Good news, everyone! I have a brand new computer! Yes, the government check is most of the reason, but at least now I can play Skyrim and research it with far, far less problems than before. And thanks for xTRESTWHOx and NaanContributor for helping to cut down on other problems.
Chapter 84: Boiled Over
2nd of Morning Star
As Ruby, Weiss, Serana, Lydia, and Artur moved forward, they eventually had to let their mounts take a rest. Ruby wanted to keep going, but short of leaving everyone else behind and channeling the Thunderous Hooves spell into Chocolate Hooves (which she had only just learned less than a week ago), she wasn't getting there much faster. The Dragonborn also wanted her friends there by her side. Lydia to back her up with her knowledge of Nordic customs and to help give herself the presence of a Thane, and Weiss to help traverse the political landscape that was bound to try and stall her from freeing Yang.
While the others were watering their steeds, Ruby took out her map and looked it over. Immediately, she noticed a crystal shape nearby and was reminded of one of her ongoing tasks, which then pulled at her mind. Figuring it would give her something to focus on while the horses regained their stamina, she stowed the map with a huff and headed toward it.
Ruby was forced to jump up the side of a steep bank, but at the top she saw her quarry a short distance away. It was a magenta Skyshard, pulsing with power that had already fried the nearby grass and one person who got too close. Feeling sadness for the unfortunate man or woman, she walked over to it and reached out. Just as her hand contacted the otherworldly crystal, a flap of wings was heard. A dragon flew up from where it had been waiting in ambush on the other side of a nearby hill while robed men and elves came out from behind the trees and rocks. The Skyshard imploded as the energy was absorbed into Ruby, but she hardly noticed it while glaring at the foes that had suddenly showed themselves.
"So Biidurvul spoke true," the golden-brown dragon gloated as he hovered down. "Dovahkiin, I have waited-"
"No!" Ruby screamed, catching the dragon and the Ilmaasi cultists off-guard. "I am too busy to deal with all of you right now! You all need to get a life, especially you mortal people, and leave me alone! Dragon, you are going to wait for me to go get my sister, then you can come and get your butt kicked!"
The large reptilian snorted at that, though he seemed a little thrown off. Even still, he pressed on.
"Dovahkiin, I have awaited you here. Bexnahkron has promised Biidurvul that you-"
"Okay, cool is officially lost!"
Ruby then brought out her scythe and charged forward while screaming wordlessly at the top of her lungs.
"Did anyone see where Ruby went?" Weiss asked the group as she checked over everything.
"She went up the nearby bank," Lydia said, fiddling with the nick in her gauntlet, as though she could somehow will the damage away. "I suppose she needed a moment to herself. The imprisonment of Yang has hit her rather-"
"Zu'u fen vey hin slov arhk zal nii!" they heard rumble across the hills in Ruby's voice.
"...Okay, my dragonish is rusty, but I'm pretty sure she just threatened to salt a tail," Serana spoke up from where she had been hiding in the shade.
The ground rumbled again, portions of a nearby canyon shaking loose and falling into a lake. Bright lights, fire, and something like an amorphous tunnel of pure darkness that bent reality around it all arced from where Ruby had gone. People came flying through the air around them, most screaming, with one man on fire (though falling into the river at least extinguished it), and the separate pieces of approximately five(?) different people. Rain seemed to pour out of nowhere as clouds rolled in, announced by a strike of lightning and its accompanying thunder. Just as the group readied themselves to run to Ruby's aid, a dragon frantically winged away from the area, a horn cleanly sliced off its head and a sizable portion of its tail singed, scorched, and leaving a smoke trail. As they all wondered what had happened, Ruby landed among them on her back in a bit of a splash thanks to the rain, Crescent Rose in one hand and the missing horn in the other.
"That'll…teach him," she muttered, straining to sit up before Weiss came over and held her head up.
"Ruby, what just happened!?"
The younger girl croaked "…Chased a dumb dragon away."
"Could you always do that sort of thing, or was that special?" Serana asked as she walked over, holding a water-resistant tarp over them like an umbrella.
"…Not doing that again," she answered through a groan. "Sore."
"Right, well, let's get you out of this rain," Lydia said while scooping up her Thane. The Nord peered up at the sky while taking Ruby to a temporary shelter of trees, figuring they'd need to get at least one tent up for a while. "It seems the rain you Shouted away returned."
"I'll Shout it the other direction next time," Ruby grumbled, starting to move around in Lydia's grip. "Just…gotta let my Thu'um rest a bit. An hour at the most." A snarl then graced her lips. "Gotta save Yang."
"We will," Lydia promised. "But not while you're like this."
Ruby groaned, but it was clear she wasn't fighting them on it.
Tynaus Kay was looking over his birds, having just set out a bunch of food for them. He stroked a few as they ate up seeds and bits of meat, taking drinks of water every once in a while from one of several bowls. The Khajiit himself sat at his table, some bread and cheese of his own awaiting him within a paper wrapper. As he sat and ate it with a glass of mulled wine, he started to read a letter he received earlier that morning. It was addressed from Winterhold, which hopefully meant that they were responding at last to his request.
As he read, the Khajiit felt his optimism drop away. It was effectively a nice and pretty way to tell him that they couldn't fund his project, which felt both insincere and insulting. He sighed and half-tossed it across his desk, deciding to focus on his breakfast.
"Tynaus," he heard from somewhere. Immediately, his ears shot up and he began looking around. The corvids all seemed to notice it as well. Even if they didn't all stop eating, they had become attentive.
"Tynaus," he heard again, unable to zero in on a direction that it could be coming from. He needn't have tried, as something soon stepped out of the shadows, almost like the darkness itself was coalescing into humanoid form. The figure then pulled back its hood, and the one-armed cat let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Goodness, woman!" he half-shouted at her. "You nearly gave me-"
He quieted as Blake leaned forward, putting a finger over her lips with one hand and gently holding his snout for a moment with the other. Tynaus caught on quickly and nodded. She backed up, releasing him as she did.
"We need to be quiet," she warned him. "I don't know what exactly is going on, but I feel like the Markarth Guard might still be looking for me."
"Well, uh, I can say for certain they were looking for something," he told her. Indeed, the guard had been out in full force for most of the night, and the infirmary had more than a few of them recovering from broken bones and bruises. "Jarl was angry about something, too. He and Thongvor were arguing for a while."
"I see," she muttered, seeming to go into thought for a moment.
"Uh, Blake, what is going on?" he asked. "Did you…do something?"
"We were framed," she said evenly. Tynaus wasn't the sort of man to have learned all the subtleties of telling truth from lies, but he felt like Blake was being honest, at least. "Right now, I'm trying to set everything right."
She then looked over at a raven that had reached out and nipped at the tip of her hair while letting out a soft caw for attention.
"Bettry, no," Tynaus chided the bird.
"I actually came to you because of them," Blake began to explain. "You said your birds were trained to carry messages. Well, I need to get a message as soon as possible to Whiterun. Specifically, to the Companions."
"A message to Whiterun?" Tynaus double-checked, rubbing at his chin while thinking it over. "I've done a few test runs to Solitude, but… Well, who knows how to get to Whiterun?"
A few crows hopped up and down, cawing, and the raven Bettry fluffed herself up and let out a warble.
"Okay, that's good. What's the message?" the Khajiit asked Blake.
"They need to know that Yang's been thrown into Cidhna Mine," she revealed, her voice grim. Tynaus felt that if he wasn't covered in fur, one could have seen the color drain from his skin.
'Well, there's plan…C,' Blake told herself as she watched the team of corvids head off to the city in the plains. Tynaus had made several copies of the missive and tied each to a different bird's leg and then sent them off together. She didn't know if the odd weather would significantly affect their flight speed, but getting the Companions to come and help was just a backup plan at this moment.
Her foremost plan so far was to find a way in herself and break Yang out. How exactly she was going to do it was so far unknown, but she had only just begun. Under the cover of the darkness the storm provided, Blake made her way from the palace to the prison mine's opening. It was guarded, but not too heavily. Indeed, it seemed that security was more focused inward than outward, as few wanted to enter the place, but everyone wanted out.
Blake began to settle into a spot to watch. She already had an idea of how the watch changed, but now she had to wait for the right time to begin her infiltration. As rain dropped around her, she began her hours long wait.
Yang had gone to sleep fitfully. Braig's tale had been the tip of a horrible iceberg. She had spoken to Madanach a little afterward, and he had put the whole thing into perspective for her.
"Imagine hearing a story like that, over and over. Each time a different family. Each time a different injustice."
She didn't want to think about it, but she did, all throughout 'supper' and on the way to her bedroll in the unlit back chamber she'd claimed. After a few bouts of coughing, she began to feel herself slowly drift off to sleep, trying to put the images of beheaded children and chain-ganged families from her mind.
Something pulled her from sleep, a strange discomfort that she couldn't rightly place. Whispers hovered above her, worming their way into her ears. As she began to stir into full consciousness, she realized the weird sensations were focused on her chest and waist, with the latter slowly making its way down.
"What the -!" she screamed as she blindly twisted around, smashing her elbow into the head of the man who had been fondling her from behind. He cried out in pain, but there was more shuffling from within her tiny room.
"Shit! She's awake!"
"Grab her!"
"I'll kill you bastards!" she screamed in rage as she scrambled to her feet.
Someone lunged into her and grabbed her arms, sour breath and poorly-washed body odor wafting over her face, but she thrust her arms up to break his messy grip and punched forward. Her eyes were adjusted to the darkness, so she could make out enough to see that her fist didn't send him flying into the other shadowy figure in front of her or drive through his chest like it rightfully should've, and she cursed her restraints again. But the blow to his solar plexus did knock his breath out, stunning him and giving her enough time and room to meet the charge of the third man with a swift kick between his legs, immediately doubling him over with a yelping wheeze.
She followed it up when she grabbed the one still reeling from the low blow by his ears and brought her knee up to his face, cracking his nose. She then took a stomping step past his collapsing body to resume beating the shit out of his winded comrade. But her target desperately lashed out with an arm, and Yang let out an involuntary gasp and flinched back when she felt the edge of what must have been a shiv slice across her stomach, sparking off of her Aura.
Her muscle memory kicked in, and without thinking she met the next swing of the tiny blade with the metal of the cuff on her wrist. Like a knock-off version of her true gauntlets, she used her manacles to deflect his wild flailing of cuts and stabs, before getting her bearings and smashing the shiv out of his hand. While she didn't have her full strength, she was still a trained fighter, and more than a match for a couple of prison inmates who barely knew what they were doing.
Yang then let out a cry of surprise and pain as her head was wrenched back. The scum that she'd first elbowed off of her, had reached up from where she'd left him on the floor behind her to yank on a fistful of her hair! As she was distracted with an agonizing pull on her scalp, and then by his other hand grabbing ahold of her sleeve, the man she'd just disarmed took the opening to slug her across the face. Of course, he could barely aim in the dark, and his poorly made blow hurt himself more than her when his clenched fingers smacked against her forehead.
As he cradled his hand, Yang's already scarlet eyes blazed enough to be seen in the dark, matched by a glow from her manacles rather than her hair as the enchantment surged to suppress her strength. She reached back and seized the offending hand of the man behind her, before wrenching a finger back with a pop. The voice that screamed as he released her locks told her that this one was Mirk, and she bared her teeth as she choked off his yells with a grip around his throat. She heaved him up above her head, and with a shout of exertion, choke-slammed him onto the last man standing in a tangle of limbs.
As she stood there panting in fury and adrenaline, the men were soon tripping over themselves to escape out of her hole in the wall. The struggle had only lasted a few seconds, yet it'd felt so much longer. Yang roared out in rage with her fists clenched hard enough to dig their nails into her palms. She began breathing rapidly, thoughts of bloody murder running through her mind before pain shot up both of her arms.
With a yelp, she fell to her knees and looked down to see that her limbs had extended, expanded, and grown fur, all unconsciously. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the limiter bracers had stopped her transformation. It wasn't that they were enchanted to do it, but their tightness and solidity forced her transformation to stop or rip apart her skin and muscle trying to squeeze out of the restraints. Not only that, but while her human form could just barely tolerate the residual presence of silver in the air, her wolf skin felt like it was being burned with acid. The pain was enough to get her out of her rage, but looking at her clawed hands reminded her of another problem.
'Right, they took the Ring of Hircine with the other stuff when they arrested me,' she realized, looking at her naked fingers as the wolf fled back down into herself with a whimper. 'Gotta keep a better grip on that part of me. If these guys were to find out they had a werewolf with them, I'd have to deal with everyone trying to kill me.'
Hissing, she rubbed the sore parts of her arms that had tried pushing out of the bracers and stumbled out of her room, squinting in the torchlight. She immediately noticed that Borkul was there, holding two men by the necks, both of whom had bruising faces. A third with a bloody nose had a crude shiv held to his neck by Uraccen. Several more men were coming out, most bleary-eyed, to see what was going on.
"Not really the best way to wake up, hearing the screams of a woman," the Reachman said before clearing his throat. "By the way, Yang, you may want to fix yourself up a bit."
The blonde wondered what he meant and looked down at herself to see that the left shoulder of her shirt had been ripped open. The cloth hadn't fallen too low, but it was still embarrassing enough. She pulled it back up and ran into her room, taking a moment to try and tie it back together. The shirt felt a little lopsided after the quick patch job, but Yang figured she'd have time to fix it up later and went back out to see that the two had taken her assailants elsewhere, and now most of the prisoners were headed to the main room.
She followed the slow procession and saw that the three men now had their hands tied behind their backs and were forced to their knees near the entrance to Madanach's tunnel. The King in Rags himself was shuffling out, looking tired and irritated. He gave a hard gaze to the three perpetrators, and then looked over at Yang, who definitely wasn't looking her best after the scuffle.
"I was just awakened by Uraccen here telling me that our newest cellmate was just attacked. Now, I'm no mind-reader, but I think it's fairly easy to guess at what these men were trying to do." The three winced hard at the conclusion the head honcho had reached and the dozen other prisoners jeering at them. "Well then, what should be the punishment for them?"
It took Yang a second to realize that Madanach was looking directly at her, as was most of the crowd.
"Wait, wha-"
"You're the one they attacked, so you get to be the one to pass judgement," Madanach explained. "No random arbitration, only direct retribution, though we have plenty of men willing to handle the dirty work for you." He reached over and grabbed the broken-nosed man by the hair, painfully pulling up on it to tug him further into Yang's view. "So, what'll it be?"
Calls rose up from the crowd, some yelling that she should have them castrated, beaten, killed or some combination. Yang looked at the line of men who had assaulted her and could feel the anger boiling within her, a real wish to kill them rising in her heart. The men had snuck up on her with real intent to violate her, and would have if she were any weaker than she was. Her fists clenched hard as her teeth ground together. The idea of ripping out their necks with her own teeth passed through her mind, snapping her out of the murderous rage she felt as she took a deep breath.
'I'm not… Not like this.'
She breathed a few more times before shaking her head.
"Well, how do you want it?" Borkul asked, his fingers itching at the chance to mete out 'justice'.
"Just…" Yang got out before pausing. "Just…have them do my share of digging or something."
Disappointment rang out from the crowd, and the big Orc was practically pouting. The three men looked shocked, their jaws hanging loose if they weren't already from their injuries. Madanach let go of the one he had grabbed with an expression of interest.
"Really? That's it?"
"That's it," Yang confirmed, sighing as she felt her twisted stomach loosen.
"You're not angry enough to take even a little bit of vengeance on them?"
"Look, I don't care about that," she bit out. "Nothing you can do to them will make me feel better, and it won't fix anything."
"I see." The King in Rags looked over to the men and nodded to Uraccen. The other Reachmen began untying their hands, letting them fall forward and catch themselves. "Well then men," he said to them, "you all heard the lady. You'll be covering for her portions of silver until we say otherwise. Now get!"
With a kick to the closest one's side, Madanach chased the three away. Laughs and jeers followed them, then the crowd began to slowly disperse. Yang picked up on a few men talking about shanking the perpetrators anyway, but another voice told them to leave them alive to 'do the pretty girl's work'.
As the crowd trudged away, Madanach looked over to Yang and indicated for her to come nearer. She approached, and the man crossed his arms.
"So, what is it that held you back?" he asked her, his tone far calmer and more subdued now that he wasn't speaking to a bloodthirsty crowd. "You've killed before. I know you have."
"Heat of the moment or self-defense is different," she explained. "And it's like I said, killing them wouldn't have made anything better."
"Would keep them from ever trying anything like it again though," he mused, "So, you sent them to go work in your place, instead."
Yang sneered, figuring he was about to lay some comparisons on her.
"Although, I suppose it can't be helped. Not like we can send them to prison now, can we? Hah!" He started walking back to his room and gestured for her to follow. A little surprised, she went after the old man.
"I felt a tinge of magic, right about when you were attacked," Madanach revealed as they entered his room. He pulled his chair from the table and offered it to Yang while sitting on his own bed. "None of those men were mages of any sort, and you're obviously not casting any spells with those things on. I'd know."
"Which reminds me, how did you get yours off?" Yang asked him.
"Trying to change the subject?" he softly accused her, only to laugh as he looked at his marred arms. "I suppose I wore them out. I was constantly cutting at them with rocks and trying to push whatever magic I could through them. Burned and froze my hands a couple of times, but I got them out after about…two weeks." He looked at her with a serious expression. "I don't think we have that long with you if my suspicion is correct."
Yang's eyes narrowed. "What suspicion?"
The man kicked a leg over and reached for some parchment on his desk. "What do you know about Reachmen culture, Yang Xiao Long?"
She shrugged, deciding to go with the subject change. "Not much. You've got a different pantheon of gods that includes some Daedra, but also Aedra like Dibella." She shifted to settle her elbows onto her knees while leaning forward. "You know, I had actually gotten the Temple of Dibella to open up to your people more before I got thrown in here."
"Ah, I read some reports about that," Madanach confirmed. "Thought it was odd that a Nord would help us with that. Then again, you're not a Nord." He looked up from the paper and focused on her again. "I suppose I'll have to teach you a few things, then. We do worship many spirits, Aedra, Daedra, whatever you want to call them. They're all spirits in the end. And they all give and take, some more of one side than the other. My clan held up Elk-Eye and Kaan, the ones most people call Hircine and Kynerath, as our most important gods. They're both gods of the world of flesh, watching over Nirn, nature, and people."
"Hircine, heh?" Yang asked, slightly intrigued by the connection there. "Would you believe me if I told you I've talked to Hircine before?"
"Really? What was it like?"
"Well, a little heated," she admitted. "Had to hunt down a white stag, and then he sent me to kill a werewolf."
Madanach nodded his head. "So, you were turned as a result of that hunt?"
"Oh no, I was already-" Yang stopped and looked at the old man in surprise, her back straightening as she processed what he'd said. 'Oh, is this what Weiss feels like?'
"That magic I felt… It's been a long time, but I remember what it felt like when the shamans and I would call upon Elk-Eye's favors or repay them." He grumbled while putting the parchment away. "Figured you were one of his manbeasts. Can't tell which just by looking at you, but I figured it would be wolf or bear." He smirked back at her. "I suppose the bracers kept it locked in, seeing as those men aren't splatters on the ground."
Yang raised up her hands and shook them a bit. "And the silver, but yeah, can't really fit my wolf arms in these. Almost maimed myself. How are you so calm about this?" she asked while dropping her arms.
"Well, that's another bit about the Reach you don't know about. Unlike Nords, Cyrods, or even the hoity Bretons, we know werebeasts can be more than savage animals." He crossed his arms again and sat up straighter. "It takes a lot of will to hold oneself together with such a gift. Heh, gift. It's not really something given freely, though, is it? You should know by now, it's a trade. Strength, power, acute senses, but for a cost. I've heard they range from restlessness to a constant need to kill, but never heard too much regret. After all, a werewolf can better protect his people than a dozen warriors."
Yang sighed. "Yeah, there're gives and takes. Compared to most…" Yang thought back to Sinding, likely still living out in the wilderness, far away from any civilized people. "I guess I'm lucky in a lot of ways."
"Yes, but unlucky in many others." The King in Rags shook his head. "After all, you're in the biggest silver mine in the Reach. It's in the name."
"Yeah, I figured this is going to be bad for my health." Yang sighed and leaned back a little more casually. "That's why I'm going to break out soon. So, why are we talking about this? You just wanna make sure I'm not going to turn into a mindless animal?"
"It's a concern, certainly, but I figured you have it under control enough." He shook his head. "No, more than that, I wanted you to understand us better."
"Well, knowing you guys are cool with it helps." Yang thought back to her time being observed by Farengar. "Heh, you might be surprised about what other circles tolerate werebeasts."
"Would I?"
"Yeah, but they're not my secrets to share," she told him. For a moment, they sat in silence, then Yang looked back up at Madanach. "You mentioned Kynerath. Was your clan big on storms?"
"Every clan has a connection to the storms of the Reach," he explained. "More than that, it was a connection to the nature of the land. The winds, the waters, the plants, and the animals. All of them are sacred to Kaan and to be treated with respect. Tell me, have you ever seen a Reachman in a still cave other than this forsaken place?"
Yang was about to answer, then paused. She thought back to every encounter with Reachmen she had, good or bad, thinking about any of the caves they might have been in.
"Well, um, not really," she finally answered. "There were a few in a cave that had a little wind moving through it thanks to some weird collapses. Oh, uh, maybe that mine in Karthwasten?"
Madanach shook his head. "Those people are what you'd call 'imperialized'. They try to be less and less like Reachmen, hoping the Nords will treat them decent. It'll never work, but they'll keep trying." He stood up and put his hand on the wall of his room, staring at the carved stone walls as though angered by them. After a moment, his hand dropped away and he shook his head.
"Why don't you go back and get some rest? Maybe start working on those cuffs now that you've got the time."
Yang slowly stood up, feeling the change in the air coming off of the King in Rags. As she started to make her way out, Madanach raised his hand to get her attention.
"Tell me, how long do you think I've been down here?" he asked her. Yang thought it over and lightly shrugged.
"I've heard it's been about twenty or twenty-five years. Something like that." She huffed. "A damn long time."
"Twenty-five years," he muttered. "I haven't felt so much as a breeze in all that time." He sighed, deep and sadly. "Twenty-five years telling men and boys to rip up the earth for the Nord's silver." He looked back at Yang and she could almost swear there was a tear in his eye.
"Long ago, I was told by my elders, 'to mine is to carve wounds into the earth that sustains all of our lives,' and here I am, telling the ones in here to do it so they won't starve to death, while I send the ones out there on suicide missions to kill our jailers' enemies." He let out a mirthless laugh and turned away. Yang took it as a final dismissal and trudged out of the tunnel to the King in Rag's room, feeling wearier than she had after thrashing her attackers.
Elsewhere in Cidhna Mine, a group of mercenaries were changing shifts with another. One group was tired from a long day of mostly standing at attention, and the other was still trying to wake themselves up. Someone set a file on a table mindlessly, and the object disappeared almost as soon as it touched the old wood. Blake took the documents to a dark corner of the mine and began shuffling through them quietly, her Faunus vision allowing her to read them even in low-light conditions.
'…2A, 5E, 2B, 6D, 3D…' she read to herself. 'All the women cellblocks. 2B is the nearest. I think I can make it there…' Her finger traced along the map from her current location to the block she had made as her first goal. '…Two or three hours, depending on how attentive the guards are.'
She closed up and packed away the documents. They weren't unique, but she didn't want to have to take any more copies and make the mercenaries that worked for the Silver-Bloods suspicious.
When the immediate area cleared, Blake swooped from one shadow to another, practically praying to Nocturnal to keep her concealed as she ponderously moved towards her goal. Occasionally, patrols would come through, forcing Blake to remain still as they trudged on by. While few were on the lookout for anything even remotely like her, they were slow and tended to stop suddenly for one reason or another. Twice (twice!), Blake was stuck grimacing mere feet away from a man who had decided to relieve himself in a nearby corner, though she was able to get away from the area with the distracted men none the wiser.
After two hours of this, Blake's legs were beginning to feel tired and sore, but she had made it to the gate of the cellblock. A couple of female guards were watching over the place, but one was asleep in her seat and the other was preparing to leave for one reason or another. When the wakeful one left, Blake went up to the gate and looked within, trying to spot the unmistakable mop of golden-blonde hair that almost no amount of dirt could hope to hide. After a minute of spotting nothing, Blake looked back and noted all of the positions of nearby blue auras that marked out guards moving about.
Calmly, she took out a vial of sleeping potion and poured it onto the face of the guard. She sputtered a moment, but then went back into a much deeper sleep than before, snoring loudly as she slumped in her chair. Blake stoppered the flask and went back to the gate, looking at the nearest woman wearing ragged clothing on the other side of the bars.
"Hey," Blake called out to her quietly, the Nightingale Cowl distorting her voice enough to be unrecognizable as her own, but not so much it couldn't be recognized as female. The woman looked over to her and blinked before rubbing her eyes and looking back as though to check and make sure what she was seeing was there.
"All my stars…" she mumbled.
"I have a question for you," Blake told her, cutting to the chase. "Is there a woman in here by the name of Yang Xiao Long? She would have been imprisoned recently."
"What's in it for me?" the woman shot back while crossing her arms, obviously over her surprise.
"Seriously?" Blake grumbled. "What… What do you even want?"
"Uh, well," the imprisoned woman said as rubbed her chin in thought, clearly not having thought this entirely through, before snapping her fingers. "Wine! Got any wine on you?"
Blake was about to tell her that she didn't when she recalled something on the guards' table. Next to the sleeping mercenary woman was a nearly full bottle of alto wine. Figuring it was as good as anything, she went over and pilfered it before maneuvering the bottle through the bars. The woman came up with delight clear on her face as she took the spirit and downed a few gulps in one go.
"Oh, that's good!" she exclaimed while smacking her lips. "Been five years since I tasted any wine."
"Well?" Blake asked her.
"Oh? Oh, right. Sorry, no one new's been thrown in with us for a few weeks." She then took another swig. "Ooh, that hit the spot!"
"Seriously?!" Blake angrily asked the woman, who had now stepped out of reach and shrugged nonchalantly.
"Don't be mad at me. Your Chow Gong is in another cell. Besides, not everyday some night spirit comes around and offers a poor, imprisoned lady some wine." She took another sip and sighed before looking around. "Reckon I'll see if that lovely Maria girl will trade some time for a sip," she said with a laugh.
Blake sighed in disgust. "Just don't get caught with that, and tell no one about this." Blake narrowed her eyes, hoping the lights that shone from beneath the hood mimicked her to some degree. "Or you'll have to answer for it."
"Understood, understood," the woman quickly and nervously tried to placate her. Blake glared threateningly for a few moments to let it sink in, then nodded and walked over to a dark corner to start slinking back out through the shadows. The woman blinked as she disappeared and scratched her head while looking at the bottle in her hand.
"Might've hit it a bit hard."
Blake for her part was frustrated, but as she took a look at the map, she knew that the chance of finding Yang in the first cell she came across was slim. A deep breath later, she was planning her next move.
'It wasn't 2B, but…I'm not far from 2A. At least I won't have to backtrack all the way for this one.' Keeping her eyes on the coming and passing blue lights that her cowl showed her, Blake began making her way to the next cellblock, mentally crossing her fingers in the hopes that Yang would be there.
"So," Yang started as she entered Madanach's room once again, "you wanted to talk?"
"Yang, good to see you," the old man said as he turned in his seat. Yang tried to read whatever it was he had written, but the words weren't written in the common alphabet of the land, and instead were a strange runic script she couldn't recognize. "Come on in, take a seat."
"You know, if I keep coming in here all the time, people are gonna talk," she told him as she sat on the cart that had recently brought in their weekly allotment of food, now stacked neatly in a closet in Madanach's hovel.
"Let them. It's not important right now. But before that, I'd like to ask again about the 'incident' from earlier."
Yang sighed, not really wanting to think about what had happened. "Look, I'm not changing my mind."
"I don't expect you to. It's an entirely new question, in fact."
Grunting, Yang crossed her arms, but nodded. "Fine," she grumbled out.
"Say they didn't run. Say they…kept trying." Yang could tell he was trying to be ambiguous about it, but she also knew exactly what he meant.
"I would have kept hitting them until they stopped," she answered honestly. The blonde then looked at her hands, remembering how they had become claws that morning. "Whether it's because they quit, I knocked them out, or they died, I would've kept it up until they stopped."
She looked over to see Madanach nodding at that. She inquisitively raised an eyebrow, crossed her arms, then asked, "What? Did you think I would've said something about not killing them no matter what?"
"No, but it helps to hear it. I know you're not adverse to killing. Poor Nepos is proof of that."
"That was an accident," Yang quickly defended.
"Not yours," Madanach shot back, not raising his voice in the least. Yang blinked, then narrowed her eyes.
"What's this all about?"
"I want to know just how far you can go," the old man answered. "You said you weren't a killer, but you have killed. When push comes to shove, you'll still kill to survive to the next day."
"That's anyone," Yang responded. "I'm not special there. No one really just lies down and takes it when they can fight back."
"You say that, but I've seen men and women put their necks on the chopping block, all because they'd been shown a little of what kind of future they could expect." He chuckled mirthlessly. "Sometimes I envy that sort of folk, but…no. Got too much on my shoulders." He turned back to the letter he had been writing and started again from where he left off. After a moment, still staring at the paper, he asked, "Tell me, Yang, why'd you go and start messing with things up in the city? What did it have to do with you?"
"Honestly, it had nothing to do with me," she answered, leaning forward while resting her arms on her thighs. "We were looking into it mostly out of general concern, but then that woman was almost killed right in front of us."
"Ah yes, the Imperial agent," Madanach recalled. "Funny, my people were torn down for being a 'rebellion', and yet it seems we've got Thonar doing the very same. Except he doesn't even have the spine to do it himself."
"Yeah, he's a piece of shit. No argument there. Anyway, that certainly got us interested, but it was someone else who helped us start linking things." Yang crossed her arms and sat up straight. "He's a Reachman."
Madanach's writing slowed, and Yang continued, "He told us a bit about his childhood, how his dad was killed by someone everyone knew was Forsworn, but the guards just covered it up, saying it was a random act of violence by a madman. He's been trying to figure it out since."
Madanach stopped and set his quill aside.
"I've done a lot of things I will regret for the rest of my life," he said somberly. "I've directed dozens of my kinsmen to tear up the ground in defiance of our old ways. I've sent young men and women to their deaths. I've had even more of my people killed. All for Thonar Silver-Blood's greed." He huffed and sat up. "I did it all, knowing he'd let his guard down eventually. Maybe it finally has. Heh, he sent a message that they'll be finding a way to dig me out of here and 'punish' me for his wife's death."
He looked over at Yang, a glint in his eye. "I think it's nearly time for us to leave."
She blinked at that announcement, then incredulously asked, "Wait, really?"
Yang wasn't sure if she wanted the majority of these people getting loose. Some certainly did not deserve to be imprisoned their whole lives like they were, but most people in her cellblock were here for actual, heinous crimes that they'd committed and were probably willing to commit again. Madanach was effectively among them, having ordered the deaths of countless innocent people from inside his cell at the orders of someone much worse. After talking to the man several times, she was certain he had no intentions of stopping the bloodshed, even if he had a sympathetic cause. Still, the idea of escaping was enticing, especially considering everything.
"Yes, really," he admitted.
"And you're…just letting me in on that?" she asked with suspicion evident in her voice.
"We have our differences, but I've seen and heard enough about you to know you're not our enemy, Yang Xiao Long." He stood up and stretched his arms out. "I've had a plan of escape for a while now, just needed the right timing…and perhaps the right motivation."
He looked over at the blonde and laughed. "Hearing about you trampling all over everything up there made me feel more distant from my people than I had in years. And hearing the story from you, hearing it right from the source, reminded me of how far removed from the struggle I really am. My men and I should be fighting in the hills, not rotting in the ground. Not until our last is spent, anyways."
He crossed his arms and looked Yang over while she looked back with narrowed eyes. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, the tension rising. It was clear to Madanach that Yang did not fully trust him or was a true believer in his cause or especially his methods, but at the same time both knew that without Madanach, Yang wasn't getting out. The longer she remained in Cidhna Mine, the worse her condition would get. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Yang knew that, at the moment, Madanach held more leverage, which he knew as well.
"There's just one thing," he declared after a moment.
"What's up?" the Huntress asked as she stood up.
"You might be able to kill when there's no choice, but I don't know if we can trust you. However, I know we can't trust Grisvar."
"Crusty, bald guy who keeps trying to get high on skooma?" Yang asked. She hadn't become familiar with everyone in the prison, but a few had stuck out, such as the thieving addict.
Madanach nodded, then replied, "The same. That Nord's always made sure to let us know that he's not one of us. He's nothing but a thief, and a snitch. If we're going to get out of here without the whole place coming down on us before we're ready, then he's got to go."
Yang felt her innards twist at the suggestion. Grisvar wasn't any sort of trouble for her, just mostly keeping to himself and being the butt of a lot of jokes. She had no real enmity for him, and even if she did, killing someone purely for being a liability was just wrong to her.
Still, she was trapped in a silver mine, the very air laced with the element, causing her every breath to feel more and more painful. She didn't think she was going to last much longer in this place, and Madanach had just admitted to having a way out.
"Yeah, I see," Yang said with sad realization. "Does it matter how?"
"So long as he won't be telling anyone anything after tonight."
"All right, I'll see what I can do," Yang told him, looking down the tunnel back to the main area.
Ruby seemed ready to deforest the whole area from what Weiss could see. Her impatience had only grown as they traveled on, and she seemed ready to explode when darkness fell and forced them to stop for the night. Weiss and Serana were fine, of course, their vampirism granting near-perfect night vision, but neither Lydia, Artur, nor Ruby had their nocturnal abilities, and the horses certainly did not. The Dragonborn wanted to press on, but only a few meters forward from where the others were setting up camp proved to her that the cloudy night would not cooperate with her attempts to traverse it. Now she was taking her frustrations out on the surrounding timber like an indiscriminate lumberjack.
"Ruby," Weiss called out over to her partner as she chopped through a pair of pines. The younger girl looked back at her expectantly as the trees fell over. "Come on. We need to rest up for tomorrow."
"How can I rest?" the younger reaper quietly asked as she trudged over, hefting Crescent Rose onto her shoulder rather than stowing it away. "I can't stop being…worried sick."
"Trust me, I understand, but you don't need to be so worried," Weiss tried to assure her.
"Yang's locked away in a silver mine!" Ruby half-yelled, turning sharply towards her partner while baring her teeth. For a moment, her silver eyes shifted to those of a dragon, but it quickly went away after a blink, even as her anger remained.
"And we'll get her out," Weiss promised while putting a hand to Ruby's shoulder. "But we have to trust that she'll be fine until we can."
"She should be good for a few days," Artur said as they sat around the campfire. "I've known some werebeasts to last weeks with silver stuck in 'em. Might not feel great when she comes out, but if she's anything as strong as the rest of you she'll make it, I'm sure."
Ruby only grumbled wordlessly as she was made to sit on the oaken log she'd cut not too long ago and take a bowl of soup from Lydia. The Nordic woman looked her charge over and frowned.
"What's really wrong, Ruby?" she asked. The young girl looked at her with eyes that tried to be hard but softened under her gaze. She squirmed a moment and then looked down at her supper.
"It's just…" Ruby took a deep breath and released it, looking only marginally better for it. "This is…stressful. It feels like just last…" Ruby paused as she looked over her hands, flicking her fingers as she silently counted. She stopped again and clenched her teeth as anger overtook her features. "It practically was last week!" she yelled as she slammed a fist onto her wooden seat.
"The vampire attack?" Weiss asked, recalling the rather harrowing event as well as Yang and Blake's place in it. "Yes, that was…rather close."
"It was too close!" Ruby fumed. "And now Yang's imprisoned in a place that is poisoning her as we speak! And Blake isn't answering our messages and the weather keeps getting bad and…and things…" Ruby's voice choked out as her shoulders lurched. She hiccupped as tears spilled out of her eyes and clutched her mouth, barely muffling the sobs that came.
Weiss' eyes widened in shock at the sight of what was happening to her leader. She couldn't recall ever seeing Ruby cry like this. The younger girl was often the one Weiss looked to for emotional stability as, even in cases where both were affected, Weiss usually found comfort in how her partner faced problems head on. Now the tables were completely turned, and she knew what she had to do. After all, she'd been given an example to follow now.
Weiss put her hands to Ruby's shoulders and pulled her in, wrapping her arms around her slowly as she was still mildly unfamiliar with initiating the gesture herself. Ruby's crying eyes opened as she looked at her partner, who had hugged her closer. Ruby turned and hugged her back, rubbing her eyes against Weiss' robes.
"I'm sorry," she muttered.
"Don't be," the vampire told her before loosening up her own hug. "I know it's a lot, but you don't need to be afraid. We'll get Yang out."
"It's… It's not just that." Ruby sat back up, sniffed, and wiped her eyes. "Weiss, we've been here…for months. We're… We're all we've got." She looked her partner directly in the face as her expression became serious. "We have friends and stuff, but… This whole place is backwards and sometimes just so…barbaric. It's not Patch, Vale, or Beacon."
Ruby let out a shuddering sigh and turned back to the fire. "We have to rely on each other, because if we don't…"
"The law of the land will only have our backs so far," Weiss finished for her. Ruby nodded at that. "Trust me, I know."
"I… I'm not saying I know better, but… One wrong move and you or Yang… Even Blake with her thief stuff…" Ruby winced. "If we were back at Beacon, we wouldn't have to worry about all of this."
"I know," Weiss said while patting her on the back. "But we're not. We're in Tamriel."
"In the coldest, most brutal part of Tamriel," Artur added, clearing his throat. "Lasses, I may not know what it's like back where you're from, but I can tell you that you're in a better place than most folks here in the Reach." He gestured over at the field of stumps Ruby had made recently. "I can't tell you about anyone who could match you in battle, Ruby Rose. Even Duncan was just barely holding you off when you went all out on him. Markarth can't hope to tell you 'no' when it comes down to it. There aren't many with that kind of power, whether it be words or arms."
"Maybe, but that's not how I want to live." The girl took a sip of her soup and sighed. "But if it comes to it… I'll knock down the walls if I have to."
"All right, what exactly is going on?" Madanach demanded as he was led by a few of his followers to the water room. His eyebrows rose when he saw a man tied up and bound to the water pipe near the big opening that they all used. Yang was setting something up next to him, pieces of cloth tied to some freshly carved wood to make something like a half-spigot.
"Oh, hey Maddy," Yang greeted the King in Rags. "I thought about what you said, and I agree that we needed to take care of Grisvar here, but, as you can see," she splayed out her arms as water flowed right in front of the Nord man's face, "I made a workaround."
"You have to be kidding me," Duach muttered, rubbing his face.
"Just gotta adjust this so he doesn't dehydrate," Yang continued explaining before turning to instruct the rather cowed looking addict. "Keep trying to get a drink. I gotta make sure this is placed right. It'll be a few days before anyone comes looking, and you don't want to dry out."
"I do not," the man agreed while trying to reach the stream with his lips.
"How'd you even tie him up like this?" Madanach asked the woman, looking halfway between annoyed and intrigued.
"Gave him a choice," Yang told the Reachman. "I 'displayed' what happens when a pickaxe in my hands hits wood, compared it to a skull, then gave him some options. Since he didn't want the lobotomy or to get dragged along with us, he got the 'stay put without calling the guards' option."
"Don't take it personally, but I feel like wherever you're headed is going to be too dangerous for me," Grisvar nervously told the three Reachmen in front of him. "Nothing against you all, honestly. I just want to keep on living."
"Grisvar," Madanach grumbled out while walking over to him. "Grisvar, Grisvar. Grisvar the Unlucky." He stopped and looked at the tied-up man in the eyes. "You've always been a coward. A thief and a snitch, too. I was fully willing to have your body tossed into the shitpit to tie up loose ends now that the little bit of usefulness you had is dried up."
The man gulped as the King in Rags glared down at him. Madanach then turned away and chuckled.
"But, since Yang here was creative enough to find an alternative and you were useful once or so, I'll let this fly. It's just too entertaining thinking about you being trussed up like a gutted hare for a few days, waiting on the guards to come in and find you. And then you having to explain to them where the rest of us went off to right under their noses."
"So, we're good?" Yang asked as she adjusted the water spout closer to Grisvar's mouth.
"Yes, I think we are. Guess you're not so Unlucky after all, Grisvar." Madanach chuckled and waved over Duach and Odvan. "Go get the men gathered. Yang, you come, too."
"Sure thing. I'll bring you some bread before we leave," she told Grisvar.
"Better than nothing, I suppose." He took an experimental sip of water and nodded, then the blonde left him there to go to the main room where everyone else was gathering. Madanach wasn't at the head of them all like she'd expected, but he soon reappeared from his tunnel, and everyone's attention turned towards him. The Reachman king readied a spell in his hands before throwing it up into the air, creating a dome around the crowd of prisoners that Yang recognized as a silencing area spell.
"My brothers, we have been here long enough," he started before they could begin questioning why they were there. "It's time to leave Cidhna Mine and continue our fight against the Nords who would trample us all beneath their heels. In my chambers there is a tunnel. A tunnel that leads right through the old Dwarven ruins of Markarth, into the city, within sight of the gates that will let us escape into the hills."
As the men began chattering excitedly about their upcoming escape, Yang felt some sudden relief at her own situation. At the same time, a creeping apprehension rose up when she realized that Madanach had not just suddenly gained this escape route, but had either had it or had planned for it for a while now. Her imprisonment may have pushed his plans ahead for one reason or another, but they'd obviously a been long time coming if it was something like a tunnel to a Dwarven ruin.
"I've already sent out a notice that will get us some help from outside, but they won't be ready instantly. Just so, neither are we." Borkul and a couple other prisoners then came out, wheeling out the cart laden with food, seemingly almost all of it they had received for the week. "Eat up, men. Eat your fill. You'll need your energy tomorrow for when we tear our way out, and we still have enough for you all to have a little breakfast before we go."
The men whooped and hollered at that, and Yang was very glad about the silence spell. As others nearly tackled the food, kept at bay by the big Orc who could likely snap most of their necks with little effort, Yang went around and up to Madanach's side.
"You've been planning this escape a while, huh?" she prompted, and the King in Rags nodded.
"I've been digging that tunnel for years," he answered her. "When I controlled Markarth, part of my duties was overseeing expansion efforts. I knew there were ruins near Cidhna Mine that were left unexplored due to 'dangers.'" He smirked. "Never thought something seemingly so unimportant at the time would be the key to continuing our revolution."
"And it leads to the city?"
"Not far from the gate." He laughed. "They'll never suspect it. We'll come down one street, take the gate, and then be out and back with our people before they can respond."
Yang nodded. "Can we…please avoid civilian casualties, at least?"
Madanach frowned, his hand coming up to stroke his mustache while he closed his eyes in thought.
"Twenty-five years," he muttered before opening his eyes again. "We'll only be fighting anyone that attacks us. We can't be slowed down by anything, or the whole guard will be on our heads before we make it halfway there. Not like most of the fools in the city streets know who we really are anyway."
Yang nodded, satisfied enough with his answer. "Yeah. Besides, if you run out without hurting anyone, it makes your side look a lot better to the common people."
"Yes, I suppose it would," he agreed.
"Welp, I better eat up. It's only been a couple days, but I could really use a full meal if we're gonna head for the hills."
Madanach just nodded as she went and grabbed herself a helping of dried meats and tack. As Yang munched on the extra hard biscuit, she thought over the situation she found herself in. Nearly two dozen men, many of whom were violent offenders, were going to be released into the city in the morning. As it stood, only Madanach could really control them, and even then, his control was dependent on most of them choosing to follow him. He was agreeable right now, but that could easily change in the future.
'Hell, it probably will,' Yang thought glumly. 'He doesn't just want freedom, he wants to fight the power.'
While Yang could only agree that the regime that allowed all the horridness that created the Forsworn in the first place deserved to be taken down, she couldn't condone the Forsworn themselves. She had seen the good in Reachmen both in the settled towns and still living under their old ways, but she couldn't erase the images she saw when she and Ruby first ran into them not too long ago. The scene that was enough to send her sweet little sister into a homicidal rage, and Yang was just behind her in enacting bloody justice on those people. She didn't know if Madanach would lead them to be more like that, but if he did…
'If he makes everything worse, it'll be partly my fault,' she told herself, looking at her now empty hand before clenching it. Thinking about it more, the entire situation reminded her somewhat of Sinding. Both were killers that she was letting go, but while one couldn't control himself, the other clearly could. And unlike Sinding, Madanach's potential for destruction extended far beyond a single werewolf's. Yang didn't know which was worse.
'If he tries to bathe the Reach in blood, I'll put a stop to him myself,' she promised, her eyes looking down at the band on her wrist, noting the scratches carved by the shiv used against her only that morning.
Yang took a bite of dried meat and looked over the crowd of men. As long as the fetters were on her, she could only handle, at most, a handful of them at once. She started focusing her magicka, pushing it into the enchantments in an attempt to find their limits. When she had about exhausted her reserves, she noted how the metal bands had heated up a small amount, discernible but not quite uncomfortable. She looked it over again while taking the last bite of her food, wondering if the physical damage did anything to the enchantment's quality.
"Better take Grisvar something," she said while going back to the food cart. Most everyone was feasting or had eaten by this point, all of them joyous that their tenure in Cidhna Mine was coming to an end, even the bruised trio over in a corner away from the main crowd. Yang kept her gaze over them all for a moment before leaving the area with the tied-up man's bit of food.
As things wound down and more people figured out that just because they could stuff themselves didn't mean that they should, Yang found herself sitting with what she was beginning to figure was Madanach's closest cohorts. Borkul the Beast was a murderous sort who respected the strength Madanach's spirit still held. She also suspected there was something more there between them, but it wasn't any business of hers to pry into. Duach was a Forsworn through and through, captured years ago. It had been a big surprise for him when he found out that his king still lived, and he mentioned once or twice that it was one of the few things that kept him going rather than slitting his own throat. Odvan was falsely accused of murder, dragged out of his aunt's home, and then railroaded into prison. He didn't even know who he was accused of murdering.
Uraccen was the one she most familiar with. He'd told her his tale at supper yesterday, about how the Nord he worked for was killed and he knew he'd be saddled with the blame. Thus, he took off to the hills and joined the Forsworn later. Yang had told him that doing so just got him imprisoned later, but Uraccen was fine with it.
"At least I was imprisoned for something that I actually did, and what I had been doing was worth something."
Braig also sat among them, but more as an honorary member rather than one of Madanach's elite. He was trusted by them all, and he seemed to be, from Yang's perspective, a reminder. Each of them faced injustices (except maybe Borkul), but none more blatantly than the old man who had been imprisoned almost as long as the King in Rags.
The group talked back and forth over sips of prison-made alcohol that Yang felt was pretty similar to apple cider and bites of bread, trading old stories and talking about what they'd be doing once they were free.
"Gonna follow my dreams and find me an Ogre woman," Borkul promised. "Might have to go into the mountains, but after all this, I think it'll be worth it."
"Follow your dreams, man," Yang encouraged him while raising her drink.
"How about you?" Odvan pointed to her. "Haven't heard much out of you. What are you planning to do once you're free?"
"Well, gotta get back with my team. Might topple the whole system before we fight off the vampire menace that's popped up then go and defeat Alduin," she nonchalantly explained before taking a draught of prison-cider.
A few chuckles rose up from them, though Duach seemed a little annoyed about it.
"You plan to do all of that without killing anyone?" the Forsworn pointedly asked.
"I never said that," Yang ground out as the humor left her.
"You couldn't even kill one slimy little Nord."
"Yeah, shame on me for not slaughtering a defenseless, middle-aged man. I guess that just nulls the, what, three Vampire Lords I killed. Forget about all the normal vampires, the bandits, the dragons."
"Oh, come on, there aren't any more dragons!"
"That's where you're wrong," Madanach inserted. "I've gotten more than a few letters which reported that dragons have returned. Most of the time they've been sighted at a distance or attacking the Nords, but a few have also messed with our own."
"Yeah, I actually stopped one from trying to take over Karthwasten," Yang told them, grabbing their attention. "Right after 'convincing' some Silver-Blood mercs that they couldn't just muscle their way around. Made him go east to learn from another dragon."
"So, you're into sparing dragons as well?" Duach scoffed.
"I killed a different dragon later if that makes you feel better," she told him off. "Honestly, there are more ways of going about disagreements than killing, and I'm not some squeamish pacifist. I'm a Huntress, with a capital 'h'," she emphasized. "In my homeland, we train to fight monsters and criminals, but they also teach us to restrain ourselves."
"How much restraint is too much?" Madanach then posed to her. A little caught off-guard by his question, she looked over at him. "A good many people said I had restrained myself when we took the Reach, but did that really do anything for me? For the Forsworn?"
"What others did against you isn't your fault," she answered him. "Look, we've... I'm not the best person to talk to about this. I've never been singled out as a member of a people that are...oppressed, but I know someone." Yang closed her eyes a moment, hoping Blake did mind her using her as an example to these men. "But, back in my homeland, there is a group of people who are in...similar circumstances to the Reachfolk."
"Similar?" Uraccen questioned.
"Well, the Faunus, they've been oppressed since...forever," Yang started, wincing at the fact that she wasn't able to recall more of her world's history at the moment. Oobleck would be disappointed.
"What in Oblivion is a Faunus?" Druach asked, and Yang quickly shifted her gaze towards him.
"They're a type of people in my homeland. In most of the world, they're treated like second-class citizens most of the time. Given less pay for the same work. Not allowed entry in a lot of places... It's rough and unfair, and I'm a little ashamed to admit that I never paid it all too much attention until after becoming close friends with one of them."
"Did their homeland also get invaded and taken from them?" Madanach asked, looking genuinely interested in what Yang had to say. The others, even Duach, had the same expression.
"Well, no, but that's because nobody wants it," she told him. "Even the Faunus barely want it. There was actually a war back when hu- uh, other people tried to force every Faunus back to it. It's an island continent that's mostly desert with some choking jungles, from what I've heard, and there was no way every single Faunus could have survived there, let alone live decently. Most Faunus now live in the other kingdoms, 'cause there's not really an alternative. And all that rotten treatment led to a group kinda like you Forsworn, the White Fang."
"So rather than fighting to free their homeland they...what?" Duach posed to her. "Want a district or something?"
"Well, on paper, they're fighting for equal treatment, and that's what it was at first." Yang frowned, knowing the next part of the explanation was the most key point. "Back when it first started, it was a peaceful group that led protests. There was progress, but...not a lot."
"Of course there wasn't," Madanach said, shaking his head. "If a peaceful group comes through asking for fair treatment, what need have the people in charge to listen to them?"
"Well, I'm not entirely sure, but the whole point of it wasn't to stop the racists from being, well, racist, it was to change the hearts and minds of the undecided. To get all of those neutral parties to side with them and, eventually, outweigh the power of those who wouldn't be swayed." Yang smiled, remembering one night of group study that was actually worth remembering in her mind, when all four of them were reading the history books far more thoroughly and had been presented examples of the early White Fang's success. It was mostly in Vale, but it was proof that their efforts were not in vain.
"I'm sensing a 'but' here," Borkul spoke up, emptying his mug and refilling it from the barrel of prison-cider.
Yang frowned. "Well, yeah. A lot of people felt like the 'peaceful no matter what' approach was doing too little too slowly. The leadership of the White Fang changed when I was little, and they gradually became more violent," she admitted. "Started with just a simple measure of self-defense. If people attack, don't stand there and take it, fight back. Which, I guess makes sense, but a lot of the people moved by the earlier protests sided with the Faunus because they saw how cruel the guys oppressing them could really be. Then they started targeting businesses that discriminated against Faunus, breaking windows or setting them on fire. It grew from there until they were taking down convoys and destroying mines owned by a company that's basically my home's version of the Silver-Bloods. The military got mixed in fighting them off, so the White Fang started attacking their resources to keep them from defending the rich people's stuff, and then they get labeled a terrorist group. Now, when people think White Fang, they think of deranged killers and arsonists."
"And that's a bad thing?" Duach asked. "Maybe we should start... How do you destroy a mine?"
"It is a bad thing," Yang hotly snapped at the Forsworn. "Not too long before I ended up in Skyrim, me and my friends were fighting the White Fang, trying to stop them from crashing a- from blasting a tunnel into Vale to release a horde of monsters on the citizens. Vale, by the way, is probably the most progressive kingdom when it comes to Faunus rights and is about twenty percent Faunus. That means one out of five people who could have been killed by their actions were their own people," she pointed out.
Her gaze shifted over to Madanach when she made a sudden connection to their actions and his, recalling once more the story behind the mission that sent her down here in the first place. The implication couldn't have gone over his head, but he said nothing about it either way.
"I don't know what the White Fang were hoping to accomplish doing it. My friend used to be a part of them, and she thinks that it may have gotten to the point that the group around Vale have just cut off themselves from the rest and are just going all-out, but even if it's just them, that's a fifth of the whole White Fang that decided to just attack, cause damage, and not care about the consequences. Like they no longer cared about advancing Faunus rights, but instead were just trying to cause as much pain as possible."
"Whatever works," Duach mumbled, looking into his own mug.
"It's not working. Not anymore." Yang sighed while leaning back. "A few places tried barring Faunus after the incident. That's illegal in Vale, but at least one restaurant tried to eat the fines thrown their way before crashing. But it proves the point my teacher has been warning us about for a while; violence is like a pendulum. It goes back and forth, and sometimes you have to shove against it to keep from getting bowled over, but the harder you push, the harder it comes back."
"You think the Forsworn's actions are just going to turn Skyrim against us even harder?" Madanach asked her. Yang nodded, clearing her throat with a quick drink.
"It's already happened. I've seen tons of Reachmen who want nothing to do with the Forsworn, and I can see why. I've seen good and bad, but the worst were always Forsworn. If you had seen what I saw at Fort Sungard..."
"I know more than a few factions of the Forsworn have gone off the deep end. It's one of the many things that I will need to address." Yang could have almost sworn she saw a glint in Madanach's eye as he leaned forward. "I'm no wild animal lashing out at random, Yang. I may bloody the Reach when I get out, but it's not because I'm going to have masses of men and woman slaughtered. It's just reality. If I'm to free my people, blood will be spilled, because that's what it will take."
"Yeah, I know it can't be bloodless, but..." She sighed. "It shouldn't have to take all-out war."
"You're right, it shouldn't." He picked up a stick and stirred their fire around. "But it's not about what should be, only what is."
Blake was beginning to reach the end of her rope. So far, every single cellblock she had checked had been the wrong one. She'd tried finding Yang in the records when she had the chance, but she found no sign of her there either. Something was wrong, but she wasn't sure what it was. All she could do was check this final cell, and if Yang wasn't there, she wasn't sure what she could do about it.
On top of all that, she was feeling more and more dead on her feet. She hadn't gotten a wink of sleep in the past couple of days. Combined with the strenuous exercise sneaking from corner to corner could be at times, her whole body felt like it was falling apart, barely kept up by Aura and stamina potions. At this point, though, she felt like even those wouldn't keep her going much longer. Her mind tried to figure out how they were going to escape when she was like this, but she couldn't hold her focus onto the thought for very long. She just needed to get back to Yang, that's all that mattered.
The Faunus entered the foyer-like cave set up before the gate and peeked in. There was no sign of Yang, which added irritation to her tiredness, hunger, and general anxiety. It felt like patrols and the number of guards had increased in the past hour, then suddenly everyone started congregating more towards the entrance, shouts about the local legion coming into the city reaching her ears. Blake figured it was about time, but she still had a bad feeling about Yang being left in the prison mine and so continued her search. Even if Legate Emmanuel pushed his way through all the red tape, the Silver-Bloods might still have something up their sleeve.
An elven woman walked by the other side of the cell gate and Blake's arms shot through the bars, grabbing her and forcefully pulling her back before wrapping an arm around her throat.
"Don't move or shout. I can and will snap your neck." She didn't feel like she actually would, but as long as the elf believed she would, that's what mattered.
"Please, please!" the elf prisoner begged. "I've only got two more weeks and then-"
"Shut up!" Blake snapped. "Is there a blonde-haired woman named Yang Xiao Long in there?"
"N- no, no one with a name like that," the woman fearfully answered.
"Are you sure?" Blake double-checked. The idea of shoving a certain sword through her back flitted through her mind as the brown-grey elf nodded fervently, but Blake chose to instead let go and step away. "God da-"
"Oi, who are-!"
Before the guard who'd turned the corner behind her got the question out, Blake disappeared from where she was standing and reappeared next to the man, kicking him upside his head and making him flip onto his back. She then straddled his chest and socked him across the mouth before he could call out. He tried to speak, but Blake's hand shot out and grasped his throat.
"If your next words aren't quiet, I'll crush your windpipe," she threatened him before loosening her grip.
"Please," he pitifully muttered. She decided to take that as him accepting his position.
"Listen carefully," she hissed, "I want to know the location of Yang Xiao Long."
He swallowed, looking pained by the action. "The…golden-blonde woman?"
"The same," Blake confirmed, a fair bit of satisfaction relieving her mind at finally getting something.
"She… The captain had her thrown into 1A."
"1A?" Blake questioned, mentally comparing that designation to the list of cells she'd practically memorized by now. "Isn't that…" She gasped and looked down at the man as fury ran through her. "You threw her into a men's cell?! With the most violent offenders?!"
"It wasn't me! I promise!" he tried to defend himself as Blake raised her fist to smash into his face, fully intending to go all the way through with it.
"Wait!" She stopped and looked over to see the elf woman had turned around and was gripping the bars of her cell. "He wouldn't have! He's one of the nice ones." Blake growled ferally at that, but the woman continued, "He was talking about how wrong it was the other day, but no one goes against that Orc's orders without coming away bruised."
Blake looked down at the man, her teeth still gnashing, but finally lowered her hand and dug into her satchel as she stepped off of him.
"Fine, but go to sleep," she said while pouring a little sleeping potion directly onto his face, making him sputter and thrash around for a second before going still. The prisoner gasped but calmed back down when his stillness gave way to snoring.
"I have to restock," Blake muttered before looking around and calculating her next move. Just as she started making her way to 1A against the protestations of her sore feet, most of the mine came alive with guards being roused by the shouted alarms of messengers running through the halls that a prison break was occurring, many of them seemingly at a loss for what to do without clear orders from any superiors, and others wondering where that could even be happening at.
While no one said anything specific, Blake instinctively knew that this almost definitely had something to do with Yang.
5th of Morning Star
Zu'u fen vey hin slov arhk zal nii! - I will cut (up) your tail and salt it!