Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Snowy_One]

"They already do or else they wouldn't have sent me out into the world to study. Honestly, though, I want to become the ultimate mage. I want to stop and unlock the secrets of the universe! I've already started applying myself to advanced magics most mages don't even bother with, but imagine how much MORE I can do! I've got six years before hitting twenty, and plenty more after that to just explore magic and try to improve the world for everyone. Can you imagine just how much will likely change in our lifetimes alone in terms of technology? Why, fifty years down the road, if I have my way, golems will be capable of handling most manual labor and, with that much free time, imagine how different our world will be!"

---

"I never asked what breed. They all look the same to me. But my dad would know in a heartbeat. General Hawkdancer, on the off-chance you know of him." said Robin with a smile. "And his wyvern mount George. According to dad, he was as smart as any human and far more loyal. So much happened between them and he trusted George with his life so much that, when he died, he became cold and distant. I have trouble imagining my dad warm and happy."

[Click This]

Mao was impressed by Tia's enthusiasm. She did wonder, however, if that would stick as she got older. "If you do have your way, that would be interesting. However, I'm not sure if I'm ready to see golems handling the sails on ships or becoming surgeons. What would be amazing though is to see ships travel beyond the confines of wind propulsion, or pegasi or a mechanical equivalent that can travel faster than the speed of sound. Now, that would revolutionize the world. One can only dream."

[Snike]

And out came Nika's history. Axel could hardly believe that the Neviskotian noblewoman had given up so much information. Maybe she thought that they already knew about it? Regardless, it was a foolish move, especially considering that this was still Ursium. If Colin slipped away, that could be trouble. Perhaps he'd have to intervene, if things got any more specific. But for now, well, all he could do is stand there and listen. Which is what the lancer did.

***

"... I don't think pegasus horns are that sharp, but I digress," Blake said, after Norbert's comments. "Anyways, if one of you two could bring the suggestion up to Valter, I'd really appreciate it. Odds are we're leaving sooner than later, and because I have to deal with a matter before we leave, I might not be able to reach him in time. If you see him mention it, is all I'm asking, I guess. I'll talk to you later," the swordsman finished, as he turned away and began to head to the Dauntless. He'd begin his search there.

***

"... No promises, especially if we get into a fight," Grant said, examining his burnt clothing. Well, the robe was ruined for arena-style performances, but he wasn't in a position to care at the moment. "I mean, someone has to cover you and the others."

[Eail]

Luka

Luka woke up drowzy, it seemed evident that he'd woken up later than everyone else. Standing up and brushing himself off the pinky still wasn't fully awake. Glancing around and really trying to find someone to sit down with, seeing that Synthia was talking with Grant about something. Yawning he walked over to the pair, rubbing his eyes with his sleeve. "Hey... what have *yawn* I missed so far?" Glancing at Grant he asked with a rather deadpan tone "What happened to you?"

Zach

The sage was about to respond to .... whatever Mar was to him but Aneda's comment caught him off guard. That really stung, a noticeable frown appearing.

'That is a good question though, what is Mar to me?'

Edited April 8, 2013 by Eail

[Ether]

And so the search began for Blake... and Faatina admittedly had no idea where to begin. She supposed just trying to spot the blue haired mercenary was her best bet, and luckily enough for the Rexian paladin, she found him, on what looked to be a path to the Dauntless. Good thing she hadn't yet fanned out too far.

"Ah, Blake. I was looking for you."

[Snike]

Unfortunately, The Ursian;s search was on hold, as he was intercepted by Faatina. The paladin appeared to be fine, despite having had her leg broken the previous night.

"So have a few people this morning," Blake said, coming to a stop. "What do you need?"

***

"I played with fire," Grant said, simply enough. He crossed his arms. "So, how was the bout last night? Sorry about not covering you. We sort of got thrown into that mess."

Edited April 8, 2013 by Snike

[Ether]

"Well, a couple of things, actually. First off, Reign wanted to suggest that himself, Veronika and I be placed in a team together... he said something about a combat theory he had that we should work well together." Faatina told the strategist, recalling what she could from Reign's description off the top of her head.

"Aside from that though... it's about last night. I don't want something like that to happen again, where I'm faced with an enemy I can't even scratch... I figured since you're usually the one to manage people you might be able to pair me with a good training partner, maybe get some kind of routine going..." She added.

[ReformBlade]

Aneda did smile, but for the wrong reasons. People here care about me? She's just met me practically... "Important? To who?" she turned her head, still leaning on the egg. "Myself. That's the only person I'm important to here. Sure, I may like you guys, hell I like a lot of people but I ain't gonna delude myself anymore that people are willing to accept me for what I've been lately, which is an incredibly immature child, just another casualty waiting to happen on the battlefield. You know what it is? It's death. Death of Sammy, of John and Sofia, of Lia. I don't know how you people can go along being all hunky dory on the outside, I know you've gotta feel something for those losses, but for me it's fucking sobering and I can't friggin pretend bad shit is just a problem you can sweep under a goddamn rug. Treating life as a joke? I ain't gonna sit around and wait for the punchline on that one." I wanna go home, just go apologize to Mom and Dad, go back to when I didn't know any better than a training exercise... Her mind wandered, but her face and demeanor remained calm throughout her small speech. It felt good to let it out but at the same time she did not want to deal with any backlash from it whatsoever, or anything at the moment now.

Edited April 8, 2013 by ReformBlade

[Phoenix]

Buffet

"Okay thanks. I should probably get started now." Raquel took a deep breath and centered her gaze on Colin as she began to put together a decent distraction in her head. She began to make her way over and lure or drag him away, whichever came first.

Near Dauntless

Colin nodded as Veronika explained, being more attentive than he let on. "Wait what? Oh come on, Nika; you're describing so many men right now," Colin pointed out. "Even me, I kid you not; I'm brave, look where I'm standing right now. I didn't kill anyone when I had the chance and really don't plan to even after this hostage situation is over. And honesty? Uhhh ... yeah, 'lie of omission' my ass. Don't you have anything more unique? More ... special?"

"That has to wait," Raquel cut in as she drew within range. "Colin, I need some answers, now. Also, Veronika, Axel, Blake needs you," she said, pointing her finger back toward the Dauntless. She nudged her head sharply the instant Colin looked back at Veronika so she wouldn't be caught hinting, because part of her knew Veronika would want to stay to hear the information too.

"You don't seem like you're in a better mood though. I doubt we're going to get anywhere with this," Colin explained with a frown.

"You'll be 'comfortable' and if you're not, it's your own fault, not mine, but I don't want to go in there blind and we'll be leaving in a little while so it's now or never," she shot back.

"Hmm, I wonder what we're doing."

Campfire

"To be perfectly honest, I think my idea of fun is just different from most people's. I didn't exactly have a normal childhood, and I got bullied from time to time. I'm not sure which was worse, dealing with other people or training with my teacher. But uh ... I guess when you think about it, this is my kind of 'fun' right here. You know, just talking? The talking isn't about magical theories, emblem theories or the like, and I'm not getting picked on. That's probably not what you meant, but it works for me," Shadrak explained to Mushirah.

Fortress

"Sure and definitely," Silvia replied to Clara. "You three be careful too, and I hope wherever you're going turns out to be comfortable."

"Yeah thanks for nothing." Cecily looked at the map Layla had given her with an intense scowl. They weren't going back to the manse which meant their chances of ending up someplace comfortable had gone from decent to about fifty-fifty. She was not trusting their fate to odds akin to a coin toss and examined the map closely to try and see if she knew the area marked on it. Then she recalled that Layla said the word 'establishing' and realized that they probably were going to some run down old hut, though she hoped against hope that they had simply secured another private property.

[roymbrog]

Synthia frowned, slightly frustrated. “That’s not what I meant. In a fight it can’t be helped, but there’s no reason to get hurt fighting vindictive idiots,” she clarified.

And then Luka walked over looking like he’d just woken up. He probably had, judging by that yawn. “Grant got burned,” she answered after the aforementioned magician.

----

“I’m sorry to say I haven’t heard of him,” Kat replied apologetically. “It sounds like he had a really special bond with his wyvern, though. My dad’s friend has a wyvern like that and I think it'd kill him if anything happened to her. Volga’s not that smart, but I love her just as much.”

Speaking of which, the wyvern was about half done with the deer carcass. It was quite the mess.

[Eail]

Luka

"Fire is pretty dangerous you know. Playing around with it isn't smart even if you control ice. But I suppose that only helps with the burns doesn't~" A small snrk at his own comment before asking "So who did you fight, Reign? I don't think we have anyone else that uses fire magic, not enough to do that amount of damage."

Zach

When the pegasus rider mentioned Lia's death Zach cringed, visibly saddened by the comment. The added part about John didn't help either. "John was my friend... Lia was... at least you have a family to go back to. I don't have anyone..." The sage softly said, hugging his knees.

[Snike]

Aand the show was over, as Raquel stepped in to 'interrogate' the prisoner. Oh, and so close, too.

"Aww, and it was just getting interesting, too," Axel said, sounding disappointed. "Oh well."

The lancer began to make his way over to the Dauntless, where 'Blake'- the blue-haired swordsman, if he remembered the record correctly- apparently needed them. They were obviously planning something, given that he never had contact with the younger man. Time to see what it was.

***

"You, Reign, and Veronika, huh...," Blake said, thoughtfully. He dug out his notes and reservoir pen once again and examined them for a few minutes, before making an adjustment. "That could work, what with giving Reign some extra mobility. As for training, well, didn't you break your leg last night? I don't think you should be training for a bit, though, in maybe a week or two, you could go spar against someone like..." The man shuffled his notes a bit. "John's friend? The female wyvern rider, I mean. I know she's fairly tough, so that could help you gain some strength, I suppose."

***

"... You haven't been in an arena, have you?" Grant asked Synthia, before returning to Luka. "She's exaggerating. I got singed. And it was Zachary, incidentally enough. Besides, I'm not inclined to try and duel the man who roped me into this group."

[Mercakete]

Blake's comment about pegasi horns warranted a reply, but he soon left the area, passing on the job of talking to Valter to him and the wyvern girl. Norbert's face shifted to an annoyed scowl. Ignorant coward. In the back of his head, he knew Blake was probably just busy, but his irritation ruled his thoughts' reaction. Not only at Blake's retreat from the question of how potent a pegasus could be -- which he could easily prove once and for all via demonstration -- but by the fact that he'd been handed a task to do by someone he refused to call "leader." Blake hadn't earned his respect in that regard yet. Even so, he was planning on talking to Valter about it anyway -- he'd rather it come from himself than someone with imagined authority like Blake -- and that in and of its self caused an infuriating dilemma.

He's asking me to do something I want to do, but the very fact that he's asking me to do it makes me not want to! Grr... There's no winning. Again! Why does this keep happening? I don't want to give anyone my cooperation who hasn't earned it one way or the other, but then it lines up with what I'd do anyway! Hmph... Well, once we start disagreeing, they'll find out loud and clear that I'm not going to submit that easily. "I'll talk to Valter. You can come if you want to," he irritably informed Gabbie before making his way back to camp, clearly not in the best of moods.

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

What was that about? Sandrock and Riley's rider who didn't ride them left without them. Maybe she was just checking on them. Rizen commented that that was a nice thing for her to do before going back to her breakfast. She was about done, but could stand a bit more. This grass was tasty.

[Eail]

Giving the ice user a look over Luka commented "Wow, him huh? I didn't even know the guy could use fire, doesn't seem to much worse with it than his lightning either. Learn something new everyday I suppose." The pinky said with a shrug. "You two don't like Zachary very much do you?"

[Ether]

"I've been trying to keep off my leg since the first time, and all it's done is put me further and further in the hole... I can spar from horseback if need be, or we can further reinforce my armour, but if I keep taking extended lapses in training because of this, I'm just gonna keep falling behind." Faatina replied, her resolve peaking, there was no way she was going to let herself be waved off over this.

"Do you know where she is?"

[Snike]

"I see... I haven't seen her around personally, but you could check by the campfire, I guess," Blake said, as he put his notes away. "Try to take care of yourself, though. An injury like that definitely isn't going to help your fighting prowess, and I really don't want to see another ally fall."

***

Grant shrugged.

"His lightning's certainly strong, but strength isn't everything. As for Fairweather himself, well..." The duelist paused, for a moment. "He's certainly a bit immature. Can't say that I dislike him, but I just avoid him because we got off on the wrong foot."

[Ether]

"There's not much more I can do than get it healed... even if it wasn't effecting my skill I still couldn't justify going weeks without participating in all these fights we get ourselves into." Faatina replied, shaking her head.

"Besides... the circumstances have been... outlandish to say the least. Hopefully my legs aren't the first place people think to potshot while I'm on horseback."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Veronika sighed. Well that disclosure of information was apparently for nothing, although he seemed unsatisfied anyway. "Fine, I'll go then," she said, curious as to why this meeting with Blake was so urgent, but figuring any important information Colin had would be relayed to her later. She made her way towards the Dauntless.

[Snike]

"Sure you can," Blake said, frowning. "I'm not about to tell someone who's injured to fight. It isn't your duty, even as a mercenary. But I guess, considering how well my attempts to keep Raquel from fighting went, I can't stop you... Anyways, let's just hope that aiming for the legs isn't the new and improved method to fight cavalry, then."

Edited April 8, 2013 by Snike

[Ether]

"Raquel... she has enough on her plate already, I'm not going to pile more on by freeloading and giving everyone someone else to protect... we should be fighting so that she doesn't have to... I don't think she has it in her to really hurt someone, and that isn't something we should be trying to take away from her." Faatina noted, mourning the circumstances, not that it would change much of anything.

"I've survived far worse than a broken leg... hell if you want to get technical I've already died once since I joined up with you guys... if that didn't keep me off the field, this won't."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar pondered for a bit if out much investment he should keep on watching. The silly little pros and cons of each floated by in his head before he slid halfway around the wagon's corner to keep an eye on everything. Not just Raquel, he wanted to see where everyone was since he was gonna be messenger. First up would be Veronika and some guy in red armor. This was sure to be a cheery conversation. And a cherry one possibly.

[Snike]

"It isn't freeloading if it means you walk away at the end of the day," Blake said, seriously. "We can afford a little slack for injuries, seriously. And I agree with you that Raquel doesn't need to be or deserve to be subjected to the fighting. Try telling her that, though." He was still frowning at Faatina's persistence, but when he heard that she had 'died' already, the frown deepened. "If you've already 'died' once there's no need to take your chances again. As far as I know, Raquel isn't asking for anyone to die for her. You've done more than your fair share."

[Ether]

"It's no big deal, really... when we were still with Bogdan, capturing the Ukta... I went to take out one of the squad leaders, tried to get fancy... I shoved my lance right through the mage next to him and tried to tag him too... I hurt him pretty bad but my mark was off and I missed his spine. That was all he needed to get off that thunder spell, next I remember after that I woke up on the Leverager burned head to toe, medic told me that my heart had stopped." Faatina replied with a sigh, shaking her head at the recollection.

"I did something dumb and I paid for it with my life... I guess not a whole lot of people can say that, huh? A lot changed that day, now that I think about it... I had to go back for my lance, it was still jammed in his gut from when I got blasted... still, there was only one other wound on the guy. I don't know who took him out but atleast he must have went down soon after I got hit. I actually tripped on this shield on my way back... I'd like to think it was a pretty good pick up, considering how quickly some of us tend to loot corpses clean." Faatina added, chuckling slightly at the end.

"I've made it through all that, and I'm still fighting. I let myself get discouraged yesterday, but I want to make sure it doesn't happen again... I'll fight so that hopefully, she doesn't have to. I'm a lot sturdier than I look, I'll have you know... that is... on the days when Wrath doesn't have it out for my leg..." Faatina concluded, a sheepish grin upon her face.

[roymbrog]

“Except that ice is actually bad for burns,” Synthia muttered. Maybe she should test Luka’s medical knowledge later. Sometimes healers were taught to over rely on staves and that didn’t exactly sit well with her. Yeah, best to check. Grant asked if she’d ever been in an arena, and she thought it was rather obvious that she hadn’t so didn’t bother answering. Seemed like a rhetorical question anyway.

Luka’s question however was definitely not rhetorical and was one Synthia was very much inclined to answer. “No, I don’t. He’s immature, arrogant, and now I can add spiteful to that list. I swear, if that guy tries to pick a fight with me next I’m going to take it up with Raquel. Shadrak’s a dick but at least he hasn’t purposefully injured anyone yet.” Yes, it was a rant. Yes, she was probably exaggerating. Already being upset didn’t do much for being reasonable. Grant, after all, had agreed to the duel (though she wasn't happy about that either).

[Snowy_One]

"But dreams can become reality. I mean, this training we had just now, it wouldn't mean much if it was JUST a dream. So, who knows, supersonic pegasi may be reality! All it needs is the time and research. Like, say, how could a pegasus get up to that speed without it's bones being shattered? How could it reach such a speed in the first place? Things like that. If you can solve them, then you can do amazing things! The boats sure sound easier though. Hmmmm... Maybe a water mage could channel the water around the boat to allow it to sail faster and better? Would be tiring and there simply aren't enough mages, but such a concept would be a good place to start. Maybe something mechanical could solve the problem, but I'm simply not sure... Hmmmm... Give me some time and I'll have something thought up! Maybe flippers like a whale..."

---

"That is good to hear. I know many riders treat their mounts like mere contraptions to be replaced on a whim. I think that is a horrible thing to do as wyverns, and other mounts, are living beings. Pegasi have it the best, but Urswine riders are far from the best. Only a select few truly grasp flight and the three-dimensional battlefield and do not fight like they are on a field, from what I have heard at least."