Return of the Emblem Chapter Fourteen: Fight

[-Cynthia-]

Liam frowned at Angelica's crudeness, but opted not to draw more attention to the matter. "We had an incident with a member of the Ursian army while you all were gone- moving as far away as we can would be preferable," he interjected.

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"Fine," Martha said to Norbert before glancing at Darcey. "Once we get back to Ursaea, convincing the army that we need reinforcements shouldn't be too hard. I'm not sure what's going to happen to your pegasus, but either way, at least take comfort in that. The worst of this is over, at least."

"Maybe," Darcey frowned, "Carlos' men are being backed by the 'skotians and it's not like we took care of them, is it?"

"We will once we get our reinforcements," Martha reminded her.

Wagon

"I'm not sure if the wrathites have already caught up to us or if they were just locals," Joanna added worriedly.

"It won't make a difference," Malik shook his head. "They're basically the same, one group just knows more than another. Once they link up, they'll all be after us for the same reason."

[ArsTheurgia]

"Not too bad, I guess", Al replied. Well. Apparently being social was not that easy, and/or Rolo wasn't interested in conversation. Ah, well; at least while he was here, he could assuage his curiosity.

"So, do you have any end destination or goal, here? I mean, I'm not sure how long this group will be together, so... Where do you want to end up when it's done or you leave or whatever?"

[Nanami Touko]

"Alright, well... I'll keep awake in case Amon stirs, just in case we do. I'm gonna start flying Sasha after the sun goes down, since we'll have night cover. Big dark green wyvern's pretty hard to see against the night sky. Anyway..." Eva leaned back, "good luck with your... Recovery, Joanna. Don't do anything else, Angelica." She still didn't entirely believe that Angelica had done nothing to get the bird so flustered, so it was better safe than sorry. Quickly jogging back, she patted Jam on the shoulder, and got back onto Sasha, the wyvern grunting. He looked back and spotting Jam finally, walking beside him. He gave her a quick sniff, and then turned his head back, fine with her being there.

"Hop on. I got what I needed."

[CobyTheGoober]

Rolo thought about Alphonse's question a little bit. He didn't necessarily want to go back home, and while traveling would be a lot more fun than staying home, he knew that it could be dangerous. "Well I just want to do something that'll keep me interested, and have a lower chance of death. So I guess I'll probably wanna end up someplace that's safe, and interesting."

[Toogee]

Jam sat upon Sasha, sitting in front of Eva like before. She wondered if they would be making camp soon.

"Is everything OK over there," Jam asked Eva. Things were awfully active in the wagon.

[Nanami Touko]

Eva let Jam settle in before answering. "Joanna tried to see off into somewhere for Amon and Malik, I think. But she... Saw something personal," she said biting her lip and laughing a bit, "so it knocked her out of it. Amon's knocked out, but... We don't really know why. Nothing to do but keep moving."

[Phoenix]

A Nap Later

"Okay the pegasi all look good," Martha said, "I think it's time we got moving, again."

Cameron sighed. She supposed it was too much to hope Doran and the others would catch up with the extra hour given them. There was also a chance they had taken another route. They might have already passed them up on their way back to Ursaea, though that was unlikely. Even if the two groups had met up in the woods, the riders would have most likely been ordered off ahead of the guardsmen yet again.

"I don't understand how people come out of naps feeling refreshed," Darcey groaned as she rose up from the tree she'd been sleeping against, "I feel even worse, now, like I haven't slept in over a day."

An Hour Later

What good news Joanna had for the group an hour after Amon lost consciousness had nothing to do with the ailing sancturan. Norbert and Fizza were both still alive, though she wasn't sure how to explain the latter. The former assassin promised to share the whole story once she caught up to them, and gave an estimate of one or two days. She couldn't ask Norbert for a timetable since he was still sleeping when she checked in with the group. The avian could only hope he wasn't held up for too long or intercepted by the wrathites.

Amon himself was still unconscious ... 'asleep' if one were an optimist. Malik most certainly wasn't, and was on his fifth attempt to wake the sancturan team leader. <"You're on the same schedule as the rest of us, so there's no reason for you to be down like this. Wake up, already."> There was no response, and for the fifth time, Malik lightly smacked Amon's cheeks. Again, there was no response. Malik doubted Amon was in a coma or anything severe like that, but the man was doing an excellent job giving that impression.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Phoenix

[Toogee]

Eva let Jam settle in before answering. "Joanna tried to see off into somewhere for Amon and Malik, I think. But she... Saw something personal," she said biting her lip and laughing a bit, "so it knocked her out of it. Amon's knocked out, but... We don't really know why. Nothing to do but keep moving."

Initially, Jam was surprised that Joanna had such powers to begin with; she thought she was just a healer. Not nearly as surprised as when she learned that their leader was unconscious and no one had a medical reason as to way. she never traveled with Raquel long enough

"Wait, Amon? That doesn't sound good. Shouldn't we be...you know...healing him or something?" The dancer hated to think that her efforts in dragging Amon across the battlefield were wasted if he died randomly in the wagon.

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

Although Darcey noticed Norbert still sleeping before Martha, the latter reached him first, leaving Darcey with little to do but pick herself up and apologize to her sore spots for taking a nap in such an awful spot and position, and gaining less than nothing for it.

"It was Bert wasn't it?" Martha looked back at Darcey, got something that could have been acknowledgement, either of her or her own soreness, and then looked back at the only man in the group. "It's time to wake up. The pegasi are ready for the rest of the trip, so we need to get moving."

Road

It was obvious Amon's heart was beating. That always stopped after someone stopped breathing, and the sancturan's breathing was more or less normal. Nothing that would be concerning of and by itself. Still, Malik checked Amon's pulse. His heart was beating faster than a sleeping person's should be, but he figured that wasn't worth panicking anyone over, either. Joanna had already tried healing when he was awake, and it had done all of nothing, so what could they do now that he had been out for an hour with no sign of waking? Sighing in resignation was tempting, but so was smacking Amon around until he had no choice but to wake up. He couldn't even attempt a lighter version of that with Joanna around, though.

<"Urgh, this is hopeless. How can we help him if we have no idea what's going on?">

"Maybe I ..." Joanna began, and almost instantly she was silent, again. She earned a scowl from Malik, either for not satisfying his curiosity, or for causing it in the first place. "No, I will," she suddenly changed her mind, again, "At least if my prayer goes unanswered, it won't make matters worse." She didn't share that feeling when it came to using the emblem, not after what happened during her most recent attempt to use its power.

"Prayer?" Malik frowned, "you're going to pray about this?" It wasn't the most ridiculous idea. Emblem based magic was so far out of their league that prayer almost seemed like a legitimate, though likely impotent response. He doubted anything would come of it, but wouldn't fault her for trying.

[spoiler=Imperial Welcome Mat]

The massive cannons protruding from the palace's center-most building began to adjust their aim. Rather than aiming straight at their target, each barrel was preparing to fire just above the oncoming target. When Prince Shiba glanced back at them, he noticed the difference in strategy. <"Ryuudou,"> he said, raising his voice in exasperation, <"that's not shot they're using!">

Ryuudou quickly identified the firing pattern, too. <"They're going to put up a death cloud,"> he winced, <"it probably won't harm Jirou too badly ... but it will fry his passengers to a crisp.">

The cannons all began firing, and a sparkling pinkish red dust marked the trail of every shot. Before Shiba could even cover his ears, some of the smaller cannons being manned in the palace courtyard all began firing as well, and each of their shots had the same dust flowing from the shots. Once that dust was set alight, the sky would be bathed in flames. Needless to say, the wind mages were keeping their distance from their main target, now. Their only job would be to try to control the spread of the dust and impending flames, keeping them from reaching rooftop level. If they failed, a massive fire would break out, and they would have their work cut out for them.

<"This is even more reckless than just pelting Jirou with cannon shot,"> Shiba hissed as a cloud of deadly flammable dust began to settle over them. The imperial garrison braced itself as mages blasted the remaining dust into the air and then sent fire spells after them. The death cloud the garrison had set up erupted into flames that blocked out the sky above the capital.

Despite their best efforts to keep to a safe distance, controlling the spread of the death cloud from aboard the vulnerable gliders saw several of them badly burned. Five wind mages had to abandon their doomed gliders, land themselves haphazardly on the nearest rooftops, and continue the task of keeping the ceiling of fire from reaching the city itself. At the very least, the death cloud was doing its job, and forcing Jirou to remain at an extremely low altitude. The remaining forces would have a clear shot at him if he continued toward the palace grounds. It was inevitable, now.

Impressed but undaunted, Jirou kept on course toward the palace. Freyya stared up at the sea of flames above them in awe. The sky could have been burned away for all they knew. There was no way to see past the spectacle overhead. Nori was horrified when he looked up, and his grip on Freyya tightened. The Corvian Princess reminded herself that there was a chance that the imperials probably weren't informed about Nori. The truth was, however, that he was going to be an unfortunate but acceptable casualty in all of this if they had their way.

<"They're insane,"> one of Freyya's bodyguards said, his head craned up toward the flaming sky. <"A death cloud? Just to stop us from reaching the palace?">

<"This is why I hate being famous,"> Jirou said. Maybe the banter wasn't helping his passengers, but it made him feel a little better. He was telling the truth, too. He really did hate being famous, especially when repaying a favor led to incidents like this.

With fire above, and innocent onlookers below, there was just enough room for Jirou to reach the courtyard without risking his passengers, however, there wasn't any room to maneuver up there, and in all likelihood, any siege weapons would have a clear shot at him. His hide was extremely tough, but beyond that, his options were limited. <"Here we go,"> Jirou warned, flying higher to ascend the staircase up to the palace. It was a shall climb, but once they were at the top, the flames were close enough to slowly cook his passengers. That was when the remaining cannons and siege weapons were unleashed. Jirou put up a dense barrier of anima that blunted each projectile, but the sheer volume of fire was threatening to overwhelm him.

<"We must act now,"> Ryuudou said, settling on a plan of his own. He locked eyes with Shiba, who was now suspicious of him, <"stand back, milord. I'm going to help them put an end to this."> Without waiting for a response, Ryuudou broke into a sprint, and the first row of amassed soldiers took off after him. The rest stayed in formation near Shiba.

<"Back off, already,"> Jirou snarled at his attackers. He noticed a small detachment heading straight for them, with an ebon clad warrior leading the group. He didn't appear to be armed, but Jirou could tell he was a mage, a notably powerful one at that. <"They're really not going to listen, are they?">

<"We should never have come here,"> Freyya's bodyguard spoke up again.

<"For the Yamato!"> Ryuudou came to a grinding stop just in front of Jirou, reaching out with both hands, an inferno reflected in his eyes. Suddenly, and with absolutely no warning, Freyya, Nori, and all of the princess' escorts were ripped from Jirou's crown. An invisible force dragged all six of them straight to the ground in a near bone crushing grip. As Ryuudou held the five fallen and human child, the palace guards rushed toward them. That should do it, Ryuudou thought, without the fallen actively controlling him, Jirou should come to his senses.

<"Upstart whelp!"> Ryuudou leaped back as a lightning bolt came crashing down in the spot where he used to be standing. He hadn't been hit, but he hadn't lost his deadly grip on Freyya and the others, either.

Ryuudou winced at the massive thunder dragon. <"Still under their control ... ... so I'll have to kill them."> That was when, belatedly, Ryuudou spotted Nori. He wasn't sure what to think. Why was a human child with these demons? Perhaps he was a slave? Hopefully he wasn't some catalyst to help control Jirou. If so, he might have to kill him, too.

<"Stop this pointless flailing,"> Jirou hissed at the imperials, <"I'm not here to fight! And you,"> he glared thunderbolts at Ryuudou, <"let them go. I promised them safe passage here and you won't make a liar of me, whelp.">

<"Safe passage?"> Ryuudou repeated, his grip loosening but not quite breaking. The palace guards halted their attacks, and the siege fire had all but stopped. Ryuudou knew it would likely start right back up again once the majority of the cannons had been reloaded, at least if Prince Shiba didn't put a stop to the battle. <"Why would you offer the demons safe passage here?"> He couldn't believe it. He was actually speaking with the legendary thunder dragon Jirou, and he was having an argument with him of all things. He wasn't certain if he would look back on this day as the best or worst of his life ...

[Mercakete]

"...dy for the rest...eed to get moving." was about all Norbert heard, if you could call it that. His mind wasn't fully conscious and couldn't make much sense of the assortment of sounds. His body was so dead set on sleeping, though, that the rest of Martha's words had failed to penetrate his mind altogether, even subconsciously. As for his response, it wasn't led by any sort of reasoning or intent. Rather, his body reacted aimlessly out of habit and reflex with what energy it bothered to spare. The result was nothing more than slight stirring.

Rizen, however, was watching the scene play out, her attention garnered. It wasn't anything more than mild curiosity and extremely slight wariness at the moment, though.

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"A heavy sleeper?" Martha wondered aloud, "I shouldn't be surprised ..."

"Oh come on," Darcey glared at Martha, "you didn't even speak that loudly. Someone who sleeps outside half the time has to be able to tune out quite a bit to get well rested."

"So you're saying I should be louder ... maybe nudge him. Fair enough." Martha carefully nudged Norbert by the shoulder. "Wake up, it's time for us to get moving."

[Mercakete]

More nearby noise began to slowly lift Norbert out of his sleep towards consciousness. When Martha nudged him and spoke more loudly, that finally did the trick. With a groan and a furrowed brow, Norbert shifted where he lay. However, he happened to shift right into Splinter, and its arm dug uncomfortably into his leg. That pain brought him the rest of the way out of it, and Norbert snapped awake, shifting to a sitting position immediately. He'd probably still have a bruise, though. For a moment, his surroundings were unfamiliar. Then, he remembered the events leading up to his nap.

Giving a groggy glare to Martha, he asked, "What is it?"

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

Martha met Norbert's glare with a her own, far more alert one. "It's time to get moving. The pegasi all look well rested and we still need to try and get back before nightfall."

"Not that getting back a little after nightfall changes things," Darcey quietly noted, "but it would be nice to get back to a real bed before turning in for the night."

Cameron was tending to Joy when she overheard Martha, and she wondered if Doran and the others would be alright spending the night out here without a proper camp or tools.

Wagon

Prayer; that's what Joanna was going for this time, and already she seemed to be at it. Admittedly, Malik couldn't tell the difference between Joanna meditating and praying ... or sleeping for that matter. He leaned slightly closer to her, his curiosity finally getting the better of him. He noticed her lips moving. It was so faint he might not have noticed them if he hadn't been looking for some sign that she was actually praying. He was no lipreader, and even if he was, the movements were too small, too minuscule to get anything from.

Malik looked back at Amon to find that the situation there hadn't changed. He was still out cold. Hopefully Joanna's prayer would help somehow, and failing that, maybe Amon would come out of this coma-like state all on his own, or at least with some help from the emblem. Malik's eyes went wide with realization. <"That's it!"> Joanna flinched. "Joanna, I think I know what might help him. The emblem. You don't have to take it out, I don't think. Just put the box close to him."

"Are you ... sure?" Joanna winced.

"Does anyone have a better idea, because I'm listening," he scowled.

[Mercakete]

"Wait, wait... Everyone's already rested?" Norbert asked, somewhere between confused, sleepy, and disgruntled. "You were just going on about how everyone needed to rest! How can they all suddenly be ready for travel again? It's not even been a minute yet!"

[-Cynthia-]

Liam raised an eyebrow, but it was true he had no better idea. He tensed himself and silently prepared for the worst- either from the strange affliction affecting Amon or some treachery from Malik.

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"That was an hour ago," Martha said, her glare giving way to a light frown.

Wagon

No one was speaking up, so Malik focused on Joanna expectantly. She curled up ever so slightly and said, "Are you sure this won't make it worse?"

"What do you mean?"

"If this is happening to him because of the emblem, then won't putting it closer to him make things worse?" she clarified for the sancturan. The box was still in her possession, which meant it was already quite close.

"Hmm ..." Malik honestly hadn't considered that. He could honestly see it working either way, now that she mentioned it. Maybe distance from the emblem would help Amon recover and not getting closer to it. That seemed just likely as anything else, now.

[Nanami Touko]

Initially, Jam was surprised that Joanna had such powers to begin with; she thought she was just a healer. Not nearly as surprised as when she learned that their leader was unconscious and no one had a medical reason as to way. she never traveled with Raquel long enough

"Wait, Amon? That doesn't sound good. Shouldn't we be...you know...healing him or something?" The dancer hated to think that her efforts in dragging Amon across the battlefield were wasted if he died randomly in the wagon.

Eva settled in nice and cozy on Sasha, keeping her voice low as to not disturb Hoshi too much. "It isn't good, but from what I've gathered, this is some emblem related nonsense, again. Seems he just won't wake up, and I guess we all have to wait until he does, whenever that is." Eva sighed, staring up at the sky as the sun faded further. "I'm hoping we can find a nice inn in Kigen, somewhere to just relax and wait a few days out. All this constant moving, running and fighting is even getting to me."

[Mercakete]

"An hour?" Norbert asked. As he looked around for confirmation at Darcey and Cameron, and at the sky's lighting, his reasoning began to catch up with his confusion to resolve it.

"Nature..." he sighed to himself. Then, as he pushed himself off the ground to standing again, Norbert explained, "It sure didn't feel like an hour, but I must've just been that tired. I'll be ready to head out as soon as Darcey and I're mounted up."

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"You are injured," Cameron pointed out, figuring the blood loss was probably to blame.

"Ready when you are, Bert," Darcey sighed, deciding she wanted to get off of this awful terrain and back into the relative comfort of a saddle as soon as possible.

Wagon

"Alright, we'll move him away from it," Malik decided, reaching around Amon to try and get him propped up.

"What are you doing?" Joanna frowned. She'd thought that it might be best if she left the wagon with the box. Moving Amon seemed like the harder way, not to mention a little rude. "I can just-" "No," Malik cut her off as he steadily got Amon up onto his back. <"Heavy bastard ...> Hey, stop the wagon so we can get out. I'm going to put him on Isis." Looking back at Joanna as Glen began to slow down the wagon, he said, "Haythem and I will keep an eye on him. This way, we can get some real distance and see if that helps. The last thing we need right now is for you to be out in the open, so stay in here. You can use the emblem to check in on us if you really need to. Simple, isn't it ..."

Joanna nodded. "Yes ..."

[Mercakete]

Norbert nodded, first to Cameron, then to Darcey. As he got a hold of Rizen's reins and led her closer towards the two, he replied to Cameron with a nod, "That's at least half of why I was so tired. I've dealt with bloodloss before. At least this time wasn't as bad as it was in Tremere -- I slept for days."

As annoying as it'd been to be confined to the infirmary for so long -- not to mention completely helpless -- Norbert did have some fond memories of the time. Oscar was a rough guy, but he was likable once you got to know him, and he was a good doctor. The ship always had work to be done, too, which Norbert had enjoyed. Well, when he was well enough to help out, anyway. It was too bad that Rizen had had to stay belowdecks so much, though. She hated it down there. Of course, that brought back the memory of when the equines got loose, and he and Raquel had had to try to get Rizen and Riley back into their stalls. At the time, it'd been a bit of a pain, but now he grinned, nearly laughing about the memory. For all their ridiculous misfortune, those were some good times.

[Toogee]

Eva settled in nice and cozy on Sasha, keeping her voice low as to not disturb Hoshi too much. "It isn't good, but from what I've gathered, this is some emblem related nonsense, again. Seems he just won't wake up, and I guess we all have to wait until he does, whenever that is." Eva sighed, staring up at the sky as the sun faded further. "I'm hoping we can find a nice inn in Kigen, somewhere to just relax and wait a few days out. All this constant moving, running and fighting is even getting to me."

Jam wasn't feeling much better about Amon's condition, yet Eva didn't seem terribly worried about it. By consequence, the dancer thought it was safe to keep the issue in the back of her mind; it must be under control. Besides, the talk of inns was way more fun.

"Yeah, maybe one with a hot spring or something. Giant fluffy beds. Three meals everyday, maybe more. And not a ballista in sight. That's all I need. I'd probably never leave though." Jam smirked as she thought about her personal paradise.

"I wish we could just toss this emblem in the ocean and call it a day. Seems more trouble than it's worth. There could be so many other better things we could be doing than fighting this...war? Battle? What are we getting into?"

[Nanami Touko]

"Oh, don't talk to me about beds right now. With Amon asleep, Malik wants this caravan moving as long as it can move, so that means flying this guy through the night. I've done it before, but lemme tell you, scales and a saddle stop being comfortable after about an hour. You and Hoshi had best figure out how to get cozy on this guy, if you're joining me up there. I have belts, just in case." She sighed, getting herself ready for an overnight flight. "We could toss the emblem, but... We're already in this deep. And don't you remember? We're trying to save the world. We've gotta stop those fates, or the Fallen are going to kill everyone. Seems pretty important to me. Maybe we're in over our heads, but we can still do something, more than sitting around. Hold onto your spunk, Jam. You've got this in the bag."

[Toogee]

"Yeah..." Jam simply replied. "But do we really need this emblem to save the world? No one here seems to be able to use it very well, and from what I'm hearing about Amon, it seems to be doing more harm than good. It's probably a good thing we can't get it out of that box; who knows what it would do to us then?"

The dancer got herself settled in between Eva and Hoshi, preparing for the long flight.

"Don't worry about me. I'll stay up with you. I..." Jam broke to let out a big yawn, "...promise."

[Phoenix]

Wilderness

"So hard knocks are nothing new for you, huh ..." Darcey said. She'd gotten caught somewhere between a concerned frown and an amused grin. It might be a funny series of stories someday, but right now, things still felt a bit too fresh for Darcey's taste. "I think what you need is a full time staffer at your side if I'm being honest."

"We could use healers in our units, too," Cameron noted. Highly mobile healers on pegasus back would make the formidable pegasus knights even more dangerous and resilient. It was definitely worth considering.

Wagon

With the wagon stopped, curiosity and confusion were fast approaching. When Malik emerged from the wagon with Amon draped over his back, it was obvious that something important was going on. Haythem got Isis to stop waddling along, wondering both why the wagon had stopped and why Malik was on his way over with an unconscious Amon.

"We're going to ride with you for now," Malik called over to Haythem. "We need to test something, so we'll be flying, too."

Haythem winced. Flying? Sure, there probably weren't anymore ballistae to worry about, but there were other dangers besides that, like the wrathites. They wouldn't think twice about getting a closer look if they saw a giant wyvern, possibly a dragon, flying around the mountains ... and if they found out it was just the former, they would still be a little too curious for anyone's own good. "Are you sure about this?"

"After sunset, we'll be invisible," Malik assured him as he reached Isis' feet, "now help me with him."