Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree

(Night! Gosh I love this RP so much :' ) )

Ky smiled a bit. She'd been dreading going to Serpent's Keep. She didn't have any idea at all about what this whole war was about, but, she'd decided Loquitur was nice. Which meant that Ash must not be. Because two nice men didn't go to war with each other. But now, she didn't have to worry about that. It was Aleth's choice to go to Ash. Let him go. She wanted no part of it. She, and Aaki, and Harold would be nice and warm and fed and safe at Caracal.

"I mean..." Ky shrugged a bit, not wanting to contradict him, but also not quite sure he fully understood the magnitude of Aleth's empire. She pressed the snow against her abdomen harder, wishing she could pull her hand away to wring them, as she stared at the blanket in front of her. "I know who his mercenaries are. How to code and decode his messages. Who he's had killed, or robbed, or kidnapped -- and who paid him to do it. Who and where his informants are. How he sends and receives information and money."

She took a deep breath. She shouldn't be admitting all of this. If Loquitur didn't know what Aleth did -- didn't know what she knew -- she should just let it stay at that. But, her allegiance was quickly switching.

"I could see how it could be helpful." She shrugged again, picking at the blanket with her free hand. "I'm just far more scared of Aleth than I could ever possibly be of anyone else. So it never works... Well, almost never."

She glanced up at Loquitur. "No one's ever asked me..." She quickly looked away and rubbed her abdomen. Loquitur had gotten that information out of her. And, fairly easily at that. He hadn't threatened. Or bribed. Just offered to get her something more comfortable and she spilled her guts.

"Aleth would rather I die than tell you any of that." She looked up to meet Loquitur's gaze. A sudden pang of boldness ran through her. Here she was, sitting and chatting with a noble as if they were old friends. She didn't have to be scared of Loquitur to tell him all of it. He was rescuing them from Aleth, information was the least she could give in return. "But, well..." She glanced around, still uneasy that Aleth might be somewhere nearby. But then she looked back at Loquitur, voice small when she finished. "Fuck Aleth. Sir."

(also, fyi, she will lose her absolute shit if a servant walks in or something right then xD Ky talk a big game, but it don't go very deep lol)

(Same a hundred times over! And we do have that soup to deliver, don't we?)

"That's the spirit!" Tomhas said with a grin. "Fuck him." At that moment a maid entered the infirmary with two bowls of steaming soup on a tray.

Ky returned the smile, but it was gone in an instant as the door swung open. Sheer terror surged through her. This was it. She was dead. She'd been progressively letting her guard get lower. Listening to Loquitur talk a big game in the hall. Siding with him over Aleth. Letting secrets slide and getting happy at Kylia. And now she'd gone and done the worst thing yet: said something that would embarrass Aleth. It was incriminating.

And now here he was.

The game was over now. Loquitur had been baiting her and she'd fallen for it, and now she was going to die. Forget the infirmary. She'd fucked up. This was the worst thing she'd ever done in her entire life. And she was going to die for it. Slowly.

She leapt off the bed. She uncrossed her legs and had just enough wit about her she kept from kicking Harold, but she bolted off the bed, stumbling with the sudden change of position as she whirled towards the door. She stumbled backward over Alex's abandoned chair, sending it clattering to the ground as the back of her legs from her thighs down to her calves stung from the chair scraping them. She fell backward, chest so tight she couldn't breathe, entire body tense and tears in her eyes.

Tadaaki had been watching the exchange between Ky and Loquitur in dumbfounded silence. She was saying way too much. What if Loquitur and Aleth were in cahoots somehow? And everything they said was going straight back to Aleth?

Panic stabbed through him as the door opened, body tense as he sprang up to a sitting position so fast the blankets dumped into the floor, his head snapping towards the door. He barely caught Ky in time as she fell towards his bed. He grabbed both of her upper arms and pulled her towards him protectively, ignoring the way it made his ribs ache.

They both stared stupidly as a maid walked in instead of Aleth, brains not quite able to comprehend what it meant, yet.

The maid blinked, jerking back in surprise as both Tadaaki and Ky surged upward. Tomhas was on his feet in an instant, looking between the maid and the two frightened people. He held up his hands quickly.
"Everything's fine," he said. "It's okay." He turned to the maid. "I'm sorry about that. Thank you, I'll take it from here." He took the tray and ushered her out. The maid moved toward the door reluctantly, still staring at Ky and Tadaaki. "Thank you thank you thank you." Tomhas nudged her. "You can go. Just--" He got her out the door and shouldered it shut, still holding the tray, then huffed out a sigh. "Ugh. I'm sorry, you two."

They both sat panting as they watched Loquitur shoo the maid away. It was... just a maid? Not Aleth?

As the panic subsided, it was replaced with an equal amount of chagrin. Tadaaki turned loose of Ky. She stood the rest of the way up, wiping the tears from her eyes. Both of them felt very, very stupid.

"Sorry," Ky said breathlessly, bending down to grab the blanket and toss it back on Tadaaki's bed, then she righted the chair. She took a shallow breath, shakily walking back to her own bed, and sat down. "I'm sorry. I didn't--" She swallowed hard. There was no way to explain away what she'd just done. "I'm sorry."

"It's alright." Tomhas brought the tray over. "I should have asked her to knock. You're okay, though. Everything is fine." He set the tray on the nightstand and took one of the bowls, offering it to Tadaaki first.

"Thank you, sir." Tadaaki was also flushed with embarrassment. They weren't supposed to show their fear of Aleth in front of anyone -- and certainly not in front of a nobleman. And now, it wasn't even Aleth. Loquitur probably thought they were both so stupid.

Ky settled back against the headboard of her cot, still panting, and grabbed the snowpack that she'd dropped in her panic. She pressed it against her still-stinging thigh, eyes fixed on the door in dreadful anticipation of what might come through it next.

Harold had leapt off the bed the second Ky had gotten up and tumbled to the floor clumsily. He had picked himself up indignantly and then clambered up Alexander's pant leg to rest on his shoulder again. He looked at Ky with narrowed eyes, tongue half out.
"Would you like your soup now or later, Ky?" Tomhas asked. "It definitely needs a little time to cool down but it might feel nice on the hands."

"I--ah--" Her brain was barely processing what he'd said, chest still heaving, no matter how much she tried to make herself calm down. It was fine. Did Aleth even know where they are? ... He did. Aleth knew everything. All the time. But, Loquitur was here with them.

"Sorry," she murmured, shaking herself. "Sorry." She looked up at Loquitur, unclenching her fists and turning towards him a bit so she could take the soup if he held it out, even though her brain wouldn't quite process how to answer his question. "Thank you."

Tomhas sat back down. "Nothing to apologize for." He glanced at the pile of food sitting on the bed beside Tadaaki. "Right, so if you're alright with it I'm going to leave you two to rest. Alexander won't let anyone in, don't worry. I'll be back in about three hours to take Ky to see Aleth's beating, but for now I have a bit more business to attend to." He didn't want to leave them; it was obvious both were still extremely on edge even in the safety of the infirmary, but he needed to speak with Constance and Arianna about the plan going forward.

"Of course, thank you," Ky murmured as she held on to the bowl of soup, shoulders slowly starting to relax. Loquitur had mentioned Michael before, so he probably understood how she felt, at least a bit -- but she still felt so stupid for such an overreaction.

"Thank you," Tadaaki mirrored, nodding.

Tomhas got to his feet, giving a small nod. "Have a good rest, you two. Hopefully it'll be smooth riding from here on out." He opened the door, bowed slightly, then stepped out of the infirmary.

Ky and Tadaaki ate in silence for a few moments after he left, keeping their gaze and attention focused on the soup. It was good. It filled them with warmth and relief and dumped some of the life back into them.

Ky kept thinking about what she'd done. She felt so stupid. What had that reaction served? Even if it had been Aleth, so what? Jumping off her cot wouldn't have changed anything. It just made her look as weak as she was. She looked over at Tadaaki. "Well, that was embarrassing."

"I was scared too," he answered gruffly, flushing and shrugging. He wanted to comfort her. To assure her that no one thought worse of her for it. And, it was true for him -- he didn't blame her even a tiny bit. His heart had done the same as her body's reaction. "Now I just feel dumb."

(Skip to when Aleth gets wrekt?)

(works for me!)