"Agreed." Erratus said. "Lack of rest must be clouding our judgement, because it seems to me that none of you care terribly that we're being sent into no man's land. Rumors of mythical titans and people named Ostarius aside, that was a pretty powerful revelation for me. I guess it doesn't carry as much weight as I'm giving it credit for, though."
He paced around for a few seconds, mumbling and staring at the ground.
"You three are clean of infection, by the way." The nomad continued, pointing to Lucia, Talaitha and Nero. "They were going to release you. Gonye didn't want that to happen, though. He needed us to help him escape, and now he needs us for something else. I have a feeling it's going to be something big."
Without another word, the flustered traveler started back towards the wooded area to catch some shuteye.

Nero felt terrible about simply just pushing away Erratus' concerns, but they were in no position to be basing all their actions off the confused words of a low ranking bandit who gathered most of his information from eaves dropping. There wasn't any real evidence anyway that what the bandit heard was a final plan or was even concerning them. To be quite honest Nero felt like he should have offered Erratus some kind of apology for how he acted earlier but by the time he had thought to construct one Erratus had vanished into the trees. "At this rate we won't make it very far- especially if we go east." Nero mopily turned about to Lucia and Talaitha and sighed out a 'good night' as he made for his own tent to rest. On his return trip he began to feel the same way he did before he had spoken to Lucia which immediately dropped him into an even more depressed mood, he was certain he would spend very little of the night sleeping.

Despite having dispelled an argument, Lucia could still feel the tension in the air. Everyone was still unsettled with each other, she looked to Nero with a small smile signifying that she had tried her best, and she too left the group to return to the tent. In the tent it was clear where the gypsies had already laid claim so she curled up alone in where she assumed no one had chosen. In time she drifted into a restless sleep.

Talaitha returned to the tent without another word or glance to anyone. She had enough of this for one day and just wanted to rest. She entered the tent last and was the last one awake; however, as tired as she was, she could not sleep and instead huddled in the corner and rubbed her forehead anxiously. There was far too much on her mind, mostly concerns over her own future. Where was she to go from here? Would she stick around with Nadya and attempt to join her brethren in the Covenant, or was she to head out and find a new place of business, as she did before the events took place.

"They talk like they know more than us! Bagh! It's disgustin'! I won't stand for it!"
"whata you going to do about it? you can't just go-"
"Get your a** moving! The sun's been up for hours now!"
"a soldier who can't hold his drink? Har, you're a real joke!"

Voices, so many voices... Each and every syllable burned through one ear, bounced about in his head, and exited the other garbled and broken. All this talking was making Nero's head ache. He could hardly stand to nap about in the tent any longer even if he had slept so little last night. After a bit of struggle Nero rose from his bedding, fixed his cotton undershirt, and grabbed his tunic which he allowed to hang from the peak of the pointed tent. Exiting through the main flap his eyes immediately winced to avoid the harsh sunlight before his hand instinctively rose to block the sun from view. Allowing his eyes to shift about he first looked in the general direction of the fort which was still smouldering by the time they had fallen asleep last night. A light smoke was still rising in the distance but it was likely nothing more then large clusters of ash and dust being smoked in the sun.

"You're awake I see!" a quick spoken, but eloquent voice took Nero by surprise, so much so that he almost let out a yelp. Turning his head from the fort he came face to face with a young, pale faced 'kid'.

"Yeah... I'm awake. Who are you?" Nero casually yawned as he backed away from his new acquaintance who seemed to have little understanding of personal space. Upon backing away Nero realized he wasn't speaking to a child, the man simply had a child like face. The man's face was fairly feminine and his eyes were like two great blue oceans, though they were oddly sharp like a bird of prey. His figure followed the rest of his face, it appeared fairly thin although there were obvious muscles on his arms showing from his cut tunic. The most amazing thing about the stranger was his long flowing white-grey hair that easily passed his shoulders. His whole physical appearance scream aristocrat, though his clothing, a pinkish-purple tied tunic and a parr of grey trousers and boots, along with his surroundings said otherwise

"Why, how rude of me. Around here they call me Pitt." Smiling graciously he backed away and gave a slight bow before sticking his head inside the smaller of the two tents.
"The other one doesn't like sleeping indoors I take it?"

Nero shrugged as he wiped away the crust from his eyes. "Listen, uh.. Pitt right..You're taking us to meet Gonye right?" Pitt removed his head from the smaller tent and promptly marched over to the larger tent. "Something of that sort... Do you think they'd mind if I just barged in?" Pitt sheepishly asked as he eyed the entrance of the tent.

"I wouldn't, but then again I'm not a big fan of death sentences." Nero responded blandly as he began to pat down the grass with his hands to prepare a sitting place for himself. Pitt inched away from the tent as Nero spoke. He seemed to fear being torn apart as well, though it was most likely just an act. Joining in a spot against the larger tent Pitt relaxed beside Nero.

"I can wait till they get up then, I have all the time in the world."

Nero fell silent as the two of them waited for the rest of his companions to awake and formally join them. He wanted to ask Pitt so many questions concerning what he had heard last night be was unable to bring himself to do, mostly because he felt oddly out of place at the moment sitting right next to him.
____________


Inside the tent Nadya was quite deeply asleep and only awoke to her own reaction to a poor dream. Gasping for breath she quickly regained her composure and searched around the tent to make sure no one had seen her acting so irrational. Once she had 'confirmed' that her two companions were asleep she attempted to return to sleep herself but was held back by the sound of Nero and a stranger talking outside. "Wonderful." she muttered to herself as she grabbed at a pillow and covered her head with it.

As Nadya stirred, Lucia's eyes immediately opened. While she was not completely rested, there was a sense of refresh as she got up to go observe the morning sun. Taking care not to trample on either of the sleeping individuals, Lucia stepped outside into the light and stretched at the front of the tent before realizing that Nero and another man that she had not met were waiting. She blinked once before smiling slightly "Um..good morning" she said while untying her braid and allowing her hair to fall about her shoulders in waves of black.

Erratus awoke to the sound of a sparrow chirping incessantly on a nearby branch. After a few minutes of trying in vain to sleep through the irksome cacophony, he groggily drew a blade from his cloak and silenced the bird the only way he knew how. The knife split through the air and imbedded itself bodily into the sparrow's breast. The knife and the bird both plummeted to the forest floor.
Unfortunately, by that point, it was too late. The exertion of skewering the bird had left Erratus fully awake. With returning to sleep ruled out, the irritated nomad instead made his way down the tree to retrieve his dagger.
After a preparing a breakfast of roasted sparrow, he returned to the campsite to find Nero and Lucia standing in front of the women's tent. The girl had been working out, and seemed to have somehow gotten a change of clothes. Suddenly, Lucia stepped out of the tent and…
At this point, the nomad realized that whomever was standing beside Nero was clearly not Lucia. Sparrow in hand, he made his way over to them with the intent of learning the identity of this newcomer.

Talaitha rose from the corner of the tent to see Nadya covering her head with her pillow in order to block out the chatter from outside. Lifting herself up, she peeked outside the tent and saw what seemed to be a woman with radiant, almost silver, hair, though the clothing betrayed the looks. Squinting, she tried to see if she could get a better look without leaving the tent, but giving up she exited the tent and walked closer to Nero.

It took some time before Nadya decided to exit the tent. In fact it took both Lucia and Talaitha leaving to even prompt her to rise from bed but once she finally dressed and exited she felt somewhat lazy for people the absolute last person to wake and exit.


Outside the tent Nero was still sitting silent with Pitt at his side who seemed infatuated with staring into the sky when Lucia finally came forward and shot him a friendly hello.

"Morning." Nero returned her greeting before out stretching a hand to the gentleman at his side with the intent of introducing him to her. But before long Erratus, Talaitha, and Nadya had all erupted from their sleep and joined the group. Pitt seemed entirely pleased that the others had joined so quickly and without much hesitation he rose from the ground and eyed each person from head to toe.

"Hello and good morning to each of you. I've already acquainted myself with-" reaching his hand out in a gesture of unknowingness Nero realized what exactly he was fishing for.

"Nero"

"Ah yes, I've already acquainted myself with Nero but I have yet to indulge myself in your presences." smiling graciously the character continued on after a short pause. "I am the Commander of this Mercenary band, the people here call me Pitt. I'm actually here to, and bare with me, advise you on your next actions and act as debrief-er while we wait for Gonye. So if you have any questions at all this would be the time to voice them." Smiling once more he closed his eyes and awaited each individual's introduction.

Nadya stared in disbelief when the man revealed himself to be a commander of a mercenary band, let alone the man named Pitt the captured raider spoke of the night before. He seemed incredibly far too soft to be a mercenary and compared to every other man walking about this camp he was dressed well, clean, pale skinned, light haired, and he spoke as if he was formally educated or trained. It must have been some kind of ploy or joke, but Nadya was in no place to deny him an introduction or try and call him out on his ruse.

"Nadya, pleased to meet you."

So this was the Pitt the bandits had spoken of. The man seemed friendly enough, though something about him just struck the nomad as… off. Pitt had led a band of raiders for months, but looking at his face you wouldn't think he'd worked a day in his life. His physique told a different story.
"Err… Khast." Erratus introduced himself between bites of sparrow. The nomad decided that this man intrigued him. He would have to find out more about him sometime.

Glad that they would be finally given more information about their fate, Lucia smiled shyly as she introduced herself "Hello, I'm Lucia" And she dipped her head slightly as a bow or quick curtsy. The man Pitt, conveyed a demeanour quite contrary to his surroundings, had she the time or the leisure she would've inquired how such a man found himself among bandits. Not that she had anything against these bandits who had been quite hospitable to them thus far.

As Pitt turned to address them, Talaitha crossed her arms and craned her neck closer to get a second glance. She was surprised that he ended being a man after all, but the clothing would have given it away for her even if she didn't believe it. Relaxing, she cracked a small smile and returned the favor out of respect.
"Talaitha," she replied.

Pitt seemed greatly pleased that everyone was so willing to introduce themselves, it was almost as if he were expecting some type of hassle. . "Well then, you'll be wanting to know what has been organized for you. It may seem odd but I can't just let you walk home after this whole affair." Placing his hand upon his chin and allowing his eyes to roll to the side he discontinued his immediate consecution of discussion. "Actually, you couldn't really go home at this point even if you wanted to. You're all wanted criminals, the army is already searching far and wide for you in this very area. But really that's beside the point, each of you are quite infectious, just not the conventional sense."

Upon Pitt revealing that he still believed the group to be infected Nero shot up from where he was seated. "The guards said that we were clean, not infected, completely fine!"

"They meant by their paradigms. I suppose I should let you know now that Gonye was stretching the truth when he said you were going to be killed-" Pitt's smile had shrunk considerably, he was obviously trying to be more serious.

"You were going to be sent to Sol Erra to be tested. You didn't bear any marks on your body, which is what distinguishes you as one who transform over time or after death. But, and this is where things become intriguing, you've been infected in a much different way. I've come to the conclusion that each of you have been infected by what the council is calling a hollow soul. You see a hollow soul is very similar to the creatures that are wandering the east except they retain their humanity, they still have complete control over their actions and thoughts until they've been pushed to a certain extent and lose their humanity. To my knowledge none of you will transform into a husk naturally, only after death. But once you change you'll still be able to function like a normal person for quite some time. Believe it or not you can even become a normal human again after changing into a husk if you can consume the life of another, but that's a fairly gory tale." pausing for a moment Pitt decided to give each of them some time to soak up the news. It was quite a bit of bad news after all.

"Before you react harshly there may be a way to cure you..."

Nero was shocked by the news, so much so that he couldn't even find words to express his disbelief, Nadya on the other hand seemed to be completely distrusting of Pitt's examination.

"And how can you say we've been infected? Are you some type of scientist?" Nadya spoke harshly, though Pitt didn't seem to mind at all.

"Spies, well... Moles are a better term for them. The council in the capital held a meeting on your case and a man on the inside leaked us the information." Nadya still didn't seem to trust it, it seemed far too convenient.

"As I said there's a possibility that you could be cured, but it'll require you to travel far into the east to meet a rather unsavoury individual.."

The news when finally shared was rather hefty, essentially it meant that eventually she too would be destined to become a shambling mass after death, albeit an intelligent one, but it didn't change the outlook on her plight. As if it wasn't bad enough that her life was already difficult, but now she was to have a difficult unlife as well. What had she done to deserve being continually kicked down by the universe? Her outlook on life once again became clouded and she looked to the ground despondent, even though it was possible for them to be cured, it most definitely wouldn't be easy.

"What must we do" she asked quieter than usual.

"Simply put, Gonye intends to cross the river with you and go east to meet up with a third party who more than likely knows how to fabricate a cure for you. Of course as you probably are already thinking there is a small catch." A small smile had returned to Pitt's face as he leaned into the group.

"Gonye is actually incredibly interested in a few objects that exist near Gennenberg. I'm sure at this point none of you are quite sure where you are geographically speaking, but Sol Erra is directly west of us and the Taigus river is just less than a two hour walk to the east. So Gennenberg isn't quite far, and to get to where you're going you'll have to pass through the area anyway so I'd like to ask now that you would assist Gonye in reclaiming a few artifacts that might be worth some money for us."

"And who exactly are we meeting with once we help Gonye gather his relics?" Nadya was beginning to doubt Pitt's motives more and more as he continued speaking on, she felt she needed to object. Pitt seemed completely stumped by the question Nadya posed, perhaps even he was unsure of who they were attempting to meet with.

"Well, to be quite honest I'm not really sure what he calls himself these days. I believe he still answers to Ostarius after all this time." The name rung an instant bell with Nadya, but she was unsure why. It seemed so familiar to her, and for some reason she wasn't able to bring herself to associate the name with any memory.

"Well, lest you have any questions or objections I believe Gonye is awaiting you." turning about Pitt spied a large column of black smoke rising from far across the camp. "Gather your things and when you're ready just follow the signal smoke."