COMPLETED ~ Eldar X Rogue: CSI DC- There's a murderer on the loose...

It was hard enough keeping his own footing, but with Soneya's dead weight on him too, Lutis struggled to stay upright. He clung onto her as she clung back, yelping as the ground heaved and threw itself about underneath his feet. There was a close call when a slab of stone jammed itself up into the soft part of his boot, another trying to overlap the front and tip him forwards, but he managed to dance out of the way just in time before his toes were crushed. It was only his dexterity that saved him, and a small bit of distraction by Soneya, enough to draw some of the mage's attention from his spell. Or whatever it was he was doing.

The little spit of water caught him on the face, jumping up from the ground and splashing over his 'eyes'; difficult to see still, of course, it was only a wild guess that he had been stunned by the sudden return of magic. There was enough of a lull in the writhing of the ground for Lutis to regain his balance, hefting Soneya up over a thick crack in the road and pulling her to one side, closer to the houses. They were only given a moment of respite before the man started towards them again, leaving the ground to settle; but who knew what he had planned for them next?

"What do you want from us? It was you or us mate, an' I don't like lawkeepers!" He shoved a hand in one pocket, hoping there might be something useful in there that could by them some time until another came to their aid, but nothing struck him as a genius idea in a quick root around. Useless, great. There wasn't time to check his other pockets, and Soneya's weight on him made it hard to move to reach all of them; she seemed weakened, but still fairly useful in the situation all the same. Pulling the waterskin from his belt, he popped the cap from it and emptied it across her face, hoping it might revive her a little- or that she could use it in some way. He had no idea how magic worked, so it was a gamble (especially when she would probably yell at him otherwise for pulling such a stunt), but he needed her knowledge in a situation like this, when he was a complete rookie.

Lutis was yelling at the mage but for some reason the bastard didn’t reply. Nor did he seem to react in any other way, but he kept advancing towards them, slowly, tauntingly, as though he had all the time in the world. Obviously, he’d think that. They had nowhere to run, not with the kind of power at his disposal.

Even in the shadow of a house she felt extremely exposed. No people had rushed out onto the street to help them which lead to believe that he was casting some kind of bubble around them or people were just too scared. Silly people.

Her eyes kept fixating on the shadowy figure of the mage but she couldn’t make out any specifics. She didn’t need to either, the general direction of where her magic needed to go was enough. Sadly, the bit of water from underground wasn’t. Not until Lutis threw the contents of his waterskin into her face anyhow. Whatever he had intended to do with it, something sure happened. As soon as her skin touched water, the sluggishness left her almost completely.

Without taking time to think about her actions, Soneya flung the water in the direction of the mage, trying her hardest to turn the drops into ice along the way. It was an enormous effort and by far not all the water turned into ice, but some drops did, and hopefully that would be enough.

If not, then that was it. Before her magic wave hit its target, Soneya felt the blackness winning over again, the world turning into a blur as she slumped back against Lutis. The mage was just too strong for her to even try to overpower him. But maybe, just maybe, she had done a little damage. Enough to help them in some measly way.

Oh thank the Guardians, Soneya wasn't completely disabled by the mage. Lutis pulled back his arm quickly as the water from his bottle suddenly wasn't just water any more. He got a splattering even still, shaking off his arm before lending Soneya his support again, pulling her back a few more steps while the man was distracted. Her attack obviously took him by surprise, and he staggered back a pace as if the water was a greater weight than it truly was- she must have thrown her magic with some force, to give such an effect, even if it was only a little water. Lutis was too busy trying to haul her away to take proper notice, although he was aware that obviously Soneya had drawn energy herself from being close to water. "Gods damn it, you ate too much for dinner," he groaned as he tried to get his arms around her; he was only skinny, and although he probably easily had the strength to lift her, his lack of practice made him awkward and unable to get a proper hold on her.

"Ahreet. Water... Works," Lutis grunted as he hefted Soneya better again, digging his heels into the ground to pull her along the street again. The few seconds he had of 'safety' to look around as the mage was distracted were invaluable- a water trough for horses, not too far away. Thank the gods. None too gently in all his haste, he dragged Soneya over to it, hoping she would recover just as quickly as she had before with only a little water. "Don't kill me for this later, it's a bit of an emergency," he groaned as he managed to manhandle her to the side of the water trough, looking back towards their assailant. He had recovered- although that wasn't surprising- but he might not be so intimidating in a moment, with any luck.

Hooking his hands under Soneya's armpits, he hefted her up over the lip of the waterbutt and tipped her backwards. The water was icy-cold, soaking up his sleeves in an instant and chilling his skin. Hopefully it might have a bit of a better effect on Soneya though, especially as the mage now seemed to have realised his intent, and was moving forward even quicker now. Lutis backed off another pace, spreading his hands wide for mercy.

Soneya regained consciousness only a few moments later to feel herself being dragged. After an initial moment of panic, she realised it was Lutis who still had a hold on her and she allowed herself half a heartbeat to feel grateful to be with him before she started to notice the pain of his slipping hold on her that seemed to want to rip her body in to. Mixed in with her own exhaustion, she wasn’t feeling very cheerful anymore and she felt like she had been dragged around by dragons for what seemed like hours. She tried to help him but she knew she wasn’t doing a very good job at it.

And then suddenly, the pain was no longer important. Soneya gasped as she was suddenly dumped into an ice bath, or what felt like one. Within an instant, the words he had grumbled made sense and she wanted to strangle him.

Instead, she did what he likely expected her to do. She turned the water into a weapon. The only one they had at their disposal. Feeling Lutis’ hands leave her, Soneya briefly panicked, thinking he was going to abandon her in such a state, but then she realised that he was probably trying to distract the magician.

‘Think, Soneya, think!’ The magic was already coursing through her, relishing in the feel of the water on her skin, and she only needed a split second more before she once again flung out the water, turning the ground in front of the magician’s feet into a miniature ice field. It was enough to make him stumble.
The seconds he needed to regain his composure to get back on his feet, he was distracted enough that the bolt of electricity he had shot went wide. Soneya’s heart beat frantically and she yelled at Lutis: “Get back, get back! Get away from the water!” She didn’t dare look at him to make sure he was alright, but kept her eyes on the magician. She was still lounging stupidly in the water trough but there had been no time to remedy that. Before the magician completely regained composure, she flung out the remaining water in an attempt to freeze him into place. Depending on his magic, it may not be the most efficient thing ever, but maybe, just maybe it would work. If only it got Lutis and herself into safety… she didn’t care about the rest anymore.

Soneya was definitely going to kill him, but it didn't matter. Lutis stepped backwards past her line of fire (hopefully) as the mage continued to approach, becoming more and more fearful. He didn't have anything to deal with this sort of thing at all, and Soneya... well, let her pull through with something good in a minute, because otherwise they were both as dead as the dragon they had found only a couple of days ago.

"We can talk about this!" he squeaked, Soneya unresponsive, goddammit, then, thank all the gods and guardians above, finally. He jumped backwards as ice suddenly coated the ground, growing out from the trough in a half-circle. He could feel the cold spreading up his arms too, Soneya's control of the water not just that in the watertrough and all over the ground it seemed- perfect. Well, not perfect for his circulation, but it seemed to have done the trick on wrenching her out of her stupor. Scrambling backwards himself, he got out the way of the freezing pool of water just in time, before his boots got frozen to the floor. Which would have been most unfortunate. He would have hauled Soneya back out of the trough again, but remembered her words and thought it was probably a bad idea to plunge his arms into more freezing water. Especially with lightning flying around too; her magic was pretty scary when it could do things like freeze you solid, but when there was literal sparks of death... no thank you! He darted out of the way, then realised that Soneya was pretty much now a sitting duck where she was. He'd fry her without even trying once he had gathered himself together again.

"Hey! Help! Murderer!" Lutis yelled loudly again to try and attract attention- seriously, how sleepy could one village be? Honestly, was everyone else dead too? They had been dogged by lawkeepers for days, and now, the minute they wanted one, nothing. There wasn't enough time to be annoyed though; they had to do something! He had to do something!
Lutis wasn't a brave man, but he knew that standing by and talking pretty words at the man wouldn't work this time around. Feeling a lot less courageous than his actions showed, he took a run at the man, lowering his shoulder to ram in the side when he got close, ice everywhere and all.
It was like hitting a rock, not that Lutis would have known it to look at him with just a glance. Or even a good look, in all honesty. The wind rushed out of Lutis and his movement was quickly halted, pain blossoming over his shoulder. He did bend under the impact though, the ice around his feet and legs holding his lower body in place, but the rest of him obviously having felt at least a little of the blow. Hopefully.

It worked! It had worked! Soneya would have been elated and would have grinned in a brief moment of triumph but she didn’t have the energy for it anymore. It took all her remaining strength to somehow wiggle herself out of the crappy position she was in, and she made a mental note to yell at Lutis for it. But that would have to wait until later. Much later.

First, they needed to get out of here, as quickly as possible. While Lutis had been yelling, she had been wondering why the heck there was nobody around. Hadn’t there been more than one set of footsteps? Or had she gone completely insane?
Her head was pounding and her heart rate didn’t want to settle down but she ignored it all. They had to get out of there.

Flopping to the ground, she forced herself onto her hands and knees to search for Lutis. That’s when she heard something like a thump, and when she saw what Lutis was doing, she almost wanted to shake her head. Only, she wasn’t. Would it be enough to throw the magician over? Would it be enough to just make him shatter into a million little pieces?

That’s what she did shake her head but instantly regretting the motion. Of course he wouldn’t. The ice was not thick or powerful enough for that. She was surprised it had even managed to completely encase him and to hold him. Potentially not for long though. She had no idea. She had never done anything like this but didn’t allow herself to be stunned over it. Or even proud. They had to get out!

“Lutis!” she called out but her voice wasn’t much more than a whisper, so she repeated a little louder, her voice rising to an almost croak this time: “Lutis!”

That was when all of a sudden – finally! – shouts were to be heard and footsteps came hurrying towards them. Finally, finally, someone came to aid them! They would be able to go now. She would be able to warm up again. Shivering like a mad person, she tried to lift herself onto her knees and off the ground but it seemed like an impossible task, not even when she tried to hold on to the now empty trough.

The law enforcers came racing towards them, about six or seven of them, and Soneya almost wanted to smile but then she suddenly felt her hands being unceremoniously ripped behind her back and tied up. “What?!” The harsh question was a rasped whisper but it was audible enough to the man tying her up. The man almost had her on her feet when her body decided that nope, it wasn’t going to take any more abuse. Slumping forward, she didn’t notice anything else anymore. She didn’t even notice if the man let her fall to the ground or if he caught her. The last thing she saw was the ice cracking in places, law enforcers surrounding the ‘sculpture’ with questioning looks and Lutis being tied up just a brutally as her.

Okay, the mage had been more frozen that Lutis expected. He gave a dry, breathless cough and extracted himself, yelping where the ice had crept onto his own hands and sleeves, trying to stick himself to the new person-statue. Grim. He had been trying to kill them though. Batting a hand in the general direction of the frozen man, he bent in half to try and regain his breath, putting his hands on his knees. Soneya had done a damn good job, even though it would probably swell her head to have him say it to her. A few cracking noises came from the ice next to him, making him back off a few paces just in case in concern. He didn't want to be close if the mage's magic blew apart all that casing, or somehow he unfroze himself or... or whatever magic could do. Nasty stuff. He liked this newfound feeling of safety. Straightening up a bit, he brushed back the crazed strands of hair flopping over his forehead, putting his hands to his hips now and looking towards Soneya, sopping wet and barely having dragged herself out of the trough she had been dumped in. In fact, she looked absolutely terrible, barely able to lift herself from the ground.

He started to stumble towards her, his shoulder throbbing unpleasantly from cold and the ache of hitting the solid mage quite so hard (that level of force certainly not necessary next time, he must remember, not that he would ever be shouldering someone again except in the most extraordinary of circumstances). Lutis shoved that thought aside though, when Soneya looked like she was about to faint or... or die or.. well, hopefully not die. That would be pretty crap, considering they had just caught their murderer. Not their murderer... oh, all his thoughts were jumbled with fear and adrenaline.

A smile- an actual smile!- came to his lips as the sound of footsteps suddenly hit their ears, the sight of lawkeepers racing around the end of the street perhaps the most gladdening sight ever. He could have laughed aloud, for the relief; and then, the irony too, considering his 'profession'. He raised one freezing hand to hail them, although it was quite obvious they had been seen. Yes, thank the guardians.

Then, his expectations were ruined. Instead of reaching down helping hands to Soneya, cuffs and chains were produced. He barely had a chance to exclaim; "Wait, what, this is a mistake?", before he too was being restrained. Lutis was pretty sick of this by now though, the fact that the lawkeepers kept jumping on them despite their innocence, treated like miscreants and mishandled at every turn. And, he had never liked lawkeepers to start with. Perhaps the adrenaline had sent him a bit bonkers, because he put up a fight, yelling more and giving one lawkeeper a hell of a knock to the chin with a forceful headbutt, kicking out until his feet were swept out from under him and he hit the half-frozen ground, hands yanked back behind him before he could do any more.

He was muddy as well as wet and frozen when he was yanked back up to his feet, a scowl on his face. He wasn't given any leeway at all really to protest though, ignored as he was shoved along behind a man carrying Soneya over one shoulder. She was dripping head to toe, and he tried to convince the men around that she (and also him, he was cold) really needed to get warmed up and revived, but he was met by sullen silence, despite the sound of his voice becoming annoying even to him, chirping away.

When Soneya woke up, she had no idea how much time had passed, nor had she any recollection of where she – or rather they, since Lutis was with her - had been taken to. She assumed the guard station where they had been so many times before.

With a jolt, she put herself upright. The magician! What had happened to the magician? The murderer!

Her eyes instantly went to Lutis, who looked just as miserable as she felt, shivering. That’s when she realised, she was still dripping wet, which meant that she hadn’t been out of it all that long, right? Could they not at least have dried them? Or put a heater into this forsaken room?

“What happened?” she asked, her voice not much more than a croaky whisper. “Are you alright?” Shockingly, she actually meant it, and she surprised herself with real worry for him.

Slumping in a chair, to which she had been tied no less, had done nothing in favour of her feeling any better. Soneya groaned miserably as her muscles refused to obey her orders and stars were dancing in front of her eyes again at the exertion. How much energy had she spent on that ridiculous fight? She didn’t even have enough left to drain the water out of her soaked clothes, meaning, she would definitely get sick after this. And from the looks of it, Lutis was going to share that fate. Hooray, they could just lock them both in a cell together so they could keep each other warm since they were too damn ignorant to prevent them getting ill. What kind of treatment was this?!

Despite being cold, Lutis was buzzing with adrenaline, angry at how the pair of them had been treated. He yipped the whole way to the station, picking a thousand different questions to fire at the lawkeepers hustling them along, but they were as unresponsive as the statue of the mage they had left behind. That was a major question of Lutis'; what was going to happen with that anyway? And he was cold. And they were being treated unfairly. And Soneya needed help. The list went on.

He even continued to yell once they were deposited in a bare holding room; not a cell, thank gods, but not much better. A couple of chairs, that was all, and certainly nothing to warm them up even a little. His arms felt like ice weights now, and he would have rubbed them together to try and get a little circulation going, but apparently his quips the whole walk there had pissed off their guards, and he wasn't going to get any such pleasantries. Soneya was plonked down into a chair and deftly tied back into it, easy when she was out cold; Lutis didn't go so easily, so there was a fair bit of manhandling and some pretty sharp knots tied at the end of it to keep him down. This whole thing stunk more of Kaionar gang treatment than the law, and he made sure they knew that when they were leaving, struggling against the ropes biting into his wrists.

The adrenaline started to wear off once they were left alone, cold setting in to his bones instead. He tried to blow on his fingers to warm them up, but that didn't do much at all really. Soneya was a slumped mess in her respective chair, and no amount of hissing at her had made any difference. She had seemed absolutely battered by the mage's magic in any case, but he was concerned for her when she had been utterly doused in icy water, and not dried off at all.

It seemed like an age before Soneya came to. Lutis' fingers felt numb and stiff, and he couldn't imagine how cold she was. He was shivering already, hunched in his coat, for all the good it was doing him.
"I've been better, gotta admit t'that." She sounded horrible too, and no doubt was disappointed by their crap treatment. "Welcome to the law. We got nicked." Again. "You've been out for ages. Y'ahreet?" Well, she probably wasn't, that was obvious. They really needed someone to come and get them, give them an explanation and, more importantly, a change of clothes to warm them up, but nothing like that had happened so far.

“What? Why?” Soneya wrinkled her forehead in confusion. Why would they have been arrested? They had found and stopped the magician! What had happened to that guy anyway. That was the most pressing question in her opinion. Not even their welfare and what was happening to them took precedence over that one. If the magician was on the loose, then they were doomed anyway, no matter what the law enforcers had in store for them. This whole situation had just gone from bad to horrendous in a matter of just a few minutes, even though those minutes had seemed like a lifetime.

“I’m a little cold,” she replied when Lutis asked how she was. Probably the understatement of the year, but she could help herself if she could just gain a little energy again. Until then though it was shivering and freezing in wet clothes on an uncomfortable chair, but sooner or later, she would be able to slightly heat the water’s temperature. Lutis however… Lutis was freezing. If only she had the strength to yell, then she’d start screaming for those idiots to come back in here and let them go, or at least make them more comfortable.

As if someone had been able to read her thoughts, the door suddenly unlocked and three guardians came in, sneering at them as though they had caught the worst criminals in the world.
“Get your boss,” Soneya snarled, not even waiting for them to speak up. They weren’t going to help them anyway, not that they were likely to do as she had just.. asked.. them to do. But with a bit of luck someone higher up the food chain was on the other side of the door and heard.
“After all the help we provided, this is our repayment?” She didn’t bother straining against the ties, knowing that it would serve absolutely no purpose other than cutting the rope deeper into her own skin. Besides, it was a waste of strength she did not even have.

"Just a little." Soneya's comment made Lutis smile, how she was quite modest about the whole thing. She obviously hadn't heard all his complaining for ages, otherwise she'd be quite comfortable voicing her own discomforts. "I'm tryin' to convince myself that not bein' able to feel my fingers is a bit of a novelty." Kaionar was in the desert; any temperatures under 25'c and it was downright cold. "It's not really working."
It was a novelty, sure, but not a very nice one.

His reaction to the door finally getting opened was a little different to Soneya's. While she was still angry about the whole thing, he mostly just wanted to get out and be treated like a decent human being, screw what had happened already. Perhaps he was too eager for some kind treatment, but he just really wanted to get warm again. And be released from being strapped to a chair. It just wasn't very dignified... not that Lutis had ever been dignified, but he didn't like it. His pride didn't agree with being tied up anywhere, physically or metaphorically.
"Ah, thank guardians. Wait, let us outta these things first! Don't just go! Please don't just go." His voice turned miserable, turning on the pleading look to try and worm some sympathy out of the lawkeepers. So far it hadn't worked at all with any of their encounters, but it was uh, it was worth a shot, right?
"You talk entirely too much." One of the lawkeepers, whom Lutis now recognised having been one of the ones that had pulled him along behind Soneya to the prison a while before, gave him a disapproving look. "You are both under charges for murder, assisting murder and improper magic use."
"I don't even have magic!"
"Quiet! This is why I don't like foreigners." This last comment was said a little lower, directed to one of the other men who had come in to 'take care' of them. "You will be taken to see the head lawkeeper now and hear your sentence. They will not want to hear excuses."

Their bonds were then thankfully released, although there was no chance to rub some feeling and warmth back into their hands, as they were immediately grabbed by both arms and steered out the door. Lutis winced at the feeling of warm hands on his, wriggling if only to relieve the feeling of his sticking clothes on his skin, although it didn't improve the moods of those holding him any. They were just very grumpy people in general, he thought. Needed to lighten up and stop arresting the wrong people.

Last edited by Eldarwen on Tue Dec 02, 2014 11:36 am; edited 1 time in total

What happened next was not quite at all what Soneya had expected. Charged? Them? For murder? Improper magic use? What kind of bullshit was this?! Inwardly fuming, Soneya glared at the men, but kept her mouth shut. Neither of them was going to be able to do much to improve their situation anyway and annoying the lawkeepers even more wasn’t going to make things any better for them.

The relief of not being slumped in a chair like a potato sack, or tied to it for that matter, was so great, she almost sighed with happiness. But only almost. As soon as she felt their hands grab her, she started shivering, finally noticing just exactly how cold and wet she really was. Of course the men took this for fear and snickered at her distress.

The walk towards the authority was a short one but it felt like it took ages to be delivered in the head lawkeeper’s office. Much to her surprise, the man had been present at the very first murder investigation but she hadn’t known he had been the top of the hierarchy. Sitting next to him was one of the men who had come to get the pair from the inn for the second murder to ask them for their opinion.

“You!” Soneya growled at him as she was shoved into another chair, this time thankfully without being tied to it. “You came to us for our help! And now you’ve arrested us and on top of it all are accusing us of murder?!”
Much to her satisfaction, the man looked a little uncomfortable but he didn’t instantly ask for them to be released into the freedom of the world, so basically her exclamation hadn’t achieved squat.

“You will not speak until spoken to or in answer to a direct question. Understood?”
Soneya didn’t even bother replying anymore, having already resolved not to say another word. What good would it do? Their words were just going to end up being twisted around anyway.

The rush of familiarity as Lutis and Soneya were plonked down in new chairs wasn't that welcome, seeing the two lawkeepers in front of them. They hadn't done anything at all the previous time they had been detained (more like, imprisoned), and he didn't have much hope for any better result this time around. He rubbed his hands along his arms to try and get some warmth back into them, digging his hands into his pockets, wiggling his fingers.
"We didn't kill anybody! D'you really think we could? C'mon..." He gave them a pleading look, doing his best to look uninspiring. It wasn't difficult, icy cold and really unwilling to be where he was. Soneya didn't look much better either, although her voice was a bit more stringent than his was.

"Be quiet, the both of you." The less senior lawkeeper rose from his seat and padded to the door, pressing his ear against it with narrowed eyes. Apparently satisfied with what he heard- or didn't- he returned to his seat. This time he leaned forwards, elbows on the table, speaking in a low voice.
"We're sorry for all the hassle we've caused, but it's got to be like this. We look terrible if the word gets out that two strangers managed to a job that a whole force of lawkeepers couldn't." He gave a little apologetic shrug, pushing across the couple of mugs of warm drink on the table, apparently not actually for the two lawkeepers after all. Lutis grabbed it greedily, pleasure melting over his face, then he looked at them shrewdly again.
"Wait, I'm not buying into this." (Oh, he could feel his skin a little again. It tingled.) "Why all the secrecy? Why chuck us in a bloody freezing room for hours? I can't feel my hands, you know." (Although the mug was deliciously hot, it was actually sort of painful.)

"It looks really bad if two strangers just walk in, stumble over a body, then catch the criminal. We're going to have to keep this one a little bit quiet, I'm afraid. Apologies for the poor treatment since we found you in the road; not even the other lawkeepers should know, really."
Lutis felt indignance build up inside him suddenly, enough to want to splash the man with his hot drink- but he was reluctant to surrender the heat. And also give them a reason to actually lock them up.
"So... what the heck. What the actual shit. You're gonna damn let us go this minute!" The anger was in his voice alright though, his fingers clenched in annoyance round his cup. "All this shit and that's all we get?! 'Sorry'!"

For a moment, Soneya was utterly speechless. Her anger gave way to confusion and disbelief. She hadn’t heard this right, had she? Or maybe she was dreaming. Quite vividly maybe but that would certainly be a better explanation than the one the law enforcer had just presented them with.

The mug of something hot was too good to pass up on however, and she eagerly grabbed for it, though she didn’t drink it. Instead, she basked in the feeling of heat seeping back into her hands, even if it was with a lot of rather painful stinging. She nodded along to what Lutis said, for the time being still hellbent on not talking as it wouldn’t do any good anyway. Besides, she was shivering and her teeth would probably make too much noise if she tried to release her mouth out of the tight lock she was clenching her jaws in.

Soneya heartily agreed with Lutis’ outburst but she didn’t join in. Instead, she watched the two men opposite them. What were they playing at? Reputation couldn’t really be the deal, could it? It would be easy enough to spin a little tale around that and brush their involvement off as two strangers being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“You should be glad one of the other lawkeepers didn’t kill you on sight after the chaos you’ve caused!” The younger one of the two had a bit of a temper and Soneya was beginning to think that maybe they could use that to their advantage. Her eyes remained on the older one however. He was the quieter one, the one – presumably – with the brain, and those were the more dangerous kinds of people.

“I’m sorry, too,” said law enforcer in response to Lutis’ complaint. “We cannot do more than that, and we will have to lock you up again, for a while at least, to make sure it’s all authentic. You’re going to be warm and fed, and will have nothing to worry about. But that is the way we’re going to have to proceed. I cannot just let you go.”

That was when Soneya threw her silent-vow out the window and jumped up, spilling the contents of her mug all over the floor and herself – the latter part making her hiss in pain. “You’re insane! Delusional even! Do you really think we’re going to let you do that to us? We helped you! And you are going to imprison us? Again? I don’t believe your assurances for one second! You are going to let us starve, and you’re going to let us get sick in those damn cells of yours! You didn’t even give us dry clothing this time around!!” The last part was shouted, and she didn’t care if anybody else heard, no matter how alarmed the younger officer suddenly looked as he jumped up and went to the door once again.

Oh guardians, someone was going to end up with a burnt face of hot drink in a minute. Glancing towards Soneya, Lutis saw that she was just as stunned as he was by these 'antics' that the lawkeepers had pulled. This shit coming out of their asses, more like. She obviously was still exhausted not to be voicing herself already, as he was sure they'd be getting an earful any other way. He got eve more pissed off when the younger lawkeeper decided to then patronise them a little further though.
"You're so full o'shit, you know that? You should be glad you don't have a crazy murderer running around any more. Killing people, as well as dragons!" He banged his cup down onto the tabletop again. "We've caused chaos? I think it's your shitty operation that's chaos." Perhaps he was toeing the line a bit close, offending the law so, but he didn't care. They were being framed by these two men, and treated like the scummiest of criminals. It just wasn't on, when he hadn't even done anything bad this time round.

Finally Soneya reacted from her silence at the most absurd admittance from the pair in front of them of all. Lutis was glad he had put his own drink down, and hastily removed his hands from around it in case he decided to do the same as the water mage had, which was quite likely now.
"You've got another thought coming if you think we're gonna actually stick around. I ain't gettin' locked up nowhere, and I don't think Soneya's much up for it either. I'm bloody freezing!" They were making a commotion, and it was obvious that this was not what the lawkeepers had wanted in any way.
"We've tried to make this as painless as possible-"
"Yeah, for you!"
"-but if you continue to make a commotion, we'll have to retract our generous offer in this and treat you as criminals for disrupting the course of law."
"Screw that!" When Lutis had ventured out of Kaionar, he thought he was going to have a break from all this corruption and having to avoid people who wanted him jailed or worse. This was not a pleasant surprise, and he decided he didn't really care for coming back to this place again. There wasn't anything pleasant about it at all. Grabbing hold of his cup again, he dashed it forwards at the older, still sitting lawkeeper, kicking away his chair and making a break for the door, despite the remaining close lawkeeper. "Soneya, come on!"

‘Their generous offer?!’ Soneya wasn’t sure whether she should laugh or cry at yet another one of those outrageous statements. These men really thought they were being nice! They really thought they were doing them a favour! What kind of crappy childhood had they survived to end up with such a twisted view on the world?!

Before she knew what was happening, Lutis was already on his way to the door. And she still hadn’t quite digested what they had said and most importantly what her partner in crime – ha.ha. – had been saying between the lines. But as soon as he shouted for her to come, she didn’t hesitate even for a moment but instantly dashed after him.

She had no what his plan was and for a moment, she was shocked at herself for blindly following him. Then again, at this moment in time, what Lutis had in mind couldn’t be in any way worse than what the lawkeepers wanted to do to them, and she was fairly certain that if they got out of here, nobody would follow them – out of the city that was, which might be a bit of a challenge, again. As if they hadn’t suffered enough hardships since bumping into each other.

They were out the door and rushing down the surprisingly empty hallway before the two men had even gotten up from behind the desk, raging over what had just happened, and probably whining not just a little bit about a burnt face, courtesy of Lutis.

“Please tell me you have a brilliant plan that will not involve us having to run like this for too long,” Soneya hissed, already feeling the tiny bit of strength that had regenerated during the time she had spent in blissful unconsciousness waning away.

Obviously Lutis hadn't done anything to endear the pair to him as he wrenched the door open and made a break for it along the corridor, the yelp and whimpers of pain and anger behind him quite audible to any that were around. Please let not many be around!
"Just leg it!" he called to Soneya, trying to put together something a little better than just that as he tried to work out where the hell they were, and where the hell the door to the outside was. Why did they have to make this place a maze? It was the lack of windows, made it very difficult to work out where they were. Hearing voices from behind another door, he continued to race along the corridor, clapping shut a door behind the pair of them to cause a bit of a blockage to those behind. "Ahreet, plan, here we go. Find a door, get outside, I would say go back to the pub but they're so gonna be waiting for us there, so nope, head the opposite direction. What's your opinion on forest? It's not my favourite, but better than a jail cell, however cushy they try and make it sound!"

He grabbed a couple of knives off a tabletop as they passed through a larger room, tucking them into his palms in case of an emergency. His fingers were still stiff with the cold, but they were good enough to use for a little while, warmed by the drink he had been holding. Shouts behind them was obviously the alarm being raised... his eyes shot up towards the ceiling when a bell started to toll far above. "Shit! This plan is crap. Let's not follow my plans any more." More noise was coming from around them on other sides now too, lawkeepers who had been hidden away in other rooms alerted to their escape. "You got any magic left?" He was babbling, scrambling for a way out of this mess he had gotten them into even worse now. "Look, I didn't mean to land you in all this shit. I mean, you were a bit of a bitch when we first met, but I think we're gettin' along swell now eh?"
A door crashed open in front of them, a pair of new lawkeepers scrambling out into the corridor looking flustered, a woman and a man. Lutis might normally have chuckled, but now it instilled fear in him. Time for another mad plan, it seemed. He grabbed hold of Soneya and put one of his knives to her throat, not having to act his desperation.
"Don't even move, mate, or she's a gonner. You're gon' get outta the way and point me towards out, right now!"

Alright, so Lutis didn’t exactly have a plan, but neither did Soneya, so she figured they were even in that respect as long as they got out of this forsaken place. Why were there so many hallways? She was too tired for this!

“No, pub would be a bad idea.” The thought of all the things they had left behind, but most of all, the thought of all the things they had brought along that had been soaked in their battle with the mage was irritating her. Very frustrating! Everything would have to be treated so that it was useable again, such a nuisance. “Forest, it is,” she continued with a shrug. What else were they to do? The forest would certainly not be colder than a cell would have been.

“Magic?” Soneya almost laughed. She was swaying on her feet, how could he even think she had enough strength left to work a little magic? When Lutis continued to babble, she was on the brink of touching her hand to his arm in a sort of comforting gesture though she had a snide comment on her tongue when a door was thrown open and they were faced with a couple of lawkeepers who had definitely been... well... Soneya didn’t want to dwell on that.

And suddenly, all thoughts of any kind of fun activity were swiped from her mind, when Lutis suddenly grabbed her and held a knife to her throat! “What are you doing?” she hissed, her voice rising in pitch as a bout of panic crept over her. Was this for real? Was he playing her and them? Or was he serious? It certainly would make his life easier if he didn’t have to get her out along with him...

“So everything you’ve just said was what? Mere words? You didn’t mean any of it?” In her exhaustion, her brain went with the worst possible scenario and her hands flew to his wrists in a desperate attempt to move the knife away from her throat, but that didn’t do squat.

The lawkeepers just stood there staring for a moment before the man finally spoke up. “Now, you don’t want to do that. Put down the knife and let her go. We can figure something out.”

"Sorry darlin'. Fun ends here." Lutis pressed his mouth close to Soneya's cheek, a fierce frown on his look towards the lawkeepers barring the way. "Let's be reasonable, eh? You get the hell outta my way, an' I might not cut this pretty thing a red ruby necklace." I've always wanted to use a line like that, didn't think I'd ever get to though. "Sorry sweetheart. It was fun, but I have no interest in dyin'. Just cooperate, an' you might not either, aye?"
Stupid Soneya, immediately tried to wrench his hands away from holding her close. He had to be even more careful not to cut her accidentally as she tried to push his hand away, and he had to hold it still. Oh come on, which did she have to do this? Although, he shouldn't have been surprised. He had to be convincing though, otherwise they'd never be able to escape.

"Come on, you're in the lurch and we both know it. Just move outta the way and we'll all go our ways." Lutis gave Soneya a little tug to get her to move, inching towards the two lawkeepers and smiling tightly at them as they stepped aside for him, one each side of the corridor. "That's it, cheer mates. Appreciate the cooperation. Now I'm just gonna beetle it outside, y'both just sit tight and remember, you can't do a thing."
It was fairly nerve wracking getting out of the building, Lutis convinced that they were going to run into someone else that would see them both locked up in a cell, and even more paranoid Soneya was going to do something stupid and wreck everything. Luck (somehow) was on their side though, and they got out into the street with only one close call. It was cold, the morning sun only just peeking over the rooftops. He pulled her down the steps so they had a bit of room from the building, then released his blade finally from skimming at her throat, hands held up in front of him in hope of placating her.
"Don't kill me, ahreet? Really wasn't feeling gettin' chucked in another cell."

Soneya didn’t know what was happening. She didn’t understand, and she was too exhausted to even try to make sense of the things going on around her. Lutis had betrayed her, used her trust. Why had she been so stupid? Why had she started trusting him? Against her better judgement nonetheless!

For some reason though, the lawkeepers stepped aside. Was he that fear-inspiring? She didn’t see his face, didn’t know what it was they saw there. On that note, they probably also saw the desperate and fatigue in her own expression, the hurt and betrayal. Maybe he really was intending to kill her if they didn’t let them pass. But what about everything they had been through together? She had shared her bed with him of all things!

Miraculously, there were no further incidents and Soneya almost forgot that she was going to rip Lutis’ head off at the first opportunity when the outside suddenly came nearer and neared until they burst out into the fresh air. At least he had gotten them both out, but if he thought he could just kill her now, he had another thing coming. She may not have any strength anymore, but there was lots of water in their clothing. And if killing him to keep him from killing her, then she would pay the price of possibly killing herself in the process of killing him.

Soneya’s thoughts didn’t make sense anymore. Nor did Lutis’ actions and words once they were outside. It took a few moments for her to realise what had just transpired. And all of a sudden her rage at him pretending to want to kill her transformed into cold fury and before she knew what she was doing, she slapped him. “You bastard!!” she yelled – or croaked rather. Her throat had gone so completely dry during their flight that she didn’t manage anything else. Just as well, because in hindsight, she realised that a scream would probably have alerted the lawkeepers to their location.

“I swear, you’re going to pay for this! You could have accidentally killed me! You could have actually killed me! How was I supposed to know… aaargh!!!”
And that’s when she realised they were actually outside. Outside! They could properly flee now. Suddenly, her fury started evaporating and she was starting to contemplate kissing him for his genius idea, even if it had been at her expense. Her heart was still beating like crazy.

Before she could give in to any other impulsive ideas – the slap had been enough for now, surely – Soneya abruptly turned away from him and strode down the street, keeping a steadying hand on the wall of the building next to her. Her legs were far too wobbly for her to walk on her own, but she was not going to rely on Lutis. Oh no. They did need to get out of there though. Quickly, before the sun rose too high and they risked exposure.

Soneya looked so obviously exhausted as Lutis stepped backwards, he suddenly rued the fact that he hadn't explained anything to her before just acting. There hadn't been any time, of course, but perhaps he could have given a little more warning. Hopefully she would understand though...
"Couldn't really give you a signal. Sorry, had to think kinda fast." Slowly he lowered his hands, glancing behind to see if they were being followed yet. Probably having the troops rallied inside or something, for all the gates of the law to open and flood the streets with people really wanting them behind bars. Great!
Looking back to the water mage, he barely had time to straighten his head before it was snapping around again, his cheek stinging with unexpected pain and the air dashing out of him. It took him to realise what had happened, gasping and putting one hand to his face.
"Shit... Ouch, Soneya! Guardians... I kinda deserved that, I give y'that one, but... doesn't mean you actually had to deal one out. Bloody hell. I was savin' your ass!" Didn't she understand that? He backed off a couple of paces from her in case she dealt him another whack. "Don't hit me again, just... save it for later, ahreet? And give me a warnin'." So he could leg it first. Oh boy, he would be running fast if she even looked like she was gonna deal him another slap.

"Look, see, I did good. Now, if you could, without tryin' t'knock my head off again, move your ass." His head jerked back behind them again, paranoid for being caught as they had only just gotten out of the door. He hurried after Soneya with multiple concerning looks behind them, gingerly offering some assistance to Soneya if she wanted it without ripping his head off.
"I didn't mean t'scare you, you do know that, right?" he asked slowly, hoping that she would snap his head off. It seemed entirely possible.

At first, Soneya refused to listen to Lutis. She also refused his helping hand. But in the end, there wasn’t much else she could do than accept it after all when the wall suddenly ended as they reached the end of the building and had to dash across a small street to disappear behind the next building and down yet another alley.

Leaning heavily on Lutis, she still tried to ignore his words. She knew he had done all of that for the right reasons, putting a knife to her throat, calling her silly names, throwing her into a water through... but in all that he seemed to forget that she had saved his ass as well. And she wasn’t quite sure they were even.

Finally, she couldn’t ignore him any longer – not that all that much time had passed but to her reeling mind it felt like an eternity. “No!” she croaked in a whisper of a scream. “I did not know that!!” Digging her nails into his arms – it was the only thing she still had enough strength left to do, slapping him again would have taken far too much effort though it would have been much more satisfactory – she suddenly lost control of herself and a sob escaped her, much to her own horror.
No! No, no. She was not going to cry! But guardians was she tired, and it had all just been too much.

Fortunately, she was saved from further embarrassing herself when suddenly footsteps sounded in the general area of where they had just escaped from. They weren’t coming after them yet, and the pair was going as fast as they possibly could, but there was no doubt that lawkeepers would soon be searching the whole town for them. “Shit!” she swore under her breath, in another whisper, but it was heartfelt.

Finally Soneya took Lutis' arm, and he wrapped his hand around her tightly to keep her upright. He was cold, but she was exhausted, and it was clear to see from the slow, achy way she moved, the bags under her eyes and her grumpiness. He wanted to rib her a bit more for it, but when she didn't respond at all to him, it was obvious that that would be a pretty bad plan. He could still do it, but he didn't really want to end up encased in ice if he annoyed her enough.

"Hey hey hey." Aw shit no, she wasn't going to get all emotional on him! He'd screwed this up so badly it had come to this?! But Soneya had been nigh impregnable up until now, even faced with the worst trouble Lutis certainly had ever found himself facing. Okay, maybe his way out was a bit extreme, but he hadn't expected her to suddenly do this in response.
"Look, I'm sorry, ahreet? There wasn't any time to warn you, otherwise we'd ha' never gotten outta there. It was just a shitty toss-up I had to make." That was the best he could do, if she started blubbing all over him. Please not let that happen.
They were going to get interrupted anyway. Lutis tried to hurry Soneya at the sound of footsteps, but it was difficult.
"We're so screwed. So screwed." They had to get out of there, or at least, out of sight. The streets were too open, too dangerous to run through. He grabbed Soneya round the waist as they hustled past a stack of barrels up against one wall of their road, shoving her up onto the first layer. "Up onto the roof! We'll find a spot to hide in for a couple of hours. We're gettin' nowhere on the ground in a few minutes time, there'll be lawkeepers everywhere." He started to climb up behind her, trying to hurry along when there were people close, and this definitely didn't look legal.

Eurgh, why did this have to keep getting worse and worse? Not only were there footsteps, now obviously getting closer – just their luck! And then to top it off, Lutis wanted her to climb upwards? Ridiculous!!

Yet it was the only thing they had, and as far as ideas went, it wasn’t even the worst one either of them had had in quite a while.
Grunting at the effort, while still making as little noise as possible in general, Soneya heaved herself upwards onto the first layer of barrels and from there onwards onto the next one. Slow step after slow step. If she hadn’t been so focused on getting onto the roof before they were discovered, she might have felt embarrassed by the way Lutis had to keep helping her and pushing her upwards. He kept touching her and she kept basically shoving her bum into his face when she was struggling to keep her grip.

After what seemed like half an eternity, they heaved their battered bodies onto the roof and Soneya instantly scrambled towards the chimney. It might be a vain hope but people used their chimneys quite a lot usually and it was breakfast time now, so maybe, just maybe they would finally be a teensy bit in luck and it would be hot.

“Lutis, oh my god Lutis! It’s warm!!” Soneya almost wanted to cry again, so happy was she to feel a little bit of heat on her body. Curling around a bit of the chimney, as much as it was possible, she tried to get as much warmth out of it as possible.

“Can we stay here? Or do we have to move?” If they had to move, she would of course force herself to move on, but if her voice wasn’t enough, then surely the expression on her face would tell Lutis volumes about how reluctant she was to take even one more step. If they could just rest a little bit, she could pull the water out of both their clothes. Hopefully.

It was more of a farce getting Soneya up onto the roof than it took to get himself up, and it was so painfully obvious that she was unused to this sort of thing. He kept his mouth grimly shut though and shoved her up onto the roof anyway, relieved when finally he felt her weight move off him. It took half the time to haul himself up, wriggling onto the rooftiles and breathing out heavily. There was frost around the edges of the outer tiles, so no wonder his hands were really cold and stiff. Not the best climbing weather. He wanted to collapse right there on the edge of the roof and regain his breath and strength a little, but crawled over the roof after Soneya despite that, trying to be quiet, and quieten her at the same time.
"Shh, you'll get us caught. Guardians..." He slumped up against the chimney with his back to it, feeling knackered. They'd have to get down on the road again, there was no way he could haul Soneya across multiple rooftops when it had been a struggle to even get her up there.
At least she didn't have vertigo. He held onto that fact as he pressed his hands back against the warm chimney stack, closing his eyes and listening to try and work out which roads below them were occupied.

"I feel shattered. We'll sit here for a bit and scope out this thing... there's gonna be lawkeepers all over the town by sun-up, there'll be no chance of an easy way out. This place is too small for people to not notice strangers running around." He really needed a drink and something to eat, as well as a soft bed. Oh god, a soft bed, that would have been heaven. He could feel their escape catching up to him now, but he attempted to ignore the bone-heavy tiredness. Sitting forwards, he brushed away the loose strands of hair hanging over his face.
"So, least conspicuous way of getting out of this place? Any ideas?" Waiting all day until the next night at least didn't seem very viable, when they were literally staking out on someone's rooftop, and they would definitely be noticed if they just tried to chill there for the day. Not to mention, it would be bloody cold even with the chimney for that long.

» COMPLETED ~ Party Time! With Liz and Eldar
» Anyone for the rescue? (Cold, Parade, Eldar)
» Chance Meeting [Kor] - Completed
» Height of the Hunt (Eldar & Nen)
» The Altar of Stars (Alex X Eldar)