Day 03: The Masquerade Ball; Ceremony Proper [Open]

Cassima briefly turned to Higini, getting tired of him slowing her down. "Come on. We mustn't dwindle, or else the thief will get away. Come on, hurry!" Cassima insisted urgently. When he got closer to her she smiled.

"I can make things go faster if I grab you're hand." Cassima offered.

But she quickly turned when she saw someone that had encountered the red cloaked woman fall into a slumber when the woman fired back two orbs of light towards his forehead. Cassima watched as the man slumped onto the table he was at and fell into a deep slumber.

"Great, she has a sleep spell. Be careful if she fires anything towards us when we get to her." Cassima advised Higini as she continued to chase after the woman. She pointed out where the woman was going.

"She is entering the empty streets. Hopefully we can corner her somewhere there." Cassima turned to Higini.

"Do you want to come or do you want to stay. I would feel guilty if I let someone at this party get hurt. I feel like I have dragged you into this situation by force." Cassima asked Higini as she slowed slightly down for him.

Maia's eyes widened in horror. That incantus, that monster was that stupid cat she had met a while ago? It towered over Liseran and the guy she was with, and he seemed ready to do whatever he intended to do. The guy seemed to get right to work in trapping him, but Maia was already terrified.

She had never seen one like that before. All the time an incantus came up to her or when she saw one, it was always in the form of a smaller animal. Non-threatening, easy to hide. Maia wasn't afraid of those ones, despite the power they held within. But this? This was something entirely different. She felt her chest get heavy at the site of such a beast. If she interrupted now, she was almost positive she would die. Especially with having no possible way to fight back.

She pinned herself against the wall and clamped a hand over her mouth. Her thoughts began racing. 'What do I do? I should get some expiate officers over here, but what if he takes down Liseran and her companion?! Or what if he follows me back to the feast and people get hurt? But I can't just stay here and do nothing!'

In her state of internal panic, her foot moved slightly. Her shoes made a loud scraping nose against the ground. She froze, her blood turning into ice. Maia wondered if they had heard her. What would happen then?

Higini looked at Cassima with a look of utter disbelief. She practically stopped to argue politics to a couple strangers while they were chasing a thief, and then when he tells her to hold up because she took off without him, she complains that it is him slowing her down? The thief would have been out of sight by now thanks to their interruptions, yet the lack of self awareness was truly baffling to him.

And just when he was going to argue her, she offers her hand. Awkward! "Uh, no, I'm fine." He said, a slight blush appearing on his face, even if he still felt miffed. "Let's just go, we will lose her!" Luckily, she still managed to remain in sight, as they saw her red handed stealing from an innocent man. Said innocent man managed to catch her, but then she cast a sort of magic spell that made him drop dead! Higini's blood run cold, if it wasn't for the fact that he could even hear the man's heaving snoring.

"Oh geez." He let out, as Cassima mentioned it was indeed a sleeping spell. "Yeah, we need to be careful." He was very close to saying 'you' instead of 'we', as Cassima has been running a head of him a lot, making her much more open to being a target than him. And also because she was being pretty reckless, but hey, he was also chasing a thief, right?

"..." And just when the thief was taking to the streets, Cassima was worried about her dragging him into this? "But, I was the one who began the chase." He said in an incredulous manner, before rubbing his face with his hand. "You know what? It doens't matter, let's just try to find that thief, she can't have gone too far." He said, as he continued running into the open streets.

Goibniu meanwhile, was rather surprised by the appearance of the behemoth. Was this even legal?

Eun immediately stopped her circling and staggered backwards, her mouth twisted in a snarl, as the ground in front of her exploded into flames. Each and every little thing... not only was this girl a nuisance, using her fancy tricks to get in the way every time, but this was the second time she'd used one involving fire. If her beautiful white fur got singed black, she was gonna make sure one of those mages gave her compensation!

Her expression changed into one of confusion, though, as the fire and earth began to shift and form into an actual thing. Common sense really wasn't going to apply in this fight, was it? And now the girl was probably hiding behind the monstrosity she created, hoping it would solve things for her. Well, if common sense was going out the window, then maybe it was time to play a little game... the bottom of the golem creature seemed to be made almost entirely of fire, and even though she couldn't see through the flames, Eun found it perfect - it meant that Amber probably couldn't see through it either. So, as the golem reared back its fist, Eun twirled her spear around in her hand so that she was holding it aloft, point in front, and after rolling forward to dodge out of the crashing punch of the golem, she threw the spear forward into the flames, the golden metal flying through to the opposite side towards where she imagined a certain frightened mage would be crouched and hiding.

She immediately took off to try and make her way around the golem, because whether her trick worked or not, she was going to need her weapon back.

As Mada spoke, the air became thick with tension. Some leaders looked aghast at the response while others seemed to seethe in anger and were trying their best to keep their restraint. Eala, however? Her violet eyes steadily stared at Mada until a small curve formed on her lips--a hint of a smile, if one could call it that. Albeit, the smile was neither warm nor pleasant, but instead bitterly amused.

"I am no queen," she responded as she swiveled her drink. "Not yet, at least. But yes, your answer was...satisfactory."

Out of nowhere, the Saoirsian king cleared his throat.

"I think it's best these talks of diplomacy wait until our counsel meetings," he said firmly. "Tonight is for celebration and merrymaking of our union. The business of our union is for another day."

While there was a nervousness about him, his glare towards Eala and Mada seemed to say that enough was enough.

Eala looked away and merely scoffed.

"Well, at least the fight seems to have gotten interesting," the Stahlmin consul noted.

"A-ah, yes, it seems so!" the Sultan commented.

Everyone slowly resumed to their watching.

***

The chase would lead Higini and Cassima towards the left of the party and into an alleyway. The red-hooded figure was trying to climb a trellis manually, but her satchel snagged onto a nail and cut open. The bag vomited all sorts of trinkets and coins onto the floor.

"Ah! Dammit!" the figure muttered as she started to descend and pick them up.

***

The scrape was enough to catch the attention of all three people. In Will's momentary distraction, Mephistopheles darted forward in a black cloud of smoke before forming behind Maia and grabbing her from behind. Of course, the Incantus was no longer in his cat-like form. Rather, if Maia noticed, thin gaunt black arms with clawlike fingers wrapped around her wrist while the other tried to cover her mouth. If she looked up, she would see a long black neck and a head covered with an oval mask with slit eyes and golden irises.

"Well, well, well, it's been awhile, hasn't it, young Miss Tommelise?" he said smirking.

"Maia!!" Liseran screamed as she and Will reached Maia's hiding spot.

Maia would watch Liseran's face go from one of shock to one of pure rage. Her blue eyes shrunk to almost dots and her teeth ground hard against each other as she pulled her bell and pointed it at Mephis. She was about to shout but Mephis stopped her midway with a raised finger.

"Ah-ah~" he said. "Stay where you are and she doesn't get hurt. Isn't that right, Maia?"

"You govern your land, represent it, and write its laws," Emperor Mada stated with a bored tone as he watched the swirls he made in his wine glass. "To me, that makes you the queen. If the issue is that you've yet to marry, I don't personally see the point. In my land, the emperor is not required to find a wife. As long as an heir is secured within the concubine, it shouldn't be an issue."

"Speaking of which, brother, that cutie that's fighting down there seems interesting," Byakuya commented, elbowing his disinterested kin. "I never saw spearplay like that. Do you think she was born here?"

"Anybody would appear impressive fighting a lumbering pile like that," the emperor replied tiredly. "I bet even the Kirin's greenist disciple could crush that thing by now."

"With all due respect, Emperor." For the first time, the cloaked archmage Winters spoke up. "Golems are some of the height of magecraft and has served for generations as the strongest weapons of any country. They boast the highest in offensive and defensive power."

"Is that so," Mada deadpanned, still appearing disinterested. "I suppose such a thing would seem like a threat considering the... limitations of you humans' physical abilities."

The knuckles of winter's hand holding his staff turned white. He did not look away from the fight and remained silent.

Meanwhile, Amber was kneeled over and panting, tearing up as she hid behind her large fiery rock monster who seemed to throw its large arms downwards consistently in an attempt to smash her opponent.

"I-It's okay," Amber muttered to herself while teary-eyed. "Nothing can beat a golem. Gargolem can knock her out easily. Oh, but I hope she'll be okay. She looked pretty small and-"

Amber was looking up just in time to see a spear flying through Gargolem's lower body. She let out a shrill yelp as she fell back and scrambled into a roll. The spear stabbed into the ground a few feet away, steaming hot after passing through all those flames.

"A-Aaaah! That's dangerous! Are you trying to kill me??" she shouted.

"While we promised no lethal harm will come to the challenger," Winter announced loudly. "There's no penalty or rule against attempting to kill our representative."

"MASTER WINTEEEEER!!??" Amber cried out, real tears streaming down her face. Just then she could See Eun running around Gargolem's perimeter and making a dash towards her. "Gyaaaaaaah!!"

The young magic apprentice scrambled and scurried away, crying the whole time. "That's not faaaaiir! You're supposed to fight Gargolem fiiirst! Mages aren't meant for fist fiiiiiights!!"

Gargolem's body rotated. Without legs and having just a hovering upper body, it was able to spin around quickly. It opened its maw and belched out a fireball aimed at the space between the small enkidu and its master, running interference.

Cassima continued to chase after the Thief. When it seems like she was going to lose her however, fate came to help her and Higini by having the Thief be distracted by all the jewellery that she had dropped. "Aha, there he or she is!" Cassima pointed out to Higini as she charged towards the Thief.

"Stop Thief!" Cassima charged at the Woman. "You're days of stealing from others and putting people to sleep will end now!" She took out her Father's dagger. Cassima prepared to point it at the Thief so she can give Cassima the jewellery that had stolen. She looked behind her to see if Higini was behind her first before she aimed the dagger at the Woman.

Maia didn't realize what was happening until Mephistopheles grabbed her wrist and was now trying to cover her mouth. She snapped her hand around the wrist of his hand that was trying to silence her to hold it back and glared at the Incantus. "Not long enough, you freak! You're a lot uglier than I remember, are you sure that's the form you want to go with?" She taunted. Probably not the best idea but this was all she could really do. She made a mental note to always be armed from now on.

She seemed surprised that Liseran looked so angry. Maia didn't think she meant that much to Liseran. They honestly knew nothing about each other but Liseran was acting like Mephistopheles had insulted her personally by grabbing Maia. She gave Liseran a confused look. "What in the name of Raeuthil are you doing, Liseran?!" She asked. "This worthless pussycat is too dangerous! DO something! My safety is not the priority!"

Eun let out a small grin upon hearing the banter between the archmage and his pupil; so, it didn't matter what she did. He'd probably intervene if she really was about to land a fatal blow, but that only meant that she wouldn't have to hold back for fear of the other girl's life. As she drew near her spear, though, the golem turned and let out a shot of its own.

With a quick grab, Eun used the planted spear as a pivot to shift her momentum, her legs spinning around to the front of it before coming to a halt. With that, she managed to keep herself from exploding in a fiery mess, but her hand burned from grabbing the hot metal; she let go the moment she was sure she had stopped. Well, now she was in a predicament. A normal Enkidu could probably blow that thing away with a roar, but... that wasn't an option. And it was standing between her and her prey. Pulling a pair of leather gloves out of a pocket on her dress, Eun quickly put them on and then yanked her spear out of the ground.

It didn't even take a moment of thought to know what this was about to turn into. She couldn't get rid of the golem unless she got to Amber, and the golem was definitely going to try and stop her while the girl ran. Well, let the game of fox and mouse begin. With that thought, Eun turned and ran back in the opposite direction, hoping that Amber would be too caught up in her back and forth with the archmage to notice she was no longer being chased.

The chase eventually lead the three to an alleyway close to the fair, something Higini wouldn't realize until it was too late, as he was focused on both not losing the thief, and also not losing his own footing during the chase. Of course, his own concerns began to arise, considering they could very well going towards the enemy's turf, where more thieves were waiting their prodigal child to return. But his doubts waned when he saw the bag the thief had break apart due to a nail. A stroke of good luck!

"Halt!" He yelled, as he approached the thief scrambling to pick up the lost booty. Taking advantage of her distraction, Higini quickly ran to the back of the thief, and locked both his arms with hers, in order to restrain her and hinder her movement. "You won't be able to... Huh??" He said, when he suddenly saw that Cassima was brandishing a knife! And using it dangerously close to the thief! "H-Hey, hold up! Be careful with that, you'll hurt someone!"