Miina Malina and Éliane Laruelle
After slipping away from her father and Izayoi, Miina set about the next item on her list: talking to Éliane. Of course, that meant finding her… which, really, wasn’t that hard. There weren’t any other Sollan women hanging around the camp, and she wasn’t the
quietest person. Interestingly, Miina didn’t find her in the more-established area – although she supposed that, to someone from the cities, what was little more than awnings and fires wasn’t all that much anyway. Hm, or maybe the kids were being annoying with maintaining her weapons or something?
Either way, it took slightly longer than the redhead had been expecting before spotting her around the outskirts, near the omnipresent shroud of trees. Time to say hello.
From
Éliane’s perspective, some of the endless rustling in the leaves resolved into a certain Mystral hanging down from the branches upside down, with a stuttered, “I n-need to t-t-talk to you,” as her sole greeting.
The pink-haired Skaelan woman was not-quite ambling through the outer paths of the settlement. Given the newfound (and expected) hostility between the Kirins and Drana Asneau, Éliane had taken it upon herself to scout out the area to find both defensible areas and vantage points in case the Grovemasters’ lackeys or even Valheimians decided to attack.
Seeing the mystral woman suddenly pop out of the branches in front of her made her immediately stop, reaching for her weapon– until she saw that it was Miina. “...Yes?” she responded, tilting her head at the unexpected appearance.
“N-Not here,” the short girl muttered, dropping from the trees and somehow
not cracking her head in the process, “There’s a spot nearby.”
Without explaining
why she needed to get Éliane completely alone, Miina took off deeper into the forest, following some path that must have only existed in her head. Nonetheless, she did lead them straight to an inviting-looking gap in the trees, where a barely-present stream temporarily fed into a little pool before continuing onwards to wherever it would eventually end up. A pool the redhead wasted no time in sitting beside, idly splashing the water.
One awkward moment later, she finally twisted to get a good look at the pink-haired woman. “Éliane…
p-please stop threatening my home.”
Éliane had raised an eyebrow, but followed Miina towards the small pool-like pond. She hadn’t interacted much with the overly flustered girl much before today aside from things that strictly had to do with the party’s overall goals, but given how much Éliane had been venting about the hospitality of this nation over the past few days, she had a very good idea at how this conversation was going to go.
Even if it did give off a very different impression at the beginning.
“I’m not threatening your home. I’m threatening the ‘Grovemasters’ that sit arrogantly and ignorantly as they run everything into the ground.” Brushing off some of the old lichen, she took a seat on a nearby log, facing Miina. “Aren’t you frustrated too?”
“War would b-be disastrous for Drana,” Miina answered, gesturing at the forest around them, “F-Few roads, no real armies. Most of us would have n-no idea what’s going on, and if anyone f-fought back… it doesn’t matter
who. And once someone g-goes cutting things down, burning it… we’re in the m-middle. What about the next time another c-country wants a sneak attack?”
Realising that she hadn’t answered the question, Miina blinked a few times before continuing, “B-B-Besides… why does wanting
those three g-gone mean it needs to be something b-big? Just kill
them, m-m-make it look like Valheim or the B-Blight and…”
Well, they’d need to find new Grovemasters, so that would be bad for security… but two idiots and a traitor weren’t all that much better anyway, so what did it matter? It would be good for the people that lived here and
weren’t concerned with doing what the Grovemasters wanted. And most of those that did.
“Hmm…” Éliane paused, considering Miina’s words as she brought a hand up to her chin in thought. Eventually, she shook her head. “That reinforces my argument. Brightlam is up the river and if Drana has no real armies to speak of, then the war will be short and bloodless with the Grovemasters ousted. If it’s just a matter of sailing some warships up the river… it would be a brief occupation before a more rational government is put into power, one that could defend itself against Valheim and the Blight,” she concluded, looking satisfied with her own answer as she slapped a closed first into an open hand. “Assuming it could be pulled off… isn’t that the same result?”
“The water’s not…
th-that navigable,” Miina answered, giving it some thought, “And th-they could hardly
miss a warship. Get one or two to s-s-sink and th-then you’re stuck marching up b-b-but everyone knows where you are.
“It w-would be like hunting, j-j-just pick off the edges.” That wasn’t to say that the first part would be
easy… but they’d seen what Isolde on her own was capable of. Who’s to say that the other two Grovemasters didn’t count a Black Mage amongst their number, or that there wasn’t something equally dangerous? If the gun Éliane was such a fan of was indicative of her expectations for equipment, then Skael wouldn’t do things by half. Send a ship that could barely make it to Brightlam…
“G-Getting the
real target is m-m-much easier than fighting through everyone. It’s l-l-like taking down a gang…”
Éliane gave her another considering look. “You don’t sound too confident about that,” she pointed out. But then again Miina never sounded very confident to her. “A night surprise would solve a lot of those problems.”
She leaned in, a conspiratorial look coming over her face. “But your idea doesn’t sound half bad either! How would you go about offering the entire council of Grovemasters?”
“Eh? At once?” Miina asked, tilting her head curiously and staring at the soldier, “W-Well… p-p-poison or trapping them and b-burning the room down would be n-normal, but Isolde would s-stop that… m-m-maybe if you
lead with some sort of sedative…?”
“But I w-wouldn’t want to do a b-big job like that. I’d w-want to watch them first, f-find any habits, wh-where they sleep or r-relax, exactly wh-what they can do… th-then make a plan for each. Either you would need to do th-them all in
one night, or have th-three people strike at once, otherwise the other two would react, b-but, mm, yeah…”
“My normal p-plan… it’s
really easy to g-get in when people are sleeping, if they’re not p-p-paranoid, and guards aren’t trained for invisibility…”
“You are going to have to get them all at once,” Éliane confirmed. “Settling for any less means they would have a continuity of government and it would be all a waste. If you think my idea’s too destructive, then it needs to have the same result at least.” Even as she said that, she mulled over Miina’s own ideas. They were not her style at all, but even she could recognize when other methods were called for. However…
“The strictest surprise is a given. I agree, poison or getting them asleep would be the most effective options… Or we can bomb them all at once!” She smirked, the idea of getting to play with explosives again already making her excited. “Alright, fine. If we come up with a good idea to get rid of the Grovemasters at once, then maybe we don’t need an invasion. Maybe Esben would have some good ideas too… I’m not the one most people go to for… anything covert.”
In the most deadpan voice she could muster, Miina said, “That
is why we’re talking.”
Having maintained eye contact as long as she really felt necessary (or rather, comfortable with), Miina dusted what little she was wearing off as she rose to her feet. “W-Well, I’ll l-l-l-leave Esben to you, let me know if you n-need my magic…”
Éliane tilted her head, giving Miina a questioning look. “Right. Whatever we do, those three must go.” She rose as well, dusting off her uniform in the process. “I’ll see what we can come up with.”
Member
The Otter
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Quest Abandoner
Octo
Fish of Oblivion
BurningCold
Megatron
Psyker Landshark