Suspicion

by ~asilha

Sywyn couldn't sleep. The smell of burnt clothing still hung fresh in the night air, and it kept him awake with memories of how they had landed themselves in jail. It was a warm summer night-and a humid one at that. Sticky beads of sweat were visible against his skin as he whittled uninterestedly at a piece of wood he had found on the floor, a dull glint of jaded fatigue within his eyes. Pale moonlight came in from a small barred window above their heads, but was weak and dilute compared to the lit torch just outside their cell. The flame crackled loudly as it flickered, its sound soft beneath the chirping of crickets outside their window. He had grown accustomed to his surroundings by that time, having been trapped in that jail cell for most of the day already, and the noise everything made had already faded to the background.

Elyon slept soundly in her part of the cell, her chest rising and falling peacefully as she breathed quietly. She had been passed out since earlier that day, ever since she panicked at the market and her powers went out of control. Unfortunately, Sywyn had been the one accompanying her there, and was subsequently arrested as well. They had been stuck in that stuffy jail cell ever since. Of course, he had attempted to escape several times, but each try had ended in failure. It wasn't that security was airtight; in fact, there were no guards patrolling that floor of the jail at all. While it meant that they were left unguarded, it also meant that there was no one around to steal the keys off. After realizing this, Sywyn had stopped trying and began whittling…began thinking.

The blonde was still asleep when a sudden whistling sound interrupted the calm quiet Sywyn had been dwelling in. His whittling paused for a moment, thrown off by the change of atmosphere, and he took a moment to cast a quick glance over the area. By that time, the whistling had come to a stop, and the silence that followed was disturbed and uncertain. Keeping a wary eye out for the source of the abrupt silence breaker, Sywyn continued chipping away at the piece of wood just as the whistling began again. This time he knew where-or, more appropriately, whom-the annoying sound was coming from, and glared at the cell adjacent from theirs.

As expected, a familiar brunette sat there, mirroring his position and staring at absolutely nothing. Her hair was unkempt and stuck out at odd angles, possibly tousled when the guards had taken her up there and thrown her into her cell. Uneven bangs messily fell over her eyes, but she made no move to fix them. Her name was Karina, if he remembered correctly. She had been arguing with him over a certain medicine they both had wanted to buy earlier that day, which had landed them in jail. Somehow. It might have had something to do with him drawing a knife on her.

"She isn't really blind," Sywyn had told the shopkeeper smoothly, ignoring the scandalized look on the brunette's face. "She's faking it so you'll side with her."

A few unintelligible stammers later, Karina had regained her composure long enough to spit, "I am not"-here Sywyn had experimentally drawn one of his daggers and pointed it right between her eyes-"faking blindness for something as petty as a stupid vial of cough medicine!" Her eyes had remained focused in Sywyn's general direction, attempting to glare holes into his skull. She hadn't even noticed the blade, it seemed, and had continued shouting at him until one of her friends arrived at the scene.

He had arrived at a bad time, however, and his mouth had hung open in a less than attractive manner. "W-Karina! What the hell are you doing?" her friend had gasped. He had quickly taken her by the arm to pull her away.

"Let me go, Ryan! We were sent on an errand-we need to see this through!" she had hissed, struggling in his grip. "I need the money, dammit!"

Elyon, also choosing a bad time to arrive, had pulled on Sywyn's arm insistently, blabbering on about how a sudden swarm of guards were closing in on them. Temporarily blinded by his annoyance, Sywyn had shoved her off, causing her to shriek in surprise and accidentally set the shopkeeper's table on fire. Even Karina hadn't been oblivious enough to miss the sudden surge of heat from her side, and the marketplace had immediately burst into a panic. Through it all, the city guards had managed to overwhelm the four of them, swatting off frightened passersby as they took them in.

Oblivious to his glowering, the brunette continued to whistle mindlessly, keeping the same pattern as before. Long note, short note, pause. Long note, short note, pause. Sywyn peered at her, irritated. "I know you can see me," he grunted at her.

Karina turned to face him with the same blank stare she had been giving the wall, the whistling finally coming to a halt. Her eyes were still a ridiculously light shade of blue, as they had been earlier that day, and he scowled at them accusatively. A frown dampened her features, as if in response. "See what? Are you giving me the middle finger or something immature like that?" she inquired, sounding tired.

He snorted a bit gracelessly and returned his eyes to the tiny piece of wood in his hands, resuming his whittling. "Don't bother keeping up that blind act with me; it isn't going to work," he said.

There was a short, indignant pause. "So you still think I'm acting," she sighed. It was more a statement than a question. "Why?"

"You crave attention and pity, neither of which I am willing to provide," Sywyn replied easily, whittling a particularly large chunk off his shrinking piece of wood.

Karina let out a loud bark of incredulous laughter and shook her head. "Attention! You make me sound like a selfish little puppy!" she exclaimed. He didn't respond to that, so she decided to let the topic go. There was no point in arguing with this man, whoever he was, so if he was willing to stop talking about it, she would gladly take the chance. Shifting slightly against the wall, she spoke again. "Have you any idea when they're willing to let us out?"

Sywyn instinctively shrugged, despite knowing that she wouldn't acknowledge it. "Probably not soon. You are, after all, labeled as my accomplice now," he answered distantly.

"Accomplice? Meaning…what? Do you have some sort of reputation?" Karina questioned, brow wrinkling.

He emitted an impatient sigh. "Quit acting like you didn't notice the giant scar across my face; I'm sick of your pretending," he hissed with a low grunt as he chipped a tad violently at his piece of wood.

It took a moment for her to decipher his description of himself, eyes closed in concentration. When it finally sunk in, her eyes opened and widened a fraction. "W… You're Windrider? The Windrider?" she gasped.

A small part of him reveled in how awed she sounded. "You're a fan, then?" he inquired smugly.

The shock on her face quickly dissipated at that. "Hardly. Excuse me for being surprised that I've been exchanging bitter words with one of the most dangerous men in the world," she bit sharply.

"Doesn't seem to be stopping you now," Sywyn quipped with an arched eyebrow.

Karina laughed bitterly. "You're behind bars, as far as I know! You can't do much to hurt me, and even if you could, what's the point? My old hag of a boss is probably going to kill me for getting arrested anyway," she said, shrugging.

Sywyn scoffed. "Don't feel so safe. I am a professional, you know," he reminded her.

If she was any good at it, she would have rolled her eyes at that. "Right. Even the high and mighty Windrider can't move through walls," she snorted.

There was a long pause in which Karina started regretting her words, but before she could take them back, something flew past her face and hit the wall with a soft thud. Her face tingled, flushing and paling at the same time, as she barked, "H-wh--what was--what did you just throw at me?!"

"A woodchip," Sywyn responded, but she wasn't so sure that she could trust that answer. "I didn't want to waste my dagger on a simple demonstration. Though I could probably kill you with a woodchip, too, if I felt like it."

Karina just sat there, caught between pure trepidation and increasing irritation as she stared into the nothingness her blindness caused her. Finally, she clenched her fists, steadying herself. "Fine. You proved your point," she conceded. Then, after a beat, "Does the infamous Windrider have a real name?"

He looked at her oddly, wondering how she could have known his title but not his real name, before replying, "Sywyn. Sywyn Nym'el."

She grinned. "Intricate," she commented lightly. "Karina Thurston."

Deciding against telling her that he already knew her name, Sywyn opted to end the conversation there. He glanced down at his hands and scowled upon realizing that he had thrown his woodchip away. Not that it mattered; he had spent most of the day working away at it, so it probably wouldn't have lasted him that long anyway. Left only with his thoughts, Sywyn leaned his head against the wall and frowned at the dungeon entrance expectantly, as if waiting for someone to come in and let them out. There hadn't been any guards patrolling the halls for most of the day, only meek little recruits that weren't even allowed to carry around the dungeon keys. There hadn't even been any visitors, and Sywyn wondered just what could keep Rhistel so busy that he didn't even have the time to bail Elyon out of jail.

The background noise that had somehow muffled itself during their brief exchange was now growing louder, becoming an endlessly annoying ringing in his ears. To her credit, Karina hadn't started up her irritating whistling habit again, but her silence proved to be just as aggravating. When he looked at her again, she was staring into her lap, head bowed so that he couldn't tell if her eyes were open or closed. She was contemplating something, fingers occasionally tapping against her knees, and mouthed little inaudible mutterings to herself as she continued to think in silence.

Sywyn squinted at her, making out the words 'break out' and 'pay' on her lips. She bit them uncertainly as she mentally debated what to do, and her restlessness was reason enough for him to restart a conversation with her. "Stop fidgeting," he growled impatiently.

His sudden outburst made her jump, startled. It took a moment for her to gather herself. "I'm not fidgeting," she defended, pouting slightly and crossing her arms. "I'm thinking."

"Does thinking often require movement for you?" Sywyn asked sarcastically as he narrowed his eyes at her.

Karina's face colored with either embarrassment or anger; he couldn't tell which. "When you escape," she began slowly, ignoring his sarcasm. His eyebrows rose at the absurd amount of confidence she had when she said 'when'. "How much are you willing to accept to release us as well?"

A thoughtful pause. "Fifteen silver," Sywyn said finally.

She sputtered incoherently, thrown off guard. "Fifteen?! Are y-are you kidding?! You're the one that landed us in jail in the first place! Shouldn't that warrant some sort of discount or something?" she exclaimed. He didn't respond-or maybe he shook his head and expected her to see it-and she sighed, aggravated. "Thirteen silver."

"Fifteen is my only offer, unless you want it to go up for arguing with me," Sywyn stated plainly.

Biting her lip to keep from reaching through the bars to try to strangle him, Karina closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "My boss sent me on that errand for a reason, you know. I'm renowned for my frugality," she said.

Sywyn let out an unimpressed sound. "And I'm renowned for being pricey. Fifteen silver or nothing," he retorted.

Karina scowled at him. "I'm willing to pay twelve at most, plus that vial of medicine we were fighting over earlier," she attempted, albeit grudgingly. She then proceeded to search around for Ryan's sleeping body, too bothered to wake him up to ask for the stolen vial, and fell on her hands and knees groping for it.

"In that case, make it fourteen silver," Sywyn decided. "If you even really have it. If I find out you're lying, you might end up paying a finger."

Her head whipped around instinctively to glare in his direction. "Where do you get off…?! I'm not lying, not about this and not about my eyes! And besides, there's no way the medicine is only worth one silver! It's worth five, at least, so I'm being generous when I say I'm sticking with twelve!" she hissed firmly.

"And that's your final decision?" Sywyn prodded, sounding oddly calm despite her rising anger.

"I…" Karina trailed off, debating. She knew how to gauge when to give in and when to stand strong, and she definitely knew that he wasn't going to let up about the fifteen silver. If anything, the amount had increased by then. But she herself only had three silver pieces on her; she was just hoping that Ryan would have some on him as well. They had no choice.

Finally, she sighed. "Yes, it is," she decided.

With that, he became so silent that he may as well have been gone. Karina wondered if he had really left, escaped so noiselessly and efficiently that she hadn't even noticed. She wouldn't put it past him; infuriating as he was, he was still the infamous hireling Windrider. He had to have some skills to become so renowned. She frowned to herself as she sat back down on her side of the cell, envying and despising the man for having such a higher reputation than her yet admiring him for it as well. It would take years-decades, even-for her to build up the kind of status as a hireling, maybe even longer than that if she was still working under the old hag by next year. But no one really looked for female hirelings anymore, not unless they wanted sex. And, as desperate she and her brother Leo were, she was not willing to go that far…yet. It all depended on how high taxes were going to be, really.

That night, Karina somehow managed to fall asleep, frustrated and disappointed.

--

When the morning came and their cell door was mysteriously unlocked, Karina wasn't really surprised when Ryan complained about their missing twenty-five silver pieces and medicine vial.