dw ab itt)

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"Well that's mean" Ella said, doing her best to stay serious though a all smile played on her lips at Sages comment. She had always liked it when he took the piss outta the adults, all in all they deserved it. Maybe not the guards though, they were looking after the place after all. They spent around twenty minutes getting food, talking, planning out the rest of the day and overall it was peaceful. Though as Ella stood back up, the sounds of what sounded like multiple horses hooves hitting the concrete in the courtyard rang out, and for some reason it sounded..wrong. Like they were rushing, panicking. Ella looked over at Sage worriwdly, listening to the hooves.

Sage snorted slightly in response to her comments. "They're mean," he commented carelessly. It was true too....they were all muscle and no brain, like he said. And they enjoyed picking on the smaller people...which included himself. Especially since they knew he couldn't say no to them or do anything about...whatever it was they did. Besides....if there was one thing he was good at, it was insulting people. He did that really, really well. Though, he frowned slightly when he heard the horses running around and stood up. "Maybe we should go...somewhere else," he murmured. "Somewhere more populated but out of the way." The barns would probably have to wait...at least, that's what his gut instinct told him. To go somewhere safe but not in the middle of the action. When the hooves suddenly seemed way too clouse, and there were now yells and gunshots, he sort of just grabbed her hand and took off running. His goal was pretty much to just get them away from there.

The gunshots startled Ella quite a lot, and by the time Sage had taken her hand and pulled away from the spot they were in she was shaking slightly. She wasn't able to say a word to him as they rushed away, the noise was growing louder and louder. She really had seemed to speak something into existence, exactly like what she had feared that morning. "Do you..actually know what's happening" she asked hurriedly, looking over at Sage with a worried look on her face. Like she had said earlier, she didn't exactly care for her own welfare. But she cared for his quite some amount, and she knew that even though most people in the palace now knew how close he was to her, there would still be the odd person who wouldn't protect him at all. So if they got split up, that would quite obviously be a problem.

Sage glanced back at Ella for a moment when he heard her voice. He shook his head and grunted. "Not really....but the guards are fighting someyhing, and that something sounds like another army," he called back. "All I know is there's shits getting fired so I'm leaving and I'm taking you with me." He sort of waved through the hallways, though at some point a horse came barreling through the hallway and he was forced to let go of Ella and turn. They went down separate hallways, and then all of a sudden he was caught up in.... something. A group of people. They weren't fighting though....instead they all sort of grabbed him. He struggled, of course, though that just seemed to earn him more bruises. Of course, they were doing what they always did.... using him as though he was their cohort. Each one of them had a turn to do something, and after a while he admittedly just turned his brain off. He didn't want to know or remember what they were doing. He couldn't block it all out....but it was better than nothing. That went on for a while, until they get bored and dropped him while they debated what to do with him. He tried to crawl away, though they obviously weren't going to let that happen, so they just decided on something, and before he knew what was happening, he was pressed against the wall, a knife buried in his gut. He didn't even have the energy to cry out by then, and he sort of just fell when they dropped him, breathing heavily. He looked around for his shirt and everything, since they'd been removed pretty early on...but with his vision swirling he couldn't see well enough to find it.

As soon as Ella's hand left Sages and they were torn apart, the panic set in. She did her best to scream his name though she was rarely ever loud and her voice was drowned out by the sounds of the group of people, and the horses barrelling through. Just as she thought she would at least have enough time to move, slip behind a pillar into the shadows, a group of guards grabbed her and pretty much dragged her away from the commotion very much against her will. No matter how much she struggled or protested shout Sage they didn't listen, instead planted her far away from the hall they had been in, muttering about "stay here, safety" or whatever. A while passed with Ella slumped against the wall, crying and wondering just how he was doing. Had he managed to get away? Was he okay? Was he dead? She hauled herself up after a long time and reached for the door, trekking across the large field just to get back to the palace. She wasn't exactly hurt, just..terrified. Mostly for Sages welfare. She headed in through the door she was dragged out of, listening out for any noise. There was a lot of shots being fired and commotion but it seemed a little distant now, this part of the palace was empty. Though as she neared the hall her heart stopped, staring at the blood on the floor just around the corner.

Sage had eventually managed to shift so he was at least covered from the waist down, but then when he tried to roll off of his back, he found he didn't have the energy to, so he sort of just stayed sprawled on his back like that, sort of just focusing on breathing. His mind was running with questions....was Ella ok? What had happened? He certainly hoped she was alright....he couldn't exactly go find her though. He couldn't even roll over to crawl somewhere. Besides, people wouldn't exactly help him...they'd passed him a couple times. They had better things to do, he supposed. But by now he'd lost... probably too much blood. Breathing seemed like an enormous task, and even that was becoming too hard. He could feel his vision turning from swirling into dimmer lights, and black spots here and there. Well, that definitely wasn't good. At least as his body dulled the pain wasn't quite so bad. It still hurts like hell, but it was slowly becoming more and more numb he supposed.

Ella soon enough spotted Sage as she turned the corner, and it took a matter of seconds for her to reach him. She stared down at him without being able to say a word for a good minute, the blood engulfing her hand as she touched him. "Sage?" was all she could get out after a while, not bothering to try and stop anyone that rushed past. Although her reaction was delayed, she still managed to cover what she could of the knife would with some cloth, though she didn't dare take the knife out. That would be too dangerous. "Can you hear me?" she asked quietly, her voice a shaky whisper as she looked down at him.

Sage had wound up closing his eye soon enough, though when he felt someone press against the wound and he let out a sort of grunt, his eyes fluttering open for a minute to see Ella crouching there. Recognition and admittedly quite a bit of relief flickered in his eyes, though he couldn't get enough breath to speak. Her voice sort of echoed loudly in his ears, though he hoped she at least could tell he knew she was there...still here, at least for now. His eyes were dropping shut again by then though, and his head sort of lulled to the side, resting against her leg. Maybe it was a bit bold...he really wasn't supposed to touch her unless she asked him to...but hell, he was in a lot of pain and honestly scared to death. Was he supposed to just waste away like this? It certainly seemed that way. But then what about his daughter? If he wasn't sending income back to his father, Lizzie would end up just starving to death out there in the mud. He couldn't die....not now. And Ella was his sole bit of comfort here....this whole place was a nightmare, and if he got in trouble for pressing his head against her in an attempt to quench his panic, then he didn't really care.

As Sages face touched Ella's leg her breath sort of seemed to get stuck in her throat, and she had to take a minute to simply just breathe before she was able to do anything else. Knowing that she wasn't strong enough to carry Sage to the infirmary, and she couldn't just prise the knife out herself, she forced herself after a quick minute to stand up and leave him, gently lowering his head to the floor. "I'll be back in a second" she whispered, her words coming out through her choked voice. It took a matter of five or so minutes to find someone, and pretty much beg them to help him, all whilst trying to stop herself from being dragged away to safety by passing guards. As they reached Sage she covered her mouth to avoid the cries coming out loud, watching as the man she had found seemingly slightly carelessly picked Sage up, tossing the bloody cloth in her direction.

Sage had barely registered her voice by the time she'd said she'd be leaving ...and it sort of just swirled around, so he wasn't sure what she'd said. When she left, he could only assume she'd gone to get help...though his chest seemed to tighten up with panic even more...he wasn't sure that was possible, but apparently it was. Because it happened. He'd closed his eyes again soon enough, though when he was suddenly grabbed and sling over someone's shoulder, he made a sudden effort to fight back, since whatever they did really, really hurt. He couldn't do much though, and after a moment of struggle it all was just too much and he passed out, eyes rolling back up into his head as he went limp.