Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Revelations

[Snowy_One]

"Yea. I seem to fail at that every time. Forcing myself into a conversation, making insults, getting shot... I am very bad at making friends." said Robin as she sighed and slumped downwards, almost sinking into the chair as she did so. "I am working on it, but it is not an easy thing to do. Learning it in one night is just not possible. Do I slam someone against the wall and force them to pay attention to me or stand in the corner and hope that they notice me? I do not know still."

[Phoenix]

Training Room

Annelise's reciting of the rules, to Evert's colleague, was so utterly and uncompromisingly formal/militant, that his jaw nearly hit the floor. He was praying to some god or other that she was either joking or just making a comparison.

With one of them already on the verge of panicking, it became easier for Evert to begin to see the humor in the situation. The game wasn't ideal, and actually quite alien to the fallen girl, so it would be fun to see how she handled it. Explaining the rules was one thing, but playing the game was something else entirely ... and that said, something suddenly occurred to him. "Won't the two of you be at a bit of a disadvantage? You're a bigger target with those wings and if we hit your tails, you're still out," he warned.

"I believe it all balances out," Steinn coolly countered. "While the technique is best suited to a naked tail such as myself, a ball can be caught or thrown via the tail. This wouldn't fly in the face of traditional rules as I understand them. As for our wings, they are flexible enough to at least catch a flying object if used in tandem with either each other or other limbs."

"Oooof course they are," Evert groaned out a long reply. 'Balance out' his hide; the way Steinn explained it, he felt like they were suddenly at a huge disadvantage when only moments earlier he'd been worried the two winged players would be too easy to hit and out.

Kitchen

Erica had returned with Katrina's water in time to see one of the helpers throwing together a plate for Erion with frightening accuracy. She had never been sure if it was simply a coincidence or if the kigenese workers among the staff were just naturally talented and well practiced. "Here you are," she said, offering the glass to Katrina.

Meanwhile, the helper set the plate down and headed back into the kitchen. He returned with a glass of water much quicker than Erica had, despite not looking to be in much of a hurry. He offered them both to Erion as soon as he returned.

Stables

Deciding to wait until they were out of the stables to actually mount up, Reign began by leading Sandrock out of her stall by her reins. He could almost feel Riley's gaze on him as he made off with his companion again. He couldn't be happy about nearly always being left behind like this. With no wagon to use he would likely be left at the estate during the mission in Ursentius, too, even though Sandrock would most likely be going. While Reign had a bit of sympathy for the lonely stallion, it wasn't enough for him to even consider taking the horse with them without Raquel around.

Once they were outside, and the nomad had plenty of sky above him, he mounted up. "I guess we'll just head out through the main gate and then head into town." As he pulled ahead to take the lead, he spotted two figures in the distance. He instantly recognized both of them, but wasn't sure what they were doing over there. "Okay, this might be something worth looking into. Let's see what they're talking about."

Outside

"There's no time for her to be in a coma," Lilith said, looking almost offended. She'd wished she hadn't had to spend most of her life in a similar state, but she couldn't change that now. "I ... may be able to wake her," she said hesitantly. This wasn't something she had a lot of experience with. She knew if she was too forceful, she could do far more harm than good. Still, waiting for the girl to come to didn't make sense to her. She couldn't very well guard the emblem or herself while she was in such a state.

[Ether]

"Lord Devlinos, one of the humans appears to have broken." Annelise noted, as she began looking over the man who had quite swiftly shut down after she had finished speaking... how peculiar.

***

"I suppose we should, shouldn't we...? I always feel so tense when she's around, but nothing for it, I suppose." Faatina replied with a sigh, as Reign pointed out they should probably check to see what Blake and Lilith were talking about.

[Snike]

"She nearly died last night, so we're lucky to some extent that it is just a coma," Blake said, before Lilith said that she might be able to wake Raquel up. Wait, what? "Are you sure?" The cathedral could wait.

[Phoenix]

Training Room

"I'm fine," the man quickly said, shaking off the surprise.

"How are we dividing teams?" Evert said next, "Humans versus Fallen or one of each per team?" He didn't have to hear an answer from Steinn; he could tell just by looking at the Fallen Prince that he didn't have a strong preference. He probably saw any arrangement as a good learning opportunity for his bodyguard.

"Maybe we should try a different game, or just get in some regular workouts," the other one suggested.

Outside

"As sure as I can be before actually seeing her," Lilith answered vaguely. She only spared Faatina and Reign a glance as they approached. "It wouldn't be like our first encounter, when she woke me up--I wont' be relying on the emblem, but I should be able to wake her."

"Is that safe?" Reign asked, riding up on Sandrock.

"As anything else involving mind magic," she admitted. That wasn't too reassuring for Reign, but leaving Raquel here and going off to Ursentius wouldn't have sat well with her, he knew. He sincerely doubted she would want Lilith in her head, either. Which she would prefer more, being left behind temporarily, or having her mind invaded and being forcefully woken up, he wasn't sure.

[Ether]

"Whatever Lord Devlinos thinks is best." Annelise replied, looking over the human man again to make sure there wasn't any noticeable lasting damage.

***

That was a vague answer if Faatina had ever heard one... even more so in her case because she had basically no knowledge about mind magic whatsoever... at least, Reign, the resident mage, didn't seem overly troubled by the response... it was probably okay.

"I didn't know that was doable..."

[roymbrog]

“Hmm… I guess that’s relevant.” Synthia wrote Gytha’s suggestions down. “…I’ll probably talk over pay with them as well,” she said, and sighed. She would really rather not go through any of this if they could help it. It was true some of their most loyal group members were mercenaries, but the mage attributed that more to luck than the profession itself.

“I really hope we don’t have to hire anyone,” she said, breaking her short, self-imposed silence. “I get the feeling no one’s going to listen to my concerns on candidates. Maybe I should talk to Veronika and Blake about this.”

---

Well she had come for just water, but if the food was ready there was no way Katrina was turning that down. “Yeah, a plate would be great,” she started to say before Erion came over, but ended up saying it after due to… minor distractions. A good chunk of which that she was being spoken to.

“Oh trust me, I know about hangovers. It’s just been a while,” she told him, then smirked slightly. “I take it you’re in the same situation I am?”

When Erica returned with the water, Katrina took the glass with a quick ‘thanks’ and downed half of it. “…Yeah, I definitely needed that. Hey, can I have a plate of what he’s having, too?” she asked, jerking a thumb at Erion.

[scorri]

He smirked slightly at her but took a few seconds to reply, having been distracted by his food and water arriving. "Well..." He gave her a once over and grinned even wider, "I don't know if I'd say exactly the same. I've a bit of a headache, but I suspect you're slightly worse off than me. Of course, I doubt you were stuck in a tree for a few hours because you didn't trust yourself to get down without falling so... It evens out I guess." Picking up his plate and glass, he took a sip of the water and nodded. "This water should set me right though."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika nodded at Arietta and made her way to the dining hall, where food had still not been served. For an estate, the service here is rather poor...maybe it's an Ursian thing, she thought to herself. She sat down and waited- it would be nice to get some professionally made meals before the usual diet of trail rations and whatever Robin could scrounge up.

Edited October 17, 2014 by -Cynthia-

[Mercakete]

Gytha frowned a little at Synthia's words, uncertain and even a little uneasy. "Why Blake?" she asked, "Veronika's th' first mate, aye, but Blake's just talkative, not one o' th' senior staff."

[Snike]

So that was the catch- mind magic would have to be involved. Somehow, Blake doubted that Raquel would want to have her mind invaded. Especially not by Lilith, even if it was to wake her up. However, at the same time, she would have to be left behind otherwise...

"I'm not so comfortable with the mind magic aspect, admittedly," Blake said, "But it isn't my place to decide on it. If anyone could, it'd be Jethro, and he's with her right now anyways. Since I doubt you'll be leaving without going over to see her, regardless, I can lead you there."

[roymbrog]

Synthia had been frowning at the table, but looked at Gytha questioningly after the mariner’s reaction. “Because he’s got a good head on his shoulders and he’s proven himself trustworthy, at least I think so,” she answered. She hadn’t really considered his lack of authority primarily because she was planning to ask for advice rather than an enforcement of her decisions. Though, the latter might also be an issue… “Technically I have more authority than him in matters, but more people will listen if concerns come from him rather than me,” the mage added.

---

Katrina’s smirk grew quite a bit. “Oooh, defeated by a tree. Yeah, that definitely evens us out,” she said, chuckling. When she got her food, she’d go sit with him, Kat decided. They could be headache buddies. Or, well… maybe she should ask first. “Mind if I come sit with you? Suffering’s better done in company.”

[scorri]

"In my defense, it was a very tricky tree. Also a very comfortable tree. So I maybe didn't try very hard to get down." He gave a small chuckle of his own. When she asked if she could sit with him, he smiled warmly at her. "Of course! I always welcome company, especially from those who are suffering like me."

[Mercakete]

"I s'pose it's that that bothers me," Gytha replied somewhat worriedly, "If there's no authorita structure, people will just do whate'er he 'r she wants. Ye can ask anaone ye like fer advice, a'course. It's just no wonder e'eryone's actin' th' way they are. N' out at sea, ye can't have that. If someone doesn't support th' chain o' command -- by steppin' out o' line n' actin' like he 'r she's in authorita, 'r not doin' what th' senior staff tell 'em -- then it can mean th' difference b'tween founderin' n' sailin'. It's even that way aboard pirate ships. Bein' unified is dangerous fer yer enemies, n' bein' disunified is dangerous fer yer crew... Maybe land folk can afford it, but it's just too dangerous out at sea fer anathin' else. That's why mutineers're killed."

[Eail]

"Welcome back Nika, manage to find Reign and Faatina?" Zach asked, flipping through another page of his notebook. He sort of figured they'd actually have food by now... surely the chefs didn't actually start until someone went and told them to.

[-Cynthia-]

"Yes I did- Reign has some business to take care of, but they should be able to catch up with us before we reach Ursentius. That will mean most of us will be going- hopefully that will be enough," Veronika responded to Zach.

[Eail]

"Good, good, it'll be nice to have them along... we need everyone we can get to properly pull this off." Zach replied.

Giving a sigh, the mage replaced his small bookmark and closed the notebook he'd been re-reading. Looking at the woman it seemed evident just how tired he really was, either that or stress.

"I've been trying to come up with a proper plan but... I've got no experience with proper espionage or a stealth mission. Closest I ever came to was the... manse incident that I roped you all into." Bad memories still there.

"Warfare, military tactics, troop positioning. I can do all of that, enough books and lessons from Mother have made me competent at the very least, but all of this tracking down and sneaking business has me stuck."

Relaxing in his chair, Zach continued "Reminds me, still need to have a discussion together after breakfast about what I've come up with, see if you like any of it or not."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika wondered how competent Zach was at military tactics given his lack of experience, but she fared no better in that regard so it would be rather rude to bring it up. "Hopefully whichever one of Weyland's people we're meeting can give us some more direction. Zero-Five? Zero-Seven? I can't really keep them straight," she admitted.

"Raphael is Zero-Five, Craig is Zero-Two. It's a pretty easy system once you get used to it," Connor interjected.

"I'm sure," Veronika said, finding the code names rather eccentric for a business. "So what were you planning- this Lois Gizem operation or something else?" she asked Zach.

[Eail]

"Our Neviskotia venture that's going to be starting after this mission is over. Like I said earlier before Weyland started, spent most of the night working on things and trying to properly figure out what we need to do... properly planning a route... hell how we're going to easily get out of Ursium for one. I mean, most of it is just theory at the moment, so, who knows how much we might end up using." Zach said, also somewhat not entirely sure about the whole code name thing

"As for the Lois Gizem problem, that is something I was hoping we could work on together, it's always easier to plan something out when you've got someone to bounce ideas off of after all, no?"

[Phoenix]

Training Room

"If you've got the balls, then let's play the game," Steinn said to the two men.

Evert resisted a chuckle, unsure of whether Steinn's wording was intentional or not. "Alright, so ... teams," he said, straightening up and walking toward the center of the room. "You two against us or should I work with one of you?" Meanwhile, his colleague went to fetch the balls they would be using. They weren't particularly large and not the sort that would bounce completely harmlessly off of someone when thrown with the kind of force needed to catch someone by surprise. What they lacked in appearance, they made up for in how easy they were to hold in and throw using a single hand. He had nine of them total, meaning it would be quite easy for him and the competition to keep themselves well stocked during the game.

"We'll be doing more than one round unless someone is injured," Steinn noted, "so for the first round, Annelise and I will be on the same team. After that, we'll let you two decide."

The ball man set the balls down for a moment and went back over to the corner to fetch something else they would need, something to mark the boundary for each side. What he came back with was a long black strip of what seemed to be some kind of leather and began carefully laying it down, going from the northern half of the room down to the door. Once it was down, he warned, "try not to step on this," and then began laying out the balls on top of it, being careful as he did.

Kitchen

"Of course," the worker nodded, and got to work expertly tossing together another plate in just a few seconds. He presented the plate of sausage, scrambled eggs, and toast to her as soon as he was done.

"Are the others hungry? If so tell them to ... oh never mind. We've made enough for now so I'll just go out there and see if anyone wants anything and then bring it to them. You can help me, right?" she said to the worker. He nodded and turned to fetch a few more plates.

Outside

"It's not something any healer would recommend, but if a light infusion doesn't bring someone to, then ..." Reign ended the thought there, shrugging depressingly. There was also Raquel's overall health to consider. She'd nearly died and needed her rest. Wake her up prematurely, and she would likely be a sluggish mess for the next few days.

"Jethro?" Lilith repeated the name, trying to find a face to go with it. She decided it was better to just see the man and hear what he had to say, though she wasn't sure she really cared what his opinion was. If Raquel was going to be sitting around in a coma, she wasn't going to be much of a guardian. Lilith considered leaving with the emblem piece she sensed here if she got too much resistance. "I'll go find him, then. I know the way for the most part," she said. She began heading for the main entrance again.

Reign winced, realizing he had to choose between sticking around a little longer to see how this turned out, delaying his errands, or go now despite the latest development. The latter wouldn't leave him guiltless, if only because she'd just gotten out of a life or death situation. In the end, Reign decided to delay the trip. The delay did give him an idea, though, one he'd only just now considered. He'd just assumed that Nyx was the only one who could help him but that wasn't necessarily true. Lilith, if he could somehow convince her, might have the power to do something about his damaged eye.

He turned to Faatina. "We should probably stick around just a little longer; this is important." It might also save me some time but I won't get my hopes up.

[-Cynthia-]

"I was pretty much planning on going in, killing whoever's holding her, and getting out before the tanks showed up," Veronika said to Zach, shrugging. "Not a very elaborate plan, but given our information that's all I have at the moment. I suppose we should worry about them using Lois as a hostage- maybe Robin can snipe them or something," she wondered aloud.

[Ether]

It seems the battlefield was being set up, and the first round would soon begin.

"<Lord Devlinos, did you have a particular strategy in mind?>" She noted to the Kestrelli prince in their native tongue, as he had more knowledge of this game, it would be best to follow any tactics he had come up with.

***

"Yeah, that's true. We'll have a bit less time, but we should see what happens, here." Faatina replied, as Reign suggested they hold back for a moment before departing to see the outcome of this.

[Eail]

"Oh don't get me wrong, that's one of the steps, I don't think we can avoid it. The only problem is actually finding them, bribery would likely be the best way to go about that... or torture.... but we really don't have a clue of who we could even go after for that." Zach mused. "As for Robin, she still has that problem with killing, and we really can't afford to let that get in the way. Reign and I could possibly do something of a similar nature with our magic, though I honestly don't know how accurate he might be after losing his eye."

[Snike]

"Her father," Blake said, as he followed Lilith back to the main entrance. If the vasilus did wake Raquel up, there would be little to no need for him to head to the cathedral. If not, well, there was no harm in at least observing the attempt.

[Snowy_One]

"Zach. I know I dislike killing, but I swore to protect Raquel, and I intend to hold that oath... even if I can not help but feel distraught by it at times. If sniping someone with intent to kill is required, I will do so. I have done my best to avoid it until now, but if I must, my only question would be where I could get arrows more focused on piercing a target than cutting them. My arrows are great for leaving long, deep, gashes but not so good at breaking bone. As for your magic, do not take this the wrong way, but I do not think using a spell that could potentially hit the target by accident would be wise, especially since a thunder spell can hit two bodies in contact at once. Besides... It is nice to finally be considered of some use."