Lord of Azure Flame Chapter 24: The Schism

[Inactive Account]

"Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough," Kelas muttered, continuing to the room that was theoretically hers. Quickly she ducked inside, shutting the door loudly in order to keep anyone in the hall from seeing the room's occupant. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be able to shout... "Are you happy, then?" she hissed at Miranda, looking at anything else in the room besides where the demon who now appeared as an exact copy of Isotov. "You think this is funny? Or is your boss profiting, or something? What the hell are you trying to accomplish?"

[Ether]

"Kelas?" Aiya called out the nomad's name softly as she stormed off, reaching her room and slamming the door. Helios had done similar, and was now closed off in his room.

'Something... just doesn't sit right...' Aiya noted to herself, approaching Kelas' door, she seemed to be talking to... someone...

'What the... who is she talking to?' Aiya couldn't quite make out the words, but Kelas seemed angry, her voice discernibly venomous despite the lack of words.

Aiya placed her hand on the doorknob, and turned it, stopping herself before thrusting the door open.

"Kelas? C'mon, what's wrong? Did something happen between you and Isotov? If I hurt you when I said that, I'm sorry, just please, let me help you, okay? Kelas?" Aiya spoke loud enough to be heard through the door, but her tone was soft and submissive. Kelas hadn't seemed the type to go off the handle like she had, and that worried Aiya.

[Inactive Account]

Okay, now it was time to panic for an entirely different reason. If the plan was found out, they were probably all hurt, possibly dead. Before Miranda could say anything Kelas drew her hand swiftly across her own throat, indicating silence, and turned her attention to the door. "Can I not have an argument with myself in peace?" she called irritably, raising her voice to be sure Aiya could hear. "I am fine and it is none of your business. Please leave me alone." Hopefully Miranda wouldn't be crazy enough to say anything... As an extra precaution, Kelas moved back to the door, ready to shove it shut if need be. She wasn't about to lock herself in with Miranda, but she definitely didn't want Aiya coming in.

[Phoenix]

The Room

Miranda hadn't gotten out an answer before noticing that another person's presence was a bit too close for comfort. Frankly Miranda didn't like whispering so she let Kelas do the talking and sat on the edge of the bed with crossed arms and legs and a sinister grin listening. Some of what Kelas was saying had her musing to herself.

Iso!Miranda: (Arguing with herself ... hmm. Now there's a thought.)

She glanced over at Kelas who was guarding the door.

Iso!Miranda: (It would only be worth it if she didn't see me transforming. I can't really pin her entire appearance from over here though. Ah well. Being Iso's plenty fun enough for the time being. I wish she would relax more though. I get that the situation is tense and stressful, but come on, you're making ME feel gloomy now ... not to mention bored. No matter how this situation unfolds life is going to go on for anyone who survives it.)

[Mercakete]

"Demons are trying to collect the Crimson Weapons? Well, that isn't good... If the demons collect them all, then they will be able to unlock the lord of azure flame from his underground prison," Raemond replied. (Having Oraisunyou free isn't exactly desirable...) "I'm sorry to hear about your aunt, though she's fairly lucky to have escaped with only the loss of her eye. As for where they are, I'd normally be able to tell that well enough. Usually I can sense where they are if they're within my radius, but..." the monk sighed. He didn't like not being able to sense as far as he usually could, "As I said, I'm too close to the Crimson Weapons to be able to do so. It's like a strong stench is in the air. In order to smell anything else, you have to get away from the stench."

Shrugging his frustration off, he sighed again and continued, "It isn't as though I can actually do so, however. For now, I'm just trying to teach myself to recognize the presences of each of the Crimson Weapons so I can turn them out and focuss on ones I don't know. Being around them for too long, I've found, gives me a headache."

[Ether]

"Kelas, you're scaring me... What the hell happened?" Aiya asked with concern, hand tightening over the knob.

"I just want to help you out. I don't know what happened, but it is clearly something traumatizing, I can tell from here, Kelas... you have to let me help you." Aiya stated assertively, continuing simply.

"I'm coming in, Kelas."

As she said it, Aiya turned the knob, the door hadn't been locked. As she began to push the door open, she felt pressure from the other side. It seemed Kelas was forcing the door zhut.

"C'mon Kelas, don't do this. What the hell is wrong to make you do all this?"

[Inactive Account]

"I am not traumatized!" Kelas insisted. Oh gods, Miranda, don't start giggling... she thought, wondering if maybe the demon could read minds... she hated the idea, but for this particular moment it might be useful. "I did something very stupid and am trying to work out what to do with myself now. I do not need your help!" Leaning against the door, she gestured for Miranda to get out, preferably via the window.

Edited April 6, 2011 by Kiryn

[Ether]

"Did something stupid?" Aiya asked, confused. Kelas was making less and less sense as time passed, and Aiya was growing more and more concerned over not only the nomad's safety and wellbeing, but now a growing concern for the woman's sanity was rising as well.

"Whatever it is it will only get worse if you don't get help!" Aiya said through the door rather loudly. it seemed Kelas was simply not listening to her.

"I didn't want to do this, but..." Aiya muttered slightly, moving away from the door for a second and baring her shoulder. Ramming into the wooden door with her armoured shoulder, Aiya heard the door creak as it opened slightly under the pressure. She didn't see Kelas or anything else inside the room, aside from a small glimpse of the edge of the bed, before the door was forced back shut.

"Damn it Kelas what the hell is going on?!"

[Phoenix]

Options

At first the disguised Miranda sat there thinking to herself. Then things were beginning to get a little too loud even for her tastes.

Iso!Miranda: (Man, that girl is really nosy. Even I wouldn't try this hard to get into the place. Eh, I guess I'll just knock her out if she sees me. Not like adding one more person to the pile will hurt much.)

Then she got a signal from Kelas ...

Iso!Miranda: (On the other hand ... if I blast Aiya, someone's going to be able to detect the discharge. Window it is I guess.)

With that, she quietly opened the window, and disappeared out through it before her hands reappeared to close it from the outside. A moment later, her head appeared at the top of the window, upside down, and snickering a bit.

Iso!Miranda: Have fun.

Her voice was barely audible through the window. She disappeared right afterward and headed up to the roof. Once there she noticed she wasn't alone. Stratos had landed up there at some point and seemed to be more vigilant than usual.

Iso!Miranda: Oh ... ... hello.

The chimera gave her a few seconds of attention in the form of a blank stare, and then went back to keeping an eye out.

IM Business

Chekhov finally got a hold of the supplies they brought with, and secured a blanket. He figured he could just come back and get anything else as needed. Taking the blanket and flipping it onto his shoulder, he headed back inside.

Elsewhere, Ixion walked alone through the streets. He wasn't sure why Ivanko was in the town itself, but that wasn't important at the moment. Arriving to find Ivanko leaning up against Victor eating a pie of some kind while being spoken to by a shopkeeper, Ixion raised his voice.

Ixion: Ivanko.

Ivanko: ... yo.

Ixion: I'll be needing you at the inn it seems. Irina isn't cooperating.

Ivanko: Wasn't that succubus you're fooling around with going to help with that?

Ixion: It's not about Iso. Irina's refusing to cooperate for other reasons.

Ivanko: Not surprising. You've got a large vocabulary, but that doesn't make you good with wording. Alright, just let me finish this, figure out what to do with Victor, and then I'll head over there.

Ixion nodded before turning to Stephanie, who seemed as if she wanted to ask him a question.

Stephanie: Ixion, is ... is Irina alright? She isn't terribly upset, is she? Oh, and what about Lev?

Ixion: I believe Levski is passed caring. As for Irina, she's become extremely hostile.

O'Donnel: You really don't have a way with words.

Ixion: I didn't think I would need to be. She doesn't have to cooperate with us since she'll be coming along either way. It's only the difference between her coming along of her own free will or being forced.

O'Donnel: Maybe you should let Ivanko do the talking from here.

Ixion: If nothing compels me, then that's my intent.

[Mercakete]

When he heard the door open, Tas' eyes shifted in that direction. He was glad to see that it was that Chek guy and that he was carrying a blanket for the little wyverns. Slowly sitting up then moving to standing up, he stepped aside to give him some room so he could form the blanket into a nest for the transfer.

[Inactive Account]

A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that Miranda had exited the room, and Kelas quickly weighed her options. Clearly if she continued to hold the door she'd just make Aiya more worried and demanding of information; opening the door would just require large amounts of lying. With a sigh, she opened the door, stepping aside in case Aiya was currently in the process of throwing herself at it. "If I tell you what happened will you go away?" she asked irritably.

[Phoenix]

Chek

Chekhov: Sorry about that, there was some weirdness going on outside. (Come to think of it, there probably still is.)

He unfolded the blanket and then began molding it into a suitable nest for the eggs and hatchling on the table. Of course he couldn't go five seconds without Makar, who was sitting at the table, making little adjustments to the edges. This went on until Chekhov was finished.

Chekhov: Okay then, now for the little ones.

[Ether]

As Aiya moved to give the door another shove, it suddenly opened in front of her.

'Crud...'

Unable to curb her momentum, Aiya ended up on her back on Kelas' floor, groaning at the soreness now assailing most of her body. Looking up at Kelas, who was wearing an irritated expression, Aiya blinked for a second before shaking her head slightly.

"Kelas... you aren't usually like this... whatever happened, I'll do whatever I can to help you... why don't you get that?"

[Mercakete]

Tas was surprised at the sudden amount of emotion he had to swallow. (I've cared for and protected them for so long... I don't even know exactly what the future holds for them...) Gently, Tas carefully scooped up the little, yellow wyvern. While he was transferring her from one nest to the other, her eyes opened up a little and she looked up at him. That was just too much. He gently set her down into the other nest where she drowsily fell asleep again. He took just as much care in placing the eggs into the nest, too. When they were settled, Tas watched them for a moment longer before quietly beginning to fill his own blanket with the gold.

(It's my only means of carrying this much and I'll have to reinforce it with some of my spare leather. I'd love to care for and raise the hatchlings myself, but I just don't have the resources... Well, I do now, but that's only after selling them. I wouldn't be able to keep up with them anyway. This is for the best. ... Still... It's hard...) "Um... Excuse me," he began timidly, "Would it be alright if I visited them sometimes?" He continued placing his pay in the blanket as he asked the question. His eyes were a bit watery for some reason and he didn't feel like looking up from his task.

[Phoenix]

Mercs

Chekhov watched as Tas transferred the hatchling and the two eggs to their blanket, and took a few handling notes mentally. He was still new to this, and Makar liked to make fun of him and boss him around more than actually advise so seeing Tas do a few things was more helpful than it otherwise should have been. When Tas asked if he could visit them from time to time he answered rather honestly.

Makar: While they're in our care? Yep, sure thing, and no problem or objections from the lot of us. Now once they've got riders looking after them full time ... that may or may not be a different story. All depends on what they want from there.

[Inactive Account]

"I'm telling you, I don't need help!" Kelas insisted, reflexively offering Aiya a hand up. "If you absolutely must know what happened, someone switched the drinks last night at dinner and I got drunk. I woke up next to my best friend-- fully clothed, mind--" she was compelled to add, "and I've been trying to piece together what happened but meanwhile everyone won't stop making jokes about it so I'm just a tiny bit frustrated! If I wasn't enough already from trying to figure out how much of an idiot I had to be to even finish whatever the hell was in my glass!" She hoped the half-truth would work; the frustration was certainly genuine.

[Mercakete]

"Of course; thank you," the courier replied, glad that he wasn't entirely barred from visiting the wyverns. He guided Niket off of his shoulder so that he was next to the nest on the table as he worked. When he'd finished moving the gold and tieing the blanket around it, he picked it up and began carrying it out to Namid, mentioned to Irina on his way out, "I'll be back once I take care of this."

Gold was heavy, especially in large ammounts. However, the thing that converned Tas was why Namid was curled up so much. "Namid, are you alright?" he asked the wyvern before unloading some of the leather straps and metal buckles from Namid's saddlebags. With Tas around, Namid relaxed a little. He was still nervous, though.

It didn't take too long for Tas to arrange the leather straps and buckles in such a way that they secured the gold in the blanket so that none of it would fall out and the bundle would be easy to attach to Namid's rigging. Once the bundle was attached to Namid's saddle, Tas began to head back towards the inn...only to have Namid's tail curl around his waist. "Wha--? Hey," Tas protested before looking back to his wyvern. Namid's eyes were clear again...and he seemed fairly nervous. Feeling a bit guilty for being so anxious to get back inside, having ignored Namid's feelings almost entirely, Tas walked back towards the mountain wyvern and began stroking his snout. "I'm sorry, Namid. We'll be taking off soon enough. The exchange is done. For now, though, I need to go back into the inn. I promise we'll have a lot more time together soon," the courier coaxed.

Uncertainly, Namid let go of Tas and curled his tail around himself again. After a few more moments, Tas walked back to the inn, reentered and went to the kitchen to grab some more food. He'd need it.

[-Cynthia-]

"The Lord of Azure Flame being let out of prison would be bad I take it? There are a lot of tales of the battles against the demon king and his forces. A lot of people died," Tristan said somewhat glumly. "But I suppose if I had the choice, I'd rather people fight demons than each other. Demons are simple, they're evil things that need to be killed. People killing each other though...it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Like with your Reformist Templar friends, I don't understand why so many of them had to die," he said to Raemond, frowning.

Edited April 7, 2011 by -Cynthia-

[Script]

Luc Altair

Luc, like others, listened in on the confrontation between Ixion and Irina. Splitting people off from the group was... unwise, but if it was their desire he would abide. But Irina was clearly against this whole charade of a plan.

A Paul

Ahhahahahahaa, oh lord he failed in whatever it was he was doing didn't he? Hahahahahha. Freaking great! Now he's gonna run right off to Ivanko like a little kid ahahahahahahha. "Bya, bya fodder!" Paul stretched his legs and vaulted up to the roofs to follow after the little kiddie Ixion. Whew, man, seriously. This was the best joke all day! And he was gonna get something slightly interesting out of it too! Maybe. Well, it couldn't be boring. Unless everyone wanted to be all peace-loving no-kills borefolk. But pfffft, who wouldn't want to try and kill him? No one. Dang! This was a paradox now! So, that meant he'd just have to start it all. Yes, that was a nice solid plan! Stabby stabby!

At long, long last! Paul stared just outside of the ground-view of the legendary.. wait no, that wasn't it. Mythic? No. Heroic? Maybe. There-guy? Yes, that sounded like a something. There he was, the there-guy Ivanko! In all his there-guyness glory. Yeah, such glory...

Paul had an irresistible urge to flex. After indulging in that a bit he listened in on the conversation between all the various stab targets. It was soooooo boring... Ixion had blabbed like the little kiddo he was about not getting his way and wanted big bad uncle Ivanko to come and make everything better. It'd be funny--wait, it was funny! Paul laughed. Ah, now that was comedy.

Time to get to work. The best spy ever slide down off the roof and next to the Ivanko and Ivanko Mercenaries co. "There you are~" Paul sang. "I asked of this here druid here if he knew of a captain here and he agreed to take me here but it seems he forgot about me here~" he finished. "I call it, The Successor! You all owe me a gold for the live performance, but I'll take my payment in asking you the very important question of, On a scale of one to ten, one being not breathing and ten getting on my bad side; how bad an idea is attacking that K-capital place eh?" Paul tried to arch his eyebrows for emphasis, but he didn't have any.

Edited July 11, 2011 by Script

[Mercakete]

"Niether do I," Raemond sighed, finally sitting down. "I'm a demonslayer who hasn't slain any demons, I suppose. I can and will fight other humans if I must, however. I would prefer peaceful methods, though... And yes, it would be very bad if Ora-- if the demon king were released." (I'm not sure if it'd be a good or bad thing to be talking about that... I should just stay with the traditional names.)

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

Esphyr sighed as she entered the hallway. She'd given Morgan a fair warning, but was it enough? This might take seeing Damian herself to get a better read on just how much stress he was under... What had Ixion put him through to cause that...face? It was a haunting expression... (Stop relating this to yourself, Esphyr... He can probably handle it...maybe...) She couldn't get the worry out of her mind, though and so returned to the common room and saw Damian talking with Luc. Calming herself down somewhat, she tennitively walked up to him and asked, "Damain... Are you feeling better now?" Concern filled her uncertain voice as she asked him the question. Following his gaze to the situation with Ivanko's Mercenaries then back to Damian, she further questioned, "Am I interrupting something?"

[Dark Sage]

Practical Magic

"Wow...hmmm....you said non-combat applications are much more interesting? I'm curious about what you practical applications you can use for thunder magic. I think I remember you firing a spell as a signal, so that's one. Hmmm...there's not as many practical applications that come to mind with thunder magic like there is with wind magic. You can use breezes to knock things down out of reach, you can use it to help blow sails on a ship. That's two...." Sadie replied, thinking some as she talked.

[Phoenix]

Ivanko and Ixion

Ixion: More delays. ... expected. Paul, was it? I hadn't forgotten about you, it was rather obvious that you were following along.

Ivanko: Nother friend of yours?

Ixion: I don't have the patience for friends. He's here about the operation.If I recall correctly, he is opposed to the plan due to the recent developments with the demons.

Ivanko: About a week too late to be protesting this, and you're asking the wrong person if you think it's a bad idea. Who do you work for?

[-Cynthia-]

"Well, you'll probably have a chance to slay some demons when this is all said and done, demon king being released or no. Though I doubt we've seen the last of human enemies either or at least I haven't," Tristan said, thoughts of Jace's troops going through his mind. "So, why did you become a monk? Were you born into it, or did you choose to be one?" Tristan asked Raemond, attempting a quick subject change.

[Ether]

Guilt shot through Aiya as it became obvious that she was far from helping Kelas' situation.

"O-oh... I'm sorry, Kelas... I guess I'm partly at blame for this, aren't I?" Aiya said with a solemn expression, getting up and dusting herself off. Walking over to Kelas, she pulled the nomad into a quick hug, simply repeating herself.

"I'm sorry."

Letting go almost immediately, Aiya turned to leave the room, head angled to the floor.

*********

As Esphyr walked up to him, Damian looked at the mercenary with a joyful expression.

"Oh, Esphyr, when did you get here?" Damian asked, ruffling her hair affectionately, before her words soaked in.

"... You saw all that, huh? I'm fine, really. Just a heavy memory, is all." Damian said reassuringly, before looking back to where Irina now stood alone.

"The Ivanko Mercenaries are undergoing their final operation, and Ivanko requires Irina for it... needless to say she isn't happy on something so big being sprung on her like this."

[Inactive Account]

"Those are fairly simple applications," Arrin replied. "On that level, with thunder, you can put up sort of a low-powered shield around someone or something to keep others from touching it, though it's tiring if you're not used to doing so. But most of the really interesting things are going on in higher-level research. Have you ever seen lightning strike something metal? If it strikes a weathervane on a roof, for example, it travels dpwn the metal and usually sets the roof on fire. We've found that metal conducts it, and there's been some success with running magically-generated lightning through wires. The wires tend to heat up and sometimes glow in addition to transmitting the charge, and if you wrap wires around a piece of iron and then run charge through them, it acts as a magnet, so if we can better understand what's going on there, and learn to harness it better, there are some really interesting possibilities.

"We can already store quantities of magical energy in stones and such; if we get better at making devices that run on magic, and more efficient at storing it, we could potentially have such devices in common usage fairly quickly. Magic-powered lights and heaters would be a fair improvement on candles and fireplaces; properly constructed, they wouldn't run the risk of setting fires. And even that's simpler than the most interesting things we could do..." Arrin continued to ramble for a bit before cutting himself off, a bit embarrassed. "Er... sorry about that. My teacher would always yell at me to shut up when she had enough of it, so without that I kind of keep going on."

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

Kelas flinched involuntarily away from the hug; she still wasn't comfortable being touched by anyone outside a small set of people. "Don't beat yourself up over it," she told Aiya grudgingly, "just don't keep doing it, okay?"

Once Aiya had left the room, she shut the door behind her, waiting to hear the footsteps heading away this time. Miranda would inevitably return once she noticed Aiya was gone, and then the argument could start up all over again.