Still mid-morning, the six of them entered the bustle of the Marauder base. The place was swarming with activity and new faces.
"So, the plan will be to outfit you beautiful ladies.. courageous warriors with custom-made weapons. I've made sure to record a detailed report on everyone's fighting styles, in the hopes that maybe we could set you three up with something you might feel very comfortable with." To Zyuixqs' statement, Thanrie paused her sideward glare, suddenly impressed. "Actually, that might be pretty good. It's felt like I've been a little too slow with that sword, and Lwyn should definitely give up on using a bow. Qheria.. I'm not sure, I've gotten used to her smashing things with a shield, but something is missing." "Don't worry, the smith here is an expert. We'll figure something out." Zyuixqs at least was optimistic, leading them to their destination.
"Ah, Zyuixqs, so this would be the four women from your report." The smith greeted them earnestly. "I've actually been started on everything already, had some good material ready in advance. We've got some good plans based upon some Fortress designs we've fallen upon, so you'll have yourself something you can count on being pretty advanced. With consideration to some of your.. unique styles.. I've came up with a few ideas I wanted to try out." The smith indicated three assortment of weapon parts and molds, in various phases of production. "As per your suggestions, we've got parts together for a ranged weapon that.. isn't a bow in it's nature. We've also been working on a shield design that fits something close to solving all the problems you had mentioned. Finally, we're working on a spear that.."
Thanrie became disgruntled at the last statement. "Wait, spear? The sword I had might have been a bit heavy, but I was perfectly happy with slicing things up and everything. Don't go thinking that just because spears suit you so well that I would be fine with some stupid poking stick!" Thanrie confronted Zyuixqs again, enraged. She drove him into the corner... which knocked against the same pile of supplies holding the work in progress for the selfsame spear. The pile shifted dramatically, and the smith went to go check things out. "Oh, good, everything is okay, but the blade edge might have been affected." "Wait, blade?" "Yeah, the reports wanted a long, slender blade. I guess that makes it more like a glaive or something, but all three of these things sorta have their own uniqueness to them." Thanrie was intrigued by the smith's idea. At least it wasn't a poking stick.
The smith finished inspecting the mess. "Oh, good, everything should be salvageable, but I might need to adjust the shape of the blade to compensate for the bending. Shouldn't affect the durability, but will probably affect how it's used. I'll think of something." "Uh, thank you. I'm sorry for causing you more trouble." "Bah, I've had to deal with worse on a regular basis, don't worry about it. Just, maybe you could give me some room to work with, so that I can get things done. Zyuixqs, this work has some more paperwork for you to work on, it's a stack. You might want to get started." Thanrie was sorry for having caused problems, accepting the Smith's suggestion that they should get out of the way.
"Oh, and the four of you might want to know, Commander Rhyde is expecting you in his war room. Seems he has a few things to talk about, heard you were dropping by, and asked for you to be sent his way. Might be better to take care of that sooner rather than later." The smith provided an excellent way for the others to occupy their time. Chyurae had already ran off somewhere during the commotion, but certainly he would take care of himself. Following instructions they were provided, the four of them went off to meet Commander Rhyde.
It didn't take long for more trouble to begin. ".. while I understand that you already have your own crew to worry about here, I still believe we will be fine." "Really, cause according to these reports.." "If you would please stop pressuring on a single mistake, maybe you might be able to see the big picture." Quite quickly, Qheria and Rhyde broke into an argument, as Rhyde had simply insisted they should all just go home. "I could care less how you plan to run your own crew, but the four of us worked really hard to try and find a new home for us, we won't be giving it up just because people aren't used to having us around!" Rhyde could swear he had a very similar conversation not that long ago. The fool of a girl was as stubborn as her mother.
"Listen, mistakes out here are matters of life and death, you should frankly be impressed you're still alive. Your inexperience here is going to kill you very quickly. You can go wherever you want, just don't stay here. There isn't place here for more inexperienced Hyenzaelni to.." "I'm not some axzyhqn .. Hyenzaelni..." Rhyde was putting to terms the danger of their own failure when Lwyn reacted without warning. It seems she was still deeply troubled by the insult Hammer-face had thrown at her, and the similar word struck a sour note with her.
However, Thanrie was also intrigued. She had never heard the word 'axzyhqn' before, which itself meant fallen or disgraced, descriptively representing someone or something deserving of contempt. It was very derogatory. Thanrie could tell by how it was used that it was an excellent curse word, even if she didn't completely know what it meant, she would still take careful note of its potential future usage.
"Maybe things aren't clear because you've started feeling good about yourself because you could beat up a few bandits. I've got news for you, bandits are wimps, their only redeeming quality is their numbers. You might remember plowing through their pawns, easily knocking them down one to the next. Each one of you might equal no less strength than at least a dozen bandits. However, add two leaders and the six of you fell. I hear it wasn't even hard either." "..and that's why we're working on improving. As is, Zyuixqs is hard at work making sure that our street corner weapons are replaced by something actually worth writing about. Give us time to adjust and.." ".. no, you aren't listening. Not listening itself is your problem, you aren't learning, so you won't learn. You'll stay inexperienced, and by the divine no fancy toys are going to change that." Qheria and Rhyde continued to argue without end. Thanrie wished she had a notebook handy to record today's lessons, that 'by the divine' might be a good one too.
"Having your families come and bother me about the fact you all ran away from home has been troubling enough. You staying here means they will come back, and I certainly don't want to explain your deaths to them. Staying here, you will die, that's inevitable." "Wait, families? When did our families arrive?" Thanrie was concerned about hearing from Rhyde that their families had shown up. Qheria however was giving no opportunity for Rhyde to reply, as she kept hounding him her original point. Lwyn was trying to get Qheria to calm down, but to no avail. Yuxzn, who had been standing nearby silently, noticed Rhyde's signal and handed Thanrie a report. It specified the search request of all four groups that was presented before the attack had begun. It also detailed the search descriptions offered by each team for each of the four girls, and was matched to the descriptions Zyuixqs had provided.
Thanrie looked it over, concerned that her brother was putting in this much effort to find her. It seemed the other three girls also had people working diligently, searching for them. She was thankful that it seemed that all four had been turned away. It appears it might have been the same four groups that were responsible for attacking Hammer-face's camp. If that was true, she could imagine what little would be left of it.
Mhyl came over to check what was going on, though she couldn't read the records. The room being quite loud, she decided to ask Thanrie in English. "So, what does it say?" "It says our families showed up and raised a fuss. Rhyde got them to leave, so they tore up some bandit camps along the way. It says that your mother is the elven High-Sage, that's a pretty big deal." "No, it actually isn't. I'm no more important than any of you." "Well, other than your mother sending out the Elven Wardens, it seems Qheria's mother is a Qicir hero, who personally came here to raise a fuss. She didn't get along well with my brother, probably being third prince of Wyxir and everything." "Wait, you're a royal princess?" "I'm certain I said that before, didn't I say that before? I'm certain that came up already." Thanrie pressed her memories to try and remember if it had ever came up. In truth, Mhyl's surprise was understandable, Thanrie was only ever known as a noblewoman, not a royal princess.
Mhyl considered carefully the details. There were four parties that showed up searching for them. The Citadel Inn making a fuss over Lwyn, that didn't make any sense, they had treated her like dirt. "What does it say about Lwyn then?" "Oh, that's probably the most surprising part. Says the Arch-Magus himself had dispatched the Pillar of Embers.. oh f~~k.." Thanrie suddenly broke into laughter, as the Izhaethyx term for 'Embers' was 'Aethyum', pronounced almost exactly like 'Autumn' if you discount any of the o-type sounds. More earth-side memories of first person shooters, this time shooting aliens upon a ring in the stars. Mhyl herself wasn't as impressed, though she was perplexed about why the Arch-Magus was involved. All four of them needed to have a chat later.
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Thanrie skipped ahead, trying to take her mind off the funny reference. There, she found Zyuixqs' detailed descriptions about the four of them. "The f~~k! Zyuixqs report includes our heights! When the f~~k did that jerk find an opportunity to take measurements like that?" "I don't know, considering him, we might be lucky that those are the only measurements he took." Mhyl's comment bothered Thanrie even worse. Thanrie gave Mhyl the report, kicked a nearby chair, and headed towards the door. Thanrie knew he was safe for now, working with that smith, she wouldn't bother him now. Though, he was sure to get what's coming to him later. For now though, she needed to find somewhere to cool her head. The arguments in the room weren't helping with that either. "I'm going to take a break, too much is going on right now." Thanrie left the room.
Unable to read the report herself, she went to Lwyn. Lwyn, having watched Thanrie storm off, had given up on trying to calm down Qheria. She instead turned to Mhyl, beginning a conversation in Elaethyx. "So, the others seem to be in a bit of a bad mood. How are things going for you?" "Thanrie left me the report, though I can't read it. Seems we've missed some interesting events. Did you know Thanrie is a Royal Princess?" "What, really? That's totally nothing like her at all. Though, somehow, that makes sense. What else was in that report?" Lwyn asked for more updates, her unsatiated curiosity making her forget that Mhyl was not actually reading from the report.
Lwyn's question and excitement did not go unnoticed. "If you have questions of what had transpired in that encounter, maybe I could answer a few of your questions. I had missed some of the earlier conversations, but Commander Rhyde had answered many of my questions during the creation of that report, and some of the observations we made were not considered valuable to the report. If you wish to discuss it, we can talk in one of the side rooms with more peace and regard." Yuxzn approached and joined the conversation, being himself elven. He hadn't been far from where Lwyn was standing in the process, considering Lwyn was hanging around the main table near Qheria and Rhyde. He motioned for them to continue in the nearby room, leaving Qheria and Rhyde to continue their argument without them.
Once the three of them were within a much more quiet room, Yuxzn got a closer look of Lwyn and changed the subject unexpectedly. "So, why are you hiding that you're an elf?" Since everyone knew Mhyl was an elf, it was obvious who the question was directed to. "Huh? What do you mean? I just know how to speak Elaethyx, that's all. Lwyn was suddenly concerned that she had messed up somewhere. Yuxzn had in fact noticed something she wasn't aware of. "You might not be aware, but your eyes give away your heritage. You're eyes are far more elven than not. While the color itself is almost unheard of in humans and very common in elves, the iris is far more focal than otherwise."
This was actually completely new to Lwyn. In truth, Elven Iris have a slight spiral to them, to compensate for the increased detail magnification. This detail is difficult to spot for humans unless from very close, but is easier for other elves to notice. Mhyl reflected upon Chyurae inquiring as well if Lwyn was an elf. He must have noticed it too. Mhyl herself, now that she knew about it, could see it plain as day, even from a fair distance.
"Yes, yes, it's so subtly obvious. While it would take some considerable ability for anyone else to come to the same conclusions, I've got a knack for figuring out the subtle. If my calculations are correct, you're probably of a mixed blood. Considering this, it may be easier for you to pretend to be elven instead of human, if you're going to hide all of your other mixed features except for your eyes. Don't worry, I'm familiar with the prejudice held against those of mixed blood, I won't hold it against you. Fortunately, none of the reports have actually established that you are human or elven, so I'll simply make sure the matter is clarified." Lwyn was taken aback. Not only had this elf figured out her most horrible secret, but he was being really nice about it. Weren't half-elves something to be despised?
"I... I thank you for your suggestions. It's irrationally nice of you, honestly." "While others may fear people under your own circumstances, I see no rationality behind it. Statistically, every individual is different, regardless of being human or elf. Finding your way between makes you no less of a person." Yuxzn's sincerity continued to blow Lwyn away. Yuxzn took a closer look at Lwyn's eyes. "By my estimates, gauging the elven qualities of your eyes, I suspect your vision abilities are probably closer to elven than human. You would have a better than average sight for a half-elf." Lwyn was shocked at getting information she didn't even know about herself. Mhyl considered how Lwyn's stamina was also more human than elven, and decided that this wasn't fair.
During his observation, Yuxzn also noticed to what degree Lwyn was always eager to learn more. It was related to the same excitement that had originally inspired Lwyn into the room, dragging Mhyl behind her. "Your eagerness to figure out more about elven features you knew so little about, it is like the reports said, you are indeed as curious as your grandfather." "Wait, how do you know my grandfather?" It was a very smart and talented transition back to the original point of discussion, owning a lot to Yuxzn's abilities. Lwyn was drawn in even further, hearing about family she didn't even know about.
Lwyn was brought up to speed with the same details Thanrie and Mhyl had covered. Yuxzn had also shared that the Embers knew who Lwyn's Grandfather was, which was not on the report. Yuxzn also shared his personal observations in known similarities between each girl and a suspected family member. Thanrie's darker behaviours were considerably like her brother's. Qheria's stubbornness was a fine match to her mother's. "I have gotten the feeling that Mhyl's mother being so protective of her daughter is actually a lot alike the same devotion Mhyl herself has shown for her friends. The feeling of a gentle heart is akin to both, though you embrace it in different ways." Yuxzn's judgement of character was almost frightening.
"What may be the most concerning part of both reports is how we have two different personality profiles of the four of you, and yet they are so dramatically different. And yet, I've seen for myself, Zyuixqs' assessment was not wrong. However, to have close family members make such an incorrect assessment, it doesn't make sense." Yuxzn was worried about this particular point, although both Mhyl and Lwyn did not share his concern. They already had a pretty good idea what had caused that difference.
Lwyn scanned the report for a new topic to shift to. "It says here you guys had taken out some Destroyers. Those were the ones we were trying to take care of, wasn't it?" "Ah, yes, in fact, it was. We had a dramatic operation in place to deal with the whole situation, although your four envoys had proven surprisingly adept at dealing with these particular problems." Yuxzn accepted the shift of topic, still realizing they had little to account for regarding exactly how the destroyers had been disposed of so easily. It appears it had happened so quick, the scouts had nothing to report.
Yuxzn's hopes of getting information regarding the capacity of their respective envoys were instantly dashed. "Oh, how did they do that? Did they have some kind of neat weapons?" "Is there anything that would have affected armor that thick?" Lywn's curiosity proved she knew nothing, and Mhyl's doubts share the same. But right away, there was something that bothered Yuxzn. "According to the reports, none of you had ever seen a Destroyer before. How are you so confident how thick their armor is?" Mhyl froze, concerned in how she could back up her own assumptions.
Yuxzn caught on to how they had suddenly gone on the defensive, and thought of a better approach, considering all of his current observations. "Here, to clarify, could you draw me a picture of what you think these would look like. Show me what you mean by their armor?" Lywn re-read the part detailing the Destroyer's combat capabilities, and explained it to Mhyl. "I can try, I guess." Mhyl took to the paper and started creating her vision of what it would look like. Her artistic skills were impressive and highly detailed. Falling for the trap of having doubts set against her, Mhyl set to drawing a German Panzer Tank, so that she could argue the point of it having such heavy armor. Yuxzn saw the image and was stunned, it was similar to the Destroyers, but seemed almost more advanced. Lwyn however was concerned about other things. "Mhyl, why did you draw a TANK!?" Lwyn was worried that an earth-picture shown to a really smart elf was going to be very hard to explain. She had thought Mhyl would have drawn something much simpler to hide how much they knew, instead of working so hard to prove a point.
"This 'Zyianq', it's almost as if its a higher quality Destroyer than what we faced. Where... where did you see this from?" Yuxzn had heard the English word being used, but couldn't pronounce it. Mhyl at that point noticed her own mistake. Lwyn also noticed her slip-up. Both of them turned scarlet and went silent. Yuxzn finished putting all of his observations together. "The reports, the mismatch in mental profile, the strange language Mhyl and Thanrie were sharing outside.. it's all adding up. Each of you have been somehow exposed to information well beyond what you should naturally know, and it has affected you accordingly. It's the only possible explanation. Would you care to explain anything further upon this?" Yuxzn had in fact noticed Mhyl and Thanrie talking earlier, while knowing that neither of them spoke the other's language. It had been another mistake they had made in this whole mess.
It seems in a single meeting, Yuxzn had figured out not one, but two of Lwyn's biggest secrets. Mhyl and Lwyn decided that they had no choice but to give in.