Serving the Tiara IC

[Modigar]

Finally ceasing her aghast glaring at Alice, Daniella turns to face Leoria. "I guess that means we're sharing, assuming you've no objections. Either way," She turns an acid glare towards Alice once more. "I certainly find it infinitely preferable to some options."

[jamieth]

Room arrangements finally settled, the girls retreat to their rooms; it very soon becomes apparent that the portier didn't lie about the lodging quality, rooms even having hot water pumped up to the third floor no less, and the supper served in the in-house restaurant - and included in the room fee - doesn't leave to be desired either - it is also apparent from that supper that, despite that service, the inn isn't exactly striving; in fact, our heroes find themselves the only people in the restaurant.

By the morning, they also find out that the inn, apparently, is designed for guests with not only thick wallets, but heavy sleep as well - or, perhaps, on the contrary, early birds, At least, unlike the suits', their rooms' windows don't face the town square directly, and the bellowing of the tower clock on the town hall right opposite is softened somewhat.

[RdMarquis]

As it happened, Claire was up fairly early, soon after the bells tolled eight. She snuck a glance at her bedstand to check for any more scrolls (obviously, yesterday had made an impression on her) and began getting ready for the day. She decided to let her classmates sleep in for another half hour. As Claire waited, she practiced with her Device. Then she was upstairs, knocking on doors. "C'mon, get up! We have a fortress to check on!"

[Dondasch]

Alena also woke up early; she started getting ready for the day. Soon after she finished, Claire came knocking at her door.
"Good morning, Claire. Don't you at least want to talk to the townsfolk first?"

[Tuvarkz]

Alice exited the room a few moments after Alena, properly dressed up but clearly not entirely woken up: "'Morning" she said, stretching.

[lilpuppy91]

Stella, as always, was a late riser, mostly because she was a late sleeper, always losing track of time by getting lost in a book, far too excited to go to bed until her head started to sink so low that it was resting on the pages. She sat up straight as her roomate woke her, and blinked at her dumbly for a few minutes, before turning to blink out the window, and seeing that it was light outside, she began frantically getting dressed. She then joined the others in the hallway, fully dressed and ready to go. "D-do you r-really think anyone here would kn-know something?" she piped up quietly. Time was of the essence if something really wrong was afoot, so some might say that chatting up a bunch of people that lived far enough away from the fortress that they didn't interact with it directly most days, and therefore had a very low chance of knowing anything unless someone from inside the fortress managed to let something slip, or some were employed at the fortress itself and saw something, was a complete waste of time.

However, on the other hand, others might say that while the fortress staff might be coached or coerced into pretending that everything was fine, normal townsfolk might let certain details slip, not knowing that it was any indication that anything was wrong, or that they weren't simply fun rumors to pass the time passing around. If that were the case, then chatting up the locals might give them a leg up on what to look for, which they might otherwise miss if they had no idea what to look for. This was then not a waste of time, but instead valuable information gathering that would instead save time. It was hard to say, when they were strangers in a strange place, which path to take. Really, all they could do was just choose a path, and hope that it was right. "M-maybe just people who talk to a lot of people... hear a lot of stories..." such as an innkeepers or shopkeepers... maybe even the people at the Golden Sun might have heard something, although honestly they were so fancy, it didn't seem likely they saw or spoke to many people.

[Dondasch]

"Hmm, that's a good question Stella." Alena closes her eye for a moment to think.
After a moment, she opens them again, and resumes speaking. "Actually, people probably won't know much; Dawnshield has probably been trying to keep any problems under wraps, and if the local gossips had heard of anything, rumors would have spread. The first odd letter came three weeks ago, after all. Talking to people would just risk worrying them if we made them think something was wrong."

[Smeggedoff]

Leoria opens her door to Claire looking dishevelled and still half asleep

"G'd *yawn* morn'n Cl're." she manages, mumbling slightly. She starts out into the hallway before realising she's in her nightgown and with a small eep, dashes back inside.

Rapid ablutions later she bounces downstairs, embarrassed both at falling asleep so early last night and for sleeping in so long
Upon seeing the others she beams out a bright smile and a "Morning everyone!"

[jamieth]

Soon as the girls leave the inn, a middle-aged woman approaches them, wearing the Golden Sun's staff uniform, with a small busket in her hands. "Excuse me... I really shouldn't bother the guests like that, but... did I hear that right? You're heading to the fortress? Can I... ask you for a favor? I've a son, you see - he's a soldier at Dawnshield, and he was supposed to come home today for a leave, so I made some of his favorite food, but... they say shifts were changed, or something, and... it would be a waste to just let it waste, so if you could bring it to him... his name's Merick, Merick Whistle..."

[Dondasch]

"Of course." Alena says, simultaneously smiling, nodding, and reaching for the busket. "We'd be happy to help."
'Though if they're changing the shifts, that might mean something's up... or the changing shifts might just be to cover up something else. But what?'

[RdMarquis]

"Indeed," Claire keeps her voice neutral to hide her concern. "Did your son say much about the change in plans, by any chance? We'd hate to intrude if something important was going on."

[Modigar]

Daniella grimaces momentarily, before pasting on a smile. "Though it is a simple task, it would be pleasure to assist!" To anybody who missed her slip, the words are surprisingly convincing.

Spoiler: Reason for edit

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Bloody I key is why. Sometimes 'in' comes out as 'ini', even when it is mostly working.

[Smeggedoff]

Leoria nods in agreement "No-one should have to go without lunch" she adds sagely

[Tuvarkz]

"Indeed. Hunger is the enemy after all." comments Alice, very much in agreement with Leoria's words.

[jamieth]

"Oh, I'm sure they aren't hungry there", the woman smiles, "it's more about a little treat... but no, I don't now anything - only heard about the shifts changing from one of his friends... a good boy, came to me just to say that so I wouldn't worry..."

[lilpuppy91]

Stella observed the poor woman silently as Alena accepted the care package from her. She wasn't sure what it meant that the woman's son had a sudden change in schedule without warning, or whether it meant anything. It was possible that if something was going down, they needed as many hands on deck as possible to keep things stable, and thus would do away with all of the vacations scheduled. There were also dozens of mundane reasons of why the man's leave might have been rescheduled, and so she didn't want her heightened suspicions to turn this into any more than a coincidence until they had an opportunity to research the matter further. With the woman's basket accepted, and the promise to deliver it given, Stella found that there was no longer any reason to be in the hotel. Alena had agreed with her that questioning the townspeople could turn out to be a waste of time, and if the others agreed, it meant it was time to finally travel to the keep, and get down to the bottom of everything. With a shy smile and a nod to the woman, she turned without a word, and made her way outside of the hotel to breathe in the fresh morning air and await the others to see what could be done about transportation to Dawnshield.

[Dondasch]

Alena follows Stella outside. Once everyone else is there, she asks "So, how do we intend to get to Dawnshield. It's a three hour walk, but it would be faster if we can find transportation." Her tone of voice indicates a preference for the second option.

[jamieth]

For someone boarding in the Golden Sun, finding a carriage poses no problem, so a little more than an hour later the girls find themselves standing on the road between two mountain ranges, with the fortress right in front of them. The fortress's gates are closed, and the guards are apparently on watch - though obviously not going as far as to point weapons at the carriage, they do ask for the aim of your visit.

[RdMarquis]

Claire suppresses a frown as she disembarks from the carriage. The path was obviously a choke point, and though they weren't here to besiege the fortress, their current position was a little unsettling. "Good morning, sirs." Claire sticks to the story, as it were. "We're from the Royal Academy. The Princess sent us here on an instructional trip to learn more about the operation of the Kingdom's outposts. I...hope we didn't come at a bad time."

[jamieth]

At the mention of the Academy, you can almost hear soldiers standing to attention; "Please excuse me, I need to report to the commander", you hear the next moment, followed by quick steps.

A couple minutes later, the steps come back, and the gates start to open. "His Lordship will see you immediately, please follow me to the audience room."

[Dondasch]

Alena nods her head and follows, trying to pay close attention to the mannerisms of the guards.

[Tuvarkz]

Alice goes along, walking in a rather casual manner.

[Smeggedoff]

Leoria skips along, getting distracted by anything that looks interesting along the way.

[jamieth]

The soldiers do seem somewhat concerned- - but then again, it's a border fortress;perhaps high alert is the default state around here...

The audience room was, likely, initially built as a throne room - but by now, its main feature is the long table with seats around it, the one at the far end from the entrance being only slightly fancier than the rest - the seat presently occupied by the man in his forties, powerfully built and dressed in a finely made, but relatively plain, by noble standarts, dress.

Standing to greet you, he gestures the six of you to sit down and rolls up a map that was lying on the desk to clear up space.

"Please sit dowm; students of the Academy are alweays welcome here, of course. I hope Her Highness is well? Now, how can I help you, Ladies Lightwielders?"

[Dondasch]

"Thank you, Sir Alaris." Alena says, taking a seat to his left. "Her Highness is well, to the best of my knowledge."
"I am Alena Caurine, and my friends are Claire Sommerset, Stella Rose, Danielle Janiver, Alice Wulfenbane, and Leoria Zodack. We are visiting on a school trip to learn about fortifications and the operation of these outposts."

[Tuvarkz]

Alice bows as her name comes up, her eyes focused on the mighty warrior.

[lilpuppy91]

Having carried her book along with her outside of the hotel, Stella continued to read the book on the carriage journey to the fortress, although this time she took more of an interest in the conversation going between the other girls as opposed to the total silence on the way to town, and even said a few words. When they arrived, the book had vanished inside of her bag, and she stood, eyes wide, staring up at the large and imposing fortress. Although the academy was quite a massive , overbearing presence in it's own right, Dawnshield was still easily the largest structure she had ever seen. She found herself once again thankful that she hadn't been sent on a solo mission, for as one of the guards approached them and demanded to know the reason for their visit, Alena stepped forward and responded, removing the necessity for Stella to do so.

As they travelled along the halls of the fortress, Stella tried to keep her eyes and ears open, but she had never been in a fortress before, so it was going to be harder to discover if anyone was acting strangely alert or alarmed than she had initially thought. Finally they were in front of the commander of the hold himself. Stella hurried to follow Alena's lead, and sat beside her in a chair, giving a respectful nod to Sir Alaris before doing so.

[RdMarquis]

Claire had kept pace with her classmates, if somewhat awkwardly. She just didn't know how to present herself. With the tense setting and the feeling of eyes on her, she had to remind herself not to look like she was being nosy. At length, Claire crossed her arms behind her back until they reached the audience room.

She chimed in once Alena finished making introductions. "Indeed. If there's anything we can assist you with at the moment, we'd be glad to volunteer."

[jamieth]

"Assist? I know very well that Her Highness would never allow you to put yourself in danger while on this trip. Of course, with a preperly organized defence, ninety-nine percent of the time, the main threat that a soldier on duty faces is that of boredom... and though it's flattering to hear Her Highness considers my skills in this worthy of studying, I really can't tell you anything about organizing proper defence besides that you would find in any book on tactics. If there's a secret to that, I'd say it's trus - a commander's trust in his soldiers, and the soldiers' trust in the commander..."

At that moment, a door swings open, and a soldier rushes in, with way less formality - and reverence - than would be expected from one disturbing a superior officer. Halfway around the table, he notices the girls and stops for a moment, to give a rather hasty greeting, then heads to Alaris and whispers something into his ear. A second alter, Lord Dawnshield rises, "Please excuse me, Ladies, there appears to be an issue that requires my attention... Light be graceful, it shouldn't take long."

Spoiler

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If there's anything you want to roll during the scene, feel free to do so either here with your, or in OOC if you don't want to do an IC post here or need to know the results of the roll before doing so

[Dondasch]

"Could we come too, Sir Alaris? If you aren't sure what you could tell us, then observing you is probably one of the best ways to learn."