With Fran Chapter 2
As they entered the city, it was disastrous. Carts were overturned and the few citizens who had yet to flee were running in terror, tripping over themselves to get out. A hume man to their left was emptying his stomach in nausea and a moogle to their right was cowering on a window sill. The farther they ventured the worse it got. They passed one viera standing in a corner, staring blankly at the wall. Another walked by them as if nothing was amiss, twitching and spasming every few steps. By the time they'd penetrated to the heart of the city it was deserted. "I don't like thiss..." shivered Erté, his s's getting worse in his nervousness. Jeris clutched his arm supportively. "Don't worry, the viera we've seen so far have been pretty harml-" "Viera in a rage are anything but." snapped Fran, her eyes not meeting their's, always moving about as if expecting an ambush from any angle. "Fran..." Jeris started but was interuppted by a loud crash ahead of them. Spilled vegetables rolled around the corner and the trio tensed for a fight. Jeris strengthened Fran's shield, taking her irritation as a hint. Seconds seemed like hours as no one moved.
Slowly, ever so slowly, a viera dressed as if still fresh from the Wood strode out and towards them. Her head hung down but even from that angle they could see her eyes glowing with Myst exposure. The three spread out to flank her and she stopped. As they started to close in she slowly looked up, tossing her head about like a playful child. They continued to move in closer when suddenly she shot towards Jeris. Reflexively, Jeris threw the woman passed her, using her momentum to effortlessly flip her away. "Erté! Take her!" The bangaa dove atop the splayed viera, then rose with her pinned, arms tight behind her. She thrashed and shrieked like a wild animal, but to no avail. In an attempt to break free, she kicked off the ground and tried to flip over his head. He simply twisted his hold and she fell back down. "Take her to Cid. Oh, wait." Jeris cast dispel, sleep, then another of her modified barriers. "Much better." She slumped in his hold and he threw her over his shoulder. "You two watch yourselves." They watched him go, then turned towards the palace.
Blocking their way up the palace steps were two panicked looking guards. "H-halt! No one gets in without an ah-ah... uh, appointment!" stuttered one of them. "Chill out man..." Jeris teased with a sneer and dual cast of sleep and silence. The guards slumped down to their knees and the women slipped past. The farther in they ventured, Fran grew more and more distracted. With the shield at maximum there was little Jeris could do to help. So with their senses on edge, they continued deeper, then higher into the palace.
Several floors up there was a minor féte being arranged. No dignitaries would be attending so it was really only an equally extravagant banquet. Hume servants busily set up arrangements and place settings while mog designers hung draperies and banners. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for the occasional grimace on the faces of the particularly sensitive. Fran and Jeris passed by all this in the hallways unnoticed.
As they reached some of the quieter more discreet or private areas, a faint ringing note came to their attention. Barely audible, even for viera, but insistent and unbroken. After several minutes of following it, Fran began to suffer from terrible migrains, further setting her on edge. The high pitched keening was sharp in the ears, yet soft enough that one barely noticed it.
Even with this telling sign, however, they couldn't pin it down. Like an elusive cricket loose indoors, it seemed to move yet be impossible to track down. Fran was starting to get fatigued from the stacking annoyances and even Jeris' relatively dull hume nerves were becoming wracked with pain so they decided to head back.
At the entrance, the guards had woken to find their acquaintances gone as well as their supervisor and the captain of the guard. With no one to report to, they'd returned to their posts. They weren't exactly pleased to see the two females again. But Jeris changed that.
With another swift casting she threw Stop on one guard and Charm on the more appealing of the two. "Uh um... can I help you ladies?" he said uncertainly, glancing at his frozen coworker. "Well that depends on what you know." Jeris said beguilingly, sidling up to him while discreetly throwing an Immobilize his way. "My friend here was actually leaving. I, on the other hand, could use some directions. As you may have noticed there's an awful ruckus going on outside. Know you anything of this?" The guard frantically sought for an answer and Jeris settled against the wall beside him as Fran strolled outside unhindered. He continued to blunder about as Jeris began boredly tracing the lines of his armor with a forefinger. "We-ell... there's um, mmm, some kind of celebration going on today..." he ventured unsurely. "Yes, because it's oh so festive out here of course." she said sarcastically, losing interest and getting impatient. "What do you think they'd make such a fuss about, hm?" She looked up into his eyes and noticed his gaze locked in his partner's direction. She followed the look and saw that the man was beginning to stir. After a quick spell refreshing she turned back to her plaything. "They must be celebrating something, yes?" she repeated, nudging his face back towards her's with the same finger as before. "I'm sure such an informed man as yourself would've heard something... yes?" For good measure she tossed a Banish at the Stopped guard as the enthralled one's eyes strayed a bit too low.
"Well, uh, my buddy Mike here's girlfriend is an acquaintence of a maid who works upstairs with all the royals and whatnot, and she said a girl who works on the nightshift overheard some engineers talking about their new experiment. Something real serious ordered by the Prince himself. Don't know what it does, but it was supposed to premier earlier today." The Charm had worn off by now, but the man didn't seem to notice as he got more comfortable chatting up the blue-haired beauty who'd somehow ended up before him.
"An experiment you say? From the Prince himself... That does sound important! Thank you sir! You've been oh so helpful to me. Maybe I'll see you again sometime." She parted with a wink and the guard watched her walk away, wondering vaguely where Mike had gone off to.
Jeris worked her way around the castle walls until she reached the ledge she'd been looking for. Fran had gone to get her Myst-shielded hover-bike in case they required a hasty retreat. Using a Teleport wouldn't be too smart in such an unstable environment.
Hardly thinking about the change, Jeris formed wings and sprang into the air, flying up to perch on the sill to the Prince's antechamber.