Marianne Delacroix

Marianne laughed nervously as she bashfully blushed, tucking a long strand of her hair behind her ear as she looked away. Distracting herself by petting Ricard, she couldn't make eye contact with Tiral as she spoke.

"A-ah, yes. You see...my mentors were never able to teach me the finer points of mana control, and as a Delacroix Knight you must be able to cast magic. Thusly, I skipped some crucial basic fundamentals in order to fulfill that requirement. While the spells I know are powerful, I do not have efficient control over my mana expenditure. Which is why I suffer from mana exhaustion quite easily after only a few magic casts."

Marianne twirled a strand of her hair around her fingers, looking down at the ground.
"A-and...why I suffer from mana fissures when I become...incensed"
Folding her hands in front of her, she lightly kicked at the ground in front of her.
Looking more like a shy schoolgirl than a young woman.

It was very evident that Marianne lacked a lot of confidence in her magical abilities.
Hence, her desire to improve herself in that aspect by seeking out other more knowledgeable people.
Maybe they would have better luck at teaching her now that she was older, as well.
Only Reon knew how much pain and suffering her mentors went through, especially when considering Marianne's affinity with the lightning element.
A lot of power at a high cost, and if you lost control at any point...
Well...
Some of her teachers suffered from permanent nerve damage.

"De toute façon! Shall we dine together?"
Happy to move off the subject of her poor lack of magical skill, Marianne couldn't take more than a few steps before Ricard moved in front of her.
His ears pinned back as he bared his fangs, growling menacingly at yet another stranger and unwelcome observer, Marianne smacked his flank and walked around him to see what was the matter now.
"Zut alors! What is wrong now?"
When she followed the giant wolf's gaze, she took a step back and placed a hand on Ricard.
There was a rather shady and suspicious man watching them, a face she didn't recognize.
His grizzled visage and features made her take pause.
She had second thoughts about having Ricard block her from view, breaking their line of sight with one another.
Ricard appeared to pick up on her trepidation, and moved to 'shield' Marianne from both Tiral and the newcomer.
His aggression increasing in the form of snarling, hackles raised.

@TheFake, @PKMNB0Y

Ian grinned down at the knight below him "oh but it's less fun that way, and I don't get pet nearly as much" he huffed, before shuffling off of Gillian to go for the book, sticking his head and arms under to search for it and leaving his tail to sway in the air for a moment until he found it, pulling the lockbox toward him and opening it to take the book. Coming back up from under the bed he said to Gillian "you should probably lock that lockbox you know" before standing back up "well with this in hand i should probably go hmm? unless of course" he moved slightly closer to Gillian "you'd like me to stay a bit?"

@ghastlyInc

Jarde's concentration broke and fell out of his seat when the note suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He quickly recovered to find out what was up with the note.

"You, defiler of tables, have been placed under the Curse of the Library. Your knees will bend backwards and your hair turn to worms, your food shall taste of dirt and your drink of wood. Your father will become a rabbit and your mother will smell of elderberries. But repent! Repent and the curse shall be broken!

Simply run thrice backwards round the courtyard, singing the Milk Bunny Song without cease."

"Huh?!" He gasped quite loudly. "A-A curse?! Oh man, oh manohmanohman!" Jarde began panicking as he quickly noted the important details in the note. One such detail pointed out that he could break the curse before its effects could take hold. However, it involves doing something embarrassing out in the open and may leave a... unfavorable impression to his fellow knights should they spot him.

But Jarde had already decided. Embarrassment was a small price to play compared to his knees bending strangely, his food tasting bad, his hair turning into worms, his mother smelling like elderberries, not that he knew what those were, and his father turning into rabbit, wherever he may be.



Jarde reached the courtyard, the warning note in his hand. "Let's see here, what should I do again?" His eyes scanned the piece of paper once more. "Run around backwards three times? Sounds hard but I think I could do it..." He then read the next part. "Singing while running? This curse sure doesn't screw around..." And then he realized something. "Wait. I DON'T KNOW this song!"

He panicked again and wondered how he would be able to get a hold of the song. He could search the library and not only that, he would need to know how it was sang. The time that was required would no doubt be enough time for the curse to take hold.

Out of options he could think of, Jarde fell to his knees and held up the note. "Please forgive me, spirits of the Library! I swear I will not desecrate anything under your domain ever again!" He begged the non-existent spirits that put the non-existent curse on him.

(@Raineh Daze and anyone who sees this weird display)

"...Hm. Well, that's certainly a workaround..." Tiral sighed, shaking his head. "My apologies for jumping to such conclusions so quickly, but in any case... Yes, I could do with a more filling meal."

Shrugging his shoulders at Marianne's explanation (which, quite frankly, was a tad abnormal given the usual learning curve of magic of any sort), Tiral noticed that his fellow knight seemed thoroughly embarrassed about the entire ordeal.

Maybe it was time to give it a break. For now, at least. He'd act like he saw nothing for the moment, though, lest he make the situation any worse.

The movement of the giant wolf did startle the mage, though, which caused him to turn towards the source of its spontaneous anger. If it was any case similar to his, then... Well...

Probably just another case of unknown identity. Hopefully, whatever person was over there (he couldn't quite make out any clear features) would either leave or just... Come over and greet them? The longer he waited, the worse the situation might become...

Leaning on his cane and making no move to approach closer to the group and their guardian, Indrau regarded them for a moment. After several seconds he strode forward several paces and bowed slightly, enough to be noticeable but not put undue strain on his leg.

"Knight Indrau the Lion, recently returned from an investigation in the north. Whom might I have the honour of addressing?"

He had been around long enough that the veteran knights would know him but given his frequent travels it was entirely possible that he would be entirely unknown to the younger knights. Perhaps it might be time to commission a portrait or something. Regardless, given that he did not recognize the knights in front of him it would be only proper to observe the proper formalities.

Gillian chuckles slightly as he gets up, grabbing a shirt and covering himself as Ian fishes for the lockbox. He lets his eyes wonder a bit, but decides agaisnt petting the hundi's tail. Tempting as it was. “'s not like I keep anything of importance there. Just old books and my half assed attempts at poetry.” He snorts.

He doesnt move back as the hundi leans in. “hmm...” He says, gently patting the hundi's ears. “Sorry big guy. You're a few book rentals short to be asking the librarian for that sort of thing. Sides, I have a lady caller due tonight, have to clean up as it where. Sides...” he pauses for a moment. “You seem a sweet enough sort that you'll find a good team to work with. 'd hate for you to sour your reputation by hanging out with the order's biggest chornic merc. If you want to do some training I wouldn't mind though. Haven't traded blows with a hundi in an age.”

@Zetsuko

Alaree's face was one of frozen enthusiasm when Nero took her hands and manually placed them on her chest. As the temporary maid left, the pigtailed girl seemed to wilt. Her shoulders slumped as she leaned forward.

"Somehow that didn't feel nearly as rewarding as it was supposed to..." she said, flatly, looking rather dismal as she did. Moments later, she straightened, pointing at the other girl.

"Oiii! You're supposed to be embarrassed!" she declared, "I've been waiting for nine years to get the chance to have a junior maid! I've been the most junior maid for nine years! I've been practicing this whole time! You can't deprive me of my chance to embarrass a junior by testing out my most powerful technique!"

A few of the kitchen staff looked up at this outburst, but quickly they returned to their duties. After all, they had a breakfast to prepare, didn't they? They couldn't be distracted by such ridiculous things. In fact, Alaree was about to continue with her ranting, when Nero interrupted her. Elven bread...?

"... Um... well..." Alaree looked away, fingertip brushing her cheek, "I don't really know how to bake or cook or anything... So I should just go!"

Rhysdar looked at the man. “I wouldn’t know. It’s been quiet as long as I’ve been here.”

Rhydsar turned to his drinking companion waiting for the stout mercenary to chime in.

"ah, shame" Ian backed up "well I'll be off then, but I may just take you up for some sparing sometime" with that he left, heading back out into the courtyard until he got back to the main area and found a bench, he took a short glance over a Marianne, Tiral, and some knight he didn't know. Instead of going over to them though he just sat him self down on the bench and started flipping through the pages of the book, trying to find where he'd left off since he lost his copy some time before.

Nero flinched so slightly upon hearing that the other maid had decided to continue berating her for not falling on her act. She bit her lip, as she tried to concentrate in making the elven bread. Much like a novel writer, all she did was finding herself at the realization that the great Nero, the once captain of the Ravens, and tamer of Soulscale, was being subdued by a simple cooking recipe.

Plus the maid's ranting wasn't helping. Nero's temper flared up for the briefest of moments, before looking at the maid.

"You know, my senior maid, if you happen to be the fraternal sister of Sult Sunfield you've got to have a thick skin for some things." Nero added, recalling the earlier incident of Sult reasserting her, er... gender to sir Gillian. "You have to up the game..." she indicated as she walked towards her senior maid but junior in age, blatantly disregarding personal space until their noses almost touched.

"You get...this, up and personal... and then whisper them in a voice not unlike the one you make when having pleasant dreams." She said, as she lowered her voice, her lips drawing closer and closer... "and then you ask for a kiss." She added, almost touching the other maid, but pulling out in the last second. It had nothing to do with the fact she was about to kiss a girl. She had kissed girls as part of his male disguise as the Raven Captain, but Nero realized that falling for the same antics as her own sister would do no good for the order.

She then scampered, dodging the other kitchen workers and trying to head elsewhere. "This won't do... maybe they have a recipe in the library?" She thought, as she headed off, in decisive steps, towards the place where the knowledge of the Roses was kept.

It seemed that there was some deficit in the visual acuity of at least two of these knights; she wasn't making even the slightest effort to do something that could be considered hiding. Maybe they just didn't think to look down an inch? Though with the relative prevalence of dwarves throughout Thaln, that could only be considered a social flaw in and of itself. Fortunately, the new arrival gave her a way into this conversation and a chance to insure that the grizzled one hadn't defiled one of her books.

It was a shame that chasing the naive one that fell for the curse would have to wait a minute.

The magic user's projection stepped forwards between the tomes, edging closer to the motley assembly, and coughed to draw their attention. Then, in a quiet voice, Merilia started explaining: "Explosion? Non, 'armless. Spacial magic is, shall we say... complicated? A slight miscalculation in ze subject's mass leads to instability zat resolves on arrival. If dangerous enough to 'arm a person, she would 'ave been... ah, 'ow you say? Torn apart."

All but the most unworldly knight would be able to place the strong accent as from Ithillin but even they should be able to identify the short mage looking at them with a dull expression. It was hard not to recognise one of the Iron Roses' more well-known knights when her portrait hung downstairs, even in foreign clothes.

@Mercenary5@Fyre Unholy@pugbutter

"Yeah, it's fine," Gütta mumbled at the voice standing behind him, nodding approvingly with the appraisal already given. He was leaning back in his seat, with the two front legs propped off the ground; only when he threw his head back, looking over his shoulders and toward this voice, did he see its owner, who looked much too large and foreboding. "Say; I guess you're our doctor?" He tried not to sound shocked, but the Nord undoubtedly dwarfed him, and if he had half a fighter's brain, could probably beat him into the ground without breaking a sweat, too, Gütta knew. He sat forward, and turned around properly, inspecting the surgeon and his mismatched body. The mercenary should have expected a more scholarly, mousey man, but then, he was grateful enough that he hadn't needed to meet the company surgeon yet at all. In that regard the surprise was a pleasant one.

“Right right” The knight said, waving off his hundi companion before closing the door. He turns back around, huffing slightly as he begins to tidy up the room. After sufficiently shoving the floors contents under his bunk, he flops back into his bed, returning to his slumber. If anyone needed him, they'd likely knock.
@Zetsuko

Nori stood up, finishing her delicious raw beet as she crunched into the tender leaves. The small mob of knights, and seemingly their giant dog pet(?), provided some visual entertainment as they went about their own rituals. However, at this distance, she couldn't follow the conversation, voices too muffled to be heard clearly and sometimes too fast for her to translate.

She silently begins to skulk away, not wishing to disturb the others. She could do her own practice once they cleared the field, and as their guest she shouldn't impose. However, she stopped as another knight stopped just a few feet before her, screaming into the heavens and clearly distressed by...not knowing a song? People in this country sure are upset by the tiniest of things. “Ahem!” the rabbit coughs as she draws closer to the disturbed young man. “Are you in need of aid knight?” She rasps, looking down slightly at him. “I think you mentioned having need of a song?”
@PaulHaynek

Alaree stumbled into an embarrassed silence, opening and closing her mouth weakly as her currently-junior maid came closer and closer. Finally, she was standing in mute silence, her cheeks filled with red as she stood there and quivered. Was she seriously going to... going to... was she really, actually going to go ahead and...

... When Nero pulled away, Alaree's eyes seemed almost dull, her face bright red as she stood there. One could almost seem the steam pouring form her ears. After some delay, she sprang back, pointing towards the temporary maid and still blushing furiously.

"Y-you're the w-worst junior maid e-e-ever!" she cried, quaking as she pointed, "Wh-why w-would y-y-you do that a-and... and... not... I... Wh-why would you t-take the lead when you're my junior y-y-y-you... you... gaaah!"

With that, the pigtailed maid stormed off, still blushing furiously as she did. Clearly, that was a rather embarrassing experience for her. The kitchen staff were apparently used to Alaree being strange, and therefore did not pay this even much heed.

The elder of the Sunfield twins skipped rythmically her steps, as she heard the muffled yelling of the other maid between the clattering sounds of the kitched. Smiling slightly at her own victory, she brisked her pace towards the library, opening the door with demure and elegance. This was a big library. Decades, no, hundreds of years' worth in books had been accumulated in here, from a variety of topics.

She just hoped cooking was one of many subjects within. Even so, the rules of the duel she had undertaken were still in full effect, and she was still in a rather servile garb. Spotting a cleaning rag, she picked it up eagerly, weighing it in her hands. She had to look the part, too. Although she doubted many maids came to clean the library frequently. It was a rather titanic task.

"Hm." She allowed herself to stop for a moment, her gaze resting on a promising book. Opening it eagerly and deftly clasping it in one hand by the binds, she began her quest for the bread recipe. Her off hand moved vigorously, shaking the cloth around the place as if she were another maid, cleaning the shelves out of the coat of dust that accumulated. It was an easy enough task, no wonder servants were the ones who did it.

At some point, she also encontered a trio of statues, of varying sizes and shapes. One very short and coarse, the second rather smooth and tall, and the third one so enormous even she couldn't dust off the top by standing on her toes. She did not budge too much about cleaning that particular statue, as the book she had found had enthralled her significantly. It was a rare manuscript of the Waltz of the Maddening prince, her own sister's favorite book, and a guilty pleasure of hers. Nothing about bread recipes, but it was nonetheless still interesting.

It was then who, after spotting a fourth statue and trying to dust her off, her arm with the rag ran through the figure of the witch known as Merillia, making Nero stagger significantly, her sight finally abandoning the book she had been reading so avidly. Those three statues, they were not statues. They were people. A short, middle aged young man, some sort of wispy noble knight, and then a massive mountain of muscles that could rival Sir Garret.

Although those three weren't as striking as the ghost-like presence that was before her. "Uh, sorry about that, m'lords and my lady. I uh... well, books are nice, I was searching for some recipes, and I..." Nero started to string an apology before cutting short upon realizing that in fact, the phantasmal apparition did resemble someone very famous among the Iron Roses.

"Huh. Interesting spell...are you lady Merilia by any chance?" Nero blinked twice, dropping the book in a nearby shelf rather gracelessly.

He tucked the bottle of sour ale into the cut-out pages of the book, which he grabbed, and closed tight, and pressed to his waist as he stood.

Sorry? She had some nerve, he thought, bringing his free hand up to his scalp, scratching the new layer of dust from his wisps of blond hair. If she had the balls to do that to people then she ought to have had the balls to own up to it, to accept the consequences, without pretending it was an accident. At least then her honesty could be respected. Sorry! It was an accident like being born on a full moon with a bleeding gape between the legs was a reliable basis for a system of government. Still, Gütta was glad in one regard: one of the pranksters had outed herself. He had gained a clearer picture of who not to trust around here. He'd need a new hiding place, of course, but there were plenty of those, with enough ingenuity. If necessary, if the Order's territory proved too perilous to any good, precious thing he wanted to keep on a nightstand, he could always go find an alley to bury the book in.

Gütta kept a cool face anyway. "Say, Doc," he said, massaging a callused hand into his trapezius, "I think I sprained something out in the courtyard. You got some kind of ointment I can take a look at?"

"Gütta. And I'm sorry to lie to you, Rorskoth. Specially since you're so damn big!" The mercenary flashed a mischievous smile as he looked up at the hulking figure. His normal demeanor, a mild and watery smugness, slid back into view. "If it's anything to you, I just wanted out of that room. Most of these people bug the shit out of me."

Nevertheless he continued walking, following the Nord as far as he went. He needed to keep the gift safe, even if his back muscles were intact.

This lack of recognition or acknowledgement--in Thaln, at least--was an unusual experience for the mage. In Akitsushima, she was rightly viewed as a distant foreigner and got attention for it. In Thaln, she was most of the way to being a local legend... not even being looked at was beyond the norm.

The black-haired mage tilted her head as they continued their discussion as if nobody was there. What had possessed the Iron Roses to hire a surgeon? If it meant a lack of proper healers, then she might have to come back and train a few up. Maybe the new captain might have an idea of their current medical capability--if not, Tyaethe certainly would. If this somehow represented the knights' current limit...

All normal conversation came to a halt when some maid came over and dusted the lot of them. If it hadn't been for her projection's existence as nothing but divinations and illusions, Merilia was pretty certain that she would have sneezed from the gathered dust. Oddly, two of the three knights displayed as much response to the impromptu cleaning as an actual statue and... continued to not even look in her direction.

That was simply rude. The maid, however, provided a new avenue...

"I am indeed ze former knight Merilia," she said, watching the two walk off before leaning in to whisper into Nero's ear. Her exchange was short, no more than a request and some advice, before the kimono-wearing mage took one look at the door Gutta and Roskothr had left by and following.

It was a good thing that a mere projection had no need to care about walls; moving in a straight line to appear before the two in the corridor was no work at all. Smiling slightly, the mage moved to block the pair's path and assuage her earlier curiosity:

"Does ze order 'ave no 'ealers? Going to a surgeon for pain is dangerous, non?"

@pugbutter@pugbutter@AtomicNut