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Aboard the Agate Breeze:

The nurse seems slightly exhasperated with Adriannu's antics, and is about to try and indicate something, when they stop, listening again. Then they chuff out a sigh and gesture toward the door. Another floating line appears out in the hall, looking like it's going back the way they came.

"Jules, I know you weren't asking me but I mean hey I thought I'd chime in." She chuckles as she finishes healing Neo. She then transforms into her human form.

"And, since I'm pretty sure yer going to hear it anyway, my name's Alastor." He shifted his scratches to underneath her chin, taking on his usual grin. "Alright, we've given our names, your turn then."

"Raven- Oh, yeah...that's the spot!" She lowers her head into his hand and lets herself bliss out for a minute longer.

Then satisfied, she mrrows and hooks his hand in-between her front paws, drawing Alastor's fingertips near her mouth so she can bite him; playfully, of course.

When she lets go, whether forced to or after getting bored, she rises slowly and starts to clean the man's scent off her head and paws, as one does.

"So...you're friends of that moron?" She pauses in her cleaning to jab a paw toward the unconscious Neo.

"Uh...right."

The man waves. Another bandit approaches Victi from behind and jabs the small of her back with a spear. "Oi, get a move on!"

Some other thugs give Drake the same treatment, much to his chagrin, and the cluster goes on its merry way following Aurora's lead.

She guides them off the road and into the woods, ducking under branches and slithering through treacherously thick undergrowth with grace unusual for a creature of her bulk. The group travels in uncomfortable silence for some time until she breaks into a clearing ringed by tents. A crowd gathers to greet their leader and jeer at who they assume to be prisoners.

While the scouting group who "ambushed" them were all humans, the members of the perimeter camp shows itself to be much more diverse. Orcs, elves, dwarves, fuirmoki, felxians...even a handful of jabbering goblins kneel under the icy gaze of their Lady before rising to point and laugh at the guests in bondage. That isn't even to mention all of the thieves whose heritage Drake can't readily identify. He notes there are no chimerae or other dragons. Not surprising, she hates anyone who vaguely resembles him and dragons are rare and tend to be reclusive.

Aurora sends her scouts away. "Malcolm; I'll summon you for a report later. Now..."

She addresses Victi and Drake, glaring about both in turn. "Follow me." Assuming they have no choice but to do as much, she silently leads them to a massive tent pitched in the center of the clearing. She lifts the flap and enters with nothing more than a head-toss commanding they come inside.

Back on the bed, Adriannu listened as Lisa explained what had happened since she had been knocked out. She instantly smiled upon hearing that they were on the Magister's ship, clearly pleased to have gotten her wish even if it had been in less then ideal circumstances. Regardless, she did remain silent for most of the explanation, but quickly spoke up upon hearing that Raven had been left behind. "Why was Raven left behind?!" She practically shouted and between this and her expression, it was clear that she was greatly upset by this news."

However the fact that her injury had been treated wasn't lost on her and thus she turned to look at the nurse while she waited for an explanation about Raven from Lisa. Due to the language barrier, she wasn't sure how to convey her gratitude at first, but soon came up with an idea. Looking directly at the nurse, she enclosed her right fist with her left hand before bowing deeply in a gesture of respect and gratitude. The child didn't know if the kitsune would understand the gesture, but she genuinely hoped that she would.

Shortly after this, the floating line appeared again which left Adriannu rather puzzled. "Lisa what is that?" She asked while pointing at it.

"Yeesh, I was mostly joking!" Victi exclaims, "You realize I can still produce electrical discharges that could cook your insides without magic, right?"

"Also," she adds, lowering her voice and adding a slight growl, "I don't think the boss lady would appreciate it if you encouraged a reduction in payment on account of damages, got it? Remember that we're clients"

Once they get to the camps, Victi's first action is to rapidly take stock of the possible hostiles for later, if things go poorly or the 'ness decides that giving the shard back is for chumps. There are a lot, and she doesn't have too much idea of what they can all do, which isn't the most reassuring. Great.

She also indulges her own sense of humour a little, turning to growl at the crowd of bandits, fanning her tails imposingly up behind her and letting sparks crackle violently across her fur. Honestly, whether it scared them or just egged them on didn't matter. She mostly just liked attention and presenting herself as a feral force of nature. Also, being zappy did wonders for the tingling, at least, if not for the headache.

That done, she happily follows the bandit queen into the tent.

Alastor gave a slight laugh at Raven's playful nature. "We got a feisty one 'ere. That's good, yer going to need that energy around this motley crew." He glanced over at Neo. "Yeah, he's with us. Still trying to figure out his limits, but he's damn good in a fight."

We did have someone else, but she... decided to part ways with us." Alastor's smile disappeared as he thought over recent events. "How about you, eh? Travelling alone?"

Lisa's ears droop as she casts her gaze to the room's sleek, unearthly floor. "I- the magistrate explained she didn't clearly mentally consent. If...if I understand what he means by that, the magic or technology he used to bring us here needed her to want to get out of danger." She shakes her head with a rueful smile. "That doesn't surprise me at all; she never seems to know fear."

"I'm sorry; I know you like her. I do too, and I promise you as soon as we get back to orbit we'll-" A startled gasp cuts into her spiel as she turns her gaze to focus on the reappearance of that pale blue line.

She groans. She's going to have to face that elevator again, won't she?

"I think that means we can leave." Lisa swallows her anxiety and holds out her hand for the child to take, something that'd do more for her own comfort than Adriannu's. "Would you come with me?"

Victi's light show sees that the crowd backs away, a wave of shock (haha) rippling through the group. They don't learn, though, and hoot and holler for her to do something else impressive until Aurora silences them with a snarl. The bandits dissipate as she leads them into the tent.

The tent is dimly lit by a few lanterns strewn across a long, dingy table. This table also holds a regionals map that Aurora swipes into her claws, folds up, and tosses aside as she walks by. A glance around the shelter reveals two weapon racks running both sides, holding a diverse number of blades and armor fitted for someone of Aurora's shape. Unlike the table, these racks are meticulously organized and the gear itself is well-polished. A small, tattered fur skin drapes over the far end of the left rack. Drake goes pale at the sight of it. Several more such trophies decorate the back wall- A tanned scaly hide, a pair of large curly horns, a couple of helmets, a broken sword, and a pair of scuffed talismans.

Aurora catches him staring and flashes a brief, prideful smile. It fades as she reclines on the other end of the table, resting her forearms on it. She raps her talons against the old wood slowly, thoughtfully. "Let me remind myself what you proposed to me. I guard an item against a demon or demons for some days in return for...?"

Drake calmly explains, "Gold. I have gold, and she has magic. We can pay whatever you ask for."

Aurora closes her eyes and nods once, then she looks to Victi and address her like she's the one who spoke. "I can assure you I'm more than capable of defending against such a kind. See," she jerks her head toward the pair of horns; glistening blood-red in the dim lantern-light. "Those horns belonged to a demon bounty hunter. As strong and...versatile with magic as he was, he stood nothing against myself and my crew."

Her lips curl into a thin, cruel smile, just wide enough to show off her sharp teeth, and it does not fade as she continues to speak. "Tell me more about your problem, and if you have it on hand, I would like to see what this clawing's about." The rapping of her talons against the table stops as she waits patiently for Victi to reveal the shard, or at least go more into detail about her job offer.

"Apparently, I am," she growls. The look she shoots Neo is sharp enough to kill, but the resurgence of anger passes quickly as she remembers what he has. And what she has. And what she needs to find more of.

And...that Lisa would totally not let her follow through with this plan. And she'd be kind of sane not to, at least from the chimera's perspective; she's been through hell and back already, long ago. The girl doesn't need that again.

Maybe it is better that they're separate, and that the shard lies with Raven. Of course, heaven-willing, Lisa is with Adriannu and the cathera still has her shard, but one magic death-drawing artifact is better than two. Maybe Raven could hunt them down soon-ish and spirit that one away also, just to make them both safe.

That's a dangerous game, though. She heard the girl say, with upmost honesty, that she'd kill anyone who tried to steal her shard. But maybe she'd make an exception.

That or she'd never have to know.

This issue is something to save for later, of course. Neo has a shard, and maybe his buddies at least know something about that or the others. This might be a good motley crew to hang around for a while.

So, "I think that ought to change, though."

"Awfully hard to grab objects with hands bound together, yunno!" Victi snarks at their client/captor, buying heself a couple seconds to figure out if it was time to reveal her bypass yet.

...nah, not yet.

"Anyway, it's a class 136 blood-magic artifact, which I realize probably isn't helpful info for you... right," she sighs. Classification systems were, sadly, useless with people who didn't know them. Huh, that was a goal: intuitive designation system!
"Okay, more usefully and without designation codes," she says, trying again, "it's a world-bound, passively dormant blood-magic artifact, specifically one of the Shards of the Bloodied Vase. More specifically.... air, I think. We haven't used it. Apparently not the most well-known legend, but you might have heard of it."

She swings her arms over to yoink it up and off of Drake's neck.

"Innocuous enough, even to magical senses and in spite of the electrum edging, but that changes once it activates. If you need a demonstration, that can be provided, I'm sure. Or you can try it yourself," Victi offers, holding it out toward their shiny host, "The people hunting it may have their own relics of this kind, just to let you know."

Adriannu listened as Lisa explained how the magic the Magister used to teleport them hadn't be able to teleport Raven since she hadn't had a clear desire to escape from the danger. The child clearly wasn't happy about this, but at least seemed to be more accepting of it now. While the Cathera hadn't known Raven long, this lack of fear Lisa mentioned did seem to fit with the cat's personality.

Shortly after they finished this discussion, a floating line appeared in front of them, much to her Adriannu's surprised and subsequently led her to ask Lisa about it. In turn the Chimera tells her that she believes it means that they could leave before asking the child to come with her. "Ok." Adriannu agreed simply before starting for the door, before turning around and offering one last bow to the nurse, then quietly waited for Lisa to lead the way.