The Law of the Battle [PM to join]

[Deleted]

Well, so far no massive armies had arrived to rescue them and none of the Scouring heroes had dropped out of the sky to provide a rallying point, so Lilly figured that this was about as much as they were going to get. Selk and Valclaud's timely arrival was certainly appreciated, though; without them the entire process would have been much messier, and their front line much shakier. Now - she felt that they had a good chance of making it through this assault unscathed. Without all of them dying, anyways. Lilly glanced furtively at Linius, feeling less than certain on a personal level about her plan to separate the two, but could not ignore the tactical advantage. They needed two knights at the gates in order to stop the coming charge, even if she would have preferred to be at his side than Alicia's; nothing against the Etrurian, at least nothing not already enumerated, but Linius was a bastion of strength and conviction in a world that was all too alien.

The first sign of the next wave came when two cavaliers cantered into the large clearing, noting the massive collection of bodies and lack of opponents wandering around. Scouts mostly likely, she thought while watching from one of the arrow slits. The rest of the force would be arriving not long behind. The moment of truth was fast approaching. Lilly found herself trembling a bit, in equal parts anticipation, stress, and fear; the last she had expected, the second seemed reasonable, but the first - whether it was the romantic concept of a noble last stand of good against the tides of evil, the realization of how many lives depended on her not making another terrible tactical mistake, or maybe the stress was just getting to her. "Hmmhmm."

She couldn't help but smile a little to herself, watching the column of troops arrive; the men Erica had mentioned, along with the cavalry that had likely been out scouting detached from the main group. The bandits seemed to have realized where they were, and were preparing for the inevitable assault. "Let them come, then, and we shall see whose justice reigns supreme." Her words were quiet, meant for no one but herself, but she could ill afford to waste more time. Whirling in place, Lilly stepped down from the opening, circling what appeared to be a permanently-ruined trebuchet as she approached the opening. "Valclaud, Sammi, it will be up to us to weaken their initial charge and perhaps wound the knights, the better to let our own hold the line."

-And they were charging, a cacophony of yells and battlecries that trumpeted through the air and echoed through the massive room. "Fire at will."

A ball of fire sailed over their own knights, arcing towards the coming force as another followed close in its wake before the mage moved towards her own smaller group. She could spare a few moments for fire support for the primary threat.

[Sorry for the wait. Originally just wanted to give everyone a chance to post+wait for a PM response, but neither happened, I got sick, and then my inspiration went to hell when I tried to post on Tuesday. Finally forcing something out - apologies for lack of quality, but I gotta post SOMETHING. Do whatcha gotta do with the fireballs and the charging dudes - leaving this bit of the fight entirely in your hands.]

BATTLE SOUNDTRACK

[Annie]

If she'd had her Fire tome, Annie would have probably tried to blast her way through the walls of the fort already. Instead, the bastards who'd captured her had been smart enough to take it away, and she was stuck listening to the lewd comments of her jailor. Thankfully, he appeared to be leaving. From what the young mage could gather, a group of people were attacking them. She hoped those people would let her out, but a better opportunity came knocking in the form of three more, led by the biggest bandit she'd ever seen. More importantly, they had her tome.

"Looks like today's yer lucky day, girly." Annie would have attempted to strangle him through the bars, but she didn't think her hands would fit around his neck. "These folks invadin' don't seem to be so effected by normal weapons. So ya fry 'em, and we's'll letcha go afterwerds."

She stopped herself from instantly agreeing to attempt to barter for her other possessions. "What about my food and clothes and bedroll? Can I have those back, too?" The man agreed on the same logic that she'd thought he would: none of it was valuable, besides her money itself. And if it looked like the bandits might lose, she'd turn coat and reclaim that, too.

"Give it here, then." The leader grinned a jagged smile. "I thoughtcha'd see it our way." The big guy left then, leaving one lackey unlocking her cell, and the other handing her the Fire tome. From these two, she received instructions to join the main group and stand with the archers. The group was on it's way out once she got there, and a fireball landed right in front of her, scorching one of them badly. Not bothering to move forward past the archers, Annie threw one back at them, or in that general direction. It looked like there were a few heavily-armored knights in front, a male and female magic user and a pegasus knight. There may have been more, but she couldn't really see past the melee group and archers too well. She charged another and sent it flying in what she thought was the direction of the male magic user, since she hadn't hit him yet and didn't know what kind of magic he was using.

Also because most magic users were somewhat resistant to magic, and this way she could 'help' without doing much actual damage to the invading group. They had women among them, after all, unlike her unruly former captors. It made her a bit sad to see that the archers she was with seemed to realize that she couldn't be trusted; they kept checking on her, and so she couldn't 'accidentally' set one of them on fire. Turning her attention back to the small group, Annie charged up her next fireball and aimed for the male magic user again.

[Valclaud]

Dodging the first ball of fire directed at him was easy; the second one just annoyed him. The good news is he has the upper hand in the battle of magic: Dark magic like his is more powerful than anima magic. Charging up his own attack, Valclaud hurled it at the girl but missed, engulfing the head of the archer next to her. [white]Maybe then she'll not fire at me,[/white] he thought to himself as he set another attack at the group marching towards them. Since magical attacks aren't effected by armor or that, it's little wonder why Valclaud was able to hit a knight in his forearm. When the archers started to fire at him he started to dodge them, most of them missing but one buried itself in Valclaud's shoulder deep.

The pain he felt was enormous; it felt like someone nailed a screw into his shoulder and twisted it around along with it. That added to his already strange and violent behavior, he felt anger and happiness, pain and jolly, and cruel and happy. As a big grin smile began to to add with a laughter starting to grow on his face, a pentagram symbol started to highlight it's self around him, crackling with dark energy. Forming a flux ball with both his hands Valclaud focused all his anger and hatred at the archers and let go. Due to the rage, the flux hit the wall its self, shaking the wall abit.

[Linius]

Linius readied his shield at the sign of the enemy's approach. "Prepare yourself, lad. The fight is about to begin." he warned. He didn't like this. Not one bit. It wasn't because he was fighting along youths he barely knew. It wasn't even because they were obviously outnumbered. No, what bothered Linius was that he could not be at Lilliane's side. Instead, he had to trust her protection to people he'd only known since this morning. How could he live with himself if his Lady was injured, or worse?

The knight shook the thought from his head. Now was not the time to worry about others. He had enough to worry about. At that moment, it was almost ironic that he recalled an old passage he had once read. He could not remember if it had been from a ballad or a novel or an excerpt from history, but it was fitting enough. "The wolves come scratching at the gates." he said, almost a murmur to himself. "They bark and howl into the night. They claw and scratch and snap their jaws at the door. Let them in. Open to them the gates, that they may charge into the depths of hell, for that is all that they will find here in!"

The knight stepped forward, but remained within the safely enclosed space of the gate walls. This was where he would make his stand. Here, with this young man he had never known, who after this he may never know. Here, where they could only strike head on, where his shield would absorb their blows and his lance would deal them death in kind. Linius could feel the blows against his shield as the bandits fell upon him. The axe bounced away, chipping at the thick metal barrier, only to be repaid with a thrust from the knights lance, impaling his would-be attacker. "Push them back! Not one will enter!"

[Selk Mar]

Selk watched their foes approach from the only potential attack point. In a matter of seconds the sounds of battle sprang to life, the chaos of combat engulfing them all. Selk heard Linius's words ringing in his ear just before blasts of varied magics flew over their heads alongside arrows from behind them. That feeling that was becoming more and more familiar with each passing day washed over Selk as he shifted his weight to one side, letting the blade of one of their attackers deflect harmlessly off his armor.

"Well said!" Selk made his words short, as there was little time for them now that the battle was fully begun. He did quite enjoy what his fellow knight had said, though. It really put him in the mood for a fight. The sound of metal clashing with metal echoed through the room as the sword bounced away from Selk's armor. He thrust his lance toward the side of the swordsman that had failed in attacking him.

The enemy mages weren't too wise as far as an infiltration strategy went. Either that or they weren't concerned with getting inside because they weren't trying to take out himself and Linius. That was just fine with him. He didn't want to get burned again anyway.

[Verys]

The walls shook with some imperceptible force, and Verys felt like she matched the fury of whatever attack had caused the disruption as she struggled violently against her shackles, shrieking. Bandits. A head shaman of the Ryerdan circle had been overtaken by bandits. Verys could taste her last meal (a day earlier) at the thought. Her blood was boiling with fury and anxiety, her hands were hot like in fever. How could she let this happen? It was pathetic. She was was pathetic.

Verys was following a lead, a whisper she pursued on a prayer, for the whereabouts of her Marquess in this village. One would assume she would be accustomed to the fair lifestyle and practices, hailing from a Sacaen tribe, but she found the close intimacy between the people... disturbing. Kaiyek treated all Kaiyek as siblings, but they did not suggest to know of everyone in the tribe. It was their way, and was one of the few social mannerisms Verys had kept in her heart.

She had not been stolen away in battle. She had little currency, and had done as Sacaens often too- hopped a fence, broke a lock, and made use of the property someone had left for the animals. She felt more comfortable with the horses, regardless. People were dangerous, unconcerned, merciless- unpredictable.

In the night, the bandits had either found her or she had found them- perhaps by chance it was an alcove or storage yard of theirs. It didn't matter. They had her tied up like a pig to slaughter before she had even started awake. They had found her tomes, her books, her beads and dolls and things that would make one very convinced of another's allegiance to the elder magics. She cursed herself for carrying so many things with her on her journey, and that she would have had time to return to her rooms after she had found Lillianne to retrieve her more personal useless pieces of junk..

but somehow she didn't see herself returning, even without the former Marquess.

Shaman were rare, limited, and easily corruptible. It was something Verys herself had acknowledged, although she hated to admit how weak and impressionable her kind was. Such was the nature of things. The bandits had expected to turn her for a price, or maybe force her to objectives of their own. She would not give them a reason to believe otherwise. Verys was not stupid. They had seen the off color of her skin, and she didn't think they were interested in anything other than the thick books they couldn't read (but she could).

She seethed and berated herself inwardly for not hearing them enter, but wouldn't dare tread on shaking grounds with these creatures. She would bide her time. There was too many of them, and although she could break the binds with force magic she was not entirely sure she could fend the entire horde off after she had been freed- so held still and silent for their examination and petty remarks until one of the bandits had ripped her delicate and treasured shawl from her head, and she just couldn't help biting down on his fingers as he pulled it rather intentionally over her dirty face. That is what earned her the raised welt on the side of her neck, which was becoming particularly bothersome as it pressed against the damp tile of this fortified building she was being held captive in.

Oh, she knew better. This trip had done nothing but confirm that the rest of the world was as harsh as she had left it when she joined the academy.

As she was mulling over her character fallacies, the battle begun. Voices grew and fell as the men rushed back and forth between the halls, banging doors, yelling. And the walls shook with dissipated magic, a familiar aftershock. Unmistakable. Someone had gone to war with her captors. Perhaps she would join them.

Verys heard the men enter the makeshift holding area. Not that this was difficult, considering the loud clanking of metal and crashing of heavy boots against stone they seemed intent on projecting. There was a girl, another mage, in the cage behind her. She had been painfully hog-tied since her arrival, and hadn't seen the girl or heard much else besides her shaking breath. She was smart too.

The bandits had come for the girl. "Looks like today's yer lucky day, girly."

"These folks invadin' don't seem to be so affected by normal weapons. So ya fry 'em, and we's'll letcha go afterwerds."

The girl, Verys sensed, would take her chance. It did not take a seer to see this was not a sound strategy on their part. Your slave fighting for an enemy, that from the sounds of it, may easily take this castle? What arrogance. Even the weakest mage could, given the best opportunity, obliterate and entire line of combatants. And there is no opportunity quiet like the turned shoulder.

So where was her chance at such an acquittal? Verys wasn't a proud creature by nature, but in such rage she found some solace in the idea that the bandits feared her. Or at least thought her too dangerous or too valuable to be allowed to earn her freedom. The bandits said something Verys didn't completely understand (nor did she want to, frankly) and left laughing, boots pounding as haphazardly as the shaking of the building under assault.

She did not like being helpless. Magic itched at her fingertips, ached her numb shoulders. But she knew better. Once these combatants had breached the walls, she would attempt to free herself. Promise aid. They would help her. She had a feeling.

She was patient. It was one of her better traits.



[[TL;DR Verys is captured, everyone proceed as planned and she'll attempt plan JAIL BREAK when you breach the castle. Also I don't write a novel for every post I actually like it a lot shorter this just got away from me SORRY SORRY]]

[Annie]

Annie had to step back and catch her breath at this point. Despite what non-mages thought, it wasn't exactly easy to throw fireballs left and right. She managed to toss another at the pegasus knight through the gap the fallen archers had made, and then took a few more steps back just in case she decided to come after her.

Through her gasping breaths, she tried to assess the situation. The invaders were doing some good damage, but it was still unclear who would win. With her head still down, she raised the hand that wasn't on her knee to summon another one into the fray. The resulting scream made her realize that she hadn't watched where it landed, and had apparently hit one of the melee combatants on the bandits' side. 'Whoops'

Using the wall to stand upright again, she blasted the now-enemy myrmidon running towards her. 'Well, now's as good a time to turn coat as any, I suppose.' Honestly, it had baffled her that they thought tying a young girl up, stealing her possessions, and threatening to rape her was actually a good way to find allies. She didn't have any more time to laugh at them, however, as the swordsman managed to limp up and slice at her. He missed, but the archer who'd decided to target her didn't, and Annie took a rather painful arrow to the shoulder.

She put her arm forward and finished off the myrmidon, purposely using enough magic that the force of it landed her on her ass, which was good, considering the arrow that went flying over her head a moment afterward. Unfortunately, she was now fairly tired from the rapid-fire spells, and couldn't avoid getting another in the calf. She delayed her next attack so as to incinerate the incoming arrow, but the bastard still wasn't dead...

[Sammi]

In all of the rage of the ongoing battle, Sammi took to a tree which gave her a good enough range of the enemy line of archers and magic users which would give her more of an accurate shot, considering she was smaller than most of them. Valclaud had already started attacking some of the archers, and there was a girl to her right who she didn't know was working her way through, but looked injured. "Is she on our side?" she wondered to herself. She shook the thought away. Focus.

She shot the closest one within range to her right, in the calf. It took him a few moments to notice where the hell the arrow came from. The girl to her right looked like she was screwed, so Sammi shot her attacker in the back which made him lay off her. The other archer had regained his focus, and aimed his arrow at her. She deflected the first one with her bow, and climbed to a slightly higher branch which hopefully would provide more concealment. However she had no time to rest because she had barely made a dent in the enemy line, and the battle was far from over.

[Deleted]

[Alright. Half the people in the damn topic have gone afk forever or some crap, so I'm just going to power on THROUGH THE FIRE AND THE FLAMES no but seriously if you want to carry on, follow Lilly into the lair.]

The horrific screech of rusted metal rang through the crowded room, a clarion call of anguish as the inner porticulus laboriously rose, portending the flow of flesh from further within the castle. Lillianne spun on her heels, pivoting towards the source of the noise, barely taking in the rustling in the shadows within as she registered the incoming threat - and opportunity. She had been right after all; the remaining bandits inside the fort had indeed decided to come to the aid of their fellows, offering death and salvation in equal parts dependent solely on their ability to take the inner castle.

It was raw luck that the arrow impacted the rotting wood mere inches from her rather than lancing through an eye socket, but it was adrenaline and training in equal parts that kept her from flinching, from panicking. The congealed magic in her palm burst into flame as Lilly's eyes flickered to the most likely - ah, yes, one of the doors that had been so carefully barred earlier. Focused on the battle, she saw opportunity, rather than danger; the mass of flame left her hand a mere instant before she broke into a dead run, covering the intervening half-dozen meters and shoulder-checking the stunned archer only a few seconds after the fireball itself had landed, sending the squirming mass of screaming archer and snarling Lycian through the doorway in a misshapen lump.

It was just another disorienting jolt in a day that seemed to be full of them, but even so Lilly felt herself sway precipitously for a moment as she pulled herself off her victim's chest, using the opportunity to incinerate his throat as a method to focus her own mind on something other than losing consciousness. The screaming cut off into a bubbling gurgle, then blessed silence broken only by the hissing as flesh melted... and the din of battle without.

But she had found another entrance.

Lillianne clung to that fact as she hauled herself upright, silently grateful that the door was solid enough to provide something to hold onto while her world continued to blur. A more cautious commander might have considered the defense more critical, but where others might have seen a precipitous disarray of their forces, she saw only opportunity. Her voice swelled with command, ringing through the room as a vague plan sprang into motion; her forces seemed to be holding their own, winning even, but they would be hard pressed to claim the porticulus before the bandits could close it again, and then the day would have been lost even if the battle had not. It was beyond critical that they seize the opportunity before it passed them by.

"Linius!" It was not the tone he had heard so often in their travels since her departure from Ryerde, cracked and weak, but projected from deep in her chest with absolute certainty, the words of an orator, a general. "-With me." Perhaps she could have called on Alicia, perhaps she could have called on Laertes or Selk Mar or Valclaud, but - it only felt right if Linius was there, and she trusted only him with her life.

[OOC: she's relying on Linius to give any last-minute commands, likely along the lines of disengaging and reinforcing their lines, to the AFK people. For anyone who IS interested in continuing this RP - join her and Linius in heading through the door and we'll get the real trouble started. You can just say that you finished off with the opponents in the immediate vicinity or wanted to watch the paint in the fort dry or WHATEVER]

[Linius]

Linius rose his shield to repel another attacker, rose his lance to kill another foe, when above the sound of clashing steel and burning wood and dying men, he heard one distinctive voice, one absolute command. Looking down to his frightened enemy, Linius impaled him upon his lance. He had said that this was where his stand was to be made, but that no longer mattered to him. His Lady needed him. "Fall back!" he roared above the chaos, raising his shield to guard his retreat. "Fall back to the walls!"

Looking out over the wall, he could see that there was barely anything left at all. They had claimed the outer sanctum. "Follow me inside, or remain here and keep guard. The choice is yours." he stated, looking at the motley band through his visor. "As for me, I go to my Lady." Nodding to them, the knight ventured into the porticulus behind Lillianne.

"My Lady." Linius interjected, reaching out an arm to halt Lillianne. "Allow me to walk before you. Our enemy stands ahead of us, my armor and shield cannot protect you from behind." he explained. The fight had reminded him of days long passed, but he had not forgotten his duty. He was not a mercenary, he was a vassal. His place was not in the charge, but at his Lady's side, ready to give his own life to defend hers. "Your orders, my Lady. I am at your command."

[Annie]

Annie hadn't realized that her eyes were scrunched shut, but apparently they had been as they snapped back open when she heard someone call for a retreat. Most of the bandits were down, and she thought she could still manage enough fireballs to make it to the other side of the room, and rejoin with what was now the rest of her side. It'd be awkward explaining her situation to them, but hopefully not as fatal as staying with the bandits would end up.

'I can't be hit again; that'd be the end of the line.' With this thought, she used the wall to pull herself to her feet. The enemy had apparently taken her for dead, judging by the surprised looks on their faces when they caught fire, even after the lady mage ('Now that I think about it, that woman must be the leader of the invaders; how auspicious for me!') had already gone. She couldn't quite sprint with an arrow in her leg, but she did manage to limp out the door relatively quickly. The remaining bandits were either too injured or at least in too pain to follow.

Once she'd passed and gotten out of the line of any fire, she collapsed with her back to the wall, and reached into where her bag would normally be for the vulnerary inside, only to realize that she hadn't gotten it back. No one seemed to be asking her any questions yet, thankfully, so she pulled the arrow out of her shoulder with a wince, and attempted to stop the bleeding with her scarf in the meantime.

[Valclaud]

Looking around with a dumb expression on his face, Valclaud took notice of EVERYTHING ON FIRE. Bringing back painful memories, he made a mad dash to one of the doors, oblivious to everything going on around him, even dodging a couple attacks from bandits still alive. Diving headfirst into one of the entrances, Valclaud took a moment to kiss the soot and dirty floor before spitting it out.

Looking around, he noticed the girl from before slumped against a wall. She was throwing fire balls at him earlier, and now she's injured; how ironic. Waking over, Valclaud squatted next to her and poked at her wound before asking her a ridiculous question with a pluzzed look on his face. [white]"So, am I suppose to kill you now or what? Because it seems kinda pointless now since you're not being a artillery of flame and death now."[/white] Reaching into his sachel, Valclaud pulled out a vulnerary and offered it to her, with a smile on his face. [white]"Here. you don't seem like that bad of a person, so how does this sound; we become friends? I won't have to decide whether or not to kill you, and we can see what else is in this place?"[/white]

[Deleted]

Lilly stared blankly at Linius's arm for a moment, not quite sure when that had happened; it took his full explanation to jolt her from her reverie, reminding her that she was actually not immune to being lopped in half, stabbed, impaled, feathered, or otherwise uncomfortably murdered. A touch embarassed, but more significantly furious at herself for getting so caught up in the moment that she had forgotten the basic concept of not dying, Lillianne nodded quietly, her head lowered as much to hide the momentary flush of embarassment as any acknowledgement of his words. She thanked him mentally for reminding her of the importance of not focusing too much on one goal to the exclusion of all else - the excitement of her first major engagement, the possibility of ensuring their entrance to the castle, had momentarily caught her off-guard.

The fight outside seemed to be dying down, which was equal parts auspicious and worrying, but the majority of her impromptu army was engaged fighting the forces sallying forth from within the gate, leaving only a few to follow her in. Yes, perhaps it would be wise to not walk alone into a heavily guarded militarized fortress.

Yeah, Lilly decided - if she ever had to explain this to historians, she had most assuredly waited patiently for a full team before venturing inside, never losing track of her ultimate goal.

The sight of a mess of blue hair that wasn't hers caught the Lycian mage's attention, though, a moment of confusion - they hadn't had anyone else with blue hair, had they? - followed by the realization that, no, they hadn't recruited what appeared to be another mage. Something that the shaman boy, what was his name, seemed determined to remedy. Valclaud. Lillianne found her assessment of the boy rising a few notches as he made a valiant effort to act like a decent human being, offering the wounded girl aid in her time of need. Or maybe he was just buttering her up to cannibalize her. Was that something shamans did? Probably. Maybe. She should at least try to make sure they had one more little helper before heading in.

She closed in on the younger duo with a friendly smile, taking in as much as she could of the scene in the interim; shoulder wound, fair bit of bleeding - might interfere with casting, but the girl could still prove useful. She certainly didn't look like a bandit, anyways, and... now that the older mage thought about it, hadn't she been fighting bandits or something outside? She hadn't been paying the closest attention to the events outside, but there had been more fire out there that wasn't her own, and they could certainly use another mage. Besides, no one who had blue hair AND was a mage could be that terrible of a person!

"Aren't you a touch too pretty to be a bandit?" The words came out completely unfiltered by her brain, accompanied by an amused half-smile as Lilly rested one hand on her hip, dropping into a crouch after a momentary pause to be closer to the girl's eye level. She wasn't entirely sure where the hell that had come from, but found herself agreeing with the sentiment almost immediately; the girl just didn't look like a bandit at all according to anything she knew of them. Most were ex-military or scoundrels anyways, with a proportionally low female population, and they didn't exactly hire children on a regular basis. She did know how to use Fire, though, so she could prove handy.

"If you aren't too badly hurt, we could use some help smoking out the rest of the bandits - we're here by the request of the locals to purge the bandit infestation plaguing the countryside." Spurred by a momentary idea, Lilly put a hand on each young magic user's shoulders, avoiding Annie's bad shoulder. "If not, I understand, but you should get out of here as soon as you can - it won't be safe for noncombatants. We've punched a hole through their front lines; if you wait a bit it should be safe to escape." She cocked her head towards the shaman, acknowledging his work in hope of spurring more of it in the future. "Thank you, Valclaud, for helping her."

Lillianne rose abruptly, recoiling to the balls of her feet as her mind shifted into overdrive. If the girl did join, that would bring them up to - four, anyways. Hopefully enough.

[OOC: the bandit forces have been decimated, but not entirely destroyed; that said, most of the original headcount is dead. The remaining bandits in the fortress are mostly engaged in the battle for the porticulus - I'll leave it up to people how many we run into inside the fort. Generally speaking the only major goal we have IC right now is finding and claiming the gate control room, which will probably be the last major skirmish I have scheduled for this chapter - after that there is ONLY WAR: BOSS BATTLE INCOMING.

...but yeah for now, a second of R&R, then going through castle looking for final boss lair. I'm guessing that we should save the looting for after we conquer ALL OF THE THINGS (and post in the loot topic?) but can explore the fortress and weed out bandits in the meantime.]

[Sammi]

As the outer forces died down, Sammi took the moment to catch her breath and take in what had been going on around her. She had heard Lillianne call for Linius from a distance, but she knew she had to focus. Now that it was over, she picked up the arrows scattered around the field. She moved closer to Lillianne and saw that her gaze was fixed on the girl that she had noticed earlier. And the shaman boy, Valclaud.

Sammi figured that she was not a bandit by the way she looked, and trusting people was one of her better traits. She went over to where the blue-haired girl, Lillianne, and Valclaud were standing. She wanted to know more about this girl and where she had come from.

"Hey, my name is Sammi. What can I call you?" she asked the girl. She noticed that although she was wounded she seemed to be healing. Lilly had acknowledged that Valclaud had helped her when she was wounded considering the fact that she had been attacking him. Maybe there was more to him than she thought.

[Annie]

The male shaman was the first to talk to her, to her annoyance. "I'm still a artillery of flame and death...just not aiming at you anymore." But the vulnerary he was offering didn't really leave room for her to be rude, so she appended with, "But we're on the same side now, so we're allies at least."

Whilst taking care of injury on her leg, she learn that his name was apparently Valclaud, and then blue-haired mage lady whose name Annie did not know began asking her questions. She did not answer the first question, as she felt it was completely obvious that she was too pretty to be a bandit, but spoke up for the next few. "They kidnapped me, stole my possessions, and then brought me out to help fight in exchange for my freedom when you guys broke in. Since I still need my things, I'd be glad to help you clear them out." Well, it could be worse; at least she didn't have to fight under a man to get revenge on these guys. 'Besides, the lady reminds me of Mom, a little bit, if Mom were actually a mage and about fifteen years younger. ...On second thought, maybe not. Well, no blue-haired female mage could be a horrible person, right?'

At this point, the girl archer who'd been nice enough to save her earlier introduced herself, making her the first to do so, including Annie herself. "I'm Anna, but usually go by Annie unless I feel particularly fancy." She stood back up, healed except for a small scar on her shoulder. Her scarf was still sticky with blood, though. Yuck.

"Well, what next, then? Charge in, fulfill whatever duty you have to the villagers, and then I take my stuff back?" She should probably also trade for Valclaud her brand-new medical supplies, since she'd used his. She didn't say anything about it though, so as to make herself seem cooler when the time came.