Visitation

Mayra and Finn woke up to another morning in the jail cell. At least, they assumed it was morning because someone passed them a tray of breakfast-ish food. There were no windows to the outside here.

Had it been three days now, or four? Time marched slowly.

The second day there had been some ruckus about an attempted visitor. The girls had heard yelling from a nearby room about it, but couldn't make out the words or hear the voices well. There had been relative silence since then.

They were in the same cell, which was simultaneously cramped and comforting. Two narrow cots were in one corner, with a chamber pot and wash stand between them. This left some room to stand, but not much. Metal bars separated them from an empty adjacent cell, and two other cells were on the opposite side of the room.

A few criminals had cycled through those cells, ranging from a lecherous old drunk who made loud, foul comments at them to an unnervingly silent young man with a constant, unblinking stare. They were blessedly unoccupied at the moment.

Each of the criminals that had come had clearly done something worthy of jail. The drunk was a troublemaker, the young man had a chilling presence that made him seem dangerous, and each of the others had talked about their crime in an effort to get some conversation out of the pretty young women.

Lunch and dinner passed the lonely day, and the girls chatted idly now and then about nothing in particular. At least there was no audience to stare at them today. The pure injustice of waiting for nothing left Mayra seething in anger.

"This is ridiculous. They've all come and gone, despite what they did, but we are stuck here as if we are far worse criminals! It's insanity!" Mayra occasionally yelled out at their guards. Had the men no consciences at all?

Clearly the Provider had even more influence than Finn had anticipated. The door to the room opened, and a soldier roughly shoved a man in a sandy-colored uniform through the opening.

"Get in there, you!" Finn's eyes narrowed as she heard the artificially gravelly voice. The man's face turned slightly toward her, and she gasped. Riley!

He made no acknowledgement of the girls, and his demeanor and face were disguised, but Finn would know him anywhere. She took Mayra's hand and squeezed it as a signal to keep her quiet. Riley must have some kind of plan to be acting so strangely.

The prisoner he shoved had on a Rhone uniform, and his hands shackled in front of him. He did not look up at Finn or Mayra as Riley removed the shackles and pushed him roughly into the cell that shared bars with theirs.

The peacekeeping officer that had opened the cell door with his keys narrowed his eyes at the prisoner, and Riley nodded at him.

"Thanks for keeping this one for us for tonight. He's got some sort of illness and puked all over the only available military cell. It's gonna take a long time to clean it out and put him back in, the smell was so awful. I'll be back tomorrow for him."

The peacekeeping officer involuntarily flinched away from the prisoner, who heaved slightly as he lay on the ground and held his stomach. The officer quickly locked the cell and fled the room in case the worst should happen. He silently hoped his shift would be over and he would be gone before the borrower prisoner had any medical events.

"Oh, I'm sure it's not contagious, at least, pretty sure," Riley continued in his makeshift gravelly voice as he followed the man out. On the way he turned his head ever so slightly to wink at the girls.

As the door closed behind him, Mayra's and Finn's faces swiveled toward the next cell.

The prisoner stood easily, brushing himself off. His face was covered by the traditional Rhone headscarf, but when he turned bright blue eyes on the women, Mayra felt Finn stiffen.

Dropping Mayra's hand, Finn took two rapid steps toward the bars. The man did the same, pausing as he reached them.

Finn reached through the bars slowly, and gently pulled the covering so it fell away from Roland's face. Her eyes overflowed with tears as she left her fingers to rest against his cheek. He brought his hand up to hold hers in place, pushing his face into her palm and closing his eyes.

Mayra's soft gasp did not even register in their ears.

"Thank you," Finn said through her tears. "For helping Gabe, and the others, and... for still being alive." Her voice broke on a sob, and his eyes opened to stare into hers.

He raised his other hand through the bars to catch another tear escaping her eyes, then brushed back a stray lock of hair from her face. She leaned into his hand and his breath faltered.

"I'm sorry for what you've been through," He whispered. "I wish I could have stopped it."

"I love you," She said suddenly.

"What?" His heart stopped entirely, and then raced ahead at double-speed.

"I... I love you," she repeated.

He silently cursed the bars between them. What he wouldn't give for the freedom to take her in his arms and kiss her.

"No more running?" He turned his face into her palm and kissed it.

"Only toward you," She swallowed the lump in her throat that formed as his lips grazed her wrist.

"I hate--and I mean REALLY hate--to interrupt this moment," Mayra cut in, "but I take it that your presence here is part of some plan to get us out of here? Can we get to that part and you can do the lovey-dovey stuff in the privacy of not-my-confined-presence? Don't misunderstand, I've been cheering for this from day one, but at this particular moment I find it a bit... nauseating, I guess is the word."

"That's noted, Mayra, thank you," Roland did not look away from the searing eye contact he held with Finn for several moments. He reluctantly released her from his touch and turned to the younger woman.

"The plan is more complicated than simply getting you two out of here, although of course that is part of the goal. Riley will come retrieve me from here in the morning. Time is running very short, I'm afraid."

"Running short?" Mayra didn't like the sound of that.

Roland nodded. "The Rhone army marches on Klain as we speak. I arrived here more quickly on horseback, and they will all be on foot, but there are a few days at most now before a full scale assault on Klain. There is much to do. We have to expel the Provider from power, exile the halfling spies, and find out a way to stop the war."

"Well that sounds simple enough," Mayra threw her hands in the air, "Let's get a good night's rest and start on all of it tomorrow."

"The spies, I think I can help with," Finn said. "There is a jar in the Shermans' house, a little jar full of seeds. They grow into flowers that are Halfling-repellant. The smell is bad enough to them to nearly stop them from breathing. They can't get near it, and it will be obvious when any halflings try."

Roland's eyebrows rose. "That is helpful."

"Ok, now that that's solved, we just have to stop the war somehow," Mayra said sarcastically. The smallest problem had some progress while the largest was ignored.

"That's what I came for your help with. The Rhone aren't entirely unified in their goals. My father--I assume Gabriel got to you and filled you in on my heritage?" Roland paused as Finn nodded at him. "They're intent on the total destruction of Klain because they think it's a way to break a curse tying them to the Darkness. If I can reinterpret the prophecy to be able to break it without destroying the city, I think I can get the attack called off."

"What's the prophecy?" Finn asked. Roland pulled out a piece of paper from a pocket and handed it to her. He figured it was easier to think through a puzzle that was written out rather than trying to remember it all.

"The curse of Darkness has its hold

Until you find eternal sleep

Or 'til you rejoin roots of old

Down within the mountain's keep.

From where you've come is where you'll find

Not what you grasp within your hand

But that which you have left behind

Morosely in that ancient land

Endeavor to destroy what still

Inhibits you from Sorcerer's will"

"Any ideas? I know you spent a long time with the library doing research, and then time with the Fae. You're my best hope to figure something out quickly." Roland's fingers grazed hers as he handed her the paper, sending a spark up his arm.

Finn's eyes scanned the prophecy twice over, her brow furrowed in thought.

"I have a few ideas."