Adele didn’t have any coherent thoughts— just a fuzzy red tinge to her vision as her hands balled up with all the pressure of a cast iron press. Her mug quivered in her hand. The way the others had been callously blinded and dragged into the poor excuse for a pub, she was surprised no one had dropped the carelessly juggled alcohol between “captors” and “captives.” Merry words fell deaf on her ears; claps and thunks fit to break a spine were numb on her shoulders as her last teensy string of self-control squeaked against the tension building up in her chest. Barbarians. All of them. Handling a woman like that and then drinking themselves into a stupor the night before we head off! Don’t look at Reau. Don’t look at Reau. The second I do, my fist is going to be making a chip in her nose. Adele closed her eyes as thought filtered through the steam raging beneath her skull. If her superiors weren’t right there knocking ale onto the floor with everyone else, she would have ripped them a new one. They had no business attacking their comrades like that, even in play. What if someone had overreacted and fought back? Passed out? The overexcited, beer-guzzling mercenaries would have had no one to blame but themselves. When the gurgle and guzzling of agreement died down after Thorpe’s cheers, Adele’s tone—so warm it chilled her lips—was the first to pipe back up. “What an adorable little prank, fellows. I can barely contain myself at the thought of leaving Belencrest.” She glanced down at the sticky, yellowed liquid drizzling down her fingers and her brow twitched. It was tempting to shake her hand out and toss the mug at the nearest grinning idiot, but with a grace borrowed from manners tempered from birth, she set it ever-so-gently on the nearest table. “Even so, I’m afraid I need a bit of fresh air.” Her lips were glass with a vat of lava seething behind them as she smiled, turned, and shoved herself out from the stifling clouds of body odor and alcohol that were people and back out the door from which she’d been so carelessly shoved in. “Aaaaaaaaah.” Adele let all the steam out once the door was closed behind her. Her shoulders slumped as she stepped against the pub’s wall and leaned against it, her hand rubbing gentle circles into her forehead. Who’d have thought a group of combat hardened men and women could act so childish? No, she’d seen them pull off lesser stunts like that before. Living on the edge apparently meant partying hard, too. She, however, didn’t want to be hungover for the following morning when they were to leave. In addition to sending off some letters before her next journey with the company of mercenaries, she would have to make sure to pack carefully. Machinery was so much more delicate than it looked, and without her brain being as crisp and quick as possible, her only strength within the group of fighters would be nothing. Her treat for the evening was instead the muffled revelry behind the wall and the clear evening sky. Every night she gazed about Belencrest, the same thought came to mind—it wasn’t Bossart. Though the infrastructure of the city was roughly similar, the nightlife had always been so, well, lively. Here, there was only silence and the eerie blue light of lantern-totems. Even if that magical energy was more efficient, she preferred the warm light of oil lanterns. Given the light drizzling from the houses she’d passed earlier, she had to wonder if the citizens didn’t share the same opinion, or perhaps light totems were simply too expensive for the average person in Belencrest. “Ah, well. It doesn’t matter.” Adele smiled mildy to herself as she straightened back up and slipped off her backpack. Her notebook came out and she flipped idly through it, thinking on whether or not she ought to bring more raw material for her cannon filters. Even if the other mercenaries called the escort trip “cushy,” she felt the more fitting word was “annoying.” Travel was interesting enough, but that would provide a poor environment for tweaking her Sound Cannon I and there were so many things she was yet to do with it—so many things she needed to do with it. Otherwise, all this putting up with the rowdy group of soldiers and every other risk that came from their particular practice would be for nothing. It had already been months since she left Bossart and she still hadn’t figured out the key to her latest idea—a dual amplification filter that could mesh the effects of two different elemental totems. None of her filter patterns had worked despite several different reversions and, well, this was just one of those nights when the lack of inspiration felt particularly sore. "The most potent feature of our work? Hope. That’s what makes us do crazy things; we get a grain of promise and then we have to watch the miracle unfold before our eyes.” That’s what Professor Godat said at times like the one she was experiencing now. Adele chewed on that as she closed her eyes, waiting for the revelry inside the pub to die back down before she’d risk going back in again.

Setting: The Burke Barony lies in a fertile valley surrounded by woodlands. Most of the tenants are farmers with their own steadings, though a few lively villages also pay homage to the noble family. For centuries, the Burke family has guarded the land granted them by King Eliot Lamar, an ancient king in times past. In more current times, the age of industry has brought the kingdom to the forefront of an enlightened age—one where newly wealthy citizens question the true power of the country’s monarchy. Technology/Time period: steampunk/Victorian History of the Baron The bastard son of Baron Jared Burkes, the baron grew up on an estate separate from the main household. He is the lovechild of Ellie Burkes and Jared Curtis, the former of which is the daughter of an eclectic factory owner in the more industrial capital. From birth up until his early twenties, he was allowed no communication with his birth parents, instead raised in the capital by an old friend of Ellie Curtis’. The friend and his wife received ample financial compensation for the child’s caretaking, and as such, the baron has lived a comfortable, educated life. In years prior to the beginning of the story, the head of the Burkes family passed away. Years later, Jared Burkes was diagnosed with a terminal illness. With no male heir to inherit the family name, the soon-to-be baron was brought to live at the family estate. Should he prove himself worthy, he will inherit the title of Baron. Key Characteristics: *Disillusion: As a child raised apart from his family due to the conditions of his birth, he retains ill feelings towards the family. Additionally, mannerisms in the city are quite different from the formal ones of the country, which often causes him to clash with other members of his family. *Intelligence: He is educated and takes an eclectic interest in various histories, technology, and businesses. This is necessary for his desire to go beyond estate life. History of the Lady She looks foreign and that’s because she is. Born of noble heritage, she once lived as the daughter of Lord Engberg. Her family lived prosperously in a northern country until a bloody civil war broke out—her parents were taken and executed by aspiring revolutionaries. It was by her own strength that she managed to escape with her sister and former nanny, and they fled to a neighboring country. The nanny was able to contact her extended family for refuge, and they have since sought work to help out the family that took them in. Key Characteristics: *Physical Prowess: The lady specializes in physical combat, namely with the spear and shield—a tradition within the noble families of the north. Moreover, her weapons are collapsible to make them easy to carry. She also has knowledge of lore surrounding her country, but cannot realize her noble name due to the shift in power within her homeland and the lack of favor towards the nobility of her country. ~The Clandestine Meeting~ The lady comes for the first time to work at the formidable Burke estate. She arrives late in the night and is allowed into the kitchen to enjoy some leftovers before bed, but a terrible misunderstanding occurs. The baron’s son, believing that the maiden is one who wrote a confession of love and promise of meeting secretly, comes to speak with her and she mistakes him for one of the servants. Their conversation leads to her confessing her circumstances (she lied on her application because she desperately needed work), and the gentleman immediately realizes that she is not the woman who left him the note. Rather than firing her, the gentleman decides to offer some sort of punishment in return for letting her prove her ability to work. Left with no choice, the maid agrees and begins her work at the estate as his personal maid. ~The Casual Meeting~ The lady comes to the estate for the first time to work. She takes to her position as a personal maid well, although her unusually attentive master notices that she lacks the proper sense of procedure as the family’s other maids. Kidnapped! The baron’s son is taken for ransom in the middle of the night. The interference of his personal maid leads to both of them being captured and carted off to an unfamiliar city. They manage to escape their captors, only to realize that they are in foreign territory (which for the maid, happens to be home country). Will the baron’s charm win them help, or will the maid have to work their way out of the tight situation? City Life! Finding the atmosphere of the country estate stifling, the master decides to return to the capital with his maid in tow. His purpose is to investigate the possibility of investing the family’s wealth into thriving companies, as the family is facing a financial crisis. With more and more tenants leaving the land to try their prospects with factory work and civil unrest at the demand for taxes, the slowly plummeting wealth of the Burkes becomes the master’s problem as he works to prove his worth to the family. Adventure! The master decides to travel abroad, as country life is quite dull for him. He dubs it an extension of his education, as his goal is to visit different countries with the company of a former professor. He takes only one servant with him (the maid), and they embark on an adventure that will take them through extensive cities and ruins, with plenty of unexpected troubles along the way. Civil Unrest! Tensions between the baron family and the civilians reach an all-time high when taxes increase. To make matters worse, a group of foreign mercenaries appear, ravaging unguarded steadings and threatening to take over the entire barony. When pleas to the king for help are lethargic at best, the master decides to take matters into his own hands, using his connections to the capital to secure his own group of mercenaries. A Lost Heritage! Rumor of noble heritage within the Curtis family reaches the master. He decides to pursue the rumor in search of an artefact that is said to have belonged to one of the ancient lords. Obtaining this artefact will win his family ownership of the land belonging to said lord’s family, which happens to be highly contested wilderness containing a rich mine. Naturally, he takes his maid along with him as he conducts his search.