Snippet #1512270

Nox chose, for the most part, to remain silent during the interrogation. He had his own theories as to what was going on, but he doubted very much that any of these soldiers would be interested in a controversial multiple-universe theory and inter-dimensional travel. Instead of speaking, he studied those who did. The first soldier to approach was a woman, seemingly cut from dusk itself, but since the first person he had seen upon awakening had been a lady with cat-eyes and pointy ears (and then Marlaina), he had surprisingly little difficulty accepting this for what it was.

To him, she seemed like the sort of person who demanded respect, but would not hesitate to give it back were she to find someone deserving. The way she spoke to Marlaina wasn't exactly what he would call friendly, but it wasn't unnecessarily accusatory, either, and he supposed that was only fair. They did look fairly suspicious given the setting, and he was further assured of her relative neutrality by the arrival of the next two. Well, one of them he would never be able to get a read on, for he would never hear the older man speak, but the younger certainly didn't seem willing to give them much of a chance.

Though he admired Leander's ability to remain so unruffled under fire, he could not help but feel that she was being almost deliberately confrontational. Not openly so, but just enough to get their interrogator angry without him being able to accuse them of anything. That was not a balance Nox thought he could ever strike, but then he was not precisely sure now was the time to make that ability apparent. The man on horseback seemed to be seething, but he swiftly gave up on Leander and faced down Flin instead.

Nox had little time to contemplate whether or not this was a change for the better, as he was rather swiftly being used as an example. He was somewhat impressed that given the difference in their heights, Flin was so easily able to sling his arm around Nox's shoulders, but he didn't waste much time giving it thought and instead offered the guards a friendly smile as if to demonstrate that no, he was not being harmed in the slightest by this, though he did find it rather unusual. Actually, once upon a time it probably would have been painful, but at present it was most certainly not.

He was thinking of perhaps trying a different tactic, perhaps something to calm the guards down, but at the exact moment he opened his mouth to speak, several things happened at once. First, yet another guard approached, but before anyone could properly react to this, the group was approached by a young man shouting something. Well, approached was perhaps the wrong word. He landed right in front of them, apparently having jumped from a roof or something, Nox wasn't exactly sure. The hooded figures that followed him were rather menacing in aspect, and Nox instinctively stepped in front of Marlaina. Later, he would realize that this was probably about the most illogical thin in the world to do- she was made of stone and probably far more capable of withstanding whatever was coming for them than he was, but for whatever reason he felt compelled to do it all the same. Maybe it was her innocence regarding human life; would she even understand why someone would come at them with murderous intent? Probably not, yet that was surely what he read in these figures' intentions. He was only proven most gruesomely correct when the two guards fell.

Sebastian took up a sword, but Nox shook his head to himself. That would never work; these men were clearly trained to kill things. He knew he wouldn't last more than a couple seconds- he wasn't even acclimated to his own skin yet! Instead, the blond man bit down on his lower lip and scanned the area for some way to facilitate the most likely option- running away. His eyes alighted on the side of a nearby building, and he saw something that might work. A frame of wooden planks crisscrossed over four vertical poles supported a building-high wood stack of round logs. Maybe...

"Marlaina? Do you think you could help me tear these planks out? If we send the logs rolling out, it might buy us some time to escape." So saying, Nox darted towards the lumber stack, pulling at the feeble supports himself. Luckily, the nails were rusty, and he could feel the logs shifting a bit even as he tugged, which meant that they probably would roll out if the x-shaped barrier was removed. He couldn't manage it on his own, but he figured that Marlaina should be able to.

He chanced a glance behind him, trying to pick the others out of the chaos. It looked like everyone was still alive for the moment bar those poor guards and a couple of assailants. Suddenly, he was glad for the presence of authority figures, for who but criminals would want to take them alive and kill the soldiers with them? That had to be some kind of capital offense, surely, and it had been enacted twice already without the barest modicum of hesitation. How people could just be okay with doing something like that was something Nox could not understand. What made one life worth so little that a person could take it without flinching? It was beyond his ken to say, of that he was certain.

He willed the others to hold out just a little longer. For some reason, in the heat of battle, none of the hooded men seemed to take much notice of himself and what he was doing, as though every time one of them would glance his way, they would suddenly find the something else was a bit more important. Which was probably sadly true; he wasn't much of a threat to anyone or anything, both by choice and the circumstances of his position. Come on, he urged the plank beneath his spindly hands, give already!

It did, eventually, and only one diagonal strip of wood remained. It looked more solid than his though, and he hoped that Marlaina would be able to help him out, else he was going to need a new plan, or at the very least a crowbar.