Archive for mute

47 results.
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:04 am
Chapter:
Characters: ,
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

“Surprised? I do live here, y’know.”

“R-Right,” Meritt laughed nervously. “Th-that’s Baya for you. D-Didn’t even see you there, wow!”

“Mmhm.” Baya pulled up the last available chair and leaned in casually, carefully towards Blueten. “So what’s this ‘bout Tora? You interested, luv?”

Blueten didn’t respond. She was occupied with Baya’s voice and posture. Both seemed perfectly relaxed as always but… Baya’s shoulders were tense, and her voice had a hint of something -something dark. She couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Was it his pretty face? Didja fall fer him?” Baya gave her a sly wink. “You two would make a cute couple, I think. Want me t’set ya up?”

Meritt gave another nervous laugh at that but Baya ignored him, her eyes poring into Blueten intently. Blueten’s eyes narrowed in thought behind her mask. She didn’t know how much Baya heard, but nothing Blueten spoke of indicated romantic interest. The way Baya asked suggested she was teasing, but the hint of darkness in her voice seemed stronger. What was that?

“Well?” Baya insisted.

Ah. Blueten finally caught on. A threat.

“No.” She replied. “…I was just a little upset at being shoved…”

Baya laughed, perhaps too hard, and relaxed back into her chair. “Is that all?!” The darkness retreated, taking the stiffness in her shoulders with it. “I’ll ask him t’be more careful next time.”

Blueten watched Baya carefully. If she was only mildly interested in Tora Zollun before, she most certainly was interested now.

And now that he was on her radar, he was much easier to watch, though admittedly it still took effort. She quickly realized how he’d escaped her scrutiny the first time – the boy was a shadow. If Baya was around, he tailed behind her, quiet and unassuming, easily lost in the gathering of members that followed Baya wherever she went. If she wasn’t around, then either he wasn’t there or he was aimlessly hanging about the house in its darkest corners. He was present when others were around, but always just out of view. It took a bit to find him, but he was usually there.

 Comment 
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:06 am
Chapter:
Characters: ,
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

It became rather clear that Tora Zollun was a sylvari who did not want to be found, and it didn’t take long for Blueten to figure out why. While he may have been practically invisible to her to begin with, there were more than a few members who seemed almost hyper-aware of his presence. They’d seek him out on occasion if Baya wasn’t watching, threaten and harass him if they could find him. He’d respond with a silent smile before finding some way to slip away into hiding again. A lotta people really don’t like him, Meritt had said. Evidently, it was true -he was hiding from his own guild.

She felt frustrated for not noticing this all sooner. She wasn’t used to missing details, never mind a whole person. He’d been so invisible, he may as well have been a guild secret known to everyone but her. He was so invisible, she hadn’t noticed him being bullied, hadn’t noticed anything…

She thought of Baya, appearing from nowhere behind her and Meritt that one morning.

It wasn’t the first time she’d done that – Baya could command attention, but lose it just as easily. If she didn’t want to be found, no one would find her. Tora Zollun wasn’t quite at that level but…

But the longer Blueten stayed in the guild, the more she raided with them, the more she watched -the more she realized how much the two had in common. He moved like she did, he copied her smile, he was almost as skilled as she was… but there was something off about his behaviour.

“Is Tora Zollun part of Baya’s family?” Blueten asked Meritt quietly.

It was the middle of the night, and Blueten had dragged Meritt out to the back

 Comment 
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:08 am
Chapter:
Characters:
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

porch of the house -notably out of earshot of Baya’s room. He was at this point, her main confidante and info broker. If there was anyone with information she could trust, it would be him.

“You brought me out here for this?” Meritt hissed. “Mute, this is crazy!”

“So you don’t know.”

“Why would he be Baya’s family?!”

“Well he can’t be her sapling, or she’d let him live here. So perhaps he’s the sapling of a sibling.”

Meritt stared at her, bewildered. “A… sapling?”

Blueten ignored him. She started pacing up and down the porch. Her tiny minion scrambled to keep hold of her shoulder. “He must live in the Weeping Isles. He’s Soundless but newly so. Sometimes he slips.”

“…How? Are you still not Soundless?”

“The Isles have plenty of crabs, that’s likely why he sometimes gifts them to us.”

“What?”

“He’s the one leaving us gifts by our doors. Please keep up, Meritt.”

“Wait-”

“He’s very likely poor. Blueberries are free, they’re everywhere. He must be using his share of the raid money for something else. Probably on supplies to keep the storage box full. Melon juice and nectar are staples from The Grove. They cost more so we don’t get them as often.”

“O-Okay hold on.”

“So he’s poor. Is that why Baya took him in? Perhaps as a favour to a sibling? Or is he from a broken home? Did she actually see potential in him? He seems to fit it.”

“Mute!” She felt Meritt’s hand grab her arm, stopping her mid-pace. “Can you please slow down? I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

She turned, stared him dead in the eye and said, “They’re too alike.”

“They’re… too alike?” Meritt repeated.

“Yes. Baya and Tora Zollun. They have the same postures, behaviours, and a very similar skill set. Admittedly, he hasn’t picked up on Baya’s trademark poisons, but he otherwise seems to be copying her moves. She brought him in and he’s a sapling, so I assume he must be family. Why else would you bring in someone so young?”

“Tora’s not a sapling!” Meritt scoffed but then looked uncertain. “Wh-why do you

 Comment 
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:10 am
Chapter:
Characters:
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

think he’s a sapling?”

“He follows Baya everywhere, and looks like a sad sylvan pup when she’s gone. That is not adult behaviour.”

“How can you even tell that? He’s always smiling-”

“Further, he doesn’t appear to ever really know where we are or where we’re going when we leave on raids. He gets distracted by everything and his eyes light up at small things like rocks and fireflies. It’s as if he’s never explored the forest before. It’s as if it’s all new to him. It’s as if-”

“He’s a sapling.” Meritt stared at her, wide-eyed in awe. “How do you even notice all this? He always looks so… calm to me? I can’t read him at all! It’s like when you told me Claws was an engineer – it makes sense but like, he’s never said-”

“Please stay on topic.”

He shook his head. “No, this is enough. You’ve been obsessive over this ever since your first raid. Maybe he’s a sapling, and he leaves us blueberries, and he’s apparently like Baya -fine! So what? What is the point in finding this out?”

“I don’t like mysteries.”

“Well you’re gonna have to get used to em! Baya is a mystery! I’m sorry, Mute, but I already told you all I know about her! No one knows about her family, and if he was, surely she’d have said something.”

She decided that was the last she’d bother Meritt about it.

Family or not, it was obvious she was training the kid. He was far more skilled than the others thought he was: stealing more than most of them, hiding in plain sight… he

 Comment 
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:12 am
Chapter:
Characters: ,
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

wasn’t quite as good at fighting but what moves he did use were clearly borrowed from Baya. He was her apprentice, and for whatever reason, they were hiding it from the rest of the guild. She could still see Claws snarling at Tora Zollun from her first raid, still hear the guild outrage at him. What was the point in hiding his skills? Was it his choice or Baya’s? All it was doing was making his guild resent him. If they just knew… and frankly if they bothered paying attention they should have known. Now that Blueten knew who Tora Zollun was, it was so obvious that he was Baya’s apprentice, it was ridiculous that no one else noticed.

It was more ridiculous that no one noticed the abuse. Tora Zollun never had a “rite of passage” because he was clearly still in it. There were days he actually would vanish – she knew when she found nothing at her doorstep, when Baya would appear with her usual gathering of members and Tora Zollun wasn’t just behind her. Then he’d show up out of the blue, looking like he’d been beaten or starved or both. Often no one noticed him sneak into the room looking like death, but sometimes someone would catch him and panic.

Baya was always quick to dismiss it.

“Poor boy didn’t sleep well, eh?”

“Oh he’s just been training. Like’s t’be a bit extreme is all.”

“Don’t coddle him. S’gotta learn somehow. Let ‘im toughen up.”

He never said anything in response. In fact he never spoke to anyone at all. Just Baya. Blueten even tried approaching him once herself, asked him how he was. He only stared at her with that same imperfect copy of Baya’s smile. She could see the fear in his eyes. He didn’t respond – just walked away.

At first his disappearances only happened once in awhile, but as time passed they got more and more frequent.

Then he vanished in the middle of a raid.

They were sneaking into one of the Lion Guard Havens guarding the trade routes, the type of raid Blueten liked least. Someone accidentally caused a whole set of supply crates to tumble -she didn’t see who. When they looked to Baya for instruction, she was gone. The whole place went into alarm and the guild had to flee. By the time they made it back to headquarters, they realized Baya and Tora Zollun were both missing.

They showed up hours later to an anxious guild, Baya throwing the door open with a flourish. She was exhilarated and eager to tell them all the tale of their daring escape. Tora Zollun meanwhile, was shaking, planted at the doorway with his eyes set on the floorboards. He looked like he’d been crying. The two of them were unharmed but covered in dirt and muck from the swamp.

 Comment 
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:14 am
Chapter:
Characters: ,
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

When Blueten looked closer, their clothes were in disarray. Tora Zollun’s coat was missing.

No one noticed. No one even looked at him.

Then that night Blueten woke to the sounds of fighting, harsh whispers exchanged back and forth outside her door. Not just outside her door, but on the staircase her room was under -the staircase leading to the forbidden upper floor.

“….ya fightin’ me on this?!” Baya’s voice. Blueten cautiously made her way closer to the door to hear.

“Please Baya, I know Darach’s up there!” She didn’t recognize that voice, but she could guess.

“That’s the fun of it! C’mon!”

She could hear fumbled footsteps as Baya tried to drag the other sylvari up the stairs. They pulled back.

“D-Didn’t you have your fun earlier? I-I thought, please don’t make me do this again, please-”

“Yer scared act used t’be cute, but it’s gettin’ old. I know you like it, stop fightin’ me already.”

And suddenly Blueten was no longer under the stairs, but trapped in the thorny maw of her cell. A Nightmare Courtier was trying to drag out one of the prisoners in a cell across from her. They had been lovers once, she figured that out a week after being there.

“I don’t! I don’t like it! Please! I can’t do this anymore!” The prisoner was sobbing. This wasn’t the first time Blueten saw them dragged out of their cell. It wouldn’t be the last. She turned away, trembling hands grasping for her mask and hastily fastening it over her face. This isn’t happening. This isn’t happening. She could hear the cool response of the Courtier.

“…I thought you loved me.”

This isn’t happening.

“I do love you, Baya please-”

And she was back just as suddenly, shaking at her door with her mask on.

“Fine. Go home.” Baya’s voice was cold. Blueten could hear her walking up the steps.

“W-Wait, I-”

“Go home, Tora.”

She heard the door to Baya’s room shut, and there was silence for a moment. She didn’t like this. Then she heard sniffing, like someone was sobbing. She really didn’t

 Comment 
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:16 am
Chapter:
Characters: ,
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

like this. Blueten cracked open the door, made her way carefully to the base of the stairs.

Her double, another Blueten, was sitting on the bottom of the steps, face buried in her hands. She was sobbing.

No, it’s not me. Blueten blinked and the Blueten on the stairs vanished. It was Tora Zollun, curled up and crying softly. His Soundlessness was slipping again. She could feel his confusion, anguish, fear, despair.

“She hates me.” He didn’t even look up at her. Did he know she was there? “I messed up and now she hates me.”

Blueten carefully sat beside him on the stairs, and looked out, away from him. She couldn’t look at him. Her mind was racing, her heart was pounding. She didn’t like this. He wouldn’t stop crying.

She cautiously loosened the strings to her mask, pulled it away from her face, and nudged him with it.

“Wh-Wha?”

She nudged him again and he gingerly took it from her grasp. He then gently fitted the misshapen thing over his face and just sat with her on the stairs, the two of them staring out into nothing. She wasn’t sure how long they sat there. They didn’t look at each other, didn’t even touch. He just kept crying and then eventually… stopped. It was silent.

It was silent for awhile.

 Comment 
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:18 am
Chapter:
Characters: ,
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

“I just wish.” Tora Zollun said suddenly. “I wish she wanted me when I wasn’t scared.”

He was saying that more to himself than to her, but she couldn’t ignore it. The words ignited something ugly, something angry in her chest. Blueten’s fingers curled hard into the wood of the steps.

He got up then, and handed her back her mask. He still wouldn’t look at her – did he think he shouldn’t? She took the mask and watched him leave out the front door.

The next morning she found a glass of melon juice at her door. Tora Zollun didn’t speak to her after that. He just went back to his usual routine as if nothing happened.

She wondered if anyone else knew any of this was going on, but she knew they didn’t. What of Darach though? Did her husband really not know what was happening under his own roof? Blueten spent the next few days watching him carefully. He didn’t speak much, and he didn’t appear particularly bright but… she caught the glances between him and Baya when Tora Zollun was around.

Ah, of course. Blueten seethed. Of course he’s in on it. This whole guild is awful.

But she’d known that already, she’d already had her suspicions for awhile. Her time raiding with them hadn’t changed this, and everything to do with Tora Zollun had more than just cemented the problem. She’d never left the Nightmare Court camp, the Wychmire Daggers was just the Nightmare Court under a different name.

Realizing this didn’t really help anything though, it mostly made her feel powerless.

 Comment 
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:20 am
Chapter:
Characters: ,
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

She never did escape the first camp on her own, and now she was stuck in this mess of a guild torturing its own members. She saw Meritt cowering before Onora or Birr; Bogs taking another beating from Ebril; Shade and Arrow hastily polishing Claws’ tools… She saw Pepper’s suspiciously torn face and cautious glances towards Baya – had it really been Nightmare Court? And she saw Tora Zollun, the literal child… And she could do nothing.

Where were the Wardens? Why didn’t she see them? Did they not care? Was it because the Daggers targeted Nightmare Court that they simply declined to intervene? Surely targeting foreigners would make the guild enough of a problem to deal with. Or were they simply incompetent? Was there no one who would do anything about this wretched guild?!

She raged in her hopelessness, taking it out through their raids on Nightmare Court. Sometimes she’d alarm them on purpose, just so she had someone to tear apart.

“Are you okay, Mute? I’m worried about you.” Meritt tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t respond.

Of course she wasn’t fine. If she wasn’t tearing Nightmare Court apart, she was strategically trying to place herself between Tora Zollun and Baya, hoping to keep her from whisking him away when no one was looking. She couldn’t sleep at night, always keeping her door open just a little in case she could hear anything. She kept careful watch of every weaker member, watching for signs of abuse so she could move in when it happened. It was all she could do and it wasn’t enough.

Tora Zollun kept vanishing anyway, coming back on the brink of death. She felt a personal sense of failure every time she found nothing at her doorstep -no blueberries, no juice- a clear sign Baya had stolen him again.

Then he disappeared for four days, the longest he’d ever gone missing. Baya acted like nothing was wrong, and no one asked where he was. On the fourth day though, in the evening, he finally appeared. The guild members had all been celebrating their most recent successful raid, one that Tora Zollun had missed. There was food and drinks on the one table in the room, but most of the members were occupied with a game of cards going on on the floor beside it. Blueten hung back by the wall, watching as always.

It was Pepper who first saw him, pointing him out with a shocked yelp. Tora Zollun appeared from seemingly nowhere, crawling near the dining table. He was desperately trying to reach the food on the table, grasping at the table’s edges and trying to pull himself up. His wrists were blackened, and it looked like small critters of a sort had

 Comment 
by on July 27, 2019 at 12:22 am
Chapter:
Characters: ,
Location:

Maybe The Dead

Warning: Contains talk of abuse, and heavily implied sexual assault/rape

nibbled at his heels. He looked awful.

A few members moved to help him but Baya stopped them.

“Don’t.” She said coldly. “He has t’help himself.”

So they backed off, all of them watching as Tora Zollun finally got himself standing, finally managed to reach a nearby loaf of bread.

All of them but Baya who casually returned to her cards, and Blueten who quietly made her way over to the other side of the table. She had an inkling of where Tora Zollun had come from, but she needed to see herself. As she reached the table she could see the latch leading to the basement wide open. The basement no one was allowed into.

All eyes were fixed on Tora Zollun -a perfect chance. She slipped inside, made her way down the creaking steps into the cool depths below, and stopped on the cold earthen floor. Immediately she was overwhelmed with the stench of dried sap, vomit, and worse. She cringed behind her mask, trying not to gag.

It was too hard to see with the mask on so she took it off. As her vision adjusted to the low lighting, she could make out shapes of something against the back wall. She could hear the skittering of rats, could see them dart out of her way as she moved closer.

Chains.

They hung from the wall, two manacles dangling to the floor below. They’d been picked open with something small – a rat bone.

And suddenly the basement transformed, its earthen walls becoming the sickly sweet flowered walls of the Nightmare Court camp; the manacles becoming thorny vines reaching up and outwards, multiplying till they surrounded her on all sides; the rats becoming angry biting nightmare hounds. Then it all turned back just as quickly.

Baya kept prisoners.

Blueten could feel fire burning through her whole body. The basement had been a prison this whole time. Why were they letting her do this?! Why was no one stopping her?! Why?!

The fire grew hotter, threatening to burst from her skin.

Was there no one who would stop this?!

WHY?!

 Comment