RP:Visiting Hours

From HollowWiki

Summary: Thamalys eventually manages to pay a visit to Emilia - still behind bars. The Avian brings with him fresh news from Frostmaw about the Giants-That-Never-Were, thus adding yet another drop of doubt and confusion into the Genasi’s mind. Powerful keys and most boring books are exchanged in the final bars of the conversation, before the Spellblade leaves in a flurry dripping relief and anger alike.

Larket: Holding Cell

Emilia remained in lock up behind the cold bars of the Larket jail in a cell that had been enchanted to prevent the little ice woman from using her elemental abilities to escape. Each cell was almost identical to the one next to it with a bed, desk, toilet and empty of life except for one, Emilia’s. Not only did the cell contain a being, the ice woman, but it lacked a desk and bed, however a mattress was left on the floor in the corner. A large desk sat across from the bars with her belongs from arrive stacked neatly upon it; leather pants, deep red blouse, corset, satchel, quiver with arrows, worn boots, and a elegant dark wood bow. Behind the bars laying on the worn out mattress was the little woman in a set of grey cotton clothes much too large for the petite woman, the jail wasn’t prepared to hold beings no bigger than a kid. The eyes of the Healer were closed, as if she was sleeping, yet she wasn’t as those frosted blue lips were moving, “How many times are you doing to ask me the same questions and get all red face mad when you get the exact same answer?” she questioned the guard standing before her holding chamber. The man had his hands around the bars, holding so tightly his knuckles were bright white while his stubble covered face was bright red, “You really are one mentally insane monster!” The voice of the guard was loud enough to be heard from the front room of the jail. Emilia only chuckled, a sound like ice clinking against glass, at the reaction from the visiting guard. “You will rot behind bars, Monster!” he spat at he shook the bars before storming off back toward his desk to sit while it was his turn to watch the odd woman that attacked Larket.

Thamalys impatiently devoured the few steps separating him from the entrance to the prisons. Cleared the hurdle of the Sheriff, he still had to face a last spat of resistance, this time promptly offered by the rounded shapes of the handyman of the cells: “Where d’ya think ya’r going, ya big bird? Not even close to visiting hours are ya, innit?” noted the batman, a chubby finger pointing toward a rather battered piece of parchment hanged on the brick wall near by. Curiously enough, no answer would have followed - just a loud shriek, swiftly followed by the fluttering shapes of Nebb storming into the room, immediately locating the cubicle holding the Wintry Lady. The massive Red Kite would not fit between the bars, and yet he would have kept pecking at them, the loudest squawks producing much to the annoyance of the guard - presently halfway between the cell and his desk. The keeper had barely time enough to turn once more to face the winged intruder - only to find a far, far larger bird just made his appearance in the fairly crowded space. “You were saying?” Those three words only, and Nebb would have shut silent, the chill dripping from the Spellblade words as close as one could imagine to the frosty tone of the Genasi. The attire of the Blue must have appeared rather odd, a whole wolf pelt hanging across his tattooed chest, edges brushing not so gently against the leather of some black pants, tightly wrapping those impossible long legs. The Gossamer Halberd squarely secured on his back, silver-clad wings neatly folded - and yet clinking loudly against all manners of walls, doors and furniture alike - the ivory white deadlocks of the Avian were for once combed in a massive bun, an elegant, radial pattern of braids escaping the knotty mass to fall across his shoulders. And, on top of the usual hint of vanilla exhuming from his pale skin, a clear note of moss should have been evident to some keen nostrils. The Spellblade seemed absolutely decided to behead the sentry right here and there, the eyes of the Blue a fearful mixture of gold and blue which was more than enough to shove away the guard, immediately taking a sit at the above mentioned desk, eyes low on some silly paperwork. And yet, the moment he glimpsed the Ice One behind bars, he would have just discarded the man at once, long strides taking toward the cubicle. “Emilia. Blessed be the Wind, you are whole and well… are you not?” he asked, not a single note of concern audible at this stage, so colossal the effort of the Avian was to avoid bringing havoc to the Fort once more. His eyes, though, told a whole different story.

Emilia stirred at the distant sound of a familiar voice, though it wasn’t present in the same room as the one she resided in, but she was fairly sure that Not Lost was beyond that door leading to the main room of the jail. Sure enough Nebb came bursting into sight first if only to make the most annoying noises the Genasi had heard in a long time. Black and white mismatched hands raising to cover over her ears until the loud sounds had died down into silence. That silence was replaced by the voice of Not Lost, a soothing voice to her still aching ears from the ruckus moments ago. Standing abruptly the ice woman nearly leapt off the bed, her rising only slowed by the falling of the large grey pants from about her itty bitty waist. Stepping out of the fabric those bare feet wandered across the floor to reach the bars that kept her separated from the avian on the other side. The shirt she’d been given was long enough on the lady that it fell to her knees as if it was meant to be a dress keeping her still properly covered even though it hung off her left shoulder. If the neck hole was any wider it would have fallen off the Healer. Those eyes of hers were not the same as the last he saw the woman, they lacked the pupil and were a solid white tinted with a faint hint of the icy blue they normally were. Looking into her eyes was like looking at a layer of ice over a pond. Em wasn’t blind, she could see as evident by her reaction to the arrival of Thamalys. The worry that he’d been harmed in the evacuation of the giants washed away in this moment of his visiting her. The soft white hand of the Healer reached out between two of the bars in an upward direction aimed for the face of the winged man. A gentle reach to touch his face to make sure she wasn’t dreaming and that he truly was there. If allowed, she’d only rest her hand on the side of his face, thumb tracing over his cheek bone, “Thamalys...it really is you…” she’d whisper.

Thamalys let go of a long sigh, two measures of relief, one of confusion, three of anger. Standing right in front of the steel dividing Genasi and Avian, the latter would have seized the bars, still unwilling to believe somebody dared to trap the Wintry Lady in that - or any other, in fact - sodding place. “Definitely me…” he would have growled in his lowest pitch, his weight shifting from one foot to another, his head leaning - nose and lips first- on the steel, the hand of the Icy One still playing with his jaw line. “I would have come much earlier, of course… but I received a direct order from Sabrina, and had to fly to Frostmaw at once. There is… there is so much I have to tell you about. But first and foremost, what happened to you? Who dared to bring you here in the first place? And why are you clothes sitting on that desk? Why indeed!” he would have yelled, suddenly pulling his face away from her hand and the steel alike, turning instead whole toward the guard. “Is this how Larket treat a highly esteemed Healer? Is this the gratitude you bloody oik are going to show to the Guild? Shame, shame on you! Give me those pants, boots and blouse, would you? Quick!” he shouted, immediately after turning once more to face the Icy One, not even caring whether his demand was about to be met or not. “Your… your eyes, m’lady. I shall hope you are doing as well as you can do? Are these animals treating you alright? I shall have them skewered if not…” he added in a whisper, his gaze never letting go of the pale one of the Genasi.

Emilia stood upon her tiptoes as he placed his face against the bars keeping the two in separate places. The extra height granted her enough length to place a frozen kiss upon the tip of his nose poking through the bars into her side of the area. It was brief contact with him as he suddenly jerked away to scream at the guard sitting at his desk with eyes drawn down at some piece of paper laying before him. The man literally jumped in his seat, falling right out of it onto the floor with a loud thud that followed with a sound of clattering as the chair as it hit the ground next. Emilia herself jumped at the sounds of all the crashing to the floor, but her white eyes never left the figure of the Blue. “I am fine...I am not worried about my clothes, I will get them back when...if...I get free from this place. Don’t worry. If you’d like you can take them with you for safe keeping until I get out. Then at least I know someone won’t steal them…” There was a pause as she stared past him for a moment to watch the guard as he fell again when trying to get up from the floor. A tiny chuckle at the way karma worked before looking back to the winged man. “I was at the square of town before the bridge when I got surrounded by Larket military...Don’t fret. They haven’t harmed me. I will be alright. It is sooo good to see you. I was worried something terrible had happened to you…” Both hands now rested on the bars, lightly holding onto them before she rested her forehead against them, staring up into the eyes of the Blue.

Thamalys nailed his stare into the chalky one of the Wintry Lady, his lips moving slowly, much of his teeth showing while he made clear that “You. Will. Get. Free from this place - that is a just fact. Very well, then…” he uttered in a quite annoyed tone toward the fallen guard. “Let those clothes where they are. I shall take care of them personally. Now…” he continued, once more bringing himself as close as possible to the metallic bars. “Seeing you again, safe and sound, even behind bars, is all I have dreamed about since the very moment you shoved me away into the snow storm. I am glad… and yet, if I would have to measure my anger as of now, witnessing you in prison… you alone, while this Avian is freely walking through the City… ah, the extent of my sorrow, and guilt, and fury… could easily contend with the might of the Vibrance itself!” he ranted, a single punch delivering against the closest bar at hand, the disturbing sound of bones against metal reverberating obnoxiously through the murky air. Then, he would have fell on his knees first, only to manage to sit, legs crossed, in front of the Icy Lady. “I… I have something to tell you - as much as you won’t like it, I am afraid. Bear with me, m’lady - you know I care about you more than I care about myself indeed, and I hope you trust my words to be true.” A whole moment of silence, now, just before the Spellblade seemed to finally resolve a manner of a speech. “Where do I begin… well, maybe from the end instead of the beginning. Those Frost Giants. They… they never existed - no, wait!” he hastily added, some most likely not-entirely-pleasant reaction already building into the Wintry Lady. “I know this sounds like an utter pile of nonsense - and I am confused as much as you must be… but this is the truth. After the snow storm faded, I returned to Sage with Sabrina - and Meri, not sure if you know this one… a ton of questionable tattoos, if you ask me… anyway. I came back where I left the Giants, explicitly telling them not to move for their lives… and they were just not there. No footsteps as well. And of top of this… Hildegarde told me no Giants ever made it to Frostmaw recently. They. Never. Existed - if you can believe that…” he would have concluded, his own right hand trying to get hold of the blackened wrist of the Icy One, as to keep her from too loud a reaction. Soothing, trying to convey the truth in his words - however painful. Not far away, Nebb was playing with a pebble, in utter silence.

Emilia looked beyond the metal wings of the avian to watch as the guard managed to get the chair back upright on the floor followed by himself. It was a show in and of itself watching the chubby man crawling up from the ground into the wooden chair with hands trembling. His nose turned back into the paper on the desk, pretending it had some interest for him while he listened in on the conversation of the odd pair. Watching the form of Not Lost slowly fall into sitting before the bars the woman felt bad for a moment that he was stuck to having to sit on a cold floor just to be able to stare at the tiny woman through those dark bars. For a time she remained standing if only because he had started to speak, daring to tell that those giants he summoned her to witness being trapped was a lie! Those small hands started to shake, a gentle almost mist like fog rolling off her skin as the enchantment on her cell prevented her anger from causing another snow storm within the jail itself. She was still trembling when his hand snatched her black wrist into his calming grasp. The healer was still standing as she lifted the side of that dress to reveal a raven inked into her flesh at her thigh and hip, the chest of the bird a white rose--almost lost to her natural skin tone now-- into the the black feathers of the raven, “Of course, I know Meri. She inked me, but we have been friends for some near three years if I can remember right. A good woman to have on your side, for sure. Not nearly as scary as Sabrina being your enemy, but pretty close…” Talking about the two ladies helped in the settling of the ice woman’s nerves, yet still she wouldn’t pull away from his grasp because she didn’t know when she’d experience it again. Finally, she took a seat sitting across from him at the bars those white-blue eyes of hers staring into his, “I find it hard to believe you after all that happened, that I saw and witnessed...but Sabrina and Meri also visited with the same story...and now you too...I do not understand it...it cannot be…”

Thamalys sat in silence for a good while, in fairness thanking each and every God within his scarce knowledge for the Genasi - up to now - managing not to bring some more havoc in the form of the Wind only knew what. As a matter of fact, the Avian did not judge the magic sealing the cell capable of trap the might of the Wintry Lady. And yet, he knew that even the two of them combined would have not succeeded in freeing the Icy One - merely because of the fact that the Guild could not afford yet another blow, two fugitive adding to the already quite thick mixture surrounding the pressing business ahead. Instead, he managed to crack something vaguely resembling a proper smile, the moment the Genasi exhibits her ink. He had so much on his own skin… and yet, none of it beautiful by any standards - it was there for a flaming purpose, and nothing more. His eyes stared for a while at the soft strokes building the inked raven - malice? Not a single droplet, it just had none to tap from. “I know… it does not make any sense…” he begun, casually twisting his own wrist to envelop the darkness of her skin wholly - something he cherished, something to hold on to in those days full of madness and doubt. “Nonetheless. It has to be, I am afraid. How… I do not know - I want answers… so, so badly, and yet I do not know where to begin. I have been told poison, hallucinations… but I’ll have none of that. We came to the Cells via different paths at different times. No, it had to be something else. Do you remember how I seemed to get impossibly sleepy at once? No candles were found in there - no nothing, but if anything I know my body, I know I was falling asleep indeed. Why… I do not have an answer. But I fear magic in here. And a mighty one indeed, if it managed to trick me… and even more… you. Thinks of what we have done, m’lady. A full snow storm - for nothing. A crazy run to Sage and back - for nothing. This is so, so unfair…” he would have pointed out, more and more golden streaks building into a sort of web within his solid blue gaze. “Somebody would have to pay for it - mark my words. We have been sorely tricked, and used, as puny pawns indeed. And yet, I can only think about one thing… and that is… having you outside this bloody place…” he concluded, his head one more time resting upon the chilly shapes of the steel in front of him.

Emilia smiled softly if but for a moment as she listened to him question the strange turn of events that for the two of them were beyond real, but to the rest of the world some crazed moment of madness that had no explanation behind it. “I have not the faintest explanation as to what is really happening here, but if it is magic that is pulling the strings on this then it is a most powerful magic, one the world has not seen in many ages. I am not perfect, though I seem to think you might think I am such or damn near close to it, but even I can fall target to such higher powers...but perhaps it wasn’t magic? Perhaps it was a toxin released into the air from that strange purple burning candle. I know you say nothing was left to be found, but something as simple as a wax object can easily be erased from existence as if it was never there to begin with...in time we will have answers, I promise you that. Something in my bones tells me this isn’t over, whatever it is...we have yet to see the full extent of what is to come…” A sigh left those frosted lips before the Icy One rested her forehead against his. Eyes falling shut as she let out another gentle sigh, it was followed by a whisper that only the ears of the avian would be able to hear, “I fear I overheard the guards talking the other day….the did a big of digging into the old records of the city...from a time when I was human and youthful...there are crimes marked in my record that never were tried for and I believe if I heard it right the accounts were sent to the King for his final determination as to how to proceed...dark-twisted parts of my past have been brought into the light of day...I fear that the guard might be right if the King chooses to act upon it...I may rot away in the dungeon…” A third sigh left the frosted lips, but she had to be honest with this one. Speaking to him now before someone else spoke of it and sent him into a fit of fiery rage landing him locked up too.

Thamalys listened, carefully - if quite astonished. “It takes… an awful lot of effort to hide darkness away from me…” he almost painfully answered in turn the Blue, right before an only-too-well voice exploded in his head, demanding justice. || From -you-? Don’t make me laugh… I, on the other hand… ||. And yet, the unworldly speech of the scaly, ageless tyrant would have been discarded in a split second - the Spellblade had more pressing matters to deal with. “I will never come to believe you guilty of any evil - that much I know with uttermost certainty. Much as I know…” and here his tone would drop likewise, a thin murmur dedicated to her ears only, his head leaning as far away as possible, given the steely constraints of the bloody cage, toward the curls framing that tiny frosty head. “… that I will never allow you to rot anywhere indeed. In fact, the Queen of Frostmaw herself told me she may try soon to petition Macon for you release… if that would fail… we’ll find another way.” He concluded, an ominous gush of blue flames rolling from his left hand to land on the floor, burning the dirt for a moment only before the Blue called it away with an almost unconscious flick of his wrist. Nebb still complained, though - loudly, and even the guard could swear to have seen something gleaming in the dim light. “In the meantime… this is for you.” he offered, eventually letting go of her wrist - not without a long sigh - and instead reaching from his faithful leathery satchel secured across his back, shortly after producing a small book with a deep blue cover, long, elegant letters covering every single inch of the pages within. “It is an history of the Xalious Mountains - I have… borrowed it, that is, somewhere in Frostmaw. It is yours, to help you fight the boredom - if you so wish.” The guard would have obviously noticed the move of the Blue, and yet he seemed not to care at all. As such, the Avian would have went ahead, the treatise squeezing within the bars.

Emilia felt a strange wave of calming wash over her at hearing the words of the Avian as he proclaimed that he couldn’t fathom her guilty of evil, even if she herself felt like she’d done some horrid thing to find herself by fate’s grace behind bars. His whispers brought a light smile to those lips as a whisper slipped out of them, “Hildegarde has saved my life before as well as for a time banished me from the city of Frostmaw, I am surprised to hear that she would want me free’d from behind bars. I haven’t spoken to her in many many months...glad to hear she sounds to be doing well…” Listening to him as he spoke on put a gentle smile on her icy lips, he’d brought her a book to read. The winged man sure did know the woman well, though the subject matter could have been a more interesting choice. “Thank you, Thamalys, I would much enjoy reading something to pass the time,” she replied with gentle words as a black hand would accept the book being shoved through the steel bars between them. Holding the book in her hands Em traced her thumb over the cover with a slow motion before hugging it close. The embrace to the object lasted shortly before she sat it down on the ground next to her. Hands in her lap with thumbs twiddling about one another she glanced past the Blue toward her clothing, “In the pocket of my pants is a key, it will let you into any of my homes from Gualon to Venturil to the Greenhouse in Frostmaw, I am sure there is a number of other locks it works on, but those seem to be the most used places of mine. Feel free to take home in any of them...you may find a random deal of books to read within them as well as many other objects of interest.”

Thamalys dip his head into a grateful nod, the huge mass of his dreadlocks swaying accordingly. But then, he shook his cranium, slowly, in a soft tone declaring: “I shall thank you for trusting me with such a precious object. But that key won’t open any door - not until I shall have you free again. Then you’ll show me around your greenhouse, and we’ll spend whole ages debating about plants, and roots, and flowers even. But I shall not rest until that day. Now…” he uttered, he himself raising on his feet, the rims of his wings twitching ever so slightly, as if cramped by the recent sitting. “… as much as the whole of myself does not really want to leave you alone in here again… with your permission, I shall go. I will… speak, and implore, even, if necessary. Whatever is needed to have you on the other side of these silly bars. I will be back soon enough, hopefully with some good news. Nebb will stay here… did you get that, fatty?” he remarked all of the sudden addressing the guard still stubbornly intent in proofreading for the twelfth time the very same bill. “This magnificent bird of prey is to stay - and not to be disturbed, or he will pierce your ears like there’s not tomorrow!”. Once more toward the Wintry Lady, then. “Anything should happen, send Nebb to me - he’s darn fast when it matters. I.. I think this is all, for the moment. Till soon…” he would have concluded in a strange tone, as if bitterly torn between staying or not - which was the case indeed notwithstanding his words.

Emilia stood as the Winged One rose to his feet, yet her height was nothing in comparison to his tower figure over her own much smaller one. The smile that graced those frosted lips was one filled with a great sadness when he requested leave, but she would give a gentle nod sending white curls falling into her freckled face, “Of course, you may go. You don’t need to have my permission to leave, you are a free man…” simple words. She didn’t own him and would never dare forbid him from leaving her locked behind the bars here, even as much as she would have loved for him to stay. She could not stand to see him all cramped and confined in a small space such as this. “Thank you for visiting, Thamalys. It means a lot to see you on this day. And thank you for the book as well as the company of Nebb. I look forward to showing you the greenhouse on of these days. Please do take care of yourself in the meantime. That includes eating, resting, and not driving yourself into the ground over my stay in this lovely guest room at the jail. I have been through much worse...I will be fine.”

Thamalys muttered something not necessarily meaningful, before trying something close enough to a bow. He needed not to add anything to his - or her, in fact - salutation, but he still had matters to be dealt with. He turned on his heels, his silver-clad wings tinkling in a faintly high pitch, two stride only moving toward the guard’s desk. “I’ll take care of these…” he just stated, his tone dead flat, while scooping much of the Wintry Lady’s attire and personal effects as well into his - now - bulky satchel. The man did not move a finger - oh wait, that he did, but just along yet another line of characters along his beloved document still sitting in front of him. “I will be back soon enough… pray, oh pray, I would never hear you address that marvellous creature in the same way you did before… or I’ll find you, no matter what. Enjoy your day, fatty…” he concluded, before squeezing his wings through the door not with little effort, a moment after emerging on the other side. A last glance toward the cubicle - faithfully surveilled by the ever-pacing shapes of Nebb - and the Winged Beast was gone, his mind racing furiously already about how exactly he could have helped the Icy One to see daylight again.


This RP is linked to: RP:The Dirty (not to mention Frosty) Dozen ,
which in turn originated from: RP:A Snow Storm in Larket