Private Tales Trapped Inside One's Mind

A private roleplay only for those invited by the first writer
Katja shifted uncomfortably, fidgeting with the lace on her boot as she considered his response. The notion of cowardice had burrowed deep within her, yet his words held a strange weight that made her pause. Still, she couldn’t shake her own harsh judgment. She’d made her choices, for better or worse. But Alistair… here he was, facing death with a grace that she couldn’t fathom.

“There’s not much to tell about me,” she said, her voice almost too quiet. It felt strange, almost forbidden, to share pieces of herself. She hadn’t spoken this freely in ages—it was as if she’d forgotten how to converse about anything outside of orders and silence.

She glanced up at him before dropping her gaze back to her boots. “I was… very sick once, and my father brought me to Evander. He saved my life. I owe him for that. So… I stay.” Her voice wavered slightly, but she steadied it. “He keeps me here as part of his work, as… payment.”

She swallowed, surprised by the vulnerability she’d let slip. But as she looked at him, she dared to ask, “And you? How did you end up here?” Her head tilted, watching for his reaction, wondering what had led a man like him into Evander’s clutches.
 
If Alistair wasn't in an incredible amount of pain and, simultaneously, high on a pain killer then he would have burst out laughing at her story. Not because he did not sympathize with her, but it was the irony of it all.

"You know that makes you the second person I've met serving a life debt to a dark mage."

There wasn't really anything funny about it all, but Al needed to find humor in anything he could at the moment. Of course, that emotion was quickly washed away as he sensed Katja's own demeanor.

"I will say the same thing I told them. Repaying a debt is an honorable endeavor, but... no debt is worth an entire life of servitude." That would leave it to Katja to decide when enough was enough.

As he made himself more comfortable, he had to decide how much he could say to her.

"I came here after my research discovered very strange and dangerous magical energy readings. I came to decide how much of a threat they were...I guess the answer is very."

Katja
 
"I'm not staying here for honour," she shot back, her voice sharper than she intended. "I'm staying here because that was the deal he made." Her fingers dug into the fabric of her skirts, knuckles whitening as she fought to keep herself calm. "Evander has no qualms about using anyone to get what he wants.”

She sighed, her gaze dropping to the cold stone floor as if searching for answers she knew she’d never find. "I don’t care what he does to me,” she muttered. “But if I leave, he’ll go after my family. So I stay."

Her cheeks warmed, but she wasn't ready to apologise for her shift in tone. He was, after all, in a worse predicament than she.

"You can sense that?.." she asked curiously in effort to change the refocus the conversation.
 
Alistair slowly nodded in understanding, getting the sense that he may have been a bit rude. He quickly apologized, "Sorry for misunderstanding...that is very evil sorcerer of him." For a moment, Alistair wondered if he was free he could kill this Evander...maybe with enough preparation, but the man likely had several years of experience with him.

"And yes, I can track the energies with the right rituals. I had gotten lucky before, so I thought I had gotten lucky again. Unfortunately, that did not prove to be the case."

Lucky might have been a strong word. The last time he used these rituals, he discovered Luminor and ended up blind. That wasn't exactly a good day, but every curse had its own benefits. He would not have been able to find Evander without his current vision.

"It's less sense and more see."

Katja
 
Katja snorted and waved off his apology with a faint shrug. "Forget it," she murmured. The concept of honour felt far removed from anything in her life now, but Alistair couldn’t have known that.

She tilted her head, studying him as he spoke about his "luck" in tracking the energies. Seeing them? That threw her. She couldn’t help but glance at his eyes, even if she knew they couldn't see her.

“What do you mean, ‘see’?” she asked slowly, her brow knitting in confusion. “I thought you… well, you mentioned…” She hesitated, unsure if she was being insensitive. "I don't understand." her head tilted.
 
Alistair waved his hand in the air reaching for something that was hard to explain, before waving his hand in front of his eyes.

"I can't see like you or most people see, but I can see...magic. It takes different forms, but all magic gives off a field or aura that I can see. When it interacts with objects in the environment I can see the outlines of those things. So...I can't see you per see, but I can see enough to know that you are a humanoid, and not some giant snake or something." He offered.

He had tried to explain his new-found senses several times before, and each time, he had missed or added something unnecessary, but he was getting the gist of it.

"The chains I am in dampen my mana sensitivity, so things are a little blurry, but there is enough magic in this place for me to see."

Katja
 
Katja managed a quiet laugh under her breath at his mention of giant snake ladies, the tension in her shoulders loosening for the briefest moment. “Oh… well, that’s reassuring,” she said, a trace of amusement softening her usually guarded tone. It was strange, finding any humour in this dark place, but perhaps humour was necessary when everything else was so bleak.

She glanced at the chains binding him, the dampeners carved into the iron glinting dully in the low light. “So even now, in all this...” Her gaze swept around the dim, stone walls and the flicker of torchlight casting shadows, “you can see something? It must be… disorienting.” The thought of seeing the world only through the prism of magic was beyond her imagination, and she wondered what the strange auras might look like, whether they were vivid or faint, chaotic or orderly.

A frown pulled at her lips as she contemplated his situation. “Is that why Evander keeps you here, bound like this?” She paused, something shifting in her expression, a flicker of determination. “Does he know what you can see?” The question was almost rhetorical, but she wanted to understand what dangers Alistair faced, what leverage the dark mage might already have over him.

She exhaled and shook her head. “I still don't understand why you'd willingly come here, if you knew how powerful he was." she frowned, her head tilting.
 
"It definately took some time getting used to it all. Immediately after my accident, I wandered around as if I constantly had the sun shining directly in my eye...It was overwhelming."

Alistair often described it in simple terms, but the information he had to process with his new vision was massive. Not only shapes, distances, and the common factors for regular sight, but now he was noticing the near-constant shifts in mana density, characteristics, or sudden mana flat zones.

"And, he may know if he is really good at guessing. Who can say, but I haven't told him."

He did not make a habit of telling evil people about his sight. That was how he would end up getting his eyes plucked out of his skull, and he had a vague sense that that would hurt. Instead, he often just told people he could see with his runes, which was not even a lie, but he needed his own magic to do that which he did not have at the moment.

"Well when you put it like that I seem rather dumb, but in my defense, I did not realize the powerful magic was coming from a person. I thought it was a natural anomaly that I could study...In hindsight, I probably could have done a bit of scouting, but I was in a hurry."

Katja
 
Katja's eyes narrowed slightly, absorbing his words and piecing together fragments of his story. An accident that left him with this extraordinary and burdensome vision—it piqued her curiosity more than she cared to admit. “An accident?” she repeated.

She shifted on her knees, fingers toying with the laces of her boot as her mind raced. Alistair’s unusual ability could explain why Evander kept him alive, chained but not silenced. The idea that Alistair might see the things even Evander sought but couldn’t perceive made her chest tighten. If Alistair could see portals or veils between realms, Evander might go to great lengths to extract that particular talent.

"I suppose you could see all sorts of things.. Magical items..Illusions.. portals.." she pondered aloud, a hint of question in her tone.

If Alistair could detect such things, then Evander’s ambitions were closer to realisation than she had feared. The fae realm was said to be a wellspring of power, and any means of accessing it would be a dangerous advantage in the wrong hands.

She bit her lip, hoping he would deny it, yet dreading the possibility that he wouldn’t.
 
"Yes, I suppose. I've never seen a portal, but if it has magic then I can see it. Even the faintest traces are noticeable. For example, there are things called Talents, which are people that have really minor gifts that are just extraordinary enough to be considered special, but not rising to the level of being able to do magic. I can even spot most of them."

He had never pushed his abilities to their limit, even though he should. For someone who loved experimentation and study as much as he did, Alistair was always fearful of messing with his eyes more than he already did. If someone were to happen to them then that would be it. He would be well and truly blind. That experience, however brief, had not been fun for the young man and he had no desire to go back.

Judging by Katja's tone, Alistair's talents weren't exactly a good thing given the situation at hand. He let that silence hang for a moment before asking,

"Don't suppose you are having second thoughts about letting me out now?"

Katja
 
“No…” The word left her lips quietly, wavering with hesitation. The truth was more complicated. The thought of freeing him had surfaced countless times, but every time it did, the faces of her family flashed through her mind. The fear of what Evander would do to them kept her rooted in place.

“I’m sorry,” she murmured, a deep frown shadowing her features. “I wish I could do more.” She had already bent the rules, giving him food, water, and numbing his pain. But guilt gnawed at her. It wasn’t enough—not against a man like Evander.

A thought surfaced, tentative but persistent. “Maybe… maybe I don’t need to let you out to help you,” she added, her voice tightening as she grappled with the implications.

“He’s only ever wanted more power,” she continued, bitterness coating each word. She couldn’t just stand by and let him seize it. A tremor of resolve passed through her as she lifted her gaze to meet Alistair’s unseeing eyes, her expression deadly serious. “There’s no other way. Either you need to die before he can use your gifts, or you need to kill him.”
 
The last sentence brought Alistair's brows up in surprise. Clearly the idea did not detest him, he was just surprised that Katja had been the one to offer it.

"Well, I am not the biggest fan of dying and I don't mind killing him."

It would help if he could get his hands on a sword, but all he really needed was his magic to give him a chance. His mind, having been nudged in this direction, was already going at full speed as he tried to calculate all the way that could combat this individual. But the first step in this plan.

"Then, I need these chains to be taken off."

The sooner he was released, the sooner he could not only take apart this estate's defenses before the dark mage returned but also add in a few of his favorite traps...It was all about time.,

Katja
 
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