Adriana's nerves spike as they enter the trading hub Duskrift, a town owned by the House of Wombat currently. When they leave this hub, they will be making their way to Eclipse Haven without many stops. There is a chance that another vision would change this fate, but they must try to the best of their admittedly meager abilities. To reach the spiders and gain proper training is their most necessary and ideal choice. "Are you sure you want to continue travelling with my family? It'll be far more dangerous than if you continue with the caravan."
"Mistress Adriana, we understand the risks. Honestly, there's a part of me that would rather go with them, but a far bigger and louder part of me must attend to you. After all you've done for us, we cannot abandon you now." Heith solemnly tells her.
"Agreed, so please stop questioning our intentions in this! Plus, how will little Rosaline find better friends than your nephews and nieces?" Marigold asks her with a grand smile.
Adriana sighs, though also feeling relieved. "I thank you both, but please remember your promise. No matter what, protect yourselves first."
"We swear it." They reply, having already made the promise before.
Adriana does a performance that night, gaining a hefty sum of gold that she promptly uses to exchange her wagon to a better fitted one for them. She also upgrades their horses, then ensures they have adequate provisions for their long trek. She also gets a set of understated clothing, a small disguise kit that she could claim was simply make-up, and a pair of daggers with throwing knives strapped to her arms. She figured she was already lithe, nimble and flexible with a mastery of balance, so she should get a decent hang of the blades easy enough with her nightly practices. Each blade was light, but sharp and strong enough for many uses.
"Blades?! Are you crazy?!" Evelynn exclaims that evening when Adriana speaks with them about her intended training. She requested they all keep a closer grasp on the young ones so they wouldn't stray close to her.
"It's actually not that crazy… I'm a bit ashamed that we didn't consider these options sooner. We've all neglected to gain proper weapons, but call ourselves capable enough to split ways from the caravan." Rolan sighs out, looking over the group of family and the addition of friends. "Heith, will you be willing to show us how to handle some weapons?"
Heith blinks in surprise, then nods his head with his hand instinctively going to his sword. "I'm not the best teacher or swordsman, but I will attempt to pass on at least the basics."
"Yes, now we're talking! I've been looking forward to this!" Tamara enthuses as she unbundles a set of curved twin blades with shimmering eyes or excitement.
"When did you get those?!" Illiana cries out in surprise.
"Well, you were purchasing that fancy whip and I spotted these babies! I always wanted to have some!" Tamara replies as she laughs and gives her a kiss.
"How is it all the woman grabbed some weapons and we didn't?" Ulysses looks over to Helena and raises a brow. "What about you?"
Helena flushes and raises her hand to show some hand claws, making him groan. "To be fair, one of you guys had the idea to get something."
"I mean, once you showed me those I had to!" Jerald defends himself, then cheekily gives Ulysses a smile and a kiss. "I got a short sword, a pair of daggers and a sling."
"Ok then." Rolan stands easily and brushes his pants off before heading to a wagon. "Those of us, barring the children, that don't have weapons come on. We need at least one each." He gives a meaningful look at Evelynn, who sighs and comes to him taking his outstretched hand.
"I don't like this." Evelynn whispers to him.
"I know love, but we have to try to protect ourselves." He whispers back, then turns to Heith. "Please hold off on training until we get back so we can take proper turns with watching the children." He respectfully asks.
Heith nods to him. "We'll wait, no worries."
"Why are you going with them?" Illiana asks Jerald as he heads to the wagon.
"The weaponsmith likes me, so maybe we can get discounts." He simply states before hopping on the back of the wagon.
Adriana looks at Illiana. "Did you really only get a whip?"
Illiana smiles and pulls out a blowpipe with some blow darts. "I happen to know some people that can whip me up some concoctions to do different effects." She says beaming, causing them all to laugh and ease the slight tension of why they needed all of this to start with.
****************************************************
"If we had to choose, what house would you wish to cooperate with?" Helena asks in an almost bored tone the next day. It wasn't time to leave yet, so their group was enjoying some leisure time and earning a little more gold.
"Dragon's not too bad, right? Plus, all those warriors means eye candy." Illiana states with a smirk as she nods to herself.
Tamara scoffs as she wraps an arm around her wife. "Honey, if we're there, they'll be eye candy while we'll be the eyesores." They all laugh a little too hard at that, having to shush one another to not wake the napping children.
"Lion would be like a constant party, so I'm not sure about living there. We should definitely visit though!" Ulysses adds in next, gaining a lot of agreements.
"I worry already of the havoc you'd reap there." Jerald says with a soft smile to Ulysses.
Ulysses dramatically gasps at this. "You dare say that? I mean, it was one time!"
Jerald kisses his forehead and chuckles. "My dear, it was three…" gaining more laughs from everyone as they recalled their previous trip to Vegas.
"Wombat is greedy. Fox is too sneaky. Snake is not very trustworthy…" Helena mutters to herself as she considers this.
"I feel like either Cervitaur or Spider really is our best option." Evelynn says.
"Then we're on the right trek. Maybe we can visit Cervitaur after settling business in Spider." Quinton adds in before taking a swig of his drink.
"If I recall, the leader of Lion is Johnathon Lockridge, proclaimed king. The leader for Dragon is Anastasia Godfrey, proclaimed empress. The leader for Wombat is Araminta Malone, proclaimed queen. The leader of Fox is Lucretia La-Minnings, proclaimed queen. The leader for Snake is Arlington Redmond, proclaimed emperor. The leader for Cervitaur is The Congregation of Eternity, headed by Nemesio Aspenspear and Cythista Rosebud. Last but not least, the leader of Spider is The Council of Clarity, headed by The Dualsoul Eleanora Ashdown." Rolan finishes his input as he eyes a crude drawing of the territories. "We're sitting in an area where we can easily run into any of the houses' people, so please stay cautious."
"No worries dad, we'll make it no matter what." Illiana reassures him.
Adriana chooses that time to slip off, Heith following her silently as she returns to the town. She picks up the new instruments that were purchased the day before. Each one glimmered with delicate markings that glowed slightly when they're played. This was done by some magic fusion, enhancing the sounds and how far reaching the instrument's melody would go. This world in particular had magic, but it was a subtle kind. Basically they refer to it as ancestral energy, which was the energies left from those before us. This of course came in different forms, and could be used in different ways. All that's to say her instruments can now cause people to long to dance and watch her performance, enhancing her usual crowd pleasing presence. And, ultimately, ideal for distractions.
"Here's your markers, Mistress Adriana." Heith says to her, easily breaking her musings.
"Thanks Heith, I'll give it a go." She tells him before taking a deep breath and stealing her nerves. On an exhale, she dashes forward, whipping out one throwing knife and sailing it to sink into each target as silently and quickly as she could. She considered it a win that she succeeded in hitting a fourth of the targets. "At least I'm getting better."
"I still feel that you should consider armor." Marigold states from nearby, safely away from the targets as she tended to Rosaline.
"I want to be able to take others by surprise. That's kinda hard to do if you're suited up from head to toe." Adriana replies as she takes a sip of water, then turns sharply to Marigold. "Plus, this is coming from someone that refuses to get a weapon! What shall happen if you and little Rosie are separated from the rest of us and you need to defend yourselves?"
"If that were to happen, I'll do what I must and attempt to return to everyone as soon as we can." Marigold replies easily.
"You're too easy going sometimes Mari." Adriana mutters, then goes back into training. She uses tumbles and flips as she does so, attempting to hit targets as she does so.