JakezuGD

The wyverns and pirates fell in quick succession in a coordinated strike, clearing the path back toward the sea cave entrance, should they have to retreat. However, just as Tasha was about to turn her attention back toward the front, Miria seemed oddly fixated on the empty corridor, sprinting off back to where they'd come from. "What do you mean something? Hey-- Miria! Where are you going!?" Much as she wanted to follow and not leave any of the Tigers alone, they had to keep their forward momentum going, lest they lose initiative with their push. "Someone look after her and make sure she rejoins us in one piece!" Turning around to return to the doorway she'd been guarding with Christopher earlier, this time to push through it and keep going, she noticed the bovine girl from earlier... touching him? At least she wasn't attacking them, but that seemed highly inappropriate to do anyway, and Tasha wanted some answers as to why she was on the opposing side just earlier. Natalya moves to 17-25 and grabs Krystal. As the other cat rolled his platform to the side to fire, the tiger hoisted Krystal by her arms, closing their height difference by simply pulling her off the floor. "Hey, you. Mind explaining what that was about? And what were you doing on Kazran's side earlier?"

The attacking group having closed in more, now was their chance to turn that part of the fight back in their favor... Tasha simply left Sylmaria's apparent glee unbothered, knowing the reception to being corrected about it would be colder than whatever ran through Mercuria's veins, instead following Miria's lead to get one of those pesky wyvern riders out of the picture. "Now! Crush them and keep moving!" Natalya moves to 17-21 and fires her rifle at Wyvern 3!

Tasha's gaze pivoted between the pathway she and Chris were guarding and the hallway from where they'd come, just about seeing Miria from between the others bravely holding her own against an attack force trying to pincer them. Threatening as the fighter with the pure weapon was, the boy could hold on against a single enemy from the look of things, the south side needing to regroup to hold off the wave as Nyx astutely pointed out. "Pull back and form up! Let's show these bastards it'll take more than that to break the Tigers!" Natalya moves to 16-23.

The fierce strike that came through surpassed just about any expectations Tasha had for getting through someone so heavily armored, finding a crack in the steel right around the neck, lodging her prodigiously heavy axe head right into the weakness and cleaving the man clean in twain with absolutely no chance of survival. Crimson splatter stained her arms and armor, the instant of the act quickly shoved aside in her mind with the battle still in its early phases. Ugh, that's more hours for me to work on not getting these old plates rusted. She took a brief glance toward Krystal, and seeing her already being physically interrogated by an unfamiliar face, chose to let that situation play out however it would, instead offering her backup to the magical engineer holding down one of the cell exits. ...While seeing what she could do about triaging the condition of her armor. Natalya moves to 16-26, takes her rifle in hand while trying to clean her plates a little.

Three wasn't much, but it was much better than nothing. "Got it. Just stay behind us until we've captured the castle!" The man wasn't going to be useful in battle in his condition, but with Kazran's forces no doubt trying to get rid of the ship they'd sailed in with, getting out that way wouldn't be safe until after the end of hostilities either. Her gaze turned back forward, Natalya assessed their situation, but didn't get far before Sylmaria piped up again, even louder than she'd been earlier. Clearly there were some people she knew personally here besides her friend and Kazran himself, and this one she was none too happy about seeing... unsurprisingly, given that the woman she was shouting at looked to be another Clouded in the vile man's employ. He sure does have more of us around than I'd have expected of what I've heard about him... As toys or meat shields, I'm sure. I'll put a hole in him for everyone he's enslaved, gods willing. The situation with the bovine woman aside, there were enemies to clear out, and someone with a lance wasn't going to remain an obstacle for the tiger for long, especially with the assistance of her allies. She'd have to take a moment afterward to see if she couldn't convince Krystal to switch sides... Natalya moves to 16-24 and attacks Lance Armor 4 with her Iron Poleaxe!

Though their group managed to clear out that wave of opposition fairly easily thanks to Sylmaria's powerful assist, the next one was already approaching, the defenders obviously not making it easy for them. At the same time, the cell they'd passed by earlier opened up, and even if they couldn't find any new allies to bring with, they could maneuver to better positions. Fortunately, the group in front of Tasha had some of the Tigers' most resilient fighters - Laniva, Miria and Üllr - as well as Owen to command them if necessary, allowing her to break alongside the irate dragon and the other Gaffney to see what they can get done. "You handle keeping that side at bay, Boss!" The tiger gave her tactical decision and turned around to cover for Cass while she was healed. Calling any form of royalty besides Iseria her boss, much less an Islexian warlord, was a new feeling for Natalya, but not one she actually minded in the slightest. The short time they'd spent talking had dispelled her apprehension about his motives regarding this assault, and even if he had a fox's tail under his arm in some sense, the ideal and possibility of an Islexia that welcomed Clouded was too good to pass up on. Natalya moves to 17-20. Speaking of which, the jail cell had a Clouded in it, grievously wounded by the look of things... if that injury was fresh, there was a solid chance they were a survivor of the attack, and Tasha could hear impassioned dialogue from the other side of the wall as well, ears rapidly pivoting around to try and keep up situational awareness. "Hey, you! Are you crew of the ship we saw on the way in? If yes, how many of you are left?"

Now that both sides were mask off, Tasha felt no need to speak further on Sylmaria's matter. She didn't want her concern, Kazran's men were just as disdainful of her as expected, and they needed to focus on the fighting. Though she wanted to back up Alvira, they'd already split up, and as much as the white dragon tried to convince otherwise, the tiger felt she'd end up pushing too far in on her own without help... which meant her gun needed to be pointing at whatever Sylmaria couldn't finish off herself, impressive as her show of magic was. Natalya moves to 20-18 and fires on Merc 5 with her rifle!

Sylmaria's fiery response came as no surprise to Tasha, even having to stop herself from rolling her eyes at the dragon's single-minded insistence on taking Kazran's life with her own hands. Sure, it was only understandable due to what she'd gone through, but the tiger wasn't about to let her charge into her premature demise. "Yeesh, I'm only saying it so you don't get a sword through the chest before actually getting to kill the bastard," she replied, taking the lead and rounding the corner to see a soldier coming their way. "C'mon, follow up on me!" Natalya moves to 16-17 and fires her rifle on Myrmidon 3!

Though Tasha was prepared to take out the last remaining soldier from the initial group, Amera swiftly decked them in the back of the head to open the way for everyone to move up. Focusing her efforts on backing everyone up and keeping an eye out for any new arrivals in front, she however couldn't help but notice their new ornery dragon acquaintance almost visibly boiling ahead of her. "Doing alright? Focus your fury, no overextending. Putting yourself in a bad position against real soldiers only gets you cut down for nothing." Her worry may have been unneeded and unwanted, but her motherly side wouldn't allow her to let it go unchecked. Natalya moves to 15-13.

The mystery ship didn't remain a mystery for very long, with Roxanne immediately recognizing it and heading in to see if anyone was still alive. Obviously, things hadn't gone to plan, and now that they were able to land, the others weren't waiting for the orders they more or less knew already... Tasha shook her head at both the signs of prior combat and the sheep's grieving, but figured she should at least confirm their attack after Cassandra already went ahead and drew everyone's attention. "Go, go, go! Don't stop at anything until we have Kazran's head on a pike!" She herself would have to use her sharpshooting abilities more, given the likely prevalence of pure weapons amongst the rabble... ...and then Roxanne came in to brutally shred one of the guards, bordering on torture with how meticulously she dismembered and eviscerated the man, getting a grimace out of the tiger. Remind me to not get on her bad side, yeesh. As disconcerting as that may have been, these were people who truly deserved death when they were responsible for stories like Sylmaria's, and she'd do her own part in taking down as many of them as possible, even if her own preference was for a more surgical approach. Still, she couldn't deny having been about as angry when they'd attacked the Underground's compound before, feeling a thirst for blood that only her axes could sate... perhaps she'd get more reasons for an appetite, going through the bowels of this foul man's bastion. Natalya moves to 14-9. "Alright, ladies, let's do this! Take no prisoners, because they wouldn't give you that dignity either. Keep an eye out for any survivors from the fight that happened before we got here." Tasha took aim over Alvira's shoulder, giving her a brief pat of encouragement. "I've got your back. Let's raise some hell."

Much of Tasha's time following their training session was taken up by additional preparation, but things were lined up already, and most of it went into getting things onto the ship itself in the right places. While Owen's people would handle general outfitting, it fell to her to get everyone's equipment and stationing sorted, especially since the lord himself was coming with them. Something about Islexians not approving of the idea of a leader who wasn't fighting on the front themselves, like the barbarians many of them were - she didn't quite approve of the idea, but knew she couldn't do much about it. The country's situation was what it was and the tiger wouldn't pretend to be more knowledgeable about it than her current employer. Now actually underway to their destination, the commander was on point at the helm, trying to use her strong eyesight to their advantage... but the sea fog was so thick, she wasn't being of much use. Approaching the cave mouth, she could at least keep her rifle dialed in, yet there really wasn't anything she could see. A slight confused shrug came from her in response to Aegean, briefly turning her head to give the actual reply. "The call is can't see shit, captain. If this is a trap, they're being real patient about springing it on us." Actually getting to know her fellow mage in service to the same lord brought Bella's spirits up a little regarding the upcoming excursion, but at the same time it raised some questions she hadn't thought of properly since she came back to Islexia. Despite their cordiality, they had been assigned to different parts of the assault team, and so she'd spent the trip on her own, making sure she had enough potions available for a technically non-magical triage for anyone who might need such. Defending the ship wouldn't be too difficult for her either... still, a small sigh left her, looking out at the foggy coast from the crew cabin. She wouldn't get a direct chance at what she left Eslcas for, but she could help the people who would do it in her stead regardless.

Elisa watched Alvira's exuberance at the show with a somewhat sheepish smile. She's really pushing herself just because I decided to show off, huh... I really should try to teach her a little more now that her affinity's coming back. Still, just like Tio's praise indicated, the dragon's showcased ability was quite good, considering she could barely even call upon her fire on command without heavily exerting herself... and doing her best to mimic how the Evoker had cast her own spell was a good enough mood booster, with how dreary things had been ever since Sylmaria had shown up. "That's a really good effort, Alvira, but you should try to keep things in moderation, don't want you collapsing just out of excitement, do we?" Her concern punctuated with a small laugh, the strawberry blonde refocused her attention on Jesse, now that she had come up to show off her own thing. Though the form was certainly different to that of Miria's armor, both in looks and function, the actual underlying mechanics felt very similar at first glance. Just looking at the effects didn't feel like a guarantee that everyone who was able to use these things would have the same abilities manifest, more like something that took the person using them into account somehow... how that could have been was beyond Elisa's understanding of magical engineering and circuit-resonance amplification, even when she was a relative expert on the latter. "I do get the same feeling that I did from Miria's armor, but that magic of yours seems to match its affinity, unlike hers. It's difficult for me to tell exactly what's going on, but it's clear to me that yours is wind-based, while although Miria's is earth-based, it comes out as fire magic in her case, to which I can only speculate as to why that is." Speculation best left in her head for now, and maybe something to talk about with Tio later. She cast a brief look toward Sylmaria, who seemed to only continue being distressed, now being spoken to by... him. Well, if he was out and about, and managing to pull the waterworks out of the downtrodden dragon, they could probably leave him alone for the moment. It didn't take long for another person still to grace them, the same Clouded who had put on something of a show against Jeremiah earlier with her rather flashy style of magic, getting a small twirl from Elisa as she pivoted to meet her. "You'd be correct! Elisa Candialia, wife to this lovely lady right here and the Alliance's foremost fire mage as well as expert on magic circuits and spell development. You left a bit of an impression with your fighting earlier, the technique feels similar to how Tio does things but in a more kinetic fashion, even if your control isn't quite at the same level yet." Behind everything, this time it was Alriana and Versaris's turn to push Jeremiah a little by the look of things, but that one felt like they'd easily contain things on their own. This girl was pretty cute, and also very useful, if she was a proficient healer. They'd gotten into a much better situation recently in terms of medics than just having to rely on Renais, for sure, but you could never have too many, unless they were all you had. Still, the request seemed... a bit gung-ho, for lack of a better way to explain the thought to herself, to Tasha. This was a real military-on-military conflict they were heading into, and she wanted to be certain that much was understood. "I won't say no to having the assistance of more medics, but I want to make sure you know what you're getting into. We're heading into a full-on military assault, and I'd rather only have people with combat experience with us at the front, yeah? If that sounds like too much for you, we'll still appreciate having more people doing field hospital stuff, so your contribution would be welcome regardless." Tasha found her gaze drifting again as Aly and Sari put up a fierce fight against Jeremiah, definitely again looking more like a real battle than the training matches he'd had against the others, but she was reasonably confident that those two knew where their limits lied. Still, the teamwork between the white bullet of a monster and the swift swordsman was a thing of beauty to watch, almost enough to make her a little jealous her and Alvira's fighting styles differed so much... but such limitations were designed to be worked around.

While Sylmaria and Tio continued with their impassioned stances from earlier, Elisa had other things to pay attention to. Alvira's description of her current state regarding her magic was certainly a vivid enough one to grasp what it likely felt like, and a cursory use of her own link confirmed almost to an exact degree what the dragon had posited about how much it took from her to use fire at the moment, nodding along to the explanation. "Yeah! Progress is progress, especially when there's less overbearing hostile deity in your head stopping you. We can only really speculate about what the nature of your link to her is, or what exactly happened to it as a result of what we did with the sword, but if things are getting closer to matching your natural affinity, it can only mean good things," she replied, putting on a small smile herself. After all, she'd be much more helpful with practice and rehabilitation if Alvira got her full fire affinity back, being a fire specialist. The speculation about Fomalhaut she couldn't offer much insight into one way or the other, and simply filed it in the back of her mind for now. The other arrival was a more curious one. Jesse had a similar ability to Miria's, that much was obvious, though differently aspected -- wind, judging by the pattern she felt -- with that being the obvious reason to Elisa why she would approach her. If she was anything like Miria, she too didn't have much of an idea about how exactly that armor of hers worked, and any lead into it could potentially help her use it better. "No, it's fine, for me at least. If it's about your armor, I've helped with Miria's before, and while I can't tell you too much about the specifics, I could try to offer you some insights beyond what you already know. Or maybe you know something I don't?" The latter possibility was one that she couldn't ignore either, since if there was something, they could use it to help Miria out more than they could before. In the background of everything happening, Jeremiah was still training everyone who stepped up to fight him, which seemed to be going rather well. Syta had brought out Kisara for her spar with Lani, understandable enough... but soon came a somewhat concerning challenger in the form of Kise, who clearly wasn't holding back at all and took the opening shot with almost excessive force. Anyone magically attuned could've easily told that, and while she wasn't altogether too concerned for the man, Elisa's hair still flared a deep pink just in case. This was still training, there was no need to go properly all out! But, Jeremiah proved her intuition right in short enough order, making her let out a small sigh. Deary me, the fox can be troublesome. I hope Renais is dealing well with that... considering Kise is clearly strong enough to wipe the floor with anyone here besides us and Jeremiah, it wouldn't end well for anyone if that wasn't the case. Still, she hadn't let go of her powered-up state just yet, figuring she should stretch her metaphorical legs a little. Her magic hadn't been back for very long, but the fact she could call upon it at all meant there was a good chance she was combat-ready... and she figured giving a small reminder about not messing around too much by sheer fireworks was in order as well. Besides, Tio had just told Sylmaria to watch, right? "If you'll mind me for a sec, I thought I should try out something on the simple side just to see how much my own strength is back," Elisa said to Jesse and Alvira, turning around to face the training dummies and taking a few steps past them. Of course, what was simple to her was very much on the contrary to almost anyone else, something that became incredibly apparent as she lifted her arms above her head, grinning a little as a great swirling fireball formed in the blink of an eye between her open palms. As quickly as she'd made it, Elisa threw the smoldering flames at one of the dummies, landing at its base... and exploding into a towering eruption, instantly vaporizing her target and leaving a small scorched crater where she struck with her spell. Sure, it was the same one she'd demonstrated to Miria before, but that was without being at full strength -- this was a proper Bolganone from a master of the element, flashy and destructive yet contained to a very specific radius so as to not damage anything unintentionally. Satisfied with that, her coloration returned to the usual strawberry blonde, and she turned back around with a nonchalant smile. "Yep, looks like I'm doing fine. Didn't even break a sweat~" "True. If she's still living for someone, she probably won't cause any issues as long as they can reunite, and it's not like we have any reason to not give her what she wants in that respect, yeah?" Tasha agreed with the rest of Owen's musing on the matter as well, and even more than that, cracked a smile at seeing the man's convictions come to the surface. That an Islexian leader felt that strongly about protecting Clouded, to make the country a place where everyone could live as they were, gave her hope that things could actually change given time and effort, or at least there was the chance. Having witnessed first-hand how the local pirates often attacked Glacies just because it was a relatively safe haven for her kind, she knew that it was an incredibly uphill battle. Another new arrival showed up in the middle of their talk, though addressing her took a bit of a pause as Tasha's eyes went to the clash between Kise and Jeremiah, like most seemed to. She had no idea how strong exactly the fox was, even if she clearly was very strong, considering the immediate change in the man's stance and combat style compared to his previous simple spars with the other Tigers. When he went for it, he was far too fast to follow, leaving the tiger blinking before scratching her head at how quickly the tension defused, somewhat reminding her of a more pointed version of the time Kise had asked her to return the tome she hadn't known was originally stolen from her by the Underground. "Well, I do have a moment, but I'm not sure what you want me for. You're acquainted with Lord Owen, it seems, so--" As she was saying that, another even more eye-catching show of magic literally erupted toward the side, clearly Elisa's doing. As awful with magic as the tiger was, she knew that there wasn't anyone else among them who could casually pull something like that out, unless someone was really holding back on them, easily eclipsing the fiery explosion Miria had caught Jeremiah off guard with earlier. "If nothing else, it's good to see they're back in good condition... though I could do with less being interrupted. Anyway, like I was going to say, we're in Owen's employ, so I'll listen to anything you might ask of the Tigers, though I can't promise you'll get the answer you want."

Elisa watched very closely as the dragon went to showcase her magic further. Obviously, she had magic that was also elementally attuned, yet still very strange in form, not anything you'd expect to see from the average practitioner. Only people like herself or Tio, who had high enough affinity and skill with the spellcraft itself, typically bent the form of spells around in ways like that, like how she tended to use her skill with polearms to form fire spells in close combat into spears. Then came the biggest surprise of all of them, as Sylmaria targeted her with what seemed like a formless spell. A cold sweat broke on her brow, a shiver running through her body, and for the slightest moment she felt as if her vision was growing darker, until everything turned back to normal in an instant, leaving her blinking in confusion. What the hell was that!? If she's really telling the truth, and she has magic that can alter fate, that's messing with fundamental causality... Incredibly strong, if limited in scope. Tio took the lead on reviewing Sylmaria's spells while the younger Evoker was still a bit stuck in her head over what had just occurred to her. Everything her wife said was just about in line with her own thoughts, even if the matter of that strange spell and the non-attuned energy blast eluded their analysis - they were simply something they hadn't had a chance to really see in the wild, even if they knew that such magic was possible in theory. However, before she got a chance to display her own variations on magic for reference, having shook off her stupor, they were interrupted by... well, someone who was going to have a very bad time. These two were only ever going to fight each other, purely because of Sylmaria's disposition, and it took less than two sentences from the white dragon to make things aggressively awkward. Alvira's response wasn't quite what she expected, though, choosing to treat the matter as absurdity rather than insult, it seemed, to the point where she actually managed to hit a critical nerve for Sylmaria. Now with the topic firmly away from the matter they'd come here for, after thinking through it a bit Elisa thought to try and calm Sylmaria down herself like she had before, but Tio again got a head start on her. Likely for the best, even if they were so strongly opposed, because that same reason meant her wife had a personal stake in getting someone like her to see the error of her ways, no matter how difficult it might be. While she knew that Tio was correct, the strawberry blonde couldn't help a nagging feeling Sylmaria wouldn't accept it, even as she did her best to use her motherly comforts... but while the two were in the midst of that, the other dragon was still there too, and from how she'd looked before all of this went down, she had been in fairly high spirits. Supposing it fell to her to get things sorted out there, Elisa approached Alvira and gave her a brief, whispered run-down. "Look, I'm sure it's obvious at this point, but it's probably for the best that you keep away from Sylmaria for now. She's... had it really bad." She turned to look at the dummies that Sylmaria hadn't been blasting apart, and seeing one burnt to a pile of ash, quickly put two and two together to steer them away from that conversation. "Is your fire back enough to use combat spells with?" Elisa's passing shake of the head was a bit of an indication, but Owen shed enough light on the situation for Tasha to get what was going on. "So the bastard is leveraging Clouded under him for suicide missions. If it wasn't so messed up, I'd even call that smarter than I'd expected from someone as seemingly boorish as Kazran, but knowing that just makes me want to kick his shit in more than before. Maybe that's saying too much from someone who isn't supposed to be politically involved in this whole matter, I just really can't stand people who think of us as being below human... I'm sure you can agree with that, Lord Owen." The tiger's attention was split a little, listening to the lord of the castle while paying attention to the fight between Gean and Jeremiah, which the former looked to come out on top in, though looking quite a bit more intense than usual. Meeting family like this must have been an awful lot of emotions for her, emotions that Tasha felt she might want to talk about later, if she didn't go over it with her partners first. She was a big girl now, she wouldn't need to come to the tiger for things like that anymore... Then, her attention shifted back to Alvira, now talking with Sylmaria, and clearly having gotten the latter upset, which didn't come as a surprise given what she'd just been told. Just like Owen said, she'd have to leave the matter to the Evokers for now, as her getting involved would most likely only have caused further problems... but that did bring up in her mind the issue of what to do with her during the actual operation, an uncertain look on her face. "That raises a good question... considering the Evokers are going to have to stay behind while we attack Kazran, do you think she'll actually listen to me? The assault's being headed by myself and Cassandra for our part, after all."

With the strange situation seemingly settled, Tasha had turned to simply observing how the group handled their training. Though Jeremiah was clearly holding back, it looked like the lot of them were holding up pretty well, in the other sparring sessions as well - paying extra attention to their new ally in Roxanne, since she hadn't quite seen what she was capable of yet. And boy, could she put on a show! More magic stuff that went over the tiger's head, for sure, but it looked very impressive and atypical in just about every sense, at least as far as she'd seen other magic-users do their thing. Kind of similar to what Miria could do, but far more focused on the magic... and hell, they might not be even slightly related in technique, that's just what it looked like to someone practically illiterate at magic. And speaking of magic, a glance off to the side had her notice Alvira resting, as well as an extra crispy training dummy. Less of a surprise than if they hadn't talked about it before, but the fact that the dragon was feeling well enough with her original affinity to obliterate a dummy with surely meant things were properly on the up-and-up for her. Though she had half a mind to just go over and give her a hug, she figured her duty here was to keep supervisory watch, since Owen had been momentarily indisposed... or at least, was for a while, as the group came back soon enough, and the troubled white dragon beelined to the unharmed dummies seemingly to train herself. Best not to get too close to her for now, given the earlier heated comments. "So, hey, Owen, what's the deal with her?" Tasha asked, figuring the Evokers were probably going to follow the girl. Frustrated as Elisa was, it had paled in comparison to the downright righteous fury her wife, and even Owen to an extent, had launched into in that discussion with Sylmaria. Tio was right, sure, or at least by any reasonable measure she was, but that had been a matter there simply was no calming her down in, even if pushing it was obviously only causing more pushback in return than achieving anything. Regardless, the dragon was about to show them her magic, so she might as well actually do her job whether it involved her special abilities or not, only offering Tasha a small shake of her head with the same exasperated look she'd given her wife earlier as they passed her by. That girl was a terrible mess, one tangled so badly neither of them was probably going to make much headway in fixing. That aside, getting to actually see what Sylmaria's spells were like was exciting in and of itself from the scientist's point of view. Setting aside her feelings for the distorted views that were expressed for the moment, Elisa honed in on the dragon's mana signature, looking closely at the effects of the magic she used, only to figure out that it... wasn't really a spell as they understood it in orthodox terms. A seeming lack of elemental affinity, and an almost concerning lack of form on top of it, besides just being a blast of projected mana. "It's certainly nonstandard, that's for sure. Not many people can actually utilize a raw form of mana in casting, nor does it look like it has the same kind of properties that most normal spells do. Does it feel strange for you to use in any way?" That inquiry was more about trying to figure out if this odd form of magic had some sort of inherent downside to it, given that it deviated from standard magic in composition... but as she processed everything and came a bit closer to Sylmaria, part of her mana flow had a strange sense of familiarity to it. Huh? That's... really weird. I know I haven't seen anyone use raw mana like that personally before, but it feels closer to when Tio uses Luster Purge than anything else...

Instead of acquiescing to the dragon's demands, Elisa only kept holding her, letting her vent as much as she needed. She could glean something from what she was saying, hopefully, all the while letting her get it out of her system, but the ferocity with which she denied Miredy's help in the matter took her off guard. A Monster who hates Monsters... This is Islexia, after all. If she didn't grow up around here, where they're actually treated like people, and managed to integrate under someone like Kazran, I can see how that would happen, not that it makes things any less tragic. There was another thing she let slip, however, and it was something Tio picked up on as well. She was holding back her intensity, that much Elisa could tell immediately, and knew why she was riled up by all of this too. They might have to talk about this later, when it was just the two of them... Tasha balked at the dragon's scathing words, really sounding like she was your average Islexian human, despite being at least Clouded herself. Was this really how deep the hatred in this country went, that they could get people to hate their own existence too? She shook her head in disbelief, letting her arms relax since the Evokers seemed to have things more or less under control. While the inquiry wasn't aimed at her, she figured she'd at least confirm the first half of what Tio was asking. "Well, she never let her magic go, so all of us seem to be pretty much fine. Even if things did somehow go south, you'd be our best choices to deal with it, yeah?" The sobbing lady did answer what Tio inquired about, which was as good a lead as any for the talk that surely was coming between them. She'd make sure that the dragon couldn't hurt herself while things were still unclear, at the least, and neither of them were in a hurry to hurt her. Still, her insistence on being kept away from the others who were like her was... disconcerting. With an uneasy nod, Elisa let go and quickly switched her arms over into a princess carry, wanting simply to not have her stress herself out any more than she already had. "I'll take you to one of the empty rooms we have, so you can get a place to rest, all by yourself if you want to, okay? You can take your time to explain, we just want to know what's happened to you." Briefly, her gaze turned to Cinaed expressing his concern, and only replied with a quick shake of the head, ready to carry Sylmaria off into the castle, should Owen accept the idea.

"Hey, I keep tabs on my people, but whether they tell me about their relationship status is up to them," Tasha replied to Cass, a small chuckle leaving her lips as they left the throne room, seemingly not too far behind the Evokers. Having the sister of a lord pining for you so much she'd follow you to the ends of the earth sounded like one heck of a romantic story, but it didn't particularly feel like one that any of the Tigers would want to actually deal with. To her knowledge, at least, heck if she knew what the others fantasized about. Things looked like they were proceeding nicely, people sparring with each other besides the promised training from Jeremiah. "We're used to group practice, even if a lot of us were less keen on it before we started this trip." Owen quickly took note of someone who didn't look like they belonged, though, and sure enough, looking over the horned, pale woman, Tasha didn't recognize her either. "Huh? Beats me, never seen 'em before. Looks like she's probably here for you," she said, seeing how intently the unknown lady was looking their way. The woman's fluster only kept increasing the more people came to her side, obviously all concerned about her state of presentation. It seemed obvious to Elisa that she was brushing off the concern even though it was legitimate, but all the things she said pointed toward only one thing in her mind. Heavily bandaged, but not out of recent injury... claims to have information about Kazran, but doesn't have anywhere to stay here, and is clearly frightened somehow... is she an escaped slave? They'd heard of the man's disposition toward Clouded already, and knew that the Underground was trafficking Clouded within Islexia... considering the facts, that was the conclusion she'd come to with a quick pondering. Then, the atmosphere around her changed, and Elisa turned to look what she was now fixated on. Owen, Cassandra, Natalya, and Owen's guard had come to watch the proceedings as well, but she snapped her attention back as soon as she felt an unfamiliar magic energy from the horned woman, hand raised directly toward the lord of the castle. Wait-- Is she really trying to attack Owen!? Then, the reason she doesn't have a place to stay is... Leaving her thought where it was, she immediately prepared to take Sylmaria down, hair flaring a deep pink and ready to bring her to the ground. She wouldn't be quick enough to prevent the spell going off, but she could prevent her from doing anything further... and then, the would-be assailant simply collapsed. The Evoker's body was already in motion, but managed to slow herself down enough to turn the action from a full-force flying tackle to a leaping hug, having to quickly switch mental gears from crisis to consoling. Her natural warmth came in a little handy here, at least. "Nobody has to die today. Please, calm down, so we can talk this through..." This woman wasn't just prepared to die, she wanted to die. A suicide mission. Elisa wasn't sure if her initial guess of slavery was better or worse than that... Things started and ended so quickly, Tasha didn't really know what to think of it. The horned lady had raised her arm and looked like she was casting a spell, prompting the tiger to put a hand on her revolver just in case, but what followed had her blink in confusion instead. "Uh... do you have any idea what just happened?" At least the other Evoker was on the case, so hopefully things would resolve at least temporarily.

"Hah!? H-hey, no fair! I'll do much worse than that once we come back, just you wait~" Elisa wasn't actually bothered, of course - if anything, Tio feeling chipper enough to be teasing her like that meant their recovery was going along well, even with the bump in the road that had occurred before coming here. Now was no time to be getting stuck on each other, however, as they were probably already late to the sparring, like her wife had mentioned, and as such, she followed along quickly. Perhaps outside of helping with the healing, she could try to tutor some of their mages, even if the others besides Alvira didn't seem to have much affinity for fire, and even Alvira was having her own troubles that largely prevented her from using it. All thanks to Mercuria, the bastard. Tio brought up something akin to that on their way through the halls, especially interesting since it was somewhat paralleling the very same situation she'd just thought about herself. "Okay, what's the chance a god smites me for getting my mitts into a touched girl's business again?" she joked deadpan, knowing how their attempts to bring out Alvira's natural fire magic had gone, though she quickly shook her head. "Jests aside, I'll see what I can do. It's not exactly the same situation anyway, if there's effectively a constant equal and opposite reaction occurring that cancels out her ability to cast without amplification entirely. What you want me to try is to see if I could tune her conduits to add into her natural harmonic circuit, right? Something like what I do with anyone, just narrowed down for a single implement." As they came around to the yard where the practice session was being held, though, Elisa noticed someone she didn't recall having seen before, whether with the Tigers or in the past couple days at the castle, talking with Miredy, Jane and Jesse. She couldn't hear what exactly the discussion was about, but if this was someone new wanting to join them like Roxanne apparently had been, they were worth committing to memory... and with all the bandages on her, it seemed like she was in poor health. "Everything okay over here? I don't think I've seen you before, but you look like you need a hand with something. Is there anything me or my wife could do for you?" "Figure he'll be taking it easy, since from all I can tell he'd wipe the floor with all of us if he was actually trying," Tasha answered with a shrug, turning to greet the approaching sister. "Morning, Cassandra. Yeah, there's a big training session going on outside, and all of the Tigers are participating, save for myself. We were just about to head out to watch for a bit, so you can of course come along too," she explained, though quirking an eyebrow at the shark's comment about the many fine ladies their unit had. "Might be tooting my own horn a bit, but yeah, I think a lot of us fit that bill. Ogle the taken women at your own risk, myself included." She certainly didn't make it hard to guess which way she swung, and now that she thought about it, it was plenty obvious back when they first met too, but assuming with things like that just made you an ass. Part of her wondered what Owen's opinion on Cass's seeming openness was, but as long as it wasn't one that made her repress herself, it probably didn't matter all that much in the end. Surely, she had things difficult enough already by being a high status Clouded in Islexia.

Elisa had been waking up earlier and earlier the past few days, getting much closer to how she usually slept, even feeling good enough to start doing her morning stretches again. Just not the full exercise routine, not quite yet. Being clean, having a good bed to sleep on, and time to relax with her wife helped a lot with the fatigue that still remained. "Nah, I'm gonna come with you. I'm sure you could easily handle healing anyone that gets hurt if something happens, but it's always better to have more people on hand," she answered, all the while holding a deep lower back stretch. With a slight held breath, she slowly pulled herself back upright, tossing her mantle on and conjuring her own staff with seemingly no issues. "I'm feeling a lot better, but I've still got a bit of deep muscle fatigue going on. Wish I didn't, because this is a really long time to not be doing any exercise at my level of fitness... but it is what it is." With a twirl and a flourish, Elisa showed off her returned dexterity by spinning her staff like she would a lance, stancing up for a brief moment with a confident smile. "Haha, that much goes without a problem again~ Let's get going, shall we? We're still not up the earliest, so I'm sure the others are already waiting." As much as she wanted to use the time to relax herself, Tasha did have a job to do as the commander, though it wasn't without getting her chances to kick back and do some important catching up with people. Quality Time Together Commander and Knight Now, down in the throne room, she was having a brief discussion with Owen about their current material strength, tallying up what supplies they still had from their travel as well as all of their fighting equipment. "We're self-sufficient for equipment at the moment, and I can handle the maintenance for all of it. I'm an armorer by trade and all, so we've always been able to save a lot on operating costs by having me do all of that work during downtime," she explained, handing over a list she'd collected of everything in their personal possession over the previous day - everything that was relevant to mention, anyway. "Having an actual supply chain helps a lot, but we're only supposed to be here for one operation, so the logistics of all of it won't be too difficult on our side, what with having a ship we can transport everything in. Oh, right, something else I should mention, our 'friend' offered to train the Tigers this morning, so if this covers everything you wanted to know for now, I'll go watch that. You can probably join me if your morning's not busy, though I can't imagine that'd be the case." Tasha gave a shrug to that, not expecting the lord to have free time like that considering the circumstances, but she wasn't leaving before being formally dismissed, either.

Things certainly sounded very good to Tasha's ears, especially now knowing that this woman was with the mother of the girl they'd rescued from the Underground alongside their own people, even if the mention of them being pirates made her ears twitch a little. "Long as you've never thought about attacking Glacies like most of the pirates around here, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We might have a problem if you have, but I'll defer to whatever the lord of the castle decides upon, seeing as we're just another group under contract, yeah?" The sight of the girl clinging so tightly to the sheepy lady did bring a gentle smile to her, finding that she didn't really care what the answer to her implied inquiry was. If the mother of someone who'd been imprisoned by those bastards was Roxanne's boss, she was pretty sure they'd get along just fine, even if they had their differences in method. She quickly nodded to Jesse, who seemed to feel like she had no input of her own left in the matter. The number of people around them steadily grew from a simple discussion to what felt like everyone trying to pull Owen's attention in their own direction, and with the tiger's business with him done for the moment, she thought it better to leave him to deal with things as he got around to them. "Anyway, I've got some of my own things to get to, so I'll leave you all to get your things sorted out. I'll talk to you later about the naval matter," she said to Cassandra, before finally turning back to the stairs to find a room like she'd initially thought of. Alvira might have been waiting for her already, though she'd have a number of things to bring up from their caravan for the duration of their stay too. Bella was going to interject before the boy continued, but he made it quite obvious that his tongue raced ahead of hers. The other person beside him was someone she thought she'd seen with the Tigers earlier, but they weren't putting their piece into the conversation yet, so she simply chose to let them stay on the sidelines if they wanted to. "Correct you are~ Clearly I'm a memorable sort if you remember me by name, and we don't even work anywhere near each other in the castle normally, hmm?~" She leaned forward just a bit, perfectly aware of what that drew attention to from most. "I suppose things are alright if you've spoken to Cassandra already, though. They may be siblings, but Owen is a busy man at times like these, so I understand if word doesn't carry immediately. There is one thing I'd like to add..." Back up straight, the witch took a few steps toward the platform, taking a brief look at what Christopher was pointing out. "This wasn't in the initial plan, but I'm going with the Tigers too. Healers may be indispensable, but my potions can make anyone their own healer, after all... and it's a good opportunity to possibly learn from a few foreign mages. You don't see many practitioners of magic in Islexia, which I'm sure you're excited about as well, seeing as you power these things with magic." That much was easy to see with a quick glance given her own proficiency, though how exactly he was doing it was a different matter. Something she could ask about later. "And, since we're still both under the same employer, maybe we could do some... One-on-one practice, yes?~"

"Yeah, things are clear regarding that part. I gave the man a piece of my mind earlier, but he'll live being held to task by a big cat a second time." Tasha smirked at that to Owen, fully intending on doing just that if Kieran wasn't going to make himself scarce for the time he'd end up spending with them. He probably would, considering the obvious animosity many had toward him, but she'd tell him at least that one very important sentence. Giving way for Syndra's request to be answered turned out to also bring them a couple more people who wanted to talk with the lord of the castle, and it couldn't have hurt to have her around for things as well. Jesse had a new face in tow, a Clouded of some kind, though she couldn't immediately tell what exactly thanks to the unusual combination of ears and horns, who was quick to ask for help regarding unseating Kazran by some means. She could leave asking about her heritage for later, but could at least give her own introduction and poke a little regarding the actual matter at hand. "You and what army? I assume you're not just a lone mercenary, given phrasing, but you ought to give a bit more information before we can properly assess what sort of contract you're looking for. 'Course, nothing wrong even if you are just an extra pair of hands, but I wouldn't think you'd need to come straight to the boss if that was the case, yeah? Natalya Liberia, commander of the Iron Tigers, and by the look of it, the biggest foreign attachment here so far." Though her words were on the pointed side, her tone didn't carry much edge to it, only trying to keep things on the up-and-up with how big their operation was already going to be. Being lost in thought wasn't going to help anyone, as important as sorting through them may have been, and Bella had been given a task by Owen before he left. She momentarily collected herself and put on her usual soft smile again, departing for the castle garrison to find the cat in question. At the very least, she was happy that the lord was confident in both this being a good opportunity for her as well as her ability to make it back unharmed, and she'd do what she'd planned for to give Owen some value out of sending her off on an adventure regardless. Along the way, the witch took quick stock of the people around. Many of the Tigers were still around the castle grounds, including their commander, now speaking with the lord of the castle along with a couple others, among them Syndra. She shrugged off the oncoming wave of annoyance, keeping focused on what her actual objective was, which... turned out to be incredibly easy to complete, seeing as there was a siege construct moving around in the garrison with nothing towing it around. Giving it a wide berth, she went around the side to see two people, one of whom matched the basic description of who she was looking for. "Looks to me like Owen was right in saying you'd be out here, playing with your toys. Have you managed to sort things out and he just hasn't heard about it yet, or is there perhaps some reminding I have to do?~"

"One of the Gaffneys' people wanted people to help move their apparently magic-propelled artillery, that's all I know. Shouldn't be hard to find them if that's what they're traveling with if you're interested," Tasha replied quickly, shutting up to get the conversation that no longer had an involved party present out of their mouths for now. Her attention was quickly grabbed by Syndra's uncharacteristic hesitation to bring up whatever she was about to. While they were far from the closest people in the Tigers, she knew the girl as headstrong and confident, though she was probably being affected by the attempt on her life on some level. If not by the act itself, the simple fact of them being in much bigger leagues now. The actual reason blindsided Tasha a little, though, blinking as she thought over the information. "You went to talk with him, and that came out to you wanting to bring him with us instead of either of you wanting the other dead? Call that a surprise, but honestly, if he's willing to go, might as well bring him along. Man was ready to die at gunpoint when I held him up, I'm sure he had no plan for if Luthier failed in his mission." Her tail whipped to the side at the thought of that man, even as she kept calm otherwise. "Maybe he's figured out something for himself, so good for him if he did. Always better to have people who want to live to fix their mistakes than not, yeah?" She put on something of a smug smile to finish her train of thought with, "Besides, I still have to tell him off for thinking we couldn't do it." Though the tiger was content with letting that be the end of it, someone who could give his view on the same matter was approaching in her sight. "Speaking of, I guess I'll be getting our temporary employer's opinion on the matter soon." Owen was a very busy man today, that much Bella was prepared for, but the speed at which he handled the matter without even questioning her reasoning - or even hearing her reasoning in the first place - shocked her somewhat. He didn't tend to be this quick to judge intent, but perhaps that was just how much he implicitly trusted her. "I see. Thank you, Lord Owen, I'll be back before you know it. I will take care of the other matter as well." While she only gave a very short reply and a quick bow to the departing master of the castle, her sad expression told a story different from what she'd said. Left alone to her thoughts, she closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall, arms crossed under her chest. "You're a silly boy, Owen... You know why I came back here. Are you trying to save my emotions, or just not considering everything because of your hurry?" Quietly, she spoke to herself, letting out a slow sigh. I don't need others to help keep up my facade for me. Maybe you'll understand later why I put it up to begin with... if I live to tell the tale of this excursion. "Then I'll be the one who's lucky and come with you.~" Elisa smiled, still keeping her eyes shut while somehow trying to stave off the imminent, encroaching sleep she oh so needed. If taking a bath with Tio was on the table, she'd keep herself from slipping off to dreamland even if it took getting out of this awfully comfortable bed a bit earlier. Much as it might get boring with relatively little for them to do, she couldn't help being glad about that in their current condition, hopefully letting them get back into good health by the time they'd be moving again. "Haah... You know, maybe it's a good thing I'm still so tired. Any other time we'd get a chance to relax like this, we wouldn't be sleeping much...~ Hehe."

The boy had a tendency for rattling off his business in short order, it seemed, what with not really giving Tasha much space in the conversation to add her own thoughts before he was already practically leaving it. Still, the idea of having magically mobile artillery to support them was a very nice one, even if she herself was surely not going to understand how exactly it worked. "Sounds good to me. I'm not the person to ask when it comes to gauging how strong of a mage someone is, but we've got a good few of 'em in our group, even discounting those two, since they aren't coming along," she replied, nodding toward the stairs and the Evokers. "I'll take finding out about stuff any route I can get it, so if you can do that for me, that'd be nice." One of the people who could fit the previous description as well as being one of the key players as of current, even if it was mostly against her will, saw fit to enter the discussion as well. "Oh, Syndra. Sure, I didn't have much of a plan for right now, besides talking business with people who have business to talk." Tasha began to address Chris, "If you wanted someone to try out the magic thing, she's..." but turned back to them only to see them already walking off. "Bundle of energy, that one, huh? Didn't even stick around long enough for me to thank 'em for the compliment." She shrugged and gave her full attention to Syndra, now the only person requesting to see her for the moment. "Anyway, what about the plan did you want to talk about? I have my own questions about the details I'll have to hash out with Owen, but I'll answer anything I can, yeah?" "If they don't have baths for some reason, the Channel's right there," Elisa said back, a weak giggle leaving her lips. Her energy might have been coming back, but she was still a good bit out of it, even as she was guiding them to whichever room seemed most suitable for them to take. "...Do we even have that much to do right now? There's only so much we can try researching when we can't use our magic properly, and our diplomatic options are pretty much nothing while we're in Islexia." The strawberry blonde scratched her neck a little, walking over to their chosen bed and flopping over, taking her boots off to get comfortable without bothering to take her mantle off, eyes closed in a content smile. "Haaahh... I need a bath too, but a bed is even better." Belladonna nodded and followed Owen, finding nothing to complain about with his terms. Once they were in private, she began with the obvious inquiry, keeping calm for the moment with firm eye contact with her lord. "Now that things have changed regarding our allies again, I assume I'm to provide my services to the Iron Tigers as well, should they request them, yes?" The answer to that was so obvious she didn't bother waiting for an answer, considering previous similar instances on a smaller scale, such as Seila's group joining them, and continued to what she actually wanted to ask about. "I know you would rather have me stay in safety, but I must ask you to let me go with them. To attack Kazran... and further, should this plan be successful."

Tasha stifled a laugh at her rather sincere offer being turned into a tease by Elisa, but with the topic shifted back toward the actual discussion, she shook her head. "I'm not too concerned, really. I've just gotten used to heading all the tactical decisions myself, so being part of something bigger like this just made me... feel like I needed to consult someone, I guess. I'm confident we can overcome the battle ahead of us, but, I dunno. It's the same kinda feeling I get right before snowfall turns into a blizzard, if that makes any sense. You're Glacian too, so I guess it does more than for anyone from around here, yeah?" She scratched the back of her neck, wry smile on her lips. Unease like this wasn't common for her, but if she could calm herself by talking with the people around her, all the better. Right as she was about to follow the two going upstairs, and before Elisa added anything more of her own to the discussion, someone new entered the picture - another cat, he looked like, and quickly introduced himself as to who he was and why he was asking. "Looks like you're needed for work, so we'll leave you two to it. We'll try to do what we can while we're hanging back here and resting up," the strawberry blonde added, taking her wife's hand and gently leading them toward their room, adding one last poke at Tio with a quiet "You look really cute right now, by the way~" The cat was certainly quick with his tongue, leaving little air for Natalya to answer before he was already all done with what he wanted to ask. She briefly nodded to the Evokers as they left, turning her attention entirely to Christopher, quickly looking him over before replying. "You've got the right tiger alright. Natalya E. Liberia, commander of the Iron Tigers. And, uh, you said siege operator, right? I don't think we have the capacity to drag a trebuchet or a ballista around on our own, all we've got is horse-drawn carts that are already overloaded with how many more people we've got tagging along than we originally left with. We can handle some basic weaponry fine, but you'll have to request extra from Owen if you want to bring ammo for a siege weapon or anything like that." Having a siege weapon would be a great benefit in combat, of course, but the logistics of getting one to the fight for a relatively agile group like them was a different matter. Though the cats' antics were amusing in their own right, Bella had to shake her head at the suggestion of giving the group a tour of the city. "I'd love to join you for a meal and sightseeing, but I'm afraid I still have other things to deal with. Seila's group can surely do as good a job of showing you around, even if they haven't been here for that long... I'm not the type to go out much, as you might have guessed." She let out a small chuckle, shifting her weight to the other side of her hip. "Besides, I'm also the type to prefer my conversations a little more... intimate. Ahaha.~" With that said, the others began to head out, leaving the witch to her devices. A deep breath and a straightening of her posture later, she too was leaving the main hall, instead heading toward where Owen had said he was going. Her usual smile faded while she got her thoughts in order... hopefully he would be receptive to what she had in mind. It didn't take long for them to meet, seeing as the lord was leaving the dungeons... with a tag-along, who elicited a brief turn-up of the nose from Bella. Whatever, Syndra wasn't important to what she was going to talk about. "Lord Owen. If you have a moment, I'd like to speak with you about the near future..." She glanced at the Belrose, keeping a straight face, "Privately."

After waiting for Syta to leave, Tasha nodded to Tio's question. What they'd spoken of was clear enough for her to have picked up with her excellent hearing, but it didn't make too much sense in the moment - was the girl really referring to a trinket as a person? "I'm just trying to get a feeling on how we're doing overall, and... oh, I guess you're still talking." The Evoker's attention had quickly shifted to the amulet in her hand, and though the commander didn't have too clear an idea of what it meant, the fact that Tio was replying to something she didn't hear herself was a clear indicator that there was indeed some kind of presence within that accessory. Elisa only motioned for Natalya to follow as they began to move again, listening as closely as she could push herself to Tio and Kisara's conversation without actually being part of it herself. Once her wife had stopped, and turned to her as well, the strawberry blonde let out a small sigh. "Tell me about it. Though I couldn't hear the other half of that conversation, you said enough to make me concerned... even if it does explain a slight nagging feeling I've had about those two. Either way," she looked back to see the tall tiger still in tow, "someone else wanted our attention too." Tasha couldn't make heads or tails of half the things Tio said, although she did vaguely recall the names of Chris and Marianne, and how they were now supposedly somehow related to or similar to Mercuria. If they wanted to brief her about what all of that meant, she could let them recover some more and get back to it... but for now, she'd just have her original topic to discuss. "Whatever that was just now sounded a hell of a lot more important than anything I could bother you with, but, uh, yeah. I'll get out of your hair as soon as we get to our rooms, but how do you two think our plan regarding Kazran is going to go? If he's willing to step up like that, surely that means he thinks we can do it, yeah?" The name was left out, but there was only one person she could've realistically been referring to. An aside came to her as well, recalling an earlier grumble from the older Evoker. "...Would you like me to carry you upstairs?" The Commander's question shook Elisa out of her immediate thoughts regarding the half of things Kisara and Tio were talking about, and more into thinking as much as she could about what had occurred with the negotiations. "You dealt with the Underground mostly without our help, so I can't imagine a Warlord to be that much worse... especially when you've got other forces to distract the bulk of the enemy for a shock strike. I'll have to admit I wasn't really paying attention to the specifics, but our faith in you hasn't been misplaced thus far, even when the situation's gotten ridiculous at a moment's notice." Tasha didn't typically ask them for their opinion about these things, but perhaps recent events had made her more wary. "I'd carry her myself, but, you know. I'm having a hard time keeping my own two legs straight still, much less taking care of my wonderfully endowed wife like so.~" As much as her coy smile was less energetic than usual, things were slowly getting back to the norm. Though she felt like she wasn't acknowledged much, Bella didn't take that personally. A group that's been traveling with a primarily Clouded composition was sure to be more interested in what Clouded they could find in Islexia like this, and furthermore, it seemed like they were all originally from the same country. Perhaps they'd be more interested once they found out what she could do for them in a battle, or even outside of it, but she still needed Owen's blessing to provide her services equally to the Tigers, even if they were already formally employed. "You certainly aren't making a case against the latter, Amera.~" The hyperactive cat might not even hear that over her own exuberance, but that wouldn't stop the witch from chuckling at it all the same.