Noctisardor Bypass anything at all to keep me close to you

Laurel had been healing. She'd been in Rivenwood because moving as far as Duskfire Glacier hadn't been possible, but it seemed they'd left, anyway. They got what they wanted. She still had a bit of a limp in her step, but her body was better now. Every moment of every day she had thought of Indra. Almost as if knowing how much her little girl missed her, too, Laurel pined for her as well. She couldn't let Indra be taken from her again. She needed to do something to get her back. Laurel was out for blood. She hadn't yet seen Abel either, which worried her, too. She wished she'd been better to him. She hoped he was just hiding out somewhere and that he'd come out and was alright, after all. It made sense that he might be hiding things out after having fled; but hopefully he'd find his way back to the family den, if that was the case.

She had been resentful towards @Mahler. She didn't tell him, not outright; such was their relation, it seemed. So many words unspoken. So many resentments swiped under a carpet, never to be looked at again until it all exploded. Laurel knew another explosion was coming.

It had not gone unnoticed to her that the scent of heat was in the air. It was unimaginable to Laurel how anyone could feel like fucking around when some of their wolves were missing. This caused further irritation, piled on top of the resentment for not listening to her. Back when they had Praimfaya. Back when they were strong.

Now they were small and weak, and it wouldn't be so easy to challenge Ursus, let alone on their own ground. Laurel knew that. But what else could she do? Iliksis had been eerily absent, almost as if he too knew that he could not make good on his promise, and Laurel had been wallowing in the pain of her wounds, the despair of losing Indra, the frustration that she was so close to ending Merrick and just failing, and the utter shame at uttering those words to Iliksis when she did. She hadn't been herself. She knew that. But it was hardly an excuse. She felt filthy and she knew that she couldn't sit around and stay here.

She couldn't just go galivanting around and fuck around like Mahler right now.

Laurel got to her feet and exited her cold, empty den. When she stretched, Laurel winced from the pain as she reached the point where her shoulder was injured. Then she started to limp towards the nearby stream, her head full of resentment and plans for revenge. If Mahler would not help her, then she was on her own, and she was not so sure she could stay here if that was the case. Maybe @Sequoia would stand by her, but Laurel knew it was a lot to ask of a friend, and she knew Sequoia was hardly a fighter.

Laurel mused over these thoughts as she headed to the stream, and found herself growing more and more fearful that there was nothing she could do. Nothing except for something incredibly bold and stupid, anyway. But perhaps it was all she could do. Perhaps if both her children were truly taken, then she should go to Ursus and finish it at last. One way or another.

Dark thoughts reflected on her face as she took a drink and thoughts turned to Mahler again, who was probably having the time of his life while she suffered alone.

new life. a new path. druid returned. sequoia come back.
mahler was reduced and renewed. rivenwood must rebuild itself and succumb no longer. and indra must be returned to them. the man walked with a stride more determined than he had felt in some time. his wounds still plagued the man, for his found this recovery to be taxing. 
he would not apologize for seizing his time with wylla. his selfishness, he hoped, had sowed a future for rivenwood, one defiant in the face of what had occurred. but mahler did not forget. and he did not forgive.
the two young heathens had hurt him badly. it was a credit to the resilience of resentment that he had returned to hismelf at all. 
laurel's energy was thorny. she had returned to the water. mahler drew close, his limp near mirroring his own.
mahler did not want to fight, and he was guilty in his silence that he did not feel the warring spirit move in him. only reservation. reticence. a willingness to uproot.
the awareness that he might always move forward even if he could never go back. how many times had his lack of a backward look sundered another? and why were others willing to follow him even now? he had been a horrendous leader — capitulation.
and that was his true cowardice.
he could not think of what to say. any words he spoke now would be the wrong ones, for he had given nothing back to her in return for her service.

It was hard to hide her resentment when Mahler came into view. He had suffered, too, but only physically. What he had done for her and Indra was good, in the raid, but what he had not done for Laurel last year when she pleaded with him to attack Ursus was what pained her now. She warned him. He didn't listen. Now, they paid for his ignorance. Another strike. The second big one, for Laurel.

Three strikes and you're out.

Silence lingered between them, because what was there to say? Indra was taken. Abel was still missing, as far as Laurel knew, and with every passing moment the chances of finding him slimmed down.

With every passing moment, she was reminded of what Merrick might be doing to Indra. And Iliksis had been eerily silent ever since she had given in to his demands. Almost as if he didn't know, either, how to make good on his side of the bargain.

Mahler was silent. It annoyed Laurel, for if anyone should know what to say, it was him. She said, eventually, What is Rivenwood going to do? Her words were level as she looked at him, searching for his eyes. Resentment was clear in hers, but there was a spark of pleading hope, too, as she awaited his answer with bated breath.

mahler let out his breath. 'recuperate. recover. relocate, if necessary." he dared not look laurel in the eye, not yet. he knew he would only find anger and bitterness there, and righteously so. "then i vill see if i can broker a trade vith them, to bring back your children." he assumed now that abel too was with merrick.
it hurt to speak that sentence aloud. that they had been taken from rivenwood at all plagued him. and now his mind pooled with thoughts of wylla.
perhaps she too should leave. it was glass-transparent that mahler could not keep any of them safe.
"first ve must gather everyone and discuss our next step." his voice was rough; on this at least he did not want laurel to cross him.
at last the lavender stare sought her own, softening beneath the weight of her resenting eyes.

Mahler said all the wrong words, of course. It wasn't fair, perhaps. He could've said so few words to appease Laurel's wrath, and he didn't say exactly those words.

I'll make it up to you
I'll bring them back
Indra will be by your side by nightfall

I'm so sorry that I didn't listen to you.

But instead. He wants to recuperate, dearest. Recover, next. And then... Just relocate. Run away. We can't run from him, Laurel said, her tone snappy. As if Mahler was dumb for not figuring that one out himself. Then he talked about brokering a deal. Has he not seen this madman? Were you not there when they attacked? What sort of deal — she shrieked — do you think you could broker with this man? What could you possibly offer him that he even wants in the first place?!

Laurel totally skipped over Mahler saying they needed to gather to discuss. She didn't give a fuck what anyone else thought, she needed her children back. If Rivenwood wasn't going to help her, then she would just have to do it the way she'd done everything in her life since Indra was so violently ripped from it.

Alone.

She needed him so badly but she felt so let down, and unfortunately the only way that Laurel knew to express that was by lashing out to him.

a muscle leapt in his cheek. "you and i vere mauled. sequoia was not present to help. vylla vas barely spared. alesund and druid ran avay; vhere do you intend to draw the strength to march upon ursus as they did us? do you not see that ve have no choice but to barter vith that — pestilence?"
"he vanted you," the graf harshly reminded laurel, amethyst eyes hardening to chips of purple stone. "and he spared you and took the children instead. vhy?"
what had happened in that cave? 
the man let out his breath, afraid to speak more lest he truly utter something that was not able to be taken back. "he is unpredictable. we will rely on that if nothing else. we do not have a choice," he reiterated, drawing into himself and sharply away from laurel with the slam of a steelmade door.

Laurel frowned deeply when Mahler said that they had no choice but to try and barter with them. They could do nothing else, could they? He was right, of course, but she knew that there was nothing they could do. There was nothing that they had that Merrick wanted. Nothing — except maybe her. Would it be worth it? And what if he'd play tricks on them and take Laurel and not return the children? Did she want to give up on her life for them? She wanted them back. She just wanted everything to be as it was before. She wanted that Mahler'd listened to her when Ursus was but small and Rivenwood large...

You're right, she said quietly, calming a bit. But still. There was nothing they could offer him. And there was no telling he'd be honest in his bartering.

And you're right that he's unpredictable... Even if we'd barter — if we'd... If we'd offer him something he wants... How do we know he'll really give us his side of the bargain? How do you outsmart crazy? Laurel frowned and she looked at the ground in thought. Then, as she looked at Mahler: If... Do you think that we should try to... To trade me for them? I don't know why he took them, I... I think he didn't know they existed until he found me and then he took them, maybe because he knows it'll hurt me more than death. We just fought in the cave. I almost killed him, I had my jaws around his throat, but I... Laurel swallowed back tears, unwilling to break down now. I was too weak. Eyes hardened. She needed to be strong, now. I'll help you to be strong, now. Lies, just more lies! Iliksis had done nothing to stick to his side of the bargain so far. It showed her how unreliable it was to bargain with crazy.

"you have never been veak in all the time i have known you." his firm tone wished to allay this concept of herself, put it to rest once and for all. mahler sighed. "i am not in the habit of trading life for life, laurel." that was the jurisdiction of these wolves, clearly. and he would not stoop to their level. 
but this left the situation greatly impossible.
mahler truly did not know what to do but he could not bear more scorn from laurel. he could not bear more failure or the endless chaos of wandering in his own mind.
"you fought as bravely as you vere able." his stoneflower eyes searched her own. "i know ve do not have time; believe me. i know that ve cannot vait. but ve must. as many vounds as you and i gave, there are more of them than us."
"after we speak vith our allies, perhaps we might have a better picture of what to do."
how he hated the idea of asking for more help.

Mahler said that she had never been weak, but it was hard to believe that. Laurel had been so close to tearing out his throat and ending it at last. She wasn't sure she could ever forgive herself for that, because now she paid the ultimate price: her children were gone.

He did not want to trade life for life, but what else? What else could they do? Gather their allies, time, time, take more time. Laurel wasn't sure that she could trust Mahler to make the right decisions, here. She knew that he had been off with Wylla, and she knew that he would be protecting her and his future family, too. Too much so, perhaps. Laurel wanted to call him out on all of that, but she could not find the words.

Instead, she just looked at the ground and said, Yes, maybe. And she felt regret that she could not speak her mind, could not tell him all that was wrong and how waiting longer was simply not an option.

She needed him to be there for her, and she wanted to tell him, but she couldn't find the words for that, either.

there was nothing more to say.
mahler felt surely that she and he had reached an impasse — once more. and once more he knew that he had failed her.
mahler wanted to promise her many things but he did not think that he had the capacity to fulfill them. for a long moment he rested in silence with laurel, thinking of how empty rivenwood was without the children, pulling his mind sharply from contemplating their fate.
"vill you come vith me to the pharmacy, laurel? i vould like to put more medicine on your vounds, if you are up for it."
mahler fully expected her to decline his offer, but sought her eyes all the same. he wanted equal footing for them both if he could not come to an agreement this hour.
it was the only way that things might be salvaged.

His request was almost like a silent promise. It dripped with venom, because it was a dangerous promise to make and a dangerous promise to assume on. An invitation, and if she would take it, then maybe he would help her get back the children. Laurel did not want to be alone, for every second alone with her thoughts was hell, and she did not want to decline such an offer as it was made to her.

Alright, she said as she looked at him meaningfully. I'll come with. Laurel had learned when to say 'yes', and she sensed this was one of those moments. She struggled to her feet and followed, wishing she had the peace of mind and eloquence to say what was on her mind, but knowing that it needed more time; unaware that there wasn't enough of that left.