Log: Angels of Mercy
Who: Amerie, A'son, B'yan, Milani, N'thei
When: day 22, month 5, turn 14 of the 10th Interval
Where: Holding Cells, Crom Hold
What: Amerie and Milani sneak some provender to the criminals in spite of the fact that two of them seem intent on killing each other.
Holding Cell, Crom Hold(#19554RJ)
This is a small square chamber located somewhere deep within Crom Hold, measuring a cot length long and wide. Sparse, it is not completely unfurnished, with a single cot lacking sheets and pillows and a small, unlit hearth. The door is locked, and a guard detail remains posted at all hours.
When A'son lunges at him, B'yan sidesteps and throws a hand up to try and grab A'son's arm at the same time. Bringing his face close to A'son, "Listen to me!" he hisses low, baring his teeth as he struggles. "You believe what you want to, but -I- didn't fucking turn on you! Is that what you think, A'son? If that was the case, would I have -been- there with you in the first place?" and he tries the roughly shove the man away from him. Panting, "Our friendship means something, but don't placing it on the fact that you were foolish enough to get caught," he returns coolly. "I've told you. I don't get caught. You should have followed my lead, man."
N'thei, in the cell across from A'son's, has either been sitting on the floor next to his cot napping, or watching A'son and B'yan have a fight without a word. He continues doing whichever one of those things he's doing, legs stretched before him, arms lip at his sides, chin resting on his chest, hard to see if his eyes are open or not. Then; "That's what we all think, you cowardly bastard."
"Foolishness didn't have anything to do with it. We got caught because someone screwed up, because someone /set/ us up. You ran! You ran before the door was even opened, like you knew! Like you damn knew!" B'yan does indeed manage to grab A'son's arm, which throws him off temporarily. Until he regains some semblance of balance and makes a move to push the other up against the bars of the cell door. Pushing his face as close to B'yan as he can, he growls, "You better get out of this cell now. Or I will not stop until one of us is on the ground, unconscious or worse. You're a dog. You don't get caught? You didn't get caught this time because you /knew/."
Amerie knows Crom like Milani knows High Reaches, and so they come to the row of holding cells with little trouble or impediment - right up to the door, with might account for the bemusement on the shorter and darker of the pair's features. Both assistant headwomen have brought something along with them, but the presentation is as different as the two young women; Millie has a basket of treats, while Amerie sweeps in with an old sack that clanks with the sound of glass on glass. The girl from Crom stops in her tracks as she enters - then tilts her head to the side to listen, and watch A'son try to kill B'yan.
Tightening his hold on A'son's arm painfully, N'thei familiar voice prompts a nasty curse from B'yan before he wrenches his face towards the bars. Placing a steely gaze on the man in the opposite cell, "You," he throws accusingly, eyes narrowing at him. "It's -your- fault. I told you to back down and you caper off like some boys touching his first bubbly pie! If anyone is to blame here it's -him-!" and he delivers this at A'son. "I didn't betray you, A'son. I knew something was the wrong the moment I saw the light come on. You call -that- betrayal? That I was smarter than you to notice?" Spittle flying from his mouth as he glares A'son down, "Go on, then," he sneers. "You want to be the big man here? You think you have all the answers? Go on and fight me, partner. I will not tolerate you calling me a coward nor a dog much longer."
Milani is right on Amerie's heels though the sounds from the holding cells make her eyes pop a bit. Stepping through to actually get a gander at what's going on she stares for a minute and suddenly bursts out laughing of all things. "And I was worried about the guards roughing 'em up. Looks like they're doing a mighty fine job of it all themselves." Eyeroll. Still her gaze tracks over to the 'brawlers' and stays there, teeth worrying at the inside of her cheek.
"My fault? I'm the one that double-crossed us?" Stretched out the way he is, N'thei cap tap the bars with the toe of his foot, make it clank tellingly without the bother of getting up. He can also look up, black-eyed and split-lipped and busted-nosed, and laugh with quiet derision at B'yan's assertion. "Well aren't you ladies a sight for sore eyes." Added like he wasn't just flexing his fingers in a fantasy of them 'round B'yan's neck.
A'son winces when B'yan tightens his grip on his arm, but this only further infuriates and increases his desire to break one of the bronzerider's bones. "You got 'em then? You have the answers? I'll call you a dog sin-" It's the sound of women's voices that stops A'son in mid-ramble, causes him to pull away a little and peer down the row of cells. Amerie is noticed first and then Milani. Shock at seeing her there results in him completely relinguishing any grip he has on his 'friend'. "This isn't the greatest place for you girls." He states, trying to sound calm.
"Yes, your fault!" B'yan shoots over his shoulders towards N'thei, perhaps refusing to acknowledge that they had female company. Not with A'son so close and holding such a murderous look, anyway. "You were the one that mentioned the watchrider missing! I should have dragged you all back and demanded you back to your dragons!" Focusing on A'son, he opens his mouth to retort until the attention pulled away causes him to finally look back. Loosening his hold on A'son's arm, he shoots the man a dark look before he turns his head slightly towards Amerie and Milani. With him dressed like a unknotted herder, it's possible that he could not be recognized, save for "What you two doing here?" which is delivered coldly.
Amerie is watching the fighting dispassionately, though she asides to Milani smugly, "I wondered why he wasn't in here with them. Though - he is at the moment." Dark eyes shift to the lock on the cell door, just in case there's a key. With a perfect arch of her brow, she tosses mahogany locks over her shoulders and chooses to ignore the potential bone-breaking. On her way past, she tells A'son, "This isn't my first time." B'yan doesn't get an answer. N'thei? Gets the sack thrust between the bars of his cell, the slender hand gripping it graced with a carved black onyx ring.
Milani tilts her head a little Amerie's way to catch the lower-voiced words and nods, a slight frown on her face at B'yan's words. "Heya N'thei," she offers over to the big bronzerider then steps over to the bars in front of the cell that holds A'son and B'yan. "I brought cookies. I thought you all might need something nicer to eat than whatever the hell Crom's feeding or not feeding you." A'son's remark earns him a long look. "I'm a big girl. I can handle myself. 'Sides, Amerie knows her way 'round and my mother's parked outside."
Calm as a yawn; "If I didn't trust A'son to thump your skull, sir, I'd invite you over here and see if you really want to talk to me like that." N'thei uses the wall a great deal to aid in getting up, his having sat for a very long spell on the floor likely making it much harder than it needs to be, then he just leans until his feet follow. One hand, knuckles scraped and split, wraps around the bars, and the other selects the bag from Amerie's grip. "Thank you, my dove. I knew you'd come through for us. She brought cookies?" He asks this of Amerie with his eyes on Milani, bemused.
"What are you still doing inside my cell?" A'son takes a menacing 'get out of here' step towards B'yan. "I'm fine. You can stop pretending to be here to check on me." He crosses his arms over his chest. "Yes, I'm sure it was N'thei who double-crossed us. It worked out really well for him." Sarcasm thick he shakes his head and finally breaks completely away from him. Leaning into the bars in front of Milani. He speaks to her as if he hadn't just been face to face arguing with someone moments before. "Shouldn't have come here, kid. It's not a safe place." Her last hits him and he blinks, "Emilly is outside?"
Amerie's gaze flicks over N'thei's general state, from scraped knuckles to black eyes, without comment. Full lips curving into a smirk, but tone devoid of /most/ of the rich satisfaction that tends to come with these questions, "Do I get to say I told you so?" Almost as soon as the sack is passed from hand to hand, the girl folds her arms and glance over her shoulder; to A'son, "I wouldn't worry much about her. And it's not like this is a whorehouse or something." With an assessing, black look for B'yan, she turns back again to the larger bronzerider's cell; quirking a faint, amused smile. "She brought cookies," she confirms. "Did he actually sell you out?"
Hard eyes linger on the girls before the calmness in N'thei's voice gets B'yan's full attention. Chin lifting imperceptibly with A'son still in his view, he sniffs and responds "So easy to speak when you're on the other side," in an equally calm voice. Turning his head back to A'son as he starts to straighten his clothes, "I'm not pretending," he returns, regaining his cordial composure. "I wish things didn't go down the way it did." Stepping to the side of him as A'son dangerously approaches, "If you won't see reason, then I will go." He eyes Milani and Amerie for a few seconds, then moves to place his handle on the bars.
Milani tilts a look over at N'thei. "Yes. I brought /cookies/. And other stuff. Drinks. Solid food. D'you want some?" Her eyes slide back over to A'son and B'yan. "Or are the two of you going to start beating each other up again? I kinda thought we were all on the same side here. Y'know. Doing what's best for the Reaches." Another half-step forward brings her face-to-face with Nikoth's rider. "What're they going to do to a couple of girls. Besides, I'm not dumb." She turns a little so the edge of the riding jacket she has slung over her arms half-draping her basket can be seen. It's got a Telgar patch on it, not Reaches. "Mum still had this from ages ago. And yeah, she's outside, waiting by Sionath." Millie's airy about that and she gives her basket a little shake. "So B'yan, you going to let me in so I can feed these guys? Unless y'know, gruel's the latest and greatest from Crom's kitchens."
N'thei invites B'yan over with a crook of the finger around the bars, come here pretty, and a hard look that would take great relish in such a visit. Easily distracted, bloodlust aside, he turns his attention to the opening of the bag, a feat accomplished better with both hands on the sack and one shoulder leaned against the bars near Amerie. "Bring me cookies then, Milani, and let us hope I'm right and Amerie's brought something to wash it down with? --You, my dove, may say you-told-me-so. How did you get in here though? Both of you."
The far door swings open and a guard tromps his way inside. He gives a sneering, creepy look at the two girls before passing them to go to A'son's cell. "Gimpy, we gotta healer here to see yer leg. 'parently we can't just let it fall off ya." The well muscled man, swings the cell door open and slips his hand firmly around the bronzerider's arm and practically yanks him out. A'son reacts by jerking his arm instinctively at first, but goes with the guard. He throws a look over his shoulder to Milani and then a darker, look at B'yan before he's being pulled out through the door and to wherever they're taking him.
B'yan is watching N'thei's taunting like somethng fierce when a guard roughly enters the cell he's in and takes A'son out. "I'll be back," he states to him as he is shoved out, and then follows them from the cell and shuts the door. He watches A'son being taken away, now that he's standing next to Milani and Amerie before N'thei's cell door. "I should be on my way as well," he delivers coolly to them as he watches, hands moving to tidy up his ragged clothes. Throwing a look at N'thei then, "I took care of my man," he sends his way crisply, "so you need not worry about him squealing."
Smoothly, "It's less fun when you say I can, but: I told you so." Amerie's contribution is as much of 'something to wash it down with' a resourceful young woman can find - and maybe even pay for, if such a thing can be imagined. For the guard's look as he comes for A'son, she has only disdain, chin lifting loftily - but as he takes the bronzerider out, there's a perceptible awkward shift to her bearing for all that she manages to cover it with neutrality soon after. "I know my way through the less-used corridors to get here; as for when we got here..." A shrug, a pointed look around the room. Giving B'yan a sidelong look, eyes narrowed, "/Well done/."
"Wonderful, sir. I'll be sure and do the same as soon as I'm out of here." N'thei brightens at the promise of it, still more at the look of what's in the bag. "I kiss you a thousand times, Amerie, and another thousand for A'son since he's indisposed." Gray eyes chase his prisonmate out of the tower with suspicion for his guards. The bag is lowered around his feet, a single drinkable taken from it.
One of Milani's hands comes up to fasten around one of the cell's bars and though she gives the guard a baleful "You creep, don't look at me that way" look, it's A'son she's tracking out and she actually tries to give him a little encouraging smile. "See you Ays," she says with incongruous chipperness, making light. Then her attention is drawn down to her basket and she drops her jacket onto what's presumably meant to be a guard's chair and starts to divvy up the goods she brought. "Here N'thei." A half loaf of good bread, a dried sausage, a wedge of cheese are wrapped up into one of the towels she lined the basket with and four cookies out of the stash laid on top. She moves across to his cell now, to offer him the bundle. B'yan earns a rather puzzled look and then she just shakes her head. "I'm guessing Amerie's hooked you up beverage-wise N'thei, so I'll save the little bit of wine for Ays and Joe if you don't mind."
B'yan sends a glare Amerie's way before N'thei gets a curt "You do that," to his. Stepping away from the girls, "We'll talk when there's privacy to be had," he adds, suggesting that holding cells would not be that place. Hazel eyes piercing N'thei for a long moment, then moving onto Amerie and Milani, the bronzerider tips his head to the girls as if in preparation to leave.
"I meant for him to pass /some/ to A'son. Unless you plan on drinking yourself to death?" Amerie looks over at N'thei questioningly, dark eyes alight. "And a simple thank you is enough." Her attention shifting to Milani as she divides up the food, her expression sobers a touch as she notes briskly, "They're not actually going to /do/ anything to him, beyond take him to the Healer and be disgusting and threatening. Besides, most of them are somewhat intimidated by the dragons." When B'yan glares her way, she merely arches a fine brow in challenge - if he's got something to say, he's welcome to do so.
Grabbing food through the bars as it's handed across, N'thei answers B'yan in an amiable tone; "I will be counting the hours, sir." Cheese and sausage and cookies land on the cot, bread and wine kept, a hasty bob of nods to Milani. "Thank you, good girl, you're my savior in every way." He eats as expected for a large man deprived of decent food for a long day, occasionally switching between the roll and the meat and the cheese. "A simple thank you is nowhere near enough. I was seriously considering eating Joe before the night was out."
Milani returns to the basket then and folds one of the remaining towels over the top. Over her shoulder she nods once N'thei's way. "Can't have those as took care of us going hungry over here," she says stoutly and moves towards the other cell door, the one B'yan just left and she slips inside, mindless of the bars around her, to kneel down and slide the basket under A'son's cot. "You'll let them know it's there right, when it's safe? I don't want the guards taking it." She rises again and stands there for a moment, hands to elbows looking around the sorry space, looking just a little horrified now though she's trying to stoically hold up as the set of her shoulders might betray. Amerie's statement earns a wan smile. "I suppose not. Bad form to really damage a dragonrider." Finally, she leaves the cell behind, closing the door behind her. "Why Joe?" she asks N'thei, coming to lean against the bars of his cell now. "And you're welcome."
Sending N'thei a fully challenging look for his amiable words, B'yan chooses not to respond and says to Amerie and Milani: "Feed them well." Whatever response he would have had at the look from Amerie is stalled, the wingsecond choosing instead to send her a mocking smile and Milani one that's less so before he finally turns on a booted heel and makes his exit. No friendliness and no genuine smiles from this man, and he doesn't even bother to give a farewell.
Amerie's guesses idly, "Jolak is the smallest?" She's begun to drift in and out of the open cells, sharp dark eyes glancing around each - though rarely actually touching anything. "Nothing will be safe unless it's unseen, Milani - but we'll rely on the prisoners to display adaptability. They're good at that, generally," she notes, darkly amused. "And yes, it would be bad form all around, really. They're smug enough not to bother." Whether that's true or not, the girl seems calmly certain of it - for all she's not looking at anyone as she talks on. As B'yan leaves, she just gives a quiet sniff; "I had a bad feeling about him."
"He's little, easiest to hold down and gnaw on." N'thei speaks with a mouthful of Milani's goods, cleans the crumbs with a mouthful of Amerie's, toward her he's nodding thoughtfully. "I didn't. Have a bad feeling. That's my mistake. What can you expect when you trust to someone who is nothing short of mercenary?" A light smile lands on the dark-haired girl, flits away while he reaches for a cookie. "We'll make sure somehow that A'son and Jolak get their meals. If not, I'll at least tell them they missed a fine supper."
Milani's fingers tighten a little on the bar in her hand. "Oh. Thought you were mad at him too or something," the girl confesses naively. "And d'you really think B'yan ratted you out? I mean, what's in it for him?" Her brows knit, trying to sort through all of this stuff, more complicated than stores and columns of figures. N'thei's last earns him a look. "I guess that's all that can be done." She gives the metal a little rattle then turns a little to watch Amerie's wanderings.
Amerie wrinkles her nose delicately as N'thei speaks, all the way down at the end now; smooth voice lifted to carry. "B'yan thinks to much of himself to trust. You can trust the mercenary if they have some interest in doing their job /well/." With a soft sigh, she's somewhat disappointed as she steps from the cell to shrug Milani's way. "Marks, favors. If he did, it could be anything. It's entirely possible he's just a coward." Now brisk, "There's a few places where the guards might be less likely to see the food if it's out of the basket but nothing much useful in the cells." Glancing to the bronzerider, "When you're done - eating, do pick out what you want so we might try to stash the rest for the other two?"
N'thei suggests, "Probably marks. You heard him yourself, Amerie? He was only in it for the money, and what's better than even more money." Sliding down the wall to find himself seated on the floor again, a more desolate picture than he means to paint, he puts what's left of his food in his mouth, frees his hands to look through the sack. "How are things at home in all this? What's the reaction of the people?"
Milani looks between the other two skeptically but she only shrugs: they'd know better than she would. "I guess money does talk." She purses her lips and until N'thei makes that unintended touching tableau and her expression softens. "Let me know if you want us to bring more. Or send stuff with someone. I wouldn't mind coming back N'thei." Her forehead leans against the cell bars. "A lot of gossip. Some people're outraged, there was some cheering. I guess mixed? A bunch wish you hadn't got caught."
"I did," Amerie confirms with a heaviness to her tone - whether that's for the admission or for N'thei's current situation is difficult to say. Drifting back to the occupied cell, twisting a lock of dark hair through slim fingers, she cuts a look the bronzerider's way to offer, "I might have said so at the time." She lets Milani fill him in, instead going into the other cell to take the basket out from under the cot, eyeing the space critically. As she's stashing bundles of food; "I think everyone would rather than, honestly. It would make everyone's life easier."
"Add three more to the bunch." N'thei laughs roughly into the mouth of his bottle, then corks it and sets it off to one side to continue sorting through what remains in the bag. "Hide these over there, my dove. A'son will need something to take the stiff out of his leg." He rolls a bottle across the floor crookedly, one and another, "Milani, for Joe? Does the boy even drink?" A little thing only.
"Some are also just clueless." Beat. "They didn't even realize anything was going on." Milani's shoulders shift upwards and she hunkers down to catch the rolling bottles. "Joe? A little. Ale mostly I think. Wouldn't take much to get him plastered, I don't think. Not that I'm one to talk." She looks up at N'thei, gathering the bottles up to her chest. "How'd A'son's leg get messed up anyway? And who got your lip?"
Dryly, "I have a name." Amerie can't argue with N'thei's point, stopping the one of the bottles with a raised boot tip, leaving Milani to the others. Looking over her shoulder to the bronzerider, "Sadly, you'll have to handle all this on your own." As she moves on to finding decent places for the bottles, "I'd imagine either the Telgari or the guards got at them. I don't believe any of them intended on staying caught."
N'thei's tongue darts over the crack in his lip, the opposite side pulled toward a smirk. "Keep one for yourself then, Milani, and drink to our hasty release. Add a shot for the Telgari rat that clocked me, and one for the teeth he's missing in return, good girl." With a very quiet patience, he peers through the bars to what can be seen of Amerie; "I know you do, Amerie. Please, forgive my flippant tone. I had thought you girls came to make light with us for a while. --You two had better go. If they realize we're so friendly, you won't be allowed back, and that would be a shame."
Milani stares open-mouthed at N'thei over her armload of bottles. "Um. I'm sure I can find a home for it." The girl blinky-blinks at the bronzerider some more then she's trailing after Amerie frowning a little for the other girl's generalization of how the lot of them got injured a wince following at N'thei's abbreviated description of the tussle. "Got more room for one here? And maybe under that pile of straw ..." She looks over her shoulder at N'thei again. "I did," she says stoutly and sticks the bottle where she said she would. The other, she takes over to her piled jacket on the chair and slides it under the leather for later removal. "You gonna be okay?" she asks him next returning to the cell door.
Finished with her work - and looking rather satisfied for it - Amerie pauses at the quiet patience from N'thei and the words both; turning, she tilts her head to the side to watch the bronzerider for a moment or two, dark gaze steady. With apparent sincerity, "If I could hide your stash for you, I would." Lips curving into a slight smile as she moves from the open cell to the still locked one, along with Milani; "Though I only came to be right. My apologies if the conversation was less than entertaining, as it seems you're in need of that."
You paged Amerie and N'thei with 'Time for me to pose out too.'.
"Better than okay." N'thei means to suit his words and finds his feet once more in the same way as before, his back slid up the wall until he looks through the bars, down at the girls with a smile. "Tell them you saw us, and we were well and unapologetic, neh?" These words he impresses on Milani with a fierce cheer. "Thank you both for coming, girls. I'm much heartened by food, drink, and pleasant company."
Milani eyes N'thei with some measure of disbelief, but she just reaches through the bars to offer him her hand briefly then steps back with a nod. "Okay. And I guess we'll try to make it back if you're stuck here much longer." She shoots a questioning look towards Amerie for confirmation. "I'll pass on the word." To whom though might be a matter of some debate, given this is /Milani/. "And well. Hopefully, we'll see you all /soon/." That she says with something more like her customary gumption, in spite of the dampening effect the entire incident and the time spent in the jail have had on her.
When: day 22, month 5, turn 14 of the 10th Interval
Where: Holding Cells, Crom Hold
What: Amerie and Milani sneak some provender to the criminals in spite of the fact that two of them seem intent on killing each other.
Holding Cell, Crom Hold(#19554RJ)
This is a small square chamber located somewhere deep within Crom Hold, measuring a cot length long and wide. Sparse, it is not completely unfurnished, with a single cot lacking sheets and pillows and a small, unlit hearth. The door is locked, and a guard detail remains posted at all hours.
When A'son lunges at him, B'yan sidesteps and throws a hand up to try and grab A'son's arm at the same time. Bringing his face close to A'son, "Listen to me!" he hisses low, baring his teeth as he struggles. "You believe what you want to, but -I- didn't fucking turn on you! Is that what you think, A'son? If that was the case, would I have -been- there with you in the first place?" and he tries the roughly shove the man away from him. Panting, "Our friendship means something, but don't placing it on the fact that you were foolish enough to get caught," he returns coolly. "I've told you. I don't get caught. You should have followed my lead, man."
N'thei, in the cell across from A'son's, has either been sitting on the floor next to his cot napping, or watching A'son and B'yan have a fight without a word. He continues doing whichever one of those things he's doing, legs stretched before him, arms lip at his sides, chin resting on his chest, hard to see if his eyes are open or not. Then; "That's what we all think, you cowardly bastard."
"Foolishness didn't have anything to do with it. We got caught because someone screwed up, because someone /set/ us up. You ran! You ran before the door was even opened, like you knew! Like you damn knew!" B'yan does indeed manage to grab A'son's arm, which throws him off temporarily. Until he regains some semblance of balance and makes a move to push the other up against the bars of the cell door. Pushing his face as close to B'yan as he can, he growls, "You better get out of this cell now. Or I will not stop until one of us is on the ground, unconscious or worse. You're a dog. You don't get caught? You didn't get caught this time because you /knew/."
Amerie knows Crom like Milani knows High Reaches, and so they come to the row of holding cells with little trouble or impediment - right up to the door, with might account for the bemusement on the shorter and darker of the pair's features. Both assistant headwomen have brought something along with them, but the presentation is as different as the two young women; Millie has a basket of treats, while Amerie sweeps in with an old sack that clanks with the sound of glass on glass. The girl from Crom stops in her tracks as she enters - then tilts her head to the side to listen, and watch A'son try to kill B'yan.
Tightening his hold on A'son's arm painfully, N'thei familiar voice prompts a nasty curse from B'yan before he wrenches his face towards the bars. Placing a steely gaze on the man in the opposite cell, "You," he throws accusingly, eyes narrowing at him. "It's -your- fault. I told you to back down and you caper off like some boys touching his first bubbly pie! If anyone is to blame here it's -him-!" and he delivers this at A'son. "I didn't betray you, A'son. I knew something was the wrong the moment I saw the light come on. You call -that- betrayal? That I was smarter than you to notice?" Spittle flying from his mouth as he glares A'son down, "Go on, then," he sneers. "You want to be the big man here? You think you have all the answers? Go on and fight me, partner. I will not tolerate you calling me a coward nor a dog much longer."
Milani is right on Amerie's heels though the sounds from the holding cells make her eyes pop a bit. Stepping through to actually get a gander at what's going on she stares for a minute and suddenly bursts out laughing of all things. "And I was worried about the guards roughing 'em up. Looks like they're doing a mighty fine job of it all themselves." Eyeroll. Still her gaze tracks over to the 'brawlers' and stays there, teeth worrying at the inside of her cheek.
"My fault? I'm the one that double-crossed us?" Stretched out the way he is, N'thei cap tap the bars with the toe of his foot, make it clank tellingly without the bother of getting up. He can also look up, black-eyed and split-lipped and busted-nosed, and laugh with quiet derision at B'yan's assertion. "Well aren't you ladies a sight for sore eyes." Added like he wasn't just flexing his fingers in a fantasy of them 'round B'yan's neck.
A'son winces when B'yan tightens his grip on his arm, but this only further infuriates and increases his desire to break one of the bronzerider's bones. "You got 'em then? You have the answers? I'll call you a dog sin-" It's the sound of women's voices that stops A'son in mid-ramble, causes him to pull away a little and peer down the row of cells. Amerie is noticed first and then Milani. Shock at seeing her there results in him completely relinguishing any grip he has on his 'friend'. "This isn't the greatest place for you girls." He states, trying to sound calm.
"Yes, your fault!" B'yan shoots over his shoulders towards N'thei, perhaps refusing to acknowledge that they had female company. Not with A'son so close and holding such a murderous look, anyway. "You were the one that mentioned the watchrider missing! I should have dragged you all back and demanded you back to your dragons!" Focusing on A'son, he opens his mouth to retort until the attention pulled away causes him to finally look back. Loosening his hold on A'son's arm, he shoots the man a dark look before he turns his head slightly towards Amerie and Milani. With him dressed like a unknotted herder, it's possible that he could not be recognized, save for "What you two doing here?" which is delivered coldly.
Amerie is watching the fighting dispassionately, though she asides to Milani smugly, "I wondered why he wasn't in here with them. Though - he is at the moment." Dark eyes shift to the lock on the cell door, just in case there's a key. With a perfect arch of her brow, she tosses mahogany locks over her shoulders and chooses to ignore the potential bone-breaking. On her way past, she tells A'son, "This isn't my first time." B'yan doesn't get an answer. N'thei? Gets the sack thrust between the bars of his cell, the slender hand gripping it graced with a carved black onyx ring.
Milani tilts her head a little Amerie's way to catch the lower-voiced words and nods, a slight frown on her face at B'yan's words. "Heya N'thei," she offers over to the big bronzerider then steps over to the bars in front of the cell that holds A'son and B'yan. "I brought cookies. I thought you all might need something nicer to eat than whatever the hell Crom's feeding or not feeding you." A'son's remark earns him a long look. "I'm a big girl. I can handle myself. 'Sides, Amerie knows her way 'round and my mother's parked outside."
Calm as a yawn; "If I didn't trust A'son to thump your skull, sir, I'd invite you over here and see if you really want to talk to me like that." N'thei uses the wall a great deal to aid in getting up, his having sat for a very long spell on the floor likely making it much harder than it needs to be, then he just leans until his feet follow. One hand, knuckles scraped and split, wraps around the bars, and the other selects the bag from Amerie's grip. "Thank you, my dove. I knew you'd come through for us. She brought cookies?" He asks this of Amerie with his eyes on Milani, bemused.
"What are you still doing inside my cell?" A'son takes a menacing 'get out of here' step towards B'yan. "I'm fine. You can stop pretending to be here to check on me." He crosses his arms over his chest. "Yes, I'm sure it was N'thei who double-crossed us. It worked out really well for him." Sarcasm thick he shakes his head and finally breaks completely away from him. Leaning into the bars in front of Milani. He speaks to her as if he hadn't just been face to face arguing with someone moments before. "Shouldn't have come here, kid. It's not a safe place." Her last hits him and he blinks, "Emilly is outside?"
Amerie's gaze flicks over N'thei's general state, from scraped knuckles to black eyes, without comment. Full lips curving into a smirk, but tone devoid of /most/ of the rich satisfaction that tends to come with these questions, "Do I get to say I told you so?" Almost as soon as the sack is passed from hand to hand, the girl folds her arms and glance over her shoulder; to A'son, "I wouldn't worry much about her. And it's not like this is a whorehouse or something." With an assessing, black look for B'yan, she turns back again to the larger bronzerider's cell; quirking a faint, amused smile. "She brought cookies," she confirms. "Did he actually sell you out?"
Hard eyes linger on the girls before the calmness in N'thei's voice gets B'yan's full attention. Chin lifting imperceptibly with A'son still in his view, he sniffs and responds "So easy to speak when you're on the other side," in an equally calm voice. Turning his head back to A'son as he starts to straighten his clothes, "I'm not pretending," he returns, regaining his cordial composure. "I wish things didn't go down the way it did." Stepping to the side of him as A'son dangerously approaches, "If you won't see reason, then I will go." He eyes Milani and Amerie for a few seconds, then moves to place his handle on the bars.
Milani tilts a look over at N'thei. "Yes. I brought /cookies/. And other stuff. Drinks. Solid food. D'you want some?" Her eyes slide back over to A'son and B'yan. "Or are the two of you going to start beating each other up again? I kinda thought we were all on the same side here. Y'know. Doing what's best for the Reaches." Another half-step forward brings her face-to-face with Nikoth's rider. "What're they going to do to a couple of girls. Besides, I'm not dumb." She turns a little so the edge of the riding jacket she has slung over her arms half-draping her basket can be seen. It's got a Telgar patch on it, not Reaches. "Mum still had this from ages ago. And yeah, she's outside, waiting by Sionath." Millie's airy about that and she gives her basket a little shake. "So B'yan, you going to let me in so I can feed these guys? Unless y'know, gruel's the latest and greatest from Crom's kitchens."
N'thei invites B'yan over with a crook of the finger around the bars, come here pretty, and a hard look that would take great relish in such a visit. Easily distracted, bloodlust aside, he turns his attention to the opening of the bag, a feat accomplished better with both hands on the sack and one shoulder leaned against the bars near Amerie. "Bring me cookies then, Milani, and let us hope I'm right and Amerie's brought something to wash it down with? --You, my dove, may say you-told-me-so. How did you get in here though? Both of you."
The far door swings open and a guard tromps his way inside. He gives a sneering, creepy look at the two girls before passing them to go to A'son's cell. "Gimpy, we gotta healer here to see yer leg. 'parently we can't just let it fall off ya." The well muscled man, swings the cell door open and slips his hand firmly around the bronzerider's arm and practically yanks him out. A'son reacts by jerking his arm instinctively at first, but goes with the guard. He throws a look over his shoulder to Milani and then a darker, look at B'yan before he's being pulled out through the door and to wherever they're taking him.
B'yan is watching N'thei's taunting like somethng fierce when a guard roughly enters the cell he's in and takes A'son out. "I'll be back," he states to him as he is shoved out, and then follows them from the cell and shuts the door. He watches A'son being taken away, now that he's standing next to Milani and Amerie before N'thei's cell door. "I should be on my way as well," he delivers coolly to them as he watches, hands moving to tidy up his ragged clothes. Throwing a look at N'thei then, "I took care of my man," he sends his way crisply, "so you need not worry about him squealing."
Smoothly, "It's less fun when you say I can, but: I told you so." Amerie's contribution is as much of 'something to wash it down with' a resourceful young woman can find - and maybe even pay for, if such a thing can be imagined. For the guard's look as he comes for A'son, she has only disdain, chin lifting loftily - but as he takes the bronzerider out, there's a perceptible awkward shift to her bearing for all that she manages to cover it with neutrality soon after. "I know my way through the less-used corridors to get here; as for when we got here..." A shrug, a pointed look around the room. Giving B'yan a sidelong look, eyes narrowed, "/Well done/."
"Wonderful, sir. I'll be sure and do the same as soon as I'm out of here." N'thei brightens at the promise of it, still more at the look of what's in the bag. "I kiss you a thousand times, Amerie, and another thousand for A'son since he's indisposed." Gray eyes chase his prisonmate out of the tower with suspicion for his guards. The bag is lowered around his feet, a single drinkable taken from it.
One of Milani's hands comes up to fasten around one of the cell's bars and though she gives the guard a baleful "You creep, don't look at me that way" look, it's A'son she's tracking out and she actually tries to give him a little encouraging smile. "See you Ays," she says with incongruous chipperness, making light. Then her attention is drawn down to her basket and she drops her jacket onto what's presumably meant to be a guard's chair and starts to divvy up the goods she brought. "Here N'thei." A half loaf of good bread, a dried sausage, a wedge of cheese are wrapped up into one of the towels she lined the basket with and four cookies out of the stash laid on top. She moves across to his cell now, to offer him the bundle. B'yan earns a rather puzzled look and then she just shakes her head. "I'm guessing Amerie's hooked you up beverage-wise N'thei, so I'll save the little bit of wine for Ays and Joe if you don't mind."
B'yan sends a glare Amerie's way before N'thei gets a curt "You do that," to his. Stepping away from the girls, "We'll talk when there's privacy to be had," he adds, suggesting that holding cells would not be that place. Hazel eyes piercing N'thei for a long moment, then moving onto Amerie and Milani, the bronzerider tips his head to the girls as if in preparation to leave.
"I meant for him to pass /some/ to A'son. Unless you plan on drinking yourself to death?" Amerie looks over at N'thei questioningly, dark eyes alight. "And a simple thank you is enough." Her attention shifting to Milani as she divides up the food, her expression sobers a touch as she notes briskly, "They're not actually going to /do/ anything to him, beyond take him to the Healer and be disgusting and threatening. Besides, most of them are somewhat intimidated by the dragons." When B'yan glares her way, she merely arches a fine brow in challenge - if he's got something to say, he's welcome to do so.
Grabbing food through the bars as it's handed across, N'thei answers B'yan in an amiable tone; "I will be counting the hours, sir." Cheese and sausage and cookies land on the cot, bread and wine kept, a hasty bob of nods to Milani. "Thank you, good girl, you're my savior in every way." He eats as expected for a large man deprived of decent food for a long day, occasionally switching between the roll and the meat and the cheese. "A simple thank you is nowhere near enough. I was seriously considering eating Joe before the night was out."
Milani returns to the basket then and folds one of the remaining towels over the top. Over her shoulder she nods once N'thei's way. "Can't have those as took care of us going hungry over here," she says stoutly and moves towards the other cell door, the one B'yan just left and she slips inside, mindless of the bars around her, to kneel down and slide the basket under A'son's cot. "You'll let them know it's there right, when it's safe? I don't want the guards taking it." She rises again and stands there for a moment, hands to elbows looking around the sorry space, looking just a little horrified now though she's trying to stoically hold up as the set of her shoulders might betray. Amerie's statement earns a wan smile. "I suppose not. Bad form to really damage a dragonrider." Finally, she leaves the cell behind, closing the door behind her. "Why Joe?" she asks N'thei, coming to lean against the bars of his cell now. "And you're welcome."
Sending N'thei a fully challenging look for his amiable words, B'yan chooses not to respond and says to Amerie and Milani: "Feed them well." Whatever response he would have had at the look from Amerie is stalled, the wingsecond choosing instead to send her a mocking smile and Milani one that's less so before he finally turns on a booted heel and makes his exit. No friendliness and no genuine smiles from this man, and he doesn't even bother to give a farewell.
Amerie's guesses idly, "Jolak is the smallest?" She's begun to drift in and out of the open cells, sharp dark eyes glancing around each - though rarely actually touching anything. "Nothing will be safe unless it's unseen, Milani - but we'll rely on the prisoners to display adaptability. They're good at that, generally," she notes, darkly amused. "And yes, it would be bad form all around, really. They're smug enough not to bother." Whether that's true or not, the girl seems calmly certain of it - for all she's not looking at anyone as she talks on. As B'yan leaves, she just gives a quiet sniff; "I had a bad feeling about him."
"He's little, easiest to hold down and gnaw on." N'thei speaks with a mouthful of Milani's goods, cleans the crumbs with a mouthful of Amerie's, toward her he's nodding thoughtfully. "I didn't. Have a bad feeling. That's my mistake. What can you expect when you trust to someone who is nothing short of mercenary?" A light smile lands on the dark-haired girl, flits away while he reaches for a cookie. "We'll make sure somehow that A'son and Jolak get their meals. If not, I'll at least tell them they missed a fine supper."
Milani's fingers tighten a little on the bar in her hand. "Oh. Thought you were mad at him too or something," the girl confesses naively. "And d'you really think B'yan ratted you out? I mean, what's in it for him?" Her brows knit, trying to sort through all of this stuff, more complicated than stores and columns of figures. N'thei's last earns him a look. "I guess that's all that can be done." She gives the metal a little rattle then turns a little to watch Amerie's wanderings.
Amerie wrinkles her nose delicately as N'thei speaks, all the way down at the end now; smooth voice lifted to carry. "B'yan thinks to much of himself to trust. You can trust the mercenary if they have some interest in doing their job /well/." With a soft sigh, she's somewhat disappointed as she steps from the cell to shrug Milani's way. "Marks, favors. If he did, it could be anything. It's entirely possible he's just a coward." Now brisk, "There's a few places where the guards might be less likely to see the food if it's out of the basket but nothing much useful in the cells." Glancing to the bronzerider, "When you're done - eating, do pick out what you want so we might try to stash the rest for the other two?"
N'thei suggests, "Probably marks. You heard him yourself, Amerie? He was only in it for the money, and what's better than even more money." Sliding down the wall to find himself seated on the floor again, a more desolate picture than he means to paint, he puts what's left of his food in his mouth, frees his hands to look through the sack. "How are things at home in all this? What's the reaction of the people?"
Milani looks between the other two skeptically but she only shrugs: they'd know better than she would. "I guess money does talk." She purses her lips and until N'thei makes that unintended touching tableau and her expression softens. "Let me know if you want us to bring more. Or send stuff with someone. I wouldn't mind coming back N'thei." Her forehead leans against the cell bars. "A lot of gossip. Some people're outraged, there was some cheering. I guess mixed? A bunch wish you hadn't got caught."
"I did," Amerie confirms with a heaviness to her tone - whether that's for the admission or for N'thei's current situation is difficult to say. Drifting back to the occupied cell, twisting a lock of dark hair through slim fingers, she cuts a look the bronzerider's way to offer, "I might have said so at the time." She lets Milani fill him in, instead going into the other cell to take the basket out from under the cot, eyeing the space critically. As she's stashing bundles of food; "I think everyone would rather than, honestly. It would make everyone's life easier."
"Add three more to the bunch." N'thei laughs roughly into the mouth of his bottle, then corks it and sets it off to one side to continue sorting through what remains in the bag. "Hide these over there, my dove. A'son will need something to take the stiff out of his leg." He rolls a bottle across the floor crookedly, one and another, "Milani, for Joe? Does the boy even drink?" A little thing only.
"Some are also just clueless." Beat. "They didn't even realize anything was going on." Milani's shoulders shift upwards and she hunkers down to catch the rolling bottles. "Joe? A little. Ale mostly I think. Wouldn't take much to get him plastered, I don't think. Not that I'm one to talk." She looks up at N'thei, gathering the bottles up to her chest. "How'd A'son's leg get messed up anyway? And who got your lip?"
Dryly, "I have a name." Amerie can't argue with N'thei's point, stopping the one of the bottles with a raised boot tip, leaving Milani to the others. Looking over her shoulder to the bronzerider, "Sadly, you'll have to handle all this on your own." As she moves on to finding decent places for the bottles, "I'd imagine either the Telgari or the guards got at them. I don't believe any of them intended on staying caught."
N'thei's tongue darts over the crack in his lip, the opposite side pulled toward a smirk. "Keep one for yourself then, Milani, and drink to our hasty release. Add a shot for the Telgari rat that clocked me, and one for the teeth he's missing in return, good girl." With a very quiet patience, he peers through the bars to what can be seen of Amerie; "I know you do, Amerie. Please, forgive my flippant tone. I had thought you girls came to make light with us for a while. --You two had better go. If they realize we're so friendly, you won't be allowed back, and that would be a shame."
Milani stares open-mouthed at N'thei over her armload of bottles. "Um. I'm sure I can find a home for it." The girl blinky-blinks at the bronzerider some more then she's trailing after Amerie frowning a little for the other girl's generalization of how the lot of them got injured a wince following at N'thei's abbreviated description of the tussle. "Got more room for one here? And maybe under that pile of straw ..." She looks over her shoulder at N'thei again. "I did," she says stoutly and sticks the bottle where she said she would. The other, she takes over to her piled jacket on the chair and slides it under the leather for later removal. "You gonna be okay?" she asks him next returning to the cell door.
Finished with her work - and looking rather satisfied for it - Amerie pauses at the quiet patience from N'thei and the words both; turning, she tilts her head to the side to watch the bronzerider for a moment or two, dark gaze steady. With apparent sincerity, "If I could hide your stash for you, I would." Lips curving into a slight smile as she moves from the open cell to the still locked one, along with Milani; "Though I only came to be right. My apologies if the conversation was less than entertaining, as it seems you're in need of that."
You paged Amerie and N'thei with 'Time for me to pose out too.'.
"Better than okay." N'thei means to suit his words and finds his feet once more in the same way as before, his back slid up the wall until he looks through the bars, down at the girls with a smile. "Tell them you saw us, and we were well and unapologetic, neh?" These words he impresses on Milani with a fierce cheer. "Thank you both for coming, girls. I'm much heartened by food, drink, and pleasant company."
Milani eyes N'thei with some measure of disbelief, but she just reaches through the bars to offer him her hand briefly then steps back with a nod. "Okay. And I guess we'll try to make it back if you're stuck here much longer." She shoots a questioning look towards Amerie for confirmation. "I'll pass on the word." To whom though might be a matter of some debate, given this is /Milani/. "And well. Hopefully, we'll see you all /soon/." That she says with something more like her customary gumption, in spite of the dampening effect the entire incident and the time spent in the jail have had on her.