(Yes please have them back up Justin.)(Also do you want me to take some more characters? I'm more than willing to.)

Ashia notices Brandon and Jay starting to flag but knows that if they don't keep running that the allies behind them will think they are the enemy. Ashia wonders if Olvan or any Greencloak even knew what she or Justin looked like. That in this case could be very problematic. Silently looking around Ashia wonders if anyone aside from Justin had figured out her true plan, that the talisman wasn't the end goal.


Justin notices the defensive position that Mae had and knew he would have to be the one on the offensive. Silently he curses Ashia's plan and the pelt wearers. If they had just a little more time then maybe none of this would have happened, but unfortunately the tide of war did not turn in their favor. Justin only knew of two other Keepers in Zhong at the moment and they were too far away to reach in a timely manner. So, they had made a deal with the enemy, Greencloaks who it seemed were a little late.

(That would be great if you made more characters.)
More likely than not, the Greencloaks knew very little about what Ashia and Justin look like other than possible accounts from Seth and Lenori.
Ryan decides to stick by Jay's side. Jay seems to be the one to talk the most unless in a diplomatic situation, so he could try to get information from Jay if necessary. Ryan doesn't know of Ashia's plan and honestly doesnt think that the group is bad, but he knows that Mahesh's orders are to be followed and the older man's intuition tends to be fairly accurate.
Hazel and Brandon had not guessed and neither has Jay, for better or worse. They knew that the Keepers wanted to win the war and that the talisman could turn the tide in their favor.

Mae doesn't know of Justin's plight. She just hopes that he has a plan and that her companions come in time.
Mahesh turns to Mae and Justin. "So, you know the way through the maze?" He asks Mae and the Greencloak keeps her silence, no emotion other than annoyance at her position.

The other Greencloaks had met their own setbacks when the best tracker lost the path for a while and they struggled to get back, but they were coming up to Justin and Mae's location.

(Can do)

Kaden looks at the tracker, *Do you have a lead on the thief? If not why dont I take the front position after all I did figure out a clue from the thief.* Kaden wasnt trying to sound cocky but the second clue from Ashia had been a difficult riddle which explained how the Conquerers were moving through the maze. *I still want to know how the thief got this information. Or better how she knew about the talisman especially before we did.* Kaden wished he could release his spirit animal but was too worried about Tania getting shot down like so many other birds in the maze.
*Alright smart guy tell me what the thief*s plan is. Or better yet where the talisman is and how we are going to free our missing friend,* Maya snaps at him asking Strider to come out of passive state. The red wolf* sniffs the ground trying to track Mae*s sent. It takes time but eventually Strider points then towards a group of Conquerers.
*Is that our contact and our thief,* Kaden asks seeing Mae and Justin.


Justin watches the group surrounding them and wonders how they are going to rejoin Ashia*s group. Out of the corner of his eye he catches sight of who he thinks might be Greencloaks. Careful not to give them away Justin stretches trying to attract Mae*s attention to the potential allies. If they werent who he thought they were then the situation just got a whole lot worse.





(* According to the spirit animals game red wolves could be summoned since Brigan was a grey wolf).

Rue smiles slightly at Kaden and Maya's conversation. He doesn't bother interrupting the two of them; he had figured out by now that his fellow Greencloaks are more than capable of doing things he could only wish to be good at. His strengths lay in other works, so tracking and puzzles he would leave for Maya and Kaden. Sting, his spirit animal arachnid, is in passive state at the moment. "It seems that this thief is good at her job," He says quietly on the topic of how the thief got the information. "Probably got what she wanted during her travels."
In a way that the Conquerors would hopefully not detect, he relays a possible strategy to get Mae away from the Conquerors. "We currently have an element of surprise and two allies in the Conqueror's grasp; 5 against 14 with two allies already in enemy lines. They don't seem hostile to the thief - if this is our thief. We could distract the Conquerors, try to split them up, and get them away from Mae and our possible thief." Rue pauses and looks shyly towards the other two, feeling a bit embarrassed once he starts speaking up. He had lasted a while without conversing. "Since you guys have more experience, you probably have a better idea."

Mae doesn't catch onto what Justin is trying to relay and ignores him for a while. She glances over to him once and spots her friends. She isn't that great at hiding the strongest emotions she is feeling and anyone nearby would be able to recognize the look of surprise and relief on her face when she sees her friends.

Justin gently taps Mae with his sword to wipe the smirk off her face. He hopes no one else noticed it. He also hopes that Ashia is okay.



Maya looks at the situation at hand and grabs out her staff, *We have to do this smart. Rue can you cause a distraction on the other side. The one who hit Mae saw us and knows whats going on. If we ambush them they can defend themselves. Once the distraction has started one of us will cover the others while we attack. Mae and the one with the sword can obviously fight. Ready?*

(Happy New Year)

(Happy New Year to you too.)

Mae's expression slowly fades back into a look of slight annoyance once Justin taps her with his sword. "Thanks." She mutters, almost sarcastic but actually meaning to thank him for reminding her to keep her emotions hidden when around enemies.

Rue nods when given the task to distract the Conquerors. He doesn't know what distraction he's going to cause just yet but he knows that he can cause one just by existing. Sting appears and the two head to the other side of the Conquerors' squad to lead the Conquerors away from Mae.
A few minutes later, Sylver exclaims that Ann had been taken out by someone and the only suspect around here was now fleeing (though Sylver didn't see the attack and couldn't actually identify whether or not the one running away was the villain; Rue is good at not getting caught). Mahesh glances towards Justin, "You've done a good job securing the Greencloak thus far, Jacob. I expect you to continue to keep an eye on her." He then sends some of his group to cut the fleeing villain off and others to pursue. Sylver and the one with the most medical knowledge, Jackie, stay with Ann.

Justin nods once not bothered by Mahesh in the slightest as he pretends to watch Mae. He knew what was coming next since the Conquerers were divided. All he had to do was wait a little longer until the fighting started. He hoped the fighting would start soon since Ashias group was getting further away.


Maya nods Kaden who takes out one of his throwing knives and throws one of them at a Conquer cutting them down. Maya charges out towards the Conquerors with her staff out. Ava backs Maya with her saber. When they start fighting Justin pulls on Mae*s rope causing it to fall off and gives her her weapons back. Nodding once to Mae he goes after Mahesh. Using his sword he faints and strikes at Mahesh. Glaring with a fire in his eyes Justin fights unrelenting.

Mahesh said he trusted 'Jacob' enough to watch over Mae - he already guessed that he shouldn't have trusted Ashia as much as he had and that 'Jacob' and Mae weren't all they claimed to be - but he most definitely did not trust 'Jacob' enough to put his guard down. He hears Justin approach and he turns around, his weapons at the ready. Akemi appears beside him as Justin feigns an attack. Mahesh spots the fake strike and goes to block the true one, but he reacts a second too late to ward off the blow completely. Mahesh fights with a rivaling passion.

Mae glances around once for Rue since she was used to backing him up in a fight before she simply went to aid her friends.

Justin strikes at both with a slash attack with turns into a stab. He was an experienced swordsman who was fighting to defend himself and rejoin Ashia. He hoped the Greencloaks would help him some since he was helping them. If not this would be a long mission. Especially since this was his second time being surrounded by strangers who were possibly enemies. Maya jumps in to fight Akemi and to help Justin. Strider tries to corral Akemi to make the battle easier. Mayas staff was made of hard oak wood which she was experienced using.

When he gets back from being distracting, Rue is surprised by an axe which swings towards him and the only reason he isn't beheaded is because of Sting's awareness. He falls back and turns his daggers on the Conqueror, the only other weapons he had on him being the crossbow and bolts he had used to take out Ann. Rue doesn't want to get at all close to the range of the axe, a distance at which his daggers are not useful.

Jamie takes a defensive stance in front of Ann and Sylver, who had received the knife Kaden had thrown. A lyrebird appears beside Jamie and begins to dash off to look for reinforcements. Jamie is currently unarmed since she had set aside her weapons to help Ann and couldn't get to them at the current moment and Sylver's weapons were not ones she is comfortable using.
A tiger's roar startled Mae and she switched to defensive, missing the chance to deal an easy strike. Deirdre attacks the Conqueror in front of Mae and makes up for Mae's hesitation. The Conqueror goes down a second after her animal does.

Ahmir races to aid Mahesh with Hatch, his bile-bonded raccoon, by his side. Hatch gives Strider another opponent to worry about in a different direction than Akemi's, who had been knocked unconscious with the first of Maya's blows.
Mahesh's block follows through with Justin's attack, but he cannot ward off the stab and he gets severely injured. Mahesh grits his teeth and refuses to surrender until he is dead. He does not want to disappoint his leaders. Mahesh tries an attack with his own sword against Justin and Maya.