#rescuemiriam

((ok!))

Zara gently opens the door, barely cracking it to allow access.

The room is clearly not meant for a warm welcome, a classic dungeon cell, her eyes may narrow as she sees the small table with...shall we call them tools? Instruments for digging into flesh painfully, for lifting fingernails, for stressing points.

Some of them show signs of bloody use

And recent at that.

She narrows her eyes, a soft hiss escaping. "They'll pay for that."

Earl himself is stripped to his waist, his bloody fingers showing...well, he'll be able to paint again after he's tended to. One of his horns looks cracked as if a strong blow my cause it to finally crumble. He hangs from the wall in odd shackles with sphynx designs on them...and no keyholes.

"Oh.. oh, no... no, no, no... that klafte...." She crosses the room swiftly, cool fingertips reaching to touch his bloody ones,

Ginny says "Like a carrie carpenter song"

"It's you, really you," He says relieved.

His voice is rasping now.

"Aye, and a friend. Are these why you didn't wayfare out? Must be, yes..." A ginger touch of his poor horn, and then she turns to examining the cuffs.

"I would not leave thee with her, no."

The cuffs cut into his flesh. As she touches one shackle, it whispers "A poison of the soul, passion's cruel counterpart; from love she grows till love lies slain. Of what do I speak?"

"Jealousy....greedy, grasping, insidious. And a liar, oft. Desdemona's bane, for her handkerchief was unstained."

The left shackle falls open and his torn and bloody wrist comes free

the right lingers...and as she touches it " No man has seen it but all men know it. lighter than air, sharper than any sword. Comes from nothing, but will fell the strongest armies. Of what do I speak?"

She tilts her head, considering. "sharper... comes from... oh, from nothing!"

"Hunger."

And her lover falls into her arms freed from the shackles and the wall, Ginny helps her sister steady him.

"Shhh, shh..." She strokes his hair.

"I..they ...golnaz, she's waiting for you...not here, other place... a trap. don't go there" He says blurry, drugged still though that is fading. He is weak though

She nods. "Aye. She gave me a map. But I had pieces of thee to guide my way."

Ginny eyes an small alcove in the wall.

"I lost my charm... Cassandra? What seest thou?"

She points to a well (But not well enough) camouflaged box "a chest of treasures?"

"Do you think it is safe to retrieve, or a trap? We must needs depart with some haste. He is injured, and there are guards..."

Ginny bends down, and unlatches it in answer. Within are some of Earl's things. Including armor, sword, and more.

"The sword, aye. Useful."

Ginny nods, then frowns... Zara sees it too. There's small addition to the sword, almost undectable, a ring around the hilt that blends.

"That.... is not right." She kens the foreign ring.

It takes her a moment to realize, it's meant for tracking, tracing, and spying. It will allow them to spy on earl and see what he sees while he carries it

A faint sniff. "Feh."

And she looks to take it OFF.

That she can do, it is not the strongest part of the blade after all, and she has tools of torture that work just find for prying it off of there. it will warp the ring if she does...(But I assume that's not a problem)

She actually seems to take a perverse pleasure in marring the ring....

and if it breaks?

It snaps and the glamour seethes almost hissing out of it as it is broken

"Oh, how clumsy..."

A giggle from Ginny., well, something like it but lighter.

"They messed with my sword? " Earl says "I..what's going on?" Having trouble focusing

"We are rescuing you. But you might need to help soon."

"It's a good thing I'm secure in my masculinity" Earl mutters/Ginny shoots Earl a look , then glances to Zara "once he is healed, you should chastise him yes?"

"Oh..." A flash of guilt, and she reaches up to touch Earl's cheek. "Aye, love. But we need to make haste. And I cannot carry thee..."

"I'll be fine." He says setting his jaw "Let's..let's get out of here." He does take the sword to hide, it veils him, "Who is..." A look to Ginny "Wait ,a friend. Sorry. Hard to think. lead on?"

"She helped me. Mayhaps to Firnost?"

"Well, OUT first, and then..."

"I can portal passage I think... circles are simple, I can do circles." he says

Ginny looks at him concerned, and wipes the blood from the tools on a white cloth before handing them to Zara, "A woman's pressed flowers are a personal thing."

She touches her chin and drops her hand - a symbol of thanks. "Aye."