Sheryl simply ignored the question, pointing to a fountain in the middle of the town square. In the center was a statue of the first Auditore Primarch, Antonio di Auditore. Adorned in his heavy plate mail and armed with a spear and shield, Antonio had battled against the other kingdoms of the time, those of the other three noble families. However, regardless of his prowess in battle and sharp tactical mind, he had been felled by a simple disease. One that the Florentine family had created a cure for since. It was a bitter reminded to the family that even the mightiest warrior can fall. "This is our first stop, Ambassador Sforza." Sheryl informed, using the proper terminology for someone of Rudolf's current station. She stood by the fountain, waiting for the other two to join her, a political smile on her face, regardless of her station as a General.

       The brown tressed man that had accompanied the two, however, was not quite as tactful. He expression looked dark and he seemed to be brooding over something. His thoughts went to images of the bunny maids that Fredrick kept at his side. That Fredrick most certainly used as his personal playthings. He shook the thoughts from his mind, however, when he noticed Sheryl shoot him a look. There were no telling differences in her appearance, but that glance sent a cold shiver down the lieutenant's spine.

OOC: Hope you're computer is better, Violet.

The rabbit looked down the stairs, "Depends on how
they're armed.   I don't have a weapon...  in fact I was kinda
at a party.” Toby looked at his attire with some level of bemusement, “I’m not
sure how strong the connection is here to use, well, other offensive
means.  You don't have an extra weapon do you?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ale flipped the creature around to prevent another escape
attempt just in time to see one of the small tusks break off and fall.   A quiet sound was heard, an obtuse clunking
noise as if a light weight object of non-metallic origins had fallen from a
good height.   He’d been wearing spectacles, which had caused
cuts with every hit to the face he’d taken, a lens cracked.  Blood dripped from where the tooth had broken
loose, and there was the beginning of a welt forming above one of his
eyes.  The diminutive deer slumped a
little, too stunned to really react by this point. 

The last thing he’d remember was panicking when Toby was
about to leave and jumping to knock him aside so the Sibken couldn’t take
him.  Suddenly there was a rainbow of
colors everywhere and he’d gotten extremely dizzy, after that he’d fallen into
stone and hurt his knee, then the vertigo had caught up with him and he’d
started puking.  Then he’d been
attacked.  He couldn’t read this guy, not
now, he couldn’t even really see.  But he
did have a weapon, he was little and this guy had no idea about the growth
patterns of his species.   He had a round
face, abnormally large facial features, and a frail looking body.  This wouldn’t be the first race to mistake
his age. 

Ale looked at the pitiful creature, scanning the bloodied
deer for a sign of aggression or defiant body language, but there was none from
his limp form.  Instead the deer’s throat
suppressed a noise and tears started to form in his eyes. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joey looked at her for a few moments, squinting some as if
he was trying to focus.  Then seemed to
give up and turn his head away shakily and seemed to stare at the stairway, “We
did nothing wrong, Father.”  The boy rang
his hands rather clumsily and stumbled over to the bars, gripping them to
stabilize himself and muttering again, “I did nothing wrong, Father.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arccy scanned what he had and what the man had prepared
mutter to himself.  “Gunpowder, yellow,
orange, silver…  Potassium nitrate…
charcoal…  sulfur…  yellow, sulfur…  Silver, potassium… orange…  Dichromate? 
No, no, that’s not right, no good, wrong oxidizer…”   The squirrel flailed his arms and shoved it
all away.

“What to do, what to do… 
Always a way out.  Think Arccy
think…  AH!”  He yelped and started snatching bottles, “Nitric
Acid…  Sulfric Acid.. cool!  Just need to nitrate some...”  He looked around wildly and suddenly looked
defeated muttering, “No toluene… and no benzene to make it…  Man… ”

He flopped down and stared at the concoction that Hector had
made.  “The dichromate shouldn’t do too
much, just help the speed of the oxidation… 
But if…”  The Squirrel suddenly
brightened and stood up, pulling the mix toward him and reached in his coat.  He looked around as if he was about to cheat
on a test, then pulled out two things. 
The first being a baggie of plain white powder, which he dumped into
hector’s mix, letting a strand of fabric droop over the side.  “Guess it’s a good thing perchlorate doesn’t
react with sulphur like this stuff does.” 
He muttered glaring accusingly at the silver chunk lying on the
table.  The second was a small pill that
looked to be full of some brown liquid.  

He watched Hector holding the men at bay waiting the agonizing
time for the mixture to solidify around the little pill he’d placed in the
middle.  “Lessee bright light, heat, and a
very nasty thiol compound should be enough to ruin their day... and week.”  He babbled shuddering at the terrible smell
this would leave in the area and on the guards for who knew how long.  “Hope Hector stands back when I set this off…”

The squirrel picked up his odd little stink-flare and
scrambled to Hector, “’Ey! Where we gonna run when I toss this? ”

“I’m not sure how strong the connection is here to use, well, other offensive means. You don't have an extra weapon do you?" the rabbit had said, which just dumbfounded Ari even more. She didn't understand if it was dry sarcasm or what and what was this about a connection? She blinked, ignorant of Toby and just lost in general for a brief second from trying to understand it. '...a party?' the thought stuck out as she ran her hand to her face in mid-breath. She removed her hand a moment later.

"I will take tha-" he had began before she interrupted him withdrawing a short sword from her side, her longest weapon and one she didn't use often. It was from her low detail, so she didn't find it very significant anyway. "Will this do?" she asked, intending to hand it over if he cared for it. "If not, all I have is short blades and my bow-- nothing worth close combat." she commented afterward-- looking to the hare.

The rabbit nodded, "Should be fine, I've been around long enough to pick of some tricks."  He tested the sword, a little clumsily at first but a few swings and he seemed to steady enough that he wasn't going to kill himself.  He looked at the weapon and nodded, then looked back at Ari, his eyes still rather wide and unassuming, "So long as we're on the same side and going down there... You may run into two friends of mine.  A blond kid in a blue coat and another short guy with brown hair in a green shirt and shorts.  I'd be rather upset if they got hurt."  He held the blade out straight and balanced it, "And if you see a strange little rabbit boy with red eyes, please tell me as soon you can... It's my son."

       Ale sighed to himself, wondering how things could look any worse. Taking a moment while the deer boy cried, the fox looked him up and down. No signs of any for of weapon that he recognized, no look of any for of combat training, nothing that would hint at any kind of threat at all. However, regardless of all that, one thing bothered him to the point that he couldn't quite get it out of his mind. "What in the bloody hell are you?" questioned the fox quite bluntly. Kieran quieted himself for a moment, looking up at the assassin with a mix of confusion and shock.

      "Excuse me?" asked the deer, the reality of the situation setting in, "What do I look like! I'm a Cervoid!" Baxter shot a perplexed look at the fox standing before him.

      Ale nearly laughed, finding the term to be amusing. "I see you've stopped crying." commented the white fox with a grin, Kieran bringing his hand to his forehead as he realized what he'd done, "And I haven't the slightest idea what a sevdoid is."

      "Cervoid!" shouted the deer in response to the mispronunciation.

      "Whatever..." returned the fox, "Well, you don't seem like much of a threat anyway, nor do you look like you belong here." Ale sighed, scratching the back of his head, looking down the corridor that he had been running down. "I guess I should apologize for roughing you up. Tell you what, Fang-boy, I'll get the two of us out of here and treat you to a drink, on me. Least I can do for what happened to your face."

Kieran's hand moved his mouth, then his eyes widened.  And slowly, slowly they drifted down to the ground.  And even more slowly across the ground to where the bloodied piece of tusk lay.  This time it was real tears he was holding back, he gritted his teeth and said nothing ripping one of his sleeves off with some degree of difficulty and putting it to the spot were the little fang had been.  He slid to the ground against the wall and closed his eyes muttering, "I've been trying to grow those since I was thirteen."  The events that lead to this finally started to coalesce in his mind since the beating had finally stopped. This place looked like a creepy old Humanoid movie.  He smiled a little, he loved using that term on humans, they'd coined ending their races with -oid so he did the same to them.  A bunch of self important narcissists.  Then it hit him.  He wasn't on the ship anymore.  He must not have been quick enough, story of his life, and instead of knocking them apart he'd gone with them.  Arccy had taken them both to... wherever... whenever, this was.  And if this guy was a nice guy for this place then he wasn't going to last long when he met others.. not so nice.  His face soured.  That squirrel, he'd ruined everything, it took so long to find somewhere like the Odyssey, somewhere with...

His eyes shot open and one word came out of his mouth, a little muffled by the rag but still audible,  "*#$@!"  Almost instantly he clapped his hands over his mouth, looking up at Ale like a kid who'd just accidentally let the f-bomb slip in front of his mother.

Hector had both of his hands pressed against the door to the room. He had no idea how many men were on the other side trying to bang it down, but this game could not last forever.With a grunt, he answered, "See the window? Soon as you tell me to stand back, I'm going to get outta the way. You chuck that thing and jump out the window, you hear?"

Strangely enough, Hector's thoughts were not even with himself at that moment. He was wondering what had become of his wife, Aurelia...

An Auditore soldier turned his head over his shoulder and glared at her. "What?"

"I think this boy is ill."

The Auditore harrumphed. "Oldest trick in the book, lady."

"Oh come on," Aurelia protested. "It's not like I'm going to suddenly get clever on you, or have you not noticed the infant in my hands?"

The Auditore turned around fully. "Look, it's bad enough that I'm the only one down here right now. I'm not the one you should be complaining to. Try talking to management."

Aurelia snapped, "And where would that be?"

"Probably back in Venetzia right about now."

She rolled her eyes and then looked down at Joey. So, there was only one guard in this cell block?

"And who might this be?" Rudolf asked, looking up at the statue.

"Antonio di Auditore, one of the finest soldiers ever to walk Azgarde," Sheryl answered.

"Ah yes...felled by a flu or something, was he not? Now every Auditore is a paranoid hypochondriac," Rudolf observed tactlessly.

"We still have much to see," Sheryl said, trying to remain diplomatic. "If you'll come this way..."

Rudolf held up a hand. "My dearest Sheryl..."

"Ambassador, at least afford her the respect of her title," Volke said before his mind caught up to his mouth. Sheryl shot him a fierce glare. Rudolf smiled.

"Of course; my deepest apologies. Dame Sheryl..."

"Sir," she corrected.

Rudolf's smile dropped. "Come again?"

"Sir Sheryl," she answered.

Exactly five seconds lapsed. Then, Rudolf said, "The Auditores are entirely foolish, down to their honorifics. Sir Sheryl, aren't you the least bit curious as to why there are now Auditore family members dead? The effects could make their way down to creatures of your stature."

Ari nodded, while making note of her supplies-- one short-bladed knife remained and she maybe had two or three miniature bolts for her close quarters crossbow. That left her bow in full condition and her main ammo supply in droves. She was fine with that. She drew her combat bow and prepared it. "I'm sure they'll be noticeable if they are in the cages below, then." she replied, finally as she began to move downward into the dungeons. Ari had no idea of how many guards, how well armed or how many caged fools there would be to sap through. But it was just a castle stockade afterall, it wasn't THAT large. That at least inspired some peace of mind to the female fox. "I hope you find your friends, whatever words mean to you." she spoke once again before preparing for the dungeons themselves.

The first guard she would see would have an arrow lodged in his forehead or neck, depending if he was facing her or not...

      Ale sighed, patting the creature on the head. Looking around to make sure no one had heard the deer's weeping, he said, "Ok, tell you what. Pick up your tooth and we'll get you to see a Florentine. Just hush up a bit before you lure someone with a bit less forgiveness than I." It was then that Ale heard it, foot steps echoing through the corridor. He cursed under his breath. He couldn't wait anymore. Picking up Kieran's lost fang and grabbed the deer, throwing him over his shoulder. "What are you doing! Let go of me!" shouted the vampire deer in protest.

      The fox ignored his plea, and ran through the halls. With the struggling deer in tow, he was slowed significantly. He turned a bend that he wished he hadn't. Standing before him were two more Auditore guards. The three and Kieran's hind quarters exchanged stares, none of them knowing quite how to react to this sudden situation that was forced upon them. Ale mentally cursed himself for not hearing them, most likely being the fault of the still struggling Cervoid. Finally catching their wits, the two guards drew their blades and swung at the fox who deftly jumped back and continued running. He rushed into the nearest room, finding it to be a bed chamber, and shut the door. A quick flip of his wrist and the bracer on his left arm glowed with a dim purple light.

     The, now three having joined with the one from before, guardsmen burst through the door. The room was empty. One of the Auditore men rushed to the window and looked out of it. There was nothing, the window hadn't even been opened. Finding the bed chamber empty, the three ran out of the room to search in other places. Meanwhile, Ale and Kieran watched from their perch on the ceiling of the room.

____________________________________________________________________

     Sheryl merely made a motion toward a group of market stalls that were still open, despite the aura of gloom in the air. "If you would just follow me, Ambassador." offered the woman with the curt smile of a politician. Her expression gave no hint as to her thoughts, save from the obvious desire to do her duty in giving the Sforza boy a tour. Either she honestly enjoyed giving Rudolf a run of the city, or she was hiding something, but even if she was, it wasn't obvious what it could be.

     Rudolf didn't like the idea of the game of cat and mouse any more than he liked being led by the woman, the very thought of it repulsive in his mind. Volke on the other hand, could barely contain his mixed feelings of rage and curiosity. A thought ran through his head of the Auditore family. A thought of Fredrick. A thought of Fredrick's untimely end in battle. A thought of freeing Sheryl from his clutches. But he pushed these thoughts aside, knowing how the General would react if she knew. But they were still there... pressing at his subconscious.

"Right!  Ready up!"  The squirrel grinned and put the fabric in his hand.  "Here we go again.  Hope I can pull this off, haven't heated anything up enough to ignite in years."  He stared at the piece of cloth, letting himself into that odd energy layer the Warden drew power from.  Slowly, he forced the energy to make every molecule in the air around the fabric move faster... and faster, is was like running at breakneck speed but still trying to stop on a dime.  Finally, it started to brown, a few more moments and,  "OW!"  Arccy jerked his singed paw away from the burning fabric wiggling it and blowing on it for a few moments.  Then realizing the fabric was still burning.

"OPEN IT!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The boy continued staring at the stairwell silently, almost as if he were waiting for something... or somebody.  He was perfectly still either, he shuddered a little at random.  The inside of his ears was red, not pink, indicating something was causing blood to rush to them.  They were probably hot to the touch, if one dared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tobias nodded and followed, flipping the short sword for an initial upward cut. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The deer wasn't stupid, he knew too keep quiet.  But he also knew the other were nearby and leaving to goto some medieval tooth doctor was not an option.  He shut his eyes again, not wanting to think about what was going to happen when they found Tobias.

"Oh, very funny," Aurelia said. The Auditore guard marched up to the bars and grimaced at her.

"You watch your tongue, wench. I'm the only one down here, which means I make all the rules here, and if I get tired of hearing you, I don't answer to nobody when I correct the problem."

"What are you going to do? Cut my tongue out?" she dryly questioned, expressing no fear from the lowly guard. His eyes fell on her child.

"That brat of yours won't live to his next birthday, that's what," he said. Instinctively, she withdrew and glared at him.

"You wouldn't."

"The hell I wouldn't. Maybe a prissy, snooty noble like you doesn't get it, but this is war, and like we always say in Venetzia..."

The sentence was punctuated with an arrow suddenly protruding from the Auditore's larynx. His eyes rolled back into his head almost immediately before he dropped to the floor. Aurelia's mouth fell open. Standing behind the slain guard was a female fox and a male rabbit. The female fox squinted at Aurelia, as if she were doing a mental calculation. Eventually, she asked, "Are you related to a nobleman about this tall, this broad, and with this much tact?" When speaking about tact, Ari pinched her thumb and forefinger together. Aurelia hesitantly said, "Yes..."

Joey twitched when he noticed Toby.

With a flourish of feigned interest, Rudolf began haggling with a fruit vendor. Volke and Sheryl stood by, watching silently. When he was satisfied with his purchase, Rudolf turned and said, "Well, that was a fruitful negotiation! Shall we continue? I would very much like to see where your smiths work, if you don't mind."

"You still with me, Shorty?"

"Fie!" Arc shouted, waving a small fist. "I'm not jumping through any more reinforced glass tonight!"

"Hang on," Hector said. He hurried away toward the city gates, praying that the others were on their way there. Arccy swung limply by the tail in Hector's massive hand.

     Ale fiddled with his sleeve a bit more, sure that the guards were long gone. The purple hue suddenly vanished and the two dropped like a couple of stones. Ale landed on his feet, catching the deer in midair, as he surely would have smacked his head into the ground once more. Placing the creature down, the fox peaked through the door's keyhole. The hall was empty from what he could see. He motioned for Kieran to follow him, also raising a finger to his lips in a shushing motion.

     Opening the door, Ale creeped out and into the hallway. Possibly judging it best to stick close to the only person who wasn't currently trying to kill him, or maybe even out of sheer fright, the deer followed him. Ale didn't really care which it was, just as long as his companion kept quiet. They shuffled into the corridor, sliding through the shadows and into the darkness. Soon they came across a spiral staircase. The fox looked down both passages and upon seeing no one other than Baxter, handed the deer the dagger that he had found in the caves below. "You're probably safer here." whispered the assassin, releasing the dagger, "I will return shortly to escort you out of this place."

     A shocked look came over Kieran. "Bu-" And the fox was gone, running down the stairs. The Cervoid tried to follow, regardless of the warning, but even as he reached the bottom of the staircase, Ale was simply gone. The only sign that the fox had been there at all was a plume of dust at the foot of the stairs. Kieran looked on through the darkened passage and in the distance he could have sworn he saw a certain yellow rabbit.

____________________________________________________________

     Sheryl made yet another motion for the group to continue on, however, this time she was interrupted. "Sir! If I might have a moment?" shouted out Volke, saluting as he did so. Sheryl simply glanced in his direction, a light wind tussling her violet hair. She made no effort to speak, no movements at all. There was a distinct and threatening aura in the air around the hare. Volke nearly cringed, almost expecting to be run through. Invidia simply turned away from her lieutenant and began walking in the direction of the cities artisan's quarters. Volke gulped, a nervous wave flowing over him. "I apologize, ma'am..." Then Volke covered his mouth, shocked at what he himself had just said.

     Sheryl stopped dead in her tracks, turning to look toward her subordinate. It was a simple term, ma'am, one often used in reference to women. There was nothing wrong with it in any typical sense, even in Auditore culture. And yet, Volke's skin turned pale at the look he was now receiving from his commander. The feeling of dread could be felt by all those around, all falling silent and simply watching.

"Yes..." the female noble had replied if not hesitantly, however her lack of care to answer to Ari did not surprise or spring any reaction in the female fox. But then she heard something, the patter of footsteps.... maybe voices? from the staircase she had just came from, she narrowed her eyes and turned an arrow in her bow's reigns almost on instinct. The guards probably had found that corpse and were on the move. "We might have company, so how about you free those individuals now?" Ari was ready to fire an arrow at any moment as the deer emerged-- though surely he would yell in some assumption of familiarity of the hare, which would in turn cause Toby to make sure Ari did not fire the bow pre-emptively??

It would probably save the deers life as Ari wouldn't be so quick to notice it was an unarmed fur when she was on such alert...

OOC: Man this moves fast! It's only been Thursday since my last post! Oh well I guess I gotta step it up if I'm gonna stay on top of things. Once AGAIN sorry for the delay, and apologies to Gem.

IC:
The castle was there, right in front of them, but the ground between Taltae and Alexis was borderline impassable. Soldiers were everywhere. The scenery surrounding the would hinder them more than it would help, now considering the castle being on alert. "Well Miss Cordua," the adventurer began with a scared chuckle at his joke, "I don't supose we can take the front door." Alexis remained silent surveying the area, looking for any possible opening that would lead them to their destination. Taltae just sighed as he sunk back into the alleyway they were hiding in. There was a lot of ground to cover in order to get to the castle, and every path seemingly lead to conflict. "I think I see a way, but we may have to dirty our hands," Alexis finally spoke up. "Great in the middle of a war, and I didn't even bring a weap-" Taltae rolled his head to the side at the sudden realization. Of course he had a weapon, the blade Alexis gave him. He really didn't want to use it, but the survival knife wouldn't fare to well in a straight-up sword duel.

"Well if we must. I guess it can't be helped considering our situation." Taltae took a deep breath to try and calm his nervousness. It has been a long time since he had been in a fight. The soldiers meant to kill if they crossed paths with anyone not allowed on royal gorunds. Dead not alive. That also meant that the soldiers would most likely have to die as well. To die or be left wounded. Taltae wished neither, but if he had to fight, then he would fight to maim. There was already too much blood on his hands, he needem't add any more. "Alright then," Taltae said with a nervous nod, "If we get out Gallia alive, again, the drinks are on me!" He walked up beside the Shifter, taking a moment to clear his mind. "'Tis your move. I follow up the rear," he sighed, Let's make this as clean as possible!"

He couldn't see very well, one eye was starting to swell and impede is vision further.  One brown furred hand steadied him against the side of the hallway, descending right into the vixen's firing path.

Toby was already at the door looking rather open-mouthed at the boy.  He felt a massive surge of hope, years had passed since he'd vanished.  Years not knowing, following half truths and failing to find him.  He wanted to hug him, pick him up, tell him it was all over.  But then his mind screamed at him.  Kieran was to his right on the stairwell, and Ari was about to kill him.  There was dust in the way, she couldn't make him out, why was there dust?  Too late,  No choice.

"Fwip!"  The arrow left the bow just as the world turned to an abyss.  He gritted his teeth from the sudden vertigo and pulled away from the bars and jerking himself around in what felt like a miasma of water, water he could breath in.  He could see the arrow leaving, it was slower but it was also twice as close to the target.  The rabbit knew it might not work, but things would fall to pieces if he failed.  He summoned what energy he wasn't using to force his legs to run in the thick void covering the whole area and drew from it, forcing the same energy impeding his progress into his body to generate more speed.  The arrow was closer, so was Kieran.  His heart fell now that it was clearer, the deer's face was bleeding, it looked horrible.  Toby fought back emotion and forced himself to run, to drain the energy and propel himself at the arrow, that damned arrow heading straight for his Kieran.  It would all fall apart, if the deer died he would not be able to keep his emotions in check.  Joey was feel them and react, he would use that damned creature.  A creature with no problem killing whatever target it was handed.  It was so close now, he was less than a meter from it, but it was less than a meter from it's target, his right foot hit the ground.  One last step, one last chance, he forced it all into his left leg and threw his whole body to the right praying to cross the arrows final moments, stop it, and miss Kieran in the process.  His foot left the ground and the void suddenly vanished.  Everything rushed in, the wind deafened him, then nothing.

*Fwip*
*Thock*
*Whump*

Three sounds less than a moment apart, Ari stared as her target rocked backward as if the arrow hit it's shoulder, but did not slam against the wall like it should if she hit it.  Instead it rebounded as the dust cleared and the deer came into view.  She'd missed?  Impossible, not at this range.  Then she saw movement on the opposing wall, to the right of the deer in the opening where the final sound of something large hitting the wall had come.  The fox's eyes widened seeing the white mantle there, with it's owner slumped on the ground.  It was still for what seemed like an eternity. She was dumbfounded, how did he get there?  Did the arrow hit him?  Was he..   Suddenly the rabbit cried out holding his right arm and rolled over in pain.  Ari's arrow sticking cleanly through the flesh in his arm. 

Aurelia stood holding her son, one hand over her mouth, still trying to figure out what just happened.  Joey, for once, was the only one to move.  The boy grabbed the bar holding the lock, one hand above and one hand below and gave the lock his blank stare.   Smoke suddenly rose from both as his small paws seemed to flare a bright bluish white and they slowly compressed into fists, a grey liquid running from them and solidifying on the cell floor.  Both Ari and Aurelia could feel the heat coming from him.  Finally the small rabbit opened his hands to reveal both sides of the bar were gone, freeing the door from it's lock.  He took one hand, palm out and shoved the door just hard enough for it to swing open.  Then walked slowly out toward the fallen rabbit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arccy contorted himself around and grabbed his own tail, using to the crawl up to Hector's shoulders.  He grabbed onto any garment he could and suddenly his head darted upward and back toward the castle, he blinked, ears twitching like epileptic satellite dishes.  "Hey!  Whoa!  Dude! Massive... thingy.  It's like someone is...  Oh WOW!  He's doing it!  He must be doing it!  We gotta go back!"  He started incessantly tapping the large man's head like a woodpecker, "Toby's doing THAT stuff, he's in trouble.  We gotta go back."

The ability White Warden of substantial rank learned was total empathic
detection and control in a large sphere that extending nearly fifteen
meters around them.  They could use this huge amount of energy for any
purpose, but it's range was limited.  Toby had taken those powers a step
further learning a trick from Tanmaslak.  Because of the symbiote creature the
Art wasn't disorienting to him; so unlike Warden who trained their whole lives to learn to focus when using the dimensional boundary its already home to him.  Because of that combining the White Warden total control with the creature's affinity for the boundary he can phase into the boundary layer where time crawls.  It gives the impression of extremely fast moment, again limited to his total control range. 

Was this.... Daemonis Cyrstallini? Ari had to wonder as the rabbit was here in one instant and in front of her arrows trajectory in another, her eyes widening and her mouth opening in a bit of utter awe. "...what in the name of our maker?" she blankly spoke out loud as she rose her hand to her emerald green eyes, still in disbelief for a second. She even quivered herself, if only for a moment. 'What... did I just... I don't get..... why?' her train of thought was scrambled as the cell door came open and she heard footsteps off in the deer and hare's direction. She had opened her eyes as a result, taking a deep breath. "Damn these instincts." she managed as she moved her bow to a passive stance and began to move if a little to the hares direction, albeit inquisitively.

"I apologize for the arrow-induced wound, but instincts are a mess." she spoke clearly, though she wasn't sure if he heard her or not as he didn't make a direct response immediately. Ari had also felt the intense heat moments ago, but she dismissed it for whatever reason-- perhaps likening it to thinking it was Daemonis Cyrstallini? Probably.

"I hope this doesn't make the escape more problematic." she commented again as she glanced back to the female noble. "We should be getting you back to my charter then, am I right?"

The noblewoman only nodded, still in awe of the whole events before her..

"TOBY!  NO!"  The deer cried out suddenly, finally getting his head around the events and half running half falling to the rabbit's side.  He looked wide eyed at the arrow,  "What do I do?  How do I get it out?!  Toby why?"  He looked up at the fox, "What's wrong with you?!  Is everyone in this place a bloodthirsty lunatic?!  If had my pistol I'd put a whole CLIP into you!  First a fox beats my face in and now another fox tries to put a arrow in me."  The young man was starting to lose it as the young rabbit finally made it to the scene, "Joey!  Joey is that you?  Kill this witch!"  Kieran jabbed a finger at Ari accusingly. 

The boy slowly looked over at Ari, pinkish red eyes staring at her.  For a moment she had a strange uneasy feeling, she couldn't explain it but it was almost like she expected the boy to actually somehow attack her.  Then he spoke, slowly as per his custom,  "No... Father would have already, if he wanted."   The boy turned back to Tobias and slowly knelt down and took the rabbit's uninjured hand, looking at the man's grimacing face with the same blank stare.  He just seemed to be waiting for someone else to help. 

(OOC: --

Edit: Please disregard this post. Or delete it. Made a mistake. XD;)

"What the...? Doing what stuff?" Hector asked, coming to a stop.

"The...you know...it's all wibbly-wobbly and timey-wimey," Arc said, rather unhelpfully, using hand gestures to accentuate the vagueness of his point.

Hector frowned in frustration. "That's not very helpful to me. Who is Toby?"

"You'd understand if you knew him. We gotta go back," Arc pleaded. Hector groaned. No, he had no actual obligation to go back at the squirrel's request, but a troublesome moral obligation told him to make the trip anyway.

"Alright, but this better be worth throwing ourselves back into mortal danger," he muttered, loping off back to the castle through back alleys.

"First, you need to calm down," she said plainly.

"Calm down? How can I?" he shrieked in a high-pitched voice. Aurelia grabbed him by his collar and leaned in close.

"Listen here, kid," she said with the expression of a stern mother, "first thing you're going to do is take a deep breath. You are of no help to absolutely anyone while you're coming apart."

Kieran was on the edge of hyperventilating, but something about the cross expression on this woman with a baby in one hand and his collar in the other told him to shut up, if only for a moment.

"Good. Now, break off the shaft of that arrow. Don't remove the barb yet; it's plugging the wound from spurting every which way. I can help your friend, but not here and now."

Kieran flopped onto the ground when she released him; he hastened to do her bidding. "You can? How?"

"Believe me," Aurelia said with conviction, "if there's anything I know how to handle, it would be lunkheads and people who get stuffed full of arrows. You should meet my husband."

"Sir Sheryl, I am not here to be privy to your frivolity. I believe you were instructed to give me a tour of Venetzia, not to direct expressions fit only for statues at both me and your subordinate. If I am to show you respect, you must do the same for me. Am I clear on that matter?"

Sheryl's eyes turned to Rudolf's. She turned and said, "This is the way to the artisans' quarters."

As the trio proceeded, Volke felt a hand on his shoulder. He and Rudolf were behind Sheryl, so Rudolf had no qualms about whispering into the lieutenant's ear, "Old boy, don't humiliate her more than Fredrick already has."

It was a brief comment, and Rudolf pulled away almost immediately thereafter, but the words stuck with Volke.

"Before we go I need to change," Alexis commented, "until I know more about Miss Cordua I can't go soiling her hands with blood I spill". So saying Alexis Shifted again, this time not taking on the shape of anyone she had met, but rather, forming a composite shape. It was an art developed since the early days of her education at the hands of the Wisps, something they did everything to encourage in Shifters. They started it as a childhood game: Take two other people at random, one sitting on one side of you, the other on the other side with a mirror in front of you. Now try to Shift your eyes, so that each eye is the same as one belonging to either person. Now try the same with your ears. Now the hands. That was how it would begin- and it would be done with a different pair of people each time- but it would become more challenging as time went on. Now try to Shift your eyes so the colour and shape are a mixture of the colour and shape of those either side of you. Now the same with the size and shape of your nose. Now the same with the colour of hair and skin. Now the same with your body type. Now without the mirror. By the time a Wisp-trained Shifter was into their teens, they would be capable of assuming a huge number of composite shapes- shapes that resembled no actual existing individual but were composed of well-mixed aspects of many. That was one reason why a Shifter Wisp need never wear a mask: it didn't matter how many people saw your face if the face was not your own.

In this instance, Alexis assumed short hair of chestnut brown, cold grey eyes, and pretty but harsh features- perhaps the look of an attractive human girl whose innocence had been lost by hard living as a mercenary. She kept her body-type close to her own and changed her clothing to resemble her usual attire, though in deep shades of grey. She'd have to resume Artimia's shape before she met up with any of the others again, but this was the shape she would use to pass the soldiers and gain the castle. "All set," she remarked to Taltae in a voice that had the rough edge of a growl to it, "time to join the chaos. And if we all get out alive again, I'll buy you a bottle of something strong you can take with you afterwards!" Taltae took in her new shape. "You've been Alexis, you've been Artimia, what do I call you now?" he asked. "Since we don't have time to be imaginative," Alexis answered, "if you need to get my attention in front of these soldiers just call me 'Art'. It'll do for now". As she finished speaking there was a tremendous, uproar from the direction of the Alchemist's Guild, and the sounds of running feet and loud screams. If it caught the attention of Alexis and Taltae, it certainly caught the attention of the milling soldiers, many of whom took off running in the direction the commotion had come from. "What was that?!"Taltae exclaimed, demonstrating commendable self-control by exclaiming in a fierce whisper rather than a shout. "Hazarding a guess," Alexis answered, "I'd say Hector just tried being imaginative. Well, he's cleared the way for us a little, but we still won't be welcome guests and I think its safe to say we're now on an even tighter schedule. Let's get moving!" So saying Alexis darted out of the shadows and made a beeline for the castle, Taltae not far behind her.

Their sudden arrival- immediately after such a pronounced uproar- drew immediate attention. A soldier ran to intercept Alexis, immediately earning her disfavour by drawing a sword as he approached. Alexis avoided the sweeping blow he aimed at her by going into a forward roll, stopping at the very feet of the swordsman and then- before he could react- striking from that prone position with a kick that elicited an unnaturally high-pitched scream from the victim as the concealed blade housed in Alexis's boot connected with his groin. As the man doubled over Alexis rose smoothly to her feet and took hold of her off-balance victim, shoving him forcefully into the path of more oncoming soldiers. As they went down with a clatter Alexis advanced. Another soldier approached, fully armoured and wielding a battle-axe. He aimed a downward-sweeping blow at Alexis that would have cloven her from shoulder to waist had it landed. Instead Alexis intercepted the blade with her gauntlets, redirecting it rather than blocking it and using the opening created by redirecting it to seize and twist the man's arm, forcing him to drop the axe. As it fell from his hand Alexis snatched it up  and released the man, swinging the axe so that the flat of the heavy axe-head connected hard with his helmet. It resounded like a gong and the man fell stunned to the ground. Discarding the weight of the axe in favour of speed of movement, Alexis advanced. While more of the remaining soldiers rushed to block their path Alexis quickly cast a glance behind her to check on Taltae. Using Artimia's blade he was holding his own against the Auditore soldiers, fighting to maim rather than kill. Alexis admired that- no needless slaughter and simply incapacitating them would save time. She dodged to one side as a spear was thrust at her, catching ahold of the shaft and tugging so that the owner- caught off-guard by the move, suddenly lost his grip and his footing at once. Keeping ahold of the weapon, Alexis swept it in a wide, low circle around her, taking the feet out from under several soldiers and creating a fleeting lull in combat. Seeing the door unguarded she called to Taltae, "let's stop playing around here and get going!" before dropping the spear and running swiftly to the door she had been aiming at- one still part open that the guards had been emerging from.

OOC: This post has been edited as per the details of the bomb Arc set off, due to misinterpretation of its nature on my part- sorry to whoever posts next about that!! ^^;          

      As they approached the artisan's quarters, Volke mulled over what Rudolf had said. He was silent the rest of the way there. The artisan's quarter was large and active, much of the cities business coming through here. The smell of smoke and steel filled the air, as well as a few scents that were difficult to discern. Sheryl approached a blacksmith's shop that was close to the quarter's gate. Several weapons of steel and iron were displayed in the front of the shop, all for sale. The rear of the shop, where the men and women in the blacksmith's employ was walled off.

     "This is the artisan's quarter, where many of our weapons are forged." stated the bunny with a political smile. Volke was quiet, uncharacteristically so. The weight of his thoughts were apparent, but the Auditore General didn't have time to set him straight.

Taltae looked at Alexis in amazement as she motioned him forward. She handeled those soldiers with such skill and precision that it almost seemed unnatural. 'Well of course it's unnatural,' Taltae thought as he started to clumsily jog toward the castle's entrance, 'Shifters aren't what you would call natural!' Alexis took only a brief second to make sure Taltae was following before she darted inside the castle. He grasped the door as he tried desperately to keep up with the Shifter. He took a glance inside before closing large door behind him. There were more soldiers in the entrance hall, less than outside, but with these tight quarters the duo had no advantage. They quickly noticed the new arrivals and drew their weapons. However, this time they took off in the opposite direction. Taltae gave a puzzeled look at Alexis who was paying no mind to the adventurer behind her. He just shrugged and followed her as she took off again.

She turned down the corridor off to the right at a blazing speed. She was definitely in a hurry, and from the sounds coming from the background he could guess why. The castle was in an uproar. Loud yelling could be heard in the distance. Intruders were in the castle, and Taltae knew they weren't referring to him. There were doors lined up and down the left and right side of the long hallway. Each door had a marking on them designating the destatination that lay beyond their threshold. Taltae looked ahead at Alexis who was gaining some distance on him. In the next insatnt a door off to the left flew open and three soldiers came bolting out weapons raised. Talate let out a silent shriek as he tried to come to a stop succeeding only in falling on his ass. "There! Intruders!" the soldeir up front shouted to his comrades. Two more came marching out, and started off in Alexis' direction who was already en route to the distressed Taltae.

Taltae quickly made his way to his feet just as a blade fell in his previous posistion. He quickly went on the defenseive as another went to run their blade thorugh Taltae's gut. He quickly sidestepped the attack with the blade leaving a small, long red cut across his midsection. Taltae quickly pulled out the sword he had been given and brought it down, scabbard and all, across the backside of the attacking soldeirs neck. Taltae spun around to face the other two as the attacker fell to the ground unconscious. Taltae pulled the sword from its sheath and braced for the oncoming attack. The remaining two Auidtores came at him blindly without technique. Perhaps it was the hectic nature of everything going on, perhaps it was from fatigue, but whatever the case the lack of skill in the troops left one without fingers on his sword arm. Taltae quickly slapped the remaining soldier across the face with the flat side of the sword. The stunned Auidtore stumbbled backwards as another soldeir came crashing into him.

Taltae glanced down the hallway to see Alexis motioning to him. "Hurry!" she yelled leaping over the unconscious troop resting behind her. Taltae just nodded as he ran up beside her. "My apologies," she said, "We should stay closer together if we are to avoid anymore nasty surprises." "Agreed," Taltae said nearly out of breath, "This place has become volitile. We need to get to others and split before we become trapped." Alexis turned and began to move once again, moving at a slower pace than before. Taltae was grateful. It has been some time since he saw this much action, his body certainly wasn't used to this intensity.

"But, it'll hurt him...  I don't know if I can do that."  The deer said turning his eyes back to the arm with the arrow in it.  He shuddered, forgetting about his own wounds, including the fact that the cloth he was using for the hole in his mouth was rapidly becoming soaked with blood.  

"Kaybee..."  The rabbit was smiling, "You ok?  What happened?"

The deer's expression brightened, "What happened?  You got shot.  Why did you do that?"

Toby sighed, "Cuz I had too.  Do like she said, she can handle JayJay she knows how to handle this."  He raised the arm up slowly for him.  The deer nodded and tried his best to brace the arrow, that alone making the rabbit wince.  He let go and looked down in defeat, "I can't do it.  I just can't-" His explanation was cut short by the sound of the arrows shaft snapping and the rabbit yelping.   His head jerked back up to see Joey handing the arrow's shaft to Aurelia, it had been one motion with no hesitation.  The little rabbit looked at her with his offering, "Father can numb his arm so you can finish."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"We're not in danger.  But they might be!"  The squirrel yelped out as the large man took off with him on his shoulders.  Then an insidious grin crossed Arccy's face he thrust one hand in the air and cried out happily as they darted back into the two, "Hi-yo, Hector! Away!"

      Ale watched, perfectly hidden within the shadows. His eyes never left the rabbit, a sense of great unease surrounding the figure. Everything about the creature made the fox's instincts scream. However, there was also something there that reminded him of Magnus, something that he couldn't quite understand. It wasn't race. The newcomer, this Toby, was a rabbit while Magnus had been human. It wasn't appearance either, and Ale didn't know enough about the rabbit's personality for that to be it. Regardless, something just felt wrong.

     Everything that had happened recently ran through his mind. The assassination of the Royal Messenger, the attack on Gallia, the visions that were forcing their way into his mind. And then his mind was filled with memories of his adoptive father. He remembered when Magnus fell ill. The things he had said.

     It had been a cloudy day in the middle of Azgarde's Winter. Magnus, Ale, and one other were within the underground hideout. Ale's father lay in his bed, his face stricken with pain that he could no longer hide. His skin was pale and he was surely dying. He had only one regret, that he was leaving Ale alone in the world. He cried out in pain, grabbing the fox boy's shoulder and tears welling up in his eyes. "Alerolus, my son..." gasped the old man, "I taught you how to fight, but there's one thing I was never able to teach you..." Magnus stopped, trying to catch his breath. Every intake of air caused pain to shoot through his body. His prematurely white hair was ragged and his face bore a look of near horror as he stared into the eyes of the terrified child. "I was never able to teach you how to live." He stopped again. "I want you-" And he was gone, his hand still clasping the boy's shoulder, his eyes staring blankly at him, his mouth open as if still trying to form that last sentence. Ale's eyes filled with tears. The other entity in the room placed a hand on the fox boy's shoulder, but he didn't feel it. Standing up the little boy looked past the figure and to the stone bust of Magnus where the dead man's Daemonis Cyrstalini was kept. "What do I do?" asked the boy, seemingly to the small red crystal. The gem simply glowed in response.

    Ale looked down at the wrist that bore that same gem. Little did he know, that through the cloth of his sleeve, it was glowing once more.

(OOC: I still feel like I'm jumping in without enough info..since this left me in the dust when my computer died for 2 weeks, but....*shrug* Here goes....)

IC: Codeo fled through the streets.  No one had seen him snatch the bread from the vendor's cart...or at least he hoped they hadn't.   At least he wasn't being persued...yet.  He snorted.   Just let them TRY to catch me!  I can outmanuver ANY angry ol' shopkeep-- His boastful thoughts were interupted by a commotion from further down the street...in the direction he had just come from!

"Stop! Theif!"

"Uh oh!  Guess somebody saw me after all!" Nose twitching, he stuffed the bread sidewise into his long mouth, not eating it, but holding it there in order to leave both his hands free to manuver. Time to put my boasting to the test... Cody ducked into an alley, used a lader to vault onto a rather tattered awning, and in turn used the awning to trampoline onto the roof.  Ducking behind roof structures as he went, he leapt from roof to roof until he was sure he had lost the persuit.  He used a pipe to slide down the side of the building, ducking into a shadowy doorway that had long since lost it's door.  There was a stairway in the corner. It was falling apart, but there were still steps that he could jump to.  There was an unused closet at the side of one of the landings that he ducked into.  The 12-year-old youth listened tensely for several minutes, his small rounded ears switching as he strained to hear any signs of persuit.

Silence.

Codeo finally relaxed.  Opening his mouth, he removed the bread, breaking off a piece and devouring it ravenously.  He was a coatimundi.  A turquise coati with darker blue stripes on his arms, legs, and tail. A shock of unruly blond hair framed a face with intense cyan-colored eyes, the right one of which had a scar accross it.  Several other scars riddled his slight frame...His chest was bare, his pants not much more than tatters from a life on the streets. Hidden behind his left ear was a small, primitive stone-dagger, not much more than a sharp piece of stone.

When he had finished his bread, he glanced around warily once more and then moved behind some old boxes and curled up to sleep with one ear open for trouble...

TBC

(OOC: I still haven't decided where exactly he is...any suggestions?)

(OOC: There are a couple places he could be at this current point in the RP. The easiest would be to pop him into Venetzia, as there are already other members there right now. If you're feeling adventurous, you could drop him into Ocinius, the Sforza capitol, or Infleci, the Florentine capitol. However, if you're feeling even more so, you could create a small village on the outskirts of any of these cities as well as Gallia. However, with the current state of Gallia itself, it would be unwise for a theif to be stalking about as he would quickly find an arrow in his head. ^_^)

Alexis perhaps had an advantage over the Auditore troops swarming through the castle in that- having been a resident of the castle a handful of times- she knew its layout and a number of useful passages not appearing on the blueprints. Then again, the Auditores possessed the advantage of numbers and the quickest way to the dungeons presently was not through hidden corridors but directly through the regular ones. Again thanks to her handful of visits in the past, Alexis had met Aurelia maybe twice or three times- a small percentage of the times she had met Hector anyway. That doubtless made it highly unlikely that Aurelia would remember her- especially since she wasn't wearing her own face- but it meant that she stood a good chance of recognising Aurelia. As she and Taltae moved through the corridors of the castle Alexis let signs and memory guide her, their route going downwards and ever closer to the dungeons.

Before they got there another group of a half-dozen soldiers burst through a doorway leading to the castle's lower levels. Alexis took the initiative and ran towards them before they could properly fan out. Knocking aside the sword of one with a gauntlet, she delivered a low kick, shoving him hard in the chest at the same time, so that he and those unfortunate enough to be standing behind him, fell back down the staircase, the clatters and clashes of their armour on the stone echoing all the way down. That would probably draw even more soldiers from below or alert any nearby, Alexis mused, but it was time that was of the essence now, which meant that stealth was no longer a luxury they could afford. She had sent three soldiers down the stairway- she turned her attention to the other three. Taltae had already engaged two of them, and seemed to be holding his own without difficulty. The remaining aimed a blow from his war-hammer at Alexis's midsection. Alexis swiftly stepped inside the blow and grasped the shaft of the hammer, twisting it and shifting her position as she did so, the momentum of the soldier's swing, causing them both to spin around almost as though dancing. When they stopped and separated Alexis was holding the war-hammer. Before the soldier could draw another weapon Alexis casually threw the hammer back to him and reflexively he reached to catch it. As he did so Alexis took two strides forwards and delivered a powerful kick to his midsection, causing him to lose his balance and go clattering down the stairs as well.

Looking back to Taltae, Alexis saw that he had bested the two soldiers he had been contending with and was now walking over to join her. She listened intently for a few moments before  speaking. "I don't hear anyone moving down there," she informed Taltae, "so those might have been all the soldiers there were down this particular set of stairs. Nevertheless we'd best watch our step. I'm going to have to Shift back to Artimia now- once we're past these stairs we're into dungeon territory and that's likely where the others are. I can't say I like the idea of meeting more soldiers in Artimia's shape, but if that's the way it happens, so be it- I'd rather wound Auditore soldiers in her shape than get wounded by a friend in this one". So saying Alexis reverted to Artimia's shape and then she and Taltae made a cautious advance down the spiral stairway and towards the dungeons.  

Hector hastened through the streets in the intensifying dawn light. He had half a mind to set the little miscreant perched on his shoulder aflame, but there would be time to visit the alchemists' school later. Right now, he had to navigate his way back to the castle without getting ensnared. The increased visibility gave the advantage to the Auditores; Hector was not precisely what one might term inconspicuous. Indeed, the effects were felt almost immediately when his armour glinted in the sun. Arc took notice of this.

"You're getting awful shiny in the sunlight, Mister Hector."

Hector gave an exasperated sigh. One more thing to go wrong, wasn't it? He said, "Shorty, when I left you in the square, you did a disappearing trick on me. Was that 'cause of your gadget or whatever artifact you have? I could sure use some instant transmission right about now."

Before Arc could answer, a voice yelled, "There he is!"

Hector turned his head. Three Auditores were eyeing him from the other end of the alley. Hector cursed and barrelled down the next corner, able to hear the frantic whistles of the Auditores' alert. Much to his surprise, Auditores were now seemingly everywhere in town, cutting off access through the alleys systematically. Hector rounded another corner and stopped, allowing his mouth to fall open. They had hit a dead end.

"Now," she said, looking at Toby, "I need you to raise your leg. And you--" she looked at Joey "--have to dig in and pull that barb out. It's going to be a bloody nightmare of pain, but I'm going to tie this up enough to stave off the immediate bleeding. After that...well, we'll need to get into a place where I can help you properly. This isn't the time or the place for it."

Toby rolled onto his side and gingerly lifted his leg. Kieran was still blubbering. Ari was looking around, anxiously awaiting more Auditores. Ale was lost in his thoughts still, but Aurelia had noticed the Daemonis Crystallis glowing and wondered idly about it as Joey approached to do the dirty work.

"Why do you use bronze?" he asked. Sheryl blinked.

"We don't, Ambassador."

"Oh, my mistake. Let us keep going then, shall we?"

Sheryl found herself more than a little troubled by Rudolf's question. Walled off and out of sight was the site of the forges for culverins and other bronze cannons...but how did he know that?

Rudolf was not stupid. He knew the pretense of coming to Venetzia to negotiate diplomacy was false. He was here to conduct a little sly espionage, all because of his...condition...

      Sheryl swiftly led the ambassador out of the artisan's quarters, stepping back onto the cobblestone of the market. She turned sharply and looked down at the Sforza boy. "I think that this is a good time to end the tour." stated the rabbit general without turning to face Rudolf. The Sforza noble simply placed his hands together and stared at the woman. Regardless of her station as anything but a politician, the woman was nearly impossible to read completely. Then a thought came to the boy's mind, Maybe that is exactly what Fredrick had wanted. Being led around by the fur had been enough to aggravate him, but being played for a fool by such a man as Fredrick? That was going a bit far.

     "Why should we stop now?" questioned the Sforza nobleman, "There is still much of the city to see."

     The rabbit ignored the statement, her hand raised to her waist in a motion to display that they should head in that direction. "This way to return to the castle." she said curtly. At that very moment, a short and fat raccoon dressed in the garb of an Auditore soldier and a heavy mace slung over his shoulder rushed up to the woman. He saluted, his gauntleted hand clanking against his helmet.

    "Sir, Invidia! You've been requested to appear before the Primarch!" reported the small creature as he saluted once more and shuffled off.

    "What perfect timing." commented the rabbit general. There was one person who's relief at the sudden report was visually apparent. Volke gave a great sigh and scratched the back of his head. "If old Iron Heart is calling us back this early, then that means he probably wants something. Hopefully we'll be returning to Gallia. I've always wanted to taste the local flavor." Of course, upon looking up to see Sheryl staring at him with a less than satisfied look made him wish he hadn't spoken up so soon.

Arccy spoke while bouncing around on Hector's shoulders, "Actually it's a hereditary trait in Sibken that, once nurtured and trained allows us to use a psychic ability called Psiochronesis.  Basically I can, on a small level at least, manipulate the barrier of the fourth dimension and, um, move through it. "

"Crud..."  Arccy said staring at their terrible luck in the form of a wall.  He winced and muttered, "I'm not that good at it...  I can only manage it every half day or so."  He started studying the walls, "Wish I hadn't used the Thiol dispersion unit already, it woulda come in handy..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The young boy took hold of part of the arrow sticking out of the rabbit's arm gave a nod to Tobias, "Father, how long can you maintain control your arm?"  The rabbit winced, "Not long...  a minute maybe?"  Joey's brow furrowed, "Then I am not sure this is possible.  My upper arm strength is insufficient.  I will need-" He stopped as a second pair of hands not much bigger his own took hold of the shaft below the arm and looked ready to push it through.  Kieran was positioning himself with a expression that was probably the most serious the deer could muster in his condition.  He looked over at the boy and spoke shakily, "Recalculate it pixel brain."  The little rabbit turned his head slightly for a moment, then looked back at the arrow, "It should be adequate if we move quickly.  Are you ready, father?"   The older rabbit smirked and shut his eyes for a moment, then without moving or opening his eyes he stated. "Ready."

Muscles tensed and noses wrinkled as the arrow was pushed and shoved slowly outward, the head finishing shredding itself free and blood starting to leak out even faster.  Kieran could feel his stomach lurch not didn't dare give in, quitting meant the rabbit could die.  He watched as Joey slowly and methodically wrested the arrow lose, it was some cold emotionless thought process that shouldn't be possible to have while trying to save the life of someone you called 'father'.  To this day he still didn't know everything about the boy, and part of him really didn't want too.  It finally came completely out and the blood loss started increasing yet again with it but Aurelia was ready with the makeshift wrapping, quickly and tightly binding the wound.

      After his speech, a small rabbit boy approached Sicarius, bearing an envelope. The revolutionist took the letter and read through it. Before long, he produced a small pouch of coin and gave it to the boy. "My people... I must take my leave of you." With that, the silver armored leader walked off of the stand. His people cheered even as he left their sight, but the rebel did not feel that he deserved it. He loved his people and would do anything to make them happy and safe. However, that sometimes came at a cost. The rebel leader was tired.

      It only took him about five minutes to arrive at the Singing Tankard, a local tavern in the Royal capitol. The place was empty, save for a short and pudgy raccoon and his daughter who was busy cleaning the tables. "Odd to see your highness in such a place, Sicarius." mused the raccoon, "What can I get for you?"

     "Just give me a glass of water, Tanuki." responded the white knight with a weakening smile. Tanuki was one of the only people that ever saw Sicarius' weak side. The raccoon slid the glass across the table toward his friend, sharing in the knowledge of how much stress the man had to go through in order to obtain the gifts that he freely offered his people. "You need rest, old boy..." commented Tanuki with a knowing smile, "You'll go grey sooner than I did."

|Infleci|

It was all so interesting to watch as the coatimundi moved through the angles all so smoothly, evading with such skill and probably with a good tone of luck to move into safety from the humans he so chose to steal from. But the viewer of the event, although amused did not believe in such things. Luck was just a myth, a bigger myth than the kitsunes of the dusk. The individual, a female fox between the age of 12 and 14 just kept moving, she knew it all too well. She smirked at the thought of the dusks as she kept her footing and wits-- but not going to lead any suspicious human to Codeo's position or assumed position as it seemed. The fox was no prophet or mystic. 'Tee, humans are all too easy to fool.' the young female giggled out loud at the thought, if she had been older maybe it would of seemed weird but the humans paid no mind to the fox beyond leers of racism and bigotry.

Giving the likelihood, he's probably playing around in one of the house thingies that are in disarray, hehe.... a second thought crossed her mind as she put her hands behind her back and began skipping up some stairs and began to turn a near corner, her eyes keeping sight on the humans in any case. It looked like they were as dumbfounded as before. She let out a giggle as she took a light hop in mid-skip. "aw man, there are so many dingy hiding spots, why does it have to be so hard?" she groaned, albeit under her breath. When she said hard she truly meant long rather than difficult. She could be retracing his steps the same way, but that would really ruin this illusion she had put up and secondly she did NOT want to get yelled at for alerting anyone, even if they didn't see anything. She sighed at the thought.

"Booooooooring!" she groaned, loudly as she hopped again, losing a bit footing due to a supposed lack of attention. At this she ran into a loose pipe which caused her to stumble to the floor. "....ow." she commented a few moments later, frowning before steadily getting up from the ground. "STUPID PIPE THINGIE!" she yelled loudly as she slammed her foot into the pipe, causing it to dent and wobble-- but not do much more. She crossed her arms, annoyed as she kept her eyes narrowed and unenthusiastically walked into the building, which didn't have a door? Oh well, lazy humans were lazy afterall. It was then that she looked around at her new surroundings quizzically. "Wow, it's really dark in here." she commented blankly as she looked at the crumbled stairway and jumping piece. "OOOOOH ACROBATICS WEEEE!" she exclaimed, with no apparent attention span as she did a running jump over the gap on landing she giggled happily. "Nanananana, that was kinda fun. Better than that pipe thingie." she shrugged as she directed her attention to her ears and eyes.

"Hn?"

|Rosa|

Rosa was in shambles, but that truly came to no surprise... the whole events in the last few generations were just a mess in general and the country being unstable and into civil war was just minor echoes to show for it. But he had understood it was only the preamble to things to come, he had no proof of it outside of vague mystics shouting what the humans called unintelligent propaganda made by the fur scum of Azgarde. They always acted out of their naivety and arrogance and he knew it was foolish as hell. The fox shook his head as he was skeptical of the whole event as he looked to his follower, a fox male by the name of Servus, a "fitting" name bestowed upon him by his mother's human master on his birth. The follower sighed, "Vetus, are you even sure this is a good idea? Humans have given us nothing."

"A interesting thought, considering they gave us everything." the leading fox, Vetus responded with a small smile upon his lips. Vetus could only raise a annoyed brow at his companion. "How do you even figure such a ridiculous thing, Vetus?"

"They made our small rambling of tribal villages want to survive to exist. Not all positive effects come with positive conditions." Vetus replied with a nod. Vetus only let out a hesitant sigh, "You and your philosophy and history. Whatever." Servus replied in half-defeat, he had talked with Vetus for a time during the trip and he wasn't smart enough to combat him, he knew he wasn't. He just knew his roots, ideals and his spear. "This is it, isn't it?" Servus commented, unrelated to their former conversation as he looked up at a shambly tavern, The Singing Tankard.

"I believe so, do not become hostile unless desired. I know your family is more action than speech being from Bestia's line, so do not assert yourself."

"Whatever, it's your head."

"That it is." Vetus chuckled as he opened the door, the two foxes in the doorway would be clear to their contact that the message was received. The two entered the tavern, Vetus holding out his hand in a halt gesture to Servus. Servus would lean against the wall next to the door, as he watched intently. He didn't like this, but he wasn't here to undermine someone who was more learned and careful then he was. To be honest, what was the point coming here anyway? His breath left him again in a bitter sigh.

"Sod it." he muttered.

        Sicarius looked toward the door as the newcomers entered the room. Tanuki didn't miss a beat, offering the two a seat at the bar. However, when he noticed that only one of them had left the door he frowned a gave a look to his daughter. "What can I get you, friend?" asked the raccoon in a businessman like tone. The fox took one look at the rack of cheap and expensive liquors.

        "I'll have the Heartwine." he stated after a short moment of thought.

        Sicarius looked at the creature next to him with a small amount of shock. Ocinius Heartwine was known for being expensive. "That's quite a selection you've made mister...?"

       "Vetus..."

       After hearing that name, something clicked within the god king's mind. "Of the Gnaeuses?" questioned Sicarius, "I've heard a bit about you. Nothing much, mind. What brings you to this humble town of refugees?" In this time the old raccoon's daughter had approached the fox by the door, bearing a mug of the same liquid that Vetus had ordered. "Here you go, hun. You look like you could use a drink." Draped in golden locks, the young woman nearly forced the mug into the fox's hand.

Servus nodded to the young female, taking the drink with no reluctance-- he had to be polite enough. Not that he'd be particularly lowly to another fur, at that. He smiled warningly as he spoke, "Thank you." He may of been no noble but he did have some manners and tact down and it didn't hurt that the girl wasn't half bad to take a look at-- he would of preferred foxtail but he didn't think much of it, this was about Vetus and not him. He took a drink from the wine as his eyes kept on the female.

"I've heard a bit about you. Nothing much, mind. What brings you to this humble town of refugees?" Vetus would take solace in the wine, for a moment before placing it down to speak to the man, "Perhaps then... I wasn't contacted by you." he commented clearly as he glanced to the raccoon bartender. 'Heh, interesting. as the thought crossed his mind he spoke outward again-- deciding to keep the ball rolling, per ce. "I'm here to sit down and talk to my contact, I take it you being here when I am is just a pleasant coincidence."

"How much exactly do you know about my surname, I must wonder?"

        Sicarius glanced at his friend the bartender and then back at the fox. "Only what history tells." answered the god king, "That your family served admirably in the Strolnheim Rebellion of the 3rd Era." The blonde man took a sip of his water. "So, Tanuki, my friend... When were you planning to tell me you had set this up?" The raccoon merely shrugged, looking uninterested, before he proceeded to commit his attention to every barkeep's favorite past-time of cleaning glasses.

        "I apologize, kind sir, but I believe there has been a misunderstanding." Sicarius added, "We have no need to hire anyone to fight for us."

        "Oh?" responded Vetus, probably not believing what he had just heard.

        Meanwhile, Tanuki's daughter had returned to chat with the fox by the door. "So, what do you do for a living?" she asked, not convincingly looking for an answer, "Must be difficult." Suddenly the sound of and glass slamming on the bar counter could be heard. "Dalia!" hissed the barkeep, "Tst! Get your hind end back here and stop flirting with the customers!"

"Well I-" Servus begun before a loud voice boomed over the near empty room,"Dalia! Tst! Get your hind end back here and stop flirting with the customers!", Servus groaned spurting out his own retort, "It's not like you have any business right now!", this caused Vetus to glance before smirking. If it had been someone from his bloodline, Servus would be grovelling right now so he didn't lose a damn ear, he was thankful for that-- but he had to wonder if he disrespected Vetus' diplomatic objective, alas it didn't seem to be a problem as Vetus turned back to the human and barkeep.

"...and what pray tell makes you think I'm a mercenary?" Vetus commented towards Sicarius with a light smirk still on his face. "While this fellow here did request an arrangement, there is far more to it then that." he added on not soon after as he glanced back to the raccoon bartender-- if only for a moments notice. He seemed avoiding eye contact now, heh.

        The god king leaned back, taking a more relaxed position. "It is true that you have said nothing of being mercenaries." said the man, "You have my apologies for this assumption." Sicarius tapped his glass on the table twice, signaling for a refill. Without a moments hesitation, Tanuki had filled the glass, not letting a drop spill. If anything, the raccoon's skill at serving drinks was obvious. The brown furred creature took a glance at the fox standing beside the door. "Any chance of your muscle sitting down?" questioned the plump raccoon.

        However, it was at that moment that a boy wearing a blue breast plate entered the bar. His face was creased with a scowl and it was obvious that he had been crying, as his eyes were bloodshot. He sat in a chair at one of the tables abruptly and called Dalia over to him. "I'd like something hard if you wouldn't mind." ordered the boy.

       "Alcohol isn't for minors, chap." Tanuki shouted from behind the counter.

       "Like I give a da-" it was then that he noticed who was sitting at the bar. The boy stood up, knocking his chair to the ground as he did so. "I'm sorry sir!"

"You have my apologies for this assumption."

Vetus nodded, "It's fine, I'm not going to take offense." he replied to the comment before responding to the bartenders query about his protector, "Servus, why don't you sit down." Vetus said plainly before the door opened, Servus raising a brow as a kid shoved himself into a chair. He didn't take much mind to it as he walked past him as he mouthed off to the waitress, taking a seat not far off from Vetus but not at the counter. "I'm sorry sir!" the boy had practically barked not more than a few moments later therein seeing the sight of the god king himself. Servus shook his head at the unneeded brown nosing and tapped his glass for a refill on the table he had just recently taken a seat at.

"Dum Vivimus Servimus."* Vetus commented upon the boys sudden realization, chuckling beneath his breath.

|OOC| * - while we live, we serve

       The boy sat down after Sicarius gave him a wave. He looked around, embarrassed, thinking of how much of a fool he must look. Sicarius payed him no mind, however. His attention was squarely on Vetus. "If you do not come purely to offer your services..." started the god king, "then perhaps you would care to inform me of your true purpose." A group of people celebrating passed by the windows of the tavern, shining lanterns about with gleeful abandon. Sicarius, however, had taken on a more serious expression.

      Lance couldn't quite make out what they were saying over the cheerful shouts of the celebrants. He looked in their direction, trying to gain some insight as to what they were saying, but he only heard muffled whispers. Dalia approached his table ang placed a jug of water upon the table. "Here you go, son." stated the raccoon woman. He peered into the top and sighed. It was water.

"Originally I had intended to find out, who I would be supporting; who Gnaeus blood would, who the kitsune would." the diplomatic fox said matter of factly as he took another drink from the wine he had been given. "I understand that the land is in recession and on the downtrodden path of anarchy. It won't be long before bandits start seizing more opportunities and that would be just the tip of this massive iceberg we have on our hands. Unification is needed, educating the warring houses is especially needed." he added, staying on point as he continued. "This trip of mine was not a simple idle trip from Venetzia, one of mine received a request for aid and I'm approaching it with careful discord. I live for my race, my side of the Gnaeus family always has and I need to know if I did support this resistance, what my people would get out of such an arrangement. Because as you know us furs... we are still lapdogs; second class citizens; and I see our culture dying each year that passes upon us as we stay completely domesticated under human law, no matter how cozy it can be."

"I've heard many things, I just have to know what level you and your friend here are grounded in."

       Sicarius gulped down his water and sat the glass down, tapping the counter once. The raccoon bartender took the glass and proceeded to polish it. "I can offer you what no other has ever done." the god king paused for a moment, "I can offer you freedom."

       "Nice try," replied Vetus, gulping down the last of the wine, "but we've been promised that before and look where it got us."

       The human shook his head, knowing that it would have turned out this way. "No, I mean true freedom. Equality. The ability to form your own noble house." stated Sicarius as he stood from his seat. He seemed satisfied with what he had said.

"No, I mean true freedom. Equality. The ability to form your own noble house.", the words caused Vetus' ears to twitch if only a moment, a smile precedent on his face. "Strong words, but a definitive start." Vetus stopped for a brief moment before commenting again. "We will definitively have more identity with such liberties, but it will be heard to convince other branches of the family based on promises alone, I do not ask for coin; but you must understand with this situation... it calls for a lot more than words that could be idle deals."

"Be it as it may, I think this conversation just got where it needs to be." Vetus chuckled, lightly.

"Psychokinesis? Isn't that moving things with your thoughts?" asked Hector.

"No, psychochronesis. It's moving through time, only a lot more complex than you'd probably know," Arc said.

"Sure you can't move things with your thoughts?"

Arc looked at the soldiers closing in and squeaked, "No."

Hector raised his axe. "Fine. Then we'll have to do this my way."

With the squirrel still perched on his shoulder, Hector roared at his opponents. "Which one of you little babies wants to fight me?"

A handful of Auditore soldiers lunged at him, only to find that the Medichi general was every bit as formidable as local rumour said he was. Hector did not move an inch from his position as he chopped down the first five soldiers to come at him. Their blood splashed on the walls and the ground, and Hector looked unimpressed.

"You wouldn't happen to have any good ideas, would you?" he asked Arc.

Ale almost appeared affronted by the order. "Me? What makes you think I ought to be doing your bidding? That's a complete stranger to me; I don't owe him anything."

"You earnestly have nothing to do other than play with your Daemonis Crystallis?"

It was then that Ale took notice of the glowing gem. Aurelia turned to Ari and said, "Let us be off."

"Wait!" protested Kieran. "Aren't you going to stay?"

"And do what?" asked Aurelia, patting her child as it fussed. "I can't say I was rescued to play nurse solely to one rabbit when everyone and anyone needs me."

"But you can't do that! What if something goes wrong? Who do we contact?" Kieran cried.

Aurelia puzzled. "You clearly are not from any nearby locale. You've picked a poor time to come wandering into our world. However unfair it seems to you, you are not at the top of my concerns."

Ale snickered. Aurelia turned to Ari again and nodded solemnly.

"Aren't you coming, Ambassador?"

Rudolf tucked a lock of hair behind his ear. "I think Sir Sheryl was summoned specifically. It wouldn't do to be an uninvited guest, would it? Besides, I imagine His Majesty probably wants to speak with Sir Sheryl in the privacy of his own chambers."

Volke had a momentary look of panic cross his face. Rudolf stared at some wall tapestries. Sheryl ignored both of them and approached the throne room.

        Ale reached down and pulled the rabbit up. He knew that Kieran would probably protest if not for his friend's injury needing tending. He also knew that getting out of this castle would be no easy task. He shouted after the woman who had so brazenly given him orders, "I hope you have an idea for getting out of here, because our escape routes are closing fast."

       Thoughts raced through the fox's mind. Maps and layouts of the castle, escape routes and possible Auditore patrols. Every time he ran through them, it looked more and more grim. He shouldn't have come here.

_____________________________________________________________________

       Sheryl entered the throne room, running the many different ways to refuse Fredrick's 'offers'. She dropped the notion, however, when she noticed that his face did not bear the usual sagacity that came with such agendas. Instead, his face was dark and political, devoid of the joy he took in his games. She knelt before her sovereign, now curious as to what the Auditore Primarch would want. Fredrick was silent. Sheryl could feel his gaze like cold daggers in her back. For the first time in her career as a soldier, Sheryl felt fear.

_____________________________________________________________________

       Volke paced anxiously outside of the throne room, his impatience getting the better of him. War, bloodshed, and strife he could handle, but politics and subtlety had never been his strong suit and he never pretended they were. There was something that was eating at the corners of his mind, however. Something that made this sudden call to the throne room different from the others. He felt a sudden pit in his stomach.

_____________________________________________________________________

       Sicarius leaned forward on the stool, placing his hands together. "Is that so." his voice seemed troubled, "Let me be frank with you... If it were possible, I would prefer not to see any more loss of life. My people have thrown their lives into my hands, and I would hate to see more of them parish." A pained expression washed over his face, the words he said bitter in his mind. Thoughts of recent battles flooded his mind. He had seen many of his followers die. He knew there would be many more before the war was over. "If I can at least protect them of the battlefield..." He trailed off, trying to think of the right words.

       Lance couldn't understand what they were saying, but he could see the pain in his leader's eyes. Something about that unsettled him. He had never seen the god king bear any expression like that before. The man that sat by the bar almost looked foreign to him. He took a sip of the water he had been given and cringed, very much disliking the taste.

(OOC: Ok...location is...Infleci. I may regret not going to the place where most of the other characters currently are, but...well...we'll see I guess.)

IC:

Codeo's ears had alerted him to another presence in the abandoned building, and he crouched tense at the back of his refuge. Normally, a closet would have been a poor choice of hideout, with only one way in or out, but...there was a hole in the back wall next to his sleeping area behind the boxes that he could use for escape if he had to.  However, his curiosity had gotten the better of him and he crept to the doorway and peered out.  He gave a sigh of relief, at the same time wrinkling his nose in disgust. Ew. A girl. Maybe he would just stay in here until she went away...if all else failed...there was that hole in the wall...He silently willed her to go away. It didn't seem to be working.

TBC

|Gallia|

"That is true." Ari spoke, who had sense the incident had been keeping an eyes on every entrance to the dungeons they had so long been in. The female fox would of preferred the option to leave beforehand, but she doubted the noble lady would of willed it so. She took a heavy breath as she spoke again. "The longer we linger the longer they could grow an attention." she was neutral, as often as she was; but she still preferred to not leave a job half-finished and rarely not paid for.

"I would of preferred to leave minutes ago."

|Infleci|

"So empty, so boring. Oh well." the girl yawned as she looked around, her sapphire eyes scanning the general area. 'I wonder if he's in there? Probably, but...' she sighed, ending the though. "So boring!" she exclaimed not especially at anything as she took a footstep closer to the closet in question. "Be more interesting if I got fun things to do.... eyes and ears isn't that...." she groaned, speaking out loud once again. She was either loud or didn't care for an attention span. Probably both.

"SO MR CLOSET." she said to the door before her. "You must of been loads hungry! You should steal better, kinda sloppy."

The older rabbit tested his arm, to little avail.  It was far to injured to do much with it.  He sighed, handing his weapon to Kieran, "You better take this, it's not going to do me any good."  The deer inspected the weapon as if it was an alien artifact, which it could very well have been, turning it over and finally putting his hand around other grip and looking up, "I guess I stab them with it?  Don't they have any firearms or anything?"  He grumbled making a sloppy attempt to feign a slashing attack with the sword.  Tobias shook his head, "Something like that, and no, I don't think this planet has guns."  He looked from the deer to the young rabbit, kneeling and putting a hand on his shoulder, "Joseph, if anything happens me defer to Kieran.  If something happens to him defer to one of these two ladies here."  The boy didn't seem to react to the man's touch but did respond coldly, "And if they are killed?"  Toby winced a little, "Henry should be on his way with the Odyssey.  Wait for him, and untill then...  Do you remember what I taught you about reading facial expression to distinguish better people's intentions?"  The boy nodded as Tobias drew his hand away, "If they mean you harm...  They are the enemy."  The boy's brow furrowed a little but he nodded again, "Yes, father."  The deer had also knelt down into the huddle, adding in, "Don't worry guys, nothings going to happen to anyone.  We're not so banged up we can't fight.  Besides, we should probably find that dang Sibken before he REALLY gets into trouble."  Tobias nodded and stood up, Kieran attempted to follow but yelped from pain.  He staggered against the wall and grabbed his knee. 

Tobias spun around, half wanted to shush him but worried at the same time.  The deer looked up, grimacing, "Crap...  It's getting worse.  I musta done something to it when I came falling into this place, or..."  He gave Ale a hateful glare, "Someone coulda broken it while they were tossing me around."  The rabbit blinked, a lightbulb going on, "Your face, and your tusk.  He did that?"  The rabbit said, the worried father tone becoming more defensive and passionate.  The deer suddenly seemed to remember his injury, turned pale while touching his face to find his small muzzle was now half covered in blood from the hole in his mouth, then proceeding to rip off his other sleeve to deal with the problem.   There was a frightful sparkle in the rabbit's blue eyes as he glared daggers into Ale, the fox shuddered feeling the fur on the back of his neck stand up.  As quickly as it stood up, the feeling subsided, the rabbit turning away, knowing they needed to move and performing first aid on his arm and wrapping it had cost them all precious time. 

"Thank you all, but she's right, we need to get out of here.  I'll take responsibility for this, if we get into a fight I'll do what I can to end it quickly in our favor."  He looked at Ari, "My son has trouble seeing and moving quickly, I'll have to carry him.  I may have to help my friend too, he seems to have exacerbated his injury to his leg.  We will try to follow you but if we fall behind I will not blame you for leaving us."  With that he quickly and methodically had the small boy climb unto his back and the deer use him a brace.  

Seeing there hadn't left, he nodded his thanks again and steadied himself under the weight in preparation to move out.  Kieran spoke not one word and seemed to be refusing to expose the bloodied left side of his face to Tobias.

Though his eyes were closed, Rudolf could see - indeed, feel - Volke's restlessness radiating. Rudolf was leaning against the wall with his arms behind his back. He opened his mouth but not his eyes.

"Tell me a little bit about yourself, soldier."

Volke stopped and looked at Rudolf, uncertain if he had heard the Sforza youth properly. Rudolf made a face, still with shut eyes. "Yes, I mean you."

"What would you have me tell you, Ambassador?" the soldier asked hesitantly.

Rudolf finally opened his eyes and gestured indifferently. "Anything; whence do you come? Whither have campaigns taken you? What are your dreams, your ambitions? How long have you served under Fredrick? Is there some young lady that you court, or are you already wed?"

"Why do you ask?" Volke countered, suddenly feeling mildly put on the spot by the interrogatories. Rudolf smiled genially.

"Old boy, I'm just terribly interested in people, and you seem to be in need of something - anything, veritably - to occupy your troubled mind. Come; talk to me."

As eccentric as Rudolf seemed to be at times, Volke could not help but perceive a kindred sense of a secret onus in him. Rudolf did not seem like the type to divulge a secret if it were not political.

"That is fine by me," Ari said, turning for the way she had entered. Aurelia asked, "Where are you going? Out into the broad daylight?"

Ari stopped in mid-step. Aurelia added, "If we proceed down the hall, there is a set of stairs that leads into the servants' quarters. From there, it is a brief walk out into the far end of the castle town, near the gates."

"What? Really?" Ale piped up.

"I wouldn't live in a place I didn't know how to get out of," Aurelia assured him.

The squirrel looked around quickly, unsure of what to do and muttering things to himself that seemed to lack any sort of cohesion.  Finally he slapped his little fist into the opposing hand, "Thats it!  We need to lose them.  Once we do that we won't have to worry about them."   Hector eyed the furball and grumbled out, "And just why would losing them gain us any advantage in getting past the rest of their army?"  The wiry Sibken grinned, "Don't worry, I have... well... a thing.  Trust me."

It seemed luck was with Alexis and Taltae as they encountered no guards beyond the staircase other than those Alexis had pushed down it. Stepping nimbly over them, Alexis took a quick look around before confidently selecting a door and moving deeper into the castle, Taltae following close behind. Alexis kept her eyes and ears- or Artimia's eyes and ears rather- open as they began moving through the dungeons, alert for any potential threat.

The duo weren't too long into their search through the dimly lit lower levels of the castle when they heard the sounds of footsteps approaching. Alexis and Taltae both prepared to fight if necessary- but then saw that the group now approaching them through the gloom weren't Auditore soldiers. Better yet, they not only weren't Auditore soldiers but some were members of the rescue party that they had arrived in Gallia with and one of them could only be Aurelia, Hector's wife with her new-born child. The others Alexis didn't recognise, though judging from garb and physical well-being they seemed to be civilians who had been injured in the fall of Gallia. Alexis carefully scrutinised the adult rabbit with the wounded arm. The way he was dressed was a little different from the conventional style; he looked like maybe a noble, or an ambassador, or maybe someone else of some standing- but Alexis couldn't recall ever seeing him at the castle before and she had made a habit of fixing faces in her memory. More faces always came in useful for a Shifter after all. The younger rabbit looked rather like an average citizen, although there was something odd about him that Alexis couldn't quite put her finger on- something about his eyes maybe? The deer-like individual looked like he'd maybe been a victim of the fall of Gallia and then some besides. Stepping slightly forwards, so that those members of the rescue party who recognised Artimia would see her clearly, Alexis spoke clearly and quietly.

"Looks like our little group has picked up more members than anticipated," she remarked, "but at least the rescue part of things seems to be going smoothly. We need to hurry if we don't want every Auditore soldier in Gallia on our backs though. The...diversion is working like a charm, but dawn is already coming, so the cover of darkness is all but gone. Unless our fearless leader has had the sense to beat a retreat by now he might soon be the one needing rescuing". Having said this Alexis considered the situation before her. Despite the chaos in the castle the rescue part was indeed going very smoothly, and possibly her presence wasn't required here. If that was the case maybe she should go and find Hector? Then again there were one or two injured amongst the party. Addressing them again Alexis asked, "would another set of hands or two be welcomed in assisting the injured? Or is everyone taken care of?"

OOC: Not very inspired I know, but I guess that's what I get for writing posts during the small hours! 0.0