This chapter is dedicated to xAlalax on Deviantart who posted her lovely piece of fanart of Rhiannon. She captured her impish personality perfectly.
Again, thank you everyone for reviews, favourites, and subscriptions, I appreciate it!
Chapter 11: Satisfactorily Marinated Cucumber
Rhiannon caught Seven's arm, keeping him from stumbling into a vendor's cart as he attempted to make his way back to the apartment in his drunken stupor. She had a while back learned that charr were prodigious drinkers, but apparently this one had not wet his throat in too long. After only two tankards of beer, he was well beyond tipsy.
Quite a flumudgen you've gotten yourself into, Rhiannon. How would I know he was incapable of withstanding his alcohol? Is 'flumudgen' even a word? *sigh* I need to return home soon and magnify my vocabulary.
Though she had to support and fuss with him, she was very pleased with herself. In a quiet corner of the bar she had learned what she believed was near everything there was to know about Seven Steelwolf. He told her about his injury on his first real mission out of the fahrar, his pleasant life with Srykar, and Orla's arrival and her departure. He seemed especially sad when he spoke of the girl. Then he stiffly recounted Srykar's death, and continued with the letter he had been given and boasted how he had already completed the first two steps. Even in his drunkenness he did not disclose what was to come next, and Rhiannon was content with that, a little mystery made him more interesting to her.
Rhiannon had decided, she was staying with him. He inspired her. Seven, a former cripple, now going on an adventure, free from any ties but those he chose. Wherever the path took him, she wanted to help him on his way. She pulled him through a narrow space, letting him use his other arm to balance himself on a wall.
"Careful!" she exclaimed just as he was about to trip over a stack of crates.
"*hic* I got it-," he shook his body and smacked his neck, trying to bring himself out his buzz. He breathed out, and the reek of booze nearly knocked her over. "Thanksh."
"You're welcome,"
He squinted at her. "Yoush… preddy."
She blinked, taken back by the sudden statement.
"Not Orla though, but preddy."
Rhiannon navigated around the pile, chuckling at his antics. Her laughter tripped into a gasp when she looked before her. Auroras of blood on the walls, pooling on the ground, limbs frozen in rigor mortis, a grotesque scene sprawled before her, so unlike warm, playful Lion's Arch.
"No..." she breathed as images flashed through her mind, the stench of rotten fruit reached her nostrils. Black slime engulfed her in a flood. She could not breathe. A needle pricking at her back, hunger, pain, disgust… her mind was shutting down. She was not supposed to remember. This never happened. She was not disgusting, not devouring, not monstrous, only Rhiannon, one time genius in training, forever verbosely brilliant.
Her companion's exclamation tore her out of the imaginary slime. Seven brushed passed her, suddenly awakening from his drunkenness and clumsily looking among the corpses for any signs of life. On the opposite side of the pile of the half-dozen humans, lay a black charr, face down. The feline, who was about the same height as Seven's minute stature, though much less bulkily built, shifted, bringing a paw to the back of his head. He groaned in agony.
"What happenth here?" Seven demanded.
The night furred charr blinked and seemed to come out of his daze. He looked around with a start. He looked back at Seven. "That's what I was wondering before you clocked me!"
"I didn' 'ttack you."
"Well, someone did!"
"We should contact the Lio-" Rhiannon suggested, but her voice was cut off by a booming command.
"Halt! Place your hands, paws, and other appendages away from your bodies and turn around!"
Seven whirled, reaching for his pistol, the next thing he knew he was pinned to the ground and gasping for air.
"No you don't you mangy cat." A tanned norn barked in his ear.
Seven could see Rhiannon politely allowing a human Lion Guard to shackle her. "Are you undamaged Seven? How propitious that the G.O.L.G., that is, the Good Old Lion Guard, showed up so promptly. I suppose this means they are on the trail of…"
She continued to ramble as Seven was shackled and hefted to his back paws as if he weighed next to nothing and escorted between the norn and a charr Lion Guard. Behind him he saw the black charr likewise being shackled, relieved of weapons, and escorted.
"…luminous day isn't it Carl? I'm so glad we're out of that unwarrantable mess of a passageway. How horrible a pr—,"
Seven interrupted her one way conversation with the Lion Guard who was trying his hardest to be stern with the amiable sylvari. "Rhia, we are being arrested. You do know that, right?"
"Of course we are! I've never had this happen before, so it's quite exciting!" she turned back to Lion Guard Carl, "Not to say no one has wanted to arrest me before, there was this time back in Rata Sum when I was…"
He sighed in exasperation at her carefree attitude as she related various misdemeanours to her arresting officer. By the time they reached the jail, she had very nearly talked Carl's ear off, and she hardly took a breath until the three were dumped in a dank and cramped cell.
The sylvari looked about for a moment, her pinkish bioluminescence in her hair, eyes, and folds of her tender bark-skin, brightening the drab surroundings. She solemnly declared, "This is a satisfactorily marinated cucumber we discover ourselves in!" then flopped onto one of the glorified shelves which hung from opposite walls that would serve as their beds.
After a silent few hours, the dark charr spoke up, "Since we're all going to be here a while, my name's Darius Sootcatcher. Being an all-around scoundrel, it's not my first time in here, so don't worry, the food isn't bad and there's no diseased rats."
"Pleased to make your acquaintance," the pink top piped up, "My name is Rhiannon, though the silent one beating his head against the bars has started calling me 'Rhia' lately, not that I mind. His name's Seven Steelwolf, he's famous back in the Gladium Canton as a great physician." She was tempted to exaggerate more, but her partner did not seem up to correcting her, so further exaggeration would not have been amusing.
Darius chuckled, "Sorry to have never heard of your famous friend, but I've never been to the Citadel. Spent my life in Kryta, and never cared for the whole 'born to be a soldier' routine."
Seven began pounding on the bars, hoping to find some sort of weakness. After half a minute of frustration, he let out a roar and attacked the bars violently.
"Seven!" Rhiannon cried, "What's wrong?!"
"I don't want to be here!"
"You speak for all of us," Darius countered, "There's no reason to throw a tantrum against bars that will not break."
"I can't keep her waiting!" he roared.
Darius cocked a thick, tufted brow. "Who? You have a mate back home or something?"
Seven's eyes widened in mortification at his hangover slip.
Rhiannon saw his expression and waved her hands about to get Darius' attention. "He's talking about a friend. He made a promise and he needs to keep it." She smiled, seeking approval of her vague explanation.
The silver-fur nodded in relieved thanks.
Darius could tell there was more going on, but he was never a nosey type so he kept his suspicions to himself. His nose twitched in recognition of a familiar and very welcome scent. He hurried to the bars just as Inna Fronsdotter appeared from the shadows of the corridor. "Inna!" he purred happily and extended his forepaw.
She grasped his paw warmly. "Are you well, Sootface?"
"On seeing you, fair spring magnolia, my situation is as-,"
She glowered briefly, silencing him, and muttered some dark oath concerning trashy literature. "Short of breaking you out of here, is there anything I can do to help?"
"Well, there is a killer on the loose. If you caught him we might get released."
Her face glowed. "You mean, like a hunt!?" The tall woman's maturity melted away leaving an eager child. "I've never gone on a hunt before!"
Seven looked perplexed. "But… you're a Norn, hunting is what you do, isn't it?"
"My mother died before she could take me on my first hunt, and it's not as if there are praise-worthy beasts in Lion's Arch." She paused and looked at Seven for the first time. "Spirits! I thought Darius was short, you're positively puny."
Inna stepped on off limits ground with her last statement and Seven began a snide reply, "Perhaps y—,"
"And such tiny horns!"
Rhia snorted.
His blazing glare vanished and was replaced by a strange snarl that seemed to suggest something closer to embarrassment. Meanwhile pink-head was desperately trying to stifle her giggles.
Darius threw in his own statement for good measure, "He does have a tiny set, doesn't he? You know what they say about small h—,"
"Th-they're still growing!" Seven countered, "Besides, we're getting off topic. Fronsdotter,"
"Call me Inna."
"… Fronsdotter, can you find the culprit? I need out of here."
"No need to fight him, just find him." Darius added, "Please be careful, don't start anything you can't get away from."
"You're looking at the current holder of the Shadow Master title!" the norn boasted in traditional form. "Was it not I, who traversed the entirety of Lion's Arch in record time and stole a most personal item of Evon Gnashblade?" she waited, basking in the adoration she was certain to be receiving. She looked and saw Darius rolling his eyes, and the silver charr's uninterested and annoyed expression. However, salvation for her pride was there in the form of the wide-eyed sylvari.
"What? What did you st—er—purloin?!" Rhia asked excitedly, almost forgetting her superior vocabulary.
Inna let out a prideful laugh. "Why, what could be more personal to a charr than his," she paused for effect, "loincloth?" she followed this with a raucous laugh which belonged in a snowed in pub in a faraway place with a much less literally captive audience. "In order to gain the Shadow Master title, there's an underground competition every year of for all those skilled in shadow arts. One must traverse Lion's Arch, and steal a belonging of one of the city's aristocrats. This year it was Evon's turn, and his clerk was present to verify that my tribute was indeed a possession of the wealthiest citizen of Lion's Arch. You should have seen their faces!" Her raucus laughter boomed through the prison which she had moments before snuck into.
The two charr grimaced in mild disgust while Rhia practically swooned in admiration. "So commendable!" she exclaimed, "If shadow arts capacities were at all more remarkable than mesmeric enchantments, I would envy you. But to accomplish so much with such mediocre methods is significantly praiseworthy!"
Inna's grin faltered; no longer was she certain of being complimented. "Wait… huh?"
Darius cut off her decent from Praise-Mountain and pleaded, "Inna, please, hurry! Shadowsoul will never trust me if I can't even finish this mission without trouble."
She nodded eagerly, smiled at Seven, and gave a confused glance to Rhiannon. Without a tell or sign, she vanished, leaving only shadowy wisps.
"So… now what?" Rhiannon asked.
Darius waved casually, "We wait, either that or we could brea—,"
"Break out you say?"
The dark charr let out a yelp of surprise as he was prodded by a stick. He whirled around to see a burly norn.
"When did you—me? Break out? Never! Preposterous! I was just saying how great the décor in here is—aye!"
He jumped back as the norn prodded him again. "Shut your muzzle. You've got a lot of nerve being so relaxed after slaughtering forty people."
"I did not kill anyo—, wait! Forty?"
"I just want to know one thing, was this all about Ebonhawke or not?"
"Ebo…" Darius looked stunned.
"Was it Ebonhawke which motivated you?"
"I'm not the killer!" he roared, "What does Ebonhawke mean to me? It's nothing but a rundown fort in another country. Why should I care?"
"You're a charr."
"So now my race has something to do with it?"
"Your legions sure do."
"To the Mists with the Legions, and their citadels!" Darius snapped.
Seven bristled at the insult to his country, but maintained calm.
The norn bellowed, somehow finding the spite in his prisoner's voice funny.
Darius's eyes burned with agony and rage. "The Legions and their enemies mean nothing to me! Why would they? The Legion betrayed my sire! Disgraced and then killed my mother! I owe no loyalty. Let the Legions burn, all four of them!"
The norn's humour died as the truth in the prisoner's voice struck him. He could not laugh anymore.
Seven stared at Sootcatcher's back. His ire at the blasphemy was tempered by a curiosity. The wrath he heard and the pain he saw was not faked.
At last the guard spoke. "Rhiannon and Seven Steelwolf, you're alibis have been confirmed. You were not in Lion's arch until this day, and the killings have been going on for weeks. Darius, during half of the killings, you were outside of Lion's Arch. Inna Fronsdotter had a few of her associates vouch for you with evidence. You three are not off the hook, but are lowered to persons of interest and Darius remains our most likely culprit."
"So can we go, or can't we?" Seven demanded.
"Look, I'll make you a deal. Either we can get around to your arrest records on file in the next couple weeks, or, we could move them to the top of the pile on one condition."
"What's that?"
"You fight in the arena. The Lion Guard needs funds, and you three look like capable entertainment. We get a cut of your winnings, and you get to go free."
Seven pondered the situation. He had gold enough to bail them out, but there was no one outside the cell he could trust to retrieve it, certainly not the gold hungry Lion Guard. The arena presented opportunity, but at the same time, he was not sure whether his cellmates, or himself, were skilled enough to hold their own. "What happens if we die? This would be nothing more than an execution."
The norn laughed aloud. "You really are new here!"
Rhiannon elbowed Seven playfully. "The arena is perforated with enchantments and there are healers. No one has ever expired in the arena. It's quite pleasurable to watch!"
Her reassurances eased Seven, but there was still the final question. "Very well then, what happens if we lose?"
The norn grinned.
Yes, there is a Edge of Destiny homage here, but the Lion Guard's actions in the book seemed to have been pretty orthodox methods.
Yes, a setup chapter, but good things come to those who wait.