Welcome to Gaia! ::

Zayn nodded as the Onion Knight spoke. It would seem they were to quest again, though this one was far more serious than the last. He was eager to begin this, though, hoping to glimpse the airship once agaon or this 'young crystal' that had been stolen. One thing was for sure, he was certainly going to have a lot of inspiration for his art after this!

"That sounds good," he replied the Mirror. "Something tells me it would be a bad idea to try and catch the owner of that airship alone. We're going to need to work in teams to get this done. Shall we find our companions, then?"

Watching Mirror fly up into the air, Zayn felt a touch envious. Gliding was nice, but he wondered what it would be like to actually be able to fly. Supposedly some of the Ieldi could, but it required different wings... Zayn had never actually met anyone of his race who could fly properly.

"I'll just... wait right here," he muttered wryly, rubbing his head and feeling a little useless. Standing up on his tiptoes, he tried to search for the familar figure of Fire and the less-familiar Ky.

Odilen stood up on her tiptoes and hopped, trying to get a better view in the crowd. BoCo squeaked in protest, then retaliated by taking a good strong grip on her hair with his feet. Ow.

After a few minutes, she realized that there was another, familiar bobbing head across the room, doing a similar tiptoe-bounce routine. "Quiiiin," she called out, raising one winged arm and waving it energetically, then squirming through the crowd towards the other woman. "Did you SEE that? The vines and the airship and everything? What a scene!" she said enthusiastically as she got close.

In shock and her wrist hurting from being dragged around by Quinn, Ourania could feel Fiore's heated rage filtering over into her mind. How dare that woman even think of removing a crystal that wasn't hers. As a person she was horrified, but as a summoner she was outraged. "I agree with that skewering suggestion." she murmured heatedly, stroking Basape's small paw when he crawled up onto her shoulder. "Quickly, if we split up we may be able to find him faster. Meet at the dessert table in five minutes?"

"How you decide to find the Baroness is entirely up to you." Onion Knight replied calmly in relation to Merrick's question before gazing up towards Masamune for a few moments. In all honesty he hadn't given her question any consideration but now that it had been posed he did note the importance within it...afterall they would need someone smart and courageous to help them through the trials that awaited them!

"I believe I will be going with you." He responded in a matter-of-fact tone, offering a smile as he plopped his helmet back onto his head and patted at her hands as if in indication to let him down again. He had much to dicuss with Behebuncle in that respect but -

"I am sure many of you are aware of the previous events, use whatever suspicious moments you desire in order to make a rough guess as to where the Baroness might be - I have no doubt at least one of you would have stumbled upon something of hers in recent months!" He added to the crowd and gave a small salute.

Wonderful, Merrick thought to himself at the Onion Knight's answer. He was sure the little man was holding out on him; with all the hints the tiny fellow was dropping, Merrick was certain the small one knew more than he was letting on...but why wouldn't he just say it outright? Didn't he want the crystal to be rescued? So why would he withhold information from those he asked to quest for it?

Maybe the little man was a spirit of some sort. It was entirely possible, given his odd appearance. And some spirits had great difficulty with saying important information outright...a few of them managed only to divulge things in riddles, and dropped hints. Maybe this Onion Knight was one such as those...

Which really didn't help Merrick in the slightest. In fact, it made him feel quite frustrated about the whole affair. He had never even heard of the Baroness Regalia before tonight...well, the name did sound familiar, perhaps his father had mentioned her once as the person who ruled such and such a barony...perhaps he should have paid more attention. In any case, the only clue Merrick had was that the airship had been heading west. The woman who stole the crystal seemed incautious and flashy enough to not care if any pursued her...perhaps she would not have done the smart thing and changed direction once she was out of sight.

He knew that she was a baroness...wouldn't she flee to the barony that she ruled? That still left a wide area to search, but it narrowed things down somewhat...she probably wouldn't be so stupid as to go to the family manor (or would she?) but if Merrick were her he would certainly flee to a place where the law was on his side.

Unless her people hated her. Then it would be stupid to flee to her barony.

Oh...this was getting him nowhere. Now his brain ached. Maybe he should just ask these "many who are aware of previous events" instead of thinking himself into circles.

*EDIT*

To this purpose, Merrick cleared his throat and stood up as tall as possible. "Excuse me! May I have everyone's attention for a brief moment? I'm well aware that there are far too many of us to all travel together, and that some of you may not wish to take such a dangerous quest at all...but perhaps it would be best that those of us willing coordinated our efforts, so that we don't go over the same ground twice or leave some of our number running about in the dark. It might be wise to share any clues we may have about where the baroness is hiding, or at the very least let the others know where we intend to search before we set out."

"Do you really think..." Odilen breathed, peering at the letter over Quin's shoulder. "'I will have no choice but to act'... maybe THIS was the act?" Oh, it sent chills down her spine. Perfect foreshadowing already built in!

Of course, there was also a twinge of guilt. Perhaps if they'd been quicker, this would have served as a warning?