#moon-caught

@moon-caught​ continued from ❀.

As she was walking away it dawned on Lillian that it would be VERY hard to hear any kind of continued conversation if she kept walking away. Oh dear, she had DEFINITELY done something weird and wrong again hadn’t she? That was just like her, maybe she should just keep walking she didn’t have anything to offer him outside of the comment so she’d just be wasting his time right? Why had she even distracted him from-

It was at this moment Ashe managed to cut off her hasty retreat and started talking to her, wait that worked? He wasn’t mad she’d run away? He was still smiling and people usually didn’t smile if they were upset, right? Regardless Lillian stopped dead in her tracks to avoid running into him and tried to meet his smile with one of her own, it was unsure, but genuine all the same.

Yes, she was finally going to talk to SOMEONE, maybe.

“O-oh that made you happy? Good I did it right I think maybe-” she laughed nervously but decided he wouldn’t have followed her over here if he wanted her to walk away again. So she stood in place and considered how to respond to hsi words, the question was, surprisingly thoughtful from someone she barely knew, and now that she thought about it...he knew her name? Most people didn’t even bother to catch it, her smile grew a little more sure as she searched for an answer in her own mind.

“Well really I just like to try new things...I...ate a lot of the same things when I was a kid...and I used to be scared of coming to the dining hall because all the students were older than me. Now, I feel a little less scared so I guess I’m just happy to taste things I haven’t before!” It came to her attention as she was talking the mark on his shirt form where the dishes had stained and she realized he had been cleaning up with the others.

“Oh but, don’t let me distract you from what you were doing-” an idea struck her she hoped it would be alright.

@moon-caught​ continued from  ✦.

The Knights of Seiros were scattered, the need to find Rhea ‘too great’, Natalia worried for the Archbishop and yet she’d set out form the monastery with different goals in mind. She was hoping to lie in wait past the village and hit the passing battalion hard from the side...not the most honorable solution but, she was traveling utterly alone. She would have felt nothing for the terrible state the place she was born and accepted the hopeless state of things here. Yet, this was the home of students she had once tended with Professor Eisner even if she was only extra muscle to protect. Now, walking across this land there were too many people, too many hungry, cold, abandoned, and this new ‘governing body’ did nothing, hell they made it worse.

It was not in Natalia’s nature to stand by. Thus knowing the village was not abandoned she could not simply walk away, the man’s tone and words made it obvious some remained unable, physically or otherwise, to leave.

“That’s unfortunate.” the knight stood alone she had walked this far and had intended to keep walking farther still but, this halted her in her tracks and she slowly drew a fine silvered sword from her side that glowed lightly with a strange enchantment that seemed for more than cosmetic effect.

Lying in wait was also out of the question, if even a few soldiers slipped past there would be a problem. This of course was suicide but, she’d been told that on missions before. Death was something she implicitly accepted and never seemed to find it’s clutches around her.

                oh, what harm would it do? she’s bored of studying right now anyway.

      “  you sure like those stories about knights, huh ashe? don’t you ever get tired of reading them?  ”  she loved reading them once upon a time. she loved having them read to her, too. well...that was then, this was now. fairy tales were fairy tales, after all. they held no real merit. still, there’s a certain sense of wonder of seeing someone their age still be so engrossed in them.

     when felix hadn’t shown up at fherdiad castle at the time he was meant to, he hadn’t worried. it was faerghus. the weather could have turned and stranded him, despite the warmer season. or something urgent had popped up. there was plenty of reasons for the delay, and there was no point in being worried about one man’s sloth in comparison to the rest of the problems on his plate.

    and hell. it was felix. it was entirely possible that he’d get a message later that simply told him to go fuck himself.

    no message arrived, and he sent a scout out to figure out what the delay was. only to have the scout return a few days later on a pegasus, with the news that no- the duke had left his home some time ago, in the direction of the capital. and hadn’t been seen since. he’d accepted the news with a calmness that he hadn’t thought he could possess in the face of this sort of news. his desk, unfortunately, didn’t survive the information. this wasn’t a simple kidnapping. if it had been, someone would have received a list of demands or a ransom note, or something. it was pretty well known that for the right noble, any ransom would be met- and felix was far more than just the ‘right’ noble.

    but oh. when he found whoever had orchestrated this, he was going to enjoy slamming the full weight of the crown’s fury onto them.

    ingrid and her pegasus knights were sent to scout for him by air, but it was more a show of force than anything. it would give her something to do instead of exist worryingly, even if- even if he suspected that if felix was still alive, he hadn’t been taken by bandits or any of the usual threats to a noble. he wasn’t dumb. there was something rotten under fodlan, and while he hadn’t had the chance to root it out, he knew it was still there. silent.

    apparently for no longer.

    it took the better part of a week to reach the entrance to the cave he had discovered years ago. it seemed so long ago that he had first pressed into the darkness, past the lip of light, and deep into the silence. and there it was, just as he had remembered; a wall, made of metal, and a door covering an entrance. it was sealed by means he didn’t understand, but that didn’t matter to him; it crumpled under his strength, bending and breaking under the claws of his gauntlets. the strange blue lights lining the walls made his eye hurt until it readjusted, and he silently slipped through the halls, heart in his throat.

    it had been at least two weeks since felix had been taken. there was no way to know for sure that he was down here. and there was no way of knowing if he was even alive still. this was probably just a fool’s errand, a lapse in his own judgement, but if there was a chance—if there was a chance of retrieving his old friend, he had to take it. but the thought lingered. this was a fool’s errand. this was a trap. this could be his death.

    well. it wouldn’t be the first or last stupid move he made.

    the silence of the place was getting to him the most. he hadn’t encountered a single soul on his descent, and it felt like his heart was going to jump out of his chest. he’d expected a fight, a bloodbath- something. not silent emptiness save for the flickering blue lights and soft whir he couldn’t place. even if felix was down here- what sort of state would he be in? how long had he been alone for? he knew from experience that isolation could send a man mad, and that was without including being in semi-darkness and potentially starving or facing death from dehydration.

    that thought almost made him puke.

    he nearly missed the door. its color nearly matched the rest of the hall, and it was on his right- slipping easily into his blindspot. it was only the fact it had a thin, softly glowing strip at the bottom that made him stop and take a second look, a better one. he found the doorknob and tested it, unsurprised to find it locked; but again, it proved no match for him, and he peeled it away as if it offered no more resistance than skin of a fruit.

    and he was both relieved and horrified by what he saw within.

        oh dear, oh dear  ---  she thought she’d come out here late enough that no one would see her, yet he just got a complete front row seat to her smashing a training dummy like it was made of glass! this was going to be hard to explain  (  or wiggle her way out of  ------  )  and to think she just wanted to blow off some steam after getting frustrated with studying! letting the head of her axe drop to the ground with a loud thud, her head tilts to the side as carmine eyes flutter in shock, her gaze settling upon the other.  “  oh, felix  ---  ”  please tell me he didn’t see, oh goddess please tell me he didn’t see  ---  “  um, w-what brings you here?  ”

@moon-caught​ based on our plotting session.

The sight of a 14 year old girl in knight’s uniform was surely strange to many of those simply passing through Garreg Mach. To make matters worse the girl wore a medical eye patch that large as it was was unable to cover the gashes and scars from all side of where the eye once was. Finally she walked frequently clinging to her sword, once a rust and blood covered blade she dragged herself in holding her body up with now shining, pristine, silver almost unrecognizable after the Archbishops physical and magical restoration of the thing. It wasn’t so much because of it being a large marker for her new status, but, more that it was a sign she had SURVIVED no matter what it looked like the blade felt the same when she held it.

Three days, it had been three days since the girl had arrived in a bloodied heap cradling a smaller child to her chest on the back of her horse, with small band of survivors, most of which she knew not very well, in tow. They had followed her like a light like a bastion a light that brought them to the church. Perhaps that was why that same day Rhea had re-presented her sword and the status of knighthood. This fact was well, a shock to many other who served the Archbishop as knights yet her closest adviser, Seteth, said the Archbishop was fond of offering such opportunities to wayward children, but, not to mistake the honor of being granted knighthood THAT was what set her case apart form others. Truth be told the girl was unsure if she wanted it, but, she’d already taken the vows and what else could she do now, as she was?

Yet it was the subject of other children like her, others brought in and not just protected by the church but given work and purpose there that led her to stand in the courtyard at this time. His name was apparently, Azrail and before her he had been the newest young teen given...work so to speak by Lady Rhea. Based on Seteth’s words and description he should be passing by here at about this time, and lo and behold as usual the adviser seemed to know all there was to know about happening sin the monastery.