[center] [b] 6pm, Last Seed 16 Royal Garden, Evermore Castle [/b] [indent] [indent] [hr] [/indent] [/indent] [/center] [indent] Maj fainted. The sight and the mention of Quyon Cox knocked Maj out like a charging Kamal. Ariane tried in vain to shake her awake, but it was not effective. So, per operational protocol, Maj would go back to Used Sundries. That meant Ariane had to haul Maj's unresponsive body out of the royal garden. Maj was surprisingly heavy, even though she wasn't very thick on the outside. A bit of feather spell helps, but it was hard to avoid the attention leaving castle grounds. When Ariane finally came near the main castle gate, Maj was stirring. Ariane breathed a sigh of relief, but then her hopes were firmly dashed by a tall man clad in black trench coat, standing in the middle of the gateway and block their path. "Stop right there, pirate scum!" The man declared. Ariane assumed it meant her and Maj, and when she checked on Maj again, Maj had apparently fallen back into unresponsiveness. How could she even drift in and out of consciousness that fast? Decided that Maj was acting, and doing a horrible job at that, Ariane shook her again. No response, so she slapped her lightly. Well, Ariane slapped her a little harder that she intended. "Wake up!" Ariane urged under her breath. She stood still as the trench coat man took a step toward her. "Ow, fine, mom!" Maj grumbled. Her eyes opened reluctantly, then opened all the way to take in the man in black. "Oh shit, it's Lightsleep!" "What? I'm a heavy sleeper..." Ariane puzzled. "You are hereby arrested for piracy against the people of united High Rock." Announced the man that's supposedly "Lightsleep". "You are surely mistaken." Ariane tried to explain, still holding onto Maj as to shield her. "I am Lady Fontaine of Daggerfall, and this is my consort, Kiralla Lima. We're on a diplomatic mission to Evermore." "She is Maj Noor, part of the Corsair alliance and a traitor." Lightsleep rubbed his gloved hands together; Ariane could feel the static of magicka off them. At his beckon, four guards came to his side. "Take her away!" "How?" Maj's voice was quivering, devoid of its usual cheer. "A Nephelle Avalone told me all about you." Lightsleep titled his head back, letting Ariane and Maj see the tip of a all-knowing smirk. "I understand you and Nephelle were quite close, well, she's eager to reunite with you, in death." Maj let out a feral scream. Magic pooled from her fingers; dreadful illusions and powerful atronachs took shape from Oblivion. But just as fast Maj was able to act, her spells were shut down equally as fast. Lightsleep's smirk turned into a frown. He extended a gloved hand forward, negating and silencing all the magicka Maj conjured. As the spells faded, Lightsleep shook his head disappointingly. Maj, however, was not deterred. Ariane could sense Maj dipping into the depth of her reserves, pulling energy from beyond Mundus at the cost of her vitality. "Maj, no!" Ariane warned. Her attempt to pull Maj back was just a second before the spells emerged. However, what emerged quickly collapsed as Lightsleep snapped his own hand into a fist, imploding Maj's spell into itself. Magicka didn't just disappear this time, they caused a violent explosion that sent Maj to the ground. If she was pretending to be passed out before, she certainly wasn't pretending now. The guards marched forward to collect Maj. Ariane had one hand behind her back, trying her best to form a conjured weapon. It simply couldn't be done for some reason. Lightsleep had created a field of negation with the residual of his magical maneuver, and the guards weren't just wearing typical armor; each of them wore a pendant that disrupted magic. Without her magic here, Ariane realized it was impossible to fight back. As much as she suddenly wanted to protect Maj, Ariane had no way of taking on four fully-armed guards. So Ariane settled on finding the truth; maybe she could find some way to get Maj back later, with the help of other mercenaries. "Who are you?" Ariane questioned. "I am a citizen of Wayrest, and an enemy of pirates." Lightsleep answered. The guards pulled an unconscious Maj onto her knees, and started binding her hands in rope. "Why her?" Was Ariane's next question. "There are so many...she's not the only..." "You're right, there are countless pirates out there." Lightsleep took off his gloves to examine his hands; they were patched and raw, as if they had been badly burned in the past. "We can't arrest every single one of them, but we can make an example of a select few." The guards had secured Maj. Ariane looked to them helplessly, then to Lightsleep; he was applying drops of alchemical lotion on his hands. "Do you know Maj Noor hailed from a successful merchant family in Wayrest?" Lightsleep put his gloves back on. "She was suppose to be a lady just like you, but she threw it away for 'swashbuckling adventure'. Her family invested so much in her; they and parents like them, need to show their children the consequences." "But how?" Ariane still had countless unanswered threads. She felt, well, she was unsure how to feel. She had barely known Maj, and of course, there's bound be layers underneath the cheerful ex-pirate. This Redguard was the closest person she could call a friend in years. Ariane hoped, she really did wanted, to get to know Maj better. "Her parents aren't the only ones concerned about her." Lightsleep nudged his head to the direction behind Ariane. Looking back, Ariane saw none other than Quyon Cox standing partly behind tall hedges, halfway across the garden. Quyon immediately walked away when Ariane saw him. "You cannot outrun destiny, Lady Fontaine." Lightsleep concluded. The guards loaded Maj onto a horse-drawn cart just beyond the castle gates. Before joining them at the cart's helm, Lightsleep nodded courteously to Ariane. "I'd go back and enjoy the banquet, and try to pick a better date next time." [/indent]