[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/jHL17eH.png[/img][/center][hr][sub][color=lightpink]Location:[/color] Outside the Inn[/sub][hr][hr]
Amaya gave a small, sharp gasp as suddenly the man’s hands were wrapped firmly around hers, long fingers encircling her wrist. He was up, in her space in a heartbeat. He was so close, his eyes seeming to trap her as he looked down into her own. Amaya wanted to pull away but she couldn’t move, boxed in by the press of too close bodies, and eyes, and [i]strangers[/i] –

[i]Out[/i]. She needed out.

He was speaking. Voice soft and melodic, the words seemed to blur together as she looked up at him. His body was curled over her, and it was like she was surrounded by him — weighing her down, holding her in place as the sea of people only thickened, bustling and stormy. 

Perhaps if Amaya wasn’t a mess of nerves, perhaps if she wasn’t constantly working to keep such a type grip over her magic, perhaps if this strange man’s abilities had been familiar instead of blightborn, if he hadn’t been needling away at her with singular focus for the past few minutes, if he hadn’t touched her, if, if, [i]if[/i] —

But all of these things were true. The ground beneath her feet seemed fluid and shifting. It pushed her towards him. Or maybe he pulled her along instead. When he bent his head lower to murmur in her ear, voice soft and close, Amaya thought she heard someone else. When she looked back down at his hands still claiming her, he was so startlingly fair, his skin like milk against her own. She looked up at him, blinking. The edges of his face seemed to blur, flickering. What color were his eyes? They seemed to glow amber in the firelight. 

There was no warmth to his body. No heat that seeped into her. So there was nothing to contrast her own chill as frost grew along the skin of her hands, her tenuous grip on her magic slipping. 

And then suddenly someone else was in her space, commanding attention. Amaya jumped at the feel of another touch on her arm, a long finger tracing along her skin. Small, icy flowers bloomed along her arm, painting the path that he traced. And when Amaya looked up at this new person, this sudden source of warmth —

[i]Blond hair and eyes like the sea, expression stormy as he watched the man who’d dared to set her so off balance.[/i]

The world seemed to trickle in. Amaya blinked as she watched this new man, her vision refocusing. His eyes were wrong — they weren’t green, but a ghostly [i]blue[/i]. He was older. His face wasn’t quite right. It was handsome in its own way, but it wasn’t the landscape that she knew. 

Another body. Another force moving against her. Amaya blinked awake fully. 

The healer who’d come to assist, the slight woman with white hair, was offering hurried apologies and offers to accompany them — [i]accompany them?[/i] Whom? To where? Reality flooded her. The two men who loomed over her, caging her in. They each doffed the familiar masks her mind had given them. They’d both laid claim to her arm, eyeing each other like territorial dogs. 

[i]She’d been magicked.[/i]

A new emotion struck her through her haze of confusion: [i]anger[/i]. Icy and unrelenting, it crawled through her body as she took in the scene again. The man holding her hand – he’d been trying to spirit her away. All his pretty words, his heartbroken look that he’d first given her, had all been a ploy. The blond man, though… the one who’d taunted her and set her so on edge…

He was closer than acceptable – they both were – but he wasn’t looking at her. Though his hand lingered on her arm, he looked at the black haired man with a clear warning in his eyes. Danger crackled like electricity in the air. Amaya didn’t know what to make of it – the way he seemed ready to remove this interloper by force. It didn’t fit against the other pieces she’d assembled in her mind about him. Still, there was a hesitant sort of gratitude that touched her as she looked up at him.

Amaya’s world expanded beyond just the two men confining her. The healer. The barefoot man. Elara. The bustling crowd, half the town having gathered for the feast. The electricity sparking between the men suddenly wasn’t just a warning. It was an inevitability, threatening to catch everyone up in the storm. Amaya felt the weight of her station like a winter cloak, heavy on her shoulders. She wasn’t ever given authority to exercise here in Dawnhaven, but on some level these people were still [i]her[/i] responsibility. 

Her decision was so quick that Amaya didn’t even have time to register it. Fixing a smile on her face, she looked between the two men standing over.

[color=lightpink]“Gentlemen,”[/color] she said with a light, chastising tone. Her free hand, the one that glittered with her wedding band, touched the blond man’s hand. A staying motion. She turned her attention back to the man who seemed so intent on pulling her away. [color=lightpink]“It would be my pleasure to show you the temple. I’m quite overdue for a visit myself, I think.”[/color] Her magic buzzed under her skin, growing restless. Amaya forced her smile to remain in place as she slipped her hand into the crook of his offered arm. [color=lightpink]“I haven’t taken a proper dip in a moon pool since – when was it, Elara?”[/color] Amaya craned her neck to find her handmaiden, meeting her eyes. [color=lightpink]“Bishop Ashwood’s consecration last summer?”[/color] One of the guards nearby looked at Amaya sharply. She knew him. He’d been stationed at the palace for most of her life. 

Amaya never entered moon pools. There was no Bishop Ashwood. She’d avoided large bodies of water ever since she was a child, and ‘Ashwood’ was a codeword the palace had come up with to discreetly alert those who knew it to potential danger or complications. The king had only ever had a single heir – safeguards had been put in place to keep her alive. At least, until it became convenient to get rid of her, apparently. 

[color=lightpink]“Sir Abel, would you escort us?”[/color] The guard gave a nod, then a silent command to another guard to accompany them as well. Amaya was already moving away from the crowd, lightly tugging the black haired man by the arm she was wrapped around. She looked then to the healer. [color=lightpink]“Your care is admirable for your profession, but the snow can make travel dangerous if your leg is troubling you. Perhaps you should stay, and sit a while. I’ll make sure he receives adequate care.”[/color]

He wanted Amaya away from the crowd? [i]Fine[/i]. Better that this ticking bomb go off in private, rather than put any of the citizens at risk. Better to keep this contained than make a scene. Her anger was an indignant, icy thing as she batted her eyes up at him. She smiled like she was still under his spell, the two guards trailing behind them. 

[hr]
[sub][color=lightpink]Interactions:[/color] Elara Moonshadow [@Qia], Vellion Hurst [@Dark Light], Aurora Halliwell [@BlackRoseSiren], Gadez Paladice [@Dezuel], Valthyr Naffron [@Fetzen][/sub]