Chocolate Covered Cherries (M)

[visualspice]

Renna laughed at his comment, but did not let that deter her from stealing a hug from him and a kiss.
"But of course! Someone has to take care of you!" And she gave a sheepish smirk Jinai's way as the group gathered around the table. Jinai was hungry, but she was still recovering from the shock of having Jude awake that she simply picked at her food and kept quiet while Renna went on, inquiring how Jude was doing.

[Lion]

The food was set and though he was starving, Jude waited until everyone was seated before he took a bite from his plate.  "I feel much better, thanks to Jinai here," Jude replied.  He smiled at the rough and tumble woman and gestured her to eat more.  "I wouldn't have made it without her.  Granted I wouldn't have gotten sick if I wasn't so stupid to begin with, but there ya go."  He chuckled and set hss hand beside Jinai's and nodded to Renna.  "So did you ever find the contents of that paper I picked up?  Was it the list?"

[visualspice]

Jinai, suddenly not feeling in the mood to socialize, contemplated excusing herself when Jude brought up the list.
"What do you mean.. list?"

Renna, who had almost forgotten herself, looked towards Jude.
"When you were out, I didn't want to disturb her so I.. well, I looked at the list and made a copy. Just in case." And she stared at Jude, curious if he wanted to explain.

[Lion]

"It was a list," Jude explained.  "Of a load of ships that were coming into port soon  to collect some rather interesting cargo, or at least that's what Renna heard.  Vesrik was looking to sell some mages into slavery.  But we don't know when or where or who.  Say, Renna, how many ships did that list say were coming in?"

[visualspice]

"Close to a dozen," she replied, and frowned at the look Jinai was giving her. "Please don't be angry with me, Jinai. I didn't think it was appropriate to tell you about it, given the circumstances. But... well, I found some more.. interesting knews about... the Grand Duke's visor.... "

At this, Jinai perked up curiously and peered over at her.

"But perhaps I ought to wait until we finish our food, first?"

It was here JInai put down her fork.
"God damn it.." She knew it! That bastard was still alive! Getting up from the table, Jinai stormed out of the room while Renna looked imploringly to Jude.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Jinai!" she tried calling after her, but didn't make chase, just let her friend be.

[Lion]

Jude rubbed his head and face and pushed his plate away.  "I'll go talk to her.  And trust me, the fact that that bastard is still alive is as much a shock to me as well.  I mean after the hell I went through...  Tch!"  Jude just shook his head and walked after Jinai.

"Jinai, listen to me.  He may not be dead," he tried to reason.  "But with this information, we can make his life a living hell.  And then he'll wish he was dead.  We'll bury that son of a bitch."

[visualspice]

Jinai kept her back from Jude, having found herself alone in a corner until he approached. But after a time, she finally shook her head and turned to him.
"But I wanted him dead then. Gods.. don't you get it?" she said, glaring up at him as tears threatened in her eyes. "I risked everything to try to kill him. Now he's just.." she turned away, shaking he rhead again as she looked at the floor and placed a hand over her eyes.
"I'm just exhausted. Maybe I should rest." Truthfully, she felt extremely sick over the whole thing and just wanted to retch.

[Lion]

He could see it was taking its toll on her and patted her shoulder.  "Maybe you wanted to kill him.  But there ARE fates worse than death."  He let her be and rejoined Renna in the kitchen.

[visualspice]

Renna turned to Jude when he returned with a pout.
"Maybe I should apologize? I.. I didn't mean to make either of you upset."

[Lion]

"No-no," he said, waving a hand.  "It's not your fault.  Jinai just needs a moment.  And we would have found out anyway.  Better sooner than later.  It would have ruined our plans had we leant it that way."  Jude ate his cold eggs and bacon, his stomach hollow and cold.  "But at leasr we have a copy of the list."

[visualspice]

"Yes," Renna said softly, still feeling really guilty as she stared down at her food. "But even from just a list.. it.. doesn't offer us much to go on." And this, she sighed.

[Lion]

"Then we need someone who's close to the Visor.  Someone who would know such information and who it wouldn't be too difficult to get it from," Jude thought and pushed his plate away when he was done.  "Someone like Lord Athur Christy.  But how to get it from him.  That is the question.  Though...would he even know?"

[visualspice]

Renna peered up at him and smile a bit.
"You know.. I could listen in at his estate- see if I can't get any information that could lead us to some sort of clue. I'd hate to miss an opportunity to save these mages from such a horrible fate. I mean, we've got a crucial clue, but starting with just a list of ships doesn't give us the date or time, or what else we might be looking for. FOr all we know, we could even be already too late..."

[Lion]

"Maybe.  But I hate to put you at risk like that.  And I think if there was a passel of ships coming this way.  I would have heard about it by now.  We all would have.  Does the list have at least the name of the ships on it?"

[visualspice]

"It's no trouble, Jude," she said, chuckling. "Who would suspect a mouse could listen into a private conversation? After all, how on earth would anyone ever prove the mouse was me?"
She smiled at him then rested a hand upon his.
"Would you like to see the list? Maybe yo can make heads or tails of it. But yes, it was encoded, but I think I figured it out. I had... a lot of time to spare, you could say.." And she smiled up into his face and squeezed his hand.

[Lion]

"Sure," Jude replied, taking the list from her.  He peered over his shoulder again and frowned a little.  "I wish Jinai would come back in.  We could use her input."

[visualspice]

At his comment, Renna squeezed his hand.
"She's.. not really good at any of these things. I've... known her longer. I think it might take her some time to adjust to everything that happened."
And then curiously, she asked, "What did happen anyway? I feel as if I'm missing something.." And as she peered over to where Jinai had gone, she noted she disappeared.

[Lion]

Jude looked to where Renna looked and saw that Jinai was gone.  "Oh gods," he muttered.  "It's a long...a long story...  I caught Vesrik...he-he raped her.  I got her out of there...  And then she came back to the ball and had some plan in mind.  She was trying to poison him.  But I guess things didn't work out as planned."  Jude rubbed his face, tired as can be and feeling tears threatening to come out of his eyes.  "God, I can't let something happen to her," he said abruptly and ran back toward the main living room.  "Jinai!?" he called out.  "Jinai!"

[visualspice]

Renna felt the same. She could't believe the story and followed after him, placing a hand upon his shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "Let me help you. She couldn't have gotten far." ANd stepping outside the house, she began to call out, "JInai! JINAI!!!"
Though it was hard to see and late-
Though despite her stepping out into the streets and looking, Jinai had merely taking homage in the shadows beside the house- where she was current unseen while the two others kept looking for her. It wasn't until they began to get farther away did she stand up from where she had been sitting and glanced over at them, appearing at the gate before Jude's manor home and calling out behind them.

"Hey- cut out that yelling. DId you forget I'm a wanted criminal in this city?"

[Lion]

Jude felt his stomach drop and his heart with it as he turned to her and charged to her.  When she was close enough, he just wrapped his arms around her, hugging her.  "If you're going for air, you could at least tell me where you're off to.  I want to know you're at least safe," Jude said adamantly.  "God it's freezing out here!  "My balls feel like they're in ice.  Can we head back inside please?"