Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[roymbrog]

I’m sorry!” Kat repeated, a bit more forcefully this time, and holding up her hands in a placating gesture. Sure it would’ve been unpleasant to be run into like that, but with the size of this crowd, should this girl really be that startled? Katrina didn’t think so, and didn’t appreciate the following advice nor the tone it was given in. “I’ll be more careful next time,” she assured, despite how she felt. There wasn’t much point to getting in a confrontation with a stranger right now so she wasn’t going to bother arguing.

And then Faatina turned in her saddle, and Kat realized the person she’d nearly bowled over had been following her as well. Ooooh. Appearing slightly irked, but forcing a grin, Katrina gave a small wave to the three of them in greeting.

---

It took time to make the rest of the way to the wagon, but Synthia spotted Raquel’s lightshow before making it fully through the crowd. What on saridius was the girl doing? There were soldiers everywhere, and she knew the golden light wasn’t harmful, the mage wasn’t sure the king’s guard did. By the time Synthia actually reached the wagon the merchant had cleared out a wide enough area for it to start moving. She hadn’t heard any yelling guardsmen either, so that was probably a good sign.

Sparing a glance for those on the roof, Synthia strode round the side of the wagon and made a beeline for Raquel and tapped the girl on the shoulder to get her attention. If she turned around she’d find the mage staring disapprovingly and holding out her tome with the word “stop” scrawled across one page.

[Sakusa]

Though the fiery-tempered mage was easily angered, it didn't take much for her to settle down. It was hard for her to dislike anyone who potentially owned an adorable scaly friend. "It's quite alright," she replied, content with the girl's apologies and began singing, this time dancing to the tune of the song since she had some more leeway.

"You know it's true,

There's something you and only you can do,

That others dare not try,

So that the light of this blue earth will not die."

With a wave of her staff, she conjured another flash of light, though not nearly as bright as the one from before, and it dissipated into small globules that conveniently bathed the newcomer in warm light. "Consider that a small token of apology for my previously brash tone of voice. I've been having a bit of a bad day," Gwyn smiled radiantly in attempt to placate the clearly irked Katrina and continued, "but we mustn't tarry, we're almost there!"

[Phoenix]

Plaza

<"Well in Kigen there was no 'goddess' offering jobs to random people,"> Malik noted irritably. If running off hadn't appealed before, it probably did now, he felt.

Amon sighed. <"I'm not sure if we should wait for her or head back without her once we're through this crowd. She wouldn't have any problem catching up and she knows where the estate is, but ..."> ... but he still felt bad about the prospect of leaving someone behind for no other reason than impatience.

People were still moving away from her, and every time she checked back, she was glad to see that the driver was keeping pace with her for the most part, but just before her next routine glance, someone tapped her on the shoulder. She wasn't sure why Synthia had literally spelled it out for her, 'stop', but maybe it was because of all the noise. "How else are we going to get out of here? My father could be here in this city. We can't just wait for them to move on their own," she explained, still frustrated, but holding back for Synthia's sake. It wasn't her she was frustrated at, after all.

The Archives

"Very funny, now let me have a look at this thing," Nyx extended her hand to receive the statuette. Within a few seconds she'd learned everything about it that she could for the moment. Her face lit up a little in surprise and agitation.

"It's not a destruction rune is it?"

"No," Nyx scowled at the figure. "It's a gestalt order. How did they get something like this?" she murmured.

"Okay, what the hell is that?" Nadine asked, feeling she'd been patient enough.

"It just so happens I was considering whether or not to fiddle with your friend's eye ... and this little thing," she glanced at the golden dragon, "was how I was going to go about it. After all, I'd rather not fix things and leave them be. I prefer improvement where it's practical ... or at least amusing. How do you think Reign would feel about having the gestalt order placed into his eye? Do you think he'd appreciate that enough to rethink my offer?"

"What ... is th--What even IS that?!" Nadine repeated herself, frustration mounting.

"I'll show you here in a moment. Then I'll ask you agai--Oh ..." Nyx stopped and glanced at the entrance to the archives. It was still sealed, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "We have company ...."

[Nanami Touko]

"Like...what, then?" Eva asked again, with a small laugh. "It's nice to know that, and it'll probably be pretty impressive, but I'm magically inept, here! I don't actually know what these more controlled and paced spells will be..." She offered Angelica a sheepish smile, hoping the woman would take pity on her lack of knowledge and explain what she meant in more detail.

[Eail]

"Well.... I've heard of this one fire spell called Firefly, a really fitting name for it too. You harness and control the fire units into a large amount of small scale blast spells which are guided remotely by the magician before striking the target or targets from multiple angles. From what I've heard it's almost impossible for anyone to escape it. Very effective at what it does too, with how many projectiles there are a barrier wont be able to hold up, and a heavily armored foe is just a sitting duck." Zach explained, taking a deep breath once he was done.

"Glad you liked the wyvern by the way."

[Ether]

"It's kind of difficult to explain... it'd be better if you saw it yourself... you should see what I mean a bit later, but if I could show you now, he could give his shot now, too." Angelica replied, giving Eva a light smile. The rider would just need patience for now.

***

This one seemed rather trigger happy on the songs... atleast she sounded good. Well, it seemed a fight was breaking out, so all was good.

"We should get to the wagon, just a little further now."

[Nanami Touko]

Whatever Zach was describing, it almost didn't seem real. A spell that one couldn't dodge, and couldn't guard against? Eva laughed a bit, but wasn't going to say he was wrong; she was only really laughing because it sounded so fantastic. A laugh of admiration, you could say. "That'd be fantastic to see! I'd almost be tempted to get you to use it on me, to see how good it is at going through barriers..." The thought was exciting, but remembering that Angelica was there, Eva quickly changed her mind. "On second thought, I-I think I'll hold back on the life threatening activities, at least for a bit. And, of course I liked the wyvern. They're my favorite animals, after all. Though, that's probably obvious..."

Patience. Alright. You can handle that. "Sure. I'll do my best to wait, just for you, Angelica," she said, as she started rocking back and forth. The wagon bumped over a stone and she lost her balance, having to brace her arms behind her almost immediately to stop herself from falling off the cart. "Right! Bad idea! Just need to sit still and wait..." Which is what she would've done, if she hadn't noticed a group making their way towards the wagon. She casually waved at them, assuming they were either with the group, or had business with Raquel. "Who's that one on the horse?" she asked her new friends.

Edited April 15, 2014 by I have opinions

[ReformBlade]

"Using a sword is what you do and doing random shit is what I do for a living! Cleaning, fighting, doing laundry, baby sitting... I've actually been able to be pretty picky about what I do if it's for money so while I've maybe not mastered any one particular thing, I can sure as hell still try to give it my all." Resolute in her views, Aneda stared Al down, "And if I need to do more than that, I will." Aneda wasn't too thrilled about betting but when Robin chose to bet on her there was a spark of some spirit rushing into her, most likely adrenaline but Aneda wanted it to be something more than the physical. "Your sword versus my spear, well, a sword versus a spear anyway, no bladed weaponry... I'd rather not be cut to ribbons over two fucking gold."

Jericho had managed to make his way on top of the wagon, though he was keeping to himself for the moment, an odd mix of rage and inadequacy filling him up. It was a mixture he would never get used to, no matter how often he'd feel it, and he hoped to never get truly used to it until he becomes some withering husk, left to die by the wayside. I am so god damn close, and only now do I start doubting if I can do it. Do what exactly? Rush in there, wherever there is I guess, and do the impossible? There's no way I can take on that pile of shit alone, and he'll have plenty of people to back him up regardless, not to mention any legal bullshit that'll get in the way by any chance... Anything could have been happening around him right now, say, a big light show, but he wouldn't have noticed. In his own world, he was stewing over what to do with the stunning and yet completely underwhelming revelation of where his goal is.

[Anti-Social Meta Knight]

They were charging through the crowd, apparently. That sort of showiness didn't really suit Sergei, but he played along anyway. Without a word (although with quite a few stern glances to any would-be obstruction), he simply brought up the rear, content to play the enforcer the crowds likely saw in him. It hadn't occurred to him that the two he was looking for were actually skilled, but when Gwyn made a show of her magic, he was reasonably surprised. Impressed, even. That sort of thing took skill and subtlety...actually, given who was casting, maybe just skill.

And then she ran into another person. Sergei snorted, trying not to laugh - did she just do this all the time? Faatina was quick to defuse the situation, and introduced the second battered person as Katrina. When named, he simply nodded.

- - -

As they grew closer and closer to the wagon of which Faatina spoke, a wave of calm washed over Sergei; the only thing that had concerned him with regard to finding this wagon was where it was with respect to the stables, and it appeared that they were moving in that direction anyway. "If you don't mind," he ventured to Faatina, "I'd like to make a brief detour. I have a friend to collect. Is that acceptable?" He turned to his other three companions. "It's actually quite close, and I think some of you will find him more agreeable than you find me," he jabbed. The stables he had enlisted to care for his fool horse were close by - he could tell from the deteriorating quality of the buildings they passed and the curious sounds coming from the crowds.

[Toogee]

"Ha Ha! That man is covered in throw up! Ha Ha!"

"I hate children..."

This was Eli's trip through the street's of Europa. He wandered alone, with the exception of the group of kids following, pointing, and laughing at him. For the briefest moment, he almost wished that the demon horde would overtake the city, if only to shut these kids up.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the training grounds, Jam watched as Alphonse and Aneda drew weapons, while Robin placed her bet. So far, Alphy was able to handle himself pretty well, but could the same be said in armed combat? The dancer drew closer to join the conversation.

"You better win," Jam said to Alphy, "or I'll have to find a new teacher!"

[Ether]

"It'd probably be for the best if you atleast speak with her first... that way she can give you the details you would need to find us if we get split up." Faatina replied to Sergei, as they finally closed the last of the distance to the wagon.

"Aye, Raquel... you seem to be in a bit of a hurry here, but... these people were looking for work and I figured it couldn't hurt to ask." The paladin noted, stopping just short of Raquel.

***

Angelica couldn't help but smirk as the mere threat of her looming nearby was enough to cause Eva to trip over herself when she began her usual antics again... seems she had found a damn effective method.

"I think her name is Faatina... I don't know her too well, myself... all I know is that she's from Sanctuary and is about as close as we've got to a literal cavalry charge."

[Eail]

"Seems like she has a few people with her, did she go out and recruit some new guys when we weren't paying attention?" Zach questioned.

______________________

"On the chance Weyland doesn't have any training weapons around, we're gonna be stuck using our real weapons. So we might want to start searching if you're opposed to that." A grin etched it's way onto Alphonse's face as he spoke "If it's really a big concern, you can use your weapon, and I'll just be unarmed... but I'm not losing either way. I rather like having my student around." Giving a nod towards Jam.
______________________

"Nine out of Ten performance Gwyn, ya didn't stick the flourish at the end just right." Cyrus commented, trying to egg on his companion, truthfully she'd done it perfectly, but was fun was there in just saying that? "Nice to meet you though Katrina, always nice to see another Wyvern rider out in these parts Glen might be happy to have a new friend at least."

[Nanami Touko]

Don't give me that smirk! was all Eva could think at Angelica's entirely obvious expression, sticking her tongue out at the woman. She sighed. "She sounds tough. Lots of different people in this group, huh..." She then noticed that Jericho had joined them for their roof party, giving him a small wave. "Helloooo, Jericho. What's up? You seem pretty lost in thought over there."

Edited April 15, 2014 by I have opinions

[Snowy_One]

"Can you not just use a broom handle and a stick as acceptable substitutes for a spear and sword respectively? It is not like you must launch your weapons at each other repeatedly or cast magic like Tia." said Robin, smiling happily. No one had taken her up on her bet, so even if she lost, no gold lost, but she felt like Aneda was a bit happier that someone had some confidence in her at the least.

[Sakusa]

"Shut up, you clearly have no idea what you're talking about!" Gwyn balked and gave Cyrus a not-so-thorough thrashing using a series of light punches and staff hits. Since they'd arrived at their destination already, the orbs of light had gradually dissipated as there was no longer any reason to keep up the spell. "Please excuse this child's manners, he doesn't understand that there's a proper time and place for everything and has absolutely no sense of propriety," she retorted, turning away from the green-haired cad, placing her hands on her hips, and puffing her chest indignantly. Unfortunately, between Faatina on her horse and the two largely-built men, she didn't notice anyone trying to get their attention in any capacity. The girl smiled sheepishly at their potential employer, not wanting to interrupt her as it seemed that she was preoccupied with someone else at the moment.

[Ether]

"I suppose it's possible, we'll find out soon, regardless." Angelica replied, smiling at Eva's expression, and giving the other woman a light wink as she stuck her tongue out.

"Hmm, that's right, you had Nyx in your head too, didn't you, Jericho? Feel any stronger?" The adept noted, as Eva pointed out the newcomer... the roof was starting to get a bit crowded by this point.

[-Cynthia-]

<"I think she'll be fine, she seems like she can handle herself,"> Nadya reassured Amon. <"When are y'all plannin' to head out from Weyland's anyway?"> she asked.

So it seemed Faatina had brought mercenaries for hire to them- odd timing but they could be useful. Though they addressed Raquel, she decided to interject- Raquel needed to focus on her magic thing and was likely preoccupied with Sardis being nearby. "Well if you all are looking for work we might be able to take you on, but this is not really the best place to discuss business. Why don't you come meet us at the Weyland Estate? Just follow us if you don't know the way," Veronika offered, scanning the unfamiliar faces.

[ReformBlade]

Sparing a glance at Evangeline, Jericho wasn't sure if it was reflexive or an actual acknowledgement of her talking to him. It would ultimately be the latter when he finally responded with a shrug and an unusually cryptic phrasing, "Dreading what's to come." Now that there was a picture he could see, he wanted to stop looking at it since it was seemingly getting bigger and more insurmountable with every passing moment.

"I don't think a broom or a stick would even remotely replicate the feel of the respective weapons, but I do like your ingenuity. Nah, I'll have to go ask for a training weapon myself, or perhaps I can try using a sword, though I haven't used one in a while. I'm better with a weapon regardless, but prefer a spear." Aneda pondered out loud, well it wasn't pondering so much as stating a fact of the matter to begin with.

[Ether]

"That makes sense, thanks Veronika." Faatina replied, before turning back to the others.

"You heard her... Sergei, do you know how to get there yourself, or should I hang back while you head to the stables?" The paladin asked.

[Nanami Touko]

Despite the wink, Eva shooed over closer to Angelica (as dangerous as this move was); the roof was getting a bit crowded and she didn't want Jericho to feel excluded from the group, even if his answer was rather lacking. "Well, what's to come, Jericho? I didn't exactly stay in the room with Nyx, so I didn't get to hear any of what you spoke about. Unless you don't want to talk about it, that's fine too..."

[Phoenix]

Tough Calls

<"I hope you're right,"> Amon muttered helplessly. When asked when they would leave, he didn't have much of an answer for her. <"I don't know. It'd feel just plain wrong to leave in the middle of this mess, especially with Raquel trying to rescue her father from Sardis, but ... we don't have a reason of our own to stick around here anymore.">

<"That's assuming you trust Steinn,"> Malik interjected. <"I think we should be the ones going after the winged cleric if Raquel's too busy. She can't claim an emblem piece that belongs to someone else, and just because we have a vague agreement with Steinn doesn't mean we have to give up on any other leads.">

Amon sighed at Malik's irritatingly sound argument. <"Maybe."> He left it at that, not committing to anything just yet.

[spoiler=The Fizza Gambit]It was a little deceptive, circling around after disappearing into the crowd and going right back into the Grand Cathedral, but by the time the group had reached the plaza, she had made up her mind about whether or not to take Nyx up on her offer. She was going to do it. Once she returned to the outer chamber, she found the knights Koray and Tuncay right where the group had left them, and the door to the archives sealed tight.

"Huh. Do I have to take out a rune knight or two to get that door open again or would a vow of servitude work just as well?" Just as she finished uttering the question, two more rune knights from further back in the chamber began to move. Once they were off their respective walls, they began lumbering toward her with their swords at the ready. "Guess it doesn't take a mind reader to know which method I'd prefer, does it?" Fizza smirked.

The rune knights quickly picked up the pace ready to strike her at the same time. Fizza moved toward the one on her right, aiming to throw off their timing and give herself time to get behind both of them. The plan worked well enough, though she narrowly eluded both blades, the first with a roll, and the second with a quick twist. She had a good idea of how strong their armor was, and had no illusions of piercing it with her wrist blades, but she had other weapons at her disposal, and wasn't too inexperienced to turn these two on each other, either.

The knight she'd moved toward in the beginning, span around quickly, aiming to knock her down with a swift elbow, but Fizza leaped up in anticipation and kicked the elbow back. This left her a little vulnerable to the second knight, but rather than being cut down immediately, she grabbed onto the knight's sword during the swing, taking some of the impact but not losing any blood, and used the momentum to gain some distance as she released the blade. Once she recovered from the rough serious of back rolls, she felt her abdomen, trying to make sure she wasn't bleeding. She didn't see any injury, but the impact did knock the wind out of her.

The knights didn't give her a chance to catch her breath and charged at her again, this time out of sync, which gave Fizza the chance to react to them individually, albeit in split second intervals. The knights stayed close together while swinging and thrusting at her, covering each other and not giving her any room to attack. She couldn't keep this up forever, and even if she could, they were just spread out enough to control her direction and push her toward the left side of the chamber, toward a wall.

Just as Fizza found a hole in their overwhelming offensive maneuver, a third knight joined the fray and came at her from behind. With no choice but to try to go straight over them, she leaped into the air. The second knight grabbed her left ankle and hauled her down onto her back. Before she could recover, the first knight took her left wrist and the two stepped back to stretch her and force her into the air. Then, the third knight prepared to cut her in half like a suspended log. Fizza, surprised by the tactic itself and the horrifying speed and precision with which it was being executed, gasped, and then, in desperation, jerked away with her leg as hard as she could, forcing her foot out of her boot and falling back to the ground. As the third knight's sword came down, she kicked up and toward the knight still holding her by the wrist and wrestled with him to get her arm free to no avail.

The third knight recovered quickly from his miss and came swinging at Fizza again. Seeing this as her only chance to get free, she leaped up onto her captor's left shoulder, and his hand was severed by the strike. With her hand free, Fizza leaped away from the knights and pried the arm off of her wrist. To her surprise, her left wrist blade had been damaged; as soon as the hand was off, the blade sprung out on its own, and none of her retracting motions were working. Having a blade jammed in the ready position and a missing boot would seriously hamper her mobility and concentration, she realized. Worse yet, she had three knights to deal with now, which she hadn't been expecting. It was time to get serious if she was going to have any chance of winning this.

The first knight hesitated due to its missing gauntlet, but the other two attacked immediately, the third charging at her and the second throwing his sword in an all too familiar fashion. The blade whirled past her at incredible speed--she almost didn't see if coming--and embedded itself in the stone floor with a resounding crash as the other knight reached her and began trying to chop her to bits. Fizza dove backward and ripped the sword out of the ground, hoping to gauge its weight and handling before bothering to defend herself with it. It was heavier than she was expecting, but clearly the weight distribution lended this massive blade to being thrown, despite how normally impractical that might have been. It was a poor choice of weapon for someone of her physique, but for those bull rushing giants, they were just perfect.

When the knight swung down at her, she had no choice but to sidestep it, as raising the sword to block at that angle would have shattered her wrists like glass. The follow up swing was all too sudden and being unable to duck beneath it without leaving herself wide open afterward, she raised the sword to block the horizontal swing coming her way. It was spectacularly knocked from her hands during the loud clash of blades and flew away as if it'd been tossed aside. "Ow," Fizza hissed in pain, her arms jittering from the blow.

Next, out of the corners of her eyes, the other two knights appeared, neither missing their swords no less. Now that she was surrounded on three sides, the game was over unless she played a new hand. The new hand she would play this time, was offense. She'd always kept a few explosives as well as a couple of other nasty surprises on her person, but it wasn't very often she was forced to use any of them just to survive. Only Tide masters ever forced her into that kind of position, which made these knights almost scary. Almost.

Digging distractedly through one of her pouches while losing a strand or two of her hair to the more accurate of the rune knights' attacks, she produced a few marble sized bomblets, small, deceptively powerful explosives that were easy enough to conceal, and could be set off via heat, pressure, or the invocation of a knowing mage. She quickly, yet precisely tossed the bomblets through the visor of the first knight that had attacked her and then backed off as quickly as she could, forcing the knights to run just to keep up with her. <If this doesn't work, I'm screwed,> she told herself as she tried to concentrate.

Suddenly, as the knights closed in to pin her with three blades at once, the one in the center lit up like a star and then disappeared behind a torrent of dark energy and gray smoke. The other two knights were blown off to either side, toppling over like trees. Fizza lost her balance when the shockwave and dark energy hit her and curled up as she hit the ground. Several intact pieces of the rune knight's armor rained down over the area as darkness began to cover the ground. The knight's sword landed right next to Fizza, though, and as tempted as she was to pick it up to guard herself from the remaining knights, who even now were rising from the blast, she didn't see what good it would do her. Instead she stood up and began digging for more bomblets, but she knew she only kept a handful with her at any given time ... otherwise some accident could kill her and everyone else within half a dozen meters.

After finding a few more bomblets, she rolled them out across the ground, letting the black fog obscure them. Just like she'd hoped, one of the knights began running at her again and stepped on one of them, causing a pressure blast that promptly shattered his left leg. The knight froze in a ready stance and toppled into the fog. All Fizza sensed of him after that was the sound of him crashing into the ground. The other knight didn't seem to step on one of the bomblets though and quickly closed the distance.

Growing tired from all of the moves she had to do just to stay in the fight, she narrowly avoided the next series of swings aimed at her. One of them even nicked her jammed blade and threw her off balance when her arm was forced into her opposite shoulder. "Urgh, give me some room to breathe, damn," she growled at the knight. Once she realized the wall was coming up, she changed direction and moved toward the last knight. It all came down to the type of attack he used. If it was a swing, she wouldn't be able to get past without losing a limb, but a thrust would give her room to slip right on through. Fortunately for her, her suicidal charge encouraged a thrust to stop her cold and she easily slipped by it and slid between the knight's legs and the black fog. Just as she was about to reach for another bomblet, something grabbed her leg. It was too strong to be a human grip; she knew the knight who'd blown his own leg off had crawled right up to her and rejoined the battle. "Uh oh," she muttered to herself.

With the all the power of a speeding horse, one of the knights grabbed Fizza by the collar and tackled her to the ground before holding his blade up and preparing to pin her to the ground. She was surrounded by darkness and could just barely make out her attacker's image through it. "Urgh ... so much for that idea," Fizza winced, expecting to be butchered on the spot. <Sorry to leave you shorthanded Amon, but I had to try ...>

"Why didn't you call out to me?" came a familiar yet frustrated voice. The knight relented and stepped away from Fizza, who quickly got back on her feet once her leg was released. She saw Nyx approaching with her arms crossed and irises burning with golden light.

Fizza shrugged. "Sorry about that. I figured it was 'defeat all opposition or die'. I suppose not everyone is so harsh." She was far more relieved than she was even capable of expressing. It was great knowing she wouldn't be dying just yet. "I took the time we were wasting out there to consider your offer, and if you're not going to declaw this cat, she'll gladly work for you."

"Let's see why you feel that way," Nyx said, a vague warning before she reached into Fizza's mind. Before long, she was smiling even more mischievously than ever Fizza would. "There's plenty of violence to come, but you'll grow tired of it eventually."

"We'll see," Fizza shrugged, disinterested in the annoying prediction, "but until then ..."

"Until then, if you're willing to trust in me, then I'll have you, Fizza," Nyx finished for her.

"Trust, hmm? Why do you expect people to trust you so quickly?"

"I don't, but if time doesn't build a certain level of trust in your heart, then I'll have to let you go back into that hopeless world you came out of, you understand."

"I do." This was going to be an interesting change, if nothing else.

[Sakusa]

Weyland? THE Weyland Estate? The performer couldn't believe her ears but kept her composure, appearing to be calm and content. She couldn't have any degree of success in moving a crowd without being able to manipulate their feelings, and it took a degree of acting skill to convey the emotions latent in song. Her family had done business with Weyland Enterprises in the past, so she was familiar with the location of the building, but the prospect of dealing with Weyland's affiliates had always been intimidating to her. However, working with one of his affiliates is almost always lucrative, and networking as a mercenary is also important, so there was no way she was going to let this chance slip by.

"We would be more than happy to," Gwyn replied to the redhead, wrapping one of her pink curls around her finger and twirling it in thought. There was no point in forcing a conversation with their pink-haired leader after all. "Be that as it may, there seems to be little other choice than to follow you. It's quite difficult to maneuver through this crowd as-is, and I'm sure you yourselves have no precise estimated time of arrival. Would you like an introduction now or later?" she inquired, mustering up shrewdness she'd built up over the years as a merchant's daughter.

[ReformBlade]

"I'm this close to doing what I set out to do and now I'm doubting everything." He answered bluntly. It felt better to get that off his chest but not too much better. "You ever get somewhere then feel it's one of the worst decisions you've ever made, going there?"

Eager to get on with the duel, Aneda found a person to get her a training spear and she was very content to see how this would turn out. "Alright son, you ready to do this or you gonna chicken out? I mean, if you'd rather not be publicly humiliated, there's no shame in backing down~!"

[Eail]

Aneda had managed to scrounge up a training weapon at least, so Alphonse felt sort of obligated to find one as well. Thankfully it didn't take very long, a barrel of the things were stored nearby and he returned with a wooden sword resting on his shoulder. "It's not really the kind of weapon I'm used to, but hey, a sword is a sword is a sword, and I'm pretty good with a sword."

Giving the training weapon a few practice swings, Alphonse managed to get a good feel for the thing. "I dont back down easily, give me your best shot!"

______

"Love you too Gwyn." Cyrus said offhandedly, he was rather content to let her do the negotiation aspect of their work. He was more suited to the fighting part.

When their potential employer named dropped Weyland however, he was rather happy he currently wasn't drinking anything. "Weyland himself eh? You guys must be some big shots if you're using his place as a meeting spot, even temporarily." He could already hear the coins dropping into his pocket....

Edited April 16, 2014 by Eail

[Nanami Touko]

Eva frowned, but not because he'd upset her; she just felt bad for him. "No, not really... I haven't done enough in life to regret anything seriously. I don't know if I can offer any words of advice, 'cause I don't know what you're feeling, but... Stick with it!" She threw her fist into the air. "Do the best you can and turn that worst decision into something you can live with! I-If... If you can, that is..."