The Captain

“I know you’re here, Miranda,” he shouted, the thick atrium walls magnified his voice. He looked around the small confines of the chamber pulling one of the torches out and wedged it under the door. That should slow them down he thought. He found it increasingly difficult to hold his thoughts together.

* * * *

Only minutes ago, Captain Celen Oberkin walked his nightly rounds. Upon returning to his room, he opened the door and he called out to Miranda as he usually did as of late. He cut himself short as he saw a trail of blood leading out onto the balcony. It was messy. He had seen this before, distinct, linear. Someone dragged a body after having suffered a severe stabbing. Instinctively, he reached for his sword arm and called out for the guards.

“Miranda! Where are you? Are you okay?” His voice betrayed a concern that even he found surprising. It had been a rather quick affair. He met her during the last party the duke held here at the keep. At first he thought it would only be a heated passion that would burn itself out. Only in the last week had he really found himself considering that the relationship could actually blossom into something more.

His room was a disaster. Obviously, someone had been searching for something. But, something was amiss. Were those journey bags packed by the balcony door? It was then that he saw Miranda lying on the ground. He kneeled down next to her and looked her over. He had seen many injuries on the battlefield, but still when he saw her bruised face and swollen eye, he was taken aback. She had definitely put up a fight and paid a heavy price. He checked her breath and was encouraged when she let out a stifled moan.

“You’re gonna be okay Miranda…” he hesitated as he set his sword down and started to fidget with his pockets. He was pulling out a vial when he heard her speak again. Where the hell were the guards? “Guards!” he yelled out once more.

“You…have to…be careful…he’s still…” she muttered and started coughing, blood sputtering at the corner of her mouth. He quickly unstoppered the vial and quickly poured the contents into her mouth. It was one of his emergency vials of healing. It wouldn’t completely heal her injuries but it would stabilize her until he could get help. She pointed weakly towards the open balcony doors. He grabbed his sword again and got into a kneeled defensive stance and scanned the room, eyeing the balcony warily.

He had just begun to make inch his way towards the closet when he felt a sharp burning sensation at the base of his neck. He turned only feel the hot flash of pain from his neck spread out intensely across his body. He swooned and fell back onto the floor barely holding onto his sword. Miranda hovered over him, her arm out and holding something thin and needlelike.

“It’s over Oberkin. The stage is set and we just need to play out the final scenes,” she stated simply, firmly. “Oh, and just on cue…” The door flew open as two guards came bustling inside.

“Help me!....He…I can’t…” Miranda stuttered and threw in a loud sob for good measure.

“It’s gonna be okay Miss. Are you okay? What happened?” started one guard. The other began to assist the Captain.

“No…get away from him…he did this to me and killed the other guard!” pointing out onto the balcony. “He told me we were going to run away from this place. When I refused, he….he just got angry and started….started to beat me,” she turned her head slowly and in a downward gaze, an obvious attempt at trying to hide the bruised and swollen eye.

“I didn’t want this…any of this…” she started again as she dropped a handful of jewels from the duke’s collection. The astounded guards looked at the fallen loot and then turned to the prone Captain, his own eyes wide in shock. As much as he tried, he found that he couldn’t move, couldn’t speak in his defense. Inside, he reeled at the sudden turn of events. For the love of Enderil, what was going on?

He stared in disbelief. Just as he didn’t know where the jewels had come from, a blade suddenly appeared in Miranda’s hand. Quietly, gracefully and in one fluid motion she slit the throat of the guard next to her. In two silent steps, she was upon the second guard as she sapped him unconscious with the hilt of her dagger. It was only as she dropped it by the second guard did he realize that it was his own dagger.

It was all too fast and incredulous to believe.

“This antidote will relieve your paralysis, lover. I’ll be upstairs…think I’ll have a look-see at the ocean. Join me?” she purred.

She pulled out a small waxen bead and burst it in his mouth the lingering sweet-sour taste drawing a strong stringent reaction. And with that, she turned and walked out the door without any notable difficulty. Odd, he thought to himself. The sudden choking sensation broke his concentration and brought him back to his own reality.

Slowly, the paralysis began to wear off. He got up and staggered through the doorway. It made no sense, nothing was making sense and it was hard to think. As he made his way down the corridor towards the southern tower that overlooked the sea, her trail was evident. Another guard lay dead at his post. He tried to pick up his pace. He had to find her. He wanted answers.

* * * *