Witchers of Nifelheim - Part 5

"I agree" one of the White Lotus guards frowned "King Alstreim was rightfully selected during the Tournaments of Succession.
These people are engaging in unlawful protest. They will not bar us from marching straight through the front door!"


"They will lynch us!" Kaylee waved her hand, anxiety showing "Think about this for a second, there's a hundred of them, and they're angry! A provocation may be enough to throw them into a frenzy!"


"...most of them are civilians" the White Lotus guard frowned "...a show of force will make them disperse"

"You're going to shoot magic at civilians now!?" Kaylee quietly growled "What do you think that will do to your public image?! Forget about pride for a second!"



"...there are several back doors into the castle" another White Lotus guard replied, looking to Rogue:
"Through the sewers.
Through one of the abandoned houses nearby.
Through a guard post.
And several others, on the other side of the castle."



Ryu looked to Twilight "...captive?... I'm.. not sure I follow. What do you think we should do?"



Ursula was still focused on the statue, slowly being carried out of a home "...I definitely never heard of a plague like this... or a spell like this...
This is something new" she winced "...this will require some investigation"

Twilight looked down. "As bad as the portaits are, most of us are wanted men. We go through with the idea that you are bringing in someone, for the ' reward'. I suppose that's an option."

She then frowns. "Or these guys could see that cash option as a way out of here."

She's silent for a momment, then something clicks in her head. "Yes, we can shoot magic. Fake magic. As long as I refrain from fighting for the rest of the day, it should be fine."

"Fake.. magic?" the Lotus guard looked at you in confusion, then his eyes widened "You're... a Masquerader?" He looks taken aback.
Several guards turned in Twilight's direction. They look genuinely taken aback, looking at her in admiration."


"Bad idea Twilight" Kaylee quietly shook her head "This can get out of hand very quickly"


"The White Flame bows to no one!" The Lotus guard waved his hand in dismissal "We will not be made hostage, inside our own walls!"


"Twilight, we can't bind your hands" Johan called "You'll need to be free to use Masquerade.
I'll take the role of the captive"

"Bind his hands" the Lotus guard signaled at Johan, several approached and began taking out ropes.

"Are we really doing this?" Kaylee heavily grimaced.

"There will be order in this city!" The Lotus guard gritted his teeth "A mob will not dictate how we conduct our business!"

"Twilight?..." Ryu quietly called, he seems unsure what to do and keeps shifting his gaze between everyone in the party.

"It's only to get in." Twilight said in a hushed tone, mostly to the group. "Escort the 'prisoner' to the dungeon, so to speak. Masquerade would only be in self defense, if all else fails."

She looks ahead. "The chance this breaks down are big, I know. Sadly, it's the best I can come up with on such short notice. Maybe it can be improved in some way."

Circi raises her brow, "Everyone. Lets relax." She keeps the volume low, "Tensions are high. We are not being held hostage, not yet. I dont think the mob cares who we're bringing in I doubt they'll let us pass without interference. I think we all want the smoothest way through that we can get." She turns her head towards the more provocative guard, "We cannot show hostility, we cannot show weakness either." She waves her hand, "If a detour is all it takes to get around we should toss pride aside and get on with the job. By going around the threat where avalable. I think we should take the alternitive route through the abandoned cabin that was just mentioned." She stops a moment, "Unless you want to go through the sewers... then... please... not the sewers." She shivers in disgust.

"A single captive is not enough but what about all of us? Our images are everywhere so if Ryu was to show up having captured every single wanted person I have a feeling the crowd would let us through. You can't really say a King isn't 'Doing Their Job' when they show up havening captured this many highly wanted criminals.

And if the mob attacks at that point it would look like they are trying to free us or are just mad for blood. Which in that case may in fact reveal these people to be nothing more than bandits faking suffering or part of that theoretical hidden plot to destabilize everything I proposed a while a go or maybe both."

Rain looks to Ana, "I thought that too... but when thats the case should we get spotted moving around the city, the population might blame the guard for letting 'prisoners' rome free in the streets." She sighs, "would it be too much to ask you to take the posters down?" She looks to one of the guards.

"Yeah that is a problem," Ana turns and deadpan stares at Ryu "It's too bad we don't have someone in a position of power that might be able to remove that bounty from us. Where ever would we find someone with that kind of Kingly power?"

Ryu apologetically looked at you "...Viki sanctioned the warrant for your arrest. It can't be fully removed, until both kings of Rakshata have reached a consensus. The drawback of having two kings in a castle, I suppose"


"If we bind our hands and the crowd starts to make trouble, our response time will be delayed." Ursula looks concerned. "I don't like this" She stood closer to Ryu "If my hands are bound, I can't protect him" she frowned.


"20 Witchers of the elite honor guard, is more than sufficient to maintain security" a Lotus guard frowned.

Circi looks to Ryu, trying to drive her point in a bit harder this time, "Theres no shame in avoiding the public in this tragic time Ryu." She looks around to everyone, "If we take one of the secret entrances we will also avoid exposing ourselfs to the public at all. Our first exposer can come on our own terms in this case which is preferable then walking through an angry mob? Would you not agree?"

Kaylee Brown wrote:Ryu apologetically looked at you "...Viki sanctioned the warrant for your arrest. It can't be fully removed, until both kings of Rakshata have reached a consensus. The drawback of having two kings in a castle, I suppose"

"If we bind our hands and the crowd starts to make trouble, our response time will be delayed." Ursula looks concerned. "I don't like this" She stood closer to Ryu "If my hands are bound, I can't protect him" she frowned.

"20 Witchers of the elite honor guard, is more than sufficient to maintain security" a Lotus guard frowned.

"If we are going with that plan, then couldn't Twilight's Masquerade project illusionary bonds around our wrists? That way, it would look like we were prisoners, but our reaction times would be unaffected?" Rogue suggests.

"If no one is going to say it, I will, evading this mob now will do far more harm to us in the long run." Escapes Twilight's mouth factually. "We must go through there, otherwise, what credibility is there left?"

She holds up her hand. "Now, there are three options left."

One finger is raised. "One, we go with the prisoner plan. Let them step aside for proper conduct. If they refuse, we can legally arrest those that obstruct official govement work."

A second finger goes up. "Two, we start by talking sense into them. After all, for being in the middle of a plague and wanting an answer, they are doing damn little to prevent spreading or find a cure."

Now a third finger goes up. "Last option is going to violence. It's the last resort, and I don't want to go there either. But if it must be done, so be it."

She folds her arms, the anger in her eyes stretching over her face. "Let's decide quickly, lest I start losing the little patience I have left. I feel a bear roaring in the back of my head."

The look on Circi's face convays that she may have just rolled her eyes at you, "Option Four. Avoid detection, worry about angry civilians later. Need I remind you 20 of your citizens were killed today and we have no answers for them. We need some semblance of an idea what is happening around us before we can take on a public outrage." Circi crosses her arms, shifting her weight, "We cant attack a problem we know nothing about, arresting them will lead to a Riot. These protests are happening because of the lack of respect for authority. We should avoid conflict, and confrontation with the more extreme of citizens for now."

Ursula slowly caught a deadpan, annoyed expression "...I thought we came to Rakshata to calm things down, not stir them up."


"...the Masquerade can only project magic spells I'm afraid" Lighting quietly said "Creating fake bonds would be impossible."


Ryu sighed, then looked at you "I.. don't understand. Why will I loose credibility, if I enter the castle through a back door?"

"Then let's vote on these four and improvise from there if things go wrong," she holds up a finger" but, before we vote I want to make it clear that I'm not going through another forest argument. We're short on time and don't have the luxury of a three hour debate. We're supposed to be Witchers and not children, let's start acting like the former. So simply vote and if your side isn't taken don't throw a tantrum but instead support the plan that was decided on.

Real talk done, I still vote for option one."

Circi waves her hand, "Exactly why we should go around. Option 4."

Rain frowns, "I think we should play it safe guys. Going through the back door seems a lot less risky. Lets not take unnecessary risks. I agree with circi."

"Well said." Comes out of Twilight's mouth. "I vote option 1 as well."

She gave a look at her son. "If we shirk away now, it might be an indicator they can get away with it, making it all the more inviting to impose more with such protests."

Circi nods and sighs, "Alright. I think you'll find however that we're putting ourselfs in unessissary risk. I've followed along for this long. Whatever we settle on i'll go along." She huffs, "I wont pretend to be happy about it though."

Anastasia and Rose wrote:"Then let's vote on these four and improvise from there if things go wrong," she holds up a finger" but, before we vote I want to make it clear that I'm not going through another forest argument. We're short on time and don't have the luxury of a three hour debate. We're supposed to be Witchers and not children, let's start acting like the former. So simply vote and if your side isn't taken don't throw a tantrum but instead support the plan that was decided on.

Real talk done, I still vote for option one."

"Agreed, heaven forbid we become a bastion of personal liberty" Rogue snarks, "I vote for option four, what does that bring the tally to?"

Circi quitely crosses her arms, a soft sigh escapes her, "Twilight." She says calmly, "While I see where you're coming from, confrontation with anybody but Victoria right now could not only put us, but Ryu, and Victoria in alot more danger." She looks to the mob, "Ryu and Victoria are close, to the public they are but extentions of each other and therefor Ryus decisions affect Victoria as well." She gives a worried look to Twilight, "This is a volitile situation, these folks are looking for a reason to burst into that castle and cause possible harm. Let us not provoke a scene please. I know you dont like these people talking about your daughter in these ways either, their looking to provoke a response, we shouldn't enable them."

"Two votes for 1 and two votes for 4 so far. I'm not saying we don't debate while we vote, just when it's done to go with the plan chosen," Ana responds to Rogue "we tend to discuss and debate but never fully commit to a plan or decision."

Ryu sent a hand through his hair "It seems.. I have to break the tie"
He sighed, then looked at you with determination.

"I greatly value your council, and I am grateful that you speak your mind openly. But I must make a choice.

My vote is this, I'm sorry mother, Ana, but I must strongly disagree with the first option.

As the king of Rakshata, my first priority is to ensure the safety of my people.
Going through the crowd at this point, will lead inevitably to provocation. I will risk your lives, I will risk the lives of my men, just to ensure my safety.
And worst of all, I will risk the lives and well being of these protesters, because if there's a violent outlier among them, and he will attack us, my men will be forced to respond, and that may result in injury on both sides.
And that... is a risk I cannot take" Ryu waved his hand in denial.



"This protest was declared illegal, because my sister declared it so.

I came to believe the reason why things have become this bad, was because we ruled Rakshata with an iron fist, and I believe it was a mistake.

I don't want to exaserbate things further, by provoking a confrontation that has a high risk of escalating into violence. Because if it does, tomorrow the crowd will be twice as large."


Ryu sighed: "If we're serious about arresting all these people, we'll need to either paralyze all of them, with one spell. Or call a hundred Witchers, one for each protestor, to detain and escort them one by one to prison.
I cannot imagine the public backlash if we do that.

I don't want to become a tyrant, who lords over his people, marching through them and mowing them down, if they fail to get out the way. This will not be my legacy"



Ryu straightened up slightly, calming down "The people of Rakshata are desperate, and their concerns need to be adressed, but not in this way. We will simply solve the core issues, that brought them here. Until then, we will minimize risk of folk getting hurt.

Right now, they are upset and simply shouting whats in their heart. They aren't violent at the moment and I don't want to raise the temperature, by marching through them, surrounded by soldiers.

We will go through the hidden entrance in one of the houses nearby. That way, they're not stopping us from doing our job."


Ryu looked at everyone "Do we agree?"

Rain raises her brow, "So you're admiting to being somewhat of a dictator to your city?" She nods slowly, "Admireable. We're used to eliminating dictators. Not convincing them their thought process is wrong." She frowns, "I suspect Victoria to be very stubborn."

Circi nods, "Very good." She looks to the escort, "Shall we?"

Twilight closes her eyes. "I suppose that's the end of the vote." She opens them again. "Let's go then, the longer we wait, the greater the chance the mood of the crowd turns for the worse before we arrive."

Kaylee Brown wrote:We will go through the hidden entrance in one of the houses nearby. That way, they're not stopping us from doing our job."

Ryu looked at everyone "Do we agree?"

"Sounds like a plan" Rogue nods.