Ajax: Damsel in Distress

[Andros]

Glade, 4619

When Ajax came to, the nightmare still hadn’t ended. He was still tied down to a table in a filthy hovel, still naked and freezing cold and hungry. His whole body still hurt. And they were all still there. The tiny monster the men called “mama” and her two brutish helpers.

Mama, who had introduced herself as Alecto, was leaning over him, scraping a dull, bloody knife over his chest. It didn’t cut, not at the moment, but it still hurt over the freshly healed wounds and Ajax moaned.

“Shut up, coward,” Alecto scolded with contempt. “If you can’t act like a man I’ll chop your dirty bits off and make you a eunuch. And those I won’t heal, so you’re out of luck.”

Ajax forced his mouth to stay closed as the knife started to dig in, cutting the flesh. He was certain he was going to die here, but he’d like to die with his balls on. This had to be the fifth time she’d cut into him. He’d scream soon enough but this time he tried to hold off as long as he could.

Each time he lost consciousness in a sea of blood and pain, then woke up with his cuts healed and just a sting where she’s sliced him. It must be magic. He still can’t quite believe what he saw when he was captured, but that must have been magic too.

He was walking eastward from Leiden, where he’d passed a very enjoyable three months, when he saw the giant. A huge, rather handsome man struggling to get a cart out of the mud. Just Ajax’s type. Helping a stranger with a job like this is an easy way to earn a tip, handsome or no, so he stopped to help.

The second he put his back into shoving the cart, the big man - Lukos - smashed him on the head with a huge fist. It sent him to the ground, dazed but conscious. He watched with amazement as Lukos pushed the car out of the mud with one hand. Then amazement turned to horror as a woman approached him from the sky. She flew down from a nearby tree on huge black wings. It wasn’t possible, but there it was. She landed next to him him, picked him up in her arms, and flew off into the sky.

Then he did lose consciousness He woke up tied to the table, surrounded by the winged monster and her horrible, leering sons.

Now, a day or two into his captivity, Ajax felt the knife cut deeper. He knew a scream was imminent. First he tried to beg. Again.

“Please. I told you I have no money and no rich family. Just kill me.”

He wished he hadn’t been wearing the thick, lambs wool cloak dyed bright red or the tight silk breeches (that made his ass look amazing) when he was hoisted into captivity. He hadn’t any business wearing them, but his lover in Leiden was rich and liked to spoil him. Now he couldn’t convince Alecto he wasn’t poor, just handsome and easy.

“Coward!” Alecto screeched, louder this time. She dug the knife in deeper, cutting a gash up the center of Ajax’s chest towards his neck. Now he did start to scream, high pitched and desperate.

“Mama, I believe him,” the smaller son, Lagoniko said. “Can’t you just put him down. I’m hungry, and he’s so loud. People might here.

It was probably for the best that Ajax didn’t hear the implication that he might be dinner for these animals. As blood drained out of him, his voice got weaker and he sunk back into oblivion.

[Hakon]

It was not often that a member of the landed gentry came to the Tower for any reason. The Lord who arrived had seemed panicked to the point of being apoplectic. Apparently, a dear friend of his had been traveling on one of the roads near Leiden, and had just vanished. The man, Ajax, had left a lute of his behind, and the Lord worried that his friend would not be able to make his living without it, so had sent a retainer with the lute after the forgetful troubadour. A scrap of a bright red lambs wool cloak had been recovered from the scene of what looked to be some sort of struggle, and the Lord's dear friend had not been found since.

Others had gone missing from that area: about one per season for the last three seasons. The Reeves in the area had investigated but found nothing. Now, the Lord was insisting that there had to be something magical afoot, and since he was important, Hakon had been dispatched by the tower. He was the sort of person who could very solemnly poke around the crime scene to placate someone important without causing day to day disruption. In the event that he did find evidence of magical activity, then this was a mage who had kidnapped at least one person and possibly more, which is not the sort of mage anyone would miss. If, as Hakon suspected, it was just bandits, he could do a credible job of handling a few bandits, as well.

At least, those were the reasons that the Warden specified to him for why he'd been chosen. Privately, Hakon wondered if he got sent out on so many missions because hunting was something he enjoyed doing, unlike most people in the tower, and most people in the tower seemed to enjoy not being in his presence. Whatever the reason, he found himself hitting the road once again.

Prior to leaving, the Warden had taken him aside and explained that this was to be one of those missions: he was to leave unescorted, bring his Sundering kit, and return with at least one sunderscrap or at least one criminal for the Endornotkun. Hakon had agreed readily. He didn't mind having the Scarlet Watch along, but being able to hunt alone was thrilling.

He arrived at the designated location within a day. It would have been about three days since the man had vanished from this location, given the time it took to walk from Leiden to this location. His Huntersight revealed nothing etheric in nature at the scene of the crime.

"Bandits, then," he murmured. He was rather disappointed. He'd been hoping for a Sunderscrap, not the ungainly task of transporting a sunderscrap-to-be to a prison to be initiated and then culled.

This was also rather a problem because he was, by his own admission, a bit shit at tracking anything in the conventional way, and the road was crowded with foot prints and wagon ruts, anyhow. It was tempting to say that making sense of this mess could be left up to someone more qualified, especially as it seemed mundane in nature, but Hakon was nothing if not persistent. He examined what he could from what he believed to be Ajax's last known location.

There were a few pairs of footprints that looked quite fresh -- perhaps curious onlookers, or the Lord's retainers looking for Ajax? -- and there was an odd wagon rut. It did not come from the road. It just appeared about twenty feet from the road, and then the trail stopped at a heap of disturbed, muddy earth. No matter which side was viewed as the start and which the end, it didn't make sense. Where had the wagon gone, exactly? It could hardly fly through the sky. Additionally, Hakon's preference for order noted that the wagon ruts were not parallel, indicating that something was wrong with the axle on the right side, which would perhaps explain the disturbed earth. It had fallen over, maybe? But then where had it come from to begin with?

Curious.

Going off the assumption that the bandits had perhaps loaded Ajax into the wagon and carried it onto the road, Hakon began searching for wagon tracks off of the road. They would probably use the road to get closer to their hideout, lift the wagon back off the road to avoid creating an obvious trail, then put it down once they were sure no one would notice or care about a set of wagon tracks suddenly appearing.

It took him the better part of the afternoon, searching up and down the road, but he found what he was looking for, and once he identified it, it was not particularly subtle: a set of wagon tracks with the same slight asymmetry about forty feet from the road, about a thirty minute walk away from Leiden. Once he found it, it was trivial to follow the wagon to what seemed to be some kind of crude hut or cabin. It was as though the bandits did not expect anyone to find them, or were not concerned that someone would. That gave him pause, as bandits were usually more paranoid.

He was fairly certain he had found his quarry, but there was no sense rushing in. He climbed a large steadfast walnut tree with good sightlines to the cabin door and settled in to wait. He would observe the comings and going of the bandits and would formulate a plan accordingly. For now, he would wait. When he was certain he knew the truth of what was inside the cabin, he would strike.

[Andros]

Alecto rolled her eyes at Lagoniko. He was always hungry, and this wasn’t the time. She rolled them harder when Lukos made his request.

“Mama, he’s pretty.” Lukos whined. “Can I have him before you kill him?”

“You’ve got such a nose for pretty noble boys, maybe we should call you the bloodhound.” Lukos grinned at what he thought was a compliment, but Alecto flashed angry and shrieked at him. “But this one doesn’t have any money, you idiot.”

Then she reached up and slapped Lukos across the face. Lagoniko laughed loudly, braying like a donkey. The slap can’t have hurt the giant much, but he still started bawling his eyes out. Even as he rounded out his first century, he couldn’t stand it when mommy was angry.

Alecto softened, as she always did. She tossed some water on Ajax to revive him, then got on her tiptoes to kiss Lukos on the cheek. The tears and moaning stopped.

“Fine, fine. I want to cut him once more, deeper this time to see if he’ll talk. I think I’ll take off some fingers. Then you can do what you want with him. When you’re done, I’ll take out his heart. You fry it up, Lagoniko. Your turn to cook. We’ve got some onions. It will be nice.”

Ajax, who had just opened his eyes, must have heard his own dismemberment, rape, murder, and consumption being planned. He let out a piercing, uncontrollable wail that could have been heard for miles. There was no intelligible word in his voice. It was the desperate cry of a man about to face the unendurable with no hope of rescue.

[Hakon]

Hakon had been observing for some time in the tree, or more accurately he had been sitting in the tree waiting to observe something, when he heard the scream. It was difficult to miss: the volume was ear-splitting and the tone was desperate. Moreover, it sounded like a young man, which could be the young man who had gone missing. So either the bandits knew he was here and were using a gambit to make him reveal his position, or the person he was tasked with saving was in danger. Hakon's feet hit the ground before it occurred to him that it could be both.

There was only one entrance and Hakon did not have the means of making his own through the log walls of the cabin. The best he could do is assume that he would be attacked as he walked through the door. He grabbed the handle and tested it, expecting that there would be a deadbolt or something to secure it, but there was no resistance whatsoever. Either this was meant to be a temporary dwelling, or its inhabitants did not worry about visitors wandering in. He brought forth his kite shield in the event that they were listening for him on the other side of the door, but insomuch as he heard activity in the cabin, it did not sound like a coordinated ambush. Instead, he heard a young man sobbing and some murmured bickering, presumably from the bandits.

So he conjured his kite shield, and pushed the door in, quickly sidestepping the door lest there be someone waiting for him on the other side of it.

His first impressions were not positive one: it was hard to see in the cabin, and had the sharp, acrid scent of unwashed surfaces and dirty bodies. What illumination there was came from candle stubs and a guttering fire in the fireplace. What he could see, he didn't much like: there was a table in the center of the room. It was unclear if it was for dining or for surgery. Given the man tied to it, Hakon was inclined to say the latter, but part of his mind supplied the uncomfortable answer that a grimmer third option of "both" was also a distinct possibility. In the corner of the room there was a bed -- that seemed to be decently clean, at least -- and decent fresh straw. Presumably the leader took the bed and others slept on the floor.

Hakon had not missed the non-bound inhabitants in his survey. There were two small humans and one very large one, bigger than him, even. None of them looked quite right. His stomach churned when he saw the wings grafted to the back of the woman, and the skin of the smaller man -- it looked plated, but also like boiled leather. The larger man just seemed to Hakon's eyes to be too big, there was a fleshiness and a bulkiness to his size that looked unnatural, somehow. All three of them were off in some way. These were not just bandits, then. He checked with his Ethersight briefly to see if they were Malformists, but only one of them, the winged one, had the telltale signs of being some kind of mage, and the flickering nightorch at her hip made it an easy guess that she was an engraver.

This was not raw magic, then, but something worse: necromancy. Not the restorative sort practiced by upstanding necrodoctors, but the dirty kind used by those that had lost their way. This would not be an easy fight, but Hakon enjoyed challenges as he long as he always won, so he found himself excited by the prospect.

"Leave the lad alone," he said in lieu of a greeting, "and maybe I won't kill all of you."

[Andros]

Lukos had always been a stupid boy. When he was a toddler, Alecto couldn’t stop him from touching the hot cooking pot. Lagoniko learned after the first time he got burned, but Lukos would touch it, scream, and touch it again until Alecto threw him outside to play in the street. On a daily basis.

She made an attempt to fix him years ago, soon after they fled their old life and came to the woods, when Lukos was still a teenager. She set Lagoniko, always much brighter, to identifying and stalking a scholar. He took a job as a stable boy at Vesterhal and waited until a famous senior mage came from Vestria. He was renowned among the Guild Mages for his mastery of Radenor’s history and his knowledge of the languages and peoples of Atharen. He gave classes to unusually attentive younger mages. Lagoniko snuck in and rather enjoyed them himself.

Then, when it was time for the scholar to return home, Lagoniko fetched his brother and Lukos dragged the poor man from a roadside inn off to their mother. He wasn’t held for ransom, but he had one item of value. Using her considerable skills, Alecto opened the man’s skull, pulled out the most essential parts of his brain, and grafted them onto Lukos’s visibly smaller thinking apparatus. For a time, it seemed to work. Lukos spoke more clearly as he recuperated. He noticed new things. The swelling went down and his head looked normal, at least from the front.

But after a few weeks, black pus started to ooze out of Lukos’ healing wound. He lost the ability to walk. Headaches tormented him. He was feverish and clearly dying. Desperate, Alecto reversed the surgery, taking off the brain sections Lukos’ body had rejected. He was in a coma for a full month but emerged as good as new, physically speaking.

Unfortunately, he was still as stupid as ever, though he retained the ability to recite lengthy poems in a language neither he nor his family understood. The boy was as dumb as an ox and needed careful coaching before any operation. Practice and repetition were essential. And faced with a new situation, like a Guild Mage entering their home and threatening to kill the family, Lukos often froze.

If he had been quicker on his feet, he could have used a powerful fist to turn Hakon’s head into goo. He’d done it before when he was angry. But instead he hesitated, looking at his mother. Lagoniko, something of a coward, hid behind his enormous brother. They had lost an opportunity to put a quick end to the threat.

Alecto, thinking on her feet, held a knife to Ajax’s throat. Clearly the boy mattered to the intruder, and holding his life in her hands gave her some leverage. She ignored Hakon’s empty threat. He had no idea what he’d gotten himself into.

“Stay still or the boy dies. Lukos, hold him down. Break his arms if he resists. Lagoniko, bind him.” When Lukos still hesitated she shrieked in a piercing voice, “NOW!”

[Hakon]

The bat-winged woman who Hakon had surmised to be the brains of the operation proved his assumption correct by barking orders at the small leathery one and the oaf. It wasn't immediately clear to Hakon if the intended target of her orders were their captive or him, but to the other two, it seemed to be, as they moved out from behind the table and headed toward him.

He had to neutralize her leverage, and quickly, or he'd end up bound alongside the kidnapped lad and dying for nothing. Since he already had his kite shield devised he was hesitant to summon forth more weapons this early and reveal more of his capabilities, and he had no intention of showcasing his ability to use Grave this early in the fight. His nighttorch was kept in a pouch on his belt and he preferred not using it until all of his opponents were dead. The less your enemies knew of your capabilities, the less they could predict, and the less they could counter.

Consequently, Hakon chose Brand as his means to right the scales. There was plenty of ether swirling about in the air natively in any environment, let alone a cabin like this that had a mage in it who was practicing regularly. It was the work of an instant to Galvanize the air around him and send a bolt of charged, blue ether at the arm of the red haired woman that was holding the knife. He wasn't the best with thrown weapons, and he ended up missing the mark a bit, hitting the hilt of the blade instead. It was just normal wood and metal; the charged ether disintegrated it almost immediately and then kept traveling into the little woman's torso leaving a gaping, painful looking wound.

Hopefully, her shriek of pain would distract the minions; they seemed to defer to her. Maybe her pain would spook them, or distract them. Because he needed the boy off of the board as a hostage, desperately, or this fight was going to end with both of them cut to pieces.

Hakon, usually more soft-spoken than his size would suggest, imitated the tone of the drill lead in the Watch. In lieu of being able to rouse the captive from a stun in a more physical way, it would have to do: "Lad, run!"

If the man, hopefully Ajax but if not whoever the poor unfortunate they'd captured was, were able to get up off of the table, he could circle the far side of the cabin and end up behind Hakon, or perhaps quit the cabin entirely. While Hakon would not mind the help of a skilled combatant, a wealthy musician was not likely to be of much help against three bandits modified by necromancy. The best he could do was get behind Hakon and take himself off the board as as hostage or a pawn.

[Andros]

The strike caught Alecto by surprise. It shouldn’t have. She had always known her and her family would be a target for the Guild of Jorikford, ever since she got her mark. She has carefully kept her distance from the guild mages. Lagoniko watched their comings and goings from the tower and alerted the family of danger. He even knew Hakon’s face, if not his name. He was attempting to shout out a warning to his mother when the bolt blew up the handle of her knife and opened a gaping hole in her torso.

Lukos panicked. He screamed “mommy!” in a pitch higher than Ajax and started to keen and rock back and forth on us heels.

Despite the intense pain, Alecto kept her cool. She hasn’t realized she was
facing a guild mage, but now she knew the score. Holding a hand up for silence, she focused.

The pain was her first enemy. If it didn’t stop, there was no hope. So she made a mental connection with her nighttorch, feeling the power of its vitescense flowing into her. She directed it to the burned nerve endings where the hole in her stomach and chest opened up. Healing them hurt, like she was singing them one by one. But once they were calm, in just an instant, she was able to take stock of the damage.

Six inches of skin in circumference blown off, damage to chest and abdominal muscles beneath, substantial trauma to one lung and minor damage to her liver. Stomach and other organs unharmed. It was serious, but not too much for her to handle. Her necromancy gave her an edge here. As a necromancer, she knew her body intimately, every cell, and could channel her nighttorch to her aid quickly and effectively.

The lung was the priority. Breathing was already labored and she coughed up blood. Keeping the vitescence flowing, she repaired the alveoli and the delicate blood vessels that brought blood to and fro . At the same time she repaired the chest muscles that allowed her to breathe without pain. She coughed, then took a deep breath. Still painful but it got oxygen where it was needed.

The liver, abdominal muscles, and skin would have to wait. Lukos was too far gone to help and Lagoniko was still behind his brother, probably waiting for his moment. So she reached out with her mind to call back to life the guardian she has planted for such an occasion

[Andros]

Ajax hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on. One minute his captors were talking about eating his heart, then suddenly everything was chaos. People were shouting, he felt a knife at his throat, then suddenly it exploded and a deep, commanding voice was shouting at him to run.

He thought he was bound, but when he tried to move he found that he could. He took in the scene as he sat up. Alecto was bleeding from a gaping wound, and a big man was shouting at her. Then, suddenly from behind Lukos, he saw Lagoniko jump out at his rescuer and smash him in the left arm with a candlestick. He heard the bone crunch. That was enough to light a fire under him. He jumped off the table, still as naked as the day he was born, grabbed a fireplace poker to defend himself, and ran towards the door.

Lukos, still weeping, moved to stand between him and freedom, however. And he heard a noise from behind him that chilled him to his bones. A roar that seemed to come from the ground below the hearth, getting louder as the dirt and hearthstones began to go flying about.

When he turned around to look, he caught sight of the worst thing he’d ever laid eyes on. Even counting today. Clawing its way out of the ground was an enormous brown bear. Clearly it had been dead for some time. Fur and skin were falling off in chunks and most of its skull was visible.

Ajax struggled not to faint. He may have lost control of his bladder slightly. (It was good he wasn’t wearing anything.) He stared at the rescuer, desperation in his eyes.

“Save us. Please.”

[Hakon]

Hakon switched back and forth between Ethersight and his conventional senses, first to confirm that the woman was using her ability to heal herself, and then in time to see another connection between her nighttorch and something buried in the earth.

"Engraver," he said, each syllable redolent with disgust. They had that in common, but the longer he kept that knowledge from his opponent, the better.

He wasn't lying, either. While Hakon found all mages detestable, he held Grave in more contempt than most. It helped him heal people, chiefly himself, after battles with rogues and iconoclasts, and he was thankful for that. Its other uses, however, he found repugnant.

The captive he hoped was Ajax was a scared looking young man with a handsome face and rich brown hair. He matched the description he'd been given of Ajax, though he hadn't been given much of a description. Still, if he had found him, that would be looked upon favorably. If he could keep them both alive to report the good news, anyway.

He aimed some more galvanized bolts at the trio of captors while keeping a weather eye on whatever it was that was coming out of the soft dirt floor. Due to his distraction, none of them connected with the explosive force of the first, but he hit the woman with glancing blows twice more, and singed the big one's foot, blowing a small crater in it. Hopefully, this would keep them busy, because otherwise, this fight was going from three on one to four on one, with Hakon having the disadvantage of protecting an innocent, to boot.

He drew his mace from his belt, and positioned himself so whatever was scrabbling out of the earth was well-positioned with his mace, while any projectiles the trio managed to menace him with could be deflected with his shield.

"Behind me, quickly!" He directed the man he was going to call Ajax until further notice.

When the grotesque head of the animal erupted from the ground, Hakon took advantage of the fact that it hadn't got its claws free yet to smash it in the head with his mace once, and then again before it freed a long, gangrenous arm. Claws that were barely held together with flesh swiped at him and he pivoted, raising his shield so they slid off. The force of the blow still knocked him back. He knew the technique well enough -- Agony was open to any novice engraver, and this woman was no Novice based on the etheric distribution within her body and how quickly she'd healed herself. Once it freed itself from the ground, it was going to be fast, angry, and aggressive until she revoked the spark of energy animating it. He couldn't count on being able to stun it.

He didn't think he could wrest control of the bear from her, as he doubted his skill matched hers, let alone exceeded it. He was going to have to rely on Brand, and Galvanize it until it was a smoldering pile of rot that was too hard to keep together with Vitescence. Not an elegant solution, but an effective one. The trick would be shaping the bolt and hitting the bear while defending himself and Ajax from the other three miscreants, all while not ending up too injured to carry out his mission.

[Andros]

Alecto heard the bear rise from the floor with satisfaction. The poor dead creature would be able to knock this intruder around, even if her boys were not acquitting themselves especially well thus far. If the bear could wound him beyond his capacity to quickly heal, Alecto and the boys could finish the job.

Lukos proved his limited use quickly, however. The guild mage blew half his foot off - not Lukos’ fault of course - but then, predictably, the big boy devolved into useless rage. Instead of taking his anger out on the intruder, he used a big, meaty fist to smash the table clean in half, then started to cry.

Alecto was presented with a unique challenge. She had to divide her focus three ways. First, she had to keep control of the bear, which was no easy feat. Second, she had to dull Lukos’ pain and return him to the fight. And third, she had to at least keep herself from bleeding out and attempt to fully repair her own damage.

It was a struggle, even with her practiced abilities. The bear got in a good swipe, drawing blood from the enemy, but when she turned her attention to Lukos, the animal lost its direction and simply stood, swaying and groaning in a pathetic way. Actually, the bear resembled Ajax at the moment, swaying and moaning behind the intruder. It would have made Alecto laugh had she been able to notice it.

Lagoniko, still behind his brother, watched carefully. He understood his mother’s power in a way Lukos couldn’t. He expected that she would focus on Lukos and the bear would become aimless, leaving herself and Lukos vulnerable to the intruder - and to Ajax for that matter. He had to act, but carefully. He bided his time, counting the seconds and waiting for an opportunity.

When one came he didn’t miss it. The intruder had taken a step back when the bear swiped at him, presumably trying to avoid another direct hit and trying to himself, if he was in fact a mage - as Lagoniko had deduced. Then the bear started to sway and the intruder took a step forward. This opened up a space between him and Ajax and Lagoniko launched himself into it.

Darting out from behind his brother, Lagoniko got himself in between the two outsiders, victim and rescuer. He barreled directly into Ajax with his shoulder, knocking him hard onto the ground and sending his improvised weapon flying. Then in a fluid motion, he leaped onto the intruder’s back, holding on for dear life and sinking his teeth deep into a muscular shoulder. He couldn’t quite consume his enemy like this - though this certainly whet his appetite - but this would at least keep him away from his mother. The blood gave him energy and he growled like the bloodhound he imagined himself to be.

Ajax felt a lot better when he was behind the big guy. Not safe, not by a long shot, but having this enormous mass between himself and his tormenters gave him solace. He peeked around the man carefully, calling out a warning when it looked like the bear was going to strike, but not in time.