---

She would've chuckled in any normal circumstance at the captain's worry about mixing her and her twin sister up, but this matter was entirely serious in nature as it were. With the other mages and such examining for where the curse placed on the earl was, eventually something seemed to turn up in the form of Sir Tiral's crystal turning dark and a sigil appearing on the earl's forehead. Wait, a sigil? Cymbeline perked up a bit as the sigil came into view, stepping forwards as her eyes were trained upon the magical symbol. She stepped close to the Earl, examining the sigil carefully after having seen the result of the earlier dark magic sigil Sir Indrau had destroyed. Her inner mage was annoyed that the man had destroyed it, rather than take actual precaution she felt was necessary for such a thing. To her that was one rule of magic, caution, that she took seriously.

Though her perceptions on past actions and such aside, the girl pulled up part of the hem of her cloak, using her finger to draw a few precautionary sigils on the edge used for isolating magical effects. It was stuff normally used for experiments and keeping the experimenter safe, but in this case it had uses depending on what happened. Then in the middle of these sigils, after activating them, she drew a copy of the sigil on the earl forehead's appearance on her robe. She didn't want to activate this odd thing at all, and didn't put magical energy into it. Yet the precautionary sigils would be for saftey's sake to contain it in case merely drawing it had some effect. Because in all honesty this magic seemed much more potent than the average, and to her that meant it could be more volatile as well.

"Captain, i believe i can start to deconstruct this spell, which might be the safest way to go about this. I can also try to isolate the sigil proper, or at least try, in case there is some secondary measure that has been set up to protect the curse from being removed. I can't stop the main effects of the sigil as they are now, but the isolation would be able to potentially stop new things from activating if there is anything to speak of." the girl said trying to dumb down things as she turned to temporarily speak at the captain once more, looking to Sir Tiral and Sir Indrau briefly each as well as she spoke.

After what happened on the tree, she, they, none of them perhaps had an idea if this would be a trap or not. But for the earl's saftey, she felt that trying to dispel with Indrau's sword again was not going to be the best idea. She could be wrong, however, but that was her perception she had as someone who was trained as a mage and learned the bow secondarily to supplement. Though being younger, part of her internally worried the others would override her due to age regardless of her past magical training. Not that it would be out of spite, but this was a sitaution they needed to take care with.

Though potentially making the earl explode, by trying to brute force dispel the sigil, would not be helpful if that sigil wasn't taken care of more carefully this time. Would be quite gruesome and terrible, really.

@VitaVitaAR@PKMNB0Y@TheFake

"Better had I killed them all, in that case," the paladin muttered, watching the attempt to pat her head with some amusement. Really, what was the girl expecting, given their size difference? It would have been easy if she was out of the armour but there was no way that some random child from the countryside would know about that. Though with her attention now on the child, Tyaethe noticed her pause--and the ominous crystal that was producing it.

Evil... too evil, if something like that were to go wrong here then the results would be disastrous. Not that she had the first clue what to do about something like that or if it was likely. Even so, the armoured figure tensed, ready to rush Tiral and smother his creation with her body at the first hint it was destabilising.

---

And this was exactly what she was worried about. An ominous crystal that brought out a dark sigil of some sort, and one of their number uncertain if they could actually do anything about it. In this case, discretion was the better part of valour. She would just stand right behind one of the banner-supporting wooden pillars until it was clear these two weren't going to curse everybody in sight by accident.

Indrau nodded at Cymbeline and stepped backwards to a reasonable distance, sword still drawn and held in front of him. It was better to do things carefully first before trying his more brute force methods.





She made her way to the main gate of Brennan, scanning the forest for signs of any movement. It would be embarassing to be caught inside the very place they had come to relieve.

"Fouler than I'd expect..." Klaus murmured faintly. She doesn't have to be a magician to know that its Dark Magic. Likely to be as dangerous as the one on the treeline. Somehow she felt a sense of queasiness with the young girl of black-hair. Just me probably... That morning's practice had really put down her trust on kids, for the better or the worse.

The second he saw the crystal turn pitch-black, Tiral made haste in distancing himself from the Earl. In all his time manipulating magic as he did, something this dark and ominous almost never made itself known. It was, essentially, one of the worst possibilities that could have come up, which would mean that resolving the issue would likely take time, lest the target face dire consequences.

Of course, with one of the twins now spontaneously deciding that attempting to dive straight into an attempt to diffuse the issue without studying the problem carefully, the mage-knight couldn't help but hold himself back from immediately moving in and stopping the affair. One wrong move, and it was very likely that the Earl would be missing a head in a few moments.

"This is going to be one of those cases where things get worse before they atart getting better," he muttered as he forced his body to stand by and watch. He was already crafting a defensive measure to block any sort of collateral damage from his current analysis, but any interference on his part in regards to the curse would provide no solace here... Or, at least, not in any immediate capacity.

"Hm... In any case, I should begin some purification of this mass; leaving it be would only cause issues," he muttered as he continued to set up more defensive barriers and blockades in the area before attempting to stabilize the flow of energy from the curse to the crystal. It'd probably blow up it if was overloaded too quickly, after all, and that would likely be just as catastrophic to everyone present if not handled correctly.

Fleuri Jodeau

Fleuri cautiously backed away as Tiral's spell seemed to darken. He knew little of what was actually happening, but Tiral's reaction plus the ominousness of the crystal turning black told him all he needed to know. There was little else he could do besides remain vigilant and keep an eye out for more mundane threats. Pulling his gaze away from the black crystal, he glanced around the room, looking for anything that registered to him as suspicious or out of the ordinary. It was highly unlikely that he would notice anything, but it was still marginally more worthwhile than doing nothing, and either way, they could not afford to underestimate this Dark Lady.

Thankfully, while things had looked incredibly grim, it did not appear that the intention was to cause an explosion, on part of the one who had inflicted the sigil onto the earl at least. The crystal, now a deep shade of inky black, simply oscillated in place without doing anything else. Rather then having become explosive, it seemed it had just been tainted by the essence of the spell it had been created to analyze. Still, setting up measures in case something was wrong was likely a wise idea. There was no telling what that inky black substance encased in the icy chamber really was, or what it would do if it escaped.

Fanilly eyed the sigil nervously. Her knowledge of magic was hardly particularly vast, given she had no real talent when it came to the art. However, she could tell that such a symbol was likely the source of the obfuscation that had been placed on the Earl of Brennan. The man himself seemed baffled by the attention, as if he couldn't even recognize any of it had to do with him.

"What is all this about, anyway?" he complained, with a frown, "And what is that black thing?"

Fanilly grimaced. How could she explain this to him, when it didn't seem like he was capable of recognizing what was occurring as long as the sigil was in place?

"Your grace," she began, "There is... a... a spell has been cast, and we are trying to remove it."

She winced. That was hardly the kind of explanation it seemed like he would except, and the Earl's frown cemented that. However, he made no further moves, for the moment.

"Dame Lockhart," she began, turning towards the mage of the two twins, "Only proceed if your actions do not risk the Earl's life. If it's too dangerous, we may have to try and get in contact with the college, or find this... Dark Lady, ourselves."

There was an air of apprehension in the earl's court. No-one knew quite what to do, or how anything would turn out.

The young girl with the big hat seemed to have quickly fled. It was quite likely she had been scared off by the crystal.

Then... a voice, in Cymbeline's ear.

"Don't try to move it. Get rid of it without moving it. Moving it will only make things worse."

And yet, there was no-one there.

@Crusader Lord@Crimson Paladin@TheFake@Raineh Daze@Noodles@PKMNB0Y

She left...? The fact of the black haired girl leaving abruptly have strengthened Klaus' doubts.

"If you'll excuse me," Her sword hilt is held in a steady hand as she gave a hasty and improper bow, before trotting to the exit.

She left the court to pursue after the girl, and she's intended to make a run for the stables or the city gates if she can't find her. If things were going by the way she assumed.

Its not like she was going to swing her blade at a little kid, but just in case... Even she herself was appalled by her own stray thoughts. I've serious problems with my trust issues... Klaus frowned, "Can a girl of such height even saddle a pony...?"

---

"Yes, Captain i understand. I won't let you down," Cymbeline said, giving a respectful nod to Fannily as she noted the very real possibility that this situation could go for the better or the worse depending on what was done next. By Mayon, the mage's college itself could become involved, much more chasing after a dangerous and mysterious figure, if she could not do this safely.

But as she turned away once more, she moved to look at Sir Tiral's attempt to seemingly analyze the dark sigil. And for a moment she thought about potentially assisting in this effort for the moment, when a voice rang out in her head. "Don't try to move it. Get rid of it without moving it. Moving it will only make things worse." The words rang clear in her ear as if they were pure crystal shimmering in the sunlight, though their source was nowhere around her as she briefly looked to each side and noted no one was even close to her physically at her location save for the Earl. But if this was true, she had to act, have some faith in this mysterious voice calling out to her with seemingly good intent.

May the Captain forgive her if this next set of actions was not good. Yet at least this voice, whatever it was, seemed to provide some kind of clue as to how NOT to go about this.

"We don't need to try to move the curse either, or we could perhaps trigger something worse," she said, speaking aloud where the others in the immediate area among her comrades and fellow magic users could hear, not speaking of the voice in her head at the moment.

Turning back to the earl yet again, the mage took a single, deep breath to steel her nerves. Then picking up her left hand, she again began to quickly draw more sigils. But this time, not isolating ones as she had previously thought to do. If moving the dark curse here might mess it up, then isolating it or attempting to do so might potentially be dangerous too. Such was her train of thought on the matter. So this time, she was setting up an arrangement of sigils in the air for starting the very careful deconstruction process of the dark sigil. Not that setting this up was necessary, but was being done more so to be as detailed and careful about this as she could be. No sense rushing in like a fool to have things blow up in everyone's faces.

However, included with these was one more sigil in the array, meant to....try to redirect any potential secondary effects onto herself alone....or at least as much as could be. If thing went wrong, and this sigil was to strong for her one to redirect all the effects to herself, at least potentially taking some of the brunt might help? She felt she deserved to pay the price if her efforts backfired in the end, or at least needed to prevent harm to the others or the Earl perchance by putting herself in front of that harm first if it came down to it.

Once the circular arrangement was set up, she poured in her magical energy once more, causing the sigils to shine brightly but gently with an aura of blue glow. She was ready. Bit by bit, thread by thread it could be said, Cymbeline would then attempt to try to deconstruct the spell that had placed this curse on the earl. A look of intense focus came onto her face as she did her best to be as careful yet intricate in this matter as possible.

Hopefully the Earl would remain still for this as well, at least for his sake and that of the others here.

@VitaVitaAR@Noodles@Crimson Paladin@PKMNB0Y@TheFake@Raineh Daze

---

---

Elissa watched on in silence as her sister suddenly spoke out more about what not to do to this dark sigil, which seemed rather normal for Cymbeline but to her twin felt a tad...sudden to suddenly declare to the others aloud. Not that Elissa was enamored with Sir Tiral or such personal things, but at the same time he was older and she felt perhaps more experienced at this sort of thing than Cymbeline (her own twin sister) would be. So to not allow a more experienced senior among the knights to perhaps step in and fix the issue was to Elissa a negative action that was not proper in things. Albeit, this was all thought from an individual who more or less was on the side of having experienced hands leading the group instead of a young girl who just happened to be born on a certain day of all people.

Her sister had trained with those from the mage's college, true, and that was not something to be taken lightly for magical skills either she supposed. Her sister had always been good at the magical arts in a wider range than she herself knew them. If she was going to stop another's efforts like that, then she had better have a good reason, and might have a good reason in particular in this case. She had enough trust in her sister to not just stomp in there as if to discipline her, and in this case she hoped said trust would not be misplaced as it were. By Mayon, her sister was a formally trained mage who had taken up bow pretty much as a side arm for use in battle beyond just her magic so she wouldn't be utterly defenseless.

"You better know what you're doing," Elissa said, crossing her arms and muttering under her breath for her own sanity in this situation.

If this did go wrong, who was she supposed to try and protect now? The Earl? No, he might have been important, but her duty was to the order first. The caster was the one at the most obvious risk here... but maybe the fallout if something were to go wrong would be worse than imagined, and protecting Cymbeline would put the captain at risk. The Captain... yes, that was who to jump on if things gave even the slightest hint of being about to go explosively wrong.

Which was why the knight was sidling slowly towards Fanilly whilst keeping an eye on the magic in progress. She'd need to move quickly if things went out of control.

If she couldn't cut something with her sword, at least she could absorb the damage.

To say the disassembly of the spell that had been inflicted on the Earl was easy would be wrong.

To say it was difficult, however...

It seemed like the sigil was coming apart far, far easier then expected, given the power behind it, the nature of the spell itself, and how long it had been inflicted. It was almost as if it had been made with the knowledge that it would be taken apart... As if its chief purpose was perhaps less to do with obfuscating the Earl's ability to see anything related to battle and more to simply provide a distraction and delay for anyone who appeared to help.

That being said, it was difficult to discern the motivation of someone who they hadn't even seen yet.

The Earl himself groaned, clutching at the side of his head.

"... I'm being patient, but whatever you're doing is causing me a wicked headache," he complained, "Is there any point to thi..."

He trailed off. After a few moments, he shut and closed his eyed, blinking.

"Earl Achter?" Fanilly asked, stepping forward with some level of hope. As the sigil was steadily coming apart, she was hoping, wishing that the attempt to deconstruct it was working.

"I... see... I don't know, everything is far too blurry, and this pain in my skull is growing unbearable," the Earl responded, wincing. Fanilly winced as well. Was it possible the spell wasn't working as well as it seemed? The blonde knight couldn't truly ask Cymbeline, not when she was concerned about interrupting the countermeasures the half-nem mage was putting into play. Fanilly didn't know particularly much about magic, but she knew that it required focus when it came to such delicate things.

After what seemed like forever, the last portions of the symbol on the Earl's forehead suddenly seemed to crack, before drifting away from his skin, dissipating into the air.

It was at this moment that the Earl slumped weakly into his seat.

"Earl Achter?!" Fanilly rushed to his side, and was relieved to see his eyes flutter back open... and then...

"Ugh... my head... ah...?"

He stared at the Knight-Captain's armor.

"Where... did all that blood come from...? Captain Danbalion...?"

---

Klaus's investigation turned up... nothing at all. There wasn't anything amiss whatsoever. It was possible the little girl had simply gone back into town, scared of the crystal.

@Crusader Lord@Crimson Paladin@TheFake@Raineh Daze@Noodles@PKMNB0Y

Fleuri Jodeau

Fleuri tensed up as he saw the enchantment being dispelled, and let out a sigh of relief when the Earl seemed to have regained his senses. It was quite a stressful ordeal just to witness, and it was unclear whether his ignorance made him more or less fearful that should be warranted. Regardless, it seemed to have been sorted out without any messy results- aside, of course, from the damage that had already been done.

Normally, he'd be uncomfortable with standing before an Earl in dirty, blood-stained armor, he mused. But with everything that happened, he was simply relieved that the Earl was unharmed.

Nothing... Klaus stuffed on her loaf of bread frustratedly, turning away from the city gates as she found nobody of any resemblance to the black haired girl. On her way back, she tried to convince herself that not all childrens are the same as Sir Tyaethe. "By now, they would've been finished with that stupid Earl," She muttered to herself, not bothering if her words could be heard.

Looking at how there aren't any gossips bad enough to catch her attention, it seemed to her that the dispelling of Dark Magic was going well, "for now." Now to mention about the Dark Arts, she pondered on whether the faeries that she sent to spy on the black dressed lady have caught up to her. Leaving the courtyard wasn't for naught, she had had difficulties trusting that place, on whether there are remains of magic that could eavesdrop the conversations. She shall withhold her field report on the faeries, until the Knights set out for the Dark Lady.

Tiral crossed his arms and nodded as the Earl seemed to recover, taking note of how the Earl seemed rather disoriented after the spell had been lifted. It was a bit of a given, of course; the level of mental suggestion and the apparent strength of the spell meant that it would be odd if the Earl wasn't a bit out of it. But, all things considered, the Earl's recovery was lower on the list of things to be handled than anything else right now.

No, their current target was more apt to be the one who had cast the spell in the first place.

"The Earl should get some rest for the moment; we should be moving out on a manhunt in short order," Tiral remarked, slowly compressing the crystal of ice to be disposed of later by people with more experience in the matter. After all, even if it was just determining the nature of the magic, that level of concentrated dark magic was probably better off being handled by a priest or something of the sort.

"A small team of elites should suffice on that end, at the very least; moving out in full force will only end poorly for us."

The paladin relaxed somewhat, seeing as how not everything had exploded and the Earl seemed like he had escaped any immediate harm. Obviously it wasn't the most long-term infiltration... anyone with long enough access to an earl to implant a more serious curse would doubtless have woven it so deeply that the price to remove it was as bad as the curse itself. Magic users like that were the most detestable sort.

"Another manhunt so soon? It's only been months since we finished the last one... and it was hard enough to round up the stragglers of a rebellion, let alone one unknown witch."

He slid his blade back into it's sheath and stepped forward again.

"I've got a lead on the witch. The faeries in the local woods were most helpful in identifying her and can cover more ground without being spotted. I'll leave Salz here to keep an eye on things."

He paused. This was a bit more of a task than asking some questions. It would be necessary to bribe them for more information and help in tracking.

"Earl Achter, could I procure some milk, honey and bread from your stores?"

---

"It....it worked?" the mage said very quietly under her breath, her breathing a bit heavy as she finally finished the procedure the sigil having finally having disappeared and the Earl seeming to come back to his senses.

The work had been mentally and magically intensive, carefully unweaving bit by bit each part of the sigil and overall spell. But there hadn't been any backfires, no secondary traps embedded in the sigil or the spell that had triggered, and considering she was intact it was not hard to say that it seemed the magical equivalent to a surgery had gone rather well all things considered. Wiping sweat from her brow, the Half-Nem mage allowed a small smile of happiness to come to her face, glad that her training and talent were of use in this manner. As the Earl had slouched, she had feared for a moment that the sigil might have put too much a strain on his body to remove.

Turning to the Captain, still smiling Cymbeline gave a light nod.

"The Earl will be fine, Captain, albeit some rest in bed and time to recuperate will be required though," the mage said, before her look returned to a slightly more somber one, speaking where only she and the Captain could hear now, "And after having deconstructed this sigil, i believe i have a somewhat better understanding of this dark magic. Further careful study would be needed, though, to determine its exact nature. But if i had a chance to study what Sir Tiral acquired in that crystal, i might be able to better understand the sort of dark magic this enemy might be using. At least, only if such was acceptable by your command."

She then listened as the others moved to speak, of all things, about taking a manhunt after the witch who had done this dark magic. And as Sir Indrau noted about honey and bread she had an idea of what the man was wanting to do. The faeries. They might be a good lead again, if they desired to be found. Though they seemed to be angry one of their own had been used, so such seemed a feasible idea. Dark crystal aside, she was unsure how useful she'd be unless another member of the group was placed under the same sort of dark magic out there.

"Who shall we send on this manhunt?" the mage said, after looking around to speak to Sir Tiral.

"Er... you need... faries..."

The Earl blinked, shaking his head weakly.

"... If... it would help the Iron Roses, then..." he trailed off. He seemed almost as if he was recovering from being quite drunk, at least to Fanilly's eyes. Given how mentally effecting the charm had been... well, it would have been surprising if he didn't have to spend some time recovering. Completely obfuscating all signs of battle from him... it was a powerful spell, wasn't it? Though she had to be honest that she didn't really know how such a thing worked.

"You may have it... ah, there's my sword!" he declared, his jovial attitude returning... for a moment, when in the middle of reaching for the weapon he suddenly let out a groan and clutched his forehead.

"Father!"

The younger Lord Achter quickly ran to his father's side.

"You said he would need rest... the servants and I will help take him to his room," he said, quickly, helping his father to his feet as the aforementioned servants approached to assist(aside from two, who had gone to fetch milk, honey, and bread for Indrau).

As the Earl was carefully taken to his room, Fanilly turned to face her knights. Now she had to decide how best to divide their forces.. Tiral was right. It would be best to take a small force in pursuit of the witch. In addition to the reasoning he had mentioned, there was still the possibility of a secondary orc assault on the town. It was best to leave it with defenders.

The problem was mostly in deciding who would remain here as a defender and who would go on the hunt.

"Sir Tiral, Dame Cymbeline, Sir Indrau," she began, "You will accompany myself and Sir Tyaethe, along with Sir Denvon, Dame Avina, Dame Vionne, and Sir Elex in pursuit of the witch."

She paused for moment.

"Everyone else will remain here, in order to bolster the town's defenses."

There. Fanilly had tried to pick the Knights she felt best suited to handling a powerful magic user. One with a blade that could cut magic, those who had assisted in removing the charm, and otherwise powerful combatants who would be able to overwhelm even a strong mage at close range. Everyone who was left behind was also a strong knight, but the town needed defense, after all.

"We will be departing quickly, so prepare yourselves."

---

Indeed, after the knights had received the food and drink Indrau had requested, and been given time to clean their weapons and armor, Fanilly quickly set off astride her white mare, leading the team she had gathered into the forest one more.

It was important to take the witch down as quickly as possible, before she could launch any other attacks. The more time she was given, the more time she could prepare.

As for those left behind at the town, they were given the freedom to organize the potential defense. For the moment, however, the town's children had excitedly gone to see their defenders.

It wasn't every day that the Iron Roses came to Brennan, after all.

@Crusader Lord@Crimson Paladin@TheFake@Raineh Daze@Noodles@PKMNB0Y

Riding along, Tyaethe considered the most important factor in following the escaping magic user right now... well, or the one that would be the most important in having anywhere to start. There were quite a few, such as their target's ability to cover their tracks and simply get away. There was a reason nobody had a clue where their oldest magic user was most of the time. But even assuming a less than thorough job on that part, such that they had a chance...

"Indrau, do you remember what these fairies looked like? The wrong ones would just send us into a pond."

---

Cymbeline had, before leaving, noticed her twin lightly shaking her head from the corner of her eye. That was very much normal Elissa, but in this case she probably did want to help in the chase too. Or perhaps had some sort of objection, but wasn't voicing it due to the situation. Regardless, the half-Nem mage felt that she would be hearing about all of this later. At least, once her sister was done at the nearest bar for the night. Twas' the usual, but....she was somewhat used to it, especially with the hijinks her drunk sister could get into. Safe to say, back home, before they had joined the Iron Rose Knights, she had showed up once naked at her room door whilst rambling about if potatoes had souls in her drunken slur.

But as she rode close along aside the Captain, sitting atop her own somewhat shorter brown pony, she was lightly biting her bottom lip. If that witch attacked, she wanted to....defend the captain, be there for her. It was an Iron Rose Knight's duty to protect their captain, after all, though personal feelings did come into play for her personally as well. Regardless, the observed effects of the dark magic attack, plus the power of the spell that had been upon the Earl, meant that this foe was nothing to scoff at in any manner. Mage curiosities about the dark magic being used aside, she was more concerned that they would be the sitting ducks against a witch that strong and dark. To that end, she'd placed a sigil on the Captain's back on the way out, it was a "damage redirection" sigil in effect like she had placed in her earlier arrangement for removing the dark spell from the Earl.

If they got into bad danger, then at least she could take damage for the Captain. Or at least, soak up as much damage herself as the sigil could transfer over if the Captain was hit by a beam like the one from earlier...or was otherwise harmed that is. It was potent dark magic they would be potentially facing, but if it was that beam again she doubted a perfect redirection of all the damage would be possible.....though less than that beam might be a lot more manageable for the sigil in question in her mind. All she had to go on with her guess was the dark sigil she had broken down and the beam from earlier anywho.