Fall To Madness, OTA All Around :D

[Valandil Shadowdeath]

The woman it seemed was to be full of surprises.

"I am Seyira Vivienne. Not a name I expect you to be familiar with, but I suspect there is another name that if I bring up, you will respond to. And you can thank her for giving me your name. A certain Lady Altariel Katrei of Ghayth? I believe she is part of the reason you are here in Olencia, though since I don't know all the details, I can't be exactly sure. I work for her as well, collecting information, you could say."

Well he had certainly never heard of her, but in her business, being a spy that had been heard of was not exactly the same sort of recommendation it would be for a man of weapons such as himself. Indeed, any spy whose name was bandied about amongst the higher-up was probably not a spy worth having. So Valandil's not having heard of her was definitively a strike in her favor. But not nearly enough for him to trust her.

Any spy, well not any spy, but a spy with the right information could easily have connected him to House Ghayth. Indeed, he rather suspected that his joining with the House had been leaked about...succinctly. He would not have been surprised at all if Altariel herself had leaked the secret. For at least two reasons. The first was that by letting it be known that Valandil was her agent, he would only be able to get work from those who sought to please her, and should he abandon her service it would be a blot on his record. The other was simply implying a matter of influence. It was like a rich man who pulled his gold watch from his vest in the company of others. Not to tell the time, but to merely impress the others wit the size, make, and special attributes of his watch.

Rather than resent her, Valandil was very impressed with the woman's smooth manipulating. While he probably would never have chosen to join a side in Olencia's political maelstrom, he at least had confidence that he had joined the right one.

He looked down at the woman at his side, young and beautiful; she certainly had the look of one from the lands of Ghayth, but than many did. Valandil tilted his head to the side as he evaluated her, and weighed his options.

"Tell me, how can I trust you? Give me a sign, a token, something."

He idly turned his head to the side as he waited for a reply, and his eyes narrowed. No. That could not be.....He looked down the long street, and immediately several people clicked in his mind.

The first was Blyth, and it surprised Valandil to see the kid here. He had thought that the boy had gotten out of the business for "other pursuits". Next there was a man Valandil had bumped into in the streets, whose name he had never ascertained, but he had been a man of military training Valandil seemed to remember. The third man was hooded and not familiar. It was the Fourth man Valandil recognized. Along the distance, their eyes met, and unconsciouls Valandil drew his borrowed broadsword.

"The gods love me." Valandil breathed. "Is that Hadrian?" He was hardly even aware he had spoken aloud.

((Anyone Lemme know if I crossed any lines they didnt want crossed.))

[Hadrian Evaristus]

"There was a little...unrest after you went missing."

.... TWITCH.

"It appeared that several of the new recruits, along with some of the more seasoned warriors had been planning a little revolution, and your absence was the perfect time to carry it out. The man in charge is presumed to be Lieutenant Kierav. Nearly all of the destruction was his work."

WAS THIS PAYBACK FROM MAKING YOU SHOVEL POO!? WAS IT!? DAMN YOU, KIERAV! DAMN YOU! AND I WAS HOPING TO DEMOTE PROMOTE YOU TOO. DAMN YOU.

"The Fortress has been set ablaze." He stiffened at this. The Fort. GONE? It had been there since he was a KID. OH GOD. HADRIAN EVARISTUS, 43rd HIGH COMMANDER AND THE FORT BURNED DOWN ON HIS WATCH. HIS WATCH. OHMYGOD I WANT TO DIE.

"...I hope there was nothing in your office that was of great importance."

His... office? His... swords? His COLLECTION? THOSE FREAKING SWORDS CAME ALL THE WAY FROM CALANDAE! GOD! YOU WILL DIE! DIE! He shuddered again. Must... hold... back.

"Major Ghern has taken the majority of the troops to the King's Palace. The palace is in good condition, and is being defended with the half or so troops that are left. The city....well, I believe you can see for yourself."

Oh thank god, some sanity left in the world. Feeling his temper ebb a LITTLE bit, Hadrian nodded, although a man drawing his broadsword attracted his attention. Eyes met, and Hadrian found himself turning back to Kriest.

"Get to the Palace." He said. "Find what troops you can muster and lead a strike force. If Ghern asks, give him this..." Tugging the signet ring off his finger, he handed it to Kriest. "Keep the hummingbird safe." He said. Tugging on the reins he dismounted, pulled Penril off the horse, and offered the reins to Kriest.

"Ride hard." Eye still on that suspicious blond haired man, Hadrian kept a hand on his sword.

"My Lord...." he looked at Penril. "As much as possible, stay close. I will not repeat this again. This is not the Olencia you knew. It's fight or flight now."

[Penril Tanith]

Water exploded in a force that knocked him backwards, and for one wild moment Penril felt that his guts had twisted itself, and his head had been hit over and over with Madam Carmeli's rolling pin. He slammed down onto the street winded and blinking. Specks of blue and white danced across his field of vision, and he tried to stand, but the way his hand spasmed told him he should take it carefully or there might be serious repercussions. Hadrian was saying something but he could not understand; and people...people were coming...someone called him, but...

One hand touched his temples. It throbbed badly against his hand, and everything from his neck up hurt, even his eyes. The fires had been put out, at least, or the majority of them. He tried to take several calming breaths. Damn it, he hadn't had any mistakes in focusing magical energy since he'd been a sniveling apprentice!

"...stay close. I will not repeat this again. This is not the Olencia you knew. It's fight or flight now."

Hadrian. Hadrian again. Penril's vision spun. Damn it, at this rate it would be hours before he was fully lucid...

He started taking several steps back and lifted his hood. For all he cared Blyth wasn't standing there. He shook his head. The dancing specks had vanished. Yes.

The pony.

The name and the place echoed sharply in his mind. Without thinking, he broke into a run away from Hadrian and disappeared down the next street corner.

[Blyth Snowstar]

Penril was in pain. Something was wrong. The Ablest of the Slayers did not make a mistake simply channeling water. Blyth concentrated on the water. He felt its energy, lying untapped. He pulled out a blade. He'd better do this right if he was to prevent pain. He envisioned a wire of energy. He pulled it toward the end of his sword.

A channel word in Elvish would make this immensly easier. He couldn't think of the word for heal though. Feanir, felear, fiole, fialar, faile. That was it! Faile.

"Faile," breathed Blyth, concentrating his hardest.

The wire in his mind wound around the end of the blade. Another presence crept into his head. He had to ignore it. If he gave it attention, he could accidentally steal its energy. He guided the wire and touched Pen. He felt the energy flow into Pen. He opened his eyes, which he hadn't realized he had closed. It didn't look as if there was any change.

Then, Penril arose. He didn't even respond to Blyth's presence. He started running. Blyth followed closely behind. Before leaving, Blyth shot a remark at Hadrian. He had made up his mind to help. Besides, if he ran, Hadrian wouldn't be able to catch him. Not fast enough.

"Hadrian, I'll have you know that normally I'm on the other side. Since I'm retiring, I'm offering my help in return for amnesty from my crimes. You know, the ones you couldn't solve. I like my kingdom too much to let it fall to some upstart."

[Hadrian Evaristus]

Penril. Ran. AGAIN. And this time, there was NO HORSE TO CART YOUR ARSE AROUND, HIGH COMMANDER. NO HORSE. AT ALL.

...

THANIEL KRIEST YOU BETTER GET THAT HORSE MOVING BEFORE I PROCLAIM THAT I WILL BE STEALING CONFISCATING YOUR HORSE FOR GOOD INTENTIONS.

Then, the kid somewhere who talked to Penril spoke up. Hadrian whirled around to hear him, since he was just going off to retrieve the Prince. DAMMIT, WHY ARE YOU GOING EVERYWHERE!?

"Hadrian, I'll have you know that normally I'm on the other side." This attracted a snarl from him. WHAT? THEIF. MURDERER. CUTTHROAT. I'LL HANG YOU. HANG YOU, YOU MONGREL. YOU WILL DIE PAINFULLY. PITCHFORKS! TORCHES!

"Since I'm retiring," ... JOY.

"I'm offering my help in return for amnesty from my crimes." OOOH, NOW THAT HIT THE SPOT. CRIMES? OOOH, NO, NO AMNESTY FOR YOU, YOU THEIF/BANDIT/HIGHWAYMAN WHATEVER. YOU WILL DIE. DIE.

"You know, the ones you couldn't solve." Bigger snarl, more disdain. PUMP THAT HATRED. COULDN'T SOLVE!? I'LL HAVE YOU KILLED RIGHT HERE, AND THEN BOOM, JUST LIKE THAT, I'VE SOLVED THE FREAKING CASE. LET'S LOB SOME HEADS, I'LL USE MY RIGHT HAND FOR THIS.

"I like my kingdom too much to let it fall to some upstart." I COULD CARE LESS. DIE, MURDERER, DIE.

His eyebrow twitched. "We'll talk about the amnesty later." He said gruffly. "Penril. Keep him safe."

...

JUST THIS ONCE, I'LL LEAVE YOU.

...

SOB.

"Move, Kriest." He hissed, "That is an ORDER."

[Blyth Snowstar]

"We'll talk about the amnesty later. Penril. Keep him safe."

Hadrian was angry. To be expected. He didn't even know Blyth, no recognition at all. Still, Hadrian was outraged at the thought of a crime getting past him. The fact that he was even willing to talk of amnesty told Blyth that things were not going well. But Blyth could keep Penril safe at least. He could do that one thing for Hadrian. Poor Hadrian. Betrayal by his top Lieutenant. The lieutenant had made his choice. Treason. He will pay with his death. If Blyth had to hunt him down across all of Olencia, the traitor would die.

Hadrian didn't realize that Blyth was truly going to help him. But Blyth understood the lack of trust. But Hadrian would have to get over it, to get out of this mess. He had other, more important things to do.

Blyth kept chasing Penril. Hadrian would kill him if he let Penril come to any harm. Hadrian would use all his resources to catch him. No one is ever invincible. Blyth knew that so well. Too well. What shall come shall come, though. Hopefully, Hadrian will trust him enough to let him kill the lieutenant. Unless Hadrian wanted to do it himself. He would certainly need help, if he didn't want this to become a civil war.

[Thaniel Kriest]

((T___________T I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry......Just shoot me now...))

Thaniel was slightly shocked when the High Commander handed him the reins to his horse along with his signet ring. Apparently the High Commander was going to stay right here in the middle of the chaos while he, Thaniel Kriest, ran back to the Palace, informed Major Ghern that the High Commander, and ran right back to fetch the man. Why not just drag the High Commander along with him now and save himself all the trouble of having to run back and forth?

But no. The man just had to stay here and run the risk of possibly getting injured. Or worse, killed. How was he going to explain that one, hmm? "Yes I did see the High Commander...yes, I did talk to him....no, there was no direct order...well, despite the fact that he was going through a difficult stage in his life and wasn't making any sense whatsoever, I still decided to leave him along and come back here without him....No, I'm not stupid." That would be the gist of the conversation right there.

Still, the High Commander was the High Commader no matter how ridiculous he was being, so Thaniel hopped up into the saddle, reins and ring clutched in his hands, and prepared to ride hard. However, he caught several interesting pieces of information that halted him in his tracks. The man who currently had Lord Hadrian's attention was saying something about crimes and amnesty.

Uh-oh. That was not good. Everyone who was anyone knew how the High Commander felt about that subject. You could tell by looking at him now, how he was slightly frozen and how he'd snarled and everything...

...And now the High Commander was snarling at him, ordering him to get his butt moving.

"Yessir!"

And off he went.

[Seyira Vivienne]

Seyira was quite surprised when the man didn't immediately dismiss all that she said out of hand. Rather, he calmly listened to what she said, then simply asked her for some sort of proof, a very reasonable request. He'd seemed like the naturally suspicious type, but it seemed she was wrong on that count. Though, lately, she'd been wrong on several counts.

As for what proof she could give...she was a little at a loss on that. She didn't normally carry proof that she worked for the High Seat of House Ghayth, since that sort of thing usually tended to get people in trouble. There were a few pieces of correspondence she had from Altariel, but they were vague messages, a few short lines, nothing more. What did this man expect from her? For her to magically produce a signet ring belonging to Altariel from out of thin air? Seyira sincerely hoped not, because such a feat,, though plausible for some, was quite impossible for her. After all, she was only human, despite how she might pretend otherwise.

Diggin aroung, she found her little pouch, containing what money she had, along with a few personal things. Altariel's letter, delivered some weeks before all this was buried somewhere on the bottom. It was the closest she had to proof of any sort, and even then, the man might not take it. Writing could be forged, and Altariel wasn't the only person in the world who called her Seyira.

Oh well. The man was going to have to live with what she gave him, and if it wasn't enough for him, she was going to beat some sense into him. Although, judging from his appearance, he would likely kill her first before she even had a chance.

Taking her paper, she offered it to him, saying, "This was a letter delivered to me by Lady Altariel. It's the only solid form of proof I can give you. If you want names, events, I can give you those, but this is all I have on paper. You can take it or leave it."

[Valandil Shadowdeath]

His sharp inquisition seemed to catch the woman off guard. She paused for a moment, apparently considering her options. Valandil remained tensed, with his broadsword held lightly in his right hand. He half-feared she was some knifer who had been hired to counter him. He watched her closely as she slipped a hand into her pouch, his eyes strained to see if she palmed a knife or other armament. His eyes caught nothing, and when she presented a folded piece of paper, he frowned. His eyes scanned it as she spoke.

"This was a letter delivered to me by Lady Altariel. It's the only solid form of proof I can give you. If you want names, events, I can give you those, but this is all I have on paper. You can take it or leave it."

He frowned as he skimmed the fairly simple letter. Its content was of little consequence to him, it was the signature that interested him. He had not been in Lady Altariel's employ long enough to be certain of her signature, but it did look familiar to the ones he had seen. He frowned. What a paradox. On the one hand, he took a risk by accepting her on such scant evidence....on the other, if he denied aid to a servant of his mistress, she would be displeased, and her cause slowed.

He ground his teeth at being forced into such a conundrum. He looked at her for a long moment before he growled. "You of course know this is not enough to implicitly prove you, and I know few enough events to ascertain you that way." He frowned again, clearly displeased. "You will stay with me until your loyalties can be proved." His eyes narrowed. "And if you are proved false, you will rue the day you were born." His eyes reflected that solemn promise with chilling coldness.

"Follow me." he grunted as he began trotting towards where he had last seen Hadrian, his soldiers falling into position behind him...

[Seyira Vivienne]

The man obviously was not pleased by the scant bits of 'evidence' she had to show him. Seyira would have been displeased as well had she been in his situation, but in her defense, she hadn't been prepared to find one of her mistress's other servants, and therefore hadn't exactly come teeming with proof. She didn't even have that much proof to start with, so it would have been difficult to somehow find more.

However, it seemed to be enough for the moment. After much frowning and mumbling, he barked a short affirmative, offered a threat, and jerked his head, indicating that she should follow him wherever he was going. Seyira sighed inwardly, relieved that she wouldn't be forced to do something dangerous just to prove her identity. Then again, this whole thing was dangerous in and of itself, so that really wasn't saying much. After all, if she placed one foot out of line, the man was going to do wno knew what unspeakable terrors to her. He'd said as much himself, and his whole body was just radiating danger.

Seyira let Valandil take the lead, unsure of where they were heading. She wasn't required to do anything at the moment except follow him, and that suited her just fine. She just hoped that if he needed her to do something, he'd tell beforehand, rather than just shoving her into the fray without any sort of explanation.

((All right, lead the way.))

[Penril Tanith]

The Pony was safe. When Penril skidded down the street corner he saw Madam Carmeli whack a ruffian unconscious with her infamous rolling pin. Markoj and three other men were busy tipping somebody down from the third floor windows. For one split second Pen thought he saw Aele hurl boiling water over someone----!

"PEN! GOOD GODDESS WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!" Madam Carmeli shrieked, finding him and jabbing her rolling pin. She ran forward to meet him in a speed a woman of her size shouldn't be capable of. She'd hiked up her skirts and Pen could see wooden shoes down there.

"THEY TRIED TO STEAL THE WINE!" The woman yelled, waving her pin angrily. "Hah, they thought that we were all so busy scampering for cover, they thought we was! Well they are wrong, Pen, THEY ARE WRONG! We will never leave the Pony!"

The former Ablest groaned. "Woman, I am not deaf, I can hear you!" He led the way back to the inn. "What else did they try to take -?!"

"THEY TRIED TO TAKE AELE TOO, THE FOOLS-!"

Oh no.

Penril ducked into familiar territory. His staff were all armed with pitchforks, spatulas and kitchen knives - the gardener even had an upturned pot on his head like a helmet. The relief on their faces was incomparable when they recognized who he was despite the short hair and missing tattoo.

"Well done," was all Penril managed. "Well done, all of you."

[Hadrian Evaristus]

He could only hope Penril was safe, because by the gods, he was not going to tolerate this mess any longer.

HE COULD NOT, AND WOULD NOT TOLERATE THIS. THIS WAS ALL WRONG, AND BY THE GODS, DAMMIT, HADRIAN WOULD MAKE IT RIGHT OR DIE TRYING. He felt so… what was that WORD?

…

ANGRY.

…

He… he WANTED to sort out those fruits on that burning fruits stand...

…

ANGRY AND ANAL.

A group of renegade soldiers came around, pointed at him, at him in their stupid pathetic voices and they drew their swords and charged. How stupid could you get? HOW STUPID CAN YOU GET?

Sword out and waving, Hadrian ducked a slice that would’ve beheaded him if he was any slower. With a certain degree of brutality, Hadrian rammed his shoulder hard into a rebel soldier, so hard that the man coughed out blood and dispatched him with a quick thrust to the heart.

HAPPY NOW, YOU IDIOT? You wreck MY city, destroy MY OFFICE and raid my COLLECTION of SWORDS and you thought you could DAMN WELL RUN AROUND AND DENT THOSE BLADES I’VE SPENT SO LONG COLLECTING?! GUESS AGAIN, YOU SCREAMING NINNIES, GUESS AGAIN!

He thrust his sword up through a man’s lower jaw ALL the way up to the HILT. HOW YOU LIKE THEM APPLES, HUH!? I’M GOING TO KILL YOU ALL. ALL OF YOUR SORRY, USURPING- AND IF YOU’RE STILL ALIVE BY THEN I’LL SHOVE A ROCK UP YOUR-

An idiot bearing one of his beloved rapiers intended to gut him.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-“

He rammed his fist into the man’s face and kicked his body for good measure. DENIED, BEECH, DENIED. He took note of the location where his rapier was and then he was once more assaulted with another group of soldiers.

IF THIS WAS A JAPANESE ANIMATION, HADRIAN WOULD BE GLOWING RED AND HAVE BLONDE SPIKY HAIR.

…

AND MUSCLES.

Hadrian roared and cut someone’s leg off.

...

But it wasn't an animation, so he was stuck being this really, really angry person who looked like a pirate. ):