The Eternal Sanctum (Holy Knight Headquarters)

[Bloodedge]

Sakura was open to a chance of mind on Charlemagne's part. Alas, there wasn't much room for change in this case. "I wasn't saying you couldn't go. It's a weird kind of situation, like... if it's going to be a problem, it's going to be a problem anyway. You being involved would have a chance of making it weirder, but if it's not a problem, then you wouldn't be an issue. Though I'm not sure if that makes any sense," he rambled. Once they were finally among the group, some introductions were in order. Their mysterious extra presented himself as Tenjou Yuuya, receiving the immediate acknowledgement of Sakura. "Charles Martel. Good to have you along," Charlemagne greeted afterwards.

Ah, there was another question presented by Sakura. Once Astolfo referenced Narnia, Sakura made clear that she didn't know what it was. Funnily enough, Charlemagne knew of Narnia twice. Anais's claim of a 50/50 chance on Narnia being imaginary or real ─ he knew the truth. "Eh? Huh, I guess you weren't around back then," Charlemagne murmured. "People like us know of Narnia as a book series. The Kingdom of Narnia is a real place, though. It's part of the Calormene Empire and everything, on on the far-west side of Alea ─ past the huge mountain range. It's one of the few beastfolk-friendly areas on that continent," he explained. It seemed Charlemagne didn't intend to acknowledge his lateness. Instead, he focused on the morning greeting. "Good to see everyone here. What's this about a world-connecting door though?" the lad asked while Yuuya lifted his head. "Gomen. It wasn't really Narnia I went to or anything. At least... I don't think it was. I came to this world through a door. The man-god said he saw a way to connect the worlds through it, and that it needed to be done that way for some reason. I don't really have any more information than that."

Following Yuuya's explanation, Charlemagne tilted his head. Strange as the details were, he could make a few obvious connections to something he recently experienced. "Man-god? I get the feeling I know who that is," was his immediate commentary. "I guess that's one more thing to ask about. . ."

[Apollymi]

Charles gave Sakura a bit of a more solid explanation, granted it seemed a bit more open to interpretation. His claim seemed to balance on the idea that it would be weird for her to go, but not that he was saying she couldn't. He simply didn't know if the interaction with whomever he was meeting would be made odder by her presence. He wasn't sure if he was making any sense and in her own experience it made sense but only in a very specific way. "It sounds like a human overcomplication of something that should probably be a non-issue. But given the reactions of others, if I have to assume some amount of the same misinformation floating around. I'll then further assume you see the potential for an oddity I do not based on your understanding of the other world," she said giving her conclusion based on the given information. Whether she wanted to go or not wasn't material at this point... she'd offer herself up if he wanted someone along to support him, but if he'd rather do it on his own she'd be fine with that too. "That is fine though, I wouldn't want to make things weirder for you than they have to be," she said. Without her soul active her words could have sounded harsh, but she wasn't being mean her understanding of things was just pretty clear cut, though it'd been that before.

"Ais-nee, Yu-nee, Ohayougouzaimasu..." Sakura greeted both girls in a rather familiar way making the pair look at each other and then off to the side. They were both fine with it, but given their own morning they hadn't expected such a familiar greeting. Though Sakura would be privy to how they existed as extensions of her parents so perhaps it was actually just accurate for her to think of them in such a way? Yeah, that seemed right. What also seemed right was Charles's explanation of the Kingdom of Narnia, and its actual existence on a continent that Anais had least heard of before. "Sou ka, I might be a bit too young for something like that Charlie. Though I wouldn't mind a Beast Kin friendly kingdom or three..." she said. "Arigatou, Char-kun," Sakura thanked him for the extra information and began wondering if tales of this world often made their way to the other one. "Woo, we got one. I was wondering if we were just going to see shattered tales and the like every time something was mentioned," said Yume who found it amusing that a story seemed to make it over without it being potentially completely ruined. Speaking of Narnia her mind began to wander back to that story which she casually found floating into her mind after the mention of the name. A lion had been among the man focuses of that sort. 'Hm, I wouldn't really mind getting to know a lionman, or maybe a spirit lion or something like that... I don't think my list included stuff like that before...' Anais thought to herself. 'You should...' the quieter of her inside voices said. 'Ride a lionman! I'm for it!' Sinais mentioned making Anais begin tapping her fingers together abasently. Yume watched her friend and heard the speaking of her soul. 'It really is a tell!' she thought seemingly excited. 'I can still hear you, you know~' she mentioned to the elafia whose face only blushed more soon after.

"Right I guess you did mention chatting with god yesterday. Still a lot but I'm not going to think about it too much... are you compiling a list of things to ask him... or is it just a ask as needed sort of thing?" Martha wondered. If Yuuya was potentially needed to connect the worlds then there was an implication that one could move back and forth and that did sound pretty fun. That being said... it wasn't as if she disliked this life she presently had, especially with an adventure on the horizon.

[Bloodedge]

Charlemagne always saw some potentials that Sakura didn't, and the same worked in reverse. When it came to humans of Gaia, Sakura proved her lack of understanding for their mannerisms time and time again. Perhaps though, there was enough Alayan influence on the person he thought to interact with, that she would be more knowledgeable? It had been long enough that he couldn't say for certain either way.

Ah, but there were stranger matters to address still. Hearing about an easy path between worlds was something Charlemagne had gone over a thousand years without even conceptualizing. Narnia existing was one thing, but a tangible method of returning to one's original world was another. What was the Nexus thinking? "The stories are usually off in a lot of ways. From what I remember, Narnia wasn't much different from the story I used to know," he said following Yume's assertion. This gate, though... it was such a bothersome thing. At this point, Charlemagne did have an entire list of questions for the Nexus, though not by design. "I was hoping for an as-needed sort of thing, but it doesn't seem to be ending that way. He's so eclectic it's hard to figure out what he's even trying to do. But... at the same time, it's all immediately helpful in a way I've never seen before. I guess that's Mister Animusphere in a nutshell. AoE's card game was always having new sets release to fix problems the community didn't even realize existed until right before they picked up the new cards. So then... I wonder what sort of problem that door is here to fix?" he mused.

At that point, Yuuya thought it best to chime-in once more. "Ah! I'm not sure if it has any limitations or anything like that! He wouldn't tell me much about it ─ just that I'd have it when it was necessary. I mostly used it to have a safe place to rest when first getting here, and to try avoiding too many days lost at school... though I came to realize time works very differently than I expected," he added.

[Apollymi]

The influence of Alaya on people from Gaia seemed to be the sort of thing they either naturally aligned with or shunned. As far as Sakura understood this was mostly due to a lack of information or a lack of understanding for the way things were supposed to work. But she'd been raised to be a tolerant individual and as such she was willing to at least figure out what it was she disliked about certain things before making individual judgements. Whether she ended up chatting with whoever Charles wanted to talk to next or not, she had little negative to say about the potential to learn more from someone else.

In the meantime while Anais died of embarrassment, Charles explained what he'd encountered of their fairytales on Gaia and the like here. Apparently, Narnia wasn't too far off as a story, but that was an outlier of some sort. Sakura got to know what Narnia was for both sides of the world and Yume got to hear all the random things that Anais was thinking about animal people in her head. Ah but they weren't just talking about that... they were also talking about the whimsy of God, known to most of them by the name Albertus Animusphere. "Hm, the data books for the table top campaigns were the same way..." mentioned Yume who didn't participate in other forms of AoE given her own disposition. Anais gave it a bit of thought and could only nod her confirmation, what she knew of that man fit the same general description and all was well... "Hm, I remember the game I loaded up having a whole set of updates when I first tried to play it. It must just be his way..." she concluded. Until of course Yuuya specified the nature of his abilities.

A pause came from both Martha and Anais in that moment as both stared at the gate wielding lad. "Wait you're going back and forth?" asked Martha seemingly surprised. "And you know how time works between the two?" ask Anais. That was news which needed to be shared and dissected immediately. "More important, you get teleported to the magical world and you don't want to miss school?" that was the question from Yume, who found the lack of true immersion on his part rather interesting, compared to what she'd seen in the others of this group so far. Sakura stared at the mall in turn seeming to be deep in thought as she processed the information they were sharing and what it might all mean.

[Bloodedge]

Matters of Albertus Animusphere aside, the mind-boggling creation of a two-way portal between worlds was worth everyone's attention. Martha questioned his trips in both directions, Anais questioned the time differential between worlds, and Yume questioned his interest in school despite entering a fantasy world. Charlemagne had different things in mind, most closely related to Yume's question. Not to bombard the lad with too much at once, though, he refrained for the time being. Yuuya would have quite a lot of questions to answer right away. "Eh... I do go back home from time to time. I mostly come here on weekends and off days, which... answers your question?" he said with an upward inflection, his attention shifting from Martha to Anais. "When I come back here, it seems like months or years have passed since my last visit ─ even though it has only been some days on the other side. I've nursed little creatures back to health, and they've been fully grown greeting me like an old friend when I revisited. After a few trips back and forth, I noticed trees were growing taller in the forest," he explained.

As for Yume's question, Yuuya didn't really know what to say. When he arrived in this world, he was the only human in a forest of monsters. He didn't even realize others were in this world for a long time. "Well, that's what I was trying to say at first. I didn't get teleported; I just walked in and back out. I figured out that if I spend about three months here, it'll only take up my Sunday at home. It'd be more accurate to say going to school is like a vacation from fighting monsters in the forest, until I came here. I'm on spring vacation now, so I've got a little less than 2 years normally ─ but when I leave the door in place, time is consistent between both worlds."

With that explanation, Charlemagne was glad he'd waited for his own question. Some serious math would have to be done, but a glimmer in his eye belied an idea. Two years could be easily passed if they could reach the right area quickly enough. "So if we went to the other world right now for a few days, we'd pass the whole waiting period over? If we could figure out the conversion of that, we might be able to make some aspects of this trip way simpler. Though... I think a good few of us are up for a long adventure, so I wouldn't want to suggest trying to wait the whole thing out. What do you guys think?"

[Apollymi]

There was a bombardment of questions and answers surrounding the abilities of Yuuya and his gateway to the other world. Sakura for her part in this conversation was remaining quiet but she was mostly using that to help sort through information for when everything else was ready. Moving on from that point... Anais and Martha both had their questions answered pretty directly. He was still busy trying to explain himself for the time being Anais and Martha both accepted his answers while having a strange amount of thought regarding that information.

At the same time, Yuuya claimed that he didn't teleport to this world, he simply walked through his gate, and he considered going home and to school as a break from the monster killing and intensity of this world. He also claimed that when his door was stationary time was consistent between the two places on the other side. "Sou ka, maybe I am the weird one here..." Yume concluded. Her own personal situation meant to her that with her friends on this side she literally had no reason to even entertain going back to the other world, aside from potentially missing some commodities of home. And with this world working the way it did she could always invent or create those kinds of things. "You're not weird, I understand why you'd make the choice you did regardless," Anais noted. She seemed to be exceedingly contemplative. This whole situation was bringing a possibility to the forefront of her mind that she hadn't considered in quite a while. "Yuuya I am sure your teachers appreciate you showing up to school on a regular basis. I'd be excited to know a student was willing to come back from a magical world," Martha mentiond.

At the same time Charles seemed to be thinking something else. That the adventure could be particularly short if they decided to spend any amount of time on the other side of the world. If they crossed over they could potentially shorten their trip quite a bit. "That's a pretty decent idea... if you didn't want to go on the adventure to its extremes, but there have to be caveats right?" said Yume not sure of everything but sure there were at least a few. "I can think of several... are we going back in the forms we currently have or our previous human forms? And how much time has actually passed for those of us who have been here for longer? Even in videogame time, 300 years is a lot, over a thousand and they could be returning to assumed deaths, empty apartments, cops or anything else..." mentioned Anais. "At the same time, I'd be lying if I didn't say that my first thought wasn't about potentially seeing my parents. And clearing my browser history," Anais confirmed of her own thoughts. "I suppose there is the potential space time problem, like if he's from a time earlier than ours, if we cross back and see ourselves does something weird happen? Do you Back to the Future yourself? Ugh... I am a history teacher not a science nerd," Martha said, her head beginning to hurt from the possibilities. "Still I wouldn't be against going back either."

[Bloodedge]

"I wouldn't quite say that," Charlemagne countered upon hearing Yume's claim. "You've been here for a day, right? After being here for a long time, it's not such a bad thing to just want... a normal day or two. Though everyone has their own situation, so I can't say much. No need to call yourself weird though," he continued. Ah, but she was right; there were surely some caveats to going between worlds. Anais was quick to comment on one in particular, as someone who lived for hundreds of years. For someone like Charlemagne, he'd be lucky to return within the lifetime of his would-be children on Gaia. There was something else, however... something he understood for the oddest reason.

By the time Martha spoke again, Charlemagne was in deep thought. Had he registered her words, he probably would have realized something unrelated, yet incredible. Yuuya's response would reach his ears, but all too late for a separate realization. "I don't think going back in time would be much of an issue. Even if I cross and go right back, it's all forward. Though I guess you all got here differently, and might not even be from the same year as me..." he mused. By then, Charlemagne's deep thought had reached something conclusory. "Temporal Reprieve," he blurted out seemingly at random. "There was a card called Temporal Reprieve that released to counter the time manipulation archetypes that were becoming popular. There was Counterflux Nexus, a rare field that accumulated counters and had a weird mechanic that could basically delete the opponent's next turn if played a certain way. That might all sound unrelated, but... I'm guessing this gate of yours is some sort of big, double-sided door ─ maybe with an owl motif?" he asked of Yuuya, who immediately seemed surprised.

"Eto... yes. That's exactly how I'd describe it," Yuuya said after a few moments of hesitation. With that confirmation given, Charlemagne couldn't be more sure of his thought process. "Then we've got our answer! That's Temporal Reprieve! When the door stays up, it streamlines the time between worlds. I might be guessing, but I'd say Mister Animusphere-god-man-thing up there opened the door in a way that'll end up perfect for us."

[Apollymi]

Charles had some oddly reassuring words for Yume. Though she'd called herself weird for very specific reasons, their group leader had claimed that after living in this world for so long seeking a normal day wasn't necessarily a bad thing. In the same breath however he claimed that even without knowing her exact circumstances he wouldn't call her weird for making the decision to throw herself into life after a single day. Yume looked at the lad most strangely her mouth opening into that little 'o' shape which was silent as she realized what he was like, "Yes, he's always like this. No it isn't just you...' Anais affirmed quietly. Charles was exactly the person he tried to be whether he fully realized it or not.

Moving on, Anais had mentioned several potential problems with moving back and forth between worlds but only one real part of her statement hit the ears of Yume. "You can clear browser history?" she asked as if this was a completely foreign concept to her. Anais for her part in this looked at her friend incredulously. "How Ai-senpai hasn't exploded from frustration I will never understand," she commented absently. Apparently two people here needed their browser history cleared. Soon after that Charles was talking children's card games. Most specifically the one based in AoE. Apparently his understanding of Yuuya's gate ability would come from that and be described in such a way that it could technically be understood by everyone present. Even from Martha's perspective it made a bit a of sense. His general idea being that time would be the same or rather sync'd up properly between both sides of the world as long as Yuuya's gate was open. "Sounds pretty far fetched even for a fantasy," said Yume. "Iia, if Charlie is talking card games.... his expertise isn't to be questioned. If he says it works, I believe him," said Anais. Ah, well that was enough for Yume. Her friend group took the opinion that their most innocent friend had the best opinions, if she spoke strongly about something they belived her. "The Indulstrial Illusions founder also isn't a bad guy according to everything about him... so if he's the who did this, I suppose it's worth at least trying out," said Martha, who knew only what news articles said about the man but, if he was the real god of this world and not actively ruining anyone's life, she could give him a bit of credit.

[Bloodedge]

Amid some odd exchange about browser history, Charlemagne was continuing his train of thought. Yuuya spoke of the door keeping time consistent between worlds. By his own assumption, that door would have only been made after the time of its related trading card and Albertus Animusphere's alleged disappearance. Yuuya mentioned being on vacation for spring as well, which placed him almost perfectly inline with Charlemagne's time, provided he wasn't some years into the future. "Tenjou─" he started, only to be interrupted immediately. "Iia, iia! Yuuya desu!" the lad corrected. "Ah... right, no problem. Yuuya. I think what we all need to know here, is how recent Age of Eternity and all its relevant materials are."

Yuuya took pause, giving the curiosity some proper thought. He didn't really consume any of the related media, but he wasn't entirely ignorant of it. Industrial Illusions as a corporation became known across the entire world shortly after its inception, so Yuuya only had to recall when he first heard of it. "I'm not sure exactly, but I knew about it for less than a year, I think," he stated. "Then there we have it. We're still in the first big year of AoE. If it's during spring break, that means... it's around the same time I came here, give or take some days. Anyone else on weird time?"

[Apollymi]

It would seem that Charles was still busy thinking about the nature of this potential cross over adventure. It didn't however escape anyone's notice how quickly Yuuya stopped Charles from being overly polite with him. Interesting. Many in his position would not be so quick to abandon formalities. Many more than that would have figured out from context that they were the people who could call the shots and more than a few might have tried it. Instead this lad was aiming for friendship which was a fine quality within the minds of both Anais and Yume. Moving on, the question now was about timing and the timing could not have been more fortuitous.

Even after a moment or two of thought, it would seem that... Yuuya was living at least in the same time as this group. And that AoE was a in its first big year. This was all good information to have for everyone present as it would place their disappearances at around the same time. "Spring Break? Yeah, that's the right time for me," Yume said with a nod. After all, her date couldn't have taken place during any other time, and it was the first time she'd felt like she could relax enough in a while. Besides that the rest of her friends were somewhat busy and also easy to access around the same time, and she'd not noticed the complete absence of Iino Miko which meant she was in the same boat. "Spring Break of that year is about right for me too... I didn't get here under the same circumstances, but I was seeing one of the related movies..." Martha mentioned of her own mishaps. Perhaps... they were all about to find themselves potentially back around the time periods they left from, but there was always another question looming in the distance. Who would be leaving and trying it out first?

[Bloodedge]

Charlemagne disappeared from their original world during spring break. Yume and Martha confirmed an absence during the same time period, and Astolfo often complained about his own lost spring break oh so long ago. The only missing note from their world was Anais, but he figured she would have said something if things were different in her case. "Is it the same for all of us then? If so, it's worth trying out," said Charlemagne.

There was indeed one thing remaining ─ that being the matter of who would be making the test trip. That wasn't much of a question, though. Charlemagne would undoubtedly be volunteering himself to go, but they would first have to address matters of importance within this world. "All that aside, I should address what I called you all for. Assuming a general rundown has already been given, the goal is to follow the trace of the Holy Grail. I can... sort of feel it in the atmosphere now. There's one that feels really big, and one that feels like it's been fading away more since yesterday. Someone tell me if it sounds wrong, but I made my suggestion earlier thinking the current big signal will start to fade only when a new one appears. We'll basically be chasing spots if I'm right. So... I thought it would be good to cut the time with periodic trips to the other world, once we've gotten to the active spot ─ until the next one is big enough to follow. It wouldn't be good to run into Aincrad's grail expedition if they're using the same method we are, and I doubt they could find us in another world if Ten─... Yuuya's door is barriered. We'd just have to figure out how much time there is between pulses, which we could probably gather on the way to the current one," he rambled.

Whether the others were onboard with his line of thinking or not, Charlemagne found it more imperative to find the first trace of the next Holy Grail. It felt large, yet distant to him. Ah, but they were on an island of Chaldea. Most important of all would be finding their way off this island without requiring more of the Holy Knights. "First we need to get out of here. Annie, can you do your thing?"

[Apollymi]

Was it the case that all of them had gone missing around spring break. "Hai, that seems to be the case..." Anais confirmed her own placement in this. It'd taken quite a while for her to go through her own mind just a bit. Of course, it would be fine for them to go back regardless, if everything worked the way they thought it might. And moving on from this, there were the facts of their coming adventure. Charles would be following a feeling related to the soon to be spawning grail and then find it. Apparently it would also be reasonable for them to avoid people from Aincrad. "Well, avoiding the enemy would be a good thing. So would spying on them... we did a campaign like that once..." Yume mentioned seeming to give it a bit of thought. "As for the timing of the whole thing, you'd probably need about three to get a good feeling for it. And account for variation between the pulses," Martha added. A sample size of preferably an odd number to make sure of frequency.

No one could immediately think of anything to say against the lad's decision and no one had any immediate arguments to his thoughts. Actually, the plan seemed like one anyone would follow with the ability to come back to the magical world and not be stuck in their previously mundane lives. Speaking of the previously mundane, Anais was called upon to do her thing. Scouting was one of her primary uses within the party that they both belonged to, and in this case, she figured she was to find them modes of transportation which would allow them to move from this island to the next, since none of them had a vehicle big enough for all of them. She'd done this sort of thing several times before, though this land was a bit more advanced than others. "Hai hai, just a second..." Anais mentioned. She stood then moving and taking a deep breath. She pulsed her mana outward making use of her sensory abilities to track the animals nearby so that they could find something to help them cross the area. Of course, in using her power this way, she received a much wider range on her abilities than she had originally. The feeling of her mana spreading out like this and bouncing along other things led her to several groups of animals spread out over the entirety of the island. She was marking them mentally, keeping track of their positions relative to where they were currently located... it would take a moment for her to organize the information and all the while Martha would be watching with a raised brow. "And for the uninitiated what exactly is she doing?" she whispered not wanting to interrupt the girl's concentration.

[Bloodedge]

With Anais chiming in, it was confirmed that they could all return to Gaia. Charlemagne nodded, knowing this idea could at least have a great deal of potential behind it. As for Yume's addition, he had but a single qualm. "Spying on them isn't inherently a bad idea. I can't outright agree with it though, because we don't know who we'll be dealing with yet. I'm almost certain there will be Templars in the area at some point. If we happen to find out who's in the group, we might be able to keep tabs on them. There are a lot of potential hard counters for some of us though," he added. With that, there was Martha's addition to the conversation. She suggested that three be used as a sample size for grail signs. Frankly, Charlemagne agreed. "That's solid. We'll keep track until three ─ no messing around with the time part until we've got solid numbers."

Upon request, Anais went about scanning the vicinity for creatures. She'd been proving invaluable for that ability, especially on their most recent expedition from Aincrad. Ah, but Martha spoke while her scan was being performed. She was not a member of their group, and thus had no knowledge of the 'thing' Anais did. Charlemagne had no issues explaining for a comrade. "She's scanning for creatures. We wouldn't want to ask if you guys have ships or anything, since there's a chance of it being destroyed when we're out. So, she's checking for any flying creatures we might use to get to other lands up here," he explained casually.

[Apollymi]

According to Charles, spying on the enemy wasn't a bad idea. Though he did claim that some might have a few hard counters to them as a group. Well that was better in the thoughts of someone like Yume who thought that knowing what was coming up would make it potentially that much easier to deal with. Besides that if they can keep ahead of their competition they could control the flow of the upcoming interactions a bit better. "Sou ka, I'll keep it in mind..." mentioned Yume as she figured she'd likely be at least a little involved with such a task if it came up. Beyond that there was the idea put forth by Martha which entailed three points of tracking before deciding officially on timing, and that was also called solid and accepted. It was good to have such a smooth planning session. Martha would nod to that before her final question was answered. Apparently the lass who'd introduced herself properly this morning as Anais, was scanning the area for creatures they could use as transport. As far as skills went that one seemed a bit specialized for someone who was a healer. "So, she's like an animal whisperer/scout and a healer?" she said seeming to find the mix odd but, she supposed having a varied set of abilities was likely good for adventuring as someone like Charles would have undertaken it.

"Scout huh? I could see that..." Yume mentioned seemingly amused by the comparison. After that speech hand ended Anais opened her eyes and seemed to be gathering her thoughts. "That was a bit wider range than I expected," she murmured softly. "I... scanned the whole island and there are a few griffins to the west," she commented. "Some wyverns nesting by the mountain," she added while pointing. And then...she turn looked towards the southeast of the mountain directly... "There is something winged and equine gathered up over there. I'm not sure what it is, but there are multiples," she added having come to her own conclusions about that. The wildlife of this place was rather varied but as far as flying creatures that could be used as mounts were concerned, those flying horses were likely their best bet.

[Bloodedge]

What Martha gathered of Anais's overall ability was rather spot-on, yet also far from the whole truth. Since he was already on a roll with card game references, Charlemagne found it surprisingly easy to make a more accurate claim for the Twelve Peers' resident elafia. "Among other things, yeah. I'd rather say... a staple. One that probably needs a nerf, but one that'll still be played even if they absolutely nerf it into the ground," he countered. Some cards were unfair. If his own group became a series of trading cards, any deck variant he had would surely feature Anais and all associated spells as a core engine. Actually... now that he thought about it, he did intend to do something about creating trading cards in this world, as per an earlier conversation with Angelica. Maybe he now had some inspiration.

Once Anais completed her scan, she made clear the fact that it was more powerful than it was previously. Charlemagne stared at the elafia, sporting a deadpan expression with a glint of understanding in his eye... and something else. "Yeah. You should be nerfed," he said absently. As for what she found, the first mention was particularly interesting. A griffin would be an incredible familiar and support creature, but taming even one was nigh impossible. "Ugh. One the right size would carry three people, but... the problem would be taming even one. Astolfo and Martha are the only ones with confirmed ability to ride draconian species, so I guess our best bet is the... err... I want to assume pegasus, but I don't think they group up like that."

While the discussion neared its end, Ailen decided to insert himself. He'd been sitting on a nearby bench while the others discussed their upcoming journey. Quite a few things had his interest, but he seemed bent on fiddling with a few weeds and twigs taken from the nearby area. Finally, he had something to add. "It is likely a form of pegasus most closely connected to darkness. There are some heavy traces of demonic activity in the area, so these creatures were surely attracted to it ─ as that breed would be attracted to each other."