[farm- Tsadro, Fuwa, Vince, Lise, Josef]

So she wasn't a talker. Alright. "Hello, Fuwa." Tsadro inclined his head.

The wound wasn't anything crazy, thankfully- someone else had treated it already, and she just tore it open again. Tsadro flushed the wound and surrounding skin with a small pouch of saline solution, dried the area off with some cotton, and applied some antiseptic gel around the outside from a little, finger-sized plastic pod. It would sting for a second, then numb the area. He worked quickly, stitching the wound closed in a way that would allow some freedom of movement, then bandaged it up.

"Don't lift anything heavy, keep this dry-" he traced his gloved finger around the bandage "-and try not to lift your arm any higher than your shoulder," he said, raising her wounded arm to about that height. "Okay?"

The Graveyard

Moreena watched Sinistrina and the Sentinel work their magic, glaring at the former as a vile concoction of anger and frustration stirred within her mind. Far above her head, the unnatural tempest covering the sky seemed to grow even more violent than usual. How in all Creation does she dare to...

The goddess' thoughts were momentarily interrupted as she witnessed the glowing pillar, and then Armory Knight's fall from the sky - his new form was a welcome change from the oversized war machine - but once it was over she turned her focus back towards Sinistrina again, and willed herself closer, silently stepping out of the air right in front of the necromancer, staring into her eyes.

"Do not make assumptions about my motives, witch," she said coldly, her words slowly seeping out between her sharp teeth. "My work requires no coercion. I have seen what can happen to lost souls." She waved a hand towards the great crater nearby, and the shifting images at the center. "I have caused it."

"So many people," she continued, with just the weakest hint of shakiness to her voice, "Gods in their own way, if only I had seen that... Broken, twisted, driven mad in a hundred different ways, torn into still conscious, tormented pieces, or prayed upon by all manner of nightmares they could never have imagined while alive..."

The Goddess of Death let out a hollow sigh, as her arms fell back to her sides.

"I will not watch it happen again. That is all the reason any sane being should need."

Snow Castle (Megumi, Rin, Gwenafer, Gliosem, Phantom, Adam, Jackson, Marie, Nick)

"Got anything stronger by any chance?" Gwenafer asked Megumi, before she somewhat indignantly slumped down onto a pillow by the table. "This has been quite the day..."

She glanced over at Phantom, who's name apparently was rather literal, judging by his story. Some kind of weird revenant/golem hybrid, maybe? Bloody necromancers... Still, judging people by their origin alone wasn't how she did things, or so she'd like to think at least. She wondered how it would feel, having a body made of all metal like that, as her hand subconsciously moved closer to her own mechanical eye...

"A century?" she asked. "Bet you've seen a thing or two then."

edited 30th Apr '17 10:55:20 AM by Corvidae

Graveyard (Moreena, Sentinel, Gabe, Nemol, Half, Caleb, Armory Knight, Patches, Sinistrina, Friedrich)

When Sinistrina asked Armory Knight how he was feeling, gazing in particular at his left arm that now contained his soul, she came face-to-face with an energy field of some sort, then a pillar that shot up into the sky. The sheer force of this pillar did not knock Sinistrina back, as it was not a physical force. What it did do, however, was knock the will-o-wisps right out of her heart, as this was a force of the mind, of passion and liveliness. Passion and liveliness which Sinistrina did not deserve to hold onto in the first place, and thus they went back into the skull on her staff.

Suddenly fatigued as before, she watched in a daze as Patches flew up and caught the newly-restored knight, though perhaps in the faint memory of the happiness that had left her, she managed a small smile. Especially when Armory Knight wondered what had happened to his arm. But before she could reply, Moreena suddenly appeared before her, seething in rage at what she had said earlier about worrying too much about lost souls.

The cold, almost threatening tone Moreena took on did not faze Sinistrina, who had grown so used to that kind of response that she had learned to simply absorb that feeling, even if later on it would wear away at her, just like the black mists of the Deathly Glade. Finally, she spoke. "I, too, have seen the state of lost and damaged souls. Those ruins over there are of a place called Misery Manor." She gestured over to the fallen house in the near distance, which still had a couple of zombies wandering around outside of it, one of whom was the butler heading back into the cellar. "It harbored a curse meant to break the minds of those who entered with their own nightmares. And I was the source of that curse." She dared not mention that the manor had been a container for her soul, and in fact she was glad that Moreena had not paid much attention to the manor's presence earlier, as if it was still standing now, she was sure that the death goddess might try to destroy it, not only to prevent such souls from damage, but to free her own soul and set it on its proper 'path'.

"It is exactly as you describe it. Withered away into insanity, left in fugue as they wander about the world... The Deathly Glade was such a place, imprisoning innocent souls and denying them entry into the afterlife. Although I could not communicate with those souls, I had seen the torment they faced, whether as a result of the manor's curse or the inevitable fear of their life being cut short. Your motivation is understandable, and falls right into my second guess of your worry about their well-being. As I said before, the souls in the Deathly Glade were already 'lost' as you say, and thus I sought to set them on a new path by crafting them into new life. You claim that souls have a specific path to follow, but you imply that deviating from that path leads to torment. But souls are resilient - I would say Armory Knight is an excellent example of that."

She was also speaking for herself. What would Moreena think of the way in which she willingly preserved her own soul if she knew? Would she consider that a way of defying its natural path? "And speaking of which, if you are so concerned about setting souls on their proper path, then why did you do nothing to help him when his soul was so obviously broken?"

Seeing that Sinistrina was busy arguing, apparently, with Moreena, Friedrich raised a painted-on eyebrow. Well now, this is interesting. I suppose it stands to reason that a deity of death would take offense to a non-deity manipulating souls and defying death, no matter how good the intention. I wonder what Moreena would think of how the dolls in Solevaille were brought to life...

But instead he focused his attention on Armory Knight, walking up to him as he was wondering about his crystalline arm. "Your soul had been broken," Friedrich told him, "and to repair it, it has been sealed inside your arm. Those two helped..." He gestured behind him at Sinistrina and the Sentinel, but then remembered that Moreena was still talking with the former. "Not the black-eyed sharp-toothed one," he added with a tinge of spite. "Though Patches and the Golden Being, I am sure, helped most of all." He looked around. "Speaking of which, where is the Golden Being?"

[Farm] (Fuwa, Vince, Josef, Lise, Tsadro)

Tsadro attended to Fuwa’s shoulder wound, the beast woman growling softly whenever the treatment irritated her wound. Flinching slightly as the man stitched her wound close, Fuwa's growling increased, before cutting out when Tsandro finally bandaged her shoulder.

Nuzzling her shoulder for a moment, she blinked in confusion at the change in feeling in her arm. She eventually looked and gave an understanding head nod, accompanied by a "mer~".

Giving the man a light shoulder bump of affection (with her uninjured shoulder, of course), Fuwa returned to her sitting position, blinking at Lise with bright eyes.

[Cathedral of the Four Swords] (Alex, Lacriment)

Staring up at the sudden pale moonlight, Alex Rosendorn removed the clip-on sunglasses from her rectangular silver rimmed glasses, her red eyes glowing faintly in the dark.

Pale skinned and raven haired, Alex was frequently mistaken for a boy despite her under average bust and short ponytail. Adjusting her dark blue, wide brimmed hat which sported a crimson sweatband and a pheasant tail feather, she stashed her sunglasses in one of the pockets of her dark blue frock coat.

The rest of her outfit consisted of a white shirt with a black ascot, a wide black belt for her coat, black jeans, boots, gloves, and a bandolier loaded with more rounds of black powder express ammunition than the typical African big game hunter carried. The corresponding weapon was a highly-impractical looking sawn-off elephant gun with a pistol grip, which was holstered on her left hip. Across her back was slung a sheathed zweihander.

Setting her sights on the cathedral ahead of her, Alex made her way along the path of dead and dying roses. Climbing the steps to the open cathedral doors, the boyish woman removed her hat and placed it on her chest before entering the spacious, sacred hall.

Approaching the alter, Alex stopped, and pulling her sword and scabbard from her back, gently placed it point down, and rested her hat on the cross guard. Placing both hands on the pommel, she gazed solemnly up at the moon, the light glinting off her glasses.

edited 4th May '17 5:05:25 PM by WillDeRegio

Graveyard

Trembling from being forced back to her senses, blinded by the terrible cracks in the firmament and the burst of golden light, Sentinel was yet again fallen. On her knees, one hand still holding her biological mantle to keep it covering her body and the other pushing against the ground. She only listened confused to what the two women is black talked about, tracing back to some incident involving both, but did not speak a world, or rose to her feet, only staring at the now further shattered ground in disbelief... until the animated doll threw a dinamite over fresh embers.

"What?", she said, snapping back into standing position as fast as eyes could see. "That abomination you call 'Golden Being' ambushed and tried to butcher us physically and metaphysically without any hesitation while we were merely trying to restrain his frenzied host, and was nothing but ungrateful and insulting towards me even as it allowed us to help. And you act like it was a hero.", she spoke with a tone that was impossibly even and cold for a voice so loud, that was closer to a roar than a shout. An even-toned, cold sounding roar that certainly wasn't in the capabilities of human lungs.

After correcting Friedrich, Sentinel turned towards the restored knight, to add in a calmer human voice: "And don't you dare to... wait, what is happening? Where did your murderous guardian go?"

Cathedral of the Four Swords (Lacriment, Alex)

Though no one could see it beneath the mask, a tear ran down Lacriment's face as she gazed up at the moonlight filtering in through the dome, the mask seeming to glow in it. Entranced by the feeling, she appeared not to notice the new arrival, despite the footsteps and the resting of her very large sword against the altar. However...

"Beautiful, is it not?" Lacriment spoke, this time her voice seeming to come from the dome above. "Though we may take cover in the sunlight, somehow its mirror reflects an antidote to it as well." She looked down, gazing for a moment at the pale gun-and-sword slinger before her. Particularly the weapons. Though the wary look she gave them was invisible beneath the mask, the smile she gave Alex was not. "What brings you here, fellow creature of the night?" The woman was obviously a vampire, and not just because of her appearance. The very air about her told her so. And indeed, looking at Lacriment, one could glean a certain spectral quality from her. "Taking a break in the blackness from the conflicts of crimson, perhaps?"

[Cathedral of the Four Swords] (Alex, Lacriment)

"Oh, yes. Yes it is," said Alex, in her slightly gruff blend of enunciated English and American accents, now noticing the masked woman. Slightly surprised at failing to notice the woman, she started to mentally chide herself for allowing herself to relax so quickly, before shaking her head. "I am... taking a brief respite from my livelihood," she said, returning her hat to her head as she leaned on her sword.

Pausing for a moment, Alex stood calmly before the alter before speaking up again, "I felt compelled to come here today," she said, before glancing up, "or I should say, tonight." Sweeping her hat off again, the vampire bowed towards Lariment, "Alexandra Rosendorn, at your service. You may call me Alex, though." Once more she returned her hat to her head before adjusting her glasses.

Taking up her sword, the vampire repositioned herself opposite the sitting priestess, and took a seat on the ground, placing her sheathed blade across her lap. Blinking slowly, Alex gave the priestess a faint smile, "I shouldn't be surprised, but what gave it away? Was it my eyes? Or my skin?" She gave a more open smile, showing her slightly noticeable fangs, "Or perhaps the teeth?" She then glanced around at the interior of the cathedral, "Or is it that humans normally don’t come here?"

Graveyard

Half Caleb looked up at the pillar of light, whispering "so be it." Half materialized behind Caleb, who's glowing lines and eyes returned to there normal shade of blue.

Caleb fell to his knees and his gaze was blank, but was conscious. "Don't worry about being a freak," he told the healed Armory Knight in a tired but calm voice, "ultimately everyone is."

Half turned away from the scene and took a few steps. Reaching out his mind to find the Anti-Soul Behemoth, he asked and what will you do?

[San Francisco-Safon Warehouse~1989/Lauren]

Lauren stepped out of the Volkswagen dressed in 1980s U.S. Military fatigues. She walked to the other two and lit another cigarette. Listening to their plan she thought of an idea.

"I think June is right. You can try some peace talks while June and I cover you." She then reached into her pockets and pulled out a set of keys and walked over the the heavily locked door. After going through the vast amounts of locks on the door she opened it.

Inside the room was a series of weapons from rifles, to pistols, to submachine guns, and shotguns. There was even an M60 Machine Gun sitting on a table in the center of the room.

She walked into the room and came back out welding a SDV Dragunov Sniper rifle. "I can cover you from afar. While June covers you how she sees fit."

Snow Castle (Rin, Megumi, Nick, Adam, Jackson, Marie, Gwenafer, Gliosem, Phantom)

Gliosem smiled and softly hummed the tune that had mysteriously come to her as the Phantom of Light healed her wings, all the way until he was done. She stopped when he told of how he came to be, propping herself up on her arms like a beached seal to get a better listen.

"That sounds rather odd... your soul was placed directly into that armor, but your memories stayed behind? Memories are usually attached to the soul unless it is damaged..." She thought she remembered Ferisen, the soul expert among the Four Bardic Sisters, talking about specific nuances of that, but she couldn't remember all the details. "The Fae must be some very talented sorcerers then, or else have access to a place with magical energies that aim to separate the soul from the body. On Orenya, at least, manipulation of souls like that is a difficult and forbidden art, no matter how willing the person in question is. However, people who accidentally end up inside such objects - crystals, usually - will often make an agreement with their family and friends to stick around. That planet has just started a war, a world-wide one - and I hope the Zurem side does not figure out how to place souls inside dolls like that."^note "Dolls" referring to any person-shaped object, even armor suits. But if only she knew Sinistrina, or Lucina over in Space Liner, who can do just that... She said that last part mostly to herself.

Then to Nick's complaint about interesting things she said, "Your friend there has gems that glow when forceful energies are near. Not even Orenya has that." She finished with a small giggle.

She looked back to Phantom. "You were lucky to be born after your war was over. My sisters and I were not so - we were merely musicians, and when the war started, we tried in vain to help calm both sides down. I came into this dream seeking advice on how to put an end to the war, or at least cope with it. Thank you for healing me by the way. I had thought that there would be no healers nearby, until you came along. Though you say are not an expert, it is clear that you had at least half a century worth of practice. A sumiri's wings are very fragile, and difficult to heal through wrappings. In fact..."

She pushed herself into a sitting position, and moved her wings into an even position behind her. As she clasped her hands close to her chest and spoke, one might be able to glimpse a very brief glint in the gem on her circlet. "Tei-bi sawa-me, sao gliem euzhra-naiya."

Those perceptive to auras would notice a soft blue glow around her wings, and even those not would see the bandages around them move outward and then unravel. Though there were some blood stains on many of them, none of them stuck to her wings, a combination of this spell and Phantom's healing having alleviated that. There were two wings, both clear and heavily crossed with black veins that, notably, showed no sign of bleeding - but still looked a little more brittle than before.

Satisfied, she looked up at Megumi. "I know one thing you can help me with, after the Phantom of Light heals my other wounds... if you'd be so kind," she added with a nod to the animate armor. "Perhaps you can show me to a place in this castle with a window to the sunlight. My wings absorb energy from sunlight just like leaves do, and I would rather not go out in the cold."

Eight Wings Library (Ferisen, Tagui, Ruka)

Ferisen said no more as Ruka pushed the cart with her body. Like Tagui and yet not, she focused on the two crystals pulling on her soul, while maintaining the integrity of it. The only other thought that came to her was a memory, one that had remained buried in that same garden where Tagui had watered that dormant seed. A memory of the first time she came here, hunting for crystals that would make up her latria, protected by enchantments that she had spent much time preparing beforehand. What were those enchantments? And would they work if she was already detached from her body?

As she grew closer to the other crystal, while pulling herself towards it, she also pushed the crystal itself away from her, lifting it out of the ground and away across the landscape with her detached mind. Of course... in a place where souls easily separate, magic itself is enhanced as well. And here she held herself in balance, pushing the crystal forward with her soul at the same pace that Ruka was pushing the latria forward with her body. All the while she could feel the presence of Ruka's soul as well, but turned her focus away as she waited.

At last, she felt the pull of the crystals relax a bit, and felt a closer balance between the two. She felt herself sitting in the air directly above her latria, levitating the other crystal above her hands, while simultaneously pulling herself softly away from it. It was a feeling she then remembered - ah yes, she had done that exact same thing the last time she came to the Field of Souls with a few of the crystals she found.

"Aisha to rina, ka to sai, dai da jisu-chi tali-na. Out and in, to and fro, this is the harmony held in the soul."
She repeated this affirmation a few times, staying within this pose until she could feel the mists fading and a distinct sort of whiteness touch the surroundings. She could barely glimpse two robed and masked figures inviting them to follow up a flight of stairs. Sighing, she turned her focus more to the latria as she began to levitate it...

...only to narrowly avoid being drawn back inside of it. Fortunately, now that they were inside the library, the crystals' pull on her soul had weakened, though as long as she remained detached from her body, there was still the danger of her being trapped inside either her latria or this new crystal. Thus, she turned to face her body. "Ruka, I sense that you have no prior experience with psychic abilities. I am not sure if it is safe for me to take my body back now, but I should at least remain close to it so that I can help this cart up the stairs, as my body will be too weak to lift it up physically."

And with that she let the crystal fall on top of the cart and positioned herself right behind her body, where Ruka might feel a chilling sensation at the back and especially in the wings, which felt like they had been frozen. Forcing part of her soul inside her head, she focused on the cart itself this time, tilting it up and carrying it, step by step, until at last they had reached the entrance.

Cathedral of the Four Swords (Lacriment, Alex)

Lacriment cocked her owl-masked head to the side when Alex introduced herself. "Why would you shorten such a lovely name to something so crude as 'Alex'? There is no need to hide such beauty from the world, Alexandra, least of all in here." She grasped at the edge of her cloak and spread an arm out, where it looked much like a wing. And with that "wing", she took a deep bow.

"I could tell you were a vampire because I am especially attuned to things that mankind commonly and historically fears and loathes. I constructed this cathedral not as a place to repent one's sins, but to celebrate them. To quell judgments, to advocate for the devil, to seek what lies beneath the surface and away from the light." A pause. "The eyes were as well a clue. Why, yours are the same shade as the roses in the garden, before I let them die of course." She pressed a gloved finger to her chin. "Hmm, now there is an idea. If I water white roses with blood before they sprout, will they turn red?"

She looked back down at Alex. "Oh, but I digress. I am Lacriment, Maiden of Sorrows, Mother of Forgiveness, Crone of the Void... though since I imagine that you have so many more interesting things to say of your own, you may simply call me Lacriment. Now I have to ask, for what purpose are those weapons you brought with you? One rule I enforce within these walls is that no violence shall be committed against the sentient... though animals, zombies, and those who disrespect this place are fair game."

edited 6th May '17 2:10:52 AM by ladytanuki

Eight Wings Library (Ruka, Tagui, Ferisen)

Reaching the stairs, Ruka made an attempt at lifting the latria, only for the borrowed body's muscles to scream in protest. The instrument was too heavy for her to lift by herself... if only she hadn't gotten separated from her own body, she'd be able to help the sumiri with it one way or another. Glancing around at Tagui and the incorporeal Ferisen, Ruka shook her head.

"There are three of us here, and yet none of us are able to lift a box of magic rocks," she said, before letting out a bitter laugh at the whole situation.

She then flinched subconsciously at the chilling presence of Ferisen as she hovered behind her. As the sumiri's soul assisted in moving the heavy instrument up the stairs, Ruka reached out her own spirit. "I think that if we work together, I might be able to keep you in your body for the time being, so don't be startled by what I'm about to do..." she said after they reached the top of the stairs, before intertwining herself with Ferisen's soul and pulling her back into her body.

Shivering at the experience, Ferisen's body slackened when Ruka loosened her control over the sumiri's body so she could keep Ferisen's soul from being dragged into the crystals nearby. Hello~? Are you alright? she mentally asked of Ferisen.

Cathedral of the Four Swords (Alex, Lacriment)

Alex bowed her head slightly, "I am accustomed to being called Alex, though. I am only called by my full name in more..." she pursed her lips for a moment, "formal situations," she said.

Nodding slowly, Alex closed her eyes, "I see, people tend to judge and jump to conclusions by appearances alone." Pausing for a moment, she eventually opened her eyes. "I must disagree. Some sins should not be celebrated. There are those for whom 'monster' is an apt descriptor, and some who revel in the title," she said, raising her head to gaze at Lacriment's masked face.

At the mention of white roses, Alex gave Lacriment a gaze of discomfort as she shifted in her seated position. "I am unsure whether they would or not, but I suppose it might be something worth looking into, perhaps?" she stated. She closed her eyes again, "I personally prefer roses to still be alive, rather than dead and withered..."

The vampire then tapped her sword, "The reason I carry such weapons is to combat and apprehend such individuals, amongst other, genuine monsters; great beasts that cannot coexist with others. I am a defender of the weak, protector of the night," she said, crossing her arms. As she continued sitting on the floor, she looked back up at the priestess, "Worry not, as a humble guest here, I must abide by your rules. I am not one to strike first, anyway."

San Francisco ~ Safon Warehouse c. 1989 (June, Amiluet, Lauren)

June grinned, waltzing into the weapons vault to acquire a shotgun. Snapping her fingers, her great hound padded past Lauren before stopping beside his master. Glancing from gun to ammunition boxes and back again, the dog rolled his eyes and huffed.

Giggling gleefully, June wove together a set of packs which she strapped to her mostly obedient dog, before filling the packs with ammunition and strapping the M60 to the dogs back. After turning her green hound into the group’s pack mule, she sent the dog on his way out of the vault with an unamused look on his face. The enigmatic woman soon flowed after, the shotgun she picked up resting on her shoulder.

"Well, I think that should be enough to get us to where we need," she said, before glancing down at her dog, "Oh, and don't worry about him, he's more than capable of handling all of that. Now... Amiluet, I do believe you are our ride back," she said to the sumiri.

The whole healing process was going well and once Gliosem's wings were done, Phantom began working on healing her back and her feet although still paying attention to everyone as they seemed to have gotten quite interested about him.

"It's not something they can do, as far as I know all other Guardians were told they would lose their memories in the process, but all of them accepted it. As for myself, I, of course, don't remember, but I figure I must have accepted it as well," he explained to Nick as he kept working on healing Gliosem, "besides, even if they had found a way to do it, the Fae prefer to not associate with us since the war ended."

Phantom then glanced at Gwenafer who seemed to be more interested about his age than anything else. It wasn't entirely unsurprising, he had lived a long life since he became an armor and got to an age few humans would get to.

"I have seen many things while wandering the world, yes, there's very little at this point that I haven't seen, although there are many things I have yet to experience, and many that I likely never will." He then turned his head towards Marie. "As for your question, it seems the person I used to be wasn't very well known, I haven't managed to uncover anything about my own past yet."

Something that ended up coming up a couple times during this whole conversation was that this whole place was a dream of some sort, at least according to Gliosem and Adam. Out of everything, that was what interesting him the most, mostly because all things considered, if it was really a dream, he shouldn't be there to begin with.

"You claim that this is a dream?" He asked both Adam and Gliosem, though he was focusing on the latter since he was still healing her. "That can't be true. As I am a suit of armor, I cannot sleep, much less dream..." Despite speaking with certainty, he lowered his head as he seemed to think about the matter more. "... Or at least, I'm not supposed to," he added, with doubt evident in his tone of voice.

He didn't focus on it for too long though. Gliosem expressed her gratitude for his help, even praising his healing technique due to how he had handled her wings. It was all quite curious, but the comment about the half a century of practice was enough to get a chuckle out of him.

"It's a simple healing technique, one of the first I learned from my master during my first couple of years of my life in this body. Your wounds weren't too severe, so this technique should be enough to completely heal them, but if they were worse I'm afraid it wouldn't be as effective," he explained in a very matter-of-fact tone, "You don't need to thank me for it, it's simply basic decency to help someone who is hurt."

At this point, he was pretty much done with healing Gliosem as the other parts of her body were simpler to heal. He was correct in his guess that the wings would be the hardest, as she herself confirmed that they were very fragile and so he didn't need to be quite as careful with them so as to not end up injuring her further.

[Snow Castle (Parlor)]

Jackson looked, unamused, at Megumi as she left the room. "I'll keep that in mind."

Nick smiled at Giloslem. "Yeah...we do have these gems. I guess that is something."

Jackson rubbed his chin. "Well, not everyone fell asleep to get here. Some of us just...showed up. Don't know how all of this works, but maybe you somehow stumbled here." He then turned to Marie, "Did you see anyone or anything else before you got here? Like a memory?"

"Well," Marie said, "I had the wonderful opportunity of remembering why I lost my eye, and then poof! I'm with ya'll! What about you three?"

Adam was holding his head. "I saw my school bullies...and then next thing I knew, Nick and Jackson were standing over me."

Nick looked down, twisting his face. "...I saw...my brother...and that's when I knew this place was trying to fuck with me."

Marie gasped. "Oh my God! Are you ok?"

"...Sort of. I haven't seen him since I popped into another area...but still..." He cleared his throat, hoping to move on, "Point is, if you want, we can help you find your lost memories. I'm sure something here will trigger it."

Yukijou-minato ~ Snow Castle (Main Keep 1st Floor ~ Parlor) (Megumi, Rin, Gwenafer, Gliosem, Phantom, Adam, Jackson, Marie, Nick)

The maid paused by the open door. She nodded her head in response to Gwenafer's request for something stronger. "I shall get you a cup of sake, then," she said to the now sitting woman.

Watching the bandages unravel from Gliosem's wings with slight concern, Megumi started reaching an arm out to her. "I believe I can help you with that. I can escort you up to my room, up one floor from here. The sun comes through the window there almost all day long, so getting sunlight shouldn't be a problem," she said to the sumiri.

The maid glanced over at the armor-bound phantom attending to Gliosem. She nodded softly, "It is fortunate you appeared here, though I should consider sending for a medic from the mountain crows. They have more experience treating wings," Megumi said, gently crossing her arms.

With that, she took her leave from the parlor to prepare drinks and wire a telegraph, shutting the door behind her.

Safon Warehouse -> Twilight Ball (Amiluet, June, Lauren)

Amiluet listened in shock at June's suggestion. "W-w-wait, you want me to talk to them? Why would they listen to a sumiri? My idea was to escape to my hometown of Drenlin and collaborate with the people there to help form a larger-scale resistance force to this war. Which would have been easy if my dragon wasn't such a coward. And besides, the sunestre were never meant to be our enemies in the first place! Before this war started, we used to trade with each other and..."

A thought came to her. No, more than that: an idea. "Actually, I think I do know of a way I could talk to them, so to speak!" She sounded very excited while saying this, but more stern with what she said next. "However, you must remain hidden while I do so, and try to think peaceful thoughts. If those sunestre mages see the hostility in your auras, they will most certainly want to fight. Though I think I might be able to provide a distraction for that. The same goes for that dog of yours," she added to June, "but fortunately it doesn't have much of an aura given it's a construct. Well, are we ready to go?"

Once they were out of the same path they had arrived here in, Amiluet used her newfound powers to grow some shrubbery to cover June and Lauren, even though the former could very well have done so herself. Some of that shrubbery grew flowers, one of which Amiluet picked along with an arm-length of stem for use as a makeshift wand. At this she had another thought. Hmm, I wonder if I can create new plants with this... Instead of ruby nuts...

Waving her new wand around the ground, she sprouted a row of small reedy plants, which produced perfectly round nut-like fruits. These she split in half, revealing little triangular seeds and lots of hollow space. The rest of the plants had two especially thick leaves that looked suspiciously like hands. And they acted like them, taking the nut halves and placing them opening-down on the ground before them.

"Whoa, this is amazing!" Amiluet shouted. "I won't need my sisters for this after all! Hmm, I wonder if..." Holding a hand before her, she then grew a tree with oval-shaped leaves and several melon-like fruits. She let a couple fall and tossed them over to Lauren and June. "Yes, a creamfruit tree! This'll get their attention!"^note Creamfruits are basically melon-sized mangosteens, in that they grow in warm, humid regions and spoil very quickly, and have a custard-like consistency and taste - hence the name. They are just as rare and coveted on Orenya - particularly Zurem where they don't even grow - as the Earthen mangosteen as well. "Heeeey!" she called out into the nearby hall. "There are creamfruits here! They are delicious!"

And then she sprouted a couple of gigantic flowers on either side, who rolled up their own leaves into whistles. As well as several of the flowers she usually conjured in their performances, some of which floated back into the hall and retrieved her lute-like instrument.^note Well no wonder she sometimes goes by Lute for short. And with this all in place, waving her flower wand at all the plants she had grown, she made them move and start to play (except for the tree which simply dropped more creamfruits which rolled back toward the edge of the hall). And she did so herself.

It was just then that she finally noticed the "audience": a battle had broken out in the hall between many warriors and mages on either side. All the humans who were previously at the ball had vanished. Annoyed, Amiluet pulled out her own wooden whistle and played a little tune on it, then shouted a very high-pitched shout as she flapped her wings and rose a little bit into the air. "HEY! LISTEN!"

With those words, some coral-pink ivy crept along the floor of the hall, wafting a sweet perfume that calmed all in vicinity. All of the occupants ceased their fighting... except for one sunestre warrior who charged at Amiluet with a sword in hand. This she easily took care of by conjuring a psychic shield that he smacked right into. "Look!" she shouted, prompting the crowd to finally pay attention to the makeshift stage. Once they did, the music started.

Figuring that none of them had caught her performance at the ball, she decided to perform the same song that they did as their finale, the same one about the balance between darkness in light, between day and night. It started with a harmony between the whistling flowers and her on her lute, and after twirling around and sending pink petals flying, the little plants in the background pounded on their hollow nuts as makeshift drums. This version of the song was a little different - besides the different musical arrangement, there was also Amiluet doing all the singing for once, which made a difference since her voice was more shallow and child-like, as opposed to Ferisen's soft and breathy vocals and Gliosem's prominently smooth one. It started off with the chorus as usual...

"An eclipse on the Angry Sea, a full moon on Nendari
The world is in balance, that is how it will always be
Though bright the sunlight of Drenlin, though dark the void of Sondrazeum
The world is in balance
Yet in twilight, why do the two sides fight?"

However, the rest of the lyrics were different, seemingly tailored to the situation at hand.

"In this time of power when the gods are all in the sky
In this dream where worlds converge, I have to wonder why
We come with a melody, and you with bombs and swords
And you do not see...

"The magic that is all around, the ringing music without sound
The world is in balance, yet in conflict we are bound
Where long ago we used to trade, where bonds were forged and deals were made
The world is in balance
So I ask you, where is the Twilight Ball we knew?"

While the plants continued to play, a couple of the sumiri bombers finally noticed the creamfruits; a pair of them picked one up and shared it, as was tradition. One of the Sunestre mages looked at them with displeasure, readying her staff while the two sumiri guarded their fruit... and Amiluet saw this as a perfect opportunity to come up with the next verse on the spot, gesturing at the mage.

"You there, I sense that you want to bond with the other side
The fruit so sweet, the peaceful treaty you don't have to hide
You two are the same as me, and yet that fruit you guard
To share is not hard...

"The daylight has the fruits and trees, the oils and the batteries
The world is in balance, and our people offer these
The night has herbs and metal ore, the healing magic and the lore
The world is in balance

"With war you wish to dominate the other side
If you do that, the fact is that, all us will die"

Here Amiluet played a very harp-like riff on her lute, as the music calmed down a bit and Amiluet switched from singing to talking, though it was still clear that her words were still heartfelt. She was so caught up in this soft bridge that she failed to notice that one of the fruit-enjoying sumiri planted the half-eaten fruit on the sunestre's head to wear as a hat, while he quietly laughed with his buddy.

"Sadly, Fair is not with us at the moment, but she told me of a prophecy she discussed with a sunestre priest while visiting Sharun, another town of twilight as many of you know. In Rumia, they predicted a wave of sickness, for a lack of the medicinal herbs and healing lore that the night brings. In Zurem, they predicted a wave of famine, for a lack of the bountiful produce and harvested energy the day brings. When both of you seek to exploit the other side for these resources, you isolate each other, reverting us back to long ago when our numbers were small and we struggled to live either in eternal day or eternal night. Those of you who have communicated with the spirits of our elders may know about that old era.

"When I heard the legends, I, too, thought that this modern era would be one of cooperation between the two, but instead we bully each other for our ears or our wings. We call each other by our primitive slurs. We steal materials and knowledge from the other side without giving anything back. These twilight areas were supposed to be tradeposts, but now they are battlegrounds. Even I can feel the anguish throughout the magisphere. Our home is crying - can you feel it? And now the moons above are trying to give us a sign..."

"And yet Moredriva and Reimindra lie opposite each other in the sky," an old sumiri man with grey wings and hair spoke up, walking up to Amiluet. He was talking about the red sun on one horizon and the bright indigo star on the opposite one, respectively. "Day and night are inherently different. It does you no good to..."

"WILL YOU JUST SHUT UP!" Amiluet cried, raising up a tree-root fence right in front of the old man. Then, clearing her throat, she finished the song in its original form. First with a calmer version of the chorus, and then a more lively refrain.

"I know that we can get along, I know we all can sing this song
This spell we weave, this pain we leave behind as we find
That magic lies within our home, and up in that celestial dome^note This line is actually what the name Orenya means, short for ora da ri mornen ti mariya - magic is in the home and the heavens.
The world is in balance
The world is in balance
With day and night, with dark and light...
That's how it will always be!"

Flowers, drums, whistles, and petals flew, and with the song finished, they all vanished into sparkly dust (fairy dust?). And yet, all was silent - in lieu of applause, the former combatants just gazed on in what Amiluet guessed was either awe or confusion. That is, until one of the sunestre spoke, picking up one of the ivy leaves, which, notably, was shaped like a heart.

"A sumiri, conjuring the Zurem-native toletei? What sorcery is this?"

"Your singing sucks," said one of the fruit-enjoying sumiri. "Gliosem bailed on you. What does that say?"

"That fairy seeks to grow our herbs in Rumia!" said another sunestre.

"How dare you silence your elder, child!" shouted the elderly sumiri from before.

"I don't even like fruit!" said the sunestre who was now wearing the creamfruit half as a hat.

Amidst the commotion, flames suddenly erupted around Amiluet, burning down the creamfruit tree she had planted. Though her wings were also on fire, and though tears were leaking out of her eyes, she managed to shout out at the crowd. "At least you listened! What does that say?!" Then turning around to face the bushes she had planted around June and Lauren, she cried, "Watch out!" No more than a second later, a couple of said bushes caught on fire.

After rolling around on the ground to put out the flames on her wings, Amiluet lay face-down in the dirt, trembling and wincing and sobbing. Not only from the burning pain in her wings, but also at her grand performance that she had been so confident in being shattered, just like that.

edited 7th May '17 11:58:29 AM by ladytanuki

Snow Castle (Megumi, Rin, Gwenafer, Gliosem, Phantom, Adam, Jackson, Marie, Nick)

"Thanks," Gwenafer said, nodding at Megumi as she left. She tried to find a more comfortable sitting position on the floor, and looked up at Marie with a sympathetic smirk once the girl mentioned her eye.

"An accident..?" she asked carefully, before pointing a finger at the scars and burns surrounding her own lost-and-replaced right eye. "Or something else?"

Overhearing Gliosem and Phantom, she turned back to the latter and let her gaze wander across his armor, still not entirely sure of what to think.

"Right, I guess we should give you the briefing," she said, before gesturing towards the ceiling. "We ain't really sure of what's going on, but this place is weird, and most of us either don't know how we got here or just remember falling asleep, so we're going with 'crazy-arse Dream World' for now."

She pointed at the teenagers. "And those guys are apparently from some place called 'Earth', of all things. You ever heard of that before?"

Twilight Ball (June, Lauren, Amiluet)

June nodded as they took position in the cover Amiluet provided, her hound giving the sumiri an irked look at being called a construct. "Well, technically she's right," she told the hound, "so, behave." After the dog gave her an annoyed snort, June turned back toward Amiluet, "Don't worry about us, we'll be on our best behavior," she said, grinning.

Watching the girl go about setting up her performance, the redhead deftly caught the creamfruit that was tossed her way. Taking a bite, she watched the proceeding one person concert, and the ensuing failure of said concert as it fell on uncaring ears. Her shrubbery bursting into flames, June put on an unamused frown before flicking her half-eaten creamfruit at the offending party. She casually strolled through the flames unscathed and put herself between the downed Amiluet and the hostile crowd. To all those who might gaze into her now unveiled aura, they would find a psychedelic and unfathomably abyssal wellspring of power.

"This sorcery is my sorcery, and you all suck for not appreciating any of this. I suppose you all are content with killing each other off to sort out your differences," June said, folding her arms. "Name's June; Queen of the Eccentric, the Imbecilic, and the Sociopathic. Right now I'm nine tenths of the way to the last one right about now. So, unless anyone wants to volunteer for being made an example of my might, I'd recommend that you all calm down and reconsider what this fine young lady is trying to tell you folks," she said, her voice loud and clear above the commotion.

With a hand wave, she restored the creamfruit tree to full health and adding on some of the heart shaped toletei leaves for good measure. "You think that day and night cannot coexist? Look around you! This twilight is culmination of light and dark," she said, throwing her arms out, indicating the landscape around them. "I personally know that day and night, light and dark, summer and winter, fairies and elves," she gave her audience a glare, "while inherently different, can and do work together."

June was now hovering, leaning to her left slightly as she propped her head up with her hand. "Sure, they used to fight, but everything seeks equilibrium. One way or another, balance will be achieved here; I can feel the agony of your world, and I can hear it's building rage. My question to you all is: will either of your kinds be able to bring about that equilibrium, or will you be wiped out to the last man, woman, and child by Orenya's vengeance?" she asked, before turning towards Amiluet, "Get up child, you are not alone in this. You seek a peaceful resolution; we shall aim to make it so."

edited 9th May '17 3:04:12 PM by WillDeRegio

Cathedral of the Four Swords:

Light to dark, dark to light. Such should be the law of heaven, such should be the law of earth. The swaying wind, the tolling bells, and this young yet ancient night all spoke of the same blessing and curse. Light to dark, dark to light.

Yet the law was not unbroken, and even without dawn a second sun shone through the dark. Not a distinct circle, but like a flare in a lens surrounded by a halo of pale light. Soon the light descended over the woods, obscuring every star and making shadows twist and stretch. As that ethereal cloud dispersed, an ardent king descended from is fading heart.

Yes, a king. His mantle was of no earthly cloth, his crown and breastplate forged among the stars, his scepter lit by inner flame, his feet hovering above the ground... but his mantle was a mantle, his crown was a crown, his scepter a scepter, and his steps were the steps of a king.

Walking further into the clearing he admired how his own white light transmuted the path of roses, shadows clearing his way towards the pagan cathedral and flowers exploding with colors greater than life. Another day he may have destroyed them in his landing... but no, it was not the time to kill roses. Before crossing the thorn gates, the foreign emperor raised a hand towards the cathedral, litting the air above and around it with floating lights of all colors, each flickering like a candle and shaped almost like the blade of a sword pointing down. May they stay up there, he thought as he briefily smirked beneath his veil.

Then he transversed the threshold, bathing in the prismatic reflection of his own light on the quartz a few inches below while his mantle trailed behind him like a comet's tail. Finally he came to a stop between the sanctuary's doors, raising his hooked scepter with his left hand and making a knocking motion against the air... making the sound of a great bell ring in the building, announcing that dawn had come. And it had, as any would see in the emperor's semblance, a form bright as a sun hidden behind a veil and mantle of clouds, and an armor and crown of silvery metal that seemed to reflect blue skies, no matter what was around.

Yet there was something else to this ruler, something that twisted like the shadows his light cast and that persisted like the eternal night outside. He stayed outside as if asking for permission to enter, instead of staying on his sure path. He placed blades of light in the sky above the clearing, but none above the cathedral itself. Whatever the emperor wanted, he dared not say. Not now.

Light to dark, dark to light.

edited 9th May '17 1:54:18 PM by EternaMemoria

Cathedral of the Four Swords (Lacriment, Alex, Emperor)

Lacriment bowed her head a slight bit when Alex was talking about monsters, sins, and apprehending such. Then she cocked her head to the side, as she always did when curious about something. "I have to wonder where you draw the line between respectable and monstrous on the field of sin. Though the truth may well be that there is no line, that it is all subjective. I am very tolerant when it comes to such sins here, so long as the people who bear them do not seek to harm the cathedral or anyone inside it. Why, talking about them here is not only accepted, but encouraged." There was a faint bluish glow where her eyes were when she said the last part. "So, a monster who fights worse monsters, so to speak. I wonder, have you ever accidentally scared off someone who you tried to protect? Or even, purposefully?" She sounded very amused here.

That was when she saw a change in the light filtering in from the windows, and moments later, the sound of bells ringing. Though Alex could not see it behind the mask, Lacriment looked puzzled. "But the bells should be silent within these walls...'' Shrugging, she looked around, having half a notion that someone may have rung them on purpose.

As soon as she looked in the direction of the door, Lacriment quickly stepped backward and folded her cloaked arms over her face, for it appeared at first to be the sun shining through the door. But... how? This is a place of eternal night! Though despite her flinching, Lacriment managed to sense where Alex was, leaping out in a flying arc and landing right in front of her, spreading her cloak further upward to form a shadowy shield against... wait, somehow it didn't quite feel like sunlight, but at least to Lacriment, it seemed just as bright. But she kept the shield up anyway, just in case Alex was averse to it. However, the light was so bright that she dared not open her eyes. And in fact, the light made her shut-tight eyes visible through her mask, revealing black-lashed eyes on lavender skin that was slowly turning scarlet.

When she spoke, she did so with an uncharacteristic sternness, her voice echoing from every surface of the cathedral walls. "Who dares to disrupt the darkness that encompasses this realm? Any light significantly brighter than the moon is not welcome here." Especially while a vampire is visiting. "I ask that you leave now or extinguish your light, before I force you to." And even as she spoke, a shadow spread out across the floor, and a dark fog rose out of it, dissipating the swirling shadows the emperor cast and dimming the place a little bit.

Snow Castle - Tea Parlor (Rin, Gwenafer, Nick, Jackson, Adam, Marie, Gliosem, Phantom)

Gliosem listened and watched intently as Megumi left to fetch tea, Phantom mentioned a master and not being able to sleep, the teen friends discussed Marie losing her memories, and Gwenafer asked about Marie's eye and sounded all confused about how everyone arrived here. While everyone was talking, she felt a calming sensation in the aura around her back and foot, similar to what which she felt while Phantom was healing her wings. And looking over at the teens, she could see some distress in their auras - particularly those of Marie and Nick - when the latter mentioned his brother.

"It sounds like something tragic has happened to your brother, Nick. Do you mind telling us what happened, or does it trouble you too much?" Then to Phantom she said with a giggle, "It seems that by 'most of us', Gweanafer means 'everyone except Rin and me'. Both of us ended up here due to a sleep-inducing drug, though I did so willingly. In fact, the tea Megumi is preparing for Rin is from the same tree, though it has a milder effect. Speaking of which, sleep is not necessarily required for dreaming. On Orenya it is believed that dreaming is a form of astral projection, where one's soul enters another dimension, sometimes leaving the body in the process. So it is possible that your soul drifted out of your armor and ended up in the dreamspace."^note I have to question Gliosem's logic though, as there are two characters in the Graveyard (Sinistrina and Armory Knight) whose souls are so tightly bound that there's no way they could "escape" to the dream world as she says.

After saying that, she used an incantation similar to the one she used to summon her cloak and the leaves of the Tree of Dreams into this space, this time to bring the abacus-like instrument (called a selunor judging by the incantation) that had been broken in the fight with Magdalene. It worked, since it had not been broken before the dream - and in fact, the broken instrument pieces that were already present vanished. If she was going to sing a lullaby for Rin, she knew accompaniment would help.

edited 11th May '17 8:00:36 PM by ladytanuki

Cathedral of the Four Swords (Alex, Lacriment, Emperor Imeriz)

"True, to each their own set of morals and values. One person's daily business might be another's capital crime, and with it the potential for more monsters. I am not keen on watching the innocent suffer in the name of their blind view of 'justice'," Alex said, snarling the last word. She took a deep breath to calm herself, and rose to her feet.

The unexpected resonating toll of a bell, loud and booming as opposed to the cathedral's own soothing peal, caused Alex to visibly flinch before turning around to face the new arrival at this hallowed hall of the night. She did not expect the outside, which had been that of a moonlit night, to be vibrantly lit with dazzling colors, forcing her to shield her eyes to allow them to adjust.

The vampire lifted her arm as Lacriment used herself to shield Alex from the light. "I'm used to light like this," she told the priestess, "and while it does eventually start to cause mild problems for me, I'm not like one of those Hollywood vampires who go up like a torch in sunlight," she said. Fetching her clip-on sunglasses from her coat, she clipped them back on her spectacles.

With the new arrival’s ambient light now at a reasonable level for her somewhat sensitive eyes, Alex noticed the effect the light was beginning to have on Lacriment, "Ma'am, I beg your pardon, but I do believe that you might be the one who shouldn't be standing in the light." Removing her cavalier hat, Alex gently placed it on the other woman's head, casting a shadow across her eyes. She then stepped in front of the priestess, hands on the pommel of her sheathed, cruciform sword that she steadied in front of herself, unofficially appointing herself as a volunteer guardian to ensure the peace of this sacred place.

Cathedral of the Four Swords (Lacriment, Alex, Emperor)

Lacriment was surprised at Alex's tolerance of the light. Although, now that she thought about it, it wasn't properly sunlight. However, as one who had long since abandoned the light to mere acknowledgement, Lacriment herself was sensitive to any significant source of brightness. However, when Alex placed the hat on her head, she lifted it right off and handed it back to her.

"If I wear that, I will have to keep looking down, and I would much rather look up." Her voice shook a little as she spoke, and her eyes were still noticeably closed beneath the mask. "Besides, I have these."

Letting go of her cloak, she snapped the gloved fingers of both hands. Above them, flames flickered to life. Or perhaps to death, rather, for instead of providing light, these flames took it away, being the darkest of black and radiating out shadows rather than the glowing halos of normal candles (including the faint greyish glowing of the black and white candles on the chandeliers, which were all but invisible in the midst of the emperor's light). Moreover, instead of casting shadows behind Lacriment, they cast lights, specifically the light that shone from the Emperor's radiance. They even took away heat in addition to light, casting a chill about the altar as Lacriment lit a pair of candles with the anti-light flames.

Then she gestured upward past the top of the dome, where the light filtering in from above darkened. Though the dome blocked it from view, the moon had been mostly eclipsed, leaving only a shallow crescent. And with its light gone, Lacriment could now see faint glimpses of the colored lights newly placed outside.

"Those colored lights are beautiful, I have to admit." She looked back at the emperor, who she could faintly see in the shadows of her anti-light candles. "I do apologize for reacting so harshly to your presence. I am very sensitive both to the light and those who bring it, and have had bad experiences with the latter. This is the Cathedral of the Four Swords, a place of worship of all things dark and wonderful... and I am Lacriment, its mistress. As the Mother of Forgiveness, I welcome you so long as you do not bring harmful intent into this space. ...Why did you come here, Bringer of Light? Though I do detect a sense of regal duality in you - yin and yang, if you will."

Eight Wings Library:

Noting the difficulty the two women were having in transporting the array of crystal tubes, the free soldier moved to help, grasping one end of it and helping pull it up the stairs. Eventually they arrived to the top, leading to the entrance of the inner circle, were the red priest waited.

"The young man will be taken to the ruby wing to be treated. Please follow me to the chief archivist, if you may.", he said, walking past the half-open gates of the building, whose wood also seemed to have been ablaze moments ago, glowing and releasing embers. Their inner face however held no such light, and the inner circle of the building was more like ruins than a library, at least at a first glance. Dark, silent, and most of all, desert. The desks were clerks would check documents from visitors were empty, spiderwebs covering quills and ink-pots long emptied, holding papers in place and hanging between the legs of tables and chairs. Most light came from behind the group, and as the priest closed the great door they were left in the dark. Not complete dark, no, for many floors above light descended from a distant glass dome, lighting down the two spiral staircases that ascended through the spire without ever meeting, and the great chandelier of polished gold mirrors and crystal lenses, reflecting shimmering through the circle.

"Do not worry about the spiders, they are harmless."

There was also more subtle light, peeking from the entrance of seven halls linked by the circle. Ruby, topaz, gold, emerald, turquoise, sapphire, amethyst. The entrances of the eight wings were all evenly spread around the circle, and seven lay open, revealing its color. There was not enough light to see the entrance of the eight, which bore no light of its own, but the stretch of darkness between the ruby and amethyst wings demanded something to be there.

"The chief archivist waits in the amethyst wing, with the answers you seek.", the masked priest said flatly without looking to Ferisen and Ruka, as he followed his path left along the edge of the round room, while the soldier carrying Tagui went to the right. Along the way, it would be possible to see glimpses of the turquoise, sapphire and finally amethyst halls, each with scholars in blue browsing the bookshelves in complete focus, careful carrying oil lamps where flame flickered inside glass the color of the hall's windows. Around and between the bookshelves spiders had woven their webs,often blocking entire sessions, but the scholars did nothing against them, treating the webs with as much almost religious devotion as the one they dedicated to their books, books whose titles were undecipherable strings of random letters and numbers and whose pages carried lines wide and broken without clear direction or sense, and letters written on top of one another as if to never be read by human eyes.

In the third hall time itself seemed to have stopped, unmoving human forms partially covered by curtains of spiderweb with their backs to the bookshelves and arms extended, holding violet lanterns towards the middle of the corridor they formed, which led to another thin curtain of webs through which it was possible to notice what seemed like the silhouette of a person sitting on a chair.

"Go and ask for what you wish. The chief archivist may know how to grant it.", the red priest said, and motioned to the soldier who helped carry the latria to the entrance of the corridor. "Stand at the Library's gates, I must attend to the ruby wing."

edited 14th May '17 8:34:37 AM by EternaMemoria

[Ji Estate]

Once Mazra made the comment about the lack of paintings and statues, Seilaan almost said something like Oh, I'm sure we'll come across some of those later, I wouldn't put it past someone with such an ornate sword to choke their home with decorations as well but thought better of it. It took this long to get almost friendly-ish and she wasn't about to ruin it with a terrible joke. But she thought of the joke anyway, because she was terrible.

And here was an... insect? Well, that was different. Seilaan made a slight bow from her waist. "Greetings, 3rd Drix." She hoped that was the correct form of address, since that was how Mazra introduced them. "I'm... just a visitor." Something about that felt strange. When was the last time she'd visited a foreign nation for fun, or another nation's dignitaries visited Ren Palace for fun? There was always something going on. Actually, even this wasn't for fun. She'd just happened to find herself here.

Well, hopefully Drix would be satisfied with that answer, because she couldn't think of anything else to say. She started to wonder if she should put her hair up in a bun or something. It would be a little more elegant.

"Mazra says this place isn't usually so plain, but what I've seen so far is already quite lovely." She wasn't exactly insincere, but it wasn't gushing praise, either. It was said just because she felt like this was the part of the visit where she should have complimented at least one thing by now.

"Uh...." Yeah, what had he been saying before that creature appeared? "I'm lost. I think we left off with that. Oh, I was going to introduce myself. Josef. Just... Josef." His torso dipped slightly as if he was about to make a bow, but he stopped himself. That was probably too formal for these circumstances. A handshake, then?

He stuck out his hand. This felt like the right thing to do. Mostly.

"Nice farm," he said feebly. "I... haven't been to many before, but Professor Morel asked me to collect some soil samples before I—oh, that'd probably bore you. Never mind."

Yep. Perfect heir material right here. Tomorrow was going to be great.

Eight Wings Library - Amethyst Wing (Ferisen, Ruka)^note since it looks like Tagui will be off in the ruby wing for a while

Though Ferisen was making good work of telekinetically moving the latria up the stairs, especially with her ghostly head inside her physical one, she was thankful to have the soldier's help, as lifting things that heavy was not an easy practice, especially for extended periods of time, and especially with a detached soul.

Speaking of which, Ruka let Ferisen regain control of her body as soon as they were at the top of the stairs. She felt her body fall limp, as her spectral form floated out of it for a bit... but her head, notably, stayed in place, and with this awareness she managed to stabilize her body and walk, though clumsily, up the stairs. This was because she was focusing primarily on her third eye, which, due to it being the source of her magical and psychic abilities, she decided would be a good physical anchor. In fact, she wished she had thought of that back in the Field of Souls, before her soul got drawn into her latria. Speaking of, the latria and the other crystal's pull on her soul had weakened considerably, such that as long as she was aware of the crystals and recognized them and her soul as separate, then she would be safe.

Once they were inside the inner circle, Ferisen immediately took notice of the strange silken nets stretched out over several of the books and such. According to the priest, these were called "spiders". But she had to wonder why the soldier felt the need to caution her about them. They looked harmless all on their own. In fact, she reached out to touch one, but before she could, the priest spoke, and it was clear that her destination would be the amethyst wing. At first she was confused as to which wing was the amethyst one, but while he said it, she saw a tinge of purple in his aura, and remembered something about "amethyst" being a term for a purple stone.

More importantly, she felt her body grow limp again... and gasped in surprise as she felt her soul being drawn toward her latria again, having been distracted by the spider webs. Thus, as she looked around, she made sure to keep a calm focus on her latria and not be too drawn by curiosity.

First she took note of the people moving within the two bluish wings, noting how they avoided touching the spider webs. Were those things sacred, cursed, harmful when touched, or what? Needless to say, she was glad she did not touch the one earlier. Then she noted the strange absence between the amethyst and ruby wings. She could feel something there, and if there were people in there (or the spiders that spun the webs) she would see their auras, but for now it was a mystery. Finally she noticed that everyone in the amethyst hall was still - including who she guessed was the chief archivist sitting behind another web. Here she felt uneasy - the people inside were motionless, which meant that either they were very good at standing completely still, had a petrification spell upon them, or dead. It did not help that nothing and nobody in here had a distinct aura, now that she noticed it.

And so, with caution, she approached the corridor, while still keeping focus on the distance between her soul and her latria. Her spectral form still appeared detached from her body, though by now it was well-anchored enough that she could move her body just fine.

edited 18th May '17 9:48:31 PM by ladytanuki

Eight Wings Library ~ Amethyst Wing (Ruka, Ferisen)

Ruka had diverted much of her abilities towards trying to keep Ferisen's soul within her own body, but it was like trying to keep a firm grasp on an eel. And to make matters worse, her attempt at making some form of link with the sumiri had fallen on deaf ears. Or a deaf soul, Ruka thought as she sulked within Ferisen's body.

Brightening up again, Ruka made another attempt at keeping Ferisen in place. Tugging with all her might, the ghost tried to link Ferisen to her body (despite knowing next to nothing about what she was trying to do).

Why... won't... you... stay... put—!? With the last tug, Ruka accidently ejected herself from Ferisen. Despite being an incorporeal entity, she tumbled to an ungraceful stop a hairsbreadth away from a spider webs. Staring at it cross-eyed, Ruka slowly and carefully backed away from it, her mind screaming "DO NOT TOUCH" in response to her subconscious telling herself that things in these dream worlds are highly dangerous.

Now in the mindset of not wanting to touch anything, and floating a few inches off the floor, Ruka took a look at her surroundings. This library was meticulously clean, apart from the cobwebs, which where absolutely everywhere. Oh yay... a spider cult... she thought dryly, before floating over towards one of the lantern-bearing statues.

Staring at the statue, she quickly realized that this was an actual person, prompting her to take a startled backpedal in mid air. Regaining her composure, Ruka leaned forward and cautiously waved a hand in front of the person's face, trying to evoke a reaction. "Hello~?" she said, before shrugging and returning to Ferisen's side.

"Those people do a better job at standing still than the Queen's Guard," Ruka whispered to Ferisen, "also, this place gives me the creeps." She turned to look at the silhouette sitting in the chair up ahead, causing her to glance over at Ferisen once more, "So, I guess that's the archivist person. I don't suppose we're supposed to just go up and quietly say 'Hi', are we?"