Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Mercakete]

Maw sniffed at the tuna. It still smelled...weird. Like the meat was mixed with some other stuff humans ate. It wasn't to be trusted, so Maw just began making her way over towards the kitchen. They had good, untainted meat there, and now she was hungry.

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

It seemed like the other pegasus wouldn't try to get her rider to help. Rizen snorted in frustration, but it couldn't be helped. She had at least two others who were willing to help, maybe. She wasn't sure if the horse would step up without his rider, but she still had the support of the other pegasus. She had to agree that though her rider was incrediably handy in a fight, he didn't seem to see these creatures as the threats they were. Where the wyverns went, she didn't care, but these stables were reserved for equines!

Turning around in her stall and getting ready to kick the door down, she gave some quick advice to Star Hunter: the best way to break down a stall door was to kick it with both back hooves hard and repeatedly until it broke. Then they would fight off those predators! So, without further delay, she began following her own advice, working hard and fast to break down her stall door.

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

"I'm trying to get someone else to handle this!" Norbert snapped, not at all shy of yelling, "I'm looking for someone who can heal her and trust me -- it's not important what, specifically, she's saying! I don't want her" or me "to have to deal with any stupid teasing once she's healed and this is done with! If you won't show me where someone trustworthy is, FINE! I'll just ask someone else!"

He'd had enough. More than a little irritated, Norbert stormed past Tilly to find someone else who might've seen Synthia.

[-Cynthia-]

Dining Hall

The loud argument over tea currently dominated Veronika's attention- she remembered that someone should probably inform Gar about the upcoming plan, but inserting herself into the middle of all this wasn't going to be very productive.

Estate Grounds

"Nadya here, just a guest," she answered the woman. I wonder how long I am gonna be here, come to think of it. Amon's the one doin' the plannin' I guess. "These animals sure seem riled up- Isis is gone so I ain't exactly sure what all this fuss is about," she added with a frown, looking around at the various horses and pegasi.

[Nanami Touko]

Eva continued to watch in slight wonder at the conversation between Shadrak, Mushirah, and Nyx. How the man could keep his cool after being essentially stripped of his own mind by this Goddess was perplexing enough, and now he seemed to even be arguing against her, the thing that had gotten him his punishment in the first place. Either he had an implacable sense of bravery, or he thought Nyx wasn't going to do anything to him. At least all this talk of replacing limbs was interesting, even if Mushirah wasn't liking the implications of what Nyx was saying. If Eva'd lost a limb herself, she'd take the deal immediately. Being unable to ride Sasha would be as close to dying as she'd be willing to get.

Having enough of worrying about that conversation, she took to look at everyone else in the room. She couldn't exactly get an emotion off of Aneda, but looking at Tia made what she was thinking fairly obvious, or if not what she was thinking, at least the emotion she was going through. "Uh, hey, Aneda...?" she asked, pointing at Tia and glancing at the girl's bleeding lip. With a quick hop over to the Aneda, she tried to mention as quietly as she could, "Think one of us should take the bomb out of the room before it goes off?"

Edited June 5, 2014 by I have opinions

[scorri]

Lumi

Arriving at the stables, Lumi was shocked to see Star rearing up and trying to break down his stall. "STAR HUNTER, YOU STOP THAT RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" She marched up to him and grabbed his bridle and tugged down on it. Glaring up at him, she muttered, "I know I taught you better, what has gotten into you?" Star tried to explain that there was a monster in here and that he needed to protect the ladies, but Lumi wasn't hearing any of it. Taking a chunk of the ice from her tonfa, she formed it around Star's reins and then smacked it down onto the ground and kept it there. Star was forced to put his feet on the ground again and stared at the ground. See? Of course his rider wouldn't help... Lumi then turned towards the other pegasus who was trying to escape. "Right then. As for you, Rizen, wasn't it? Do you really want me to go find your rider and tell him that you're destroying property? If you behave, I'll give you this." She pulled an apple out of her bag and held it where the other pegasus could see it. "If not, I'll just give you the same treatment that I gave Star here and let you cool your head for a while."

Erion

"Hmm, fair enough. You're not going to be able to avoid my point of you should take someone with you for long though. I'm not going to let up on it." Leaning against the wall, hands still in his pockets, he winked at her. "I'm stubborn like that."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar kicked back with a smug sense of self-satisfaction as the maid stepped forth to put all things at rest. Nothing like stirring things up to get the blood flowing.

[Mercakete]

Rizen's head was entirely out of Lumi's reach, as she was kicking the door down with her hind legs, but that didn't particularly matter since she'd completely ignored the human. That the other pegasus stopped was concerning, though. Was this the rider he'd talked about? Just what did she think she was doing, putting everyone in danger like that?! She only kicked the door harder until, finally, it slammed open. Rizen didn't waste any time. Without the support from the other pegasus, she wasn't willing to take on a predator on her own. This human, though... She seemed ready to close in.

Not about ready to let herself be handled by anyone other than her own rider, the angry pegasus lowered her head at the human and pawed at the ground. Warning her, Rizen gave a low, warning nicker. If she tried anything, Rizen wouldn't hesitate to attack. She was just too on-edge at this point, having shared this place with wyverns and being rather heavily reminded of when she'd been tired down at Fort Dailey.

[scorri]

Lumi sighed. It wasn't the first time she'd faced an angry pegasus. Showing Rizen the apple again, she talked soothingly to the pegasus, "Hey now, it's all right. Do you want the treat? It's ok. I can go get Norbert for you if you want. Though I bet he'd be happier if you stayed in your stall. But hey, it's ok. If you want to stay out here, that can work too. But why don't you just calm down until I can get Bert here, ok? I'm sure you wouldn't want to cause him any trouble." She realized she was rambling at this point, but it was more about the tone of her voice than her words. She made sure not to make any sudden moves or anything that might startle Rizen. Meanwhile, Star had become very interested in the treat in Lumi's hand. Stretching his neck out, he was just a bit shy of reaching the apple. Calling out to Rizen, he informed her that if she was not interested in the crunchy red thing, he would take it. It wasn't as good as the crunchy orange things that he liked so much, but it was still yummy.

[Mercakete]

Rizen cast a pegasus-glance at the pegasus who was talking about the red thing. If he wanted it, he could have it. Slowly walking forward, Rizen suddenly jutted her horn forward and stabbed the apple. Then, she walked over to Star's stall, rested it on the door, and pulled back, causing the apple to fall into it. Then, she returned her lowered head to Lumi again, steadily getting closer until there was a clear shot at getting outside. Then, she bolted, shouting back to her fellow equines that she couldn't take the predators on her own and wishing them luck.

It was frightening running past the giant predator, but she had no intention of stopping at the door. If running past was the only way to get away, that was what she was doing. The rain was the farthest thing from her mind, too. All she cared about was getting the heck out of there.

[scorri]

With a sigh, Lumi walked back to Star and stared at him. "Oh go ahead and eat the apple you fat butt. But stay here, ok?" Reclaiming the ice she'd used to tie him down, she turned and spotted the cause for all the trouble. A wyvern. In among pegasi. Ugh, of course. She suspected that this was Glen since she didn't recognize him but didn't know for sure. With a sigh, she headed back into the mansion. Finding a maid, she asked politely, "Excuse me, two things. One, is there normally a separate stable for wyverns? Because there's currently one among the pegasi and it's causing them to be extremely upset. Second, along those lines, do you know where I can find Norbert? I need to talk to him about his pegasi."

Meanwhile, back in the stables, Star was staring at the apple on the ground. A red crunchy thing. And... he'd been given it by a lady! The lady had given him a gift! She must have been impressed with how willing he'd been to fight! Oh what a wonderful day it was. Crunchy red thing to eat and a lady who liked him! He would have to make sure that human important rider made sure that he was nice and shiny so that when lady pegasus came back, he was able to impress her. He ate the apple, very proud of his actions and the results that came from them.

[Cevian]

The maid had finally returned. It was a good out from the increasingly annoying randomness that Gar was spewing, so Cherish took it, turning towards the maid. "Apologies, miss. For a long time in my life the only food or drink I could have were what I took for myself, so I still have a tendency to prefer getting things myself. It is an old habit but one born of necessity for survival." She nodded and slid the teapot over towards her. That was true, although the decision to take it was a bit more active than that, it was a somewhat valid excuse. Half-truths were better than lies after all as something at least grounded in a truth is that much more believable.

"And once again, as much as you use it as such, calling me a Thief as an insult does not work. I am what I am and I will not look down on the skills and habits that I gained in order to live. To do so would be to look back at my life and think it not worth it that I should still be alive."

[Ether]

"The Winged Cleric, huh... doesn't it seem odd? I mean, with all the flak that Raquel got from the Order of Wrath despite not even having a piece anymore, they have to know about this girl if she's around the city... why would they wait to make a move when she seems like a so much easier target?" Angelica noted with a bit of a sigh... it would have been easier to sort this out if she could have just dug into what Nyx gave Amon, but only having access to what he himself could decipher and was willing to share, she wasn't getting very far. The only thing she knew more than before, as obvious as it was, is that the Emblem was a strange beast indeed.

[ReformBlade]

It seemed the conversation had turned back to Shadrak and him being compelled or manipulated to come back here with an offering. Mushirah couldn't help but feel like she was missing a huge part of the conversation, and as such she asked the brilliant question of, "What's going on...?" She wasn't expecting actual clarification given the present company but actually being informed whatsoever was better than being sidelined. Admittedly it was her fault, but she was adamant about not taking such a loaded deal when she felt it wouldn't have been worth the stress and, now that she thought about it, felt it was undeserved in some weird karmic way.

Aneda looked at Tia, noticing the blood on her lip. Indeed, she was feeling something fierce if that was her holding things in. "Hmm..." Aneda started, returning her attention to Eva, "I'll take her out if you need me to. i'd like to talk to this lady but it's up to you, I don't mind either way." She really didn't mind, apparently this Nyx woman would rather deal with singles rather than groups anyway.

Harmonica returned and a dagger as well, Jericho just sort of held onto the latter while shoving his own instrument away but not before examining it. Hmm... doesn't seem broken or anything.

[Eail]

Stable

Glen was howling in laughter after the whole Pegasus fiasco, well he would be if such a thing was possible. Right now he was just making a noise that sounded like snickering, those upstarts had been shown their place after all. It was rather unfortunate that an apple had been wasted on inferior creatures however, when Gwyn brought him his snack he'd make sure to have the black one watch as he ate. This had put him in a good mood, now to see if it would last.

[Sakusa]

Gwyn sighed as she reached for her staff and stood up. "Perhaps I should have said something along the lines of, 'If you ever decide to go solo,' or 'In case we're separated for whatever reason.' Gods, I'm such a depressing person." She quashed all other negative thoughts and gave Cryus' hand a wild shake in all directions, releasing some of her own tension while she was at it. "How much longer are you going to laze around? We have an inquiry to launch and a job to secure!" she harried, regaining some of her earlier bravado.

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

Reign returned with a tall bottle of vodka, just in time to hear some of the woman in black's excuse for sneaking up and taking random things. It sounded all too similar to his excuse for burning people alive. He didn't want to get involved, though and so went back to his seat at the table and began pouring himself a glass. "I know it's strong but I'll sober up in time for the mission," he assured Veronika.

"I didn't call you a thief to insult you, I'm just stating the facts," Erica countered. Despite still being quite peeved by the incident, she accepted the teapot back without following through and conking the woman like she'd wanted to. Frankly, she'd wanted to because she seemed hell bent on keeping the tea in her possession indefinitely. "Whew, now if I remember right, you wanted some for someone else, right?" she asked Gar, already on her way back toward the table she'd left the tray on.

"Uh ..." Malik hesitated at Angelica's statement, not having any confidence in his knowledge of the wrathites or Ursium itself. "Isn't she well known? Maybe they're trying to be careful about it."

"We just need to find her before that changes," Amon said, a sudden air of determination about him.

"And when she tells you she can't hand over the emblem because she needs it to help someone she cares about, then what do we do?" Malik asked, glaring as he did. "You can't make the same mistake you did with Raquel or we'll never come out of this with an emblem piece for Lady Aisha."

That was a bit much, Amon felt. "Let me worry about that," he said, deciding to just move on to something else rather than try and defend his past decisions and potential future ones.

Training Room

"Honestly, I'm not sure if I should be bringing more than one person with me. It's not that it's hard ..." Raquel floundered trying to explain, "When I try to do things with the emblem, it either works or it doesn't. Normal magic takes effort but this is more like asking someone to do something and seeing if it works out. If it doesn't work out, though ..." The real problem is that in order to do this Gar's way, I need as light a group going in there as possible. Bringing even one person inside means I've got to get myself and three others back out, and worst case scenario, I have to deal with her, too. "Before we decide exactly how this group warping thing works, I want to make sure I can do it, first. I'm not trying to avoid the issue, honestly, I just don't know exactly what I can pull off in a combat situation just yet. Once I know for sure I'll try not to seem so ... coy."

Hallway

"You're worried about her being teased?" Tilly stood there, dumbfounded as Norbert began to storm off. "This is either too serious for that to matter or not a real problem at all," she yelled. "Your priorities are ridiculous! If you're so concerned with getting someone else to do this, then tell me where she is and I'll take care of the rest." She swiftly began walking after him after that, intent on seeing this through.

Other Hallway

Dafne had been greeting and being randomly greeted by the new arrivals and so wasn't surprised when she was approached by yet another pegasus rider, though she was surprised by the questions at first. "The other building is attached but there's only a small door leading into it from the main stables," Dafne answered the first question in part. Then, thinking on the wyvern bit, she said, "It was suggested that it be used for wyverns but really don't have enough wyvern riders in the company roster to bother turning it into an aerie. You could have the wyvern moved there, though. You'll have to walk him around the outside, though, it's the only way for a wyvern to get inside there." Any wyvern but Tacito, at least ... drake was thiiiin.

"I'm also sorry but I'm not familiar with the name. Did his pegasus break out of its pin?" Good guess, Dafne.

Stables

"I could almost swear they're organizing a coup," Vivian winced. "Well, I guess it'd be rude not to introduce myself after asking who you are. I'm Vivian. We weren't sure what to expect when we heard about the attack in Europa. Word hadn't gotten back to us from the estate before my group came over to check for ourselves." And by the time she'd explained that much, Rizen had nearly succeeded in breaking out of her stall. "Oh no!" And then she broke out of her stall.

Outside, in the rain, Haythem stood beside Isis, just out of sight of the fearful equines inside. It wasn't long before a pegasus came bolting out of the stables and raced on past them. <"What in the world ...?"> He sighed after a moment. <"Don't these animals have any common sense? You don't run out into a thunderstorm. I thought they were afraid of Isis, so why come out here?">

The Archives

"Wish I knew," Shadrak muttered a reply to Mushirah's question. Maybe everything he thought he knew about Nyx was just false information planted there, or maybe he was going about it in the wrong way. After all, being brainwashed wouldn't grant him any people skills.

"I don't have anything more to say to either of you, so if there's nothing else-" "There is something else," Shadrak quickly spoke up, setting aside his distraught and shaken mood for a moment. "What is the deal with Priestess Io? Is she your daughter or something?" It was hard for Shadrak to imagine anyone but a desperate moron putting up with her long enough to produce a child, but it apparently wouldn't have been the first time if Hypnos really was her son. His thoughts quickly began to drift away from Io entirely as he remembered that Nyx specifically told him to remember her son. Why was that?

"You know, she would probably tell you if you showed some genuine interest," Io spoke up, coming into the archives. "But you don't really want to get to know either of us for who we truly are, so why would she bother? Why would I bother?" They were firmly worded questions, but unlike Nyx, there wasn't even a hint of contempt or hostility in Io's tone. In fact she was grinning in a pitying sort of way. "Just let go of your curiosity. Knowing my relationship to her-" she glanced at Nyx for half a second, "won't change anything. Not really."

[spoiler=Off the Outer Sanctum Coastline]<"An exchange ..."> Antares repeated Petia's own words in neviskotian while leveling an unamused gaze on him and his dark avian hostage.

<"That's right,"> Petia nodded. <"I didn't think we would actually be able to sail back to the mainland with the leader himself, but the situation has changed for the better. Now, lay down your arms and allow my men to restrain you. You have my word that these girls will all be released, unharmed, and no worse for wear.">

Antares sighed, feeling that if he could save their lives, he should at least try, though it was irksome knowing that getting them back to an area they could lawfully stay in, like Flugel village or the mainland, was a long shot. This was terribly far out of the way. <"Very well, then."> Antares gave Liam and Noah a knowing glance, and then handed off all of his gear to them before descending down onto the deck of the ship. He was quickly assailed and restrained with ropes. Only after he was firmly tied up, the ropes digging painfully into his wings, did a soldier bearing a magic seal show up and fasten the little device to him. <"That's rather tight; I can see you men know what you're doing ... for the most part.">

<"Tell me, 'emperor', have you or any of your predecessors ever been all tied up like this?"> Petia asked, smirking as his men needlessly jerked the ropes to tighten them further.

<"Come now, that would be telling,"> Antares smiled, a bit forced given the trouble he was having just breathing at this point. <"I will tell you this, however. A great many men like yourself have lost their lives trying. You would be better served killing me right now and make yourself a living legend than risk ... well ... this whole 'learning' thing. It's unimaginably dangerous and I can assure you it won't work in the end.">

Petia chuckled. <"You're tied up, your magic is sealed, your subordinates are weighed down by the weapons and armor you left them. Safe to say your life is in my hands and it will remain so, heheheh. Send the little birds ashore and then we're getting out of here."> Petia glanced at Antares after giving the order to his men. He was surprised to see the winged man tilting his head at him as if he'd said something strange. <"Tch, I'm a man of my word. Though I suppose with you people, I had to be.">

<"Interesting.">

[Mercakete]

"I'd rather it take a little longer and have no repercussions than go with the fastest option and have to deal with junk later!" Norbert snapped back at Tilly, "And what, you can suddenly use a heal staff? If you can keep a secret and get her healed, then fine! I'll trust you with it! But those are the conditions! Now, if you don't know anyone like that and can't do that yourself, I've got a healer to find!"

[scorri]

Lumi

With a sigh, Lumi nodded. "Got it in one. Ugh, ok, thanks for your help. Uhm, if you run into someone named Norbert, tell him that Rizen ran away? Thanks." Heading back to the dining hall, she looked around to see if Bert was there. Not seeing him, she sighed. "Ugh, I need to find him...." Looking around though, she spotted Cyrus and Gwyn. It seemed like they hadn't gone to do what they'd said they were going to do, so she headed over to them, figuring if she couldn't solve the Bert problem right now, she could at least work on the wyvern problem.

With a nod and a grin to Gwyn, she turned to Cyrus. "Hi, uhm, right. I was just at the stables, and there was a wyvern there that I didn't recognize and so I assume that it was Glen and... I just... There's an empty set of stables right next to the one he's currently in and would you mind maybe moving him to that one? He's causing the pegasi to become really upset and one ran away because of him I think. See, wyverns are pegasi's natural predators, and so if they're around wyverns without any humans around to help keep them calm, pegasi will naturally start getting upset, and honestly I think the only reason that your wyvern didn't get attacked by the pegasi is because I arrived in time to calm Star down and at least managed to dissuade the other from attacking, though she ended up running out of the stables and I don't know what happened to her and I just..." She took a deep breath and forced herself to stop rambling. "Basically, what I'm trying to say is, it's probably for the best if you move your wyvern into the empty stables so that the pegasi can have some peace and we don't have an animal fight break out."

Erion

With a shrug, Erion commented, "I'm just thinking that, well... You're really driven with this. I get and respect that. But the issue with having lots of drive is sometimes that drive causes you to lose sight of reality. Now, if this were any other situation, I'd suggest sending someone else in. It's like with Shadrack earlier. He was too involved in the situation to realize that it might be better to send someone else. That's not an option here because of the whole warping situation. But it would help if we could send someone along to help protect you and also keep you on track. You clearly think you can beat this other emblem user now. Well, who's to say that in the moment you don't get caught up trying to take your piece back from her? I know that right now you'd say that's impossible but... The heat of the moment does weird things to your brain. Better to send someone along who can focus on taking care of anyone who gets involved so that you can just focus on grabbing your father and his brother and getting out of there. If you need to wait to give me an answer, that's fine too. Just... think about it."

[-Cynthia-]

Dining Hall

"I imagine you know your own limits well enough," Veronika responded to Reign, though she couldn't help but wonder if he was going to drink the whole bottle himself. That's a lot of vodka...

Estate Grounds

"Yep, Rizen likes to do things her own way," Nadya said, unsurprised by the fleeing pegasus and disinclined to chase after her. "Guess I should go find Bert and tell him about all this, see ya later Vivian," Nadya said, giving Luca a pat on the neck before beginning to make her way towards the estate.

[spoiler=Outer Sanctum']

It was difficult not to remain nervous given the situation- Liam was confident that Emperor Antares had some sort of plan, but the possibility of these humans capturing or killing him was still there. He shifted uncomfortably under the weight of Antares's gear, doing nothing while these humans spoke in an unfamilar tongue was not his idea of what was appropriate for a member of Cloud Legion.

<So when are we dropping these objects and going to help the Emperor?> Liam directed his thoughts in Noah's direction.

[Nanami Touko]

"I'll go ahead and snatch her if she speaks up again. As much as I don't care for her, no one deserves to get zapped just for opening their mouth like that. At least I can tell Erion he was right when I get back..." Perhaps taking his word on Tia at face value would've been the best idea. Sure was seeming like it right now. Idling joining back into the main conversation (but not without a bit of worry) she noticed that Io had produced herself. Shadrak was once again curious about her relationship to Nyx, but he wasn't going to get an answer, from the looks of things. "Is she your wife, or something?" Eva quietly asked, wondering if guesses at things were alright. Hopefully she didn't get lightning thrown her way.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Indeed I did," Gar replied back to the miss maid. "Something soothing for the throat if available."

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

"After some weeks working on ships heading to and from Rex-Avaz, yeah I've got a rough estimate," Reign forced a smirk before downing his first glass.

Meanwhile, Erica prepared a cup of tea for Gar to take back to his friend. Once she was done she carefully handed it off to him. "Another throat problem, hmm? I hope that's just a coincidence," she smiled weakly.

Training Room

"My father's my priority right now, not that other girl or the emblem piece she stole from me. I'm not taking any chances until I know he's safe," Raquel assured Erion right off the bat.

Hallway

Tilly decided to ignore the questions altogether and rushed out in front of Norbert. "Very well, then. Take me to her so I can figure out what's wrong," she demanded. "I'll get a staff after I figure out what's going on since you're willing to wait 'a little longer'. Let's go."

Stables

Well that was the shortest visit Luca could remember. He blamed those crazy pegasi for this.

The Archives

Nadine put her book back down for a moment, her imagination running wild after Eva's random guess. Nope, she concluded, shaking her head and bringing the open book back up to her face.

"Not even close," Io replied, shaking her head as well and forcing a smile.

[spoiler=Outer Sanctum Coast]<"Hmm,"> Noah began thinking about the situation. It seemed that Antares might be in actual trouble, here, if only because they had almost no backup and a ship full of enemies and a half dozen hostages to deal with. Three warriors, one completely restrained both physically and magically, just wasn't going to cut it. Figuring the emperor's priority right now was making sure the hostages were brought safely ashore, Noah ran with it. <Let's see to the dark avians once they're ashore. They want him alive for some reason, so he shouldn't come to harm before they escape the area. It shouldn't take another group long to get here. Once the dark avians get here, let's gather them up in one place and then follow after that ship. We should take his things with us so we can give them back to him once he's free again,> She smiled at the last part.

Meanwhile, on that very ship ... <"Bring the emperor to my cabin. I'd like to have a drink and a word with him in private,"> Petia instructed his men before turning to go on ahead of the avian ruler.

Antares gazed around listlessly, watching as the hostages were herded into a rowboat. They were being awfully ... legitimate in their dealing here, considering that they had the one responsible for the deaths of many of their riders bound and sealed. Nothing to do now but gather what information he could on this little plot while he waited for an opening ... and some backup. They were quite sound minded to tie him up and seal his magic at the same time, since he really didn't have a counter for something that thorough at the moment.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I really hope it's a coincidence now too that you mentioned it," Gar said and took the tea with grave. Hope my poison thing didn't have merit wow. Gar headed back over to Suzzy Q and handed it over. "Your tea m'lady." He feigned as stuffy a butler inflection as he could.

Edited June 6, 2014 by Script

[Mercakete]

Norbert wasn't actually expecting Tilly to be a staff-user, but he wasn't surprised either. It sure sounded like she was saying that, anyway, and that she'd keep any weird stuff Robin said to herself. He was still wary -- she was a maid, after all -- but the sooner Robin was healed by someone who wouldn't embarrass her later, the better. And, after all, this particular one had been helpful in the past and seemed less...mechanical than the others he'd encountered.

So, after considering her offer with a skeptical, uncertain look, he finally gave a slow nod. Then, resting his hands on his hips, replied, "Alright -- I'll go ahead and tell you, if it's actually important. I can't guarantee that she won't be spewing any other nonsense when you see her, but what she told me was that she has a crush on me. Just before this, she was saying she wasn't feeling well and blamed the fish. She wasn't looking too good -- her face was all red and she said she was feeling warm and kind of dizzy. That was when she first asked for a healer, but I thought maybe if food was the problem, then the cooks could just make something to make her stomach feel better. So, I asked them for help and I think they're making her tea, but when I told her that, that was when she told me about her supposed 'feelings.' So, I figured it was a head injury and here we are."

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

Maw trotted through the dining hall and into the kitchen. Once inside, she sat down and looked up at Johnny expectantly. She'd learned that this human was good for giving food, after all. So was the other, but she was out among the other humans and Maw preferred being around as few as possible.

[Snowy_One]

Tia could hear the other people talking about removing her from the room. Before her was one of the rarest, most valuable, collections of books and tomes. A divine sight for those who studied magic... and it was tainted by the woman before her. As much as she hated the idea of turning her back, Tia did so as her arm went to Aneda's, giving a small tug on it to make sure that the woman knew she wanted to go. She wasn't sure if the hot feeling in her mouth was blood or rage, but it didn't matter. If it was blood, with her fury right now, she was half-certain she would try to turn it into a lance to pierce Nyx's heart if she could.

[Phoenix]

Hallway

"... what?" Tilly stood there, her expectations having been shattered, ground up, and scatted to the four winds. "But that's normal-" -ish, "Okay, perhaps she isn't normal, especially if she said this after you hit her," Tilly gave him an extremely disapproving glare, "but people sometimes get very nervous around those who are special to them. It can make them feel warmer, a little dizzy, and all sorts of things. A staff can't really 'fix' this." Despite her mood being somewhere between upset and angry, she managed to explain it in a caring and concerned tone, no mean feat for her right now. I can't believe we're even having this discussion, right now. This is so ... so ...

Dining Hall

"Asinine ..." Reign murmured after swallowing the contents of his second glass and slumping down onto the table. That would do for now, he decided. The ambient conversations were more like ambient noise, now, which meant they wouldn't bother him too much. Huh ... I don't know why I'm expecting to hear back from Nadine soon. You'd think it'd take at least a few days but ... on the other hand ....

Well after that episode, Suzume could use both the tea and the bit of silliness that came with it. Like usual, she played along. Unfortunately, she couldn't think of any butler-esque names that fit Gar very well. Maybe something new. While smiling as pretentiously as she could manage and getting a glance at his coat, she said, "Why thank you, Garnet. This is just what I need, right now~"

Estate Grounds

"Is that a pegasus?" Gabbie asked, she and her passenger descending toward the front of the manse.

"Don't care. Set us down," Anna demanded, in a hurry to get back indoors.

Once Tacito touched down, both women hopped off and he heading into the stables, only to be greeted by nervous equines, though the majority of them were already familiar with him. As Gabbie and Anna headed into the main building through the slightly obscure door in the stables, Tacito crawled over to a nice spot near said door and plopped down to relax.