X: Abandoned
Before
It should have been his last morning in the region, but the letter that arrived for him at the inn changed everything. The handwriting was immediately recognizable; since leaving home, he had exchanged enough correspondence with his sister to know her penmanship almost as well as his own. What alarmed and confused Loynis were the letter's contents.
"Brother, I send you these words under duress. I am being held prisoner at an abandoned castle not far from your current location. My captors know who you are and what you have done these past months, and are willing to shed my blood in recompense if you fail to meet their demands."
The instructions that came next were detailed enough. In three days, he was to bring a hefty ransom to a marked location on a sketched map that accompanied the letter. According to the map, the ruined castle appeared to be located atop a series of bluffs to the west that overlooked the Sword Coast.
The key that he wore around his neck felt heavier. The ransom was nearly the exact amount of the early inheritance he'd received as a parting gift from his parents upon leaving Cormyr. Unfortunately, the entirety of that wealth was currently stored away in a box at an Athkatlan bank. Even at full ride, Loynis knew that he would never even make it to the nearest city and back in time. The best he could hope for was to bargain with the lockbox's key.
The next few days passed in a jumble of fear and worried anticipation as he struck out on horseback for the meeting grounds. It didn't escape his notice that the timing of the ransom note's arrival had come shortly after his break from Dace. After all, who else knew where he was staying?
The main doubt was the letter's handwriting and the phrasing. It was unlikely that anyone other than his sister wrote it. And Loynis had never seen Dace scrawl anything more than an 'x' as a signature on a bounty claim. Still, with how ruthless his friend had proven to be these last few months, it was entirely possible that Dace was secretly a master forger, and this was all part of some long con.
Regardless, Loynis made the journey. If it really was Dace, then no doubt he was planning to make another grand display about how people were terrible beings and deserved whatever tragedy they suffered at his hands.
It was nearly dusk when he arrived at the ruined castle. Whatever grandeur the stone building once displayed had long since eroded through some combination of conflict and time. From where he stood, Loynis couldn't see all of the structure's base, but he guessed that the cliff's edge might have receded or collapsed, destroying a large portion of the fortress' outer walls. Its towers had also crumbled and likely fell into the ocean.
It seemed unnaturally quiet as Loynis cautiously stepped into the ruin. No sound of birds or rain on the greying skies. Not even the wind. Nature itself seemed indifferent to his presence.
He gradually made his way inside, deeper into the decayed structure without much difficulty. Some passageways were partly collapsed, but not enough to impede progress.
All corridors seemed to merge at what was once a large festhall near the centre of the fort. The entire back wall and much of the stone floor were completely gone, leaving a massive gap overlooking the sea. The room itself seemed to jut out off the cliffside, and felt precariously slanted, like it was ready to follow the rest of the structure into the waters below.
With the sun falling low over the ocean on the horizon, Loynis had to squint and raise a hand to shield his eyes. A lone figure was seated in a chair on the opposite side of the room, near the edge. Unable to make out any more than their silhouette, Loynis slowly stepped forward.
"Well, I am here, Dace. Was this all truly necessary? Faking a kidnapping may not be the worst thing you have done, but to bring my sister's name into it..."
He suddenly stopped when he saw who was bound to the chair. A familiar young woman with short black hair like his own. It was indeed Lorna, his sister. Concern flashed across his face. He rushed forward and held her hand as he examined the ropes around her wrists. She did not have any noticeable wounds and her clothing appeared clean and intact.
It didn't make sense. Loynis had been travelling with Dace for months, and they had only been in this region for a few days. How could someone else have arranged all this and brought her here so suddenly?
Whoever placed her here had not even put a gag on her. Nonetheless, she said nothing and just stared at him as he began untying her bonds. Besides the ropes, there was also a single chain shackling her left wrist.
"Who did this to you? Was it to get at me? Or our family?" He yanked at the knot and it came undone easily.
Lorna pulled her hand free from the rope, and rubbed her right wrist. She didn't show much concern for the rusted shackle still binding her left as she eyed her brother up and down. "You did not bring the ransom."
As she stood up, letting the chain jangle as it fell to her side, Loynis put his arms around her and gave a quick hug. "It was too short notice to retrieve it from the First Bank of Athkatla. I thought I could bargain with the key to the lockbox."
"That's where you stored your share of the inheritance?"
He paused upon hearing her question. From the moment Loynis entered the room, her demeanour had been cool and stoic. There wasn't a hint of stress in her voice or gaze. He cast a wary eye at Lorna and asked, "Where are your captors?"
"See, I told you this would work," said a voice from behind.
Loynis pivoted, instinctively raising an arm to the side to shield Lorna.
"Exactly as I foretold, he came here trying to play the hero." Dace strolled toward the pair from one of the room's other passages. There was a darkly smug grin on the bounty hunter's face, one that Loynis had seen on many occasions before.
A shackle was suddenly clasped around Loynis' arm. He immediately tried to step away, but the chain went taut, binding him to the stone chair. Lorna stepped out from behind her brother, then circled around to stand beside Dace, out of arm's reach of her brother. She held up a rusty key, showing him that the shackle was now locked on his wrist.
She crossed her arms and glanced toward Dace. "You never foretold that his inheritance was locked away in a vault somewhere."
"I suspected it. Either that or he converted it to gemstones, but I imagine a love of baubles is more your style than his."
Loynis stood agog, but managed to find his voice. He looked between them in shock and sputtered out, "You- you two know each other? How?"
"I told you before, you're easy to read," said Dace. "You reek of privilege and wealth. And especially naivete. When we served in the Cormyr army, you weren't there for any calling or sense of duty. You were slumming it. Playing at being a soldier. Another rich kid seeing what he could get away with."
The bounty hunter smirked and cocked his head toward Lorna. "Some time ago, I tracked down your family estate and went there with a mind to rob you." He sent a sly glance toward her. "Turns out I wasn't the only one who resented your wealth. And it turns out you weren't the only one who enjoyed slumming it."
Loynis stared at his sister, hardly able to believe what Dace was implying. "No, you would never betray me like that... he must have threatened or tricked you."
"Tricked me?" Lorna let out a humourless laugh. "This whole scheme was my idea. Did you think it was a coincidence, randomly bumping into your fellow soldier back on Riftmere? A backwater island at the arse-end of nowhere? Your letters made it simple to follow you."
"But why?" Loynis slumped and fell backward, landing in the stone chair.
She took a step closer, eyes filled with rage. "You were gone a long time, out killing people for the king. Meanwhile, I was left working myself red taking care of our family's business. And what happened when the wayward son finally returned, only to declare that he was going to travel halfway across the world for some half-hearted desire to 'find himself'? Our parents showered you with praise and gifts." Her voice rose to a shout. "An early inheritance! Do you know what happened to my share of the family wealth? Earmarked for a dowry! It turned out our parents only saw my worth as something to be married off for some business deal."
Lorna continued to advance on her brother, like a carnivore stalking its prey. "So when your 'friend' came around, looking to profit off of you, I saw a chance for us to take what I am owed."
Scarcely able to believe all this, Loynis could only shake his head. "Of all people, you came after me?"
"Who else? Our parents are too well-protected to both be eliminated without arousing suspicion. Our brother Logar is a drunken layabout, but at least he has no claim on the family wealth. No, it had to be you. Our parents' golden boy. The 'miracle child'." She reached out and seized the key from around Loynis' neck, snapping the string as she yanked it away. "You know that they still wanted to leave the whole family business to you? Even after you abandoned us."
Dace stepped up and stood just behind Lorna. The bounty hunter added, "It'll be easy enough for me to impersonate you to access your lockbox. Oh, don't give me that look. I've been telling you all along, people will turn on you at the merest opportunity."
Lorna leaned in and gave her brother a mocking pat on the cheek. She shook the lockbox key in her hand, letting it jangle against the rusted shackle key. "And here I thought soldiers came out of the army as hardened cynics. But there you are, incapable of seeing the betrayal coming from the person right next to you."
"Yes, it must run in the family," Dace remarked.
"Ha, I-" Her words were cut off as a slight gasp escaped Lorna's lips and she stiffened as Dace plunged his blade into her back. There was a moment of stunned silence before she collapsed forward, falling across the armrest of the stone chair.
"Why did you do that?!"
Dace wiped his dagger off and said, "Her plan worked well enough, and she got you to reveal where your inheritance was stashed. But I don't really need her now, do I? I've known you long enough to pretend to be you." He smirked at Loynis. "And maybe I wanted one last chat with you before you join her."
"What could we possibly have to discuss now? You betrayed me for my gold!"
Dace crouched before him and pointed at his former friend's face. "There. That's it. I see the look in your eyes. The inner ruthlessness you think you're so skilled at hiding. I've known it was there since the Cormyr army." He gestured at Lorna's body and said, "So much potential, but you try to suppress it, denying yourself to the point that people like her see you as nothing more than a witless mark to be exploited. Everyone is either the predator or the prey, no middle ground. And you chose wrong."
Loynis could only stare at his sister's body lying next to him. As the crimson stain on her back slowly expanded, he was only barely hearing Dace's words. All he felt was disgust; at his sister, at his traitorous friend, and even at himself for being so short-sighted as to let it all happen.
Blade still in hand, Dace lunged it, aiming at Loynis' neck. Loynis barely raised his arm in time, blocking the attack with the chain on his wrist.
Catching the blade in the metal links, Loynis immediately swung it in a small arc, knocking the weapon from the killer's hand and sending the object clattering to the floor. Wasting no time, Loynis kicked up, striking Dace in the midsection, staggering the man back a few steps.
Loynis immediately turned and grabbed the rusty key from Lorna's hand and quickly unlocked the wrist cuff.
As Loynis stood free, Dace charged at him, tackling the young man to the ground next to the stone throne.
"Maybe there is an ember of fire in you, after all," Dace hissed. "But compared to someone like me, you're no predator. I'll take whatever you have." He struck Loynis across the face with his fist. Reaching to the side, Dace grabbed the dagger from the ground and then raised it over head.
Loynis brought his arm up to block it, and screamed as the metal pierced into his hand. With his left, Loynis grabbed Dace by the hair and then slammed his former friend's head into the side of the stone chair. Momentarily stunned, Dace fell to the side and Loynis took the chance to scramble backward, putting some distance between them, and got on his feet again.
Tightening his jaw, Loynis took a breath and then yanked the dagger out of his hand. He clenched his wounded hand into a fist, but that did little to stem the trickle of blood falling to the floor.
At this point, Dace was back on his feet as well. The look in his eyes betrayed the same callous coldness he'd shown to their previous bounty targets, and Loynis knew that this would only end with one man's survival. No middle ground, indeed.
Dace charged at him like a bull, knocking the smaller man across the ground for the second time. This time, however, Loynis didn't feel the cold stone floor against the back of his head. Instead, Loynis found that they were at the very edge of the collapsed floor, perilously overlooking the seaside cliffs. Dace was on top of him in an instant, tearing the dagger from Loynis' hand and tossing it back, out of his opponent's grasp.
Loynis reached up and grabbed Dace's free hand by the forearm, just below the leather bracer. They started struggling against each other, but it was clear that Dace's strength outmatched the smaller man.
"Don't be mad," Dace grunted, bringing his hand down closer, fingers stretched and reaching for Loynis' neck. "This is just how the world is. People like me always come out on top, and I'll take whatever I want from you; your name, your wealth and your life."
"Then maybe the world needs people like me to take those like you down, no matter the cost." With his bloodied fist, Loynis struck across, punching Dace's arm just below the wrist. When the impact hit the leather bracer, there was a metallic snapping sound, and the hidden stiletto blade shot out of its concealed slot... and directly through Dace's palm.
Letting out an anguished scream, Dace reacted by pulling back slightly, releasing his hold on Loynis and clutching at his own wounded hand.
That was all the opening Loynis needed. The moment Dace relented, Loynis reached up, seizing him by the collar. Bracing his leg against Dace's midsection for leverage, Loynis fell backward, attempting to throw Dace past him, toward the collapsed part of the chamber.
The sudden shift in weight caused Dace to stumble, falling forward through the wide opening. He continued bellowing as he fell through over the edge and out of sight.
Squeezing his bloody right hand back into a fist, Loynis propped himself up on his elbow, then twisted around, peering over the edge. A few metres down, he saw that Dace's leg had become tangled in a vine sticking out of the eroded cliffside.
Dace's arms flailed about as he dangled precariously, caught at the ankle. Making eye contact with Loynis, Dace seemed to calm enough to form words. "Okay, you've won. The charade is finished, and I've no other way out of this. Are you going to pull me up, or just watch me fall?"
"What happened to being either the predator or the prey?"
"Forget what I said before! We both know that's not who you really are, or what you believe. Just pull me up and we can work something out."
For a moment, Loynis felt a wave of disgust pass through him. He glanced back at the stone throne and the chain that was still attached to it. For all his cynical talk earlier, Dace was right about some things. Loynis crawled back from the edge for a moment, then returned and peered over the precipice again, this time holding the dagger Dace used to stab him.
"You were not wrong about people like you, doing anything to achieve your goals. Squeezing every drop of profit and power out of whatever opportunity you can exploit. Everyone plays at being a king. Perhaps that will be the truth I finally take from you. Every would-be king is still just a mortal man, waiting for the blade that takes it all away." He threw the knife down, and it severed the lone vine holding Dace's leg.
"Wait-" Dace screamed before falling, eyes wide.
Loynis watched stoically as his former friend plummeted down the face of the cliffside, eventually crashing onto the jagged rocks below.
For a minute, Loynis continued to stare down at Dace's broken form, now seemingly tiny in the distance. Dace's neck and limbs were splayed out in twisted positions, and the ocean foam gradually took on a pink tinge as it swept around his shattered, unmoving body.
Breathing heavily, Loynis slumped forward, letting his arms hang over the edge of the broken floor. The gravity of everything that had just happened was starting to sink in, and the pain from his wounded hand felt sharper, rivalled only by the cold emptiness coming from within his chest.
The waves crashed against the rough shoreline again, this time covering the fresh corpse. As the waters withdrew, Dace's form was dragged away as well, claimed by the uncaring sea.
Loynis slowly forced himself to rise to knees, and then up on his feet, before he turned and looked back at Lorna. Her body had fallen to the ground in front of the stone chair, her arm and fingers outstretched. The lockbox key was lying a few inches away from her lifeless hand, creating an almost poetic death pose.
All this... and for what? Loynis was left wondering in silence amid the shattered ruin, uncertain of what would come next.