Jacia "Z" Zash's Story

Help barricade the abbey…

Interesting proposition, but not one Jacia would’ve come up with herself. That’s not to say she couldn’t, of course, but rather wouldn’t want to. As thrilling as the act sounded, Jacia found that more potential could be derived from following an alternate tangent, particularly one that allowed her to be amongst the chaos and colorful explosions which were underway outside, as well as observe the riftspawn.

Ironically enough, although the less than intriguing diagnoses conducted by the Priestess seemed to reveal that the riftspawn wouldn’t turn into a Pyro whose sole intent was to destroy the insignificant place of Ley, upon the arrival of Kai and news of an attack, he did just that. Albeit the action was done in order to stall the enemy soldiers which seemed to have appeared as randomly as the riftspawn himself, and it was done without the transformation from human to grotesque-fire-spitting-tentacle-monster, but irony was irony despite the circumstances. In addition, Jacia also noted the sudden change in behavior. Not the kind of change that accommodates a grotesque-fire-spitting-tentacle-monster of course, but one that was sufficiently different from the wide-eyed, amnesiac which had fallen from the rift this morning. Like some strange sleeper-cell, the riftspawn, formerly dubbed Flynn until she could find a more suitable title, adopted an entirely new persona, one of a well-learned field-commander and tactician. Jacia made careful note of this in her book, then watched intently as the riftspawn worked alongside Iridian to herd the villagers into the sanctuary that was the Abbey, and then the tunnel beyond.

“So,” the newly healed Kai began, once everyone who was sane and sufficiently smart enough to flee to the relative safety of underground was present and accounted for, “what now?”

What now indeed, Jacia pondered. So far the day had started rather hopefully, with the idea of investigating a newly opened rift and then capturing and testing the subject which was vomited from it. Unfortunately though, it seemed that Flynn was nothing special. Certainly his name wasn’t anything original, nor did it give any recognition to Jacia, who, being the first scholar to arrive on the scene and thus officially discover him, should be included in it. Following that let-down was a less than exciting trip to the Abbey, and then a rather chaotic disturbance which seemed to convert Flynn into a totally new person and result in the destruction of the little town of Ley. Accumulatively, the entire debacle was a lot less eventful than Jacia had hoped.

Of course, of single enjoyment she got, besides the astounding achievement of going down the ladder upside-down, was then being able to play with one of the extra torches which were left behind. Everyone else had their own mainstream ways of igniting a torch, but Jacia had magic and the creative imagination to do with it what others couldn’t even begin to comprehend. Of course such acts of genius were often overlooked by many in exchange for what said acts caused to combust, but Jacia knew that one day her experiments would merit the attention they deserved.

Returning to the group a moment later with her hair even more explosively out-of-place, she offered an overly proud smile as she brandished her torch which was glowing green, rather than yellow, as well as emitting sparks. Looking between the little congregation, and seeing as no one as of yet had anything to offer, Jacia decided that her two cents were worth more than theirs anyway.

“Perhaps,” she started loudly, before realizing again that she was speaking far above a normal octave, “we should first discover where this tunnel leads.” It was fairly obvious, but no one had stated it, and thus Jacia was obliged to do so. Standing around with the enemy a mere feet over their heads, with only a fire, no matter how pretty it was, to serve as a boundary wasn’t the place to be discussing the next plan of action. Jacia’s only wish was that whatever they decided to do next, that she’d be able to further inspect Flynn.

Surprisingly enough, the first person to respond to Kai's question had been Jacia. Well, Iridian didn't think that the fact the mage had spoken was surprising, but rather that she had kept too quiet around them for the entirety of the battle. Then again, she was a scholar, and he did not know very many a things about those who chose the knowledge of books over the honor of serving their country. Their two different paths of life seldom collided. Perhaps, the Holy Way had witnessed the closest cooperation of mages and soldiers in recent history, in select squadrons that had reinforced their ranks with spellcasters, though the ratio of soliders-to-mages had probably never come closer than 20 to 1. Any citizen could pick up an axe (though certainly not excel at it from one day to the next) but rare few were those with the... whatever it was mages possessed. Plus, as far as Irid could gather, proper magics required years of study, especially in battle. Sending a thunderbolt upon your own platoon in the midst of battle couldn't be good news. (He wondered if perhaps that's why Jacia hadn't decided to partake in the Battle of Ley.)

The thought of war, however, brought a shiver down Irid's back. Gar had attacked Akhar, a past ally, without provocation. At least, none that they'd received word about. Ley wasn't a hub for rumors so few messenger pigeons or talkative merchants ever came their way. Citizens of Akhar had been killed in cold blood by Garian military, a town had been lost. If their ruler so wished it, it could lead to war. If his reagents deemed it so, Irid would march proudly, with the Akharian shield emblazoned on his uniform. After all, it was his job to protect the people of the realm.

But what would the dragons do if it ever came to that? That sent shivers down his spine again. He'd never seen Thorak, but he'd heard stories...

The soldier realized he was taking things too far in his mind. The villagers needed him now. He and his siblings-in-arms would keep them safe. A road would have its dangers, particularly for refugees, but they'd be the shepherds to the unfortunate band of sheep.

Speaking of... Iridian hadn't seen a single person who shared his uniform in the tunnels. Well, only Sir Cole, his girth making him easy to spot even in the dark. He reasoned he'd joined the villagers in the tunnels at the very end, so he'd likely missed the other guards that had gone on ahead of the group. Plus, when he'd run alongside Flynn to the market, they'd likely missed a few people who'd made it to the abbey. The guard tried to shake off the feeling that was crawling upon him like a legsy spider. He wasn't entirely successful.

"I agree with Mage Zash. It won't do to make detailed plans that may crumble down when we discover where we're headed. " Iridian say, trying to sound as confident as he didn't feel. Walking through the tunnels wasn't exactly an easy feat. It was humid, with several patches in the roof dripping what was probably water from the stream that ran near Ley. Consequently, though the floor was flat enough, it was muddy, and made the trek that much harder for the villagers who still suffered some kind of wound. A few of the taller villagers had to stoop.

"Unless of course we have any idea where we're headed. Priestess, do you have any knowledge of these tunnels? Or, do you, Mage Zash?" He hoped so. The former resided over the entrance to the tunnels, and the latter... well, surely this wasn't the only temple with an entrance leading underground. Maybe all of Sol's temples shared a similar trait. Forcibly, he shut down his wishful thinking. Were that to be true, it would help them know where they went, but it also made it all the more likely for Gar to know about the tunnels. Suddenly, he wished it wasn't so.

Waiting for an answer, Irid's eyes briefly met Flynn's gaze. And the weapon in his hand. The soldier's own lance. A moment of hesitation flashed in his mind. The stranger from the Rift was armed, and judging by his tactical knowledge, dispatching them in such close quarters when they were so tired could be an easy enough feat. Iridian balled his fists.

Then he relaxed them. As much as he might suspect anything to come from a Rift, Flynn had proven himself a valuable ally. Why help them in the battle if he aimed for their demise? His plan had saved several villagers' lives. He offered a quick smile to the foreigner. He would let him have the lance.

(But only for now, Iridian would offer to swap his sword for the lance. He had better training with the latter.)

In the brief silence that followed Kai's question, Jacia decided to ignite one of the torches that Cole had left, but not by any conventional means. A spell soon had the torch burning with a green flame and spitting sparks in all directions. Kai considered the safety of lighting the torch in such a fashion questionable, but he knew better than to argue with Jacia.
“Perhaps we should first discover where this tunnel leads.”
Kai wanted to point out that he didn't mean it quite so immediately, but Iridian spoke first, telling the group that plans for later may be rendered useless. Kai agreed with him, but he still didn't want to leave the tunnels with no idea of what to do.
"Well then, sounds like we ought to get going." Kai stated.
With that, Kai raised his torch and began walking down into the tunnels.

The walk was hardly pleasant, water continually dripped from the ceiling onto Kai's head, and he almost slipped over multiple times. At least he didn't have to fear for his life down here; the discomfort in the tunnels was nothing compared to the terror on the surface. Still, that didn't make the experience any more enjoyable, just slightly more bearable.

To make matters worse, the group soon arrived at a fork in the road.
"Well, isn't this just great." Kai grumbled.
He held out his torch down each tunnel to see if he could see anything that might suggest which way to go. The path to the right yielded no results, but the tunnel on the left had something much worse. The butt of a musket swung from the shadows, and its wielder soon followed, along with others of his kind. More Garian soldiers. Kai quickly raised his torch in defense, which proved not be be such a great idea. The torch lit the gunpowder inside the musket, firing its round into the cave's ceiling. The round exploded upon impact, causing stones, bricks and flaming debris to fall down, creating a wall. Looked like they were still beneath the abbey. Fortunately, one soldier had been crushed beneath a state of Sol, but not so fortunately, four of Kai's companions were on the other side of the wall. He didn't have time to look at who was with him and who was on the other side of the wall before he was slammed against the wall with the barrel of the musket being pressed horizontally into his throat. Struggling for breath, he reached for the dagger he had taken earlier and plunged it into the soldier's stomach. He recoiled and released the musket, giving Kai the chance to drive the dagger into his neck. The man fell to the floor with a sickening thud and Kai felt his stomach heave; he had just killed someone. He was inhaling loud, exasperated breaths and struggling to stand while he attempted to come to terms with what he had just done. He took some consolation in the fact that it was a kill-or-be-killed situation, but the fact of the matter was that he had killed a man. However, he knew in order to survive he may well have to kill again, so he raised his axe and waited for the next strike to be made.