Return of the Emblem Chapter Ten: Converging Destinies

[Phoenix]

Campfire

"False bravado .... False ... bravado?" Colin echoed Veronika's words a couple of times. "When are you going to get it through your head that there's no point to any of this if the goal is to kill you? Ah forget it; it's not worth trying to prove. As long as you show, it doesn't really matter how skeptical you are. I just needed to be sure you people wouldn't come charging in like bulls and force our hand," Colin explained. "We don't want you people coming up with any elaborate schemes to try and overtake us because if even one of you does something stupid, all bets are off. Raquel doesn't get to reunite with her father, a bunch of people die, and any chance at a peaceful resolution is gone. If you come in peace, this will end peacefully, it's as simple as that, Veronika."

And apparently this was still happening. "Really ...? Even if the person they forced themselves onto had like a whole minute to force them off before the kiss came?" That part just didn't make sense to Shadrak. Then came Mushirah's input, and without a coherent Faatina to advocate for him, it was a little difficult to address all at once. "Alright, fine. Fine, you've made your point and I get it. I won't go around labeling people over one incident. Is that fair?" Shadrak asked, looking a little worn out.

Dauntless

"Well she almost took a bite out of me," Reign noted with a shrug and a slight smirk. He found the water quickly enough; it was right where Connor said. "Thanks for the help."

[Ether]

The yelling and general angry tone about the place escalated further and further and Faatina wasn't quite sure what all of the fuss was about. Of course, several things, one of which being her name, kept popping up repeatedly in the conversation, eventually stirring a reply from the impaired Rexian.

"I'm no- *hic* drunk!" She managed, before losing her balance and bracing herself against the still nearby Shadrak. As her gaze drifted to her hand, she was rather unsettled by the fact that she appeared to have seven of them.

"Errr... I might b-be drunk- *hic*" She retorted, ironically enough against herself, far less enthused this time around.

"Bu' that's weird, in Sanc- *hic* thers always a sign on places that sell alcohol... is it no- *hic* like that in Ursium?" Faatina muttered, directing the question to the general area, before managing to fish out the now empty bottle, which she attempted to examine more thoroughly, though there were some obvious issues with approaching it that way now of all times. She couldn't discern much about the text on the bottle, though there was one thing that seemed relavant that she was able to make out.

"Whadduz 90- *hic* proof mean?" She asked, once again to the general gathering, before opting to sit down, as leaning on Shadrak wasn't alleviating her dizziness any.

[ReformBlade]

"90 proof? That means it was nearly half alcohol, miss, if i'm not mistaken..." Calming down quite a bit after having been called out, Mushirah lowered her voice a little. "Yes, I think that's plenty fair. Sorry for yelling at you, Shadrak." And there comes the guilt, yet again. Why can I never tell someone off without feeling miserable? She gave Shadrak a lazy apologetic bow and with a rather somber expression on her face she returned to her things, feeling just as frustrated as before. The only difference was the source of the frustration and the inability to properly talk to someone with other people standing there and seemingly judging every word your'e saying and going to say. Maybe I can just... explain to him in private or something, at least get this stupid anxiety off my shoulders...

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I'll totally offer my services as slapper for the low, low price of two gold," Gar said with a smirk.

[Snowy_One]

"Interesting. Listen, Connor, I'd really like to learn more about your alchemy, especially with all the shouting going on outside. Why don't you teach me a little bit more about it? Getting to learn is always fun! And if it keeps us both out of whatever is going on outside, all the better!"

---

"This is why I hate booze." said Robin under her breath as she took a retreat from the shouting match going on by the campfire. "Makes everything so much more complicated for all the wrong reasons."

[roymbrog]

“Ha, good luck with that. Though it probably wouldn’t be that difficult now that I think about it….” Kat said before momentarily feeling a little awkward. She wanted to tell Aneda that her parents probably missed her, but without knowing their relationship she was hesitant to say anything. She had learned a while ago that not all parents cared about their kids as much as her dad did. Instead, she went with her second and much more spacey idea. “I wonder if vasili have parents? ….It’s a legitimate question!”

-----

Any distraction was a welcome distraction at the moment, so when Blake approached Valter was already predisposed towards accepting. He was a bit confused as to the reason he was being requested though. “Yes, I’m free. I suppose I’ll go see what she wanted to ask before someone else causes a scene over here…” he said, getting up.

Synthia groaned. In addition to the general tension and arguing and what have you going on, now Faatina had regained her ability of speech and what was coming out of her mouth was indeed facepalm worthy. So the mage did. “Please don’t tell me this is all because of cultural misunderstandings… Are we going to need to post a native with Faatina wherever we go or something? This is ridiculous…” They could assign a babysitter to Robin while they were at it and get Shadrak a muzzle. Solve everyone’s problems at once.

And then other people had the bad taste to make jokes when she was perhaps reaching the point of calming down. “And you,” she said, pointing at Gar. “Shut up unless you want to be the one getting slapped, ok?”

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"You got me," Gar shrugged in response to that mage-girl's question. "That's been my secret plan all along. High tidings unto you, o'unraveler of plans, bestow upon me a punishment fit for my crime." Gar snickered when he finished and crossed his arms with a smirk.

[Eail]

"Seeing how the trip takes our relationship is fine with me. Maybe once we get to Weylands place things will be cleared up." Zach said while stretching as he stood. "I'm gonna talk to Robin after this fort business gets cleared up I don't want her pissed at me as we walk into A possible ambush ya know."

Deciding on trying out a joke the sage said "Don't suppose a kid from backwater Ohka could trouble a pretty lady for a good night kiss?~"

[Snike]

"Thank you. Hopefully another scene won't come up, for everyone's sake," Blake said, as he turned around. "Raquel's in the front of the Dauntless. Follow me, if you will."

Without further ado, the swordsman returned to the Dauntless,hopefully with Valter in tow. As they arrived at the area at the front, the man noticed that the conversation between Raquel and Luka was already over. Excellent, he could jump right in.

"It turns out that Faatina was drunk, and Reign was the unwitting target of her drunken affections," Blake said unironically. "Anyways, I brought Valter just as you requested."

[-Cynthia-]

Connor

"Sure, what do you want to know exactly? In addition to weapons and armor I've found that clever use of alchemy can be used to make tomes more powerful as well. Perhaps it's unwise to try and work in so many fields at once, but I didn't want the mages in the group to feel left out," he said, smiling.

Veronika

"I don't plan on having anyone in our group initiate the attack, so we are in agreement there at least," she said to Colin. If someone were to act rashly would I be able to stop them though...this group really does lack discipline. she thought to herself sadly.

[Balcerzak]

The trip by boat had been a mostly uneventful couple of weeks, but Sinbad was more than happy to be back on solid ground. Not that the company was bad, mind you. After the first morning, when he had skipped breakfast for reasons of trying to remind his stomach who was the boss around these parts, he'd eaten with the various hands and other passengers off and on, and most had seemed to be rather agreeable sorts, a few downright friendly. He'd been pleased to see that the person he'd somehow been roped into operating on had made a full recovery, too, but aside from that, hadn't really sought to get too involved whenever he noticed them getting all worked up in some sort of internal matters. Everybody has their own businesses to attended to after all, gods knew he had his.

The Ursium port was a bit different than what he'd been expecting. No, that's not entirely accurate, he hadn't had a real firm grasp on just what it may have been like, so instead of expectations, maybe it was more like suppositions. Still, after several hours of asking around, he'd managed to get two not entirely contradictory leads. It seemed his one-armed kigenese had last been seen in Europa. Or maybe Lorton. Or possibly neither, and the folk here were just taking advantage of a lone cowboy, desperate for a trail to follow, that weren't entirely unlikely either. Still, a lead was a lead, and it being early afternoon, it was still possible to make some progress before he'd have to bed down for the night. Saddling up Hatsune, he tugged on the brim of his hat and left Sergio Port behind him.

The signal flares had been a surprise, to be perfectly honest. Assuming it was some sort of group in distress, or someone needing assistance, he'd altered course slightly to head in the direction they seemed to be coming from (with some degree of regularity), but while he was approaching, the pattern fell through, and they ceased to light up the sky. Perhaps the just done run out of flares? Thinking such, he continued in the direction he'd last seen them come from, and after about an hour arrived at a location where it was clear from the number of hoofprints and other tracks that there had been some sort of sizeable group. No blood or obvious signs of struggle, that was certainly a plus, but now, curiosity whetted, he decided to just follow the trail. If nothing else, bedding down for the night in the company of other travellers could only be to everyone's benefit.

After another some hours of travel, he could tell both from the glow of a fire, and from the alternately rowdy and raucous sounds coming from it that he had likely arrived. Dismounting, he slowly walked along leading his mare. The first people he chanced upon were a couple some distance removed from the main party, certainly out of earshot if one weren't yelling or if taking even only the slightest precautions to speak softly or in a low down. One male, one female, both folk he recognized from the boat, though names were escaping him at the moment. They seemed rather occupied with each other at the moment, and while he didn't particularly want to interrupt, he didn't want to let them carry on assuming they were completely alone. Settling on a sort of compromise, Sinbad coughed a couple of times and cleared his throat audibly, while continuing to head towards the main campfire location.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Balcerzak

[Phoenix]

Campfire

"Honestly, I worry that when it really matters most, you won't be able to keep this pack of wolves in line," Colin responded to Veronika with some concern in his gaze. "Remember, Sardis has no intention of fighting you people. If something goes wrong, it's on you people. I'd be sure they know that before you set foot near that fortress."

Dauntless

"Faatina doesn't seem like the drinking type, but okay, I guess. First time for everything ..." Raquel reasoned half seriously. She felt much better about the situation now at least. "Okay so Valter, I wanted to ask you if you knew anything about the Wrathites that might help us. If we keep fighting with them directly like we've been doing, we're going to get labeled criminals and then they'll be able to attack us whenever and however they want. We won't stand a chance."

Edited March 5, 2013 by Phoenix

[roymbrog]

Synthia narrowed her eyes and scoffed. “You’re really weird, did you know that? You’re not some kind of masochist are you?” There was a nagging thought somewhere in the back of her mind that she was supposed to be doing something more important than chatting with/bugging/getting teased by Gar, but the mage wasn’t really paying attention to it.

-----

Valter was indeed in tow as Blake walked over to Raquel and stood at his left when they stopped. His face fell slightly when he realized what exactly he was being asked. “I don’t mean to disappoint, but I probably can’t tell you much that you don’t already know,” he said. “The Wrathites are a religious order, but with so many Ursian officers in their ranks there’s not much we can do to avoid confrontations. Our best bet would be to hide behind one of the other orders or Weyland. I don’t know how effective either would be. Honestly though, the group is fairly conspicuous and it would be very hard to avoid them outright. Especially when some of us insist on causing scenes wherever we go,” he finished with one irritated glance back at the campfire. The many incidents were not forgotten, merely repressed.

[Snowy_One]

"Oooo! Tomes! Tomestomestomes! I wanna know more about magic and how alchemy can enhance it!" said Tia, jumping up on her toes happily. "The other stuff can come later. I want to learn about them as well, but more-so about the tomes."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Why thank you," Gar delightfully responded. "Bog-standard things are just so much more boring compared to the weird after all. If I wanted a boring life there's a wrecked old farm waiting for me. But excitement, conflict, masochism! are all out here waiting to be experienced."

[Snike]

Pack of wolves, were they? That seemed... wrong, given the disposition of Raquel in general.

"I dunno, I mean the fact that you're not lying dead in a ditch suggests otherwise, to some extent," Axel said, stretching. "But I digress. I'm not the one who's in charge here."

***

What Valter gave was general information, and since Blake somehow doubted Raquel was going to ask for much more, he decided to interject.

"Do you have any idea if Bradford's still the head Wrathite?" the man asked, crossing his arms. "This sudden persecution seems out of character for him."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Even he can see how disorganized this group is...I wonder what Father would do in my situation. Should I try to kick out any who cause a disturbance? Ignore their petty squabbles? Interfere? These thoughts were interrupted by Axel, who had a helpful interjection for once. "Yes, given your current state it appears I can stay their hands when need be. If you are telling the truth, there should be no need for violence," Veronika said, attempting to sound confident. In truth she had her doubts that Bert wouldn't charge at Sardis on sight and screw up the whole operation, but she wouldn't let Colin know that if she could help it.

Connor

"A lot of the tome improvements are similar to the ones I do for weapons really. Faster spellcasting, striking harder, creating better resistance barriers or physical weapon deterrents. Do you have a magical tome you use?" he asked Tia inquisitively.

Nadya

Nadya snorted at Gar's wit and decided to simply survey the scene. Tina's a foreigner all right, but Amon was a foreigner too and he never got smashed. Wonder how he's doin'...eh he's probably with that sand goddess he loves so much, he'll be fine. she mused to herself, her mind drifting back to Sanctuary.

Edited March 6, 2013 by -Cynthia-

[roymbrog]

“He actually passed while we traveling,” Valter replied. “I don’t know who his successor is. At the next city I can stop for more news, though.”

-----

“That wasn’t a compliment,” Synthia muttered under her breath. She really did not understand this guy, but was also pretty sure she didn't want to.

Things seemed to have calmed down around the fire, and the previously angry mage was starting to cool off. She even remembered what she originally planned on doing that night. “You guys have fun here. I’m going to go practice,” she said before stalking off into the semi-darkness.

[Phoenix]

Campfire

"This pack of wolves clearly doesn't think much of me, but the one at the heart of all this? That might get their attention," Colin elaborated. "But yeah, let's just sit back and hope for the best, then."

Dauntless

"We'll have to be pretty careful no matter where we go, so if you can, try to keep a low profile while you're looking for news," Raquel advised Valter. She knew the Org knew he was working with her, but she didn't know if the church new yet. Most of the people that had come after them had been killed off by that point in time, so a few identities within the group might still be safe, but not for much longer, she wagered.

Around that time, Reign emerged from the back of the Dauntless, leaving Connor to his fate, and passing by Gabbie and Ringo on his way back to the campfire and Faatina. He had enough water to hopefully keep her hydrated and keep that eventual hangover from making her throw herself off a cliff, but seeing that it was her first time, he wasn't certain it would be enough. If only someone had a restore staff and could ... "Wait a damn minute," he said to himself as he stopped in his tracks. "Would that work? There were theories back in the academy but we were just students. There was no alcohol allowed and even had there been, nobody ever actually got a hold of one of those staves in order to test it on someone. Eh, water for now. I'll run the idea by Raquel afterward." And he was once again on the move, heading back toward the campfire.

[Snowy_One]

"Why yes, yes I do." said Tia before producing her tome from seemingly nowhere. "It's a standard defensive-type tome designed to mess with opponents attacks and keep me nice and safe and happy! It's worked like a charm so far! No one has attacked me!" she said with a smile before laughing softly. "Actually, I don't know how well it works in combat. I've practiced, but never anything like that."

[Snike]

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Axel said, smirking under his helmet. "Better than going and getting drunk the night before a serious meeting, anyways."

***

"... Noted. Poor Clover," Blake said, before bringing out his notes. "Alright, so whoever the new head is, they obviously moving more boldly than their predecessor. I think we're going to have to ask the fliers of the group to scout ahead and keep an eye out for any military companies that are on the roads. Beyond that, we'll just have to remain extra vigilant until we hit Europa." Then, they'd have to be especially vigilant, given the existence of an organization benefactor.

***

Some sort of drama was happening over by the campfire, which was of no interest to Grant. What was of interest to him was that Synthia lass moving away into the woods, apparently proclaiming that she was practicing. Given that he had nothing else to do, and that he'd be able to gauge the talent of another mage in the party, the Frost prince got up and headed over to where his acquaintance stalked off to.

"Would you mind if I watched you practice?" he asked, once he got into earshot range of Synthia.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Yes, it would be a shame for me to have to kill you after all of this. Rest easy," she said to her prisoner before walking off. I should discuss strategy with Raquel while we have the chance. she thought to herself, making her way over to where the merchant was talking with her companions.

Connor

"Not getting attacked at all is a pretty good defense mechanism," Connor said laughing. "So where did you get your tome anyway? A teacher maybe?" he guessed, peering down at it. If it's just a standard one I can definitely make it better.

[spoiler=A Slaughter of Siblings]

Many eyes in Corvus were fixed on the succession and among the crowd it was easy to lose individuals. Sigrid Tarren preferred it that way, her pale brown hair flowing down to her waist, her eyes unflinching as she watched the action in the arena.

<"Where is Lord Steinn? Did I get the number of Devilnos brothers confused again or are these old eyes simply going out?"> a grey-haired, extremely elder Fallen said from beside her, squinting.

<"You see and recall correctly Father. Lord Steinn has elected not to grace us with his presence- an unusual move. One cannot be crowned Emperor by hiding amongst humans, so he has essentially forfeited the throne for naught it seems,"> Sigrid said, still watching the proceedings.

<"Perhaps he wishes to survive rather than rule. In his position, I might do much the same,"> Erasmus said, chuckling.

<"His life will be short-lived. Valdimarr will hunt him down after he finishes his business here, retake the Finnian girl and marry her,"> Sigrid said, biting her lip.

<"Perhaps Lord Valdimarr will lose,"> Erasmus said cheerfully. <"His brothers appear to be teaming up against him- the side with the larger numbers usually wins my dear,"> he said, wagging his finger.

<"They band together because they are weak and afraid of his power- and rightly so. Lord Valdimarr is the future of Corvus whether we like it or not,"> she said, biting her lip harder as she continued to watch.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Bye bye, have fun~" Gar practically sang as he waved and watched mage-girl head off to practice. Now that she was gone and things had gotten slow, Gar wondered what he should do to pass the time instead.

[Snowy_One]

"Yup! I got it for completing a basic level in multiple anima-style spells. Fire, ice, and water! Though... Water is the only one that really comes naturally to me. I have to spend a lot of time with the others before I can use them properly. Couldn't use it in combat or for delicate work."

Edited March 6, 2013 by Snowy_One

[roymbrog]

Synthia hadn’t expected anyone to follow her and was a bit startled when Grant appeared in the woods. She turned around with her tome in hand, but relaxed when she realized who it was. “Uh, sure, I guess,” she responded hesitantly. From her point of view, it was an odd request. At her skill level he certainly wasn’t going to learn anything from her. “Actually, would you mind helping me out a bit? I found this technique for blocking projectiles, but to test it I need someone to throw things. If you promise not to hit me, I’d appreciate it if you could do that.”

-----

Raquel seemed to be worried about his safety, which was admirable, but he thought it unnecessary. “It’s normal for me to be traveling between churches. I also have… connections, I suppose. I don’t think it will be a problem,” Valter told her.

It seemed like the horseman was in on their plans for the time being, so there really wasn’t any reason not to contribute. Blake’s suggestion made sense. “That’s a good idea. When we get closer to Europa it might also be prudent to send someone ahead to meet with Weyland. He might be able to organize getting the rest of us in safely.”