RP:Hope For the First Time

Summary: Irenic needed to see the conditions Valrae was being kept in and to sort of case the place out.

Jail

As you walk into the jail, you see nothing intacted. The once whitewashed, stucco walls are now coved in ash and soot. The furniture that once sparely filled the room now lay in ashes. there is an acrid odor of recently burned flesh. Was the damage an act of the fates above or done in an swift cover up of a crime. As you look around you see an open cell door, in front of the door and to the right and in the corner you see several piles of ashes and another in the archway that leads to a hallway. On the wall about halfway up was a spike hammard into the wall. As you feel yourself drawn into the cell, you hear chatter of several people. A small glisten hits your eye before you make your way. You can exit north into the cell, and east out.

Sheriff Bart, a metal golem is here.

Valrae felt as if a lifetime had passed since she'd last seen the sky. Most of her miserable days were spent chained to concrete walls, the most gut wrenching and mind numbing gray, under a barred window that leaked when it rained. The witch was kept chained in iron by her wrists and ankles, so movement was limited, but she did have just enough room to reach the little weed that pushed itself stubbornly through a break in the floor. She watered it with what she could gather from the leaking window and couldn't help but feel a strong kinship to the ugly, crooked thing. Val was given no cot, no blanket and slept upright against the cold wall, unable to lie down comfortably on the floor in her chains. She had been doing so, chin resting on her knees, when a guard kicked her feet to the side and out from under her. Her temple met the floor before her sleeping mind could comprehend what had happen and catch herself. A small groan escaped bruised lips. "Get up you lazy witch, you have another visitor." The guardsman sneered, leaning over her to unlock her chains. She struggled to get herself upright, blinking at the dizziness and pain that was throbbing from her temple. The impatient guard snatched her up and onto shaking legs abruptly. He led Valrae to the room they took her for visitors pushing and shoving, dragging her when she couldn't keep up, while another guard followed with the same sneering laughter. They made it to the door and as they waited for it to open he released his grip. "You can have all the visitors and all the fast talking law men you want but you aren't ever getting out of here alive, witch. You messed with us normal folk for long enough." He had leaned in and Val wrinkled her nose at the stench of his breath. "You're gonna burn, wretch, and the last thing you'll see is my face." The door opened, so he gave her a final sneer before shoving her into the room.

Irenic… Or as he goes by now, Edlin was waiting in the room, standing silently and he came to visit her as soon as he heard she was in jail. His posture was impossibly perfect while his jawline was clenched in a silent rage because his elongated ears are able to pick up on some of the things being said to Valrae. The guard surely would have to pass by Edlin to get out of the visitors room after delivering Valrae and Edlin would stand there in the way. Of course a guard like this would try and act up and shoulder bump Edlin out of the way, but to his surprise this Avain remembered a few things from the military and it was like walking into a brick wall. Edlin surely earned a glare to which his wicked grin and manic glint in his eye would be waiting, his height surely intimidating by itself as the guard would have to look up. That low gruff tone darkened as he said in his sarcastic tone, "Thanks…" The guard would skitter off. Those bi-colored eyes settle on Valrae and his expression softened for just a moment before that rage returned at her weakened state, but he couldn't help himself, he shrinks every inch of distance between them to embrace her in a warm soft hug. Soft wings following kind to wrap her in warmth and comfort, not to mention her favorite scent. He wasn't well off himself, his left eye still slightly swollen, his knuckles battered and bruised some of them cut while there was also bruising all over his body; oh yeah, dried blood on those hypnotic wings to boot, "Valrae… What happened?" His voice went a little softer, but still purposeful in some dark way…

Valrae was so surprised to see Irenic, as she knows him by, that she could barely get any satisfaction out of the guard's obvious embarrassment at being out classed. He was a shining, living vessel of all things light and happy for her here in her grey world. Even with the blood staining the wings that still managed to draw her eyes to them in awe. She felt small and ugly and bitterly self-conscious standing across the room from him, even with his own injuries. Val never felt more like the weed on her cell floor than she did looking at him. The witch was in the standard gray clothes they gave all the prisoners and it did little to hide how alarmingly thin she'd become. Her face, particularly her lip and above her right eye, was bruised and throbbing. A small bit of blood was running from the new wound on her temple. The iron cuffs that bruised and broke the skin of her wrists and ankles made it awkward and noisy as she tried to re situate her tangled hair. Suddenly though, none of that seemed to matter. Irenic was holding her anyway, and the scent of salt and sand had tears springing to her dark eyes as she held onto him in return. Wrapped in his wings she felt safe for the first time in what felt like an eternity. She pulled back, just a little, to look at his face and frowned at him. "You're hurt..." She whispered. Maybe it was being trapped in a dark cell, maybe her mind was slipping, but something seemed different about the man before her. "Why are you hurt? Whats happened?" Val was pointedly ignoring his question. How could she explain that she'd been caught trying to alter a guards memory to keep the man she'd been with from going to jail for murder?

Irenic looked right back down at her and used his own sleeve to gently wipe the blood away from her wound. The sight of her actual wounds seemed normal to him, but the fact she was sporting them was what he didn't like. Regardless of her appearance his eyes still studied every feature of her face as if trying to memorize it and he gently held her chin in his other hand. He couldn’t believe she was more worried about him, "It was something I was asking for and the reason I'm so late in coming to visit you, but the explanation is not going to be something you'll like to hear so… Can we just skip it? Can I just be kissing you now?" Of course if she pressed the issue after a moment he would oblige and tell her what happened over the past month or so and how clueless he was to her imprisonment. Without a pause he leaned down to her and gently placed a kiss on her lips being sure to be mindful of the wound there and letting it linger. He was already plotting to get her out and once their kiss broke he would casually glance about taking note of all the security precautions. His gaze would eventually got back to her as he said, "I don't care what they think you did…. I know you cannot have deserved anything like this…" His tone became hushed, "I don't even care if you did something this bad, you aren't staying here." His expression and tone was so sure and secure.

Valrae frowned at his answer. Irenic could never deserve anything like that! His next comment had her smiling, a strange and almost foreign feeling to her now, into the light kiss. They parted, much to her sadness, and she decided to trust him and not to press the issue. She was so tired, too tired to hear any more bad news. There was little she could do to remedy whatever situation that caused him pain, and with the room being warded she couldn't even manage a simple healing, so what would it accomplish to know? He was looking at her again and she wanted so badly for him to know the truth... Before any news of what they say she did changed his mind. She wasn't some bitter witch who killed a man and tried to blame it on the 'lover who rejected her'. She hadn't used her magic to harm anyone! The Valrae before prison never would have. Though, it would be lying to say she hadn't whispered the words to a killing curse in attempt to end a guards life. "Irenic, I... They say I killed a man and tried to place the blame on Hudson, a man who rejected me." In reality, she'd only been caught trying to cover for Hudson after he'd killed Jo Finely, the old fisherman who'd been stalking her. Because Hudson was with another woman, a woman was carrying his child, she had taken the blame for all of it. This had opened the old wounds of Cenril's common people. They were tired of being caught in the cross fires of magic users and other creatures, Valrae made the perfect target for all their rage. Not to mention the anger that came with trying to tamper with one of the guard's own. Irenic's confident statement was met with a sad shake of her head. His words were a mirror of Hudson's own. She wanted desperately to believe him but had little hope that an end other than fire would come for her. "You can't help me now. No one can."

Irenic knew they didn't have much longer so be picked her up in a draping fashion over his arms to take her off of her feet for once and even wrapping her wings around her for warmth, "I don't care even if you did, that changes nothing… Not about me and not about what's to come." He spoke in some sort of code while sort of swaddling her and slyly glancing about, "Would you ever pledge yourself to the House of Dragana?" He asks quietly and if she knows anything about Lady Dragana and the House of Dragana she would know that it's chaotic evil aligned and that, but ultimately it would take her out of Cenril so they may not be able to pursue her there. "I am sure I could convince her to put you up in a room… Once…" He clears his throat, "Your.lawyer.clears.your.name." He places a sweet kiss on her forehead, "And I would make sure she could offer you the choice of being turned… You know… Into a Vampire if you wish." He fell silent for a small moment, "Did they go through your room at the Inn? Is there anything valuable there you wish for me to keep safe." He kept on talking about this as if he was sure she was going to be free soon. "Or even anything that can help… Your lawyer?" he was speaking cryptically hoping she would pick up on his hints that when he said lawyer he meant himself and his accomplice.

Valrae let out a startled feminine squeal as Irenic lifted her off her feet but didn't struggle. The warmth and safety he offered her felt more precious than gold. She closed her eyes for a moment, fighting back another wave of tears that threatened her and took a shaking breath. She couldn't really answer the string of questions he asked next. She only distantly recognized the Dragana name and had little idea of who he was asking her to pledge herself too before he was talking of vampires and the possibility of her being turned. Her forest shadow eyes widened. She'd read in some of her oldest books that the curse of vampirism stole one's connection with magic and to the witch that fate was worse than death. "I..." She started to answer but her voice died in her throat. The kiss her pressed to her forehead had the tears she'd been fighting slipping down her cheeks. "I don't know how to answer those questions, Irenic. I'm sorry, I don't know about the Dragana House, I don't know about being a vampire... But I'll do almost anything to leave this place." The way he was saying lawyer had her pretty sure he wasn't talking about the one Hudson had hired. "Maude, the maid at the inn, has my things... Well, the things the guards didn't take or ruin." A frown curved her sore lips. "I don't think they have my families book of shadows..." She matched his whispering tone and returned his gazed with a knowing one of her own. "I have a spell that would shatter any wards they keep... But it will only work from the outside."

Irenic stopped at a corner of the visiting room as the time was coming to an end so he can gently set her in the corner, "This visit has been quite 'healing' for me." He said slowly before leaning down once more and doing something he's never done before, an open mouth kiss, very sensual and passionately rough. She would realize soon there was a reason for this as he passed a tiny vial to her mouth which housed a healing potion, something to heal any current wounds subtly, not so much so that it was noticeable by the guards. "I will be seeing you soon." He left her in the corner when there was a knock at the door for them to open it and Edlin was right there smirking down at the ass of a guard. He spoke in a lower tone, full with malice and only for the guard to hear. Avians are usually respected creatures and if she were to pick up he was dressed up today almost like their night at the ball. They stayed by the opposite door for a little while before the guard nodded frantically and stepped widely around Edlin. Edlin turned and waved with that devilishly handsome smirk, "Bye beautiful!" The guard should be less abusive if at all, especially after showing off a sketch Edlin did of the guards family….

Valrae had tilted her head in question. She didn't understand what he'd meant by whatever code he was using, and wouldn't until she got a better look at the vial he slipped her when she had a chance to look at it alone in her cell. His kiss was so surprising, so out of character that it made actually sense when she felt him slip her a some sort of foreign object. The purpose for the unusually passionate kiss didn't take away the pleasure of it. She returned it with a quiet enthusiasm of her own and carefully slipped the vial under her tongue. The witch watched Irenic cross the room with a sadness that threatened to swallow her whole. Thinking of returning to that cell, after being with him and feeling so safe, after he brought the smell of her ocean and freedom back to her, had panic clawing at her chest. Watching the guard cower under the Avian's disapproval was enough to calm her. Val waved back at Irenic and as the guard followed her back to the cell, without a word exchanged between them, she felt hope for the first time.