Machiavellianism

[Aiden Finnegan]

The lightly flirtatious comment was not lost on Aiden. He cocked an eyebrow at Sage. Did the man have a thing for three-ways? The eyebrow dropped and Aiden shrugged to himself, letting the comment pass. Besides, if he questioned that now he would be sending nothing but mixed signals on the Nox front. Aiden was clearly reading too much into it. A hard thing not to do after the Rowan debacle.

                “Touché,” Aiden simply said in reply to Jaxen’s initial comments.

                “So, you were just infiltrating them for the fun of it then?” Aiden asked. “You are a crazy bastard, Jaxen Marveet. You’re lucky they can’t detect Channeling. Let’s hope these secrets of treasure pan out in our favor.”

                The city rushed by beyond their window. Aiden idly gazed out to the left side of the limo, taking note of certain landmarks. They were more than halfway to the airport, now. Aiden’s private jet awaited them on the tarmac. They could have easily taken a public airline, first-class to be sure, but then they ran the risk of the Atharim tracking them. Oh, they could still be tracked via private travel, but at least the risk was minimized this way. Besides, Aiden had Sage. If there was any hacking or nefarious communications going on, Aiden had no doubt that Sage would catch and stop it.

                “You never did tell us, Jaxen, what ‘treasures’ we are after. Do you actually know? Will we find the Spear of Lugh or the Cauldron of Ceridwen at the end of this rainbow? Or is this some wild goose chase?”