Arc I - The Assassin, the Prince, and the Eldritch Horror

Chapter I - That was Elias' Favourite Chair

It’s the middle of the night, and the castle is quiet, by castle standards. The white marble halls are lit by dim moonlight, but no light is present in the many secret passages under the castle, where Noras is making his way to his target’s wing. At his belt and under his coat are a series of daggers and throwing knives, along with some rope and a small sack tucked into a pouch. The passage is little-known to most everyone, but Noras takes pride in uncovering the dark secrets that others live unaware of, and it’s easy for him to get through. He arrives in the target’s wing and finds it quite empty - he doesn’t seem to have guards and there aren’t any servants around at the moment. This is odd, and Noras approaches the target’s chambers with caution.

Meanwhile, Elias is in his chambers, carefully pouring a green potion into a small vial, which he corks up, before moving onto a red potion. After repeating the process several times, he takes each of them and hangs them on a small hook above his alchemy desk, moving over to a separate purple liquid and staring at it for a moment. He sighs, frowning when he feels the shadows creeping up behind him again, and then picks it up, and downs it.

The potion is bitter, and makes his face scrunch up in distaste, but before long, his blue eye shifts colour to become slightly purple. He turns and finds that there are no longer any shadows, and lets out a relieved breath. Unaware of the figure creeping up to his door, he goes to his library, grabs a book, and settles on one of his couches, eyes scanning the pages and muttering incantations under his breath.

Taking a slow breath and producing one of his throwing knives, Noras opens the door without making a sound. There’s a squeak from somewhere inside the room and the target looks up, but before he can blink there’s a knife embedded in the couch just next to his head. Noras closes the door, keeping his features expressionless.

Elias blinks, closing the book slowly. He looks between the knife, his vials, and the man, taking note of the particular colour of the aura that surround him: … Can I help you?

Noras walks further into the room, towards target, making no sound as he moves. He keeps a dagger in one hand, producing the rope with the other: [softly] Yes.

Elias nods slowly, standing just as slowly, body language unthreatening: There’s no need for that, good sir. I’ll come quietly.

Noras’ expression doesn’t change, and he walks over cautiously: Turn around.

Elias sighs, but does so.

Putting the knife away (for now), Noras ties the target’s hands behind his back, and places the sack over his head as well. Bringing the knife back out and holding it fairly lightly against the target’s back, he starts to move him back towards the door.

Elias hesitates for a moment, before saying slightly muffled by the bag: Might I ask to bring one of my rabbits?

Noras blinks. With the target’s face covered, he allows himself to show surprise, glancing over at the mass of rabbits on the other side of the room. He thinks about it, and… well, if it makes this whole thing easier for the target to have a comfort animal, then that won’t be a bad thing. With a slight sigh, he concedes: ...Fine. [he turns the target towards the rabbits and lifts the sack so he can see] Go ahead.

Elias looks over at the pile of rabbits: [softly] Come, Beyefendi. [A rather large rabbit hops forward, looking rather regal and expressive for a rabbit as he glares at the intruder]

Noras gains a flat expression, looking at the rabbit, and puts the sack back over the target’s head. He glances down at the rabbit, and then produces a second sack (always bring an extra just in case), and covers the rabbit with it. Tucking that sack under one arm and continuing to hold the knife with the other hand, he guides the target to the door, checks the hallways, and cautiously moves him back to and through the secret passage, out towards an area on the outskirts of the castle grounds, where Jeade is waiting.

Elias, knowing the castle by heart and being aware of where they are: I suggest taking the forest path, the guards will be patrolling all the others at this time.

Noras gives him an irritated look but stays silent, guiding him to the back of the cart and into a second, larger burlap sack nestled among other sacks. He places the rabbit in with the target, and then seals the sack and goes around to the front of the cart. He climbs up into the driver’s position, taking the reins, and leans over to pat Jeade gently on the hide, and Jeade takes off into the night.

Inside the sack, Elias starts mumbling about bushes.

Noras slows the cart slightly, twisting to catch what the target is mumbling about. He knows that some members of the royal family can use magic, and is fairly confident he could identify an incantation if he heard one.

Elias [talking to Sir Fluffles]: Don’t even get me started on rose bushes - with their thorns, and their pollen, I swear I’ll outlaw those one day… one day.

Noras stares at the sack for a moment before turning back to the road. He’s seen a lot of strange coping mechanisms people come up with in these situations, and as long as the target is being quiet, it really doesn’t matter. He just needs to get out of the city before daybreak.

Elias suddenly stops speaking, listening and feeling the momentum of the cart: … This way is a dead end. You should have gone right. Unless your horse can pull a cart over a giant fallen tree.

Noras raises his eyes to the sky and takes a deep breath, and then turns the cart, moving parallel to the tree he can see a little up ahead to find the way around it. He’s not going to get out of the cart now, but he does make a mental note to make a gag for the target later.

Elias shrugs, working on the bindings around his hands: This works too.

Noras just ignores him, running through the distances and times in his head to work out how long this job will last.

In the sack, Elias has gotten his hands free, taken his head sack off, and has taken Sir Fluffles out of his smaller sack, absentmindedly petting him as he runs through the list of people who’d want to kidnap him.

. . .

A day passes. They’re a suitable enough distance from the city, so, technically, Noras could let Elias out of the sack. Pure irritation with Elias’ near-ceaseless stream of commentary makes him want to seal the thing up forever, but, now that they’re away from the city, Noras can admit to himself that he does need to let his target out to eat and sleep. As such, he decides to stop for provisions and for the night in a village. As they approach one, Noras lets Elias and Sir Fluffles out and moves them to the front of the cart, so that they appear more or less as traveling companions. The villagers are either busy finishing off work or heading home for the day, so most people don’t pay them much mind.

Elias glances around the town, mentally noting its general direction from the castle and making a mental list on the things the town seems to need but doesn’t have.

Noras slows the cart as they near a small sort of market. It’s getting close to sunset so the vendors are packing up, but there’s still some stuff left to be bought, not that any of it looks appealing. Noras looks at Elias: Stay here. [he climbs down from the cart and pauses to pat Jeade’s nose - quietly, to Jeade:] Keep an eye on him. [then he walks over to the nearest vendor and starts to talk with them]

Elias looks around and his eyes land on a small Bell Shrine that’s no more than three meters away. He looks back at his captor, and the aura still visible around him, and jumps off of the cart to kneel at the Shrine, hands together in a prayer as he keeps his head bowed before the small statues of the Divines.

Noras doesn’t want to call attention to them so he doesn’t react, continuing to talk to the vendor, but he keeps his gaze fixed on the target the whole while. Once he’s gotten what he needs from the vendor, he places the bag of limp vegetables and slightly-too-squishy fruits in the back of the cart and immediately leads Jeade (and the cart) over to the target: Come on. We’re not staying here.

Elias opens his eyes slowly and stands, bowing to the Divines before ringing the Bell, and going back onto the cart.

Noras watches him with a deliberately blank expression. Before following the target to the cart, he glances over at the temple, with a flat look at the statues, and pauses to gaze at the bell. For a moment, his fingers twitch, but then he scowls and turns around, climbing onto the cart. He leads Jeade to the outskirts of the village on the other end from where they entered.

Elias, having noticed the look Noras gave to the Shrine: Not a believer of the Prayer?

Noras: [flatly] Not a believer in divulging personal information to targets.

Elias hums, scratching Sir Fluffles’ chin: [absentmindedly] My name is Elias, you can use it. And my friend here is Sir Fluffles.

Noras glances momentarily at him, and then at Sir Fluffles, who is glaring at him. He slowly brings the cart to a stop: We’ll spend the night here. [he climbs down from the cart] Enjoy the air. You’re going back in the sack until the next town.

Elias’ face doesn’t change as he says this, opting instead to look around again: … This town needs a school.

Noras scowls to himself slightly, but doesn’t respond, opting to go around the space collecting firewood, always making sure he can still see the target as he does so.

Elias finally stretches, placing Sir Fluffles on the ground as he himself leaves the cart, eyes glancing at the foliage around, and then frowning slightly.

Noras returns, kneeling to begin building a small fire in a clear space.

Elias turns to him: Did you happen to buy any lettuce?

In spite of himself, Noras wrinkles his nose slightly: [a hint of disgust coming through the neutral tone] No.

Elias can’t help but smile slightly: It’s a good source of fibre… [he looks down at Sir Fluffles and picks him up] perhaps some nuts then? … There’s no hay around.

Noras, internally: Am I an Uber-eats service?

Noras, out loud: Fruits and vegetables. That’s all we have.

Elias hums: [more to himself] That’s good enough for now I suppose, I’ll have to buy hay in the next town then.

Noras glances irritably at him for a moment, but focuses on stacking the wood, on those methodical actions: [flatly] This isn’t a vacation. You’ll make do with what you get. [he sparks the fire and stands once it catches, moving around to the back of the cart]

Elias blinks out of his thought: I’ve never been on vacation, I wouldn’t know. However, I was speaking for Sir Fluffles, not myself. I can make do with very little.

Unseen, Noras scowls again, but he’s back to neutral when he walks back around again, tossing an apple at the target, followed by a banana. He keeps one apple for himself, putting it in his pocket, and then goes back around again and emerges with some oats for Jeade.

Elias opens the banana, tearing it into pieces and placing them in front of Sir Fluffles. He then takes two bites out of the apple, and also places it in front of the rabbit.

Noras meanwhile has detached Jeade from the cart and has led him over to the fire. He is steadily feeding Jeade the oats. Facing away from the target, he allows himself to smile at Jeade.

Elias unwraps his shawl and wraps it around his shoulders, sitting and watching his captor, the purple tint from the potion still not completely gone from his eyes, and he contemplates his kidnapper.

After feeding Jeade, Noras sits cross-legged by the fire to eat his own apple. He can feel the target watching him, and resolutely ignores it, hoping to the Underdark that he isn’t going to start talking again.

Elias continues staring at him with no emotion present on his face: … I’m torn. There are four people I can think of who live in this general direction who would want to get rid of me… [he finally blinks and leans back] but which one...

Noras: [dryly] Don’t waste your thoughts puzzling it out. You’ll find out when we get there.

Elias smiles to himself: I suppose I will. [he resumes his thoughts, this time puzzling about the white aura the divination potion has placed upon his captor]

Noras stares into the fire, thinking that he might take a few Personal Days off work after this job is complete.

Elias: Perhaps it’s Rambeau… or maybe Capaldi… [his eyes darken minutely] I haven’t heard from Orville in years…

Noras doesn’t react for a long moment, and finally he sighs to himself: If you’re going to speculate, keep it to yourself. I already have the answers, I don’t need to know your theories.

Elias: [quietly] Vous êtes un mystérieux petit homme.

Noras casts a flat look in his direction and shakes his head slightly, scowling lightly at the fire: [under his breath] Sarphira saala.

With a few more minutes of contemplation, Elias looks down at the fire: [softly, his words inaudible] Xikyuu, huh.

Noras hears the target speak, but not what he says, and he doesn’t care either. The time passes in silence. Noras waits, watching the fire, until the target falls asleep, and then waits some more just in case, before standing up and leading Jeade over to the fire. Jeade sits down and Noras curls against him and leans back, looking up at the sky, but doesn’t sleep.