T'dor arrives, weathered, lean, and lanky as so many of the riders. Wet and cheerful, somehow, despite the storm. "Shalith says the rain is just the thing to wash the salt water off," he tells the other riders.
Robin shakes herself briefly and seems very relieved to have a wet, cheerful distraction right now. She favors the new arrival with a smile and keeps out of his way. Though makes sure she's available to hand and hold things should T'dor need it.
He looks over Siege, loosening his clothes, moving him gently. "I'm better with burns," he explains, "but the head wound doesn't seem too serious. He should be fine, but not immediately. It looks like he was not in great shape to start with. Those guys with the clubs seem to have beat him pretty hard. I expect he's got some cracked ribs and he may have broken his arm. Other than being beat senseless by the locals, what happened to him?"
Siege groans, and moves his good arm up to his forehead.
"Don't move too around much, Siege." Robin speaks gently for all the commanding tone of voice. "We won. Cavalry's arrived. And you're smashed up a little. Be okay in a moment."
Her green eyes dart to T'dor. "He's been in a dungeon for I don't know how long before tonight. Don't think he was tortured, but he may have been roughed up some. And they might have hit him with some magical type whammies. Other than that, I'm not certain."
"I have been in a dungeon for perhaps six weeks. Despite treachery, I did make it difficult for my foes to capture me. They did not have a light touch with their prisoner, even though I am the Chancellor's grandson. But I am not...fragile."
He blinks and props himself up by his elbow, to the surprise of T'dor. "Robin, who are these people?"
The relieved smile that dances across Robin's face in the flickering candle-light is beautiful to behold. "Well, now. The nice medical type you're scaring by moving around is T'dor. The stately lady who's trying to figure out how quickly she can get us all out of here is Kourin. The dashing young man who thinks this is a fine rumble is L'tarn. And the green-eyed cave goblin," said with much fondness, "who's trying to keep us all on the same page is J'rim. My brother." She finishes with a smile. "I gather they've brought some equally competent and impressive friends with them. Oh! And you should see the rides." Big grin. "Definitely the cavalry.
"If your problems lately can be solved by a direct charge, no sweat. If not, well, we're a pretty cagey lot when cornered." Jovian punctuates this with a wink and the devil's own grin.
"Do you think you can hold it together if I carry you out of here?"
"Lately we've gotten pretty good at slinging wounded warriors for safe transport," J'rim adds with a friendly, sincere smile. "You're not afraid of heights, are you?"
"I'm less worried about someone dropping me from a height than I am about what the Chancellor's minions will do to me if I stay here," says Siege. "I'd need a big horse."
Robin's devil grin is a match for her brother's earlier one. "They're not horses. And they are definitely big enough." Her eyebrows waggle and her eyes sparkle.
"Big enough to make your Chancellor wet herself, I'm hoping." And something distinctly malicious gleams in Jovian's eyes, something L'tarn and Kourin hadn't ever seen from him.
But she's all gentleness and checking with T'dor as she eases the big man into her arms and stands carefully.
Siege makes it to his feet, but leans heavily on Robin. T'dor looks on with disapproval; Jovian thinks he'd be complaining if it were anyone but his sister.
Robin smiles ruefully at T'dor. When a man gets it into his head... she shrugs to the dragonrider, and eases Siege out into the night.
Once Siege is vertical, Jovian (just because he's a meddling nuisance) holds up three fingers about two feet from the warrior's face. "How many fingers, Siege?" If he's satisfied with the answer to that, he'll move the hand back and forth to see how his eyes are tracking. Just as a precaution. That did look like a nasty shot to the head.
"Three, as in 'three times too many doctors.'"
Robin chuckles fondly to her brother. "Nuisance."
Jovian grins wryly. "You're going airborne, mister. Last thing I need is a patient with sudden bouts of vertigo."
Robin is chuckling from where she is just walking, yes sir, just walking with Siege beside her. "Didn't think you had a sense of humor there, Siege. It's nice to hear." She winks to him.
"Hmf. It is of the 'If you cause me to fall 600 feet to my death, I shall surely climb back up and throttle you' sort. Many do not appreciate it."
"First priority is going to ground somewhere it will take time for them to look for us," Jovian agrees with Siege. "Then we've got-- how long did you say, Robin? A day and a half to plan?"
A dark snicker comes from Robin as she strides out into the gentling rain. "Don't I wish, Jovian. Let me run a few of those words by you again. Precognitive. Omens. Witches. Priestesses. Magical Constructs."
"I was only one little girl wandering randomly through. And I made so much of a bow-wave that the big baddies had time to set and bait a particularly effective Robin-trap for me. In advance. Two of us? Tearing up the night sky? Plus your lovely loud buddies?" She shakes her head.
"We can go to ground. Get some rest. Sure. But don't think that they wouldn't know where we were or wouldn't be lining up the armies and the siege-sorcery, Jovian." A tccch of her tongue lets her brother know what she thinks of this place. "They're pretty damn on the ball here."
"But if they knew we were coming," he counters, gesturing to include all the dragons, "wouldn't they have been ready to mess with us, especially if their constructs are all that potent? Anyway, I doubt her vision extends across Shadow, so we can slip a veil or two and make it that much harder for her to snoop on us."
"Jovian, NO!" Robin almost shrieks. And then notices that - heh! - she may have overreacted there a tad. Her green eyes dart around the night like she'd really like to take that back, but eventually she brings herself to look Jovian in the eye. "Jovian..." she murmurs. "I - I know it's stupid. And I know it endangers you all, but... I can't leave that Trump here. I just can't." She drops her gaze to the earth.
"It's all I have left..." she whispers to the ground.
"What are you talking about, all you have left?" Jovian takes Robin by the arms - gently! - and searches her face for meaning.
Robin's green eyes appear moist in the night. Surely just the rain. And the paleness must just be due to the lack of sunlight. But line of her shoulders - she wants nothing more than to curl up in her big brother's arms. But they're still in the fray. "Jove..." her voice is husky. "Please. Not yet." She pointedly shifts her grip on her companion.
Jovian holds Robin's gaze for a long, long moment, then releases it. "All right," he relents. "But don't count on me to forget." His tone is reproving, but still gentle for all that. His face is a tumult of conflicting emotion barely tinting a mask of control - his "in command of the situation" face.
Jovian sends Siege with T'dor to be introduced to Markyta (or whoever's still equipped with a casualty sling).
"You take care, nice man." A wink. "And I'll see you on the ground. Okay?" Robin smiles reassuringly to the man and pats him on the shoulder - and not gently as though he were a fragile injured thing - but heartily like a player on his way to the bench for a rest.
Then Jovian leads Robin to his own waiting bronze. "Robin, have you properly met Canareth? Canareth, you remember my sister."
"Nooo. Wow!" Robin's green eyes are wide and bright as she greets the giant bronze. A delighted laugh breaks free from her. "Hey, gorgeous - you ever get tired of hauling J'rim's heavy butt around, look me up." She grins. "Wow!"
"You know, Canareth," Jovian considers aloud, scratching the great bronze's uppermost neck ridges, "if she didn't have Arden to get back to, I'd ask what you thought of Robin as a Candidate." He fairly beams at both bondmate and sibling.
"Candidate? For what?" She looks back and forth between the two. "No, no. Don't tell me. I'm sure it'd just make me crazy. Crazier." She amends quickly, before Jovian can.
"Canareth. I'm thrilled to meet you." Robin manages a rough curtsey despite the wildly inappropriate surroundings and attire. "Thank you for all you've done for J'rim." And the bronze is treated to one of Robin's bonfire warm and searchlight bright smiles.
Jovian looks vague for a moment, there's a ghost of movement at his lips...and then he poorly suppresses a brief laugh. "I think he approves of you, Robin," he not-explains.
He shows Robin where to step, how to hold, then swings up behind her. "So what do you know for fact about this Vianis bitch, as distinguished from overblown repuatation and rumor?"
The Ranger has a hard time focusing on Jovian's question as she is all eyes and curiosity from Canareth's back. "Hunh? Oh, well Siege can tell you more than I can. I was only in her presence for a little bit." "Hartwell - the previously mentioned nice bait... a-hem. Anyway, he was waiting at this tavern that I didn't know I was going to stop at until that minute. He told me that the Chancellor had sent him there that day to meet me. Of course, he didn't saaaayyy that until I'd already downed the drugged ale that he'd had pre-prepped special for me. Jovian - it knocked me on my ass." A rueful chuckle, "Okay, a tankard-noggin assist was needed but... they had planned for someone me hefty."
"Next thing I know I'm waking up all stiff, headachy and restrained. Severely restrained. And not with rope or chain or anything I could handle. They soooo had my number."
Robin is silent for a moment and the snarl returns to her lips. Her green eyes narrow and begin to glimmer evilly. "Then starts the headgames. 'Who is the man pictured here?'" Those eyes dart to Jovian, "She knew enough not to let me see the Face. Only the back. 'How many of you alien spies did he land?' 'You do have the Unicorn Sign on this Magical Device.' Capitals hers. Wouldn't listen to a word I said. Then..."
The girl gets stiff. "Dungeon. Dark. Stone all around..." she finds herself clutching suddenly at Jovian, her face pale.
The rider's arms tighten around Robin, his presence strong, warm and reassuring at her back. "If I tweak Shadow just a little, Robin, we can be right back in a moment and not have to hide in caves."
His tone becomes grim for a moment. "And you know I mean to come right back."
The young Ranger leans back into her brother's arms. A tremble runs her body, like a startling hawk. She rests her head against his shoulder. After a moment, the trembling stops and the girl almost slumps as her nervous energy leaves her. When she speaks again, her voice is low on the night, a whisper away into the darkness. "Jovian. If I lose that Trump, I will become completely Lost. If you are willing to risk that in someone of my ability and strength... it is your decision, dragonrider."
She waits.
A thoughtful time that seems longer than it really is. Had Robin always been this skittish and I just hadn't seen it? He asked himself, and searched his memories for the answer.
No. She was shaken, badly, by something deeper and more profound than whatever was at work here. Something that, in its time, would pay for the cracks it had made in her - would pay dearly, and with any luck, slowly.
Which caused him to wonder in turn, have I always been this bloody-minded but too busy to notice?
It occurred to him that Robin was waiting for an answer. "We'll stay close," he allowed. "Any shelter big enough for a dragon to enter should admit plenty of light, right?" Another reassuring little squeeze, laden with the confidence, cruelly withheld for too long, that big brother was going to be able to make it all right this time....
Robin nods. Jovian can feel the slight, trembling smile on her lips and the rueful chuckle that shakes her. "Light would be good. Thanks."
"And Jovian," the Ranger turns her head so she can look over her shoulder at the man she is leaning against, "I can help too. I may be... not quite right, I guess. But still. We're in this together. And I can pull my weight. And I can... listen." Her green eyes show that despite what's stirring her depths, it hasn't escaped her attention that her brother is also... 'uninjured.' A fond smile lifts her lips.
"I'm counting on it," Jovian replies fervently. "Between you, Siege and me, we're going to have to be exceptionally sneaky, and it'll be kind of hard for Canareth to sneak!" His tone has some of the old bravado back, but something in the way he holds himself, a subtle change in ambient tension perhaps, lets Robin know the rest is understood as well.
//Tamarath says your sister's friend is very interested in Dragons. Markyta tells her that he would make a good Lord Holder.//
//Robin seems to like him too. But let's not get carried away until we know what he may be leading us into....//
//If they are still fighting the black growth here, then we should fight with them.//
Jovian wrinkles his nose a little at this, but as he's behind Robin, she probably doesn't notice. //I suspect the blackness they're fighting is in the heart and mind of Siege's grandmother.//
"Sneaky? Me?!?" Some of Robin's humor comes back into her voice and she shakes her head ruefully. "I'm starting to think that the reason Spider-woman was prepped for me and not for you is that I stir up more bad omens than a flight of dragons." A chuckle ripples through her.
"But you know... Siege is good. Really good, J'rim. It's not like I rescued him from those dungeons. No matter what he says." She grins, thinking about the 'nice man's' fierce remonstrations. "He probably knows the layout of this 'Temple' where the elusive Avis is probably being kept. And hopefully the Chancellery where my Trump is being kept too." She nods thoughtfully, willing to follow Jovian to the more tactical field of conversation.
"Hmmm," Jovian hmmms. "If he's the one with knowledge of the layout, then we need him in on the tactical discussion. Is this ritual sacrifice inside the Temple you mentioned, or out in public under a full moon or whatever?"
It is clear he has ideas of attending this ritual.
"I am not the girl in the know here. I'm just making a lot assumptions." Surprise, surprise, her voice says. "What I'm adding up is this - that lovely romantic spot where we met," Robin flutters her eyes, "was formerly his folks' 'base camp.'
"When we got there the storm was busy washing away the signs of a losing battle three days ago. Siege could kind of tell who had died - Brotherhood of the Stag code or something. Commander Avis wasn't among the departed. And she wasn't in the ssppeeeccciall cells with me and Siege. So he's figuring she's being held as a hostage or a sacrifice at 'The Temple.' Capital's his.
"I don't know anything about temples, rituals or stuff. But I do have a sneaking hunch - which by the way I have *not* mentioned to Siege yet - that we may be related to the Commander. And I really don't know if that's a good thing or not."
"Well, as our brother would say, this may be the end of the world or not, but I think we should get out of the rain." Jovian leaves it at that, as the dragons are approaching cliffs overlooking the sea. They wheel out over the water in a broad turn, surveying the seaward cliff face - one dragon-sized opening gapes in the rock, and a few more here and there that a man (or perhaps a smaller beast) could pass through.
//Canareth, have one of the blues check out the size of that cave - if the smaller openings are connected, the interior may be big enough for us all.//
"Get... out of the rain? Daeon said that?" Robin is thoughtful. "I always liked the rain." She murmurs quietly to herself.
"The rain we were facing at the time had an annoying habit of dissolving the landscape completely. And anything else as well." A shudder courses through him at the thought.
But as the dragons wheel, Robin loses her train of thought -- the thrill of flight slowly overwhelming her own issues. Straightening, the girl lifts her face into the flowing breeze, her cheeks and chin upturned, her eyes closed. A deep breath flows into her, beginning with a shudder but ending in a large gulp. Out again, her breath streams and on it, the beginning of a delighted chuckle.
When Robin opens her eyes again, the green is sparkling and light. Squirming in J'rim's grip, Robin raises her arms out to her sides, like wings of her own. A laugh bursts out of her, and J'rim can feel her body lift next to him as Robin begins to stand from her purchase, easily compensating for the movement of the enormous bronze beneath her.
Jovian laughs, peers down to see where Robin is finding footholds (as they're riding without saddle, much less stirrup). He tries to resist the urge to hold her too tightly, and mostly succeeds.
//Sleth and Parth report that the caves are large enough, but they would have to dig to make them weyrs. It is too wet for digging. Sleth thinks we can use this cave, but J'telan is concerned that there is only one dragon-sized entrance. He says he wants to get in out of the rain.//
A thrilled grin, visible like a lighthouse in the dark storming night, shines from the Ranger's face, as she lets the wind and water flow over her. Laughing, Robin looks back down to the brother who holds her, pure joy sparkling in the green eyes. The girl turns her face back to the wind, purses her lips and issues forth a clarion hawk's hunting call as her hands raise in the storm.
Beneath her, feet made agile and strong from decades of riding and tree-climbing are turned slightly inward. The textured soles of the ranger's soft leather boots are perfectly designed for finding purchase on the smoothest surfaces and Robin knows how to use them. The girl's ankles and knees flex almost unconsciously in time to Canareth's mighty wing beats, while at the same time holding her feet clamped against the bronze dragon's scales, letting her straighten from a secure position.
//That bothers me too, but I think we'll have to make do with it for a short while. Tell Tamaranth I need to know from her wounded passenger whether he thinks Vianis can bring down the ceiling of that entrance from a distance.//
//She says that he says that they cannot without seeing it, and few of those that could see it. She says he does not believe his grand-dam could in any case.//
//Settled, then. We'll just have to post sentries to make sure we see them before they see us. Give the order, we're landing.//
[The order is given, the dragons land, find or make at least one good entrance into the caves. Siege is climbing down from Tamaranth and walking towards you with Markyta. Kourin seems to have domestic concerns on her agenda and L'tarn is also heading towards you. He probably wishes to discuss defence, and possibly offense.]
All around Robin, Dragons and riders move in a controlled symphony of seeming chaos, and yet no one seems to get in anyone's way. Shortly, all are in the tall seaside cave.
The rain continues, although the lightning and the winds die down even further.
Robin stays out of the way, but ready to help if needed. As the ranger watches the chaos, the delight of a young girl is clearly visible in her eyes. Lining her lips is the watchful and approving smile of a leader of men. And in the tilt of her head, is someone who is learning and planning.
Distracted, Robin slides down the bronze hide of the dragon. But once her booted feet hit the ground, she turns and hugs the soaring Saurian. "Canareth! That was wonderful. Thank you so very much!"
Jovian takes on a listening posture for a brief moment and smiles broadly. "He says you're most welcome any time, but asks that you pick a clearer day for surfing next time."
Robin laughs delightedly. But the glimmer of a plan is dancing behind her eyes. "Aaactually. I was hoping that maybe in the future I could talk the two of you into a night flight." She grins, but waves away the subject as the work of setting up takes priority.
Jovian looks over his shoulder at a sky illuminated only by the occasional stray thunderbolt, a sky from which the sun set a few hours before, and looks back at his sister with a bemused shake of the head. "We'll scope out Tir na n'Ogth by air sometime," he suggests with a chuckle.
"Great minds," Robin says fondly and lightly punches her brother on the arm.
Thence to L'tarn: "Get a watch rotation set up from the main entrance. Darker colored dragons only by night, others can take turns after dawn. Two-hour shifts only, I don't want anyone getting absent-minded from fatigue. I think a couple of the boys from M'hall's wing had minecraft apprentice training before Impression; get them on the job of finding out how many entrances we have to secure. What else have we got?" he adds, slightly abashed, realizing he probably cut the second off from something important.
Robin grins to Siege and waves, her happiness at seeing him up and around evident.
Siege nods back and hurries over. He seems stiff but is moving under his own power.
L'tarn smiles. "We have got similar minds, which is a thought that will prevent me from sleeping well this evening. Depending on how long 'night' is in these parts, we've got a watch schedule. I have a bigger watch than we need, three in each, I'm assuming we won't even find anything that can burn, so the risk of smoke being spotted is not a concern. If what we saw is the best they've got, we'll get up, have a leisurely fastbreaking, and trounce them before lunch."
"They've got worse." Siege says. "You get over the city and some enterprising young witch or canny old warrior will try to see if the anti-blockade weaponry will work on you. And if you can dodge flaming balls of pitch, they'll get worried and call out the heavy stuff. This'll be no stroll on the beach.
"We've got a few surprises, too," Jovian responds with the grim hint of a smile. "But we've got priorities, and a frontal assault may not satisfy. First, stop the ritual murder of your commander. Second, retrieve an item of Robin's that Vianis has taken. That may or may not involve leaving her alive, depending on whether she's carrying it at the time and how cooperative she feels. If you have opinions on how we ought to treat your grandmother, I'd like to hear them."
Robin nods her agreement with Jovian's assessment - priority-wise and approach-wise. Though the Ranger is quiet, her green eyes glimmer with the anticipation of more mayhem. Those glimmering emeralds slide over to L'tarn and one eye closes in a playful wink.
"If getting all dry and toasty will help you sleep better, dragonrider," she teases L'tarn quietly, so as not to interrupt Jovian and Siege, "there's a big pile of drift wood tucked back there behind that outcropping. Pushed there decades ago by a mother of a storm and drying ever since." She grins as the fire of the Pattern flares briefly in her.
This does not escape Jovian's notice.
L'Tarn and Seige go and look.
"Robin," he suggests as an aside, "if we suspect family's involved with Vianis, shouldn't we ought to do that sparingly? Thank you, but do be careful."
"Carrrreful." There's a quiet growl to Robin's voice as she looks down and toes the ground. Turning she stands beside Jovian, looking past his shoulder, with her back to the bustle in the cave, her eyes sparking in anger. "Deep Green, Jovian. I've been careful so long I feel like I'm dead."
But then the girl's shoulders lift in a sigh, and she nods, a wry chuckle escaping her. "Sooo, I suppose I can do it a bit longer." She grins to her brother.
Jovian swallows the lecture that he was drawing breath to give and merely nods. "Think of it as prowling, or stalking. If Vianis lives up to her rumors it won't help, but it can't hurt to sneak a little." He returns the grin in full measure.
The two men return, L'Tarn carrying an armful of the firewood. "Lady, " L'Tarn says, "given the things I've seen this past fortnight, I could sleep through a threadfall klaxon."
Robin chuckles to the bronze rider.
Siege tells him. "Use it sparingly. They may be able to sniff us out, or at least find us in the morning."
Siege turns to Robin. "Lady, your warleader asked about my grandmother. She broke with the Lady during the Black Forest War, because the Lady would not summon her husband to win the war or sacrifice himself for the good of all. That was why she started this civil war.
"I do not believe that we should revive the old ways, but more importantly, I swore an oath in The Temple to be loyal to the Lady, and I am. If I were to capture my grandmother, I would take her to the Lady.
"Well, my feelings about Vianis are a bit more intense than that... but, I figure you, your Lady and your Commander have prior claim." Robin shrugs. "As long as I get my item back, I'm willing to let the local authorities deal with your heretical chancellor as they see fit. Of course, if I do get a vote, I'd like to see something that leaves her screaming for a least a decade."
"I'm more concerned about the possibility of being forced to kill her," Jovian advises Siege levelly. "I doubt she'll give up either of her prizes easily, and one of them is small enough to be on her person. If that's going to be a problem, we'd best know in advance."
"We are at war and she is the leader of the enemy. Killing her would hurt them, although it would not stop them."
He turns to Jovian. "There might be some advantage to capturing her, but I am not aware of it. Avis will know. Or Lady Robin can decide, if Avis is not available."
Robin raises an eyebrow at Siege's behavior. For a moment, the ranger's green eyes sparkle with suppressed humor, but she gets it under control quickly and speaks to the warrior with fond seriousness. "Siege... He's asking if you - personally - are going to have difficulties watching us kill your grandmother."
"No one wants to kill their own grandmother, Lady. But war is war. I shall have no difficulties that I cannot overcome."
"Soooo... " Robin claps her hands together in a 'let's get down to business' way, and heads over to where a bit of dirt has built up on a level place. "You're figuring Avis is at the Temple. What's the layout?" The Ranger crouches down, obviously looking for someone (named Siege) to draw her a map.
Jovian joins her at the improvised sand table, watching Siege expectantly.
Siege squats and with deft motions draws squares in the sand.
"This is the Chancellery, where civic affairs are conducted. You and I were there, Lady. Across the common is the Lady's Temple, where Avis' mother was High Priestess before the war. The attached cloisters are where the Priestesses learn sorcery. I regret to say that some number of the Priestesses and Initiates followed my Grandmother into infamy.
"All of this is on Temple Hill, which overlooks the port. A fleet is in the making at the port, although it should not leave for some weeks. I saw it before I was captured. It will be preparing to invade our strongholds on Methrin's Isle with the goal of killing The Lady and dissolving the bond between her and her consort, who is a God."
"Hunh. This God have a name?" Robin asks oh-so-casually from where she's crouched looking over the map.
Jovian ceases drawing breath to ask the first six tactical questions that came to mind, but except for a quick glance at his sister and a slight widening of his eyes, there is no other reaction. He has heard just a little too much about gods in the family recently to interrupt.
"The God Gerard, son of the high-God Oberon and the Goddess Rilga. I have met Gerard and know his son by our Lady well."
Jovian looks to his sister, an eyebrow raised in an uncannily Julianic expression. "Gerard?" he mouths noiselessly. "Son?"
A snicker breaks forth from the young Ranger as she returns her brother's gaze. "Green, we're subtle." She shakes her head in amused exasperation.
Then the girl focuses back on Siege. Really focuses. With the eyes of a warrior, the senses of a musician. "Gerard and his son. These would be two you have met with my strength and stamina." It's not a question. "And what is your Avis to them?"
"Avis is sister to Vere. I am not sure how she is related to Gerard. Most of the nobles are related to the Goddess Rilga, distantly. There is some philosophical debate about how close one must be to be 'divine' or 'semi-divine'. It is mostly a matter for the old women who concern themselves with theosophy."
Jovian breaks his intense silence, but not his intense gaze. "What if another divine presence showed up, a messenger with news of the battle against the force that gave the Black Forest its power? Would that sway Vianis' followers?"
It is evident that he is not quite at ease with what he's contemplating.
The Ranger lets her attention drift back to its normal bubbling curiosity with a wry smile, an ironic chuckle and a shake of her head. Well, she got half the answer she wanted. The girl's shoulders lift in a shrug - she figures she can guess the other half well enough to start a war. Or at least close enough.
Though Jovian's... idea does bring a wrinkled nose to her face.
Siege looks at Jovian and then at Robin. "I am a warrior, and I prefer warriors' solutions. How such an event would affect those who are already caught up in heresy, I do not know and it is not my place to speculate."
Her blonde head nods. "Yeah. I'm with you there, Siege."
"Jove?" Robin looks to her brother seriously, which then melts to warm fondness. "I get the feeling things might... go better in the future if we leave this place standing after we're done." Her mouth quirks in dark humor. "And adding additional fuel to a religious / civil war -- yikes! So yeah, thank you, it had to be mentioned but let's table that idea. And stick with lesser goals. Like busting Avis out and just plain busting Vianis." She grins.
"My *goal,*" he responds stiffly, "is to *avoid* all-out war by undermining Vianis' authority with her troops, so that we *only* have to bust her and not break through a larger force. It might be useful to know," he continues, turning to Siege, "that I am in fact Jovian the Shadowflyer, whose father is Julian, son of Oberon and Rilga, brother to Gerard and Lord of the Forest Arden. I came here on my way back to the Eternal City from the battle where we *put down* the force behind your Black Forest and every other manifestation of the Black Road from the vale below Oberon's castle clear to the ends of existence." What began as a mere statement of disagreement with his sister gains force through this recitation; Jovian's volume does not substantially increase, but he has definitely raised up his aspect of authority. He resists the temptation to exercise the Pattern and tweak a dramatic lightning bolt out of the storm, however.
He draws a breath to let the statement sink in. "Gerard, whose strength is unequalled, held the defense of the Eternal City alone while his brethren fought the battle at the Abyss. My Sister Robin can tell you better than I how he fares. If this civil war you're facing is fought on the pretext of Gerard's absence from your Black Forest War, our news may be of some value toward ending it, by separating your Vianis from her pretense of moral authority. Will her supporters be swayed, or are they too deeply in her personal thrall?"
His point made, Jovian relaxes back into himself - still a presence, but not making a point of being a dominating one.
Jovian finds that Siege has gone down to one knee and has his good hand on his forehead.
"Me and my big mouth," he mutters.
"Please, Siege, rise," Jovian says, keeping his distaste out of his voice and expression.
L'tarn puts a companionable arm around Jovian's shoulder. "I have a *raft* of new vocabulary words to learn. What's a 'god'?"
Sotto voce: "Dunno, exactly. I think it's got something to do with the wellbeing of a place and population being connected to your own. In any event, lots of people seem to take the word of one seriously."
A rude snort from Robin echoes off the cave walls.
The Ranger stands, brushes off her knees and looks over to her brother with exasperated fondness. "Jovian... Okay fine. You did the rescuing, it's your operation. I'll follow your lead. But I'd appreciate it if you laid off the brave and resourceful man who rescued me from madness. And who is - by the way, oh mighty conqueror - a close personal friend of the god that's going to be in charge of the refit and supplying of your men when you get back to what is no longer the Eternal City. Okay?" Robin softens the sarcasm in her voice with a rueful chuckle and a head shake.
And then she realizes that she juuusst might have said too much there, her and her own big mouth. The young girl nibbles her lip nervously while obviously deciding if there's someway to extricate herself from *this* one gracefully.
Again the dragonrider aims the Julianic eyebrow at his sister, but the set of eye and jaw say: Table that for later.