sixwordstories | (no subject)

[Just keep it secret. Keep it safe. And he won't have to slit your throat.]

Oh....You never know when he might go off deck again. For the sake of security, it is a perfectly legitimate course of action.

[Elisha just raises a brow. Naturally, Victor's secret's safe. And he's not exactly surprised by the suggestion.]

Curious what brought him here. Britain can be so...bitchy about betrayal.

[But, you know. If it comes to that, Victor can borrow one of the guns.]

Maybe...They are here to kill you.

[You smug, shit-eating grinning asshole. Not that he says that, but his expression might well convey it.]

Is that all you came to discuss?

[Sober as a fucking judge over here. And he shrugs, crossing his legs at the ankles.]

Essentially, yes. I thought you'd like to know.

You're too kind.

[He'll make a point to keep an eye on Eli, though. Until he was more than convinced the Good Doctor wasn't talking to anyone back home he shouldn't be.]

What do you think of them?

[Elisha turns his head to look out over the gym, this time with a more critical eye. Victor was paying the most attention to...ah, the Tens.

Ah.]

Well, the blond fencer has an apparent inability to protect his left side. I'm surprised that hasn't come back on him yet.

An apparent lack of form. Too easy to lure some in...

See, [He nods toward the exchange.] His opponent see it as a weakness. So he shifts his movements, attempting to gain a strike...and is stroke instead.

Mm.

[This is why Elisha doesn't actually challenge in fencing, even if he can fence. It's not his forte in the least. Far better at knife-fighting and hand-to-hand.]

Considering picking one out?

[Or off, really.]

The thought has crossed my mind.

[Though, for now, it is merely a thought.]

Well, it has been a while.

[Unlike with Elisha, who burned up the ranks in the middle of last year to get to Ten. Victor...hasn't challenged for at least four years. Elisha was a Four, the last time.]

All things worth having come with time.

[And there isn't much reason to not do it. He really needs to do something, at least, before going a bit stir crazy.]

Have you ever met Alek, before?

[Elisha tips his head to one side, and then shakes his head. Amazing as it is, he hasn't actually met every Spade. Though not for lack of trying.]

No. A Ten, I take it?

One of them, aye.

[The weakest link, as it were.]

Probably not worth making his acquaintance.

[Goodbye. As it were.]

Perhaps not. David would have to approve.

[Or Katya. But either case- one of them.]

Yes.

[Alexander had approved his two recent ones - Six to Eight, Eight to Ten. Which was probably why he had the king's ever-so-close attention.]

I don't believe your queen was in the Deck the last time you had a challenge, was she? Sieben certainly wasn't.

It has been nearly five years since my last challenge. I do not believe My Lady was among us yet, but I do not recall either.

Four years, I believe, since Her Majesty arrived. I could be wrong, of course.

[Three for Sieben, because he remembers when that piece of the past came crashing through the door.]

She might have been here in that time. [He said with a shrug.] I've never kept track of those that had come to watch.

Perhaps you should ask her, rather than David.

[He shrugs. He doesn't know the Queen of Spades well, although they flirt in Russian together often enough.]

Perhaps. It wouldn't gain her many friends, first round out of the cage, however.

No. But that's on her.

Suppose it would be.