No matter which way they chose to go about it, Leyline Observatory was still a very long way away. They packed up everything that they needed to take with them and set off at dawn of the next day, so that they would have covered enough ground during the early morning to have entered the Nidhogg Pass by the time the sun had met its burning hot apex in the sky. It was a timed procedure, nobody wanted to be outside during that time of day. The darkness of the pass was practically heaven in comparison. From this point they had to travel on foot until they saw bright daylight once more.
Virginia had her mind set on the usual grim thoughts that had taken over her spare time as of late. When Beatrice had framed them she had easily set up a curse that was non-magical, but just as potent nevertheless. Hate was a powerful motivator, as well as its polar opposite. Virginia liked to think that she was pushing away the hatred of the Ark with the love of her friends, and with a little stealth and caution they would be perfectly fine. A grudge can't be held forever, or, a bounty hunter's interest couldn't be held for that long. They would give up a case if it wasn't providing them with enough leads and money. Eventually.
But those wanted posters, they were what bothered her the most. Wanted, dead or alive for murder most foul. The bounty on their heads was a large one, even individually it was well worth a person's attention. A short time ago she had passed through a small, virtually newborn town and the posters had been stuck up in the windows of stores close to where the memory figure had sat, so she knew the Ark had been close by. It was like being a rabbit in tall grass, able to smell the presence of the coyote but nothing more. Like being completely alone until the enemy finally struck. In the end she had torn all the posters down, despite the risk of being seen doing so. Virginia had disposed of them all except for one, which she kept as a reminder of the predicament they were in.
The penalty for the crime they had supposedly committed was a public hanging, or failing that, death by firing squad. In the society they were in an eye for an eye was perfectly acceptable. It was the most basic form of justice and Virginia felt she could respect that. When the nights were cold and the food was low, with her stomach as empty as a loose sack and her throat parched with dryness, justice felt like the only thing in her life that was solid, unchanging. It had not changed, even now, and the thought almost gladdened her, but the sobering images in the back of her mind of her three friends with ropes around their necks stilled her mood and kept it where it was, as low to the ground as the belly of a serpent.
Did the others also worry about such things? Jet had told her once that the thought of being hung didn't scare him as much as it once did, having escaped from such a fate once before. He had said it had been a lynching over an item he had stolen once, years past, but he had never forgotten the rough burn of the rope that had been noosed around his neck. Jet knew the difference between a lynch mob and the hanging house of the law, and was fairly sure he wouldn't be able to get away a second time. His fear was there and true, but it was numbed by experience and knowledge. Virginia and the others weren't privy to that luxury. The thought of an unjust death seemed inconceivable to her.
Yet all they could do was either prove their innocence or hide. Virginia was unsure on how to do the former and absolutely loathed the latter, because hiding appeared to prove some kind of guilt. She clenched her hands against her sides as she made her way through the underground pass, leading the rest of her gang. It all just felt so unfair. Often her mind drew to the sinister thought that if they had just taken out the boy who had caught them with Lamium's lifeless body, killed him quickly and easily, then maybe their names would have been clear today. They would have had the chance to enjoy the new world that they had helped to form.
The fact that she was now contemplating murder scared her in a way in which she had never been scared before. It meant that the sense of right and wrong that she held so precious in her heart was beginning to slip away, grain by tiny grain, leaving her a changed person, somebody who was...
Somebody who was no better than what Janus Cascade had decided to be?
Virginia shivered from an inner chill. When she thought in that manner, it almost seemed best to her that she be caught. Jet was walking beside her and noticed her shudder from the corner of his eye. He raised an eyebrow in question to her but did not speak. The drifter girl shook her head a little to let him know that no, she was not cold. They barely spoke to one another unless it was important. Body language was everything. Jet stopped paying attention to her and pushed on ahead, taking the lead and leaving her behind. He was unusually zealous for them to get where they had to go, but Virginia reckoned that he had a good reason for it. He would no doubt be the first one to go to sleep and the first one up and about for the next couple of days.
At least his thoughts didn't seem to be as dark as hers were. That, Virginia, thought, was the greatest blessing of all.
xxx
Heart of Filgaia, eh?
That was all that Grady needed to hear.
A gem of amazing properties? Of priceless rarity? Of a beauty that only a few could match?
Bloody hell, who else could he turn to?
She was a proud, strong thing, a filly that had yet to be beaten down by its master and bent into a pleasing state. Not many men had the bollocks to do it nowadays, not with a creature like her, and although Grady fancied himself one of the few men left who were capable, that sort of idea was far from his mind. Relatively far, anyway. He was only human.
The Jolly Roger Inn was particularly empty for this time of day, with only Hannah, its owner, studiously washing dishes in the small kitchen behind the counter, vaguely within the boundaries of earshot. Two men from the Ark of Destiny (The more correct term would probably be young adolescents) were outside, keeping guard at the entrance. There was nothing for them to guard against, but Grady liked his privacy and secretly thought that having the option of guards available to him was cool. He was sipping a glass of fine cognac with his feet on the table, slightly moved to the side so that he could watch his guest without an obstructed view.
"So it's a gem." Said a rich voice that was both womanly and sharp, a voice that bore an angry blade. She sounded bemused right now, almost bored. She studied the deep amber liquid in her glass carefully, like the whiskey that Grady had bought her was more interesting than Grady himself was. The ice in her drink clinked against itself as she gently tilted the glass towards her lips. "And you think this will interest me why? Gems are my passion, Red, you'd need something pretty amazing to startle this old girl out of her seat."
"Aye." Replied Grady, disliking the way she addressed him by the colour of his hair rather than his actual name, which he had given to her charitably. Far too charitably, he believed. "Yeh're a bonnie lass, that I know, and a fairly popular drifter from what I've heard in the saloons of me travels. Yeh're a thief, are ye not? Never killed a person, have yeh? I like that. I like it a lot. Have yeh got a price for yeh services? I'm just asking 'cause I'm curious."
Her drink halted on the way to its destination. Merely by the tone in his voice she could make out what Grady truly meant. Maya Schroedinger's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Whatever my price might be, it'd be far too high for you. Go to Little Twister if that's your game, but you really didn't call me out here for that, did you Red? You just wanna talk about this gem of yours." She set her untouched drink down on the table and looked at him harshly, paying more attention than before.
Which was really what Grady wanted from her in the first place. If you wanted an uppity bitch to pay more attention to your words, the best thing to do was to make them feel cheaper than what they really are. The indignation would cause them to focus on anything else, anything that you wanted them to. Women were so simple to manipulate, it was almost sad.
"Nah, nah," Grady demurred politely, dragging his feet off the table and leaning over to converse with her better, "that ain't me game at all. 'Long time ago I had me a lass who was as beautiful as the moon and as strong as stone. One day afore I went out she said teh me; 'it's me or teh grog, Grady, what's it gonna be?' Yeh can see me here with this glass in me hand, so I think yeh can see how it went." He took a small swig of his drink to accentuate his point.
Maya cracked a smile. "Alright," she said cautiously, "just tell me what you want from me."
"Well, I guess the best way for yeh to think about it is; what do yeh want for yerself?" Grady put his drink down on the table and hunched his shoulders a little, making him look surprisingly vulture-like. "I know what yeh want for yerself. Yeh want this wide sandy planet of ours to be entirely in yer hands. Yeh want Filgaia. I got nothing against that. Better that anybody should rule than nobody at all. I got some people to take a wee little peep into yer history, yeh family's history, I mean. Pretty interesting there."
The fair haired drifter was staring him down, trying to see what he was getting at. Both were determined not to let their eye contact be broken. It felt like they were silently battling each other for dominance without even moving a muscle. Calmly, Maya intoned; "I don't see what that has to do with anything. You're right. Filgaia is the most precious jewel there ever is and I want it to be mine. What of it?"
So she didn't want to talk about that. It was fine. Maya knew that he knew and that was a nice little advantage over her. But he wasn't here to beat her, although he would dearly loved to have done such a thing, he was here to tempt her, to add some strings to his pretty little blonde puppet. "I'm an old-fashioned man, lass," Grady admitted to her with a hint of theatrical shame, "I've always done what me mother taught me was right, and her mother before that, you know how things carry on." He nodded knowingly to his own words and continued. "I'd like to see the old monarchy put back in its rightful place. Yer family is pretty close to the crown, not entirely close, sadly, but close enough. Yeh're such a pretty little thing, Miss Schroedinger, I'd like teh give you the world if I could. Yeh can have it, but first yeh need the key."
"This gem." Maya concluded, adding the pieces together.
"Aye. They call it the Heart of Filgaia, an' it's supposed to unlock the secrets 'o life and the world. That's what they say, anyway. If yeh really want teh get any closer teh having this world as yer prize, hold the heart of this planet itself in yer hands and feel the life that's in it. I reckon it's Filgaia's portable soul. If that don't interest you, then I guess nothing will."
"So what's the catch?" Maya asked bluntly, knowing very firmly that trusting a man who bought you a drink and fed you a bunch of bullshit was not a man to be trusted. The information could be true, but she wasn't willing to take anything on faith alone. The wicked glint in the man's brown eyes was unsettling, too. He spoke like an illiterate, and he probably was one too, but there was a startling amount of slyness creeping around inside him. "Nobody would throw out a lead like that without wanting something in return. Tell me, Red."
"Me name's Grady." He retorted stonily, rigidly dulling the flash of anger that threatened to rise up within him from use of that nickname. It wasn't the first time he had been called that, but he couldn't remember exactly when it had been. Probably sometime during his childhood, he guessed. "Like I said before, I'm a God fearing man who dreams of the past. Me parents would have been so happy to know that the monarchy was back in power once again, I guess I'm trying to make that happen for their sakes. Yeh can have the gem an' everything else, just know that yeh're not the only team who'll be lookin' fer it. The info's been leaked already."
Now, had he leaked that information himself or was there a secondary informant? Perhaps he had located multiple people with ties to the original bloodline and was racing them to get to the gem first. Maybe watching the game was his own reward. Well, whatever. To be honest, Maya knew that she always worked best when she had some competition. It would help her to get her ass in gear and win. This lead was becoming more and more tempting as this red-haired man went on. "I just want yeh to know that there's one last thing I'd like yeh to do for me once yeh get the Heart of Filgaia in yer hands. I'd like teh see its sparkle, in person, and then afterwards it's all yours. Once yeh get it, bring it teh the Ark 'o Destiny, alright?"
"You haven't even mentioned where it is, yet. Gonna explain or what?" Maya probed irritably.
Grady smiled a carnivorous smile, dark thoughts prominent in his head. "Aye," he soothed, "I reckon I will."