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Return of the Emblem Chapter Fifteen: Alliance


Phoenix
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Tension on the Strait

The first day of their voyage was nothing like what Shadrak had imagined it would be. Having elected to spend some time at the helm, chatting with Lexi, he’d gained a front row seat to the unfolding spectacle. Behind the Darklighter Idolus and the Emi Maru, were Ursian scout vessels. In front of them, were large retreating imperial warships, scattered over several miles in the south. Dragons guarded the imperial fleet’s rear from above and below the strait. Pegasus and wyvern knights were always attempting to gather information on the two ships that escaped the battle, but none ventured close enough to be attacked, and rarely did they attempt to seek out a meeting. In general, no ship or beast ever came close enough to act without risking reprisal.

The druid was still worried about the water dragons in particular, as they lacked the kinds of defensive tools the Ursians had at their disposal. Lexi had assured the druid on several occasions that she could get her ship through a water dragon attack just fine, but eventually had to admit that she couldn’t do the same for the Emi Maru. That didn’t stop her from insisting that he needn’t worry. At the very least, neither the Ursians nor the Neviskotians knew the extent of their abilities. Doubtless the latter didn’t want to lose anymore ships so unexpectedly. How long could they count on that extreme caution, though?

A bit longer than even Lexi herself had been expecting ….


Team Mikoyan

The newly appointed Admiral Roman had taken the first day to simply keep the fleet’s retreat calm and orderly while he tried to tackle the mountains of reports from the previous day’s battle. Eventually, by early evening, Lev had been brought into the admiral’s quarters for his orders. The fact that he was getting special orders in particular was telling …

<“Commander Mikoyan,”> Admiral Roman greeted Lev, <“I hope I can trust you with this …”>

Trying to look faithful and optimistic, Lev came to attention with a smile. <“What can I do for you, Admiral?”>

<“We need that nomad, the mage you saw aboard the Basilisk. You’re one of the few officers I know that can turn an ‘unavoidable’ battle into a negotiation. That’s what I need for the upcoming operation.”>

<”You want me to make contact, sir?”>

Roman hesitated for a moment, his eyes shifting back and forth as he mulled over the finer details of his plan. <”Yes … but not yet. I’ve been thinking long and hard about this … and as far as I can see, our best approach is to wait until he’s on land. Dealing with the Kigenese could be troublesome, but I don’t like our chances at sea, not with the Basilisk waiting to come and aid them.”>

<”How do you know they’re going to Kigen?”> Lev asked.

<”It’s only a hunch,”> Roman admitted, <”As the strongest neutral party in this nightmare, they would be a strong buffer for that mage, regardless of their ultimate destination.”>

So the Admiral considered the Kigen locals less of a threat than their stolen battleship, did he? Lev supposed as long as it was only Lev’s squad at risk, as opposed to a quarter of the fleet, that was almost certainly true. Of course, if this wasn’t handled delicately, Lev and his men wouldn’t be the only ones at risk; diplomatic relations between these two great empires could be damaged if a battle with this strange nomad caused too much damage. The key, Lev decided, would be to make sure it didn’t come to a battle.

<”Your objective,”> Roman continued, <”will be to convince this mage to work with us. Find out what his objectives are. Make whatever offer seems reasonable, get him on our side. If that turns out to be impossible … you’ll just have to capture him.”>

<”So I take it that,”> Lev put a hand on his hip and the other on his chin, thoughtfully, <”it’s mission failure if he dies. But wait …”> Lev paused, glancing off toward the corner of the room. <”Admiral, what if he’s not a mage? What if he’s using an artifact?”>

<”Some kind of weapon? An undamaged relic from the rebellion?”> Roman asked, wincing.

<”Yeah,”> Lev nodded, eyeing Roman with a bit of confidence. <”No mage ever pulled a stunt like that. Not on their own. This almost makes sense if some relic from that era is involved.”>

<”If that’s the case, then we may only need him alive if there’s some trick to using this artifact. Once we have the power, be it some new technique or simply a working artifact, we don’t need him anymore.”>

Lev frowned at Roman’s response, though he didn’t disagree with the man. <”I’d prefer to recruit him if possible. Even if it turns out to be a dead end, I’d rather go into this with that approach. My team could tip him off in any number of ways if they’ve got murder on the mind.”>

Roman nodded. <”That’s fine. I chose you for this, so it’s in your hands. Do whatever you have to do and get us that power … and if at all possible, get us our ship back.”>

Lev smiled. <”That’s the plan.”>

<”Before you go,”> Roman stood up from his chair, <”you’ll need to assemble your team.”>

Lev cocked an eyebrow. <”I have a team, Admiral … not a big one, but we’ve got enough funds set aside for mercenary hires if we need help.”>

Roman nodded throughout Lev’s explanation, and then took over. <”There is no ongoing operation more important than this one, Mikoyan. Not a single one. That mage stole our most powerful weapon in the heat of battle and turned her guns back on us. Don’t think the Ursians are going to ignore an opportunity like this.”>

Lev’s eyes widened in understanding. <”I nearly forgot about them.”> Edith was the only credible threat there, in Lev’s view, and she was gone, now. Still, Roman’s concerns were valid, and worth some extra precautions. <”You don’t want to expand my team because of the mage; I’m planning to negotiate, after all. You want to make sure we can fight off the Ursians when they try the same thing.”>

Roman nodded again. <”Exactly.”>

<”You’re giving me a battalion, aren’t you?”>

Roman glanced off to the side, not certain of his answer. <”I don’t want to over encumber you. I have some strong recommendations, but the choice of who to bring, and the exact number, will be yours.”>

Lev nodded gravely. There was a lot coming down onto his shoulders. He could feel the weight building with each passing moment. <”So, what are your recommendations, Admiral?”>

<”Your team needs at least one dragon,”> Roman said; he’d been waiting for that question, clearly, <”but two would be preferable. You’ll also need people with experience operating in foreign lands.”>

<”So it won’t just be a naval team,”> Lev noted, <”It’s a joint operation with the army, now.”>

<”This is the most important ongoing operation, Mikoyan,”> the Admiral said, again, <”Remember that. The choices are up to you, but as I said, those that can operate in foreign lands effectively are preferable, as well as a minimum of one dragon.”>

Lev squinted. <”You’ve got someone specific in mind, don’t you?”> he smirked. <”A group from the army’s special forces, no doubt.”>

<”Yes … if you can handle them, one of the army’s special forces units just linked up with us this morning.”> Roman eyed Lev cautiously, trying to give the man his space while still influencing the team’s roster, <”I strongly recommend that you take them with you. Anyone else in the fleet you feel you’ll need will also be available.”>

Lev nodded his understanding. <”Sure, I’ll take them with, but I’d like to take some time to get to know them before we land.”>

<”Right, right,”> Roman crossed his arms in anticipation. <”Well then, you should head over to the carrier, Anya. Kozel and his team are holding up there.”>

Lev’s face went pale at the name. <”Kozel … you mean Virgil Kozel?”> Roman nodded guiltily. <”That’s one hell of a recommendation,”> Lev winced, not hiding his unease. “If I’m going to be working with him on this, we’re going to need all the time we can get before landing.”>

<”You’ll get it done, Mikoyan.”>


The Edith Detachment

“My own detachment …” Edith left Admiral Gram’s quarters after a brief meeting with him and some of the other captains and officers of the fleet, the news and her assignment still fresh in her mind. The Ursians were tracking both the Neviskotians and the mysterious group that had attacked during the battle. They were tracking them both very closely, watching for any significant changes in mood or stance as all three groups headed south. It would be some time before Edith could act, and until then, she had to familiarize herself with a new pegasus, and try to assemble a large enough group to pursue the nomad and his allies without succumbing to imperial attack. Attempting anything at the moment was out of the question. If it turned into a battle, a single ship swarming with distracted pegasus knights, would be an irresistible prospect for the dragons.

For some reason, Gram and the others seemed to think the mysterious mage a potential ally against the Neviskotian Empire. Edith didn’t understand how or why they came to that conclusion so near unanimously. If that man wanted to aid Ursium, the fleet’s overtures up to this point wouldn’t have failed. More likely than not, as Edith had pointed out multiple times during the meeting, it was simply more expedient to attack the imperials. If they planned to go south, the imperials were essentially blocking the way for them. Keeping that in mind, it was only natural to fire on them. The fact that they hadn’t taken down a single imperial vessel with their barrage was even more evidence that their intentions were simply to escape the area, not aid Ursium. Edith’s superiors were far too optimistic ...

The frustrating optimism of her peers aside, Edith had plenty more to consider, and to be grateful for. While she hadn’t been the most responsible of knights during the previous evening’s battle, she’d broken every record the navy cared about as far as their pegasus knights were concerned. Boasting the highest personal kill count of any pegasus knight in the Ursian military by battle’s end, and having personally taken down the captain of the Basilisk, Edith had earned herself a two rank promotion. Now she held the rank of Commander. What made the situation even better was that no one seemed interested in having her return Yggdrasil into storage. Her mission would be much easier to complete with Ursium’s strongest portable weapon in her possession. At least that was how things seemed for the moment.

It was still worrying, Yggdrasil, and what the red eyed giant had told her, but Edith couldn’t let it affect her during the mission. Edith's Detachment was now being formed, and it was up to its commanding officer to assemble a team of the navy’s finest to track and pursue the nomad and his cohorts, as well as wipe out the imperials that were undoubtedly planning the same. She would just have to train herself harder, hone her instincts, learn to command more effectively, and crush the enemy, whenever and wherever they showed themselves.

((3/16))

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A Feasible Plan

The hold wasn’t the worst place to be hiding out, but it wasn’t the best, either. If another group showed up to get their revenge for the incident on the Basilisk, Amon and Malik didn’t have anywhere to run. At best, they might outmaneuver some of them and make for the staircase, but anyone hoping to start a fight was probably smart enough to leave someone behind to guard the stairs. Regardless, it was a decent enough area to speak in relative privacy. It was just a shame they weren’t getting anywhere on that front ...

<“We can’t undo it,”> Malik noted bitterly, <“so there’s no going back once you .... 'claim us.' We should just wait. I know Lady Aisha is in trouble, but this is just too extreme.”>

<“I know,”> Amon agreed, <“but what if she’s in danger, right now?”>

<“The Tide has her, remember?”> Malik said gravely, <“If you and I can make a difference, then Haythem and Isis should have taken care of it by now. Don’t forget, she can probably drop that giant ship onto the Tide camp if she needs to. I don’t see why she couldn't make it appear wherever she wanted.”>

Amon considered Malik’s points for a moment. <”It may not be as bad as I’m thinking, you’re right … but ... she probably has limits, right now. The Regalia isn’t a part of the emblem, so it doesn’t have its own power source.”>

Malik winced, seeing Amon’s point clearly and thinking back on events. <”Right … that’s why that stream of energy appeared when you first got it. You were taking power from the emblem.”> That could be a problem. <”Okay then, question: How much energy do you think it took to claim and summon that ship?”>

Amon sighed, his gaze plummeting to the floor. <”I don’t know … but it had to be a lot.”>

<”Then there’s only one solution in the meantime,”> Malik continued, <”We go see Joanna and ask her for more power for the Regalia. Liam can object all he wants but this is a matter of life and death, and until we understand the situation better, it’s the best we can do for Lady Aisha.”>

<”Alright,”> Amon nodded, <”I’m just worried … worried she ordered us back because she needs us.”>

<”Seriously,”> Malik scowled, throwing up his arms, <”What the hell are you and I supposed to do about the Tide? You think any of them would hold still and let you ‘claim’ them?”>

<”I sure wouldn’t.”> 

Amon and Malik flinched at the familiar voice, both of them searching their surroundings for the source. <”Fizza?!”> Amon was beside himself, <”Where are you?”>

<”And when did you get here?”> Malik added irritably.

<”We boarded around the time you fired on the ‘skotian fleet. Best fireworks show I’ve ever seen.”>

<”Speaking of ‘seen’,”> Malik began stepping carefully in the direction of the woman’s voice, <”Why can’t we see you, and what do you mean, ‘we’? Who else is here?”>

Amon watched closely as Malik made his way over to where Fizza’s voice was coming from, wondering how she could possibly hide in plain sight. There were crates everywhere, but the sound of her voice told him she wasn’t situated behind anything in particular. She should have been clearly visible. If they couldn’t perceive her with the naked eye … then … <“... an emblem abili--no! It’s Ayano, isn’t it?! She’s here, too!”>

Malik froze in his tracks as Fizza laughed. <”I hoped you’d figure it out. Good job.”> Then, just like that, the veil fell away, and both women appeared in front of Amon and Malik. ”It’s been a little depressing watching you two fret over this, but Ayano here’s really gotten me into this ‘fly on the wall’ business. I like being completely invisible~”

”By the Goddess, what have you done …?” Malik quietly scolded Ayano, who had taken a seat on a small crate. ”Anyway, joking aside, we really should go have a word with Joanna about this energy problem. If there’s a limited amount, and you and I get claimed by that thing and summoned back in Rex-Avaz, we won’t have any way of getting more energy. Lady Aisha’s comeback will be over very quickly after that.”

”... you’re right,” Amon agreed, ”Alright, let’s go.”

”We should try and get you some more energy, too,” Fizza said, eyeing Ayano with a hint of pity. The girl nodded. She looked exhausted. Smiling, Fizza added, “And not just the magical kind.”


Back In Business

“No way …” Greta could scarcely hide her excitement at the wonders hidden away inside the Darklighter Idolus’ hold area. “Where did you get all of this?” Runes, special garments, elaborate looking weapons, ancient tomes, and a slew of other items that belonged in either a museum or a private collector’s display rooms. “This stuff has to be worth a fortune all together …”

“Ya think so?” Lexi asked, a little surprised, “It’s not really what I’m lookin’ for, but I’m no dealer, so it’s hard to get rid of. I’m not stupid, though; it was hard work trackin’ these down, so I’m not just gonna give most of it away … not unless I’m about to have a mutiny. They’re usually done listenin’ by that point, though.”

“What are ya looking for, exactly,” Greta asked, wincing at the prospect of Lexi being after something worth more than all of this.

Lexi smirked. “Magical treasure~ My people have it pretty rough out there in Levi’s playground. I wanna bring back any useful magic I can find to help them out. The old woman looks through every new find and tells me what we should take back with us and what we should leave for payin’ off the crew.”

“You know …” Greta crossed her arms, thinking back to the battle a couple of days ago, “I’d say you’ve got plenty to help your people with already. This ship’s almost unsinkable, so why not--” She stopped when Lexi began shaking her head.

“It’s not the ship,” she explained, “it’s the Darklighter.”

“Uh … I’m confused.” Wasn’t this ship the ‘Darklighter’? “Isn’t that the name of this ship … the Darklighter somethin’?”

Lexi shook her head again, this time smiling. “This ship is the Darklighter Idolus. The Darklighter is something completely different.” Reaching into her sash, Lexi pulled out a small golden medallion and held it up for Greta. “This is the Darklighter. It’s what powers the ship … and anything else I try to ride. It’s the artifact for gatherin’ all other artifacts~”

Greta was speechless for a moment. When her words found her, they came out louder than she’d intended. “That’s a piece of the Fire Emblem!”

“I do remember Amon callin’ it that,” Lexi nodded indifferently. She put away the golden piece and sighed. “It’s been in the fleet for generations, but we didn’t figure out how it worked until recently. We took it with us to go treasure huntin’ after gettin’ approval. You may be right. It might be just what we need to improve all our lives, but different families have been fightin’ over this thing for a while now. It’s gettin’ too dangerous to keep it in the fleet, so … outta sight, outta mind … hopefully heheh.”

That made sense, especially if they were just beginning to uncover its secrets. An emblem piece could surely improve the lives of those living in the Far Rim Flotilla, but the struggle for controlling such a power wouldn’t just disappear with their newfound prosperity. It could probably only get worse. “So you can’t just take it back there now that ya know how it works,” Greta concluded, “ya need to find a bunch’a useful replacements, first.”

“Pretty much,” Lexi shrugged, “Sometimes I worry my people just can’t have nice things. Too dangerous. Anyway, you’ve got your work cut out for ya in Kigen, and the hold’s gettin’ real cramped, so I figured I’d see if there weren’t some things ya could sell for me.”

“I’m not confident about the market in Kigen, I’ll admit, but I’m sure I can find people interested in buyin’ some of this. How would I get the money to ya, though?” Greta asked. She was worried Lexi would be difficult to deliver to if she was busy searching for lost relics all over Sardius.

“I’m sure you’ll figure somethin’ out. Ten percent of the sales oughta do,” Lexi replied, putting her hands on her hips and glancing around the hold.

Ten percent was nice … too nice actually, but Greta wasn’t going to complain about Lexi’s terrifyingly persistent goodwill, not while it was still coming her way. What she was more inclined to complain about was her own payment options. “But I ain’t got a clue where you’ll be or when, so how am I supposed to get your cut delivered?”

Lexi shrugged. “I have no idea where our fleet’s treasures are, either, but I promise ya this, I’m gonna find’em~”


A Dangerous Game

Trying to solve the emblem mystery with Amon and Fizza hadn’t been going so well, but they at least they had managed to get a little more energy from Joanna’s emblem. There was still one other outstanding issue to look into, though. Malik, having nothing better to do, and somewhat desperately hoping for a new solution to Aisha’s problem, decided to handle the investigation into the captain of the Darklighter Idolus. His first few visits had been vaguely productive, but with the length of the trip in mind, he opted for a cautious approach, skirting around the emblem issue for as long as possible, and learning what he could about the woman and her past. It was a little depressing, all in all. As friendly and carefree as Lexi was, violence of every sort gravitated toward her …

“Why do you keep hiring new people?” Malik asked, scowling at Lexi while she kept the ship on course, “You admitted you’re a terrible leader already, and the ship works just fine without the extra hands, so what’s the point?”

Lexi blushed. “I don’t wanna get one of those crazy reputations, ya know? ‘The ship that sails without a crew, and the sea witch that devours the souls of her pursuers!’ No thanks. They’re not all for show though. Honestly. If someone boards us, I couldn’t fight’em all by myself.”

“Fair enough,” Malik sighed, “but after three full blown mutinies, why haven’t you at least raised your standards? Some of the men you keep here are out of their damn minds.”

Lexi smiled in embarrassment as the questions kept coming in. “I’mmmm a terrible judge of character …?” She shrugged apologetically. “They always seem fine at first, but if I can’t get it right anyway, I figure I shouldn’t worry about it. Everythin’ works out in the end … for the most part.” Turning around and leaning against the wheel, Lexi began steering backwards in a loose fashion. “Things were better when my grandfather was still alive. He was my first mate … really knew how to keep the crew in line. Scary, too. Sometimes he even threw the dissenters overboard.”

What an amusing thought. Malik certainly wanted to throw a few among Lexi’s crew into the strait right about now. “So the only family you’ve got left with you is your grandmother,” the sancturan noted.

“Yeah. She can threaten not to treat’em when they get hurt, but that’s not gonna get the day to day stuff done. So, she’s stuck in the infirmary, and I’m stuck with more than a couple hundred bickerin’ sailors and mercs.”

“Yeah, this is a really dangerous game you’re playing,” Malik shook his head at the deck. Frankly, he was amazed she could keep order for any length of time to begin with, much less over the weeks she spent traveling from place to place. It must have been due to either dumb luck or … more to do with why he was really here.

“Wanna play it with me?” Lexi grinned, tilting her head a little to one side.

“W-what do you mean, exactly?” Malik stammered, wary all of a sudden.

“Wanna be my first mate? Just until we reach Kigen,” she clarified.

Malik’s eyes narrowed, his mind searching for hidden angles. Lexi was too sincere for anything nefarious, so naturally, Malik couldn’t come up with any shenanigans that lined up well with her or her stated goals. Lexi probably did just want a little help insuring the crew didn’t turn this voyage into another disaster. While Malik had reservations about having to personally deal with ship wide disputes for the next week, it would remove any need for excuses to tell others off, and more importantly, remove any need for excuses to be near the captain, herself. This was probably his best way forward. “Hmm …”

Lexi frowned when Malik didn't agree right away. “Thought it was a good offer, myself … ya seemed so worried about all this.”

“Err-no, I’ll do it,” Malik answered quickly, “I just wasn’t sure if you had other reasons.”

Lexi shrugged again.

“Well whatever.” Malik pointed a thumb at his chest, “I’m your new first mate, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to hold back or be gentle when I warn you about something crazy you’re doing. Other than that, I’ll keep your idiot crew from turning this trip into an even bigger mess. You just worry about getting us to Kigen alive, got it?”

“Got it,” Lexi smiled, nodding in agreement.

The deal was struck … and now Malik was second in command aboard the Darklighter Idolus. He would have been a bit happier about that, but he was only an inch or two closer to his real goal. There was a long trip ahead of them, and he had to figure out whether or not Lexi really did possess a piece of the Fire Emblem … and if she did, what to do about it.

((6/16))

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Amon Ra

When Amon had finally made his decision--or at least thought he had, the first order of business had been to inform Malik and Fizza. The latter took the news about as well as anyone could reasonably expect. The former was surprisingly reserved about the matter. In the end, Malik had decided that while he would return to Rex-Avaz as soon as possible, he planned to do so only after retrieving an emblem piece for Queen Aisha. He wished Amon good luck, and promised to fill in for him once he was gone. Yes, Amon had decided that he couldn’t ignore what was happening in his homeland, nor to its Queen and her followers. He would return, using the Regalia … and hope that his autonomy hadn’t been too high a price to pay.

Sitting quietly and alone, in a dark corner of the ship’s hold, Amon pondered how best to use the Regalia on himself, and in doing so, become a ‘possession’ that could be manifested wherever Aisha chose. With other objects and people, Amon had needed to physically touch them before his intentions were realized. Did the same apply to himself? Should he put his hand over his chest as he declared his intention? The sancturan was beginning to wonder if that would even work.

Amon looked down nervously as his open hand pressed firmly against his chest. <”This is it …”> Despite his own words, Amon spent several minutes staring at his hand and chest in complete silence. All the while, every conceivable human emotion warred inside him, all fighting for dominance. Struggle as he did to quiet his mind and focus, Amon couldn’t reconcile any of these feelings, and anger began to claw its way to the surface. The self loathing that had been slowly building up inside of the sancturan began to fully manifest as his fingers curled inward and his teeth ground, almost painfully, against one another. It was no use; he simply couldn’t do what he knew he needed to do, not even when it truly counted.

<”I’m … I’m not a servant of Lady Aisha …”> Amon said, cringing hat his own words, <”I’m no better than a common sellsword.”> He was always helping everyone else besides Aisha, it seemed: Raquel, Professor Weyland, Joanna. While other mercenaries preferred gold, Amon suspected he sustained himself on the trust and praise of others. A truly pathetic existence.

<”This isn’t how a sancturan should be … though I guess …”> Amon was no true sancturan, he remembered. He didn’t know where he was originally from, though some village or port town in Rex-Avaz was the most likely place. Taking that fact into consideration, Amon wasn’t surprised that his loyalty to Aisha had turned out to be so hollow. He had been raised in Sanctuary, and he considered that city his home. Amon vowed to protect it and serve its queen loyally, even if it cost him his life. Here and now, though … when the only cost was his ability to ignore his queen’s commands, Amon couldn’t go through with it. If this was what his loyalty amounted to in the end, then was it really loyalty? It felt more like a convenient lie that was now staring him in the face, and stoking up the worst emotions he’d ever felt in his life. For reasons Amon himself couldn’t fully grasp, he valued his freedom more than anything else, even though he’d never fully exercised it. Why?

It didn’t matter. Was he loyal to Aisha? Apparently not, but he could still do his duty. Even if he had to force himself to. Closing his eyes, and imagining himself disappearing in the emblem’s light, he flatted his hand against his chest once again. <”For the restoration of Sanctuary,”> Amon struggled with each word, <”I claim … no, I OFFER myself!”>

When Amon opened his eyes, again, he was was still in the hold of the Darklighter Idolus. <”Why …?”> It wasn’t working. <”... why isn’t this working?!”> The Regalia only had to let him do this one thing. <”Just … take me to Lady Aisha. That’s all I need. She can handle the rest.”> That was … assuming she wasn’t already dead Amon suddenly realized. Perhaps the Regalia wasn’t working for that reason. The thought brought what felt like tears to his eyes, and not only that, an uncomfortable heat was welling up inside each eye. By the time Amon reached for his face, he couldn’t see, anymore. <”D-dammit …”>

These weren’t tears. They couldn’t be. Amon struggled to wipe his eyes as hot liquid streamed down his cheeks. He was effectively blind, even as he repeatedly wiped his eyes and blinked away the strange fluid. These fake tears came on their own, and his eyes only seemed to get hotter as they came. Amon struggled for nearly a minute to regain his sight, and once he had, he knew that something was terribly wrong. Gathering at his feet was a puddle of golden liquid. It was rolling off of his clothes, down from his face, not leaving a trace of its presence anywhere. It was even dripping from his hands, ignoring the laws of nature to work their way together into that single growing puddle. Amon’s eyes didn’t feel heavy anymore, and his cheeks, hands, and clothes were left dry as the gathering liquid formed into a small, hard metallic sphere on the floor.

<”... what’s going on? Is that the Regalia?”>

Amon slowly reached for the sphere, but a gentle rocking of the ship robbed the sancturan of his tool, causing it to roll away from him. Quickly, Amon rose halfway to his feet and tried to chase down the fleeing ojbect, but a flash of light blinded him just as he reached for it. As the light worked its way up and away from eye level, Amon saw two nearly bare feet, one holding the sphere in place on the ground, the other supporting a ghostly apparition that was only now manifesting. Amon’s eyes followed the ascending light up, higher and higher as it revealed the man. Unlike Amon, this apparition’s clothing was clean, spotless, lined with gems, and seemed to fit their owner to an unnatural degree.

His instincts catching up with him, Amon stumbled back, unsheathing his knife in preparation for a confrontation. It was too little and too late, however, and all for nothing. When the light vanished above the apparition’s head, Amon was horrified to see his own face staring back at him.

<”At last … I am free …”> the apparition smiled, closed his eyes. He seemed to fully appreciate the moment. All Amon could do was gawk at him. <”At least to a degree. It is … close enough. There is still much work ahead to truly break these chains.”>

<”Who are you?”> Amon asked, barely managing that much as he braced himself for an attack. He was expecting another emblem wielder, or something to the effect of a hostile entity. He wasn’t entirely wrong, it seemed. There was something about this doppelganger …

<”I am you,”> the apparition said, his elation suddenly gone. His eyes bored into Amon as he took his foot away from the Regalia. The little sphere then left the ground, floating up into his waiting hand. <”I am your true self, the one you’ve hidden from all your life. The one Lady Aisha has suppressed with her great and terrible power. You want my name, though … don’t you? My name is Ra.”>

<”... Ra …?”> Amon grimaced. He’d never even heard that name before.

<”Do you like it?”> Ra said wryly, <”From this moment onward, I will remain at your side, guiding you toward your destiny. Before you lay two paths, ‘Amon’ … ascension into the divine light of freedom … or death and oblivion.”> Noticing Amon’s reaction, a tightening of the muscles and the readying of his blade, Ra smirked. <”Through Raquel’s power, I have come. Amon times Amon. You have no power over me.”>

<”I won’t let you have power over me, either,”> Amon warned, slowly rising into a proper defensive stance. Ra arched backward, bursting into laughter, prompting Amon to take a cautious step back. Ra gently gestured at Amon with his free hand, and the sancturan’s legs immediately gave out. Amon barely managed a <”What?!”> before crumbling to the floor, completely paralyzed. <”H-how ...?!”>

<”You and I occupy the same place in this world, fool,”> Ra’s eyes narrowed menacingly, <”I have authority over your body just as you do. In truth, my authority surpasses yours. You cannot so much as breathe without my approval.”> As if to illustrate his point, Amon felt his lungs quickly seize up, making any attempt to take in new air a futile effort. It was the single greatest moment of horror Amon had ever experienced up to that point, but it was over almost as soon as it began. The sancturan gasped for air on reflex as Ra let his own point sink in. There had been no gesture that time, not that Amon had noticed. His body had simply … reacted.

<”Now that you understand the difference in our power,”> Ra lifted up the small golden sphere in his hand, <”listen as I reveal Raquel’s purpose for the Regalia, and for granting it to you. Perhaps then you will accept your fate and embrace the new life that awaits you.”>

What followed was the outline of a conspiracy only days in the making. The Regalia, for all its incredible power, was not a true and proper emblem ability. Instead, according to Ra, Raquel--or rather the girl that manifested from her interaction with the emblem, had constructed the Regalia in order to discover Amon’s true desire. Her plan had worked, and for her efforts, Raquel discovered Ra, Amon’s innermost self. She didn’t stop there, however. Next, Raquel manifested Amon’s true emblem ability based on Ra’s deepest desire, causing him and his terrifying potential to take on a physical existence separate from Amon’s.

There was more to Ra’s tale, and Amon was soundly devastated by it. The Regalia, having served its purpose, no longer functioned as a reclamation tool. According to Ra, it couldn’t function that way while his own ability existed, while he existed. By obtaining an ability of his own, the power of manifesting with potential, he had effectively destroyed the Regalia. Sanctuary’s only hope for restoration had been reduced to a lifeless metal ball ….

<”Put this child’s toy out of mind, now,”> Ra said, indicating the Regalia. Suddenly, it began to deform, stretching itself in Ra’s hand, longer, and longer, and longer. Eventually, sometime after Amon got his jaw back up, Ra gave his new dagger, a golden blade with twin heads, a good twirl between his fingers. <”It has served its purpose~”> Amused by Amon’s shock, Ra dismissed the dagger into the void, leaving behind no trace of it. <”Now, I am here.”>

<”We …”> Amon felt his entire body heating up as the realization came crashing down on him. What would happen to Haythem and Isis? What would happen to Aisha if she couldn’t summon the Basilisk anymore? <”We NEEDED that, you bastard!”> The sancturan hauled himself up and prepared for what was almost certainly a suicidal bullrush. He couldn’t let any of this stand, though. <”You’re going to get Lady Aisha killed! I won’t let you do this!”>

Ra’s smirk disappeared as quickly as the Regalia had. <”Do not insult me. I am Amon. Amon times Amon. You cannot compare to me in any regard.”>

That was the second time he’d said that. Amon wasn’t sure what it meant, and he was almost too furious to care, anymore. <”What do you mean, ‘Amon times Amon’?!”> Was that some kind of riddle? No, it wasn’t especially cryptic. It seemed much closer to plainly stated gibberish, but it had to mean something coming from Ra.

<”You have lived for eighteen years,”> Ra began, his tone sagely but on the verge of anger, <”Your experience is confined to that number of cycles. As the potential of Amon manifest, I am Amon times Amon; eighteen times eighteen.”> Seeing that his lesser self was beginning to relax somewhat, Ra’s own expression softened. <”Whatever it is that you love, I love it eighteenfold. Whatever it is that you hate, I hate it eighteenfold. You possess the strength of eighteen years, while I possess the strength of three hundred twenty-four.”>

Amon gulped involuntarily. The strength of three hundred twenty-four years … could be interpreted in several different ways, and not a one of them helped to rekindle Amon’s desperate fury. Attacking Ra was already suicidal, even if he wasn’t physically eighteen times stronger than Amon himself.

<”Do not insult me,”> Ra echoed his previous demand, <”The affection you harbor for Lady Aisha is far outshined by my own.”>

Amon gritted his teeth. <”Then why are you doing this?! You know she needs the Regalia!”>

<”Fool. Raquel needed it,”> Ra corrected Amon sharply, <”both in order to find me and keep you alive until my arrival. Lady Aisha is safe with her husband. Should that ever change, we will act, you and I. Until then, you ought to focus on the tasks at hand, growing stronger and helping our allies confront the fallen ones.”>

Amon couldn’t help but wince at the mention of Aisha’s husband, Osiris. Also known as Amon. Every time he thought of that man, the first thing he saw was the Tide assassin kissing Aisha. Amon hated it, but it was burned into his memory forever, it seemed, that arrogant bastard and the queen. Come to think of it, Ra’s attitude wasn’t far removed from Osiris’. Amon doubted bringing that up would improve his situation, so he put Osiris out of mind.

<”How do you know?”> Amon asked, taking a different route, <”How do you know she’ll be alright.”>

<”She is alive at this moment,”> Ra noted, looking thoroughly unamused with Amon’s doubtful attitude, <”Raquel predicted your death and planned accordingly. She will do the same for Lady Aisha. Save your fears for your allies. In your current state, victory is but a fantasy … so do not abandon them, again.”>

Now it was guilt. That feeling had risen to replace the jealousy that Amon had been trying to shove down. He hadn’t meant to ‘abandon’ them, but clearly Ra wouldn’t refer to his actions in any other way. He really did have a way with words. It was starting to all seem incredibly deliberate. Amon couldn’t do much of anything about that, either. <”Focus on getting stronger, or you’ll kill me, right?”>

<”You understand,”> Ra nodded, <”I am here to break your chains, and show you what you truly wanted from the beginning. Tomorrow morning at sunrise, climb up into the crowsnest. Watch. Carefully. I will begin to reveal everything to you after that. Follow my instructions, heed my words, and this guilt you feel … this jealousy, anger, sadness … they will become tools of reference, not petty urges beyond your control. Follow my guidance, and you will finally know freedom.”>


Guardian of the Emblem

Given the overall mood, both of the team and Lexi’s crew, Amon had been one of the last people Joanna expected to come see her about anything trivial. She quickly realized that it wasn’t entirely of the sancturan’s own volition. Instead there was someone else behind the young man, someone nudging him toward her. It had been like this for nearly two days, now; Amon would show up, looking dejected and ashamed, asking if he could meditate with her and Liam, and he would stay for an hour or longer before eventually thanking her and leaving. This had happened three times, and her attempts to read his thoughts only confirmed that he was being coerced, but not by whom.

Eventually, Joanna opted to confront Amon about it on her own. She hoped that agreeing to speak privately would make things easier for him. With the sancturan alone with her in the room she slept in, Joanna began things by offering Amon a seat. She personally opted to remain standing, while Amon took the chair by the nightstand built into the wall and floor. He looked miserable, still …

“Amon,” Joanna prodded gently, “who is that man? I can’t see him clearly, but I know he’s there.” It made her think of the girl from Amon’s dreams, the one that looked like Raquel and seemed to embody the emblem’s own intentions. She wondered if the invisible presence forcing Amon to spend time with her wasn’t something similar, only tied to the sancturan’s intentions rather than the emblem’s. “Is he like that girl? The one that showed you the vision?”

“He’s worse,” Amon quietly bit out.

“What is he? I don’t know what’s wrong, exactly, but if I can, I want to help you.”

Amon was silent for a long moment, thinking back to the specter’s first appearance. “His name is Ra. He said he’s me … my ‘innermost self’. Apparently my personality is just something Lady Aisha raised to suppress him. Or at least that’s what it sounds like. I never acted the way he did, not even as a child, so I don’t understand that part.”

“But how? … why is he a separate person from you, now?”

“The emblem gave him a body to use. He can appear whenever he wants. He could even talk to you right now if he felt like it,” Amon explained bitterly, “he just prefers to watch me flounder for a while before he says anything.”

“I watch to see how you will answer when questioned,” a voice identical to Amon’s in all but tone and diction said, “... and you disappoint me, again.” Amon winced, and Joanna’s face lit up in surprise as Ra’s body appeared in a cloud of brilliant golden lights. He was a sight to behold, regal, unshakable, and his gentle smile nearly disarmed Joanna on the spot. “My name is Ra. I am Amon’s innermost self, his potential manifest. Would you like to know what is truly happening here, Joanna?”

The avian nodded cautiously. Whether Ra’s version of events would be less bias than Amon’s was difficult to judge this early on, but she would need to hear both sides to have any hope of understanding Ra’s existence. “Yes … but ... please don’t use the opportunity to insult Amon.” She could easily sense the tension between the two of them, but the best she could do while gathering information was try to head off any pointless jabs.

Ra chuckled at the request. “Very well. As I said, I am Amon’s innermost self, his potential manifest. Raquel and I have come to an understanding, at last. She fully understands me, and I her. Together, we plan to rid this gathering of its weakness in preparation for the coming war. As my personal aside, I will transform Amon, so that such overwhelming power as mine is rarely needed.”

Joanna listened intently, trying to piece together the more subtle parts of Ra’s explanation. From what she could tell, the emblem piece she held, and Amon’s true self, were conspiring together to aid the group. Joanna supposed it was inevitable they would try to go about it in this way, going around her and Liam.

“If Amon cannot break his chains in the end,” Ra continued, his smile fading quickly, “then I will end him. For my divine light to fade in such a way would be a tragedy, but I will not allow us to be chained down any longer.”

“You’re going to kill him?!” Joanna exclaimed once she caught the meaning behind Ra’s words.

“I just may,” Ra nodded, “There is nothing you can do to stop me, should I choose that end. You must focus on what you can do. Advise him. Caution him against dishonesty and cowardice, but be mindful,” Ra held up his hand in a gesture, “I am here to eliminate weakness. Cultivating weakness in him will accomplish nothing.”

“I have a feeling you don’t appreciate altan teachings,” Joanna grimaced, wondering how she could advise Amon in any meaningful way if Ra saw weakness in the way she feared he did.

Ra, looking all too amused now, placed a surprisingly heavy hand on Joanna’s shoulder. “You misunderstand me. Weakness and mercy are in no way related to one another. Weakness is to forsake the truth in the face of adversity, whether it is real or fantasy. You are exceptionally strong now, Joanna. Of course, I would make you even stronger.”

Amon cocked an eyebrow at that last part, not sure what Ra was getting at. Joanna was equally confused at first. “What do you mean?” she asked, “I have the Goddess with me, again … more closely than ever. What more do you think I need to be stronger?” Wisdom, life experience, a better handle on her light magic; these were things she knew she could, and undoubtedly would improve in, but whether they were related to Ra’s designs was unclear.

Ra smirked. “If both you and the Goddess would permit me, I will show you.”

Despite how close the Goddess of Mercy was, now, she hadn’t yet interjected in Joanna’s daily affairs. Sometimes the newly appointed Avatar of Mercy forgot that she was indeed the Goddess’ avatar, though only ever briefly. Like in any other situation, if the Goddess didn’t have any direct input, the decision was Joanna’s. “... show me, then,” she braced herself, not sure what to expect next.

“Very well,” Ra said, pulling back his hand and standing directly opposite Joanna. His eyes drifted briefly, and then seemed to settle on Joanna’s neck. Seeing herself in his mind’s eye, the avian wondered why he was looking there of all places. Soon, a golden light began to converge just in front of Ra, and he lifted his hands up, seemingly to take hold of the converging light. As soon as he did, it all dispersed, revealing the very emblem piece that Joanna had been tasked to protect. She was feeling nervous, now. What was he planning?

“What are you doing?” Amon winced, hoping this wasn’t just an attempt to take the emblem from Joanna.

“I am ridding her of a long held weakness,” Ra said simply, stepping toward Joanna with the fragment in hand. Looking Joanna right in the eyes, he said, “Always relying on that box, but you know it is no defense. There is a better place for the emblem, Joanna, and you know this as well as Raquel and I do.”

“I do …?” Joanna broke eye contact briefly, trying to understand. She didn’t come up with anything by the time Ra was standing over her. “I … um …” What was he doing?

“Here," Ra reached toward Joanna’s neck with the fragment in hand. The light returned as soon as the emblem made contact with her skin, and formed a glowing ring around her neck. What remained when all was normal again, was an elegant golden choker that fit Joanna perfectly. “You guard the emblem as you ought to guard your own neck, and so from this point onward, your neck is the proper place for it.”

Joanna gently reached up to feel the warm piece from the outside. Somehow, the metallic accessory wasn’t uncomfortable for her. If this was what Ra meant by strength, wearing the emblem in plain view for all to see, declaring herself as its guardian without so much as a word, then he may have had a point. Joanna did wonder if this might spark a battle… somewhere … somehow … but for the moment, she understood Ra’s meaning, and she at least partly agreed with him. The time for hiding was over. As the Avatar of Mercy, she had no right to hide herself or her intentions from anyone. “I’m not sure this is a ‘great’ idea, but I don’t think the Goddess would be against this. I have to confront the fallen regardless.”

“The gods know strength all too well,” Ra said reassuringly, “Mortals are the ones struggling to learn. Remain as you are, Joanna, but never stop growing. It’s far too beautiful to ever let it come to an end.” Not realizing those were his parting words, Joanna nearly flinched when Ra vanished in a gentle updraft of particles.

“... struggling to learn,” Amon repeated the words that stuck out in his mind the most, wondering if that was just the truth or also a veiled insult aimed directly at him.

“I agree,” Joanna said, smiling as she turned to face Amon. “I think he wants something specific from you, though, not just for you to be ‘stronger.’” She wasn’t wrong, Amon could admit, though he wouldn’t dare give her the details now that he knew what they were. He felt awful enough about this whole situation. “Please, Amon, if you ever need my help, you only have to ask. Ra said he might kill you both, but that’s obviously not what he wants. It’s a last resort. It’s ... something he’s only willing to do if he loses all hope for you.”

“Yeah, probably,” Amon said, not really caring one way or the other.

“That means,” Joanna stared the sancturan down, her patience beginning to wane, “this isn’t so bad. Like a man who would rather take his own life than be executed by his enemies, Ra would rather die than go through life with things the way they are with you, now. I don’t know what these chains are, exactly, but if all you have to do is break them, that will probably satisfy him.”

“Right …” Still, Amon didn’t see anything there to warrant dispersing the stormclouds overhead.

Joanna huffed, slightly annoyed but far from upset. “You’re much closer to coming out of this alive and well than you think. I know I can’t convince you just by trying to explain it, but I had to try. Now I have to move onto other measures.”

Other measures? That didn’t sound like the Joanna Amon knew. Granted she had been much more assertive lately, likely the Goddess’ doing, but this seemed a little pushy in the sancturan’s eyes. “What do you mean ‘other measures?’”

“First,” Joanna began, coming over and taking Amon’s hands, “we should get back. Liam wasn’t too happy about this and even though everything is fine, I don’t want to keep him waiting.” Pulling Amon up to his feet, she stepped behind him and began guiding him toward the bedroom door. “You should meditate with us more. It’s good for you, and it will make it easier for you to focus on what you have to do.”

“... fine,” Amon gave in, not having anything better to do these days.


Discipline

Another day, another fight to break up. Dawn wasn’t the ideal time for this nonsense, but it couldn’t be helped. On the bright side, Malik had gotten in plenty of practice by this point, and the entire crew knew that he had Lexi’s approval to discipline them however he saw fit. That alone broke up the scuffle between several of her hires on the main deck as Malik approached them. A three man entourage, including Pete, joined Malik on his way to the commotion. “What the hell is going on this time?!”

Naturally, several crewmen started trying to explain the situation at once, causing the sancturan to smack his own forehead. Somehow he’d still pieced together the two sides of the conflict. From the sound of things, some of the sailors that were ‘loyal’ to Lexi were up here confronting the ones still hell bent on starting fights with Malik’s own group. Regardless, he didn’t plan on siding with any of them. The only thing keeping anyone in line was whatever payment Lexi had promised.

“This is your only warning,” Malik began, his voice now calm but hostile, “get back to work. If this happens again today, everyone involved is getting flogged. Severely.” Just as he began to turn away, someone from the confrontation yelled something at him. It sounded like an obscenity, but Malik couldn’t be certain. “What?” He stopped, turning back toward the gathering.

“Just feed yaself to the sharks, nomad,” someone else yelled. They were much closer, and so Malik heard him clearly. “We don’t need scum like you tellin’ us what to do! You’re one of those damn nomad mages, too, aren’t ya?!”

If that was what they thought, Malik wondered why they weren’t more humble. Either way, he’d have to do something about this, or it would just escalate more, in spite of all his attempts to get the entire crew under control. “No, I’m worse. I don’t need magic to ruin your day, so don’t test me.”

That didn’t work, unfortunately, as several more of the disloyal bunch joined in, trying to shout Malik down, and soon enough, the opposition inserted themselves, as well. Nearly twenty men were shouting at each other within a few seconds. One eventually got pushed. Another was swiftly punched. Malik, opting not to let his own small group get dragged into the fighting, reached for the pistol of one of the men accompanying him and fired it into the air. “That’s ... IT!” He shoved the gun back into its holster and stomped toward the dissenters. “If you’ve got such a problem with nomads, then I guess you don’t care about getting paid. Is that right?”

The mixed answers didn’t slow Malik down one bit, and just as he was close enough to grab one of the sailors, another tried to flank him. Malik backed away from his initial target and as Pete conked the man on the back of the head, Malik delivered a swift kick to the sailor’s groin. When the man hunched forward, Malik pivoted to his victim’s right side and delivered two more kicks in quick succession, one to the stomach, and the final one to the nose. As he collapsed to his knees, Malik stepped in and took him by his collar and belt, nodding a thanks to his armored helper. “Big mistake,” the sancturan hissed at the sailor, hauling him up.

The other sailors, those technically on Malik’s side covered him, keeping the others from interfering as the sancturan forced the injured sailor toward the edge of the main deck. Straightening the man up, Malik said, “Next time, do your damn job and be happy anyone’s willing to pay an idiot like you.” The newly appointed first mate delivered a strong hook to the sailor’s already bloody face, and then threw him into the water. “Keep fighting us,” he shouted to the others, “We’ll toss every last one of you ungrateful wretches overboard. Now get working, or get swimming.” Was it an ideal job? Hardly. Still, something about it … just felt right, somehow. An outlet for his aggression, the required authority to go along with it, and there was even the captain, herself. Turning to see Lexi grinning at him from the helm turned Malik’s satisfaction into sheer bliss.

((9/16))

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Starting Over

Canaan looked up at the sound of a gunshot. It wasn’t an unusual sound, not when it came from the direction of the Darklighter Idolus, at any rate. It was probably another fight, really, nothing to be overly concerned with. He’d hoped that washing up on the main deck would make less of a mess, and that doing so before dawn would prevent him from being spotted by the Ursian and Neviskotian fliers in the area, but he was falling behind. Being thorough was costing him this time around.

Looking down at his supplies; a sponge, a pair of soapy rags, a towel, an old cloth that at least passed for a towel, a hunk of soap, and a bucket of water, Canaan cursed his lack of progress. He’d only handled his body and part of his tail. He still had to wash his hair, as well, and if he didn’t hurry, he’d be spotted for certain … sitting essentially naked on the main deck. In the worst case scenario, he could grab his robe, dirty as it had become, and slink back into the cargo hold under cover. He’d rather finish and give all of his scales the pristine look they deserved.

Canaan’s fretting was cut short by a scream and a splash. It had just happened, again, hadn’t it? The scream and subsequent splash were both faint, but everything besides gunshots were when they came from Lexi’s ship. Spotting where the sailor had fallen in, Canaan quickly stood up, ran to the edge of the deck, and leaped over the rails and into the strait.

Within a couple of minutes, Canaan had returned to the Emi Maru, heavy one injured and terrified sailor. Tuning out the man’s flailing and screaming, Canaan climbed back onto the main deck and released the man, who quickly ran off. The demon then took the towel, sat back down, and put it back in its place.  Now he was wondering if he needed to start over … salt on his skin wasn’t comfortable in the slightest, and it didn’t do anything for his scales, either.

Meanwhile, the sailor ran hollering toward the nearest crewman, taking him by the shoulders and trying desperately to get his attention. “It’s a sea monster! Over there! Over there! Hurry and kill it!”

“... that is just Canaan,” the unamused crewman noted sharply, “I know it's dark, but calm down.”

Calm down?! That thing is going to kill us! Shoot him! Shoot him for gods’ sake! Can't you see him?! That's not a human! That thing is the Sea King’s evil spawn! We have to kill him! Hurry!”

“Please stop. If you do not want to go back into the water,” the man’s eyes narrowed threateningly, “I suggest you calm down.” He quickly turned the sailor toward Canaan. “Look closer … he brought you here so you would not drown. Now he is covered in salt water. He only wanted to get himself clean.”

“W-what …?!”

“You just had to go and get yourself thrown overboard, didn’t you? You should be ashamed.” This was almost fun.

“... I …” the sailor didn’t have words for any of this, now. Perfect.

“You are the second one that has been thrown from the Darklighter,” the sailor switched topics, “Our captain may be willing to give you work, just like the other one, but you will have to make a good first impression.”

“There’s no way I’m working on this ship with that monster here!”

Nong’s man grunted. “Then back into the water you go.”

“Okay okay!” That seemed to change the man’s tune, at least. Not surprising given his low odds of making it to shore. “I have no idea what’s going on here. You said that thing is a canine?”

“Some of you northerners are truly dumb creatures …”
 


A Time to Act

When Athrun stepped into Desmond’s office in the Grand Cathedral, he wasn’t sure what to expect. The Prince wasn’t used to being requested like this. Maybe ‘summoned’ was the more appropriate term, given Desmond’s status as the Avatar of Wrath.

“Ah, there you are,” Desmond stood up from the chair behind his desk.

“Good evening,” Athrun greeted the Head Wrathite, “Did you need something?”

“Yes, we could use you, right now,” Desmond nodded gravely. “Have you spoken with Major General Alexakis lately?”

“Yes, a few days ago, actually.” As the Prince recalled, the Major General was planning a mission to Kigen and wanted him to accompany her. With all the chaos plaguing Ursium at the moment, most importantly the war, Athrun wasn’t thrilled about the prospect of leaving the country. He might have refused the Major General if he’d been having a particularly bad day, but she’d picked her time well, either knowingly or otherwise, and the Prince had agreed. There were conditions, however. Athrun insisted on waiting some time before setting out. That would give him time to try and help his father, the King, tidy up a bit. Leaving before that, with no real time frame established, would come off as irresponsible to the nobility … and that was the last thing they needed on top of everything else going on.

“Desmond,” Athrun locked eyes with the Head Wrathite, “are you the one who gave her the idea to seek information about the fallen in Kigen?”

Desmond shook his head. “No. It’s fortuitous, though. I’d like you to gather your personal guards and go with her to acquire that information. I have it on the ultimate authority that these are grand opportunities for us, and she will need your help in Kigen, regardless.”

Athrun’s eyes narrowed at Desmond’s request. “Grand opportunities?” As for who this ultimate authority was, it could be none other than the God of Wrath, the prince concluded. “What grand opportunities await us in Kigen besides the information the Major General is after?”

“Joanna is headed that way, with the fragment they stole from us. It’s a grand opportunity to reclaim it. Furthermore, as the Prince of Ursium, you have a chance to reconcile a very old and very pointless feud,” Desmond explained, grinning faintly. “How much do you know about the old Maas Kings?”

“Not quite enough, admittedly,” Athrun grimaced, “I know that they were powerful and respected in their time, but that they grew increasingly corrupt as Ursium expanded. My family line eventually led the rebellion that deposed the Maas family. The Shastaks have ruled ever since.”

“Yes, but unfortunately that is only the tip of the iceberg,” Desmond grimaced, “Allow me to bring you up to date then, Prince Athrun. Be forewarned; not a word of this will be pleasant. There are no heroes or villains in this blood feud. There are only fools …”
 


A Deep Longing

This had been a mistake, after all. Just one gigantic, irrevocable mistake. Malik was so furious with himself now. It was all he could do not to punch himself in the face. Serving as First Mate aboard the Darklighter Idolus had been a new and exciting experience for him, in just about every sense, a fulfilling one … and that was the mistake. 

Malik was a sancturan first and foremost. His whole purpose in cozying up to Lexi had been to determine whether she had an emblem piece, and if she had one, find a way to take it from her. She had one, alright, and had even shown it to him when he finally worked his way around to asking her about it. Malik couldn’t help but laugh bitterly as he thought back to the woman’s admission that she was a terrible judge of character. She truly was if she was willing to promote a schemer like him to second in command.

<“It was just to get the damn emblem,”> Malik quietly scolded himself, <“but I couldn’t even figure out how to go about it. I’m not sure I could have followed through even if I knew exactly how to get it.”> He wondered if this was how Amon felt about depriving Raquel of her piece of the emblem. Malik’s own situation was far more personal, of course, but there had to be some similarities there. Regardless, the sancturan felt awful, now. He was sick of this ship, Lexi’s crew of thickheaded bastards, sick of the emblem, and sick of himself. <”I should never have tried this … … she deserves better.”>

<”Deserves better, does she?”> Malik winced at the voice coming from the doorway. Beyond said doorway was the kitchen, but standing between them was Ra. <”Then it is time for you to deliver, is it not?”>

<”What are you saying now, you damn specter?”> Malik stared daggers at Ra, <”You know if I wanted your advice I would have asked for it.”>

<”Perhaps,”> Ra shrugged, and took a few steps closer, <”I have my doubts. Your pride led you along by the nose to this point. It can do nothing for you, now. Let your heart take over, won’t you?”>

<”Seriously,”> Malik clinched his teeth at the somewhat vague advice, <”What the hell are you saying?”>

<”I am telling you to let go of your pride and listen to your heart, instead. What the outcome will be, I cannot say, but if there is a woman in this world that will forgive and forget your shenanigans, it is Lexi. You did well to fall for someone that can ignore your flaws the way she does.”>

<”I haven’t fallen for her,”> Malik said on reflex. He knew that wasn’t quite true, but he liked to think his reservations had more to do with ethics and less to do with their relationship. <”I just can’t do this to her. We need another emblem piece and we needed it a blasted week ago. It’s the only way to help Lady Aisha now that you’ve turned the Regalia into a paperweight. I swear, it’s like you’re working with the Tide to make things harder for us.”>

Ra burst into laughter. <”Working with the Tide! Oh, how easily you bruise, Malik.”>

<”Look,”> Malik, turned his back on Ra, <”I’ve got thinking to do and I was hoping for a little privacy. So why don’t you disappear and take your cryptic advice with you?”>

<”Are you certain? I was meaning to have a word with the captain after this, if I deemed it necessary,”> Ra said, rubbing his chin, <”If you would rather I move on to her, then so be it. I would rather you speak with her.”>

Malik turned back to face the apparition. <”What were you going to talk with Lexi about?”>

<”Many things,”> Ra said, raising his hands, as if he was holding a large ball, <”That she is an emblem wielder who is on good terms with us is reason enough to get to know her better. I would know more of her past and her goals.”> He placed his hands on his hips after a moment. <”Lexi will make a powerful ally in the future, so it serves no one for her to remain a mystery.”>

<”I already know all of that stuff,”> Malik said, scowling at Ra.

<”Then you should tell the others,”> Ra retorted, <”keeping private what is private and embellishing wherever possible. I will discover who Lexi is for myself.”>

Malik was getting even more annoyed, but he didn’t know exactly why. He did feel like Ra was up to something, though. <”Why are you so set on pestering her? You’re not planning to …?”>

Ra tilted his head, though there was nothing but certainty on his face, as if he knew the exact words that were coming, and was merely waiting for his fellow sancturan.

Malik looked away, trying to quickly rephrase the question without giving away its meaning. It was impossible … <”Dammit …”> Malik forced himself to meet Ra’s intense gaze. <”Are you trying to take her for yourself?”>

Ra’s lips curled into a mischievous grin. <”Are you worried? I will take the hand of any woman I find to be truly beautiful, so long as she is drawn always to the light I offer. Since you have not fallen for her, there is no need for you to worry, Malik. Should our hearts find one another, I will take her as my own, and she will know nothing but the bliss she deserves.”>

Malik felt something inside of him crack. <”A-are you … serious …?”> The words came out between slow, shallow breaths.

<”Of course I am,”> Ra said, his expression curious. He slowly crossed his arms as Malik struggled to stay calm. <”Tell me, what troubles you? If you have no designs for her, then surely our union--should it come to pass--would be of little consequence. Or … perhaps you are lying?”>

<”You’re just trying to piss me off,”> Malik bit out, clenching his fists, <”... and it’s working.”>

Ra grimaced. <”You have fallen for her, then.”>

<”... yeah … I’ve fallen so hard it hurts.”>

<”Well,”> Ra shrugged, <”my plans remain unaltered. I will spend time with her, just as you have. Perhaps she will be mine in the end. After all, you cannot open your heart to her, yet I can … and wil-”> <”FINE! I’ll play along with your stupid game, Ra,”> Malik snapped.

<”Oh? So you and I will compete for her? Is that it what you had in mind?”>

<”SHUT UP AND DEFEND YOURSELF!!!”> Malik rushed at Ra at full speed, aiming to pummel the apparition into the floor. This was stupid, attacking someone he was all but certain he couldn’t even bruise, much less defeat. Still, he couldn’t take Ra’s word salad rhetoric anymore. Being forced to admit his feelings was bad enough, but for the bastard to immediately tell him that he still might take Lexi for himself was the line. There had to be a better way to respond than fighting him … but admittedly, this felt better.

((12/16))

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A Model Employee

Ordinarily, it would have taken more than just some passing comments to get Nena aboard the Darklighter Idolus, but when it came to magical trinkets and artifacts, she was often at a disadvantage. Fortunately for her, six days into their voyage, the Darklighter Idolus was somewhat under control. The person in possession of these supposed magical wares was Greta, a merchant from Ursium. She seemed surprised, maybe even a little impressed to see Nena when the woman finally made it over to see her.

“Whoa, where’d you come from?” Greta asked, in lieu of a real greeting, unfortunately. “I doubt you're one'a Lexi's, heheh.”

Figuring Greta hadn’t heard her story from Nong’s crew, Nena quickly went over the events in her head. “I was working for a merchant in Urquium to pay off my debts when the ‘skotians attacked. Most people were evacuating but I decided to mind the shop anyway …”

“Huh? Why?” Greta winced.

Nena wasn’t set on just one reason, herself. Part of her feared Marcus’ store being looted would be a problem for her paying off her debt to him one way or another. A different part of Nena just wanted to spite the situation and those responsible for it. There was even a small part of her that had been hoping to put her spell casting to the test, and the arrival of the Neviskotian forces was convenient, despite the overwhelming danger. In the end, she’d decided to stay right where she was.

Nena sighed. “It doesn’t matter, now. The reason I wound up here was because I actually got some customers during the battle.” Not giving Greta the opening to comment on that, Nena continued, letting the merchant gawk in relative silence. “They wanted healing staves so I explained how they worked and sold them a small bundle. Then the store got attacked by some wyvern knights. I helped those men and the guards fight them off, but there was an explosion and I got knocked out. I woke up on Nong’s ship, but not until after we left port.”

Greta shook her head. “No good deed goes unpunished, right? Anyway, I’m sure Nong won’t just drop ya off in Kigen. It ain’t the best place for a lone girl to be.”

“I can defend myself,” Nena scowled, “... but yeah, Kigen wasn’t my first choice of surprise destinations. I don’t want to sail right back into a warzone or work for Nong, though.”

“Hmm,” Greta rubbed her chin, “Only other option would be to try and find work in Arugai … I think that’s what it’s called. Maybe raise some coin and pay your way back to Ursium. There’s probably more fightin’ around most of the ports near Central, though.”

Greta was probably right, but the more she thought about it, the more Nena felt herself getting upset. There was more trouble for her on the way, but she didn’t want to focus on it, right now. She wasn’t here for any of that. “Let’s change the subject,” Nena said, glancing past Greta to the wagon, “I’m here to see what kind of things you sell, here. You do sell things here, right?”

Greta nearly slapped herself upon realizing what she ought to have been doing. “Ohhh, a customer! Gods, I’m sorry, I thought ya were just here taken in the sights. Stupid …” She shook her head at how obvious everything was in hindsight. To Greta’s credit, she’d instinctively sized up Nena on approach and didn’t see any place she could comfortably store coin. It had felt like a safe bet the woman wasn’t going to be doing any shopping. “I’m runnin’ my business from here, yeah, but I’ll be back to proper peddlin’ once we dock. What were ya lookin’ for?”

“Nothing that specific,” Nena admitted, “I just like magic items. Now that you mention it, though, I have to ask … are you actually planning to peddle in Kigen? That sounds even more dangerous than just being ‘a lone girl.’ Whaaat’s your secret, Miss Merchant?”

Greta smirked at the question. “It’s Greta, and my ‘secret’ is my gun and my helpers.”

Nena crossed her arms, considering a fortuitous, new third option. “Nena. So, you hire people to help you protect your wagon, and you’ve got your gun in case you’re in danger or no one else is around. I guess that’s good for business, even if it’s a little more expensive.”

“Sure is,” Greta gave a wide smile and a nod, “Ya thinkin’ of hirin’ a bodyguard or somethin’?”

Nena shook her head. “I can defend myself from anyone that’s not a light mage. I was just thinking … if you’re hiring people to protect your goods, maybe you should hire me, too.”

“To guard the wagon?” Greta asked, looking unimpressed for some reason.

Whatever the reason, that wasn’t the enthusiasm Nena had been quietly hoping for. Greta might have already been stretching her resources to keep on however many helpers she currently had. Whether that was the case or not, Nena knew she would have to convince the woman that she was worth investing just a little more in. “Not just to guard the wagon. I was running the shop for him, not just guarding it. You know, attracting customers and convincing them that they really needed some magic in their lives.”

Greta chuckled at Nena’s explanation. “Well that’s a pretty good resume, goin’ off your word. Could ya do me a favor though, Nena? If I do hire ya, could ya dye your hair blonde for me?”

Nena’s eyes narrowed at the question. Greta was still laughing, but Nena didn’t plan on letting the question hang in the air. “I could, but … why? I’m beautiful just the way I am. I’d probably look more generic with blonde hair, in fact.”

That stopped Greta’s laughing as a whole. “Y-yeah … probably … heh. Don’t mind me, it’s just a joke. You’ll get it once ya meet the rest of my helpers.”

Nena frowned. She hoped she hadn’t hit a little too close to home with that response. “... my apologies. I really didn’t mean to make it seem like a bad color. I just figured it’s common enough that I wouldn’t stand out. Hair dye or no, I think I could help you with your business. I don’t want to try and make money working for those people if I don’t have to.”

“Right,” Greta nodded. She was probably picturing Nena dressed as a waitress and getting slapped on the rear end all day. “Don’t worry, Nena. I’ll help ya out. You’ll be another helper. You’re a guard if the wagon’s in danger, and a saleswoman when we really need some attention. How’s that sound?”

And safe. No waitressing, whoring herself out, or working off a new debt aboard some ship. Once she had enough money, Nena could go wherever and do whatever she liked, and in the meantime, working for Greta would allow Nena to gain some valuable experience. She might even be able to rebuild her private collection of trinkets. “That sounds great, especially in my head,” Nena giggled, “I promise, you won’t be disappointed with my work.”


Baser Nature

Canaan was back in his space in the cargo hold of the Emi Maru, a little annoyed, a little sad. He could only smell himself, the wood, and the occasional odd odor in this place. He’d been down here too many weeks, and it was starting to get to him. Nothing he did helped. Scouring the hold for loose scales, dust, and lint, didn’t make him feel any better. Mopping the place down disguised his scent from humans, but not from himself. The last couple of days had seen the place almost completely renewed, and a few among the crew had even pitched in to help him, but it wasn’t enough. Canaan still felt off, like he’d ruined this part of the ship with his presence.

Later that night, when he had grown fed up, again, Canaan climbed the ladder in the hold up to a hatch that led into the ship’s kitchen. It wasn’t designed specifically for his use, but since he had been staying in the cargo hold since first boarding the Emi Maru, Canaan was allowed to use it to make snack runs. Jun, Nong’s wife, also served Canaan his dinner through the floor panel when the demon didn’t want to be in public. Often, though, they’d try to get him to join the crew for dinner. They were all so nice in spite of his origins …

When Canaan lifted up the panel and had a look around, he spotted Nena. She heard him come up, and stared right back at him. “Canaan? Hi,” she waved at him.

“... hi, Nena,” Canaan said, keeping his voice as low as possible.

“You’re looking for something to eat too, aren’t you?” Nena seemed amused by the prospect. “It’s kind of funny to see a giant lizard man poking his head up through the floor only an hour after dinner.”

“Just … want to get away from the cargo hold,” Canaan winced, hauling himself up into the kitchen. He quietly lowered the floor panel until it was shut and secure, again. “The smell … bothers me. Not sure how long I can last.”

“The smell?” Nena grimaced. She leaned toward Canaan and sniffed a couple of times. “Well, doesn’t seem like you brought it with you, so you should be fine, now.”

Canaan nodded, somewhat agreeing. “I am … tired of that place.”

“Why not get a better room, then?” Nena shrugged.

Canaan would have liked that too, but this problem felt more fundamental. He was starting to suspect that he was a nomad by nature. Something about staying in one place for too long was suffocating. In the past, Canaan couldn’t have easily talked himself out of the cargo hold. It had been like a dark sanctuary. Now he could come up with dozens of reasons to get out of that place in the space of a single breath, and each reason was convincing enough on its own. Even now, Canaan wasn’t sure how he was going to convince himself to return to ‘his room.’ “Won’t help for long,” Canaan winced, “will get tired of that place, too.”

“Friggin’ nomad,” Nena quietly scoffed. Nena looked Canaan up and down in the brief silence, clearly trying to come up with some sort of hypothesis or solution. “Maybe … you’re like a dragon.”

“A dragon?” Canaan tilted his head at the mage.

“Dragons don’t really like being stuck around manmade structures, either. At least that’s what I’ve heard. You’re out at sea, spending most of your time in a dark wooden box, so that’s probably driving your instincts up the wall. You should really find a way to get back in touch with nature, if you can.”

That made sense. Canaan never felt even slightly uncomfortable with his environment while he was in the wilderness. His only real concern had been putting as much distance between himself and his old master’s minions as possible. His surroundings were inherently pleasant, soothing even, though only when he took the time to appreciate them. “Kigen isn’t safe. Ursium isn’t safe … not sure I can find nature like this.”

“Mm, good point,” Nena admitted. “Here I thought women had it hard; at least if I try to get a day job in Kigen, they won’t stab me and set me on fire.”

“Price of being a demon,” Canaan shrugged in resignation.

“Okay,” Nena scowled, “now you’re just making me depressed. Where’d you even come from? Why not just go back there? You’ve got to be welcome somewhere in the world.”

Canaan shook his head violently. “Never … never going back. Tired of killing people. I am … welcome here on the Emi Maru. That is … good enough.”

“It won’t be for long, like you said,” Nena frowned. “I’m sorry for suggesting you go back to wherever you came from, Cay. I didn’t know you had to kill people. I just don’t see any other good options for you. Living in the cargo hold is obviously driving you insane, slowly but surely. Still … staying here probably isn’t the solution.”

Canaan could admit that, but what else could he do. He’d be killed the second he poked his head out from the cargo hold once they reached Kigen. Nong and his people would suffer, too. “Have to stay here … for Nong’s sake.”

“You’re way too considerate and selfless for a four armed, glowy eyed, lizard man,” Nena smiled pityingly. “I’m going to do some thinking on this, tonight. If I got out of my own awful situation just fine, then I’m sure there’s hope for you, too.”

“Your … awful situation?”

Nena smirked. “I’ll tell you all about it if we’re both still in the same boat this time tomorrow~”

“... o-okay …” Canaan broke eye contact, wondering what the delay was for.

“I want to hear your story, too,” Nena added quickly, “tell me where you came from. It’s fine if there’s a lot of blood; I can handle that. I don’t want to step on your claws, though, so let me know what life’s been like for you, okay?”

Canaan nodded, finally managing to smile faintly. “Okay, Nena.”


A Golden Confession

Malik looked up from his seat on Lexi’s bed as the captain downed what may have been a cup of wine or some other red beverage. He’d gotten very close to spilling his guts there, but now he was just sitting on the edge of the bed, expecting Lexi to follow through on her decision to ‘help him out’. Presumably that meant getting him tipsy enough to speak openly. She never poured him a cup, though ….

While trying to decide how he should feel about all of this, Malik failed to notice Lexi when she eventually sauntered back over to the bed. “Lay down for me,” she said, causing Malik to flinch. “Come ooon, I have an idea.”

“... what’s your idea …?” Malik asked, a stupefied look on his face. Try as he did, it was impossible to keep eye contact. Instead, the sancturan’s gaze was taking in the captain of their own accord.

“Well,” Lexi smirked, “now that I’m feelin’ less embarrassed about it, I’m gonna help ya talk to me. Need ya to lay down, though … that or it’s gonna be a little awkward.”

Well, that did the absolute minimum to clear up matters and nothing more. Still, Malik felt he could trust Lexi, even if she was a little intoxicated. “Alright … I just don’t want you to do anything you’ll regret, later,” Malik said, leaning back onto the bed. It took the sancturan and first mate a moment to line himself up with the bed, but as soon as he did, Lexi sprang into action, leaping onto the bed and straddling him. <”W-whoa whoa w-whoa whoa whoa!”>

“Shhhh.”

“What are you doing?!” Malik’s protest came out as a loud whisper. He was at a complete loss for how this wasn’t just as awkward as whatever else Lexi might have tried.

It took Lexi a moment to respond. She watched Malik’s eyes closely, her lips slowly curling into a mischievous smile. That was when Malik too noticed something was up. His vision was getting clearer, his hearing, much sharper, and the fatigue from a long day’s work seemingly melted away. Something was definitely strange, here. “There … stress gone now?”

Stress? What awfulness had been clinging to him that wasn’t gone now, Malik asked himself? “What did you do? Is this …?” … it couldn’t be, could it? “The emblem …?” He was very late to notice it, but something on his face was casting a faint golden glow, and it only took a slow sweep of his hand for Malik to figure out that his eyes were glowing. It was that oh so familiar light … “You’re using the emblem on me.”

“Anything I ‘ride’ gets stronger thanks to the Darklighter, yeah,” Lexi giggled, “Doesn’t matter if it’s a ship, a horse, or a man. That’s why I wanted ya to lay down, first.”


“This is still pretty awkward,” Malik gently retorted.

“Are ya at least comfortable?”

“... yeah.” That meant it was time, Malik knew. Lexi had him more or less pinned now. “Just … go easy on me.” 

“I’m a soft captain, remember? It’s your job to be hard,” Lexi teased, “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

Too many things were on the sancturan’s mind now. Lexi’s thighs were gently pressing against his pelvis. She kept herself propped up by placing both of her hands on Malik’s chest … and that smile, she wouldn’t let the sancturan think for one second that she wasn’t enjoying every bit of this. Somehow, Malik still managed to rein in his thoughts, narrowing everything down to the important parts, the difficult but all too important truths that were eating away at him. “Listen, I … I need to say I’m sorry. That’s what I need to get off my chest, first.” And next … “If you can be patient for me … I want to explain this from the beginning.”

“I could stay like this all night,” Lexi said, essentially giving her new mount the go ahead to talk her ears off. Malik couldn’t help but think back to Ra’s assessment of her. Maybe she would forgive him. Just maybe …

Framing his side of the story required explaining some key details about the culture of Rex-Avaz, and Sanctuary in particular, as well as the sancturan’s own place there. Details about Queen Aisha and her government came first. Malik’s own time spent with Amon and the others came later. Eventually, the emblem came to prominence. It was at this point that Malik began to worry, not only because he was closing in on his own crime, but also because he wasn’t sure if Lexi was falling asleep. She had slowly let herself down onto his chest. Now he could only see the top of her head …

“Go on,” Lexi said, after a few seconds of silence. She was still awake. There was no going back, now …

Slowly, Malik draped his arm over Lexi’s back. It might be the only time he got to do this, so he couldn’t talk himself out of it. “Alright … well … Lady Aisha lost her power. Amon learned about it in a dream. Since we were after an emblem piece, already, not much has changed on our end, but … but … we have no idea where Valdimarr is, how to find him, or defeat him. Then you showed up, with this crazy ship of yours. Once I realized you might be an emblem wielder … I started getting ideas. I’ve been trying to figure out if that thing is actually a piece of the emblem. It obviously is.”

“Mhm,” Lexi nodded slowly.

“But … I can’t do this. Not to you, at least. I’ll happily kill Valdimarr and hand his piece over to Lady Aisha, but I don’t want to steal anything from you. Not you …” There. He’d told her the truth. All of it. Malik let out the last of his grief in a deep sigh. “No matter how disloyal I feel, I won’t do anything to hurt you. I’m just … sorry I took my plan as far as I did.”

“... mm, you’re a great first mate, Malik,” Lexi said, her voice indicating sleepiness. Was she starting to doze off? “Just one more day. Keep helpin’ me with the crew for one more day, alright?”

“Err-yeah, of course,” Malik agreed, despite his befuddlement. Did she not care about what he’d done? “So … that’s about everything, Lexi. You’re really okay with us just … pretending none of this happened? I get that it’s better to have a first mate than not have one, but …”

Lexi started snickering, again. “Knowin’ men like you, ya probably beat yourself up plenty, already. I can see the bruises on your soul, Mal. So ... just go back to bein’ sweet and kinda annoyed~”

Sweet, and kind of annoyed. Malik smiled at the description of himself. He supposed his behavior had been somewhat that way. He was definitely annoyed on the regular, thanks to their often ridiculous circumstances. “I … I honestly wish it wasn’t just for one more day … … and I wish you would do stunts like this more often,” the sancturan admitted.

Slowly, Lexi rose back up, smiling sleepily at her golden eyed first mate. “Once you get Queen Aisha her own Darklighter, we can get together like this, again. … that’s assumin’ she lets you~”

Lexi was right. It was an assumption, a big one. It was also a big assumption that Malik was willing to honor Aisha’s decision if she forbade him from setting out, again. It was irritating to think about, but in the end, he’d already proven to be disobedient in not pressuring Amon into using the Regalia on him while he had the chance. That would have seen Malik back at Aisha’s side overnight. He was glad he hadn’t taken that path though, regardless of how awful he felt at the start. In fact, even now, Malik was feeling far better about his decision.

“Even if she doesn’t approve, I’m tracking you down again the day my work’s finished,” Malik promised, “You just keep hunting for your treasures and wait for me.”

“Hah,” Lexi chuckled, settling back down on Malik’s chest. “Why wait around when I can just come'n get ya? I’ve found lots of things I want, and I’m sure I can find you again too, Mal.”

That was an interesting thought, though a bit fantastic even by the emblem’s standard; Malik couldn’t help but picture the Darklighter Idolus sliding along over the dunes with Lexi at the helm. If something like that ever happened … Suddenly the deeper meaning of what Lexi had said struck him. She could find things she wanted. She wanted him, then. “We’ll ... meet in the middle then, somewhere.”

“Mhmm~”

A little while ago, Malik could have put together a long list of things he wanted, but right now, with everything between Lexi and him out in the open, he was damn near satisfied. It could only get so much better than this ....

...

Malik slowly opened his eyes, realizing he’d fallen asleep at some point. Not only that, but he hadn’t left the captain’s quarters. He’d never even left the bed Lexi led him into. She hadn’t either, from the looks of things. Events hadn’t carried nearly as far as the sancturan would have liked them to, but it was something to look forward to in the future. Using so many words, he’d opened up to her, and using so few, herself, Lexi had done the same. Malik only hoped that she truly understood what he was trying to tell her last night. ‘I love you’ was just so damn hard. Even she hadn’t gone so far.

It was nearly dawn now, and Malik hadn’t needed as much sleep as usual, thanks to Lexi’s emblem ability restoring his stamina. He had come too far earlier than usual as a result, but he didn’t get out of bed, instead turning over and snaking his arms around Lexi. There was no reason to start his day just yet. None whatsoev-- “Good mornin’,” Lexi said, sounding well rested, and amused, “Want help wakin’ up?” She almost certainly meant straddling him again, Malik thought. It would work too, but ...

“Yeah sure, but without the emblem nonsense. I want to stay right here, forever,” Malik said, irritably, “... let’s just ... wait until sunrise to get up.”

Lexi shifted in Malik’s arms, moaning softly once she was comfortable again. “Mm, sounds good …”

“Hey …” Malik tried to find the right way to phrase a question that suddenly sprang to mind, “why didn’t you pour me some of that wine, last night? Most people would have done that to try and get me to talk, not your emblem riding thing.”

Lexi snickered. “Couldn’t have us both waddlin’ around like lost ducks afterward, could I? We would’a both been useless if somethin’ happened. Thankfully ... I just passed out.”

That made a little sense to Malik, though Lexi was still the one whose ability empowered the ship. She probably just trusted him that much. It was clearly absentminded to trust someone like him, even if he did have strong feelings for her. Malik closed his eyes and gently pressed his face up against Lexi’s warm locks. “... still a terrible leader …” Still a wonderful woman.


The Arrival (Day 74)

Arugai had never been a particularly quiet port, not throughout most of its history, but this week in particular had the locals feeling especially uneasy. By midday, military vessels from two great foreign powers were still scattered all over the horizon, and somewhere out there, there was a skirmish taking place. The sounds of cannonfire were faint, but still reached the mainland, and the smoke had long ago overtaken the distant waters. Most of the local Kigen patrols had opted to form a defensive net around Arugai, letting in only ships that were unaffiliated with either side, or those from either faction that were small enough to be quickly and easily dealt with should they cause any problems.

The Darklighter Idolus and the Emi Maru made it through the Kigen navy’s defensive net with ease. However, some of the smaller Ursian and Neviskotian ships had also reached the docks. The Kigense seemed to only be interested in letting a very small number of military ships through, and there was no reason to assume the Ursians and Neviskotians were simply going to ignore the band of vigilantes that had dropped a divine hammer on their battle at Urquium.

Even after getting inside the Kigen navy’s defensive perimeter, it still took almost an hour for the Darklighter Idolus and the Emi Maru to dock. It had cost them some time, but on Shadrak’s suggestion, Lexi had opted to wait until the military vessels docked, and then try to drop anchor as far away from them as possible. Since Nong’s ship was following along, they were held up just as long. Shadrak hoped that even if they couldn’t immediately give the Ursians and Neviskotians the slip, which may have been impossible either way, they could at least take advantage of the cover of distance. Malik didn’t fully support the idea, but giving their pursuers the chance to put a ship right beside them would have each and every member of the group identified in short order. Really though, Malik was more worried about Lexi, herself. They knew what ship to look for, even if the name was bound to give them trouble. Leaving her to fend for herself didn’t feel right, no matter how incredible her emblem ability was.

If there was one thing to appreciate about Arugai, in spite of all of the chaos in the area, it was how familiar and inviting the coast looked. They may have been in Kigen, the nation, but nonetheless, influences of the northern countries were in plain view. As a trading hub, Arugai saw ships and merchants from all over Sardius. Most of the buildings around the docks were of northern architecture, while those a block or two further inland were virtually all of traditional Kigen architecture. Whether the new arrivals ought to favor one part of Arugai over another yet was yet to be decided … as were a few other important matters.

When the Darklighter Idolus’ boarding planks struck the pier, Lexi called out from the helm. “Welcome to Kigen, everyone! I hope the voyage wasn’t too rough for ya!” No one got deathly ill, so that was something. "I'd pack your bags and get ready to disembark. I'll handle customs!"

"What are you going to tell them?" Malik asked as he ascended the starboard side staircase to the helm.

"Haven't decided, yet," Lexi shrugged, "You'll help me out, right? Last task for my first mate?"

Malik scowled at her. "Of course." Like she had to ask.

((16/16))

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"Is that land?" Eva groaned with a gaze out the window. Her sea legs had certainly gotten a workout, but they weren't something she wanted to be standing on any time soon. Neither did Sasha, who had finally gotten proper rest and food, but hadn't had a chance to extend his wings for a while. That made dragging him out of the Idolus' below deck that much more annoying.

"<Come on, Sasha. We'll get you out of the ship, and once we're free of the port, I'll let you take a few laps around the sky. It'll be fun! Come... Come on, Sasha!>" He was whining and groaning the whole time, slowly moving with her. He didn't believe for a second that this stop meant easy flying. Every time he'd been taken up to get fresh air on their trip, he'd been grounded. Of course, when he finally got pulled on deck, and saw actual land, his disposition changed significantly. With a raised head and a more eager pace to his step, Eva sighed.

"<See? I told you. We're getting off this boat, and hopefully for good. Now you, you wait right here. I have to go and ask something.>" Lexi was up on the helm, shouting out their landing, but Eva had a... Rather important question to toss at her. Heading on over, she couldn't help but smirk at Malik.

"Having fun, desert boy? Hey, Lexi, what do I do about my wyvern? I've never been to Kigen. Are the customs officers going to be bothered with me bringing him on land, or is this going to be simple?" She knew the Kigenese weren't huge fans of wyverns, but since she wasn't affiliated with anyone, this wouldn't be a problem... Right?

----------

And there was Kigen... Great. Haruhi had hoped that she wouldn't be seeing this port again, just a week after having left it, but with this group... Maybe things would be okay. Especially with people she could happily bother. Speaking of, one of them had just reached the deck, a small grin sneaking onto her face. Giving him a few moments to get out onto the deck proper, Haruhi ran up at him, jumping onto his back.

"<Thales! Look! Land, finally!>" She hadn't quite thought about how the shorter man was going to handle having her on his back.

Bothering a Grumpy Mage

 

After having spoken to a few people on their trip across the water, Eva wasn't feeling that bad, anymore. The initial meeting had left her at odds with herself, and she had still been upset over what she'd done to Amon, but time fixed that. There was still one thing that was leaving her confused-- not enough to be a problem, but she was looking for the solution to her confusion.

Doing her best to creep up behind their group's own personal brooding machine, Eva gave him a nice, friendly slap on the back, grinning wide. "Hey, Shaddy. You're just the guy I was looking for... And I'm kinda surprised you're all alone, in the dining hall. Do you wait for everyone to leave, or does your natural aura scare them off?" With a chuckle, she sat down next to him, back facing the table she was now leaning onto, elbows nice and comfy.

"Do you have the free time to indulge some questions? Still kinda... Trying to piece that whole talk together."

A pat on the back was the last thing Shadrak needed after his latest visit to the avians. Swallowing his frustrations whole, the druid said, "I've got nothing but free time with all this 'not preparing' we're doing. What did you want know?"

"Aw, hey... We're just waiting until we get to Kigen, you know? It's only a few more days... Don't be so glum! I didn't think your plan was dumb I... I'll be honest, I didn't really get it. That's kinda why I'm here. Do you think you can give me the full loadout on what a spirit spring really is? I... I sort of got it, but I'm still confused. That's why I didn't want to agree with anything during the talks, too much I couldn't get a grasp on... Is that okay?"

Shadrak's features slowly softened. Maybe Eva's words were genuine and she wasn't simply trying to get him out of his slump to make herself feel better. At the very least, explaining the spirit springs to someone else again would help him not only get his points across, but also improve them. A story repeated enough times took on a life of its own, so best to give this one the fighting chance it deserved.

"Yeah, alright," Shadrak began, "Just try not to get too caught up on the details. Magic is always mysterious on some level, after all." That preface laid out, the druid continued, "The vasili are pretty much god like. That's why the Ursians just see them as minor gods, but their powers all come from their spirit springs. The immorality, the control of the elements, things like that. I like to picture them as magical hearts sitting somewhere in their bodies that makes them nearly invincible." Nearly, because Obelisk was clearly proving once and for all that a spirit spring was not the end all be all, if Wrath's example during the Legendary Rebellion hadn't been enough.

"Now, obviously if we could make spirit springs for ourselves, we could take the fallen easily, numbers aren't going to help them against that kind of power. You could say that's a step too far since we only need 'so much power' to beat them, but spirit springs, as far as I know, don't have any set rules to them. It's just a hunch right now, but if we want some powers and not others, that's probably doable."

"Yeah, there's the Shaddy I know. This doom and gloom really doesn't suit you. You should try to be more cheerful." Her little criticism of his attitude aside, she tried her best to listen, again. It was a bit hard to grasp, but the magical heart thing sort of made sense...

"So, like... Is that why Nyx is so strong? And it's like, a... Just a powerup to every aspect of the person, huh..." She still remembered some of the other things said at the meeting, but wanted to wait until he was finished to bring them up.

"So... How does someone make one? Is it emblem stuff? 'Cause, I don't think the boat's bleeding heart is going to let anyone near that thing long enough to glean anything from it..." That was another problem, if they even did go along with his ideas.

Shadrak groaned quietly. "I'll be cheerful when we do something smart and not back down out of a misguided sense of caution ... but yeah, that's why Nyx and Obelisk are as powerful as they are."

As for the question of making spirit springs, that was a question Shadrak didn't have a solid answer for, though he knew the beginnings of one. " We have to gather a lot of the emblem's energy into the person who gets the spirit spring to start. I don't know the exact details just yet, but we've got ways of finding out. After all, I learned what I know about spirit springs from a vasilus that was trying to make a new one for himself after Obelisk took his. More importantly, he was trying to use Raquel's emblem piece to do it. Since he's spent more time with the emblem than anyone else we know of--thousands of years, mind you, he probably had every reason to think it was possible, so I do, too. What we need are either details, or a way to coax the emblem into just taking care of the complicated part. I'd prefer the details, myself, but given how quickly this mission could go south on us, I'm not terribly picky."

"You don't need a reason to be somewhat chipper... Do you? I'm sure you'll be more of a hit with the ladies if you brighten up a bit..." Not that he'd listen to her, but she wanted to say it anyway. She really did think he could do with laying back a bit, but... He seemed to be all serious, all the time.

"So it comes down to the emblem again, huh... You don't think they're gonna be extra cautious around you, with how much you keep talking about this?" And she wanted to ask her question now, the big one for her. "Also... What was that about having to serve a God?" It was a huge hangup, mostly because being the amusing plaything for some greater being didn't sound at all fun.

"Was that just worry, or is it something that could actually happen?"

"You'd think that was all some people cared about," Shadrak countered the ladies comment, his tone still irritable, but also restrained for the sake of the greater discussion.

The druid had to at least grant her one point, Shadrak had made himself too big of a security risk in the eyes of the avians. There was no coming back from that. Not responding to the point right away, he instead let the problem stew for a bit, occasionally turning it over in his head while taking in other questions.

"Serving a god? Oh right. That," Shadrak rolled his eyes, "I still stand by my point that the gods can tell us to do whatever they want, but whether or not we do that is still up to us." He supposed giving the same answer as last time, however concise, wouldn't be enough to put Eva's fears to rest. The druid doubted any guarantee could effectively do that. Still, it was worth trying to expound on his own perspective ...

"Okay let's look at some examples," Shadrak said, indicating his index finger, "Obelisk. What's happened to him so far? His armies were beaten back during the rebellion, and then Wrath beat him. Did he die? No. Did he lose his power? Doesn't look like it. From this alone we can conclude that a worst case scenario for us as vasili is getting our butts tenderized if we step too far out of line." That wasn't something Eva ever seemed too scared of, at least.

"Next," the druid stretched out his middle finger to stand by the first, "Lilith. What's happened to her? History says she rebelled against Wrath and was punished, but there's more to it than that. She directly challenged Wrath. She lost but the important part was that she actually fought him. We found her in Purgatory--I'll explain that place another time--and accidentally woke her up with Raquel's emblem piece. To make a long story short, Wrath placed a curse on her that caused her to sleep for ... well, pretty much all of Ursium's history up to this point. She practically came up swinging, but other than that, she was fine." Now for the tricky part. "From this case, we can conclude that, YES, the gods can punish us if they really want to, but we'd have to be spitting in their faces for that from the look of things."

His perspective on that issue laid bare, Shadrak wrapped things up. "I'm not going to pretend there isn't a risk here and there, but the gods aren't going to kill us, and they're not going to take control of our minds, so the absolute worst case scenario is us waking up in a thousand years after having picked the worst fight imaginable. The gods aren't going to keep the fallen from ripping us limb from limb, so if we're going to be challenging potentially a third of their army, we need some insurance, if nothing else. A few extra healers is not going to cut it."

"It works for me. You think I'd hang around Angelica if she were sour?" Eva retorted by sticking out her tongue, hoping it would sink in, just a tiny bit.

And now it was time for a big lecture on how the gods fit into this... From Shadrak's point of view, they didn't. It was welcome to hear him still clinging onto that, despite the talk that had gone past. So many people, even Eva herself, had jumped on him when the serving gods comment was brought up. If he was still pushing the same thing despite that, then he felt strongly about it, maybe even knew what he was talking about... Maybe. That was the biggest issue for her. It was just a bit maybe. Especially with Obelisk.

"One example isn't really a good basis for a theory, is it?" Next was Lilith, apparently... Raquel's group was definitely traveled. And Purgatory? What even... Never mind. Story for another time, as Shadrak said. But, that did mean he had more than one example to back up this theory of his. Being cursed to sleep for one thousand years sounded mind breaking, but if you were asleep, you wouldn't feel it until you woke up, would you? It was a scary thought... Still. If she'd challenged a god and lived, despite things, then... Well, as long as Eva never did that, theoretically she'd be fine, right?

She had a rather quizzical look on her face, but things were starting to make sense. "...Okay. If... If we find out more about the Emblem, or somehow get another piece... Then, I'll back you up. It'll be tough to change everyone else's minds, but... Well, if you think nothing bad's going to come of it, and you think we can get rid of them after-- I remember you said that... Then there's no point to keep going with that fear holding me back, is there?" She smiled gently, patting him just as gently on the shoulder, as she sat up.

"Woo... This is a really heavy topic, isn't it? But I hope you feel a bit better... And I'm sorry. If you're my friend, I should be better at listening, huh?"

Shadrak personally would have preferred a more sour Angelica, at least the all business version that immediately sprang to mind. Fortunately Eva seemed to understand the druid's points much better without all the flying speculation and general uneasiness. It took both of his examples, but she seemed to come around in the end, even to Shadrak's own surprise.

Shadrak nodded at the reminder of what he'd said. "It's definitely possible. Obelisk's proved that much, already, along with some other things," he said, alluding to the fact that the vasili that lost their spirit springs, Hypnos and Aisha, were still alive. With that knowledge, any concerns beyond the technical difficulties involved in forging and wielding the types of spirit springs was simply fear of the unknown. Now if only he could show the others that, too.

With a sigh of relief, Shadrak said, "Thank you. For listening. Well not just that, but also for agreeing to help once we've got access to a different emblem piece." That would certainly be a challenge ... "You're better at listening than most around here, Eva," Shadrak's brow furrowed as Norbert and Liam came to mind, "I think you just ... have trouble following along during an actual debate," he continued thoughtfully. "Plus, I've got to try to explain myself while also dealing with people who completely disagree, and that makes it hard to package everything neatly so that just anyone gets it."

"I think you do a good enough job, you're just arguing with Avians... And while some might be more reasonable, Joanna... She's strict in her ways. Probably more stubborn than Bert, and not someone you'll be convincing easily. Thanks, though. Doesn't help that I'm trying to pay attention to a bunch of point in Common. I probably sound pretty good at it, but it does get lost in translation, sometimes... <Ever thought about learning Neviskotian?>" She joked, but didn't say further, lest she leave him wondering what she was talking about.

"But, you are feeling better, right? I won't feel good about teasing you if you're still doom and gloom, after this. See about talking to some others too, okay? I can't imagine I'm the only person that manages to get along with you." She stood up and gave herself a moment of stretching, yawning somewhat. "But, geez... Sure sucks being stuck on a boat for a week. Dry land can't come sooner..."

Shadrak didn't have a firm enough grasp of Neviskotian to feel confident explaining much, though he supposed that was the point of learning. Still, it'd be a long while before he was saying anything eye opening or profound, and longer still before any fluent speakers weren't taking the same kinds of swings at him that his more ornery allies did during the usual debates.

All things considered, Shadrak supposed he was feeling somewhat better. Having someone listen first, without putting too much concern behind who the messenger was, nothing if not refreshing. The druid had reservations about pushing his luck and trying to convince anyone else just yet. Now just talking with them? Maybe, though Shadrak didn't see the need at the moment. He wasn't that curious about anyone in the group anymore, mainly. If he were, that would at least be a reason.

Since Eva gave him something else to reply to, instead of the other two subjects he'd rather not, Shadrak said, "Get used to it. We do this more often than you'd think. It's only been a couple of months since all of this started and I've been on four ships besides this one, if I remember right."

"Ugh, more boats? No more boats. I like walking and flying... And Sasha's way too tired after this mess to give me the chance to fly. Not to mention that might be dangerous... Ahhh, whatever~ Just a bit longer. Thanks for the talk, Shad. Don't be a stranger, okay? I know I'm... Pretty stupid. But, you still put up with it. It's nice to have friends." With another, more gentle, pat on his back, Eva started to walk off with another yawn, probably going to sleep some of the trip off.

 

Too Much Time Alone in Your Head

 

Too much to think about... Too much to worry about. Eva had laid down in the cabin they'd gotten, sighing, and rolling to face the wall. She wanted to be able to stop thinking, to just go back to laughing and acting stupid, but everything... Haythem, Amon, this adventure, the Emblem... Angelica. All of them, and that infernal medallion, they'd all made her have to think. And her mind wandered when she thought too much...

What to do, what to do? Eva was acting... strange. It had begun about as expected, she had been riled up after the whole business with Amon and the sailors. That was fine, she had taken a bit to calm down, had chosen to sleep in a hammock for one night, and then accepted her invitation to share a room after she had aired her anger out overnight. She had calmed down, everything seemed alright, and then it became odd. Rather than going back to her boisterous self, Eva went from angry to downtrodden, which was certainly not something that Angelica had come to expect of her. In the morning, she had made an attempt to cheer up the girl, some flirting, light teasing... she had seemed to enjoy the levity of it all, but soon afterwards, the rider was back to sulking, at the time where Angelica had re-entered their shared room, the rider was staring at the wall without a peep, or any apparent movement at all.

"Alright Eva, this has gone on long enough. What's gotten into you, lately?" Angelica asked, walking over to the bed with a sigh, and gently shaking the Neviskotian's shoulder.

Oh... She's back. Ahh... I don't wanna talk to her, right now. I don't want her to have to deal with this. Eva shrugged off her hand, trying not to talk, but knowing that wouldn't go over well enough. "Just... Need time to think. Or to stop thinking. That's all..."

"Don't give me that crap, Eva. You're not acting like yourself." Angelica replied with a scowl, sitting down at the edge of the bed with a light plop.

"So out with it, already."

"I know, I'm... Ugh..." Angelica wasn't going to just let her sit this away. Of course not. She slowly sat up as Angelica plopped, glancing over at her. "I just... I feel small. What if I'd chosen to say with Sasha? And I was the one Amon was watching die... Or, being faced with that decision... And I, I got so mad at him, over something he didn't have a say in. He just wanted his friend to live. And... And then, hah."

She shook her head, placing a hand on her face. "And then I think, what if you're next? What will I be able to do if this gets beyond Amon, and this Aisha whoever the fuck starts taking people she thinks are strong? It's terrifying... And I end up thinking too much. Can't stop it..."

"We are small in the big picture, Eva. It's just something you've got to learn to accept, I suppose." Angelica began, listening to Eva's worries, before reaching over and giving the rider a light pat on the head, gently petting her hair.

"All we can do is to try and survive the best we can, as always. You saw Amon when we was trying to figure this all out to explain... he didn't claim Haythem because he wanted to, he had no other choice but to see him die. And when he did it, he had no idea what that would eventually entail. From what I understand, Aisha only gains control after Amon has claimed something for Sanctuary, she doesn't seem to be able to directly force him to use his power." The mage continued, her brow wrinkling a bit. The Emblem was so unorthodox compared to most magic, it was difficult to say with certainty exactly how things might unfold.

"I don't think Amon is going to suddenly start sucking people into his golden vault out of nowhere. And it's not like it would be particularly difficult to notice if he does. You can't let that possibility rule over your life from now on." Angelica concluded, her own thoughts still wandering about.

'So the Emblem wants us to become wielders, huh? Then... give me the power to protect her, to keep her safe. You can do that, right?'

"And what if he starts-- H-Hey..." She closed an eye under the patting, sighing. "What if he loses control? This is the Emblem. It can do whatever it wants... I this Aisha woman is strong enough, she could just take hold of him, couldn't she? And then start grabbing all of us... And I don't... That's too scary to think of. I wish I just could stop thinking! Stupid brain won't shut up... It... Ugh. It does this sometimes."

She laid back down, staring at the ceiling. "...Tell me about yourself." She gulped. A dangerous subject. "Please..."

"If that happens, there isn't much we can do about it, as we are now. Amon said the Emblem was looking for wielders, right? If we become them, then maybe we can avoid something like that. Dwelling on it does nothing... just do what you can to keep yourself going." Angelica replied, continuing to gently pet Eva's hair... despite her light protests, she wasn't actively trying to stop her, so it seemed just they were just a token effort. Of course, that was when the more... awkward suggestion came up.

"If it'll help you calm down, then I suppose I can do that. What do you want to know?"

"I guess... Wh-- seriously? ... Seriously seriously?" The last time she'd tried to push into this, Angelica had nearly snapped at her. "Are you sure? I... I guess... I just wanna know more about you. I don't, really know anything. And here I am following you and you all out to Kigen, and who else knows where. So... Just, tell me about you. I want to know what's behind the mask." Touchy wording, but... Maybe it works.

"We'll still be on this boat by the time it gets to Kigen and sails back to Ursium if we take that approach. You're gonna have to be more specific, Eva." Angelica replied with a sigh, as she stopped petting Eva for a few moments to flick her on the forehead, before her hand moved to reconvene with the Neviskotian's hair.

"Ahh... Maybe... But... I wanna know all of that-- ow... Stop that." She huffed, almost grumbling at the continued petting. What am I, a dog? Is this supposed to be affectionate? We're such a weird species... "Then... Tell me about how you ended up here. With Amon and everyone. We'll start there... And I'll give you more time to work further back. I know that's... Not stuff you probably want to remember."

"Fine, fine." Angelica replied, withdrawing her hand, as it seemed that Eva was no longer in need of the gentle re-assurance. Thinking back to how it all began, Angelica began to recount what she could remember.

"Pretty simple, really. Greta had been left behind by a merchant caravan in Urden, and was looking to hire some guards to travel with her, safety from bandits and all that. Me, Jam, and a few others ended up going with them... things went relatively smoothly until we came across Amon and his group in a mountain pass... along with Schwartz. Yes, I do mean that Schwartz... he had set up an ambush for Ursians travelling through the gorge, and we were the ones to get caught in it. There were... several casualties, but one of the mages managed to put enough of a hurt on him that we got away. Amon and his pals knew Raquel, and we met them in Europa... you know the rest." Angelica replied, lying back on the mattress with a sigh.

"No not that, I... The flicking... I... I don't mind your obsession with my hair. Even if I don't fully get it." She didn't want to blush and invite Angelica any further, but she was getting pretty close to it...

"I suppose that does sound... Wait, seriously? The fuck did you do to get yourself tangled up with a shadow dragon...?" Trouble really does wind up finding them at every turn, doesn't it... "I'm surprised you all managed to survive that. Then again, I guess we just got away from a dragon... And don't remind me about Europa and... Not gonna bother bringing him up. Never took myself as the jealous type..."

"Then... How far before that are you willing to go, right now? It's nice to hear you talk about yourself for once, and not my body..." She snickered, smiling a bit. I guess I just needed to talk some... Even if I go back to thinking about things later.

"We happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, is what we did. I don't have anything against Neviskotians, as should be obvious, but that guy is 100% pure, concentrated asshole." Angelica replied with a scowl, before breaking into a light smirk at Eva's recollection.

"Oh come on, you can't expect me to not take the chance to go on a date with the Prince, can you? We hadn't even met at that point." Angelica continued, thinking about Eva's next question.

"Like I said, I'm not giving my life story, we'd be here forever. Ask me what you want to know, and I'll answer if I'm comfortable doing so."

Eva sighed. "... Do you still like him?" Can't let anything go, can you...

"I think he's a bit uptight, and set in his ways, but if he's willing to put the past behind him, I'd still be friends with the guy. As for liking him, it was a passing interest at best, so you don't need to worry about him stealing my heart back, or any of that crud." Angelica replied flatly, without any hesitation.

"Sorry," Eva muttered, leaving it at that. Angelica's curt reply made Eva wonder if it bothered her to get asked.

"Then... How did you learn magic?" That was a good way to go, right? That... Couldn't have been covered in bad memories... Right?

"It's fine." Angelica replied, as Eva asked another question. Her magic, huh? Well, that was simple enough.

"Not much of a story to that one, really. When I was young, I had a couple of mages around me and some tomes. Turns out I had a bit of potential, so I started to study and train under them... it was all hard work from there."

"Wow... That basic? Huh. I'd make a crack about how I could learn magic too, but I don't think I'd have the application for it..."

There was only one real question yet, but Eva wasn't sure Angelica was ready to answer it. Now, if at all. "...How did you, become... You? Angelica, the knife tossing, beautiful assassin... Where did that start? And no jokes about 'mom and dad loving each other'."

Well, it was bound to come out eventually. Letting out a gentle sigh, Angelica turned to look at Eva directly.

"Are you sure you want to know? It's not pretty."

"I... I don't know. Do I? I-I'm curious, but I don't know how bad this gets... And... if it's too much to think through then... You don't have to. You told me a lot... So it's your choice." Hoo... Getting cold feet...

"Well, it all started with a mommy and daddy who loved each other very not at all. My father was a brigand warlord, and mom was one of his slaves. Great start, huh?" Angelica replied, a dry laugh escaping her lips to accompany the empty smirk on her face.

"She died in childbirth, and I was kept in a pen lined with straw, given just enough attention that I didn't bite it. Like any other kid he had sired, my only worth was to be of use to his conquest, or instead to be of use... servicing his men. I was maybe... five, six years old when I tried the latter, something like that. The early years kind of mix together, nothing is distinct anymore... Didn't seem like my kinda thing at the time, you know?" Angelica continued, shaking her head with a sigh.

"So I learned to kill. He took on a lot of rival bandit clans, land expansion and all that. We were on the border of Ursium and Neviskotia, so whichever clan controlled the convenient crossing points got to pillage the most caravans, get the most cash, the most slaves. You'd be surprised how many bandits would pause their axes in the face of a little girl barely dressed in tattered rags, whether it was worry, pity, or want of a new slave, I couldn't say, but... they let me loose long enough to jam a knife through their throats." Angelica paused for a moment, sitting up again, rapping her fingers against the headboard of the bed.

"After a while, I actually became his favourite little project. I caught on the quickest of all the unwanted kids... something about killing just clicked with me, more than the others. They pulled me aside, taught me how to use a gun. The first time I shot a warlord through the eye, he had one of his men steal me a doll... first toy I'd ever been allowed to touch. Daddy's little Angel of Death... it always sounded foul in my head, but it was the closest thing I'd ever had to a name." Angelica concluded, her expression having grown uncharacteristically sour as she spoke.

"Whoa, hey..." Eva propped herself up on an arm to better look at her, shaking her head a bit. "You really don't have to, if..." If she didn't want to, she'd have stopped by now. Do I want to hear this? I don't know what sort of reaction she wants.

It wasn't going to be a happy one, at this rate. It didn't get better as the story went along, Eva opening her mouth to try and stop her at specific points, but never having the words. Not your kind of thing... That's horrible. That's disgusting, that's...

Eva's face had rolled into a bit of a grimace as Angelica got to talk about killing. Little girl unassuming her way into group to kill them all. She didn't have the words for something like that. She didn't have words for anything like this. And Angelica seemed like a prideful sort, would an apology just sound empty? Would feeling sorry for her matter...

"I..." Eva reached out to touch her arm, stopping herself. "You don't have to say anymore. I can... I can piece the rest together. I'm s... Sorry. For making you tell me..." She looked down at the bed as she let her hand fall, not knowing what else to say. Angelica looked... Hurt. It was new, and... Eva didn't know what way to help with it.

"It's fine. Your past isn't something you can hide from, and if we want this to work, I would have had to tell you eventually." Angelica replied as Eva stopped her, shrugging a bit at Eva's apology. Reaching out and giving the Neviskotian's fallen hand a light squeeze, she let her fingers intertwine with Eva's.

You're not gonna cry... Come on, Eva... You... Y-Yeah, you are... She sniffled a bit, hoping they didn't roll down her face. A gentle flinch followed the hold, not stopping her. "How do you deal with th-that?" she managed to look up at her, "how do you... I dunno. I think of something like that... And I look at my life, and how normal it was. I don't think you'll ever want to hear about it, hah... Even if you tell me you'll be fine, it... Just feels unfair."

"Mostly just try not to think about it. I told you earlier, didn't I? What good will it do to dwell on things we have no control over... unlike most of the other kids, I survived. I'm still here... that has to mean something, doesn't it?" Angelica replied, laying back down on the bed, still lazily holding Eva's hand.

"It does... And you're right. It doesn't do any good... Even if we can't stop it sometimes. Brains are stupid, huh?" She smirked, squeezing Angelica's hand tight. "For what it's worth, I'm glad you're still around. Means a lot to me... Stuck on this boat, surrounded by all these crazy people, and this unexplainable magic. You're the most normal thing in my life, right now..."

"Well... Next to Sasha. But he's been around me since I was a kid. Hardly a fair comparison, huh?" She tried to chuckle a bit, hoping it would lift the mood... She didn't have anything else she could try to raise it with.

"On the other hand, if it weren't for me, you probably wouldn't be on this boat, but I digress." Angelica replied with a smirk, turning Eva's hand around and gently tracing on her palm with a restless finger.

"But to call me the close to the most normal thing in your life, that just won't do. It seems I'll have to get a bit more... exotic, with you." Angelica concluded, flashing Eva a sly grin.

"Probably... And hey, come on. You really are... When it comes down to it, you're just a magically adept girl with some knives. Sounds pretty normal to me." As for what she was implying... "Now's probably not the best time, after a talk like that... But... I don't mind saying, if you just want to be together for a while." She gently wiped her eyes with her free hand, shaking her head some, and laying back down with a sigh.

"I still don't get your obsession with me... But I don't hate it being a thing. Makes me really happy, honestly... Especially that you're still here. I'm not gonna lie, I... I was expecting you to be on someone else after a day. Maybe that's wrong of me."

"Gonna put me through all that and not even let me have my fun afterwards. Mean." Angelica teased, sticking her tongue out at Eva for a moment, before retracting it.

"Yeah, that's fine. And I don't really understand it either, to be honest. As I'm sure you can understand, I was never really taught about love and all that stuff when I was young. But this seems to be working out, even if it's a bit of a patch job right now, and I'm happy for it."

"I don't get that stuff either, really... I grew up smashing metal with a hammer and getting put on wyverns. Didn't have a group of people to call my own until now... But..."

"Come on, y-you don't feel at least a little bit awkward thinking about that? After all that talk... I, I mean if you don't, go ahead, but..." Eva was only holding Angelica back for her own sake, but if she could bounce back that quickly then...

"I suppose... though at this point I don't really end up awkward. Been through and seen too much to really get that way." Angelica replied with a shrug.

"But it can wait until later. I know you skipped breakfast in your sulking, wanna go eat something?"

"I-I see... And sure, I suppose. You've gotta stop watching me less, hah. It's like you know everything I'm up to. Almost creepy. Almost~" Angelica wouldn't let the mood get worse, there was that much. Food would probably do her spirits good...

Edited by SnakeMomMelissa
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Thales had worked the morning packing his things and making sure his provisions were in the group's wagon. Everything pointed that they were dropping at the docks soon, so the boy had made sure he didn't forget a thing. Not that there was much he'd brought, most of his other belongings had remained in an small Urquium inn stretching his arms out as he walked up to the deck. Finally, we're getting close to the port, I can't wai-- "Gah!" A surprise force from behind had all but pushed him to the deck's floor, bringing his hands to absorb the drop and push him back over a few grunts. "Gh, Haruhi? <Why?>" He pouted, "<I can see. Land, yes.>" He'd forced himself standing rather quickly, taking a small huff of exertion. It could be worse, at least Haruhi was pretty light. "<Back home for you?>" A bit curious, he dropped the question with a deep exhale.

...Was she just going to hang on him? "<You are more tall...>" He tried to point it out in a whisper.

Sea breeze, Night Sky, and unruly kids

Spoiler

--Night after the meeting--

Thankfully, things were considerably calmer after that meeting was over with, at least relatively. Some much needed time to reflect what Thales had gotten himself into was overdue, and honestly, with how the boat was still a stranger's place to him, it was hard for Thales to ponder to himself.

At that point in time, thankfully, it stopped being as much of a bother. Most people seemed to be concerned about their own duties or what was next after they stopped by Kigen. It gave Thales time to search a cozy enough spot to stare at the starry sky by his own on the upper deck. If anything, it sure was cathartic to watch time slowly pass like this.

A continuous few splashes nearby caught his attention. What kind of fish bothered to swim near the surface and near a ship? He looked down, squinting.

Wait, that wasn't a fish, not at all! In fact, they were already halfway climbing up to the ship's edge... that was a girl?

"H-hey!" He leaned on the edge, observing her with open confusion. "What are you doing? ...Who are you?" Speaking in plain common, Thales didn't recognize this girl at all, but... she had to be from one of the two boats.There's no way she's swimming from somewhere else, that'd be incredibly unlikely.

"<Ahh, good. Good thing Canaan is a good swimmer... That would've been an awkward trip otherwise. Still got a bit soaked, but whatever.>" Haruhi hopped up onto the deck and grabbed at the edge of her robes, squeezing some of the water out... And of course, unfortunately, someone spotted her. Not a big deal, but it was a... Man? This person was a man, right? <D-Definitely...> It was lamp lit on the boat, so she couldn't tell perfectly... But their voice sounded it.

Double unfortunately, they were speaking common. She grumbled a bit, staring down to try and figure out what they'd asked. <How does that word work... It's asking who I am, right?> "Uh... Me... Haruhi. You... Er..." <Fuck, Common sucks.> "<Do you speak Kigenese...?>" That'd make life a lot easier.

If the strong accent wasn't a giveaway, the name certainly was. Either way, there it was that Kigenese girl that just... swam somehow into their ship, and Thales couldn't begin to guess why. With her obvious rough grasp on Common, it seemed like the conversation was going to favor Kigenese... which Thales himself had a poor grasp of, but still better than only his name. The Kigenese frontier wasn't too far from where he 'worked', so he knew a thing or two about how to speak with a Kigenese merchant. Thing is this was fairly different...

"Thales." He spoke up, pointing to himself. "<Can, small bit.>" He cringed slightly, embarrassed at his own level of speech. "<W-Why, why are you here?>" There, he knew how to string that sentence together...

<What did he call himself?> "Teyrusu?" She tried to repeat his name, but it didn't come out well at all. Immediately frustrated with it, she decided not to try again. His Kigenese was bad, but it was better than her common, in comparison, so Kigenese it was. "<I came over from the other boat. Got bored sitting around and I wanted to see who else was here. Why are you here?>"

Why not pose his question back at him? That would provide a bit of fun. She stepped a bit closer, scrutinizing him, slowly walking around him with her hands behind her back. <Nice pendant...>

"Tey--" Thales had to hold back a snicker as he realized what she was trying to say. "<No, no.> Tha-les. Tha." It didn't bother him much, but it'd be nice for her to get at least that right. Names aren't language dependant!

Now, piecing back Kigenese thrown at him wasn't easy, but he could cheat a bit. She mentioned boat, she probably meant as an answer, so she must have come from the other boat. As for her reasons...

"Uh, what? <Why... me?>" She threw the question back at him, for whatever reason, and that did throw him for a bit. How do I... I guess I count as a mercenary. Right. "<Hired, with people. Taking boat to Kigen.>" Why was she circling him now? He tried to follow her with his eyes. "<Going... to Kigen too?>"

"Teyruse." She tried again, deciding that it was too much trouble to get right, and settling on it. "<Going to Kigen, huh? What for? I am, but why are you?>" Pressing him was more fun than getting pressed, he didn't seem all that sure of himself. Maybe he was a stowaway~ Hired, huh... "<Who hired you?>" Another one, bam! Get him when he's down.

"<And who gave you such a silly name? Mine's way better.>"

Thales sighed, that second attempt to spell his name was somehow even more off the mark. It's not a hard 'Tha'... It was something he'd have to teach her later... 

The way she kept pushing question after question was off-putting, especially with the language barrier. "O-one, a time." He frowned, trying to figure out what to just tell her, these were good questions...

Who was it that hired him, formally? That day was just a mess, overall. "<Uh, others told me job, I followed. A group, people on two boats. Guy named Amon... leader, kinda." That was way too hard to word in Kigenese. Hopefully she didn't mind the awkward silence. "<Name just fine.>" He objected, brushing her off, taking the chance to call her out. "<Did not tell why are going.>" It was starting to get bothersome...

"<Hmmm. Alright, Teyruse. Who's Amon, then? Sounds like you got yourself an interesting little gig here.>" Was he starting to get annoyed? Well, it was late, and she was tired. She couldn't help but have a little bit of fun with him. "<Me? Hmmm... Should I tell you?>" She leaned back against the nearby wooden wall, looking up at the sky.

"<Gimme a reason.>" All smiles.

Another good question... "<He... Rexian, shiny eye-->" Thales cut himself short as Haruhi seemed fine with this being a one-way information gate. "<Hey, told you all that, why not?>" He crossed his arms. "<Owe something back. No hiding.>" She'd better speak up!

She stifled a snicker, smiling wider. "<And why do I owe you anything? We didn't agree beforehand. I'm just a mystery girl from the other ship and your lips are easy to open up. Your name is still weird, by the way~>"

"I--Ugh..." Honestly, Thales had no reason to tell her all that. She had a point... even if she warranted a spot in the bitch list: population one now. "<Lips sealed.>" He challenged her, sticking out his tongue. "<Name just fine... your name is weird. Haruri.>" He turned his face away, pouting.

"<Hahaha~ And nice try, Teyruse. I know enough of Common to know you can make an H noise... You made it at the start of my name, you nerd. You're just trying to get back at me. Come on... You can't be that silly~>"

She sighed, feeling as though she'd pressed enough. "<Alright. I'm studying dark magic. There's another mage on the other ship, her name's Hoshi. She agreed to help me learn some stuff... So as much as I'd like to not be there, if I get this, then it's worth it. I hope.>" She shook her head a bit, looking back over at him. "You, happy? <Fair trade now?>" A stuck out tongue complimented her asking well enough.

"I--Hmph!" There she was, trying to play smart at him. You're doing it on purpose now, aren't you? "Whatever you say..." Before he'd make a comeback or walk away, Haruhi decided to be compliant for once, giving out why she was here. It'd still take him a bit to get used to her speech pattern, but it seemed she was a mage... following some star person? Wait, that was the person's name.

He knew there were others from the group on the other boat, so maybe that was one of them... and this girl by association. "<Okay... Fair trade.>" Before any brief moment where Thales would assume he had to calm down, Haruhi stuck her tongue out, provoking another huff out of the boy. How childish! (never mind his own first, that was totally justified) "<Yes, yes... so, just looking ship?>"

She was definitely doing this on purpose. He just kept giving her good reactions and he wasn't getting upset at her, so why not? Well not visibly, or verbally. He was probably really annoyed, on the inside.

"<Yeah. I wanted to see who was around. Then again, it's really late, so I'm probably just here to sneak about and fall asleep... Where'd you get your pendant? It's really pretty.>" She'd been eyeing it since she got onto the boat, wondering if it meant anything to him.

"<Bit late,>" He shook his head, "<people below, most.>" He did raise an eyebrow at her wording, and the sudden change of topic. "<Why sneak about? Just ship... not much to see.>" He shrugged.

"<Pendant... old gift.>" He contemplated, grasping the small, teardrop blue gem. "<Family thing, mother side, she passed down.>" It was a nice memory, and the small nostalgic value it held helped Thales feel safe. He had little left, but he could at least count on memories of easier days.

Plus, it was pretty.

"<And you? From Kigen, but come Ursium. Just travel?>" It was enough talking about himself, especially with how this girl tended to stir him on. He spoke (very slightly) about his upbringing, so surely she'd do the same.

"<Why not?>" She shrugged and smirked at his questioning sneaking, it was just better to not draw attention to yourself later at night, no? Not that she was doing that now, but she couldn't have easily avoided knowing anyone was up and about before hopping on.

"<An old gift, from mom, huh... Is she still alive?>" Having a mom to remember like that, it was probably happy memories if he wore it so close to himself. Her expression soured only slightly, as she tried to hide it.

"<You answer mom question first. Then I'll talk about myself more. Otherwise, I'll go pester someone else.>"

Wha... that was a sudden shift, as she pushed her own question. She was pushy before, but she seemed clearly uncomfortable about it. Even talking about pestering someone else. I guess she has her own problems there.

"<Died. Sickness, long time.>" He responded, not too uncomfortable about it. It was a downer when it happened, but with the conscience that she passed away peacefully, it was just one of these things Thales felt one should come to terms with. "<Father, still alive.>" He preempted another possible question, waving with hand. "<Not, see in long time.>"

"<So... 'Fair trade'?>" Thales smirked, as if throwing the saying back at her would make him look smart. Naturally, she could still just scram and pester somebody off after that, which would suck...

"<I see... At least you can remember her fondly. Sounds like your dad isn't as nice a case. Do you always tell girls your life story, or am I a special case?>" she prodded, jumping to a different question right away.

"<Yeah. Fair trade. Too bad I'm not as interesting. I'm just traveling. Tried to get to across the sea to Ursium but ran into that Hoshi woman. Seemed like a more exciting prospect than traveling with no aim.>" Leaving out the part of running away from home, of course.

"<Not life story.>" He stuck his tongue out, "<Tell who I want. Why?>" The way she was snarky in her questions was starting to get tiresome for him. Honestly, who taught her manners...

It was clear he wasn't getting a good story back either. Who gets bothered like that by a question and then says there's nothing interesting about it? Still, it'd be smart to not press it too much. "<Might, be good to stay in ship.>" He warned, "<Group... not safe. Just to know.>" After that meeting, he was convinced things were only going to get more and more ridiculous, and if this girl was tangentially related to them, she'd probably have no idea of what they would be getting themselves into.

"<Because it seems like something weird to open up to a stranger about. I wouldn't give anyone that much for free.>" She shook her head and scoffed quietly, wondering if there was more she could pry out of him.

"<Whatever these people run into, it's safer than being alone in Kigen... As a woman. Not sure how much you know, but you'll see, if we're going to be staying there for a while. Any examples for me, if you're so sure they aren't? I saw the battle today, it can't get worse, can it?>"

"<Hmm...>" There wasn't much he could say to that. To him, it was sort of a distant memory, so giving it away wasn't that much of a bother. Perhaps there were people who could make use of it to take advantage of him, but he doubted as much. "<Going to Kigen, not care.>" If they were in the central part of Ursium, Thales would be more considering of sharing his story...

"<Why? Lone woman is bad?>" Thales had no idea of the customs in Kigen, he'd give her that much. Sure, a woman traveling on her own didn't seem like the safest decision in general, even he was desperate to find some sort of help in his previous situation. How bad could it really be in Kigen, though? "<I don't know. Don't know if can get worse, is why.>" He sighed, placing his hands on his hips. Some of the things he heard... didn't sound promising. "<Is serious.>"

"<Hmmm~>" Then she could probably pry more out of him in the future. Good to keep note of. "<Yes. It's really bad. I wouldn't be going back if I didn't have a group to go back with. Maybe you'll see why, hopefully you don't... It'd be better for you.>"

And he didn't know if things could get worse. How unfortunate. She wanted to know how worse it could be than this sort of thing. "<What else can you tell me then, Teyruse? You seem like you don't really wanna tell me much...>"

"<Huh? Wha?>" Thales pouted again at her last comment. "<First say I tell life story. What is it?>" He scoffed, shaking his head. "<Long as in group, should be fine. Yes?>" He retorted, surely it'd be fine with their setup. How bad could Kigen be, anyways? 

"<What you mean, 'what else'?>" He shrugged, "<Ask, maybe will answer.>" If she wasn't plotting against them, he wouldn't worry about answering what she needed. Even then, it's not like he was the most informed in the group, and most of his knowledge that applied wasn't really kept secret.

"<Well... Is there anyone else from Kigen?>" That was her biggest worry. She didn't have to worry about Hoshi, and hopefully, if she was around, she wouldn't have to worry about anyone else.

"<Huh? From Kigen... No, think not.>" He shook his head, trying to wrap his brain at the question, all the while trying to remember if somebody looked or had an accent like a Kigenese."<That bad?>" He asked, referring to her reluctance about Kigen. So bad that it demanded her to know if she was traveling with Kigenese was definitely something to get him curious. "<Why so bad for Kigen woman?>"

Haruhi stopped to wonder for a moment. Should she explain it to him? Or just the short version... Just the short version. "<In Kigen, men lead. Women cook, clean, listen to what they're told, and are married off. I have trouble around Kigenese men, so I wanted to know... But since Hoshi is here, there probably aren't any. And if the men around here are like you, then I won't have problems.>"

"<Does that answer your question? Or do you need more.>" She hoped he didn't.

In Kigen, men led... that didn't sound so alien, if perhaps the take on women a bit as in more conservative, old-fashioned households. From her reluctancy to deal with a Kigenese man, perhaps it meant things were more extreme there? At least, it sounded that way from her words. "<Kigen men a problem?>" It really intrigued him. "<Even stranger?>" Why would she be allowed to hear a stern talking or some such from any random man? That sounded dumb.

The way she worded one thing did get to him. "<Men like me...? What that mean?>" Who says that?

"<Not gonna talk about it anymore. Other questions. And yeah, guys like you. Girly pushovers. You're my favorite kind.>" She stuck her tongue out at him, half joking... But that ponytail, was pretty long. And he was almost what she would consider pretty. <I wonder if that'll bother him...>

Well, she really didn't want to speak of the matter. Probably some dirty past... the question was how bad it was exactly, but that would be answered when they got to Kigen, any-- "W-what did you...?" One of these words was new, but he was already discontent when trying to piece things together. "<Girly? Girly p-uuh... push... that. What that mean?>" He huffed.

"Mean, I get what want, of you. Easy. <And girly. You don't look very masculine to me...>" Maybe she was wrong and he had some nice, hidden muscles, but from how he looked in the boat's night lights, it wasn't anything amazing.

"Hmph!" Thales pouted, there she went again. "<Just say thing because, not enemy. Why hide?>" He sighed, something about the way Haruhi worded it bothered him. Hopefully not all Kigenese women were like this... "Hmph... <Know, am not... very 'masculine'. Not matter, look good and get job done.>" Thales knew very well he was not the standard... but he took a weird pride about it, in his own logic. Sometimes, he enjoyed the attention and compliments, and he was still 'manly' enough to hold his own! "<Why, jealous?>" He held the most cocky smirk at that. Perhaps undeserved.

...Most likely.

"<Pfft. No. Hahh...>" She had to stifle a hard laugh as he tried to act like she was jealous, cocky smirk and all... Alright, she didn't hold it, she just made it quieter, down to a chuckle, as she slowly clutched at her stomach. "<Oh, oh no, please... D-Don't make me, llllaugh, like that... Heheeee~>"

The smirk was gone in an instant, Thales placing his hands on his hips, a frown emerging. "<Not, jo...> whatever." He sighed. The situation only got more frustrating with this girl, honestly... "<S-stop laughing...>" He tried to command. What was this girl's deal, anyways? "<Not, many Ursian like me, but not push... that word.>" He was adamant about that, at least.

"Aaaahaha~ So, funny..." She coughed to calm her laughing down, shaking her head. "<I don't know what prompted you to say something like that, but it was hilarious, Teyruse. You're a pretty funny guy, even if it's not on purpose. Thanks for the talk. Any more questions before I go make someone else upset?>" She stuck her tongue out at him again, snickering once more. <Ahhh... It was the right idea to come to this boat~ I needed this after today's scary battle.>

"Hhhrrrr...." Some weak guttural sound escaped Thales as Haruhi couldn't even stop herself from laughing. Mustering what was left of his good manners, Thales sighed, dropping his shoulders a dead look. It took some restraint not to try to catch her tongue. "<Sure... what will you do? Just bother men?>" He still wasn't sure what the point was in her sneaking around the boat. It's not like it was exciting, either... it was just a moderate boat. With weird life-saving magic. "<Not bother sailors, care. Sailors... very bad mood.>" Figures there was no point in letting her screw herself with her idea.

"<I told you, I only like bugging girly guys like you. Bothering the sailors would just cause trouble... Am I gonna get in trouble if I keep pressing your buttons?>" She snickered again. "<Why are they so upset? Does it have to do with the boat from earlier?>" She'd seen that thing, though she didn't know where it had gone, now... Did it sink?

"<Maybe, who know?>" Odds are, Thales probably would do little. At the moment, he just wanted to chill watching the night sky. It'd take really pissing him off. Why did I have to notice you... I could've pretended everything was fine... that it was just a mice or something... He tried a little to sound threatening, but he couldn't be bothered. It was just a snarky kigenese girl, for wrath's sake.

"<The boat, uh...>" Now how to best put it... "<Vanished, many fell, in water. Not very happy with.>" He tried to explain. "<Boat can show again, just... only to our side. Magic of sorts." Possibly the best way to put it... possibly.

"<I think I know. I think you're gonna keep dealing with whatever I toss at you. Ohh, this is nice.>" Getting free reign to tease someone was the best feeling, especially now that she wasn't worried about being around these people anymore.

"<Magic, huh... Maybe I can learn something from it. I'm a mage too, even if I'm not very good... So I'll just have to study more.>"

"<Shut up...>" He wasn't about to raise his finger about her for being annoying, but it was increasingly tempting to just leave now. Why are you so... urgh. "<Talk about something else.>" If she could pull this off, he could too.

"<Magic...>" Of course, she was a mage, and she was going to talk about it, Thales rolled his eyes. "<Too many mages. Maybe study how stop others from casting, would help.>" Everywhere he went, he was seeing mages now. It was almost unsettling the caliber of some of the things he saw, and that some mages could just use it to pull pranks... Am I the only one that finds that a problem? I'd rather not get another trim...

"Hmph... <Well, then. Do you wanna see? My magic?>" That was something to talk about. She was pretty confident in at least getting the normal spell right. "<Unless something bad happened to you regarding magic. Something terrible...>" She snickered and pulled her tome out, flipping through a few pages. "<Lllllet's seeeee~>"

"What?" That was bizarre, what part of his statement made him seem curious about her magic... Do you just blatantly decide to go with your own flow...? Sighing, he straightened himself up, raising an eyebrow at her snickering. What are you trying to do...? "<...Fine.>" He placed his hands on his hips, wondering what she was even going to pull. "<What was it... dark? What you do?>"

"<What do I do? I do...>" With a pause for suspense, and some small concentration, Haruhi put her hand out, palm up, and popped out a small concentrated ball of dark magic. Flux was all she could do, but that was fine. "<Ta-da~ Impressed?>"

There was an awkward pause before Haruhi showed her prowess... a sphere. Its size wasn't anything impressing, but it did have a captivating color, easy on the eyes. Still...

"<What... what that do?>" It escaped Thales what was the functionality of something such. Did she throw it at people and it hurt a lot? Maybe its use wasn't combat minded... it was mystifying, really. "<Not mage, is that hard to do?>" He could at least hide his lack of awe behind a veil of magic illiteracy, in case she got offended.

"<It's dark magic... It eats away at things. There was a word in the book for it, but it was pretty complicated, so I don't exactly remember... Anyway!>" She closed her hand and let the thing dissipate, sighing quietly.

"<It's kinda hard for me. I'm just an amateur... But I have a proper teacher now! And I can do this much. So I have a good start for it~ So, impressed? Come on, tell me you're impressed. If this group gets into as much trouble as you say, I'm gonna be a great asset.>"

Thales blinked. Eating away at things? It certainly sounded dangerous, then. Not that it was exactly new for magic to be deadly, but if somebody like her could control that, then it was something. Enough control to make it stop if she needed to, so that was good.

She seemed to be glad about having a tutor, and thought proud of what she already could do. It was convincing enough for Thales, agreeable enough to nod back. "<Sure, if can deal with... Kigen.>" He pointed, some concerns over the reluctance she had before. "<Then should help.>"

She huffed. "<Why'd you have to bring that up...>" Retreating her tome and folding her arms, she leaned back against the cabin and stared up at the sky. It was probably another minute or two before she spoke again.

"<Thanks for talking to me,>" she muttered, not looking over at him.

Thales winced, even he realized how much of a goof that was. Note to self, no talking about Kigen... avoid Kigenese men while with her? Maybe. Sighing, he stood silent by her side, face halfway between a frown and contemplative.

She finally spoke up again, and it seemed like she finally grew some manners, bringing a chuckle out of Thales. Something like that didn't need thanks, though. You're not good at this, huh? "<Not talk much?>" Thales tried to make his words a bit less direct. "<No wrong with talk. Welcome.>" He leaned beside her, looking up to the sky as well. "<Will be safe, with group. Will be fine.>"

She flushed, ever so lightly. "<Not really... I wasn't expected to make friends growing up, I... Was expected to be suitable for marriage. So... I don't talk to people a lot. I'm really annoying, aren't I?>" She shuffled off a bit as he leaned next to her, looking at him and wondering why he thought it was okay to get so close. Sticking her tongue out a bit, she nodded.

"<Probably. Hoshi seems nice... And you somehow managed to put up with me. I guess that's worth something, huh, girly boy?>" She snickered once again, shaking her head. "<It's pretty late, isn't it? But I guess I'm not tired... Any suggestions?>"

"Huh..." Indirectly, Thales felt like he gained some insight into Kigenese customs with how Haruhi explained it. Expected to be suitable for marriage... like a coddled princess waiting for her knight, a predictable play. Considering she wasn't even a royal (not that he knew of... the odds weren't likely either), it wouldn't have been a fulfilling life. It took this long but I think I finally get you better...

Thales couldn't resist snickering at her shuffling away from him, he didn't think it was that bad, but that was a surprisingly cute side to her. "<Don't bite.>" He joked, winking back, expression that quickly gave way to a frown at Haruhi's new nickname for him. Not that he hadn't heard worse than 'girly boy', but it ruined his groove right then! "<Yeah... was just looking stars. Can show you boat, down.>" It was something, at least. "<Not sleep up here, right?>"

"<You might.>" She didn't know what to make of Ursian men... Or Ursians in general. What to expect, how to deal with... It was a bit frustrating. "<If you want to, I can probably find somewhere to sleep. Lead on Teyruse, girly boy.>" She stuck her tongue out at him again, hopping off from the wall.

"<Name not 'Teyruse', not girly boy too.>" The mocking and stuck out tongue drew a pout out of Thales, moving away from the wall with less haste on his step. "Honestly..." A drawn out, exaggerated sigh and a shake of the head later, Thales picked up his pace, leading Haruhi down. "<Follow me~.>" All childish teases aside, his mood was pretty good, as he walked further, he even smirked again. That talk hadn't gone so bad.

Charming Boat Days

Spoiler

--Day after the meeting--

The day after that chaotic mess was considerably better for Thales, having had the time to set up his things on the boat. It was a shame that he wasn't able to go to his rent room in Urquium and tell the innkeeper he was leaving, or get the rest of his clothes...

Eh, the old man will figure out he's gone after that whole 'navy war zone' thing, if he hadn't ran away on his own by now.

Now that just left him hoping there were good enough tailors in Kigen... the local stuff wasn't all his thing as far as he remembered, but then again he hadn't seen all that much of it. Hopefully some Ursian merchant would be at the port they would drop at. And I still gotta make sure my food will be fresh... did we salt it? Traveling on a boat was an exercise in patience when you weren't caught in the middle of an apocalyptic skirmish, as it turned out.

"Hhhwaah~" Thales stretched out his arms behind his back, tired of staring out to the endless sea mindlessly in the upper deck. Now that it was just a matter of getting to Kigen intact, he'd need to find something to do. Or someone to bother. Looking around the immediate vicinity, he was able to spot a familiar blue-haired girl seeming to be out enjoying the sun. How convenient~ "Heeey! Lumi!" Thales waved at her, walking towards the pegasus rider at a reasonably quick pace. "What's up? Good thing that it's windy today, I really shouldn't take all this sun!" He complained, bringing a hand over his forehead. His complexion wasn't that pale at all, but he was still conscious about it. "At least today is calmer, right? I'm glad for that..."

Lumi had been sitting with her knees tucked up against her chest, staring out at the ocean, lost in thought. When Thales approached her and called out her name, she twitched, almost falling over before hastily turning around to face him. "Ah, Thales, hello."

He seemed significantly more upbeat than he had been yesterday, which made sense. No one had been especially happy yesterday what with everything going on. She smiled up at him. "It's nice. I was considering taking Star out for a ride, though I may let him rest. Yesterday was stressful for everyone, including him. It might be nice to just have a relaxing day and not have to do much. I think I was close to falling asleep up here." While that wasn't exactly true, it was close enough. She had been completely lost in thought to the point that she'd been shutting out the rest of the world like she was asleep. And who knew, maybe sitting still for much longer would have led her to falling asleep.

"Yeah, it really is a nice change of pace." Part of him hoped a day so chaotic would be a freak event, but considering the topics thrown in at the meeting, Thales suspected it wasn't going to be uncommon. What killed it was how unprepared the group seemed to be... "Well, it's not nice to fall asleep under the sun on the sea! So it's a good thing I showed up." He smirked, though really, the sparkly blue of the sea only made sunlight worse, sunstrokes were serious things!

"...Yesterday I had trouble sleeping, it's kinda hard to believe it all, when you sit down and think." Thales was referring to the meeting, his tone no longer upbeat, no beating around the bush. "I don't really have expectations for my life right now, so I guess if I'm doing that... I guess it's better than nothing. I'm finally contributing something." He helped himself, sitting down near Lumi, his sight set on the horizon past the boat. For him, it was complicated to say, but he really wanted to see the group to get to their mission. "Say, why did you join this group?" Thales glanced at the pegasus rider.

Lumi couldn't disagree with the trouble sleeping. Perhaps for different reasons, but her night hadn't been overly peaceful either. His next question startled her slightly though for some reason she couldn't quite place. "Why did I? Well... Pete, have you met Pete? He's my friend. He and I were traveling together after I met him when I was traveling alone. He kinda helps protect me a lot of the time. Until I do something irresponsible and he can't stop me... Err, but we were traveling and we met Raquel and her friends. Who... you don't know Raquel, but she was the original leader of this group. We split because of everything going on and so she..."

Lumi suddenly stopped talking and blushed. "Err, rambling. Right. So Pete and I ran into their group and decided to travel with them because there's protection in groups. We never really had an end goal, you know? Just... traveling. At least I didn't. I'd already gotten what I wanted, so I was just living. And then with everything that's been going on, it seemed wrong to leave them. So... yeah. That's why I guess."

"Pete, uh..." Thales hadn't caught the name of all the people he'd joined, but most were starting to glue in his mind. Pete was not one of those. Okay, I know that robed guy had an obnoxious sounding name, that other guy was Rexian, Amon is Amon... one of the two guys arguing, they both could look like a 'Pete'... no, I think that one had his name mentioned. Bert? He could more or less tell Pete by process of elimination, unless the man never actually showed up. "I... think I know who that is." He spoke up, nodding at Lumi's story. This Raquel was also mentioned in the meeting, so he could follow her story a bit better. There was one thing that made him curious, that quip about doing something irresponsible, but it was hardly the time to press it.

"I see." Thales didn't have much of a reaction, still figuring the team out like a puzzle. He had expected something more tightly-knit, but it ended up being a very mixed back. "I guess we're on the same boat... --I mean," Thales shook his head, goodness, that was a really bad unintentional pun. "The group is definitely stuck on something bigger than I imagined, and I don't know if it's the best idea, but I just wanna see more of it for now." There was a brief silence where Thales cast a glance at Lumi. "If things end up that I'm contributing to something, I guess it beats tailing as soon as we hit the Kigenese shore." It was flimsy, he knew it, but it wasn't like living to survive the day was fun, and Thales certainly would have trouble alone dealing with a foreign language.

Lumi couldn't help but giggle at the look on Thale's face when he unintentionally made a joke. She smiled at him as he looked over at her. "I know I sort of just... dragged you into this group. I mean, I didn't really explain anything that was happening but... I'm glad that you're staying with us. Sometimes I feel like I hardly know most of the people here. So I guess adding someone knew to that group doesn't really help too much but it feels like it does I guess." She had no clue if she was making sense but hopefully he would get what she meant.

"Hah, yeah, I wouldn't expect any of this from what you told me, but I'm not mad." Thales had shrugged it off pretty well, all things considered. "I don't know what I'm expecting now... never been to Kigen, I know enough to survive on my own there but I wonder how this gate thing is going to pan out. All these things that are supposedly happening and I've never heard before." He paused a bit, looking at the endless vast of the sea. "It's a bit unsettling, to be honest." He wasn't gonna front, if he told half this stuff to his old pals, they'd call him a madman and kick his arse off the dining room.

"Well, that's that. In the end now that I know this much I can't look away, so you can rest assured I'm staying, honey." Thales winked back at Lumi, smiling briefly. "I just don't know if you guys will really need my help. I don't have any special tricks, or magic..." He murmured, scratching the back of his head. It was naturally a bit of a sour spot.

Lumi could feel the redness rising in her cheeks as Thales winked at her and called her honey. Suddenly the ocean was just the most interesting thing she could possibly imagine as she stared straight out at it and refused to look at Thales. "Ah, well, I mean... It's fine! It's not like all of us have special skills. I mean... I have magic, but... Well Eva doesn't! She has a wyvern but no magic or anything. And Pete just has his weapons, nothing fancy there. So... So I'm sure you'll be helpful."

She turned to look back at him, cheeks still slightly pink, and smiled at him. "You'll be helpful, I just know it. There's a lot of stuff that's going on, sometimes it's nice to just have someone who's... normal I guess. You can stick with me and we'll figure things out together, alright? Neither of us can leave the group, not with what we know we're up against, so best do it together, right?"

Thales couldn't help a chuckle as Lumi got flustered and looked away. It wouldn't do to press her too hard, it wouldn't be very tactful! Still, the reaction was kind of adorable, it seemed that nobody had tried to court or flirt with her before. "Hmhmm! Well, thanks for the vote of confidence~." He offered a soft smile back, content with the support. I guess I'll be of use... hard to believe when there's a guy that can just summon a state-of-the-art ship monstrosity around.

As Lumi continued to cheer him up, Thales couldn't help but keep smiling. "Uh-huh, maybe I'll learn a thing or two still. It sure seems like we're going to deal with some ridiculous stuff. Fallen and all that? Never in my dreams I'd expect..." An honest sigh escaped Thales, but his mood was too good to drop over that. "We'll do it together, hah. Are you hitting on me?" He looked back at Lumi, curious on where she'd found the courage. "Well, I don't mind sticking around if you like~"

"Yeah, it's going to be a mess with everything we're up ag--bahhh?" Lumi's face was now beet red as Thales' question hit her out of nowhere. "I... Wha..." Her stammering continued as she tried to collect her thoughts and proceeded to largely fail as she stared at everything and anything but the archer sitting next to her. Hitting on him? Was I? I mean, sort of. He's cute. But why would he just come out and ask that? I don't...

"Uhm... I mean... I didn't... That wasn't exactly... You are cute and I..." Shut up shut up shut up shut up. Lumi clapped a hand across her mouth, staring hard out at the ocean, feeling like her face was about to catch on fire, hoping beyond hope that Thales would just drop it and knowing that was never going to happen.

"Hee~" She really wasn't used to this, it was too adorable to hold back, even if he was starting to get mean. "Cute? So forward! Well, I don't mind that from a pretty girl." He could have gone on, but looking at Lumi, she could just faint if teased further. "Ah, come on, don't be shy, Lumi! I'm not going to bite you--well, unless you--eeeh, way too soon for that..." Thales' voice lowered to a murmur as the stream of consciousness escaped his mouth, looking to the side as he spoke to himself.

Thales shuffled a bit closer to Lumi, just enough that she'd feel his presence even if looking away, leaning a bit to her side. "So~ Care to try that again?" His self-content smirk showed he had no signs of leaving her alone. "We've gotta figure out things together, right?" He repeated what Lumi told him, giving her another wink.

"I... I... I......" It wasn't fair. One slip of the tongue and now she was a flustered mess while he was all confident. And talking about how she was pretty and... other things. She was contemplating jumping off the side of the ship and hoping Star was fast enough to catch her (where was he anyways?) when she suddenly felt a warm presence at her side.

"Ah! I..." She leaned back away from him, almost ending up flat against the deck as she stared at her tormentor wishing for an easy way out of this and not seeing any. "I... I just..." Deep breath. Already... Already made a fool out of yourself. How much worse could it get? "I... Uhm I thii-ink you're... you're cute. A-and am glad you decided to s-stay with us. There. Is that... That what you wanted to hear?" She couldn't keep eye contact with the last bit and just closed her eyes hoping he would drop it now.

It just kept getting better, Lumi didn't even know what to say back. It was safe to say that pressing her on was just plain mean, but there was nothing wrong with that in Thales' books. "Mmhmm~. I'm flattered." He nodded back, smiling as the girl struggled to be honest.

"See, that wasn't so hard. You know? I think I'm glad I'm staying too." Thales leaned ever closer now, taking advantage of the fact Lumi had closed her eyes to hover just beside her. With a mischievous smile, Thales stood on his knees as he leaned his face close to Lumi's, planting a kiss on her cheek.

<Isn't this cute.>

Haruhi snuck up behind the pair, watching as Thales put the moves on some girl. She couldn't stop a giggle, leaning over and kissing Thales cheek right after he'd kissed the girl's.

"<Is this the in thing to do, right now? Think you're real smooth, Teyruse?>" Haruhi, unable to hold back any more, leaned back up and started laughing, clutching her gut and collapsing back against the netting they'd been near. "<Ahahaha, haha, hah, g-give, gimme a second, hehehaha... Fuck, snnhhhahah...>"

Everything seemed like it was going perfect for Thales, then he felt something touch his skin. Wait, what?

"H-huh?" Flinching, Thales leaned back to realize a little invader had decided to mess with him, again. Oh of all times-- "<G-get out!>" He told her, crossing his arms and blushing furiously. He was having a good moment right there! "<W-what you want?!>" Safe to say, being mocked in the middle of a flirting he thought was going super smoothly wasn't high in his wish list. "Buh-- sorry about that, Lumi..." Damn it, now his tempo was ruined.

Lumi had just started to open her eyes in time to catch Thales' face right near hers and then feel his lips press against her cheek. "Ah!" She was frozen, not having any idea what to do or how to react when all of a sudden a strange girl swooped in and kissed Thales on the cheek before starting to chatter with him in a language she vaguely recognized as Kigenese. She seemed quite happy while Thales seemed angry. She looked back and forth between the two of them and then Thales returned to Common and apologized. "I... It's ok. It's not... Uhm, who are you?" There were probably more polite ways of going about that, introducing herself for one, but she couldn't help but be slightly irritated. No matter how flustered Thales had been making her, she couldn't deny that it had been nice. And it had been private. Or should have been...

"<Get out? Whaaaaaat? I can't come and bug my new pal when it looks like he's harassing this poor girl?>" Haruhi stuck her tongue out, having calmed down her laughter, before stepping forward again. "Me, Haruhi," she said, with a hand offered out to the new girl. "And him, pervert. No smooth. Promise." She had to hide another snicker as she slammed him again, trying not to laugh out loud. "<And I have a really hard time speaking Common so he's going to have to play translator... And if he tries to ignore me I think I can figure out ways to bug him into doing it.>"

"<B-Bug?> Hmph!" Needless to say, Thales was very upset by this deliberate decision that she could just bug him whenever. Why did I even bother with you... "W-what, no, I'm not a pervert!" And of course, she had to try burning his image to Lumi. Now that was just unacceptable! "Don't listen to her... aaah-" Great, now all of the mood he tried to set was ruined for good, it was so hard to get people to see him seriously that way, and then this nerd shows up and just blows his best act! "<Me? No, g-go, go learn Common.>" He glared at Haruhi, arms crossed, making no ceremony that he was pretty cross about it.

Lumi froze having no idea how to handle this. This... Haruhi seemed to know Thales given her attitude towards him and seemed intent on trash-talking him while Thales was getting flustered and angry. They'd quickly returned to talking in Kigenese and so she was left confused and unsure how to proceed. 

"I... Do you two know each other? I've never seen her around before but... When did she join up? And why... Why is she saying you're a pervert?"

Haruhi frowned at Thales, and shrugged, turning to walk away then. Whatever Lumi had said was beyond her recognition of Common, and if he was going to be a poor sport, then there was no point in hanging about. "<Fine, fine. Have fun with your girlfriend~>"

"U-uh, I don't know, she doesn't like me? She showed up yes-- hey!" Thales rushed and grabbed Haruhi's arm as she walked away. Oh no she wasn't going to burn his image and then go away like nothing was wrong. "<T-tell her! Not pervert,>" She could at least fix that. "<Asking, why you call me pervert. Not say that then leave, bad.>" He was still in a foul mood, but his tone was pleading. If Haruhi left without clearing up to Lumi, things would get exceedingly awkward to Thales.

Oops, that was a mistake. Haruhi snicked, grinning wide. "<Maybe I want her to get the wrong idea so she leaves you alone~ Ahem... N-No! Let go of me! You brute!>" From zero to sixty, Haruhi shrunk down a bit and squirmed to get away from Thales, as if she was unable at all to move from his super strong grip. "<L-Last night wasn't enough for you, ugh... G-Get, your hand off of me~>"

Ah, crap, she was setting him up! "<W-what, no!>" She started to play an act as if he was hurting her, making his eyes open wide. "It-It's not what it looks like." His eyes darted to Lumi in a panic, "She's setting me up! I... I-I don't know why!" He actually didn't know! Damn, That wasn't convincing at all.

"<S-stop it, not... not bad man, tell her!>" Whyyyyyyyy.... Thales' pleading only became more desperate, apparent in his face as he kept a hold of Haruhi so she wouldn't actually run away. "<W-why do this? Why?>"

"H-Help! He, no let go!" Ahhhh, this really was easy, wasn't it... Maybe too easy. Thales didn't know how to deal with this, huh? Maybe girlie really was his girlfriend, wouldn't that be interesting... Really, Haruhi had no idea how long either of them had been around this group, mayyybe if things hadn't escalated so badly she could have asked... Buuuuut, teasing girlie boy 'Teyruse' was too much fun. "<Probably your last chance to let go b-before she gets the wrong idea.>"

Thales' blood froze as she continued the act, "No!" His grasp on Haruhi was stronger, begging her for the truth, but it seemed she was intent on ruining it. "B... Guh..." He bit his lip, releasing his hold on Haruhi. He was very much not happy with that, flustered and crestfallen. "W-why me?" He took a step back from Haruhi, a pleading look shot back at Lumi. "It's not... sorry." Damn, it was going so well, too. Maybe he just didn't know how to deal with women after all, only men. I'm messed up, aren't I? Fuck...

<Ow, dang... You're really actually upset, huh.> Well, she was starting to feel bad, shaking her head as he let go. She sighed, standing up next to him and leaning an arm on his shoulder. "<You wanna translate for me now? Come on, play nice and I'll even tell her I was lying. Geez, you get all worked up over nothing... And I thought you were supposed to be smooth, Teyruse~>"

Lumi was stunned as she watched the scene unfold. The two of them had seemed to almost be playing until suddenly Thales grabbed Haruhi and in return she shrunk down and started seeming to be scared and upset, even saying a few things in Common though Thales seemed increasingly flustered and upset as well. "I... I... What... Please just... How do you know her? Why did you grab her? Why did she call you a pervert? Just... Why?" She couldn't really say much else. That was really all there was to it at this point as nothing seemed to be making sense at this point.

"U-Ugh..." Thales seemed to be holding himself back a lot, as Haruhi spoke. Quickly, he rubbed his face, trying to recover what little composure he could... "<Not funny. Just... scare, not bad guy.>" He wasn't about to delve into past memories and go to the deep end just because of her prodding... that was real close, though. "...Merz. <You... f-fine, will try.>" If she was going to clean up the mess, then he was pretty much obligated.

Then finally Lumi spoke up and grabbed Thales attention, "Ah... S-sorry, I'll start from the beggining." Deep breath, exhale. He could still be smooth. Damn it, Haruhi. "T-this is Haruhi... she showed up yesterday night, came from the other ship, the one with all the Kigenese. Apparently she's friends with a 'Hoshi', who Amon knows?" That was as best as he could remember from yesterday's talk. "So I showed her around the ship. I don't know why she's calling me pervert though... I don't think she even knows what that means." Thales bit his lip. Yeah, that was totally it.

"<I know exactly what pervert means you goof.>" He, not pervert. Just tease. No worry." Haruhi held true on her end of the deal, leaning back off of the poor boy and holding a hand out again for poor, confused Lumi to shake. "<Oi, Teyruse, translate for me. My name is Haruhi, and I'm going to be Hoshi's student while your group makes its way through Kigen. Hopefully I won't give you all much trouble. Except this guy. He's too much fun to tease.>"

"Ah, Hoshi, yes I know her..." Things were vaguely starting to make sense here, at least a little bit. She hesitantly took the offered hand and shook it, trying to smile at the other girl. "Are you playing translator then? She keeps repeating something... Teyruse? What does that mean?"

"Nope, you've no idea..." He murmured, a bit spiteful. It was justified because there's no way she could randomly show up and use that word to describe him to strangers, right? That's crazy talk! "F-fine. Uh, she wants me to play translator, yeah. Wants me to tell you... <speak slower.> Um, she's Haruhi, this Hoshi's student from now on? And she's probably going to follow the group because of that... <W-why tease me? Not fun at all, not translate that.>" Oof, being translator for two was no easy job, Thales had a newfound respect for diplomats. "T-Teyruse is how she tries to say my name." Thales explained, a bit embarrassed. Sounded kinda dumb, in his mind. "She can't say it right, I gave up."

"<What the crap, translate it you nerd. You're fun to tease~>" Haruhi rolled her eyes, trying not to keep snickering. This was fun, again. "Correct, all good. Thank for, translate." She patted him on the back, stuffing her hands into her robe. "<So, who's the girl? I heard the name Lumi while I was watching you put the moves on her. She another person in the group? She your girlfriend? How long have you even been with them, anyway?>"

"<N-No!> Ugh..." She would keep pressing him about that, wouldn't she? Looking up at Lumi, Thales could feel his face flush red, as he braced and took a deep breath. "S-she says, I am f, fun to tease." Nope, nopenopenope, he averted his gaze immediately. Ugh, that was such a dumb thing to say...

Right... this translation thing went both ways. "<She... yeah, is Lumi. From group too, know Hoshi. Uhh... not girlfriend, not really. Met her... last day too, before ship fight.>" Thales sighed, following with a pout. "<Said was cute, soo...>" He rolled his eyes, surely Haruhi could infer from that. Especially since she interrupted it so rudely. At least it was a good-feeling memory.

"Heh..." Lumi couldn't help but chuckle slightly watching the two of them interact. It was funny how they were bantering even if she couldn't understand most of it. Thales was clearly embarrassed by the whole thing but given how awkward he'd made her feel, there was some small part of her that was enjoying it. 

"Well Haruhi, it's nice to hear you'll be traveling with us. Maybe you could teach me some Kigenese? 

"<Well you are. Look at you! You're blushing and getting so upset when I'm barely doing anything. Seriously, you make this too easy... At least give me a challenge when I bug you.>" With hands on her hips, she tried to parse what Lumi had said, but it was getting lost. Something about traveling and Kigenese? Traveling to Kigen? She brought a hand up to scratch her head, shaking it some. "<Uh, Teyruse, translate?>"

"<Shu... shut up. Should not translate if stay like that.>" Thales huffed, what was with this girl and bugging him, anyways? What had he done to deserve that? "Hmph. <Lumi say... nice to... meet you, travel with.>" There was only so much he knew how to translate fast, things would stall his brain a bit. "<Maybe could teach Kigenese? Be nice...>" Hmm, she wasn't the only one who could get better at Kigenese, considering their destination.

"<Oh. Cool!> Sure. I, teach Kigen! You learn! Speak, good." Her common was pretty garbage, heavily accented, broken and not at all practiced. If anything, it was far worse than Thales' own Kigenese, but she was having too much fun to care. "Oh, uh... I teach, after. Teyruse, he, teach me. Speak Common. Better. Teach better. Common hard." She stuck her tongue out, shaking her head. "<Terrible language. Terrible, terrible, terrible.>"

Thales snickered, amused at the Kigenese girl's antics. "<Yeah, Kigenese bad, too.>" He mused, figuring it was a point of perspective. That language was so abstract to him it was a small miracle he learned a functional amount, though it helped with the old job. "She said she's cool with it... though I'm pretty sure I don't need to translate that." Thales winked at Lumi again, feeling a bit of a second wind now that Haruhi focused on something else other than messing with him. Allowing a bit of stretch space, even. "Whew, I sure have my work cut out ever since I joined the group~. Still beats yesterday's fight, though."

"Well good. It will be nice to learn something of the language before we get there..." Lumi.was mostly realizing to herself, barely noticing the wink as she really started thinking about how she was going to a new country for the first time. Hopefully it wouldn't be too terrible. "Yes it's been eventful and more to come... Still, we will have to figure it out somehow."

<Another wink, huh...> Haruhi shook her head a bit, taking a jump back before speaking. She didn't want Thales getting a grip on her again. "<I didn't get to see much of yesterday's fight, and I don't want to get in your way having to translate everything I say. Have fun talking to your girlfriend, Teyruse~>" Without giving him a chance to stop her, she spun around and hopped off, perhaps to torment some other unfortunate soul.

"Wha--" Thales was confused by Haruhi's sudden decision to scram, again, but whatever pleased her pleased her, he guessed. "Well, there she goes." He shrugged, "I don't get her, honestly. But at least it's somebody to practice with, real handy." On the other hand, it meant his own time teasing Lumi came to an end abruptly, shaaaaaame. "Well, no point dreading the future now, especially since you said I could be helpful! I wonder how long it'll take to get there." There was only so much an archer could do in a boat to keep his wits sharp, after all.

"Hopefully not too long. Star isn't going to enjoy being cooped up in a ship for very long to be honest. Oh, err, Star is my pegasus." She realized she hadn't mentioned that before. He probably could have made the connection but still, best to just be clear. "He's used to open Ursian plains, not ship holds." She leaned back against the deck of the ship, staring up at the sky and a small smile appeared on her face. "Still, this is kind of nice. Some peace. I can't deny it's nice being here." Her eyes started to close, enjoying the warm sun on her face and the peaceful company she had next to her.

"Oh yeah, the pegasus you rode at the docks." Thales still remembered that event well, especially with how much things escalated. That was his first ride in a winged mount, too. "Yeah, I guess some calm can be nice." He nodded, casually watching Lumi relax on the deck's floor. He could easily pull another move on her, but he decided against it that time. Once was enough to not give her a heart attack. Enjoy this break as I can, huh? Maybe I should.

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"Hehehe, wh-whoa, haha~" She couldn't stop her laughter as she got off of him, surprised he'd managed to stand up with her on him. She wasn't exactly heavy, but that meant he was stronger than he looked. "<Yeah. Back to Kigen. Hee... But it's not so bad. I have friends now. You, Lumi, Shadrak. You're all pretty cool people. It'll make things a bit easier. So... Yeah. I hope things go well, from now on." She kept smiling, while Thales seemed to mutter something. All she caught was 'tall'... Huh?

"<Yeah, I'm kinda tall... What about it?>"

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"<See... will be fine.>" He shrugged, dusting off his shirt for good measure, now that he was free from her grasp. "<Juuust, stick, with us. Yeah?>" He had some idea of her horror stories, but as long as she was around them, she'd be safe in Kigen, so that would work out. Right? "<Tall, why hang on me?>" He rolled his eyes, looking back at her with a scoff and crossed arms. She did try to surprise him every time, now that he thought about it, did she just get a giggle out of his reactions? ...Yes, she probably did. "<No hang on me when more tall.>"

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"<Maybe.>" She wasn't going to ruin the possibility of things going horribly wrong along the way. For now, things were looking up. As long as they could get off of the boat without hassle. "<Of course I'm gonna stick with you guys. You're fun, Hoshi's gonna teach me, Shadrak even offered me some extra spell material. It was really nice of him! And... I-it's nice of you, to put up with me.>" She patted the back of her head, frowning and looking embarrassed, before he mentioned the height again. <Wait...> Hah, wow. She really was taller than him! She snickered. Resting an elbow on his shoulder, she let the snicker turn into a giggle, holding back laughter.

"<So, anything you want to know about Kigen, you just go ahead and ask me, alright?>"

Almost Entirely Unproductive

Who to bother, now... Thales was likely tired of her, and if she wanted time to bug him in the future, she'd need to let him cool off... Besides, he wanted to spend time with his girlfriend~ Pfft... Well, she was kinda cute, but also like a lost deer. She couldn't seem to handle a little flirting. How weird... Oh, hey, there was someone! Someone keeping himself out of the way, perfect. He looked kinda gloomy, too... Well, time to get the jump on him.

Haruhi took a moment to scale some of the rope, sneaking her way around on the edge of the boat, before quietly plopping down behind him, poking her head over his shoulder. "<What're you reading?>"

On instinct, Shadrak leaped to his feet, dropping the book, and turning to face the strange woman as darkness rapidly converged around his hand. "What the hell?!" The coalescing energy seemed to slow and then quickly settle as Shadrak's intention shifted from self defense to curiosity. "Who are you?" he asked, vaguely recalling a question asked in Kigenese.

"<Whoa! Calm the spell, buddy... Just prodding you.>" Haruhi wasn't expecting the people here to... No, that was her fault, considering the battle they'd just gone through, some people were surely on a wire's edge.

"Me, Haruhi. No speak Common. <Do you speak Kigenese? This is gonna be real awkward if you can't...>" She hopped herself off the railing and settled to leaning against it, then realized-- "<Oh! You're a mage! Cool! Me too~>"

No speak common well ... at least, by Shadrak's estimation. <"I speak a little, but I'm rusty, so keep it simple, please.">

Releasing the concentrated dark energy, Shadrak knelt down and scooped up his notebook. Only some of the energy was captured and that faded into his aura. The rest seemed to fall like dark mist. <"Who are you, exactly and what are you 'prodding' me for?">

"<Okay. I'll keep it simple. At least you can speak it properly.>" She shrugged, pleased that she wasn't going to be glued to Thales, having him try to play translator. Now... "<I'm Haruhi! I'm a mage. And... You seemed lonely, and kinda bored, so I decided to make your day better~ What were you reading?>" <Come on, be receptive. You're one of the only other people here that I can tell speaks Kigenese... Let me have someone else to bug!>

Why did everyone think he was lonely? Shadrak grimaced. <"I'm actually doing research, right now. That's boring, yeah, but I'm not lonely."> Well, at least in a personal sense. As far as the group's handling of the emblem, Shadrak felt fairly isolated. <"Anyway, are you a new recruit or something? Or are you with Nong's crew?">

"<Why are you off on your own, then? Isn't it better to be with people in your group?>" She didn't get why he didn't think he was lonely, but that wasn't worth pushing into that far. "<I'm Hoshi's student! And I can use dark magic... I see that you can too, so do you mind showing me what that was? I'm pretty new to it all; I can only manage an average flux.>"

Shadrak's eyes narrowed at the first question, his irritation gaining ground, again. <"It's easier to do research on my own,"> he said, just managing to keep his tone dull and not come off too annoyed, <"If you're Hoshi's student, then ... oh never mind. Anyway, that was death sphere. It's more powerful than a flux spell, obviously.">

<Touchy.> "<Show me again! I wanna see. Oh, oh, and what should I do to start learning new spells? I'm sure Hoshi will tell me, but, you're here right now, so I might as well ask. And how long have you been practicing?>"

<"I'm not going to cast spells at random,"> Shadrak winced, <"Just because I have a new tome doesn't mean I'm going to waste energy showing off with it. This is strictly for self defense."> Not that there wasn't an argument to be made for getting in practice, but he wasn't in the best mood to begin with. Between being pestered by this energetic dark mage, and not having a good way to deal with the avians, this was a very unproductive voyage for him thus far.

<"Once you've practiced for as long as I have, you'll appreciate not casting outside of battle and practice,"> he said, inadvertently letting his more studious side take over. <"I've been at this a long time. Since I was a kid, actually. I also had a strict teacher."> ... and some brainwashed predators to keep him focused.

"<Oh... Darn. You seemed so good at it, since you did it so quickly, that maybe I could finally see a real pro in action.>" It wasn't all empty praise on her end, she'd never seen someone so quick to conjure dark magic. Maybe she was just not experienced enough, but whatever the case, it was still cool.

"<Your whole life!? Ugh... I've really got catching up to do then, geez... Not that you could have found a proper teacher in my situation, but, still. I've only got three years behind my belt... That's really impressive, you and Hoshi both. What's your name?>"

<"I'm Shadrak,"> the druid answered, his irritation subsiding a little bit at a time. <"I have a question, now. If you're Hoshi's student, are you going to be fighting with us in battle? If all you know how to cast are flux spells, that could be a problem.">

"<Shadrak... I think I can say that right. Er, and fighting with you? I hope so! ...Is only knowing flux a problem? I-It's a really strong one!>" How intense were these fights getting if you needed more than regular dark magic to toss at things?

<"The spell isn't bad,"> Shadrak said, trying to figure out how to convey his meaning. <"What I mean is not knowing other spells is ... a weakness. You don't have any other options if something goes wrong."> That was one way of explaining it, he supposed.

"<Oh... That's what you mean. I suppose... But I'm pretty quick on my feet! I can dodge stuff. I won't be a problem... Really.>" She hoped that this wasn't going to be keeping her off the battlefield. She hadn't exactly thought of it that way.

Shadrak sighed. <"You should still train while you can. Our group has been in some very dangerous fights, and I can't think of a time when we weren't completely outnumbered. I don't think that will change in Kigen.">

"<Well, of course! I'll definitely keep training. I just don't really want to be a hanger on... It was already kind enough of Hoshi to offer me the spot as her student. Even if it means having to go back to Kigen, I want to contribute to you all. Especially being given food and all that for free, I'd feel like a real leech if I didn't help.>" Haruhi messed with the back of her head some, wondering where the pace of this conversation turned around.

Well she wasn't entitled, at least. That was good. <"Well, we'll be in a Kigen port within the week, so you shouldn't waste time sneaking up on people. Instead, I think you should practice new spells."> The druid wasn't sure if Haruhi had any material to study. Hoshi likely did, and he didn't want to intrude, necessarily ... <"If Hoshi doesn't have any material for you to read, I could write some things down for you. My tome is written in common, so it won't help you."> Not that he planned on loaning out his only magical tool to anyone, anyway.

"<I figured it'd be nice to get to know everyone before I sat down and really got to business with that. I only know two other people here, Lumi and Tey... Tal...>" She scrunched up her eyebrows and looked at the floor, sighing. "<Th-Thales... Why does that name have to be so hard to say? Common sucks...>" And his tomes were written in Common, of course. "<Well, th... Thaaaales. Ugh. Is going to be helping me with my Common. So maybe that'll help. If you wanna write me some extra material, though, I wouldn't say no. Weird for you to be so nice to me after I gave you that spook though...>"

<"What's weird about it?"> Shadrak mused aloud. He personally liked to think of himself as an upstanding individual. He fought for more than just himself, against an enemy most mercenaries wouldn't even consider, and with no guarantee of an actual reward when all was said and done. He also contributed a lot of well thought out and well intentioned ideas for the group. All in all, Shadrak felt he was quite virtuous. Maybe a few flaws here and there, but definitely a virtuous person.

As for Haruhi, she hadn't gotten around to too many in the group, yet. If the only other people she knew were Lumi and Thales, then she was probably out of the loop as far as the group's internal struggles and long term goals were concerned. Maybe that information was best left to the individuals themselves to disclose ... or maybe Hoshi? It was difficult to decide in the moment. <"Well, regardless, I've got no problem with helping anyone in the group. We should be in this together ... even if we don't always agree on how to do things.">

"<Well... I, er...>" She really didn't like having control of conversations shifted so easily, but it was hard to act normally in the face of the situation. "<Not exactly used to getting stuff for free. I stole the tome I'm using right now... Anything beyond basic clothes and food was something I had... N-Never mind.>" That was getting a bit too personal for her liking.

"<If you're alright with giving me some notes or something, I'll take them. I-Is there anything I can do in return?>"

Plenty, Shadrak thought. <"Of course. No more sneaking up on me. Does that sound like a fair trade?"> Maybe it wasn't a fair trade long term, but that was all he really wanted from Haruhi at the moment.

But scaring people was so much fun... She nodded. "<Alright. I can do that.>" <I'll just have to bug Thales like that more often.>

Good, Shadrak thought. <"Thank you. On my end, I'm sure I'll have all the notes you need ready for you by the time we dock.">

"<Huh... Thanks. You're really kinda cool, huh?>" Haruhi gave him a big smile, hopping in place for a second. "<I suppose you want me to get outta your hair so you can go back to being gloomy, huh?>"

Shadrak glared at Haruhi. <"I'm not 'gloomy'. I'm doing research. Should I be smiling for hours while I read?"> The druid couldn't imagine his cheeks would ever forgive him if he tried.

She couldn't help a giggle. "<Maybe. Smile for me.>"

Shadrak glared even harder. <"Oh just go find Jamilla. She'll smile for you as much as you want."> Not to say that smiling wasn't his thing, but Shadrak preferred having some genuine reason supporting it ... and there was very little to smile about at the moment, as far as he was concerned.

"<Hahaha~ You're pretty funny. I think I like you, Shadrak. Thanks for the help.>" Having someone else easy to rile up was pretty good, she could abuse Thales a bit before switching off to let the guy cool down. "<Have fun doing research, then! I'll see you around.>" Her fun done, and a pleasant surprise along with it, Haruhi hopped off to bother someone else.

Edited by SnakeMomMelissa
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--Day 6--

Nadya had spent most of her time on the trip below decks with Luca, lamenting on her lost gold, Haythem's disappearance, and the general unfortunate turn her life had taken as of late. She eventually grew tired of feeling sorry for herself and made her way to the dining hall where she managed to spot Amon alone.

"Hey there, how ya holdin' up? I know everythin' has been weird lately with all this emblem stuff and spirit springs and whatever and ya seem to be at the center of it all," she asked him.

Amon glanced over at Nadya ever so briefly before his gaze returned to the table surface. It wasn't that it was more interesting, he simply didn't have the motivation for eye contact or much else. As for how he was holding up, 'barely' was probably the best answer he could come up with. This situation with Aisha was killing him, and now that the Regalia was disabled by Ra, he was all out of options.

"It's worse than you think, Nadya," he said quietly. Bitterly.

Nadya was taken aback somewhat by Amon's response. While Amon wasn't always cheerful necessarily, he seemed to take everything in stride even in the worst of times. Things must be real bad for him, tryin' to convince him otherwise probably ain't gonna do much here...

"How so? Does it have to do with Aisha?" she guessed.

"Not exactly," Amon winced. He knew the news would affect Nadya too, at least if she caught the implication behind it. He also had to decide how best to word it. Not many in the group knew about Ra just yet, though that wouldn't stay under wraps for much longer, either. After all, his eyes were normal again, and there was a specter on the loose.

The Regalia ... that power I used to capture the Basilisk and ... save Haythem ... ... it's not working anymore." What had once been a great power had transformed into a small metallic sphere, too slick to hold easily, and seemingly powerless, and even that small mystery had been left unsolved, as the specter, the one that called itself Ra, had taken it away with him.

"So let me get this straight- you get all these crazy powers from the emblem energy or whatever and then it just disappears? That don't make a whole lot of sense- even less than the usual weird shit we get into," Nadya said, frowning. "I was kinda hopin' that you'd figure out a quick way to get to Sanctuary- we're not gonna be much help to Haythem when we're still at least a month away."

Amon shook his head at the mention of going to Sanctuary. "Even if we went, taking you with us would have been out of the question, Nadya. The reason Haythem and Isis disappeared is because the Regalia turned them into possessions of Lady Aisha. That's how it works. They can get back to her quickly, but only because she's summoning them to her. If that happened to you, you'd never be free to pursue your own goals. That's why Malik and I never left. I had to do it the first time to save Haythem's life, but ... I don't think I could have used it again, anyway."

"Ah, I thought Malik was just bein' an ass. Ain't Haythem bein' a 'possession' of Aisha's a problem? Not that havin' him dead would be better of course, but it seems to me there's a big difference between worshippin' a god and havin' them control everything ya do," Nadya asked.

"There wasn't anything I could do about it at the time ..." Other than simply let Haythem bleed to death, but that had never really been an option as far as Amon was concerned. "I could claim things with the Regalia, but I couldn't actually control them; only Lady Aisha could. Now that it's not working, I can't even do that."

"I really wish I knew about this emblem energy and spirit springs and all that, but pretty much all I know is horses and patchin' people up. Do ya think Jo or Shadrak might know what the problem is?" Nadya asked. 

"I doubt it," Amon shook his head. It didn't matter, though. He already knew what the problem was; it was explained to him in detail. Sinking a little further, Amon said, "For now, Malik and I are staying with the group. We could try to head back to Rex-Avaz the normal way, but I don't think we'd make it in time to help. We don't even know where they are, exactly." Not worth mentioning, was the fact that he was probably a dead man if he attempted to leave in spite of the Regalia being disabled.

"I'll find some way to replace the gold you lost, Nadya," Amon tried to assure her. It was a lot of money, though ...

Nadya smiled slightly despite the circumstances. "Nice of ya to offer Amon, but puttin' my gold on Isis a risk I took that didn't pay off. It ain't your responsibility to fix that. Though I am gonna call dibs on whatever of Valdimarr's treasure Luca can carry." 

Treasure? Amon supposed a royal family probably had something amounting to treasure lying around ... though it was probably in Corvus, unfortunately. "Sure, that's fine," Amon forced a small grin.

"An acceptance of one's own responsibility," came a voice, seemingly out of the ether, "beautiful. Truly beautiful." It was identical to Amon's, yet everything about it was different. From its tone to its sage like enunciation. Amon couldn't help but grimace at the voice. He'd hoped against hope that something like this wouldn't happen.

Nadya gave a small laugh. "Weird trick Amon. You practicin' your puppet routine or somethin'?"

Amon groaned. Of course Nadya would confuse him and Ra. He hadn't explained the severity of the situation, yet. He hadn't wanted to, really ...

"On the contrary, Nadya," said that same familiar voice, its tone resolute yet amiable, "There will be no puppets remaining when my work here is finished."

"It's not me," Amon said bitterly, "not exactly ..."

Nadya sighed heavily. Is this like that dragon head shit again or somethin'? "All right, try to explain to me what's goin' on here. Both of ya I guess," she added to clarify, crossing her arms.

Where to even start? "He's ... the reason the Regalia doesn't work, anymore. It's another emblem ability. A completely different one ... the reason he exists, now."

"For as long as you have existed, Amon, so have I ..."

A faint light began appeared, around the same height as Nadya's head, and from that single light sprang forth a brilliant eruption of golden particles. Their numbers increased exponentially until a man appeared within the swarm. Then, they began to recede back into nothingness, leaving the man alone with them in the dining hall. As soon as the spectacle had begun, the few sailors present in the various corners of the dining hall quickly cleared out.

Ra, now once again manifested, set his flame imbued eyes on Nadya. "It is my voice, and this body that have finally been given substance."

Nadya instinctively stepped back slightly. "So uh, this is some kinda emblem spirit or somethin'? What do ya want exactly?" she asked, attempting to remain civil for now. Is this spirit able to possess Amon? I ain't really equipped to handle this...

"He 'wants' to make me like him ... or kill me," Amon explained bitterly, "one of the two."

"Well I like ya just the way ya are- which includes not bein' dead," Nadya replied before glaring at the spirit. "I'm not lettin' ya just get away with this, so ya might well just give up now." Hopefully he scares easy...

Ra chuckled at Nadya's posturing. "If Amon were to die, my light would also fade from this world. It is not murder, but self destruction. Do you understand?"

"So if either of ya die, so does the other. Why does Amon have to change anyway? He's a hell of a lot better than most folks out there," Nadya asked the spirit. Maybe there's some kinda way to break the bond or somethin'. Maybe some other magic person knows that.

Amon wasn't sure if Nadya's assessment was spot on or not. It was true that if he died, so would Ra ... if Ra was to be believed, and to his knowledge, the insufferable apparition was honest enough. Brutally so. There was still the question of whether Ra could be killed directly, however. Amon's own scuffle with him hadn't shed light on that little mystery.

His lesser self's musing didn't slow Ra down one bit. "Why? His weakness is pitiful. His ignorance is dangerous. His complacency is unforgivable. If in the end, Amon chooses life over death, you will have a much more capable man in your midst. There is no better outcome."

"Nobody's perfect ya know- I sure ain't. Who made ya the arbiter of who needs to 'change' or die? Better is awfully subjective anyway," Nadya argued, putting a hand on her hips. 

"You may protest all you like," Ra said, shrugging at her, "I have already decided. Watch and be patient."

Watching as Amon inevitably became an asshole or died wasn't in Nadya's plans, but persuading this spirit was going nowhere. Nadya shrugged at Amon in response, "Guess that's it then." I can't plan this around Amon since the spirit can see and hear everything he does...

"Nadya, if you truly wish to help Amon, then focus your power on his strengths, not his weaknesses. Those will be left to Amon and myself alone." Otherwise, there wouldn't be an Amon left to strengthen, in all likelihood. "You know what courage and conviction look like. Always reward that behavior. If you do, then what shall rise is more magnificent, courageous, and yes, even charitable, than the lowly shadow you've known all this time."

A lowly shadow? That was a new one, Amon noted. He was starting to get used to the extreme comparisons. They still bothered him, but he could keep himself from reacting to them in any noticeable way.

Nadya couldn't manage to remain indignant at what the spirit was saying about Amon anymore- 'lowly shadow' was just such a strange description of him that she decided this thing had no grasp of reality. "Sure, I can do that," she said with a nod.

"Of course you can, but will you ...?" Ra asked, smiling somewhat pityingly at her, "Only time will tell."

That certainly sounded like a closing statement, and sure enough, as Amon suspected, Ra vanished in a rush of radiant particles. "I told you it was worse than you thought, didn't I?" Amon smiled somberly.

"Ya got me there Amon. Try to hang in there, all right?" And here I thought I had issues...

Amon nodded slowly. "I have to. If I give up now, things are only going to get worse for everyone." His thoughts wandered to Aisha and the sancturans, then to his allies currently on their way to Kigen, and then finally to faces cobbled together by his own imagination, representations of innocent people that would almost certainly perish if the fallen had their way.

 

Edited by -Cynthia-
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Haruhi seemed fairly content, which was a decent change of pace. "<Yes, can be safe... more safe.>" He argued, looking back at the mage as it felt she had something nice to tell him at all. "Huh?" Of course, it was all gone in a moment when she leaned on his shoulder, exercing a bit of weight as she used him as a rest for fun. "C-come on... <Not rest.>" He shook his shoulder, trying to end her fun. The offer for expanding on Kigen stuff was pretty useful, though. "<Oh, right, know where sell clothes here?>" He was way overdue for new clothes at that point. He needed a new source, and had change for a few sets of clothing. Shopping~.

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No Oars Barred (Day 3)

Spoiler

Eventually, Pete grew tired of wandering around the upper decks, arguing with himself about how to deal with this whole wrathdamn mess. Since he wasn't going to make up his mind with what he knew on hand, the Ursian man decided to find out more about the Emblem, seeing as it was at the center of everything. Shadrak had his own agenda with the emblem, and asking Joanna would probably mean having to deal with Liam, so the ex-soldier decided to consult Amon. The decision was easy enough, but finding the gem-eyed man was another story. Pete scoured the ship, from the poop-deck to the lower deck without success. That only left the hold, which, in hindsight made sense given Amon's earlier disposition. Just as he was going down the stairs, though, he heard... laughter? That was weird. Maybe it was a group of sailors, goofing off?

"See?" one of the five men standing over Amon smirked, "he doesn't have any other tricks ... at least none he can pull down here." He then delivered a hard kick to Amon's forehead and sent the sancturan the rest of the way onto his back. "That one's for Angelo. Ya got no idea how badly he got hurt trying to get off that ghost ship of yours, ya nomad prick."

Amon didn't say a word. Between his own jumbled thoughts and the pain tearing into his forehead, he couldn't compile a coherent sentence of any sort. That was when the next foot came down, this one nearly dislocating his shoulder and forcing him flat. "Ya know what? That one's for Angelo, too. It's not like the guy had just one thing he needed to get fixed after that spill. I hope you're ready for more ..."

As per usual, he had the worst timing. From the sounds of it -and the looks of it, Pete realized as he arrived at the bottom of the stairs- it actually was the sailors that were laughing- five of them, in any case- as they taunted and kicked the crap out of a nomad. He had to be Amon, seeing as the Ursian man had passed Malik on his way down to the hold. What a mess. The louts didn't seem to notice Pete just yet, so if he was careful, he could leave without them noticing. If he intervened on the other hand, it would be five against one, which weren't good odds...

Unluckily for the sailors, a spare oar was propped against the wall to Pete's right. With a cruel smile on his face, the axeman took the oar and walked back towards the center of the hold, winding up for a swing.

"HEY, ASSHOLE!," he shouted, as he slammed the blunt of the oar towards  the closest sailor's head.

There was no doubt in Amon's mind that his attacker wasn't getting up after that hit anytime soon. While he rolled around screaming his head off in a pain addled frenzy, his cohorts stepped away from the injured sancturan and tried to keep themselves out of oar range. Easier said than done down here in the hold.

"Give it up, mercenary," one of the men said, sounding a little too calm about all of this, "we've still got you outnumbered."

"Eh, I've fought worse back in Sanctis, barehanded," Pete said, as he used his oar's leverage to back his way to a wall without retaliation. Once he reached the wall, he switched his grip on the wooden weapon, holding it more like a spear than a club. "Now, you all can go help your mate and stop mobbing my comrade, or you can find out how many bones I can break with this oar. Your choice."

"So that's how it is ..." the man glanced back contemptuously at Amon. His eyes quickly shot back to Pete, making sure his weapon hadn't edged any closer since he'd last eyed it. "Sorry, but every time we come to have a chat with this nomad punk, someone always gets in the way. Not today."

The others followed the unrehearsed cue and reached for their weapons. One had a sword, another an axe, the third another sword, this one exceptional for quick thrusts. The impromptu leader, reached for his own sword, a basic looking cutlass. "We're not gonna kill ya, but you're gonna be wishin' we did when we're finished here."

Amon saw the weapons coming out and knew things had just gotten serious. He doubted he could pick himself up without being noticed, even with that down and out sailor screaming his head off nearby. Still, he couldn't just let them dog pile Pete and hope everything turned out alright ...

"What's a few more scars? Adds 'character', as my old man says," Pete said, sizing up the enemy. One axe and three swords. The axe and the thrusting sword were what he was more worried about, seeing as one could chop his oar up and the other could just as easily bypass it. It wasn't looking too good. "Anyways, if you're bringing out steel, you'd better be ready to lose fingers. Don't say I didn't warn you."

He probably wouldn't get out of this unscathed, but, as long as he could deal with the fast one and get control of a sword, Pete was confident he could take the day. With that in mind, he switched up the grip on the oar to be single-handed, and pulled his axe from his belt. Second target would be the ax-man, or one of the other two then the ax-man, if he didn't get the thrusting sword.

In a swift show of coordination, the axe wielder moved in first, only to immediately abort his attack and fall back a step as the impromptu leader and the first sword wielder stepped in to try and maneuver past the oar and toward Pete. The man with the thrusting sword seemed to be circling around behind the axe wielder in the interim to try and flank the cornered mercenary.

Figuring stealth was no longer expedient anyway, Amon rushed to his feet, drawing his knife on the way up. He noticed, almost belatedly, that he hadn't been noticed, just yet. Good. Eyes narrowing like a predator's, the sancturan focused in on the man circling around just as the axe man stepped back, and the other two stepped in.

Well, beggars couldn't be choosers. It looked like Pete might have to steal another axe, and lose most of the oar, when the axe sailor backed up and two of the sword wielders moved in. The stabbing sword was up to some other trickery, but he couldn't care less now. The mercenary had to act, so he thrust the oar out with his right hand to catch the incoming blades. With his left, he swung his axe up at the closest target, aiming for the man's  sword arm shoulder.

Amon only heard a scream from off to his side as he rushed past the axe wielder and into the circling sailor. Three men hit the deck when Amon tackled his target. The sancturan himself had gone down, taking the man with the thrusting sword with him, and the axe wielder stumbled back after being struck in the shoulder mid-retreat.

Amon was on top of his opponent in half a second, attempting to pry the sword from his hand while his shin pressed down on the man's neck, slowly forcing him into unconsciousness. The axe man had managed to hold onto his weapon during the fall, but couldn't easily use it in that moment. Rather than rush forward as he got up, he tried to put some distance between himself and the fight.

Noticing that half of the fighting strength they thought they had at their disposal had just vanished, the remaining sailors began to fall back, having failed to get in any good hits of their own. The leader had gotten awfully close. If he'd aimed somewhere other than Pete's head, his right eye in particular, he may have easily scored a hit. As things stood, he'd gambled on a single, eye gouging, fight ending thrust, and lost. The cutlass just wasn't ideal for such a fine tuned move ... and the man who had such a weapon, was slowly blacking out ...

Well, the axeman was certainly crippled for now, so all that was left was the three swo-

Merz, that cutlass thrust was close. Too close. If it had been an inch or two closer, Peter might've lost an eye. 

Something had happened to the thrusting-sword sailor, so the mercenary ignored him for the time being and focused on his attacker, who forgot- or didn't care- about what his target was wielding and was trying to back away. 

Pete reminded the ringleader, with another oar swing to the head, before walking towards the other two sailors as he glared daggers.

Just seconds before Amon's pinned target passed out, yet another sailor joined the wailers in the hold, staggering around grasping at his head wound, and having completely forgotten the brawl. Amon stood from his victim with his knife in his main hand, and the rapier in his offhand, ready to help Pete put an end to this. He'd have to apologize to the old woman in the infirmary on the group's behalf.

The axe wielder, no longer interested in fighting, was looking to get back to the staircase and out of the hold, and the sole uninjured sailor seemed to be thinking along the same lines, though he was in a much better position to defend himself, if not escape. "Easy ... easy," the sword wielder said, trying to tune out the screams and groans from his mates nearby, "This don't have'ta turn into a death bout, do it ...?"

That was cleaner than he thought. Pete looked off to his right to see Amon, with the other sailor's rapier in hand, unharmed. That explained why he never got stabbed, at least.

"No, it doesn't," Pete agreed, as he went to pick his axe up. "But if I ever see any of you trying to pull that crap again, it will. Drop your weapon, and you can come help out your mates. Unless you want a headache, of course."

He turned to take a closer look at Amon, noticed the blood trickling down his face, and frowned.

"Let's go to the infirmary," the Ursian man said to the Rexian, as he started towards the staircase.

Amon had been preparing to go after the last of the opposition when the man appeared to lose his nerve. His pleading annoyed the crap out of the sancturan, but unwilling to attack now that the situation was beginning to calm down, he simply began moving toward the staircase. He kept himself and his stolen sword pointed at the sailors.

"Alright," Amon said, having no objections to heading to the infirmary, though he had some reservations about having to deal with these people up there, as well.

"Yeah yeah, fine. Okay," the man with the sword said, placing the weapon on the ground and moving to help up the axe man. "We'll just go and get them fixed up ... and that'll be the end of it. We won't bother you lot, again."

Great, Amon thought. Five down ... just shy of forty more sailors and mercenaries to persuade not to come around picking random fights.

"Fine by me. We'll leave the other guy's sword at the infirmary," Pete said, as he passed by the two sailors up the stairs, ready to jump out of the way if the axe-wielder got any ideas.

Next stop was the infirmary, where, after the check-up, hopefully he'd figure out what the hell was going on with Amon and this Fire Emblem business.

They hadn't made it out of the hold before curious ears brought more of the crew to investigate. Despite outnumbering Amon and Pete, the injured didn't try to spin the explanation and stir up more trouble. Instead, they let Pete explain the situation and kept mostly quiet. Afterward, they all made for the infirmary, the new arrivals helping along the dazed, groaning provocateurs.

"Heh, another day another brawl, is it?" the old woman greeted the men just outside the infirmary. The door had been open, and when she saw the group coming, she knew the two beds wouldn't suffice, so she stood up and came outside. "No need for the gritty details," she headed them off verbally while she was at it, "I'm not here to judge, just to clean up the mess, mostly."

"Won't say sorry about the fight, because I'm not, but I am sorry for giving you more work, " Pete said, tallying up the injuries. "If it helps, two got conked on the head, two got cut, and the last guy passed out." 

Hopefully Amon would be the first fixed up, so they could take off.

"Oh," the old woman smiled, "this'll be a stroll on the deck compared to the mutinies. At least no one died." Cracking her aging knuckles, she address the lot of them. "Alright, so who's first? I'm not playing triage with you boneheads after a stunt like that."

The first casualty of the battle staggered forward, eager to have his injury addressed, and feeling he deserved it, for having suffered the longest. Amon scowled, wishing he'd known it was going to be a first come first served deal. He made a mental note to try and get in ahead of the next guy. Even as the old woman started feeling around the sailor's bleeding skull, the other man that'd been struck with an oar moved in front of Amon.

"Seriously ...?"

"You got a scratch, punk," he scoffed as he held the bump on his head.

Pete frowned as the second oar victim pushed ahead of Amon, who wasn't asserting himself in line. Instead of making a big scene about it (and provoking another fight), he decided to glare at the other sailors, so as to discourage them from jumping the line.

It took less than a minute for the old healer to address the first man's wounds, longer than a standard healing, but she'd examined him thoroughly first. The second took a little less time, but he was still looked over thoroughly prior to receiving her healing touch. Next up was Amon, and the sancturan had removed his headband well in advance, having foreseen how needful it was.

Oddly enough, the woman hadn't just gone in and healed the cut on his forehead once it was Amon's turn. She'd noticed the dirt on his vest, and quickly realized he had a second injury, as well. While it wasn't serious, she still took the time to address it after healing the cut on his forehead. After that, Amon wasn't feeling any pain anywhere.

"Thank you," Amon said.

The old woman smiled. "Don't mention it. Try to stay out of trouble, now. I can only fix the minor stuff."

Luckily (for the sailors), Amon ended up being the third treated. As a result, Pete leaned the rapier against the wall beside the infirmary entrance, then turned away from it and started walking.

"Come on, then," he said to the young Rexian, gesturing for him to follow. "We've got things to talk about."

Things to talk about? Amon grimaced. He could only hope Pete was interested in more than simply expressing his grievances about the way things had turned out at Urquium. He was among those in the group that didn't let their opinions die in the silence. "Where to, then?" Amon couldn't hide his lack of enthusiasm.

Amon sounded as excited for this coming talk as if his pet dog had just died. The Ursian man wondered if it was because of the fight, or because of the whole argument after the escape from Urquium that cause it. He didn't care much, though. 

"My quarters, so we don't get jumped mid-conversation," Pete said, as he continued walking, this time heading towards the stairs down to the middle deck. "Unless you have any better suggestions for that."

Amon shook his head at the question. "Lead the way."

And so Pete did. He took the stairs down to the middle deck, turned around the corner, and continued on down the hall, before abruptly stopping and opening the third door on the left.

"After you," the Ursian said, as he held the door open.

Amon felt his survival instincts kick in abruptly as Pete opened the door for him, though he managed to keep himself from reacting right away. These past few days had been hellish, with seemingly random crewmen isolating and harassing him any time he was alone. It was starting to get to him. He knew that, because Pete was an ally, one that had just saved him from the very situation he had come to expect ... and he was still feeling a little paranoid. Silently, Amon stepped into the room, trying to at least look calm and secure, even though he felt anxious and exposed.

Amon wasn't saying a word, which was odd. Shouldn't he be asking why he was being asked to talk?

"Okay," Pete began, as he entered the room and closed the door behind him, "so before I get to anything else, how long has that been going on?"

Amon shook his head at the answers coming to mind. "How long have we been on this ship?" He settled for a slightly more bitter answer. "I'm just glad no one died, or there'd probably be more of them after me."

So, for three days then... The Ursian man knew that thre had been some trouble between the sailors and Amon, but this much?

"Merz," Pete said, shaking his head. "Why hadn't- no, never mind that. Does Malik know?"

Amon nodded. "He usually doesn't leave me alone for too long but he's been speaking with the captain a lot, lately." He wasn't entirely sure why; it could have been a series of attempts to get Lexi to rein in her crew, but that didn't quite fit. Malik wasn't one to try a failed solution more than once.

"Right, well until the ship enters port, you shouldn't be going on your own like that. Unless you have a death wish," Pete said, frowning. "Which reminds me, do you mind talking about what's eating at you? You've looked miserable ever since Urquium."

"People rarely go down into the hold," Amon noted irritably. It really should have been safer down there ... but he supposed that even on a ship this size, if the crew wanted to find him, they'd find him. Sooner or later.

Although he wasn't really in the mood to chat, Amon felt he owed Pete at least that much. The subject matter would be hell to rehash, though. "I don't know what's going to happen to Lady Aisha," he began, his gaze fixed on the floorboards, "She lost her power, and our enemies are holding her. It's pretty much the worst situation imaginable ... but somehow, I figured out a way to make it a whole lot worse, at least for Haythem, Malik, and me."

"Alright, but when they do, there's nowhere for you to hide. Maybe we should find someplace else where you might want to be alone that would work better...," Pete said, trailing off as Amon explained his worries about Aisha. He paused for a moment, thinking about how to respond.

"Just to be clear, by making it worse, you mean by using the emblem, which claimed Haythem for Aisha?," the Ursian asked. "I think I get the gist of it, but I need to make sure."

Amon nodded. "Yeah ..." Now, not only were Aisha and the surviving sancturans in grave danger, but Amon and Malik had to decide whether or not to obey Aisha's orders, and return to her using the Regalia. Even Malik was hesitant, and it was proving a torturous dilemma for them both. There was no telling what Haythem was going through, now, having completely lost his autonomy, already.

"Got it," Pete said, his frown deepening for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, it went away. "You're wrong about that, actually. First off, Aisha is still alive, even if she's captured.  Next, what you did with the emblem, improved her situation if anything. You claimed for her Neviskotia's secret weapon, as well as a loyal servant in Haythem. Lastly, speaking of your friend, you admitted yourself, that you saved him by using. I get that you might be torn up by doing it without asking, but, Amon, you should know you made the right call there. I'm pretty sure Haythem prefers having to serve Aisha over crossing the Gate. I admittedly don't know how it's affecting you and Malik, but with regards to the other two, the emblem's been a help to them, without a doubt. You're being too hard on yourself."

Amon couldn't argue that there weren't some benefits to the way things had turned out; he'd already tried that and failed, but neither could he convince himself that he had done anything more than blundered spectacularly throughout the entire ordeal. Now he was disobeying a direct order from his queen, along with Malik, and any information they had about the situation in Rex-Avaz was several days out of date.

"I guess I'm just making too many mistakes these days. Even now; before he left, Haythem told me that Lady Aisha wants Malik and me to return to Rex-Avaz. That was days ago, and Haythem hasn't shown up since. Even if something hasn't happened ... we're proving every second that we're not the loyal servants she thought we were ... that we thought we were."

"So she wants you to come back by using the claiming thing, then," Pete said, as he sighed. "OK, first things first: You need to stop beating yourself up over those mistakes. You nearly died three times over that two day stretch, and found out that your hometown was destroyed, both before these 'mistakes' you're talking about. That's enough to throw just about anyone off."

"As for not leaving for Rex-Avaz immediately, the hesitation's not about loyalty, that's about being human," Pete said ruefully. "I'm guessing it's the servitude bit that's holding you up?"

"I don't know what stopped me," Amon admitted. Loyalty encompassed two probable causes, neither of which was mutually exclusive. On the one hand, he was loyal enough to his foreigner allies to not abandon them outright. Malik held similar views, as he'd made clear during the meeting. On the other hand, Amon's loyalty to Aisha, while seemingly minuscule at the moment, was still strong enough to have him writhing on the inside over the issue. One. Two. Three days without action, and it was only getting worse.

"All I know," Amon clinched his teeth as images of the utter destruction of Aisha and the surviving sancturans overwhelmed his mind's eye, "is that if Lady Aisha and the others die ... while I'm sitting here on this ship, doing nothing ... I'll never forgive myself, and I don't care who would forgive me, but I won't."

"If you feel that way, then maybe you should go," Pete said, frowning. "But, for what it's worth, I don't think that she will hold it against you if you take the long way. It's not feasible to expect people as young as you and Malik to carry the world on your shoulders. Merz, when I was around your age, I-" he continued, before stopping and shaking his head. "Actually, I'm not the best example. Anyways, it's ultimately up to you, so don't hold up on the group's account. It'll hold together... Maybe."

Just how old was Pete, anyway? Best not to bother him about that, even if it, along with just about any other topic, seemed a better choice than this one. As for the group holding together if he and Malik left, Amon really wasn't sure. On the one hand, without him around, overthinking simple matters, and ignoring more complicated ones, maybe the group would fare better. On the other hand, Joanna and Hoshi still weren't assuming anything close to leadership roles.

"I just don't want to keep screwing everything up," Amon murmured.

"Well, first thing's to stop agonizing over past "mistakes"," Pete said. "Everyone makes them, but you have to try and learn from them, then move on. The only way you'd screw up would be by not making the effort to try and avoid those mistakes again, which isn't a problem from what I'm seeing."

"In other words, it's fine that you're thinking over your actions, but again, you're going too hard on yourself," the Ursian man finished, simply. "If you're really not sure of yourself, you should maybe ask Malik or one of the others in the group. But for what it's worth, I think you did what you could and made the best of it."

Amon and Malik had gone over the issue, several times, in fact. They hadn't made any progress since their first little sancturan meeting, and Fizza's occasional input didn't help to push them in one direction or the other. All in all, Amon felt lost, Malik looked to be increasingly distracted with his investigation into the captain's emblem piece, and Fizza had no personal stake in the sanctuary problem at this point.

"Malik and I," Amon tried to find the right wording, "have made as much progress as we can with the information we have. I've thought about asking Joanna about it, but I'm not sure where that would end up."

"It'd get you answers, though if you ask her for advice, I would take it with a grain of salt," Pete said, frowning for a moment. "That reminds me, though. Mind if I ask you about the Emblem? Not about your, uh, ability, but its abilities and whatnot in general."

The emblem's abilities in general? At first blush, the list of things the emblem couldn't do seemed shorter than the things it could. With the various conditions involved, however, it might simply be better to focus on those if an explanation was needed. "Well, I don't know everything about it ... but Nyx did give me a good idea of how it all should work." Not to mention the strange case of the Regalia, which hadn't manifested quite like a normal ability. Raquel, or rather whatever that woman in his dream was, had pestered him to find a new mission, and in desperation, Amon had told her to help him restore Sanctuary. Given the way things turned out, that was probably exactly the thing she didn't want him to pick ...

"Are you worried about what was said during the meeting, or did you really just want to understand it in general?" Amon still wasn't confident he could do the emblem justice trying to explain it. It'd taken him nearly this long to even articulate it.

"I don't need a complete explanation, just enough so that I can decide what I want to do going forward," Pete said, before pausing to think about Amon's next question.

"It's a little of both," he said, eventually. "While I think that Bert's been clunked on the head too many times, he has a point in that I don't know much about the emblem. Besides that, I think that the only way to make sense of this whole mess as a whole, without going mad, is to learn about and understand the emblem. Only after that can I really make a call."

"... alright," Amon nodded, trying to come up with some analogies that would help more than hurt his explanation. In the end, said analogies hadn't done much. It turned out to be much easier to explain the situation, and the emblem itself, to Pete in terms of the artifact having its own goals, and working his way through from there. With the girl in his dreams serving as an avatar of sorts, it was a natural viewpoint to take.

While the explanation hadn't left Pete in a confused stupor, it hadn't given Amon any new ideas, either, not in relation to the group's goals, or Aisha's. "I haven't spoken to her since we left Urquium," he said, picturing the Raquel lookalike from his dream, "... even when I do, again, I'm not sure what I'll say to her." On the one hand, he felt as though he needed her help. On the other, he had nothing but negative feelings with regard to what was supposedly his emblem ability. It felt like nothing of the sort.

After Amon had finished explaining the scenario surrounding the emblem and its goals, Pete had sat on his bed silent, thinking about what to do. His thoughts were interrupted by Amon's remark about not knowing what to say to the Emblem figure.

"You could ask her why Aisha has control over the summoning part of your ability, for one," Pete said, pushing his own dilemma aside for the moment. "Though, she was right in a sense, as the ability did save your life. You could also, I guess, figure out whether or not the group as a whole should use the emblem. It's clear that we needed it back at the port, but, well, if the emblem can appear like that then she should at least be able to have an opinion in the argument after the battle. She could also maybe help a little with your choice."

"She--the girl in the dream," Amon clarified briefly, "wants to 'help us,' so I'm pretty sure she wants us to use the emblem one way or another." There was no telling if that was actually a good idea or not. One could argue that the emblem's representative was on their side, and so her advice was well intentioned, but it was something else to say that making everyone emblem wielders was an inherently good idea. Whether or not the girl had an agenda of her own, she almost certainly had a bias toward the group relying on the emblem, which cast a shadow over her input in Amon's eyes.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt to see what she thinks," he admitted, "but I'm pretty sure I know how she feels about all of this, already. We still have to convince Joanna and Liam to work with us if we want to use the emblem."

"Fair enough. As for the avians- well, I doubt there'll be a way to convince them, if they were so adamant after that battle," Pete said, frowning. "I don't even know what they're planning at this point, especially since they've only joined up with this band since we were all being chased by the Wrathites. And, uh, I can't really see eye to eye with either of them, to be honest."

That was history's lesson with regard to the avians, it seemed. The dark avians tended to be flexible in some things, but true avians were rigid. That was why the sancturans had opted to go after Valdimarr's piece of the emblem. Any other route seemed like a recipe for disaster within the group. "Well, they're not in charge," Amon noted, "they just have our best magic in their care, and I can't do anything about that without becoming the bad guy ..."

"Kind of true, but we haven't really had a single 'leader'. In any case, don't worry about that scenario. If push comes to shove, I'll play the bad guy," Pete said, frowning for a moment. "In any case, thanks for catching me up. Now I have enough to make a call."

Slightly ominous, but Amon hadn't known Pete to be especially reckless, or even all that aggressive. "You're welcome, but ... let's be sure there's no other way to handle this before trying to force anything."

"I'm fine with that," Pete said, as he went to open the door. "Just not with waiting until someone in this little group dies or is about to die before forcing it. Anyways, I've kept you long enough. I'll try to figure out something to deal with those sailors by tomorrow."

Fair enough, Amon thought, heading out the door. "You might want to talk with Malik about that, actually," the sancturan said, turning around in the hall, "He's helping Lexi run the ship, but he can't be everywhere at once." The actual term was 'first mate', even though it was a temporary position Lexi had given Amon's fellow sancturan on a whim. The respect due that title was still being cultivated, however. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind having more help." Amon would have volunteered himself if he wasn't one of the main sources of the chaos. It seemed his job these days was simply hiding from certain people on the ship.

"I'll keep that in mind," Pete said, already debating going to see Malik. "Stay safe in the meantime."

"I'll try," Amon said, opting not to make any promises in light of recent events.

 

Gearing Up (Day 4)

Spoiler

After the events in the hold, it was a lot easier for Pete to decide what he wanted to do, and so the very next day, instead of putting his bandana on, he removed the headgear's rune and pocketed it, discarding the cloth afterwards. After strapping his bow, axe, and coin bag back to his belt, the mercenary headed up to the poop deck and over to the wagon. There, he found his least favorite merchant sitting on the back edge of the wagon as she cleaned her pistol.

"Open for business?" Pete asked Greta, as he pulled the rune out of his pocket to ready it.

Greta only glanced up from the metal bit she was wiping off briefly. "Probably shouldn't be til I've got my guard dog here back in one piece, but sure." She stood up from the wagon's driver seat and hopped down onto the deck. Patting off her hands, she said, "What'd ya need, Pete?"

"Put your gun together if you're that nervous," Pete said, with a shrug. "I'm mainly here to do some buying and selling. Mostly buying, though."

With his free hand, the Ursian man drew his axe off of his belt and propped it against the wagon's wheel, before also removing his bow and leaning it beside the axe. "It doesn't matter what order we do those in, though selling first might be faster."

While Pete was putting down his items for sale, Jam walked to the wagon for her own business. She carried her own coin purse, bulkier from the night before. Her dance practices were quite the morale booster to the crew. She learned to dance to their sea shanties, resulting in a number of tips. A happy crew also proved far less murderous to the rest of the group. With her new coin, Jam hoped to enhance her own skill set.

When she saw Pete putting down his arsenal, Jam grew concerned. She saw how frustrated he got with Bert and Shad during the meeting, but hopefully not enough to give up on them.

"Pete, right?" Jam asked. "Selling your stuff? Hope you're not giving up on us."

One of the nomads- Jam, if he remembered correctly- had walked up and asked Pete if he was giving up on the group. Probably because he was selling his two only weapons.

"Nope. As much as some people might want me to quit, y'all are still stuck with me," Pete said, smirking. "I'm just changing things up." 

Jam nodded, thinking how awkward it would be for Pete to hang out on the boat after leaving the group.

"What did you have in mind? Maybe a sword? Or you could pick up a magic tome. I bet no one would see that coming!"

"Yeah, uh, no tomes for me," Pete said. "As for what I'm getting, you'll see."

Seeing that her quip about her gun had been taken somewhat the wrong way, Greta initially crossed her arms and scowled in response. Jamilla's arrival dealt with much of the rising tension, however, and left the merchant wondering if she should even bother clarifying that her fear was of the Darklighter's crew and not Pete in particular.  It honestly might not be worth it, all things considered, and it wasn't as if his attitude was hurting anything anyway.

"No tome's a shame," Greta feigned disappointment, "I'm sure Angelica could've taught ya a good spell or two. Anyway, I take it from the sound'a things you're just lookin' for a better axe?" Pete hadn't denied Jamilla's sword guess, only the tome, but he still struck the merchant as someone looking to 'upgrade' and not necessarily change his style.

Pete shook his head.

"I don't think anyone wants to see me vaulting around like that woman," he said, dismissing the thought. "No, I'm not getting another axe. Like I said, I'll be mostly buying stuff. Do you want to handle that before I sell my old gear off?"

Meanwhile, all Jam could think about was Pete prancing about with wind magic. For whatever reason, he was wearing one of Angelica's dresses. She stayed quiet, silently disgusted of hairy man legs flying through the air.

So he wasn't upgrading, after all. Maybe Lexi's crew were far easier reads than the types of people Greta normally dealt with, after all. Of course, Pete was no ordinary customer, himself. Or at least he didn't give that impression. "Sure, ya can browse, first. Probably a good idea, actually. Wouldn't want ya to sell what works and not find a good replacement."

Greta's deal with the captain was working out so far, but there hadn't been a particularly vast selection of weapons and armor for her to sell. Lexi's adventures tended to result in the acquisition of special runes and imbued items. There was very little in the way of standard equipment to be found on the ship that wouldn't have to be made by removing the runic components first. Thus there were very few standard items for Greta to buy, sell, and trade. To get her hands on anything close, she had to deal with the crew, instead. At the very least, her inventory was once again extant, if not respectable.

Pete abruptly pocketed the rune, took the bow and axe back with each hand, then hooked the axe back onto his belt.

"Alright, then," he said, as he attached the bow as well, and started to head towards the back of the wagon. As he clambered on, the Ursian man continued talking. "This won't take long for most of it, so you can stay outside. Unless you want to come in to make sure I'm not shoplifting, or whatever."

"No go'head. I'll just send Angelica to teach ya those spells in a 'crash course' if ya feel like makin' off with somethin'," Greta countered wryly.

"Hah!" Pete's voice boomed from the wagon, before the clanging of metal and wood being moved came from the wagon. After a few minutes, the mercenary came out, with a glaive, leaned up at an angle, in his left hand, a recurve bow in his right hand, and a sheathed saber added to his now cluttered belt.

"Here's the weapons, I'll be right back with the armor and shield," he said, after he leaned the selected arms against the side of the wagon and started to head to the back once again. 

Jam was finally knocked out of her thoughts when Pete set down the glaive, a very ornate melee weapon. It looked like the result of a lance having a baby with a sword. She touched the handle, curious about the exotic piece.

"Where did this come from?" Jam asked Greta. In all the time she helped do inventory, the dancer didn't recall seeing such a weapon. "This lance-sword thing's impressive!"

"Got it from Lexi," Greta said, shrugging. "You wouldn't believe how much weird stuff she's got on this ship. Some of those runes really ought'a be in a museum, but don't tell her or anyone else I said that."

Naturally, Jam proceeded to take the glaive in both hands to test it out. It was quite heavy to her, but not enough to keep her from trying some moves. She started with a forward jab, following up with some swipes. The swipes were short and slow; the dancer didn't have the muscle or training to effectively use the weapon. That didn't stop her from making swooshing sounds as if the bladed weapon moved effectively.

"Fwah! Swoosh! Flink!"

More clattering could be heard coming from within the wagon, this time as if multiple pieces of metal were being carried. Moments later, Pete emerged, carrying a stand of plate armor, set over chainmail, with both of his hands. After carefully stepping off of the wagon and onto the deck- easier said than done given how little he could see- the man set the stand down, then stepped back up into the wagon. After a few more seconds, he hopped back out once more, with a matching rune-equipped heater shield in his hands. Only then, once everything was out, did Pete stop to see what Jam was doing.

He sighed.

Greta was glad Jamilla was enjoying herself, but ... "Be careful with that, would ya? I don't wanna lose a sale 'cause ya whacked somethin' too hard with it." Looking at Pete and his finds, she said, "It figures ya went for the more normal stuff. So, are ya goin' full on Ursian knight or somethin'?" For some odd reason that didn't seem as inappropriate to her as she felt it should have.

"It's not going to break that easily, but yeah, don't hit the wall," Pete warned, as he put the heater shield next to the weapons. "More like back to it. No horse to work with, of course, but the armor's still good. Having to dodge blows most of the time wasn't really working out."

He took his coin bag and offered it to Greta. "Anyways, there should be about four-hundred gold in there."

"Hey, I know what I'm doing!" Jam retorted to Greta and Pete. "Me and Shawn played with the cheap stuff all the time. while you were off procuring. Boy, I remember when our biggest worry was sorting inventory. Now we have wars and god powers to worry about."

Jam held the glaive vertically, finished with playing around. She had a look at Pete's purchase. In total, it looked like everything weighed more than she did.

"Then again, it looks like Pete got enough stuff to fight this war all by himself! Do knights usually carry this much stuff?"

Shawn? That wasn't a name that sounded familiar to Pete. Maybe he had been a mercenary Greta and Jam had worked with? Before he could ask, the latter had asked if knights usually carried this much equipment.

"If you're including the gear I haven't sold yet, no," the Ursian man said as he allowed a smile to appear on his face. A small smile, but it was there. "Otherwise, they often carry more weapons or other things, like satchels of food and waterskins. I even used to know a guy who would carry three spears the size of that glaive and two tomes everywhere he went. A real piece of work, that one was..."

He trailed off, frowning, before eventually returning to the subject. "'Course, it's easier if you have a mount like a horse or a pegasus, because they can help carry some of the gear outside of battle. They're both kind of expensive to maintain, though."

While Pete addressed Jamilla's question about knights, Greta addressed his payment. Counting such a large amount without the proper sorting tools would take entirely too long, and although she didn't want to take most people at their word, she decided to do so in this instance. No matter what anyone on the ship tried to pull, Greta had a few days to track them down and rectify the situation before they reached land.

"Not gonna ask where you've been hidin' all this, but I'll take it. You're also sellin' your old gear, though right? You'll probably be gettin'a little bit back," Greta grinned. A little bit out of four hundred wouldn't be anything noteworthy, but she felt Pete would have known that coming into this. With that warning out of the way, she stepped over to have a look at the axe Pete was selling. "So how old is this?"

"Axe's about four months old. It's seen some use," Pete said, with a smirk. "The bow is half a year old, since it was a replacement for my old one. "

He once again produced the rune, and offered it to the merchant. "This is as old as the axe. Bought them both at the same time."

When Pete mentioned the three lances, she instinctively looked to the glaive in her hand. It was a wonder these guys ever got around at all.

"Gee, with all this gear, how do keep from falling? I figured if you're tipped over in battle, you're finished!"

"They have to pin you down to get you, most of the time," Pete said, with a shrug. "And that's easier said than done, since the armor in whole's only like fifty pounds, and it feels lighter when you're fighting. Plus, you can always ditch a weapon if it's cumbersome. That's why you bring spares."

Greta mulled over the ages Pete had listed off. None were meaningfully depreciated from what she could tell, not based on how long they'd been in use. The rune was also a special case. Some of Greta's research on them--mandatory given the stock she'd gotten from Lexi--suggested that rune depreciation was almost nonexistent, 'almost' being the operative word. A rune's value lay not only in its ability to function, but also its ability to be used as a template for duplication. Runes began to lose value was when they existed in a form that wasn't easily duplicated, or were a part of an item that would, or was already undergoing some form of decay. Runes written or engraved on parchment were some of the more frequently cited cases of runes losing value over time due to the organic material.

"Oh alright, I'll be generous, then," Greta said, deciding to go a bit more than halfway on her buying prices. "I'll give ya fifty for the axe, and sixty for the bow. I'm still workin' out how much that rune'd cost, though. What's it do?"

One hundred and ten back already? Greta was being rather generous. Not that Pete was about to complain. Even after taking enough gold to survive on for a month or so, it looked like he'd be able to send a decent amount home.

"The rune's meant to act as a ward against magical attacks," the man said, as he unhooked and handed the axe, then bow over to Greta with his free hand. "The original seller recommended that I solder it into one of my weapons, but  I decided to keep it on my person. Easier to maintain if need be."

While Pete and Greta were finalizing their deal, Jam set the glaive down and went into the wagon to grab her own things. Luckily, the contents were organized in a similar fashion to how things were in the old wagon. She was able to find exactly what she needed. When she exited the wagon, Jam was carrying (in her arms) three bottles of some liquid and dozens of leather belts, holsters, and bags.

After setting the bottles down, Jam started trying out the various leather goods. As she was draping a large strap across her upper body, she was trying to use the reflection off the head of the glaive to see how she looked. This wasn't going to work.

"Hey Greta? You got a mirror by any chance?"

"A mirror?" Greta asked, perplexed, "Nah, sorry, Jam. I think there's one on the wall in the infirmary. Might also be one in the captain's quarters ...? It's hard to remember where stuff is when you never needed it before."

Though she'd come up short in her memory on mirrors, Pete's description of the rune narrowed down the price range considerably. "Lemme see that rune in a sec," she said as she placed the axe and bow with the other weapons. She finished quickly and was back outside in a few seconds ready to inspect the rune. If it didn't look terribly difficult to duplicate, then she could offer a similar price to what she had for the axe and bow.

"I don't remember one in or around the infirmary, but, then again, I didn't exactly step inside the room," Pete said, remembering the events of the previous day. Once Greta returned from storing his old weapons, he offered her the rune to examine. As she did that, the mercenary glanced at Jam, who was apparently looking for a leather accessory rather than armor. "Taking up message-carrying?"

"Actually," Jam replied, pointing to each of the three bottles, "Antidote, elixir, and revival potion. If we're messing with gods on top of Corvus, we're gonna need more healers. I'm not exactly handy with a staff, so this will have to do."

Jam tossed the leather band back in the pile and took a belt. She put it around her waist, but wasn't quite satisfied with the color.

"Or course it won't do me any good if I can't find a way to carry all of them. I want to heal without looking like a walking apothecary."

"'Yeah," Pete agreed, frowning. "well, usually a combat medic brings a thick leather satchel, because the medicine isn't going to do you as much good if you get knocked off of your feet and the vials break on landing. Up to you, though."

As he waited for Greta to look over his rune, the mercenary took the helmet from his armor and held it in front of him to examine. The eyeholes were rectangular and large, wide enough to maintain a good field of vision, but not so wide so as to let most sword's points through.

"If I'm knocked off my feet, I've got bigger problems than spilt potion," Jam retorted. Still, Pete had a point. It would not be fun if she were covered in potion and broken glass. Fortunately, the solution to this dilemma was in the dancer's vicinity. Jam turned to resident alcoholic Greta.

"Greta, do you have any extra flasks around? I think those are sturdy enough to store the potions. Might help me choose one of these holsters too."

... fifty maybe? That felt a bit generous but--"Flasks?" Greta returned from her price mulling and tried to retrieve the information. She knew right away that she'd picked up some flasks, but only thanks to Lexi's crew doing business with her. So many of them had been short on gold that they came ready to trade, instead. Greta personally didn't care much for her small flask and bottle collection, but she knew they might prove useful as inventory items later. Sure enough ...

"Yeah, there's a crate I've been keepin' those in. If ya wanna get one yourself, just look for the tan crate. It's a lot lighter than the others." It looked like it was made out of something flimsy like plywood, which was why the merchant hadn't stacked anything on top of it. "Should be by itself with nothin' on top of it."

Addressing Pete next, she said, "I can do forty-five for this one. I might be able to go higher with a demonstration but barrin' that ... forty-five." She'd been generous enough, really. Without a demonstration, going all the way up to fifty or higher felt like pointless favoritism, at least with the previous two purchases in mind.

"I'm fine with forty five, but if you want a demonstration we can do one," Pete said, tallying up the total. One fifty five... That was more than what he was expecting back, to be honest. Not that he was going to admit that to Greta. But speaking of the merchant, he had another question for her.

"Mind if I put the armor on inside the wagon? I'm not keen on carrying it, on the rack, down to my quarters," he asked, sheepishly.

Meanwhile, Jam took Greta's directions and headed straight into the wagon. She got on her knees in front of the flimsy box and peeked inside. There were indeed plenty of flasks. As she was digging through the inventory, Jam grabbed a metal rectangular one. It wasn't just the shininess of it that piqued her curiosity as she shook the flask.

This one still had liquid inside of it.

Jam figured there was some sort of alcohol left over from a previous customer. She had never tried it herself: the convent wasn't exactly a big proponent of alcohol. The dancer was curious why people would drink the stuff. This wasn't Greta's personal stash, so she probably wouldn't miss it. No one was around to stop her. In an act of rebellion, Jam took the flask to her lips and took in its contents.

Jam almost immediately started coughing as it went down. Her expectations of something sweet were met with the actual taste of corn and...wood? She couldn't describe it any other way: it tasted like what lumber smelled like. The bitter look on her face stared back at the flask that betrayed her.

"How could Greta drink this stuff?"

The wagon didn't seem like the best changing area, but if Pete was going to head down to a more appropriate place to put on his new gear, he might as well head back to his room and do it there. "Sure, go'head," Greta shrugged, "there ain't a lot'a room back there, though. Not since Lexi gave me some items to work with and I opened the business back up."

"I'll try not to stab myself while I'm in there, then," Pete said, as he picked up the armor rack and once again put it onto  the wagon. Before he clambered back on, though, he remembered that Jam was still inside.

"You alright in there?" he asked, as from what he could see, the girl was coughing.

Jam immediately closed the flask and grabbed two others of similar size. As she gathered her items, Jam looked over to see that it was just Pete.

"I'm fine," Jam started as she came up with a lie. "It's just pretty dusty in that corner. 'Cuse me!"

The dancer slid past Pete as she headed out of the wagon. She headed back to her pile of holsters. It didn't take long to narrow down her choice: a thigh holster capable of holding all three flasks. She wasn't sure who had a need for that kind of capacity, but she was glad it existed. Jam took the holster, the vials of potions, and the three flasks to Greta for payment.

"Alright, I'm ready for checkout."  Jam announced.

"Okay what all do ya have here?" Greta asked, already counting up the potions, flasks, and trying to price the holster in her head. "Those flasks are all empty, right? Some'a those guys didn't finish'em before they added'em to the pile, so ... may wanna check first."

"Oh right," Jam responded timidly, her eyes quickly darted to the flasks. "I didn't bother to check. Not that I have any business in any- *cough* "

Another cough escaped before she could finish. The dancer simply took one of the flasks as if nothing had happened. It was the one she had previously partaken, so there was no loss in disposing of it. She opened the bottle and smelled inside.

"Ugh," Jam backed her head in disgust, as if she didn't already know she didn't like the particular beverage. "This one's got some. What is this stuff anyways?"

Despite trying to fake through her discovery as if she did not try the alcohol in the wagon, Jam sincerely wanted to know what it was in case it was offered.

"Liquor, probably," Greta shrugged. It might also be rum, but she'd run into a fair variety of spirits, already. It was just as likely to be something common as not. "I was gonna pour it all out but I figured I'd sort'em first, then bottle'em and see if I could sell it all back to'em or somethin'." A bit conniving but they were the dumb bastards chucking quarter full flasks into her inventory and making off with their gold.

"Let's see ... one-two-three ..." Greta began counting up Jamilla's items, the pricing for the goods increasing with each one.

"You know, I could give you back the potion bottles once I fill the flasks, if that helps you any," Jam suggested. Granted, they would need somewhere to store the liquor while she made the switch. Anything to save off the increasing total though.

Something about the way Jam was acting struck Pete as odd, but he decided to dismiss it and stepped onto the wagon, pulling the armor stand further inside. A clattering could be heard as he first removed the armor from the stand piece by , and put them aside so he could get at the chainmail.

"Lookin' for a discount?" Greta asked. Although the bottles hadn't been factored into the prices for the potions, Greta still had something of a price range in mind for them. There wasn't a market aboard the Darklighter for bottles at the moment, but as long as she had the space for them, she could always just hold onto them and use them again when she restocked on vulneraries and the like.

"That should be about eighty-five," Greta concluded; the holster was what had the price so high, since the various potions  and flasks didn't amount to much more than twenty-five or so, minus the bottles.

"Deal," Jam replied, pulling out her bag of tips. She pulled the appropriate number of coins and placed them with Greta. There was still the matter of the flask contents. 

"So, you want me to take these flasks and put the liquor in new bottles or..."

"Yeah," Greta nodded, "best to get that outta the way."

Jam nodded and immediately headed into the wagon. She didn't realize that Pete was changing armor inside. Fortunately, he wasn't completely undressed. The lack of the shirt did reveal that his bulk wasn't all armor. One would have to be in order to carry all that metal gear. The act of simply wearing the weight must also contribute to his muscular build. The dancer found herself impressed.

"Whoa there," Jam exclaimed, giggling at the potentially embarrassing moment. "Lumi's a lucky girl. How often does she catch this show?"

Pete had stripped his upper body and was about to put the chainmail undershirt on, when Jam arrived, apparently just realizing that he was changing. He looked up at the girl as he lifted the mail over his head with his two arms

"Not often," he said, as he slipped his head through the top of the chain armor, and pulled it down over his back and chest. "We're not like what you're thinking, at all."

"Oh, I'm just teasing you," Jam replied, moving further into the wagon. She went over to the box of bottles and grabbed three more. This time, Jam made sure these bottles were empty.

"Carry on," Jam added as she left the wagon. She rejoined Greta and started emptying the flasks into their separate bottles.

"That Pete sure is built," Jam told Greta as she organized the bottles and flasks. "You think all soldiers are like that?"

"Well, not the mages," Greta said, picturing a more generic looking, uniformed version of Shadrak. "Ya got a thing for big muscles, Jam?" Greta teased. She was in a pretty good mood all things considered. It was nice to have customers that weren't bitter about the Basilisk incident or just trying to see if they could entice her into bed.

"Yeah, yeah," Pete said, not entirely convinced as he picked up his greaves and strapped them on. Then came the cuisses, and the faulds. While he was putting the armor slowly, he had to make sure that it fit properly. And besides, he was in no rush for the time being. 

"Well, I appreciate hard work that happens to result in big muscles," Jam elaborated, trying not to sound too superficial. "I'm just saying...Pete works hard."

Jam finished with switching the liquids, leaving her with empty flasks soon to be filled with her new potions. It was nice to be candid about the other members of their party without consequence. 

"Heh, it's fun being on the other side of the counter for once. We should do this more often."

"It is?" Greta asked, sounding surprised. "Well ... glad you're enjoyin' yourself, then," she giggled. "Come back any time if you need anythin' or want me to sell somethin' for ya."

After a few more minutes, Pete had managed to get the whole suit on, save the helmet. It was little loose around the upper body, so he could've worn his shirt underneath.  With a frown, he took the old shirt and stuffed it (with some difficulty) down into his chestplate. Then, he took his helmet and made his way out of the wagon, donning it as he stepped onto the deck. From there, the armored mercenary moved around the vehicle's corner and picked up the recurve bow and sabre, strapping them onto opposing hips for the time being.

"How's counting the change going?" Pete asked Greta, as he adjusted the bow's position a little more. He probably should've brought the bow sling up, in retrospect.

Greta grunted, apparently not having made much progress as of yet. Fortunately, she could be very fast once she was properly focused. "Give me a minute," she said, deciding to count up Jamilla's sum first since it was the smaller of the two payments. She had moved onto Pete's payment within twenty seconds and divided out the returns for what she'd bought from him along the way, allowing her to separate that portion out as she went along.

Scooping that into a separate bag halfway through counting, she set it aside for him and tried to wrap things up. "There ya go."

"Thanks," Pete said, as he grabbed the bag and replaced it onto his belt. It felt hefty enough to be able to hold the folks over. Of course, the problem would be getting the bag of gold to Sanctis, but the Ursian man wasn't worrying about that just yet.  In any case, once he was satisfied with the money bag's position, he adjusted the angle of his sabre, then picked up the heater shield with his left hand and the glaive with his right hand.

"Right, well, I'm going to go walk around to get used to the weight of this,"  Pete said, as he started to walk away. "You know which boat I'll be on, if you need to send me on a sudden flying lesson."

"Ya could swim over and hide with the Ursians and you'll still be flyin' in no time," Greta teased. "Anyway, take care."

"Tempting, but I'll pass," Pete said, as he walked away. "See you around."

With that, Jam waved back to Greta and followed Pete as she headed back below deck.

 

Another day, another crisis. Several Neviskotian and Ursian vessels had docked in Arugai ahead of the two ships, and no doubt were going to try and hunt the group -or maybe just Amon- down as soon as they left the dock. In other words, business as usual, or so it seemed to Pete as he packed his belongings and headed up to the main deck. After adjusting his helmet so the visor was up, he started towards the two people he wanted to talk to.

"Hey, Amon, Joanna, could I have a word?" he half-shouted towards the sancturan and the avian woman.

Edited by Snike
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More sand than sea, he's the new First mate?!

 

 

The climate of this seafaring adventure had been quite turbulent, violent as the waves encroaching upon the deck in a wild storm, full of bickering and in-fighting, with no lack of regular fighting to boot, mind. Still, a few things of note were on Angelica's mind. Firstly, something that had been nagging at her since they had set sail, and she'd been given the chance to notice it... there was the distinct feeling of more than one piece of the Emblem on the Darklighter Idolus. She couldn't prove anything, obviously, but Angelica's senses and intuition had always been sharp, and she placed abject faith in them to keep her safe and in the know. 

If it had been just that, she might have let it slide. Since this mystery Emblem, or at least something resembling it, had only made itself known on board the ship, it had to be with one of the crew, which wouldn't have been a pain worth pursuing, except that the ship had a new first mate, who had been starting to put down the foot of the law, and had gotten overly close to the Captain...

"Malik, do you have a minute? I'd like to talk to you?" Angelica asked, the man in question walking past her, right on time. It was odd enough for Malik to even be considered for such a position, as he seemed to have no relevant experience, but to accept as well? It was all a bit too suspicious, especially with the prospect of another piece of the Fire Emblem on board.

"Huh?" Malik came to a halt. Part of him was hoping Angelica wasn't about to inform him about some secret problem he would have to deal with on top of everything else going on. "Did you need something?"

"Oh, nothing in particular, really. Just thought it would be nice to take a moment to chat away from prying eyes and ears, First Mate." Angelica replied with a light smile, tapping her foot gently against the wooden plank of the deck as she pushed herself off of the wall she had been resting on as she stepped a bit closer to Malik, leaning forward towards him ever so slightly.

"You just finished taking care of some ruffians, so they should be quiet for a bit, right?"

"You'd be surprised," Malik said, scowling. The only good thing about these fights were that they had a very narrow range of causes: Someone was either pissed off at Lexi, Amon, Malik himself, someone who was advocating for the former, or the chef. That last one sounded almost suicidal to Malik but he knew there'd been an argument in the kitchen at least once during this trip.

"Alright, where to?" he asked.

"With this crew? I don't think anything would surprise me." Angelica replied with a chuckle, glad that Malik seemed to be on board, at least to start with. That made things easier. 

"Well, if you don't have anywhere else in mind, we can use the room I've set up in. All it took was pummeling them with enough crowd control to tucker out a small army and they cleared out the best quarters on the ship, aside from the Captain's~ How nice of them."

"'Nice,' sure," Malik gave a slightly unamused look, "Just don't kill or maim anyone. Anyway, lead the way."

"Perish the thought, Malik. I made a point to make sure that no one got maimed... well, aside from the one guy who got shot, but that was not my fault." Angelica replied coyly, before walking off in the direction of her temporary room, Malik following behind her. Opening the door as they arrived, Angelica held it open for the Sancturan.

"Go ahead."

Malik stepped into the room and crossed his arms while he waited for Angelica to turn it into a proper private conversation. That of course, had him wondering what she wanted to talk about that needed privacy. This isn't about Lexi's annoying crew, is it?"

"Less about Lexi's crew, and more about Lexi herself... among other things." Angelica replied, sitting down on the bottom bunk and crossing her legs, laying back a bit in leisure.

"Amon has been really distant, lately. A lot happened, obviously, but it's still rather extreme from him, or so it seems to me... plus, you've been real chummy with the Captain for the last little while." Angelica noted, looking Malik over a bit, sizing up any reactions that might confirm her suspicions.

"It just seemed a bit odd, to me. As far as I know, you don't have much of a history as a sailor... I didn't take you as the type to accept that kind of offer. Unless you're... interested in Captain Lexi?"

Interested? Well at least she was easy enough to get along with. Malik never felt like he might upset Lexi with a mere opinion. Oddly enough, his brute honesty had gotten him the first mate offer in the first place. "I'm just looking into some possibilities. There's no way this ship should have survived everything it went through in Urquium, but here it is."

"Besides," Malik uncrossed his arms and placed them on his hips, "with some actual authority it'll be easier to look after Amon. Our group needs a representative, and I can do that just fine." He'd heard some of Lexi's stories--horror stories by the crew's standards--of her grandfather and how he'd kept things orderly. He could fall back on those if the threats failed.

"She's a good woman, so I don't blame you if you are." Angelica continued lazily, until Malik said what she had been waiting to hear... so he had his suspicions as well, which framed his actions rather obviously, in Angelica's eyes... not that her ribbing was entirely unfounded, either.

"All that aside, I think you're onto something. This ship seems oddly lucky, that much is true. And I think you and I, we might have similar suspicions." The mage continued, swirling the bed sheet beneath her fingertips, gently lifting it with an artificial gust of wind.

"I don't know how... magically inclined you are, Malik, but Joanna gives off a very... unique magical signature. It's unlike anything you've ever felt, if you can feel it. Would you believe it if I told you that once we had left port and settled down enough to breath, that on this boat, I can feel that same signature twice?" Angelica asked, her lips curling into a grin. First, pointing her finger towards the stern of the ship, and then angling it upward, towards the main deck.

"One is coming from below... the infirmary, probably. The other... well, peculiar as it may be, it seems to be coming from the helm."

"So you think," Malik glanced toward his mental placement of the ship's helm, "the captain and Joanna have something important in common. Something magical." Maybe that was why Shadrak was hanging around her on rare occasions, too. No, he wasn't subtle enough for something like what Malik was trying to do. "... a piece of the emblem, basically."

"That I do, Malik. It seemed strange to me that no one else was investigating... at first. Amon was understandably out of it, but I'm far from our only mage, and we know of others with... an interest. But a woman's intuition seldom lies... and here you are." Angelica replied, sitting back up straight as she finished her piece.

"I just wanted to make sure we were on the same track, Malik. I'm also concerned about Amon, but I imagine the shell-shock will take time to pass on that one." The mage continued, before donning a more chipper grin.

"It's a good look for you, you know. Being around Captain Lexi. You might not notice it, but you seem happy, moreso than whatever act you're trying to put on. I think you two have chemistry~" Angelica finally added, with a light giggle.

"Eh," Malik waved off the comment--compliment?, figuring Lexi would get along with anyone who was willing to bully her crew into submission for her. Granted, it was a job that had its moments. Malik doubted his group had many people that would actually enjoy disciplining others, but he was one of them. It was just the reasons behind the fights, and how pointless and consistent they had been. Hopefully things would slow back down, soon.

"Anyway, yeah, I agree, she's probably a wielder, too. I still want to learn as much as I can before we reach Kigen." By then though, he'd have to decide how to proceed, because Joanna wasn't making this emblem situation any easier for the sancturans and their queen turned hostage. "Who knows ... maybe she'll help us out." Judging by what he knew of Lexi's past thus far, probably not. He just might have to steal it, after all.

"She's already done so once, so it's worth a try. It seems like you've got things under control, so I'll leave the Captain to you." Angelica replied, standing up from the bunk bed and giving Malik a light tap on the shoulder.

"Don't hesitate to let me know if you need anything, aye? As for me, that's all I really had to say, at least for now. Just try not to relish the discipline too much, Malik. I've seen many a man fall prey to authority. Once you unlock your inner sadist, it never goes away, you know?"

Malik was a little tempted to call on the mage's services when dealing with some of the larger scuffles, but this crew had a very clear and antiquated view of the sexes, and at best, relying on Angelica would make his own authority even more hollow than those louts were already pretending it was. Not that he wouldn't bite the bullet and call on her if a deck-wide skirmish broke out. She'd probably insert herself at that point regardless and no one would know whether he was involved or not. "It shouldn't get that bad," Malik said, wincing slightly, "but if I feel like 'talks' are heading that way, I'll send for you."

Her warning about what was essentially a power trip was a little amusing. Malik understood her meaning, though. Mansur immediately came to mind, that military man that wouldn't stand for dissent. Malik certainly didn't plan on becoming like him. "Don't worry, 'Sadist Malik' is only interested in hurting stupid people, like Lexi's idiot hires. I guess he wouldn't mind taking out some of his stress on the fallen, either."

"So we hope, but we didn't expect the first near-mutiny, either. Still, they seem to have gotten a bit less rowdy since you started, so it's working at least somewhat." Angelica replied, noting Malik's... less than confident response.

"Well, I hope for the sake of those around you that you're right. It can be tough to find a girl who embraces the hard M life style, in these trying times. Maybe the Captain is like that, she'd have to be at least a bit to let things get this messy..."

"She's a good person ... I think, but she's a terrible leader," Malik shook his head, "I almost felt morally obligated to take the offer. It's okay, though. I'll get these men in order by the time we reach Kigen. I'm not sure how she's going to manage them after that, but I guess that's her problem." It would likely be an insurmountable problem if she lost her emblem piece, but Malik wasn't ready to think too hard on that issue, just yet.

"Well, I wish you the best of luck, Malik. You'll need it. Well, with a lofty goal like that, I suppose I shouldn't keep you any longer. Don't be a stranger... oh, but make sure to knock, I'm sharing this room with Eva." Angelica replied, a light giggle escaping her lips along with a coy grin as she made whatever implications Malik wanted to draw from her statement.

"Sharing?" Malik winced again, though this time out of second hand embarrassment. If the men causing trouble around here figured out that the women here preferred each other to any of them, they'd lose their minds. On the other hand, Angelica seemed to be moving awfully fast there. Malik wasn't one to give relationship advice, though ... or take it for that matter. "Yeah ... I'll be sure to ... do that, assuming I need to talk again."

 
Edited by Ether
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So, this is Kigen.

Mavis looked out from the deck of the boat, silently observing the homeland and last known location of Seoung-Lei. Had she not been on a hunt, perhaps she could have taken the time to take in the sights and experience the culture. But she was here for one reason, and only after she was done could she relax. For now, she just had to wait a little longer, and soon she would have her vengeance... Then again, there wasn't any reason preventing her from doing both at once, was there?

Getting Hired

 

The door of the dining room opened, and Mavis stepped out with Greta and moved to a more private location. There, she turned to face the nearly equally blonde gunslinger, and placed both her hands in the pockets of her longcoat, before getting straight to the point. "Right. I realize this might be a bad time, but...you hire people, right?"

Greta couldn't hide her surprise at the question. Given the circumstances, that, being on a ship full of hired hands, she wasn't expecting someone to ask her to hire them. Granted, that might not be what this was about, but Greta certainly had a hunch. Why else would she ask about something like that?

"Err-yeah, when I'm not with a caravan," Greta said. Usually someone else would hire the help and the smaller timers like Greta and her family would reap the benefits of that investment. At this rate, she'd have to set down some roots somewhere and give up the traveling merchant approach altogether.

Mavis looked around nervously. It was her first time asking about something like this, and to someone she barely knew, too. But, she had to make a living for herself, and there was certainly an opportunity here that she could take advantage of.

"Well...After I finish my business in Kigen, I'm not gonna have anywhere else to go, so I was hoping maybe I could be a bodyguard for you? Some hired muscle?" It certainly came out in an awkward manner, and Mavis's inexperience in professional conversation showed. But it was true; after taking back Stormblade and returning it, then she would have to find work somewhere. "I can do all sorts of physical labor. Cutting wood. Heavy lifting. Fighting off bandits. You name it!"

While it wasn't a bad pitch, Greta did feel that she herself wasn't the best employment opportunity, if only because there was no way to predict how successful she could be in Kigen. Not at present. What money she had left wouldn't last, and if she couldn't get herself back into the merchant world in this socially dangerous new frontier, she'd be draining the last of her funds even faster. Still, every extra she had with her was more brainpower and more talent at her disposal. That fact shouldn't be taken lightly.

"You sure? I wouldn't mind havin' more help, 'specially in the labor department, but if I screw up in Kigen, I'm gonna wind up as a cheap waitress somewhere." Just admitting that sent chills throughout Greta's entire body. "I got no idea what'll happen to y'all, though."

Surprisingly, Greta didn't seem to object to the idea of her being a new hire, though her comment about becoming a 'cheap waitress' did unnerve her a bit. Mavis wasn't dumb, and could easily figure out the implications of such a job, and no one deserved that kind of treatment. Not in her eyes.

"Well, then we can make sure you don't screw up!" She said, giving an encouraging smile to her. "I can help out with whatever you're doing over there. It's the least I could after you let me get on that carriage, and this boat you're taking to Kigen. 'Give back what you owe' as they say. And, well, I definitely owe you for not shooting me back there. Hehe."

Greta chuckled at the reminder of that fateful encounter. "Well, if I do take ya on as a hire, ya better not do anythin' crazy like jumpin' on speedin' wagons." Greta supposed she wouldn't complain much if it proved necessary, but she didn't foresee anything nearly so fast paced happening in Kigen. "More importantly, ya can't go pickin' any fights, either. The people that work for me are gonna reflect on me, whether that's good or bad."

Mavis chuckled along with Greta. "After what happened to my arm, no, I think I'm done jumping onto moving things on my own. Thought I wasn't gonna be able to swing an axe for a while!" However, Greta's next requirement made Mavis's smile slightly fade, though it was still present on her face, just not as big as before. She looked off to the side without turning her head, then looked back at Greta. "I...promise not to pick fights with any random shmucks or anything like that." She paused and exhaled through her nose. "And...I promise to not fight anybody we come across unless we need to." She didn't want to agree to it entirely. Mavis knew that if she encountered Seoung-lei, she was going to have to fight him. But now, it seems like things were getting a bit more complicated than that.

Unless they need to? Fair enough. Greta envisioned another situation like the one with Schwartz and his lackeys. She also doubted they would be bluffing their way past any fallen guarding the gate. That would almost certainly lead into a fight. "Alright, if ya agree to my terms then we're good," the merchant smiled, "Welcome to Team Greta; four blondes and countin'."

And thus, Mavis felt relaxed, again. She had hopefully worded everything well enough, and now she was part of a group. "Thanks for letting me in, then. I won't let you down."

 

A Conversation about Nationalism

It had been 4 days since the Deadly Dandelion set out on it's trip to Kigen, and all seemed to be at peace. For the moment, anyway. Mavis did her usual walk around the boat, being a bit too energetic to simply sit still all the time. But, rather than aimlessly wander the vessel, this time she had a place to go to. Or rather, a person to find. And, after a minute of searching, Mavis found the familiar sight of long brown hair, as well as the slightly more familiar sight of a large wyvern being tended to.

"Heya, big guy!" She said to the wyvern, Sasha, with a small wave. "And hello to you, too, Eva. I was meaning to talk to you about something!"

"<'Kay, sit still while I make sure your harness is all in place, okay? You're getting your time to relax for now, but I'm gonna need you flying when we make land...>" She didn't notice Mavis coming up to them, jumping a bit at her sudden declaration.

"<Gimme a sec...> Hey. What did you need to talk about? I guess I'm not actually busy, since we're stuck on the boat for a few more days..." Whatever she wanted to talk about, hopefully it wasn't Eva being chosen as the person to explain the emblem. She had less of a clue than anyone else around, except maybe Thales.

"You're...'skotian right?" Mavis placed her hands in pockets on her long-coat. "Neviskotian, I mean. Same nationality as the guys in that big fleet that was attacking the boat? Well...That's been bothering me for a bit, and no offense to you at all, but-" She trailed off, pacing as she spoke. "Let me just get straight to the point. You willingly fought back against those guys that were shooting at us. Why?"

"Yeah, I am... Yeah, just like them." Eva kind of hoped this wasn't going where she thought it was going, especially when Mavis mentioned that it was bothering her. What bothered her about it? She wasn't a huge nationality buff, was she? Well, she was shouting about being the daughter of some general, or other... Hmm.

"Would you not fight back against Ursians who you thought were doing something wrong?"

"...Seems like the definition of wrong can be different from person to person." She stopped her pacing and looked up, not really looking at anything in particular. "For instance, someone patriotic to their own country might think it's right to try and take over a port of the enemy country." She then looked back to Eva. "Of course, from what I've been told, and from what I listened in on, it looks like things are a lot bigger than nationality. Still, I wanna know. You were okay with possibly fighting and killing people from the same country as you?"

She had a point on perspective, and of course people could have different opinions on what counted as patriotic. Maybe the 'Skotians had a point in their actions, but as soon as both sides started to bring out weapons like that ship, and that horribly destructive magic, Eva felt something was lost in translation. It wasn't about taking the port, or beating back the invaders, at that point... It was just about death. Killing each other entirely, and totally. That was something she'd never see eye to eye with anyone on, nationality or otherwise.

"I am, yeah. I don't fight for my country. I fight to keep the people in our group safe. Amon, Malik, Jamilla... Angelica. They're my friends. And they matter more than what my country thinks is right."


"Well, I guess you're the bigger woman, then. Or at least, you got people that matter to you." She leaned onto the nearest post of the boat to relax herself. "I don't really have anyone like that. At least, not now. To be honest, I was hoping I'd find some people like that along the way." She chuckled. Of course, Mavis was mostly referring to her father, now gone from her life. And her mother...She didn't want to think too much on her mother. So she had no one outside of the village she had opted to stay in for so long. After a moment of silence, she got off the post and walked over to Eva, and held out a hand.

"I think we got off on the wrong boat, so to speak. I get that I might have said and done some things but...maybe we can make up? Make things less tense on the rest of this boat ride?"

"I didn't think I would, either. I've only been away from home for a month, but I have people I can trust, and a girl that won't leave me alone. Literally. She's terrifying; never get on her bad side." Angelica was definitely the life of Eva's worldly party, but there were others she could talk to. Well... One less, now, with Haythem having left. But that Thales guy wasn't half bad, and Jam was always cute.

"Wrong boat, huh... As long as you don't try to get me to fly Sasha off into live fire, I think we'll be fine-- but seriously, don't do that again, he was already tired enough as it was." She gave Mavis a stern moment, but ultimately shook her hand, leaning back against the big green lump. He growled quietly in response.

"Is that all, then? Again, not really busy, so if you have anything else to say, then feel free to."

"No problem. Sorry about ever suggesting it, big guy!" Another chuckle and another wave from Mavis, though she could easily see that Sasha wasn't exactly warming up to her. Of course, the more she looked at the creature, the more her curiosity spiked.

"Actually, yeah. What's it like? Flying on the back of a wyvern? Or just in general? I've always wondered about it, even as a kid."

Sasha took a while to warm up to anyone; even Angelica had taken more than a few weeks. "What's it like flying? Maybe one day you'll get the chance to experience it... It's not something I can just explain like that. My common isn't great at big adjectives and stuff, or... making things sound pretty."

Mavis was a bit disappointed by the lack of information in the response, but she didn't let it bother her for longer than a second. True, Mavis did experience flight while going over to the Neviskotian war boat, but it felt more like the wyvern had hopped over there than actually flying. It certainly wasn't what she thought of when she talked about 'flying through the air'. It was why she asked.

"Maybe some day. Well, thanks for letting me speak to ya. I'll be around, then." With a small, two-finger salute at Sasha, Mavis left Eva and the wyvern in peace, and went back to simply walking around the boat.

Edited by Dandragon
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Lumi stretched as she stood up from where she had been laying down on the deck. After the first day with Thales, she'd started spending more and more time up on the deck. There was a definite tan to her skin now, evidence of the hours she'd spent laying down, out of the way of the sailors, just enjoying the peace and contemplating everything that was going on. Her talk with Pete had left her with even more to think about, which she'd partially avoided in a desperate attempt to get a last bit of quiet relaxation before everything starting speeding up again. But all good things must come to an end, and this one was no different. Walking over to Star, she gave him one last check over, making sure that all of her packs were secured on his back, before turning towards the rest of the ship. Spotting Thales with a (literal) hanger on, she couldn't help but chuckle. Making her way down to them, she waved and called out in very stuttering Kigenese, <"He... hello Haruhi and Thales.">

That was about the extent of useful Kigenese that she had picked up in the one short lesson that she'd been given during the trip. Thales had been helping Haruhi with her Common, and Lumi hadn't wanted to push that to the side. Switching back to a more comfortable language, she smiled at the two of them. "How are you this morning? Excited to be off this ship?" She wasn't but she knew that others did not share her views, plus it was the first thing that popped into her mind besides asking about the weather.

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

Over on the Emi Maru, Hoshi carefully tucked a final tome into her bag before slowly making her way up onto the deck. She'd chosen to spend most of her time over on this ship, crossing over only occasionally, because she felt she needed time to prepare for what was ahead. A return to her homeland, one she had fled from in a last-ditch attempt to gain control over her own life. Some days she was still stunned that it had succeeded. And now she was back, for better or for worse, supposed to be leading this expedition. <"I can't keep hiding..."> That was the easy thing to do. It was what she had done most of her life. But she could no longer afford to do so. Haruhi had been a stark reminder of what her past was and what her future could have been. But more than that, it was a sign that she couldn't hide anymore. It was time to face both her past and her future. To either step forward and lead, or stay scared and hidden for the rest of her life. <"Time to go...">

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"<Alright, alright... It's just a joke.>" She sighed, letting her arm off of him, looking about. It looked like everyone was getting ready to get off, so it would probably take a bit. Congestion of crowds, and all that. "<Huh? Places to shop? Er... I can point them out, but I don't shop very often... You'd probably be better off going shopping with-->" the quiet <hello> she got from behind was exactly who she was about to mention, looking at her and waving. "<Hey.> You, good try." It was a lot better than her Common was, that was for sure.

And of course, that was all she was going to say, leaving Haruhi trying to puzzle out the language. "Er... Morning? Am, good. <Why is Common so hard?> I, excited. Get off ship. See land. Yes." Probably. Thales had been teaching her some new words on and off, but it would take a while for her to piece it all together.

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An exercise in being shot out of a cannon

Angelica wondered for a moment what had brought her here, below decks, surrounded by inactive cannons and various crates and barrels. Boredom, the answer to her self-imposed inquiry was boredom. Said boredom had lead the mage to wander the ship absent-mindedly, vaguely taking in her surroundings until something peculiar caught her eye. A little ball of flux, and the small aura it gave off, floating above a cannon in the corner. Well wasn't that the oddest thing...? Well, no, not really. Angelica thought back to an earlier incident she had caught in passing, a small unknown girl pestering Thales in broad daylight, who had a small aura around her... an embarrassed novice mage? Seemed likely, why else would she be practicing here, of all places? Thales had seemed rather bothered by the girl... Angelica let out a light chuckle as she approached the floating ball.

"Well what have we here?"

"<Come on... Stabilize... Wah!>" The sudden voice from beyond her hiding spot caused her to lose her concentration, the spell falling apart. Haruhi sighed. "<Wh-What do you want?>" She popped her head up, not recognizing the black haired girl. Was she one of the people in their group? One of the ship's attendants?

Kigenese, huh? She did remember something of the sort, now that she thought back on it...

"<I was taking a walk, and lo and behold, a little flux spell in the corner of the room, floating above one of the cannons. Wouldn't you be curious too?>"

"<I guess... But you totally interrupted my casting. Now I gotta start all over again... I was just trying to get some practice in now that I've eaten something. So, wh-what do you want? Can I get back to this?>" It was already hard enough for her to cast consistently, having interruptions would just make practice harder. And having a ship with real food on it meant she had the energy to try... Should nosy girls not come poking at her.

"<Ah, so more of an enthusiast than a combat mage, huh?>" Angelica reasoned, nodding a bit. She felt a little bad, interrupting the newbie when she was trying to practice, but perhaps this was karma for how she had interrupted Thales, and who better to dole out said karma than someone who had definitely never at any point in time done wrong by Thales. Ever.

Or maybe this girl could help quell Angelica's boredom, some. That seemed like a more likely explanation.

"<No way! I can totally fight with this.>" Haruhi jumped up and huffed, tome in her hand. Wait, was she taller than this girl? Wow. Why was everyone around here so short? Weird... "<Anyway, just because I can only cast this, doesn't mean I'm not strong, okay? Geez... You and Shadrak both. I'll be plenty helpful!>"

"<How can you fight if talking is enough to interrupt you casting? You'd never be able to concentrate enough in the throng of a battle to actually get a spell off. It's nothing about what spells you can or can't use, any combat magic has the capacity to be dangerous.>" Angelica retorted, shrugging her shoulders. This girl seemed to take easy offense at comments on her casting, but she'd have trouble learning anything if she was to default to that assumption every time.

"<Wha-- I-I was just startled! That's all! It's way different in a combat situation, a-and Hoshi's training me... Meanie.>" She didn't need to take this. This was just rude! She was totally capable... And she'd definitely help out. With a huff, she started off away from the girl.

"<If you say so. I'm curious now, let me see what you can do.>" Angelica replied, shaking her head a bit as the young mage began to try and walk away, grabbing her by the wrist as she tried to walk past... it didn't seem to take much effort to keep her in place, physically at least, this girl wasn't strong at all.

"<Oh, silly me. Name is Angelica, what's yours?>"

"<I don't need to show you any-- whoa!>" Wh-What was with that grip? Haruhi gave herself a hard tug and felt herself nearly fall backwards at the opposition. She gave a confused glare to this... Angelica, sighing. "<My name's Haruhi... Let go?>"

Angelica couldn't help but give a light giggle at this Haruhi's ineffectual tugging, grinning a bit at her efforts.

"<Oh come on now, you can't just make such bold claims about the strength of your magic and then back out. Where's your pride?>"

"<Let go of me so I can cast.>" Seriously...

"<Okay~>" Angelica replied with a playful tone, releasing her grip on Haruhi's wrist and watching the Kigenese mage like a hawk, wondering what she would do.

Damn... She was way too strong to be a mage. Was she hiding toned muscles underneath those clothes? For someone so short... Haruhi grumbled. "<Fine, just... Gimme a second...>" Now she was just bothered, flipping open the tome and holding her hand in front of her. With a small groan and some concentration, she produced the only spell she could put her name to, the ball of energy spinning above her hand.

"<There. See? I can totally do it.>"

Well, that was a flux spell, that much was certain. Looking it over from a few angles, while it was basic, it appeared to be stable and not about to poof out of existence, or anything of that sort.

"<That's not bad, actually. Nothing fancy, but it's a solid little flux.>"

"<See? And it didn't even take me a few seconds to cast it. I'm perfectly capable... Even if it's just this. Hoshi and Shadrak even offered to teach and help me. I'll be just fine~>"

"<Well, so long as you're confident, I suppose it should be fine if you have them teaching you. A flux is more than capable of causing some damage, so an experienced mage is more than capable of killing with one.>" Angelica concluded, nodding her head

"<So how did someone like you end up here, hmm?>"

Killing... She'd heard that this group was fairly dangerous, but... She didn't expect to hear it so casually. "<... I ran away from Kigen. I was going to stay in Ursium, but... Hoshi offered me teachings and a place to be. Your group seems nice... so I stayed.>"

"<Is that right... well, I suppose Hoshi is rather docile, as is Shadrak most of the time, and from what little I saw, you seemed to have Thales wrapped around your finger...>" Angelica replied, thinking back on who this girl seemed to know. She wouldn't have interacted with any of the... outliers yet, she supposed.

"<Wrapped around my finger? N-No... He's just fun to tease. He... He lets me. That's all.>" Why'd she have to say it like that? "<You're so weird...>"

"<I understand that, I suppose. Though I don't know if lets you is the right word, he seemed pretty distressed that one time...>" Angelica replied, not overly bothered that this girl thought she was odd... Haruhi had yet to meet some of the more colourful members of the supporting cast.

"<Well, then... He should say something. He's a man, isn't he? If something's bothering him, he'll speak up for himself. If he hated it that much, then he'd be mad at me...>"

"<Not all men are hard as stone, Haruhi. I think you made the poor guy cry.>" Angelica replied with a chuckle.

"<Some guys are just bad at speaking up.>"

"<I-I did not! ... And... They are, where I come from. If he's upset then he'll tell me. So go away...>" She took that moment to storm off, huffing in worry.

"<You seem awfully meek for someone so quick to tease.>" Angelica shot back, easily keeping up with Haruhi's strides, lazily walking next to the dark mage.

"<I said go away, already. You seem good at not listening.>" She made for the stairs, hoping she could find a good place to get some quiet.

Moving slightly in front of Haruhi, Angelica shot her arm out in between the young mage and the stairwell, swiftly corralling Haruhi up against the wall with a light sigh.

"<What, can't handle a little teasing of your own?>" Angelica questioned, her other arm pressing to the wall on the other side of Haruhi, looking the mage over.

She stopped before she ran headfirst into Angelica, staring her down, not very effectively. "<Who says that I have to? I don't owe you letting this happen... If Thales is bothered, he'll tell me, so... So leave me alone.>"

"<Well, this didn't end up being that fun anyway.>" Angelica concluded with a sigh, stepping back from Haruhi with a shrug.

Haruhi scowled at this Angelica... "<What do you want from me, anyway? Are you just that bored? At least I took some time to get to know Thales when I was bugging him, you're just lecturing me and poking fun at my magic.>"

"<Boredom, curiousity. You don't seem very inclined to talk about yourself, at any rate. And I didn't poke fun at your magic, I said that if you're distracted easily, you won't make a good combatant.>" Angelica responded.

Another grumble. "<Because you're intimidating... I dunno if it's the way you hold yourself, what you said, your aura... You just scream scary, to me. You're short, but you're incredibly strong, you don't know me, but you're poking at what I'm doing... You're scary. Are you happy, now?>"

"<You know, Hoshi seemed to feel the same way. Maybe the Kigenese just can't handle assertive women...>" Angelica chuckled at that revelation... given Kigen's culture, it wouldn't surprise her, really.

"<Then... Am I free to go, now? If you don't have any questions about me, then...>"

"<Not very talkative, are you? Tell me about yourself, who is Haruhi, hmm?>" Angelica continued, if nothing else this was giving her something to do for some amount of time.

She sighed. "<I'm a throwaway from a poor Kigenese family... That's... That's all I'm willing to say. I stole a tome from some noble passing through a village I was staying at, I spent three years practicing to try and cast what I could read from it. So that... That maybe I could go home and help my parents. That's all... And, I hope that I can return the goodwill I've been getting from Hoshi.>" She didn't have to say all of that, but this Angelica was... Very commanding, in her presence. And Haruhi knew that running wouldn't work, she could keep up and was stronger than her. She just had to get it over with...

"<Didn't want to buy into the Kigenese tradition of a subservient housewife, huh? Well, I can't say that I blame you... is the reason you can only cast Flux because that's the only thing you've had access to, or have you tried other things and can't grasp them yet?>" Angelica dug a bit, trying to discern how Haruhi ticked, in a sense.

"<I... No one wanted me.>" That stung a bit, remembering, grabbing her hand as it started to shake. "<And that's all I could read of the tome. I don't... Have much of an education, either.>"

"<Really? Why wouldn't anyone want a cute girl like you?>" Angelica asked, scratching her head a bit at that one, stopping as Haruhi answered her other question, her curiousity getting the better of her at Haruhi's explanation.

"<If that's the case, Shadrak may not be as much help to you, but if Hoshi could teach you how to read more complicated spells, you may be able to cast them...>"

"<I'm not... Cute. And... Never mind.>" She wasn't going any further than that. It was personal and was staying personal. "<I hope she can help me, yes. That is the plan...Once we reach Kigen, I'm sure she'll have more free time.>"

"<You so are. Take the compliment, would you?>" Angelica replied with a pout, before pulling out her own tome, opening it, and holding it in front of Haruhi.

"<Can you read any of this? I'm curious.>"

Haruhi wasn't going to budge on that front. And wasn't about to argue it, either. "<I can't read common. And I can barely speak it.>" She was taught little of Kigenese writing, let alone ever getting near any lessons in common.

"<No common, huh...>" Angelica replied, looking the pages over and working it out in her head before holding the tome out to Haruhi again, translating the words in her head and reciting the incantation in Kigenese, an unnatural gust of wind whipping up and whirling around the gun deck, blowing across Haruhi's face with enough potency to be noticeable, but not enough to send the petite mage flying off her feet onto the ground.

"<Did you catch that?>"

A wind spell? Of some sort. She caught the incantation, but didn't know if it would do anything for her. "<Yeah. I did... Do you want me to try and cast it?>"

"<Yeah. I'm curious to see your aptitude, since you didn't seem to pick dark magic as a focus study, you just used what you managed to get your hands on. If your potential and magical energy are high, you should be able to use a lot of spells once you can figure them out and get around the reading barrier.>" Angelica explained, letting Haruhi take direct hold of the tome if that felt better for her.

"<I... See.>" She took the book, giving Angelica a look, before trying to rattle off the words she'd heard her say. She felt something coming from the tome, but after a moment, nothing. Looks like it would take a lot more than just hearing and knowing the incantation to get the spells working. "<No good. Sorry...>"

"<Hmm... not wholly unexpected. Still, it was worth a go, and can probably be chalked up to a lack of experience with wind units... did you feel anything, at least?>" Angelica asked, looking Haruhi over. She had felt a bit of stirring within the tome, but not enough to call forth any tangible effect... she wondered if Haruhi had felt the same thing.

"<I felt your book, but nothing else... Wh-Why are you doing this, exactly?>"

"<Why else? I wanted to see if you could do it. It's not that strange that you couldn't, but there's always a chance. I don't have any dark tomes, so I couldn't do much to make it more in your element.>" Angelica replied with a shake of her head.

"<So you're just... Bored, then. I see... Am I free to go, then? I probably have better things to do than be your amusement for the next hour.>" Like bothering someone else, or seeing to Hoshi.

"<And here I thought we had made a bit of headway, but you still just wanna scram, huh?>" Angelica sighed, thinking for a moment.

"<Actually, you said flux is all you can do? Let me see your tome.>"

"<Ohhhh, my God, go awayyyyy.>" Haruhi groaned, leaving it at that. No tomes, no extra advice, no more prodding. "<I'll get Hoshi to help me. Later.>" With a sigh, she headed up the stairs.

"Tch..." Angelica muttered under her breath, not bothering to chase after the mage this time. Well, so much for that.

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"Finally off of this Wrathdamn boat!" Nadya exclaimed to Luca, leading him above decks. "Can't really say this feels like home exactly, but it's the best we got right?" she asked rhetorically, kissing Luca on the nose for good measure.

The skirmish in the distance drew Liam's attention. Do humans ever stop fighting each other? I don't know how Joanna has managed to tolerate all this violence around her for so long. Pete approached, looking for Amon and Joanna. Liam stood by vigilantly. From his remarks at the meeting Pete seems willing to use any means necessary to destroy his enemies...that is a dangerous philosophy.

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"<Not shop much? What?>" That seemed like a poor decision, how could she tolerate wearing the same clothes so often? Especially as a girl, she ought to take some more pride in the variety she had open to her! "<No goo-->" Before he could really say anything, they were interjected by a familiar face, and Thales was quick to smile. "Hey! Nice tan, Lumi~." He replied cheerfully, chuckling at her attempt to talk with Haruhi, and the mage's own attempt to talk back in Common. "<Still long to go, Haruhi~.>" He joked, some menial payback for her own harassment.

"I'm glad to hit land, I've got a lot to shop. I just hope the Kigenese merchants don't charge an eye and a half." Supplies, more food, clothes, maybe even see a fletcher. "I hope we stay here for a bit... then again, I'm not sure I like the look of the other ships docked here..." Things weren't going to be any easier, huh?

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Customs

"Don't call me desert boy," Malik gave Eva a warning look, "Anyway, don't worry about your wyvern. There's no mistaking you for a soldier, so they'll probably just wave you off as a mercenary."

"That's what I was thinkin', yeah," Lexi nodded along, "Your group can be passengers or merc hires, whichever ya want." Since the ship ought to be fine without her at the helm for a little while, Lexi headed for the staircase, hoping to get down onto the pier ahead of the official no doubt on his way over to snoop around. She had no doubt he'd want to come aboard and have a look around the ship. She could probably convince him not to pester the crew or her passengers, though. If all else failed, Malik was good at inserting some figurative muscle into a discussion. He was even tagging along right now~

Paging Golden Ones

Both Amon and Joanna looked to the source of the voice calling out to them. It was Pete. While Amon called back, "Sure, what is it?" Joanna started toward Pete, aiming to find out once they were within comfortable speaking distance. Maybe it would be a nice distraction from the tense atmosphere, but maybe not. 

Better Off Aground

No more apples. They were all gone by the time the herd reached land, again. Luca was glad to be so close to stable ground, again. Hopefully he'd have an opportunity to run around and sample the local flora, or at least get some more treats. The odds seemed good from the sound of Nadya's frustrated musings. Luca gently nuzzled her cheek and neck, urging her to take them both someplace more horse and human friendly.

Nena Strats

Nena's musing on the Canaan situation hadn't exactly paid off ... but she was nothing if not persistent, at least when the subject was as interesting as Canaan was. As much as Nena disliked the idea of being stuck on a ship, she would have considered doing so to get to know the mysterious 'lizard man' better. She'd come up with other ideas, though, and even had a breif discussion with Nong and Jun about Canaan's restlessness. To her surprise, Nong agreed with her that living aboard a ship didn't come naturally, not to humans, nor likely to demons, so Canaan's desperation made sense. Who knew how Canaan would start behaving in the long term if things kept up like this.

While the captain and his wife agreed that Canaan was in need of a solution, letting him off here in Kigen seemed like an absolutely terrible idea. Nena agreed with them, but pointed out that Canaan had no trouble getting around, he just had to stay away from populated areas. Admittedly, sneaking him off the Emi Maru and out of Arugai in broad daylight was somewhere between extremely difficult, and impossible. When Nong and Jun failed to offer any alternatives, Nena decided to take matters into her own hands, and went to speak with Canaan about setting out from the ship.

... and they got nowhere. The best idea Nena could come up with that was humane was bandaging Canaan up after applying some burnt meat residue and ash to make him look--and more importantly, smell, like a half dead burn victim. There was too much required to make it truly work, and wouldn't be nearly enough without some massive cover for his long legs, draconic feet, and even longer tail. Accounting for all of that would result in a silhouette that drew more attention, not less. If just one Kigen patrolman got curious and wanted to check Canaan out, the game would be over.

"Oh this is annoying," Nena huffed, "We should just stuff you into a big chest and poke some breathing holes in it."

"Mmgh ..." Canaan didn't really like the sound of that, especially since the Emi Maru was well stocked with some very sizable chests ...

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"It's going to be a few minutes, so come over here," Pete said loudly to Amon, before he turned towards Joanna, who was by that point close enough to talk to normally. "I just want to clear the air: Are you and Liam going to keep supporting the rest of the group in battle? I'm not asking for you to fight beyond self-defense, or even be too close to the front-lines, just to support us with your healing magic. If not, we'll need to get you out of this port, and fast."   

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"Cute, aren't you," she retorted, at Malik's little snap. Still, she was used to people scowling at her; she kept her smile. Between him and Shadrak, who's scowl was better...? Ah, well, a contest for another day. "I'll line him up to get let off, then. Was just making sure the locals weren't going to lose any marbles over a wyvern walking around. You two have fun." She watched them walk off, Malik stuck to her like a lost puppy... Well, not really lost. "So much for that Aisha," she mumbled, as they walked off.

With Sasha cleared for walk off, Eva hopped back over to him, giving him an affectionate pet. He growled a bit, but he didn't seem to mind, looking towards the ramp, and trying to walk over. Eva quickly held him back. "<Not yet, boy. We all have to get cleared, first. There's... Some trouble, going on.>" Some trouble was an understatement. With the Neviskotians and the Ursians here, she'd be surprised if they got ten feet away from the dock without getting into some altercation.

----------

"<I just don't like shopping. That's all.>" She didn't really wanna bite into his comment on how far she had to go. She knew her Common was garbage. Even his own Kigenese was leagues ahead of her comprehension of the boring language. But everyone and their mother seemed to speak it, so she had to learn, didn't she? Still, when he jumped into Common with Lumi, she felt herself... A bit left out. She couldn't really pick up what he was saying, saying it so quickly. "<M-Merchants... Charge eyes? Wha...? I... Uhm.>" Was this karma? Probably. Still, she felt herself take a step away, looking for anywhere else she could go to talk.

 

Edited by SnakeMomMelissa
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"...Oh." Thales snickered as he saw Haruhi struggle, trying to repeat what he said but in her language. "<Merchant, charge much.>"  He simplified it, a smirk plastered on his face. "<Got to learn more. Sorry~>" Lumi wasn't that proficient, and speaking was much harder to Thales than piecing her sentences, even if he was getting better at it. It amounted to a lot of practice, for what it was worth. Maybe he could find a living in Kigen when all was said and done... yeah right. What's an Ursian with a pretty face going to do here? I don't even want to know...

"<And too bad. Will shop.>" It was decided, he'd bring her if he could, even if she was just going to carry his purchases. "<Maybe find book you might like?>" He shrugged.

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