A] Star-crossed lovers [Armeno//Kassandra] but can't stop arguing [R

So this started out as a seriously spontaneous speedplay (RP rape?) But now we're moving onto DC... because it's cooler.

May be some grammar fails or shorter posts in the following two/three huuuge posts, but as this was conducted off-DC, then it doesn't count towards the 150+ wordcount here. All following proper posts will be 150+. Also, this is non-canon, just after the Sacking of Racksom. Enjoy
(And you have to listen to THIS while reading.)


The sun that had risen over in the west was hardly a comfort as the day after the siege and battle of Racksom was "won", as it only showed the carnage that littered the streets. Groups of soldiers from the SR army were still moving through the city, picking up those refugees who had tried to flee the fallen city, or killing and taking prisoner those fighters who had stayed behind. But that was only groups of soldiers with proper command; there were still plenty of fighters left doing nothing, or moaning over their fresh wounds in the corners of house-fronts.

Kassandra hadn't yet been downed by her own wounds, but it was a struggle walking on through Racksom. Starling, the avian girl who had been accompanying her, had long before left her behind, much faster as she was. /Her/ only thought was to get to a healer fast. Kassandra wanted the same, but she also wanted to get away from the edge of where the fighting had been. She wanted to sleep most of all, her next-to-zero electricity levels really draining her. But still she ploughed on, taking the occasional short rest up against a building, hardly taking notice of where she was.


Raking one hand through his hair- there was blood matted into it along with a generous quantity of mud, which made loops for his fingers to snag in- Armeno trod slowly and heavily out of the city of Racksom. Despite his best efforts to assist in the feeble attempt to fend off the Surahnians, the defenders had scarcely even slowed the attack- and in the end, he’d been forced to simply flee the city, scarcely escaping with his life. Now, all he really wanted was to rest for a while, but that was hardly an option. He was sure that any Surahnian would relish the opportunity to kill the elf. Maybe he didn’t know anything about how they’d come to be here, but they didn’t seem to care who they slaughtered on their path to victory.

Stifling a wide yawn, Armeno glanced up and immediately stiffened when he saw a silhouette propped up against a wall ahead. His hand twitched down to rest on the hilt of his sword, even though he hardly felt like he had the energy to wield it right now. Thankfully this person looked none too fit to fight either, and so he advanced warily- until the person moved off the wall and began moving again, their hair ruffled out by a slight breeze. He would recognise that white-branded hair anywhere, in a heartbeat. The only reason he hadn’t already was that she had been in shadow.
“Kassie!” he yelled out instinctively, before the tangle of emotions kicked in and he screwed his eyes shut. He’d never let himself figure out quite how he thought of Kassandra, and in the battle he hadn’t had time to think. Now, though, as well as her leaving him she had utterly betrayed his trust. And he still cared about her? What a fool he was.


Kassandra took a breath and pushed herself away from the wall again, gritting her teeth and forcing herself to /walk/. Her leg was getting stiff- that bloody avian had shot her, and although she had yanked the arrow out after a while, it still hurt like hell. And really didn't want to support her weight, but she wasn't going to let herself stop.

So busy was she with trying to make herself walk, she didn't even notice she had company until the person yelled at her- and not even a curse, but her /name/. Her head whipped up and she grabbed her sword at her side, drawing it and holding it in front of her defensively.
But it was, of all people, Armeno.
Her eyes widened in surprise, then she was so busy with being surprised, she forgot to concentrate on standing, and her leg gave way. She jolted to the ground, shouting with pain as her sword went flying, pressing her hands against where Talos had shot her. She should have been more worried Armeno was there, or angry, or /something/, but she was preoccupied, and she knew he wouldn't hurt her, so she let him be for a moment, until her haze of pain had receded.


Well, Kassandra hadn’t changed a bit, that was for sure. Despite the situation and the reek of death in the air, Armeno found himself smiling to see the way she immediately jerked into a defence at the sound of her name. Never mind the fact that nobody who would do her harm even knew her name. Well- they hadn’t when he’d known her, anyway. The thought that she could have made other close relationships in the time they’d been apart was a strange one. And it wasn’t just jealously in the slight shiver which rolled over him at the idea- there was some definite anger there too. Look who was getting all possessive.

His smile diminished somewhat as she abruptly plummeted to the ground, his instincts taking over again as he immediately darted forwards, arms extended to catch her. Needless to say, he didn’t make it in time. Despite what had happened so recently, his primary concern at that moment was her condition, and he dropped to his knees beside her to examine the wound her hands were clamped over. Maybe he was on Talos’ side, but that didn’t stop him from feeling a wave of anger at the sight of the filthy tear in Kassandra’s skin. After a second of glaring down at it, steely-faced, he became acutely aware of his hands holding hers firmly away from her leg and stood, clenching his jaw.
“I’m sorry,” he said stiffly.


Kassandra snuffed out a sharp breath as she pressed against her leg, flinching as Armeno came close, before he bent down next to her and pulled her hands away. She didn't want to look at the wound, and she definitely didn't want to look at him, as much as she longed to, so instead just looked away across the ground, sinking further to sit, rather than kneel as he inspected her, then stepped sharply away. A lump formed in her throat and she rubbed her dirty hands across her equally grimy shirt before pressing them back against her leg, hissing to herself at the pain.

"Why are you still here?" she asked, trying to sound firm and in control of herself, but really just trying not to break down or faint. Either was quite possible at this stage. She looked up, turning her face into a frown and trying not to let her mouth pull down at the edges. "You should get out of Racksom."


“Why am I still here?” Armeno repeated in surprise, scrambling for a good way to present himself. He couldn’t manage anything other than insulting her in the end, which didn’t reflect what he wanted to say in any way. “Why are you still here? Look at you. You can barely walk, that wound’s going to get infected, it’s not even bound. You’re no more self-sufficient as a child. If I didn’t know you, I’d think you’d never seen a battlefield before. You need to get out before you’re killed or abused by one of the invaders.” His tone was harsh and unforgiving, and he couldn’t bring himself to look at her where she sat on the ground. Instead, he stared away at the roof of the nearest building, still mostly intact. His eyes were focused on its tiling, but he didn’t take it in. Nor did he feel attached to what he was saying to Static. He knew the words were unfair and unnecessarily cruel, but he couldn’t stop them from coming out. Thinking about it was too painful, when she’d rejected him so completely and he couldn’t bring himself to stop caring.


She couldn't help it; as he spoke, Kassandra couldn't help but feel the scowl melt off her face, changing to anguish at his harsh words. Her breath stuttered and she sniffed in a deep breath through her nose, rubbing her face across her shoulder and feeling the heavy scratches from that card dragon sting at the movement. Although she didn't want to care for what Armeno was saying, it cut her to the core, to hear him so cruel; the one person she trusted saying these things to her. From anyone else, she might have been able to shrug them off, but from him...

She blinked her eyes rapidly, trying to stop herself from crying, but it was obvious from her wavering voice. "Then maybe it's because... I can barely walk that I'm still here," she managed to force out, then brusquely grabbed her sword, sliding it back through her belt and forcing herself up to her feet, closing her eyes as stars exploded in front of her eyes. "And you have no right to talk to me like that."


When she spoke, his eyes flicked down to her face without thought. At her pained expression, the harshness which had inexplicably been clouding his thoughts shattered away instantly, to be replaced with a crushing guilt. But what could he say now? And he was still angry with her; she’d tried to kill Talos. But that didn’t seem to matter when he looked at her and saw the hurt in her eyes, usually so proud. And he’d caused it. Resisting a strong impulse to pull her into a close embrace, he clenched and unclenched his hands a few times before hesitantly replying,
“I… I don’t. It was uncalled for. I’m sorry, again.” While a part of him still wanted to snap back aggressively, he meant his apology, and he hated to think that she might take what he had said to heart. But then, if she did… Surely she had to still care about him, at least to an extent, to care what he thought? Or had something just damaged the barriers which she always kept up between herself and other people to the extent that anyone could hurt her? Whichever it was, it only baked up his urge to protect her and to comfort her- and that was one thing he was sure she wouldn’t welcome.


Kassandra let out a shuddering breath, then opened her eyes again, looking at the sky to try and clear her thoughts before looking across at Armeno. He looked... terrible. He hadn't looked good before, during the battle, but obviously he had fought just as hard as herself once they had parted, and it had taken its toll. It hurt her to see him so battered, almost as much as his words had.
"Whatever," she said in reply, knowing it was a pathetic response, but she didn't have the thought to give anything better. Her hand brushed down against her leg again, then she limped a couple of paces to the nearest wall, her face creasing up in pain. She turned away so he couldn't see, leaning one hand against the wall and her other forearm above her bent head.

"You can't talk," she suddenly said, turning to one side slightly. "You haven't seen yourself. Worse than when we were both last here. You might be able to walk, but that's only because you were lucky 'nough not to get hit in the leg, and I wouldn't have been if it weren't for your bloody avian /friend/."


The dismissive reply was as hurtful as his own comment seemed to have been to her. Evidently she really didn’t care about him anymore. Struggling somewhat to keep his face under control, Armeno followed Kassandra to the wall and hovered uneasily a metre or so away from her. What could he do? Her continuing harsh words hit him like repeated punches to the face. After a few slightly choked breaths to keep his composure, he replied,
“I’ve been wounded in defending my homeland. Maybe luck played a part, but doesn’t it in everything? Talos isn’t my friend. I don’t know the man. But he was leading the defenders; I didn’t choose him. And I wasn’t the one who tried to kill him, either. Can you blame him for shooting you? You’re surely one to get revenge.” Maybe he hadn’t spent long enough with her to see it in action, but Kassandra definitely wasn’t the type to take an insult sitting down. Her personality matched her powers in some respects- she was dangerous. And that was something he’d learnt all too well, he reflected with a bitter shake of his head.


Homeland, ha. It was Kassandra's homeland too, but she had had little more than animosity towards her by other DC'ers; first for being sullen, second for being /different/. With her powers, that was. She hardly had many ties keeping her loyal- and there lay the reason for her "loyalty" to the SR. But she wasn't about to explain all that now. She was too tired, and Armeno wouldn't care anyway. She had shot his commander; that, apparently, in his eyes, was unforgiveable.

"You chose your loyalties, I chose mine," she said bitterly, looking across her shoulder into the street, slightly avoiding where Armeno was hovering behind her. "You would have done the same, if it were me in your place, and you in mine. Deny that." She was only being so snappish because she was hurt, what Armeno was saying hardly singing along with his previous apology. "You're not one to talk," she said, whirling on the spot and finally looking at him, now properly angry, "about revenge. Explain away your actions with with that /lightning storm/ without using revenge as an explanation."

They were being loud now, but she didn't care.


What? Staring incredulously at Kassandra, Armeno was briefly lost for words. Where had she got the idea that they acted similarly from? Everything else aside, they were undeniably very different people.
“Obviously I wouldn’t have done,” he pointed out bluntly. “Like you say, we both chose our loyalties. And we chose differently.” His bemusement at how she’d figured that out distracted him for a further few moments before her next words sank in.

“And… that wasn’t revenge.” His brow creased as a flood of pain rushed his mind, and he was half-surprised that his lips weren’t trembling. “I couldn’t let her go free while she could still hurt you. I said it before, and I’ll say it again.” She just seemed to be getting angrier, while he was getting closer to bursting into tears in an extremely unmanly way. Nonetheless, he held her gaze, waiting for her next rash claim. He just hoped she didn’t accuse him of something which he couldn’t defend himself against- he wasn’t going to lie to her. He owed her that much, even after everything which had happened between them.


Kassandra's nose crinkled into an angry frown as Armeno spoke, still keeping up their argument. It was her way of keeping herself from tipping over the edge; she was getting angry instead of bursting into tears. But she had just about come to the edge of breaking, and the last thing she wanted was a sudden meltdown in front of him. He was obviously someone different to who he had been before.

"Fine. Fine! If that's what you believe, then fine. But I can take care of myself, and I don't need /you/ looking after me. However much you think I'm as pathetic as a child." Her voice caught at her last sentence and she angrily screwed her fingers up against the wall, pushing off it and stalking off (well, trying to) a few paces away from him. "I don't want to see you. The beach, a month, not before." She reiterated her promise, thinking that would be the end of it.

But of course, that wasn't going to happen so quickly, not with the both of them being so loud. There was the sound of footsteps, then a patrol of SR soldiers entered the road that the two of them were in, marching in unison. The commanding officer pointed to Armeno and Kassandra, sending a few soldiers running to stop them in their paths.
"Halt, in the name of Surahnia! Stay where you are. You're under arrest; all citizens are to report to the centre of the city at once. What are you doing out here?"


Once again, his hands slowly curled into tense fists, his fingernails leaving two sets of neat crescents indented into his palms. Just like before. Like that time in the cupboard. Her dramatic exit was ruined somewhat by the fact that she could scarcely walk, but Armeno was frozen as he stared at her back, unable to motivate himself to move or say a word. The beach. A month. Feeling slightly lightheaded, he allowed his eyelids to flutter shut. A month wasn’t so long to wait, was it? He could do that. He felt slightly disgusted by his sudden need to be with Kassandra; he was as much of an addict as those who ate the herbs which were grown and sold so profitably in Kaionar.

The sudden arrival of soldiers took him aback. His ears immediately moved back and he bared his teeth in a snarl, reverting to his most basic instincts. Some detached, giddy part of his brain noted with amusement that this reaction included drawing his sword and holding it threateningly out at the guards. The Academy had done their job, then. He began to somewhat return to his senses, and sheathed his sword with a snort of dead laughter. He was quiet for another second or two, his lips clamped together but twitching, before dissolving into cackling laughter for a time. When he was forced to stop from the pain it caused, he straightened. He looked a deranged wreck, gasping from the laughter and the agony it had created, battered and dishevelled from the battle- but all the same he tried to summon any dignity he could.
“Of course, Sir,” he said very reasonably, sweeping a bow. “If you would be so kind as to show me the way, I would be more than delighted to accompany you.” He was about to take a step forwards when he remembered that he had been ordered to stay put, and he teetered on one foot for a moment before regaining his balance, where he flashed the unfortunate man a wide grin and gestured with one arm to indicate that the soldiers should lead on.


Stopping wasn't much of a trial for Kassandra, and she rested on her good leg again as the SR soldiers came forwards, slightly relieved- finally, respite- and worried at the same time. It boded badly for Armeno, but maybe she could convince the soldiers that he was on their side to... but no, the elf would never stand for such things. He was too angry to agree to something like that without an argument anyway.

What she didn't expect to happen was for Armeno to suddenly burst into laughter. She had her back to him, ready to leave without a second glance until a moment before, but turned slowly on the spot to look at him, face incredulous. What was /wrong/ with him?! A part of her wanted to slap him for being so stupid, but she managed to restrain herself- just. The soldiers had little problem with restraint though; his hysterics were seen as an insult, rather than delayed shock from the battle, which was possibly the cause.
"What is wrong with you?" Kassandra hissed under her breath at the elf, then turned back to the guards again. "We're mercenaries under the SR command; he's deluded." There was no other way of explaining it away. Even that though, fell on deaf ears. The commander sneered, then motioned his soldiers forwards.
"A pitiful response. Seize these two, they can get special treatment with the other prisoners."


“Rich that you should be the one to ask,” Armeno muttered darkly back to Kassandra, not really bothered whether or not she heard him. It took a while for anything to register for him- it seemed a little like everything was muffled. Like it was covered with cotton wool… Or, euch, candyfloss.

“Oh yes, deluded, that’s me,” he said with a snort of sarcasm at Kassandra’s words. But after a second of standing there blankly, he abruptly realised that she had surely meant to protect him as best she could. And how had he repaid her? By likely getting them into more trouble. The best thing would probably be to keep silent and respectful now. He could maybe take on the guards if he was in a better condition, but exhausted and injured as he was they’d be able to take him down with very little difficulty. Ashamed and guilty, the elf hung his head and made no move to resist the soldiers as they closed in on him. They took the command to “seize” quite literally, taking no care to be gentle with these new prisoners as they bound their wrists behind their backs before frogmarching them through the nearly deserted streets of the city.

Armeno didn’t remove his eyes from the floor until they came to a flight of stairs carved down into the ground. At the bottom was a damp wooden door, which the guards flung open to reveal another staircase. The elf looked about uneasily, taking in as much of their surroundings as he could. This dungeon wasn’t somewhere he planned on staying for long. They were shoved along several corridors until they reached a barred door which was swinging free on its hinges, the cell behind it empty.
“You get in there and you stay quiet,” snapped one of the guards, his language somewhat cruder than his commander’s. The men holding Kassandra and Armeno gave them unnecessarily forceful shoves which sent both of them stumbling into the cell. He caught himself on the opposite wall- not at all far away, these cells weren’t exactly roomy- and leant against it for a few moments, his eyes closed and his breaths shallow as his exhaustion sunk further in. It didn’t come without a generous portion of guilt.


Armeno seemed almost intent on making their predicament worse, whether it affected him badly or not. It was like he didn't even care what happened to them. Kassandra protested a little as a guard grabbed her arms and pulled them behind her back, another securing her wrists tightly together in a position that reminded her of how she had been tied up by Rintho before, panic lacing through her. Her struggling earned her just rougher treatment, and she was dizzy with pain by the time they started off through the streets, more being dragged by the pair than walking with them. Her leg hardly held her weight at all now, and she had to make do with shuffling as best she could.

While Armeno was taking more notice of their surroundings as they were pulled down a flight of steps and into a distinctly dingy cellar, Kassandra was fighting against herself to try to not faint, bright sparkles dancing in front of her eyes as she let herself practically be dragged along. She looked up blearily as they stopped in front of a cell, then yelped in pain as she was thrown into it after Armeno, collapsing onto the floor in a pathetic heap. Moaning, she rolled onto her side from her front, half curling up and squeezing her eyes shut. She didn't even want to talk to Armeno, hurting and angry and upset with him and where they were now stuck.


Kassandra’s pitiful moans soon pulled Armeno away from the wall. Whether or not he cared about her, they were enough of an embodiment of the way he felt that he wanted them to stop- and knowing that they were his fault made it agonising. He turned from the wall to face her, watching her with a slightly contorted expression on his face. Surely she would be angry with him now, and of course she had a right to be. It was highly unlikely that she’d want him anywhere near her, but he couldn’t bring himself not to drop to his knees beside her.
“Kassandra, I’m so sorry,” he whispered, the words sighed out on a barely audible breath. Obviously there was no point in making excuses. Instead, he turned himself around and, looking over his shoulder, reached down with his still-bound hands to pick up Kassandra’s. “Let me undo this, at least. You’ll be more comfortable.” He couldn’t stand to see her like this. It was only that she was suffering, though that obviously played a major role. He was sure that she would hate that he was seeing her now- her pride seemed as intact as ever, even if other parts of her weren’t. It was the least he could do to repay her for getting them both thrown into the cell. After a few moments of reflection, however, some of the alternative options occurred to him and he shivered slightly with rage. Having seen the soldiers invading the city, he wouldn’t put any of it past them. Maybe it was, then, better in a way that she had simply been imprisoned- but she hadn’t deserved to have the decision taken out of her hands. If he’d had more of a grip on himself, then she could even have got away unscathed. After all, she had been fighting for the Surahnians. His face darkened somewhat at the thought, and he was thankful that he was facing away so she wouldn’t be able to see his bizarre, mixed-emotions expression if she looked.


Kassandra tried to keep her breathing slow to stop herself from panicking at being bound like she was, but she couldn't stop the fear mounting inside her anyway. Her shoulders were stretching her ribs too, and although they had been healed by that euphorn back when she had been found by Armeno the first time, there were still reminders of the fact she had broken them earlier. Her eyes flicked open as Armeno crouched close, wide and frightened, breath instantly speeding up anyway. He had actually sounded properly /sincere/ this time, which made it a little better, but still...

She flinched violently as he twisted and touched her hands, moaning and trying to wriggle away. He held them for a moment, then let go as she pulled harder, squirming despite the fact it hurt. "No... no..." she huffed, turning her head over her shoulder. "No. Do... don't." It was too reminiscent of Rintho. She knew there wouldn't be a repeat, but still... she didn't want any sort of reminder.

Trying to steady her nerves, she looked up at him again, twisting her head over her shoulder. "Just... sit where I can see you for a minute. I need to... I can't..." She couldn't explain it. She just needed a moment.


Maybe he hadn’t exactly been nice to her just now, but Armeno had no idea why Kassandra was so scared of him all of a sudden. She was practically hyperventilating just when he was near her, which hurt almost as much as her harshness earlier had. When she immediately began to wriggle at his touch, he paused for a moment in confusion before hurriedly removing his hands as she continued to struggle, making desperate noises. What had happened to her? No matter her opinion on him at the moment, she had to know he wasn’t going to hurt her. And who would want to stay bound when they didn’t have to?

Deeply hurt and confused, he shuffled backwards to the wall on the other side of the room and sat with his back again its cold, uneven surface. After a second of staring at her face, open emotion showing on his own, he brought his knees up to his chest and leant forwards against his legs, closing his eyes and planting his face on his knees. What wasn’t covered by his legs was by his impractically long hair, which gave him time to let himself think about Kassandra. Obviously, his feelings towards her weren’t changing despite everything which had happened. What she thought of him, he couldn’t say, and it didn’t seem like she could either. Well, it all seemed pretty hopeless, didn’t it? Discarding all thoughts for a moment, he deepened and evened his breathing and tried to relax, but he couldn’t let himself. Not when Kassandra was still right there. Lifting his head fractionally to look at her, he felt a slight moistness in his eyes. Crying again. At least most of the tears had been absorbed into his filthy trousers; with a little luck, she wouldn’t notice his moment of weakness.


Kassandra’s breathing slowed a little as Armeno backed off into view, looking hopelessly confused and upset at her violent reaction. Her cheeks twitched, threatening to make her cry at the look on his face, then he hid it in his knees, saving her for the moment. She relaxed slightly, trying to quell her fear, still looking at him, too paranoid not to look away.
“Sorry, I’m sorry Armeno,” she said, half closing her eyes. A trickle of blood ran down to the corner of her mouth from the re-opened cuts on her cheek and she licked at it, grimacing at the sharp metallic taste. “I can explain. Promise. Can you… try again?”

She lifted her eyes hopefully to his, half shadowed by the wall where he sat. He was obviously upset, she knew that much from his curled up position, but couldn’t see how badly; she hadn’t guessed that her panic had hurt him as much as it had. No, she assumed it was still from their arguing.


There was definitely something wrong with Kassandra. Well, besides the obvious issues with their current situation. He couldn’t think what could have happened to make her so scared. Maybe he was always protective of her, but she could take care of herself in almost any situation. She did sound truly sorry, though… And he couldn’t really blame her for being at least somewhat wary of him. Unable to trust himself with speech, Armeno simply gave a curt nod as he met her eyes, and moved back over to where she lay, taking several more steadying breaths. This time, he stared down at her hands for a few moments before beginning to turn so that he could reach them.
“Don’t move this time,” he told her in a quiet tone, with a wary glance at the door before he got to work.

He moved swiftly. Even though he was exhausted and he moved somewhat clumsily, he was experienced with undoing knots and these weren’t particularly expert, just a piece of rope tied in several tight knots. A minute or two picking at each one got it started off, and from there it was easy to slide on finger under the loose loop and pull the whole thing apart. It did take him several minutes to get all the rope off her, but he managed it, and scooted away when he had, flexing his now somewhat sore fingers.


A small relieved smile flashed over Kassandra's lips as Armeno agreed to help, then she bent her neck and shuffled back so he could easily get to her tied wrists, as much as she was fearful of doing so. It would be fine. She twitched slightly as he moved behind her, then took a deep breath and tried to hold still like he had said, resisting the urge to flinch away a second time. Although he was obviously working as fast as he could, it still felt like an age before he was finished, and as strongly as she willed herself to stay still, she was shaking by the time he was finished.

She pulled her hands away from her back quickly, drawing them into her chest and taking a few deep, shuddering breaths before pushing herself up to sit, lightly tracing her hand across the cuts on her face and wiping away the blood from the corner of her mouth. She looked up at Armeno briefly, then away at the floor again. In a spate of sudden anger, she grabbed hold of the rope that had bound her and threw it at the wall. It made a faint "smack" sound as it hit the stone.
"Thank you," she said quietly, then reached into her boot and pulled out a tiny pocket knife, touching the side to her finger to make sure it was still sharp. "Come here, I'll cut you free too. I can't reach."

The knife had been in her boot the whole time, but if she had mentioned it, Armeno would have wanted to cut her free, rather than untie her. And that would just have been worse still. Then they could get the hell out of there... somehow.


At least Kassandra didn’t lash out at him this time, but she was obviously using all her willpower not to. As he finished and turned back to face her, he tried not to wince as he saw just how much she was shaking. Well, he should have known- he could feel her trembles as he picked at the knots. He watched in silence as she recovered somewhat, threw a very short tantrum, and eventually seemed to return to a more normal state.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, his voice equally low. When she reached down to her boot his eyes followed her movement, and he felt another spasm of offence when she withdrew the knife. He could guess from her expression and by how she was acting that she hadn’t trusted him using the knife to free her. Obviously, it didn’t really matter- she was free now, after all- but it was still painful. Wasn’t everything with her now, though?

Giving a small and silent nod, he turned himself around yet again and moved back enough for her to free him. If she was planning on killing him, then she was going to have ample opportunity to do it anyway. He wasn’t in a fit state to keep up his guard all the time. Besides- why would she kill him? Unlike some, he wasn’t unduly paranoid.


Kassandra nodded to herself as Armeno shuffled back towards her, hesitating for a second before sliding her fingers under the ropes tied around his wrists, holding a bit of the rope steady before setting to sawing away with her knife at it. It felt more awkward than it should have, their hands occasionally brushing against each other as she worked, the rope pulling and twisting before snapping apart. She cut through a few lengths before putting the knife down and teasing the ropes off Armeno’s hands, trying to get them off without scraping him too badly with her nails or the rough rope.

She managed to get it off relatively quickly, pushing the ropes away from them and sitting back again, leaving her knife on the floor and wrapping her arms around her middle. Why couldn’t she stop /shivering/? She touched one hand to her leg, pulling aside the fabric of her trousers and looking at her wound before hissing lightly to herself and looking away. It felt hot, and that was never a good thing. She needed to find a healer.
“Armeno…” she started, then sighed and wrapped her arms around her middle again, looking away. “I’m cold. We need to get out of here.”
He was bound to ask her why she had gotten so paranoid and easily spooked since they had met last, but she wasn’t going to broach the subject. She didn’t want to volunteer the information outright, but she was going to have to explain some time or another.


When Kassandra pulled the ropes from his hands, Armeno heaved a sigh of relief, rolling his shoulders and twisting his wrists to work out the aches which had quickly accumulated.
“You’re cold?” he repeated somewhat unnecessarily, frowning. “Here… you’d better take my cloak.” Flexing his fingers, he reached up to the fastening and undid it, throwing the cloak around Kassandra and securing it at her neck without needing to think about it. After a moment, though, he realised his actions and hastily withdrew.
“Sorry, sorry,” he muttered. “You’re right, we do need to get out.” Feeling somewhat revitalised, he got to his feet and moved over to the door of their cell. It was obviously not going to be easy to break, but all the same he curled his hands experimentally around the bars and then moved over to the lock before giving a sigh of exasperation and making to sit back down next to Kassandra. His eyes flicked over the rest of the dungeon as he stepped away- and snagged on a silhouette in the cell opposite, who was staring out across the hallway.

Armeno started as the other prisoner’s eyes caught his own, and idled uneasily a step away from the door before moving forwards again and squinting in the gloom to make out more details of their neighbour. As he did so, his hand slipped under his clothing to remove a throwing knife from where it had been hidden. He always kept plenty of hidden weapons across his body; you never knew when you were going to end up in a situation exactly like the one he was in now.


Kassandra nodded as Armeno repeated her words, glancing at him again. She was shivering still, but didn't notice until the elf suddenly pulled his own cloak from his shoulders, wrapping it around her. She started, slightly surprised, then pulled it tight, covering herself completely in it, from head to toe.
"Thanks," she stuttered, then watched him as he went to the door of their cell, not saying anything. As he checked the lock, she said, "You could try jamming it with a knife."
It was a simple thing to do in saying, but probably another matter when it came to trying it.

She frowned as he paused by the door, leaning forwards to try and see what he had seen too from where she was sitting, but it wasn't a great angle and quite dark too. Instead she looked up at Armeno, trying to judge what he had seen by his reactions. "What is it? A guard?" That would be bad news. They were probably supposed to sit there hopeless until they were summoned to whatever treatment was in store for them. The thought was vaguely frightening; who knew what things they might have lined up. "I can shoot him, but I've only got one blast left..." Her voice was dubious. She didn't want to use up that tiny bit of electricity she had left; for one, it would short-circuit over her hand, what with the blood, and two, it would probably knock her out for a good few hours until it had recharged, and then she would end up with a huge headache.

And would Armeno leave her behind, if she was just a dead weight?


Armeno simply nodded to Kassandra’s thanks this time. At her suggestion, he tilted his head thoughtfully.
“Maybe. I have no idea how complicated it’s going to be.” He stared down at the lock for a moment more before moving on.

He was loath to break eye contact with the stranger opposite, but he didn’t want to let on to Kassandra’s presence if they hadn’t realised she was there already. He dropped his head slightly and tried not to let his mouth move as he muttered,
“Not a guard. There’s somebody in the other cell looking at us. Don’t shoot, I can take care of this.” He lifted his head again and continued to inspect the other man. He could tell that much from the build of the figure, though it was made difficult by what appeared to be a large coat hanging somewhat shapelessly around his body. He didn’t look too aggressive, but it was hard to tell. In fact, he looked distinctly unremarkable. Armeno wondered whether or not to speak, and what he should say. Eventually, after long sideways looks up and down the corridor to check for guards, he muttered across the corridor,
“Hey.”


She nodded and kept quiet at Armeno's words, quietly relieved that she didn't have to use up the last of her precious electricity. Instead, she pulled the cloak around her even tighter, trying not to shiver under the thick wool. Why was she so cold, when it wasn't that bad?

Lutis had been stuck in his grimy cell for a few hours now, through complete stupidity of his own. For some stupid reason he had been in Racksom, gotten caught up with all the other citizens who had been claimed by the SR, and herded into the main square of the city. Which he didn't like at /all/. So he had set to trying to make himself unnoticed, and earning himself a small penny off the guards- until he had gotten caught, like a fool. The only reason he had been stuck in the prison for so long was because they had knocked him out with a good whack to the head, but now he was back in business... kinda.

The reason he had been staring at Armeno was both because he was worried it might have been a guard (although stuck in a cell? No.) and he was curious; he had seen them come past, and from the glimpse he had gotten at the pair stuck across from him, they looked interesting. Certainly more adept at fighting their way out of there than him. It was all well and good getting out of the cell, but after that, he had to find his way through the city too, and to put it frankly, he was toast if he had to try doing that what with SR soldiers swarming all over the place.
"Hey... hey! Thank god, you're fighters, right? What the hell's going on? Apart from the SR invasion..." He knew that much was hopping. "You can help, right?" He pressed his face against the bars, wincing when he touched the cold metal with his forehead and made his headache ring.


Well, at least the man seemed friendly. Maybe he wasn’t the type Armeno would usually befriend, but it would be nice to be able to talk to somebody other than Kassandra, at least. His quagmire of a relationship with the woman just made his head hurt. For now, he was just going to stick to his latest policy of treating her like he might any other person, but even that was wearing. Goodness knew she wasn’t just any other person.

“Yes, we’re both fighters. I’m not sure how much use we’ll be right now, though- we were both fighting in the battle above ground.” And it had been hard going, too. There didn’t seem to be much point in trying to conceal Kassandra, either- the man had probably seen them coming in, but however he knew, he was referring to them in the plural. “I’m sorry, I’m not the right person to ask what’s going on. I haven’t been around for… well, not for a while.” It was a real struggle not to look back at Kassandra as he spoke, but with an exertion of willpower he managed to keep his gaze on the other man. “We definitely need to get out of here… But I have to ask, why are you here in the first place?” It was obviously most likely that the Surahnian guards had simply chucked him in, but there was always the possibility that the man was a mass-murderer. No point in taking chances.


What a relief! They could actually give him some backup if they managed to make it out of the dungeon. He grinned wearily and rooted through the pockets of his coat, digging out a lock pick that the guards had accidentally missed. He, unlike Armeno and Kassandra, had been properly searched before they had chucked him in his cell (or it might have been afterwards, he had been unconscious, and didn't know) and therefore slightly relieved of his possessions. But the lock pick he had would do, and he immediately set to shoving it in the lock of his cell and wriggling it around with an expert's touch.
"Ah, don't worry about it then, everything seemed kinda crazy earlier. Is your friend alright? She seemed kinda... outta it." He grimaced, looking up from the lock at Armeno for a moment before back down at it again, jamming it harder and twisting. "Lutis, by the way. I got done for trying to be smart with the guards and making a bit of profit out of all this. Am smarter, of course, just there's a fair few of them out there." He looked slightly guilty, then his eyes lit up as the lock shuddered and opened with a clunk. "Ah, there we are."

He jumped up and grabbed his lock pick, striding over to Armeno and curling his hands round the bars to look in at their cell. "You've not been going round like, killing people randomly afterwards or something, right? I can do without a sword in my back later on." Blunt, wonderfully. He gave the elf a light-hearted smile, sticking the lock pick between his teeth like a cigar. "Just checkin', y'know. Prison's a funny one to be in. Your friend really doesn't look good."


Armeno tried to take a step forwards when the man began rummaging in his pockets, before remembering the door and being forced to stay put. He watched intently as the man stuck something in his door and began trying to open it. The elf was no expert, but it looked like the human knew his stuff- and sure enough, the door swung open before too long. This was certainly a chatty new acquaintance, and Armeno found himself being forced to mentally replay some of his dialogue in order to respond to it all.
“We’ve both been through a lot,” was his first, somewhat terse sentence. “My name is Armeno; this is K- ah, this is Static.” Maybe he called her Kassandra, but chances were that she still introduced herself as Static to everyone she met.

Lutis definitely wasn’t too worried about self-preservation, Armeno reflected idly. He was sure that there were plenty of people who would be offended by his blunt words. Not that he himself was about to turn down an ally; it seemed like the man would be their best chance of escape, even if he was a pickpocket.
“Well, I won’t deny that I’ve killed a few in my time, but I would never do it without a good reason.” He adopted a slightly joking smile. “I’m sure I could count having my pocket picked as a good reason, though.” Maybe he didn’t have a lot on him, but it still wouldn’t be a bad thing if Lutis took him seriously. He wasn’t too keen on the idea of being killed by his new ally.

“Static has, as I said, been injured,” Armeno repeated, this time a little irritably- though he tried to hide it as he slid his knife safely away again and traded it for another more suited to close combat. No way to know when they were going to run across some soldiers. “I’ll make sure she gets out alright. But for now, would you mind unlocking this cell for us?”

"Nice ta meetcha then," Lutis said cheerfully, leaning against the bars of the cell and still chewing his lock pick between his teeth. He shoved his hands in his pockets, perfectly happy to leave the pair in their cell until he heard what he wanted to hear. And he was smart enough to work out if the elf was lying too; after all, he did come from Kaionar. "Sounds like a good enough explanation as any," he said cheerfully, "shame about the pickpocketing, I've got some good mates in the business. Don't come to Kaionar." He flicked the lock pick out of his mouth with his tongue and caught it in one hand, jamming it in the lock and twiddling it. He was surprisingly cheerful, but only because they were only in moderate danger at the moment. Things might all change once they were all out their cells.

"She gonna be okay to walk? Or run or something? I can't see us getting out of here without having to be a little bit more subtle than just waltzing out like we own the place." He didn't want to keep pressing the matter, but this was a matter of keeping his head, and that was important to him. Very important. There was no use letting out the pair of them if they were going to slow him down.
He still would have let them out, but made a dash for it himself instead.

Kassandra, meanwhile, had been listening to their conversation just from where she was, occasionally rubbing her cheek where it itched, accidentally getting a smear of blood and dirt on it from the first time. She spoke up as the conversation turned to her though, putting her hands on the floor and shifting her weight slightly. "I'm... I'll be fine. I can look after myself."


“And nice to meet you too”. Armeno wrinkled his nose in distaste at the mention of Kaionar; none of his experiences with the city had been particularly enjoyable. “I wasn’t planning to,” he said bluntly. “I can’t stand the place.” With a slight feeling of relief, he stood back to let Lutis do his work with the lock pick, happy to watch him in silence- at least, until the human spoke again.

“I already told you that it wouldn’t be a problem,” he snapped, the amicable expression which had been on his face swiftly replaced with one of annoyance. He glared at Lutis for a second before forcing himself to calm down, closing his eyes as his face returned to a neutral expression. “I’m sorry,” he said as he opened his eyes again. “It’s been a long day.”

When Kassandra spoke behind him, Armeno spun to frown at her dubiously.
“Let me help you, at least,” he said reasonably. “There’s no point in using that leg more than you have to. You don’t want it getting worse, even though I’m sure you could manage on your own.” Yeah, right. It didn’t seem to him like she’d be able to at all- but saying so wasn’t going to help matters, and right now they just needed to get out.


Lutis recoiled a little at Armeno's snapped response, holding up one hand in surrender. "Alright, no need to bite my head off, I was just making sure." Then he added a little quieter, "Enough people around to do that already without you snapping too." He raised his eyebrows a bit, then looked down at the lock as it clicked in his hands. He stepped back a pace, looking pleased with himself. “Welcome to freedom, you owe me now, have a nice day!” Then he set out exploring the dungeon a little, hunting for his missing possessions. Those things cost money!

Kassandra looked down at herself when Armeno addressed her, properly /looking/ at the mess she was in. She gulped. For all her brave façade, she was a mess, and anyone who wasn’t deluding themselves (IE, everyone else), would have instantly seen it. Her angry retort squashed, she looked back and nodded at the elf, rubbing a fist across her cheek before holding out her hand towards him. /Help me/.

Rooting around, Lutis managed to turn up a box with Armeno and Kassandra’s swords in, looking at them warily before picking them up and grabbing the other stuff in the box too. None of it was particularly useful, but he stashed it away anyway. Who knew what things might come in handy.


Armeno just gave a curt nod at Lutis’ words. They were all true, and he’d already apologised; what else was there to say?

When the lock clicked open he exhaled in relief, pulling the door to make sure it would open before turning away to Kassandra and smiling in return to her nod.
“No, I won’t forget the favour you did us,” he told Lutis over his shoulder. “I can’t say for sure, of course, but you don’t look like a fighter to me. If I can get my sword back, I should be able to fend off a few soldiers for you. If not… I’ll still do my best.” Taking hold of Kassandra’s hand, he pulled her to her feet, slipping an arm around her waist to support her as she needed it once she was standing. “Just walk as best you can, and don’t worry about leaning on me as you need to.” Even the brief rest he’d had, being able to let the guards half- carry him to the prison and then sitting down for a time, had allowed him to regain /some/ strength. As well as that, he’d always been reliable with his adrenaline rushes, helping him out after a hard day many a time- and now was no exception. Despite the fact that he knew he was in no state to, he felt keen to take on as many guards as were in the prison. And maybe there weren’t too many- Zartear did, after all, have everyone in the city assembled to listen to him.

They moved carefully out of the cell, Armeno careful not to rush Kassandra, and paused for a moment to watch Lutis exploring the prison. When the thief whisked past with their swords, Armeno shot out a hand to catch his arm.
“You think we could have those back?” he asked, gesturing.


Armeno’s hand was cool and strong as he took Kassandra’s, and for that she was grateful. She put one arm around his shoulders, hesitating a second before putting her other on top of the elf’s arm wrapped around her middle. His presence was strong and comforting, and although she felt weak, he was enough to keep her upright. And warm too. “Thank you,” she said quietly, putting a fair bit of her weight on him as he helped her hobble forwards. She would have put a little less on him, but it wasn’t really possible. Every little bit of weight she put on her leg sent pain shooting up all over it, and she wasn’t sure how long she was going to last, even with Armeno’s help.
But she wasn’t going to tell him that.

Actually filling his pockets up with some useful stuff now, Lutis was more than pleased he was out of his cell, and Armeno had agreed to help if they ran into any soldiers. He was right; the thief was no fighter, and rotten at any sort of combat skills. He was more of a run-for-it kinda guy, or a talk-yourself-out-of-a-beating. Sure, he had come across weapons in the past, but using them properly? No.
“Oh, what? Yeah, here,” Lutis pulled himself to a sharp stop as the elf grabbed his arm, looking down at the two weapons in his hands before giving them to Armeno. Kassandra took the longer longsword she had been using, unwrapping her arm from Armeno’s for a moment to slide it into its sheath on her back. “We’re going now, yeah? We’ll go quiet-like, me in front, you guys behind, and hope we don’t come across any soldiers or the like.” Lutis gave the pair of them a hopeful smile, then turned and set off towards the mouth of the corridor where their cells were. He had absolutely no clue where there might be soldiers, but he fancied his chances at not being spotted a little better than Armeno and Kassandra’s.


When he felt how much weight Kassandra was putting on him, Armeno shot her a sideways look. She really must be dampening her pride for that; evidently, her wound hurt a lot more than she was putting on. He straightened slightly, lifting her a little and taking more of her weight. Maybe she was going to be insulted by that, but not as insulted as she would be if he started having to carry her because she’d tired herself out.

The elf nodded his thanks as Lutis handed the weapons over, sliding the sword out of its sheath and holding the scabbard between his knees while he inspected the blade for damage. It looked fine, and he flipped it once in his hands and made a few cuts in the air to try it out for balance before nodding satisfactedly and reattaching it to his belt.
“Yes, I think we’re done here,” he agreed, scanning the corridor for anything useful one more time. “That sounds fine; given your occupation, I’m sure you’re better at sneaking than me.” Not that he hadn’t done plenty in his time, but it wasn’t like it was his most frequent way of moving- which it probably was for a thief. He kept a wary hand ready on the hilt of his sword as they walked, the one tense around Kassandra.


Kassandra ignored Armeno's sideways glance, feeling herself go hot at the cheeks. She knew the look was because she was leaning so much on him (or it might have just been concern but, either way), and normally when she was so upright with herself and dignified... well, when you kept yourself so well, it was a long way to fall.

"I'm very good at sneaking. Best in t'business," said Lutis, giving Armeno a wink and setting off cheerfully in front of them. They had to go slowly, to compensate for Kassandra not being able to move very fast, but in the thief's eyes, that was a good thing, because it meant they were being quieter. Even still, it seemed to take an age to get up a few steps into the main part of the prison; apparently quite a few cells had been put to use already, so they were now down to using the bottom ones. But that meant they had to find their way further through the maze of corridors.

Lutis peered around the mouth of one staircase they were walking up to get to the second layer of the dungeon, waiting for Kassandra and Armeno to get all the way up to the top. It was painful watching. His eyes widened, then he ducked back around into a safe hiding spot, putting one finger to his lips and running down a few steps.
"Shh, there are some guards on the next level. I think there're some coming our way, try and stay quiet." He grimaced, eyes flicking back towards the opening of the staircase again.


Armeno felt somewhat guilty when he saw the pink flush on Kassandra’s cheeks, but pretended not to have noticed for her sake.
“I believe you,” he muttered to Lutis. The man moved with a practiced air; it wasn’t hard to see how he was in such good condition.
The level of light increased as they got onto the higher floor; evidently it was used more, because there were far more torches on the walls. He was thankful for that, but all the same he kept straining with his ears, looking entirely inhuman as they swivelled to take in noise from all the corners of the dungeons.

Even as Lutis came back to warn them, Armeno was opening his mouth to say that he had heard the soldiers. Instead he clamped it shut, gave a brisk nod and used both arms to lift Kassandra completely off her feet to hurry near- silently after Lutis.
“Ka- ugh, Static, can you lean on him for now?” he breathed, not waiting for an answer as he positioned her on his left side and then slid out from between them, leaving her his arm to hold onto for a moment so that she could get herself better supported. Once he was able, he released her completely and pulled out his sword slowly so as to minimise the noise it made. He stood, silent and ready to attack if the soldiers came by. Chances were they’d be off guard; he could probably eliminate at least two before they got themselves together, and face maybe two at once. But any more than four, and there’d be a problem. He couldn’t tell how many there were from the ever-nearing voices; they weren’t bothering to be quiet, so he could hardly make out the footsteps, let alone count them.


Kassandra gave a tiny startled yelp as Armeno swept her up into his arms, shoving one hand over her mouth to stop herself from making any sound. She wasn't going to allow herself to make any sound and give them all away. Lutis ran silently in front of them, his boots soft to make little sound. She peered back over Armeno's shoulder, eyes wide to see if they had been spotted, then curled her arms around Armeno a little tighter as he slid her down to the ground, standing unsteadily and leaning over against Lutis instead. He raised his eyebrows, then put one arm around her middle, holding her upright as Armeno drew his sword. Kassandra grimaced, drawing her sword too from her back, letting it rest down by her side in case she too had to fight.

The sound of the soldiers got steadily closer, rhythmically thumping on the staircase they had just run down until they came to the bottom, then more clumping footsteps as they turned the corner, talking amongst themselves; five, probably coming to relieve the guard on the lower level. As with all distracted soldiers, the ones at the front didn’t notice the three escapees at first, but one at the back did, shouting and drawing his sword.

Lutis swore, making little attempt to quieten his curse. This was not what he had wanted from the day when he woke up.


Armeno was ready to silence Kassandra when she squeaked, but he thankful not to have to. She wouldn’t take being ordered around well.

The moment the soldiers were within sight he leapt forwards, forcing himself to forget all his minor injuries from the earlier battle. The point of his sword pierced the forerunner’s stomach immediately, and he tugged it free to spin on the spot and sink it deep into a second man’s leg. At that point, however, the soldier from the back made it through and attacked the elf, forcing him to defend himself. Evidently this was the good guard of the group, who’d been alert and who could fight well enough to put up a resistance to Armeno. He was well aware of the other guards arming themselves behind him, and managed to break free with a furious swear long enough to sink a knife into one of them; he couldn’t see where, immediately engaged by the remaining two soldiers once more. He ended up pressed back against a fall, tiring quicker than he had though and only able to defend himself. And who knew; maybe the man he had knifed was going to come back too. It would be just his luck right now.


Kassandra flinched as Armeno leapt forwards, gripping her sword tighter with one hand and curling her fingers of the other hand into Lutis’ arm. He grimaced, but didn’t say anything, watching the fight. Even to him, it didn’t look like it was going fantastically well; sure, the elf managed to get in a few good hits, but that was while he had the advantage, and it quickly turned nasty. Kassandra’s grip tightened around Lutis’ arm until he had to pull her away, grimacing and rubbing at the mark.

Although Armeno had been fighting well enough on his own, Kassandra wasn’t going to leave him on his own, wounded or not. She pulled away from Lutis, staggering across to the wall and bringing her sword up to block a blow coming for Armeno, falling back against the wall as her leg failed to support her properly. She jammed her injured leg against the wall at 90’, moaning against the pain, but managing to hold herself upright as she swiped out with her longsword at one of the soldiers, forcing him backwards a bit. As Armeno had feared, the one with the knife-wound was up again soon, bleeding from the middle but looking angry as anything. Lutis wasn’t getting close, so it was the pair of them, exhausted, facing up against three angry, trained and rested soldiers.

The odds didn’t look great.


“Kassandra!” Armeno hissed in alarm as she approached. Despite his anger and alarm at her getting involved- and his anxiety at the noises she was making- he took advantage of her intervention, using the brief time she gave him to sneak under another man’s guard and make a slice at him. Even with her help, they still weren’t doing too well; it didn’t look like they were going to be able to get out of here intact. A shriek from a cell somewhere along the corridors made one soldier, younger than the others, look round in alarm; Armeno took advantage of the moment to stab straight at his twisted neck, severing his jugular vein for a sure kill. But that left them with two, still; and Kassandra had to be near the end of her strength. He himself wasn’t sure how long he could go for before he made a fatal mistake.


Ignoring Armeno’s worried hiss, Kassandra kept fighting, trying to get in a good attack, but the whole thing was a mess. She could hardly move, and Armeno was obviously knackered, despite doing his best to fend off the Surhanian’s attacks. They were wild, a couple coming so wide in her direction that she had to parry them away from her to stop getting sliced on her sword arm, distracting her from her own opponent.

Surprisingly, Lutis leapt in at the last minute to take down the wounded man. That was unexpected, but the man fought like a dog. There was definitely no wish to tousle with him, even if he was a scrawny wreck.

Kassandra parried a particularly wide hit from Armeno’s opponent, their swords sparking together. Somehow, her own Surahnian had expected the move, and instead of moving forwards to cut into her blade, he sliced across the other side of her, a move she didn’t expect so much it actually hit. Which it did, opening up a long gash across the front of her chest, flicking blood off the end of his sword. She gave a tiny “oh!” of surprise, touching her free hand to the line across her front, then collapsed to the ground, dropping her sword with a clatter.


It was something of a surprise when it turned out that Lutis could fight after all- to an extent, at least- but Armeno didn’t have time to acknowledge it at that point. Just as he dispatched his own opponent, he felt something warm flick onto him and heard Kassandra’s voice. Turning to face the last guard and the woman, he took in her wound with horror; saw her fall. Something seemed to break in that moment, he had no idea how badly wounded she was, but he couldn’t quite process any of it.

An attack came from the last enemy standing and without even needing to think about, Armeno raised his own blade, flicked the human’s sword away and then finished him with a savage swipe to the stomach with left more of his organs out than in. His sword and hand coated in gore, he dropped the blade and fell to his knees, pulling Kassandra in close to him and cradling her in his arms. While all he wanted to do was kill the man who had done this to her or hug her and cry, his subconscious hazily reminded him that that wasn’t an option. His eyes staring and glazed over, he ripped off his shirt, wadded it up messily and pressed it to the wound, using the length of his forearm to get it all.
“Give me yours,” he commanded Lutis hoarsely. “Give it to me!” When he received it, he added it to his own before pulling his thick cloak all the way around Kassandra’s body and lifting her up so that her front pressed against his chest to keep the pressure on her injury.
“We need to go, now. We can’t meet any more guards, but you’ll have to take care of them if we do. We have to move.” He steamrollered to his feet and powered through the prison with a blatant disregard for stealth. Luckily for the two of them, they didn’t come across any more soldiers until they were out of the prison, where Armeno paused for a long few moments.
“Where can we find horses?” he finally asked, glancing over at Lutis with a frown.


The world swung in wild circles around Kassandra as she lightly touched one hand against her stomach, looking at it as she took it away with no emotion as she saw it covered in blood. Was that hers? Why was everything so strange all of a sudden, light looking harsh and blindingly bright, and the rest of the world in dark, dark shadow. Her breath came fast and shallow, and she turned her head towards Armeno as he pulled her into his arms, eyes wide and confused.

Lutis saw Kassandra fall out of the corner of his eye, flicking his knife back into his hand and into a defensive stance as the last guard fell to the ground in a spray of blood, looking around warily for other attacks before leaping over to Armeno’s side.
“Oh my god,” he said as he saw the long slash across the woman’s front, paling at the sight of such a long wound, and the blood already seeping into her clothes, Armeno’s clothes, everywhere. He took half a step back, then at Armeno’s command, shrugged his coat off onto the floor and pulled off his shirt, falling to his knees and helping to crush it against Kassandra’s chest, trying to stop the bleeding.
“Right, I’ll try, oh man…” he grabbed his coat again as Armeno folded his cloak around Kassandra, tugging his coat back on and grabbing the woman’s dropped sword from the floor. It was heavy and unnatural, and he felt a spark of fear at having to possibly fight any soldiers that came their way. He ran in front of the elf as they ran upstairs, head flicking from side to side in worry.

Kassandra gave a little gasp as Armeno wadded the shirts against her wound, sharp pain lacing up and down her front. Oh, that’s why he was so frightened all of a sudden. She unconsciously rested one arm across her front to keep the makeshift bandaging in place as he wrapped her in his cloak, her eyelids fluttering as he picked her up and pressed her against his chest. It was all noise and no sound as they ran up and out of the dungeon, the light outside much too bright for her.

“Horses? I’ll find some, stay here!” said Lutis, holding out one hand towards Armeno before racing off down a street, knife appearing in his hand again. There were a few tense minutes while he was gone, then he returned astride a fiery looking chestnut and leading another grey horse, tossing their heads and whinnying. “We need to find a healer! I think I know the closest, but it won’t be the defending side, it’ll be the SR.”


The time he spent waiting for Lutis were an intensely painful few minutes. Armeno kept looking down, touching Kassandra’s face, trying to convince himself that this was really happening- but at the same time desperately hoping that it would turn out not to be. When Lutis returned, he was simply standing with his arms wrapped tightly around her, pressing his face into her clothing and trying to get a grip on himself. Thank goodness he’d found a thief; their accomplice returned remarkably quickly with the two horses. The elf looked up at the sound of hooves and began sprinting as soon as he saw the animals, trying not to jolt Kassandra too much but desperate for speed. He held her to his body with one arm as he grabbed the grey’s reins from Lutis and stuck a foot into its stirrup to vault onto its back.
“I don’t care, I don’t care,” he muttered. “Just get us there. As fast as you can.” He dug his heels into the horse, yanking its reins around to follow Lutis and then clamping them under his elbow to rearrange Kassandra. He put her legs around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder, holding her close to his body with an arm across her back which mirrored the wound on her front.
“We need to go faster, he insisted frantically, glancing sideways at Lutis with an anxious frown. “Isn’t there a quicker way? We don’t have enough time!”


Lutis held on tightly as the two horses broke into a trot, frightened by the running elf, although the man had had enough practise on horseback (fortunately) to keep his seat, hanging on for dear life until he threw the reins of the grey across at Armeno and spurred his horse on, kicking him into a canter. He stood up in the saddle, trying to work out which way to go without being jolted out of his seat, then picked a direction, choosing the wider streets. They were more busy, and they galloped past a small group of very surprised looking Surahnians down one street, before turning the corner.
“Yeah, but, it’s really narrow? You—“ the question, ‘are you sure?’ wouldn’t even be worth asking, because the answer was obviously yes. Slowing down a tad, he pulled his horse’s head round and down a small alleyway, hunching over the animal as the walls closed in on them. /Ooh hang on!/ he thought, wincing as the alleyway turned slightly, then they burst out into another street. This one /was/ crowded, soldiers swarming in packs at the edges of the street, but they just dashed through them anyway, heading straight for the end of the street, where there was a mess of people crowded around a few houses and a larger building; a healing house.
“This is it, we’re here!” he shouted over his shoulder, dragging his horse to a halt and vaulting to the ground.

Kassandra was wilting fast as Armeno pulled her close and paced the street, trying to stay awake, trying to focus on the elf. But it was hard. Her eyes wanted to close, and she wanted to drift off into sleep, get away from the pain that seemed to run through most of her body now. She cried out as Armeno leapt onto the horse, pulling her close and fixing her around him, granting her a moment of lucidity with the agony that accompanied it.
“It hurts,” she moaned, shaking her head and rubbing her face into the elf’s shoulder, crying hot tears of pain.


Armeno shot Lutis a hard look at his doubtful tone, and was relieved to see resignation on his face. The grey let out a whinny of protest as he jerked its head round and directed it along the alleyway, but it seemed to pick up a sense of urgency and accepted the challenge, slipping through the side street and round the bend faster than he would have thought it could. Velox probably couldn’t have done better. It was a good thing Lutis had found some spirited horses; there were plenty who would have spooked under Armeno’s somewhat rough handling.

As soon as they reached the end of the alley, he spurred the animal on and it erupted into the street with Surahnians scattering all over the place. A slight nudge brought them alongside Lutis on his own horse, and they thundered down the street like a bulldozer. At Kassandra’s words, Armeno glanced down, his forehead creased with concern.
“I know, Kassie, but you have to stay awake for me.” He moved his arm upwards slightly so that he could stroke her hair. As he glanced up, adjusting his course slightly, he dropped his head to rest his cheek on the top of Static’s head. “We’re almost there now.”

He skidded to a halt in a clatter of hooves on cobblestones as they reached the building, dropping the reins and sliding his feet from the stirrups to jump from the horse without moving Kassandra. He supported her legs with one hand while still using the other to stroke her hair and hold her back, and ran straight into the healing centre without a concern for procedure.

The room was full of weary-looking healers with puffy eyes hurrying back and forth between patients with various grievous wounds. They all seemed to have their hands full, but that didn’t deter Armeno in the least. He knew that he looked out of place, still filthy from the battle and taller than the many women in the room, but in case that wasn’t enough to secure attention he held up one of his legs to take Kassandra’s weight and used the hand which had been supporting her legs to reach out and catch a nurse’s arm. He realised somewhat distractedly that his hands were shaking; there was a wet patch on Static’s shoulder, too. He was crying as well, then. The last time he’d cried… Well, it had been over her.
“You have to help her,” he insisted wildly. “Help her. Help me. You can’t leave her.” His grip was unrelenting, tightening like some kind of torture device on the unfortunate woman’s wrist.


“I don’t want to,” mumbled Kassandra back at Armeno, her eyes fluttering open and closed as the elf leapt off the horse, the world all blurry around the edges. Vaguely she registered there were a lot of people around, making noise, and horses and shouting, but then all that disappeared as Armeno ran into the healing house. Lutis was left outside, struggling with his unhappy horse and trying to control it and Armeno’s abandoned mount as well. He was assailed by angry people too, shouting at him for “why’re they allowed in first?” and “we’ve been here hours!” Lutis ended up just shouting back at them, headache pounding behind his ears at trying to be heard.

The healing house was busier than it had ever been before, and the healers had been working straight through the night to try and save as many souls as possible, limiting their magic usage to just the most grievous of wounds, and then only half-healing if possible. The rest was done with bandages and poultices. But even with their cautionary use of magic, it would never be enough to treat all those people coming to them with wounds, as much as they tried.
The one Armeno had caught had been alternating between looking after those most badly wounded, and resting by admitting new patients and generally being frazzled. She was on the latter job when he grabbed her arm and she gave a startled yelp, grabbing with her other hand to try and prise his finger away, until he saw what a state he was in. She went pale, then her eyes flicked down to the woman wrapped around his middle.
“I… I can’t…” she started, eyes flicking up and down Armeno and his bloodsplattered form, then across at the doorway where a miniature outcry was going on. “We’re supposed to only see people in order, you can’t just come in… charging, like this.”
She was young, too set in following the rules of healing to think to make an exception for the wreck of a man in front of her.


There was no time to reply to Kassandra as he burst into the healing centre, but he frowned at her words. That couldn’t be a good sign. This only made him more desperate to get her help as soon as he could.

“You can’t?” he echoed incredulously. “Can’t seems to be a bit of a loose word for you. I did come charging in like this. You’re a healer, aren’t you? Do you want to let her die?” Releasing her arm, he flung a hand out behind him in a furious gesture. “They’re all well enough to complain. Does she look like she is? I don’t care what you do, you have to save her. Please.” By now, the other healers were stopping to stare, and the young woman who he’d ambushed looked at a complete loss as to what to do, as well as somewhat worried for her own safety.

The next moment, however, the novice’s face melted in relief. Armeno whirled tensely, clutching Kassandra protectively, to see a short, thin woman with an air of authority approaching. Her face was lined with age, and she looked politely concerned.
“How can I help you, my dear?” she asked somewhat unnecessarily.


Lutis abandoned the horses where he was, still busily arguing as he forced his way into the healer’s house and shoved the doors shut, sinking back against the wood and ruffling his hair back from his eyes with one hand before looking up. He was surprised to see Armeno still standing in the middle of the room, not yet been led away by one of the healers all gathered around him. To the thief, that sounded ludicrous.
“What the hell? You’re all just standing around with Armeno looking like this and not /helping/?” he asked, voice ludicrous as he strode forwards. “Move, she’s /dying/.” He looked around the room then pushed Armeno in the direction of a freed-up bed, looking incredulously at the healer women. “Hurry up!”

Finally, a couple of the healers jumped too, clearing away the mess near the bed of bottles and soiled bandages, calling to one another as they rushed away to get new supplies. Kassandra moaned as Armeno set her gently down on the bed, although only very quietly this time, her chest barely moving as she breathed.


Lutis turned out to be an excellent ally; Armeno shot him a grateful look as the healers snapped into action, though he hated to think that Kassandra was dying. No, no, she wouldn’t. He wouldn’t let her. He knelt beside her after he’d set her down, holding her hand tightly and brushing away the hair that had stuck to her face.
“Stay awake now, come on,” he muttered, squeezing her hand and placing his own on her cheek. It almost completely covered the side of her head- she looked so small and fragile all of a sudden.

One of the healers touched his arm and he hastily moved away somewhat, still holding onto Kassandra’s hand and staring down at it to avoid seeing the gash across her torso. How could it be so much worse when it was happening to her than to anyone else? He’d long since got around his issues with killing others in battle, he was unfazed by any wounds of his own, but now that she was hurt it seemed like the worst thing to have happened to the world. Well, he could understand how she had felt when he had been attacked by Tabri, anyway. Skimming his fingertip along the fine bones in her hand before flipping it over to examine her palm, he was only vaguely aware of the healers working beside him. They’d apparently decided not to bother him- probably a good plan. He didn’t know what he’d do if they tried to make him leave her, but he would die before he’d do that.

It was only when she gave another slight, breathy moan that he looked up again- only to duck his head in embarrassment before hesitantly looking. Unsurprisingly, the healers had cut away her clothes in order to treat the wound, and he focused firmly only on the slice as he examined her. It wasn’t the worst injury he had seen, not in the least, but it still made his stomach churn to look at it. Something like that could probably kill somebody otherwise perfectly healthy, let alone somebody as exhausted and already-injured as Kassandra. He just hoped to god that the healers knew what they were doing.


Lutis looked across at the pair as Armeno set Kassandra down on the bed, face pulled in worry. He had hardly known them best part of an hour, but together they had probably saved his life, getting out of the prison, and the elf was so obviously smitten, he didn’t want to see him lose the one person he loved so much. He put one hand on Armeno’s shoulder as he crouched at the side of the bed, wishing he could give him a little more strength from just the gesture before backing off, leaving the healers to their work and going off to find a new shirt.

Hardly awake, Kassandra half-recognised Armeno’s voice as he spoke to her, giving her a little strength to let her eyelids flutter open for a moment. She wanted to squeeze his hand, tell him it was all fine, that she felt okay, just a little out of it, and after a sleep, she would be wonderful. But she didn’t seem to have the energy, and was all hot-and-cold all over, especially in random places now and then, like fairies skating over her skin. She didn’t realise it was the healers, busily trying to do all they could to help. They worked in a pair, one grabbing damp cloths or instruments or other items while the other cut away the ragged remainder of Kassandra’s shirt, then set to work trying to fix her using a little magic. One of them muttered under her breath, commenting on how bad it looked, while the other moved to inspect Kassandra’s injured leg, taking a knife to her trousers too and cutting away the fabric so she was left with one very short trouser leg, and one normal length one. It was all well and good working on her sword wound, but if her arrow wound was infected then it would make things much worse.

They worked until her wounds were at least half sealed, clean and carefully stitched with thread, before coating those wounded bits of her with some sort of poultice and covering it all with bandages. Her face, they had to leave unbandaged; the marks from the card dragon were in a too-awkward place for it to be worth bandaging, so they just layered them up with ointment and hoped for the best. She was still dirty and dusty and unconscious by the time they had finished too, but her breathing had stabilised a little as they worked until it was slow and steady, enough to let her rest without worrying for every second. She was by no means healed, but she would live to see another day.
Once they were done, the healers too a couple of minutes to rest, one of them looking Armeno up and down with concern before offering her services to him too. God knows, he needed it.


For the whole time the healers worked on Kassandra, Armeno was on tenterhooks, never releasing her hand as he glassily watched them applying poultices or casting spells or stitching wounds shut. Sometimes he watched her face for a while, or simply stared down at her hand in his own. He found his breathing matching hers, deep and steady, and was relieved to realise that hers didn’t sound so laboured anymore.

When they finally finished, he leant forwards to inspect her. Apart from the areas around her wounds, she was still dirty, but nothing looked so severe once it had been treated. It set him at ease to have her on the road to recovery, and he allowed himself to sit properly with a heavy groan. Now that his desperation to get her healed was gone, he wanted nothing more than to sleep for a very long time. Now obviously wasn’t the time, though; he glanced again at Kassandra’s sleeping figure, so vulnerable in nothing but the bandages and what was left of her trousers. He had to keep guarding her.

The healer’s offer took him by surprise; he began to turn her down politely, before looking over himself. He was bruised almost everywhere, with a few small cuts he couldn’t remember receiving and goodness knew what else that he hadn’t noticed. Everything hurt; every movement was exceedingly painful.
“Maybe I’d better,” he sighed, hauling himself to his feet and allowing the woman to lead him over to a nearby stool, where he sat watching Static as the healer tended to his numerous injuries. “Thank you,” Armeno told her sincerely several times, not sure himself whether he meant for helping Kassandra or himself. Both, he supposed. Once he was somewhat cleaner and he had had ointments applied as necessary, he was offered a bed in a different room.
“No,” he refused flatly. “Thank you, but I can’t leave her. I’ll sleep on the floor here.” After some discussion, a young girl- probably an apprentice of some kind- made him up a bed on the floor, with a few pillows to lie on and a blanket. It was nothing like as comfortable as a real bed, but as he lay down in it it felt like the height of luxury. It didn’t take him long at all to fall asleep.


Lutis wandered back to the others once he had managed to find a shirt, but it was after they had already fallen asleep, and he didn’t want to wake them just to say he was back. Although swathed in more bandages that he had ever seen in his /life/, she was at least breathing normally now, looking a little more intact than she had before. He settled down at the end of the bed on the floor as well, touching one hand gingerly to his head before trying to relax a bit. From the looks of it, they were going to be there a long time.

It was a couple of days later when Kassandra gave a soft sigh in her sleep then slowly opened her eyes, looking up at the ceiling above. It was quiet, apart from the soft sounds of people breathing and footsteps too. But where was she? Frowning a little, she turned her head to one side, her eyes skating across the glasses of water on a little nearby table, and a few big pinkish daisies arranged in a vase that were a thoughtful touch. It was quite a big room they were in, a few beds in the direction she was facing; so where was she?
She turned her head slowly to the other side, wrinkling her nose when something rough on her cheek scraped against the pillow, flaking off. But her slight worry about that was immediately set aside as she saw Armeno sitting by the bed she was in, just kinda… watching.


A faint rustle of sheets from Kassandra’s bed made Armeno glance up from the wooden puzzle cube he was holding. He immediately set it aside on the table as he saw her turn her head to face him, standing and stepping closer to her.
“How’re you feeling?” he murmured. “Better?” He had to admit that these healers knew what they were doing; most of his own injuries were almost entirely gone now. Though that was due in part to his own magic- with nothing to do except entertain himself as he waited for Static to recover, he’d been slowly healing himself over the last few days. It had been a huge relief to see her health gradually stabilise, and he had been surprised to find how much he had enjoyed just taking a break to recuperate. After a day or two the clinic had quietened down a little as the new arrivals from the battle had stopped coming and some people began to be discharged. Armeno was completely sure that the only reason he was still here was that nobody dared tell him to leave while Kassandra recovered. Now that he himself was healed, he was back in full fighting condition- and it wasn’t hard to tell that he knew how to handle a sword. His determination to stay with her meant that none of the nurses dared tell him otherwise. Lutis was still floating around somewhere, too, probably taking more of the centre’s food.

“I’m so glad you’re awake.” Her hair was tangled from sleep; he reached down and brushed it away from her face, smiling tenderly.


A faint smile crossed Kassandra’s mouth as Armeno stepped over to right next to her bed, his presence making her confusion slightly better. She pulled one hand out from underneath the covers, putting it on his arm as he brushed away her hair, like usual, pulling on him so he had to stay close.
“Armeno…” she said dreamily, focussing on his face and returning his smile. “My leg doesn’t hurt as much now. Where am I?” She frowned and looked away, eyes scanning the room again. No, she still didn’t recognise it. Were they in trouble? The thought was worrying and she started to push herself upright using her elbows, yelping in surprise as a long streak of pain ran across her front. She flopped back down onto the bed again, shooting Armeno a frightened look before pulling back the covers, then gasping in shock at the sight of her front covered in bandages, then more around one of her legs underneath short trousers.

“What the hell?” she squeaked, looking up at the elf then back down at her front again, open fear on her face. “What—?” Things were getting more confusing by the second, and she looked to Armeno for an answer, hoping he could explain exactly what was going on, where they were and why she was covered in bandages.