As soon as they had made their way back on the
Kyne's Tear, Roze knew their work was far from done. The charges planted had done their job nicely, the shockwave knocking nearly everyone to the floor as they exploded, likely ruining the engine. It wouldn't be long before the ship sank from it's varied damaged areas. They could leave, and Roze was more than happy to do so. But the cold look of defeat on Sagax's face, and other news spilling through the company about prisoners and locked doors made her realise it wouldn't be so easy. Of course,
of fucking course, they had to do a rescue mission as well. On top of blowing up the ship and killing the damned Ice Giants, they had to undergo a rescue mission before the prisoners - or themselves - burnt to death in the now flaming underbelly of the ship. With a dejected sigh, Roze made her way back to Sagax, getting the attention of both him, and anyone else who cared to listen.
"Look, we probably have a bit more time and numbers on our hands to do try and do some good. One of these icy bastards has to have a key; either on their bodies or their quarters." Stifling a groan (
"Why in Oblivion do I keep volunteering for death missions? Why?!") She beckoned towards the Kamal frigate, the fight still raging above deck. "Come on! The quicker we do this, the sooner the fight is over."
Raelyn was perfectly content to let Sadri, Leif, and Tslee kill themselves, she was planning to wait it out on the Kamal ship and see if anyone else would pass by to help. That massive explosion earlier hadn't exactly filled her with courage, it had more filled her legs with lead weights. Well, she had plenty of time in a sinking ship to think about what to do next. She heard something like the sound of splashing water, figuring that one of the three must have fell. "Looks like they went a little overboard with that plan." she said out loud, laughing to herself.
"Well...then we'd better get started then, the faster we find those keys the faster we can get those prisoners out! ...ah, and the faster we can leave these waters, of course." Sagax surveyed the crumpling ship in front of him; they wouldn't have a lot of time, and it wasn't certain that just the two of them could get the job done. Hopefully they'd be able to find someone aboard the ship willing to help. Without another word, Sagax made his way back over to the frigate. He didn't even wait for Roze to join him before beginning his search for a key. He had to leave the Pakseech behind, but Sagax was going to get the rest of the prisoners out of the hands of the Kamal no matter what he had to do. He was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn't even notice Raelyn standing just a few feet behind him.
Raelyn followed along, "Looking for something precious? Have you tried your own pockets?" She thought about it a moment, "Perhaps the largest, most intimidating...man? Are Kamal men?"
Sagax rolled his eyes. "I doubt the key to the jails would be on my person, so no I haven't checked." he said without looking over; he was in the middle of searching a fallen Snow Demon. They had a few somewhat-fancy ornaments on their armor, so he thought maybe they had a key. No such luck. "One down, a lot more to go..." the Imperial man thought to himself. Suddenly turning to Raelyn, he spoke again. "If you've got working legs, help find that key! Just look through their stuff, it may be hanging off of a belt or...something. Trust me it's easy, but we're running short on time!" That accursed frigate was getting closer and closer to being swallowed by the sea every second. If they didn't hurry, those taken captive by the Kamal would be going to the bottom with it, and that...was simply unacceptable.
Raelyn grinned despite Sagax's icy tone, "You should always check your clothes. Why, I can remember many a time I found I had lost a key only to find it hidden away in my trousers." She sauntered off, occasionally stopping to kick over a Kamal body with surprisingly hard kicks.
While glad Sagax was willing to help, the icy tone of his reply wasn't missed by Roze. Following him with a sigh as he strode off, not even looking back, she began searching through the fallen Ice-Demons. Clearly, Sagax was still annoyed at her, which in turn annoyed Roze.
"Serves me right for thinking with my head." She thought to herself bitterly, a scowl resting on her face as she prodded a Kamal uncertainly with her foot, checking it was definitely dead. She jumped as the legs and arms began twitching, but the sword buried in it's head explained that one - nervous systems were weird things.
The injured bard seemed to helping... or at least, making light of the situation. While Roze could always appreciate some light humour, even she figured this wasn't the time or place. Perhaps it was Sagax's sour mood rubbing off on herself, but the normally amicable rogue wasn't particularly fond of Raelyn's laughter at the moment. However, even she had to admit the woman had made a decent comeback. Usually when someone gets stuck by a spear bad enough to cradle their own intestines, they're laid up for a while, contemplating just how close to death they came.
After searching four of the dead beasts without luck, Roze glanced down to where the stairs of the hold led. Surely the prison keys would be on those in charge of said prisoners - and they certainly wouldn't be above deck during the fight, right?
"Hey! I'm going below deck, going to see if we can round up some more help and find some useful corpses. The key can't be that far from the cell." Getting Raelyn and Sagax's attention, she descended into the hold before receiving an answer - if Sagax was going to be short with her, she'd return that attitude in kind.
Raelyn said, looking to Sagax, "You know, she has a point. If I were a Kamal guard, where would I be?" Of course, she felt this logic wasn't completely sound, as a Kamal guard she wouldn't have preferred to be dead at sea, but she soldiered on with the metaphor, "I'd stick to the cells and beat to death any man who came near. Or I'd run, abandon ship, and paddle a small boat to the nearest shore and try to make a new life as a fisherman, never again going by my true name. If it's the latter case, we may have a problem." She gave a sly grin to Roze, "Though I feel like some of us might be able to make due, even without the original key." She'd have been more blunt, that Roze was some sort of well prepared thief or shady assassin and was in all likelihood a reprobate delinquent of the highest caliber, but she always felt that tactful acknowledgement was better suited to her purposes.
"Right...yeah. That makes sense. Come on." Sagax looked up to find Roze already gone. Just like a thief, to be gone in an instant, though he supposed he was no better. He could disappear just as fast, and he had never forgotten nor forgave his own thievery.
Heading below deck, Sagax saw several dead Kamal before him, some with the odd armor ornamentation or coloring. They were heavy, so it would take time to search them thoroughly, but what other choice did they have? "Let's get to work, bard. I want to get off this boat and be done with this nonsense." Sagax said as he set out searching for the key. He made sure to avoid Roze, and it appeared she was responding in kind. Good, they each needed the space. Sagax stayed on his end of the ship, and Roze stayed on hers as they kicked over Snow Demon corpses. At least they were covering more ground that way.
Raelyn gave a coy smile, "No need to be so quick, speed isn't always indicative of quality. We should really enjoy these moments we have together, you never know if its our last." She made it a point to gratingly search each corpse with exaggerated care.
As each minute passed, Roze's search became more frantic. While she had some water-breathing magic, it would run out fairly quickly if she were trapped in the hold as it was swallowed by the icy waters... and speaking of, with that potion well worn off now, she had doubts over whether she'd survive such severe contact to the cold liquid. Even the Kamal seemed to succumb to the sheer cold of it. Or... maybe they just drowned.
"Oh, blast it! This is a complete waste of ti-" Roze's angry complaint was suddenly cut short as she saw something glinting in the middle of the deck, right next to a rather large hole. A severed arm of a Kamal lay nearby, and Roze had to wonder if it was truly going to be that easy. Just there, for her taking? Upon closer inspection, she could indeed tell it was a key, a large and strange type that she'd never seen the likes of before. "Good job I didn't attempt to pick the bloody door - I'd have been lost." She muttered, walking towards it... only to stumble into the wall as the ground lurched inwards suddenly, the sound of wood splintering and metal groaning all through the ship. It was really starting to come apart, and with a start, she realised the key was gone.
"Oh fuck, NO." Throwing herself at the hole with bated breath, Roze could hardly believe her luck when she saw the key once more, dangling from a splinter by the thread of fabric it was attached to. Snatching it away from the foreboding hole, she could have kissed the damn thing.
Catching up with Sagax and Raelyn, Roze skidded to a stop at a cross in the corridors as she saw them. "Oi! I've got the key, get your arses to the hold so we can finally get the damned prisoners out!" She yelled impatiently at the pair before moving on to the lower decks; while the key had been found, they were still at risk of dying on this ship. And for the sake of some strangers, Roze wasn't happy about that at all - the job had to be done, and quickly.
Raelyn shouted back, with some relief, "Oh thank Stendarr, I was afraid the last thing I was going to hear was Sagax complaining about how little work I was doing." She ran after, thankful at least one of the three knew how to find something that didn't belong to them. Then again, Raelyn had stolen one of the lizard-mens passes. Some would also say that her fake magic show at the festival was also a form of thievery. And, perhaps even writing a song about someone was some sort of theft. She was essentially stealing their legacy for her own profit. She wondered if anyone else had thought the same thing. It would certainly make her traveling life harder if she could be brought to a court over such issues. Though she guessed that a lack of flattery in a song may get her stabbed one day. She said to Roze as she finally caught up, "If you were in a song, what would you like the song to say about you?" She looked to Roze with piqued interest.
"About damn time..." Sagax thought to himself. He was growing increasingly frustrated with his own search, hurting his foot after kicking a Kamal in the head out of anger. The fact that Raelyn was a nonstop chatterbox wasn't easing his nerves whatsoever. He would be glad to get back to their own ship and maybe, hopefully, get some sleep. His head hurt fiercely, and he couldn't tell if it was that fall from earlier, a lack of any decent rest, or just pure stress. Perhaps all three. Whatever the case, the Imperial was all too ready to call it a day as soon as possible.
Following Roze down to the hold where the prisoners were kept, he couldn't help but notice that the frigate was starting to take on water at an increasingly alarming rate. The metal plating of the hull was doing it absolutely no favors. "Well? Come on then, open the damn door! We're almost out of time!" Sagax knew his tone wouldn't do anything to endear him to Roze, but he didn't care. She could be mad all she liked, as long as the prisoners were taken off the sinking ship and lead to safety. Maybe he would apologise later, maybe he wouldn't, it was hard to tell when they'd both cool down enough to be civil. All that mattered right then, though, was making sure that they and the prisoners got back to the company boats alive.
Despite an increasingly sour mood courtesy of the current situation she was stuck in, Roze lips quirked into a smile at Raelyn's question. It was an interesting one to think about.
"I suppose I'd want it to be truthful. Telling of all my dashing heroics and amazing feats." She answered with a joking grin - she certainly didn't consider herself to be heroic. Brave, perhaps? And foolhardy - but not heroic. "I suppose if the song came about after I'd died I wouldn't really care - death is usually what get's people into the famous old songs anyway, right?"
Raelyn nodded sagely, "Ah, yes, stories of heroism! Hardly ever true, but truth is often just a commodity that gives credence to lies. Lies are, as I've often said, the strongest magic. A Dragonshout, or Thu'um, of course, can create storms through words, and magic can through will set a house ablaze. But these create reality that is actually there and even illusion magic creates something one can see and hear. The strength of a lie is you can create a reality that one cannot confirm exists, but others may strongly believe or even die for. Most conflict, therefore, is caused by two different lies coming into opposition." She smiled, "Or maybe those songs did happen! Who can say?"
Upon finally reaching the prison hold, the innocents inside were clambering at the walls and pulling on the door in such a futile manner that Roze actually felt some sympathy for them. This sympathy was swiftly overtaken by irritation as their constant barrage on the seemingly indestructible door was making it too hard to even get the strange key into the lock, let alone open it.
"Alright, calm down!" Roze snapped out the words loudly, directed both to Sagax and the wailing prisoners, who seemed to finally get the message and stepped away momentarily. The key fitted into the lock snugly, and with a firm twist, the door came open. Darting a dark look at Sagax for his impatience, Roze began waving the people out, hoping to the Gods that she didn't get trapped behind the horde of prisoners and drown before she managed to get off the swiftly-sinking frigate.
Raelyn gave a practised, subservient bow, gesturing with one arm at her stomach gesturing for the prisoners to move that way out of the ship, the other held slantwise above and away from her head in the same direction. She rose, as the horde that could still move quickly barged around in that direction. She frowned at those that couldn't, the wounded, the starving, the old. She went over and held one, who had been limping, by the arm. "Alright, you, need to stop moving so quickly. Relax, this ship is hardly exploding! Why, it will be hours before this ship sinks." She gave a significant look to Roze and Sagax, that seemed to imply that contradicting her would be unwise for their well-being.
Roze's glare did not go unnoticed, and Sagax shot one back as he was helping one of the prisoners to their feet; their cruel Kamal wardens had been none too gentle with them. "Everything's going to be fine, we have plenty of time to get out of here. Our ship is docked right next to us" The first part was absolutely not true, of course, but Raelyn had a point in telling her little white lie. Mass panic was the last thing they needed. "Come on, let's get topside. The further we can all get away from these Snow Demons, the better!"
Thanks to the calming words of Raelyn and Sagax (Roze kept her own rational mouth shut; while not wanting a stampede, nor did she want a slow amble to be her cause of death), but her expression was more than impatient, and remained that way until all of the prisoners had been shepherded topside; blinking in the sudden light of the fires still blazing on the frigate, and clambering to get onboard the other ship. Finally breathing a sigh of relief as she made her onto the Kyne's Tear, Roze could have kissed the scorched wooden deck. Glancing behind her at Raelyn and Sagax, Roze felt less animosity towards the latter now that she was safe and less irritable in the face of impending doom. However, recalling his scowls and sharp words, she wasn't entirely pleased with him. The fact that he was irritated at her for simply wanting to stay alive annoyed her further, and so she turned back to the rest of the group, glad that everyone had survived. It meant at least she didn't have to speak with Sagax for the rest of the journey home, anyway.
Member
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