Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Mercakete]

As the carriage began to move away, Cecelia kept her eyes locked on it for a moment. Then, she went back to keeping her view on the grounds as a whole and casually asked, "Private, have you ever heard of Bert the Crusher?" She suspected she had, given Amber's mysterious wealth of knowledge, but she felt she may as well ask just to be sure.

[ArchShark]

And that way more than enough time Cruz needed to formulate his plan.

Thorough analysis of the ballroom revealed that only Timothy had bothered to show. Perhaps the other two were too ill to attend, or pre-occupied? He would make a point to ask their whereabouts of Bernard later. All the hustle and bustle in the ballroom made it a simple task to take a pair of drinks and slip in a portion of the poison he had smuggled in, the powder dissolving almost instantly on contact with the liquid. With the poisoned glass in his left hand and his own drink in the right, Cruz approached Timothy Reuter, extending the drink in his left hand. "Truly, this ball was a disaster until you spoke, sir," Cruz said. "May I share a drink and a conversation with a man of such grand eloquence?"

Yeah. This job was already starting to annoy him. Socializing instead of shooting? Sweettalking instead of shooting? Whatever. There was money to be made.

[Phoenix]

Ballroom

"Oh?" Timothy replied in surprise. He didn't think anyone would notice him after the princess arrived. "Of course, of course." He accepted the drink with a "Thank you," a nod, and a smile. "I've been a bit parched ever since that first announcement, I'm afraid, but I just couldn't look away from those dances for even a moment. So, then. Whom do I have the pleasure of spending a drink with this evening?"

Main Entrance

"Yep. Never met the guy in person, but that's probably for the best," Amber answered with a wide smile. "That's the guy you arrested isn't it-oh WOW!" She quickly lowered her voice so she could reasonably get away with what she had to say next. "So Bert the Crusher is your brother? I'm sorry to hear that but at the same time, that's really interesting, Captain."

Carriage

"So what happened ...?" Nadine eventually inquired. It was a long enough pause, and she could tell Raquel was going to gloss over the details, but that didn't mean the story wasn't worth hearing.

"Well ... can you not mention this to the others?"

Nadine squinted at the odd request, but figured that if she agreed, Raquel might not hold back as much information. She wasn't a liar and prided herself on this, so her reply was more formal than Raquel thought it needed to be. "I promise, I won't share anything you tell me with anyone else." Raquel sighed in relief, but before she could continue, Nadine teasingly added, "Won't write it down, either," and smirked.

"Okay, I'm not good at covering loopholes, I get it ... anyway ...."

Dining Hall

"That's a personal matter. Connor can't legally hire anyone yet; it's not like being the heir doesn't get rid of legal process for a company our size. Studying under him would be just that, nothing more, nothing less," Anna explained. "If you'd rather be an actual employee of the company, you'll have to stick around longer, regardless of whenever Connor leaves next."

"I think I'm done going places for awhile," Suzume quietly noted.

"That's good because I can't really evaluate your performance if you're off somewhere else."

[ReformBlade]

"Well hey, what's cookin good lookin?" Jericho spat out upon seeing this new woman, though he regretted it immediately. Not out of fear or anything but dang was he just really down that he actually used that line on a random person. "Uh... mm..."

Aneda gave him a rather long stare which slowly drifted towards Greta, prompting a smile. "Hey there, Jericho and I were just kinda chatting, waiting for some fun to happen or something. And I see you're looking for a little something as well~" she pointed to the bottle with a mischievous grin on her face. "Wanna share?"

"Honestly, I'm not that cheesy!" Jericho tried to cover his blunder up a bit late.

"Oh shush, it's too late now." Aneda patted his head while Jericho swatted the hand away.

[Snike]

Well, it seems as though it was story time. Blake sat silently, as Nadine agreed to not tell anyone else about what Raquel was about to recount. He had already heard most of this, and in fact had participated in quite a bit of it, but the other two had not. Their reactions might serve as a measure of how far from normal they truly had went.

[Mercakete]

Cecelia lowered her head slightly: a subtle nod. "Actually, we spent more time together than either of us spent with anyone else in the orphanage, I'd expect. Not on the friendliest of terms, either," she quietly responded, "It isn't a relation I like to brag about. If you know of him, then you likely understand my concern for that woman and her companions. I have to wonder if he's influencing them or if her rashness is her own. Either way, Nadine will be able to handle herself well enough if things go awry, I'm sure. For all his brutality, Norbert isn't a threat against a trained officer like Nadine."

Her mouth had been a straight line, but now the corners dipped a little as she inclined her head again and her brow furrowed slightly. "I do hope his old companions behave responsibly, however. That Valcyn woman seems to be only as harmless as the obstacles she comes across."

[Balcerzak]

Well, that hadn't exactly been what Theodore had intended, but by Truth, if the best part about a brainstorming session wasn't somebody's good idea being turned into something even better. With just a touch more direction, Charis's amendment might really take off. "Well, hmm, how about... Well, there are five of us judges, and seven groups competing. It could be a simple task to split it so that each of us would handle comments for one of the groups, but that would leave two leftover. Best in my opinion if we deal with those two collecively, and might as well make those the Prince and Princess's. With that, I can't see any reason for anyone to feel slighted, even if they aren't walking away with the highest overall score."

It had all started out as a mere question of curiosity, that had somehow taken life of its own, but Theodore couldn't help but feel proud of the direction this had taken. He was getting so caught up in the festivities that he almost misplaced his original objective, however, there was still some information being gleaned in that direction as well. Not only had this group arrived at the ball with Weyland, but one of them was in bed with (figuratively... presumably) the Prince. A mage at that, though sadly mostly unfamiliar to the representative he was currently getting close to. Still, there might be an angle there somewhere.

It was important to get finished with the task at hand, it would almost certainly be less suspicious and more natural to hit up more diverse topics of conversation once all this was wrapped up. Sure, the man wouldn't be a captive audience any longer, but it didn't seem likely he would jet immediately after the business was concluded. This was a social gathering after all. "Hopefully we can arrive at a clean division here, so I'll start out by stating that if nobody objects, I'd handle the commentary for the waltz pair. I'm not planning anything overly verbose or elaborate, just a few short remarks, maybe a minor suggestion or two, and some words of praise. In my opinion the important part is not so much the content itself, but merely taking the effort to apply a personal touch, really."

Edited December 3, 2013 by Balcerzak

[Snowy_One]

"I... See..." said Tia, looking down sadly. This was... unexpected. She had fully thought there would be no issue at all with her working under Connor. WE hires her and assigns her to work for Connor and she can now, legally, work with him and possibly even get paid. However...

"Then... I only have one choice. While I do very much wish to work for WE and will continue to hope to do so, learning and getting to spend time with Connor is what I consider to be the most important. Of course, it would be foolish for me to turn your offer down without having Connor accept me in first, so... may I please have some time, if only to assure that he will be willing to accept me as his understudy first?"

[scorri]

Hoshi glanced around, but didn't see any of the waitresses. With a slight shrug of her shoulders, she said, "Well, I don't see anyone to order from... If one of the waitresses appears, I'll order from her. If not, I'll stop off in the kitchen before I go back to my room. But, you were talking about your lance. What were you hoping to have done to it? Any chance I could get a look at it?"

[Snike]

"I was hoping to have it so that it could resist magic, or at least provide some aid to resisting magic," Axel said,with a shrug. "I don't have it on me now, but I can bring it over to you later, if that's alright. If not maybe tomorrow."

[scorri]

"Oh, hmm. Well... hmm." She paused, trying to search back through some of her older projects. "I could... no, that wouldn't work. Hmm, that might but I think it would cause problems with other uses of your lance.." She paused again and frowned. "Right. I'll be able to come up with something, but some of it will depend on the build of the lance. I think I might be able to incorporate a type of magic shield into the lance that wouldn't limit the movement, but would be able to soften the blows. But... I also might be able to come up with a different solution. We'll see. I have a couple of ideas. I don't have anything else on my plate for tonight, so once you have some time, we could do that."

Edited December 3, 2013 by scorri

[Phoenix]

Ballroom

"Steinn, don't you dare take Joshua," Gabbie warned him from behind, somewhat teasingly.

Charis smiled at Theodore and with a firm nod said, "Agreed." Then, realizing that the timing of that could have led to a misunderstanding, she looked to Steinn and Gabbie and added, "Speaking of his suggestion." Looking over at the lineup, she began to mull over her remaining options in private.

Shadrak frowned for a moment. So it looks like I do have to give a review of some kind ... but to who? Should I play it safe and pick one of the total strangers like Joshua, or go for familiar faces like Gytha and Nadya? Wait, what the hell am I thinking? My relations in this group are bad enough without criticizing their dance moves. I'm taking Joshua.

"Hmm, how about-" "Not the leggy girls, either," Gabbie teasingly interrupted Steinn a second time.

"I will give honorable mentions to Joshua if no one else objects," Simon spoke up.

DAMN! "Uhhh ... erm ..." ... I guess if it really mattered to me, I'd just object, huh? Well ... I guess things can't get as bad with Gytha as they did that one time in Ursentius. "I'll take Gytha ... the solo dance, not the bachelor thing."

Main Entrance Alpha

"Well her father just up and quit the army, so that's probably not a good sign," Amber noted with a slight frown. "Seems like duty and respect for authority aren't things the Valcyns are too fond of."

Main Entrance Number One

"Hahahah, well that's a new one," Greta replied when Jericho greeted her. It wasn't long at all before Aneda asked for a share of the booze. How could Greta say no? Seriously, if she tried to drink it all by herself, she would be a mess in the morning, and she knew it. "Alright, sure. I don't have any glasses though so I hope ya don't mind sharin' sharin'."

Dining Hall

Not willing to risk it all, ey? Anna shrugged. "Take all the time you need."

Sorrow Ride

"I found a piece of the fire emblem months ago while traveling the country with my father. Eventually, during a stop in Sergio, this insane bastard, Sardis and his men blew up a ship of the line in the harbor to draw the guards away ..."

"Oh wow, you were there when that happened? And from the sound of things it happened because you were there," Nadine noted.

"Yeah, I guess that's one way to look at it. I met some of the people traveling with me that same day and they agreed to help me out, some for pay, some out of kindness, I guess. They defeated Sardis' men, but he injured and abducted my father. We tracked them to a fortress but ended up fighting the wrong people ... bandits if I recall correctly."

"Less human garbage for us to deal with I guess. Thanks. Really."

"Anyway, we were too late and only managed to find a list of contacts and informants. One of them was Rodrigo Vasquez."

"... what?"

"Yeah, I know, it didn't make any sense to me either, but he wasn't as involved with them as I thought. They even tried to kill him, but we put a stop to that. Afterward, we went to Europa and had Weyland take a look at the emblem. He couldn't tell us anything much about it and we ended up doing some work for him to try and prepare to rescue my father."

"You used to call him 'daddy' all the time. What happened to that? You don't have to pretend to be proper. It's not you."

"I'd like to try anyway if you don't mind," Raquel shot back, clinching her teeth. "Anyway ..." Wait ... this is where all the of that illegal stuff starts, isn't it? Uhhh ... "Uhhh ..."

Nadine noted Raquel's pause and figured she was now working on covering up some extremely messy details, or trying to decide whether to continue at all. "Unless you ran into Reign or Wynn or something, you can just stick to the relevant parts; I don't mind."

"Reign ...?" I ... uh ...

"Wait, you ran into him?

OHHH MYYY GOOOODS, why did I REPEAT that?! Now I have to outright LIE or ... ... I don't know ....

I won't laugh at your situation, Discovery ... but I want you to know ... that I find it amusing all the same~

"Err-no, I meant to say Wynn too, I was just a little surprised." Well that's true at least ...

"... oh, okay. I guess Sardius isn't that small ..."

Edited December 5, 2013 by Phoenix

[Mercakete]

"Hmm... She and my brother really do have quite a bit in common if that is true," Cecelia noted, "Let's hope she's just as ineffective if that really is the case. I'd hate for this to turn into a bigger mess than her disregard for the other guests' enjoyment of this ball."

[Snike]

Blake listened in as Raquel began her recollection of the events while Nadine chimed in every so often, sometimes expressing shock or thanking the merchant for defeating some bandits, other times asking questions, such as why the merchant wasn't referring to her father as 'daddy' - Jethro and his daughter were even closer than he thought- or, after a slip-up, if they had ran into Reign. Which was the case, but they couldn't exactly tell her that. Regardless, the merchant had paused, for the time being, just mentioning the jobs Weyland had given them. Maybe he could help her gloss over the Fallen smuggling, and get back to safer territory, so to speak.

"I suppose Reign and Wynn are other friends? Perhaps we'll meet them yet," Blake said, jumping in. "Anyways, if I recall correctly, at the tail-end of that was when I joined up. You and the others were just returning from a retrieval mission, -I think Atsuko was the name of the mercenary?- when I got hired after a misunderstanding with Bert. Afterwards, we returned to Europa, where things quickly escalated."

***

"Alright, then, I'll swing by later," Axel said, after Hoshi's explanation. "Just make sure you don't worry too much about it. I can do without, for the most part, so this potential upgrade is just for convenience."

[ReformBlade]

An audible sigh found its way out of Jericho's mouth as he held his head down in what appeared to be defeat.

"Meh, I could do much worse than sharing with you unless like... you've got some super rare mouth disease? It don't look infected or murderous. Anyway, whatcha got there? Is... is it delicious? Or is it just straight up alcohol?" Please tell me she's not that crazy.

"Were you gonna down that all by yourself or something...?" Jericho asked after looking back up finally, head tilted, moreso from elevation differences and all that jazz than from genuine curiosity, but that didn't exactly matter here. She an alcoholic? Or maybe something really bad happened... or maybe good? Stupid unknowns, make yourself known so I can stop guessing everything!

[Snowy_One]

"Where is Connor now then? I can hurry on over and ask and we can have a definite answer then. Or, if that's not fine, may I remain here to learn?"

[Phoenix]

Main Hall

"Nah, I ain't got nothin' like that," Greta assured them. Then, smirking, she asked, "Do you, heehee? Anyway it's just some whiskey I found." She paused, thoughtfully looking the bottle over with a somber expression. "I didn't use to have alcohol on me all the time but, I don't really know what else to do. If I can't get to a bottle when I need it, I might start cryin' again ...."

Dining Hall

"Oh no, Connor's my only chance of not falling behind schedule on the new transport right now," Anna immediately replied. "Bug him later. For now, get yourself something to eat and get to know the people around here. Even if you end up going with Connor, if you want to work for Weyland, you're going to have to establish some personal ties."

Carriage

"If you do run into them, Raquel ... you might want to tell them to stay out of Ursium," Nadine warned. Her expression had slowly become depressed. "Even if they weren't deserters, Reign at least knows how my technique works and the people who transferred me know that."

"What do you mean?" Raquel asked, concern steadily growing.

"You remember that huge mistake I made back at Horizon? Remember the show where Reign and I cast that enormous fire spell? The show was the only place we could test the technique in its entirety, so I felt like we had to do it, but ever since, they've been harassing me for details about it. Reign shouldn't have left ... because now they won't have to ask him nicely like they do with me. They can just torture him for the information behind closed doors, try him for his real crimes, and then execute him."

"That's horrible! What's so important about that fire spell?!"

"I don't want to say anything else right now. I know I'm the only officer here but it's still not a comfortable subject. Let's just get back to what you were saying ..."

[Snike]

So, Reign not only was a deserter, he had some information the Ursian army wanted about a fire spell. Good to know, though it wasn't clear how useful that information would be. The other notable thing was that Wynn appeared to be a deserter, as well. Perhaps if they ran into him, in that case, he'd be able to join up as well. It might certainly help Raquel, a bit. Either way, they'd need to be even more careful around the Ursian military, given this revelation. Blake contemplated that fact, as the discussion continued.

[Snowy_One]

Tia gave a small frown as she shifted about uncomfortably. "Okay. Sit down, eat, and... ummm... Talk to people? I'm not really sure how to do that. I mean, talk to people about anything besides magic and research."

[Mercakete]

"How about you just take things one step at a time? Start by figuring out what to eat," Norbert advised, more to move the discussion along than anything else. He'd shifted to resting his head on his crossed arms on the table and was getting a little irritable. He was beginning to feel like he was wasting his time just sitting there and was mulling over asking for a pen and some paper so he could leave that note for the cooks and ask for something to eat in the process. He wouldn't typically be so impatient with having someone's issues addressed, but he really didn't know if the discussion was actually over or not and if it was, that meant he could've up and gone already to go do something more productive.

[scorri]

Hoshi was about to reply to Axel when she spied one of the waitresses enter. "Oh, excuse me." Walking over, she smiled at the woman. "Uhm, excuse me, but I was hoping to get some food. To be more precise a wrap or some soup would be nice. Also some tea if you have some."

[ReformBlade]

"No no no, no more crying, no more tears tonight." Aneda hurriedly spat out, reaching for the bottle. "There's been enough depression and anguish the past week. If this'll stop it, then lets down it!" Deep down she felt that indulging in it too much could be disastrous but at the same time, things weren't so great to begin with... how much worse can it get? Taking a swig, she could already feel a little 'better'.

Jericho was still not quite sure what either was going on about, but it did sound pretty grim, something he was pretty sure most people wouldn't be fond of. Thankfully he fell into that category, or maybe unsurprisingly he did.

[Phoenix]

Main Hall

"Right," Greta said, smiling weakly and taking a seat a couple of steps above and between Aneda and Jericho. "So, I didn't catch your name, guy. I'm Greta." She was still recovering from that wave of depression that washed over her a moment ago, so her demeanor was still bordering on listless, but she was coming out of it bit by bit.

Dining Hall

"One of Anna's eyebrows raised at the exchange between Bert and Tia. "It's simple really, they talk, you listen. Do a little role reversal every so often for a change of pace. Well ... that should be all for now ..." She slowly stood up and took her sandwich. "Stay here for a little while, guys. I'll have someone come by and get you two some rooms. Tia you should stay here for a bit too so you can get a guest room. As funny as the thought of you sleeping in the library on a bed of magic books is, that's not going to happen."

"Oh, there's a thought," Fizza mused aloud. "Hey, Anna, can we borrow some guest rooms too?"

"Yeah, sure ... we have a ton of them."

"Great. I don't mean to impose ... I'd even be fine sharing a room with one of the guys here to save space. Though they would be sleeping on the floor."

"Heh."

<"So you would impose on us and make us sleep on the floor?">

<"Yeah but not on purpose.> After awhile, I'd just sort of shove you off, I suppose. I do a lot of running and shiving in my sleep. I usually wake up at some completely different angle from where I started with the sheets all twisted up around my hips."

"Well, I'm glad we can have separate rooms then," Amon said with a nod.

Carriage

"Well, after we did those two jobs for Weyland, Sardis came back and attacked Weyland at his home just to get to us," Raquel continued.

"This Sardis guy did? I heard the skotians attacked Weyland at his home. Are you telling me that was just a cover story?"

"Err-I guess ...?" I guess they would try to place the blame on an enemy they can actually find. I should have remembered that. Though, even if I did, is it worth hiding? Why would the skotians kidnap me? The rest of the story won't make sense regardless, but it won't even be remotely believable if I lie and say the skotians kidnapped me instead of Weyland and decided to set a trap for everyone else at Danton. "Anyway, I was abducted by Sardis that night too and-" "Somewhat ironic," Nadine interrupted briefly. "Yeah yeah ... anyway, I was abducted too and taken to Danton."

"That old fortress that mysteriously vanished right off its foundations awhile back? Please don't tell me you're linked to every odd thing that's happened in Ursium in the last two months ..."

"I couldn't be ... at least I don't think so. See ... this is our first time back in Ursium since the battle at Danton. I'm ... not sure if you'd believe the rest of this ... at least the part about how we got all the way down to Rex-Avaz. In less than a day."

"Rex-Avaz? ... damn, I could really go for some popped corn right about now."

[Mercakete]

Well, the time to ponder pros and cons had come to an end. As talk of guest rooms came up, Norbert straightened up and kept his arms crossed, still looking somewhat disinterested. "Don't bother with me; I'll just sleep in the stables," he told Anna, "Everything I own I keep with Rizen anyway and it's not like it's going to be cold outside anytime soon -- it's still spring. And where can I get a pen and some paper?"

[Snowy_One]

"But I like book-beds. They can be comfy so long as you avoid the hard-bound books." said Tia, sounding a bit dejected before turning to look at Bert. "Erm, you sure that's how I start talking to people? I mean, I can talk, clearly, I just don't know what to talk about if it isn't obvious or magic-related. Like, do you have hobbies or something I guess?"