The City of Taxon

Briar's wary gaze slid around the unfamiliar room, and he prepared a tiny shoot of power to untie the hemp cords that held knives in place under his shirt, an impractical sheath for anyone but a plant mage. No windows, no visible entrance or exit. Metal walls, metal device above his head, metal pedestal with a partly metal device on it. And as he focused on his knives, Briar noticed something unfamiliar on his wrist just below the hilt of the knife. He rubbed at the metal bracelet that bisected a bright blue orchid tattoo. It didn't budge.

"Great, everything's metal," Briar grumbled, magically reaching out to the shakkan, his only company in the bare and polished room. The tree's calm and patience steadied him through their connection. "Y'know," he called out to no one in particular, "I think maybe you were aiming for my sister. I can't do anything with all this metal." That's of course if they were aiming for someone to work with metal. They could just as easily have been looking for someone helpless against it. That last part was what had Briar fighting down a growing urge to panic.

Confusion only added to that urge. Briar couldn't think of anyone who'd capture a person only to give him an anchor and boost for his power. He went down the few steps, fingers running over the walls in search of a catch for a hidden door. Seams would be awfully hard to hide in a smooth metal surface, but illusions and metal mages were both things that could just maybe manage it.

Several minutes of searching later and no closer to figuring out where he was or how to escape, Briar sighed. He tapped into his bond with the shakkan again to give his power the greatest possible reach, speaking through his magic, Daj'? I don't know if you can hear me, but I could really use a hand right now. If anyone could get him out of a metal room, it'd be Daja. When no answer came, Briar strained for a sense of any of the three girls. None were there. He had to be cut off magically if he couldn't even feel them; they'd certainly been in range before, even if all four had closed doors on their minds.

"I'll just sit here then," he remarked dryly, "And wait for someone to tell me exactly what you've snatched me for." While he waited, Briar strained his magical senses for hints of plant life outside the room. He concluded that his suspicions about a magically shielded room were tentatively confirmed, as he could reach no local greenery either, not so much as a blade of grass. The mage stopped trying, saving his energy for whenever his captors did make an appearance.