Iron Station Savage Masks IC IV

[Roguewolf]

November 1st
Natasha’s Office, Keith
Natasha glances up to give Keith a half smile after Stolas introduces himself. “It’s not really something that can be healed. I’ve just been having with some serious nausea. I’ve been trying to deal with it without taking any medications, but I might just have to give up and talk to my doctor about it and get something to help me.”

Out the window, Stolas and Drake see nothing out of the ordinary. The small amount of traffic on the streets below is moving smoothly.

She nods in slight interest as Keith talks about Stolas and goes back to her work. “It’s always good to have that voice of reason in your ear.”

Keith tilts his head and nods, figuring it best to leave well enough alone. Of course Seraph would have already tried if she brought it up to him. He felt like an idiot for a moment.

Though that seemed to be the theme of the day. He hoped that theme wouldn’t linger too long though. He tore his thoughts away from Maeve again as he found them creeping up. Anxious over what she thought.

“Sounds like a plan then, hopefully something comes about from it.” He responded with a smile. Stolas turned around and nodded with nothing to report.

At Natasha’s response, he couldn’t help but chuckle and project to the room.

”Thank you for the kind words, Ms. Balinski. He certainly has a way of worrying about what can and can’t be done. And needs more certainty in other endeavors.” The raven would have grinned.

Keith looks over at him. “Tryin’ to take your advice now. Can’t help it considerin’ everything today.” He shrugged before looking back at Natasha. “It really is though. But I’m sure it’s giving him a lot to laugh about too.”

He grins a bit. “Probably shouldn’t be too used to a voice in my head like that, but East Side and working with telepaths and all.” He shrugged and then tilted his head at the clock. He chuckled a bit. “Guess if he wants, next time in certain endeavors he can take the lead.”

Stolas turned around from the window and shook his head. ”Nope, not so you can blame me then if things go straight to the ninth circle of Hell.”

East Side Rooftop, Keith and John
When they arrive at East Side, Grayson is seated on the edge of the roof. His feet dangle off the edge and he’s looking up at the clear night sky, stargazing.

He flinches as the two of them appear out of nowhere, startled out of his attempt to relax. With a shaky breath he turns, swinging his legs back over the edge so that he can hop down from the lip of the roof and make his way over to them.

“I-I’m a little confused,” he says. “What’s s-so important that we h-had to talk about it tonight? Emi had men-mentioned something, but…” he trails off.

While he’d normally at least smile at Keith, he barely looks up at him before he sits on the edge of one of the chairs that John conjured. “I know it has something t-to do with the dragon,” he continues quietly to answer Keith’s question. “But th-that’s all.”

Keith tilts his head seeing Grayson’s reaction and looks at the ground. If they had talked about the dragon and part of the challenge, then Grayson knew John’s knowledge of their talk the other night.

And that John knows about the dragon. Maybe even his name being Valèdir. Time like this, it would be difficult to even let Grayson know he hadn’t told John anything he didn’t already know. It would be hard to believe.

“So then he told you he knows about both.” Keith said with a sigh before taking a seat on the edge of a chair. He had a slight concern it might entrap him as well.

“Then, let me say that yesterday when he told me about some extended family, he already knew about our talk at the party. But that’s a conversation for later. The dragon though, how did-”

Keith shook his head. “Nevermind, that can wait.” He figured he didn’t want to know the answer right now anyway.

“I’m sorry to have interrupted your stargazing, Grayson,” John offered. “I’t a lovely night for it.”

“To answer your question, Keith,” John began, also taking a seat, “I came to East Side earlier today for a dinner meeting, where I consulted with Dr. Riviera about some disturbing developments with our enemies here in the city. Those details, however, are for another time as they don’t directly impact what we are here to discuss.

[shortened for length]

“It is my understanding that he has not shared this with you. I’ve also been told he has not shared with you his name.

John’s eyes fixed on Grayson’s—watching him closely for any signs of change as he shifted forward in his chair in order to keep his hand close to the pocket that contained the Janus Mirror.

“His name, Grayson, is Valèdir.”

“Given these revelations, everyone thought it might be for the best if you had a friend,” (Don’t say frenemy.) “or two nearby and the opportunity to ask follow up questions.”

At John’s explanation, Keith tilts his head at first about the revelation of the enemy and sighed. “This is going to be hard to explain to Uncle in the morning…” He muttered considering his half sister was now in on everything it seemed.

At the mention of the forest Myriad owned, Keith looked over at Grayson. It wasn’t all too surprising that he had gone to a private forest to let the dragon roam for a bit, but that meant things were really bad for him to take off and return like he did.

At the rest of it, Keith’s eyes widened. He had heard a good bit about it the night before, but the entire situation still struck him.

He had essentially condemned John by trying to support Grayson. This wasn’t the area he expected to condemn someone to death by fire fight, but it happened the same.

Why does Ian have to keep being right about me…… He wondered, thinking back to being called a bad luck charm.

As John mentioned the name, and that Valèdir had not shared that information with Grayson, Keith kept his eye on his friend. His eyes were wide as well. It would be surprising for anyone to hear, even then realizing that Grayson wasn’t just hiding the dragon’s identity but that he had no idea about the name.

“So…. I have a question. If, and I do say if, it breaks out then what would be the terms of the challenge? I know to the death but….. What if any are the restrictions?” Keith looked between the pair again. “I don’t know a lot about dragon culture so there may need to be a crash course or a borrowed book.”

A teammate, well someone he considered a teammate since on paper they were a team of five according to Louis, and a friend that’s like a brother to him at odds. He needed to know more of how this challenge would work so he could plan. Either how to avoid it, or how to keep it from escalating.

Probably too late for that. He felt the pain from the earlier fights return too, but he deserved that. At least he felt he did.