[EVENT RP] The Reclamation of Tania

[Toogee]

Back downstairs, Raul was dumbfounded. First, this Alice had declared herself under the employ of a high-ranking general. She was watching some random freelancer, who happened to look like someone who assaulted a church. Furthermore, she was dressed rather inappropriately; they were lovers apparently. Or that was her cover. He couldn't tell with spies. All of that could have been glossed over had Alice gone straight upstairs.

Enter Raul's second problem with redheads. Paige interrupted the fighting by holding up his hostage, ordering the fighting to cease. Who the hell did she think she was? He was ready to dismiss her as a do-gooder who needed to be locked up and dealt with after the Bern soldiers were finished. But then, Alice casually walked up to her and assured that she would get help from upstairs. The fact that the spy offered words of encouragement at all to someone committing treason was enough to arouse suspicion. That she was getting help from upstairs meant that the Lycians were betrayed: an ambush was going to occur. He should have confronted Alice of this revelation right then, but he didn’t want to alert those upstairs that he was aware of their presence.

Suddenly, Bern was not his most pressing issue. They were vastly outgunned by the Bern soldiers, but if giving up the hostage would give them temporary relief, he would have time to deal with those that would betray him.

Whatever confidence Paige had in the situation disappeared when Alice spoke openly to her. She just revealed everyone upstairs to the Lycian soldiers. Whatever neutrality she had attempted to have all this time was lost. Surely the commander wouldn’t accept her ultimatum-

“Go,” Raul declared to the two Bern soldiers. “Take your wounded man and get the hell out of my town.”

The two Bern soldiers did not hesitate; they weren’t waiting for the Lycians to change their minds. They took their man from Paige and carried him out of the inn. One of them blew a horn, alerting the riders that they got what they came for.

“Order our forces to cease fire,” Raul declared. “We have a new enemy.”

The sounds of war outside were replaced by Bern horns and cries of “cease fire”. Paige was shocked at the outcome. She would have been happier had Raul not stared down at her, enraged.

“Traitor!” Raul shouted at Paige. “That hostage could have told us where Bern’s forces were camped! We would have had the advantage!”

“You armed innocent people! If the fighting hadn’t ceased, they would have been killed! If protecting the Lycian people is a crime, arrest me.”

“You fancy yourself a humanitarian? You had a strike team waiting to take all of us out!”

“No, it’s not like that!”

Two Lycian soldiers disarmed Paige of her rapier and light brand before binding her hands behind her back. They took her outside, but before Raul joined them…

“ANYONE REMAINING IN THE INN IS TO COME OUT UNARMED AND READY TO SURRENDER!”