Glayp'neir (Arc 1)

Feeling the chilly coast breeze brush through her soft hair, Clarent casually walks along the a sidewalk next to the dirt road leading to the main gate out of the city. Her hands are tucked away in the pockets of her hoodie and she carries a generally bored looking visage with her. The fighting tournament seemed fun but she never had the chance to partake in it. Not that she would have made it past a single guy with her skills. Just as she arrives at the corner of the block, ready to turn and continue to the merchant stands a woman comes around the bend and cuts her off. Clarent stops and looks up at the woman who stares back at her with an angry expression. The woman had kind features and a curvy but skinny body. She had really strange hair and wore a purple tank top and other than her clearly annoyed expression she looked like she would be the kindest person on gaea. The womans visage darkens as the girl doesn't move out of the way and Clarent flinches, pulling one hand out of her pocket to hold it up in an "I'm sorry..." kind of way. She awkwardly backs up and takes the back alley behind her, passing the merchant stands. The woman continues on her way and doesn't look back.

She arrives at a bench with a good view of of the main gate behind the merchant a while away from her. She sits down next to a man enjoying some fruits but doesn't really pay attention to him. She brings up her legs, resting her feet on the bench and her head and arms on her knees and stares at the gate, waiting. At the main gate a few soldiers and nobles are lining up. Soon some of the dukes will arrive in the city and the ceremonies for the real start festival will begin. After a while she peaks over to the man and his fruits. She remembers she didn't have anything to eat today. She looks back at the gate with a disappointing expression. Money is such an issue when you are traveling...

The gates finally open and some cheering can be heard off in the distance. The magic carriages and soldiers on horseback begin to enter the city, following down the main road. Within a few minutes, seven carriages and two dozen guards are passing by the merchant stands and making their way into the city's center, where the entrance to the upper city is. Clarent would have just waited there to see the attraction but she wasn't 'noble' enough to be permitted entry. "Tch." The sound escapes her mouth in annoyance as she makes an L shape with her hand and points it at one of the carriages. She aims the mock-gun and pretends to shoot, but nothing happens. She lets out a sigh and lets her legs slide off the bench and her feet back on the ground. A rattle catches her attention and she looks down at the pendant with the slim pink crystal on it and casually tucks it back under her scarf and into her hoodie and relaxes.

As Sharpe goes to question some of the vendors, Airgetlam decides to check around some of the lazy folk that might have caught a glimpse. She walks along and finds a lone bench with a young man with blue hair eating some fruit and a red-eyed girl who could easily be mistaken for a boy were it not for her stature and clothes. She puts her hands behind her back and pushes her shoulders back, then raises her eyebrows and humorously attempting to be casual struts over and sits in between them, smiling. She looks to the girl, who looks incredibly bored, but she's cute nonetheless. She looks about sixteen or so, and the man who looks depressed and tired. She takes a deep breath in through her nose and opens her mouth.

"So.... Do either of you know where I could find the spice merchant?" She loudly proclaims.

She looks to both of them, switching between the two, waiting for a reaction.

The man laughs as puts his fists up. "your really going to try and fight me? Well fine then, bring it on!"

He charges at the Dr. Atrium as fast as he can and aims at punching him in the face. As the man is charging, Dr. Atrium he throws the two scalpels at him. They both stick in the pressure point that is under his shoulders, the pain makes the man lose his footing and falls on his chest. He tries getting up but the scalpels have gone deep in his pressure point and it hurts to much to move his arms. Dr. Atrium walks over to him and shakes his head.

"You know, I have done that to a lot of people. You are the first that went down with only two, usually fighters can take a lot more. I didn't even have to use my magic, which is good in the end I guess."

He walks over to the man and take out hit pouch where he keeps his money. He goes through and takes only the amount that the man owes and puts the rest of the mans money on his pouch. He then helps the man to his feet, then takes the scalpels out. Then man grunts in pain as he does and Dr. Atrium pushes him out of his tent.

"Don't come back, ever." He says as he tosses him out. As he walks back in his tent, he picks up the cat and sits back down with the cat on his lap. "I hope I don't run into any more people like that. I also hope that the young man returns, he really did need some healing."

Jian notices that somebody sits down next to them, not paying too much attention to that happening though. He takes another bite of his apple and shuffles around through is pockets. After a few minutes he then risks to look back to the person sitting down next to them. According to thier clothing it must be a young girl sitting next to him, she seemed to peak at the fruit just as he looked for a second. She doesn't seem to notice that Jian is also looking at her. Being unsure if she is hungry or not, he has an idea.

He keeps eating and soon starts to feel full. As he opens up another Banana, he just hears a "Tch" coming from her. He takes a look at her and then looks the way she is currenty looking, seeing Carriages pass by. His interest isn't that big about it though and he then finishes up his Banana.

Another girl sits down next to him, Jian doesn't pay much attention to her at the moment though and keeps eating. Suddenly, a loud question about a spice merchant comes from her and she shifts her view back and forth between Jian and the other girl that sat down first. A bit confused he raises his hand and says: "Well.. that's me, I think. I don't have time to sell you anything right now though, I have to attend an important meetup with a doctor." He brushes off a bit dust of himself and gets ready to stand up. He lets a charm slide out of his pocket, letting it fall onto the net of satsumas. He's planning to leave them for the young girl that seems annoyed.
"Leave them for the girl next to you, she might be hungry from what I've noticed", whispers Jian into the ear of the girl, that asked if he knew who that merchant is. The maybe hungry girl seems a bit stressed anyway, so it would be better not to annoy her even more. If she's hungry, she probably will appreciate the fact of having some food, which is enough to Jian. The charm he put ontop of the net says "luck" in his native language on it. The carving is a bit unclear and the whole shape of the charm is an inverted pyramid with unclean edges to it.

He then slowly walks off, looking for the tent where the Doctor might still be waiting for him...

Sharpe walks along, asking each merchant, or anyone who might've been in the market, but it is apparent nobody knows the guy. Maybe nobody cares, or he's exactly the kind of person the punks said he was. In any case, either he's just not that noteworthy, or he knows how to cover his tracks. He walks further and spies a tent, and a man bleeding out of the points in his shoulders, the man getting up slowly and walking away with an expression of humiliation and hate on his face. Sharpe shrugs and walks over to the tent. Maybe the doctor will have seen the guy.

He puts his hand into the flap and moves it a bit, then leans down and pokes his head in. The doctor there is reading a book with things that look like magic of some sort, maybe incantations or regular spells, and rubbing the head of a cat that may or may not be his.

The Doctor finally notices his presence as he shuffles into the tent.

"Hey, I don't need any healing myself, but I was wondering if you could tell me if you've seen a man with shaggy hair, lanky figure, and rectangular glasses."

He pauses, and adds to that.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to kill him, just wanna talk."

She watches as the man with the fruit walks away, and her smile fades a little.

"B-but I have to talk to you about something..." She trails off. Looks like he's not going to come back after his appointment. Maybe she'll seek him out later

She looks at the girl. She realizes she was unintentionally staring, and shakes her head. The girl is very pretty and cute, but looks quite defenseless. She feels an instinct she's never really felt before come back, a big sister instinct. She feels protective of this girl. She doesn't seem to have any parents, and no weapons of any sort, unless she relies on unarmed combat.

Being semi childish, she decides to poke the girl.

It doesn't seem to provoke a reaction at first, but then the girl looks at her quizzically.

"So um... ah... What's your name? I mean, you kinda look lost, maybe we can help each other out once I deal with that spice merchant?" She asks slightly nervously, not knowing if the girl will go ape on her and kill her with some hidden weapon or-

She freezes. What if she does have a hidden weapon and is way more dangerous than she appears.

She stops, and centers herself, rationalizing that the girl probably has a means of defense, but doesn't want trouble.

She looks back at the girl, who has still said nothing. She must be really shy if she's been quiet this long. She shifts her smile into a straight mouth and shifts it to one side of her face.

Clarent looks at the woman, pondering. She seems awkward or nervous but that doesn't bother Clarent. Having worked in an Inn for all of her childhood she's used to all kinds of different types of people. She zones off for a moment remembering all her fond memories of the inn. Her visage turns a little sad and she returns her attention back to the carriages going down the main road. The gates have closed by now and some of the city-folk is marching down with the carriages and guards. "I'm just here to watch the carriages... A few dukes from the other major cities just arrived for the festival."

Clarent slides her hands back into the pockets of her hoodie and relaxes, slouching down in the bench. "The opening ceremonies will start soon, I think..." she mutters being lost in thought, still gazing off to the main gate. She looks like she will be relaxing here for a while.

Dr. Atrium frowns at the man. Rare is it that someone goes around looking for someone just to "talk to them". He is residing if he should tell the man. The person he described to him sounds like the injured man that he wanted to heal. He walks over to the man and bows.

"The name is Dr. Atrium, pleased to meet you. Now before I answer your question, maybe you can answer mine first. Why are you looking for this man? Has he wronged you in any way or are you looking to wrong him?"

Dr. Atrium looks the man dead in the eyes, looking to see if there is good or evil behind them. He doesn't want anything to happen to the man that was in his tent earlier. If he thinks this man will harm him, he will just send him on a wild goose chance. He has been travling for a while so he can think of a few places to send this man, but if the man shows him that he wanting to help the man, he will help him.

He walks through the market passages, having a look around, watching people following thier daily business. His track of thoughts fall back to the bench with the girls on them. He's curious if the annoyed girl spotted the fruits with the charm on them so far and imagines how she might've reacted.

Jian sighs, this day is a mess. He then finally arrives at the tent which pulls him back out of the track of thoughts. He steps in, seeing the Doctor and a man he hasn't seen before, or wait, he did, he got money from him and he also bought some of his spices. They seem to chat and that in a very serious manner.

Not being the kind of person that usually interrupts people, Jian still raises his hand and proceeded to say the following: "U-Uhm, excuse me sir. I am back and done with the important business I had to attend. I hope I didn't keep you waiting."

In hope of drawing the attention to himself for a second, he stands at the entrance, waiting.

Pondering the question, he steadfastly responds with a neutral "Neither".

"To be honest, some people seem to have a bone to pick with him, and for utterly no reason. I don't think he's who they think he is, so I figured I might as well try to help him out. Of course, I could be wrong, but then again, I don't know if there's a bounty on his head or not, and he doesn't seem like he type I'd go after anyway."

Sharpe hears a ruffling of the tent to his rear. He grabs the scabbard of his sword, but doesn't let the blade loose, simply having it ready. He turns and looks and it's him, the guy he's talking about, sure as sure. Perfect fit for the description, roughly anyway. He offers an apology and waits there. Sharpe looks at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Friend, I hope you know people are looking for you. I have, but for the right reasons. Others, not so much. Go get your business here taken care of, I'll wait outside."

With that, Sharpe walks out and sits on the grass, tipping his wide-brimmed desperado hit downward for a snooze.

"Well..." Airgetlam begins, "Can I at least have your name? I mean, that's not too much to ask for, right?"

She nervously looks at the girl, seeing her being quite disinterested except for what is going on in the background, and even then she seems bored. Airgetlam looks toward the grand parade of nobility and sighs, knowing that won't ever happen for her. But honestly, she doesn't need it. She's fine with what she does.

She looks to her left and notices a bag of fruit with a charm in it. The merchant must have left it there, but likely not for her... probably for the girl, she looks like she might need it.

"Hey um, that guy that was heating, I think he left this here for you." She says, heaving the back onto her lap.

She puts her hand in the bag, and withdraws, at random, a star fruit and offers it to the girl.

She smiles with closed eyes.

She wonders again where her family is, or if she even has one. She hopes that she does.

Clarent looks over to the woman and flinches slightly at the realization that she is being offered food for free. She frowns. "I'm not hungry..." she says, looking away for a moment. Her stomach growls and she frowns harder, resting her hand on her tummy. She then hesitantly looks back at the star-shaped fruit and blushes. "B-but I suppose I can't turn down an friendly offer now, can I?" She takes the small fruit and shoves it in her mouth, looking away again. She chews and chews and then swallows the delicious fruit. "Besides..." she says, "It's bad manners to ask for someones name without introducing ones self first." Clarent looks up at the few clouds that dot the sky. "My name is Claire." she lies, with no stammer in her voice to give away that she had done so. People don't tend to question names and she had learned to be a good liar when she needed to be, so she figured she wouldn't get in trouble for this.

Clarent stares up to the skies and ponders for a while. This little lie reminded her of her master. She thinks back on her travels with him. He had always been very kind to her up until recent weeks. Clarent then focuses her gaze back on the main gate. By now every bit of crowd that had formed has now dispersed and the gate and street lie empty. Clarents face washes over with a painful and sad visage as the memories come back to her. She passively reaches out and opens her hand, awaiting the next piece of fruit.

Dr. Atrium watches as the man leaves his tent, he then smiles up at the other man. "You came back, come over here and lay down. I would be lying if I said that I haven't been hoping for your return."
He waits for the man to lay down before he starts talking again. "I'm not sure about that man. If I were you, I wouldn't go alone with him. If you wish, you can stick around here with me. Then again I am not sure what the man wants with you. Just be careful, what is what I am trying to say."

He holds his hands over the mans chest and focuses as his hands start to glow, he then puts them on his chest and this makes the mans body glow. "This is going to be a tad uncomfortable and I am sorry for that, but this is the quickest way to heal you"

When Dr. Atrium heals someone with his magic, this is what happens. He scans them so he can find out what exactly is wrong with a persons body. Once he knows what is wrong, he uses his magic to speed up the natural healing proses. Of course this is but one way he can heal someone, this is what he is doing to the man in front of him. the healing proses doesn't hurt but it feels like pins and needles and it feels like the person is moving every muscle in their body. Once he is done, his hands stop glowing.

"There you are, good as new. be careful getting up, you may get light headed." He tells the man smiling at his work. "Now about the man. I will be in here if you need me. If I hear anything wrong, I will be right out to help. Come back in once you are done. Let me know what he wanted ok?"

He does as told and lays down, considering the words of the doctor. Well, he bought something from his stand, but maybe that was a distraction? He then is told that it might feel uncomfortable as the healing process starts, and the doctor was right, it feels quite unpleasant during this procedure. Jian remains quite calm though, he's been through worse than this anyway.

The process ends and his body eases up. He then carefully switches into a sitting position, listening to what the doctor has to say to him. Hearing that, he is a bit in doubt too, but unsure what to do. He nods as confirmation of having heard what was told to him. "Well then, I feel like you might be right. I mean, it seems like several people suddenly look for me and that must have a different reason, than people suddenly wanting me to sell them all kind of things."

He gets up slowly, walking to the entrance of the tent in a careful and a bit sideways stance. His hand slides down to his dagger's grip as he peeks outside. The man is having his back turned to Jian, he could charge at him. But even then, he doesn't even know if he even is involved in some problematic business. He doesn't even know the reason for him being searched by people. He pulls out his dagger, flips it once but then slides it back into it's leather holder. He clearly has no idea what to do.

Jian then steps out, his hand on the grip, but not in an obvious way to keep down the distrust that was developed due to the doctor's words.

"What business do you seek with me, sir?" His voice is a bit stern and brief. He eagerly wants to find out what's going on, and that hopefully without pulling a fight.

Sharpe looks behind him and sees the man has come out of the tent, looking much better than before. He sees the man reaching behind him for something, but he cannot tell. Sharpe doesn't reach for his sword.

"Hey, uh, are you aware that there are people in the city looking for you who think you're a dangerous threat to the nation? That's apparently what you've been labeled as."

He sees the man look like he's getting a little shocked.

"Uh, I'm not here to start something, just you don't look like the dangerous type at all and I think their assertions must be unfounded."

Sharpe extends his hand.

"They call me Sharpe. I'm a Ronin."

The man looks hesitant, and he waits a bit for him to decide if he'll shake his hand or not.

She watches her eat the fruit and demand her name in return. "Claire". She didn't look like a Claire. But you know, people can go by whatever name they want. It's not like her name is even her original possibly.

"Pleased to meet you, Claire. I'm Airgetlam." Claire reaches out with an open palm, and she oblidges her with another Star Fruit.

She guesses she might as well stay there for a bit, it was nice to wind down and just lay about on a bench. Especially with this girl, maybe she'll make a friend out of her. Maybe this was just a one-time thing. She notices her silver arm is showing and promptly pulls her cloak over it. She looks over, hoping Claire didn't see her arm.

She wonders if Sharpe had gotten to the merchant yet.

Clarent snaps out of her distracting thoughts and passively puts the fruit into her mouth. She looks back at the lady, a bit embarrassed, but then smiles with a big grin. "You know, Lady." She exclaims happily, "I owe you an apology. My mood today hasn't been the best but you seem really friendly." She reaches into the bag and pulls out a fruit offering it to her instead. Clarent continues to smile at the lady and says "Here, and thank y-"

"...You for cooperating, you see... and coming to castle vikuur with me, you know?" a voice utters from seemingly no where.

Clarents visage suddenly grows vicious and she gets up, dropping the fruit. With one fast motion she slides her dagger out from behind her. Within the small period of time a hooded figure appears from thin air next to her and within moments disarms the girl, flinging the blade away and slinging an arm around her neck from behind to take her captive. Clarent squirms and resists for a moment as the figure utters some magic words. From behind Clarent, the hooded figure looks up and at Airgetlam. His face is obscured by a wolves mask with dark purple flames etched into the sides of it. Clarents body stops resisting as she is put to sleep by the magic whispered into her ear and the figures chuckle seems to echo tenfold inside of Arigetlams mind. For a moment it is as though everything was blurry and suddenly- both the masked figure and the child are gone.

Dr. Atrium walks to the opening of his tent and sits down. He wants to make sure not thing happens to this man. He is shocked to hear that there are mercs looking around for him. He wonders if it has to do with the charm around his neck or if he was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. The young man didn't look like the type to have a bounty on his head, he would know, he has one. He looks back over at the cat and remembers that the was about to go through his magical barrier. Now how was that even possible. The spell he used is meant to keep out anything living thing and it has never failed before. He sits there and ponders the possibilities, then something snapped him out of his thought. Sharpe was what he heard, it must be the man that was looking for the other person. He just sits there staring at the cat as he listens to the conversation that is taking place outside his tent.

He decides to shake hands with this man, a clapping sound emits from the hands colliding. His face though is a bit blank and flat, what does that stranger mean by "He's being hunted?". He takes his time thinking about what could be the case, then lets go of the man's hand.

He takes a look around, checking his surroundings in an paranoid manner. Could it be? Is it really the case? How did they even get here? Checking every single person he then pulls out his dagger and flips it around several times. He then tightly grips onto it, going into a bit defensive stance. Some people look at him, he looks back, always prepared for one of them to be the people looking for him.

His mind flashes back into the past. Reviewing his whole background. Every detail pops back into his mind. If it's one of these people, does that mean they took over the whole nation, ridding the once tradition preserving part of it?

He grips his blade tighter, not even paying attention to the stranger at that moment. His view shifts around very fast and he's trembling. He's trying to surpress the fear inside of him and then looks back at the man.

"I'll take them on, if I know it's them, I'll take all of them on!"
He sounds full of himself, his mind maybe a bit numbed up. He rubs the side of the blade with his fingers, still halways stuck in the flashback.

"Where did you meet up with them guys, I'll try to end it here and now, all this pain and suffering, all they do is bringing it back upon me again. I am tired of running away from what took everything from me, I must stand my ground, even if it's the last thing I do"

He trembles even harder, breaking quite a sweat. His eyes still shift around and scan every person that comes by.

He watches the man have the nervous flashback and breakdown. Poor guy, must have seen some scary stuff in his life. If he's that worried, carrying that dagger like that, then what they said must have some kernel of truth. Still, the man is nice, and he figures maybe it's not him that's the danger, but the people after him who cause collateral.

Sharpe cautiously grabs the man's arm and wraps his fingers firmly.

"I don't think you want to do that here, and I don't think you want to go looking for them. One, you're attracting unwanted attention to yourself, you're becoming what you're advertised as. Second, they're probably a lot more heavily armed than you. Even if you had some hidden skills, they outnumber you, you'd get minced."

His face goes from expression-less to expression-full. He pulls him around and looks him in the eye.

"You're probably going to ask me something later. You're going to ask me why I chose to worn you. I can't say. All I can say is I'm following my gut, and my gut says you're innocent."

She watches in complete awe of what just transpired. How could someone get past her like that, even if he was some kind of mage or technomancer?

She shakes her head and rubs her eyes, and tries to find some semblance of focus. Who the hell would snatch a girl up like that? Where was he taking her? She recalls him saying something about a "Castle Vikuur". Where there hell is that?

She realizes she really does care about this girl, that those big sister feelings were real. She needs to find Sharpe. She packs up the fruit and springs right off the bench and keeps her crossbow handy, just in case. She runs off into the night and finds A tent with Sharpe and the merchant who was eating the fruit earlier.

"Sharpe! I know we've just gotten reacquainted after a long while, but we've got trouble already, just like the old days!" she yells toward him. She slows down and sees the merchant with a dagger, holding it very defensively and in a dedicated stance. So he does know a thing or two... This is going to be more convoluted than she thought.

Around the tend some of the workers start to notice the commotion going on. Between the woman yelling and the two men seemingly starting a fight with one another. At least that is the way it is perceived by the public. Some of the workers whisper to each other while staring, others return back to their duties, uninterested. The sun is setting and slowly, in pairs, the street lamps start to turn on. Their lights illuminating the few shadowed parts between buildings and their faint buzzing lost in the cool air. It is nearly time for the ceremonies to begin and the stage is set for the play tonight. Two of the workers nervously approaches the group, one of them exclaiming from a distance; "Excuse me! We'll need to set up the fireworks for tonight over there." He then holds a hand up to the side of his face and waves at them "If you could please dismantle the tent so that we may set up for tonight!" He continues waving for a bit, then his co-worker taps him on the shoulder and they both return to a set of boxes. Off in the distance the leather-clad man from the Inn stands leaning with his back to the wall, watching the group carefully. So as not to get noticed he pushes himself of the wall and walks into the oncoming crowd and dissapears.

Dr. Atrium takes his tent down and packs it all away in his bag. He carries the cat in his arms, he is going to examine her later. He then puts his bag on and walks to the little group.

"If your trying to calm the man down mister Sharpe," He puts his hand on the young mans shoulder. His hand is glowing, he is using a spell of calming. "you are doing a poor job at it."

He removes Sharpe's hands off of the man and has him take a few steps back. He turns to looks at the man. "Put your dagger away. I am still unsure about this Sharpe fellow but he is right, you are making a scene. It would appear my work is done here." He says this as he give the firework starter a glare. "So I am going to stick with you for a bit. You look like you need someone to have your back."

He then looks up noticing the girl that has been there for the first time. He bows low in front of her, holding his hat so it doesn't fall off. "Oh, I am very sorry, where are my manners? The name is Dr. Atrium, I use magic, herbs and potions to cure people in need."

His dagger drops and the tip shoots into the floor, holding the blade upright. Jian is panting deeply, it stirred up quite a lot. His view turned down to the floor and he slowly pulls out the dagger letting it slide into the leather pouch. He looks around and looks at the doc, the man in the coat and the girl he just met on the bench earlier.

He then silently turns around and goes to a nearby bench to sit down, he needs a bit time to recover from this. He then opens his sweat jacket and pulls up his shirt to see his scar on the chest. The only thing that he has left from back that day, a mere scar.

He's hoping to find his Mom out there somewhere, as he couldn't witness if she's alive or not. And then there once again is the hope of finding the girl that saved him...

Sharpe watches as the man has his nervous breakdown, sees the dagger thrown into the ground. The scar on the man's chest is telling. He has deeper issues than he thought. He really must be dangerous to an extent. But, is he really immoral? or simply misunderstood? By his demeanor, Sharpe thinks the latter.

The merchant goes, retrieves his dagger and sits on a bench, taking time to think. Airgetlam comes running from the market yelling. He turns to face her and sees she's honestly worried. That glint in her eye, the one he knew so long ago in their childhood. Something's awry.

"This can't be good..." He utters.

She has her hand on that old crossbow. Either she's realized something about the man, or something else has transpired.