"Let me go this instant, I COMMAND YOU!" He screamed at her.
"Calm yourself NOW!" She replied.
After taking several heaving breaths, he closed his eyes, inhaled deeply one more time, exhaled slowly, and opened his eyes again. "Alright, you can let go now."
Magnus comes out, a young orc boy in tow. "What is it, Arista?"
She looks at him, then at the boy. "Is that your son? Oh, yes and while I'm thinking of it, where...is...Toni?" She says it between clenched teeth trying not to look too menacing in front of the little boy and keep at least a speck of her calm about her.
"Yes, this is my son. And she is gone," Magnus says.
"Gone where?"
She looks at him narrowing her eyes, "Okay, let me make myself perfectly clear to you. I want to know who took her and what became of the devil she was with....and I want to know now. Trust me when I say you want to give me the right answer. And a 'I don't know' isn't going to cut it." She says as she tightens her grip on the blade.
"A woman named Chalandra took her away. Her and the devil."
The tears she had been fighting this whole time finally let loose and she nearly screams, "CHALANDRA?! Why Magnus, why would you do this? Was getting your son back worth losing your soul over?" She turns and walks away a little bit, shaking with fury but staying out of reach so she doesn't attack him outright. Instead she just shakes her head, "I thought you were different. We would have saved him ya know..."
Drago fell to his knees and turned paler than usual at the utterance of Chalandra's name. "No, not to her." Was all he could say, his voice so weak, it was barely audible.
"The only thing I owed to you was the safety of the slaves. Vencious paid Lucky One-Eye to keep my son alive...as blackmail," Magnus explains. "It was either turn her over or lose my son. I had hoped you would have taken care of it, but Vencious was quicker to collect. I am sorry, but I couldn't give up my son."
Magnus looks to Drago and holds out a folded piece of paper.. "She asked that I give a message to you."
It was Tarja's turn to lose her mind. Before anyone could stop her, the Eidolon had rushed forward and put a hand around Magnus' throat, exposing her fangs as she hissed loudly.
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Her voice cold as steel she looks down at Drago, "Toni did it to herself. If she hadn't acted so foolish this wouldn't have happened. Let it go Drago. There's nothing we can do about it right now. We are going to kill those mother f%$$ing dwarves, every last g!@&$&n one of them, and then we are gonna tear a frenzy through that tower the likes of which no one has ever seen before and leave nothing but death in our wake." She turns back around to face Magnus, "When we get those slaves out of there, I expect you to keep your word and get them to Siphas, then...I want you to leave Magnus, you and all your men. If I ever see you again.....I'll kill you." With tears streaming down her face, and not saying another word she turns and walks back to the ladder. Before climbing back up she turns to the others, "Let's go! We have a~$+$#%s to kill, and people to save." She then heads up the ladder.
"Tarja NO!" Drago commanded. But she wasn't listening, not having any choice, waved his hand and dismissed her.
Her voice cracking she called out to Tarja, "TARJA NO! Leave him, he's not important right now. We have to go....NOW! We've already wasted too much time!"
Seeing Drago dismiss her she just climbs up the ladder and runs back to the fort.
Between the revealation of Chalandra taking Toni and being forced to dismiss Tarja, it took Drago a minute before opening the note.
My dear son,
I hope you have learned how much of an abject failure you are. I now have 3 of the Summoner Houses under my control and you have none but yourself. I wouldn't blame the girl, this has been planned since your return with her. I figured your abrasive nature or your obnoxious friends would drive her into my hands eventually. Don't worry about her too much. Her life will be over soon enough.
~C.Skorzeny
Drago crumpled the note and let out the most primal scream in his entire life as he flung it off of the bridge. After collapsing to his knees once more for a few moments, he stood and in a stone cold calm, headed back up the ladder. Once back up in the gatehouse, he summoned Tarja back.
Sādhanā stands almost completely still, through the illusion of Vencious, through Magnus' admission and Arista's explosion of rage, even through the mention of the sale to Chalandra. True she was seething inside, but she was also thinking, seeing the enemy's strategy, planning.
After coming back, Tarja looked at Drago with anger in her eyes. That, however, was quickly extinguished as she looked at him and saw the look on his face. She almost seemed as if she was trying to shrink into nothingness.
Having run all the way back to the gate house, Arista sits inside gasping for air, just trying to breath through the horrible sobbing. How could we have been so stupid?! If magnus had just told us the truth, we could have avoided all this and just brought him his son and killed the sicko halfling. Why? Why were we so utterly blind, how could we not see it? She sits lost in her thoughts and just continues to cry.
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Before turning to go back Sādhanā walks up to Magnus. Looking at the boy beside him she smiles at the child before her eyes meet his as hard as sapphire. "You are not an evil man Magnus. The fact that you love your son enough to watch the world burn is proof of that. But you should have trusted us. You have no reason to believe that now, but you will. When we kill the dwarves, you'll get the refugees to Siphas because we have a deal, but when we kill Venicious, you'll understand that you chose wrong. And when we kill that one eyed bastard and punish him for what he's done, what he put children including your son through, you'll understand that we are a storm that will wash across Zhavroma and destroy all evil in it's path. The next time you have a choice to make, I hope you choose well Magnus. Choose to trust."
She turns then facing Rikali. Putting her hands on the other woman's shoulders and looks into her eyes, eyes so much like her wife's and cringes at the pain in them. "You are not the one who failed here Rikali. Toni failed you. She refused to see anything beyond herself and almost destroyed us all for it. We will not abandon you now, I know you feel lost, but I will help you find your way. And we will get her back."
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Cyna approaches Magnus with barely contained rage. "I came down here to put an arrow in someone, tell me everything you know about Vencious and his tower or that person is gonna be you."
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As Magnus opens his mouth, a bright flash of greenish-blue light can be seen from up ahead. It pulses for a moment before a wave of force knocks everyone above and below back. Suddenly, your vision dims and you feel as if you are swimming in inky darkness. You catch a flash of a gargantuan purple dragon flying by and then nothingness.
***
The night passes uneventfully. Rikali wakes up early to train with her blade, nodding at Sādhanā as she goes to the empty room. Sādhanā feels an eerie sense of deja vu.
Toni shakes Arista awake in the morning. "Hey, I need to ask you something."
Her face goes blank for a moment. "Umm...wow, this feels familiar..."
Arista blinks for a few moments, "What? What were you saying? I'm sorry, I guess I'm feeling kind of out of it. What's wrong?"
Toni shakes her head. "Uhh, it was about Orias...but...maybe I just need some breakfast right now. You need anything?"
"I....I don't know, I just feel kind of weird. Must be these pregnancy hormones in overdrive or something."
After his watch, Drago went outside of the gate house and concentrated on the summoning ritual. "Are you ready to come back?" Sensing the affirmative reply, he continued. Beginning the chant, the electrified mist began to form, gaining in size and strength as his chanting grew louder. At the end of the chant, Tarja appeared with a large crackling burst. "Welcome.....back. Hold on, this feels...odd?"
"Somehow, it does." The Eidolon responded.
Feeling the familiar sensation of something heavy on her chest she sighs as she tries to sit up in the bed, "So....it's going to be one of those days again." She stops and shakes her own head, "I could swear I've already said that before....but why? Something weird is going on, I just don't know what."
Cyna makes her way downstairs woken early by strange dreams. She greets those who are already up. "Good morning."
Leaving her sleep set on, she pulls on a pair of boots and wonders sleepily downstairs. "Does anybody else feel....off, or is it just me?"
Shaking her head Sādhanā smiles as Rikali walks by. After a few minutes and hearing her settle into a rhythm, Sādhanā gets up heads to the empty room, unable to shake the odd feeling.
"No, something is off...I was dreaming about Captain Cutie's bo...err, umm, my dream felt awfully familiar," Sienna answers, rubbing her eyes.
"Slut..." Ylrhea mutters, joining the others. "Something must have happened..."
Toni shivers, the cold air ignoring her flimsy rags. "Err...so what's going on?"
She lets out a little sigh of relief, "Whew...that's comforting. For just a moment there I thought I was going kinda crazy."
"Good morning, Sādhanā," Rikali says. "Did you want to do some training?"
The magus feels as if this would be a bad idea.
Cyna scrunches her brow in thought. "I woke up feeling like I was about to.. uh, do something violent. Which is unusual, but other than that not really."
The Ranger looks to Toni and back to the others. "I don't suppose we've got some spare clothing in that bag of yours, Arista?"
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"I have lots of stuff if someone could do something to help them fit her better." The color of her cheeks darken slightly and she looks down as she shuffles her feet, ""I'm kinda a big girl."" She looks around, then looks at Toni seeming to take in her features. She pats Toni on the arm, "I've got it! I'll be right back." She shuffles at a slightly quicker pace and goes back upstairs to where the bag is and starts pulling things out.
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"Maybe another time, " Sādhanā says, unable to shake the odd feeling. "Given the amount of time you were prisoner, you should'ne rush it."
Toni smiles and nods as Arista heads upstairs. "So what's the plan for today? I was thinking of heading for Siphas with Rikali...and if you wouldn't mind...I'd like to take Orias with us."
Rikali smiles at Sādhanā. "Sure. I'll just stick to my simple exercises."