Stolen Peacock
Log Info
- Title: Stolen Peacock
- Emitter: Theo
- Place: Arcanists' Society
The Arcanist Guild is the same way that it's always been really. The half-familiar faces are not paid attention to at all as Theo nearly runs down the hall. His armor is in place, his weapon set on his hip, but... He is in a vague state of disarray that is not normal for him. His tabard is crooked, his belt hastily thrown on and set to the wrong size so that it sags on his hips rather than being properly set around his waist.
"Lheo!" His voice is strained as he calls for his brother, making the next turn into the hall that leads to Lheo's room. "Lheo!" He almost faints from relief seeing the door intact, but it only serves to speed him to that destination. Theo's knuckles crack sharply on the door. Only once. "Lheo! Are you there?"
Please let Lheo be there.
Fortunately, a voice calls from within, half-distracted and almost absent. "Come in." It is Lheo, perfectly calm and his usual wry self, but with that note that says his attention is split.
The door opens easily to reveal a tiny room, a cell really, with a bed, a writing desk and a chair. Lheo, clad in full city robes in a deep wine color, wool-warm against the snow outside, his spellbook open in front of him where he seems to be inscribing something from a scroll spread out next to it and pinned down with stones and an inkwell.
Theo throws the door open and for a moment he just stares at Lheo, almost sagging in the door way. "Thank Serriel you're all right." He pushes himself forward, moving toward his brother and thoughtlessly trying to embrace his distracted sibling.
This - is certainly a new development. Caught entirely by surprise before he can fully process what is happening, Lheo is hugged, his arms pinned to his sides, and he merely sits there. "Yes, I'm quite fine. What brought about this change of heart?" He tugs at the embrace, as if wanting to be freed - his pen is still in his hand.
Theo reluctantly withdraws a little, his face overwrought with worry. "Sorry." The word is twisted with guilt. "I... I went home and the place... It's a wreck Lheo. Zero's not there at all. I-I think someone took him. I was so worried that you..." He rubs a hand over his face.
Gently, Lheo frees himself and sets his quill in its inkwell. "Took him? No, brother. Why would I?" The wizard's brain is still clearly catching up to the situation, and he turns in his chair to face Theo. Only then does the dishevelment register, the belt out of place, the hasty donning, and he blinks. "Wait. You say that you think someone else took him?"
Almost at once, he's out of his chair, and looks down at the copy job he's working on, surveying the neat handwriting in the book and its diagrams, and snorts softly. "Well, at least it means I exist again," he mutters, then speaks more loudly. "You think it's his family, maybe?"
A moment of confusion flashes across Theo's face. "Of course someone else took him." Lheo thought that he'd thought that Lheo took him? The confusion only deepens at Lheo's muttered comment and he grabs his brother's sleeve. "Lheo... I thought someone took you."
Pain flashes across his face and he nods dumbly to the last question, his heart aching. "I"m so stupid Lheo." His voice cracks. "I... I don't know what I'm doing anymore. I can't keep you safe. I can't protect you and it's tearing me apart."
He didn't want to lay this at his brother's feet, but he can't hide it now either. "I'm so sorry. I can't protect anyone." Theo lets his hand fall away in failure that stings deep.
Again, Lheo blinks slowly. "Of course you can't, Theo. I know that. Why do you think I've been burying myself in my studies? Because you aren't always going to be around if I get into trouble. Especially now that you've got someone who's more important to you than I am," he adds bitterly, staring down at the pages. "At least you were around to realize he's gone. That is not nothing, brother, and I imagine we'll have to go and get him. He deserves our help."
Lheo's words stun Theo utterly and he feels the blood drain from his face. "What?" The word rings hollowly in the air. "More- Lheo... That's... How could you think he's more important to me than you? You're my brother Lheo."
Irritable suddenly, he curses. "Light blast it all, we're both idiots. I love you Lheo. That has not and will never change. I don't love you less because I love Zerthos. That's not how it works." He frowns at his twin. "I came here right away terrified that the fiend that tried to get at you was looking for us and grabbed him!"
In retrospect, it was far more likely that whomever Zero's family had sold him to was responsible, but he hadn't been thinking clearly. "I came here thinking you were already gone or next on the list."
Finally, Lheo looks startled at Theo's swearing, and stares at him, taking a step backwards. "I-" He lets out a long sigh. "You don't have any idea how wrapped up you two are in each other, are you?" He crosses his arms and looks away, towards the floor. "Never mind. No, it isn't me. I haven't heard a thing, but - if they're not after us."
"Then why did they grab him? Either way - didn't he says there was someone looking to serve him for dinner?" Suddenly, his head snaps up. "If that's who's got him, brother, then we haven't got time to argue. We'll settle this later."
A knock comes at the door quite suddenly. A female voice comes from the other side of the door. "Lheo Korreli?" Her voice is hoarse, and it's... oddly familiar. But from where?
Theo nods, his face lined with worry, but he nearly jumps when the door is knocked upon. His face turns toward the door, a flicker of his green eyes toward Lheo in curiosity. He's not sure they have time for this. Either way, it's not his place to answer the door for his brother.
"Come in." Lheo's answer is pleasant and calm enough, despite the sudden worry he wears, and he walks the few steps towards the door, reaching to open it.
It's a face that takes a moment to recognize. The woman is dressed this time not in the dark leather armor she'd worn before, nor the mask, but the short cropped red hair and the scar that dances down from her hairline, to the end of her nose: this is the masked woman who had accosted Lheo and Theo, demanding they hand over 'Zerithos'ian'. Her brown eyes, however, look like they're wracked in concern, and most notably: she's wearing an outfit that suggests she's a dock worker, a long-sleeved tunic, baggy drawstring pants, and wrapped hands to prevent them from being ripped up by freight.
"I know you have no reason in the world to listen to me," she says, "considering how we met last time: but I got out. And I saw your songbird. He's in trouble."
It takes Theo a long moment to recognize the woman, and when he does it's with a flash of worry and anger mingling through him. His brother is closer to the door, so he stays stiffly where he is, his lips wrought with tension. "Where is he?" He doesn't care if it's a lie or not. He needs to know.
Lheo takes a step back when he realizes who it is, and hesitates. "That so?" he drawls, crossing his arms again. "Care to share what sort of trouble, and where he might be now? And why would you tell us this now?" He doesn't invite the woman in, even, his robes brushing against the edge of the door and catching on a splinter.
"Zerithos--or Zero, as you call him now," the woman begins carefully, "belonged to the house that enslaved me and raised me as their blade. That's the same house that sold Zerithos to their rival house."
She pulls down the high neckline of her tunic to reveal scarring around her throat. "They did this to me because they do this to all of their slaves," she says. "They don't want our voices to outshine those of their house. I got out and I've kept an eye out for you three since. I figured it was only a matter of time before they'd do this."
A moment passes before she says, "I saw him in the warehouse district. There were a few humans with him. They don't send noble mul'niessa this far here. I guess they paid a local gang to get him."
Theo runs cold at the sight of the scarring. At the thought of Zero being forced to bear such pain. His hands clench into fists at his side. "Where in the warehouse district?" He believes her.
Theo runs cold at the sight of the scarring. At the thought of Zero being forced to bear such pain. His hands clench into fists at his side. "Where in the warehouse district?" He believes her.
Startled by the sight of the scars, Lheo's suspiciousness vanishes into the aether, and he frowns. "I see. Can you take us there?" he snaps out, quickly. "Quick and quiet."
The woman pulls the hem of her clothing up and nods. "I can take you," she says, "but they might recognize the two of you. You got any disguises you might use? I don't think they were told about me; I was pretty close by when I saw them and they didn't think anything of me being there."
"They were taking him to a warehouse that's been abandoned for a while," the woman adds. "Sometimes a gang will take over a building like that and squat down in it, pretending to be running a legit shipping company. Sign said it was the Friendly Pony Company." She scowls. "Pretty fucked name if you ask me."
Theo considers the question for a moment, shuffling through the disguises he can think of that would allow him to carry his mace with him. Mercenary? He glances around his brother's room and quickly unbuckles his belt. It takes only a moment to shirk himself out of the tabard that marks him as a paladin of Serriel. The armor he wears is not terribly distinctive in of itself, and he looks at his brother. "A hat maybe? Something... subtle?"
He's not sure what his brother has handy, but they don't exactly have time to go shopping. "Maybe you could change into something less obviously 'mage'."
"The Friendly Pony Company, eh?" Lheo's lips twist in disgust. "Let's hope they weren't planning on taking him for a ride." He shudders convulsively, but turns immediately towards his closet. "I've still got the trousers, mantle, and shirt I borrowed from you the other day, brother. I've cleaned them, but maybe I can use those one more time? As for how to disguise us both - I've got a better idea, but it won't last more than a few minutes, so I'll do it when we get closer."
"More like they'll make him into horse meat," the woman says with a continued scowl on her face. "Get whatever you've got and we'll get going when you're ready."
Theo's face twists in disgust and worry. "Yea. Throw it on Lheo. But hurry." He moves toward the door, motioning the woman to exit so he can close the door and give his brother some privacy for changing. He leans against the wall just beside the door more for support than for comfort. If they hurt Zero...
With the others out, Lheo quickly shucks his mage's robes for a much less familiar and somewhat less comfortable trousers, shirt and tunic in a pale spring green, then adds to it a woolen scarf-style mantle in a charcoal gray that includes a hood to cover his hair and, not incidentally, keep him warm. When he emerges, it is with a dagger and his pouches secured to his belt, and wearing his adventuring boots.
He takes the time to cap his inkwell, leaving his copying to dry and shoving the scroll into a tube tucked into his sleeve, then emerges and shuts the door behind him. "Let's go."