Tide of Shadows Ch 24: Chains

Gunshots and screams echoed in the distance as Jos pulled against the shackles binding her wrists. She had no idea how long she had been  unconscious, but it couldn’t have been that long. There’s still fighting.

With her feet barely touching the ground, a thin rivulet of blood tickled her arm. The soft flesh of her wrist shredded against her steel bindings. Beside her, Danni let out a soft moan. 

“Danni? Come on, wake up.”

The asura’s only response was an even weaker moan. It was then that she noticed the blossoming bruise on the young elementalist’s temple.

A deep voice called out from the shadows. “She won’t be waking up any time soon.”

Jos scanned the Inquest ship’s hold. Dark shadows hid everything outside the small ring of flickering light created by the torch overhead. “Who’s there?”

The voice chuckled. “The high captain thinks you might be valuable. I doubt that. You’re just a nothing, nobody smuggler. I expect no one would even notice if you and your entire crew just sank to the bottom of the sea.”

“So, what you’re saying is…” Jos scoffed. “I don’t have to be afraid of you because your boss wants me alive.”

Something in the shadows right in front of her shifted and a figure rose up from a crouch. The figure was tall, definitely not asuran. He stepped forward, revealing his green and purple plant plumage. “Alive, yes. Unharmed? No.” 

“Argyl.”

He smiled and, pulling a knife from his belt, took a few steps closer. “Indeed. I would ask if you’re looking forward to the pain, but I really hope you aren’t. It’s so much more fun when you scream.”

“That, uh…” Jos swallowed hard. “I don’t think your mother would be too happy with that kind of talk.”

“Mother?” Argyl arched an eyebrow then he barked a laugh. “That stupid tree? I freed myself from her pathetic dream a long time ago. Now I see the world for what it really is, a nightmare.”

As the sylvari continued to inch closer, Danni let out another soft groan. Jos pushed up on her tiptoes and wrapped her fingers around the chain of her shackles. 

“I must say, though,” Argyl continued. “I’m a little impressed with that display you did yesterday. Making your whole ship look like it exploded? Remarkable.”

Jos batted her lashes and gave her sweetest, most innocent smile as she batted her lashes. “Let me down and I’ll show you how I did it.”

He harrumphed and stopped.

He was just out of reach. Come on. Just a little closer.

Argyl chuckled. “Does that usually work?”

Movement flickered at the corner of Jos’s eye. With her gaze locked on Argyl, she caught a flicker of movement at the top of the stairwell. A figure was there, bulky and dark, silently inching their way down. 

Jos gave the sylvari a wink and put on her best mischievous grin. “Sometimes.”

“I find that hard to—” Something whipped through the air and hit Argyl’s side. With a scream, he dropped to his knees, a dagger sticking out of his ribs. 

A small explosion shook the deck and the hold filled with smoke. The dark clouds burned Jos’s lungs, making her cough. As she gasped for clean air, a familiar, rumbling voice whispered in her ear. “Hang on a sec, Captain.”

A cautious relief washed over her. “Nahg!”

“Wait, damn. I can’t reach your shackles.”

Jos tilted her head. “Get Danni, she’s lower.”

The sound of metal on metal reached Jos’s ears as her charr compatriot worked on the asura’s shackles. A second later, purple light flashed behind her and there was another sound, a sword sliding into flesh. The clinking metal stopped and something heavy thumped on the deck.

“Nahg? Nahg!” Jos craned her neck around and found a pink, glowing phantasm of Argyl standing behind a crumpled but breathing Nahg. Fury raced through her as she yanked against her restraints. “You son of a krait-lover!”

The phantasm shimmered and vanished. Footsteps echoed from behind, drawing closer with each step. As the smoke dissipated, a figure appeared behind Nahg.

“Your friend was foolish,” Argyl said. “Before helping you, he should have finished me.”

Argyl pulled his sword free of its scabbard and held it up with the point just a few inches over Nahg’s neck. “Time to put this mangy creature down.”

“Ah-hem.” Danni cleared her throat. “Actually, how about I put you down?”

The diminutive asura’s face contorted in rage, she pulled a small metal rod from her belt and flicked her wrist. The rod opened into black hand-fan with a golden dragon painted in the folds. Danni mumbled a few words as she swept her arm out. A massive gust of wind tossed the sylvari back like a sack of wet noodles. 

“Danni?” Jos’s eyes went wide.

The short elementalist bent down and wrapped her fingers around one of Nahg’s daggers. “I’ll be with you momentarily.”

As Danni went back to mumbling, the dagger’s blade lit up with a harsh blue light, then a writhing tendril of sparking electricity stretched out and dropped to the deck, forming a lightning whip. The sylvari started to climb to his feet when the strand of electricity struck out, knocking him back down. Again and again, Danni struck with the whip. “You shouldn’t work for the Inquest. It’s an inadvisable career decision.”

Finally, the lightning whip sparked one last time and vanished. Argyl groaned, still alive and trying to get to his feet. “Yeah, well… Leaving your precious Rata Sum wasn’t the best decision on your part eith—”

A brilliant white light flashed as electricity shot from where the asura stood to the sylvari. Danni rode the lighting strike and slammed into Argyl, pinning him against the bulkhead.

Argyl’s eyes went wide. “What the…?

When Danni stepped back, she pulled Nahg’s dagger free of the sylvari’s heart. “I don’t think so.”

A second later, the light in Argyl’s gaze was gone and he slumped to the deck.

For several seconds, Danny stood there staring at the sylvari’s corpse. Gunshots rang out overhead and feet pounded on the deck above. Jos had seen this before, almost every time one of her soldiers had killed someone, a real person, for the first time. 

“Danni, we uh… we gotta go.”

At first, the young asura didn’t move. “I… I’ve never…”

Jos’s heart ached a little for her. She searched for a way to try to ease the burden of killing someone on her friend. “I know. But you did the right thing. He was not a good guy. In fact, I think he was a member of the Nightmare Court. I mean, that might not make it any easier, but…”

“No. You’re correct.” Danni turned and started toward Jos and Nahg. “Your attempt to alleviate my concerns is noted and appreciated.’

“I will say though, that was very impressive.” 

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Jos pulled herself up a little to ease the stress on her wrists. “But, um… An inadvisable career decision? Seriously? We really need to work on your one-liner comebacks.”