Quest To What Of A Knight..

[Richard Burke]

Richard had never undertaken anything of such importance before, never have so many lives counted on him to do his job, and to do it well. He was visibly shaken, many thoughts swirled around his head. At first resolve, then doubt, then fear, then anger, before coming back to resolve. The cycle was going to start again, he copuld already feel the doubt ffraying the edge of his mind. He breathed slowly and tried to calm himself.

"I am throughly mortified," he said with a chuckle, trying to makehimself feel better, "but, I've never been more prepared in my life." He was already feeling better getting that off his mind. Now other. Ideas filled his. Head, plans, and tacticts. He was trained in these after all. Maybe something he learned would come in handy.

"I have too many ideas for any of them to be helpful, and one of them involves a crate." He said, trying to make light of the situation, he was dead serious though. He took a second deep breath, "let's start with a map of the city, and one of the garden."

[Arkale]

A grin crossed the Knight's face. A crate? It was an interesting way to begin a plan, and certainly caught the knight's attention. At the mention of a map, Arkale moved over to his desk and pulled out a rolled paper. It was a basic map of Syliras, and he unrolled it and spread it across his desk, placing an ink pot in one corner, a pair of mizas in another, and a book and candle on the remaining corners to prevent the map from curling. It was by no means detailed, but it would serve its purpose for the time being, after all, Arkale fully intended to scope out the gardens before actually executing any plans. "Feel free to explain this plan in full." The Knight asked, overly curious about the crate. A bunch of comical ideas sprang to mind, including an idea of a spring loaded jester catapulting from the box and scaring the ever loving spirit out of the moles. A smirk crossed the Knight's face, but he quickly swatted it away, after all, this was serious, and distractions could cause an oversight.

[Richard Burke]

Richard slowed himself down, giving him time to think. He knew Arkale had magic, auristics, and.... Voiding, that was it. He, however did not understand how exactly they worked, but aurisitics seemed to be the must useful in this situation.

"At first, I was planning of waiting randomly in the garden inside of a crate" he paused looking at the map, the garden had many enterances, and was rather large. "If you could act thae part of a gardener however, using a large crate for me to hide in" he started talking faster, the plan coming to fruition in his head "and search for the two suspicious peoples, and tuck the crate to the side, like it is meant to be there" he was speeking rapidly now, "I could listen to the conversation, without notice."

He looked hopeful, the plan was sort of fanciful, and had many things to go wrong, but people never expected the crazy.

[Arkale]

To say that the Squire was anything but creative would be an outright lie, and Arkale would simply not stand for it. Richard was creative, and one day that would save his life...or maybe even Arkale's. Hell, the boy had the potential to save all of Syliras! Though, Arkale was not so quick to jump on the boy's plan, after all, he wanted to bounce some ideas around, weigh the options and see which would be the best. Without a word, Arkale walked over to his desk, picked up a vial of ink (in-fact, the one that had spilled earlier) and walked over to his armor rack. Upon the breastplate, near the collar, was the delicate engraving of a tree, The Windoak. The Knight admired the engraving for a moment, before upending the remaining ink onto the metal. The black liquid dripped down the armor and stained the metal with a dark color. Moving quickly, Arkale walked to his wardrobe, picked up a rather dirty rag he had used to shine his boots, and began to rub the ink into the metal. After a few moments, he stepped back and admired his new breastplate...though it looked new by no means. In fact, the piece looked as though it had been salvaged from the bottom of a lake and dragged through mud...certainly not the armor of a Knight.

"What about this? We make some disguises, pose as gruff mercinaries passing through the city, and then just wait and listen. Once the group disperses, we follow one home, and then trap him...after applying some...persuasion, we learn what he knows, then drop him in the tank." Arkale was rather proud of his plan, and it prevented him from having to carry a crate filled with Richard. Waiting for a response, Arkale continued to admire his blackened armor, deciding on how to finish the disguise.

[Richard Burke]

Richard looked in shock as Arkale smeared the symbol of the Windoak with ink, grease, and sweat, even though Richard revered all gods, he especially revered the ones that upheld the tenants of the Knighthood. It felt like he was spitting on the Windoak itself, but he quickly saw that it was a foolish notion, a symbol of a god, is not the god itself, and it had no meaning, other than to hide it. He thougt, where would his patron go with this, surely, a simpler plan was in order.

Richard slowly put together what Arkale was doing, and it made perfect sense. The garden was a public place, and the city was full of mercanaries, and other riff raff, who would also enjoy the solitude of the garden. It was an ironic meeting place, as the garden represented the fallen knights who fought to build the city. Richard almost felt bad, walking through such a sacred place in dirty plate mail. What was worse, was the petching scum who were using the garden to plot a vile attack on the city, and those who dwelled withen.

"I think that would work." it was indeed a much more simple plan, with fewer moving parts than Richard's plan. He thought, and thought that he would probally end up cleaning the dirty plate. He chuckled quietly to himself, trying to make the situation feel much less terrifying, he thought that these private jokes would make him feel much better. "I will do the same to my plate. And, when this is all over, I suppose I will have to clean them too."

[Arkale]

"Ha, wouldn't want you to get complacent in your studies would we?" Arkale jested, he knew Richard had exceeded expectations this far, and never once had the lad let him down during a training session or any learning excersise. If Arkale could tell anything about this boy's future from the little time he had been his patron, he knew that this boy would never grow complacent or arrogant. It was a quality Arkale respected and hoped that he exhibited as well.

The Knight took a look at his armor and regarded it for a moment. This mission would be taking place at night, so stealth might be a necessity. The ink and grime would prevent the armor from being reflective, and for added effect, Arkale took a simple travelling cloak from his wardrobe and draped it over the shoulders of the armor, with the hood up it would provide even more stealthy cover, but still Arkale was faced with a rather difficult problem...plate armor was by no means silent...and the clanking noise that accompanied the Knight's movements would simply broadcast his location to any and all within ear shot...and something needed to be done about that...he had the rest of the day and night to think about the puzzle but for now there were other preparations that needed to be made.

"What I would like to do before we get to carried away with planning and making things solid, is to go down and take a walk around the Stone Gardens, get a better feel of the area. I want to know the terrain better than the enemy, because in a situation like this, any advantage will help. So, when your ready, lets go and then we will come back to finish planning."

[Richard Burke]

Richard thought it over, there really was no detailed map of the city, "We should take some parchment with us, and take some detailed notes of the park, the ins and outs." Richard enjoyed his bantor with Arkale, while many of the knights were intelligent, they would not have stood for anynonsense, and would not have asked their squire his thoughts. Bantor was healthy for any partnership, so Richard was able to give his all to his patron.

Richard looked at the plate, if there was a way to make the armor more stealthy, he didnt know it. None of the lessons he had ever listend to had ever been about stealth. He didnt know that the knights would have ever participated in such an endeavor. It didnt seem honorable, but when your foes did such acts, it only made sense that the knights would have an answer to that unsavory tactic.

Richard then continued "Im ready to leave. Lead the way, ser" He would follow this through to the end, and he knew Arkale would too. This city would preservere, Richard would make sure of that.

[Arkale]

The duo made their way out of the Knight's section of apartments and down form the third tier and out of the keep altogether. After having lived in Syliras for a few years, Arakle roughly knew where the Garden of Stones was, and he was confident his Squire would be able to navigate if by some stroke of bad luck, the Knight were to get lost.

Stepping out from the keep into the wind and air of the open sky always forced Arkale to take a deep breath and revel in the fresh air. Living within the keep came with some drawbacks, one of which was having the stagnet air that filled the stone walls. All in all it wasn't a bad trade, forfeiting an open sky and fresh air for safety. If only everyone in Syliras could understand that, the city would be that much better of a place to live and thrive. Such as it was, Syliras was filled with a lot of rather depressing people...maybe it was the winter, cold weather and lack of sun had a way of affecting people on an emotional level.

Well either way, and with one thing or another, the pair arrived at the Stone Garden. Arkale moved along the rows of stones and offered a short silent prayer to the Windoak. Arkale wished he could one day honor the Windoak and Syliras as these fallen knights have...though he hoped he would also be alive to witness the world he helped forge.

[Richard Burke]

Richard always enjoyed the garden, he came here when he could for quiet contemplation, and reverence of the fallen. He bowed his head, and said a prayer to Dira, asking for swift passage to whatever afterlife there was, for the men and women who had given their lives for the city, and the people who lived here.

But he was here for something more important that reverence, he had to study the garden and look for anything that may be important later tonight. He looked for and shrubs and trees that could hide a Knight clad in plate. He noted where people where likely to enter and leave the garden.

He tried to study the people, but he couldnt tell anything about them, so he want back to looking for a place for the knights where the entire garden could be seen, and heard. But, the garden was too large, and obscured for anything too solid.

[Accolade]

Night soon fell upon the city and they were once again greeted by Leth's. Torches and lanterns were lit in preparation for the night life that many people enjoyed. It seemed that sometimes the city was restless and there were just as many people out and about during the night time as their were during the way. This would be such a night and the streets were filled with people.

The Garden of Stones was silent however and only a few people were still inside paying their respects. Arkale and Richard would have been there for bells now casing out the place and watching for signs of the people they were there to find. It took another bell before someone new entered. There was nothing unusual about the man, just style of clothing common and the silence of his pants showing how much coin he didn't have, put him right along with many who lived in the city.

If Arkale, or Richard for that matter payed close attention they might note the markings of a Drykus along the man's neck and the side of his face. He moved into the square, looking about at the stones as if searching for one that he knew. He then moved around and to the other side where another small man was standing, one that the Knight or Squire were yet to notice. The men didn't speak for a time, and to most it would seem as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

Several chimes passed and another entered the square. A medium build, average height and wearing clothing of a bit more expense. He walked past the two men, stopping a pace away before speaking in a lowered tone.

"Our meeting has been compromised. Let's move to the Spinning coin to continue this, we won't be interrupted there." Once he was done talking, the man simply headed out of the square and the garden as well. The other two men stood around for a few chimes longer then one by one they also left and headed to the spinning coin. If Arkale or Richard wasn't familiar with the place and it's location, it would be best if they followed closely so that they didn't lose the men in the night's crowd.