Rinkaiel: Kidnappers

[Jack Rothwell]

Jade shifted on the couch, still wrapped in the depths of a deep sleep. In the dream she was having she was standing on the top floor of a stone tower crested on a tall hill while a dramatic thunderstorm crashed and banged outside. For reasons she couldn't understand, the blacksmith was wearing a long white coat, a thick pair of glasses and standing next to a huge table tied to a winch and with a metal rod pointed upwards like an accusatory finger. Dream logic had put her in the company of the mech they'd stolen from the dwarven ruins laid out on the table and, inexplicably, Mr Ivan, the hunchbacked shopkeeper who tended his store in her hometown of Solshire.

"Crank the winch!" She yelled in a wild voice she didn't quite recognize. "The storm approaches it's zenith!"

"Yes mistress!" Called Ivan enthusiastically, raising the table with the lever and a strength she didn't know the old man had.

Time seemed to stretch into hours before the table reached the hole in the ceiling of the tower. Jade surprised herself by throwing up her arms and calling to the weather as if to goad it into action. A moment later a deafening crack and a blinding flash of light struck the table as if in answer to the blacksmith's cry. At her frenzied instructions Ivan lowered the table back down, bringing with it the reek of hot tin and ozone and, almost too low to hear, the low thudding of a bass-drum from somewhere in the chest of the mechanical man.

"Yes!" She cried. "Yes! It's alive! HE'S ALIVE!"

The golem turned its head at the sound of it's creators voice, and sat up on the table with an oily creak. Jade made a hysterical giggling noise and grasped its over-sized shoulder plates. Her mouth fell open in a gape as the golem opened its own to speak.

"Mommy?"

Jade frowned, Eve's voice, not the golem.

"Jade? Jade? JADE!"

Abruptly the dream melted away, the blacksmith awoke to find herself sitting up on the couch and grasping the younger woman's lapels as though she were conducting an interrogation. Eve waved a hand in front of her face and tried again.

"Jade?"

"What? What?"

"It sounded like you were caught in a nightmare or something, were you?"

Jade relaxed her grip on her companion's clothes before making her answer.

"No, it was something worse."

"What?"

"I think I might possibly maybe be considering having children."

.....

Meanwhile Leo arrived at the tavern Rufus had directed him to. The mercenary drew himself up and stepped through the door.

[Graybeard]

"So someone is just going to take it over there, hand it to them, and they take the bait?" Ace asked skeptically.

Layla thought about it. "Hmmm ... I see what you're driving at. Two problems. One, no credible backstory. Two, it looks too recently cleaned and maintained. 'Authenticity' problem. How to ..."

Inspiration dawned. "So we bury it in the wine cellar for a while, to get some rust and dust and age on it. Then we get a hired hand to take it over to the temple, with a story about having found it in a shipment of goods -- we can work on that while it's aging."

After a brief discussion, and satisfied that this plan would work, Layla made arrangements, and then set off for Barker Lane; a quick confab with the Silver Hands would be a good idea, to make sure the stories were straight. [OOC: It's also a way of getting the two groups back together, to act on whatever Leo finds out. Over to you...]

[Jack Rothwell]

"You've got to be kidding me." Leo tilted his head skeptically at the lawman's answer.

"On Luminosita's sacred arse, I swear it. No addictions, no sordid little affairs, nothing on the take. The bastard is as clean as a whistle and nosy as a priest in confessional."

Leo slumped back in his seat as he watched Carver bring the glass to his lips and drain it dry. The man was fairly well gone, even for this time of the day, but the mercenary knew enough about lying to tell when someone was proclaiming the truth.

"But he's an investigator! Moving through a world of vice is his job, a man can't do that kind of work without getting at least a little dirty."

The Sergeant threw back his head and laughed ruefully. "He's private, that's about the sum of it. You'd have a better chance of getting information if you asked him directly and besides..." Carver leaned back with a scornful look in his eyes. "...he'd probably enjoy the company."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just rumours, whispers, bitching in the barracks, truth be told. Some people think Kitaura's dangling his feet in the other side of the pool."

"Oh... OH! Right... no, I don't think that's very helpful information."

"Why?" The man sneered. "He's not your type?"

Leo cocked an eyebrow and breifly considered his long hair, lithe build and penchant for wearing costumes, then gave a conceding nod at Carver's inaccurate conclusion.

"My girlfriend would not approve. Look, is there anything else?"

"Well I can get you the key to his office if you fancy breaking into militia property and rifling through the personal effects of a poweful mage and high level investigator."

"......"

Leo got out of his chair and headed to the exit.

[Graybeard]

"Well, well, well," Layla said as Leo (in his Martin Dashwood disguise) came into sight. "Did you learn anything interesting?"

[Jack Rothwell]

Leo stared at Layla meaninfully for a moment, then removed his fancy crimson hat, put the brim in his mouth and tore a chunk free with his teeth. He chewed with a comically distressed expression on his face and spat the thing out back out to the disaproving tut of his still groggy girlfriend.

"I'm a man of my word, you were right Layla. The only nugget of intel I got from that drunk was that Kitaura might possibly have a weakness for dashingly handsome men like myself."

Jade rolled her eyes and slumped back on the couch.

"I'm not sure that's a game I'd like to play in any case."

"Or BE ALLOWED to play."

" I reckon the mercs Liepzeller mentioned are well below the Captain's pay grade. If we want to understand Kitaura's intentions I vote we should figure out a way to monitor him, but is that even doable?"

"Who cares?" Jade murmured, her eyes closing again. "The important thing is that I'm doing an outstanding job with that mech we picked up and I'll have it in action before you can say terracotta."

"Yes dear, you're the queen of everything."

"And don't forget it." Came the slurred reply.

[Graybeard]

"Monitoring Kitaura would be more trouble than it's worth," Layla answered. "Which is to say, a hell of a lot of trouble. I think it's best to just treat him like a hurricane or earthquake, uncontrollable force of nature that's just there and has to be dealt with." A sigh. "Which isn't to say I don't care why he's interested in that airship, just that I don't think our chances of finding out are good enough to justify poking at it."

She turned to go. "Well, life seems to have stabilized a little bit. Maybe I can finally resume some magic lessons. Good luck with the golem." She started back to the vineyard to reclaim her son.

[OOC: So, contrary to my previous note, consider this a license to go ahead and do whatever you want to with the golem, while Layla does the same with Galina; their paths will cross again soon enough, I'm confident of that.]

[Jack Rothwell]

Jade waved a floping hand on a loose wrist at Layla's departure and then tried to burrow deeper into the couch.

"Magic lessons." She murmured. "That would be something to see."

"Ever been tempted to try learning?"

"Nah." She sighed. "It's all making shit move with your mind and weaving things out of the ether. I'm more of a hands on type of girl."

"I'd certainly say so."

"Are you waggling your eyebrows?"

"How can you tell? Your eyes are closed."

"A woman always knows."

"What about Eve? She's always up for taking any advantage she can get."

"Maybe, if someone could talk her round to the idea. But you know what she's like, never happy without a blade or a gun in her hand. What about you?" Jade asked, opening her eyes to find Leo's. "You're the man who has to sweet talk his way past people more often than not, isn't there something you could learn to help you?"

"Illusionary magic?" He shrugged. "I suppose. I've read a little on the subject but, well... it's an option, maybe. Hey, are you going to show me this thing you've been working on or are you going to sleep the day away?" Leo replied, changing the subject with a grating of gears.

"I suppose I could manage that." Jade grunted, not moving.

"Jade?"

"Just... give me five minutes."

"Lazy-arse."

"Hush your mouth... oh, and Leo?"

"Yes sweetheart?"

"This discussion is not over."

Leo sighed and doffed his mangled hat. "As you say, my love."

[Jack Rothwell]

OOC I'm just going to meander around a while with the characters, with the action in other thread its good to be able to take a little time-out in this one./OOC

While Jade was catching her catnap, and Leo and Rufus were discussing business matters in the guild, Eve and Bert found themselves standing outside a warehouse in the industrial district of the town. Since arriving at their place of employment for that day the morning had been tediously quiet. The young woman jittered back and forth from one foot to the other, while the young man was slumped against the building, fighting the urge to yawn.

"I bloody hate guard work."

"You said it, why are we here anyway?"

"Rufus said that Leo had donated more than enough of his father's money to get us started, but money doesn't earn a reputation." Eve shrugged, it was no mind to her either way. "While the old man is speaking to suppliers and trolling the businesses for opportunities we are tasked with trying to make the Barker Lane merc's look good and professional, ergo... we're guarding a fucking door."

"Will there be trouble?"

"How should I know? Just try to look intimidating."

Five uneventful minutes later Bert sighed.

"This is boring. I'm bored."

"So am I." She turned to look at him. "Wanna make out?"

"You... err... what?"

"Never mind." She looked back to the street. "Terrible idea."

"But you said..."

"Forget it. The moment's gone."

Bert gaped at her for a moment, unable to stop the blush rising to his cheeks.

"I'm... going to the bathroom."

"Suit yourself." Eve watched the young man leave out of the corner of her eye, holding back a chuckle until he was out of sight.

[Graybeard]

Galina let out a delighted squeal when she answered the knock on the laboratory's door and saw Layla and Zachary. "It's been so long!" she exclaimed. "I was getting worried that something had happened to you, or that you weren't going to be able to take lessons any more, or ..."

"Just really busy," Layla smiled, not ready yet to discuss the weirdness with Kitaura and the archaeological dig. "What's new here?"

Galina busied herself making tea as Layla deposited her son in the playpen with Oxana. "Well, I have a new beginners' class," she said. "Five people, all from Rinkaiel, with room for two or three more. We're finally beginning to draw the kinds of people the program was designed for, to get ready for opening the warp gate. Most of them don't have as much natural aptitude as you do, but it's a start, anyway."

Layla blushed slightly at the offhand, spontaneous compliment. "Sounds good. You say you could fit a couple more?" Like, maybe, one or two of the Silver Hands?

[Jack Rothwell]

Jade was back up, wired on coffee and back in the forge. The blacksmith hummed when her work went well, muttered curses under her breath when it did not. She was currently standing at the side of her latest acquisition, prying metal plates free with tongs and a chisel.

"Come on, my beauty... don't be shy... the doctor will treat you nicely..."

The plate came free with a neat click that put a smile on Jade's face, she put the armour to one side and took a gander at the intricities underneath. Her mouth went dry.

When Rufus came down the stairs five minutes later he found her at her desk, sitting and sketching in a stream of nonsensical numbers.

"How goes it?"

"Oh! Rufus... sorry, didn't hear you. What did you say?"

"The Golem?"

"It's a work of art. The dwarves had techniques that make me feel like a shit-kicking amatuer unfit to shoe a horse." Jade made no effort to keep the jealousy out of her voice. "I have to record all of this. A blueprint of the mech would be worth a fortune."

"And be very dangerous in the wrong hands"

Jade looked at Rufus for the first time since he'd come in.

"What do you mean? Do you not trust me?"

"I trust you." Rufus replied, putting emphasis on the last word. "But this is a crooked town, Ms Ermingard, and word of this might attract the wrong attention."

"So I'll be careful! This is a dream project Rufus, if I can put this thing back together, the next step is building one from scratch... if I can do that, then we're everyone's best friend in this city."

"I understand, and I know you'll be careful. The last thing we need is that thing waking up and tearing the building apart."

Jade sighed and held up the palm of her hand to show she was being honest.

"On my oath, the guild won't be destroyed."

"That's all the reassurance I need." The old man said, and began limping his way out of the basement.