Lord of Azure Flame Chapter 27: War

[scorri]

"Sir. I perhaps misspoke. I am traveling with this group for some unknown time. To me, that means that I belong to this group. And had I not asked Raemond to come with me today, Esphyr would not have died. Please. I must do this. It gives me something to do other than sit on a rock and mourn. This is all I have right now."

[-Cynthia-]

"Letting her go alone was a mistake in hindsight- I did not expect the templar and his allies to act so aggressively so quickly. I will have to question Heinz about what transpired later- an "accident" here is simply far too convenient. The priority is the sword though, and Miranda is...not nearby at this present time," Morgan said, concentrating.

[Mercakete]

Beau calmed down some at Tiria's reply. For a moment, he stood silent, then, he gave a nod. "Do be careful, Captain. I'll expect you and Arrin to return whole and hale," he calmly replied, "Though I caution your phrasing. Claiming to be a part of this group is somewhat poor word choice for the time being. Rather, it would be better to simply say that you are travelling with them. After all, you are not yet subject to Morgan's authority."

[scorri]

"I am sorry sir. I for some reason find myself not thinking straight." With that, Tiria turned and started to walk off, motioning to Arrin to join her.

[Snike]

Neither Radiant nor a Hero

Eric had been following Charlotte and the rest of the group as they marched towards TISME, his sword at the ready. Luckily, there seemed to be no resistance, at least, not so far. He was still keeping an eye out for any sort of demon when Tessa asked Charlotte if she could borrow the ex-templar for a few minutes, in private. This was probably regarding Kamilla, and given that he was last seen with her, he did owe an explanation. Unfortunately, before he could consent to such a discussion, Morgan barked out that Esphyr was apparently dead, and they now needed the help of 'Miranda', who, judging by what Morgan said, was a demon. A demon. What in the Lady's name had this group been up to?

"...Milady, can you please explain to me who this 'Miranda' person is, and if she is a demon, why in the Lady's name this group needs her services?" Eric asked, in a monotone. This explanation had better be good.

OOC: No Idea what to do with Alex, so ja.

[Script]

The Fargo

"Yeah, my horse felt like just running off when that dragon attacked us," Fargo explained. "Who's that jerk."

[-Cynthia-]

"Well..." Charlotte thought for a minute, as it was a bit of a difficult matter to explain. "Miranda was Isotov's old teacher and Ixion brought her back...as a demon. I can't say I approve of such meddling with life and death- that's the Lady's duty, but Miranda doesn't seem to be our enemy at the very least. From what I gathered, the Crimson Weapons have to be bound to a host by a demon or they become useless. I can't say if that is necessarily the truth though," she explained to Eric with a shrug.

[Inactive Account]

"I'm sorry about Beau, he's... difficult sometimes, but I bet you'd noticed that already," Arrin told Tiria quietly once she was out of Beau's earshot. He was appalled at how Beau was acting considering Tiria had just lost a family member, really, but he wasn't quite about to say so. "Anyway, I'm Arrin. I'm the wielder of the Crimson Thunder tome. What's your name?"

[scorri]

"I am Tiria. I am the captain of the Duke's guard. Well, I suppose at least for now I am the only member of his guard. So who are we looking for exactly? And why? I understand the Crimson Weapons are somehow important, but I have not been told really anything about them. I just... I knew that you would all want the sword back. So I returned it. But what is it exactly? It did not feel... right."

[Inactive Account]

Perhaps talking about things that weren't her uncle would help Tiria get her mind off things, Arrin thought, so he answered her questions in detail, albeit not in order: "The Crimson Weapons are a set of nine weapons capable of both unsealing and killing the Lord of Azure Flame. Given that it looks like he's going to unseal himself soon enough, those of us unfortunate enough to be stuck with the weapons have got to use them for their second purpose.

"The weapons were forged with both light and demonic magic. That's probably why you felt something strange when you picked up the sword, and also why Raemond's order wants them destroyed," he continued to explain. "Unfortunately, we're bound to the weapons, and removing them improperly or destroying them will kill us... and destroying the weapons takes away the only currently known way of defeating the Lord.

"Which brings us to the woman we're searching for. Without a host, a Crimson weapon will quickly lose its enchantments, and we won't have a complete set anymore, but it requires a demon to bind a weapon to somebody. Miranda is... well, from what I gathered, she was originally a human who died, and brought back to life by a druid using a demon as the base. The magic that went into that is pretty disturbing, but the point is, she has the powers of a demon but is... well, she definitely isn't on their side, and she's in the area. So she's our best shot at keeping the sword. Thank you for bringing it back to us."

[scorri]

"I... I see. So now you need to find this... Miranda and have her bind the sword to... who exactly? And you are welcome. I just... knew the sword needed to be brought back. It was the right thing to do." Tiria kept her eyes on the ground as they walked, doing her best to hide the sorrow evident on her face. "And how can we hope to find her? She could be anywhere if she is even still alive."

[Inactive Account]

"I'm not sure who the sword will go to," Arrin said, a bit more troubled as he thought about it. "Several people within the group can use swords. As for finding her... we know she's in the city. And given her, er, flair for the dramatic, she'll probably find us."

[Phoenix]

The Shanice Does Not Turn Tables; It Flips Them

"Who him?" Miranda pointed her free hand to Shanice, who was only now beginning to recover from her previous attack. "My other half, the annoying one~"

"Grrrrrr-enough!" Shanice yelled.

"Enough indeed, we need to deal with this," the soldier realized. "Attack them both!"

"Come get it! I'll kill you all!"

"Little overconfident there, don't you think?" Miranda asked. That was when Miranda felt the pain of her arm freezing up to the bone, and Shanice quickly followed up by shattering it off. She followed up by kicking Shanice in the face and leaping back as it fell onto its rear. "I am getting sick and tired of losing limbs whenever we run into each other!" she fumed.

"You're going to lose more than that this time," it threatened as the icy limb began to melt away. Before long it was absorbed into Shanice's body. "Ahhh, free energy. Now if you don't mind ... I'm going to start killing everyone!" Shanice's skin took on a greyish purple hue as its body began to transform and grow larger and larger, losing shape as it did. Before long wings were starting to sprout, and the soldiers slowed to a stop, unsure how to address the forming threat. When the head formed, Miranda knew Shanice had turned into a dragon.

(Oh that's just cheap. He just absorbed my arm and now he's back up and running again, and the guards are after the both of us. Maybe I can use this horseman as a shield or something while I wear Shanice down again. It's risky, but chances like this don't come around often.)

[Script]

The Fargo

Captain would probably say I'm somehow the cause of this, Fargo scratched his head as he watched the scene unfold before him. For some reason his Enigma horse didn't bolt off with him on it. Maybe it was the smell from the other one? Did horses have good smelling? Or maybe just like Fargo it had grown immune to the increasing levels of weird he had scene. That was really starting to look like the case since he was actually internally debating this instead of doing something sensible like fleeing. "If I'm not needed for anything in this big, um, fight, I think searching for Captain on my own might be the better option," Fargo put on a fake smile as he nervously chuckled at his own words.

[the_whistler]

Heinz noted with satisfaction that Tiria was carrying both swords; the tension in his shoulders lifted and he allowed his arms to relax minutely. The mercenary moved with purpose, keeping his footfalls soft as they filed out of TISME. Heinz didn't know the woman well, and so decided against offering her his condolences. They might seem too trite or bland, coming from an outsider. Later. The thief looked towards the light wielder. He did take the time to listen and think about my words.. We'll see how he chooses to interpret them.

The captain's outburst spoke volumes - her personality, who she was, why she chose to be. A corner of Heinz's mouth tilted upwards. Pain is a powerful motivator. She won't allow her sorrow to interfere with duty, her own duty bestowed by none upon no one but herself.

As they approached the Crimson Weapon group Heinz raised an eye at Tiria's dramatic gesture. Not that dirt ever seemed to be a problem for those things. In any case, the other one is useless. Resting a hand on his belt, Heinz allowed himself a moment to reminiscence over his initial meeting with the group. I never did get that rematch with Esphyr, he thought, a half-hearted smile playing on his lips.

The general reaction to her death was shock, frustration, irritation, regret. Each to their respective extents, shaping individual, unique - but predictable reactions. The group quickly fragmented at the shaman's command, and Heinz blinked in response to Lev's instruction. I'll stay with the templar, but how are we supposed to alert Morgan if we could find Miranda? Would Raemond track a demon if Beau ordered him to? The thief filed the question away into his mind.

Heinz looked at Luc, who was voicing some rather down-to-earth, sensible questions. "It might be too late to form any sort of relay system at this point," he said, downplaying the severity of the situation. "I suppose we'll have to improvise - flare signals and the like. Not that I have any, but Morgan is on a flying wyvern," smiling lightly.

From the corner of an eye Heinz noticed Tiria and the thunder mage separate from the remaining stragglers. And the heroes are here. The thief whistled for his mount, turning to the duke and templar. "So, will you be aiding in this search?" he inquired evenly.

Edit: Assuming all involved parties are within hearing distance of each other, fixed word choice.

Edited December 13, 2012 by the_whistler

[scorri]

Tiria nodded. "That is good, I suppose. There are members of the group who can use it. Good." She continued walking in silence for a bit and then asked, "So... what is it like normally, traveling with this group? Is that woman normally that... abrasive?"

Edited December 12, 2012 by scorri

[Script]

Luc Altair and CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Heinz of all people was the first to reply to Luc's advice. Luc was thankful at least someone else wanted to humor his advice. After the way Luc abandoned his conversation with Helios he wouldn't blame him for ignoring Luc. "Our mages would be best at that idea," Luc replied. He knew the other man must have thought of that, but he wanted that out in the air. Because that also meant Raemond was a candidate for that. This whole situation was so unfathomably DUMB. "Otherwise we could attempt some sort of bizarre maneuvering with the Crimsons to gain attention. They are the only thoughts I can come up with as well."

"Well," Chase broke into the conversation. "I think, maybe, if I use the Crimson bow I might be able to set up a signal too." He didn't know if his arrows actually retained any trace of whatever demonic power fueled the Crimsons, but it was another option to consider.

[Inactive Account]

"It's... a bit insane, to be honest," Arrin replied with a sigh. "Besides demons, we had the Templars trying to kill us earlier, and have encountered bandits and the like, not to mention getting ourselves in trouble. And it's very disorganized. A lot of people don't get along very well, and Morgan is technically the leader, but she, well, I don't think she understands how to do things without threatening people. I won't miss the mission when it's over."

Edited December 12, 2012 by kdanger

[scorri]

Tiria

"It sounds unpleasant. Well, I can not say that I will miss it when I am gone. I am unsure as to when that will be though. I am sure that the woman, Morgan, will be glad to have me gone. Somehow I doubt she enjoys having a member of her group be someone who threatened to kill her... It all depends on the duke though. He decides when I leave." Tiria shrugged slightly and continued walking, drawing her sword as she did. "I think that it would perhaps be best if we were both ready for an attack at any moment. You never know what we might find."

Adena

Adena stared after the mute girl for a while worriedly, but eventually shrugged and went to where she had been assigned. There, she started to do her job and heal the injured members of TISME.

Edited December 12, 2012 by scorri

[Balcerzak]

That's a solid head on his shoulders

Helios blinked a few times, after Luc's comments. Well, the ones before the bedlam caused by Morgan and whatever other small cells splintered off caused. Our next moves should be to make sure all nearby areas are secure and deal with these holes and tunnels... that's didn't require any sort of special tactical genius to figure out, but in that case... then why hadn't they?

The prince had followed along as Luc had tried, vainly, to reach the shaman before the dispersal, and made sure to second the suggestions the count was making. "We've already sent our best searches, and more people foolishly deciding to go wandering about blindly looking for a ember in a smokestack," he coughed a little here, an unintentional emphasis due to the irritation from the acrid air they'd fought in, moved through, and which basically described the whole of Ilyphina's atmosphere at this point.

"Count Altair and I had just been talking, and perhaps we ought to start looking into trying to seal off these holes and tunnels. Now, I'm no engineers, so finding the best way to collapse them to at least delay the demons by forcing them to redig, might be tricky... but I'm more than willing to blast some wind at whatever rocks, dirt, or other area needs to be hit if someone else can point me in the right direction. We do not want to get taken by surprise here. I don't think it's wise to continue to disperse, and would suggest everyone still here find a shovel, or spade, or magic or something, and maybe we can get some bookworms from the institute to make sure we're doing this safe."

"This also has the benefit of keeping us all here in one location, so when we do get word back from our scouts, we can mobilize immediately if need be, and not have Lev or Irina or whoever waste time trying to hunt down all the fragment groups."

Having concluded, he scowled a little, predicting that he probably just wasted his time, and nobody was going to listen anyway, but hell if he was going out hunting to clean up after Esphyr's nice mess she'd dumped into their laps. They already had more than enough mess on their plate without that thoughtfully added dessert.

[Mercakete]

As Raemond listened to the various talk going around, Heinz asked if he was going to help with the search. It was actually a humorous inquiry. "Will I?" Raemoned replied, a smile spreading as he almost laughed, "Isn't that the question I should be asking? Am I willing to help your company consort with demons in order to rebind one of these parasite weapons to someone else? No, of course not. Am I able to find this demon you all want the help of? Quite possibly. But will I aid in this endeavor? That, my friend, depends on who the choice belongs to. Do I honestly have the option to refuse service?"

Not really pausing long enough for an answer, Raemond added more seriously as he indicated Helios and Luc. "If you ask me, these two have the right idea. Efforts should be going to closing the passageways the demons have made for themselves rather than running about carelessly in search of demons to bargain with."

[the_whistler]

OOC: Fixed previous post slightly for distance issues. Assuming all interactions going on this post are relatively in the same listening space or so, aka resolving continuity. Heinz has only asked Raemond one question (the one in the third paragraph is the same one mentioned in the last line of my previous post); I'm rearranging chronology slightly in RP timeline.

Heinz nodded when the count mentioned mages as well. "A good thing we have many of them, too. Their magic can be akin to a flare," his expression adopting a thoughtful cast when Chase provided an additional suggestion. "You don't normally reuse the arrows you've shot, right? They're wooden, and someone would probably notice demonic arrows lying around," Heinz mused.

"But it's the arrows themselves that penetrate and hurt demons, not the bow. Maybe the effect is temporary?" the thief guessed. Helios spoke, raising the obvious but easily ignored point: the tunnels were still open.

Heinz posed a question to Raemond, for which a truthful response was given. "You would consider blocking the tunnels to be a worthwhile goal. I can agree, so no need to waste time arguing," he stated. No need to test his cooperation for a simple demon search. The fire mage on a wyvern would probably be faster anyway.

"I'm no expert on demon tunnels, but it looks like we might be able to collapse the ground openings. Would probably be faster than re-shoveling the dirt. Maybe blow a few rocks around to block the holes?" Heinz guessed, directing the last bit towards the wind mage.

[Phoenix]

Return Dragon Ice

"Hey wait," Miranda turned pleadingly toward Fargo. "I could really use your help, here." (I don't know what's worse, the fact that I hesitated, or the fact that I actually do need this guy's help.)

Now fully transformed, Shanice went after the elyisimian soldiers first ... for ... some reason. To be fair, Miranda probably would have leaped out of the way like she always does. And so one of the soldiers was bitten right off the ground, frozen in Shanice's mouth, and then hurled at the others, shattering on impact and killing the soldier it struck. Killing two birds with one stone turned out to be pretty easy when one of the birds was the stone.

"... damn," Miranda uttered at the scene.

Searching Group A

Getting around the smoke was easy enough--Krinkov refused to get anywhere near that stuff--but actually finding Miranda in this city that was slowly coming alive again was a bit difficult. Every time Lev saw anyone in a cloak, he did a doubletake only to realize that that wasn't the demon they were looking for. Each time they had to move along. Eventually something that really shouldn't have been came into few. As he flew closer, he asked, "I can't tell exactly what that thing is from here. The buildings are blocking the view, but do you sense anything?"

Searching Group B

Iso and Irina were having less luck, having gone out in a different direction. "Do you sense anything?" Irina asked.

"No," Iso replied flatly.

Irina waited exactly one minute before following up. "How about now?"

"Irina, my eyes will start glowing when a demon is close enough for me to sense."

"OHHHH that's right; sorry, heheh."

TISME

"An excellent idea. We'll need these holes filled as soon as possible so we can begin rebuilding our defenses and preparing for the next phase," Harold spoke up. "Percy, you should head over to the palace and see how things are holding up there. Say hi to Reese for me~"

"You do not command me," Percy responded with a raised eyebrow.

"Well someone has to go and I'd rather see how TISME is holding up."

Conrad said nothing, not caring one bit about that conversation. Reese was doing alright and would be making sure the palace forces got back in order quick enough. On second thought, the last thing the Grand Marshall needed was either of these two showing up and pestering him. "I just returned from the palace, and the Grand Marshall was doing fine."

"Huh, well then, I suppose you can do what you want, then Percy," Harold conceded.

"As always," Percy countered.

[-Cynthia-]

"Yes, it is a very large demonic presence, roughly the size of Helenos, we should investigate this I think. Even if Miranda is not involved, it would be better to be informed of its nature, even if we are to avoid it until we are better prepared. Go through the smoke and try to remain inconspicuous," Morgan instructed Lev.

[Script]

Luc Altair and CHAAAAAAASE

"Cover whatever exits we find, a full collapse could undermine the city's foundations, possibly even bring the whole place down if the tunnels are extensive enough. And the risk of any scout into the tunnels to confirm that last is too great." Luc asserted what he saw as the agreed-upon ideas between Helios, Heinz and himself. Though, something, something started to claw at the edges of his mind about this.

Chase responded to Heinz after Luc's words, "Yeah, I haven't been recovering any. You're probably right that there's no... retention? of demonic power in the arrows since demons don't go swarming from everywhere for them. Still, always another option to have."

The Fargo

Fargo sighed. He really should have ran--galloped away. "What do you need?" he asked before watching the ice dragon snap one of the guards in half. "Holy Goddess!" he shouted.