Snippet #949254

Robin was on his way to look for Cyrile in the stables. He was just about to go in when she came out, and they collided. Though he swayed back quite a way, he managed to maintain his balance, whereas the smaller woman fell to the floor.
"Oh hi there, I was just about to go looking for you. Good morning, it's time to start training!" she said cheerfully.
"Yeah I was looking for you too. And training? I thought you still had some work to do?" he replied as she led him over to the training area.

It was a wide open space with a hard dirt/clay ground with a good deal of training dummies and other tools as well as an area to practice fighting while riding mounts and an archery range among other things. She led him to a wide open area with a lot of old clay pots that she had found lying about and pieces of previously destroyed dummies. "Okay first show me what you can do on you own without any anger behind it," she said as she stood a few steps behind him to observe.
"Well, not much to be honest, but here goes." he answered. He looked at one of the pieces of pot and snapped his fingers. Thirty seconds later there was a small 'pop' and a wisp of smoke. The explosion was so small you could hardly call it that, but it was just enough to break the pot in two. Concentrating hard he clicked his fingers again and waited. After another thirty seconds the shard of pot he was staring at suffered the same pitiful blast.
He turned back to her "Seen enough of that, or do I need to do it again?"

He tensed as the training area and courtyard was suddenly flooded with guards. He took one look at where they were headed before rolling his eyes and sitting down, obviously annoyed.
"Oh great, what the hell is she doing here?" he stated to no-one in particular. Although he had never met the 'Doll Sorceress' he knew that she was one of the most powerful of the Phantom Lords, hence her winged steed. Luckily enough for him he was too far away to hear her mission statement, but the fact that she had created a commotion already was enough of an omen. If she was here, so was some other form of trouble. Just to make matters worse a messenger bird dropped a note into his hands. It bore the personal seal of the guildmaster. His sense of foreboding increased as he opened it, only to become further annoyance when he read it.
'Robin,
I feel it important at this difficult time that we all make our allegiances clearly known. From now on whilst visting other guilds you are to display the mark of the Phantom Lords at all times.
Many thanks for your co-operation.'

His frustration found sudden release as all the clay pots and bits of dummy detonated at once. Robin was grateful that the old man had accepted him, but sometimes he really hated his decisions. He crumpled up the letter and threw it away. "The old man is making me display the guild mark." he said sullenly to Cyrile by way of explanation for the explosive outburst. Reaching up he removed his shirt and jacket, tying them around his waist. Doing so revealed his horribly burned and scarred torso. Most of it was from him standing too close to his own explosions, though some were inflicted during battle. Now exposed, and taking up the entirety of his back, was the guild symbol of the Phantom Lords, it's red eyes staring out at the world. The strangest thing about the mark, was that unlike the rest of his torso not a blemish touched it. Surrounded by scar tissue it's black expanse seemed the nicest part of Robin's torso.
"I suppose we had better go and see what the Doll wants." he concluded, eyes downcast and melancholy.