Return of the Emblem Chapter Four: The Human Condition

[ReformBlade]

"What the hell's goin on now?" Nanahm muttered to himself and Chelsea as he hopped off to hand his weapons over properly. He didn't much like it, but these guys didn't seem like they'd be fun to fight against. If worst came to worst, his fists were still pretty good at negotiating. The archer on the other hand was freaking out on the inside, not sure how to deal with this new development.

[Rothene]

While trying hard to listen to the conversation between Gytha and the patrol captain, he sudenly thought of the prodigies from his academy who were always at the centre of attention. Not that he wanted to be at the centre of attention, but at least not let anyone else down anymore. His pyrophobia prevented him from inheriting the teahouse properly, his disinterest in learning magic properly and now his obvious poor combat capabilities, all these failures ate at his core from time to time.

Recalling the way of the Earth, he braced his spirit and let those emotions batter him, corroding a bit of his tenacity before it stopped and more positive thoughts returned to him as he tried to master himself. He did not know how long he could last keeping his failure so close to mind, as no matter how thick the stone, the humble water will eventual corrode it, layer by layer till no stone is left. Sighing, he decided to distract himself by counting the clouds in the sky. As he reached the sixth cloud, the other mage sat next to him and asked her question.

"Why yes, I'm from Kigen," said Ranyin gently, just barely remastering his depression. He then continued asking her, "Earlier you said something about wanting to learn magic right? Maybe I can try giving you a brief introduction to wind magic itself as no tomes are required. How does that sound? It's not like we have anything else to do right?"

[Phoenix]

When Synthia asked about what to do with her staff, one of the patrolmen walked over and looked it over. "Mend staff ... no you're good." he told her before picking up the tome and putting it with the other weapons they had gathered.

The captain put all of the information together while going back over things in his head. When we arrived, it was already over, but the first story we heard was that Raquel and her group were assaulted by the Farsiders, and then these bounty hunters pounced on them. Now this other woman who's clearly not with the bounty hunters contradicted that story the moment looting was brought up, which is why I suspected she was just stupidly trying to spite them, but it's starting to look more like little Miss Valcyn here forgot to fill in one of her mercenaries about her little arrangement. So Raquel withdraws like she's been doing, and the accused side with her story obviously. Seems like a classic case of failing to cover your ass to me. Well ... we'll get to the bottom of this soon, I think. Though I've got an idea on how to speed things up a bit. the captain mused. Wouldn't happen to know who's carriage that is, would you?" he asked the three women, mostly rhetorically. "Alright, next order of business. Since we have a potential massacre on our hands other than the Farsiders, I'm going to have to gather testimonies from everyone here. This will take a few hours so get comfy, folks."

[roymbrog]

“Uh, sure?” she replied. The mage seemed somewhat melancholy as she approached, but to be honest she didn't care much about his personal problems as long as he agreed to teach her. She did want to ask about what it was like in Kigen, and she did already know a little bit about wind magic, but learning it again wouldn’t hurt, especially since it’d been a while. Besides reading the book she had found in Raquel’s wagon a few days before, the last time she’d seriously studied was several weeks ago.

Despite her relative joy at having found a magic tutor, she groaned as the captain said they’d be interrogated. “This won’t really take several hours, will it?” she said, more complaining to the air than anyone around.

[Acacia Sgt]

''Alright, I'd take on the offer then.'' John told Connor. ''Although I guess we'll have to wait for Raquel to actually do it.''

When the captain of the patrol had ordered to drop their weapons, John took a glance over at Gil. Ever he dismounted Gil, he had left his lance there. He figured if he was disarmed either way there wouldn't be a problem.

Now he said they would be interrogating. John sighed. 'Looks like it will take even longer than expected.' He thought. 'I wonder if it means there will be trouble, considering these other guys.' He looked at the other group. 'Well, at least these guards are here.'

[MinunRobotnik4]

The thief hurried through streets, as per usual Williams sent a few guards to chase him a little, standard procedure, and it was also usual for him to outrun them and stay somewhere outside the city for a while. He ran through the city making as many turns as he could until he lost his pursurers and then left out of the closest city gate.

The good Williams strikes again, he'll never change, not that it matters much, I got paid he thought to himself, I guess I'll head for that inn I stayed at last time.

Saken continued to run until he was able to look behind him and see the city not appear bigger than his thumb from the distance it was at.

I don't have to run now and it should be a straight shot to the inn, unless I come across trouble.

[Phoenix]

The guard captain gave everyone present, save for those that pointed out that they too had only just arrived, to each give a full account of what happened. He also gave a veiled threat while explaining the illegality of hindering investigations into possible homicides. While people were giving their stories one by one, the patrolman who had left to fetch the morticians arrived, the patrolman along with four new ones were escorting three large body wagons. They had no intention of taking the bodies of horses with them, only the bandits. The horses were just going to be buried a little ways from the road.

Two and a half hours later, the horses had been buried, the bodies of the bandits loaded onto the wagons, and all of the stories gathered. The morticians were baffled by the state of Blaine's remains but they had seen far worse in their day and decided not to bother asking questions one of the cavalrymen already had. The captain had Raquel, Gytha, and Liz in one place and mostly separate from everyone else.

"Alright, there's more says against you and your six 'bounty hunters' than I can ignore, but that's also to be expected. Now I'd like you to do something for me. If you don't comply, I'm just going to arrest you and hold you in Europa over night ... and probably still get done what I'm about to ask you to do anyway. Now Gytha and Veronika mentioned you were feeding bodies to that wyvern of yours. If there's any evidence, it's in there, so I don't care what you have to do, but I want that bull vomiting. It's been a few hours but if it did eat them, we'll find at least bone fragments ... and maybe clothing."

[Guest Wen Yang]

"I'll see what I can do about that. Can't promise much though. Ain't never really liked that overgrown lizard." Liz beckoned to her group, and Tatyana came over supporting a groggy Sergei. "Captain here wants you to get big ugly to puke up his guts. Think you can to that?" She said that with several pointed gestures, enough to make Sergei get her real intentions.

"Uhh... I might be able to do that, but I'm not sure I want to..." He looked at the captain as if questioning his sanity. "You ever had to deal with a pissed-off-the-rocker Bull, captain? Cause Ol' boy there never likes anything interfering with his meal, especially when it's in his stomach already."

[Phoenix]

The captain watched as Liz explained the situation to Sergei, who in turn asked him if he was sure about what he was asking. The captain crossed his arms saying. "If he gets out of hand, we'll just shoot'em. Carry on." He didn't mind either way. He just wanted to see what the beast had eaten recently.

[Guest Wen Yang]

"Shoot him, and you buy me a new, trained Bull." He replied sarcastically. He slumped over to the huge Wyvern, which, considering its size, has been acting pretty docile so far - mostly because Sergei commanded it to do so. He gave every sign that he was not liking what he would need to do - then again, nobody would envy him his job.

Tatyana left him standing near the wyvern, before taking the distance herself. This is not the first time something like this happened - although the last time they had managed to take the easier way out - but she knows not to be near Sergei all the same.

He made gestures and shouted commands at the Bull wyvern, it snorted at first, then roared at him with a loud enough voice to make everyone nearby cover their ears. Sergei was less annoyed at the prospect of bring found out immediately - he taught the wyvern to chew its food - but was much, much more annoyed at what is coming next.

Mikhail finally complied, and like he always was when forced to do something he didn't like, he made his displeasure known in a very obvious way.

He puked all over Sergei.

Poor sergei stood there, trying to scrub off the worse of the wyvern-vomit covering him, and then turned at the guard captain and shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. "And NOW you owe me a new suit of clothes too, god-thrice-damn-you!"

[Phoenix]

The captain just stood there with his arms crossed waiting, until the bull roared. That was when the majority of patrolmen took up their rifles and readied to fire in case things got 'out of hand'. What happened instead had a few of them snickering lightly. The rider had been covered in vomit and was now a little more than peeved with their captain. The captain didn't budge, snicker, flinch, or laugh at anything that happened. Once the vomit was covering Sergei, the captain motioned for his scout to go over and have a look. The rifles weren't lowered ...

Sifting through the muck and grime, he found a bone. He quickly identified it as a rib fragment but putting the oozing thing up to his body, he found it was too big to be a humans. Looking back at the captain, he said "Sir, this is probably a horse bone. Could be from those remains over there or from a wild one."

"Keep looking." he said simply, to which the man nodded.

After going through the mess at Sergei's feet, he just found more horse bones. He soon found the remains of a horse's halter ... what was left of it at least. "Well ... we know it wasn't a wild horse ... and the bandits' horses were all accounted for." he said standing up and holding the thing out for the captain to see. "I'm ... pretty sure this belonged on one of those destroyed horses pulling the carriage."

"Mind explaining this? Gytha's story's making a lot more sense now." the captain said looking at Liz and Sergei. The others were on guard now.

Edited May 26, 2011 by Phoenix

[MinunRobotnik4]

Saken layed down on a cart full of hay being pulled along by a horse driven by his master. Saken had payed off the man driving who was heading towards Europa, a place he decided he'd rather get off at the inn than ride all the way there, as he did not want to be recognized there, especially not there. The hay was soft so as he closed his eyes, his mind drifted off to sleep.

Several hours had past when he awoke again, he awoke slighty surprised as he had only meant to take a light nap.

"Pardon me, but how far have we gone since I fell asleep?"

"Oh, as I reckon, I believe we have made very good time we shouldn't be so far from Europa now."

Oh no, I guess I must have stayed too long, Saken thought.

"I thank you and I believe I shall get off now."

Saken wondered if he should try to make the walk back to Ursentius, as he payed the driver a tip, or stay in an outlying village until he could plan his next course of action.

[Guest Wen Yang]

Liz practically ignored the captain, and gave Sergei the most baleful glare she could manage. "You let the damn thing on the loose again, didn't you? Verdammt!"

"Hey!" Sergei countered. "I was out cold till last hour, remember? How would I know if it got hungry and snacked on some horses while I do?"

As if to accentuate the point - and add to Sergei's annoyance - Mikhail moved its jaws a little, then spat something out that hit Sergei on the head with a healthy clunking noise. He crouched down and grabbed his aching head, while some of the others could not help from laughing at the sight.

It was a gnawed-on horseshoe.

[Phoenix]

The captain only waited until the horseshoe nailed Sergei in the head to get his answer. "You know, even if I believed that your wyvern just goes off and eats other people's property, that wouldn't change the fact that you're still liable. We've got enough to go on to hold the seven of you for the time being." he said before signalling for his men to begin what they hoped to be cooperative arrests. "Cooperate and this will go smoothly." he instructed. Glancing at Raquel and the others, he added "And don't any of you move just yet either. Let us handle this."

[Guest Wen Yang]

Liz sighed audibly, letting her shoulders slump. "Sure sure, we ain't lookin' for trouble here. I'm just lookin' to make an honest livin', damn it." She said, before skewering Sergei with another baleful glare. "And you, mister, have a lot to hear once we're done with this mess."

Sergei pretended to wither under her glare,

"A LOT." She added, with the necessary menace in her voice.

[Phoenix]

"Alright, cuff'em" the captain said, prompting the others to begin restraining the seven 'bounty hunters' for the moment. "Hmm ... we're probably going to need a specialist out here to deal with this wyvern." he said to himself while looking the beast over.

[Guest Wen Yang]

Liz and her group gave every bit the cooperating, if grudging look as the guardsmen approached them with cuffs in hand, while Sergei tentatively led his wyvern closer to the bunch. That is, they stayed docile until three of the guardsmen dismounted their horses, and was about to cuff them as three others looked on the proceedings. It was then, when the guards were close to them, in part covering the one they are about to cuff from others, that Liz, Salicia, and Jorge acted, almost in unison.

Sergei has Mikhail roar at his loudest at that moment, drawing everyone's attention and causing them to pause for a slight moment. That was all the opening they needed.

Before the guards could react, Liz has smashed one man's nose with her elbow, taking the moment where the man staggered to get a stranglehold on him and remove the slung rifle off his shoulder, which Tatyana grabbed right away and pointed straight at the Guard captain. Jorge similarly just overpowered the man that was going to cuff him, holding the man's right arm behind his back in an uncomfortable position and with his other arm around his neck. Isis grabbed the man's rifle and pointed it at the nearest guard, giving a clear sign that he won't be getting off his shot without getting shot in return.

Salicia scraped the heel of her boot against the shin of the man behind her, stomped his foot, before turning around and elbowing the man on the side of his head. She similarly grabbed the man's rifle as he fell down to the ground, and let Tsukiko grab the man and use him as a human shield. Her aim, was pointed at Raquel.

"Okay mister. We can now shoot each other dead, or you can watch us be off and everyone gets off alive." Said Liz, the three guards they took by surprise held in front of them as hostages and with the stolen guns pointing at the guard captain and Raquel. Mikhail spread his wing and stalked closer as well, adding another threat to the situation. "And that goes for you too, pinky. Don't you be getting any funny ideas."

"What'll it be?"

[Phoenix]

"So you are guilty after all. Hmph." The captain scoffed. Raquel froze with one of the rifles aimed at her. Why her? She wasn't a combatant. The best she could do was give an attack order ... but who would follow it in a situation like this? Amon didn't care why it was happening, but his instincts took over and he placed himself between Raquel and the shooter to shield her.

The remaining men still had their guns drawn and ready, but before the captain answered Liz, a thought came to mind from earlier.

"The truth is ... that I don't want anyone else to get killed over this. That's why ... I've been saying what I have."

Raquels words. Before that came to mind, he was definitely willing to risk their lives, even his own to bring these people down. So this is the kind of mess she was trying to prevent. Them getting away or killing some of her friends and possibly some of my men trying. "... you can go, for now ... but I promise you if you stay in this region, you'll be caught within a week. You won't be so fortunate then, criminal." he said wryly. "Go on ... off with you, before I change my mind." he demanded.

Raquel was still stunned by what had happened, but no one was dead just yet. That was possibly a good sign.

[Guest Wen Yang]

"Only time will tell, I assume. Hope we don't meet again, mister, whoever your name is." Replied Liz with a wink and a smile on her face.

Behind her, Sergei moved Mikhail closer to the pile of weapons, and loads up their own weapons onto the wyvern's back. The others kept their guns trained at the guards, while those still grabbing the guards by their necks maneuver themselves closer to the wyvern. Salicia traded the gun to Sergei and notched an arrow to her bow once she got there, while everyone else climbed up the wyvern, still keeping their weapons trained at the guards.

Liz had the audacity to wave the guard captain good-bye as the Wyvern began taking off, as well as giving a meaningful look at Raquel. The guards taken hostage were tossed off the wyvern's back to the ground, sporting some bruises but otherwise unharmed, and just like that, they left the clearing, leaving the corpses and wreckage as a memory of their presence.

[Phoenix]

Once Liz and her gang were out of sight, the remaining uninjured patrolmen rushed to help the ones that were injured or otherwise overtaken. The Captain stood there for a moment contemplating the situation and how it had unfolded. Amon finally let his arms down once they were too far away for any kind of shot and slumped forward a bit. He was pretty certain that his sudden rush to get in front of her would be interpreted as an attack and get the typical response. Raquel had thought the same thing.

"Amon! What were you thinking?!" she scolded, obviously worried.

"I'll be honest here ... I really wasn't." he replied turning to face her. "I was just trying to make sure they didn't shoot you."

"Yeah but ... you?" she added, shocked.

"Why's that strange?"

"Well ... if I recall, your mission didn't have anything to do with saving anyone else. In fact risking your own life is ... well ... kind of silly, isn't it?"

"... I ... guess I'm not adjusting to other cultures very well. Women's lives are more important than men's. If any of the men I knew back home saw what I just did, I would probably get a party and be recommended to the maidens." he said blushing a bit. "Risking my neck for someone when and where I didn't have an important reason to ... and against that kind of weapon no less ..." he trailed off.

"Oh wow. I ... well it's kind of like that here but ... not so ... exaggerated. Thank you, regardless." I didn't think anyone in this group was willing to shield me like that. They might have actually shot him.

Meanwhile ...

"So, Squad Leader Guy! Any chance we can reopen negotiations for that bounty? Loike the truthful and oh so trustworthy Gytha said, we didn't do any lootin', and all their shit is in that bag those douchebags brought ya." she explained with a smile and hands held together at her chest.

The captain raised an eyebrow at the woman. "Don't try to go up on me. I already told you, half."

"Yeah you told them, but it's half for us too?"

"Different people, same problem. If you wanted the full bounty, you shouldn't have lied to us, and you should have kept them from moving their weapons. I swear, this happens all the time. When are people ever gonna learn?" he ranted, mostly to himself at the end.

Gabbie sighed, but then became a little elated. Twas better than nothing. "You've got-a deal, mate!"

"Tch, yeah I bet." he said under his breath. "Now if you'll excuse me for a moment, I need to speak with Miss Valcyn over there."

[Rothene]

Everything that happened seemed like something out of a dream or story. One moment the patrol men were about to round up the mercenaries, then the bull wyvern roared, which gave the mercenaries the opportunity to escape. The whole event made Ranyin almost forget that he was about to give Synthia a brief introduction to wind magic.

He started off with,"You might know what I'm about to say, but I find it useful to always start from the very basics. The loose summary of how magic is casted," and also to help me slowly recall the lessons my mentor thought me so long ago, Though Ranyin be fore continuing, "Each mage or potential mage has some degree of psychic energy that allows them to reach out and touch things with sheer willpower. Everytime you heal others with that staff of yours, do you let your thoughts sink into it and shape the light magic in there to replace the lost flesh from your targets? Because casting through a tome is like that. We mages let our willpower penetrate the layers of the book and disturb the dormant magic trapped within. With the magic all active, we can thus coax it out, then shape it with our minds to desired forms. With Anima magic, you must know how each different element behaves. Wind magic tend to feel light, ever moving, lose concentration for amoment and they seem to slip away, lost forever. Although it's the easiest magic to call from the tome, holding onto it and actually controlling it is the real hard part. That's why when you use wind magic offensively, you want it all concentrated into a single focused force. Simply tossing air at others will not do. The common practice is to shape it into blades as very fast concentrated winds can actually slice things. Can you describe to me what your attempts to use magic end up feeling like?"

OOC: Sorry for the wall of text of highly probable inaccuracies, but I just realised I don't know exactly HOW magic is casted. So if any detail is off, let me know and I'll edit accordingly.

Edited May 26, 2011 by Rothene

[-Cynthia-]

As the guards said they were to interrogate everyone around, Nadya considered leaving but decided this would look unecessarily suspicious. She retrieved the coinpurse from Luca's mouth and rested her head against him, rather bored.

Things got a whole lot more interesting when those bounty hunters or whatever they were disarmed the guards and took off. Nadya raised an eyebrow at the dark-skinned thief guy standing in front of Raquel and the rifle. After the situation had diffused, she decided to saunter over.

"Well, that was brave of you. Brave, but not very smart. You pull moves like that on a regular basis?" she asked Amon.

Veronika sighed heavily. She had this sinking feeling that they would be seeing these "bounty hunters" again.

[Phoenix]

Raquel

Before the merchant knew it, she was having a 'little chat' with the patrol captain. Well that was certainly awkward for her after everything that had happened. "Well, you have your desired outcome, Miss Valcyn. Nobody else is dead. Though this may just be the beginning with those people. It's not too bad though. We've got plenty to go on, though I won't count on the names they gave us being legit. We'll just have to see." he trailed off. Raquel just nodded in response occasionally and kept her head low, waiting for him to chastise her for her part in all of this.

"Now that just leaves you." he began, causing her to sink her head down between her shoulders and hide her face even more. "How did your fight with those people go if you don't mind my asking?"

"... not very well. It would have taken a lot to beat them. It would have taken so much to beat them all that it wouldn't have been worth the people we lost in the process. This was just some random ..." she paused looking up at the Captain, a bit overwhelmed. "I don't mind helping people when I can but ... this was just too much. I didn't want to sacrifice any of my friends to stop those people. We stumbled onto them trying to cover up a bunch of murders. I felt so stupid thinking I led us here and that some of our own might end up paying for it with their lives."

"Huh. Understandable. Now you know what it's like to be a patrolman." he replied, seeming less uptight than before. "Bandits, dangerous mercenaries, serial killers. You want people like that brought to justice, but you don't want to sacrifice good people just to do it. One might say it's not worth it. Hell, another bandit troupe, or mercenary, or killer will show up eventually anyway, right? So why bother seeing good people die to stop it?" he asked rhetorically.

"Well ... there's several reasons. First of all, if we do nothing, we lose our country to chaos, villainy, and warfare, the likes of which hasn't been witnessed in all our history. This stability you see around you, it's the fruit of our on going labors and sacrifices to keep as much of this country safe as humanly possible. I'll admit, it hurts to see people you've grown to know and trust die right in front of you, and over something as silly as a bandit hunt no less. I lost one of my scouts to a sniper not too long ago while we were searching for the Farsider's base. Turned out, it was just a campsite near the woods. My scout lost his life for that. He lost his life for some wrathdamn intel we would have found out anyway." he explained, not hiding his disgust with that outcome.

"The only reason I can put that behind me is because he was wearing a uniform, and that uniform told me something that I needed to remember. 'This is my duty' ... that's what I needed to remember. We don't become soldiers just to go off and fight the Skotians or claw our way up the ladder. We do it to be of whatever aid to our country that we can be. We put our lives at risk everyday and we're fully aware of this. We do it, and accept what comes with that. Everyone wants to die doing something important, or for something worth their lives, but that's just not going to be the case for the vast majority of us."

Raquel nodded humbly. He looked at her wondering how she had interpreted that and then threw in another comment. "That's not to say you should fight a losing battle without a good reason. Just keep in mind that even though your friends aren't soldiers, they're still taking up arms. You know what the weapons they're carrying are saying? They're saying 'This is my job' ... and anyone who picks one up needs to know what that means, and what risks it carries."

Amon

"Huh?" Amon commented at first before what the woman had said registered. Realizing she was talking about his shielding maneuver, he agreed somewhat. "Well, I guess it was brave, but like I told Raquel, I really wasn't thinking there. My body just took over." he clarified.

While Luca looked around for a patch of grass that wasn't stained red, Amon took all of two seconds after his reply to realize that the woman he was talking to was probably a nomad. Being polite though, he decided not to bring it up. He didn't know what it was like to be one or whether or not bringing it up would upset her or not, so he felt the best course of action for the moment would be to pretend he didn't notice.

Luca found a patch of grass that wasn't red! ... no, it had a little bit of blood too. A closer look revealed that. Maybe it was time to pester Nadya for an apple. Those were red, but they were usually supposed to be ... except for the green ones.

[Mercakete]

Gytha was about to chastize Amon for risking himself like that, but decided against it when she was distracted by what the patrol captain was saying. That's right... I need to remember that the others here are supposed to be holdin' their own, too. I can't be watchin' after everyone... But they might've just shot'im t' get'im out o' th' way so they could have Raquel in their sights again... Wait a minute. Besides that, what'd Amon say earlier? He was talkin' t' Raquel... Eh, prolly not important. Not like it involves me anyway.

"Amon, keep yerself alive, too. Ye keep puttin' yerself in danger an' I'll be a wreck," Gytha sighed, trying to shake the momentary panic she'd experienced when he'd done that. Sure she was glad he was willing to protect Raquel -- she was her friend, too -- but his method could have gotten them both killed. The blood on her arms was dry enough by now that she just started rubbing it off of her skin. She'd change in a little bit and ask Raquel to take care of her outfit's hardships again once that had been accomplished.

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

Bert had since rubbed his skin clean and replaced the bandages wrapped around his hands. The bloody ones were too stiff now, so they were useless. Those cuts will probably scar... Oh well. I couldn't dodge it forever. Now, to get this tunic taken care of... That'll require flying somplace with a seamstress who's willing to get the blood out. I also should have that axe with me. ... I wish that bandit had told me where his base was. These people think I'm some sort of monster now. I guess I can't use my last-ditch information-gathering techinques anymore... The sooner I get Splinter and Crunch back, the better. I wonder how long I'm going to be stuck with these people... Well, nothing really lost if that guy wasn't the leader, I guess.

[-Cynthia-]

"So when someone points a rifle at you, your body's natural reaction is to jump in front of it? Tough break. My natural reaction to rifles being pointed in my general direction usually involves a combination of running, screaming, and getting on a horse, not necessarily in that order. But hey, you're not dead this time, so whatever works for you I guess," Nadya replied to Amon, shrugging.