Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Mercakete]

As she wandered around the deck, Gytha sighted Captain Delan headed for a knot of people by the gangplank. If he had business with the people there, Gytha figured she'd just wait until that was concluded. Matters concerning one's own ship was obviously something a captain would be invested in, after all. Though at second look, it actually seemed more like he wasn't about to stop at the crowd congesting loading and unloading proceedings. Well, that wouldn't do.

"Hoy, hold a moment!" Gytha called as she quickly closed the distance between herself and the captain. Once at a comfortable talking distance, she continued, "Apologies fer interruptin' whate're yer business was, Captain, but I've got me own business t' discuss with ye. That is, me pay fer me service. I'll be leavin' yer ship with Raquel n' 'er company, so it's time fer that contract t' be fulfilled."

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

[spoiler=Knight's Mares]"They've taken many of our soldiers already... I'm afraid we must consider surrender."

The man was just finishing his somber report to his king in the royal ruler's war tent. The man didn't look too pleased, either. "No! We cannot allow that scum to achieve victory! Not this time..."

"Sire, we've lost every battle we've waged! This foe is simply unstoppable!" the messenger insisted.

"We will not surrender!" the king insisted as he slammed his fist down onto his armrest. The messenger bowed his head, but he didn't comment any more. His morale had been spent long ago.

"We cannot lose...not this time..." the king went on, "I'll take to the field myself if I must."

"No, sire! They'll capture you!" the messenger sprung to pleading again.

"Enough! Let us hear what the tactician has to say," the king decided, turning his gaze to the man who'd been standing quietly aside, listening to the report: Norbert.

"How many are left?" Norbert asked thoughtfully.

The messenger was visibly uncomfortable, but sighed, "A few soldiers... I..." He stopped, clearly having more to say, but having quite the time trying to get it out. Finally, he quietly finished, "The queen, milord... She...was overtaken..."

Dread, sorrow and shock replaced the tension in the room at the news. For a short while, there was silence. Then, the king uttered, "N-no..."

"This...doesn't look good..." Norbert muttered, mulling over the layout of the battlefield and how things stood between the warring countries.

"My queen..."

Norbert's eyes shifted over to the king as the man continued to cope with the shock of the news. "This is difficult, I know... But like you said, we can't afford to lose this battle. We lose this battle, we lose the war."

"Give him a moment!" the messenger snapped, "It's your fault we've lost every battle so far! We've been following your tactics, and to what end?!"

"It's not my fault your enemies got the help of a better tactician!" Norbert returned in frustration, "This hasn't been easy for me either!"

"You're a foreigner -- you've nothing to lose! But us... Our kingdom will be gone!" the messenger shouted, then, more quietly, but still boiling with rage added, "Perhaps, though...that is your tactic..."

Norbert gave the man a steady glare as he tried to figure out what he meant. "What?"

"You... We've lost every battle against these foes because of you... Perhaps..." suddenly, the messenger boldly accused, "Are you working for our enemies?!"

"What?!" both Norbert and the king exclaimed at the same time. Norbert could hardly believe the accusation. The king, however, had stood from his seat and was glaring at Norbert furiously.

"You... YOU cost me my wife?!" the king raged as he took slow, menacing steps towards his tactician, griping his drawn, massive blade tightly by its hilt.

Norbert had the sense to turn his attention to the king. He even took a small, steady step back. The king was massive and intimidating, after all. Still he spoke carefully and confidently in his defense. "King White, I assure you I haven't even spoken to any of your enemy's forces."

"If we lose everything, what does it matter to you?" the king darkly replied, steadily raising his weapon, "Likewise...if you lose everything...what does it matter to us?"

"Sire!" a soldier clad in white armor stained red half-coughed, half-gargled as he staggered and tripped into the war tent. That at least took the attention off of Norbert for a second.

"What happened?" the messenger asked urgently as he rushed over and tried to help the soldier up. It was in vain, however, as a sharp, ebony lance jutted past the tent's flap and mortally gored the messenger. Following the lance's momentum, several soldiers in black armor rushed into the war tent, poising their weapons at the king and tactician. More regally and far more calmly, the enemy king entered the war tent, followed closely by another man.

"Valter?" Norbert had the strange sense he should have known he was the tactician serving the enemy country, but he was surprised all the same.

"You... You traitor! YOU DASTARD!" the white king exclaimed in rage, first knocking Norbert -- who hadn't had time to brace for the king's attack -- to the ground, then driving down his sword into the tactician's chest even as a black arrow pierced the white king's own heart. Said arrow had flown from Valter's bow, which was now held before the horseman, but too late... Or was it?

As Norbert looked around, even as his vision began to fade, he noticed no one advanced towards the scene. Even Valter's expression was unreadable, though he did say something. Just one word: "Checkmate."

Norbert woke up to find himself, indeed, on his back on the ground, looking up at the ceiling. There was no sword sticking out of his chest, though, and he wasn't in a tent of any sort. Steadily, as he recalled where he was, Norbert took a deep breath then slowly released it. It was a dream. As he sat up from where he'd fallen out of his cot, the pegasus rider surveyed the room he was in. There weren't many people remaining. For a moment, this all felt fairly normal. Then, he remembered something was special about this day. He also recalled why he'd wanted to wake up early on this particular day.

Sweet Mercy I slept in! The pegasus rider sprung up and quickly geared up for the day before darting towards the stairs. His first stop was the hold that held the equines, but as he went in that direction, he noticed Valter was one of those still asleep. For half a second he debated whether or not to wake the man up. If they were already in port, though, he figured the horseman should be awake. So, as he passed by, Norbert purposefully bumped into Valter's cot to jostle it and called back, "Wake up, Valter! You'll need as much time to get ready for the day as possible with that long hair of yours!"

Then he was out of the sleeping quarters and again focused on his first destination. There was something else that stopped him on his way, though. One that, once again, he was surprised to see, though this time managed to greet differently from the past two times he saw her...though not by much. "Suzumay?"

Edited January 26, 2013 by Mercakete

[-Cynthia-]

"Well, she shot us with water after I informed her that I wasn't goin' for her little scheme. She followed me all the way to the boat too," Nadya said, her thumb pointing in the direction of Tia. She noticed Shadrak was talking with her- Nadya hoped he was just trying to get her off the boat.

[Snowy_One]

Tia looked up at Shadrak for a moment, clearly uncertain if she should trust the man or not. She would be walking onto a ship full of strangers whom were friends with a woman she had just tried to sue after all. They could very well be vagabonds, killers, and monsters held together by the thin chains of money and more than willing to kill a young woman just for fun. However, whatever fears she had were, apparently, outweighed by her desire to see her books fixed and she slowly started to walk up the ramp, taking care to ensure her books didn't get dropped off the side and into the ocean.

[Eail]

Luka

It was finally time to get off of this forsaken ship and both Luka and Rika were quite ready for that. Getting to fly was a love that both master and mount shared. As soon as he was awake the boy hurried down to the stables to prep his pegasus. Getting her grooming and other stuff like that out of the way, just incase something happened today. While doing that he heard another person enter as well, it was the red haired man that he'd seen before in passing a few times, he seemed to be taking care of his own horse. "You're a friend of Miss Synthia's right? I've seen you two around together a bit" He said, making small talk

[Click This]

After a few moments, Mao was approached by a person that had been busy attending her wyvern mount.

"Me? I'm Mao Ehrendott. I'd introduce myself as a company owner a few months ago, but I'll say I'm a traveling merchant. I was helping, or meddling, if interpreted in another way, with that little scene a few minutes ago." Mao paused for a moment. "Are you traveling far?"

Edited January 26, 2013 by Click This

[Parrhesia]

Rook slips out onto the decks while nobody's watching, and slips into the closest brothel. He thinks he recognises this place... maybe he's got a bastard or two to return to.

[roymbrog]

The bump to his cot was sufficient to wake him and Valter sleepily processed what Bert had yelled back at him. Hmph. It wouldn’t take that long.

Well, ok maybe it did by some people’s standards. Regardless, within ten minutes he’d made it down to the stables to collect Phyllis. He ruffled the horse’s mane in greeting and was retrieving her saddle when the healer decided to speak up. “Yeah,” he replied as he began brushing down Phyllis’s back. “You’re Luka, right? She hasn’t been bothering you, I hope,” he said, remembering the first day of the two week cruise.

-----

Rook's earlier war on gulls had some pretty predictable results, one of which was that those that were shot tended to die and fall. One of the dead gulls had landed precariously perched on a bit of rigging. An errant bit of wind, apparently disliking this fact, endeavored to blow it off. Which it did, and the dead seagull plummeted towards the loading ramp and some poor red-headed girl. Whoops.

[Phoenix]

Strange Meetings

Raquel glanced over expecting to see an old untrustworthy looking beggar woman for some reason. Instead she saw a child carrying far too many books. That was new. "Hmm, it looks like she's coming this way ... with Shadrak. Maybe you'd better go, Nadya. I think I can handle this." The last thing she wanted was for Shadrak to bring the girl straight back to Nadya and force her to intervene in an argument.

"That's her," Shadrak said, pointing out Raquel. "Mmmaybe you should set those books down while you talk to her? No one's going to steal them, I promise." He would have offered to carry some of them but given that they were the cause of all this drama, he felt better to try and ease her load with a more hands off approach. He was already doubting it would work, though. He noticed that she seemed awfully protective of the things despite carrying them around the way she did. He did not notice the falling bird, however ....

Business

"Ah, right you are," Delan replied. "I should have told you sooner, but Gerald was to handle your payment. Perhaps the timing is poor though. He's going to be even busier than me soon. Out of pocket will have to do this time, then." With that, he proceeded to pay her with coin taken straight from his own pockets, twenty-four in all.

Small Talk

"Mao the merchant, huh? You look sturdier than ours, heheh. You can just call me whatever you want, so long as it doesn't start with 'gah'. Anyway, I don't think our destination is that far off, but we're going on foot so ... maybe. Why? Are you selling anything?"

Stuff I Can't Think of Proper Titles For

Anna emerged on the main deck holding Chip in her arms and was followed shortly by Reign who was still holding onto the basket and a travel pack he'd acquired at an earlier time. Anna was swamped immediately by the sailors, but not for her good looks. She had work to do and everyone was waiting. "Ooookaaaay, I didn't quite realize we had docked. I'm sorry, heheh. I'll go check in with our friends down at the docks. It shouldn't take too long. Just try to get the Dauntless rigged so we can move it as soon as the crane gets here, okay?"

"Alright. You heard her, boys, let's go," Silas ordered.

Reign walked around that entire scene and approached the port side of the ship, not too far from the loading ramp but toward the back half of the ship. He stared out at the port and sighed. "Home ... worst idea I've ever gone along with, but hopefully something good will happen." He paused for a moment and then began laughing. "Why the hell would anything good happen, hahahahah! I'd better just hope we're not screwing around here for too long. That's about the only good that'll come out of this ..."

Suzzy

How did she know she wasn't going to make it to the main deck without running into someone else? Though she didn't recognize the voice right away, she did recognize Bert by his face. She supposed that was better than running into Shadrak or Gar ... "... yes? Did you want something?"

Edited January 27, 2013 by Phoenix

[Snike]

"I see...," Axel said, when he was told that John and Sophia passed away. It was depressing that one of the two people he had tried his hardest to keep alive had went and gotten themselves killed in his absence. Gee, thanks, buddy. Not to mention that Weyland wouldn't be pleased, what with one of his employees being killed in action. Overall, it was a fine mess to come up in the morning, and the red armored man did not need nor want to deal with that for the time being. So he didn't. Instead, while Aria and Raquel were distracted, the man decided to continue speaking to Veronika.

"Well, thank you for helping me out there, though I wonder why you risked yourself and consequently your chance of finding your fiance for a probably dead man," Axel began, looking away. "Anyways, is there anything that needs to be done before the crane arrives?"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"I do not leave comrades behind, even ones who insist on blowing themselves up," Veronika replied to Axel, frowning a little at mention of her fiance. "I don't believe there is much else left to do at the moment, save for everyone preparing themselves and getting off the ship."

Nadya

"All right- don't take what she says at face value and I wouldn't give her a penny if I were you either," Nadya warned Raquel, knowing the pink-haired merchant to be a bit of a pushover. She moved Luca closer to the ramp- she wanted to get back to riding but currently the loaders were taking up most of the ramp.

Connor

"Try to be careful, the Dauntless has a number of volatile materials inside. I made sure they were packed away before I left but..still," Connor advised the crewmen. The thought of a box of grenades going off inside the wagon was not a pleasant one in the least.

[scorri]

Marella chuckled. "Well, I suppose if the egg won't break, there's not too much harm. Hopefully it doesn't come out of there with a tendency to hit things in the face though. That'd be a bit unfortunate. Anyways, Kat, what are you up to? Any clue what's been going on or where we're supposed to be going?" She glanced around at the activity going on. "There sure seems to be a lot going on, but not sure what I'm supposed to be doing."

[roymbrog]

Kat was feeling a bit less embarrassed after Marella had really thought nothing of it. “Haha, yeah…” Hopefully she wasn’t passing on a trait like that to the vasilus though. She would be feel extremely guilty. “Well, besides getting ready to leave, I don’t think there’s anything we’re supposed to do right now. I suppose we could ask?”

[Eail]

"Couldn't hurt to see what's on the agenda. Seems like Raquel is mostly just waiting on the crane to get the Dauntless off the ship now." Zach said with a shrug. Walking over to Raquel he asked the pinky "Hey Raquel, is there really anything you need us to do right now?" Thumbing towards himself and the ladies as well.

[Snowy_One]

"Who? The pink-haired girl?" asked Tia as she put the books down, just in time for the dead gull to strike the deck harmlessly behind her, serving as only a slipping point for the various sailors instead of freaking out the girl. "She doesn't look like a mage to me. Is she knew at this sort of stuff? Ah well, not like it matters." she said as she approached Raquel.

"Hello, my name is Tia, water mage and researcher. Some of my books were ruined recently by a ruffian..." she glared back at Nadya. "Who refused to pay to replace them. I'm not interested in the slightest in having to replace them all, considering it would set me back about four hundred gold... Hey.. Wait a moment. I think... Hericine's Tome of Lunar Cycles and Relation to Magic. You... You look like the daughter of that man who sold it too me about a year ago... Have we met before?" asked Tia. It seemed unlikely at best. Merchants traveled the world a lot and the sheer odds of meeting one a second time while on the move were slim, but she did recall seeing either her or some girl like her when she had bought the book a year ago. She could be mistaken, but it wasn't impossible.

---

Meanwhile, down below decks, Robin was finally waking up. She had not been sleeping well ever since her little talk with Zach and had slept in a bit as a result. Slowly she made her way up to the top of the deck, raccoon-eyed, groggy, hair messy, and clearly looking a bit closer to one of the undead than a living person.

"Are we at port?" she asked anyone as she made it topside, clearly too out of it to focus on any one person.

Edited January 27, 2013 by Snowy_One

[Phoenix]

Greetings

"Umm, stay put for a minute. I'll let you know if something comes up," Raquel replied to Zachary. Next she turned to Tia while Shadrak investigated the dead seagull.

As he picked up the dead bird, a sort of semi-smirk appeared on his face. "Well ... this certainly isn't a new sight. I wonder if Robin shot this little guy." He glanced over at Zachary and then back at the dead seagull. He still wasn't sure, and when he saw Robin out of the corner of his eye, he recognized she'd only just come to. "Wait ..." It couldn't have been Robin then. Valter? Or maybe that other archer ...

Raquel meanwhile was conversing with Tia. "I'm sorry, I don't remember for sure ..." The business was lousy, but we still had too many customers between then and now for me to remember any particular one. Well, I remember the lifting attempts, but those are hard to forget, she thought to herself.

Preparation

"Wait a sec," Silas' thought escaped his lips. He turned back to Connor looking thoroughly intimidated and said, "Explosives? Shouldn't ... shouldn't we ... oh I dunno, unload the wagon and move it and its cargo separately? And not risk blowing up not only your transport but all of us and the ship as well?"

"Well, if we're going to blow up the ship, this is the place to do it," a sailor chimed in.

"Ssshut up," Silas slowly replied, trying not to laugh at the comment. He didn't think much of the Ursian navy and that crack was not helping.

Not too far away, Robin had shown up on deck and asked a general question. A sailor tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention and then pointed her toward the sights of Sergio. "Yep, we're here," he jokingly said afterward with a smug look on his face.

[Click This]

"I don't have anything else to go on if you only mention 'gah' as a nickname," commented Mao. "I'll still be calling you 'you there', 'hey you', or 'gah.' In anycase, no, I'm not interested in selling goods. Otherwise, I'd still be sitting in some boring posh office writing letters in drab, saccharine merchant-speak. Nah, I suppose you could say I'm on a pilgrimage. Travel a lot, find new ideas, get even richer marketing them, and then maybe write a book about everything. All in good fun." Of course, that was incredibly dangerous in itself. Traveling around with a well armed group was considerably less so.

"However, traveling alone for extended periods of time, even well armed, is dangerous, and naturally I'm trying to find a band of people to travel with. Perhaps you have a room in your group for another person? I can list some solid points for an additional person like me. "

Edited January 27, 2013 by Click This

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"I did secure everything, but it's not worth taking the risk. Let's take out the grenades and the wands out at the very least," he said to the crewman. Why didn't I think of this the other times we had the Dauntless moved? Better late than never I suppose.

[Mercakete]

"Thank ye, Captain," Gytha replied as she accepted the gold, doing a quick count to make sure she'd been paid the correct amount. Satisfied, the mariner stowed the coins in her belt pouch, then returned her attention to the captain. "It was a good voyage. Me r'gards t' th' crew. Safe sailin', Captain."

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

"I didn't think you'd still be here," Norbert replied after a bit of a pause. He'd been hoping to catch her before she left, so there was relief from that, but he also wasn't entirely prepared yet, so there was that. Shaking that strange mixture, he went on, "Anyway, I wanted to make sure you weren't stuck in Ursium without any money. I don't know where you plan to go, but you have something to get by on, right?"

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

"I will, and safe travels, Gytha, you and your companions," Delan replied. With that business settled, he gave a small wave goodbye and proceeded down to the docks. Anna was running however and almost passed him up as soon as he set foot on dry land. "Oh, Anna, there you are. Off to fetch the crane?"

"Yep. I know your ship isn't leaving for a few days, but we need to get this group on the move as soon as possible. Lingering is generally a bad idea," she explained as she stopped.

"Well I won't keep you, then."

Dauntless

"Right," Silas agreed. "Alright boys, get in there and CAREFULLYYYYYYYY unload the explosives and--wands was it?--wands. Do not, drop anything," he stressed. "My guys don't know what they're looking for; any volunteers from your group want to help speed this up?" He glanced around after asking, spotting a few of Raquel's group standing around doing nothing. They would do if no one else.

Near The Dauntless

"We've always got more room, but it's not really up to me; I'm just here for the men," Gabbie replied with a shrug. "Fair warning, though ... we get into some serious trouble every so often. Half of it you wouldn't even believe, so I'll spare you the mystical crap. If you're still interested though, speak to the pink haired merchant girl over there or the redheaded woman in whoite.

Somewhere In the Ship

"I have money," Suzume assured him, keeping relatively quiet. "I don't know where I'm going. I need to find a way back to Chousokabe. If I wasn't so sick of this ship, I would probably pay them for passage back ..."

[Snowy_One]

"Well then... If it was you, I'm a bit happier. Anyways, I heard you're one of the few people capable of repairing my books." she took the first one off the pile that had been damaged. "This one is a history of water magic. In of itself it's nothing special, only a few gold coins, but it was one of my first books on water magic. It landed in a puddle and has water damage on several pages." she said, before moving on to the next, and the next, and the next, until she was finally done.

"Do you think you can fix these? Five of them are pretty valuable and getting them repaired would mean a lot to me."

---

Robin seemed to take the answer in stride before, with a slow and almost shuffle-like walk she started to head towards a certain sailor. "Gyyyyytha. Gyyyyyytha..." She moaned out, before coughing to clear her throat a bit which had gotten pretty dry. "Gytha. Remember how you wanted to explore the town and have some fun before? I could really use that right now."

[Mercakete]

That taken care of, all that remained to do was to head out. The only problem with that was that Raquel's group didn't seem to be heading out just yet. So, Gytha simply leaned against the railing relatively nearby, crossed her arms, watched and waited.

After a moment, she heard someone groaning her name. At first she just thought someone was sick or something, but it turned out to be Robin...a rather disheveled Robin. Apparently, Robin wanted to take up Gytha's offer to show her around a port town. This one was easier to explore than the last since she'd been here before, but there was one concern the mariner had.

"Ye might want t' freshen up a bit b'fore we go inta town," Gytha suggested with a concerned frown. She didn't want anyone staring at the archer wondering what her mental state was, after all.

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

Norbert wasn't sure if she actually had enough money to get by or if she was just trying to get off the ship as quickly as possible. Either way, delaying her wouldn't exactly be a courtesy. "Well, we're in a port; odds are you'll find a boat going somewhere around here," he commented before sighing and adding, "I'm sorry about what happened. I wish you hadn't got caught up in that back in...that other port. It's probably a stupid notion, but I feel a bit responsible for that. I understand you want to get away from us and I don't blame you. I wish there was some way for us to part on friendly terms. I respect you, so... Is there anything I can do to help you out?"

Towards the end he was getting a bit exasperated at his wording, being rather dissatisfied with it. It was far too drawn-out for his liking, but he also wanted to convey what he wanted to say.

Edited January 27, 2013 by Mercakete

[Eail]

Zach

Zach was about to make a suggestion on a possibility of things for the trio to do to pass the time, when he noticed that Robin had come up on deck as well. His heart felt like it was starting to ache again at the sight, the sight of her was a great blow to the mage. All the memories of last night flooding back into his head Zach unknowingly grasped onto Marella's hand and squeezed it, with a noticeable look of distress on his face.

Luka

"Yes sir, I'm Luka, and this is Rika." He said, patting the pegasus on the side of her neck. "And Miss Synthia hasn't been bothering me at all. I haven't gotten to see much of her actually.... A lot of people have wanted me to be their healer for their training so I've been busy." Thinking back in his mind he tried to remember the man's name. "You're name is Valter, right Sir? I'm sorry, it's just been a while and I'm having trouble remembering."

[Snike]

"... Can't blame you," Blake said, long after Suzume left. Really, he couldn't. After all, he would do the same thing if he was in her position. Though, he'd probably go down trying to fight instead of surrendering, had his best friend fallen in combat. Anyways, now that that was handled, he had better go. The mercenary left the holds and went up the stairs, ignoring whoever it was that was talking near the stairs for the time being, as, odds were it wasn't related to him or any immediate concerns. Now, to find Raquel and see if there was anything else that needed to be done...

***

"Right, and if I wasn't so insistent on the explosion, what do you think would've happened?," Axel asked, frowning under his helm. "I've read the reports. The White Devil's one of the strongest known Fallen. There would've been more casualties had I not done what I had done, guaranteed."

Edited January 27, 2013 by Snike

[ReformBlade]

Picking up Hannah, Aneda wasn't really set on doing anything, and apparently that seemed to be a thing that was going on around her. From her perspective at least. Kat, Marella and Zach seemed to be talking, and they weren't fighting, that's a good start for her. Before she could do that though, she was bothered by that earth mage woman. "Hey um... how's it going? You're Aneda, right?"

"Last I checked, yeah. What, you forget already? I thought my bright colors would have stuck out more..."

"Well that's how I remembered your name... anyway, are you doing anything right now? I was probably gonna just head into this new port place and take in the sights, I'd appreciate the company, plus if you take your Pegasus, I think we could afford to dilly dally a little and just hurry back whenever... right?"

Aneda shrugged, to all of it. "It sounds fine, yeah, but I wanna check out this bored as fuck looking group here first. Who knows, maybe we can convince them to go peruse?"

"Oh... Oh that'd be good, everyone just going around and having a... well at least a decent time, dunno how fun it is for you guys but it's incredible for me."

"Then it's settled!" Aneda urged Mushirah to follow as Aneda moved towards kat, marella and zach. "Hey, why the long faces?"

"Were there faces long...?"

"It's... it's an exp- you know what, nevermind, you ruined the joke!" Shaking her head and looking down, she missed Mushirah's smiling.

[Phoenix]

Main Deck

Fix them? Heeey, did Shadrak tell her I could fix these? she mused, glancing at Shadrak for a moment. Seeing him holding onto a dead bird derailed her train of thought for a moment, though. "You should get rid of that," she quickly suggested before trying to focus back on the situation at hand, the books. I guess in theory I could fix them, but I don't have any experience with this sort of thing. Sure they won't come out any worse for wear, I can at least ensure that much, but I'm still worried. The principles don't change with new materials, so I guess it should work. I just need to undo the water damage and make sure none of the text is lost. Now here's the part no one ever likes to hear ... "I think I could do it ... only not for free," Raquel answered the water mage apprehensively.

Shadrak sighed and took the bird over to the port side of the ship. Not knowing what else to do, he dropped the dead seagull into the water and then made his way back.

Stairs

"Are you sure you're with them?" Suzume asked, wondering why he was always behaving the way he was. He mentioned respecting her, but that didn't quite clear things up for her either. She didn't recall doing anything particularly 'respectable', though growing up in Kigen might have left her judging this from an entirely different standard.

Edited January 27, 2013 by Phoenix