Snippet #1445767

As soon as Ser Sev had rejoined her assigned partner for the evening, Jasper had faded into the backdrop, knowing very well that Tiaryn (and Ryuu) had little intention of keeping up the farce for long. That gave him a rather limited amount of time. Excusing himself from the assortment of nobles that had quite suddenly reappeared as soon as he was no longer elsewhere occupied, he beat a hasty (albeit stealthy) retreat through some corridors to the guest area again. He'd passed a door, half-open with some familiar belongings inside it, and knew it housed his sister and her attendant.

Ah, Habren is going to hate me for this, he mused with a smirk, pulling a piece of parchment from his doublet and setting it atop the bed she doubtless occupied. There was little time now, and certainly not enough for him to explain everything that was going on. This would have to do for now. Of course, his work was far from done, and the window of opportunity small. The Crows, he expected, were well-accustomed to escaping after a job, but the sheer number of people that needed to be dealt with here was something that no organization of assassins had reason to be familiar with.

Of course, his expertise was mostly in solo endeavors of this nature, but he was also used to taking care of an entire ship's crew. He'd studied the structure of the estate on the way in, and paid off the stablehands to keep their horses and other mounts ready to go at any moment. Paranoid, perhaps, but he preferred to think of it as savvy.

He had returned to the ballroom in just enough time to catch the aftermath of the act, and he had signaled those on this floor to exit in the appropriate direction at all due haste, before ducking downstairs to retrieve those still in the cellar. The rest of the escape was fairly straightforward, actually; they moved quickly and as quietly as possible. The darts had been unexpected; he would not have thought security forces would respond so quickly, if that was indeed where the poison had come from. He hastened the group forward after they lost Lisa, though: it was hurry or lose more, after all.

Since the escape proper, he'd made himself rather more scarce than he usually did; he was no Warden, and part of him still believed very strongly that none of this was his business. He'd kept a watchful eye on Valen the day following, firmly refusing to look at Sev. She'd not lose any dignity on his account.

Then all hell had broken loose. He'd been on the opposite side of camp, tending to Valhalla, when Valen drew his blade on Dareth. He knew he wasn't close enough to stop what was happening, and the the following conflict had shocked him quite a bit more than he'd thought anything could anymore. Blysse had disappeared afterwards, and that he did not like. It would be one thing if she only needed to recover from her wounds, but he had a feeling she was shamed by what had happened; why else would it need be a secret? Valhalla had been sent after her the following day; the bird would not return until she did, animal company perhaps easier to stomach than the human kind. He loathed the thought of interfering any more than that, given how far away from the center of all of this he stood.

Now, they were still travelling rather quickly, and he was a bit confused when Sev pulled them up. She explained in short order, though, and the responses seemed to indicate that this was received rather well. He noted that Asmara seemed determined to make something of the opportunity, and he had to admit that food did sound quite nice right now.

He said nothing, but set up his tent and tethered his horse before making his way over to the campfire. Asmara, Antius, and curiously Tiaryn were busy making food by that point, so he sought out Ser Sev and the mabari that was never far from her side. "You seem rather... disturbed by something," he noted mildly, leaving it at that. If she had no wish to speak of it, he would not press the point, but he had a feeling it had something to do with her recent duel. How many times had the woman killed something that wasn't a Darkspawn or food, he wondered?