Knights of the United Swords!

[Unradical Dude]

The grand courtyard of Maredonum, the floating castle of the Order of United Swords, is abuzz. There is to be an address today, and tension is high. The castle has been floating for several months now, following the Eastern coast south. Those Knights that have had the misfortune to be on guard duty during those months have spotted distant flashes inlanf, amongst the mountains of the desert-dwelling Mala people. As if lightning was striking with no weather or bolt behind it. It has made the air of the castle nervous, but excited. Most are eager to make landfall and find the enemy to get to grips with them, and strike down evil!

The more arrogant of the lords are already having sonnets composed and are looking for ladies to earn the favour of. Old habits die hard.

The address is soon, but you're not there at the moment. You're busy elsewhere...

Anastasia and Rags

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"Low, up, parry, riposte. Again."

You are in the training grounds - the maze of sand pits adjacent to the barracks, where those of a serious persuasion cross swords to better themselves - and those of a vain sort go to show off. Unfortunately, you aren't here to fight others with toy weapons - you are under the watchful eyes of Edward Blackstone, the Stellar Dragon's most notable warrior. His voice is stern, but not unkind - you sense his folded arms and exasperated tone isn't aimed at either of you.

"A little quicker on the parry, Anastasia." He inclines his head. "Your enemy won't stand there and let you show off your fancy swordmanship. And Rags, more control. There's three moments in your sequence where you could get parried by a smarter foe."

His eyes flick towards the gate to the courtyard, and he sighs. "It'll be time for Lady Emberleth's speech soon..."

Isabella and Voiceless

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

"...and that is how we know, depsite not seeing them in many decades, that dragons could breathe fire ..."

You wish you were outside. Unfortunately, you have a class to finish. Academic lessons are important to being a Knight, although you don't know how multiplication will help you with slaying evil. Your teacher, Sister Bethay, is clearly much too young and much too inexperienced to be teaching you about the anatomy of Dragons - who all vanished about the time Knights started getting into dragon-slaying as a method of proving worth.

"...wingspan corresponded with age. Um, a dragon cannot truly fly until they reach adulthood, although their hollow bones allowed -"

The commotion outside grows louder, and Betha sighs. "I suppose I cannot keep you any longer. Lady Emberleth is waiting. Please don't forget your assignments. Um, if you have any questions..."

[CondorBoH]

Anastasia grunted with exertion of bringing her sword to bear to the standards of of Sir Blackstone. She knew this would be hard, her nature was that of books and study, but this was what it was to be a Knight. She had to train, practice and get her muscles used to the weight of sword and armour. A deep breath and she brought her blade up, hopefully, to match the knight's standards and doubled down on the exercise.
"Yes sir!" She said, following his directions as best as she could.

But then his words caught her attention. The big speech. They would soon make landfall and the great forces of the Knights will sweep down from the Maredonum and strike down evil in all its forms. Like a fairy-tale! This got her excited, she was ready to face the dread foe after these years of training. Her victories would bring long awaited glory to her tarnished family name.
Naturally these fantasies marred her practice somewhat, her movements gone sluggish as her mind went elsewhere. Lost in that reverie, she turned her attention to her training partner, the stars in her eyes briefly letting her ignore the aura that surrounded the patchwork knight.
"H-hey, Rags. You excited for the announcement? We get to go out and prove ourselves soon, I bet!"

[Mark3000]

Isabella didn't realize academic lessons were part of the United Sword's training. Though if she was to attend classes with anyone, she's rather it be with Voiceless. When ever Isabella got close to Rags, the young knight's skin would crawl. She didn't know Rags' whole story, but Isabella knew enough to know that ... monstrosity couldn't be trusted.

Anastasia on the other hand was a lot more personable then Rags. Her heart went out to the young woman and her situation. But she couldn't ignore the von Kreiger name. She had heard stories of her family's atrocities and while Anastasia seemed innocent, Isabella couldn't take her eye off her. She had to ensure that the Order of the United Swords remained strong for when her beloved Alexander returned.

As the commotion outside grow louder, Isabella realized it was soon time for Lady Emberleth's address. Isabella was eager to get to work pushing back the dark forces and possibly find her husband. "Thank you for the lesson Sister Bethay, I'll be sure to finish the assignments" she said with a curtsy. "Come Voiceless, we don't want to miss Lady Emberleth's speech." the Lady-in-waiting told the silent warrior. Despite her quiet demeanor. Isabella was none the less impressed by power and confidence Voiceless resonated.

[mrblah]

Thin body. Frail frame, soft skin, weak eyes. No sense of awareness and movements waste energy. Any quick cuts across her body would destabilize her and allow for an easy killing blow. Gray eyes blink, and repeat the scan once more. Thin body. Frail frame, soft skin, weak eyes... the results never change, and never had changed the past other times she'd been put into a class. If it had nothing to do with her job, she wasn't interested. Academics would do nothing when a beast charges you with sharpened claws and a grinning white smile. These sorts of studies weren't of use on the battlefield, and for those reasons, Voiceless never paid attention in class. Even now as Sister Bethay droned on about the leather-like material of a dragon's hide, Voiceless barely paid attention past learning what could cut through the tough substance. This endeavor was a wasted effort. Voiceless felt annoyed. This was nothing common for the knight. Annoyance was a waste of energy to feel, and Voiceless strives to maintain peak efficiency at all times. It was only in this one instance that she allowed herself to be so distracted. Only now would she allow herself to waste energy in feeling annoyance, and why now of all times... well, it's because of the commotion outside.

There was to be an important address today that could change the direction of the Order. While not the most political, Voiceless cared deeply for the administrative efforts of her Order because that in turn affected her Hunting. If this address were to announce the immediate mobilization of the knights to call down the fist of retribution upon the evils they face... she'd be ever so delighted. But there is the chance it wouldn't go so well for her. Perhaps the higher ups would rather some more "strategic" play that really just puts a damper on the vanquishing of evil. Maybe they'll slow her down and expect her to accept those chains.

No. She needed to know what they would be doing, and those desires had her bouncing immediately at the dismissal before the one she knew as 'Isabella' could finish her calling. Voiceless marched out with not a word said to Bethay or Isabella, her hand clenching and unclenching as that antsy feeling fueled her walk. Soon... she'd be allowed out into the corrupt world, set free to test her mettle and exact retribution upon evil. Her face was sculpted into a passive stony look, but she could've smiled at the thought.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Anastasia grunted with exertion of bringing her sword to bear to the standards of of Sir Blackstone. She knew this would be hard, her nature was that of books and study, but this was what it was to be a Knight. She had to train, practice and get her muscles used to the weight of sword and armour. A deep breath and she brought her blade up, hopefully, to match the knight's standards and doubled down on the exercise.
"Yes sir!" She said, following his directions as best as she could.

But then his words caught her attention. The big speech. They would soon make landfall and the great forces of the Knights will sweep down from the Maredonum and strike down evil in all its forms. Like a fairy-tale! This got her excited, she was ready to face the dread foe after these years of training. Her victories would bring long awaited glory to her tarnished family name.
Naturally these fantasies marred her practice somewhat, her movements gone sluggish as her mind went elsewhere. Lost in that reverie, she turned her attention to her training partner, the stars in her eyes briefly letting her ignore the aura that surrounded the patchwork knight.
"H-hey, Rags. You excited for the announcement? We get to go out and prove ourselves soon, I bet!"

This may have been a big day, and this may just be practice, but all of the hundreds of thousands of voices in Rags' head clouded that to such an extent that Rags barely knew what was going on, she'd always have to be reminded what was going on, otherwise all of the voices of the souls would drive her to attack everything in sight, in search for yet more souls. They demanded company, they demanded birds of a feather, and they got even more restless when this wasn't delivered.

Throughout practice, all of Rags' attacks were heavy, with all of her strength behind it, though none were aimed to kill because an evil soul wasn't sensed within her training partner. While this wouldn't have been thought out by Rags, she wasn't compelled by her souls to add this one to her collection, which was enough for her not to attempt to kill this person.

In response to her instructions, Rags would have said "Ah, right, need to be careful to keep my guard up", but what came out instead was "THE GATES OF TARTARUS SWING BOTH WAYS!", though the sentence would sound more like a series of grunts and growls contorting itself into words. When asked if she was excited and getting to prove herself, Rags would have said "Ah yes, I look forward to working alongside other knights against the forces of darkness", but what comes out instead is "THE MEMORIES COME BACK EVERY TIME YOU SCREAM!" as she flails her weapon at nothing specific, though the arcs are so wide and the attack is so heavy that her training partner would need to block the attack anyway.

[Unradical Dude]

Isabella and Voiceless

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

You leave together, dooming poor Sister Bethany to answer the one nerd about the aerodynamics of dragonflight. It probably isn't important to you. You have a big speech to get to!

Anastasia and Rags

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Sir Blackstone sighs at Rags' screaming. Nobody in the Order had figured out how to translate the spirit host's screams into something that they could understand, but since she appeared to be a model student in all regards, they didn't mind as long as she wasn't violent towards anyone.

"Hm. At least we'll be away from the crowd when the speech begins. You can pause and watch if you like." He shrugs. "We probably won't get anymore done today, if this is what I think it is..."

The Address

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

A trumpet fanfare sounds as the students and knights of the order clamor in the courtyard. All eyes are looking up, where the sun is shining upon a balcony window in the House of Records - not only was the building holding the accumulated history of Draniel an importent symbol, its balcony was very good for speeches. Rumors mutter around the assembled crowd - and Isabella and Voiceless are just in time to hear the trumpet fanfare from the guards already up there, silencing that muttering to nothingness.

One of the guards steps forwards. "Presenting her ladyship, the Steward of the Order of the United Swords, Lady Anna Emberleth!"

A cheer goes up as Lady Anna herself appears. Her popularity might be at its height - not just for the two very obvious reasons, but because of her founding of the United Swords itself, and much of her patronage and funding to all of the houses that joined the order. Her green eyes and winning smile seem to sweep over and land on everyone, giving everyone that half-second of time to be fooled into thinking "she looked at me!" before continuing. She waves her staff, a fanciful gold thing, and the cheers go quiet.

"Men and Women of the United Swords!" Her clear voice is magically amplified, ringing out and audible even in the training pits. "For many weeks, you have waited for the day where you will be able to ride out and slaughter the evil that asaaults our fair land!"

Yells of agreement, of battle.

"That day has finally come!" Lady Emberleth makes a sweeping gesture. "Ahead of us is the port city of Kaiyt, a bastion of the Mala people! They have requested our aid against the darkness that assaults them, and we will answer! We will ride out into the deserts, and scour the evil out with fire and blade and faith!"

Cheers and yells. Finally! The moment! The day where the Knights of the United Swords ride out! Lady Emberleth points dramatically forwards.

"This day, evil will know our names! Now, to your places, everybody! We go ashore!"

A cheer, and then a rush of activity as people hurriedly get their things together and start to make for their assigned positions. Sir Blackstone turns to Anastasia and rags.

"Well, you heard her ladyship." He doesn't sound as enthused as everyone else. "To the boats. We're going ashore, at last. I hope I don't have to eat fish anymore."

[Mark3000]

Isabella arrived just in time to hear Lady Emberleth make her address. As a member of the nobility herself, she had met with Lady Anna from time to time. Back then it was as the sole daughter of the Gawain family. But now she stood before her as a full fledged knight.

Standing at attention, Isabella took in their mission. She had never been to the desert before but have read of the port city of Kaiyt. Her heart ached after hearing they were being accosted by the forces of darkness. Resting her hand on her hilt, Isabella nodded along in agreement with Lady Emberleth's speech.

When it was finally over, Isabella cheered along with the rest of her comrades and proceeded to the boats to make landfall. Isabella still had to prove her self in the field and she was eager to put her fencing skills to the test.

[CondorBoH]

Anastasia leaned a little away from Rags when she started screaming. There was an underlying sense of... something there, that she couldn't grasp. One day she would translate the poor thing, one day. All she had to do was sit there and listen. It was probably 80% context clues anyway! She hoped...

Regardless of her current companion, the young knight listened intently to the speech. She had met the Lady Anna but once, when she first came to beg for sanctuary within the Order. Now she was one among many who were striving to be warriors. She got excited, pumped up and all those other words meaning the same thing! She was... probably not ready, but this experience was what she needed.
And hopefully, a dark little voice in her voice said, her uncle and his cronies would be among the soldiers of darkness her fire would devour.

With a cheer, Anastasia took one step to the boats before hesitating and looking at Sir Blackstone.
"Um... Sir? You don't look terribly pleased. I know we... well, I, are green around the gills, but shouldn't this be a cause for joy?"

[mrblah]

Alright, Voiceless goes to wherever she's supposed to go to.

[RandomRoninKitten]

Rags somehow manages to stay quiet during the speech, however when it's finished, she runs to the boats, ready to begin collecting more souls again, thinking "I suppose it's time to add more souls to the collection" but shouting "BLOOD RUNS, THEY ALL RUN!", instead. She really didn't care why she'd be slaughtering, in the minds of the people who send her forth, only that she'd be collecting more evil souls. She doesn't even notice Blackstone's lack of enthusiasm, or Anastasia's hesitation, Rags had nowhere near enough patience to wait for her or anyone else.

[Unradical Dude]

Anastasia

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Sir Blackstone pauses, realising his attitude has been noticed by a rookie? He sighs.

"Look, just... Remember your training, Anastasia. It's going to be dangerous out there. I've seen too many things to believe in the same happily ever after others do." He stares out of a nearby window for the moment, eyes distant, then shakes his head.

"Go on, get to the boat. You'll be late."

All Characters!
The boats are on a level below the main castle - a vast dock that spans the outer rim of the floating city. Many knights, along with their attendants, squires, and the lucky few ladies and gentlemen involved in the complex webs of courtly love, bustle around and past each other. The air is full of noise - shouting, clinking, and the constant wash of the ocean as groups of knights board the mighty ships that are to take you to your destination.

Well, mighty is relatively speaking. The ship reserve for your batch of greenhorns is much less impressive - no ornamental lion heads or blue sails for you. It probably transported rum at one point in its life. The newer knights all crowd around it, looking very disappointed - and giving Rags and Voiceless a wide berth.

"Ugh. Do we really all have to share space on... that?" That's the voice of Ser Emily Valanrath.

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Emily got looks of disbelief and contempt every time she opened her mouth. Everyone knew she was basically here because her father wanted to give her the best education, but courtly etiquette prevented people from pointing this out. And, it turned out, she wasn't too bad with her sword.

"It looks like a smuggler's dinghy." Emily sniffs. "What are we supposed to be doing when we get to this heathen swamp, anyway?"

"You'll find out when you get there." This is a bored looking instructor. "Hurry up and get on. Make sure you have everything."

Rags

Spoiler (click to show/hide):

Rags notices a pair of guards step in behind her. Only a few knew what she truly was - and her behaviour and nature was odd enough that having handlers nearby made people relax. Rags was Not Normal (in more than a social sense), and the average Knight did not like that.

[Mark3000]

Isabella's past interactions with Emily had always been ... less then pleasant. It was that haughty attitude that gave the nobility a bad name. Though she was the closest thong to normal among the other knights. Boarding the same craft as Emily, the blonde haired noble adjusted her sword and prepared to make land. "If you need back up, I'd be more then willing to provide it" Isabella told her fellow noble.

[CondorBoH]

Anastasia gave Sir Blackstone a kindly, if somewhat naive looking, smile. She gave a salute and stated:
"Sir, I will remember what you've taught me, and I've no doubt there will be danger. But even then there's so many of us, and there's enough veteran knights that I do not feel worried. We can do this!"
With that, she left the training area, jogging after her training companion... then slowing down when she got close and let Rags' minders go past. Right, check that excitement. Don't stand in front of Rags when we get there, so on and so forth. That could be bad.

The boat was an absolute disappointment and actually did succeed in chasing the white knights and unicorns out of Ana's thought process. Right, be practical, follow your orders, remember your training. By no means was the youthful knight less pumped, but she was trying to keep herself serious. The rest of the sunshine, sparkles and rainbows were shoved aside when Emily opened her mouth. The classic rich-bitch had given her no end of trouble throughout her stay, and Anastasia stepped aboard the boat while hopefully avoiding her gaze. She didn't need this right now. Besides! A boat was a boat, and that didn't change the fact that they were still all knights!
Get pumped! Heroism and glory awaits!

And hopefully the lingering scent of rum could be washed away too.

[mrblah]

Voiceless gave no concern to the others as they kept their distance from her. She'd long since noted their discomfort around her, and she'd long since dismissed it as an expected effect. They were pampered and ignorant. They didn't know of true battle, nor true evil, and not even the price that must be paid in order to truly vanquish it. Since they know nothing, naturally they'd fear someone who did know. Never would she let this affect her mission.

And how soon she'd embark on it. They were on their way now, and Voiceless would barely be able to contain her eagerness... that is, if she hadn't noted the presence of one such knight. She could easily see the taint in their aura pouring with such magnificence that it'd almost make her vomit. The true evil and pestilence... it lurked among them, and none of these greenhorns seemed to be any the wiser. This was Rags, Voiceless knew. This knight was something of an oddity to the quiet warrior. She could see Rags was nothing more than an obvious enemy—a being bound in darkness and evil—yet any attempt she made to assault the woman previously, SHE was the one punished. Apparently Rags was "friendly" and an "ally," not to be harmed in any way. Voiceless doesn't debase her tongue with crude words, but it smelled of bullshit to her.

At any rate, that girl was spoiling her mood far more than the figuratively spoiled Ser Emily Valanranth. Even with her handlers nearby... she felt her hands twitching toward her blade as she pointedly looked elsewhere. Maybe if they're alone on the battlefield, an "accident" could occur. These things happen in war sometimes so it'd be okay. No one would look into it. No one really liked Rags anyway so they wouldn't care that much.

Rgh... Voiceless lightly slapped her head. No. Bad thoughts. If she let out any of her intentions, the others might note it and be wary. No, it's best to just remain calm until they arrive to their destination. Voiceless became Thoughtless.