Deryn's busted! Yeah, baby. Okay...Enough of my rambling...even though that wasn't actually rambling, it was more like unnecessary commentary. Hah! I made a rhyme--

Raine: Get on with it!

Oh...Ehehe...Right. Sorry. Hey! Look, Raine's here. Say hi, Raine!

Raine: Must I?

Yep. Raine here is going to help me introduce the chapters from now on...And do the little end things, too. Aren't you excited, Miss Sage?

Raine: No.

That's the spirit! Now, onward to chapter eleven!

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Raine threw off the cloak as the breeze ruffled her hair, and returned her trademarked glare to Deryn. She didn't have her staff, and that in itself would be a problem - but she was with Regal. This wasn't a one-on-one battle anymore - though even if it had been, she didn't mind admitting that Regal would be the likely victor. If he could get out from under that unpleasant little blade of hers, of course.

But now, Deryn was too distracted with their former captive that she forgot to keep the knife pointing at Regal, and he took this opportunity. He stood, kicked the blade away, and gripped both of the blonde's hands behind her back. Raine quirked a slight smile. "It looks like you've lost, Miss Salri. Death as you know it, has no hold on me."

She glanced at Regal, who was still staring right back, though his grip on Deryn was firm. Her smile widened slightly as she greeted him. "Hello, Regal..." She silenced what he was going to say next by raising her hand, and looked back to the blonde. "You see, murder is a crime, Deryn. And crime doesn't pay. I'm sure you've heard that saying before."

Deryn simply glared in silence, fighting against Regal's hold in vain. Raine continued, "Do you know what happens to murderers, Deryn? No? They're arrested, tried for their crime. Put into prison, at the very least."

"I won't go to prison," snapped the other.

"Oh, I beg to differ. But seeing as we're on a ship," she paused for a split second, a grimace forming, "I believe we shall put you in that lovely cabin below-deck where your slave-boys are sleeping, until such a time arrives that we can hand you off to the Meltokio authorities and be rid of you." She glanced at Regal with an amused spark in her eye - she had known when she saw them that he had done it. Of course, that also concerned her, considering he would only strike in self-defense.

But the story could wait til later. "Regal, if you would, please?" She took a quick step to the side, and allowed him to haul Deryn past and down the stairs. She picked up the cloak and trailed after them, feeling a bit better than she had in several days. Regal deposited their captive in the room where David, Eric, and Matthew were still out, and they locked the door.

As soon as they had, she felt the Duke's gaze fall upon her again. "Not in the hall," she said lightly. Together they walked to a different, somewhat more comfortable cabin, and settled themselves.

"Raine," he said, speaking at last.

"Hmm?"

"What happened, after you left the inn? They told me you were..."

"Dead," she finished for him, looking at Deryn's cloak in her lap.

Regal nodded. "Yes."

Raine shifted in her seat, to a more comfortable position, and met his gaze. "I went off to the rocks just north of Flanoir, just to think for a while. One of them ambushed me, and there was something of a skirmish. But I don't remember anything after that until later, and I was, apparently, unconcious. When I woke up, Deryn and the other three were standing over me; she told me that I had been killed in the public's eye, and that they'd informed you in particular that I was murdered. Yes, pushed off the cliff. As you can see, I was not."

He seemed to be in the midst of realizing something, and she wanted to know what. "Regal?" she prodded him.

"It was you I heard then, last night," he said, thoughtfully.

"The shout? Yes, that was me."

"Raine, if I had known," he started, but she gave him a slight smile and shook her head.

"I know," she assured him. "I know. It's alright - everything worked out, didn't it?" He nodded again, and silence fell, leaving only the rocking of the waves against the ship, and the splashing they made. It was a strangely awkward silence, though, and she sought to break it. But how? And why was it so tense, to begin with? "What did Deryn want with you?" she asked, finally. She thought she already knew the answer, but this would start up conversation once more. She found talking to Regal to be more stimulating than any of the others. Genis was intelligent, but not as experienced as she.

"Ransom," he said, somewhat bitterly. Yes, the answer she'd expected.

"You put up a valiant fight," Raine told him.

"Until she pinned me." He looked away from the door to watch her instead. She'd saved him..."And you came." His voice was quiet, but audible.

A smile played on her lips. "That's what I'm here for, Regal. You see, it's not only I that needs protecting." The smile turned into something like a smirk. Regal blinked at her - he hadn't said anything about his first reason for joining her. How did she know these things?

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Raine: Hah. I know all.

Oh, please...Don't get too big for your britches, my dear. -Ahem- Anyway...

Awkward silences? Tension? Things clicking in Regal's mind? What's going on?

Raine: Well, you see--

THANK you, Raine. Now shut up before you ruin everything...Stay tuned for chapter twelve.