Everyone in the casino room sprang into action.
Nathaniel surged forward, in the lead, while Claire and Vladimir spread out behind him. Vladimir held a familiar pair of knives, but Claire and Nathaniel were both unarmed.
Jehan backpedaled, and started out by slamming his staff into Nathaniel's ribcage. Nathaniel winced but continued onwards, grabbing at Jehan. Jehan ducked back, and then stumbled as a knife flew past him, missing by centimeters.
Nathaniel grabbed at Jehan again. Jehan grimaced, and pulled his gun.
Jehan knew how to handle a gun, and he knew that warning shots were an amateur mistake -- but, frankly, he wasn't in the business of killing //people.//
So Jehan shot in Nathaniel's direction, careful to ensure the bullet passed close but didn't actually hit. The trickier part was making sure they didn't notice the deliberate miss, but it worked -- Nathaniel flinched and stuttered to an abrupt stop when the gun went off, and Jehan took his chance to widen the gap.
Vladimir threw another knife at him. Jehan dodged out of the way--
--belatedly realizing that he'd allowed Claire to draw in close to him, but she still didn't have a weapon--
--and suddenly he was on the other side of the room, slamming down onto a table hard enough that it splintered.
Jehan went still. He resisted the urge to show any signs of pain, and instead focused on Claire.
He could still see the air shimmering around her unnaturally. None of the Collective members looked surprised.
"Oh," Jehan said, unintentionally speaking aloud. She was a //[[witch]].//That changed the situation.
Jehan's brief moment of advantage had been lost. He climbed to his feet and fired off two shots towards Claire, a bit more carelessly than before.
The air wavered around Claire, and the two bullets veered wildly off-course, in different directions.
Claire swayed unsteadily, sweating heavily.
So her witchcraft had limits, Jehan noted...
Vladimir abandoned his third throwing knife and sprinted straight at Jehan, looking strangely intense. Jehan frowned and fired at him, and Vladimir ducked, startled even as the bullet missed him by half a meter.
Jehan took advantage of Vladimir's surprise and slammed his staff into the man's knee. Vladimir fell.
Jehan didn't have time to do much else. Nathaniel sprinted at him again, and before he could bring the gun back up again, Nathaniel slammed into him, wrapping one hand around the wrist holding the gun, and the other against Jehan's throat.
He slammed Jehan down onto the ground. Jehan wheezed, seeing stars, and vainly struggled to draw in breath.
He took a perilous second to think, and let his staff drop. Instead, he pulled free his knife and stabbed it into Nathaniel's arm savagely. Nathaniel released his grip and flinched back when Jehan stabbed up towards his face, and Jehan leapt to his feet, grabbed his staff, and sprinted towards the front door.
Nathaniel hesitated to follow, holding his wounded arm gingerly. Vladimir started after Jehan, limping, and Claire came up to Vladimir's side, her face pale.
And then the Puppetmaster rushed into the room, slamming the door closed behind it. It took in the scene and scowled.
Jehan fled straight out of the casino entirely. Behind him, he could hear the Puppetmaster yelling.
"MAKE YOURSELVES USEFUL AND FINISH THE [[JOB]] YOU STARTED, AT LEAST!"The Serpent's Collective reconvened a kilometer away from the casino.
Despite their best efforts and the "help" of the casino's ghost-dealer(?), they'd lost the trail of the Witchfinder. The ghost had left them without a word, and -- even better -- when they'd returned to the casino they'd found Nathaniel with a fresh concussion, and Amelia and the supposed witch gone.
So they'd retreated, tended to Nathaniel's wounds, and gathered up their lesser members, who had been stationed in a perimeter around the casino, to catch anyone that would try to slip by.
Great job they'd done there, Claire thought bitterly. But now it was up to her to plan their next move.
...And yet she couldn't bring herself to make a decision quite yet.
"...as I said before," Nathaniel was saying. "I crushed something that he was trying to grab. The traitor wasn't lying about that. But I didn't verify what it was. I had more pressing matters."
Nathaniel's voice was quiet and pained. He didn't like to speak much, they all knew.
Claire bit her lip. "So he may have been telling the truth," she said. "He may not be a witch at all. I might have been wrong."
Some of the lesser Collective members didn't seem happy at the idea. Claire wasn't, either.
Nathaniel seemed indifferent. "Does that matter?" he asked.
"If he's not a witch," Claire started, hesitated. "Then he's just... some traveler that came by."
The Collective around her was silent, as if they didn't understand her point.
"I just don't think we have the right to... hunt down any traveler that stays with us," Claire said slowly, as if explaining a simple concept. "And if he wasn't a witch, then Amelia... left of her own free will. And in that case, I don't think we have the right to chase her down either."
"They stole from us," someone mentioned. (Claire couldn't even remember his name. Some of the lower Collective members sort of blurred together.)
"Technically, yes," Claire said. "Practically? It doesn't really matter. If we'd all stayed at the compound, I could have already replaced what they took."
There was a period of uncomfortable silence, as the members of the Collective mulled over her words.
When Nathaniel spoke up, he was [[angry]]."This talk of yours borders on treason," Nathaniel stated.
Claire reared back, as if the accusation was a physical strike.
"How //dare// you," she spat.
Nathaniel sneered at her. "The Speaker herself tasked us with taking those two back," he said harshly. "I do not care about your thoughts. Such considerations can be thought over by the Speaker, when we bring the two back to the compound. Focus on your //given task//, rather than your own inadequacies."
"You are being short-sighted," Vladimir cut in, heated. "Mistakes were made. Claire's judgement of our wayward new recruit, yes, but the Speaker as well, in sending out this hunting party. One of our members is already dead. Claire is thinking correctly. We should cut our losses and return."
Nathaniel regarded him. "You are a coward," he said.
"You are a fool," Vladimir snapped back. "Don't let your blind belief in the //Speaker// lead us to our doom. She is fallible. //Very much so//, in fact."
Nathaniel bristled at the words, seeming ready to spring into a fight. Vladimir's hands hovered over his knives.
The rest of the Collective watched with bated breath. A few of the lesser members looked like they agreed with Vladimir, like they wanted to follow his words and return.
But they were a minority. Even more of them seemed ready to jump into action right beside Nathaniel. And even most of those less openly willing to fight seemed disgusted by Vladimir's words.
"Stop," Claire commanded, forcing her voice to remain steady.
Vladimir nodded immediately and stepped back, hands falling away from his knives.
Nathaniel turned his attention towards her, expectant. The weight of the rest of the group was gathering behind him.
"You're... correct, Nathaniel," Claire said, even as the words burned to say. "We must carry out the Speaker's will. We'll continue."
Nathaniel nodded, satisfied. The tension in the group bled out, but a few members still looked disgruntled.
And [[Vladimir]]...(Later, when the Collective began to mobilize again, Vladimir drifted around the group, towards those who had been more neutral in the conflict that had nearly spilled out.)
(And to those members, he spoke.)
("Loyalty is not always a virtue," he said.)
("How many more of us have to die, out of a misguided loyalty towards the Speaker?" he asked.)
("To be honest... I don't see the //Speaker// risking herself out here, leading our dangerous expeditions...")
(He let the sentence trail off.)
(Some of the Collective members started to look [[thoughtful]], after Vladimir spoke with them.)"Okay, but," Amelia said. "Your... friend? That 'Jehan.' He didn't... //actually// kill a member of the Collective, did he?"
"Of course not," Christopher responded instantly, with only a small amount of faked confidence. "He wouldn't do that."
(His read on Jehan's personality wasn't //that// solid in his mind. He was more so trusting the idea that the "Outsiders" would have told him if Jehan had done something like that.)
"Okay," Amelia said, obviously relieved. "Alright, good."
"You, uh," Christopher started, "you still care about them, huh?" He paused, and then grimaced. "I mean, I guess you grew up with them and everything, right?"
"Well, yes," Amelia said. "To all of what you said. I still consider some of them to be... well, I suppose we're no longer friends, but I still worry about them. And my family //is// still back at the compound."
She smiled absentmindedly, losing herself in thought for a moment. Christopher considered.
"You never really told me what made you want to leave," he tried.
Instantly, Amelia grew more guarded. "Maybe some other time," she said.
Christopher nodded, letting it go. The two of them walked on in silence, and Christopher figured he'd shot the conversation down entirely.
After a few minutes, though, Amelia spoke up softly. "I still care for... most members of the Collective," she offered. "It's about the Speaker, mostly. And a few of the other older members. They all did something that I couldn't stand by."
"Ah," Christopher said, trying to sound understanding. "...Do you think there's any way you can convince them to, like, chill out? Stop chasing us down, at least?"
"Well, I can //try//," Amelia said. "If they find us again... well, we'll just have to convince them you're not actually a witch. You're not, right?"
"I'm not!" Christopher said. "Like, seriously, I don't even really get what that means."
"Alright. Then we'll have to figure out a way to convince them."
The two of them considered. Christopher figured he could ask the "Outsiders" for help, next time they got a chance to talk.
Soon, the two of them came across a river.(cut slide omegalul)