101 Ashan 715 | Mathias Blackwood and Sylvia Lockson | Orm'del Sea
She'd spent a long time moving around the main deck talking to people before the captain pulled her aside for a more discrete questioning. The questions slid off her like a ball going down a steep incline and before long Simon released her to return to her room. But she didn't. First she went to see Gilmyn only to find his door locked and the man himself seemingly asleep inside. Unable to reach him, Braya did decide to return to her room. It was a short walk down the stairs to the cargo hold and while she walked, Braya fished around her pockets for the key to the small room. She found it at about the same time she saw the chain laying on the floor with the melted lock.
Panic welled up in Braya. She pushed the door open frantically- revealing little more than the dark abyss of her room- and ran across the floor to Raaf's drawers beside the bed. She pulled open the bottom one that held his bag with the now drying blood splashed across it and let out a deep sigh of relief when she saw it had not been tampered with. Braya stood slowly and shut the door with her foot. She reached down to unlace her shoes and then she kicked them off. She began unlacing her dress when a voice spoke out from a dark corner of the room.
"Please stop." The voice said calmly causing Braya to scream in panic and stumbled back towards her drawers. A figure sat shrouded in shadows in a chair beside the door. When Braya had opened it and run in she had been in such a frenzy she missed the figure in the chair completely. Braya backed up slowly, her hands feeling around behind her for her top drawer handle. "I said stop." The figure repeated with a more aggressive tone and so Braya did stop this time.
"Who are you?" Braya asked with hate in her voice. She was being defensive and for the first time since Raaf had died, the figure knew exactly why. The man in the shadows seemed to debate for a moment whether or not to really reveal himself but then he uncrossed his legs and stood slowly. As he did, the shadows seemed to slip off him like a silk sheet and the light revealed the face of Perseus's apprentice, Mathias. Braya feigned some shock and used that to take another step back. "Mathias? What are you-"
"Have you been by to see Gilmyn recently?" Mathias asked innocently, as if he hadn't been laying in wait for her. "The man seems a little worse for wear. I'm sure Raaf's death is really taking it out of him." Mathias spoke calmly but there was an underlying tone in his voice that unnerved Braya. He sounded like he was trying to tell her a joke... like he might spill the punchline at any moment.
"Of course I've been by to see him, we were just talking-" Mathias began laughing but not the calm laugh of a man in control of the room, his laugh was almost hysterical. It was like he'd heard the greatest joke known to mortal-kind and couldn't control himself. The laugh haunted Braya, it shook her to her core, and it made her forget the lie she was beginning to formulate. Then the laugh ended suddenly and Mathias was once again staring at her with a stern expression on his face.
"Sorry, did I break your focus?" Mathias asked before quickly moving onto his next question "How have you been doing? Losing a loved one is never easy." This time Braya didn't answer. She stared at Mathias and began to wonder just exactly what he was doing here... and what he knew that had prompted these questions. When he didn't continue the room was left in an odd silence that force Braya to answer his question.
"It has been hard. Everywhere I turn I see him and it hurts."
"Not as much as the knife hurt him though right? How did you get Perseus's dagger? Was it the no-lock policy? Cause he keeps his door locked." Mathias powered through that sentence to give Braya little time to process it. He'd accused her so casually she did not know what to do. Because he was right, she had killed Raaf.
"What do you-"
"Next time you pick a partner, choose someone with more gall than Gilmyn. He didn't last long before telling me what you'd done. But he kept saying one thing that I just could not believe and it really made things worse for him so I hope you could clarify it for me." Mathias spoke calmly. Braya's eyes darted over his figure. She saw he had no weapon with him and her body relaxed a little. If he didn't have his bow, she had the advantage. "Gilmyn was a competitor, it makes sense that he would jump at the opportunity to remove his opposition, but Raaf was your husband. You loved him. Gilmyn said you did it to frame Perseus but that doesn't make sense to me either. Why? What did Perseus do to you?"
A silence filled the room as Braya contemplated her response. What to say and how to move so that she could properly defuse Mathias... but she couldn't think of anything. "Perseus has lead us into a pit. We should have stayed in Rharne. We should have made it a home. Instead he has kept us on the move for years and I am tired of moving-"
"Then you could have left. Nobody was making you stay with us."
"Raaf was. He bought everything Perseus told him. He believed we really were staying ahead of the work. Then he started spending more time with you and that girl Perseus is so fond of. He wouldn't listen to me anymore."
"So you put Perseus's knife in his back." Mathias summarized and Braya gave a low nod. Suddenly she reached back, opening her drawer and pulling a hand crossbow from it which she promptly aimed towards Mathias.
"I did. Then I had Gilmyn poison the girl and-"
"I already know that part, you don't need to monologue to me. Gilmyn was very helpful." Mathias commented calmly from his seat as Braya drummed her fingers along the handle of the crossbow. Mathias seemed unfazed by it and that anger Braya. "I guess that leaves one thing left to do." Mathias said, standing abruptly and causing Braya to pull the trigger. The string snapped forward but nothing fired from the crossbow. Mathias reached down and picked up the bolt which had been just as shrouded in shadows as he was. He held it up so Braya could see why her attack had failed and then he tossed the bolt to the floor.
"So what? You gonna take me in? It is Gilmyn and my word against yours." Braya mocked as she lowered the empty hand-crossbow to her side. Mathias shook his head slightly and his right hand began to glow brighter.
"You seem to misunderstand. Gilmyn will admit to everything. He will tell everyone what you did and that will be enough to free Perseus and Sylvia." Mathias explained as the glowing in his hand increased.
"What do-" As Braya began her sentence, a javelin of solid ether formed in Mathias's hand and he hurled it through Braya's chest. The javelin pierced her and the force of it pinned her to the wall for a few seconds before the javelin dissipated and Braya's body fell to the floor. Mathias walked over and nudged her foot with his own to ensure she wasn't moving ever again and then he walked back to the door.
"You should have left them alone." Mathias whispered as he left the room.
