Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Mercakete]

"I'm with you on that," Norbert agreed as he began riding towards the Leverager along with Valter, "I have to pick up some more gold anyway if I want to pay for lunch."

Valter had said something that piqued his curiosity, though, so he inquired about it. "Though, what do you mean, 'habit'? Do you nap often around this time of day or something?"

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

Haruo nodded confidently. <"Yeah, it's this way,"> he replied before turning into the foliage that shrouded the road they had been walking on. He knew the forested area near the Kazemi household very well, so he sped along without hesitation.

[roymbrog]

“Gave your gold to that vagrant, did you?” Valter asked, chuckling. He hadn’t been completely out of it, apparently. It would take a few minutes to get back to the boat from here, so he didn’t mind giving a bit of explanation to Bert’s question. “I picked it up as a kid. I used to nap through boring lectures and sermons and… I’m not entirely sure how I finished my schooling. I usually don’t get enough sleep while traveling, so I’ll take naps. I wasn’t sleep deprived though, just bored, I suppose.”

And that was all the horseman had to say on the subject, unless Bert had more questions. He did have one of his own, however. “Hey, have you played chess?”

[Mercakete]

Well, he knew about the gold-giving, then. There wasn't the time nor reason to answer properly as Valter clearly already knew it and went on with the answer to Norbert's question. It was an interesting skill and it seemed like he could still pick up the gist of what was happening, even though he was napping. The pegasus rider certainly hadn't heard of anyone else being able to do that before. Then, the horseman asked a curious question.

"Chess?" he echoed before shaking off the light, initial surprise and answering, "No, I haven't. Have you?" His guess was that Valter had, in fact, played chess before. He probably enjoyed it, too, since he'd chosen to ask about it.

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Well I've never been to this branch before, thought I might have a look around. Didn't really have any plans in particular," Connor admitted.

Nadya

"Yeah I thought the plan was to keep the cultists distracted with small talk or somethin', not start a fight. Ah well, plans never seem to go as you expect most of the time," she interjected into Blake and Gar's conversation.

Veronika

Veronika carefully began to lower the powder keg, eventually setting her half on the floor. "Need anything else? I don't have much to do until Raquel's done finding us another ship anyway," she said to Lance.

Clara

"It would seem that way- I don't think Sardis and Layla get along very much. I don't know if that's very good for the Organization..." she said hesitantly.

[roymbrog]

“Well, yes,” Valter answered Bert. It occurred to him that it might have been an odd question to ask. Ships were kind of boring, though. “It’s the only board game I have with me, unfortunately. I was meaning to find someone to play a few games with while sailing.” Someone besides Synthia, anyway. The only reason she ever agreed to was because she was bored herself.

[Mercakete]

"Well, if you could teach me, I could learn," Norbert replied with a nonchalant shrug, "Never played it before. It could be fun."

[ReformBlade]

"Why would the Empire be breathing down your necks? Do they not want mister Fyodor doing anything at all or do they want him or... something?" Confusion struck her. "Sorry, I'm not quite understanding. If it's none of my business I'll shut up and set it aside but when you say it like that... I can't help but be interested. I'm nosy, it's what I do~.:

[roymbrog]

Oh, that was a good idea. “Yeah, sure,” the horseman replied, smiling. He didn’t know how much Bert would enjoy that sort of game, but it wouldn’t hurt to teach him. If not, well, he could probably pick something up that more people than just himself enjoyed.

By now they were nearing the docks and the masts of ships could be seen over buildings. It would be a few minutes at most before they reached the Leverager.

[Rothene]

"So, Zach, where exactly are we fainding this sage you seek to discuss magical theory with?" Mireille asked, having not paid enough attention to what Zach had been saying all along, hence the term dragon did not register to her.

[Phoenix]

Office

"Well alright then. I'm going to make preparations for the meeting. I'm probably going to use the meeting room at the end of the hall down there," Anna pointed to the edge of the hallway, the very first door on the right. "If you need anything, you can find me in there. If you're going back outside, or to the stables, make sure someone knows."

Intersection

Raquel weighed her options. Gytha had one shot if things went south. She had the little black marble thing Lilith had given her but this seemed like the wrong situation to use it in. They were more resourceful than that, right? What could she do? She then remembered that they were originally on their way to the Leverager to tell Veronika about the meeting, and the whole group was to meet back there! "G-Gabbie ..." Raquel turned and quietly spoke up. Sure the fox woman could easily hear her, but there was no avoiding that, especially not with those big ears. "Go back ahead of us." Raquel left it at that hoping Gabbie would figure out the rest, herself.

Gabbie shrugged. "Foine by me~ Have fun with the furry thing." She then fell back to Ringo and hopped onto the wyvern and took off, heading back to the Leverager.

Leverager

"Well, there's plenty more to be brought aboard if you want some exercise," Lance offered and shrugged.

Meanwhile, outside the ship, Shadrak looked up and saw Gabbie flying down toward the main deck. "Isn't she usually with Connor? What happened to him?"

As she landed on the main deck, Reign found himself close to cut off from the loading ramp along with a few bringing supplies back onboard. "Hey, have any of you guys seen Veronika around here?"

"Below decks." Reign and a sailor answered in unison before looking at each other.

"Thank you. Also, Reign, Raquel's about a block away from here gettin' accosted by some furry thing. Over there." she pointed so he at least had a general direction. "You and the others should totally help out with that." And with that, Gabbie ran down into the lower decks to find Veronika.

"Furry thing?" Reign echoed. The first thing that came to his mind was a large male promoter in a bear costume. If that turned out to be a real kigenese fetish, he had every intention of picking on Nadine about it one day. Nothing left to do but gather the others and hope he wasn't just going off to beat up some strange kigenese mascot. Ringo stepped away from the loading ramp and that let Reign through and others pass as well.

Once he was at the bottom of the loading ramp, he approached, the others down there. "Gabbie recommended we head into town to help Raquel with something. I've got no idea what, but despite my original thoughts, it's ... probably serious." Even Raquel can handle annoying promoters. This has to be something bigger, it just has to be.

Other Street

"Yeah, I figured ..." Ryou conceded with a sad smile.

"Well, Tracea has colonies from Kigen, Ursium, and Neviskotia. It's always been like this, but the need for Traceans to cooperate with each other in order to coexist has forced us to make compromises ... overall good. These compromises have actually improved our lives, however. Though you'll still find plenty of unsavory types in the Kigenese colonies, women do have rights here, and those rights are respected, or otherwise tolerated. The Ursian colonists have given up slaying dragons as a whole. It's easier for them knowing that Tracea is not truly a part of Ursium. In fact it belonged to the dragons themselves at one point and that would be a serious fallacy. The Neviskotians didn't have to give up very much ... they seem to be liberal about most things to begin with and definitely benefit the most from Tracean policies. It's also why some within the Neviskotian government support what we're doing here."

"If they can't control us, they might as well be our friend. I can live with that." Ryou commented.

"Ryou-san. Anyway, the policies adopted by Traceans are not popular with the empire. They don't want us to secede and become our own country. The empire is striking back by making the process a living hell."

"Increasing tariffs, attacking our weapon shipments, letting the pirates hit our merchants otherwise, and that's just at sea. Here in the port, they're doing every damn thing they can to hurt us. When we started using promoters to try and convince people to move to Tracea, free of the social biases and stupidity of the older countries, they started inserting their own promoters to make us look bad and send the wrong message. They harass and hound our guards constantly, and even the noblemen don't get any kind of respect from the imperials now." Ryou explained.

"Well no one said gaining independence would be easy. It's worth every bit of hardship, though. We'll get it done, and then we'll have a land where people are truly able to embrace their heritage and their dreams, and not be held back by ancient customs and social norms that have only served to hold us all back." Yori concluded.

Tavern

"Sooner or later something's got to give." Cecily chimed in. Or maybe whoever is running this organization will bop their heads together, I don't know. "Do ... do any of you know who's in charge? I mean of the whole organization, not just the operations going on." Cecily asked, suddenly feeling too curious not to just come out and ask.

"Silvia met him," Colin noted. Unfortunately, Silvia wasn't there to elaborate. "Never talks about it, though.

Woods

Katsu nodded. All there was to do for now was follow, and hope that if they found anything, it was clues to Kikuko's whereabouts.

[-Cynthia-]

Leverager

"All right, I'm gonna have to bring the horses along though," Nadya said to Reign in a rather nonchalant manner. It doesn't sound too urgent...or maybe Reign's just not the kinda guy to get all panicky.

"Might as well," Veronika said to Lance before heading back up to the main deck. On the way she encountered Gabbie. "I thought you were with Raquel- is there some reason you're back?" she asked her.

Tavern

"You also have to wonder what the purpose of this organization is really- not really our business exactly, but it would be nice to know. The bosses seem to have different opinions on what it actually is I think..." Clara said hesitantly.

[roymbrog]

The situation sounded horrible, but Katrina really admired what they were trying to do here. She kind of wished there was some way she could help. Why was the empire so against Tracean independence anyway? “If they dislike the policies here so much, wouldn’t it just be easier to let it loose?” Katrina asked. Maybe they were just a bunch of control freaks. That got her thinking about another bunch of control freaks. “Is Ursium interfering as well?”

-----

“I get the feeling they don’t really know either,” Cloe said to Clara. That would certainly cause some conflict between subordinates. “I don’t really care what it is as long as they keep paying us, but… It would be nice to know what exactly they're working towards. I doubt anyone would bother to tell us, though.”

[Snike]

The discussion of the manse quickly turned into another reassurance session, as apparently there was a mess in the manse before they arrived. That still wasn't an excuse, in Blake's eyes, but before he had to respond, Reign came back from helping with the ship with news that... Raquel needed help with something. Oh dear, this sounded like there was another mess.

"Where?" Blake immediately asked. He was ready to bolt as soon as he received the general direction.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Jeez, calm down guy." Gar advised. Sword-guy looked about ready to spring off before he even had a direction. He hadn't, but that was really what he looked like. Which didn't make much sense really. So Gar would just settle on him being too antsy for whatever was going on. "If it was as big as you're assuming sword-guy, then Reign here would already be off running towards her, wouldn't you?" Gar asked a question he already knew the answer too.

[Eail]

"I think he should be just up here Miri." Zach said, using his new nickname for the knight. "I sensed him when we were pretty far out, so he's gotta be powerful!"

Sure enough the duo had made their way up to the location of Fyodor, only to see that there were armed men about. Not exactly seeing a way around the guards he simply called out to the scaly guy. "Excuse me, Sir? Would you mind if my friend and I talked to you for a bit? I'm a mage and I was really hoping that I could learn something from you if it was okay!" Getting a bit excited as he talked.

[Phoenix]

Leverager

"I'd give you the long version but ... eh. Raquel needs you to meet with the five captains Anna's setting up a meeting with while she gets some new supploies. She'd have told you herself but she's held up at the moment ... with a furry thing. Should probably do somethin' about that, but I'm in no rush, personally. Okay then. Message delivered, I'm going to go grab an apple from the galley and then head back."

Docks

Reign pointed his finger eastward, away from the docks while he explained "I don't know just how serious it is; Gabbie wasn't specific. Raquel's being 'accosted by a furry thing'. She came back for Veronika so I'm not sure what's going on. Just playing my part until further notice. If Gabbie can't handle the 'furry thing', I doubt I can. My tome's spent."

Other Street

"It's better for them to keep the colonies bound to them. Under imperial rule, all of the western coast is an extension of the empire." Ryou explained. "if Tracea gains independence, then the empire won't have any say in what we do. They lose control of the west coast, and their navy weakens considerably. They also lose control of the trade routes running through the region. No more tariffs ... at least none being paid to them." he added, highlighting some more specific inconveniences.

"Ursium has even more to lose as an independent Tracea will be far more accepting to dragons than even the current incarnation is." Yori answered.

"That makes the Neviskotian empire all but an ally to us; everyone knows this." Ryou elaborated. "The Ursians are interfering the most our of everyone, but only in the north, in their own territory. They can't bother us down here; this land still belongs to the kigenese empire. Unfortunately that's who we have to deal with ... heh."

Outskirts

"What do you want to know?" Keichi, one of the three guards spoke up, stepping out in front to make sure Zachary and Mireille didn't come any closer.

Tavern

"Ignorance is bliss, right?" Colin said half seriously in response to Clara and Cloe.

"... not if it gets us killed. Barring that ... maybe." Cecily answered.

Colin just nodded somewhat in agreement.

[Ether]

"I see no reason to take lessons on morality from some backwater pirate~ Those who strive to learn tend to do so without regard to the costs others pay... I'd say I'm being pretty considerate about the whole thing when you think about it~" Kit responded to Gytha, as her advance steadily continued. Tensions were mounting heavily it would seem, so Kit remained ready to jump at a moment's notice in the case of an assault.

"Come now, you should know how much of a difference there is between knowing something is there, and witnessing it with your own eyes... it's such a basic thing~ I could stare at a tome from across the room and know I could cast it's magic, but nothing would come from it unless I were to pick up said tome and read it..." Kit continued, flickering her tails about with no apparent purpose to them.

"Oh~ Calling for backup already? Versus a lone girl who hasn't even uttered a mere threat, and only wants for the chance to study something exquisitely rare~"

*********

Following Mandy and Talitha towards the outskirts of town, Faatina simply opted to take in the sight as they cantered along. The streets dotted with multiple stands and small shops, Faatina recalled Mandy's request to keep an eye out for somewhere to eat, and thus, decided to scan the goods there shopkeepers were offering.

It all seemed to be rather standard fair, that is, until one peculiar item caught the Rexian woman's eye. It appeared to be a stuffed pastry, though rather than being topped with some sort of decadent addition, the gimmick of this particular item appeared to be in it's shape, which was that of a fish. The sign accompanying the item read 'Taiyaki', which Faatina could only assume was the name of the strange item.

"Wow, that's amazing! How do you get it to look like that? Hey hey, Mandy, Talitha, have you ever seen something like this before?" Faatina asked the other two, waving them over towards the stand as she continued to look over the fish-shaped item with utmost curiousity.

[Mercakete]

"I'm not a pirate," Gytha flatly clarified, irritation mounting some, "N' that's quite th' insult yer carelessla throwin' around in a port. 'Course, as ye said, ye don't care about any cost others might have t' pay fer what ye decide t' do. Best start thinkin' about th' costs ye'll have t' pay yerself, then, as I suggest ye stop botherin' me friend. Cost fer that could be mighty high if ye catch me drift."

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

After some time, Haruo and Kyou reached a stream, then followed it until they came to a modest waterfall. <"This is the place,"> Haruo said as he walked over to the side of the waterfall and knelt there, peering behind the sheet of water from the side, <"This is where Kikuko-san and her sister were exploring when the younger sister found this cave behind the waterfall. They never got to explore it, though.">

Haruo stood and backed away some so Katsu could see. Sure enough, there was the a small cave mouth over the river and behind the falling water. The angle made it impossible to see into, however. The mouth of the cave was approximately four feet high and three feet wide.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"She better be accosted by dogs or something, and Gabbie better be allergic to dogs, because if it's some person wearing fur I'm gonna get all annoyed." Gar sourly said. This sounded like a waste of time that could be spent doing more important things like sleeping.

[Eail]

"I was just hoping that I could learn some things about magic in general, I'm a thunder mage that's never really had a teacher that practiced it. Back home in Neviskotia I never really got the chance to speak to a dragon before, especially not one so powerful at that." Zach said, trying to calm down the guardsmen. "<Would it be all right if I talked with you for a while Sir?>" He asked in Skotian, leaning his head to the side to get past the guard to ask Fyodor.

[-Cynthia-]

Leverager

"Furry thing? Could you elaborate on that?" Veronika asked Gabbie. "I'll gladly meet with captains in Raquel's stead, but I'll need to know the meeting location," she said to the lancer, finding the information given before rather lacking.

[Phoenix]

Leverager

Gabbie stopped in her tracks and scowled. She didn't turn around all the way to answer but ... "You'll foind out what the furry thing is as soon as ya foind Raquel-just down the street; head east-but she's pestering Raquel about the emblem so something typical is bound to come of it. Raquel looked more worried than usual; makes sense since the furry thing warped in ... dark magic. As for the meeting, it's happening at the enterproises building in the markets ... assuming we get that far." She shrugged and then turned to get back to snatching that apple.

Docks

"Well let's not just stand here talking about it," Shadrak cut in. Let's go. I have my tome on me, and if this is the Org again, someone's going to get blasted."

"I'll catch up in a minute." Reign said.

Shadrak wasn't waiting around for him and so started off at the head of the pack.

Intersection

The woman was agitating Gytha and pretty quickly. Raquel wouldn't have normally even taken note of that, but Gytha was the only one who was any kind of protection for the first few seconds of a confrontation in this situation. Beyond that ... distance, probably, but she wasn't counting on that. She decided to just be honest for once and see what that would accomplish. "L-look, miss ... I understand what you're saying but I can't afford to lose this or even risk losing it, and you can apparently just warp around at your leisure. That's a huge risk to me. People have tried to kill me almost a dozen times for it-I can't take any chances here ..." Sardis wants you alive, Raquel, remember? Ah stress, how it fuzzies up our recollections.

Somewhere Almost Outside of Town

"Huh, she found a place." Mandy thought aloud. She eased Summer into a turn to come back around and approach the shop. Talitha did the same with Autumn and the two dismounted once they were there, the latter more carefully than the former due to some wardrobe precautions. Anything amiss in the back and her disguise would be ruined for certain.

"What are these?" Talitha asked.

"I'm not sure ... we avoid Kigen so much, I didn't even know what chopsticks were for until a year ago. I used to think they were for keeping your hair in place, but then I saw people eating with them. Turns out there's more than one type, heheh."

"... Iii hate the kigenese." Talitha muttered quietly as she stared toward the stand.

Somewhere Just Outside of Town

"Hey! You can speak common, so speak it!" Keichi cut in again, threateningly.

"I'm sorry about my chaperones. These shifts of theirs can be quite taxing," Fyodor spoke up. "So you're here about magic ... that's not very common. I'm usually asked about funnier things, like dragon cuisine ... mating rituals ... politics ... ... ... whether or not I can sleep on my back with all of the spines back there ... what it's like being naked all of the time, hmhmhmmm~"

Unknown

<"So the two of them ..."> Katsu paused, realizing he was going right along with the alias. It was stranger than he thought, but at least he wasn't likely to ruin it at random. <"So Hana and Kikuko went exploring and found this cave ... but neither of them ever explored it? Maybe we should, then, but I'll take point."> He wasn't too confident about trying to get through that opening. It was a little small ...

[-Cynthia-]

Leverager

"Something warps in with dark magic asking about the emblem and you're this unconcerned?!" Veronika asked Gabbie, seriously questioning her judgment before making her way off the Leverager, not waiting for a reply.

Docks

Nadya followed behind Shadrak with all the horses coming along with her. Hope this 'furry thing' doesn't spook 'em- that'll be a nuisance. she thought to herself.

[Snike]

"Either it is Organization, like Shadrak is guessing, in which case there's going to be a fight," Blake began to explain to Gar,"Or it isn't, and the fact that this 'furry thing' is accosting Raquel means that Gytha might go off. In which case, there's probably going to be a fight."

And without further ado, the Ursian swordsman took off towards the town.

[Mercakete]

Hearing Raquel's plea, Gytha calmed down a bit, hoping the strange lady would back off. It was honest, but perhaps too much was said in that regard, what with Raquel mentioning that people had tried to kill her for it. She was worried that would only make the strange lady even more curious. She tries anaythin' n' I'm steppin' between 'em. Robin can guard from b'hind Raquel...maybe.

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

Haruo nodded at Katsu's question the shrugged at the suggestion. <"If you want to, go ahead. Good luck trying to get in from this angle, though. You're a big guy, so if you want to get in, maybe you should stand in the current and go right through the waterfall. I could go in myself if you want, though,"> he suggested nonchalantly.