Asriel Dreemurr

"That is a robot, not a curse." Was the only thing that Xa'tok could think to say in the moment as the sarcophagus opened and out reached a peculiarly shaped android. His expression flat and mouth slightly open after he finished speaking. This was, well, not something he had any real idea of how to deal with in the moment. Thus he spent a good few seconds just staring at what was happening in front of him before he even thought to intervene. By the time it occurred to him that something could potentially be done, chaos was already unfolding as the rest of the class began reacting to it. Well, it wasn't a curse, but maybe magic could still provide an answer. "Spirits of electricity, who flow through metal like blood through veins," he said as he began tracing a jagged symbol, akin in shape to a branching lightning bolt, through the air, "lend me your aid." He had no way of knowing if any such spirits would respond to him in this place, so there was just one other thing for it. Symbol or no symbol, spirits or no spirits, magic or no magic, he went right ahead and did the thing that came the most naturally to him. He reached out and grabbed the robot to try and shove it back into the sarcophagus. "Go. Back. To. Sleep!" If only he could take his own advice...

Xa'Tok was, well, far from surprised by his initial grading on this test. If anything the low marks he had gotten on History and Language, the latter of which was a rather misleading name for the subject now that he considered it, were higher than he expected. Ah well, time to find his way off to the next class. "Interesting how all of us seem to find ourselves in the same classes," he said aloud as he found his way into the room for the next class. After all, he could recognize the people he had fended off the pirates with. He could still perceive the mark of the spirits of the void on them. Something which he found comfort in. Though admittedly in his sleep deprived state he may have been ascribing far more importance to the seeming coincidence than there should have been. And far less to the skeleton hung from the ceiling. He simply assumed that their instructor kept it around to ask the creature's spirit for assistance when necessary. That made the most sense to him, especially in a History classroom. "Wait... what is yall?" What did make sense however was her particular manner of speaking. Was this a different language? Did he need extra tutoring to understand her? Well... at least enough of it seemed to be the common language that he thought he understood what she meant. And the mention of... openly baiting a curse just to try and get people excited. That had to be an awful ide- "You only wanted someone to open the sarcophagus. Understood." And now he had to get involved. Rather than continuing to his seat, he made his way up to the front alongside the burial container and the girl. "Wait! Do not!" He approached Erica, quite the concerned look on his face as he did so. Before she could ask he held up his left index and middle fingers together to her, while plucking one of the strings of talismans off of his clothing and holding it in the air. He shook it twice, making it ring like a bell even though nothing about it looked like it should have, and then reached over to tie it gently around a lock of her hair. With hist the right hand in fact. "Alright. That should do it. Go ahead now." It was not exactly any sort of protection, but if there was a curse on the sarcophagus it should now react in some way if Erica tripped it. Which would mean he could intervene, somehow.

Edrick still wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but that was the sort of thing you had to deal with when you were bleeding and got rocked by what was felt like a full-body punch from a ghost. He wasn’t exactly steady on his feet once he got up, and he was still certain he was hearing ravens crowing in his ears. Something which wasn’t helped by the feminine voice that had spoken to them. He knew it wasn’t The Goddess. His parents had always told him that he would know if he was ever to witness her, and that voice didn’t seem to have been her. At least not in any way he could be sure about. But then what could he be sure about anymore? “...especially them, or you really will drop dead…” Except how much he took offense to that bitch saying he was about to die from this. This was nothing! Barely even a flesh wound! In fact he was ready to go over there and give her a piece of his mind about that… but Alois got to her first. And made it abundantly clear that this was local business. Yeah he wasn’t gonna touch that with a ten-foot pole. Well, that just meant- “You two, on me. I’m no healer, but I know enough to patch up the worst of your wounds.” And now Link was getting worried about him? Alright that couldn’t stand. “I’m fine, Link. It’s just a flesh wound.” The boy certainly had a talent for ignoring injuries, even when they were this severe. “Worry about Citron first, this doesn’t even hur-” "Edrick. It might be best if you and I leave town. Last thing we'd want is for the town to turn on us after all this." And there was Shiro to remind him that he wasn’t welcome here. Or at least one person didn’t want him here. He was about to respond, and then- “Do you know if there’ll be anyone to see to Peaches? She got hurt pretty bad.” Yeah that was an understatement if the farmer ever heard one. Welp, that meant it was time for him to get to work here. A Wyvern couldn’t be that different from a turkey, and he’d treated his share of those. So he made his way over to her without any hesitation, digging in his pack for a moment to fish out some clean cloth. It would be better if he had clean water to do this with, but this would be better than nothing. “Move over,” he said nonchalantly as he slipped up alongside the Wyvern beside the beaver woman, Acantha he thought he’d heard she was called, and began surveying the wounds. “Hmm… not much muscle tearing. You’re very lucky, Peaches. You know that?” The wyvern wasn’t exactly sure how to respond, having opened her eyes earlier. She was initially rather tense as the strange, ex-beaver lady approached, but a combination of her humming, gentle-hands, and the kind, bloody man from before’s own approach seemed to ease the wyvern’s worries. “Scree…” the wyvern trailed off, as if mid-sigh. She couldn’t quite understand what Edrick was saying, but he did seem to be talking to her, so she should reply, right? Especially if it meant he, and the weird lady, kept tending her wounds. “Easy now,” he responded as he brought a hand down to gently rub at an unwounded part of her side. “This is going to hurt, but try to hold still.” That was all the warning the Wyvern got before he began gently wiping out the wounds with that piece of cloth, trying to get the worst of any detritus out of them before any other treatment happened. The wyvern started to recoil from the pain, before steadying herself as the Bloody-Man cleaned her wounds. She wanted to lash out at the strange girl, and even the kind, Bloody man, but… This wasn’t the first time she had felt like this, and it was generally Citron who did this part, so… They were probably doing the right thing, right? It also didn’t help that she couldn’t justify trying to start a fight in this condition… but that’s beside the point. “That’s a good girl, peaches.” He cooed, keeping his voice low to try and sooth the creature as he continued working at her. If this was how all wyverns were, he could probably get used to them. Peaches certainly wasn’t scary, anyways. "We're probably gonna have to wash you off after this..."

To say that Xa'tok had missed out on the majority of the shenanigans interrupting their first day of actual classes would have been quite the understatement. As the combination of confusion over the furry creature leaping its way about the the room and his own severe sleep deprivation meant that he was sat in a daze for a moment, and could only muster a "mischievous tiny-spirit" in his native tongue after his face had been licked. The rest of the situation had passed him by in something of a daze which had him swaying faintly from left to right and back again in his seat, his mind occasionally flitting back to that strange spirit he had encountered the day before. He wondered what it wanted, and how he could communicate with it more directly. He also resolved to eat a very large meal before the next time he tried to deal with it. Maybe he could offset the hunger it had instilled in him. "Guess I'm in trouble. Right, er...class...class... Ah yes that's right. I wanted to get a handle on what level you are all at. So I'll be handing out a basic test of the types of studies you'll be expected to know. You'll have until the end of class to finish it up and bring them to me." Well, that managed to get his attention. If nothing else he could at least display that he was not as hopeless as an outsider of the wider galactic community should have been expected to be. If he could stay awake through it that was. The mathematics on the test were, well, painfully easy. To a culture which exclusively lived on spacefaring craft, Calculus was as easy as breathing. He could chart asteroid orbits in his head, so really what could any logarithmic equation bother him with? In fact most of the subjects were easy to him. With two glaring exceptions. Questions about the history of the galaxy at large, with the exception of the rare few that concerned his people's dealings with the outsiders, were arcane to him. He did not know that there was a 43rd Galactic President, much less did he know about their response to a short-lived but intense economic recession. Worse than that were questions about literature. He had done a great deal to absorb what he could of the wider galactic culture but- "What is a Hamlet and why is it important?" He muttered aloud to himself.

In spite of it all, it seemed nothing was working. Their unity of purpose succeeded only in further breaking apart the stony exterior of this statue given life, and doing remarkably little to achieve their objective. Yet he was not giving up. Even if all he could do was crack the rock into smaller and smaller pieces, the lancer intended to do exactly that until either his body failed him or they achieved victory against this thing. He felt a familiar fury rising within him, and it made him careless. Mindless to anything except the destruction of what stood in front of him. So much so that he barely noticed when the claws came down on him, and when the beast leaped into the air he stood there for a moment trying to stab at its underbelly in the hopes of achieving something. But then his attention once more passed to the others, in particular how many of them were rendered unable to fight my the magic. Wait... magic. Of course! Nodding to himself, he reached into his pack and retrieved the decorated bottle of blessed water, a plan forming in his head. "Catriona!" He shouted as he turned from where he had been, running to her side. The statue was in the air for now, and while Citron and Peaches were in for a rough time dealing with it, this gave them a chance to regroup. "Hold still, I have an idea!" He still hadn't realised exactly how badly he was hurt just yet, but everyone who now had a fine view of his chest could see he was looking quite bad. Stony claws had torn clean through his gambeson, as well as the shirt he wore beneath it, and the rents left in his body were bleeding badly. It was something of a miracle that he wasn't slipping in his own blood right now, but purpose gave him strength. The reckless adrenaline and utter lack of concern for his own well-being helped. All the same, he knelt before the princess, set down his lance, and unstoppered the bottle. He took a moment to look it over and grimaced. There was only enough to do this three times. Well, better late than never then. "Primește nota-" he faltered for a moment, in the middle of tracing out a sunburst in the water on her forehead, and perhaps the others could see him panicking for a moment. Was it right to invoke her? Was it even safe to do so? He felt he was beginning to understand why so many outside of Pontus were afraid of even hearing her name spoken aloud. The pause ended, he finished the emblem, and said in a shaky voice, "Soarele." Purely descriptive, but the intent was all the same. To pass on whatever power was held in the water to protect her. He believed it would work, even if he was spiting Inera through it. "How... how does that feel?"

Edrick was surprised by the result of his attack on the statue. Both because of it rotating its weak spot directly towards him, which unfortunately he could not really take advantage of, and how it seemed to react when the lance stuck into it. It lodged into the empty space as surely as it would flesh and bone, which had him stopping and staring. Something which at first seemed like it would spell is downfall, with the strange blue glow beginning to rush down his weapon. And then he saw the Goddess's protection in action. The icon began to shake, and for a moment he could have sworn he heard the crowing of ravens filling his ears as he watched that cracked head begin to split further and further apart. Eventually he drew back from the statue, knowing he had to brace to make the next attack on this enemy, and readied himself to do just that. Even now he couldn't quite shake the thought of hearing ravens, which brought him no comfort. If anything he was close to panicking. Which came at the worst possible time. The statue stomped, and the force of it shook the ground beneath him. He was a strong young man indeed, but this managed to knock him off his balance and send him tumbling onto his back. But it seemed he was in luck, as instead of coming forward to finish him off in his helpless state he watched the statue lash out with its magical tail again. Even so his breath was coming faster by the moment, and he was starting to scramble unsuccessfully to try and get to his feet. "Look out!" Catriona's voice drew his attention towards her, and he saw her laid out unable to stand apparently after being struck. He also saw Link stooped over her trying to attend to her, and that shook him out of the moment of fear. His worries did not matter right now, their lives were on the line. He grit his teeth, swallowed the stress, and forced himself to his feet just in time to catch some words from the others. "Listen up, I know it's a strange foe, but the goal is simple! There's only one target to reach. Destroy the symbol. That's it! It may be large and dangerous yet if you focus on that you'll see it's not as bad as it seems!" "Link, get ready to hit that side, one of you two get ready to hit the opposite. Eddy! Get ready to stab it in the face. You heard the princess, we've got one small target to hit, and if it wants to move all around then we'll just have to hit it from every angle we can." Those two made a decent complement to each other... no he wasn't jealous! Well it was a good plan either way. But he could think of one way to improve it. "Hey you stony piece of crap!" He bellowed at the statue as loud as he could while he got to his feet, brandishing his lance and the icon of the Goddess upon it as threateningly as he could. "Don't you forget about me!" If he could get it to focus on him again, maybe its head would stay in one place long enough that one of them could get a solid hit on that symbol. He was ready to try himself, and the second he got a good look at it and a clear strike he lunged up with all the force he could muster. Maybe he would find more success here, using the icon as a weapon. He could only hope.

On the one hand, Xa'tok had managed to get a little bit more sleep than he had his first night in the school. On the other hand, three and a half hours of sleep was not exactly ideal. Especially when he had only managed to get it in roughly twenty minute blocks which were interrupted by bouts of wakefulness and staring up at the ceiling. The worst part was the lack of dreams. Since he had been very young the Shaman had always been able to remember his dreams, and it was disturbing to awaken without an understanding of what, if anything, he had seen in his sleep. All of this bothered him more than the alarm, such that even while he was getting himself ready for the first class of the day he barely seemed aware of what was around him. But that could have been the exhaustion. Somehow he managed to find his way to the right classroom for general education without hurting himself on the way. Of course he did still bump into quite a few people, and ran straight into a wall at least once in the process of getting there. But once he was in the classroom it was smooth spacing, and he docked without any further complications. Still smoother than his first time at the helm. Much of the instructor's introduction barely registered at first, but when he heard voices answering back from the rest of the class he managed to put enough attention together to figure out what was going on. Though when he heard his roommate say he loved "Regicide" he spent a few curious moments looking across at the boy. Were there enough monarchs in human space that they could kill them for sport? That did not sound even remotely correct. All the same, things eventually quieted down enough and the Shaman felt he should humor this greeting custom. It was odd to him, but then many things outside of the fleets were odd to him. Once Chase sat down after his long-winded introduction, he took his turn to unsteadily stand up. "I am called Xa'tok," he could not have sounded more tired if he was putting effort into it. He idly rubbed at one of the many metallic talismans hanging from his form. "And I am... principally interested in experiencing alien cultures, and all that entails." He had difficulty thinking of anything else, and then his stomach growled loudly enough to be audible a little ways around him. "...Including their food." That was still only two things. Oh, of course! "And the spirit world is also..." how to say this? "An area of interest of mine." That worked. And looking like he had very little awareness of his physical surroundings he went to sit down, stopped himself before he sat in another student's lap, and then settled into his own seat. It was hard to do anything accurately when you were having a hard time keeping your vision focused.

Initially, Edrick had thought that his and Link's ploy to trip up the statue was going to be successful. Especially thanks to Catriona's assistance in it, and sure enough they had. The problem arose when it became apparent that tripping the thing was not enough to keep it down on its own. Even with parts of it breaking and cracking, even as its head split in two the statue continued to fight them. If even half of what Edrick had heard about the lesser children of the Great Dragon was true then this was an unfortunately worthy replication of them. He had been bracing himself to continue holding the thing's focus, trying to plan out a way to distract it and let the others do something, when he was knocked off his feet by nothing and sent careening into the corner of one of the pews. That knocked the wind out of him and left him laying there for a moment or two, but gradually he fought himself back to his feet. For now he didn't feel much pain, but he was abundantly certain that was going to change in the near future. "Alright, we just need-" he had started to say as he stood up, and then he looked and beheld the display of magic from this thing. Of course it was magic, that hadn't been under any question, but to see it using it... how were they supposed to deal with this? And then he felt that familiar weight around his neck, taking a brief second to hold up the devotional icon given to him. What if... that might just work! But this was from his father. Blessed in the city of his birth if he was to believe that, and why should his parents lie to him? Yet as he watched his companions being struck at by the dragon's magic... he had to do something. "Breath of the Goddess." He swore as he tugged on the icon until the cord around his neck snapped, and then set to tying it around his lance just below the head. He had been taught many things about the Goddess, and one of them was her scorn for all magic that didn't come from her. He pray- hoped that he wasn't wrong. The boy took a deep breath, and then shouted as loud as he could. "Down here ugly! This is between you and me!" Hoping that was enough to get the statue to lower its head at him, he charged and tried to thrust his weapon between the two halves of the statue's head. He didn't have a good idea of what was going to happen, if anything, but this was getting desperate. He had to try something! And... maybe this would buy enough time for his friends to do something.

Xa'tok sat largely in silence as the Principal responded to him, and for several minutes longer as he considered what was said. A place left abandoned by its previous inhabitants? That did not bother him as much as it perhaps did others. It was the nature of life to find its home where other life before it had before passing on. At least that was how his people saw it. He knew from what he had read of history that other peoples did not take as kindly to the repurposing of the dead's effects. It did not make sense to him, but he understood that it offended them in some way. Though hearing about one of the teachers having an interest in the people... perhaps they had insight into the spiritual nature of this world that he could not glean on his own. Time would have to tell, but for now he had been quiet enough. "The... Chief Shaman, as they would be called in this language," he took a moment to stand up, making sure his legs could support him, "would say that one should understand the past, because it is what the present rests upon. Which in turn is the foundation of the future." He took a few unsteady steps to the door, got himself properly balanced, and once he was no longer in danger of falling over looked... meekly at the principal. "Could you let me out of here please? I... should be getting ready for tomorrow." A few more minutes, and the Shaman was doing just that. Returning to his room so that he could prepare for the next day. After all, the Naval Officer Preparatory Examinations were beginning then as well, and he was going to be very busy indeed.

Edrick did not know what regret felt like. Up to this point, with all of his misadventures and failings such as they were, he had not once looked at an action he had committed and thought it better not done. And yet right here, right now, staring at the iron head of his lance glancing harmlessly off of the statue that was very much still stone, he found himself wishing he had borrowed a hammer from his father instead of departing with a hastily made spear. If only he'd had a tool capable of breaking stone to use here, but that was neither here nor there. What mattered right now was that he had royally angered the statue, and that it was diving at him. There wasn't going to be any slick backstepping and lunging in, no he just needed to not be crushed to death. So while it busied itself with jumping up into the air, he turned around and jumped over the altar. He likely knocked something over in the process, but that was a problem to worry about when he wasn't inches from being smashed into a pancake. With that resolved, he got himself stood back up and turned around again to face the statue. "I can do this all day!" He jeered at it, hoping to keep its attention squarely on him and spare the others. He even reached into his tunic to pull out the Icon of Inera where it could be openly seen by their enemy. If this thing was somehow associated with the Great Dragon, then in all likelihood it would want to destroy anything derived from its greatest enemy. Which meant he was buying time for the others to figure out how to stop it. And then the door was thrown open behind them, splintered apart by the now much less adorable looking Peaches. An angry wyvern was an angry wyvern after all. And then looked suddenly much more adorable when Citron ran up and cupped her face. Right, back to the matter at hand. He turned to face the stone dragon, and once more dropped into a ready stance with his lance pointed straight ahead at the thing. And then he heard Link shouting at him. "Edrick! Catch it and pull!" And then the Soldier threw him a rope. Was he- and then it clicked! Alright, the worst thing he could do was lose a rope here, so he went ahead with the older man's plan and pulled on that with all of his strength. With any luck, they'd manage to catch its legs.

For a moment, Edrick found himself relaxing. He was just being ridiculous. It was a statue, of course it couldn't hear him! He was just beginning to turn away from it to join the search for whatever else was in the building when something caught his eye. The light glimmering in those gemstone eyes of it had him turn back, his heart already beginning to race before he had even the time to register that humming sound. It had to be magic, and if it was magic then maybe he had done something do much worse than he thought. For a moment he began to panic as the humming grew in volume and began to shake the room, or so it seemed to him. He had barely been able to fend off the Awakened, and now here he was about to be struck down by the only power that could equal The Goddess herself! The bright blue glow from behind those emerald eyes frightened him as much as anything in the world could, because what would become of his soul if he were struck down by a dragon? And then, from somewhere deep inside of him, defiance raised its head. He had crossed the Plains of Locris in Winter. Charged headlong into a horde of bandits to save a group of strangers. Stood before the Councilors of Ithome and not flinched. Saved two mysterious peoples from those who would have destroyed them. And yes, he had survived in the face of what looked for all the world to be Inera's Wrath. And just like all of those times save the first, he was not alone. He and his friends had proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that they could stand against anything the world could throw at them. As the rock began to crumble away from the beast in front of him he grit his teeth, and when it turned at him and roared he spun his spear in his hands once and struck the floor with the blunt end of its haft. "Edrick, move!" "Eddy!" He wasn't stupid, though. The beast heralded its strike at him by a country mile, and he was already moving when it lunged down at him. Two steps to the right put him, hopefully, just out of the way of its lunging bite. It also put him in the perfect position to counter-attack. Both feet turned towards the dragon, his lance turned in his hands with its iron head pointing straight at the dragon's neck. "You missed, you overgrown lizard!" He shouted so loudly his voice cracked in the first syllable of "lizard" as he all but jumped forward in his own lunge. Link taught him well, and he'd already grasped that against an enemy this big they needed to seize the momentum in this fight right at the start.

Edrick had been quiet so far, once they made their way up into the space above the cellar. His gaze flicking this way and that every so often as he stood there with his gaze locked on the emerald-eyed statue in front of him. Perhaps the group would have thought he felt right at home in this place. At just a cursory glance he had thought himself in a chapel to Inera, the way the structure was arrayed around them. But the imagery around him had caught his attention almost immediately. The four-legged, winged, serpentine creatures depicted in the statuary, the stained glass that he had difficulty making out with clarity from where he stood, the snapdragons on the altar. Everything about this place was wrong in all the right ways to set him off, so that he could be seen openly gripping ever tighter at his spear until he was threatening to either hurt himself or damage the wood. Or both. He knew what he was looking at when he saw that statue, it had been a feature of his nightmares as a child and ever been synonymous with all things evil in the teachings of the priests. "Dragon," Link beat him to saying it aloud, even if the soldier had muttered it. The Great Dragon. The source of all that was wrong with the world...or so he had been led to believe. Here, standing before it in effigy, he could feel a combination of fear and anger building up in him that threatened to make him lose his lunch. And yet...there was also doubt. Doubt about if this creature was truly as evil as he had been led to believe, especially in the context of doubt of The Goddess's goodness. He almost felt dizzy, and with the storm of doubts and fears swelling up inside of him as they were he began to sway on his feet. If there ever was a time to regret that he had finished off his Zeilla back in Ithome it was now. The others seemed to be spreading out and taking things in, but he was stuck in place. And might be for some time. "This... Is really strange... A building like this being in a small village." Sienna had spoken up, loud enough that it caught his attention and had him turning his head. Oh if she only knew. This place...aside from the subject of the statuary at least, was very much like the villages in Pontus. Though their chapels were often more plain. He overheard a bit of what Citron was saying, and catching the end of the comment he decided to butt in. "We're looking at The Great Dragon." He said, his voice shaky as could be. "What a statue of it's doing here in... a place like this I can't even begin to guess." He began to shakily approach the statue, using the haft of his spear to support him in the process until he was within what might well be considered striking distance. Either of him onto it with his spear or...Goddess forbid, the Dragon upon him. He took to clutching his devotional icon again in his free hand while looking at it. "Mă puteți auzi?" He asked, as if expecting the statue to respond. Though if there was any statue that was going to respond, it would be this one. So he thought anyways... "Can you hear me?"

Edrick was, for the time being, more relaxed now that things had apparently been settled with Cora. Or at the very least that a confrontation had been set aside to be resolved another time. He should have expected something like that, but when even the Princesses had accepted him after he revealed who he was he had been given reason to hope. To have that dashed hit him harder than he wanted to admit. After all what good was faith if it did not inspire faith? But...could he even claim to have faith himself now? His thoughts fell into another downward spiral as the group gathered and began making their way down to investigate what it was that Alois had found. One thing he noticed that hurt him all the more even in spite of how little it surprised him was how Gunther seemed to be plotting something with her. He knew the knight didn't like him much, but now he found himself stuck looking over his shoulder in anticipation of being struck in the back. That is, until he turned his head by chance and caught sight of the word that had unlocked their way. Drako. It was not exact, but it was close enough to the Old Pontic word "Draco," which he had only ever seen used in a single context. Had they actually found what the Princesses were looking for? But if they had then why was the room beyond so empty and bare? Even so, things were starting to turn in his head. For this place to have been cursed in such a fashion, especially if they were associated with the Great Dragon so close to the Pontic border, there were only two possibilities that occurred to him. The first was, well, that these heathens had gotten their just rewards. That whatever deal they had cut with the Dragon had finally gone sour, which in spite of himself gave the young Pontic some small amount of satisfaction. The other, and more frightening, prospect was... the opposite. That one of the greats among Inera's faithful had levied The Goddess's power against them. He did not believe they could withstand such a foe, but all the same... he resolved himself to do that exactly. He wondered if his Father and Uncle had ever felt like this, like Fate was coming to demand an answer from them. All the same, he approached Catriona while his grip tightened on his lance. He waited for Adelaide to speak before he did the same. "Princess," he said more curtly than he intended, "I think you may be closer to your goal than any of us guessed. 'Drako,' while not...quite the same is very similar to a word in Old Pontic. It might not have the same importance here, but... well I've only ever seen 'Draco' refer to one thing." Unwilling to say more, he found his gaze darting around like he expected them to come under attack at any moment... wait, why was there a- "that stone's not natural."

Gonna call this a Work in Progress for now.

Edrick was not surprised, but certainly disappointed that his insistence on helping had fallen upon deaf ears from Cora. Penelope's revelation of herself seemed to have helped, if only a bit. Seemed she was just opposed to letting him go about with the icon, which he took a moment to stare down at while he held it in an upturned palm. As much trouble as it was causing him, and as troubled as he was over the issue of Inera herself, he could not bring himself to discard it even for a moment. If his Father was to be believed, it was one of the only things from his birthplace that he had. One of a few thousand icons distributed to the various soldiers who participated in the Lyonesse War under the leadership of the last Archbishop of Pharaon. His feelings on the issue were complicated. "Perhaps when we go to the town hall, or wherever it is we're supposed to go from here, Edrick should...stay behind." Gunther's suggestion...well, Edrick had mixed feelings on it. On the one hand he was honestly hurt that someone in the group would suggest that, after all he had gone through with them. Especially after dealing with the awakened as they had. Thankfully it seemed almost everyone else was on his side in that. Even Citron, who he had known for just a few hours at this point, came to his defense on the angle of his sticking around. That was vindicating, but he now realised exactly how much of a problem the knight had with him. Which, considering he was firmly attached to the princesses, made it...an issue for his continued sticking around. When he heard Shiro ask about the importance of the icon, he was about to offer an explanation and was quickly beaten to it. Though he did turn his gaze to Licorice curiously. He had not expected her to know so much about the Lady of Bones. "I..." he tried to say something more and was cut off by Catriona well and truly placing her trust in him, leaving him to be the one to decide what did and did not become of the devotional icon. It was relieving to know how many of them believed in him, and he would do all he could not to fail in that belief. It wasn't quite the same as knowing that the Divine was watching over him, but his compatriots? He could accept that. But it seemed that it was time for him to properly speak up. "Look," he finally said, turning to face Cora, "I'm not sure what to say, I hardly understand anything that's happened over the past day myself, but... I want to help." He paused, looked between her and Gunther, and then continued as his attention rested back on the Guard. "I'm from a village not too different from this, really. Off on the banks of a river where we grow wheat, barley, cranberries, and a dozen other things. And I know that if my friends and family were...turned into animals," he had to stop for a moment just to comprehend the ridiculousness of his statement, "I'd hope someone would be good enough to help them, and my mother always said the fastest way to bring good into the world was to put it there yourself. So... all I can really do is ask for you to trust me. I promise you I can't use this for anything but protection against magic." He did his best to sound earnest as he said all of that, a pleading expression on his face. The last thing he wanted was to be left behind.

Edrick probably should have expected the vast array of less-than-pleased reactions to the emblem he had set on the table, especially when even he was feeling less and less comfortable carrying it after the incident at the chapel. The empty eye sockets of the Dread Raven felt like they were boring into him, where before it had been a comfort for him to feel the Goddess's gaze upon him. "You're...a good guy, right? ...Please?" Citron's reaction was simultaneously the least surprising and the hardest hitting. He thought he had found a kindred spirit in her, someone more familiar with working the land than with spilling blood. Yet he found himself looking down at his hands, and his expression grew grim as he contemplated that idea. No, he had become quite practiced at killing. But at the same time, everyone he had killed so far had deserved it. The bandits when he first met the group, the thieves in Ithome, even the Awakened at the Chapel had deserved to be returned to their rest. The Abbott himself had said so, there was something different about them. Something wrong. But did that make him good? It was hard to answer that question. "Does it matter who I am or where I got it?" He ultimately responded, raising his head to look first at Cora and then at the snarling Badger who was apparently the mayor. "I'm here, the same as everyone else, to help you sort out this curse and you're not exactly in a position to start refusing any help. We can talk about who i am and where I got the pendant once this is all over with." His expression remained hard, firm, and most of all resolved. He had made up his mind about staying exactly where he was, and using whatever resources he had at hand to solve it. "Besides, if there is a powerful magic user still here in the town we're going to need everything we can get to fight them." With that stated, he turned his attention to Catriona. "Rise D Key, right?" He asked, collecting the pendant and placing it around his neck once again. It was clear nobody else wanted it anyways. "You found a letter 'D' upstairs, maybe one of the keys fits something near it. Was there anything else under the bed?" He still wasn't sure how to answer Citron, and that bothered him more than he was going to say right now.

"I see, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. I knew this might happen when I accepted your entrance. You'd be Xa'tok then?" The Chapaaya was not as surprised to be recognized as perhaps was expected, he had made sure that the school knew he was coming long in advance after all. "I'm not sure how much you know about this place. But there is supposedly a spirit of sorts in the center of the planet. It had been there since...before I came here, at least, but not much is known about its origin. Any attempts to contact always ends with the initiator sick in bed for weeks without even so much as catching a glimpse of them. I'd ask you avoid a similar fate. I can't let a student come to harm after all!" Now that was surprising, that someone uninitiated in the ways of the spirits knew about it. Arnold knowing was one thing, he had spent time in the void between the stars in the company of Xa'tok's people. It made sense that he would have picked up on Chapaayan knowledge. How potent was this spirit that even the uninitiated had encountered it? More over, how much could the young Shaman achieve now that he knew he was the only one thus far to even see it. The strange mesh of flesh and metal was stuck in his head, and for a moment Xa'tok got the feeling that the spirit was watching him. For once in his life, that sensation did not bring him comfort. "I do not mean to offend," he answered the Principal at length, "but I was merely seeking the company of the lesser spirits of this place. Ever since I was small they have flocked to me, and suddenly being looked upon with suspicion is an adjustment I would prefer not to make. I do not think you can help me with that." That wasn't it of course, but that was the reason for his attempted confluence. "Though... this may be an odd question, but what was the first tribe- no tribe isn't right..." he spent a moment scratching the side of his head. "Culture? Culture. What was the first culture to settle this world?"

"For what it's worth," Edrick began as the conversation started winding in the direction of their plans to deal with the magic user responsible for this whole mess, "I...have some things that could help us against someone throwing magic around." He didn't have much idea on what the letters were supposed to mean, and Alois was heading downstairs with some idea apparently. Better for him to stay where he was and where he could make some difference in this. So he started by opening his pack and, carefully, withdrawing the ornate glass bottle he had received from Father Christmas to set it on the table before him. "This is agheasmă, ah-" he paused to try to think of the words for it, "blessed water. I haven't had reason to use it yet, and I don't know if there's enough for everyone, but from what my Mother taught me it can be used to..." he trailed off again. This time not because he had forgotten the words, but because of what he was about to say. Would Inera really extend her protection to those present just because a little bit of water was put on their foreheads in the right way? Not to discredit the water's makers, but these people were if anyone the Goddess's most direct enemies upon this world. Another few moments, and he spoke up again. "Dampen the effects of harmful magic." That was only the first part of it though, and the next was more problematic. "I also have this." For the first time since his leaving his home, he took the icon around his neck by the string and lifted it off before gently resting it on the table alongside the bottle of water. The slightly rusted, and now bloodstained, icon of The Goddess of War and Death lay there out for everyone to see. The eye sockets in the raven's skull might seem to be looking at whoever glanced its way. "It... seems to have a similar effect to the water. Catriona and Sienna can attest to that, I was wearing it when I accidentally took a fireball to the back. No hard feelings, by the way." Sienna hadn't been having the best time today, especially with Penelope getting onto her about the forest fire. Hell, he didn't think it was that bad. Worst that could have happened was they all burned to death. "So...unless anyone has anything else, this is what we have for magic protection."

Edrick was prone to wandering at times, especially when he realised that he had forgotten something. It had previously been Link asking him what they'd found downstairs, and now it was that Penelope was gathering people upstairs. "Penelope is holding a meeting. Meet back upstairs." As Catriona was only too willing to remind them. He found the relationship between the two princesses strange. Catriona was the elder, in line for the throne, and the actual leader of the party while Penelope tended to be the one who was actually making plans of any consequence. Was this a Galtean custom wherein the commander did not make their own plans? Truth be told it had been bothering him for some time, but it was an itch at the back of his head rather than a broken bone. Just a distraction, especially when they were effective enough as it was. All the same, he felt inclined to ask one of them about it if only to finally get it off his mind. More important though was the events upstairs, as Shiro and Sienna emerging from below confirmed that they were safe. So he tramped his way back up the stairs, intent on staying this time. And the conversation he walked into immediately had his nose twitching. Ritual Magic? Powerful casters? None of that sounded good, and all of it stank of heresy. Questions of his own faith or not, Edrick was probably never going to be completely comfortable around magics derived from other sources. He mostly tried to ignore when Penelope and Sienna did their work, but even so that still had his stomach turning every so often. Dealing with something even more profound than that? Even worse, what if he was right about this being the work of one of Inera's Followers? Could they even hope to stand against someone so powerful? At least Citron was suggesting they could get through this without a fight. That...would be nice, actually. Not having to fight someone because they were causing problems. "So," he said more to distract himself from his own fears than anything else, "some of what we read earlier discussed a rite...well, 'ritual' if you want to call it that, that had to do with something called a Caller. It uh...seemed a lot like, and I said this earlier, an Ordination. Now," he looked over at Cora, "I'm not saying it's the same, but..." he trailed off, not sure where to go with that. So instead he just moved on. "Maybe something happened when they tried to make the last Caller? Then whatever this Hag -oh Zeița that's a word for a Witch- um, right, whatever this Hag did made things worse?" He was mostly just parroting what other people, Adelaide included, had already said at this point while he tried to calm down enough to think. "Um...and we've been finding letters? Does anyone think they could spell something? Maybe it's a code?"

For a moment, one beautiful moment, the young Shaman was at peace. He had felt this sensation before, and knew that he was entering the spirit world. The vibrant colors, though distinct from those of the void, he took as a sign that the spirits were welcoming him to speak to them. His heart raced, and he listened closely to try and catch even a fragment of a name with which to address one of them. He thought he heard something, and opened his mouth to speak. And then it all went dark. A spirit, or a Demon, showed itself to him however briefly and already he felt that he was losing himself. He felt a sudden chill washing over him, and it seemed even his heart was going still. A thousand thoughts of ships, floating dead in the interstellar void, overcame his consciousness. He briefly feared that he, too, would become as cold and empty as those blasted hulks long since abandoned by all save the dead. But the fear soon vanished, and he was overwhelmed by a gnawing hunger. So intense that it felt like his body was eating itself, and he became desperate. He tried to lash out to grab something, anything to eat but he failed. He couldn't grab anything, and the desperation turned to anger. He would hunt, he would fight, he would kill, he would eat! Everything! Not even the stars would be spared! Then as suddenly as the vision had overcome him, he was back in the physical world. The Principal's hand on his shoulder while he was laid out on a couch. The sensation of cold left him, and as he felt the more normal warmth washing over him he began to sweat. It almost felt too hot. "You gave me quite the scare. I was just about to go for a jog when I saw you twitching in front of my doorstep." That brought Xa'tok's wandering attention back to the principal, and he looked over the large man for a moment or two. Pink had been one of the colors in the spirit world...was this man a spirit? "I-" he paused, overcome by a coughing fit as he tried to speak. His throat was remarkably dry and hoarse, as it always was when he returned from such a journey. "I am sorry. I was trying to commune with the spirits of this place."

Edrick had been waiting at the base of the stairs for Catriona to come down so that he could explain the situation, and had given Link a wave when he came down while looking for the older princess. As such, he had been something of an accessory to the Soldier's reaction to the Younger Princess when she came around the corner too quick. He gave the older man a curious look, asking with his eyes if he was alright, but ultimately turned away and followed the younger princess further into the basement. She seemed to be gathering everyone together anyways. That gathering also meant that the lancer was right where he could listen to everything that they had found, and do that most difficult of things: actually think out the solution to a problem which had been designed to be confusing. There was a locked door down the trap door in the basement, which...honestly spoke to a level of paranoia that meant there had to be something down there. Apparently they had found several keys scattered around the place as well, which had been thoroughly hidden throughout it. One of which opened the town hall. This was quite the problem, and all he could really think of was that they had something hidden in the old chapel as we- "Edrick. What were you shouting about?" His attempts at figuring things out were interrupted by Link's question, and he looked over at the older man to see him walking away from a table with a sword on it. He'd thought about trying to learn to use a sword once, and almost cut his thumbs off the one time he tried. Yeah...he'd just be leaving that where it was. "Right, so," he started, "the others found that room," he gestured to where they had all previously been gathered, "and when Tsegtseg went in she activated a net trap. After we got her out of that, she found a trap door leading down into a hallway under the basement. And apparently they found a door down there as well. Basically, it sounds like this house has as many hidden rooms and passages as the library back in Ithome. Maybe just as many secrets too."

With his efforts to find the geometric center of the school, Xa'tok found himself rather precariously in front of the door of the Principal's Office. While this might have given other students of the Academy pause, the young shaman was just the right combination of desperate for approval from the spirits and deprived of sleep that he didn't quite care as much as he should have. While he didn't make his way into the office itself, he did set himself up in the hallway. Down went the brazier. Into it went a few pellets of incense, and atop there went a small amount of wood shavings which were themselves swiftly annointed with a few drops of perfumed oil. A match was struck, dropped into the brazier, and the shaman spent the next few moments trying to stoke it up sufficiently to begin filling the space around him with smoke from the incense. At which point he clasped his hands together, closed his eyes, and began quietly murmuring a wordless tune. The intention of which was to summon up whatever spirits were about to commune with, and see what could be gleaned from them.

Edrick had, in fact, been trying to get the bulky, heavy mess of a net that they had just managed to free Tsegtseg from into his bag. After all, it would do them more good than it would sitting here in the house that it had been previously functioning as a trap. Unfortunately though, while he was a good strong young man, Edrick just couldn't wrangle the thing in. He had the space to carry it, he knew that much, but try as he might he just couldn't lift the thing off the ground enough to actually get it into his bag. "Um... good luck with that." And Penelope's commentary on his attempts wasn't helping anyways. In fact he nearly ended up tearing part of the net in frustration as he tried to prove that he could actually hoist the thing. Finally giving up, he rounded on the younger of the two sisters. "Well excuse me, Princess, but-" whatever else he was about to say was cut off as he noticed what Tsegtseg had found. "Oh. Okay that's something." A cursory glance over the edge, down to where Shiro had so eagerly jumped, made it obvious that it was dark enough that they wouldn't be able to see. "H-hey, let's not do too much down there without everyone else! Or torches!" He was at least practical enough to figure that out. He also knew that he needed to do something else, and so he left the net where it was and ran over to the stairs leading up. Cupping his hands to his face, he tilted his head back and shouted up into the house. "Catriona! We've found something! You should come see- oh, and light some of the torches if you have them!"