Alliances Offered, Part Ten

Tarric gasped and tried to struggle to his feet, finding his shield and longsword along the way. "Easy," said Aesa, as Jacqueline looked on. "They're dead. You're not." 

Tarric slowed, looked around, and then nodded and sheathed his blade. "That was Thesean?" he asked, twisting around to try to look at his own left kidney, where Thesean's blade had first been planted. 

"No," said Jacqueline. "That was me. You were fighting Thesean, and I was fighting his helper, and I panicked and dropped a Freezing Sphere. It... I... I nearly killed you." 

"Oh," said Tarric. "Well that's okay, then." He glanced at Aesa. "Good thing you called Aesa instead of Anica to pull me back, though. Anica... might have stabbed you."

"In all fairness, I'd have had to let her."

Tarric shook his head. "No... We should have been better prepared, that's all. You have spells to prevent elemental damage? We should have had them in place before the assassins snuck in here. Next time we'll know better."

"...Next time?" asked Jacqueline. There wasn't going to be a next time. If Anica didn't kill her, Tavros was going to have her expelled from the Temple and possibly exiled from Sol Povos as soon as he got back. She'd very nearly killed his friend. 

The others appeared in the doorway, and Jacqueline flinched away. But lady Fontaine, elegant even in a simple dressing gown, stood in front of the paladins and looked the room over. 

It was a ridiculously large room for a bedroom, outfitted with a ridiculously large bed. Vigo The Whisperer's idea, Jacqueline knew, and wondered what it would be like to watch the future king prepare to rest. And how could he sleep, in a room such as this, with an audience such as that? Small wonder that he preferred to spend his time at the temple. 

Lady Fontaine was looking at her, and Jacqueline swallowed. "Your work?" asked Tavros' mother. 

Jacqueline managed to nod. "Mine and Tarric's."

"Well done. Your first battle?" 

Jacqueline nodded again, this time more decisively.

"You must join me in my chambers, then. There's a certain decorum to be observed after such an event. I'll send a servant." She turned and swept from the doorway, and Anica and Werendril stepped inside. 

"How'd it go?" asked Werendril, looking at Tarric. 

"As well as it could," Tarric said. "Thesean brought friends, but we handled them."

Anica looked suspicious. "And Aesa came running back here because...?" 

Jacqueline drew breath to speak, but Aesa glared at her and Tarric cut her off. "Collateral damage," he said. "I was injured, and lady Andiras grew worried and summoned help."

Why is he covering for me? I almost killed him. Jacqueline managed to stop herself from gaping in disbelief, but it was a near thing. Werendril was saying, "You still look pretty rough," and stepping forward to embrace Tarric; but Anica had turned her head back to study Jacqueline. 

She held herself still and waited. 

"You're new to battle," said the paladin, after a long moment. "You carry yourself well, and I keep forgetting. But you didn't intend to harm him; otherwise you would have finished him."

"I'm not sure it matters--" Jacqueline cut herself off as Anica shook her head sharply. 

"No. It does matter. You took them down, then called for help to keep my husband from dying."

I guess? Jacqueline considered that for a long moment, then nodded hesitantly. This was not, in her experience, how things were supposed to work. 

"Anica," said Aesa softly, and then nodded towards Thesean's corpse, with his own knife still in its throat. 

Werendril had stepped back, and Tarric looked stronger: his bruises shrunken, his frostburn faded. Anica nodded, then turned to Tarric and embraced him in turn. He straightened further, looking healthier even from that brief contact. 

The true elf paladin turned and looked down, saw the dagger, and then looked up at Jacqueline. "You stabbed him?"

She nodded again, more hesitant than ever. What in the Nine Hells was going on here?

"That was well placed," he said. "If this lady of yours is half the wizard you are, I think we'll be glad of her help."