Ivor, Jack, Petra, and Harper were waiting at the gates of the main building not too far away; Petra's face lit up in relief and she picked Jesse up almost immediately. "Ohhh, you're okay..."
"Yeah... my cold... or whatever it was... cleared up too," Jesse told her brightly.
She grinned at that. "Aw, man, that's awesome. Glad you could come help."
After a moment, she blinked at them. "Are you eating candy?"
Jesse nodded and pointed at Hadrian. "He bought some for me..."
"It's not drugged," Hadrian responded when Petra gave him a quizzical look.
"I gathered that, or else Jesse wouldn't be talking to me this lucidly, but what the hell made you buy candy for them? You're not a touchy-feely kind of guy."
Hadrian shrugged, completely avoiding the question, and looked at Ivor. "Was there an issue talking to the Warden?"
Ivor shook his head. "No, not at all. He's perfectly willing to let us have a crack at the negative energy."
Hadrian spread his hands, raising his eyebrow at them. "Then what is the problem?"
"Find."
Jack smiled ruefully at Harper and translated, "The problem is, we can't find the negative energy."
"Oh, you're fucking kidding me," Hadrian groaned, ignoring the fact that he still had a hard candy in his mouth. "What do you mean you can't find it?"
"We just can't find it."
Jesse jumped seventeen feet off the ground and turned to see the man in the corner- he'd been so quiet they hadn't even noticed him.
The Warden (a nickname and not his real name, according to Hadrian) was a pale man (demon). Pale blue eyes didn't make him seem any more encouraging, his suit perfectly tailored to his thin form, and almost slender hands that adjusted his purple tie and the keys on his belt. Probably the thing that stood out the most in his colorless outfit was the golden thing on his head- it looked like some sort of mechanical monocle that he wore on his face and shone in the light.
Hadrian inclined his head politely. "Hello, Warden," he said simply.
"Hello, Hadrian," came the reply.
And that was apparently it in terms of niceties.
Hadrian crossed his arms and looked at Ivor. "Do we have any idea where it is?" he grumbled, looking like he wanted to snap something in his fingers.
"No, and this environment isn't exactly conducive to finding it- though I know that's not really your fault, Warden, you're just picking up the rules from the previous baron," Ivor said quickly, looking at the Warden.
He just shrugged, not offended at all. "As long as we can find it, I don't care. I don't want a riot here right now, things are tense enough as it is," he said simply.
"So that means we'll probably have to go looking for it..."
Hadrian cut Jack off with a loud sigh. "Fantastic," he growled.
"Can Ivor not sense the negative energy?"
The Warden frowned at the sudden question, glancing at Jesse. "Hm?"
The group had decided to go in pairs, just so no negative energy could get the jump on them. To Jesse's surprise, Hadrian had immediately tried to pawn Jesse off onto the Warden, of all people.
When questioned why, he pointed out that he didn't exactly have a sparkling personality, and was pissed, and he was worn out from trying to teleport three days in a row, so going on his own would reduce the likelihood that he'd just piss everyone off.
Ivor had suggested that he could go with Jesse, but Jack was surprisingly resistant (to Ivor at least, and Jesse had jumped on the bandwagon as well when he'd glanced at Harper, who seemed a little calmer around him and to smile more) and quite vocal about him and Harper staying in a group.
Petra had suggested going with Jesse as well, but in the end Jack didn't want to go with the Warden and the Warden politely declined going with Jack (Jesse sensed history there but knew to not try to dredge it up).
So Jesse ended up with a complete stranger, searching for negative energy.
"I thought Ivor had a high magic sensitivity, so..."
"Oh," and the Warden's brow cleared as he realized what Jesse was asking. "Negative energy's not magic, it's just energy. It can be overwhelming to the point where it's felt when it tangles in, but when it mingles with magic it doesn't necessarily give off a specific energy that indicates it's negative. We don't think it's mixing with magic, so honestly we just have to find an area that feels... bad."
He paused, then gestured drily at the blackened grass around them, the dull gray environment, and a few prisoners (citizens?) kicking a ball around in the yard. "As you can see, it's a somewhat daunting task in this environment."
"Ah, I see..."
"Oh- sir." A nearby stranger straightened up as the Warden passed by; the Warden stopped in his tracks. The dark-skinned man had gone ramrod straight, eyes wide with surprise (or maybe alarm). His hands were folded behind his back. He was wearing a suit that marked him as a guard- or, as the Warden had insisted when Jesse had made an absent comment, an associate.
"Ah, Anthony." The Warden turned to face him. "Any reports on the negative energy?"
Jesse could see Anthony frantically trying to push something into his back pocket, resulting in quite a bit of squirming around. "Reports? Oh, uh, nope. Nothing new regarding the negative energy. Can't feel anything really out of the ordinary."
The Warden's brow knit together. "Are you sure? You're looking quite... uh, antsy."
"Yep! Yep, I'm positive, sir," Anthony squeaked.
Jesse was glancing around while Anthony squirmed like he had ants in his pants and spotted someone sitting against a wall and eating some bread while talking to a few other 'prisoners' (citizens, whatever the Warden wanted to insist on calling them).
Now this wasn't really a very unique thing, except that it was the red-skinned demon who'd been selling wheat, and the person (demon) reminded Jesse rather forcibly of Hellboy, and Jesse had watched a few minutes of the Hellboy movie, so they trailed over for a closer glimpse.
He was sitting with four other prisoners. One was almost sickly pale with a frizz of dark hair and scarily dark eyes and painting on thin air. The one next to him (wild gray hair) was narrating every motion he made, to the irritation of the dark-skinned guy with a crew cut and a mole under his eye, while the third member (who Jesse recognized as the meat seller in the very-much-legal market) was snacking on some meat.
Jesse very much did NOT want to know the source of the meat.
The red-haired meat seller spotted Jesse. "Ooh, look! It's a tiny. Never seen one of those in here before- well, not from out of town anyway." He thrust out some of the floppy (rotting) meat at Jesse, dripping blood on the grass. "You want some rotten flesh? It's fresh off the zombies from out of town."
"'Carmine, don't offer rotten flesh to outsiders,' Brick said admonishingly as Jesse fought the urge to gag rather valiantly," the gray-haired man said with a look at Carmine, "'you'll scare them off.'"
"Disgusting habit, anyways," the dark-skinned prisoner muttered. "Don'cha think, Oxblood?"
Oxblood grunted. "Yeah." He glowered at Jesse. "Whaddya want?"
Jesse balked for only a moment before deciding it couldn't hurt to just ask and speaking up. "Have you felt any negative energy around lately?"
"The vibe in this place is awful," the dark-skinned prisoner grunted in reply.
"Now, now, Terry," the scary-pale prisoner admonished, "I believe our little friend is referring to negative negative energy. I might be able to answer your question," and the prisoner turned to look at Jesse, dark eyes pulling them in, "but first, I've just finished my new painting, and I'd like to ask you your opinion on it."
The prisoner held his hands up at the air where he'd been painting.
Jesse blinked. "It's so..."
Not there.
"Skilled. The, uh, chiaroscuro is really amazing. And, um," Jesse cleared their throat, pretending to critique the nonexistent piece of art, "your use of color is excellent."
He beamed. "Why, thank you. You'll be spared when the bad thoughts come."
"The bad thoughts?"
"By 'bad thoughts,' Brick explained, Rob meant negative energy."
Jesse perked up at Brick's narration, giving him a 'thank you' nod for clarifying. "You've seen negative energy here recently?"
"Oh yes. On my recent stint in the Zombie Mines." Rob resumed 'painting' in midair. "When you get close to Prisoner X's former cell, the bad thoughts start coming."
Oxblood nodded after a moment. "It's strong there. Dunno how long it's been down there."
"Prisoner... X?"
"Y'all probably know her as Xara. She was a wild child- got into trouble more often than not, and got out of it quick too." Terry scratched at his tattoo. "The former Warden ended up building a new cell for her, so high security that it would take magic to break her out of there. She spent a few nights in there on a regular basis."
Jesse frowned. "And... it's in there?"
"Dunno. Just stronger there when you get close to the door," Oxblood grunted.
Jesse could only imagine the 'bad vibes' you'd get from being locked in a high-security cell on a regular basis.
"I... I see... so that's where it feels especially 'bad'?"
"'Indeed', Brick told Jesse," Brick... well, told Jesse.
Terry growled and shot him a glare. "Would you cut that out."
"'Never,' Brick replied."
"Jesse," and a hand set itself on Jesse's shoulder. Jesse looked up to see the Warden regarding them. "What are you doing over here? I almost sent the associates out to find you."
"I found out where the negative energy is," Jesse said instantly, noticing how all of the prisoner's faces dropped into scowls or glares at the Warden.
The Warden's eyebrow went up. "Oh? We've only been out here for twenty minutes."
Jesse nodded and gestured at them. "They told me there's an area that feels really bad- uh, Xara's former cell... or whatever."
"Xara- oh! Prisoner X?" At Jesse's nod, the Warden touched his chin thoughtfully. "I... see... I suppose it'd make sense that we couldn't find it. We didn't think it had gone so deep as to get into the Zombie Mines, since those are so far down."
The Warden looked back at the prisoners and inclined his head. "Thank you for the assistance. I'll see to it that you get some extra stores of mushroom stew."
"Could I have some paint and a canvas instead?" Rob asked, mild as always. If anything, he seemed completely unperturbed by the Warden's presence, unlike the others.
The Warden sighed. "Sure. I'll get them to you the moment I can find a stall in the market that sells it."
Jesse blinked at Warden. "Do you buy stuff from the black market here, too?"
"Occasionally. Every other week or so there's a succubus who makes some really excellent pastries, so I tend to do my shopping then."
"Oh."
The Warden led Jesse away, one hand on their shoulder, as if to keep them from wandering off to talk to more random prisoners.
"Later, tater," Rob called after them cheerfully.
"'Good-bye, Jesse,' Brick called after their new friend," Brick replied.
Jesse turned and gave a little wave. "Bye... thank you again..."
The Warden tightened his grip and began to lead Jesse back to the main building faster. "Come along, Jesse. You should be more careful talking to these people. They're rather dangerous," he said, in a somewhat low voice.
"They seemed okay..."
The Warden shook his head. "You were lucky with them- they're a... particularly harmless bunch. But some of the others... they would probably have ripped you apart on the spot. And then I'd have to stay in this... place for another few dozen years."
Jesse blinked at the bitterness in his voice. "Are you... not here of your own free will?"
The Warden gave his head the tiniest shake.
"Not every prisoner here wears orange, Jesse."
A/N: we're not seeing more of those guys probably sorry haha
Here we go second chapter in a day :P
x.X. A.L. X.x
