[center][b] Veyati - Chapter 1: Keen Interest[/b][/center]

It was an uneventfully short journey into the stunted hills by the sea where the Erimtha was docked. As the centuries-old Bulwark ship came in to sight, Veyati shifted her eyes to Iroas, studying him, the way he walked. Even his silence managed to say something of his character. He never once looked away from the path.

A large, old door mechanism was all that separated them. The door had some ancient arcane markings upon it-- likely a ward to stop intruders. Majestic beast as the Erimtha was, the way the door was all one solid wooden material made the outside patchwork of its hull look even worse. Strong and durable, but a far cry from any decent aesthetic. However, as Veyati and Iroas entered the Erimtha, a warm blue glow of crystal light welcomed them in and showed the inside to be very different. The reworked interior was entirely uniform and solid. Grand craftsmanship was put into the walls and floors, and the soothing blue lights were likely a recent addition rather than an original feature. There was barely an ounce of metal present in the interior's structure. The blue shine revealed an assortment of wooden crates, chests, and other objects were sorted neatly against the walls of the cargo bay. Presumably, it was all either the haul of the crew's trading, or their own trade goods. 

Veyati looked up, briefly bringing her attention to the dull thudding sound of footsteps above them before turning back to the door, pulling it closed on both ends, and turning to Iroas. 

"Normally I would have you meet my colleagues," Veyati said as she absently drifted to the center of the room, "But the current circumstances make it seem... inappropriate." Iroas seemed to be quite intrigued by the ship, the velocity at which his head had turned being a fine indicator of interest. For a few seconds after Veyati addressed him, he looked over the ship's interior, touching its walls and tapping lightly on the floorboards. It seemed quite obvious he found the Erithma to be... old. 

"No matter. I'll see to it that I meet them soon enough," he said, head still trained on the ship rather than Veyati, "I wish to speak with you most of all in any case." Turning back to Veyati he cleared his throat with a fist at his mouth, etiquette proving to be quite instilled in him; his helmet made it seem unnecessary to cover his mouth. Veyati folded her hands in front of her and swayed lightly, watching him closely. Her mask hid an amused smile. His behavior warranted close attention, but maybe he was just being strange.

"I apologize for not introducing myself during the party, but consideration had me withhold my name and person. I would not want the enemy to so quickly know of any interaction," he began, "I saw you and the daughter of Cain conversing, and couldn't help but overhear, luckily I might suppose. I do not know by who you have been directed to Garude, but our intentions seem to coincide."

Enemy? Just as she suspected-- someone sent the phantoms for her. Good thing Iroas showed up, then. He could answer some questions. Veyati intended to pry, in her own way. She threw her hands around her back and took a step forward. "What exactly are those intentions, Sir Iroas?" she asked, leaning forward with curiosity in her tone.

Straightening himself out and folding his hands to his back, he stated quite firmly, as if trained to do so, "The investigation of vampire activity upon Garude, and if it has anything to do with the Silence of Life." Vampire. Veyati's gaze drifted off around the ship momentarily as she tried to access her memory. Vampire... she had to have read [i]something[/i] about that before, right? Better yet, what was she going to tell [i]him[/i]? 'No I'm really just here to explore and map the scenery'? Of course not. This sounded like a crystal mine of information, and Veyati intended to dig right in. Her face lit up with interest and her gaze returned to Sir Iroas. She swallowed, briefly cleared her throat, and tried to assume a (rather silly, in her own opinion) guise. Her tone was lowered a bit, like she were wary of eavesdroppers.

"Simply in the fact that someone sent those phantoms," she said, "Likely meant as disposable assassins, I must be close enough to have someone's attention."

"No doubt it was Lady Auriga who picked up on the clues," he said. Veyati smirked. Bingo. Already on the right track. "Were you to have forgone a conversation with her," he continued, "I doubt we'd have encountered each other, nor the ghasts have come after you," Sir Iroas explained. He crossed his arms at his chest and looked rather sternly at Veyati through darkened visor slits.

"So then, if I may ask. Where do you come from, and why are you also after the vampires? No doubt others have come to the inner empires in search of answers, but I do not think anyone of Bulwark would poke into the business of Garude deeply, and yet..." he looked around in a wide arc, "you travel in an airship of Bulwark creation."

Veyati pressed her lips together in thought, contemplating her choice of words carefully to continue with the ruse that would [i]hopefully[/i] lead to amazing discoveries. Maybe she could get some more information out of him. She nodded to Iroas in confirmation, "Yes... and you're an agent of Waether meddling in the affairs of a sphere not of your nation. If anything, do you not believe your own circumstances are stranger than mine?"

"I think quite certainly that my circumstances are less strange," he quickly denied. Sir Iroas searched about the room for some furniture to sit on, and finding a simple chest, found his way to it and sat down. "No one in the Bulwark Empire knowingly interferes with the vampires of Garude. They are too finely integrated into the shade of the Empire-"

Veyati raised a hand and interjected. "We're independent agents, Sir Iroas. Does that help sate your curiosity?" Sir Iroas granted only a long and silent stare.

"No," he plainly stated, "but I suppose you're of a much more secretive state than my own. While word is unlikely to get out, it was by a direct decree from Emperor Solderlight that I was given this task. There is little secrecy in it. But you..." he leaned forward, shoulder raised as he placed an armored hand upon his knee, "seem less interested in the Silence of Life, and more on the vampires themselves. Researching in the Silence isn't something one overtly hides."

Veyati's head dropped and her hands fell to her sides as she let out a long sigh of exasperation. She made a sheepish expression under her mask when she realized she may have overdone her act of frustration, but he seemed to buy it. "Iroas," she breathed out, "Why are you concerning yourself with such trivial details? Truly, I am glad to know there are friendly agents in Garude... this is all that should concern you as well. You seemed to have made this conversation more a rude interrogation of [i]my[/i] intentions than a defined plan on what we should do about [i]Auriga's[/i]. That is what you came here to do after establishing we were working toward the same goal, is it not?" Wait. Damn it. Veyati winced and cursed inwardly when she remembered his primary goal only involved the vampires-- it wasn't about them.

She could practically [i]feel[/i] Iroas leering at her from underneath his helm. Leaned forward, it seemed as if he was deliberately trying to bore a hole into her body with his gaze. Veyati just stared back. What irritated him so? It seemed like he suspected something of her. It was an uncomfortably long period of silence before Sir Iroas spoke again, his voice much less calm than before.

"Auriga's?" he asked, his leer once more heating up.

Veyati tensed up, but her outfit hid her expression. He was definitely suspecting something of her... but he was a fool if he thought he would confront her now about... wait, about [i]what[/i]? She acted as if she were taken aback, trying to hold up the guise and blew off his glaring. She gestured toward the door and said, "Have you already forgotten about the ghasts that attempted to assassinate me earlier? Lady Auriga is either the indirect assailant, or a direct line to them." Veyati might as well have gone to another room and brewed up some sort of drink, because Iroas's silence was painfully long. He got up from the chest and paced about the room, head bowed and arms held behind himself. The clack of each of his steps was perfectly timed, and then circle around the room without error. A nervous habit if ever Veyati saw one. The way it was calculated... he was thinking over his options. Veyati watched intently with narrowed eyes until finally he stopped and turned to her.

"From what Sphere did I receive my [i]direct[/i] message to investigate the vampires?" he asked.

Veyati bit her lip, and her eyes darted around the room nervously, but her mask stayed facing Iroas. Was this a trick question? Why was he even asking? She didn't know [i]anything[/i] about Waether or it's spheres. Time to drop the facade. She shook her head with a short sigh and answered, "I'm sorry, Iroas, but I know nothing of Weather's spheres. I... admittedly know just as little of Bulwark's." Veyati chuckled, "This vampire business... really, just quite suddenly dropped in my lap." 

Iroas seemed, at least for a fleeting moment, as if he were going to place his hand upon his sword, but the moment passed and simply remained passive. His chest puffed out, as if it were about to release a great sigh, but that too was dissolved. Looking to the side, avoiding her gaze, Sir Iroas simply thought for a moment.

"This is quite the accident, it seems," he finally let out a sigh, albeit much less great than Veyati expected. Sir Iroas made for the door, but stopped. "And yet, your combat skills speak very little of an uninteresting background. Why did you persist on this ruse?"

Veyati threw away the facade entirely and couldn't help but start laughing again. She was obviously very amused with herself, almost inappropriately so. She shrugged after her laughter had died down. "I don't really know," she admitted, "I thought it would be interesting to see where it led me, I guess? I didn't think dodging questions about my origins would warrant anger, let alone [i]murder[/i], but... here we are, and now that someone has made an attempt on my life..."

"I'll admit. I am still quite curious about your origins, this ship, and what lies under that mask, but," Sir Iroas said as he faced Veyati, calmness returning to his voice. Reaching up, he lifted up the hinged visor covering his head, revealing his seemingly recently-shaved face in the ship's light, "If you aid me, I'll think about overlooking it."

Veyati turned her head and gave him a sidelong glance at first, suspecting he was attempting to blackmail her somehow into helping him. "That somewhat depends on what your definition of 'Aid' is, Iroas," she said, taking a stubborn stance with folded arms... though she had a feeling she wouldn't care since she already intended to raise hell on whoever was responsible for trying to [i]kill her[/i]. Really, she was just giving him guff because of his attitude earlier.

"Given your unintended involvement already, I doubt you will be left alone for your stay on Garude, possibly even elsewhere in Aurora. You said you weren't to let this murderous attempt go, yes? Join me in infiltrating the darkness of Garude. Your skills seem more than suited for this line of work." Sir Iroas tapped upon his sword twice and smiled. "If you can take out a ghast in the night on your own, then you stand a chance against whatever else these vampires may throw at us."

Veyati hid a devious, toothy grin under her mask. 'Stand a chance'. That's... definitely a way to put it. It didn't take long before she folded her hands in front of her and bowed to him, saying, "I will gladly help then, Iroas, and as a token of good faith I... suppose I could answer one more question of yours."

"One question, huh?" Iroas thought to himself, eyes looking upwards in contemplation, "Alright then. How far away from the Bulwark Empire is your Sphere?" Iroas prodded into her home a little more, though circumvented directly asking the Sphere's name. At the very least, she could give him a hint.

Veyati made a gesture of thought with a hand over the bottom of her mask, lightly tapping the ceramic shell with her finger. "Just outside of its borders, actually," she answered.

Another voice spoke from the top of the stairs at the north end of the room. "And intending to [i]stay[/i] as such," they said.

A similarly robed and masked figured descended the staircase, walking with purpose and heavy footsteps. The blue light showed his robes as a pale violet that weirdly melded in with the dark color of the wood, but shined clearly on his white mask. Unlike Veyati's, which was meant to seem calm and serene, if a bit distant and ominous, this mask was adorned with lavish markings in purple and red and gold, like arcane flames were trying to crawl up from the bottom of the mask. The eyes shined with the same colors, bearing an intense and almost threatening visage. The figure, known to be a man by the clear sound of his low voice, paused briefly mid-step on the stairs, regarded the newcomer with a nod, then continued his descent.

"Especially considering the sore lack of security within Bulwark's own borders, given that one of our colleagues was attacked by ghasts earlier this evening," he added, pulling himself beside Veyati with one last heavy step. Iroas returned with a chuckle and a shrug, clearly on the masked man's side of thinking, but seemingly unwilling to fully vocalize agreement. Veyati would've had a clear look of shock for all to see, but only the sound of a quiet gasp was present to convey her surprise. 

"Almere was attacked, and wounded," he announced. Veyati bowed and shook her head, but didn't show any sign of anger. "Normally I would override Veyati's decision to meddle, but..." the robed man drifted off and looked up to ceiling above, the crew's quarters where one of their colleagues was recovering, and huffed out a breath. "Now that it seems they are targeting us, I have every intention of joining her." 

Iroas didn't even blink or hesitate. "Great! We need all the help we can get for what we're doing. If you're anything like Miss Veyati, you'll be more than enough." Iroas raised his arms upwards, as if beckoning for the masked man to join in a group hug, before letting them fall back to his sides with a clang as the metal armor pieces struck one another. The masked man narrowed his eyes at that. At Veyati, in particular, as he turned his head to her and slowly leaned in. She sheepishly smiled and turned away, saying nothing in her defense. 

"I don't suppose you have more hands?" he asked, voice filled with amusement.

The masked man breathed out something halfway between a sigh and a groan of frustration, "So much for our trading efforts with Garude..." he mumbled, then threw a look over his shoulder at their stockpile. He smirked and shrugged it off. It wasn't like they were doing badly for even a couple days. He nodded to Iroas and answered , "Yes, yes we do. Five capable, and I don't imagine it would be hard to rouse them into action against these..." he tapped the bottom of his mask, "Vampires, you called them?"

"Sounds less of trading vessel and more of a small mercenary force," Iroas postulated, rubbing his chin, "But I won't complain."

Veyati and the masked man looked at each other, then shrugged. The masked man gestured around the room to the wares stocked in chests and crates, saying, "Truly, when your cargo is as valuable as ours was this haul," he drawled out, "It doesn't hurt to be both."

"True enough. I wish our own empire was as cautious," Iroas mumbled. Rolling his shoulders slightly, so as not to be completely uncouth, he nevertheless signified tiredness. "I have a room to myself in town, but I suppose returning there after what has occurred may not be the best of ideas. Caution, after all," he glanced to the masked man. The man tilted his head up a bit and raised an eyebrow at the obvious insinuation, and then... there it came.

"I hate to be a burden," Iroas said, "But might I rest here for the night? I need no bed or comfort, only a roof over my head and a closed door."

Veyati raised her hand as if she were about to speak, but was cut off when the masked man lowered her hand and stepped forward. "You must understand, Sir Iroas, that we have only just met you. Though we trust your intentions..." He trailed off as Veyati put a hand on his shoulder and gently tugged. He could tell she was giving him some sort of significant look. The man may very well have rolled his eyes so hard that the Erimtha could've capsized, but she was right. He made a quick judgement call and altered his decision slightly, "We cannot simply give shelter for free."

"Hm, as [i]traders[/i], I suppose not," Iroas said, immediately moving to search through a small bag hanging at his side, "how much will it be then?" He fished out a small bag of coin, nothing substantial, but hefty enough to signify he was no commoner.

"Ten copper seems reasonable," he said.

"Sure," Iroas responded, fishing out the exact change from the bag, "it'll only be one night, so I can manage that sort of price." He winked. Iroas then approached the man and held out his hand to exchange the copper coins. The masked man cupped his hands together to receive the coins, thanked him, then promptly deposited them into his own coin purse and stepped back from Iroas.

"Well, now that we will be working together, I may as well introduce myself." The man folded his hands behind his back and gave a short bow to Sir Iroas. "I am Caslin Stygal, the captain of the ship you will be staying on tonight."

"Sir Iroas of the Waether High Guard," he responded, swinging his right arm to his chest with a thud, saluting Caslin vigorously, "Pleasure to meet you Captain. I hope we can get along and work well with one another. Veyati as well."

Caslin waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, we will get along just fine," he assured him, "...So long as you don't go poking around my ship, of course."

Caslin made his way back up the staircase, gesturing and calling for Iroas to follow. No way a newcomer was going to stay anywhere near the cargo. He would rather take a chance upstairs where he could at least be monitored. Veyati stood idle for a moment before loping after them.

"So..." She began, "What is a vampire?"