Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Mercakete]

When Raquel began speaking to the crowd, Norbert twisted around to watch and listen. Apparently, she got a lead on Sardis and wanted to go after him, but needed help. Well, of course she does. That's why she has us. The rider frowned as he recalled that she actually wasn't his boss anymore. Oh, right. Well, she has them. But this sounds of things, she wasn't making a call for the group to move out so much as pleading for help. Is she trying to get help from more than just her own mercenaries? Well, she always was more timid. Maybe she's trying to act like a leader and just kind of...not stating it strongly enough. To be honest, it could have been either one.

"Looks like you're going to be on the move here again soon," Norbert mentioned to Ranyin with a note of regret in his tone. Maybe their chance to practice the maneuver had come and gone. The way Raquel was saying things, it seemed pretty urgent. Maybe Sardis was close by. If he was, then maybe Raquel and her mercenaries would stick around Europa a bit longer.

[Snowy_One]

"Ew... Why would you even think about something like that. It's, like, what a butcher would think about or something." said Tia, her face scrunching up as she took a step away from Jericho before Raquel started to speak. Instantly her attention shifted to their oh-so-fearful leader.

---

"So, are you saying we are not enough? Or that you will need all of our help and for everyone to be at their best?"

[Toogee]

"Ahem, does anyone care to explain what a Sardis is and why this has to end today?" Eli calmly asked. He hadn't even gotten used to the whole emblem thing yet. Now there's this guy. Eli had the feeling that he stepped in the middle of some massive plot and hadn't the faintest idea where to even begin. Surely he wasn't the only one who felt this way.

Jam stood quietly in the back, waiting for clarification on what this was about. More and more details were coming out about who Greta and company had allied with. She wondered if Greta should be around to hear this...

[Snike]

Blake frowned, but opted not to respond to Clover immediately. Instead, he opened his notebook, took a few pages out, and wrote a message inside, before closing it.

"Very well. I'll head back now," Blake said, as he turned around and handed the notebook to Clover. "Please get this to Sapphire. It has several accounts, including mine, of what happened last night, and some information about a few unsavory soldiers. Oh, and, perhaps you could tell Desmond that the Fallen Emperor has a fragment as well."

With that said, the swordsman began his trek back to the estate.

[Ether]

"Born ready," Axel said, as he pointed his weapon at his fellow employee. Without further ado, the duel was on.

The lancer immediately dived at the warrior, landing a strong blow with the flat of his spear. Unfortunately, as he realized too late, that left him wide open for retaliation.

"Not, bad, not bad at all!" Arietta replied with vigour as the first blow landed, and retaliated with a hard swing of her mace... but with just a moment's pause that she herself did not even notice... unlike Axel's weapon that could be aimed for nonlethal blows, a bludgeon like her maul would cause severe damage if any sort of sizeable blow landed. It would seem an unconscious realization of this welled through the heat of battle, as Arietta's counterstrike was oddly reserved, the sheer force of the weapon itself being enough to land a decent hit regardless.

As the duo pulled away, Arietta regained her footing and re-engaged, this time with a heavy overhead slam, that once again, seemed to be lacking in the expected power... not that weathering even blows like these wouldn't be wearing on Axel's stamina.

Because of his incompetence, Axel took two solid- yet weaker than expected, oddly enough- blows, and nearly fell right there. Unfortunately, he was stubborn enough to not want to go down without a fight, and so decided to land at least one more blow before he fell. Somehow, the lancer mustered up enough strength to slam the flat of his spear into his foe's chest, knocking her away. Then, he fell to a knee, catching his breath.

"Urgh..." Arietta groaned, as Axel's next blow struck her, knocking her back,. and flat on to her ass, maul falling to her side.

"Damn... that was pretty good..." The warrior noted, as she lifted herself up... Axel was on one knee at this point... it was simply a mismatch of weaponry in a non-lethal contest.

"That's your win, Axel... if you'da been tryin', that blow woulda done me in... no point in keepin' on, my weapon still does damage regardless of trainin' r'not so no point in goin further."

"...I dunno about that," Axel said, once he caught his breath, and stood up. " I was about to fall over, myself. Good job."

"So," he continued, as he approached the mace wielder, "Does that help with your concern about the Zeros?"

"I suppose... I dunno what it is you've got that made boss choose you, but if we're still this close, then I need to work a lot harder to prove my strength is enough... I don't got any o'that fancy other stuff to fall back on... thanks Axel." Arietta replied with a grin, as the lancer made his way over, offering the man her free hand.

"No problem. I can help any time," Axel said, as he accepted Arietta's hand and shook it. "Just, maybe next time we use practice weaponry. My armor probably doesn't need to be smashed in."

"Heh, If y'can get Boss t'make somethin' fer trainin' that I can actually use t'fake this big ol' thing, I'd be happy t'use it in the future." Arietta replied with a chuckle, gesturing towards the maul at her side with her free hand.

"All that aside, it's been good sparrin' wit'ya, Axel. I might not know everythin' about it, but yer a damn swell fella' and a good fighter... I ain't opposed to workin' under ya." Arietta concluded with a hearty laugh, and a firm pat on the back for the lancer, before heading back inside... the rain was starting to come down, after all.

[spoiler=statstuff]

Turn 1

Axel: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4475937/ hit, 10 damage(Arietta 17/27)

Arietta: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4475938/ hit, 6 damage, apply poison (Axel 15/21)

poison tick(Axel 10/21)

Turn 2

Arietta: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4475940/ hit, 6 damage (Axel 4/21)

Axel: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4475948/ hit, crit, too much damage (Arietta 0/27)

poison tick(Axel 0/21)

double down whey

[roymbrog]

Joanna came forward, and they finally got an explanation of what was going on, or at least enough for Valter to piece most of it together. Inwardly he was shocked, and glanced at the cleric for a moment. How long had she been in possession of an emblem fragment? The shock soon transitioned to indignation, however, as talk of quarantine and spies came up. Joanna was certainly not a spy, and she did not deserve to be held captive like a prisoner. The last straw was when Charles grabbed her. Valter rushed between the two of them to wrench him off of Joanna. “If you want to retain your hands, keep them off of her,” he said, fully intending to follow through on his threat. .

---

Synthia received her tea, took a sip, and then Raquel made her announcement. She sighed. This wasn’t a mission she wanted to go on in her state… One concussion was enough for a day. Under any other circumstances she would’ve asked for more details, but in this case it would’ve required walking all the way over there and writing them out. It wasn’t worth the effort unless no one else asked first.

[Eail]

"Raquel? Getting nervous easily doesn't even begin to describe it... I'm a complete hypocrite for saying this but the girl is driven by her emotions and makes really poor decisions because of it. Like when we were forcing the wagon through the crowd earlier as a simple example... it's gonna bite her in the ass one day." Zach replied to Gwyn quietly, trying to not stir up any drama. "I typically refer to Veronika for the important things to be honest."

When the topic of their little discussion came out with her info Zach had to raise an eyebrow. "How reliable is this info, are you sure we aren't just walking into another trap? Even if it's not a trap do we even have the ability to bring Sardis down without you being... full power?" Alluding to the Emblem without actually addressing it.

[scorri]

Lumi

Lumi shrugged and casually said, "Yeah, some minor goddess... Nyx I think? I dunno, didn't pay much attention to her. Was more distracted by taking care of Synthia. I dunno, she was digging around in people's minds and giving them stuff in exchange."

Hoshi

<"Ah... no, I'm not..."> Hoshi trailed off, suspecting that her comments would be ignored. <"I do not know how to fight with a sword. Like I said. I use magic and that's it.">

[Nanami Touko]

"I'll do it!" Eva shouted out, raising her hand like this was some classroom. From what she'd been told earlier, Sardis was some stupid powerful mage, and that meant a good fight; top that off with being able to help Raquel and it was a surefire idea to her. Besides, the woman clearly looked distressed, how could Eva ignore that? Maybe after lunch, though... I hope she isn't intending to leave right away.

[Sakusa]

Gwyn had to lean in closer towards Zach, letting their shoulders and knees touch, in order to hear him speak as the sage kept his voice far too low for her to hear without considerable concentration. To anyone who didn't know better, it probably looked as if he was whispering sweet nothings into her ear, but she doubted that anyone would really take note of this as their focus was on Raquel. Her expression darkened significantly as Zach spoke, and she wasn't sure if this was such a good idea anymore. "Well, at least someone is reliable..." she replied, grimacing, "She seems like someone incapable of leading for the long term; anyone without proper resolve and lets their emotions run rampant is generally liable to swift obliteration unless they're somehow favored by the gods or just have top-notch advisers to rein them in."

The virtuoso wrung her hands, feeling out of place, sort of lost, and frustration mounting. "How poor have the situations she's gotten you lot into been? Who is this Sardis person? What is this not being at 'full power' situation, exactly?" she asked quietly, voice still barely above a whisper. "Actually... what exactly is this situation, anyway?"

edit: y my grammer so bad holy moly

Edited April 25, 2014 by Sakusa

[Phoenix]

Hallway

"He woke with ... quite a start," the maid explained, understating the event even more than she thought possible. Still, she didn't want them to worry after his mental health right now. They had enough problems and she could better see to his recovery without a bunch of interference or questions. The questions were coming, though ...

"What happened to your clothes?" Malik asked first.

"Drop it," Shadrak weakly hissed back at the sancturan while reluctantly letting Nadya examine him.

Not anticipating anything in the way of information, Amon decided to do just that. Nadya had things handled here for now, so he decided it might be best to head back downstairs for now. "If you've got things here then I'll go," he said first, gauging her response.

Study

Ayano might have been a good choice, and she wasn't against doing other disciples favors if they didn't go against their master's designs, but Gabbie didn't sense her anywhere which meant she was either too far away to get a hold of, or in Purgatory somewhere. She couldn't offer an option she didn't necessarily have for Weyland, so she kept quiet about it.

"I suppose it's about time to give Anna the bad news. Gabbie, could you take care of that for me?" Weyland asked.

"Yeah, sure," Gabbie gloomily accepted. All Anna wanted to do was finish the replacement for the Dauntless, but things just kept coming up. She was going to be furious, Gabbie thought, as she made for the door.

Main Hall

"Sounds like a hassle," Greta replied, glancing off to the side as she tried to picture taking on an improvised fortress. She was technically on her way to the dining hall and that was where Veronika also seemed to be headed, so she stood up and slowly began walking as she spoke, letting Veronika know she wanted to continue the talk on the way. "Ain't there some way to get the guards involved? That oughta give ya an edge."

Dining Hall

"I don't really know if we have enough people already or not, but Sardis is there, that monster who said he would go after my family is there, that girl who stole my emblem piece is there, and most importantly, my father is there," she answered Robin. To Zach she quickly said, "There's no way it's a trap; we wouldn't have even known Sardis was here if Nyx hadn't told us first." She wasn't sure how to answer Eli's question without going over some painfully basic information and so she didn't say anything else for the moment.

She had one volunteer already but she would need a good deal more than that to take on Sardis and the others. "Thanks," she nodded in Eva's direction. "Anyone else?"

Around that time, Suzume carefully peeked around the entrance to see how many people were there before making it obvious to all there was a new arrival. She'd waited too long to come down for lunch. She'd gone to the other dining hall first since that was the one Weyland's employees usually ate in when there weren't more renovations going on, but the only cooks active right now were working in the kitchen linked to this dining hall which meant she had to eat here ... with a good number of her former enemies. She rounded the corner in a smooth motion and entered the dining hall proper before starting to scan for deserted looking areas to sit at.

Glen's Place

"Urgh ... d-do you two boys honestly think you can win, here? I have a warrant for this girl's arrest," Charles yelled, surprised by the level of resistance he was getting. To try and get them to back down, he snapped the fingers of his free hand and one of the other wrathites quickly came up with a document in hand, unrolled and displayed for all to see. "As you can see right here-" Glen took the opening to snatch the warrant right out from the wrathite's paws and slipped back out of reach in a heartbeat to give the thing a thorough once over. "How DARE you?!"

"You broke my door down and attacked one of my guests; you can save the offense for someone who gives a crap," Glen snapped, minding his language despite the rage welling up in him. Being a very fast reader, he was done with the deed by the time he'd finished his remark. "It looks legitimate," he scoffed, but something in the way he said it made it seem like he wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Of course it's legitimate, knave!"

Now Joanna was even more scared than before. If something happened to either Valter or Glen, she'd never be able to live it down, especially since if she hadn't gone anywhere today, the chances of either of them being involved would have been much lower. What was also alarming was the situation with the artifact. How could she obey the emperor's order in a situation like this? The moment she found herself in chains would be the moment she was no longer able to do the task she was given ... and yet, the artifact was likely already in Wrathite hands. Would complying really help her keep an eye on it or would they keep her far removed from it?

Streets

"The Fallen Emperor?" Clover repeated in surprise. Just then, Lyra seized the opportunity ... to seize the note, snatching it right out of Clover's hand from over her shoulder. Clover quickly span around to confront the audacious officer, no longer trying to hide how angry she was. "What do you think you're doing?! Give that back to me at once, you capricious foot soldier!"

"'Sapphire' or rather 'Colonel Sapphire Langley' is my cousin, and commanding officer, so it doesn't really make a difference if you deliver it yourself or pass it along," Lyra countered teasingly before hopping a couple of times to get well out of Clover's reach. She was curious about this fragment that seemed to be one of the important elements in her discussion with that man, but for now, she was content paying back the Wrathite with irritation for putting others at risk. "Now then, if you'll excuse me, I've got a note to deliver," after I read it first, "Since you no longer have any business here, I'll have to ask that you move that carriage so you don't block traffic."

"Hmph," Clover had had enough. "You'd best hope we never meet again, or so help me, you will regret it," were her parting words as she hurried back to her driver.

"I'd regret it, alright," Lyra glanced sideways and then turned to face the tavern. "Better wait til I'm inside to read this," she decided, heading back toward the crowded building.

Edited April 25, 2014 by Phoenix

[Snowy_One]

"Wait." said Robin, speaking up and raising her hand. "Nyx? Who is Nyx? One of our new party members? Someone else on the inside? How do you know you can trust them and that they are not giving you false information? Wait... Do you mean the Fallen Goddess Nyx? She who cast an entire city into darkness in the middle of the day? THAT NYX?! What the heck happened out there?"

Edited April 25, 2014 by Snowy_One

[Nanami Touko]

"Woo!" Eva said excitedly, pumping her arms into the air for a moment before settling back down. She wasn't quite sure of the graveness of the situation until Raquel had explained to the other 'Skotian woman across the room ('Skotian by her accent, Eva could tell), though knowing that, she was still up for it. "Hey, Jericho, you gonna help out too? Maybe this'll take your mind off of whatever's been eating you. Though I don't know how into combat you are, but, I dunno. A workout's always nice?"

[-Cynthia-]

Hallway

"See ya," Nadya waved to Amon. She figured he didn't want to be around Shadrak much after the incident the previous night. Nadya looked over Shadrak, there were some singe marks on his hands and face she could heal but that didn't explain the bleeding eyes problem. "Well, ya got hit by some kinda magic obviously," she said, healing those injuries, "but that don't really explain your eyes. Ya wanna tell me what's goin' on?" she asked with some concern.

Main Hall

"The guards have been busy with other matters- but it would be difficult to ignore a large part of a criminal organization in their city. Informing them could benefit us," Veronika said, nodding as she walked towards the dining hall. I can't say that I relish the opportunity to work with the Ursian guards again, but we may not be able to do this alone and they are who is nearby.

[Mercakete]

Norbert was basically just waiting for lunch to be done at this point. Not really having anything else to do in the meantime, he turned about in his seat and listened as Raquel tried to really her forces. He was a little surprised to hear that Raquel was asking for volunteers from her own mercenaries, from the sound of things. Wasn't this what she was paying them for anyway? He was also surprised at the questions being tossed her way. From the sound of things, not only was not everyone informed of even basic elements of the situation, but longer-time members were even questioning the soundness of her decision. In the end, she'll probably win them all over, like always.

A somewhat humorous twist that prompted a smile from the pegasus rider was when a particularly exuberant woman volunteered to go. She sounds like Gytha. Speaking of, he hadn't seen the mariner around. She wasn't usually absent for these meetings either. Eh, what do I care? Not everyone's always around for everything. Shrugging that off, he continued to absently take in the events. Apparently, Raquel met Nyx. Raquel meeting Vasili just didn't surprise Norbert anymore. It apparently surprised Robin, though, and apparently, the archer had heard some strange things about the Vasilus.

It was about then that his attention began wandering about the room, lazily gauging reactions at first, but then he saw that someone not affiliated with Raquel's group had entered the dining hall. Bert gave the room a quick glance around, but he didn't see Gar anywhere. So, he waved Suzume over. He hadn't seen her since before the Fallen attack anyway and was curious about how that went for her, not to mention if she had any information about their recruitment that he didn't. Plus, quite frankly, she probably wouldn't be very well-received by anyone else in the room.

[ReformBlade]

"You're damn right I'm going, this is exactly the thing I was telling you about, woman!" Elated to hear the news, or more to the point that he wasn't going to be rushing off blindly to his own single death, he stood up a raised his fist in the air in a celebratory fist pump. In his excitement he approached Raquel, "When are we going? Please tell me soon!"

Who is Sardis and why are people so happy to volunteer to go after him? Mushirah questioned. She was bordering on anger for some reason but she was at least able to get over the fact that her arm was gone, for a moment any way. It's not gonna get any easier from here on out.

[Eail]

"We've gotten lucky time after time, that's how I rationalize how most of us are still alive. As for advisers? That's what Veronika is for, she's generally pretty good at reining the girl in and trying to get her to listen to reason." Zach replied to Gwyn. "Sardis is... someone that we really aren't a fan of, and has caused quite a few bad things to happen. Raquel isn't at full power because she lost an artifact that was the major source of her power. The Fire Emblem... or a piece of it at least."

Edited April 25, 2014 by Eail

[Phoenix]

Hallway

"No, I don't," Shadrak grumbled a reply. He avoided eye contact, too, just to be good and barely cooperative.

That was Amon's cue to leave. "Alright. Take care," he waved goodbye and began heading back the way they came. Amon leaving was Malik's cue to leave, and so despite his annoyance with Amon in general, he followed after him.

"He cast a spell the second he woke up and ... lost control of it," the maid explained, unsure if that was really what happened, but not wanting to imply anything more severe than that.

It was ... the worst thing I've ever experienced. That ... that evil woman destroyed everything that mattered to me ... and trapped me in that hell for ... for I don't know how long! I just ... I just ... dammit ... I don't know what to do anymore! Shadrak tried not to think about the struggle he'd endured, because he didn't have the strength to hide the anguish, but in the end, he failed, and in little time at all he was back to grinding his teeth and wincing painfully at seemingly nothing. The only thing I have now is ... my power. My power, that's borrowed from someone else, a god who couldn't care less about me if they tried. I hate this. I hate all of it.

Other Hallway

"Pffft, if ya don't wanna work with'em just 'lure' them to the right spot," Greta suggested. "Let them scatter the pack for ya and then move in on your real targets without havin' to take on all of'em." She knew that was far easier said than done but this group somehow managed the difficult, the insane, and the nigh impossible on an almost regular basis, so it was worth suggesting. Maybe she also had a little faith in what they could accomplish or ... something. She couldn't quite figure it out herself.

Dining Hall

"I-err ... guess so ...?" Raquel didn't know for certain if this was the same Nyx they were talking about, but there was only one she knew about so the odds were good enough. Eva's enthusiasm was a little surprising, but she supposed someone had to be happy about picking random fights with the enemy. There was always someone ... "I don't see much point in waiting ... as soon as I know who all's going and have them gathered up, we should go. It's better to do this while the guards aren't minding the area, otherwise we'll look like the ones in the wrong this time."

"We have been responsible for the last three attacks ... unless that thing in Tremere doesn't count," Reign noted. "Though I guess they weren't really with Sardis specifically. Still, it's been pretty aggressive since I got here."

"It's going to stay that way until this is over," Raquel explained bitterly.

Meanwhile, Suzume tried to decide whether or not to heed Norbert and go sit at the table with him and ... the other person she didn't really recognize. In the end, she figured since the former was an official ally now, and the latter probably wasn't going to freak out if they didn't even know who she was, she headed on over. "Afternoon," she gave a small wave before sitting down next to Norbert. "Are they about to do something illegal, because that's what it sounds like?"

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Unlike... well pretty much everyone else Gar had some business in town so he skimped on the wagon ride back. Not that anyone would notice with some flashy demonstrations going on. He had to restock his supplies and get some special surprises for latter in the day. So he ended up walking back and getting annoyed when things started to get a bit rainy. The price for going it alone, he supposed. Taking an age and half to get back sucked too. But that was the path he chose just to land a joke years in the making for something that might not even happen. After sauntering past the guards with a well-placed "I'm with Raquel."

Gar headed into what was probably the place she'd be and lo and behold! A good bunch of people, including Raquel and Suzzy Q, were right there in the dining hall. "So, what'd I miss?" he haphazardly asked and slung his special gift of two bundles of roses over his shoulder.

[Mercakete]

"Sounds like an attack on Sardis -- the guy who kidnapped Raquel's father," Norbert explained. That was about all he got out before Suzume was suddenly approached and spoken to by Gar. Norbert frowned, but not angrily. He was actually just somewhat surprised and confused. That guy's just uncanny... Where's he come from? And...are those flowers? Is he actually a romantic or something? Huh. He's...really weird. Definitely more to him than meets the eye. Whatever this was, he decided that he should probably both ignore it and let it go uninterrupted. Just because he didn't trust Gar himself didn't mean he'd get in the way of a relationship's special moments. He did make a mental note to introduce Ranyin and Suzume since they hadn't met before, though. That and ask those questions that were on his mind.

[Sakusa]

"Your leader's situation is... rather unusual. I never imagined that I'd even have the possibility to potentially encounter someone with a piece of the Fire Emblem, let alone a bonafide goddess," Gwyn murmured. She had entertained idle dreams of displays of power and incredible feats of magical power in the distant past, but she'd just thought of them as pipe dreams and dreams that have to right to exist.

"What's in it for us if we go with you?" the virtuoso asked the other boldly, rising from her seat and standing stiffly as she exuded an aura of formality. If a former Emblem piece holder was having trouble with this Sardis guy, then the stakes were higher than she originally predicted; she had to make sure that she wasn't going to endanger her "comrades" and be underpaid for their services. They weren't going to be working directly under Weyland, and affiliates weren't always worth investing a commitment in. On top of that, they were also going to potentially break the law, and she normally wouldn't be able to stand having their reputation stained. Raquel seemed reckless, impulsive, barely mindful of consequences, and she was clearly out for blood.

"Please excuse the interruption," she said hastily but with sincerity, knowing well that she was endangering her relations with Raquel. "I know it may sound quite rude of me to ask as we haven't been formally introduced nor has a contract been established, but it seems time is of the essence, so I shall make this brief as possible." As much as she would've liked to lecture this girl completely and thoroughly on the basics of effective leadership, some diplomacy was in order, so she made an attempt to be as gentle as possible.

"You, madam, are skirting very important issues that both Zach and Robin have brought to light. If this Sardis fellow is any bit of the threat you seem to be making him out to be, what are our chances of winning? Even if we know he's here in Ursium, how did you even pinpoint his location if he's so elusive? I'm quite sure the people gathered in this hall have, in some capacity, dreams to fulfill, family or paramour waiting, any amount of aspirations to achieve for themselves or others... Why should they want to throw these precious things away on a mission that is potentially doomed to fail? Why should they fight for your cause? They have a right to know what they're up against, and your withholding of information can jeopardize this operation of yours to failure. Why should they risk their necks for you? If you want to rally people around you, you should at least motivate and inform them. Unless, of course, you're just relying on the charity and goodwill of others, in which case there is nothing more to discuss."

Having said her piece, she returned to her seat, crossed her legs, and folded her hands on top of her lap. She completely expected to be met with some amount of hostility from Raquel and her supporters, and braced herself for conflict.

"I said what should've been said. So what if she wants to save her father? The rest of us just want to get by. Oh gods, if someone compares me to this Raquel doxy again... Well, let's hope they don't."

(OoC: will probably nitpick at this later, I am tired. >A<)

Edited April 25, 2014 by Sakusa

[Rothene]

Getting the impression he was being an annoyance, Itsuki nodded and left Hoshi to her devices, working his way to the dining hall to seek his grand nephew.

[roymbrog]

It wasn’t long before Raquel gave slightly more context on the situation, but now it was starting to sound like a fool’s errand with all the bigshots who were apparently present. It didn’t sound like Raquel had much of a plan, and Synthia wasn’t comfortable rushing in blind to such a confrontation. From where she was seated, the mage had a good view to observe people’s reactions. Two people volunteered, but it appeared most everyone else was unsure or uninvolved.

Reign brought up a good point, that more often than not they had been the ones going on the offensive recently. Synthia would add to that that when they did it usually turned out worse for them than when they defended themselves. All of the deaths had occurred when they were the ones attacking. Synthia was a bit surprised when one of the newcomers stood to address Raquel, but couldn’t say she disagreed with the content of her speech. She waited to see what the merchant would say to that.

---

No, Valter didn’t think they could win. He had no doubt the Wrathites had a legitimate warrant, especially after Glen had looked it over, and if their resistance escalated much further it was likely the two of them would just be arrested along with Joanna. He didn’t fancy his odds against both Charles and the soldiers outside if it came to a fight. He couldn’t very well keep her safe if he were dead or also imprisoned. One glance back at Joanna’s frightened expression, and his decision was set. “I’m going with her,” he informed Charles with a glare.

---

After spending some time with Volga outside, and getting soaked during her trek back into the manse, Katrina was hoping to pick up a snack from the kitchen before heading back to her room to change. Only, when she entered the dining hall it appeared there was some serious discussion going on. She stood in the entryway for a moment listening to the tail end of Gwyn’s address. Apparently they were heading out again or something…?

[Nanami Touko]

Well, that sure was a reaction. Surprised her intuition had been right, she watched Jericho speed over to Raquel with a bit of a smirk. As terrible as his comment about stabbing had been, his ability to change his emotions on a dime was amusing.

Then Eva frowned. The princess had made a speech and as much as Eva was annoyed by her attitude, some of it made sense. Otherwise objections would've been made. She'd be going along with Raquel anyway, when this excursion happened, so it didn't matter much what her answer to Gwyn was. Though, for the sake of a few people that were bothered by her reckless attitude, Eva kept herself sitting to at least hear the logistics of what Raquel was planning. A bit grumpy, she leaned onto her hand again, elbow planted firmly on the table.

Edited April 25, 2014 by I have opinions

[ReformBlade]

Mushirah saw what the other pink haired woman was on about, but even if she hadn't said anything, she would have been against going on this anyway. To Eva, who seemed to be nonchalant about it all, Mushirah spoke quietly, "Even after the things that happened last night you'd volunteer and rush off to more danger?" It was something she couldn't quite understand in her vulnerable state, though perhaps Eva's answer could help alleviate that confusion.