She waved a hand at Jared, pushing his request to assist away. She didn't like asking for help, even at the best of times, although she feared she may need it in a moment "It's.. It's alright, Mr. Rayne," she said, leaning against the doorway. "Just.. give me a moment." Her brain was still fuzzy, and she shook her head, trying to clear it. "How.. how long was I unconscious?" There was an expression on her face, almost like guilt, as if passing out was a luxury that she was not allowed.
"Damn it," she muttered. She sighed, tilting her head back and looking at the sky. She pursed her lips in annoyance, and then looked back at Jared. "Alright. You know what? I'll take you up on that offer. Would you mind..?"
"Not at all" He replied modestly as he put Natalia's arm round his shoulder and helped her to the captain's quarters.
The door swung open on the room. The last rays of sunlight strayed in through the large window. She nodded gratefully at Jared, and removed her arm. "Thank you," she said heavily, crossing to a map covering the northern wall. She absently picked off dead leaves of one of her plants as she gazed at the yellowed paper. "Did Jack get the order to go towards Urela?" she asked suddenly.
"Perhaps I should go talk to him," Natalia said, scratching Bainslough off the map with a quill and ink. "He worries too much. I've been through worse than that." Warning bells were ringing slightly in her brain, but she was too foggy to truly sort through them, and she turned to Jared with a questioning look in her eyes. Something was wrong here, but she couldn't figure it out. "Where is he now?" she asked, "Is he alright?"
"I don't know. Last I saw him he ran you down to the infirmary. Then I sat down in my kitchen and saw you" He locked the door. "Sit down, you need to rest. You don't want that wound opening again. It would be... bad..."
"I'm fine. I should go find him." Natalia was watching Jared warily, and she tilted her head with a faint strain of curiosity. "Are you alright, Mr. Rayne?"
"Oh, I'm fine." He said, slowly approaching Natalia. "It's just that I've got something on my mind that I can't get rid of..."
She narrowed her eyes, and backed away. "Don't do something you're going to regret, Mr. Rayne," she said softly. Her pupils dilated, and her back was to the window. "I'm going to go talk to Jack now."
Avice looked around for a moment, a small grin on her face. She mover over to Jack. "Have you ever been to Urela before?" She asked with a delightful expression of curiosity.
"Urela?" Jack asked, turning to focus on Avice with a small smile. His thumbnail was bitten down, indicative of the worry that he was feeling. "I think a long time ago. I distinctly remember the smell of coconuts. You?
"I've never been. Only heard stories and such." She smiled warmly, oblivious to the signs of his worry.
"What was it now?... It was definitely something important..." He reached the front of the desk. "Oh right... that was it" He pulled out a knife and stabbed it into the desk. "Your debt"
"I think Ellia was there for a long time," Jack said thoughtfully, adjusting the wheel with minute turns. "Y'know, before she came to us. I hear that it's really lovely this time of year. Apparently, the whole, 'desert. barren land of death' is a really big misconception. It's more.. tropical nowadays." * * * Natalia paused in her nervousness, and she cocked her head, like a puppy getting a foreign command. "My debt?" she asked, looking genuinely confused, her brow furrowed. "What debt?"
Jared pulled the knife out of the table. "Weeelll... It's not necessarily YOUR debt... Your father owed us some money before he died. We never received our pay, so the debt was passed to you. I do hope you can pay in full today or else we might have some... issues."
Natalia laughed, but it was almost a bark. "My father's fortune was given to Knox. Not me. I didn't see a penny of it." She looked at the slice in the wood where Jared had slammed the dagger down. "Did you really have to do that?" Natalia asked, slightly melancholy. "That was a gift. You could have just said what you wanted." Shaking her head in mourning, she returned her gaze to Jared evenly. "What exactly was the debt for, and how much is it?" (Sassy Natalia is best Natalia)
"Your father had promised us a sum of the money in his will in return for your protection. Now that he's dead and you're his next of kin, you need to pay us for our services. If I remember correctly, you owe us... 25,000 gold coins..."
She shook her head, incredulously. "My protection?" she said, her voice rough with anger. "If you were hired for that, then you must have done a pretty *squee!*ty job."
