Eliza raised an eyebrow, her gaze harsh. "So I could kill you now and you wouldn't harm her? Interesting."
His gaze was calm and easy. "I wanted to escape that place, just like you. You wouldn't have let me come if I hadn't done something drastic."
"Oh, because life was so difficult for you," she replied bitterly. "Truly, I empathize." Jude spoke up. "Eliza, he's here now. It doesn't matter."
"I'm not trying to justify my actions," he said flatly, starting to speak again before a large-ish branch hit him in the back of the head. Sona was holding it, but dropped it as he fell, knocked out.
Eliza and Jude both looked up in surprise. There was a silence before Eliza laughed almost incredulously. "I'm so glad you're still alive."
She huffed, going back and sitting down. "..I understand your hesitation to let me die or let him come with, but.. it still unnerved me. I'm not going to lie."
She tilted her head, her eyes thoughtful. "I never intended to let you die, Sona," she said, standing up and picking up Vaughn's arms and legs, pulling him over to the mat that Jude had made. "It was a matter of deciding what my next move should be. If at all possible, I wanted to avoid bringing him along." She dropped him and kneeled down, beginning to loot through his pockets.
She sighed, pulling her knees to her chest. "I suppose that's fair." There wasn't much in his pockets, but he did have a few weapons hidden on him.
Eliza took these weapons, slipping them in her pockets. "I understand that it's unnerving," she said, standing up and returning to her spot. "But believe me; I had no intention of letting you die."
She nodded, maybe looking at little more at ease. "Yeah. It's a difficult position." She looked up at the elf. "You're Jude, right?"
He had been staring into the fire, his hands folded, but when she spoke to him, he glanced over at her in surprise, his eyes sharp and cool. “I am,” he replied.
He considered her for a moment before speaking again, looking down at the fire. “You took care of the children, correct? You taught them to sew?”
He shook his head slowly, his thumb rubbing over the knuckles of his other hand. “If you left them behind, they are lost to us,” he said quietly. “There is no point in considering their fate.”
"I didn't have them partake in the escape. The rest will find them.." she said, sounding sadly hopeful.
“Grown adults who were used to suffering did not survive the explosives,” Eliza said. “If the children were with us, they surely would have perished. Do not fret. You gave them as much of a chance as you could.” She stood up, brushing off her legs. She offered both Jude and Sona the weapons she found on Vaughn’s person. “I am going to go look for some food. If the Enforcer wakes up, Sona, you have my express permission to hit him again.”
She nodded, heading into the darkness. Jude sat by the fire, his brow furrowed worriedly. “You should sleep,” he said sternly after a while, looking over at Sona. “I can keep watch until Eliza returns.”
She looked hesitant, but finally nodded, shifting to lie down. "Alright. If she's not back in an hour, wake me."
