The faerin’s hand stopped shaking when Luthien gave it a firm squeeze. Meriam squeezed back, desperately searching for reassurance and comfort amid a brewing storm in her heart. She felt as if the boat that was her heart was about to capsize and at that moment, it seemed like Luthien and the group were the only beacons to help her navigate the emotional storm.
“Mm… I know,” she said with a shaky voice.
When Ash approached the two security personnel guarding the entrance into his team’s tent, he spotted a third person just finishing her round and made it to where he and her colleague were.
"...did something happen? I didn't expect to see guards here…”
“Yeah, we’re following the captains’ order to keep you guys safe. The Commander said that you guys were involved in something bad and that we need to keep an eye on you and stop you from going out because you’re being targetted by the Dragonship enemies?” one of the guardsmen said.
The patrol woman chimed in,
“Not sure how those Magitech enemies are going to be able to infiltrate a place that’s as armed to the teeth as our camp,”
“Yeah. Still… it’s what our orders are. Oh hey, are you Ash Vargold? You’re also on the protection list, so you’re welcome to head in and catch up with your friend. You guys can also get some rest. We’ll protect you to the best of our ability. It’s been a long night, hasn’t it?” the third guardsman checked a list before nodding to Ash’s request.
The moment Ash pulled the entrance flap open, however, a woman sprinted up to the three security staff panting and gasping for air. She was completely in disarray as she shouted at her coworkers,
“H-hey!! Big trouble! Hhha… hhhaa…”
“Huh? What’s going on?” the patrol woman asked as the new addition to their team raised a hand and gestured for them to wait while she caught her breath.
“The Lions… hhhah… they are arresting the Commander on the suspicion of treason against Astorea. A-a lot of our people are fighting them off though because there is no way he’s a traitor. No way in hell he would ever go against the nation. Haaahhh… Come on, we need to go and fight them off. They said they have incriminating evidence in the form of his letter correspondence to Falderen and there are people who also have evidence of his dealings like gold and ledgers. I think it’s all bullshit, how would all of these random people have access to all the evidence?”
Two of the three readily stepped forward, intending to leave with the messenger. The patrol woman, however, stayed behind.
“Sorry… I don’t think I want to get involved with this… in case it does turn out that the Commander is a traitor. I don’t think I can risk mine and my family’s welfare for something that could turn out badly.”
The three shook their head.
“You gotta do what you gotta do. Hey, Travelers, between enemies looking for you and uh, camp conflicts, you should probably disappear for your own sake. We won’t be able to help you if anything were to go down,” the man spoke before he and his compatriots headed toward the direction of the Commander’s tent with their weapons drawn.
The patrol woman, however, abandoned her post and headed the opposite direction from where the others went, abandoning Ash, Luthien, and Meriam to themselves.
“What is going on…?” Meriam muttered as her squeeze on Luthien’s hand became as tight as her heart.
Something was amiss.
As the three headed off, Ash noticed some droplets of blood on their path (2d100 (Disadvantage) (
50, 4) + 35 = 39) while a headache was beginning to form within the overexerted Luthien (2d100 (Disadvantage) (
39, 2) + 15 - 25 = -8)
(OOC: If Ash or Luthien wanted to speak to them before their departure, they may do so in the comms thread so long as it’s a brief conversation.)
~ ✦ ~
While she was interacting with Rael, the bomber-woman overheard Kyra speaking to herself, recounting how she was arrested and thrown into jail where she talked with a… how did the purple-haired girl describe it? A
possibly disillusioned schizophrenic, was it? The woman popped a vein on her head listening to Kyra mouthing off about her. She didn’t respond, however. She was used to people being unable to see things from her point of view.
The bomber woman leaned closer to read what Rael wrote before she took the letter with the seal attached to it after spending minutes studying every single minute detail of the letter. At one point when she heard Kyra talking about someone named Sven, she didn’t even bat an eye as she continued her inspection.
After what felt like an eternity, the bomber-woman lifted her head to see Rael gesturing for her for a handshake so she could pass a note. The bomber-woman, however, grabbed onto Rael’s hand pulled her against the bars separating them and whispered in a voice low enough that the yawning guard would not overhear her.
“Heh, nice try... You gals thought you could trick me by forging something like this? I’ll commend the effort you had put into almost matching Norn’s handwriting and seal, but I have spent an entire day memorizing everything about his quest letter and the seal. Anyways. It’s really humorous, but can we stop the joke and get me out of here already I have a war to stop.”
At that time, whether or not Rael was aware of it, her [Marked] status subtly blinked as its description transformed.
[ Marked: You have been seen (???) ]
[ Marked: You have been seen (Teleported) ]
Immediately afterward, the elf would have seen something shiny emerging from her field of vision, and in a fraction of a second, a fully bandaged arm extended plunging an ornate short sword through the woman’s chest before it turned the blade sideways. Dark magic activated and blew her lungs and a segment of her crimson-stained spine against the wall. Considering the fact that Rael still had perfect vision after the arm, it was likely some kind of advanced displacement teleportation ability.
One cough later, blood oozed from the woman’s mouth as she fell backward as blood began to rush into the abscess.
Moments later, a dark silhouette could be seen standing above the woman’s body. It was Vern, with glowing red spell circles in his eyes.
By the time Rael saw him, he was already in the motion of thrusting his blade toward Rael.
Her vision was completely red.
By the time Kyra, who was focusing on typing in her UI, had realized what had just happened, the same sword headed directly for her, but she somehow managed to dodge out of the way.
Before he could take another step toward Kyra to finish the job, he found himself held in place by the bomber-woman who had somehow managed to wrap her arms around his leg. With her last hollowed breath, she formed four breathless syllables with her bloody mouth at Kyra, spelling out:
"HELP. DRA. GON. SHIP."
Vern grimaced as he threw his other leg against the woman’s head, but however much force he put into it, he could not get her to let go.
“Fuck…!!!” Vern growled as the woman began glowing.
-BOOOOOOM!!!-
A blinding and deafening explosion erupted in that cell, taking a massive chunk of the prison and would have dusted the assassin had it not been for a dark shield around him.
The explosion blew away most of his bindings and dented the metallic component of his armor, revealing the cuts all over his face and body that were previously hidden with his wrappings.
They looked a lot like the wounds the group had received while inside Magi Heart’s scrying vision.
He was there.
After he recovered from the explosion, he disappeared into Kyra’s left eye as her status too transformed as Rael’s had. There, she saw that it was beginning to tick down.
[ Marked: You have been seen (Teleported - Expires in 00:379:11) ]
In fact, if Luthien had the mind to check her UI, her status too would have displayed:
[ Marked: You have been seen (Observed - Expires in 00:141:08) ]
