Chronicles of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn
Chapter 4: The War of the Roses
S'elene pats the back of Wystan as he finally broke down from the events of earlier in the week as they were talking about events. Something triggered in the man, maybe realization of trying to change the law.
"Gods…. My employees, my friends, my family even…. You Selene. Surely if they realize that you were there then you'll be targeted next!" the man started shaking a bit before the woman rubbed his back a bit more and flicked him in the ear gently to knock him out of it.
"Relax Wystan-san I'll be fine, they'd be hard-pressed to find me with how often I am moving around, and even then I have allies that even the Lord does not and WILL not know about until it is too late for him," she explained as she took a sip of her tea and eyed the man.
"Besides we Veena tribe Vierra are rather known for keeping to ourselves. I can give you some funds however in exchange I WILL need some materials from you. Perhaps going to somewhere away from U'ldah would help. I hear Vesper Beach is a rather lovely place year around.
"Perhaps you are right Selene. However, the supplies you ask for may take some time for me to get ore is easy, chemicals and herbs on the other hand are not."
"Of course, I am in no rush at the moment for this solution it will grant me. Now if you excuse me I have some contacts to find for my next adventure so to speak." the bun smirked a bit as she left a small bag of Gil worth about 100,000 for the man.
"There is more to her than meets the eye…" the man mused as he watched her leave.
Momodi was a help, least Selene could bathe and relax for a night in Uldah before she spoke with the lalafell in the morrow. The Lord was quite infamous for getting rid of loose ends and no one seemed to have noticed Selene or the powers that she used that day to destroy that rock golem. Outside of whatever that entity was that she saw that day.
She took quite a risk telling that Elezen that particular recipe, her family WAS rather known for it 20 years ago before they all mysteriously disappeared over the decade. Now very few knew of that recipe and trying to make it was a lost art amongst even the most experienced mages and herbologists. With her bloodline being crippled somehow during that battle she had no choice but to use that catalyst now she only prayed that it wouldn't take too long for her to change her form back. She missed the ears and the tails very much so.
—-
Over the next month or so S'elene decided to help out at Horizon after Momodi's suggestion of helping out other settlements around U'ldah to give her more of a positive reputation. Could help her out in a pickle she explained.
The Vierra shrugged at her before taking a Chocobo to there and making sure her connection to the Aetheryte Crystal was still good before starting to busy herself in the errands with the folks usually clearing out monsters or helping find some more ore that any monster had hidden somewhere under the hot desert sun.
If anything this helped out her stamina quite a bit while she also studied more into her black magic and white magic. Eventually, she came across some info that was too good to pass off. With a smirk, she put up a hood and mask over her face as she grabbed the gunblade she received from Shinja.
S'elene waited under the dead of night and made her way to a campsite where she got intel from. It seemed that The Baron of Quiveron died during the Battle of Cartenau and there was an apparent heir to the throne that seemed very power-hungry and was a thorn in everyone else's sides even the Immortal Flames Commander.
S'elene decided she could use the extra supplies from the camp and get one of the targets that could go after her and her allies while no one was all the wiser. Silently she snuck undernearth one of the trees and sliced a couple of the archers' throats silently making sure they didnt fall from the tree before landing on top of another with her blade through skull with a small thud.
Her ears twitched underneath her hood as she made sure no one was coming. All seemed unnoticed before she noticed that the Heir was indeed up in the camp.
'Shit, I was hoping I wouldn't have to use any of my cartridges tonight. Good thing I planned ahead just in case.'
Before she could think further ahead she had to jump out of the way before dark aether made her way towards her and grazed her left arm and leg with burns. She cursed her mistake there. Rule #1 NEVER let down your guard in a stealth mission. Thancred would give her such sass if he found out. She shook her head as she ran towards the Baron in a serpentine pattern.
As fast as she was she was still finding difficulties landing a hit on him, which was rare for her considering gunblades were usually very light compared to other blades if it was made right.
"Will!" "You!" "Just." "Stay." "STILL!"
S'elene burst forward in a plunge before kicking in the man's kidney and unleashing a furious combo of explosive slashes before gathering aether in her left hand and unleashing a purple aether explosion at his chest dropping him where he stood.
"I have gotten sloppy I swear…." S'elene remarked as she sheathed her blade underneath her cloak.
"Indeed you have…. S'elene Akashiya." a familiar voice chimed in from across the camp as S'elene looked over and saw Thancred and with him a Miqo'te, Y'shtola Rhull.
"So tell us why have you not returned to us in so many years? To me of all people." the Miqo'te rather coldly inquired of the Vierra.
S'elene put down her hood to reveal her ears and mouth before sighing a bit, of all people outside of the small group know when to not bullshit around the arcanist.
"Thancred, is the perimeter of at least the nearest 1000 yalms clear?" she stated rather emotionlessly never looking away from the Miqo'te,
"Isn't that rather…. Overkill?"
"For my true identity? No, not when there are cloaked figures in black I have absolutely no idea who they are outside of visions I've had in. Especially since I'm keeping an eye on Our Master's grandchildren in Ul'dah."
"Then why that code a few months ago that you let spread around? Even you hate that twelve-forsaken nickname for whatever reason. I know you caused a lot of bloodshed but you use that title to one of the sultansworn is a bit of an alarm amongst the Archons." Thancred explained with his arms folded across his chest not noticing the Miqo'te's gaze at S'elene softening slightly.
"I needed to let you and the Commander know that I was still alive at the very least. If they knew I was still alive my old enemies might come around and I can NOT risk coming out like that. Not yet."
"And as for our Master's grandchildren? They need to be shown the world and to help change it. I know Alphi has quite the demeanor that needs to be fixed and molded but I do see characteristics of his Grandfather in him. They both have to grow after all…" she paused as she looked up at 2nd moon in the sky.
"We have that sky fucker to deal with and we can not do so until we get things more stabilized in the country. We are still divided and the Garleans are regrouping yet again for something and it can not be good."
"But why not do this together then? You know that between us and Urianger we are quite formidable. Hardly anyone bested us in the Studium." Y'shtola rebutted the Vierra.
"Now that I think about it. Why have you not switched your forms like you did when we were younger?"
"Because something has damaged my bloodline, at least of the shapeshifting ability I had. Everything else seems fine from my tests. I'd need Krile or perhaps someone else blessed by the Mother Crystal to examine me. I'm not completely sure." She looked over at Y'shtola with a sad soft look in her eyes.
"I wish I could've come back sooner Shtola-chan I really did. And I WILL make it up to you but it will take me a couple of months to gather up funds and recruit the twins into our case."
"You know we started the Dawn Project correct?" S'elene nodded at the statement that Y'shtola asked of her.
"And I'm glad you did, keep on doing what you were. I sent a man to Vesper Bay. He has something I gave him that he need to get supplies for. Protect him, one of the local lords of Ul'dah is after him now and he has the key for me regaining my ability to shapeshift…. In a way." S'elene explained.
S'elene made her way toward the entrance of the camp before stopping next to Y'shtola and gave her a small hug and a kiss on the forehead before she gave her a letter and put up her hood and mask again.
"To be fair Shtola… She has a point our little group is one of the few she actually gives a damn about." Thancred admitted to the miqo'te mage.
"I know doesn't mean I have to like it…" the catgirl replied a bit solemnly before seeing the letter that was rather bundled up.
"Come we have to speak with Urianger about this development. Eventually, we will not be able to wait for her much longer and she'll have to put on a public face. We must find a way for us to be able to fight these Primals without being enslaved by them."
—-
Near Horizon by the Shores
S'elene was cursing up a storm in her head, the small lalafell that Baldewyn gave the dagger to was making her way towards him in a sense that the Vierra would call fanboyish. Everything surrounding the Captain was etched in mystery and deceit.
She had found out from some villagers about what the bandits of the shoreline and some of the brass blades of the area were doing when Fufulupa found it about it when he was going to thank S'elene for some of the jobs she's been helping the Blades of the Rose with and immediately way his way towards his beloved Captain. It'd be romantic in a scene if it wasn't for the information that one of the villagers told her.
Captain Baldewyn was in charge of the whole thing. It's why he never left his post at Lost Hope and why he sent S'elene after the Heir the previous week, probably to get more of the goods for himself and his profits. Normally she'd be in a faster rush but she had to stick to her own script and not reveal her abilities as a gunbreaker so soon.
'Let's hope I'm not too late despite his false comings the little pipsqueak is rather good captain and not corrupted…. Yet.' she thought to herself.
"You goddamned fool I was under the order of Lord Lololrito himself!" the captain yelled at the lalafell as he kicked the smaller man across the bridge nearly into the water.
A cloaked figured laughed as he started to fire dark aether at the lalafell aiming for his head, the poor man covered his head in a fit of fear before the sound of dulled clanking reached his ears and he looked up to find that S'elene was in front of him with her claymore shielding the both of them from the magical blasts.
"You! You're the one who killed my brother!" the newly revealed baron yelled at the Vierra.
S'elene put on a faint of innocence about her and raised an inquisitive look in her single revealed eye.
"And you are? I have never seen you or whoever your brother was in my life. I am just a simple adventurer after all.." she mocked teasingly as she helped up Fufulupa behind her and gave him a hold signal behind her back.
"Oi! You know that is bullshit! I saw that gunblade of yours! What's an eorzean doing with one of the weapons of the Garleans? HUH?!" the baron lalafell accused the Vierra.
"That doesn't matter at the moment Master Quiveron. It seems we need to kill both of these interlopers!." Baldewyn stated to the man before he charged forward towards S'elene, marking her as the more important target of the two.
"Really? A freaking spear against a claymore, you must be daft in thinking that'll work. While you do have speed against me…." S'elene muttered a bit to herself as she drew her blade and had it on her shoulder.
She started to release various waves of dark aether towards the two causing them to have to dodge them and keep them on their feet while she gave Fufulupa the signal to go after the Baron, luckily the newly named captain followed orders from S'elene with little argument. The amount of charisma and charge the Vierra had was even beyond his former Captain's charisma.
While normally S'elene would have trouble hitting the Baron being so much taller and heavier, Fu had no such issues being the same size and lightweight. The lalafell was like a fury of blades, cutting up the dark mage with ease and keeping him on his toes as to not allow him a moment to breathe and be able to cast any offensive spells towards his partner or his opponent.
S'elene smirked a bit as Baldewyn was starting to get annoyed and how she was deflecting his maneuvers with his spear but all rights the spearman should have an easy time with the bun but he was only landing some glancing blows that did no real damage to the warrior of light. He got lost in his thoughts as he tripped over his own left leg trying to turn 72 degrees from another jab before S'elene's leg sweep him and push him to the ground before stabbing him in the abdomen giving him a fatal blow.
"I swear Brass Blades care too much for their coin instead of proper training these days…" the Vierra commented as she looked over to Fufulupa as she found that he already had him restrained and gagged.
"Selene! Did you have to kill Captain Baldewyn like that?!" he shrieked frantically.
"Fufu-san… Your emotional state for the now ex-Captain was too much of a hindrance to keep him alive." she berated the Captain before continuing on.
"This is a dark star, there are choices that MUST be made, sometimes not always good. However, since you have captured the new Baron Quiveron we have a means of new information about any bandits and what his…. Troops were going after. Baldewyn was just an easier way for him to get around." the Vierra finished explaining.
The lalafell sighed before accepting her explanation. She was right, he let his feelings for the captain cloud his judgment and almost lost his life for it.
"But where can we interrogate him? It's obvious we can not bring him to Ul'dah. We'll surely be targetted."
"Keep him at Horizon for now, I'll send for at least a Second Lieutenant of the Immortal Flames to gather him with an envoy. I'm sure They'll know what to do with him and how to proceed and we don't have anything come back to bite us in the ass."
"You act like you're someone of higher rank or something but no one has seen you around these parts before…. What ARE you?" Fufulupa questioned innocently
"Why Fufu-kun. I'm simply just an adventurer, no more or less," she smirked as she grabbed the dead body of Baldewyn and made it towards the barren desert by herself.
Fufulupa was stunned before he took the Baron into custody and made his way back with his own troops to Horizon.
The lalafell never noticed a hidden Thancred and Y'shtola in the shadows.
"You know despite her being gone so long… She's quite the drama queen Shtola.."
"Oh don't remind me, sometimes I forget whose worse, her or Urianger, they both have flares for dramatics."
"Least you and her can understand Urianger, I still get lost unless he's drunk." the rogue joked before the took made their way to Vesper Bay, done with their errands in the area.