Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Phoenix]

That One Guy

Nyx smoothly raised her hand and flicked Jericho on the forehead, her gold tipped fingers giving a bit more weight and power to an otherwise harmless gesture. "Keep your voice down; I'm right here," she said, scowling at him for a moment. "You happen to be in luck. Thanks to some memories I gathered a few minutes ago, I can tell you with certainty that he's in this city."

Who's in this city? Reign wondered, surprised Jericho had suddenly come out with that. It was obviously important if his brother was involved, and that emotion made it clear he clearly cared for him. Reign wasn't sure he could say the same about his brother. It wasn't that he wished Elrey any ill, only the decency to keep in touch with the rest of the family if nothing else. Little chance of that, though. Wait, a few minutes ago? Must be a real small world if one of us somehow knows where this brother stealer is ....

Raquel could relate; Sardis had taken away her father which was why they were in this mess to begin with. She considered asking about the whereabouts of her father, following Jericho's request. She had some vague hope that she could catch him off on his own without Sardis around, but quickly dismissed the thought. Finding her father by himself was just too unlikely, she thought. Besides, Nyx had already given her a workaround to the problem. Holding the four winged insignia in her hand, she recalled Nyx's messenger, Ryder. Apparently, this person could get a message to anyone on the continent ... for a fee. That might work out better for her than risking a direct confrontation, and she might be able to get some answers without the tension that comes with drawn weapons and threats.

Bit of a Gamble

"So it's a deal then," Ryder hesitated, "Two hundred and twenty thousand if there's nothing inside ... two hundred and eighty thousand if there is ..." With that, Ryder slowly reached forward to begin inspecting the idol.

Scrambled Party

"Seriously, let go," Shadrak pleaded. "It's not like we can leave before everyone's done here ... at least I don't think it's a good idea to split up anymore than we already have. We still have to find Blake at some point, there's the emblem to track down, and we've got people waiting back at the estate too. There's no reason to leave until they're finished in there," he reasoned, his thoughts running a mile a minute, and all the while he was worrying after his health. He felt like his legs might give out before too long, here.

[scorri]

Lumi

"What? Oh... uhm... He uh... Pissed off a minor goddess and so she zapped him with dark lightning?" Lumi paused trying to figure out how to explain it better. "Right. Nyx is in there. Or... someone claiming to be Nyx. I doubt she'd claim to be Nyx if she wasn't though. Looks a lot like that priestess from before. She can take your memories and then grant you knowledge, or make you her servant if you're willing and apparently that gives some benefits, I don't know, I wasn't especially interested? But apparently some others were. At least in the giving memories for knowledge. Also two people I didn't recognize did the servants part. But basically he was arguing with her and she shocked him."

Erion

"Hmm, don't think so. I think we would've heard more commotion. They probably just dragged him out before he got himself in trouble again." He shrugged and leaned against the wall with her. "So what do you think? Still sticking with this group after all the crazy?"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Veronika released Shadrak, figuring she could catch him pretty easily if he decided to head towards the archives again. "Right, we have better things to do than get electrocuted to death. Try to remember that next time you get into an argument," she advised him.

Nadya

Nadya looked anxiously at the statuette, resisting the urge to ask what was inside. She didn't know how much concentration Ryder needed so she kept silent for the time being.

[roymbrog]

Synthia remained silent (not that she had a choice) as she took in the information presented to her. She’d missed a lot, it seemed. The name Nyx was familiar, even if she couldn’t remember all the details. The goddess was associated with the moon, she recalled. The mage glanced briefly at Shadrak before deciding he was someone else’s problem and began writing in her tome again. When she held it up to Lumi the new line read, “I suppose we did not find the emblem piece. Was there one to begin with or was it a failure to negotiate?” After thinking for a moment, Synthia wrote one more thing. “Was she erasing memories or just reading them?”

---

Though she hadn’t been addressed directly, Katrina picked up the gist of what had happened from what others said. Her eyes widened as she realized the shaman could’ve easily died, if it really was a goddess that attacked him. “S-Shadrak! Are you ok? How badly were you hurt?” Did someone already heal him? Her eyes rested on Synthia for a moment before darting back to him as she waited for an answer.

[Nanami Touko]

Eva let her shoulders relax, as Shaddy seemed like he'd be fine. Or as fine as someone who had been shocked could be, but at least for now, fine. "What, this? While I can't claim I've seen crazier, it's not like it shocks me all that much. It probably should, or maybe it just hasn't hit me yet," Eva started, a cocky smile forming, "but if I get to keep fighting like earlier, then I'll gladly stick around. Besides, need someone to cover your ass. If things are always this crazy, and I'm not around, you'll be in the wall in no time."

[ReformBlade]

Flicked in the forehead, he went on undaunted, "Where?!" he asked almost immediately after she had finished, urgency in his voice, actually considering running off right that moment if she would give him a clear answer. "Please, tell me, I need to know, I need to fucking know." Maybe it wasn't the healthiest thing for him, but Jericho's whole body was getting tenser by the second, each moment without her reply simply agonizing him. "You know how important this is to me." he stated flatly, his gaze hitting the floor. He wasn't angry so much as incredibly anxious, that and he felt that if he looked at her much longer he'd probably start shouting at her again. He tended to do that.

[Phoenix]

Smex Machine

Nyx scowled again. "What are you planning to do, burn him to death? He won't be alone," she warned.

"Who won't be alone?" Reign asked, trying to see if anyone knew this brother thief. It wasn't his most subtle approach, but there was nothing in this place ever seemed to be subtle. Vague, certainly, but nothing subtle.

It would probably stir some trouble, but perhaps that appealed to her in some small way. "He goes by the name 'Sardis'," she answered Reign, causing his eyes to widen in surprise.

Raquel's reaction was much more immediate and profound. She even stepped closer to confirm this. "What?! Sardis is here in Europa?! Right now?!"

Nyx ignored Raquel and continued speaking to Jericho. "If you want his exact location, you should enlist some help from that little seeker. I can't give you an exact location at this moment because my servant has spent a little too much time apart from his former masters," she explained, glancing at Simon who, in response, flinched slightly. She'd outed him for whatever reason but would she protect him, at least? He didn't want his affiliation being revealed at a time like this.

As Raquel and Reign's gazes reached him, Simon took a step back. Reign didn't have any plans ... not for a servant of Nyx, but Raquel was about to say something when Nyx chimed in. "I know you people aren't stupid enough to try anything right in front of me," she said, her tone severely threatening and yet she managed a small grin.

Two-Ton Terror

Ryder's gloved fingers pressed gently against the statuette and the numerous tendrils began to burrow into it at a cautious pace, spreading out like tree roots to grant a better picture. "Hmm ..." To Ryder's surprise, there was a cavity in the statuette, but with such an intricate figurine ... it had to have been done with alchemy. The tendrils went deeper, trying to find any sort of object contained within. "There's an object with what appear to be inscriptions on it. It's quite small, though. It could be a rune, but I'm not quite certain. I'd need more time to poke around," Ryder explained, pleased with their initial results. "Well a deal's a deal. I'll pay you two hundred and eighty thousand for it. That is, unless you believe this rich man will pay more ..."

Pistol King

"Hey, I had no way of knowing that Nyx was so ..." Shadrak stopped himself from finishing that sentence, feeling he was already on the wrong track there. As far as history was concerned, Nyx was a 'redeemed' minor goddess, an entity who had once rebelled against the gods. Maybe he should have seen a whimsical yet deadly response coming, after all. "I just expected she had better debating skills, that's all ... and wouldn't resort to something so childish to win an argument."

He heaving a sigh, he glanced weakly at Katrina and said, "I'll live-" I hope ... "it was just really painful." In an effort to make sure no one was as worried after his health as he was, Shadrak reassured her and those around that he was fine, but as if to call him on this, his body began to weaken rapidly. He felt his knees giving beneath him and flinched. Oh no ... Collapsing right after reassuring them ... that was convincing, sure. Shadrak had just enough time to utter a small, "No-o-o ..." before he hit the floor and blacked out.

Lord Bacon

"Ugh ... what happened?" Shadrak opened his eyes and feared he'd gone blind for a moment. Everything around him was dark. As far as he could tell, there was no ground, either. He was just floating in nothingness. There was no source of light, which was just as alarming considering he could see his hands and the rest of his body as if there were. This reminded him an awful lot of strange dream, and he had a vivid memory of at least one crazy dream he'd been in. "Where ... where the hell am I?!"

"I've been waiting for you to finally sprawl," came Nyx's all too familiar and condescending voice. It was coming from random directions and hitting him unevenly.

"What did you do to me?!" Shadrak yelled. If he was in this much trouble, he didn't see much point in even trying to be humble about this. She was clearly up to something ...

"I'd figured it was clear that I knocked you out and trapped you inside your own mind, but I suppose now that I've spelled it out for you, we're on the same page," she coldly replied. "Now that there aren't any distractions ... and you're not pressed for time ... let's have a little talk~"

"About what?" Shadrak hissed, realizing he was going to be here for awhile ... trapped ... inside his own mind? Something about that was terrifying and at the same time intriguing.

"Let's talk about ... gods."

Edited April 2, 2014 by Phoenix

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Shadrak's injuries were worse than she thought apparently and she felt a twinge of guilt at dragging him around. "Could you please check his injuries?" she asked, turning to Synthia.

Nadya

"Well, what kinda rune is it?" Nadya asked out of curiosity, not committing for the moment. Lots of different kinds of runes out there, if it's some kinda fancy ancient rune Weyland might pay even more for it...

[Nanami Touko]

As quickly as she'd been assured that Shaddy was alright, he collapsed onto the floor. She winced as he hit the ground, and sighed. "Well, guess he took that harder than he thought..." Eva said, quite pleased that she'd gotten herself out of that room with Nyx. She wondered if asking a healer to help would be a good idea, but Veronika was already on that, so she placed herself back against the wall. Surely he won't die... RIght?

[scorri]

Lumi

Shrugging, Lumi recalled what had been said and then said, "Nyx said something about... the Winged Cleric? having the piece. But she didn't tell us where this Winged Cleric was exactly beyond somewhere in the building. So I guess we're going to be hunting for her next."

Erion

"Well... Dark magic is nothing to mess with. Hopefully he'll be ok. There are healers about and they'll do a better job helping him than we would."

[ReformBlade]

"I wasn't." He lied, knowing full well she knew what kind of person he was. Still, he wanted to go after Sardis now more than ever for obvious reasons. "I only hope that, somehow, whatever was trapped in my head benefits you more than it has for me. How someone like you can deal with their own moralities and history and tendencies while knowing and sifting through others' is beyond me and frankly I don't want to experience that. However, if the fates permit it, sometime down the line... I wouldn't mind helping you out." He didn't want to use any sort of, in his eyes, demeaning term like servant or lackey or minion, but he'd definitely offer his help up to a person who gave him some glimmer of hope into finishing off what he started. Unfortunately for Jericho, he hadn't even considered the possibility that the situation he was in could really be anything other than it was, so the ability to let him down or anger him further would be staggeringly high.

[Eail]

Wash Away The Anger

Zach was really hoping the members of the group could keep their cool, sort of ironic for him being the one to think this, but he'd rather they not end up pissing off Nyx. Who knew exactly what it was that the woman would be capable of if angered. He wasn't going to say anything, there really wasn't any need for him to do so at the moment, but if needed he'd step in... literally if required. The mage was pretty sure he could hold the people still around back physically, if not a quick little shock would do the trick.

There Will (not) Be Blood Shed

Sadly, Alphonse hadn't been able to actually find anyone he could grab to use as a sparring partner when traveling through Weyland's estate, so the swordsman was left on his own, for the moment at least, in the training yard. That was okay though, he could train on his own for a while to get accustomed to his new weapon. Back at the merchant, he'd already confirmed this blade was ready for combat, no need for sharpening just yet, so these training dummies would get quite the work out.

Setting his coat off to the side, being left in just his shirt, Al felt quite a bit of excitement as he unwrapped his purchase. It already felt like it belonged in his hand, swapping it back and forth, giving a few test swings and stabs.

Letting the new weapon settle into his left hand, Alphonse drew his family heirloom, a grin appearing on his face as he stood there with the two weapons, before rushing at his targets.

'Let's see if I've still got it, eh old man?'

[Toogee]

"Indeed. I would probably have punched them as hard as I could and had either arrow or knife to their throat in a heartbeat. I thought that was just because I lived out of the normal 'civilized' areas though and people who lived in mansions like this would sooner drown political rivals in sugary words than bullet."

"People are people, whether they have wings, live in fancy mansions, or have magic amulets. Threaten them just enough and anyone will draw blood."

Jam finished with her apple and figured it was probably best that she keep practicing.

"Well, I better keep practicing this staff before one of these bullets actually hits someone. Nice to meet you, Robin."

With that, the dancer waved to her new acquaintance and continued out of the dining hall.

[Phoenix]

Fate

"A shame you're putting it off, but if fate permits, I wouldn't mind accepting your help," she mirrored some of his words with a nod.

Rune

"I don't know yet," Ryder stressed before finally removing their hand from the figure. "If it is a rune, it's probably a down scaled version of a more powerful one. That would be challenging to make use of."

[Ether]

With little to really contribute to the ongoing discussion, Faatina opted to check up on Shadrak... the poor guy had seemed to have taken it quite rough, and had been dragged out by Veronika after a time. As the paladin made her way over, she noticed that the druid was unconscious by this point, with Veronika still nearby, as well as Synthia, who seemed to be in much better shape than before... atleast the blood she was soaked in wasn't still flowing.

"How is everyone holding up out here?" She asked... after what she had seen, she wasn't surprised Shadrak had passed out, but she had hoped to catch him before that.

***

So Mr. Darksider was working for Sardis, was he? As Nyx herself had made perfectly clear, if he hadn't sworn himself to her, he'd likely be in a world of hurt right about now... fortunate for him, Angelica supposed. Still, at this point, the more interesting development, as far as she was concerned, was Amon. Making her way over to his side on the sidelines, she sidled up next to the rogue.

"It seems like you learned something pretty big, Amon."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

"Shadrak isn't doing so well, but I think he'll live," Veronika responded to Faatina. He seemed to be breathing at any rate which was good.

Nadya

Hmm, challenging to make use of...I dunno if that'll appeal to Weyland or not. Deciding whether to buy bread for three or four gold pieces was one thing, but there were hundreds of thousands of gold at stake. Nadya wasn't sure what Weyland wanted though and she figured Ryder wouldn't stick around for her to negotiate with the professor.

"All right, two hundred eighty thousand it is," she decided. One bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

[Snowy_One]

"You are several weeks too late. Though I wish you luck." said Robin, watching as Jam walked out of the dining hall.

Well, that was... interesting to say the least. It was just a bullet hole, yet Robin had met someone new because of it and... well... She was a bit surprised. She didn't know anything about guns in the slightest, yet had managed to know that much.

"<Well, what do you know? Knowing a bit about bows and arrows helps with those hokey guns too. Bah. Even if I tried now it would probably be at least a weak before I could use one, and a year before I could use one better than my bow, but... No. You know your arrows well. Your obsidian tips are all you need.>" she said before shaking her head and going to sit down. She then picked up an apple and, taking one of her arrowheads out, cut off a slice to nibble on.

---

Tia sighed as she kept reading on her tome, glancing up every once in a while to look at Connor and what he was doing.

"Don't worry Tia. You can do it. You can be the best mage ever. Just sit down and study and try not to think about how useful being able to cast fire, thunder, or dark magic would be right now. After all, you have fluids! Study up on the properties of hyper-accelerated water and maybe you can be useful. After all, water, while fluid, can exhibit the properties of both a solid, such as upon a sudden impact, and a gas depending on the nature and density. Technically, by reinforcing the surface tension of a small amount of water, one could then proceed to cause it to accelerate to a hyper-kinentic speed at which contact with it would be nearly identical to contact with a moving blade. Once in such a state it is equally capable of cutting through various materials while leaving less debris behind and being safer to bystanders and accidents than other forms of magic as well as, if control is lost, you would be stuck with only splashing others instead of wounding them. Now if only I could control water in such a manner... Or warp its shape properly to manipulate light... or... anything of actual use."

She shook her head in annoyance. She KNEW her stim-water was useful on the battle-field, yet no one had so much as thanked her for it. She KNEW she wasn't incapable as a mage, but she had felt little more than belittled since joining.

"No... no... You're not useless. You're not dead weight... You're worth something. Even if Connor won't let you help or install a water cannon or something... Just... Not right for this job... Right?"

[Nanami Touko]

"Good. As annoying as he's been so far, I wouldn't want him to die in the basement of some temple because he argued with a goddess." The situation almost made her laugh, but she held it back because it would've been rather rude. Idling there while everyone finished their business with the goddess wasn't the most enjoyable thought, so perhaps quizzing Erion on a few things she was curious about would be a good idea. "So, how long have you been hanging around Raquel, Erion? And other than running into gods and otherwise, what else crazy has happened?" Getting a better example of their escapades would probably help prepare her mind for what was to come.

[Rothene]

Age had not yet dulled the old timer, or perhaps he had just been improving fast enough with the years to compensate for not being young anymore? The battle with demons and other fallen spawn beings felt like a walk in the park to Itsuki. Not that it was easy but he had seen enough horrors in his life to look at death and say, "Meh. Nothing new."

Perhaps he had set himself up with such a defensive formation that he did not register as a threat worth wasting resources on but he came off the battle in the city relatively unharmed. Protecting the Ursian noblewoman who was stumbling around moaning about her lack of armour had added some challenge. Returning to the mansion, Itsuki concluded that as much as he still had no love for the fallen, it was the epitome of bad manners to attack a guest under the roof of their host and thus let Steinn be. Not that the general could even take on the fallen prince alone.

When the call came to wander to some strange temple, Itsuki could not resist the call to follow. After all was he not making this trip to see the world before he found a heroic death? Sadly, the Temple of Truth did not appear as grand of beautiful as some of the shrines back in Kigen, then again, the old man had concluded that Ursian architecture while beautiful in a cold calculated way, it lacked warmth or a sense of community with its monotone chiseled nature.

Sitting down to rest after the tough battle the group faced against the knights protecting the archive, Itsuki could not be bothered to listen to what Nyx was talking about due to his translator wandering off to paint the architectural designs of the archive and temple.

[roymbrog]

Shadrak’s head met the ground, right after assuring her that yes, he was ok… Katrina cycled between being worried and upset about the situation. As Veronika enlisted help from Synthia, she knelt down by the fallen shaman and moved his head into her lap. She wasn’t about to leave him on the floor like that.

---

Winged cleric? As a title it didn’t sound familiar to Synthia, but as a description it did. There couldn’t be too many clerics with wings who happened to be in the Cathedral just then. The mage was about to start writing again, when the thud of Shadrak’s face meeting floor interrupted her, followed by Veronika asking for assistance. Abandoning her reply to Lumi for the moment, she nodded in answer and made to stand. Though somewhat dizzy, she walked the few feet to the shaman without incident and knelt down next to Katrina.

Aside from burns left by dark thunder, there were no apparent wounds that would cause him to pass out like that. Perhaps it was aftereffects of shock. She went over his injuries with her staff regardless.

Kat watched quietly as the healer did her thing, but by the end of it the girl had run out of patience and asked, “What’s wrong with him?” Her question was met with a shrug. “Is he going to be alright?” Another shrug. “Come ooon, tell me something.”

Synthia sighed. Had the wyvern rider not picked up on it already? She attempted to mouth out ‘I can’t speak’.

Katrina responded with an immensely confused expression.

Well, apparently that didn’t work. She scribbled a line of explanation in her tome and showed it to Kat, whose face lit up in understanding.

“Oooh… I just… Sorry. That’s not permanent, is it? Would be awful if you could never talk again.” Her face pinked in embarrassment, and only reddened further after being met with Synthia’s cool stare, and the realization of what she’d just said. “S-Sorry!”

[ReformBlade]

Mulling her options over her meal, Aneda sighed. Wish I could finish off this letter but I'd be remiss if I didn't let Kat say anything to mister Fyodor. I hope he's doing well... That train of thought lasted for all of a few moments before she slumped in her chair, stewing in her downward spiral of nondescript angst. Clenching her fist, she very nearly slammed it on the table, instead slamming it into her palm in an unfortunate demonstration of a lack of foresight. Nothing broken but her pride and maybe a bruise, she opted to try and take out her feelings in a more productive manner. Figuring that she ought to go check on her trusty sidekick first, she completely missed that and found herself out in what appeared to be some training ground. She wasn't surprised that one existed but more that she didn't exactly remember how she got there but then again she was in such a funk that she wrote it off as some form of weird destiny or mental illness. She saw some guy go off charging at what appeared to be a dummy, to which her eyes widened. "That's... just what I need." She said, admittedly too childlike of a glimmer in her eye as she moved closer to one of them to assess how much she could punch one without injuring her hand further.

Jericho, nothing better to do, moved to attend to what appeared to be an ailing Shadrak. Synthia seemed to have already done the job of healing but the mage was still confused for all of a second before his purpose was renewed in his mind and he could swear he could feel Sardis nearby just taunting him. "Fuck." he snarled, seemingly out of nowhere, kicking at the ground to relieve that ever accumulating adrenaline fueled anger.

Thinking about the food she could soon be eating, Mushirah instead opted to eat read Shadrak's notes again, trying to make sense of another person's writings and seemingly random scribbles. Surprisingly she was actually doing that, making some sense of it. She wasn't anywhere near confident that she'd miraculously be casting anything any time soon but she could always try to build off of this in some fashion.

[Eail]

The Man In The Mirror Nods His Head

Despite his best efforts going after the training dummy, Alphonse couldn't help but notice that he was moving slower than normal, and his strikes weren't as effective. His skill with this style compared to what he normally used was evidently more rusted than he thought. Despite several minutes of attempting to force his body to go even further, he was only seeing minimal results compared to the level he theoretically should be at.

Sweat dripping down his forehead, the red head finally stepped back, he'd basically ruined this dummy already, despite the fact he still wasn't satisfied with what he could pull off. Taking a little bit of time for a breather before he'd go back to training, he noticed someone was evidently joining him on the field.

"Morning, decided to get in some training as well?" Alphonse asked in greeting.

[ReformBlade]

"I, uh, maybe?" Aneda verbally stumbled, unsure of exactly why she actually got here and how, but ultimately she wasn't against it or else she would have gone her merry way. "Really just wanna punch the hell out of something, get rid of all this negativity." Her words didn't match her apprehension as she mildly stood there, lightly punching (if it could be considered one) a dummy that would probably barely register the blow even if it could feel. "And yet I find myself unable to do much as of late..."

[Ether]

"He always was quick to argue... too quick this time, I guess." Faatina replied with a sigh, catching a bit of the exchange between Katrina and Synthia.

"I knew it looked pretty bad, but... you really did take a hard hit didn't you? I... I should've blocked him off when he wheeled around Katrina, I know I should have, but... this place, and all those looming knights... pick your numbers carefully or be swarmed, that was the gist of the warning... I just choked in the moment. Sorry, Synthia."

[Eail]

A Stranger I Remain (for now at least)

While he listened to the blonde haired woman speak, Alphonse had re-sheathed his swords, they wouldn't be seeing action again for a little while and he needed to get used to the extra weight anyways. "Understandable, a good work out is always a great way to relieve some pent up emotions, no matter what kind they are." Watching as she gave a few weak blows to one of the dummies he hadn't messed up. "If you're looking for something a bit more active, I'd gladly spar with you. Plus I've learned its pretty easy to figure out details about a person depending on how they try to punch me in the face."

It seemed like she could use a bit of cheering up anyways, getting your blood pumping was a good way to start if nothing else.

Edited April 4, 2014 by Eail