Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[roymbrog]

Deciding that places of interest were probably mostly on the first floor, that is where Kat decided to begin her exploration. After taking note of the turns she’d taken from her room she descended a stairway and began walking down the hall when she began to hear familiar voices from a room coming up ahead. When she reached the doorway she popped her head inside to find what appeared to be some sort of training room. Raquel and two men who were definitely familiar (but she couldn’t remember their names) were inside. Hearing the words ‘stop’, ‘dagger’, and ‘bullet’ in succession piqued her curiosity enough to hang around a minute and see what they were up to. Stopping a bullet with a dagger maybe? She wanted to ask Raquel when they were going to leave, but perhaps she shouldn’t interrupt them just yet.

[scorri]

Erion glanced over and saw the woman he recognized as being a wyvern rider peering around the door. Sadly, he couldn't remember her name. "Ah, miss, did you want to join us? We're working on helping Raquel train her emblem power. We were just discussing items that we could throw to see if she could catch them midair. Any ideas? So far we have a dagger, a tome, and a sheathed dagger for ideas."

[roymbrog]

Oh, so that’s what was going on. Since she’d already been spotted (that counted as interrupting, she supposed), Kat fully entered the room and walked over to the other three. That answered Erion’s first question. “Those all sound like they may hurt if she misses… Why not start with something smaller? Like…” she dug around in her pocket for a moment before pulling out a coin. “How about this?” she asked. “Or perhaps it’s too small… hmm. I’ll be honest, I have no clue what’s going on here.”

[scorri]

"Well, we weren't going to be throwing them at her to start. More just letting her practice catching. As for what's going on... She's going to be trying to warp into where Sardus and her father are, rescue her father and Jericho's brother, and then warp out. So we're just trying to help her be as confident in that process as possible. The coin's not a bad idea though... What do you think about that Raquel?"

[Ether]

"Well if a mage's point of view is what you need, then I've got just the mage for you, Amon~" Angelica replied gleefully, sitting herself down proper next to him rather than just orbiting the table.

"I made a bit of a blunder and strained myself, so it's not like I've got anything else to do... I've got all day at the very least, so lay it on me, Amon."

***

Well, it was for the best if they managed to pull it off under their own power, anyway. Atleast most of the threat coming from Glen had dissapeared.

***

"Oh, I'm fine... call it a cliche because I suppose it is, but it was just a flesh wound... and some poison but that seems to be standard faire at this point too..." Faatina replied with a bit of a grimace, as she continued to muss about with the blade. The other man hadn't been using a sword but maybe he had some insight to give, considering he seemed to be watching her fumble rather intently

"It's been a while since I've wielded a sword, though... I never did remember what brother said the best angle to sheath a cavalry sabre was... at the time I thought things like that were the least of my worries, but look at me now."

[-Cynthia-]

Dining Hall

"It's difficult to see everything we do as self-defense when we are sometimes the aggressor, but I understand how you would think that way, especially in the moment. Killing is...easier if you can claim it was either going to be you or them," Veronika said, somewhat uncomfortably. Is that just a rationalization we're using to justify these explosives or is it the truth? Hard to say when you don't want to wait for them to strike first...

Estate Grounds

<"Yeah, in a lotta places wyverns eat horses and pegasi. I'm sure Isis don't mean to do that, but animals got a healthy sense of self-preservation most of the time. Might wanna try to get her outta there,"> Nadya suggested to Haythem before noticing that someone inside also seemed a bit spooked.

"She can't breathe fire or nothin', so she's just a big wyvern. Don't worry, she ain't gonna eat you or your pegasus," Nadya attempted to calm the woman.

[Sakusa]

"The problem currently at hand is that the two of us aren't on the payroll. Although traveling with you to Kigen does sound enjoyable, I've no hope of leaving Europa without establishing a contract beforehand. If all goes well, I see plenty of girltalk in our future. Don't worry so much about keeping me safe, though. Taking damage is what Cyrus does best!" Gwyn laughed and patted the green-haired lout on the shoulder. "So what's Star Hunter like? Glen's a little gluttonous and lazy, but he's an absolute sweetheart and intelligent to boot. He's one of the most handsome creatures you'll ever meet: his scales are beautiful and glossy and lustrous... His facial features are very well-defined, and the musculature underneath his chub is flawless!" she gushed, blushing a bit in embarrassment. "Gods, I sound like I'm praising a lover or something."

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

"Sorry to hear that," Amon grimaced slightly. He knew straining was kind of common, but also knew that it was a pretty bad experience when it happened.

<"Great,"> Malik muttered in rexian as Angelica sat down, <"now you just have to transfer all those memories from yourself to her."> He didn't actually like the idea of sharing information that ... useful and in such depth, but since it wasn't possible, or at least not in their current situation, he didn't protest.

"I don't think I can," Amon half seriously replied. "I guess I can try explaining this, though." Musing to himself for a moment, Amon recalled the most important details he could remember. "The emblem's definitely different, even the energy it uses. What I think Raquel's is trying to do is help her, but it's doing this all on its own, and I'm pretty certain conventional magic doesn't work this way ... I guess other kinds of magic can be guided around and everything, but they're not actively working on their own, right?"

Meanwhile at the Gar Q table ... "You can rush over and get me some," Suzume teased, almost managing to say it without the strain in her voice.

"Right," Reign nodded slowly. "Either way, it's best to get things like that sorted or at least out of your mind before you set foot in a fight. Otherwise, you might hesitate. Unfortunately, being in the army, they don't really help us resolve all of our personal issues. If they did, they'd probably get too many resignations ...."

Study

One of Raquel's other connections? "... who, like Shadrak?" Weyland asked. He was with Chie earlier, okay? It makes perfect sense.

"... Amon," Steinn said with a scowl. It wouldn't affect his plans too much if Amon went for Joanna and her emblem piece instead, but it could mean their deal was off ... unless the rexian got a little greedy or something to the effect of needing two. In the meantime, he was planning to reevaluate this emblem situation, since his people had already been exposed to it.

"Who? I don't care; can they do it? Will they do it?" Glen spoke up, a glimmer in his eyes.

Training Room

She doubted Jericho's harmonica would break if thrown unless it hit something really hard, but it looked big enough to see coming and therefore catch. Erion then made another offer and sheathed the dagger after removing it from his wrist. She was more willing to give it a try now, though that would have to wait, seeing as they had company. Erion's last comment got her musing about particularly small objects, though. One thing she'd realized in all of these warping attempts, even those as far back as her fight with her doppelganger, were that there was no point in even trying to warp something she couldn't isolate with her eyes. That was partly why Marella died. If she couldn't see it, particularly after getting knocked over, she couldn't warp it. Incredibly fast moving objects like arrows and bullets were probably out of the question. It figures my arrow problem wouldn't go away that easily. I'll just have to get better at moving around.

As she came back out of her thoughts, yet another suggestion had come up, a coin. Raquel was a little worried about that one, since while it was small enough not to hurt too much if she got hit by it, it still had an awkward profile and gave off a lot of random intense reflections. She felt she could catch or deflect it easily enough, but also felt it'd be easier for her to mess up. That was when she decided it might be best just to test everything and see if there were any holes in her catching ability that needed attention. "Okay, how about we just try all of those, one after the other? You guys can pick the order, but I'm starting to think that the best way to practice now is with a variety of things." Not like everyone carries around just one kind of weapon, after all.

Stables

"A-are you sure?" Vivian squeaked.

"Yyyeah I'm sure," Haythem chimed in with a grimace, trying to guide Isis' head back outside. The flying giant was hesitating to leave for some reason, though. Perhaps, Haythem speculated, because she was enjoying having at least her head out of the rain. It probably wasn't uncomfortable outside, but she was used to being in an unbearably dry climate, just like he was. The change was probably affecting her differently than him. "Uh just a second. I can get her back out. Juuust need to negotiate a little, heheh."

Archives

"It should only require attention if you damage it," Nyx noted, "at which point, I might send someone to have a look at it. It's best if neither of you try to examine it, either. There are people who would torture you both to death to get what you find. Still, it's not a requirement, and the two of you will be tied to me in a sense, that is, if you accept. Put that information into your minds at your own peril," she waved dismissively.

Sooo basically if we figure out how the arm works, we'll be at risk of being interrogated harshly for the information, Shadrak summarized to himself. Doesn't matter, I think. After all, if someone that twisted learned about the arm in general, they'd probably try to take it, whether or not they followed up with an interrogation. I guess that means we'll have to keep it under wraps ... literally ....

Edited June 3, 2014 by Phoenix

[Snike]

"Which arm is your sword arm?" Pete said, simply. There was little use telling her how to wear her weapon if he didn't know which hand she preferred.
***

Understood, I'll drop it. As for how long, I would say about fifteen minutes at the most. I'll let you know ahead of time when it'll be needed.

[Ether]

"It's pretty much manual control, yeah... you can have autonomous magic through the use of runes but even those need to be pre-set in their actions, and they're really limited as far as versatility goes... you need a new one if you ever want to do something else. But if I've got what you're saying straight, it isn't that Raquel herself is using the Emblem's energy, so much as that the Emblem itself is bending reality because it knows what she wants to do and is trying to facilitate it... if that's the case it seems like it would be damn near sentient..." Angelica replied, mulling it over.

"What else can you tell me? If that thing can think for itself and holds that kind of world-bending power, the consequences could be astronomical... on the other hand if it didn't obey someone who was trying to do wrong by it then it might not be so bad but if it can make a decision of it's own accord, it could easily make an incorrect or uninformed one... helping Raquel and helping Valdimarr seem like two complete opposites, unless each shard develops it's own ego when isolated from the whole..."

***

"My sword arm is my right." Faatina replied. A simple answer for a simple question, atleast she was getting somewhere.

[roymbrog]

Manse mental map making completely forgotten, Kat was currently interested in how this warping thing worked. She really wanted to see it for herself here. “That sounds good. What would be easiest to warp? We could start with that item. And if we’re not tossing things directly to Raquel, I can stand by to catch them if she misses,” Katrina offered.

---

Valter was a bit taken aback by Weyland’s guess. Shadrak wasn’t someone he had in mind at all. “Uh, no, not him. Amon, though…” The man was definitely trustworthy, but the question was could he pull something like that off? It wouldn’t hurt to ask. He wasn’t quite sure why Steinn was unhappy about that, having missed the meeting earlier. Ignoring Glen for the moment he said, “I’m willing to ask him.”

[Eail]

Cyrus was internally screaming as Gwyn spoke of future girl talk, they were always together, so it made sense in the Wyvern Rider's mind that he'd be there too, and he really didn't want that. "I don't like getting hit... but I'm clumsy on the ground. You'd think I'd be used to pain by now but no.... at least we got thicker armor for me after last time..." He noticeably shivered when speaking about his last experience, obviously something bad had happened.

When Gwyn started to talk more about Glen, in a much more positive light than she generally did him, he looked down at her "You spoil him too much, he's getting a big head with everything you tell people about him. Glen keeps saying that since he's the most handsome Wyvern he shouldn't be be fed anything less than high quality meat and apples, until I bop him on the head to get him back to his usual self that is."

[Sakusa]

"You were due for a wardrobe upgrade regardless. Besides, if you don't keep me free from injury, flesh wounds will be the least of your concerns," Gwyn snapped, taking none of the wyvern rider's shenanigans. "It's not like I lied about what I said about Glen, anyway. With a wyvern of his breeding, he definitely deserves better than dried mutton and whatever other rations we feed him. He's still growing, and anyone with a trained eye can tell that he is a creature of high caliber and therefore deserves to be treated as such!" she said matter-of-factly. "Just because you own him doesn't mean you should be putting him down! Wyverns can dream of greatness and to better themselves as well! Gods, if you get married one day and have children, I shudder to think of what you would say to them."

[-Cynthia-]

Dining Hall

"Well, this isn't the army. If people here have personal issues, they should feel free to discuss them with me," Veronika clarified to Reign and anyone else within earshot, glad she could bring that up. See Bert, I do care about people's personal problems- I just said so myself.

Estate Grounds

"Hmm, I wonder if Isis is used to bein' around horses and pegasi. Maybe she's curious," Nadya said, waiting for Haythem to get Isis out of the way. The situation didn't seem dangerous so she didn't feel a need to step in.

[Snike]

"You put the sheath on your left hip, then, and angle it forwards and upwards," Pete said bluntly. "Makes it faster and less awkward to draw, and since you're not in the army, you won't have to worry about accidentally cutting some idiot open when you draw it."

[scorri]

Lumi

Lumi grinned at the girl's description of the wyvern. "Hmm, almost sounds more like he's your wyvern than his the way you talk about him. As for Star, well, he's wonderful. He's all black which is something of an oddity in pegasi. I can't tell you how long my family's been breeding to try and get one... But he's super sweet, and super protective and also is the biggest flirt you'll ever find." As Gwyn talked about Cyrus and his future children, she couldn't help but giggle some. "Hee, you two almost sound like an old married couple and Glen's your kid."

Hoshi

Sitting quietly as the two discussed how to position swords, Hoshi smiled slightly. It was nice. She had forgotten how nice it could be to just relax and talk with friends. Or... at least talk with nice people. She felt a bit awkward assuming that the other two would want to be her friends having only talked to each of them twice now.

Erion

With a shrug, Erion called out, "Alright Raquel, catch this." He tossed the sheathed dagger in a slow, high-arching path, clearly intending for this to be an easier target than a quickly thrown blade might be.

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

"Well," Amon began thinking again for a moment. "Hmm, as far as Nyx knew, it's not much different from other types of magic." Given what they were just talking about, he felt he could have worded that better. "Err-composition ... I think that's it. What it's all made out of is more or less the same, but it's taking different forms."

<"That sounds like anima,"> Malik mused to himself.

"I'm not sure it's quite like anima .... It seems more like a wholly separate element and doesn't fit into any of the conventional three. There's also a fifth ... or at least a starting point. I think anima, dark, light, and the emblem energy all come from the same source ... so maybe not a fifth. Maybe more like a starting form for all magic."

Reign stared blankly at Veronika for a moment, then an amused smirk slowly formed. "I hope you're ready for all the random trifles you just offered your ears up for."

Study

"And I'd like to see who this Amon person is, so I'll go with you," Glen said to Valter, standing up as he did.

Weyland didn't say anything after that, partly hoping they had found a sort of solution to their problem, but partly wishing it hadn't come up at all. It was going to be hard enough to get Joanna released without a botched rescue attempt going down prior.

Training Room

"I don't actually know what would be easier yet," Raquel replied with a bit of a shrug, "just go at random and we'll find out, I guess." And then random came in the form of the dagger. Fortunately for Raquel, despite the short notice, her eyes locked onto the target on their own; she could only mess this up through bad timing. Her body and the sheathed dagger gave off the same golden glow but the dagger was immediately overcome and shrunken down before coming straight to Raquel's waiting hands. When the weapon returned to normal the light vanished, and it fell a few short inches into her palms. "Huh ..."

Stables

"I don't see why," Haythem frowned, "she's seen plenty of horses back in Sanctuary. Maybe not pegasi, but ..."

That was Vivian's cue to get her pegasus into a stall, safely out of the wyvern's reach. "I'll just ... be over here ...."

Complex

Fifteen minutes. That was better than an hour, and something she might be able to manage. Okay, I'll come up with something, Cassandra replied, already going over new ideas based on the timing.

[Ether]

"Forwards and upwards... that sounds familiar, now that you mention it. Thanks." Faatina noted, as she fastened the scabbard to her belt and gave the blade a test draw... seemed to work like a charm.

"Hey Hoshi, you're an alchemist, aren't you? You'd be pretty much an expert on weapon composition and all that... this blade reminded me of the talwar from back home... the make feels different and a good part of it is probably the metallurgy, but I can't really say for sure... mind taking a look when you have some time?"

***

"A common ancestral point for all magic... I suppose that makes sense, after all, all magic is rooted in the manipulation of the respective particles of that type... well, all conventional magic anyway... if the Emblem has it's roots in the same place it may be possible to deconstruct it and figure out how it came to have such a diverse range of influence... imagine if we could reverse-engineer the Fire Emblem..." Angelica began, trailing off as she thought it over.

"Of course, if that's the case then it probably isn't wholly sentient but how else would it do what it does..."

[Cevian]

Most everyone wasn't really paying attention to Cherish as she walked in and went straight to the food. One would suspect that a random new person in all black coming in to the room might be subject for someone noticing her, but these people just got through a crazy attack so maybe she wasn't too out of the ordinary. One person had said something near her, but it wasn't at her or interesting so she just ignored it.

Grabbing together a large amount of food she made her way to an empty table and started to eat. She couldn't be bothered to fake the interest in joining an ongoing conversation.

[scorri]

Blinking, Hoshi held out her hand. "Uhm, here, if you don't mind...?" Taking the weapon, she pulled out one of the tendrils she had stored earlier and probed the blade. Taking some time to consider the blade, she nodded, more to herself than anyone else. "Uhm... It looks like this is some sort of high-quality steel alloy. It's, uhm, not something I've encountered before in this exact form, but I can tell you that it won't rust or break any time soon. Uhm, it will also likely stay sharp longer than most blades. I could maybe make it better with alchemy but..." She shook her head. "I don't know exactly how I'd do it and don't think I have quite the grasp on this material that I would need to do it. But, uhm, it's a good material and should serve you well."

[ReformBlade]

"Gotcha." Mushirah said, feeling this was a loaded deal the more she had things explained, like there was a gun pointed squarely behind her head if she would ever misstep with this hypothetical arm. "I just... it's the protecting at all costs that has me freezing up here. I just want to get this as crystal clear as I can... At all costs means exactly what I'm thinking it means, isn't it? Don't speak of it to anyone, don't let anyone near it, if people start getting too interested, keep them away from it or don't show it in the first place, and if someone, gods forbid, find out about it, i have to deal with that which would probably mean... getting rid of them..." she paused, clearing her lump that resurfaced, "Or if things somehow got out of hand and I do get tortured for the info on it, I kinda feel it'd be better to somehow off myself rather than deal with any of the consequences, given what I've come to hear." She took a deep breath before finally ending with, "I want to think that it won't be that dangerous and that maybe you... are exaggerating on what is expected but I sincerely doubt either of those." This arm sounds like it's going to just cause me immeasurable amounts of stress on every front on top of just a complete barricade to having a remotely normal social life... There's no way I should even consider dealing with this.

"Seems like you can do a lot with this damn power, Raquel." Jericho chimed in with an obvious comment like ti was more than simple praise just because.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Yeah... think I will. I'm bound to be a faster service at least," Gar put his own stuff back down. Guess it did more of a number on her than he realized.

[Sakusa]

"He does like me better than Cyrus~ Maybe he's just a mama's boy!" Gwyn laughed. "While it's true that I may treat Glen as if he were my own child, Cyrus is most definitely not the father. I'll have you know that I'm a single mother struggling to give her son the best she can provide on a limited budget!" she insisted, though flushing a few shades still. The virtuoso did consider settling down with the wyvern breeder more than once, but she still couldn't fathom being intimate with a boy she considered to be her younger brother. It was just awkward and didn't seem like it would end well. Besides, marrying him would be like marrying a stable boy, and she wanted no part in that. "Anyway, aren't pegasi normally pure white or cream-colored? Black sounds like it'd be a fault if you were to present him at an exhibition or some other breeders' event. Well, it's no wonder your parents left you for dead, you took off with their greatest treasures!" she jabbed, not meaning any harm, but was acutely aware that what she was saying was quite rude. "A parent's greatest treasure will always be their child, after all, but Star seems more like your lover." A corner of her mouth tugged up into a smirk. She was quite content with herself, but she couldn't help but feel as if she stepped on a landmine of some sort.

[Eail]

At the mention of Gwyn and he being in a relationship, Cyrus felt his eyes suddenly straining as large as they could be "If we're married I'd like to declare spouse abuse." Cyrus eventually replied. "Besides, if I'm not the father then who is? I raised him to be big and strong like a manly wyvern should be! I'm the disciplinarian and you're the one that coddles him, it's a system we have that seems to work out, even if you do coddle him too much..." Their relationship was... weird, that was a good word to describe it he thought. He liked Gwyn, she was his best friend, but he wasn't sure what more there was, he'd never been in love before or anything like that.

[Mercakete]

Eventually, Norbert got frustrated with thinking about it and just decided to look for Synthia, speeding up his once-leisure pace towards the second floor. He happened upon a maid on his way and, unfortunately, they'd just been rounding opposite corners. Norbert jumped back reflexively, avoiding a collision, but the shout of surprise that accompanied it actually sounded less startled or fearful (it was both) and more angry. The yelling that followed only made it seem more so. "Gah! Don't do that! What's wrong with you?!"

Only after those words bust from his mouth that he calmed down enough to realize that she could actually help him. "Urgh... Anyway, I'm looking for someone: one of Raquel's mercenaries. Her name's Synthia and she has black hair and can use a heal staff. Do you know where she is?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was nice to spend time in these stables most of the time...but not right now! For some unholy reason, the flying predators were being left in the stables among the wingless and the winged! Sure, they had separate stalls, but Rizen just couldn't take it! She was considering breaking out again since that unbreakable rope wasn't keeping her tethered, when the head of a gigantic predator came into the stables! Rizen shrieked in fear and reared up at the sight of its unnatural, scaly head, and backed up until she could no longer.

Enemies had invaded this place of rest... She couldn't fight them off alone, either. Perhaps there were others who could fight nearby. Whinnying, she called out to those whose stalls were near hers, and asked them if any of them could fight. She told them that if they banded together and escape their stalls, that maybe they could drive off the predators.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh! Right," Gytha replied as she read the last line. She'd actually forgotten that she was still dripping with rainwater. The mariner gave a concerned smile to her friend. "Well, let me know how yer r'coverin'. Hope ye feel better soon. Have fun with that readin'. I may drop by t' chat after I change, if ye don't mind it."

It was too bad about her voice, but Gytha figured Synthia might still want to hear about Sinbad.