Jed had wondered where Price was, thinking that he was somewhere in the bar, when Price stormed into the bar.
What are the odds?... He thought to himself. The one time that he wasn't late, Price was. He had had a feeling that Price wouldn't be happy about Jay's condition, and of course it was right. He was glad that he didn't drink. Price wouldn't get mad at him, and he could always stay on his toes. It was one of the only things that he had noticed that he and Daryn had in common.
As Price talked about Akito and his guard's credentials, Jed couldn't help but get an unsettling feeling about that specific topic. He didn't know exactly what the credentials were, but Lisa did. He had tried to coax them out of her with chocolates or just pulling the 'you're hiding stuff from your big brother' card, but nothing did any good. She was completed devoted to keeping everything a secret because she didn't want to break the rules of her religious like group. He had to admire her dedication, though it didn't help him and his cause one bit, and he couldn't push her too much or someone in his family might get suspicious. She wouldn't even show him her mark, saying that it was for Pillar eyes only. He had been told that it was on their arms, and she had a brace on her arm to cover it unless it needed to be shown, but he recalled one time that she had accidentally not put on her brace before exiting her room. There had been nothing on her arm, no mark, no anything. He hadn't reported it though, because he didn't find it something that would make sense to the others, and they'd probably wonder how he had gotten a Pillar to take the brace off. No, he wasn't going to give up his sister like that.
The death of the Farly brothers was a tough blow on Jed, he had overheard Lisa speaking to one of the other Pillars one night as he came to walk her home that they had believed that there were spies in their midst. They stopped talking as he had approached, but Jed had heard enough to figure that it was them. They were dead before he had even been able to inform Price to get them out of there. Though there wasn't much he could've done, he couldn't help but feel like he might've been able to save them if he had gotten the message out in time.
Jed was pulled out of his thoughts as Price was talking to him. When had he come over? He laughed a bit as Price spoke of his neatness,
"Well you can't be too careful," he said with a smile,
"They say there's talk that the plague is coming around again. I wouldn't want to catch that simply because I didn't wash my clothes." He smiled a bit as his joke as he made a mental note to not bathe the day before the next meeting, and not to wash his clothes either.
Price started talking to another man that was sitting, hooded, at the bar. He hadn't even noticed the man was in the bar. Were his senses getting duller? He was listening to the man's reply when Daryn spoke as soon as this Raven man was finished, talking about an idea to get some credentials. He listened intently as Daryn was making it known that they should capture one of the guards, and not just any of them....his sister. Jed's blood boiled over, and before he realized it, his big brother mode had kicked in and he grabbed Daryn by the collar of his shirt.
"You want to get killed?!" he screamed at him and the bar got eerily silent, all eyes on him and Daryn. It took a second for Jed to realize his outburst, and push Daryn away. He needed to cover, and fast.
"That's the stupidest idea I think I've ever heard." he said through gritted teeth,
"You'll get everyone here killed with that kind of thinking. We don't really know anything about these Pillars, they could have tracking devices in their mark that is placed on them. We all know that there's plenty of spells used to track people in their tattoos." His breathing was starting to get calmer, and his rationalizing for his outburst better.
"Not to mention, if we took one, they'd know something was up. They are on routines like trained puppets. If one doesn't show up, the puppet master is going to know and is going to find out where they are. Plus what if the one we'd capture escapes, she could easily reveal our location and anything else she learns about us while trapped her. We're better off not risking our necks and waiting for an appropriate time and opportunity to get the information." That was a pretty good show, he thought to himself, hoping that everyone would feel that that was all that behind his anger. He'd never given them a reason to think otherwise.