"You have such little faith in me. I made sure the waiver wouldn't be noticed. There was only several dozen others. And besides, do you really think I would haul you out here and then let someone kill you? I'm not the person that was dragged screaming into prison for pushing his luck Carolina. He died in the mines. And, I'm sorry you found out about who I was the hard way, truly I am. When you boil it down, I was the one that screwed up. Screwed up royally. I'm trying to give up stealing now, and I'm trying to get rid of what I am. This place that I got us into? Sold a sword I'd found, then helped the owner of this place find a necklace he'd gotten for his daughter but lost. I could've just as easily snuck in, stolen countless items, and then sold them to various venders for inflated prices. In the end, all I want to say is I'm sorry. Sorry for what I was, and sorry for hiding it." He leaned back.

"Yet you still stole something to help get me here in the first place, whereas you could have just waited until after this whole war thing was over to do this 'forgiveness' speech." She drank a little bit more, looking away. "I really trusted you back then. You were one of my closest friends... at least I thought you were."

Arc visibly winced at that. "Hey, birds gotta' swim, theives gotta' steal. And besides, they were practically unguarded. One lock, a single pin. And I'm sorry. I stole, I lied, I hid stuff from you, and I misled you. But that's one of the things. I got contacts that have told me this war isn't going to end any time soon. The N'Revat government is just gonna' keep pushing, mostly via their new magitek. This means the enemies are gonna' fight dirtier. This means going for what's keeping a large chunk of the army going. The White Mages." He sighed and crossed his arms on the table.

"You still have that necklace I gave you?"

"They were loaded miss Elyse, but I would not suggest actually using them while we are still in the midst of our enemy." Luce said, having changed.

"Fine...fine...ok, but we should still help out the other prisoners." Elyse said, holstering her guns.

That said, a look of actual worry crossed her face. "N'revat is going to go further....? But I thought this was going to be all." But that wasn't the part that worried her really... Would they actually resort to doing something as low as going after the White Mages? If only she knew how close it had been this past battle...

At the comment about the necklace, she herself flinched a little, then slowly reached down into the front of her robes and pulled out a necklace that he had given her just before he had been caught and sent to the mines. "I guess I've just always kept it as a reminded of the person that I thought I knew..."

Ark produced an exact copy. "That isn't it, unfortunately. Before my big heists, I was too greedy and stuck up to think of you, and I stole it. This is the real thing. I kept it because it was kind of a sign to me of what I had become. Now, I want to get rid of it as a sort of sign of my redemption."

He handed it over to her, his head hung. He leaned back one last time and said, "I'm eternally sorry. It was like a disease, and I kept going without even thinking of anyone else. I got caught, and I had to think things through. Instead of my being invincible, I had to face pain for what I'd done. The worst pain was seeing you at the trial." He shrugged, and looked up. "I can make excuses for a life-time, and do my best to change who I am but that doesn't erase the past. All I can do is say that I'm sorry, which I truly am, and try to make it up to you."

OOC: SS is right - you don't send out forces without knowing exactly where you want them to go or do. Trust me on this.

BIC:

Dante arrived at the storage tent, and with a few well-chosen words and winks, he charmed his way past the bored-looking guard.

"Hey, you take care too honey!" he said as "Danae" entered.

Idiot. Now, to work...

"Danae" slipped through the dim lighting inside the tent with the grace of a shark throgh water. Some of the store assistants, boys without beards, smiled as "she" passed. "Danae" returned the smile and moved on. Eventually, she came to the central food store. A pimpled boy with a sword stood on guard.

Damn. Can't kill him, and he's got to stay here. A ruse is in order, I guess.

"Danae" decided to approach him with as timid an expression as she could manage.

"Erm... excuse me... could I get some food, please?"

The boy instantly sprang to attention as though Ciaran had just addressed him.

"Uh.. I don- I mean... Hm... no! I've been assigned to guard this store, and by God, I will!"

"Please?" "She" put on a plaintive, almost tearful expression and put her hands together as though in prayer in front of her. "We've been working day and night, and the others are starving.
Please, please let me get something for them..."

The boy waffled, obviously not knowing what to do.

"I could be thankful in... other ways..."

That clinched it.

"Um... well, it should be okay, I guess. Do you need any help?"

"No... not really... When does your shift end?"

"Around dinnertime, really.... could we meet... outside?"

"I suppose... but I really need to get the food now..."

"Danae" pushed her way into the covered storage area, cursing inwardly.

Damn adolescent boys, always thinking with the wrong head... No matter, he shall pay for his stupidity soon...

"Danae" first picked up a jug of water, then added a strange liquid to it. Then, taking a nearby cup, he proceeded to sprinkle the mixture over all the dried rations in here. "She" chuckled as she did so. This chemical was the live culture of an extremely potent bacteria. While it was not lethal, it was certainly unbearable, causing horrific vomiting and diarrhoea in its subjects. On top of that, it had been modified so that its dormant form ws resistant to most cleansing magics. "Danae" stopped sprinkling the water after all but a few packets had been contaminated, then took a few packages of food and left the jug on the ground. She smiled again at the young guard as she left, and headed towards the clothing store.

Deamon, who was drunk, saw a white mage walking around. She was carrying a jug, and being drunk, Deamon assumed it was beer or some other acoholic drink. He snuck up on her from behind, then grabbed onto her and turned her around, smiling and raising his jug. "Off to the party?" He pointed towards the tents where he started the celebration, falling over as he did so.

(OOC: Ok... Firstly, the troops are out in the middle of nowhere because it's on the border... they aren't really far into either Rab or N'Revat territory... this was a battle at the borders, to keep the other camp from marching on the opposing country. Someone lit some fires in the N'Revat camp to start the war... so far I'm thinking it was one of the PCs, but I'm not sure which one Ecurt has planned on taking responsibility for it. Secondly, military tactics in fantasy/medieval settings isn't like it is now... William the Conqueror and his opponent (I don't remember, cause the guy lost) scheduled a time, date, and place for a battle, winner take all. ANYWAY, I'm going to say they probably went to a small Rab village, maybe even Ripel's (he did say it was a border village) that was a ways away, maybe like... a day's worth of walking, as in if she left in the morning it would be twilight or night by the time she arrived? That would make the most sense. Can everyone agree on that? And it wouldn't necessarily take any changes to the posts already made. Also, it'd be cool, if when everyone agrees they'd delete that page or so worth of pure OOC posts, seeming as this is over 100 posts now, and the OOC posts account for more than enough of that. Oh, and Luce probably would have had to walk through a few antimagic fields to get to Elyse (or go the VERY long way around) but the tent she was in would not have it. It would have interfere with the white mages... and by interfere, I mean make them useless.)

The general nodded at Dezil and sipped his drink again, his smirk a bit quieter now, but still there.

"Very well. You may take as many soldiers, and any POWs that you think you can control, to help cut trees and repair the ship. You also have full authority to interegate any prisoners that were on the ship for any information that you may find useful. The weapons are also mostly unimportant... however, if you have time to repair them, do so. Bring me a list of everything that you will need when you are done looking over the ship, and I will send a messenger to N'Revat, requesting reinforcements for our Black Mages and Pikemen, as well as everything on the list... and more engineers if you need them. You will have until one week after all those materials arrive to complete it. Also, this is to take EQUAL precedence as the portable anti-magic generators, and for other troops, it is to take precedence over everything except for guarding the POWs. This is integral to my current plans for attack, and as such is quite important. Oh... and if you can place some generators in the ship, just in case something goes wrong, we may power them up and be mostly protected from enemy fire. At least from the mages. But leave an area in the front and bottom of the ship, which should have large 'window' which may be opened, without the fields. For our mages, to make up for any cannons which are not repaired."

Ciaran nodded after that rather long work order, and then looked at Dezil.

"This rather disappointing news does not change my respect for you, concerning your antimagic fields, and the recent battle. Just don't betray my faith in your ability to get this done. You are dismissed."

OOC: Even if we deleted them, it would still be at 100 or more...