve. She tried to take a steadying breath, only to regret it an instant later as her nostrils filled with the scent of blood and piss and death.

Vanari stopped breathing at once, throwing her cloak back over her face. Gods, how the trials never stopped coming.

On any other day, at any other hour, she would have found her way back to the tavern without a lick of trouble. But in her current state, she could barely remember her own name, let alone grope through the dark in hopes of passing by a familiar landmark. She had no choice but to leave it in Ria's capable hands--or, in this case, her capable feet.

The shivering Vantha was just about to take a step forward when strange sounds reached her ears. Curiosity quickly turned to panic. Footsteps, and voices. Echoing through the alleyways.

"I heard talking, and something on the roofs. Survivors, no doubt."

"Oh come off it, Hon," another voice moaned, "Don't you ever give it a rest? We've killed plenty, and captured more than enough to amuse you for the next fortnight."

"No. They're here, I know it."

Vanari stared at Ria in terror, her eyes flashing gold, then ruby, then blue in the span of a single heartbeat as she mouthed a single word.

Run.

[Kit Rowan]

x

Vanari was clearly uncomfortable with what she saw. Kit felt a twinge of irritation at her for slowing them down, and then a twinge of sympathy as she remembered when she'd fallen across a dead man. If there had been anything in her stomach to heave up, then she knew that would have gone out fast. Though this perhaps, was different. Kit grabbed at her own wrist and squeezed. This time she wasn't responsible for the dead.

When the Ebonstryfe's voices came from around the bend Kit turned her head toward them, standing like a rabbit after hearing the hunter crack a twig. Evidently they hadn't been all that distracted after all . . . Kit cursed under her breath; thrice damned Ebonstryfe making her life harder, along with this city's petching existence. Kit turned to see Vanari, saw her mouth 'run' and listened without pause, the walk past the corpses now a dash, her hood falling off her head and her cloak still coiled tight around her.

The first few steps Kit tried to be quiet, to no avail; her running made slap slap slapping sounds against the pavement and her attempt at stealth only made it worse. "There!" Kit heard a triumphant shout as her footsteps were heard b their pursuers. "I knew I'd heard something!" Kit abandoned the pretense of stealth, moving instead in long, loping strides, her feet tripping and sliding awkwardly in the darkness. Her foot touched blood skidded, nearly sent her sprawling.

But it gave her an idea. Stopping for a moment to peering over her shoulder, Kit saw where the blood had begun to pool in the center of the street. She flicker her hand like a child trying to fling water from her fingertips and the blood shimmered and vanished beneath a seeming of cobble, a leg stretched out over the middle of the road seemed to be coiled near its body . . . Kit could have done more but their voices were too close so she turned and started her dash again, following Vanari 'round a corner just as she heard Ebonstryfe behind her shouting STOP!

Ticks later she heard a thud and a groan, a thwump and a curse. Kit cut the illusion that were meant to mask the obstacles, letting them think they had simply overlooked it. Again Kit found herself smiling in spite of everything. Vanari had the lead, so she let the older girl lead. By the time Kit had peaked over her shoulder, the Ebonstryfe were little more than black shadows near out of sight, and Kit figured if they were so close to hidden then Kit and Vantha were just as hard to see to them.

Though Akajia had been who she had come to please her darkness played no favorites. With her feet so well hidden and blood still on her foot she slid and nearly fell once, twice . . . Finally she managed to maintain her pace, her chest heaving with effort as they made their way across a long bridge with Rhysol's visage carved into its sides.

The Ebonstryfe had come expecting half-dressed whores, but the quarry they found here was fleet and ready to bolt, and while they were bogged down with armor Vanari and Kit had nothing but the clothes on their backs to lay them down. It was only a matter of time till they lost their tails.

[Vanari]

Run, run, run! All other thoughts disappeared. There was only the need to escape, to flee. Her surroundings flew by in a single, endless blur as Vanari bolted through one alleyway after another, neither knowing nor caring where she was going. She'd never run so fast in her life, never felt so much terror that, long after she was sure her lungs had all but burnt to ash, her legs kept pumping, her feet still hitting the ground and propelling her forward with reckless abandon.

The only other concern she possessed was that of Ria and the armored men. Vanari glanced back every now and then to make sure her companion was still running and that their pursuers were indeed growing less and less distinct. She heard shouts in the beginning, but paid them no heed.

Once, she almost ran into a wall as she caught Ria's magic in action. The lithe girl had, while still in motion, flung out her fingers and cast some kind of illusion over a large pool of blood. It winked out of sight, and Vanari's mouth dropped open in awe. Moments later, the armored men were cursing and sliding, much to Ria's delight. At that moment, Vanari thought her companion looked partly mad, and partly like the most beautiful thing she had ever seen--it was a clever trick, one that had very well saved their skins. The Vantha found herself grinning just as fiercely back, feeling like a complete lunatic as they continued pelting through the streets.

They crossed some kind of bridge, but the rest of the landmarks Vanari hardly paid any attention to. By the time the black clad men were no more than a couple bad memories and her legs all but useless, they were so far from the Docks she couldn't even begin to guess where they had ended up. She simply collapsed, gasping for air and holding her sides in pain.

"Gods...are they...gone? Where the petch...are we?"

[Kit Rowan]

x

Kit was a courier but no runner, not at all. Her speed came from quick shorts invented across roads impossible for the ground-bound. After a while Kit's legs found the rhythm, rise fall, touch the ground, curl around that corner. Vanari's legs were the longer ones, and the further they got the more she pulled ahead. Kit strained, lengthened her stride. Her legs remembered that they were hurt and whined at her for stillness like hungry children. Still she ran, her steps growing more haphazard and awkward with each chime that passed. Fear and thrill drove her like all the hounds in the world, but her body refused to match her dedication. "Stop," Kit croaked. "Stop!" But her throat was too cracked to make a sound that Vanari could hear over the laughing gulls and the blood in her own ears.

Eventually she did stop though and Kit staggered forward, swaying like a drunk girl before she fell to her rump, holding out her hands to absorb some of the fall and laid back on the ground, her belly rising and falling like a ship in heavy storm. She tasted blood in her throat, and her first thought was that she had overgiven, driven by magic her mind and body to a wrong place . . . But no. This was only strain. "I . . . I . . . I think!" Was the closest she could manage to a sentence before gulping down air like a drowning girl just pulled from water.

After her body began believing her when she said she wasn't dying, Kit propped herself up on her elbows, gave the Vantha girl a shining smile. "Still alive," she said again, closed her eyes and snorted. "Still alive . . ." She turned her eyes around, scanned her surrounding and tried to let her mind fill in the blanks. It was hard to make out specifics in the dark, but she noticed taht the sidewalks around the canals here were rather extensive. That was something of a hint; the docks had extensive sidewalks to accommodate those who could not afford to rent a Ravosala for every little thing, while in the Noble District sometimes the only way (unless your name was Kit Rowan) was to rent a boat out, because if you could not rent a boat to get somewhere then your business probably wasn't that important anyhow.

This was MORE extensive than the docks usually were, which puzzled Kit slightly. She tried to massage some feeling back into her legs as she frowned, wriggling where she sat . . . Oh! "This is . . . The merchant's ring. Bunch of . . . Shops. Shops and businesses. Now," she said, clenching her hand into a fist and holding it up. "Now we're safe. Stupid Ebonstryfe . . . "

"You're a hassle to keep alive, you know?" Kit said, but her smile when she spoke was fierce, clear even in the darkness. Oh what a great, terrible thrill! "Color and shade . . ." She muttered, barely believing what they had escaped.

[Vanari]

She wheezed painfully as she watched Ria sink onto the ground, the wiry girl's chest heaving like every breath was her last. Vanari quickly followed suit, grateful for the coolness of the stones and for once unmindful of its grime.

Together, they lay there on the cold ground like a pair of broken rag dolls, feeling for all the world like they were on the brink of death. Every breath drew pain, every inch of their bodies ached. For a while, she wasn't even sure her legs worked anymore; they felt like throbbing pieces of lead. It took more than two or three tries to get one of them to even move.

Vanari nodded weakly as her mutually exhausted companion chanted, "Still alive, still alive." Cracking open one eye, she saw that Ria was beaming at her again. Mad. Bloody, petching mad. Honestly, she didn't even know how the young illusionist had even managed to prop herself up on her elbows, looking around as though she recognized the place. Vanari's own brain was mush. Her legs, broken.

What felt like entire chimes must have passed before she finally felt her heart steady and her limbs regain a bit of feeling. She expelled a long sigh as her breathing finally evened. A peaceful kind of warmth washed over her, then gradually each part of her body tingled from the cessation of pain.

Still alive indeed, and a narrow thing it was at that.

Beside her, Ria mentioned something of a the merchant's ring, shops, and stupid Ebonstryfe. At that last word, the older girl felt a sliver of alertness return. It wasn't hard to guess who the Ebonstryfe might be, though why they went around butchering people in the dead of night was far beyond guesswork at that moment. Still, her interest was piqued.

Vanari laughed outright at Ria's next words, the delirious sound punctuated by an occasional cough or wheeze.

"Keep you...on your toes," she managed between breathy chuckles, pushing herself up to a sitting position as she stared up into the night sky. "Gods. Ebonstryfe, eh? Sounds a bit elegant for a bunch of petching butchers. What are they, some kind of demonic police force? I've never seen anything so brutal..."

Vanari closed her eyes, willing the memories to stay away as things slowly crept back to some semblance of normality.

[Kit Rowan]

x

"Trickster favors us tonight," Kit said, cradled her marked arm, her expression suddenly . . . Content. Lacking the energy and will to fling herself to her feet, Kit braced her hands against the ground and pushed her to her knees. Face still flush from exertion, Kit turned her attention to merchant's ring, eyes watching still for some new threat to come crawling out of the woodwork. Kit saw nothing.

"You don't know?" Kit tilted her head. If Vanari was ill-informed on these things, she wouldn't survive long in Ravok, and Kit needed her to survive. "Well . . . I can't say I know for certain. You've seen them, even if you didn't know them. Black armor. Ravokians worshiping the ground they walk on. They 'keep the peace.'" Kit sneered. "Usually they do it, too. All nice and protective . . . Long as you're a Ravokian citizen." Kit remembered when a pair had ambushed her in Tarsin's and made it very clear what they thought of non-citizens, in front of the other boarders as staff as well. None had lifted a hand to help. "Never get on their bad side."

"Usually they're not that . . ." Kit winced, tried to find the right word. "Bloody. I heard them mention the Rising Dawn. The Dawn don't like Rhysol. Imagine that. The difference is, they're not quiet about it. If you're the god of evil, what'd you do to someone preaching against you, in your own city?" Kit let that thought hang in the air. Perhaps the ones who had died had been the lucky ones.

Kit stood up to her feet, dusted off her back as best she could, worked her way down to her trousers. "Come on," she said, reaching out with her left hand to help Vanari to her feet. "I know the way to Tarsin's from here, though I'll need to take the long way 'round."