Beneath the Shadows Chapter Two: Chasing Shades

[Nanami Touko]

"Not too hungry myself, but I'll join you downstairs." Raelyn had waved and was off, so Linn made her way down after. First thing she noticed was, the space next to Caslan was open! Thus, she sat herself next to him. It took her a moment to realize that this was because Ernce wasn't out anymore, to which she asked him, "oh, you're alright now, Ernce? What happened, anyway?"

[scorri]

Adari frowned slightly but shrugged. "She's more powerful than most of us could deal with, so no harm in ya trying I suppose. If ya fail though, we'll do what we need ta do." With a sigh, she stretched and stood up. "Well ok. Don't see any reason ta continue this. Yer clearly not any danger ta us right now. I'm goin ta go find Andre. Ya can come with me or stay here. Up ta ya."

Toqua's face turned even brighter red, and started babbling, "I what no, there's nothin like that boss. I wouldn't do anythin to compromise the mission. And nothin, it's not like that and..." he trailed off as Andre walked down the stairs. With a sigh, he stood up. "I'm goin to find Serath. Hopefully she's still ok."

Rayil sighed. Standing up, he went and sat down at the table near the rest of the group. Keeping quiet, he listened in to see what they were talking about.

[Oersted]

Ernce, ignoring Chandra's lack of a response for the moment, turned to see who was speaking to him and found it to be Linn. "Like I said, all the blood in here doesn't sit well with me," Ernce answered her question. 'Although conversation seems to work well enough as a distraction,' he noted to himself. "Anyway where did you go? I thought you were sitting at the table before I passed out."

[Nanami Touko]

"I went to talk with Raelyn for a bit. But now I'm here, glad that you moved. And that you're alright, of course. If you need to rest yourself, the room I was speaking to her in, upstairs, is fairly clean. Probably won't trigger your phobia." He doesn't have to know what we talked about, so that should be that~ Rayil brought himself over, and sat down at a table near the rest of them. Hmm. "Hey! Hello! How are you, Rayil?" Linn asked, cheerfully questioning in his direction.

[Snike]

"Well, I don't see it being likely that I'd be a threat to you," Hale responded, as he looked down into his notes. "And I'll pass. I don't think he is very fond of me."

Before much more could be said, Andre arrived at the bottom of the stairs and headed straight for their table. He stopped a few feet away from the dwelf, then spoke.

"Where did your squad come from?," he asked her, frowning.

"A-Antar. A fortress at the edge of the border," she replied, caught-off guard by how abrupt the question came. "T-that's where they're taking the prisoner."

"I see. Can you lead us there?"

"No! If I do that, I'd... I'd...," the dwelf trailed off, at the thought of what would happen.

"You'd be committing treason,and be executed if captured, right?" Andre said, looking away. "Well, if you don't, we'll just leave you to the Celisans. How would you like that?"

The dwelf immediately fell silent, contemplating her options.

[Rothene]

Finishing his stew, Caslan was about to leave and put his bowl in the kitchen when he noticed Linn sit next to him. Immediately the elf felt the gravitational pull of the seat to be ten times stronger than usual and rooted himself to the spot. So he quietly listened to her start conversations.

Whoa, whoa, whoa...his name is Rayil. Better commit that to memory. I probably haven't spoken to him before, thought the elven mage. An introduction was probably in order, "Greetings Rayil...I pronounced it correctly, right? I'm Caslan and I don't think I've ever spoken to you so far, so how do you do?"

Edited October 19, 2013 by Rothene

[scorri]

Rayil blinked as the two elves started both talking to him. "Oh, uhm, hi. Yes, Rayil. I'm ok. Bit tired, but what else can you expect? Do you guys know if the bosses have figured out our next step?"

[Nanami Touko]

"No, sorry. I think Andre's still dealing with the Dwelf," she said, raising her finger to the conversation happening across the room. "I'm a bit worried for her, I guess. I mean...she tried to kill us, so I wouldn't feel too terrible if something likewise happened to her. But getting interrogated by such a man can't be the best experience. I know I'd be terrified." She shuddered slightly, and shook her head. "Anyway, probably best to just try and rest some until we move. Or you can talk to us some more. If you'd rather rest, though," she said, resting her head on Caslan's shoulder, and getting comfortable, "I think I'll do the same. Wouldn't mind a quick nap..."

[Rothene]

"No idea at all," Caslan replied shrugging as he took out the tome he and Linn looted, picking out the tome concerning offensive applications of light magic.

When Linn rested her head on his shoulder, the elf swayed a bit, due to not being particularly sturdy nor was he expecting that action from her. Still looking through the tome, Caslan suggested, "Maybe you can try creeping up to them and listening in on them. Keep us recruits informed."

Edited October 20, 2013 by Rothene

[Nanami Touko]

"No way. I really am tired, and your shoulder's the most comfortable thing down here. Just shrug me off if it bothers you, going to try and sleep until that happens... Get Ernce to do it, or something..." And with that, she slung her arm around his and pulled herself close enough to rest comfortably, letting out a yawn as she closed her eyes and attempted to get some rest.

Edited October 20, 2013 by I have opinions

[Snike]

"Well?" Andre asked, after he finished his bowl of stew. "Are you going to help us, or face certain death?"

"... What will you do with me, after I help you?" the dwelf asked, staring at the floor.

"If you don't try to betray us, we'll let you go," the leader of her captors said, calmly. "It'll give you a chance, at least, as opposed to giving you over to the Celisans."

"...I guess I have no choice. I'll do it."

"Excellent," the half-dwarf said, as he turned to Adari. "Once everyone's done with their supper, get them ready to head out. We'll be heading to Petra to restock, then the fortress."

And with that said, Harrop made his way out of the inn, and began to look around the village, one last time, for survivors. It was unlikely, but he had to try.

[eclipse]

Raelyn glared at the now-empty stew pot. It wasn't meant to be. It looked like the remainder of the stew went to the bellies of everyone else.

[Oersted]

Still not receiving a reply from Chandra, Ernce felt his hair beginning to dry. While normally he wouldn't of cared he knew that it was stew that was drying up in his hair and he'd rather not deal with that sensation. "Hey, Caslan," Ernce said to draw the elf's attention away from the elf attached to his arm. "Could you use your water magic to pull the stew out of my hair? I'd rather not have sticky hair that smells like stew."

[Rothene]

Putting the tome down, Caslan nudged Linn awake and said, "Linn, just need my arms for a moment. Won't be long." With his shoulders free, the elven mage performed the spell to remove the liquid portion of the stew from Ernce. "Well, that's all I can do for you, might need to shake some of the dried pieces off...or get a competent wind mage to blow them away."

[Nanami Touko]

"Nuh?" Linn groaned out, as her pillow left. She sat herself up and stretched her arm out, waiting for Caslan to finish what he'd wanted to do. "Blow out pieces, what...? Oh...right, he fell into the stew. Hold on..." She held her hand up in the direction of his head, and sighed. "Brace yourself, please." A slightly powerful gale shot off in the direction of his hair. "That should do it. Caslan, arm, please. I was enjoying that nap. I'd like to to continue as long as it can, if it's not too much of an inconvenience."

[Toogee]

"Ugh, what happened?" Ernce asked aloud upon regaining consciousness. His head hurt, his face was wet, his hair was soaked and he felt strangely warm where he was wet. Not the best way to wake up in his opinion but it could've been worse; he could've woken up on the floor meaning either no one noticed him or no one could be bothered to help him. He was glad that at least someone had the decency to pick him up off the ground and put him in a chair. Opening his eyes he was reminded of why he fainted in the first place with all the blood on the walls but he also noticed Chandra in front of him. "Thanks for helping me," he said, figuring that she had been the one that put him in his current seat. As such he decided to tell her why he'd fainted. "For some reason I just can't stand excessive amounts of blood. I've no qualms about killing but I can't stand all the blood. It's kind of pathetic really."

"Yes, Rimsky said as much," Chandra replied, looking him up and down to make sure there weren't any wounds. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you take up this job or that weapon? You must be in dire need to force yourself to face your phobia."

[Ether]

"Oh, gramps? He was a strong, righteous man. After the war was over, he took his earnings as a soldier and bought out a good stretch of land and built the farm with his own hands... wanted to leave something real behind when he found a wife and had kids... that farms pretty much all r'family is anymore... pa was never one for fightin'... still, gramps didn't last too long after I was born, so I don't know 'im as well as I'd like ta." Aina replied, a sombre look on her face as she spoke.

***

There was still something somewhat nervewracking about this whole thing... Elysia was still jittery despite the enemy having been vanquished, and the bloodstained walls weren't exactly the best form of consolation. Due to these facts, and that this group seemed to have it's own share of cliques, which appeared to leave no one to converse with the newcomer and ease her nerves, her food was relatively untouched... she had perhaps eaten a quarter of the bowl at most, while the others appeared to be largely finished.

Still, while her nerves might have been easily cured with conversation, those very same were what kept her glued to the corner table, unsure of what to do.

[Oersted]

"'Brace myself' for what exactly?" Ernce asked before he realized Linn was going to blast whatever food chunks that were still in his hair out of it. "No really you don't need to-" he managed to say before Linn blasted him with wind magic. It wasn't all that strong of a blast but it was enough to make him think he'd lose his balance and fall, most likely due to the fact that he didn't prepare himself like he should have. "Thanks, I guess," he said after the wind stopped, shaking his head to slightly fix his hair.

"Fighting's the only thing that I know how to do," Ernce answered Chandra. "Besides I thought I'd gotten over it but it seems to have resurfaced somehow..." As he said that his eyes instinctively looked at his father's bloodstained shield. "Probably all the blood in here if I'd hazard a guess," he said quickly, hoping Chandra hadn't noticed his eyes move. "Conversation seems to work well enough to distract me from it though."

[Nanami Touko]

Ernce was fine. That was good. She'd been half asleep when she blasted him, so it was good that the force didn't tear his head of, or something like that. Unfortunately though, Linn sighed. Despite wanting to try falling asleep again, there was no way she was going to, even if she got the most comfortable she could. She was weird like that; once woken up she wasn't sleeping for a while. Who's here that I can speak to, to try and wake up...hmm? That rather terrifying girl from before was sitting at the corner table, not speaking to anyone, and seemingly not eating. Here goes.

"Hey there," Linn said, as she'd gotten herself up, and sat down near the girl. "What are you doing, all by yourself over here? We're not scary, really. Here, you can try talking with me. I'm probably the scariest one from over there, so if you can talk to me, you can talk to everyone else. I'm Linn. What did you say your name was?"

Edited October 20, 2013 by I have opinions

[Ether]

"Hmm... it's Elysia... and nothing like that, just... well there seems no need to interrupt you all." The elf replied, as one of the mercenaries, a magic user, as well as another elf, came up to her. She appeared to be one of the more chipper of the group.

[Nanami Touko]

"Oh, trust me," she said, scooching closer, "I could use an interruption. I just woke up, and a good conversation would do my mind some good. Elysia's a nice name. So! What were you up to here, anyway?" More elves, huh? I've got no problem with that~

[Ether]

"Well... I was a part of a small travelling group... mostly merchants and performers... when we made our way towards town, however, we were jumped by the Senians. Everyone else was killed... I got out with only being knocked unconscious... I suppose they thought me dead like the others." Elysia replied, as Linn asked of her reasons for being here.

[Nanami Touko]

"O-Oh... Well, it's good that you made it, right? You can live your life to its fullest, for them. Or, something... You're welcome to come with us, as I'm sure you've been told. Uhm..." This conversation was getting a bit awkward for Linn, but she wasn't one to be defeated so easily! "Was there anything you wanted to ask me? I'm doing all the questioning here and it doesn't seem to be going very well. I'm sorry about that."

[Ether]

"Is that right? Well, I'll thank you for the offer, I suppose." Elysia replied, as the elven mage offered passage with them.

"Nothing in particular, really. Atleast, not yet."

[Nanami Touko]

"I see, right... That's great. I'll just, uh...sit here, if you want to talk, then." I think this is the first time I've had no idea what to say. Wow...