Messages

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

Leela stared at the knight, her face unreadable as he shushed her. She chose not to speak more, figuring Mateo would be more likely to persuade the knights than she could if they knew who he was. Besides, he must be a diplomatic enough fellow to be positioned in a station where he would be the first to greet important people coming in through the East gate. It was clear to the princess by this point that she was not as charming and diplomatic as she had been back in her own world, considering the fact that "wishes" being granted had most likely been the only reason she had gotten as far as she had since arriving in the Orthodoxy.

Luckily, putting her faith in Mateo's diplomatic skills turned out to have been a good decision. She gave a smile of appreciation to the saluting knights as she followed the bishop inside. She was surprised at the sudden change in lighting. It was definitely not what she had expected upon entering a part of the Grand Cathedral. When they came across the knight seated at the table inside, she gave him a nod of acknowledgement as she continued to follow Mateo past him.

Feeling eyes watching her, Leela could not help but to look around at the occupants of the prison cells as the passed. She could feel the unpleasant sensation of her heart sinking as she saw the conditions of them. But surely, there was a good enough reason that they were in prison and being treated like this... She moved closer to Mateo so that she could speak to him quietly, hoping the demihumans ears would not pick it up, but doubting their footsteps and the sounds the prisoner's made were loud enough to cover it up.

"I cannot help but notice the amount of demihuman prisoners there are." She muttered to the bishop. "Are they really such a dangerous race that there are this many of them in prison?"

[spoiler=Aiding Mateo in Diplomacy][blockquote]Rolled 1d20+7 : 19 + 7, total 26[/blockquote][/spoiler]

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

Although she got the feeling that Bishop Mateo was a huge fanboy of the heroes, she could not help but to smile to herself at the words he spoke. She assumed he was reciting them from something, perhaps their holy book, from the way he said it. Depending on how things went during her audience with the cardinals, perhaps she would make it known that she was a hero. She had a few hours to decide on how to best go about it. "I see."

[spoiler=INT Check][blockquote]Rolled 1d20+2 : 1 + 2, total 3[/blockquote][/spoiler]

~~~~~~~~~~

So... it seemed they were keeping their prisoner in the Grand Cathedral where Leela's meeting with the cardinals was to take place. She had expected them to keep such a prisoner in a well-guarded place, though she wondered why they would choose to house something that was supposedly extremely dangerous in a place where their leaders did business and possibly lived.

The princess stared at the nights as the blocked their entry. They seemed confused that Bishop Mateo was trying to show her the demon. She waited a moment to see what would happen before stepping forward to address the knights.

"I, Princess Leela Steading of the great country of America, have come to see for myself if the demon you hold prisoner is the one I am here to speak with your Cardinals about. If it is not, I do no wish to waste my or the Cardinal's time on the matter when I meet with them later today." She said this with confidence, but kept her voice low, having taken the hint that Mateo did not want others to know about it.

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

Leela nodded her understanding, wondering if their hero told them to do something if they would do it or if they would hold a council first to decide. Just how much power did they give their hero? Or did they make it sound like they gave him power when he was actually just a puppet doing what they told him to do?

She wanted to ask 'what if there was a site on demon lands and demons summoned a hero of their own who only wished to have peaceful relations with everyone'. However, she still worried that he might question why she was asking such things and she still did not want to give away her secret.

"What about the other heroes? Are they as esteemed in the countries they were summoned in? You mentioned another hero visited recently, what was she like? Do the heroes hold their own council to discuss plans of action?" The princess asked after walking in her pondering silence for a few moments.

As they continued walking, Leela watched the buildings, roads, and people around them. She was curious as to which building housed the captive demon, but she also wanted to keep tabs on her surroundings so that she could use the map Mateo had given her of the city to find the place again later on.

[spoiler]Ready to start scene at wherever Ashaki is being kept.[/spoiler]

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

"I see. So anyone with the knowledge of the summoning ritual can summon a hero using the ancient runes in these sites? You mentioned that heroes are even higher than the cardinals, does that mean I should actually be talking with your hero instead of them?" Oh, boy. Now she really wondered what Mateo would say if he knew she was actually a summoned hero. Would it actually make things easier? Or would it cause trouble? With the Orthodoxy's hero being a few days away, there was nothing he could do... Well, it was something she could consider. At least more and more options seemed to be opening up in how she could handle this. She wished Zavan could have joined them in the city so she could run her ideas by him. Efrit mostly acted like all decisions were on her and he was just along for the ride. Zephyrus knew nothing of tactics, he was just excited to be helping her in a rescue mission. And Abi was totally useless.

"Could there be ancient rune sites in demon lands, too?" She asked, though she made it sound more like she was just thinking out loud rather than actually asking a question. She, of course, knew the answer to that, but she figured now would be a good time to get their opinion on that matter. If Mateo freaked out and said that could never happen or something along those lines, then perhaps she could use herself having been summoned by the demons of Roshandan as a way to prove that they were not bad. After all, how could bad guys summon a hero blessed by these goddesses that they worshiped?

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

Hmmm... Leela was beginning to worry that the charm she had in her own world was less effective in this one. Perhaps because she had been summoned by demons... Zavan had said that he had been 'just' a dark elf before he had been summoned. Was this an effect of her starting to become one herself? But it seemed her attempts to will her words to work were being seen as wishes by... something. Whatever it was that was giving her titles and the other strange notifications.

Her smile had lessened when Mateo seemed to not like the idea of showing her the demon they held in custody, but it returned to a full smile of happiness when he nodded and agreed. "Indeed." She wondered how many demons they actually had captured.

Leela paid close attention to the things the bishop said about the hero. So, Zavan was definitely correct in that this hero had a super speed. Imagine the hero's surprise when she copied that ability. What caught her interest the most, however, was that the hero was being described as higher than even the country's leaders. All because he had been blessed with special powers by the goddesses that they worshiped. Or so they claimed. Leela wondered, if summoned heroes where blessed by gods or goddesses of this world, which one had put her in this situation with these abilities. She certainly had a thing or two to say to them.

"Wow! He certainly does sound different from those we call heroes in our own world." She was starting to wonder if they would be more willing to do as she requested if she told them she was also a summoned hero... But if they asked for proof, she did not wish to give away knowledge of her power. She would have time to think the idea over before the meeting. Until then, she would continue to pretend she knew nothing of summoned heroes. "I would be honored to meet him."

"You say the heroes are from the goddesses themselves; how do they come into being? Are they just born special or do the goddesses pick someone to bestow special powers upon? Does every country have one? What does it take for a country to be bestowed its own hero?" She asked these questions as they rose and exited the building, walking beside Mateo as he had said that he would show her there on his way to give his report to the cardinals. With the Orthodoxy's ability to travel quickly, Leela decided not to bother asking who exactly had trapped Ashaki. For now.

Using 1 Heroic Action Point to take 10.
(10+7=17)

Diplomacy
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+7 : 3 + 7, total 10[/blockquote]

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

Leela wondered briefly if Bishop Mateo expected her to know of the powers of a hero as she studied his reaction to her words. She was sure that he did not like hearing any of the last bit she had said about the demons of Roshandan and was a little surprised that it took doubting their hero's abilities to get that indignant expression. She had hoped that her words would cause him to see reason and understand the dangers of the cardinals' plans-

Before she could get any further in her thoughts on the matter, a strange notification appeared. 'My wish is granted?' She was so confused. But now was not the time to allow her confusion to show and she quickly turned her attention back to Mateo, who suddenly seemed more agreeable to what she had said.

"I am glad that you understand." Her politicians' smile broke into a true smile. "I can only hope that the cardinals will be as reasonable and understanding as you have been, Bishop Mateo." She wondered just how much of his reaction was tied to this 'granted wish'.

"Oh, you are not taking us there?" Leela inquired. She was confused at how much... well, freedom they gave. She had thought that they would have someone escort her there or something, but she accepted the offered medallion anyways. "In that case, we shall see you at the Grand Cathedral?"

"There is one thing I would like to request before the meeting. I would like to be able to confirm that the demon that you are holding is the same demon that I have been requested to negotiate the release of. If it is not the same one, then there will be no point in continuing such negotiations. They did show me the likeness of the one that they wish returned to them, you see, so I only need to have a look." Perhaps... if they showed her where they were keeping Ashaki, then she could teleport there and then teleport back out with the demon girl. Abi could teleport holding stuff, after all. Surely, Leela could hold Ashaki and teleport her out. This would be her next option if she was unable to negotiate Ashaki's release.

As she thought about Ashaki's release, Leela realized something. Mateo had said that 'something vile' had been captured by their hero just the day before. But not to long ago, he was saying that they were recalling their hero from the front lines of the battle with demons to the south and that he would be arriving in a few days... So... either they had more than one hero, they send the hero back to the front lines and then decided to call him back, or they were lying about it. She was beginning to wonder if Ashaki had simply turned herself in to make up for her father's mistakes.

"I am also curious about your hero. You seem to put a lot of faith in this hero, but I do not understand how he could be any more special than a high ranking official with many honors. What is it that makes him special?" Leela questioned. Since Mateo seemed to nearly worship the hero, she figured she would give him the opportunity to gush about him. And then lead him into questions about how it was possible for the hero to bring in a demon ravaging the city when he was supposedly on the front lines of battle.

Using 1 Heroic Action Point to reroll Diplomacy.

[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+7 : 10 + 7, total 17[/blockquote]

Diplomacy Check
[blockquote]Rolled 1d20+7 : 1 + 7, total 8[/blockquote]

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

http://www.youtube.com/v/wcBosWg1UfA

Seating herself comfortably at the table, Leela looked directly at Bishop Mateo. "Considering the precarious location of what I have left of my country, I am assuming the cardinals wish for more information about it to see what they may benefit from working with us. That is understandable." She led the conversation, deciding to show authority rather than anything that might be considered weakness. Again, she could hear music that seemed to come from nowhere, this time it had started when she started speaking. She decided not to let it affect her and keep on going with what she had planned to say.

"First, I will reply to your question of our religion. I already told you that our country is under God. He is the one and only God, who created the heavens and the earth and all living things. He is three parts, the Father who rules in Heaven, the Son who came to earth and sacrificed himself to save all of humanity for our sins, and the Holy Spirit who resides within us to lead us and help us reject the temptations of sin. He is our Lord, our Savior. He is Life and He is Love. He is the Light of the world and the Lamp unto our path." And unfortunately, she did not have a Bible or any way to retrieve one to prove anything she said. Unless... Leela wondered if the Bible app on her phone would still work in this world. Assuming the battery had not died. Not that anyone here would be able to read it even if it did work, since it was in English.

"As far as demographics go, the world from which we have come is made up of one-hundred percent humans. Every other living thing that is not human is an animal. There are no demi-humans, elves, dwarves, centaurs, or whatever else this world has. If there are, then they did a fantastic job of keeping themselves and their homes completely undiscovered for all these years, which would be a major feat in our world, considering the levels of technology we have- had available to us." She explained.

"And as I mentioned yesterday, the City of Grants Pass that was shifted to this world was a border town in our previous world. That being said, at the time of our shifting, it was being used as a military base to deal with issues that we had with our bordering neighbor, which is why I was there inspecting the town's defenses. The last I checked the census for Grants Pass, we had about a hundred-thousand residents, including the military force, however they were still taking a census of how many had come with us with the shifting when I left." She knew she had drastically overstated that number, but figured combining the numbers of outlying towns and even the nearby city of Medford would probably get around that number... Still, it was nowhere near the size of a place like Portland. She could not even begin to guess how many lived there. She wondered briefly how many goblins Efrit actually had under his command... Because they were most definitely her 'residents' of Grants Pass at this point in time. That was probably something she should have asked Efrit the day before or this morning... Whoops.

"My country... In our own world, we could wall ourselves up and have everything we needed without any outside influence. We grew and raised enough food to export it out to other countries that could not supply enough food for their populace without help. We had farms a plenty for producing all sorts of textiles. We had scientists and inventors researching and creating so many things that we were the leading country in technological advancements." All of this was truth, she knew. Unfortunately, she also knew that only certain states actually produced all that food. Without California, Texas, and Nebraska they probably would not have enough to actually help support other countries. And then a lot of their cotton and wool also came from California, Texas, and a few other states. And Grants Pass was in none of those states. It was part of Oregon, whose primary export was... well, trees, farming machinery, and electronic parts. And in reality... she had none of those to offer up, either.

"The only things we imported from other countries were cheap labor and cultural foods and luxuries." Yes, China and its cheap labor factories... Design the product, send it to a China factory, receive said product made at the lowest cost possible. At the expense of the poor laborers who were treated horribly and barely made enough to survive.

"Unfortunately, with the land that shifted here, things appear to have been changed. I hate to admit that, separated from most of the rest of our country, we are not the super power that we once were. We can offer quality clothing, as you can see from the finery that I and my companions are wearing now. And of course, we still have knowledge on technological advancements from our own world that we may be willing to offer in trade as well." Ha... That was going to be fun. She had knowledge of plenty of technological advancements. But actually knowing how to replicate them... Well, she can at least tell them about things and then tell them the specifics of it is lost knowledge. If they wanted knowledge on things, she can always claim to need to speak with her council about such things before she could provide them. She at least knew of simple things. Like... maybe they don't have or even know what a printing press is. That right there was quite an invention. Oh, and typewriters. She was pretty sure she could reinvent sewing machines, too. She assumed they already had agricultural knowledge, but who knew. Perhaps she even had knowledge on that that they might find useful.

She was sure Mateo had asked other questions when they were out in the lobby as well, but there had been so many, she only answered the ones that she remembered off the top of her head. Besides, she also had another matter on her mind. How to rescue Ashaki when these people had already scheduled her execution. Assuming she was the one they had scheduled the execution for.

Leela shook her head sadly. "I am afraid, Bishop Mateo, that I did not make myself clear enough before when I told you that the fate of my people and possibly even yours hinges on the condition that I bring the captured demon back alive to the demons of Roshandan. Everything I could tell you about my country and what has been brought over into this world will be pointless information if it all ends up being destroyed, which will surely happen if I cannot uphold my end of the bargain - the main condition for the alliance in which they will protect our country from the other demons."

"It is true that they may be manipulating us to get what they want, however, I ask this. Have they ever, aside from the incident I spoke of yesterday, crossed your borders to attack your people? They claim to have no desire to partake in the war against humans that the other demons pursue. If this was a lie, I would assume that your country would be defending not only its southern borders, but its eastern borders as well. No one was guarding the borders when I crossed. In fact, it was very peaceful along the border. Your country is lucky that mine appeared when it did and the Roshandan demons took advantage of that to ask us for help in resolving things peacefully, as they had been preparing a full-scale attack to retrieve what is theirs. I have no doubts of what will happen should your cardinals continue with this plan to execute her. I do doubt, however, your hero's ability to defend both the southern and eastern borders should the worst occur."

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

Leela's eyes narrowed as he listed the sort of information he was requesting. While she could understand they wanted to know as much about a possible ally as they could learn, she could not help but wonder if they had ulterior motives. After all, they had taken in a bunch of the demi-humans as part of a deal with their country and seemed to be using them primarily for less desired work. Servants, builders, and hard-labor jobs if they dissatisfied their employers. And, to add insult to the prying, he was implying that she would not know such information. She had told him that she had been inspecting the defenses of a border town at the time of the shifting. So why would any ruler send one of their heirs to perform such duties if they did not have a decent grasp of the rest of the country. Perhaps this Bishop Mateo was being sexist, implying that she would not know any of the things he was asking about because she was a woman. That just ticked her off.

His reply about 'the demon' fueled her annoyance. So, someone comes asking for them to release a captive and they decide to schedule that prisoner's execution instead of putting such an idea on hold. At least one of them was 'corrupt' enough to be willing to consider the demon's release if she was willing to offer things in exchange. However, that was also a worrying thought, as she tried to think of things she could possibly offer. She also did not even know if the demon they had was even Ashaki, as they made no mention of the demon's gender.

"I can assure you, Bishop, that if I, Princess Leela Steading, heir to the throne, cannot answer such questions, no one else will." Her politician's smile remained as she spoke. She wondered if he would catch her use of 'will' instead of 'can' and the implications behind it. "However, I do not believe an inn lobby is the appropriate place to discuss political matters." Mateo may feel comfortable conducting such business standing in a public lobby, but she did not care for it.

Leela looked around the lobby and caught the attention of an employee on duty in the room. "Does this inn have an office or other such room for guests to conduct meetings in?"

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

"I am happy to hear that." She smiled back at him. "Regarding your request for more information on my country, I would be the person to ask such questions of." Leela felt the request was rather... rude? She was not entirely sure what he meant by 'records' of her own country, but it made it sound like he wanted information that may not be open to public knowledge if he was asking her how much she knew of it. The good news was... she could always say that something was strictly confidential if she felt he was prying too much. But she would definitely have to be on her toes about all this... And try to remember as much as she could about politics from her home world.

"But first, I would like to know what they said about the negotiations that I mentioned before?" She stared at him with her hands clasped together gently, still putting on her "politician's" smile as she waited for an answer. Actual country or not, she was not willing to provide any more information than she had to, especially if the other party had no intention of even considering her main request.

[Leela Steading]

Leela Steading

Well... This was it. Efrit was definitely a terrible teacher. Or perhaps the subject matter was just too difficult for her to grasp the idea of in such a short amount of time. Or both. She had pretty much thrown Efrit into teaching her. Perhaps he was the type to need to prepare himself for teaching. Hopefully, he would be better at going over the things she had told him she expected reports on, since she was giving him plenty of time to prepare those. With a small sigh, she packed away her notes into her backpack after telling Efrit it would probably be best to save it for later.

At the sound of the knock, Leela quickly looked over her two visible companions to make sure they looked presentable, specifically Abi and her hair. The imp's hair had gotten a little messed up from all her bouncing around earlier, which Leela was not surprised considering her fixing the imps hair that morning had been hasty and when she was half asleep still.

"We will be right out." She called back to the maid servant, then turned her attention to the imp, fixing her hair so that the buns would not come out if she hopped around.

"I don't know if we are going to the leaders right now, but feel free to join us or search the city, Zephyrus." Leela said just loud enough for the wind spirit to hear as she worked on Abi's hair.

When she finished, she grabbed her backpack. There was no way that she would leave her backpack anywhere. It contained many valuable things to her from her own world and she would not risk losing it. That done, she opened the door and led her companions out and down to the lobby.

"Good morning, Bishop Mateo." She greeted the man as she neared. "I hope you have good news for me?"