Turning Point (Zenke)

Eliza waited patiently for Octavia in a tavern called The Wyvern's Rest, deep in the heart of the Human settlements of Lower Edia. Though she had complete faith in her friend and comrade, she still fidgeted slightly at what she had summoned Octavia for. Yesterday, Eliza had arrived at her mother's house for tea after her training drills with the Elite Guard, and Narissa Tallus had passed on a message she had received from an anonymous sender. The message was written in a familiar script, though she couldn't quite place it.

"Dear Narissa,

I sincerely hope you are keeping well. I apologise for the lack of contact in recent years, but I have no desire to endanger you or your family by being discovered in contact with one in exile. I have been keeping tabs on things in the capital since my departure from Edia, and I am aware of Alura's death and the impending installation of my 'successor' Armagand Kor as Primoris Rex. I think we can both agree that he would most likely bring chaos and death to both our nation and others if he is allowed to remain in that post, and so I have decided that now is the time to involve myself in Edia's current affairs once again.

To that end, I still wish to keep you and your family safe, but I will need Eliza’s help. Your daughter has grown up to be a steadfast and honourable young woman with a good moral compass, and it is these qualities that will make her vital to my plan. If I can convince her of some hard truths about her father, I believe this will persuade the Senate to... re-evaluate things. If she has any other allies that she can trust and rely on, they will also help this cause.

Eliza will need convincing, but I am convinced that once I show what I know, her honour and loyalty to our people will win out over her loyalty to her father. Feel free to show Eliza this message, and please ask her to meet me in the Vultani Jungle where she met her first Liger. She will know where this means. She must also come alone. I wish to remain hidden until I can be convinced of Eliza’s co-operation, and I swear to you on whatever I must that I am no threat to her.

Thank you for your time, Narissa, and I hope to see you again someday.

M. S.”

Eliza was intrigued, but also cautious. Her mother had shown her the note in its entirety, and it seemed to promise the shaking of the very foundations of the Kor family. Though her mother seemed to trust the sender, she had claimed to not know who the person was. Eliza trusted her mother, however, and she had agreed to go with an open mind. But she had secretly sent word to Octavia, in defiance of one of the note’s conditions, because Eliza trusted her implicitly, and thought it might be beneficial to provide a second viewpoint to whatever information this “M. S.” may offer. So she waited with a bowl of soup in front of her, for her friend to arrive.

Octavia sat astride saelie as the wyvern glided through the air, her blue green scales sparkling in the bright sunlight. They passed into the shadow of Edia's floating Islands as they approached the settlement below the larger Island that Eapara was built upon. The settlement was formed around a large well built fortress that housed the portal stone to the city about. It had four large gates with double portculises of heavy steel, leading into a large open courtyard. While it was kept open the majority of the time, and allowed visitors, in times of invasion the fortress could be locked down and would take a massive force to breach with any ease. Even then, only those with a pass, or draconic blood, could get to Upper edia through the portal stone, meaning invasion through the portal was nigh impossible.

Octavia wasn't interested in the stone of course, but a popular tavern in the the town itself called the Wyvern's Rest. She directed Saelie down into a courtyard in the back of the tavern that was for horses, but was large enough for a Wyvern. Saelie landed with a thump of wings and looked around. A single large horse stood in the stables, staring at the Wyvern who stared back with a look of interest. Octavia jumped down. "Don't even look at him, Saelie, that's a horse, not lunch." The wyvern let out a huff into the side of octavia's head and pushed her, nearly knocking her over. "Stay put and behave." Octavia siad, ducking another headbutt, and headed inside.

Upon entering the Tavern, she spotted Eliza sitting on the far side of the tavern. She found it unusual for Eliza to want meet somewhere other than in the Eerie or at her mothers, and even more unusual that it was in such a social enviroment, far out of reach of her father. Octavia crossed the room, ignoring the glances, and sat across from Eliza. "This is a new one for you. I'm going to assume you didn't bring me here so we could get drunk, so what's going on?" She asked, curious.

Eliza sipped on her soup nervously as her friend Octavia entered the tavern. The unusual nature of the rendazvous was not lost on the blonde, and after a brief humorous observation, she got down to business. As Octavia sat down, Eliza passed her the letter. "My mother received this anonymously this morning." Eliza gave Octavia time to read the letter before continuing. "My mother wouldn't tell me who the sender was, but she was happy to trust them. I was suspicious, but I think I know who it is." She lowered her voice to nearly a whisper. "I think it's Markus Styrus. He's belived to be dead, but my gut tells me that this was him." Eliza pointed to the line about the meeting place. "Only he and the others in my training class know about that Liger incident. My father swore them all to secrecy as he didn't want my failure to become public knowledge." Eliza looked at Octavia. "He wants me to come alone, but I would appreciate it if you come with me. You can handle yourself pretty good now and I trust you. I would ask Rex too but he's got enough on his plate to deal with right now. What do you think?"


Eliza atop Grace, her faithful Kelari, approached the approximate location where she had a run-in with a Vultani Liger while on a training exercise in her teen years, and she explained the incident to Octavia en route. Her class had been on training exercises in the Jungle, learning to navigate and locate objectives in hostile terrain. Eliza had been determined to be the first to locate her objective, and had allowed herself to become seperated from her class. She found her target, but unbeknownst to her a Vultani Liger had been stalking her for some time. Eliza found herself cornered by the beast, and she fell back on her training with the Skyguard, and presented as little threat to the Liger as possible, as they were generally too intelligent to fall for the usual tricks that worked against other predators. The Liger gave her a curious sniff-over, before striding off into the jungle. Styrus and the rest of her class had come to find her, and they witnessed the incident from cover. Her "failure", according to her father, was in not engaging the Liger in combat and besting it, but using the coward's tactic of diplomacy. Armagand's wrath at his daughter's  and thus he had scrubbed the incident from the records of the training academy and swore the rest of Eliza's class to secrecy. Imperator Styrus had complied with the cover-up simply because he wished to protect Eliza and the other students, with Nylara Kor's influence over the Senate and certain parties within the Oculi tying his hands.

Eliza took Grace down into the foliage, and they landed with a soft thwump on the moist ground of the Vultani Jungle. She waited for Octavia to land before looking around the area closely. She spotted the familiar blue objective marker at the base of a large tree nearby, and she knelt to examine it. "This is one of the original markers they used when I was in the academy. I thought they would be removed when the exercises concluded." A voice startled Eliza from her examination.
"And I thought I asked you to come alone." Eliza turned at the same time as Grace, who moved instinctively closer to the silver-haired Asentari. A grizzled-looking Asentari atop a Vultani Liger confronted them, and the man had a bow drawn and pointed at Octavia.


Eliza looked at the man for a moment before she recognized him. "Master Styrus? What is the meaning of this?" Markus Styrus returned Eliza's stare, but kept his weapon trained on Octavia. "I was going to ask you the same thing. I was quite specific with my instructions. I don't know who I can trust." Eliza moved across and stood in front of Octavia. "Ironically, I brought Octavia for the same reason. I trust her with my life, which is more than I can say for you right now, sir." Markus considered them for a moment, before lowering his weapon and stowing it on his back. "I trust you, and if you trust your friend, then that is good enough for me." Markus then regarded Octavia for a moment, before his weathered features cracked into a wide smile. "Octavia... Velerius? Am I right? Hargen's prized student, if I remember correctly. It is a pleasure."