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The dwarf crossed his arms after Yolanda had left. "Run? To hell with ye!" He scoffed. "I'd sooner die then run!"

Valgard shook his head. "I think her words were for the best, but I doubt she really meant them." The Nord lied. "But I need to prepare. See you in the morning, Deghar..." He said with a wave as the dark dwarf huffed again.

Valgard walked to his shop and went under the canopy, picking up his round shield from the rack it was on. It was his but he displayed it nonetheless, showing off his craftmanship. Runes spiraled down the steel reinforcements, which formed a plus sign with the middle, which was a large, steel dome covered in runes.

Then he produced his sword, which was in its sheath under the counter. He let seldom let anyone behold its subtle beauty. It was a simple, steel broadsword, but it had a runic design upon it; enlarged, crows-feet shaped runes named Algiz, modled after the Tree of Life which the Nords believed housed every realm. These runes were lined in a linear pattern up the blade, the ends connecting and the forks sticking out like a tree. These went up the blade all the way from the crosspiece to the tip, and the sword would never break because of the runes inscribed upon the very blade itself, not the flat, like the Tree of Life design.

The slid it back into its sheath, and then grabbed a decent-quality, well balanced sword and stuck it into his belt as well as his broadsword.

And then he went back to his home, where he cast his rune sticks.

He inspected the sticks carefully. They were made from the trunk of an ash tree, each inscripted with a certain rune and given the designs according to the rune. As he cast them, he saw success in their future, but for some reason he read something else... As if this success would lead for failure for others. He breifly wondered what this meant and then decided that it probably meant something very vague and inconsequential.

As he put the rune sticks away, he hoped, prayed, that it would be inconsequential. He wanted none to die. He wanted none to be left behind...

((Bump?))

((Then...I think we're waiting for Merl...to wake up? That should work...))

(Imo'll either wake up during their exodus from the town or after it, and either way it'll fit into my plan... actually, the latter would probably work better, due to the fact that... yeah... twisted )

Ravenar was jerked out of an unconcious state by the sound of slamming bars and rattling of keys. He sat upright only after opening his eyes, making sure it was okay to sit up. It was indeed, and he sat up and turned to the man standing in his cell.

"Arminas." Ravenar hissed with hatred. For all his pacifism, Ravenar loathed this man more than ever, now. And he might as well. After all, he was going to die...

"Ravenar." Arminas returned, wearing his formal Mage District Guard robes and hood, which was pulled back to expose the half-dragon, half-elf's pointed ears and dragon-like eyes. "It will do my soul well to know you die this day."

"And it does my soul well to know that neither draconic nor elven blood makes you immortal." Ravenar spat back. "Know this, Arminas, that if you spill my blood, you make an enemy of half the town."

"And they will die." Arminas returned. "And now, Ravenar... It is time for you to die... sadly I cannot end you here. Come with me, or I'll have you beaten. I trust those shackles are still working their magic at keeping yours down."

Indeed, this was true... Ravenar's hands still bound before him and his magic suppressed, he had no choice, and he followed Arminas out of the prison and to the gallows platform. A crowd was already gathering around as the sun began to show its rays peeking over the mountains. "Executioner, take care of him." Arminas told a black-hooded man that stood beside the platform. "I've business to take care of..." Arminas sighed, and turned back to Ravenar. "It is a pity I cannot watch you die, but I suppose I'll offer your corpse as a meal to my draconic relatives. I've heard that Drow is a delicacy amongst dragonkind..." He grinned, and Ravenar stood silent in response, his crimson eyes narrowed and filled, brimming with hatred. The runes upon the shackles glowed as Ravenar instinctively attempted to use his magic, for the first time in hatred. They burned upon his skin, but he didn't care, until the pain was unbearable, and he released his hold on his power, and the runes faded.

The executioner got onto the platform. "Stand on the trapdoor." He instructed. Ravenar did so, looking around as the noose was placed around his neck and tightened slightly so it would actually hang a neck as thin as his.

Many Mage District Guards stood around at key points, all waiting, as if they knew of an attack, but not by whom. A cloaked figure had walked in, alongside a shorter one, which huddled close to it. A gnarled hand reached out to the smaller one and kept it close. It must have been a poor, homeless mother that was trying to comfort her child, obviously taking this opportunity to panhandle or something. Well, it didn't matter. There were both jeers and cheers, mostly from Ravenar's enemies, which were many in number and a few of his friends watched grimly, shaking their heads and walking away.

There was nothing they could do for him. He was doomed. In a few more minutes, he would die. The executioner stepped forward with a scroll and opened it.

"Today is the scheduled execution of Ravenar M'elzar DeMirro, who has been found guilty of murdering an old woman in cold blood, by using his magic to make the very heart within her chest explode. May the gods have mercy on his soul for this heinous crime, and may they find him guilty, as we have, and let him burn in the Hells where he belongs!" The executioner finished and rolled up the scroll yet again.

The hooded figure, the taller one, held the child closer, which seemed to quiver and shake bodily, as if crying. It brought a tear to Ravenar's eye that a small child would have to watch such a thing, that he would have to watch him die.

And yet he would remain silent, as he was told. The guard moved towards the lever that would release the trapdoor.

"Any last words?" The executioner asked.

Ravenar's eyes narrowed as the crowd hushed itself to hear Ravenar's last words. Something told him, something whispered in his ear that this was not going to be his time to die. Fate, perhaps? Letting him know not to be worried. He turned to the executioner and shook his head.

"Not yet." Ravenar said with a smirk.

The executioner grunted and frowned beneath his mask, and then his arm flexed and pulled the lever to release the trapdoor.

Ravenar felt his feet no longer rest upon a solid surface, and felt gravity take its toll as time seemed to slow down, he stared forward, eyes fixed in a glowering squint, watching the cloaked figure and the smaller cloaked object beside it, which seemed to have some sort of problem with its shoulder, something poking out.

Like... the hilt of an axe?

There was a whooshing sound that Ravenar heard as the two figures passed out of sight, and a glimmer of steel above him as he looked up as he felt the rope tighten slightly. The fibers burned his skin slightly as it attempted to tighten, only to relax. As he landed on solid ground, still breathing, he heard a shout of rage, a shout of triumph, and screams of panic.

Ravenar, his hands bound in front of him, was helpless as Mage District Guards began to rush the platform... to be met by a diminutive cloaked figure bearing a glimmering, glowing battleaxe. The axe stopped them for two reasons. It was a weapon, of course, and the color it was glowing was somewhat suggestive of the lighter tones of red, a pinkish color.

"Is that... pink?" One of the guards questioned with a chuckle.

The tiny cloaked figure threw off its brown shroud and shouted from between the bushy red moustache and beard "It not be pink! It be red!" And with that Deghar launched himself bodily from the platform and was joined in combat by Valgard on the other side.

Steel flickered and spells were miscast as the two barbarians as they were called, distracted the mages with shouts of anger and rage that they dare attempt to harm their friend. And when Valgard was finished and Deghar still struggling, Valgard gave a pained gaze over to the dwarf. "Run, friend." Valgard said breathlessly, rushing to Ravenar's side. "Get out of here! Yolanda will aid you!" He urged.

Ravenar knew that Yolanda could not target him with magic due to his bindings, and he knew that the Mage District Guards allowed the keys be kept by one man and one man only, and it was a man whom they would never find unless they wished to be found: Arminas.

And so Ravenar ran through crowds of people who were surging, more distracted by the fighting than by Ravenar's departure, nearly plowing into Yolanda and unable to speak, somehow overwhelmed by this series of events. He would have embraced the woman had he not been bound by those blasted shackles that kept his hands together in front of him and unable to be separated.

He panted and made sure he did not lose sight of her, the people pressing by them both to watch Deghar and Valgard fight the Mage District Guards.

What a day this was going to be...

((SORRY! I was typing a post yesterday, but then I had to get off to talk to someone on the phone, upstairs. I'll post now! gonk ))

Yolanda placed her hands on his shoulders to try and steady him and herself. The crowd seemed to be a mixture of those trying frantically to get away from Ravenar and those who wanted to kill him. Going with the plan, she placed her hands on the shackles that bound his magick.

"Hold still," she said, pouring her magickal energies into the enchantment. Her eyes were closed and she was murmuring the words softly. Hopefully, Deghar and Valgard were still somewhere nearby to try and keep them at least a little protected. This spell had to work...it had to...

The shackles clinked, but didn't come undone, glowing briefly. Curses on the head of the Goddess! The mage never even had a chance to practice the spell before using it today. Just this once! It was going to...arrrrgh!

"Ravenar," she said, "Go with Lasha and head south. I'll meet up with you later. Go! You haven't much time!" Pushing him away, she turned to meet the angry guards, many with weapons.

"You've made a bad mistake, helping that scum," one of them spat at her, drawing his sword menacingly.

"I apologize then," she said, her voice icy before giving a nod and unleashing her might. Her staff was in the air as it put off a pulse of wind, emanating from her very center. This pushed them back far enough and stunned a couple.

"Go, Ravenar...hurry..." she thought, "I don't know how much longer I can fend them off!"

((Erm...bump?))

"What the? Who are-- Oh." Ravenar said when he was picked up, and then when he saw the dagger, he realized who it was.

Though the other drow was attempting to drag him along with all speed, she couldn't be ruining his condition more. His knee was throbbing with pain, having to run awkwardly to keep up with the female drow.

"Very well, very well." Ravenar said at her mention of not being much time. His things had not moved far since Lasha had last been in there; although they had moved, indeed.

Ravenar walked over to his dagger, scooping it up and placing it awkwardly in its sheath in the fold of his robe, along with his staff, which he did something strange with. He smacked it over his own back, diagonally, and the ends of the staff curled around Ravenar's shoulder and side where they should have, and made itself conform to the shape of his back, thusly staying on. "My bracer..." He shuffled around. "The one Valgard gave me. Aha!" He picked it up and dusted it off, but couldn't put it on. So he simply held it, being the last of his important things.

"Wish we could stop by my home and grab some of my other things..." Ravenar said. "All of my gems..." He almost seemed saddened by losing his precious jewels and gems. "Well, life is more important." He stated, and then turned to Lasha. "Let's go... wherever we're going." He said with a smile. He figured they'd be getting out of town.

"Wait." He remembered. Yolanda, she was still back, fighting the guards. For all he knew, she could've been dead...

"We have to go back and find Yolanda." He stated. "Deghar and Valgard too." He added. "We have to get them all out of here. If they stay here they'll all be killed!"

Suddenly, a rune that Ravenar recognized as the Nordic V rune flew through the wall, and hovered vertically before them, glowing a translucent red. It opened, and an image of Valgard was seen. "Don't worry about me n' Deghar, friends. We'll hold the guards off while you escape, and once you're out of the town we'll head another way to throw them off. Once we stop being persued we'll find you. How about heading south, towards the Ice Plains? It'd be great to see my old home again." The image of Valgard flickered somewhat as he backed up and swung his sword, a spray of blood coming from a point not seen on the image. "Just go, friends. The Runes will guide us to thee after we leave. Odinn be with you!" Was his final words before the rune flickered and faded in air.

"Well, I believe now we must find Yolanda." Ravenar would honor their request. After all, it made more sense.