Lieutenant Auris Oretharos sits, perched atop the watchtower platform, looking out over the town.  It's starting to look like a town now, too.  The light dims, wispy clouds passing over the moon, and she turns to scan the beach, and pauses.  The few figures there are huddled about each other, and there's a twinge from Auris' shoulder as an uneasy feeling settles in her stomach.  She glances across to the other guard as she reaches absentmindedly to her shoulder, but her hand only brushes metal and leather, the scar buried beneath layers of armor and clothing.

The clouds slip clear of the moon, the brighter light shimmering across Tareyna's blue skin as she nods to Auris and descends from her platform to make her way to the beach.  ...Weren't there more people there before?  Auris frowns, but the murmured sounds of conversation catch her attention over the surf, directing her gaze closer to the palisade surrounding the town.  She squints toward the group there, the air warm about her—she tests it, feeling for Miris, if the power that hangs about her might clear her vision...

"Please," comes a woman's voice, and Auris recognizes Danara—few other women here could match the famed blacksmith's height.

The second figure gestures sharply, but she can't make out any details in the wall's shadow.  The third, though, is much shorter than Danara, and shifts anxiously on their feet.  Auris tilts her head, frowning.  Something in the movement feels familiar...

"Lieutenant."

Tareyna's salute draws Auris from her thoughts, and she looks down to see the woman with the wizard Alboba a little behind her—and an unmoving figure laid out on...thin air?  Must be the wizard's work.  Auris climbs down from the watch tower.  "What's happened, then?" she asks as she turns.

Tareyna draws a breath, glancing back to the wizard.  "Right.  So it seems this one, ah, Marran's—companion..."

Marran, of course.  That's why his movements were familiar, the way he always seems to skulk wherever he goes...

"Any'ow," Tareyna continues, "Alboba says this one's been mistreating Marran, apparently, calling 'im no' even a person?  And jes now, she says they made 'im fight her and Danara 'gainst his own will when those two went to confront 'em.  And there's some sort o' mind control goin' on?  Can't say as I understand it, but it seems Marran was all right once thisun got knocked o'er the head, could act as 'e wished again, so I'm takin' these two back to headquarters if you've got the rest?"

Auris glances toward the gate, and the other group out of sight beyond it.  "Yes...do that.  I'll see if I can't get this mess sorted out."

"Aye, sir."  And Tareyna's gone.

Auris gathers herself with a breath, and approaches the gate.

"So tell us why ye want to help 'im, mebbe that'll help."  The gruff voice catches her off guard, but it's unmistakable.  Gash.  She can't decide whether to relax at the familiarity or grimace at the stubborn lack of details sure to follow.

Marran stutters a moment.  "He's family," he settles on, his tone more confused than anything else.  "I have to help him."

"He was controlling you," Danara says despairingly as Auris rounds the corner.

"What's happening here?" Auris asks.

"Nothing," says Danara with a sniffle, wiping at her eyes.  "Too much."  A beat.  "We need to get Marran somewhere safe!  The—the other one, the elf, he was controlling him!  We need to get him somewhere safe!"

"What do you mean, 'controlling'?"

"Is it some sorta wizardry, Marran?" Gash asks.  "Figured it was just them bein' charmin' and such."

"Um..."  Marran's voice is little more than a whisper.  "Not wizardry...or charm, exactly...  Um..."  He flounders.  "It's just...what you do."

"Look," Danara says to Auris, stepping forward slightly, "Alboba and I beat the other one in a duel, but then he forced Marran to fight, and he couldn't stop until we knocked the other one out.  You must see there's something happening.  We need to get Marran safe before he wakes up."

"You dueled?"

"Yes, because it was the only way he was going to listen!  And of course he didn't anyway, and then he made Marran fight us!  It just took a word!  He clearly didn't want to!"

"This—aiy..."  Auris raises a hand to her forehead.  "Quarrels can not be settled merely by dueling; we have laws; we're more civilized than that.  If the elf wants to press charges, it will be well within his rights."

"Would you at least listen to me!" Danara cries.  "The man's been abusing Marran!  Controlling his mind!  He's a monster!"

"He's family!" interjects Marran, something sharp in his eyes.  When the others all look at him, he shrinks back again.  "He's family..." he repeats, much quieter this time.

"This is getting nowhere," says Auris.

"On that, we can agree," Danara retorts.

"The elf's been taken into custody; Tareyna's handling the intake as we speak.  Marran, do you wish to press charges against Danara or Alboba?"

"I-I, uh..."

"Do you want anything to happen to them because they attacked you and the elf?  Do you want any reparations paid?"

"Um...I don't know...  I'm fine, really.  It's...it's for him to decide."

"All right," Auris says with a sigh.

"We really don't have time for this," says Danara.  "We need to get Marran safe and in total control of himself."

Auris raises her hands partway.  "I am doing my best to ensure the law is observed."

"We don't have time—"

"What precious few laws we've set," Auris interrupts, "are to protect people.  That is my job."

"...Can we at least go inside?" Danara asks, somewhat mollified.  "We still don't know when the other one's going to wake up, and we don't need to be out here in the dark."

Auris lets out a breath, and nods.  "Tareyna took them—the elf and Alboba—to headquarters.  We can..."  If mind control is truly involved, she can't bring them there.  The tavern won't do, either—both are in the center of town.  "We can go to my house," she says, "if that's acceptable to you."  She does her best to keep the wry note out of her tone.

Danara shrugs.

Auris looks at Marran.

"I-I'm fine anywhere.  Just...just tell me where to go."

The center of Danara's brow raises and she frowns.  "Marran, no one needs to tell you what to do."

"It's your decision," Auris says simply.

"I'm fine anywhere."

Auris nods.  "This way, then."

❂

"Look," Danara's saying before she's even taken a seat, "right now, I'm nervous the other's going to do something as soon as he wakes up—is there anything we can do about that?"

"How does this all work?" Auris asks.  She's seated on the floor, the farthest from the door, leaving the chairs to the others—and bringing herself, for once, below their eye level.  She hoped it would help put Marran at ease, but the man keeps his eyes fixed on the table, a nervous shake in his leg.  "If he can't tell you what to do, surely..."

Marran glances aside, shoulders hunching.  "I just—know.  What he wants."

"Inference?  Or some form of telepathy?"

"I...I don't know.  I just know."

"But you were able to stop fighting Danara and Alboba once he lost consciousness?"

A nod.

"So this...knowing.  Did you fulfill what he wanted, and that was why you stopped, or were you able to resist?  Did you, perhaps, stop knowing?"

"I don't know."  Marran closes his eyes, pressing his palms into them, and Danara reaches across, gently rubbing his shoulder.

"It's going to be okay," she murmurs.

He looks like a child, Auris decides, even for the lines beginning to form about his eyes.  A child caught too often doing the wrong thing, who doesn't know anymore what's right.

Marran finally lifts his gaze to meet Danara's.  A pause, and a small nod.

From where he feigns a relaxed stance near the door, Gash tilts his head, eyes narrowing.  "So...th' other guy.  He can, like, compel ye to do things from another room or something?  Another buildin'?"

"I guess, yeah.  I don't know exactly how it works.  I just kind of...know what he wants me to do."

Gash frowns.  "Hmpf.  Even if it's like, a whole new command or somethin'?  It's not just something hangin' around, he can...kinda talk t' ye from a distance like this?"

"...Sort of.  It's not really talking, and it's never anything complex.  Usually just something like, 'steal this.'  'Kill them.'  'Come back.'"

Kill them?  Auris sits straighter, her mind racing.  Freeport.  Marran's from Freeport.  ...So's Gash, now that she thinks about it.  Danara too?  No, the blacksmith is Kanaran.  But even she has barely a reaction to the mention of killing.  ...She lived through the Battle.  That's why she left.  Have all of them been desensitized to the thought?  The back of Auris' knee itches.  She can see the trees in her mind's eye.  The field where—  She forces the thought away.

Gash is talking.  "So what 'appens when what you want to do isn't what the asshat wants ye to do?"

"Then what I want to do changes."

Danara stares at Marran, horrified.

Gash only raises an eyebrow.  "An' what if ye don' want it t' change?"

"That's not really...  Why would that make any difference?"

"Because what someone wants should never be so malleable," Danara whispers, and Gash gestures toward her in an 'exactly' sort of way.

"It's not really...that important to me," says Marran.  "I always prioritize people anyway, so...it's easier if I want to, right?"

"Still...no one should be able to just change what you want," says Danara.  "It's not right."

Marran is silent.

"Marran...  Could we remind you of what you want when the other tries to change it?" she asks.

"I...  Maybe.  I've never tried it before.  But we could try."

Gash speaks up, "If he's hurtin' ya—"

"He's my family."

"If he's hurtin' ya," Gash repeats, more quietly this time, "even if he's family, sometimes ya gotta leave."

"I don't want to leave him," Marran whispers.  "He...  They're nice to me.  I don't want to leave them."

"I'm not asking you to leave everyone," says Danara.  "I just want you to be in control of your own life."

"And the other?  He's part of my family, too.  Are you asking me to leave him?"

"I—but—we..."  Danara sighs.  "Yes..."

"...I don't know if I can do that."

"They family by blood or by choice?" asks Gash.

"It's...  Most of them are related by blood.  I'm not."

"They care for you, the person, or just what ya can do for 'em?"

Marran frowns, confusion writ across his face.  "I don't...  They take care of me.  They keep me safe."

"This isn't Freeport," Auris says.  "You don't need a gang to be safe—or," she forestalls his interruption, "a family."

Marran shrinks in on himself, arms hugged tightly around himself.  "They keep me safe," he mumbles again.

"Do they do it 'cause they like ye?" asks Gash.  "Or 'cause you're useful?"

Marran hesitates.  "The other or the family?"

Gash shrugs, implying the answer is 'yes.'

"Some of them...like me."

"Marran, your family has to care for you," Danara says, emotion welling in the words, "as a person, not just a tool."

"I—"

"If they can't do that—if they won't do that—they're not your true family!"

"I'm not a person!  I—"  Marran's hands clap over his mouth, his eyes unnaturally wide, his chest shivering with suppressed, too-quick breaths.

"Of course you're a person," Danara says, tears spilling over.  "What else would you be?  You're just like all of us..."

His head shakes, but his eyes remain wide, and his hands remain over his mouth.

Gash mutters something, and then a long string of somethings—curses, no doubt, though Auris doesn't recognize the tongue.  At last, he says, "Ya can't stay with someone who ain't good for ya."  He holds up a hand at Marran's movement.  "And that other guy ain't good for ya.  I've been around, Marran.  Ye know that.  I ain't good at anything but blunt, and he ain't good for ya."

Marran lets his hands drift to his lap, his gaze following.  "He keeps me safe..."

"Could you...maybe you could try?" asks Danara.  "Just try being away from him for a bit.  You're safe here.  We'll keep you safe.  Just...just try it, for a little?"

"I...guess I have to try...if he's..."

"Yes," says Auris.  "It will be...unavoidable for a little."  A pause.  "You can stay here, if you like.  It's farther from headquarters than where you were staying with him."

"I...I suppose..."