Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, new topic, picking up a short time after the previous Rinkaiel thread...]

"Okay, now what?" Layla asked Rufus, the pair standing outside the Barker Lane hideout while the others secured their captive. "We have to get the message to Torou in such a way that he gets what's going on, on the one hand, and doesn't just blast the messenger, on the other. Ideas on how?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Rufus watched his group escorting Torou's wife to the storage room which lay next to the stairs that descended to the blacksmith's forge with swift efficiency. Eve kept a pistol trained on the woman and followed her into the room, shutting the door behind her with a murmured word to Bert and Leo.

Outside, the guild looked considerably sturdier. The newer recruits in the Silver Hands Captain's employ had replaced the door which had been broken during the business of dealing with the mages. It reminded him forcibly of what they were dealing with, anyone who could summon an over-sized magic hound that could smash an oaken door to splinters were opponents that bore caution.

Of course, they had some magic of their own at their disposal between the woman beside him and her natural talents, and the red-haired blacksmith's knack for repurposing technology she'd 'picked up' from other unscrupulous elements had may or may not have been involved in the current mess. The current mess being retrieving Layla's mother.

"We have to get the message to Torou in such a way that he gets what's going on, on the one hand, and doesn't just blast the messenger, on the other. Ideas on how?"

Rufus said nothing for a moment, turning the idea problem over in his mind, and then spoke.

"Jade!" He called, summoning the woman from her forge which she had invariably disappeared into.

"Yes boss?"

"Is there a crossbow down there? We have a message to deliver."

She nodded an affirmative and went to retrieve it. Rufus strode to a desk inside the entrance of the guild and began searching for ink and paper.

"A simple solution." He called back to Layla.

[Graybeard]

Layla's face broke into a wide smile. "I like it." She hadn't had much work as a Wraith lately, but she retained the position's appreciation for fine weaponry ... and this crossbow looked like it qualified.

Of course, there was still the problem of what to write. The mechanics of a hostage exchange were always tricky. Security had to satisfy both sides, which was hard to do. It couldn't be done in an excessively public place, yet some degree of traffic was desirable as a hedge against area-effect magic (or weaponry). It obviously had to be done away from the home turf of both parties, preferably through an intermediary. However, the Gewehr hadn't yet cultivated the Seeadler to play that intermediate role, so doing it on Seeadler territory would cede the security initiative to the Tsuirakuans (Tsuirakuan rebels? it looked like it), and that wouldn't do. But where else would meet all the requirements?

Aha.

"Before we send this, let's a few of us pay a little visit to the elven ruins on the north side of town," she said. "Do any of you people know anything about it?"

[Jack Rothwell]

"We haven't had a chance to find out." Rufus replied. "Getting the business set-up and finding contractors were more pressing matters."

"Count me in." Jade interjected, now planted by the old man's right shoulder after delivering her commission. "It's got to be more interesting than staking out a building all day, and I won't be able to do any work while our guest is around. Blindfolded or not, (OOC I'm assuming Torou's wife had one on for security purposes./OOC) she doesn't need to hear me in the forge and narrow down the places she could have been taken."

The Captain nodded and turned to Layla. "I'd keep the rest of mine here if it does you, young lady."

"Are you expecting trouble?" Jade asked her, and indicated the forge. "There's a few other things down there we can take if you're short."

[Graybeard]

"Are you expecting trouble?"

Layla thought about it. "I don't think so. The elven ruins are well outside Tsuiraku-town; that's kind of the whole point." Although Kitaura was taking an interest in the place ... but I don't think the Torous and Kitaura are on the same side in whatever conflict is going on there. "I think we're better off trying to blend into the scenery as we do our reconnaissance. There'll be lots of tourists around. Best if we not look too menacing. Now isn't the time to attract attention.

"Well, let's get going." Ace set the cab in motion.

[Jack Rothwell]

At hearing the words 'not look too menacing' Jade sighed and unlimbered her two-handed sword which had hung from her hip like the world largest sore thumb. She passed it Leo without a word and hopped into the cab momentarily before Ace snapped the reins. The blacksmith planted herself next to Layla and began rolling a smoke.

"Been a while since we had a chance to talk." She said, and then with a chuckle. "It's been a hell of a few days, hasn't it? Weapon caches found though secret warp gates, blue golems in the vineyards, exploding houses, kidnapping and magical imprisonment..." She took a deep breath. "I have to hand it to you, life has been a lot more interesting with you around."

[Graybeard]

"I have to hand it to you, life has been a lot more interesting with you around."

I don't want interesting, thought Layla. I want safe. Safe for my son, safe to raise him, safe to be with him and love him and ...

Luminosita's Nethers. A Wraith is thinking that.

Another thing: for possibly the first time in her life, she understood what life must have been like for her mother, twenty-five years earlier.

That latter thought served, at least, to bring her back to what had to be done. "The Tsuirakuans have a curse," she answered. "It's something like 'may your children live in interesting times.' Speaking of which, I want to pass by the lab and pick up my son before we check out the ruins. He'll be a good part of our cover, and besides, I'm getting to where I need to nurse him." She didn't add that she missed him greatly; that didn't seem necessary.

As Joe turned the cab toward the edge of Tsuiraku-town -- they weren't going to be going any deeper into the district that Galina's place for a while -- Layla decided to take a minor conversational risk. "Do you and Leo think you're going to have kids some day? How about Eve?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Jade considered the image of Eve having children, then threw back her head and roared with laughter.

"I'm sorry." She wiped the corner of an eye. "It's just... I find it hard enough to imagine Eve with a man brave or crazy enough to marry her... but children?" She shook her head. "Better for her to get a more mature head on her shoulders before she makes a commitment like that."

She was suddenly aware she was avoiding the first half of Layla's question.

"As for Leo and I... well... yes. Although Rinkaiel doesn't seem like a place with a lot to recommend it as far as raising children goes. Maybe in a few years... after me and the fop stop putting our lives at risk all the time. Maybe we could move somewhere quieter; I get my own forge, a real one, not a basement in a guild, he goes into politics... with that silver tongue of his he'd be a natural."

Jade gave Layla an assessing look. She respected the woman's intelligence, she respected her as a friend. It occurred to the mercenary that the mother she rode with must have been weighing the danger of her job versus the responsibility of parenthood ever since she became a mother.

"Are you... thinking of retirement?" She heard herself ask.

OOC Got the discworld reference, btw./OOC

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Wasn't exactly intended as a Discworld reference; the Chinese curse is of uncertain origin but certainly pre-dates Discworld. Anyway...]

"Are you... thinking of retirement?"

"Good question," Layla confessed. The concept of "retirement" didn't exactly exist in that form in the Gewehr. Either you worked for them, either in their "cover" jobs in Kugelheim or out in the wide world on regular jobs, or you didn't. There were a few exceptions; Layla had heard of an old woman who'd lost a hand while doing a high-profile hit, and was now taken care of by the big shots, and there were probably others. But by and large, Gewehr members did things for the guild until they left it or they died ... or sometimes were killed after leaving.

Still, the way she'd been thinking ... "I guess so," she said. "At least becoming a lot less active. For one thing, I actually enjoy making wine." (That was true enough.) "For another thing, I don't want to expose Zachary to the kind of risks I'd have to take, to keep my hand in. I'd like to give him a better life than that. Oh, I'm not complaining about the way Mom raised me!" She felt a need to get that out there. "But I just couldn't imagine not being there for him if he needs me ... and if anything ever happened to him, I couldn't live with myself."

And whoever did it wouldn't live, period, she thought as the carriage pulled up in front of Galina's laboratory.

[Jack Rothwell]

"It's a lot of responsibility to live up to." Jade agreed, thinking about Faye and the predicament she found herself in. It occurred to the mercenary that if her mother (if she'd still been alive, that was) had been in the same trouble Jade would've been fighting against her instincts to load up and go in guns blazing every step of the way. Her companions restraint in that area was nothing if not admirable. The blacksmith speculated if Zachary had anything to do with his mother's inclination to play it cool in the face of a family kidnapping.

The pair dismounted and headed to the entrance of the lab.

"Are we picking something up here?" She inquired. "Elven ruin reading magic, or something?"