What does Mal do with that? He has seen magic at a distance, and knows it is not something to be compelled. It is not a weapon he can wrest from her hands and use himself. It is something only she can grant.
And somewhere, miles and miles from them, Alina is—
In danger. Maybe dead. Every moment he spends here arguing with this woman is another moment in which the latter becomes closer to truth. ]
Then we should be there [ is a stubborn protest, Mal's jaw tight, feet planted in the snow. ] I saw what you can do. You could take them apart.
If you were aware enough to see what I can do, then you were aware enough to recognize there is only one of me, and no reinforcements coming to Ravka. It is a loss. It is a tomb.
[ she should be more sympathetic. those she cares about had gone down defending ravka, too. believing in it. she smothers that sentiment in its crib. unwelcome, unwanted. out of this world before it could properly be in it. ]
They will not kill your friend. Not right away. She has the dubious honor of being more valuable as leverage.
How long does that keep Alina alive? How long does it keep her out of the hands of people who would see her turned into a specific kind of weapon?
Or perhaps Nilfgaard will do that now.
Mal's jaw works around protests and pleas, before he turns from Yen to survey where they'd landed. Frost and snow and emptiness, while somewhere far from them Ravka burns and Alina suffers. ]
How are we going to get her back?
[ This is not really a question for Yen. Instead, it is spoken into the frigid air. Mal's breath frosts over as he speaks, this impossible, hopeless sentiment aloud as he feels the humming buzz of the earth beneath his feet and Yen behind him and distantly, Alina, so far she is muted to nothing but a direction in which to walk. ]
We aren't. Not yet. Not until we stand a chance of pushing them out.
[ she looks around. they're in a clearing, inasmuch as one can call a thick layer of snow a clearing. the trees are sparser here, at least. she gestures towards the thicker line of the wood. ]
You're a tracker aren't you? Find us something to eat. I need to think.
[ strategize which way to head. in fjerdan territory, they're unlikely to meet any allies. the ice court would sooner allow invaders to push up against its borders than support the strategem of a witch.
they're around the fold, now. north enough that they could seek the coast, and novyi zem, ketterdam, the wandering isles. but these do not have the military forces to support reclaiming ravka, and making for shu han would mean passing through occupied territory once more. ]
[ The urge to dig his heels in, shout, shake her until she reconsiders—
Well. It flares hot and dissipates. Some part of him balks at putting his hands on her again. Will it be the same as it was on that battlefield if he wrapped his fingers around her wrist? Mal is not anxious to find out.
So he takes all that sullen fury with him into the snow. If he returns to a fire, or some sort of shelter, all the better. If not, he'll manage it himself. His first impression of this woman didn't give him the sense that she had much experience living rough.
Out of her sight, there's room for worry to set in. What is he? How had they done that together? Even the familiarity of tracking game through the snowdrifts doesn't crowd out the inescapable reality that he has uncovered part of his nature that is wholly alien to him. It persists throughout the hunt, through the passing stretch of time between his departure, his hunt, and his return, gossamer threads of awareness drawing him back to Yen as much as the signs he'd left himself to guide his steps back to their makeshift campsite. ]
I hope you eat rabbit, [ is the flat announcement of his return. Dinner is not quite served, but it's on the way. ]
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no subject
What does Mal do with that? He has seen magic at a distance, and knows it is not something to be compelled. It is not a weapon he can wrest from her hands and use himself. It is something only she can grant.
And somewhere, miles and miles from them, Alina is—
In danger. Maybe dead. Every moment he spends here arguing with this woman is another moment in which the latter becomes closer to truth. ]
Then we should be there [ is a stubborn protest, Mal's jaw tight, feet planted in the snow. ] I saw what you can do. You could take them apart.
no subject
[ she should be more sympathetic. those she cares about had gone down defending ravka, too. believing in it. she smothers that sentiment in its crib. unwelcome, unwanted. out of this world before it could properly be in it. ]
They will not kill your friend. Not right away. She has the dubious honor of being more valuable as leverage.
no subject
How long does that keep Alina alive? How long does it keep her out of the hands of people who would see her turned into a specific kind of weapon?
Or perhaps Nilfgaard will do that now.
Mal's jaw works around protests and pleas, before he turns from Yen to survey where they'd landed. Frost and snow and emptiness, while somewhere far from them Ravka burns and Alina suffers. ]
How are we going to get her back?
[ This is not really a question for Yen. Instead, it is spoken into the frigid air. Mal's breath frosts over as he speaks, this impossible, hopeless sentiment aloud as he feels the humming buzz of the earth beneath his feet and Yen behind him and distantly, Alina, so far she is muted to nothing but a direction in which to walk. ]
no subject
[ she looks around. they're in a clearing, inasmuch as one can call a thick layer of snow a clearing. the trees are sparser here, at least. she gestures towards the thicker line of the wood. ]
You're a tracker aren't you? Find us something to eat. I need to think.
[ strategize which way to head. in fjerdan territory, they're unlikely to meet any allies. the ice court would sooner allow invaders to push up against its borders than support the strategem of a witch.
they're around the fold, now. north enough that they could seek the coast, and novyi zem, ketterdam, the wandering isles. but these do not have the military forces to support reclaiming ravka, and making for shu han would mean passing through occupied territory once more. ]
no subject
Well. It flares hot and dissipates. Some part of him balks at putting his hands on her again. Will it be the same as it was on that battlefield if he wrapped his fingers around her wrist? Mal is not anxious to find out.
So he takes all that sullen fury with him into the snow. If he returns to a fire, or some sort of shelter, all the better. If not, he'll manage it himself. His first impression of this woman didn't give him the sense that she had much experience living rough.
Out of her sight, there's room for worry to set in. What is he? How had they done that together? Even the familiarity of tracking game through the snowdrifts doesn't crowd out the inescapable reality that he has uncovered part of his nature that is wholly alien to him. It persists throughout the hunt, through the passing stretch of time between his departure, his hunt, and his return, gossamer threads of awareness drawing him back to Yen as much as the signs he'd left himself to guide his steps back to their makeshift campsite. ]
I hope you eat rabbit, [ is the flat announcement of his return. Dinner is not quite served, but it's on the way. ]