. (siri) wrote in emillion, @ 2014-06-14 00:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !log, siri d'albis, theodore finch |
Who: Theo & Siri
What: So a mage has a magical accident with some people. Oops.
Where: EKP HQs
When: Today noonish
Rating: PG-ish
Status: Complete
Sir Theodore Finch, Knight of the Peace, had fallen once again into the deceptive comfort of routine. He had expected a normal day of work at the offices, predicted for himself little beyond the grind of paperwork, careful sorting through files and evidence, and the steady stream of guildhall coffee (always better, he claimed, than the muck they served at the courthouse). These tasks did remain true, for a time, lulling him and allowing Theo to drop his guard--enough that when he, folders of papers tucked under one arm, a mug of steaming, black coffee in the other, strode purposefully around the corner and navigated around the desks of others, he had nearly dropped all that he was carrying. He stopped instead and grunted out a sound that was at once surprise and dismay. There was Siri, and not to drop by for a casual visit to the guildhall from the look of it. Theo looked sternly at her (his concern immediately evident), and then around to the other peacekeepers, perhaps in hope that someone would conveniently be around to explain the situation. Those nearest by sensed the berserkers attention and carefully edged further away, however, and so it was that Theo was left only to his own devices. “Morning,” he said to Siri, his tone full of questions. Which probably would not have the best of answers seeing as the mage was not one for direct answers, though Theo’s mannerism appeared to guide Siri to give slightly less unusual answers. The mage was thinking about forests and fire, snow and biting salty snowflakes when the sound of his voice caused her to narrow down her attention and focus on him. Siri straightened but did not get up from where she was seated, hands cuffed and folded on her lap — she smiled as if nothing was amiss, “Good day to you, Den-Dweller. It is a fine one.” “Doesn’t look it,” he argued, gesturing with one large hand to the metal cuffs obviously adorning her wrists. Theo’s usual frown sunk in deeper. He looked around, set his papers and mug on the nearest desk (as there was, at the moment, no one who might attempt to give protest), and stood looming over her with his arms crossed over his chest. His appearance warred between that of a scolding knight and that of concerned kin, roped in suddenly to claim the mage who seemed to have found herself astray from the law. Either way, he immediately felt responsible for Siri, his nerves honed in on her all at once. “You’ve been arrested,” he growled unhappily, giving some credit to her favored nickname. “Why?” Siri would’ve reached over, touch him — reassure herself that he was flesh and bone, not smoke and ash — she couldn’t so her smile faltered for the briefest of moments unsure of whether this was real or not. (It was real, it had to be real, talking to herself was far from unusual but she’d rather not attract unwanted attention, nerves raw from voices). “Why?” The question was echoed back, the answer in her head but unwilling to slither out. It was lodged in her throat, coiled and poison filled her mouth. “I tried to tell someone else, but there is venom in my jaw. There is only poison to find, beneath everything, but you don’t have to fear it — that is not your fate. So if I bite you, the truth you’ll hear but you won’t die, it will run through your veins and you’ll dream tonight.” Siri’s words wove themselves into complicated knots, and the berserker always attempted to pull them apart and back to a semblance of a straight line. Blunt and forward, he brushed aside all riddles, and this had been their way ever since their first meeting. Raising up one hand to scratch at the back of his neck, Theo reminded himself not to pace around (not that those still visibly lingering nearby needed further reasons to be wary). “Tell me what happened,” Theo prompted her. Twice she blinked, trying to follow the instructions — snakes could never kill a wolf like this, “There was no—” Her hands rose together, then dropped down again and the rattling sound was real. The metal was cool against her skin, “I think—” Siri began carefully, chewing the words, a click of the tongue interrupting her sentence, “I think I injured someone with a spell.” That was not right, the lingering traces of magic along her fingers were real too, “No, I don’t mean I think— I did, I did it.” Despite the confession, her voice was devoid of remorse and only vaguely concerned with the phrasing not the actions. Catching himself attempting to indeed pace along in front of where the mage sat, Theo let out a sigh of agitation (at himself, if not surely for the situation) and went for the empty chair nearby instead. He dropped down next to Siri, his posture rigid, trying to make sense of what she had told him. “Your magic,” he stated aloud, trying to fit together the details as if they were pieces of some odd puzzle. “You were attacked in the city?” For what other reasons Siri would use her magic on someone else, Theo certainly could think of none. He could only attempt to deduce from what was known and, going by what he knew were the truths of the city streets of late, violence against mages on the rise, the unrest finding no alleviation as yet, it seemed like a reasonable first guess. Theo turned to look at Siri from where he was now sitting, his face a perfect contrast of emotions to hers. Siri shifted to face Theo, as a flower turns to face the sun, she struggled to anchor herself to his presence in that moment so that she may speak again (it was hard, she didn’t know this place, she didn’t know Theo well — but there was always a familiarity about him that set her at ease). She was truly happy to see Theo, that much was now evident by her expression. “No, I was not attacked. They —” What had happened really? Siri had no scratch on her, didn’t even feel frightened, she had not felt so during the incident either. It had almost been mechanical, the strings pulled by something else as she turned and cast the spell. Had they intended any harm? Well, that point was moot now — they couldn’t cause her any harm. “— it just happened.” By the look of Theo’s gravely perplexed expression, he didn’t seem to agree that such a thing might just happen. Perhaps Siri did not want to say all that had occurred (as was her right, he considered), but as a peacekeeper and even as a man who considered her his friend, he pushed himself to continue. “They?” He sniffed. “Who’re they?” “Men, women? I don’t know their faces.” Siri assumed they would be with healers somewhere, but her mind still remained unconcerned on the matter. Instead she was busy following Theo’s expressions, which were far more interesting to her shattered mind than having cast a spell at some innocent bystanders. The guilt would come in those rare moments of lucidity that seemed more and more elusive nowadays. “They’re not dead.” Her hands moved, uncomfortable at their inability to reach out and touch the wolf. There were other questions Siri wanted to have answers for: about Theo, about this building, with its knights and papers and wooden seats; she would wait to ask. None of these answers were the one Theo truly sought, and they did little alleviate his concern. The only action that seemed available to him now, he considered, was to find the knight who had arrested and brought Siri here, and to work out the details instead from more reliable sources. Reports, witnesses. His mind thought back on the paperwork he had set on the desk, realizing how greatly his routine for the day had been deviated. Theo would need to spend his time now working on this first and foremost, he knew. Leaving Siri here as she was and in the hands of unknown others seemed to prove an ill alternative. So the man sighed heavily, his massive shoulders rising and falling, and the peacekeeper stood up once again. “Faram bless us for that much,” he said gravely, glancing down at her again. Theo gestured for her to stand, deciding that wherever he needed to find his answers, he ought not to simply leave Siri where she was, alone and adrift. “Aye, come on,” he said. “Time to go and sort this out.” Siri cocked her head, unsure and taking note of his sigh (it would be pointless to say she wouldn’t kill someone because one day she might, and it was of no help at all to dwell more on death when they were brutally surrounded by it recently). Theo, Siri understood this much, had to have seen far more than most to begin with, let alone now with the state of things. Now that thought did ignite a sort of remorse in her madness as she stood up and twirled her fingers on the back of his gloves, on the smooth leather armour — instead she awkwardly caught his fingers in her own. Are you okay? I’m sorry.Areyouokay.I’msorry.okay.sorry.sor She shuddered, but did not release him, “Thank you.” And then she withdrew her touch (onoffonoff). “Aye, come on then,” Theo grumbled, mage awkwardly in tow. He ushered Siri not ungently through the maze of cluttered desks and other peacekeepers, searching for proper answers and determined to find a way to free his friend properly from the shackles which currently bound her wrists. The law was fair and just, and the berserker would use it to find a way out of the mess they found themselves stuck in together. |