Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Revelations

[Script]

Xenia

"Who are you? What is that? How are you gonna help her?" Xenia quickly got her priorities straight when the winged visitor suddenly took something from the guy.

[Phoenix]

Training Room

"Probably the vasilus, again," Evert's partner said, his arms crossed and nodding to himself. He seemed about as certain and uninterested as a man could get all of a sudden.

"You mean the one that showed up here awhile ago ... right around the time the museum in the capital was robbed?" Evert asked, trying to figure out if it was the one he thought it was or some other vasilus.

"That's the one," he said, nodding yet again. So it was 'Lilith', then.

Steinn's gaze narrowed on the man. Maybe they wouldn't have to observe things directly, after all, at least not just yet. "Tell me what you know of her," he said, his tone serious, as if this were some meeting in a war room. He quickly shifted back to his casual tone, however. "I'm genuinely curious."

"Uh, sure ... now where to start ..."

Hall

"Almost there," Reign mused aloud as they closed in on the door. He wasn't sure whether he was going to knock or just carefully open the door but he was running out of time to decide.

Infirmary

"I saw it on her earlier this morning," Jethro began, "Things get really dangerous really quickly when that thing is around. I wanted to keep it out of sight until I figured out what to do with it. Now I've got no idea how I'm going to talk her out of this ..."

"My name is Lilith, and this is a piece of the Fire Emblem," she answered Xenia as she examined the object in question. She glared at Jethro, next. "Raquel was supposed to be guarding this, not you." And then her glare passed on to Ethan. "I don't know exactly how it got here, but I was planning on asking her about it, once I'm inside, so if it was her doing, we'll soon know."

"Inside? What, inside her head?" Jethro asked.

"I'm going to question her and then try to wake her up. If you have concerns that aren't ... medical, then speak up, but I'm not leaving the emblem piece here if she's in no condition to protect it." Of course, if Raquel had summoned it to her side in her sleep, as Lilith suspected, she was a rather capable guardian. The trouble was that she might have done so unwittingly. Not only that, but she'd been robbed soon after getting it and hadn't brought it back to herself since. Perhaps it was a matter of great distance. Of course, if that was the case, then Lilith could simply leave with the emblem now and Raquel could recall it once she was awake again. Problem solved. "I think she summoned it, and if she did it once, she can do it again. That works just fine for me, but leaving it out in the open is not an option. If she doesn't wake up, I'm taking it with me.

There was a firm knock on the door next, and Jethro figured Lilith had attracted some attention on the way here. There were plenty of people who could answer; it didn't have to be him.

Dining Hall

"You can if you want," Erica replied, "but if you'd prefer to wait a moment, Kou and I will be bringing out the rest of the servings. This isn't one of our buffet style breakfasts, so I want to make sure we're not bringing out more food than anyone need right now."

"That reminds me," Ernesta quietly mused to herself. She stepped over to Weyland and knelt down so her words wouldn't get very far from him. "A lot of people in the city lost their homes and are currently staying in shelters in the city. I was wondering if you wouldn't mind me having some of our people bring some of the extra food into the city, preserved, of course."

"It's not going to be some official nonsense is it?" Weyland frowned, speaking normally. He didn't really enjoy being paraded around much and so goodwill events weren't his thing. That wasn't to say he was against building up trust between himself and the general populace, but he preferred to be spontaneous in these things, which Ernesta usually helped with. Something thoroughly planned out in advance and overseen by government officials would just force him to show up in person, and on top of that, it might backfire within certain circles and be labeled a hollow gesture or publicity stunt.

"No, nothing official. I'll handle the details," she promised.

[Snike]

Blake was going to ask Jethro why he hadn't mentioned it earlier, but then there was a knock at the door. Seeing as everyone else was occupied, he opted to open the door, for whoever wanted to come in.

"It's hard to guard something when you acquire it while comatose, apparently . As for what you're planning to do, it's your mind, not mine," Ethan said, frowning. "Have fun with it."

[Script]

Xenia

Lilith? As in, the vaslius of legend?

Fire Emblem? As in, the Fire Emblem of legend?

What in the gods names did she just get involved with? This was the last time she ever accepted a job from Raj!

[Ether]

And as they reached the door, Reign gave it a firm knock, and it was soon opened by Blake. Stepping inside along with him, it seems that no one was dead quite yet, though Lilith didn't seem happy with Jethro... that wasn't a great sign.

***

Well, if Lord Devlinos was letting it go un-pursued for now, so be it. Deciding to lean back against the wall with her scythe still nearby, Annelise listened for the requested explanation.

[Phoenix]

Training Room

"Lilith was one of the vasili that rebelled against the gods during the Legendary Rebellion. She lost and disappeared, but she started off fighting for the gods, not against them. According to the story, she and Obelisk were fighting for control of the Fire Emblem, and Wrath smoked them both and shattered the thing to keep either from getting it."

"Why not just kill them?" Steinn asked, though it was just a thought that had escaped him in his surprise.

"I don't know ... can vasili actually die?" Evert's partner shrugged. "The legends say plenty of vasili were 'destroyed', but that's actually a pretty vague word to use when you're talking about life and death."

Infirmary

"Let's just say I don't trust you people," Lilith replied, glaring at Ethan and Jethro.

Reign stayed quiet at first, trying to piece together what had happened so far. Lilith was clearly in no mood for distractions, so he would definitely have to wait until this was over to do much of anything, but if she was actually going to wake up Raquel, then at least they wouldn't have to leave her here. The only thing he could tell so far was that the nurse was well out of her element and Jethro and the doctor had done something to get on Lilith's bad side.

Lilith moved to Raquel's side and bent down slightly, looking the sleeping girl over. She didn't anticipate any major problems from waking her this way, but she was going to be careful just the same. "This should only take a moment ..."

Edited October 24, 2014 by Phoenix

[Ether]

Well, being here was swell and all, but there wasn't really anything they could do... it was more being among the first to know the outcome of this whole thing... the whole complete powerlessness thing was a little disconcerting but there wasn't anything to be done for it, Faatina noted to herself.

***

Annelise just sat back and listened to the story, for the time being. The basics of it was that it was a Vasilus, which explained a lot, and that, as far as could be told by what these men were saying, it was unlikely to have any sort of connection to Valdimarr... that would have been bad.

[Snike]

It was Faatina and Reign at the door, which made sense, as they were part of the initial conversation. Blake briefly wondered if the others had been told, before being brought back to attention by Lilith saying that it would only take a moment. Well, that meant that this was the moment of truth. Would Raquel wake up?

"The feeling's mutual, considering you just came in here and immediately started dictating things," Ethan said with a sharp tone. He walked past Lilith, to the medical cabinet at the head of the Valcyn girl's bed. After opening it, he continued: "I guess I'd better prepare for her awakening, then."

[Script]

Xenia

"Or worse," Xenia snapped back to sanity to prepare herself in case things got... messy.

[Phoenix]

[spoiler=Musings]Raquel looked up and saw that the world she had started on was still there. Just a just a few miles overhead, there were barren plains where there should have been endless black skies. Somehow she'd expected one of the two worlds to vanish after Cassandra had, but both of them were still here, and so was the dragon. The only thing that had changed, was that the two planets were slowly beginning to drift apart from one another again; the two surfaces had been far closer than a few miles some hours ago, after all.

With nothing better to do, Raquel had past much of the time sitting on the ground and listening as the dragon floated about and spoke to her. His random musings came across like lessons in wielding the emblem, but the dragon was clearly pondering even greater possibilities, things she just couldn't wrap her head around, currently. Of greatest interest to her were the comparisons the dragon had been making to, as far as she could tell, known emblem wielders. According to him, her abilities had manifested as extreme physical distortions, while Cassandra's 'created' things out of seemingly nothing. The dragon was able to dominate the will of others, something she was surprised he would admit at this point. Valdimarr was able to create rather convincing copies of himself.

She supposed the chances of one emblem wielder developing the same abilities as another was extremely low, but she wanted to know why. The dragon never stopped talking, though, so she couldn't find a chance to ask. Once Lilith came to mind, someone the dragon hadn't mentioned, she spoke up. "What about Lilith?"

He turned slightly in her direction, his expression one of shyness or apprehension. "What about her?"

Raquel paused, trying to figure out the best way to word her rephrase her question. She wanted to get to the point, and at the same time, prompt the dragon to do the same. "What's the emblem do for her? I cause distortions ... Cassandra makes things ... you take control of people ... what does she do?"

"She is a vasilus," the dragon replied with a frown. "What can the emblem do for her beyond what it's already doing?" The dragon turned away from her and began pacing around again as only an enormous specter could, apparently leaving Raquel to figure out the rest.

Fortunately, she had learned quite a bit along the way, and she had a theory, a theory that could explain what he was talking about. "Vasili have their own source of power. They really shouldn't need the emblem at all, right? They rely on their power the way I've been relying on the emblem, so I guess the only thing the emblem would do for them is cover up their weaknesses ... like Lilith's curse. But for someone like me, a human, it can do a lot more. I just don't get why our powers are different ..."

"Are any of you the same?" the dragon asked, stopping only to spare her a inquisitive glance.

"Well, one of them is pretty close ... on the surface, at least," Raquel countered. "Still, I get what you're saying. It's just ... I keep thinking, wondering if every person had gone through what you or I did and what those powers might look like. What makes the powers different? Why can't I take control of people or make things out of nothing? Why can't you do what I can? I really wish I knew."

"It will be interesting," the dragon nodded his massive head smoothly, "to discover why."

Finally something else caught Raquel's attention. It was something she should have noticed when it first started, but she was so distracted by what the dragon was saying that she'd utterly failed to notice his unusual behavior. "Why are you moving around like that? You've always just stayed put before. It's ... like you're worrying about something."

Raquel, a familiar voice rang loudly in Raquel's ears. "What was ..." she quickly darted around, trying to find the source of the noise. "That sounded like Lilith ... did you hear it?" The dragon only sighed in response, a deep resonating heave that nearly shook the ground. Raquel, I plan to wake you up in a moment, but first, there's something I want to know. The woman's voice was so loud, she felt as if something was amplifying the sound to agonizing levels. She couldn't shut it out, and covering her ears wouldn't have helped in the slightest. "Shut up," Raquel groaned, grabbing the sides of her head.

Stop fighting me and listen, Lilith's voice demanded. I need to know when and how you lost the emblem and how you got it back. Raquel had been dreading the moment when Lilith would learn that she'd lost her emblem piece, but now the moment was here and it was nothing like what she'd imagined. She had the emblem piece back, now, it was sitting on the ground beside her, but she had it in the real world, too? She'd suspected as much, and yet, she still didn't quite believe it. "Stop talking so loud, please?! I can't think!"

I don't have much of a choice, Raquel. Until you stop trying to force me out ... "I'm NOT," Raquel shouted as she tightly clasped her hands over her ears. Then who is? "I don't knooow ..." But suddenly she did know. It was the her 'friend', and her 'teacher', the dragon head. He'd never spoken of Lilith in a positive light, and had even referred to her as being 'scary'. He had to be the one, trying to force Lilith out. Lilith in response, must have been applying even more strength in order to force her way in. For Raquel, it was simply taking the form of an extremely loud voice that she had no hope of shutting out.

Enough of this ... my questions will have to wait. I'm going to try to wake you up, now, Lilith warned. As soon as the words assailed Raquel, everything began to go dark all around her. All she could clearly make out were the dragon's glowing red eyes. They seemed to be seething with rage, but soon, they too disappeared.

Contention

Lilith took a quick step back, having realized what had been interfering with her attempts to communicate with Raquel. She held her arms back, urging everyone to keep their distance. Only a second later, Raquel began to stir. "Who is that?" There was nothing to see yet, but Lilith had already fought this person in a sense, just trying to get through to Raquel. Then, out of seemingly nothing, a phantom formed. The dragon's face, appeared above Raquel's body like a giant mask and glared furiously down at Lilith. Obelisk ...? Lilith's first thought. "No, you can't be him. You're only hiding behind his face."

Reign had wondered if something bizarre like this would ever happen again, but he had no idea what it could mean. The dragon's expression looked so far beyond 'angry' that he was somewhat surprised the two of them hadn't come to blows, yet. He was just floating there above Raquel as she came to, not moving or anything suspicious. Maybe he couldn't do anything. He did just appear to be an illusion, after all.

Jethro's only concern by this point was Raquel, and with this abomination hovering over her like some kind of nightmarish guard dog, any thought of his own safety left him in an instant. No dragon slayer would have been able to help them deal with this thing. With the dragon's sole focus being Lilith, he quickly moved to the side of the bed near Ethan to try and move his daughter before it noticed anyone else in the room.

"You must have idolized him," Lilith said, a mix of pity and disgust in her tone. The dragon's face trembled with fury, and it seemed to be fading in and out of existence, as if it was trying with all its might to do something and was somehow failing, despite those efforts. Lilith hadn't interpreted the behavior as strain, however, and simply figured her words were wreaking havoc on his mind. They most likely were, but there was far more to it than simply that.

[Script]

Xenia

"In the name of all that is holy what is that!?"

[Snike]

Well, the potentially good news was that Raquel was stirring. The bad news was that the dragon head had manifested itself, and was glaring Lilith. This could go very poorly, very quickly. To that extent, Blake attempted to edge closer to his employer's bed, ready to intervene if something happened.

"Good question," Ethan said, as he grabbed a container of some sort- and nearly dropped it as the dragon head appeared. "Don't think I want to mess with it, though."

[Ether]

And there was the dragon head, back again, and looking extensively pissed off at the world... and Lilith appeared to be goading him on. This could end multiple ways and most of them didn't seem very good... even if it wouldn't help much, Faatina still would have felt more comfortable with her shield and armour... at least it was still a chance of deflecting a blow, even against something like that... more likely in a case like this it would have been useful for not eating shrapnel.

[scorri]

Erion ate his food, worrying that maybe he'd said something dumb. Kat hadn't responded to his last comment, so he decided maybe better to just start talking. "But uh... yeah, haven't been back to home in a while. Could be the town's a lot bigger now. Never know. I uh... yeah, maybe we'll be close enough I can stop off, check on my family and what not." He took another bite of food and then added, "This food is real good, don't you think? Much better than what I had for most of my life. It's a nice break from that."

[-Cynthia-]

"Well, it's good that we have multiple avenues available should the need arise," Veronika commented, hoping that this wouldn't become some sort of incident. "I'll have the pancakes and bacon as well thanks," she added towards the wait staff.

[Phoenix]

Infirmary

"That's ..." Reign couldn't finish the thought, as he really had no idea exactly what the dragon was. He only knew that it had been with Raquel for a good while, now, at least until the battle at the fortress. Perhaps his sudden reappearance had something to do with the fact that they had gone up against that same enemy again just last night. In the end, all he could conclude with was, "That's ... been with her ... til recently ..."

Lilith continued to stare down the phantom. It wasn't until it began its expression began to subside, and it regained its composure, that she spoke again. "I would tell you to leave, but I can see, now ... you can't. You're just a spirit ... a spirit that can control the emblem, but a spirit nonetheless. Are you the one? The one who's been pooling all of that energy into her?" Her eyes narrowed at the dragon and he mirrored the gaze. "What were you going to do with all of that energy, parasite?"

By then, Jethro had begun to try and gently picked Raquel up from the bed, but she resisted, broke free, and wound up on the floor after unsuccessfully trying to leap to her feet. She'd realized too late that she didn't have the energy to stand. Even if she had, she was too disoriented from having just woken up to stand straight. Even as Jethro knelt down to help her up, she glared at Lilith along with the dragon. "Leave him alone," she hissed. Jethro was surprised. Reign, not so much. "Just back off," she demanded again once she was upright.

[Ether]

It was all a bit much for Faatina to take in, which was mostly why she hadn't really moved since the exchange had begun. Raquel seemed weak, but such a thing was to be expected, wasn't it? The awakening seemed to have gone without any major damage, with her still capable of that pushyness she seemed to get at random times.

[Snike]

Well, Jethro had tried to lift Raquel up from her bed, but she resisted and fell to the floor as a result, being helped but by the former afterwards. Any pain that tumble had resulted in didn't show in her expression, as she was immediately livid at Lilith's treatment of the dragon head. While Blake was relieved to see that the merchant girl was conscious and relatively alright, it looked like she was about to argue with Lilith again, so he decided not to interrupt. Mainly so that he wouldn't damn her by association, due to the link.

"Shouldn't you be talking to Miss Valcyn instead of the dragon ghost thing?" Ethan asked, as he examined the container. "I mean, I don't think you came here just to belittle it."

[Snowy_One]

"Would that be bacon as backup in case the pancakes are not delicious, or pancakes as backup in case the bacon is not delicious?" asked Robin, trying her best to smile. It was the first actual attempt at a joke in a while that she could remember and she dearly hoped that, even if she made a fool of herself, Nika would respect the effort.

[-Cynthia-]

"Both at the same time I suppose," Veronika answered Robin, finding the question a little odd. Maybe they don't have meals with multiple dishes in Ohka? That place just gets stranger by the day...

[Snowy_One]

"I guess that joke failed. Ah well. Joke telling. Another thing I am very bad at I suppose."

[-Cynthia-]

Oh, I suppose I should have laughed... Veronika thought guiltily. "There are a lot of things I'm not good at either Robin, but I don't dwell on them. You have your talents, I have mine, Zach has his. If people were perfect, we would have no need of each other," she reminded the archer.

[Snowy_One]

"It is easy for you to say that. You are Veronika, the leader after Raquel in my eyes. He is Zach, a skilled mage. I am Robin. A country bumpkin with no skill beyond shooting stone arrows and who struggles to even talk to an..." Robin stopped as she, quite visibly, bit her own tongue to stop herself. Pain quickly shot through her body, a punishment for what she was saying, as she reminded herself to not be so negative.

"I am sorry. I... My problems with my self esteem are not something you should be saddled with, right?"

[roymbrog]

Katrina had nodded when he questioned her name, but her further silence was due to stuffing food in her mouth more than anything else. She did smile, though. When he continued speaking, she nodded in agreement before swallowing. “I plan to stop home too, if I can,” she said, now that she could speak. “And yeah, the food’s great. Guild back home probably’d be jealous if they knew I was eating this well.”

Actually… It was completely unrelated, but somehow that brought Kat a thought. “Hey, have you ever rode a Wyvern?”

---

Well Veronika didn’t seem to be speaking with Zach anymore… Synthia didn’t think the conversation with Robin was particularly important, so she felt less bad about interrupting it. “Veronika, could I speak with you for a moment?” she called over from her seat. As something of an afterthought, she also called over to Erica, “I’ll have what they already prepared.”

[scorri]

"Can't say I have. Ridden a horse, though I'm not the best at it. Can't imagine what it would be like to fly like that." He hesitated, thinking of Eva before shaking his head and sighing slightly. She'd made her choice, he'd made his. She'd been a fun friend for a day but that was that. No sense in focusing on what couldn't be. "Where'd you get your wyvern, if you don't mind me asking?"