Edith had been stuck on the last passage of the tome for several hours now. Lunch had only made the girl drowsy, and though her body longed for some rest, Edith's mind needed to get through this final translation. There was certainly something very important hidden in the old text."Sunspark, what do you think? Would you say this phrase is more descriptive of a candle or a torch? I mean, this word looks like 'bark' and over here is branch. But a few words over we have 'drip.' And this is obviously flame..." Edith yelled in frustration. Sunspark flapped over from his perch and landed on the girl's small shoulder. He looked from the page to Edith's green eyes and back again. The girl sighed. "Maybe I do need a nap. But the skies are getting darker... I can feel it. It's like it's dripping down the walls." Sunspark let out a loud squawk, almost in a sound of joy. "Dripping... That's it! It's not the light source that's dripping!" Edith again turned to the large tome, tracing the words while furiously scribbling into her notebook.

Once she had finished the translation, Edith raced up the stairs faster than she had earlier that day. Luckily, there were no pages to run over. As she neared the top of the Vault's staircase, she quickly sprinted to the one that would lead her to the High Professor's study, just outside the Tower's entrance. "High Professor!" Edith banged into the room, startling the old man. "Gah! What! What is it?!" The man tried to pull himself together, but his heart threatened to leap from his chest. "I've done it! I need to tell the leaders of the other Estuaries about it right away!" "Couldn't we just send a messenger on horse, or perhaps a hawk? My dear, why do you have to go?" Edith snorted through her nose. "I don't think a hawk could explain this properly. And you know my written explanations still need some... refining." The girl vaguely recalled the set of hives that had infiltrated the Practitioner's tents the last time she tried to write out an explanation. Sure, the herb was very useful for healing... But that didn't help the hives itch any less. "Then I can go. Just tell-" Edith interupted the old man. "You know that is too dangerous! Please, let me go. I'm young and hardy, and you're... old and wise. Please stay and send me, you can even send for a guide so I don't get lost." Sunspark cooed his own encouragment.The High Professor sighed, knowing hhe couldn't argue with her when her mind was already made. "Fine, I shall send a hawk to Ms. Calliope right away."

Dominique was lying on a tree branch at the very edge of the camp. He enjoyed looking over the camp and watching it rather than being in it. He can identify where he is needed quicker. Verja was perched on the same branch on the very edge. The long-haired Harbinger held his arm out for Verja to swoop over. Dominique brought Verja to him and began stroking the female eagle. Five minutes ago, Calliope told him he needed to ride to the city walls as fast as he could and pick up some familiar who had special intel, but he needed to say goodbye to Verja first. "I need to go girl, you have to stay here." The bird squawked back in defiance. "Yeah, I know Verja, but you'll slow me down, and I can only guarentee your safety here." Verja squawked again, this time a little more agreeable, but nevertheless she flapped her wings and soared to Dominique's tent. Dominique sighed and nimbly crept down the tree. He made his way over to the stables and saddled up on a black horse. Now prepared, he rode off away from the camp and off to the south. There would be the city and just outside the walls would be "Edith."



Edith had packed a small bag with clothes in anticipation for an overnight stay. She wasn't sure how long the Circle would take, but she did know that the ride from the encampment to the city was no walk in the park. The High Professor had guessed that it would be several hours before the escort would arrive, but Edith had been too impatient to wait inside the city's walls. Instead, she had elected to sit just outside the gate and look over her notes from the Vault. Lost in her own head, she was startled to hear Sunspark take off from the tree above her and head into the woods. He squawked a warning as he flew off and the sound of thundering hoofs made its way to the gate. "That can't be them already..." Edith stood to get a better look at the rider. As the rider and horse came into view, Edith choked back a little gasp. She had very little experience with the active members of the other Estuaries. And this man was so... intimidating. Only in books had Edith seen armor and weapons like those this man carried, and her imagination ran wild with thoughts of the kind of person he could be. She imagined somewhere on him there must have been a large scar from a scrap with a Cimmerian. Or maybe the spike on his shoulder was to ensure no one could ever sneak up on him again like that bandit had... "You're getting way ahead of yourself there, Edith," she whispered to herself. And then she spotted his long hair. It was almost majestic. Again, Edith's imagination prepared to take off when the rider stopped beside her at the gate.

Dominique reared the horse back as he reached the gates next to the woman he assumed was Edith. On closer inspection, he noticed the long dress with colours that seemed to compliment her long red hair. Women... "Edith Volner?" He asked in his usual tone of serious and a hint of gruffness in there.

Edith let out a little squeak. It wasn't like her to be so mousy, but then again, she wasn't use to actually interacting with people who weren't at least thirty years older than her. She didn't particularly count the younger folk that attended her classes. "Yes, I'm Edith. Which means you're here from the encampment?"

Dominique simply nodded. He wasn't in the mood for conversation, which still wasn't very often but this time in particular because now the most productive thing he had done all day was become the escort of some lore-girl who looked like she would have no experience in anything outside of the city. He dismounted the horse and walked towards her, slightly dwarfing her a little. He held out his hand. "Gimme your bag." He asked.

"It's really not that heavy. I can carry it..." Edith trailed off. The man looked as if he was already annoyed to be here. "I didn't catch your name?" Maybe small talk would help.

Dominique sighed. "It's Dominique." He bluntly stated. "Now gimme the bag so I can put it in the saddle bag and you can hold on without worrying about it." He tried to explain, hoping it would make sense.

Edith flushed with embarassment. "Of course, right, I'm so silly." She held out the bag and let the much taller man take it. "I've never ridden a horse before, so..." People were hard. Why in the world had she thought she would be better able to explain something to an entire Circle of people when she could hardly get through an encounter with one man! Edith wished for her earlier fire to come back.

"Well, you're about to." Dominique replied as he placed the woman's bag in the burlap sack straddled to the side of the horse. He then went back to the side where Edith was and crouched down. He held his hands out and cupped them together. "I'm going to give you a leg up, swing your leg over the horse and sit in the saddle. It's big enough for both of us." He further explained, now a tiny bit more calm.

Edith nodded. 'Alright, you can do this,' she thought as she mentally prepared herself not to fall flat on her face. She began to gather her skirt in one hand so that her feet and legs would have free movement. Gently, she placed one foot into Dominique's hands, pushed up with legs, and swung her opposite leg over while bracing her hands on the saddle. As Edith settled down onto the leather, she let her skirt go and clapped in excitement. "Did you see that! I didn't even fall!" She let out a pleased laugh.

Dominique chuckled a little bit at Edith's proudness for mounting her first horse. Dominique proceeded to get on the black stallion himself and put his foot in the stirrup and pushed up to get on the horse. He put his other foot into the other stirrup and turned his head a little back. "You ready to go?" He asked.

"Yes! Wait, no. How do I... horse?" At that moment, Sunspark flew out of the nearby trees letting out a sound that could only be described as laughter. He landed, perched on the girl's shoulder. "Oh... Shut up, I bet you can't horse either, Sunspark." The raven responded with a ruffling of his feathers. Sunspark then shifted so that he could meet Dominique's gaze and squawked a pleasant greeting.

"Your vein is a bird too huh?" Dominique briefly commented. The Harbinger stuck out his arm as he would with Verja to see if "Sunspark" would fly over too. "Sunspark." He said, to try and get the Raven's attention a bit more.

The raven happily lept onto the arm offered to him. His firey Edith was stuck in a field-mouse phase, so it was up to Sunspark to make a good impression. At least, that's the impression the twinkle in his eye's gave to Edith. She stuck her tongue out at her bird. Curious as to what Dominique's vein was like, she began a slew of questions. "So does that mean you have a bird? What kind? What's his or her name? I know they hate being called it. What's the wingspan like?..." Again, Edith drifted off, realizing she had been talking much too quickly.

"Eagle, Verja and quite big." Dominique curtly replied as he admired Sunspark. He then moved his arm towards Edith and allowed the raven to hop back on to Edith's shoulder. He smiled at the girl, with an actual, genuine smile. This familiar was one of the very few people Dominique could relate to, and maybe eventually be a friend of. "Are you ready now?"

Edith smiled softly at the sound of the eagle's name. "Protect. She must be a magnificent bird to have such a strong name." As Sunspark hopped on to her shoulder, Edith poked him in the belly to remind him that he was still her number one bird. She then looked to Dominique in time to see his smile. It was so warm, much different from the face he had been making when he first hopped from the horse. Edith smiled back. "Yes, I'm ready."

"Edith... you need to hold on to me really tight throughout the ENTIRE trip. Clear?" He asked, back to his normal serious tone again.

"As clear as the Temple's fountain water," Edith replied as she looped her arms around Dominique. Her arms were just short enough that they didn't reach all the way around his waist, so she settled for hanging on to the belt. Sunspark lept into the sky in preparation to follow them. "I'm just going to not get stabbed by your armor..." Edith said as she looked warily at the spikes closer to her face. "But I am ready. Let's go!"

And with that, Dominique lightly kicked the horse in its side with the inside of his foot with a loud "Ya!Ya!" which set the black horse in motion as they hurriedly rode to the encampment. Dominique prayed that they would make it in time.

Erika halted as she was approached by the group. There before her stood Calliope, Fell, and Liara. She was reasonably well acquainted with the three of them, but she was in no mood for any formalities. Luckily, she did lighten up at Calliope's attempt to remain comical, also realizing that keeping that dull and morose look over her face helped no one. Erika wasn't sure whether or not Calliope had any ulterior motives for interrupting her ramble, as such a meeting between the two rarely happened by chance. Whether or not it was premeditated mattered not, as both Fell and Liara left the two alone, being sure to give some motivation to their semi-depressed leader as they went.

"I suppose there is something you wish to discuss, Calliope. I suspect that our meeting was not born out serendipity," Erika sighed as she turned to Calliope, "What was it that you said about needing morale? What has transpired since last we met?"

Calliope smiled politely at both Fell and Liara as they left the two leaders to conspire in privacy on the edge of the Mercenary training fields. Erika's proper language and attentive stance caused Calliope's shoulders to rise ever so slightly. The Mercenary leader had such focus and practicality written on her face at all times that it frequently made Calliope question her own authority. She shook her head slightly and smiled fanitly while gathering her racing thoughts into an intelligible strand of receivable information. It would be a futile effort for Calliope to completely smother her joyful nature, even in this time of trouble, so she spoke to Erika in the same playful tone as before. "Come on, you know I always love to talk with you about battle strategies, weaponry, and whatever it is you Mercenaries call fun." She turned her head to the side and looked away shortly before speaking again; this time with a more purposeful hint upon her tongue. "Look... my scouts and I spotted something the other night." She kicked at the dirt with one of her feet and tried to keep her voice calm and steady. "Truth is, Erika, I don't think we have a lot of time before another wave of Cimmerians overtakes this camp. We need to leave, tonight if possible. I think one of us needs to take all the newest recruits and whatever they can carry to the far eastern side of the forest. There's a sheltered glen there where we can setup again before..." Ever since her Gathering, the Estuary leaders had drilled a common phrase through everyone's heads: We fight together, we die together, we move on broken, and we carry the spirits of those who fell. The routine was a normal way of life for anyone fighting the Valeriyan war. Even after four long years, Calliope still hadn't fully accepted or come to terms with this "truth". She looked up to Erika, silently conveying the remainder of her thoughts through her moist amber eyes. Calliope inhaled and cleared her throat once before breaking their gaze. "We need to discuss and make final preparations in less than a quarter of an hour." Now Calliope's words sounded forceful and demanding. A low whistle sounded from the back of her throat, and heavy footsteps shattered the silence between the two girls. Bastian obiediently trotted up behind Calliope, his mane tickling the back of her neck as it was caught by the warm evening breeze. "Gather your Mercenaries for the Circle, I'll tell Kieren to do the same." Calliope bowed respectfully before striding away, Bastian following closely on the girl's light, quickened heels.

It took a while for Erika to digest what Calliope had said. It had seemed as though her hypothesis from earlier was true, although the details pertaining to it were much grimmer than she expected. Erika made her way towards the heart of the Mercenary camp, trying to devise a plan based on what she had just heard. The camp really didn't have any time, it seemed to her. As she reached the heart of her camp, she gave a loud whistle and began to shout, "All right boys, we got a Circle in 10 minutes, get ready!" She managed to hide her dread by a facade of sterness, but Erika knew it wouldn't help much. She began to walk back to her tent, biding her time before she had to face reality. As usual, Mikhael was able to somehow sense what she felt, reluctantly moving away from his bed to comfort Erika as she entered her tent.

The sound of Erika's powerful voice trailed behind Calliope and Bastian as they rounded a tent corner, heading towards Kieren and the other Practitioners in her stead. Although Calliope's heart was racing with impulsivity, her head reminded her that Dominique was closeby with insight from the bright Familiar, Edith. There was no need to act before they graced the Circle with their presence and knowledge. She almost ran into Ashlinn as her mind wandered, but Bastian grabbed her jacket collar gently in his jaws to prevent the collision. Calliope looked up to her Vein, a mixture of confusion and appreciation swirling within her eyes, and she spoke to her sister without wandering from Bastian's gaze. "Kieren, you and your Practitioners are needed in the Circle. Try to be faster than me... for once." She turned her face jeeringly towards Kieren before jogging off to the outskirts of camp.

She ran into Tate at the corner of the trees and looked around hurriedly for other Harbingers. Hadn't Sam just been here earlier? She shook away the thought as she addressed her comrade below, "I'm not sure where Sam's lazy ass went to, but your lazy ass needs to follow me. Circle in less than ten minutes." She whistled a high pitched notice to her Harbingers and didn't wait for Tate to respond before briskly walking back to meet everyone else in the center of camp. Silently she prayed for Dominique's haste as she walked.

Calliope informed Erika of the foreboding Cimmerian cloud in the distance. Made some mention of a plan to evacuate. Both leaders parted to round up their recruits for the Circle, which will be everyone's next post in the IC.

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