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Eternal Vampire

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Right as the Astarte woman began singing, Gereth slipped something to Artemis so subtly no one could have noticed. Then the water began to move and bend the metal bars. Do I even have to break it down at this point? If there was any lingering doubt about her siren heritage, it's now been eliminated. However I have some lingering concern about the person she brought withe her. It could be the maid, or someone she's charmed. I'd say the odds were about 40% to 60%, respectively. As the group carefuly ascended the liquid stairs he continued this train of thought. It could be a guard, that would grant an easy excuse if we were seen, it could also be another noble, though that's less likely. There isn't enough real information to accurately speculate at this point. For all I know, it could be some random idiot she plans to use as a scapegoat if anything goes wrong. I'll just have to wait and see. The five reached the top of the stairs easily enough and stepped onto the walkway beside the Astarte woman.
"As you know everyone here, introductions would be redundant. How should we proceed from here to get to the catacombs without attracting attention? Is it safe to presume you have secured a path? Or have you a plan to create one?" As usual, he spoke with no emotion and no expression on his face.

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        Lucia brought up the rear of the party as they exited the hideout and scanned around for any indication of an ambush. Everything seemed clear, but she heard flapping from above and then get closer. Looking up, she saw a glint of moonlight reflecting off a dark blue tail and held up her arm. The messenger bird landed lightly on the leather gauntlet she had strapped on and she fished the letter from the container on its back. With a flick of her wrist, she unrolled the letter and stuck it in her pocket shortly after reading. "Straight to Odeir, Marut." The bird took off in the direction the group was already heading.

        She felt more uneasy than she had anticipated as they approached the castle grounds. Her eyes darted around constantly in case a guard happened to be patrolling the area for some odd reason even though she knew all their patterns; there was no way Bartholomew would have taken the time to adjust them in a day. As they waited for the signal to begin, Lucia pulled a dark cloth mask up to cover to just below the eyes. It had been a long time since she had worn something like this, and it felt oddly nostalgic.

        She let out a heavy breath, forcing the air through the thick mask wrapped around her face. It was getting harder to breathe with each passing moment and frustrated, finally pulled it down. Her nose and throat instantly froze but at the same time, it was a relief. "Put that back on!" A gruff voice boomed from behind her, through the white noise of the wind, and she was spun around roughly. The man glared at the little girl through his goggles and she squirmed involuntarily. "I can't breathe with it...Sir." He fell into a crouch to get on eye level and put his hands on her shoulders, "Are you telling me you want your skin to freeze? You want it to turn black and peel off? Huh? Why not just take off your hat? Your jacket? How about you give your goggles to that body over there? I'm sure his decomposed eyes need them a lot more than yours!"

        Lucia put her head down as he shouted at her and before he even finished, she had put her mask back on. "Now finish tying!" She did as she was told, dragging her feet through the thick snow to get to the dark lump half buried in the ice with a thick rope in her hand. With it secured, she raised her hand to signal her sled driver she was finished and watched as the enormous wolves began to slowly drag the bodies near her. She followed with some difficulty since her legs were just short enough for them to sink straight through the snow, and her father must have found her too slow as he scooped her up from behind. He let her sit on his shoulders on the way home.

        ---

        Odeir gestured for Ranimadrix to take a step back and wait against the wall to avoid getting run over by the chefs. "Amelia is a little...direct, by nature. Her food, however, is excellent." Soon after, a young maid gave him two trays, stacked together, and he lead his guest out to the small garden behind his office tower.

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Alex crossed her arms and pouted her lips at him. "I can raise my voice however I want. I'm tired of keeping my mouth shut all the time. Especially in this...this place!" the girl couldn't help but vent out her frustration at the man. The remainder of her feelings regarding her encounter with Bartholomew was still fresh in her mind.

"Why are you still here, anyway?"


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Aidan put his hands up in fake surrender and took a step back as she shouted at him, listening closely to the hallway outside. "I'm just looking out for you. Can you imagine a guard rushing in here, seeing you screaming at nothing?" He paused, crossing his arms, "Actually, keep shouting, it might be fun to see." Suddenly, he vanished, reappearing behind Alex with his arm draped around her shoulders and leaning towards her ear. "I was going to talk to Lucia, but you're much more...responsive to me than her, so my visit to her is on hold while we chat. Tell me about yourself."

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Ranimadrix shuffled to the wall, and leaned back. He recalled the words that Odeir had shared with him back in the office, and they began to weigh on his mind. He shook his head, as though trying to clear it away. He couldn't start doubting himself now. He had to hold onto the hope that he'd be able to meet this 'Lucia', and start training under her. And so he waited patiently with Odeir for their food.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ranidydek had wandered the halls of the castle, chatting with a number of these human nobles. Their talks of status an wealth did nothing but leave him bored. He had no time for such useless drivel. As he continued to wander, he came across the sounds of a muffled argument from behind one of the doors. Two voices. One male, one female. He hadn't fully been paying attention to the sounds around him, so he didn't hear most of what was said, but at last it wasn't something about 'I control three well-known taverns,' or 'My daughter is marrying a wealthy prince from a rich trade city,' blah, blah, blah. As he approached the door, he groaned. Human laws and courtesies meant nothing to him, but to maintain his guise, he must at least HUMOR them. And so he waited, listening in.
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Eyeing the rag-tag team of infiltrators and feeling the various attitudes of distrust, curiosity, and confusion, Sophie turned and began gracefully stepping along the drainage tunnel.

Sophie glanced at the captain of the guard, wondering if she knew what a huge vulnerability the hive of drainage, ruins, and servants stairs was. She also wondered if the new captain had any idea, and if she could use it as leverage to strengthen or weaken his position.

"First, we return to the secondary run-off reservoir. There we meet my friend. You will then follow me from there through more tunnels until we rest directly under the Crystalline Halls, where the entrance to the catacombs lies."

The Crystalline Halls were a palace in a palace, and the home of the Royal Family. The Palace had been built up around them, and some said they were older than the Capitol itself. At any rate, the catacombs dug out under them were certainly ancient, and Sophie was very interested to see what was being sought out from them.

Her thoughts were interrupted as they stepped into the run-off reservoir.

"Ah. Here we are, my dears. This is my sweet mage, Ash."

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Rowan followed quietly up the wonderfully spun water stairway to their new entrance to the castle. Though she did feel this "Silver Maiden" or what-have-you was being a bit showy, then again Ash had never been particularly imaginative in his casting or teaching, and she herself had a rather direct approach to getting what she needed from her own powers. Rowan found herself grateful that G was willing to do the talking, and that quiet and stealth was rather a requirement at this point. She simply pulled the hood up closer and adjusted the scarf covering her face as they snuck along before a rather jarring sight. She once again went pale, then flushed

"Ash!? What in the Nine Hells are you DOING here!?"

Ash had been bowing rather regally (in his opinion) to his mistress's honored guests, when he jerked upright in surprise.

"Oh, it is...uh. You. Rowan! Yes, oh Lady Sophie this is my protege-"

"EX-sssstudent." She added in a vehement hiss. She felt her jaw clench and somehow her incisor cut into her lip, she used the pain to control the anger just looking at his stupid face. "How did you- Ugh you know what, it matters not. Let us continue, and please do not speak, Ash." She did not know the way forward, so instead she crossed her arms and turned her back on the group until they were prepared to proceed.

Ash was rather taken aback, He felt as though he should feel something, hadn't he left their village to make sure...she was alright? He couldn't seem to focus on how he felt about her through the ringing in his ears. It simply didn't seem all that important to him now.

"Er, Lady Sophie, I apologize on her behalf...perhaps we should stand at opposite ends of the, uh, party...as we, er, travel." He shrugged his shoulders uselessly and his curly orange hair bounced rather handsomely about. Rowan merely grunted in a sort of agreement with the statement. Anyone with any social practice could clearly see there was more to their history than a teacher-student relationship would entail. Anyone not so practiced probably thought Ash was an idiot.

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Eternal Vampire

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Why did it have to be this idiot?
What did this idiot do to her?
This guy's a total moron.
The three thieves had very similar thoughts at the same time. The group walked with a rather, awkward silence. There wasn't much conversing among the group, the only sounds were the dripping of water and tapping of feet as the group walked quietly behind the Sophie. At least the idiot managed to give them something useful due to his loose tongue. They kept walking for what felt like quite a while before there was a noticable change in the sewers, everything became far more... clean. Like the group had walked from the castle sewers into some much more important sewers.
"I get the feeling that we've reached the Crystalline Halls, which way to the catacombs? And how much further will you be accompanying us, Miss Sophie? I should warn you that it will likely be very dangerous, more directly so than breaking into the heart of the castle."

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Alex rolled her eyes, "Let's see, I am seventeen, I enjoy long walks in the garden, and my ideal man is tall...dark...and," she looked the man up and down, "Not creepy." It was meant as a jab that was for sure, yet the handmaiden couldn't doubt the man's good looks at the same time.
"I could've sworn your eyes changed colour earlier, but its too dark to tell."


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Aidan absentmindedly played with her hair, wrapping a small bundle around his finger and watching it fall back to straight when he let it go. "Oh, how sweet, but I may be just a little too old for you, my dear." His smile widened when she mentioned his eyes, amused at this girl for her odd self-preservation instincts. "Did they? Probably because," he tightened the arm around her shoulders and she would feel her stomach sink as the scenery around her changed from the old bedroom to the sewers below the castle where the other were sneaking through, "I'm a demon." He whispered into Alex's ear while invisible and slipped away from her to stroll around the group. Finally reaching a wide-eyed Lucia, he stood next to her with his hands in his pockets, "She's fun; I can see why you were with her brother so much."

Eternal Vampire

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While the group was waiting for their guide to speak up, Gereth felt a fluctuation of magic from behind them. Without hesitation he spun around, a knife slipping from his sleeve into his hand, and from there he threw it at the center of the disturbance. The knife sailed through the air at high speed, flying right past a maid's head, probably giving her a small cut and/or cutting a lock of hair off. The knife proceeded to embed itself in the wall behind her.
Either I'm getting sloppy, or she wasn't the one who used magic to show up here.
When Gereth began his knife throw, his two partners picked up on the potential threat, both drawing their respective weapons and prepared to attack. Artemis' rapier was in his hand and pointed at the maid, Ivory had two small metal rods about three feet in length with twisted silver caps on one end and runes running the length of each rod. Both almost landed an attack on the spontaneous maid, but stopped when Artemis realized who it was.
"You!" The word escaped his mouth right as his blade stopped short of her neck. Ivory stopped at the same time.
"You know this girl?"
"Think back a few days, you know her too."
"... Oh hey, it's that crazy maid who wanted to learn how to fight from the thief who stole the crown."
"Yeah, this is her." He said as he sheathed his sword. Ivory placed her combat sticks back into a pocket inside her long coat.
"Since when can she teleport?"
"I don't think she did."
"Did you miss that part where she showed up out of nowhere?"
"You misunderstood me."
"There's a shocker."
"Focus. What I meant was, I think someone else teleported, and brought her along for the ride." Gereth spoke as he walked to retrieve his knife from the wall of the sewers. He pointed the knife at the maid. "If she had been the source of the magic, this would have gone through her head." With a subtle hand movement, the knife vanished up his sleeve. "So tell me, who was it that brought you here, and if you can, tell me if that person is still here." These weren't questions, they were closer to orders. And if his natural authority wasn't enough, the close encounter with death would probably scare the maid into answering.

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Alex held her breath as the man she was talking to came uncomfortably close. "H-Hey..." she said softly, reproachfully. Her heart raced as she started to sense that something was about to happen, yet she couldn't quite pinpoint what. It was then that the handmaiden suddenly realized the reality of the situation. The two of them, alone, with no one around to hear her if she were to cry for help. He had his arm around her now, and she tensed at his touch. Alex knew she was helpless, and, trying to mentally deny whatever happened next, she closed her eyes tightly.

Then, abruptly, her stomach lurched as she felt the temperature of the room change. It became colder, and the sound of liquid seeping and dripping from the ceiling could be heard. The girl heard the man's voice again, and shuddered as he whispered words that caused her eyes to slam wide open. Alex screamed as a knife sailed past her ear, scraping the flesh there as it went by.
"Wh-What's happening?! Where am I?!"
The handmaiden brought a hand up to her bleeding ear, and gazed frantically around at her new location--looking, but not truly seeing.
"Where is he?! Where's the man?!" She had so many questions, and they were pouring out of her mouth like word vomit. The panic and confusion bubbling inside her was too much, and she could barely register the rest of the crowd there.

It was then when she finally heard the question directed at her, that Alex now locked her eyes with the person asking it, "A man he...he brought me here...I don't quite know..." Another glance around the room--actually seeing this time.
"Lucia? What are you doing here?! I thought you escaped! And Ash?!"


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        Lucia was more confused than relieved to see the mage that had helped her escape prison was here. It's good he wasn't captured but...why was he with Sophonisba? And it looked like Rowan had a history with him...This was certainly an interesting development. Surely things couldn't get weirder but it only lasted about three seconds because Alexandra suddenly appeared out of nowhere with Aidan. Oh god. She pulled her mask down and glared as the demon made his way over to her, shoulders tensing when Alexandra screamed. "What were you doing with her?" "Calm down, she's fine. Besides, the ear thing isn't even my fault." Aidan slipped his hands into his pockets and idly watched everything unfold. "By the way, why did you give the necklace to her? It actually took effort to find you this time." s**t, that's right, he tracked her with it. Stupid mistake. "If I had been executed, they would've taken it and I don't need Bartholomew touching it but in hindsight, that was a bad idea."

        She quickly pushed past the thieves and grabbed Alexandra's hand to pull her away from everyone a little ways. In a low voice, Lucia spoke while checking the cut ear, "Are you alright? The man you mentioned, he is harmless but I ask that you not talk about him with them." Her eyes darted up past Alexandra's shoulder to check the rest of the group quickly. "Harmless?" "As a favor." "Sure, but I can't guarantee I won't mess with her a little."

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Sophie remained expressionless as Ash addressed her by her name. It didn't bother her overly much, he wasn't trained in any sort of espionage, and if the thieves were worth half their weight, they probably had guessed who she was already. It was the risk of being an icon. But she'd still wear the veils around the group, they generated mystery and offered protection from powders and gases that could be sprung on a fighter. Her lips curled in a small smile, she demurely curled her arm around Ash's, and steered him down a side tunnel, indicating that the rest of the group was to follow the pair, who glided ahead like two lovers out for a turn about the gardens of some estate before dinner.

After a some time, when they were nearing the end of the route Sophie had carefully plotted using her memories of the ancient maps of the Capitol undersystem that her mother had made her memorize, a voice spoke from behind Sophie.

"I get the feeling that we've reached the Crystalline Halls, which way to the catacombs? And how much further will you be accompanying us, Miss Sophie? I should warn you that it will likely be very dangerous, more directly so than breaking into the heart of the castle."
The thief spoke softly to her, his voice flat and emotionless, as usual.

Not even glancing back at Gareth, Sophie replied only with a small sniff. "Really, as if I'd leave you up to some mischief with that silly scaled-up mage in the depths of the castle. And we're hardly breaking into the heart of the castle, we're breaking into some boarded-off, abandoned catacombs undernea-."

Sophie broke off as she felt a twinge of something magical behind her. She quickly turned, half stepping behind Ash as she slid a thin knife out of her sleeve to throw with one hand, bringing up the other hand so her sleeve fell back to expose her bracelet. Her eyes widened slightly as she recognized the evergreen-scented perfume of her handmaiden and new friend, Alex. Just as shocking was the brief twinge of a discordant chime that followed her arrival. Sophie gave her head a brief shake, like a cat that hears too high of a note. Something forgotten stirred in the depths of her memories, but was quickly lost. An reminder of an old enemy, perhaps, from a bloodline long thought wiped clean by the cleansing of an Inquisition.

"Alex, what in the four heavens!?" Sophie spoke up from the back, determined not to let Gereth or the Lady Lucia get the jump on the whole situation, and let Alex know that her Lady was here as well. She had planned the entry perfectly, but hadn't accounted for something like this. The castle grounds, and the undersystem as well, were warded against almost all forms of instantaneous transport magic, from Slyphs' quick-winds to human-mage spells. Something with very old magic must have brought her in. Although she was pleased to see an ally, she was wary about the circumstances of her appearance. It seemed she had underestimated the Tinel girl, and would have to prod into what exactly the girl was planning.

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Alex had her mouth clenched tight as she nodded slowly at Lucia--still quite visibly shaken. "So you know him too? I'm not crazy?" She whispered frantically back.The girl kept on looking around and over her shoulder, as though the man was going to pop up and scare her at any time.

Instead, Alex jumped like a frightened mouse as she suddenly heard Sophie's voice calling her name, "Sophie!" she called back happily, and in that instant the girl felt much more relieved. Those who protected her were here, she would be safe. At least those were the thoughts she repeated to herself to keep her from tipping over the edge. Alex tried her best to perform lots of deep breathing. Yet the burning curiosity was still not sated. "Is anyone going to explain what's happening here exactly? One moment, I saw all of you running away from anything to do with the castle. Now you are all...here?"


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