Octo

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

"It's fine if you're stumped, Arken," Gertrude replied bluntly to the relative silence on the court mage's end, "it's not exactly easy. I just figured as long as I had you... ah-"

The circle glowed green, and the Niyar showed herself. It was a success! Of course it was a success. A confident smirk crept up on Gertrude's lips, which quickly turned into a frown when Fiadh implied that Gertrude might be married to the lout for some reason. Do you have to be married to summon a man's fairy wife? Ugh, whatever.

"I-I'm not lonely and I don't need anyone to pat my head," Gertrude grumbled, not entirely turned off by the idea. Still, she wasn't about to be treated like a kid by yet another obscenely old and pretty woman. She was too proud, and she knew she'd catch shit from the lout when Fiadh told him besides.

"Anyways, this would be easier in the future if we had a formal contract. I could even give you some of these sweets. It would be good to be able to call you easily if that lout gets into trouble. But for now, we just need to know if you're aware of any fey that goes by the epithet 'The Moonlit Queen'. We're in Brennen on the edge of the woods, if that narrows anything down."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Gertrude gave Fanilly a short, almost certainly ironic curtsey, and smiled.

"Of course, mistress. I'll start right away," Gertrude said, beckoning to Arken, "and no need to worry, your lordship. I began learning summoning magic about two weeks ago, so naturally I am already proficient."

Gertrude began ordering the staff to clear out a medium-sized room for her, and with the backing of the court mage, she soon had everything she needed: space, quiet, materials, and lots of ridiculously unhealthy snacks. She immediately began drawing a summoning circle for fey, which she had memorized by heart, while occasionally pecking at a pastry or two.

"Summoning doesn't require a lot of mana, and I doubt you recognize what I'm drawing," she explained to Arken, licking some honey off her fingertip, "so aside from the room-clearing and snack-supplying, I don't need much help. Figured you'd like to take a peek at the technique I'm using, though. Maybe offer some insight, if you have any. My teacher made it purposely complex and opaque to keep anyone from summoning anything too harmful, but if I wanted to summon something harmful one day... well, I'd like to be able to edit it eventually. Whatever guesses you might have could help me unravel it sooner."

When Gertrude was done with the circle, she'd simply supply it with Fiadh's name, and the Niyar should show up. She hoped the pull would bother Fionn.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

"I know her well enough, and I have her name," Gertrude replied to Fionn, shrugging, "I should be able to summon her. As I said, this could be a number of things, but as the oaf has pointed out..."

Gertrude nodded towards Gerard in a way that was not overtly hostile.

"Given the area, and the duke's odd behavior besides, fey isn't an awful guess. Since we have a good way of checking it... it's not a bad idea to summon her," she said, her reluctance to acknowledge Fionn's good idea tempered by her own enthusiasm to try summoning in a bit of a new context.

She turned to the court mage, unimpressed at first because she had no idea who this guy was, but softening somewhat when she learned that she was being acknowledged by someone with prestige. A smug smile crept up on her face.

"Finally, someone who can recognize my genius. Big cheese, eh? Can't say I picked up on anything 'missing', but I've never met the guy before. Curious, that. Since he's apparently also met this 'Moonlit Queen' a while back, you have to wonder... maybe he made a deal a long time ago, and she'd recently come by to collect? Thus the 'something missing'. Both fey and demonkind are fond of taking vague or conceptual things as recompense. What was the party for? Perhaps the occasion marked something inauspicious in hindsight. Either way, I'll want a room cordoned off for my summoning. And plenty of sweets."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Gertrude was a little taken aback. She had hoped Fanilly might interrogate her: what do you plan to cast? Are you planning on doing something bad? How can I trust you with a task of this import if you behave like you do?

She liked when people disbelieved and distrusted her, she felt it proved a point. Instead she only got a mild admonishment, which wasn't near the reaction she had hoped for. She clicked her tongue.

"I'll be a perfect lady in front of the mad codger, no need to worry," she replied, a mask of smug over her face.

---

'Mad codger' may have been more apt than Gertrude had intended. She had imagined a forgetful old man, or maybe a violent one. It looked more like the duke was putting on a one-man play, and a poorly-written one at that. Unless he was making liberal use of metaphor, but Gertrude hadn't been there since the start, so she doubted she had the context for interpretation.

Without missing a beat, the lout immediately began joining in the farce, and Gertrude found herself mildly amused. She doubted Fionn had the acting chops to imbibe the lunacy in a way that would give him any insight, but it was funny at least. Gertrude looked down at her own maid uniform.

"Am I in royal marching uniform now?" she mumbled to herself, turning to Fleuri when she was called on.

"I may be able to come up with something. If not now, then when the duke is sleeping. It will be easier to analyze the old goat when he's not thrashing about," Gertrude replied, shrugging, "but until then, might as well enjoy the show, eh?"

It was disturbingly obvious that Gertrude was getting some level of amusement out of the whole situation. Still, she had a job to do. She closed her eyes, and tried to block out all distractions, concentrating only on the flow of mana. The presence. The scent. And what she came up with... was odd. She opened her eyes.

"It's magic," she announced plainly, "but that much seems obvious. It's certainly not the type I use, and it mustn't have been the type a priest uses either. It's queer. Could be fey or demonic or something cast by an idiot with more mana than sense. It will require more investigation, but it's probably something fixable. Probably."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Gertrude floated alongside the knights, a thoroughly unimpressed expression on her face. A few seemed to be just as off-put as she was that they were being sent to interrogate a madman. Old age? Disease? Too many siblings for parents? It didn't seem the sort of matter for a contingent of knights to occupy themselves with, but with the medical and magical experts already called in and nothing to show for it, she supposed a horde of dunderpates might as well give it a shot.

A noble probably wouldn't have had a hack mage called in unless they were someone's nephew, but it was possible she could pick up on something that even an experienced finger-wiggler wouldn't. The rest seemed a bit excessive, save for the alchemist, but apparently the Roses had enough bad experiences in this forest to warrant considerably more firepower than Gertrude thought they needed.

Still, the lout wasn't completely wrong. Names had power, and it seemed that this wood had historically more than enough animosity for the Roses. It would be best to remain alert, so Gertrude opened her senses up as much as she could to the presence of mana, trying to tune the vampiric nexus out as much as she could.

...Goddesses, that woman could fawn over a horse.

"Think they'll let me cast on the old sod," Gertrude called up to Fanilly, "if I promise it's to his benefit? I mean, if you can't trust the Roses, who can you trust?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

"More comfortable? The further away I am from you, the better," Gertrude replied haughtily, "but sure, I'll take a room if the Iron Roses can afford it."

Gertrude would, of course, be perfectly comfortable just bunking with Gretchen (who Merilia had sent back first), but she liked the prospect of having two rooms to herself. Gertrude couldn't for the life of her figure out why she came later and appeared in a tree, but assumed it was simply to the fancy of the old bat. Had she been forgotten? Was she being punished? Gertrude would get revenge later, either way. She floated down on her broom, and came eye to eye with the lout. And a Niyar? And...

"Tyaethe?" Gertrude questioned, tilting her head at the Vampire who was even now attempting to disappear into the foliage as her hair was being braided.

"You bunk with the lout in a tree? I suppose my conception of you was a bit off," she continued in an obviously mocking manner, "I'd imagined pride and nobility. But my, look how you've grown."

There was no chance Tyaethe would recognize the current form of the little girl who had thrown a rock at her so many years ago, but it was still a bit novel meeting again like this. Gertrude reached out to pat her head, as was her normal behavior for short ladies that she wanted to tease.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Gertrude, to some dismay, found herself at the top of a tree when she next opened her eyes. If this was to be her quarters going forth, she might have just stayed in the other place. She had magic to make herself more comfortable sleeping outside, but privacy was even nicer. She yawned as she picked a spider off her blouse, and placed it instead on a nearby branch. Whatever. It was still dark, and she was still tired. Gertrude closed her eyes, and then...

Voices. One she recognized, and two she didn't. How many people were in this damn tree? Merilia liked to have her fun, that was for certain. The lout and two unknowns... maybe if she just ignored them? She didn't want to deal with anyone.

...But goddesses they went on. They were nipping at each other and whining and braiding each other's hair like a damn slumber party. She'd done such things with the other maids as a girl, but there was a time and a place, and it wasn't in this tree while she was trying to sleep.

"Hey, quiet down there," she growled bitterly after one began singing, "some of us are trying to sleep!"

She grabbed up another insect, and tossed it down at whoever was making noise.

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

It was more than a little disorienting, charging Thrinax from her broom one moment and being patronized by Merilia the next. Gertrude wasn't exactly raring to get under the thumb of yet another Witch, but Merilia had already apprehended her and tossed her in with the Roses and this was her reward for acquiescing thus far (not that Merilia ever really gave her a choice, just like she wasn't really giving anyone a choice now). The expression on Gertrude's face was far less than content, even with their victory over Thrinax.

Gertrude clicked her tongue. It wasn't necessarily the geas that annoyed her, but the detestable reminder that she was now in yet another collar and the only decision to be made was 'which one'. Gertrude leaned towards Merilia in order to get on eye level, and tilted her head slightly.

"I'd appreciate if I didn't have to do this. You can either trust that I really don't care enough about the dead old people here to ever drop any of these names, or if you absolutely need me to accept this geas, I'll do so, but I won't be happy. You're obviously still sore about what's-his-face's betrayal. I get it. But one of these options will breed resentment instead of loyalty."

Gertrude drew herself back up to her full height, and sighed.

"It's up to you to decide if that's worth the cost. You've asked for an argument, and I've provided one."

She glanced over at Fionn.

"And for the record, I don't mind staying a little longer if it means I might get to watch Florian get his ass handed to him. I suppose I'm throwing in with the lout again."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Gertrude clicked her tongue. This guy just couldn't stop saying things that annoyed her. Still, from their vantage point, they had a pretty good shot at finding a time to make a difference. The trick was being close enough to take advantage of it, which would be difficult if Thrinax didn't have some good distractions.

"It's everyone else who's difficult," Gertrude growled, "it's not my fault they're all witless dunderpates."

As she said this, the dragon fixed his gaze on the captain and swung, his fearsome claws only narrowly evaded. Gerard converged as Rolan took his shots, and the rest were doubtless not far behind. Gertrude, for her part, wasn't able to do as much as she'd like against the dragon's powerful hide. Gretchen was already chanting, but that was a powerful wind spell that would make escape for the dragon (if he tried it) considerably more difficult. For once, she had the chance to take any interest in what Fionn was doing.

"I didn't figure you for a magic-user, even if it's idiot magic," Gertrude snorted, looking at the modifications the man had made to his blade, "still, idiot offense is a perfectly acceptable answer to idiot defense. I think we can close in a little more without being in too much danger."

Gertrude's broom turned sharply, and she began heading towards the dragon from behind while still maintaining a respectable distance. It was a large creature, and despite being terrifyingly agile, it would take it a moment to get turned around. If it wanted to spit fire, Gertrude would have a good amount of warning. Normally she'd bombard something at this point, but there might be some value in a more sneaky approach.

"If you have any more stupid plans like during that last test, I'm all ears."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Gertrude did not hide her distaste when Fionn stepped in once again to take her prey away from her. She only wanted to toy with Fanny, and this shithead just would not allow it to happen. Gertrude let out a low growl like a particularly displeased feline when he grabbed at her shoulder, and shot him a glare. Praise was praise, and it didn't feel too bad to have someone stick up for her, but this feeling was grossly overshadowed by his depriving her of the thing she wanted.

Gertrude wanted the captain's own response, in her own words.

Even Rolan stepped up and whispered... something. Gertrude couldn't hear it, and didn't particularly care to. All it meant was there were just that many people between her and an actual talk with her employer.

Then, when Fanilly was finally about to say something, it was interrupted once again by that old hag and the dragon. Gertrude clicked her tongue, and got on her broom. She was going to offer to lift Rolan and Fanilly out of harm's way, but they were both already tumbling down the hill. Maybe if the captain had trusted her at all, she would have just grabbed Gertrude's broom.

...It wasn't as if Gertrude didn't want to help at all.

Well, it wasn't Gertrude's fault if the captain didn't trust her. It was Fanilly's. She could have chosen to have a talk with her new employee at some point. It's what a proper leader would have done, but instead Gertrude was left entirely to her own devices. People should pay attention to her. She was talented, so everyone owed her their interest and she wasn't getting as much as she should.

The one person who was still there, and apparently trusted her enough to take her broom when things were about to get very warm, was perhaps the person she detested the most out of everyone she'd met so far.

"Fuck," she growled at Fionn, "hang on tight!"

She roughly yanked the knight high into the air as the ground below them was turned into a flaming hellscape.

Gretchen, who was not on the hill in the first place, began chanting once more.