Return of the Emblem Chapter Twelve: Divergent Paths

[Ether]

"Oh well, atleast I tried." Angelica retorted with a grin, before turning to Shadrak, said grin having completely evaporated from her face.

"You're annoying, you know that? For all your huffing and puffing, you haven't had any more success than me getting that thing open." Angelica shot back towards the shaman with a sigh.

[Eail]

"Sadly single people don't seem to actually have much of an impact around here unless their name is Raquel... suppose you get used to that too. Sanity is a fickle mistress though, always changing around her definition and whatnot." Seemed like he and Jericho weren't the only ones that were having enough of all this, with the way Shadrak and Gar were piping in. "You'll find I'm fairly blunt about most things, so the honesty is pretty second nature. Kinda hoping there's some kind of... group session after all this is over about why stuff like that is not okay in a combat situation."

[ReformBlade]

"Aaaaand your overt sexual tendencies haven't really done much for other people here in the meantime, so your'e both sitting at zero while he's actually been trying to be productive." Jericho shot at Angelica, getting annoyed with the hostilities at this point more than the practices themselves. He could see the appeal of certain activities, but they had a time and place for them. Like the shaman said, in a grand cathedral though? Awkward. Turning back to Zach, keeping his voice down a bit, "I mean, I'd be for it and I'll certainly suggest it to at least Veronika but yeah..." He absentmindedly had his hand on his chin at this point.

[Toogee]

It seemed everyone was either trying to open the door or getting comfortable with the long wait of opening said door (perhaps too comfortable). Eli was a bit anxious to leave this place, and the fact that their priestess guide left made him believe that this was all a trap.

He had no one but Lumi to mention this to, so Eli walked over to her tending to the unconscious Synthia.

"Am I the only one who thinks that priestess went to get the authorities and we're all headed for the dungeons?"

[Phoenix]

Working Together

Shadrak sighed, having wasted most of his energy on the outburst from before. All he could do now was toss Gar and Angelica annoyed looks. "Hoshi, was it? Do you know anything about the dark star spell? I was thinking two mages working together could get one working, even if we're not strong enough individually. If we can forge one in a gap, we can probably force it open, even without breaking it."

"That's a pair of doors, not just one ... but wouldn't it take more than one?" Raquel chimed in. Her knowledge of higher level spells was limited, but she knew they were working with extremely heavy objects.

Wouldn't the sheer power of it being forced out of the gap by the pressure be enough to outright kill anyone it hits? Hypnos added, though only Raquel caught it, and the realization that he was probably right startled her.

"Maybe," Shadrak shrugged, "I have no idea how heavy it--they are or how much power we can get out of a cooperatively formed dark star ... or how many we could even make working together."

Though frustrated, the talk of cooperative spells got Nadine thinking again. The last time she'd suggested a synchronized spell, Reign declined, for good reasons. They wouldn't hold as much water here and now, but she supposed it might seem a little suspicious to ask again. Still, enough chained explosion spells might crack the doors open. If they did that, then even if whoever was on the other side was feeling a little hostile, they wouldn't be fully exposed to a counterattack. Not that she cared, but there was no telling how the doors would stand up to multiple spell grenades going off against them.

[ReformBlade]

Sitting by her lonesome with a piece of paper in front of her, ready to keep on writing that letter, Aneda smiled. Maybe this will get help me vent and deal with all this crap going around in my mind. she thought, detailing what she could of her adventures since she met Fyodor. Unfortunately, she couldn't get into very much detail given she wasn't going to be telling him in person and some sensitive stuff was in there, mostly just describing places she'd seen and how she was feeling at the moment, remembering to keep a positive spin on it all the same. She ended her letter, speaking the last bit to herself, "Sorry I haven't written until now, I've been all kinds of stressed but I hope you're okay with me writing to you still..."

Edited March 12, 2014 by ReformBlade

[scorri]

Hoshi

Frowning at the door, Hoshi took a few seconds to realize that she had been addressed. "Oh, uhm, dark star... yes, I know of it. Isn't it extremely dangerous though? And the ability to turn into into a singularity... not to mention the disaster that would come if we, uhm, lost control of it... Are you sure that's the wisest idea? We've never worked together before. Uhm... is that the sort of spell you want to risk? That could end up being more dangerous than those knights were."

Lumi

"Naw, that would ruin all the fun. 'Sides, she let us in here, she told us to attack them. It's not like we killed anyone or anything. Just some mannequins. And they've got plenty of others. Why? Scared?" She grinned up at him.

[Phoenix]

Dark Theory

"Yeah, it's extremely dangerous, but it's the only dark spell with enough displacing power to force something this size open. Anything else would have to be anima," Shadrak replied, glancing around briefly at some of the other mages. This was mostly Mushirah's territory but even she might not be able to do it all alone, and that was ignoring the fact that she was injured and not present. A high level dark spell was the only other option Shadrak could think of. "There's only one direction it can come flying out in, I think, so we'll just keep people clear of that area. At worst ... we put a giant hole in the wall, at best ... we get this blasted door open," he shrugged. On second thought, he was suddenly feeling off about his plan. Damaging the cathedral in any way--even this dungeon-esque area--was probably far worse than anything Angelica and Evangeline could have done. "If only there was some way to be sure it was contained ..."

"Anyone try praying to Truth for access to his ... archives?" Reign offered. He wasn't taking the suggestion seriously himself, but unlike punching or kissing the door, it was at least aimed at the right person. There were some other ideas floating around in his head too, but the one he went with was the best--or at least the easiest--one.

Simon sighed when he heard Reign's suggestion, still keeping an eye on Synthia. "I would pray to my goddess for aid in this matter, but gone are the eras where the Order of Nyx stood side by side with the Order of Truth. I fear she may have no power here ..."

"Either way I don't do the whole prayer thing so maybe a legitimate worshiper ought to try it," Reign added. "Can't be any worse than trying to blow the thing open or waiting around."

[scorri]

"Hmm... Uhm... How do the emblem pieces work exactly? Do you need to touch it to use it? Or, uhm, could you use the power you have remaining to... well... call it to you? Perhaps use the power from a full piece to open the door?" At the mention of Nyx though, she blinked. "Uhm... I'd forgotten the two were connected at one point... Sir, do you think perhaps there might be information about alchemy in the archives? After all... Nyx gave us alchemy. Perhaps... Oh I would love to see more details on what she knows about alchemy beyond what's been passed down."

[-Cynthia-]

"If we make a loud enough explosion, someone else in the cathedral would probably hear it. That would be difficult to explain," Veronika pointed out.

"I ain't exactly a 'legitimate worshipper', but I'll give it a shot," Nadya chimed in, her healing duties finished for now. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands since that seemed like that was Ursian custom. "Oh Lord Truth, we seek knowledge or emblem pieces or whatever is behind this door but we can't seem to get the door open. Little help here please?" she asked.

[Phoenix]

Prayers and Commands

"Heheh," Reign chuckled. Nadya was as always, informal.

"Ask him to kill off all the fallen while you're at it," Nadine tossed in. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. That was her philosophy for the day.

"I don't really know how it works exactly," Raquel explained, "but I have summoned a piece to me before. Trouble is, I still came out of it with nothing. I guess there's no danger of that now, though." It was worth a try, she supposed, but her sense of where emblem pieces were was terribly unrefined at the moment. Her summoning before, she felt, was only successful because the emblem was in plain sight. This one was behind at least one door and she didn't know exactly where. "I'll give it a try," she said, approaching the door head on and stopping about five meters in front of it. If this works, I think we can just go on and leave ... and probably should. If it doesn't though ... ... well we're not doing too well with these doors so far ....

"I certainly hope there's information about alchemy contained within," Simon excitedly replied. "I'm not an alchemist myself, but the goddess' artful magic is too wonderful not to study in my spare time. And of course, as they say, knowledge is power."

[Snike]

Blake's escape from the estate was easily made, and the distance between it and the inner city went without incident. Thank goodness, as well, since the last thing Europa needed was more conflict. The streets were barren, and its' buildings ruined. It reminded him of Urcenter, to an extent, and that saddened the man. No one should have to experience their hometown being ravaged like this.

But there was no time to sulk. Back to the task at hand. The swordsman searched for any sign of Reign or Nadine, but to no avail so far. That was... unfortunate, but he pressed on. Eventually, in the less affected -and thus more crowded- part of town, he came across two of the people he wanted to find. Though, it was Private Baker and Private Linnet Blake spotted amidst the survivors of the night, as opposed to Raquel's friends. Regardless, he approached them.

"Morning," he said, to the two guards. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

[Toogee]

Lumi

"Naw, that would ruin all the fun. 'Sides, she let us in here, she told us to attack them. It's not like we killed anyone or anything. Just some mannequins. And they've got plenty of others. Why? Scared?" She grinned up at him.

Why yes. Yes he was.

Not that Eli would mention anything of his role (or lack there of) in the battle. He was not convinced that they were out of trouble.

"All we had to do was donate a bit of knowledge and we'd be in. Nope, we had to pick a fight. We practically attacked a church because we didn't want to donate anything. Even now, they're trying to figure out the door when all one needs to do is spout out a bit of uncommon knowledge- hmm..."

What Eli did next was either going to save the day or make him look even stupider than he already felt. He stood tall and spoke loudly with the most confidence he had displayed all night, hoping whatever was keeping the door closed was listening.

"My name is Eli Irving, and I wish to share knowledge with Lord Truth!"

Edited March 12, 2014 by Toogee

[-Cynthia-]

"Ooh yeah good thinkin'," Nadya responded to Reign's friend. She closed her eyes and clasped her hands once more. "And if ya could just kill all the Fallen that'd be great too thanks," she added onto her prayer.

"Who is this 'goddess' you're speaking of?" Veronika inquired of the unfamiliar large man. I thought these were Truth's archives?

[scorri]

Hoshi

"Yes, I know. There's so much to study. I've focused a good part of my life on alchemy though. There's so much you can do with it." She likely would have continued on for ages but Nika interrupted them. "Oh, uhm, Nyx. She's a minor goddess. She is the one responsible for giving humans alchemy. The control surface designs all come from Nyx's code. In addition, she granted the first alchemists great knowledge of all the elements. These are passed down through mind magic, or you study elements through tendril magic. But, uhm, the Order of Nyx was once part of the Order of Truth. It was a smaller sect but... She is not what some would consider a major goddess, but she has given humanity much."

Lumi

"Well, I think it'd have to be knowledge they don't have in there. Which I'm betting is hard to find." She watched Eli yell out with a raised eyebrow. "Huh, if that works kid, you're a genius."

[Phoenix]

The Throne of Knowledge

Hoshi had answered the question well enough, so Simon simply nodded and continued about his other musings, though he was ever so slightly put off by the term 'minor goddess', it was something he'd gotten use to over the years. He tried to think of it more as a way of differentiating between the four Ursium centric gods and all of the others.

Trying hard to focus on her sense of where the emblem was, Raquel held out her right hand at the doors and closed her eyes. I know you're here somewhere ... I need your power. Come to me ... please ... As Raquel pleaded, the faint glow of the emblem began to encompass her again, more slowly than usual, but it would still build up to the same intensity as normal.

At the same time, the door finally reacted to the group; violet light like that which lit up the engraved runes of the knights raced along the tracks on the doors and once they were all traced, the doors began to move, creating a quick and light tremor at the start. The sheer noise of it all snapped Raquel out of her thoughts. "It's opening ..."

"What caused it?" Shadrak asked, having been focused on the dark star issues until that moment. Sure enough, they had been trying things all at once, and so it wasn't exactly clear whether it was Raquel, Nadya, or Eli ... or some combination there of, or even something else entirely that finally convinced the doors to relent.

Reign was expecting to see nothing but dark energy flooding the inner chamber but it was a different sight entirely. The doors slid farther and farther apart until there was a two and a half meter gap between them, revealing a good deal of the inner chamber. Within the inner chamber, 'the archives', the walls were lined with book shelves reaching from the ground floor to over six meters upwards. Only one ladder could be seen from the outside and even it was heavily obscured by the enormous pile of books at the center of the room. The pile was about three meters tall and four meters in diameter. The archives didn't seem to have any lighting of their own. Instead, a hollow column connecting the ceiling of the outer chamber to the ceiling of the inner chamber appeared to let in light from somewhere else. The light beamed down, highlighting the mountain of books at the center of the archives, as well as its peak, which held the most strange feature of all, a luxurious looking bench, precariously balanced atop everything else.

The woman lying across the bench wore a long black, golden trimmed corset dress with long gloves and thigh length boots, sported purple hair so dark that it bordered on black, and held a small open book in her hand. She spared those at the door a single glance, exposing her fierce golden eyes before seemingly returning to her reading.

Despite not being able to keep the woman's attention for very long, Raquel still felt uncomfortable just standing there in the center like she was, and so she quickly stepped off to the right a little. It almost felt like she couldn't go far enough to escape notice at this point, though.

She must be the one controlling those knights, Shadrak concluded. Something was certainly off about her, though. Aside from the outfit, and those imposing eyes of hers, she looked a lot like the priestess Io. He was beginning to wonder if she'd tricked them and found another route into the archives.

Reign noted a few more differences than Shadrak between this woman and Io, but at this distance, it could just be a trick of the light. As long as no one got hurt, he was glad the doors were finally open, at least. The trouble now was figuring out how to proceed; the woman up on that bench didn't look remotely interested in talking with them right now.

Amon and Malik were equally surprised to see the woman in the archives, who not only bore a strong resemblance to Io, but also managed to go about reading while lying across a bench that was sitting on top of a mountain of books and tomes. They couldn't even come to any conclusions as to how she'd gotten up there in the first place. It must have been a magic trick .... Fizza was impressed, but for different reasons. All these books, all this knowledge, and this woman was reading a light novel of all things. That was just golden complacency, that~

Perhaps the most awestruck of all was Simon. He was both enamored with the ridiculous amount of written works, and the Woman sitting on top of much of it. There were no words he could manage just yet, and his jaw just hung open as he slowly approached the entrance to the archives.

Sense of Power

Desmond sat alone behind the desk in his office, meditating as best he could, but his thoughts wouldn't settle on one thing. He wrestled with the coming conflict his uncle was stirring, as well as the ongoing war with Neviskotia, and most importantly, the Order of Wrath's search for any fragments of the Fire Emblem in the region. He knew of one, one that was somewhere in Europa. Everyday his sense of the world improved, and he knew he would soon be able to pinpoint the artifact, but until then, he had to exercise patience.

Sometime during his meditation, he felt an overwhelming sense of power. To him, it was like a sleeping giant stirring from a long slumber. The feeling forced open his eyes, which now held a fierce orange-yellow glow to them. Desmond's entire body tensed as he realized ... "The emblem is here. It's here after all ... but who has it? Where is it being kept? I know it is close by, I know it."

He quickly rose up from his chair and made for the door. He wasn't set on a plan of action yet, but he'd search the whole building and everyone here if he had to. In either case, he had to gather some subordinates to help in the work first. There was no telling if the emblem was on someone's person, or hidden away somewhere, but he was planning to find out, one way or another. His eyes returned to their normal blue color as he opened the door to his office and quietly left.

Friends of Recent

"Frode, is that you?" Ken greeted, clearly surprised to see the man again so soon.

"Oh! Hey, there," was Jessica's equally surprised greeting. She glanced around before answering. "We're not getting many volunteers in this part of town, but Langley's task force is getting things done with disaster relief just the same. They're scattered all over this area and a little mixed in with the regulars like us. If you really want to help out, I'd grab a pen and paper and start taking down information for city. They're trying to get an overall sense of the damage as well as witness accounts and any other useful information. I suppose you could also help with counseling, but that's no job for amateurs," Jessica added and warned.

"Counseling ... yeah. A lot of people are dead but a lot are missing, too ... it's practically turned into a census. Some of these people are going to be scarred for life," Ken added, a deep grimace on his face. "I know I said I'd desert if they wouldn't let me walk after what happened but ... I-I just couldn't do it ...."

[scorri]

Look at all these books. Oh my goodness, I could live in here. There's so much to learn. There have to be books on alchemy in here somewhere. And I suppose that must be the one controlling the knights. She must be very powerful. ... Wait. Dark magic. In the Order of Truth's archives... No. Hoshi blinked and looked at the woman, looked at Simon, looked back at the woman, and then managed to stutter out, "Uhm... uhm... I... sir, is... Do you know who that is?

[-Cynthia-]

Wonder if all the Fallen just died, Nadya thought to herself as the door opened. She was surprised to see a woman inside, but after fighting animated sword throwers it was difficult to faze her.

"Ah," Veronika responded simply to Hoshi's explanation. She hadn't known that Ursium worshiped gods other than the big four, but religion had never been an area of interest for her. When the door to the archives finally opened, Veronika thought she saw Priestess Io in there a midst all the books. Did she change her clothes and hair and use a back entrance or something? That would be odd...

"Hello," she said to the woman, unsure of what else to say given the uncertainty of her identity.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"I... that is... really? I mean... COME ON!" Gar stammered out, a rare thing for him. "I really shouldn't be surprised at this point but everything seems to want to go to new... somethings." Gar grumbled at everything.

[ReformBlade]

Jericho kept his distance, not out of fear but a general respect for others who were interested and already going inside. He of course would have loved to be able to look into such a wealth of knowledge, but it seemed there would be an impractically small amount of time to really glean anything from what he'd want to know, as he would have had to know before hand of what he wanted to look at but that's neither here nor there. "Did you have anything in there you wanted to check out?" He looked to Zach, gave a shrug, and eventually decided that yeah, maybe he should see what's up here. "If nothing else, there's sure to be a show here..."

[Eail]

As usual it seemed nothing could ever be as simple as they wanted it to be. More trouble was likely on the way, because trouble was always on the way with this group. "Well, I suppose I could use a few books on parenting considering I seem to be the one that's going to be taking care of Phee. Doubt anything like that might be in here though, so while it seems like a wonderful opportunity to learn something, I'll pass." Rolling his neck a bit, Zach continued. "We might as well be prepared for whatever is going to happen next, no way it's over with. Patch me up again if things go south?" He asked. Already moving towards the archive, intent on seeing this through.

Edited March 13, 2014 by Eail

[Toogee]

As far as Eli was concerned, the door opening was all him. He hadn't contributed anything else during the mission, but he did the most important thing: opening the door. He wasn't one to brag, but Eli was doing a tiny jig in his head.

"I'm going to see what this was all for," Eli said to Lumi. He left her to join the others inside the archive.

Inside were more books than most of the city owned. Eli was starting to regret his declaration that he had knowledge to share. What if some other book had what he knew? What were the consequences of giving prior knowledge? He anxiously awaited an answer from the lounging woman, giving a very audible gulp as he stared upon the towers of books.

[Phoenix]

Greetings

"What's goin' on now?" Greta asked, coming up behind Amon without warning. He flinched since he'd lost track of her awhile ago.

"Hrg-urhh ... where were you?" he asked, his eyes darting all over the place and occasionally coming back to her.

"Was pokin' around. This place is like a dungeon. Looks like ya won your way into the archives." Looking amused, she whispered something else to Amon. "They seriously need a better organizer 'cause this lady has no idea what she's doin' hahahah." Amon let out a single 'heh' in response, but was way too nervous to risk anything more. Greta had no idea what they were dealing with. Worse yet, neither did he.

Simon's eyes squinted as he gulped and began to recall the image of his goddess as best he could. Something was off, of course. The goddess he worshiped had crimson eyes and black hair. He would know given the portrait he kept with the rest of his belongings. Still, he found the woman's beauty akin to his own goddess and he wasn't certain why. "I am ... not certain, but ... ... I must learn this woman's name ...."

"Be careful," Shadrak warned those moving closer. He didn't much care for Simon, but if anyone in the group got vaporized, he'd never forgive himself for reacting so slowly. "She's probably the source, and the one who drew in all that dark energy."

"And probably the one who runs the archives," Nadine countered. Sure, she was probably powerful, but if she was going to go on a killing spree, she probably would have started when the door opened, not tossed them an arrogant glance and then gone right back to reading.

Most of the reactions were to be expected, save for maybe Gar's and Simon's, so Raquel focused on the former. "What's wrong?" Okay that sounded smarter before I asked, but I still feel like he knows something I don't.

Oh, Mother!

Raquel froze solid with a strange look on her face. "... wha ...?"

After a moment, the woman on the bench turned the page and held her finger on it before glancing over to Veronika. "Hello," she greeted. Right away, Reign recognized it, though he and several others noted it wasn't quite the same voice Io had. This woman's voice sounded older, more mature, with the faintest bit of strain to it.

[scorri]

Hoshi

"No, but, uhm... I... She's a strong dark magic user if she can control all of those knight. She's in the Order of Truth's archive. I... I know that the two aren't known to be associated anymore but... We were just talking about it too. Is there any chance?" Oh and if it is, she would have heard me talking about minor and major gods and... Oh dear. Maybe it would be better if I was wrong. But if I'm right... There's so much that I could learn!

Erion

Walking in with the rest of the group, Erion raised an eyebrow at the sight of the woman. He supposed that she was probably the one controlling the knights like some of the others had been saying. With a slight shrug, he moved to the side of the group to keep an eye out for any surprises coming from somewhere other than the woman. Since she was where everyone else would likely be focusing, it seemed like the smart thing to do was to focus somewhere else.

Lumi

Following Eli, Lumi just sort of shrugged. It was very impressive she supposed if you were interested in this sort of thing. But unless there was some sort of book on ice magic that she was allowed to take with her, she wasn't especially interested. And since she suspected for some reason that knowledge was allowed in but not allowed out, she figured that she should just observe for now.

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

"Ugh, are we gonna get the full suite of vasili before this is over...?" Gar let out a frustrated sigh at the ridiculous turn of events before them. He looked over at Raquel and tapped the side of his head. "Ask the head-case, he'll explain it better than anyone else can." Gar dusted off his old head songs and began humming along a tune.