Asriel Dreemurr

"It was nice to get to speak with you." Xa'tok nodded to the other nomad as the boy turned to make his way off to some other part of the school. That conversation hadn't done much for the dilemma he was currently facing, but it had been a pleasant distraction. Something to break the overwhelming silence of this place as it were. His ears flattened back against his head as he once more started to walk, steadily working towards the geometric center of the campus. He still did not have any idea of what the spirits of this place would take in offering. He needed to convince them that he was worthy of their attentions, but without any clear idea of what they wanted. "I could simply ask them." He mused aloud, nodding to himself. Yes, that would do well enough. But first he needed to draw up the appropriate spirits to speak to. That didn't change much about where he needed to go, however. The heart of the school was where he was headed.

"Well, see, see. I was just walking in here and then I opened the door - I've been very good at opening doors - and then I went in here to explore some more. But then - then! I stepped in here and there was a clicky noise and then this fell on me and now I can't get ooooouuuuuuuuuttttt!" That honestly answered more questions than it inspired, and it confirmed something Edrick had already been considering. Tsegtseg had clearly triggered a trap, and there wasn't any reason to trap a place where there wasn't anything worth hiding. But they still needed to get her out first. He was just about to pull a knife and start cutting when, right on time, Penelope arrived with another idea. "You know, it probably would be easier if we just lift one side of the net and let her crawl out. Much easier than trying to lift the whole heavy thing up at least." That...that did make a whole lot more sense. And considering Sienna was already agreeing with the princess and Shiro was going along with it he went and did the same. He shuffled along to the same side as them, took a nice firm grip, and got to lifting. "So," he started to say while they were in the process of getting the net off, "there's no reason to trap a place where there isn't something you want to hide. There's probably something else down here that we're missing. Maybe a hidden door?" He was just hoping that the younger of the two princesses would handle finding whatever secret passage might exist down here while they were busy. He was also already considering the logistics of taking the net along. Who knows what use they could put it to?

"Ah, that's simple. My people had some run ins with yours from time to time. It's to be expected. Space may seem vast but really there are only so many places to go. I myself never met them but I have heard descriptions. I suppose you could say I'm pretty good at picking up on things like that." Well, that certainly explained things. Privately the Shaman wondered if he had ever met the boy's parents in his own, fairly limited, experiences with the hornless ones. Though without his own horns he doubted they would recognize him anyways. Xa'tok was about to ask about the boy's own experiences in crossing the void between the stars, and then came the comet of a question. "About this spirit. What do you think would happen if someone were to wake it up?" "If someone were to...wake up the planet's spirit?" At the, presumed, nod from the boy the Chapaayan was left in quiet consideration for a few moments. His left ear twitched in an almost irritated manner. This wasn't exactly heresy, but it was exceedingly dangerous. "That depends entirely upon the character of the spirit of this world. If the spirit is violent, it could be quite dangerous. Perhaps even more so if it is a parental spirit. Ultimately...one would have to successfully awaken them to know for sure. Not that it would be the best decision to do so without knowing more about the spirit in question."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. But you're from the Xul-Tuk yes?" Hearing the name of his tribe snapped Xa'tok out of the exhausted daze he had been walking in for a moment, and he turned his head almost too fast towards the boy speaking to him. He felt his heart sink for a moment when he noticed it was just a human, but soon enough his spirits and his ears were raised again."My name is Arnold. I, too, come from a group who travels from place to place." He smiled and gave a small chuckle, and Xa'tok brought his hands together in front of him. His left fist against his right palm. There were words of greeting to be shared among travelers yet, but for now the boy continued to speak. "It's so strange knowing I'll be staying here for so long. Anyway, that's not why I approached you, apologies for rambling. You mentioned the spirits. It got me curious. You see, I heard that, deep in the core of the planet, some sort of greater spirit resides, sleeping. I wonder if perhaps you knew anything about that? What do you think that means for this planet?" "Fellow Nomad Arnold, I welcome you aboard whatever vessel I may yet come to travel on, and I will share with you my quarters if you can find none yourself." It wasn't completely the traditional greeting, but as they were not in space it was as close as the Chapaayan could come. Even so, it did him good to be able to observe some small part of the rites of his people. "But, as for the sleeping spirit of this planet? It means that it is settled. That the world itself is in no danger, and that it has no rivals for space. For us? It means that this is a safe place to build and to live. It also means that we are unlikely to receive intercession from this greater spirit, which is why my tribe would never settle in such a place." If the world's spirit itself was asleep that explained a great deal of why the young Chapaayan couldn't settle himself. He was used to the turbulent spirits of asteroids, meteors, and of course the ships on which they crossed the void. For a moment he closed his eyes, remembering the roar of a fleet in battle. It was exhilerating, even without being there. "But now I have a question for you." The Shaman said, opening his eyes and pointing at Arnold. "How did you recognize what tribe I am from? You are the first hornless one to do so."

With Ciela seemingly satisfied with his answer, for the moment at least, Edrick decided to continue through with his original plan. That being making his way down to the basement to see if he could recognize anything that might have looked like a shrine. But sure enough he found himself interrupted again. "If you're hungry." Catriona spoke up, and when he turned to look at her it seemed she'd set out some of the trail rations they'd been carrying. Edrick was about to respond, and then his stomach did for him. The growling might have been loud enough for everyone around him to hear, and from the sheepish expression on his face he knew that. So rather than immediately head downstairs to help with what was going on he snagged a handful of nuts which he promptly shoved in his face. Partly to try and distract from his own embarrassment, and partly to not be rude to Catriona. He still had a few of his travel cakes in his bag, which honestly would have been enough to get him through lunch. So he set about making his way down to the basement, and only once he was out of view did he start crunching away at one of his own creations. "Siiiiieeeeennnnaaaaa! Shiiiiiiirrrooooooooo! Heeeeeeeeellllllllppppp!" Well that definitely gave the farmer-turned lancer a reason to hurry down the stairs. He almost choked on the nuts as he started running down, and then jumped the rest of the way to the floor with his lance in-hand and an expression on his face that the group was probably starting to learn meant he was about to start stabbing. Aaand Tsegtseg was just stuck in a net. A net which it looked like the two proteans were having a little trouble removing from her. Well, stabbing wasn't going to help this. Sighing, he set the lance down and made his way over to the trio. "How did this even happen?" He asked, grabbing hold of an as-of-yet untouched part of the net to help the others peel it off of their archer.

And before he could contribute much else to the conversation one way or another, Edrick was left alone there at the table with the agitated beaver and not much to do. Well, there definitely seemed to be something going on that might be connected to Inera in some way. Especially with an ordination happening. To his mind it seemed that whatever association there was with that would have to be secret, and where did people tend to keep secrets? The basement. So with Alois making his way upstairs and the rest of the group spread out across the first floor he decided to head downstairs and see what, if anything, had been discovered there. So he gathered up his lance, having grown accustomed to carrying it and finding some security in having a weapon, and headed into the basement. "Wait uh, can you tell me more about what you said earlier, Edrick?" At least he had been until Ciela came along to get him. Well, he supposed he had to explain what he meant to someone anyways. Plus it wasn't like they were making progress so quickly that he needed to make sure he was downstairs in case they found something. "I just said that the rite described in that sheaf of papers Alois had looked like an Ordination." At first he thought that was enough an explanation and was about to continue downstairs, and then he remembered Ciela wasn't Pontic. She probably didn't know the specifics of it. "You know, how someone is formally recognized as a Priest of Inera. They're taken to a chapel, made to answer questions about their faith, demonstrate their understanding by conducting a sacrifice, and then given a staff to use to make sure their faith is strong enough to enact The Goddess's magic. There's some...variations depending on the region, but that's mostly the gist of it. So, if I were to guess, I'd say this town used to worship Inera and whatever this 'Caller' is used to be their priest." He shrugged. It made about as much sense to him as anything else. And more sense than a lot of things. "What that has to do with them being turned into animals? Maybe the rite and what the 'Caller' are changed over time, and with...things being how they are the villagers angered Inera with their heresy. So...I think there's probably a shrine to her hidden here somewhere. Probably downstairs."

With their instructors having been introduced, and the ride back to the school done Xa'tok was left largely without direction. Classes were not going to start until the next day, his room wasn't likely to be any more restful than it had been previously, and all in all the school was still just as uncomfortable a place to be as it had been thus far. An initial try at recovering the sleep he'd missed during the night failed, and resulted in him getting back up and pacing around the room he and kansuke shared for a few moments. Eventually, without much else that he could think of, he put together a small number of things in a backpack (namely a small bag of ritually prepared firewood, kindling, a brazier, and some incense powder) before making his way out of the room. If nothing else, maybe preparing an offering to the spirits would give them reason not to shun him quite so much. The lack of noise he could probably solve some other way. So it was that the tall, lanky boy began making his way towards one of the exits of the school building. There was just...one problem with this plan. "What type of offerings would even appeal to the spirits of this place?" He hadn't really meant to ask that question aloud, but as tired as he was he couldn't easily keep his thoughts to himself. Or stay particularly steady on his feet while he walked, come to think of it.

"Are you well?" The question snapped Edrick back to the present, and he bit back his initial answer. Telling everyone else what was bothering him wasn't going to change anything, not really. Plus he figured most of them already knew. It was pretty obvious, to him, that suddenly having the center of your faith apparently turned against you would make you a little bit less okay than you had been. Add to that the fact that the woman who had looked like she wanted to slap him earlier was staring at him, and he felt a little bit less inclined to really say much on the subject. "I'll be fine." He said, and not much later there was the sound of snapping wood, and a quick glance over at the side revealed the source. Alois had gone ahead and taken the direct approach. That is to say, literally cut open what appeared to be some sort of chest or other. That seemed...excessive. Though before he had much chance to say anything on the subject the other boy had come over and laid down what looked to be a book of scripture. Curiosity quickly got the better of Edrick, and he decided to open it and have a look. Well it clearly wasn't scripture, but the religious bent to the writing was more than a little unsettling. Though not in the usual sense of a good Pontic's reaction to heresy. Well, not just that anyways. This was clearly heretical, which if the town was engaged in rituals that were offensive to Inera that only strengthened the possibility of one of her followers working whatever it was that had happened here. The other part were the mentions of "Awakening" and a "Caller." It gave him chills, mainly because he couldn't quite shake the feeling that this was familiar. Not just because of its apparent references to the Day of Awakening, one of the numerous names for the Goddess's promised return of the departed faithful to the living world. Was this... "This almost looks like an Ordination..." he muttered a bit louder than he had meant to, raising his head from the book to look, obviously unsettled, between Catriona and Cora.

Xa'tok looked a little rough at the gathering where they were being introduced to their teachers. As a matter of fact he looked like he had not slept at all the previous night...because that was the case exactly. He had never been able to settle down, and had spent much of the night laid out on his bed staring up into the darkness and trying everything he could manage to sleep. Nothing worked. The building was much too quiet for his tastes. On a starship there was always noise from the numerous systems that ran through it working at varying capacities, and more than that the spirits peculiar to starships always flocked to him. Here, in this place, they were wary of him. The lesser ones darted out of his reach, and the greater ones ignored him outright. The only company he had really been expecting had ignored him at every turn, and the oppressive silence was impossible to escape. So he had been standing, swaying unsteadily on his feet, through much of the gathering and had almost failed to actually collect the bracelet that would apparently call his mech. He might have wondered about how they had managed to accomplish that with the distinctions between Chapaayan technology and that of the rest of the universe, but he was too tired to think about it much right now. Hence why he was still standing there while the crowd around them slowly dispersed, without much lasting impression of the introduced teachers.

For his part, Edrick was only too happy to leave the house with the naked man tied up in front of it. While he knew it had been a horse, and thus the tying made a little more sense, it was still just slightly unsettling to be around. Well, okay more than slightly and not just because of the magical implications this entire situation had. What if somebody decided to tie him up like that for some reason? He almost immediately shot Penelope an accusatory look, and then quickly looked away. He didn't want to have that conversation... What bothered him somewhat more was calling the structure a Town Hall. That had several implications, and if he was right about this being the Goddess's work then that could be the reason. It certainly looked like the old chapel where they had fought the awakened, and while both were somewhat distinct from the houses of worship in Pontus he had to admit they were more alike than different. With Inera's power returning to the world in such a way, then a village that had been using one of her chapels as a meeting place could easily have incurred her wrath. Which meant that they would probably be meeting some or another servant of hers here. Distracted as he was with his thoughts of what was to come, the Pontic had barely noticed when they'd arrived at the mayor's house and had walked into the place on auto pilot. He'd come to stand over the table in the main room, apparently lost in thought and without much attention paid to what was going on around him. He'd rested his lance on the floor, and had taken to occasionally muttering something or other under his breath while he thought through things.

Edrick was certainly much less afraid of the supposed "winged devils" from Issauria now that he was right here scratching one under the chin. It was nice, having something go the way it was supposed to. With things having been as weird as they had been lately, having an enormous scaly lizard obviously enjoy the same sort of treatment that other animals he handled did was a bigger boost to his morale than he wanted to admit. He could have probably spent the rest of the day and well into the night doing just that, assuming he managed to stay awake any longer. But, as the others began following after Catriona, he had to pick up and go with her fairly quickly before he was left behind. Thankfully Citron had come out quickly enough that there wasn't any risk of the Wyvern having a fit, and had thanked him for calming her down. He brushed the thanks off for now, and set about following the group properly. The explanation of the situation sounded like a legend he had heard before, except in the legend it had been a castle instead of a village. Plus he was pretty sure people got turned into furniture in the legend. Either way, it was only too easy for him to believe at this point. It certainly explained why the beavers had attacked them earlier anyways. They thought they were defending their village from bandits, and they sure did look the part. Probably smelled it too. Well, it seemed that the others had decided on a direction, and Edrick followed along. He also did his best to ignore the naked man tied up outside of the house, because he had something more important to do in the mean time. "Catriona." He said, approaching their leader. At least her name was easy to say. It still felt like he was twisting his tongue a way it shouldn't be when he spoke Galtean though. "I still think we need to investigate the chapel in town. With the way things have been going it's obvious that The Goddess has set herself against-" he paused, struggled to speak for a moment, and then continued, "you." It was still difficult for him to consider himself an enemy of her, even if things seemed that way. He...he needed a little longer to think about that. "So, even if whoever did this to the townspeople wasn't a follower of hers we might still find answers in there. Plus the possibility that this was done by one of the faithful is... to great to ignore." Especially considering that the doors to the chapel in question displayed those who had first warred against Inera. The request for help might well have just been an excuse.

And just when his dream was getting to the good part...not that he could actually remember the good part, a hand came down onto Edrick's shoulder and shook him. Catriona probably hadn't meant to, but she did manage to knock his head against the wall in the process. Which...led to the boy rather quickly starting awake and flailing wildly about for a moment or two while he made sense of what was going on around him. "Ce se întâ-" he caught himself, realising he was speaking Pontic, and managed to roll into an upright sitting position. "What's happening?" Not that anyone really needed to answer. He was smart enough to figure out that they were getting ready to head out even if he hadn't clearly heard the explanation of that. Everyone was getting ready to walk out the door of the house, and it sounded like the Wyvern was screeching at the people outside. Well that...was something. He was just getting to his feet when he caught Citron's question to Penelope. "No," he answered before the younger princess could, "that's very much a Penelope thing. Get her started, and she'll keep going off on any even vaguely related thing she knows about." By this point he had found his lance, and once more brought that enormous pack of his up and secured it on his back. Thusly prepared he made his way to, and then out, the door...directly into a very stressed-sounding Wyvern. Well he wasn't sure about giant reptiles, but most of the horses he had been around liked it when he scratched them on the chin. Maybe that would help? So in his still faintly delirious state, Edrick reached out a hand to do just that: gently scratch under the pink creature's chin. Was he sure he had heard right about Wyverns being incredibly dangerous creatures? This one certainly didn't match that description.

From Edrick's perspective, the time between his falling asleep against the wall and the rest of the group arriving in Cora's house passed very quickly indeed. In fact, if he was left undisturbed, then the others' arrival would pass entirely without his ever realizing it. He was, in fact, well and truly asleep there against the wall, propped up in the corner with the enormous pack he was usually seen carrying laid over his legs splayed out on the floor. His lance was...somewhere. Not immediately around him, but probably somewhere nearby. He wasn't forgetful enough to have just left it out somewhere in the village after all. "Elba..." he muttered in his sleep. Not that he had yet explained the significance of that name to any of his companions, but at least Catriona knew he had originally left his home trying to find his horse. And as a matter of fact, that was the subject of his dream at the moment. Anyone who happened to be looking at the sleeping young man might just see his lips curled up into a smile in open defiance of everything that seemed to be wrong right now.

+Citron Of all the people Citron had expected to give their name, the quiet Histian guard was the last one she expected to be first; though, he was also the last person she had really expected to get friendly with Peaches. As adorable as she was, she wasn’t exactly the most personable herself. Still, she’d take the name in stride, nodding. “Nice to meet you, Link!” She replied with an almost forced glee, inwardly wincing at how strange it had to sound, before turning to the guy she had heard mentioned as a farmer. “Oh! And you’re…” She paused, trying to remember what the armored-woman who acted like their leader had called him. “Edrick, right?” She absentmindedly rubbed her hands together, eyes lighting up. The boy in question had just been getting ready to sit himself down somewhere on the floor where he could put his back to the wall and try to get at least some amount of sleep. In fact the unexpected mention of his name was enough to startle him, resulting in an odd step that took his feet out from under him and sent him stumbling to the floor with his head knocking heavily against the wall. “Aoleu,” he groaned after a moment’s delay. It hadn’t hurt that much, at least compared to most of what he’d gotten while traveling with the group, but it was enough to at least daze him. It also brought out the colorful patterns on the walls...no, wait, he was seeing stars. Maybe he’d hit his head harder than he thought… “Da, eu sunt-” he stopped when he realised he’d lapsed into his native tongue. “Uh...yeah, I’m Edrick.” “Nice ta’ meet’cha, Edrick!” Citron gave a thumbs up as she crossed her legs on the bed; swaying back and forth, both out of excitement and… Well, due to the headache she was sporting. “My name’s Citron, of Paridisi farms! And Iiiiii was gonna ask ya’ ‘bout your farm! Or, well, I started to ask you earlier,” She stumbled over her words, rubbing the back of her head. “Still a little out of it, but I figured we could pick up where we left off ‘nd all, because heck yeah, farms.” At least her stumbling through opening the conversation up meant Edrick had enough time to make sure he wouldn’t end up answering in Pontic again… “Umm...yeah. Farms!” Not that he was really any better at breaching the subject, tired as he was. It felt like his thoughts were oozing out of his ears. “I think you asked about fruits? Well...I uh...I didn’t grow much fruit. Most people on the banks of the Lanti grow grains. Wheat, barley, sorghum, you know.” It was pretty obvious that wasn’t the answer Citron had been looking for, so the boy spent a few tense moments wracking his brain for something else. Thankfully, he found it. “Ah! But right up against the banks, the whole town’d had these huuuuge fields of cranberries and we’d harvest them every Autumn.” Just thinking about it brought him back, and he could practically feel the cool waters coming up to his thighs. “Cranberries?” Citron asked curiously, putting a hand to her chin. “I’ve… Not really heard of those, if I’m being honest? I lived in a pretty, um…” She’d gesture vaguely around the room, particularly to places devoid of… Stuff. “Desert-y climate, so we could only plant really, really specific stuff. What’re cranberries like?” She’d finally ask, tilting her head to side. Now it was Edrick’s term to get excited. “So! They’re these little,” he held up his right hand and brought his thumb and forefinger together until he had an approximate size for a cranberry, “red berries that grow on vines that run really low along the ground. So instead of breaking our backs bending over to harvest them, how we’d do it is we’d flood the fields and the berries would just float right up to the surface! Then you just take a basket and go along and skim them off the top!” It seemed like he was about to start bouncing, and then he hit his head again. “Vai! A-anyways, we’d have these week-long harvests of them, and of course everyone’d eat a bunch of them right off the water. Oh...they were so good…” he trailed off, trying to figure out how to describe the taste. Now, Citron, she very much was bouncing, with the conversation; eyes practically sparkling with every word. “Woooaaaah! They sound so cool!” She grinned, rubbing her hands together. “Were they juicy? Berries are generally juicy, so I bet-- Oh man, I bet you could just make the BEST lemonade by combining the two!” She exclaimed, her voice genuinely excited. “I have GOT to find them during my trip, so I can try it out!” “Yeah! But they also have all these little, hard seeds inside of ‘em so you gotta be careful when you bite down. Plus the rind can be kinda bitter. Really they’re best when you pickle or make ‘em into jam. I dunno what lemonade is, but if it’s tangy or sweet then I’m sure they’ll mix really well with it! Just...just gotta...get back...home…” the boy trailed off, once again finding himself overcome with that familiar, homesick longing. “Oh, that’s a good point,” Citron’s excitement fell similarly, though, it only trailed off as her migraine had found a way to catch up with her; her movements slowing. “I forgot to ask, about where are you from? If, you don’t mind me asking,” she smiled, rubbing the back of her head. “I also understand if that’s like, a sore spot or too personal or anything like that.” “No no it’s fine, just-” he paused, unsure how to move forward. Either confident enough to go forward or too tired to care, he went with the plainest approach. “So, the Lanti river’s pretty far East of here. It feeds into Lake Amphis...on the border between Locris and Pontus.” “Ooooh…” She nodded, getting a rather… Vague, idea of where he meant. She had glanced over the maps time and time again, trying to make sure she followed in her Grandfather’s footsteps, but those still only helped so much; she was certainly no master of geography. “That sounds right enough,” she nodded, smiling. “Anyways, I guess I should stop bothering you, ‘nd let you get some rest, huh?” “No, no I can...I can stay…” his efforts at protesting her letting him rest were interrupted by a yawn. However much he didn’t want to go to sleep, it looked like the little of it he had gotten so far was going to get the better of him sooner rather than later. “Alright. It was...it was good talking to you, Citron.” “It was good talking to you too, Edrick.” She smiled, lowering her voice a bit. “Get some rest.” She encouraged, nodding. He was well ahead of her in that, scooting himself into a corner and leaning his head back so that he, hopefully, wouldn’t end up falling and hitting his head again.

Xa'tok was ever fascinated with the sheer variety of naming conventions among the humans. He mused, wondering if they were descended from a people that had been like his. He had heard stories of some small holdings of Chapaayans on planets and planetoids, and how they had become different from the tribes while still maintaining some constants within their culture. From what little he knew of the humans, it seemed that they were similar. "I will try not to disrupt your routine, Hardass Kansuke." At least this one had been kind enough to provide him with a title to use. That made him feel considerably better. "In spite of how late I imagine I will be up, being enrolled in the Naval Officer Preparatory Examinations as well as this academy's pilot program. Not to mention how I intend to foster a relationship with the spirits of this place." He was content to leave the conversation there for now, as he was intent on making use of the bathing facilities before they became overrun by the other students in roughly an hour's time, but the other brought up his "work" on the pirates. "I only did a Shaman's duty when among warriors, but I appreciate the praise."

The Shaman considered at length what had been said to him about the various houses, slowly nodding as each point was brought up. The Steel Hounds (that was the name right?) had a defined pecking order, and seemed to be quite focused on their combat piloting abilities. It seemed a bit of a narrow focus for him, but perhaps that would be beneficial. A narrowly focused perspective to anchor himself amidst the chaos that was soon to surround him. BOMB, meanwhile, being expressed as helpful seemed intriguing as well. He would have to look into them more directly. And then there were the Sun Lizards. He did not appreciate the naming convention for them overmuch, but there was something to be said for socialization. It oft benefited one to come to understand the social nuances of a culture which they were to be acting in, and perhaps that was the sort of environment he needed the most. "Thank you," he responded after several moments, "that was most informative. I do not think I have made my decision yet, but it has been significantly impressed upon." He dipped his head in a bow to her, and as he stood up noted the fact that there was a disco ball careening through the air towards him. He would have simply gotten out of the way, or else tried to conjure a shield akin to the one he had conjured around his own and the other mecha during their fight with the pirates, but that was rendered unnecessary in the most ludicrous way possible. The Vice Principal didn't even need to order everyone to their rooms in his case, he was already "washing his hands" of this absurdity and making his way out. On his way down the hall, it further impressed upon him how quiet this place was. On a ship there was always noise coming from somewhere. The atmosphere circulators humming, the sound of water pumping through the assorted pipes to either cool the ship or to be used by its inhabitants, that peculiar sound of the artificial gravity running. On a planet though? All of that was absent. Sure there was the din of activity from the assorted students moving throughout the halls, but otherwise it was nearly silent. He could not even begin to fathom how this was going to affect him in the long run... When he finally arrived at the room that had been designated his, after a momentary stop to collect the bags of his belongings, he noticed two things. The first was how plain the space was. Clearly it had not been lived in before, or at least it had been well cleaned in the aftermath of its previous inhabitants. The second was his room mate. A male human from the look of things, and fairly tall for his species. He was nearly the same height as the young Chapaaya, which was not common. After some moments, Xa'tok made his way towards the presently unoccupied bunk and set his bags, which seemed fairly heavy and made an assortment of sounds as he set them down, before turning to properly greet his room mate. "Hello. My name is Xa'tok," he helpfully pronounced it 'sha-tock' for the other. "I pray that the spirits of this place look favorably upon our first meeting." He decided it was not prudent to add the typical "even if you do not" to the end of the greeting. Many of the other species seemed to find that offensive for some reason.

Well, so far so good. That was what Edrick thought anyways. This woman they'd met didn't seem to be hostile, or indeed mean them any harm at all. It seemed that she had just been doing her duty as a town guard, which had unfortunately led her to assume they were in some way responsible for all this. Really, it wasn't that much of a stretch. Strange acts of magic seemed to just happen around them, and they were the only conscious people that anyone could find in the town. On top of that they were strangers. If he'd walked into a similar situation in his home town, he'd have probably reacted similarly. He was in fact about to say something, when someone called for him. Turning his head back, he saw that it had been this Citron girl who they had come across. And his eyes lit up as soon as she leaped into her questions about growing things. Wave after wave of nostalgia washed over him as memories came flooding back to the forefront. Tilling fields with his father, and later by himself, to plant wheat and barley. Working in one of his neighbors' orchard when he could. The cranberry bogs that the village maintained near the river. It all came rushing back, and with every strange thing that had happened lately he didn't want to do much aside from talk about this profoundly normal thing. And before he could answer, Adelheide had eased the girl down onto her back to keep her from messing up the vulnerary. Sighing, and visibly deflating, Edrick decided that conversation would have to wait until the Wyvern Rider was feeling better. Which let him bring his attention back to the matter with the guardswoman and Catriona. "Well," he began, the stress in his voice giving way to exhaustion again, "this town's pretty small. I don't think the others'll have that hard of a time finding us wherever we set up." He looked over Catriona after her comment on the others potentially getting lost. "So," he now turned his head towards Cora, "I think we'd all appreciate havin' a place to get some rest that's not out in the wilderness." He turned back to their fearless leader, "and I'm pretty sure the others'll be able to catch up easy enough." Did he already say that? Whatever.

High above the growing sounds of battle reaching up from the invasion of Fairlight, little more than a silhouette tearing through the foggy skies, a ship was approaching the city. Any who looked above could tell little about her size at first, or even really her speed thanks to the angle she approached at. Some might have reason to suspect her identity, there was after all one person who was supposed to be there for the defense who had so far been conspicuously absent. Not that her reputation here in The Ever was quite the same as it had been back home, so it wasn't quite so likely that her presence had been missed. "That's enough thrust!" Her voice cut through the howling wind around them like thunder in a hurricane, and the blue glow of the vessel's engines died out. From below perhaps it looked that she had been intercepted or otherwise dealt with before she could even get in range, but the captain and her crew knew well what they were doing. They were coming in as fast as they could, and they needed to be ready to maneuver before they struck the streets of the city below. From her station just to the right of the Helmsman, the Captain gave her next orders. "Power to the 'Teeth,' and make ready for follow-up bombardment." She hardly needed to even order the crew now, for they knew this vessel like their own bodies. Her gaze piercing the gray fog of the Ever as the city below came slowly into focus. Fairlight. She had come into its port so many times now, and every time she'd come back with a little more information...and a little less crew. Today she had less of the former and more of the latter, and she and those with her were hungry for a little revenge. All across the deck the myriad species of the Astral Sea were represented, manning guns and sharpening swords and axes. Below she knew too that the modest broadsides were being prepared, and the steadily brightening light before her told her that the main armaments of her vessel were charging up. Your strength... what is it made of? Would you risk it all... for the truth? The Captain gritted her teeth into a familiar scowl as the question rang in her head, and she began striding towards the bow of her ship in preparation to give her answer. --- On the streets below, just back from the gates, those amassed were given the rather unique honor of seeing naval assets deployed against massed infantry targets. The, almost electric, crack of ionized gas erupting from two enormous barrels some hundreds of meters above the streets rang out through the sounds of the opening battle, and before those on the ground could even look up to the source two masses of bright blue plasma struck home upon the Behemoth and bathed the city in heat and light like a sunrise. This was followed by a barrage of smaller bolts of plasma in a dozen colors, interspersed with momentary flashes of bright red or blue light as laser cannons fired out around them. This smaller-caliber barrage thinned the horde admirably, and maybe it bought those on the streets just enough time to ready themselves. To anyone who looked up, the impressive sight of a Solar Sailer screaming past graced their vision for just a few moments. Sails arranged in a canopy, long since refitted to draw power from the strange ill winds that blew in the Ever's sky, swelled with invisible force even as the set of engines behind it flared to life and let out a piercing whine. As it passed a vaguely human shape could be seen falling to the streets, and it landed remarkably lightly for something its size. Towering over the other defenders of Fairlight, an alien figure stood. A greatcoat billowed about her form, dark armor spotted with glowing light that made it clear it was more than simple plated metal covered her hide, and around her head a set of tentacles flared up in anger. Falling somewhat slower than her was an enormous, even for her, bicorn hat which settled unevenly atop her head only to be corrected in a single fluid motion by one of those tentacles. Behind her an enormous, roughly scaled tail whipped and lashed with its owner's fury. In her left hand she clutched an enormous pistol with a telescopic sight mounted to it, and her right was empty for now. "Get yourselves together you useless, motherless curs!" Her voice broke the momentary silence that followed her arrival, and the now clearly mechanical arm attached to her right shoulder split open from the elbow up to reveal a glowing array of tubes and coils. Clearly just as much magic as artifice, it glowed first a bright orange before turning to a sickening, venomous purple. A seething orb of the same color gathered in her right palm, and she stretched it out towards the Behemoth. "Hearts or not, let's show these neverborn bastards that our courage didn't die with us!" She clenched her right hand into a fist, the mechanism of her arm snapped shut, and a cloud of that same vile purple settled over it. Thus did Regina Maree Flint enter the fray.

Gunther probably hadn't expected Edrick to hear him muttering about him, but he had. His ears were better than most of the group gave him credit for. So he affixed the heavily armored man with a gaze that was supposed to be piercing, but probably just came across as tired. Truth be told, he was in far from the best state he'd ever been in. He hadn't slept well in a while, and while he wasn't on edge about the beavers anymore that whole situation by the river had taken a lot out of him. More than he was going to admit. All he really wanted right now was to figure out whatever was wrong with this village, fix it, and from there hopefully be able to rest up for a while. Plus, if they could actually find some people here then maybe they'd have news about Elba. Just having someone familiar around would make this all easier to deal with...or maybe she'd just make him more homesick. All the same, it seemed like they had a plan now. Find the mayor's house, find the key to the chapel, try and get into it without actually tearing the front off of it. Yeah the more he thought about it the more sense that made than his ideas. They didn't want to be just completely thrown out of the town when they were trying to fix the situation. "You! What are you doing here? What did you do with the villagers?" Well that certainly got his attention, and he turned his head to see a woman on a horse. He felt his heart leap for a moment, thinking that he'd finally found his horse thief, and then calmed down again before he had actually charged at her with his lance. The horse was obviously male, which meant that couldn't be his Elba. Of course he was still given reason to be thankful he had his weapon with him when she made to draw her sword, since if this turned violent he'd want to defend himself. Probably also wasn't great that he had his Devotional Icon out on display, but there wasn't too much point in worrying about that right now. He briefly looked over towards Alois, hoping he knew something the rest of them didn't, and then looked back at the woman. "We didn't do anything with the villagers!" He shouted back, more to make sure he was heard than out of any anger. Though the stress he was feeling probably came across a little clearer than he would have liked. "We've only been in town for half an hour, maybe an hour at most. Everything was like this when we got here...well, except the wyvern. That was stuck in a broken stall when we got here."

Edrick tried not to pay too much attention to the Wyvern that seemed about ready to shove its snout in his face while he worked, with the assistance of Shiro and Adelheid, to get the remnants of the shattered stall off of it. Thankfully, it seemed that Gunther had decided to intervene and try to calm the thing down. Just as well, Edrick wasn't fond of having his face eaten off. Which...left the situation largely handled actually. It seemed that the large pink, winged lizard was going to be largely calm...until the woman who seemed to be her rider was slapped. Then the Wyvern had the predictable reaction, to which Edrick thought "yeah fuck that" and stood exactly where he was. There wasn't any sense whatsoever in potentially getting this creature angrier than it already was, and where was that smell of- oh. How long had he been bleeding from his hand? Apparently long enough that it had already clotted and stopped on its own. Well...he needed to get some replacement gloves on the order of soon. Maybe he could just take a pair from one of these stalls. It looked like the place had been abandoned anyways, and from the way the discussion around them was going it seemed that there wasn't anyone around at all. With Gunther explaining their situation, and Alois confirming that the village was in disarray, it was time to start making plans. "Well," he began, striding over to retrieve his Lance from where he had planted it between the cobblestones, "looks like we've got a bit of a problem here. Though if nothing else we can probably just shack up in one of the houses here for the night before moving on. As far as figuring out what's going on here..." he hesitated for a moment, looking around the group, and then gestured with his bloodied hand back towards the structure they had passed near the center of town, "we should probably try and get into that chapel-looking building. Maybe find a key in the garrison next to it or something. Unless," he looked over at "Peaches" and her rider, "you two think you could help us just break the doors down." He imagined he was starting to sound like Penelope, but then somebody had to come up with plans if she wasn't there to.

Xa'tok simply nodded his head towards the head of the Steel Hounds house as she explained the situation. Of course he would not assault another student, without being given better reason than a random piece of discarded refuse thrown his way. It had not even hurt especially much when it impacted him, after all. Certainly it was less painful than the hold that his would-be assailant was placed in after he lashed out at her. It seemed that the warriors of these people were perhaps not so different from his own. That was a comforting realization for him. Even in this strange place, there were some things that did not change. Now, as she asked him if he had any questions, he had to pause and consider. He had several, but which ones did he think she could assist him with? "To tell the truth," he began in a tone which sounded just a little more confident than he had previously, "I was wondering if I could get your unbiased opinion on something. I am not just here to learn to be a pilot, I am also enrolled in the...Naval Officer Preparatory Examinations I believe they are called. Since I intend to be both a pilot and a commander, I was wondering if you could suggest a house that would lend itself most readily to preparing me for that responsibility." It was a simple question, but he did not expect her to be unbiased. So the Chapayan braced himself to try and pick out the unabashed truths from the obvious biases. It was a challenge that he, in truth, welcomed.

That's "Commodore" to you!

To say that Edrick was disappointed to not have found any answers at the structure, which up close seemed even more like a chapel to The Goddess than it had at a distance, was absolutely correct. He had hoped that at least something in the area around it would have given them something to go off of, but there was nothing. The door was locked, he had tried it a few times before Catriona had arrived and even beating on it had been to no avail, and there were no obvious signs of anything around him. "The worst part is I'm not even surprised." He muttered aloud some time after the rest of the group had joined him there, his eyes glued to the scene of the crusaders battling the goddess. Even after Catriona had commented on this not being what they were looking for and continuing after one of the beavers from the river, he wasn't going to think about that too hard lest he fall back into madness, and the others had likely followed after her he remained in place. His eyes glued to that depiction, wordlessly begging for answers. Not that he received any. His gaze flitted back and forth between the two faces, aspects, of the Goddess as they were depicted. The Lady of Light and the Mistress of Undeath, as they were sometimes distinguished. His gaze, the blue of his eyes seeming a bit more icy than before, lingered upon the smiling visage of her sunburst clad face for a time, and then he tore it away to follow after the group. He briefly noted the similarities between the barracks and the apparent church as they passed the former by, and was reminded of towns in Western Pontus that his family had passed on their yearly visits to the Capital therein. They always had a church, and always had a garrison, and both were always better built than the rest of the town. He hadn't ever given much thought to it, but now he was left to wonder as to why. He shook his head to try and chase the questions away, lest he lose what little certainty he had left. Even so, he felt that he was walking across fresh ice after the first Winter's freeze. One wrong step and he would stumble into the river to be swept away. "It seems this Wyvern is the cause of the roaring." Catriona's voice shook him from his revere, or rather finished shaking him from what the now obviously pained roar had started, and brought his attention to the overturned stall, the woman, and the pinkish lizard. He lived close enough to Isauria to have heard stories of Wyverns from the soldiers that had been sent into and across Locris to skirmish with their neighbors to the South. This...did not look as frightening as the stories had hinted. Hell, it looked positively helpless. "Well," he began, planting his spear into a gap in the cobbles where it would stick long enough that it would not fall over, "we might as well try and get it out. Someone help me with this." This was not even the strangest thing they had met, and if it was going to try and kill them they outnumbered it. So he crossed to the far side of the stall, and put his strength to work in trying to lift it sufficiently off of the creature that it could at least right itself. Hell, maybe this situation with the animals was some curse it had laid on the town for not helping it. He stopped for a moment to wipe some grime off his face with his left hand, and succeeded in smearing quite a lot of blood across it in the process. It seemed he'd hurt himself quite a bit on that iron icon. Looking back, he'd left a trail of blood drops on the road behind them.

Edrick had been looking forward to having a nice, normal, uneventful rest in a village where he could spend a certain amount of time simply processing the events of the past few days. Yet it seemed that Inera was intent on not allowing him to do that. Wait, was he blaming his misfortune on the goddess? That...that should not, could not, be the case! But with everything that had been happening lately... was there any other explanation? He shook his head to clear the heretical thoughts, and focus instead upon the present situation. Licorice had run off, and Ciela, and Penelope had followed her shortly afterwards. He wasn't really sure what, exactly, was going on with Licorice, something about those bottles Ciela had bought, but apparently it was somewhat serious. Normally he wouldn't mind them running off as they had, but with that strange roaring sound from the village he was feeling a lot less sure about all of that. Their principle healer, and their strategist had left them to what could very well turn into a battle. Not that he had really made sense of the situation being that way until they entered Phar proper. The lack of guards and generally abandoned state had put him on edge, and as they heard yet another roar he as almost ready to jump at any given sign of motion towards them. In fact he had very nearly done exactly that when something moved into his field of view...until he noticed that it was a horse. He relaxed a little bit...until he saw the rest of them. "Fir-ar sa fie." He muttered to himself, looking over the assembled animals. The livestock and the like weren't so weird, but the large number of wild animals was. What accursed magic was being worked in this place? Were these more Proteans? Was something else to blame? Had he finally caught that fever his mother had told him he would if he ate too many things in strange lands? Honestly he didn't know anymore, and would prefer for this all to be the result of some great sickness of his. "What the hell is going on here?" Well, Alois went and put words to what he was abundantly certain all of them were thinking. "Your majesty, something's wrong here." No awards for pointing out the obvious, Link. All the same, as they were apprising themselves of the situation the rest of the animals began to approach. Gritting his teeth, Edrick resolved to simply walk through them towards the source of the roaring. "Inera," he began, clutching at his devotional icon with his left hand so hard that he began to bleed, "I may yet come to curse your name, but for now all I ask is a reason to believe." He tried to vent some of his agitation by spinning his spear once in his hand, the tip of it clicking against the cobbles of the road. Without much specific idea of where to go, he trained his eyes upon what seemed to be a chapel and resolved to look there first.

The party had, thus far, passed without much involvement from Xa'Tok. He had chosen to observe these strange customs of the planet-dwellers rather than involve himself directly, and more over was feeling a little overwhelmed from the sensations of simply being on a planet. It was probably not something that anyone else was noticing, in truth he was probably the only person who had been exposed to artificial gravity long enough to even be aware of the difference, but the gravity was not constant. It was subtle, only the faintest of differences as he made his way around the room, but undeniable. It had taken him some time to pin that down as being the source of his discomfort, but that was it. The spirits of the world, too, did not feel the same as those in the void. "Natural" water and air felt distinct from those who inhabited the eternally circulated and cleansed substances aboard starships. The spirits of the ground, as best as he could determine they were, too felt different from him. Their nature felt strangely static, which was especially odd to him when he considered how swiftly the planet was moving through the void. And yet in the here and now, sat as they were, he had to admit that that was exactly how it felt. Static, and inconsistent. Like it rested upon a rusted deck that by some miracle still refused to give out, even if it shifted in place under certain pressures. He was, so far, doing a decent job of preventing it creeping into his features, but he was uncomfortable. How could anyone live like this? "Hey asshole," the accusation broke him out of his revere and the Shaman turned to see the very same boy to whom he had attached a mischievous water spirit come to try and force him to undo his work. Before he could refuse another approached, asking for an explanation. The head of one of the houses, if he recalled her introduction correctly. Metal Dogs? Was that it? He could not clearly remember, and deigned simply to not bring it up. "What he says is not true, but what he means is." The Shaman answered, likely sounding more enigmatic than he intended to. "I was mocked when I commented on my ability to commune with the spirits, and so I offered a demonstration. A mischievous spirit from the ship's water stores, which is presently enjoying its time attached to this one's feet. It will get bored and leave on its own, eventually. Other shamans have done far worse for a similar offense."