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Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Together with Ciradyl, and the remainder of team Kirin that wasn’t inside the prison proper, Éliane thought they were putting up some good pressure on the defenders. Her rifle shots came fast and accurate, keeping many of the enemy riflemen on the roofs well-suppressed, but it was quickly becoming apparent that good wasn’t enough. Soldiers from within continued to reinforce the losses that the team had inflicted on them, and a screamed order had what felt like half the entire enemy forces suddenly focusing on Miina.

The Skaelan officer immediately shifted her focus to the Valheimians that were gunning for the poor cat, but it wasn’t enough. She was momentarily stunned by the enemy’s aerial reinforcements.

What kind of abominable creatures did these barbarians have? Some kind of twisted, cruel experiment?

With the aid of Galahad, she bounded across the roof, swinging her gun around and firing at the flying threats.

Why did they have guns!?

Thankfully, Éliane was not a stranger to shooting at flying things. As a properly trained Skaelan officer, she enjoyed a good hunt from time to time, and skeet shooting was good practice, too. These large flying guns were comparatively lumbering… the only issue was that her shots were also comparatively small. They packed a bunch, sure, but it might not be enough to shoot them down in one hit.

But that was why Éliane packed explosive shells. She had them for her gunblade, and she absolutely had them for her rifle, too.

“Don’t count me out yet!” Yelling back at Galahad, she picked out a handful of red-colored cartridges from her leather pouch and fed them into her gun—making sure to save at least a few to use against the impending airship. “I can blow that stupid thing out of the sky, too!”

Slamming the bolt shut, she sighted on the leadership the dragoon had pointed out. She quickly calculated the lead and drop for the flying einhander—or, if it was already shot down by Miina, the closest flying threat. If she was lucky enough, the explosion might take out another. Pulling the trigger, she felt the customary kick of her weapon and watched as the shell arced across the sky and explode against her target, immediately sending it spiraling out of control. She wasn’t quite so lucky to kill two birds with one shot, but the dying bird spinning out of control and sending the others diving out of the way seemed to put the enemy formation into enough chaos for them to better exploit— and get clear of this killbox.

“They’re in disarray. Charge, now!”

Revue of Annihilation

Meisa Amorette

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The previous evening had been an exercise in a steaming pile of shit. Meisa had navigated the immediate incident with the merchants and the Blackhand Butchers by the skin of her teeth. Firenze was supposed to be there to prevent her from making boneheaded decisions, but the purple-haired woman had too much bloodlust to talk anyone out of a stupid decision if it involved copious amounts of violence.

Her shitty bodyguard spent the entire rest of the night calling Meisa a stupid fucking bitch in the most pleasant terms an elf could offer, too!

Regardless, despite how fucked up the two elves could be, Meisa felt enough responsibility to not get all those merchants ruined or killed. Part of it was the semblance of a conscience lurking under whatever qualified for one in her psyche, and other was simply the fact that not protecting those merchants, and not taking down the shittiest racketeering group that she’d heard of in her entire multiple-hundred year life was counterproductive to her goals to becoming the embodiment of civilization. What kind of shitty goddess of civilization and civility would be so derelict?

Not this lady.

That did put her in a very difficult spot, though. Pissing off some crappy gang was one thing—Meisa and Firenze could hole up in the Atelier, or at worst, in the Abyss proper. She had not forgotten about it, after all. She had barely gotten the merchants’ cooperation, but together, they’d pooled together just enough money to be sufficient to hire a group of adventurer-mercenaries. It wasn’t the best solution—after getting back the house, Camille was helpful enough to inform them that the Blackhands had influence in two whole sectors—but it was a stopgap measure before she could come up with some harebrained scheme to deal with the gang. With that in mind, Meisa was making her way to the Adventurer’s District to hire a group—it remained to be seen how trustworthy they could be, though.

Firenze, on the other hand had her own job to do, and that was to dig up dirt on the Blackhand Butchers to probe them for weakness and information.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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The answer to Éliane’s question, as it turned out, was quite soon. It wasn’t long before the team had split in two according to Esben’s plan. With the usual sense of Skaellan infallibility, she had full confidence in the spy’s competence while inside the facility as a ‘prisoner.’ Éliane joined Galahad and the remainder of the party in spying on the detention facility.

It didn’t take much time at all for them to be in action.

“I didn’t like the suspense anyway,” she grinned in response to Galahad’s comment, already having counted the number of enemy riflemen on the rooftops and memorizing their general positions. Springing into action, she was boosted onto the rooftops by the dragoon. It seemed she would be having another rooftop battle after all. Whether or not it would turn into a running rooftop battle remained to be seen…

The moment the Skaelan officer was on the roof, she unholstered not her gunblade, but unshouldered the long rifle that had yet to be used up until now. It took her but the briefest moment to check the gun before she was in a crouching, aiming position. She was no sniper, but at this range, she was still enough of a marksman with an accurate full-powered gun.

The air cracked as she pressed the trigger, and an unaware soldier fell from the roof, blood blossoming from his chest. There was a smooth clack and then a cling as she quickly worked the bolt, and moved on to the next. Another snap—and a second rifleman fell backwards, just as he was starting to aim in their general direction. After her second shot, she quickly repositioned, and then she was shooting again. Briefly glancing a the airship moving in the distance, she gave it about five to ten minutes before they had to vacate the area entirely.

Even then, staying in place before then wasn’t a good idea. It was a good way to get killed “No, time to reposition,” she replied, nodding at the familiar sounding fox-masked woman that had shown up alongside her.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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“I agree with attacking the detention center.”
With the information provided to her, Éliane was leaning towards an assault on the prison complex out of all the available options. Both battlefield experience and vibes had led her to think it was the most viable option, and that was even before her questions were answered and the others pitched in to strategize.

Esben gave a good summary as usual. If he weren’t a SEED agent, he would make a very good aide to a general on the field. As far as odds went, they really weren’t terrible, if they had the element of surprise. Although Reisa had encountered them previously, she had hardly seen all of the tricks and strategies team Kirin had to offer.

The plan he proposed right afterwards, though…

She stared right at him. “Esben, that is the most insane, unhinged, and ridiculous plan that I have heard from anybody from your organization to date.”

She paused.

“I like it. How soon can we start, and how much gunpowder do we have access to?”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane had not expected to hear Izayoi’s story. She’d heard inklings of it, little bits and pieces from traveling around with the Mystrel woman during their journey together, but she had never actually enquired on it. It was far more of a traumatic tale than she had expected or, ultimately, even properly relate with. How could she, when she had lived a life that was as charmed as could be, up until the Valheimian attack?

It did, though, reinforce in her eyes that Valheim was once more the enemy, and needed to be removed from the world together with the Blight. Again, she felt that the two would ultimately be intertwined issues…

The news of even more Valheimian atrocities, interrupting their little tea party was yet another crime to add onto the mountain of evils. Without even understanding the situation in the capital, she was nearly immediately inclined to agree to Izayoi’s impassioned plea. Had she been younger, she might have immediately, jumped up alongside Izayoi, Rudolf, and Robin in rescuing this young lord from their clutches. After all, it had so many parallels to her own past. A running battle in a capital city to foil some nefarious plot, ultimately to the benefit of Skael, too. It sounded mightily familiar, and it urged on her battle lust.

But she wasn’t exactly in Solitude, with the entire backing of the Royal Guards to put down a nascent rebellion. No, this was the opposite—she would be helping Izayoi and a ragtag band of rebels in fighting an occupation force. It was the kind of thing that needed careful consideration, or they’d just end up alongside this Hien.

Of course, she’d still do it, but it just needed to be carefully done.

It would just have been nice to have a whole company of SEED agents to advise and execute it, as that was what they did best. She turned to Esben, who was already providing some very useful facts and questions to consider, and nodded.

“Since we’re talking a real battle, what exactly are the numbers are we working with here? Against an occupying force, I think forces like yours,” she gestured towards Ciradyl, before adding her questions ontop of Esben’s, “and us, have a very good asymmetric advantage. How many soldiers can Reisa muster to ambush us without compromising the rest of the occupation of the city? If we’re going to rescue him straight from the dungeons, what are the streets or the geography around his prison like?"

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane beamed at the shinobi’s response, which was the opposite of the one she’d given to Robin. “Straightforward but polite is my thing,” she agreed. Of course, she was blunt and rude when such things weren’t reciprocated –A certain Edrenian noble came to mind—but that was hardly a thing that she would mention in a conversation like this. She gave a bob of her head. “Chisa, then,” she replied. The particular subtleties of shinobi culture flew well over her head, but the Skaelan officer wasn’t so clueless to not notice the subtext behind her happiness, even if she didn’t fully understand it. Not wanting to reveal names in an occupied city was easy enough to understand, at least.

Appreciating the space that Esben made for her, she shrugged at his response. “I’m sure you’ll get another chance later,” she batted back.

A pause. “If there is coffee, I will be around.”

As it turned out, there was coffee, although what was available in this Valheimian-occupied place was a pale shadow of the quality she had when in Galahad’s city. It was predictable, but she was disappointed nonetheless.

Coffee woes aside, the rest of the stay in the village was uneventful, as was the trip to the occupied capital of Osprey as well. Éliane had been half expecting to be accosted by a Valheimian patrol, or even set upon by a small force at this point, but they journey went from seeing the peaks of the black towers of Kugane to seeing the walls of the city rise into view before directly approaching the gate unmolested.

It would appear the shinobi was telling the truth—and from the subsequent smooth entry, most of the party’s suspicions and the last of Éliane’s relatively low apprehension evaporated. Éliane remained privately impressed at the shinobi’s spycraft. It almost matched up to the skill of the SEEDs…

They were ushered into a modest building soon after that, to meet Izayoi’s apparent old friend. Ciradyl was a stunningly pretty lady, and before she did anything, she turned her gaze to the new redheaded addition to their party. Éliane had only known Miina for a short time, but she had already become intimately familiar with the Mystrel’s preferences, if she had to go by the way she always stammered and with her gaze always locking right onto her and Izayoi’s chests…

Sadly, the girl had been forewarned, so there was little entertainment to be had, but it was probably for the better.

Unlike Miina and some of the other members of the party, as the Skaelan representative, she was once again obligated to make an introduction. This time, she mirrored Galahad in greeting first, before introducing herself in her full manner as usual. “Éliane Laruelle, of the Household Guards of Skael. Officially, I’m here to behalf of Skael to put an end to the Blight, but it seems that cause is becoming more intertwined with the fight for Osprey the more we investigate.”

Her eyes, nonetheless were drawn towards the tea that had been poured for them, and the pleasant aroma that it emitted. Oh, it was no coffee, but Éliane could still recognize quality caffeine when she saw it. Bergamot was still a fine choice…

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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This journey was truly one of surprises. Most of it was generally of the unwelcome type—a Valheimr attack, roving bands of wildlife, unpleasant hosts, Gardening overreach, and a second Valheimr attack being the notable ones, but coffee delights and unexpected additions to the party were more welcome. Considering how they had met the party, Éliane thought that they had integrated remarkably well!

Integrating remarkably well didn’t mean they did in foreign land, though. Just like Éliane stood out like a sore thumb in her Guards uniform in Edrenian land, everyone else stood out as much as she did in Osprey, too. And that certainly extended to when they met a shinobi on the road.

Esben provided a very typical Garden-like analysis of the woman and the overall situation in Kugane at the behest of the strange draconic girl. Éliane was surprised at how forthcoming that analysis was, but it was definitely something that she wasn’t very good at. Ask her to plan or lead a battle, that she could do, but to give a fundamental analysis on the cloak and dagger business of a foreign occupied state… well, that was what SEED was for!

Really, they had nobody to blame but themselves if she bungled something again for them. After all, her main mission here was still to show the flag and investigate the blight. As far as Éliane was concerned, everything else was still secondary to that.

The encounter, at least, went well, and they were led through the desolate village into the inn. Given her mission, she wanted to properly introduce herself to the big-breasted shinobi woman, if just for diplomatic niceties (it would be very nice if foreign notables would actually be pleasant for once, but what could one do when meeting foreigners) but Robin had beaten her to the chase.

And bungled it.

Not that everybody could see that happening from far away. Nobody had to be an expert analyst at the Garden like Esben to tell how unlike Éliane’s uniform, the Edrenian one nearly made her persona-non-grata in Osprey…

And then Esben got in the way, too!

Approaching, she patted him on the shoulder and joined their conversation, more or less bullying through whatever subtly he was attempting with her typical blunt approach. It was more or less Robin style, but without the Edrenian element, the sparkles, or the kissing. Nearly identical, really.

“Apologies about my fellow countryman. He’s a clumsy fellow. I am Éliane Laruelle, of the Household Guards. I’ve been intending to meet more Ospreyan representatives as a part of our investigation… may we have the pleasure of your name?”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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With the unexpected help, it didn’t take much more for them to achieve a complete victory. Unfortunately the skirmish didn’t end in a full Valheimian rout, but between one of the stranger girls that had shown up and her massive tempestuous attack, and Éliane deciding to lob one of her explosive attacks at the retreating forces, they were able to end a good number of them.

That captain Reisa would not be regrouping with anything near the full amount of forces she had started with, and Éliane was happy with that. Although the extent of her grudge did not even touch Izayoi’s, the Valheimians still had a blood debt to pay for the massacre of her countrymen in the castle. A convenient, easy target to beat up on was appealing for Éliane’s battle lust too…

But now that the battle was over, who were these unexpected comrades in arms?

Éliane was a bit surprised and a little wary that they had all decided to stick around afterwards at their campfire. The ensuing almost-interrogations and introductions were insightful, at least. Of them all, she was of course most interested in her fellow countryman. She was always delighted to meet fellow countrymen outside their borders, if they weren’t exiles, at least.

She briefly puzzled over his introduction. It really wasn’t the introduction of a SEED member… but the last name, she recognized. She had her finger on the pulse of Solitude’s high society. The heir of the Cadon Barony was supposed to be somewhat eccentric man. She gave him some side-eye for the way he introduced himself, but she didn’t dismiss it, either.

It didn’t take long for him to address her, and she nodded with a smile of her own. “Yes. You’re the son of Mathias Felixssen, I presume? I’m thankful for more eyes from home. Too many of have already been lost investigating this curse,” she replied sadly.

The others made their introductions, and she made hers, in turn. It was still odd, but nobody struck her as immediately suspicious, either. Rudolf was an Edrenian, so she didn’t have much beyond her usual impressions of them. Hunting monsters was cool, though! She wanted to hear some of the stories he could tell about his hunts.

Miina was… so cute! But kind of a weird Mystral in how she flustered so easily. She was the opposite of Izayoi, which sent Éliane in a brief fit of amusement. Especially when she tracked her eyes towards what the very red girl had been affixed on for her entire stammering session.

Eve was just a mystery. Her battle magic was awesome, though. Éliane respected her grudge towards the Valheimans, but between her foreign looks and the lack of forthcoming information, she was the one the commander was the most suspicious of.

Robin… well, Éliane loved her style! Wait, was Robin a boy or a girl? She wasn’t actually sure, but she was going to lean girl, for now. The sparkles were a nice touch, if a bit over the top… if anything, Robin reminded Éliane of herself when she was younger…

She decided if they were going to join in their quest, then she agreed with Izayoi. They would be quite welcome reinforcements.

“Well, most of you seem like good fellows,” she happily concluded. “I’d be glad to have you all join if you would.”

An extra thought occurred to her. “You all have your own chocobos, right…?”

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

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Éliane tsked, quickly knowing that her shots hadn’t found their mark by the clang of her shots against armor and the obvious fact that the enemy woman was being a smug bitch towards her Mystrel ally. Although she was still firing back, now having reloaded, she was increasingly coming under fire by the Valheimian contingent.

“Aw, shit!” She let out a yelp as she ducked down from her cover, a particularly nasty bullet coming close enough to ping off one of the metal ornaments on her shako cap and nearly knocked it off her head. Moments later, an entire volley of bullets hit the stone wall where she together with Arton and Izayoi had taken over, sending fragments of rough stone flying everywhere. She winced as a few particularly sharp fragments managed to cut into her arm. The situation was looking increasingly desperate, with this cohort being far more organized than what she’d encountered previously.

They needed a breakout, or they’d be surrounded and flanked. Izayoi was a second ahead of her, so Éliane deferred to her. “Understood!” she called back, checking her gear and righting her hat. At her call, instead of firing from cover, she leapt over the parapet, backing up Izayoi once again and firing as she went. If this was going to be a death ride, then she was going to do it properly…

The sudden explosions that were not of her own volition and the subsequent disarray of the enemy battleline was something Éliane didn’t expect. Nor were the sudden appearances of what looked like another adventuring party.

Was that the distinct accent of another Skaelan she heard? Had the Edrenian king sent a second adventuring party to reinforce them, or had the Overseer seen it fit to send a second Skaelan expeditionary party as well…? Éliane was entirely confused, but she would pay more attention to the newcomers later.

Whatever it was, it changed their situation immediately. Firing another shot straight into the head of a distracted Valheimian soldier, she kicked him away as she directly fell in with the quickly disintegrating enemy cohesion. “They’re about to rout! Don’t let up the pressure!” she shouted, joining in Galahad’s exhortation as she sunk her gunblade into the chest of the unfortunate alheimian sharpshooter that had been taking potshots at her earlier.

Serves him right.

Not letting up the pressure, Éliane continued to push, nearly recklessly blitzing as she sought to break their morale completely. The last of her bullets in her chamber ran out as she cracked out at another infantryman, then parried another before kicking him away for someone else to deal with.

“Stick together! We can drive through them like a wedge and end this!”

Revue of Annihilation

Meisa Amorette

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In hindsight, perhaps Firenze had overdone it a bit. Beating the thugs unconscious would have done the same trick. Nonetheless, she knew that if proper, good civilization was to rise again, petty violent gangs would have to meet their end, even if she had to resort to violence herself.

Even with her cushy life, Meisa was no stranger to violence. The elves treated criminals harshly, and violent thugs, as far as she was concerned made the cut. Still, Meisa didn’t quite approve, but mostly because it put her in a difficult position.

“Well, someone has to finally keep order! Are you alright?” she replied, making herself look presentable as the merchant woman stood up. She was going to speak further when one of the other merchants, began to scream in their faces. Right, did this man not have a sense of self-preservation?

“We are holding swords still, you know,” Meisa pointed out, nudging in the direction of Firenze, who was still standing around. She had taken the gang leader’s sword and still had the naked blade out. The praetorian woman looked quite happy with her new acquisition and some extra gold, but glanced towards the bellowing fat man’s hysterics as if to make a point.

Nonetheless, Meisa internally winced. This was exactly the situation she knew was going to happen. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? “Ahem. Addressing your point—Your understanding is bullshit, sorry. It’s just racketeering, and the particularly violent kind that doesn’t actually protect. Violence begets violence, you know?”

Firenze was still looking happy with herself, now that she was fully armed with lots of swords.
Now that the adrenaline of combat was dying down, Meisa screamed internally as she glared at her bodyguard. This was going to fucking suck.

Well, time to try and fucking sell it, because she was going to need it.

“Because the Blackhand Butchers are on the way out. Simple as that. They’ve overstepped their boundaries for far too long, and will be wiped out. You say they’ll make an example of everyone just for witnessing this? Then you might as well take it as a truth. The only recourse to fight back, or just roll over and die!” And what kind of stupid, uncivilized bandits would ruin their entire cash cow just because some stranger killed a few of their thugs, anyway? What was the entire point of having a protection racket if you were just going to make an example out of everyone who paid for the stupid ornament!?

She glanced at the merchant, and then the girl she saved, and then anyone that was watching. “The point of that silly ornament is for protection. If it won’t even protect you from them while minding your own business, did you really have an understanding at all? No, better to protect yourselves. And we can, at least, help you do that.”

Meisa gestured to the bodies of the thugs around them. Firenze might have caused the problem, but it was still one unarmed elf girl that had basically taken out five armed bandits. They had the credentials.