Elven Soldier

Eslahil was silent, as he stood guard at the elevator. It was a rather dull night, as the only interesting thing that had happened was the Dwarf Hero. He began to think about what he had heard so far in this city. Rumors of the Queen’s ill deeds, of the Princess’ supposed murder, and of the Queen’s supposed disposal of the popular King Consort. The most egregious he had heard though, was the one of the Princess courting a Dwarf Hero. He had no reason to believe it until this night, and he felt it could be true.

As he thought to himself, he heard a noise. A shifting of brush. Glancing in the direction of the noise, away from the elevator, he speaks, “Hey, there’s a noise.” His partner responds calmly, remaining at attention and watching the area ahead of the elevator, “It's just a squirrel or something.” The Guard remembers the briefings about this situation, and answers his partner with an annoyed tone, “We still need to investigate it.” The other Guard sighs, and begins walking over, stating, “You’re too much of a stickler for the rules.” The two Guards enter the brush, and begin looking around through it, attempting to find this squirrel. Sliding a bush’s branches away from each other, the Guard speaks as he sees a squirrel scamper off, “Yep. It was a squirrel.” He lets go of the brush and turns around, as he states, “Let’s get ba-” He does not see his partner, and speaks, “Wh- Where did you go?” As he finishes asking this, he feels a hand grab his mouth, and then darkness.

Zephyrian

The Nephilim quietly lowered the body, before whispering to his cohorts, “Prepare to go up. Remember the plan.” The response was quiet, and quick, “Aye, Zephyrian.” Zephyrian waves a hand over his face, causing his ears to turn much more elf-like. Standing, and quickly moving over to the elevator, he brings a dark green beret to his head, and begins to straighten out his stolen officer’s uniform. His cohorts approach, all in uniforms as well, but far less important looking, considering the forage caps on their heads. In total they were five. Five elites of their organization.

He quickly glanced back at them, and nodded to each one. It was a good thing that the Queendom did not discriminate on who could join their military, just who could become an officer. Within their group was one former slave Kitsune, who despises the aristocracy, one Sun Elf, and a set of Moon Elf Twins. Getting a nod back from them all, he looks forward, and steps onto the elevator. When they were all on, the Sun Elf began pulling on the pulley, bringing them up with surprising ease, after a small bit of trouble that is.

Zephyrian stands with a commanding presence, and once they reach the top, he begins walking with a marching pace. His cohorts immediately begin following, staying looking forward. They pass by the Guard who is holding the elevator still at the top for them. As they step off, the Guard begins slowly lowering the elevator with the wooden winch at the top. Zephyrian continues forward, knowing where they have to go. Their target was within reach, but they first needed to find them. The infiltration had begun.

Passing regal and fanciful buildings carved into the trees, and over massive suspension bridges made of wood and vine, they soon find themselves nearing their destination. Stepping onto the massive multi-tree spanning platform, they found it resembles a more normal city placed on the ground. Though as they walk, the Kitsune speaks in a calm and professional tone, “Sir. I just heard something down an alley. Permission to investigate?” The nearby civilians were watching them with curiosity, as Zephyrian stopped, causing his formation to freeze as well. He looks over to the Kitsune, and nods, before stating in a stoic and cold voice, “We’ll follow your lead.”

They moved into an alley, and continued down it. Knowing none of the civilians were following, he prepared himself to fight an enemy of some kind. They turned into a small clearing between the buildings, where they found nothing. The Kitsune spoke with a smirk, “We’re here.” She then approached a wall, and tapped against it in a pattern of five knocks. The wall is pulled inwards, and slides out of the way as a voice speaks, “Welcome, Operatives.” Zephyrian nearly laughs, he had expected a fight with slavers or Queendom Soldiers, not one of their hideouts.

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Lake of Codex

Lake was simply remaining still as they enjoyed their peaceful creation. As Lake sat still, incapable of movement, it began to think of Codex’s more limitless form. That of the small female denizen it sees when they speak. It began wondering how Codex managed to gain such a form, and even a name at that. Something that Lake did not even have prior knowledge of, yet could immediately discern she was attempting to state? It was curious. Perhaps this was knowledge of the forebearers? Of the time of the Dungeon Lord? It thought carefully of this, wondering if it could manage to make such a form. Then it remembered Grandia also has such a form. Feeling inadequate, it begins thinking of all possibilities. The first being to sculpt a form out of the sediment covering the bottom of its water. This did not work, and the sediment simply fell back to the ground.

Lake looked to its humanoid Sylphs. Then pushes an extreme amount of mana into one. Far more than it should have, as the Sylph suddenly bloats, and looks extremely confused. Lake moves on from the newly-”expanded” Sylph, now depressed that this did not work to give it a form to inhabit. It feels the confusion of the poor Sylph grow immensely, but what is done cannot be undone. All Lake can do is now feel upset at itself for turning the Sylph into a balloon. What’s a balloon? Anyway!

Lake turns their attention to the next possibility, but without mana it may prove difficult to experiment. Lake thinks silently to itself, before coming up with yet another possible solution. Lake simply begins focusing on one of the normal Sylphs, trying extremely hard to take over the creature, but finds a confused feeling coming back to it from the Sylph, clearly awaiting whatever orders Lake has for it. Annoyed at being unable to find an answer, Lake decides to send one of their Sylphs off to Codex, mostly to study Codex’s physical form.

Leonarde Whitewood

Leonarde was sitting at his desk, silent as he read the myriad of letters he received in the short time he was away. He hears a knock at the door, and speaks, “Enter!” In comes the Steward, who approaches, and holds out a letter. Taking it, he looks at the wax seal, which holds his family’s crest. Opening it carefully, as is normal, he pulls the paper out and reads it. He pauses, and then rereads it, before quickly setting it down and standing, “Steward, have someone prepare my personal horse, and send someone else to tell the Captain to wait at the main gate for me.” The Steward bows in response, and heads off to do so. Leonarde quickly runs off, leaving the paper on the desk. On that paper, a set of words that could prove dangerous down the line, “-new dungeon in the Deadgrave Wood.”

Freeborne

The Freeborne stands still, as she prepares to open the next set of cages. She instead hears something behind herself. A voice, “Is it not wrong to kill?” She turns to see an Orc, standing and watching her carefully. She frowns as she states, “Yes, but Freeborne are creatures of balance. One good must be punished with a bad of equal value. At least a handful of these individuals would have died as a slave, and as such, ill must befall those who deal in this matter.” The Orc speaks in a calm voice, “But you did not start until recently. In fact, you have taken the place of someone else, who was doing the same thing.”

The Freeborne looks at the cages again, as she states coldly, “We do not always have a plan for what we will do. No one knows what to do at each and every moment of their life. I did not know I would be destroying many slave rings tonight, and I certainly wish I was home in my bed at this moment. Simply put, it is best to not assume everything is going to be easy to do. Nor will it be easy to choose to do. Now if you will excuse me, I must continue.” She swipes a hand to the side, and then leaves the area, letting the Orc do as he pleases. She does not look back to see if the Orc was watching her leave, but she assumed he was. She did not care, however. It was going to be a long night of terrorizing Slavers, and freeing slaves. Something the Orc had not seen.

Sebastia Rin

Sebastia awakens with a jolt. With a few blinks to clear her hazy vision, she realized she had passed out. Training had taken quite a lot out of her it seems. Isabel lays beside her, still asleep on the floor, as Sebastia begins to stand. Looking at Kaede, she finds Kaede’s bandages are damp and slick with both blood and the pink medicine. With a few minutes passing, she steps over to Kaede, and places a hand on her shoulder, as she quietly says, “Get better, Kaede.” Kaede’s eyes open tiredly as she responds deliriously, “Come back faster, dumbass hero.” Sebastia smiles softly, as she opens a rift silently, and steps through, heading off to do her own thing.