Closed To Whom Does a Slaves Commitment Lie First? (Alea Davenport)

[Una Tanta]

Winter 14th 513 AV

"You are a Slave." Rondre punctuated the last word with venom. Leaping toward the children she had left undefended he grabbed the boy, back to his chest and held a dagger to his throat. The man was a brawler by training and no good with a blade but holding one to the boys throat was simple enough.

"Don't pretend to be in control here. I am in control here. This boy is useless and he will be returned." Glancing at the kids he watched them stir in fright and grinned, If he left them here alone with Alea terrified as they were he would doubtless get answers.

Backing up toward the stairs he brought the boy with him, dagger pricking into the base of his neck. The boy had gone sheepish and white-faced. "Don't say a word." The boy warned them, "Don't say a single thing!" Rondre was about to leave the basement with the boy his eyes holding Alea's unflinching.

"Why is he leaving us here? Why isn't he hurting you? Why did he only take Mattew?" They clamored at her for answers. The other boy stood staring at Alea untrusting. "He wouldn't leave us here with you...if he thought you would help us escape..." He murmured to the girls gathering them behind himself. "We can't trust her anymore than we can trust him..." The words were tugged from him by logic painfully. He had naively hoped that slaves, no matter their master, were loyal to slaves by shared consequence before all else.

Rondre stood in the doorway at the bottom of the stairs, making his last motion to leave.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea was too slow to react to Rondre's attack, and she cursed her confusion for letting him get his hands on the boy. She looked for an opening to take Rondre out and free the boy, but she couldn't see anything that would guarantee no one would get killed. She ignored Rondre's assertion of her slavehood. She had already decided to accept whatever consequences her little rebellion afforded; she was not going to let a meaningless status distinction affect her judgement.

Alea was pissed at Rondre's actions. He had summoned her for her help in getting the kids to talk, because he had been failing at it, and yet he refused to follow her lead. He was arrogant and an idiot, and she was out of patience with him and his masters. She met Rondre's gaze fiercely, lending only about half an ear to the worried of the kids. They weren't a major threat right now. Unlikely they would try anything, and what she was planning would be more likely to earn their trust than anything she could possibly say.

She wasn't quite sure Rondre would kill the slave. More likely he was bluffing, given how "valuable" he was...but Alea couldn't be sure. She would have to take that risk, and hopefully at least keep him distracted long enough for her to close the distance between them. Keeping her eyes on Rondre, she glanced around out of the corner of her eye, looking for something she could use. She noticed a barrel full of buttons. With no time to come up with better options, she acted almost on instinct, not thinking her plan through but just hoping it would work.

"He doesn't know me very well," she taunted, before grabbing a handful of buttons and flinging them in the general direction of Rondre's face. Not wanting to give him the slightest chance to recover from this hopefully unexpected response, Alea dashed toward him, grabbed the hand holding the knife, and bit down, hard.

[Una Tanta]

Winter 14th 513 AV

Rondre brought his arm up to protect his eyes from the scattering buttons which easily yielded to the wall it created. However, blocking his eyes opened him up to the attack. "Ahh! Petch!" He yelled shaking the arm Alea was attached to. Rotating the dagger in his hand so the handle ran along his palm and the tip pointed directly at the bear underside of her neck.

Cursing himself for bringing a slave to his aid his legs and arms tensed struggling not to release the dagger as the blood slowly seeped out from between her teeth dribbling along his arm and falling soundlessly to soak into the floor between the scattered buttons. "Nice try..." He replied pressing the edge of the knife against her neck gently.

When he had threatened their lives before the children had firmly said nothing but recent events had broken down the last of their psychological strength. The girls sobbed relentlessly in the corner and the boy had his arms wrapped around himself rocking gently. "My patience has exhausted itself, you will tell me how you got out now and then I will leave you be to escape if you can. Or I'll kill them both." His tone was clipped and finite. This was not persuasion, it was extortion.

The older boy whose arm was held tightly by Rondre shifted in that moment. Scrambling across the floor, his claws clicking on the surface, he managed to scuttle toward Alea and up the mans boot digging his teeth deeply into the mans thigh with a squeak.

Rondre yelped, his boot connecting sharply with the creatures ribs and with a crunch sending him to the other end of the room. The children moved to retrieve him but were held back by fear and stared at him and Alea motionless.

[Alea Davenport]

From her position of being firmly affixed to his arm, Alea watched Rondre with some skepticism, barely flinching as the knife touched her neck. He had clearly never been in any sibling fights if he thought he had them both under control. He might be cocky because he had a sharp object, but Alea was not impressed.

Since he seemed so keen on pretending she was a hostage, even though she was holding onto him and he was doing absolutely nothing to prevent her from moving, Alea took her time and let him talk a little while she planned her next more carefully, taking into account possible ways it could go wrong and compensating.

The moment Rondre made his threat, Alea grabbed his hand around the knife with both of her hands, to keep him from turning it back around as she let go with her teeth and pulled her neck out of harm's way. At the same time, the hostage boy disappeared in a flash of light, stalling Alea's subsequent attack as she recovered from her surprise.

She had time to think, Kelvic..., before her combat instincts took over again. There was no more hostage situation. She had to disable this man or make him stand down before anything else could be done. Sadly, she'd never knocked someone unconscious before, and she wasn't sure she could beat him, at least not quickly. But maybe she could talk her way out of this.

In a low undertone, so that the children couldn't here, she murmured fiercely to Rondre. "You brought me here for a reason, remember? Now with everything that's happened, I'm pretty sure they trust me now. If you want me to finish my job, then I need you to take a dive. Go down when I hit you, pretend to be unconscious so I can talk to them without distractions."

[Una Tanta]

Winter 14th 513 AV

Rondre grinned when his knife touched Alea's neck. He had them both now. His temper had left his mind numbed and he was no longer thinking about how to get anything out of the children. He just had to get them back to their masters and separate them from Alea.

As Alea moved in defense Rondre grinned twisting his knife in response and feeling it bite into her neck gently. About to slice deeper he was distracted by the movement of the Kelvic and his grip on both weakened. The knife blew from his grip only the tip stained a faint red from the nick it had made in Aleas neck and the otter kelvic lay prostrate at the other end of the room.

Rondre couldn't help but smirk at Alea's plan and as her body met his with a resounding smack his buckle was not altogether faked. Dropping like a stone the rest of the way he lay prostrate on the wooden floor, knife several feet away. Eyes closed, ears open he prepared himself to pounce into action. Alea was intense, fiesty, and by his gauge talented. He didn't want to cross her if he didn't need to.

The otter Kelvic in the corner was also unconscious and lay in a limp coiled ball against a barrel of pants. The other boy dashed across the room to collect his brother when Rondre was finally immobilized and held him to his chest as he tried to return to the girls.

Both girls relaxed a few minutes after Rondre hit the floor, and while the boy remained tense with anxiety they all gazed at Alea with deep childlike trust. "We can get away now!" One of the girls whispered to her brother, glancing at Alea."If you get us a boat, we will tell you everything. We have to get out of here." The boy spoke, his voice on the edge of begging as he gazed at Alea. He held the Otter tighter to his chest, an expression of hope.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea had been thinking about all the barious ways this could play out for a while ago, and now she distilled all those thoughts and came to a few very rapid decisions. Firstly, she would help the kelvics escape if she could. She knew she had no reason to believe she could succeed; she'd heard enough times how impossible it was to escape Ravok. But she had to try. Even if they were likely to die on their own in the wilderness, that was the path they wanted, and helping them was the right thing to do, no matter how much her own sense of self-preservation--which had been growing lately--cried otherwise.

Of course, it was a close fight, so her second priority was doing her supposed job and getting the information the Nitrozian's wanted. From what she could tell, they didn't give a petch about the slaves; they just wanted some boring information on the layout of some rival family's estate. Which meant, maybe, if she was lucky, she could get the info from the kelvics, and set them free, and not even be in any serious trouble. She held onto that possibility, knowing in her heart she'd need that optimism to have even a chance at success.

There was one more thing she wanted though. The kelvics had mentioned Sahova, a word she'd heard before. The name to her meant danger, and anything she could learn about it would be something she could use. She wanted to quiz the kelvics all day, but they were already getting impatient. She didn't know how much longer she could keep them here and cooperative.

"I'll do what I can," she said, a terse energy in her voice, cleverly not promising success. She was still wound up from the scuffle, and what she was about to attempt was not exactly relaxing her. "But I want you to tell me everything you can on the way."

She looked around the far wall to figure out how to open the way to the canal. Going through the streets was out of the question, at this hour of the day. But maybe they could stay hidden in the edges of the canals. Maybe even swim under a building or two. At least, she could, but she didn't know about the kelvics. She looked back at them and asked, "Can you swim?" She did not direct her question at any one of them specifically, and she kept glancing at the man pretending to be unconscious on the ground. She wasn't sure whether he'd allow the situation to fall so far out of his control, and if he tried to get up, she wanted to be ready to put him down before he grabbed another hostage.

[Nemesis]

Alea Davenport

Skills	*	*
Brawling	*	+2
Escape Artist	*	+1
Intimidation	*	+1
Investigation	*	+4
Negotiation	*	+1
Observation	*	+2
Persuasion	*	+2
Socialisation	*	+1
Tactics	*	+1

Lores

Sahova: A Terrible Island

Someone Knows My Name

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Consequences, Injuries, Expenses, and More!

• None

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• Sad this thread ended before it should have... was such a fun read!
• Wish I could give you more Lores... had potential for soooo many!
• Point in Escape Artist for thinking about escape routes!