Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[scorri]

Marella raised an eyebrow and then shoved Zach lightly. "I'll do my best to be there for you. Don't worry. And, well, I'm glad you're feeling good. Just don't be too cocky, mmkay?" Looking over at Aneda, she reached down and offered a hand. "Wanna sit up? Seems like you'd be more comfortable sitting up with us than laying down like that. Unless you're still tired?"

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

"My days as an officer are over," Reign clarified before going on. "Yeah, it's a big military school in Ursentius, Horizon Academy. They train mages to fight in the army or navy and offer accelerated courses and officer training for mages planning on 'going career'. It's where I met Raquel," he explained.

Buffet

Try as she did, she couldn't recall Gar's scars. She wasn't sure she wanted to, but for the moment she couldn't and that was a little disappointing, but also a relief. "Right, we aren't being ambushed for a change, so we can plan a little, but aside from the basics like organizing the best teams, what else can we do? No, 'what else can I do' is more what I meant. I think Blake is working on something too actually, but he wasn't really specific about it, so I don't know what to do."

Campfire

"I guess anything's better than being depressed about it, you're right. Trying on my own never works so I'd be happy to have some help. Don't worry about whether you're the kind of bright I need since I'm not actually even a researcher myself ... not like officially. It's just something I devoted my time to doing. I want to understand this world, its people, and cultures more, you know?" Then a thought occurred that Shadrak repeated aloud. "It kind of goes hand and hand with your world mapping idea, don't you think?" And he smiled too, because otherwise that awkward feeling inside of him wasn't going to leave him be.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"You're the one who has to make the call about it even being a fight at all. At the very least you have to come up with that," Gar spoke. Kinda cruel, but necessary. "And that determines how we'd fight. Straight on, a reckless charge and not even bother with listening to his proposal? Or wait until he's in front of us and vulnerable and strike? Or we could turn your joke about stabbing him in his sleep into reality by feigning allegiance. Or do none of that, and sign up to be best buddies for life and fight wrathites together. And the always fun path of turning them all against each other, it's always a worry in such sordid business so making them tear out each others throats can be surprisingly easy." Gar rubbed his chin at that thought. "And of course, there's just plain ignoring him and continuing on. That's always the biggest laugh riot I swear," Gar chuckled at that. "Not really an option here, though certainly no one would expect it." Gar shrugged. "Tough I'd admit getting Sardis group to fight the Wrathites and whittle each other down has some merit."

[Ether]

"So you have formal training and everything, huh? Sounds like you and Raquel go back quite a ways too..." Faatina noted, clicking her heels lightly.

"Military training, huh? The difference between having that and not... you're probably miles ahead of me, Reign. I remember when my brother would come home from his training, back in Sanctuary... he was always beaten and bruised, you could barely recognize him under all the blood and dirt... but it made him strong. He tried to teach me what he could in secret, but we couldn't even spar... even when he held back I couldn't keep hold of my weapon for more than a couple of blows... after a while he wanted me to batter on him unarmed to increase my strength... I thought he was crazy but one day he convinced me to do it... he got me really angry and I slammed that practice staff into his chest with all the strength in my body, and he didn't even flinch." Faatina reminisced, her tone beginning with an admiring chuckle before slowly growing more somber.

"It isn't something easy to forget... I still can't help but wonder if he had spent his time training himself instead of training me... hell even getting more sleep or spending more time on his meals... if he had done that instead of bending to my whims maybe it would have been enough for him to have come out alive..." Faatina managed, before choking herself up. She shed a single tear before catching herself, giving her head a dismissive shake.

"I guess it doesn't really matter anymore."

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

"I don't see a reason to join them ... not as anything but a trick to catch them off guard, and just charging straight at them when they're held up in a fort is suicide. I remember the place pretty well, but it was in shambles last time we were there. If they're using it as an actual base now, they're probably rebuilding it. We also can't disguise our approach if we take the Dauntless with us because of those noisy deflector pads. That narrows it down to hoping we're in position to strike during the meeting if things go south or pretending to join them until we are. Hmmm ..." Rather than wondering about the options themselves, Raquel was wondering if the deductions she'd made were sound. "Though ... I guess I should let everyone know that that's a possibility and explain it to them or we might have another incident like what happened with Zel ... and ... oh no, how could we possibly keep that a secret from Colin? Unless we send him off into the woods or something, he could overhear any plan we come up with. Was that the whole point ...? Urgh ..."

Buffet

"If you're not done mourning you're brother yet, then you're not done," Reign noted, looking a little concerned. "Your brother taught you well. You can't tell me otherwise when you've survived all of this," he said, smirking at her. "As for my military training, it was only one step along the way. Once we graduated, we had to earn the rest of our skills in the field. That's what I'm doing now. It's the same with you, I figure, so try to keep that in mind, Faatina."

[ReformBlade]

"Yes I do." Just gotta remember not to look at the big picture so often, make sure not to stress myself out over it and fry my brain. "I wouldn't say I'm a true researcher either, I just like learning and, well, it was high time I went out and saw something else in this world beyond my small home. Feeling a small pang of homesickness but I'll get over it, I'm sure of it, especially once I find my way." Thinking back to the present, Mushirah wasn't exactly sure what she was getting herself into today, and while that battle in the dream was supposed to be training, what for she didn't know. "Um... Not gonna lie, I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen today, do you? I feel a little lost as to what this group is supposed to be accomplishing, but I'll chalk it up to not being hired officially."

"Nah it's not weird... I just didn't register it because well um... I dunno." Seems to be a lot of that from me these days... Dammit. Aneda did sit up, placing the egg in front of her and leaning her forehead right on it, keeping her eyes closed and just trying to clear her head of annoying thoughts and focusing on feeling good. "Just... feeling weird I guess." she answered pretty much to no one in particular. I've been called out dozens of times before, why am I so riled up over this one now? Maybe it's all getting redundant and i subconsciously want change in my life? I wouldn't think I'd have anything that remotely profound happen to me any time soon, and even that's pushing it...

[Click This]

"I will, thanks," said Mao, holding the flask by its neck. "I'm going to have something to eat now while this cools down. Do you care for breakfast?"

[Snowy_One]

"Indeed. Though I can be quite fine without it. Tell me if that tea isn't any good either." said Tia with a smile as she sat down. "Now, tell me this, earlier you offered to teach me about being a merchant and you're clearly someone of refined taste in regards to drink and a desire to have breakfast. You clearly are not some lowborn but rather someone from the upper-middle classes at the least. Who are you, Mao?"

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar nodded at the lines of thought Raquel was coming up with. "Any position I'd like to attack during the meeting would involve lots of guns and explosions. Which probably isn't possible really. So if you go with backstabbing, consider me an official messenger for this while someone distracts that Colin-guy with whatever." It'd probably have to be Raquel, since she would already know about this. He kept silent to let her figure that--or something else--out though. "Telling everyone though might be too... loose," there'd been so many newcomers lately, "maybe just the most important people or those who would leave if you did join." Gar gave some insight. "Just remember to sing a song."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Ugh, not you too," Veronika groaned in response to Axel's comment. "If you have useful intel you can tell me first," Veronika said to Colin, choosing to ignore the rest of what he was saying.

Nadya

"Not like Luca won't bite or kick ya if ya piss him off, but in the middle of combat that ain't exactly the best idea," Nadya entered into the discussion.

Fortress

"Sardis saved Hayato's life? I can't imagine Layla doing that..." Clara said, looking off into the distance.

--

"If your idiotic plan ends up harming Cassandra, not even Father's orders will protect you any longer," Layla warned Sardis, before turning to Samael. "Try not to get killed all right? Not that you have much to worry about but...still," she said awkwardly. "Come along Ripper we have things to do," she said, turning to leave. The dire wolf whined but complied, following behind her.

[roymbrog]

“Uh, I failed a test,” Kat answered. “I asked that archer with the horse but I didn’t know his name so he said no…” Well actually, she was the one who had made the deal to leave, but that wasn’t important. The important part was that Robin had been more willing than Kat thought to help out, and that made her happy. “Alright, hop on and we’ll take off~”

---

Finished with her horse tests, Synthia rode back towards the campsite and stopped out by the Dauntless. She had planned to give Myra an apple or something as a treat, but it wasn’t till she dismounted and was about to climb inside that she remembered Raquel hadn’t been able to buy any food in town. Shoot. Plan thwarted, she patted the mare on the nose instead and started to lead her around the wagon before stopping abruptly. Grant was approaching, and he didn’t appear to be in particularly good shape.

“So you lost,” the mage said simply. “Why didn’t Shadrak heal you? He was right there by the fire.” Another mark against the shaman. He was probably too busy flirting with Mushirah to do his damn job. Synthia felt a bit guilty though, and was grabbing her staff to heal him herself.

---

It didn’t look like the group would be ready to leave anytime soon. Several people were still off who knew where, and most of everyone else was seated around the fire. Valter could probably take a nap if he so desired. Something was bothering him though, and strangely enough it was something Kat had said. Was he really that asocial? Sure he could count all his friends on one hand, but he had never necessarily considered that a bad thing. “You’re my friend, aren’t you, Phyll?” he asked, scratching the mare’s neck. She looked up for a moment before returning to her grazing. Ok, that made six…

-----

Ah, so that also explained a lot… Either way, “Yeah, I don’t see miss ‘superior’ doing much to save us either,” Cloe said with more than a hint of bitterness. “Good thing I’d never need her to. We’re perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves…”

[Snowy_One]

Robin quickly mounted up on top of the wyvern, behind Kat, and was ready to take off. "That sounds stupid. People forget names, so getting mad about it seems more like spite than an actual test."

[Snike]

"I'm hurt, Veronika. As for this wonderful friendship, no doubt more time would've ripened it," Axel said, smirking under his helmet. "But look! There's still a chance! All you have to do is tell her about your information, and you're set!"

The lancer was enjoying himself a bit too much, some could say.

***

"Got it," Blake said, making a mental note to perhaps talk to some of the other riders about the idea at a later date. "Is there anything else that any of you wanted to bring up? If not, I need to go speak with Synthia for a bit, so if you need me, I'll be in the Dauntless."

***

"If you mean the shaman, he was busy," Grant said, simply enough. He waved off the staff. "No need to waste that on me. I just need to go buy an elixir, and I'll be right patched up."

[Ether]

"I'll never be truly done... Reign. Nothing will ever be the same now that he's gone... but at the same time there's nothing I can do to change it... we make do with what life gives us." Faatina replied, pushing herself off from her sitting position to stand.

"But you're right... there has to be something there... some reason why I'm still alive, even though by all accounts I should be dead." Faatina continued, as she took hold of her lance.

"But I've still got some work to do... I'm going to find Blake, he seems to be the man of the hour when it comes to this sort of thing..." She finished, as she made her way to the exit of the Dauntless. Stopping just at the end, she turned back to the fire mage.

"Thanks, Reign. I think I needed a kick in the teeth... I'll be counting on you from now on, got it?" She told him, before exiting the Dauntless.

[Mercakete]

When Nadya noted that his injuries didn't particularly need a heal staff, Norbert shrugged, agreeing with the assessment. Sure they still stung, but he'd dealt with a lot worse in the past and was confident that he could ignore them effectively. The news on the food wasn't that concerning either. Sure he preferred having meat of some sort when it came time to eat -- which meant that if they had any dried or salted meats he'd be more than grateful even for that -- but it wasn't strictly necessary so long as they weren't starving. Wyvern girl then explained her idea to Blake and Nadya's horse seemed to find him particularly interesting. The way he was looking at him... Did he want something? Norbert raised an eyebrow at the horse but then decided on ignoring him. If it wasn't nothing, Nadya could see to whatever it was.

Blake was remotely intrigued by the idea, it seemed, though from the sound of things he didn't quite understand just how potent and generally targeted mounts were. After all, a charging mount was a lot bigger than the rider and so made an excellent target whether the mount attacked or not. Better to actually make use of the trampling abilities of an equine than to ignore it and have a horse lanced anyway. Wyverns were natural predators, too, so that in and of its self made them dangerous since that meant they were equipped to kill and maim. Armor was brought up, which was a valid point and something Norbert thought riders who went into combat should invest in regardless. He certainly did. Heck, he got armor for Rizen before he got any for himself!

Wyvern girl mentioned she wasn't about to put Ringo into danger until he had proper armor anyway. The pegasus rider nodded in agreement with that. As previously mentioned, he thought all combat mounts should be protected somehow. Nadya then piped up again, this time mentioning how Luca -- her horse, probably -- would kick and bite of someone angered him. Norbert looked back over to said horse. Was that why he was looking at him? Did he make him angry somehow? Well, the horse did look a bit peeved, but it didn't seem to be anything beyond annoyance, so the pegasus rider figured he was safe...maybe.

Blake spoke up again, this time sounding like he was done with the discussion regarding the mounts, asking if there was anything else any of them wanted to talk to him about. Though Norbert had a couple things to say, one of them he immediately discarded. Blake sounded like he had other things to do so he probably wasn't up for a spar. The other thing he considered for only a short while before deciding against it. He'd just talk to Blake later about it if it still bothered him like he thought it would. Well, maybe. Maybe it wasn't even worth discussing. So, the answer he gave Blake was a simple shake of the head and, "That was the only reason I asked you for a moment."

He didn't know if Nadya or wyvern girl had anything to add, though, so he let them answer for themselves.

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

Blake ... right, the combat team organizer. That gave Reign an idea. "Sure thing. In fact, I'd run that by the man when you find him. Us on the same combat team, I mean. Veronika too, if she's not getting sick of me starting fires so close to her." He began putting up fingers at each pair of attributes he noted for a total of three. "Power and reach. Accuracy and speed. Mobility and Momentum. That's pretty much everything we need to decimate our opponents, in theory anyway. We'd have to rely on healers from other teams, but that's the case for a lot of people and lets us focus on offense."

Nearby

"Tell you first, huh?" Colin repeated with smirk. "I'd consider that," Colin said, both to Veronika and Axel before focusing on the former again. "... especially if it'd make you a friendlier hostage taker. What do you say, Nika? Can we be 'best buddies' for all of five minutes?"

Buffet

"We ... we really need to be prepared for this, but keeping Colin in the dark without making him suspicious is a tall order. I'm not even sure how to do that ..." Two, almost three seconds after saying this, the half dozen memories she had of being hit on by the sword master returned her expression grew sickly. "Don't say it ..." she told Gar dejectedly, figuring he knew as well as she did. Tall order indeed.

Fight Club

"Uh yeah, one more thing," Gabbie spoke up. "Ringo's not an option for me until I actually get that armor we were talking about. What uh ... where do you think I'd work best ... regarding combat teams, I mean." Working closely with others was fine by her; it wasn't what was bothering her. Having no other choice but to work closely with others was what was bothering her.

Luca snorted in frustration. The pegasus rider wasn't going to offer anything either was he. Luca was used to this sort of thing, humans not offering Nadya gold, but they were a part of the family herd. Was this the ... new family herd? Oh equine gods, no!

Ringo stood up for some reason and wandered over to Gabbie, which even she didn't see coming. She figured he was hungry and that made her frown. "Urgh ..." Do I have time to get him something or am I just going to have to give him the last of my rations for now?

Campfire

"Oh right, this mess. Well what we did learn from Colin was that Sardis wants to have a meeting with Raquel. Since Sardis has her father captive, we don't have much choice but to go. The whole point of our fighting with them is to get Jethro back and hold onto the emblem piece she found. She's not willing to give it to people like them and I can't blame her. Plus, she gets really weak without it and she might even die. That has me worried that Sardis might try to recruit her in exchange for letting her be with her father again. That's like way worse than what happened on the Leverager when she decided to help them do some shady work for the neviskotians even though it wasn't any of our business and some of our people were ursians," Shadrak explained, shaking his head at the Leverager bit, but not going into too much detail. Deep down, Shadrak was also somewhat bitter about that mission because of the rebel retaliation that led to the deaths of John, Sophia and Lia, deaths that likely wouldn't have happened otherwise. "We're going to a fortress where they were keeping Jethro before to have this meeting, so the place is probably crawling with Sardis' men. We'll need to be especially careful here, but hopefully we can reach a peaceful resolution instead of having to kill a bunch of people like usual."

Fortress

"You two just made me think of something terrible," Cecily noted with an embarrassed look on her face. "I just pictured Layla stopping a big hulking brute from cutting us down and then capturing us all in this massive inescapable friendship hug," she explained with a shiver. She said nothing of Layla's loving praise for the sake of her sisters.

-----------

"No need to fear for Cassandra's safety. I'll see to it that we don't lose her should things go poorly," Samael assured Layla on her way out. This got Cassandra's attention to. Was he going to be sticking by her until this meeting was over? She hardly knew him, though she supposed it did make sense. She was one of the reasons neither he nor Layla cared a lick about recruiting Raquel rather than killing her. Losing both of them might actually be an issue, though to what extent, she wasn't sure.

[Mercakete]

"If we're still talking about the mounts idea, I can give some information on Rizen. She already has some armor so I feel okay about riding her into battle and she'll only be safer if she helps out. Actually, back when I was fighting alone, she would help me fight, break through the enemies or just retrieve me if I was overwhelmed. She's pretty protective, too, so I'm glad she seems to be getting used to everyone we've been travelling with recently," Norbert put in nonchalantly. He grinned, though, as he thought about Rizen and continued, "She's still a wild pegasus at heart, so I was worried she'd attack one of you at some point. It hasn't happened, though, so I guess we were fortuitous. That horn of hers can be deadly. Not to mention equines' trampling ability." He frowned as he remembered the light injury he got when he work up. "Kicks, too."

[roymbrog]

Volga took off, and Kat waited till they were airborne to reply to Robin. “Well he said he didn’t know how to hunt too. Or… he maybe implied it. I dunno. But yeah, that was annoying,” she agreed. That was probably the most 'I don't' really like that person' type comment the hunter was going to get from her at the moment. “Ok, we’re going to fly up along that stream over there. Tell me if you see anything?”

---

“I saw what he was doing, and I would consider this more important,” Synthia replied in reference to Shadrak. Rolling her eyes at Grant’s protest, she applied staff to burns anyway. “You’d be dealing with me either way. Besides, this way is free.”

[Ether]

"I suppose it can't hurt to bring it up... Veronika huh? She seems pretty strong." Faatina noted, giving a nod.

"Well, you're the one with textbook knowledge, I just have my own style of flailing around, so I'll take your word for it." She continued, before stepping out of the Dauntless.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Don't say what?" Gar asked. Since she was presuming something here there had to be something big and glaring to use on the Colin-fella. And since Gar had more-or-less only even heard he existed recently he didn't have a clue. Which was funny since this was kinda the exact thing they were just talking about.

[Snowy_One]

Robin squinted her eyes, looking through the forest woods. There wasn't much to see, to be honest, as the trees blocked most of it from sight, and she was sure the wyvern didn't want to dine on turtle soup or some other small animal for breakfast.

"I do not see much. There are some animal trails, but they look small, most likely a fox or something smaller." she said with a disappointed tone. Then, after a few more moments. "Wait! I see something! Back a ways along the route towards the city. Looks like a doe and fawn under tree cover. If you can land on the road, I should be able to peg one of them."

[roymbrog]

“Ooh, perfect!” Kat chirped. If she could convince Volga not to eat the whole thing, they could probably take part of it back too. “Alright, we’re landing… quietly.” Or as quietly as the wyvern could manage, anyway. They were soon down on the road. “We’ll wait here so you can do your thing. Good luck!”

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

"No, if you even suspect you have a better suggestion, bring it up. You never know," Reign countered. "A lot of people I knew with formal training were too stupid to listen to anyone with a lower rank than them, but as far as I can tell there are no ranks here, so if you've got an idea, don't keep it to yourself. It really could make the difference one of these days."

Buffet

"That I have to distract Colin," Raquel clarified, her expression going back to normal somewhat. She took a deep breath and then said, "I'll do it, but ... just once, this is happening on my terms. You should probably let Veronika know what's going on and that Blake's planning things too and I'll deal with Colin while you all get ready. I'm not a good 'bluffer', but I'm sure I can act convincingly enough here," she explained. She felt she was a good liar in some areas, but not others. Hopefully this instance would be the former.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I wasn't gonna say that at all actually," Gar admitted. "I mean, I have no information on this Colin-guy at all, so if you think this is the best way I really can't argue or offer anything to the contrary." Gar said. He could have asked who Blake was, but Gar had a feeling it was sword-guy and if not oh well.

[Snowy_One]

Robin nodded before drawing an arrow and heading off. It took some time, but ten minutes later, Robin was walking back, fawn slung over her shoulders, dead.

"Took some time to get a clear shot and the little <bastard> is HEAVY! I only hoisted him up like this in the hopes it would impress you and it is REALLY hurting my back!" she said before, unceremoniously, dumping the fawn on the ground. "I have not had the time to clean or gut it yet, so it is still fresh if you want him to eat it like that."