Elic Village

As Alexis get a little down, Neil frowns a bit, but wipes it off his face as she looks up. When she mentions that she isn't prejudice a smile returns to the Half-Nymph's face. "That is a pleasent surprise. Its nice to finally meet someone from Shengan who is more open minded with this sort of thing."

Neil stops and faces her when she does the same. He shrugs at her comment. "Yeah, those types of objects never helped with the control issues that I've had, so I just haven't bothered since its so binary with me." As she reaches into her bag he looks at her curiously. "You have mage equipment? You are quite full of surprises aren't you?"

What could she possibly have that I could use? Did she get exiled from Shengan or something? There's no way...

His thoughts just stop as she pulls the sword out of the bag. His eyes focus intently on it, studying each rune with utmost curiosity. It was so finely crafted it looked divine. He barely registers the praise and carefully accepts the sword. He feels his magic flowing into the blade, causing him to go wide eyed and exclaim, "Whoa! This...this feels amazing!"

He turns his attention back to her, listening intently. "Vulnir...I am ashamed to say the name isn't familiar. How I could have not heard of him until now is beyond me." Neil looks legitimately embarassed behind his beaming awe. "Such a strong name, and Fira is just as beautiful as she feels powerful." The fire mage channels small tendrils of flame up the blade, making them dance back and forth before they wrap around the blade in a perfect helix before making the tendrils fade.

Alexis draws the rapier and Neil can't help but smile. "Gale, the wind sword," he echos. "Magnificent."

Geez...who is this girl and how many surprises can she have in store? What's next? Is she secretly a god slayer or something too?

"I must say, you know how to make an impression." He turns his gaze back from the swords to her. "Shall we go and rid ourselves of some bugbears?"

Rain is a little let down by how easily that object is broken. However, she isn't about to call it quits. "No. I can keep going."

Endurance was one of her strengths, but sometimes it bordered on stubborn and reckless. She was willing to sit in this field for hours until she got right. It is throw back to the days when she trained with Lance or Arthy. Spending hours trying to perfect her form or strengthen a spell until she was too tired to stand. At least, she was a hardworking student.

She tries thinking of a new design. "Do you really think I care about two hours of pain? I ran into group of displacer beasts that tore a hole in my side which would have put me out of commission for a few months had you not helped. Besides, there is nothing aside from the end goal..."

The same design comes up in her mind. The lock wouldn't attach like a magnet to the neck. It would become part of the wearer's body. A part of their spine. It would then pop out freely with no consequences to the wearer once unlocked.

The lock that appears this time looks almost identical to the last.

Neil nods as she explains the origins of these fine weapons. "Hm. Lance never mentioned him, but I really never asked Lance how he got his spear. I never talked to Yee much either. Most of the time when he was around, he and dad would just talk about their next hunting trip."

He stops with her at the mouth of the cave. Well this looks mildly ominous. "Well, unfortunately those are the ones who I've had the *pleasure* of running into up until now. Hopefully they'll change their minds, especially since our cities are both against Renji..."

As she steps into the cave, it was truely an 'oh shit' moment. Neil didn't have to fully enter to see the scene since his eyes were better at seeing in low light. The glowing eyes seemed to be endless. As that sinking feeling took over, the fire mage remembered something his godfather, Archell, taught him. The memory wasn't vivid, but the knowledge was there.

Break their ranks if you can't fight them all at once. Distract them from their true goal. Always have a place to fall back. Pull them into tight spaces or places that they would have the disadvantage. Do NOT let yourself get surrounded...well, easier said than done, but it looks like we don't have much of a choice.

(OOC Request: Can I get a description of the terrain in the area (particularly if there is any dense trees / undergrowth nearby), about how far we are from town, and about how many bugbears wide the cave is?)

Rain is 5 years old. The small girl cannot see over the crowd, so her father picks her up. Her mother is off, but she forgets with what. After saying that she is bored for a few hours, her father took her to this match. She sits on top of her father’s shoulders as the joust starts. It is the first time that she has ever since a joust. The image of knights wielding lances, riding their horses, is one that would stick in her head for years to come. The two knights wear fairly different colors. There is the red knight with black streaks across the cloth. The current champion. And there is the knight with green and white checkers. He is the underdog in this battle. The red and black knight gets the favors of all noble women but one. The green and white knight gets a kiss on the cheek by the last.

The knights line up on opposite sides of the stadium. Squires hand a lance to each knight. They walk past each other with their lances raised before settling at the ends of the stadium. Trumpets blare and the two run at each other. They both miss the first time. The second time the red and black knight gets a good hit on the white and green knight. He nearly falls off his own horse but manages to hold on and get a better handle on the reins. They break as the squire hands the red and black knight another lance. The third time the white and green knight looks at him with determination. He hits the red and black knight square in the chest and falls off his horse. The crowd erupts into applause, and Rain claps along. The white and green knight returns to the nobles and kisses the hand of the lady that kissed him on the cheek.

On the way back home, she talks endlessly to her father about the match. He humors her and listens to her the entire time. The whole match sticks with her. She can’t imagine not being a knight.

As Alexis blasts the cave ceiling, Neil conjures a fireball bead at the tip of Fira and shoots it at the same location, causing even more of the ceiling to cave in. As she moves in, the fire mage wastes no time. He had to take out as many as he could in one blast now that they were committed to staying where they were. He dug back into his memories to a ritual spell he created when he was training with his goblin master.

He holds Fira pointed down in both his hands as he pushes the tip into the ground. Before when he used this, he had to draw out the circle manually, but just visualizing it in his mind, Fira was able to construct it. (http://i468.photobucket.com/albums/rr48 ... Illara.jpg)

With the circle formed around him, he began his incantation. To those untrained ears, it sounded like a jumble of syllables, but to those who were trained, it roughly translated to:

Spark of life, burn bright
Sun in the sky, grant me might
Bonfire's light, resonate
And red dragon's wrath, decimate

He pulls one of the three red dragon scales he owns from his pocket and holds it up in front of him in the direction of the cave. It glows a crimson red as another glyph appears around it. (http://th06.deviantart.net/fs30/200H/f/ ... raithe.jpg) The scale hovers there, locked in the glyph.

Forest alight with the flames of war
Now asunder, this world has tore

"MOVE!" he calls out.

BREATH OF THE RED DRAGON!

As he finishes the incantation, he takes a stance (http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzr84 ... o1_500.jpg), then thrusts the tip of Fira through the center of the scale. It shatters and the head of a red dragon forms out of a solid flame. It then opens is maw and breathes a potent inferno into the cave with a loud roar echoing through the evening sky.

The instant he unleashes his spell, the fire mage feels that something is wrong. Terribly terribly wrong. As the dragon engulfs the cave, Neil goes wide eyed, and then his heart sinks as he sees the dragon turn. "Noooo......" he whimpers.

He can do nothing but watch, paralyzed in his fear as Alexis puts up the wind wall. This snaps him out of it in time for him to at least look away and hold up his arms, for what little good it will do. Alexis' body doesn't do much to shield the heat from him. The heat is intense, charring the skin all over the side of his face, neck, arms, chest, and legs. It is so intense that the clothes of the two fighters also catch on fire. He instinctively squelches the flames, but the damage has been done.

The half-Nymph falls to his knees, visibly shaking and whimpering in pain. It has never been this bad before. Never. The shock of what just happened is overwhelming. H-how? Why? HOW?!. Then he looks down at Alexis and bursts into tears.

"Oh no...oh no...oh gods...oh fuck...Alexis...ALEXIS..." He reaches out and places a quivering hand on her shoulder, only to feel charred flesh. Its too much to handle. He screams out into the sky and has a complete breakdown over her burned body.

Neil goes wide eyed as he sees Alexis start healing her wounds. In the back of his mind he kicks himself for not realizing it sooner. She didn't have a scratch on her before even though she was a skilled combatant. However, his mind is too busy trying to comprehend what just happened. He just couldn't wrap his mind around the strength of the blast. Even against weak creatures, he had never reduced the entire body to ash, let alone 50 at one time. That was the kind of thing he would expect to hear Kaga doing in bard stories. Then the whole issue with his spell coming alive with a mind of its own and almost killing him...

As she makes her overkill comment, Neil looks up at Alexis like he has seen a ghost. The mood whiplash is so forceful its just surreal. As she heals his burns, the Half-Nymph starts to calm down a little, and as she embraces him, he hugs her back. "I'm...s-sorry."

He takes a few more deep breaths before letting go. "We...we should be getting back to town," he said weakly.

When Alexis falls, Neil tries to catch her, but fails miserably and ends up falling back on his own rear. He groans a bit and shrugs. "You're telling me." As the sanctuary goes up, he looks around at it and feels a little bit calmer. His eyes then fall on the cave.

The glow from Alexis' spell reveals just how hot that fire was. Several rocks look like they fused into the cave floor, and the entire structure looks a bit sagged. The Half-Nymph just stares at it until Alexis addresses him again.

"Oh. Um, well, I didn't exactly learn it. My magic has always been that way." He sighs and then reaches into his pocket and pulls out his portable hole. After putting it on the ground, he opens it just enough to pull out a couple of bed rolls. Once they are out, he puts the portable hole away.

"These should be a bit more comfortable than the ground." He passes one to Alexis as he unrolls his and lays on it.

The following events took place during a live action session. Haley is trying to write them up nicely but goddamn it takes a long time.

An outside observer would see the change that has been wrought upon Rain. Horns curl back behind her ears, and the demonic power has twisted her visage into something unrecognizable. Magic surges out from her in a great wave, and Rivers hurtles towards the distant ground.

Moments before he hits the unforgiving earth, a great gust of wind blows the bard into a drift of leaves. The impact is still unforgiving. He lies still for a moment, his chest heaving, then levers himself up on one elbow and aims his gun at Rain. His legs rest on the ground at an odd angle.

The bullet he fires goes wide as Rain flies forward again, anger and demonic power crackling around her. She is met by a swirl of the dull, grey power that seems to be gathered around Rivers; she flies through it like cobwebs. Magic has surrounded them, some kind of protective dome.

Something hurtles down from the sky towards Rain. She doesn't spare it a glance until it hits her heavily on the shoulder - then she grabs it with one hand. Her fingers sink into it, drawing blood. It's the stiff, dead carcass of a boar, but she doesn't stop to wonder where it came from, just throws it at Rivers, who fires off another shot with his gun. She feels another spell gathering inside her, aims it at the bard.

A large rock strikes her a glancing blow on the side of her head. She releases the spell even more ill-formed than she intended, and it flies at Rivers, bearing him ruthlessly to the ground. There is a sickening snap of bones breaking, and his arms drop limply. His fingers twitch, but he can't seem to move more than that.

Rain at last lands beside him, and without hesitation, snaps the collar around his neck.

Now that she's standing over him, she can feel the weakness in him, see the blood he's losing to the ground. Magic gathers in him, but is cut off suddenly as the flow of water through a plugged drain; when Rain looks up to see who stopped him, she meets the hard, fierce eyes of Lara. But now that he's no longer fighting her and no longer fleeing her, she realizes an unavoidable truth - he is dying.

"Don't take any offensive action against me," she commands, putting power behind it. The collar takes the words and transforms them into unyielding commands.

That's not enough, whispers the voice of the inner demon - her own voice, but subtly different. Stop him from fleeing. Control him utterly. If he gets away, he might do it again.

I don't think he'll try and do anything crazy besides wanting to save his own ass.

From you!

Rivers twitches again. "No teleporting," Rain commands him, but she's more absorbed by the argument in her own head.

How do I save him? she asks. He's dying!

Make him yours, the demon suggests, a smile audible in her tones. If you transform him into a demon, it would be within our power to heal him.

Rain can feel herself calming, a little, although her heart still drums in her ribcage and her breaths still come quick and shallow. Turn him into a demon - sure, if it will save him...

"Hey!"

Before she can begin gathering her energy for the spell, she is interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.

"What... okay, what the hell did I just walk into?"

She looks up. A man in brilliantly shining armor is approaching her, red-haired and bare-headed. She doesn't even care to ask his name or to wonder if he's a threat. "He's dying! I don't want him to die!" She is waving her arms, gesturing wildly, but with the immediate danger fading, her demonic features have receded. Rivers whimpers in pain.

The man in bright armor reaches towards the prone bard. "Well, that's a problem. How badly do you want to save him?"

"Lots."

"Okay." He taps a place just above the collar on River's neck. "Put your hand here."

Rain lays her palm on the nape of River's neck, and the man in the bright armor raps her sharply on the head. Silver light flows down her arm; she feels a strange weakness, and the inner demon seems to recoil, hissing at the strange man. The light sinks into Rivers, wrapping his broken bones.

The bard springs to his feet, his legs almost giving out under him, and points his gun at Rain. "Don't shoot me!" she exclaims, putting power behind the words. She realizes a moment later that this isn't enough as the gun shifts to point at Lara. "Don't shoot Lara either - or the other guy. Don't shoot anyone. No offensive actions!" She reiterates her earlier command and realizes she had already said it - he couldn't do more than point the gun.

He seems frozen for an instant, then starts running.

"Stop! Don't move!" Rain shouts. The bard almost falls over as he obeys the command. "Don't do anything except talking."

She catches up and puts herself in front of him, notes his strained expression and the slack look in his eyes. "Or breathing. You can breath. And think. Talk, breath, and think."

"Let me go," says Rivers in a monotone. "Let me go. Let me go."

"Why aren't you decapitated?" Rain demands.

"Because my head wasn't cut off. Let me go. Let me go..."

He continues, in response to her command, but Rain ceases to hear him. For the first time, Rain she notices that she is aware of certain things through the collar. Some heavy, oppressive force is leaning on his mind, pushing it down. Rain, with some unholy combination of demonic strength and new Keeper abilities, pushes back.

Rivers blinks, like a sleeper awakening. "Wha... Where the hell am I?" His eyes focus on Rain. "My spine feels like... why can't I move? Why... aw, hell." A pause. He tries to cross his eyes enough to look down at himself and fails. "You Keepered me, didn't you? Aw hell. This is the last time I get drunk with Shade."

"Okay." Rain tries to bring some semblance of order back to the conversation. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"The last thing I remember was fighting as assassin dwarf with an army of ninjas."

"What was the force controlling your mind?" Rain asks.

"Uh, I can't..." Rivers tries to prevaricate.

"Answer me truthfully," Rain commands. "What was it?"

"I made a contract with Fate. In return for saving Shade's life, I became a fatewalker. Fate is a force - a sort of guiding..." The words seem to become increasingly painful to him; here he stops and dissolves into noises of pain. When he finally recovers and resumes, it's in a near monotone, like the words are being extracted without his permission. "Fate is a force guiding humanity, or guiding the world. It has, over time, become a force with a mind of its own. It cannot interact with most people directly. It affects things via coincidence and chance. I made a contract with Fate in return for a miracle. I became a fatewalker. Fatewalkers take action on the behalf of Fate, in order to lead something to a fork or path of Fate that it deems to be the one that will result in the best future for it. You might think about them as guardians of the world. They have powers over coincidence and probability."

"A miracle?" Rain prompts.

"I made the contract to save Shade's life. Like you, Shade is vital to the survival of the world."

"Is Shade okay? Where is he?"

"Shade is fine. The path we were on shifted so that he made a pact with the Morrigan for power. He's in Dagda Forest, with Ral."

"Who's Ral?"

"My partner. Good guy. Pity he's working with me."

The red-haired man, throughout this, is walking in slow circles around the battleground, saying nothing. Lara is likewise still present. However, as Rain looks around, she notices one glaring absence - Narsh's corpse has vanished. Only his book remains, lying on the ground near where he fell.

Rain walks over to it, picking it up.

"Rain? Rain, I still can't move-" says Rivers.

"You can move now," she says, absently releasing the command.

Rivers pivots. "Is that Narsh's book? Did you talk to Narsh? Oh, Rain, you didn't read my letter, did you?"

Rain puts the book into the pocket of the coat she's still wearing - Rivers' coat. "I read it. Just late enough that it didn't do anyone any good."

"Can I have my coat back?" the bard asks, changing tactics.

Rain lifts her eyebrows. "I don't know. You gave it to me."

"But it's my coat."

"I thought it was a lovely gift," she counters.

"Rain, I didn't want to do this, but..." Rivers reaches into his bag and pulls out a silver dragon plushie. "Here he is. You can have him back if you give me my coat."

Rain, with a tremble in her lower lip, slips out of the coat and retrieves the plushie. Rivers murmurs "Thank you" and promptly pulls Narsh's book out of the pocket and begins flipping through it.

--

(Okay, back to summary. I'll do more later.)

A man named Duke enters the scene as Rain is about to turn Rivers into a demon. He offers a different way to save Rivers life. He places part of Rain's soul inside of him to reinforce his spine. Rain pushes back the force Fate has placed in Rivers mind, so he can think for himself. However, to spare him from the details of killing his mentor Narsh, Rain places a mental block in Rivers' head when it comes to Narsh.

Rivers explains how Fatewalkers, Fate, and prophets work as well as details on Shade's whereabouts. Duke is also revealed to be a member of Dekar's mercenary group and is approached by Kessel. The details of Keseel and Duke's conversation is unknown at the point, but he seemed somewhat sad and emasculated as a result.

Rain and Rivers head off to go get Shade. As normal, the prophet pesters her, she calls him a princess, and someone (Duke) asks if they are sleeping together.