Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Parrhesia]

Rook finished paddling madly towards the other boat, not bothering with any direction other than directly forward. He panted, and lit another cigar. "Well, Chariot... made it through another adventure, eh?"

Chariot neighed, and Rook hugged his neck. "We're gonna be alright," he murmurred, soothingly as the boat crashed into another wave. "There's gonna be all the carrots in the world for you when I take over this ship. All the carrots in the world."

[Eail]

Luka

After he and Synthia had finished grooming Rika a few hours ago they had both went to bed. As was typical on ships like these there wasn't any gender separation for sleeping quarters so everyone that was sleeping, very few, were all in the same room. Just as Luka was about to go back to sleep after getting up to get a drink of water, when he heard a loud *thwomp* and what sounded like whimpering or crying coming from Synthia's bunk.

'Oh my, is something wrong? ....I can't just leave this alone.'

"Synthia, are you all right?" He asked, kneeling next to the older girl's bunk "It's me, Luka."

Edited December 15, 2012 by Eail

[roymbrog]

Synthia quickly realized that she was on the Prometheus and not covered by worms, but the growing bump on her head was definitely real. That hurt. What was worse, she had apparently woken someone up with the noise. She rolled over to at least have some semblance of conversation. “I hit my head,” she muttered. “Go back to sleep, Luka.” Between a throbbing head and bad dreams, the mage probably wasn’t going to get much sleep that night herself. No need to keep someone else up too.

-----

Ooh, the ship was turning around now. Good job Aneda! Katrina thought. They arrived not long after with Volga landing and gently placing Marella on deck. She slumped on the wyvern’s neck and yawned. “Alright, good job guys! …Can I go back to sleep now?”

Edited December 15, 2012 by roymbrog

[Eail]

Luka

"I wasn't asleep anyways, so don't worry about it." The pinky said as was still kneeling in beside Synthia's bed. "But are you really okay though? It sounded like you were having a really bad nightmare...." He trailed off not really knowing what else he could say. "Is there anything I can do?"

Zach

The thunder sage could already feel his inebriation coming back in full force, whatever willpower he still had was gone by this point and all he wanted to do was sleep. "Go team!" Was his tired cheer as he halfway rested his head on Katrina's back.

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

The quartermaster ignored Katrina, Zachary, and Marella for the moment and made for the side of the ship with six of the crew at his flank. Delan meanwhile kept his eye on the merchant ship until the entire hull was undderwater and nothing but the masts remained on the surface. He sighed as he put away his spyglass. "Difficult to watch a ship go inexplicably like that." Heading over to one of the new arrivals, he said, "Welcome aboard the Prometheus. I'm Captain Delan. I'm curious about what happened over there." He nudged toward the sinking ship for clarity.

Meanwhile the seven men seeing to the survivor retrieval began calling down to the man in the lifeboat. "The hell? Are you the only other survivor? How many people were on that ship?"

"Never mind that for now," the quartermaster cut in. "It's too dangerous to haul the boat up with the steed in it; we're sendin' down some ropes and a couple of helpers for ya. Make a harness while we set up on our end, and we'll haul your animal up."

[roymbrog]

“I’m fine,” Synthia said. How did he know about the dream? Had she been mumbling in her sleep or something? “What are you gonna do anyway, sit here by my bunk all night? That’s creepy. And pointless.” She rolled away, signaling the end of discussion. “Go to bed.”

-----

“Yeah… Whoo~” Katrina mumbled into Volga’s neck. The rough scales felt comforting, oddly. She started to drift off while Volga crawled to someplace quieter.

The wyvern lay down, but her passengers would have to go. Snaking her neck around she grabbed Zachary by the shirt and dragged him off to the deck. She was considerably gentler with Katrina, though got an irritated groan for her trouble. Hmph. Ungrateful human.

[Parrhesia]

Rook comes to the terrible realisation that obeying orders is the only way to salvage Chariot's life, nods, and starts hurriedly harnessing the stubborn beast, cuffing him any time he tries to escape.

[scorri]

"My name is Marella. Former knight of Neviskotian army, currently unemployed. As for how the ship got in the shape it is... well, you'll have to ask Rook about that. We only had four people on the ship. One fell overboard and couldn't swim. Two of us are here. And the fourth... well... he's a pegasus rider who was flying. We don't know where he went, but you might want to keep an eye out for him. His name's Andrei."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

The ship got moving to half-sail not too long after the pegasus-chick gave a vomit-preceded report. There was a lifeboat in the water from the sinking ship where the fliers flied off too. The wyvern girl came back with some armor-girl in its paws, who went into the quick explanation of things by passing off whatever happened to their ship to some guy named Rook who was probably in that lifeboat. Why there were only four people on a sailing ship was an intriguing question that Gar couldn't wait to hear the answer for.

[Snowy_One]

It took some time, but at last Robin, who had been asleep down in the infirmary due to the blow she had taken, woke up. She was a bit groggy, but knew what she needed to do. Zach's torn up about losing Lia for sure. He needed some time alone, but it would be horrible of me to abandon him. I just hope he hasn't gone to drain his sorrows in a bottle.

Carefully she got up and headed up on deck. "Hi. Has anyone seen Zach?" she asked before noticing that there were several new people here. "Do we have some new teammates?"

[Phoenix]

Odd Meetings

"Only four? Hmm," Delan began to ponder. "You wouldn't have happened to be neglecting the pump duties did you? Wooden ships tend to start taking on quite a bit of water eventually if you don't. That might have been the case, here." While Delan thought that was a pretty elementary mistake to make, the ship had sunk and apparently only had a 'crew of four' or less prior to foundering. Seemed anything was possible.

Gabbie was just about to get up to investigate the situation when Robin arrived to inquire about Zachary and then about the rescued folks. "Gods, I hope not. Can't even keep a ship afloat. They'll doie in two minutes foighten alongsoide us," she muttered to herself before lying back down in her bedroll and trying to go back to sleep. She just didn't care anymore one way or the other. "Goodnoight, Ringo. Kill anythin' that gets too close ... ... except Connor."

Struggle

What did he say? Now's my chance? Now's my chance to what? What did he mean? Raquel thought to herself as she laid half conscious in the infirmary. Something was off, though. She heard something that sounded like it came from outside the ship. Like something approaching, and then a bang of some kind. Within a couple of minutes, she heard footsteps and someone left the room. They left? Was someone watching her sleep? Maybe it was the doctor going off for a drink. Either way, she wasn't surprised when she heard more footsteps, as if someone was entering the room. What startled her is that they didn't stop until they were right at her bedside. She slowly and cautiously opened her eyes as she turned around to see who was standing over her. Opening her eyes fully, she found herself lying in Lilith's shadow.

"L-Lilith?!"

"I don't like that intonation ... did you call me here for nothing?" Lilith inquired, cocking her head ever so slightly.

"I ... I didn't. I never got the chance," Raquel admitted. "I should probably be dead right now. Why do you think I called you?"

"The orb I gave you, the one I told you to break in order to get my attention? It's broken."

"But I-" Raquel cut herself off to consider the obvious. She must have fallen on it after the swordsman attacked her. She couldn't remember where she'd put it and began to wonder until Lilith presented the fragments to her. "... oh. Where did you get those?"

"I found them at the scene. A typical massacre for this time period, I suppose," Lilith explained before closing her palm again.

So I guess she does know what happened, Raquel realized. "But wait ... what took you so long? Did you only now just find that? It's probably been hours; what took you so long?! Aren't you a vasilus?!" Suddenly she couldn't help but feel angry. Why hadn't Lilith come sooner if she was going to respond? Was she that unreliable that the orb would need to be used long in advance?

"Why are you complaining. Your group didn't need saving."

"That's ... not quite true," a familiar voice interjected. Raquel and Lilith looked to the door to see Reign quietly stepping in, as if more footsteps were going to wake up the doctor or Bert. Once he was inside, he continued. "I heard the news a little awhile ago when they brought you back. There were three casualties," he explained with the same miserable look he had given her earlier.

Raquel's eyes widened in shock. Who was gone? Did she really want to know? "W-who ...?" She could barely utter the question.

"She's right Lilith. We really could have used your help. You could have saved them," Reign said to Lilith a bit pleadingly.

"I'm not here to fight your battles for you," she shot back before turning away from Reign. "You're only mortals; this sort of thing happens all of the time. I hope you can accept that, Raquel. I won't be able to entrust you with this piece of the emblem otherwise."

Tears began to fall and Raquel couldn't do much about them. "What ... w-would you do if you had been there? Would you just sit back and watch? Would you let them die even if you could have done something?"

"Why are you aski-"

"Answer me! Would you just sit back and watch my friends die ... even if there was something you could do about it?!"

"... if you chose your adversaries poorly ... yes," Lilith admitted. Raquel didn't react right away so she elaborated with, "Sardis, the one who took your father and has an emblem piece. He is the only enemy you need to focus on. I can't interfere elsewhere, and I won't."

"We were protecting our friends, the people who got us here!"

"So now you are suddenly obligated to fight their battles for them? Is that what they required of you? And then you blame me for not coming swiftly enough to cover for your mistake? I am not some secret weapon that you can summon whenever you place yourselves into the middle of a crisis."

"Lilith, please," Reign cut in again. "They were with her for quite awhile. Things aren't ever going to be the same. She doesn't need this right now ..."

"Reign, who?" Raquel inquired again, struggling to fight back the fresh tears. "Who did we lose ... and why? Why didn't anyone help them?" she asked pleadingly, begging for answer.

Reign shook his head. "It was too late to do anything for them. John ..."

Raquel gasped.

"Sophia ... and Lia," he finished naming them. "John and Sophia died first, and then Lia died ... right next to you."

"T-then ... then why am I still alive? She was ... she was stronger than I am; why isn't she still here?!"

"I don't know. I don't have all of the details. This is second hand info ..." Reign replied, lowering his head. He couldn't look the sobbing girl in the eyes right now. "But that's why I know ... I know things would have been different if Lilith had been there. She could have done something, I dunno. Anything is better than the way things turned out."

Lilith glared at Reign over her shoulder. "I told you I won't fight your battles for you. Especially not these. You picked your adversaries poorly and paid for it."

"Don't you ... dare," Raquel slowly began to stand up from the bed, picking the opposite side where she had more room. Her voice quickly filled with rage. "Don't you dare talk about them like that ... like they were just some small price to pay for a mistake. It wasn't a mistake! It's never a mistake to defend our allies!"

"The cost was apparently too high, wasn't it?" Lilith countered, crossing her arms afterward.

"... I can't ... believe I'm hearing this. Well no, I can actually. It's just like you to turn our struggles into these petty conflicts so you can justify your indifference! All you care about is stopping Wrath and to hell with the rest of our problems, right?!"

"Are you going somewhere with this?"

"I am. I ... I don't know how to say it but I'm done. I've had enough. How can you even pretend we're allies when you care so little about us?! You vasili are so cold and so apathetic. All you've ever done is make me feel powerless, weak, and oppressed. Enough is enough!"

"You hold a piece of the greatest power ever known and you feel powerless, weak, and oppressed? Why? Having me at your side in battle wouldn't make you any stronger. I told you to focus on Sardis and you chose to run off on some little side mission. And now, because you didn't like the results of that battle, you're questioning me as an ally? That's foolishness, Raquel. That mistake was yours, not mine."

"The problem is that you don't care one way or the other! Do you know who else doesn't care if my friends live or die?! SARDIS!!! He took my father away from me and wants my piece of the emblem, and he couldn't care less if any of my friends and allies die. You came out of nowhere and took half of my piece of the emblem, and basically volunteered me to be a holder for you for your stupid plan to stop Wrath! The only difference between you two is that I was forced to work with you!"

Lilith sighed in the middle of Raquel's rant, and by the end of it spoke up saying, "My options were limited. It was either use you as an emblem keeper or take it from you. Is that what you want instead?"

"There it is again! You make me feel powerless, weak, and oppressed! It's not up to you whether I get to keep what's mine! It never should have been! It's my choice and you never should have had anything to do with it! Ever! I'm not helping you anymore and I'm not giving up my piece of the emblem either!"

"You honestly think I'm going to leave here without it if that's your decision? Truly?"

"I'll fight you ..."

"How?"

"Somehow!" Raquel reluctantly fired back, clinching her fists as she tried to stare down Lilith.

"I'm sorry it came to this, Raquel, I really am. I was hoping you were smarter than this." And with that, Lilith held out her hand and Raquel's emblem piece floated to her. Raquel tried to grab onto it but was too slow. Once it reached Lilith's hand, she closed her fist around it and turned to leave.

Reign intercepted her at the door. "What are you doing?! You don't have to take the emblem! Even if Raquel doesn't want to help you directly anymore, you can still let her hold onto it! What harm would that do?!"

"I'm not taking any chances," Lilith responded simply.

"She could die without it. Remember? Don't you care at all?"

"Apparently I don't care about anything, or anyone," Lilith answered, looking back at Raquel as she did. Returning her attention to Reign she said, "If she'll make an enemy of me over this, then I'll find someone else. You may still be able to save her, but it's not my problem anymore. Now please stand aside. I don't want to have to move you."

I can't believe this is happening. Why is this happening to me? Why can't I stop her? Why can't I do something, anything?! Why do I have to be so helpless?! It's not fair ... it's not! Isn't there anything I can do?! Can't someone ... no, that's ... Raquel fell to her knees looking at her palms as they shook and tear drops bombarded them. I always need someone else's help. That's the problem. That's why I'm in this mess. None of this would have happened if I was strong enough to take on Sardis myself. But Lilith's too strong. I couldn't hope to match her even in my wildest dreams. So what am I supposed to do? I can't just sit here and give up. I'll do anything to keep this from happening, anything ... anything! "I won't give up!" Raquel shot to her feet, ran around the bed and leaped at Lilith, wrapping her arms around the woman's neck and squeezing as tightly as she could.

"R-Raquel?!" Reign was surprised to see her attacking a vasilus with her bear hands.

"You've got to be joking," was Lilith's response. The winged woman swiftly placed her fists down at her side and a shockwave sent Reign to the floor just outside of the infirmary and sent Raquel all the way to the back of the room and into the wall. She collapsed on the floor, barely able to move and flinching intermittently from the intense pain of her injuries. "Don't do that again," Lilith warned.

... so that's it then. That's all I could manage ...

"This is your chance, Discovery!" Came that voice, again. "Ur-... hrg ..." Who? The dragon? It's my chance to what? "This is your chance, Discovery! I know you can do it!" Do what?! It didn't make sense at first, but as she looked up at Lilith, she saw the woman standing over her again, and the golden parts of her armor were all shining unnaturally. "This is your chance, Discovery! Take. Her. Down." But I don't ... I don't know how ... "I don't ... I d- ... I d-don't ..."

"Enough, Raquel. Your injuries are severe. You could die if you struggle anymore."

"What's the ... point of living anymore ...? What's the point if I can't even protect the people I care about ...?" Raquel reasoned. As she began glancing around, she noticed that the doctor had fallen out of his chair and was still unconscious. She could also see Bert from a few cots over thanks to her 'on the floor' vantage point. He'd fallen from his cot too and also wasn't getting up. That wasn't a good sign after Lilith's shockwave. "I don't want to ... live anymore. Not like this .... You should just ... kill me."

"Kill yourself; I've wasted enough time here." Lilith stood up and turn to leave again.

"Discovery, this is your last chance! Your brought Lilith back into this world, and you can take her out of it again! If you don't act now, it's over!" "Hnnnnnnng-gaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

Lilith glanced back to the screaming and then noticed her armor glowing. The intensity increased dramatically and soon the emblem piece she carried was forced from her hand and flew to Raquel. "What ...?"

"I'm not ... weak! No! NOOOOO!!!" As Raquel cried out, most of the golden elements of Lilith's armor turned into a liquid-like stream that quickly poured into her body. Within seconds, Raquel had completely absorbed both emblem fragments, leaving Lilith with nothing. "... I'm not weak ... I'm not ... not anymore."

"You just ... took them. Both of them." Lilith's gaze slowly reached the floor. "Well ... you made your stance earlier perfectly clear. We aren't allies anymore. Hopefully you'll see the necessity of my mission here and work toward completing it, otherwise the world you know will change forever. If you felt powerless before, you'll certainly feel powerless then, when even the emblem can't help you. That's what's coming ..."

"What if ... you're wrong?"

"If you're willing to take that chance just to spite me ... then you deserve whatever fate awaits you, Raquel," Lilith's expression dulled as she spoke, her consciousness slowly fading. "Stop Wrath, or condemn all mortal life to perpetual, irrevocable, tyrannical government. Those are your only options ..."

Before Raquel could reply, Lilith hit the floor. "I ... I beat her. I won ... I don't know how, but I won."

"Just two remain," came the dragon head's voice, though this time it wasn't in her thoughts. "Sardis, and Wrath, no?"

"You think I should fight Wrath too?" Raquel asked curiously. She began to pick herself up noticing that the pain from her wounds were gone. She felt normal again, work of the emblem pieces perhaps.

"Lilith oppressed you, Sardis oppressed you. Wrath is going to oppress you," the dragon head noted. "It would seem so, wouldn't it? By the way, Discovery ..."

"Huh?" Raquel picked herself up while waiting to hear the dragon head's response.

"I'm proud of you~"

Raquel blushed before flinching at a chill that suddenly overcame her. She knew something was behind her and turned to face the wall. There she saw a much smaller dragon head, barely visible to the naked eye, and seemingly mounted on the wall. It smiled innocently at her before fading into the wall and disappearing. She smiled slowly once it was gone.

Raquel began to check to see if the others were okay, but as she did, she began to feel heavy. Before she could check the first person, she felt as if the entire back of her body was pressing against something, like a bed. Her vision was going black before she knew it, and the more she struggled, the harder it became to resist. Eventually she got her eyes open and found herself still in the infirmary, but with no one but Bert and the doctor present. As she looked over the wall where the dragon head had been, she was utterly dumbfounded to see that it had indeed returned, and was smiling at her once again. Was she still dreaming? Now she just couldn't be sure, and without saying a word, the phantom dragon head disappeared again in the same manner as before.

Instead of remaining where she was and trying to guess at it, she sat up in the bed and quickly shook her head several times. That was when she noticed her vest was torn from the attempt on her life. "... I'll have to fix this later," she muttered as she examined the tears with one of her hands while using the other for support. She soon stood up and began staggering toward the doctor, still weak and caught off guard by the sway of the ship. "Hello? Excuse me?"

"Huh?! What? Oh, attractive patient. Feeling better?"

"Err ... sort of. Did we set sail already?"

"Yes, hours ago according to my watch," the doctor quickly answered after checking his pocket watch. Once that was finished, he put it away.

"I should ... maybe see what's going on."

Edited December 16, 2012 by Phoenix

[scorri]

"Ah, no. We were careful about that. I believe what happened was we took structural damage from a crashing pegasus that wasn't noticeable until we got hit by a storm. At which point, well..." Marella shrugged hopelessly. "There was nothing left we could do."

[Parrhesia]

Rook climbs up the proffered rope like something that climbs ropes really badly. When finally deposited on board, the fence gets up, dusts himself off, lights a third cigar and saunters over to his comrade Marella, casually smacking her on the backside. "I ain't in the habit of trustin' flyin' horses anyways; 'specially not now. 'Ere, how many boys've you got on this ship, anyway?"

[scorri]

Marella casually punches Rook in the stomach. "Don't do that."

[Parrhesia]

"Ahahah... ah. My colleague here," says Rook, turning a grimace into his winningest smile, "lovely girl at heart, really, wouldn't know it to look at her. I like this ship, what's she called?"

[ReformBlade]

The pegasus rider was not even quite sure how much time had passed and sort of zonked out, Hannah landing before then of course. Blargh.

Mushirah was getting annoyed at the commotion, also not quite sure what to even do with herself at the moment so she did what she always did to calm herself down, drawing some pictures. Maybe I can do a portfolio for these weirdos? I'm gonna be on this ship with em for a while, may as well pass the time somehow...

Davod was way ahead of the gang and went to sleep early, so depressed was he.

[Snowy_One]

"Wait... You got sunk, by one of the Ursium flying ponies?" asked Robin, a bit confused. "How did you not notice a hole in your ship the size of a horse?"

[scorri]

"As I said before, a pegasus rider crash landed on our boat. When he did so, he did some damage to the structural integrity of the ship. It wasn't anything major, so we decided to fix it when we next landed in port. We were... a little busy trying to get away with our load at that moment thanks to somebody." She glares at Rook. "Anyways, before we could get to port, we hit a storm. The storm took the damage done by Andrei when he crash landed and made it worse. And thus, we sank. Speaking of Andrei, Rook, did you find him?"

Edited December 16, 2012 by scorri

[Snowy_One]

Robin was about to speak up when, in the corner of her eye, she saw Zach. "I am sorry, but there is someone I need to speak too." she said before turning about and walking up to Zach. "<Zach? How are you feeling?>" she asked, raising her hand to put it on his shoulder. "<I know you're still sad over losing Lia, but don't worry, I'm still here for you.>"

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

Delan wasn't sure how the pegasus could have inflicted enough damage to eventually sink the ship, at least now without becoming an unsightly red stain in the process, but he digressed once the other survivor came aboard and approached him. He was getting some serious 'known each other a long time' vibes from these two and couldn't help but smile at it. They were treating this like just another day at the office which was quite humorous. "About thirty eight men, minus Raquel's people. The ship's due to be crowded for this trip up to Ursium," Delan answered Rook's question. Moving on to the next he said "She's called Prometheus."

"Trying ... to sleep." Gabbie muttered quietly from her bedroll.

[scorri]

Marella watched the other woman suddenly walk away and shrugged. Turning back to the man who had been asking questions previously, she nodded. "Minus Raquel's people? Who's Raquel? Also, we would be much obliged if you could give us passage to Ursium if that is where you are headed. Basically anywhere is fine by us."

[Parrhesia]

"As I said before, a pegasus rider crash landed on our boat. When he did so, he did some damage to the structural integrity of the ship. It wasn't anything major, so we decided to fix it when we next landed in port. We were... a little busy trying to get away with our load at that moment thanks to somebody." She glares at Rook. "Anyways, before we could get to port, we hit a storm. The storm took the damage done by Andrei when he crash landed and made it worse. And thus, we sank. Speaking of Andrei, Rook, did you find him?"

"Nah," says Rook, shaking his head, "guess the storm flung 'im overboard with Flaxen."

He turns to Robin, grinning. "'Ello, love. How'd a girl like you get with company like this? 'S practically criminal, and I should know a few things about crime!"

[scorri]

Marella turned to Rook. "No, he touched in right after the storm. Didn't I tell you? He said he was going to go fly for a little to make sure his pegasus was ok and then left. Then we noticed the boat was sinking and Flaxen fell overboard. Hmm... Wonder where he got to? Your flyers haven't seen anything, have they?" She asked turning to the man who seemed to be in charge. When Rook started sweet talking the woman who had asked her a question before, she rolled her eyes and grabbed his shoulder. She whispered to him, "Behave. We don't want to get tossed of this ship into a lifeboat, ok? Remember how much Chariot hated that last time?"

[Parrhesia]

Marella turned to Rook. "No, he touched in right after the storm. Didn't I tell you? He said he was going to go fly for a little to make sure his pegasus was ok and then left. Then we noticed the boat was sinking and Flaxen fell overboard. Hmm... Wonder where he got to? Your flyers haven't seen anything, have they?" She asked turning to the man who seemed to be in charge. When Rook started sweet talking the woman who had asked her a question before, she rolled her eyes and grabbed his shoulder. She whispered to him, "Behave. We don't want to get tossed of this ship into a lifeboat, ok? Remember how much Chariot hated that last time?"

Rook shrugs. "Whatever, he's off our backs now."

"She does look rather like Chariot, doesn't she? I don't like the slightly manic look in her eyes, though, it reminds me of the last one. Besides you, my petal. You're still the only one for me~"

[scorri]

Marella elbows Rook. Hard.