MEANWHILE AT CASTLE THORNE

[abraxasmods]

MEANWHILE AT CASTLE THORNE

Once the hour is up, the execution courtyard of Castle Thorne is a great deal emptier than it had been. The portals are gone with no trace and life is trickling back into those frozen by wild magic. The banners resume their fluttering, the sounds of the castle resume, and guards stumble as they complete steps they’d started. Throughout the courtyard and beyond there’s a general sense of bewilderment as time resumes.

It doesn’t take long for any of the Thorneans to realize what’s happened - they’ve lost a large portion of guests and prisoners. Some guards begin rushing out of the courtyard to search for any who may have lingered, lesser mages stagger in to lend a hand and investigate.

And many eyes turn quickly to those who remain. Any prisoners who have lingered are immediately seized and returned to the dungeons. Welcomed guests are rounded up and herded back to their rooms, where a guard remains posted at each door and will not allow them to leave. While they remain unshackled, it is clear that even welcomed guests will not be treated with impunity.

One by one, everyone will be interrogated regarding the events of the day.

Thorne is not happy.

Comments

[brittlest]

A conversation, [he echoes, a reflexive and unpleasantly put on smile pasting across his face. His eye line doesn't rover about the room, but it's a near thing. Funny place for a conversation.]

Two mages I didn't recognize created a portal to bring the High Mage's discards out to the yard. They opened two further passages, briefly explained that they led to the Free Cities or to some backwater, and then slipped away nearly as fast as they'd come.

[His restless attention sharpens. He forces himself to slouch further into that chair, to rest his chin and cheek in the upturned palm of his hand. To not think about the empty shape of the air here where so little of the arcane is permitted.]

It seems what you people are doing in this castle is frightening someone. Not, I think, whomever it is you might suspect from the Cities. Do they have saboteurs in Slovunn?

[Isn't really a question, though he pauses here anyway as if anticipating some answer. A conversation, yes?]

[abraxasnpcs]

Is that where you think the mages were from? Solvunn?

[ Jolene knows that they weren't. Solvunn is ostensibly neutral with Thorne at the moment, and certainly no one who lives there is capable of magic of this magnitude.

She writes down what he says anyway. ]

There are saboteurs in every city, of course. I would wager the same for all of your worlds, too.

[brittlest]

No. [No, there aren't saboteurs where he's from, or—?] I don't think they were from Slovunn. If they represented either, I doubt they would have given anyone a choice on where to go.

[Yes indeed; Kalvad is home to saboteurs aplenty.]

They didn't care where anyone went or why. I think[—is needling, to echo her—]they just wanted us separated.

[abraxasnpcs]

Yes, it would stand to reason that they want separation, wouldn't it? [ She doesn't elaborate. ] But they couldn't have wanted you all too far apart, if they only offered Solvunn and the Free Cities.

[ A scribbled note, only a few words. Her angle makes it near impossible to make it out. ]

Did they mention anything about the Singularity?

[brittlest]

[He doesn't look to the page. Instead, with his chin in his hand, Ralston studies her. Imagines the insulation of the arcane about her person; jealousy is usually a preferable sentiment to fear.]

Only to draw broad summaries of what those two places think of it. Why? [And—] Which is the issue—what they did, or the fact that the contents of this castle's dungeon are now loose in the world?

[abraxasnpcs]

I imagine that their 'broad summaries' would still be from a specific bias, no? To know how they introduced the other kingdoms to you would shine some light on that bias.

[ She cocks her head, and one side of her mouth quirks up a bit. ]

I'm not particularly worried about their impact in the world. Given the magnitude of what the mystery mages did, we have far bigger things to worry about.

[brittlest]

[Briskly in return, without blinking or hesitation:]

So you would say that there are likely to be far fewer cases of imprisonment here given how we have all been made so very incidental.

[abraxasnpcs]

No, I can't say that. I may not be worried but whether or not people are imprisoned isn't my call.

[ She doesn't say it with an air of condescension. Instead, it's perhaps a bit of... resignation? She sets her quill down. ]

Why didn't you leave?

[brittlest]

I can't say that I found the argument for either alternative particularly compelling.

[He is ready for this question. He has considered it length while held in that room; there is a delicate art to lying and he is out of practice with its most advanced forms and so he has elected not to try. Truth is as useful a tool as any other.]

I can't touch your magic. The Singularity affords me the opportunity. So I've no interest in seeing it destroyed or clinging to some margin while someone else tries to.

[Without lifting his cheek and chin from the upturned curve of his hand or removing his elbow from the chair's arm, Ralston leans slightly forward.]

—Are you suggesting that the word of the High Mage's finest pupil carries so little weight that your endorsement would mean nothing? Surely the person who does make such decisions would have an ear for you.

[abraxasnpcs]

And what do you hope to accomplish with the Singularity's power? What are your goals?

[ She writes down his answer, underlining one word, then flips to the back of the parchment. ]

He and I, as well as the others, have discussed the situation. But at the end of the day, he still made his call. There were more mages in agreement with him than with me.

[brittlest]

I have been charged by the place I came from to preserve the dwindling arcane there. If the High Mage is correct with respect to the Singularity's attachment to other places and what I know of the work is true, then bridling the Singularity may serve both our purposes.

[This is not a lie. It's an impatient truth, breezing quickly past it to:]

The tall fellow who attacked Ambrose in the yard. He'd been kept in the dungeon, yes, but Simms made his threats first and was one of your guests. I guarantee the division is what bred that resentment. What possible use can there be in keeping anyone down here? When there are wild high magics you don't understand in use and everyone remaining here chose to.

[More or less. Odds are there has been someone who was clubbed over the head and missed their escape.]

[abraxasnpcs]

We haven't made any decisions yet, and this is just a standard questioning. I'm not sure what else, exactly, you think I can do. There are other factors involved in this equation.

[ She's growing tired of this discussion. He's not giving her any more information, and it's frustrating to have to simply repeat again and again that she doesn't have control over it. ]

So unless you have anything else to tell me about today, you are dismissed.

[brittlest]

[Dismissed. The word sparks some twin surge of satisfaction and resentment in him. He'd like nothing more than to go; to be discarded is loathsome.

Ralston's chin comes up out of his hand.]

I'm merely attempting to understand your priorities. If your concern is for who broke your summons free and not which of them has gone missing and in what direction they went, then I've nothing for you. May the High Mage always be so fortunate as to have a rescue on hand should his attacker ever return from Solvunn.

[Oops, did he say Solvunn?, Maybe it was the Free Cities Estinian had slipped away to, say the overplayed lines of his face—a mockery of dismay.]

[abraxasnpcs]

As I've said before, our priority is information, but you aren't providing any. You may think your needling and baiting will get me to tell you some imagined secret or bend to your will and change everything about Thorne to your liking, but you are incorrect. Again, you are dismissed.

[ She waves a hand and the twin guards grab Ralston by the upper arms to frogmarch him back upstairs. Once everyone is released from their rooms, he will find the other apprentices and castle servants to be icy and mostly unhelpful in anything he asks of them. Clearly Jolene has spread word that he displeased her. ]