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ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

That reminds me-- I need to make an NPC sheet for Minuette, and the relationships for Mirie still. That'll have to be tomorrow, though.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Mirie participates in some shenanigans.

Took longer than I expected, but I've been really busy since Izu has been in town visiting, lol.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Mirie Agustria of the Grand Bank,

Duchess of Caelin

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Hathforth\\
@Estylwen

Mirie was the ‘second’ of the dukedoms to make her appearance, as she left her carriage. The duchess was in her gala best, as usual—this time, she was wearing a dark, shoulder less dress, fitting to her figure. Her seed, one of her best kept secrets, known only to a few, hung openly in its usual place, together with her large black ribbon that featured prominently in her accented black hair. The rich ducal cloak that she wore covered what would have otherwise been bare shoulders, and as she stepped out, she held in one hand an exquisitely crafted cane-sword, topped with a large prominent ruby-red gemstoned carved in the symbol of her crest. It was a fashion accessory that floated along if she released it, and a hidden weapon, too.

As something that she regularly carried, it was the sort of thing that eyes were immediately drawn to, while the real seed she kept also hid in plain sight.

Alongside her was the Countess Minuette, a noble from Caelin and her personal handmaiden. Although she usually wore a different uniform, today Mirie’s plus-one wore a more conservative dress. Taking a brief moment to speak to their carriage driver, her noble servant took up a heavy but manageable gift box for the queen.

As always, the treats from the province’s wealthiest noble were meant to always delight. Within the gilt-leathered box, nestled in velvet was a small selection of bottles of Caelin’s finest condiments, a rare treat that would cost nobles a small fortune. The greater gift, however, were the imports from abroad—a fine trinket from a kingdom impossibly far that acted as a small protective charm, and a bottle off fine Etrian whiskey, aged 40 years. Next to it was a new Caelin product—20-year aged Caelin whiskey, from the year that Mirie had ascended the dukedom. It had been a project of hers at the time, and rumors had it that the duchess’s own distilleries were hoping to make whiskey into not just another one of the island’s specialties after copying the technique from faraway Etria, as its new crown jewel. From the few nobles that had tried, it compared favorably to the famous Etrian example.

Mirie had her idiosyncrasies, but when she could, she kept on outwardly friendly terms with nearly everyone, no matter her private opinions. They were all potentially valued clients. With the wealth she had, warm gestures such as lavish gifts and minor favors paid dividends for Caelin, its merchants, and its people. This was naturally extended to the queen, too, given that the woman did seem to deal her a more even hand and court her favor and business despite her tyranny—money talked. Of course, she favored certain people more than others—the Duke of Odenfield she had known since her childhood, compared to the queen, which had been nearly an unknown quantity until merely two years ago before making a right mess of provincial politics and prematurely ending a few friendships… and liaisons that she would have preferred to keep longer.

Spying the ‘duke’ greeting the queen as Mirie made her entrance with all the grace of a powerful duchess, she had to suppress an amused smile as the very example of that difference played out here. The small amusement she had between herself and Rhinecliff was already unfolding before her. Somewhat riskier than she usually operated, perhaps, but Mirie did enjoy her games of fun. Being in the know on this was one of the boons that she had from Rhinecliff partially divining her secret, although she doubted the man was able to confirm with certainty her very efficient manner of transportation was from a very valuable seed.

The duchess plucked a glass of Gold-touch Wine from a servant’s tray as she slowly approached. The usual gossip washed over her, but she returned greetings when given. She could see the duke’s pet fey had given an exquisite performance. And what a performance it was!

But its end meant it was showtime for Mirie, too.

She gave a commensurate greeting to the Wizard-Queen as she approached together with Minuette, who made her own before handing over her liege’s gift box to the queen’s waiting advisor. “Your majesty,” the duchess replied in a warm voice, “It is good to see you and the capital in its splendor once more, and I am looking forward to enjoying this fine evening.”

And indeed, she was. She truly did enjoy such galas and events. There was the noble politics, yes, but Mirie could still never turn down free food and drink.

And the opportunity for a little bit of fun.

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Rhinecliff Estate\\
@Estylwen @ERode

Later…

In a certain Estate, a ring on an unbidden finger caught the glint of light as it approached a door with a certain crystal within. Observing, as it was consulted, the unexpected intrusion gave its user pause, but the Lady on the other end continued. A ruby glowed, and the crystal in the drawer responded.

The door opened, revealing the very familiar form of a certain duchess in her gala dress, her sparking Gold-touch Wine in hand as she raised an eyebrow at the white-haired boy that now invaded her fleeting sanctuary.

“Oh, Viscount Skybound. What brings you to this part of the province, on this day?” The duchess of Caelin looked unperturbed.

Unexpected as the encounter was for her and likely the boy, she was very good at bullshitting and recovering fast.

She winked.

“For a common reason, perhaps?”

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Was trying to post tonight, but looks like it'll end up tomorrow. Looking forward to getting some switcheroo hijinks done : D

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

&

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Arton left the common area as soon as Izayoi disappeared with Hien and headed into his own room without so much a word to anyone else.There he stripped off his layers of armor until he was just wearing the common clothes he wore underneath it all. He dragged his smithing kit out of his backpack and pulled the pieces of armor around him. Halfway through tinkering with the chestplate he realized that he was missing a precision tool. A quick but thorough search revealed he must have lost it at some point on the journey. He didn’t want to face Valheim’s forces again without the modifications so he pondered on who might have the tool he needed.

There was a firm knock on Eliane’s door and waited for it to open ”Sorry to bother ya, but do you happen to have some small pliers?” His upper right arm and lower right leg were tightly wrapped with bandages over his clothes, traces of red poking through the fabric. There was clear exhaustion in Sollan's eyes and overall expression, as much as he tried to hide it with a small smile.

Eliane was not so quick to retreat from the common area once they were within the safety of the safe house. With the adrenaline from the battle wearing off, she prepared a nice pot of steaming coffee with the beans she had brought along with her from Midgar, before she finally retired to her room. She had spent a lot of her special shells during that fight to shoot down those bizarre bird-things and to take special care of Reisa, so she needed to replenish her stock of explosive bullets. It was going to be some time until she could buy more, so after taking a sip of coffee, she pulled out her own toolkit to hand reload some of her regular cartridges with the more potent stuff.

She was midway through this when there was a knock on the door, but she stood up and answered. “Oh, Arton.” Eliane tilted her head as she looked at him, but nodded at his question. “I do, but I’m still halfway done with them,” she responded, gesturing at her handiwork at the nearby desk. Said pliers were out, which she used to pull the bullets from their casings to reload. “I’ll be done in a few minutes.”

The Skaelan officer suddenly held up her pot of black nectar. “Coffee while you wait?”

His eyes did wander over to the desk, briefly looking it over as he considered his response. It would be easy to decline, slink back to his room, and come back in a few minutes “A coffee actually sounds great, actually. It's been a rough night.” He cracked a smirk, speaking as if she wasn't there. His thoughts were a complete mess and trying to process what he had seen tonight. Arton entered the room after getting permission and found a padded chair, likely used for reading, and let out an exhausted sigh. It was strange the one person he seemed to be able to relax around was also the one he had been most paranoid about.

”Is overthrowing a foreign occupation also what you had in mind when we started this journey?” He let out a small chuckle, reflecting on the path so far.

“Good thing I have a spare cup,” Eliane declared, as she poured him a still-hot mug of the caramel-colored drink for Arton before handing the beverage to him. She turned back to her work as he found a seat nearby.

There were light tinkling noises as Eliane continued to work on her cartridges, fitting the little slugs back into the brass shells. “Hmm…” she hummed in response to his question. “No. But it was a possibility that we considered…”

The aroma of the coffee flowed into his nose before he took a small sip and was thankful that he had practiced restraint. Arton chuckled at her response ”Of course.” However, that chuckle soon died out after he realized Eliane was dead serious. He stared down into the swirling, dark golden liquid and nervously thumbled the rim of the cup.

You had a good view of Captain Reisa, right? Was there anything about her…that seemed strange?” Arton asked lowly. He couldn’t get her face out of his mind since they made it to the safehouse. There was a sickening feeling in his gut that he couldn’t shake. It wouldn’t make sense. She was supposed to be dead.

Eliane canted her head to the side in the way she usually did in response to certain things. In this case, it was Arton’s reaction to her words. Didn’t it make sense to have contingency plans? Taking the opportunity to take a sip of her own coffee while he played with his –and wasn’t that a waste– she kept her head tilted for his next question.

“Reisa? Hmm…” She thought back to the entire fight, recalling how strong her armor was against her bullets. She held up one of her newly refilled explosive rounds up to Arton, and gave it a shake. “The amount of explosives I used in addition to Chisaki’s was more than lethal, but she did survive a high powered round to the chest,” she allowed. “Maybe she’s still alive. I wouldn’t be too surprised.”

Another pause.

“But what makes you think that?”

The possibility that she could be dead didn't even register in his mind. It wasn't that Arton believed Eve, Eliane, and Esben didn't do sufficient damage. He took a deep sip of the coffee in his hands, hoping it would steady his nerves like a stiffer drink. ”She didn't seem to concerned with her situation.” He added before the pause, finding the courage to reply to the question that would surely follows. The time was here.

”Because…I think I…I think she is someone….I knew… used to know.” The cup trembled in his hands much like his voice. His breathing pitched as he finished, feeling ill all of a sudden. Her ruby eyes were burned in the back of his mind ever since that day. He had been unable to sleep since that first encounter because something inside him knew…that Captain Reisa…was Furi.

It had been nearly two decades since she was taken but seeing Reisa's face tonight dug up memories he thought were long buried. It was impossible to say for sure but Arton HAD to find out and that put him at odds with Izayoi ”I lost both my parents in a bandit attack while we were traveling. There was a girl named Furi, my best friend, who was traveling with us. They took her and they might have gotten me if not for Cyth, my mentor.” He grimly recalled, failing to include the guards and couple servants that had accompanied his carriage. A secret for another time.

Eliane paused her tinkering to turn around and look at Arton after that statement. She leaned in, interest obvious in her eyes. It didn’t stop her from sipping her coffee, though. The story behind the loss of his parents was new to her, but she wasn’t the type to be good at offering sympathies, and so she didn’t offer them at all. “I see. That woman is Skaelan?” She was assuming so, and said it with surprise before she continued, still sound skeptical and confused. “How does a little girl go from being snatched by bandits to becoming an awful Valheimer committing warcrimes on foreign soil?”

Arton looked just as confused as Eliane sounded. The Furi he knew was confident and steadfast. Her family was struggling financially but she had dreams of entering the Garden. His form slouched and his eyes looked towards the ground. Eliane wouldn't be able to help him think this through if he withheld important information ”It wasn't bandits. It was Household Guard. Their first volley killed the guards, the next hit took down the few servants that accompanied us. My father took down one and wounded another but…” He trailed off ”They would have taken me too if not for Cyth.”

Arton finished the rest of his coffee before it reached room temperature. The details of his tragedy closely resembled an infamous incident in which the Overseer's, Overseer Auclair , brother and his family were ruthlessly murdered while traveling to their southern estate. There were no bodies of the attackers found at the scene nor the body of the brother's son. It nearly sparked an international incident at the time. His attention turned to Eve as evidence of Valheim's sorcery ”They made Eve, right? Maybe they, I dunno, are mind-controlling her or something.” He said exasperated.

Eliane blinked at Arton, and then stared at him with a nearly blank expression. It wasn’t quite incredulity, but it was a very close approximation for Elly. That amount of information, and that amount of contradictory information was troublesome to process. That was significantly before her time in the Household Guards, but even so– the very idea that the Guards ambushed and killed those that they were sworn to protect was unthinkable.

She opened her mouth, raised a finger, before closing her mouth and pausing. “Impossible! The Household Guards? Treason like that would have tainted the name forever.”

”Unless it wasn’t…” Arton trailed off as if something had just clicked in his mind. It was easy to throw his anger and grief towards the guard and the houses. He had accepted in his heart that they were responsible for everything that transpired. It wasn’t until fighting against Valheim and the expression on Eliane’s face that he dared to question that belief ”Valheim. It was them.” He breathed the words through gritted teeth. They had infiltrated the king of Edren’s castle so why couldn’t they impersonate a few Household guards? They were obviously skilled marksmen of their own. Guilt, shame, and anger coursed through him at his ignorance and of his blind prejudice towards his own people.

”Thanks for the coffee. I need to…go.” A deep wrath wrapped around his voice as he stood up, setting down the coffee cup with a heavy softness. His original reason for the visit disappeared in his mind.

Eliane’s eyes widened at the revelation. It was a lot to process, but it made sense. Valheimian meddling as far as Skael? And then there was Arton’s background to consider with what he revealed, too. “Yes,” she simply agreed, pausing over what Arton had said and the implications for her and Skael. Maybe she would have to talk to someone else. For the moment, the coffee and the cartridges lay forgotten.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

I'd imagine that Duchess Agustria (@Click This) would understand Duke Rhinecliff as more of a kindred spirit, despite their clear differences in regards to the place of religion in society. This would be mostly due to position reasons. The Fey River, which splits Arrowfell cleanly in half, can only really be safely crossed through the territory that Odonfield possesses. Otherwise, you're crossing through mountains for no reason, or you're going through some of the last remnants of proper fey bullshit within the Tearmoon Glade and the surrounding forests. As such, I'd imagine it'd be a situation where Caelin receives exports by sea, Odonfield receives exports by land, and it all funnels into Hathforth afterwards. They probably wouldn't do more except exchange letters though. Maybe even collaborate on occasion, with regards to the flow of goods from East to West.

@ERode

I think this sounds about right. Of course, that collaboration could change as developments occur. As for Duchess Agustria's relationship with the queen, I think that would depend greatly on whether or not the agreements she had with Ludwig II remain in place...

Either way, I'll try to have a relationships tab up either tonight or tomorrow.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Says the person who just has their Seed do what others already do with regular magic. ;3

@ERode

Because that's what they should be ;3

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

It would be interesting to see more variety in cool seeds over buffing effects for sure.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

@Click This As long as there's a short cooldown, I don't see why she couldn't use it for more frivolous purposes, and taking other people with her. :)

@Estylwen

Got it! I changed the language slightly to reflect broader capabilities-- still with a cooldown.

<Snipped quote by twannyman>

Ya got me, I did steal Blink from Ironhand. ;)

<Snipped quote by ERode>

Sounds like Gemini can become Legion then. Over 9000 Mels. 🙂

@Izurich

Certain skills were too useful for me to not steal as well, haha.

ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

Naw, Seeds are supposed to be broken and capable of doing things magic can't.

@ERode

Right. If they can get pretty broken then I might not limit her to three crystals as well, then. She'd get more use out of it with frivolous purposes like going straight from the office to the bedroom after a long day. : D