Alain and Atiya

Feeling Ana reach for the sword at her throat, Mattias wasted no time in thrusting the blade poised over Ana's stomach. It instantly cut into her flesh, no doubt causing Ana to stop her actions as she gasped in pain. Mattias sneered down at her shocked expression.

"Do remember, my dear, that I have a Wizard with me. If he's quick enough, his magic will heal you. You'll have a nasty scar, no doubt, but you'll live."

Ana bit down hard on her lip and it was all she could do to keep still. Her hands had long since fallen back down, and they were now curled into trembling fists. She would not scream.

"Y..." That was all she could get out, before having to bit back down on her lip. She glared up at him, but could do absolutely nothing.

Mattias lifted the sword away from her throat, and put it back into its sheath. After calmly wiping the blood from his other blade, he returned it as well. He went over to his cloak swiftly, and withdrew a vial and a cloth from it. He poured the liquid onto the cloth, and knelt beside Ana.

"Goodnight, Apprentice." Mattias said, before shoving the stained cloth on Ana's mouth and nose.

She tried to turn her head away, but it was no use, the wet cloth still pressed tight against her. Ten seconds. Fifteen. Though she did not breath, she could feel herself drifting away, the scent invading her nose against her will. She tried to lift a hand, but it was too heavy. Twenty. The world was tilting dangerously. Thirty. Everything was going black. Forty. Her shaking hand grasped onto his wrist, but there was no strength to push the rag away. Fifty. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head and her hand dropped. Fifty-five. She breathed in, and even the pain faded away.

(Since I have the time at this moment, I'm going to go ahead and post. Can edit later if I need to.)

The ground was hard, and the air didn't feel quite right. Not to mention his head was pounding. Why was it pounding? Alain bit back a low groan and pushed himself into a sitting position, to see a stone floor beneath him, and metal bars before him. Stone? Metal? Bars?

But... None of this made any sense. The last thing he remembered was eating that meal with... His eyes widened and he bit back a curse. The merchant? Had their food been drugged? But it didn't make sense. He had been such a friendly man... But Alain could not remember an attack, nothing that would have brought him here.

"Atiya?" he called out. "Syrien?"

"A-Alain?" Atiya groaned in reply, as she came back into consciousness herself. Ugh....her head was pounding...

"W-Where are we?"

Alain twisted around at the voice, and a small smile formed on his lips at the sight of Atiya. She was alive, and didn't look to be too badly hurt. "You're safe," he said, almost more to himself than her. His gaze moved past her, searching for Syrien, but he saw nobody else. Just the two of them.

If he hadn't been so disoriented and if his head wasn't pounding, he might have been embarrassed at that realization.

He scooted a little closer to her, and then her question sunk in. "I... I don't know."

"What....happened?" Atiya questioned, holding a hand to her pounding head. "Ugh, what hit me?"

Alain gave a shake of his head, and then immediately realized that was a bad idea. He bit back a groan and instead stared at Atiya a moment, blinking as there were two of her, and then one again.

"I... I don't know. I don't..." Understand. He didn't say the last word out loud, pausing as he recognized it for what it was. He had no information, no idea of what was going on, but it was a mistake to let on to that. If you pretended you knew more than what you actually knew, you could learn what others thought you knew.

If only he could even begin to make sense of that thought. Something Ana had said to him once. Or twice. Maybe more. But it didn't matter, only was causing his headache to grow.

"I don't think it matters," he finally said and then turned to face the bars. "Not right now. What matters is... that we need to get out of here."

Yes, good plan. But how did they do that?

"...I...don't suppose you have any weapons on...you..." Atiya trailed off, and finally noticed Alain was only clothed in his underclothes. She blinked and looked down at herself, noticing the same thing.

"Well. Whoever captured us, it seems they were very thorough. Though maybe..." Atiya stopped herself, and tried to think of any spells she could cast to free them. Her head was still hurting slightly, so that didn't help, but maybe she could use her magic to get them out of this situation...

Alain blinked, glanced down at himself, and then his eyes widened and his cheeks turned a light shade of red. But there wasn't time to be embarrassed, not as he turned his attention to her question.

"No," he said, but still he patted himself down, just to be sure. "No weapons. Whoever took us..." Again he trailed his hands along the bars. "They don't want us leaving anytime soon." He glanced towards her. "Maybe what?"

"I...might be able to use magic to get us out of here. Maybe." Atiya replied, frowning in thought. "Though even if I can break these chains, it won't do us much good to streak around near-naked and without weapons or armor, wherever we are..."

Alain's face turned another shade of red, and he quickly glanced away, before reminding himself that he didn't have time to be embarrassed. They had to get out of here, and then he could be as embarrassed as he wanted. "We can figure out the weapons and clothes situation afterwards. First..." He looked towards her, though not directly at her. "Can you get us out of here? Not a maybe, but a yes or a no."

His training was taking over, and as the panic started to die down, he could feel the wheels in his brain beginning to turn.

"...Yes. If I can reach your chains." Atiya finally replied, after a few moments of thought.

Alain nodded and hurried towards her, only to be yanked short by the blasted chains. He stumbled back half-a-step, then gritted his teeth and pulled against them, ignoring the bite of the metal in his flesh. "That's as far as I can get them," he said to her. "Reach."

This had to work.

Atiya nodded, and stood up, carefully walking toward Alain. She paused when the chains finally attempted to stop her, though she did her best to stretch forward and try to touch the length of chain connecting Alain's right arm to the wall. She managed to just graze her fingers across the metal, but it was enough.

She poured her magic into her fingertips, and used a spell to rapidly age and rust the metal, until it simply disintegrated.

"Well. That's a start."

(It’s been way too long since I posted in this, so forgive the rustiness of this post. If you’re still up to this collab.)

Alain shook his right hand, flexing his fingers and rolling his wrist, getting used to the feeling of having a free hand again. He then looked back to Atiya and gave her half of a smile. “See, we’ll be out of here in no time.” If he could come up with a plan, that was. Any kind of plan. What would Ana do in this situation? Oh yeah… He groaned silently. Not get herself into it.

"So, what now?" Atiya inquired, looking around the dungeon that they were imprisoned in. "What's the plan? Do we find a guard, ambush them, and take their stuff?"

"We..." Alain glanced back at her, and then at the bars of their cell. "Think you can free yourself of your own chains while I work on the lock?" He strode forward, only to pause upon patting his undershirt down. Wait. He had no tools to pick a lock with. His fingers curled into fists and he bit down on his lip to stop a curse of frustration from coming out.