[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/ZPETHbP.png[/img]
Collab between [@The Muse] and [@c3p-0h]
[sub]Location: Outside the Jail[/sub]
[i][h1]Part III[/h1][/i]
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Sparing Daphne, Dyna and Ranni the small details, Flynn kept his explanation brief, pared down to what mattered most: Aliseth was a threat. A possible blight-born. Using blood and/or psychic magic. He was to be apprehended and approached with the utmost caution. If it could be avoided, they did not want more deaths added to the growing tally. 

As he finished, one of the knights stepped forward, urging him and Amaya to leave the area immediately—that their safety was the highest priority. Flynn had just turned to Amaya, words half formed on his lips as he caught a flash of something in her eyes, when the jail door opened. 

His head snapped toward the doorway, hand instinctively moving to the hilt at his side. A guard beside the door went flying, armor clattering as he landed in a nearby snowdrift.  

As the guard clumsily tried to get back on his feet, Flynn’s eyes shifted back to the door. Amused ghostly eyes stared back at him, framed by blond hair. Flynn’s gaze narrowed, the grip on his sword tightening. Though he hadn’t fully drawn his blade, the remaining knights had. 

Flynn shifted, taking another small but deliberate step in front of Amaya. Every muscle braced as the prisoner’s smug, taunting words rolled out. Every syllable pure mockery. 

When Gadez pointed Ranni out with a thinly veiled threat, Flynn’s gaze flicked to Dyna, gauging her reaction—or lack thereof. Like him, she stood as a shield between the jail and a person she couldn’t afford to lose. 

Drawing in a quiet breath to steady his pounding heart, Flynn slid his attention back to Gadez. Nerves eased, replaced by a rising tide of disdain as the man put on yet another show—theatrical movements, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face. As if this were all just a game.

[color=6ecff6]"The wolf howled it's warning cry, and asked me to pass it to you.[/color] [color=aba000]That he is coming for you. That he will learn the truth."[/color]

Flynn’s mind raced. Had Gadez been working with Aliseth? For how long? If not, why had Aliseth let him walk free? And what was Aliseth doing inside the jail now? What truth did he seek?  

Behind him, Amaya watched it all with frozen muscles and quick eyes. Her fingers twitched at her side, desperate to reach for Flynn, to pull him back from Gadez’s taunting words and flashing gaze — or to secure herself more surely to him, and hide beneath his shadow.

She flicked her gaze to Daphne. When the squire had emerged, fear had wrapped itself around Amaya’s heart. Daphne had been alone, vulnerable and magicless, in the jail with a murderous blight-born who could change his face and alter the minds of others. What better opportunity would there have been to strike? To [i]feed?[/i] Amaya thought of the second corpse in the Moon Temple, his face made unrecognizable only to be donned by his killer. 

Who was to say that this was Daphne at all? 

But Gadez’s reveal had doused that fear so thoroughly that it nearly drowned her. If the blight-born [i]had[/i] killed her, then surely he wouldn’t have left the prisoner alive — let alone [i]freed[/i] him. She doubted he’d choose to impersonate a prisoner either, before going on to make such a spectacle of himself.

The force of Amaya’s relief nearly set her off balance. Soft words, an open gaze, the simple offering of shared food… Amaya had already begun to mourn their loss without realizing it. 

Tearing her gaze away from Daphne, Amaya forced her attention back on the scene playing out — the danger hadn’t yet passed. The prisoner talked and talked, as ice blue eyes catalogued the souls and ice around them.

If Daphne and Gadez were alive and whole… what of the blight-born?

Flynn’s jaw clenched as Gadez addressed Amaya, though he didn’t dare look back at her — the growing chill at his back was unmistakable.  His eyes never left Gadez, listening as he offered suggestions on how to deal with the blight-born. Speaking as if he were some omniscient being. 

Everything in Flynn’s body coiled as a chuckle escaped Gadez’s mouth. Disgust reflected plainly in his expression, losing grip on what was left of calculated control. 

[color=337d71]“Why did he let you free?”[/color] The question was curt. His voice low, edged with heated skepticism. 

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[sub][b]Interactions:[/b] Dyna, Ranni [@Queen Arya], Daphne [@PrinceAlexus], Gadez [@Dezuel][/sub]