World Tree MUSH

    Damcyan! The jewel of Blue Earth's deserts. A city far larger than Kaipo could have ever hoped to be, a towering castle that shines in the desert sun. As the party breaks up camp not to far away from the castle and begin the march something seems... Off. A dark and ominous feeling hanging in the air the closer they get to the desert keep.
    It all becomes clear just as the castle appears over the desert horizon-- airships hover over Damcyan.
    Cecil and Duncan will recognize these ships- the ships of the Red Wings. The very ships that Cecil himself had once commanded...
    And they begin to rain fire on Damcyan.
    Rydia halts dead in her tracks, the sight of the grand castle crumbling and aflame freezing her blood in her veins as she tightly tugs the reins of her chocobo, traumatized all over again.
    It all happens so fast, the ships raining destruction and death as they bomb the castle-city to the ground and then fly off.
    By the time the party arrives, the gates are shattered, stone and wood crumbled to the ground, bodies strewn in the sands beyond having tried to flee and more corpses within the castle courtyard.
    "This is... This is terrible... There has to be someone still alive...!" Rydia stammers.

    Itana hadn't planned to go along much beyond Damcyan. The castle, at least, is a good place for her to go her own way. She does business there when she's not wandering.

    Business is abruptly cancelled by the whirling approach of airships.

    On chocobo-back, Itana looks on with her eyes wide - the surprise is the most expressive she's been throughout the journey. Colour drains from the sunkissed brown of her complexion. Her mouth hangs open a few millimetres before she snaps it closed again.

    She doesn't even have to think before she spurs her chocobo into motion.

    It is not a motion fast enough. There are more corpses than those in the courtyard. Sprawled outside are the burned remnants of some sort of caravan, a few chocobos and their riders - three people clad similarly to Itana.

    She spends a long moment standing over them before swallowing a lump in her throat and rejoining the rest of the party inside the gates. Things are, somehow, even worse within. Her right hand tightens, nails digging into the ball of her palm.

    "The entire castle," she murmurs, her voice pinched with the strain of trying to control the intensity of her emotion. "Those ships were...."

MEANWHILE.

Mariam Highscribe has been searching this specific branch for magic that could eventually save her world. It seems steeped in high magics, strange creatures and various other things to study. She's been keeping sketches and notes of the various things she's encountered in a book

Damcyan was supposed to be a short respite in the desert. Instead...

She pulls herself out of rubble after the lighting spell she used to shield herself from being buried alive fizzles out. She managed to grab the person next to her in the inn area she was sitting at the moment in the bar, but...no one else. The area is... is...

Mariam just gets to work and starts using her Elemental Evocation to command water, and start raining healing water on those she can find that might be alive to triage.

She can't cure these people completely, but she can help them survive until proper help can be found right? SOMEONE Had to...

See...hear an entire castle explode, right? She's worrying, and basically running around, sweating all the while under the brim of her hat.

There's almost a spring in Tellah's step as the group approaches Damcyan. Curative spells and time spent to help dry off clothes are a far-off memory after the group had encounted Octomammoth. All that is left is to get to the desert kingdom and reclaim lost loved ones.

So joyous was he that he started on a tale of mages whose studies in earth magic brought them to desert wastelands to practice their craft. His story was almost getting interesting when the Red Wings attack.

His jaw quivers as he watches the battery of ordnance on the noble structure of Castle Damcyan. Fingers tighten on reins, his body practically shrinking in place as the deafening sounds and bright explosions rock the area. Just as quickly as the airships have come in, they leave with the razed citadel in their wake.

"Anna--!" is all that he manages to say before he kicks the chocobo into high gear. "No, no, no, no NO NO...!" The others may want to hustle if they want to keep up with the old man.

    With the group assembled, Cecil is ready to move on to... more desert. Not exactly the best place to be when a heavily-armored knight. He's prepared himself though, and with his comrade Duncan he's girding himself for one last trek before he can hopefully relax in the castle, after warning the king and queen. Hopefully soon, so he can take some of this armor off and-

    "Is that... the Red Wings?" Cecil pauses, startled now. "But who..." His First Mate was unlikely to be commanding them yet, so it must be someone else.

    And then fire. Fire rains down and the matter becomes a little more personal. "NO!" He takes a step forward, then clenches his fist. "My crew wouldn't..." There's doubt in his voice though... they wouldn't, would they? If he'd demanded they do that, would they have followed him?

    "Let's move!" he calls out to the others, the horror that was in his voice gone with an urging desperation to stir people toward the castle for help, where someone is apparently already trying to aid.

    Uni watches the razing of the city. She looks to her shinki, as they approach the ruins and the pair seem to share something wordless. The blonde mini-bot nods, snaps her visor into place and then jets off ahead of the group. "Skyeye on search and tag... she will launch flares if she discovers survivors." the Goddess dismounts, gently patting her chocobo on the neck. "I suggest we split into teams to cover more ground."

    Duncan actually is quite interested in Tellah's story. He has a bit more of an interest in magic than one might expect of a typical sword-swinger. Probably having to do with that both of his parents were mages! So he was definitely listening... right up until the Red Wings appeared.

    The noise itself is enough to draw Duncan's attention upwards to the sky. Unseen behind that helmet, his eyes widen in surprise. Seen, however, is the open-mouthed shock. "...Gods," he breathes. "Surely not..."

    But yes. It very much is exactly what it looks like, the Red Wings are indeed bombing the place! There's not much he's going to be able to do against an aerial bombing, but he's suddenly nudged Nemesis into a run towards the castle. He follows to the left, and slightly behind Cecil -- he's left-handed, Cecil is (presumably) right-handed; with Duncan to Cecil's left, someone has a dominant hand on both sides.

    Yumi was here, of course. She's been fussing and bustling about camp, trying to be as much help as she possibly can, even if she looks like she didn't quite get much rest last night. The senshi is putting on a positive attitude, at least, and by the time they get moving she's in reasonably high spirits... until something starts to nag at her. Something seems wrong. Instincts are nudging at her...

    And they're just in time to see Damacyn bombed to the ground.

    The instant the bombs start falling, Yumi flares with light, transforming in half a heartbeat and launching herself at full speed. But even the inhuman velocity of a magical girl isn't enough to get there in time. Not nearly enough. The last few steps up to and through the gate are slower, faltering; Yumi comes to a stop with eyes slowly widening, building horror. "...Oh... oh my god, this is..." It's horrible. Innocent people. Probably even children.

    The redhead lists to one side, as if losing her balance for a moment; she plants a hand on one side of the ruined gateway, leaning there.

    Rydia is still halted in the gates by the sheer grisly horror of seeing the aftermath of a bombing. Almost dizzy, she steps down from the saddle of her chocobo. "S-stay." She commands her faithful bird, which leans down to nuzzle its beak at her cheek before staunchly planting himself right where he is as ordered.
    For a good moment, she's just as dazed and shocked as the others, a hand resting on Yumi's shoulder gently before she calls out to Uni.
    "Uni- we can't... W-we need to stay together. We don't have any White Mages with us. We can't help these people." She practically croaks, haunted look in her eyes as the smell of smoldering rubble and flesh permeates the air.
    No white mages aside from Mariam- running around as she. The damage is severe, but the Highscribe heir manages to stabilize some of the bombing victims... There are just... So many. The castle is nearly demolished. Those who aren't already dead or dying look just as haunted and shell-shocked as Rydia.
    Rydia who notices the caravan of people dressed so frighteningly similar to Itana right about now. "Were they... Did you know them...?" She barely manages to whisper before Tellah practically orders his chocobo to fly.
    The whole castle is in shambles, no one in any state to stop the party from tearing through the city towards the keep and up the stairs into the royal chambers. ... There are more bodies here. Guards, men at arms, courtiers and nobility, all died the same under Baron's bombing. Though there's no sign of the king or queen, a lone young lady rests in the very center of the chamber in a pretty yellow dress, resting barely conscious on the burned and singed red carpet that was once the luxurious pride of the throne room.

    Itana closes her eyes again and presses her lips together in a firm, tight line. Her shoulders rise with tension, then settle as she exhales. The thought occurring to her is, frankly, ridiculous.

    /These are the same bastards who shot down my black chocobo./

    Rydia's whisper cuts painfully into her thoughts. "They were... people like me," she manages without meeting the green-haired woman's eyes. "A few of us who live out in the wastelands, and trade here."

    Not anymore. If there is anyone alive, it's got to be in the single digits. Itana follows along behind the group as they move through the once-splendid castle, past the bodies of dead of all stations. Even the sophisticated ways of the castle folk weren't enough to spare them.

    The splendor of the throne room might have once evoked some reaction from the desert dweller. Itana can't muster it. She's already darting forward to kneel by the woman in the yellow dress, reaching into one of the pouches at her hip and fishing around for something. Her eyes dart over the wounded stranger, assessing the extent of her injuries, but she's already coming to a conclusion she does not like.

    There is probably nothing she can do for her with what healing skill she possesses. She is no magician, and even if she were, it may not matter.

    The instant Rydia starts to take a step forward to follow Tellah, a gloved hand clasps her wrist.

    "Don't," Yumi utters softly. There's something in her voice, a quiet desperation. And the look in her eyes is... distant, somehow, yet frantic. Unlike her in the least. "Rydia, you- you can't. It could still be dangerous. The castle might collapse, there might be soldiers waiting-"

    The agitation in her voice mounts, her gaze somehow looking straight through the summoner and yet not quite seeing her. "Stay. You have to stay. Stay here. I won't let anything hurt you, Rydia. I won't let them get to you. Just stay right here."

    Without preamble, she suddenly throws arms around Rydia, holding firmly - not so much a 'hug', but more of a protective cling, as if to shield the summoner from... something.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> The magical girl suffers FALLOUT! Lose a turn!

    Maybe people heard what Cecil said about 'his crew' and maybe they didn't. What is clear is that he's equal parts distraught and FURIOUS! He doesn't think about Mariam... she's doing what people SHOULD do, helping in whatever manner possible! He trudges right through the magical rain, rushing toward the throne room, after-

    "TELLAH! WAIT, IT'S DANGEROUS!" And it is. Cecil can tell that fires are still burning, the castle is falling apart. To Rydia, he snaps, "We can't heal them, but we may be able to find some under the rubble. As a group maybe we can dig them out. Uni, try to find survivors from above."

    In the meantime, Tellah and Itana are, undestandably, both already ahead and need some support.

Mariam is healing, and healing and running around and people!. "HEY!" she calls out. "HEY YOU GUYS OVER THERE, CAN YOU HEAR ME!?" she calls out. "HEALERS PLEASE!" she calls out. She sort of runs towards the group as they pass through an area she can see them properly. She'll swoop her broom under her and use it to glide over quickly. Really.

There's an owl on the woman witch's shoulder. It's black with bright eyes and looks grumpy. She then notices Yumi, Yumi is a face she's familiar with. "Yumi...!" she says. "H--hey what are you doing here?" she asks.

Then Yumi appears to have a breakdown. She doesn't know the girl she's clinging to as she frowns and hops off her broom. "Soldiers? Is that what happened? Did they plant a bomb!?" she asks as she frowns. She tries to keep the rain going in the meantime but...

Well it's the desert. There isn't enough water here, and she's faltering...

"Think I've done most of what I could already..." she says quietly. "Anyways." she says.

    Uni's face hardens as Rydia claims these people can't be helped. "You don't know that. You can't know that. They'll definitely die if we don't even try!" She retorts, turning her head as a holographic screen opens to Bravette looking... stoic, as always. Cecil receives the same holopanel. <"Launching flares... life signs detected under the rubble at Red... Green has a group trapped in a room blocked by fallen debris. I can get in to them, but they cannot get out, one has a broken leg.">

    After finishing, the panels wink out, and two flares launch high into the air, hanging and slowly floating down. One RED, the other GREEN.

Tellah, at the risk of appearing stony-hearted, does not linger when he comes across those that have perished from the attack. He simply shakes his head, half-mumbling and half-croaking, "Noooo..." The Sage's hand shakes when he holds his staff, using it to help pivot his movements and speed him along with the rest of the troupe. "Where is she?" he wonders aloud, as if asking some unseen entity that might answer his question. Those with him simply wouldn't know for sure.

He bursts into the room where one has audience with the King and Queen, flanking a few of the others that are rushing through the wreckage. When he sees the young girl in the center of the room, his eyes become wide enough to see behind his lenses.

"That is Anna!" he yelps, in the way that only a wounded father can. Seeing her in such a state, even at a distance, begins to unravel all possibilities to reveal the ugly inevitability: truth. The threads are just as frayed as the outer layers of his robe.

Though he doesn't mean to, he shoves Cecil Harvey aside so that he can rush to the body in the center of the room. Itana will hear his footsteps rushing behind her, along with the vowel sounds that clip out of his lungs. "Ah-ah," he repeats, taking a path that brings him closer to the woman's head resting on the floor. Trembling hands reach for her face and hair, face scrunched in feeble agony.

    Duncan's off of his bird as soon as he gets close enough to the place. It's fortunate there are even survivors in this mess. That was a pretty thorough 'erase everything' level of carpet-bombing.

    Splitting up or not, Duncan's going to help who he can; it's doubtful a medieval first-aid kit is going to do much for anybody who really needs help. This wouldn't be the first time Duncan wished he'd learned white magic instead of becoming a Dark Knight, but it's definitely the time he wishes it the most stringently!

    Seeing the injured woman seemingly be herself, he approaches as well, near Itana, if she needs another set of hands. He's probably not going to be much help either, but just in case, right?

    Tellah rushing over to the woman's side is pretty well confirmation of the worst. He moves out of Tellah's way -- nobody should ever be between a person and their injured loved ones! Also he doesn't want to get SHOVED out of the way.

    OUSTIDE, Rydia was about to follow the others- honest she was, honest to god. Until Yumi clasps her by the wrist. "--Yumi let me go." She says in a whisper, before fully turning to the senshi. "Y-Yumi...?" There is a logic in the magical girl's protective words, ther could still be threats lurking in the rubble and debris, there could still be soldiers of Baron about but... It's not like Yumi to stop her dead in her tracks like this. "Yumi we have to- ah!?"
    The cling catches Rydia of Mist off guard entirely; the Summoner tensing subtly from the contact and unable to pull free. "Yumi!" She blurts, bewildered and wide-eyed.
    "G-go, go on ahead." She calls to the others, "I'll..." She'll have to figure out how to handle Yumi, but in the meantime the mists surrounding her coalesce into the form of a great mist dragon.
    "Whyt- go dig out the people Uni found." She orders the beast, which floats in the direction of the closer flare with a soft keening cry.
    "Yumi- I need you to let me go. There are people here who need your help more than I do." Rydia says, tone strained as her attention turns to Mariam. "W-we don't have any healers with us." Said as she tries to prize herself free. "... This was Baron's work."
    IN THE THRONE ROOM, everything is a mess. There's blood everywhere, but more importantly, Anna is right there, laying on the cold stone floor. On closer inspection several broken arrows pierce her body in vital places... They are mortal wounds, and it's clear that while she is breathing now, she is breathing her last--
    Just as a figure staggers out from behind one of the thrones. A young blonde man in singed fingery comes wobbling out, shakily making his way over to the fallen Anna.
    Tellah will certainly recognize the very bard that spirited his daughter away.
    "A-Anna..." He croaks, collapsing to his knees by the wounded girl, burying his face in his hands. "Baron came... They took our crystal. She... She protected me from their arrows, I-..."
    

    Itana knows when something's going on as well as anyone else. At the sound of rushing footsteps and rippling robes, she edges to the side to make room for Tellah to kneel by the wounded woman, pulling out of reach to give the old man his space.

    Everything's a mess, and there's not much Itana can do about it. She bites down hard to her lower lip as she goes over the woman's wounds one last time. She's an archer herself; she knows a fatal arrow wound when she sees one.

    She does not see one. She sees /several./

    She leaves it unsaid. It is not her place to rob Tellah of hope.

    Only when someone new arrives does she look up. Itana's eyes snap towards the young man. No mere bard.

    'They took our crystal.'

    Itana tenses slightly. The Fire Crystal's no mere ornament. But it's not the only thing that tugs at her. Her eyes fall to Anna again.

    "...Courageous," she murmurs, her voice very faint.

    "Skyeye, keep looking." says Uni, taking one look at Rydia and Yumi, before heading toward the green flare. The red is closer, nbut Whyt's taking care of that one. "Hawkeye moving to secure wounded civilians. Skyeye continuing on search and rescue." the goddess says, transmitting via holographic windows to those outside, searching for survivors. "The faster we do this, the more lives we can possibly save."

    She shifts from a fast walk, to a run after she finishes, moving faster than a human could.

Tellah's moment of heartbreak is torn in half when he hears the sound of an unknown man's voice.

His glasses, though fogged, start to clear with his short and raspy breath. Unconsciously, his body is preparing itself for what his mind is starting to piece together. His mouth open, he pants while looking over in the direction of the approaching young man in a bard's outfit.

One hand's fingers tighten around his staff, his knuckles trembling as they turn white. His other hand lifts up, pointing a bony and ring-adorned finger at the man in an accusing tone. His body practically inflates as he takes in his next breath, before cracking the room with his voice.

"You're the bard!" he says, his words attempting to carry all the way to Baron's long-departed Red Wings. If anyone else in the room wasn't paying attention to the tragedy, they'll at least be alerted to the presence of a bard. Nay, THE bard.

"You did this to her!" Tellah barks as he shakily rises to his feet, his teeth showing underneath his moustache and beard. Mad? No. Angry? No. Vexed? Crossed? There aren't easy words to describe the look on his face as he faces the newest arrival. His hand begins to lift his staff off the floor, quivering in his grip.

Tellah is... apoplectic. His rage, so great, has thrown his crushed feelings to the floor to be broken into a million pieces. And in his apoplectic rage does he charge the other man in an attempt to crack him with the staff.

"YOU SWINDLER!"

    Cecil doesn't know how to handle the knowledge that his previous unit did this. If he hadn't spoken out, then... but not, it was the right thing to do. What now, though?

    His thoughts are jostled away by Tellah shoving him, the Dark Knight too heavy to do more than nudge, but off guard enough that he does sway. That knocks him back into the present. "Thank you," he says, finally addressing the others and Mariam. "We need to go recover those trapped that Uni found, we... we..."

    Tellah is having a moment with the dying girl revealing why she is dying. He looks to the blond mand and is about to say something when-

    "TELLAH?!" He grunts, turning to the others, "I'll try to calm him, do what you can for her." He isn't sure HOW he can calm him, but perhaps just putting a hand on his shoulder will restrain him from doing anything TOO violent?

    "I can't!" Yumi sounds positively frantic. "They could come back, there could be assassins lying in wait, I can't just leave you here!" She's not squeezing hard enough to hurt, but it's absolutely like trying to pry open a statue made of solid steel. The look in her eyes could very nearly be described as hollow, a distant and empty gaze that sweeps across the ruined courtyard with what might be described as suspicion if she were more lucid. She even starts to simmer with a faint warmth... except that after a few seconds of that, the warmth fades again, and Rydia can feel the senshi start to relax.

    "...I..."

    It takes her a second. She lets go of the summoner, stumbling back a step, and for a moment looks confused, half-lucid. It's easy to see the moment Yumi's mind falls back into gear, however, as her eyes widen in quiet horror. "...oh god, it happened again..." Her eyes snap up to Rydia, haunted but fully aware. "Where do you need me?" It's as much to push aside her own mortification for later as it is to get moving and help people.

Mariam frowns at Rydia as she watches Tellah burst past everyone, and looks to Yumi, and Rydia again. "I am... Mariam Highscribe I come from a different place... I'm a witch... I... have some access to healing magic but there isn't water here for me to do more than I have. I'm sorry." she says quietly. "I work from elements and usually there's enough water in the air but.. the dry environment....I've triaged all I've could.

She frowns. "Baron is a diabolical monarchy like that!? I.. I was headed that way. but I was stopping here for the night..." she says as she frowns and pops open her book... she lunges her hand into her owl's feather fluff (He makes a flappy 'hoot!?' sound and noise.) and removes a quill pen and adds this to her book on her notes about the area. She frowns and looks back to Yumi and just frowns a little. What was that about?

    Duncan looks up as the singed figure comes out from behind the throne. He's initially in-guard, since he's not sure if there's still people here from Baron. But this fellow's pretty toasty, from the looks of it, so he's probably not a left-behind remnant of an army. So he'll go over to try to help him, since he looks like he can use the help.

    And then Tellah, quite predictably, flips the hell out.

    Well, Dark Knights are supposed to be tanks, right? Duncan's going to try and get between Tellah and the blond man -- he's injured, and it's probably not going to do him a whole lot of good to be beaten about the head and face. Hopefully with Cecil working on calming Tellah and Duncan working on being a meat shield, it'll be enough.

    Though he does add his own effort to the 'calming the old man down' part. Pitching his voice calmly, respectfully, Duncan tries, "Please, Master Tellah. There has been enough violence here this day..."

    Truth be told though? Duncan's aware that if Tellah wanted to actually KILL this man, he'd probably be slinging spells, not just hitting him with a wooden stick. Still, he has no idea how injured the blond man is, so he'd rather not take the chance of making any injuries he might have worse.

    Rydia is staring. Yumi's frantic tone sends a thrill of confusion and fear through the Summoner's heart. She... Hasn't quite seen the senshi like this. Ever. Not like this, not with those empty, hollow, eyes.
    A palm gently rests on the senshi's cheek.
    "Yumi..." Rydia speaks, tone incredibly gentle. "I need you to let me go. We can't do anything to help any of these people if you don't. They need your protection more than I do right now." She says. It's when Yumi does pull back from her overprotective fit that the Summoner frowns.
    What happened again?
    "Uni and Bravette are marking where people need to be dug out. Whyt is with them, can you go help?" She directs the shellshocked mahou.
    She's just as confused about it as Mariam is-- who she turns to. "Baron is... Cecil would know more, he says the king is changing, not like the kind man he used to be. He ordered my village burned to the ground and now... And now this..." She says, shoulders sagging. "I'm going to join the others." She mutters and starts making her way for the throne room, while Whyt follows Uni about the castle, putting his herculean strength to the task of moving rocks and debris wherever the Goddess Candidate raises a flare.
    Inside the throne room, the resounding crack of Tellah's staff resounds as the young bard gets belted across the face. He doesn't even do anything to defend himself from it, head jerking from the blow as an angry bruise begins to form.
    "-Please, you don't understand--...!" He sputters, half-hearted as Cecil and Duncan move to stop the old man's wrath.
    Before something that might halt Tellah outright occurs.
    "Father please..."
    Anna's eyes open, half-lidded and delirious with pain. "Edward is the prince of Damcyan... He disguised himself as a bard to avoid drawing attention. Please don't be angry with him." She says softly, words slurring with agony. "Forgive me father... For running off with him."

    That's not what Itana would've expected from the tiresome old man whose stories about magic keep making her eyes glaze over. Her serious expression cracks when Tellah explodes, broken for just a moment by a look of utter surprise.

    Only watching a moment longer, she swings her attention to something she /is/ confident she can try to do. Helping Anna.

    "Try not to push yourself," she murmurs as she scoots forward again, drawing a glass vial from the large pouch at her hip. It's full of a clear, bubbly green liquid, which she unstops and holds out to Anna's lips to drip it out for her if she's able to take it. The potion won't heal her wounds - but it will numb the pain.

    And that's when Anna opens her eyes. Itana holds one hand out to gently touch the woman's shoulder. "Easy," she urges, her voice quieter and more gentle than she's let show before now - but her gaze rises to Tellah to watch how he reacts to the woman's confession.

    She is far from the only one who has lost something. For her it was just most of her world. For these three, it's much more personal.

    The drama unfolding in the throne room is lost on the Goddess Candidate. Her focus is on what she can do here and now. Each time Bravette finds a heat signature that isn't a burning fire, she lifts a flaregun and fires off a flare. She's already noted which colour means what, and so, when Bravette finds someone trapped under rubble, a RED flare goes up. Some people that aren't pinned, but are otherwise trapped inside of still-standing building ruins, are marked with a GREEN flare... she does her best to dislodge the debris while waiting for Whyt to catch up, the Mist Dragon being left to dig people out while Uni does what she does best... finding the problems.

    "R-right," Yumi responds to Rydia; in the course of that one word, she manages to find her mental footing again, and there's a quick turn-

    -and a sudden realization. "-Mariam?" Blink blink. For half a heartbeat, that haunted expression comes back to the magical girl's face, and she gives the Highscribe sister a silent, embarrassed look that practically screams, 'please don't ask me about that'. "Let's go help Uni. This way."

    With that, the redhead launches off into a series of high leaps, sweeping with her eyes to spot Uni - and then heading for the nearest red distress flare. If any of these people die when she could have helped them by being here just a minute sooner, she'll never forgive herself.

Behold the bedlam.

Tellah gets off one good snap of his staff against the bard's face, moving to repeat his act with an inhuman snarl. It doesn't help that not one but two well-trained Dark Knights move to intercept him. He will strain against the both of them, giving them a front-row seat to his ferocity.

"Shut up!" he bellows, his words winding between the two Knights and rushing into the bard's ears. Tellah reaches between Cecil Harvey and Duncan while continuing to shout. "You... cloying, mawkish, insipid, suger-coated ..." He strains against two men whose collective ages are still a factor below his own. And yet still, he hurls more words.

"You... SPOONY bard!" he shouts next, spitting onto Cecil's pauldrons in the process. He throws down his staff, knowing full well that the bard is too far away to strike with his weapon. But the old man has other options available, and it becomes clear as he clutches his amulet.

In an instant, his other hand snaps open to reveal a white-hot ball of flame that he intends to lob at the face of his adversary. It would take a Paladin to protect the bard now. "Die..." he begins, his moving to lob the flame.

But then Anna speaks up, cleaving the air of rage and fire spells and slipping through the ears of bard and sage. Tellah's hand closes up, extinguishing the flame. Just as quickly as he turned his murderous intent on the bard, it appears to be postponed on account of hearing his daughter's voice.

Turning away from the two Dark Knights, he rushes back over to Anna's side.

"Are you all right?" he asks desperately, reaching for his daughter's face once more. How polarizing. Murder was being optioned just moments ago. "Anna -- I would forgive you a thousandfold." His fingers move along her scalp and brow, shaking as they had before.

Mariam eyes Rydia as she listens as she frowns and adds these notes to her book before she eyes Yumi again and says. "Yes! I came here searching for answers, as I do." as she watches Rydia take off to catch up with the others that raced by. She frowns as she brushes her hand up her face and gives Yumi a concerned, but quiet look with that 'don't ask me about it look', with a short nod. She can understand that look.

She softly follows Yumi as she nods. "Hooty can't really look through solid brick, so I wasn't able to look over rubble and honestly I'm too afraid to try to blast it away, it might cause more collapse!" she says. "I could try to move it with wind..." she says quietly.. "But the same issue might arise..." she says.

"Hey um."

 She says to Uni. "Do your things there. Are they like... um..."

"Scan spells...?" she says. "Tell you what is safe and not safe to move?" she asks.

    Cecil releasees Tellah as he begins to calm, an instant after he tightened on the shoulder, intending to prevent that fireball from being flung. He had a speech ready about how murder would just make his life worse and so on and so on... but Anna saved him from trying to compose hypocritical words.

    Dropping his hand aside, he considers... then turns to the side. "There are survivors to help. I'm... sorry for your loss, but we have to do what we can." His voice is strained as he says that, feeling like he's lecturing them. "Take what time you need."

    It seems the woman's not completely dead! Though given those wounds, that's not likely to be the case for much longer. So Duncan quiets so those words can be heard. Anna's words of the identity of the injured man get a mostly-unseen look of surprise.

    Yeah, see? Tellah turns to magic when the intent to kill is ACTUALLY there! Sure, Duncan's probably not going to be much protection against the fireball, but hey -- a death prevented is a death prevented, right?

    ...Heck, maybe it would serve as a salve to his conscience; that Baron, once his HOME, is responsible for all this, really stings. And he can't help but feel responsible for it, even though he didn't have anything to do with it.

    Fortunately Anna's words do get Tellah's attention, and distracts him from the murderous rage. Duncan breathes a sigh of relief that his committment to ending the violence wasn't to be tested just yet. And he nods to Cecil. "I'll help you -- as soon as I'm sure it's safe in here," he replies.

    Translation: 'as soon as I'm sure there's not about to be another murder in here'.

    Now joined by Yumi and Mariam the task of search and rescue goes much quicker. While poor Uni beats herself up internally, every flare the Goddess Candidate sends up is one Whyt responds to, the great mist dragon delicately moving broken brick and masonry, seeping in between cracks here and there to check on the people within while he works, as Mariam raises her concern, the dragon noting essential places that need wodk. Where Whyt can't get to in time, Yumi's speed is essential, and the amount of lives getting saved by the impromptu rescue squad is... Far more than there would have been, if these people had been buried alive without any aid.
    But in the throne room, there is no saving Anna.
    The bard-- nay prince is silent in the face of Tellah's rage, a dark shadow cast over his features as he hangs his head, the glistening twin trails of tears streaming down his cheeks, practically ready to accept his fate and die with his beloved if Tellah so chooses to end him. But the old man does not.
    Anna's breath grows ragged with pain for a moment until Itana gives the girl one final and humane kindness in the form of that potion. Taking it down isn't easy for her, but it brings back some of the clarity to her eyes as she whispers a quiet 'thank you' as her breathing calms.
    "I love him, father." Anna whispers, reaching up with bloodied hand to cup Tellah's cheek. "We knew I couldn't stay without your blessing, father. Edward begged me return to you, I was about to return to you when..."
    "When the Red Wings laid siege to us..." Edward speaks, voice soft. "Led by a man named Golbez. I heard he came to Baron only recently... A figure clad in the blackest armor and stronger than mortal men. They took the crystal and then rained fire upon us. I lost my mother and father and... Anna protected me, I..." He trails off as Anna shakes her head slowly and speaks up once again.
    "Father, please... Forgive me. I was so selfish. Edward... I... Love you..." She says, voice growing softer with each word. Until her eyes fall closed.
    It's almost as though she were sleeping peacefully.
    A single strangled sob echoes in the ruins of the throne room as Edward buries his face in his hands.

    Uni looks up, surprised by the sudden voice from Mariam. "Uh... what?" she begins, then recomposes herself. "Oh, Bravette can only see heat signatures... we never bought her the ground penetrating sonar package... no time to get one installed now though. We'll just have to be careful." She's currently pulling rubble from the doorway of a partially collapsed building, it looks like a smithy or weapons shop from the broken sign sticking out of the pile of rocks nearby.

    The Goddess' hands look bloodied, though there's no stain on the rocks she's moving, and the 'droplets' that cast off are angular and 'floaty', shattering a few inches from her fingers, though the cracks are working all over her hands as she moves each rock, carefully trying to make sure any collapse is towards the outside, not going inside.

    "If you can, try to find some healing items that survived the attack... we may have to triage the worst wounded, save those we can with the supplies we have."

    A selfish thought occurs to Itana: She has no idea if her family are still alive after all this - it's deeply unlikely, given the extent of the bombing - and if they're not, she didn't get the chance to say goodbye. As she looks upon the anguish in the face of the old sorcerer, she can't help but wonder if not knowing is better than facing the pain of coming up a loved one at the brink of death, on the ragged edge of unresolved pain and heartbreak.

    Anna's stirring spares her having to try and rein in Tellah. It does not, however, spare Tellah the pain of what the woman has to share. That she loves the handsom prince of a broken kingdom.

    Itana bites gently down to her lower lip, her hand lingering at Anna's shoulder as if to try and steady her. She's all too keenly aware that she can't bring her back, and it's killing her. All she can do is listen - no matter how much she feels like an intruder upon this moment.

    /A man named Golbez./ Itana commits the name to memory.

    Before she has time to mull it over, a pair of eyes slip closed. Itana looks down over the still woman beneath her hand.

    She rests a delicate hand on Anna's forehead for a couple seconds, then eases back as her gaze rises to Tellah. There is something wordlessly apologetic behind her eyes.

    Yumi gives a soft shake of her head to Mariam. "It's fine, I'm strong. Really strong. I can move some pretty heavy rubble. I want you to..." She pauses, thinking for a moment. "...I'll leave that call to you. Spotting more people, leading me to them, leading people who can walk to safety, medical help if there's anything you can do. Whichever suits you best. I can handle the digging." It's a surprisingly sharp, level-headed plan of action; a far cry from the clinging, overprotective panic of minutes before.

    Cecil crosses his arms, listening to all this, and is silent for a long while. He doesn't want to interrupt the mourning, paying some respect for the recently dead. He also is probably thinking about the wounded outside... but something else has the lion's share of his attention now.

    "Golbez," he muses. "I've never heard that name before, but suddenly he's commanding the Red Wings? I thought I knew every knight of significance in the kingdom. Why would the King put someone he just met in command? None of this makes any sense."

    He shakes that off. "I'm going to help with the rubble, maybe some lives can be saved. I'll... come back."

Mariam hrms. "I can have Hooty look for magical items...if the potions are magic he should be able to find them..." he says as she pokes Hooty. "Come on Hooty, go find potions and other useful things for this..." she says as she sends the Owl on it's way. It can get a good sky view and fly fast through corridors. Hooty should come back with something or a location to be taken too.

"I'll handle the search for supplies." she says as she gets back on her broom and then also takes off....

Before backing up. (Her broom does not beep) and says. "Dig people out. We can't help them through walls...!" she says as she goes back to speeding forward.

She'll eventually, hopefully, find SOME things.

Tellah listens to Anna speak, his hands wiping at her brow as if trying to console her. His frown deepens as he listens to her, lenses darkened in the limited light.

His eyes are riveted on her for the majority of the exposition. His eyes will flick up at Edward as she explains his level of involvement in her life. His own interpretation of the story is unraveling with the admission of his own daughter's words.

"You loved him that much..." he concludes, letting the words hang in the air for Anna to hear. His hands occasionally bump into Itana's, which causes him to spare the other woman a glance. His look is pleading. An impotent plea for help that no one can provide. Not him. Not her. Not the greatest White Mage that matriculated from the schools in Mysidia.

When Anna pleads for Tellah to forgive him, he'll whisper 'yes' almost immediately. "I do forgive, I do," he whispers, fingers trembling as her words become more faint. "Anna... Anna-no. Anna!"

And in one second, there is no more Anna. There is just the grief-stricken Sage with the body of his daughter laying still before him. His breath hisses through his nose as he clenches his eyes shut, mind desperately grasping at moments in his life where Anna was alive. Some come back to him. Others don't. But all of them seem to be black-and-white caricatures compared to the very real moment of loss that he has to grasp in this instant.

After a few more long, hissing breaths the eyes of the Sage open once more. His glasses are fogged again, but they'll clear up in an instant. His mouth opens, dry lips licked with his tongue. In a voice that is more disquieting in hushed tones than it was with ferocious shouting, he asks his question to the bard.

"Tell me ... about this /Golbez/."

    Duncan is staying quiet here. There's nothing he can say to make things better, and the pain of loss is too fresh for those who've lost loved ones here for comfort NOW to make much of a difference.

    That name... Golbez. It rings a bell. While he wasn't the one asked, he does offer to Tellah, "He was put in charge of the Red Wings shortly after Cecil defected. I myself was told that Cecil had become a traitor and burned Mist of his own volition -- clearly that wasn't the case."

    He crosses his arms over his chest. "But I was also a Dark Knight of Baron," he adds. "And I was put under a mind-controlling spell and sent to kill Cecil. The rest of the soldiers are likely now under this same sort of spell now, I'm sure of it. Before I left, I heard... rumors. That there were monsters in the ranks. Just a rumor then... but now I'm not so sure that's all it was..."

    That's right. A man named Golbez is behind this. This callous act of death and murder. A man named Golbez is the reason Uni's fingers 'bleed' and Yumi and Mariam are now searching the rubble in hopes of finding life beneath shattered brick an mortar. Though thankfully an item shop remains mostly intact nearby, with potions and cloth for bandages, the fact that these items need be put to use in such a manner is solely one man's doing.
    In the throne room, Edward's sobs only grow in volume as Anna leaves this world; a hand gently resting on the prince's shoulder. Like Tellah, he has lost so much, and Rydia of Mist, who had been watching from the doorway, isn't so cruel as to call him a coward in this moment.
    "Dry your eyes." She says gently, prompting him to wipe his bloodshot eyes. "You're not the only one who is grieving, she would not wish to see you like this if she were still alive."
    The prince's shoulders sag as he heaves a sigh and nods, and the throne room goes silent once more.

    Uni is stronger than normal humans, but she's not even close to Whyt or Yumi. Still, she continues to soldier on, doing what she can to get people out of danger.

    As people are brough out of the ruins, and potions and bandages are acquired, the Goddess switches to what she can do well; Organize. She starts directing people with minor wounds to help tend to those with more severe ones, picking out those who are terminal and giving them only enough medicine to ease their pain. She tries to scare up some soft bedding to make some makeshift beds for those who can't stand to lay on.

    She's a very severe woman at times, but the sheer scale of death and the wounded they managed to save has her quiet, pensive, as she walks amongst them.

    Once she finds out this was all caused by one man, a fire will light in those red eyes. Not the rage of a father who just lkost his daughter. No, this will be the righteous fury of of a Goddess, the same fury she would feel if it were her own people being slaughtered.