Suddenly, the golden doors behind the throne at the end of the table opened and Draven emerged, an entourage of servants and two heavily armed guards behind him. The servants scurried to set his place before he arrived, and the two guards waited at the door.
"Ahh, welcome..."
He held out both arms as the said this, his cape flowing behind him (which he had changed to a new clean one, still black but with much more defined gold trim).
A female servant nervously filled his glass as he stepped closer. She knew it absolutely had to be filled before he sat down, and not a drop spilt, or else... She succeeded with inches to spare, and leapt out of the emperor's way as he sat.
Draven took the glass and sipped it, holding the glass like a cocktail and swirling the liquid gently when he was finished. He brought his left hand up and flipped out his fingers, signaling the servants to leave-- and they did so, rather quickly.
"So it seems with Ragnar still out there, we have to work together a while longer."
He sat back casually, the glass still in his hand.
"As I've said, he'll likely try to attack me. The poor fool... But you see, there are many points to attack. All of my fortresses, my most important locations, are quite well equipped to counter him. If he thinks his pathetic island storm trick was a defense, well heh..."
He took another sip from the glass.
"These fortresses are North Point near the northern shores, Bandervil in the center of the continent, Sigmund to the far west, Redvik to the south, and of course, the Crimson Capital right here."
(Redvik would be just north of Laus, where Draven, as Lars, got the airship in Chapter 4)
(The Crimson Capital is sort of north-easternly positioned, next to a small gulf that connects to the sea.)
He continued on.
"Now my point is two fold. Firstly, Ragnar would be unlikely to attack these points, unless his only goal is to attract attention. Secondly, all of our talent in one place is a waste. My suggestion, my formidable warriors, is to split up and occupy a few of the smaller towns, which, although I have provided them with a military presence, would be quite out matched against our mad friend, and losing them, while not truely significant, would be a sizable loss none-the-less.
"How does this sound? It would certainly increase our response time, wherever he may strike..."
He sat the glass down and brought his fingertips together before him.
----
The two soldiers were blasted away by Aura's attack, literally doing flips in the air before landing on the ground in two thuds, motionless...
The gates opened and a red caped man exited, walking calmly towards the woman.
"Forgive their rudeness, madam. If you are interested in enlisting, we always accept talented individuals as yourself. Right this way."
He turned flipping his cape, and lead the way into the gates.
----
(Yammy, let's pick up here. Valos ordered your cloaked character arrested before he left.)
After Valos and the others left towards the palace. Three of the remaining guards approached the cloaked man, two on each side and one behind. The two soldiers on the sides grabbed the man's arms roughly, and the third pressed his sword against the man's back.
"All right. Let's go."
(The three generic soldiers being NPCs, you can control them yourself in your next post, just try and keep them in character. The setting is the Crimson Capital city, a busy street, and the place is crawling with soldiers.)
