Outside the inn

The commander of the patrol looked displeased when presented with a deluge a mess of conflicting stories, some of people caught outside similarly calling out their own version of events.

"I will have silence!"

It was a complex situation. Several armed people and at least two were capable of combat magic. His men had recognised the strange bunch around the wagon posed the greater threat and the majority of their attention and weaponry was thus focused on them.

He took a deep breath and started to see about sorting out this mess.

"You will all be detained and interviewed in order to in order build a true picture of events. You are to immediately remove any weapons you have upon your person and place them on the ground.

"Once this is done, I will indicate people one at a time. These people are to hand in their weapons to the person I designate and submit to the placement of temporary mana restrictors by our magus to prevent the use of magic. This restrictor will be removed and your belongings returned to you once these proceedings have concluded.

"You are to comply immediately."

* * *

Behind the inn

"Explain your intentions swiftly, or face dire consequences."

The unsavory character faced with this weighty ultimatum retorted thusly:

"Bugger off, you stupid bastard."

He started forwards, intending to run past Fallister.

OOC: Post delayed by me being disorganised sorry.

Gabriel glances around at his new comrades at the end of the speech, alarmed. He whispers to the prince.

"What should we do?"

Lucius very slowly shrugged his longsword off his shoulder. He looked at the patrol. If he did anything, they'd fill him with arrows, and no armor he could presently wear without being crushed would help him with that.

Note to self: buy a fucking shield.

He raised his hands. Internally, he kept priming himself; if anyone did anything drastic, he'd pick up his weapon and run, fast. But, externally, he was raising his hands and waiting patiently for others to set a path for him.

Repeating a famous line from the legends word for word, Fallister frowned and spoke. "That was a poor explanation."

He crouched slightly, and then spun, angling his sword so that it's flat side would, hopefully, strike his opponent in the leg as he attempted to pass.

If he did it wrong... things could get messy. And bloody. Fallister remembered a friend of his who had tried to duplicate this trick from the story, and had ended up taking his brother's leg clean off. Hopefully... Fallister had inherited Isaac Downsley's skill as well as his looks.

Roland gritted his teeth, to keep the nervous laughs inside his chest. The truth was, he wasn't sure what to do, and couldn't find an answer for Gabriel. If they ran then it would make finding the Wish Hex much more troublesome, with soldiers chasing after them. If they fought, though, they might not win.

Besides, resisting would be frowned upon. The only way they could get away with it was if it was self defense. Even then, did he want to have to kill an entire town, just to make it out of this?

Leaving his scepter in the ground, he stepped back, hands raised. He didn't want to give them any excuse to shoot him, before he had a plan.

He wasn't like Lucien after all, who wouldn't die even if he were struck with a mortal blow.

"What do we do?" he said, finally beginning to reply to Gabriel. "Nothing, at least right now."

(OOC: Just to note, Lucien doesn't actually know he's immortal, as I doubt he'd have been mortally injured since the wish)

Lucien looked about at the others questioningly, a nervous expression on his face. He'd never been in a situation like this, and all he wanted to do was run away. Very very quickly. The only thing stopping him was the damning knowledge that they'd catch him--that is if they didn't just riddle him with arrows from where they were.

After a moment his clammy hand grabbed the hilt of his sword, drawing it shakily and letting it fall to the ground before he backed away from it, raising his hands in the air as sweat broke out on his face, his stomach retching from fear in his gut.

"Great, we tried "diplomacy", can we try my plan now?" Vierin whispered to those around him. "I'll just raise a stone wall from the ground and we can run to the cart. I'm not handing myself over to the "town guard." He said town guard in tones people normally reserved for sewage cleaners.

Vierin was sweating slightly, it was difficult to keep himself from finishing the spell, he wanted to set it off and get moving. The sight of so many armed people staring at him didn't help much either.

"I'll just raise a stone wall from the ground and we can run to the cart. I'm not handing myself over to the "town guard."

"And then what?" Vaeri hissed back, audibly enough for anyone to hear her, "He'll dismiss the wall, you'll be shot, and then you'll be dead and they won't even let me give you the proper funery rites."

She angrily removes her sword from her belt and tosses it on the ground, "So be silent, or I'll shoot you myself." "At least then you won't die over it." she grumbles inwardly.

"Well, I'm sure you know best." Vierin said tightly. "I'm sure we'll easily be able to catch up to a group of horsemen who have a few days on us by wasting a few hours or days getting questioned." He smiled. "It isn't urgent anyway." He added smugly.

Vierin unsheathed his knives and put them on the ground, praying to any god that might be listening that no-one would recognize the spells on them. "For the record though, he can't actually dismiss the wall, it's all natural, I'm just raising it up."

To hell with questioning. This requires action. Gabriel steps up beside Vierin and whispers.

"You say you can make a wall. So can I. When I make mine, use your magic to make it bigger or stronger. Whatever you can do."

With that, he jumps to the front of the group and claps his hands together before slapping them on the ground. Sparks fly as atoms rearrange themselves and as much rock as he can move jutts out of the ground in front of the guards, or around them if he was capable. He glances back quickly to Vierin.

"Now!"

He prepares to manifest fire and draws a long dagger from his belt in preparation for the wall's likely destruction, despulsion, or stepping around by the guards and their mages.