[Yeah, Blanche is right there with Alaric on this one; the lancer is smart, unfortunately, is the current problem at hand. Try as Blanche might to keep slinging spells, the lancer keeps getting up again to close more and more distance between them. What the fuck, did this guy side-class as a goddamn pegasus knight or something??? Why isn't he dying?
The mage...well, the mage is doing her best. Her best is currently very shit and barely even being registered by Blanche. Someone get this girl a strength growth. But to at least a relevant point, Blanche could use some help, and the other Lancer is so distracted by trying to back Blanche into a corner that he's not focusing on anything else.]
[Well, that works in Alaric's favor. Part of the problem of their battle styles is that Alaric can end up in the way of Blanche's spells so it works better to separate out, but if the guy's so focused on her he's forgotten about Alaric, then he can simply impale the guy from behind without risk of being hit by a spell.
Which is precisely what he does, and he'll fling the guy to the side as he frees his blade so Blanche doesn't have to deal with him falling on her. Go get that mage!!]
[Ah, well. That certainly takes care of that; the man is impaled easily as Blanche backs away again, her look shifting easily back to something assured.]
Thank you.
[And with that taken care of...well, that mage is just kind of looking between the two of them and not even close to sure what to do, which is more than enough time for Blanche to run up and unleash Banshee on the poor mage. Rest in fucking pieces.
And the cleric...well, she's just there, uselessly. What the fuck does she do now that everyone's dead, uh, uh--maybe try hitting Blanche with the staff?? That's her final attempt at anything. Finish her, Alaric.]
[That. That literally did zero damage. Of course Blanche is fine, just kind of bewildered that this damn girl didn't do anything useful with her last seconds?
Anyway, now that we've totally not committed a war crime--]
Yes, I am ready. Let's give this woman a rude awakening.
[Perhaps surprisingly, Blanche is the one taking initiative to kick down the door this time; even more surprisingly, it actually opens, to a rather...
...Well, opulent looking office space, but the problem is that there's nobody inside.]
What--but how? Where on earth is she?
[There's all sorts of things in here--it's not CLEAN by any stretch of the imagination, what with all of the clutter and shit everywhere, but some of it's organized. There's a shelf with alcohol in it, there's some various pieces of expensive jewelry, there's even some rather well-maintained weapons in here, and really, an unholy fuckton of tomes? Holy shit.
But there's not a single person to be found in here, and Blanche does not like this.]
[Blanche kicks down the door (you go girl, he's proud of you) and...
There's no one inside. The mage should be here. Why isn't she? Why would this hallway have so many guards if she isn't here? The whole point of this was for them to question her (or worst case scenario, just kill her outright, which would have been perfectly fine in Alaric's book) but now...]
...I guess we go looking for information.
[He doesn't like it. That much is obvious from his tone of voice and expression, but even his words aren't as confident and certain as they usually are.]
There must be some information here that points us somewhere. Maybe she escaped when she heard we'd be coming?
[But then why station guards? Were they not aware she ran? Did she warp or something? This really isn't what he was expecting...]
The point of coming here was to learn more about the weather magic, so there should be something about that in one of these tomes.
[..........but he is not a mage so uh, good luck??]
[Alaric sounds worse for wear. It makes sense; neither of them could have planned for this. Did they simply come in at a bad time? Were they detected? Maybe they were. It wouldn't be a surprise if she heard them and dipped out, but it's deeply confusing. Especially if this woman was apparently looking forward to their arrival.]
...Perhaps she did. At the very least, I would not have put such a thing past her.
[None of this is adding up, but--she'll go over to the tomes, then. They're all of various different sizes and levels, but they are pretty much solely dealing with thunder magic. Nothing on creating storms or the like, but there does at least seem to be the basis of such magic here. Notes tucked into the pages, and the like.
...But there is something interesting that Blanche notices, as she peruses through the books. She's trying to be quick about it at least, but--]
It's highly likely that she's keeping the tome that causes weather magic on her person. I have at least been able to find some notes that suggest that she was experimenting with such magic, but...none of it would have the power needed to cause a storm like the one we faced. It could perhaps be attributed to early experiments, but...
[Blanche shakes her head. They can't afford to get distracted.]
Never mind. What's interesting is the name involved here. A "Gretel E. Vernier" appears to be credited to these notes, and is written on the inside of these tomes. [She turns to Alaric.] We may have just found a name for our adversary.
[While Blanche looks over the tomes, Alaric heads on over to check out the weapons. Don't mind if he helps himself to one of these swords!! Maybe he'll also inspect this jewelry, just to see if it's magical. Yep.
Anyway, he glances back over when Blanche speaks up. His eyes narrow at the name.]
Vernier. [He doesn't need to tell her why that's particularly irritating.] I'm not familiar with a Gretel from that family.
[But honestly, he only knows a few names from the family, and that's only because of passing gossip. It's not like he's an expert on the family or anything.]
That gives us a direction, at least. If we can't find her, we can at least head over there and see what we can learn from the townspeople.
[Not that he likes that idea any, but the most important thing is figuring out who caused that storm and putting an end to them.]
[It's not, but feel free to take it!! It's not like it's gonna be missed, or anything like that. Certainly not, just time to add to the list of crimes we're committing here.
...But yeah, he certainly doesn't need to remind her why that's irritating. The Vernier's certainly aren't very highly viewed in Blanche's eyes after all she's heard from Alaric. She'd certainly kick their asses herself if she had the ability to do so, those no good, irresponsible, absolute assholes--]
Nor am I, unfortunately. [It's not as if she knows all the Verniers, but she has at least heard a few names in passing from her parents.] But yes, I am in agreement. We will need to be cautious, but if we can learn anything from the townspeople at all, it may indeed prove to be a boon.
[...Blanche is going to take a tome or two with her, though--she doesn't have a lot of experience with black magic, but at the very least, she can learn and add a few more spells to her repository.]
Come. We should get out of this room, at the very least. Perhaps we can pick them off as they come...
[...Of course, that's going to be a problem. Sure, they can exit the room fairly easily, and they can likely go down the hallway easily enough--sadly there's no alternate escape routes except the way they came, but they can at least get back to the dining hall easily.
...The problem is that they have company, and lots of it. And chief among them is their old friend, the archer. There's at least twelve people here, and one of the axemen looks to the archer with a grin.
"Oi, Maeve! These the guest of honors you were talkin' 'bout?"
"Oh, the ones in the same!" Maeve, apparently, grins easily at Alaric and Blanche. The group is blocking their way easily, and all of them have their weapons close at hand. Swords, lances, axes, bows, magic... "So nice of you two to join us, and so early too! It's almost a shame Lady Gretel isn't here to see you now..."]
[Alaric nods at that; there's no point in getting worked up about that right now. They've still got to get out of here, after all. The way back is easy enough, but...
Well, if their luck was bad before, it's gotten a whole lot worse. Alaric quickly counts their number - twelve? seriously? - and begins considering their options. The room here is well-fortified and windowless; there wasn't any way to get out back the way they came. The door is on the other side, blocked by the vast majority of these goons. Fighting their way through simply isn't an option. There's no way they'll survive.
Their other option is surrender, but in all honesty, that doesn't look any better. They invaded this place and they stole from the boss. Best case scenario, they're well-dressed thieves. Worst case, they're opportunistic assassins. Regardless, the people here have every reason to kill them before the mage returns.
So really, there aren't any options here at all. They're going to die. There isn't any way out of this one.
Alaric exhales slowly and finally turns his attention to Maeve.]
Shame she's out, I would've loved to meet her.
[But there isn't any point in standing around and talking. He glances back at Blanche and he hopes to whatever deities may be listening that she'll understand when he shoves that spare sword he stole at her and unsheathes his knife and lunges at the closest mercenary. There's no way for them both to make it out of here, but damn if he can't try to cut a path for her.]
[Blanche is terrified by all of this. Two against twelve are odds that the queen would never humor even slightly--there's really no way out of this one. Her spells aren't strong enough to disperse them, much less threaten all of them, and there's just no way, there's just no way that they can possibly win against this, and that's--
Blanche is brought out of her own head by Alaric's words, and when he suddenly shoves the stolen sword at her--she doesn't understand for a moment, why would he do this? It doesn't make sense to her in the slightest, but then she sees him rushing in with a knife, and--
Knights can be replaced. Queens can't.
Something sinks in Blanche's chest all at once, and before she even realizes it, she's crying. Her vision blurs as she watches her knight rush forward to his death, to certain death, and she can't just stand there, she can't stand there and let her friend just die on her.
The fight isn't going to be easy on Alaric's end; he'll certainly be able to kill one, maybe two of the bandits, and Maeve's content to hang back a little bit--though if he does aim for her, he'll be in for a slightly rude awakening, because some asshole's mastered Close Counter and isn't afraid to use it.
But whether he goes after her or not, that quickly doesn't become her focus.]
Alaric!!
[It's a blood curdling shout, and Blanche grabs the sword and attempts to enter the fray herself--she can't let him die, she won't let him die, she has to protect him--
And all at once, Maeve's look goes slightly surprised. Like she wasn't expecting this at all.
It doesn't stop her from bypassing Alaric entirely, though--either electing to jump over him, or to rush past him while he's distracted. Either way, her aim is set, and Blanche is too blinded by her own tears and fury to stop now.
"Sorry. Fate's abandoned you today."
And with those damning words from Maeve, her shot hits true--right between Blanche's eyes, and the woman falls dead on the ground as the bandits hoot and holler. Maeve, for her part, doesn't join them.]
[Once again, surprise is Alaric's second-best weapon and between that and his sword, he's able to take out one of the mercenaries before the real chaos starts. He clashes with a second and throws the dagger at a third (it doesn't even kill, damn) and then—
And then Blanche is yelling his name and there's something in that shout that chills him to the bone.
(Is that what he sounded like when he thought that lightning strike had killed her?)
He doesn't need to turn to look, he knows she's already rushed in after him. But she shouldn't be - she should be casting from afar, waiting for the perfect moment to enter the fray so she can maneuver her way toward the door and out to safety - doesn't she get that this is the only way she'll survive? Isn't that the only solution to all of this?
Maeve is fast and Alaric's distracted, and in the brief moment it takes for him to shove this lancer back and finish him, those words ring out and Alaric turns just in time to watch that shot hit Blanche right between the eyes. She falls like a stone, and for a moment that feels like it lasts an eternity, Alaric simply stares.
(Knights can be replaced. Queens can't.
Knights can be replaced. Queens can't.
Knights can be replaced. Queens can't.)
He asked one of his fellow guards once what a knight does when their charge dies. He was told he'd better pray that never happened, and when he killed all of Blanche's siblings, he made sure to kill their guardians first. What would they have felt if he hadn't, if they'd been alive to witness the death of the person they were supposed to protect?
Did any of them see their charge the way he sees Blanche?
Does it even matter anymore?
The cry that leaves him is equal parts fury and anguish, and all rational thought stops. Perhaps, if he were the sort of person who had any restraint or self-preservation at all, he would try to find another solution that isn't throwing himself at Maeve. Maybe things could have turned out differently if he'd taken a moment to think before acting in the first place. But none of that matters now - and none of it matters very quickly, because between Maeve and the remaining mercenaries, Alaric can't possibly hope to last long. He leaves behind serious injuries on several of them, but blind rage isn't the best way to handle anything, and this is no exception.
It isn't Maeve that kills him. One of the lancers stabs him straight through the back. He barely has time to register it before an axe comes down on his neck.]
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The mage...well, the mage is doing her best. Her best is currently very shit and barely even being registered by Blanche. Someone get this girl a strength growth. But to at least a relevant point, Blanche could use some help, and the other Lancer is so distracted by trying to back Blanche into a corner that he's not focusing on anything else.]
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Which is precisely what he does, and he'll fling the guy to the side as he frees his blade so Blanche doesn't have to deal with him falling on her. Go get that mage!!]
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Thank you.
[And with that taken care of...well, that mage is just kind of looking between the two of them and not even close to sure what to do, which is more than enough time for Blanche to run up and unleash Banshee on the poor mage. Rest in fucking pieces.
And the cleric...well, she's just there, uselessly. What the fuck does she do now that everyone's dead, uh, uh--maybe try hitting Blanche with the staff?? That's her final attempt at anything. Finish her, Alaric.]
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Anyway, Alaric rolls his eyes before stabbing her, tossing her body aside as well.
With all of them defeated, he turns his attention to the door.]
Let's not waste any time. Are you ready?
[You aren't injured, right...??]
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Anyway, now that we've totally not committed a war crime--]
Yes, I am ready. Let's give this woman a rude awakening.
[Perhaps surprisingly, Blanche is the one taking initiative to kick down the door this time; even more surprisingly, it actually opens, to a rather...
...Well, opulent looking office space, but the problem is that there's nobody inside.]
What--but how? Where on earth is she?
[There's all sorts of things in here--it's not CLEAN by any stretch of the imagination, what with all of the clutter and shit everywhere, but some of it's organized. There's a shelf with alcohol in it, there's some various pieces of expensive jewelry, there's even some rather well-maintained weapons in here, and really, an unholy fuckton of tomes? Holy shit.
But there's not a single person to be found in here, and Blanche does not like this.]
...Alaric, what do we do?
[This is very clearly not going to plan.]
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There's no one inside. The mage should be here. Why isn't she? Why would this hallway have so many guards if she isn't here? The whole point of this was for them to question her (or worst case scenario, just kill her outright, which would have been perfectly fine in Alaric's book) but now...]
...I guess we go looking for information.
[He doesn't like it. That much is obvious from his tone of voice and expression, but even his words aren't as confident and certain as they usually are.]
There must be some information here that points us somewhere. Maybe she escaped when she heard we'd be coming?
[But then why station guards? Were they not aware she ran? Did she warp or something? This really isn't what he was expecting...]
The point of coming here was to learn more about the weather magic, so there should be something about that in one of these tomes.
[..........but he is not a mage so uh, good luck??]
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...Perhaps she did. At the very least, I would not have put such a thing past her.
[None of this is adding up, but--she'll go over to the tomes, then. They're all of various different sizes and levels, but they are pretty much solely dealing with thunder magic. Nothing on creating storms or the like, but there does at least seem to be the basis of such magic here. Notes tucked into the pages, and the like.
...But there is something interesting that Blanche notices, as she peruses through the books. She's trying to be quick about it at least, but--]
It's highly likely that she's keeping the tome that causes weather magic on her person. I have at least been able to find some notes that suggest that she was experimenting with such magic, but...none of it would have the power needed to cause a storm like the one we faced. It could perhaps be attributed to early experiments, but...
[Blanche shakes her head. They can't afford to get distracted.]
Never mind. What's interesting is the name involved here. A "Gretel E. Vernier" appears to be credited to these notes, and is written on the inside of these tomes. [She turns to Alaric.] We may have just found a name for our adversary.
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Anyway, he glances back over when Blanche speaks up. His eyes narrow at the name.]
Vernier. [He doesn't need to tell her why that's particularly irritating.] I'm not familiar with a Gretel from that family.
[But honestly, he only knows a few names from the family, and that's only because of passing gossip. It's not like he's an expert on the family or anything.]
That gives us a direction, at least. If we can't find her, we can at least head over there and see what we can learn from the townspeople.
[Not that he likes that idea any, but the most important thing is figuring out who caused that storm and putting an end to them.]
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...But yeah, he certainly doesn't need to remind her why that's irritating. The Vernier's certainly aren't very highly viewed in Blanche's eyes after all she's heard from Alaric. She'd certainly kick their asses herself if she had the ability to do so, those no good, irresponsible, absolute assholes--]
Nor am I, unfortunately. [It's not as if she knows all the Verniers, but she has at least heard a few names in passing from her parents.] But yes, I am in agreement. We will need to be cautious, but if we can learn anything from the townspeople at all, it may indeed prove to be a boon.
[...Blanche is going to take a tome or two with her, though--she doesn't have a lot of experience with black magic, but at the very least, she can learn and add a few more spells to her repository.]
Come. We should get out of this room, at the very least. Perhaps we can pick them off as they come...
[...Of course, that's going to be a problem. Sure, they can exit the room fairly easily, and they can likely go down the hallway easily enough--sadly there's no alternate escape routes except the way they came, but they can at least get back to the dining hall easily.
...The problem is that they have company, and lots of it. And chief among them is their old friend, the archer. There's at least twelve people here, and one of the axemen looks to the archer with a grin.
"Oi, Maeve! These the guest of honors you were talkin' 'bout?"
"Oh, the ones in the same!" Maeve, apparently, grins easily at Alaric and Blanche. The group is blocking their way easily, and all of them have their weapons close at hand. Swords, lances, axes, bows, magic... "So nice of you two to join us, and so early too! It's almost a shame Lady Gretel isn't here to see you now..."]
no subject
Well, if their luck was bad before, it's gotten a whole lot worse. Alaric quickly counts their number - twelve? seriously? - and begins considering their options. The room here is well-fortified and windowless; there wasn't any way to get out back the way they came. The door is on the other side, blocked by the vast majority of these goons. Fighting their way through simply isn't an option. There's no way they'll survive.
Their other option is surrender, but in all honesty, that doesn't look any better. They invaded this place and they stole from the boss. Best case scenario, they're well-dressed thieves. Worst case, they're opportunistic assassins. Regardless, the people here have every reason to kill them before the mage returns.
So really, there aren't any options here at all. They're going to die. There isn't any way out of this one.
Alaric exhales slowly and finally turns his attention to Maeve.]
Shame she's out, I would've loved to meet her.
[But there isn't any point in standing around and talking. He glances back at Blanche and he hopes to whatever deities may be listening that she'll understand when he shoves that spare sword he stole at her and unsheathes his knife and lunges at the closest mercenary. There's no way for them both to make it out of here, but damn if he can't try to cut a path for her.]
no subject
Blanche is brought out of her own head by Alaric's words, and when he suddenly shoves the stolen sword at her--she doesn't understand for a moment, why would he do this? It doesn't make sense to her in the slightest, but then she sees him rushing in with a knife, and--
Knights can be replaced. Queens can't.
Something sinks in Blanche's chest all at once, and before she even realizes it, she's crying. Her vision blurs as she watches her knight rush forward to his death, to certain death, and she can't just stand there, she can't stand there and let her friend just die on her.
The fight isn't going to be easy on Alaric's end; he'll certainly be able to kill one, maybe two of the bandits, and Maeve's content to hang back a little bit--though if he does aim for her, he'll be in for a slightly rude awakening, because some asshole's mastered Close Counter and isn't afraid to use it.
But whether he goes after her or not, that quickly doesn't become her focus.]
Alaric!!
[It's a blood curdling shout, and Blanche grabs the sword and attempts to enter the fray herself--she can't let him die, she won't let him die, she has to protect him--
And all at once, Maeve's look goes slightly surprised. Like she wasn't expecting this at all.
It doesn't stop her from bypassing Alaric entirely, though--either electing to jump over him, or to rush past him while he's distracted. Either way, her aim is set, and Blanche is too blinded by her own tears and fury to stop now.
"Sorry. Fate's abandoned you today."
And with those damning words from Maeve, her shot hits true--right between Blanche's eyes, and the woman falls dead on the ground as the bandits hoot and holler. Maeve, for her part, doesn't join them.]
no subject
And then Blanche is yelling his name and there's something in that shout that chills him to the bone.
(Is that what he sounded like when he thought that lightning strike had killed her?)
He doesn't need to turn to look, he knows she's already rushed in after him. But she shouldn't be - she should be casting from afar, waiting for the perfect moment to enter the fray so she can maneuver her way toward the door and out to safety - doesn't she get that this is the only way she'll survive? Isn't that the only solution to all of this?
Maeve is fast and Alaric's distracted, and in the brief moment it takes for him to shove this lancer back and finish him, those words ring out and Alaric turns just in time to watch that shot hit Blanche right between the eyes. She falls like a stone, and for a moment that feels like it lasts an eternity, Alaric simply stares.
(Knights can be replaced. Queens can't.
Knights can be replaced. Queens can't.
Knights can be replaced. Queens can't.)
He asked one of his fellow guards once what a knight does when their charge dies. He was told he'd better pray that never happened, and when he killed all of Blanche's siblings, he made sure to kill their guardians first. What would they have felt if he hadn't, if they'd been alive to witness the death of the person they were supposed to protect?
Did any of them see their charge the way he sees Blanche?
Does it even matter anymore?
The cry that leaves him is equal parts fury and anguish, and all rational thought stops. Perhaps, if he were the sort of person who had any restraint or self-preservation at all, he would try to find another solution that isn't throwing himself at Maeve. Maybe things could have turned out differently if he'd taken a moment to think before acting in the first place. But none of that matters now - and none of it matters very quickly, because between Maeve and the remaining mercenaries, Alaric can't possibly hope to last long. He leaves behind serious injuries on several of them, but blind rage isn't the best way to handle anything, and this is no exception.
It isn't Maeve that kills him. One of the lancers stabs him straight through the back. He barely has time to register it before an axe comes down on his neck.]