40 Vhalar, Arc 720.
One thing scholars loved to do is gossip. Of course, they wouldn’t see it as such. Conversing, discussing, debating, sharing of information - that’s what they would call it. In her mind, it was gossip…but to each their own. Sitting down in the Institute library during her down time, she often heard snippets of conversations between professors. Some interested her. Some didn’t. On that particular trial, however, there was one conversation of particular note.
Sitting in the library, she heard the voices of two men behind her speaking in semi-hushed whispers. To be fair, everyone spoke in that tone when in the library…but it was the content that got her attention.
“I was talking to Allon earlier. He’s just come back from a few trials out in the Stormlands. He went past The Stardust Arch while out there and he said he noticed something he hadn’t ever noticed before! There are these new, strange runes on the backside of the Arch. “
“Really? That’s something. Always something odd going on up there. At least it’s a relatively safe area. Maybe we can get up there soon and see for ourselves. At least bring some rubbings back. Linguistics and cryptography will be chasing us around for those. I can’t believe Allon didn’t think to get them…”
“Well, he’s an alchemist. What does he care about a few weird runes?”
The conversation petered off as the two walked away but her mind kept going over the information she had heard. Runes? Lightly touching her necklace, she silently wondered if the runes at the Arch resembled those on it. The piece of jewelry was a mystery to be sure – the only possession Vin and Rilith said had been with her when they found her outside Viden. Experts in both linguists and cryptography had tried to decipher what was written upon the surface for arcs but she was no closer to figuring out what it meant. She could, of course, wait for someone else to go up to the Arch and bring back rubbings but who knew when that would be.
No. If she wanted to see what was up there, she had to go herself.
Stardust Arch was to the northwest of Rharne if memory served. It was on the edge of a forest that had something of a reputation – the Ywyngyll Forest. A five trials walk there and back wasn’t a little excursion and would require some thought on her part if she wanted to go….
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47 Vhalar, Arc 720.
As she walked, her thoughts reflected upon the conversations she had with others about the journey. The young woman was grateful that people felt strongly enough about her to be concerned…and it wasn’t that she wasn’t concerned herself. There were moments of doubt, certainly. But just as she had left Viden despite questioning herself, there was a piece of her that knew she had to take this step and learn how to be on her own, out of the bubble of safety she had known her entire life.
While wanting to stay and explore Caervalle Town, Elisa pushed on, needing to make haste to the Arch and knowing she was close. She entertained herself along the way with riddles and puzzles – anything to keep her rational mind off the fact that she was traveling alone to a place she was unfamiliar with. She wasn’t completely helpless – Lore had seen to that. Her gladius swung gently at her side with every step, reminding her with light taps against the side of her leg that she wasn’t entirely unprepared should something go wrong.
52 Vhalar, Arc 720.
Something that was hard.
Returning her focus to what she had traveled trials for, she began to inspect the surfaces of the Arch, that she could, looking for the mysterious runes that she had heard were there. While the Arch towered nearly forty feet above her, she knew that whatever the professor had seen had to be someplace accessible to someone on the ground. Before long, she noticed a worn area on the backside of the Arch that had several small runes. Kneeling to get a better look, she carefully took off her necklace to compare it to the writings embedded in the smooth marble. It took her only bits to ascertain that there were no common features between the two. Sighing gently, Elisabeth slipped the necklace back over her head. It was disappointing but there was nothing she could do to alter the outcome. Whatever was etched on her necklace would have to remain a mystery for a bit longer.
Taking a beat to consider her next move, she decided to head back to Caervalle Town in hopes of getting there before dusk, perhaps stay at an Inn for the first time during the trip. Remembering that the Arch was thought to be tied to Xiur, Elisa gave the Arch a farewell pat before leaving, speaking softly to no one in particular. “A pleasure to meet you. Thank you for inspiring me to visit.“
It wasn’t too terribly far to the town, but she also didn’t want to get stuck in the wood after dark. Elisabeth swiftly worked her way back through the wood. After a while, as dusk approached, she heard a rustling in the nearby wood. The trees were tightly situated, making it difficult to see what was making noise but it ended up not mattering. A few trills later, a small boy crashed through the brush and ran straight into her. Her arms quickly caught him, mostly to stabilize her before she toppled over, but before she could say anything, he jumped behind her, voice trembling. “Please…. please help us! My brother…some men have him. We were headed to the Arch for the night and they grabbed us. They want money. My brother fought off the one that grabbed me long enough for me to get away. They chased me…they might be right behind me. Please…” Elisa nodded her understanding of the situation, trying to reassure him best she could with a calming smile. “Don’t worry. I’m sure everything will be fine. Let me think for a trill…”
Everything will be fine?!? What are you talking about? Think Elisabeth, think….
Yes, Elisa had been trained a bit with her Gladius but nothing that made her think that in any way was she ready to go confront a group of robbers on her own. She needed more information. Looking around, she noticed a large, dense clump of bushes nearby and gently led the boy over behind it, making sure to survey the area to ensure no one was nearby. She wasn’t sure how much time they had but if there was anything for her to do, she needed to ask him a few questions and figure it out from there.
“Okay, first off, what’s your name?” she asked. Getting her first real look at him, the child appeared to be about nine arcs old, tears streaming down his face. “Bowen. Please help my brother!” he stated urgently. Nodding her head, Elisa smiled again, using the calmest most reassuring voice she could. “I’m going to help your brother but to do that, I need to know a few things. How many men were there?” A few sobs later, he replied that as far as he could see, there had only been two men – one that grabbed him and one that grabbed his brother. That was somewhat reassuring as in at least she knew it wasn’t a large group. She also found out that he had only been running for a few bits before finding her. That was important.
Her mind whirled through possibilities and scenarios. Caervalle Town couldn’t be that far away. Perhaps there was a way…
Making sure her eyes were level with his, she gave him some instructions. “Bowen…listen to me. Follow the path back to the town. It’s not far and I’m sure there is help there. I will see if I can help your brother.” Pulling her pack off her back, she dug out the map she had been using to navigate her way to the Arch. Running her finger along the parchment, she quickly found where they were and calculated the possible area Bowen and his brother had run into trouble, circling it. Folding the map back up, she firmly shoved it into the boy’s hand. “Take this with you. I’ve circled where I think your brother is. Run and don’t stop until you get there. Go!” The boy nodded at her and swiftly took off down the worn path.
Standing up, she allowed herself a few deep breathes. Elisa hadn’t wanted to scare the boy by showing any sort of nervousness or anxiety herself, but she could feel the butterflies rising in her stomach. She had no business getting involved in something like this but by all accounts, there wasn’t a lot of time. Lore often told her that there would come a time that she had to rely on her instincts – Balthazar had said similar things. Her instinct told her that someone needed help and she might be the only one close enough to assist. It had been a calculated risk sending the boy to town, but she was positive it wasn’t far and even if he couldn’t find someone to help, he would be safe.
Grabbing her gladius. She picked her way back through the wood, logically following the cracked branches that had been damaged by the boy’s escape. Elisa was mindful of the noise she was making, not wanting to alert anyone of her approach if she could help it. Her heart was racing, mind reeling – staying calm was hard as the adrenaline surged through her.
She had no idea what she was getting into.
It wasn’t long before the damaged branches stopped, causing Elisabeth to halt and reassess. Had she taken a wrong turn someplace? No – the path was clear….and he heard no noises that were out of place. Looking around, she was getting ready to backtrack a bit when a large hand unexpectedly smacked her across the back of the head, sending her to the ground in a heap. She managed to keep her wits about her, raising her gladius…but before it got more than a few inches off the ground, a heavy boot stomped down on it, pinning the weapon to the dirt. “Lookie what we got here, Charlie – a purty little lady. And whatcha’ plannin’ to do with that there knife? You gonna hurt yourself….or get hurt. This ain’t no place for you.“ The voice itself was a little hoarse but not particularly deep, but she couldn’t get see who the owner of it was.
A strong hand removed the gladius from her grip, allowing Elisa to glance up, seeing the man for the first time. Young with dark hair, he was large but not too tall. He seemed to be amused as he gazed down on her, but before he could say anything else, another deeper voice joined in. “Cletus, what are ya doin’? The girl is nuttin’. I’m almost done tyin’ the guy up. Brin’ her and we can take care of ‘em together.” Cletus, she presumed, pulled her off the ground with a sharp tug. Her head was throbbing but nothing else seemed to be wrong. Oddly enough, she really hadn’t had time to be scared until that moment…and what was rising in her wasn’t fear, but anger.
A surprise to be sure.
The second man was smaller but had a more muscular build, blond wavy hair hanging like a curtain across his face. Elisa’s vision blurred for a moment but when her eyes focused again, she could see another man lying on the ground in the distance, appearing to be unconscious. The brother, she assumed. There was a fair amount of blood on his temple, but she knew from Rilith that head wounds tended to bleed a lot. Struggling against the grip of ‘Cletus’, she tried to pull away. “Let me go! I need to check his wounds and make sure he’s ok. You don’t want him to bleed out and die right here, do you?” Cletus started to speak but was interrupted by the one called Charlie. “Dun’t much matter, girlie. You both ain’t for livin’ much longer. Dummy, git ‘er tied up so we can git gone. Put ‘er over by the other." Her pack was ripped off her, then body roughly shoved in the direction of Bowen’s brother, managing to collapse right next to him. Grabbing a few lengths of rope, Cletus advanced on her slowly (due to his size), giving her a chance to situate herself a bit.
Elisa knew a little about a lot of different things. The young woman collected knowledge like marbles, storing it away until she needed it. The blond man was rummaging through a pack, clearly not viewing her or the unconscious man as a threat. So much the better. The two were not the sharpest knives in the drawer.
As Cletus approached her, she pretended to refuse him her wrists, struggling against his grip. Elisa knew that in doing so, he wouldn’t question anything when he finally was able to bind her wrists. After a few trills of struggling, she ceased and allowed him a chance but intentionally crossed her wrists. While he looped the rope around her wrists, she managed to rotate one… just a bit. It wouldn’t look odd to him at all…until it was too late.
Once he stepped away, Elisa straightened out her wrists, creating enough slack that she was certain slipping out of the ropes was possible. It wasn’t necessary at that point as she still needed an escape plan beyond that. Believing both threats neutralized, the two men continued to rifle through both backpacks, looting for what they could. As she watched them, Elisa flew through scenarios in her mind of how she could handle the robbers. What was their motivation? Money. She didn’t need money to make them think she had money, but the one thing she did need…was them separated.
Banking on their apparent lack of intelligence, she took a shot in the dark…so to speak.
Offering up a fake tone of desperation, she called out to them. “Listen, if you let us go, I will give you all the nels I have. It’s a lot. My father gave it to me to pay for the trip. I hid it back in the clearing where I found the boy, under some leaves next to the biggest tree. I didn’t want you to know I had it after the boy told me about being robbed. Just follow the broken branches. Please, it’s all yours…just let us go.” In truth, she felt none of the anguish she was peddling to them. She didn’t have time to be scared and if she allowed herself to go to that place, neither her nor the man were getting out of the situation alive.
‘Charlie’ looked up from his looting, appearing to consider her words. “Lots o’ nels? The little boy couldn’t have gotten far, I suspec’. Dummy, you stay ‘ere and take care of ‘em. I’ll go get the nels and we ‘an meet up after.” Whether or not the blond man planned on coming back, Elisa didn’t know…nor did she care. The nature of the relationship between the two men threatening to kill her really wasn’t paramount in the grand scheme of things. What did matter…was she would only have to deal with one of them. But the timing had to be perfect. She had to wait a bit to make sure Charlie was far enough away that he wouldn’t hear anything…but not long enough that Cletus had a chance to kill her.
Details, details.
Elisa mapped out in her brain how far it had been back to where she encountered Bowen. Intent sapphire eyes watched Cletus…and when the timing was right, she executed her plan. Calling out to Cletus, she tried to get his attention with something he wanted. “Cletus? That’s your name, right? I don’t want to die…so if you don’t kill us, I’ll tell you where something extremely valuable is. You’ll be rich forever…and it’s right here with us. I dropped it when you were tying me up.”
Looking over at her, a dumb grin crossed his face as he rose and started towards her. “Well, no promisin’, but tell me where’n it is, and I’ll think about it.” She measured out his steps as she watched him get closer and closer. There was a magic mark she was watching – a place where he had to stop and turn around for her plan to work. He was within a few steps of her when her voice cried out “Stop! You went past it. It’s a ring set with the most amazing stones. It’s right there by your foot." Turning away from her, he began to kneel to look for a ring….and that’s when she flew into action. Lore always noted how being smaller allowed her to be quick, and her sword training had only increased her speed. Tugging the slack away from her wrists, she wiggled out of the ropes as her body rose from the ground. While sitting there, she had spied a large rock close by that was perfect for her needs. Snatching it up as she rose, she crossed the distance between herself and Cletus in trills, raising the rock and smashing it down on his skull with a sharp, satisfying ‘crack’ before he knew what was happening. He fell to the ground in an unconscious lump, but Elisa wasn’t done yet.
Searching around, she found her gladius over by where the packs were, snatching it back up along with the packs and rushing over to Bowen’s brother, nudging his body gently. "Time to get up. We need to get out of here before this one wakes up and the other returns when he doesn't find the nels. I'd rather not be here when that happens." The young man's eyes fluttered open just a bit with a groan, trying to speak. "Bowen?" Trying to help him to a raised sitting position, Elisa quickly brought him up to speed on sending Bowen towards the town and her plan. "Can you walk? We need to hurry..." Nodding his head, she assisted as they managed to get him upright and under his own power, mostly. It was evident she was going to have to help him along. The packs were, fortunately, light due to the looting so she simply put one inside the other and slung it across her back. Sliding one arm under his and behind him, they began to make their way out of the area and back towards Caervalle Town.
OOC Note
This thread will be continued in a collab with Vega. I will post a link when it becomes available.
