Author's Note: I apologize for the release of this chapter taking a bit longer than I anticipated. I originally planned to have it out last night, and that turned into this morning, and that turned into "something in the late evening hours". Anywho, here is the seventh installment.
Jade Curtiss normally found dinner with his comrades to be an entertaining event, for there was always bickering to be done, seemingly pointless arguments the Malkuthian solider found endless delight in. Tear and Luke would always start it, and it most definitely against the nature of both Anise and Natalia to keep quiet. Guy would always attempt to negotiate, never defending one side over the other, until someone (and, usually, it was Luke) said something unbearably stupid, and he had to disagree with that person. Ion was the picture of innocence, concerned glances the only form of communication he seemed capable of at moments like these. And then there was Mieu, who'd occasionally raise his voice in that annoying high-pitched shriek, and cause a momentary halt in conversation. It was during these pauses the colonel usually found himself chuckling.
But tonight, there was a surprising absence of his amusement.
Jade sat at the far end of the table, a steaming cup of red tea the sole occupation of the space before him. He glanced over the rims of his glasses, red eyes narrowed, cold and calculating. It was as though nothing the others murmured reached him – an invisible barrier surrounded him, allowing him to become entranced with only the dull liquid sitting in front of him. Tentatively, he reached forward, raising the tiny cup to his lips. The sips were slow, measured, and drawn very much out of a non-conscious state of mind. It was very, very unlike Jade Curtiss.
"Colonel, are you alright? You haven't said a word," Anise remarked, nervousness obvious as the military man's eyes met with her own. They were two wells of dark brown, shaking, unsteady, all because he was silent. Jade, however, had been faced with far worse than this; and so he drew a faux smile across his lips quite hurriedly, looking rather smug as he did so.
"I'm fine, Anise. I would, however, be rather concerned for Guy at the moment. It seems as though he's having far too much fun with Princess Natalia." Of course, Natalia was leaning over the blond servant, who was absolutely frozen in fear, only so that she could more adequately screech at Tear.
"Oh, brother," Anise murmured. She was immediately sucked into that void of stupidity again, leaving Jade with only Ion smiling in his direction. The green-haired teen offered a plate of bread to the colonel, who shook his head in quiet decline. The Fon Master's smile weakened; worry washed over deep, forest green eyes. Those same eyes followed Jade as he stood, nodded in polite excuse, and then removed himself from the table without another sound.
I shouldn't be going through with this at all. It will only rekindle those ties of bad blood Peony worked so hard to be rid of… all of the connections destroyed… who am I to forge them once more?
He wished that he could've found an answer far sooner than the current moment. Brown-hair tousled and red eyes now finally displaying the first signs of the elder's age he'd joked about on countless occasions – Jade was a wrecked man of absolute past and absolute punishment. He would be charged for his sins, and it was in this state he wished so desperately not to meet his caller. Perhaps even more infuriatingly, the colonel had that choice. An internal battle which had spanned the course of years was now drawing to a close all within a single day.
A blue-clad hand reached up for the door to the inn, a stray glance at the grandfather clock beside the exit informing him that he was not due for another thirty minutes. Bated breath found its way to escape parted lips, displeasure obvious in an expression which now sank into a soft frown. Pressing lightly against the splintered wood, Jade made his escape into the cool night air, Chesedonia's nighttime markets booming with nearly as much life as the daytime ones.
"Jade?" Another familiar voice caused reality to come crashing back down upon him once more, and the colonel turned, standing at attention as he raised a questioning brow at the man who'd stopped him: one Guy Cecil. "Jade, where are you going now? You're always telling us about how rest is important – this is hardly the time to-"
"Ah, I see. Turning my own logic against me," Jade replied, careless tone causing Guy to visibly flinch.
"Well Luke's just recovered, and you're always… here, in the evening hours… to, y'know, um, enforce-"
"To tuck you all in at night. Yes, I'm aware. You'll just have to tell them all to be big girls and boys whilst I'm away. I have something to attend to."
"Something to-"
"Oh, dear – this is unlike you, Guy. Far too prying for my liking."
"I guess it's not my place, but-"
"You're perfectly right. It isn't."
With that, Jade bowed his head in leave, and did just that. He stalked off into the bustling streets of Chesedonia, hands buried deep within the pockets of his uniform as he shoved by the first row of people, and out of the blond's sight. Guy swallowed hard, twisting his head in attempt to keep the abnormally tall man within his field of view, only to find himself failing miserably. Jade was gone, and there would be no finding him with this mess of vendors and buyers. With a defeated sigh, the servant cast one final glance over his shoulder, and began trotting back toward the inn. He waited until he could hear the argument from within, slipping back inside once he was certain that all members present were fully immersed in 'conversation'.
To his dismay, the conversation came to a complete halt once he entered. Guy blinked at the small dining room's occupants, knotting his hands together behind his back.
"Where'd you go?" Luke asked, leaning nonchalantly onto the table, and, predictably, into a serving of mashed potatoes. He didn't seem to care, or rather, was playing it off as such.
"I went to talk to Jade. He's-" Guy stopped himself, knowing all too well the suspicious nature of the group which he was a part of. "He's going out to buy supplies."
"Supplies? But I restocked our inventory this morning," Tear offered, shaking her head.
"Ah, he said he had, uh, something important to pick up from one of the vendors."
"Oh, like a great deal on some rare items for us?" Anise asked, visibly perking up. Guy smiled and nodded, this apparently proving to be sufficient explanation for the others, as they all immediately returned to insulting one another's intelligence – beginning with the fact that a certain redhead's elbow still remained firmly planted in a bowl of potatoes. The servant swallowed thickly, again, and returned to his seat without another word.
~…~
Jade Curtiss wound through countless alleyways, intuition his sole guide in the quest to find out the outskirts of the city. Not surprisingly, instinct was guiding him along the shortest route, and also the one with the fewest occupants. He turned about a corner, vanishing beneath a vendor's tend and reappearing on the other side in a mere second – long legs proved useful when you needed to be somewhere rather quickly.
The colonel ended up by the sea, and, using a directional fonstone tucked away in his pocket, considered his position. Indeed, he was just north of the city, gazing out into the Chesedonian Bay; at the moment, the port was devoid of ships, most likely due to the large shipments of weaponry and armor heading to both Grand Chokmah and Baticul. Silver starlight reflected from perfectly clear water, moon hanging, a half-crescent in the sky… it was too picturesque. For Jade Curtiss, this was positively too cliché.
"I see you've made it."
That voice was, as it came once more, unmistakable, and it made the colonel's stomach twist. Suddenly, the stars and the moon mattered not, the scene mattered not – the only thing that he cared about right now was the hooded figure standing to his right. Jade turned to face his company, slipping both hands from his pockets.
"So I have."
There was another uncomfortable pause, Jade's eyes narrowing even further, 'til only slits of red remained. He reached up, slipping the glasses from his face, and toyed with them in an outstretched hand. His company snorted disapprovingly, before tossing their head back, and with it, the hood of their cloak. A great mess of darkened gold tangles spilled forth, partial braids and single, twisted stands climbing down to the stranger's knees.
She stood there in all her glory, piercing gaze boring into his, though both refused to look away from the almost painful stare-down. Her eyes were yellowed, jaundiced, unhealthy – cat-like in the dull light of Chesedonia's markets and the half-empty moon. Her skin was pale – too-pale, Jade would note – and she looked as though she'd neared the brink of death one too many times. She cleared her throat as his eyes began to wander away from her face and search for other signs of weakness.
"…if I said I was glad to see you, I'd be lying."
A low chuckle, almost resembling a growl, emerged from Jade's throat.
"I'm afraid I must return the sentiment, Lyra."
And that's all for now. This was really hard to write, and the next chapter will be even harder to write, because now I have to get all of this complicated dialogue out of the way. Yep, you basically just read a chapter of me avoiding complex dialogue... I'm awful, aren't I? XD
