Michael Trevino as Kyle Valenti in Roswell, New Mexico “Two Sparrows in a Hurricane” (4.12) - Maria tells the others about Shivani’s people following her
Prompt: "I'm not saying I told you so" | Fictober Day 5
This was fun! Hope you enjoy!
*****
Knight Rami nearly growls in frustration, turning his gaze to Aliya with all the righteous fury of a knight avenging their king. Which was supposed to be the plan, kind of. Until the plan flew south.
Which is not her fault, though it does look suspicious, admittedly. She can't blame him, this once, but it was supposed to be a joke, to lighten the mood. The we’re-sneaking-into-the-Dark-Magician’s-lair-to-recapture-the-prince-while-the-rest-of-our-group-distracts-all-the-guards mood. It was really, really tense. And heavy.
Aliya's never liked tense moods. She never knows what to say. Jokes rarely ever serve her well but that's her go-to.
Which is inappropriate, she'll admit. Especially this time. But she always does espionage alone.
"I'm not saying I told you so," she defends, lifting her arms in an innocent manner, meaning to display her harmlessness. She inches back a step too. "I like having my head. I was just... proposing a what-if scenario we didn't cover in planning. You know, being all gung-ho and considering all the possibilities. I didn't know I'd be right."
He remains unfazed by her words, eyes fixed steadily on her. "You said, and I quote, 'what are we going to do if they've bolted the door shut and we can't get in?'"
"It was just a thought." She smiles flimsily, as if now is the moment where he'll fall for charms and faux innocence. People like to judge her as being harmless by looking at her.
Unfortunately, her whole one-of-the-best-mercenaries-in-all-the-kingdoms reputation has kept Rami from falling for the act.
His stare intensifies. "The door is bolted," he grits, "and we can't get in. You scoped this out three days ago and now the door is bolted."
"That's not my fault."
"Is it really not?"
"I don't get paid until the mission is done," Aliya tells him. "And I'm here for the pay, mostly. So no, I didn't the write the Dark Magician a love letter telling him to bolt his least guarded, creaky as all riches dungeon door so he can foil our plans of sneaking in and breaking the prince out while he’s across the kingdom burning a village right before we do said sneaking and breaking out."
"Well go ahead and do that, why don't you."
"I'm sorry!" she yelps. "I'm nervous. I ramble when I'm nervous. And you're mildly terrifying when you're angry, you know that?"
His anger flares higher, in response, far less righteous. "If you don't shut up, I am going to deliver your head to the king and tell him that hiring an unknown mercenary to join the elite party to save his youngest son is the most idiotic decision I've seen get made."
She hushes him, patting her hand in the air to emphasize. "Shush. Don't you want to yell at me somewhere that's not in the Dark Magician's super evil lair?" She shuffles down the hall and peers around the corner. "And wouldn't insulting the king be like, treason? And also get you beheaded?"
He sidles up behind her. She can feel his glare fixed on the back of her head. "Kala's spell is dampening our voices. And it would be worth it."
"Oh, wow." She waves him to follow her as she darts down the hall, going a different path than the one they came in from, but would take them out in a safer area. "I'm touched," she whispers, tone low enough that he has to strain to hear it. Her eyes meet his, widened in exaggeration. "You're willing to die for me?"
"I'm willing to kill you if you don't get us out of here. Do you even know where we're going?"
"Okay, okay." She hears something faintly and tilts her head to hone in on it. "Touchy. I'll get your clangy-ass out of here in one piece, don't worry. I'm a professional."
"My ass is not--"
She slaps a hand over his mouth and peers into the nearest door, shoving him in and nudging it mostly shut behind them. A guard passes, footsteps heavy, grumbling indistinguishably. She waits for him to be gone, than lowers her hand. "Your ass isn't the point," she whispers. "Now hurry."
They race the rest of the way out with little commentary, dodging the light patrol.
When they're a good distance away, Rami relaxes, waving for her to stop as the tension drops out of him like a flicked level. Aliya stares back at the lair, pensive. Unsettled.
"My ass," he says, head tipped back against a tree as he rests for a moment, "is only clangy when I'm in my battle armor. And it--"
"That was too easy," she interrupts, frowning. "We ran into what, four guards?"
"Yeah. The rest were dealing with everyone else. As we planned."
She shakes her head. "No. The prince is important. Even if this was a full-scale invasion they wouldn't leave him alone. And the door was bolted."
"So?"
Aliya turns her glare on him. "The Dark Magician is a magician. He'd lock the prince behind a charmed door, not a bolted one."
Rami adopts her frown, straightening his back. "So you're saying..."
'The prince isn't here. Not in the dungeon, at least."
"But where else would the prince be?"
She bites her lip. She doesn't want to answer the question as she only has one guess. "With the Dark Magician?"
He blinks at her. "There's no way we're going to be able to rescue him if that's true."
She lifts a shoulder.
"We need to tell the others." He climbs to his feet, a steely determination in his eyes. "Let's head to the meetup point."
"You mean you're tired of me already?"
"Yes."
Aliya presses a hand to her heart and stumbles a few dramatic steps back. "Oh, my heart! What sins still stain my soul from my past life for my dearest love to detest me so?"
"I can still kill you."
She straightens, dropping the theatrics in a blink. "I'd like to see you try. You're useless without your clangy-ass armor."
“My armor is what keeps me from being stabbed to death. What defenses do you have, huh? Some leather? If I stab you right now, you’ll die.”
"If I shank you in the armpit, you'll die," she retorts. "That's a stupid place for a weak spot, by the way."
“Oh, I’ll make sure to tell the castle blacksmith to fix that and move the vulnerable sections somewhere more convenient like my heart.”
“Good. Your corpse will look epic, like a true warrior." Her eyes light. "Ooh, or we could spin it into a tragic romance." She lifts a hand to the sky, fingers splayed and reaching for the sun, dramatic like a stage has formed under her. "Devastated by the loss of his lover, his brother-in-arms, Knight Rami takes his own sword to the heart in his grief, so that he perishes alongside his belo--"
Rami slaps her arm down. "Still your tongue!"
How dare he interrupt her dramatic acting? "I'm surprised you've never threatened to cut it out," she says lightly.
"If you ask nicely, I will."
"But then who would torture you about your pining for Knight Thaddeus?" Her step obtains a bounce that, in recent days, is typically brought on when she teases Rami about his oh-so-obvious infatuation for his fellow knight.
"No one," he says flatly.
She pouts. "But that's boring. You need to be needled so maybe one day you’ll confess. Knights do not fall in love if neither of them speak off of the battlefield."
Rami squints at her. "...are you implying that Thaddeus returns my feelings?"
She smiles brightly at him. "Why don't you confess and find out?"
"The moment this ordeal is over," he points an accusing finger at her, "I swear I will slay you in a way that keeps me clean from the offense."
Aliya keeps walking to the meetup, unfazed by the threat. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Rami."
