The door to the closet-cell opened, and Rixxan had to close her eyes at the light’s stark contrast to her dark imprisonment. It was one of the pirates, she wasn’t sure which, but he grabbed her by the collar and dragged her out, unhooking her chains from the wall and hoisting her up. 

“Time to watch the show, ya elf bitch,” the man grunted at her as he grabbed her arm. Rixxan forgot for a moment that she was cuffed and chained, headbutting the pirate and proceeding to kick him as he fell, then wrapped his neck in her chain and started to strangle him as he flailed. It was a few moments before two more members of the crew were upon her, restraining her from continuing to bludgeon their comrade. She growled through gritted teeth and leered at them with a look that could have killed, had she had access to the magic she normally did. Their comrade recovered, and they held her before him long enough for him to wind up a swing and uppercut her straight in the diaphragm. Rixxan coughed and wheezed, gasping for air. No one ever actually hit her like that, normally. Normally people were dead before they got to her. Or running the other way. This was not a situation she enjoyed. As she tried to regain her breath, she was hauled upon deck and over to Dreadbeard. 

Now there were two guards on her, as she was dragged aside the pirate lord. He gave a vicious smile, full of crooked yellow teeth, and Rixxan’s face snarled. “Firstly, lass, you’ll watch as yer buddy ‘s thrown to the sea. Sharks‘re already waitin’ for him to meet his doom. Then, after that,” he adjusted his stance and hoisted his trousers by his belt, as if it somehow made it look ye’ll learn what it means t’be a woman in the company of the infamous and dastardly Dreadbeard!” He chuckled to himself. Rixxan’s face grew red with anger and she tried to attack him again, once more forgetting her shackles, but the two holding her chains prevented her. Dreadbeard laughed in her face, as she tried to pull away from her restraining enemies. “Git over yerself, lass. Ya got no one out here to save ya.” He touched her hair, but Rixxan did not take well to being touched ever, and in retaliation, she bit his hand and locked on. He howled for a moment until he shook free of her, and she glimpsed a bit of blood pouring off his hand. “Feisty one, isn’t she boys?” The other pirates around her laughed, and Rixxan felt the heat of their eyes upon her. All she could do was stomp and glare.  

“Don’t fucking touch me,” she hissed, and spat at his feet. He turned his attention away from her as her somewhat ally was manhandled and thrown onto the deck. The crew ripped his mask off, and Rixxan found her eyebrows raising and her cheeks flushed at what kind of face was underneath. Oh, well now. Maybe I won’t kill him after this, if we happen to survive. Apparently Rixxan wasn’t the only one who shared that feeling, as Dreadbeard remarked on his looks as well, suggesting he be kept as a cabin boy instead of thrown to the fishes. Rixxan visibly shrugged, as if to say ‘hey why not,’ and even tilted her head at the idea. Maybe they could take turns being vandalized. Dreadbeard continued his little rant, and Rixxan found herself slightly confused at the unmasked man’s response. He was giving them all a last chance? Interesting. She raised her eyebrows again, though this time due to legitimate concern for his mental health. Had they beat him into a delusional crazy world? What a waste of a pretty face and a skilled fighter, she thought to herself, if he’s lost his mind already… 

Dreadbeard spoke the final command to walk him off the plank, and though Rixxan had decided she would not kill him herself, she was never against a good homicide, and watched intently. Unfortunately for the evil side of her, her ally was a bit quicker than she could even process. Suddenly he was off the plank, he was unbound, she found herself taken aback, and also slightly disappointed. Until she caught glimpse of the surprise on her chain-holders’ faces. With a quick yank, the chain slipped from their hands and she leapt forward to grab the end. The nearest pirate went down easily, she simply caught his legs out from underneath him and smashed her heel into his temple, shattering his orbital socket. He yowled and grabbed his face, as his comrade approached her. She sighed, was he really so stupid? Running straight at her? She took one step left, threw the chain in a curve around his legs, and quickly stepped back right to catch up the end as it shot through the air. Within a second she pulled the chain tight. The man lost his footing, toppling over backwards as his legs were pulled forward. She jumped onto him, straddling his chest to press the chain of her shackles onto his throat until he turned blue and lost consciousness. 

With a deep exhale, she stood up slowly and glared at Dreadbeard. With an evil smile, she grabbed held the chain at its end closest to the shackles, and started whipping it in an up-and-down circle parallel to her body. She stepped forward as he drew his sword, but as he did he must have subconsciously taken a few steps backward, which proved to her that he was not quite so sure of himself. Rixxan growled and lunged at him, and he did something she had not expected in a million years.

He ran; jumped straight off the upper deck and ran to his chamber, slamming the door shut and locking it just as Rixxan threw her body against the door. She’d almost caught him and that was even more frustrating than she could fathom. As the latches could be heard turning behind the door, she screamed a guttural cry of pure rage and threw her shoulder against the door over and over until she was sore and bruised. As angry as she was, without magic to supplement her slight frame, she held no chance at breaking down a door of solid wood. She resorted to kicking it and thrashing her chain against it, but the door didn’t budge. “Dreadbeard, get out here and face your death!” 

She had been so preoccupied with chasing him down, she realized now as she looked around, that she hadn’t even noticed what her ally had been doing on the lower deck. The crew was, for the most part, disabled. She grinned, though her face was warped through her cascading levels of anger at having been blocked from killing Dreadbeard once more. 

“Nice work, buddy. I’ll have to buy you a drink as thanks…" She motioned to the moaning and downed bodies around them, "Ya know, right after we KILL,” she kicked the door with all her might, “…THIS,” and again, “…JERK!” and one final kick, proving her still incapable of taking out the door. She huffed, and stepped back. “I don’t think I’m getting through that door without any magic, and as strong and mighty as you might be, I think there’s a bit more to it than just a door with some locks.” She pointed at it and shrugged. “Any ideas? I can't do much of anything with these on…” She held her wrists out, displaying the elf-made device that she had known very well. They were used in asylums and prisons on only the most dangerous of prisoners, and getting a pair out of one of those places was a feat indeed. Though she had no idea how Dreadbeard had ever gotten a hold of them, she knew they were constructed of a metal and magic that would not break even from the mightiest of sword's blows. They had to be unlocked to be removed, unless she wanted to gnaw her hands off…   

(Feel free to GM, I don't want to have all the fun)

After fighting his way to the central mast, Icarus found himself fighting a purely defensive battle.  He had cleared enough space to get away from the plank and the sharks below, but found himself being circled by a different variety of sharks.  The pirates had formed an effective enclosure around him and it was taking his full effort with the unfamiliar cutlass to maintain a solid defense when blows kept coming at him from multiple directions.

The one instance of calm he felt was when he saw his unwilling companion turning the tables on her captors and granting him a clear mind that allowed him to fight more efficiently.  The lack of distraction and fear for his comrade's life and safety did wonders for him.  When it seemed Icarus had been fighting a purely defensive battle, he suddenly became offensive, his blade lashing out to strike out at his opponents wrists and legs, severing tendons one at a time to remove more combatants from the fight.

Even as he did so, more rose to join their place and he at last had to start killing them.  One by one, even two or three at times, they came at him.  His body was that of an agile dancer, treating their blades like his partners, he rolled along their blunt sides and followed through with slashes across throats and bellies, slicing down whomever chose to continue the fool's errand of facing him.  He took no pride in his prowess, he was simply intent on survival.  This was war, and in war, there were casualties.

Glancing a view to the port side, he could see the patrol ship moving into position, delivering the first few mercenaries onboard to assist in the situation and arrest or kill the pirate lord.  With their interference, Icarus was able to run toward the captain's cabin and join the woman.  He could do nothing for her bindings, but in all fairness, she was adept enough to fight against the pirates with her magic limited.  Her words were somewhat inappropriate considering he had nearly died and she had nearly become a rape doll for the rest of her presumably short life.  Still, he couldn't help chuckle.

"After that shit just now, you better pay for a harlot while you're at it," he joked, watching as she kept striking the door to no avail.

"I do have an idea, though.  Give me a second to catch my breath.  His door may be locked by magic, but I'd wager he never thought his windows would be vulnerable," he explained, turning to face the chaos now exploding along the deck.

Another of the men charged toward them and he slammed his face into the door, using the man's momentum against him.  Now unconscious, Icarus stepped over the man and grabbed the railing to the starboard side, the same side he originally infiltrated the ship from the previous night.  It would be difficult, particularly while rocking more fiercely on the open seas, but he could manage.  The sword would have to be left behind, though.

Rixxan scoffed, as Icarus implied she’d best pay for the services of a prostitute for him in addition to her offer of drinks. While she contemplated once more wringing his neck, he continued talking, just narrowly missing being charged by a buffoon of a pirate who found his face quickly smashed upon the door. Rixxan laughed and proceeded to give the man one final kick to make sure he was truly downed, then looked up to see her current ally starting to worm his way around the boat’s hull to access the windows of the captain’s quarters. Rixxan had spent long enough staring at that window yesterday to know exactly where it was. She started up to the upper deck, knowing a much quicker and safer way to get into that room. One of the men she had downed before was starting to stand, so Rixxan trotted up to him eagerly and caught him in the temple with her heel. He hit the deck once more, and this time was down for a while more by the looks of it.

She followed along the rail slowly, looking down to see her ‘friend’ sidling his way along the outside of the ship. Just as he neared the window, Rixxan decided it was time to stop letting him have all the fun, and stepped up onto the railing, turned around and jumped down so that she was hanging by her bound hands. After all, she didn’t need wrist movement or freedom in order to keep her hands shoulder-width apart and hang off a railing. She looked down and saw him nearly about to make it to the window, so she waited until the time was right and then finally let go and dropped so that her hands caught the window ledge. Now at level with her ally, and she rolled her eyes at him. “A lot of trouble you went through, there, just to have to watch me kill this bastard.” She swung her legs up and kicked through the windowpanes, sending shattered glass and splintered wood into the room. She let go of the window’s upper ledge and slid into the room, but felt a shard of glass stick into her back as she did. She bit her lip as she touched the ground, and stood up to steady herself and locate her foe.

Maybe it was the noise of the glass shattering before her, or maybe it was the glass shard sticking into her back that distracted her enough that she didn’t realize Dreadbeard was in fact sneaking up on her while she thought she had snuck up on him. He must have hidden below the window, because as Rixxan landed in the room and stood up, she did not see him anywhere in front of her, but it was within a few seconds that she found herself caught up in a chain as she had caught his men. Dreadbeard held the chain tight and yanked her backwards, and his belt must have stopped him from feeling that he was digging the glass even deeper into her body. She tried to scream but couldn’t, and felt Dreadbeard’s hot breath on her neck as he continued to strangle her with the chain. “Little elves should learn their place, ye’ve got no chance in a real fight without magics and tricks.” He yanked the chain again, and Rixxan grasped at it as her eyes bulged. She had no chance to fight him off from behind, given that her hands were bound in the front. The combination of the pain in her back and the denial of air was beyond anything she could comprehend, short of what the demon had done to her in the past…

Her ally finally made it in through the window, and Dreadbeard stiffened up. The chain slacked for but a moment, before Dreadbeard pulled it tight again and Rixxan found herself gasping and choking as the room started to go black from the edges of her vision. “Come any closer, boy, and I’ll rip the girl’s head straight off ‘er shoulders!”

(Left it open for you to GM)

It took him a few minutes, but eventually, Icarus was able to use the framework and metal sidings of the vessel to climb along the exterior, digging the cutlass from one of the pirates between portions of the metal and wood. He normally wouldn't do it, but given the rocking current, he found himself needing the additional support the sword gave, despite the fact he was bending the blade unnaturally. It wouldn't serve well by the time he came upon Dreadbeard, but at the same time, he needed to use it in such a way just to get there.

He continued sidling along the exterior until he at last brought a hand to the under portion of the window sill. It was then that the woman plummeted from above and nearly caused him to lose his grip as he was forced to release the hand he had on the window sill lest he be kicked in the face. She was stupid and although unintentional, she had nearly killed him yet again just to get her hands on the prize and to satisfy her pride that had surely been damaged in the whole affair.

Struggling to regain his hold, Icarus looked away as glass rained down from overhead and the woman climbed through the window, making his entire endeavor pointless. As the ship pitched forward, Icarus caught a good foothold against the body of it, driving himself upward with a momentous force that carried him into the window and onto his feet as the ship rocked backward now. Before him, he saw the fool of an Elf restrained with the pirate lord's boot to her back and his chain in hand. His threat made Icarus laugh and the already fearful Dreadbeard's eyes went wide.

”She means nothing to me. She tried to kill me last night and has been no more than a pain in my ass from the moment we met. I'll wait patiently if you want to, or, for the last time, if you surrender, I'll guarantee your life so you can await trial. Your men are already beaten and the first of three ships with a crew of mercenaries has already arrived. If, however, you kill her, understand that blood demands blood repaid,” he warned, taking a step forward to call the man's bluff and impose his own bluff that he didn't care whether she lived or died.

Icarus was a strategist first and foremost, a man that relied on his mind before anything else. He wanted the woman to live, but her impetuous nature had forced his hand and he had to gamble at the moment until he could turn the tables more fully. His offer just now was a bluff as he was a man of his word and the prior offer he had granted was spurned, meaning death was what awaited the captain of the vessel.

Seeming to contemplate it for a moment, the captain's grip loosened slightly and he leaned less against the woman, removing much of the torque that would have allowed him to carry out his threat. Now finally able to understand the mechanic behind his seeming lightning speed the previous night, Icarus focused on the air directly above Dreadbeard. Channeling his body to move downward, he plummeted from above him and brought a foot down with incredible speed and his full body weight on the pirate's knee, dislocating it and removing it from the woman's back.

On landing, Icarus grabbed the chain and yanked it firmly, wrenching it free from his hands as he dealt with the pain of what had just happened to his leg. Throwing it to the side, Icarus was caught in the side of his ribs with a short knife, scrapping along bone before it glanced off his body. The captain, despite his pain, seemed determined to stand his ground and try to kill him though he had already lost his crew and ship.

”So ye do bleed like a man. In all this time, I thought ye were some sort of monster with what ye did out there,” the man said prior to lunging forward.

Icarus took a defense posture and sidestepped, grasping the pirate's wrist and bringing his shoulder under his elbow, rising up as he yanked down firmly. The resulting snap of bone forced him to drop the knife and Icarus caught it in midair, kicking him backward and leaping forward in a spin. With the additional speed granted by his revolution, the blade was nearly impossible to dodge and it caught the pirate in his opposite shoulder, pinning him to the wall.

With one solid punch to the man's throat, Icarus collapsed the pirate lord's esophagus and the man gasped as the final breath of his life slowly escaped his body. At last finished with his contract, Icarus turned to the woman, wounded, and struggling after the mishandling her body had been put through. He looked down as she lay unconscious, still breathing, but incapacitated after the severe choking she had just endured. The bindings on her wrist reminded him of what she mentioned. Key… he thought, looking back to the pirate.

Icarus paused to inspect the body, pressing two fingers against his carotid artery and finding no pulse. Indeed, the pirate lord was dead and within a few minutes of fishing through his pockets, Icarus found a key with an uncommon glow to it. Taking it back over to the woman, he undid her bindings and hoisted her onto his shoulder, his body exhausted but still able to manage the woman's light frame well enough.


Turning the knob to the door, Icarus heard the click as the magic disabled itself and they departed onto the deck to the view of nearly three dozen mercenary fighters arresting the two dozen or so crew that yet lived. To either side of the vessel, another ship could be seen en route and would rendezvous with them shortly. A few cheers echoed out and one of the merchant guild leaders stepped aboard, smiling widely at the man he had hired to kill or capture the pirate lord.

As the room grew increasingly darker, or at least her vision of it did, Rixxan saw the terrifying truth that her ‘ally’ didn’t care if she died, as he stepped forward to challenge Dreadbeard after going on about how she was not his friend and he could care less if Dreadbeard did rip her head off. With the last bit of her energy, Rixxan could only scream in her mind as the world went dark. 

By the time she opened her eyes, it was not daylight anymore. In fact, she wasn’t sure what time it might have even been, because she was in a familiar room that she recognized as being a room at a tavern she frequented more than she would like to admit… And at one point had completely ransacked the place and wiped out everyone within it. But luckily she had terrified the barkeep so much at that point that he seemed to have blocked it all out, and never remembered her when she walked in. Perhaps that was some form of aggressive forgetting, but she didn’t care much about the truth of the matter. 

She almost started up out of the bed she was tucked into, but found herself too pained by some wound in her back. “Ugh. Damnit.” She had forgotten about the glass, and felt around her body for where it had been. Instead, she found bandages, then ripped the blanket off her torso. Someone had removed her clothes, leaving her in some foreign pants that she didn’t recognize for the life of her and bandages on her upper body. “What? What is this about?!” She looked around the room, as if she would spot her personal affects somewhere, but it was a bit too dark for her to see anything. And, as she did, she heard someone step up to the door. Panicking, she laid down and pulled the blanket over her head, leaving enough uncovered that she could spy through it as the door opened. She heard the tearing of flesh from bone and almost worried, before seeing her ally from a few days prior coming through the door carrying a plate and drink in one hand and holding a turkey leg in the other, of which he had just taken a bite. He put the turkey leg down on the plate as he stepped into the room and closed the door with his boot, before turning up the oil lamp on the table in the corner. Rixxan sat up immediately now as the room grew a bit brighter, and looked at him. 

“You!” He spun and looked at her, caught off guard by her being awake. “Did you undress me, you scoundrel!?” He raised an eyebrow to her and leaned against the table with the oil lamp. 

“Well, you just happened to have a piece of glass stuck into you… pretty deep, too. If I hadn’t taken it out, you probably would have died before even waking up.” He shrugged and took a long swig from his pint, before putting it down on the dresser, and picking up the turkey leg to take another bite out of it. Rixxan glared at him as she felt her stomach rumble, and leaned over the side of the bed until gravity pulled her out of it, not wanting to hurt herself anymore than the injury she’d sustained had already done. She steadied herself as she stood up, and looked over at the plate in the man’s hands. 

“You probably shouldn’t be up and about yet, I’d give it at least–” Rixxan had made her way over to him, grabbed the plate from his hands, and turned around to walk back to the bed and sit where she had previously laid. 


“That was so nice of you to get me this, didn’t you get anything for yourself?” She smiled and bit into his turkey leg, and watched him grimace, clearly unamused with her antics, and walk out the door. She shrugged and continued working at the turkey leg for a few minutes before he came back into the room with an identical plate and a separate platter full of pints, which he put down on the dresser with the oil lamp. He kicked the door closed again, and sat on the end of the bed with his plate and pint in hand. Rixxan swallowed a half-chewed lump of turkey and snatched his pint from his hand. 

“So, did you kill the bastard?” She took a swig of the pint and returned it to his open hand. He looked at the pint, as if he wasn’t quite sure that she really had just done that, or if he couldn’t believe her audacity, and then looked at her. 

“I gave him the choice to surrender, but he was stubborn and belligerent and wouldn’t take the option. So with that, I believe the answer to your question, is yes.” 

Rixxan sighed. She had really been keen on that reward money, as she was running low on her personal funds. 

“Well, good for you then, I suppose…” She stared down at her plate for a moment, then looked back up at him, and back to the pint in his hand. “I, uh, need to commandeer this,” she said, and grabbed the pint from him, finishing it off in one long gulp. She leaned over the bedside and let it drop to the floor. “Much better,” she sat up and looked around the room for a few awkward seconds before settling into her comfort zone with the aid of the ale.

 “My name is Rixxan. Do you have a name, oh mysterious one?” 

Icarus shook his head as the woman finished his pint of ale and was damn-near ready to place her back into a coma as she had been. Nothing save the comfort of a good woman was worthy of depriving a man of a cold alcoholic beverage under pain of death. He sighed and relaxed a bit. The past few days had been a bit of a hassle for him in addition to having to take care of her.

This tavern was actually the third such place he had moved her in just as many days. The city had almost become a warzone in the short time that had passed since the death of Dreadbeard and nearly all the pirates that had allied with the pirate lord were scouring the city to find them. The jails were almost beginning to overflow and nearly a dozen shops had been razed to the ground. It was under advisement of the town guard that he leave, but given that his contract had been legal and binding under the provincial court system, they could find no fault in his assassination of the pirate lord.

It seemed that the unintended consequence of the ordeal had been that the ruling assembly were forced to deal with a very serious criminal element that they had chosen to ignore for years. This meal was probably the first he had eaten in that time aside from the occasional produce he had taken from an overturned food stand. As it was, he expected the city to erupt into chaos once more within the next few hours.

At this point, however, Icarus was relieved he no longer had to defend both of them with her unconscious form in tow. He hoped she hadn't been awake to see just how many times they had come close to death since their return. On the other hand, he didn't think she would much care even if she knew he had been going out of his way to defend her life rather than leaving her behind. Beneath his clothing, he had a half dozen bandages and a few poultices lining his frame in addition to a splint for his right leg that had nearly been broken by a club striking it. He was thankful she hadn't been able to tell just how damaged he actually was but he was nearing his limit.

”Icarus,” he said plainly, coughing after his inhalation. A few more days like this and he would have had to chance moving her unconscious body outside of the city and finding a new location to bed down until she recovered. ”I was worried you'd never wake up, but since you were still breathing, I figured there was still some hope,” he explained, grabbing his mask and placing it back over his face.


He looked at her once again and pulled a money pouch from his waist. Icarus had divided the reward from the battle with Dreadbeard evenly and placed them in separate coinpurses. Undoing it with a bit of labor in his breath, he tossed the coins to her. ”This is your share since you were just as involved as I was,” he said with a smile that couldn't be seen underneath the mask. ”What do we do now? The city has been in chaos since we came back.”

“Icarus, huh? Classic name.. Though it doesn’t suit ya! Not much of a follower, if you ask me, you were a bit more in charge than I would have liked on our little escapade. And you don’t need to worry about me, I’ve been in worse situations than that little incident with old Dreadbeard.” She winked, pretending that it was something she could easily brush off. Really, it was a major blow to the ego. She hadn’t ever been seriously wounded, especially by her own doing. She kicked her feet up on the bed, as Icarus put his mask back on. She cocked her head to the side, confused. What was the point of covering his face back up if she had already seen him? Especially now that he’d told her his name… What was the point of hiding a face?

He threw her a money-pouch from his waist, and she nearly jumped to catch it, smiling widely. She fondled the coins through the cloth, feeling her anxiety start to melt away as she would be set for a bit with this.
 
“This city, in chaos? Oh, you don’t say…” She leaned over the bed once more to put her nearly empty plate on the floor, and sat back up to lean against the pillows. “I’ve spent enough time around here to know that things don’t stay crazy for long. Maybe a few days, a week at most, and then the old scum will be picked up and scraped away and a new wave will flow in to fill their spaces. It’s not an uncommon thing. My head’s been at risk of being on a pike more than I’d care to admit. Honestly, I normally just hide out in a tavern for a few days, so that I can, sleep, drink, and eat.” She pushed up off the bed and carried the finished plates and cups over to the dresser, and grabbed two new, full pints. As she turned, she shrugged as if to ward off any worry she had, and strode back over to the bed, sitting next to Icarus.

“Really, I wouldn’t be terribly worried. And if you are, you must not spend too much time in Vilpamolan. Another drink, to being alive, and to Dreadbeard’s death!” She smiled and handed him a new pint, before her smile twisted for a moment. “But first, you should really take off the mask. No one to hide from in here. Especially not this tavern… To be honest, the biggest threat to this place in all of Vilpamolan is sitting right next to you.” She laughed to herself and took a swig, starting to feel the lightening effect of her drink. “This one time… Oh…. It was bad… It was really bad. I was so upset…” She laughed again, and lay back across the bed. “So bad… I killed them all.”
 

For a second, she had a residual giggle stuck in her throat as she laid there, pint resting on her stomach as she forgot the pains of her injury. As she lay there, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about the face behind the mask. He was certainly attractive, that was for sure. Something between him showing no regard for her life and for some reason saving her also inclined her towards him. She sighed, and sat up. 

"What do you think? About hiding out and waiting for the rabble-rousers to disperse, that is? Not about me, I already know I'm stark raving mad." 

With the way the woman seemed to nonchalantly refer to the situation outside, he felt that perhaps either she was used to these disturbances and had spent quite a bit of time here or had no idea just how severe it truly was. Likely, some of the insurance brokers would be going bankrupt following the past few days and the people were probably living in fear for the time being. The guard, as it was, were fighting a pitched battle in the streets as the pirates continuously sought reprisal night after night.

In most cities, the issue wouldn't be too difficult, but being known as a pirate haven, Vilpamolan had nearly as many of them as they had townspeople. In addition, the location of the docks were well fortified to not only keep invaders of the sea out but to keep those from within the city from coming down without the permission of those upon the docks. Were it a true danger, the city would have burnt the docks altogether, but given it was only civil unrest, it was quite likely they would settle the dispute monetarily and there would be a handful of retribution killings. Icarus wouldn't stand for it.

Unhappy and sore all over, Icarus did remove his mask once more at Rixxan's behest, drinking deeply at her toast. He felt as though things were left unfinished between himself and the pirates, but with all that had occurred and the fact he was encumbered while she was unconscious, his body was almost incapable of seeing it through to the end. There were times he cursed his better nature and simply wished he were as callous as others, able to sacrifice others easily to save themselves difficulty.

”All of them, you say? I take it you don't mean the entire town,” he said, seemingly asking for clarification.

She was utterly insane, as her laughter demonstrated the sickening enjoyment she had at causing pain and death to others. What had twisted her nature to such an extent that she could actually enjoy such things? For him, there was only one instance he knew of that brought him similar feelings and that was the wanton slaughter of demons and all their kind during the Demon Wars. They were cruel and massacred thousands of women and children to harvest their souls; Icarus had no mercy for them, feeling repose even as he killed them and crucified others.

As she sat up again, he wondered how her wound was doing. He had changed the dressing only a few hours later and her body had knit well even without a catgut threading to stitch her effectively. It turned out the homemade poultices he crafted from the supplies he found at the local apothecary were more potent than he realized. When Cain had taught him everything he knew concerning medicine and magic, he knew it was powerful, but such wounds as the pair had suffered should have healed much slower.


”How is your wound? Not wearing you down too much is it?” he inquired as he glanced into her eyes. ”And what did you think would be the best way of hiding around here? This is the third place we have hidden out in the three days since we returned. The other two were burnt to the ground. What else could it be about if it were not entirely about you? You've tried to kill me, nearly did so on accident once, and all the while, not even a 'thank you' when I've nearly died a handful of times since you've been comatose,” he added.

Rixxan sat up at his nearly berating words, and bore her weight upon one arm as she held her pint in the other. “A thank you? For treating and tending to me, surely that deserves a thank you, Sir Icarus. Yes, one for taking me into your care and mending my wounds. But as far as trying to kill you goes, well, I hadn’t known you, and you were simply a threat to my own mission. It’s not often that I work with someone, and my history would prove that I do not exactly play well with others. Call it jealousy, call it being territorial, but I simply don’t tolerate people encroaching on what is mine.” She looked at him sternly, for a few moments, and then softened and tossed her hair back. “Though I do owe you some form of gratitude for the safe-keeping and wellness of my unconscious body, so for that,” she grabbed his empty hand and tried with the very best of her ability to look sincere, “…for that, I thank you, Icarus. For without you having save me I know not where I would be.” She feigned swooning backwards now, as she attempted to think of what else she should tell him. She kicked her legs up again, this time putting them over his lap.
 
“And you might be right. I’m a bit of a vandal in these parts. I’m sure the damned pirates have put out a warrant for my head, but seeing as at least one of us has proof that the assassination was truly legal and justly warranted, there is not much the pirates can do. They will burn, loot, rebel and fight for maybe two more days. Really, this is as good a place as any. No one has yet come looking for me here, in spite of all I’ve done around these parts, probably because the barkeep is so damn terrified of what I did once that he’ll never truly recognize my face, and when they come barging in with some picture of their quarry, asking him if he’s seen this devilish elf woman, even his repressed memories can’t identify me, and they move on to the next keep or tavern. You see, around here, a house of ale and mead is worth more than a house of weapons. The pirates won’t burn and upturn a tavern as they would every shop and stand in the market square.”
 
“And… speaking of my wounds,” she wiggled her calves over his legs, “How about yours? Got a slight limp there, I see.” She leaned forward and prodded and poked at his torso, testing for a weak point. “Bet you’ve got a load of wounds to show for protecting me the past few times, especially if you’d even dare say that you nearly died a few times during that elapsed time period…” She stopped when she found a point to make him twitch, a small and nearly unnoticeable cringe at her prodding. “Aha. So you did take quite a beating, didn’t you?” She sat back up straight.
 
“Considering that you’re not in much shape, and neither am I, I do think that it is best to stay camped out here. Since you’re the one going down for food so far, you should continue to be the only one who leaves the room for such, just to keep suspicions and wandering eyes at bay. Best not to get caught shacking up with me, or they’ll have your head and all of your parts strung upon their ships as ornaments.” She smiled, almost joking, but not quite. 

Icarus should have at least expected her response to a certain degree. She wasn't the sort that seemed to have a shred of humility despite the fact she would have long-since died without his intervention. She was naturally the sort that would be the type to throw in her own bit of sarcasm to get the words out that she normally wouldn't say. Rixxan was independent, to the point she couldn't rely on or trust others, but her situation had forced it on her even without her knowledge until this point.

”It's fine. Just nice to hear on occasion that someone at least gives a damn someone put their life on the line for them without any expectation or reward,” he said, explaining his position. She hadn't been the least grateful individual he had protected in the past. Indeed, there were others that had flat-out hated him for his intervention, though he didn't really care for their opinions in such matters. What mattered most to him was preserving life whenever possible, occasionally culling the sick plants from the rest of the field to prevent the spread of their disease.

Crime, hatred, violence, transgressions against their fellow man, and the simple apathy of one man's life were all sicknesses that had to be removed. Icarus despised himself when those times came, but for the survival of mortals, he found it necessary and carried out the task of tending the herd or culling the bad crops himself. After growing up a servant, he never hesitated to take on the hard tasks as the duties of a servant of humanity were rarely over.

The woman's explanation of their relative safety within this establishment brought him a bit more ease to his weary mind and calmed the constantly calculating presence of will that dominated his mental state at all times. It felt good for a moment to at last relax, his burdens finally lifted even if it were for only a short time. He thrived when his mind was forced into such endeavors, the stress pushing him to greater heights of power and efficiency like an elixir that he was addicted to. Fortunately enough, the common decency he had prevented him from actually enjoying the violence and rendered it as only a necessity in defense of others.

”Makes enough sense, or perhaps I'm just too tired at this point for it to matter. I haven't slept in two of the past three days,” he replied. The woman took to poking and prodding him after she pointed out he was injured, her legs laying over his own. Despite his urge to flee her, he couldn't help just falling backward and letting her jab her finger in different portions of his chest to test where he hurt. He tensed for a second as she touched one of the wounds, commenting as she noticed it.


”Yeah, let's just say it was real inconvenient the past few days,” he said as he closed his eyes for a moment. ”Probably, but they wouldn't have enough people left to crew more than a small galley. Just don't kill me in my sleep, will you?”