Private Tales Breaking the Silence

[Zinnia]

In that regard Zinnia agreed. There were going to be several issues, though.
"It's g-going to be a nightmare to escape. This place is c-crawling with pirates..." she spoke in low tones, eyes out for unwanted listeners.
"Not to mention...we didn't stand a ch-chance when we had our magic and gear...how are we g-getting out without them?"

Was it even possible? Bound as they were, without the convenience of a single ally within the Black Fortress, the task felt absolutely hopeless.
"We need some k-kind of edge..."

 

[Caeso Diemut]

...how are we g-getting out without them?

"The task before us is monumental, but the alternative..."

Caeso cut himself off there. It didn't need to be stressed again what would happen if they found themselves back inside this cell before the night's end.

Zinnia mentioned some kind of edge, and with their task as daunting as it was it could be hard to imagine any sort of advantage being theirs to claim. But cool and collected heads were needed, not ones given to despair or fear, and to that end a recounting, however small, would be beneficial.

"We will be let out of his cell—that, first and foremost, is the fortune which will allow for all others. Within these bars we have no chance, but outside them? In this we can take some heart."

He tried to model the situation in his head, continuing, "So they will take us out, lead us through these labyrinthian halls to wherever the self-styled 'Lord Admiral' is resting his feet. The size of the fortress is enormous, and though this works against us in some ways, it does give us time and chance for opportunity as Nadia leads us. And, I suspect, the complacency of our escort will be at its highest on the return trip from our meeting with the Admiral. Best of all, after the meeting is done, we will no longer be expected, and in this lies one sole edge we can reliably claim, especially if we can manage to kill our escorts rather than merely slip away."

It was, in effect, a portal into the shadows through which they could slip, their disappearance, should they find success in all efforts at stealth, going unnoticed until someone else finally came to check up on them in their cell and found that they simply were not there.

Lastly, Caeso said, "And have you heard, Zinnia, the three tollings of the bells? At least once a day do these sound, and I believe they herald the opening and closing of Cerak At'Thul's iron gates—this perhaps for the purpose of regular business. If this is so, then we will know when our window for escape from the fortress walls has come."

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

She continued to nod her understanding. What Caeso was saying made a lot of sense, and he did seem to have a solid plan. Or at least the basis of one...maybe, just maybe, this could work. Freedom could be wrestled back from the jaws of this horrible place.

"I...have n-noticed, yes...why would they be so r-regular about the gates, I wonder?"

While she contemplated that rather important question, Zinnia felt a disturbance begin to rustle about atop her head. After a few moments, her hood began to wiggle, then lose its shape. The whole thing became enveloped in a dim, sparkling light, and when the glow subsided there was instead a creature no larger than Zinnia's head sitting atop her hair.

It stretched like a cat and blinked, looking about the room curiously. Caeso would likely recognize it from their earlier debacle in Vel Yuna: the critter that the townsfolk had informed her was a local rarity, a so-called "haterpillar." Zinnia had become so accustomed to it that she often would forget which of her hoods was the creature and which was real. Seemed she'd grabbed the haterpillar when they'd left the Academy days prior.

"...Ah, r-right. I think we've got an-nother ace in the hole, after all."

 

[Caeso Diemut]

"What in the forgotten name of Anirius is that," was Caeso's initial reaction, flatly stated in his supreme bewilderment as the haterpillar made its abrupt appearance. Then he remembered. "Oh...that regrettable incident in Vel Yuna...yes, now I recall."

Apparently Vel Yuna had a certain reputation for revelry and overindulgence in drinking to go along with its consistent plague of small problems which drew in inappropriately large groups of Initiates for missions there. Caeso couldn't fathom how precisely such a reputation had come to be, whether it was continuously instantiated more by the townsfolk or by the Initiates who went on missions there (or even by some sly scheme of the Proctors' making, not unlike the brothel visits of old to "de-stress" Initiates), but Caeso, Zinnia, and their group were no exception. And that is where Zinnia had come into the possession of the strange creature which had, much like the stories of so-called "mimics" and treasure chests, by habit shapeshifted into the form of her hood.

"What can that thing do?" Caeso said, genuinely curious, for so dire was their situation that any potential ace in the hole was welcome. "Have you by chance managed to train it?"

Zinnia

 

[Zinnia]

Zinnia nodded, and the pile of legs and fluff atop her head bobbed with her. The thing made a soft cooing noise and stretched its limbs.
"It--he, has been s-something of a constant comp-panion to me since then."
She'd studied up on the creature somewhat, both asking the citizens of Vel Yuna that were familiar with the insects as well as reading about them in the Academy's archives. Or, at least, what little information there was.

"H-he mostly just turns into h-headwear, but I have been d-doing a bit of training with him during my f-free hours." she nabbed a small chunk of moldy bread off the floor and lofted her bound hands up to the haterpillar. It began to softly moosh its mouth parts around her fingers, emitting a sound that one might easily take for a purr. For a creature as alien as it seemed, it was surprisingly docile (and food motivated).

"I've gotten him to g-glow really bright on c-command, and he can spit what I th-think is silk," she turned her head parallel to Caeso and poked the larval layabout in the side. A squeak and a squelching noise preceded a thick strand of stringy, white material firing from its mouth, splatting against the wall Zinnia had turned her head towards. "He's a p-pretty good shot, too."

 

[Caeso Diemut]

A bright glow and the spinning of silk, neither quite the unexpected miracle Caeso was tacitly hoping for. Still, as the saying went, beggars could not be choosers, and never before in Caeso's life did he feel like beggar than in this cell, deep in the dark fortress of Cerak At'Thul.

He worked with it in his mind for a moment, trying to game out different scenarios. In the end he concluded, "The best, I suppose, we can hope for from the creature is a shot of silk to the eyes. Nadia's eyes, mayhap."

The bright glow? Caeso couldn't see any practical use for it. He dispensed with it for now, not knowing the niche use for it he and Zinnia might well stumble upon.

From down the hallway, the heavy clanking of locks and metal doors opening.

Caeso shot a glance to Zinnia.

Their moment, ready or not, would soon come.

Zinnia