Return of the Emblem Chapter Six: Enemies Abound

[Phoenix]

Target Acquired

Not long after they had arrived, a maid approached and asked "Welcome ... back, was it? I think you were a part of the group that left earlier." Caterena nodded to confirm. "Ah, indeed, then. Welcome back~"

"Can you tell us where Weyland is?" she asked.

"I believe he's busy preparing for the meeting for this evening. Is it urgent?"

"... yes, certainly is. Can you show us to him?"

"Very well, follow me, and stick close, please." she instructed before leading the group deeper into the mansion. They even passed the conference room, the place Raquel had been expecting to find him. Eventually the halls changed in appearance and Raquel realized that she would get lost trying to find her way back. Caterena however had memorized the route as they went along. They eventually came to a two doored room. The door and the hallways looked completely blank; there was no decoration or anything of the like, and they seemed to be heavily reinforced.

"What is this area?" Cat asked.

"Oh Mister Weyland mainly uses this area for 'proof of concept' testing. A lot of explosions and implosions happen down here on the busy days, heehee."

"... the man's insane, I tell you."

The maid then knocked on the door. "Yes?"

"Mister Weyland, Miss Blanco, Miss Valcyn and ... hmm ... their bodyguard are here to see you."

The door opened only for the group to be assailed by a thick cloud of black smoke. Weyland, slightly darkened by the smoke, stepped out of the room and took off a steel mask that had been protecting his face. Next he removed what looked like a blast resistant vest. "Yes, what is it?" he said to them.

After a brief fit of coughing, Raquel yelled "What the heck?! I thought you were getting ready for the meeting!" She then went back into the coughing fit.

"The meeting isn't just an exchange of information, Raquel. You and all of your mercenary friends won't stand a chance if you aren't properly equipped. What I'm currently doing is doing some more extreme tests on a new type of armor plating that I was thinking to fit to a wagon."

"My wagon?" Raquel asked, somewhat hopeful, and somewhat doubtful that armor plating would do much more than slow the vehicle down.

"Not quite. We'll talk about it later. Is Chip with you by any chance?"

"Yeah." Raquel replied before opening up her bag. Chip stuck his head out and shrieked at Weyland who then reached behind his back for something. He came back with a pistol of some kind. Large enough to rival regular guns, but with grips only a small monkey could work with. He handed the pistol to Chip, who promptly began fiddling with it.

"This is an upgraded version of the original tri-shot I made. New features include a safety switch that Chip isn't aware of to keep him from shooting it in a situation where it wouldn't be proper to do so, a-" Weyland was interrupted by a loud gunshot; the culprit was Chip who had fired off a shot straight down the hallway. There weren't any screams, so Weyland assumed no one was hurt and continued. "Grateful for the switch, no?"

"Who arms a monkey with a wrathdamn pistol, Weyland? What made you think this was even remotely a good idea the first time?" Caterena questioned.

"Jethro and I came up with the idea when we realized that Chip was fiddling around with my weapons. A way to keep Raquel safe without her having to dirty her own hands. I doubt you'll be getting her to shoot anyone at least." Weyland explained. Raquel had been keeping her head low since she was mentioned.

With a deep sigh, Caterena asked "So what else is new with the gun?"

"Right, it's made out of stronger materials, so a swipe from a lance like Gemini won't outright chop it in half like the last time." he explained scratching his head a bit at the thought of one of his own weapons utterly destroying another. "The design is also a bit better suited to his size. It's technically a 'longer' model, and more like a rifle than a pistol, but that should make things easier on him. There's also a recoil absorbing mechanism at the back that I've wanted to test but haven't had the chance."

"Thank you." Raquel said.

"Yes, thank you, madman." added Cat. "We're here to speak with you about something else though."

"Having second thoughts about letting Raquel do this?"

"Third, fourth and fifth thoughts too, but for right now I'm just going to ask about that Steinn fellow. He's a fallen and yet you're working with him for some purpose. Why?" she asked crossing her arms.

"You probably would be better served not knowing all of the details ..."

Targets Acquired

The Ursian division stationed at Urcenter readied themselves as the massive flock of Neviskotians approached from the north. The commanders had done everything they could to prepare, from fortifying key locations, to putting out every ballista they could manage. Fortunately for the Urcenter defenders, they had many of the new Weyland Enterprises Hex Ballistas deployed and ready for use. Each one could do the work of three normal ballistas.

The Neviskotians had tactics of their own. Each dragon including Commander Boscov was carrying around ten shock troops that they aimed to drop right down on top of the fortified positions, or in other places where they could cause the most damage. The wyvern riders were either armed with heavy assault weaponry, or carried a passenger mage who's job was to lob short range magic at enemies during flybys and in aerial combat.

The Ursians fired the first shots of the battle blanketing the skies with ballista bolts and various types of anima magic. The flock broke apart violently and scattered in all directions over the city. Boscov was next and let loose a massive wind blade that clipped off the top of a tower and sent it plummeting down onto an Ursian barricade in the center of the main road. There was only one survivor and he ran for his life.

Two other dragons landed in front of a ballista position only to be suppressed by incoming fire. One of them stuck his head out from cover just long enough to spray a huge cloud of flames at them. No one was killed but it caused a brief pause in their barrage. The other swiped his claw at them at the first opportunity sending out several icy spikes that skewered some of them. Once they were in no condition to keep the two dragons back any longer, the fire dragon sent out another burst of flame that forced them back away from their ballistas and set the entire barricade ablaze, and then an entire squadron of wyvern riders swooped in and overtook the lot of them. The squad leader was struck down immediately afterward by a shot from a Hex Ballista on another fortified barricade down the road. The fire dragon was struck as well but backed off before he could suffer further injury.

Above the city, a very large formation of pegasus knights had arrived from near the Ursian headquarters to try and slow down the wyvern riders. They fought each other above the city everywhere with no clear sign of who was winning other than the occasional increase in falling pegasi. Their were losing because of the combined efforts of the ranged wyverns, they're passengers, and the dragons that had committed themselves to securing the airspace. The ballista on the ground weren't enough to cover the whole city, and with the Ursian riders mixed in with the enemy, they soon suffered enough close calls with friendly fire to only focus on the ground forces. That led to most of them quickly being destroyed by opportunistic aerial enemies. The Neviskotians were overrunning the city and smashing every semblance of resistance the Ursians put up, and Boscov along with several other dragons, was making his way toward the headquarters, the mansion being guarded almost solely by infantry ....

[Mercakete]

Like Raquel, Norbert doubted he'd remember the way back, but asssumed they'd be escorted anyway, so it wasn't so concerning for him. When the maid introduced them, mentioning him as simply one of the women's bodyguards, he had a mixed reaction to it. Though he figured annonimity was beneficial at times, it was somewhat irritating to be the only one not called by a specific name. The smoke that came soon after was unexpected and, like the others, the pegasus rider found himself coughing until the smoke had cleared enough for him to breathe somewhat normally again. "You couldn't warn usabout the smoke?" he coughed, though was ignored, probably because he hadn't spoken very loudly. The gunshot made Bert jump a little, but no one was hurt, so it wasn't such a big deal. Good thing there's that new switch. But really, who in Wrath's name would be crazy wnough to give such a dangerous weapon to a monkey?! "And why not?" Norbert asked in responce to Weyland's verbal waving off of the question, giving the inventor a pointed glare and a sharp tone, "If you're working with someone like him, all of Ursium deserves to know why." At this point, it wasn't hard to imagine the unspoken accusations Norbert was thinking about.

[Dark Sage]

"<Well you were never officially part of the military anyway. I agreed to train you into a proper soldier but you'll need to enlist yourself. In any case, if you did, you wouldn't be part of my brigade. You'd be sent to an archery brigade.

Anyway, maybe you should think things over a bit before you commit yourself to this path. The life of a soldier is not easy. You'll see all sorts of terrible ways to die when you enter the battlefield. Dissenting opinions are not tolerated and if you do survive and leave the army, the physical and mental scars obtained there will haunt you for the rest of your life. Perhaps there is some way for you to be of use to your country if the military is not for you.>"

[Snowy_One]

"<It sounds as if the 'best use' I can be to Skotia is to stay here as a civilian forced to fight. If I return home, I return to a life of hunting and eventually settle down to have a child who may join the military as well. I stay here, at least I am on the front lines, doing something. Though with how I've acted, I wouldn't be surprised if that means 'being shot again and again'. I've already seen battle. I've already seen people, allies, die. Between being betrayed by Bron, slavery, and these fights, I've suffered enough to traumatize entire squads, even if they weren't that bad. My temper though... Is who I am. I cannot change that, nor should I. I suppose I am not cut out for the military then.>"

[Phoenix]

Need To Knows

Weyland sighed. "If all of Ursium knew about this, there would be an outright panic. Sometimes, knowledge is best kept in the hands of those who can deal with it without causing chaos."

"Well, now I'm curious." Cat said, arms still crossed, and her foot now tapping.

"Yes, I'm sure. Look I'll simply stick to what's important here. I have not been possessed by or allied myself with the fallen. That's obviously what you people are suspicious about, so I'll just state that here and now."

"Does Steinn know that?" Cat followed up with quickly.

"Oh trust me, he knows."

"Then what's this really about?"

"You heard him allude to it earlier while speaking of Valdimarr, his brother. The enemy of my enemy is my friend; that's what this is closest to if you must compare it to something."

"So just replace one fallen with another and hope the one you decided to help doesn't kill you later on? How well thought out." Cat scoffed.

"It's plenty well thought out, woman! Now I've said enough of this. If you people must know what's going on, take it up with Steinn. Just tell him I said it was alright to explain to you, and make sure you mention an 'Operation: Cease Not'. That will be proof enough. And ... mind carefully what he says if you do bother asking him. The bigger picture is what matters most. Now onto other matters. Raquel, since you're here, I'll need to go over some things with you."

"Oh boy ..." she said in a drowsy tone.

[Mercakete]

"Like heck I'm willing to trust one of those monsters! That prince has his own agenda, I'm sure! Why would you send us to talk with him anyway? I want to know your reasons for this! More importantly, I want to know that if it comes to a war between Ursium and the Fallen that you'll side with us! I don't care if you're friends with the Fallen royalty, you fight with us! Cause I don't feel like being treated like livestock or knowing that my family's going to wind up as someone's dinner or pet!" Norbert protested. Though his voice was raised and he was being quite accusatory, he wasn't in a blind rage yet. He just wasn't really being respectful at all, though he hadn't thrown any insults around yet.

[Acacia Sgt]

Sophia thought for a moment. A test of magical ability? I'm sure I can do it, but who knows how resistant these runes may be. Maybe I should keep it simple.

''I choose the middle difficulty, please.'' She said taking out the needed gold.

<Well, I guess that was it. No response.> John thought. He then turned back to the face the stall. <Hm?>

[Phoenix]

Operation: Cease Not

Another sigh left Weyland's lips. "If I wasn't doing this, you would be at just that sort of risk, Bert. Since you insist on knowing why it is I'm helping one fallen prince surpass the other, here it is ..." he said as he leaned on the wall by the door into the smoking lab and crossed his arms. "Operation: Cease Not. It's an operation geared at the prolonging of the Fallen Human war."

"What?!" Cat exclaimed.

"Up until recently, fallen abilities, technologies, and even basic anatomy have been difficult to accurately measure. Ability-wise the fallen completely outclass us. Technologically they are somewhat beyond us in some areas, and lagging behind in others. Anatomically they are superior as well, it seems ... in more ways than you people currently realize. A single human soldier takes about sixteen years to make, from birth to the end of basic training and this is an extreme case where we decide to train teenagers, otherwise it's twenty years. A Fallen couple can create about twelve to twenty-four soldiers in that same time frame." he explained.

"They have a .... higher birth rate or something?" Cat asked, a little shocked.

"The Fallen lay eggs to bring their young into the world. They only remain pregnant for a single month. After laying an egg, they can go right back to mating. So in twelve months, you can at best end up with twelve fallen eggs while by comparison a human couple could have one human born and another about a third of the way to term. Within a race that reaches maturity at the age of only thirteen or sooner in some cases, that is very grim for a war that's gone on for as long as it has."

"So are you saying that the fallen are just screwing each other like crazy to produce some overwhelmingly massive army to blitz Sardius with?"

"Well ... Steinn informed me that the fallen have a law against conceiving more than one child within a certain length of time. This came up when I began delving into their numbers. I found it odd that they would make a law like that when numbers could only be a good thing, or so one might think. I had to wonder what kind of lack of resources would prompt such a law."

"Sooo they're overpopulated?"

"That's a gross understatement, Miss Blanco. Steinn's information's been referenced quite a bit and our new assessments are accurate. When it comes to fighting the fallen, it's a simple game of numbers. They have more."

"More than who?"

"Ursium, Neviskotia, Kigen, Rex-Avaz; all of the estimated populations of these four countries combined, including dark avians and dragons." he said looking Cat dead in the eyes. "Operation: Cease Not is Steinn's solution to two problems. Its purpose is to make certain that neither side ever defeats the other. I'm helping with this phase and after that, as Steinn said, we'll be back on 'volatile' terms. If you want to know why he would want something as 'unusual' as a never ending war, you'll have to ask him about that yourselves. I've truly said enough, and there's work to be done."

[-Cynthia-]

"Goddess? Well she doesn't look very merciful or dragonlike...oh she's not actually a goddess," Clara said to Simon, not really listening to him as she deduced the lady in the portrait was not Mercy or Nature.

"Well, history is always written by the victors, and from the way things are here in Ursium it doesn't seem like she won. Perhaps she was just, perhaps she was not. The truth of things can often be lost to the annals of time," Clara said, shrugging.

[Mercakete]

Well that was unexpected. So, this prince wants us to help him solve the overpopulation promblem by killing them off? If it were me, I'd be trying to expland my territory. Now wonder the Fallen have been trying to take over Kigen. This prince must me insane. I'm not complaining, though, if he'd prefer this solution. "So he wants us to help regulate the Fallen population by giving us an edge in combat?" Norbert asked. Maybe I will talk to him later. I wonder why he's not asking Kigen about that sort of favor.

[Phoenix]

Weyland

An overpopulated nation has serious problems to deal with, but Steinn's goals are centered elsewhere. It's partly why I find it interesting that he came to Ursium of all places. One of the problems is that if humanity wins the war, the fallen could be wiped out. The other problem is that if the fallen win ... well I suppose the fallen will find out if it's true that in times of near complete devastation, the gods will take matters into their own hands ... like in ancient times. Weyland thought to himself. "Well, Raquel, I'll need to go over a few things with you. I'd thought to save it all for the meeting, but since you're here ..."

"Hmm? What is it?" she asked, still sounding sleepy.

"It's about your wagon."

Other Folks

"Hmph, do not be fooled by history's false teachings, for they have clouded the truth of the matter. She is indeed a goddess." Simon said to Clara.

"There are relevant deities like Wrath, Mercy, Nature, and Truth and there are irrelevant ones, like Nyx and Dragon King. Besides, isn't it history as we've come to understand it that teaches she was a minor deity? You obviously learned that from history, so you're only contradicting yourself now. Can we get going, please? You can be a chatty cultist on your own time." Cecily cut in rudely.

Some poorly restrained grunts came from Simon. "Hmph, you two are just ... oh I'll just have to correct you on the road, then."

Note to self: Stay in the sky.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Phoenix

[Mercakete]

Seeing as his question was ignored, Norbert figured it was a subtle "ask Steinn if you want more answers." Maybe I will after all. Why ask Ursians to help him regulate his people's population instead of the Kigenese? We can't do anything about them unless they're at our borders... Wait. Is he planning to invade Kigen? I'll think about this later. For the time being, the pegasus rider placed his attention on the events at hand.

[Zsword]

Shadrak looked up, he thought he heard a familiar voice calling for him through the crowd... when he didn't see anyone he just shook his head with a sigh, then again, but another scan revealed nothing, until John parted his way through the crowd with some cleric girl. "Oh hey John, was that you calling out to us?" He asked, still trying to shake off this drained sensation that he had...

Krystal sighed. "Well... I'm sorry then... hmm... well, glad to see you're expanding your horizons then." She said to Mireille with a smile. Zel laughed softly. "So, where do you ladies want to go know? We have an entire festival to explore."

[Mercakete]

"Very well, very well!" the juggler sang as he accepted Sophia's offered gold and tossed her a ball with a medium-level rune inside, "Good luck!~"

[Snike]

As quick as a knife, the waitress flew through the dining room and back. Within minutes Blake's requested meal was on the table, and the eerie server out of sight. Well then. The man took a fork, speared a large piece of chicken, and began to gnaw at it. The poultry was delicious: not too dry, but not too raw. The chefs certainly knew what they were doing.

[Phoenix]

Deflecting Issues

"So what was it you needed to go over with Raquel, anyway?" asked Cat, ready to get on with things.

"Right, well first off was Chip's firearm. Had to be replaced. The second issue is your wagon."

Is he about to talk bad about my father's wagon? Raquel thought in agitated anticipation.

"It's an old model of wagon that the military used to use to haul around weapons, so it's technically fulfilling its original purpose, but that particular model is a bit too lightly armored to serve on the 'front lines'. You may not be fighting the military--err ... not all the time at least--but the basic principle is the same. You'll need a way to transport your party's equipment that isn't at risk of being blown off clear off the map by a lucky grenade toss or something to that effect." Weyland explained.

"So you're going to try and scrap my wagon, is that it? Sandrock and Riley aren't going to be able to haul anything heavier than what I'm using now. Keep in mind that we've also got no less than half the party riding in or on top of the wagon during travel. We can't afford to go heavier than we already are." Raquel countered.

"You know, normally I would suggest taking the horses out of the picture, but you're not one of my employees and I can't risk having prototype locomotive technology getting into the wrong hands if you're defeated and captured. I do have an alternative, though. I think you'll be grateful since it will address your complaint quite efficiently."

"I'm listening ..."

Weyland gestured for the group to follow him into the lab he was in. The smoke had mostly cleared, but the place was darker than it ought to have been thanks to the explosion covering half of everything in 'black stuff'. Weyland showed them to a table with a bunch of large ring-like pads. All made of metal, and large enough to stand in the middle of without touching the outer edges where the thickest rings were.

"What are those?" asked Cat with crossed arms.

"These are prototype Deflectors. The idea originally came from those Hammer scientists, but they couldn't get a fully functional prototype before I did, and now the patent belongs to me. As for what deflectors are, they're many things, but the basic mechanic behind them is to rapidly push away anything that's directly in front of the rings. The strength of the repulsion depends on how many rings are activated at a given time." he explained.

"How do they work?"

"Each ring is infused with enough wind magic to account for around twenty tomes. The method used is called 'soft infusion' which is a method that allows for easier energetic extraction. You'll find similar methods used on beginner's tomes for novices and the like. As you all probably know, an object cannot be fully infused with more than one type of magic of the three primary categories, light, dark, and anima. Each ring is deeply infused with just a hint of light magic while the wind magic is softly infused alongside it. This power struggle causes the wind magic to be expelled from the rings at an extremely high rate due to its weak bond to the rings. Hammer techs couldn't create a deflector that could be deactivated once the chain reaction was initiated, however. I did."

"So ... how would these help with the weight issue?" Raquel asked, too sleepy to figure it out on her own.

"Are you going to put those things on the bottom of the wagon to make it lighter?" Cat asked, having come to at least that much just imagining the applications.

"Not her current wagon. You need some weight or the horses will be pulling a floating mass of wood and cargo. Stability and ease is the key, which is why I'm trying to put together a wagon that will give you the best possible chance of going at it with these shady people."

"So how do you turn them on and off?" Raquel asked.

"I'd only recommend using them for travel between cities, as their energy will eventually run out, and the more rings you have saved, the better; then you won't need to come see me in a few weeks asking for new deflectors. I was able to keep them from staying on indefinitely by simply putting a rune on each of the rings. The rune activates on contact, so simply flip it over and the respective ring it was originally in contact with will start spewing out its pent up energies. Flip it back over to seal it off again. The more rings you have activated, the more lift you get, and each deflector has six rings. All six rings powered on is enough to lift one of my Recusant tanks right off the ground, so don't get any silly ideas. You'll need multiple deflectors on the wagon's belly to keep it stable however. Keep in mind, these are only designed to make the wagon lighter during travel. You can't keep an airborne vehicle stable so one or two rings per deflector should do."

"I'm actually impressed. Where did this idea come from, again?" Cat asked.

"As I said, the idea came from those Hammer scientists. I don't know what their reasons were, but my primary purpose for improving the technology was to increase the Recusant land speed by 50%. That would give them much better response and positioning times. They would also be less prone to aerial bombing runs which the Neviskotians won't shy away from, nowadays. The potential deflectors possess is too daunting to really think about right now; I'm simply focused on the Recusants and Raquel's new wagon at the moment."

Raquel grimaced a bit. "Do I really need a new wagon, Professor? Can't we just activate one ring on each deflector on my current wagon? My father loves that wagon, so I don't want to just abandon it."

"Raquel, if your father really loves that wagon, he'll let it stay here at my home where it won't be randomly blown up in a surprise attack. It's not a war vehicle, so I'd advise against treating it like one. Your old wagon is more valuable to you than the new one I'm offering you, yes? So use my wagon. Don't put yours at risk over sentimentality."

"... fine."

Wandering Around

The more Siv wandered around the estate, the more lost she became. There just weren't any familiar scents around anymore and she constantly found herself shying away from any maid or servant that came to offering help. Eventually she found herself in a hallway that unlike the others, had a completely glass wall on one side. It showed the back of the estate and acres of property in the distance. Apparently she had made it to the back of the estate. She thought about trying to get outside and even approached the glass to investigate, but she soon realized that there was a feint energy flowing over the surface. She grimaced at the glass and stepped back with her head down. Whatever energy was coating the glass, it had crushed Siv's morale to break through it and get outside.

<"It's not safe here."> she said quietly to herself in Corvian. She stood there for another minute, and then approached the glass again. She gave the clear surface a good hard kick and a slight flash of blue appeared sending out ripples over the glass in all directions. Fortunately for Siv's foot, she hadn't kicked it hard enough to break the glass or the rune barrier. Siv then thought to go back to wandering but something caught her attention, something that had her hands up against the glass and her face almost pressed up against it as well as she looked outside. There were some other buildings behind the main one, but they didn't seem like much, that was until Siv spotted a Recusant tank rolling out and into the field. It was accompanied by a few people as well and Siv kept her eyes on the machine.

Once the tank was in position, the people began scurrying around and getting some things set up. Siv couldn't tell exactly what was going on, but kept watching until dozens of strange signs were put up all over the place. The ones she could see clearly had little recurring circles on them. As the people began running away from the area, Siv's anticipation grew. The tank seemed to wait for the people to get out of the way and then its giant barrels began to swing around to aim at the signs. One by one, the targets were obliterated by well aimed shots from the tank, and Siv flinched in surprise at every one of the firing sounds. What is that metal demon?! How did they make it?!

[Acacia Sgt]

Sophia took the rune, and then concentrated while closing her eyes. She could feel the energy flowing into the rune.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3221289/

[5+1 = 6<10 Failure]

But after a few seconds and no sound coming, she opened her eyes to see that, indeed, she had failed to make the rune emit sound.

Oh, it didn't work. She thought. Shaking her head, she took out a few more coins. ''I'd like to try again.'' She said, handing over 3 more coins.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/3221297/

[5+5 = 10=10 Success]

Closing her eyes once more, she attempted again to fill the rune with magic. Again some time passed, but unlike before, she now heard the chirping of birds. She opened her eyes to see that she had indeed managed this time around.

''Yes, I did it!'' She happily said.

-----

John turned back, seeing Shadrak did heard him after all.

''Oh, hi there.'' He said. ''Yes, I did. Saw you through the crowd. Hm, is something wrong?'' He asked. But the sudden noise had him momentarily face back to the stand.

''I take it she won in... whatever that game is about. I wasn't paying attention since I was kinda seeing if you did heard me.'' He explained, facing back to Shadrak.

Edited October 14, 2011 by Acacia Sgt

[Mercakete]

A flying wagon could be handy. If it gets despirate, we could replace the horses with a wyvern or the pegasi, maybe, and just fly away. That might be a bit taxing on these deflecting things, though, so I don't know. At least we'll be able to stop worrying about Raquel so much if the new wagon is going to be as fortified as this guy's saying it will be. Norbert thought as he listened to the explaination.

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

"Wonderful!~ Congratulations, miss! And my, that new ring on your finger does suit you! A simple, silver band, correct? Nay, that is an aquamarine set in it! How do I know? Yes, I see the hatch covering the gem, but it is one of my prizes! Haha! That one, my friend, has the ability to contain a scent! Touch it to your favorite flower and behold the ring remembers it! However, if the bright, blue gemstone touches something else, the new scent will replace the old. Only open it to smell the gem or to collect a new scent or you will lose what it held," gleefully informed the juggler.

[Zsword]

Shadrak laughed weakly, kinda like one does when thinking about a painful memory. "Oh, I just had my attempt at the game, you gotta fill a rune with magic just right... and uh, the harder ones are indeed hard, I kinda burnt through all I got just to get that done..." He stated with a smile, straightening his poise a little bit and taking a deep breath to maybe fortify himself.

[Dark Sage]

"<Yeah, I agree. I don't think you should join the military with a tempermeant like that. There are still other ways of serving your country. Everyone who contributes to our healthy Neviskotian way of life is serving their country. Innkeepers, farmers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, etc. are just as important to our country as soldiers are. It's a symbiotic relationship. We cannot have one without the other. Don't think you have to do something you're clearly not good at, like being a soldier, if you don't have to.

Perhaps your mood will be improved if you go to this fair going on. Some of the others might've left to participate into it as well,>" said Domovoi.

[Acacia Sgt]

''Thanks.'' Sophia said, looking at the ring. I'm glad it didn't took many attempts. She thought. Although I wasn't planning on spending too much money here either.

Looking around, she spotted John talking with one of the two he had called out earlier. Looks like they did heard him after all. She thought while she walked over to them.

-----

''I see.'' John said. <He sure looks tired. Good thing I don't have to deal with magic.> He thought. <Well, other than that of course.> His mind wandered back to the time that troubadour blasted him with light magic. <... yeah...>

[Snowy_One]

As Domo spoke, Robin sat down and listened. She knew, deep down, that she wasn't cut out to be a soldier. When she had left Ohka, she had been given the chance to join the army, but had realized that was a bad choice. Instead, she had joined up with Bron in an attempt to steal a relic. Yet still, the idea of being a soldier in the army was one of great value to her. The chance to go out and fight in the name of Skotia, to defend it against her enemies, to become a great sniper... Those were things she respected...

Then Domo mentioned that there was a fair going on, and instantly Robin's head snapped up, her eyes bright and excited. "<A fair? There is a fair here?>" There was a near torrent of wind as Robin dashed out the door, rushing down through the hallways of the estate as she hurried to make it out the door and tried to make it to the festival in time.

[Zsword]

"Yeah... uh hey, I don't think I've seen you before miss... you two know each other?" Shadrak asked Sophia as she wanderred over, turning to both her and John for the second bit.

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well, not really.'' John answered.

''Hello.'' Sophia first said. ''I didn't wanted to come to the festival alone. He just happened to be the first one I asked to, and he accepted.'' She then explained.

[Zsword]

Shadrak nodded. "That makes sense, are you enjoying it so far?" he inquired as nicely as he could with his current state.