Arnaxas001

[Mistress Sheena]

The fight for the town of Onshu had begun.

An onslaught of Bahjeeb started to ambush Kana, hoping to stop the counter attack against them. Elsewhere, Faolan had just swept the area clean of any resisting Bahjeeb. They attempted many times to kill the fox demon, but to no avail. Their bodies were quickly decapitated from their heads, as their heads were traveling down Faolan’s throat into his digestive system, to be digested later in the day.

As the gang of Bahjeeb surrounded Kana, he grabs a kunai from his belt and threw it had what seemed to be the squad leader, and it was deflected to the ground. Kana gave a smirk as the leader gave a signal for an assault. Kana was fighting them off with very little difficulty. Then a Bahjeeb from behind threw an axe straight at Kana, and as Kana turned around, it struck him in the throat, and continued to slice through the flesh and bone. Kana’s head then fell to the ground, rolling next to the feet of the leader, in which the leader then got the feeling they had won the battle. Although he didn’t know what was in store for them. Kana’s body fell to the ground, and as it did, it puffed up a cloud of smoke and transformed into a log!

Kana was behind the leader all along! Waiting for the right moment to strike, and that moment was now! The squad leader was so speechless to fall for such a novice ninja technique. Kana then smiled at him as he stabbed him in the left eye with a kunai, and kicked him in the torso with brute force! The man fell to the ground, with the warm crimson blood flowing nonstop from the wound, and with his one eye left, he saw the cold hearted warrior with a disguise of a kind hearted fool. He had to warn the others, but before he could, Kana cast one last technique upon him which made him explode to pieces that flew right into the other Bahjeeb troops, which caused them to be in disgust and one to throw up because of the fried smell. They all retreated to summon more enforcement.

As Taere called for backup, because of the overflow of Bahjeeb in his area, a blue of wind surrounded the area, kicking up dust with every movement, and cutting up the skin and flesh of the Bahjeeb as it passed through nearly every single soldier. Then it had stopped in front of Taere, as the bodies fell one by one to the dusty ground. The remaining troops ran in fear of the young lad who had the heartlessness of an assassin, and as he turned around to face Taere, Taere caught a glimpse of the cold eyes of a ninja assassin, in which he could never forget the look of the pair of eyes that stared right back at him. The blur was none other than Ben Gamanoji, the young prospering ninja rookie, although from the looks of things, he wasn’t a rookie any longer.

Ben looked up at Taere, and began to speak. “My apologies for not arriving to your aid sooner.”
“It’s not a problem.” Taere said as he looked upon the lay waste of Bahjeeb troops lying on the ground.

[Malevolence]

“I could use a little help here!” Taere yelled to whomever might hear him. Taere’s call was answered by a flash of cerulean wind. Sand from the gravel streets of Onshu flew up in clouds around Taere, and Bahjeeb about him fell to the ground. Flesh gobbets and blood flew in all directions, and red ichor stained the ground around Taere. The Bahjeeb who didn’t get cut to pieces fled immediately. As the blur slowed to a halt, human eyes became visible in the azure storm that was obviously some trained assassin. The blue finally faded, and the face of a young man emerged.

“My apologies for not arriving to your aid sooner.”

“Not a problem.” Taere brushed the dust off of himself from the wind that this assassin had kicked up. “What’s your name?”

“Ben Gamanoji, assassin, ninja, learner under Kana Mitsu. I assume you know him?”

“Of course. Have you seen hi—” Taere pulled Ben around a corner, as he heard the clank of ornamental chains on Bahjeeb weapons from around a corner. A patrol marched past, as Taere and Ben pressed themselves up against a wall. “Now then, have you seen him anywhere?”

“No, but I’m assuming he’s near Faolan.”

“I’m still looking for the Caliph’s tent. Its big and red, have you seen it?

“No, but all the Bahjeeb seem to be moving toward the northeast corner.”

“We’ll start there.”

Taere and Ben ran off around another corner towards the northeast section of Onshu. Avoiding patrols and lone guards, they eventually made their way to a building alleyway directly across from the tent. Taere blinked his eyes twice, then pulled on Ben’s arm.

“What?”

“How accurately can you throw a dagger?”

“Within an inch.”

“Make that half an inch and we’re in business.”

“Why?”

“Just trust me.” Taere’s vision became a series of multicolored auras. His Blacksun Filter had switched to infrared heat sensors, and could see inside the fabric of the tent. Taere moved behind Ben’s left shoulder, and looked toward the tent, sighting down Ben’s arm. “Aim where I tell you.” Taere could easily tell where the caliph was in the tent. He talked Ben through the aiming. “Higher…a bit to the left – no not that much – yep – wait, a little bit down…there. Fire away.”

Ben launched the dagger at the crimson and gilded tent. The fabric tore loudly as the blade ripped through the tent, and impaled the Caliph squarely in the chest. His demonslaying axe fell to the ground, and the blade embedded itself in the ground. The weapon instantly disintegrated. Faolan, sensing the death of the weapon’s ether from far off, gave a long howl, and then again presumably tore into flesh of a Bahjeeb.

“Augheryd! Where in the Drakefire are you?!”

I’m coming, calm yourself.

You’d better get here soon, I might have killed the Caliph, but now all the Bahjeeb are going to be twice or three times as aggressive. This is going to turn into a real messy situation if you can’t get back here to get this under control soon. Civilians are gonna start dying soon.

Don’t worry, I’ll be there. Get up to the palisade wall, I’ll pick you up there.

“Dammit! Ben, see what you can do down here, I have to get up to the palisade. Stay away from patrols, they run in squads of twenty.”

Taere turned away and ran up towards the eastern palisade wall. He pulled out a small wooden device from his cloak, and began to unfold it. When he had fully extended it, it turned out to be a crank-wound repeating crossbow. He aimed expertly, and fired off a bolt to strike one guard by the stairs up to the palisade. The other turned around just in time to catch the next bolt in the side of his head. Taere ran over to the stairs, and slowly climbed up, prone to the surface of the stairs. He leaned up a bit, to see 3 guards on the wall. He reloaded the bold package, and fired off one bolt, and rolled down to the side of the stairs. His next bolt took out the other guard to his left. The third saw him, and Taere, not having time to reload with the crank, swung down over the inner edge of the palisade. The guard looked down, and saw nothing. He walked back to his post, just in time to catch a bolt in his back. Taere had been hanging under the stair supports. He ran up onto the palisade, and looked around. He was then caught in the back by a strong pair of taloned hands.

“Took you long enough you useless lizard.”

“Shut up.”

__________________________________________________ _____

W00t, I finished the Tolwyn Setting thing. If you don't have Cable, T1, T3 or DSL, don't try to D/L this, it'll take about 3 hours:
Tolwyn.doc

Asala drew he rbreath sharpley and then lowered it to an almost non exsistant murmer, staring out at teh city she could see a gang of bandits dragging behind them a man badly bruisedand unconscious for now.
Her heart fluttered as she felt imediately the pain of the man, both emotional and physical. And her curiosity exceeded her fear of the bandits surrounding him. As one of them stepped up to the man with a guilded blade aimed at his throat she resolved to save him and leaping up she clasped her staff into both her hands and brought it hard down upon the earth sending a wave of light screaming around her.

The bandits, more out of shock fled from the harsh light and Asala rushed to the side of the man whom lay upon the ground. Picking him up she dragged him quickly deep into the ruined city and soon found an alcove that was satisfactorily safe. She lay his head upon her lap and taking a water canteen from her belt she poured a little upon his lips. She looked out across the city as the alcove was higher than the rest of the city hereabouts, and saw the bandits upon teh outskirts in angry frenzies as they came back and found thier capture gone. Asala smirked. She was known to have hidden muscles as it were. Well they were more efficient than most, and you couldn't tell it to look at her. Her cheap parlour trick had led them away for a brief time so she was thankful to have got out of sight and way for now so quickly.

Depending on how much they treasured the posession of this man's life, she was unsure as to how long the city would be safe at all.
She picked up a piece of rubble from her side and idly threw it at the wall, a slight echo transcending the walls and escaping out from the gaping hole in which there used to be a roof of some sort.

The man in her lap stirred and slowly opened his dusted eyes looking right up at her. She gasped a moment and then smiled and handed him the canteen.

~~
sorry for the short length

[Liquid Shadow]

((OOC: Well, it's done. I'm not all that happy with it, but it does what it's supposed to do, although not very elegantly. I blame EMO and MODS for sapping my brain power.))

"Jay, hurry up man!" Hryk called back to his younger sibling, watching as he weaved through the thin crowd of villagers. As he stood there it once again struck him how odd his brother looked at times, standing a fair bit taller that those around him with skin a few shades darker. Everyone in town knew that Jahzron was adopted by the Stralite family, having appeared as a baby on their back porch, but so far no one had been able to place his ancestry. So far, the closest they could figure was some Shojuno blood in him, granting his vaugely elfin features, with his olive complexion perhaps owing to some Al-Hajjiri influence. Still, there was an odd air about him that couldn't be denied, a sensation that you were looking at someone very out of their element, existing where they seemingly shouldn't.

Catching up with Hryk, Jay seemed somewhat out of breath, straining under the load of the backpack he was wearing. His hands flashed in front of his chest as he caught his breath, Hryk mentally translating Jay's main form of communication as he did so. Being mute since birth, Jay's 'father' had come up with a language based on Nor signs, an old military hand code, for him to use to talk with. Being only a few months apart in age, Hryk learned the system right alongside Jay, now able to read or communicate with them almost as well as Jay could.

"Because," Hryk started once Jay completed his thought, a smirk on his face, "We're trying to strengthen your body during the trip, remember? You can't always rely on your magic to get you out of tough situations."

Jay's eyes flashed with anger as his hands formed the sign for silence, glancing side to side to see if anyone had overheard Hryk before focusing his glare on his brother. Hryk was one of only about six people in town who knew he was able to use magic and he was trying to keep it that way. He had heard from travellers in the tavern how magic users were persecuted in the nearby Cloaklands, imprisoned without warning or mercy.

"Sorry Jay, I'm sorry." Hryk apologised in the same hand signs, keeping the conversation just between the two of them as they turned and started towards the edge of town. "I know how you feel about that, but you know we're not going anywhere close to there, so chill. Most people around here are a little more lax about magic use, so you don't have to be as worried as you think."

Their true destination, at least the most immediate one, was Wenden, a days walk from their hometown of Epra at the southern edge of Keldenwood in the Kwalish province. From there they planned to tag along with a caravan for protection as they traversed with them further along Larim's Road, serving as extra bodies to help with guarding the caravans' goods in exchange for food. Eventually they planned to stop in at the Ocûl Aerie, each for different reasons. Hryk had a strong desire to join the Dragoons, stemming from an encounter with them when he was just a boy. Jay however was seeking information from The Library. He had been tutored from a young age by Krym, an old mage who was living out the end of his days in peace in Epra, in the use of his magic, but Krym was quickly finding him more powerful and more mysterious as he grew older. It had been his advice that Jay go to The Library in Ocûl where there would be people more equipped to help him with his gift. As a side task he was also hoping they would be better able to tell him what his ancestry was, that being something that had always nagged at him.

It wasn't as though he hadn't enjoyed living in Epra for the past 20 years, but he was starting to find it stifling. For a while he had been content just to wait in town, hoping the answers to his questions would accompany one of the varied travellers that passed through, but that thought had slowly been dissolving. As time had passed with none of the travelling parties being able to help him, the fact that Jay would have to make it out on his own gradually built inside of him, he had just been looking for a reason. Now with Hryk making his way to Ocûl as well, he knew he had to make his move.

Their packs were loaded with enough rations to make it to Wenden and back, plus a little extra just in case, along with their bedrolls, waterskins, extra clothes, and a few other personal effects they felt compelled to take with them. Though it was doubtful they would need them, they were also taking their hunting bows and a quiver of arrows each.

There wasn't much of a party to see them off at the edge of town, mostly just their father and a few friends who managed to sneak off from work for a short time. Jay had been hoping to see Krym once more, but knew that the old man's health had been starting to bother him these past few weeks. As it was, Jay had been feeling odd ever since a few months back. He wasn't sure what had caused it, but he had suddenly felt ill one day as they were out hunting, a sensation of something being wrong just far enough away he couldn't pinpoint it, but still near enough for him to feel it. The only thing he could compare it to was a similar sensation two years earlier, but that also had an unknown reason. Just one more thing he would have to figure out on his travels he supposed.

"I just wanted you to know," Their father announced as they walked up to the group, his arms folded across his chest and a crooked grin on his face, "That if you don't write to your mother at least once a month, I'll make sure you're out of the will."

"Alas!" Hryk cried in mock despair, "And I was ever so fond of your antique wood carving tools. How will I be able to carve miniature wooden animals with tools that are less than three centuries old?"

"You can't even carve a toothpick, I don't think the tools are the problem." Jay signed as he walked a few steps behind his brother, inspiring a few chuckles from the friends who saw and a suspicious glance from Hryk when he realized what happened.

"Hey, you better be nice to me Jay. Once we leave town, you'll be doing all your talking through me."

"You know what that means, don't'cha Jay." One of their friends called over, "Until you can teach someone else to translate for you, you're going to have just as much luck with girls as he does."

Throwing up his arms in defeat, Hryk started off down the road, Jay turning to wave to everyone gathered there once more before jogging to catch up with his brother.

"...They don't know what they're talking about..." He caught Hryk muttering to himself, "I'm not that bad with girls. I mean sure there was that..."

'Great, they just had to get him started.' Jay thought to himself as they treaded their way along the road, 'It's gonna be a long trip.'

[Senna]

In a matter of minutes Alexia had killed ten men. Her daggers were bloody and her face had spatters of blood strewn across. Many of the soldiers fighting were aiming to kill, but Alexia knew better than that. She knew that to really make an affect, you maim. She aimed for tendons and ligaments, cutting the throats of those that attacked her, and watching them flail helplessly on the floor. She had no time to think, for as soon as one was dead, another would come and attack her.

She entered a small tavern and found a group f children being threatened by six soldiers. She panicked for a second before noticing the iron chandelier above them. Silently she crept to the second floor and leaned over the banister. Alexia used one hand to pull out her crossbow and the other to silence the little girl that had seen her. She took aim at the rope suspending the light into air and shot. The bolt flew, snapping the rope with a twang and the light fell down onto three of the six soldiers. The rest looked up at her with confusion and she just cocked her head sideways and smiled. She leapt over the banister and landed on her feet on the floor below. She looked up and they were heading towards her, she pushed her daggers back into their sheaths and stood up.

And then they made the worst decision of their lives.

The first came at her, with a left hook, she blocked it easily grabbing the fist with her hand. She pulled him around and twisted his arm the wrong way. A crack resounded throughout the room and screams followed. Alexia kicked out his leg, and the bone shot up through the skin, blood flowing freely from the wound. She threw him aside, knowing that with a broken arm and leg he wasn’t going anywhere. The children saw this as a good time to hide better, so they ran into one of the back rooms. Alexia smiled to herself.

Smart kids

The next came to her and sent a high kick flying at her jaw, he struck her but she barely moved. She just looked at him. Alexia could feel her adrenaline pumping now, her blood flowing through her. She retaliated with a low leg sweep, he feel to the floor and grunted. Se pulled her dagger out and stabbed him three times in the chest. His tunic became soaked with blood. Alexia had always found it fascinating how materials soak up blood so quickly. The final one looked at Alexia and thought better of it. He turned and ran out of the door. Alexia laughed shortly before cracking her neck sideways.

After picking up her bolt and dagger and walked out of the door. By now she was covering blood spatter, across of her face and clothes. She looked wearily up at the sky. It seemed like hours had passed.

Are we done yet? She sent the thought out to Taere.

Almost. Get up onto the walls. I’ll pick you up.

Alright.


(OOC - short crappy post. urgh. and LS, welcome to arnaxas

[Malevolence]

Are we done yet? She sent the thought out to Taere.

Almost. Get up onto the walls. I’ll pick you up.

Alright.

Taere swung up on Augheryd’s talons, climbed up his leg, and swung into the crouching position on the saddle-turret. Taere pulled out the hilt of the Malevolence, and jammed it, quillions-first into the front of his saddle-turret. Liquid crystal began to flow out of the hilt into the small block of machinery on the front of the saddle-turret, and subsequently extended itself out the front into a long blade-like shape; one that was flat and straight on the top but dripped hanging sheets of crystal on the bottom. The end was capped with a larger bauble of crystal ending in a razor-tipped point. The weapon was over ten feet long and about as wide as a human wrist, but extremely strong and malleable, and nigh indestructible except by magical means. Taere swing the weapon around over Augheryd’s neck, and aimed it toward the palisades. He saw Alexia running up toward the edge, and three archers readying their weapons to fire at her. He directed Augheryd down, and fired off a strafing blast of crystal-amplified ether at the archers. Their arrows flew straight off towards the walls of a small house, and were immediately incinerated by the burning plasma of the ether blast.

Nice shot. See if you can clear me a path to the corner of the palisade to the north.

Said, done.

Taere banked Augheryd around to the south, and pulled up against the palisade. He instantly blasted a stream of ether off toward a marching line of pikemen, and then fired off two shorter blasts to destroy the palisade behind Alexia’s path. Two more lines of pikemen marched up in front of her on the next stairway, and Taere – narrowly missing Alexia – fired off a long blast to burn the warriors in her path. She looked back, gave him a small salute, and ran on to the north corner. Taere flew Augheryd on towards the north side of the palisade, firing off blasts of ether as he went to take out remaining threats to Alexia’s path toward the edge of the wall. Augheryd landed hard on the wall, with bend legs, and pushed off as Alexia jumped up and caught onto the side of the saddle-turret on the trailing end of one of Taere’s knee stirrups.

“You alright?” Taere inquested.

“Fine, how about you?”

“Not that bad. We’ve got the Bahjeeb on the run, they’ll be routed within the hour.”

“We have to find a safe place to land if we’re gonna regroup with Kana and the others.”

“How’s right there?”

“Where?”

Taere fired a blast of ether at a few Bahjeeb on the ground, and cleared a large landing space. “There.”

“Oh.”

((OOC: That was short and shitey. Anyway, We all have to meet in Kwalish sometime. So…yeah.))

[Liquid Shadow]

((OOC: Meet in Kwalish? I was actually heading away from Kwalish right now. If you make it anywhere a little further down Larim's Road I can probably meet you there, but my character has already left the Kwalish province.))

TAK!... TAK! TAK!

The sound of stone striking stone echoed out for a small distance around the campsite as Jay walked back towards the firepit, a bundle of loose sticks and branches tucked under his arm. Even though they could have easily made it into Wenden before the sun went down, they had decided that they would spend the night at a campsite that was set up a fair distance from the town, saving a bit of money, as well as enjoying the solitude, as they were the only ones camping there that night. Unfortunately, Hryk seemed to have just as much luck with the flint as he did with women, not even managing to make a spark.

"Hey bro," He said to Jay when he realized he had returned, "You mind lighting up the fire for us?"

"What happened to 'You can't always rely on your magic to get you out of tough situations'?" Jay signed back to his brother after setting down the sticks he had gathered, hands becoming less visible in the fading light.

"Uhhh..." Hryk stammered for a moment, face going slightly red, "Well... there are some times where it's needed. Besides, a little practice wouldn't be a bad idea you know."

"Making the fire isn't the part that requires practice," A small red sphere removed itself from Jays' pocket as he signed, glowing with it's own power as it floated towards the pile of wood and tinder in the fire pit. Disappearing within the maze of dried wood, there was a slight hissing sound for a second before the pile burst into flames, already a roaring fire. "...It's the part that comes after that I need to work on."

Illustrating what he meant, Jay motioned with one hand towards the fire, the flames suddenly jumping higher and twisting into a roughly human shape. Its features were bulky, nothing more than a collection of ovals and spheres in a childish arrangement, but it was clearly meant to be a person.

"I don't think that's all that bad Jay." Spoke Hryk as he rose to his feet, walking over to stand beside his brother.

"I know..." Came the slow reply, Jay's eyes intent on the firey figure, "...But I can do better..."

Reaching out towards the fire, whisps of orange energy flaked off from the palm of Jays' hand, floating through the air before getting swallowed by the figure in the flames. With every shard of energy infused in it, the figure grew more defined, and Hryk watched as a recognizable symbol became apparent through the haze. The edges of the figure tightened, growing more distinct with every passing moment before Hryk noticed it was forming into the shape of a standard Dragoon in armour.

"Heh, that's pretty good..." His words were cut short when he got a glimpse of his brothers face. He hadn't originally heard over the crackling of the fire, but Jay's breath had become more and more ragged, and a sweat was breaking out across his brow. Even though the heat from the flames were causing Hryk to squint his eyes, Jay was staring wide-eyed into the construct and wasn't even bothering to blink. It was getting to the point that he couldn't tell if Jay was controlling the fire, or the fire was controlling Jay. "Jay? Jay! Tha-that's good man, yo-you can stop now."

Looking back to the fire he could see it had now evolved even further before, the individual plates of armour beginning to define themselves from his torso. What had once been blobs at the ends of sausages had transformed into individual fingers at the end of the arms.

"Jay?! That's enough!" A feeling of panic rising in his mind, Hryk reached out to his brother, hand closing on his shoulder and giving a slight pull, just wishing to stop the loop between creator and created. Almost instantly, Jay's body went limp, swaying for a moment on his feet before starting to fall sideways, swiftly caught by Hryk

At the same time, two blasts of fire issued out from the flame-Dragoons' back, forming themselves into two sweltering wings of heat. No longer bound to Jay, it launched itself into the air, seperating itself from its' source of heat as it did so. Shooting into the sky it began to rapidly deteriorate, using up its' own energy just to gain altitude. Sensing the end to its' existence, the fire-Dragoon slowed his ascent, finally stopping high above the post-sunset landscape. Curling up his legs, he pulled all his essence into one focus point at the center of his body, holding it there for as long as possible before loosing cohesion, practically exploding in a noiseless display of pyrotechnics that momentarily lit the earth below him in a signal of his passing.

"...Crap." Hryk muttered to himself as he craned his neck skyward. Jay was fast asleep at Hryks' side, the exertion taking it's toll on his body and sending him into a deep sleep to recover his energy. Tomorrow they'd have to try to bluff their way around curious questions about the mysterious lights, but for now there was nothing more to do.

"So much for keeping a low profile..."

((OOC: Why do I always feel the most creative when I have the most going on? Oh well.))

[Mistress Sheena]

With the Bahjeeb Caliph defeated and Faolan no longer having a thread to worry about, he let out a howl, then resumed to tear out the flesh from a Bahjeeb warrior that had been residing inside of his claws. With the aid of his niece’s illusionary techniques, Kana successfully slaughtered Bahjeeb that had been keeping the village elder hostage, and with that task finally accomplished, the battle for Onshu with the Bahjeeb had slowly drawn to its conclusion. The remaining fighters who had lost their only hope of defeating the demonic hound began going berserk and fighting to the very end. Soon enough the amount of Bahjeeb had grown, and the first fleet would have wiped out the village if not been for Hitari’s special technique known as the Demonic Mirage.

OOC: Sorry that it's short, but I had to get it out ASAP, right?

[Senna]

It was finished.

Alexia and Taere glided down to the ground to regroup. They met Kana and the others. Taere surveyed them all.

"Is any of that blood yours?" he asked everyone. There were scattered murmurs of no.

"Good. You are all to stay here and help cleanup. Give it a week and then send a dozen men out to the forests, find the women and children and bring them back here. Bury your dead and burn theirs. But do not, let any of the women or children see the dead." He looked at them all, "Is that understood?"

"Yes."

Alexia watched while Taere took command. She sighed as she looked around her. It reminded her of so much. She heard something. It was growing fainter as the rabble around Taere began to chatter.

"Shut up." She snapped. They did. It was a child crying. Alexia attempted to brush the childs mind, but it was impossible. She shook her head and started to walk off.

"Where are you going?" Taere asked from behind her. She turned.

"Can't you hear her?"

"No."

"Try listening."

"I am."

"Not like that."

"Oh." Taere remained silent for a few seconds. "Who is it?"

"I don't know." Alexia stayed quiet for a few more seconds while Taere told the rest of them to start cleaning up. He walked over to her.

A few minutes passed and the courtyard was deadly silent. The shadow of the clock tower hung over them.

"She's not human." Taere said suddenly.

"How'd you know that?" Alexia asked.

"I just do. I know human minds."

"Where?"

"Top of the clock tower."

They walked into the shadow of the clock tower and found that the door was locked. Taere reached for the hilt of his sword, but Alexia put a light restraining hand on his. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small hooked length of wire and a small pin. She proceeded to pick the lock and open the door.

"Not everything has to be solved by the sword." She said. Taere was about to retort but decided against it. They climbed the winding stairs of the clock tower and came to the pinnacle of the structure. Sitting there was a small child. A little girl. Alexia's eyes widened briefly before she relieved herself of all her weapons. She placed them on the ground and walked carefully to the child.

"Sar ma Äereh, akhardinajvav Alexia." Alexia said softly in Daeian. The little girl looked at her. Alexia found that she was beautiful. She had big dark brown eyes, typical of Daeians, but then she had the pale Navaresk skin. It didn't make sense.

"Sar ma Äereh Putje."

"Putje." Alexia repeated it. "Kodova si guglerahtehko." They both smiled. Taere was looking at the both blankly.

"You made the bad men go away." Putje said to him. Her voice was light and musical and she spoke surprisingly well for someone who looked no more than six years old.

"Yes."

"That was nice of you."

"I guess." Taere was looking very confused. Alexia was just as confused but women have a way of keeping these feelings inside rather than letting them be shown on the face. "That's why women are smarter." She had told Taere once.

The little girl got up off the ground and brushed herself off. She was wearing a plain Navaresk smock.

"I want to go to Mehrehia."

Taere looked at the little girl. "Are you Daeian?"

She smiled at him knowingly. "Can't you tell who I am?"

"No."

"You'll find out when we get to Mehrehia."

(OOC - crap shite blargh post but I'll finish it later)

[Malevolence]

((OOC: Ok, not Kwalish, Wenden. Except for Alexia (you’re on your own for a bit, sorry), we should all try to meet up here. This is the main plot-starting post, so READ IT FULLY!!))

Taere, Alexia, and their newfound child-friend Putje jumped on Augheryd’s back, and prepared to lift off from the ground. Sadly, their plans were waylaid just before Augheryd made his first buffet of his wings. The instrument of their delay was a cloud of smoke next to Taere’s left shoulder, followed by the belligerent “Yelp!” of an appearing imp. The creature proceeded to whisper a comparatively long message, followed by Taere looking confused at the imp, and then muttering something unintelligibly belligerent in a confusing language. The imp proceeded to squabble back in high-pitched gibberish. Taere looked longingly at the imp, then threw up his arms and screamed something in Draconic. The imp quickly disappeared in another puff of smoke.

“May I ask what that was?” Alexia inquired.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Why would I not want to...Taere, what’s going on?”

“You know how I have to do whatever I’m asked now that I’m back on active duty as a Sky Captain, right?”

“Yes...”

“And how I can’t say “I have plans already?”

“Yes...”

“That imp was from Ocul.”

“Yes...?”

“I have to go to Wenden.”

“Why?”

“I have no idea. They only said I needed to get there as soon as possible. Something about a man named Jakob. I have no idea who he is or what he’s doing, but there’s something wrong, and that’s all the damn imp knows. Or all he let on.”

“Taere, why do you always leave?”

“What?”

“Why do you always leave right before Lughsadnyth?”

“I don’t!”

“Yes you do! Ever since the first one! The first time, you left right after it. The second time, you left for two years! Why do you have to go now? This time it’s 'duty,' as opposed to 'needing time' or 'being stressed with life.' What the hell is going on with you?”

“Listen, you’re right, this is duty, I have to go! If I don’t, I get reprimanded, then kicked out of the Aeries, Augheryd gets taken away, and I’m screwed, and so are you!”

“Taere, I don’t care. You were fine without Augheryd before, without the Aeries, without any of that duty bullshit. Why does it have to change now?”

“Because I never told you how I did without being in the Aerie full time, did I?”

“Taere, what are you talking about?”

“Without the Aeries, I would have never survived on my own. I had a personal unlimited expense account while I was on leave; I never ran out of money. I was always clothed, fed, ready, and perfectly fine because of the Aeries, even when I wasn’t with them. Right now I have all of what I have in my quarters plus about 100 Circlets to my name, and that’s about it.”

“Fine. Drop me off with Mehrehia,” Alexia said, extremely grudgingly and distraught. “Come back whenever you can. I’ll meet you…if I’m still there.”

The entire flight to Legunel was quiet. Taere and Alexia didn’t talk, and after he dropped Alexia and Putje off at Legunel for Lughsadnyth, he spoke neither to Augheryd by speech or thought. Taere only began to talk again when he landed at Wenden and spoke to the Aerie representatives that were there. Kana followed him silently, obviously sensing that he was quite distraught, and not bothering to disturb him.

Wenden was a large city, with spired buildings shooting off from the Church district of the city. The largest church was a Temple of Berenna, goddess of commerce and trade. Wenden was a Trade hub at the time, and remains as such. They think it is because of their constant reverence of Berenna, but it it simplty due to the fact that they are a mid-point on Larim’s Road. Taere walked throut the streets until he found a large stone building with an alchemical symbol of Mountain and Shaft on its doorframe.

Inside were three men in armor almost identical to the other’s, except fro a few small differences in fitting and hanging of plates. On their chest was the same symbol as was on the doorpost.

“So, who’s Jakob?”

“We were hoping you could tell us that.”

“What?”

“He kept mentioning you. He wanted to talk to the Red Dragon. We know that’s you.”

“When was he here, and what was he doing?”

“Well, at first we thought him to be a madman. He was preaching on the street corner about some unintelligible garbage, until he stood silent on the corner for a day, then started yelling about the End Times, the Shadow and the Red Dragon. So we called you.”

“And I’m here. Now what?”

“Well, we thought you could tell us who he is. And, we want to know what these End Times are. We know what the Shadow is, so we’re pretty much in the dark about this. We though you could shed some light on the situation, albeit red light as the case may be.”

Taere paused for a moment. He then said “I have absolutely no idea.”

“See what you can do. I’d suggest heading over to the Church district. He was there last time we saw him. See what you can do.”

Taere walked off out of the building. Kana made a silent effort to begin talking, but thought the better of it as Taere, with a perturbed expression, plodded off quickly to the Church district. He grudgingly followed, probably hoping to find some way to get him to talk later...