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“I see,” Jack said, nodding at Murcary’s explanation of his skills. “I’ve done some blacksmithing myself. Healing powers would be nice.” He added the last part in the way he always spoke of other beings' higher powers; he agreed that they sounded great, but he also knew he could never have them. C’est La Vie.

Jack straightened up in his seat at the sound of several pairs of footsteps. He had yet to hear so many at once and the sight of the strangely restrained elf did nothing to ease his concerns. Her.. fingers were shackled. He blinked at that then looked at her face. The gag made her mouth open wide and put a carnal veil over the dominant way she walked. Jack already wanted to do things to for her. She had him- hook, line, and sinker.

It was only when a guard suddenly shouted about having crossbows that Jack startled enough to jump and he cleared his throat. The guard added that they could remove her gag, but warned of spells. Jack glanced at Assallya, but looked away just as quickly, as if protecting himself. Had she even been using magic on him?

Eona stood and Jack felt himself relax, grateful that someone else stepped up. It saved him from himself. And he helped the last person that needed it! It was someone else’s turn. When Assallya spoke, Jack watched her as if she were putting on a grand show, despite the fact that she was really testing the guards’ patience.

“I agree,” Jack said in response to Assallya’s theories, nodding as he did. “Exactly that.”

Then they were all sitting in the Chancellor’s chamber, listening to a much less ravishing being speak. ”What is the task?” Jack asked him, carefully breaking the silence.

Throughout all this Jhanandra had remained quiet, she was to observe everything- ready to act if needs be to preserve her life. As for these misfits, they could either assist her when the time came or act upon their own, their choice to make.

"Reconsidered." Assallya didn't like the sound of that. She dwelt upon that word overlong. No, she didn't like that word at all. It wasn't a promise or a contract.

Sharp blue eyes wandered across the chancellor's form, analyzing the man's posture, his demeanour, trying to determine of the man's word could be relied upon. Of course it couldn't. Any noble could ignore or waylay his commands provided they went simply relayed from the king's tongue itself.

She could only hope that her beauty stirred him so that she might seduce her way free of this mess but she doubted he would be so foolish

Then the brunette young man amongt them, without preamble, asked the question one everyone's lips.

That was exactly what she was thinking. She was an enchantress after all, specializing in the unseen arts. Any cool could hurl a ball of fire but a real wizard defeated you without ever revealing herself.

Secondly, who cared if they could be tracked should they cross the border? He clearly stated that they were worried about the Udrium border. That meant they wouldn't pursue across the border.

It didn't make sense. He was holding something back. Something he was withholding with relish. She wanted to scream at him to, "Out with it!", but that would be foolish.

Still, she sensed he was waiting, waiting for someone to say something so he could spring whatever he was holding back.

"-and more...?" she asked, raising a near invisible blonde eyebrow, giving him the opening he so craved.

Eona was paralyzed with shock and fear. All she had done was accidentally kill one of the kings rabbits and now that could happen to her? She could just not exist anymore? She had no idea what they wanted with her or how she had ended up in this situation. Druids weren't that uncommon, were they? All she could do was change shape. Yes, she knew how to fight, but she'd never actually done it outside of practice before. And she did have healing skills, but there were others who were so much better at it.

Her one and only hope was that the chancellor wasn't lying when he said that if she did whatever it was they wanted her to do and didn't cause any trouble that her sentence might be reconsidered. That was the one thing that she could hang on to and hope for. The one thing that was keeping her from completely loosing it.

When the Chancellor explained that they would not be under guard while traveling to the border, Jack looked at him and his lackeys like they were morons. Then the man answered Jack’s silent question, making him stare and wait for further clarification. Assallya asked his next silent question for him–they were already reading each other’s minds –and Jack, along with everyone else, waited for an answer.

He watched the Chancellor with strained interest and took quick, worried glances at Assallya. ‘Demonstration’ meant something was about to happen to her and he didn’t like the sound of that. Not to his beloved, no! They better not mangle her or ruin those delicate features. Jack didn’t think he could handle it. His skin crawled with the desire to act, to do something, to move. But he continued to sit, rigid in his chair.

And then she was gone.

“Wh-” Jack’s mouth noised, but it dissolved in his breath.
“Where?..” He whispered, coherent this time. “No…”
The muscles in his legs tensed to stand.

Someone next to him might snap him out of it with a shoulder bump or a cleared throat, reminding him of where he was. If not, he would stand as he continued to babble, as if he had just watched his one true love die in front of him.

Well... idle threats were not this kingdom's forté... if it was not so horrific making a living being at one's mercy turn to dust on a whim Jhanandra woudl he impressed at the Chancellor's gumption- vut the point was clear, they could do as they pleased so long as it fell within the crown's parameters...

One of the males was disturbed and getting hectic, a firm hand of hers upon his shoulder may just bring his mind into focus before this little party was down another member.

Truly it paid to remain quiet and patient sometimes...

Jack had only made it a couple inches from his seat before he felt his ass hit the surface again. He looked from Jhanandra’s hand to her eyes then blinked his gaze away. Woah. He had really lost himself there. He wanted to say ‘thanks’ or something of the sort, but he thought he had pushed it with the guards badly enough, so he settled for a small smile. These guys were serious. Whatever the Chancellor said after that was met with nothing but sobering stoicism from Jack.

Once back in the cell, Jack returned to his original seat and sat with his thoughts for a while. His skin crawled at the fact that there was something underneath it. How asleep had he been?? Why did he feel no pain during the procedure or during the recovery? Jack started pulling his gloves off in jerky, rushed movements. His bare hands swept over his neck then his arms, trying to find where this rune was placed. Once nothing was found there, he began to undress, ladies in the room be damned. He would look over every blasted inch of himself, if only for the comforting fact of knowing where the rune was placed.

Eona was in awe of Jhanandra's seeming calm. She herself was still struggling not to loose it.

Then watched Jack's frantic movements and figured out after a little while that he was trying to find the rune. She understood the impulse, it was hard to think about having something that could do that on your body and not even know it was there. "I...I don't think you're going to be able to find it. Something with that much power...they're not going to want us to find it and do anything to it."

She paused and took a breath, seeing if she could work a calming spell on herself, or if her nerves would be too much in the way. The spell worked a little, not as well as it could have, but it helped.

"If you want, I could cast a calming spell on you. These cuffs only stop me from shifting, not from healing or anything like that. It might help, at least for a little while."

“Do I not seem calm to you?” Jack asked Eona. He was down to his skivvies, wide-eyed, and crazy-haired. He let go of his breath and slumped his shoulders before picking his clothes up from his seat.
“How does it work?” He asked, genuinely this time. He started to put his pants back on.
He couldn’t outright ask her if she had to touch him during the spell, not without sounding like a loony. Why wouldn’t a man such as he want a woman such as herself to touch him? He wished he knew how the ‘halfbreeds’, as Jhanandra had put it, worked when it came to his curse.

If Eona explained to Jack that she would need to touch him, he would say that he felt much better already and that there was no need to make him feel better now.
“Can’t feel any better than best!” He would say.

If Eona explained that she could help him from afar, he would take the offer graciously and wait for its effects. Once cast, it was sure to feel as though he drank a couple of pints and calmed his nerves right down. He would look at his hands in perplexed appreciation.
”I could get used to that!” He would say.

"Do not rely on magic to see you through... if you seek strength, look to yourself and those around you. Cantrips and curses will not save you from that rune- you must see this quest through to the end." Bold of the human male to strip in a prison, fortunately he was in better company... this was a poor day indeed, she'd seen her fair share of blackmail and compelled service but this time she had others to look out for- or watch out for. "If the runes were visible, would you not see mine upon my flesh as clear as day?"

"I just hold out my hand and send the spell to you," she told Jack. "Works much better than having to, like, touch someone or something when they're angry or upset. If you were injured I'd have to touch you to heal you, but this isn't really healing."

"You're right," she said to Jhanandra, "finding inner strength is better than relying on spells or potions, but sometimes a person needs extra help, and there's no shame in it"

The calming had truly eased Eona's nerves for the first time since she'd been arrested. She hadn't used one before this because she'd been able to handle it. And helping someone always brought out the best in her, so she was feeling more confident than she had in days. There was finally something to do instead of having to just sit around and wait.

“Use it if you got it,” Jack said to Jhanandra with a shrug. He was quite experienced in the art of relying on substances to get by and didn’t see the harm in it either. With how Eona’s magic felt, it wasn’t too far off from the delectable euphoria of alcohol, and one would seldom find Jack without it. Like, if he were in jail, for instance.

To Jhanandra’s question about seeing the runes on her skin, Jack said, “Not if it were under your bit of clothing.” Then he stared at her, brow raised, as if waiting for her to undress.

"Don't get excited now, not every one is that ready to part with clothing. And might i add i don't exactly believe that it was put directly on us, as my clothes don't show any sign of being taken off as for one there'd be a lot more confiscated off me than there was. So it be best not to worry about finding it and i don't know slicing it off or something, But still i get the need to worry as that dancer girl just got dust-ified. Still it's no time to be frantic and worrying" he says before standing up.

"Now clearly they got me so i don't need to have this on anymore" he says before a loud popping sound can be heard as he slips his hand out from one of the hand locks. more popping noises as he sets his arm back into place, reaching up under his coat and into his vest sliding a small knife out. Then jabbing it into the keyholes of the contraption before it pops off with a loud DUNK, then doing the same to his ankle shackles. "Ah much better with that thing off" he says stretching and rolling his shoulders and neck before sitting back down.