13th Sun
Second Astral Moon
9:14 AM
Falcons Nest
An airship would land upon the icey grounds of Falcon's Nest, docking itself at the southern entrance of the Temple Knights 2nd contingent in Coerthas. This location would be one of the two that the Scions would scourge through at the behest of House Fortemps, and something about their current situation excited the Viera who led everyone out of the ship's hull. Dariya exited the airship with a grin on her face and a giggly chirp from her parted lips, followed by Alphinaud and Cyprus who watched Artoriel step off of the ship forthwith. The last person to leave the ship was Eniro, who kept his ragged brown cloak on his person and his ever concealing hood over his face. Stryker was offered to come along as well by his brother, but the former expressed to the latter how little he could care before going his own way. Now, with their arrival in Falcon's Nest harboring a small sense of determination in the group, they would stride forward into the encampment with curiosity on their minds.
Stride right into Tataru, that is.
Simply put, The Lalafellin girl had gone off to find a way to get stronger. She kept telling herself day in and day out that sooner or later, the Scions Of The Seventh Dawn will be relegated to nothing but fighting and she would be rendered useless to their cause. So, she left for Falcon's Nest to find some type of starting point in her journey, and that starting point came in the form of a woman named Lucia. Lucia was the head assistant to the Lord Commander Ishgard's Temple Knights, and was the first person Tataru went to for pointers. It would be an understatement to say that she was intimidating, as the second she reared her head to the envoys of House Fortemps, Cyprus felt a chill run down his spine.
"Ah, Artoriel. I'd be better off knowing firsthand that you would bring guests to my contingent. One of them I have had the pleasure of meeting alongside my Lord Commander in the past."
Lucia gave a respectful bow to Dariya, who bowed back in the same manner. Despite the events that occurred in Ul'dah prior to the Scions arrival in Ishgard, Lucia and Dariya had gotten to know each other quite well despite this, same with Alphinaud.
"Guests would be an understatement, dear Lucia. Beside me stand the Warrior Of Light and her companions who are the acting envoys of House Fortemps. They formally requested a tour of Ishgard's most prominent outskirts, so I happily obliged and brought them here to Falcon's Nest. My brother Emmanellain isn't present for the now, so it lies to me to do the heavy lifting. As always…"
Artoriel gave a half hearted sigh as Lucia introduced herself to Cyprus and Eniro, the former being as open and respectful as possible (out of fear), while the latter simply gave a "Hi." And turned his head away. After the introductions, over to the group came Tataru, which came as a surprise to both Dariya and Alphinaud.
"It is a pleasure to see you Tataru, but please enlighten me on your being here."
Alphinaud requested as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the Scion secretary. She looked right back up at him and gave a grin that could only spell trouble. What did she do this time?
"I may or may not have "borrowed" a ship from outside of Ishgard to get here-"
"You stole an Ishgardian airship!?"
"That's not important right now, Alphinaud!"
Tataru explained her reasoning and motives for coming to Falcon's Nest, that of which got Alphinaud thinking about Tataru's potential as a warrior.
"Are you sure this is the path you wish to walk, Tataru?"
The boy would ask with a hand on his chin and a palm on his right hip. Tataru almost immediately gave her answer, which caught Alphinaud off guard.
"Of course this is what I want! Sure, I may be good at what I do now, but crunching numbers and signing paperwork isn't gonna save lives, Alphinaud. And before you say anything-"
That's when she turned her attention to Dariya.
"I know how my past attempts at being a Summoner and a miner went, but making mistakes is what helps people learn. And I'm not giving up until I find something that I can work with! Not this time and not again!"
In the past, Tataru had had this same revelation but on a scale much smaller than what she had ambitioned now. She had joined the Summoners guild at one point in the past but couldn't make anything of it, and the same went for being a miner at Revenant's Toll. Dariya was present for both of these instances, which made her skeptical at how well this third attempt could go. However, this got Dariya thinking. What exactly did Tataru want to be?
"Well, no matter the ambition, I will not try and stop you. Just make sure to take care of yourself throughout, for both yours and my sake."
Alphinaud crouched to Tataru's height and placed a hand atop her head, ruffling the girl's hair and feigning a giggle from her parted lips. He smiled at her and stood up again, facing Lucia along with the others.
"I've taken the liberties of training Tataru under the same regiment of that of a Temple Knight, and she has been coming on fairly…..Problematic, yes, but there has been ample progress made in her training. If she succeeds, she could very well become the first Lalafell to lace up a pair of boots within the Temple Knights."
She would comment on Dariya's amusement, who believed in Tataru every step of the way despite her skepticism.
"Well, I shall pray for her success under your tutelage. However, it would seem a tour is in order?"
"That would be correct, Master Alphinaud."
With that, Lucia led the 5 of them into Falcon's Nest as Tataru was left to her own devices. However, she couldn't help but notice something off about the gaze in Dariya's eyes. Whatever it was, she couldn't figure out, but she would make sure to consult the Warrior Of Light after their return. It was her job, after all.
13th Sun
Second Astral Moon
9:22 AM
Gridania
The city-state of Gridania had been around for almost as long as Eorzea itself has, and in this time, it had gained a reputation for being the home of newly bred adventurers and starry-eyed scholars that become the very heroes to be told of in ancient Fae. From the peaceful atmosphere that it radiated into the Twelveswood to it's luscious foliage that clashed with the bright blue sky, the Elder Seedseer had led Gridania into an age of everlasting peace in it's most dire of times. Heroes hale and whole would come to the aid of Eorzea's most bountiful state in an attempt to be known as the heroes told in Fae, and this time wasn't any different.
"You said you had information on Urianger, correct? Now would be the best time for you to elaborate as there are no prying ears in the vicinity like earlier."
Thancred sat in a rocky wooden chair by the window of his comrades room, his head rested on his right hand and his legs crossed one over the other. Y'shtola sat beside Krile on the edge of one of the three's beds, her ears pricking up at Thancred's mention of information before her gaze changed to face the Lalafell seated beside her. Still in her signature animal eared yellow coat, Krile's eyes looked before both Y'shtola and Thancred as she turned her head to face the window.
"Before I go any further, I wish to speak on the matter that Urianger is the only person who I am aware wasn't at the banquet. This makes finding his general location harder to ascertain, but also narrows down any suspicions we could have of where the other Scions could be residing. With this in mind, I bring you to what I know of his whereabouts at present. Though nothing is confirmed, I have reason to believe that Urianger had escaped Thanalan and made for Revenant's Toll."
"Revenant's Toll...the adventurer hotspot within Mor Dhona?"
Krile nodded to Thancred's question and turned her head back to Y'shtola, who placed a hand on her cheek and lost herself in thought.
"What reason would he have to go there? For all intents and purposes, Revenant's Toll is like a second home to those who thrive in the wake of opportunity. I don't see why that would be an option for Urianger."
Y'shtola opened her pale green eyes and her gaze shifted to that of Thancred, clearly being just as confused as she was and not being able to make sense of Krile's proposition.
"I traveled to Thanalan at the first mention of the Scion's disappearance from a fellow colleague, and I couldn't find a single trace of any of the Archon's besides that of Urianger. Every lead I gathered led me back to Revenant's Toll in one way or another."
"And what were these said leads?" Thancred interjected.
"A sudden influx of respondent Aether, the potential sighting of new Primals, and the recent involvement of Garlond Ironworks with their newly assigned task of unlocking the Crystal Tower."
"The Crystal Tower…..I've heard naught but tales of the phenomenon in books detailing Allagan history. Does Urianger know something we don't?"
There was silence in the room for a moment. Y'shtola pondered quietly to herself at the thought of Urianger keeping secrets from them, while Thancred picked at his brain in an attempt to disprove this. Urianger wouldn't keep something this important from them, especially not with all of them scattered across Eorzea and three of their own still missing in action. Right? Krile spoke up after a few minutes. She shook her head and gave the two Scions a determined look that wasn't very common of her.
"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure that Urianger knows what's best for this situation. However mysterious he may be…"
Krile crossed her arms over her chest and closed her eyes in deep reflection. She had all of this information, all of this evidence, and it didn't make any sense as to why Urianger would have connections with Revenant's Toll. What if he really was hiding something? What would this mean?
But more importantly, where was he now?
13th Sun
Second Astral Moon
9:35 AM
The Wanderer's Palace
Upon entering the age old temple crawling with Tonberry folk and Ixali followers, G'raha Tia had seemed to get a little too excited at the thought of traversing a place like the Wanderer's Palace. He had only heard adventurer's tales of how the palace was looked at as a true test of an adventurer's mettle, a one stop shop for all things dangerous that anybody with enough guts-and enough want for glory-could traverse by themselves or with a trusted party to see how they'd fair. G'raha had to keep his mind on the mission and not on the prize however, as he was only there in the first place to acquire a crystal of white auracite, which would allow Nero and Cid to hopefully come to a compromise and unlock the Crystal Tower. So, the Miqo'te set out, braving the halls and the stairways of the all but forgotten temple with caution in the wind and a grin on his face. However, while traveling, he noticed the lack of opposition from the palace residence.
Not a single tonberry or Ixal in sight.
Nobody was there to stop him from treading on their territory, and this got the boy thinking. Were they all out doing something else? No, they couldn't have been so dense as to leave the entire palace unguarded, could they? He didn't see the logic in it, and began to suspect that it was a trap. Hundreds and hundreds of Tonberries and Ixal, all crowding one room and just waiting for G'raha Tia to take the wrong turn or misstep. It made the Allagan's skin crawl, and with this notion in mind, he changed his everlasting grin to a serious furrow of the eyebrows as he placed a hand on his bow, treading carefully and quietly from this point forward.
"I'd be a fool to think it this easy, but I'd at least like some company...Though, the thought of Nero yelling in my ear about going this way and that sounds a lot less pleasant than the sounds of silence."
G'raha spoke to himself with a rightfully annoyed sigh, stopping in his tracks as he came across a room that made one of his ears twitch in curiosity.
"Hmm? Ah, and what do we have...here?"
What he happened across was a room full of gears, switches, rails, and a whole lot of steam. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary from what the palace had already shown him, but something about this area in particular gave him a giddy feeling of exploration. Hell, the white auracite he's looking for could very well be in this room! At the front of the room-which was surprisingly spacious besides the grinding of the gears and the steam pouring through its base-was a flat screen coated in all black. It sat there as if preparing to project something, instead of waiting for someone to turn it on. Though, with this, G'raha began to wonder again….why was this going so smoothly?
"...There!"
G'raha Tia spun himself around and put up his guard in the direction of the room's entrance, pressing his feet into the ground as a blade came crashing onto his bow with full force. There in front of him stood another Miqo'te, a female, wearing a brown cloak with a large greatsword in her hands and her yellow eyes dashing across the room in a state of panic. As it turns out, Alenka had followed G'raha to the palace and wanted to make sure that when they both entered, only she would be walking out. For Admes's sake.
"You are not a Tonberry!"
G'raha Tia shoved the woman with the blunt end of his bow, striking at her with precise and quick swings which were blocked by Alenka's greatsword. Knowing that he couldn't match her up close, the man performed a jumping backstep and reached his left hand to grab an arrow after making space. He landed on the ground after backstepping and flanked right, firing one arrow after the other at her as each arrow either missed thanks to her own agility or was blocked by her greatsword's strength, and once he paused for just a moment to re-evaluate his situation, Alenka dashed forward and swung her greatsword at him hard, his bow not being able to take the force of the swing and his entire right side being cleaved by the weapon. Alenka let her sword fall to her hip momentarily, bringing it up and slashing all the way past his midsection to his chest.
"AGH!" G'raha Tia cried as he was shot back by the greatsword's force. Catching himself and landing feet first on the wall behind him, the man grit his teeth and wiped his brow as an all too familiar glint flashed in his left eye. He grabbed another arrow from the quiver resting on his back and loaded it into his bow, doing a front flip off of the wall behind him and firing at Alenka. Once he fired, he ran a few feet closer to her and fired again, then again, then again. He repeated this tactic for a short time until he was close enough to physically strike, dodging the surprisingly fast swings of Alenka's weapon and using her sword as a booster to get into the air. He charged his arrow and fired it right at Alenka's right shoulder, getting a clean pierce right through it as the other Miqo'te growled and stumbled backwards. G'raha Tia landed a good distance away and placed his hand on the ground beneath him, closing both of his eyes as the boy's heartbeat could be heard ringing in his own ears. He waited, and waited, and waited until finding an opportunity to strike once again, catching an attack from Alenka who casted Stalwart Soul and shot beams of darkness ahead of her in a straight line. G'raha Tia formed his hand into a claw and brought it up to his face in a swift motion, a sudden wall of rock and granite forming ahead of him that effectively blocked the dark beams.
"The absorption of Primals isn't all we can do with the blood of princess Salina!"
He would call out before pulling his arm back and thrusting it forward. Upon this action occurring, rocks and debris would fly straight at Alenka in an overwhelming fashion, one which caused her to cast Blackest Night and get on the defensive for the first time in this scuffle. Then, the debris stopped flying. Alenka took this time to collect herself and stance back up.
"Just know now that hiding amongst the debris won't do you any good. I came with the intention of keeping you from leaving, and I will do just that."
She treaded lightly as she walked forward with her weapon at the ready, shifting her gaze across the room as she got closer and closer to her opponent's position. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, an arrow exploded into the ground from beneath the ground which caught Alenka's attention, prompting her to turn around and lock her eyes onto what she thought was G'raha Tia.
"What the hell-!?"
From under her came up G'raha Tia himself, bursting through the floor and firing one, fully charged up shot from his bow straight into Alenka's chest. The arrow sent her up and crashing into the ceiling, causing more granite and debris to fall from above which incidentally hit G'raha Tia in the right shoulder.
He'd feel that in the morning.
Alenka now lied on the ground in a pain induced stupor, having hit her head on the ceiling above her and being knocked out cold upon hitting the floor. G'raha Tia had effectively won this bout.
"Huff...Huff…Well, I may have suffered an arm injury and a sense of lost pride for being caught unawares, but I appreciate the spot of training you've just given me. Beautifully done!"
G'raha chuckled as his cheeks lit up in a happy smile, turning his head back to the flat screen in front of him which was surprisingly unscathed during the two's fight. Then suddenly, it turned on. The view of the screen came from cameras in every corner of Revenant's Toll, watching and scouting as the adventurers and residents of the area went about their lives in peace. That's when G'raha Tia looked back at Alenka and saw that the Miqo'te girl wasn't there. Instead, she had awoken and made her way to the screen's terminal while G'raha was distracted, pressing a large red button in its center and grinning madly.
In that moment, G'raha Tia had never felt such fear run over him.
Revenant's Toll had gone up in flames, explosions and flashes of orange and white careening the streets and even effectively destroying the Aetheryte residing in it. Almost every single building was destroyed as fast as the explosions went off, and the Allagan Miqo'te came to soon realize that he had been played for a fool and Alenka only came to stall him. Placing two fingers on his ear, G'raha activated his linkpearl and practically screamed into it in a panicked state.
"CID! CID!! REVENANT'S TOLL, IT'S-"
He lost connection as soon as he made it. On the outside, by Saint Coinach's Find and alongside the rest of Ironworks, Cid looked on in fear and dismay as Revenant's Toll was destroyed from the ground up right in front of his eyes. He could only muster two words.
"...Oh gods."