Chapter 19: Famous?
Lilian was sitting in a plush pink chair with her chin propped on her hand looking out the window. It had been 5 days since Jack had appeared. If it weren't for her father's incessant questioning she would have thought that she had gotten so desperate that she imagined it.
Seeing the stars shinning out side her thoughts went back to the first thing Jack ever said to her.
=Why of course I'm here to see you. While there is stars shining outside and gold within the ballroom, how could a miss the brightest gem here?=
Sighing softly Lilian put out her reading lamp, left her window open a crack, and climbed into her bed hugging a teddy bear tightly.
*Creak..... Knock Knock*
"Anyone home? I've got a order for a uhh.. Miss beautiful, would that be you?"
Spinning around Lilian saw a familiar face grinning outside her window. Rushing over Lilian opened her window and hugged Jack nearly making him fall. Grabbing her tightly to prevent himself from taking a 10m (32 ft) drop.
Entering the room Jack grinned before taking out a necklace. The necklace didn't look to pretty with a light leather strap and small purple crystal tied to the end of it.
"I got you a little present, I know it's a little ugly bu-"
Lilian put a finger up to Jack's mouth, "I love it"
Grabbing it greedily Lilian put around her neck and let it sit underneath her clothes, soon it turned invisible making it seem like it had never existed. But Lilian could feel the necklace on her still, she touched it in amazement before looking at Jack with wide eyes.
"Ahem, as I was saying if you ever get in trouble, just rip the necklace off and throw it on the floor."
Lilian gave a tug at the necklace judging that if she put in a little bit of strength she could tear the leather she tucked underneath her night gown again.
"I.. I.. I was starting to think that you wouldn't come back."
"I would never do that, I am a man of my word."
Lilian nearly started crying again but controlled herself and pulled Jack onto her bed similarly to the first time they met. Hugging Jack's head she placed it on her lap petting his hair, seemingly infatuated with the feeling of another human.
"Tell me all about the outside world."
"What would you like to know?"
"Everything"
"What would you like to hear about first?"
Lilian paused and started thinking, "I want to hear about... you"
Jack blinked a couple times in surprise; but giving it further thought, he realized that Lilian had spilled her entire life story onto him when they first met.
"I suppose that's only fair, I was born on a farm....."
The night went by far quicker than ever before for Lilian. She was intoxicated from the sudden rush of human emotion and vivid story telling that Jack radiated. Jack did not hide much of anything from Lilian, she knew that he is a thief, she knew that he was a informant for the Cast's, she knew that he was a member of the thieves guild.
The only thing he didn't say was that he was from another world. He figured that he'd keep that a secret, one because he had only met her twice, and two because it would be a little to unbelievable. He also refrained from telling her about the emblem, for obvious reasons.
Jack checked his watch and seeing that there was 3 hours till morning got up off the bed.
"I have to return to the church before they notice somethings up, I will drop by when I get the chance."
"Bring some of those Kebabs with you next time"
"Alright"
With that Jack landed silently on the ledge and teleported away.
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A couple weeks later Jack was reorganizing the lower artifacts with Lance.
"You okay Lance you seem a little off today?"
Lance had dark bags under his eyes, and was slouching slightly and even less responsive than usual. If someone looked at the two from an outside perspective they would've thought that Lance had stayed up very late at night and not Jack.
In reality Jack should be looking tired as he had stayed up talking to Lilian again, but was using his Aura to make his complexion better and started taking his shifts later in the morning to catch a few extra hours of sleep.
"Mmm, it's nothing"
"It's obviously not nothing, I may have only known you for a couple months at most. But that's long enough to know that somethings wrong."
"..."
"I promise that I wont say anything about it to anyone else I just wanna help."
"Can you swear your life on that?"
"I swear if some one pointed a g... sword at my neck I would stay silent"
Jack had nearly screwed up by saying gun to his head, but he then realized that Lance wouldn't know what a gun was so he changed it before he messed up.
Narrowing his eyes at Jack Lance, *Pfft* "Very well I'll hold you to that, you've obviously heard about the item stolen from the Hildegard's"
Jack almost twitched his eye but kept calm, "I could I not there's posters plastered all over Forgemire. But what does this have to do with you, it's not like you stole it or anything... Wait"
"Hahahaha, don't be ridiculous, I haven't left the church in almost a year. Let alone train myself to handle a stealth mission like that."
Jack broke his act, grinning at Lance and motioning for him to continue.
"No, what's been troubling me is that well, the Hildegard's and I have some... rough history. Now that the items been stolen they have been putting constant pressure on me."
"Alright but I don't see why I would have to swear secrecy on this.."
"I'm not finished. You see, I got into the church after failing the acolyte test 3 times. The only reason I'm in here today is because the Hildegard's gave me the scriptures I needed, but in turn I needed to feed them information."
"So you're an informant."
"No, well not anymore. At first it started as small questions causing no harm, but then they became progressively more and more gruesome. Such as how to manipulate healing magic into torture. I eventually managed to cut ties with them but they've been after me since."
Jack looked at Lance up and down, and thought about all the interactions with him, and why he was so cold made sense to him now.
After not hearing any response from Jack, Lance lowered his head in shame.
"When I heard about the theft I was initially happy, but then I became a suspect and they are constantly trying to get me out of the church."
"I see, that is quite the story I must admit. But something tells me that it will be found soon, so you shouldn't need to worry any longer."
"How do you know?"
"Let's just call it a poor man intuition" Winking Jack turned around and left the storage area and checked out for the day.
Laying down on his bed he laughed melancholily to himself, (Sorry for causing you so much trouble Lance, but I've got stunts to be pulling soon. Ill make sure that you get relief as soon as possible.)
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Meanwhile at the Jovial Joint, Shark was walking out and turned quickly into an alley heading towards Annalise's
"Well, well, well, if it isn't my Ol' friend Shark."
At hearing the rough voice calling out from behind him he quickly grabbed his knife and swung it at the mans neck.
But before his knife could touch flesh he felt the press of cold steel against his throat.
"Haven't changed I see" The man cocked an eyebrow toward Shark.
"I could say the same thing to you, what do you want."
"Nothing much, I just want to know who stole the emblem."
"How would I know that?"
The man pressed the knife harder on Shark's throat so a little bit of blood trickled out. Soon he spoke in a tone that did not reflect his cold eyes or his actions.
"Don't play coy with my Ol' Shark, if there's anyone in all of Forgemire that knew the best thieves around it would be you."
"Even if I did know who did it I wouldn't tell you, you'd just 'test' their skills for yourself."
"HeheheHaHAHAHA, aww come on I only want to have a little fun with 'em. There's no fun and games until some one gets hurt after all!"
Shark's face turned red as veins visibly showed. Quickly grabbing the man's knife arm Shark spun landing his elbow on the mans face.
In response the man moved his front foot and pulled up on Sharks leg putting him of balance and punching him in the face.
Stumbling backwards Shark hit the trash cans on the alley as a foot was placed on his chest.
"Now let me ask you again, are you sure you don't know who stole the emblem?"
Feeling the knife press onto his throat again Shark simply spit on the ground, "Piss off Specter"
"Very well, good bye Ol' Shark"
Lifting his Dagger to slice Sharks throat, a voice suddenly called out.
"WAIT, I'LL TELL YOU"
Turning around the man saw Annalise breathing heavily obviously had just ran to find them both here.
"Oh? what's their name and location?"
"It's a man named Jack Axter, I don't know where he is currently he moves around a lot"
The man called Specter looked at Shark smiling gloatingly.
"See? Now that didn't look so hard, did it? Well it's been nice chatting to you two again but I have a certain Jack Axter to have fun with. So if you'll excuse me I'll take my leave."
The man then jumped up onto the wall propelling himself against the other wall back and forth until he reached the roof and disappeared. The eyes of Annalise and Shark both watched the man leave before breathing a breath of relief.
Annalise looked toward Shark with worried eyes, "First are you okay, and will Jack be okay?"
Shark looked at Annalise his emotions unreadable, "I'm fine and as for Jack, he's a pretty unique kid, but then again so was Specter"
Annalise got down and helped Shark up before taking one last glance at were Specter had disappeared.
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