Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Parrhesia]

Rook sat down wordlessly at the fire, feeling more bitter than ever. Everyone still smelt of magic.

[Ether]

"According to that swordsman you've got prisoner, they don't plan on attacking unless you do first, right? If he's lying, they'll probably attack you whether I'm there or not." Kit replied, flourishing her tails as she spoke.

"Actually, speaking of Colin, he seemed willing enough to try and be helpful so far, maybe you could work something out with him, hmm?" She continued, before her eyes shifted towards Blake.

"I told you already, didn't I? I have no reason not to have made my move already if I wanted to... and besides..." Kit began, as she reached her hand over to Raquel, stroking the woman's cheek gingerly.

"You aren't exactly doing the best job of keeping me distanced from her so far~ ... and of course by guard I mean I would have her well out of harm's way if fighting were to break out... I'm not cut out for bodyguard work." She noted, appearing to take a sudden interest in the fingernails on her free hand.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Ether

[Snowy_One]

"But we are free..." said Tia as Rook walked off. Kind of... disappointed. She curled up a little bit before shaking her head. Failures happened. Rook was just one. If he couldn't accept her magic, oh well, she would still work to become the best magician! Speaking of which, there were still plenty of magicians around here she hadn't met. Might as well talk to one now.

Her eyes settled on Zach. Getting up and walking over, trying her best to smile, she approached him, looking him respectfully in the eye. "Hey there. I saw you in the dream battle and I thought you were doing well. You are... Zach... Right? How well do you think you did?"

[scorri]

Marella nodded and headed over to the firepit. Spying Rook, she nudged him lightly. "Hey, do you have your flint and such? We want to start up the fire again so that we can warm up some of the bear meat for breakfast. Also.. are you ok? You look a little... unsettled."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"But of all things to fight, why our allies? It doesn't seem practical to me- assuming the dream world could tap into our memories, you think it would choose people we considered our enemies," she asked Gar.

Nadya

Nadya looked around eventually locating the tree Faatina was located under, making her way over there and standing near the cavalier.

"Howdy, heard ya took a spill. Lemme take a look at that leg please," Nadya said, getting right down to business.

Connor

Connor heard someone entering the Dauntless and turned his head from the set of knives he had in front of him. "Oh hey Gabbie. How was that dream training thing you did last night?" he asked her.

[Parrhesia]

Rook sighed, setting up the fire once more. "It's the bloody magi again... so arrogant, so convinced they're gonna change the world for the better!" With a careful eye to his surroundings, he amended "Well, Zach seems alright. But it's the arrogant ones that I can't stand. I thought Tia might've been a cut above most. No such luck."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"All the better to find exploits and flaws within ourselves and correct them. Either with our own work or relying on someone else. That little maneuver sword-guy and I pulled off at the end wouldn't have been half as effective if we'd gone in individually as is more often than not the case I've been seeing," Gar answered with a nod. "Take that manse battle, for example, with our strength halved like that both sides took quite the amount of casualties. Though the port fight produced fatalities, overall less casualties on the whole. Dream fight had what, only a handful in limbo?" Gar shrugged. He had honestly just lazed out for most of the fight. "Besides, if he summoned enemies just me alone would have overfilled the stadium. Just adding everyone's and things get silly. Though I suppose showing Raquel that Sardis fellow might've given her a good mental shaking, not something she needed at the moment."

[ReformBlade]

"Right... Fire... Well I'd rather not eat cold meat so I can go get a fire ready if that's fine with you, miss..." Shit, I don't know her name. Am I a bad person for that? Well, I'm bad for a number of other things anyway so that doesn't matter. Picking up a few logs, the rider threw them onto the fire pit before her brain caught up to her and realized HEY i don't know what I'm gonna start it with. Fretting with herself and rocking side to side, she caught sight of "Mushirah! Heeey there, you got a second?"

"Oh it's ju-" Snapping her attention to the sound of a lady calling out her name, a significantly puzzled look on her face, "Um... I guess? What seems to be the problem?"

"Well you're a mage, right? Can you help me out for a moment with this fire?"

"I... what about it? I don't think i-"

"Can you just be a dear and start it for me? Just like, a spark! I can keep it going after that, I promise!" Aneda pleaded and almost goaded.

"No, I'm sorry, I can't. It wouldn't end well, in fact I'd probably burn something and then I'd get some flack for it down the line for being incompetent, either from you or my dad if he found out!"

"What? Oh come on it's just a small spark, how hard can it be?" This was just crazy world turning for aneda, completely blindsided by someone not just doing her work, and for free to boot!

"how hard can it be? Are you really that ignorant?" Temper rising, Mushirah looked Aneda dead on, "How hard is it to swing a sword or stab something with a lance? You just pick it up and swing or thrust with it right? Easy-peasy!"

"Uh, excuse me? It's more difficult than it looks, I've had training, I know what I'm talking abo-"

"Training with a lance, sure." she cut in, not exactly happy about it, "But by your attitude towards this 'simple magic' as you'd imply indicates you don't know a thing about what you're spewing. I hate to be long winded so I'll just say I can't help you, go ask someone else."

Well that was blunt. Aneda struck a nerve without knowing it, her bravado quickly seeping away. "Um... Sorry, I guess..."

Looking back to her drawing of the arena, "Apology accepted. Just think before you say something like that please. What may be easy to you may have taken someone else a while to learn, or worse, they may have tried and failed. No one's perfect." she added bitterly. Exasperated and wanting to get back to her pictures, she put on a smile and handed it to shadrak, sounding a little but cheerier, "I've been trying to recollect the actual ring we were all in. I know, sounds weird but it was on my mind for obvious reasons."

[Phoenix]

Dauntless: Exterior

Raquel quickly turned her head to get kit's hand off of her face and said, "That's creepy ... cut it out. And Colin's almost as creepy as you're being," she added as an aside. "He still hasn't told me what he said he would so I doubt I can get much more help from him." I'm also not even sure I want to given what the price might be ...

Dauntless: Interior

The dream training ... right. He hadn't been present for that. "From my count? The dream training was about eight different koinds of fucked up ... and we moight have done better if not for the supernatural stuff throwing people off balance--literally in most cases--but I guess that may have been some of the point. We never really know what to expect and that dream was one big mash-up of 'shit you just don't expect'."

Campfire

Shadrak stayed out of the exchange between Mushirah and Aneda, figuring the former could settle it herself. On top of that, he didn't want to chime in with his own grievances about training when it was more likely to lead to a protracted argument and nothing else. While listening, Mushirah reminded him of his early days as a mage, a young boy trying to master dark magic and having all sorts of troubles here and there. They were actually fond memories because they reminded the shaman just how far he'd come. He was powerful; he didn't need reassurance of that. Before he could reminisce any further, Mushirah showed him the drawing and informed him that it was the arena they fought in not too long ago. His eyes widened at her progress. "Awesome! Most of it's kind of a blur to me but I definitely recognize this. Hmm, are those like the actual bits of rubble you remember or do you have to insert a few things here and there?"

"Can I have a look too?" Colin chimed in from a short distance away. He had nothing better to do, much to Shadrak's frustration.

Following Nadya Around

Luca, having no reason to stay put and receiving no direction to do so, followed behind Nadya, and Reign, having nothing better to do, did the same. Luca had no idea why Reign was still here and not giving Nadya gold and Reign didn't know why Luca was staring at him. This was ... somewhat uncomfortable for the both of them. Once they arrived at their destination Lame Leg Lane, they waited for Nadya to do her thing, and Luca waited for Reign to offer tribute. He'd be waiting awhile from the looks of things, as the man was simply standing around.

Hmmm ... never was much of a horse person.

[Snike]

The Ursian man moved closer to the Dauntless, so as to make it easier on the other participants. Of course, this meant that when Kit went and began to stroke Raquel's cheek, Blake's staff was immediately lowered towards Kit and his free hand was on his hilt.

"Don't try me," Blake said, his voice ice. He had already failed twice, and the merchant had luckily made it through. To fail again, when he was right there, would be unforgivable. He wasn't about to lose another one.

[ReformBlade]

"Yeah, I was trying to remember exact formations of the rubble but it's uh... quite hard, and I don't think I can just go back and take a peek to jog my memory, ehe..." An imperceptible blush on fer face, Mushirah felt somewhat proud that someone besides a family member liked the drawing, her drawing in general. Well, she perceived it as like anyway, but she was even more surprised when another guy wanted to see the picture. "Uh, sure, just come on over, though if more people start wanting to see I may start charging a fee." D'oh... bad joke, hopefully no one will notice?

[Ether]

"You really need to learn to listen when a girl talks... if I wanted her hurt she would be." Kit noted, her usually tone having dissipated into a more sour note as she moved her hand away from Raquel and began to take steps towards Blake, circling him as to avoid walking stomach first into the readied staff.

"But really now, you're too uptight... acting the tryhard for her won't fix the past, Blake... now put down your weapon... don't try me." Kit continued, ending in a mirror of Blake's own threat, lazily moving her right hand upward until it was level with Blake's chest, at which point she turned it towards him, her palm open.

*******

Shifting to allow Nadya access to her injured leg, Faatina gave the woman a sheepish nod.

"Ah, thanks Nadya... Axel told me I got pretty drunk last night... I don't even remember buying any alcohol... but I guess it would explain some things..." She noted, looking up towards the tree, which was now short a branch.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Gytha said the dream training was a teamwork exercise as well- that's probably the most likely explanation. For a while there, I was thinking that maybe the dragon head wanted us getting used to killing our allies...but that's probably rather paranoid," she replied to Gar, frowning.

Nadya

"What do ya remember doin'? Ya musta gotten the drink from somewhere," Nadya remarked to Faatina, both to distract her a little and because she was genuinely curious. She checked the leg with her hand gently- red armor seemed to do a decent enough job setting it.

Connor

"So the dream training was meant to prepare you for the unexpected? Sounds fair...it's been such a weird trip since Europa. I mean we went to Purgatory of all places and met a vasilus? It still sounds crazy to me to even say that," Connor remarked to Gabbie.

Edited April 2, 2013 by -Cynthia-

[Phoenix]

Dauntless: Exterior

Won't fix the past? What is she talking about? Of course there wasn't enough time to think on that. "... whoa whoa WHOA," Raquel cut in verbally with her hands out, one pointing palm-first at Blake and the other at Kit. "None of this first thing in the morning, please. And besides ..." she began focusing her attention more on Kit. "If you're actually friendly or at least not an enemy, you shouldn't have a problem cooperating with us. The other way around just isn't going to work."

Dauntless: Interior

"Well we went in there under the 'pretext' of teamwork training, but he never said he wouldn't subject us to the horrors of body doubles, random betrayals by our own healers, shifting gravity, earthquakes, missing arms, and a whole bunch of other crap loike goiant hands," Gabbie explained. "Almost felt loike he was competing with the other weird stuff we've gone through, heheheeh," she mused aloud. "So ... what are you doin' with the blades anyway? If you're thinkin' of experimenting on them, it can wait. Do my lance first, hahahah ... ... no seriously, put an identical blade on the butt end of this thing ...."

Campfire

"Colin should be charged for pretty much any time he takes up," Shadrak remarked in response to Mushirah's joke as the man himself came over and sat down right beside him.

"Oh this is pretty good. Did you get any formal training or are you self taught?" Colin asked her.

What the hell?! Now he's butting in? We didn't have time to talk last night or in the dream and now this?

In Lieu of An Infirmary

"Apparently she bought it in Sergio, but the name isn't coming to me. We should probably find the bottle." Then he turned his gaze to Faatina. "And then I'll have to give you a crash course in dealing with alcohol," he said, casually, but with a mix of amusement and concern on his face.

So he was just here to bring Nadya to the injured female. Okay fair, but he could have at least offered gold for her healing. The female wasn't giving any offerings either. In fact nobody ever seemed to give her anything anymore. It was actually pretty unsettling thinking about it. Was she being forced to heal them? By who? The first--or rather the closest--suspect was Reign and so Luca lowered his head and bumped the man on the back of his left shoulder a bit roughly.

"Huh?"

Raising his head back up now that he had the man's attention, he snorted impatiently.

"Can I help you ...?" I'm no equestrian, but I know an angry horse when I see one. I must have spent too much time with Nadya or something and he's taking it the wrong way. "Uh don't worry, I don't mean any harm," Reign assured the horse, turning toward him and putting his hands up and palms forward.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"If I prefaced this with 'it's a joke' and said 'I guess that's good practice for me hohohoho' would you have the humor to appreciate that or will you just get mad and paranoid?" Gar wondered.

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"I'm still trying to work out the details of how to make the most efficient throwing knives possible. I could try to re-create Gemini for you, but that would be a tricky task- if both ends aren't perfectly balanced your fighting is going to be off. Maybe you should just ask Uncle if you can have it back once we get back to Europa, I can put in a good word for you. You haven't attacked Raquel once since we left!" he said, laughing.

Veronika

"I don't find it very funny, but at least you had the sense to not say it outright," Veronika replied to Gar.I really wonder about him sometimes...is he just glib or do I really have reason to find him untrustworthy?

Nadya

Nadya looked back <"Luca play nice!"> she ordered briefly before turning back to Faatina. "Not that ya asked for my advice, but I wouldn't go around drinkin' unidentified liquids from here on out. Prepare yourself, this is gonna feel kinda funny," she said, her staff starting at the start of the break and slowly going down Faatina's leg.

Fortress Org

Layla brazenly strode up to the gates of the fortress, Ripper a great silver shadow behind her. So many guards- if anyone from the Ursian military saw this they'd get very suspicious. Classic Sardis misstep.

"I'm here to see Sardis, let me in," she said to the first person she saw. Ripper bared his teeth at the man to get the point across.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"That so hm?" Gar crossed his arms in smell of a challenge. "I'll just have to try harder next time then."

[ReformBlade]

She laughed to herself, remembering what Shadrak said a while ago. Oh right this is that Colin he's got a grudge against..."No I never had any training, nothing official anyway, just instruction from my mom. I just do it for fun mostly, even stress relief."

Meanwhile, Aneda took the hint that she should skedaddle and actually do her own work in the form of getting the fire started. I've got wood, got the stupid pit to put it in, now I just need some like... fire. We got any flint stones or anything? There's gotta be some on someone here, or wait timeout, maybe I've got some on Hannah! And as if on cue, Hannah snorted at her master and partner in crime. Not putting up with nonsense anymore, Aneda put on her game face and searched Hannah's saddle bag and procuring exactly what she needed, discovering that she still had a vulnerary in there too. "Huh, that's where it went... Oh well." Taking a piece of her armor for the occasion, Aneda used it in the dark art of starting a fire, making a few scratches on the surface of the arm-guard but nothing to cry over. Now to make sure it stays lit... for a while anyway. She sat close to it for the time being. hooray.

[Snike]

"Doesn't mean you're not a sleeper agent, just waiting for the meeting," Blake said, shaken by Kit's words. How did she know? Regardless, Raquel told him to stand down, and so he lowered his staff. "And for the record, I am damn well aware of the past. I won't let it be repeated."

[Ether]

"It's hard for me to cooperate with you when you keep trying to get rid of me, Raquel." Kit replied, the tension seemingly dissapearing almost instantly, as she brought her hand down and began twiddling her tails about.

Turning to Blake, Kit began looking the man over somewhat lazily, leaning against the Dauntless as she did so.

"I told you already, didn't I? There's no point in me acting as a sleeper agent, Blake. If I was working for Sardis, Raquel would be at that meeting, right now... and none of you would be with her. Besides, isn't the whole point of a sleeper agent to be a trusted party member that leads you astray? Surely there are a million nameless men in the organization they could have sent that would draw less suspicion." Kit replied, clearly bored with this particular topic, for good enough reason.

"But that's not what you want to hear, right? You want to know how I know about you, isn't that right? How I know that everything you do is to make up for your prior failures... people you couldn't protect, couldn't save... like that little artificial girl who's corpse is still on top of that wagon... clutching at your leg in desperation, but Raquel was hurt, she was priority right? It didn't matter which one had the deeper wound, you couldn't let your employer be... you were so resolved until that wound proved fatal. You still carry her axe, don't you... a memento of the choice you made... choosing Raquel... that's a choice you can't let slip anymore, is it Blake?" Kit outed, her tone not accusatory, not mocking... just objectively stating something as though it were a small child's math equation.

"As for how I know? It's just what I do."

********

"Yeah." Faatina replied, allowing Nadya to do her thing.

Edited April 2, 2013 by Ether

[Mercakete]

Norbert only waited a few moments before giving up on that idea and instead thinking about what to do. From the sound of things, they had a fair amount of time before they were going to head off. Rizen, to Norbert's surprise and curiosity, wandered away from his side and towards some of the horses. That's weird... She normally doesn't like to leave me alone. Maybe she's beginning to trust the people here. She hasn't really thrown a fit for a while now... Heh. Maybe she really is beginning to trust them.

Rizen, meanwhile, had noticed Sandrock and Riley were having a break from pulling the thing that carried a bunch of stuff. She, likewise, was presently on break from protecting her rider, and so went over to say hello. Once she arrived, Rizen asked Riley if Sandrock was okay since he seemed concerned about her.

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

Well, pegasus having gone off to apparently mingle with the other equines, Norbert decided to wander the campsite to think of ways he could fill his time. A spar with Blake or a quick chess match with Valter before breakfast were the first ideas to come to mind. There was also that idea the wyvern girl had had the previous day about talking to Blake about incorporating the mounts in the combat strategy more. Faatina had disappeared from combat during the dream training... Checking up on her was something he decided he should do at some point as well. Flying around with Aneda could be put off since he didn't want to interrupt Rizen. Of course, flying wasn't the only thing they could do; they could just talk. He also noted that he still had to talk to Raquel at some point. Knowing the people in the group, though, she was probably already dealing with something or other else.

Sure enough, as he walked by the Dauntless, there seemed to be fox issues ensuing. Oh right... he mentally muttered, We still have those two problems with us. Well, that put him into a somewhat sour mood. As he passed by, however, he slowed and listened in to the conversation. It was kind of unusual. From the sound of things, Raquel and Blake were trying to get the strange woman to leave and she was still trying to convince them she was trustworthy. Fat chance, you miserable, insufferable, tenacious, annoying, eccentric, freak-of-nature, selfish, dim-witted, prostituting hag.

But then she began to talk to Blake, describing insecurities that sounded too specific to be made-up. The confidence with which she practically recited them was somewhat disturbing, too. Is she a mind magician? Oh for Mercy's sake... "Hey, leave him alone," Norbert demanded as he walked into the conversation and taking his maces from his belt, "If you're a mind magician, keep out of our heads. You don't have a right to be looking into them and you really don't have a right to bring up things like that."

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

Gytha listened a bit sadly as Robin detailed her woes. When Rook passed by with the insult, Gytha shot him a glare but other than that, left it alone.

"Don't listen t' that," she replied, offering a compassionate smile, "Yer still alive, aye? After all we've been through a'course we'd suffer some losses. N' I hope yer not serious about what yer family would think. Strength isn't ev'rathin'. If ye realla feel ye'd rather go home than stay here, then that's probabla fer th' best. Go where th' wind takes ye, I say. If that's here, great! If that's somewhere else, best o' luck. In all honesty, sounds t' me like stayin' with us is just makin' ye miserable. I don't want that. So if yer happier somewhere else, ye should go fer it."

[Snowy_One]

"If it feels good, do it? No. I do not believe in that in the slightest. I believe that anything worth doing is going to hurt and be painful. I choose not to do the things I do not because they are easy, but because they are hard. But even when things are hard I just wish... I just wish I could be happy when doing them. Gytha. When was the last time someone even thought that, maybe, I am hurt and lonely and need someone, besides now? Right now, even something as simple as a hug or a pat on the back would be nice, but instead that... thing... decided to insult me after a fight because he would not mind his tongue and following up on another fight I had with Zach? I spent that night crying into my pillow, and no one noticed. Zach now has a new girlfriend, and I am the demon in all of this."

She sighed. "And worst of all, heading home will not change that. Just let me sick my head in a hole and ignore it. Though it is a very tempting hole right now."

[Mercakete]

Well, that wasn't really what she was trying to say, but Gytha decided not to point that out.

"If all it's doin' is hurtin' ye, then it's better t' get away from it," she replied, "I'm not goin' t' tell ye what t' do. If ye think it's worth it t' stay with us, then I think ye should. If it's onla doin' ye damage, though, it'd probabla be better fer ye t' find somewhere ye can be happy."

[Eail]

She was making Lia's death out to be nothing, how dare she, what the hell gives her that right!

These were the thoughts of Zachary Fairweather as the fox woman taunted Blake with the death of the artificial girl. Clenching his fists in a rage as he heard her speak of a person that he'd nearly died for like she was nothing more than a piece of trash. The sage felt like he wasn't in control of his emotions or actions, unconscionably he was already gathering the power needed for a spell in his hand, electricity faintly crackling up his arm.

"Don't you dare speak of her death as if it was nothing! That girl was more than just an object to be used an thrown away, she was a person!"

[Phoenix]

Dauntless: Interior

Gabbie sat down, leaning against one of the crates and said, "Heh, yeah but if that doesn't work then I'm back to square one ... and to be honest, my foighting's been off since I lost Geminoi anyway. It's really hard to get used to only being able to split someone with one end. I was hoping the blade heels would compensate, but most of the toime I'm stuck on defense so ... no such luck."

Dauntless: Exterior

Raquel was a little appalled, but Kit's brief speech answered two things for her. First, it explained part of what she had been wondering about, not in any real detail past Lia's death and the awful choice placed in front of Blake, but also confirmed her suspicions about Kit, suspicions she would now voice since Bert was accusing her of using mind magic. Of course, first she had to compose herself; the revelation about the night when Lia died and Raquel herself was gravely injured had hit her hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. "She's not a mind magician, Bert. That would take too long. She's a dark avian," she explained while wiping her eyes.

That was when Zachary threatened her, and her first instinct was to step between them, but it wouldn't be even remotely as swift as when she did it to Blake and Kit moments ago. She'd have to go around Kit this time just to do it, so she chose to start off with something different this time. "Okay everyone calm down, please. Like I said, it's too early in the morning for this ..." she said, sniffling afterward. She hadn't finished composing herself it seemed.

Campfire

"Impressive," Colin replied with a smile.

Shadrak meanwhile was struggling to figure out how to have a conversation with Colin around and was coming up short. That was when he hit up on an idea. "Hey, you should probably check a map or something to make sure we're on the right path to that fortress. And while you're at it, you should probably tell Raquel whatever it was you said you'd tell her." Poorly executed, but Colin was a nice guy of sorts.

"I'm not comfortable yet, but maybe she's calmed down a bit. I guess I could look into the map situation but I'm pretty sure we're on track to reach the fortress by noon if we leave within the hour." With that, he stood up and said, "Nice meeting ya," which seemed to be aimed at Mushirah.

Outdoor Infirmary

Still no gold and now Nadya wanted him to cease and desist ... that or keep trying to extort Reign in a 'nice' manner. Either way, Luca was at a loss and left Reign alone of the time being. "Is he protective or something?" Reign quietly asked Nadya. Luca meanwhile stuck his head closer to eavesdrop since Reign was communicating with her.

Ranch Without Fences

Riley wasn't sure himself how Sandrock was, but he sure wasn't leaving her to her own devices until she was completely back to normal again. She didn't seem to be leaving him alone either and came around to his side and rested her head across his back, greeting Rizen with a tired nicker. Now if only Riley knew how to shrug uncertainly.

Fortress of Solitude

The sentry had a nice little lie ready and everything, but this woman was no random traveler and she called for Sardis by name. Also, she had an enormous hungry looking dire wolf with her. "Whoa, uh, wait a second ... you're ... Layla, right?" He was asking her, but his eyes never left Ripper for more than a split second.