Sutoratosu

The spider looks at the woman hesitantly, but soon enough nods her head in agreement. She knew from her years with the Squid, and her encounters here with the Star Dragon and the White One that Telepathy was one of the few avenues that actually worked... well, truth be told, she'd done more listening with the squid than actually sending her own messages; it was thanks to the Dragon she'd finally figured out a way to get around the mental block. Aurora took a weary step toward the mage, making what seemed to be an obvious effort to avoid the sunlight, but in truth was more because the shade cut the searing heat of this realm, perhaps not by terribly much, but still enough to make it better than being out in the open.

Aurora shakes her head, grasping at her throat and motioning as if someone was trying to tear it out, a slight growl of frustration accompanying the demonstration. Oddly enough, it seemed the curse didn't care much for silencing her baser noises- none of the chirping or purring, snarls or hisses or roars. Even odder, it'd been obvious to her, somewhere in the back of her mind, that there was some Linguistic value to it all in the end, some type of primal tongue that she clearly knew, yet none of the others she'd encountered seemed to. At this point, she saw no real point in even trying it anymore... the woman would likely see no more of an intelligible meaning in the sounds than any of the others had.

"I see..." she said, dropping the end she held, "yeah, I... hadn't exactly pegged him as being too friendly, from the times I've seen him with you...just... has that feeling about him I guess..." that was the understatement of the year though- she'd already been warned by the Anima long before this not to approach that pegasus, it hadn't been so much of a feeling, as a bunch of nagging little voices constantly discouraging the idea whenever relevant. "And no, no, don't... apologize, I know you have to do this. I....I don't know... I just...something about someone being this... close..." she paused, sighing. The anima silently whispered in the background, talks of old times, of the trials, not even that long passed, not even finished, technically. Talks of her, the beast, the killer. A part of Cadence wanted to listen in on them, but so many more parts of her knew it would only be for the worse... tch, pathetic. Even with all her talk and resolution about 'Freedom', she was still just a cowering little girl before the mere memory of the beast. "I guess... I... always assume something bad's coming, some type of strike or punishment or... just some vague threat I'll have to react to. I.... I don't know why. Doesn't matter where I am, who's doing it; It's just the first thing I always jump to, in the back of my mind, like it's... automatic or something. It just... always happens before I even realize it is. I know you're just doing your job though, Rayne... that you don't mean any harm. I'm sorry that I probably haven't been making it any easier for you..."

"Uh-I...I...tch, fine..." Cadence sighed, feeling her own cheeks flush. Even though it was just a necessary part of the work being done, having someone poke around her like this still put her on edge, even with Rayne taking as much care as she was. Never really liked being touched that much, really, made her a bit... jumpy, regardless where or who it actually came from. It just always set off that instinctive anticipation of whatever was about to come, made her tense up and brace for impact, especially so if she wasn't expecting it. Regardless though, She took the tape and did as Rayne asked, drifting her gaze off to the side, mostly to put her mind elsewhere as the tailor continued her work... "If you...really must. This... isn't going to take much longer though, is it?" ((37x28x36))

"Alright then..." Maya nodded, turning back to the rider. "Lead the way. And let's keep an eye out for any shops offering Staves, while we're there."

The spider opened her mouth, as if to respond, but paused and shook her head. She'd been literally burned enough times to know better of conversation, even now she could feel the curse beginning to flare pre-emptively. Instead, all she did as the woman walked closer was point a single jet black leg out of the shadows and used it to gesture towards the Fortress in the distance, then back at herself.

perplexed by much of the nonsense going on, Tesla briefly registered the heavily cloaked woman with a modicum of recognition, it was hard not to... ever since Lord had ascended, a few others had followed over the past few years to, the being known as Wine just being the fourth... the other chicks though- Blink, was that what the other Tempest native called one of em? -she'd never seen before either in person or via broadcast... Then there was the seamless transference of the ruleset into her mind, and then the mechs...it was... odd... almost familiar... she could feel the energy, the static in the air, as if her Storm Core was fully active, but yet... the mech itself was nowhere to be seen. She dismissed it, and the static was gone, right along with the detection of the EM fields. Then she repeated the summoning process, and lo and behold, same thing, static and intense EMs all across her mind field, yet no tangible mech. What could....? Wait... Wait...no... no it couldn't be... Watcher... the same effect he had used on them all those years ago- she may not have been conscious to actually see it as it began back then, but still... Was he around? Why would he be here? So much stuff here that needing answering... for now she felt it better to just stay put, let the situation develop a little bit more... Tesla Holds

Cheyrn "Gods fucking damnit..." Cheryn sighed under her breath. Her eyes still burned with the faint glow of crimson radiation, alone in the room. Getting yelled at because ya fucked was one thing, continuing to be yelled at and berared even after you admitted you were wrong was another- not that she'd actually cared about anything the seer bitch had said before she stormed out of the room. Yeah, fine, it was a bad idea to release the kid right then, she got it the first damn time. For Lord's Fucking sake, for a minute she thought it was mom standing there... But whatever, it had still accomplished what she wanted, at least now, they were actually doing something again instead of standing around fucking talking. She'd meant it earlier, about how they were wasting time- if only because she wanted to hurry up and get the damn job done rather than any real concern the others would get into too deep of a mess as decoys... "Hmph... I'm pretty sure she might stomp a mud hole into me bigger than the crater of a Fat Man though...all things considered..." as pissed as merlin had looked, she was honestly abit nervous to go showing her face again right now. The elder Mage was usually pretty chill, but... what she just saw... that was like a whole different woman entirely, right down the aura she emitted as she'd stormed out and torn the door down... Yeah...no... she wasn't gonna risk it. Better to go and search for the kid and Blink- she'd seen a lot of weird stuff since she'd started training with the Round Table, but she had to admit, even Wisp Boy was a new one. Still, he had a decent head start on her and the ability to apparently go through walls... that would complicate finding him a little, but... was still better than potentially enduring the wrath of the Elder mage. That and the further away she was from Ms.Emotional Meltdown right now, the better. Without much more thought to it, she headed out of the room, not really sure where the hell the two had gone but certain enough from how the kid had gone through the wall it was probably somewhere relatively near... maybe an adjacent room further down one of the corridors...or something. Screw it, it was a better lead than nothing.

"Hmmm? oh... sure, sure..." Maya said idly, finally returning her attention to the Rider and the thief. Interesting story, how the Ironhands had fallen and the lone sage had taken their ancestral seat and all their lands with just a bit of ingenuity and wit where they had failed. Not interesting enough to have drawn her into what was obviously a tourist trap, but still, twas a nice bit of history "Anyway, Dash, anything in particular you want to see? You mentioned Temples and Castles earlier, right?"

"umm... oook then..." she said, shuffling awkwardly on her feet. Something about the mention of 'alot of touching', and the Rider's general enthusiasm was a little bit off putting in that moment, but she pressed on regardless. "I guess it is... necessary for a tailoring job..." with that little awkward moment seeming to stretch on for an eternity in her mind, she headed off towards the docks again, calling over her shoulder. "moving on... don't worry, I'm sure you can't do any worse than Smitty... like I said, he's crazy good with anything that's metal, but... sewing just isn't one of his strong suits..."

Actually, I'm afraid that at this point, Luminous Dawn has been decidedly shut down due to a few hiccups with the availability of players and losing too many people. The message went out over the discord server a good while ago, but... uh guess we kinda forgot a few loose ends in the OOC. Eh, that'll be remedied as soon as I can either poke Jory or Huk to lock it down for good. but yeah TLDR; Luminous Dawn had a good run, but in the end, we just lost too many people to various IRL stuff for it to be worth continuing, and trying to just hard reset and reopen another sign up phase would've just been more messy than it was worth, what with how far we'd gotten with the party...

Cadence thought about it for a moment. Aside from getting better gear, she really had left the boat without any intentions for this port. No point staying out... "Well I've got nothing else here, probably just gonna head back to the ship. Might as well make it look like someone's guarding it. You can come if ya want." She set off towards the docks, before pausing and glancing over her shoulder. There was something else, now that she thought about it- the little agreement from when they'd first met. Amazing how things like that repeatedly slipped ones mind, when shit seemed to hit the mill at every possible turn. "By the way, you still have that Ember Thread you found on the last island, right?"

"Sleep, huh? yeah, some extra sleep might be nice... if not for..." she pushed the thought away. With the increased frequency of Otherworld dreams, sleep hadn't exactly been the most pleasant thing in the world since the shipwreck... honestly more bizarre than anything else. Always in a different area, always stripped of gear with only the Anima to back her up. She'd still yet to find him again... "Yes, well, I'm sure most of others would appreciate some down time too...doesn't help that crap keeps seeming to spring from the woodwork wherever we go." much to her surprise though,The peg rider seemed even more spacey than she originally had on the guard ship... "Uh...Your errand though, weren't you in here to get a new spear or something?"

"Eh, I wasn't paying that much attention either..." Cadence sighed, placing a hand on the rider's shoulder. Why she was getting so emotional over something so trivial, she didn't really know, but unlike the treacherous Anima or her other allies, Rayne was one of the few whose company she could probably enjoy right now, with the mess her thoughts had been in the past few days. Even if she knew any pleasantry was simply a fleeting distraction from her own issues... "Come on, no need to get so upset, I'm just as much to blame here. Why were you in such a hurry anyway? More trouble already?" She giggled a little at the jest, but it quickly faded and died as a dejected sigh took it's place. She felt herself die a little on the inside at the mere thought of yet again having to get involved in yet another time-wasting mess with a bunch of terrorist rabble or miscellaneous scumbags. 3 times over just the course of two weeks or so was already enough, she'd sooner just leave the place and let the locals clean up their own damn mess... "Anyway... you alright?"

"Oh for the love of- watch where you're....!" The fencer paused as she got up from the ground, the glare on her already sour expression softening a bit as she saw just who it was. Already, she could sense the Anima checking her over for any injuries. With a sharp, lashing thought she told them all to go and proper fuck off, to which they only continued in spite of. It wasn't until she felt a far heavier presence enter her mind and repeat the command that they finally listened, backing off like frightened children as whatever the force had been faded. There was but one thing she could think of that would get Anima spirits so unnerved, but she put the thought aside for now... they had gone away, left her alone, that was all she cared about, bunch of bloody traitors... "Rayne? Are... you alright? Calm down, just slow down, breath, in and out, in and out...see?" she extended a hand, as she demonstrated her own centering technique. Honestly though, she just hoped the rider would be coherent enough to take her advice before she passed out from all that hyperventilation...

"Fair enough, I suppose..." Cadence sighed, pushing the worn gear closer towards the merchant. "Certainly more than I would've given for them, at least..." Her eyes lingered on the mercenary's sword, as she reached into her coat and dug out a few vespers from her tunic. It felt... almost wrong in a way, to sell the thing off. She shook her head clear of the thought though, producing the 1250 vespers for the barter and putting them on the counter. What did it matter anymore? The fool had probably died in the storm- not like it was her fault though. She'd given him a chance, he'd taken it, just because nature had other plans shouldn't give her any guilt over the whole thing. That sword on the counter was nothing more than just another sharpened length of iron used by barbarians, no more, no less. It was about as much a part of the Merc boi as this countertop here was a part of cadence, regardless what the nagging in the back of her mind told her otherwise. "There, the old swords and 1250 vespers even. Nice doing business with you." she said, taking up the Parrying Knife and Steel Rapier before turning towards the door to leave...

Seeing the Rogue's trade, Cadence couldn't help but glance down at her own weapons. The mercenaries blade was getting worse for wear and the rapier she'd been armed with upon joining the guard wasn't that much better. Still though... didn't mean they could be melted down, slagged and used as scrap for another project. She didn't really care, if it would give a slightly better price. A Parrying Knife and Rapier would probably be a better combination than a long blade and rapier anyway. "They've seen a bit more wear than I'd like to admit, but..." she addressed the shopkeep, removing the two blades from her belt and putting them on the counter "how much would you be willing to part with that Parrying Knife and Steel Rapier over there for, if I traded these to you as scrap metal?"

Aurora's expression remained unchanged in the darkness, though she cocked her head at the incantations. As varied as the evocations and beseeches of her home plane could get, the exact words and syntax of the spell meant nothing to her; it was the intent behind the words that always mattered more anyway, the chants themselves were often mere ceremony to be used as a mnemonic focus medium. The energy she sensed around the woman however, was nigh unmistakable in its nature. Burning orbs of silver still unmoving in the darkness, something nonetheless came out of the shadows, flying through the air briefly before hitting the stones and skidding to a stop just a foot or two before the woman's feet. Luckily for the beef jerky inside, the homemade packaging had protected it from the dirt and dust of the ground, the meat still as pristine as ever. She wasn't one for sharing food often, not with strangers at least, but after the field day she'd had sampling this market, she really wouldn't miss a single pack of jerky stolen from a butcher on another world all that much... and sacrificing or splitting one's food for another was honestly the most profound form of 'peace offering' her kind officially regarded, considering the careful rationing and distribution logistics that living underground with only a select portion of the populace actively hunting game or nurturing other forms of sustenance required.

"Let's see if there's anything worth the cost. If I'm stuck fighting with these pieces of sharpened metal like a barbarian, Might as well upgrade..." Cadence muttered, passing within Earshot of the Anima Mage who'd scolded her at their first encounter days ago as she exited the boat after Belros, heading towards the presumable armory as well. This outcome hadn't exactly been what she'd hoped for, but it was certainly better than... spending another month in the middle of podunk, nowhere. At least this way they'd end up getting closer much quicker, even if they would have to make their own way once they set off again and got to Z'ark. Still though, after the mess on Irvetos and the... treachery of her own spirits with how they'd set her up to look like a fool, her mood was far from pleasant, just as it had been the past few days. Infact, during most of the trip over, she'd done her best to just stay alone, ignoring even the Anima as she'd cycled through her thoughts. Why she'd once thought the guard was a good idea, she didn't know now, the nature of the book and her father's request considered. Delirium perhaps? The Crone had broken out some powerful stuff to save her, who knows what type of short term side effects whatever concoction she'd wiped up had had? Or perhaps it was impulse. Cadence suspected that more than anything else... had she really been that afraid of her, that she jumped at any chance to seek protection from an equal or greater power? Mind still so set on running away from it all, that even when she'd woke up in a cot, half a sea away from her, she still felt the need to get even more distance? She didn't want to think about it. In all honesty, she wanted to think about none of that mess. Yet it was the only thing she could. Fear brought her here, fear had put her into their ranks. But the fear of fleeing prey was no longer the driving factor, the irrationality long since passed, replaced with the conscious effort to try and earn her keep, her increasingly diminishing performance thus far despite her efforts included. And once that had passed, once it had all almost ended against those bandits, not even that was there anymore. The only thing she had to really care about now was the Promise. But was the Royal Guard really the best avenue for the Promise? If he had just appeared to her sooner, if that been the driving force back then, would she have still been so eager to disregard the crone's words and rush to join? Or would she have taken it slower, let her body actually heal, instead of just making the injuries worse by rushing headlong into a frey of insane buccaneers who didn't know the meaning of 'retreat' or 'parlay'? She didn't have the answer to that question. Maybe she would've. Maybe she would've thought more, and eventually been drawn into the guard regardless... or maybe she wouldn't have. Maybe she'd still been as impulsive as ever, do it because it seemed like a good idea and not a single a shred of evidence actually supporting why it was one. But in the end, it didn't matter. She was here now, in the crown's employ. She'd made her decision, and now she'd simply have to find a way to both fulfill her obligations to the guard and properly investigate the tome's warnings...however off the beaten path the former may end up taking her.

Seeing the other two walk their separate ways, one to a smithy and the other back towards the fort, Aurora turned her attention on the lone figure they'd briefly met with. Just like their's, her scent held some distinguishable quality, compared to natives. All that could be seen of the Spider were two glowing beads of silver in the shadows of a few buildings, directly across the way from the other Outworlder. She was fully aware that the woman could likely detect her presence, but she didn't really feel a need to conceal herself from her anyway. None of the other Outworlders had seemed that panicked by her, and the only reason she'd stuck to stealth during her escapades here were because she'd learned well enough from the last time she'd let herself be seen by natives...

She had idly listened to the spy until she could listen no more. Still ignoring every word the Anima whispered to her, she spoke up from behind them all "Oh but we will run into them again... that much is probably guaranteed. According to our prisoners, your little murderous friend here was trying to get off this rock and head to Kabumu like us; we would've still crossed paths with him and gotten involved in this mess regardless of if you'd been present or not. This same fight would've still played out, these same corpses would still be littering the ground, and nothing would've changed except the scenery and the time. That's why he was stealing food and weapons, and nothing else- he needed provisions to last his men the trip, and arms to do whatever they were plotting- still are plotting apparently -once they joined the ones who are apparently already over there. The boat schedules are more or less the same story, he needed to keep the prying eyes and new arrivals to a minimum while he went about getting prepared, that way it would be alot easier to escape. You may have broken ties with this guild of yours, fine, but clearly they've been busy while you were gone. Far too busy."

"...well, she's not nearly as peircing as Meeyla, but...still, that fell apart rather... easy." even as she thought it though, she could hear the anima giggling like school kids in the back of her mind... and she knew they'd had more of a hand in this than they'd let on. It was all but confirmed when the giggles turned into full blown laughter as she realized just what had happened. "You... cheeky.... bunch... of fucks. She's right, it shouldn't have taken that long... you took your sweet time on purpose!" Another laugh- damn right they had. her cheeks slowly flushing, she felt a familiar anger rise. But she didn't bother to do anything outward with it- that was at part of what had earned her the embarrassing rebuttal from the mage. She simply took a deep breath, focusing inward "this isn't funny...you lot should know better than anyone else how much I've always wanted to study, and here you see an actual mage, and the first thing you think to do, is conspire to make me embarrass myself infront of her. Well, good to know you had a good laugh at my expense. No, really, I appreciate it, traitors..." the laughing slowly died. But she didn't listen to any of the half-hearted apologies they gave. Just ignored most of them as she carried on... "Tch... third rate mage? Yeah, I wish I was even that, being shit at magic is still better than swinging around pieces of sharpened steel and hacking or stabbing away at people like some barbarian. Only so much that a bit of talent and a few dreams can get ya though...not like I hadn't realized that long before any of this."

"Well... that certainly explains most of it then. Seems that they were stranded here just like us, they just took the more dubious method of getting what they needed to try and get away. Figures, we probably would've met and killed most of them regardless then, once we got to Kabumu, even if none of this mess had happened. That still raises more questions though- just what is this 'disturbance' over there, why is it attracting rogues and thieves?" Just as she was pondering their story however, the Anima returned to her. She looked over at the trees, still burning despite their presence. But in the next instant, the fires seemed to die down as another force acted on them. She didn't have to ask them what happened, untrained and rough though her own command may have been, she still knew Magery when she saw it... "Eh... yeah, sorry about that. Wanted to get something useful out of these three about the man who hired them... guess I got a bit carried away for a moment or two..." it was a lie of course, but the other woman didn't need to know it. Better she act as though she had gotten a bit carried away in intimidating them for the sake of interrogation, admitting she'd gone and recklessly set the fire in a fit of frustration seemed... rather embarrassing now, to be honest. "I uh... told the spirits to go and take care of it, but you've obviously gotten to it first."

There was not much she paid attention to as she left. She'd probably already pushed the bar too far with that display, the further she got herself from them, the less likely she'd be to take it even further. It was amazing, really, the difference in the clarity one got when their head was only partially clouded in frustration, not quite totally. There was... one bit however. Whether it was her own self that noticed it, or the Anima finding it relevant enough to relay, she neither knew nor cared, only about what it meant: "....wait" she turned around, marching back towards the trio and stopping right around where she'd been before. She seemed to have changed her mind about the tree, releasing the Anima to go tend to the suffering Ent's pain while she dug further. "Kabumu? What the hell could that rogue have wanted there, of all the places he could go with his loot? Infact, no, tell me one even better- what was he even trying to do here, with that stunt he pulled stealing the master copy and ruining the backups?"

"........." silence. She just stood there in silence, at hearing his words. To think... all this hassle with being accosted by insane pirate captains, bandits, and organized thugs trying to bring the island's traffic to it's knees... and for all their work, they would get... nothing out of it. Nothing but another month to sit here and languish in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but a month of time, totally wasted when they probably could've gotten to Kabumu already, had it not been for the pirates holding them up and making them ample targets for the storm... "Deep breath... in...out...in..." "I see, sir...very well then..." she finally replied, teeth clenched and fists bone white as she shook. Her centering technique was doing nothing to calm the rising tide of frustration as well, and she knew the Anima could feel it too, knew that they were feeding off of it, growing bold from it. The scent of burned ozone and subtle crackle and pop that filled her ears was evidence enough. But she did not halt them. Did not scold or reign them in. Eventually she just stopped trying to center herself altogether, just let it flow forward- there was no point penting it up anymore than she already had, if it really was all going to be for nothing. Finally, when Cadence opened her eyes again, she turned to the three ex-combatants they'd captured. Within an instant, she'd dropped her coat where she stood, the air now visibly alight with static, eyes burning the same subtle ruby as Beef had seen in the forest earlier. She cared not that they'd surrendered, she cared not that they were three unarmed men bearing no hostilities. They were obstacles, as far as she was concerned at this point, contributing factors to the mess they were in. Or maybe they were just men who'd fallen on bad luck and we're just trying to get by however they knew how. She didn't care. After so long keeping it bottled, it felt good to have someone to blame for all the frustration. Almost on instinct, she opened one of her palms, taking the wild, chaotic discharge that crackled all around her and beginning to give it purpose, feeding it more of her ire, as she continued to stare down the prisoners... "I HOPE YOU'RE ALL BLOODY PROUD OF WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" the words came out of her throat as more of a enraged warcry than anything else, her hand flying forward in an arc not unlike how she'd thrown the knife. Within an instant, there was a deafening boom as a single bolt of honed electricity shot forth from her body, slicing a path through the air and filling it with the stench of sundered ozone. For a moment, it seemed headed on a path straight for them, but within the flash of an eye, it parlayed its course and the tree that had been standing only a few feet from the criminals burst into a cacophony of flame and splintered wood, sparks and ruined limbs raining down to the cobble stonepath below, right at the men's feet. Cadence lowered her hand, her voice little more than a snarling hiss overflowing with malice. "Really. I fucking hope you are proud of yourselves. You're just another set of morons in the long line of scum we've had to kill, another bunch who have done nothing but get in our way. You'd be smart to get on your fucking knees and thank the Goddess, or whatever heathen devils you might worship, because if I had any say in your fates, I'd have already taken your damn heads off your shoulders and mounted them on pikes. Put em up in the market so that everyone can see what happens to Rogues when they try to go toe to toe with the Guard. Whatever penalty they're going to give you, you'd better be content with it, and carry out the sentences without complaint- because you could've gotten worse, hell, no, you deserved worse for the amount of trouble you helped cause, the affairs you have unwittingly meddled in... affairs of far greater import than whatever coin you might've been after. Worthless Wandroughts, one and all of you." She said nothing more, Nothing more needed to be said. She simply turned and walked away, not even bothering to so much as look at her allies as she passed, and the tree kept burning. The anima prodded her about whether they should took care of it, but the only they got was enough for them to know not to bring it up again: Let the tree burn. I can't kill them without commiting insubordination, but the tree was fair gain. Let. It. Burn.