Act 4: The Rescue - The aftermath of the battle

15:47 PM, 14th of April, 422
Villevieille, the eastern gate

With the enemy commander now lying dead on the ground among the corpses of his men—save for that one soldier who left to relay the order to retreat—the adventurers have broken the siege on Villevieille and saved the lives of many civilians in the process.

None of that is on anyone's mind at the moment as they gaze in wonder at Amber, who has now stopped hovering in the air and is glowing with Light.

"C'est quoi ce bordel?!" the teenager exclaims in Lofellian while she looks down at herself.

Konrad can do little more than stare at the young lady as she floats in the air.

Steve will try to remember if anything like this has happened before, at least as far as he knows.

Knowledge Arcana 17

"Yeah...yeah, I think so," Amber replies, her voice quivering. "This feels so weird!"

"Bloody hell," Naomi mutters under her breath.

"What kind of trick is that?" Fredrick adds.

"I don't think green mages can usually do that," Fluffle says. "Can they?"

Steve tries to recall his lessons about arcana, but as far as he is aware, this should be impossible. He's never heard of something similar to this happening before.

Meanwhile, Cyrus orders his men to repair the gate and to send a squadron into the outer city.

"If they can, I've never heard of it before." He addressed Zelk and Konrad, "How about you guys?"

Zelk shakes her head, shocked. Steve knows she always excelled at history in school.

Konrad joins the defending line as it breaks up. He looks at Steve, thinking. "Let me think... The world, or the Islands, have been seeing new changes, it's getting difficult to keep up with all of it."

Konrad ponders this enigma, and asks Jasmine so that all of them can hear, Jasmine, do you know what caused this?

Spellcraft 22, Weaving 22
Spellcraft to recognize, Weaving to recall some obscure relevant trivia.

Konrad feels a response that he can only attribute to Jasmine, but the feeling is so unclear, he can only interpret it as, "I have no idea."

His examination of Amber's current state reveals that the elemental energy is interwoven with her whole body in a manner that defies his understanding of magic. Normally, there shouldn't be enough ambient energy in the air to sustain this fusion of magic and flesh.

The expert Weaver shakes his head. "No. I have no idea. And I believe you would be impossibly pressed to find someone in the Islands who does."

He looks up at Amber. "Her whole body is interwoven with elemental energy in a way that runs counter to everything I've learned or been told. There shouldn't even be enough in the ether to sustain it."

When Konrad says "interwoven," Amber looks down at her body, her eyebrows raised in confusion. To the Aspect of Darkness, she then says with a shaky smile, "T-Thanks, Smirk. I-I think I'll be okay."

The rest of the group watches as the Lofellian soldiers line up and move through the gate. Cyrus chooses this moment to approach the adventurers and say, "By the Eight! You sure do get it done. Thank you. You've saved a lot of lives, today."

Konrad smiles up at Amber. "You might be able to will it to end. Give it a try."

He leaves her to do that as she may, turning to Cyrus, still smiling in spite of his smoking, holey clothes, which will be on the mend as soon as he's rested after the splitting migraine now creeping up on him, causing him to wince through his signature grin. "Indeed we do. We have business further inland, and we couldn't very well leave our ship in the wake of the siege, nor sail to another town that might have been next on the list of important towns to capture. You have our thanks for coming to our aid. Pass it along to your healer, if it please you."

Cyrus grins and shakes his head. "You're the ones who came to our aid. But I'll pass on the message."

"Well it looks like you guys are already moving to secure the outer city. We'll leave the rest in your capable hands," says Steve to Cyrus, "Unless there's anything else?"

Cyrus briefly glares at Virginie before he shifts his gaze back to Steve and says, "Not from me, no."

Cyrus's lips flatten into a grimace and without missing a beat, he says, "No. Everything's been said."

"We'll just take our reward from among the spoils, and then leave you to clean up." Konrad turns and heads in the direction of the dead elite enemy soldiers and starts searching.

Amber frowns as she focuses on her hands and stops glowing soon after that. Satisfied, she signals to Fluffle and the others that she's ready to move.

While Konrad and Théo remain behind to loot the bodies of the fallen, the rest of the group decides to return to Virginie's house, weary of the last battle. They walk back the way they came, passing by stragglers who haven't joined with their units yet, and townspeople who are either searching for their loved ones or hurrying back home. There are also a few looters, but they haven't had much chance because of the shifty looking men guarding the shops. They all nod at Virginie when she walks by them.

When they arrive at their destination, Virginie's presence is immediately requested by her men. Without a word to the party, she goes to tend to her affairs while Zelk and her squad, Amber, Fluffle, Tom and Filarion (who seemingly joined the group when they were walking through town) all head to the living room. Femke is nowhere to be seen.

The group soon splits up and everyone goes their own way.
____________

17:58 PM, 14th of April, 422
Villevieille, the eastern gate

Konrad and Théo have returned by now and the turmoil in the city has subsided into a tense uneasiness. The neighborhood has grown quiet, following the sun's descent toward the horizon.

That is until the front door opens and everyone hears a woman scream in Stoikotita, "The end is near! The artifact will kill us! It will kill us all!"

Konrad runs to the door to see who is there.

The woman screaming in the lobby is restrained on both sides by two people, a man and another woman. Her hands are cuffed by a pair of woven shackles that look similar to the ones the party members possess, although this pair is rimmed with small, protective cushions that prevent her wrists from chafing against the metal. New streaks of gray hair have appeared since the last time Mihai has seen her, and she looks a lot thinner than before.

The woman at her right side, who's around the same age, struggles to keep her calm, and she says to her in Lofellian, "It's okay, Isabelle! We're at Virginie's place!"

The woman continues to scream in Stoikotita. The young man at her left side, a Whisperer by the looks of him, keeps her firmly in place.

Stoikotita:

Konrad lets them in, now confused and worried. "Who are you? How do you know Virginie?" he asks. He decides not to ask the raving woman any questions yet. Clearly she is mad in the traditional sense.