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[color=8882be][b]Event:[/b][/color] Metropolis
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Things were odd, there was no magic use and the one time she could have felt it being used, the guards ran off for quite awhile. Now they were being fed excellent food sitting in a very nice inn with beautiful views. It was wonderful and generous and [i]if[/i] Ingrid was here as an envoy for friendly relationships, then this would make sense. But no, they were here to hunt down a traveler agent that was murdering people.

It seems her teammates also had some inkling that something was wrong. With everyone else asking Blossom questions, Ingrid played the lazy and ignorant noble who happily ate any food that was presented to her. Asking questions to Yin as she ate. 

Not even the first day and there was much to speculate on. Though with Blossoms maybe intentional drinking we could get some time to discuss.

The meal concluded without too much hassle and people started to share what they knew. Yalen had gained a great deal of information from blossom. So they had a white guard and a black guard, and the black guard was hunting down the traveler and we are the convenient cover for them. Zenith Upta talked about how a connection with Rettan would be made if we pulled this off correctly. If the White guard are the elite and the Black guard are even more so, they might work with the very higher ups, possibly even the twin emperors. 

Ingrid nodded to tell Yalen she understood but started to whisper to him in Perrench, a common language at the school but maybe not here at least. [color=8882be]”Je n’aime pas rester assis alors que nous pourrions faire les choses nous-mêmes. Et toi?”[/color] She felt Yalen wasn’t the type to sit around but maybe this could tell him she would support efforts on finding things out ourselves.

After washing up Ingrid decided to finally approach Maura after that little stunt she pulled. It didn’t really matter if they make a full of themselves now knowing that they are simply here as a convenient cover story for them. Still, Ingrid wanted to set the matter straight. She strolled over to Maura, [color=8882be]”Evening Maura,”[/color] Ingrid smiled. [color=8882be]”They sure did give a grand welcoming to us, and thank you for coming up with such respectable names for everyone,”[/color] Ingrid complimented Maura on her quick action, [color=8882be]”But that name you gave me was a bit much”[/color] Ingrid made no effort to hide her mild distaste for the name, [color=8882be]”As far as I am aware, we are not on good enough terms to be so lax with each other. Let’s try to be at least cordial in the meantime.”[/color] Ingrid yawned,[color=8882be] ”Rest well Maura, you’ll have a lot of rolling to do tomorrow.”[/color] and headed off to her an Niallus’s room. 

Once she was in her room she intended to just settle down with Niallus but her mind was caught up in all that was going on, just who could be in the Black guard and why were they using us. It sounds like they are near the level of the arch-Zeno’s at the academy so why then. Her mind couldn’t help but see them as a sacrifice for the white and black guard to remove problematic sectors. Something along the lines of, Oh the government didn’t do that, it was the nasty foreigners, this is why you can only trust the government. It’s an old trick, one that is surprisingly effective. And that didn’t sit right with her. Ingrid has done her fair share of bad things, but she would rather avoid making herself a public enemy here for any time she would want to do business in Retan. 

The other thing that bothered me was if the guards came back. Even if the supposed legendary blackguards were on the case, common guards might be seen as expendable. Ingrid isn’t a traveler expert, but she has on more than one occasion dealt with them and both times their tactics were to lead their foe into an engagement where they are outnumbered. Ingrid snuck out and checked on the guards, believing herself to be stealthy with her mixture of arcane and kinetic magic. The only guard unaccounted for was the guard captain… 

"What you do!?" demands a voice as she tries to slip around a corner undetected. It was Captain Zhu, Ingrid nearly had a heart attack, he snuck up on her so well and she was sensing for people as well. She quickly assessed the situation and determined that it was salvageable. She collected herself and spoke in her broken rettanese something along the lines of she was worried for his men because she had also encountered the Traveler. She tried to come off genuine but she couldn’t tell if she was really understood. At the very least Captain Zhu sent her back off to her room without any issue. Still, she was surprised how easy she was to sneak up on. Time to get some rest for tomorrow before it's too late, afterall there are no Zeno Bucks here.