After leaving behind Trinket for the moment, Vox Machina walked through the castle towards the Sovereign that's having a meeting with his council currently.

At first, Arya was beside Vex, moving with the same light steps as the half-elf, impressive to say the least.

She looked around, the castle was pretty enormous, so enormous that she could see quite a few guards stationed throughout the castle, watching Vox machina with stone-cold eyes.

Hmm, enormous but got tactical advantages here unless you were an assassin, but doubt even an assassin can get in, Arya thought, studying the guards, then she face forward...then she let out a silent gasp but apparently, it wasn't silent enough because three of Vox Machina members heard her. 

Keyleth, Vax, and Vex looked at Arya with puzzlement expressions, however, Arya ignored them and focused on two members of the council, as the group grew closer.

"Lady Kima, it is imperative Lord and Lady Briarwood join us" The Sovereign addressed the darker complexion halfling with wavy, auburn hair that looks like it is in a bun, hands clamped behind his back.

"Sire, Whitestone hasn't been heard from in months," Lady Kima said, voice laced with concern and a tad bit of annoyance as well.

The council members and the Sovereign didn't seem to notice the group, so bless this druid's heart, she cleared her throat lightly and nicely said "Excuse me?" 

"Our last messenger never returned" Lady Kima glance at her council mates that pretty much looked as she felt. Concerned and annoyed.

Keyleth tried again, this time in a firm tone but it still came out as soft as a cat's fur "Excuse me?" Once again ignored.

"Awww..." Keyleth looked hurt at being ignored.

Arya shook out of her funk, and hang back beside Keyleth to put a comforting hand on her shoulder "Oh, thank you Hazelnut" Keyleth gave Hazelnut a tight smile that seem to loosen up a bit when Arya did that. The armored knight nodded, then she felt someone staring she turn around slightly to see Vex looking at them...at first, Vex held a curious look then she did a low hmph sound, and looked away, confusing Arya.

Uh, okay? Arya thought, shrugging that off, she didn't move, kind of hoping the two people she knows didn't recognize her armor.

"They must be warned of these attacks." Sovereign sighed, hand running down his face, he looked stressed which earned council members' concern looks more "Send another guardsman right away." He commanded.

Then all of sudden Grog let out the loudest belch that echoed throughout the room surprising the rest of the party and getting the attention of the sovereign and council members.

"I'm sorry, who the hell are you?" Lady Kima asked, fists on her hips looking at the party with mixer of disgusted and intrigued. 

Percy confidently steps forward and fixes his glasses "Vox Machina. You see, it's actually a somewhat clever play on words..." Percy was about to go on his dorky explanation of the group's name but the dark elf didn't care as he rudely interrupted him "Honestly, we don't care."

Okay, two things, first. RUDE and secondly, VERY RUDE, Arya thought but didn't dare to say that out loud, trying to keep a low profile but she can feel two people staring daggers at her. 

 Don't look, don't look, Arya panicked, trying to stop herself from meeting their gaze but failing as she looks to see Lady Kima and a taller lady beside Lady Kima staring at her with flabbergasted looks.

Shit, shit, shit...Arya thought as the dark elf man continued on "Sire, I warned you the notices would attract the scum of Emon" The dark elf man said, pretty much insulting the party.

Arya felt greatly insulted by that and couldn't help herself, she spoke up roughly at the same time as Vex "Excuse you?"

"I think Sir Fince means a foe this deadly requires more seasoned.." A man in a suit of armor like the guards tried to suggest but got rudely interrupted by the dark elf man named Sir Fince.

"Krieg, don't bother with these drunken buffoons" He addressed the human man whose name is Krieg. Sovereign listened as he took a seat, letting his council member handle this. Vox Machina shared a look, all thinking the same thing, wanting to punch this asshole in the face.  

"Guards!" Sir Fince waves his hand.

Guards started moving, trying to grab them, but Vox machina isn't going anywhere.

"Listen here you snobby little-" Arya took a step forward, guards sensed a threatening aura around this armor one that dare to speak up started reaching for their weapon as suddenly, Scanlan piped up "buffoons? Clearly, you've never heard of the legend of Vox Machina." Scanlan whipped out his Lute from the bag of holding, as the guards step back to see what this gnome is going to do.

Oh no....Arya thought, knowing what this gnome going to do. 

"Allow me to give you a proper Introduction" Scanlan offered, smirking showing that he is confident in his ability.

Vex groaned "Oh, gods, here we go."

"♪your excellence
Tried the best fighters ♪"

Scanlan started singing, playing his lute softly.

"♪ who've adventured
Far and wide ♪

"♪ but I promised~ ♪"

long, golden hair lady and Sovereign shared an "Uh, should we do something" look, Krieg looks amused, Sir Fince looks annoyed and the rest of the council looks intrigued by this gnome singing.

So are we just going to let this happen? Yippe...Arya thought, letting out a sigh.

"♪ that you've never met a troop so qualified ♪" 

Magic started surrounding Scanlan's fingers as he played his lute before whoosh it surrounded the group, as he hit a center note in his vocal cord, and casually hit a note as purple smoke shoot up, changing the group from a drunken state to their more professional selves, but Arya is still in her armor, so she didn't look much different.

"♪ There's Grog, our mighty giant!
He's a simpleminded hulk ♪"

Illusion showed Grog slashing a monster in half, as he roared when blood exploded behind him.

"♪ and Percy's pepperbox can blow apart your fucking skull  ♪"

Then it showed Percy pushing his glasses up to make them gleam as he fired his pepperbox at a random target. 

"♪ Nature hath no fury, Quite like Keyleth of the Ashari, controlling plants and animals. She's a magical Safari!~ ♪" 

Next up was Keyleth using her nature vine magic, then it shift to her admiring the plants and talking to a random squirrel, offering a hand to it as Scanlan continued on. 

"♪ The twins, Vax and Vex
She shoots, and he hides in the pitch
They're stealthy and quite deadly
But I forget which one is which♪" 

Then the twins pop up, doing badass poses, as it showed Vex shooting and Vax hiding in the shade, once more they posed, then real Vax and Vex sighed.

"He's Vax" Vex sighed and looked at her brother.
"She's Vex" Vax looked away, getting really tired of having to remind people. 

"♪ Pike's divinity is pure

Her hands can always heal ♪"

The illusion showed Pike grabbing her necklace, her hand began to glow as her magic light shield appeared as she charge forward with a grin. 

"♪ let not forget our trusty armored friend

Hazelnut is a mystery being in a suit of armor, even though they're a mystery they got your back with their sword that can slash you in half! ♪" 

Next up was Arya in her suit of armor covering Vex's back swinging their sword up, slashing someone clean in half making a very bloody mess.

"♪ oh, and did I mention we got a bear?

Trinket, no big deal ♪" 

Trinket dashed forward, looking quite angry, and did a slash as the image disappear to show Scanlan with his magic hand sliding a pair of black glasses down smoothly.

"♪ And as for myself?
My name is Scanlan

The man with the fat purple hand ♪"

Scanlan did some cool fancy dance moves when doing his introduction, grinning as he does so.

"♪ my music's the jam, going ham,
You can't stand it

Get some water, hide your daughters ♪"

Sovereign cleared his throat "Oh, uh, sorry." Scanlan awkwardly apologize, reaching out as if he was grabbing something as he moved on...

" ♪ Brave warriors are we
And far more clever than a fox ♪"

Scanlan continued singing as slowly Vox Machina members started lining up and doing cool poses.

" ♪ they'll tell tale

of our exploits in the legend

Of VOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ♪"

Scanlan hit the high note, and the illusion ended with Vox machina lined up looking dreadfully dead on their feet, Minus Arya who looked ready to dig a hole and hid in it, as Scanlan did jazz hands, whispering "Machina ♪" at the end of his singing.

Then Keyleth puke up once against whatever else was in her stomach onto the floor in front of Vax and the council to see. 

"Uh, thank you very much" Scanlan acted as if nothing happen right behind him, as the council and Sovereign looked at the group with the most deadpanned faces you ever see in Emon.

"Uh, give the council a moment to discuss your curious group" Sovereign spoke up, shaking off whatever he just witness before him as Council members huddle up.

"You can't be seriously considering them..." Sir Fince started off immediately "For such a crucial task" he finished.

"Before we discuss this further..." Golden hair lady started off briefly glancing at the armored one "Sovereign, can I ask you to demand that hazelnut fellow remove their helmet?" she asked.

"Why is that, Lady Allura?" Sovereign asked, confused about why Lady Allura wanted this armored fellow to remove their helmet.

"We happen to know someone with that same armor long ago in another continent to the west, far from Tal'Dorei, however, at that time, she was just a kid at the start of her training to be a knight" Lady Kima spoke up. 

"Hmm, tell me more about this continent..." Sovereign strokes his beard, curious about this continent.

"It's a 2-month trip across the sea, it isn't as big as Tal'Dorei but big enough to have a couple of nobles and a queen, however, that area has been wiped clean for 16 years..." Lady Allura explained, looking quite melancholy remembering that place.

"In this continent, a kingdom right in the middle exists, ruled by this queen that didn't seem to trust outsiders" Lady Kima added. 

"What was the name of this continent and kingdom,?" Sovereign paused for a moment "And what happen to the continent?"

" Zadus is the name of the continent and the kingdom was called 'Cevaria Kingdom'" Lady Kima spoke up, arms crossed.

"And to answer your last question, Sire is well, we don't know" Lady Allura tightens her grip on her hands. 

"We haven't visited Zadus in that same year. When we did...we discovered that nothing was left, everything was either burned into nothing but ash and bones or vegetation took over the lost continent, we didn't even see any life in Cevaria Kingdom..." Lady Kima looked away, and inhaled sharply, trying not to show emotions right now.

Sovereign listened, he looked surprised "I've heard stories about Zadus, it was a continent that helped Tal'dorei in their time of need. However, in a certain kingdom of Zadus, it's birth and trained warriors against monsters we don't see very often but what made this kingdom special was the fact-" 

"Was the fact, they trained warriors to be Slayers, not just any O' Slayers but Dragonslayers to be precise. This Kingdom was called Cevaria, named after legendary Dragonslayer" Krieg spoke up, he looked up at the ceiling to hide his hatred for this kingdom.

Lady Kima looked at Krieg with narrowed eyes, wondering how he knew so much of this, she got a bad feeling all sudden, but she decided to keep it to herself...for now.

"Yes, exactly. But those were stories tell by drunken fools or bards" Sovereign shake his head not believing this.

"Sire, it is not a story." Lady Allura looked at Sovereign with a serious look "That place truly existed, but due to an unknown source what truly happened to it, remains a mystery today." 

"Why is it that you two know about this place and not tell us when you became members of the council?" Sir Fince glared at Lady Kima and Lady Allura.

"Well, Sir Fince, we couldn't because we were magically bound by a contract not to say a word about Zadus and that Kingdom since we are not dead yet for even uttering the names, the magical bond is gone" Lady Kima glared at Fince, making dark elf man look away in slight fear. 

"Lady Kima, Lady Allura, you two are my most trusted council members, what you say is true, then we lost our sister continent, however, until we know of the source of what truly happened to Zadus..." Sovereign turned deadly serious, and looked to the rest of his council members "I order the rest of you to keep your mouth shut to what was said here today, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sire" Council members bowed.

"Now back to the armored one, you said that you happen to know someone in that very armor?" Sovereign asked.

"Yes, however, when we last visited, she was just an 11-year-old girl orphan commoner who dreamed of being a knight, which came true because..." Lady Kima rubbed the back of her neck.

 "Because we convince the queen of Cevaria to take her in. So, when we were about to leave the girl started her training to become a knight, but we didn't leave without a parting a gift" Lady Allura smiled softly. 

The part gifting was that very armor to be giving to her upon her 16th birthday" Lady Kima glanced at Arya for a moment. "And adoption papers signed by us to a Dwarven noble couple that couldn't have kids."

"Sounds like you both were very close to this girl but why didn't you adopt her yourselves?" Krieg asked with a raised eyebrow.

"...." Lady Kima and Lady Allura looked at one another for a moment, then looked away from each other, as Lady Allura spoke up "Because traveling by sea can be quite dangerous and..."

"And the girl wanted to be a knight for Cevaria Kingdom, we couldn't take that from her." Lady Kima finished for Lady Allura.

"That was very kind of you both to give this girl suit of armor and a home with a noble family" Sovereign looked at the two ladies with respect "Before I reach my decision, you both believe that Hazelnut, is a survivor of Zadus?"

"Well, Hazelnut certainly isn't her name." Lady Kima sighed "If they are the person we think they are, The girl's full name is Arya Selgi Bronzeheart"

"That is a beautiful name" Sovereign complimented on the name.

"Thanks, but if they are not from Zadus..." Lady Kima looked at Lady Allura for a moment wondering what they can do.

"Then we simply ask for the armor back so we can at least give Arya a proper burial" Lady Allura seriously stated.

"That sounds reasonable enough" Sovereign nodded "Alright, I shall use my authority to ask Hazelnut to remove their helmet"

"Thank you, Sire" Lady Kima and Lady Allura gratefully bowed to the Sovereign.

"Now can we get back to the main task here?" Sir Fince frowned, glancing at the Vox Machina's group behind him.

"Ah! Right!" Sovereign cleared his throat about to continue on the topic of allowing Vox Machina to take this dreadful task.

To be continued....

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A/N: 

  Hi, guys back with another chapter!

How do you guys like the connection of Arya knowing Lady Kima and Lady Allura via versa? 
What do you think of the brief mention of Arya's home? Do you think Arya will listen to Sovereign orders? 

Note: The chapter is semi edited
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