milliways_bar | (no subject)

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We ride at the hour past dawn tomorrow.

Duke Roger's closing words continue to echo through Alanna's mind long after she should have been asleep. Tossing and turning begins to lose any appeal around midnight, so she checks her binding, pulls on her clothes and scoops up a sleepy Faithful. After buckling Lightning to her hips, Alanna pads out of her room, past Jonathan's, and only lets herself breathe once she's alone in the hallway.

The decisions made in the meeting of Duke Roger's commanders are making her extremely uneasy and a little ill. She knows Jonathan is angry at his new command, far from Fort Drell, but Alanna is upset for other reasons that have everything to do with a deep suspicion of the man who decided to place him there.

"Maybe a few hours at Milliways will allow me to rest," she murmurs to the heavy cat wrapped around her neck. "I doubt we'll be able to go there again for a long while, after all."

Faithful fails to respond.

She moves quietly through the halls and is careful to look around before slipping through the door to the bar. It's loud and bright after the quiet corridors of the sleeping palace, but she's glad of the noise, the life. If she can't get to the Dove, this is the next best thing.

Rubbing one of her eyes, Alanna settles into a chair by the fire and hopes a wait rat will happen by soon. She's awake, yet curiously far too tired and preoccupied to see about getting some tea herself.

[OOC: I wanted to go ahead and get this up. I will be around for a bit, but I'll need to beg slowtimes almost immediately this AM. It is open forever, however, and I will be around to tag as much as my super annoying body lets me! :) ]

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A frown is his answer: not very well.

"I have a... friend. He was wondering why he wasn't getting much news from the Tusaine Rogue. What he discovered was that the King's brother has designs on the Drell River Valley. Our Drell River Valley." She pauses for a moment. "Here."

Biting her lip, she lets him back in and remembers the map George had given her to pass on to Myles, complete with its red marks indicating Tusaine troops amassed around the valley.

That's a lot of red, "Oh my, how did they get in?"

Alanna shakes her head, pulling back in her memory to give him a better idea of the borders involved.

"That was in Tusaine. They were all circling around the valley and right river bank."

She blinks and looks away.

"In any case, it was enough for the King to send out the call to muster." Another frown. "Then Duke Gareth's horse bucked him off and broke his leg in three places. His mild-mannered, well-trained war horse."

Again Alanna allows him in, showing him the burr Stefan had found under Duke Gareth's saddle blanket. Even here, she doesn't want to voice it aloud.

His frown deepens, there seem to layers of deception and issues going on here,
\
"What will Duke Roger gain from leading?"

"Other than fame and glory?"

It's easy now to forget that's what she claims to want once she wins her shield. It grows less and less attractive.

"The opportunity to move the prince around on his living chessboard," she sneers, "and put him in jeopardy as part of his end game."

"Ah, Duke Roger is an ambitious man? They tend to be the most dangerous ones,"

Charles is ambitious in his own way but he wants safety for all mutants.

"Yes. I suspect him of much, Charles, but he's a member of the royal family. Jonathan is blind to much of his ambition."

It's very frustrating.

"Now that he is in command, he has decided that Jon will be in charge of the river camp. It looks as if he intends to keep Jon far from the fighting at the fort, but I can't help but wonder..."

"Could he perhaps be doing it to protect Jon? It would make sense to keep the heir far from the greatest danger. What has happened before with other princes who have fought?"

He's not certain how out of the ordinary this is.

Alanna opens and closes her mouth, searching for the right words before gnawing some more on her lip.

"I think he's isolating him. Sir Myles is to be his adviser, but he admits himself he has no battle experience. And I wouldn't think so ill of Roger, perhaps, if he hadn't tried to kill Jon twice before!"

And me.

And ME.

"I see, isolation is harder to combat. What can be done? Battlefields tend to be fluid places, that might allow some opportunities to move beyond what Duke Roger wishes to have happen. Is there anyone you can tell of these assassination attempts?"

He believes her in terms of them trying to be killed but he knows that they are difficult to pin down if done craftily.

She considers and finally shakes her head.

"I don't have proof."

Frustrated, she runs fingers through her hair and blinks at Charles.

"I'm sure I sound mad."

"No, you don't and I don't use the word mad lightly. Instead you sound frustrated and worried. Hopefully in time, he will make a mistake and give you some proof."

"Insanity does run in my family," she tells him, tone somehow dead sounding. "That is my hope, as well. In the meantime, I will stick as close to Jon as he will let me."

I'm sure that will be a hardship notes Faithful.

"Shut up!" she snaps back.

He takes a sip of tea before answering,

"It's what happens to me if I don't have proper control. Good, I'm certain he'll be glad to have you by his side."

Edited 2012-11-20 17:17 (UTC)

"What is?" she asks carefully, watching him.

Alanna finds she's worried about him.

"Madness, it's something I'm always aware of and recently came too close to. Has anyone spoken to you about what happened here last month, the attacks by Slenderman?"

Sleep helps but that knowledge of how close he is to falling apart and the horrible feeling when he does scared him.

Edited 2012-11-20 17:30 (UTC)

"No."

Alanna fixes him with a wide, unblinking stare.

"A slender man was attacking people?"

Then, absently, "You have enough control, you know. That won't happen to you. I hope some day I can be as sure of my own control as I am of yours."

"Yes, he was a type of god and he was able to get through my control. I've regained it but it worried me to know that someone could take that away from me. You will be, you have the discipline and understanding that will insure you do,"

He smiles at her compliment, its nice to know that he's seen that way.

Alanna scowls.

"Was he punished?"

Because that is NOT ON.

"I understand. It worried me when I found out about you. I'm just lucky you meant no harm."

She completely ignores the rest of his comment.

"Yes, he was. The Wild Hunt took him. It worried me as well but things have been restored to what they should be. It was heartening to see how Milliways came together."

Her eyes narrow slightly. It's concern, but also mild jealousy that she missed the opportunity to contribute.

"What is the Wild Hunt?"

There's a tale in Tortall; she wonders if it's the same.

"I believe they're commanded by Herne, who is a part of the Green Man who defeated Slenderman. I wasn't there, but was instead recovering from my few injuries and know the story I heard in the infirmary and from others,"

Its only a story to Charles as well and he would have enjoyed seeing the defeat.

She nods and smiles a little, comforted somehow that here at last is something familiar.

"What injuries?" she asks sharply.

"I was restrained on a bed and my wrists and ankles were hurt. The doctors here were able to heal them with no sign of them being there. They weren't great injuries,"

He unbuttons his cuff to show her where the skin is still tender and looks newly healed. His worst injuries were inside his head and the loss of control and confidence.

Scowling, Alanna stares at the marks. Her hand shoots forward and wraps around his wrist, gentle but firm, and purple light flares around her grip, almost as if there is too much and it's simply leaking out of her.

It flows around Charles, leaving warmth in its wake.

"Hmph," is all she says.