Crashing Dawn (closed to Dissinger)

[Skie and Avery]

Seth had saved her with a pull of her hair, and now the boat was destroyed and washing away with the tide. They’d been anchored not far off the coast, and as burning and smoldering timber shattered around them and was pulled to the depths Skie was sure she’d never imagined drowning so close to land. It would be immensely less terrifying if she could see.

Her eyes had been burned by the evil child’s breath. Don’t go stumbling around like a pair of drunken fools, Talen had warned. Aww, it was almost like he cared mere moments after he’d tried to murder her. One thing was for sure, Skie didn’t know who Talen Shadowwalker was but she’d never forget his face. His open mouthed scream was the last thing she saw before she’d been engulfed in pain and the lights went dark.

Now blind and waist-deep in swirling ocean, Skie was unsure what to do. Seth had gone for his bag where his gauntlets lay. She tried to move against the tide and find where the water was coming in from. If she opened her eyes, light exploded with massive pain that reverberated through her skull. The once-demon swordswoman could vaguely tell where it came from and so she blindly stumbled. The seawater was at her ribs as she flailed over bodies and stools, more than once colliding with one of the rafters that was bowing and creaking under the weight of the deck above.

Somehow, she’d gotten out of the galley and leapt from the flooded bow of the ship into the water. Hints of light and blurry shoreline in her pained sight sort of guided her, but it was the waves that mostly carried her to shore. She washed into waist-deep waters and struggled through the sand that sucked at her feet until she could stumble coughing onto dry land. Brush and rock jutting from the coarse beach scratched and cut her hands.

Even though he’d gone to the dark below, Seth had made it to shore before she had. She heard him coughing not far away. She heard chains and thought they were his, the weapons he liked to pull from the gauntlets. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she was wrong as a collection of hands hauled her up and put her in irons. The sun was too bright for her damn burned eyes to be of much use, but she could smell a spiced cologne, hear the boots of many. More than one man was talking at her, at Seth, but she was so tired.

Eventually, it sunk in as they were cast into a dinghy and began to bob along waves towards a larger ship.

They were under arrest for the destruction of the Cudlitz Pride and the death of the crew on board. Bound for Terrinore, bodies burdened by saltwater and lost intentions, the pair had sought out Lornius forgetting that they weren’t the only predators circling the shores.

[Dissinger]

Chains.

His life was lived in them. Some were metaphorical, others were literal. This happened to be a more literal time in his life. He was quiet, he was observant, he was waiting. Skie seemed disoriented from the beach, she was blinking furiously, as if trying to see. That was important. It meant anything he planned was by himself, he couldn't count on Skie. The men were hands on weapons, they had killed before, he could see that now. It meant he needed weapons ready within moments, and the chains would not give him that luxury.

The chains were no way to win the fight. There was four in the dingy, one next to Skie, two rowing the dingy out to the larger ship. One was behind Seth, the occasional snicker giving him away, not that he cared. Seth figured he could knock the snickering man off the dingy before the other two were ready. That was the best case scenario, the man next to Skie would move to secure her, possibly as a threat against Seth. Seth could of course call the bluff, but he would gain nothing out of that. Skie's death would serve no purpose and really, with the emotional ties that had developed between them, he wasn't too keen on seeing her hurt.

“Boy how do. This will be a great day. We caught ourselves the Demon! Red Handed too! Its not like the last few times he's been here and under the Lornius' protection. Though truth be told, not much of a demon!” A hand slapped him across the back of his head. The pain didn't even register in the Demon so much as the feeling of the hand against his skull. His eyes closed briefly before he looked at the men in front of him.

One of the other guards spoke up, “Don't tease the man Geoff. You'll come to regret that...”

“What's he going to do? Kill me? Big bad Demon in chains...” The words were accented by another sharp rap against the back of the Demon's head.

When Seth spoke his voice held no warmth, “I'm already charged with the murders of everyone on that boat, correct?”

The guard in front of him stiffened a bit before he spoke, “Aye, whats it to you?”

Seth twisted, bringing the shackles across the temple of the man who had been hitting him across the back of his head. The sound of metal on metal could be heard even as a splash marked poor Geoff's fate. The guard was unable to grab the dingy, and had he been able to surely they would have pried his hands off, for fear of the small boat capsizing. The man cried out in alarm, even as the waters began to sweep him away from the larger vessel. He then spoke his tone quiet and deliberate, “Man overboard.”

The guards were halfway between pulling blades before the demon merely took back his old position. The man before him speaking in a heated tone, “Man had a lass back at port you know.”

“You warned him of messing with demons. If he truly loved her, he'd be swimming for shore, not the boat.”

“She's with child.”

“If I'm going to sit in prison while your mockery of justice is carried out, I wish to earn it.”

The man's cries were soon drowned by the water rushing him. He was to be lost to the waves even as Seth met the eyes of his captives. His look held a tinge of boredom even as the rowers continued forward. The dead man weighing on the mood of the guards. They soon pulled alongside the ship and were hoisted up to the main deck where Seth stood beside Skie waiting.

They hadn't needed to wait long. A door opened with the cries of the Captain being on deck. Every guard and sailor moved to be in view of the door as the heavy thud of something striking the deck resounded. Soon it was heard again, and again, each time seeming to bring the captain closer. Once the Figure stepped into the light, Seth understood. It hobbled along, what could have at one point been called a man. Metal and flesh were intertwined with meticulous care, the sound of breathing could be heard. Seth could see this man was old, older than most by far. He held a dark light in his eyes, seeming to hide within it a mystery of choice.

“Prison of Lornius...” He began, the words were thick, forced. It obviously took much out of the man to speak them, “Welcomes you Demon. Blessings of Dark Mother upon you...”

Seth felt his stomach drop out at those words. The Dark Mother was the hidden name of the burgeoning Goddess of Blessed Torture. A woman he knew all to well, one who had escpaed his blades many times...

Cassandra Remi had control of Terrinore.

[Skie and Avery]

Hadn't Malagaste warned her that running with Seth Dahlios would get her arrested? To be fair, he'd said 'killed', but she was alive. Blind and arrested, but alive. Seth had gone strangely quiet after their greeting, and it worried her.

As rough hands guided her by the shoulders and hair to what felt like a box - a cage? - she could hear her partner's chains and grunts of frustration just feet away. Hands bound at her back, Skie's fingers gripped at the thick steel bars she'd been chained to. The ground pitched under her and she wished she could see. The rough water surely meant they were being ushered along the coast rather than moving further out to sea.

Time stretched on until it felt like hours later.

Here and there, she'd open her eyes. Met only with a blinding white wall, pain forced her to shut them again. The boat eventually lurched to a stop, the creak of the dock and the rattle of both anchor and their chains pulling and slamming against the bars chiming in the afternoon air. There may have been the ghost of voices along the breeze, but they were too faint to separate from the wash of waves on shore or the cries of gulls somewhere overhead.

She expected to feel hands shuttling her away again but this time the thud and hiss of movement followed by metal colliding on metal with a scream and a crash reverberated under her feet as the cage was rocked by the impact.

"They're using chains to lift us onto the island, there's a buil..." Seth's voice was cut short as the crack of a fist against his jaw silenced him. He didn't speak again, and he didn't need to. Neither of them knew where the lift would take them or what would be waiting on the roof of the building ahead.

[Dissinger]

They crowded around the two of them, pressing them into the cages. He had tried to warn her of what was going on, but was immediately silenced by a fist to the jaw. Seth Dahlios had little draw here, and his name meant nothing while he was in the chains. Instead he merely stepped into his cage and waited his turn. He didn’t have to wait long, they rose Skie up, before carefully placing her down below. A mechanism on the bottom of the cage opened silently letting the woman out of her cage.

Seth however, could tell there was more to the situation than it seemed. SNickers could be heard as his cage was lifted up. The man who called himself warden limped forward, his eyes locking with the demon, “Any last words?”

Seth knew he shouldn’t. Really it was a matter of petty pride if he attacked the warden now. He was locked in a cage, hanging over his prison and there was nothing to be gained in an attack. Still he lashed out in the only way he could, keeping eye contact he muttered, “You don’t know the true meaning of pain.”

It had been years since he had experienced the pain of electrocution, but it was a pain he couldn’t ever forget. Something so amazingly overpowering that he was sure the Warden would not be prepared for it. Instead, his attack on the nerves of the man was met with that maddening gurgle that marked the Warden’s laugh. His eyes filled with Mirth as he spoke, “Electrocution Demon? Is that your pain?”

Seth knew he had misstepped when the man waved off the attack like so much water down his back. He wrenched against the bars of his prison, only to see a rod wrap against his hands. The warden gestured to the hole with his staff before he said, “Drop it.”

Seth made eye contact with the man who gave him a gruesome smile. There was only a moment there, but he could see the perverse satisfaction in his eyes. The man grabbed a lever and pulled, dropping Seth’s cage into the hole. When the cage hit bottom it was with a cacophonous sound that echoed down the tunnels he could see. The cage shattered around him, leaving the man lying on the ground and groaning from he sudden overstimulation of pain and noise. He groaned rolling to his front as he heard shouts from the tunnels.

People were coming.

He heard the warden’s voice call out, “They will try to kill you...kill them back.”