Farmhouse: Reconnaissance

Oriel’s boots crunched in the thin layer of snow as he made his way down the path that led to Aliana’s home. The edges of Wing City were visible in the distance to his left, suburbs and the like, but it wasn’t there that the ex-soldier was interested in. The bitter chill of the wind sent a shiver down the blonde boy’s spine as a gust flew past, and he wrapped his crimson cloak tighter around his form. His weapons clinked quietly at his side with each step down the dirt trail.

It had taken him a week to figure out how to find people in this place – there was no castle where records would be kept, apparently they had an office specifically for that, and a book that was available to everyone! The phonebook, they called it. Heavens only knew it was difficult to get his head around that concept. Thankfully, however, the surname Chevaleux was not exactly a common one, with only a single entry. A long session of examining a map, and then being directed to some form of magic screen which could recognise writing and find places on a displayed map, later, and he had found the farmhouse that was listed.

Behind him, there was a second pair of footsteps, and suppressed mutterings coming from a short distance away. Oriel glanced backwards with a raised eyebrow at the young girl that had taken it upon herself to accompany him, clad in a thick coat and wearing woollen gloves and snow-boots. Lory Davis was not a fan of being cold. The brown-haired girl returned Oriel’s glance with a sharp glare, breath misting in the air.

“I thought you said it wasn’t far?” she said, rubbing her hands up and down her arms.

“It isn’t.” Oriel replied, laughing, “It’s almost within eyesight from a vantage point in the city.”

Lory coughed, “That’s hardly ‘near’. You can see for miles from a ‘vantage point’!” she protested.

Oriel shrugged, “Clearly we have different ideas about what ‘far’ is.” He teased, chuckling quietly and turning back to the road ahead.

The girl muttered intelligibly once Oriel’s back was turned, but stopped complaining. Behind her, a third figure smirked. "Getting tired Lory? Haven't you walked for a week before? That'll put some perspective on things. Maybe we should buy you a donkey to sit demurely upon whilst us men forge ahead."

Lory turned her head around to give the other young man a baleful glare. "Tarael, I might be insulted if it wasn't quite such a stretch to call you two 'men'. As it is, I'm just embarrassed for you."

Tarael Vaynell, traveller, alchemist and engineer (extraordinare, if you asked him) winked back at Lory. "I do have a habit of making the ladies blush!" he retorted. The only response Lory gave him was a roll of her eyes before she turned away.

It wasn’t too long before the group were nearing the farmhouse – there was a steep hill ahead, presumably after which they would be able to see it.

However, despite this, Oriel frowned. “Something isn’t right.” He said, pausing. “Look – there aren’t any tracks in the snow. Nobody’s been this way for at least three days, it hasn’t snowed since then.”

Lory blinked and glanced around, “Maybe they used a different path?” she suggested, “Or maybe they’ve stocked up and decided to stay inside because it’s fucking cold!”

At the rear, Tarael paused, musing, "Maybe they cover their tracks so people can't follow them here. It took enough effort to find a rumour that led us here, maybe they don't want to be found?"

They were possibilities, Oriel granted. But he didn’t think that Arrow and Aria were the type to stay indoors for that long, and if they wanted to hide, they wouldn't be living in a registered home. “Still, be on your toes.” He murmured, shaking his head and once more pressing on.

When they crested the rise, however, his fears were confirmed. “Gods!” he exclaimed, staring in horror at the charred remains of the little property. It was a blackened skeleton, barely anything of the house remained! “What happened here?”

Lory stared at the house, “I’m guessing a fire...” she muttered, “There could be a perfectly mundane explanation, you know?”

The ex-soldier scowled, “But there isn’t, I’m sure we’ll find...” he replied. Oriel put his hand to his hip and pulled out one of his pistols. Behind him, Lory muttered something about firearms regulations, but he paid her no mind. Blue eyes alert and scanning, Oriel made his way over the threshold over the former home.

Tarael in the meantime had stopped a distance back to peer past the house and at a few notable gaps in the snow behind it. "You two check out the house. I see something odd over the other side." he called, "I won't be far, shout if I'm needed."

Oriel barely registered Tarael's call as he departed, because it was at that point he realised that there wasn’t just charred wood within the ruins. “Gods, guys. There are bones.” He breathed in horror, staring around, “Lots of bones.”

Lory joined him a few seconds later, stepping down from the stone porch into the veritable ash-pit that was the house’s remains. The girl kicked at the debris, “Too many bones for it just to be your friends,” she noted, “and they aren’t the right shapes for human bones, either.”

Oriel nodded, picking up one such bone and examining it. It looked vaguely canine in shape. “Wolves?” he queried to nobody in particular.

“Now, here we have human bones,” came Lory’s voice from where she had progressed further into what looked like an armoury, if the swords and the like scattered on the floor were anything to go by. The far wall was blown out into a back-yard type area, and there were the charred remnants of multiple skeletons there. “Weird ones though. Old. Crooked.”

Following her through and joining her at the edge of the building, Oriel frowned. “Necromancy. It must be. No other reasons for there to be this many bones around.”

Shrugging, Lory made her way back inside. The girl paced through what must’ve once been a large living space and through into what was clearly a kitchen. Most of the metal appliances had survived (just about). Lory glanced around a bit, raising an eyebrow at the charred remnants of a turkey in the oven. “Looks like they got interrupted right on Christmas eve.” She called through to Oriel, who was still examining the back yard.

The ex-soldier frowned, pacing around to what looked like a chicken coop, the fencing around it smashed and broken. A caw from above him drew his eyes upwards, but it was nothing but a raven perched upon the chimney. “What happened here..?” he muttered, leaning down to stare at the skull of a wolf, “Where are they?”

“Funny,” Oriel straightened sharply as a female voice came from the roof of the chicken coop, “I’ve been wondering that too... I thought maybe you’d know.”

The ex-soldier spun around, lifting his gun up in time to see another red-cloaked figure drop down from where she had been perched on the roof gracefully, landing in a crouch before straightening. Empty eyes stared out from a tattered hood at Oriel’s weapon, half a smile evident on pale features.

“Ophelia.” Oriel hissed, “I should’ve known you’d be involved in this somehow. How many times do I have to shoot you before you stay shot?”

Lory’s voice sounded from within the house, “Everything alright out there?” she called, “I hear talking! Are you just muttering to yourself or is someone there?”

A laugh came from the slight girl that stood before him, “Somebody’s here!” she called loudly, “The only person that should be here, is here! Go away, little one, he is not yours to find.”

Oriel’s scowl deepened dramatically, “Neither is he yours, you insane stalker.” He snapped, “I would’ve thought the number of times we’ve fought you off would be a clue that you were unwanted.”

The girl simply tilted her head, “Sometimes people don’t really know what they want, Oriel. Sometimes they need to be shown how beautiful they really can be, by the only person who can. Don’t you want me to make him beautiful, Oriel?”

Blanching, Oriel let out a growl of exasperation. “Your idea of beautiful is taking people’s insides and putting them on the outside! You’re a freak! Get out of here, and don’t come back!”

At that moment, Lory appeared in the doorway, eyes wide. “Who on earth is that?” she asked, staring incredulously at the disturbing woman. Her hand slid down to the longsword at her hip.

“Hello, other little one. I haven’t met you before.” Ophelia smiled to Lory, a decidedly creepy expression upon her features, “My name is Ophelia. I am Alexander’s salvation and his love. Your friend wants to take that from me, but he is foolish. Everyone knows that you can’t stop love...” here the woman laughed, tilting her head back and staring at the sky as she cackled into the air.

She was cut off, however, as a loud crack sounded in the otherwise silent air. Her body jerked backwards and she blinked up at Oriel.

The ex-soldier stood angrily, his gun raised and its barrel smoking. A patch of crimson began to seep through into Ophelia’s black clothing.

“Oriel!” Lory exclaimed, “She wasn’t even attacking us!”

Oriel shook his head, “Trust me, she’s done more than enough to deserve that. It’s not like it’ll kill her.”

Lory blinked in disbelief, “Oriel, shooting people in the chest tends to-“

“He’s right, don’t you worry...” Ophelia cut Lory off, even as the bullet wound continued to leak blood. The woman straightened, flexing her neck, and stretched her arm backwards for the double-ended axe upon her back. “I’m ... fine. You on the other hand ... Unfortunately, I can’t let you keep on desecrating the home of my love further.”

As she finished speaking, Ophelia closed her hand around the axe, and her eyes narrowed. In a flash of movement, she brought her arm around and forwards, and the heavy weapon moved with her like it were nothing more than a knife, leaving her hand and spiralling towards Oriel with immense force.

Oriel cursed and dove to his side with only moments to spare as the axe tore past, spinning straight through the fencing behind him and arcing around back towards Ophelia’s hand. The gunslinger landed in a role, already drawing his second pistol and levelling them at the woman. “Die, demon-host scum!” he yelled angrily as his guns lit up brightly with a golden magical glow.

As he compressed the triggers, it was as if the gun barrels had exploded. From each weapon a cascade of bullets blasted outwards, wrapped in fiery arcane energy that spread outwards from them in a cone – every bullet fired was accompanied by half a dozen others that turned the air in front of Oriel into pure fiery death. Each shot – six in total, rang out with an explosive boom that resonated around the entire area.

Even as Oriel pulled the triggers of his pistols, Ophelia was already in motion. The agile, petit woman leaped to the side and spun into an acrobatic cartwheel. The explosive projectiles seared through the air to her side, but with inhuman speed she spun fast enough that though Oriel followed her form with his aim, even his wide cone of shots was unable to land a solid hit upon her.

Several shots grazed her – her cloak was torn to shreds, and she suffered glancing hits on her arms and legs where they had spun near the path of the bullet storm – but as the pistols were emptied and the smoke faded, Ophelia stood unhampered to the far side of the area, her hand going up to catch the axe that spun back to her. “Oops.” She said, “You missed.”

The same could not be said for the poor chicken coop, however, and with an almighty groan the wooden structure collapsed in a flaming heap. Having survived the initial destruction, it found itself succumbing to ruin now at the hands of a scuffle between others.

Swearing under his breath, Oriel went to reload, but Ophelia didn’t give him the chance - she dove straight at him, swinging her axe downwards at his midriff. Forced to abandon his pistols, tossing them to the side to be retrieved later, Oriel’s hands went up to draw his twin shortswords from his back, only bringing them up with seconds to spare, the blades clanging loudly against Ophelia’s axe. The force of the blow sent Oriel reeling backwards, almost losing his footing. That would’ve spelled the end of the gunslinger if it weren’t for a shout of anger and a flash of light to his left.

Lory stood with her arm extended as her blast of ki energy slammed into Ophelia’s side, sending the woman catapulting away to land in the debris of the chicken coop. The girl drew her longsword and ran to Oriel’s side. “Are you alright?” she asked worriedly.

“I’m fine.” Oriel replied, clambering to his feet and taking the chance to call his pistols back to himself, holstering them before regaining his grip on his swords. Before they had time for any sort of exchange, though, the form of Ophelia quickly became visible emerging from the rubble – she seemed slowed, however, and as she came into better view it became apparent that the ki blast had done more damage than expected. A large wound in Ophelia’s stomach was evident – larger than the attack could have caused, given where it hit. A recent wound, then. Who else had Ophelia been harassing, if she didn’t know where Arrow was?

“Come on!” Oriel said, “We can’t take her without risking ending up dead. It was hard enough for the six of my old band to take her on, let alone just two of us.”

Without waiting for a reply, Oriel grabbed Lory’s arm and broke into a run. The two sprinted through a gap in the fence and out around towards the front of the house. It was a fruitless dash, however – even in her wounded state, Ophelia was far faster than they were. The woman sprang from where she stood, and in seconds she was bounding up and over the house itself, leaping from the roof and sailing through the air to land on the path in front of them, spinning to face them.

The two skidded to a halt, and Oriel dropped back into a combat stance. “Lory, stand back – if we stand close together she can wreck us both.” He hissed.

Lory, despite normally hating taking orders, complied without fuss. This was the first time she’d been in any sort of life-or-death engagement against a superior opponent, and her heart was racing not with excitement, but with fear. The girl hurried to the side, keeping her longsword ready as the two youths faced off against the eerie woman.

Ophelia’s eyes went between them calculatingly, her fingers flexing on the haft of her axe. In an instant, she made her decision. Shooting forwards like a dart, Ophelia charged for Oriel without reserve. She swung her axe fearsomely downwards at him.

Oriel hastily jumped to the side to avoid the blow, stumbling slightly at the speed of the forced movement. The weapon slammed into the dirt, but Ophelia barely seemed to pause as she wrenched it free again and swung for a second time. Oriel hastened backwards, but was too slow to stop the blade scoring a light gash across his chest, letting out a cry of pain.

At that moment, Ophelia’s focus seemed disrupted, and the woman turned sharply in time to see Lory swinging her longsword down towards her neck. Her arm shot out in a near-blur, hand closing around Lory’s wrist and halting her swing dead, absorbing the momentum without so much as batting an eyelid. Tightening her grip, Ophelia shifted her weight and turned her block into a pull, wrenching Lory forwards and spinning around to fling the girl carelessly forwards and onto the ground, where she landed heavily with a gasp as her breath left her.

As Ophelia stepped forwards to finish Lory off, a bark of challenge drew her attention away again. “Leave her, Naeniere!” Oriel yelled, “She has nothing to do with this, or him. It’s me you desperately want gone, isn’t it? You know he values each and every one of us, the Hand, more than he does you.”

The empty eyes of Ophelia seemed to flare with anger despite their emptiness, and she turned from Lory. “Silly child... your words are meaningless. They will stop.” She stated matter-of-factly, before shooting forwards.

“We’ll see about that.” Oriel muttered, clutching his swords tightly and dropping into a fighting stance. As Ophelia started towards him, breaking into an alarmingly fast run, the gunslinger gripped the weapons ever-tighter and took a deep breath.

Ophelia drew within range of the boy within seconds. She swung her axe downwards for a second time - but rather than having to leap carelessly aside, this time Oriel was ready. The youth managed to swerve out of the way of the swing with a sidestep, before thrusting one of his swords upwards at Ophelia’s chest, wreathing it in fire as it travelled.

White eyes widened as the pale girl was forced to release her weapon in order to spin to the side, the fiery blade skimming her side and slicing through her flesh like it were butter. Oriel didn’t halt, following through with the thrust and spinning around to swing once again. Ophelia didn’t even have a moment to recall her weapon to her, forced backwards another step to avoid the attack.

However, victory was far from upon them – despite Oriel’s impressive manoeuvres, Ophelia’s unnatural speed gave her the edge, and she was able to stay one step ahead of him. The two danced for several long moments, neither one gaining the upper hand as Oriel desperately tried to prevent Ophelia from re-arming herself.

Then what he had been dreading happened – he slipped up. His sword swung wide as Ophelia performed a particularly graceful leap, drawing his momentum with it, and giving Ophelia the opportunity she needed: a booted foot came up to land solidly in Oriel’s chest, kicking him backwards forcefully. The youth landed hard on the ground, and Ophelia’s hand came up to call her axe to her. The weapon spun through the air and was caught with ease, and she took a step forwards with the intent to bring it down straight through Oriel’s skull.

As the axe descended downwards towards the prone man a small distant whirring sound grew into an enormous rumble as a conical block of earth, seemingly propelled by the fire it trailed behind, slammed into the side of the falling axe, deterring it from its initial target.

Some distance away, Lucas Remington grinned, right arm facing towards the two he had just interrupted. "Careful!" He cried out loudly, "You could hurt somebody with that!"

After the events at the Temple, Scarlet had the trio of Kaleena, Lucas and herself escort the rather large group of captives back to the Academies. However, despite being back at the base Scarlet had immediately conscripted the other two to continuing their search for their allies. Through much deliberation the group had decided to check a farmhouse where the Patronus Arrow and his sister Aliana were supposedly residents of. The trip itself was rather short, due to the convenience of Scarlet's flying earth magic, and allowed the group to arrive nearby the farmhouse in swift time.

The group, similarly to the Monastery and the Temple, descended a great deal of distance from their destination and so determinedly decided to walk the remaining way. When they had eventually arrived however, they were in time to interrupt a fight on the very soils they were to inspect. Lucas could sense that the currently engaged opponents were out to draw blood and so he decided to jump into action; regardless of who was in the right or wrong Lucas knew it was better off that anyone involved could come out of this alive.

As Ophelia's axe was embedded into the ground next to Oriel, Van descended upon the woman from above. Folding a set of arcane wings back he took the opening afforded by the misplaced blow to tackle her around her exposed side.

Flashing into visibility only at the last minute, Van's momentum would send Ophelia sprawling to the ground with him rolling to his feet in a crouch between her and the prone man on the ground. Of course it did leave his back exposed to Oriel, but hopefully Lucas would warn him of any danger from that direction.

With Rose back at the academy, he had taken up scouting ahead in her absence, but the sounds of battle had brought the others running before he could report back to them.

"Good call," Scarlet noted as she walked up behind Lucas, eyeing the fight, "I'm seeing a bloodied and unnaturally pale woman with a giant axe attacking a pair of kids. Now jumping to conclusions as it may be, I've got a pretty good guess as to whose side we should be on. For now, at least. They're all standing in the burned out ruins of Arrow-and-co's house, so none of them are in my good books right now."

The headmistress lifted her hand then, bringing the earth between Oriel and Ophelia upwards in a sudden rush, forming a thick barrier to stop the latter simply darting in to finish the job. "Lucas, try and get the creepy one to back down without too much fuss. If she goes for us, we can at least rule her out of the 'not a bad guy' list. I'm going to check on the girl over there, but I'm right behind you if I'm needed."

The sudden interference of the new arrivals had taken Ophelia off guard. Her axe's deflection caused her to briefly lose her balance, leaving her exposed for long enough that Van was able to slam into her. A hiss of anger escaped the girl's throat as she landed, rolling deftly and rising to her feet in an acrobatic motion - despite the now freely bleeding wound that would be apparent to Van, as he had slammed straight into it.

"Why are there always more? Interfering rats always come in packs, meddling in what is not their's to meddle in." Ophelia's voice was incensed, bordering on a growl. "You pests cannot stand between me and my love forever. There will come a day when you fail, when what is right comes to pass, and we can be beautiful together."

Casting angry looks from person to person, Ophelia backed away from the fight, before turning and fleeing. Despite a notable stagger from her wounds, she moved faster than most would in the peak of physical health, cloak flowing behind her as she dashed away.

Groaning, the slight figure of Oriel pulled himself up into a sitting position as Ophelia retreated. Running a hand through his hair, the gunslinger looked up at Van. "I suppose I owe you a 'thanks'. Might I ask who it is that I owe my life to now? I should start making a list ..."

At that moment, a new figure arrived on the scene, panting as he crested the rise on the far side of the house and made his way around. "Uh," Tarael said, glancing from person to person, "Am I too late? Is everyone alive?"

"No thanks to you," Lory snapped as she too pulled herself upright. Clambering to her feet with an appraising glance at the approaching Scarlet, Lory folded her arms and gave Tarael a glare. "Lucky for you that these people arrived, or we'd both be bloody splatters on the ground by now."

Tarael cringed, "That bad, huh? I found lots of dead things, if that helps? Wolves, ancient skeletons ... no archers or bards, though. I came as soon as I could!"

Holding up a hand, Oriel shook his head, "Don't worry about it. We're alive, that's what matters. Now let's actually pay attention to the people responsible for that? I'm sorry for my friends' rudeness," The young man now addressed all three mages, "Thank you. Your timing was impeccable."

Trudging through the snow in a light run Lucas made his way to the group of three quickly; he kept his guard up in case the axe-branding woman made a sudden return. Panting slightly, Lucas' breath wisped as a small smoke from his mouth. "Hey, don't worry about it." Lucas said as laughed inbetween shallow breaths, the cold starting to get to the young man. "I must admit I was rather surprised for a moment; one doesn't expect an assualt in the middle of nowhere." Holding out a hand in good faith and gesture, Lucas introduced himself, "The name is Lucas."

“And I'm Van. You're lucky your brains weren't splattered all over the ground like an egg. Who was that anyways?” Van asked as he straightened himself and dusted his clothes off before offering a hand to Oriel in greeting. The pair of arcane wings that he sported from his back flickered and faded from view.

Oriel glanced in the direction in which Ophelia had retreated, scowling, "An old enemy of mine. It figures that she would be here - the man who lived here is the object of her obssession."

The young man took Lucas' hand and shook with a smile. "Oriel - more than a pleasure to meet you." He laughed, rubbing his head, "My skull is very appreciative."

Tarael made his way over to where the two mages had gathered, bowing his head politely, "Tarael Vaynell, at your service and in your debt. You've rather shown me up - I was supposed to be the cavalry."

"Pah! Don't worry, we're already in the habit of turning up late for things..." Having noted that Lory was well - the sarcasm having been a clue - Scarlet herself joined the group. "At least everything turned out alright here."

Lory herself was examining a scrape on her leg with mild irritation, but glanced up at this, "Yes, I would say living is 'alright'. A shame the bitch got away. She needed a slap or something ... crazy fuck." The youngest of the assembled people shrugged, "So who are you guys?"

Pocketing his hands in his long coat, Lucas shivered slightly before answering. "We're from the Academies Everia and Celestia." He answered rather briskly, as if the chill of weather was affecting his speech as well. "We came here looking for someone; do you happen to know where Arrow is?"

Van shrugged and jabbed a thumb in Lucas' direction, “He about covered it.”

"Oh," Oriel frowned, "I was hoping you'd know that. In a way I was even hoping Ophelia knew that - she's the insane girl that tried to kill us - because if she's lost track of him... well. She doesn't lose track of him a lot."

The ex-soldier shook his head, "I should explain. Arrow, Aria and I are all members of - or were members of, I should say - a military unit from our homeland. They travelled here some months ago, and myself and Tarael, who's a friend of all of us, followed. We only arrived a few weeks ago, and since then we've been trying to figure out where they are."

Oriel turned to look at the burned out house, "It looks like Arrow's managed to get himself in trouble already, though." He sighed, "He's awfully good at that. I would have thought Aria would keep him out for a little longer."

Lory coughed, "I don't appear to have been explained, so I guess I'll do it myself,"

"I suppose you're just forgettable!" Tarael added helpfully, grinning.

"I'm Lory," she said, ignoring the jibe, "I met Oriel in Wing City last week. I've been helping him out. They really aren't from around here, so they've no idea how anything works. And the names of your Academies probably mean nothing to them, even if I know what you mean. I'll explain later, though."

As Lory finished, Oriel raised an eyebrow curiously, "How do you know Arrow, might I ask?"

Scarlet folded her arms, "I met Arrow through a mutual friend. You're right in saying he's gotten himself involved in trouble, as it were, but it's a 'saving the world' type of trouble rather than an 'annoying people with fire' type of trouble." she replied.

Oriel sighed again, "Yes, that sounds like Arrow. I should have guessed the world was in peril by the time he got here."

Chuckling, Scarlet exchanged a knowing glance with the younger man. "You get that too, huh?"

Lucas coughed loudly, interrupting the slight detour of thought to return to the topic at hand. "Okay, from what I'm hearing, no one knows where Arrow is, we're all looking for him, and there's a crazed axe-wielding maniac out to kill him, make love to him, or both?"

"That's about the size of it..." Tarael noted, smiling grimly, "He's a popular man."

"And I'm guessing if we get in her way she'll be targetting us for heaven knows why?" With a pensive look on his face Lucas tentitively, almost as if daring the fates to agree, asked.

Tarael smirked, "She might leave you all alone if we don't find him," he said, "But now she's noticed Oriel, hoboy, she won't be happy till his head's in little pieces."

"Thanks, Tarael. Thanks for that." Oriel said dryly.

Lory rolled her eyes, "You two need to make less inside jokes, we've got more company than just me to alienate now. She has a grudge with you huh, gunslinger?"

Coughing awkwardly, Oriel shrugged. "You could say that. But I don't want to get into the details." He shot Tarael a glare at this.

Lifting a hand, Scarlet interjected on the little exchange, "Anyway, we're getting nowhere here. I haven't introduced myself yet - I'm Scarlet Dae, headmistress of Academia Celestia. If you're looking for Arrow, you're looking for the same group of people we're looking for. It's a long story, and I can brief you on it if you want to come with us back to the Academy briefly."

Rubbing his forehead slightly, Lucas sighed a bit. "I suppose it's better off this way." He agreed. "Let's just get going before a certain woman comes back for our heads; if she knew we were searching for Arrow, who knows what she'd do to 'help'."

"I almost hope she does come back," Oriel said, "I'm sure between us we could put an end to her for good..."

Tarael raised an eyebrow, "That's awful vindictive for you, Oriel."

Oriel shrugged, "Some people are beyond anything but putting out of their misery."

"Shall we return, then?" Scarlet suggested, "All aboard the floating rock express!"