RP:Antidote by a Critic

From HollowWiki

Part of the Larketian Fault Lines Arc


Summary: Callum visits Queen Josleen in jail and agrees to make an antidote to save a King he is critical of.

The Dungeon, Fort Freedom

Josleen has been in the dungeon for over two weeks. Imprisonment has taken a heavy toll on the proud and composed Queen, who is no longer capable of looking like either of those things. No makeup, no gown, no smooth locks. Instead she wears a wrap-around dress that’s seen better days (like literally 14 days ago). Her loyal handmaiden Floria has redecorated the cell as much as possible, adding creature comforts such as a downy comforter over the cot, and a mirror hangs over the rusted wash basin, in which Josleen can keep track of the deepening bags under the eyes, the redness of her nose, the anguish that lines her face. Those who comes visit her will be remembered for their loyalty and faith. Those who do not will always be suspected of Josleen as potential enemies, those who would dare believe she could poison her husband, King Macon, who currently lies comatose under heavy guard. Josleen’s heart breaks at the thought that she cannot be at his side, and that he who she loves deeply may pass. That grief deepens by the fact that she’s been separated from her son as well, under order of King Macon’s mother, Augusta. The boy screams terribly for his mother and father, and thanks to the royal family’s shared rage infection, Josleen can feel his rage from within the dank, foul-smelling walls of her cell. She has spent weeks crying, screaming, threatening, then eventually begging and then lying weakly, still, too defeated to move a muscle for hours on end. But recently hope returned to her when a monk named Bastion gifted her the ability to feel her son and husband from a distance, send them her love. It’s difficult for her to use this gift. Is it fading? Is she too much of an amateur magic user to wield it? She sits cross-legged on her cot and closes her eyes, focusing on the objects of her love. She looks as if she is meditating, but Josleen never meditates in earnest. She simply wants to feel them, her family, give them her heart.


Callum :: It didn’t take much for Callum to hear about unfortunate situation with the Royals. Another unfortunate thing, is that he couldn’t quite tend to the Queen as quickly as she might’ve liked because his girlfriend had been attacked twice, once here at home and another in the fiasco that happened in Cenril. And then he had to deal with the other Catalians. It was a very stressful couple of weeks indeed. But now, as he wandered the halls of the fort, and soon found himself in the jail, he started to wonder just what prompted Josleen to do this. A mask was put up, just as soon as he reached her cell, and a bow of his head given, “Queen Josleen.” Ocean blue eyes wandered around the cell itself, a slight frown twisting his lips.


Josleen looks up when she hears Callum’s voice, recognizing it with a slight lag. Everything’s surreal from within this cell. It’s hard to believe this is really happening to her sometimes. How quickly things can turn because of one wicked person’s misdeed. “Callum…” She rises from her cot and smooths her messy hair over one shoulder. She slips her feet into slippers and adjusts her dress to cover her chest more modestly. “I’m glad you’ve come. I’ve been hoping to reach you. Maybe you could help the King and I.” She glances down the hall to try and spy the guard, but she cannot see them from here. “The whole fort has gone mad.”


Callum raised a brow at the woman, a side-eye going towards where he’d last seen the guard, but he was even just out of sight for Cal. “Indeed. What exactly happened? Macon was poisoned? And… you’re the one that did it?” He didn’t have the sort of judging look on his face that Josleen perhaps might’ve seen with nearly everyone else in the fort. Instead, it was pure curiosity, and maybe a little bit of pity. “I will do what I can to help you all. If I knew what was in the poison, I could probably make an antidote.” He scratched his chin lightly in thought, dark brows knitting together.


Josleen scowls when Callum asks if she poisoned Macon. Light-hearted tone or no, how dare he even entertain the thought as a possibility. “Of course not!” she hisses. “How could you even ask that. I would never, never!” She glares at Callum a little through the bars. This is not time to create new enemies, but Josleen cannot help her reaction. She feels that strongly about this bogus accusation, and about her family. “I love my husband, who is also my King and the father of my child, who--” She cuts herself off, choking up a little as she feels her distance from her son acutely. “No, I did not do it. I want nothing more than for Macon to wake and return to me and to Guillem.” Pause. “And Larket,” she adds as an afterthought. “I’ve been framed, and whoever framed me -will- pay, but right now all I want is my husband back. If you could come up with an antidote…” She clutches her chest and sighs weakly. “Please do whatever you can. Find Roald, the Kinsguard, he believes me and will trust you to do this. He can help you get whatever information you need.”


Callum smirked somewhat at the Queen and her reaction, “It was more a repeating of what’s been going around than a direct question, Your Majesty. I’m not accusing you; just trying to get the facts straight because a lot of muck has been thrown about.” A beat. “The fact that anyone thinks you’ve done such a thing is ridiculous.” There. Hopefully that’ll smooth things over. Somehow, though… he… actually believed her? Sure, they were corrupt as hell and everything they were doing with the witches were absolutely awful, but… Callum had this nagging feeling in his gut that Josleen wasn’t capable of this. At the very least, she’d probably have someone else do her dirty work, like Muzo had been doing for some time. It definitely was karma biting her in the arse for all of that. He stared at Josleen for a short moment, studying the way she held herself, the way she spoke. He’d seen a lot of liars in his time--hell, even he was one--and a lot of really bad ones, but Josleen wasn’t one. At least, not right now. “Alright. I will speak to Roald. It may take some time, if only because I’ve got to run some tests to figure out just what was in it, so try to be as calm as you can and I’ll help you get through this.” He mustered a faint smile for her, choosing not to tell her that there was a possibility of the antidote not even working.


Josleen cuts in as Callum says he was simply repeating what’s going around. “Well don’t, this is my family!” Her lip snarls slightly, recoiling from his deeply personal pain. Callum continues smoothing things over and she calms down again breath by breath. “Thank you. Headmaster Percival may be able to help too. He’s the first to find and treat Ma-con.” Her voice squeaks on the name. It’s still hard to accept what has happened to him. Her lips quiver and tears sting her eyes. “I can’t lose him, Callum.” Her voice whines as she struggles to speak. “I know most people don’t see him like I do. He’s hard on the outside, tough. The City sees him in armor, giving speeches, enforcing the law. No one sees him as I do. He’s such a good man. Few see that because he’s not soft. I know the figure he cuts and how intimidating it can be, but he loves this city, his family. He’s so smart--not academically, but he just -knows- things, you know? Intuition.” Her voice grows thick with snot. She inhales sharply through her nose to clear it of tears and phlegm. “He works so hard, too. He’s such a unique person, such a great man, you know? One of those one in a million men that actually matter and make an impact on the course of history, you know? He’s just…. It would be a tragedy to lose him, not only for me but for the world, and I think the world doesn’t know it yet.”


Callum took Josleen’s biting words in stride and listened to the rest of her passionate speech. It was rather hard for Callum to agree verbally to her words, so he nodded along with a somewhat strained smile. There were -some- things she wasn’t wrong on, like how he’s really made an impact on history. He sure did--just not in the way most would want their leader to go about things. “Yes. I-I understand.” He didn’t understand. At all. Just how could she be so blind? To not realize that the things he was doing was very -very- wrong? The money probably helped, and things likely just snowballed from there. “Don’t worry, Your Majesty. I will do everything in my power to aid you.” He gave her another smile and a brief nod, a glance given towards the guard who was standing at the end of the room, staring at him. “It would seem that my time’s up. If I am needed again, send for me. Otherwise, I will be doing as tasked.” Amongst worrying about everything else that was going wrong in Lithrydel at the moment.


Josleen can tell that Callum doesn’t share her enthusiasm for the King, not have a fifth of it. It bothered her, but her pool of allies was small and shrinking. At the very least she trusted him not to kill the King, to attempt an antidote in good faith. “Thank you. I hope you succeed, for all our sakes.”