Broken Things (Tor'ang and Bracken) CLOSED

"Chancellor," Radoon said softly, interrupting Tor'ang's thoughts.

Tor'ang looked at her, head cocked slightly to the side in an unspoken question, one eyebrow lifted slightly.

"A ship captain is requesting your attention, Chancellor. He comes not through the front door, but to the side. Unofficial business, perhaps?" Radoon's amusement insinuated itself through her words and her tone of voice, but she was unusually courteous in her manner of speech for once.

Tor'ang rose from her place in a graceful movement, smiling politely. Whatever it was, it would distract her from her thoughts, and any distraction was welcome at this point. Artur's son had been murdered. MURDERED. Right here in her beloved Song-Lu, where he should be safest. Her mind still reeled from that particular turn of events, although she never allowed it to show. She would pay dearly for this, and itched to bring justice to the assassins who had placed her in such dire straits.

"Let us satisfy our curiosity, then," she suggested to the other woman, setting off in the direction Radoon indicated.


The sight that met them at the small side door, normally reserved for deliveries, was an odd one. A man, a ship captain judging both by his clothing and mannerisms, was bowing respectfully as she approached. Two of his men stood a short distance behind him, leaning on a cart they had been dragging there. Not an entirely uncommon scene, she supposed, although it was much too late in the evening for a delivery.

"Chancellor," the captain addressed her as he rose from his bow. "My apologies for the disturbance."

She nodded, acknowledging it and forgiving it in the same little movement. The man's expression smoothed, little lines of worry that had been almost invisible fading from his face. "You have brought me something, captain?"

The evening air enveloped her with its chilly embrace as she took a step in the direction of the cart. Radoon was already moving past her, with her particular brand of predatory grace, to make sure it was safe. Tor'ang watched for the dark elf woman's subtle gesture from the corner of her eye.


"We picked up a castaway, Chancellor. He asked to be taken to you," the captain explained, a hint of the same worry appearing once more. She moved closer to the cart to peer within. Swirls upon swirls, skin drawn tautly over bone, unspoken horrors experienced... She felt the hints of illusion more than she saw them, a nightmare partially merged with reality. A mind on the edge of a long fall.

Her smile stayed the same as she faced the captain, even as she saw his face swirling, shifting with shadows chasing across the man's features. "You have done well, captain, in saving a man's life out at sea. It was good of you to bring him here. Please, go with my associate and tell her everything you know, it might help us find out where he belongs."


The men left with Radoon, after bringing the cart inside, and she could finally delve within the layers of misdirection and desperation to find the man within. A man she had thought dead, lost at sea for so long.

"Bracken..."

(Another text wall, woops!)

When they were alone at last, Tor'ang's ever-present smile vanished as she looked at the man in the cart, thoughts racing through her mind. The disappearance of Bracken had been one of the things gone wrong with the peace conference, but he had been returned to her now. She wasn't superstitious, but at the same time it was hard not to think that this return might be a sign that things were going to improve again.

Of course, the only certain conclusion was that things were going to change. If she allowed knowledge of his presence here to spread, it could have terrible consequences. She could frame him for the murder of Artur's son, easily. Or someone else could do it and implicate her as a co-conspirator. A dreadful scenario in either case. Hopefully no one would force her hand, it would distract from finding the true culprits, the ones that were going to pay oh so dearly.

She stroked a hand across his cheek gently. "I'm glad you're back, one way or another," she said quietly to his twisting form, watching as his chaotic illusions slowly began to fade. She replaced them with illusions of her own, before calling for a few servants to aid her. They needen't know they were carrying a man.


Once he had been placed in a guest room, she called for a distinctly different pair of servants and her physician. The servants cleaned and tended to the man she named "Kazuki", combing his wild hair and beard before the physician went to work on him.

The experienced physician, a woman whom Tor'ang trusted implicitly but still not enough to reveal Kazuki's true identity, treated the man as best she could. The physical wounds were the easy part, she cautioned as she left, he'd need therapy for the other damages that had occured to his body. For now, though, he just needed rest.

Tor'ang nodded, sitting down in a chair next to the bed with a thoughtful expression after having dismissed the servants. There was no telling when he'd wake, or what state he would be in... The illusions had not been a sign of a healthy mind. He was asleep now, troubled but at least a little better.

She began pondering the situation and did not notice that she herself fell asleep. A desperate grasp at her ankle woke her with a start some time later, the feeling of a wet hand latching on to her immediately filling her with a sense of dread. It was an illusion, of course it was, but she had to fight hard to loosen its grip on her.

"Wake up!" she pleaded to the sleeping man, working her own skills with illusion to try to overpower his desperate drowning hands. An image of calmness, a scent of cherry blossoms and grass from the garden where they'd first met, the soft warmth of the sun's rays in the early morning. "You're safe now. You're here with me."