forum Kingdom of Spirits (4/4) (CLOSED)

Started July 01, 2019 by @ShadeStar

tune

Aureole shrugged. "Jail's rough. Not sure anyone deserves to be in there, but by court rules, you never know, I suppose."

The guard and company reached the bottom and Cicada's head whipped up to see the entourage. The guard walked over and noticed the girl was awake, "She's awake. I can offer you ten minutes of private conversation, but no more. Any other I or another guard must be present."

(ack, sorry)
Nathaniel hummed his agreement to the regulations, taking a step to a familiar shade of red. He met her eyes. The elf opened his mouth but when nothing came out, Nathan snapped it shut and settled for silence. He looked away.

Cicada spotted the elf and leaned back in her cell. Her head was pounding, and the quick movement didn't help her at all. The guard on the other hand looked to Nathan, "Do you want your ten minutes now or later?"

"Now," he replied quickly, softly. Shooting an uncertain glance at Aureole, he took another step forward. He cleared his throat, uncomfortably breaking the pounding silence, and dared to speak. "Hey. I- um." His Adam's apple bobbed. "Eight gold?" The words came out in a tentative whisper. A small flush crept up his cheeks, warming him against the dry cold.

Aureole looked away, tapping her fingers on her thigh nervously.

The guard left the cell area and all other guards did as well. They were simply at the entrances and out of ear shot, but not completely gone.

Cicada looked at the elf and nodded before stopping abruptly from the eruption of pain that had caused in her head, "I'm still expecting that payment. What are ya doing down here anyways?"

"We came to ask you exactly that," he said, smirking slightly. "And I have the money, right here." He pulled out the small pouch, bulging with some gold and maybe a little something more.

"Great," Cicada had a small smirk. She spotted the pouch of gold and saw it was definitely more than eight gold, "Keep it on you till tomorrow. And, oh, I don't know. Being under arrest for trying to prevent the shit that went down."

Concern flashed by his features before he masked it with confidence. "Do I have to spell it out? What shit went down?"

Cicada figured none of them must have seen what happened between her and the prince. She tried to adjust herself into a better position, only to have pain flash across her face and her body sag reluctantly in the spot she was in, "The high and mighty 'Prince' of the North tried to steal the spirit's damned Everflame. I say tried, more like he did. In an attempt of goodwill I tried to stop him from doing so, only to be yanked away by a pair of guards, who I have no doubt are dead at this point. I passed out, and now I'm here. Happy now elf boy?"

He blinked twice. First, taking in all her injuries, and how frail she appeared - completely contradictory to the words she fired at him. Second, processing. "N-no," he stammered, "I don't think I'm happy. You're in a prison cell, whatever heroic act you may have done doesn't matter. Because tomorrow you'll be dragged to court, and faced with execution." An urgency entered his voice. "Do you know what you'll say to the king?"

“I’ll think of something,” Cicada responded watching as a now brown strand fell in front of her face and she blew it away. For a moment a faded, but glimmering mark could be seen on her right eye. It was hidden as quickly as it had shown. She was more upset over the loss of her red hair than she was about a looming execution, “I’m pretty used to lying on the spot. If not I’ll just tell ‘im the truth.”

She hadn't resigned. That was interesting. Her body seemed to be dimming, fading, but she was still there. That was interesting. But her calm confidence had Nathan anxious, if anything. "Sticking with the truth might be better," he suggested, grasping for anything to make the ten minutes worthwhile.

“It might be,” Cicada silently agreed. She looked back at the elf boy, “Now will ya tell me what your doing down here? Even a name might be nice.”

"I've already told you; we came to figure out why you're here." He pointed to the two behind him, as if they weren't dragged down into the dungeons by circumstance. "And I don't have a name from you, either," he said. After a pause, he conceded, "Nathan. Call me Nathan."

“Call me Cada,” she responded in turn. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the cell wall with a sigh, “I get that, but why bother figuring it out? It doesn’t effect you.”

He shrugged. "You still have my pocket watch," he said lamely. "Plus, you caused quite the commotion. It's not everyday that I know people being sent to prison. It's not everyday that I know people."

“Ah of course,” Cicada drawled a little on her words. She had almost forgotten about the pocket watch, it was most likely with her other possessions in the guards care, “I’m some form of entertainment. A unique scenario that you weren’t expecting. Total sense. I don’t have your watch on me, in case your wondering. The guards have it along with the rest of my belongings.”

"And the whole 'fear of having your head chopped off' thing," Aureole interjected in a small voice.

Cicada turned her head so she was looking at the fae girl, “The what now?”

Aureole looked up and quickly shook her head. "Nothing, just something Nathaniel and I were talking about earlier," she explained with a nervous laugh.

“Okay then,” Cicada drawled once again glancing back at the elf to gauge his reaction to her last comment. She wasn’t expecting a great one to be completely honest with herself, but she pissed off at the world and needed to let off some steam.

Javier watched the interaction in silence, still confused, but the more he learned the more he understood, little by little. He couldn’t shake the feeling of being out of place, perhaps because he was, he silently humored awkwardly.