Lord of Azure Flame Chapter 21: In Destruction's Wake

[Phoenix]

Meeting, Insanity, Etc

Viveka: Okay, not to be rude, but just why the hell do you think Elyisima will help Halton take over Septimus? They're better h- ... err ... look, helping Halton get a foothold is bad for Elyisima in the long run, and you should know that.

Conrad hung his head a bit. Vera wasn't well known for her diplomatic abilities or her strategies. He was only a little surprised by her proposal. Furthering Halton's interests was fine, but this was an unsound way to do it.

Whispering back, Lev decided to point out a few things since he didn't want to create any trust issues later on.

Lev: I can almost guarantee that the IM was already hired by Jace in masse to help in the defense of Septimus. (Ixion's meeting, "hurry up", the signs are all there.) These is actually one of our organization's sales pitches but we've never had to help bolster a large country's forces from another one's before. I don't know what her deal is but the IM is not on Halton's side in these mess. (It's too late for that now. We may have a week or two left.) Anyway, I thought you should know that.

Conrad: Vera, this plan won't work. You're being too confident here. I think you should sit down for a few minutes and think this through.

Ursibus

Kamilla felt much safer once they reached Ursibus. She was far less likely to be attacked there, and it seemed that she would get the chance to vindicate certain people she used to know, like Tessa and Eric. When it was brought up that she may not remember her old surroundings, she gave a curious look at first. She was sure she would remember, but then a cold chill rushed down her spine as she realized at last that she indeed was missing some things. Sure she knew what the Cathedral looked like and remembered Ursibus well enough, but she couldn't recall old faces and other various things one would remember. Althea was right. She frowned and hung her head low. Were her old memories gone? That was just her luck it seemed.

Burgosas

Once Daneka and Alphonse made it back to the castle, they ventured inside, both a little wet from the rain.

Daneka: ... oi.

Alphonse: ... ... ....

One of the soldiers offered them towels informed them that they were summoned before leading them to Jace. With a slightly tired salute. She looked a bit miserable but she wasn't about to make any sort of fuss about it, and she hoped he wouldn't inquire about it. There were more important things to worry about than unscheduled showers.

Daneka: How can I help, Monsieur Jace?

[Snike]

Schemes

"First of all, call off the team sent after the Prince and Princess. Those two can wait until we finish with Halton," Jace began, appearing tired for once. "Now, have you heard anything new from the front line? If so, do you have numbers on the invading force?" Just at that moment, Jaun ran back in, carrying a roll of parchment. Handing it off to Jace, the messenger quickly vanished.

"... Damn," Jace breathed, after reading the report.

Introductions

"... I will repeat what I told these two. I am a servant of the Goddess," Henry said, turning to see the Templar-form. "Nothing more, nothing less."

[-Cynthia-]

Templars

"An odd response, though it rings true to my ears." Althea replied to Henry. "You are welcome among us for the time being, perhaps the Grand Cleric will illuminate you on your future come tomorrow. He will want to meet with the two of you as well." she said, gesturing to Xaver and Kamilla. "For now, you all look as if you could use some rest, I have rooms prepared and I'm sure there will be extra space in the Templar Quarters for our new friend here."

"He's not my friend." Xaver said, rolling his eyes. He proceeded to go further into town towards the cathedral.

Fish Huntress

Svetlana landed in the middle of the mercenary fortress, hissing at a mercenary who got too close. Xenia dismounted and realized that she had no idea where they stored the fish. They changed the whole structure of this place while I was gone...it has been a while huh? She decided to go to Ivanko's mansion in order to find where the fish were being stored. True, she could have asked anyone in the fortress, but she didn't trust them to give her the truth. I would have done more than shot a deserter dirty looks back in the day--guess Ivanko has them pretty well cowed.

Edited November 4, 2010 by -Cynthia-

[Snowy_One]

"I see." said Altion with a sigh. Turning about, he signaled to Gluebag to come on over before he headed in to the back of the cart. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more use. I don't know much about horses at all. I just wear the armor. There was a skilled horse woman with the group I was with though. She could get them to move, I'm sure of it."

---

"Thank you for your kindness then." said Kaileen, giving a small curtsy. She still didn't know where to go though. Halton? A southern city? Neither of those seemed terribly useful. Pulling Jr. tightly to her side, she turned about to head off down the trail. This was going to be hard. Mentally, she turned over her rather short list of friends, deciding against one or the other for various reasons. Her mother had mentioned going to Jerdon twenty-some years ago, right after the demons defeat and the fall of the Lord. Yet, it had been at that time that Kaileen had tried to cut herself off from the world. Would her mother even be alive? Would she be there? Still... It was better than trying to defeat the world with a child in tow. She supposed that, if she wasn't, she could leave Jr. with the church if truly needed, but that was NOT favorable. She didn't need them putting idea's in his head! Not when mommy was right!

[Mercakete]

"Nonsense! Stop talking yourself down, lad, or you'll never be great!" the merchant encouraged, seating himself next to Altion, "Why, when I first started out, I was only an apprentice. I only did meagar work but I got better and learned a lot. Now I sell my own wares and travel wherever I please. Though you're a fighter and I sell things, we both have to start somewhere. I don't know why you're so down on yourself, boy, but if you keep comparing yourself to masters you'll only give yourself reason to quit. Only compare yourself to one person: who you used to be." The merchant dove his hand into a basket and pulled out some bread. He tore it in half and tossed one half of the loaf to Altion. "If you don't mind me asking, what's your name? Mine's Joe Pommel," introduced the merchant, extending his hand.

[Phoenix]

Manor of Madness

Ixion headed down the hallway leaving O'Donnel and Damian near the entrance. Peter began picking up the tomes one by one but paused to look up as Xenia barged in through the doors. A quick gasp and then he was on his feet rushing over to her. He tried to be as quiet as possible without actually whispering.

Peter: Good timing. Ixion just warped here a minute ago. He went down that hall. (This is fantastic! Maybe I can help her out and if Ixion is using us all like puppets, we can stop him here and now!)

Ursibus Stuff

Kamilla knew Xaver didn't know or trust Henry, but she felt he could of been a little nicer about it. After all, he was if nothing else, very helpful. She was still a bit unnerved by her own situation though and didn't bother chastising him. Henry didn't seem to mind regardless.

Burgosas

Daneka: We should be getting some reports from ze front lines at some point. No word from ze group sent to Altenau yet though. All ze others in zis region sent back replies wizin hours.

Jace's face and language indicated that what he found in the report wasn't good.

Kalten Zaftra

A small group of IMs carefully watched the surroundings as they came a bit closer to the mountain top mega fortress. Gazing at it in the distance, Vladimir could only chuckle.

Vlad: I can't believe they managed to build something like that. Amazing.

Ivan: Be amazed while you can, because soon they'll be using those ridiculous defenses you're gawking over to kill our comrades.

Vlad: Calm down, man. We'll win, regardless of their defenses we'll win, or we wouldn't be doing something this gutsy.

When night finally fell they had to set up a camp, but no fire could be made or they would betray themselves to the patrols lurking in the area. Ivan lied up against his sleeping wyvern and sighed. Every day they spent there was a freezing nightmare to him, but they weren't finished scouting yet. They still had another five square miles to cover and all while moving at a snail's pace to avoid detection.

[Inactive Account]

Trevor didn't seem to think anything was wrong, so Amari set out to circle the camp, to survey the area. She'd noticed that one of her herd seemed to have wandered off, and while she knew that humans tended to leave occasionally with their mounts, she should probably double-check.

After a few minutes, she reached the road. An odd sight greeted her: not only was the missing horse there, apparently led by his human, but a cart was stopped there, and its horses were panicked, refusing to move. Their body language immediately told her that it was the demons, not a more recent threat, but probably the attack from earlier. She headed forward to calm the panicky newcomers and investigate what their humans were up to.

[Ether]

"Captain! The Septimian forces have been neutralized! The border, as well as all nearby town and bases are under our control!" The page reported, saluting to his Captain.

"Wonderful. Come on boys, we need to strike while the Iron is hot! The longer we give the Septimians, the bigger chance of reunification! Let's move to our next mark!" The Captain shouted out his orders, his men giving a spirited cry as they began to move.

*******************

As Prince Tristan demanded all Haltonians leave the camp, Aiya clenched her fist angrily.

"That's quite a bold order, Prince Tristan. Your country has collapsed, and you have no authority. I have been travelling with these people for long enough that I'm not leaving just because some Royal of a dead country wants to throw a fit." Aiya replied with vemon in her voice, before turning to Vera.

"As for you, I have no idea how a dolt like you made Major General, but it's pathetic. As for your reports, they were never written. Colonel Kleine was never given orders to report directly back after his mission, so the endeavor to attempt to stop demons from overtaking the mortal world took precedence." Aiya continued, growing more and more aggravated as she continued to speak.

"General Jackson, please control your niece. Honestly, I can't believe you're saying what you are saying. If you are lying, you just made a lot of needless enemies, and if you are telling the truth, you have committed treason and will likely be executed."

*******************

As the warp brought them to Redwood Fortress, Damian shook his head to clear it.

"Thank you... O'Donnell, was it?" Damian said, turning to the archsage who had initiated the warp.

As a Wyvern Lord moved into the room, and a man began grovelling at her feet, Damian looked her over quickly.

"She seems familiar... I wonder where I saw her before..."

Edited November 5, 2010 by Ether

[Dark Sage]

"Thanks for listening Esphyr," said Alferis, getting up.

"You should rest for now, I'm going to check what's going on. Hmm....maybe that big tent over there? Could you look after Reika while I'm gone. Not sure how she's doing but..."

Giving a small nod, he turned and headed towards the big tent and upon entering, he saw many people gathered, including Aiya, Tristan, those new people, Derek, Luc, Morgan, Conrad, Viveka and Lev.

"Whooeee! What's going on around here?"

Edited November 5, 2010 by Red Magister

[Phoenix]

Meeting Stuff

Viveka was the first to turn and see Alferis and quickly came over to him blocking the view of the meeting somewhat.

Viveka: This is a private meeting ... not that it's a very important one with that neanderthal of a general around, but the place is crowded enough. What do you want?

O'Donnel

O'Donnel: It's no trouble I suppose.

When Xenia had come in he raised an eyebrow wondering how she got in.

O'Donnel: (Didn't she desert us? I suppose Ivanko's being more forgiving with the need of so many men. What with the contract we've taken with Jace, we'll be sparing at least a few hundred from the actual attack itself. Every skilled IM helps, deserter or not I suppose.

[Dark Sage]

"I dunno, I was just wondering where everyone got to and I decided to check here."

Checking out the general, Alferis looked her square in the eye and crossed his arms, and spoke in a clear voice.

"Lady, I have no idea who you are or what you want. So could you tell me what the hell is going on? Who you are, what you want from us? Nah. Aiya? Maybe you can tell me what she's up to?"

[Phoenix]

Viveka

Viveka: ... what part of private meeting didn't you hear, Alferis? :/

[Dark Sage]

"Hey, why exactly is this so private? I am part of the group you know.

Still, if it involves something very dangerous, I'd like to know, but if you'd like me to step out..." he said, backing away somewhat.

[Ether]

"It involves... political issues Alferis. You wouldn't be interested." Aiya replied to Alferis, as it seemed Viveka was getting nowhere.

*********************

"You seem to know her. Who is she?" Damian asked O'Donnell, as the man contemplated Xenia's appearance in front of them.

Edited November 5, 2010 by Ether

[Dark Sage]

"Politics huh? ....Ok. I'm too stupid to understand what's going on anyway. Sorry, forget I was here," he said, leaving the tent.

"Whew. Just made an ass out of myself," he muttered. "Who's that chick anyway?"

Edited November 5, 2010 by Red Magister

[Phoenix]

Viveka

Viveka sighed as Alferis left the tent. To her it seemed like there were enough people thinking the obvious. New additions wouldn't change much, and the tent was a bit crowded as it were. The only reason she hadn't walked out yet was because it was raining outside. She might have needed to use Conrad's cape for shelter on the way back to their tent when they were done.

Viveka: (Sad thing is, Alferis being too dumb to understand politics doesn't even matter here since Vera likely has it far worse in the regard. I'd tell her to her face, but I'm not going to insult the General's niece right in front of him and everyone else is already saying what I'm thinking. Whatever.)

O'Donnel

O'Donnel: That's Xenia if I recall correctly. She deserted from the IM a few years ago breaking the bloodpact, a death warrant basically. I'm a bit surprised to see that Ivanko accepted her back. I'm also curious as to her reasons for returning but am willing to let that be a mystery as I'm not interested enough to pry.

[Mercakete]

The spooked geldings just stared wide-eyed at Amari. One of them noticed she didn't have a rider or cart she was attached to. His thoughts directly wne to whatever it was he felt earlier, suddenly letting loose a shrill whinny, a panicked question as to if whatever it was had eaten her rider. The panic spread to the other one. The other was a bit less excitable though and snorted and wickered a stuttery reply that their human was inside the cart with annother human but they were too afraid to move. The panicky one began to bolt forward, pulling the cart slowly at first out of the mud. With a surprised huff, the other instinctively followed his companion's lead and soon the cart was racing down the road.

Inside, Joe jumped in surprise. "What in--?!" he began to exclaim, trying to steady himself as the cart sped along. Buckling down, he continued, "Well, I hope your horse can run if you tied it to my cart! Hold on, boy. I have to take the reigns! Heh! At least they're moving again!" With that, he shakily clambored over to the driver's seat, where he had looped the reigns just in case something like this happened. Grabbing them, he began to attempt to steer his horses. However, he could not slow them and rain was getting in his eyes. "My! This will be an adventure!" exclaimed Mr. Pommel upon finding that he could not slow the spooked horses, "Hold on! We'll have to wait for them to tire in order to stop!"

OoC: By the way, yes, he has a door leading to the driver's seat from inside the cart. So no crazy, theatrical acrobatics there.

[Balcerzak]

Once again calm and composed by the time Amari had returned from checking up on the flighty winged ones, Trevor had swished his tail and nickered back a response to her query. Flicking his ears a bit as well, he communicated that things seemed fine as far as he'd had any cause to notice. The humans seemed to be doing one of those things they do on occasion, and nothing seemed to be required of them.

They shared a few more moments together, but before long the mare had gotten the urge to go make the rounds again. With a shake of his head, he indicated that he'd being staying put, and he saw her off. Now alone, he snorted to himself, and started to wonder after his little human. She hadn't been back to check up on him... might this be something he should check out? Stamping his feet a bit, he snorted, and slowly trotted back over to where his current human had dismounted, to help the other stick human, steering clear of the canvas structures that had sprouted up in the meantime.

~~~

When Arrin threw his arms around her, embracing her, Tessa's first thought was surprise at just how warm he was. Her second thought was... well, she wasn't exactly sure what it was to be honest, but a second dose of warmth began flowing through her. Finally she realized that she had been rather thoughtless, and she really should have chosen more carefully what she had had to say. The look on the mage's face after she'd spoken, followed by his swift and heartfelt confession on how worried he had been struck her with a sense of guilt.

Before she replied however, she let him finish, answering her other question, closing her eyes and taking in the sound of his voice, taking in his words of reassurance that he was fine. Could she trust these words? A brief wonder flickered across her mind. His older sister always claimed to be fine, even while wounded, and just recently Arrin had played down just how badly the severing had been affecting him hadn't he? Though, on that note, it was entirely possible the boy himself hadn't been aware. Yes. Certainly that had to be the case.

Leaning into him, she apologized softly. "I... I was careful. I probably didn't say it quite the right way, and so it's my fault for worrying you. I can still see, watch." Taking her right hand, she started tracing the letters to the first words of a common prayer in the dirt before realizing that that probably didn't demonstrate anything. She could probably do that even if she were blind, or with her eyes closed. A small frown slipped onto her face as she considered alternatives. Almost immediately she hit upon one that seemed like it might work. Separating from Arrin's hug gently for the moment, she turned, looked him in the eyes, and then pressed her finger first to the tip of his nose, and then to his ear.

"See! I couldn't do that if I were blind, now could I? I... oh... dear, I just got mud... on you... S-sorry! Here, let me wipe that off," and quickly she dabbed at the mess she just made with a corner of wet fabric.

Why, why was she messing everything up at the moment? Just now she'd tried to be reassuring, but it had gone wrong, and well, what's done is done. It was only supposed to be a supporting point anyway, she needed to return to the main subject here.

With a small sigh, Tessa elaborated, "What I had meant was, well... Hmm, maybe this won't make sense, as you're not a healer, but I'll try anyway. It was like, mmm, you know when you're walking up the stairs, and you keep going expecting there will be another one, only it's not there and you trip and fall? Sort of similar. I was reaching out to the limitless love of The Lady, to tap into its healing powers only it wasn't there... or something? I don't know... maybe I was just exhausted, and I did something wrong, but I suddenly felt my body trying to act as the replacement, to give up to the spell what it needed to function, which must have been what caused things to go so terribly wrong the first time. But I managed to recognize it in time, and stop it you see? I was being careful... just... it wasn't there."

Forcing a bit of a smile back onto her face, she turned slightly to the side, and scooted back towards Arrin a little bit. It was clear from her body language that yes, she would appreciate another hug at the moment, if you please.

"Things will be all right, though. After all, it happened before, and came back, no serious issues. It's definitely something I'm interested in finding out more about, I can't imagine the cause. Perhaps I've been lacking in devotion recently... I'm just glad that The Lady honored my prayers as long as she did, though, and that your arm is fine... that everyone is fine. For a moment there, the situation had taken a turn most dire. But in the end, everything worked out..."

OOC: Helios later, sorry. I'll get on it.

As Charlotte was drying her eyes, Helios had turned aside, so that he wasn't watching. The cleric seemed to want to cover up the fact, and there was no point in pressing her on the issue at all.

"Time alone... can be precious... yes," he answered back, trying to both comfort and be diplomatic about the situation. "Sometimes however too precious to afford. Especially for nobility. The weight and responsibility attached to that is more often a curse than a blessing. With the dangers as they've been recently..." Wait, this isn't going anywhere, raising a hand and scratching the back of his head, Helios looked for a new tact to take.

Facing her now, he tried a different approach, "I don't know if this was the first time you've been directly on the receiving end of a betrayal..." at the flash that seemed to come to her eyes he quickly amended, "Or what might appear to have been one... you need to, well... things like that aren't uncommon. You must be prepared for them, though they'll never stop hurting." Urggg, this isn't working either, I'm probably pissing her off...

Turning around, the wind mage dropped his voice and said, "...I'm sorry. If he's dead, I'm sure he gave them hell before they got him.

...We should go back to camp."

He'd failed at this point, he was pretty sure. Better just to bring her back to the safety of numbers, and to her remaining countryman. Probably get an earful along the way for his efforts.

OOC: No new posts huh, well editting it in it is.

Edited November 5, 2010 by Balcerzak

[Snowy_One]

"I know that horse!" exclaimed Altion, his head poking out from interior of the cart as it took up the sudden bought of motion. "That horse belongs to the horse-lady, Kelas. It's probably gonna-AH!" Altion let loose a sudden squeak of fear as the cart went over a decently sized bump in the road. It was clear that the man had never ridden in a cart before, and judging by the wild pitching about he was undergoing as the animals took to following Amari, he was not likely to become used to it in the near future either. "It's probably going to lead us back to her master!"

---

"Welcome." said Esphyr as Alf left her behind. Her leg still hurt greatly regardless of any healing. Feeling overall useless, she laid back as if to rest. A thin sigh slipped from her lips as she looked up vacantly. "So much to do. Aiya, Damian... Alf... Irina..." she rolled on to her side. "I need to apologize to that girl, soon. Wish it was easier to be sure. I can't just walk up and act like it never happened, can I?"

[Dark Sage]

"GAH!" Reika awoke with a start, kneeling quickly after she got up. Pain shot into her, her wounds partially healed, but still enough to function.

"Eric that bastard...Grr.....Where's everyone?" asked Reika. Seeing Esphyr, she stumbled a bit towards her, sitting down next to Esphyr. Hopefully this woman knew where everyone was.

"Ha. You're alive I see. Hmmph. Anyway, you know where everyone is? And where that armored woman is? And where Alf is? He better not be dead. It's so hard to find decent help these days."

[Inactive Account]

Amari succeeded partially in calming the other horses, but they bolted all the same. She ran alongside, gaining ground, until finally she pulled ahead, and turned to whinny a command to stop. There was nothing foul afoot at the moment; panicking would not help anything. She tried to herd them to one side; it was harder to run in a circle, and hopefully this would slow the pair down.

------------------------------------------

"All right," Arrin replied shakily, beginning to calm down. He even managed a bit of a smile as Tessa confirmed that she still had her vision by poking him in the nose. He listened intently as she explained what had happened; it was troubling, but it sounded like Tessa would be all right. As she scooted closer, he leaned over to hug her again: it just seemed like the right sort of thing to do. "I'm glad you're okay, too... yes, I guess we're going to be all right, aren't we?" he said quietly, hope restored somewhat. It was certainly easier to be hopeful out of the rain, beginning to warm up, and with Tessa there. "Thanks for helping Kelas and me-- and I," he corrected absently, still holding on. "We're okay..."

[Snowy_One]

"Not much to say... Reika. You set a town on fire and did loads of destruction before joining us seemingly at random. It's not my place to ask, but what gives? Did you fall and hit your head? Demonic possession?"

[Dark Sage]

"Well.....if you must know...." Reika said reluctantly, "With those towns...I hate soldiers strutting around, acting like they own the place. Soldiers love to pretend they're just being innocent and when you're not looking, they take your town over and destroy your life. Those bandits? Morons. All of them. Plan was to destroy both the bandits and the soldiers, or at least weaken them. If they all died, that's their own damn fault. I thought soldiers would be better than that.

Why did I join up with you? I was hired to by someone else. That's all. Now tell me what I need to know. Now. Or else."

Edited November 5, 2010 by Red Magister

[-Cynthia-]

Politics

"Dead country? Much to the dismay of the Haltonian military, not yet." Tristan said, scowling at Aiya. "Excuse me for a moment." he said to the tent, leaving to find Alex on patrol.

"General Alex, we have Haltonian officers here who admit to plans on invading Septimus. What do you suggest we with them? Are there any forces we can marshal in the area?" he asked her.

Betrayal

"Oh right, you are the prince of Tora, I forget about that sometimes." Charlotte started. "I suppose I cannot hope to inspire total loyalty, but I never thought Eric would-" She couldn't bring herself to finish that sentence. "Dani left too, Jace took over Burgosas, the entire world just seems to be falling apart. What can I do really, to stop all of this? I'm just a princess of a nation that doesn't even officially exist anymore, most of my retainers aren't even here...the situation seems entirely hopeless." she said, slumping down to the ground.

Deserter

"Thanks." Xenia said to Peter, going down the hall. She briefly looked at the figures in the hall, some random sage looking guy and a Halton military officer. She reached Ixion heading down the hallway. "Hey twerp!" she called out to him. "We have things to discuss."

[Phoenix]

Under Suspicion

Peter gasped as Xenia walked off ahead without him. He wasn't going to be much help just standing by the entrance, but he couldn't leave all those tomes one the ground either. He quickly decided to go pick them up and then made his way down the hall hoping to catch up.

Meanwhile Ixion stopped to the sound of a woman approaching from behind. Turning around, he saw Xenia and gave her a look of irritation. Not only was the fact that he was likely to be delayed bothering him, but coupled with the domineering spirit of the deserter herself, he wasn't too concerned with polite behavior either.

Ixion: The deserter. If this isn't extremely important, come back later, I'm busy.

Edited November 5, 2010 by Phoenix