<div style="background-color:#101010; border:1px solid black; margin:10px 10px; padding-left: 5px; padding-right: 5px;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Jax's eyes swept the circle as she did a slow turn, looking for any possible escape routes. <span style="font-style: italic">Damn.</span> With no apparent choice but to play along, she assumed a relaxed pose with one hand resting on her slender hip, the other hanging loosely down by her side.<br/><br/>"I'm Jax, and who are you, then?" She asked with a cheeky grin, tossing her hair as she looked up at the soldier who had spoken.<br/><br/><ul><span style="color: #40BFFF">The man's eyes narrowed for a moment, looking between the elven woman and the other, a human girl sitting near the fire. He ignored her question for the moment. "And your name, lass?" His words were polite, but edged with steel. Something must be getting under the fellows skin to be so uneasy of two women apparently alone in the wilderness. Especially when one was very obviously unarmed.<br/><br/>Luna looked at the men in their chain armor over leather padding with wide-eyed wonder, and a hint of unease. She had heard all of the tales of course, about their bravery and their defense of the Realm. But, being so close to so many of them, she couldn't help but not the weapons they carried, how they gleamed in the brightening light of the morning. She swallowed hard for a moment. "Luna. Luna Ahnmoore, uh, sir?" she answered with a hint of a question at the end of it.<br/><br/>"Ahnmoore. That is a local name, and you have the local dialect all over your speech, girl. You, Jax, on the other hand...are a foreigner. I am Sargent Evon Alcarres in service to her Majesty, the Queen of Eloria. Tell me, is the elf from the desert, girl?" He cast his eyes on Jax, and they were very hard. "Are you? I cannot hold her to account for consorting with you, yet at least." He had a hand on the long hilt of his sword, watching Jax' eyes as if he could see a lie in them.</span></ul><br/>Her gray eyes narrowed as they met the soldier's cold stare, but her smile stayed in place. "The <span style="font-style: italic">elf</span> is neither from the desert, nor someone who deserves being treated so rudely for no reason," she replied to the soldier. "I was born in a small elven village long since destroyed. My home is the road now." She sent his sword an unimpressed look. <span style="font-style: italic">Probably compensating for something.</span> Her other hand came to rest on her hip as well.<br/><br/>"That, I share with Luna now. We're moving towards anywhere more civilized. I mean," she pointed at the skeletal, still sickly pale woman, "look at her. She wouldn't last a day by herself here as she is now. But maybe your men are afraid of skinny, little girls?" She raised her eyebrows. "I mean, I'm sure there's a perfectly good reason for why you're threatening innocent people."<br/><br/><ul><span style="color: #40BFFF">"Perhaps the elf has been out in the woods for too long, and doesn't understand the nature of the world right now." Evon retorted, though a little gentler than before. A little. "The world is full of war, now, elf. The Noorain Empire has attacked one of its neighbors, and even now their agents have been seen in three other realms. Including this one."<br/><br/>Luna looked at Jax. "Noorain? Empire? I've...never heard of these places. Why would they fight a war against anyone?" She looked truly perplexed.<br/><br/>Before Jax could answer, Evon cut in. "Because others have what they want, and they have the strength to take it from them. What other reason does an Empire such as they need for what they do?" Though in truth it appeared that Evon, too, was perplexed by the outbreak of war. The fellow in the silks behind them all was eyeing both women with an unsettling intensity.</span></ul><br/>"Sarge is right, kid," Jax added to Evon's reply. "The sandmen don't need a reason. We tried building a wall once upon a time, didn't we, but that didn't go so well. Can still find the remnants of it here and there, stretched through half Eloria." The ghost of <a class="postlink" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sQ8R54C53o">an old song</a> danced in her memory.<br/><br/>"Didn't your <span style="font-style: italic">emel</span> ever teach ya it's rude to stare?" Jax asked the fellow in the silks, not for a second expecting him to dignify her with an answer. He looked altogether too important for basic manners. Deciding he wasn't worth her time if she wasn't worth his, she turned back to Evon.<br/><br/>"I'd really appreciate it if you and your men decided whether we're criminals or not? We haven't had breakfast yet, and folks get grumpy on empty stomachs, I'm sure you know." She shot the sergeant a friendly smile. "Besides, we all need to get going. Us to anywhere with an actual roof and no plague victims, and you to - wherever."<br/><br/><ul><span style="color: #40BFFF">Luna grimaced. War was an unfamiliar concept, to her at least. She didn't really distrust this man, this Sargent, but there was something off here. Her skin crawled, and she had the uncomfortable feeling that she was being undressed and stared at by the fellow in silks, even if his facial expression said nothing of the sort was going on. She could swear he was actually touching her in some unkind way...only...<br/><br/>"On a wild goose chase," he replied to the women, and then cast a dark look back at the man in silk. That worthy didn't even seem to notice. "I will take my leave, then. Be safe on the r-" he began, but the man in silk finally spoke, cutting him off.<br/><br/>"Who is the third member of this little party?" he said in an oily tone. He wasn't looking at the women anymore. Instead, he was looking at the rock wall behind them with a delighted expression on his face. "So subtle, it is, but I can feel you, whoever you are." As he finished speaking, the air took on a peculiar charged feel. The sickly girl grunted as if struck, and looked around wildly. "Evon, hold your ground. Until their, ah ha ha, friend shows their face." He grinned happily, though there was a wild light to his eye as he muttered under his breath about sand and sage, and desert heat.</span></ul><br/>"Always the clean people giving the orders, eh?" Jax commented at Evon with an exaggerated wink. "Been there, know the pain. As for our third member," she said, turning to the unpleasant silk-man, "he doesn't exist. By which I mean, he isn't a member. He kinda just showed up, not ten minutes ago." There was no use pretending she didn't know what he meant - the way Silk-man started directly at the rock with a manic glint in his eyes, muttering about something she couldn't quite hear, paired with the knowledge that the person they were speaking of was a child sent shivers down Jax's spine.<br/><br/>She returned her gaze to Evon. He seemed a decent sort, even if he was a soldier. "Done my part. Your friend clearly knows where the <span style="font-style: italic">kid</span> is," she said, the barest hint of a plead crossing her voice. <span style="font-style: italic">Don't hurt a young'un. We'll both regret it if you do.</span> "Luna, I think we're gonna have to take our breakfast on the road," she continued, talking over her shoulder. "Mind rolling up the blanket and such?" Luna was no threat to anyone, that was clear, but if Jax could avoid it, she wouldn't take her eyes off of anyone with their hands on their weapon. Beneath her cloak, she had hooked her own thumbs around the hilts of her daggers to ease herself.<br/><br/><ul><span style="color: #FF0000">He'd thought for just a moment that he could get a drop on these soldiers and escape, but some smothering presence invaded his mind. His head pounded as the rumbling grew ever louder in his head. His eyes locked with the ... creature. He knew it was that thing. Its eyes bore through him with an unwavering certainty. Jinn might as well have been standing right in front of the man. Even as he spoke, the whispers and rumbles that pressed into his mind taunted him. They shook his focus and threatened to shake him from his hiding place. It didn't matter either way. Jinn's body eased from the rock, the gleam of his ruby eyes returned the intense stare directed at him. He stepped forward silently, the nebulous rumbling in his mind continued to bombard him, but his face betrayed no emotion.<br/><br/>"Bedai Ideya," he rose his small voice to address the group but his eyes were zeroed in on the man regarding him with a sort of perverse delight. He could tremble and beg, but an unbroken boldness pushed him to be defiantly calm.<br/><br/>"I do not know what you expected to find, but I am here now." he kept remarkably still. Any sudden movements could throw humans into a panic.<br/><br/>"This Meh'ravi speaks the truth; I neither own her nor do I know much of her. I am allied to none, especially not the Empress or her people. No accomplices have followed me here as coming to this wretched land was never the place of Pahlavi. Nevertheless, you have sought me out. You must have your reasons," There was no question posed but it was clear he expected a response. More than likely, he would be chained, brought to a cell, tortured for information and sport. It should have phased him. The dark pressure that silken thing extruded was smothering and directionless now. Jinn's whole body ached from its overwhelming magnitude.<br/><br/>Maybe he might die here.</span><br/><br/><span style="color: #40BFFF">At Jinn's words weapons were drawn, more out of surprise than out of anything else. Evon's eyes narrowed dangerously. He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, silk-coat interrupted him. "Ah! Ah. A child, you say? So I see. But not a mere child, I see." He chuckled, and it was an ugly sound that made the hairs on the back of Luna's neck stand on end. She felt...absolutely awful, suddenly. Confined, constrained, backed into a corner. She had never felt like this in her entire life.<br/><br/>"I just find it unbelievable coincidence that you should be here, boy. If you are even a boy at all - what the eyes see can be deceived." He paused, and adjusted his clothing slightly. "The Lord will wish to know why one of the Red Queen's own was in his mountains. Especially near this place, of all of them." He snapped his fingers, and the soldiers winced. "Take them all into custody."<br/><br/>"But, sir...why?" The Red Queen? Who the hell is that? Evon had never heard of such a woman ruler. The desert empire was headed by a man. "Her Majesty wanted us to make haste-"<br/><br/>"Be quiet, you fool. The Lord wanted us to make haste! And He will wish to see at least the boy, and probably the others. Take them now. I can send them on by other means, and we will resume our original intent."<br/><br/>Evon looked between the travelers and the man in black. Shaking his head slowly, he moved to put his blade back in the scabbard while the others drew in. "Sorry about this. If you've done no wrong, no harm will come to you. I...must obey." Behind the soldiers, the man in black grinned nastily. His eyes flicked to the two women once, but they rested on Jinn most of all.</span></ul><br/>"'If'?! You're the ones who are doing wrong by <span style="font-style: italic">us</span>," Jax retorted, her knuckles white. "And <span style="font-style: italic">you</span>," she snapped, turning to look at the boyish creature who had left the stone wall, "if you ever so much as think of me as a thing to be owned again, I swear to you, it'll be the last thing you do in this world." She grit her teeth, fighting herself to not draw her weapons. She didn't care so much about the soldiers; they were just doing their shitty jobs, after all, but disgust coursed through her veins at the mere idea of slavery. She closed her eyes for an instant and took a couple of deep breaths.<br/><br/>"Do we get to ride along, or are we walking?" She asked as she gathered up her few belongings and shouldered her pack.<br/><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 85%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="font-style: italic">Blue parts by <a href="//www.creativefreedomrpg.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&amp;u=112486">@Naive</a>; red parts by <a href="//www.creativefreedomrpg.com/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&amp;u=135">@Ben</a>.</span></span></div></div></div>