Return of the Emblem Chapter Nine: Consolidating Forces

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well, those things have the tendency to shine when near each other.'' John answered. <Yeah, back then and at the fortress. Wait, it also did when we first meet Lilith, nothing ever came of that, and she had to split Raquel's in half. Hmm...>

[Phoenix]

Leverager

"Hmm ..." Raquel went into deep thought about Bert's theory, but soon took another bite of her stew.

"Shine? Huh, that's something." Reign replied. "So I guess that's a good way to know if this Sardis guy is nearby, right? Emblem piece starts shining, you know he's closing in."

Raquel lowered her head once again and muttered. "That hasn't been very reliable so far ..."

[roymbrog]

bleh, rewriting

Edited June 14, 2012 by roymbrog

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Learning all sorts of interesting things," Gar smirked before taking another bite of his apple. To think, monkeys with guns! They'd be a great asset in on-going problem solving. But eh, that woman there said she managed to beat the gun-monkey at a disadvantage, which was really kind of weird. Well, things like that could probably be fixed with better training. Then again it's not like Gar even knew if better training for monkey sharpshooters was a thing. Probably something to discuss when it was less likely to cause a scene. The way things were worded about Raquel's father, there was probably something unsaid there.

Moving back on to that silly emblem business, Reign guy seemed focused on it, but Bert guy also offered it could have been a Fallen. Which, uh, was, probably the worst of options. Armor Guy went back to the shine part, which meant they had whatever reacted to the emblem piece for early warning. Or would if Raquel didn't seem rather confident in it not working. "So uh, monkey business and abuse aside," Gar said. "Does whatever the Sardis guy have always shine when nearby or does it only glow when your uh, piece, also shines?" Gar took another bite after he finished talking. It wouldn't be long now until he was left with only the core.

[GoD]

A Lady named Chelsea:

And so on went the day, with talking, more talking and of course the highlight of the day: Talking!!! Exciting wasn't it!!

After Gar had introduced himself Chelsea decided to exit the room and get some shut-eye and retired to her room.

She dreamed of many things.

(Occ: Girls dreaming about Pillow Riding. Please wait Warmly.)

After an hour or two of sleep, the troubadour awoke to find something was seriously wrong with her left foot. It was twitching uncontrollably, as if it was trying to say something was wrong. Chelsea took a quick look around her, but she could find anything that was seemingly out of place.

With nothing better to do, she left her room and made her way to the kitchen where a lot of people were talking, apparently it was dinner-time and they were serving soup and stuff. Taking a minute to survey who was there and who wasn't, she took a bowl of soup and began eating it, she made a mental note to ask who made this thing to congratulate them for making something pretty amazing. Though her left foot still twitched from time to time, annoying her to no end.

Well she was kinda bored so she decided to chime in on the conversation. "Whether he's Fallen or avian doesn't matter. He's strong, but still a dark magic user.... He IS just a shaman right? Not adept with swords, because if he is I'll pass if we fight him."

[Eail]

True to his words Zach managed to blow through the stew quickly, finishing before while most people had barely even started. Putting his bowel over to the side he reached into his infinite space satchel that contained everything he could ever need and brought out a pencil and a piece of paper and began to draw the interior of the manse.

[Phoenix]

Leverager

"I don't know. I used to wonder how his people could always track us down, but I'm beginning to think it has more to do with how diverse our group is than anything else." She ended with that since Chelsea asked a question as well, and a surprising one at that. It wasn't surprising because she was asking whether or not Sardis used swords ... he did; it was surprising because she was hinting at taking him on, which after the estate battle seemed suicidal. The fact that he did carry a pair of swords in battle while also wielding dark magic was starting to bother her. Humans almost never excelled at both without relying on small arms or imbued weapons. Maybe he really was a dark avian or a fallen. "He's too strong for regular light magic to make a huge difference, I think, and he does have swords on him, so just stick to healing if or when we find him." she answered with some instruction tagged on at the end.

"How is the glowing thing unreliable exactly?" Reign asked next.

"Well we found this chamber while trapped in Purgatory. It took awhile to open, but we found someone inside that we thought was dead ..."

"The lack of bony remains should have been a huge tip off that she wasn't dead, but she wasn't breathin' and ... yeah. Never been sure what to make of Lilith." Gabbie added.

"Since the emblem started shining as I brought it closer to her, we thought there might be another emblem piece somewhere on her. That wasn't the case at all, and it just ... sort of ... woke her up." And a small part of me regrets that, but there was no other way out of there.

Reign didn't know what to make of that, several other possibilities came to mind immediately, but he didn't voice any of them. Maybe Lilith did have a piece on her but didn't say anything, though you'd think that piece would have been enough to wake her up if that were the case. Or perhaps it really does take two, as the old adage goes. Perhaps Lilith was in control of the pieces. If she can play dead, she can probably do other surreptitious things, as well. And on Reign's speculations went.

Docks

"Hey! Hey!" came a man's voice, aiming to get Shadrak and Mandy's attention. All three of them looked over to the man, with Talitha lagging just slightly behind them. "There's a hellbird ... right ... behind you."

Shadrak smacked his forehead while Mandy frowned. Tali took up both of her hands and put them against Shadrak and Mandy's backs. She quickly began pushing them along to try and get away from the man as quickly as possible. Shadrak nearly lost his balance, but Mandy was used to this sort of thing. The man watched curiously as all this happened. Shadrak eventually had to speak up once they were close to the Leverager. He couldn't count on Talitha knowing where it was. "Tali, slow down, we're almost-" "I know which ship it is." she interrupted. She knew? "How do you kn-wait ..." Oh of course, I've been thinking about it constantly and imagining those big bold letters showing up. She's probably been listening to figure out how much farther we have to go.

"Yeah, pretty much." Talitha answered as she continued to push them both along. Shadrak wasn't comfortable being answered like that ... or pushed around for that matter, but at least she wasn't doing it specifically to be mean. Maybe.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Phoenix

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Some, other girl that didn't look familiar had suddenly appeared and started in on the conversation. She wanted to pass on fighting Sardis if he used swords, but the way she started it out, the emphasis on dark magic, it made her seem like a user of light magic. Zahcary meanwhile had chewed through the stew like it was a simple glass of water and got to working on his floor-plan. Good for him. The R-crew got around to talking after Gar noticed the map being started. While being able to track such a diverse group certainly wouldn't be impossible, having the resources to contact the Howling Voice sent the message to Gar that maybe they just had people everywhere anyway and could pinpoint wherever Raquel went. Hell, since Gar couldn't reveal the Guild he could just use the Cult as an example and get collaboration on that theory from Zachary.

But moving on... Swords, and magic though? Gar thought. That's vaguely similar to Master Flik, though even the whole Guild wouldn't be able to crush a tank. This was becoming increasingly dire and he hadn't even fought yet. Though getting a crack at a walking probably talking tank-buster certainly was... enthralling an option. Would beating him mean Gar was stronger than a tank? That'd be great and all if he could actually survive getting into combat with the Sardis guy. Raquel also more-or-less confirmed that possible light-magic girl was a light-magic girl, which was... not all that shocking considering what it was competing with. "Any confrontation with this Sardis fellow would depend on the method he was using to smack those tanks down really," Gar commented.

Reign got around to asking about the unreliable nature of the emblem piece, and Raquel moved the story back over to that Purgatory thing. They apparently found some chamber while there where--Lilith? What. No. That was... no. Gar couldn't even put that into the proper chain of nervous process required to formulate a thought. So he just slid down the wall as he listened to Raquel and other woman recounting how they found Lilith in some chamber in Purgatory--apparently dead but the emblem piece started shining and Lilith woke up.

Gar, really didn't try and react as badly as any sane person should in such a situation. He had to clear things up first. "Lilith. I, sure hope that's another in the series of unfortunately named people you've encountered and not the famed vasili of the Legendary Rebellion," Gar rather bluntly said. Lilith the vasili was the first stop any person's mind would wander to if they heard that name. And then any normal person would blow that off as silly. But these people here were talking about emblem pieces, so silly had made itself damn comfortable.

[Acacia Sgt]

<Hmm, regarding the emblem and Lilith... wait a minute.> ''Hey, didn't Aisha had said that doing that, nullifying the curse, was something the pieces don't normally do?'' John said. ''She mentioned something about Raquel's being unique in some way. So maybe it shined since it was reacting to the curse, perhaps?'' He theorized.

[Phoenix]

Pieces Of the Puzzle Emblem

"This is probably becoming increasingly difficult to believe, huh?" Raquel asked Gar in lieu of an actual answer to his question.

Huh, she didn't answer the question, but I'm beginning to think that that's exactly the Lilith she means. I was under the impression they meant someone else. You'd think if it was THAT Lilith they would have made a bigger deal out of it than that, I don't know. Reign speculated some more. John's theory came next, which really got Reign's attention. Aisha was the name of the Rexian Queen. There was NO WAY IN HELL they could have possibly met her. Right? Oh, here we go ...

"Right, she wanted mine to help her with her own problems. Another piece beside mine or the half Lilith took from me wouldn't work for some reason."

"Aisha? Seriously?" Reign finally asked.

I guess living it really trivializes things. I don't see the significance of meeting Lilith or Aisha now that it's happened. Maybe if we weren't fighting for our lives half the time ... "Lilith brought us to Sanctuary since it was the closest place after we escaped Purgatory." she explained before sighing heavily and staring down at what was left of her stew. I know it's hard to believe, but it all happened."

"Sooo that Sanctuary place is not being run by a bunch of magic users hiding behind a title?"

"Well, there are a bunch of maidens, but Aisha's in charge."

[Mercakete]

"Hah!" The stark laugh escaped Norbert's throat in response to the talk about Aisha. He didn't actually say anything more about it, but there were some bitter memories there too.

[Script]

A Man Maybe Called Gar

Armor Guy brought up Aisha next, which wasn't really a surprise at this point since Gar didn't react with the same shock and awe as the Lilith reveal. At least Aisha's existence had been on-and-off speculation for lifetimes. Other than Lilith's sword any evidence of her was long gone.

Armor guy also mentioned something about a curse--probably related to Lilith--and more of the emblem piece junk.

Raquel didn't really give an answer, which was smart if annoying, but it was also equally easy to see it was probably what they were all referring to since Aisha was brought into this. Though the Goddess of Rex-Avaz needing help from the specific piece of the emblem Raquel had--and now here Gar was being sucked into belief so easily. Reign guy was rather exacerbated with all it all at this point, and Gar couldn't really blame the guy. Cutting straight to Sanctuary was the dream of a great many people and they might have landed their so... well easily didn't really fit. So they managed to make it after some fashion. And the great and mighty queen goddess was real and interested in Raquel.

Yeesh, the girl really had the worst luck in the world didn't she?

"Right, so believability aside," Gar sort of brushed that off. "Did your uh, piece or even the one Lilith had, somehow, react to Aisha either? And you said Lilith took some piece from you? How?"

[roymbrog]

Having left Phyllis outside, Valter entered the arena and was quickly overwhelmed. Where to search first? The place was huge and there were people everywhere. The mage might even have gone into the paid section, he didn't know. Well, when all else fails it doesn't hurt to ask. He found someone who looked like staff and stopped them.

“Excuse me, but have you seen a healer come through here? Black hair, brown cloak, carrying a recover staff?”

The guy looked irritated about something. “Sir, why do you think I would've? You know how many people come through here a day?”

“Uh, sorry,” Valter said. “I hadn't thought of that.” He began leaving to look on his own. How was he supposed to know? He made a mental note that arena staff weren't the most helpful people to talk to.

[ReformBlade]

Aneda followed in after Zach kinda... however she got sidetracked by the promise of food."Oooo, Stew!" she said gleefully. Taking a bowl which had a modest portion in it... Meh, I guess they have to feed everyone. Suuuuuucks. Looking over the place, she found a Zach who seemed to be trying to do something important. She had to do something about that. Literally walking up next to him, she leaned over him while taking a nice big mouthful of stew. "Whatcha drawin, mister creepy guy?"

With nothing else to do, and his tongue thoroughly destroyed at the moment, Davod took a seat near Gabbie but decided to keep quiet for the moment. He'd try to ask about all that crazy stuff later. In bed. Man, it'd be nice if you didn't just murder your tongue earlier... "Quiet you." he mumbled.

Nanahm... Man what was Nanahm doing again? Unable to find a certain little party member of his, Nanahm gave up and returned to the leverager and called it a day or something. He sat down somehwat near Chelsea BUT NOT TOO CLOSE NOW, but nearish and ate some stew. It tasted.... familiar.

[Phoenix]

Stories

Reign glanced over at Bert for a second, and then when nothing else came, he focused back on Raquel, who was answering more questions. So they'd run into THAT Lilith and THAT Aisha ... sheesh. "Even if I did check to see if it was shining at the time, Lilith was right there, so it could have just been responding to her." Raquel answered sadly. "Lilith just broke it in half like it was a cookie and kept one half for herself."

Davod's remark prompted a glance from Gabbie. Sounded like he was having another exchange. She really needed to get some quotes from the other half of those conversations one of these days. In the meantime, though, her memory started working, again. "Oh roight! She needed it so she wouldn't go back into that death coma, didn't she?! I remember now." Gabbie interjected. She then smirked and added "The only thing that could top Lilith passin' out in the middle of a speech is gettin' buried under a ton of sand during her own spell ... which she did, heheh."

"... what the hell have you been doing, Raquel?" Reign inquired with a blank stare.

"I'm trying to rescue my father and shut down Sardis once and for all. Some ... other things just come up along the way, I guess." she answered, taking another bite of the stew.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Well, the meeting was with both vasili, so no go on a theory of reacting to them. Which was almost a positive since it meant Sardis might not be one. And Lilith apparently had the power to snap the damn emblem in half like nothing. It was easier to bend an inch of metal over a foot, so too much stock shouldn't be placed in fear of that. Then again what human, avian, fallen, or dragon could match such a feat? Any of them since it really, really couldn't be the fire emblem. Though at this point it was almost starting to sound like self-delusion.

That other woman said Lilith needed the emblem piece to stop from going back into whatever death sleep she was in. Which probably meant some sort of magic instead of fantastic drugs. And speaking of drugs, Gar finished the last bite of his apple and stored the core away for later.

Reign guy continued to be a solid bastion of sanity in his attempts to wonder just what kind of funny business was going on. The Cult was downright pleasant compared to all this. Which is really not something anyway should say ever.

Though Raquel ended with her stated goal: save her father and take down Sardis. Which meant that those were also going to be Gar's goals. Beyond just being a problem to solve, saving Papa Raquel would unlock the secrets of monkey butlerism. Though, if her father was in need of rescuing... that was a way to explain some things.

Edited June 14, 2012 by Script

[Acacia Sgt]

''And that's not even all we've been through.'' John said. ''Just the latest stuff. And to think, all this during an unplanned detour. It certainly beats the trip to Kigen, heh.'' Seems they were just going upwards isn't it? But there was certainly little left that could top this.

[Eail]

Freaked out by Aneda suddenly appearing next to him Zach luckily managed to calm down quickly, 'Wait, I'm not that creepy am I?

"Raquel wanted me to draw a map for the inside of the manse, I don't blame her for wanting to know what she's up against. Not really going to be a very useful map though, all the place is is a square." He then added with a shrug "But hey, if Raquel wants a map she'll get a map."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"This journey has certainly gotten complicated- magic has a habit of doing that," she said, frowning. "It doesn't really matter what Sardis is- human, avian, fallen, all of them die with a sword through their vitals."

Connor

Chip as a butler...nah he wouldn't make a very good one. Butlers don't go around shooting anyone that startles them. He'd probably make a better assassin- no one would suspect a monkey... he pondered to himself.

Nadya

"Yeah- let's not go back to Kigen...ever," Nadya said in response to John between bites of stew.

[ReformBlade]

"A square? That's it? No doors, no stairs, no balconies, no windows? If I were lookin for a map of a place, I'd be lookin fer that kinda stuff instead of a barebones squarefootage." Aneda semi-lectured the mage as she leaned over the map further and ate more stew. "Hmm... this is pretty good stuff. Did you get any yet?" she asked, finally deciding to just take a seat next to him instead of leaning over him, though she knew he was loving it.

[Eail]

"Yeah I'm giving it the entrances and such. But it's certainly not going to be something an architect would draw, art was never really my strong point." Zach said as Aneda took a seat. "And yeah I already ate, Robin's cooking has never lasted long around me. Been that way ever since our Mom's taught her."

[Phoenix]

Stuff Of Legends

"That's what I'm hoping, yeah ... that we can just get one good hit in and finish him." Raquel remarked. That reminds me, he looked injured when he took me. There were holes in his suit, like he'd been stabbed a bunch of times. I really hope he just got healed and the clothes were still messed up. If not, that means we're dealing with a humanoid juggernaut.

"Sooo, any chance of Aisha or Lilith showing up again anytime soon?" Reign inquired. It almost sounded like a test question for a psych evaluation. No, she's not crazy, Reign.

"Aisha? No, I don't think so, but Lilith practically promised to come and take the other half of my emblem piece away from me if I didn't learn to control it."

Why the hell would she let you keep it in the first place? Reign pondered. "She seems a little whimsical."

All Aboard?

Mandy managed to talk Talitha out of pushing them around, and they got back to walking normally. The Leverager soon came into view, and the three of them approached, only to be intercepted by a few sailors hanging out on the docks. "You're one of Raquel's people, but I don't recognize the other two. Are you people just recruiting half the town for this little operation? You're just asking for trouble."

"I don't know if they'll help us, yet, but they're not with the cult. I want to show them what's going on and let them make the decision after that." Shadrak explained.

"And you don't want to lose sight of Tali before you get to have your little interview~" Mandy contributed teasingly.

She got the classic glare, and then Shadrak turned back to the sailors to gauge their response. "Is that tail real?" one of them asked.

"I knew it, I should have stayed at the guild. At least they got the memo and don't much care." Talitha said angrily.

"Hold on." Shadrak urged. "Look, if she was really a fallen, she would be harvesting our organs right now, not acting normal. She's worked with the Warrior's Guild for years, and they all trust her. Besides, fallen are better in numbers and there's only one of her. Think about it, guys."

The sailors went into some thought about it, tossing looks and making awkward gestures while trying to sort it all out. At the very least they could all agree that just one fallen wasn't going to cause much trouble. Most of the people aboard the Leverager were armed. "They don't go below decks, understood?" one of them finally laid out some terms hoping to keep the captives and dragons secret if possible.

"Yeah, that's fine. Ready?" Shadrak agreed and then turned to face the two girls. They looked ready, and despite how upset she looked, Talitha was thankful to not get stonewalled after walking all that way. The sailors still kept their eyes on her as they made their way up to the main deck, but who wouldn't?

Blake was the first familiar(who mattered) that Shadrak spotted, so he was the first approached. "Hey, where is everybody?" By Truth, if he says 'below decks' I'm going to ... oh I don't know what I'll do, but it won't be pretty after I just agreed not to take them down there. How did I not think of that? Well more likely than not, a meeting is better off back in the wardroom anyway, so it's dumb to go back down to the holds for that. Do I smell food?

"Yeah, I smell it too ..." Talitha commented.

She's doing it, again ....

Edited June 14, 2012 by Phoenix

[Snowy_One]

Robin looked out over the gathered people happily. Her stew had been well accepted. All that was left was to get hew own bowl now. Going back into the kitchen she picked up a bowl for herself, one that she had 'made' previously when she had scraped away the burned and bad bits of the stew that she didn't want to serve up to others. It wasn't bad, just a sign of her imperfections on cooking. She returned to the room and sat down just in time to hear Zach and Aneda talking.

"Zach, I thought you knew better. Mom taught me to bake and stitch, but dad taught me all my trail-skills, including making a good stew. Remember all those burnt pancakes I served you as a kid? It took me a while to perfect my baking skills because I did not get to spend enough time with mom learning. I did not spend enough time with many people, sadly."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Heh," Gar grunted in response to Armor Guy's statement. "I bet it's all the interesting stuff though." Veronika said it didn't matter what Sardis was, a good sword stab would kill him all the same, and Raquel was certainly hopeful a single good stab would get him. "Sword to the heart is all well and all, but really what's needed against someone talked all up like that is the most efficient way. Which is probably a nice lead ball to the brain from behind." Which if Gar was actually anything like 90 others in the Guild he'd be an expert at. Alas he felt the burning need to stab things up close. Because he was a people person at heart. A people-stabbing-person who stabbed hearts.

Aisha or Lilith showing up... well that should probably be a concern it really didn't feel like one. Aisha probably wouldn't leave Sanctuary because of all that Goddess business, and if Lilith was so concerned with the emblem piece she would have just swiped it anyway. What need did vasili have for mortal concerns? Well, that should probably be asked of Aisha as well actually.

[ReformBlade]

"Well that's a shocker..." Aneda mumbled under her breath as she ate more stew. "So uh, I take it you two know eachother, hm? You an item? Hey Zach!" Wrapping an arm around him gently so as not to screw up his map drawing, "She uh... good? Know what I'm saying? Come on, you can tell meeee, you can trust good ol Aneda~." Ohohoho, this is fun... But a bit stupid at the same time. Yeah this is dumb. Letting go of Zach she sighed, "Oh nevermind, I'm just being silly~. My apologies sir, keep drawin~!"