Private Tales Misappropriation

[Kaeden Banick]

Kaeden’s calls were answered by Niamh’s protests and banging from the outside.

“Great, they’re shy,” Kaeden claimed.

Sitting back down, Kaeden told Amos, “Yeah, I’ve been... recycling... the crystals.”

They could not use them for their projects once shattered, anyway.

With Niamh appearing more or less conscious, Kaeden asked her, “You okay? Everything working in there? You look like a mess.”

Whether or not Niamh gave a reply, Kaeden would inform Amos, “Depends on what you call ‘easy.’ There are a few service tunnels and with the right ‘donation,’ the maps just... appear.”

Giving a shrug, Kaeden justified such a thing with, “I was planning to use them to get some goods in the warehouse with more... discretion.”

 

[Niamh]

"No." Niamh answered the questions of both Amos and Kaeden. No, she had no memory other than hearing a flicker of some thoughts she couldn't quite understand and the dart in her hand. And no, she was not okay. Even with her stupid brother shouting at their kidnappers, it was too damn quiet. "Just get these chains off of me and I'll be good."

She shifted slightly, groaning as she did so as she had the sudden realization of how sore she was. Apparently she'd hit the ground harder than she thought.

"What exactly are you two doing that would attract people from so far away?" Niamh raised a brow, looking back and forth between the two before quietly continuing on some pointless rant. "I knew I should have told our father to fuck off when he suggested I come visit. You need to learn the value of hard work. Bullshit...Get. Me. Out. Of. These. Fucking. Chains. Now."

 

[Amos]

"Ah, a lovely sentiment." Amos said with no hint of sarcasm or repute for his friend. "Letting nothing go to waste."

The smile on his face faded quickly through as Niamh' offered a swift rebuke. Insisting that the two scientists free her as soon as possibly. He offered her a brief, and faltering, apolog before he quickly began to slide the slivers of crystal into the lock of her collar.

His focus shifting for a brief moment as Kaeden mentioned the tunnels beneath Vel Zaphris. "I suppose that makes sense."

Amos agreed, not entirely sure he liked the idea of someone at the University being bribed in order to help in a kidnapping. Hopefully, they did not know the full extent of things. He thought better of those they worked alongside. Though there was no shortage of jealousy at the University.

The thought soured him for a moment, his eyes glancing back to Niamh.

"We are working on bringing magic to the people." He said, still being rather vague. "Making lives easier, not ju-"

He interrupted himself suddenly as the latch on the door creaked, his hand instantly moving to cover up Niamh's neck as the door at the back of the wagon began to open.

 

[Kaeden Banick]

Kaeden did not get a chance to reply to Niamh or add anything else to Amos's words before the back of the wagon began to open.

Light poured into the cell from the outside. To Kaeden's eyes, it would not have been clear on if it was a lanter or the sunlight. Squinting, Kaeden shielded his eyes with a hand and stood up within the cage.

"Hi? Hello?" Kaeden called out, "Great to finally meet you..."

It was not great.

 

[Niamh]

“Bringing magic to the people? Are you two mad?” She spoke over Amos, raising a brow as she questioned him. Had they not been cut off she would have continued. The defensive stance Amos took to cover her neck alerted her more than the creaking of the door.

She held still, except for her eyes which wandered past her brother to the sudden beaming of light. If Amos could work silently and quickly, she might have been able to pick up on something that could help them but of course her brother seemed hell bent on getting them all killed.

 

[Amos]

Amos blinked rapidly as the door opened and sunlight cast into their tiny cell. His lips thinned almost instantly, one hand still covering the collar around Niamh's throat while the other came up to shield his eyes from the sun.

Within seconds, a figure came into view, though who they were didn't become any more obvious.

Their face was obscured by a cloth mask, eyes covered by a pair of intricately designed goggles with odd black lenses. They wore a skin tight uniform of the same material as their mask, though heavy plates of what appeared to be steel covered various vulnerable parts of their body.

In the figures hand was a long staff, and as Kaeden spoke the figures head turned. "Spušti se!"

The figure gestured with the odd staff, pointing to the ground just to the side of him. Stepping to the left slightly to give Kaeden and the others to crawl out of the tiny box.