"Take your options and shove them up your ass," Zay barked, placing four cards down. An obvious bluff, but the uncharacteristic ferocity in his eyes was a sight to behold. If he wasn't wearing a goody smile alongside it, it would've been hard to tell he was just messing around.
Their little card game went on for a while. Unfortunately, the time it took to reach the sunken ramparts wasn't nearly enough to break the social tension. Pyra, Lyullia and Marilyn hadn't participated in the games that followed. Marilyn especially was utterly silent for the entire trip, not that she could really step away from the Venbu for long. But she was within earshot, and the door to her seat was wide open. Maybe she was just anxious, or too dedicated to her duty, to interact with the rest of her team.
Upon reaching the Sunken ramparts, the crew was met with a familiar face. Lieutenant Colonel Yvette Eridal was the Knight in charge of inspection of Caravan's exiting through the Lion Gate today. Moments after the Venbu pulled them through the massive arch-way, they were stopped next to a stone-built checkpoint building, where the lady Colonel stood with her clipboard at the ready.
Zay looked over his shoulder at the giant metal gate that lead outside of the city and knew exactly what it meant. "Give me a minute," he whispered, placing his hand face down on the table before jumping out of his seat. Noru put his hand down as well and returned to his bunk.
"I'm done for now, anyways," he groaned, "I'm going to rest for the first stretch."
Outside of the Caravan, Yvette was already giving their Caravan a once over with the help of two assistant knights, one of whom was a Paladin. It was no ordinary paladin either, not that any of those holy freaks were ordinary in the slightest. For some reason or another, Major Lucas Brent was aiding Yvette with her inspections today. The other knight's face and armor weren't familiar. It was probably just a nameless newbie who was stuck on inspections. It wasn't uncommon at all, learning about Caravan's was an important procedure.
"Captain Copp," Yvette said sternly while the shirtless man stepped out onto the pilot's deck. He clung to the door's frame with one hand and hung behind Marilyn, smiling at Yvette as she greeted him. She was a rough woman, hardly anything to look at. Her dark hair was short, her jawline was sharp, and her purple eyes had a dangerous intensity to them. But she wasn't an imposing person, standing much shorter than most at only 5'1. But her voice commanded a great deal of attention. She wasn't somebody you wanted to disappoint, and unfortunately for Zay, she was the type with zero tolerance for people like him. But she knew Captain Copp better than most. Yvette understood his predicament and ideals, even if she didn't agree with them in the slightest. The colonel demonstrated some manner of respect for the way he presented himself. After all, she wasn't about to break her professional demeanor to belittle him. That would be a waste of time for both parties. "You're headed for Marrenfall, specifically the Candein Farmlands, correct?" She wrote something down as she spoke.
"That's right. My crew numbers 7, including myself."
"My records show six-"
"I added Daelin last minute. Your papers won't have anything about him, but I went through Sir Norwell to confirm. You can speak with him about it."
"I think I will." Yvette lowered his arms and reached into one pocket, pulling out a small glowing stone with red symbols etched into its side. They couldn't see what was happening, but those stones were a common tool in Thoris used for long distance communication, Psy Stones. Some worked far better than others, depending on the type of gemstone used for its core. The type Yvette used was the most powerful model. It was made with a ruby core, and could transmit psychic mana over 3 miles at the very least. Of course, those stones could only be used by people that could use psychic magic, but it didn't take too much mastery. Even better, you didn't need to have proficiency in psychic abilities to receive messages. You just needed to be touching a stone with the same frequency, set by the rune on its side. Yvette nodded to herself after about a minute, while Zay stood there blank-faced. He wasn't fond of those stupid little stones. You could never tell what the users were talking about without a matching stone. "That's fine," She finally said, softly. The two knights that gave their Caravan a once-over finally turned to Miss Eridal and nodded. She nodded back and quickly climbed up the front of the cart. "I just need to look inside, and then we're done here." Zay stood upright and stepped aside to let her through with a tired wave of his hand, but Marilyn did her best to not acknowledge the woman. Yvette was one scary lady.
Once she stepped inside however, she wasn't pleased with what she saw. Noru had met her before during inspection. That was part of the reason that he'd ditched the card game. Miss Eridal's eyebrows lowered slightly, but she kept her resentment to herself and closed her eyes. "Ladies, Gentlemen," she said quietly, moving past team Centaurus towards the storage bay. Zay slowly made his way back inside, and gave everyone a light shrug.
"I'm sure you've all heard of Miss Eridal," He quipped, resting himself in the door frame with both arms clasped to the top support.
