[This thread is not to be posted in.]
[This all occurred ICly and should be considered a canon summary of events that have taken place.]
It happened suddenly, in a flurry of feathers and fur, with the echoes of roars behind him, Emerce had fled his captors in the Endless Forest and raced back to Umsindisi with old wounds still healing and new ones to match. With the blood still staining his fur, surely at least some of them would scar. Immediately the guards escorted him up the mountain, as he was taken to meet with Queen Elisheba. There he retold his story to the guards escorting him in the quiet of the night. His raving was anything but quiet though as it stirred many on the mountain.
"Shan Furen is alive and the lions have her!" He cried.
Many quickly blamed his obvious exhaustion, that he had been lost and delirious from wandering for so long, that he had merely seen a vision of her and that he was to be a seer instead. So many days he had been gone, over two weeks now now. That was obviously the case, but as he finally told her majesty of the tale, many spectators began to whisper amongst themselves.
While fire raged in Queen Elisheba's eyes, the like that had never been seen before, she watched as the noble paced in front of her, with the full extent of the colony crowded around the entrance of the royal's cave, with only the guards to keep them from pouring in.
Shan Furen was being held captive, for some reason that even Emerce could not explain. She was there, physically there, and could not leave, but she had saved him from being...his voice fell as he choked on his words.
"Sacrificed."
The word held in the air and the whispers grew louder.
"Silence!" The queen roared, her anger flared, eyes glancing up to the entrance for only seconds before trailing back down to Emerce.
His stories both horrified and moved the crowd gathered at the entrance, of how Shan Furen had tended to him and ensured his wounds began recovering properly, of how she had protected him from the rain with her wings, wings that looked like the heaven upon a night sky. Then the tone shifted, it became much darker as each word fell from his mouth.
The goddess had fought the so-called leader of the Msitu'nyeusi off, someone by the name of 'Haifa Kai', as well as her daughter, the one who had kidnapped him inside of the Endless Forest. The gravity of what he had just spoken hit him. He had admitted to wandering to the forest, a place forbidden to all except the lions who now inhabited them. He had broken a law. The treaty had been shattered and by all accounts, he should be a lawful prisoner of the Msitu'nyeusi to be tried by them, but even the queen, who stared at Emerce with unkind eyes, did not wish to see him slaughtered in the name of nothing but for nothing other than the sake of spilling blood, which by his tales would likely be the case.
Despite their differences in who should sit upon the throne as Heinrich's successor, it seemed as though the loyalists and the royalists had a similar objective: to return Shan Furen to Umsindisi. It took no time for the council begin loudly arguing about the method of recovery of the goddess, as Barafu-taji suggested to face them head-on while others opted to suggest a more stealthy approach, distraction and then extraction. As they talked and the day's light waned, the crowd began to disperse to gossip amongst themselves while the council and royals continued talking on the matter.
Emerce's fate would be decided only after Shan Furen was safe. For now, he was taken away, watched by guards, which the mountain undoubtedly prepared for war.
[OOC]
This is a summary of the events that surrounded Emerce, Nike, Shan Furen, Haifa Kai that took place after "A Noble Sacrifice", up until about ICly two weeks after "Celebration", to bring everyone up to speed.
The events that took place in this summary were originally intended to be actual roleplays that everyone could respond to, but due to my own negligence, these roleplays never occurred. I opted to make a summary post, of what was supposed to happen in the ORPs, to bring everyone onto the same page for the next portion of the meta-plot.