Day: November 23, 2019

So I’ve been thinking about ways that this all might come together and make more sense. To begin, I want to move towards making this brother be more responsible and by his own choosing, but more of a choice where it is about self preservation and escape. To wit…

Chapter 19

The fight ends because the cell doors open and the brother is shoved in. He is bedraggled and is ushered quietly into a nearby cell. The momentary loss of power slips away and Ikrivain finds himself able to stand again. He is confused and beginning to piece things together.

Immediately he goes to talk to the brother and starts to explain who he is and why he is there. The brother seems really out of it but tries to work up a response. This leads to another argument between Marek and Ikrivain, and Thea shouts out to end the budding fight. They hear the doors again and the guards usher in Esme, seemingly healthy and completely confused and dazed. She is shoved in a cell with her sister and everyone is struck by silence.

When they collect themselves and talk to her they realize that she is healed and whatever was afflicting her started to go away when they got here. Now Ikrivain puts it together. He says, “you.” and tries to tell the brother that he did this. He doesn’t have all the pieces but he recognizes that somehow the brother is responsible for what is happening with people and the spell is doing it.

The guy screams for the guards and asks them to get him out of there and they are wondering why when he starts to mumble about being able to fix it and knowing how to do it now and how to do it the way the master of the keep wants.

Note: Basically, the master of the keep is not an evil man but he is a man who loves his child and she is dying and the spell is meant to bring her back and the problem with that is that he cannot get it to work. However, it worked on Esme and now he thinks he knows how to refocus it–not to heal but to harm and to kill everyone in the place so he can escape.

Chapter ends with the 4 members of the team finally together and wondering how to take the next step.

Chapter 18

Here we begin to see things really fall apart. Marek and Ikrivain are kept together and Thea waits in a separate cell. This prison facility as it is called is not a prison that is actually in use at this time. They appear to be the only prisoners and the sister is nowhere to be found. They ask the guards but there is no reply.

Once the guards leave Ikrivain begins to plot a way out, to finish the mission, but Marek stops him. Marek is pissed and tells him about it. This has always been about the mission and about him winning the heart of the baroness. He tells Ikrivain he is being used and there is no future for him with that woman. He goes on to talk about the sacrifices the others made and Ikrivain spits back that there are sacrifices in war. But this is no war, and you are no commander! We came with you out of friendship and love. We came to see you succeed because you wanted this more than anything I’ve seen a person want but you lost yourself in this. We have failed, and we will likely die. We will die for nothing. We will die because of you.

That is enough to bring these men to blows and they fight with nobody to restrain them and Ikrivain reaches for the magic and he finds it not there and he finds instead it is clawing at him in some strange way and he fears it is the spell being cast and begins to realize something truly terrible is happening in this place.