[Chapter 2 - Scene] Drinking buddies

[sarcasticfonist.livejournal.com]

Who: Guy and Jade
Where: The bar in Chesedonia across from Astor's mansion (for the sake of this, we defined that the ferry to Baticul wasn't to leave until the next day, so Astor offered them a place to stay while analyzing the fon disc)
When: After Choral Castle
Warnings: Jade is devious and Guy is a lightweight. Probably will be fodder for more logs also.


Jade sat down at the end of the bar, a spot he found he preferred. It afforded some measure of privacy, but allowed him to remain close enough to keep his glass full and at this time, he needed it.

Of course, this was also going to be tricky enough as it was, he wanted to get a few tidbits of information and probably the best way to get a certain blonde servant talking was to get some alcohol into him. There was little harm in it, he was old enough to be doing so, this was just slightly more devious.

He signaled to the bartender that he was ready to order. It wasn’t too crowded yet, so the Malkuth Colonel had little time to wait. One thing he did like about Chesedonia’s bar, they didn’t care who you were, as long as you had the money to cover your drinks. If his hunch was correct, this money would be well spent, even including the bribe he was going to have to give.

“I’ll have a glass of wine. Also, I’d like to ask a favor,” he asked once the bartender came over.”

The bartender looked wary at first, but softened a bit after looking more carefully at Jade. “What sort of favor?”

The colonel pulled out some money, more than enough to cover drinks for two people for many nights. “A friend of mine will be arriving soon. He’s been through some tough times and needs to loosen up a bit. Unfortunately, he doesn’t much like the taste of alcohol, so my getting him to drink and relax is proving to be difficult. Is there a chance you could aid me in this without his knowledge?”

The bartender looked over the money and at Jade. “You don’t plan on doing anything to this friend of yours?”

Jade smiled his usual sarcastic grin. “Of course not. I merely want to help him relax and forget his troubles. If anything happens because of it, I’ll take responsibility.”

The bartender agreed. Now it was just up to Jade to ensure that he asked the right questions once the alcohol took effect. But first, his blonde friend would have to arrive.

Guy came in a few minutes later, not quite sure what Jade wanted to meet him here for. He was glad that, in meeting with Astor, the mayor of Chesedonia, they had been asked to stay at his mansion, which alleviated a few of Guy's worries about leaving Luke and Natalia alone, especially after what had happened at Choral Castle.

He glanced around until he found Jade, and then walked over to the Malkuth colonel and sat down across from him.

"What did you want to see me about?" he asked.

Jade didn’t seem surprised about the reaction from Guy, they still really hadn’t gotten to feeling comfortable around each other. “Merely to discuss a few things without the children around. Somehow I don’t think Luke or Natalia should hear some of this.”

He had to admit, he was curious about those machines they had found when they rescued Luke. It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing one would find in the vacation home of a noble, especially an abandoned one. From what it looked like, the machines were added after the home was abandoned, which meant something was not right.

“Please, have a seat and get yourself a drink. It probably would help you relax after having to deal with what has happened.”

"I don't drink," Guy said. It wasn't that he never had, Pere had taken him out for his coming of age, but Guy's frame wasn't that big, and the alcohol had hit him rather quickly. Pere had taken him back to the manor at that point, but he didn't want to know what he might say around Jade that shouldn't be said.

Of course Jade wasn’t going to mention his deal with the bartender. Guy would be drinking and not know it. “You don’t need to order what I did, but I would hate to be rude and enjoy my wine while you had nothing. You could always order juice or a drink with no alcohol,” he said with a grin similar to the one that he gave to the bartender.

Guy’s words meant this would be quite an easy task, people who didn’t drink usually were that way because they either had no tolerance or no control of themselves.

Guy didn't trust Jade. At all. And that grin made him nervous. However, this was an established bar and the bartender wouldn't do anything to endanger his license, he hoped.

"Fine... Iced tea, then."

Jade placed the order making sure Guy heard him clearly that he didn’t change anything about it. He gave the bartender the money and even another tip. The last thing he wanted was for Guy to think anything was suspicious beyond Jade treating him to a few drinks.

“Don’t worry about paying, since I asked you here, I’ll cover the bill.”

He waited for Guy’s drink to arrive before starting their conversation. He planned to start with something that had nothing to do with Guy himself, the machines. It may make the servant wary, or he may know nothing, but it was a more safe topic than the personal issues he wanted to get out of the servant, and still something he was curious about.

“From what I recall, Luke was found at Choral Castle when he was kidnapped.” Of course Jade left out the supposedly by Malkuth part, he was suspecting even more that Malkuth was blamed as a cover up for that and to ensure more hostility between the nations. Considering what happened, he was suspecting the Order had something to do with it. “An odd location for such a thing, and those machines, were they there before that happened?”

Guy took a sip of his drink. "I'd never been to Choral Castle before that. I was 14 when Luke disappeared, so it wasn't like the adults talked to me much." Guy took another sip.

"Duke Fabre abandoned Choral Castle when the front lines got too close in the last war. That was before I came into his employ. But if the buzz from the maids is anything to go by, yeah, that's where Luke was found."

So obviously the young servant claimed he had nothing to do with it. So many pieces here and they just were not coming together. The two blondes looked familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite place who they were, he definitely had not met the God-General before, he would have recognized the man, since they were about the same age, but the younger of them he may have met in the past at some point and the difference in years could be what was tugging at his memory. Then the presence of those machines which he knew were to create replicas brought back even more unpleasant memories.

For some reason, Jade was getting a thought of Hod and the experiments going on there. He didn’t understand why he was remembering that. Was that what they encountered? A repeat of those experiments? Or was Hod where he had met the servant sitting next to him now? If that was the case, then he had to wonder why? The only residents he remembered meeting were Malkuth nobles and their servants, and they would hate Duke Fabre with a passion.

“Still, a strange thing to find in the basement of a vacation home, unless Duke Fabre has an interest in fontech, and even then, that isn’t something most would keep in their basement.”

Guy sipped his drink, mulling these things over. "Duke Fabre's territory does include Belkend, but he's always had more of a 'hands-off' approach to their research. I would hazard a guess that one of the researchers was using Choral Castle, but it's so far from Belkend, I can't see why they would want to."

“That’s the point, and the God-Generals seemed to know about it, or else why repeat history? Something isn’t right here, and I have a feeling you and Luke play a large role in it.”

Of course, the question was, what was the intent of the God-Generals? Why make use of fomicry machines on the boy? If he was a replica, then that made sense, but why would the Order even bother with it and risk the trouble that could come from it? Fomicry was forbidden to be used on living creatures, and yet here was evidence that the Order didn’t care.

Guy took a slightly larger drink, finishing off his glass. "Well, I don't know what to tell you. I might be a fontech buff, but I've never seen machines like that before, so unless you want to fill me in on what they were, I can't help you." Guy didn't know what the God-Generals were up to, but Van wanted to protect Luke, and the God-Generals should be following Van's orders.

Now that was even more interesting to Jade. Either the servant was lying to him, or he truly was clueless. The problem was, he didn’t quite want to reveal his own past at this time unless it truly was necessary or someone else brought it up first. He was surprised Dist hadn’t mentioned it actually.

“They aren’t familiar because the technology was forbidden before it became well known. However it was a hobby of Dist’s.”

But yet if Luke was a replica as he was suspecting, why would Dist suddenly show an interest if he was involved in making the boy in the first place? Or had that been left to another because Dist wasn’t quite trusted yet? “Or maybe your look alike has something to do with it. From what little I could gather of the man he seemed to have an interest in fon tech also if the shock I received in battle means anything.”

And there, now the topic was steering more towards the personal he was curious about. He really wished he could put the pieces together about all this, he just knew he had met one of the two blondes at some point, and he was suspecting the younger of the two.

Guy didn't like the fact that his cousin had been brought up, especially not after having run into him at Kaitzur Naval Port. "I don't know," Guy said. He had finished his drink, and wasn't feeling anything. Maybe his worries over Jade were unfounded.

Seeing very little of an effect so far, he figured he would have to get another drink into the blonde servant. It was probably far harder to slip alcohol in undetected since it did have a rather strong taste. Without even asking Guy, he ordered another iced tea for Guy and since his own glass was nearly empty, he ordered another for himself and paid for both again with a tip for the bartender, again to seem like there was nothing devious going on.

“Well, we didn’t see him there, and who knows, he could well have died in the battle also. I just can’t see Dist acting on his own, it’s not like him. Someone else knew what was there and what to do., and they obviously were not acting under their Commandant’s orders.”

Though on that note, the Oracle Knights’ commander didn’t seem to want them to have gone, whether that was for Ion’s safety, or it was to ensure that they didn’t see the machines, he also did not know. But Van was looking to be the biggest suspect behind all this.

"How do you know so much about God-General Dist, anyway?" Guy asked, accepting his second tea from the bartender with a nod. He took a sip.

Jade gave his companion a sarcastic grin. “Dist tries to imitate me and fails quite readily at it. It’s quite sad actually considering how many years he has spent doing so. He’s like a stray puppy that follows you home and won’t go away.”

Of course, he didn’t fail to notice the quick topic change. He’d try to steer the topic back in that direction once the young man had a bit more to drink.

"So you've known him for a while, then?" Guy asked, taking another sip. He was distracted by keeping Jade away from the subject of his family, and wasn't noticing that he was starting to feel a little warm.

“He seems to have a mistaken impression that we are friends. However I don’t tend to adopt strays that follow me home and make a mess all over the place.”

He took another sip of his wine and figured that the doctored drinks had to be having some effect. “I’m sure you’ve had such people in your life, maybe even Luke was like that when he was younger. From what he said, he was without memories after his kidnapping?”

"Yeah," Guy said, sipping his drink again. "No memories... He didn't even know how to walk or talk, we had to reteach him everything..." Guy's speech was clearly starting to loosen up a bit, he wasn't sounding as guarded as he usually did.

Jade could see the signs that the drinks were taking effect. He’d have to make sure to give the bartender a little extra bonus if he got some good information.

“So he was like a ten year old baby then? Obviously you had patience. Did you have a younger sibling perhaps? That would explain it.”

Guy shook his head, taking a sip. "I don't have any family, other than Pere. And it wasn't so much patience, it was the fact that none of the maids wanted to deal with him, and Lady Suzanne was too sick to care for him herself."

“You said Pere was your grandfather, right? It must be a shame to have lost your parents at a young age then if he was the one to raise you.”

Though Guy hadn’t said as much to Jade, with what he said so far, that had to be the case. “Did your grandfather help in raising Luke, or was that left solely to you as his personal servant?”

Guy took a sip. "Pere's not my biological grandfather... He adopted me after my family died... They died in the war..."

Guy tried remembering back to when Luke had first come back. His memories were a bit fuzzy, but he hadn't quite put together that it was due to something in his drink, and not the fact that he was 14 and it was 7 years ago. "I think Pere helped out where he could, but he had his own work to do, too..."

The war, that was it! Right before the war, he had been assigned to Hod and he recalled meeting a young boy during that time. Of course, that boy would be about Guy’s age now, and the similarity in looks was amazing. Guy had to be that boy grown up, and it was a relief to know he had survived somehow. Emperor Peony had actually been seeking him out for years now, ever since he took the throne in fact, just for a resolution on the matter of if the heir had survived and if the remains of the estate should be held for him, or passed along to the next in line.

It explained why there seemed to be quite the enmity between the cousins from what he saw during the battle. But yet from what he had seen, they hadn’t met until that day. That God-General was probably not behind all this, and Guy wasn’t lying, he truly knew nothing.

Of course this still didn’t answer what the God-Generals were planning. It just absolved his companion of guilt for now. Of course that didn’t mean much, he had a reason to hate Luke’s father if all of this was correct, and that would explain the secrecy. He could have his secrets, but Jade knew he couldn’t keep this from Peony, especially not if he had to get a confirmation on his suspicion, that would raise enough suspicions as it was.

“Then I would have to say it would be difficult for the both of you to raise such a boy, it explains quite a bit about him.” Jade said to fill the silence and keep quiet on his actual thoughts. It was obvious that a child shouldn’t raise a child, and Luke was evidence of what happened.

Guy took another sip from his drink, which was nearly empty again. "'snot like His Grace cared for Luke anyway... and with Lady Suzanne sick, and the maids didn't know what to do... I was the only one left..."

From the young man’s speech and lack of catching the subtle insult, it was obvious that they were nearly to the point where he was going to get some more answers. Jade ordered another drink for Guy. This would probably be the last one, since he didn’t want to deal with a sick comrade also, it would also make the trip back to Baticul most unpleasant, and he didn’t want to do that to him. A shame he had felt a need to keep secrets from the start, Jade actually trusted the young man more suspecting that he was the missing Gardios heir.

True, it made him an enemy to the one he served, but it was obvious that if there was enmity, it wasn’t directed at Luke. If Duke Fabre really cared little about his son, even more reason to not direct revenge in that direction, it wouldn’t have the right effect to take away something the Duke cared little about.

But that could be dealt with in time, when he returned to Grand Chokmah to report on this mission. For now he needed to know why the God-Generals were so interested in Luke and in trying to incite a war and kidnapping Ion. He needed to know who was giving them their commands “Didn’t you get some help from Van also? He was the boy’s sword master, right? Children usually do start training young at weaponry so he had to have been training Luke before his memory loss, right?”

"Yeah," Guy said, finishing off his second drink, and setting the empty glass to the side. "Van's always been around, far back as I remember. Sometimes he'd have me spar with Luke, since I was closer to his size, until Luke got bigger." Guy thought for a few minutes. "Van wasn't around much, though, after Luke was found. His Grace probably figured Luke had to figure out how to walk again before he could start sword training, so told Van he didn't have to come."

So Guy had known Van for some time also, and now Van’s men had an interest in Luke, maybe Van truly was the one behind all this and his stopping it was an act. Whatever the God-Generals had been up to, they finished by the time they all arrived, so it could be possible. All Luke would see was that Van came to his rescue and wouldn’t think to suspect the man was playing a very devious game.

The one thing that made no sense was why a young and spoiled noble would be of use to the leader of the Oracle Knights. Of course, he didn’t know a lot about the use of swords either, but Guy seemed to fight differently than Luke did. Guy acted more defensively whereas Luke preferred brute force. “A shame he didn’t learn much from you, your methods seem far more effective than his, but perhaps that is more experience? Of course I can’t see how a servant to a noble boy who never leaves his manor would have such experience in battle and such extensive training at that. Was that something your grandfather saw to perhaps?”

Guy sipped his third glass. "Yeah, Pere taught me a lot. He was my sword instructor, growing up. Completely different style from what Van uses, though." Guy was starting to feel a bit light headed, and rubbed his eyes a bit.

Jade could tell he didn’t have much more time to be asking questions from the looks of things. “And the God-General who looks like you seems to fight more like Luke, so he obviously learned from Van rather than Pere. A shame that war can separate a family so.”

"Wasn't the war," Guy mumbled, his vision swimming.

“It wasn’t? Then what separated you from your only family?” Now he was getting somewhere, he knew the last piece of the puzzle was the God-General. That was the one thing he was having difficulty with, if they were working together or not.

"Dunno... He hates me, though... Somethin' about being Heir..." Guy was swaying slightly, and it seemed almost as if he might fall out of his chair at any moment.

Things were slowly getting clearer, and from the looks of things, Jade maybe had a chance for one more question. But how did Guy know the God-General hated him if they just met that day? From his impression of things, they hadn’t had time to talk.

It would seem they weren’t minus one enemy after all. He had nearly confirmed the young man’s identity, so bringing that up was probably not the best idea, especially if he would remember this later. It was best for him to think his secret was safe for now. “So your cousin is still alive then? When did you see him?” Jade asked, sounding concerned, and he truly was, this might be a potential threat to them later if there was indeed no love lost between this family.

Guy's eyes were barely focused, but he tried looking up at Jade. "When I was getting supplies... at the Naval Base..." he admitted. He had truely been shaken up, which was most of why he hadn't revealed the encounter before, besides the family connection.

Guy was swaying worse than before, and a slight move knocked him off-balance enough that he ended up on the edge of his seat, and falling to the side.

So they hadn’t killed that God-General after all, and now it seemed he was making threats to his only remaining family, though that wasn’t said, he could see that from how much it had taken to find out they even had met. Guy’s cousin wasn’t behind this, it was obvious his intent was something else entirely.

Jade got up and was quickly at his companion’s side. Any lack of trust he had before was definitely gone. A shame it had taken such a devious stunt to get this information that the young man may very well be in danger also. He placed the blonde’s arm around his shoulder. “I think we should be going back to Astor’s now. You obviously are quite tired and need some rest.”

"Y-yeah..." Guy muttered, his head reeling. He couldn't figure out why he felt so hot and flushed, and his head was too fuzzy.

Before leaving, Jade slipped the bartender a bit more money and thanked him for his assistance. When they got back to Astor’s, he’d make sure the young man was taken care of and wouldn’t be harmed from this little prank. Thankfully he had plenty of experience in this matter from dealing with his own men and his own experiences when he was younger, it was just a shame that it had taken this sort of deviousness to get what he needed, and now he knew the young man would need protection now that his cousin had located him. He helped Guy with the short walk back to Astor’s mansion.

For now, Astor’s mansion was safe enough. But once they returned to Baticul, he couldn’t see to anything right away. “From now on, you shouldn’t be alone. Even once you return to Baticul, if you have to leave the manor for any reason, take someone with you, preferably someone who can also defend themselves.” It may sound paranoid, but just from that quick encounter, he could tell the God-General was a dangerous man.

Guy half blinked. "I c'n take care of myself..." Guy muttered, not understanding Jade's sudden supportiveness.

“I’ll explain when you aren’t so tired.” And he will probably also have to apologize for this stunt. “For now we both should get some rest.”

Guy nodded, his head heavy and not coming up from the 'down' position of the nod very easily.

They arrived at Astor’s mansion and Jade led his companion to the room that had been set aside for them. Thankfully their talk had taken long enough that Luke and Ion were already asleep and the girls were in another room. That way he didn’t have to deal with questions right now.

He had expected that he would have to play nursemaid to the rather drunk Guy, though he didn’t expect that the young man would end up in such awful shape. Of course, that was a good thing to know for future reference. He lowered his companion into bed and like a concerned parent taking care of a sick child, he tried to make his charge as comfortable as possible. Thankfully his job was made easier by Guy falling asleep the moment he hit the mattress. He quickly removed the young man’s boots and sword belt and placed them beside the bed and then pulled the blankets over him.

It was obvious that the colonel had grown to care about one of these children, his behavior was evidence of that.