Alex stood outside the entrance to the castle, looking exceedingly put out. Stuffing his hands into his pockets, he tried one more time. "I'm-looking-for-my-brother," he said very deliberately at the guards. "Please.... let.... me.... oh, for chrissake!" Giving up, the young man cast his eyes skyward. It was bad enough being stranded here in a fairytale world, haunted by demons and plagued with a spineless clod of an older brother, but the damned faerie folk couldn't even find it in themselves to learn a proper language like Common. Honestly.

Heaving a sigh he glanced up at the angle of the sun and made a guess at the time. Well, Giles or no Giles, he could at least find a bite to eat somewhere...

"Not all of them speak Common, they didn't use to sail far across the seas." Gioia smiled easily, a satisfied swing in her step. "The security for the trial is so high right now, you are better off with a breather in town instead." She had brushed back her hair, tying a band around to keep it staying there.

"Are you looking for your brother?" She got a slightly worried shine in her eyes, then quickly added "So am I."

"Yeah, kinda." Alex folded his arms and gave Gioia a once-over, inspecting her. She was close to Giles, right? "It was a short-lived idea, given I can't even get into the castle. Have you seen him around?"

"Don't think he is in the castle, Saint's knows I've been looking enough. And with the security now, even I can't move around like I want to." She sighed, shaking her head. "I think he might have gone back to town, do you want to join up and look for him? I speak a little bit Tuatha though my accent is atrocious..." She laughed a bit, clasping her hands behind her back, then offered her iron scossors for touching. "Just in case."

Alex gave the scissors a startled look, then touched them with a shrug. "I... well, it's a big city, I suppose he could be in town. I sent him a letter with the name of the place I'm staying, but I didn't receive any sort of response. I wondered... well." He shrugged again. It shouldn't surprise him that Giles didn't want to see him, but part of him had suspected the man must be hurt or something, else he would have at least penned a response. He was so fond of attempting to write, after all. "You're Gioia, right?"

"He's been... worried about other things lately." Gioia sighed, putting back her scissors. "We had an argument and... I think he is trying to keep out of my way, misdirected though it might be." She nodded in assent at the name "And you're Alex, he's been talking about you quite a bit." The frown deepened and she gave the young man a stern look as they started walking towards the city. "Quite a few of the things he are worried about is about you, young man!"

"That's news to me, considering he barely speaks to me at all," Alex grumbled. He gave Gioia a flat look from the corner of his eye, then at last elected to be direct, rather than dance around the question. "Are you sleeping with my brother?"

"No, I am not sleeping with your brother. I am his friends. Saints that swim and crawl why does everybody always assume that as soon as a woman cres about a man there has to be sex involved?" She rolled her eyes as if to imply teenagers in particular.

"And I'm not surprised that he haven't shared his worries with you... he was always bad at telling things openly to the people in question." She sighed, shaking her head. "He's worried about the company you keep."

Alex actually looked disappointed. "Oh. No offense meant. You'd be a real improvement over the burly Navy man. Ugh." He kicked at a stone in the street. "The company I keep?? I can't imagine why, he himself set me with that crew and bade me stay." He frowned slightly. "I wonder if he might be sleeping at the Red? I haven't been back aboard since we landed, and the captain's been up at the castle more often than not."

"Hey, don't badmouth Davide, he's a good man!" Gioia gave Alex a teasing hit on the arm. "And to be fair, is there any part of his life you do approve of?" She kicked a stone that went rolling down the hill.

"And he was disapproving more of the female company. To which, in comparison, Bonet is a paragon of nobility. At least he's human."