Donovan slowly roused, eventually. feeling aches and pains in every corner of his body even before he opened his eyes. With a soft groan, his eye lids fluttered open, and even -that- had felt painful. His mind was blank for the moment, as if he had simply been 'shut off' and 'restarted' somehow. Gazing ahead, he saw where he was, and it all came rushing back to him.<br/><br/>They were in the hold of their ship, and he was bound up with rope - the same rope, in the same location where he had bound Methuseld before. Irony of ironies, there was no sign of the general or the fox. Perhaps the two women had finally made good their escape after all.<br/><br/>Next to him, Donovan could feel his shadow-self. He didn't even need to turn and look, but he did anyway - regretting it almost instantly. Dean was unconscious as well, sitting there as if he were sleeping. That didn't make sense to Donovan because Dean never slept, at least as far as he knew, and Donovan couldn't remember a time when Dean had been knocked 'unconscious'. In fact, Donovan almost suspected Dean of faking it for some reason.<br/><br/>"Well... shit," Donovan said, taking a deep breath - which, of course, sent pain through his chest cavity as if a giant had punched him in the solar plexus. "Dean... wake up," Donovan said with a growl. "I have no idea what the hell is going on," he said, looking down at the hastily tied ropes. "I'll just get us out of these real quick," he said, and closed his eyes and began to focus his power, summoning his strength in order to simply tear through the rope.<br/><br/>It should have been a simple matter - a thought, a small bit of concentration and use of his glory, and -pop- broken rope. But right now... nothing was happening. In a  bit of a panic, he strained and pushed against the ropes anyway, not feeling -any- of the usual rush he would feel when enhancing his body. Nothing. Nada. It was as if he had been completely drained...<br/><br/>Ah, yes... the sphere of protection he had summoned to protect himself, Dean, Methuseld and Aza. That was the last thing he -really- remembered before blacking out. Had it worked then? Well, he was pretty sure it had since he and Dean looked to still be alive - and one of the girls must have tied them up - any other critter from the darkness would have simply slain them where they were, he figured. So... the protection it offered had been powerful enough, and he had pushed hard enough to make the shell as resistant and as large as he could so as to include the fox on the deck below them, that it had simply 'burnt out' his power. At least, that's what he -hoped-...<br/><br/>Or.... his patron had simply decided to deny him his gifts today. Now. For how long, he wouldn't know. Perhaps it was -permanent-, and a cold chill went up his spine if that was the case. Such a revocation of power was not unheard of, but it was the harshest form of punished for... acting against the tenets of his patron. He had been careful, though. He hadn't slaughtered needlessly. He hadn't taken advantage of EITHER woman even though he had a chance to do so with both. He hadn't abused his power, as far as he could tell...<br/><br/>But he had -stolen-. The gems. That couldn't have been it, could it?<br/><br/>He took a deep breath again, and said Dean's name louder, hoping his shadow-self could help them out of these ropes so that they could find out just what sort of trouble the women were up to, if they were even still on the boat...<br/>