Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[-Cynthia-]

Leverager

Shadrak thinks a vasilus destroying a raisin is incredible? Must be some magic user thing Veronika thought to herself before speaking up.

"So you're saying we should remove the emblem or Raquel might end up like the raisin?" Veronika asked Lilith. "She's obviously going to have to get rid of it if it'll blow her to pieces eventually."

Plains

<"We speak Rexian ya know so if y'all are plannin' to talk in secret pick somethin' else. And yeah keep the wyvern away it'll spook the horses otherwise,"> Marko said to Amon.

"Hope y'all like rabbit stew, because that's what's on the menu!" Vadoma called out. A pot was already bubbling above the fire.

Cottage

"Mercenaries perhaps, although that would get rather expensive- and I'm afraid that I could be leading them to your deaths. You should consider carefully whether you want to come along as well, it is not a decision to be made in haste. The journey may be...difficult for you," Lysandra said gravely.

Edited September 9, 2012 by -Cynthia-

[Acacia Sgt]

Seems Griffin got pulled into it at last, though it seems Lilith wouldn't agree to such an action.

<I suppose regardless of what he thinks, Lilith would try to enforce her no meddling policy when it comes to it,> John thought, though then to his surprise Griffin just nonchalantly threw the egg at them.

Quickly, he moved a bit to intercept it's flight path and caught it.

What?! How could he just throw the egg like it was nothing? Sophia thought, surprised at that course of events.

<So much for just handing it over huh,> John thought. ''Either way I think we should get going to meet her regardless,'' he said. <Guess I'll just have to carry this for the time being,> he briefly glanced at the egg.

[roymbrog]

“…Lilith? Lilith is back?” Synthia said, and sighed. Whyyyy. Anyway, avian guy threw some egg and walked up the stairs. Apparently he was going to solve their ship problem. “What, is he a vasilus too? …What’s with the egg?” Griffin didn’t really seem to care much about it, if tossing it over his shoulder was any indication.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Griffin seemed resigned to his new duty of ship breaker, which was at odds with his people breaker persona from before. He tossed the egg over to Armor-guy before heading up aft with some of the crew following him like eager zealots. Raquel and Reign-guy had a brief little discussion on actually allowing Griffin to have his way though. Gar felt the need wo weigh in on that. "Eh, we could always reason it as preventing them from interrupting us or something," Gar offered to Raquel's hesitation. "Or any other manner of fast-talkary."

Edited September 9, 2012 by Script

[ReformBlade]

A seemingly random girl walked up and decided to interrogate Aneda. "Hm... What did just happen... Well, it seems that there's going to be some very heavy stuff going down very soon, potentially. Apparently, from what I could tell, Raquel is gonna have to make a decision or else she's gonna get shoved down a path not of her choosing." Sounded about right, and Aneda really wanted to go see more of Lilith in action, be it adventurey awesomeness or just exposition, but there was something bothering her. Oh right! "Um, pardon my rudeness, but I don't think we've had a chance to talk much. Hell, we've both got mounts, we could stand to get to know eachother if you're traveling with Raquel or any of us for a length of time. Trade strategies, team up, etcetera. Anyway, my name is Aneda Welnon, 26 years old and searching the world for... something. At this point I think I've kinda lost my way, now I'm looking for my path. So much shit has happened and... well, that's for another time." She smiled throughout her mini rant, genuinely happy all the while.

Whipping? Oh right you did say you'd show her... That is all kinds of kinky, you know. Ignoring his teasing mind for the moment and possibly for the rest of this conversation, Davod cocked his head. "Well, yeah I can show you, but not down here. I'm not sure moving you is much of an option right now. Sorry." He shrugged. "I dunno, I'd rather not risk permanent injury on you just for a show." He felt kind of like an overbearing jerk at that notion, but he didn't wanna go against doctors orders or get yelled at. If she got permanent damage and couldn't fight or walk again, it'd be on his hands, and he didn't want that.

[roymbrog]

What kind of heavy stuff? The answer Katrina got didn’t really answer any specifics of her question, but she supposed it was good enough for now…

“Oh, well, I’m just tagging along for the moment. I’m Katrina Curik,” she replied, just as cheerfully as Aneda (if that were possible). “I got caught up in that mess at Tremere. Um…” she paused, glancing at Aneda’s Pegasus. “It might not be a good idea to introduce mounts though. My wyvern can be a bit… overbearing.”

[Acacia Sgt]

''Yes, he is,'' John answered Synthia. ''Don't know about the egg though,'' he glanced at it again. <Seems odd they'd be carrying an egg of all things. On the other hand, it must be important then.> Indeed, if Lilith's attitude was anything to go by.

Well, perhaps once they hear her out she might even explain about it. Or the possibility of asking her, either way.

[roymbrog]

“Hmm…” Synthia wasn’t really surprised they’d met a second vasilus, weird things happened all the time with this group. A grin spread across her face as she thought of something. “You think the egg is Lilith’s?” Hell if she knew anything about Vasilus biology. Why were they carrying it around?

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

Raquel was surprised about the egg toss too. Griffin seemed to give half a hoot about the thing until just then. Maybe it was a vasilus egg and resistant to damage? Or something? Not the best theory, she told herself, but on the other hand, it probably wasn't impossible. Lilith was trying to stop the God of Wrath, so maybe they were taking special steps ... making more vasili or something. That was a line of thought she immediately wished she hadn't gone down, because the first thing that came to mind was Lilith and Griffin in a lovers' embrace. The fear of being clobbered outweighed the humor and she squashed the thought. "Alright, then, let's get going! And I ... I guess you can ask Lilith about the egg once we're inside." She wasn't really curious anymore ... not curious about anything involving those two.

Aft Deck

Once Griffin reached the back of the ship, he leaned up against the rails and passively observed the enemy ship in the distance for a moment. The surrounding sailors looked around at each other and at him curiously, but some of them eventually joined him, leaning up against the rail, though none of them were as casual about it as he was.

Griffin also seemed to be talking to himself, though they could barely make out what he was saying. Eventually one of them asked. "Um, is something wrong?"

"Not really. I'm about to break a record or two if I time this right." He then looked back over his shoulder only to find that he was once again being crowded. "Give me some room, unless you want to get hit." They all spread out in response and Griffin smiled as he ceased his leaning and stood up straight. His attention shifted to the rebel ship tailing them ...

Navigation Room

"That was a reaction to dark energy. The emblem's energy behaves differently, so I don't think the results would be exactly the same. But unless she puts a stop to it, it's going to keep coming until there's too much for her body to contain. What happens then is probably death. Admittedly, I don't know for certain, but this is still extremely dangerous."

"So ... I guess you aren't just misleading us. You're not sure what's going on, either. Well you know what's going on but not what it will lead to in the long run." Shadrak quickly corrected himself.

"There aren't any real experts on the emblem, which is why I can't give you any definite answers. Empirical evidence suggests Raquel is going to die when enough energy gathers inside of her. That happens in virtually all other cases. Unless you want her to be the next experiment, then you people should probably consider convincing her to let go of it. It won't be easy, but I can find someone else to hold on to it, and none of you will have to get involved in this any further."

Shadrak looked to Veronika. He didn't want to just run away from this situation. For better or worse it was a gauntlet of once in a lifetime opportunities. Bogdan stood by watching as the hazy black fog slowly disappeared. He sighed in relief once the room looked clear of the stuff. He didn't have a fear of dark magic, but so much of it gathered in one place was unnerving to the man. Was that stuff safe to breathe? Hell if he knew.

Plains

"O-oh ... it's not that, it's just everyone's first language, heheh." Amon explained. Then as he sat down, he got to wondering if they shouldn't just all switch back to it anyway. On the other hand, 'first language' might have only applied to his own group, and he wasn't sure one way or the other. Common won out for the moment, though.

Fizza only managed to pilfer another five gold from Malik before heading over. She approached Vadoma aiming to give her the eight gold. Once it was clearly visible, she said "Haven't lifted the other seven off of Malik here, yet, but I'm working on it." She said this despite him being right there which made his eyes open wide in shock and made Haythem burst into laughter.

<"You no good dirty thief!">

<"Treat a lady to dinner, won't you?~"> Fizza replied.

<"... no.">

Cottage

"You won't be getting rid of me that easily~" Gabriel replied before taking another scone. He made sure to swallow before continuing. "Besides ... I need closure too ... one way or the other."

[Acacia Sgt]

''I doubt it's hers at any rate,'' John said, shrugging. ''But yeah, let's go,'' and with that, both he and Sophia resumed heading towards the Navigation Room, reaching there in short order.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Yeah, that certainly is a thing," Gar commented to no-one in particular. In the scale of balance, watching Raquel against Lilith was higher than Griffin versus rebels. So Gar shrugged and went back to waiting to follow after Raquel when she began moving.

[Snike]

Lilith had done some dark magic trick with a raisin -the shrivelled grape was disintegrated by overcharging it with dark energy-, and an inky haze filled the room for a few minutes, much to the indifference of Blake. It wasn't a big deal. Until Lilith explained that the raisin's fate was what might happen to Raquel should she hold the emblem for much longer. What was insignificant became horrifying in an instant. Veronika asked for confirmation, to which the Vasili repeated that the merchant was probably going to die, based on empirical evidence, but she didn't know for certain due to the lack of research on the emblem. Lovely. The minor god continued on by saying that they, the mercenaries, should be convincing Raquel to relinquish the emblem, seeing as Lilith didn't believe that the loss of the emblem would kill the girl. That, and the winged woman had said that she would find some other assistant to hold the emblem, allowing the mercenaries to end their involvement with the matter. There was a minor lull in the conversation, so the swordsman decided to speak up.

"I agree with the notion that Raquel should probably give up the emblem to someone else, seeing as she might die," Blake began with a steady tone. " I guess that the thing is, we're already involved in the sense that a secretive faction is trying to kill us for the emblem. As a result, giving said emblem up wouldn't change our role much as potentially weakening us when they do attack. I'd almost prefer it if the emblem piece were to stay within the party, and if whoever was in possession of the emblem were able to at least control the energy absorption, if not outright be able to harness its' power to aid the group in general. That way it saves you the trip of searching the whole continent for a volunteer to possess the emblem, anyways."

[Acacia Sgt]

It was clear Lilith had already begun talk with those who had gone there from the beginning, but whatever it was, it certainly was pertaining to Raquel alright, judging from the point they had arrived to, which was Blake's latter portion of what he was saying.

''In that case, we might as well just let Raquel keep it,'' John said as they entered the room. ''Unless the distance the emblem would have to be away from her to stop pouring her with power is not that vast. At any rate, she would fare better just learning to control it if it stays with us.''

Edited September 9, 2012 by Acacia Sgt

[GoD]

A bunch of stuff happened which kinda confused Chelsea, so she had to process it all. First off, there was more fighting between the bird-guy and Shadrak... which was pretty amusing and she'd make fun of him with this. Then Ignoring any more outbursts, the troubadour focused on the conversation between Lilith and Raquel, and she wish she hadn't heard it all. Apparently Lilith was kind of a jerk, which she was already told by the rest of the party, but the vasili's attitude just confirmed her suspicions. Anyways, Lilith and Raquel talked more about the emblem, about the merchant controlling the emblem, following Lilith's orders. When Raquel asked what the plan was to take down Wrath, Lilith gave a very threatening warning to not only the merchant, but to everybody present: if anyone was to know about the plan they would have to follow Lilith's orders to the letter and should anyone fuck up they would die a gruesome death. Hearing this, sent shivers down the troub's spine and as she saw Raquel in a state of shock, Chelsea realized she was not alone in that prospect.

After giving that little message, Lilith went to the captain and asked him about a room she could use. Bodgan replied that the vasili could use the Navigation Room, but before she could leave, Shadrak accosted her, probably for more answers. And so that was how Chelsea and Shadrak found themselves in the Navi-room with Lilith. The conversation between Lilith and Shadrak was about whether the vasili could be trusted and if the emblem could actually kill Raquel. While she did not know what exactly would happen to the merchant, Lilith replied that she would most certaintly die. A test was made with a raisin- Chelsea chuckled at that- and dark magic. The end result was the raisin disintegrating... which would be extremely cool had Chelsea not just imagined Raquel disintegrate like that. The trouabdour grimaced and voiced aloud a concern of hers:

"That test was simply with dark magic... pardon my rudeness but perhaps there is a chance that Raquel would not.. disintegrate like that."

[-Cynthia-]

Navigation Deck

"The emblem isn't actually strengthening us if no one can use it- and I suspect that the Organization is able to locate its position with some magical tracking thing. Still, it's not our choice to make in any event- it's Raquel's emblem she can do what she wants with it," Veronika decided aloud.

Plains

<"A thief, eh? Better watch your purses everyone,"> Marko said, watching the scene unfold.

<"Like ya never cut a purse,"> Vadoma scolded, taking the money from Fizza and counting it happily. <"Y'all feel free to sit down and say who ya are, stew'll be ready in a few. Though if we don't get any more gold you gents might be outta luck,"> Vadoma said, smiling and sitting down on a mat.

Cottage

"Yes I always thought you might, there were only so many questions I could answer..." Lysandra said half to herself before snapping back to attention. "I'm very glad to have you along dear. Now you'll want to pack some cold weather clothes for the journey- that jacket you wear is quite stylish but I doubt it's very warm. I wonder if I still I have your long underwear around here, northern Neviskotia gets very chilly even in the summer..." she thought to herself, putting her hand on her chin.

Edited September 10, 2012 by -Cynthia-

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well, don't those things tend to shine when near each other? They do have at least one piece of their own,'' John said.

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

Talitha considered following the mob but opted to go back to the crow's nest instead. Whatever happened, she would have a good view of the action from up there.

Gabbie rolled over onto her stomach atop the Dauntless and from her elevated position, watched Griffin and the crowd as the looked out at the rebel ship in the distance.

Aft Deck

"Okay, I need to be quick, here, so ... sword." Griffin said, though it seemed like self-talk to the sailors. Griffin quickly looked to one and clarified saying "Give me your sword." The sailor nervously replied. It wasn't the best looking thing, but Griffin just wanted it as a prop. He put it to his side and pretending to sheathe it the way kigenese swordsmen did and as a result, the sailors backed off giving him even more space to maneuver. "You know, the kigenese developed some of the best swordfighting techniques in the world. Lord Wrath himself praised them for their deadly precision~" The random history lesson was no less confusing, but shined a bit of light on what Griffin was doing. Not much, though. He was still in a fighting stance with a cutlass to his side like some sort of samurai.

Some of them began shifting attention from Griffin to the rebel ship and back again. What the hell was he about to do? "Aaand STRIKE!!!" Griffin quickly pulled the sword up and swung high, and in an instant, a windblade as thin as paper but as tall as the Leverager in its entirety appeared and sped out at high speed toward the rebel ship. It was too far away and invisible by the time it reached the ship. Griffin quickly followed up with a second slash that forged another blade. Both cut through the ship seamlessly and within a few moments, the sailors could see the masts toppling over and the ship falling apart in the water.

"Whoa ..."

As Griffin handed the man his sword back, he said "If you think that's amazing, please consider that No one over there is dead yet. I had to be very careful there. Don't get me wrong, they're probably all going to drown, but I didn't kill anyone directly. That's the same little work around the Sea King has used for years~"

"I take it you're the Sky King, then." one of the sailors chimed in enthusiastically.

Griffin grimaced. "Huh ... haven't heard that one in a long time. Well your rebel ship is dealt with. Go bother someone else."

Navigation Room

Lilith looked up at the ceiling for some reason. "Griffin ..." The noise that followed didn't tell the whole story, but it was pretty likely that something had been done about that rebel ship tailing them. She decided to stick with the current conversation(s) for the moment. He wasn't going anywhere, so she could scold him, later. She started with Chelsea saying "If it were anima, the raisin probably would have exploded if my infusion had been too swift. As I already said, different energies have different effects. I'm not certain what will happen in Raquel's case, but if she survives it, I'll be impressed."

"So the question is ... what's the emblem's energy going to do when it reaches its peak? ... hmm." Shadrak began pondering the rest in silence.

The news about a group chasing after emblem pieces wasn't all that surprising, but knowing now for certain that they were also Raquel's main interest ... and that they also had an emblem piece ... "I suppose you people might be too deep in this already. If there's a war for emblem pieces going on, then you're better off choosing a side, now."

"Side?! There's only two sides, and we're definitely not on Sardis' side! He took my father, he's tried to kill my friends several times, he's killed dozens of innocent people, he kidnapped me and got us all sent to the Purgatory, and he's still probably got people out there searching for us as we speak!" Raquel raised her voice as she ranted. "I'll drop dead before I even have tea with that monster!"

"I meant my side or ... Wrath's. Your petty squabble with this 'Sardis' man will end the moment Wrath returns."

"How is it petty?! They're trying to kill most of us!"

"You're fighting over pieces of a powerful artifact you know nothing about. If Wrath came tomorrow, he would claim both pieces and you would all be dead or waiting for the new world order. I'll say it again ... petty. I understand that this is important to you, but try to look at the bigger picture, here. I don't know how much time we have left. Until I figure that out, any other conflicts going on in this age are just distractions."

So ... we might already be screwed. Damn ... what now? I guess we find out what Lilith's plan is and see how we can help. I don't want Wrath to assemble the emblem if it's going to have bad results for the rest of us. Shadrak thought to himself.

Bogdan was thoroughly intimidated now. Emblem pieces, vasili opposing the most feared of the gods, and it turned out Raquel may have had some very powerful enemies gunning for her and her companions. What a night this was shaping up to be.

Plains

"Hurry up, Malik. Pay the nice lady, already." Fizza urged, elbowing him as he sat down beside her. He immediately regretted sitting down next to her. Apparently that elbow had been another distraction, since Fizza handed over three more coins to Vadoma as Malik reached in to get the rest. He froze in shock as he witnessed this. How did she do that? "So we're just four short, right?"

"Grrrrrrrrr-"

"So tell you who we are? Ohhh you're going to get a kick out of some of those ..." Fizza hinted as she leaned toward Amon who was also sitting close by.

Cottage

"Ah shucks, you don't have to worry about that." Gabriel blushed at the thought of Lysandra pulling old clothes out of some old closet. "Underwear aside, I can probably get a hold of some cold gear couple of towns up north."

[Acacia Sgt]

''Well, I guess it would be by the end of the year, no?'' John said. ''As it would be the five thousand mark.''

''But would there be the possibility that he may act earlier?'' Sophia pointed out.

''I suppose there's that too I guess.''

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Noise indicated that Gar's choice to head down below left him missing quite a spectacle. But eh, this was all sorts of talking spectacle down here. He leaned up against one of the walls with his arms crossed, underneath his cloak, trying far too hard to look like a man of mystery and instead looking kinda dumb. Not that he'd admit that out loud. Lilith's newest painting of circumstances began coming up and Gar felt the need to try and point out some things. "Ha, maybe that Sardis' already chosen a nice Wrathful side." Gar commented on some of the present issues. It was likely she might interpret that as a reason for Raquel to be removed, but Gar was confident he could try and talk his way around things. Morrison would sure be envying him right now. Should he make some tired analogy about pictures? Ehhhh, sure why not. "A big picture tends to have parts to it though."

Armor-guy brought up something about the five thousand mark and cleric-girl "Hmph, so that's half a year at best then huh." A nice healthy time for us mortals but oh so wondrous vasili will pass it in the blink of an eye I bet. Gar kept himself from rolling his eyes as he thought that up. Though that was another useful bit of information.

[Acacia Sgt]

''Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's just not the case,'' John commented. ''His followers certainly, as we've seen first-hand, but this organization seems to have their own agenda.''

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Mmm, really? Oh well that's something good to know," Gar answered Armor-guy back. Not really good to have out loud, but hey, Armor-guy was his own guy. He probably had a better insight on that Sardis fellow anyway.

[Phoenix]

Navigation Room

"A larger picture may have smaller parts, but I still believe this Sardis person is just a distraction from the real problem." Lilith replied.

"He. Kidnapped. My. Father." Raquel stressed from where she was standing. Of course it wasn't long before John alluded to a little fiasco that precluded Lilith's arrival back onto the scene. She didn't know what he was getting at, but Raquel did.

And Raquel expounded on it immediately. "An Ursian battalion helped the others rescue me by attacking Sardis and his men at Danton fortress." Mid explanation she realized that not every Ursian military unit were dedicated Wrathites, and she wasn't certain if the woman leading them was or not. She fell back from that point quickly to try and think of some other inconsistent behaviors among the two groups. "Before that Sardis brought a group of warriors to Professor Weyland's home and attacked us. They tried to make it look like a Neviskotian raid, but since I got kidnapped ... ... also the Wrathites lured us to a church and attacked us there for the emblem and ..." Well that wasn't an inconsistency at all, was it? "Never mind, I'm not getting anywhere with this. I just don't think the two groups are aligned. But that's a good thing, because it means they won't cooperate. If they start stepping on each other's toes more often, it'll give us some room to breathe."

"The enemy of your enemy is a good old distraction. Heh." Reign commented in the background.

"So the wrathites, followers of the God of Wrath himself are after the emblem pieces too? And all you focus on is this Sardis person ..." Lilith commented wryly. "Well, there are plenty of you here, now. Decide now, Raquel."

"Decide what?"

"Decide two things, one, whether you're going to keep the emblem piece you currently have ... and two, whether you want to understand what I'm planning, exactly."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

This is all sorts of interesting, Gar thought. What I know and what I don't. Wouldn't put it past a wrathite for a little house-cleaning of the unfaithful though heh. Gar sighed. Zealotry was always dull to fight, like with those cultists, so he'd actually prefer Raquel's belief that they were at odds. "I'll reiterate that magic-theory isn't my strong suit, so I'll go with something that vaguely is. If the Sardis guy is really after your piece, then if you give it up, then my opinion is you'll have one, maybe two chances--if you're ten-side lucky--for confrontation. They'll probably find out about it being gone after that."

[-Cynthia-]

Navigation Room

"Wrath doesn't seem like our problem. Either he decides to take the emblem for Raquel or he doesn't- we can't stop a god in any case unless gods are killable by mortals all of the sudden. The Organization is a problem we can deal with," Veronika said adamantly.

Plains

"Well ya do appear to be quite good at your thievin' at least," Marko noted, rather impressed as he watched Fizza carefully. I didn't even see her take the gold...maybe she's usin' magic?

"Yup, two of y'all ain't gonna get any until ya pay up. Ya already know Marko and me, this is Mirela, Harman, Mihai, and Nuri," she said, gesturing to some nearby nomads sitting down or tending to the fire, most of whom seemed a bit shy around the strangers.

Cottage

"Sometimes I forgot you're a grown man," Lysandra said with a smile. "Well I won't keep you if you want to be on your way, though do try to come back soon. I plan to leave within the next few weeks at the very least."

[GoD]

"Wait, Wrath has been sealed for 5000 years. Even if he does awaken, wouldn't it take time for him to regain his full power?"