Lord of Azure Flame Final Chapter: Victory or Death

[Snike]

Eric

"It seems to me that they bring little else but misery," Eric said, slightly frowning. "Regardless, we will defeat them, and we will achieve peace,"

[-Cynthia-]

Charlotte

"I fear that even the defeat the demons will not achieve peace, but we must defeat them nevertheless," she said solemnly.

Morgan

Morgan was going over battle plans in her head, but found herself becoming distracted by other thoughts fairly frequently, which was rare for her. Losing focus with the battle of our lives to come would not bode well. So she decided to walk over and talk to Lev, who was around the Elyisimans.

"Do you have a moment to talk?" she asked, walking up to the wyvern rider.

[Phoenix]

Irina

"It's not that simple, Tas," Irina began. What she was about to explain was just a theory, and she knew that, but she also knew that Ixion was smarter than her, and may have prepared for any eventual guilt trips she might prey to. "You still remember it, don't you? Ixion was inside of Nikita's mind. He changed her so that she would be attached to me and not her actual owner ... but that's only what he said he did. He wants her owner dead ... so what if he didn't just change Nikita so she would like me instead of her ... what if ... what if she sees her as an enemy now? If I reunite them without knowing and she attacks, I might not be able to stop her in time. Ixion doesn't follow anyone's rules but his own and he wouldn't think twice about doing something as disgusting as that."

Lev

"Of course," Lev replied, as if it were obvious.

Jasmine stood there for a second, gently scratching her jawline, and then decided to give the two some time alone. Even if it wasn't necessarily a private matter, she didn't want to hear anything about the mission or other crimson business. Right now, she just wanted to get her mind elsewhere. "I'll see you later," she bid farewell before wandering off toward the other Elyisimians nearby. She got a small wave from Lev as she turned to leave.

"Anyway ... here I am," he said with a smile and a shrug.

[-Cynthia-]

Morgan was glad that the pegasus knight excused herself as she had no desire to speak with her. "Indeed you are," she said before pausing momentarily, searching her mind for a topic of conversation. "So, what do you think our odds are for the battle tomorrow? Be truthful, I have little need for a motivational speech," she said , turning towards Lev.

[Phoenix]

Lev

"Honestly?" He paused for a moment, trying to decide how he would say it. "Fifty-fifty. We haven't gotten this far on just luck, and time and again unexpected circumstances and mistakes on the demons' part have given us an advantage ... but at the same time, there's just too much that can go wrong here, and we don't know exactly what we're walking into, either. If even one crimson goes down we'll probably lose this fight. At least in Ilyphina we didn't have to find some way to replace Esphyr in the middle of battle. It's not looking good, but it's far from what I feared the last time I thought this hard about our it ... ... and at least we have more apparent help for a change," he concluded, nudging his head toward the elyisimians.

[Mercakete]

That was a horrifying thought. "He'd turn her against her own partner?" he asked in astonishment. It was hard for him to wrap his head around. "I...guess it's for the best if we wait until we can find some way to return her to normal, then..." Tas amended a bit choppily as he furrowed his brow and focused intently on the air in front of him. There has to be some way... This is just so sad if there's nothing we can do about it...

Shortly, though, his focus died off as a terrible, heartbreaking thought occurred to him. A bit shell-shocked, he mused aloud, "I...I don't know what I'd do if someone somehow did that to Namid... He's my brother. We were always beside each other, even when we were babies..."

Edited December 17, 2013 by Mercakete

[-Cynthia-]

"A fair assessment, given our lack of information on our enemy. I agree that we should make protecting the Crimson wielders a priority. This may necessitate organizing members of our group in formations they are not used to, but this is too important to let their petty personal preferences get in the way," Morgan said decisively.

[Phoenix]

Irina

"Try not to think about it. I know I certainly don't like to think about what Ixion did to her," Irina replied, frowning at Nikita, who seemed to still be awake but completely disinterested in the conversation.

Lev

"Careful with that. People stick with what they're used to because it's much easier to focus when they're comfortable. The last thing you want to do before a big battle is give a dedicated swordsman a bow or vice versa. As long as we can make sure each crimson wielder is covered and able to fight, we should function as well as we always do-better, actually; I'm sure they realize just how important this is, and that we won't have time for petty bullshit once the fighting starts."

[-Cynthia-]

"I suppose that will work well enough," Morgan conceded. "So assuming we come out of this alive, what are your plans for the future? I presume you will not wish to remain in the tomb."

[Snike]

Eric

"Their downfall will at least improve the odds for peace, and after that, well, we will have the time to strive for it," Eric said, as he turned to look at the Princess, with a smile now. "Peace requires a steady hand, after all."

[Phoenix]

Lev

"Probably not going back to Zaftra either unless I need something I don't want to have to pay for," Lev noted half seriously. "I was thinking of just going into business for myself for awhile. Again, though, you should consider joining me~"

[-Cynthia-]

Charlotte

"Well I don't think I'll be able to maintain peace all by myself. After all of this ends, I want you to remain by my side- no matter what Jace or the council says or if we are officially a duumvirate or what have you," she said decisively, looking Eric square in the eye.

Morgan

"I...have been considering it," Morgan said, looking down at the ground. "Truth be told, I am not used to making decisions for myself. Flemeth made my decisions for me for most of my life. Even my decision to reunite the Crimson Weapons was never truly mine. Flemeth would never have been so careless to leave her plans laying out in plain sight unless she had some purpose in doing so- I see that clearly now," she said in a melancholy tone.

[Snike]

Eric

"I would not rather have it any other way," Eric responded, returning the look. "We will make and keep it, together."

[Phoenix]

Lev

"Sounds like it'd be just your luck if Flemeth planned for you running off with someone once all was said and done," he said, glancing off irritably into the distance. "Still, you can make your own choices. Even if Flemeth's trying to manipulate you, it's always up to you what you're going to do and why you're going to do it. It wasn't much different from our mission in Kalten. There was no way in hell Ivanko was going to force us all to fight for him. We each chose to fight for our own reasons once we had the choice. You could argue that he used us ... but at the end of the day, that's what an army's for, and we all accomplished what we set out to do. That's the plan here too, right? We're going to defeat the Lord of Azure Flame, regardless of Flemeth's intentions?"

[Balcerzak]

Mage girl

"...Right, well in that case, until later, I suppose," Iris finished. The lieutenant was still rather thoroughly confused, but she chalked it up to perhaps language difficulties, or... the captain was new to her liquor it seemed, maybe that was the cause? Either way, she'd tarried long enough. With a slight wave of the hand, she turned and headed to her target, Isotov.

The prince was at this point sitting by himself, staring into the campfire. It felt a little awkward, but still, Frederikov needed to talk to the man. Wishing for a comfortable log or something to use as a seat, she was resigned to just brushing a patch of blasted ground free of dust and settling in there, as there wasn't an abundance of trees or anything in this wasteland after all.

She started softly, almost gently, and Iris was kind of surprised by it herself when she heard her voice. "Hey there prince, how are you holding up?"

Healer girl

With a smile, Tessa finished bidding Damian farewell, and then she made her way back to where she'd left Arrin with a spring in her step. When she found the nomad boy, she eagerly asked, "Say, would you like to go for a walk with me? I thought it might be nice to move around a bit, maybe look up at the stars, and well, just talk. What do you say?" While waiting for his reply, she found herself hoping she could hear it over the beating of her heart, pounding in her ears.

[-Cynthia-]

Charlotte

"I will hold you to that promise Sir Eric," she said softly. Please don't leave me again, I don't think I can stand any more people I care about dying...

Morgan

"So even though everything I have done has been according to Flemeth's plan, it is irrelevant because they were my decisions regardless? I suppose that has some truth to it. Very well, I accept your offer- conditional on our survival of course," she decided quickly, giving Lev a small smile.

[Phoenix]

Iso

Iso glanced up to see who was speaking to him. He figured from the get-go it was probably Iris. She was the only woman in the group with the same accent as Lev and the only others that would bother to check on him besides Charlotte were Irina, Kelas, or Morgan ... or perhaps Reika if she felt like randomly pissing someone off. "I'm fine ... all things considered. I'm more worried about what happens after the battle than the battle itself. That's probably a bad sign, but, things weren't exactly going well before the demons showed up in force. Even with them gone, my sister and I are still stuck in this royalty situation."

Viveka

Viveka sighed once Iris left. "Well ... that could have ended better. I'll blame it on the alcohol, I guess," she muttered, smiling weakly at Tristan.

Lev

"Hey, now that's what I like to see." (As long as it's not Flemeth in disguise ...) Lev smiled back saying, "We'll survive. Whatever it takes."

[-Cynthia-]

Tristan

"Yeah, I kinda got confused about what was going on there. Do you have some sort of problem with Isotov?" he asked Viveka bluntly.

Morgan

"Well if we do not, it is not as if we will have any ability to alter our course of action anyway," Morgan pointed out. "Part of me wonders if Flemeth does not have a plan to intervene somehow if we are on the brink of destruction, but it is not something to rely upon in any case."

[Phoenix]

Viveka

"I um ... well he's not my favorite person in this group, in either case. I admit, though, It might have more to do with Ivanko at this point," Viveka explained. "Until recently, I idolized him, and Iso being a relative of his, yet such a ... troubled individual, just really rubbed me the wrong way. There was also that issue that one morning that I will not go into detail about."

Lev

"Right. Likewise, we can't expect much, if anything, from Ixion or that thing Miranda turned into. I just hope they get there first and thin out any extra resistance. The last thing we need is to get tired out before even reaching our target."

[-Cynthia-]

Tristan

Ignoring whatever this 'morning issue' was, Tristan decided to focus on the other point. "You idolized Ivanko? That seems like an unusual choice," he remarked.

Morgan

"If we run into a significant battle before reaching the Lord of Azure Flame, we may need to rest for another day. I agree that we cannot rely on Ixion and Miranda for anything. Miranda's allegiance is even more suspect and Ixion claims he will reveal his plans at the tomb. I have tried not to devote too much thought to the matter, but if he was unwilling to divulge them earlier he must have some reason," Morgan said, biting her lip.

Edited December 15, 2013 by -Cynthia-

[Phoenix]

Viveka

"It might seem like it, but I used to live on a large farm out on the plains with my little brother and the annoying part of my family. That enormous wyvern of his attacked the farm one day and my brother. I would have died too if Ivanko hadn't captured it. The problem is, I only just recently learned that Ivanko didn't have the thing killed ... he just kept it around like a pet to intimidate people. I'd do anything to kill that evil monster, but I'm not strong enough, and now it's property of the Zaftran 'royalty'. Lars will never be avenged now, thanks to him ..."

Lev

"Let's hope we have the option, at least," Lev noted when resting another day came up, fearing there might be a gauntlet of demons waiting for them that they would have to fight through no matter how they approached the matter. "If there's no other choice, we might have to use the Elysimians for that and try to force our way through." Putting a hand on his chin, he muttered, "The fact that even I haven't been able to figure out what Ixion's up to worries me, I'll tell you that much. I grew up with the guy and he's normally pretty predictable."

[-Cynthia-]

Tristan

"Oh, I'm sorry," Tristan said, scratching his head. He hadn't really expected any dead relatives to come up. "Well, I don't think wyverns live as long as humans, so he'll probably die pretty soon. That's a natural vengeance of a sort," he offered.

Morgan

"We may need to use the Elysimians as a decoy force. I doubt that will be a popular decision, but we are in this to survive, not to be popular. Perhaps Ixion thinks Miranda will be a useful weapon against the Lord of Azure Flame after combining with Shanice, but if that were the reasoning he would have told us," Morgan said, shutting down her own theory.

[Phoenix]

Viv

"I don't know much about wyverns. All I know is that 'Victor' needs a dozen blades through its heart for what it did to my little brother."

Lev

"Unless there's something to it that you wouldn't like ... then he might hold back a bit. He didn't tell Irina about what he did to Nikita until after the deed was done and there was nothing she could do about it. He might be planning something similar here ... in which case, I wouldn't expect the whole story from him, even after we get there ... not until all's said and done," Lev mused.

[-Cynthia-]

Tristan

"Yeah, sounds like he does. Ooh, maybe you could hire an assassin to poison his food or something. That's usually how Septimian nobles get people killed, unless you're Jace of course. Not sure if assassins do wyverns though," he mused aloud.

Morgan

"Perhaps his plan involves the sacrifice of our lives- that I would certainly be opposed to. It is all well and good that killing the Lord of Azure Flame benefits humanity, but I am doing this for my survival, not to become some self-sacrificing hero."

[Phoenix]

Viv

Viveka struggled not to laugh; paying someone to assassinate a wyvern was certainly unusual. Even if someone accepted her offer, she probably wouldn't be taken too seriously until they actually got a look at the thing. Still, there were relations with Zaftra to consider. If she deliberately had the 'Emperor's pet' killed, no matter the reason, she would get herself dishonorably discharged at best, and probably killed at worst.

Lev

"I doubt anyone is doing this to die a hero, but if that's what Ixion's got in store for anyone, I've got something in store for him too, pretty similar, in fact," Lev replied, thinking of his axe. "I hate to make it a priority, but there's almost no point in doing this if we end up dying anyway, so let's be sure to get that information from Ixion before we go into the tomb, just to be sure."