Jack nodded a bit, moving to put the rest of his clothing on. Since he had only pulled on his pants when Koyuki arrived. "I guess that settles it then." Once he was fully dressed, which was only really those sleevelets that covered his arms, and he had all of his hidden knifes shifted about in their proper places, Jack moved closer to Theodora and grasped her hand lightly. "If things get dangerous, I'll protect you." Though Jack wasn't sure he could do much against a sorceress, the only magic he could do was illusions. He gave her hand a light tug before he started towards the path.

Squeezing Jack's hand lightly, the young woman followed him without any thought of the danger that might come. She trusted Jack with her life, and believed he could protect her from anything. Though the young woman couldn't help but worry that he would get hurt again in the process. "I know, just don't forget about yourself..." If he got hurt again, she didn't know what she would do. Probably burst into tears and hope that everything would turn out alright. Jack meant so much to her, and she only becoming more attached to him, more in love with him, with every moment they passed together.

"I'll be fine." He practically purred the words. Leading Theodora down the pathway, his body only slightly tense. Eyes and ears alert for any signs of danger that might come there way, before they had even gotten out of the safe haven clearing place. Although it didn't take them very long to get out of it, to the end of the path where it met the ominous creepy forest. Jack spotted the woman, walking in circles, his ears twitched and he offered a friendly smile. "...Hello?"

She hoped Jack was right, though he'd said the very same thing to her earlier. Remembering how that had turned out made Theodora press herself close against the nekojin even though they were walking. Upon seeing the woman she froze. That sorceress looked so dangerous, and somehow ... Oh so sad.

Looking up with a hopeful expression as she heard leaves cracking under approaching feet, the sorceress's face fell soon after seeing the people who emerged. He was gone, she knew he'd leave ... Why had she let him go someplace without her! The trees rumbled ominously as hurt and rage filled Bryce. "Koyuki's gone isn't he?" She'd trusted him! The first person she trusted since her emotions had been hidden, and he'd betrayed her. She'd sounded so vulnerable when she'd asked after him... What had the man done to her, to make her depend on him so?

Jack squeezed Theodora's hand lightly when she pressed herself closer to him. He was sure everything would be alright, probably. Those ears twitched a bit and glanced around at the trees as they rumbled around them. "..Yea. He seemed a little scared." Jack spoke the words casually and shrugged his shoulders just a bit. "We're a bit lost, do you think you could help us find the way out?" The woman did look a bit dangerous, but she seemed more sad than anything else. Maybe a bit confused, Jack wasn't sure. He also had no idea what this woman had done to Koyuki, but running away from her like that, seemed rather mean in his opinion. Though surely Koyuki had a good reason for it, he had been scared, so maybe this woman was extremely dangerous.

Blinking a little silently, Bryce turned her head to the side. Anger slipping away, she pointed listlessly towards a pair of trees leaning together to form an arch. "Go trough those trees and you'll be out of my domain." She didn't care anymore. It was different from not being able to feel anything, discovered the sorceress. This was worse. It meant she'd given up. Sitting down on the ground to stare at the refuse there, Bryce felt a small trickle of water fall down her cheek. Lifting a hand, she pressed it against the tear and sighed. She'd wanted to feel so badly for so long, but now she just wanted it to go away again. Feeling nothing was better then this devastating sense of betrayal and sadness.

Jack looked at the trees she had pointed at, and then turned a bright smile to the woman. That smile faltered. Surely this woman couldn't be so frightening or terrible to make anyone run away. Sure she lived in a creepy forest, but that didn't mean much. "Go on Theo, I'll meet you on the other side in a bit." He nudged her gently towards the trees that made an arch. Odd how he had never noticed them before, or had he? Jack wasn't sure. Though he certainly didn't like it when girls cried. "That Koyuki, he doesn't have too much of a head start. I could track him down, bring him back to you?" Jack couldn't help it, this lady was crying and she didn't seem so terrible to him, he had to do something to make her feel better. So he had done the only thing he knew how. Offered his services, though he wouldn't be assassinating this man, more like stealing him to return him to this lady.

She watched for a little while as the brunette walked towards the arched trees reluctantly and passed trough. That one would probably wait by them on the other side for her neko to come find her. Turning her head to him, she regained her composure slowly upon hearing Jack's offer. Would she really accept? The question really should have been if she could refuse. "Do it." Voice like steel, she stood up and brushed her skirts off casually. Her red rimmed green eyes looked dangerous all the same now as she looked at the dark eared male. Letting out a small sigh, she shook her head and plucked a ring from her finger. Holding it out, she let it drop into the neko's hand. "Here, protection for you since I heard how worried your lady was." Now she didn't feel so horrible for asking him to bring back Koyuki, though now anger was settling in.

Jack watched Theodora go, he would be quick and efficient. If only so he could return to her side that much sooner. Ears twitching a bit as he looked to the sorceress, a gleam already in his eyes. Thrill of the hunt. He nodded his head and when she held out the ring to him he took it, eyeing it curiously for a moment before slipping it onto his finger. "Thank you. I will return it and that man to you, please be patient. I always catch my prey." Jack turned on his heels and darted off down the path, disappearing from sight.

It didn't take him long to pick up Koyuki's trail, nor did it take him long to catch up to the man. Thinking himself safe, Koyuki had decided to rest at the river's edge, still a decent way away from where he had started. Still it was that resting that allowed Jack to catch up to the man so quickly. It would have happened anyway, but it could have been delayed a bit had Koyuki still been moving. Jack caught the man quite by surprise, jumping out in front of him and quickly knocking Koyuki out with a rock to the head. Not to hard, he wasn't trying to kill the fella.

Jack took a little time, fashioning a rope of sorts from the threads of tree bark, it was amazing how strong that stuff could be when wound together properly. Then he tied Koyuki's hands together behind his back, and his ankles together. A little while later, Jack stepped into view of the waiting sorceress with a tied up, coming to conscious, Koyuki slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He dropped the man in front of Bryce. "Your man and your ring, dear lady." Jack removed the ring she had given him and placed it in her hand before he turned. Eager to return to Theodora, he made his way to those arched trees.

Waiting impatiently, she crossed her arms as the nekojin ran away to find her runaway captive. He didn't know the whole story, this cat man. He was bringing Koyuki back to his captor, though she knew that wasn't entirely the case anymore. Her feelings had all rushed back when he'd left, now she was just confused and needed his help to untangle them. She didn't trust anyone else ... Despite his betrayal, Bryce still wanted to trust him.

It didn't seem to take too long before Jack was returning with Koyuki over his shoulder. Shaking her head as the ring was returned to her, Bryce shrugged. She'd meant for him to keep it but if he didn't ... Kneeling down so she faced Koyuki, she placed the ring upon his finger. It changed sizes automatically to fit whomever it was intended for. "Never run from me again... I never want to feel vulnerable like that again." Restraining her anger, and all her other emotions, was such a difficult task. Bryce had forgotten how much effort it took to appear calm. As it was, the trace of tears were still upon her face and her bottom lip trembled as more threatened to fall.

Koyuki grunted a bit when Jack dropped him on the ground, he glared at the nekojin as the man left him there to face his fate alone. Damnit. Blinking he watched Bryce, though he didn't show any outward signs that he feared her. He didn't meet her eyes for a moment, looking away from her and wondering silently about the ring she had slipped onto his finger. It didn't matter. "I was just exploring more of that place. I wasn't trying to run away from you." He looked at her and offered her a smile, he was lying, but he was good at that sort of thing. "Besides, isn't it wonderful? You can feel things now, it's better than being so empty all the time, isn't it, Lady Bryce?" He wriggled a bit, hands and ankles still tied, with tree bark of all things. Damn that resourceful cat.

Why was he smiling at her? Slapping the man, hard, Bryce pulled her arm back to hit him again but stopped short. "No it's not wonderful! Not when it brought back the same emotions I felt when that idiotic prince told me I was nothing more then riff raff, only good enough to take out his trash. Then I realized my stupid spell was a dud, or it had backfired. Damn him, damn you! Why did you have to bring it back! Take them away, I don't want to feel anything, I was alright..." A few tears escaped her eyes before she whipped them away angrily. Reaching out to slash at the rope binding Koyuki's hands, she didn't care that she drew blood. Let him hurt, she wanted to kill him for the rest of her days but she couldn't bring herself to do it anymore. So she stabbed one of his hands with a yell, then pulled it out and put the dagger away after cleaning it. This was wrong. Remembering all the lives she'd taken, all the horrible thing's she'd done ... It made her want to go into the past and change everything, but it was impossible.

She certainly smacked the smile off his face, he grunted lightly and frowned. He flinched slightly when she drew back a second time, but the hit didn't come. Well, Koyuki wasn't smiling any more, he was frowning a bit. When she slashed at the ropes, he did wince a bit. When she stabbed his hand he yelped lightly. Stabbing hurt! He watched her carefully for a moment, pressing his other hand down on the stab wound. It would heal quickly. Though he fully expected her to start killing him, he was rather surprised and confused that she didn't. Had his actions really hurt her that deeply? No no, he couldn't think of that. Still he probably should apologize. "It's wonderful that you can feel all those things, because those are the things that define a human. Without all those feelings you would be nothing but a psychopathic monster on an endless rampage." Okay. Well, that wasn't exactly an apology. "It's a lie if you say you don't want to feel anything. Feeling things is the core of being alive. Of existing. Without it, there isn't much to live for. Even with feelings I don't have anything to live for. But that doesn't mean I enjoy being killed so much." He watched her. Surely he wasn't doing anything but making her angrier.

"You bastard," stated Bryce as she glared at Koyuki. Why did he have to remind her of how much she'd hurt him? He was the only one she trusted, the only she hadn't killed no matter how much she tried. Koyuki reminded her of how much of a monster she'd become. Leaping forward she pushed him to the ground and started punching and hitting him with military precision, hitting all the right spots to make him hurt, his pressure points, the joints, his neck. She might have been stuck in her cavern, in the forest, but that didn't mean she had wasted chances to learn how to defend herself and fight.

"You're just like him, you only think about yourself. Gods, why do I always end up caring for people like you? Heartless, selfish! Nothing more then walking mirrors, no dept." Emphasizing each word with a succession of harder and harder hits, the sorceress finally stopped to look down at Koyuki. Her breath was uneven and quick, and her hair was a mess. Gone was the cool and composed woman Koyuki had first met.

Those lips had parted, he was about to say something else. Probably nothing to help the situation, all that came out though was a grunt and a few more sounds of pain. Bryce had pounced on him, with a vengeance! She assaulted his body so thoroughly the only noises he could make were grunts and groans of pain. When he raised a hand or both to block her, she just managed to hit him somewhere else. When she finally stopped his eyes were closed tightly, and his body ached badly. No doubt he was bruised all over. "..Yea...well...You're selfish too." He spat the words out as harshly as he could with a voice laced with pain and panting for breaths. Pummeling was a good way to knock the wind out of someone. "You know, if your spell had worked, you still would have been miserable." She was probably going to kill him for that one.

A chocked sound left Bryce as he ripped into her newly recovered emotions. She'd only been holding them back by a thread, holding tightly to her anger as she'd done for a century. But now she didn't have that shield anymore. Collapsing onto Koyuki, she hit him weakly as tears began to fall form her eyes. All she wanted to do was crawl into a corner and lay there until everything went away. All the pain from killing those people to gain her goals, all the torturous thoughts running trough her mind for the fact that she'd become something so bad. All for something that had already passed by, and didn't really matter in the end.

And especially the thought that the one person she wanted to please hated her. Bryce supposed she deserved it though, for killing him and hurting him at every turn.

Koyuki opened his eyes to look at Bryce, she hadn't killed him for that. She had broken down into tears, hitting at him weakly. Koyuki wrapped his arms around the weeping woman and sat up. Holding her tightly in his lap and against him. "Look. I'm sorry. I didn't realize you would be so upset over my running away." He ran a hand through her hair. "You are a selfish woman though, you wanted to give that man a potion to make him love you. If it had worked, it would have only made you miserable. False feelings of love can never compete with real ones. You would have felt terrible and you would have known that his feelings were only fake ones that you had forced on him. Still, the punishment you endured for such a thing, I think was too harsh. Every person alive has done terrible things, things they aren't proud of. Things they regret. But these things and the feelings they instill in us and the emotions we have are what help to shape us into the person we should be. Mine have made me a coward, but yours could make you into a much better person. We have these things because we are meant to learn from them. When we do good things, we feel good, when we do bad things, we feel bad. Usually. Crazy people don't really feel bad, generally." Koyuki blinked, shaking his head a bit. "I feel bad for making you feel bad, I honestly thought you'd be alright. I promise, no matter what you do to me, I won't betray your trust again." Koyuki wasn't really sure if he was being honest when he promised that, he would just have to see how things played out.

Sinking into his arms, Bryce lay her head against his shoulder as tears fell silently. At least she wasn't sobbing anymore. This flow of emotions, she'd not expected it. After not feeling anything of the sort for so long, she couldn't control them, these feelings. The sorceress wasn't used to it, having to deal with all of those clashing feelings fighting for dominance and somehow melding together to form a whole. "When I heard you'd gone, everything came rushing back and I don't know how to deal with it." Bryce was at her most vulnerable now, a rare occurrence to be sure. As soon as her emotions had settled she'd be back to showing nothing but cold indifference and anger to everything, though beneath that surface things would never be the same again. "I hope you keep your promise this time Koyuki, because if you don't I'll hunt you down and make you regret it for the rest of my very long life." All his other words flowed into her, but she didn't deem them important enough for a response. This though, was important and as she spoke Bryce's voice hardened, shaping itself into something akin to how it had been before. But her arms had wrapped around him somehow, and she was hugging Koyuki with everything she had.

Koyuki had shivered a bit, this woman. Would he ever really be able escape her? For now though, he pushed that thought aside and continued to hold her. Running his hand through her hair. "I'll keep my promise." He couldn't help but question himself though, for now he figured. He would keep his promise for now, at least. "No one really knows how to deal with their feelings, people just cope the best they can." Koyuki wasn't really sure what to do with this woman.

She truly didn't expect him to run his hand trough her hair. It confused her! His whole demeanor did. "Why are you being so kind, after everything I've done to you?" Bryce was careful not to say anything about his running away, or feeling guilty. Though she did, it didn't mean she wouldn't hurt Koyuki again. The sorceress knew herself too well, and her anger, to think that would never happen again. One thing was certain, she wouldn't kill him as much ... And probably only if he did something to push her anger over the edge.

Koyuki shrugged a bit. "Because. You need to be comforted, it's the right thing to do." Honestly, it was the only answer he could come up with for such a question. Especially when he wasn't very certain himself. He had no idea what to do with this woman, or with himself. If he ran away again, surely she would find him again. For now he tried not to think about running away. "Everyone deserves a second chance." He mumbled the words softly. Perhaps he was giving Bryce a second chance then.

"You're so kind." Pulling away from the man, she shook her head slightly. Bryce had enough of this! Grabbing his arm, Bryce pulled Koyuki up and without releasing him began walking away from the only exit from the forest. He face didn't show any emotion again. The sorceress was still confused about her feelings, and needed desperately to sort them out. "I'm probably going to hurt you again. Be ready, consider this my warning." A warning for him to expect the worse. At least when she did snap, it wouldn't be so horrible ... hopefully.

A startled noise left Koyuki when Bryce grabbed him and pulled him to his feet. Then dragged him along behind her as she started off in a direction. He shook his head a bit, sighing softly. "Of course you will." He resisted only for a moment, and then let her continue dragging him off. Once again, Koyuki found himself wondering just what exactly he had gotten himself into. The pale haired man had never really, truly been anyone's prisoner before, though he figured he had been this woman's prisoner, more or less, as soon as he had first set foot in this forest.

She wasn't using a spell to get back to her caves. Walking could be so relaxing, or at least that's what Bryce could remember vaguely. "I don't want to you know. It's just, I know myself too well to think that it won't happen again." It had been so easy to start conversations before, now her mind was reeling and turning this way and that grasping at whatever wisps of thoughts came to mind. It was like little sparks were in the woman's stomach, making a nervous feeling fil her. If she didn't know better, she'd have thought Koyuki had found a way to poison her.

Koyuki blinked, staring at her a bit. "If you didn't want to do it, then you wouldn't do it." He said it as if it were so simple. Even though he knew it wasn't as simple as that, still. "If you really meant what you just said, then you would put forth more effort to try and keep from doing it." He spoke those words rather matter-of-factly.