"Serafina," A raspy voice whispered. "Why have you come?"
"To get you out. Hurry! I knocked out the guard but he could wake at any moment." She urged. She didn't like hearing her name from his mouth, but brushed off the feeling.
The black eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What manner of trick are you playing?"
"It's not a trick, let's go! When they figure out what I've done they'll be here immediately." Finn whispered at the man, gesturing him out as she pulled open the cell door with a loud creak.
He still did not move, assessing her warily from his place. "Why?"
"Klain--" Her voice choked with emotion, "I helped them so much and they-- the battle started. They mortally wounded my father. My friend screamed about his innocence and still, they dumped him in the street and left him bleeding out. They left him to die in the gutter like a rat!" She let the real rage she felt over the incident wash over her, conveniently leaving out the detail where she was able to save him.
The man finally stood and walked toward her with his calculating black gaze.
"And now you want revenge?" He tilted his head at her.
"I want justice." Tears filled her eyes as she considered what she would have felt had she actually lost her father.
Roland had spoken with her about his suspicions that Titania could tell if someone was lying, so she was careful not to say anything that wasn't true. This man would likely repeat every bit of her story to that woman, and she didn't want to be caught in a web of her own making.
"We can give you that, child." His expression was earnest and unnerving, but she endured it. "You see now what heartlessness Klain is capable of."
"We have to hurry," She said again. "I know a way out of the city."
His eyes lit with a fierce gleam. "Then lead the way."
She started back up the hallway she had come down, keeping to the shadows with the freed prisoner. Thankfully, the guard who had chased off after her father had not yet returned, and Finn was able to exit without being seen with the fugitive.
Moving quickly through the streets, which thankfully were still sparsely occupied, she traced her way to the drainage grate where Jimmy had first let them into the city. She'd had to confirm the directions with Riley and Mayra, as she was barely conscious on that fateful day.
Leaning down to the grate, she peered into the shadow below the wall, then looked back at the man accompanying her.
"What do I call you? I can't very well refer to you as 'Fake-Provider', now can I?" She asked.
"Mau is my name." He grinned a catlike smile and she almost shuddered.
"Finn, if you didn't remember," She provided. She didn't like him calling her by her full name like Roland did.
"I remember." He said. "You have irked my purposes of late. Your change of heart is... unexpected. Fortuitous, perhaps."
"My loyalty was fierce, and it was betrayed. It is no longer deserved." She let a sheen of tears come over her only briefly; She didn't want to overact. She didn't watch his reaction, but took a deep breath and turned back to the grate.
"Are you there?" She called softly into the shadows, and the grate disappeared.
Mau's eyebrows rose.
Jimmy's boat appeared from the shadows, and Finn tossed the quarter-halfling a bag of coins.
"We need to get out of the city." She didn't use his name, and Jimmy took the hint that it should appear to be merely a business transaction.
He weighed the bag in his hands and eyed Finn, and then Mau. Without speaking, he jerked his head for them both to get in. He shot her a glance that questioned her sanity, but remained uncharacteristically silent. He threw a blanket at each of them, and they put them over their heads to crouch in the bottom of the boat like cargo.
He pushed the boat off and silently guided it back through the grate and along the wall.
Finn hadn't considered that there would be no fishing boats out today with a war in progress. She wondered if it would attract undue attention from the wall.
It was too late to worry about that now. Finn heard no horn of warning, and no commotion rocked the water. The journey was oddly uneventful, and she wondered if Jimmy employed some other element of magic to avoid attention. As the boat scraped the shore, the two passengers threw the blankets off their heads and climbed out.
Finn let a short nod be her thank-you, but Jimmy's mouth was twisted into an expression of intense displeasure. Mau said nothing of their boatman's demeanor, walking away without a last look. Jimmy clearly had a lot of words for Finn about this, none of them particularly polite and a few that might even make her blush with embarrassment, but he kept them to himself.
He watched her scurry off after the strange Rhone, then pushed off from shore and took back to the water.
Finn had noticed that Jimmy hadn't dropped them off in his normal place by the boulder. That was likely wise, as she didn't know what the Rhone might want to do, if anything, about Jimmy's existence.
It can't have been pleasant for him to have a passenger that actively kept his distant relatives as slaves, but then again, Mau didn't know about Jimmy's family tree.
Finn walked silently after Mau, afraid to ask a lot of questions.
"You're wondering where we are going." The Rhone finally said. His face was on the younger side, perhaps mid-thirties. His black eyes, though unnerving, were mesmerizing in equal measure.
"Yes," Finn answered. "I was upset about my father and wanted to hurt Klain, but I had no plan beyond getting you out. I don't know what to do now."
"No one saw you release me. You could have stayed in the city." He watched her from the corner of his eye.
"I couldn't stay there," She spat at him. She didn't elaborate, and he accepted that answer. It was reasonable that she would hate the place where her father was murdered.
"You have somewhere else to go?" He asked.
"Well, no," She admitted, debating just how much to say. "There was a man I loved, and I would have made a life with him wherever he wanted, but he was reported dead weeks ago."
"Tragic," Mau empathized condescendingly. "So, now you hope to follow me to the Rhone?"
"Would they accept me?" She responded with a nervous question, unwilling to appear too eager to find them.
"Time will tell," His noncommittal answer did not comfort her much, but at least it sounded like she would not be killed on sight, which is what might have happened if she'd come alone.
They continued in silence, Finn walking slightly behind him instead of beside him. The subservient position she took seemed to please him, judging from the set of his shoulders as he glanced back at her now and then.
Finn wished she'd asked more questions of Roland on what Rhone women were like. If she could imitate one a little better, she might subtly ease herself into Mau's good graces. She wondered if he resented Klain women at all; he'd treated Dierdre abominably while posing as her husband. Ashley hadn't been dealt with much better, particularly after joining the military.
Then again, he was ruled by a powerful queen. Surely he couldn't hold women in too low of an opinion.
"Could you... please, tell me about Rhone?" She asked quietly. Surely some curiosity was natural and he wouldn't think too much of it.
He glanced back at her with a slight frown on his face, and she cringed back a little from it.
"Rhone is a mighty people. Should they accept you, you should be thankful to join us." He said. She nodded, sufficiently discouraged by his frown from asking any more questions at present.
The silence stretched once again as they continued over the rolling foothills and reached a copse of trees. He stopped and stood still, then finally whistled a short tune.
She blinked at him, stopping just behind his back, partially hiding from whatever was coming.
A soldier, obviously a lookout, dropped from the trees so suddenly that Finn gasped. Mau seemed mildly amused that she should be startled.
"I have returned, and must speak with Prince Duncan immediately," Mau announced regally.
The soldier's unblinking, black stare continued. He obviously did not recognize the spy who had left over a year prior. Mau sighed and narrowed his eyes into a glare.
"Now! I have been on special mission for His Royal Highness for a long while and I will not tolerate any delay in making my report." His voice did not rise in volume, but the intensity was unmistakable.
The soldier waited a moment longer before stepping back and taking out a piece of polished wood. Holding it, he snapped his fingers, and a black void the size of a doorway appeared.
Finn inhaled sharply. She'd seen Gwen come and go from Faeland, but this portal to pure darkness was far more sinister and alarming. She shivered involuntarily, and Mau chuckled.
"Come, Finn. If you want your revenge on Klain, this is the way," He held out his hand for hers to pull her into the Darkness.