"i can't take it...I can't take it...." Yohan muttered as he shuddered, though he glanced up at Beast.

His eyes darted around the room but since he couldn't see any of the mirror shards, he wasn't thrown back into the thick of the fit he was suffering from. His chest and even his back seemed to rise and fall with his heavier breathing, his gaze being cast back down at the floorboards. 

"It's going to pull me apart....I can't....I can't put it on...if I put it on that's it. It's going to kill me, it almost did....but i can't think. I can't see myself in the mirror I can't...." Yohan stammered though this might clue Beast in the rest of the way as to what was wrong.

Quickly opening the door, Beast found Yohan on the floor surrounded by the broken pieces of the mirror.

"Yohan..." he said, crouching down. "Yohan, what's wrong?"

Valaria was unsure of what to expect, or whether to be afraid or calm.  Even trying to summon up the gumption to fear for her life seemed to be too much effort; everything was out of her hands at this moment, and Staunton would do whatever he chose to do regardless.  At this point, if it meant an end to the day, Valaria didn’t much care which way it went. 

But then he left her and went back behind his desk, and Valaria released a slow breath that she hadn’t realized she was holding. 

“I am grateful for your hospitality, my lord,” Valaria murmured, ducking her head briefly.  “I wish to offer my skills in service to you.  I know the basics of handling myself in a melee, and I am fluent and literate in French, Spanish, and Italian with…some little English as well, and I am trained in diplomacy.  I hope that you will consider it.”

At his dismissal, she nodded and followed Malachi out.  All said, she had not expected to walk out of Staunton’s office alive, but Staunton continued to surprise her.  She glanced sidelong at Malachi. “I am sorry for causing you trouble,” she said quietly.   

Beckett nodded grimly; he had expected the merchant to stick to what he had said the night before. Whether he had the coin or not to cover the debt was beside the point, it was clear that he did not want to part with it; his daughter would bear the brunt of her own debt.

Beckett grimaced; he was not about to agree so easily.
"You assure me that she is a skilled sailor, but I have only your word on the fact. You're asking me to take on a person into my crew when they have already acted against me and assaulted members of my crew? I don't want the disruption that this will bring."

His cold, dark eyes turned to rest on the young woman in question. It was only the second time that they had met face to face and he found that what he now knew about her had changed how he saw her. It would not do to underestimate this one, knowing that she had injured two men, throwing a table at one and knocking the other clean out.

She remained silent throughout and Beckett noted her tension in how she stood and the way she held her hat; he wondered how much coercion had been needed just to bring her here.

"What do you have to offer in this matter?" Beckett addressed her directly.

***

Joe tensed as the Captain of the pirates approached, assessing the captives one by one. From the sounds of it, she did not seem to be too impressed with what she saw. Joe grimaced, expecting to be dismissed just as quickly as the others had been.

He kept his gaze staring directly in front of him; in the army, it was could often be seen as an insult to look a commanding officer in the eye, as if such an act was to put yourself on the same level.

She came to a stop before him, remaining silent for what was an awkwardly long time. Joe risked a glance and found that she was staring at him.

He blinked in surprise at her question; how had she known? Was it written across his face along with the bruises?

"I... Yes, ma'am. I'm a soldier. Taken from London a few months ago."

He fell silent, waiting to see what his fate would be.

Just as Frankenstein approached, the waitress arrived with Anna's tea. Setting the cup in front of the vampire, she eyed Frankenstein with some suspicion before glancing to Anna, as if asking the vampire if the man was bothering her.

Anna looked up and smiled at both the waitress, giving her a small nod and then to Frankenstein. "Please, have a seat." Unsure as to why the werewolf wanted to speak to her, Anna knew the value of keeping both of their true identities secret from humans. While it would take at least ten humans to take one of them down, there were far more humans than the entire population of werewolves or humans.

Hearing her phone ding once more, Anna dug it out of her pocket and frowned, seeing that her client had to cancel their meeting. It was a large amount of money that would have been exchanged for Anna's services, but it seemed as if the client was only postponing the meeting to another day. In any case, she could at least clear the air with Frankenstein.

"Look, I'm sorry for my idiot... Friends. Or rather... I'm sorry they're idiots. But I just patch them up. Honestly, I'd patch up your... friends too, if they'd give me the chance, but most want to just bite my head off."