Broken Cage
General Summary
A young athletic woman in Iruvian harem garb complete with loose flowing violet pants and a crop top was standing on a high platform in the gutted inside of a huge warehouse that was now the infamous Menagerie. Inej breathed in deep and stepped out onto the wire. It shivered slightly under her step. The Billhook thugs who installed it were not performers. She kept her gaze fixed ahead, however. Her step was boldly followed by another and another Each was sure and confident. Up here every move was precise and certain. Nothing was left to chance. She was more likely to lose her footing back on solid ground than up here on the narrow wire.
She pulled a bronze rope off of a catch at her waist. A blade was attached to the end. She slung the blade out into the air, and her routine began. The rope wrapped around feet, her waist, her legs, and arms gripping her skin firmly before she used the momentum of the sharp steel at the end to send it flying in the direction of her choosing. As it whipped through the air, it caught and reflected the light.
Two huge electroplasmic coils were set up on either side of the wire. They were turned up for this part. Arcs of electroplasmic energy reached out and snapped at the rope. The effect almost made you question whether the source of the energy was the coils or her acrobatics.
This part, however, was not something calculated. It took too long for the signal of the rope on her skin to travel to her brain and the correct move to be sent back to the right muscles. No, this was something innate. She planted the movements herself through countless cuts, bruises, and hard learned lessons. Only innumerable repetition embeds the necessary memory in the muscles and nerve endings. Her body carried out these tasks with very little assistance from her mind.
This leaves room for the mind to wander. Just now it wandered to a man she had never seen before. He was thin and wore a nice all black suit. It was far too fine for Silkshore, but not the kind of thing that would turn heads. The cane he leaned on with a silver handle in the shape of a crow's head could turn a few heads. Helene and he were talking and looking at Inej. Helene reached out to him. He stepped quickly back. Inej didn't blame him. He reached a gloved hand into his coat pocket, produced a purse, and dropped it on the table. Helene handed him a paper, and as soon as he had it in his hands, he left.
Inej 's feet suddenly wobbled underneath her. The wire took the motion and amplified it. She moved left then right shifting her hips to compensate, but she overcompensated and swung back left of her center of gravity too far to recover. She plummeted toward the ground a hundred feet below. Her tumble evened out into a straight dive. Her hands moved quickly to the hooks on her discrete harness, and she pulled hard. A glider unfurled from her back. The special invention of the Spark Fliers was well made. Just a few feet before smashing into the hard ground, she kicked up, pulling the glider from a nosedive and transferring all of that speed and force of the dive into a terrifyingly fast flight.
The energy of the coils snapped and whipped at her back and sides as she glided swiftly over the tables in the Menagerie. Electroplasm never felt right to her. It left the residue of dread behind. Never enough to put your finger on, just enough to unsettle. It was unnatural. She weaved in and out of the huge birdcages that were suspended from the ceiling in which Tante Helene's Little Muses swayed and danced in terror as arcs of electroplasmic energy bit and clawed at the bars.
Losing speed, she cut back toward the stage. She pulled the counter-lines that would pull the glider in and as it dutifully folded back onto her back, she tucked a shoulder and tumbled across the stage. It looked violent and painful, and her body came to rest in a heap on the stage. The lights stayed on her, but she didn't move.
"4... 5... 6... 7..." Inej counted the seconds of tension to herself as she lay still.
Suddenly, she sat up with a brilliant grin on her face that she didn't feel, and cast her hand in the air as an acrobat's salute to the crowd that she didn't mean. After a few seconds of applause, the lights went out, and just as quickly, her smile dropped.
A hand reached out of the darkness. The Billhook who was manning the control board came out to collect the equipment. Inej removed the harness and handed the glider over. When she felt for the clasp that held the rope on her hip she could feel the fastener that held it to the blade was barely hanging on. She held the blade against her hip and pulled at the coil rope with her other hand. To her surprise, it snapped free. She handed the coil to Helene's flunkie and hid the knife from sight with her other hand. She thanked Sankta Margaretha (patron saint of thieves and lost children) as she walked off stage.
Her prayer was cut short as a powerful hand grabbed her wrist and yanked her roughly back. The blade was plucked from her hand. The man's face was inches from hers. She could smell the fish and mushroom wine on his breath.
"You sneaky little Iruvian, I think Tante will want to hear about this." the guard growled at her as he drug her off stage.
She was pulled along through the crowd. The patrons began to clap, but stopped short when they saw the violent display. She passed Nyrix as she was being drug toward the bar. Nyrix was currently in the lap of a client who seemed to be getting a little too handsy. Nyrix saw her, too and a look of worry shadowed her face.
"Now, sweetie you've been so good to me tonight, I think you deserve a reward. Let me freshen up a bit for you. In ten minutes, ask the lady at the bar to take you to a private room, and I'll be ready for you," Nyrix whispered into his ear before she got up to see what was going on with Inej.
The man's face brightened. He couldn't believe his luck. In ten minutes, he would again be surprised at his own luck when he approached Tante Helene at her own bar and demanded she take him to a private room.
Inej was nearly thrown at the bar next to Tante Helene.
"Caught this one stealin' from ya, Tante. Want I should teach her a lesson?" The thug asked, while drooling over the prospect of potential violence.
"I was just talking about you, little bird," Helene cooed in a high Akorosi accent as she waved the guard away.
Not sure how to reply to this comment, Inej stood silent. Besides, it's never a good idea to say the wrong thing in front of Helene.
"You must think you're pretty clever. I don't know how you convinced that pathetic cripple to buy your indenture, but I respect the hustle," Helene continued.
Inej did not understand what she meant by this. She turned the words over in her head, but they didn't line up in a way that made any sense to her. Helene spoke again, this time she dropped the High Akerosi accent for a more rural drawl most often heard in or around Barrowcleft. She did this when she got worked up.
"Look at you, itchin’ to go through those doors. Such an ungrateful little bird, aintcha? I give you a place to sleep, food, a roof over your head, all these pretty things, even let you strut up on that wire gettin’ all that praise. Seems to me like Mama Helene deserves a thank you. Now what do you say little bird?" The last words slipped back into that sweet High Akerosi, and it made Inej's blood boil.
She could hear her heart thumping in her ears. Her breath came in short violent bursts. Her nails dug into her palms as her fists balled tighter and tighter.
"Thank you, Tante," Inej said as politely as she could force herself to.
"Good little bird. Now go see Quellyn. She's in room 3. Have her tend to those burns. They look disgusting," she said dismissively.
Inej left immediately. As Inej walked away, Helene tried one more time to twist the knife.
"Looks like I'm gonna need a replacement. Maybe I'll start your Nyrix up on the wire," Helene said to Inej's back.
Seeing Inej walking away, Nyrix moved to avoid the eyes of Helene as she hurried to catch up with Inej on the stairs.
"Hey, what did Helene say? Oh dear! are these from the coils? What did I say? You have to use the rope. Stop with the glider. Look at these burns," Nyrix said as she tugged and prodded Inej uncomfortably to inspect the damage.
"Well, I'm glad you have it figured out, because apparently you're my replacement," Inej said, pulling back from Nyrix's clumsy inspection.
"Wait. What?" Nyrix said, stopping in her tracks.
"Someone bought my debt. I'm out of here," Inej said.
"Who? Who is this man? Do you know anything about him? I need to talk to him. What about our plan?" Nyrix inquired rapidly.
"Look, can we talk after I see Quellyn. This really hurts," Inej asked.
"Of course, of course! Quellyn! Quellyn, dear!" Nyrix called out.
As they passed room 1, they could hear cries of pleasure from the other side of the door. One of the guards stood sentry outside of the door. He was sniffling loudly. A thin jagged-bladed dagger with a black obsidian grip hung on his belt. It reminded Inej of Sankta Anastasia (patron saint of the sick).
Room 2 was empty. The door hung open and no guard was posted. Room 3 was guarded. As the two girls approached, he seemed to brighten up.
"This guy's got quite an appetite," he said as he opened the door.
His eyes lingered on Nyrix who was wearing string after string of gold jewelry over a tight fitting scaled dress that was carefully painted to accentuate her curves. Nyrix rolled her eyes, but when her eyes landed on the scene through the door, she saw a man on the floor with a knife stabbed into his chest. Quellyn was inside holding Salia close to her, trying to calm her down. Her eyes went wide.
"Well, I hear you have quite an appetite yourself," Nyrix said sweetly as she caressed his cheek and pulled his gaze as far away from the door as she could.
Inej slipped in and took over comforting Salia as Quellyn moved to the dresser by the door.
"Your friend sounds sick," Nyrix hinted to Quellyn as she grabbed the guard's chin playfully and pulled his face back from looking down the hall to the sick guard.
"He aint my friend," the guard said absently.
Quellyn seemed to find what she was looking for and handed it to Nyrix who expertly palmed it out of sight of the guard.
"All the same, why don't you let us handle Mr.Appetite, and you make sure your friend gets this medicine," Nyrix whispered to him as she dangled the vial in front of his face.
"Sure. Yeah," He said softly.
She gave him a gentle push, careful to keep his eye from the door. He walked slowly down the hall, and looked back at Nyrix. She waved at him, and when he turned away, she darted quickly into the room and shut the door.
"Inej is hurt, but what is going on here?" Nyrix said a little shocked by the sight of the dead man on the floor.
"The wires again!? I told you," Quellyn chided Inej.
"Yes. I already got it from Nyrix. But, it's the same as last time. On my legs and side," Inej reported.
As Quellyn applied an ointment to her wound, Inej looked at the knife. It had a bone handle with a wrapped leather thong grip. It reminded her of Sankta Alina (patron saint of orphans and undiscovered gifts).
"Whose knife is that?" Inej asked.
"I don't know. He came with it," Quellyn answered.
"Are you okay, dear? What happened?" Nyrix asked Salia.
"I don't know. He was... I just..." Salia began, still a bit rattled.
"Yes, dear, we've all done it, but you get him alone, away from the guards. You know, seduce him," Quellyn said as she worked.
"Yes, the last time I tried seducing someone..." Salia began, but trailed off.
"Right, dear. Nyrix, get her some of that tea," Quellyn directed, waving a hand at the tea set on the dresser.
"We need to get out of here." Nyrix said as she retrieved the tea.
"That was the idea, wasn't it?" Salia asked.
She cupped the tea with both hands and sipped it gratefully. It seemed to calm her down immediately.
"Yes, but now we will need to move that up a bit," Quellyn said.
"You guys should definitely get out of here. I'm already out, in a way. Someone bought my debt," Inej confessed.
"What!? Who? Do you know him? Is he nice?" Quellyn asked.
"He had a cane. It had a crow head on it," Inej said.
"Is he with The Crows? They are pretty powerful," Quellyn offered.
"He could have killed a Crow. Or maybe he just likes the cane," Nyrix countered.
Quellyn finished up wrapping the burn and gently repositioned Inej's shirt.
"You cut it close on this one, Wraith," Quellyn said with a hint of worry in her voice.
"Thanks. I guess it's the last time, though," Inej said apologetically.
"What do we do with him?" Salia asked.
"What I wouldn't do for a bonesaw. We could put him in the floorboards," Quellyn mused.
The rest of the group looked blankly at her for a moment.
"We don't have one, anyway," Quellyn offered.
"Let's put him in the bed," Nyrix offered.
"But there's a lot of blood," Salia countered.
"Look, I'll help you. Lots of this back in the old Red Lamp. It used to be very bad," Nyrix said.
"Wait!" Inej said.
She walked over to the man, bent down, and pulled the knife from his chest. She wiped the blade on her pants and tucked it into the sash wrapped around her waist.
"It could be handy," Inej explained.
Nyrix and Salia checked the body for anything that could be useful. Nyrix found some identification papers and a couple of writs of endenture.
"You won't believe this. His name is actually John," Nyrix remarked.
"You are kidding," Quellyn accused, amused.
Nyrix read over the other papers. After reading them, she walked to the candelabra on the dresser, and held them over the flame.
"What are those?" Salia asked.
"Writs of indenture. I am freeing them," Nyrix proclaimed proudly.
"That's not really how that works. What are the names?" Quellyn asked.
"A Brance and an Asha," Nyrix said as the flame reached up and climbed onto the corner of the paper.
"Could that be your Asha?" Quellyn asked Inej.
Inej's face darkened, and that was all Quellyn needed. She ran to Nyrix. The flames were well up the side of the documents by now. She swatted the papers from Nyrix's hand and smothered the flame under her boots. She picked them up. Only minor damage had been done.
"Okay? I was only trying to do some good," Nyrix said.
Quellyn brought the papers to Inej. After a moment of reading worry replaced fear on Inej's face.
"It's her," Inej said simply.
"Don't worry, Wraith. We'll get out of here, and you can go to her. Maybe she'll be fine. It's not like he will be calling up her debt." Quellyn said, trying to comfort her.
"Okay, let's get him in place before someone comes to check on us," Nyrix suggested.
As they wrestled the man into the bed, Nyrix offered instruction.
"Now fold his hands under his head, yes. That's nice. Pull the knees up. It'll help hide the... Perfect! Now the pillows. Good. Good," she directed.
As Salia struggled with the body of the oversized merchant, she looked thoughtful.
"I think I know the man with the crow's head cane. I've heard Helene's thugs talking. I don't know his name, only that the Billhooks are afraid of him. I think he's bad news, Inej," Salia said.
"Well, it doesn't matter now, if we don't get out of here, I doubt any of us will be around tomorrow to be sold off," Inej said.
"We need to get to the basement," Quellyn said.
"Oh no. You don't mean that creepy old door?" Nyrix whined.
"It doesn't open," Salia said.
"I think I might be able to get it open. Anyone have a better idea?" Quellyn asked.
"I guess not. Salia, you're with me. Pretend to be concerned about the tear. Try to hurry me along," Nyrix said as she tore a hole in the side of her dress.
"Oh, I will be," Salia said.
Nyrix and Salia came down the stairs and past the bar. Nyrix motioned to her damaged dress as Salia fussed with the tear. The bartender motioned for them to carry on to the closet, which was the entrance to the basement.
A moment later, Inej and Quellyn came down the stairs in much the same way. This time, Quellyn fussed over Inej's charred garments.
"Hold on," the bartender said.
They both froze. Inej's hand crept to where the knife sat under her sash.
"Hide those behind the rags. Tante won't like the damaged property," he said.
"Thanks, Carro," Quellyn said gratefully.
Quellyn continued, but was anchored in place by Inej.
"Did you know the man with the crow's head cane from before?" Inej asked.
Quellyn tugged on her harem pants in an attempt to get her moving.
"Sorry, love. I didn't mark him. I tend to my own. You best do the same," Carro said.
Inej finally got moving again, and they entered the closet with the others. Space was limited here, but they took a moment to take inventory and gather their thoughts. It smelled acrid in here, from some rags collected in a box. The shelves had boxes of outfits and booze for the bar.
Nyrix rolled a charm between her fingers. It was a clumsily hand-carved lantern hewn from pewter and hung on a thin leather thong. Quellyn seemed to be transfixed by a glass case on a nearby shelf. She opened the case and pulled out an ivory-colored, full-face masquerade mask with feminine features, an ornate golden sunburst on the forehead, and two long tassels hanging down on either side.
Helene would make her wear the mask for her performances. She would put on the mask, and peer into the ghost field as she pushed and pulled on the ever-present spirits to make lights dim, tables shake, or if she was really lucky, manifest an image. Truly, the mask was the only thing she liked about those performances. Helene dressed her in a long black dress with twin slits that climbed all the way up to her hips, long gloves, and thigh high boots pulled over dark hose. None of it was her choice. Only the mask. She convinced Helene early on that it was necessary to manifest her skill. She hid behind it. When she wore it, it was like a place she could go while the other Quellyn performed. She would not let Helene keep it. It was her armor.
She put it up to her face, and things were different now. The walls were charred and splintered. She could see through the building. The guards and patrons were vague dim outlines of themselves that moved lazily beyond the immaterial walls. The bartender was a gray void lingering on the other side of a shattered wall. As she directed her attention down to the boiler room, she saw something else. Something dark but with a very strong presence. It was like an insistent nothingness.
"There's something down there," Quellyn said.
"In the basement, or behind the creepy door?" Nyrix asked.
"I'm not sure, but there is definitely something there," Quellyn replied, pulling down her mask.
Inej was digging through a box of personal belongings, apparently taken off of Helene's little muses upon purchasing their debt. She stopped abruptly at the bottom and pulled out a finely crafted ruby handled knife. This reminded her of Sankta Marya (patron saint of those who are far from home). She pocketed the knife and turned to the group.
"I'll lead. Stay quiet, we don't know what's down there," Inej warned.
Quellyn raised her mask, and Inej took her hand. Each of the women followed the strange pattern of steps of the one in front of her, following Inej's original example. The stairs made no sound. Even Inej's ghungroos, the dancer's anklets laced with tiny bells, stayed silent while she stepped.
The floor of the basement was dirt, which is unusual for Doskvol. This luxury was not squandered, however. A patch of mushroom caps was being tended in the corner. Helene allowed Quellyn to grow them for her tonics. A red light filled this space, and somehow made the huge red door stand out more. Opposite the boiler in this small narrow space was an old red stone door. It had no hinges or handle to speak of. Tool marks were evident in the hard stone. People have tried opening this door before.
Near the boiler, a Billhook sat lounging in a chair. His snores were drowned out by rumbling of the oversized boiler. This was the thug in charge of the control board. Inej walked silently, but swiftly to him. Showing some of her flexibility, she reached across her body and gripped the hilt of Sankta Marya. She pulled it from the sash, drew a wide arc in the air in front of the sleeping Billhook, and completed the lightning fast motion by replacing the blade at her back under the sash.
The Billhook's eyes shot open. His mouth pulled up in a snarl, and when he opened his mouth in a silent scream, blood burst from his throat. For an instant, fear and dread flashed across his face, but that was instantly replaced with rage. His hand clapped over the wound, trying unsuccessfully to stem the flow of blood. He stood up from the chair, and clapped his other powerful hand around Inej's throat. He lifted her easily into the air and pinned her to the scorching hot boiler.
The smell of cooking ham filled the room. It smelled sweet, and delicious, which somehow made it worse. Salia gagged. Inej did not make a noise. Her face was stone, but she clawed, writhed, and kicked at her tormentor. Tears escaped her eyes and streaked her cheeks. What only took a few shocking seconds felt like minutes or hours to Inej, but the Billhook, even with all his rage and strength, could not hold onto what the saints took away. His eyes rolled back in their sockets, and the force and tension left his body as he collapsed in a boneless heap on the dirt. His blood continued to flow into an ever widening puddle.
Inej moved quickly away from the boiler before squatting down on one knee. She gingerly reached up to feel the burns on her back. Quellyn grabbed her wrist, not like the guard had done before. Not a command, but a plea, light and protective. Inej trusted Quellyn, so she complied. Quellyn sucked breath through her teeth when she saw the burns. The skin was bubbled and torn. Her necklace heated and fused with the skin.
"I don’t have an ointment for this, Wraith. There isn’t anything I can do here. Can you walk?" Quellyn asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Inej replied.
Quellyn noticed something strange in her garden. A rose seemed to be sticking out of the ground. She had seen pictures of these in the old witch's herbalism books, but as far as she knew, no one had ever seen one of them in person. She pulled it from the dirt. To her surprise, it was a dagger. The pommel was glass in the shape of a rose. The handle was twisted vine speckled with thorns, The blade appeared to be a leaf, but serrated along the edge like the leaf of a rose. It reminded Inej of Sankta Lizabeta (patron saint of gardeners).
When Quellyn grabbed the handle, one of the thorns pricked her. She dropped the blade back in the mushroom patchand sucked the little dot of blood that was forming on her finger. Inej picked it up. The thorns rested perfectly into the folds and creases of her hand. She said a short prayer of thanks to Sankta Lizabeta.
Quellyn refocused on escaping. She raised the mask and looked at the stone door. When she peered into the ghost field, she saw the darkness beyond the door. It jumped and darted back and forth. It seemed to be excited by their presence. She could see a handle in the stone. She reached out to grasp the handle. The rest of the women saw her hand partially phase out into the ghost field. A handle seemed to appear beneath her hand. She pauses for a moment.
"I don't mean to rush you about the door, but we now have two dead bodies. We should be getting out of here, yeah?" Nyrix reminded her.
"Remember I said something was down here? Well, it's on the other side of this door," Quellyn replied.
"Is that a problem?" Nyrix asked.
"I don't know. Let me try something," Quellyn replied.
Quellyn began to speak in a quiet, hissing tone. She formed words in a language none of them spoke. The words formed an understanding in their minds. They still did not understand the speech, but instead, it seemed to place the thoughts directly into their minds, transcending the symbolic nature of language. A dull ache accompanied hearing it. Salia clapped her hands over her ears, but it did nothing to mute the sound of Quellyn's voice.
"Who are you?" Quellyn asked.
"Trapped. Pain. Hunger. Home," The thing replied.
"Where is home?" Quellyn continued.
"Lost. Through the crack. Hungry," It urged.
"We need to go past you," Quellyn explained.
"Come. Hungry," It replied.
"Not us. There are more upstairs. If we free you, will you allow us to pass unharmed? Only eat the bad people. The ones with weapons. Trust me, they'll be delicious," Quellyn offered.
A few seconds of silence passed. The thing seemed to have stopped moving.
"Yes. An accord. Hungry." It replied.
"Okay! Get behind me, and probably close your eyes," Quellyn said, now in her normal voice.
"My eyes are already closed, honey," Salia said.
Nyrix squeezed her eyes closed, clapped her hands over Salia's eyes, and promptly began hyperventilating. Inej gripped Sankta Lizabeta tight and prayed. The thorns dug into her palm. The door came free with a hiss and a burst of dust. Only Quellyn left her eyes open to see the huge, black, creeping absence crawl over the top of the door frame and across the ceiling reaching out with dozens of tendrils formed from darkness to pull itself along. The stone where it crawled crumbled and chipped, losing its red color for gray. The ceiling was spotted with black and white spores and the wood curled with rot. It pooled in one place and drained upward through a crack.
"Is it gone?" Nyrix asked, still trying to squeeze her eyes closed more.
Just then, the screams began above. The screams came from humans, but were the kind of animal screams that you only heard when all civility and decorum were stripped away. They built on each other and blended with the thump of racing feet as people scrambled to escape in a symphony of terror.
"We need to move." Quellyn said.
"One last thing," Salia said.
Salia ran back to the boiler, being careful to step wide of the dead thug on the ground. She grabbed a knob and twisted it over and over. The boiler growled louder and began to shake. Salia kept turning the knob. The boiler was almost dancing around the small basement when the knob came off in Salia's hands. She looked at it and tossed it over her shoulder as she made her way back to the group.
"Alright, now we really should go," Salia suggested.
They passed down a long staircase and into a huge room, half caved in with a huge altar in the center. Along the ceiling were relief carvings of people being fed to other people and them in turn being fed to a huge mouth. Stone benches and tables laid mostly intact around the area. The damage seemed to be localized to the cave in where huge heavy boulders of carved stone formed the North wall. The air in here smelled dry and stuffy, like a storeroom of old books. They exited through a door to their right, across from the cave in.
Nyrix used her knowledge of the canals to keep them oriented by the waterways. Salia used her knowledge of the underground tunnels to help them find a potential way out, no doubt picked up from some probing conversation along the way. She was like that with information. She seemed to have an instinct for what was valuable, and she never forgot.
They came very shortly, and through a circuitous route to a perfectly preserved city street. Beneath the city above, there seemed to be a city below, devoid of the writhing mass of humanity. Down here, everything was completely abandoned. A narrow storefront set back into the stone and debris that made up a nearby wall. Quellyn peered again into the ghost field and saw many people rushing into this one building.
"This might be something," Quellyn said as she approached the building.
The glass of the window still sat in its frame, undamaged. Written in ornate font were the words, "Billman's Baked Goods." They were apparently having a sale on something called a "cruller." They passed into the building and climbed the stairs. About halfway up, the stairs changed. They offset the previous stairs by a full hand's breadth and changed from common wood to stone. They also stopped winding and drove straight up. At the top of the stairs was another stone door.
Quellyn did her thing, and they opened the door into what appeared to be a shuddered warehouse. They heard a commotion out on the street, and opened the door. They were across the street from the Menagerie. For many of them, this was the first time in months or years they had seen this side of the building. Nyrix made an obscene gesture at it. No one paid them any attention. Courtesans spilled out of the front door. A Billhook smashed through the doors, his eyes wild with fear. He got one step out of the building before, a dark tendril shot out from inside the doors, whipped around him, and he was yanked off his feet back into the building. The voice from before came from inside of the building. It was louder and less desperate now.
"Bad ones. Delicious." It said as its voice mingled with the screams.
Quellyn took Inej's hand and turned to speak with her. It was now that an ear splitting boom drowned out all sound. The Menagerie swelled and cracked. Bright orange cut through the night as it spread the planks of the menagerie apart and splintered them. The top floors of the building flew upward into the endless night, and crumbled in their flight. As this all happened in an instant, Inej was looking at Quellyn. Her hair stopped hanging down around her face and shot out to the side. As if gravity decided to switch, they all were thrown against the building they just came from as something heavy and invisible smashed into them.
When Inej opened her eyes, dust and debris filled the air. She choked on it. She couldn't see Quellyn, Nyrix, or Salia. She couldn't see anything. She stumbled toward what she thought was further down the street, but it was hard to tell. Eventually, she emerged from the cloud of debris and turned into an alley to rest.
Footsteps could be heard on the cobblestone further into the alley. She pulled herself to her feet and steadied herself against the wall. Her hand wrapped around Sankta Marya. The man with the crow's head cane emerged from around a corner. Following him was a red haired Akerosi woman wearing a stunning red gown, certainly in contrast to the alley they were in, but she somehow did not seem at all out of place. She was hanging on the arm of the biggest, meanest looking Skov Inej had ever seen. The man with the crow's head cane threw a folded paper at Inej's feet. She picked it up.
"It looks like you need a new job," The man with the crow's head cane said.
"Ooh! She's cute. Can we keep her?" The Akerosi woman asked.
"Now Nina, she hasn't agreed yet," The man with the crow's head cane said.
Inej unfolded the paper. It was her writ of indenture.
"It looks like now, I'm indebted to you," Inej replied.
"No, my dear. You hold your debt in your hands. I'm not interested in servants. I'm in the market for a partner. So, what do you say?" The man with the crow's head cane asked.
"Okay. Yes." She replied.
"Good. Then, welcome to The Crows, kind of," The man with the crow's head cane said.
Report Date
09 Jul 2022
Related Characters
Awards:
Lucky Duck goes to Nyrix(Keaton) for the highest average rolls at an average of 5.33Unlucky Goose goes to both Quellyn (Jayme) and Inej (Abbi) for the lowest average rolls at 4
Critical Player goes to Nyrix (Keaton) for the most criticals at 1
Team Player goes to Salia (Julian) for the most assists at 2
Natural Leader goes to Inej (Abbi) for leading the most group actions at 1
Try Hard goes to Quellyn (Jayme) for the most attempted rolls at 4
Going to Therapy goes to Quellyn (Jayme) for taking the most stress at 1
Stats:
| Rolls | 13 |
| Average Roll | 4.53 |
| Failures | 2 |
| Mixed Successes | 7 |
| Successes | 4 |
| Criticals | 1 |
| Group Actions | 1 |
| Stress Taken | 1 |
Roll Distribution:
- Nyrix (Keaton) rolled Sway (Controlled, Standard) to convince a handsy guy to leave her alone and got a Critical
- Nyrix (Keaton) rolled Sway (Risky, Standard) to convince a guard to walk away and got a 4
- Salia (Julian) rolled Study (Controlled, Standard) to find out if she knows anything about the man with the crow's head cane and got a 4
- Salia (Julian) rolled Finesse (Controlled, Standard) to hide a body in a bed and got a 5
- Inej (Abbi) rolled Consort (Risky, Limited) to ask about the man with the crow's head cane and got a 3
- Quellyn (Jayme) rolled Attune (Controlled, Standard) to attune to the ghost field to look for ghosts and got a 4
- Inej (Abbi) rolled Prowl (Risky, Standard) to sneak into the basement as part of a group action she led and got a 5
- Quellyn (Jayme) rolled Prowl (Risky, Standard) to sneak into the basement as part of a group action led by Inej and got a 4
- Nyrix (Keaton) rolled Prowl (Risky, Standard) to sneak into the basement as part of a group action led by Inej and got a 6
- Salia (Julian) rolled Prowl (Risky, Standard) to sneak into the basement as part of a group action led by Inej and got a 6
- Inej (Abbi) rolled Prowl (Risky, Standard) to silently kill a guard and got a 4
- Quellyn (Jayme) rolled Attune (Risky, Standard) to identify what is on the other side of the door and got a 2
- Quellyn (Jayme) rolled Sway (Risky, Standard) to convince a horror not to eat her and got a 6
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