Leon awoke to find himself chained next to Violet. Marion was no where to be seen, as far as he could tell. The french women stood in front of him. Leon's head pounded.

"Quite lovely actually. Few questions. Where's Marion, could you losen the chains a little, and could you explain to me why we're here!" Leon said sarcastically at first but then became more and more enraged. "What do you intend to do!"

Violet saw the blurred and watery image of the woman standing before her. She wiped her eyes, but they did not stop streaming, she placed her hand on the cold floor, only to feel the smoothness of her lute. She looked down at it, with a void expression. Nothing had happened at all, or so it appeared. She cringed, reliving the sound of it smashing echoing throughout her mind. How could the exalted bard call her friend after putting her through such torture. She shivered, not bothering to look around, though she did here the sound of something scratching the walls. Her hair covered her face as she looked down at her lap, not wanting to say something and spark another mental attack from the bard.

"Quite lovely actually. Few questions. Where's Marion, could you losen the chains a little, and could you explain to me why we're here!" Leon said sarcastically at first but then became more and more enraged. "What do you intend to do!"

She gasped and looked to her side, Leon was there, seemingly having gone through the same or similar experience she went through. "Where's Lex" she said quietly and subdued.
---

"Hmm...you're right" said Tania, understanding what he meant, the inn was not safe. She wondered what had happened to the assassin and whether there were any more around lurking about. "We'll have to get some supplies though" Windy neighed and snorted "Oh and get cleaned up too and find the others" she nodded. She wondered whether they would ever get any rest, it seemed like they were always travelling and never able to get a rest.

The woman ignored Violet completely. "Close your mouth, stupid man." She said with a heavy accent. "What I intend to do is keep you here until my maîtres arrive. Keep still now, garçon..." She knelt down next to him and inserted a needle into his neck with powerful force. Leon's arms and legs went limp. "Yes, good. Now, if you must know, my name is Adélaïde D'aubigne. You may only address me as such. The visions you experienced were a mere illusion caused by my flûte's musique. Quite believable, no? I had you begging for merci in a matter of seconds." She giggled to herself.

Violet felt betrayed, how could a bard do such an evil thing? How could she use her music to kidnap her prey? These and many more questions whirled about her head wildly until she finally had to speak out. "You witch! You're a disgrace to bards! We're supposed to use our music to heal wounds not create them. Have you forgotten the philosophy of the bardic lifestyle?"

Adélaïde shot an angry glance at Violet. She swooped in and pushed her against the wall, holding her there. She squeezed her shoulders in a painful grip. "How dare you speak of these things here!! I use my musique how I am supposed to! Destin calls my name and I answer!" She began to get frantic as she moved her face closer to Violet's. "Comment osez-vous dire que j'ai honte de la barde du nom! You will be the first to perish!" She slapped her as hard as she could and aimed a kick at her stomach.

Leon mustterd the strength to get a kick in at the French women, despite how weak he felt, the well aimed kick knocked the women off her feet. "You touch her again....and I swear that your death will be the most painful one in the last five hundred years. you best....hope I don't get free." Leon muttered weakly glaring.
------------------

Eton carried Serene into her room at the inn and put her in the bed. He covered her and then took a seat in a nearby chair. He looked around and found some bandages lying nearby. He took his shirt off and began to apply what he had for his wounds.

----------------

Tekun shook his head. The Inn was safe, he was sure of it. It was just their luck.

"The Inn is fine. The monster was unfortunent and I think there was just one assassin. I doubt something will happen again here, at least not for a while."

Violet gasped from the pain of the womans slap and doubled over from the kick that she received in her stomach, she felt none of the usual agility that she usually had. Her hair was strewn about her face, the violet left trampled on the ground. "Je parle la vérité!" she said icily. "Everyone has the choice to make their own destiny!" She shivered expecting another hit from the woman only to be saved temporarily by Leon who kicked the woman away from her.

---

Tania smiled "Hmm you are right about our terrible luck" she shrugged "I guess if you think it's safe to stay we will stay, but I wonder about the others" The inn grew larger as the walked closer towards it, surprisingly many had perished in the battle with the demon. Behind them many were being brought with makeshift stretchers, and burial mounds could be seen in the distance. She shivered slightly but with Tekun, Rana and Windy at her side she felt secure.

She regained her stature and stared at Leon for a minute. She then punched him in the left cheek and turned back to Violet. "Vous êtes un sale menteur." Her frown deepened into more of a sadness than anger. She walked over to a cushioned mat and began to meditate while kneeling on it.

The room was otherwise normal. It was the same room that Violet had entered when she had heard the soft music. The only really interesting thing was a man sitting in the corner. His face was hidden in the shadows, so only his clothing could be seen. He wore a double button shirt with golden trim. The pants matched with a single golden ring on each pants leg bottom. A double dagger holster was fitted to his left side and he held a sheathed blade next to him.

Violet didn't respond to the woman's last comment, Violet knew that she was right in her heart and that was all that mattered to her. She sat still on the ground barely moving, afraid to do anything that would bring Adélaïde's wrath upon her, but she couldn't help but notice that someone was standing in the corner with a weapon. Her body tensed, and her heart began to pound worriedly, was this person who was supposed to eliminate them. She refused to cry anymore, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to cry anymore even if she wanted too, she felt that she had cried out a month's worth of tears. She sniffed slightly, waiting to see what would happen.

Leon dangled there, his arms were limp, but not his spirit. He couldn't bare to see this happen. He was furious, but could do nothing. He felt weak.

"Violet. Don't worry. We'll get through this alright." He said trying to encourage her. He devised a plan. Something, but he was very numb at the time. It wouldn't work. "Hopefully Lex shows up."

-------------

The old man looked at J. He gave a good long stare at him him, sizing him up almost.

"You will do as I say as you travel. Also, the fee is 1000 gold. Take it or leave it." The old man said firmly. There was something about him that seemed odd.

J took a step back. "Jeez this guy wants a lot of money for this..." he thought, pulling out his large coin pouch. "Well, all that work I did over those years did pay off now!" She grinned as he dropped the large pouch in the old geezer's hands. He kept going on in his head, "You don't have to do many mercenary jobs to get 1000 gold...well at least where I worked, in the cities." He looked at the man again. "That should cover the charges you want so disparately" he joked.

The man pocketed the the money Jay gave him and then pointed to the back.

"Get in it. If there's trouble, you will assist. Do not make a move with my daughter either. If you do, I swear i'll rip your throat out." The man warned. "Understood. No trouble in the back. Now get going."

Serene was still deep asleep, though her nightmares about Endoh were over. She began to softly mutter things in her sleep. In her mind, she was running though the happier events in her life. When she got up to the moment when she met Black King for the first time, she paused her thoughts, and remembered him. The muttering stopped. She felt different, a somber moment played over in her head.
_______

J felt a small snicker forming in his head. He, however, didn't give any sign of it, having learnt to hide his emotions when speaking to someone of importance. He nodded quickly to the old geezer and walked towards the the wagon and entered it.

The man snickered softly, then erupted into a roaring laughter. It was terrifying. His voice was a menacing force, it tore at Violet's heart while Leon was left unmoved by it. He drew his sword and stepped from the corner. The glow illuminated his face, every feature defined by the flickering candlelight. The unbelievable was tossed before them, throwing their sense of reality askew. Lex, newly clothed, knelt before Violet and drew his hand lightly across her cheek.

"My dear, please do not be frightened. I could never harm you. As for my steadfast chum over here, I feel the same. I will not be delivering any fell blows to you two, this day. It's just not in the schedule to go against my morals."

Leon's jaw dropped. at this point, he did not know what to think.

"Lex...." Is alll that he muttered.

-----------------

J entered the carvan to see a women in a brown cloak, the hood was down, featuring a nearly flawless face, he brown hair was held up in a long pony tail. She sat there quietly to herself. Across from her was another, a young man, his hair was a bright yellow. He was rather short, he looked as though he couldn't be any older then sixteen.