Daichi takes Lina's advice and breaks up his meditation sessions with rest and time doing katas and sparring with her monks... "Good advice and I thank you both for that and offering your monks and your dojo for me to train in."
As for his keys phone and money... he seems reluctant at first.. and then finally agrees after another session of meditation, during which he comes to the realization that these things aren't going to do him any good here anyway. the phone is dead after he slept for 2 days, and the keys won't unlock anything here and the money won't pay for anything here... He considers the fact that giving up something valueless isn't necessarily disciplinary, but he does it anyway... He borrows a shovel from someone (Johnny maybe?) and buries the items in his own compound. To Lina he says, explaining his choice, "I'm not afraid of being reminded of my old life.. in fact I'm more afraid of NOT being reminded of it... and losing the context of the changes I'm trying to make."
"I still have to come to terms with what the unicorn said... that my life has been a waste until now. I still disagree in total, but he's right... I have wasted a lot of time and energy on useless, vacant activities to spite my father and his dictates. Without his voice, I have to become my own voice toward personal discipline. I see that, but accomplishing it will take some effort, I think."
Daichi will also take some time out to visit his own 'temple'/castle. He'll approach his people and talk to them. "Thank you for all you've done so far. I must ask about material... is there any chance stone would do to rebuild or must it be lumber? We are having a problem getting the supplies you requested."
"Hey Lune. I... don't think he's going to do anything to hurt us.
[B]"I'd rather not risk it, we didn't exactly find him in the best of places and with his gem we now have a gambling likely drug addicted guy given godly powers with a voice in his head telling him to kill me so Ill keep my distance."
Luna keeps an eye on Daichi still but doesn't get within any real conversation distance without one of the others nearby.
"Maybe. But honestly, I feel pretty confident that the voices in our heads wouldn't want any of us dead... At least for now. There are significant downsides to us dying, after all." he responds, motioning to a crater. "It just doesn't fit, at least for now. From what Ptaleon has mentioned, the Spheres are extremely important. Without these guys to keep them alive... Where does that way of life, and everything that comes with it go?"
Daichi will ask Lina during one of their sessions "I noticed Luna doesn't seem to like me much.. she avoids me whenever she can. Do you know what's up with that? Have I offended her in some way? If so, can I make amends do you think? Or is there something else going on that I don't understand?"
...she's a thief, what do you expect?
Doesn't mean I'm going to hurt her does it? Or is it that she's afraid more of YOU? I can't imagine hurting her because of her nature. And wouldn't that sort of depend on how she uses those skills? Besides, redistribution of wealth isn't a bad thing, economically. Now if she turns those skills to hurting good people, that might be different.
"Eh," Lina shrugs. "She's an introvert, and a bit of a coward. Runs and hides from a lot of things, including her feelings. But she won't stab you in the back."
...the ends do not, ever, justify the means...
"Well, that's good to know, I guess. Perhaps if she and I were to actually talk sometime, it might alleviate her fears. It's not like I'm planning on hurting her or anything."
Several weeks pass as Daichi learns to draw his armor and weapons at will. He finds that he can pull his armor out in multiple forms, an O-yoroi to a Kikko.
Eventually, his powers begin to work, including his alternate butterfly sword, but his grip on his powers seems... weak. As if he could lose them with one wrong step.
Daichi find's his 'voice' to be a calming influence, very zen like, and usually with only a slightly pithy way of saying things. Not really sarcastic, but there's an edge to the voice on things she doesn't approve of. Fortunately for Daichi, he manages to avoid the worst of her pointed observations by the end of the month. The meditation seems to help a lot.
Exploring the interior of the wall finds that the fruit trees are in bloom, and the local village is doing well despite it's small size.
Mahb informs the group that she's talked Jacob into taking one of the broken gems in to heal it, as long as someone will bring them some gems for him to 'eat' to heal it, he wont' go out adventuring...
As an aside to the others, Daichi, not wanting to appear too naive or stupid asks, "How do you heal a broken gem and who is this Jacob and why shouldn't he go out adventuring?"
"Any time an avatar dies, their gem is significantly weakened," Lina explains. "Which is why I'm so insistent that none of you all let yourselves get killed. That, and I guess Liisa is fun to have around, verdict's still a bit out on the rest." And she smiles, a clearly terrible attempt at a joke.
"Jacob's... not really tough or strong-willed enough to survive out there. I'm surprised Mahb was even able to talk him into taking a gem, that could be a pretty significant victory for us."
"But as to adventuring—yes. It's time we give my brother the lesson in secrecy and paranoia that is the outside world."
"How many of us have died? And what happens to their gems afterward? How do you recover them? Do they return to the walls? How does Jacob heal them? So sorry to ask so many questions." He shrugs and sighs.
"Secrecy and paranoia, eh? I have grown up with secrecy and paranoia all my life, though I suspect it is on a different scale here, with lives more at stake, rather than corporate security and family and company secrets."
"Mahb is a force of nature. She got me off my arse. Well I got so sick of her I decided to leave Hell. The problem is we can't bring the gems in here. You saw what happened to the bag. Jacob will have to come outside the wall briefly. We'll need him to heal the builder so we have materials. That seems to be the most important thing right now." Kong says as he gathers his gear.
You sure Mahb can't handle one of you? Or are you afraid she'll dominate one of you? Kong thinks with a laugh.
"Any time an avatar dies, their gem is significantly weakened," Lina explains. "Which is why I'm so insistent that none of you all let yourselves get killed. That, and I guess Liisa is fun to have around, verdict's still a bit out on the rest." And she smiles, a clearly terrible attempt at a joke.
"Aww that's so sweet!" Liisa laughs and takes the opportunity to sneak in close and swing one arm around Lina. She sticks out her tongue to Johnny, Neri and Luna and continues to chuckle. "And she's mine, screw you guys!"
But her cheery mood pops rather quickly once the topic advances and she is reminded of a certain circle of pointy sticks. With a shudder she attempts to answer Daichi's question. "... Two from our world ..."
Daichi grows thoughtful at the idea of two dead. He hadn't thought in terms of dying is real and close at hand in this dangerous world. It was starting to get through to him how real this is and maybe it's not just a drug-fueled coma dream. He sighs and nods.
"So the dead can die again, it seems. I shall be cautious, but if we are pitted against this vile church and its proponents, my caution will know limits."
"Yeah," Lina adds, "There was a falling out, and two of the others went out on their own, somewhat recklessly as far as I can tell. When we found their bodies, they had been extensively tortured. So, avoid that."
"Oh I do my best to avoid being extensively tortured at all times, unless it's consensual and for fun," he says with a little bit of sarcasm... then sighs, knowing those days are probably behind him too as nothing in this place seems to be for fun.
"Gems showed up in a crater in a broken-weapon form.... where their compounds used to be. We still don't have a clue what happened to Paul, though..." he pauses long enough to hear Daichi's quip. "You'll have to see Johnny for that. Be sure to bring real gold."
"I'm sorry you've lost so relatively many considering the size of your... our... group. I will endeavor not to add to that list."
He gives a little wry half smile and replies, "Johnny, eh? well I'll keep that in mind, but it seems it'll have to be on a back burner for now as we have more pressing matters to be concerned about, eh?"
Johnny is a little sad that they didn't find anything more interesting on this side of the wall. He's not sure what exactly he had hoped to find, but he had wanted more than just fruit trees.
~~~~~
Johnny's about to point out that Neri is referring to one of his caravans but pauses. It may be a bit out of my area of expertise, but more money is rarely a bad thing.... Instead he just shrugs.
"'With strange aeons...' And this certainly fits the strange critera at the very least." Liisa nodded with a sad smile. The later half of the conversation does perk her up a bit. "Just remember you have to coax some real gold from Neri first ... Heh."
"The ones we lost went off on their own, we're safer together it's important to remember that." Still feeling very unsafe Luna was more than happy to use the opportunity to remind Daichi and his gem they needed to work together.
Diachi nods to Luna. "You have all made a good point that sticking together is best. If we are to be a team, we should travel and when necessary, fight as a team. Up until now, all my training this past month has been alone or with Lina's monks. You all know other's abilities and fighting techniques already I'm guessing, but I do not.. perhaps a few group training sessions are in order, neh?"
"It's been a month. If we head back to Demonreach—mind you,we're scouting the city first, with animals this time—I don't think it matters either way which direction we come from. Anyone else have thoughts?"
"I don't know this place or anything about it. I will defer to your knowledge, however I agree scouting first sounds like a good idea."
"We might be able to lure out any hostile people and ambush them instead of going in to them?"
"We don't know who's there, or how big the city is, or anything. One thing at a time. But we'll be better at preparing thins time."
"No not really. Can't think of much when I hardly know if we should expect a metropolis or a tiny village. I'll admit that the later is probably more likely though ..." Liisa nodded.
"I say we get north of Demonwatch and then try and slip through their patrols. That we we are not between Demonwath and their fort."
"Liisa, did you have any ability to sense what was around you at your outpost? Something similar to Neri's scrying ability? Even if there are patrols, if the maze is still intact, we might have a decent chance of getting past them. Or of at least withdrawing immediately back into safety."
"Hmm. Not that I noticed ... But I might be able to ask some winged friends to keep an eye out!"
"There's obviously much I need to learn of this place. There is a fort as well? You're right, we will need some good recon to avoid being caught between forces from the town and the fort at the same time. There is a maze as well? What sort of place is this maze? Liisa, if you could get us some aerial intel, that would be good. I don't mind confronting these folks, but I don't want to walk into an ambush."
The group picks up, and heads through Liisa's tree. After another bewildering stalk through wood patterned hallways, they step out into the other clearing.
Liisa sends out some birds to do some scouting, and finds that there are patrols scattered throughout the nearby woods, each a dozen strong. All stay out of the area of confusion around the shrine itself, but are patrolling the woods nearby.
Daichi looks around with wonder at the wood patterned hallways, and the clearing when he steps out... "This is different..."
When Liisa relays what her bird scouts reported, he scowls.. and asks, "These patrols of a dozen or so, how strong are they? What do you know of them? Should we try to skirt their notice, potentially having a larger force at our backs, should they unite, or should we confront them one at a time?"
"More importantly..." Lina ponders... "How far are they apart? If it's too far for them to send reinforcements, and we can catch a party close to the safety of this barrier, we could launch a fun surprise strike, let Daichi try out his swords."
"Sound like they figured out how we got out of here last time. Maybe an approach from the main wall would be better. If we attack from here we need to disappear and head back I think. If we can sneak through I don't think they'll expect us.", Kong says upon hearing the news.
"I'd say we attack an patrol or two then try the approach from the wall. They may not know that we can move between here and there easily - so it may serve to pull some of their forces away from other places. And yeah I think I rather test our unbloodied comrade on an easy mark before stepping into the hornet's nest." Liisa chimes in. And it might be nice if the stakes are lower in his first battle...
"Don't forget... they're also just birds. They probably won't know to warn us about ice-breathing wolves when you ask about humans. And they might be using magic of some sort as well. So we shouldn't just assume there are twelve and nothing else to worry about... though twelve people is certainly 'enough' to worry about."
Lina shakes her head. "No. We always all chime in with opinions. That's not helpful—we need plans. If we can attack a single patrol safely, it might be worthwhile; but if they're too close together, it's not."
"Sounds like we might need to scout ourselves a bit. I doubt your bird friends can give us a good idea of distances between patrols. Knowing they are out there is good intel, just not enough perhaps."
"Honestly... I have no doubt we could slip past them. Attacking is double-edged. We find out how strong they are, but they also find out we came this way again. If we use it as a distraction to come from the other direction... it works, I suppose. We also get whatever isn't marked by the gods... if we make it out. We can't know how strong they are... though I doubt they'll have an avatar with each group, I've no doubt that they'll have one nearby. Also sort of double-edged. If we do fight, we can be certain they'll ramp up defenses... unless they simply can't afford to. And I'm not a leader, Lina. I offer my thoughts and if I have an opinion, you get it. I know that how close they are to one another is in the same realm of 'how well equipped they are'. Simply knowing the numbers tells us very little, as twelve of Anissa would be the opposite of survivable."
"I wouldn't be surprised at all if they have an avatar, " Lina said, "Considering that honor applies to random forest animals as well."
And she taps her foot. "Okay, if nobody has a plan, here's one. I don't want to rely on invisibility, because we've seen how that goes, but that's an option. Luna—can you ask your familiar to steal something? An empty water flask, a dropped coin, some cast-off food refuse? Liisa, could you ask a few forest animals to do the same? If I can get an item from each of the local patrols, I can track them individually, which gives us a great deal of tactical knowledge in choosing when and where to strike."
Johnny snorts. "Heh, do we think the raccoon will actually listen to Luna? They're not exactly on the best of terms. But either way, I don't really like the idea of going after people who will be expecting us, which these guards certainly will be. Especially if they do have an avatar with them. Twelve guards by themselves are still nothing to scoff at."
He found it semi-amusing that Lina was simultaneously the person who was all, 'I want to make sure none of you get killed' while also being the person most keen to put them all in danger.
"It might be willing to listen to her if she tells it to steal?" Lina suggests.