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[CrimsonEon]

Alec shook his head.
: "That wasn't what I meant. That was just me trying to make the best of the situation. I'm talking about... well, everything that's going on. This is a plan to siege a castle on orders from people we don't trust, you know?"
: "And... I'm terrified. Of a lot of things. I still remember how things were on that night we fended the attack of Sepin. I look back and I keep seeing the moment you fought Morwen, trying to sacrifice yourself to protect the rest of us."
: "With the way this is all shaping up... I don't think I could keep going if I let you get hurt like that again."

[Swordstar]

Ciera looked at him for a long moment before shaking her head.

"It's... I'm not anyone special. I'm decent at fighting and that's about it. And if I can help save my friends from... from pain, from wounds, from whatever, I'm going to. Because that's how I can help. If I try other things... They just end up going sour. I don't think things through, I just... do whatever I want. And that's... that's dangerous. But... helping protect you, Sheila, Grif... everyone else, that's something good I can do. You guys... you're needed. After all of this, Julius is going to need you guys. I'm not... I'm not someone he needs. And that's ok. I'm ok with that. So if that means I risk myself to keep someone else safe... Well I'm ok with that too."

[CrimsonEon]

: "Stop right there." Alec immediately cut her off just as she was finishing her speech.
: "'Special' has nothing to do with why you should give your life in defense of anything. And 'special' doesn't necessarily mean 'good'." Alec exhaled, pulled up a nearby chair next to the inn's bed and sat. He cracked open the leather bound book still in his hand and tabbed to a page near the center containing a number of musical bars and a lot of scribbling, "You know, the reason I left my parent's trade? It wasn't just that I thought I needed to help my siblings. A couple months before I made the decision to leave, we were on a trip from Masalla to Riemond. Having just braved a particularly tough storm, my Father needed to anchor the ship to make repairs, and as it happened, an island was nearby."
: "Too eager to look for trouble, I took a swim to the island and looked around. A little bit of scouring and I found a stone tablet, nearly eroded, lodged in the ground. It was too damaged to read, but a couple lines of the header were part of an old, cryptic language. Not only that, but the stone itself seemed to react to my presence, as if something of magical nature surrounded it, but nothing that I'd ever seen before."
: "When I came back, no-one could recognize the script. Even when we reached Riemond, no-one could tell me what it was about." Alec sighed, "And that got me thinking. Maybe something about that tablet was something my know-it-all parents overlooked in their drumming the trader's lifestyle in me. Maybe I can figure out what they can't. So I left. Lo and behold, on investigating that island further, I found a small, well preserved obelisk in the ground. On it, an ancient code that eventually gave me these." He pointed to the musical bars in the book, "So here I was, sitting on a magical secret that no-one knew about. Sounds special, right? Maybe it could help my siblings if I looked hard enough, maybe I can get that Emperor that put my family in such straits off his fancy chair. Sounds like something to kick off an adventure to find out more about..."
: "Jump years into the future, and now not only have I not gotten anywhere towards helping my brother and sister, but now I've personally destroyed plenty of lives, helped kick off a rebellion that destroyed two noble families that I was supposed to help and threw everything for a loop. Ciera, I'm not special either. I was a brat who was drunk on his own ego and this coup is my last attempt to make up for all the reckless meandering I've been doing."
: "You, on the other hand? You have a goal beyond just helping us. You've always had a goal that wasn't 'me first'. You want to help kids who lost everything too, right? You'll be important to those kids someday. They need hope for something better. And I want to make sure you live to succeed at bringing that to them. Even if Julius' throne doesn't need you, I will. I said I wanted to share that dream, remember? I'm not doing it alone."

[Swordstar]

Ciera looked at Alec for a long moment and then sighed quietly and shook her head. Smiling slightly at him, she quietly said,

"It's ok. You don't have to pretend to like me or anything like that. I know that... all of this, the rebellion, your family, making sure Julius is a good emperor... all of it is so important to you. I don't want to get in the way. You don't need to make yourself out to be the bad guy. I know that... all this time you've just been trying to help build me up. And I appreciate it, really. But you don't need to do any more than you have. I'll be ok. You have so many things you have left to do. Your family needs you, this group needs you, Julius will need you... I'll be ok. You don't need to worry."

[CrimsonEon]

Alec stood, dumbfounded for a little while. When the reality of Ciera's response kicked in, his eyes seemed to droop.
: "I... I see." He looked away from Ciera and to the side, "I...can't help it if that's the way you see it. I am a professional liar, after all."
Alec clapped the book in front of him shut.
: "...There's nothing for it, then. I'll just have to protect you twice as hard in the coming battle." Alec got up from the chair and walked near the door.
: "Just, if you believe one thing about what I want, I wasn't lying when I answered your question at the trinket stall. Goodnight."

[Swordstar]

Ciera shrunk in on herself and stared at the ground.

"Yeah... yeah I know. You don't want to get married. You have too much else to do. You need to help make the world safe. It's ok. I know you'll do a great job. I'm... I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused you."

[CrimsonEon]

Alec stopped.
: "W-what?!"
: "Ciera, I do want to make the world safer! But not so I can sit out my life playing spy and tactician!" His voice was clearly wavering.
: "...You're the first person I've met who had a dream I felt I could really share. I wanted to feel like I could do that with someone, for once."
Gritting his teeth, Alec didn't stay any longer. He quickly slipped through and closed the door, down the stairs and out to vanish into the streets.

[Swordstar]

"Wai... what? Alec, what? No, wait, I..."

She flung herself through the door and down the stairs but when she reached the outside, she couldn't see him.

"ALEC! Come back. Please! I... _{Please... I... I didn't realize... Please come back...}"

She slumped against the wall, staring out into the dark, not believing that he had really said that. That he had really seemed to open up to her with those last few sentences. What if she had been wrong this whole time? What if... what if he wasn't just trying to build her up? Had she really just pushed away someone who really did care about her?

[Sirus]

"I risked my life against Eul for Matilda because I had given my word to her father. I don't think my honor is in doubt here."

Leo followed Grifen out and downstairs, taking the seat across from her and folding his hands on the table.

"...Hey. Want to talk about it?"

He had offered to be her mentor - it seemed like so long ago now - and he would be remiss if he at least didn't provide an ear for her troubles.

Grifen was already down half a cup. It wasn't working yet.

: "Nuthin' to talk about. Just me gettin' ideas above my station, is all. Can ya believe that fer a little while I was actually kinda excited about this whole descendant thing?"

[Powder Miner]

As a direct contrast to the people of the group who had left the room, Efa wasn't tortured by questions or sincerity or fear for the upcoming attack. Instead, she leaned back on the little ledge she'd chosen to sit on and smiled herself silly, addressing Sheila lightly (and ignoring her attempt to talk to Fezz in the process).
:"Imagine that... we're going to go fight the emperor. Honestly, I never-- I never dreamed I'd get into a situation nearly this important, and I never... Well, I've wanted to screw the Empire over for a while, but this... we're actually doing something, and it's not just petty revenge, it's actually something decent! I kinda like the thought of making things nicer for the little villages out there by doing this, honestly. It's a bit goody-good for how I usually do things, I guess... but I like it. I really do."

[SeriousConcentrate]

"It sounds like there's something to talk about there."

"Tell me about it. Why are you now not excited to be a descendant of the first emperor? And what were these 'ideas' you were getting?"

[Swordstar]

Ciera slowly pulled herself up, staring out into the dark after Alec. Slowly making her way up into the inn, she started to enter her room and then paused. Slowly, she headed down the hall until she reached Alec's room. Hesitating, she reached out and opened the door. Heading in, she curled up on the bed and quietly waited for him to come back.

[Sirus]

Cup was empty. Grifen waved at the bartender for another.

: "Not much point gettin' excited now, is there? Folks don't want me in in charge. Can't blame 'em, either. Some nobody from Masalla ain't got no right sittin' on a throne even if her ma's the daughter of a prince. When they told me that, I started havin' these dreams of...I don't even know. Fixin' the world's problems, stuff like that."

[Blade Master Model 42]

"It is pretty nice to be able to say we're fighting for something more than ourselves, yeah. I got some ideas about things that maybe Emperor Julius can see about doing. Boy, that is gonna take some getting used to."

[SeriousConcentrate]

Leo motioned for one as well, tapping his index finger on the table in front of him.

"I see. I'll be honest, Grifen. I'm supporting Julius rather than you, even though you're both equally viable, because it... it makes better history. The ghost of the old emperor himself gave him both his blessing and his sword. It's a story. People love a story more than anything, and he's got one that people will rally around."

Leo shrugged.

"That does not necessarily mean you are a bad choice. You've got a good head on your shoulders and I think that, given some lessons in how to conduct oneself in such a position, you could be a fine empress."

"And again, I don't mean that in a bad way. I apologize for my inability to... phrase my thoughts better. It's just that the nobility expect a certain type of speech and manner from people. That's why I've gotten used to speaking like this, more or less."

"And, well, I was just a street thug from the poorest of the poor. If I can clean up this well, I'm sure you can too."

"I admire the fact your first thought was of helping others, not what the position could do for you personally. You've a good heart, Grifen."