Jump to content

Return of the Emblem Chapter Nine: Consolidating Forces


Phoenix
 Share

Recommended Posts

Torin shrank back from the bars a bit. His brother wasn’t as happy to see him as he’d thought. “But... I’m just trying to help. It’s going to take forever to pay it off if they keep you in a cell...” he said. “And, um, these are people I met in the market.”

“Look, your brother doesn’t want our help anyway. Come on, Ranyin,” Synthia said. She began walking back down the hall when the guard stopped her.

“Woah, hold on. You came in here as a group, and you’re leaving the same. I’m not going to let people mosey around unsupervised,” the guards said. “It’s policy.”

“Well it’s a stupid poli-“

“Would you like to tell that to the inside of a jail cell?”

Synthia merely grumbled to herself and returned to where she was standing.

Torin, meanwhile, was having a mini-panic attack. Why did the knight mention the stealing? Oh, he was in trouble now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 1.9k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Raquel

"We haven't been here very long and people probably already left to ... do whatever they want to do for the day." Raquel realized aloud. "Well, if we're going to have a meeting, it should probably be someplace a little more open than this. Zachery, how much time do you think we have before those people move on their own?"

"Wouldn't they wait until they were certain 'Zach' here was captured or turned traitor? Or did they give you some kind of deadline?" one of the sailors asked, first to those in general and then to Zach himself.

Gabbie

"Errrr no soup shops and I think I'll manage. Didn't have anything in moind, honestly, heheh. Let's just walk around; I'm sure we'll foind someplace to eat." she suggested.

Reign

"Yep." Reign replied simply. He wasn't above explaining in more detail, but felt he was already treading on a sensitive topic. If Blake didn't already know about any of that, it meant Raquel hadn't said anything about it, either. He wasn't going to try and guess whether she was avoiding it or just hadn't told him yet and just assumed the former for the moment. "Could ask her about it." he hinted a few seconds later.

Arena

"This arena was founded to prove the greatest fighters in the region, and attract the best from everywhere else. The nobles are less inclined to have battles between the strongest fighters and more inclined to pit their own champions against each other or put on these events which amount to little more than over the top, one sided shenanigans." he explained. What sounded like an extremely loud and resounding gunshot assailed their ears. The first noise other than the roar of the crowd to actually reach them since Bert had arrived. The man sighed. "I've been working here for twenty years ... and I can't tell if that was a cannon going off or ... that guy blowing up some other 'thing' the nobles had carted in."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Giving some thought for a moment Zach responded to Raquel "I'd say we have a day at the most if we're lucky, more than 24 hours and they might think I'm dead, AWOL, or a traitor. If at all possible it might be best to launch an attack today, but we still need a plan and for your men to arrive back." Thinking back again to what the man with different colored eyes said "At the very least we should gather what people you currently have here and see what we have to work with."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fred groaned as his hands gripped the shaft of the broom. He had been promptly dragged back to the arena, tossed a broomstick, and told to sweep. It was humiliating, demeaning! Someone of his stature should not be forced to sweep floors! I mean, he wasn't exactly rich, or powerful, or well-known... but someone with armor like his would make a far better doorstop than a sweeper! In fact he wagered that the only reason they hadn't stripped him of his arms and armor was because they wanted to get him sweeping right now instead of waiting for the following day. As he sweeped the steps though there was little he could do.

"Hey, alchemist, if you can really turn things into gold, why don't you turn that dust into gold to pay your way out?" called out the guard mockingly.

"There is enough dust here to pay off my debts?" he asked in reply before shaking his head and returning to sweeping.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Interesting...," Blake said, thoughtfully. "I'll have to ask her about that once there's a free moment. I'm assuming Miss Valcyn's dealing with the captain now." Well, looks like his boss wasn't any mere novice at magic. Though, now that he thought about it, it made sense. Otherwise, it probably would've taken longer for her to learn how to use those staves.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Stealing?! Torin, is what this woman says true?!" Antonio questioned angrily, standing from the small stool that had been left in his cell and striding to the bars, the look on is face a mix of disdain and disgust.

"What were you thinking, Torin?! I would rather rot than be bought out on stolen gold! Do you think so little of my honour, brother?!" Antonio asked, his voice cracking slightly out of rage.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I understand what you're saying, and I'm not trying to belittle you here, but you weren't there, ok? I just, I coulda done something. I don't know what, maybe I coulda convinced him to leave altogether, give up working for her, but it doesn't matter now." Finishing her meat stick and talking through it, "Well it's no use worrying over the past, right? It happened, for one reason or another, and I need to learn from it. But..." She sighed and place a hand on Faatina's hand. "I'll be fine, really. I just wanted a little more closure, if you will. Not that there's much left to think about it. I can continue to brood over this or move on, I'd prefer to move on and try to prevent this from happening again. You'll help me... right?" she said, giving Faatina's hand a light squeeze.

"No soup? Fine by me." He stashed his book away and caught up to them, taking note of the kid she brought with her. "You're Connor, right? I hear you're quite adept at metalwork. If you don't mind my asking, what do you think is the hardest part about it?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Veronika

"They certainly are good at scattering, given the chance. I assume they'll be back by sundown at least, buying lodging in the port wouldn't make much sense when they could just sleep on the ship," Veronika said. "There are probably still a few around though, we don't necessarily need everyone to decide a course of action."

Connor

Connor didn't really recognize the man Gabbie was with- must have been a newcomer. He was a bit curious about her aversion to soup...well it was pretty hot out.

"Hardest part...hmm probably all the materials to work with. Iron and Steel react in an entirely different way to magic and heat- it's why it takes me a while to learn new transmutations. Whenever I'm working with something new, I have to change the formula entirely or it won't work. Not easy, but it keeps it interesting."

Edited by -Cynthia-
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Sorry... you're right, I shouldn't talk like I was there... I shouldn't talk like I knew him, or what happened, but... I know you, Aneda, and I know you wouldn't have let anything go if you didn't think it was right... there was no way you could have seen the future... but you can look back at the past and stop that future from taking anyone else." Faatina replied, as Aneda squeezed her hand lightly. Returning the gesture, and accompanying it with a light hug, Faatina continued.

"Of course I'll help you, Aneda."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

“Right,” Valter said. “I’ll go see who’s still hanging around the ship.” He turned to the stairs and began making his way to the deck.

-----

“U-um, c-calm down, brother...” Torin managed to stutter out as he backed away from the cell. “I-I’m sorry! I just didn’t want you to be locked up in here forever...” He started sniffling. The kid looked like he was about to cry.

If nothing else tugged at Synthia’s heartstrings, this managed to. “Hey, there’s no need to be so hard on the kid. He did do something awful, but it was to help you.”

-----

After a bit of searching, Valter found a couple of party members strewn around the ship. He notified John, Sophia, Robin, and Blake that an important issue had come up and they should meet Raquel in the ship stables.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

<Hm, Raquel's on the stables?> John thought after hearing the news. <Well, let's see what's going on.>

We're being called? I wonder what happened. Sophia thought.

And so the two made it down to the stables. Even the Captain was down here, a few crew members, and some stranger. Well, they were there. They'll find out soon enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mireille backed away slightly from the bickering brothers. It did not occur to her that Antonio would be this angry knowing his brother had resorted to stealing to help him. She should have seen it coming, but she here training gave her little to no room to master the art of sugar coating her words.

Deciding to back Synthia's words up and help Torin, the Ursian knight said, "Yes, despite the mean being wrong, you cannot fault the boy's intentions. And if you had not gotten yourself into trouble, your brother would not have considered resorting to do what he did."

***

Oh, family drama, dammit! Ranyin rubbed his temples as he watched the scene unfold. To the mage, his greatest worry is that for every moment he spent down there, it was a moment he could have been back at the ship to ask Bert for 'practice' and flying. Why did I even follow...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, it's changed in purpose, too. "That's a shame. Sounds like this placed used to be great," Norbert commented, "A respectable place where fighters from all over could test and prove their strength... Now it's just a gambling house and sport for nobles with their trivial rivalries. Pathetic..." He shook his head somewhat at the last word before looking back to the arena worker. "Thank you for telling me so much about this place. I appreciate your honesty," he was going to leave, but there was something that he remembered that prompted a question, "I do have one more question, though. What happens to those who can't pay their debts?" He assumed they'd just be put to work until they could pay it off, but he didn't trust these nobles enough to assume that anymore, now that he knew just who really ran the place.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh yeah, that guy with the mismatched eyes was a friend of Synthia's. Gytha hadn't seen him around since Synthia took her break, so Gytha wondered if the mage was around, too, when the archer came and told her to meet with Raquel below decks. She followed the instruction and found Captain Bogdan present, as well as some of his sailors with their weapons ready in addition to Raquel, Veronika and someone she'd never seen before. Gytha decided to ready her own pistol as she walked in. "What's goin' on here?" she asked those already in the hold.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I simply do not want Torin to end up in a spot like me because of my mistake. It is my burden to bear, and I will not have him losing his own livelihood over it, or resorting to becoming a petty criminal to clear my debt..." Antonio replied, his anger sobered as he sat back down on his stool dejectedly.

"Please Torin. Do not get involved with them... I can handle this on my own, don't give them a reason to come after you."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Well to be fair, I didn't know him too well either. He seemed arrogant, but it seemed like a child's arrogance, a want to prove something, which makes it all that much worse." Talking about that moment was getting Aneda depressed again, simply thinking baout it making her worry more. "Look, how about we... check out the arena or something, we've been standing here for a while, yeah?" A warm smile and a playful shove later, Aneda was off in the direction of the arena.

"Transmutations, huh? Man, that sounds really weird. forgive my ignorance in the subject, but is it sort of similar to a healing process? I know sometimes the flesh is actually remade or reworked or whatever it's defined as, but to me it sounds sort of similar, so I'm wondering if there's a similar principle in work with it." Davod couldn't help but smile as he questioned, though. "Of course, I could be way off, I was never very good with a staff as I didn't entirely understand what was going on half the time."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Well...healing with a staff is light magic, it brings back what once was. Transmutation is a form of dark magic, which means that it recreates something new entirely. People also say that healing magic comes from Mercy and dark magic from Truth but...from my experience you don't actually need to pray or anything to do magic. You just have to be able to follow the steps- though there are a lot of steps sometimes," Connor explained to Davod.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Atop the deck Robin had not been idle. Though her grocery shopping had been done, she knew she was a long way from being able to cook the stew. Ignoring the various preparations that had to be done, there was plenty of time between now and when the stew would need to be started, but she had decided that now was a good time to start trying out her new knife. Holding a carrot in hand she was slowly stripping away the skin and... couldn't decide if she was impressed or not. The blade was duller than what she was used to for sure, she could feel the additional strain and see the rounder edges, but at the same time... it was holding better than her obsidian knife. Had she been working with chirt or sandstone she might have declared the steel one better in an instant, but this steel was still inferior to the high-end stones. However, before she could truly put it through its paces, she was informed that Raquel wanted to see them below decks.

Standing upright and sheathing her blade, she gathered her groceries and started to head down below the deck. As she came down below and into the area, a sudden look of shock came over her face as she dropped the groceries to the floor. There, before her, was Zach. Her old friend Zach!

"<M-m- Munchkin? Zack?>" she stuttered in confusion and surprise. "<What are you doing out here? Zack? Is that really you? Oh my, it is!>" She suddenly rushed forwards, trying to catch Zach in a hug.

Edited by Snowy_One
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Well, if you're sure about it..."

Aneda ended up shoving Faatina off playfully before she could finish, then walking off and saying they should check out the arena. It seems that the subject was dropped for now.

"Alright, let's go." Faatina replied, following after Aneda.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Zach couldn't believe his eyes when Robin walked down the stairs, he'd read that there was a Neviskotian archer girl with this group but never would have imagined it would be Robin!

Just managing to catch her as Robin lept forward to hug him both of them went tumbling to the ground, not even feeling the impact due to his excitement Zach slipped back into a language he hadn't used in quite a while.

"<Robin what are you doing here!? Oh man I don't even care, I'm just glad you're okay!.>" Squeezing her tight into a hug he started laughing "<It's so good to see you, I've missed my best friend a lot in the past 2 years.>"

Edited by Eail
Link to comment
Share on other sites

"If it were based on faith there'd be a much different brand of healers out and about I'd imagine..." Hand on his chin, he continued. "Well you seem to know your stuff, perhaps I could watch you transmute some items and see how it works? I'm curious is all. If you'd prefer me to not be around that's... that's ok too, I mean it's your call and whatnot."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The pair went tumbling to the ground as Robin and Zach embraced with her coming out on top of him. She didn't care though one bit. She could feel him hugging her close, and she hugged him back in kind, letting him hug her as much as he wanted. "<I was so sad when you left. I felt so lonely with almost no one else to talk to who could understand me. Why did you leave? No. It doesn't matter. You're back and I'm happy.>" she said before releasing him from her hug, a broad and happy smile on her face as she looked down at him.

Edited by Snowy_One
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Veronika

"You two are best friends?" she asked Robin and Zach, raising an eyebrow skeptically. Long way from Ohka...I suppose it could just be a happy coincidence. Didn't even seem like they were looking for each other. she thought as a somewhat bitter afterthought.

Connor

"I wonder if light magic ever could be used to repair objects- why flesh only? But that's a question for magical theorists I guess. I don't mind if you watch me work, always glad to have someone interested. I'd offer to transmute something of yours, but...I don't think a metal whip would be very good in combat," Connor said, taking a quick scan of Davod's things.

Nadya

Having satisfactorily finished her haggling after visiting several merchants, Luca's load was much lighter as Nadya decided to examine the arena. It seemed a bit crowded though. Nadya managed to push her way through- having a horse makes it easy to clear crowds and she then found a man near the entrance to the building.

"Hey, this is the arena right? Ya part of the staff here?" she asked him.

Edited by -Cynthia-
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, it looked like Robin was on top of things. Well, on top of the stranger. They were pretty happy, too. Maybe they were lovestruck or something? Why Robin was sitting on whoever the other sailors were being careful around didn't make any sense to the mariner, but she supposed they might be friends or something...possibly. That certainly was strange, no matter what it meant. She decided they were probably long-lost loves. It was the only thing that made sense with that sort of reaction. Then, Veronika cleared things up. They were friends after all. Perhaps people just sat on their friends in Robin's village or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Deciding he might as well explain their situation Zach started back in Common "We've been best friends since we were little kids. Man, thinking about it Robin might be the only friend I've ever had, she was always looking after me. Making sure I stopped studying long enough to eat and would always be around to talk to. I left Ohka 2 years ago after ........let's just say a personal tragedy, I really wasn't thinking right and just wanted to get out of town. Ended up going on a journey to see the world and study magic."

Deciding to just say to hell with public decency Zach hugged Robin again "I've missed you so much Robin."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not the Best Meeting Place

Well it seemed like they had time to prepare and wouldn't necessarily have to run out and fetch everyone, but Raquel still wasn't thrilled about discussing things right in this particular area. This wasn't a war room, it was a temporary arc for the animals. Others started arriving, but she never expected Robin to do anything more than just stare indifferently at Zach. Instead she tackled him and started speaking to him in Neviskotian. He spoke back in the same language, and Raquel was left guessing. She was sure the Captain knew it and Veronika knew it, and several others including the sailors probably understood every word. That was kind of annoying she realized. Luckily Veronika commented on it and ended up summing it up nicely. She still didn't have anything to say, though. Well, she could at least answer Gytha's question, now ... "We're ... we need to discuss some things. There's an enemy in this city that we need to deal with. I'm still not sure this is the best place to have this meeting, though."

Finally one of them began speaking in a language she could understand, again. The full explanation followed, and came as no surprise to Raquel after Veronika's initial comment. She did suppose that made this Zachery less of an unknown to the group itself, though. She was unsure of how much less, though. She wasn't terribly familiar with Robin either, and many others in the group. Urgh. The realization was just one more thing to wear on her nerves.

Walkin' Along

Gabbie listened to the exchange between Connor and Davod while keeping an eye out for any food signs on building entrances. It was interesting to hear a bit about alchemy, but she was having trouble envisioning how the work on her combat gear would go. Eventually her attention was divided between trying to figure that out and her eyes darting to every sign on every wall in sight.

Reign

"A meeting, huh? Iiiin the animal hold? Shouldn't they be discussing strategy someplace less smelly?" Reign wondered aloud after Valter informed Blake of the situation. "You going?" he asked the mercenary.

Arena

"What happens to them? Huh. Depends on who you owe and who they work for. You could find yourself in any number of hells, from rotting in a jail cell to becoming cannon fodder for events like the one going on right now. Sometimes nobles get themselves an indentured servant or two as well." he replied, sounding less like he was complaining and more like he was giving a casual warning.

Also Arena

"Why yes it is, and yes I am, Miss. Did you need something in particular? Looking to catch this afternoon's brawl or place any bets?" the man asked.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...