The Continent Across the Ocean

Shade, poised on the balls of her feet, doesn't react as the landscape changes except to blink rapidly in the sudden sunlight. The grass under her feet is soft, and the abrupt birdsong is unnerving. It takes her a long moment to convince herself they are out of danger and lower her sword. By then, Rivers and Ral have finished their exchange.

"Okay," she says. "I know a couple of stories about a dwarf who summons ninjas, but he's dead." According to her parents, Shen and Darren had both been on the table as names for Shade if she had been born a boy. Shade wasn't sure whether one of those would be better or worse than the stupid virtue name she had been saddled with instead. "Rivers, I'd love to know who those guys are and why they attacked you if that information is at your disposal and can be distributed without fucking up the future."

She doesn't sheath her blade. She stays loosely in her stance, and allows the tip of the rapier to rest on the forest floor. "After that, who's Sentanta and am I going to have to defend your life or virtue from her?" An adventurer worried about the guardian of a forest glade makes her think of the stories of Sylvia and Lance, although it seems unlikely Rivers would have been caught in a similar situation.

When she isn't immediately answered, she glances behind her and realizes Rivers is unconscious. Probably a good thing. She blows air out through pursed lips, stirring the bangs that have fallen back over her eyes. "Uh, Ral, then. Same question?"

Neil follows the group over and listens. Those who have been paying attention notice he is much quieter and has been walking with much less confidence in his stride. He looks around the group as Rain explains all the events that transpired at her end, then shrugs as Rain looks over to him. He mumbles, "At least you can control your inner demons..."

As Rain finishes, Neil sighs and gives his own summary about what happened.

"Well, Alexis and I went to take out the bugbears. We came upon a cave of about 50 of them, then the ritual spell I cast backfired and tried to kill me after melting the cave. Since then my spells seem to have a mind of their own and have taken a liking to turning around and attacking me. So I have been limited to small puffs of flame and textbook fireball spells, but even those like to blow up in my face sometimes. So all in all, I am only slightly better than useless, and I doubt I would be of any help in your quest to kill Fate. I can't really do much on my own any more and Alexis has been more or less babysitting me like a helpless child." He sighs deeply and averts his eyes from the group.

The first thing Shade did upon being reunited with the group was to reclaim Midnight, who had faithfully tagged along after Rain. Now the bard sits in a tangle of roots at the base of a tree, rubbing his cat between the ears. Midnight, for her part, seems unhealthily intrigued by the crow that has taken to hovering around Shade's person, although occasionally she swivels her head and points her pink nose at Ral's entourage of small gods instead with the same whisker-twitching expression - the one that says, 'I'm not hungry enough to try and catch you... yet.'

Shade, on the other hand, looks at Rain, Neil, and Rivers.

Eventually, when the prophet has spoken his piece, Shade rises to his feet. He is about a yard away from the others and faces them all at once. "Rain," he says. "One correction. Fate didn't threaten my life. Evil ninja assassins led by some kind of undead dwarf did." He raises a hand to pick Rivers out of the trio with a curt gesture, two fingers pointing. "Steven Rivers, I didn't ask you to save my life. I'm not responsible for what happened to you, and I don't owe you a damn thing. Just so we're clear." Anger flickers under his voice like the fire in banked coals.

He takes a breath, closes his eyes and opens them slowly. The anger is better hidden after that, only his usual sarcastic vitriol immediately evident in his tones when he speaks again. "Now, this fate thing. I think I've pretty well established that I hate seeing people coerced or restricted. If Fate is some kind of sentient entity and not just the result of people's previous actions, then yeah, sounds like the kind of bastard I'd want to kick in the balls. But Rivers and Neil both make good points. Point A: This Renji thing has to be dealt with first. The gods are meddling in people's lives just a little bit more obnoxiously than Fate at the moment. Point B: I, personally, have spent the past two days getting continuously dragged out of danger by and at the expense of the people around me. That's not gonna fly. Neil, you have to learn control? Fine, I have to learn strength. We can have training montages together. Maybe Rivers can hook me up with whoever he learned wind magic from so I don't have to worry about being dropped out of the sky on him again." He pauses, pushing ink-black hair out of his eyes, and takes a step forward so he becomes part of the group, instead of a separate individual addressing them from an imaginary stage. "Anyway, since we don't really know where to go next anyway, I'd suggest staying with Dekar's company for the time being - if he doesn't mind. They're mercenaries. They go places, they hear things, and maybe they can help us out with the training thing. I'll take other suggestions if anyone has them, though. I still kinda like the band idea." His smile as he says this is crooked, ironic, acknowledging that a lot has happened since he initially proposed that cover story.

"It isn't being a drama queen when terrible things seem to happen continuously."

Rain turns to Rivers and begins the mock knight act yet again. It seemed to be the only thing that truly got to him, so she would keep it up until he stopped responding. "I guess you would know all about queens, my fair and beautiful princess. But I will ignore your rude remarks as my soul forever belongs to you, sweet damsel." She bends on knee and clutches his hand for effect. Then begins removing the restrictions from his mind except two: the one that kept him sane and the one that kept him from finding out about Narsh. After this is done, she resumes her standing position.

"Better? I hope you realize that I gave up Lalo's physical form to hear you complain about what we are doing, insult some of us, and be exasperated. Worst trade I ever made. And I wasn't going to ask you what should be done next. I could care less for prophecies at this point." For the most part, the restrictions were in place for safety sake and to bring him here. She had no idea what his point behind running away... It reminded her of Lance's constantly failed attempts to escape Sylvia. And then she stopped that train of thought realizing the implication behind it.

Rain is unhappy to hear the responses of her companions. She assumed Shade would jump at the idea, and Neil would follow suit after her convincing. And she thought Rivers would run off on his own. While she could understand the sentiment of being saved continuously or feeling powerless, she really did not wish to wait on this. Yet, it seemed that she didn't have any option not to.

"As far as Rivers has told me, Fate is an entity itself that pushes us along its preferred course of action. Supposedly, it saves us from ourselves. But I rather have the decisions of what happens in my life left to me."

"Our lives have been sort of tangled up in what Fate wants from us for awhile. There is a reason why we have a prophet following us. And there is probably a reason why everything that has happened has happened. We have sort of been guided along this whole time from the way I see it."

"Now, why us to take down Renji? Why does Renji exist in the first place? If every important is set into motion by some person, why take such long convoluted paths? Anyways, if I am going to take down Renji, I want it to be on MY terms. Not the terms that have been prescribed well in advance for me. But fine, if you rather do that first, I understand. I suppose we have Fate on our side for that fight, anyways..."

"As for travelling with Dekar's group, we don't know if they will be headed the same way yet. I guess we should wait until Neil regains some of his ability to control his power before setting off to do anything. And, Neil, I am sure that you will. I need to get better at fighting with a synthesized Lalo than a separate one as well. Miss having a mount though. As for the cover story of a band, if we want to continue that, I will follow. But I think it would be better to pretend to be mercenaries if we are following mercenaries. A band following a group of mercenaries seems strange."

(OOC: I promise the broodiness will stop come morning. For now, brooding.)

With the sudden change in focus, Rain kept a neutral expression to try to hide how angry she was. She grabs some of the stew and sits down some where further from the group. More than anything, she wants some time to go over what has happened and have some time with her own thoughts. But they were far too many people around, and she wants more privacy than this.

When she is finished eating, she mumbles a "Thank you" to Dekar and throws a blanket over Rivers. After that, she tries to slink her way into the woods.

She sits down with her back leaning against a tree. She calls Lalo to her, and they begin to merge as her hair grows white and horns sprout from head. Hands become more claw-like and teeth get sharper. She can feel the increase in her physical power.

Then she lets her mind race through the events since she came to Sam's place. The conversation with Narsh. Keeper training. The demon. Narsh's death. Almost killing Rivers. Learning more about fate. And the recent discussion after being reunited with everyone.

Finally, Lalo speaks from within her own mind. The sentence comes to her almost as her own thoughts would, but she can recognize that its origin is not from herself. So it has been a rough couple of days. I have to say it is a little strange being in such close proximity to something... demonic. And you are angry and upset.

"Of course, I am angry and upset. Whenever I want to do something, I am told it is the wrong course of action. Sometimes, I am told that I am more of a burden on people than anything helpful. And I don't fully understand why. I went through a hellish experience where everyone died before me where at the end of it, I find out that I am something of an unholy creature. Some things the demon says readily appeal to me, but at the same time, I can recognize they are twisted versions of things I want. Then Narsh dies. I couldn't stop it. So what do I do? I virtually enslave Rivers to stop him from being homicidal and make him forget what he has done. Only after almost killing him. And I do it why? Because I want to protect this asshole for some reason that is beyond me. Protect him from Fate itself. Protect him from the trauma of killing someone he cared about because he didn't mean to. I find out Shade had a near-death experience, so evidently Narsh was right, couldn't do anything about that. Shade's got some dark pact of his own with something called the Morrigan. However, can't be worse than the one I have with 'myself'. I wish I could have been there to help, but I was in the middle of a village, wasting my time with visions. If I went and found Shade, none of this would have happened. Also, I am a terrible friend as I wasn't around when Neil lost all magical control. Years of progress and ability to control one's self washed away. And I can't help him because I don't know how. And I can't say anything comforting because it is legitimately pretty terrible. On top of this, something seems to be expected of me. And I don't know what. Like I am blind to thing people want me to do. Got asked if I wanted to destroy the world today, I think. Maybe I am destined to take up Dad's old mantle and just destroy everything. The demon seems evidence of that..."

Whoa. Back up a little. Let's take things a step at a time. First, there was nothing that could be done about any of these things. Life happens. And if Fate exists, life more or less happens for a reason. Not saying it is justified or a good thing. But in Narsh's book, he was supposed to die. So let's just say we know at least that happened for a reason. These things are out of our control currently. And I understand your crusade against Fate, but we both know that you don't want to destroy the world for that. So you are powerless to stop some of these things because they are supposed to happen.

"That really doesn't make me feel any better about this situation."

Somethings can't be helped is all. As for these expectations, you have big goals and supposedly a big destiny, but no idea of how to go about them. Not saying that is your fault. It is a pretty human thing. And you have only been here a few days. However, consider for a second how frustrating it must be to know some of the details of the big picture and not be able to explain them. I suppose that is what it is like in the day of a prophet, so maybe you should be a tad nicer to them. Besides, your life is somewhat connected to Rivers at this point since you are serving as his keeper. Offer the olive branch. Be kind. You can be nice around other people, so try being nice to him. As for Shade, he is alive and he is well. He will sort out the details of this pact. He will survive. Neil is resilient, and he'll figure out how to deal with things on his own. You should stop getting angry and try to take things one step at a time. Think plans through. What is the next step from here?

"Travel with Dekar's group. What other options do I have? Maybe we can figure something out from there."

As was said to you, things will be better in the morning. Sleep now.

She waits for sleep to come get here. She is exhausted.


The trumpets blare loudly, announcing the presence of the two knights. Rain and her steed Lalo are decked in green and white in a somewhat checkered pattern. She enters from the left side of the field as Renji, her challenger, enters in the right. Renji atop his black horse rides around the stadium, collecting the cheers from the crowd. He almost looks he grows in size as the crowd yells his name. When he gets the section of the nobles, there are 2 tiers. At the top is the Queen of Fort Kahn, wearing a purple dress with all accessories of a woman of her importance. Below are the three Princesses (oddly all male): Avander, Arch, and Wyne.

Avander wears a modest long red gown .

Arch looks scandalous in his black sheath dress that hugs closely . Out of all the princess, he seems most normal in his dress due to his gangly body type.

And lastly, there is Wyne in his regal brown dress, putting him on a similar level to the queen . When Renji reaches them all, the princesses snub him. They yell, hiss, and boo. But the queen shows her favor, placing a crown on his head. The highest favor.

As Renji returns to his spot on the right of the field, Rain circles the stadium as well. Lalo breaks into a tölt, earning some applause from the people. She does her best to smile and wave. Then, she approaches the noble. The queen doesn’t so much as glance at her.

Avander, her friend, hands Rain a small statue that vaguely resembles Lalo. Lalo grins at the site of the trinket and Rain bows. Arch, the idiotic bard, removes a guitar pick from the top and smirks at Rain. Rain can only smile. And then Wyne, the fairy princess of the winds. The two never got along. Rain approaches the last Princess grumpily as he gives a smug smile. He produces a small coin from almost nowhere. Money was an odd token, almost insulting. However, on closer inspection, the coin is double-sided, and she feels almost touched. Her features soften as she leaves, a little confused.

And finally they line up on opposite sides of the wall that is in the middle of the stadium. A squire hands her a lance. However, Renji only says “Rain,” when a sword appears in his hand. Eventually, there is a call. And Rain races into her own destruction as she misses with the lance to get impaled by a sword.

She watches as Renji races towards the three princesses with sword drawn, and knows their fates to be as poor as her own. She can’t move, but is forced to watch each get beheaded. And then the darkness overwhelms her and takes her away.

Summary (from last time):
The party reconvenes in the morning. Rain explains to Shade and Neil the true reason why she was forced to shackle Rivers and how she deleted Narsh’s existence from his mind. Shade finds that act morally reprehensible and issues an ultimatum to Rain to do something about it or Shade would take actions into his hands.

Rain tries to tamper with the collar and inadvertently removes Rivers’ sense of emotion. Being disturbed by this, she attempts to fix this by adding all the emotions that she can think of. This results in Rivers fluctuating through emotions rapidly. Disturbed by this, Rain tries to fix the situation by issuing Rivers to feel emotions as his memories would dictate. However, his memories were addled to so severely by this experience, he becomes a husk essentially.

A wide variety of options were discussed, including turning Rivers into a demon, tainting Rivers’ soul, making bargains with various deities, and handing him back over to Fate. Rain considers offering herself to the Deity of Hunt’s horde for Rivers mind back, but her demon removes her sense of guilt from the situation. With this, she returns to the camp site to attempt to turn Rivers to a demon. She tries to teleport Rivers away from the mercenary company but Tara and Neil manage to grab him. She does try to give up, but Rivers hits Neil and gets away from Tara. Rain asks Rivers to return to Neil. At this point, Shade finds them all. They discuss a little bit more about returning Rivers to fate. Shade agrees that it may be the best solution. Rain releases the collar after having her demon teleport her friends away. This causes her to gain a set of horns.

Rain has an odd conversation with the Fatewalker. She takes back part of her soul. And is allowed to leave and return to her group.

The party finds themselves in the forest of the Deity of the Hunt. He takes them away and forces them to bargain for their lives. He offers many things, including to remove all Rain’s affections for the Fatewalker. She finally that she does love him (What good is a knight that doesn’t save his love, the princess?). Rain gives up her voice. Her special gift is the demon is also mute. Neil gives up his good looks. And Shade gives up something unknown to the party. Shade asks Rain if she wants to find Rivers and fight Fate. She agrees.

Neil leaves to talk to his magic. It only wants to destroy dangerous things that may or may not include himself. He explodes the magic, causing a crater, and passes out.

Rain places him on top of Lalo. And the party returns to Dekar’s group.

TLDR: Sadness everywhere. Rain is mute. Neil is ugly. Shade is shifty. Rain may try to kill herself at some later point. And everyone is sad.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but...

At the edge of the forest, Rain and Ral have a brief argument. Rivers' old friend was looking for them in the Forest of the Hunt, but he doesn't trust Rain anymore, and after an angry exchange, she says - to paraphrase - 'Go find him yourself, then!' and he says 'Fine!'

As Ral storms off, Shade runs after him, skidding on the leafy ground, and falls into step next to him. "Ral," he pants, "wait up. If we want to help Rivers..." He drops his voice, so Rain and Neil won't be privy to his words unless they are making a particular effort. "...I hate to say it, but we probably need Rain. I know it's a risk, but that goddamned Keeper collar, well, it's the only thing we know for certain can get Fate out of his head." He pauses for breath. "And even if they don't want to work with you, I do. So unless recent events have made you lose all faith in me..." Another pause, but not for breath. He toys absently with the hem of his sleeve. "...I think we should rescue our friend together."

Rain sits by Lalo waiting for Shade to return. The large creature nuzzles her back, but she shrugs away the gesture. Lalo would speak if only he could.

She probably would make things worse for Rivers than better. She failed to protect him. She did what she thought was best, given the situation and the earlier ultimatum. However, he ended up in the same place. The thing that she wanted to protect him from.

There was still some hope. Maybe. She didn't know if the collar trick would still work, considering Fate wanted to make some plans to deal with it. It was difficult to say. However, she should stay far away from him after this was done. Give him to Lara if she could. If Lara was willing to take him.

But then what? Well, she could die then. It didn't matter to her much then. She was obligated to right a wrong. And Fate was capable of making another hero. She was neither necessary nor wanted. She would make things worse with her presence anyways. And with the inner demon and the further blackening of her soul, it was doubtful if she could remain in this world and not become something dark and terrible.

She looks back up at the creature and her friend who laid atop it. His face was permanently changed. That was more or less her fault. She did feel some guilt regarding it.

She goes back through her bag for the quill, the ink, and parchment. Dipping the quill back in the ink, she begins to try to formulate some sort of apology or letter. She would give it to him when he was awake.

Neil,

I apologize for getting us into the situation. I apologize for what has happened to you. I should accept responsibility for my own actions, and understand if I never receive forgiveness for them. However, I hope that we can cooperate long enough to fulfill the necessary goals that have thrust upon us.

I understand this entire thing must be painful for you. Years of work in controlling your powers are gone. And on top of this, your appearance has been permanently altered due to circumstances that were directly caused by myself.

However, you have proved your resiliency and ability before. I am sure that you can surpass what you were before we started out on this journey. I mean, you destroyed 50 bugbears in a single spell. Once you regain control (because it is simply a matter of when and not if), you will be better than any other mage that we have encountered or heard of.

As for your appearance, it really isn't that bad. In fact, you are not too far from normal by human standards. Besides, you have been one of my good friends, and if any lady doesn't see how amazing you are, then they are completely and utterly insane. Also, if Yee can find a girl, I am sure that you can. However, if you would like me to return to Sentanta to offer something else in exchange for your appearance or to kill him later, I will do this.

I will always be your friend so long as you are willing to deal with me.


Rain


She folds the parchment and stands up to place the parchment into one of Neil's pockets.

Lalo gives her mind a nudge. I understand you are in pain. But I want you to know that life is worth living.

She stares at him, but is otherwise unresponsive to him. Eventually, he gets the the idea that she doesn't want to communicate with him.