Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Ether]

"I'll be okay... I think... what was that?" Faatina replied, feeling about until she found Raquel's hand, giving it a squeeze... any sort of anchor to something friendly. Her other hand remained plastered firmly over her eyes.

********

No response, just more reeling. Arietta made her way over to the edge of the stands only to see the black pool had dissipated and some girl who looked decently enough like Raquel had ran out into the center.

"Well, the black shits gone... who the hell is that though?"

********

'...there was no indication at all... no energy buildup, no anything... this thing can summon that much power in the blink of an eye with no warning at all?'

Kit honestly couldn't believe what she had just witnessed... it defied all magical convention.

[Snowy_One]

"OOFF!" grunted Robin as Synthia stumbled back into her. Thankfully Robin had not caught the full blast and was able to catch Synthia. "You okay? That was bright, like starting into the sun!"

"Interesting." said Tia, her eyes shut having somehow managed to close them just in time to prevent blindness. "Such a potent light would not be possible naturally without immense magical power, but in a dream setting such as this one... I shouldn't be surprised, since it's a dream and all. Robin could have come in as a bunny rabbit and it would have made sense. But still, this dragon's unconscious mind must be super-strong or augmented with magic, possibly both, or else he couldn't force such a thing onto our subconciousness's."

[GoD]

"Hey, just because I told you what happened it doesn't mean that you get away scot-free. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Now you get to answer one of my questions. What is Sardis trying to do with Raquel?"- the troubadour asked the stabber.

Edited March 21, 2013 by GoD

[Snike]

Raquel quickly began her attempts to defeat the matter, beginning with simply telling the ooze to stop. That, surprisingly, worked, until Faatina -surprisingly sober, and, strangely enough, wearing Reign's coat- arrived and distracted the merchant. Almost immediately, the ooze resumed its' advance on the gathering, this time mocking Blake's employer's attempts to stop it. That was fine and all, but then it threw a boulder, which caused Blake and Raquel to dive out of the way. After that, the ooze formed another hand and began to advance on the latter, as she tried to use the Emblem in vain. This was looking bad. The mercenary picked himself back up, and prepared to push his boss out of the way of the shadow hands...

Then there was a flash of light, and Blake's eyes were filled with white. Searing pain registered in his head, and the man staggered back. Evidently others were affected as well, judging by what Raquel was saying to Faatina, so it would probably be best to keep silent about it, for now. Besides, there was a more pressing issue to deal with.

"Is.. is the ooze gone?" Blake asked, trying to open his eyes. The light was still there, but it began to fade, ever so slowly.

***

They had just caught up with a group of wyvern riders, when a large burst of light lit up the 'night' - it appeared to be coming from the arena, but since Grant was facing away, he couldn't be sure- and apparently blinded quite a few of his allies. After it faded away, or at least appeared to fade away, the duelist turned around to see that a massive line had cut through the black stuff, and it was fading away at an incredible rate.

Grant whistled. "Whoever that was, they just destroyed the goo."

Edited March 21, 2013 by Snike

[Phoenix]

Arena

The arena was theirs! Well, almost; there were still some evaporating puddles here and there, but the phoenix was on commission and began jogging around and spraying them down with her flames in a dance-like manner. Once she only had the remains farther away to deal with, she decided to have some fun and began striking various poses that were coming to mind the instant she launched fireballs. Some looked similar to ballet, others appeared to be martial art stances, and a few were just carefree limb flails. The dark vapor rising above the arena kept on rising and by the time the girl was finished spraying down or blasting the place, there wasn't a drop left on the ground. With that done, she ran to toward the corridor hoping to fetch some people.

Corridor

"It was the emblem. I managed to get it working," Raquel explained to Faatina. Looking over her shoulder toward Blake, she said, "The ooze is gone ... well not completely, but that girl is out there taking care of the rest ... though I'm still a little confused about her abilities. Fire magic shouldn't be dispersing dark magic so ... easily. She's vaporizing everything in sight ..."

"Hmm, so it was force then," Hypnos noted quietly.

"Hm?"

"Force. That was your solution to this situation."

"Well ... I was really pressed for time, so ..."

"All mortal beings are," Hypnos noted.

... was that a test? For me ...?

Stands

Gar's advice was about the last useful thing Reign or Gabbie had heard. Most of what followed were the typical questions and complaints here and there. Gabbie decided to just tune everything out until she could see again. Only then would she be able to do anything remotely useful. Reign on the other hand got off of the bench and got down on his knees so he could head to the edge of the wall on all fours and not risk tripping and falling into the ring. Once he was sure he'd hit the wall and not something else, he pulled himself to his feet and carefully leaned forward so his voice would travel better. "Faatina! Raquel! Can either of you tell us what happened?!"

Deciding to let her concerns go for now, Raquel called up to Reign. "Don't worry! Everything's alright! I got rid of the dark energy gathering in the arena!"

"Dark energy, knew it," Reign muttered. "Wait, you did?! What the hell was that flash?!"

"The emblem! I'm sorry if it was too bright!"

"... apology accepted, but we've got a problem here besides sight! I think you're the only one with a weapon, Raquel!"

What's the point of this challenge if everyone but me is completely unarmed? Wait ... maybe this is another test ...? I hope not. It didn't sound like I did well with the last one. "Okay just try to get everyone down here and we'll sort it out then!"

Stand Entrance

Luca was hearing things, but that was about it. He bumped his head against the wall as he tried to turn around and that was his cue to hold still. With any luck the wyvern had been blinded too. If anything touched him without a fair warning, he was going to give them such a thrashing. He wasn't getting mauled tonight, no way, no how. For the moment, he just listened for sounds and voices, giving special attention to those close by and to his sides, his most vulnerable areas at the moment.

Halls

"Dammit, I hope the fighting hasn't already started," Shadrak replied. That light did kind of resemble the sun's though. Golden light ... maybe it's the emblem? Oh for Truth's sake, that means Raquel might be in serious trouble. She wouldn't need to use the emblem at all if the others were ... wait no ... Mushirah and I don't have our weapons so no one else may have theirs either. But why does Raquel have her emblem piece then, and does that mean she's the one protecting us? That ... doesn't FEEL right for some reason and I feel bad for feeling that way. "I'll explain everything wrong with those two later; for now let's make sure Raquel's okay. I'm pretty sure she had something to do with that light."

Other Hall

"If it's an eye for an eye, then come at me, but I'd rather be friends," Colin replied. "As for Sardis, he's only interested in putting all of this violence behind us. But can this wait? I'm pretty sure something ridiculous just happened in that arena and I wanna check it out."

[Ether]

"Really...? Geez, I didn't know you were capable of something like that..." Faatina noted, her vision finally beginning to return to her, if only slightly.

"Heh, if you got us all something strong to block our eyes, we could use flairs like that to pretty much win any fight off the bat... we'd take them all out before they got off the ground..." Faatina noted, as she pulled herself up off the ground.

**********

"So should we all rappel the wall like that other girl did, or does anyone see another way down from here?" Arietta asked, since it seemed next objective was meeting in the arena.

**********

"Well, I wouldn't say all mortal beings are quite... pressed for time, but that's an argument for another day." Kit mused, still observing Raquel.

[Snike]

"Incredible," Blake said, upon hearing news of the goo's destruction. That Raquel could pull off such a feat was amazing in itself, but under duress? Simply incredible. But enough wondering. Once the Ursian could see well enough to not stumble into anyone, he began to make his way out to the arena.

"We'd may as well wait in the arena, seeing as I somehow doubt what you did could be missed," Blake said, not even slowing his pace. "From there we can figure out the weapons issue."

[Script]

Gar Blinded by Gar

Gar didn't pay that much attention to the shouts--except for Raquel getting rid of the ooze stuff--since he was more focused on letting his eyesight return.

[roymbrog]

“I’m fine now, but that hurt,” Synthia answered Robin, opening her eyes again. Vision started to return as the rod cells in her eyes started functioning again, and though everything was spotty she could at least see. “The black gunk is gone?” she asked, attempting to look at the arena. Indeed it was, or at least what was left of it was quickly disappearing as the girl from before pelted it with fire.

“I don’t think climbing down the wall is a good idea…” The mage knew that she wouldn’t be able to. “There have to be stairs around here somewhere.”

[Snowy_One]

"I agree. At the very least one of us slipping and falling could result in serious injury. Especially among those not used to climbing up and down things." said Robin before turning her head around to look for a set of stairs. She was not disappointed in finding one, but she was disappointed in where they led.

"It seems there are plenty of stairs, but they all lead up." she commented before giving Synthia a nudge. "Has your vision recovered enough to stand yet?"

"Wait. Maybe there is some sort of hallway that we can find stairs in?" suggested Tia. "You know, so people could move about the stands easily while people in them don't have to deal with all the moving people."

"Maybe. I think I see one of the entrances over there." said Robin, supporting Synthia with her body and one arm while pointing off a short ways away.

[roymbrog]

“I can stand perfectly fine. I’m obviously just lazy,” Synthia said. She did get off of Robin though and started walking towards where Robin had pointed. The mage could see well enough to tell where she was going, at least. “I’ll check. Sounds better than standing around out here.”

[Snowy_One]

"I think she's worried you might have been blinded and are having trouble balancing. Like when you close your eyes and try to walk in a straight line." offered Tia. "But wait, I'll go with you Synthia."

[roymbrog]

“Sure, follow if you want. But I’m in no danger of tripping over, I’ve filled my quota of falls for the day.” Synthia stepped inside and tried to figure out which direction probably had stairs. Unfortunately, she couldn’t see very well down either hall. Picking one, she walked for a short distance before a set of stairs heading down were found. Tia would do for a messenger. “Can you go back and tell them I found a way to the ground floor?”

[Snowy_One]

Tia gave a quick nod before turning around, hurrying back to the outside of the hallway and then, at the top of her lungs, yelled out "HEY! SYNTHIA SAYS SHE FOUND SOMETHING! LOOKS LIKE IT COULD BE A PASSAGE! WORTH CHECKING OUT UNLESS YOU JUST WANT TO SIT AROUND THERE ALL DAY!"

[Mercakete]

The sudden, bright light was quite frightening to Rizen, though a quick retreat solved any problems that might've resulted from it. Luckily, she'd been facing the other way when it happened. Some time has passed, however, and she debated whether or not she should go back to the humans. They'd been entirely useless in her aims, after all, and after she'd worked so hard! She'd just about had enough of this horrid, frightening, dangerous, grassless place! All she wanted to do was leave!

Though that wouldn't go so well... She'd lost the things and she'd have to show her rider how she'd failed him if she didn't get them back. There really wasn't much of a choice. She returned to the humans' general area, but was clearly not too happy what with her head perpetually lowered and her shifting her hooves around. She was also muttering irritably as only an equine could. Just because her circumstances forced her to stick around didn't mean she'd like it.

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

"Oh, ahoy," Gytha greeted. Her vision was returning, but it was still hard to see. For now, she was just glad one of their own had found them, though this one knowing where others were was definitely a plus. "So, ye found th' others? Glad t' hear it!"

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

"That stuff's gone? Good. I don't know what it was, but it looked dangerous," Norbert commented. He kept a hand over his eyes for now since his head still hurt. Suddenly, he realized something. "Wait, Valter, you can see? This is probably obvious, but keep an eye out for allies or enemies, alright? It's probably best if I just wait for my sight to return before I do anything..." Then he began muttering irritably about the blindness and the light.

[ReformBlade]

"How can... how could she have had anything to do with that light..?" asked a rather dubious Mushirah under her breath to herself. She still couldn't quite wrap her head around the fact that Raquel, as innocent and downright awkward as she was held onto a piece of a fabled relic, let alone trusted with it by a Vasilus. Of course, she never bothered asking the details seeing as it'd be a bother in her eyes, but now she was second guessing that stance and even wanted to sit Shadrak down and demand some answers but the guy was right. There were other things to do, more important tasks ahead and she wasn't about to actively become a liability unless she felt the need to do so. "Um... right, coming."

Vision slowly coming back though still incredibly agitated, Aneda didn't feel like moving about in an environment without maintaining full sight.

Expletive.

[scorri]

Marella had thankfully been looking backwards when the flash that had temporally blinded some of the others happened. As the rest of the group went looking for stairs, she continued to warily watch their backs. While it was true the black ooze was gone, she didn't trust this place to be out of surprises. She winced slightly at Tia's shout and then shrugged. "Suppose we should keep moving then if they've found a way down."

[Parrhesia]

Rook got unsteadily to his feet. God, why couldn't they just kill whatever was causing all this and get out of here...

Still, the flash had perversely appeared to focus his senses when he'd recovered. Now he still felt like throwing up, but at least he was bloody coherent...

"C'mon, Marella, let's just turn the fucking screw and get out of this nightmare," he said, shivering as he limped to the supposed passage.

[Phoenix]

Preparations

"It's a nice idea, but the emblem never works for me in the real world. I've managed to get it working in my dreams, but it's only under ridiculous circumstances ... like when the only other option is to drown and spend hours paralyzed at the bottom of the ocean," Raquel explained to Faatina. "It would be nice to get a simple flash working, but I'm not confident in that either ..." she trailed off dejectedly.

Blake meanwhile was heading out into the arena while noting that it would be a good idea to gather everyone there. Raquel agreed, though she didn't want to just leave Faatina on the ground and follow, so she waited until the woman was on her feet before she took even a single step forward. "The weapons issue ... hmm." Instead of going forward, she went backward, toward Hypnos. "Hey ..."

"Yes?"

"I need a straight yes or no on this ... are our weapons in this dream?"

"No. They don't ... 'exist'. Certainly someone would have stumbled upon them by now," he answered.

"That's what I was worried about! But, if that's true, how are we supposed to fight? Me doing all of the work won't teach us a thing about teamwork," she reasoned.

"Then do 'half' the work and leave the rest to your friends," Hypnos suggested. "Sorry, that was ... perhaps too vague. What I meant to say was ... forge new weapons for your friends to use based on their originals."

"... I can do that?" Raquel asked, tilting her head at the notion.

"If you can't, this is going to be a very short, very one-sided training session ... with a lot of ... running ... and flailing and ... ... screaming ...."

Meanwhile Blake was intercepted by Raquel's red double, who greeted him by running up and tapping his right shoulder ... as if she didn't already have his attention. She then began pointing out various areas around the arena, probably trying to note that she'd finished up and the arena was indeed theirs now.

Different Routes

These people sure are making a big deal out of the obvious. Of course there are stair cases leading down to the ground floor--at least four in fact. Almost makes me want to jump this wall despite things. Eh ... Reign turned around and grabbed his rock now that he could see and headed inside. It didn't take long to find the stairs, though Reign had to go a bit further in than he expected to find them. He smoothly rounded the corner and then headed down to the ground floor. Now he only needed to find the corridor and he could join Raquel and the others.

"Yeah ... you people can take the stairs ..." Gabbie said in a disinterested tone before having Ringo take off. She flew down into the arena and landed a fair distance from those already present and the corridor Hypnos was in. She then dismounted from Ringo and began to scan the area casually, musing about various things while Ringo laid down and rested his eyes.

Worry

Shadrak picked up the pace once he was sure Mushirah was able to keep up and said, "She said the emblem works in her dreams when she really needs it, so I'm worried the situation's pretty dangerous out there right now. Unfortunately she can't get this working in real life for some reason, even when she's in danger. Take our battle with the rebels and the fight against those insane cultists for example ... or worse, her kidnapping in Ursium." Oh wait, we are in Ursium. Eh, it's not like the wording was awkward. It kinda feels like we're in a completely different world right now. Reaching the end of the hall and coming out into the stands, Shadrak noted a mostly empty arena. Next he glanced up at the sky to see falling clouds and a pitch black sky. "Well that settles that; we are in a purgatory themed place. That's how Purgatory's sky looks ... completely black with no sun, moon, or stars." Shadrak was able to come off composed, but he was actually quite afraid of the eerie realm of the dead, and by extension, any place similar to it.

Relief

When his vision returned, Luca found the wyvern was too close for comfort, but before doing anything, he recognized it as one of the wyverns enslaved by the humans. That was good. It probably wouldn't bother him then. He began to calm down and his focus returned to finding Nadya.

[Script]

Gar of Sight

Gar blinked away the last vestiges of non-sight and made a quick glance around to ensure everything was working again. Things were as they were, save the complete lack of the black goop in the arena. That sure was swell. Probably cause of the light and all that. Still annoying.

[Mercakete]

Some of the humans were talking about things again, others were moving about. There was a word, however, that caught Rizen's attention. It was typically in reference to things. Things she was looking for, or at least one of them. It was a bit difficult to gauge, but she'd take any lead she had and so walked right up to the male from before and the alpha female of the herd. Then she stood there expectantly, shifting her gaze from one to the other and back.

[Ether]

"...real world?" Faatina asked, her expression shifting to complete confusion. Oh the joys of alcohol wiping all recollection of what was actually going on. Raquel then went back to talk to the strange man, continually referencing dreams and whatnot.

"I'm even more confused than I was before..." Faatina managed, obvious dejection in her tone.

**********

Seems there were stairs after all... that made things easy. Heading down to the arena, Arietta began to head towards Raquel and co.

**********

Now to wait for more interesting occurrences, Kit figured.

[Snike]

And suddenly, the other Raquel arrived, tapped Blake on the shoulder, and pointed around the arena, which sort of confused the Ursian. There was nothing of note about it, not even any sign of the... oh. She had evidently cleaned up the rest of the goo, so that was not going to be an issue any longer.

"Good job," Blake said, unsure of what else to say.

***

The jury was in: They were to go down to the now- black-free arena. Grant, after hearing the redhead child's screaming, decided to go past said child and continue on into the entrance. After picking one of the halls, the man found Synthia a short distance away, near a set of stairs. Unfortunately, he had nothing useful to say, so the duelist just kept on going.

[Phoenix]

Ground Floor

"Ummm ..." Raquel wasn't sure how to deal with Rizen. She seemed to want something, but she had no way of knowing what. She didn't expect the pegasus to be able to understand what she was about to say next, but it was better than this staring contest she'd found herself in. "I'm sorry, Rizen, I don't know where Bert is right now, but there's a group upstairs and he might be with them, so just be patient." The thought of trying to comfort Rizen came, but she couldn't bring herself to actually try anything physical just yet. She was familiar with her horses, not Bert the Crusher's pegasus.

Fortunately, she could at least convey a message to Faatina. "Yeah, this isn't the real world, it's just a really vivid dream the dragon head is putting us through." Looking out toward the arena again she quietly added, "We still haven't found him ... or rather, 'brought him to the surface'." She cast a wary glance at Hypnos before sighing. It has to be him; he's the only new person we've run into since getting here and the dragon's nowhere to be found.

Once Reign entered the corridor his pace slowed. He didn't recognize Hypnos and didn't know what to make of him. "Everyone who's been found is on their way," he gave a simple update in place of a greeting. Then he just decided to sate his own curiosity and approached Hypnos. "Hey, are you him? Are you the one who brought us here?"

"Believe it or not, I am not the one who brought you all here."

Well that's an interesting answer. He's either lying or this is more complicated than I'm used to involving myself in. I'll let it alone for now. Raquel can deal with who's who while we try to figure out this weapon issue, he mused, looking over his rock for a moment.

Meanwhile ... "Mhm!" The phoenix girl was happy to help and even happier to be praised for said help. Unfortunately she was now fresh out of things to do and quickly sobered when she realized this. Her altruistic high went by the waysides and she became visibly gloomy.

[Mercakete]

The alpha female mentioned the pegasus' rider when she spoke to her. That was something. She didn't sound too sure of herself, though. It was kind of regretful, by the sound of her voice. That was something else. Since she made sounds like that and didn't do anything about the missing things, Rizen figured that meant she either didn't have the ability to get the things or didn't know where they were or both. That was too bad.

But her mentioning Bert... Did she know where he was? The pegasus had been fairly focused on finding the things before she found her rider, but now that she noticed it, she'd been away from him for a long time now... And she was among the herd, while he wasn't. Oh, something happened to him, she just knew it! Turned from aggravated and impatient to worried, Rizen began fidgeting: beginning to talk one way, then changing direction before her back hooves even moved, all the while making soft sounds under her breath. She didn't even know where to start looking, after all, and for all she knew, he could've gotten himself killed.