Song of the Piper

::18:: Escape

Music is The Elder One theme from the Dragon Age: Inquisition OST. Play it!

******

I had prepared myself for this. But of course, it wasn't any easier, knowing that Lord Himmel knew I'd been hiding something from him. Still, I feigned a look of innocence, and parted my lips in an automatic response. "But – impossible! This can't be..." I said, half-praying that I was convincing enough.

Lady Anya turned upon Lord Himmel. "You had no prior knowledge to this?" she snarled. I flinched from the steel in her voice.

Lord Himmel seemed to maintain his nerves. "No. Not at all." He fixed his eyes upon me; they glimmered like crystal shards—cold and detached.

"Then why did you ask for this testing to be performed?" demanded Lady Anya.

"Curiosity. And instincts, I suppose." He peeled himself off the wall and strode towards us. Or more specifically, towards me. "So, Klaudia." He paused deliberately, wetting his lips; I did my best to appear as bewildered as possible. "You had absolutely no idea of your true Affinity."

"No," I said, shaking my head vigorously.

"At all?"

"No."

He didn't continue to press me, but the look he gave was intimidating enough. I could see the gears turning in his mind, calculating and conniving, already wondering what to do with me. My heart thundered in my ribcage; cold sweat slicked my palms.

"You've brought quite a pretty little problem to us here, Lord Himmel," said Lady Anya. She had recovered some of her frostiness now, though her cheeks were still splotchy with agitation. "This isn't an Affinity we can take lightly. In fact, I'll have to immediately report to the Council—"

"Your ladyship, if you may, I'd like to withhold this information from the Council for a while," Lord Himmel interrupted calmly.

The lady's eyes widened incredulously. "You can't be serious," she snorted.

"But I am serious." His tone had gone low with the promise of violence. "Otherwise, you can be well assured that you won't have the support of Heidelberg anymore."

I could scarcely believe my ears. The Council was essentially the government of our fragile society, the only thing that was holding us together in this time of chaos. And Lord Himmel was threatening to...separate from them? To form a city-state by himself? This was walking on the line of treason!

"Lord Himmel, what exactly do you mean by that?" Lady Anya's voice had also deepened into a rumble, a storm looming beyond the horizon.

"Oh, Your Grace, surely your hearing hasn't deteriorated? Ah, but I forgot that you're older than me."

Subconsciously, I took a small step backwards. And another. And another. If only I could get away from these two, get myself out of Starkfurt, out of Heidelberg—basically out of civilisation. I suspected that even monsters were better company than these poisonous snakes.

"Well then, if my ears don't betray me, I think you intend to wage war against us, hmm?" Suppressed magic crackled in the air, and my Core stirred in response. It warned me that the two Magi before me were already gathering their energy, prepared to duel each other if necessary. Lady Anya was fingering the insides of her sleeve.

My eyes darted about the room. No exit points save for the door; there wasn't even a window here. Trapped. I was trapped. No way out. Like when the brutes in Hamelin had cornered me into a back alley. Trapped. No way out. Panic seized my chest. My mind was slowly blanking out. Trapped trapped trapped—