live from minrathous

[ebeje]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Max
RECIPIENT: Everybody
WHAT: Max has some vital information about the Inquisition members who were taken captive by the Venatori
WHEN: A few days after everybody else got out of Minrathous, waves hands about timelines
WHERE: Minrathous
NOTES: This is gonna be a free-for-all, please threadjack at will. Max won't be able to respond for long, but feel free to use this post for IC brainstorming too!

[ Since Minrathous fell, Max has remained safe only because she has remained secret, holed away in a Tevene cellar with too much wine she can't drink and a sending crystal she dares not use, at least not when her rescuer is within earshot. Her gratitude extends only so far toward trust. She listens when she can, she'd spoken to John if only to tether herself to something solid again, but she hasn't let her voice across the crystal network -- until now. ]

Are all of the sending crystals accounted for?

[ She sounds a tad stressed. It's possible they won't know. Or can't know. She doesn't have time for either of those answers. ]

To the best of our knowledge -- have the crystals belonging to those who did not escape the city been destroyed?

I have news from the north. [ The important sort. The sort that will be made useless or worse, should the wrong ears overhear it. ] There is not much time.

Comments

[hornswoggle]

What's happening?

[ lbr he knows what's happening. ]

[ebeje]

There are rumors in the city. I encouraged my benefactor to substantiate them, but-- it may be that this is all he obtains.

[ It may be that he does not return. It has been long enough that the possibility has begun to loom. The next face she sees may not be a friendly one. But that has been a risk every day, and there's nothing to be gained in giving it voice. ]

Three people are said to have been taken to the palace. A woman, two men, and a-- [ Well, this would be utterly ridiculous if she hadn't already glimpsed it in the halls, ] a small dragon.

[sorcerised]

[ He was going to talk generally, but then he heard dragon, and-- ]

Charis. Adalia's dragon, it has to be him. Which means the woman is most likely her. Both have been missing.

Has...has anyone said what's supposed to be happening to them there?

[swordproof]

[ Immediately, Six is on this. She sounds haggard, exhausted, desperate. ]

My sister. They have my sister. She's in the palace?

[sorcerised]

[ Oh no. ]

Six. We'll get her back, we've got to. We'll not let them keep her.

[swordproof]

I will take the entire country alone if I must. I will not abandon her to them.

[tactical_alert]

That isn't going to be necessary.

Although, getting back in is going to be a problem. Back into the city in the midst of upheaval and chaos, that should prove fine enough. [in comparison, at least, to:] Getting back into the palace? That's a far different story.

[sorcerised]

Not to mention, they'll expect us. They'd have to know we wouldn't leave our people there to become an asset for them, or to speak our secrets. Even if they don't guess at any sentiment, they'll know that.

We need to get in without them noticing. Somehow.

[ebeje]

[ A pause, wherein Max considers saying what she actually imagines the Venatori are doing to them and neatly curbs the impulse. If this friend of the mage woman's isn't imagining the same yet, maybe that's a kindness.

And more importantly: ]

The word is that some or all of them have a piece of the Fade in them--and that Corypheus intends to use it.

[ That is a bigger problem than anyone's friends' lives. ]

[sorcerised]

Adalia's definitely a Rifter.

[ He can't speak for the others, but he can confirm it for her. The thought makes him feel sick. ]

Thank you for getting the word out. Are you safe, for the time being?

[hornswoggle]

[ well, it was nice knowing those people ig ]

What about you?

[ So they've lost three and a dragon (??) to the palace. But Max is still free. ]

[ebeje]

[ Oh my god John, please. ]

If my source returns soon I will know he has not been compromised and I will be as safe as I was yesterday. [ And if not, you know, the opposite!! If you don't say it out loud it's not happening. ]

In the meantime, Corypheus may have gained access to at least three of his best hopes to tear more holes in the fucking sky.

[ Priorities, Mr. Silver ]

[hornswoggle]

Well, that's going to be a problem. I'm assuming it'll be enough of one to motivate our comrades to orchestrate a rescue.

[ max will be expendable.

john flips over to private. ]

Max, I don't have a way out for you. There's no foothold for the Inquisition in Minrathous.

private ∞

[ebeje]

[ No one is coming for her.

That's what he's saying, she thinks, and it's such a foolish thought to let drop in her gut, because no one ever comes galloping to her rescue — no one but Anne, who has probably sunk to the bottom of the sea by now because of what Max did, who even if she were still alive would not come for Max now, and Max would not blame her. No one saves her, and that she imagined for a second anyone might (that John, who she betrayed, who owes her nothing, might find her a way out—) is so painfully naive, she almost laughs at herself. At this fear she'd nearly forgotten the taste of. ]

Then I will find my own way from the city. [ No one saves her; she saves herself. ] The Inquisition are not the only allies I can make.

[hornswoggle]

I know.

[ He doesn't doubt her capability. He doesn't doubt that Max could eventually spin the right kind of lies to get herself out of this situation, but he fears she won't find purchase quickly enough.

And they are painfully out of their element. John's considerable gifts cannot stretch far enough to combat the unrest Max is in the center of, even if he were willing to divulge them. ]

If I can think of something, I will. That's the best I can do.

[hassaran]

Benefactor?

[ebeje]

I was offered shelter by a man with a position in the palace. A Laetan. He risks-- much [ A family. Children, even now asleep upstairs. ] Since he is not aware I have means to contact the Inquisition so swiftly, I find it unlikely his information is any deliberate misdirection.

[ It could still be wrong, but. Hopefully not a trap. ]

[hassaran]

Wise of you to keep that to yourself. What is his position in the palace? Could he tell us where in the complex the prisoners are held?