Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Phoenix]

Leverager

"We won't be staying long. Even though the ship is damaged, we have to leave," Bogdan told Gytha. From the sounds of things, there wasn't going to be much effort put toward capturing enemies. The situation had changed now and the local guardsmen were just going to get in their way if they tried. It was better to just take their own living captive and get a move on.

Docks

Lev continued to stall the guardsmen and Reign continued to carry Raquel back to the Prometheus. Not much else going on there.

Prometheus

Not surprising someone was making conversation about the inferno over yonder, but the crewman didn't recognize the voice until he turned around. "Oh, it's you. Well," he turned back toward the scene in question. "Something over there must've blown up, but as long as our other passengers get here on time, we can still head out on schedule, I imagine. I heard one of our other passengers is Weyland's nephew, but I doubt he's over there."

Ground Zero

With Veronika handling Sophia herself, and Katrina possibly handling John, that left Gabbie and Faatina without much to do. They couldn't do anything about Gil at this point, but Gabbie stepped over to the wyvern's remains to see if there was anything left of the saddlebags. She didn't plan on keeping anything she might have found for herself, but letting the guards take everything just seemed wrong somehow. She didn't find an in tact saddlebag, but she did find the charred remains of one. She tried to pick it up, but it turned out to be nothing more than a covering for the vasilus egg. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw it. It survived the explosion and didn't have a scratch on it. Its red aura had also returned.

"Whoa ... wait is that what I think it is?" Faatina asked as Gabbie picked up the egg.

"Must be."

Shadrak glanced over while he wiped the tears from his face. He scowled a bit as his thoughts began to wander. The egg survived easily, but only it survived. Why couldn't it have shielded more than just itself? It's a wrathdamn vasilus, Shadrak thought.

Near Ground Zero

"... they won't wait forever," Keichi informed Blake in response to his request. "I'm assigned to guard Fyodor, so I'm only here with and for him. The others are only going to wait so long ..."

"Tell me what happened," Fyodor said in a low concerned voice. He knelt down and put his head close enough to Suzume so that they could have some vague semblance of a private conversation.

Suzume sighed as she prepared to answer. "A close friend of mine offered me a lot of money to help her with a job she had to complete. I warned her that I could only serve as her bodyguard. She settled for that, but I wasn't able to protect her. This boy with me ..." she glanced back at Blake. This might be her chance. Her situation wasn't good, but if Fyodor was willing to help, she could get Bobby out of this here and now. "This boy with me doesn't have any family left. Master, I need to ask you for a favor."

"Oh? What is it?"

"I need you to look after him for me ... just until we can find him a new home. You can have the money my friend paid me. Put toward Bobby and Bobby alone, it could last long time."

"You must fear greatly for this little one." Fyodor noted with a frown.

Also Around Ground Zero

After Aneda gave her answer, the guard speaking to her made some gesture with his left hand toward another guard standing beside him, and that guard quickly ran off taking one of the other two with him. It seemed as though they were going to start spreading some of this information around and give the others something to work with. "Tell me more. Anything you know about the people that attacked you. Were they imperials?"

Somewhere

A guard approached Robin who had just now woken up. "Oi, are you wounded?"

Edited December 7, 2012 by Phoenix

[Eail]

Luka

The boy was actually about to attempt to remove the arrow himself when Synthia and her friend came along to help. It seemed as though they were still pretty shaken up about the battle, fairly uderstandable really but there was still work that had to be done. "Of course Synthia, whenever you're ready. I can patch him up as soon as it's out."

[Snowy_One]

"Yes. I got hurt pretty bad there. Hoof to the head." said Robin as she stood up to the guard. "I am surprised that I am not hurt worse. I see that we won though. Is everyone else alright?"

[Snike]

"I see," Blake said, wearily. "Thank you for informing me about that, sir." To Suzume, who had struck up a conversation with the dragon he said, "I'll be back. I hope you don't run, for your sake." Especially given what authorities were around here.

The swordsman then left the guards and their scaly ward, to intercept one of the wandering guards.

"Excuse me, sir," Blake said, to grab the guard's attention. "If you and the others are trying to figure out what happened here, I can mostly explain it." Really, he could. He was stable, for the time being, so it would be better for him to answer the guard's questions as opposed to someone like Zach, who might just break down even more. And that was not good at this point in time, for anyone.

[Eail]

Zachary

Zach wasn't even able to acknowledge the questions that the guard put forth. He was just sitting there.... staring at the body of Lia with an almost dead look in his eyes. Tears were still slowly making their way down his blood stained face, it felt as though that might stop soon, no more tears left to cry.

'Why... why can't I ever save someone.... Mom, Lia... why couldn't I protect you?'

[-Cynthia-]

"Thank you," Veronika said to Katrina simply, not in the mood for additional words at the moment. She saw that some members of the group were being questioned, but decided that if they weren't going to bother her about it she would just head back to the Prometheus. And so she headed back towards the Prometheus, carrying a lifeless cleric.

Nadya saw that the guards were asking questions, which made her a bit nervous on principle. Since most of their group seemed to be patched up enough, Nadya decided to try and slip away on Luca back to the Prometheus.

[Mercakete]

The pegasus rider with the staff dismounted and Synthia came over, followed by Valter. The horseman was whole and seemed to be doing alright, which was a relief. Norbert felt Synthia grab the arrow that was stuck in him, and then the tug. "Ag-- Hey, that hurts," he quietly complained. There hadn't been any give on the part of the arrow when it'd been pulled either. Norbert's body moved with it as though it was a part of it. The thing was stuck good and the wound it'd made when it entered had long since stopped bleeding. Normally, not bleeding would be a good thing. It wasn't a good thing when it meant a wound had closed up around something that wasn't supposed to be there. It was worse since some of the interior flesh had basically attached its self to the arrow as well. Yes, that knife would be needed, though the mace-wielding pegasus rider wasn't really aware of that.

So, when she informed him that her next action was going to hurt and she asked Valter for a knife, Norbert wasn't exactly calm about the goings on. "Hey, wait a minute! What do you need a knife for?" he asked, rather unnerved and even scooting himself back away from the healer some. Valter wordlessly gave her his knife and she informed the other healer that she was going to need him to heal him as soon as the arrow was removed, to which the male healer agreed. This was not looking like it was going to be fun for the one with the arrow stuck in his gut. It would have been a lot easier if the arrow had hit one of the metal parts of Norbert's body armor rather than piercing one of the leather parts. What was worse was the the armor slid on. The arrow was preventing its removal.

It was around this time that Norbert began to realize that Synthia was going to cut the arrow out with the knife. The arrow that had wound up getting stuck quite deep. This wasn't sounding like it was going to be quick, either, since it involved cutting the arrow out. It was what had to be done, but because of this revelation, the patient was quite thoroughly freaked out. "Hold it, you're not seriously planning on cutting this thing out, are you?" he asked, not even attempting to hide his worry and reluctance. With one hand he was holding himself up while the other had been instinctively near the arrow. Though it was now lightly holding onto what part of the shaft was sticking out as he leaned a bit further away.

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

"I see," she replied, "Guess that's all, then." If Captain Bogdan had anything else he wanted to say, he could say it. If not, she was done there and should return to the others. She'd give him a chance to say something before the actual farewells, though.

[ReformBlade]

Aneda shrugged, not sure what else to tell the guy. "I dunno, I really don't know what the hell was going on until I got here and it looked like I got here too late. Some of my friends were already dead, so I guess as to 'who' these people were? Imperials? I don't know. I'd say they're murderers. Who they're working for, if at all, I couldn't care less about at the moment. I'm kinda stressed out and quite honestly I'm surprised I'm even this composed right now." Folding her arms and visibly shaking right now, she still maintained firm eye contact with the guard. "Anything else? I'll help you as much as I can but I can't guarantee much as of now."

[roymbrog]

“I either cut it out, shove it though your intestines, or you live the rest of your short life with a sharp piece of metal in your gut,” Synthia answered bluntly. Perhaps not the best thing to tell a worried patient, but she wasn’t asking for his consent anyway. “Valter, can you knock him out?”

“Er..” He had been hoping not to get involved in this, really. “Are you sure?”

“It’s either that or you hold him down. Unless Bert is willing to cooperate?” she asked, staring at the pegasus rider. To be fair, it would probably be more merciful to have him unconscious during this.

Edited December 7, 2012 by roymbrog

[Balcerzak]

The crewman Sindbad had questioned seemed willing enough to offer his take on the situation at hand. As for the cause of the explosion, it seems it were still more or less unknown, and more than likely saddling up to be a ripe topic for speculation between the sailors. Then the confirmation that whatever that incident actually were, there were no immediate bearing on the circumstances of the Prometheus's departure. Fair enough, that.

For about a minute or two, Sinbad stood at the rail, a bit aside from most of the crowd, listening idly to the chatter, while wondering a few things of his own. Had this just been someone careless with the powder stores, an active stance of rebellion by the independence movement, or the separatists, or...? Nothing certain, but it sure didn't seem like it were no simple accident, judging by the scale.

Soon enough curiousity got the better of him though. He'd seen someone leave the ship headed that direction, and Sinbad reckoned they'd be coming back. Even if they wouldn't, decided to just quit with passage on the ship for whatever personal reason, there couldn't be no harm in waiting at the dock until they were about to haul off anyway, could there? Nosiree. With that intention he made his way down the gang, found a nearby post to lean against and watched and waited. While he waited, the ranger passed the time recalling what all he could about the name Weyland. This weren't the first time it had popped up this evening after all...

Edited December 7, 2012 by Balcerzak

[GoD]

After sobbing her heart out, the troubadour had temporarily calmed herself down, just in time as well. The battle was over, and it seemed that the majority of the enemies had been defeated. John, Gil, Sophia and Lisandra could rest easily now, their murderers were dead, and the fallen would have a peaceful sleep in the afterlife. Urging Nenesha to approach Lia's fallen corpse, Chelsea noticed that many people who were not there had gathered, mostly guards. She didn't care about them at all, but rather her attention was focused on Zach, who was mourning Lia's loss the greatest. Getting off of her steed, and telling him to stay in place, Chelsea walked over to Zach, kneeled down next to him, and began patting his head rather softly. She could think of no other course of action that was better at consoling him, because if she said 'don't cry' or 'it will be okay', she would be kinda of a jerk, and she knew nothing would be okay.

She would stay silent until Zach's tears had dried up and he had composed himself, so until then...

This was all that girl would do.

[Mercakete]

Norbert wasn't too enthralled with the options Synthia had laid out. No matter what it seemed the arrow would put him through something strange and cruel. So, reluctantly, slowly, he spoke up, "I...guess you should cut it out...in that case..." Then, to Valter, he added, with a sigh as he tried his best to ready himself for what was bound to follow, "And go ahead and knock me out. I don't really want to be awake for this... But try to hit me hard enough to knock me out the first time, please." He wasn't entirely keen on trial and error regarding this.

That settled, there was only one more thing to take care of. "And make sure Riz doesn't try to kill you guys. She's a bit protective and won't understand you're helping me out." The pegasus was standing right there, after all.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Mercakete

[roymbrog]

Bert was resigned to his fate it seemed, but the news about his pegasus was not at all welcome. “…What? How am I supposed to do that?” Bert’s pegasus had never struck Synthia as violent before. She was reluctant to touch him now. “Could you send her off or something…?” she asked.

Valter hadn’t been eager to do this in the first place especially since he now apparently had to help. The wound was stopped up by the arrow, he might be fine for a while if they didn’t move him too much… “Couldn’t we just take him back to the ship? They have a doctor there, I’m sure.”

“You do realize he’s probably bleeding internally right now?”

“…”

[Snowy_One]

As the guard told Robin what had happened, a look of shock came over Robin's face. Many people had died on their side. This had not been the relatively deathless fight where all on Raquel's side had come out okay as always. Multiple people were now dead. As quickly as she could she bolted upright and started looking for Zach to make sure he was fine. She was sure Raquel was, or that she had the best chances of survival due to being their boss, but Zach... He had only been in a few fights in his life! And what of Lia?

It didn't take long to find him. "Zach?" she called out again and again until spotting him and Chelsea by Lia's body. "<Zach? Lia? Are you b... bo... Oh. Zach.>" she didn't need to be told any more. Calmly she knelt down beside Zach, opposite Chelsea. She reached up to try and place her hand on his shoulder. "<Do... Do you need some time alone with her?>"

[Mercakete]

Well, that was alarming news. "I'm what?" Norbert rhetorically asked. He didn't know what internal bleeding felt like so he couldn't tell either way. Well, sitting there stressing about it wasn't going to help. "Anyway, Riz, right... She just has to not see what's going on, I guess. She's worried, though, so even if I send her away and even if she complies, she'll be keeping an eye on me. It's usually something I'm appreciative of, but it's just dangerous in this circumstance. If someone she trusts could just walk her around until this is over with, that would work..."

And then the brainstorming for who that could be began. Ranyin wasn't around anymore, Valter was needed for the knocking out part, for all he knew Raquel was still unavailable and he wasn't even sure if Rizen trusted her or not. Time for Plan B, it seemed. "If she was chained up to something sturdy, that could work, too. She can't break chains. She's smart enough to cut through leather or rope, though."

[Phoenix]

Leverager

"One more thing," Bogdan spoke up, motioning for Gytha to stay put for a moment. "Be sure to give the others my thanks ... and my condolences for those lost." They might have been a fair distance away, but Bogdan could still see the bodies, John's wyvern in particular. He knew at least a couple of them weren't ever getting back up again. Raquel and her people were like a wandering wonder to him, having experienced so few casualties in the past, but this was probably one of the bad days, and he was mournful it had to be now of all times.

Docks

"No! We cannot allow this ship to just leave right after blowing up an unidentified vessel in the harbor! That is ... j-just out of the question!" the kigense guardsman protested. He was finding it insane that he actually had to explain this in such detail. Lev of course didn't care, he was just stalling until the Leverager set out, though he knew that would be difficult with a sunken ship not far below them. "We must complete our investigation before that ship can set out. We have to identify the wreckage and confirm just who died down there!"

"You're free to investigate the scene after the Leverager departs. You have her name and can get in touch via the imperial navy if you need to make an inquiry or press charges. You cannot, however, impound this vessel," Lev explained.

"You cannot just go laying down terms here! This is not Neviskotia!"

"I know, but I'm trying to avoid an international incident, and you're making that difficult."

"What is so important that this ship must set sail, tonight?"

Lev cocked his head curiously at the guard. "You really don't get it do you?" he asked, preparing to lie a little. "Why do you think this ship was attacked in the first place? Why do you think I'm willing to kill you and all of your men if you try anything stupid here? Command wants this ship and its contents back in friendly waters as soon as possible. Chousokabe was a covert resting point along our intended route, but the enemy found out about it and came in force. That's really all you need to know, guardsman. This ship is setting out as soon as humanly possible and I will tear your squad apart if you try to stop them."

"I understand! You don't need to make so many threats!"

"Then get the hell out of my face," Lev shot back in a low threatening tone.

Northern Docks

It took longer getting back since Reign couldn't run safely with an unconscious Raquel in his arms. Still, he arrived back at the Prometheus before long. There seemed to be a few people hanging around off the ship though, some just hanging out, others speculating about the violence. He got a few looks from them for obvious reasons as he approached the ship.

Pickup

Gabbie didn't really want to walk around with the egg in hand, so passed it off to Faatina, who eventually decided to take it back to the Prometheus. The guards were pretty spread out, checking bodies, and questioning random party members, so it was easy enough to slip away, though one guard did try to catch her as she rode off. He was intercepted by Gabbie who quickly said, "Hi there!"

"Err-what? Look stay here. Too many people are leaving and we don't even know all of what's happened here, yet."

"I could try to fill in the blanks, I guess? All you really need to know though is that this was self defense. There's no one left for you to arrest but that one pegasus roider that got away."

"Pegasus rider? One of the suspects fled?"

"Yep ... have fun with that," Gabbie replied, muttering the second part.

Discussion

"Very well, start talking," the guard replied to Blake.

Other Discussion

"Hmm, that should be enough for now. Please don't wander too far. I may have more questions shortly," the guard replied to Aneda.

Edited December 8, 2012 by Phoenix

[Snike]

"The Neviskotian rebels attacked this side of the port," Blake said, to begin. "They began with the now-destroyed ship attacking the Leverager, and followed up with a ground attack. My group and I defeated all of the land forces, save for one of the pegasus riders, who escaped. Three of the bodies, who my allies are retrieving as we speak, were of our group, who died during the fighting..."

There, that should keep Robby and Suzume relatively safe, at least, for the time being.

"If you want to verify my story, you can ask that man right over there," the swordsman continued, pointing towards Grant Brayden. "He is not affiliated with my group"

[Eail]

Zachary, A Broken Man

Zachary was being comforted by the two females at his side a small amount truth be told. Yet the death of Lia, was still hitting him hard, there was nothing the two of them could do for the sage at the moment. The girl was dead and he blamed himself once again for the passing of someone he cared about. There was nothing to be said either, no words were needed.

Mumbling an apology to Chelsea and Robin, Zachary picked up the body of the artificial girl. Standing up with her, he simply stared..... this wasn't how it was supposed to be. Gazing around the sage saw that John's corpse was being put on the back of a Wyvern, the one belonging to his friend if memory served, perhaps she would be willing to help.

Slowly walking towards Katrina, he ignored Shadrak. There was no telling what he might do to the dark magic user if he was provoked. "Excuse me Ma'am.... Would you be willing to take Lia back as well? I don't know the way back to the ship, and I can't carry her by myself.... There's no way I can just leave her here." He muttered, sounding as though all emotion was drained from his voice.

[Mercakete]

The captain took advantage of the pause Gytha allowed. She nodded at his request. "Aye. I'm sure I speak for us all when I offer our condolences fer those ye lost in yer own struggle as well. N' our thanks fer all th' help ye've been t' us," she solemnly replied, giving a respectful nod, then farewelling, "Smooth sailing, Captain Bogdan. N' give me thanks n' farewell t' the crew n' staff o' both ships."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

The guard were here, late to the party as usual. And just as promptly went flying accusations and other pompous guard things. Gar didn't want to deal with them at all--or the bigass dragon just over yonder--so he just melded into the crowd overhearing what he could. Armor-Guy and Other-Girl had passed on just as Gar saw, but Lia being taken was... new. Well, that ruined his plan to talk to Zachary-boy about her. Well, about her future at any rate. Everything else was just mourning, which Gar didn't care over. Eavesdropping on one of the guards talking about moving the entire defense force to overreact to the governor coming under duress was a laugh riot though. Good to know if Gar ever needed to attack this place a little skirmish against the boss-man and the city was ripe for the taking.

Robin had come to after her face got up close and personal with the pegasus hooves. She started to comfort Zachary boy which really meant it wasn't a good time to start bothering her about that whole "non-lethal" takedown thing. So now Gar was sitting--standing actually--around bored waiting for things to get moving on.

Well, it was as good a time as any eh? He pull out his holey belt and puncher and knocked in three more holes. That was so depressing after how many he reaped last battle.

[roymbrog]

Katrina couldn’t sit up on her wyvern and cry forever. Eventually she would have to come down and move John’s corpse, and when she did it was all she could do to not break down again. The body was heavy, especially with the armor, but with the shaman’s help she managed to get it onto Volga’s back. It was about this time that one of the mages walked over carrying the body of a little girl... She hadn’t been the only one to lose someone important, it seemed. The thought made her start tearing up again. Not trusting herself to speak, she merely nodded.

-----

Neither Synthia nor Valter had chains and getting gored by a protective pegasus sounded dangerous for everyone involved… Synthia had been trying to handle the situation by detaching herself from it, but the stress was starting to get to her. She gave up. “Look, if we can’t fix this here without endangering others, then maybe we should just take you back to the Prometheus.”

Why was she suddenly changing her mind? This was worrisome. “But you just said-“

“I don’t care about what I just said. Put him on the damn pegasus, we’re taking him back for a real doctor to deal with.” She handed Valter back the knife and stood up, trying to pull Bert with her. “Just don’t jostle the shaft too much. We don’t want it to cut any further in.”

[Eail]

Zachary

It seemed as though this girl was taking the death of John hard, possibly as hard as he was taking Lia's. He fact that he hadn't been the only one to lose someone wasn't that surprising, but it still hit home. The Wyvern rider would have had a family somewhere, and now they would have learn he was gone. Still, there was nothing that could be done to change that, you can't bring back the dead.

"Thank you." He muttered to Katrina, placing Lia's body on the back of Volga beside John's. It wasn't like he could ride the beast as well, so he would just walk along if possible.

Luka

So now they were going to move Norbert to the boat to fix him? 'His pegasus must be as protective of him as Rika is towards me.'

"I can follow behind you with Rika, Synthia. I'm sure once the arrow is removed I can heal the wound completely." The boy said as he remounted the winged horse.

[Balcerzak]

Well this was interesting. That fella that done dashed off earlier was acomin' back, carrying a pink-haired filly in his arms, limp as a wilted lily. Didn't take much ruminating to guess at how that happened, but the details didn't actually matter.

"Whoa there, pardner. Reckon you could use a hand," Sinbad called out to Reign, stepping forward and abandoning his spot at the post. "Need me to go on ahead an' fetch a sawbones, or there something else needs doin'? Just anotha passenger, 'fore you get too curious," he added to stave off as much wasteful time standing around jawing as possible.

[Phoenix]

Docks

Seeing Gytha coming down to leave the ship, Lev and his men stepped aside, which one of the kigenese guardsmen tried to take advantage of for some reason. Then again, Lev couldn't blame them for wanting to question Bogdan himself, but with kigenese boots on the Leverager, the ship couldn't set sail. Well they could but they would have to chuck said boots overboard at some point. Instead of letting the guy muscle past Gytha, he lightly kicked the guardsman in his side, just hard enough to throw him off balance, and as a result, he fell off to the side and into the water. The other guard who was trying to follow his lead stopped in his tracks and gawked down into the water, and then back at Lev, who immediately shrugged.

"What on earth is wrong with you, Skotian?!" the main guard asked.

"At least I didn't stab him or something, and I already warned you, you're not getting on this ship. What can't he swim?"

"No he cannot!" the gawking guard yelled before trying to climb down and help the flailing guard out of the water.

"Snrkbahahahahahahahhhh!" Lev bursted into laughter. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Mark my words, skotian, you will get yours," the main guard threatened.

Northern Docks

Almost back to the ship and someone had to talk to him, though luckily he was more interested in actually helping than just sating curiosity. "I need to get her to a bed," Reign replied. "If you could go ahead and let the doc know we're coming, I'd appreciate it. I still don't know the extent of her injuries, but I'm guessing they at least healed her a little bit." If they just left her on the ground and hoped she didn't die, I swear to-

Verification

"Good idea," the guard replied to Blake, deciding to see what someone outside of the group had to say about all of this. "You, yes you!" Lovely greeting, that. "I need to start confirming these accounts and from what I hear you are not with this group."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

There was a splash. Curious, Gar got close enough to hear that the guy who just got knocked in couldn't swim. He kept himself from joining in on the laughing. But oh boy was it difficult. Who the hell works in a port city and couldn't swim?

Well, besides all that Gar didn't have much to do. Since the kiddo was all adamant about crying the bowwomen that meant they probably weren't straight out rebels which meant anyone taken was just a mercenary or bonus and they couldn't ring anything out of them. Still, the ram ship went up in flames, so that kinda lent credence to Gar's theory.

Well, Captain Bogdan was smart enough to figure that out. Gar shrugged to no one and followed some of the others trailing to the new ship.