The Court - Finished!

Maria

I got my tears to stop. I felt oddly comfortable with Grayson's arm around my shoulders. "Sorry about that."

Grayson shrugged. "I understand."

I felt myself relax completely. I didn't know why. I should have been stiff as a board then. "You've grown on me too you know." I said quietly.

GRAYSON

Grayson smiled a little. "Good," he replied. "Then we can finally get past all this whole enemy thing and just be friends."

"We can try," Maria shrugged, smiling.

"Well, so long as I'm not on your bad side," he replied winking at her. "I've seen what you can do, though it dosen't appear that that is all that is to you."

Maria shrugged again. Grayson looked at the woods. "You wanna go for a walk? I used to go around hear a lot when I was a little boy. The woods are my favorite spot."

Maria

"Well, since we're friends now, I don't see why not." I couldn't drop the smile on my face.

We started walking. I made sure that it was away from the cabin. I didn't know what Krissy would do if she saw me with Grayson, but it wouldn't be good.

I found that was perfectly happy with wandering around the forest with Grayson. It was odd. Part of me was screaming at me for befriending the enemy, and the other part just wanted to forget everything and enjoy myself. It was confusing.

GRAYSON

He wandered around a little and let the memories from his childhd envelope him. Miguel's parent's had pretty much raised him around here. Miguel and Grayson had even built a little fort type place somewhere around here, though he didn't think it was even there.

Then he spotted it. It was only a few braches up and not nearly as high as he remembered. Grayson laughed and Maria gave him a questioning look.

"Come on, this may make me lose all my friendship points with you, but I want you to see this," he told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her to the old fort.

"What is this?" She asked. Grayson sighed.

"It was a fort type thing that...that my friend and I built t escape chores when we were young. He was like my brother," Grayson smiled, sadly.

He wished Miguel could be here to see it with him. "I would invite you up in it, but I'm pretty sure, based off it's looks and how old it is, we might hurt ourselves."

Lorraine
I went to the city jail. It was deinitely not my favorite place, but I had to do it if I wanted to keep my job and guard the Rogue. I ask the guard if there had been someone arrested for the counterfeited coins. To my surprise it had.
"Yes, Missy" The guard had told me. " We just had one this sunday" Two days, I thought. Interesting.

"Did you interrogate him?" I asked.

"Yes, Miss,. He know nothing more than we knew. Apparently, he was not the one making them, he was just a servant of a higher authority".
"Would you like to see him MIss"

I ignored him and my mind rushed, rushed fast. There had been someone besides the man I killed which meant this was not jsut some random game in which the Rogue was in. There was something more.

"I'll be back" I said to the guard of the jail and hurried back to the underground court.
I was not that good with interrogations, my job and pleasure was killing, and unless I wanted to end uip in the same jail, I had to tell someone.
As soon as i arrived, the first face I saw was Jas'. She was froening, grimacing strangely, whispering to herself.

"What's wrong?" I asked, my breathing a little difficult since I ran from the jail to the court.

"Grayson, Grayson is wrong" She told me, a bit exasperated. "He left the Rogue...left him alone"

"Yes, ok, he'll get what he deserves, but there is actually someone in jail for the coins, someone was trading them."
She stopped arguing and looked at me with curiosity.

"Really?"

"Yes, you have to come, now. Leave the rogue with Kayla. She can take care of him better that any of us does."

Daniel
He had been cleaning the ashes of the fire they burned the last night. But his mind was somewhere else, 9in Krissy's plan to go to town. She had given him some small hints of what it was about, but he wanted to know more.
"Krissy, do you think you could tell me and tell Maria after?" he siad, trying hard to make his voice sound normal and not too desperate to know.

"No, patience is a virtue" she said smiling.

Maria

I looked up at the fort. There were memories here. Grayson seemed lost in them as he looked at it. I also saw some sadness in his eyes. "It's wonderful." I said quietly. "I built something like this when I was younger."

GRAYSON

Grayson smiled. "It was so much more fun when we were younger though. It was like my own space."

Maria nodded. Her scars were accentuated out here, but it only made Grayson admire and like her more. She was one tough cookie. He felt...something close to happiness with her.

She turned to look at him and blushed slightly when she noticed him looking at her scars.

"Looks pretty bad, huh?" She asked, trying to act as if it didn't bother her. Grayson rolled his eyes.

"Not really," he told her, honestly. "It's just part of you. I like the Maria with the scars."

He smiled playfully and winked a little. Then, slowly, he reached out to touch the side of her face. He could feel her skin, even though it was slightly puckered from the scars, it was still soft.

Grayson looked at her in the face now. He had never really felt an attraction to a girl, but Maria was different. She wasn't just a pretty face. She was so much more.

Grayson leaned down and touched his lips on hers for a second and pulled back, blushing for the first time in years. What had he done?

Maria

I looked at him in shock as he leaned in towards me. What is he- Then his lips touched mine.

My eyes widened. He pulled away quickly. He turned red and looked shocked with himself. "I-"

I cut him off with a wave of my hand. My heart was thumping so hard that if it went any faster it would surely explode. "It's fine. I..." I wasn't sure how to tell him that I had actually enjoyed that. I wasn't sure how to tell myself that fact. A small smile played around my lips. It had been years since something like this had happened to me.

Jas

I shivered as I followed Lorraine along the jail corridors. I had to admit, the place creeped me out, with the silent, cruel looking guards and the screams occasionally echoing through the hallways. At least Kayla was watching the Rogue. I knew SHE wouldn't leave him, no matter what.

Lorraine led me down another hallway and stopped halfway down at one of the doors. She held up a heavy iron key. "The guards lent me this. It's amazing how much people respect you when you're one of the Rogue's top servants," she said, smiling, but I could tell that she was just as freaked out by the jail as I was. Her hand shook slightly as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.

The cell was small and cold, lit only by a single flickering torch. The flames made strange shadows dance along the stone walls. A man was chained to the far wall. He was slumped on the floor, looking defeated. His clothes were torn and burn marks from the guards' interrogation covered his lower arms.

"What's your name?" I demanded, slipping into the cold, steely mask I used to question prisoners. I hated this side of me, the side that could torture people and make men scream, but it wasn't like I had any choice. Someone had to find out who was threatening the Rogue.

"Xan," he whispered hoarsely.

"Okay, Xan," I said, moving closer. He flinched away. "I have some questions for you. Where did you get the counterfeited coin?"

"I already told the guards, I don't know!" he said.

I kicked him in the ribs, hard. "That might be a good enough answer for the guards, but not for me," I said softly. "Now, let me ask you again, where did you get the coin?"

"I..." He trailed off and I kicked him again. He shrank back against the wall and wheezed, "I... at one of the gambling houses!"

"A gambling house?" Lorraine asked.

He nodded. "It's called Old Birchwood's."

"There," I said. "See how much easier it is when you cooperate? Question two. Who gave it to you?"

Xan hesitated, and I raised my foot again. "It was one of the Rogue's servants. I think his name was... Gryk?"

There was a long, long moment of silence, then Lorraine swore loudly.

"Gryk was working for the counterfeiters?" I asked, bewildered.

** Magnus ... *in awe of epicness* That's really good. Tiger and Crocky : Aw. **

Krissy:

Tapping her fingers impatiently on the desk, Krissy sighed. Where are you Maria?Daniel had been pestering her all day for her plan, but he had simply shooed him away explaining that patience was a virtue, but now Krissy was bursting to share.

She lay her head down on her desk, looking meekly at her sheets. It's gonna work. I know it will. Krissy closed her eyes and imagined the three on them sweeping into the city like shadows in the night, leaving pools of blood around the Rogue.

Jas

"It's the only explanation!" Lorraine whispered. "Come on, what did we really know about Gryk, anyways?"

"That's true," Kayla said, looking uneasy. She looked over her shoulder to where the Rogue was sitting on his throne, seemingly oblivious to our hushed conversation. "We only ever saw him when we were doing official Rogue business. It's not like we were best friends or anything. He could have been a counterfeiter..."

I nodded slowly. "Gryk's biggest talent was business and money. He would have recognized a fake coin immediately if someone had given it to him. There's no way he would have kept gambling with false coins. He had to be in on the counterfeiting scheme."

"Which means the Loyal wasn't so loyal after all," Lorraine mused. We all looked at each other, and I knew they were thinking of Grayson, too.

Kayla pulled out one of her daggers and began to twirl it nervously. "If the counterfeiters could bribe or hire one of the Rogue's top servants, who knows who else is in on it? Half the court could be corrupt. Anyone could be plotting the Rogue's murder. The cooks, the guards... any of them could try to kill him. He isn't even safe with his own people."

"We have to get to the bottom of this tonight," I said urgently. "We have to stop these people NOW. We'll go search Gryk's house, question his neighbors, anything."

All three of us stood.

"Wait," Kayla said. "Who's going to watch the Rogue?"

"I will," Lorraine volunteered.

"Okay," I said. "We'll be back soon. And if Grayson comes back, don't let him anywhere near the Rogue, all right? We can't trust him anymore. We can't trust anyone but each other."

Lorraine
I really didn't really want to get into this, but I had to and I was willing to do it. It was a hard situation, but If I had a self preservation instinct, I had to do it.
The Rogue was sitting in his throne looking thoughtful. It was weird to see him like that, he looked different, as if some strange fear had been crawling up inside of him.
Daring to talk to him, I went inside with my head low and sight to the floor.
"My Lord, are you ok?" I asked him.

"Lorraine, you don't have to do that, look at me" he demanded, not with the same strenghth in his voice.

"yes my Lord," and I did as he told me.

"Where are kayla and Jas?" He asked me. I was not sure if it was right to tell him what they were up to. The worse par of it, was that I was involved in that.

"They just departed, my Lord, not known destination. They said they had some things to do"
It was all could could think of; it sounded inocent and it didn't brig up any suspicions.

"What about Grayson?"

"He left, since early in the morning. We haven't known of him yet."

Daniel
He was getting anxious, really anxious. He had never been patient, not had liked secrets. But he felt some respect towards Krissy that kept him from asking him and bothering that much.
"Hope she comes soon" He said to her, kissing her soft lips.

Krissy:

Her face flushed in disappointed as Daniel slipped again again. It was obvious he wanted to know, the burning curiosity rolling off him in waves. She was about to call him back but bit her tongue. Just wait Krissy, she'll be back.

Sighing, she returned to adding to the map. Flowers taking form on the edge of the page as time went by.

Jas

Gryk's house was surprisingly pretty, with a neat white fence and colorful flowerbeds. It was small, but elegant looking. I privately thought it was really girly for one of the Rogue's top fighters and assassins, and by the look on Kayla's face, I could tell that she thought so too.

"I'm surprised no one else moved in," Kayla said.

"He hasn't been dead for very long," I answered as we jumped the fence. "Did you bring the lock picks, or do we have to break a window?"

"I brought them," she said. "Let's go around the back so the neighbors don't see us breaking in."

We crept around the house. Kayla fiddled with the lock on the back door while I bounced up and down on the balls of my feet. I hoped the Rogue was still okay. And what about Grayson? Had he turned traitor, or was he in danger?

"Got it," Kayla said. The door swung open silently and we stepped inside a neat little room. It had a polished table, two chairs, a vase, even two paintings on the walls. "Now what are we looking for?"

I started running my hands over the walls - a trick I had learned from Lorraine - while Kayla headed towards the next room. "Coins, letters - "

"Dead bodies?"

Daniel.
It was late in the afternoon when he stopped working and finally sat down in one of the chairs in the small kitchen. He noticed Krissy had avoided him the whole morning after the last time he asked for her plans. Keep your mouth shut. He thought as he considered that maybe he was bothering too much. God, patience. He begged in his mind, sinking his head on the table.
"Hello" Krissy said, coming through the door and going to him. At least she still loved him, even when she knew he was unbearable. He felt her arms wrap around his chest softly and he enjoyed it.

"I'm sorry" Daniel said. "I mean, I have no patience at all and I really..."

But she cut him off, placing one of her skinny soft fingers in his mouth.

"Want to know and you'll know, ok? Soon" She assured him. He took a deep breath and look right into her eyes. Slowly he leaned forward and kissed her lips with his.

"Will you tell me?" he said, as he kissed her.

"No, not right now, that won't convince me, so please?" She said stopping his kiss and moving her hand in a sign that told him get out of the way. It suprised him but he laughed, it amused him how strong and determined she was.