Central Plaza

"Perhaps. I believe it won't be too long though." Skarlet sits up and is recomposed. "I believe I've commented on your scars before, back then I still had mine. It is gone now, finally. Hard to believe my arm was sliced off and now it's completely healed now."

"Another vampire cut it off with a huge sword." Skarlet got back to watching the rally now.

Lamina was just a small girl in a large crowd that assembled in the plaza to hear Lady Naoki speak that day... she had arrived almost just in time, when most of the space had already been taken.

"Where to go..." she says under her breath, though she finds herself almost subconsciously narrating more so than usual. In the back of her mind was the constant presence of the sentient threads on her dress, which may or may not have been able to hear her through all the ruckus.

"Right here..."
She had to take a corner of the pavilion, admittedly very far from where Lady Naoki herself would be standing to address the crowd, but climbing and sitting upon a stack of crates gave her a more or less unobstructed view of her new leadership figure.
"That's better... huh, Ishtoreth," she asks quietly but casually, wondering if he could even see through his woven eyes. Yet even if he could, due to the way she sat, he'd probably just be looking up at her.

It'd be a few moments before Naoki arrived, walked slowly down the steps, and begun to speak.

The crowd fell silent. Naoki's message resonated throughout the plaza. Ishtoreth might notice that subtly, the girl's body began to tremble just slightly towards the end. Something dark seemed to be penetrating that magnificent glow of the Avalon, the positivity of all the events that followed, rattling her newfound solace from the realities of her recent trauma and life changes.

Unable to feel anything but reminded, and conflicted, of why she was here in the first place, a lone tear streamed down her cheek, and she stifled the natural and overwhelming desire to suddenly cry.

"I'm... I'm okay," she said in a whisper, trying her best to revert back to who she was just before. She didn't exactly want to explain, especially not now. But she didn't want to alarm him, either. There was something consoling about his threaded hug, something charming and genuine, and she listened to the rest of Naoki's and Ryden's speeches in a neutral silence.

After a little while, it speaks again.

"Milady, perhaps it would be best if you were to take me out to somewhere more secluded. War seems to have come, and I would feel absolutely awful if I didn't show you the full extent of my abilities. A weapon, even one such as I, am utterly useless without proper experience."

Deathforge stepped up to the rickety podium after Ryden did. He did not wear any sort of flashy armor, just his usual Inspector's uniform with hand crossbow in its holster at his hip. He was not one for speechifying, so his would be short and succinct.

"As part of this upcoming war effort, the Ministry of Justice will be ramping up its activities to ensure no foreign agents or sympathizers are attempting to procure information or sabotage our war efforts. Any information provided to us that leads to the arrest of one or more such individuals will be rewarded appropriately. Anyone caught committing such acts will be dealt woth appropriately. Please be careful now, the reach of our enemy is long, amd we highly recommend that people stay indoors as much as possible, particularly at night and do not trust any request or information that does not come from an authorized government official. Thank you."

With his public warning given rather gruffly, Deathforge stepped down from the podium and left the Central Plaza to return to his duties.

<Exit>

"That sounds perfectly workable."

In the early afternoon, a young pageboy makes his way down from The Citadel to enter the Central Plaza. In his hands, there are several rolled scrolls, some wide-head nails, and a small hammer which is presumably intended for the nails.

With these items, he proceeds toward the center of the square, and the boards situated therein. Approaching one at random, the page boy spends a moment to find a more or less vacant spot and approaches it. Setting the rest of his scrolls on the ground, he unrolls one, and with one nail and the hammer, nails it to the board. Then, from his pocket, he takes another piece of paper, a lighter, smaller one, and uses another nail to affix it to the first.

Nodding to himself, apparently satisfied enough with his handiwork, he takes the rest of his scrolls up off the ground, and heads off down one of Isra’s primary boulevards, with the intention to hang more of his scrolls up around the city.

---

The scroll and all of its fellows read as follows.

"Ah, Celadine, I've met a Jun of the Celadine. But I have no idea about any of that. Nothing important should be buried here, the city is still relatively new, I could be mistaken though. If something were buried here that I haven't heard about it was likely before the citadel was made." Skarlet pointed at the Citadel, the house of Isra's government. Skarlet laughs, "I guess I'm not being very helpful. Anyway, here's the plaza, parades go through here and major announcements are made here. It's also pretty easy to find your way around from here."