Whispers in the Dark

[Lavinian Ambition]

Takes place immediately following the events of Before I forget... (http://www.althanas.com/world/showthread.php?t=13347)
Open to Logan and Kyo

Jared sat in the dark hold of the ship, his mind wandering to just how he had managed to screw up so bad to warrant this situation. As he looked dully at his satchel he sighed in defeat, his arms chained to the pole behind him, keeping him from reaching the lock picks held within, and potentially getting himself free. It was a rather large slap to the face that they had placed his gear so close, yet so out of reach, but considering what he had done to them, it was par for the course.

A couple of months ago, Jared had gotten himself entangled in a pretty web of lies. A noble of Radasanth, Lord Anthony Roland, had commissioned Jared to steal a small ivory box from a fellow noble, as a potential trial run for the Lavinian Thief's Guild, and a way to get more of a ground base for the Lavinian thieves in Radasanth. The end result of that run was he found out he was not being tested himself, but testing a young girl named Kyosku Tetsoma, a ninja who was to also retrieve the box. Neither was informed about the situation, and they had nearly killed each other multiple times, sometimes on accident, sometimes by restraining their anger towards each other.

Upon returning the item, Kyo had shattered it on the wall, and promptly left, after revealing that the nobleman had been poisoned by a paralyzing agent. Jared took the opportunity to wax poetic, and talk about the underworld, or at least his concept of it. He then promptly broke Roland's nose, and left him to slowly choke to death on his own blood. When Anthony Roland however, did not die, he sent his goons to kill both Jared and the ninja in an effort for revenge. It had almost worked on Kyo, had Jared not managed a lucky break with his hired killers. Managing to show up in time to rescue her, they promptly turned and destroyed Lord Roland, and his pretty estate.

Jared had hoped that would be the end of the story. However, no one could actually believe that his guards wouldn't have been pissed. Despite Jared staying out of Radasanth, a few of them had located and even kidnapped him, throwing him in this dank cell as it drifted to gods knew where. He had already tussled with one of the guards briefly, and felt his mouth parched from a combination of Alcohol and a poison they had used to apprehend him.

How they had poisoned him was another matter, being distracted by Logan McCloud, his cell's fellow occupant, allowed them to get close enough for the needle to prick him, and here he was. Now he was left in a rather dimly lit room, a single lanterns halo not quite reaching the edges of the room. Posts meant to hold up the ceiling, probably the deck's floor, littered the area. Not that Jared was much concerned with that, a hook that protruded from one of the posts held his satchel and his lock picks.

Sighing in defeat he muttered, "You know, this would be a lot more bearable if Salvation wasn't six feet in front of me."

He was half expecting a joke from Logan, or just plain silence to swallow his words. He was in for a rather large surprise when, emerging from the shadows, came a rather irate looking woman, dressed all in black. He knew her all to well, the ice blue eyes, the black hair, hell he even knew what lay under those clothes, but that was a story for another time. Instead he heard a rather annoyed retort to his proclamation, “Funny, and here I thought your salvation was a beautiful albeit fucking pissed off ninja. I guess I was mistaken. I suppose I can just turn around and leave then.”

He stuttered something intelligible, before he asked the obvious question, "W-what are you doing here?"

"What does it look like? Saving your ass again..." She spat.

Jared didn't think he could love the girl anymore than he did already...

[Logan]

The psion sat as his eyes wandered around the cargo hold where he and Jared were being held by some of Lord Roland’s men. The damned thief had apparently murdered Lord Roland and had gotten away with it for some time, but eventually the deed caught up with him. Unfortunately for Logan, just being with Jared seemed to yield a problem of its own. The two were captive, and neither really liked it.

Jared had been slapped around pretty mercilessly, and it appeared he may have been poisoned as well. Logan on the other hand was just given pretty lax interrogation before being left to his own misery. He wasn’t sure what these guards wanted with him, and while he’d aimed to find out, he did find himself fall short of that. All he had learned was that they may have some reason to believe he was involved with the organized crime syndicate known as Vice.

It wasn’t as if Logan wasn’t involved with Vice, but the fact they knew of his involvement or at least had reason to believe he was involved bothered him greatly. He had prided himself in recent months on his inane ability to remain hidden from the public eye with his participation in the ring of mischievous types. Truth be told, he wasn’t just a participant, he was one of the behind the scenes leaders. His work, his time, and his effort had produced pretty solid results for the still infant organization, and he had plans to increase its reach and operations to other sectors of the crime world.

The psion shot back to James just a week before entering into Leonard’s house and mentioning Jared’s whereabouts. Suddenly it didn’t seem so hazy. It was now completely clear. Shaking his head he prepared to speak to Jared, but before he could a female figure emerged from the shadows. His initial reaction was to jump and defend himself, but her entrance was accompanied by words that pointed Logan to the possibility she was there to save Jared and him. He sighed deeply as he tugged on the chains.

“I don’t know who you are, miss, but to me for the time being you are my savior,” he spoke as he tugged on the chains loudly, “but would you please do me a favor and remove these damn bindings from my wrists?” He always hated asking for assistance and it wasn’t because she was a female. The psion was simply a loner who liked doing things himself. Well, ever since Ryan Kale, his lifetime friend, and Seth Dahlios, a friend turned hated enemy, both vanished without a trace.

Looking around the room he tried to get a better grasp of their environment. After all, good guards would be back to check on the two pretty soon, and he knew the chances they’d get there just as they escaped from their shackles was actually pretty good. Or at least that’s how things worked on Althanas. Damn the random chance that seemed to be more like twisted fate than randomness! Just then the psion’s body tensed slightly as his eyes closed.

He had sensed something and he tried to hone in on it. Four guards had found their way back to the ship and apparently the lady’s ability to cover her tracks wasn’t the best. They would soon be in to check on the two prisoners in the cargo hold. The psion turned to the lady whom he didn’t know by name, “And you may want to hurry. I believe we’re going to have some company very soon.” If they hurried there was a chance they might avoid an immediate confrontation and actually make it off the ship relatively unnoticed.

[Kyo]

It was hard to stay mad at him. The look on his face was almost enough to make her walk over there and embrace him and hold him as close as she could because he was okay and she had gotten here before anything serious had happened. By the Gods of Althanas was she glad she had made it here in time. When she had heard from her contact that Jared had been practically kidnapped or taken into custody or whatever the hell this could be called, she’d felt something within her crack. Her heart had been constricted and held within a tight fist that had been freely and mercilessly squeezing it. But now that he was kneeling before her looking up at her as if she were the most wonderful person in the world it all melted away. All the worry and anxiety that she had barely been keeping under control, all the anger, everything. It left her in a giant rush as she looked down on him and spat out caustic words she barely felt the need to anymore.

Yet, as much as she wanted to walk over there and pull him to his feet and kiss him like she never had, she couldn’t. It would be wrong because if this were any other member of her clan—and yes, she would have come for them too—she would not be so lenient to them. So she could not be so lenient to him. They were lovers now yes, but she was his leader first and he had made that decision when he’d agreed to join The Brotherhood.

For the moment, she ignored the words of the second man. Any other time and she may have given him her attention, after all, he was rather good looking. But now was not exactly the best moment for her to be considering things best left for the bedroom. He was also not of a huge concern to her, in fact she was half wondering if they could just leave him here as bait. Noticing Jared’s rucksack hanging from one of the pillars and knowing it was probably torturing him being just out of his reach, Kyo went for it. She grabbed it off the hook and tossed it towards the thief. The slightly heavy travelling bag landed on the ground an inch or two away from him and then skidded to a halt by his foot. As much as she wanted to free him first before this yosomono, she knew that Jared could pick his own locks.

Stepping further into the light of that single lamp, Kyosku moved passed the piled crates and silently approached the stranger. Her mind wondered if he was a friend of Jared’s, if they knew each other from the clan he worked for back in Lavinya. But they were questions that could wait when she was better able to interrogate the silver haired man.

“Sad to say but it’s his job to do the lock picking and mine to do the killing.” She twisted his wrist a bit, probably into a rather uncomfortable position for him, and began examining the keyhole. “Still, this does appear to have a rather simple design.”

Reaching into a pouch on the side of her belt, Kyo carefully pulled out one of her steel shuriken. Holding it between her long and thin fingers with one hand and keeping a firm hold on the man’s shackles with the other, Kyo jammed the small weapon in the hole. Part of the edge caught her index finger and bit into the skin, eliciting a slight grimace from her but nothing more. It was just a simple cut and it was barely bleeding anyway. Jamming it further in, Kyosku twisted the small weapon in a few different directions until she felt the tip catch on something within. Then she gave it a powerful shove and turn and the cuff opened up. Smirking, she pulled it open the rest of the way and then went to work on his second one knowing that Jared was quite possibly already done with his. He was much better at this than she was after all.

A few minutes later she had also removed the second cuff from the stranger, though she had bent the thin edge of her shuriken in the process. It was beyond use now, more so than a blacksmith would be able to fix. Useless. Releasing a bit of her pent up frustration, she threw the weapon into a nearby wall, watching as it travelled through the air and then embedded itself in the wood with a dull thud.

Then she turned back to the stranger. “Formal introductions can wait, just call me Kyo for now. I’d say it’s a pleasure to meet you, but honestly it isn’t. So get your stuff and let’s get going. It’s only a matter of time before they come in here.”

Her ice blue eyes wandered back over to Jared to check on his progress. “Jared?”

[Lavinian Ambition]

Jared caught the bag and immediately went to work. Pulling out the lock picks he began to pull the correct tools for the job as he went after the locks with a vengeance, his mind focused solely on the goal. He worked the picks into the lock as he began to discern just what they had used to lock him in, even as he could barely put the tool to the lock. His ears were vaguely picking up the conversation between her and Logan, not that he cared. Logan wasn't a threat to their relationship in his mind, and he wasn't the absolute jealous type. Maybe when flirting got involved.

Even still as the first lock hit the ground and he switched hands to do the second he was looking over occasionally at Kyo. He only vaguely registered she was asking him a question about his progress. As he continued to work the second lock his voice entered a bit strained, "Almost there, damn new locks. They aren't your normal latches, bit harder to push the release..."

With the finish of the explanation the lock sprung open and the pick was back in its holster in his pick set. The pouch was thrown back in his satchel which was lung over his shoulder as he rubbed his wrists a bit irritably. Getting up he felt a wave of nausea and dizziness overwhelm his senses as he leaned hard against the wooden post that held his chains. Groaning slightly he reached into his pouch, tasting the cotton in his mouth as the poison continued to disorient and daze him. Grabbing a flask of water he drowned the desert of his mouth in it, trying desperately to overcome the poison. However, no one had taught the thief that small sips would be better and he felt the nausea increase, rather than lessen.

As he felt his stomach heave in protest to the water flooding it he dropped to his knees and hurled the rather limited contents of his stomach out into the open. Coughing slightly in protest to the rather abrupt usurpation of his normal breathing cycle he spat the bile from his mouth bitterly as he absently wiped his mouth with the back of his shirt. Jared, was still poisoned, and fucked up bad by the effects of it. He wasn't sure what it exactly entailed either. Looking up at Kyo he sighed before he spoke, "Got any anti-poison? Fuckers got me good with it..."

He felt her hand on his back soothing him as he finished the rather foul act. She was whispering words of encouragement even as she shoved something into his hand. He nodded knowing damn well the ninja probably had anti-venom on her as he shoved it into his mouth, ignoring the taste as he downed it quickly. As he felt the pain in his stomach lessen, his mouth took on a more moist quality. Sipping the water this time he sighed when his body held it, even as the anti-venom coursed through his system.

Nodding softly he stumbled to his feet as he leaned against the pole, "I think I'm good to go, but we'll see how good I'm in a fight in a few minutes I guess..."