---

@Raineh Daze

---

While he hadn't expected that his walk down the road would lead to a yet longer trek, it wasn't as though Fionn could really complain—without even asking for any introduction, the servant had just decided to direct him to the misplaced garden without needing any real introduction whatsoever. Despite the various reasons that could easily explain why that was, Fionn was still disinclined to invite any possible ill fortune his way by whining about something inconsequential.

Once he made his way deeper into the garden and found Erich Cazt, however, he finally found himself momentarily at a loss for how to proceed. Generally, he tried to avoid interrupting people who were in the middle of one task or another, which Erich was; however, existing within this little sliver of reality for, presumably, however long Merilia would meant that anybody within might well have all the time they could ever want to devote to their hobbies.

On top of that, he wasn't entirely certain how best to introduce himself or proceed with the Demonbreaker. Any knowledge one had of the other's reputation only went one way, unlike how when he'd first joind the Roses at least some of them knew of the mercenary company he'd been in and could at least guess as to his own background. That was an immediate conversation topic, some common ground, and it quickly did away with the more annoying formalities of introducing himself.

By Mayon, it's as bad as the first time I met a knight.

Rather than agonize over it like he might have years before, however, he strode forwards confidently. There was really nothing better to do than dive in and hope for the best, and luckily this wasn't as bad as another ball might have been.

"You know, I thought Gerard had been exaggerating when he said how large your armour was. I'll have to apologize to him for that." He raised a hand in greeting, making himself relax through force of will in a way he couldn't when his band had come across their first actual knights that they'd worked with during the war. "Erich Cazt, aye? Does Tyaethe get her height from her dad's side, then, or is that just something for all the women you're related to? I can't imagine Veilena will be happy if she's already hit her full height now."

"One of those quirks of being born with far too much mana, I'm afraid; our height tends to extremes either way," the man said, continuing his inspection of the bush. Now that Fionn was close, the rather dwarfed-looking pruning shears were apparent as he continued to clip away at the plant. "My eldest daughter was particularly tall. So was Miss Radistirin's mother, when we could find enough resources to corroborate. Illness might be a contributing factor, yet it could hardly be considered conclusive..."

For a legendary warrior, the old man seemed to have an academic streak. After a minute more of quietly clipping away, he rose up, pocketing the shears, and gave Fionn a studious gaze before his eyebrows rose in some sort of recognition.

"So, you're one of those current Iron Roses? I owe your generation a great debt."

@The Otter

---

@Raineh Daze

---

"That business in the crypt, right? Well, I can't claim to be one of the ones you actually owe, I was watching over the princesses instead, but I might claim the repayment in their place." That certainly seemed to break the ice well enough; Fionn put his raised hand out forward for a handshake. "Fionn MacKerracher. Would've waited a bit longer to come bother you, but all the ones I'd been wanting to work with back at the castle are occupied with some of the others instead. Lilette's working on the captain, I think Fleuri will get more out of Florian than I would at this point, you know how it is."

He might not have, for all Fionn knew; a man of Erich's place could possibly have had the best teachers whenever he wanted, or maybe instead only had the one in his journey to knighthood. Either way, it wasn't worth considering.

Instead, he held up the other hand to show the silvery, leaf-shaped mark in his palm. "Tyaethe figured out I had an aptitude for magic, I've been working with Lilette's daughter on it a bit, and now I've got one Niyar who's invested into me for it; mind if I ask you to teach me some as well?"

Fleuri Jodeau

One of the particularly great things about training with Florian was the Mirror Knight's ability to mimic the fighting styles that he had faced in his life. Countless foes to be pitted against, all within the mind of one formidable knight. Whether it was a property of the inhabitants of this world to never forget what their mortal counterparts had learned, or whether Florian's memory was that good, Fleuri wasn't sure.

Using what the Mirror Knight had been teaching him, Fleuri struck at him. If Fleuri was not immediately killed or maimed, but regardless of whether his strike failed or succeeded to hit Florian, he'd follow up with a question.

"A festival, you say? What manner of festival?"

@Raineh Daze

Of course Parvan had another trick up his sleeve. It would have been disappointing if it were as simple as just evading long enough to be able to drive a knife into his neck. Didn't mean that it didn't hurt like hell, though.

"Grah!" Renar exclaimed in both pain and frustration as Parvan's retaliatory blast sent him flying, bouncing along the dirt on impact and skidding off a good ways. By the time he picked himself up, he could hear Edwin mentioning something about stopping for lunch.

He barely managed to stop himself from saying anything particularly biting in return. It was one thing to insult Edwin while he wasn't doing anything particularly important. It was another to do so while he was actively helping him train. That, and Parvan hadn't quite done anything to deserve such yet. As much as Renar wanted to keep going, he was at the mercy of his trainers in this particular situation.

"Fine." He grunted begrudgingly, hefting his polearm back on his shoulder. "Lunch, then. Back to Candaeln, or did Merilla keep some fascimile of Aimlenn's taverns intact?"

@Raineh Daze

"I see," the man said with a small smile, taking the offered hand with only a hint of exasperation at the custom. Despite his size, it was a surprisingly light grip, not crushing, yet not weak enough to suggeest that age had brought infirmity. Or at least not yet. "Then, would you care to demonstrate what you already know? I am slightly aware of the daughter's talents but I must confess to being unsure whether my knowledge would complement the teachings of one of the fey."

Erich stepped back, arms folded, and waited. It wasn't likely that he would have nothing to teach--if there was one similarity between the stories of the legendary figure and Lilia's approach, it was enchanting swords.

---

The more experienced knight's deflection was uncharacteristically awkward, barely avoiding getting tagged, although true to the form he was emulating, Florian didn't allow that to stop him from immediately pressing the attack to try and limit Fleuri's opportunity to capitalise on it.

"Oh, probably some sort of summer festival? The calendar here doesn't flow normally, and the seasons can remain unchanging for years or go back and forth on a daily basis, so it's just an excuse for street food and music," Florian continued, not allowing such a little thing as 'swinging a sword' to interrupt his conversation.

---

"The only things here from Aimlenn are the ones she finds personally interesting, it's still strange," Edwin said, placing the sword carefully against an unexpectedly undamaged tree and retrieving the copy he had brought with him in the first place, "Everything else is from Talderia. Or like something that could have been in Talderia?"

"Someone like the prince wouldn't know about the commoners' exact buildings, and we don't know anyone from back then who could answer." Parvan added. "But if it's the food you're after, there's still some places near Candaeln that have learned how to make our recipes too."

---

@Raineh Daze

---

Fionn nodded as Erich spoke. It only made sense; fey magic might be hard to incorporate in the same skillset that Erich himself had or that Fionn had been learning from Lilia, and on top of that, the man had no clue what Fionn was capable of as a starting point. Asking for some sort of demonstration of what he could manage was natural. Were it pure swordplay, he'd be happy to oblige.

"Aye, well, there lies the problem," Fionn began, drawing his sword. "It was only...oh, about a month ago that Tyaethe figured out I had the talent. I imagine it was her idea to get Lilia to stick around, I'm sure you know how she is about magic." Still, with Lilia's help, he'd at least been able to work out the spell she used to render her weapon non-lethal. That would be a better showing than just making a light at the end of it, no doubt.

He brought his left hand up to the base of the blade, ready to trace the protective spell along it, but as he opened his mouth to speak he realized the words that Lilia had rehearsed with him for the last three weeks had all disappeared from his mind. He could recall the exact rhythm and melody that she always used casting the spell, but even the first word was utterly impossible to grasp.

His brow furrowed in frustration. She'd worked him on it until he couldn't get it wrong, he should've been able to at least say the words in his sleep. Somehow, though, they'd all left him. Some trick of Merilia's little world? He doubted it; if the goal was for them all to get better with what they already knew, removing that same knowledge would be an utterly pointless hindrance.

His foot tapped the ground as he glared at the blade. Once. Twice. Then he sighed, closing them. Multiple choice phrases flew through his mind in response to the sudden forgetfulness, pointless lashing out at the false ground that Merilia had given him to stand upon.

"Krini!" he growled under his breath, a forceful stomp accompanying the word. The energy he'd been trying to focus to his blade went out into the ground instead, shaking violently under his foot for a moment. His eyes popped back open in surprise, stepping back as the topsoil in that small portion of the garden shifted and collapsed around himself and Erich. Surprisingly, he didn't fall.

"...Well, that's...new." At the very least, he was sure that he'd never been taught to make small earthquakes happen. Fiadh had done it a few times when she'd been annoyed enough, commanding the ground itself to shake in response to her mood, and usually sending Fionn himself stumbling or falling when she did. But she'd never—

Fionn blinked. He'd never even known what the words meant before. Now it seemed like he just did.

"Oh." He sheepishly looked over to Erich. "You're alright, aye? This might take more experimenting than I'd thought. Seems Fiadh wasn't too careful about keeping anything I'd already learned."

From Talderia? Curious, but it wasn't his business to look into it further. Still, it lent credence to the more-than-likely theory that Merilla was a Witch in truth. Capital letters, at that. This entire realm was a strong argument for that already, but association with that blighted hellscape was something of a giveaway.

"Curious, but ultimately, the matter doesn't intersect with my own business." Renar gave a callous shrug, starting to follow along with the two founding knights. "On to lunch. The two of you are the hosts here: feel free to make a decision as to where we eat."

As they walked, one last question came to his mind.

"Edwin. Why bother having a copy of Steelfang? Can Merilla not replicate the original's enchantments within this realm?" Of course, that line of thinking would imply that she was borrowing the blade from whereever it was kept within the real Candaeln.

@Raineh Daze

"Oh, I know," the old man replied, sounding amused--and then, standing firm despite the ground shaking beneath his feet with barely a noticeable adjustment in posture. "In for a long afternoon, then? Well, perhaps we should take this somewhere else. I would hate to reshape the gardens with fairy magic, they should not be that wild."

---

There was a brief discussion between the two on where to go--names and places thrown about, although at least the food was recognisable, and the argument about how long it would take to get there. Not that pricing seemed like it should have been a concern, but Edwin was the one pushing for going somewhere... well, cheap probably wasn't the right word, but simpler. For all the two were famous knights, they were from a lowly background.

"Something like that, this copy of Daybreaker... the effect looks pretty similar, but it feels different. It's a bit weaker, too,' Edwin answered, shrugging. "I don't think this sword is actually magical at all, it just works like it here. Not sure whey she borrowed the real thing today, but it's nice to see it."

---

"For the last time, I'm not taking any orders," was the grumpy response from behind the door, before it opened. It seemed the description was accurate, although not mentioning the various minor scars and burns along her arms from who-knows-what concoction, mirrored by the numerous marks and stains along a thick apron. The goggles of some sort of smoky glass or crystal hanging around her neck were an interesting touch. She took one look at Rolan before continuing, "No matter how hard it is for you to get it up, I don't care. Now shove off."

With that, she went to close the door.

Whatever Rolan was expecting, being shouted at about orders was not one of them. The grumpy, irritable woman who swung the door open loosely matched the description he was given. What had not been mentioned was the scarring and signs of learning, the hard way, how alchemy can be dangerous to one's own wellbeing as well as those who are not so willingly exposed to it. That, if anything, was a sign that she was exactly the kind of teacher he was looking for, one who had learned well the harder lessons. The goggles spoke of experience in protecting vital sight and...what was that about not getting it up?!

"Hang on now, I'm not..."

Rolan moved to at least intercept the door long enough to get a word in edgewise, hopefully making it clear he was just trying to get a word in before the door was slammed in his face. This was clearly a case of mistaken identity and he was quick to try and state as much. He had been caught off guard by the crassness of her apparent frustration with recent visitors trying to get help with their impotence.

"I didn't come here to seek manhood enhancements! I am trying to find an alchemist to learn from, at least hear me out before slamming the door in my face, please?"

@Raineh Daze

After getting the information she needed from Lilette, Gertrude knocked on a few doors at the Mage's College and through rudeness and audacity found her mark hiding in an office. Lilette had warned that the woman had no affiliation with the Roses and was under no obligation to assist her, but if she refused, so what? Gertrude was mostly killing time anyways, and the appeal of summoning creatures to do stuff you don't want to do was at least a little enticing.

It wasn't in her normal wheelhouse of killing and self-preservation spells, but she had spells to make life easier as well. The methodology was a bit different, but she assumed the result would be favorable. It would be easy enough to pick up if the woman showed her how it was done.

Gertrude roughly knocked on the door.

"Hey, lady, I'm bored," she announced as if this was Gisela's problem, "teach me what you know about summoning. It would be any mage's pleasure to provide value to a beautiful young genius like me."

---

Meanwhile, Gretchen occupied herself with any tome that seemed rare or interesting. She was mostly concerned with magic, but knowledge was power too, and she had a feeling that a lot of the books in this Candaeln weren't exactly widely available back home. She figured she might as well partake while she was able. Normally she'd check out the library in the Mage's College, but that would put her at risk of being found out. Nosy bastards.

Well, she wanted to keep an eye on Florian from afar anyways, so it was no huge loss. Gretchen often read outside so that she wouldn't miss any of the training sessions he was conducting. He seemed mostly occupied with Fleuri, who Gretchen wasn't well-acquainted with.

She wanted to pick up the styles that Florian was keen on using so that she could confidently murder him if she got the chance.

As she watched, she added a myriad of techniques that she would never use to her knowledge base just so she'd be ready for any number of things. She doubted she was even really scratching the surface, given it was just training. However, even in the choices he made while sparring, she might be able to put together an accurate idea of what he could do.

So she could shut him down and humiliate him.

The blonde gave him another cursory look... and then moved to shut the door again. "You're attractive enough, but I'm not that desperate that I need to waste my time teaching a magic ghost."

@Eisenhorn

---

The hundi seated behind the desk looked up, then went back to... marking? That looked like she was marking something. "Normally, I would say that I have been asked by the Vanishing Witch to not spread any knowledge of summoning within this realm."

She stopped writing, putting the paper down and gesturing for Gertrude to take the seat opposite her. At least it seemed like a comfortable one. "Since you look like an outsider, then you must be with the knights that she brought in. Tell me, why do you seek to learn summoning? If you are a genius as you suggest, then you should know there are far less risky avenues of study."

@Octo

@Octo

---

@Raineh Daze

---

Fionn nodded as Erich suggested leaving to practice somewhere else. "Likely for the best, aye, but..." He frowned, looking back down at the ground around them. The damage hadn't spread far beyond either of them, but damage had been done; the earth they stood on, previously level and clean, was now an uneven mess that looked like a cross between poor tilling and a pack of moles run amok. It was unsightly, to say the least.

Moreover, it was something he couldn't well leave for Erich to fix himself later on. If he'd made it that way, surely he'd be able to fix it. He just had to try and remember how he'd seen it done.

"Fiadh, Fiadh, you really should have explained some of this to me when we were riding," he muttered, shaking his head. Having whatever knowledge of spellcasting she'd decided to give him was a benefit compared to the amount of studying and practice he'd have to do if he was learning it the normal way, certainly, but it left him in the uniquely difficult position of not actually knowing what he knew. The knowledge was there with only a hazy path to it through the memories of what he'd seen and heard her doing in the past.

He focused again, this time purposefully at the ground beneath his feet. The Niyar's words started to run through his mind again, singing lightly to herself as she danced around the minor devastation she could cause, putting it all back to order. He wouldn't do that, but he could at least fix the soil beneath him and hide the plant roots back under it where they were supposed to be.

"Es glanos."

Without the accompanying violent shaking, it felt like recognizably less of a drain as his energy flowed out, the ground shifting and leveling itself out once again. Within a few moments things were mostly right as rain—it still wasn't perfectly even like it had been, but it had all been restored to a more-or-less natural state. He nodded, satisfied with himself. "Right. I'll follow where you lead, then!"

"I'm not a magical ghost, I'm with the current Iron Roses, one of quite a few dropped into this whole situation to train. Anything you teach will not be wasted on someone long passed just trying to pass the time, on that you have my word."

Rolan did not overtly respond to the backhanded remark on his looks, though if physical attractiveness could sway her decision to any beneficial degree he would accept it readily enough. Looks weren't something he normally leaned on, charming people he hunted down before the Iron Roses, or the people he hunted down after joining the Roses was not an applicable skill. He had little interest going back to the drawing board on what to do with his training time in this place, which meant getting through to this woman not only the sincerity of his desire to further himself in alchemical studies, but to actually convince her to help. Unlike the Legends, she had no obligation or agreement to provide any assistance, which did make this slightly more difficult.

@Raineh Daze

Gertrude frowned. An interrogation already? Damn old bat. She didn't want to play this game just to pursue a new avenue of study, but she was at least willing to do the bare minimum to alleviate the boredom. She crashed unceremoniously into the chair and slung her legs over the armrest, turning her head sideways in order to engage with the Hundi.

"I don't think I have the answer you want. I'm bored, and I want to learn something useful and new. I think it would be fun to summon up creatures to do things for me that I don't want to do."

Gertrude crossed one leg over the other, and rested her cheek on her palm, never breaking eye contact.

"Anyways, if it's risky, what better place to pick it up than in Merilia's deathless wonderland? Who knows, the risk might even prove exciting enough to kick this ennui."

Fleuri Jodeau

"It sounds like a good diversion from training, I'd be glad to attend it," Fleuri remarked as he attempted to divert Florian's attacks away from him. He was quite curious about this festival- how much of it was Merilia's making, and how much of it was the doing of the inhabitants of her world.

It made Fleuri wonder about the inhabitants- about their existence, about their ability to have felt their real world counterparts up until death, about what it'd be like to be an artificial duplicate living endlessly in Merilia's magical sandbox. It made him wonder- would any of the current Roses, aside from immortals like Tyaethe and Lilette- reach enough greatness or simply catch Merilia's sufficient interest be immortalized by a duplicate in this world?

He couldn't ponder too hard on it, though- he was still sparring with Florian.

@Raineh Daze

"Perhaps they did not know the exact limits of their gift. Or perhaps this is simply more amusing to them," Erich ventured--obviously, whilst he might be able to discern the origins of this particular magic... it was hardly like he knew Fiadh, although the overall logic of the fey was quite consistent.

The trek took them out of the gardens and back up to the very same building that Fionn had previously visited... and he seemed overall less concerned about the courtyard here being damaged or magicked in some way. The same butler had been sent away to gather wood, flowers--anything that seemed marginally relevant to Fionn's experimentation.

@The Otter

---

"No, instead it would just be wasted on some violent meathead. It'd be like teaching fine art to a cow," the blonde scowled, but at least she stopped trying to close the door and instead stood there with arms crossed. "But it means you can get information out when you're done. Prove it, get someone to draw up a geas... and fine. I'll waste my time on you."

@Eisenhorn

---

"If only the risk was death..." Gisela sighed, "I suppose that I can provide some limited instruction that should avoid the worst risks. There's only so much marking I have to do..."

The embroidered designs on the expansive rug surrounding the desk--and, notably, it's two seated chairs--began to shine with that... before briefly depositing the pair of them and the chairs in what looked like an identical circle etched into an entrance hall before being filled with silver. Compared to the transportation that had brought Gertrude to this realm, the teleportation was undoubtedly primitive and power-hungry--but it was fast.

The hundi didn't offer much time to demand an explanation, pulling a staff--one that had no reasonable way to fit there--from inside her robes and tapping it on the ground. That in turn caused the appearance of an armoured demon--red-skinned, obviously female... and absolutely towering over the short mage, even though she had risen to her feet.

"Did you know that from my perspective you'd only been gone a few minutes? I hadn't even left your office." The hundi raised an eyebrow at that, as if asking what sort of summoner the demon took her for. "How long has it been for you?"

"Only about a week so far. It has left a lot of time to catch up on paperwork... could you watch this one? I need to fetch some materials."

With that, she rushed off through a door, leaving Gertrude alone with... well, whoever the demon was.

"Why are you in a maid outfit? You're obviously not."

@Octo

By this point, Gertrude was pretty used to getting yanked around by old ladies with more magic than sense.

But it didn't piss her off any less.

The teleportation went off with a surprising speed, likely due to the Hundi's insane mana stores. Gertrude could practically smell the magic leaking off the woman, and it was enough to make her insecurities flare up a bit. Her eye twitched as Gisela summoned a Demon and ran off, as if Gertrude needed a babysitter. She stretched out on the chair like a cat just getting up from a nap, and looked the Demon up and down.

It wasn't often that Gertrude met a woman taller than she was. This one was a Demon, and by definition something of an outlier, but still it was odd.

Gertrude was, surprisingly, not made to feel insecure by being shorter than this Demon. In fact, it was somewhat comforting. Though she used her height to lord over others, Gertrude was, in fact, a bit self-conscious about it. It was almost nice to not be the tallest woman in the room for the first time in years.

"My former employer had a maid fetish," she answered candidly, "I suppose I just got used to it. Besides, if you dress like people expect a mage to dress, they're probably going to go after you. No group unilaterally decides to murk the maid."

Gertrude raised an eyebrow.

"What's your deal? Did Gisela just cast 'conjure babysitter' or what?"

"If anyone wants to come for Gisela, let them," the demon stated, sporting a grin that didn't quite seem friendly. A shocker, that the towering, armoured demon was that hungry for battle. She regained her composure a second later, otherwise barely reacting to the maid comment and... well, at least she hadn't taken offence to being called a babysitter.

"We have an arrangement. She doesn't need any preparation or bargaining to summon me."

@Octo

"If I'm a meathead, you really don't want to deal with the other knights."

Rolan made no attempt to remark on violent, it was the very nature of his profession to conduct violence on those who he was told to target. Typically they deserved it, traitors, bandits, and the like, but there was no debating his methods. Still, as he listened to Silenna's rationalizing on wasting her time on him and starting to come up with a reason, he calmly waited for her to make a decision. She was fond of her backhand insults and compliments, though far from equal in measure, but arguing the point would just be wasted breath. Rather, he focused on the rambling prior to agreeing to 'waste her time' on him, she had a plan. Likely get someone outside this dreamscape to yank her out, which meant he was going to owe a debt coming out of this. So be it, better that than continuing to headbutt a wall, metaphorically speaking, and he was direct to the point once again.

"So, once terms for your assistance are discussed, when do we begin? I will learn anything you have to teach, you never know when something may prove useful."

@Raineh Daze