Long Lost Betrothed

Depths of Deceit Part 1

Word Count: 1833

"Percy, wait!" Keyleth yelled out to him in shock, as I slowly walked up to him my rapier drawn gripped tightly in my hand as I glared at Anna Ripley and glanced in concern at Percy.

"Doctor..." Percy said in his demonic voice as he shot the gun only for it to get pushed last second by Cassandra, who was now in front of him.

"Percy, what are you doing? She's unarmed." Keyleth said shocked

"So was my family." Percy said angrily.

"Percy she may have something we can use." Cassandra tried to reason with him, looking to me for help as I sighed and put my rapier away.

"She's right, love, they kept her alive for a reason, and we know that the Briarwoods don't just keep anyone alive without a reason." I said bitterly staring at the woman with distaste.

"Um, mind telling us who the hell this is?" Vex asked speaking up as she took a step toward the three of us.

"Dr. Anna Ripley." I spoke looking back at Vex, for a second before turning back, "My old tutor before my parents switched me over to Professor Anders, with Percy and Cass, someone who became another Briarwood pawn." I said hate lacing my words by the end of the sentence.

"One I'm about to remove from the board." Percy said taking off his plague doctor mask a hard glare in his eyes as he lifted up his gun again cocking it back.

"And here I thought you were the intelligent one." Anna said with sass in her voice as she scoffed looking at Percy.

"Percival, we're both engineers. We know the value of knowledge. You must be curious as to the information I possess." Ripley said as she walked up to the cell bars again a smirk on her lips as I quickly held my rapier up towards her making her pause.

"Not that curious." Percy says as he took aim.

"Brother, Ophelia, wait." Cassandra said pushing his gun to the side before slowly pushing my rapier down.

"Why should we?" I asked twirling my rapier in my hand slowly ready to strike against my old tutor, "Cass, she helped take you guys down, she betrayed Whitestone. She was my tutor and she hurt the ones I loved and cared about including you and Percy. And I can almost gurantee she was there the night my parents were also murdered." I said my voice shaking in anger at the end.

"Of course, I was darling. I wanted to pay my respects to the people who threw me to the side, cause their precious little princess was gonna be taught with her beloved." Anna said disgust lacing her words. "Though I went there more for you, then I did your parents, I didn't know if you had information, young Percival would have told you in confidence for what we needed. It just would've been an added bonus to hurt you for weeks on end like I did to those two."

"How dare you." I said angrily stepping forward ready to strike.

"Ophelia, please stop." Cass said making me hesitate slightly giving her an opportunity to speak, "I've been with the Briarwoods for years and I know next to nothing about their motives."

"Fine." I practically growled out handing my sword to Vax, so I didn't get too tempted to shove it through the bars and stab Rippley, before walking away leaning against the back wall.

"Interrogation. And then she dies." Percy said lowering his gun and also turning away, walking towards me, when Scanlan walked in front of him.

"Speaking of burning questions, uh, quick little side bar over here?" Scanlan said motioning to where I was standing as Percy, nodded once and walked to stand next to me slipping his hand into my mine squeezing gently, as I squeezed his hand back in comfort. We were joined by Scanlan, Pike, and Keyleth all looking at him with concern. "Percy, hey, love ya pal, but we got to deal with this smoke thing. I mean, you are legit fucked up."