Zetaark

Constellar Rain all the things (all 2 of them)

Rayne and Clarisse are invited into the living room of the house, quite spacious and well furnished. Inside, another woman could be seen sitting on one of the couches. "Did the people finally come to let us know about the shipment?" the woman asks before seeing the two guests. "My...Clarisse! You've come home. I take it you've finished your travels?" ------------------------------------- "I recall hearing rumors that Manaketes existed in large numbers here, but I didn't think that they would choose to live in such a populated area like this," Helena answers. "I see. Well, there are plenty of rumors about Manaketes here and there, but here in Z'ark most of them tend to be merchants themselves. As you know, travelling between islands can be a bit of a tricky endeavor at times, more so in the past. Some merchants saw a few of the Manaketes around and tried to convince them to help them out with moving goods between islands. In exchange, the Manaketes would receive heavy compensation. Those were some of the original deals that led to the current state of this island. If you just sailed in, you probably saw the large landing pads. Those exist all throughout the island so that the Manaketes can land wherever they need to," the woman explains, telling some of the local history of Z'ark. ------------------------------------- "Oh, this is an uncommon piece. I take it Percival and Anna have come back then," the woman remarks. "Anyways, flutes and whistles work rather well with this piece I find. I'm fairly sure I have some. The flute would be 400 vespers, and the whistle 800."

"Sheesh. Time to deal with the rest I suppose," Marcus states, moving in front of the archer to strike him unconscious. He didn't want to be the guy who had to scrape all the bodies off the streets, so the less mess the better. M7 and boop the archer with the light

"Right. I'll just keep in mind that you crack under pressure," Marcus laughs. "If you're going to be out here in the fight, you have to be ready for anything. And don't think that doesn't apply to nobles either boy," Marcus states, glancing at the bard boy.

"Whipped good and hard I'd say. You look like you're about to collapse on the spot in fear. What, do the nobles around these parts not have a backbone? I'm disappointed," Marcus remarks, amused at the boy's response to this whole situation. Moves to N4

"Whenever someone claims to have their reasons, something sketchy is definitely happening," Marcus states, readying his tome. "Didn't quite expect this kind of mess, but we'll manage." Moves to O3 and shoots some lightning at the poor soldier.

"So that's what kind of person you are. Not surprising really," he muses in regards to the bard before looking towards the captain. "We at least managed to get the boy into custody for some time. Speaking of which, I have to ask something. Why go through the trouble of offing the kid. I don't see much difference between that and him running off to some corner of the world. Have any explanations?"

"I don't feel like watching someone throw their life away. There are better ways to go. What I want right now are answers. Perhaps the soldiers can answer a few questions, or perhaps you could," Marcus glances at the green-haired man. "You seem to be quite sure of the status of this man. You know anything about who his 'master' would be? I'd like to get all the facts before handling a matter such as this. Old habits."

"Sorry, but where I come from people tend to have all sorts of hidden weapons on them. Force of habit is all," Marcus replies before thinking on what the boy said. "A Gladiator eh?" he muses to himself. "I wasn't aware that running away from such a post meant a jail sentence. And here I thought you stole some important trinket or something," Marcus sighs before hearing the other man speak. "Is that how things work around here? I can't really say I endorse the buying and selling of human beings all that much," Marcus asks the man.

"Hah. I'm not that old just yet," Marcus replies, taking the hand axe and handing it over to the other man nearby. He continues checking for any hidden weapons or some such as he continues his questioning. "I'll put you down once you tell me what you were doing. Or should I just hand you in right now?"

"Hello there," Marcus says as he quickly apprehends the man, lifting him off the ground and doing a check for weapons. "Now who might you be, and what exactly are you doing hiding around like this?" he inquires.

"Well that didn't take long to escalate," Marcus sighs. At the very least, it sounded like the guards were at least trying to handle the situation. "Well then, at the very least I'll get to see firsthand how competent the guards are. And realistically, we're probably going to get called in anyhow," Marcus remarks as he goes outside to survey the situation.

"Really now? Guess we're similar in that regards. I've got my own mission that I've set out on, and this guard was a good way to go about it. It also has the perk of letting me travel around a bit," Marcus states. While being in the guard gave him an excuse to travel around, that simply aided in his search for information on a particular subject. He had yet to find any good leads for the information that he was looking for, but he was a patient man.

"True enough," Marcus sighs, wondering exactly what kind of mess they'll have to clean up later. "What brought you to the Queen's Guard anyways if I may ask," Marcus inquires, curious as to what discipline of combat the woman is proficient in.

"I suppose so. Though not all nobles are completely incompetent. Just most of them. You'd think given their position they would try to be more capable in these kinds of situations. Then again, I suppose most of them just rely on their money to get themselves out of messes. Unfortunately for them, money can't save you from everything, and if you don't have any skills yourself, you're just outta luck," Marcus responds, thinking back to the situation in his home. "Well, either way, this will be informative of the state of this country's guards. I just ask that they aren't completely incompetent, but that's probably asking too much."

"Hah! Alright then, I'll indulge you for now," he laughs, refilling her pipe. Truly an interesting person, he thought to himself. "I do have to agree about these games just being posturing and nothing more. Chances are it's just going to be them showing off who could buy the better fighter or some such. Though I do have to wonder if real talent can come from such a sport such as this," Marcus mutters the last bit before noticing the commotion with Leofric. "What are the chances that whatever he got called out to deal with is going to end up coming to us later?"

"Hah. I see. Well this unwanted company's name is Marcus," he introduces himself, amused by the woman's response. He then looks on to Leofric and frowns. "So these Games, what do you think of them?" he decides to ask, wondering how she'll respond.

"The city collection sounds interesting, Maybe I'll check it out when I have time," he remarks, disappointed in hearing about the small selection of the arena library. Then again, small places tended to have some rare gems, so looking into it may not be so bad. Looking around, he noticed a woman in a rather curious outfit. He had seen something similar on rare instances back home when someone tried to show off, but this seemed to be a different case from that. He figured that the stories she may have to tell would be far more interesting than what he would find in the local library. "I must say, I didn't expect to see that kind of outfit here of all places. Is there a story behind it?" he decides to ask.

"I see. For now I am content with simply waiting here, though I would like to know if there are any libraries around for future reference," the man asks Leofric.

"Very well then," the lady chuckled before getting up from the desk. "Seeing as you two appear to be mages, there's one thing in particular that may interest me. Come now," the woman says as she leads the pair through the hallways. "For a bit of history, this institute was specifically made to find ways to integrate magic and merchantry into something that could be of great benefit. Currently, that mostly extends to new means of transport. Seeing as how you two aren't locals, you must have noticed quite a few manaketes around. Were you surprised?" the woman asks.

"Yes, I suppose I never mentioned it, but my family is well known in terms of longstanding mage families," she explains before frowning. "Still though, you heard people back at the stalls mentioning me getting lost at sea, and these guards thought the same? That concerns me a bit. While it's true that there was a storm out on the day I went out to sea, it never ran into any trouble. The ship sailed on the southern side of the sea, so we avoided most of the bad weather. Still though, when I get back to Alios, I'll have to ask around," Helena remarks. "Still, that's something for later. Right now, we should check out this place while we still can," Helena says in a more cheery tone, dragging Darius into the institute. Inside the facility, a host of individuals are moving through. At the central desk, a lady calls out to the pair. "Welcome! I take it you two are here for a tour?" ---------------------------------------- "How is it? Well, having been one all my life I can't really say anything other than it's just normal. I'm sorry if that wasn't the answer you were hoping for, but its just how it is," Percival chuckles, amused by the girl's question.

"Yes, my name is Helena Vulcan. This is my friend, and we were hoping to get a tour of the institute if at all possible," she explains. "Helena Vulcan hmm? Wait, Vulcan? As in, the firstborn daughter of the Vulcan family in Alios?" one of the guards asks in a surprised tone. "Yes, that would be me. Here's proof if you wish," Helena displays a pendant that has what appears to be a volcano etched into it. One of the guards goes up to check it. "Yep. This is the real deal. Though I could have sworn I heard something about you dying out at sea. Nevertheless, you're here right now, and I'm sure some of the mages in would love to meet a member of such an esteemed family," The guard finishes, opening the doors for the pair. "Enjoy your visit, and try not to break anything alright?" ---------------------------------------- Cadence and Belros eventually find Madante back at the docks and inform him of the happenings. "This does sound serious, though we'll need more information before we can actually do anything about it. Do any of you have ideas on where we could learn more about that shop or the man that went inside?" Madante asks the pair.

As Belros tries to get through the lock on the door, he receives a slight shock. Additionally, the lockpick he was using shattered. It seems that the lock had some form of magical interference that prevented them from tampering with the lock.

Belros and Cadence both run into each other after thinking similar things. However, as they get back, the door has a closed sign on it, and the door to the shop is locked.

"Guard guard huh? That's certainly a new one," Caleb chuckles, accepting Rayne's handshake. "Do you two want to come inside? I'm sure there's some food for the both of you," he decides to ask. ----------------------------------- As Cadence and Belros leave the shop, they bump into a man trying to head into the shop. "Oh I'm sorry," the man apologizes before taking a quick look at the pair. "If you'll excuse me," he says, heading into the shop. Belros manages to find one of the local taverns nearby, though the inside is rather shoddy and not many people are around. Cadence meanwhile heads back to the merchant stands she saw earlier.