Chapter 2: The Pit

Thomas inclined his head in greeting, "I am disturbed to know that such a thing was nearly carried out against your men, but pleased to learn that it was foiled before it could come to fruition." He took a breath, knowing that what he had to say might change the nature of their future interactions.

"The white-haired wolfqin from earlier is a fugitive of the Empire, do not ask me what for as I cannot say. As a loyal knight it is my duty and privilege to bring her to justice, but I know it would be discourteous to apprehend one of your guests. The Empire wants her, Nigel, and as its sword I WILL see it done. Can I have your word that you will not interfere in Imperial Justice? I will be taking her in alive, so you need not worry about me killing her. That is up to the Emperor."

He left it there, knowing that he cannot say more. Enemies of the Empire tend not to last long when they make themselves nuisances that hamper its actions.

Meera's Stables

---

J'asha was left more irritated when the Freelancers decided to leave. He growled and eyed them down as they left. When they were all gone, J'asha made a slightly noticeable smirk on his face, he made sure he hid it from everyone else. He returned to his chambers but not before ordering the guards to stay on alert.

Meera comes out from her room and tells J'asha to accompany her while she reports the incident to the city guards. She has gained more confidence after the Freelancers backed off, furthermore there was no substantial evidence linking her to the crime, the only proof the Freelancers had was null and void due to the fact that they had used their vile and illegal concoction.

Meera and J'asha left the stables and proceeded to the Guard Station on foot. He didn't care if anyone was following him, he needed something meaty to drive his claws into anyway. Once at the guard station, J'asha reports the incident. The city guards made sent three Guards along with J'asha back to Meera's stables and another three guards to the Freelancers guild.

At the interrogation room, the Guards questioned Meera and she simply told them that she was being accused of something she did not do nor did she have a hand in it. And that the Freelancers came here, rioting in front of their gate.

Meanwhile the three Guards were at the Freelancer's guild. The pounded heavily on the door and said, "Open up this is the City Guard."

---

Meanwhile over at Wyverngard.

A legion of Imperial Knights set out, mounted on their Imperial garbed Chocobos, insearch for the female fugitive described by their Knight Commander. They will reach the city of Drakestone by morning. One of the Imperial Knights was a disguised agent of the Crimson Mask and his job was to find the Earthlings.

Sakuya quickly drank the health potion as she had taken quite the thrashing, and smiled as she started to heal up quite nicely, she wouldn't mind having a case worth of those. She was shocked at how quickly things were moving as she was offered along with the others a chance to make some money and train even more, well she came here to do both so she couldn't really refuse the offer. "I suppose I am in as well." She said as she followed the strongest of us three.

"Sewers, why did it have to be the sewers?" Ace was talking out loud with his mouth muffled by his scarf, with the smell of the excrement and urine of the people above, not to mention anything else rotting down here, the scarf blocked out the stench but only just so. 

"So is that guy sure the locket is in a place like this? Only an idiot would live here..." He waved his torch around a bit, hoping to illuminate his surroundings and make out some passage that would allow some safer and less smelly passage. But sadly with a frown, he realizes that is not the case. So and with those thoughts behind him, he follows after his group.

Woods, Outside Drakestone City

---

Agnes' screams were heard by a local huntsman who lived nearby. He followed the screams and went to investigate there he saw Agnes laying on the ground  bloody and sweaty with her clothes torn apart. The huntsman cautiously approached the girl and was mystified after seeing her wounds healing at an inhuman rate. He took out his axe out of fear and posed to strike the girl, but looking at her made him hesitate. She was just a teenage girl and he couldn't bring himself to strike a little girl no matter what she was.

The huntsman sheatted his axe and lifted the girl from the ground. He carried Agnes on his back and took her back to his house in the woods. The huntsman's wife was there to greet him at the door. The wife was surprised, she was expecting a deer or moose but instead her husband brought back a girl. The hunstman didn't say anything nor could he, he was a mute. His wife understood though, that Agnes needed caring for. They set Agnes down on a bed, made for one of their daughters and changed her bloody and torn clothes.

The huntsman's children, two girls and a boy, waited with their father while their mother tended to Agnes. If it had not been for the Huntsman, Agnes would or might have been taken by wolves or worse, Shades.

[MOD EVENT]
The smells and dampness of the sewer made concentrating rather dificult for the three that were making their way through the sewer.  As they exited the "rib" that led to the entrance of the clubs basement, a strange, rumbling sound made it's way from the far right, the side that led towards the sewer's starting point. Five minutes later, the sound repeated, near where the search party was. The ground was made of dirt and quite possibly a large ammount of unmentionables, and soon the source of te noise revealed itself to be a hole where the water was pushing through into the dirt. Danny aproached to check and when he did, the entire ground shifted, sucking the dirt and those above it downwards. There was a fissure that led into a natural cavern a number of metters bellow and the flow of the water had corroded the stone walls enough for a crack to apear. The extra weight of the people above it was the last straw. Along with the water pressure, there was a 5 metter fall into hard rock that knocked out the three mercenaries-to-be. They were dragged by the water a few meters before the pressure receded. It took some hours, but the dirt aobve clustered enough to close the hole that led towards the entrance, and little did they know, others had fallen for this little trap, several hours before them.

((OOC: Church was blaring evangelical songs at full volume three houses over, so concentrating to make a good post was just... eh. This is for the sake of allowing timeskip)

Drakestone City
(12 hours time skip)

---

Morning came and the festivities along with it. The city of Drakestone was more livelier that it was yesterday. The streets were littered with merchants of all exotic and local products. There was even a parade of dancing people who performed on the streets to glorify the ancient and bloody tradition of Drakestone, the Fighting Pits. Blood thirsty dignitaries from all over Wrozan came to watch the glorious Grand Tournament. The Imperial Knights have also reached Drakestone. They didn't waste anytime and immediately began searching for their target. The agent of the Crimson mask also didn't waste any time looking for the Earthlings

Last night the Freelancers were reported to have caused a disturbance at a regular patron of the Fighting Pits' establishment. The city guards of Drakestone had detained all Four Queens and all the Jacks in the detainment cell while they were being interrogated one by one. Meera was also detained at the Station but J'asha was allowed to go back to the stables. Because of Meera's swift action to report the incident right away, anything that could or might've happened to her stable while she was away would put the Freelancers as primary suspects. Luckily the Freelancer Assassins curled up their balls after the arrest on their leaders and no harm came to Meera's stables. The detainment of all four Queens and Jacks of the Freelancers was an embarrassment they would have to live with for the rest of their life.

While Meera was being detained in the City Guard Station, J'asha was running the stables in her absence. He had the slave's weapons sharpened and ready, their armors primed, their potion vials refilled. They marched through the busy streets and headed over to the arena, the slaves were rolled in wagons inside cages to prevent them from escaping. Once at the arena, J'asha had the slaves come out of their cages and into the preparation room. Even in the preparation room, several feet underground, you could hear the crowd chanting and you could feel the walls trembling from their stomps. The first fight was about to begin it was the team of Freelancers versus the Pusong Bato Stables. 

Meanwhile the interrogations were finally over and the Freelancer leaders were finally released, Meera was released too. She had the pleasure of seeing the old hags pissed off faces when she walked out of the Station. She didn't say or do anything, she was still playing the innocent card after all. Meera had a Chocobo waiting for her outside the guard station which she used to quickly get to the Arena. 

By the time Meera arrived at the Arena, the first bout was already over. The Puso Bato Stables, led by the eight foot monster of Snakeqin Keerus completely annihilated the Freelancer group. Meera's stables was up next. They would be facing the all female team from Haremfield, they had only a few minutes to prepare before their match begins.

Dark. it hurts... where am i? Fire. Fire everywhere. Smoke. That acrid smell that chokes your lungs and blinds your eyes. Its everywhere, i cant see. It hurts, i cant move... what am i doing here? There are screams, but from who? 
...
...
...A voice? Someones calling me. Who is it?


???: Big brother! Big brother help me...!!! 


Who is it...? Who's voice is that? It hurts... i cant move. Somebody help!!! 


Ace awoke with a start. He panicked for a moment due to being in a great state of confusion as to where he was. It was pitch black, he couldn't even see his hand in front of his face. He tried to get up and pain shot through his left shoulder, could it be broken? He didn't know. 

"Shit... where the hell am i? Where the hell are the others? What happened?" He put his hand to his chin and thought for a moment. "Lessee... i was in the sewers with the others, it was disgusting. Then there was a rumbling... then we, fell? I think we fell." He looked around a bit and put his hand on the wall, it was smooth to the touch but without light he couldnt tell if it was made by a living being or not. "But fell to where is the question i need answers to." He felt around on the ground for his torch, hopefully it had fallen near him. 1 minute passes, then several more. "Dammit, dammit you stupid torch where are you!? ...GOTCHA!" He gave a yell of glee as his hand finally rested on the torch. Unfortunately it was out, but Ace had a plan to take care of that problem. 

"Alright pops, i hope the fire magic you taught me can light this thing." Ace's current magic power wasn't that high, but it was hopefully enough to ignite something as small as a torch. He snapped his fingers, but only a few sparks came out. "Shit, come on! Come on...!" 

Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
WHOOSH! 

Yahoo! The torch was lit! "Sweet, now to find my comrades, hopefully nothing else is down here that will get in my way."

But after walking a few steps, he stopped and stared at the fire. He looked puzzled for a moment, what was that? Did he have a bad dream caused by the fall? Or... or were those memories of the past? 
"Mmm... ah well, this isn't the time to think about stuff like that." And off he went once more.

Location: Drakestone, The Arena, Preparation Room

Yui was less than amused to be carted off anywhere in a cage, much less to do someone elses bidding. She appreciated that her spear was sharpened and her armor given a once-over to make sure it was proper, but was a touch angry at her method of transportation. She was somewhat relieved when she was released into the preparation room, still conflicted regarding if she could manage to actually kill someone. Ikas, of course, was already chiming in inside her head to remind her that she already had killed someone, but she did her best to ignore her.

But her thoughts started to shift as she began to hear the crowd stir above, getting louder as the first match got underway. It excited her somewhat, to be able to go into combat with the skills she otherwise would have been unable to use back home. Her hands shook for a brief moment, though she was unsure if it was from the fear of death or simply from her excitement. Her preparations were simple stretches until it was time to get ready for her bout, taking the few remaining moments to get herself armored and get acquainted with the new spear.

She found the steel-looking spear to be remarkably light for a metal spear and quite well balanced, to boot. She moved away from some of the others to ensure she would not hit anyone, not that she'd care if she whacked J'Asha a few dozen times. Yui would start spinning the spear with her right hand, gradually gaining speed before shifting to the left hand and continuing. She watched the spear like a hawk and paid extra close attention to how it moved, what it's habits were when she did certain movements with it. In one quick motion she moved the spear behind her back, the spear still in motion as she swapped hands and brought it out in front once more, stopping it point-up and setting the end down on the ground carefully.

It was a good spear, hopefully she could make good use of it. She was not looking to repeat her training session experience.


She took the last few moments she had to prepare to do a few more stretches. Who would want to pull a hamstring in the middle of a fight, after all.

"Fuck..." Thought a man who was slowly getting back his concience. He felt part f his body weightless, but most of it hurt. Opening his eyes didn't reveal anything. It was all dark. And suddenly, the smell of sewage. "Oh yhea... That happened." Danny atempted to look to the side, but then his left side of the face got wet. It seemed he was left uncouncious in the shallow side of a pooling of water. I didn't reek all too badly, so a lot of it was likely in the cave before the cave-in. Tired and rather light-headed, Danny atempted to stand up using his hands for support,but instead ended up rolling off the rock he was on into a much deeper part of the pool. The surprize, coupled with relaxed muscles had him alost dorwn, but he was able to grab onto a rock and climb up before he suffered any damage. "ah... w- *cough* what the hell is this place?" He said to see if anyone was nearby... No response. he could still feel his staff on his back, but his torch probably floated away a long time ago. After his eyes finally adjusted a bit to the dark, Danny could spot a faint, greenish glow in the distance.

He let go of the rock and slowly started swimming through the murky water, not trully dirty, but definetly something he wouldn't plan on drinking concidering this was probably one of the places the sewage most pooled up at. He was begining to get rather hungry too. It took a few mnutes, but he finally reached the source of the glow. Large mushrooms, about as large as a dining plate. Danny couldn't quite reconize them, his knolodge of flora being mostly limited to the northern continent and the wilderness of Ramoah... But it was rather alike to a cave mushroom from Krosis bay. It was edible, but only after boiled. Otherwise, the toxins could cause light paralisis in large doses. Plus, it was too hard to chew on otherwise. Picking one up from the stem, Danny decided to use it as a crude light source, but he wouoldn't risk eating anything unless it became absolutely nessesary. The luminous effect should last for an hour or two after plucked, Even if he couldn't see far with it, maybe one of his allies could see him.

At the very least, there was no noticeable draft in this part of the cavern, or he probably would be freezing... And since it also wasn't flooded, there probably was a way out... maybe. He hoped there would be wind farther upwards, at least. The mushroom barely let him see a palm in front of his face, but that was enough to keep from walking blindly into a wall or falling into holes. The floor was rather damp and formed itself into an upwards slope. Soon enough, the path split but befoe Danny could make any choice, he spoted a orage-ish, very bright shine coming from a curve. Dropping his mushroom in case it was someone other than that ace boy or that wolfqin. He waited until the face of the person was visible, preparing his staff to strike first if nessesary... The light was rather blinding after so long, so he'd probably have to wait until this person was at close range to confirm it's identity.

Sakuya had been up for about an hour now, she had also found a luminescent fungi, she used the sash from her robes to tie it to the top of her head like a light on a helmet. Thanks to the canine elements in her, she was able to see alot better than a human in these low light situations, and her hearing was also quite noticeably better, she hadn't heard the others to this point though. She figured she should leave indicators as to where she is going as she walks around, so she used the pommel of her katana to scratch in arrows on the walls to show where she went., keeping her katana at the ready in the meantime.

HOUSE OUTSIDE DRAKESTONE

---

The huntman's wife was cooking breakfast for her family and their guest. She noticed that Agnes was up and about. She didn't show any hostility towards their guest. Her husband was outside chopping firewood, while her two daughters and baby boy was still sound asleep. She pulled out a wooden plate and added some home cooked chocobo eggs, cooked as an omelet, in it. She placed in gently on the table and said, "How are you feeling? You must be very hungry. Here I cooked you some breakfast."

The 40 year-old house wife had a warm smile on her face. She didn't see Agnes as a threat, but just as an ordinary teenager. "If you don't mind me asking, what's a young girl like you doing out in the woods alone?" she asked out of curiosity.

When the sun rose, Sir Alexander exited the Club's barracks and wandered the city. He hadn't gotten a reply in the positive or negative in regards to the fugitive, but whether he got approval from Nigel or not, that girl WOULD be going to the Empire in chains. He also hadn't been able to find her on his own, figuring that she would be given a room like he and the other two had been, but he was unable to locate the wolf girl. 

It was during his wandering that he saw a welcomed sight: fellow imperial knights riding into the city on their chocobos. Now naturally this caused some unrest among the citizens, what with them being a large force of experienced fighters. Thomas was proud to call himself one of their number. 

Striding up to them, he saluted, "Welcome fellow knights, I am Sir Thomas Alexander. I would ask what you are doing here but I have a fairly good idea what that reason is. The fugitive was last scene in the presence of the Shuffle Alliance Clubs division, and has not returned as of yet."

There was nothing more he could say, as he had no idea where the Clubs leader had taken the girl for training, and the man himself was being tight-lipped on the matter, and provoking him to violence would see him either killed or kicked out if the man was feeling merciful, seeing as he was by himself prior to the arrival of the other Padillian knights.

DRAKESTONE CITY

---

The Imperial Knights was being led by Knight Captain Duvan, a tall brown skinned man with a large pointy nose. He has half of his men scouting the woods outside Drakestone, also surrounding the city should the target try to flee. They recieved a tip from a resident at Drakestone of a powerful young mage that closely matches the description of who they were looking for.

Duvan stared down at Thomas from on top his steed and said, "Well done sir Thomas. I shall make sure your work here gets the proper recognition it deserves." 

Duvan had his knights carry out a small chest and brand new sword and handed it over to Thomas. He turnshis attention to the girl Thomas described, "We have gained word that a powerful young mage was seen her over a week ago, she seems to closely match the description. If you say she's in the city then we will find her."

((ooc:I'll post the stats later Vangran. I cant do it at work. But they are both silver tier))

"As Knights of the Emperor we do not believe in Gold and Riches. Our service to the Emperor is reward enough. I give you a new set of Imperial Armor and a brand new blade. So that you may serve the Emperor better." Duvan said to Thomas.

---

Meanwhile. As Maria was shopping for new gear, a little boy accidentally bumped into her. He was very skinny and looked like he had not eaten in a while. He looked scared and immediately apologized to Maria. "I' sorry please don't hurt me." 

After saying his apology the boy quicky ran from Maria out of fear that she might strike him. ^^

DRAKESTONE CITY

---

The boy ran into an alley, squeezed through the sea of people and down into a small hol innthe ground. He was in a hurry to get as far away from Maria as possible. Being chased after only made him feel more threatened. The whole he jumped into was small but Maria could fit i it if she squeezed herself just right. It led to the sewers underneath Drakestone city. The boy's footsteps echoed from one of the tunnels. 

It was cold, dark, and damp in the sewers. The only light coming in came from the small hole from which the boy fell into to get here. There were some luminescent mushrooms on the ground but their didn't glow bright enough, not even together to brighten up the dark sewers.