#rpjude

Did he look overwhelmed by the heat, or something? Jude’s gaze falls to the cone, then back up to the provider, appearing (understandably) confused. He tries to smile nonetheless, not wanting to offend this person.

“I… uh, thanks.”

Actually, the person looked pretty familiar. They had met briefly before, hadn’t they?

“Do you really want me to have this?”

Isaac wasn’t sure who the other was, but it was on the warm side and the man was in long sleeves. He had yet to show any signs of heatstroke, but preventative measures were always better than treatments.

@evasion-finalist

With a sigh Regal leaned against the wall of his cell, closing his eyes to rest for a moment. With often he was in Meltokio he thought the knights would have known better than to mistake him for a criminal. Just because there was a robber nearby and he was found two blocks away with a cooking knife did not mean he was the culprit.

“In here kid.” He heard the voice of the guard echo through the dungeon. His eyes opened to see a teenaged boy being led into his cell. He certainly did not look the criminal type—something he had become more than acquainted with during his time spent behind bars—so he could only guess at the reasons for why he would be brought in.

Richard flipped closed the green GHS his friend had given him, hiding the words that still tweaked a shred of curiosity in the monarch's mind. Jude had let him know that he was coming, that the researcher had something to show him. Already Richard had thought upon every possibility but could not fathom what it might be. So he waited upon the hill just north of the city, one of the locations closest to his heart with the endless green of his kingdom rolling out before him. The gentle breeze played with blond strands as the anticipation of meeting a friend warmed his smile. 

Considering it had occurred once before, Richard ought to have been more cautious when he had located a rift not far from Wallbridge. Though he had not seen many, it was distinctive enough that the monarch knew what it was, and this far from Barona, he doubted he would see his companion emerge. He had gotten too curious, grew too close to the tear when he felt a familiar lurch. What was the saying? Fool me once...?

It was a saying that felt appropriately fitting as the blond monarch strode through what looked to be the city's back alleys. Someone had told him the inn in this area but he found little save dark corners and the hum of strange lights painted above the doors to shady establishments. This was a far cry from the land he had been expecting, the city of endless nights that he had found himself in before.

Even the road into town had been desolate, the land stretching as far as the eye could see and yet void of any discernible life save the travellers and the monsters.  Both he had found there, the former under attack from the latter and though he foreign to these lands he could not simply leave them. What he had not expected was the manner he was regarded, the suspicion and uncertainty with which the rescued man thanked him. As though he did not truly mean it at all.

Richard would just as soon brush off the encounter, after all he was not stranger to being bereft of gratitude, and he'd far more important things to consider, save that the whispers seemed to follow him. Eyes followed as he walked, conversations hushing as he neared; enough not to let his hand stray far from his blade. 

His steps ceased, and for a brief second his golden eyes closed. Five- no- six distinct sets of footsteps echoed in the street and when his gaze rose he found three of them standing before him. He need not be from the area to know their intentions; every world had such men, those that would do anything to put themselves ahead. Even attack an unsuspecting traveller searching for nothing save a place to rest.

His fingers curled about the sheath of his rapier, his golden eyes narrowing dangerously. The last thing he wanted was a fight, but with three men blocking the road, and the remaining surrounding him, it would seem he would not be allowed much in the way of alternative. 

"Well well," one of the men spoke, his tone taunting. "Some pretty fancy spirit artes you used out there. Bet you think you're some kind of hero now, don't ya?"

It struck him then; the man who spoke was the very same he had rescued not an hour previous. Bile rose in his throat but the monarch choked it back, he hated the familiarity of it all. Treachery, betrayal... he should learn to expect it yet each time it seemed to hurt more than the last. 

"Hero? I've no such delusions." Richard answered, his own voice sharp and dangerous. The very idea was laughable; hero? No he was the very opposite, and if these men did not soon disperse they were apt to finding out why. "I've no business with you, please allow me to pass." 

His statement only earned laughter from the men and his frame tensed further. "Oh you don't? Probably think you're too great and powerful to deal with us 'lowly' Elympions. Well guess what? We have business with you, you Rieze Maxian scum, You think you can waltz in here like you own the place?" The men all brandished some manner of weapon. The king was skilled but six against one on foreign terrain were not odds Richard cared for. "Now why don't you drop your weapon and your valuables and maybe we'll consider letting it slide." 

Rieze Maxia... they thought him a resident of Jude's world, which meant this must be the other his friend had spoken of. He recalled being told the two still working through some troubles but this seemed more than simply tension between countries. It was nothing more than senseless violence under the pretence of justice. He'd had more than enough of that in his life, enough of those who made others suffer for no reason than their own greed, painting it in the guise of some noble cause. It disgusted him. He'd had enough of scum that would take innocent lives over something so petty as gald.

"And if I do not?"

The mana here was different than eleth but they were similar enough that it had not hindered him upon the road and would not do so here. If these men continued to insist on robbing him, they would become first hand witnesses to the spirit artes they despised so strongly.

How long had he been wandering? 

When he had first woken this morning Richard had not expected anything especially unusual. He certainly had not expected the reports of unusual monsters and it took little more than that to send the king out upon the high road to investigate. It was a job that should have been allotted to his knights, but Richard would not delegate that task to another. It mattered not that he was weary, that what sleep he could spare had been short and littered with nightmares as of late. The nova beasts were his responsibility, and if they were somehow spawning something new, then it was to him to stop contain it. 

The monster he had found, however, was nothing like his nova beasts but neither was it anything Ephinea had seen before. Giving chase to the creature, Richard was lead through the wilderness, through a forest that had long separated him from his knights. Still he pressed onward. Where could this beast have come from? Richard didn't like it. They already had challenge enough with his and Lambda's spawn; they did not need the emergence of new species of monster altogether.

Richard burst from the tree line in pursuit of the monster, completely unaware that the beast was already gone, that something else entirely awaited him. 

He saw it only a moment before he realized what it was, an odd tear in the very air one that he had seen only a handful of times before, when meeting one he had come to call friend. What was a rift doing here...?

It was the last though he had before darkness claimed him.

When Richard woke all he saw were the stars. Staring at the sky it was splayed with an endless canvas of lights. He remained on the ground a moment, simply staring at the sky, the ground cold against his back. As beautiful as it was, a single thing stood out in the monarch's mind. There was no Foselos.

He wasn't on Ephinea any longer.

Pulling himself to his feet, Richard looked about, finding he'd little but his sword and the small satchel of supplies and gald that he always kept on him. With no way of knowing how much good, if any, it would do him in this land, Richard secured his rapier at his side, and began towards the lights in the distance.

The sight be came upon took his breath away. Never had he witnessed such beauty. Buildings seemed to grow out of massing trees that reached endlessly upwards into the heavens, lit and aglow countless lights joined the stars that were reflected in the waters below and Richard spent far longer than he'd intended simply in awe of the place.  

But the longer he wandered the more weary he became. Despite his better attempts to learn it once, the messages on signs were foreign to him, still illegible save the odd letter. However, it was enough of a clue to at least deduce what world he was in. Not that he could find a single person among millions. It would seem that simply finding respite was beyond him.

Eventually the bustle of people grew to be too much, was overwhelming to the king who was already lost and uncertain and he retreated down a path that was darker and less tread than the others. Richard glanced up at the sky, its shade never flickering. Surely he had been wandering for many hours... it ought to be morning by now?  Yet the stars were relentless. 

Richard stumbled a pace and for a moment the lights about him blurred. He blinked the world back into focus, one hand reaching for the railing and the other for his head, that was warm beneath his glove. He silently cursed. 

"No, the castle itself is open for visitors," Richard explained as he led the other from his office, closing and locking the door behind them. "However, I'm certain you can imagine that there are areas not intended for the public. Though it is the centre of operation for Windor at large, it is still a home to many, and there is a certain degree of privacy that must be respected. Were you not deterred by any of the staff you encountered along the way?"

Privacy of course, not just for those that lived here, but for the affairs of state that were not meant for the eyes of just any. Turning back to the visitor Richard took a brief moment to assess him properly. If nothing else he certainly looked the part to coincide with his tale. His garments were not those typically seen in this area, nor was he familiar to the blond king. Whether it added weight to his tale or merely pointed towards his being a spy, Richard did not know. 

"Yes," Richard answered. "I am the king here, but did you not know that when you came to my office?" 

Something just didn't seem to add up with this odd visitor. He knew that Richard had been buried in his work, knew his favourite dish and yet did not know he was king? What was this odd visitor seeking?

"You've come all this way and you're leaving already?" Richard inquired. "Did you not have some manner of business here?"