Meeting of Shadows

As of late, Scale Emblem has had their hands full with the war efforts against the Palace Lands. There have been multiple attacks on the Isle of Beginnings as well as upon the Tower, itself. They have built up some measure of defenses, including a checkpoint where each and every person entering the Tower is questioned before being allowed within.

Kita has been at the heart of these defensive efforts, though much of her free time has been spent working on her woodworking skills, something meant to eventually contribute more to the various projects that Scale Emblem has in the perverbial 'wood works'.

Today, however, is different than the norm. Someone from outside Scale Emblem has sought her out, seemingly for mysterious purposes. Thankfully, the blue-haired Imp is relatively easy to find. She is just outside of a shop in Tolbana where the girl can be found sitting in a chair, working with some tools on what seems to be the spikes for some sort of defensive spike wall.

She is dressed casually, wearing a simple white, button-up shirt and trousers, lacking her usual black-mage styling in favor of what is easiest for getting the job done at the moment.

Yeowang has come to Tolbana to meet the person that she was instructed to contact. Her hair is down, for those that know her, it means she's not expecting to fight, though she's wearing her normal adventuring gear apart from that: black pants and coat, buttoned nearly to her throat. There are a couple strange looks when she's Inspected by the people on watch, not many from NWA come this high in the Tower.

She's been given a location to meet Kita, since she doesn't know her to look at, but when she's close enough to do an Inspect, herself, she can see that the person waiting where she expects is the person she expects to be waiting for her. "Good evening," she says aloud. "I am Yeowang, I spoke with you by chim earlier."

She will close to a more conversational distance, her hand extended to shake, in the western manner. This close, someone looking for a mark on her finger might notice it.

A knife runs over one of the spikes that Kita is working with, the gesture enough to look momentarily menacing before she sets both to the side and pushes her glasses up on her nose. The girl's blue-gray eyes peer out from beneath white bangs as she takes in the individual in front of her.

Then, dusting her hands off, she gets to her feet, Imp whipcord tail twitching behind her as she offers out her own hand to shake in return. "Kita Blackthorne." While Yeowang's Shadow Council mark might be more visible, Kita's is not. She completes the greeting, then can be seen unbuttoning the top of her shirt in a manner that some might find provokative.

However, it becomes clear that the black sleeves she wears go all the way up along her arms, strapped together across her chest. She unties one of them, then reaches up her sleeve to roll down the thin fabric. At this point, it might be moer obvious why she covers her arms this way, as a number of pale scars are visible along her arms. At the end, she removes the last of the glove, offering out the underside of her hand where the distinctive mark is visible at the base of her middle finger.

"So, we do appear to have some friends in common." Kita offers as she starts to put the glove back in, looking curiously at Yeowang. "Come with me." She motions in to the shop. It clearly doesn't belong to her, but has been cleared out for her use and is out of the regular view and hearing of most others. Only once inside with the door shut behind them does she raise her brows. "So, what is this about?"

Yeowang's eyebrows arch as Kita starts ... disrobing, it seems at first, before it becomes apparent it's just a complicated arrangement so she can see the evidence of Kita's bona fides. Well, mages do things differently, she's seen that enough in her time with the game, and she will just have to deal with it. While her own mark is not precisely concealed, the handshake and close inspection of her hand reveal the trademark callouses of an unarmed martial artist, and few are likely to notice or question marks on her hands.

She nods about having friends in common, and will follow when Kita instructs her. Once inside, when Kita speaks plainly, she breathes a sigh of relief. "I am used to high level discussions, but not the level of secrecy our friends insist upon," she says.

As to what this is about, she will speak plainly, "I was instructed specifically to seek you out and to aid you in the operation that you are currently undertaking regarding a recent threat. That's all the information I was given."

By the time they have been inside a moment or two, Kita has already tied the long gloves back into place, flexing her fingers and making sure the fabric sits well against her skin. If she is at all bothered by having to reveal not only the mark, but those scars as well, she doesn't show it on the surface.

"I'm more used to subterfuge, I suppose, though that's mostly a hold over from the real world." Kita leans back a little against one of the work tables in the shop. "Not that I have any of the game stats to back it up." She smiles, seeming amused by that. "Still, they must have seen something in you to invite you into their ranks."

Drawing her hand back to pull some hair out of her eyes and back behind one earring-decorated ear, Kita seems curious, her brows raised at the notion Yeowang brings to her. "That's... vague." She hrms, and then props herself back up on the table, legs dangling in front of her. "There's a lot of threats right now." One finger sort of waves around, as if encompassing everything that Yamato is going through right now.

"Or do you think they mean my last mission for them?" Kita asks, "Though I wouldn't call that an 'active' operation by any means. I delivered the information they asked, and I haven't heard anything since then."

Yeowang was certainly not bothered by the scars. A much more physical person, herself, she'd probably have them if her real life hadn't been as protected as it was. She arches a brow at Kita being used to subterfuge in real life. Another thing she doesn't have going for her.

As to what they saw in her, she can only shrug. "I get things done," she will allow as far as her qualifications go. "At least as far as business and finance. I manage the Red Chain," she adds, referring to the Red Cross-like organization NWA set up to aid Landers after the Waves, "among other things." She's not sure if Kita knows how closely associated she is with the Ninetails bank, but that's neither here nor there, exactly, so she will leave that out.

As to what she's supposed to help Kita with, she can onlt shrug at Kita's report. "My exact orders were to speak to you about 'a recent threat that has shown up', so that I can also keep an eye out."

As far as her other orders, "I have also been tasked with focusing on overseas operations against the Palace Landers, and in light of our lack of naval capability, I thought it prudent to put together a new shipbuilding capability that will, in time, deliver us the means to take the fight to the Palace Lands."

"I mostly work here." Kita motions around Tolbana. "Aiding the Spriggans who had to flee from their homeland in Ezzo and have found a new home in Tolbana. And now the refugees from Eas who have come here seeking safety." Her expression seems a bit tight at that, "Though, even our defenses aren't perfect. Threats still find a way, no matter how well we try to keep them at bay."

There is much in Kita's movements and posture that suggest she is actually relatively young in the real world. Likely, she's either late teens or early twenties, if her appeance is body-scanned, which seems likely. It seems a lot to put on the shoulders of one so young.

"Well, I can tell you what I know." She swipes one of those gloved hands through the air, opening up her inventory and causing a strange book to appear in her hands. It has all the signs of being a relic. As she flips through the pages, it never seems to get closer to the end of the book, as if there were simply endless pages within.

Eventually, she stops at a drawing of a person mounted on wyvern-back. "This is what they sent me to investigate. Wyverns spotted near Ezzo. What we found was that it wasn't just wyverns, but Wyvernriders. And then even more strangely, not just Wyvernriders, but riders from an entirely other server than those we've discovered."

Yeowang nods slowly about Kita working here in Tolbana. "I see," she replies, her tone implying understanding. "There is a great deal to do in any organization," she agrees in the tones of one who knows. She does know a bit about organization and the complexity needed to make it all work. "Threats will always find a way. They don't stop working until they do. You can only stay ahead by working tirelessly, and you can never stay far /enough/ ahead to rest."

She is a body scan also, so the age she looks is the age she is, and she seems to take Kita's competence and capability as given. The organization would not have put faith in her if she couldn't perform, and her own background in RL is sufficient that she's willing to take the capability of others on faith when it's logical to do so. There's no reason to doubt Kita at this point.

She hrms as Kita relays the news of another cross-server visitor, and says, "Now that is a matter of some import. Have you met any of these wyvern riders from another server? Have you organized any voyages to find this other server? It may be possible to make allies of them, though at this point, I think the risk, if they are not amenable, may be too great."

As Yeowang begins to offer up questions, Kita turns the page in her book, revealing a close up sketch of a woman in armor with a wyvern behind it. Each of the drawings is remarkably detailed, and perhaps a bit familiar. Kita's work is most well known for it's role in the Lost Adventurer Network during the early days of the game, where people would post sketches in the Root Cities of lost loved ones they were searching for connections with.

"I spoke with this one. She claimed to be one of the Wyvernriders of Londonia. It's... something I'm still researching, but obviously the war has kept me pretty isolated here until recently. Not much time to dig through books." The Imp admits with a twitch of her tail.

"She warned of some sort of group called the 'Dark Territory' which apparently had some kind of power where she came from. That they sent monsters that looked black and could threaten a Cosmosphere. She said we'd know them when we saw them, and not to travel beyond our boarders until she could confirm that it was safe for us to do so. That we might have only escaped their notice because we have been isolated."

Kita swipes her hand again, stowing the sketchbook. "She came from the East. A few people I talked to from Scale Emblem think she might have come from as far away as the European server. But... she was a Lander, not an Adventurer. And she had the power to threaten Cosmospheres, herself. I saw her pretty much drop a tactical nuke of light energy onto another Wyvernrider."

Yeowang had heard of the lost adventurer network, but when she found out that Yamato was isolated from the Palace Lands, she disregarded that. But now we've regained contact, she's reminded of this way to possibly make contact with ... but that's not important now. She'll have to make contact later about that.

She nods about having spoken with the Wyvern Rider, but shakes her head. She's a zero on Lore, sad to say.

She winces at the recommendation to not travel beyond our borders; with the opening of the Palace Lands, that's clearly a bust. "I'm not familiar with that organization," she says of Dark Territory. "I will remain alert, and let you know if anything is discovered by NWA. The Alliance is primarily concerned with recovering Shibuya, but our leadership plays very tightly with their secrets and I don't know much about our plans. I fear we don't have any and everyone's waiting for someone else to move, because that's what it /feels/ like, but I am never sure." She sounds unhappy about that. She likes being sure. She likes planning, and she's reasonably good at it.

"So, Landers from the European server are also more powerful than us. I am curious what makes Yamato different than other servers. We have done quite a few things differently, it seems." But that, too, is neither here nor there.

"Pease let me know if and how I can aid you. The Red Chain is of course ready to assist the Landers, though mostly they're outside the Tower in Yamato, as the Palace Landers are causing more trouble than the Waves ever did."

"I don't get the idea that this particular Lander was the 'average' sort. The fact that they were able to ride a Wyvern shows that it is way more than that. My theory is that she may be the level of one of our Kingdom Heroes or something of the sort." Kita explains, though a lift of her shoulders suggests that she isn't entirely certain about this fact.

"I was given leave to share some of this information with my Alliance, and I have some people helping me research the Wyvernriders and keep an eye out for the dark creatures that were described, but... I'd play things close to the chest, regardless." The Imp leans a bit forward, pushing her glasses up on her nose as she explains, "This isn't about Scale Emblem or New World, or even Olympus. We've already got threats on one side, we don't want people bringing in a new one while we're vulnerable, right?"

She seems to consider if there is anything that might be able to be done, brows furrowing. "The book I've been studying, I fear, may be more propoganda than actual real information. If you, or anyone of your people has enough knowledge of books or research and might be able to track down a better book on the Wyvernriders, or anything else associated with Londonia or Franciscus, that might be a place for us to start."

After a pause, she adds, "And obviously, if you run across dark creatures that threaten Cosmospheres, pass it along immediately. She said we would 'know them when we saw them'." Kita even air-quotes around those words.

Yeowang nods gravely about the Lander being quite special. "A hero Lander, then. Well, that is good information to have, however it may come to us." As far as news of powerful Landers goes, she will admit, "The Palace Lands have a few powerful Landers also, but they are primarily rulers of kingdoms."

She nods about things that can be shared and what must be played close to the chest. "I will relay only the tidbits that we are given leave to relay," she will assure Kita, agreeing, "This is certainly larger than our Alliances. Mine is notable for poor judgement, sadly, and I do not think they will correct themselves soon. But we will do what may be done."

She hrms about the book, and says, "I will speak to our Librarian, she may know more. She is an astrologer, which is apparently a sort of information source in this game. And I will put word out that things that threaten Cosmospheres should be reported, though I think if anyone /I/ know in our Alliance met such a creature, the chim would blaze like noonday sun for all the chatter."

"Alliances are made up of people, and people are imperfect, thus so are the Alliances." Kita says as if this explains much of the tendency for the different groups to sometimes interact in ways that can be troublesome. "Scale Emblem causes our fair share of trouble, as I'm sure you're well aware. But there's no need to hash that out, here."

The Shadow Council cares about protecting Yamato, so it seems that Kita must align to their ways. Perhaps her protection of the Spriggan landers of Ezzo is the likely reason for that, moreso than her willingness to fight to escape to the real world.

"I'll keep looking form my end as I have time, but I appreciate the help." Then, with a pause, she adds, ruefully. "I'm not sure that there's much else I can tell you. It's troubling enough that our threats won't end with the Palace Landers. It seems like they will only keep coming, but at least... we have time to prepare for whatever lies out there, if we're wise enough to be watchful early."

Yeowang nods about Alliances being made of imperfect people. "Thank you for being understanding," she replies. "As far as trouble, I do not consider the Waves trouble, per se. They're a game mechanic, and must be dealt with. If there were no wave, every player in the game would be pushing the Tower. The Waves force us to divide our resourcess." She nods about not hashing it out any further here. It's neither the time nor the place.

She nods about looking from your end. "Now that I know what to be alert for, NWA will remain alert also. I can't tell them anything at all, none of them are much for maintainin confidences in the long term, I think, but I will certainly hear of anything such as you describe has been seen. A side benefit to them being chatty."

"We'll keep in touch, then. I'll update you if I hear anything from my side." Kita hops down off the table then, looking around the workshop. "In the mean time, I need to get back to work. We've got some defenses that need building and it's a good place to put my training to good use."

She leads the way out of the store, holding the door open for Yeowang, "Stay safe, if you can. For whatever good that does us these days." A smirk plays on the Imp's lips as she settles back down to her carving. None of it is advanced work, but it is work none the less that needs to be done.