08. Long Night
General Summary
Mirage interrogated Cypher on the party's status, and learned that when they couldn't contact her, they went ahead on a mission without her that ended with Ta'lok dominated, Cri and Saeldor badly injured, and only himself able to escape in search of backup.
When Mirage pointed out that she'd been in prison, it quickly became apparent that cypher was not to blame for sending her there. it if he was, then he'd been, in his own words, imbecilic about it.
With a tentative truce, and her tracker tattoo taken care of, the party rested overnight. in the morning, they received a Sending from jadeira, arranging a handoff of Asmira into her custody.
with Asmira safe and reunited with her lover, Mirage and Cypher headed down the mountain to the tower where the rest of their party were captive.
The first floor of the tower was a single room with the stairs in the centre. Most of the space was given over to seating, potted plants, and small tables for holding books or teacups. The rest held a simple but well-stocked kitchen. Asmira was standing in the living area, wobbly with exhaustion, crouched as much to fit her ten-foot frame under the seven-foot ceilings as to facilitate the stance that indicated she would summon her flame saber at a word. She became more alert when Mirage appeared, but tensed when she saw the "fucker not to be trusted" behind her. Nimbus turned dark and crackled with static. "Everyone, this is Cypher. Cypher, this is everyone." Asmira relaxed, and when he managed to shrink his eyes back to normal size, the warlock offered a mumbled "pleasetameecha" which she returned with infinitely more dignity. "We've all agreed to be friends, but apparently the rest of our party is in danger so. Add it to the to-do list, I suppose." "I'll watch, too," Cypher said, stretching and heading toward a chair near a window. "I told you, I don't think I sleep anymore. May as well make myself useful." Mirage didn't answer, she brought the bedding over to Asmira and the two began setting up a sleeping area. "If only we had time for a pillow fort," Mirage murmured, smiling tiredly. "When this is all over," she replies, with similar expression. "We can invite that Terran you freed. He seemed nice." "I promised cobbles a sleepover and nail painting party, we'll have to have a whole get-together." Cheered but exhausted, the party settled down. Mirage instructed Nimbus to keep an eye out and rouse her for any trouble, and tried to get comfortable. Asmira was asleep in seconds. Between the long day, her intrinsic heat, and the vast improvement of bedding over hard earth, Asmira was asleep in seconds. Mirage took a moment longer. Cypher had set himself up in a chair near the front window, where he could see the walk-up and a good bit of the nearby mountainside, too. He dropped his backpack beside him and opened the grimoire over his knees. He suggested Nimbus could patrol the aerial approaches, and he'd keep an eye out front and walk the perimeter every little while. At Mirage's nod, Nimbus drifted outside. She kept her eyes trained on the warlock, who seemed almost studiously calm, watching through the window, pausing to start a line, glancing out again. Methodical. "Don't let me sleep past ten," she said. He glanced over, tapping a salute to his temple in confirmation. Mirage rolled her eyes, then she rolled over. Nimbus would wake her if something happened. He always did. She drifted off to the sound of turning pages and scratching pen.
Interrogation
Mirage leaned on the doorframe, flipping the knife in her hand. where to start? what a question. "Since this whole exercise is about you telling me what the fuck is going on, I can't really help you there. How about you just start talking, and I'll ask if I need something clarified." From the floor, Cypher gave an exasperated exhale, and raised his shoulders slightly - the only movement he could manage after her thorough rope-work. "Okay then, at the risk of pissing you off further I'd like to start by reminding you that the others are in trouble, and I know you've got issues with me but this is ten kinds of not the time, so if you could tell me what it is you think I did this time, that'd speed things along." Mirale let out a gusty sigh. "You are such a pain in the ass, Cypher. How about you start by explaining where you've been, why you look like shit, and how you know our friends are apparently in danger." "I know because I was there with them instead of fucking around not answering letters" he snapped. Mirage chuckled, but her eyes were cold. "Here, let me help, since you seem to be struggling. 'Once upon a time, some travelling companions and I left Ignia...'" "Jesus, fucking fine. We parted ways at the foothills, you and Cri took off flying over the mountains and I took my no-flight ass through them. Landed in some mining village. No library, but interesting history. Chilled there for a week or so, then I got word from Ta'lok. "There was another job. He said we should all meet in Mossfalls, not that far north of where I was. So I packed my shit and headed out. Cri was already there, Saeldor arrived next day. You never showed." "When was this?" He looked upward briefly, calculating. "From when I last saw you? I got word about the job about ten or so days after that, arrived in Mossfalls like three days later? So two weeks, conservatively. "We waited, a whole other week, but it was kind of time-sensitive. Eventually Ta'lok said its fine, we've all sat one out before, and to be fair his message was vague. He said move out, and we did. "He wrote you again before that, in case you could meet us on site, and asking for some assurance you were okay. Never got an answer from that one either." He was no longer trying to keep the resentment out of his voice. it lined every word like a knife-edge. "Oh I'm sorry," Mirage interrupted, venom dripping, "does it bother you when people just dip out and go no contact for no reason? Is that frustrating for you? " He flinched, and started to make some form of concession, but she kept going. "Fucking hilarious, you hypocrite. In case you were curious, I spent those few weeks in jail on some bullshit Aurian charges of treason. Appreciate the rescue, although I know none of you can pick a lock for shit." Mirage watched, waiting for any explanation. She'd learned not to expect many from the warlock, but this time, it was fucking owed. Cypher had been looking something akin to contrite, but when she finished her statement he only stared. "If you're joking, it's not funny" Mirage deadpanned him. did she look like she was joking? she reached for her trouser cuff and pulled it up, revealing the tracker. He held her stare for a few seconds, then his expression changed swiftly from scrupulous to stunned realization. "Shit." he says, quiet. "shit. so that's why we couldn't reach you. But that doesn't expl-" he left the sentence hanging, and Mirage saw the pieces connecting into indignation. "Wait, you think I sold you out? And then was dumb enough to go hang out in one of the most likely places to run into you if you got out? Which, let's be honest for a second, you also think I'm stupid enough to think a regular goddamn locked door would contain you? Fucking christ, wow." "I don't know what to think. Because you NEVER. FUCKING TALK," Mirage snapped, "So how about you start talking." He tilts his head back, looking at the ceiling. It was unclear if he even heard her. "I'm honestly not sure what stings more, that you thought I'd do that to you or that you think I'm an imbecile. Usually when you're mad at me you've got a pretty legit reason but this takes the fucking cake, Mirage, it really does. Hell." After a moment, he glared into her face again. "Okay fine, you want me to talk? Ask me a goddamn question." Marwa's conviction faltered and she was too exhausted to hold it from her face. Feeling fatigue creeping up on her, she said, "You were on a roll there before I explained where I'd been. Keep going. So you went on this mission with Ta'lok. Then what?" Remorse, brief but present. "Okay but after that we have to do something about your new art piece," he says, looking toward your ankle for clarification. "It was one of those 'investigation' missions that's probably going to turn into either a rescue or a recovery. Word of whole trade caravans disappearing along Crowscar pass - uh, that's a pass in the southern Ironspines between the Awakened Wood and Hepmonalan- you know what the geography doesn't matter it was a bit of a hike but we got there after a few days. We tracked the missing parties to a tower in the hills. All decked out in creepy shit. Whole place had a weird energy, even to me. I had a bad feeling and told Ta'lok so and he said we go ahead. They were all set on it. It bugged me then and it bugs me now. At the least we should have regrouped - we were *not* set up for cult bullshit or necromancy or whatever the fuck that place stank of." "Mm." Marwa frowned, "Smells fishy. Then what?" "Cri scouted as a mouse. Found the captives. Cages in the basement. There was a tunnel entrance, we could circumvent the tower entirely. No traps that she could see. So we went in. Knocked out the guard - WEIRD fucking thing, too many arms, WAY too many eyes - ugh. Anyway, opened the cages up. Got the people out, they were rough but could walk. It was going well. Then we started to leave." He swallowed, then took a shaky breath, an ashy pallor on his face. "I do not know what to call the thing in the tunnel, I don't know if I can even tell you what it looked like other than it hurt my head to look at it. The others just started screaming. Then Ta'lok started swinging - on Cri." Mirage shut her eyes. "His eyes were somewhere else, he was sweating like crazy. Cri went spinning, she landed in a heap, then he broke her fucking wings." Closed eyes weren't helping. "Saeldor got between them and got his melon nearly split for the trouble. Knocked out cold. Then he turned for me." Cypher straightened out every inch of his scrawny, 5'5" maybe 5'6" frame, raised his chin and glared. "I don't know if you noticed? I'm not a half-giant! So yeah! I surrendered and go ahead and fucking hang me for it if you want but whatever the fuck that thing in the tower is still has Saeldor and Cri in a goddamn cage and he's mindfucked Ta'lok into guarding them, giggling and drooling like a fucked up zombie." "Sure, sure." The calm was fake, but convincing. She hoped. "Doesn't explain why you're here instead of there, though." The question seemed expected. "I don't know what kind of weird hex is on the place, but Saeldor's magic was barely functional. Mine worked fine. "They put us all in cells but they didn't seem to have clocked Cri's shapeshifting. She didn't have time to try it before Ta'lok beat her senseless. Saeldor worked what healing he could and Cri was gonna try to spider her way out and meet me here to go get you. "We agreed we shouldn't go at the same time, that way if one of us got shot down the other could still try - they'd probably double guard if they caught us. I went first. I guess you need specifics on that, too, huh?" He made a point of looking her in the eye before continuing, "I made my guard insanely curious about what it might feel like to eat his own hands and left while he was preoccupied." Mirage didn't flinch. In a survival situation, one does what one must. At her nod, he continued, "I got here in the late morning of what is now yesterday. I figured I'd give her till night to catch up if she got away and if I hadn't seen her by dawn I'd try to hop an airship, there's a mail station a few miles west of here." Mirage slumped down with her back to the wall and sits in a heap across the room, head tilted back against the wall. "Well this sucks." "Hey check it out, we agree on something." The chipper sarcasm was grating, but also a welcome return to long-absent normalcy. Mirage shut her eyes a moment. She didn't know if it was the exhaustion talking, but she wanted to trust him. But her own life was one thing; could she trust him with Asmira?Conditional Release
Cypher's voice interrupted her debate. "So that tattoo is what, a 'don't trust me I'm a convict' stamp? No, it'd be on your face or something. A beacon, then? You're being followed?" "Yep. You're looking at Auria's best-looking fugitive." Mirage punctuated the declaration with a big old dramatic wink. "I may swoon." Dryer than the cinder wastes. "I'm thinking life on the run looks better on me than it does on you, to be honest," Mirage commented. Insomnia was nothing new for him, but she'd never seen shadows this deep on his face before. "Yeahh, I don't think I sleep anymore. But that's neither here nor there, we can't rescue anything with a tail. Can I have a look?" She scooted over, he strained his neck to squint at it. "While you're checking this magic out, you've gotta have worked out a theory on Ta'Lok." She prompted, silently hoping it was a quick-change with some kind of shifter, "Did it look like he was under some sort of spell?" A slight movement at his arm, some reflexive moment that didn't account for the ropes. "Some, but in a sec. Were you conscious when they put this on you? You remember any incantation or anything they did? Any kind of tool or anything?" Mirage related what she remembered while he studied. She could see the gears turning. "This is kind of impressive work. I mean it sucks for you, but the design's genius. This is half a tattoo. You tried to scratch it out there and you gummed up the design a bit, but it's still working because it's not fully bound to you; someone else has a match, probably the person tracking you. The two marks are communicating with each other." He sounded genuinely impressed. "Which, the good news is if I'm right about that, then I might have something I can do about it" Mirage's head whipped back up, "Can you use it to figure out where the other sigil is? Can we track it the other way?" He met her gaze, eyebrows raised in appreciative approval. "Potentially? Maybe. Probably." He looked back at the tattoo, concerned. "I was just gonna jam it up with noise, make it babble nonsense instead of tattling on your location. I could..." he stopped, thinking. Then he shook his head. "I don't think it's a good idea." "Why not?" He was avoiding her eye. "... because - damn wouldn't it be great if I was a wizard? then I could explain how my shit works. That'd be fucking convenient right now. I'd look great in a pointy hat. What a waste. Okay, so to jam it up so it can't talk about where you are it's like... it's communicating, so it has a... a self, or a mind or part of one, kind of? But not really. "I can talk to that, and say things that break it, so that it can't do much but gibber. That's simple, contained to the tattoo. I still don't love the idea of using my magic on you, but I'm reasonably sure I can limit the crazies to the enchantment, and given the situation I don't think there's many other options. "Compare - trying to reach through the tattoo and find what it's talking to. The tattoo is on you. And to know where you are it has to have some kind of line to your senses, maybe even your mind in general. I'd have to tap into that to use its communication." He looks. Very uncomfortable. "Got it." Mirage nodded. "Yeah, I'm not doing that." "See? See how great it is when you communicate? Look at us, both making informed decisions together. Glorious." Mirage crouched down, placing the knife against the ropes. He followed her movements, wary, but unafraid. She held the eye contact like a vice. "I need some assurances before I set you loose. Friend." A flicker of hope. "Name it." "I didn't come here alone, and the person I brought with me is fully under my protection." She paused for a long moment, choosing her words carefully. "I want to trust you, Cypher. I want to believe that this just looks bad and it's a big misunderstanding we'll all laugh about later. Swear to me on something that matters that you mean us no harm, that we're safe here for the time being." "I swear on my parents lives, you're safe not only for now, but for as long as we're working together." Calm. Immediate. Mirage continued to stare him down, face-to-face for a second, impressing upon him the seriousness of the situation. Then she cut a smirk. "Cool. Then I'll know to watch my back once this partnership ends." She cut him loose. "I didn't mean it like that," he grumbled, rubbing his wrists as soon as they were free. But he was smiling a little. "Anyway thanks. Not that I couldn't've gotten you to untie me. Wouldn't even need magic." He was still on his knees, head tipped back to look up and to the side at her, an impish smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Should've punched you when I had the chance," Mirage smirked. Cypher got to his feet. "Okay hurry up and do the thing with the tattoo," Mirage said, sticking her leg out to facilitate. Eyes wide, he recoiled. "Mirage, no, that's - you heard what i said, right? It's gotta be getting its sense of location from your senses. Your awareness. I'm not touching that." "No I know, I thought you were gonna like, jam the signal. Send it a bunch of jibber jabber." Relief made his whole body slump. "Yes. Okay. Yes. That I can do. Geez." "Deep breaths, buddy." Mirage rolled the hem of her trouser and waited while he reexamined the sigil. He studied it, focused. His eyes became glassy, glazed over. Working his weirdass magic. Then, after a second, he came out of it, "Huh. That's weird. Mirage do you speak Infernal?" "Of course I don't speak Infernal. The fuck?" "Okay good then you don't have to stop your ears for this." "Ears don't stop, Cypher," she snarked. He ignored her, focused again on the sigil, and started talking. His casting voice was a chorus, like multiple voices talking in slightly-disjointed harmony. Impossible to get used to. The tattoo hurt, like a sigil-shaped beesting. Mirage hissed, but kept still. Cypher kept talking, smiling a little, and not in a cute way. The pain abated to a tingle, then nothing. Cypher rested back on his heels. Eyes refocused. He blinks, then looks up "That oughta do it." Mirage stepped back. "Not that this won't be the first place they come looking, but I need a night, and it's already late. Let's crash and then regroup after a rest. Probably should take watches." He stood as well. "You're telling me. I climbed a mountain yesterday." "Yeah that whole not-flying thing has gotta suck." "Truly we humans are pitiful beings," he drawled, gathering up his stuff. He tucked his creepy grimoire the rest of the way into the backpack and tied it loosely shut, slinging it over his shoulder. Then he grabbed his coat and long scarf and doubled them over his arm. That was, apparently, all he had on him. "Anyway I'll watch. You sleep. Where's Nimbus? You can get him to watch me if you want." "How about you come downstairs, Nimbus can watch all of us." "Sure. I can meet your prison buddy." Mirage grabbed the blankets from the hammock and led the way downstairs.The first floor of the tower was a single room with the stairs in the centre. Most of the space was given over to seating, potted plants, and small tables for holding books or teacups. The rest held a simple but well-stocked kitchen. Asmira was standing in the living area, wobbly with exhaustion, crouched as much to fit her ten-foot frame under the seven-foot ceilings as to facilitate the stance that indicated she would summon her flame saber at a word. She became more alert when Mirage appeared, but tensed when she saw the "fucker not to be trusted" behind her. Nimbus turned dark and crackled with static. "Everyone, this is Cypher. Cypher, this is everyone." Asmira relaxed, and when he managed to shrink his eyes back to normal size, the warlock offered a mumbled "pleasetameecha" which she returned with infinitely more dignity. "We've all agreed to be friends, but apparently the rest of our party is in danger so. Add it to the to-do list, I suppose." "I'll watch, too," Cypher said, stretching and heading toward a chair near a window. "I told you, I don't think I sleep anymore. May as well make myself useful." Mirage didn't answer, she brought the bedding over to Asmira and the two began setting up a sleeping area. "If only we had time for a pillow fort," Mirage murmured, smiling tiredly. "When this is all over," she replies, with similar expression. "We can invite that Terran you freed. He seemed nice." "I promised cobbles a sleepover and nail painting party, we'll have to have a whole get-together." Cheered but exhausted, the party settled down. Mirage instructed Nimbus to keep an eye out and rouse her for any trouble, and tried to get comfortable. Asmira was asleep in seconds. Between the long day, her intrinsic heat, and the vast improvement of bedding over hard earth, Asmira was asleep in seconds. Mirage took a moment longer. Cypher had set himself up in a chair near the front window, where he could see the walk-up and a good bit of the nearby mountainside, too. He dropped his backpack beside him and opened the grimoire over his knees. He suggested Nimbus could patrol the aerial approaches, and he'd keep an eye out front and walk the perimeter every little while. At Mirage's nod, Nimbus drifted outside. She kept her eyes trained on the warlock, who seemed almost studiously calm, watching through the window, pausing to start a line, glancing out again. Methodical. "Don't let me sleep past ten," she said. He glanced over, tapping a salute to his temple in confirmation. Mirage rolled her eyes, then she rolled over. Nimbus would wake her if something happened. He always did. She drifted off to the sound of turning pages and scratching pen.
Report Date
27 Jan 2025
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