Return of the Emblem Chapter Eleven: Unleash

[Mercakete]

"I was just explainin' why droppin' 'em in th' sea won't keep 'em out o' people's hands," Gytha replied, uncertain if Gar was just making a general statement or was retracting his suggestion that it would be better to toss the pieces into the sea, "See, if we did that, Leviathan would know exactla where they were n' be able t' bring 'em t' himself whenever he wanted to." Maybe explaining it that way would clear the fog.

[Script]

Time To Be Gar

Time to be annoying. "Well that just makes everything clear," Gar sat upright and clapped his hands together. Well, as best as he could with the flute still in one. "Kill Leviathan then drop the piece in the deep blue. Everybody wins."

[Mercakete]

Gytha didn't really have a comment to make on that one. She really didn't know what the repercussions for that would be, so she just shrugged in response to Gar and commented on the first doubt she had about that suggestion. "Ye can try, I suppose. Doubt ye'd be able to, though."

[Snike]

"Yes, well, the objective is to run Wrath out of time, so he cannot acquire the Emblem. While splitting them up does not seem too helpful, it burns his most valuable resource, which is good for us," Thanatos said. "And the alternative is entrusting some or the whole Emblem to one of the other gods, and I do not believe that that is a wise move, anyways. If we get most of the pieces, there are ways of shattering them, so the number of pieces right now is not an issue. As for killing Leviathan, well, while there is no doubt he is a nuisance, killing him or even trying to kill him is a good way to unite all four gods against us. And that is a recipe for disaster."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"What? There a time limit on how good the Emblems are for?" Gar sarcastically asked. "Well, eh, not much difference from being doomed once over than fourth over in my opinion," Gar commented.

[Snike]

"Not exactly," Thanatos said, motionless. "Wrath has one year on the earth in which he can get the emblem, after which he is gone for another five millenia. The clock has not started just yet, so we have some time, but not as much as I would prefer."

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"So that's what that's about mmm," Gar hummed.

[Phoenix]

Campfire of Fretting

"How are we supposed to stall him for a year?!" Raquel asked, on the verge of panicking again. "That's not even possible. Lilith alone could probably trample most armies in a couple of days, so how could we possibly stall him for an entire year?!"

"Don't forget, Wrath isn't the only god who will come into play here. In theory, you should only need to delay him until the Goddess of Mercy arrives. Wrath has always arrived before any of the other gods ... and she has always arrived shortly thereafter. Regardless of the emblem situation, Wrath has a job to do while here, and he must begin before the others arrive, which means this conflict will at the very least be put on hold by the time she arrives. He'll either have it by then or not," Hypnos explained.

Shadrak needless to say wasn't satisfied with either Thanatos' answer or Hypnos' followup. "Why would Mercy showing up stop any of this? Why would Wrath suddenly give up once she gets here, and why the hell isn't he just coming here right now to take the emblem? None of this makes any sense."

"You must understand, the gods have lived for an incomprehensible length of time. They don't think as we do, and they don't feel as we do. There is no sense of urgency, no fear of failure, no pride at stake. They are living by very ancient covenants, and empirical evidence suggests that not a one of them will break these covenants even to more easily achieve their goals."

"Uh, hello, isn't Wrath breaking at least one of them by getting the emblem or is this something completely different?"

"I don't know for certain if what Wrath is doing is in direct violation of any of the original agreements, but I doubt it. According to our own legends, these solemn agreements between the gods were made in what qualified as their infancy. There are bound to be loopholes in there somewhere. I'm not actually an expert on divine history, though, mind you."

"'Solemn agreements'? I don't quite buy it but I'd be surprised if you knew everything that's going on anyway," Shadrak relented a little. "There is one thing you said that's still bothering me though. Wrath has a job to do and he needs to start before the other gods show up. What's that about?"

"Surely you know about this already ... Wrath destroys, Mercy saves, Nature restores, and Truth wraps things up with a year long sermon~" Hypnos explained, tossing in a slight joke at the end. Then, becoming far more serious, he added, "This is their order in renewing the world. If Wrath was truly willing to break this order, he would have done so already and used that borrowed time to gather the emblem pieces. He wouldn't have razed Sardius the way he did and left it at that. When all is said and done, Wrath is going to unleash harsh judgement on this world whether or not he is empowered by the fire emblem. That is something we cannot avoid at this point."

"... oh ..." I thought ... well ... I don't know really. I guess I thought if we stopped Wrath from getting the emblem, nothing bad would happen at all from that point onward and life would just continue on like normal. "Oh crap ..." This is going to be SO bad.

Wait, is this the end of the world even if we stop Wrath from getting the emblem?! Raquel thought fearfully to herself.

[Snike]

"And this is why you're never invited to the family reunions," Thanatos said, quietly. "Yes, his judgement is certainly going to hit this world. No, it is not going to be the 'end of the world', seeing as that should have been last cycle if anything. Society will probably be set back a bit, but it can and will recover. No, there is nothing to my knowledge that we can do about it aside from assemble the emblem, which is too much of a risk in my opinion. So the focus is just stopping him from getting empowered, as while he will kill many people either way, if he fails to get the emblem, the body count will not skyrocket."

[Mercakete]

Well, this was news. It was kind of a shock, to be honest. Gytha couldn't really respond at first, just standing there grimacing. After Thanatos' clarification, that faded into worry, however. She couldn't help but wonder what this all meant for her and the people she knew. "Will there be ana one people group targetted?"

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

Seeing as their camp site was fairly small, it didn't take a whole lot of wandering to find the Sancturan. Faatina seemed to be just wandering about herself, actually. This was actually somewhat ideal, which was both unusual and unexpected. Still, it didn't effect Norbert as he walked up to her and asked, "Hey. Do you have a minute?"

[Ether]

"Hmm? Sure, I was gonna gather some firewood, but it looks like it was taken care of already... what's up?" Faatina replied, wondering what exactly the pegasus rider wanted.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"The ways and whys and hows are beyond us and a blah," Gar sarcastically blithed. "Everyone always moves for their own interests, that's always a truth. So whatever ancient ominous we-can't-possibly-understand pacts the Gods are upholding must mean they have something to gain."

[Mercakete]

"Well..." How can I say this? Norbert paused for a second to try to sort out his wording. "What did you think of Colin?" Norbert asked. Though his tone was casual, his gaze was scrutinous and his countenance serious.

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

I'm beginning to see why the Guardians were interested in the Fire Emblem...did Pavel know all this about coming of Wrath and never told me? She was somewhat interested in the answer to Gytha's question, although she had a sneaking suspicion she knew already. Ursians often claim Wrath wishes to destroy the dragons...and their allies. If we can't get any of these emblem pieces, that could be the end of Neviskotia...

Nadya

Nadya and company managed to put up a second tent, taking less time than it did on their first one. "Well I don't know about y'all, but I'm sleepin' in one of these tonight after all that hassle of settin' it up," she declared.

Edited June 11, 2013 by -Cynthia-

[Ether]

"Colin? He seemed like a pretty good guy, to me. It's a shame that we ended up on opposite sides of all this... he would have made a strong ally, and I think, a good friend... though it seems like it's too late for any of that, now." Faatina replied, her tone sombre. It would seem the woman was completely oblivious to the edge in Norbert's glare, not taking note of his expression.

"I hope, that when an end is put to all of this, he can be convinced to lay down his sword... working for one's enemy does not make someone inherently bad... I'm sure any evil we see in those henchmen is reflected in their own eyes when they look at us... but he still saved me. He could have left me bleed out, or even still feigned ignorance and allowed the poison in me to take it's toll... but he chose to save this life of mine, even if it meant someone he considered an enemy would stand... I can't help but think that he is someone who we should try to save." Faatina replied, giving her head a shake afterwards.

"But in the end, it will hinge on whether he is willing to budge once we win, no matter what we may put into giving him that option... why do you ask, Norbert?"

[scorri]

"Uhm..." Lumi gave a mental shrug and hugged the other girl back. "Well, I've been on my own for the past half year or so. I guess I might be a bit naive, but not *that* naive. Of course a large group like you is going to attract attention. That doesn't mean you aren't organized. Though... you guys could probably stand to post guards. Pete and I shouldn't have been allowed to get that far into camp without being challenged. And you are nice! I believe that." She smiled at the other girl.

[ReformBlade]

Nice was a thing Aneda wasn't used to being called but it wasn't a really foreign thing to hear, she just felt it was... incorrect, misleading. "I wouldn't say I'm nice, just.... accommodating, overt. Also maybe very quick to judge and easily frustrated with things that don't click with me right from the get go." she mused, a disappointed grimace on her face, "Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm not, but either way I think a change of venue would do me wonders at this point."

"Uh, y-yes, that'd be perfectly fine, I can pay that. If you want it up front I've got it here somewhere." She started rummaging through her bag but when Tia kept going on about her magic, Mushirah felt a little, no, extremely embarrassed to tell her, "I'm not sure what you're talking about, I just sort of... do it. The way my dad taught me?"

[Mercakete]

"So, you tried to help him because he helped you..." Norbert mused aloud. Either that or she's being tricky. He frowned, however, as he came to his next question, "When I rode over to try to save you from them -- I saw them over you and didn't know what they were doing at the time -- they wouldn't let me near. I guess it could be because I was hostile -- I thought they were taking advantage of you or something -- but..."

He shook his head, answering her question within his own. "It didn't make any sense why they would help you out in the middle of a fight between us and them. Not unless...you weren't really one of their enemies." Again, he focused on whatever reaction she had to give, looking for any tells. "Are you?"

As an aside, it was a little strange to hear his full name again. I've really gotten used to people just calling me "Bert" I guess.

Edited June 11, 2013 by Mercakete

[Ether]

"It makes plenty of sense, Bert. I didn't kill anyone, today. I knocked them out so they wouldn't be a threat, but I didn't kill them. And even if they revived me, between my wounds and the poison, I couldn't have fought anymore, so I wasn't a threat to them. That and... I really believe what Colin said... that they didn't want to fight us there... even if it might have not been true of that Samael man... even Sardis seemed to try, until things went down... and maybe that was an act, from him... but I think Colin truly believed it, himself. I think he wanted a reason not to jump in, not to brandish his sword... it became too much for him when Silvia was taken out, but while I was with him, until that moment, he showed no interest in fighting." Faatina replied... Bert was acting strange, and his next question was even stranger.

"Am I their enemy? Bert, what kind of question is that? So long as I fight for Raquel, and they fight for Sardis, so long as this isn't resolved... I am, I suppose. But I see no reason to look at any of them and think, they are my enemy. They work for the enemy of whom I choose to follow... if they stop working for Sardis, and show me no personal threat, then they are no longer my enemy. I hope to end it that way, as much as possible." Faatina replied, before giving Bert an inquisitive gaze.

"You're acting really weird today, Bert. Were you injured?"

[Mercakete]

Throughout her reply, Norbert was becoming more and more suspicious. She was certainly advocating the people who had repeatedly tried to kill them, for one and her response to his actual question by that point sounded a lot like a cover story in his ears. Her final question actually threw the pegasus rider off a little, though and the slight falter showed up briefly in his face. Well, yeah, I was, but I think that's a given at this point...

"That has nothing to do with this," he replied, his composure snapping back to its wary, tense state, "I just don't know-- ..." He stopped, then restarted his sentence, deciding to just ask directly in his frustration. "Are you one of them? Did they send you to join this group? You say you followed us from Sanctuary and that may still be true, but... Killing a couple throw-away members to earn our trust then sneaking into our ranks is a really smart strategy and you appeared when we were fighting some of them in the middle of the desert. And then they treat you like one of their own in the fighting and you were helping them, too. I don't buy that they were just nice people who wanted the fighting to end. You were the only one from our side they helped! And besides that, we've killed too many of them for them not to want some kind of revenge."

He shook his head, frustrated at both the situation and at his ineptness at speaking clearly what he wanted to say. "So are you one of them or not? I want the truth, no matter what that answer is. I've stuck my neck out for you enough to deserve a straight answer, I think." She could still lie about it. As suspicious as he was, though, he genuinely wanted her to make it clear -- more than just telling him, to give him a reason to believe -- that she was, in fact, not part of the organization.

[scorri]

"Hmm, well, I don't believe the bit about you not being nice! I mean, your pegasus loves you, clearly you must be nice. As for the change of scenery, well, Pete and I aren't going to be staying with this group forever. Why not come with us when we leave? I mean, we just wander around, it's not great pay or anything, but it's fun!"

[Ether]

"I'm not one of them, Bert. I'm hurt that you hold so little faith in me after everything we've been through... besides, if I was an agent, why would I not switch sides once this supposed 'penultimate' began? I don't have this feud that the rest of you who have been here longer do... I think Colin realized that and didn't want to see me fall... and I wasn't going to watch him fall after he saved me." Faatina replied, taken aback by Norbert's accusation.

"I think you're looking too far into this, Norbert."

[Mercakete]

Norbert listened carefully to Faatina's reply. To be honest, he couldn't care less if she was hurt or not at the time she mentioned it; it had nothing to do with the issue he was trying to figure out. There was a brief pause in the conversation between her reply and his upcoming one as he carefully assessed what he'd been told. Then, he began nodding, his tenseness fading. "I believe you."

He frowned again, however, this time somewhere between extremely mild annoyance and disappointment. He'd returned to casual, too. "You have to admit, it did look kind of bad. We're dealing with some competent people, too. This is a dangerous situation and there was cause for concern. I had to look into it. I'd rather confront you and be wrong than ignore a potential problem and be right."

Norbert shifted his expression to a more neutral, relaxed one as he went on, "You know, I actually did something similar back at whatever port we were at before Sergio. In that fight there was someone I recognized. I knew she wasn't an enemy so I flew over and asked her about it. She was just trying to help out her friend and her brother out on a dangerous job. I kept telling the three of them to get out of there, but they never listened. Two of them survived, though, which is better than it could have been. One of them we took with us. The one who stayed behind was just a kid. Anyway, people could have seen that and thought I was a traitor or something. I just didn't want people to die who didn't have to. That's not what I expect others to think, though."

"Anyway, the point is you've convinced me my suspicions weren't valid. I'm glad, too; I was hoping you weren't one of them," he finished, cracking a smile.

[Phoenix]

Campfire of Fire

"Wrath's judgment is like nothing else you'll see in this life, and everyone will be targeted in some way or another. He doesn't just bring down armies and cities; he brings down entire cultures and the history that made them. Even those who survived the physical destruction weren't the same afterward. Everyone Wrath's flames touched lost many things that were once a part of them. Who'll live and who'll die is difficult to predict ... but you're all going to lose something when those fires reach you."

"Well, I'm sure the fallen are done for in that case," Shadrak chimed back in. Poor Siv. I feel like I should maybe try to think of some way to help her. I doubt I'll have much time to learn anything else about the fallen themselves before they get obliterated, but maybe she can be saved. I mean she's hardly the definition of evil. "We'll probably have a lot fewer bandits out there when it's all over too, now that I think about it."

Hypnos merely shrugged at those points. "You'd think ..." Then to Gar he said, "It's not as though the gods are incomprehensible entities themselves, but to truly understand them, you have to abandon the mortal perspective and perhaps take on a greater appreciation of principle as they do. But again, these covenants they made among themselves are among the oldest bits of our history that we know of for certain ... ... they could, admittedly, be outdated."

Tents

"Not making any decisions on that just yet, though if we run out of space again, I'll probably just take the Dauntless' front seat again. That was cozy enough," Reign said, glancing over at the damaged vehicle. "Hmm ... it's long past time to untack those horses, but Raquel looks distracted right now."

[Ether]

"I'm glad, Bert... but was it really that suspicious? Colin seemed to get along pretty well with most of us while he was here..." Faatina replied, Norbert recollecting a similar situation he had been in prior.

"So despite doing the same thing, you thought I was a mole? That's... haha... now that I think about it, I'm not surprised... you can be really impulsive sometimes, Bert." Faatina continued with a chuckle, after Norbert had finished his explanation of how it had happened to him.

"It's good to have convinced you... I'd hate to have you breathing down my neck all the time because you thought I was a spy... things might get pretty awkward if you were following me around everywhere... besides, if you had decided I was guilty and tried to report me, whatever would I have done... taking you out would get so messy..." Faatina finished, giving the pegasus rider a playful smirk before pretending to become absorbed in her nails like some sort of fashionista, though it didn't take very long for the Sancturan to break out into laughter.

"Can you imagine?"