Eya responds to the Cardinal, "Yes, I am ready for the training, Your Eminence." As they leave the room, Eya smiles as she replies to the smoldering Aloro, "Like I said before, Master Aloro: The strong deserve to rule." 

---

Eya sips a cup of black coffee as she listens to Respar's tale detailing the events that landed him in prison. Juxtaposing the rogue's lengthy story, she simple raises her hand and says, "I tried to poison the King's daughter."

---

Eya gathers the group and appears to have a sheet of paper in her hand. "Okay, I've done the math on some things here. If we each pool together some gold, we can afford a healing wand to make it easier for me to keep all of you alive. Also, if you all are willing, I request that we pool together to outfit Grumblejack with good equipment for the upcoming journey. If we run into trouble, it would be good to have his strength. Other than weapons and armor, I thought it would be good to outfit him with a weaponrack backpack to hold Jesla's sword and other weapons we find in a way that's easy to access. It can hold a few normal items too. I've already put together my list and plan on handing it to Tiadora soon."

Eya makes her way to Tiadora. There's a stillness in the air as the two stare at each other for several seconds like some sort of high-noon standoff. Eventually, Eya approaches her and hands her a sheet of paper, "Here, it's a shopping list. The group is pooling together funds for a few items as well, so here's a bit of extra gold from me. Have fun!" She waits for Tiadora's reaction with a mischievous grin, then turns to walk away. But something is bugging her, so she turns back around and asks, "Answer me something and please be truthful for once, how long have you been working with Cardinal Thorn? Why did you even tell him about me? And why now all of a sudden, showing up out of nowhere?"

---

Later in the magic workshop, Eya can be found talking to Kiven with their spellbooks open.

"UGH, this spell makes NO sense, Aloro! It's definitely a ball...but made of ice? Or is that symbol water? This is such a weird way to write spells. It's WAY too formal and academic. Seriously, there are limits to this," Eya grumbles, frustrated by the Snowball spell. "Your brother does the same thing! See this other rune here? Something missile?? Exploding missile?? Hit shit missile?!?"

This display continues for some time.

Eya also spends a lot of time in the magic workshop working to make a couple of magic items in her downtime. If anyone checks in on her during this multi-hour long process, they see her multi-tasking to the extreme. An invisible force appears to be moving tools and papers around the lab for her and both her hands are usually full with something or other. Even her tail is retrieving other necessary objects on the desk for her. 

---

Eya is seen at the alchemy station attempting to brew an antidote for Grumblejack's belladonna poison. At some point, she leaves a few herbs boiling a bit longer than they should. "Oh shit!" she yells as she rushes to remove the cauldron from the flame. She looks disappointed, "I wonder if it's okay..."

She sniffs the final product and inspects it intently to try and see if it would work to help the poor ogre.

The next few days are something of a blur of activity as the newly formed Nessus Knot prepares for its first mission. Several of the dominated servants with combat training of one sort or another are assigned to assist in training, and in some instances the Cardinal steps in to help personally. He proves to be a surprisingly effective teacher, if a strict one with no tolerance for repeated mistakes.

He shows Kiven certain tricks to react to his surroundings with alacrity. “Strike first, strike ruthlessly and thus be victorious”

Jesla, Eya, and Respar express a particular concern about defending against enchantments, so he has them go through a series of mental exercises “Focus strengthens your will, in all moments, remember your purpose.”  He takes this a bit further with Jesla, seeing in her attitude towards magic an opportunity. "Harness that suspicion and mistrust, and put it to good use for once. With strength of will, you can partially cut yourself off from the weave, making it much more difficult for most spells to have an effect on you. This comes at a price however, while doing so you will not be able to distinguish between spells intended to harm and those intended to aid."

---

The afternoon after the contract signing, Tiadora shows up with a pair of spellbooks and hands them to Eya and Kiven, "I was unable to recover the original ones taken from you, but these should help for the moment." She also flicks a small spherical crystal towards Kiven, "That is what you need to recover your bonded weapon I believe, I assume you don't need me to hold your hand through the process?"

Later, when Eya questions her she sighs wearily, "My services were acquired by the Cardinal in a contract made a little over four years ago. The details there are none of your concern. He asked me and a few others to put together a list of individuals potentially useful to the cause, whether due to position or their talents. I knew you met his criteria, so you went on the list, it was that simple. As to it being rather sudden, you're to blame for that, you were to be contacted in due time, but then you were caught in that hare brained scheme of yours. I advocated leaving you to rot and moving on, but as it turns out your cellmates were promising in their own way, so it was decided to recruit the entire last knot all at once."

---

It isn't very long before you meet the Cocytus Knot, though they prefer to call themselves the White Ravens. Their leader is a rather beautiful Sylph Witch by the name of Elise Zadaria. Her familiar is a large albino raven with a sharp tongue. She is followed by a trio of men, a big brute called Dostan Alfson, and two twin brothers, Titus and Tallus Rackburn. All three seem to be infatuated with Elise.

Elise simply walks in on you during training one day, she says, "So you're the ones who caused so much trouble. You've got a long way to go before you earn any real favor around here. We on the other hand have earned out place. What have you done? Hopped a wall?" Her raven chimes in, "A wall manned by fools and drunkards, hah!"

Obviously annoyed at Tiadora's response, Eya replies to the condescending woman, "How very pragmatic of you. You haven't changed at all, but I suspect there's more to this than you're leading me to believe. This is the second time you've done something like this after all. And I promise you that I will figure out what you're really up to one of these days. Still, I can't deny that you've been helpful. Enjoy your shopping trip."

---

Eya is sitting cross-legged on the floor, concentrating on the Cardinal's mental training exercises with her eyes closed, as Elise walks in. She opens one eye as the witch addresses the party, then slowly stands to go meet her. Eya glares at the witch and there is yet another high-noon-esque stare down between the two. "*****, I will end you right here and now if you insult me again. Your dumbass, ugly-ass bird will make for a good snack too. Besides, the Cocytus Knot, huh? Didn't make the cut for Nessus? Aw, that's just too bad. It makes sense though, we wouldn't want the most powerful knot to be comprised of imbeciles and fools."

   Jesla raises an eyebrow as Respar shares his background.  She studies him intently for a moment and then Kiven and Eya.  They are so different from who she is normally accustomed to be around. " I worked as a pirate.  We captured many ships and made a small fortune.  I so loved boarding a ship in my other form.....It seemed to  terrify most crews for some reason.  " She winked at this.  " Apparently the Mitrans didn't like that and hunted us down.  They had us greatly outnumbered and killed all but me.  I deserved a special fate due to my curse they said. That didn't work out well for them though.  " She frowns as she remembers her time aboard ship.  

 She nods as the Cardinal instructs her in resisting magic.  " I see what you are saying.  Hopefully I can master this and it will be a shield against magic.  That is my weakness. " 

  She looks up from her swordmanship practice as Elise and her team walk in. Jesla bristles as they are insulted.  Before she can say anything Eya blasts the sylph.  A smile creases her face at this.  She strolls over to stand beside Eya.  " Are you and your stooge followers done here? We have more important things to do than listen to you and your childish outburst.  If you actually want to test our patience then please carry on.  Give me a reason to rip your pretty little face off.  " Her green eyes change aspect slightly as she smirks at the other group.  

Respar listens intently to the Cardinal's lessons.  Regardless of the situation, it will help develop a skill that could be most useful.

He is also practicing the exercises when Elise and her retinue appear.  He tries to shut the whole scene out as he does his best to focus.  But then Eya and Jesla opt to play Elise's game.  Normally he would have preferred less confrontation with this group.  Competing with them could be accomplished without the trash talking.  It might have even become possible to learn from this group.  Possibly at a couple of them would have similar goals, or at least useful intelligence on how things work around here.  And trying to learn such things subtly is his preferred method.  But for now that will have to wait.  If the team was not still so newly formed, he might sit back and watch how things progress, but he thinks reinforcing their unity, esprit de corps, and teamwork should take priority.

Without getting up or looking up from the table where he is seated, the rogue, now clean-shaven, says, "Yes, we're the ones who caused trouble.  And climbed that wall, and escaped across the moors.  But at least you've heard something about us, regardless of the level of accomplishment.  I have no idea what, if anything, you and your toadies have done to 'earn' your place."  He pauses, glances up then adds with a tiny hint of condescension.  "But I'm sure you're all most impressive."  He looks back down, eyes still watching the feet of these Ravens, in case any decide to move closer...

As Respar finishes telling his tale and then slaps Kiven on the back, the elf just stiffens and has the most uncomfortable of looks on his face but is otherwise silent as the rogue walks away.  He is not accustomed to being touched and can't even muster up a clever response to the comment about still being warm.

As the others tell their tales Kiven livens up at mention of poisoning the King's daughter with a sincere "well cheers to that!" and a raise of his cup.  When all are finished he simply contributes "well you all know who I am."  Eager to move on from the slightly uncomfortable nature of suddenly all being best pals, The Prince quickly says "well that was just delightful" and changes the subject to matters of their training and their first mission as quickly as possible.

To Tiadora's remark The Prince replies "it is tempting to call your bluff but that would just be a waste of a crystal and a surprise to no one, my dear."

During the training Kiven is taking a break, as he is quite fond of doing, and is thus sitting and sipping on something cold.  As Elise and the other Nessus members exchange words he doesn't even look at the Cocytus leader but eventually says "this is all very amusing but if you're going to have your dogs in my presence could you at least train them to pick their tongues up off of the ground?  It's embarrassing, really.  Perhaps you could give them each a few minutes of.... attention... so they can focus on the task at hand, you know, for the glory of Asmodeus and all of that."  He never looks at her during his comments, preferring to stare into his cup.

After Respar speaks Kiven chuckles a little, still fixated on the cup, adding "ooh, he does have a point there."  "What were your names again?"  As they begin to speak he cuts them off sharply, saying "ah, I just realized, it doesn't really matter."

Tiadora narrows her eyes, staring at Kiven, he finds himself drawn in, unable to look away from her pupils. The world goes hazy, the only thing he can see clearly is Tiadora, who stands before him with a smirk on her face, "You're a proud one aren't you Kiven, that kind of pride can kill a man quite easily I'm afraid. Lucky for you the master would not like me breaking you, at least just yet. No, instead, I think I will have you show the world how proud you really are of yourself. Now strip."

Kiven's memories of what happens next are a bit fuzzy, but he seems to recall dancing naked through the mansion's halls and singing baudy songs at the top of his lungs. He comes back to his senses sprawled outside in a shallow puddle of mud, still lacking clothing. When he reaches the door for the mansion, a smiling Tiadora opens it for him, and says, "Next time, I won't stop there." She then simply walks away.

---

Elise smiles, "It is not a surprise that you have not heard of us. We hail from Mendev, far to the east, and you lot were too busy competing with rats for food at the time of our greatest exploits here in Tallingarde. We just returned from desecrating the tomb of Queen Bronwyn."

"As for you, Lord of the dance, I'm surprised you have the nerve to say anything after running about the place last night, your ugly shriveled bits flopping everywhere. Did you make a pass at the mistress of this manor? She should have cut it off."

"And by all means, try to claw my face off barbarian, you wouldn't land a scratch. and my familiar is hungry." The bird bobs its head up and down excitedly, "Cat's eyes are good, I wanna try tiger eyes!"

Respar glances back up, a thoughtful look on his face.  He purses his lips and shrugs.  "Well done.  You got a good rise from several of our team.  The only thing I am wondering is if you were testing us under orders, or on your own initiative."  He thinks a moment then adds, "Probably orders, I'd guess.  Now that I've seen how you handle yourself, I'm not sure you seem the sort to make a move without approval."  Another shrug.  "Maybe I'm wrong on that.  But this was just to see how we react.  I'm sure if we've failed miserably the real powers here will not hesitate to let us know.  But you've accomplished your mission.  You can run along now."  He takes the maps and books on their travel route and locations he'd requested and begins to peruse them.

Eya just stands there as Tiadora takes over Kiven's mind, temporarily turning him into a meat puppet. As she parades him about the mansion, Eya just facepalms hard then admits to Tiadora, "I tried to warn him, I really did." She shakes her head as the singing and prancing starts, "Okay, well, I'm going to go do something productive now. If I watch this any longer, even I might die of embarrassment." 

Eya leaves Kiven to his fate, hoping to check in on him after he's back to normal. She asks one of the servant girls to lead her to Grumblejack's room. Upon entering, she greets the ogre in an almost motherly tone, "Hey there, big guy. Have they been treating you well? Have they been feeding you?"


---

Still glaring at Elise, Eya responds to the tales of her "great" exploits, "You expect to impress me with a story about pissing on a gravestone? Did you come here and interrupt our training with Cardinal Thorn just to start some shit or are you here for something that actually furthers our goals as an organization?"

Tiadora smirks as Kiven runs off, "Most men need housebreaking before they're of any use to anyone. This one will require more work than most. Perhaps he'll be worth the effort, perhaps not. You've made an interesting choice in him girl, you certainly have your work cut out for you. Have you lain with him yet?"

---

Grumblejack has been given what appears to have been an old common sleeping area for servants. About a dozen small mattresses have been stacked up for his use. When Eya arrives, she finds him messing around with broken pieces of what appears to have been a wardrobe at some point. He's busy stacking the bits into... something.

Someone apparently managed to find clothing roughly his size somewhere. Its not a perfect fit, but the ogre is dressed in a nice looking tunic and leggings. Footwear was apparently more problematic, as his feet are still bare.

"Yeah, they treating Grumblejack nice enough here, had a nice sheep last night for dinner. But that lady in white is scary. I tried to sneak up on her last night and she... um, Grumblejack not want to say."

---

Elise tosses her head back and laughs, "Shows what you know. The king is going to be in a fury once we find out just how thoroughly we dishonored his dead wife, and we left a few hints here and there, just enough to send him and his people off on a wild Imp chase right when we need him to be distracted."

"In any event this was fun, but I just wanted to see if there was any chance I needed to worry about the newest knot proving to be a worthy challenger for our master's favor. It seems that I need not be concerned." Smirking, she and her companions turn to withdraw.

Responding to Elise, Kiven continues to study his cup and says "you'll find I have the nerve to say quite a bit, actually.  Someone has to.  Oh, and don't act like you weren't impressed."  He smiles widely.

After she leaves he says to the group, Respar in particular, "I just want to make sure I have this straight, for future reference."  "You think that she thinks that we think she thinks to test us but really Thorny thinks that we think that she thinks she's superior and thus he thinks we should be tested, but maybe not?  Most impressive.  What a fascinating waste of energy, and air!"  The curvature of the cup suddenly grows increasingly interesting amidst the other intellectual endeavors of the moment and Kiven continues his research.

------------------------------------------------------

Cold, wet and covered in mud, Kiven sees Tiadora open the door for him after his 'performance'.  He thinks of a quick retort but hesitates for once and she is gone when he looks up again.  Still clutching the crystal, the elf silently makes his way to his room and rudely snaps at his servant girl, "bath water, now!"  He let's her bath him but is impatient about it and soon dresses in fine robes and heads towards the library.  Snapping at his servant once more on his way out the door he says "a meal, water, and wine now, then tea, biscuits, jam and figs every three hours through the evening."  "Find me either in the library or the arcanist's workshop."

Kiven is barely seen over the next few days except when attending the training with Cardinal Thorn.  He uses the arcanist's workshop to perform the ritual required to summon the ancient bow he had stolen from the family vault.  A shining black bow wreathed in dark, shadowy wisps materializes from nothing in his hands.  It almost appears to be made of obsidian or some other such material.  Whether Eya is there or not, Kiven says aloud "it is as I feared, all of the powerful enchants applied over the last few centuries, gone."  He sighs a bit but seems to have been expecting it.  "Ah well, better that I have it in this form than let those fools keep it and make no use of it at all.  No matter, it will take new enchantments quite nicely."

Kiven otherwise spends a great deal of time copying spells from Eya's new book and his brother's old book.  "So much knowledge lost without my own book.  These paltry spells will have to do for now until I have more time and resources.  I wonder what they'll do with such a valuable tome back home."  One thing that does please Kiven is a wealth of books his father would never have kept in the Aloro library.  He reads up on Asmodeus, dark magics and many other subjects, quickly becoming very fond of a particular book on blood magic and the like.  Wanting more privacy with the book, The Prince gathers a large volume of magical supplies and piles them all on the table.  The next time his servant arrives with food he says "take it to my room, and then move all of this there, too."  At that he strides out with his favorite new books in hand, and a biscuit.  The elf works privately in his room for hours each evening leading up to their first mission.

(something like that, but perhaps a bit longer to justify usage of a longbow)

Respar does his best to ignore Elisa and her cohort as they leave, but the sharp-eyed might notice him taking a quick glance at Elise's retreating legs and backside.  His right eyebrow rises in approval, then he goes back to his maps and charts.

Eya rolls her eyes at Tiadora and stares at her with an unamused expression, "First of all, ew, especially coming from you. Second of all, no. He's just a useful tool that has potential. Nothing more, nothing less."

---

Eya walks over next to Grumblejack. The size difference is quite amusing. "I like sheep too, especially when marinated in yogurt for awhile then roasted," she says as she sits down next to the ogre. "You're right to trust your instincts regarding the white lady, she is scary. It's best to stay away from her if you can, okay? Keep practicing your sneak though, someday you'll be an ogre ninja. By the way, I put in an order for some items for you, a few weapons and armor. I think you will like the big spiky hammer the most."

She begins inspecting Grumblejack closely, "How is your stomach feeling regarding the poison the blue men fed you? Are you still not feeling at full strength? Make sure to keep drinking lots of water. I tried to make an antidote yesterday...but it didn't turn out so great. I think it could even make you sicker, so I won't give it to you. I'll try one more time tomorrow."

She stops the medical exam then asks, "Are you building something there, Grumblejack? What is it?"

---

Eya is in the magic workshop but on the complete other side of the room from Kiven, working on one of her items, when she hears him mention the tragedy of his bow. Then, in a puff of ash and smoke, she suddenly appears squatting atop the worktable overlooking the bow. She inspects the magic aura of the bow, then nonchalantly comments to the young Prince, "That's a real bummer." 

Her skin cracks similarly to cracks of magma at a volcano, then poof. Ash and smoke replaces her and she is back on her side of the room, working on her magic items.

At some point during their training and wizardly work, Kiven asks Eya to hand his lengthy list off to Tiadora.  It is entirely made up of inks, spell components and the like and has absolutely no adventuring gear on it.  Eya does convince him to chip in for some group gear, however, including the infernal healing wand and gear for Grumbles.

Tiadora looks surprised at Eya's comments, "Of course he is just a tool, what did you think I meant? You may lack my talent for enchantment, but as a woman you have other ways to keep a man pointed in the direction you want, I am surprised you're not making use of them."

"I could give you some pointers in the fine arts of seduction if you like."

---

Grumblejack shrugs and makes a fist, "It better than before, but it's still not right."

Based on what Eya knows, the poison has probably run its course already, and his body just needs time to repair the damage. However, that could take a week or more without aid

When asked about what he is assembling, he shrugs again, "Somethin, I dunno. Grumblejack is bored. Wanna go hit someone, or at least find a decent drink. The stuff here is like water."

Eya just cringes and shakes her head, "Never mind what I meant, I'm not sure it's even possible for you to understand. And I'm all set on Tiadora's Art of Seduction. Besides, I need to go prepare for the mission ahead."

---

On the last day in the manor, Eya attempts creating the Belladonna cure. As she is nearing the end of her work, her tail accidentally knocks a stray beaker into the concoction. "DAMMIT!" she yells as she slams her fists on the table. "I'm sorry my son..." she says softly to herself, "You will have to wait a bit longer."

   Jesla shakes her head as the other group departs.  " Very foolish of  her.  She overestimated herself against me.   Look at my scars.  I didn't get them reading books indoors.  I got them fighting wild creatures and other tribes in battle.  I also got a few while raiding ships as a pirate.  Oh the rush just before battle is joined.  it is like no other.  ' 

As Jesla talks of bloody battles are pirating being superior to the merits of proper study Kiven does finally look up from his cup, raises an eyebrow at her, shakes his head, and then resumes his study of the cup having decided to say nothing.

As Eya shows off her dimensional slide complete with ashen residue Kiven grins a tiny bit and his head bounces with a silent chuckle as he wipes ash from his work area onto the floor.  He has been quite serious in recent hours or days since his punishments but he can appreciate worthwhile magic when he sees it and it lightens the mood temporarily.  Regarding the bow, he says "it was to be expected."  Referencing her teleport he says "your display does bring up another issue."  "This spellbook is inadequate and doesn't even contain a basic teleport of any kind.  Since it seems this new path will require me to get my hands much dirtier than if Father had listened to me in the first place, I'm going to have to work to remedy that from the resources available here.  It will take some time."  His mood grows sullen once again as he thinks of this new road and he sighs a little.  "I am not looking forward to having to put my efforts towards martial combat and 'adventuring' as common folk seem to call it.  What a waste.  Just because I could always split poor Ty's arrows with my eyes closed and no practice when Father forced me to partake in their more primitive hobbies doesn't mean I enjoy wasting time on such endeavors.  Ah well, another test from the Gods, I suppose."  He looks at the bow as he holds it gently in his open palms.  "At least the properties of the bow will make the endeavor far more interesting as I study it and work to unlock its potential, at least until I have an adequate tome of knowledge collected once again and no longer need to calculate arrow velocity and wind vectors to accomplish my goals.  Perhaps it needs a name.  I believe it has had many over the centuries, depending on who its master was, but it has a new master now." He stares at the bow, seemingly contemplating a name.

"Just make sure the name is a pretentious elven one that no one can pronounce," Eya jokes from across the room. She turns around as she removes her work gloves, then continues, "Besides, I think you will come to enjoy adventuring, Master Aloro. There's a certain thrill to it, acquired taste as it is. Think of it this way, adventuring can lead you to unearth ancient magical secrets or to artifacts of incredible power. It also leads to wealth, which can then in turn be used to gain even more power."

"The teleport spell though, I'm afraid I can't teach that. It's less a spell in the traditional sense, and more like...breaking the rules," she grins widely at that last part.

"Dun'Valkar it is then."  Kiven looks proudly at his bow, thinking of it's potential, the potential of this whole situation, HIS potential.

"I do not seek thrills.  I have important work to do but it seems this is the path either way, so yes we will see just how this adventuring of yours tastes."

"Yes, yes, I had several such spells in my old book.  I just need the time to replicate them."