Sebastian lifted his head, blinking his eyes and looking around. His back and neck ached, from sleeping sitting upright. Anders was still all curled up, he saw, breathing slow and even. Undoubtedly he was going to wake feeling even more sore than Sebastian was.
He rose to his feet and stretched, then went to the door and leaned out, unsurprised to find four guards on duty rather than the usual two. And more in his bedroom still, guarding the hidden staircase, he had no doubt. He sent one running off to let Guard-Captain Cerin know he was awake again, and rang for breakfast, then retired to his bedroom – still inhabited by guards – to change into proper clothing.
The servants arrived and laid out the usual overly substantial breakfast. Sebastian went over to the bench.
"Anders, wake up... there's food," he called quietly. There was no response from the man. He reached out to first touch, then shake the mage's shoulder, frowning when there was no reaction from him at all,.
He sat down on the edge of the bench beside the mage, cupped his hands around Anders' head, and lifted it from his knees. It moved easily, his muscles loose and relaxed. His eyes were open, staring sightlessly into the far distance.
"Anders? You're worrying me now," he said. There was no reaction. "Anders?"
Still nothing. The mage was still breathing slowly and evenly, and after a while he blinked, but showed no sign at all that he was aware of anything around him. Sebastian frowned, then gently lowered his head back down before hurrying over to the door, and sending another of the guards running to fetch Dugall and Sister Maura from the clinic.
They arrived quickly. He quickly outlined to them what had happened the night before, then stood by watching as they looked Anders over. Dugall shook his head, looking perplexed. "There's nothing physically wrong with him," he said. "I've seen people go like this a time or two, when they'd been badly traumatized. All I know to do is to keep them warm and fed, and hope they come out of it on their own."
Sister Maura nodded, looking thoughtful. "I heard of a case like this, once – one of the other sisters once mentioned something similar, anyway. A woman, who'd been badly brutalized by a group of men; she was like this for a while, unresponsive. It was 'like a waking sleep', I remember the sister saying, and that it was several days before the woman finally roused from it. She had no memory of what had happened, when she did. The sister said she thought it might have been the mind's way of healing itself, of hiding itself away until the person felt safe enough to come out again. A sedative might help... I don't really know. I can go to the chantry and consult our medical library there, there might be more I could find out," she suggested.
"Do that, please," Sebastian agreed. "We also have a sizable library here; if you can find nothing at the chantry, I can introduce you to our archivist here, and he can help you to locate any relevant texts we might have."
She nodded, and hurried off.
"Anything you can think of to try, Dugall?" Sebastian asked.
Dugall shook his head. "No, ser, other than keeping him comfortable until he recovers. If he recovers."
Sebastian nodded. "Well, let's at least see what we can do about the comfort part; I think we'd better keep him here for now, it's easier to guard him, though I suppose we should at least move him somewhere more comfortable than this bench, and try to get some food and drink into him."
He rang for a servant again, and gave instructions for a cot to be found and set up in his room, Dugall and he straightening the unresponsive mage out on his back on the bench in the meantime.
Guard-Captain Cerin arrived just then, looking as if he'd had little sleep the night before. Sebastian retreated to the breakfast table, gesturing for the captain to join him there. Cerin poured himself a cup of tea, but declined the food. Sebastian quickly filled his own plate, calling Dugall over to select anything he thought he might be able to get Anders to eat, then settled back and listened to Cerin's report.
"We finally found where they'd entered the castle grounds a couple of hours ago," Cerin explained. "It looks like they scaled the wall; one of the dogs turned up a grapnel and knotted ropes hidden in the bushes, and when we examined the walls there, there were fresh scratch marks on the stones of the parapet. We also had a guard turn up missing, and eventually found his body hidden under a bush between where they came over the wall and the garden; he was patrolling one of the areas they'd have had to pass through en route. I suppose they surprised him and killed him before he could raise an outcry," Cerin said grimly.
"So that's three of my guardsmen the bastards killed last night, then," Sebastian said angrily.
Cerin nodded. "Yes, ser."
Sebastian scowled and angrily took a large bite out of a jam-laden scone, washing it down with tea. "I am very unhappy about this," he said, unnecessarily.
Guard-Captain Cerin nodded in agreement.
"Have you learned any more from the mercenaries?" Sebastian asked.
Cerin shook his head. "Nothing of any real value, just where they were hired and what little they were told about the job – that it involved removing a wanted apostate from the castle, that the templars would take care of him, and they were along to provide extra men to deal with any guards in the way and help carry the apostate once he'd been subdued. The surviving templar has still refused to say anything himself, saying that he'll only speak with you."
Sebastian nodded. "All right. Go and rest, if you can – I'll want you in attendance again after the Revered Mother arrives, when I talk with this supposed seeker. Did the chantry send back any word as to when she'd come?"
Cerin shook his head again. "No, only that would she would attend on you as asked," he said, then excused himself and left.
Sebastian rose to his feet, and returned to where Dugall was trying to get Anders to eat or drink. "Any luck?" he asked quietly.
Dugall shook his head, frowned. "Not really... he doesn't seem to want to swallow. Perhaps Sister Maura will know how to get him to eat..."
"Let me try, I've helped with invalids before," Sebastian offered. "Help me lift him up..."
Dugall gave Sebastian a surprised look, then helped him to lift Anders' head and shoulders. "Helped with invalids? You, M'Lord!"
Sebastian grinned as he sat down, moving so he was sitting behind Anders, the man supported against his chest. He steadied him with one arm wrapped around him, that hand cupped over his throat and chin, and reached out his other hand. "Pass me the tea," he asked. "Yes – there are no princes in the chantry, you know. When I was affirmed, and later an initiate, I did my time going out and doing good works – helping the sick and elderly, labouring to help those who needed it. Reading to the blind, all of that sort of thing. I've done my fair share of spoon-feeding and emptying of chamber pots."
Dugall smiled. "Hard to imagine you ministering to the poor."
Sebastian glanced at him and smiled, then tilted his head to the side so he could see what he was doing with Anders. He coaxed his mouth slightly open, then held the cup to his lips, pouring a little tea in. He tilted his head a little further back, then stroked his throat with a massaging motion of his fingers. "Come on, Anders," he said quietly. "Swallow the tea." He stroked a second time, then smiled as Anders' throat muscles moved slightly, some of the tea dribbling out the corner of his mouth but most going down. "Good boy," he said, and let the mage's head lower again, coaxing his mouth open for a second sip.
They'd managed to get about half the mug of tea and a couple bits of bread softened in milk to go down when they heard voices at the door. One of the guardsmen stepped in. "Beg you pardon, m'Lord, her Grace has arrived to see you."
"Have her shown here, please," Sebastian asked. "And send word for Captain Cerin to fetch the prisoner and bring him here as well."
The guard nodded and left.
"Want me to take over, ser?" Dugall asked worriedly.
"No, that's fine," Sebastian said. "Soak another bit of bread for me, will you?"
The door opened a few minutes later to admit the Revered Mother and her retinue. Sebastian was not especially surprised to see that Sister Maura was among them.
"Forgive me if I do not rise, your Grace," he said, nodding his head as deeply as he could in her direction. "I am somewhat occupied at the moment. Dugall, bring a chair for the Revered Mother, please."
Dugall hastened to do as asked, while Glynis strode over and looked curiously down at Anders. She ignored the chair, and sat down on the edge of the bench instead, lifting one of Anders' hands to feel his pulse, then peering into his staring eyes.
"You might need to bandage his eyes closed," she pronounced. "In this state he may not blink enough to keep them properly moist."
Sebastian looked curiously at her. "You're familiar with this state then."
"Sadly, yes," she agreed, and looked over her shoulder to where her retinue stood in a huddle by the door. "My bag please, Maura," she asked, then turned back to Sebastian.
"I have seen it only three times before, in all cases in people who had suffered through deeply traumatic events. In two cases it occurred directly following the events; one eventually recovered, the second person grew less responsive over time and eventually wasted away and died. In the third it occurred some years afterwards, when strong memories of the event were reawakened. That person also recovered in time. I would assume from what little Sister Maura was able to tell me that this event matches the latter description?"
"Yes," Sebastian agreed. "He was not physically harmed last night, but he was in what I can only describe as an extremity of terror. He seemed to recover somewhat while I was tending him afterwards, then went to sleep. And this morning could not be roused."
Glynis nodded, and took a glass vial out of the bag Maura was holding ready for her. It was filled with some kind of crystals and a little liquid. "Smelling salts," she identified it as she opened it and held it under Anders' nose. After a moment he made a face and twitched away from it. She nodded in satisfaction, closed the vial, and put it away. "He's been swallowing?" she asked looking from Sebastian to the cup still held in one of his hands.
Sebastian nodded. "But only when I massage his throat."
She nodded thoughtfully. "Well. He is not completely unresponsive, and he can be fed. He may recover, in time, if he is cared for and gently treated."
There was a knock on the door just then, and Guard-Captain Cerin entered, his prisoner and a pair of guards at his back. The prisoner was a large, broad-shouldered man with grizzled grey hair and a scar across the bridge of his nose, and light brown, almost yellowish eyes. His armour and weapons had been removed, leaving him dressed in gambeson and leggings alone. He looked sharply back and forth between the people in the group by the bench, then lifted his chin arrogantly.
"Revered Mother Glynis. Brother Vael." he said. "I am Seeker Reynard. I require that the apostate Anders be turned over to my custody for questioning."
Sebastian felt his temper rising rapidly at the man's obviously unrepentant attitude.
Glynis had risen to her feet and turned to face the door as the group had entered. Now her eyebrows rose, then she snorted and moved to sit in the chair Dugall had brought, back stiffly upright. "It would seem to me, Seeker, that you will find it difficult to question the man given the state he is currently in," she turned her head and nodded at Anders.
The Seeker glanced that way and frowned slightly, then shrugged. "He will sober up quickly enough," he said sharply in return.
"He is not drunk," Sebastian snapped out. "And even if he was well, I would be unwilling to turn him over into your custody after the criminal way in which you acted last night."
Raynard straightened up, his lip curling. "Brother Vael, you cannot protect your paramour from the lawful enquiry of the chantry..."
"Paramour!" Sebastian exploded, rising to his feet so suddenly he almost tumbled the mage onto the floor, Dugall and Sister Maura hastily moving to help untangle him from the man. "Anders is my prisoner, not my paramour! And had you properly presented yourself at my gate and identified yourself to me, I would have been perfectly willing to let you question him. Instead you broke into my castle, murdered several of my guardsmen, and so terrified the mage that he is all but comatose. You'll get no answers from him in the condition he's in thanks to your actions, Reynard!"
"That is Seeker Reynard, Brother Vael..."
"And I'll call you by your proper title once you remember mine," Sebastian spat out angrily. "It is Prince Vael to you."
The man's jaw clenched, a muscle jumping at the side for a moment. Then he gave a short nod. "Prince Vael. I merely sought to remind you of our relative standing within the chantry. I act and speak with the authority of the Divine in Val Royeaux herself, and as such you are required to assist me in my..."
"I am required to do nothing, Seeker Reynard," Sebastian snapped. "You have no authority over me. You may request the assistance of local secular authority; you cannot require it."
"Sebastian..." Glynis said softly, frowning worriedly.
He drew a deep breath, gathered himself back together, reining in his anger at the unrelenting arrogance of the man. "Whatever right to requesting my co-operation you might have had, you squandered by your actions last night," he bit out. "The only thing stopping me from holding you personally responsible for, and seeing you hanged for, the deaths of my guardsmen is your rank of Seeker. You will be escorted to the borders of Starkhaven, where your belongings will be returned and you will be released. Do not return to Starkhaven on peril of your life; your rank will not save you a second time. I will be sending a letter to the Divine condemning your actions and asking that you face punishment within the chantry's authority for the deaths your actions have caused. Guard-Captain Cerin, see to his removal and ejection, please."
Cerin nodded, and led the man away, looking stony-faced; he was no happier to see then man walk free than Sebastian was. For his part, Seeker Reynard looked nearly apoplectic with anger.
Sebastian stood a moment, squeezing the bridge of his nose, before finally turning to face the Revered Mother. "My apologies, your Grace, I am... somewhat wroth at the moment."
A small – a very small – smile lifted the corners of Glynis' mouth. "Understandably so," she said dryly, then frowned. "I am afraid this is not at all a good sign. That the chantry would send a Seeker after the mage I can understand, but that they would invade your castle and countenance the deaths of innocent men in their attempt to snatch him... they must be desperate indeed to even consider such. Or this Seeker Reynard is a very great fool. In which case one wonders why such an ill-suited man was assigned to this task."
"Perhaps both are true – that this Reynard is a fool, and that they are desperate," Sebastian suggested, then sighed and moved to stand looking down at Anders. He leaned down and closed the man's staring eyes, remembering what Glynis had said about his eyes getting dry if he didn't blink enough.
"You were speaking of having seen this state before. Are there any further suggestions you can give for Anders' care?" he asked, turning back to her.
Glynis smiled warmly at him. "A thing or two, yes," she agreed. "Sister Maura, my bag again..."