Return of the Emblem Chapter Thirteen: Flight

[Phoenix]

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Amon could see some vague similarities between Aisha and Nyx, and found he wouldn't put it past the former to punish someone for speaking out against her in her own throne room. Thinking about it, he had to wonder what self respecting royal wouldn't under those circumstances. "I hadn't met any other vasili until after leaving home for the first time."

Since Lumi filled in the relevant bits for Alphonse, and Angelica had given her everything she needed to secure her personal goods, Greta decided to focus on her own to-do list. She wasn't giving any estimates on how long they would be doing any given thing; depending on how hectic things were in the city, as well as the prices for various things she needed, her estimate could easily be off by several hours. "Okay, y'all ready to go? We're burnin' daylight."

[-Cynthia-]

"Avians are taught history regardless of their role- perhaps the shorter lifespan of humans makes their education more focused," Liam postulated. "Is it true that Lady Aisha is revered as a goddess where you're from? How she is viewed among Rexians was never entirely clear to me," he asked Amon, turning towards him.

[Phoenix]

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"By Sancturans at least," Amon nodded.

"A lot of people around here believe Aisha's a family of sorceresses going back all the way to ancient times," Glen chimed in from the driver's seat. Something of mild interest to him seemed to have come up, or at least something he could comment on. "That was sort of the rationalization for everything going on down there, but for some reason, it just makes more sense that she'd be a vasilus."

"She has a lot of maidens, but she is real," Amon replied, "not a bunch of people pretending to all be the same person."

[Nanami Touko]

"Maybe, but I think it was more just what I was interested in-- or my parents handing down what they were interested in," she told Liam, on the subject of life spans. That might've had something to do with it, or maybe these things just weren't as wide spread as Liam thought. She didn't know, either way. "I hope Lady Aisha is just one person. That whole deal with Io and Nyx was far more confusing than necessary."

Had Lumi read her mind? Tia smiled a bit, accepting the pat, and looking down. Whatever the case, she'd ask about it when they were all done, here.

[Toogee]

Inside the wagon, Elliot huffed. Miss June wasn’t going to take him into the city and he was quite upset. At least the dog was keeping him company. With a good amount of the group outside the wagon, Elrey had sprawled out in one of the empty spaces and Elliot was scratching his belly.

Jam was fairly satisfied with her rain dance session (even if the sky didn't open up), so she decided to take a break. While many within the group were preparing to head into town, the dancer was taking refuge inside the wagon. She found that she wasn't the only one: Elrey had taken up a sizable portion of the floor space, while their latest avian passenger was delivering belly rubs. They hadn't formally met; seemed as good a time as any for intros.

"Heh, it's as if he never left," Jam commented about Elrey's relaxed position. She joined them on the floor and started scratching Elrey's chin.

"I'm Jam. I'm not sure I caught yours," she said to Elliot. He seemed like he could use some cheering up.

[Eail]

"Yeah yeah I'm coming." Alphonse said as he stood up and stretched out, cracking his back a bit "Let's get this show on the road, like she said, just wasting daylight at this point."

[roymbrog]

After leaving Phyllis with Nadya, Valter began heading off towards the city entrance.

---

Elrey leaned into Jam’s touch. The dog was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Meanwhile Elliot had looked up when Jam entered, only to stare back at the ground as he sulked. He didn’t turn his attention to her again till she spoke to him. “My name is Elliot,” he said. Then, with a tilt of his head, “How long was the doggie missing? Did he run away?”

[Phoenix]

Shopping Team

With the help she could scrounge up, Greta headed into town. She was interested in all the other merchants hanging around the northern entrance. Either the city was getting a bit cramped or the business was plenty good right out here. She decided to take care of the first bit of business by getting some simple things she knew would always be in at least moderate demand, elixirs. She only bought two crates worth before moving on, though. The biggest things she wanted to get while she was here were a wagon and a horse to draw it, but that was on the expensive side of things, and she'd simply put it off until they reached the next town if she couldn't find a deal here in Ursaea.

Greta had a sinking feeling she'd have to start stocking and selling weapons to really make Nadya's investment worthwhile in the short term, but she could at least put that off until she had a wagon to haul those heavier goods in. For now they only had a few options for moving around anything heavier than relatively small crates. Next on her personal shopping list were antidotes, recipes for said antidotes, and a some difficult to find seeds. The antidotes were for any toxins that needed treating, while the recipes were for replacements, as the originals would originally lose their potency. Lastly, the seeds were to grow their own herbs if by some miracle they found themselves in one place for more than a couple of weeks.

She managed to find the elixirs, antidotes, and a few other potions while still outside Ursaea proper, but the bit of shopping they had already done brought them very close to the city's northern gate, close enough for her to want to have someone check the wanted signs for any familiar faces. She didn't bring it up right away, though, as something else crossed her mind while she was eyeing shop that seemed to have some useful tonics. I'm going to have to head down to make sure they hang that Lagar bastard before we leave. I hope nothin' holds me up ... "Hey, can someone go check the wanted posts?" She left it at that, just in case anyone else was eavesdropping on them.

Tree Hugger Team

After the others left, Amon sat down, leaning against the front right wheel of the wagon for support. There wasn't much to do out here, but there would be far too much to do if they went into the city and were fingered for the Europa incident. He wasn't bored, however; there were other things on his mind, right now. He was trying once again to find meaning in the seemingly infinite flashes of gold light and vague impressions. After awhile, he began to fear he wouldn't be able to make sense of any of it until he himself was holding an emblem piece. He could almost feel the emblem piece sitting there inside the wagon, though he wasn't sure if it was something real or just his knowledge of Joanna being in possession of it at the moment. Either way, it wasn't what he personally wanted; it was just this sort of thing he was hoping to avoid when he'd inquired about the emblem. Maybe asking for knowledge and experience about this particular enigma wasn't such a good idea, after all ...

Haythem was gone which left Amon and Fizza, Malik noted to himself. He thought about talking to Joanna, but after seeing that she was sleeping ... meditating? He couldn't tell which, but after seeing that, and figuring her bodyguard wouldn't appreciate his way of getting to know others, he resigned himself to keeping an eye on the perimeter. He supposed it didn't really matter, anyway. She'd promised to help them get their own emblem piece in due time, and that was all he really needed from her. There was little point in speaking to her at all until the time came for her to honor their agreement.

Shadrak

Shadrak had grown tired of looking for a vague semblance of himself among the dozens of wanted signs posted around the city gates and paid a visit to what he mistook for a small library up close. It was actually a large book store, and he would have cursed himself for the obvious mistake if it hadn't turned out to be a good choice. Legitimate research into the arcane had one serious issue that would hamper his progress, in that it wasn't well preserved. Random lore on the other hand was rampant and though vague, convoluted, and often inaccurate, he figured he had enough experience with the vasili to be able to glean some truth and put the pieces together. He didn't have enough coin on him to purchase all the books he wanted, however, so he wound up making a trade, a trade he was surprised worked out. The store owner was left with the blasting rod Shadrak had taken from the wrathite swordsman, and Shadrak left the bookstore with the weapon's worth in books.

Outside the store, people everywhere seemed rather busy. Many were clearly workers, being paid to move sellers' stock in and out of the buildings. Others were just passing through with their valuables or merchandise. About all Shadrak could tell for certain was that he was going to have an even harder time crossing busy streets like these now that he was carrying four reasonably heavy books, two beneath each arm. For now he kept to the side of the street he was already on while he searched for a place to stop, rest, and browse one of the books a bit deeper.

[scorri]

Lumi nodded. "I can go check. Though... Tia, do you mind watching Star while I do? He'll behave, don't worry." She handed the reins to the smaller girl before heading over to the wanted posters.

Star stared at the small human that he'd been given too for a few seconds before leaning down and sniffing her to see if there were any tasty crunchy orange treats on her. Sadly, while her hair looked like it could be a red crunchy treat, he didn't smell any. He let out a disappointed huff, before lifting his head back up.

[Nanami Touko]

Eva decided to rest her head against the wagon as everyone went off to do their shopping, in town. She hummed an old Neviskotian tune to herself, as she rested, occasionally stealing glances over at Angelica, and then to Amon, wondering what people were thinking. They were the only people, other than Shadrak, that she'd really spoken to at length, even if Amon was basically just playing twenty questions. With a bit of a sigh, she closed her eyes, and kept humming to herself.

Meanwhile, in town, Tia was thrust into responsibility, as reigns were handed to her. Reigns containing a rather terrifying beast. "N-Nice pegasus..." she said, as she looked up at it. Then it bent over and looked at her, and she jumped a bit. Then it stared at her hair. This was not the best experience. "My h-hair isn't food..." Luckily, Star left her alone moments after, letting her sigh, and loosen her grip on the reigns. She wasn't about to latch on if the pegasus started to run away. Being dragged was not on her schedule.

[Snike]

Pete decided to pass the time by slowly polishing his axe. He kept his head down while he worked, so he couldn't be identified by any other travelers who knew about the cathedral incident. Hopefully the others would return soon, so that this wouldn't be necessary for much longer.

[Toogee]

Elrey leaned into Jam’s touch. The dog was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Meanwhile Elliot had looked up when Jam entered, only to stare back at the ground as he sulked. He didn’t turn his attention to her again till she spoke to him. “My name is Elliot,” he said. Then, with a tilt of his head, “How long was the doggie missing? Did he run away?”

"He was scared off during one of our battles," Jam replied. She didn't want to venture into the details of the dragon that tore her group apart. It brought up too many bad memories.

"Gosh, it's been so long...I think. Between the mansion, the ball, and the invasion, I'm not sure how much time has passed. One thing I can tell you about our group: it never stays dull for very long. You'll have a couple of stories to tell before we part ways."

Jam's hand moved behind Elrey's ear, massaging the area as she spoke.

[Ether]

Well, the group going into town had left already, so all that was left on that front was to wait for them. At the very least, with some time to spare this time around, Angelica decided to get some exercise of her own in. Since she didn't really have much in the way of equipment aside from using a bundle of some sort of supplies as weights, the adept decided to go with callisthenics for the time being, though before that, she would begin with doing some light stretching.

Changing quickly in preparation, to a small pair of shorts and a light halter-necked tank top to take advantage of the natural breeze and not to get too sweaty, Angelica began doing her stretches a little ways off from the wagon. Not really separate by any means, so much as far enough out of the way so that if anyone got in the way and accidentally got hit, it would be their own fault and not hers.

[Eail]

Since the girl was going to check the wanted posters, that left Alphonse standing by the pegasus, eyeing the creature and wondering when he might actually end up getting his jaw kicked off. "...sup."

On the more serious side of things, he had an idea of why Greta had asked that question "You wanted to see if he actually was brought in after all, right?"

[Phoenix]

A Matter of Efficiency

"Yeah, but I'm kinda hopin' there's still a sign up for'em, either way," Greta replied thoughtfully. "See, if they're slow takin'em down then they're probably almost as slow puttin'em up." The rest was self explanatory, she felt, and a decent boon to the group, especially since they might be able to pass through Ursaea without incident if some of their faces weren't already up for public viewing.

[scorri]

Lumi quickly glanced over the board. It seemed like there were a lot of people on it, including the man she'd heard about from the group when she'd returned, but no one from their group specifically. With a grin, she bounced back to the group. "Looks like that guy that you were all talking about is on there, but no one else I recognized. So I guess that means he hasn't been put to trial yet or whatever. Otherwise they would have taken his poster down, right?"

[GoD]

As the busy streets bustled here and there, a lilac-haired man made his way through those same streets. The man in question, with messy lilac hair, blue eyes and a seemingly perpetual frown on his face was carrying a huge backpack strapped to his back; the bag filled to the brim, though all that could be heard from outside was and odd *clunk* sound, mostly of various pieces of armor. He was well-built with a black shirt covering his upper body and a white jacket that reached to his waist (Hah! Take that long coats!) covering his arms, and black slacks that suited the man quite well.

In any case, the man was walking through a quite busy street filled with a variety of people. The man lazily looked at the various types of people: soldiers, women, men and even a couple of children were conducting their business; watching them scurrying about was quite interesting, even if the frown never left his face.

"Honestly, was there not an... attack on this city? And these people just soldier on like nothing ever happened." The man, known as Ingret gave an audible sigh, and shook his head, looking at the path in front of him, but not really paying attention as he let his mind wander.

" Really though I should not be so harsh on them. Any normal person would like a chance to forget all of the bad that has happened in their lives, and even if they wished to wallow in their own self-pity, time does not grant them that luxury. They must work to sustain their livelihood, regardless of what happens now. ...I'm quite jealous of these people,, they don't have to deal with the whims of a crazed woman, ". The man's frown only deepened as he took out what appeared to be a letter filled to the brim with doodles of inconsequential value. In the middle of the front of said letter, written in huge common letters, was the message [To Raquel Valcyn/ Ucollas].

Ingret sighed once more, this time it sounded like he was exasperated, and looked at the letter intently, only giving some vague attention as to where he was going. "That woman, Chelsea, is so troublesome. We finally meet after a while, and rather than be tired, she just rants on and on about this mercenary group she was traveling with. She found some interesting people and she talked quite at length about them and her adventures... well her adventures whenever she was not lazing about. Apparently she found her childhood friend, and they were doing something incredibly important. Something about the Fire Emblem and a fish man chasing after them. Then when she's done telling me her story and she heads back to the children, she dumps some money on my hands and tells me to go work for them, claiming that I was not doing anything useful. Sometimes I wonder if she even cares about what others are say-".

The lilac-haired man would have continued speaking to himself in his own mind, however in just one moment where his eyes were left to wander,he failed to notice someone, a young man in robes with a hood concealing his face. With his own carelessness to blame, Ing accidentally crashed into the boy hard, Ingret did not fall down, but he did drop his letter next to the young man.

Edited December 7, 2014 by GoD

[Phoenix]

Chance/Anew

Shadrak didn't even bother trying to keep a grip on his books; he knew full well that if he was already tumbling down, managing to keep his grip on them wouldn't do him any good. In fact, they could have very well made the situation worse depending on how he landed. Fortunately, his rear end took the brunt of the fall, and none of the books wound up in the street or on some particularly filthy surface. "Could you kindly watch where you're going?" he said, an obvious edge to his voice.

Shadrak quickly began trying to gather up his books. One of them had the man's letter pinned beneath it. For a moment, Shadrak thought it might have come from inside one of his books. He quickly dismissed the idea ... but not before stealing a glance at the letter itself. Raquel? And me? He stood up, all four books carefully balanced underneath one arm, and held up the letter with the other. "Hey, who wrote this?"

[GoD]

Neeeeeeerd

Ingret simply stared as the young man, fell down, not even wincing when his ass hit the ground, or when the hooded boy told him off. The wandering knight supposed he deserved much more, but was quite thankful that the young man had the good sense to not go around screaming at the top of his lungs. Reminded him of the time he was escorting a noble and he accidentally stepped on his toe; after that the noble gave quite a bit of verbal abuse to him on the rest of the trip.

Ingret rapidly shook his head from side to side, in order to quell his wandering mind. "This is not the time to be dozing off and remembering the past, I need to help-". Unfortunately he was far too late to help, as the boy had already gotten his books and he was holding Chelsea's letter. Ingret decided that this was no longer the time to remain silent and began to speak with an regular common, but hiding his Skotian dialect. After all, if he misspoke and talked in his normal Skotian tone, he would probably be persecuted by the townspeople, or worse.

"....My apologies young man. I was lost in thought and not paying attention to my surroundings. You have my sincerest apologies for any bodily harm you might have sustained."- Ingret told the young man, as the lilac knight locked eyes with the boy. "As for that letter... well I guess there's no harm in me speaking about it. I was told by a complete airhead named Chelsea, that I should go and protect the people on that letter. Well she didn't specify which I should place more priority on. In any case, do you happen to know the whereabouts of those people?"

Edited December 7, 2014 by GoD

[Ether]

Well, that was enough, as far as stretches were concerned. Sighing and taking a drink of water, Angelica began some light calisthenics now that she had finished her stretches. The camp seemed to be lacking in any sort of activity, really... they finally had some time off the road and they weren't going to make use of it at all?

[Nanami Touko]

Tia let out an audible sigh as Lumi came back, quickly thrusting the reins to the dangerous animal back at her. "Here. Star didn't murder anyone. And I'm still alive, so I guess that wasn't awful, but, let's not let me have to try and restrain animals bigger than me in the future." She tried to giggle, but it didn't happen. Instead, she just stood there, reins held out, ready to get away from this specific responsibility and find something to do in this town.

Eva continued to hum to herself, deciding that her sword needed some attention, pulling it and a small cloth out. She'd shine it up a bit, and if there were any dents, she'd fetch herself a whetstone from Sasha's pouches and clean it up. At least she had a pretty nice show right now, with all the bending Angelica was doing. Maybe this break was going to be better than she thought, but at the same time, the sooner they got to Kigen (and she could go into a town without risk of being spotted as a convict), the better.

Edited December 7, 2014 by I have opinions

[scorri]

Lumi chuckled and took the reins. "Naw, don't worry. Star's a big softie, he'd never hurt anyone, especially not someone I'd given him to like that. Might have tried to get you to give him a treat, but that's all. Speaking of..." She reached into her pocket and pulled out an apple she'd been carrying around for him. Star immediately brightened, grabbing the red crunchy treat from her hand and making it disappear in the manner of seconds. He set about sniffing her up and down hoping for another one before she lightly whapped him on his head. "No more treats for now, ok?" He let out a disappointed huff before raising his head back up. Oh well. Maybe later there would be delicious crunchy orange treats. Those were his favorite.

[-Cynthia-]

"Well, that's a good sign. Sometimes guards keep to themselves rather than sharin' everything with the public though," Nadya pointed out, attempting to remain vague as to not attract the wrong kind of attention.

Liam decided to keep to himself for the time being, looking around for anyone suspicious coming up to them. We should probably come up with some kind of lie if we're questioned...traveling merchants maybe? Although most of us don't look anything like merchants... he pondered over the matter with difficulty.

[Phoenix]

Roadside Recruitment

"Hmm." It didn't take Shadrak long at all to piece everything together ... he had his mind on something else. "Well, if you're looking for 'Ucollas', he's standing right here," he began, "I wouldn't worry about Raquel, though. She has plenty of protection, already." As far as Shadrak knew, that was true; Raquel did have plenty of protection. He on the other hand could certainly use the extra help, especially since Chelsea had somehow conned this man into seeking him out, specifically. With battles against demons a near certainty in the future, he didn't want to be mangled again, and this man just might be the ticket to preventing that.

[GoD]

"I see... so you would be the one who is also known as Shadrak. The girl insisted that I use that alias as opposed to your true name... something about it being important... I could not care much. It all depends on your judgement." - the man nodded to the druid as he moved his excessively large bag with ease.

"So I take it this Raquel person is not with you. That works well with me; protecting two employers is as annoying as it is tedious. One person works perfectly, and according to the girl you can apparently fight."- Ingret took a glance at Shadrak's books.

"I assume those are heavy, shall we move to a different location and discuss more there?"