Limping, he could not keep up with Gracen, so when the anakarist released his hand to continue running in a selfish act of self-preservation, Donn did the only thing he could. He ducked into the first open doorway he could, a doorway hidden in shadow and barely accessible with so much debris and broken timbers collapsed in front of it. Pressed against the wall where he did not think torch or lantern light would penetrate, he listened to the racing steps and eventual screams that erupted before them, holding his breath, unable to think over the sounds of the blood thundering in his ears and the hammering of his heart. Some footsteps ran past in the returning directions, then others, heavier boots came back, until the shouts and cheers of jubilation turned into a frenzy as though the source was now the pursued. When he judged the threats to be far enough away, Donn stripped off his suit jacket and turned it inside out to hide the Channon family emblem, pulled the hood awkwardly over his head, and then struggled over the debris into the empty street. He could not go back to the Fortress tonight, but there were other places he could go if he could remember the passwords that would buy him entry when his lack of credits would not. Head down, muttering to himself, thinking without humor that imitating his drunken, addled brother’s normal condition would spare him the suspicion of anyone he passed, he paused only at the sight of a broken, twisted figure lying discarded in the gutter at the side of the road…the way he had once left the woman who had meant everything to him. Swarmed now by anger and memories and quotations his father once spouted in admonition when Donn had displeased or disappointed him, Donn did not look more closely before shuffling away with tortuously slow steps. He had seen the man’s white color. He had seen the emblem on his sideways torn lapel. He had seen all he needed to see. He knew enough. Come tomorrow, Grand Elder Lord and the HOPE council would know it too.
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Date: 2025-01-01 09:11 pm (UTC)He could not go back to the Fortress tonight, but there were other places he could go if he could remember the passwords that would buy him entry when his lack of credits would not.
Head down, muttering to himself, thinking without humor that imitating his drunken, addled brother’s normal condition would spare him the suspicion of anyone he passed, he paused only at the sight of a broken, twisted figure lying discarded in the gutter at the side of the road…the way he had once left the woman who had meant everything to him. Swarmed now by anger and memories and quotations his father once spouted in admonition when Donn had displeased or disappointed him, Donn did not look more closely before shuffling away with tortuously slow steps.
He had seen the man’s white color. He had seen the emblem on his sideways torn lapel.
He had seen all he needed to see.
He knew enough.
Come tomorrow, Grand Elder Lord and the HOPE council would know it too.