====== Chapter 07: The Battle for Tria ====== [ [[empress:protagonists:isha:reports:report06|Chapter 06]] ] [ [[empress:protagonists:isha:reports:index|Back]] ] [ [[empress:protagonists:isha:reports:report08|Chapter 08]] ]\\ \\ -------------------- \\ And the group jumped to action. Isha made to grab [[exalted:mortals:princess_tria|the Princess]]. Rathimund pulled out some flaming sword thing and Grantaire rolled back and readied his bow. The Fey acted immediately too. He cast some spell or other that made 5 more Trias appear. The group fumbled around alternately trying to nab [[exalted:mortals:princess_tria|Tria]] and attacking the Fey, with not a whole lot of success doing either. Isha eventually gave up trying to grab the girl and instead pulled her iron sword and started to get all up in the Fey's face. Unfortunately, mostly she just fumbled with the sword's unwieldliness. But finally she had a single moment of clarity and made a giant gash in the creature. A blink of an eye later, one of Grant's arrows finished the guy off, but not before the guy had completely changed the landscape around them to a desert sandstorm. As the second Fey fell, the first Fey, Noxious Gas or something, entered and started laying the smack down. This guy was obviously a superior opponent. Perhaps merely because he was more prepared. Really, the group needed to just grab [[exalted:mortals:princess_tria|Tria]] and get out of there. Fighting Fey on the Fey's turf was not a good idea. But which one was she? Isha tried a few things, attempting to get the real [[exalted:mortals:princess_tria|Tria]] to show herself by reacting to comments about her friend [[exalted:infernals:nellens_song|Song]]. Eventually, Az showed up to show the rest of the group the way out, while a host of hobgoblins burst in from a different side. Grant and Rath continued blowing up hobgoblins while Isha kept the big Fey busy. But this was folly, the group really just needed to grab [[exalted:mortals:princess_tria|Tria]], or at least mark her, or the others to make it obvious which was the real one. Rathimund chose to punch [[exalted:mortals:princess_tria|Tria]] in the face. In doing this, he knocked her unconscious and caught her clothes on fire. Az gathered the girl up while the rest of of the group began to retreat. Isha stayed engaged with the big Fey long enough to where everyone was far enough away that they would hopefully not be in his danger zone, and then Isha retreated as well. They got the girl outside of the desert-like glamour, and then got her out of the compound and back into creation. The group whisked her away and patched her wounds at the camp and then eventually she awoke. Now that her Fey captor was dead, and she was out of the Wyld pocket, her senses came back to her and reality dumped itself on her head. Isha took her off to talk to her for a little while, explaining what had happened to her, why they were here helping her, and to try and comfort the girl such that she could. Eventually the two returned to camp and sat around the fire with the rest of the group and discussed the letter, her actions, and what had happened. The letter sent to all regents of satraps of the Noble Houses were told: - Remove the house ambassadors and their families - Build up your armies - Consider the empress a friend In exchange, they would receive: - Secret to the Empress's long life - Personal power akin to that of an Anathema - Sovereignty - The empress will view you as a friend Not good. Not good at all. They would have to talk to [[exalted:sidereals:marianne|Marianne]] and [[exalted:dragonbloods:mnemon_opheria|Opheria]] about this. In fact, this had far more disturbing implications than the group could have possibly imagined. Could what happened to [[exalted:infernals:nellens_song|Song]] have merely been an experiment to see that she could be made into an Anathema? Very not good. After an awkward silence where everyone processed the information in their own way, Azralon spoke up to address some of the more near-term issues. He presented [[exalted:mortals:princess_tria|Tria]] an awkwardly-phrased proposition that did get the point across though -- Her father would be removed as ruler, to be replaced by her. What did she think of this? [[exalted:mortals:princess_tria|Tria]] asked to think about it for a little while, and she left the camp for an hour, but eventually returned and accepted. Now, to plan their melodramatic and triumphant return.