Whitestone: The Gap Year Begins

[whitestone_npcs]

The two come to consciousness, with no memory of what preceded the unconsciousness, in the middle of a cluster of trees. An orchard, branches laden with pink and white blossoms, tucked against the white stone wall of a castle.

It's a bright spring morning, sunlight spilling down from a clear blue sky. There doesn't seem to be anyone around besides the two of them, at least not immediately.

Comments

[mistertwister]

"Yeah, yeah, we comply," Okie grumbles, shooting Crichton a look that says Right?

"I'll go wherever you want me to, but if you try to drag me I'm gonna throw a fit."

[ss_buttcrack]

"Yeah, we're going quietly," Crichton confirms. He's keeping his hands where everyone can see them as he shuffles forward.

"Any chance we aren't headed directly to a prison cell right now?"

[whitestone_npcs]

"I'd say a pretty good chance," the guard says judiciously as the others fall into step around them, "so long as neither of you makes a violent move. Where you are headed right now is inside, for the captain to have a look at you."

The guards walk them across the courtyard, up a broad paved path, and then indoors and down a flight of stone stairs. A younger guard is waiting just inside the door, and goes running off after a muttered word from the first guard.

They wind up in a windowless room, furnished only with a couple of plain chairs and a table. (Crichton will not recognize this space as the dungeon he's seen here once before, in a memory -- but he wouldn't be wrong if he were to guess that it's on the way there.) The guards don't invite them to sit, but won't stop them if they make to do so.

It isn't long before the captain shows up, a burly, middle-aged man with straw-colored hair going silvery at the temples. "Right," he says, looking from one of the new arrivals to the other, "what's your story, then?"

[mistertwister]

God he wishes he could talk to a lawyer. Okie puts himself against wall, if allowed.

"The short an' easy version," he starts, slowly, "is that the two of us are very far from home an' don't know how we got from where we were to where we are." He's gonna use up all his elegance quickly, at this rate.

[ss_buttcrack]

Is it weird that a guard acting reasonably is somehow a novelty? Here's hoping this captain follows that pattern. For now, he's willing to see where it goes. Worst comes to worst, he does happen to know a secret way out of the dungeon thanks to Cass.

He grabs one of those chairs and turns it around so he can straddle it. His fingers drum anxiously on the backrest. "My friend here has summed it up nicely. I'll add that I know of this city because I've visited once before but that was a while ago. Don't know how we got here this time, but we didn't come to make trouble. Only things we have to our names are the clothes on our backs. We could use a little help." Is he leaning into that to try and get some sympathy? You bet your ass he is. They're going to need somewhere to sleep tonight and they don't have any cash.

[whitestone_npcs]

"A little help," repeats the captain, almost tonelessly. "What did you have in mind?"

"Captain ..." One of the guards steps toward him, and lowers his voice, not quite out of range of hearing. "This is some kind of magic bullshit, isn't it? Two men pop up out of nowhere, no one sees them come?"

The captain gives the younger man a narrow look. "Yes, so?" he mutters.

"So shouldn't someone tell the Lady de Rolo?" the guard persists, still low-voiced.

It wouldn't be clear to anyone not paying very close attention, but something in the captain's face darkens with some unspoken worry. "We'll see," is all he says, no louder.

[mistertwister]

"I'd take no jail time, for a start." He's too nervous not to be a little sarcastic.

He tries not to jump at the name. He tries to be ready for if she doesn't recognize them. He hopes the disappointment won't show if she sees him without knowing him.

[ss_buttcrack]

"That, and maybe a little bit of charity if you can spare it..."

He eyes that guard, worried about what news this could bring, but he isn't prepared to hear Cassandra's name. His lips twitch and pull tight. Never did have a great poker face. If she's here then... will she know them? He's not getting his hopes up.

[whitestone_npcs]

He glances back and forth between them, his gaze sharpening at the way their faces change. "I take it that's a name you know. When was it you said you were here before, mister ...?" Focusing on Crichton, with a look rapidly darkening toward suspicion.

But before Crichton can answer, the door opens again from outside and yet another younger guard leans in. "Sir," he says in quick low tones, "the Lady --"

Behind him, rather louder -- though with a possibly alarming note of strain to it -- comes a voice both Crichton and Okie will recognize. "The Lady will announce herself, thank you, Lewis."