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Post by Valcrist on Mar 16, 2010 21:52:10 GMT -6
He stopped mid step and winced when he heard the horse galloping up from behind him. He suppressed a sigh and instead looked exasperatedly at some random townsperson. Taking a breath he dropped the look and plastered a smile on his face before turning around. He scratched the back of his head with a bandaged hand and gave a short, but somewhat nervous, laugh. "Oh, hey there Kelvin and Chelse." He smiled innocently up at them.
"On a date in town I see?" His mind cringed as he said it, but his body showed no noticeable signs of sadness. "I don't blame you, minus the local demolition, it's a nice city." He laughed again, even if it was a bit depressing to bring up the school. Still, it was better to look positive, even if Valcrist wasn't quite so happy. "You two having fun?" He asked innocuously, letting the palm of his hand rest on the, now exposed, hilt of his sword. Hopefully being a part of a company like this will deter pickpocketeers.
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Post by Chelsea Dagger on Mar 16, 2010 22:52:32 GMT -6
Chelsea gave a nod. "Uh huh. Listen to this, I just beat up Kelvin!" She giggled happily and ruffled Kelvin's hair. She knew he'd get her back for this, but meh. She was enjoying herself. She looked down at Valcrist. "Where are you off to Val? Anywhere fancy?" She noticed he had his sword with him. She really liked that sword. It was beautifully made. She really did hope he made her a bow like that sometime.
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Post by Valcrist on Mar 16, 2010 23:24:33 GMT -6
He chuckled at her energy, it was nice to see some happiness after all the crap that happened today, even if it wasn't his... And especially if it was hers. He smirked and rose an eyebrow, his head tilted and his stance playful. "Oh really, did you know?" He laughed. "Well you sure know how to capture his heart well enough. I guess the rest of the body just followed suit."
"Ah..." He looked as if he was about to say something, rose a finger in the air, then let it fall with a sigh. "No not really. Nowhere fancy for me today I'm afraid. The last fancy place I went collapsed, so I'm going to avoid causing any more collateral damage today." He laughed to himself. "I don't really know where I'm going. Just looking around I guess, I don't get the chance to see a big city like this." He didn't get the chance to see any city at all until recently.
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Post by Chelsea Dagger on Mar 16, 2010 23:34:21 GMT -6
At Valcrist's first comment, Chelsea smiled and whispered, "he's right on that one." She giggled a little as her friend kept talking. When he finished, she spoke up. "Well that's no fun! You have to have somewhere to go in mind! And you can't just go off by yourself like that! We can go with you!" She looked up at Kelvin. "It'll be fun!" She grinned happily
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Post by Kelvin H. Calderon on Mar 16, 2010 23:40:42 GMT -6
Kelvin smiled at the idea. He had been wanting to get to know Val ever since he had met him. He just had been too busy lately. "Sure sounds like a great time," he said, getting off of Kashmir. He then helped Chelsea off the horse and turned back to Val, "Come on, let's do something."
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Post by Valcrist on Mar 17, 2010 0:02:25 GMT -6
"Erm..." He didn't have a say in this... did he? "Are you sure? Weren't you two on a date?" He chuckled nervously. I'll fit in like the fifth wheel on a carriage... He was perfectly content with going it alone today, he was used to that. That was his thing. He didn't have many friends, his uncle was nice to him, but he was always too busy with his glass blowing to pay attention, the same went for his cousin. Still... it was nice to think he might be actually making some.
"So..." He felt out of place. He could feel the two making lovey eyes at each other when he wasn't looking. Even if they weren't, his mind insisted they totally were. "Erm... what exactly do you guys have in mind?" He knew some of the city's sights from the maps and books he's read, but he didn't really know the city itself. All of the pictures in the world couldn't of prepared him for the world outside his village.
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Post by Chelsea Dagger on Mar 17, 2010 0:12:12 GMT -6
Chelsea gave a shrug. "I really have no idea what's even here. But I won't let you just wander around by yourself! There could be muggers or something of the like here, and I don't want you getting hurt. So you pick some place you want to go and we'll go with you! Maybe we can even grab some food!" Her stomach gave a rumble. She blushed. "I'm hungry..."
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Post by Valcrist on Mar 17, 2010 0:30:33 GMT -6
Muggers? Well I guess she's right about that... I probably couldn't even take on a pickpocket by myself, man I'm pathetic. He laughed to himself, not saying anything. I guess I should be thankful. It's got to be better then wandering the streets alone. He stayed quiet for a moment... not sure of what to say. So he said what he was thinking. "Thank you guys..." He smiled then turned around and looked at the city.
He thought back a moment, to think of places to eat that he saw earlier. He wanted to avoid that cafe at all costs. It had good food and all, just not good memories. Hrm, from the look of the sun, it's gotta be close to dinner time. It won't kill us to eat again. "Hrm... I think I remember seeing a diner earlier today." Before all that... stuff happened. "I don't know what it is, but it looked nice enough. Dark wood, clear glass windows. It had a very good smell coming from it. I didn't recognize it completely, but I think it was some kind of chicken?" He suggested. "Anyways it was close to that intersection near the library on the way into town."
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Post by Chelsea Dagger on Mar 17, 2010 0:40:39 GMT -6
Chelsea gave a quick nod. "Ok, lead the way!" She was really hungry and the sound of the place Val had suggested sounded just great. She followed the novice with Kelvin at her side. She looked around a bit as they walked, but was focused mainly on the food. How had she not seen how hungry she was earlier? Oh well, she knew it now and it was her main focus. Maybe she could trade Kelvin for a meal. She giggled to herself, she was a silly girl. She gave the cavalier a nudge and a smile before going back to focusing on the food. Yum.
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Harlow Rysche
Archer
[M:0]
Posts: 42
Profession: Painter
Affinity: Wind
OoC Alias: Empfindsam
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Post by Harlow Rysche on Mar 18, 2010 17:04:10 GMT -6
(OOC: This is a longy - also if anything in it goes against the intented plot and I didn't realize it, let me know and I'll change it.)
IC: Harlow thanked the young healer and headed upstairs to find the injured mage. He peered into a couple rooms as he walked down the hall... no, nobody in that one... there was an injured soldier resting in that one... this looked like the room where Lucy was staying - there was her cloak on a chair over there, but no sign of the sage... Ah, here it was! Harlow could see the youth standing motionless by a window and facing out, looking out over the wreckage of what had once been his place of learning.
Harlow rapped at the door sharply and let himself in. The kid turned around questioningly, though his expression soon changed to one of fear when he recognized his visitor. Harlow raised his hand in a peaceful gesture to quell the boy's fears. "No, no - don't worry! I'm not here to hurt you!" The boy didn't seem entirely convinced, but a quick look around the room seemed to tell him that there was no route of escape, so he turned a cold eye towards Harlow and addressed him coolly: "What do you want, then?"
Harlow ignored the question and asked one of his own. "How are you feeling, kid? You took a pretty bad fall back there. We both did. It's fortunate for us both that I retained consciousness, or we could have both drowned in that well there. That would have been a pretty pathetic way to go, eh?"
The mage let out a short, mirthless laugh but said nothing, instead turning back to the open window. So Harlow went on, "Listen, whatever exactly it was that happened back there, Sir Chester is dead and so are most of the other students who were at the school. We pulled some of your friends from the wreckage, but most of them are in pretty bad shape. You got out pretty good, if you ask me."
The mage boy turned back around, his face a blank, unreadable wall. "You're one of them. One of those... rebels. I know what you're like. So stop playing around here and get to the point. What is it you want from me?"
Harlow frowned, taken aback by the boy's direct approach. He certainly didn't expect such a blunt, pull-no-punches attitude from the kid. Harlow stroked his chin with his fingers while he thought of a response. The young mage had said something about "rebels" - what could that be referring to? He obviously had been told something about the group beforehand, which was why he'd been so determined on the battlefield before. Harlow would have to find a way to get what he needed out of the kid without simply reinforcing whatever lies he'd been fed about how the "rebels" treated prisoners.
"Look, kid... uh, listen. I can't keep calling you 'kid.' What's your name? Mine's Harlow."
The mage's gaze never faltered as he answered, "They call me Trist."
"All right, look, Trist," Harlow continued, "I'm not a 'rebel,' or whatever you said. Some of those people you and your friends attacked back there were my friends. So that's where you got on my bad side. But I'm not worried about that any more - I know that whatever it was you were doing back there, it was because of something that Sir Chester told you. You were just following orders, right? So tell me. Why did Chester attack Lucy Belmont?"
Trist cast his eyes down to the ground as he considered his words. That was all right, Harlow was in no hurry. He sized the kid up while he waited. Blue robes, with a fancy green sash tied about him... brown, wavy hair. Pretty young - probably not even an adult yet. What was a kid like this doing in the service of one so obviously demented as Sir Chester? After a minute, Trist spoke up.
"Whatever you think you know about Sir Chester, be sure I wasn't fighting your friends just for his sake. He may have been the headmaster of the school, but he was no close friend of mine. He was... ambitious, and sometimes cruel. No, my motivation did not come from Chester. As to why he attacked your friend Lucy, it goes back to a rivalry they had in their years as students at the school."
Right, someone had mentioned the connection between Lucy and Chester as students here years ago. "Don't give me your half-truths, Trist. Rivalry alone can not have been reason enough to lead Lucy into such a carefully planned snare. I hear the headmaster was somewhat enraptured with visions of a grand future... something about being the head of the New United Lycia, was it?"
Trist faltered a little bit as he tried to come up with a response, debating how much to tell Harlow. "No," he mumbled. "I can't tell you that..." He seemed to be speaking more to himself than to Harlow.
Now Harlow was irritated, and he snapped at the boy, "Look, Trist. Chester is dead, and whatever his plan was has failed. You've no stake in this - you're just a student at the school. You're not invested in Chester's little scheme, so there's no harm in you telling me anything."
The boy looked up at him solemnly. Uncertainty was beginning to show in his once-determined face. "No, Harlow, that's where you're wrong," he murmured. "But I can see you're determined to find out more. All right, I'll tell you..."
"Chester had been meeting with an envoy from Etruria for the past few months. I don't know who, just that he was important. What they talked about I'm not sure, but it had something to do with the prophet, Kraft, and the Etrurian forces stationed in Lycia. All we heard from Chester was that there was a force of rebels, lead by a Lucy Belmont of Pherae, that had been commissioned by the paladin Sir Rayl to stir up trouble in the Lycian provinces. We had word that the group was on their way here to ransack the city. Now, a lot of the students at this school are Etrurian, particularly many of the students of light magic, and most of those are loyal to the prophet. It seems Sir Chester had some loyalty to him as well, or maybe he was promised a great reward for decimating the Lycian unit. That's all I really know about this."
Harlow still felt like Trist was leaving something out. "But what about you," he asked. "What are you still so worried about?"
The boy hesitated again. As he started to speak again, he seemed agitated. "Well, whoever that envoy from Etruria was, he influenced a lot of changes at the school. In fact, shortly after his visits is when Chester started getting more cruel and... creepy. I don't know what will happen now that the school is destroyed, but I have a premonition that this figure will be back. Things don't bode well for Laus after Chester's failure here."
Harlow was silent as he processed that information. There was something sinister going on here, the fullness of it he could not appreciate. After all, he was still new to the group. He didn't have any idea that Lady Lucy was so important - or was she? He wasn't sure, maybe it was just an attempt on Etruria's part to cut of Sir Rayl's reinforcements, and nothing more. But it still felt wrong.
"Is that it, Trist? Anything more I might want to know? Look, I don't mean to interrogate you here... and don't worry, you're free to go after this ordeal if you should want. I won't stop you. But please... remember this... whatever hope you have for Lycia, it lies with us, and Sir Rayl, and not with this shadowy figure from Etruria. So I'm not your real enemy. Etruria is."
"What would you know about it?" the boy spat out bitterly. Harlow was surprised by his sudden emotion. "What would you know about me? What would you know about the story of a boy who had everything he could want and suddenly had it all stripped away by these same haughty Lycian nobles whom you're trying to defend? No, you don't understand me - you never could." Trist was shaking as he finished his speech, and he glared at Harlow. "Now, leave me alone here. Go run to your commander and tell him all I've told you. Maybe he'll be smart enough to fear the end of Lycia that is coming even as we speak."
Alarmed, Harlow gave Trist one last look before he scurried out of the room to find Gabriel and pass along the information. He had many more questions for Trist, but he knew the boy was past answering him right now. Maybe he'd get another chance later - he didn't like leaving things on this sour note.
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Post by Gabriel on Mar 18, 2010 19:59:20 GMT -6
"Your highness, may I speak with you for a moment?" Gabriel said, having just entered the throne room. He had made his way to the throne room without even stopping to look at who or what was around him.
"You were here with Lady Lucy a few hours ago, am I right? What is it you want this time?" He sounded...furious. "Were you involved as well in the incident at the magic academy? Was it not enough to spread lies, that you also had to destroy one of our buildings!?"
"Sorry, your highness. But let me say that it was not our fault. You have the right to doubt me, and nothing I can say will change that, but I just need for you to hear me out."
"Speak then, child. I do not have time to play around."
"After leaving the castle, we walked along with Lucy to the magic academy, to talk to Chester. We found the place to be empty, save for a single room. Chester, along with 20 or so magic users waited for us there, and attacked us upon sight. We had no choice but to counter-attack."
"As the battle continued, the support pillars of the building were damaged, which eventually caused it to collapse. In the midst of battle, though, I heard him mention the name of Kraft. I am not sure what he said, but I am definitely sure that he mentioned his name."
"Is that it? No excuses about the destroyed academy?"
"None, sir. We were not the ones that started the battle inside, nor were we there for that reason. I have nothing else to say, your majesty. By your leave."
Gabriel turned around, walking through the front door of the throne room. What...would Laus do now? All they could do was march towards Ostia, looking for hope.
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Saffra
Dragon
The Winged Girl
Posts: 169
Lycia Fame: -1
Profession: Ill Omen
Affinity: Fire
Dragon Element: Ice
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Post by Saffra on Mar 18, 2010 21:18:07 GMT -6
Not much time had passed, had it? Saffra opened her eyes, looking up at the sky still amongst the flowers where she had fallen into. Her ears rang with the sounds of birds singing, but her body seemed to ache less now....and her mind was clearer than before. Slowly, shifting herself to her feet, Saffra looked around and gave a small yawn. She had only taken a nap for about 20 or so minutes, but now that she was up...she really had to do something about this dress.
Shuddering at the white cloth, that clung...well...the fact that it shaped her body nicely wasn't a bad thing, but she wanted something more proper. With a grin at the sight of a clothes store nearby, she sauntered herself inside, and did a bit of haggling about the price of a set piece of clothing, but eventually worked out something "reasonable." The clothes were a bit...revealing, much more so than a respectable lady would appear in, but Saffra was no lady.
Smirking at her clothes, Saffra made her way to the castle, having seen Gabriel move towards it. She figured she would say hello and accompany him, but he moved quickly, and she didn't feel like running. Shrugging her shoulders, Saffra went after him, until he entered the castle. By then, she was out of luck. Looking around, she followed the wall left of the doors until it lead to a secluded little alley. Looking both ways, Saffra's wing's sprouted, and with a mighty flap of her wings, she launched into the air, and over the walls with simple ease, and once she touched down, the wings disappeared like they never existed.
Castles were always less defended inside than they were among the outside, well, sometimes that is. As she settled behind a tree in the courtyard, she peeked about warily, seeing servants run about their duties, but the general look around the area warned that she had not been seen...thats a good thing. Taking one of the doors she had been through before, she made her way to the palace's throne room, and waited around a wall, since there were guards on the door.
It was a few minutes, Gabriel didn't seem to stay too long to chat, and when he came outside, Saffra waved at him, as she rounded the corner, hands on her hips, with a smile gracing her lips.
"Short talk..."
The way she said it was more of a murmur, but Saffra didn't linger on it for too long. Raising an eyebrow at Gabriel, she eyed the people that flowed through the hallways.
"Interesting thought...now that Lucy is out of action for the time being, that means you're in charge. So, did the Marquess promise aid?"
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Post by Gabriel on Mar 19, 2010 11:45:35 GMT -6
"Not exactly, sadly. And after the incident at the academy there's not much we can do about it" Gabriel said while approaching Saffra.
"I...don't like the idea of being in charge, though. There's a lot I still don't know, and I'm not sure I can handle an army myself. Sure, I've been second in command for a while, but Lucy gave most of the orders."
"For the time being it seems that all we can do is move to Ostia to assess the situation there, go back to Pherae and see what the marquess thinks about the entire situation. I...we are in no position to make decisions for ourselves. Not when it comes to something so big."
He looked around, and saw that Starlight had made her way to where he was. Maybe he should have tightened the knot of that rope he had used to tie her to a pole in the courtyard. "How are you, anyway? Feeling better? Even for...you it must have been hard to hold a collapsing building." He wanted to avoid the word 'dragon' at all costs. It wouldn't be a good idea for anyone to hear that.
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Saffra
Dragon
The Winged Girl
Posts: 169
Lycia Fame: -1
Profession: Ill Omen
Affinity: Fire
Dragon Element: Ice
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Post by Saffra on Mar 19, 2010 12:08:53 GMT -6
Saffra frowned at Gabriel, but she could understand his distress at the command, a little anyways. Her eyes followed where Gabriel's had went and saw the horse, giving a small chuckle as the loyal horse came trotting up, and Saffra made her way to it, catching the reins, and holding them out for Gabriel.
"I believe Rayl did say that Laus would be the most difficult to convince out of all the nations..."
Saffra trailed off as she looked at one of the guards who was walking by, staring at her with a raised eyebrow, mostly at the way she was dressed, and when their eyes connected, the man blushed an moved along. Saffra chuckled, and petted the cheek of the horse.
"I think you will do wonderful as a leader, Gabriel. Do not be afraid to ask for help though, even the strongest of men have moments of weakness, and asking for aid in trouble will not make you look weak. You have the rest of us to keep you strong, and I am sure everyone will follow you without question."
Flashing a smile as pleasantly as she could, she tried to think on how holding the building up had effected her. She was still in hurt, but she put on a brave face.
"As for the building...well...I'd be lying if I said I was perfectly okay. I feel like my body has been put through a clothes press. I still need some time to recuperate from the experience...but if I had to do it all over again, I would..."
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Yaen
Swordmaster
Prince of Blades Mad Swordsman
Now let's play the Song of Swords.
Posts: 305
Sacae Fame: 2
Bern Fame: 3
Lycia Fame: 1
Profession: Vagabond
Affinity: Thunder
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Post by Yaen on Mar 19, 2010 20:34:08 GMT -6
Yaen let out a heavy sigh, collapsing onto the closest bench. "What a day..." he mumbled, leaning back so that his face pointed heaven-ward. "Father Sky, what is this world coming to?" he asked. "A world where children fight men and a place of learning becomes a place of bloodshed. I shudder to think of such a world..."
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