As Korrie and Fey finished up Aya gave a slight chuckle "Glad to see you are so eager to go about your day, now before you go I will quickly explain WHY we are procuring all the things we need today and not later in Dylath-Leen, as I am quite certain you remember Maeve mentioned that one of Nyarlathothep's Masks are in town, that could be bad, but given it's actions so far I doubt it's one that's aligned with the Creeping Chaos himself, to make it quick and easy to understand, As you might remember, or maybe not, doesn't really matter, Lady Pale Moon mentioned that Nyarlathothep still had a strong presence in Dylath-Leen, what I took tht to mean was that his servants were still trading their rubies to the inhabitants, it turns out, however that Nyarlathothep has conquered the city in my absence, it is now his territory, which means we really shouldn't stick around longer than absolutely needed there, which means being able to forgo having to restock in the city would be preferable, the last thing I want is having to fight an endless mob of Moonbeasts from the Moon of the Dreamlands, that aside while the splintered off Masks might indeed be quite friendly Nyarlathothep himself are not, he... Hates, mortals such as us and even Hate is not a strong enough word to fully cover just how much he abhor mortals, even if it meant an all out fight with his sister I have little doubt he would gladly take us out of commission in Dylath-Leen should he find us, if only to spite her, as such we want to be out of that city as fast as possible, no stops at all if we can avoid it"
Aya made sure to keep Fey under watch as she spoke, making sure that she was paying attention the entire way through before she undid the ward and opened the door "Korrie, you know the way to the Dragon Conclave, as such I will let you take responsibility for getting you and Fey there in one piece, I would join you myself, but I have to get enough supplies to last s not only down to Dylath-Leen but also across the sea as well, a trip that I honestly have no idea how long will take given all the factors that are involved, so enjoy your last day in town while you can" with that she ushered the two pets out of her room and slammed the door shut behind them, before rummaging through several of the chests and closets until she found a small bag hidden in one of several secret compartments she had gone through "So much for saving all these Spinata for something fun, guess I will be using them for something useful for a change instead" she mumbled to herself even as Erfek gave her a curious glance.
The pets would not be able to stay in the hallway for long before Flint came up the stairs and dragged the two down "Seeing as the two of you are a dragon and a Phoenix yer probably pretty good with fire and the twins, who usually does this for us are busy with the boat to get it recharged so I were wondering if you would be willin' ta light the forge back up for us before ya leave, will even throw in some pocket money for ya to use in town if ya agree" Flint gave them a pleading look as he spoke, behind him the two could see Uldar and Dulgar hodling the now not only melted but also partially exploded hammer as well as several fragments, it was obvious what was on their minds, getting the forge up and running and fix the hammer as fast as possible, provided the two agreed Flint wuold happily lead the way to the forge, where he would gesture for Fey nd Korrie to have their fun lighting the thing up. Once the fire was up and running Flint would give the two a small bag of coins each, each containing twenty coins, five of iron, five of bronze, five of silver and five of gold "Don't spend it all in one place, as that's a pretty decent chunk o cash ya got there" he would the ngive the two Pets a loving hug each and send them both on their way, though would happily explain how much each coin was worth should either of the two pets have the presnece of mind to ask.
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The twins would not have to wait for long before Maeve rose and gestured for them that they had to get going, as they entered the main hall they could hear some form of scream from upstairs, but it was not loud enough that they would be able to pick it out what the scream was about, not that Maeve would let them actually try to figure it out, she had a Tournament to oversee, after all and she would not be late for any reason, something she would make clear to the twins rather quickly should they dilly dally as she led the way back to the arena.
Once they arrived Maeve led them to a small room and gestured for them to enter "The officials wanted to give you some more information about today, in here please" Maeve would close the door behind them as they entered leaving the girls in a room with seven 6 other people, The official who were clearly a nerve wreck, which wasn't too surprising given the information the Twins had received from Maeve as well as a duo of white cats Cats, who seemed completely bored out of their minds seeing as they were both half asleep on their respective chairs, across the table from the two cats were a woman dressed in a sandy brown Bedouin outfit, her companion and most likely her partner was an old man dressed in rags with strange golden eyes who looked just as bemused by this whole situation as the cats were, the final person in the room was a figure in black robes, the shadow seemed to twist and turn about it making it impossible to even tell what kind of creature was underneath it or if it even was a person at all, on the shoulder of this creature was a raven, that seemed strangly out of focus and with glowing red eyes.
"Ah, y-you are all here, good good, err... sorry for dragging you all in here before the matches begins but there have been some... changes to the line up, it would seem that someone recognized one of our more... powerful... contestants and the rumor of... it... spread around to the rest of the participants, as such several contestants have unfortunately decided to withdraw from the tournament, leaving only those present here in the tournament, which means you are now all in the quarter finals, unfortunately we also have to reshuffle everything since there is no telling which of you would have gone up against which in the first place, given your widely diffrent placements on the table before all this, as such we need to reshuffle everything and draw new match-ups, which is why we are all here now" This seemed to wake both the cats and the old man, whom now seemed much more interested in what was going on, whereas the shadowy figure didn't even make a single motion that it had understood nor cared.
The official looked around the room for a bit still clearly nervous, as he put an orb on the middle of the table and took a deep breath and closed his eyes, the sphere lit up and the team names of everyone in the room suddenly lit up in the air above it, before starting to spin around, slowly at first but quickly gaining speed to the point where trying to make out one particular team name was impossible then there was a burst of light and the team names was announced clearly Monochrome Sisters/Squirming Shadows and Feline Fury/Desert Sands The Cats looked over at the Woman and old man and seemed pretty pleased with themselves "The matches have been decided, Monochrome Sisters, Squirming Shadows, please follow your attendants outside to your designated preparation areas for the first Semifinal, Feline Fury/Desert Sands you can either follow suit or watch from the stands until their fight are over, it's up to you" with that said the official hurried out without a word or glance at anyone in the room, relief written over his face as he hurried out, only pausing to grab the orb that had been used to determine everything.
The Shadowy figure rose from it's seat and left hte room, only pausing to look over at the twins briefly, before exiting and heading outside, where they could hear someone greet it an asked it to follow them to the prep area, once the twins left they would find themselves face to face with Maeve who would motion for them to follow along again even as she looked down the hallway to where the shadowy figure just turned a corner "Well, this will be one for the history books for the Arena no matter how you look at it, I don't think a Mask has ever participated before" she explained to the twins as she lead them back to the same preparation room they had used the day before, only now it was without Aila in it, once the twins had taken the time to prepare they would be lead back out by another official and into the arena where they would find their opponent waiting for them, to tremendous cheers from the spectators, clearly the way that they had ended the tournament early the day before had not gone unnoticed as they were cheered by the masses.
The Shadowy figure walked up to the middle of the arena, stopping at the designated starting position for the fight, once the Twins did the same however they were in for a shock as the figure now talked "G'day Gals, good luck in this here battle, oh guess I should introduce ma self, I'm Trevor, I'm from Sidney, Australia, Earth, I'm a Shadowmancer by trade, nice ta meet 'cha, oh and this here is ma partner in the tournament, Pax he's ma Familiar, as he was Fathers Familiar and my Father-Fathers Familiar before that, he might seem mean spirited, but he's the best bud I got!" he gestured to the Raven on his shoulder, who gave an audible sigh "And that's why I said this whole dark and broody motif won't work for you at all, the moment you open your mouth your happy and jovial voice will just dispel the entire thing, you really need to work on that if you want that to work, you know" The ravens voice sounded more like an old man than that of a raven, then again it was decidedly not a normal raven if it was his partner in the tournament, so it was probably to be expected, the shadowy figure paused for a bit at the ravens words then just shrugged "Can't help it, mate, ti's just who I am, now then, let's have a nice fair fight, eh gals?`" he gave a half bow and seemed to ready himself just as the starting signal was given.