Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Balcerzak]

Looking back up from his work for a minute, "Heh, wouldn't mind having another nice spell of conversation with you too at some point, and if I do stick around, or we meet up elsewhere, I'm gonna have to set up some hay targets or something and see ya shoot." The cowboy gave what was perhaps a final reply, as he had kind of got the impression her words had been meant as a sort of farewell, though the mariner had stuck around for awhile longer regardless. The subject of his quarry was avoided this time, was that on purpose perhaps?

[ReformBlade]

"I didn't exactly mean anything by it, I was just curious is all. Talking is fun, like this anyway." I'm sure dad would disapprove of this but eh, I'm an adult. Yes, her dad was protective back in the day, get over it. "When I was at home and I wasn't actively studying or whatever, I'd just kinda draw things. People and places mostly, but i'm wondering where'd I'd get if I were just an artist, maybe taking requests... hehee, it might be kinda fun somewhere down the line~."

[Click This]

Eh? Training? Dream training? Did that mean...

"Are you saying that bizarre dream that I had last night where I was killed by a falling oak table was supposed to be training? That's a bloody waste." It probably was the root of her headache too, in some way or another. "As for supersonic flight, it was only a far-fetched dream; I'll bet you the solution to a supersonic boom would be rainbows. But if you find a solution to quicken sea travel, many people would be indebted to you, including me."

[Snike]

"Oh, Mercy, that attack stopped your heart?" Blake said, remembering that battle. "We should've brought you to a medic sooner. My apologies. Anyways, like I said, there's no need for you to risk your life again since we can pick up the slack and keep Raquel out of combat, but, well, I guess I can't stop you. Just be careful, alright? Sturdiness is no excuse for not exercising caution."

***

"... Someone's sore," Grant noted, after Synthia's outburst. "And somehow I doubt he'll be dueling you, anyways. I don't believe he has a grudge against you, like he did against me."

[Ether]

"Alright, I'll do what I can to be careful, thanks Blake." Faatina replied, with a smirk, before recalling another rather important detail.

"So do you know when we're heading out?"

[Eail]

"Ice might not be the best thing for burns. But I'm sure it feels better than letting the burn just sit there with nothing on it, besides, salves, vulneraries, healing staves. Many ways to fix such a simple thing after all.~" Rocking back and forth on his heels, if Synthia wanted to play the medical game he was all for it.

"I can understand why you guys might feel that way. Can't say I do though, you can really learn a lot about someone by listening in to a conversation you weren't supposed to hear." Referencing when Zach and Marella had their little heartfelt discussion on the ship a while ago. Learning things was fun, learning things about other people was even more fun, especially juicy things like that. "I'm kinda surprised he hasn't killed himself yet, or that he's even able to smile."

'I should try to introduce him to Lady Mercy. She could help couldn't she? Silly question, Lady Mercy can make anyone feel better!'

[Snike]

"I think we're leaving shortly, though, a few matters have to be settled beforehand," Blake said, returning to his train of thought before Faatina had shown up. "Speaking of which, have you seen Synthia around? The black-haired wind mage, for reference. I need to speak to her."

[Ether]

"Synthia? No, I don't recall seeing her." Faatina replied, thinking back on it.

"I suppose I'll go find Katrina and see what she thinks, and if I see Synthia, I'll let her know you were looking for her."

[roymbrog]

“That’s a horrible thing to do to any creature,” Katrina agreed. “I’ve… never really seen any Ursian pegasus riders though, aside from the ones in our group. Are they really like that? I mean, not that all wyvern riders know how to use their mounts effectively, but as far as I know anyone in the military gets that drilled into their head fairly quickly. I guess I’m a bit surprised the Ursians are so lax.”

There was really nothing left of the deer by this point but a few scattered bones. Kat looked over at her wyvern, who was licking the remnants from the sides of her jaw. “You done, girl? It’s probably about time we head back, then,” she said, and made to hop back on Volga’s back. “Come on, Robin. I’ll help you with the meat when we get back.”

-----

Synthia look away uneasily after Grant’s comment. “Well I already know he hates me, it doesn’t take much for him to act on that from what I’ve seen,” she said.

And then Luka had piped up replying to her comment about ice. The cleric had good hearing. That probably helped him with the next thing he brought up. “Mmm. You do know eavesdropping is frowned upon, right?” the mage gently chided. She was calming down a bit more now, but still recrossed her arms. “I don’t see how someone being depressed excuses their actions though. I mean, I don’t see people running around making excuses for me. That doesn’t change my opinion of him,” she said, scowl briefly returning.

[Snike]

"Alright, thanks," Blake said, before heading towards the Dauntless. Time to check to see if Synthia was around there, or if he'd actually have to search.

Luckily, it was the former, as the swordsman soon spotted the staff-wielding wind mage, who was in the middle of a discussion with Grant Brayden and Luka, the pink-haired healer. The topic was someone's personal issues, which, to be frank, he didn't care about for the time being.

"Sorry to interrupt," Blake said, as he closed in on the gathering. "But I need to talk to Synthia about a few important matters. Could you spare a few minutes?" he asked, turned directly towards the woman.

***

"Sounds like he has some personal issues," Grant said in response to Luka, but as he went to respond to Synthia, Blueberry popped up out of nowheres and asked to borrow the healer for a few minutes. The duelist shrugged. "I suppose this discussion can wait. Does it bother either of you?"

[roymbrog]

Oh, well this was new. “Yes?” Synthia responded to Blake's interruption a bit uncertainly. Important matters? What was this about? Wait, she should be asking that. “I don’t mind, but what's this about?”

The subject they were on wasn’t particularly her favorite, so she had no problem rescheduling. “Doesn’t bother me,” she answered Grant.

[Snike]

"Let's just say it involves certain wage concerns that were brought up recently," Blake said, evasively. "I'll explain more in private."

"Alright, that's two unopposed to it, one undecided. Does it bother you?" Grant said, turning towards the pink-haired boy.

[Eail]

Luka gave a shrug. "I'm fine with it. There really wasn't anywhere else this could go, besides. I think Zachary is his friend anyways."

[roymbrog]

“Wha- Seriously? Haven’t even got my system running yet and there are already complaints… Alright, just… tell me what it is. Or we could go talk about it somewhere else if you were planning to, whichever,” the mage replied resignedly. Synthia had taken out her tome and was in the process of finding the pages she had written wage information on.

[Snike]

"Well, I'd rather talk about it inside the Dauntless proper, so, if you will?," Blake said, gesturing into the wagon. The pink-haired fellow brought up Zach for some reason, but as to why, the swordsman didn't know. Perhaps he'd better ask later, once this was all set up.

[roymbrog]

Ah, there was the page. “Alright, after you, then…?” Synthia said.

[Ether]

Well, finding Katrina was a dud. Wherever she was hiding, she appeared to be damn good at it, which was odd considering she seemed to rarely be far from her wyvern. Faatina was starting to get depressed at the revelation, they likely didn't have a whole lot of time before they had to move out... that was until she spotted Gabbie. The two had fought together in the past, and she was strong... this could work, right?

"Heya Wolfy. What's up?"

***

Making her way over to the campfire... well the mood certainly seemed depressed to say the least.

"Aye, what's gotcha all glum?" The woman asked the general vicinity of the campfire.

[Snowy_One]

"Thank you." said Robin, picking up the leg and hopping on up. "And I do not know. Ursium training techniques are not my specialty, but it is what my father has said. That pegasi riders are usually clumsy olfs who do not know flight, only horse combat in the clouds."

---

"Now, now. Let's not dash to any conclusions here. Making sea travel faster wouldn't be easy, and even if I found a way that didn't require mages, it wouldn't replace it overnight. But I'll certainly try! Hmmm... Maybe a side-to-side motion like a fish? That would certainly improve turning, but the stress on the metal would be far too much in the long run unless done right."

[Snike]

"No, you first," Blake said, keeping his gesture in place. "It's only polite."

***

Well, this was getting boring fast. Blueberry and Synthia were now discussion who was to enter the wagon first, out of politeness. It was time to chill, Grant supposed. So he made his way over to the Dauntless, climbed up to the roof, and began to freeze the bodies. Hopefully they wouldn't be traveling for much longer, as this routine was getting to be a bit tedious.

[Phoenix]

Near the Dauntless

They were ... mostly alone for the time being and Raquel began walking back toward the horses while Colin followed. "So, are you feeling any better? Can we have a normal conversation or does this 'working for Sardis' thing make that impossible?"

"Not a normal conversation, no," Raquel admitted, but she clearly had more to say. "You're working for a monster, the very thought of whom makes me want to punch a wall as hard as I can, but I can at least distract myself if we're doing something completely unrelated to any of this."

"Like what exactly?" Colin asked, grinning mischievously.

"Take off your boots," Raquel ordered as she came up to Riley.

What? "What?"

Campfire

"What do you think of this?" Shadrak began to open up his notebook, ready to show Mushirah a drawing of his own. He reached the page he was looking for and held the notebook so she could view the doodle like a portrait on a wall. "This was back when I was a bit younger and had first gotten this. It's a sketch of me engulfed in a powerful barrier and casting two singularities, one from each hand. Look a bit closer, I'm laughing in the drawing too. I know it's not very good but I'm not much of an artist," he said, describing his poor drawing of himself as an unstoppable magical savant. "I guess I'd call this fun too but I stopped doing that. This is the only real sketch I ever did in my notebook. From here on out it's serious business and theorem."

Fight Club

Blake left, standing around was boring, and so Gabbie decided to head on back, thinking of attack scenarios on the way. Ringo was a much more vicious wyvern in her head and while it was a risk, she liked the idea of seeing him tear someone apart ... again. Well that was a horribly sadistic thought, she realized. She shrugged it off and kept going while the wyvern in question followed close behind. That was when Faatina found her and greeted her. "Hey," Gabbie greeted back. "Just trying to decoide whether to give Ringo the rest of my rations in the hopes the enemy will feed me later or have him go without for now ... in the hopes the enemy feeds him later." Clarifying, she said, "We're heading to their base, and unless this is an ambush, I doubt they're going to tell us to shove off if we try to eat something."

[roymbrog]

“Hmm, well… Maybe I’ll get to test that one day~” Katrina replied. Some Wrathite guys were after them or something right? Perfect opportunity~ Then up, up, and awaaaaay as Volga took off and started heading back towards the campsite. If anyone were looking up, they would be in view shortly.

-----

…Were they seriously discussing who should enter the wagon first? They were. No, really, Synthia couldn’t believe it either. She couldn’t believe it so much that she closed her book on the now doggied relevant section and climbed into the Dauntless. Ha, that’d show him.

(Disclaimer: All comments in this section are the opinion of the author and not necessarily those involved. Also, puppies are adorable.)

[Click This]

Now, now? Eh, that sounded a bit pretentious to Mao. "Even it would work with metal fatigue, nobody would adapt such a radical design. There would also be no way to test seaworthiness in a gale without risking lives," she pointed out. "It's generally established that paddling the water like galleys is the means for this, but there's nothing to power that save for hard labor."Mao shrugged. "The topic's a thinker. I'm a bit hungry right now, so I'm going to a grab a bite before we set out."

[Ether]

"I guess a wyvern probably does eat a lot, don't they?" Faatina noted, not having really given the matter much thought before now. It must cost quite a bit more to take care of a wyvern in situations where hunting wasn't an option.

"I guess if you're already using your time though, you probably wouldn't be up to sparring huh... I guess I'll have to find someone else." Faatina added, somewhat disheartened. At this rate she wouldn't get a chance to even start before they left.

[Mercakete]

"Heharr, I'd best stock up on extra rounds, then. Been a while since I've practiced me shootin' instead o' shootin' fer more immediate purposes. It'll be fun! Well, goodbye," Gytha finished off before walking away from the Kigenese horseman.

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

It didn't take much searching to find Valter. He was more or less in the middle of the camp site, somewhere between the campfire and the Dauntless. "Hey, Vlater." It was less of a greeting and more of an attempt at an attention-grab, as was obviated by Norbert's less than pleased tone and the words that followed. "I need to know your opinion on something."

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

Well, the alpha female of the humans had returned, this time bringing someone along that Rizen hadn't seen around much until recently. Well, this herd seemed to take up new members rather consistently so she didn't question it. Perhaps Sandrock and Riley would have to leave now. Well, that would leave her alone... If they were leaving, though, she'd just have to find someone else to be around. Maybe that one mare... The timid one whose rider seemed to get along well with her own. Yes, if they were going to be around each other because of their riders, it made a lot of sense -- you could even say "horse sense" -- to get to know her a bit better. So, Rizen decided to do that, but not until the others left. She wanted to see them off.

[Snike]

Blake waited until Synthia had entered the Dauntless, then followed suit, closing that sides' door. He crossed over to the other side, and closed it as well.

"Right, well, sorry about lying to you, but wages aren't really why I brought you in here," Blake said, turning back towards the wind mage. "See, since we're going into the fortress, we need to prepare. And since Colin's out there, if we just go ahead and prepare, he'll just tell his boss what we're doing. Same goes if a few of our louder allies are told what's being planned and they spill it in public. But if we prepare some of the more discreet mercenaries in secret, by pulling them out under the pretense of wage issues and roping them in from there, he's not likely to suspect anything. That's part of the reason I need you in here for a bit, as you're wagemaster. The other reason is, well, I need to make a few purchases with regards to getting everyone ready, and it's better if Raquel doesn't have to handle them."