The Otter

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

Many of those paladins that had been laid low by Eos's magic were given a reprieve that a number of their comrades in the front ranks were not, as Zacharias called out to detain rather than execute the lot. The attempted capture and execution of the Grovemaster was over almost before it had begun; looking over the faces of the kneeling and defeated warriors, Esben thought he could recognize a few from Isolde's betrayal, the pain of defeat stronger in their expressions knowing that they'd failed twice over to deal with the problem the Kirins presented them.

Better yet, Miina and Rudolf had managed to escape whatever altercation they'd found relatively unscathed, arriving soon enough that he didn't have to go out looking for them. "That's easier for us, at least," he mused to Cid and Zacharias as the pair walked up. "Hopefully they'll have some good news."

As had thus far been the case in Drana Asnaeu, his hopes and his reality were completely at odds with one another.

Valheimer interference. He'd expected it; as he'd said to Cid the day before, he figured Isolde to be in either knowing or unknowing league with the invaders. Her willingness to buy into single-minded zealotry was more than enough to come to that conclusion, whether it was an obfuscation or she truly was that stupid didn't matter. He'd still hoped that it was just at her level, even after everything he'd read to cast aspersions on Alambert as well before finding his way to Zacharias's grove.

Hoped that she was acting on her own to work with them, or that Valheim had gotten more creative, planted some of their people to act as the schismatics, to drive the division deeper and were using her. Hoped that he would actually have the time to dive to the heart of the schism and interrogate some of those that were helping perpetuate it. Hoped he'd be able to answer any of the multitude of questions that the place had drawn up at his own pace.

Instead—they'd barely made it back to the city in time to prevent the worst case scenario. Once again, barely avoiding an unmitigated disaster. Even then, due to the lack of time they had, Isolde had to be removed. No chance getting any good information from her, nor did it seem they would have the time to get through the paladins and find out anything useful that way. Alambert, already assassinated, the strange behavior that had been noticed by both of the other Grovemasters the result of the busy schedule that had to be maintained by the one that had stolen his face.

Looked right at him in that council chamber, concealing any reactions just as he'd been taught. After a nearly sleepless three-day boat ride upriver to meet with them. Unforgivable enough that he hadn't caught on to Isolde and hadn't taken the opportunities as they traveled to try and get anything proactively, but not to catch onto the few subtle tells that were there, the way the conversation had been so effortlessly twisted around to discredit every last thing that the Kirins were trying to accomplish...

"Loki," he repeated after a moment, looking over to Rudolf as he and Éliane planned retrieving the cannon. "You're sure you heard correctly?" It would be easier to assume they hadn't. Or that there was a more subtle plan at work, and to try and trust the process. But if even Kayliss was concerned enough by the silence to bring it up with him, knowing that Loki had always been careful to get her reports in and keep things properly taken care of, and knowing the importance of his own mission, there was little chance of that.

Most likely, she'd already suspected it. Even if he'd only graduated the middle of his class, that was due as much to the nature of the work they'd already had him doing while he was still ostensibly in training as to his own idiosyncrasies; between the nature of the mission he'd been sent out on, the fact that even when he didn't do what was necessarily intended he wasn't reprimanded for it and was instead given leave to continue as he saw fit, and the other things he'd been entrusted to hear and learn from the deputy director, he knew he was likely near the top of her best students through the years.

At times, he was tutored by one of the others. An engineered, enforced personal connection. Kayliss was in the top ranks of the organization for a reason, and that would have to include the safeguards she would put in place between the competing personalities of her agents to keep them all in balance. Always preparing in case something should go wrong.

Rudolf turned away from Éliane, nodding once and tapping at one ear with the barest hint of a wince. "I wasn't until I cross-referenced with Miina, but yes—nothing else fit the sound."

"She probably found it all very entertaining," he mumbled bleakly. "But now I'm not sure if I was the bait, the trap, or the target." At least it made him feel better about the constant arguing not to kill all the Grovemasters. Had they tried in the first place—it may have worked against Zacharias and Isolde. 'Alambert' would have gotten away, the country's leadership would've been left in near total disarray, and they would have done all of Valheim's work for them.

'Alambert' would have been able to turn the country against them, the invasion would have gone off without a hitch. Unhappy as he was with the situation, he'd been close to agreeing a few times, as well. Yet, continuing with everything else he'd been experiencing since they stepped off of Bikke's boat, he wouldn't even have the time to try and process any of it. Hopefully afterwards, but if the last eighteen days had taught him anything, he'd be busy trying to mitigate all the rest of the group instead.

No time for any of it, now. If hope and reality couldn't align, he could at least try and make the reality the best he could.

"Our timeline gets truncated further with every new development." He pointed at the gunblade Rudolf held. "That's not Skaeller make, that's Valheimer. Likely they—and Loki—were trusting that nearly nobody here would be able to tell the difference. Makes things easier and faster, and fits with the plan to invade, there's no need to be too subtle there. Loki's infiltration was probably the longest step of this, and given that we don't know just how long she's been here—more than a month at least, from what I've seen—we have to assume that our goal is compromised."

He turned back to Zacharias and Cid. "Whether we can help repel an invasion or not, we have to secure the crystal. If they're fast about grabbing the cannon, they can meet us there. Were there any paladins that weren't swayed by Isolde's demagoguery? If so, we may need them ready to support us."

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fionn MacKerracher

---

The cheer was less alarming than hearing the bloodied vampire start talking to herself in the middle of the ring of fire. He hadn't even been particularly worried that she would break his arm—he'd been ready to lift her off her feet and shake her around if she pulled too hard, that probably would have been surprise enough to snap her out of it, and if not, they always had good healers around. Luckily, she snapped out of both quickly enough, turning back to him with another wide smile.

"Eh. Frustrated, more like. Never quite seem to get what I'm hoping for." He shrugged, before pulling off his cloak and wrapping it around her, in case the scraps of clothes she had left managed to tear themselves apart before they could get back somewhere she could get properly dressed. "You, meanwhile, are grounded once we get back to the city. You can have fun with things without getting reckless, can't you?"

He simply refused to believe that a centuries-old vampire with monster slaying experience couldn't have figured out some way to achieve the same end result without having to light herself on fire in the process. Sure, Reon may have liked her a lot more than most vampires, but adding on that risk of self-immolation atop the dismemberment and everything else was too much for him to allow. Once he was satisfied that Tyaethe was well and truly covered—and fully put out—he drew back, pulling off one gauntlet and wiping at his cheek absent-mindedly.

"Oh, right." The cheek which was, by now, covered with a thin sheen of blood, nearly enough to start dripping off his chin. With a silly grin, he turned, the wound facing towards Tyaethe. "Taste any different, after what Fiadh's done?"

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

His request for a signal rapidly was buried under deliberations by the two old men in the room with him, Zacharias catching Cid up on their defenses and the recent events as he knew them. He knew Cid had to have heard him, at least, he'd just have to wait for some response. Still, if they took too long to do it, then while any of the group that may have been following the paladins would make it without trouble, the others who had split off would still be having to try and find their way. Assuming they weren't too caught up in whatever had caused the explosions outside.

And he would still have to figure out what he was doing in the fight, as well; as he'd said multiple times, he wasn't one for pitched battles, his killing skills were suited to dueling and assassinations. The sight of Selene blinking her light off in one window rapidly pulled him out of his thoughts, however, given that she seemed to be frantically signaling at something. "What's the matter?"

"It's Elly! On the roofs! I could just make her out!"

"Elly?" Eos went to the window as well, peering out.

Well, that solves one of them. He walked over to the same window, peering over the glowing fairies. He couldn't make anything out, but they had yet to give him too much reason to doubt."Both of you pulse rapidly for two seconds," he commanded. "And go up and down, the full length of the window." The confused fairies looked at each other, back to him, but then did as he bid.

"Stop. Full glow. Selene, bottom center of the window. Eos, top left. Then back to center." First letter. "Eos, top left again. Selene, bottom right. Return to center, then repeat, and back again. Good. Eos, middle left, Selene, top right." The fairies would have to make do as flags, but hopefully spelling out the short form of Éliane's name would work well enough as a signal. "Keep repeating that until you know she's picked it up, then start flashing at her again so she doesn't lose sight, I'm going to—"

He was going to say 'survey the grounds,' but when the pair came back to the center and started to pulse he cut himself off. "Welcome her in, I suppose."

---

Quick as she was, it didn't take Éliane more than a few moments to get there. He waved her over to the open door. "Sorry that they don't look like proper signal flags, but it seems you got the message well enough. Paladins should be right behind you, a half company. We should still be taking them by surprise—I want you to set up somewhere high, good coverage of the clearing, so that you can take shots at any of them that leave you a good opening. How about..."

He paused, looking back at the cottage. Zacharias and Cid inside were just coming towards the entrance.

"Boost you up to the roof?" With no disagreement, he cupped his hands together, launching her up to the top of the small home, and he returned inside. Out near where the furthest of Zacharias's guards had been posted, he could already just hear the sounds of a brewing confrontation. Zacharias, of course, still seemed reticent to trust them; it was probably for the best that he'd already gotten Éliane in place. "Are we done arguing about who's helping who?"

Ifrit and Ramuh appearing out in the clearing was answer enough. Eos and Selene floated on next to him, looking out at the advancing line of paladins across the clearing. "Hit them with whatever you have," he commanded Eos. "Selene, stay up by Éliane, give her an extra pair of eyes and ears. If she calls for it, be ready to give a boost—hopefully I'll be close enough to still take advantage of it." Both fairies darted off in acknowledgement of his command. While it didn't hold the same potency as when she could literally get her hands on the target, Isolde's reaction despite her protections had proved the sudden damage the diminutive fairy could inflict with her Bios and Broils, hurling sickly green and angry red bolts at the front ranks of the paladins as Esben watched the battle unfold.

Selene, meanwhile, floated gently up next to the waiting Éliane. "Hi, Elly!" she said cheerily, despite the situation. While at the fight with Leviathan she'd seemed nearly as given over to hysterics as her sister, she'd evidently grown more than confident with the group's abilities. She settled into place atop the pink-haired woman's shoulders. "I'm here if you need me!"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fionn MacKerracher

---

His blade was slapped away just in time to keep the Falconer from losing its entire unbroken arm. Each stepped away from the other, one to gain space, one to avoid any possible rapid reprisal; if he didn't have his gauntlets on, Fionn would've taken the moment to wipe some of the blood off of his cheek. Instead, he watched impassively as the creature gave him its semblance of a bow. If this were a legitimate duel, if he were facing something he didn't think had good odds of coming back with the next Hunt anyways—he may have returned the gesture. With the fight in the forest being what it was, the fae hunter's spectral companion having done what it could to save him, and, at the edges of his vision, more of them coming up...

The Falconer got the barest flick of a nod. It wouldn't back down, at least, but Fionn had been spoiling for a proper bout of single combat since before watching one enemy get cursed and choke right in front of him. Something he still had yet to receive.

He didn't bother to count the spectral birds hanging around him as they appeared. He had ways of dealing with them and their master—some more flashy, showing off, demonstrating skills beyond just swordplay. He was probably fast enough on his own to evade and cut them out of the air with little trouble. However, he felt like finishing this out as simply and quickly as possible. No longer playing a game with the Falconer and trying to have fun with it—just putting down this aspect of the Midnight Hunt at last.

"Gniye bristis."

He'd spent quite a bit of his mana earlier that day, but the time they'd had to rest meant that he could afford the little it took him to push his speed far beyond any normal limit for a few moments. He felt the energies suffuse his body, the world seeming to slow around him as the pace of his thoughts rapidly overtook everything else. He pushed forward instantly, rushing the Falconer. Maybe the fey creature could still follow him, but it would no doubt be quite surprised.

To anybody else that may have turned to see, it was like he disappeared in a blink, suddenly next to his target with one hand already on its light breastplate. In the moment they had to resolve that image, he'd already sent the Falconer flying. The hunter crashed through his spectral flock as they converged on the point where Fionn had been, knocking them from the air and continuing to slam into a tree.

The overly-tall hunter turned, tried to pull themselves up on the tree—and just as suddenly, the raven-dark sword appeared, vibrating slightly as it pinned the Falconer to the tree through the neck.

Fionn cut his spell off, coming back to normal speed as he walked up to his defeated opponent, placing one hand on the hilt of his borrowed weapon. "More sword work, fewer birds next time, yeah?" he said, conversationally. "Told you I'd take that head of yours, though." He ripped the sword back out of the tree, wrenching the Falconer's head off with it. Taking a short moment to catch his breath, he looked across the battlefield. The rest seemed to be dealing with everything alright, Gerard having already put his opponent in a position to either surrender or perish. Fleuri, Renar, Fanilly, Gertrude, Rolan—handling things well enough. The other knights were serving admirably against the rest of the Hunt. As he saw the source of the screeching that had filled the grove for a moment, though, and beheld the laughing vampire within, thoroughly coated in her own burning blood...

"Oh, bloody hell."

Rather quite the opposite, but that didn't change the phrasing. Sword in hand, he picked between the spots of flame to come up next to Tyaethe, kneeling down to look her in the eyes as he spun her to face him. "What do you think you're doing now?" he demanded with a stern tone. "Quit burning yourself right this instant!"

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

Esben could at least appreciate that Zacharias had set defenses around his home and planned to go down swinging—the man was right that it would likely be nothing more than a pyrrhic victory, but in the absence of any interference to his benefit, martyring himself would likely have better effect than trying to run, especially if any of his apprentices made it out to try and act as rebel leaders. Unlike with his prior debate about whether or not to rescue Hien, however, the takeover had not been successful yet. Zacharias had a benefit that the old Ospreyan leadership didn't have, having someone competent and divorced from the internal struggles able to help him.

As much as Esben hated being on the defending side of a siege...

"What defenses?"

"I've made a minefield of the grounds, I have emplacements set to unleash fire upon them, and I can call upon Ramuh if need be," came the surly reply.

"You too? I imagine you can probably keep him here longer than I can." Ignoring the mixture of shock and outrage playing across Zacharias's face, while the incredulous Grovemaster's mouth moved trying to find words to speak in response, Esben raised the crystal he'd been given by Cid again. This time he focused on it, the inert matrix starting to glow with its own inner light—and in seconds, Cid appeared between the two of them.

He wasted no time on greetings before getting right down to business. "Cid, I need to know the situation back at the cathedral. If Isolde's there with her paladins, if they're planning anything, or if they've already left entirely."

Cid left as abruptly as he'd teleported in, reappearing nearly thirty seconds later. He remained silent, his expression grave as he handed a familiarly gnarled branch of enchanted wood to Zacharias, identical to the Grovemaster's own staff. After giving the latter a moment to process it, he spoke.

"I'd caught but a glimpse: forty or fifty paladins screaming for your head. Evidently, they think you have a hand in this.

"Stupid, stupid girl." Zacharias closed his eyes in frustration and mourning. "She's suborned nearly half of the knights to her side, then.

"Ah. Unavoidable, then." The expression on Cid's face and the staff made the situation perfectly clear. After the fight they'd had with Isolde and just a few of the paladins, if she had been whipping them up into a frenzy, then it was no surprise at all that Chisato would have removed her in an instant; he could only hope that the diminutive ninja had managed to escape the aftermath unscathed. "Hopefully Alambert isn't similarly compromi—"

He was cut off as the sound of gunfire in the distance reached the grove. His eyes narrowed; too many firing at once to be Éliane, or at least to be just Éliane. That the sound of a larger explosion followed shortly thereafter didn't do much to tell him who the cause may have been, but if such things were happening, from a different direction than the cathedral itself—it was too much to be a coincidence.

He spat out some old Skaeller curse under his breath, turning back to Cid and Zacharias. "Alright. Zacharias, I'm sure they're expecting you to play the stubborn old fool and stay here waiting to meet them in combat. Normally, I'd suggest getting you out of here, but with one down we may be able to cut this off before it has the chance to grow too much. Cid, is there any sort of signal you can give for the rest to know exactly where we are? A pillar of Ifrit's flame seems exceedingly obvious, but it might give the paladins pause to think that Zacharias here is setting up for a greater confrontation than they expect—or just drive them to rush in unprepared, with the rest of the Kirins hot on their heels. Either possibility can be turned to our favour, unless you have something more subtle?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fionn MacKerracher

---

One benefit to armour was that it made it very hard to get cut. Even a simple mail hauberk, something that many knights considered entirely obsolete compared to the plate that had become so much more common in past centuries, provided much the same level of protection in that area. As Fionn pulled the Falconer's arm far past the point of breaking as he completed his turn, beyond even where a human arm was ever meant to go, he could feel the cloak stiffen beneath his gauntleted hands and against his body as the feathers turned to knives and rippled outwards.

Luckily for him, they couldn't get through the chain. Had they been stuck out already as he forced his body in to the unnatural fighter, then certainly, he'd have been stuck like a pig. But as they tried to push outwards, with him against them they had nowhere to go. Instead, the slight pressure was just warning enough for him to break contact. Let go of the arm, unhook his sword from the creature's wrist, step away quickly—

One of the feathers swung up just as he pulled away, cutting across his cheek.

You think you get to make me bleed my own blood like that?

He'd had to push himself nearly back-to-back with the beast to break its arm entirely, having to fight against the inhuman thing's flexibility. He landed on his right foot as he stepped away, spun the last quarter-turn on the ball of his foot as he took his sword back in both hands, swinging it down to sever the Falconer's gauntleted left arm at the elbow.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

"You know we're not her pawns, you know you're having problems with her and her ilk, and yet still you threaten me? My, Zacharias, you are a bold one." There was almost a hint of approval in Esben's voice. He was unsurprised to find the man practicing his invisibility; short of Zacharias being in a deep sleep, he hadn't expected to come upon him unaware, and the man wasn't as sneaky as he thought even with the spell.

There was simply nowhere else he could have been, and Esben was simply too confident to waste any more time with it.

He pulled out the glowing crystal he had received from Cid, studying it for a moment. "So, you know we're not her pawns. Clearly, there's little love lost between the two of you. Perhaps you suspect she may have betrayed us, yes?" He flicked his cloak, letting the two fairies that had been hiding within it fly out. "Watch the windows, you two," he bid, and they floated off to comply. Zacharias's reaction had given him something to think about.

This wasn't just the work of a man who was ready and alert for an infiltration from him or the other Kirins. Zacharias almost looked panicked. White-knuckled, openly glaring, but obviously hiding. The guards weren't alert at all, worse than the ones around the Council chambers. "The arrogance is remarkable, isn't it? They don't even think about us. You, me, we're just targets. Not intelligent, thinking beings that can pick apart what they're planning. Seems like that's the mistake they always make, when they get too satisfied with their plans."

Isolde's obvious betrayal, the fracturing within the Cathedral, Alambert's strange meetings and the fact that he and Isolde seemed at least tenuously allied; Zacharias, the one at odds to both, most opposed to the Kirins, most at risk once the other foe seemed reasonably well dealt with. "I was going to offer you to meet with us, with my guarantee that nothing would happen to you. My protection. But now...were you waiting for your own guards to come in and try to apprehend you, I wonder? We may not have time just to talk things over, if so." He held the crystal up for the elder man's view.

"If you won't trust me, you can hear it from Cid himself in the short time we have—talk about something more than your relationship troubles, for a change. I'm sure he'll remind you just why he encouraged you to accept the apprenticeship, though, despite the doubts you had at the time. He still has faith that you'll make the right choices, eventually...though I doubt he expected that your compatriots would force your hand."

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

After a last-minute planning session with Miina and Chisato, reminding them of the rules of engagement (the first being: don't engage unless completely unavoidable) and working out a place that they could meet up or hide messages if need be before finding the others, the trio had split their separate ways. Given a lack of information that the three had on where their quarry could be, it had left them with a host of options.

Attempting to infiltrate the cathedral, one that he figured was best left to Chisato as her target was the one with the most ties. Observation of the guards and the locals, listening to rumors, following their movements to see where they were congregating, anything that could lead to determining the Grovemasters' residences or outright locations in that way—perhaps best left to the one that could blend in as a local or outright make herself invisible. Lastly, infiltrating the Council halls themselves, finding offices, taking any information that could be useful in that way.

Naturally, Esben had assigned himself the third option.

While the security around the city overall was not terribly effective, he had noted that it was still more than had been when they first came through. The presence of guards—as well as their apparent competence at their jobs—only increased the closer one got to the major centers of the town's rule. The living tree that held the Grovemasters' chambers, as the beating heart of Drana Asnaeu's governance, was one of the most heavily guarded parts of the city. The guards made a fine show of things around the main entrance, but they were clearly patrolling the streets around it as well, smaller teams posted at various side entrances, and no doubt they would have snipers—archers, crossbowmen, possibly even riflemen if they had deigned to trade for such modern weaponry—watching various points in the vicinity.

More professional by far than Mizutani Tane's goons, if he had to guess. This wouldn't be quite so simple a task as running along the walls and stabbing a few criminals in the back. Still, he had the cover of night on his side once again, where the guards would be relying on light sources either posted or carried. As he watched the surroundings of the Council chambers from the high perch he'd climbed to, he couldn't help but note just how predictable the guards' patrols were. Predictable and gappy; unacceptably so, if it weren't for the possibility of snipers on overwatch.

Peering through a spyglass, he scanned the field once more, pausing when he caught the reflection of firelight off of metal. "As expected," he muttered. The prod of a crossbow was a hard thing to hide when it was kept so clean and polished. The guard holding it was almost invisible, the balcony they hid on cloaked in shadow and themselves draped in dark, form-obscuring clothing, but the light that caught the steel limbs and spiked bodkin bolt gave them away to anyone who knew what to look for. He followed the arc of the patrol that had just inadvertently revealed their comrade, spotting another sharpshooter a couple blocks down, and a third.

Overlapping fields of fire. At least they were being smart about it. Though, if he had to guess, judging by the way in which they all conducted themselves...perhaps the time the Kirins had spent lost in the forests had been to their advantage. They seemed less concerned about infiltration than they likely should have been.

He brought the spyglass down, pointing to the first sharpshooter. "One there, one there, and one there," he directed the eyes of his small, fey companions in turn. "Likely more, but you see the side entrance there, ja? I'm going to make my way in near there, which means those are the three we'll have to take out. Once I'm close enough I'll have the two of you distract the guards at the door to make sure they don't notice me coming in, but until then, keep yourselves dim and stay hidden."

"Right!"

"Right!"

He nodded. "I want to do this with as little death as possible. These aren't criminals or invaders, they're just doing their jobs—and I want to try and take them out simultaneously, if we can. What options do we have?" The fairies, having already dimmed themselves to the point that he could only tell they were glowing because of how dark it was, looked at each other in thought. Obviously, he was planning to physically knock one of them out; if the two could manage to remove the others at the same moment...

"I can slow one down until they fall asleep!" Selene exclaimed after a moment, earning a raised eyebrow from Esben. "You saw how Rudolf reacted when we dropped him back to normal, right? I can do that in reverse—unless they're very good at forcing themselves to stay awake, if they just keep slowing down more and more, eventually their body will just assume they're tired and—lights out!" He nodded, looking over to Eos.

"I can—"

"Make them so sick they pass out?"

Eos's cheeks flushed red as Selene began to laugh. "No fair!" she pouted, as Esben flashed a small smirk. "Alright, you two, stay dim like I said. Keep out of sight until you see me ready to work. I'll go for the far one, closest to my entrance—both of you peel off as we pass by the other two." The fairies nodded at him again, and he turned, climbing down from his perch quietly before dropping to the street.

The more organic nature of Brightlam's construction introduced an element of chaos to his route that didn't exist in any of the other places they'd been—however, from his earlier vantage point he'd already familiarized himself with the majority of the layout he needed to know, and between his sense of direction and the fact that he could send one of the fairies up higher to point him the right way if he ran into an unexpected dead end it was no difficult matter for him to make his way along and avoid the sporadic patrols as he did so. Selene split off first, staying near the first sharpshooter; Eos with the second a couple blocks later.

Esben kept to the shadows of the buildings, moving with a light, quiet step. Over the two block span, he only had to press himself into an alcove to hide once, when he'd barely overtaken the guard patrol one street over and heard them coming towards the intersection. Luckily, they continued along, turning back towards the Council building as they made their rotation.

He climbed atop the buildings again, the close-set roofs proving very easy for him to make his way over to the last sharpshooter. Off to his right, he caught the barest glimpses of green and purple lights, letting him know that Eos and Selene were watching closely, ready to tackle their own. He turned back, creeping to the edge of his roof. The sharpshooter was just below him—like the others, draped in black, this one holding a longbow rather than a crossbow or a rifle. He looked off to the streets, noting that none of the patrols were near enough to hear anything if much noise should get out, and moving away at that.

He dropped down to the balcony. The guard turned instantly, dropping the bow and reaching down to pull out a knife or a sword. Esben lunged forwards, the heel of his palm striking hard and sending the guard's head jerking up and to the side before he could yell anything out; before he could recover he had them pulled in tight, slipping behind and pulling his neck into a triangle choke. Within seconds, he was out cold—just as the fairies zoomed up beside.

"Make sure he stays out," Esben bid the pair as he let go of the guard. Selene drifted down, placing her tiny hands on either side of the man's forehead. His eyes fluttered as he started to come to as blood flow resumed to his brain, before drifting away again, far more peacefully. Once he was sure the man wouldn't wake up for a good while, he nodded, dropping back to the street, fairies in two. "Alright. We have a couple minutes here. Go get those guards distracted for me—nothing that'll draw suspicion and leave them gone from their posts, I just need some time so that I can get in through one of the windows."

The pair glanced at each other once and sped off, brightening up again once they were in the wider street. Within moments, he heard the guards—cursing about like Izayoi had been, though at least a little more good-naturedly. The people of Brightlam were familiar enough with fairies, after all, so a pair of them coming and causing a bit of mischief wasn't cause for alarm.

He went wide around, passing an extra block just to be safe. Off where the two guards were watching the side entrance, he could see the pair of them swiping at the fairies playing just out of reach; they seemed to have grabbed something of note, that they were tossing back and forth between themselves—and surreptitiously turning the guards away from the windows Esben intended to get in by. Once they were looking the other direction he sprinted the remaining distance, slipping his cutting dagger in just enough to undo the latch and force the window open so that he could climb through. He did, waited a moment as his diminutive compatriots finished having their moment with the guards, and closed the window again. Blinked the summoning spell, the fairies disappearing wherever they'd gone after messing with the guards, and reappearing next to him.

"Good work, you two," he praised them, looking about the room. Nothing special, this one—no doubt the offices would be deeper in, near where they'd all met with the Grovemasters. "Scan the halls ahead of and behind me, I don't want any surprises." With that, the trio carefully combed through the Council building. The offices of each of the Grovemasters were easy enough to find. Alambert's was fairly empty, other than his calendar detailing some of his meetings; the man didn't seem to keep much by way of notes within his. Isolde's was about as empty as he expected as well, given that she likely spent just as much time at the cathedral, though there were more than a few notes about how her lockdown was grating on the populace, and a small notepad of her own. He scanned through it quickly, frowning at some of what he read.

In Zacharias's office, there was more to be found. Some mail that the man had brought from home to work, giving Esben his home address. Details of the efforts he'd been taking to contain the Blight, organizing expeditions and cleanup crews, curiously without the aid of the other two. Then, in the man's notes...more of what he'd read in Isolde's own. It appeared that the Grovemasters weren't half the united front that they tried to present, especially if the both of them seemed to find Alambert's activities to be questionable. Ducking meetings with them, avoiding questions about how he was spending his time, roving about to parts of the city that one such as himself would normally have no business being in, all for the last few months.

"And yet she said that he could be turned," he mused to himself. Either Isolde was overconfident, blatantly lying to them, or whatever Alambert had been up to, she was getting in on it. That suspicion should now be cast on two out of the three wasn't something he'd been unprepared for, though if Miina or Chisato couldn't find something to turn the tides more in their favour, it made it more likely that things would have to end in further bloodshed.

"...Unfortunate."

"Hmm?"

He shook his head. "Don't worry about it," he bid his companions. Selene was keeping watch at the door, Eos down the hall, but both could hear him clearly enough. "Come on, let's get back out of here—I want to make my way to Zacharias's house while he's still there." Everything he'd pulled out was put back precisely where it had been, anything important already committed to memory. While he had half a mind to go and verify Cid's thoughts on the possible location of the Crystal of Water, he decided against lingering too long in the Council chambers, or risking that he might run into some fresh new threat down below if he did find the crystal.

The sharpshooters should, likely, have still been unconscious, so the best way out was the way he'd come in. He backtracked through the halls, coming back to the side room with the window. Looking outside, he could see a patrol making their way towards the door guards. He waited for them to come by, turn round and head back, giving it time for them to get far enough away, before looking back to the fairies as he slid the window open once more.

The dimmed pair slipped out, staying low, before brightening up again next to the guards.

"Oh, come on, not again!"

Somewhat exasperated, but still with some good humour about it, the pair began to try and catch their things back once again. Esben slipped out, slid the window back shut, sprinted back to the dark cover between the buildings he'd come from. Now he had only to pick his way back through the city, to the eldest Grovemaster's house, see what the guards were like there...

"Having fun?"

"Ja. How could you tell?"

Blades of Iron Roses: An Anime-Inspired Knight RP

Fionn MacKerracher

---

Fionn had never expected himself to be sharing a laugh with one of the frontrunners of the Midnight Hunt...and yet, now it had happened. "If you think that's funny, just wait until you see how this ends!" Blade twirled around blade, small testing beats trying to determine if either combatant was getting too relaxed, lightening up their guard just a little too much. The Falconer's blade twirled around one last time, the faintest shift in the angle being all the warning Fionn had as it tightened its grip to push in for the thrust.

He whirled his blade under again, this time displacing the thrust high as the alien being lunged forwards. As the beast had expected; the glinting claws came for him as they came in close, pressed in almost to a true grapple. Fionn, however, was not yet keen to test his mail against the Falconer's second weapon. He stepped far to his left, quickly beyond the swipe of the claws. His blade, raised over his head, drooped, the rapier's edge sliding off as he turned.

His left hand came free, grabbing at the fae monster's upper arm. The end of his hilt came over its wrist, hooking the joint of its sword arm between his own wrist and the handle of his sword. And as he completed his turn, he pulled, hard, aiming to snap the creature's arm across his own body.

Final Fantasy: Lightseekers

Esben Mathiassen

---

One of Chisato's tall, rabbit-like ears was rapidly subjected to the uncomfortable sensation of being pinched and tugged right at the tip in response to her answer. "Behave yourself," was the stern command she got in return for her opinionated choice of words. "I can't afford to babysit either of you." He released her ear, turning back to Rudolf as a question was put his way.

"If Éliane can link up with Darri, then once she reconvenes with the three of you she should have some ideas for some surreptitious sort of signage that I'll know to keep an eye out for. I'll brief the other two before we split up. Failing that—beggars love to gossip. It shouldn't be difficult to get a hint my way if I keep my ear to the ground. We'll be working quickly enough that it shouldn't pose an undue risk. Otherwise, yes, I should be able to find you without much trouble."

He glanced over to Éliane.

"In case things should get too messy too quickly, make sure to ask Darri for some ideas on where you can all fall back to. I don't want to have to try and plan a second prison break in as many months."