Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[ReformBlade]

Dream training? "That actually sounds useful, get your workouts and regiments out of the way while you sleep and recover..." Aneda said to herself. Now, remembering what I dreamed about is the hard part, so if this ghost dragon head demon thingy can help out with that part "Sounds fun!"

"Ok well it's not exactly common where I come from either but like you pointed out, it's still a thing. So yeah, as long as they're trying I see no reason not to respect them, so long as there's a valid reason for it happening of course." Mushirah explained to Nadya, but then suddenly someone touched her WEAKSPOT and Mushirah was down for the c-... wait, no, she merely looked over to find a woman giving a rather fake but endearing smile "The name's Mushirah, I'm glad people are warming up to me fairly quickly here, it's gonna make this journey much easier for me!" And then whiplashed back into the original topic, training, Mushirah started heading off towards Zach, but never actually going ahead of him nor going out of earshot for anyone else etcetera. What a nice and well mannered girl she is.

[roymbrog]

“Hmm…” Valter thought about it. He didn’t really mind either way, they had plenty of time. “It’s up to you. I do have my chess set on hand, if you want to do that first,” he replied. The pouch he had picked up earlier was indeed tied to his belt.

-----

Uh, training? Now? “I’ll have to catch up with you guys later. I left my axe and armor with Volga,” Katrina said, hurrying out of the galley. If she was fast enough maybe she’d get back on time to meet them.

-----

“Have fun,” Synthia mumbled from her spot on the table. “I’m not going anywhere…”

OoC: Sorry for the shortness, but this is due to exhaustion tonight and not laziness like usual...

[Mercakete]

Norbert thought it over a moment, then answered, "How about we take care of the equines first, then just work on the chess in the stables? It's probably going to begin to get a bit noisy if anyone decides to train in here."

"Besides" he shrugged as he added, "I wouldn't feel right not taking care of Riz in the morning." When you had a mount, work came with it, after all.

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Er, that'll have to do," Connor said, not particularly eager to discuss the topic of Shadrak bedding Raquel. "So what's with all the interest in your past anyway? I mean I suppose I would want to know if I had forgotten a lot, but are you not happy with how things are now?" he asked Gabbie.

Veronika

"So this dragon will present us with 'dream weapons' and we'll be in some sort of imaginary fighting scenario? Hardly seems like practical training to me when one can use a real weapon, though perhaps that's how mages do things," she commented.

[roymbrog]

“Sure. I’ll take the bowls back to the galley and meet you over there,” Valter replied, offering to take Bert’s empty bowl.

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

"Weyland said the same thing. I already troied to forget about it and just focus on the present. It doesn't work, not when everything about this is so wrong. It just feels wrong. I feel loike a dog someone just ... cut loose. I can't help but want to figure out why. Besoides, life before Weyland found me was ... hard. Not a lot of fond memories there."

Infirmary

"I don't know what other mages do, but Ursian trainees get put through all sorts of hell," Reign commented.

"It hardly feels 'imaginary' when you're in them," Raquel noted with an ominous look on her face.

"More importantly, in just a few hours, you can acquire far more knowledge in that world than you ever could in yours~ Well then, Discovery?" the dragon spoke to her.

"Huh?"

"Whenever you are ready, gather those who would stand beside you, and rest yourselves~"

"Y-you ... you mean sleep?"

The dragon smiled widely, and then faded away ...

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"I'm still curious as to what it was like before. Uncle was rather tight-lipped when I asked about it, which is fair considering it's your business," Connor admitted.

Veronika

"My sister said her trials to become a mage were difficult, though she didn't mention any dream training. Then again, I never thought to ask. Anyway, I suppose we should offer up this...training opportunity to the group at large. I am still undecided myself," Veronika said, crossing her arms.

[Mercakete]

"Thanks," the pegasus rider replied as he handed his bowl and spoon over to the horseman. That done, he made his way over towards where the horses and pegasi were being kept: a level up from where they were now.

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

"Well I guarantee you it wasn't just because you're a bit young for the details," Gabbie noted. "Anyway, if you really want to know, I'll tell you, but just remember that I haven't always been a ... uh ... well, hell, I'm not a decent person now, so I guess it doesn't really matter, heheh," she added, her expression fading to something more sad. Well, at least if it doesn't bother him that much, I won't have to worry about it anymore. If it's too much for him ... well, Anna can help me out until we get back to Weyland. Not sure why I'm even going through with this.

Infirmary

"Are you sure we should bother with this?" Shadrak chimed in at Veronika. "That thing is extremely vague ..."

"Sounds like someone from the order of truth," Reign prodded, but he was quick to move on. "Aside from the possible 'dream trap', I don't think we've got anything to lose. If I had gotten the opportunity to train in my sleep back at the academy I would have taken quite a few names during our exercises instead of just letting Wynn do most of the work. Yeah I think we should let the others know."

"Uncertain if 'dream training' will interfere with the resting process," the doctor pondered allowed. It didn't seem very likely to him, but he was concerned that training in their sleep might dull some of the effects of resting and leave them exhausted throughout the day. On the bright side, this was something he might have the chance to observe for himself. "Please notify me if and when you decide to take the specter's offer. I would like to observe."

"It's 'dream training', remember? It's not like you can watch. Or wait ... are you just going to look after our bodies or something?"

"Yes, make sure there are no causes for concern. Also curious to see your personal conditions when you come to."

"That's the thing, we might not wake up," Shadrak noted with a glare toward Raquel.

"Shadrak, he's offering to help. He's never done that before. I never get offers; I just got dragged into dreams whether I want to or not and I don't see why the same thing doesn't still apply here. If he wants to take you into a dream, then it's just a matter of time," Raquel defended.

"Being at someone's mercy isn't a valid reason to trust them."

Edited January 7, 2013 by Phoenix

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Don't say that," Connor protested. "Sometimes you're a little rash, but you're really a good person at heart," he said, unsure whether he was trying to convince Gabbie or himself more.

Veronika

"Seems to me like this thing could drag us into whatever dreams it wants- we probably shouldn't rebuff it if it's courteous enough to ask," Veronika replied to Shadrak's concerns, though still wary. "If we "die" in the dream there aren't any effects on our actual bodies, correct?" she asked the dragon head. She was pretty sure dreams were just dreams, but when magic was involved nothing was certain.

[Phoenix]

Humble Beginnings

"I guess if I didn't at least have some koind of conscience, I wouldn't have quit my old job," Gabbie admitted. "Anyway," she steered the topic back in preparation for the actual story. "When I came to for the first toime, I was in the wilderness by myself with nothing but some supplies, a ton of weapons I already knew how to use, and one thing that stuck out in my head loike nothing else ... 'Gabriella'. I knew that was my name. I couldn't well ask Ringo about what had happened. He doesn't say much," she joked. None of her positive expressions lasted more than a second or two, though. "I had to foind my way back to civiloization and wound up in that unforgiving extremist cesspool. It's also known as 'Sanctis'~ Of course I had no idea where I was going or I would have headed east, not west. Once I realoized Ringo and I were going to starve to death unless I started straddling interested parties or get a real job, I started looking for work. I didn't want to be a waitress forever, but I didn't loike the idea of risking my loife by being a mercenary or joining a security firm, but we all know that eventually happened. First off, I couldn't keep all of my stuff hidden, especially not my lance and since everyone knew Ringo was my wyvern, they knew the weapons were either moine, borrowed, or stolen. Some people are just too damn nosy ..." she trailed off.

She adjusted her seating position a bit, trying to get more comfortable. "Oddly enough, before anyone could start pestering me about those weapons, some pushy idiots troied to buy them from me. I refused and since no one else seemed to be around and they thought I was unarmed, they thought to steal them. To be fair, that was the toughest foight of my loife, but I did win, and I left with all of my belongings minus a moderate amount of blood and awareness. So yeah, that sucked, heheheh, but it turned out someone was there, watching. It's a good thing too or I moight not have made it. So it turns out this man works for a noble house and thinks taking down three mercs solo is impressive. I thought it was impressive too until I wound up with this group. Now it's just a prerequisite for survoival ... ... I would have refused his offer but ... everyone has a proice ... and that coin hemorrhaging bastard doubled moine. He saw something in me that I didn't for a long toime."

Uncertain Future

Shadrak waited for an answer along with Veronika, but the dragon didn't speak again after its image faded. Raquel eventually took the emblem piece back out to check on it and found that it was no longer shining. Well they probably weren't getting any more information as was usually the case for her, so she decided to take a shot at the question, though she sounded more sure of her answer than she actually was. "We'll be fine. I was beheaded in one of my dreams and drowned in about half of the others and I still came out fine ... a little worse for wear, mentally, but fine."

"And you trust a dragon thing that would put you through that just to learn how to use the emblem? Oh, and training that still hasn't paid off mind you. I mean for all it's talk of helping, you still can't use the emblem, right?"

No way. I'm not going to burst a blood vessel just trying to get this thing to work right now, but if I tell him I haven't tried it since we were on the Leverager, he'll want to do a test right now and ... just ... urgh. "No, I tried it earlier; it didn't work, but I wasn't exactly stressed out, either so I wasn't surprised." I'll try it later on when I'm by myself or something. "I'm not defending the dragon's teaching methods, but we already proved that I can use the emblem. Maybe it'll be easier over time."

"Sooo, are you going to just vaporize your enemies with that thing or what?" Reign inquired.

"I ... I have no idea ..." Raquel replied depressingly as she hung her head. "In my dreams it kept me alive after I drowned and let me talk underwater. Not sure how handy that is-" "That is very handy, sorry for interrupting." "In the last dream I called it back from Lilith after she took it from me, so I guess that makes it theftproof if I get it working right?"

Reign grinned. "Maybe~"

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"So Ringo was with you when you first came to- maybe that means you're from Neviskotia somewhere? Wyverns aren't common here in Ursium and your accent isn't Ursian either- though you don't sound like the other Neviskotians I know. Anyway, what did the nobleman have you do after that?" he asked her.

[Phoenix]

From House to House

"Was odd I came to in Ursium, though, and I don't know enough skotian to get by on that soide of Sardius. But yeah ... anyway, Gabbie prepared to continue with the story. "So loike I said, the guy saw something in me I didn't pick up on roight away. I went off to live with him and his family of conniving snakes. Turned out I had been bought into a secret war between the western noble houses. They wanted any koind of weapon they could get their hands on, even if they had to make them from scratch, but I already knew how to stay aloive in a toight spot and looked loike just some girl, so that appealed to my employer. I was hoired to do more insidious work. Instead of running straight into a foight loike I do now, I would work my way into circles, doing whatever I had to do to get close enough to my target to kill them, but the toiming was also important. He said I had a natural talent for toiming my attacks and thinks that's why I survoived that foight when he found me."

"So they polished my skills, taught me how to pretend to be someone I'm not, and more ways to kill people than I can count. Once I knew enough about my target and the people in their loives, they sent me off to kill them, by any means necessary. Sometoimes I'd go in solo and foind my own way in, and other toimes they would help insert me into a social group so I would be harder to pick out." Gabbie stopped looking at Connor after that point and began staring down at the floor. "So, I was that woman. A noble woman thought me her best friend, and I killed her. The head of another family thought me the greatest blessing to ever come into their loives, and his son turns up dead. Faked my own death after that one instead of just disappearing. After that second job, one of my employer's relatives thought I had outlived my usefulness and troied to have me killed when I was coming back. You wouldn't believe who saved me from that one ... an 'enemy of their enemy', heheh. They somehow found out that I was the one behind both murders and they also knew about the noble asshole's plan to get rid of me ... spies everywhere I guess. So they came to my rescue and offered me protection if I did the same koind of work for them that I'd been doing for the previous house. The pay was just as good but they didn't give me any other options if you know what I mean. I was with this house the longest ... and I killed people who were supposed to be my best friends and loved ones. I never had to foight conventionally, so it was easy enough work if you had the roight toiming ... which of course I always did."

"My sixth target was the last one, and that job lasted the longest. It was also when I foinally grew a conscience. Weyland found that part funny at first because he felt that Kale was the one noble who deserved the koind of end I gave him. It's absolutely true ... he was ... evil, the greatest expression of evil I'd ever seen, but I'd still fallen in love with him before it was toime for me to kill him. You're not supposed to fall for your targets, but I did ..." She was finally smiling again, but in a sad way.

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

I'd heard the western nobles enjoyed their deadly games of intrigue, but I never thought it was this bad... "So who was this Kale person anyway- and how did Uncle know him? I don't remember hearing anything about this before," Connor said. Talking about this seemed to be distressing Gabbie, but it was all quite interesting. Probably better for her to talk about it anyway Connor rationalized.

[Phoenix]

[spoiler=All Good Things]"I don't know if he and Weyland ever met in person; Weyland didn't foind me until long after Kale was dead," Gabbie clarified. "As for Kale himself, he was a foire mage ... an incredibly powerful one, but he never went to battle or anything loike that. The other noble houses taught me quite a lot, including better ways to kill, but everything I ever know about making people wish they were dead, I picked up from him. If he was ever so lucky to capture someone important to another house that wasn't a relative, he would take the information he wanted, breaking them in the process, and then send them off to the gate with a damnation spell," Gabbie explained. Not sure if Connor knew what that spell was, she decided to elaborate. "That's when one person stands by and apploies a huge amount of restorative magic to the victim whoile the other sets them ablaze and keeps them that way. It's descroibed as 'nurturing flames'; it wasn't about keeping the flames going for as long as possible though, only about keeping the victim aloive and conscious as long as possible. Kale knew how to keep the flames from burning someone away too quickly, so I can't even imagine what those people went through. Men, women, teens, all they could do was listen, scream and choke while he berated them until they burned to ashes. He would send whatever was left of them that would fit in a small package to their families or retainers. If the person was actually important he moight have sent off an unsoigned letter with them ... wrote the name of the torture technique he used to kill them as a stand alone sentence and if he was particularly happy with how that person doied, he'd draw a smoiling face on top of the letter ... and everyone knew what 'damnation' meant. It meant that the people they cared about had suffered unimaginably up until the very end, not knowing even a second of relief before they doied. I already knew about this before I arrived, but 'Evelyn' inevitably found out about all of this and he was both embarrassed and afraid her--my alias--would do something stupid about what she'd seen. So as Evelyn, I pretended to be horrifoied and we went from there, me pretending to give a damn about those people while he troied desperately to convince me to stay so he wouldn't have to have me killed too. Once he 'convinced' me, or rather once I got toired of arguing with him, I broke down and took the obvious route. He 'educated' me on his methods, and why someone begging for their loife as the flames drew near had to be on foire for foive minutes straight before he could allow them to doie. I didn't care and pretended to still not loike what he was doing. The obvious route was to try to change him, and I insisted on doing so coiting bullshit loike 'you can be redeemed from this'. That ... moight have been true, though. I'm not sure," Gabbie ended, looking a little confused thinking back on it.

"So, originally Kale tortured and executed his 'enemies' as a part of his plan to scare the more powerful houses into not trying to send anymore spoies or attack him. They figured anyone who was captured was going to suffer moightily, but more so than usual and they were absolutely roight. On top of that, he knew his lands well and his home was a very defensible position. His family and property were still pretty small compared to the others, but he made sure that falling into his clutches meant damnation or one of his other ridiculous torture methods. Now just so you understand how messed up that was to the westerners ... well, damnation was something nobles only used when someone had raped their mothers or daughters, chopped them up, and littered them on the front lawn, not people who were just reporting on weaknesses or trying to poison them. Assassination's too rampant to be an insult in the west. So for them, taking down Kale would've required direct force, because without some actual proof other than those letters, the government wasn't going to do much more than make a formal inquiry every so often, and I watched him talk circles around those inquisitors over and over again while I held onto his arm loike some koind of accessory. Over toime, it became harder and harder to infiltrate Kale's inner circle ... he'd interrogate people he even suspected of being agents and people who knew about his methods didn't want to take the risk and I was left in deep. It took me awhoile to realize it but I had gotten lucky ... and not for the reason I first thought. I thought he didn't suspect me because my acting was good, but he was thorough. After awhile it felt loike everyone was on the chopping block. What really happened ... I got lucky because he was becoming a very lonely man, unable to trust anyone in his loife but desperately wanting to ... so much so that I was never quoite sure what he would do if I confessed to him. Would he have killed me loike the others? Bought me from my employer? Sent me away? I don't know, but he didn't get along with anyone, not even his family. My relationship with him was strained too at toimes but he did it on purpose; he was picking foights with me, and I did what some assassins are too scared to do ... I slapped him ... every single toime he started it. It's a little counter-intuitive, but it let him know that I didn't plan on living under him and being berated over his problems. With him, it was exactly the roight thing to do, because everyone else was just too scared of him, too noice, too respectful, everything. I was going to help him however I could and be there for him, but I wasn't going to let him walk all over me when he had a bad day."

After that, Gabbie stood up and leaned against the crates behind her. "If you're wondering how I could have possibly fallen for someone loike that ... it's because of all the things we went through together during his little wars with his rivals, and the contrast between how he was eventually treating me and how he was always treating everyone else. There's too much I could tell, really. He had some very interesting things to say to me at toimes. 'A woman should receive what she wants on occasion, what she needs daily, and what she deserves continuously. I won't make any woman happy by spoiling her with materials or trying to compensate for neglect.' That's what he would say to me, especially when I wanted to splurge on things~ I never knew anyone else loike that. Other toimes I played the 'girlfriend' there was no balance, only whims," she explained. Her hand was gently running down her thigh by that point. "I was someone special and someone he confoided in constantly. I considered giving up on my mission dozens of toimes so I could stay roight where I was. I don't know about his little want-need-deserve formula, but I was happy. In the end I ... I ... changed my moind. And that was the only toime I ever killed someone I actually loved. And I ..." Gabbie quickly slumped back down to the floor. "I really wish I hadn't, Connor. I totally fucked everything up, and for what? To avenge the people who doied? People suffer and doie all the toime, and I've got no reason to give a damn. For ... justice? Justice is just some imaginary bullshit that doesn't exist in this world. Because he enjoyed putting people through hell before sending them back to their families? He wasn't the only noble who set people on foire, he was just really ... fucking ... good at it ..." She wasn't crying yet, but her eyes were filling with tears. "I did it because, I figured ... I figured it wouldn't last. He loved 'Evelyn', not Gabriella. I could never have taken him in a straight foight, and a straight foight would have been my only option if my confession went soideways so I ... I ended it ... all of it. And that's the only reason I did it ... to save myself with a preemptive stroike. In the end it was going to be him or me ... that's what I kept telling myself, at least. And so I've lost two loives now. The first one I can't remember, the second I wish I could forget."

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

Gabbie's story got even more interesting...Connor simply sat in stunned silence for several seconds before coming up with some sort of reply.

"You...did what you had to do," he said, that being the most comforting thing he could think of to say at the moment. "Thank you for trusting me with all of this...are you going to be all right?" he asked, seeing she appeared rather distressed.

[Phoenix]

Come to An End

"I'll never be sure I made the roight call. Maybe I acted too soon, I don't know. But yeah, I'll be alroight, I just don't loike thinking about it this much," Gabbie replied, wiping her eyes before any tears could actually start falling. "You wanted to know so ... there you have it. At least you didn't get me drunk first ... that's what Weyland did, clever bastard. I wouldn't have told him the whole story otherwoise. But after he knew and accepted it, I felt a lot more comfortable. I ... don't really have anything else to hoide from people who know that story. Nothing that I still remember at least."

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"You don't have anything to hide from me Gabbie. No matter what's in your past, it's who you are now that's what really matters," Connor said, leaning over and giving her shoulder a light squeeze.

[Phoenix]

Red vs Blue

It was a long trip ahead of them, but what Zerachiel didn't realize at that moment was that it wasn't going to be as easy as he'd hoped. Just minutes after they left, Gabriel had arrived at Hammer industries for reasons of his own and happened upon the bodies as well as some guards and witnesses. There was an almost inevitable misunderstanding due to his resemblance to Zerachiel and he was forced to flee, but he fled in Zerachiel's direction. He had a lot of guardsmen to lose, but it was even more important that he confronted this 'twin' while he was still close by.

"Huh?" Lucille glanced behind the wagon she was driving and saw Gabriel running up on them at high speed with guards lagging behind as he picked up his speed. "Whoooa look at him! He looks like you but he's blue and cute!~"

"What the hell are you talking abou-Wait, what?!" Zerachiel looked out the window to see what Lucille was yelling about. He only saw Gabriel for a second before he leaped up onto the wagon's roof. Zerachiel immediately fired a shot through the roof and then opened the door to climb up. Before he got out, he looked to Lois and warned, "Stay put. I will break all four of your limbs if you leave this wagon, do you understand?"

Lois nodded. "Yeah ..."

"Good girl ..." Zerachiel then quickly hauled himself to the roof where he found Gabriel sitting on the roof with his legs crossed and his sword lying across his lap. "Hahah ... mind telling me what you're doing here?"

"Meddling, I guess," Gabriel answered blankly. "Why are you abducting the girl in there? That doesn't sound like something the old man would put you guys up to."

"As much as I really want to just lay out all of my plans for you and hope you don't take it upon yourself to fuck them up, I think I'll just skip to the part where I beat the life out of you. Do you mind?"

"If I'm not getting any answers ..." Gabriel was on his feet on top of the wagon in an instant via a simple hop, and had his sword at the ready. Zerachiel climbed up too and pulled out his sword. The guards from before couldn't keep up anymore and eventually several pegasus knights began following the wagon as it left the city and began racing through the surrounding townships. Gabriel and Zerachiel exchanged blows while the pegasus knights tried to shout them down and get Lucille to stop the wagon, but eventually Zerachiel got the upper hand and forced Gabriel off of the wagon. He ended up on the back of one of the pegasi, which would have been fine and allowed the chase to continue, but Zerachiel immediately followed up by shooting the pegasus in the head with his blunderbuss, causing it to crash into the ground injuring the rider and sending Gabriel straight through a window and into a tavern.

"Better luck next time, brother! Hahahahahahhhhhhhh!"

"Zeeeecks, why were you fighting him?! I wanted to meet your brother!"

"Okay, what? J- ... j-just drive the wagon! I'm gonna swat these other two flies," Zerachiel instructed as he reloaded his gun.

"Agh ... well ... that happened ... urgh," Gabriel muttered as he picked himself up and held his bleeding sleeve. The bartender and all of the patrons were just staring for a moment, but the waitress rushed over to try and help him. "It's okay, it'll heal ..."

"What happened?!"

"Well, the older brother doesn't always win, but I think I know where he's going. I'll just try to keep up and head him off when I get the chance ... hope for the best."

"... huh?"

"Don't worry about it. Um, can I get some water please?" he asked with a smile.

"S-sure, just give me a moment."

Confronting the Priest

"Hmm, I wasn't expecting such harsh criticism ... especially after I had been so careful. Perhaps it's merely the effect I have on the others now after all this time. They expect my message to be off base and so even when I remain on topic they find fault with it. This won't do ..."

"Having trouble corrupting the church's message when your peers have ears to hear and eyes to see? Sounds troublesome, but I'm afraid I have some bad news for you, John."

Okay, so John Rinaldi, the naturan priest was back in the naturan's main sermon room in the middle of the night, talking to himself about troubles he was having after his sermons, mainly with how it came across to the other clergymen. Morgana showed up unexpected, catching him completely alone.

"Wait ... are you ... Professor Wyght? What are you doing here?" Rinaldi asked, looking shocked as the woman approached.

"I'm here to kill you; your scheming hasn't gone unnoticed and I will be putting an end to it tonight. Don't bother calling for help. You won't get the chance. You have two minutes to make your peace. If you would like to make a request or have a message passed on, do so now," Morgana answered, walking up to the alter and sitting on it with her legs crossed.

"What? You're ... an assassin? And you're here to kill me?"

"Yes. Shouldn't you be using this time more wisely?"

"What have I done to deserve death? I am a holy man!"

"One cannot serve two masters, and here you are ... trying, and one of those two masters isn't the Goddess Nature which is just sad. I know this is all new for you, but you don't have to talk to me specifically. I'm not a fan of yours ..."

"Well ... I suppose you wouldn't be or you would not have taken the money for this job."

She simply shrugged at that, not even bothering to look his way.

"Listen, whatever they're paying you, I can double it ... I know very ... VERY powerful people."

"Please ..."

"It's true, woman! They could make you RICH!"

"You're all talk and no trousers. Besides, coin can't buy what I want. You're preaching to the wrong audience, Rinaldi, and you're down to about forty-five seconds. Silly way to spend your last two minutes if you ask me."

"Well ... if I cannot talk you out of this then I'm afraid I'll have to make a ... different move."

"Attack me directly and hope for the best? Go for it," she replied simply.

"N-nnno ... you see, I was told that someone would make an attempt on my life sometime this week and was warned to be adequately prepared for that attack ..."

He finally had Morgana's attention and she slowly turned her gaze on him. "Oh?" She felt a little silly not having noticed them sooner, but the two of them were surrounded by bodyguards carrying everything from crossbows to firearms and smaller blades that would work better for them in close quarters. As they began stepping out of the shadows and into the lit areas, Morgana said, "Oh ... well that's interesting ... I have a lot of witnesses to kill now .... Wait-who told you I was coming?"

"Does it matter, Miss Wyght? Unless you surrender, you're going to die tonight. I know you're an earth mage, but my guards are more than prepared to deal with you," Rinaldi warned. Morgana had turned away from him to count up the guards with her finger while he spoke, and had finished by the time he had stopped talking.

"Okay, eighteen combatants, no mages, no magic seals. Easy enough. Answer my question. Who tipped you off?"

"Surrender, Miss Wyght ..." The guards began moving in closer and Rinaldi stepped back to give them room and to avoid being grabbed and taken hostage. "You don't want to die, do you?"

"It was Dominik, wasn't it?! That ass! I bet he thinks this is funny or something!"

"Miss Wyght, please ..."

"That's enough warnings," one of the guards said. "Take her down before she gets her tome out!"

Morgana held out her hand at the man and he tried to fire his pistol only for it to be redirected at him. From everyone else's perspective he had committed suicide right in front of them, putting the pistol into his mouth as he squeezed the trigger. The only hint that it was involuntary was his shaking and last ditch attempt to cry out before the gun went off. Morgana then waved her arm again, and impelled another guard into shooting one of the others right between the eyes, and then another guard was impelled to shoot him. The other guards began to panic when they realized that they too were starting to make suicidal or homicidal motions with their own weapons.

"No ... no! Earth mages have to move objects, not people! How are you doing this?!" Rinaldi yelled.

"You're all nothing but objects to me ... and you Rinaldi, appear to be out of helpers~" The guards began screaming and pleading as they began squeezing triggers that would seal their doom or driving weapons into their chests and across their throats that would kill them in seconds. They all dropped to the floor together, leaving no one but Morgana and John standing. She sighed saying, "Your two minutes are long over ... this is ridiculous ..."

Rinaldi began shaking uncontrollably for a moment and then turned to flee, causing Morgana to sigh again. She started off after him but was waylaid by a bodyguard that was still alive. He grabbed her ankle which stopped her in her tracks. "Y-you ... monster ...! Ack-you'll ... pay for this!" She thought to put him down for good, but didn't notice that he was reaching for a spare gun with his other hand. He'd already taken a shot at her head before she noticed. His aim was off as his vision faded, and the shot only grazed the area just beside her eye.

"Urgh, you didn't!"

"D-die ... you ... you bi-hrg!" Morgana didn't let him finish the sentence. The wound in his chest was reamed by an invisible force and blood quickly stained the floor beneath him.

She yanked her leg away as the man died and began running down the hall after Rinaldi. By the time she caught up, he had reached a dead end in one of the cathedral's distant halls. Just as she was about to take hold of him from a distance, he opened up a door hidden in the wall and ran straight inside. "... I'm being lured into a trap, aren't I? How much did Dominik tell him about me? Does he think this is some sort of game?!"

Rinaldi had descended into the lower reaches of the cathedral and came out into a dark hallway. He stopped to catch his breath and then looked back at the stairs. "She did not follow? I suppose I won't be needing the magic seal after all. I ... should have listened to that man and kept it closer to me, I suppose. I still can't believe that Miss Wyght is the assassin. I've never seen such incredible power. Her earth magic is overwhelming. Worse yet ... all of the people she murdered ... they all look like ritualistic suicides ..."

Morgana stood by the secret entrance looking furious. "... I'd honestly rather kill Dominik at this point. Alright, Rinaldi," she called down into the hidden area. Rinaldi could hear her but barely. "We're done here. Your life belongs to the man who tipped you off, not me. You'll have to deal with him now because I'm through playing these little games. Enjoy what's left of your life, and try not to spend it spreading blasphemy if at all possible ... ugh." She was about to leave but then decided to shut the hidden door behind Rinaldi. Even if he wasn't going to be trapped down there, shutting the door on the man made her feel better about the whole situation.

"T-the man ... who informed me. What?! Are they in league with each other?! I ... but I thought he was trying to help me, not pester Miss Wyght! Oh gods, what am I caught in the middle of? I have to get out of here. I must leave town and seek refuge. I won't be killed by these murderous agents!"

Aftermath

The followup attempt on Schwartz was thwarted by his own timely retreat into a wormhole. Despite the fact that many of them expected this outcome, morale still fell as a result. That single dragon had crushed the front line's momentum, ensuring the charge into Urcenter would grind to a halt. They had only minutes at most before the dragon might return to continue his assault, and it wouldn't be much longer before the enemy navy's reinforcements arrived. Remus reluctantly gave up the city and began to pull his troops back, making the battle of Urcenter a Neviskotian victory.

By the following day, the entire city was crawling with foreign troops and dragons dotted the outskirts, surrounded by vigilant escorts. Boscov was just happy to have survived and fulfilled his mission. He wasn't expecting to accomplish both, but thanks to Schwartz's vicious ambush, he wouldn't need to pull any risky heroics of his own. The two had spoken and celebrated together with the troops the previous night, and come morning, Schwartz was passed out in the street in the middle of some tents, with Boscov resting outside of the camp and keeping an eye on things. Several soldiers were leaning on the shadow dragon while they bragged and bickered.

<"That was good thinking, Milena. You saved me again,"> Boscov said to himself while glancing over at the snoozing guardian. <"Though ..."> he began wondering if there wasn't more to it than simply helping him. <"Schwartz. Schwartz, I need to know something.">

The shadow dragon's right eye slowly opened. <"Yeeeah?">

<"What are your plans now that you're here? Guardians don't show up just to act as diversions. What's your real mission?">

<"Ah, right ... was too busy messing with your people to get into that. Well one of my jobs--keeping you alive--is going pretty well. The other reason I'm here is to strike at the Ursians where they're most vulnerable. Anything that weakens their armies and demoralizes their people will go a long way.">

<"That seems rather risky, even for a dragon of the guardian corp,"> Boscov noted with a frown.

Schwartz grinned as he raised up his head. He didn't move beyond that so that the soldiers using him as a wall wouldn't fall over or be crushed. <"The people of Ursium will be spreading tales of the second coming of Obelisk when I'm through with their defenders. Use that dread and confusion to your advantage and charge forward. Contrary to popular belief, I don't kill Ursians just for sport. You'd better make the effort we're putting into this operation count, Boscov.">

<"We will, Schwartz, you have my word.">

It had been fifty-three days since she began her journey, and now she was back. Port Sergio was finally in view, with dozens of ships in view, most of them docked. The sun was only now beginning to rise as the Prometheus and War Monger came toward the docks. Raquel herself was sitting at the bow of the ship, looking out over the water as they approached. She wanted to be optimistic, but she had no fond memories of this place.

Reign was just annoyed to be back in Ursium in general. Months prior he had been escaping this place to avoid execution, and now he was coming right back after traveling so far. It didn't really start to bother him until he saw the port city with his own eyes. He couldn't stand the sight of it for very long, and after some empty words of encouragement to Raquel, he went below decks to gather his things, including his new coat that Raquel had put together for him over the course of the trip. He opened up his new tome while sitting on his cot and thumbed through it, trying to distract himself. He wasn't able to, and eventually closed it with a sigh. "Okay ... just remember why you're doing this. For Raquel ... because Jethro is worth saving or ... something. I don't know." He soon stood up, leaving the tome face up on the cot and looked up at the ceiling. "Please ... don't let this backfire. I could never forgive myself ..."

Gabbie wasn't interested in the sights and wasn't planning on doing anything until they had actually docked. Nothing seemed too important until then, so she loitered inside of the Dauntless, poking around at merchandise she thought she might be interested in. She wasn't making up her mind one way or the other right now, though.

Shadrak had already come out to talk to Raquel about Sergio Port and was partly responsible for how down Raquel was feeling; asking for more details about the first Org attack was important, but the timing wasn't so good. He was sorry about that, but beyond saying it--which he did--there was nothing else he could do. He spent the rest of his time near the helmsman just taking in the scenery. "I was really hoping that coming back here would strengthen her resolve, not make her get even more depressed. Man, she really isn't cut out for fighting, is she? Oh well ... it was worth a shot, and I need to learn as much as I can about these people so we can find a weakness to exploit."

"Didn't ya say they want to capture Miss Valcyn, not kill'er?" The helmsman chimed in.

"Uh ... yeah."

"That's their weakness right there, I think."

"Maybe ... but they already captured her once, and we haven't had any direct contact with any of their people but Burke since then, so there's no telling for certain if they still need her or just what she's carrying."

"Best to just go right up to them and ask then. I know parlay's not exactly a thing on land, but it's worth a try if all out war is the only alternative, right?"

"Uhh ... I'm not even sure. I don't think peace is really an option anymore one way or the other."

"Peace?" Faatina echoed as she approached. "What are you two talking about?"

"Uhh, the enemy, and how they're never going to let up and neither is Raquel. I want to find a weakness of theirs so we can get the upper hand, but we don't even know where they operate from."

"You shouldn't worry about it right now. Until we get back to this Weyland person, there's really nothing to be done about that."

"I bet you anything they hit us before we reach Weyland. I'm sick of people dying over this. We need to find their weak point, hit it, and end this."

"We will ... just not today, Shadrak," she replied. Then she turned her attention toward the helmsman. "Um, do you ..."

"Mm? Oh boy ... I know that look."

Faatina blushed and her head sank between her shoulders a bit.

"Oh shit ..." Shadrak uttered, backing away from the two of them.

"Can I ...?"

"Alright, but docking's a bit tricky, like I told ya. I'll be right here to make sure nothin' goes wrong, kay?"

"Mmhm!" Faatina quickly took the wheel as the helmsman stepped aside.

Ugh, who would have thought someone would actually be interested in ship driving lessons .... I think I'm going to be sick. I don't want to crash into the docks; that's no way to make an entrance. This is going to be horrible ...

[GoD]

As the voyage at sea was coming to a close, Cheslea Liton reflected on her days during the voyage. Not much happened really, an announcement that there was some floating dragon head and there would be dream training at some point in time. Chelsea also managed to armor for Nenesha, courtesy of Raquel whom she bought it from and Connor who upgraded the armor so it could be more useful. Nenesha seemed to like it a lot when Chelsea outfitted him with it, but personally she thought it looked really lame. The rest of the voyage was uneventful, with the troubadour simply reading her tome and experimenting on her light spells to see how she could better implement them in combat situations.

So their voyage was ending and Chelsea was looking forward to seeing land again, seeing as she hated the sea and boats with a passion, although not as much as the first time she was on a boat, way back when the Fallen attacked them.

"I really hope we don't run into any weirdos when we get to Sergio. According to Raquel it's where everything started, so we probably will run into any weirdo... so long as it isn't HIM I don't really mind. But I doubt we'll get that lucky, especially since he appears when I least want it."- Chelsea talked to no one in particular, instead to herself. Hopefully there would be no encounters at port and they could move to Ursium without much incident.

[Snike]

It had actually been a normal morning in Sergio so far. No Rexians on top of buildings, no ships being blown to smithereens by dark magic, no general chaos. Just a bar fight in the tavern. To be honest, it was boring. Bring back the organization thugs. Their act was fun.

Luckily, the day was still young. Axel was waiting down near the edge of the port, as the Prometheus began to pull in. He had been assigned to help escort Raquel's group -who apparently went off-shore during his absence, oddly enough- back to Europa, which made sense, given that there was this shadowy organization coming after them. Well, since they were still in the process of getting around to docking, the red-armored man decided to perform a mental checklist. Silver lance, check. Rations, check. Emergency first aid gear, check. Armor maintenance supplies, check. Fire rune, check. Yes, it looked like he was ready to go, even if 'go' meant pull a repeat of the Kigen incident. Boy, was he going to get hell for that. Well, once they got of the boat. Until then, all Axel had for kicks was his former companions' scowls, if he could even make them out at this distance.

OOC: Other irritating abnormally-hair colored individuals come later.

[Phoenix]

[spoiler=Shopping Trip(Same day as the TS)]Once the dream dragon issue was decided on, Reign helped spread the news around, and then once that was finished, he sought out Veronika again. "Is that everyone? If so, I'm out of things to do and I figured we could see if Raquel has any other tomes. Hopefully ones that'll last longer ..."

"Everyone should be informed by now- better get you that tome sooner rather than later. How does a tome 'run out' anyway? Do you burn the pages or something?" Veronika asked Reign, walking towards the Dauntless.

"I guess you could burn the pages if you're not careful, but that's not why the tomes stop working," Reign began his explanation. "Everything has limits, and tomes can only be infused with so much power. Once we use up all that power, it's just another verbosely worded book. Anima users have it the worst. We can burn through our tomes pretty quickly if we're not careful ... uh, figuratively speaking. On the bright side, they can be recycled without making a new book. The downside is we don't have anyone with us who knows how to do that. I might actually look into that later."

"Hmm, sounds inefficient to me. Swords do not last forever, but with proper care they can last for many years. My family keeps a sword in our estate that has been part of the family for centuries- reforged several times though of course. At any rate, I'd choose something that'll last a decent while at least. I fear this will not be over after much fighting," she said to Reign as they arrived at the Dauntless.

"Well, it's more efficient than relying on our auras. We'd get off maybe one good spell, and then we're sitting ducks," Reign noted in an amused tone. "Mages in the military tend to carry secondary weapons, like staves, rods, or guns, but I'd rather take this one step at a time. I'll just use it sparingly until we come up with a more long term solution. Can't deny there were some serious perks to military service that I kind of miss ..."

Seeing as they had arrived at the Dauntless, Reign took a peek inside and saw Raquel gathering some things. "Hey, I need a new tome-but don't worry, this one'll be paid for."

Raquel frowned a bit. "Well you're not getting paid to help me so I wasn't too upset about giving out a few free tomes for you to use, but you're going through them awfully fast."

"This one isn't for training, it's for actual combat. Besides, that training actually did help. I was getting rusty and now I'm even stronger than I was back before I left Ursium. I can't exactly protect anyone if I'm not up to par, right?"

"If you start out giving free weapons or other items to everyone, you could end up so far in debt that you wouldn't be able to purchase new goods. And we have enough trouble without having to deal with debt collectors," Veronika reminded Raquel. "Don't be shy about purchasing a tome though Reign, I have a lot left over from the money we got from Weyland."

"Consider those an investment toward my usefulness. You'll be getting back plenty of dead enemies," Reign added. "And don't worry, I'll make sure I get one that can last through plenty of battles. I might need to find another training method now that I've caught up, though. Something less expensive."

"Well, feel free to look around. The anima tomes are right here," Raquel pointed to an open crate. The lid was close by, so it seemed as if Raquel had opened it fairly recently herself.

"Alright, let's see ..." Reign began picking up one tome after another, trying to find the right one. "Hmm ..."

"That reminds me," Raquel turned to Veronika. "Why are you buying a tome for him, anyway?"

"He doesn't have the money and we need as many fighters on hand as possible," Veronika replied, shrugging. "He should be more effective with a fire tome than with his fists. We won't have many opportunities to bolster our forces either...hiring more mercenaries would get expensive," she ruminated.

"It'll be worth it," Reign chimed in, not taking his eyes off the tomes he was perusing.

Her answer made sense to Raquel. "Well as long as you're alright with it," Raquel replied, glancing back at Reign. "Thanks for helping him out. I don't think it's been easy for him lately ..." she added in a hushed tone.

"I know he has some reservations due to his past, but it hasn't been easy for any of us lately really," Veronika responded to Raquel quietly.

"Yeah ..." Raquel frowned and her gaze fell some.

"Welp," Reign spoke up. "This one seems like it has the most energy tucked away. Can't find any others like it. Is this a cataclysm?"

"Err-uh no that's not quite a cataclysm, but it's still got some similar instruction in it," Raquel answered once she got a better look at the tome. She recognized it instantly since it was one of only two she was able to find throughout their journey.

"It could work," Reign replied with a smile. "Hey, Veronika, come here for a second."

"Uh, all right," Veronika sad warily, walking over to Reign. He's not looking to use me for testing is he? No, that'd be silly...he wouldn't want to set me on fire she assured herself.

Raquel was curious but figured Reign was just running is selection by Veronika before buying. She was paying for it after all so it made sense that he might want to inform her about what she was buying.

"Okay, so this here is a special type of tome for more aggressive mages. They use them to hit multiple targets at once without draining the tome as quickly. I could set an entire village ablaze in about one minute with the energy tucked away in here. I'd prefer to just stick to protecting Raquel, but I could do a lot of damage to the enemy with this, and not just one at a time either. Get a group of enemies really close together, wear them down a bit, I'll roast all of them at once."

"Aren't you going to make yourself a big target that way?" Raquel asked.

"If it keeps their attention off you, then that's fine. I would only be using it when I'm certain I can take out more than one enemy, otherwise I'm just wasting energy. We've got other mages for one on one work."

"I don't think we'll need to be setting any villages on fire, but no one else can destroy groups of enemies...Raquel makes a good point about making yourself a target though. If I saw an enemy mage capable of such large scale destruction I'd make them a priority. You may want to position yourself near someone with lots of armor," Veronika suggested.

"Well, beggars can't be choosers so if you have someone in mind, I'd appreciate it if you introduced me," Reign replied.

Raquel was having trouble recalling all of their armored units. What was worse was that even without Reign fighting with them, the group was low on defenders anyway, and Mireille was the only dedicated shield bearer left that she knew about. John's untimely death wasn't helping matters. "I'm not sure what to do. Even I don't get by in fights very well and I'm not even a threat."

"True...we have few enough shields to go around it seems," Veronika said with a sigh, wishing John were still with them. "Killing enemies before they can kill us may be one of our most effective defensive measures at this point."

"Might need to invest in that secondary sooner than I thought then, but that's fine. I can keep myself alive until then. If I can survive a dragon, I can survive whatever Raquel's enemies throw at us," Reign concluded.

"You say that now but you don't even have a shirt yet. How are you going to protect yourself?" Raquel asked with a concerned look on her face.

"If you get the courage to come train with me, I'll show you," he replied simply.

Blast ...

Veronika managed to smirk despite herself. "We shouldn't be fighting dragons any time soon I think. And he does have a point- evading an opponent can be as valuable as heavy armor in the right circumstances."

"Right," Reign nodded in agreement. "And if you start training, you'll be able to do the same and won't have to carry around too much armor," he nudged verbally some more. "I do recommend some kind of armor, but slowing yourself down is almost never a good thing."

"Ugh, let's talk about this later. The tome you're buying is seventy gold."

Veronika pulled out her coinpurse, counted out seventy gold, and handed it to Reign. He should make the transaction himself- mother always used to insist on people paying her with gold in their hands. She looked down at her coinpurse, feeling its weight. Still pretty heavy from Weyland...perhaps I should invest in some mercenaries when we're in Sergio.

"Thanks for the help, Veronika," Reign said as she gave him the money. He gave it to Raquel next and kept the tome with him.

"Thank you for shopping at the Valcyn Emporium, please come again, etcetera," she replied, joking with the two of them in hopes of getting her mind back on more positive things.

"Heh."

"Why did you and your father decide to go into the weapon selling business anyway? Weaponry seems like a rather small market to me, with lots of complications involving permits and such," Veronika remarked.

"It's a better market now than it was a couple of years back, but we started off selling anything but weapons. This arms dealing thing has only been going on since Sergio. Before that, there weren't a bunch of fighters I needed to help supply. And honestly, my father wouldn't like that I'm doing this," she explained, frowning at the last part. "We were trying to get away from all of the fighting and violence ..."

"I'm sure your father will understand doing whatever you had to do." Veronika assured her. "My mother was angry with me when I left for Ursium...and I expect to receive a stern lecture from Pavel upon his rescue, but they will forgive me in time," she said with a sad smile.

"Yeah, he'll get past it ... he has to. It's just ... it's that thing he didn't want me to do that I'm now doing. It's not something he didn't see as a possibility, so I'm pretty sure I'll be in for it later. It's a million times better than not seeing him again though, so I'll just try to focus on that for now."

"That is all you can do really. So, will we be going directly to Weyland's once we arrive in Sergio? Or do you have another destination in mind?" Veronika asked Raquel. We have a list of contacts, but no one else to trust who knows what's on it and we have no other leads to follow...

"Unless we find a real lead to go off of, we might as well head back to Weylands. Besides, according to Anna, he wants the Dauntless back for now and we'll be given another wagon to use, so we probably shouldn't keep him waiting too long ..."

"Ah, to be guinea pigs," Reign commented with a shrug and a grin. "Think the next wagon's going to be better or worse?"

"I'm hoping better. Anyway, like I said, without any leads, all we can really do is get back to Weyland. Maybe he'll have some new information for us. It's been awhile since we've heard from him."

"Sounds like a plan. Have you thought about our travel route? Staying on the main road makes us more likely to be detected by our enemies, but they also may be more hesitant to attack where there would be witnesses," Veronika pointed out.

"Maybe ... it's really hard to tell anymore. I mean when we first encountered them, they blew up a military ship just for a distraction-well ... at least I'm pretty sure they did. I refuse to believe the two events are totally separate issues ..."

"The neviskotians don't do a lot of remote bombings," Reign noted, alluding to the only other suspects for the ship attack he could think of.

"I figure if there aren't any witnesses around, they'll hit us in force this time, but if there are, they'll either create another enormous distraction to draw off attention, or just kill everyone that gets in their way right along with us. I ... I um, I think we're going to need a strong escort or there's no way they won't try something before we make it back to Weyland." Of course they attacked Weyland at his own home, so I guess nowhere is safe really ... how are we supposed to fight an enemy like that? "Mmm ..."

"The Neviskotians wouldn't bomb anything as far west as Sergio anyway- their focus will probably be on Urcenter as usual," Veronika said, frowning a little. "Seems like you're suggesting we should take major roads then- if our enemies have to devote forces to attacking or distracting any local guards those are enemies not coming at us," Veronika mused aloud.

"Right ... I feel guilty doing it though. The best way to protect ourselves seems to be to make things harder for them, but innocent people will probably get killed again. I don't know what else to do, though. It's way too risky to take some back road and hope they don't go all out on us ..."

"Innocent people have been dying from the get go, Raquel ... just make sure they pay for it. That's the best we can do," Reign told her.

Veronika sighed. "Yes, innocent people may die indirectly due to our mission. However, should the Organization be allowed to continue with whatever it is they're planning, the consequences will probably be far worse. We're in a war, not one of our own choosing or against an enemy that openly reveals itself, but a war nonetheless. And in wars, good people die," she said simply.

"I just wanted to get my father back. I only talk about taking them down when I'm angry about everything that's happened but I'm not sure how to do that. What's worse is if we commit to this, we're going to lose more people along the way."

"That's why it's probably a good idea to figure out how that emblem of yours works. It kept you from drowning, right? Might be able to keep some of us from dying ..." Can't help but wonder if it's been doing that all along. I mean our win:loss ratia is incredible and our casualties are so low we'd have any spec ops team that knew about us trying to recruit us. It's ... amazing, honestly.

"No, I drowned first ... painfully ... and then it let me talk afterward and breathe underwater."

Reign grimaced a bit. "Oh ... right."

"Here is a question- would you give up the emblem to get your father back? I don't believe there's any chance for a negotiation without surrendering the emblem, so ultimately any chance for peace with the Organization comes down to that," Veronika said.

"... yes," Raquel eventually answered. Soon afterward, she flinched. A chill just went down my back ... "Not that I really want to ever be on good terms with them; they're murderers and extremists, all of them."

"So much for negotiations, then. Just as well; it wouldn't be a good idea to expect them to just leave well enough alone after you've gotten so many of them killed. They're not exactly breaking even if we give them the emblem for Jethro," Reign pointed out. "I might be jumping a little ahead here, but I'm pretty sure it's us or them at this point."

"I would do the same in your position- but I fear Reign may have the right of it. If they wished to negotiate, you think they would have tried to do so already," Veronika said.

"Yeah ..." Raquel held her head down, figuring they were doomed to keep fighting against Sardis and his lackeys until one side was completely wiped out. "I just wish there was something we could do to take them down in just one battle. Otherwise they could win by attrition; we know they have a lot more people than us ..."

"Kill Sardis. Even if he's in charge of the entire organization that won't put a stop to them, but it will buy us enough time to come up with a new plan without getting overwhelmed; they'll need time to restructure themselves. If he's not in charge, then I guess we've inadvertently pissed off someone even more dangerous."

"You're making this sound like a never ending war!"

"If it really gets that bad, we should just pull the Lilith card," he concluded, staring off randomly.

"Lilith is not a card we can pull- she has her agenda and we have ours. Having a vasilus solve all our problems would be convenient, but I wouldn't count on it," Veronika said.

"She might as well be a card we can play, and not to solve all of our problems, just this one. There's really nothing we can do about the organization above and beyond Sardis judging by how powerful he is, so being forced to deal with his betters too, and likely after having already had some serious casualties, would probably be the end of us. They'll still end up with the emblem in that case and Lilith won't find out about it until they've gone to ground. What I'm suggesting is that if we reach an obstacle we can't feasibly manage on our own while taking on this organization, we ask Lilith to help us. It's that or fight to the last person because I seriously doubt they'll just let us go on with our lives once they have us cornered. This is assuming beating Sardis doesn't immediately put an end to this though."

"Wouldn't it?"

"No, it wouldn't. When a large group loses its leader, it doesn't just disband. Someone always steps up or steps in to take the reins, and that's who we'll be dealing with next. I'm just saying that since she'd rather have emblem pieces under her thumb and not someone else's, it's in her best interest to help us if the situation reaches that point."

"Not sure if Lilith would know when we were in most dire need of her aid- or if she would come even if she knew. She may have changed her opinion on Raquel being a qualified emblem holder," Veronika said, frowning. "Not something I want to rely upon."

"Well that's why Raquel would need to run it by her first. We've been assuming this all ends with Sardis, but that's a dangerous assumption. If anything we should assume the opposite and prepare for it," Reign replied.

"I suppose. But when we can't find Sardis or any other members of the Organization, destroying them entirely seems to be a very distant goal. One thing at a time," Veronika said, sighing.

"Just make sure you run the idea by her first, Raquel," Reign stressed.

"I would have to call her here for that. What if she's upset that I summoned her just to ask about one thing?"

Reign shrugged. "It doesn't have to be just that one thing. There's plenty of issues you can bring up. Just make sure it all seems relevant and legitimate. We can help you if you need it."

"I would appreciate that. I don't want to be alone with her ..."

Reign shrugged again.

[-Cynthia-]

[spoiler=A Recipe for Success (About a week after the TS)]Training in the bow cargo hold had been playing out differently than Reign had first imagined. For one, there were more people using it whenever he checked than he first expected, even some people who weren't even a part of the group, such as several crew members and even Anna, though the latter was more a boon than anything else, at least to him. Once he found time for a break, he headed up to the galley, following the smell of what might become lunch. It had already been a week aboard the Prometheus and so he had gotten into a routine of sorts. Rather than waiting around for the food, he waltzed right into the kitchen to see the process first hand, and help out if it really came to that.

"Hi, Nadya, Zoe," he greeted as he came into the kitchen. "What's cooking?"

"We're making lunch, but I'm also experimenting ... on a little side project," Zoe answered.

"Eeexperimenting?" Reign echoed curiously. He came a little closer to see what she was working on.

"Yes. I'm trying to improve a recipe I learned about and until this trip I didn't have both the time and the resources for much 'trial and error',"

"Huh, yyyeah I guess the extremely limited resources of a ship aren't going to stretch very far on botched attempts, but you'd think it'd all still be edible. I haven't known you to make errors so bad that things stopped tasting good."

"I'm as careful as I can be, so at worse you get something just a little too spicy or salty, but I still feel guilty. Everyone works so hard, they deserve the very best I can give them, not my poorly balanced project failures. Anyway, I'm almost done with this one. I was going to have the captain try it but you've been helping out a lot lately, so maybe you'd like to try it first?"

"Okay, sure, but what is it? It looks like stir fry tightly clumped together with hardly any variety. And topped with some kind of sauce." Reign leaned in a little closer to confirm what he was saying.

"It doesn't have a name ..."

"Hmm .... Name it after the person who gave you the recipe?"

"... Stroganov?"

"Hahahahaah ... oh I knew if we went that route, I'd hear another funny skotian name."

"Huh?"

"Looks Skotian to me. It's probably good enough, ya usually do a decent enough job. Besides, if the person that doesn't do the cookin' has complaints, they can do the job themselves," Nadya said to Zoe reassuringly. "But anyway a taste tester never hurt, go ahead," she said to Reign, curious to see what his reaction would be.

Two recommendations for taste testing? That was enough for him. Reign leaned forward again and opened his mouth, causing Zoe to giggle. She quickly took some of her 'stroganov' and brought it up to his lips. "It's still a little hot," she warned.

"Fire mage," Reign countered before leaving his mouth open again.

He didn't seem to mind, so she carefully fed him one spoonful. His face as he ate was no indication, so she waited until he'd swallowed to ask, "So, how is it? Should I keep experimenting with the flavor?"

"I think it's great actually. If you're going to make it taste any better than this, do it with just one 'special' plate, for the captain or a boyfriend or something. By the way," he looked over to Nadya. "Would you be interested in making this sometime? We're not going to be on this ship forever, so I really think we should take the recipe with us. Either that or ... we steal Zoe. I don't think we could do that and live to tell about it though ..."

"Teehee, no you wouldn't. Sorry."

"No need for kidnappin', if she's willin' to share, I'm willin' to take the recipe and give it a whirl. I don't think I've ever made Skotian food before, but if Robin can do it, I bet I can manage," Nadya said, laughing a little.

"Okay then, I'll try to put some notes together for you once I'm finished. I'll have to make it a few more times to make sure the recipe works, but that shouldn't take too long."

"Can I have the rest of this?" Reign asked, pointing at the food.

"No, I need the rest of this to double check my work. My memory's not the best, so I need a reference point until my notes are made. You can have the next one I make though if lunch isn't very filling."

"Alright, fair enough."

"We're making so much for so many people ... maybe I should make the next batches really large so once I'm done double checking the recipe, we can add it in with the other servings," she mused.

"Please do, I'm sure it'll be very popular."

"I really hope so ..."

"Might as well make a lot, sailors seem to be hungry folk and our group eats a lot too. Your captain keeps the ship well stocked though, probably pretty easy with someone like Weyland payin' the bill," Nadya noted casually.

"True, we can store quite a bit of provisions. The trouble is keeping some of it preserved. I know a little ice magic, but it's tough on my own. I'm glad that Grant fellow is around for the time being. I don't have to make nearly as many trips to the cargo hold~"

"Oh right, him. I keep wondering when we're going to lose that guy, if it all. Maybe I should see if we've got a recruitment opportunity there or not. So, I guess I'll leave this whole skotian recipe to you two unless you need me for anything else ...?"

"Since you're here, you might as well do something." And with that, she directed him toward the food Nadya was cooking.

"Reporting for duty, heheh." You'd think after a week of this I'd be qualified to do more than just stir and taste test, but I'm still not really confident in my cooking skills.

Nadya had just finished pouring meat stock into a bowl of peas, leaving the ham bone in pot. The peas were seasoned with garlic, onions, and pepper. "Ya can stir the peas until they're thick like soup, that'd be helpful," she said to Reign, adding oil to the dough she was rolling into small balls.

"Alright, on it," he replied. As instructed, he began stirring them while guessing at how they might taste once they were finished. "So what are you making here?"

"The bowl we just call a peas pot, what I'm makin' here is Marikli bread," Nadya said to Reign, kneading more dough. "Surprised ya haven't had this before- do the water nomads usually eat fish or somethin' instead?" she asked out of curiosity.

"They do, but I was born in Ursium after my parents left the fleet. I'm more familiar with Ursian cuisine."

"Oh, so you're not really at home on the ocean necessarily either then ..." Zoe mused aloud.

"I did a lot of studying and training when I was little. Wanted to go back to the fleet when I was old enough, but eventually I figured that all the world's problems are the same no matter where you go, and a difference in context wasn't going to make me happy, at least not for long. I might still try and track down the fleet someday if I have the time ... meet some relatives maybe, but for now, it's just 'stay alive' and taste test things for chefs in need."

"Snrk ..."

"Can't say myself that I agree that all the world's problems are the same- not after seein' Sanctuary. Everybody there seemed so content- well when Gytha wasn't makin' a ruckus anyway. The problem there seems to be that they don't want to let everybody in and everybody wants to get in, so it ain't perfect...but payin' lip service to Aisha seems a small price to pay all things considered," Nadya said, making more dough balls.

"Oh that's right, you went to Sanctuary before I got here," Reign remembered. "Well it's kind of similar. People fighting for their own sense of what's right on one side, and the other side doing the same. Drastically different context, granted, but that seems to be the running theme in this life ..." He continued stirring and sighed as he did so.

"I don't see why that would stop you from wanting to go visit the other nomads," Zoe chimed in again.

"Uhhh ... well ... ... either of you ever feel out of place no matter where you go? It sort of hit me when I started noticing some trends in Ursium. It's that 'us and them' mentality. I'm a nomad in heritage only and an ursian in everything else. I'm sure a lot of them would welcome me with open arms, but it would take a hell of a lot of effort on my part before I was ever truly one of them and not just an outsider. It seemed better to just do that in Ursium and not spend the rest of my life out at sea. I had friends, relatives, a life, all that right where I was, so why leave?"

"But you did leave ..."

Reign winced for a second.

"I felt at home back with my clan, but that was due to the people not any place. Nomads don't have a home- that's why we're called nomads. The Kigenese aren't real keen on havin' nomads around, maybe even less than they do here in Ursium," Nadya reflected aloud.

"Unwelcome wherever you go ... that's really sad," Zoe said with a frown. "So why did you two leave?" She had been reluctant to pry too much into Nadya's past before, but since they were on the topic now, she felt she could get away with asking and Nadya could simply decline if she felt it too personal to talk about.

"Well, it was the best move for everyone really- there coulda been some trouble if I'd have stayed in Kigen much longer," Nadya answered vaguely, beginning to fry up the dough balls.

"Mmm, what she said," Reign followed up.

"Hmm, sounds like you two each got into your own brand of trouble. Sorry to hear that. I-I won't poke around anymore, heheh."

[Ether]

So that was the Prometheus... the girl she was supposed to escort, Raquel Valcyn, was on that boat.

"I've heard a bit about that one... still can't say a whole lot of her..." Arietta muttered to herself, as she watched the ship come into port.

'That other guy, what was his name, Axe...? Wasn't he with them before?' Arietta tried to think back to the debriefing, though to no avail. She supposed the only way to find out for sure was to ask the man directly. Walking up to the red-armoured man, who appeared to be mulling over something or other.

"Hey, Ace... Axe... guy, whatever. You were with this Valcyn girl for a while, right? What can you tell me about 'er?"

[Snike]

[spoiler=Item Get (around Day 5 after the TS)]After a few days of deliberation, practice, and study, Blake decided to go pick up a quarterstaff, along with a cloak to replace his late cape. The former was because he wanted a bit more reach in battle, and the latter was because there was always the chance that the group would meet someone else from the past - an encounter he really would rather avoid if possible. The swordsman made his way to the Dauntless, where, luckily, Raquel was present and not apparently in the middle of a separate transaction. Perfect.

"Sorry to interrupt you, Raquel," he began, as neutrally as he could be. "But, could I purchase a quarter staff and a cloak?" Best not to extend this any longer than necessary, especially if the merchant was still angry.

Very little progress on the coat had been made so far, but she was just lucky to come across the right materials on the ship. She also had a few sample coats to work with. She put that on hold for the moment though since there was a customer. Though the customer and request didn't really fit together from her point of view. "You want a staff and a ... cloak?" Her repeat of the order carried with it that unmistakable tone of curiosity. She sat the coat materials off to the side and stood up to start retrieving the items. "A cloak I can understand I guess, but would you really be using a staff over your sword?" I guess they do have more reach, but it's still not as convenient as a sword, and certainly not as easy to store. Maybe it would take some attention off of the sword though ... I don't know. Okay here are the cloaks. "Mmm," she took one out feeling unimpressed by it. "Well here's one of the better ones, I guess ..." I just got an idea. If I practice on this gear and manage to get consistent results, I can improve the quality ... and then I can charge more for it! That's perfect!

Oh boy. It appeared that Blake's employer was surprised by his choice in equipment, more specifically by the quarter staff. Which was somewhat understandable, given that he'd never given any indication of being able to use a staff before now. The cloak was questioned to some extent, as well, but luckily not too too much. He'd probably be able to divert the rest of the attention from it if he explained why he was picking up the staff.

"Yes, I certainly would," Blake said, averting his eyes. "I mean, among other things, a staff has more reach and hits faster than my current type of sword, so it will make any of the faster or lance wielding opposition much easier to hit, at the cost of only a little power and leaving myself a bit open. Of course, my sword has some advantages as well, so I'll probably alternate between the two weapons as necessary."

He would've went on, but Raquel had already retrieved a cloak, which, despite her lack of enthusiasm about it, suited the man's purposes perfectly fine.

"That one works well," Blake said, "How much for both items?"

Raquel handed Blake the cloak, intending to get the staff next. "Well this is just a regular cloak, so the total for both of them should be sssixty." The box with all of the combat staves wasn't too hard to find, being as long as it was. She knelt down to open it and began looking over the staves. There are only a few items that are completely identical. Selling everything at the exact same price per type is starting to look a little crazy now. Hmm, maybe Connor can help me get everything up to a better standard. It's not like we don't have the time ... "Um, you can pick one out of here that you like. Far be it from me to pick for you, heheh ..."

"Thank you," Blake said, as he removed his money pouch and draped the cloak over his shoulder. He had scarcely began counting out the gold needed when Raquel asked him to pick the staff himself. That took about a minute, whereupon the swordsman found a staff made of smooth, polished wood. Excellent.

"This one works nicely," the man said, as he lifted the staff out of the box, before returning to the counting of the gold. "... Out of curiosity, how did you get into the merchant business, anyways? No offense, but I don't see this as your first option for a career."

"Errr, well it wasn't what I had in mind originally," Raquel admitted. "My father wanted a job that would let us move around instead of being in one place all of the time, so 'wandering merchant' seemed like a good option." We're actually more like peddlers but I really hate that term ... "I had to do a lot of studying too just so I could work as an assistant, and we still weren't doing very well for awhile. Weapons are better business than regular old junk and supplies, so we needed several favors just to keep going. It didn't take long before we ended up in Sergio and ... well ..."

"I see..." Blake said, as Raquel's explanation came to a sombre end. "We ARE going to get him back, Raquel. I meant what I said back in Temptress. That, I promise."

Well, that was totally subtle. Good one, genius. The swordsman broke eye contact and began to hurriedly count out the rest of the fee, if only to get out of there, and fast.

"I-I know ... I just ... don't have a lot of reasons to be happy about any of it right now. I won't feel better until I see him again."

... That was not the reaction Blake had expected. Apparently, what he had said had caused Raquel to admit that she didn't have much to be happy about. Oh boy. The swordsman collected the payment needed for his gear, and recounted before extending his hand.

"Here's the payment," Blake said, offering the merchant her payment. "Well, sometimes you just have to think about things positively. Like, your general situation since the trip started. You have friends like Reign and Veronika to rely on for moral support, people like myself and Zachary to protect you, and now you're making a profit. And once your father is freed, you'll have him back, as well. It isn't all bad, you see."

That was much smoother. He almost believed himself for a moment, there.

"I have been able to sell some things since we boarded ..." she admitted. "Though my father's going to kill me when he finds out I turned to selling arms to fund this rescue operation, heheh ... oh man." She was laughing genuinely at first, nervously afterward, and then just standing there pondering what might actually happen afterward. She was hoping he would just be grateful to be rescued, but he was a blunt and honest sort, and she knew it wasn't beyond him to point out something he didn't like even at a bad time. "Iii did what I had to do. I'll just tell him that."

"He'll probably understand. If he doesn't, and tells you to go take the inventory for all of the vulneraries, or something, at least he gets to deal with the problem customers or mercenaries," Blake said, shifting to a bit of a lighter tone now that the mood had shifted. "Unless that's his form of punishment... Anyways, I'm glad to see that my advice helped a bit. Just keep thinking about things like that, and things will hopefully be less stressful from hereon out."

"He'll probably want us to go back to being ordinary merchants, but that was getting us nowhere, fast. I'll have to talk him into sticking with arms dealing. If we're really going to be traveling merchants then this is our best shot I think ... well that and me becoming good enough at synthesizing to provide extra services. That alone might sustain us if I got really good, but I don't want to rely solely on that. I don't want to just be scraping by ... oh right, the money!" Raquel finally realized that she hadn't accepted Blake's payment for the items he'd purchased and quickly took the gold. Chip appeared out of nowhere and took one of the coins for himself before disappearing behind some crates again. "Mrgh ..."

"Right... So that's what you were doing before I interrupted. Sorry," Blake said, as he drew his hand back. "Well, your business will probably thrive, either way, though I personally don't have a problem with living sparsely. Some of the best years of my life were spent on the road with nothing but what I could carry on my back. Though, different strokes, different folks, I guess."

Especially given what he had grown up with. Luckily, before he could elaborate more, Chip popped out of nowhere and plundered a coin from Raquel. "Does he do that often?"

"Well this year I've spent on the road with my father wasn't really that bad until Sardis showed up but I never really liked the challenge of living this way. I'm used to being in one place with a comfortable bed and familiar sights every morning. There were good things too, like always having room to ride the horses around when we weren't moving the old wagon. I never made any new friends though."

She glanced off at the area Chip had disappeared to and sighed. "I should consider it a good thing that he's doing this now instead of obsessing over the emblem. Sometimes he does it, but usually he just takes things like rags or something small enough he can use to wipe off his gun. He's been cleaning it every day since my father taught him how, even when he doesn't use it. He's not very good at it though, hahah."

"I can understand your feelings about that, and, well, sometimes I wish I could go back to living in my hometown. But, things just got stale, staying in one place, you know? You eventually get tired of the monotony. Day after day, seeing the same sights, having the same discussions, and doing the same meaningless things over and over. I just had enough, and left. It's been hard at some points, but, well, overall, I don't regret it." Of course, that wasn't the whole reason why he left, but Raquel didn't need to know that. Time to move on, especially regarding a bit of a concern that Raquel unintentionally brought up. "I hope he can clean his gun well enough for long term use, though. Otherwise we'd better find a supply of monkey pistols, and fast."

Hometown ...? Hmm, where was he from? Did he ever tell me? Mmm, I shouldn't pester him about that right now. "Well I'm glad your time on the go has been worth it. I'm also glad it was your choice and not something that was forced on you ... anyway, about the gun. Chip's taken pretty good care of it, especially for a monkey, but I really doubt he understands the purpose behind it and that's why he's so sloppy. I mean he's good at maintaining the barrels because he uses a little rod with a cloth wrapped around it. It fits inside snugly so he can't really miss anything, but with the outside he does it by hand and he's anything but thorough. My father used to take the gun and finish whatever Chip missed. I was thinking about taking over but Chip hardly ever has to use it anyway, so now it seems like he's cleaning it a little too much. I don't know a whole lot about guns, so I can't really be sure but he cleans it whenever he doesn't have anything else to do, so it's multiple times a day ..."

"... Alright, well, if it's fine for now, then I guess there's no need to worry yet. Though, just in case, maybe Weyland can produce a back up pistol the next time we end up in Europa," Blake said, looking towards where Chip disappeared. Eventually he realized that he'd best be going. "Well, I'd better go start practicing with this staff. Sorry for taking up so much of your time."

"Okay then. See you later, I guess," Raquel bid farewell. Having little else to do but get back to the coat project, she grabbed her things and sat back down to get back to work on it, but she was feeling a little tired ....

[spoiler=Remembrance (Same day as previous section)]He had gained a little solace from the gain of the staff, but the specter of Lia hadn't left Blake, not yet. He had forgotten what it had felt like to really, truly, and completely fail someone, in the past few years. The little girl's death reminded the Ursian of that experience, and reinforced the fact that he hadn't really gotten any stronger since that time, all those years ago. He had tried to leave that error behind, along with his ignorance, but it was all for naught...

Maybe he was supposed to remember that, in order to stop events like it in the future. Maybe that's why it had come back with a vengeance. Maybe it was retribution. Maybe he was just the gods' plaything, doomed to fail no matter how hard he tried, for their humor. Maybe he was just over-thinking this. Regardless, Blake had determined that he wouldn't be forgetting, this time around. His new weapon would be a testament to that.

The swordsman had found a rather remote area- remote as could be, given that they were on a ship-, and for the past half hour, had contemplated what to do. After having reached his decision, the mercenary promptly put his staff to the sword. It was a shame to carve into the polish, but, well, he could always reapply a finish down the road. A few minutes was all it took for the work to be done. The words, 'Au Revoir' were eternally etched into the instruments' wood, and his remembrance was made. How long he'd keep that staff, and its' unfulfilled promise, was anyone's guess. It would be his burden to carry for both the short and long runs of this journey, anyways.

It was a bit of a petty gesture, really. To carve a few words into a staff to honor those who no longer cared about this world. All the same, it made Blake feel a bit less guilty. He didn't run away from his mistakes, this time, so hopefully, he could begin working towards redemption. That was all that he could ask for, in this lonely world.

***

Sergio Port. The place where this had all began, apparently. It appeared to be like any other port Blake had been to, though less... foreign. The swordsman took a moment to gaze out towards the destination, before returning down below decks to retrieve his gear. His sword went into its' sheath, the cloak was donned over his coat, hood down, and the staff was held by the man's left hand. It was less cumbersome than somehow carrying it on his back, and he had a free hand to draw his sword or pull up his cloak's hood, should a familiar face present itself. Though, that was unlikely, given how far out from Urcenter they were. Regardless, one could never be too cautious.

***

Grant was still asleep at this point in time, and would likely be for at least a while longer. Their arrival at Sergio port just simply wasn't a big enough deal to warrant an early awakening.

***

"Well, let's see..," Axel said, mentally tallying up traits. "She's a timid, naive, weak-willed, vengeful, fool of a merchant's daughter. But at least she's lucky enough to have the resources and the connections to be associated with the professor. Otherwise, I doubt she would still be alive and free by now. Of course, this is coming from someone who makes a habit of pulling stupid stunts, so it might be best to see for yourself."