Fable - Ask Hostage Negotiation[Anirians]

[Elise Virak]

Vel Anir - The Golden Rose

"I am truly sorry that you had to be caught up in this, Lady Virak. Your father would be disappointed in my negligence." The man who spoke wore the black coat of a Dreadlord, the two pins on the sides of his lapels marking him as the rank of a First Level. His gaze held a stoicism to it that spoke to the nature of his words, the cold cut iron of his tone marking that perhaps he was not as sorry as he made out to be. "Nevertheless, your presence here is an assurance that our demands will be met."

Elise sat, like all the others, upon the floor. Her legs were all but disappeared under the long hems of her dress, but somehow the rigidness of her back and the look in her eyes made it seem as though she were the one towering over the speaking man. A sneer of utter contempt derided the Dreadlord, her bright golden eys threatening to burn a hole through the mans head.

"You mistake my presence for a boon, Richard." The seething in her tone would be known to all those around her. Like most attendants of the Golden Rose, the thirty or so men and women now held as Hostages were notables within the city. Elected officials, nobles, and those wealthy enough to enter the famous tea house. Most of them knew Elise well, or at least in passing, and all knew she was famed for her anger. "Everyone knows whoever acquiesces to Gilram's ridiculous demands will earn my ire, and when I'm released I'll skin them alive for not doing as any true Anirian should."

A scoff echoed from the Dreadlord's lips. "Gilram? He has nothing to do with this. The man cares as much for the Old Ways as you do, Lady Virak. Your father would be greatly disappointed."

Another rebuke was forthcoming, but the Dreadlord waved his hand dismissively, turning away and leaving Elise and the other Hostages. The door, the only door, to the store room slamming shut behind him.

Elise fumed for a moment, entirely consumed with rage that she was yet again stuck in a situation she couldn't wriggle her way out of through her own devices. Had she been alone, Richard and the other five would already be dead despite their magics. But the Dreadlords had moved quick, and their stooges even quicker. Before any of the Nobles could act, the doors to the Rose had been sealed shut, those of them who held(publicly known about) magics collared or marked with runes, and the few Guards they had executed.

It was a masterful plot, though just what the bastard was hoping to accomplish remained a mystery. Kidnapping a bunch of notables was surely a way to cause terror, but effective change? She hardly thought so. The Republic would sooner them all die than return to the way things had before, a fact that Richard and his ilk would surely know.

Frowning, Elise hardly noticed the conversation towards the back of the room. "Does anyone have any medical training?"

A voice called out.

"One of the bastards cut Turlin before throwing him in here." Elise turned her head, giving a brief look at Secretary Turlin and noting the deep gash in his side. A slight frown touched her lips, but she did not offer her help. What little medical knowledge she had would hardly be of help, and her focus was better spent on looking for a way out of this.

She knew that outside the Guard would already be in position, zoning off the streets and calling for Dreadlords to render their assistance. It would be unlikely though that they would move immediately, not with this many of high office still inside. That meant there would be a stalemate, and that meant there would be time.

Time for her to figure all of this out.

 

[Perrine Urahil]

Silently, the tall Urahil woman got up and moved to the people situated at the rear of the room, some gathered over the Secretary. "I am a Healer, please, give us some room." Perri lowered herself to her knees, cursing that she did not have proper gear with her, but she had been lucky they had not bothered putting a collar or runes on a lowly Healer of the Fourth Rank.

After all, what harm could a Healer do?

In Perrine's case, she could harm. It was never written in her official files the other side of her healing magic was the ability to inflict pain, she was not given then time to hone that skill after being plucked from the Academy at sixteen years of age and straight into the front lines. Perri could manipulate plenty in a body, but healing costed less of herself than inflicting pain would. She was a gifted Healer at her young age, but in a Great House like the Urahils, it did not give them additional power.

Her hands lifted the clothing to better inspect the wound, clicking her tongue as she got a visual assessment in. "This will scar. Sorry, I will not be able to help that." Cosmetic things like that required more concentration to seamlessly piece the flesh back. She only intended to do a wuick job before they decided to actually dull her magic.

Perrine traced a finger at the opening of the wound, feeling that caked edges of opened flesh through the blood. Magic seeped from her hands, washing over Turlin and began the process of the slow stictching. He winced, but Perri paid no mind to him. "Right now, I am stopping the bleeding, it is best you keep still as my magic does the job."

With a muttered thanks, Perri looked up and gave the Secretary a grim smile.

Great, now her hands were stained with blood and there was no damp towel to wipe them clean. "Oh, I just had to wear white today." This earned some dry chuckles and bemused smiles, and Perri pursed her lips before looking to where Elise Virak sat.

 

[Salak]

"Hostages!?"
Salak all but spat the word in disbelief but he should not have been surprised.
Students going missing and turning up dead. Mysterious border skirmishes, Rogue support reaching new and terrible heights... Vel Anir was practically at war with itself all over again.
The Anirian Guard had created barricade perimeter around the street entrance to The Golden Rose. Folk had begun to gather and in their gathering begin the inevitable spinning of assumptions into gossip.
"Who is in command?"
The guard pointed him towards Captain Nimi. A short woman with a bun of brown hair as tight as her facial features.
She was speaking to some lordling about the matter.
"Captain,"
Salak ignored the lordling's gasp of protest.
"... My name is Salak, Dreadlord of the 4th Rank. Do we know who the aggressors are and who they have taken hostage?"
She told him what she knew. What had been confirmed at least and mercifully had not bunged his head with notions. Salak decided that he liked the Captain on the spot.
"Virak, wait Urahil? You are certain?"
The head of the house was away with his wife and their attendants, those enrolled in the Academy were either already on mission or still on the grounds meaning...
"Perrine, damnation what are you doing in there?"

Elise Virak
Perrine Urahil

 

[Elise Virak]

Elise scanned the room.

The Golden Rose had been an institution in Vel Anir for nearly as long as the city had existed. At one point starting as a simple saloon, as the metropolis had grown, so had the little cafe. Over time it became not just a building, but something of a place of political import. Everyone who was anyone could get a table here, and that made it important.

Striking here had been smart, but it also left quite a bit of room for maneuvering. Elise had been coming to this building since she'd been a little girl. She knew the walls better than most, and certainly more so than Richard and his ilk.

After a moment she found what she was looking for, a small smile touching her lips.

"You, girl!" She barked at Perrine Urahil, remembering her face, though not her name. It seemed at times the Urahil's all somewhat blended together. She could see the boy that Liliana was marrying in this ones features, but pulling her from all the other blonde threads seemed impossible to her at the moment. "Come here."

Elise hissed, motioning quickly to the girl. "Quickly now."

They didn't have all day.

 

[Perrine Urahil]

Perrine got to her feet in an instant, crossing the room and towering above those that sat as instructed by those that moved them all to this location.

She did not move to sit, choosing to stay standing in preparation for anything. Perri lifted a blonde brow at the woman. "Need assistance too, Lady Virak?" Had she been scratched or harmed? She went to brush her jacket out of habit but stopped herself, the blood still wet and gleaming at her hands. There was not much else to do with them, her mouth scrunching to one side in distaste.

"For your hands." A clean handkerchief was lifted to her hands, and Perri looked down to smile her appreciation. It was silk, one of the finest qualities and designs. Such kindness, but perhaps they could afford to waste one handkerchief.

 

[Salak]

"No. That's not happening."
Salak had been more than patient with the young lordling. House Veer or some such he said, kept saying. He could be King Rixas the third for all Salak cared.
"You are not going in."
The lordling huffed and threatened and shouted and did all the things a dog might do except actually bite.
"I have told you, no."
The lordling all but burst in anger. Salak sword he saw his cheeks inflate. He had never seen anyone so upset about a cancelled dinner reservation.
Mercifully the Captain called him back to her and away from this foolishness.
"Captain Nimi, anything to report?"
The best news he'd heard all day came from the Captain's lips.
One of them seemed about ready to talk.
"At last."

Perrine Urahil
Elise Virak

 

[Elise Virak]

”No.” Elise answered bluntly as she reached down and began to tear away the end of her dress. Ripping the soft overlaying fabric one piece at a time as she shortened the length of her skirts. Some of the women around her letting out gasps as she flung the scraps onto the floor.

”And don't use that.” She said, gesturing to the handkerchief and then to Perrine’s bloody hands. ”Richard isn't fool enough to think the Republic will actually give him what he wants.”

There was no reason to say that to the girl, it was very unlikely she knew Richard's name or anything about him other than the fact he was their captor. But at this point Elise was more thinking out loud than offering any real explanation, at this point Perrine was little more than a sounding board for the noble. ”He must be after something else.”

And to find out what, she had to get out of this room.

”Clean your hands here.” Elise ordered, using one hand to smooth her dress just by her abdomen. Directing the young Urahil to smear the blood almost exactly where the wound had been that she had just healed moments ago.

 

[Perrine Urahil]

Perrine dropped the handkerchief back onto the lap of the lord that offered it to her, and held her hands up, careful not to let them touch anything else. She lowered herself to her knees, hands wiping in the area indicated by the Baroness. "Richard had never struck me as someone brave enough to carry out his own ideas." Perrine flicked her periwinkle eyes to meet the golden hues of the Virak woman. "At least, that is what I observed being dispatched on his team in the past." She shrugged.

Perrine was only a Fourth Rank, but carved her way with connections with the right people within the Dreadlord, Guard, and elite Anirian society. The Dreadlord that spoke to Lady Virak before closing the door to their only exit only thought lowly of the Healer. His mistake for forgetting she survived graduation at the Academy before the Revolution.

"Hm, absolutely morbid." She said of her bloody artwork upon Elise's dress. "Shall I open up a vein from the Secretary again? Add some more vibrancy?" Perri was curious of this plan.

Salak Elise Virak

 

[Salak]

Salak stood outside the hideous decor of The Golden Rose and waited for whoever would dare show themselves.
He leaned heavy on his cane and glared at the approaching figure.
A younger man than he came to the door but not so close as to be a target, with a look in his eye that spoke to cunning, how much and what form remained to be seen.
"You are surrounded, you have no hope of escape should things turn desperate. So why don't you release the hostages and we can talk this over like gentlemen?"
He did not expect the younger man to do it, in fact he was rather hoping they would do something reckless that he might have an excuse to obliterate him with poisons and sift through the remains to revive the Hostages.
But things were never so easy.

Elise Virak
Perrine Urahil