#badabing badaboom gotta wrap up this event real soon yea yea

[yi-dashi-a]

Whispers from Ionia - A Fortune in Misfortune

[Previously]

“What?” The Demacian took a swig of his drink. A simple act, but the pause in their conversation somehow managed to boil and freeze Yi’s blood. Death… The word could mean so many things, yet all of them were terrible, “Stop it, Terrius. What do you mean? What death? Who?”

“They seek execute her. Not sure how yet. Hung probably? Maybe a beheading…”

“Wh… Why?” Then the man basically downed the whole mug. All Yi could do was watch,

“Because people are stupid. This whole thing is stupid. I petitioned for exile. That’s what this would usually call for… but every person I’ve ever spoken to doesn’t want that. Everyone who’s seen this case thinks she deserves to die for stealing bread and coin? That’s not justice. That’s just cruel! I serve Demacia for fair justice, not to just execute people under false pretenses and suspicion of magecraft.”

“I…” Yi thought to indulge in his own drink, and his darting eyes between it and the archer might have ceased if he had obliged himself. However, he let the wine be. For the moment he was strong enough, “… I am calm. It is okay. They think she is a mage. This is what you say to me, yes?”

“Yeah, even though it’s clear she isn’t. Annuller investigators have already been and gone because they’re their own damn matter entirely. While they said nothing either way, ‘course they’re not going to waste their time on a damn outsider if she’s going to die anyway, people are quick to cry mage.”

“But why Terrius?”

“Why? Do you know how many people saw what you did on that day, Master Yi?”

“What I… did..?” That wine once again looked so inviting, “… I am aware there were people who witnessed me take a hold of her that day, if that is what you mean.”

“That one act. All your Wuju, or whatever it is…” Terrius hissed a breath through his teeth, “… is the reason she is being put to death.”

Yi’s gut flew to his throat, but he tried his best to steady his mind as the emerald eyed man spoke on. It was a wasted effort though. His nerves were always so powerful once his reason left him, “But I know that was you and not her, yet everyone saw you and immediately thought her. I let you go, and maybe you would’ve been executed if I had arrested you that day. Instead you walked free, and in your innocence everyone was left to assume it was her who did the magical feats everyone saw. And people want reassurance. They want comfort that there isn’t foreigner mages among us. That leaves us where we are now. She’ll be dead by the end of spring if nothing is done about it…”

And then Terrius sat there, simply waving down someone to get him more alcohol. Finally, Yi felt the tug of his own drink take shape, and he was hard pressed not to gulp some down.

Sour relief. He’d relish that for a time. He could drown his troubles in the red of his wine so easily.

What a weak, foolish man you are, Hui… Said something, somewhere in his mind.

“They think Wuju is a mage work…”

“Even I think Wuju is mage work, Yi. I don’t have any other explanation for what I saw…”

“Your fellow guardsman saw me heal before their eyes!” Yi proclaimed, caring little as he almost spilled his drink upon the table as he slammed it down, “If they must take anyone, then they should take me.”

“I know.” Terry shouted back, before the stares of tavern revelers had him reign his voice in, “No one should die for magecraft though. I’m terrified of it, yet even I know better. Demacians shouldn’t in the business of murdering falsely accused mages when there are honest to Gods demons outside our walls. You shouldn’t have to die either, but… I still let you go. It’s lost me my job, no doubt…”

“Now what is it you mumble about?”

“My job! My everything. You’ve taken everything from me.” Now it was Terry’s turn to lean forward, and Yi found himself hiding behind his tankard, “There are questions about me too. If I’m a mage sort. If I had anything to do in a conspiracy that doesn’t even exist! Why did I shoot? Why did I let you go?” He slumped back down, audibly cluttering into his seat, “… And I don’t even know the answers to these questions myself. All I know is that I’m… relieved of my duties as of now. All thanks to you, that girl, and my damn twitchy bowfinger.”

“Do you think I will weep for you?” Yi offered in response, voice cold with his monotone. He took another drink to keep his nerves in check, “You are mistaken.”

“I know.” The Demacian sighed, chest seemingly heavy, “But that’s… just the lay of the land right now. I’m kept around because I have connections to you, and as I said all those months ago…” He flourished a hand as if he expected Yi to fill in the blanks. Yi did not obliged him, “… no one speaks her language! Fancy that. But she’s in talking spirits now, even if we don’t know what she’s saying. We don’t even know how to ask her name…”

“So what would you have me do?” The Ionian’s voice had finally settled, and he felt safe behind it’s indifferent barrier. The night was lost to him anyway. Surely he’d drink more than just this, and then he’d forget everything that occurred. But such things were not apparent to the archer, with his conviction bubbling on even as he seemed to be pained by his own position in these events,

“… You want to ask her questions, right?”

“I do.”

“Then we need you. Or… She need you. One of my friends is leading the investigation now, though that doesn’t give me room to do much. But this is what he’ll offer you. You get to ask what you want so long as you ask what they want, alright? Someone has to speak on her behalf, and if it isn’t you then who else is it going to be?”

“As if I have the choice to say no…”

“Do you want her to die, Yi?” As much as that simple quip strained his posture and broke his expression, he forced himself to remain quiet. Agitating all the more, the man seemed to tremble with his conviction, “Because I don’t. I shot you. Okay! Be angry about it. Hate me. Hate this whole damn country and hide away with your estranged nobility. You and I both know there isn’t a word I could say that would make you any less bitter, so why even bother with this?”

Yi drank onward in silence, but his companion hardly took pauses for breaths, “But this is beyond you and me, Master Yi. There’s a woman who spends her days in agony because we both messed up. Me, and you. I wanted her off the streets and in prison for her harassment of the people. That’s it. She’s paid a fortune in misfortune for her crimes, and yet they want to kill her without a second thought. You have to work with me now. This is the last time I’ll ever ask you. We can find a way to at least get her out of this country. At the very least she needs a proper punishment for her crimes. We both want the same thing now, right? The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?”

Silent all the more, Yi chose to take his time as Terry had in finishing his drink. His body somehow expected an instant numbness, but there was nothing then. He was still lucid, and still bombarded with all the thoughts of this terrible situation. In time he grit his teeth, turning his cataract eyes downwards almost instinctively. Why did he feel like crying, all of a sudden? It was a good thing his hair hung thick like a curtain about his face.

“… I do not want her to die.” He said in time, trying to take a deep breath against his crumbling resolve, “You perhaps underestimate the distance I would go to protect this woman. I do not even know her name, and yet I feel well equipped to fight for her.”

“You don’t have to do anything stupid if we work together.” Without looking at the archer, it was almost as if a different person was speaking. His tones were steely and resolute, with the timbre of his accent sounding out with that Demacian flair, “Please trust me. While I won’t ever know the context from your end, I know that for both of our own reasons we don’t want to live with this guilt.”

“Even if us deciding things for this woman already placed her in this position.”

“We’re dumb men. Maybe we’re separated by country, class, and age, but we’re still dumb men.” Yi found himself chuckling at that somehow, even as tears fell into his tankard.

“When is it you will need me?” He asked, and the man’s response reeked of his relief,

“As soon as possible. Tomorrow, even.” Terry replied, “Which means… I probably shouldn’t drink much more. You probably shouldn’t either, yeah? I don’t want to push you off your horse like this…”

“It was my choice.” He said, as the ramifications of his choices washed over him with a sickening guilt “And I do not think I am done drinking yet. I certainly cannot return to my home, even after this one drink. The Lady of the House will know what I have done…”

“Lady Buvelle, right?” Without even thinking Yi wrenched his gaze upwards and out of his protective barrier of hair. His face was twisted into some form of melancholic snarl, and it was enough to have the Demacian jump in his seat, “Woah… Okay, uh… Won’t press that button, then. But I think it’d be better if you were less hungover come morning. Do you have a place to stay?”

“No…”

“Well, it might seem dumb to ask but you’re welcome to stay at my home. It might be easier too. I’m honestly… quite afraid to venture outside of the city proper just to ah… knock on a noblelady’s door. If we’re in the same place come morning, then we can just get it all finished within the early hours.”

To that, all Yi responded with at first was to push his empty tankard out towards the other man, letting his soft tears fall upon the table. After eyeing the quizzical look from Terrius, he sighed and mumbled,

“… If you buy me a few more drinks of this size, then I will have no choice but to stumble home with you.”

And that was just about the last thing the Wuju Bladesman could recall. The guilt of a man was an effective way of opening his coinpurse.