Chapter 22: When In Rome

[Tristan Tuzanic]

Tristan does as he is ordered and creates a small vortex between The High Priest and Cephrien. It swirls black and blue and for the most part, looks harmless. It creates only a very small suction, which seems more like a breeze due to the small size of the dark vortex. He stands there and waits for any more orders, though his mind does wander a little. He notices that Calithin and Dinari won their fight. For some reason, he was hoping that they would have been eaten. But, he is sure that the Manalists would have stepped in had there been any real threat.
A part of him feels a little bad for the fairy. The fairy doesn't seem very harmful...just a little annoying.
But, despite these distractions, he doesn't speak. He just stands there, doing what he is told.

[Calithin Crest]

I do like blue flavored things...

"Um... No. I don't want any cotton candy."

I hate when being grumpy gets in the way of the things I really actually probably want, however, my resolve is ironclad.

"Oh!"

I finally notice the fight going on in the back. I think I see a fairy, which is crazy, but then... I just got done fighting a dinosaur so it's okay a little little bit crazy.

"I wonder what the trouble is."

That helpful priest seems to be the one fighting. If it seems like he can't handle himself in the fight I'll go over and assist. And by 'assist' I mean... Call someone and have them take care of it.

"Dinari, if you want me to forgive you... You should go help that priest."

[Dinari Dollar]

"Okay, good idea, watch my cotton candy while I'm gone so nobody eats it." Dinari states as he gets up out of his seat. He hands Calithin the bag of blue cotton candy and hops over a row of seats and then a few others to meet up with the Priest and the other combatants.

"Hi, you were right, I should have taken the guns, but who knew it would be a dinosaur?" Dinari says to the High Priest.
"If you need any help here, I'm your man. You can call on me for...anything." Dinari offers. He stands by one of the guards and looks around. This rebel is really outnumbered. Dinari looks at the fairy and wonders if it tastes like pink cotton candy. It makes him remember the cotton candy. He looks back at Calithin and the bag seems safe for now.

[Calithin Crest]

It's my first instinct to eat the cotton candy, and then it's my second instinct to spit in the cotton candy-- but I do neither. I am working on not acting on things like that. It's not easy since they come up often, but, I am working on it. So instead of being that way I just sit with the bag in my lap looking a little awkward. I will take care of it for Dinari until he comes back from helping the priest.

"Hmm..."

Seems to me the rebel and adjacent rebel fairy are in some serious trouble. I watch the fight unfold attentively.

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

...How could this have happened..?
He knew that He should've thought about this more carefully. It looks like the Manalists aren't as stupid as they seem.. They have geniuses in the force.. and, of course, those who know him without even batting an eye. He stood up quickly when he realized that his identity had been comprimised.. before he could even save even one of those rebels. What a shitty day..

His eyes darted around at the guards that appeared all around him, spectators in the area began to run to avoid the conflict.. He lowers his eyelids and gives Lehti an assymmetrical smirk. Without barely lifting a finger, he had defeated him.. Ceph was impressed.
and now Asphodel was in danger.. He couldn't let her be harmed because of his failure. But..

"Didn't you just say that you wanted a fair fight?" The disguised demon spoke with Ceph's voice.

"Or perhaps so many years hiding behind your guards has made you scared~"

Perhaps he could provoke him into a one on one fight.. that could be the distraction.. and perhaps he could use a few tricks up his sleeve. This could still work..

Ceph looked over to Asphodel and gave her a determined look. Even if this didn't work, he would still make sure that at least she was set free.

[Lehti Itajumala]

Lehti barely restrained a cringe as Dinari asked if he could help. "Thank you, Mr. Dollar, but I think I have this mostly under control." What he wanted to say was, why in the name of the Father would anyone want your help? If it came down to a choice between you or the fairy helping me, I'd shoot myself in the head! He didn't say it of course, one had to keep one's head around those as connected as Dinari Dollar.

He almost laughed out loud when Cephrien insulted him. "Please, that's the oldest trick in the book, Cephrien! Anger the one who holds the cards into showing their hand. No, demon. I did dream of meeting you in armed combat, true battle. Every one of my men would love to see such, as would I now. But that is not to be. You see, the moment you decided to walk into this heavily guarded arena, that option went out the window. To do that here, without doing everything possible to take you unharmed beforehand, it would reflect badly on me, as well as reflecting badly on my superiors. No, Cephrien, you made that choice for me."

Lehti held the orb over the vortex, palm down, so that if Cephrien did anything, the fairy would fall immediately into the abyss beyond. "Last chance, Cephrien."

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Yeah whatever.

Ceph paused and calmly narrowed his eyes at the Priest. Though his face didn't show defeat, it did lose it's expression of determination.. Rather it was replaced with a firm and sly smirk. Being taken into the prison.. it might give him an even better chance of completing what he came here to do.. maybe they would even make him fight.

He stood up straight to untense his shoulders and released a quiet breath.

"My options.. are limited." Ceph stated, closing his eyes as he reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out his sub machine-gun. He aimed it forward towards the Priest before suddenly letting his grip go and dropping it to the ground infront of them. He slowly raised his arms into the air in a surrendering fashion.

"Let her go."

[Lehti Itajumala]

Lehti sighed. He had honestly hoped Cephrien would fight. But, it was not to be. He gestured with his sword and a guard stepped forward with a set of heavy manacles that he attached around Cephrein's wrists. Runes flared as the manacles fastened, and the cuffs drew the Manala energy from Cephrein's body, lessening his strength to normal human levels. "So be it." Lehti said slowly, sadly. He turned his hand and tossed the orb into the air before snapping his fingers to release the Asphodel. "Never say I'm not a man of my word, rebel. Guardsmen, the fairy is free to go. Do not attempt to kill or capture it!" He gestured upward with his left hand and the marksmen pulled up their rifles to lay them across their shoulders. "Go, fairy. Go, and tell your rebel scum friends that this night the demon Cephrein will be tied before the Flesh Monger."

[††Venice "Cephrien" Ashgrove††]

Cephrien's eyes widen for a second as he feels his strength sucked out of his body. The violent sapping of his powers causes him to drop to his knees and drop his head to stare at the ground. His breathing becomes labored as he tries to adjust.. However, it isn't doing him much good.. He feels like toppling over and going to sleep.. But he refrained from doing that. Ceph looks up at the Priest who captured him and gives him a weak grin. His irises had gone from their blood red to a solid black. His grin faded as he turned to the fairy and slowly nodded his head.

[Kaschei Bessmertny]

Some priests and guards remove the dead t rex from the arena. To not waste the creature, it will be butchered and turned into food for the Manalist soldiers. After the arena is cleared once again, the intermission is over and it is time for the fights to resume.

"The next fight is between a Buddhist rebel from Tibet who will be fighting a Yeti." Kaschei announces. The fight between the rebel and the Manala priest seems to be over without much incident and people are returning their attention to the fights once more.

[Dinari Dollar]

"If you need any help later, just let me know." Dinari offers. He then sits next to Calithin again and takes the cotton candy back. He takes a few bites from the bag and watches the next fight. A Buddhist rebel versus a Yeti.
"The priest didn't need my help. They had it covered." Dinari informs Calithin. He takes a few more bites of cotton candy.
"You can have some. You don't have to act that way."

[Bonifaz Artz-Lehrer]

"Good. Well, if you start to feel ill, let me know. The disease isn't deadly, but can be if you have a weakened immune system. I suppose one of us should check on Heikki. I have some things to do, so I will later if you don't." Bonifaz states. With that he leaves Archer alone in his room since there is no reason to linger there. There is nothing more to say. Bonifaz has some work that his father gave him. The work is easy enough, only looking over some concepts for advertisements to give his opinion on which he likes best, but there is a few to look over. After that he has to call one of the opium growers in Hungary to see how things are going. Bonifaz heads to a small office downstairs to complete these tasks.

[Charon Dejardins/Asphodel]

To Akira
Asphodel doesn't waste a moment. The second she is free, she zooms off. She is terrified and feels awful that she endangered Cephrien and caused him to lose the fight. She speeds off to find the only person that she thinks can help out in this situation: Akira 69. She flies out of the Colosseum towards the Flower Shop hoping to come upon him.

After some flying around, she finds him near the Colosseum. He must have followed Cephrien but not gone inside yet.

"Help help! They got Cephrien!!" She says to Akira, waving her small arms up and down.

[Hilja Kukkanen/Sasha Pisarev]

I become increasingly sick. I have a terrible cough and my sinuses are plugged up. It makes me so exhausted. I keep a glass of water by my bed to remain hydrated, but for the most part, I just sleep. I must have caught a flu or something. Though, it doesn't seem to be flu season. All of this time feeling sick at least gives me plenty of time to rest. When I feel better I will have to try to find a job again. That's never very easy. I try not to think about it and instead allow myself to find refuge in sleep.

***
While Hilja sleeps, her illusionary alter ego, Sasha, is able to roam around freely. He finds himself in Rome at the Colosseum. He takes a seat in the back rows just in time to catch the last part of the confrontation between Cephrien and the Manalists. He watches carefully, but does his best to remain unnoticed in the crowd of spectators. He wonders if there is anything he can do for Cephrien. For now, he will watch events play out.

[Tristan Tuzanic]

To The Flesh Monger
After Cephrien is weakened by the Manacles, Tristan and another guard volunteer to take him to the Flesh Monger. "We can handle this from here." Tristan states as they take Cephrien away, each holding on to one side of him. Another guard follows along just in case there is any trouble. They can't be too careful since they know he is a powerful demon trained by the Invisible Hand.
They drag him away to the Temple of Terror and bring him to the Flesh Monger directly. They throw him into the room where the Flesh Monger is torturing Lucio before he has to fight again.

"Hey Flesh, we have someone else for you to play with." Tristan states as they drop Cephrien off before him.