Wounds to be tended, lessons to be learned.

so :) diya surana and basma amell-caron were both apprenticed to first enchanter irving and its . a complicated relationship right at the outset. diya’s been at the circle since she was a child (literally like… 5 y/o) and earned that place through blood sweat and tears and not sleeping nights (<- for somniari reasons largely. but she spent that time studying!) she climbs that ladder step by step and mentor by mentor and when she’s finally apprenticed to irving at 15 basma is transferred over from the gallows and cuts that line. because a girl who survived 7 years at the gallows and passes for human if you don’t look too close, could maybe pass for a southerner if they could just get rid of that marcher accent could make a great candidate for a first enchanter. and diya? all that circle education could make a fine court mage of her too. irving knows well enough that the theirins don’t frown on elven mages especially. nor elves with a northern look about them.

we should kill that old man with hammers <3

anyway. they’re friends. they’re rivals. they understand each other better than anyone else in that tower. they can’t help resenting each other for being denied an opportunity into a different life. they’re cellmates in the hell that is kinloch hold. they’ve been in a messy situationship since they were 16 (so like. 3 years now). they’re in love. they hate each other. it’s complicated.

irving’s got them both up for their harrowing within a week of one another. basma’s first, and everyone’s going on and on about how it was apparently the quickest harrowing anyone’s ever had and irving must be so proud (he is.) diya’s enduring all this with gritted teeth (but also. finally able to breathe. she’d stayed awake all night since the templars came to take her feeling like the target of a miscast crushing prison spell)

and then jowan’s head is on the block and he asks diya to convince basma to help him.

because basma doesn’t know. because basma’s already been harrowed and they don’t make harrowed mages tranquil. because diya’s a blood mage herself and jowan may not know how they test these things, but he has a feeling she wouldn’t come out clean. because he’s known diya since she was 5 and he was 6. she’s more family to him than the family who gave him up to the templars.

which. diya can appreciate. she convinces basma.

then she betrays them both to irving.

shares every last detail so this can turn from an execution into — at worst — a few months locked in a cell. anders was never the same after his time there but at least he wasn’t dead. the blood mages caught in the act always wind up dead, their dull phylacteries left hanging from templar swordbelts as trophies. she knows she’s fucking them both over (knows this will undermine basma’s chances at becoming first enchanter forever 🙂‍↕️) but in the long run this is their best chance. you don’t plan an escape in a day

lily: imprisoned in aeonar

jowan: escaped

basma: tranquil

diya: in a cell

it’s not the solitary confinement anders went through. not initially anyway. she did as she was told, but a blood mage took her in his confidence. that’s grounds for suspicion on its own. whether she knew or not is for interrogation to determine.

which is more or less how the next 4 weeks of her life proceed. the minimum as far as rations go and daily interrogation. depending on the templar who’s in charge of her on any given day that could mean anything from polite but repetitive questioning intended to trip her up, to beatings, to being struck with a holy smite until she’s gasping for breath on the filthy floor -> questioned -> repeat.

she doesn’t see irving once, but a particularly sympathetic templar informs her she’s been doing well (as he expected of her) & he hopes to secure her release soon.

we should kill that old man with hammers <3

and then for a week she doesn’t see anyone. no interrogations no food. no nothing.

until a tranquil basma appears, opens the door of her cell and explains that the circle has been overtaken by abominations. and since diya was trying to protect her before, she’ll protect her again now, won’t she?

there is only one answer she can give.

the caverns used for storage are rumoured to have a way out but while they don’t manage to find it they do manage to fight their way there (diya fights. basma watches over her rest each night and wakes her as needed. there are many demons about). they also figure out which of the giant spiders are poisonous and which you can safely eat. if there are no other options.

months pass.

and soon there are no options at all. no more giant spiders. no way out through the caverns. no way out through the doors — it’s impossible to know how many abominations and undead are waiting outside the door diya’s sealed. surely no one’s survived.

diya tells herself it’s a kindness when she kills basma. better to die quick in the arms of someone who cares for you than to outlive them and starve slow, alone. she’s saving the worse fate for herself. she tells herself this while basma bleeds out, gazing back at her with eyes that look more betrayed than a tranquil’s should. and she keeps telling herself this while she chokes down every bite of her she can stomach.