Terra's Tar-Gone

A FEW HOURS LATER:

John's eyes slowly open up as a faint groan escapes his lips.

Immediately, he feels a pain in his shoulder where he was hit, and it causes him to seethe. Both the groan and seething gets the attention of Kyuala, "You're awake! Oh thank H'nod!"

Kyuala carefully embraces John before kissing him. After the kiss breaks, John asks, "What happened? Did we get Terra?"

Kyuala's face turns from one of relief to one of disappointment, "No... not yet."

John's stomach drops, feeling like everything he did just wasn't good enough. Kyuala sees this and quickly comforts home, "Hey, I already know what you're thinking, and you shouldn't be. You did everything you could to try and help. We will get Terra back, her parents have people searching for her right now, even the guards of the neighbouring towns have begun to look for any sign of her. We'll get her back, no matter what."

"Damn right, plus I owe those bastards a few broken bones."

Kyuala chuckles, "That's my beloved."

The two share another quick kiss before Bislea walks in with Lani on her shoulder who says, "Ahh good! You're awake! It seems that salve really did the job."

"Thank you, Lani. I've had the displeasure of working with this toxin a few times, so the solution has become engrained into my mind."

"Uhh... toxin?"

"Oh, yes," Bislea says. "The tip of the bolt in your shoulder was coated in a toxin which puts the body in a near comatose state. It's known as Reiga's Sleep. Luckily, there's no chance of it being permanent or deadly, so whoever they were, they knew what they were doing."

"Well, at least they were gentle with me," John jokes.

"You consider a bolt in your shoulder to be gentle?" Lani asks.

"I mean... it's better than my face."

The group all have a small laugh as John gets to his feet. Kyuala then gives him a shirt which he puts on before they all begin to walk out.

"So, how long have I been unconscious?"

"Around seven hours I suspect it would've been a shorter recovery period, but since you did indulge in the alcoholic activities, that slowed down said recovery by a fair amount."

John nods in response at Bislea's answer before asking, "And any news on Terra?"

"None, unfortunately. Thanks to Kyuala however, we do have the large man currently in custody. Father has the best information extractors currently with him, so we should know everything about his life not long after lunch."

John looks at Kyuala who explains, "They're torturers with fancy titles to make them feel better than the normal sick freaks who make pleasure in it."

"They also get paid a whole lot more," Lani adds.

"So, don't fuck with information extractors or the people who pay them then. Good to know."

The group continue to walk down the hallway before turning left to head into the throne room, but as they do, they hear a lot of voices within.

"I'm just saying, how are we supposed to feel safe if the Tarron's of all people were hit by these kidnappers?! Who knows if my family is next!"

"Mind your manners, you insufferable oaf! Their child was just taken from them, and yet, you complain about you!"

"What about our town?! Are we sure that this isn't a ploy for you to step down as our protector?! What happens then?!"

Bislea, Kyuala, and John, now with Lani on his shoulder, all walk in and see a gathering of what appear to be nobles all twitching and shaking like shitting dogs about the events from last night.

"I guess news spreads fast around here then?" John asks.

"Oh gods yes. You can kiss a servant in the darkest corner of this house, and they'd know about it in the port in roughly five minutes. They'd even be able to tell you how you looked," Bislea explains.

Bislea, followed by the group, then make their way over to Diane, Sophia and Apollita who are standing by their parents.

"Where are the others?" Bislea asks.

"They're currently getting away from this bickering contest. Only reason we're still here is because Father told us to wait for you," Apollita responds.

Sophia then asks, "Are you alright, John? We were worried that you wouldn't wake up for a few days at least."

"I'm alright, a little pain in my shoulder, but nothing I can't deal with. I'll feel better when we get Terra back though."

As the sisters and the other three are talking, a loud voice calls out, "What is this Holvaeth?! Are you taking in strays now?!"

The sisters and the trio turn around to find whoever just spoke, but it wouldn't take them long. Everyone's eyes snap onto a very snooty looking man. He is draped in a long red cloak with black spirals running up it. Everything is like you'd expect, a fancy-looking vest, expensive breeches, heeled boots to make him look taller. The man isn't exactly tall, even with his heeled boots on, but from what John can see, his ego makes up for all the difference in height.

The man then walks past everyone, chin up like he's trying to avoid a bad smell. The man then walks over to John and the group, standing in front of John, "I don't believe we have met these three newcomers. Tell us, Holvaeth, who are they exactly?"

"You best mind your manners around them, Kyarl. That man is the Hero of Reduna'z Gaze."

The man known as Kyarl eyes up John, examining him whilst simultaneously judging him, "Hero, huh? You don't seem to be anything special. Holvaeth, you allow such a strange specimen to enter your home? He isn't even one of us. I bet he isn't even the true hero."

John immediately wants to make this man lose more than just a few teeth, but Kyuala beats him to the punch by grabbing Kyarl's shoulder with a vice grip, "You listen to me, you rat-nosed dung heap. You will show my beloved respect, or I will show you what I did to help save Reduna'z Gaze."

Kyarl is terrified by Kyuala's not-so subtle threat, and Kyuala knows it. She then lets his shoulder go, and he quickly scurries back to the crowd, trying to hide the terror on his face which everyone sees despite his efforts.

Holvaeth then stands up, "Before I begin, I will introduce you all to the three that join us today. This man is John Doe, the Hero of Reduna'z Gaze. The lovely and imposing orc beside him is Kyuala, his beloved, and is not afraid to show it, so thank you to Kyarl for volunteering for the demonstration. There is another member of the group who is not currently in the room with us, known as Amilia, and she may be the feistiest catfolk I have met, so try not to trifle with her. Now, last, but not least is Lani, fairy on John's shoulder. I shall warn you all know, I expect you all to show them the same respect that you all show myself and my family. If I hear of any disrespect toward them, I shall personally make sure you are punished for your disrespect, understood?"

The entire room is quite for a few seconds which Holvaeth takes as acceptance of his ruling, "Okay, now, we can move on to the events at hand. First off, yes, Terra was taken a few hours ago by some low life bile drinkers. I have my best men and called in many favours, and she is currently being searched for every second."

The room all emerge into a raucous symphony of questions, all of which become almost ineligible as each question drowns out the other.

Holvaeth raises his hand, "Silence!" The entire room falls deathly quiet almost immediately, "I shall answer your remaining questions after I have concluded with what I wish to say. Now, onto my second point, I have no idea of the perpetrators and this, I have no idea if these are the same criminals that have been plaguing our town for the past month. I admit in my failings of not taking these fools as seriously as I should have. I simply thought of these scum as simple ne'er-do-wells, but I have no choice but to impose a stricter guard upon all of our properties. I insist you all choose guards you can trust, but if need be, I can recommend mercenaries that I personally use for situations just like this."

Murmurs are heard in the crowd again, but not long enough to warrant another echoing shout from Holvaeth who moves on, "Thirdly, thanks to both efforts of John and Kyuala, we were able to apprehend one of the kidnappers."

The room once again explodes, people shouting for the man to be tortured, others asking for a public hanging. The rest have other ideas of the same vain, mostly reiterating public exposure of the assailant.

"I understand all of your opinions, and it is taking everything in my power to not enact on every one of them. However, I have elected to let the extractors do what they do best. I have it on good authority that the man shall crack soon, and I will get my daughter back from those foul criminals, and shall publicly show why you do not mess with the Tarron's, their friends, or this great city of ours!"

The room all cheer, but John, Kyuala, Lani and the sisters notice one person who isn't cheering, Kyarl. Instead of joining in on the cheers, Kyarl seems to actually be scowling.

John then leans over to the sisters, "Who is that guy? His name sounds familiar, but I can't quite remember."

"Oh, that... is Kyarl Knagstun, the worm that even the soil rejects."

Kyarl Knagstun, the name immediately casts John back to when Terra was explaining why she left in the first place, "That's the dad of the asshat who Terra was getting forced to marry?"

"That he is. Unfortunately, his revolting son doesn't fall far from the shit smouldering tree," Apollita says.

"You all seem to have high opinions of him," Kyuala jests.

Apollita then chuffs, "Trust us, Kyuala. We have known that weasel and his family for far too long. We've heard many stories of them leaving people jobless and sometimes homeless, simply for a laugh. It is a widely known fact that they cover up most of their... darker misdeeds, yet their standing ensures that they are kept safe. Our father has wanted to be rid of them for years, especially after Terra escaped from being married into them. Their antics have got worse, but since they still have friends in nobility, our father can't simply just force them out."

"Many of the people in this room would happily throw the Knagstun bloodline down the deepest, darkest pit in the Network and leave them to rot with the rest of the monsters down there."

The group are surprised by Sophia's comment, but the other sisters seem to just be in agreement.

John then begins to think about the situation, and just how coincidental everything seems. Terra shows up after years of being away, and on that very same day, she's kidnapped? It seems very coincidental, yet, coincidences involving powerful people aren't usually coincidences.

He continues to stare at Kyarl, and begins to think to himself, "Who lost the most out of the failed arranged marriage?"

The answer to his question is quite literally in front of him. Kyarl Knagstun and his family. They lost out on being directly connected to the Tarron's through the marriage, and would've practically been untouchable.

Their misdeeds may be a widely known secret now, and if enough people were to stand against them, they'd have no chance to rebuke the claims. However, if they were directly connected to the Tarron's, who would be able to touch them? They'd immediately become the second most powerful family in the continent by one act of marriage, an act that never took place because of Terra fleeing from it. As John thinks about it, he realizes that it's practically Occam's Razor. Kyarl and his family have a history of being cunts, which is reiterated every time someone opens their mouths about them. They also have the most intent and resources to pull off something as ridiculous as this. To put it simply, there's a ninety-nine percent chance that Kyarl and his family are the culprits.

However, it's the remaining one percent that worries John.

John then finally breaks his gaze from the revolting geezer before looking over to Holvaeth and Myssera. He sees that Holvaeth, while maintaining a strong expression, is scared of what may happen to Terra. To put it simply, Holvaeth's hand may be raised high, but there was a quiver on the way up.

Myssera on the other hand, has a stoic expression. John assumes that she is keeping a brave face for the petulant nobles that look up to her and her husband, but John can't help but wonder if that's the reason... or if she just doesn't care about Terra.

Terra has told the group about how her mother was essentially a tyrant, and they've heard others say the same. Now, granted, that could've been overprotectiveness on her part, but... what if there was resentment because of what Terra did? What if Terra leaving caused Myssera to actually hate her own daughter? And if she did actually hate Terra... what would stop her from sacrificing Terra's life to save Erya's?
John tries to shake away those thoughts, after all, Myssera couldn't be that heartless... right?

"John, are you okay?"

John snaps out of his internal detective work by Lani's question. He quickly answers, "Yeah, just... thinking about something."

"Care to share?" Lani inquires.

"Not with potential prying ears around. We'll talk about it later."

Lani is confused, but if John is being secretive about it, it has to be something big, so she trusts his judgement.

After John had answered Lani's question, he begins to wonder something, "Where's Amilia?"

"Well..."

---

UPSTAIRS:

"Amilia, we can't let you go right now. You wouldn't even know where to begin looking," Sydna explains to a currently packing Amilia.

"Oh, you can't let me?"

Amilia then walks up to Sydna who is standing next to Manai, "You two listen to me. I don't care how insanely pretty your faces are, I will scratch them the fuck up if you don't move outta my way."

Sydna and Manai look at the other before Sydna replies, "Flattery will get you everywhere darling... except outside of this room."

Amilia is both amused yet annoyed by this response, and so she gets closer to the duo.

The tension is quickly cut as there's a knock at the door, "Sydna, Manai, you guys in here?"

Amilia pushes past the two, opening up the door. As she opens it up, the trio see John, Lani and Kyuala standing on the other side.

Amilia immediately slaps John's left shoulder, directly on his fresh wound, "Bout time your ass woke up. What the hell took you so long?"

John is bent over in pain, his right-hand holding his shoulder while seething, "Nice to see you too, Amilia."

Amilia then pushes past John, "We need to gear up and get after Terra. So, hurry your ass up or you get left behind!"

Amilia starts walking down the hallway, but is stopped by Kyuala, "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm going to get a tan. What the fuck does it look like?"

Amilia tries to get past Kyuala, but is quickly stopped again.

"Listen, that is not a good idea right now. We wouldn't even know where to start."

Amilia scoffs, "So what?! We walked for days to kill the fucking Darkcross because of a shady lead from a slimy bastard! What's so different about this time?! Huh?!"

"Because in case you forgot, we don't have a lead this time. You know I will do anything to save Terra, but going out blindly into the wild is a good way to get us killed."

Amilia scoffs again, understanding where Kyuala is coming from. Kyuala then continues, "Listen... Holvaeth is scheduled to get a report soon. If there's at least a hint of a lead, we'll leave right away. Hell, even if that big bastard downstairs squeals about where they've pissed one time, we'll be out the door in a second."

Amilia slight drops her head, looking down at the carpet below. Kyuala then puts her hand on Amilia's shoulder, "You trust me, right?"

Amilia looks Kyuala right in the eyes, "Always."

Kyuala gives Amilia a soft smile, slightly patting her on the shoulder before heading over to John.

"Are you alright?" Manai asks, gently placing her hand on his back.

"Yeah... wound's still a little fresh though."

John straightens up again, still slightly seething, but the pain is beginning to fade. Amilia and Kyuala come back to the others and Amilia says, "Uhh... sorry."

"It's cool. Just aim for the other shoulder next time, yeah?"

Amilia chuckles, "Deal."

Amilia then turns to the sisters, "I wasn't actually gonna claw at your faces, you're both too damn pretty for me to do that."

The sisters have a small laugh, but then the group all hear rapid footsteps coming up the stairs. A few moments later, a guard finds the group, "Master Holvaeth has requested all of your presence in the throne room immediately."

The group look amongst each other, with worry in every eye before they follow the guard down.

---

BACK IN THE THRONE ROOM:

"Good you're all here." Holvaeth exclaims as the group plus the sisters walk over to him before continuing, "I just received word from one of our scouts. Terra's kidnappers were apparently spotted by some civilians in a town known as Yakeston."

"Yakeston?! That's nearly three days away! How are they that far already?!" Manai asks.

"I'm afraid I don't have the answer to your question, dear, but I do know that they are still heading south. Durat has already begun to relay my order to the soldiers, and they will make sure that they cannot cross the river to Brissta. I must also ask something of you, John..."

Holvaeth is then approached from the side by a man in what looks to be a ritualistic robe of sorts. The man then begins to whisper in Holvaeth's ear which prompts Sydna to say to the group, "That's the head information extractor. He's really creepy, but no one can keep a secret from him. I heard that he once broke a mans leg so bad, it looked like a cannonball went through a tree trunk."

The man finishes whispering to Holvaeth who then says, "As I was saying. John, I know I have already asked a lot of you already, but I have to ask something incredibly important of you and your friends..."

Holvaeth takes a moment, "I need you to go to Brissta. I want you all to be there to help Terra. I have no doubt that she will be in shock because of the events, and I need you four to be there for her until you all get back."

Holvaeth then walks down the steps in front of the throne before heading over to the group, "I will make the arrangements for tomorrow morning. Please, be ready to leave immediately."

John nods his head, causing Holvaeth to do the same before walking out of the throne room with the other nobles in tow. One of the last nobles to leave however, is none other than Kyarl Knagstun. As he is walking past the group, he has a creepy, shit-eating grin on his face as he soon follows Holvaeth.

John caught a glimpse of the look, and his earlier thoughts immediately come back with a much stronger suspicion.

The group plus the sisters are joined by Bislea, Diane, Sophia and Apollita. They all see the concerned look on John's face, and so Kyuala asks, "What is it, beloved?"

"Something's off about all of this."

"What do you mean?" Bislea asks.

John looks around, immediately feeling suspicious about his surroundings, so he asks, "Can we all go somewhere quiet?"

---

THE LIBRARY:

The group all sit around a table at the far back of the library with a clear view of the door in case anyone were to enter.

"So, you think Kyarl kidnapped Terra?" Sydna asks.

"Think about it, it makes sense. Terra left to avoid marrying his son, ruining any sort of tether between the Knagstun's and Tarron's. This pretty much destroyed any sort of power they would've got from the marriage and just kept them as another family of nobles having to lick your fathers boots to keep their misdeeds hidden. All it would take is for one of his men to spot Terra at the docks, report back to him, and then they'd come up with the plan to take her, and have a chance at power again."

"It makes sense," Apollita says. "But, what would the end goal be? Give her back with a demand for marriage? And how were they spotted in Yakeston so quickly?"

"I think the Yakeston thing is a lie that Kyarl had someone make up to get us away from here, so they could pull the hero play."

Everyone looks at John, so he explains, "I assume you guys have fairy-tale where some knight slays a dragon, saves a princess and marries her, right?"

They all murmur some sort of response, confirming the existence of said fairy-tales, "Well... imagine if Kyarl's son walked through the front door, carrying Terra in his arms like a valiant hero. He walks in and declares that he saved Terra from those horrible miscreants and dealt with them swiftly. Your mom and dad are gonna be head over heels to have her back, they probably wouldn't even question anything he said. They'd probably want to reward him, and what would he choose as his reward?"

"To marry Terra," The entire table says in a unified moment of realization.

"Holy shit... that's what they're gonna do, isn't it?" Diane asks.

Amilia then responds, "Hell fuckin' no, not if I have anything to save anything about it." Amilia then brings out a dagger, "I say we got to the creepy fuckers house and slit his damn throat."

"Slitting his throat wouldn't do anything for us right now. Even if there's a small percentage that he wasn't involved, the repercussions would get us branded as an enemy of the continent. Even if Holvaeth and Myssera managed to clear us, we'd still have his henchmen wanting to kill us."

Amilia grumbles, but doesn't argue.

"So, how do we prove that the Knagstun's did it?"

"I don't know," John says to Sophia in response. He then says, "I... also don't know if he's our only suspect."

The group all look at him before Apollita asks, "Who's the other?"

John sighs before hesitantly saying, "Myssera..."