MEMORY #4: Justice Is Red/ The Bondsmage.
Sep. 20th, 2013 01:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theliesofThis memory immediately follows Locke's starting memory. In it, a Bondsmage is holding Locke's friend and Aather namesake Jean hostage via magic. He immobilizes Locke with magical pain as well, and gloats about the opportunity to wrap up the loose end these two thieves present, complimenting them on surviving previous conflicts with his client and expressing surprise at their commitment to revenge... since that commitment's going to get them killed. His scorpion-hawk familiar seems to be gloating with him.
He writes Jean's true name on a piece of paper, a spell which will enable him to control Jean like a puppet, and orders him to kill Locke... then after a moment, thinks of something crueler. He immobilizes Jean with pain; and writes Locke's name instead. Even if 'Lamora' is an obvious alias, a first name is still more than enough to get the job done. He instructs Locke to pick up Jean's own hatchets and use them to kill him, and Locke begins to comply... then slams the blunt, weighted end of the hatchet into the Bondsmage's groin, stunning him. A brief combat ensues in which it becomes obvious that bird and Bondsmage feel one another's pain; so Locke breaks the hawk's wing to disrupt a spell, and then chops off its head to drop the mage into unconsciousness.
Before doing so, he says "'ll grant the Lamora part is easy to spot; the truth is I didn't know about the apt translation when I took the name. ... I just liked the way it sounded.
"But what the fuck gave you the idea that Locke was the name I was actually born with?"
After making sure Jean and the disreputable doctor, Ibelius, are fine, the three collaborate, tying up the Bondsmage, preventing any spellcasting by spreading and immobilizing his fingers. When the Bondsmage wakes, the doctor steps out, and Locke and Jean begin their interrogation. The Bondsmage is arrogant, threatening - if he is killed, every Bondmage in the world will wreak vengeance unimaginable on them. Kingdoms have fallen before for less. And the code of his order forbids him from discussing his work with anyone but his client.
So they can't kill him. Which is when Locke and Jean cut off his fingers one by one with a hatchet, cauterizing the stumps with a red-hot dagger. They have to reheat it twice before they're done. As they work, Locke recites a litany, four names which cause him intense pain -- deaths the Bondsmage caused on behalf of his client. So far, the names Nazca and Bug mean nothing to him - but he has a childhood memory of Calo and Galdo, the Sanza twins, and learning of their deaths will hit him especially hard.
After the Bondsmage is done screaming and fainting, and is conscious again, Locke explains.
“You no longer have a client. You no longer serve Capa Raza; he hired a Bondsmage, not a fingerless freak with a dead bird for a best friend. When I removed your fingers, I removed your obligations to Raza. At least, that’s the way I see it.”
He continues. If the Bondsmage tells him Raza's plans, they're quits. If he does not... then Jean and Locke cauterize his tongue and cut off his balls. Without his tongue, he will never be able to cast even the simplest spell, ever again.
The Bondsmage breaks, and explains Raza's origins and his reasons for swearing vengeance against the nobles and the underworld of Camorr - his family was killed to maintain the secret piece. In addition to slaughtering the former Capa's family and looting his treasury, his last masterstroke is aimed at the fancy party full of all Camorr's nobility that Locke just barely escaped in his starter memory. He's hidden bombs in the tower; bombs filled with an alchemical powder which will cause intense enough brain damage to chemically lobotomize them all. All the nobles, all their families, all their children. At the time the charges go off - less than an hour away - Raza will be loading his payment onto a ship and sailing away.
Locke has a choice, the Bondsmage laughs. He can stop Raza and get his revenge... or he can save the nobility, the people who want Locke dead.
"The decision is yours. I wish you joy of it."
Locke chooses the nobles, and he heads off at a run, with no idea of how he'll convince them or how he'll get out alive himself afterwards.
As he goes, he tells Jean to burn the bastard's tongue out. The memory ends on the Bondsmage's panicked screams as Locke runs away.
+100 grief and rage and bloodlust
+50 stomach for dirty deeds
+50 vengefulness and spite
+50 some things are more important than revenge
+25 Jean is the only person in the world who truly matters to me
+150 You do not fuck with a Camorri's friends.
He writes Jean's true name on a piece of paper, a spell which will enable him to control Jean like a puppet, and orders him to kill Locke... then after a moment, thinks of something crueler. He immobilizes Jean with pain; and writes Locke's name instead. Even if 'Lamora' is an obvious alias, a first name is still more than enough to get the job done. He instructs Locke to pick up Jean's own hatchets and use them to kill him, and Locke begins to comply... then slams the blunt, weighted end of the hatchet into the Bondsmage's groin, stunning him. A brief combat ensues in which it becomes obvious that bird and Bondsmage feel one another's pain; so Locke breaks the hawk's wing to disrupt a spell, and then chops off its head to drop the mage into unconsciousness.
Before doing so, he says "'ll grant the Lamora part is easy to spot; the truth is I didn't know about the apt translation when I took the name. ... I just liked the way it sounded.
"But what the fuck gave you the idea that Locke was the name I was actually born with?"
After making sure Jean and the disreputable doctor, Ibelius, are fine, the three collaborate, tying up the Bondsmage, preventing any spellcasting by spreading and immobilizing his fingers. When the Bondsmage wakes, the doctor steps out, and Locke and Jean begin their interrogation. The Bondsmage is arrogant, threatening - if he is killed, every Bondmage in the world will wreak vengeance unimaginable on them. Kingdoms have fallen before for less. And the code of his order forbids him from discussing his work with anyone but his client.
So they can't kill him. Which is when Locke and Jean cut off his fingers one by one with a hatchet, cauterizing the stumps with a red-hot dagger. They have to reheat it twice before they're done. As they work, Locke recites a litany, four names which cause him intense pain -- deaths the Bondsmage caused on behalf of his client. So far, the names Nazca and Bug mean nothing to him - but he has a childhood memory of Calo and Galdo, the Sanza twins, and learning of their deaths will hit him especially hard.
After the Bondsmage is done screaming and fainting, and is conscious again, Locke explains.
“You no longer have a client. You no longer serve Capa Raza; he hired a Bondsmage, not a fingerless freak with a dead bird for a best friend. When I removed your fingers, I removed your obligations to Raza. At least, that’s the way I see it.”
He continues. If the Bondsmage tells him Raza's plans, they're quits. If he does not... then Jean and Locke cauterize his tongue and cut off his balls. Without his tongue, he will never be able to cast even the simplest spell, ever again.
The Bondsmage breaks, and explains Raza's origins and his reasons for swearing vengeance against the nobles and the underworld of Camorr - his family was killed to maintain the secret piece. In addition to slaughtering the former Capa's family and looting his treasury, his last masterstroke is aimed at the fancy party full of all Camorr's nobility that Locke just barely escaped in his starter memory. He's hidden bombs in the tower; bombs filled with an alchemical powder which will cause intense enough brain damage to chemically lobotomize them all. All the nobles, all their families, all their children. At the time the charges go off - less than an hour away - Raza will be loading his payment onto a ship and sailing away.
Locke has a choice, the Bondsmage laughs. He can stop Raza and get his revenge... or he can save the nobility, the people who want Locke dead.
"The decision is yours. I wish you joy of it."
Locke chooses the nobles, and he heads off at a run, with no idea of how he'll convince them or how he'll get out alive himself afterwards.
As he goes, he tells Jean to burn the bastard's tongue out. The memory ends on the Bondsmage's panicked screams as Locke runs away.
+100 grief and rage and bloodlust
+50 stomach for dirty deeds
+50 vengefulness and spite
+50 some things are more important than revenge
+25 Jean is the only person in the world who truly matters to me
+150 You do not fuck with a Camorri's friends.
