Random 65

Sylvie felt mostly tired. And numb. She had a bit of sympathy for Brice - trying to do a job of dubious morals well because you thought you had to, yes, that seems familiar - and could not work up anger anymore. Maybe she had spent it all on her little part in the play. She turned her chair around and sat sideways on it, resting her elbow on its back. Looking at Brice wiping his eyes, she hoped they could soon get on with things.

Brice was completely confused, and her outward calm after the rage earlier did not help matters. Both of them seemed unpredictable. He took the offered bottle after a moment because he did not want to offend, and because a stiff drink seemed about right.

He took a sip as Sebastian made his answer, then cleared his throat. "My youngest sibling is ten," he said by way of explanation. He moved to put the bottle on the table, wondering what kind of person could go from threats to jokes about hounds and foxes like that. He abruptly turned green, called, "good gods, you're not..." and tried to set down the bottle on thin air. It shattered on the ground.

Sylvie turned to Sebastian and said quietly, "Depending on the impression you wanted to leave our friends next door with, that" -- she nodded at the shards -- "may actually have been useful."

Sebastian was wont to agree with Sylvie's comment (and nodded at the comment), but was far too stunned because he had realised that some time ago he had been about to take a brother from his siblings, one that cared for them -- and family loyalty, that he could understand. Understand, but had only achieved... well, when? Still, none of that was apparent on his face. He shook his hair looser and looked at Brice, smiling. "Yes, that's me. Koljo, the baron, Willy, some other things. I'll tell you, my job is not fun," the half-elf said, moving a strand of hair behind his ear as he watched the man. "But I've always kept my word if the other end is kept too, and to be honest, I don't hate you. I don't even want to kill you, and never did. That's... reserved for someone else."

Brice tried to get his breath back. And his wits. There were too many thoughts flitting through his head, most of them panicked, to have good use of any one.

To help him get over that shock on top of everything else, Sylvie found a little smile somewhere, and said, not unkindly, "Brice, when you're finished gawping, I'd like to know all you can tell me about those artifacts." Well, a task in front of her tended to focus her mind.

She gave Sebastian a look, wondering if that kind of thing happened often.

It did, though sometimes people just thought him to be one of those people with some kind of mental disorder that caused them to think they were someone from a legend or history. Sebastian responded with a sidelong glance, but preferred to look at Brice instead, shrugging. He remained quiet.

After a few more moments of trying to focus on Sylvie and her question -- If he was the Fox, that explained why he had given the orders, and had them obeyed, at least. -- Brice closed his eyes for a moment and asked, "Can you give me a place to start?"

What would be easy? "A description?"

Brice shook his head. "I haven't seen them. Langoll said it might lead to unpleasant consequences. And that we would see they worked from watching the weather." He considered for a moment and held his hand up, parallel to the ground, about level with his eyes. "The box for one of them I've seen was this tall. Long and narrow." He became a little calmer, slowed down, but kept shooting quick, bewildered looks at Sebastian.

"And there were three of them."

That got a nod.

"What I'm wondering about is the timing. If they had to be activated, in a specific order or at the same time... Do you know anything about that?"

He bit his lip and shook his head a little. "They were put in place over the course of a few days. The weather showed signs of coming change during that time, but, well, weather changing is natural." He shuddered. "Langoll stayed where they'd been set up each time for hours, but I don't know if he had to perform a ritual or anything like that to start the weather magic.

With a sigh he went on, "He did something, anyway." Brice rolled his left sleeve up to his elbow, exposing a bandage it had just covered. He held his arm up and with two fingers indicated an inch-wide stripe from close to his wrist down to his elbow. He frowned, but his voice remained distant. "Some kind of... very strange burn. I wanted to get a look at one of those places while he was elsewhere and got this instead. I think I only brushed the door with my sleeve. Hurt like hell then, but didn't damage the cloth in between."

Sylvie nodded to that, unsurprised that there was a trap. "Sounds easy to trigger. Did nobody else get hurt, just passing?"

"Not that I heard." Pause. "I was holding the key in my other hand, so that could be it."

The half-elf twitched. For one reason or another, he had been hoping this had been the last stretch on the way to deal with the rainfall. Sebastian shut his eyes for a moment. "We'll need that key, then. I only know what sort of magic to avoid or run away from," he muttered, staring at the shards of glass on the floor. Mentally, he was sizing up the boxes Brice was talking about before asking: "Boxes? Metal?"

"No, wood," Brice answered, looking confused. "The keys are mixed in with the other property keys in the office. But if you don't know your way around magic..."

"I can check if there's an enchantment on the key, and if it triggers a trap or makes it safe," Sylvie put in. The second half of that statement was calculated optimism.

"Langoll never had that copy, so I don't see how he could have enchanted it."

Sylvie shrugged. "I can figure out something when I see the door, with or without key." She looked at Sebastian.

Sebastian was quiet for a moment as he went through all those times he had been hit by magical house alarms. "I'll leave that to you, Sylvie. I really have no idea about magic aside from what I said earlier," he said, tilting his head. "You wouldn't mind giving me written permission to enter the office, would you? Otherwise, there might be casualties," Sebastian said to Brice.

After Sebastian's display earlier, that conversational statement raised the hairs on the back of his neck. "Sure, if you've got something to write..."

"...write on, yes. I'm sure there is some paper here and candle wax," Sebastian replied. Then he frowned as he went over the details. They would have to figure out where to put Brice, safely. This place was not safe for Brice, and he had given his word. Unfortunately, he was somewhat certain he had already caused more than enough trouble for Brice to last until his old days. "I really just want to get in and out quickly without any violence. I've had my share, the past few days," Sebastian muttered, rubbing the stitches on his forehead. "Let's worry about that later. Sylvie? More information you need?

She tilted her head, not comig up with much. "Do you remember and remarks or insinuations Langoll made about the spell that might be helpful? Threats or warnings?"

"Any questions regarding it he deflected. Too complicated, you lack the basics... warnings, just 'meddling with magic when you don't know it is dangerous'..." He looked at Sylvie questioningly, but just added, "Nothing specific."

She nodded. "Thank you."

"And I thank you, too." Sebastian thought for a while. "A moment." He left the room for a while, knocked on the door where Kord and the Treysens and their captives were, asked a few hushed question. Then the half-elf went off to rummage through some drawers until he found some rough paper, ink and a feather to write with. He placed them on the squalid table and sat down again. "I'll need passage to your office. After that... I have to ask about your escape."

While Sebastian was busy, Brice asked Sylvie a hushed question. "Who are you?"

She gave him a tired smile and matched his tone. "Just someone helping out."

To Sebastian's declaration, he said, startled, "My what?"

"I promised you that you and your loved ones would be left out of this. As I said, Fox's honour," he explained, spreading his arms and staring at Brice sincerely. "I keep those promises, no matter how some --" Sebastian nodded toward the door where the five others were "-- might disagree."

And Brice couldn't blame them. "Thank you."

He turned his chair around to face the table and reached for the writing implements. Staring at the quill he paused, trying to still the slight tremor in his hand. He gave a dry chuckle when he remembered that he had briefly considered writing his will before leaving the house with 'Kai' - it felt like days ago right now - before discarding the idea for reasons of time. Because he had first written something else.

"Ah. There's one more thing in the office. There's a folded paper on my desk. I, um, the first thing I did after you left the room was writing down the directions you gave. I left them there. For someone to find if we disappeared. I'm not sure they're are accurate enough to lead here, exactly..." he trailed off nervously.

It was this bit that caused the half-elf blink. "Thank you," he said, smiling genuinely as he watched the quill go on, glancing once at Sylvie -- with a somewhat melancholy look.

Well, that could have gone worse. Brice first wrote the addresses where the artifacts were hidden on a sheet, and the numbers of the keys that went with them, meanwhile telling Sebastian where he could find the keys. As he had hoped, his handwriting grew more steady, so it was as neat as the paper permitted when he moved on to the letter.

Sylvie did not catch Sebastian's look. She was watching Brice, or at least looking in his direction, trying not to think about the tangle of lies and muddy morals they were stuck in.

In comparison, that was all that Sebastian was thinking about. Muddy morals. Lies. Subterfuge. Violence. Sometimes he felt he was too tired to even go with it all, but then, he didn't have a choice in it. Depressing, really. Once Brice was ready with the letter, Sebastian read it through and sat down for some long seconds, thinking.

"All right, Brice. Here's what we are going to do from now. I'll leave Reo and Marl into the not-so-tender care of those three, and as for you... you do realise I will come after you if you cross me, but Lady Luck help me, we're going to take you to a place where you'll be safe as long as you try nothing funny." His eyes turned from paper to Brice. "Like I said. I keep my word when I give it. Do you think you can steal enough valuables to make it out with whoever you care for? I won't warn you about what happens if..." he left it at that.

Brice case a worried look at the door, then turned to Sebastian again, resting an elbow on the table. After a pause he covered his eyes with a hand and said, "I'm sorry, I don't think I follow you. The never seeing my family condition is off the table?"

"Sorry. I needed to think back on our conversation a bit. To answer your question: only those you want to save from humiliation," he said, measuring Brice with his stare. "I somehow thought you might have some family members so important to you that you would rather die for than let me ruin their lives. But first, tell me who they are." And then he leaned closer. "And why they should not have to suffer indignity."