Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Snowy_One]

"Wait. You're going to go see Nyx? Again?" piped up Tia upon hearing about them going to fix the arm. "Cool! Can I come! Please? Meeting a goddess incarnate and everything would be cool! Plus, if you're smart, you'll let me do the asking. I mean, almost all of my memories are just magic training and time with my parents, so she can't get any personal secrets or anything from me. Unless we're thinking of different meanings of the word 'absorb' here?"

[scorri]

Erion

<"Yeah, well, don't see any reason to leave you out of the fun. Too enjoyable to hang out around with."> Heading inside, Erion leaned against the wall and watched what was going on in the room. It seemed like the whole expedition wasn't happening any time soon so he figured no reason to rush around. <"So, where exactly was she talking about going?">

Lumi

She shook her head. "Nope, didn't give her anything. She just gave me the creeps to be honest. I got out of there pretty quickly in fact. I was sticking with Synthia. She got hurt when I was trying to defend her so... Yeah."

[ReformBlade]

"Getting my arm back wasn't ever really a goal. I-I didn't think it was even going to be possible. This is a lot to take in..." Mushirah was considering it on the whole, it was just nothing she knew of before. "I guess I'll do it, I don't have much else to lose either way, right?" Taking a moment to think about it again, "I don't know what I can offer though, I've literally never been outside of my home until recently... You mentioned fighting, I don't think I can handle that right now, so what's going to happen if that's the case? I doubt you'd all go again just for me, and i wouldn't ask that at all."

[-Cynthia-]

"Given the precarious nature of this situation, this hardly seems the time to be going back to the archives. It may be dangerous to return- there were more of those...magical armored things that might attack again," Veronika interjected into the discussion.

[Nanami Touko]

"<Aw, Erion, you'll make me blush~>" Eva said with a laugh, wandering along until they were back at the dining hall. She leaned against the wall opposite him, and listened in. Seemed they were talking about Nyx again, and something about arms? <Probably Mushirah, then. Wonder if I could explain myself better to her... Would suck to have her upset at me forever.> "<Ah? Well, according to Raquel, her father's in the city, somewhere with a mage named Sardis. I don't think she said where, or if she did, I wasn't paying attention... Anyway, a few of us have been throwing ideas at her, and volunteering to help. If you've got something that could help her, probably would be a good idea to say it.>"

Edited May 9, 2014 by I have opinions

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

Raquel wasn't sure if Tia was suggesting they try to scam Nyx with memories that ranged from redundant to useless or something else, but she was sure that Tia meeting Nyx could end badly for her if she was too insistent. "I don't think taking her there is such a good idea. We barely got through that ourselves."

Shadrak shrugged at them both. "She can come if she wants. I don't see a problem with that ... unless," Shadrak paused, squinting at Raquel as he tried to read her, "are you planning a full scale attack? How many of us will you need for this?"

"Uh ..." The question caught her a little off guard. She was actually trying to think of a way to explain that she didn't need the entire group for this but Shadrak had given her a better opening than she could have come up with on her own while trying to keep quiet about the details. "I don't think we'll actually need too many people for this. If we bring too many we'll just make a scene and probably get forced into a fight anyway, so it's probably better to just bring who the fliers we have can carry." She glanced at Veronika for a second but broke off before they could make eye contact and began mulling over how she would explain what Gar told her.

"Alright then, if you're sure you don't need all of us, then I'll take Mushirah and Tia to the Grand Cathedral and see what we can learn," Shadrak decided. "As for the knights ..." he hesitated a moment before deciding to pick his battles, "weee'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but that Darksider guy didn't have to fight them and he wasn't in our group. I'm hoping that's our ticket, coming with a contribution up front. If that's not enough, we'll just have to think of something else."

"Something else ..." Reign echoed, even more certain Shadrak was greener to this party leader business than Raquel was.

"I honestly don't think we'll have to fight those knights," Shadrak tried to assure Mushirah and Veronika both. "That's not even a last resort, here. If she's that sadistic, we'll just find another way." She's not the only vasilus we know, just the closest.

[ReformBlade]

"Hey, I'm going too!" Aneda interjected, miffed that she wasn't apparently being brought. Rude.

"I mean, if you're certain there won't be fighting and it's not going to infringe on anything else... I'll go." It felt somewhat otherworldly to decide to go and fix her arm up at a whim, but then she wasn't sure what exactly she was in for anyway, so Mushirah tried to leave her expectations open to any possibilities. At the same time she wasn't going to try and put all her eggs in one basket, though it was a bit hard to suppress the excitement she was feeling. I don't know what I can offer, I've seen and done so little so what do i bring...?

[Snowy_One]

"You're going to let me come? YAY!" shouted out Tia, almost jumping up and down happily before stopping suddenly and giving a small cough. "Ehem. I mean, yay! Don't worry. No matter what I'll do my best to ensure we get that arm back. After all, a moment like meeting a goddess may be rare, but we have a job to do. Let's just hope she's willing to deal."

"You are getting excited over nothing Tia. You will go and be useless." quipped Robin, rubbing her ears in slight pain after Tia's cheer.

"Why are you so GLUM! Yeesh! Seriously Robin. You make it sound like this is just a trip down to the fish market. We're going to get someones arm back. Someone whom you, as a girl who gladly PUNCHED SOMEONE for acting somewhat bad towards the team, should care more about. Yet you're just sitting there in your corner moping. Why? Did Shadrak not kiss you or something? What happened to the Robin who, just a few moments ago was willing to jump into a fire if Raquel said so? Do I even need to say it? You're hurt. You want something to happen but can't function without a clear direction, so when you lack one, you just sit around in a corner and mope. Maybe you need a healing spell on your heart, but you also need to get up and start moving! I didn't realize what was happening before and I made a dumb mistake in not going, but you chose to stay here and die of apathy."

"What?" shouted Robin, bolting upright with such force as to almost cause a minor tremor to shudder through the room. "Maybe I like being alone! Maybe I hate other people, but that doesn't give you the right to chastise me for not being what you want me to be!"

"I want you to be Robin. I want you to be happy. I want everyone here to be happy. Tell me Robin, if you really are so apathetic, so hateful, why don't you just leave? An oath? So you can feel better? You stayed when someone shot you in the leg, yet now you're not even going to try and help someone out when they need it? If that's true, you're not apathetic, just pathetic."

"And what would you have me do? Stand in a corner while you mages and arcane types deal with a goddess? One whom I can do nothing about? Watch as Raquel, Shadrak, or everyone, anyone, else does things of great importance while I wonder when *punch*"

Tia suddenly lurched forwards as she practically rushed across the room to punch Robin as hard as she could in the cheek, which wasn't hard enough to even turn Robin's cheek, but the message was clear.

"Robin. Shut up and help your friends. If you have none, then go and help your family. Jeez! You're what, 18? 19? I shouldn't have to be the one trying to tell you to stop acting like a child! You don't need magic for this. Your friend is hurt. He needs help. Now, get over there and help him. Help us. Understand?" she said before shaking her head and pointing firmly towards the group, watching as Robin finally started to move over to them, glaring at Tia as she did.

"If you need a friend, Robin, I'm always willing to talk. Maybe it's not of earth-shattering importance. Maybe it's just teaching you the basics of magic so you won't feel so lost and left out, but I'm never going to turn aside someone in need. If you need a friend, get out there and do something!"

Robin sighed heavily. "Can I come too and help?" she asked, defeated, placing her hand on Shadrak's shoulder. "Even though I am not sure what help I can be?"

[Mercakete]

Raquel and her group were up to about the normal business and at this point, Norbert was basically just waiting for lunch. He'd maybe grab some vegetables once he went for his meal, but there was no point in that until it was finished. From the sound of things, Mushirah was going to try to get her arm back. Good for her, though he wasn't sure if it would work or not. He didn't know much about Nyx. But then, something...else happened.

The pegasus rider hadn't even noticed Robin was off in a corner until she spoke up and he didn't think much of it until Tia started her tirade. Her words were pretty scathing. Sheesh, where did all that come from? Of course, Robin reacted...poorly. She sounded like she was having one of her mood swings... In some ways, it reminded him of home, but...not in the fondest way. Growing up surrounded by a bunch of girls trying to figure out their emotions, especially at meal times, there wasn't really much he could do but try to ignore and stay out of it. At least, when one minute they were absolutely furious over something trivial, and the next, crying their eyes out. Then they'd be mad at each other for the rest of the day, then be best friends again the following one. There was just no point in trying to resolve those sorts of upsets; time handled things just fine.

Suddenly, Robin was interrupted by...something. He thought he'd heard running, but trying to block out an argument made it somewhat hard to say. When he looked over, Tia was getting the final word in, apparently. Why she was addressing Robin as though she was her own, small child was beyond him, though. Even if they had to play out these theatrics, why did it have to be in the middle of the dining hall with everyone looking? Sure, some scenes couldn't be avoided, but...why was Tia trying to get Robin to go to the cathedral again?

Well, there was one good thing that came from this: Norbert was reminded that Robin had wanted to talk to him about something. Though he was free now, he wanted to have lunch first, and now it looked like Robin was going to be going with Shadrak. He figured he'd wait to see what Shadrak had to say about Robin going to visit a Vasilus before anything else, though. Robin seemed upset, sure, but who wouldn't be after that? That was just plain condescending, and Norbert was somewhat torn between taking Tia somewhere private to have a stern talk with her and just sticking to his plan of letting this whole mess peter out. Tia was at that weird age, after all, and he wanted to stay far away from any overblown, irrational, emotional issues associated with it. Maybe someone with more experience handling kids in that stage of life should deal with it... Was Tia even capable of having a stable set of emotions at the moment? Robin grew out of that phase, right? I'm just going to...stop thinking about it...

[Nanami Touko]

Hearing Raquel talk about fliers, Eva was about to speak up until Tia's outburst with Robin happened. It was...incredibly weird to watch. Mostly because it was odd watching a teen talk down to an adult. Eva had only spoken to Tia once, and she didn't even know who this Robin was, so perhaps there was something she didn't know. Either way, it was odd. She didn't comment on it, and simply waited until it was over to speak up. "Uh, Raquel, my wyvern can carry myself and two other people. Just letting you know, for any plans you've got running through your head." Despite having tried her best to ignore it, Tia's outburst was still stuck in her mind. Mostly because of how harsh it had been. She seemed like a real airhead, it's pretty jarring to see her explode like that...

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

"Fine," Shadrak shrugged at Aneda. "I'll try to make sure another fight isn't necessary," he assured Mushirah before he began looking around for a knife. If he was going to eat something, he would definitely need one in order to peel this thing. That was when the maid that left him in Nadya's care appeared from the kitchen with a lunch tray, a couple of sandwiches, a side of sliced fruits and a glass of water. It was timely, too, since Shadrak was considering other means of getting his energy back. He still was, but now he was leaning toward just sitting down and eating what she'd brought him really quick.

"Why aren't you still in your room?" the maid asked him, only seconds after the argument between Robin and Tia got started. "I told said I would bring you back something, didn't I?" She sounded more sad than upset, Shadrak noted.

"You did, but I needed to check on some things," he explained before gently taking the tray from her and wandering over to a table closer to the window and sitting down. "I'm fine, trust me," he assured her with a nod and the faintest of smiles as the argument continued. She sighed and nodded back before making her way quietly toward the exit.

As Shadrak began to tune back into the argument Robin and Tia were having, the latter rushed over to the former and socked her, though it looked pretty weak based on Robin's reaction. Or lack thereof. Was this really happening right now? Sighing, Shadrak stood up from his seat and came back over to where the altercation was taking place and waited for a chance to mediate.

Raquel had already tried a couple of times to interject but wasn't being heard, so until it came to a bit of violence, she'd given up on trying. When she was finally ready to order them to break it up, Reign stopped her. He felt that things were wrapping up on their own and it probably wouldn't get any worse, so it was better to just let them talk it out. She was surprised to see that he was actually right. Just as well, then, since she had more warp testing to do before the mission and Shadrak's excursion was turning into one big distraction for her.

Eva mentioning that she could ferry two of the group over to Sardis' hideout got Raquel starting up a headcount, trying to remember who was still coming. So far she was counting herself, Jericho, Gar, Veronika, and the fliers who had volunteered. Aneda was going to the Cathedral now so that was one flier they didn't have and she couldn't recall if Eli was going to bother or not. She had Katrina and Lumi still if she remembered right, so they might have had more than enough fliers at that moment.

"Yeah," Shadrak answered Robin, "You can come with us if that's what you want."

[scorri]

Erion stared at Tia and then turned to the others. "You're really going to let someone like that come along with you to deal with Nyx? We already had one person piss her off and get in trouble. Do you really think someone who has outbursts like that so quickly is someone you want to be in a delicate situation? She's young, impulsive, and apparently can't control herself. She's just going to get everyone who goes in trouble with Nyx. It'd be idiotic to let her go there."

[Nanami Touko]

Hmmm. Erion had said something, almost what Eva had been thinking, so perhaps her two cents would be worth something. "Hey, I don't know what's happened between Tia and Robin in the past, or whatever, but I saw what Nyx did to Shaddy, and I'm not sure we should send someone so young over there. He almost got himself killed, so if she said something she didn't mean, and that set off the goddess, well..." Eva rubbed the back of her head, sighing. "If you're sure about it, Shaddy, then I won't argue it anymore, but I have to agree with Erion. Tia seems really...impulsive."

[Snowy_One]

"I can control myself, especially around a goddess. I just don't... I hate hearing that I'm going to be useless or anything of the sort, and I really hate seeing someone else be so convinced that they will be useless too. If Robin can't do anything here, that's one thing, but to not even try? That's a whole different thing."

"I am... I am not sure it is what I want. I want to be useful and I want to help someone else, but I do not know what to do." said Robin simply, keeping her head hung in shame.

[scorri]

Erion rolled his eyes. "If you can have an outburst like that with almost no provocation, I highly doubt you'll be able to hold yourself in when faced with a manipulator like Nyx. You're a wild card that doesn't make sense to take along. You don't need to go, and you're just an added liability. It'd be a stupid risk to take you along."

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

"Wow ... really?" Shadrak gave a look of annoyance mixed with surprise. "First off, stop talking about me like I'm not here. Second, why are you people coming down on Tia while Raquel's planning to blow up Sardis' hideout ... on Gar's suggestion no less? Punching someone in the face doesn't even compare to blowing up entire buildings in the middle of a city just to catch them off guard. I think Tia's a lot less likely to try to punch out a 'goddess' knowing that in advance than say ... Raquel is to punch out Sardis if the opportunity presents itself."

"We already wasted enough time arguing about the whole Sardis thing," Reign noted. "Can we not backtrack to that, please?"

"And you're talking about me like I'm not even here," Raquel muttered at Shadrak. "Tia, listen," she turned her attention toward the water mage, "Nyx isn't the kindest person around, in fact if I didn't know any better I'd say she stole two of my friends earlier. Anyway, when Shadrak and her had a disagreement, she almost killed him. If you really want to go with them, just please keep that in mind. She's extremely dangerous."

Edited May 10, 2014 by Phoenix

[Nanami Touko]

"'Cause I already came down on Raquel when she tried to leave on her own, earlier. You weren't here, so I guess you wouldn't know. No harm no foul. Anyway, you think you can handle it, then like I said, by all means, take her along, Shaddy." Eva shrugged. She didn't think letting someone so young go near Nyx was was a good idea, but it wasn't her call to make; she wasn't Tia's mother and she definitely wasn't going to start acting like it.

[ReformBlade]

"Look, if it'll make things easier, I'll look after her while we're there. Yall can keep your heads on here, no need to lose em..." Aneda sighed in exasperation, not quite sure why there was even a fight to begin with.

Mushirah tried to stay out of all of it and completely succeeded, staying silent on all of it. Can we just.. go? I don't want to cause a ruckus just for an arm...

Hell, I'd go again but I already got what I want and I don't fancy fighting those things. Just watching them was enough. Jericho sighed as well.

[-Cynthia-]

"I didn't drag you out of that place twice just so you could go back and get yourself killed. Stay here and rest up," Veronika said, turning to Shadrak with a mildly annoyed tone. "That's an order," she added to make herself clear. I'm not sure about Tia's wisdom either, but she at least hasn't proven herself to have a death wish.

[roymbrog]

OoC: Will write other chars when I get more time later, I have to leave

Despite Charles’s continued threats and Joanna’s pleading, Valter hadn’t let the Wrathite leader go. His reasoning had been the same as Glen’s, that they had no proof yet that the man wouldn’t try something afterward. He wasn’t sure how long they could hold out like this, though… Joanna hadn’t escaped, and then one of the soldiers stepped in to disarm Glen. Valter feared the worst was about to happen when suddenly the area outside the house filled with light and a deafening boom, followed by a smaller explosion. “W-Wha?” Was that lightning!? The horseman watched in horror as Joanna rushed outside to heal the man struck. There was no way to prevent her capture from over here, and little point to holding a hostage anymore. If he and Glen were going to be attacked anyway, there was no reason to let Charles live any longer…

And then one of the Wrathites in the house offered him an out. That was a pretty good reason not to finish Charles off, honestly. They were going to take Joanna anyway, but it wasn’t like he could do anything about that at this point… “It’s not like I can stop you now,” he told the soldier and sighed. “Lord Charles, I sincerely hope you don’t make me regret releasing you.” Immediately after removing the knife, he pushed the Wrathite forwards and took a step back to put some distance between them.

[Phoenix]

Dining Hall

"That's the plan," Shadrak muttered in response to Eva. Then Veronika tried to order him to stay put. "This is more important than rest, which I've had more than enough of for one day. Someone who's been there before needs to go with them or they might end up having to fight those knights. Since the rest of you are busy with this bomb nonsense, and I know what to ask for, I should be the one going with them."

"I thought using explosives was less dangerous than attacking them head on. That was the main reason," Raquel noted, wondering why Shadrak seemed so against the bomb approach.

"Blowing up his base in the middle of nowhere is one thing, but blowing up a hideout mixed in with other buildings in the city is completely different."

Glen's Place

Charles snarled before turning around to face Valter and Glen, but his subordinate grabbed his right arm and held it firmly. "Between you and the redhead here, I've had it up to here with being manhandled! Now release me!"

"I already know I'm in for it," the wrathite quickly replied, "but you're about to make an even bigger mistake. Justice and reprisal are not the same thing. Let's return her to the cathedral before anything else happens."

It felt like a long wait, but Charles eventually relented, and once he was sure that his commander wasn't just going to reach for a weapon, he released his arm. "The two of you had best leave town, because if I see either of you again after this, it will be justice that rains down on your feeble little heads. I don't need to remind you that you are both criminals now, do I?"

Glen grimaced, not wanting to think about that right now. Joanna was in trouble but so was he, more so than she when he thought about it. "You aren't the law, you're just a bunch of brutes," he got in one last shot, though it didn't make him feel any better.

"He's up," came a voice from outside. It seemed Joanna had healed most of the man's injuries.

[scorri]

Erion raised his hand. "I'm not going anywhere. I'd be willing to head back with them if you're not allowed to go. Of course, she's not coming if I do lead it," he said with a gesture to Tia. "If the whole point is to avoid taking potentially volatile people into Nyx's arena, then she should be sidelined too."

[Eail]

"Sure sure, that's fine Gwyn, do whatever you need to." Zach replied to the girl, letting her hang onto his arm while she seemingly went through a panic attack. "Is there anything that might let you get your mind off this sort of thing?" He didn't like seeing girls be upset like this, call it a running character flaw with Zach or something, he wasn't too sure of it himself. Gwyn seemed like a nice girl... to him at least, so he was obligated to try to help her out in a time of need such as this.

_____

(Gonna talk to the bird and then edit in some more stuff or make a new post later)

[Snowy_One]

"Hey! I'm not volatile!" shot back Tia, getting noticeably irritated at the notion. "Wow. You try to help the party out and try to get someone whom should be helping helping and, suddenly, you're an unstable monster willing to snap at any moment."

[scorri]

Erion smirked. "I never said monster, and you're not doing much to help your own case here. After all, you're the one who just punched someone for no good reason. And if me saying the word 'volatile' sets you off, then that's just even more reason you shouldn't be around Nyx. I wasn't even trying to set you off and I managed to. She will be trying. So unless you want to lose ten or so years of your life like Shadrak did, you should just stay here."