"Why does this one go from me to you to him?"
She indicates the string going from her to Lang to the simple light of the owl.
"No, I already. I. Uh. No. I'm done. Sorry..."
He withdraws, not wanting to cause any undue stress to Jessa.
The little orange blob pipes up as he heads back to the destroyed hangar.
"You have the social grace of a whip jelly."
"Shut up. They were supposed to be dying..."
He grumbles in response to it as he hoofs it back to the mech hangar.
"Why does this one go from me to you to him?"
She indicates the string going from her to Lang to the simple light of the owl.
Lang looks a bit perplexed at the question, he wanted to tell her something. be he didn't quite know the answer.
Well, its , ahhh, like this, its, kinda like, ... no its more like... Lang fumbles for the answer. finally he shrugs his shoulders.
I'm sorry Sara, I really don't know, there still so much I don't know yet. Lang looks away, a bit embarrassed.
If there's any closer examination, the string doesn't stop and start again with Lang, but sort of circles his aura and goes back to the owl, connecting to it.
There are a few other noticably connections from Sara.
One goes to her teddy bear, and oddly enough it looks like two separate colored strings twisted around each other until they resemble one string. They are defined when examined, however, as two entirely separate strings to what would seem to be one entity. Or at least two spirits in one place.
There's another string of a different color that glows with the same intensity that the ones connected to the bear and from Sara to Lang to Owl do. This one flies off into the distance and then back again, probably wrapping around someone out there and then back to the small otter asleep in one of the larger pockets of Sara's dress.
Multiple strings of other colors extend into the temple and a few go along the same lime as the one connected to the otter, but these ones aren't as bright. They bright ones bear a tone of being "fulfilled" while the dull ones seem like they have yet to be completed.
"It's ok. You are still learning stuff like I'm still learning magic."
Sara smiles encouragingly to Lang.
"Heh. And here I thought my room was messy. Obviously I didn't fully understand what the word meant. I bow to your greater mastery of the untidy arts," he said giving her a mock bow.
There's a subtle tracing in the air of her fingers and suddenly, a ridiculously extravagant illusory gown appears, complete with scepter and tiara. Illithia can't help but give a small smirk. There's shift in her tone of voice, adopting a mock-snooty tone. "Tut tut, I'm afraid I am not taking apprentices at the moment." Illy replies, drawing herself up to her full height (which means that Keme is still quite a bit taller than her even in his bow).
"But I shall, like, keep your deference in mind and stuff. Come on in and let's chat."
"With no 'out of control' abilities you need to get a handle on, that would've been a slightly better direction to pursue. I'm surprised the Headmaster didn't suggest it at your entrance interview. Hm."
"He did seem rather distracted during my interview, to be completely honest. Understandable, perhaps, if the threat is very real." Repp replies, his attitude apparently shifting slightly away from his resolute nonchalance. "Is there anything to be done? I've heard various rumours from the student body but it's obviously hearsay."
"Right.. Yeah" he seems to have to take some significant effort to tear his gaze away from the injured girl "right, they're in the mech hanger, I'll take you to them" he says briskly walking in the direction of the trapped student and teacher
Ardiente follows David at a fair clip, not really speaking other than to encourage Dave to hurry and assurances that he will be able to keep up at any speed that would be safe in these hallways.
Within a respectable amount of time, the pair are standing in front of where the hangar door used to be. Even here the stone looks... off. Distorted and twisted. What should be cleanly cut stone blocks seemed to have bled into each other in strange patterns.
Ardiente's face is likewise twisted into a grimace as he reaches out to touch the stone.
"It..." Ardiente begins, trembling slightly. "It feels wrong. Foul." He wasn't gonna tell David that he already felt sick, and he hadn't even started bending the stone yet. Too much stubborn pride.
"Okay here we go." Ardiente drops into a bending form, slamming the ground with a foot while simultaneously striking at the twisted stone with an open palm. To the firebird, it feels like he is trying to bending stone covered in a layer of inky filth.
While the wall opens sharply, leaving a small passageway into the hangar, Ardiente doubles over, falling to his knees. He vomits unceremoniously, spewing a steaming and stinking mixture of burnt lunch and strange digestive enzymes onto the stone. David can hear him panting for air punctuated by the occasional groan, but at least the way into the Mech bay is open.
In a smooth, almost mechanical motion, Fei places his hands around Vai's neck. With his left hand, he attempts to absorb all of the magical energies that are healing her wounds. With his right hand, he does something that his emotional mind could not do here. He absorbs every bit of energy in Vai's body. Down to the cellular level, all heat and all motion within her body simply...ceases.
** spoiler omitted **
As Fei draws off the magical energy of the spells cast by Vai, he pulls a little more than he probably counted on, as she practically radiated with magical enhancements and effects.
Fei's hand clasps tightly around his foe's throat, and stops all motion in her body down to an atomic level. This has the additional effect of momentarily creating a hyper-condensed state of matter within his foe's body as atoms begin to display quantum properties on a macro level. The result is a rather gruesome disfigurement of the once-living creature, twisted completely beyond recognition.
She's definitely dead, and what remained of her body is an unholy ruin of organic matter.
David nods grimly when the firebird mentions the wrongness of the area "powerful daemon lord, from what I can tell he specalizes in possession and coercion, he ran off but I don't know why, which bothers me..." He stares off into space before he's brought back to earth by the retching of his companion "woah, ardente! You ok?.. Right stupid question, do you need me to help? Either with fire or with transport back to the infirmary, or maybe just away from here?" He atunes his magical aura to a soothing warmth as he speaks and vanishes the bile with a gesture and a burst of magic
As Chao is making his rounds in the temple, a couple of other, slightly younger Air bending pupils wandering the grounds as well. they stop when they see Chao and huddle together as though they are planning something. One of the boys turns toward Chao waving him over, there is a hint if mischief in their eyes.
pssst, hey, Chao, come here. they whisper. Chao soon recognizes them he has gotten into a bit of trouble before with them. they are definitely not very skilled benders. But they have potential, if, properly....motivated.
chao walks over a grin on his face "you have my attention"
As Chao is making his rounds in the temple, a couple of other, slightly younger Air bending pupils wandering the grounds as well. they stop when they see Chao and huddle together as though they are planning something. One of the boys turns toward Chao waving him over, there is a hint if mischief in their eyes.
pssst, hey, Chao, come here. they whisper. Chao soon recognizes them he has gotten into a bit of trouble before with them. they are definitely not very skilled benders. But they have potential, if, properly....motivated.
chao walks over a grin on his face "you have my attention"
pulling (well not literally) Chao aside and making sure nobody else is around.
So, you know that Lang kid. Well I happen to know for a fact that he is busy with that new sister of his. and...if you take a look...right, over, there.
he points to to the spot where Midori is speaking with Sun.
I happen to also know that, that girl over there. Lang happens to like her, but I am not so sure she feels the same about him.
the boy looks back at Chao, soooo. you thinkin what I'm thinkin?
Professor Nix, slightly distracted by the idea of mathematical equations describing a rift, does not notice that Tamina intends to treat his patient until it is too late. Lowering his slightly outstretched hand he watches Raelle until he is sure that the 'medicine' would do no harm.
After a few moments, he glares at Tamina, but his voice is still calm and pleasant, "So you are one of the people who work in the infirmary now, yes? You make it a habit of treating other people's patients, yes? I will thank you to clear with the person under whose care a patient is before treating that patient." He holds up a hand to stop her protest before it fully forms, "I do not want to hear all the reasons why you did as you did. I do not care how well you know Raelle or what your undoubtedly prodigious medical skills are. In the future, please check with me before you treat my patient. It is simple courtesy."
Nix's demeanor relaxes and his smile is warm and friendly again, "I am glad that you are here, Tamina. It helps the healing process to have friends nearby. Raelle, I will put in a note excusing you from your classes for the rest of the day. I would like to keep you in the infirmary for a couple of hours for observation, but after that you are free to go. You should rest for the remainder of the day. And you really should rearrange your classes to accommodate the beginning psionics class; it will help you to learn control."
Tamina started to calm herself, put on a pleasant smile, be the perfect princess she'd been trained to be......but it had been a long few days. Too much for anyone to take really, and something in her just cracked.
"You ordered an analgesic and I delivered an analgesic. How exactly did I do anything wrong?" she snapped. "You're the one who jumped to conclusions just because I wasn't wearing a nurse's uniform! You're not a doctor either! You're just here as a consultant. So you know less about the infirmary and how it works than I do. And I don't care if you give me detention for saying so! You're not being reasonable, you're just trying to sound reasonable," she said, her voice starting to waver as the tears that she'd been keeping at bay all this time finally broke loose.
"Heh. And here I thought my room was messy. Obviously I didn't fully understand what the word meant. I bow to your greater mastery of the untidy arts," he said giving her a mock bow.There's a subtle tracing in the air of her fingers and suddenly, a ridiculously extravagant illusory gown appears, complete with scepter and tiara. Illithia can't help but give a small smirk. There's shift in her tone of voice, adopting a mock-snooty tone. "Tut tut, I'm afraid I am not taking apprentices at the moment." Illy replies, drawing herself up to her full height (which means that Keme is still quite a bit taller than her even in his bow).
"But I shall, like, keep your deference in mind and stuff. Come on in and let's chat."
Keme smiled in spite of himself. "Alright. Nice illusions, by the way," he said, closing the door behind him. "Is that what you do? Illusion magics?"
Jeran turns around as he hears the sound of stone moving.
"Professor, it looks like help has arrived," he said. "Here, there's a lot of dangerous parts on the floor. Some pretty big holes in the walkways. Hop on my back and I'll get you safely over to the opening."
In the infirmary, a young elf stirs, his blinking eyes concealed by his plain black blindfold. He reaches behind his head to untie it, then sighs resignedly as memories flood back into his mind.His hand falls down and grazes an elvish braille book, at least a foot thick, titled the Unabridged History of the Dragon Empire. "How thoughtful," he murmurs before cracking it open and tracing the braille with his hand.
A chubby dwarf nurse taps Archena on the shoulder. ¨Miss, the patient you brought in earlier away is awake now. Would you like to see him?¨
Archena is upside down in the chair with her back in the seat and her legs hanging over the back. She's holding a magazine right-ways-up, which would mean it's upside down from her perspective.
"Uh, ya. Sure. I thought they said it would be longer than that."
She flips around in the chair and goes to follow the dwarf to the room.
"Uh, hey man. You uh, feeling alright?"
She seems to have never been in a situation like this before.
Djalos face is completely hidden by a massive book. At your entrance, he starts, and accidentally drops the tome, titled the Unabridged History of the Dragon Empire. "Oh, um, hello... Archena, was it?" he titters nervously. The young elf is still for a moment, and then he blurts, "I'm sorry for being a complete psychopath this morning! Or, I, us, I think the actual term for it is sociopath. I mean, I didn't enjoy it... oh god! Maybe I am a..." he seems to realize he's rambling, let's out a little meep, and scrambles for the book to hide behind again.
Archena picks the book up first.
"Hey, it's ok, I got it."
She laughs slightly at his scrambling as she hands it back to him.
"I honestly couldn't tell the difference between the two."
She steps back to try to not make him feel crowded, still somewhat amused by his frantic nature.
"So, uh, why the sudden shift in personality? I coulda sworn you were a robot before. You doing alright now?"
"Well, I, uh..." Djalos thinks for a moment. "It... turns out that my handlers? The people I thought were my family? Well, they put a stopper on all of my remorse and guilt-as well as a variety of other emotions-from killing literally thousands of people. Thousands... imagine that. All of that guilt just crashing down on you in one instant. Bonus points for the fact that it would've killed me eventually, this barrier." Djalos voice is tinged with bitterness as he speaks.
Djalos is struggling to keep said emotions under the surface. Not attempting to bottle them up, but just to keep them from showing.
"That's awful..."
She notices that he's feeling rather conflicted.
"Would you. Would you, ah. Should I come back later? Or would you like me to stay? I mean, it's up to you. You seem kinda..."
She trails off, not really sure how to deal with a situation like this. This never happened to any of the people at her parent's parties. Or at least, they never let it show.
As Fei draws off the magical energy of the spells cast by Vai, he pulls a little more than he probably counted on, as she practically radiated with magical enhancements and effects.
Fei's hand clasps tightly around his foe's throat, and stops all motion in her body down to an atomic level. This has the additional effect of momentarily creating a hyper-condensed state of matter within his foe's body as atoms begin to display quantum properties on a macro level. The result is a rather gruesome disfigurement of the once-living creature, twisted completely beyond recognition.
She's definitely dead, and what remained of her body is an unholy ruin of organic matter.
Analysis: Target neutralized, but presence of remains is still a threat. Due to current state of remains, special containment measures required.
Requisite Action: Collect remains and return to universe of origin.
Related Analysis: Energy reserves at unsafe levels - dissipation required immediately.
Solution: Use excess energy (and materials present) to fabricate nanite containment vessel for target remains.
Using the unexpectedly large amounts of energy he siphoned from this Vai prior to her...expiration, Fei's nanosuit immediately starts to manufacture more nanites. As they are created, they leave the suit and form a small 'cloud' that begins to assimilate materials from the remnants of the lab.
A few minutes later, the cloud floats over to the remains of the interloping Vai. They surround the altered organic matter and 'cocoon it in a barrier of energy surrounded by reconstructed metals. The end result is a capsule that creates an internal seal of energy to keep the superfluidic remains from escaping their containment.
That goal acheived, Fei's Lace turns back to the laboratory network and collects the information it had requested in the midst of the battle. Of most immediate import is the confirmation of the presence of a ship hangar, with two vessels currently berthed. The many subjects of research, not as critical at the moment start downloading into the Lace's prodigious storage banks, then deleting themselves from the facility mainframes.
Fei takes up the capsule and leaves the laboratory...
The chamber holding the slaves suddenly opens. As it does, security doors along one of the corridors begin to open as well, and the wall lights and panels light up.
A calm voice comes over the PA system and speaks to them.
"Hello."
"This facility is no longer under the control of the Empire or the dragons who held you captive here - you are now free. However, it is not safe to remain here."
"There is a spacecraft in the hangar that will take you away from here, and to a place where you will be safe from Imperial reprisals. Please follow the lights and monitors in the corridors and board this vessel as quickly as you can. Assist any of your fellows who require it."
As the voice speaks, all present feel their fears lessen. Perhaps it is the peaceful tone of the voice speaking, or the confidence with which it speaks, but all present feel...uplifted...for the first time since being brought here. If nothing else, it seems to be a far-better option than remaining here.
Tentatively, they begin to move out.
As the freed slaves begin to leave their containment cell, an alternate set of corridors (that does not intersect with the other route at all) opens up. This path leads to the second ship.
A dark form limned in silver-white fire flies down these corridors like a comet, carrying several unconscious guards at a time. They are ferried from their containment cell and dumped inside the cargo hold of this other vessel, then sealed inside.
It takes a little over an hour, but the Champion is able to finish his work with the guards as his Lace finishes emptying the databases of the facility. They then turn their combined attentions to the vessel itself.
Fei ensures that all communications gear on the ship is removed or destroyed beyond any hope of repair, and that it has enough survival provisions to keep them alive for at least a couple of months. The Lace programs the ship to launch after the other vessel leaves, than starcast to a remote low-tech world that is hospitable but not on any major civilian or military spacelanes.
With those preparations completed, Fei can finally turn his attention to the newly-freed refugees and make sure they are ready to leave this place...
"No! No... please stay... please..."
Djalos is unable to hold it in, and collapses, bawling.
"All of them... each and every face..." he cries.
"I, um.... I really don't think I'm the best person to, uh... crying..."
She looks around, not really sure what to do. Crying never happened at the parties. Showing weakness was practical suicide in the cutthroat world of firebird interpersonal relations. Guests rarely let a crack in their fake smiles show, much less show actual sad emotion, but never tears. Tears were reserved for behind the doors she was shut out of.
Djalos pulls himself together a little bit, at least enough for coherent speech. Good thing he has his blindfold on, otherwise his tears would spill all over Archena.
"I... I... well... the only thing comparable is the tale of a vampire. What was his name? Archonus? Azatai? But he was the most feared, brutal vampire in all the land. He slaughtered hundreds of innocents, until one day he went too far. He killed and turned the favored daughter of a Rokan caravan, and so the elders cursed him with a soul. Suddenly, all of the horrible things he did came crashing down upon him. This vampire spent hundreds of years as a hermit, forever wracked with guilt." Djalos laughs bitterly. "I hope that is not my fate."
"Ya, uh, me too?"
Archena is looking at a side wall as it occurs to her that he'd be a lot more attractive right now if he was mute instead of blind...
"Heh. And here I thought my room was messy. Obviously I didn't fully understand what the word meant. I bow to your greater mastery of the untidy arts," he said giving her a mock bow.There's a subtle tracing in the air of her fingers and suddenly, a ridiculously extravagant illusory gown appears, complete with scepter and tiara. Illithia can't help but give a small smirk. There's shift in her tone of voice, adopting a mock-snooty tone. "Tut tut, I'm afraid I am not taking apprentices at the moment." Illy replies, drawing herself up to her full height (which means that Keme is still quite a bit taller than her even in his bow).
"But I shall, like, keep your deference in mind and stuff. Come on in and let's chat."
Keme grinned and then found a comfortable spot to sit. Piles of clothes always made good cushions. Although it was a lot less comfy trying to sit like this in human form. But for some reason he found himself reluctant to switch to his fox form at the moment. Fox form was good for observing, but maybe not as great for talking.
"I'm probably making a big mistake sharing any of this stuff with someone I don't really even know," he said, running a hand through his hair. "But we're pretty much just chasing our tails right now anyways. I'm tired of always finding myself a few steps behind this guy. We need to find another way of finding him," he said, his frustration coming to the surface.
Djalos calms down and becomes quiet. He isn't wracked with sobs, but his blindfold is becoming a bit more damp.
Djalos is reliving all of the horrible, horrible things he's done, and punishing himself for it inside his mind.
Ignace glanced nervously at the group of boys clustered along the hallway outside the cafeteria as Phaedra chattered on about dresses. Normally she'd be happy to talk about clothes. It was her favorite subject. But having to pass such a crowd of people made her nervous. And there was something that seemed off....
Just as they moved past the group, she gasped in surprise as she was hit squarely in the face with some sort of fruit paste. Phaedra shreaked indignantly as she was also covered in sticky thrown food.
"How dare you! Filthy peasants!" Phaedra shrieked. No one had ever treated her like this before.
The boys just laughed. "Not so fancy now, are you?" they taunted her. "You don't get to order us around. You're not anything special after all."
Ignace curled up into a ball on the floor, running nursery rhymes through her head over and over. If she didn't focus on the here and now then maybe she could stop it. The air around her was getting hotter.
The lead boy feels a tap on the shoulder, and hears another posh, yet quiet, voice behind him. "I would suggest that you stop doing that, sir. You appear to be putting these ladies in distress."
The beautiful feathered serpent slithers down one of the larger halls fuming as he lost track of the two he was with. After a few minutes he brings his head down to just above the eye level in front of a random student and growls out [b]"you there! You will take me to your healers or I will devower you whole!"
Raelle had been going to respond to the Professor's suggestion by telling him that the Headmaster had already vetoed that suggestion due to the overlap between basic psionics and basic arcana which she'd already taken, but all of that completely flew out of her head when she was interrupted by Tamina's sudden outburst. Followed by tears.
"Tami! What is it? What's wrong?" she said, wobbling a little as she hopped off the exam table to comfort her friend. She knelt on the floor beside Tami and put her arm around her.
Jacob sighs. "It does not matter if they are nobles or commoners, gentlemen. What matters is that you are impugning their honor, and I must defend it."
With that, he steps from behind the mass of boys and in front of Phaedra and Ignace, his eyes aglow with a golden radiance. To Phaedra's trained eye, his grace and bearing mark him as a leader among this puny, unwashed race of the earth.
Closing his eyes briefly, and with a look of intense concentration, golden and azure light manifests around the boy, before finally coalescing into a suit of ornate full plate armor in the style of those that are worn by crusaders of Iomedae, and a matching tower shield, which he immediately presents to the attackers as a barrier against their onslaught of food. It all looks very impressive.
"As I said, gentlemen: it is my duty to protect the honor of all."
Back on solid ground, just in front of the entrance, Jeran sets Vare down, keeping a hold on his arm to guide him through the opening.
"Thanks for the assist," he says, genuinely grateful to be out of the room he had only a few minutes ago thought that he would never leave. "Are you okay?" he added, concerned with how ill the firebird looked. He didn't even know this guy's name, but whoever he was, he had done them a huge favor getting that hangar open.
As Lim-Mor and Serrin are chatting in the hallway, Serrin's stomach grumbles loudly. She tries to ignore it, but it just keeps getting louder. Eventually, it becomes too loud for her to no longer not listen to.
Having been through a lot that day, including arriving at not only a brand new school, but a whole new world, she acts irrationally, and jumps into the air, turning into her bird form.
However, she wants to keep talking to Lim, so she throws a shadowy net around him, and levitates him up off the ground and into the air with her. She then speeds off, heading to the cafeteria.
If there's any closer examination, the string doesn't stop and start again with Lang, but sort of circles his aura and goes back to the owl, connecting to it.
There are a few other noticably connections from Sara.
One goes to her teddy bear, and oddly enough it looks like two separate colored strings twisted around each other until they resemble one string. They are defined when examined, however, as two entirely separate strings to what would seem to be one entity. Or at least two spirits in one place.
There's another string of a different color that glows with the same intensity that the ones connected to the bear and from Sara to Lang to Owl do. This one flies off into the distance and then back again, probably wrapping around someone out there and then back to the small otter asleep in one of the larger pockets of Sara's dress.
Multiple strings of other colors extend into the temple and a few go along the same lime as the one connected to the otter, but these ones aren't as bright. They bright ones bear a tone of being "fulfilled" while the dull ones seem like they have yet to be completed.
"It's ok. You are still learning stuff like I'm still learning magic."
Sara smiles encouragingly to Lang.
Lang returns the smile, there is a look of confusion on his face, like this is something he has never seen before.
Sara, please stay right there. I want to check something out. curiosity in his eyes, Lang gets up and follows the strand connecting sara to the owl (that wraps around Lang)
"Hey! What the Fu-"
"Um. You know I can fly on my own?"
"I don't think this is really neccesary, ma'am..."
"I'm not a F@$ing piñata!"
While Nero thrashed wildly, Lim and Gian remain calm and wait politely for the net to get dropped.
"Uh, maybe you should talk to someone a little more qualified than me? I don't really think I'm going to be much help right now..."
"Woah. More guys. It's not even your birthday..." The orange ooze pipes up from Kevin's pocket as he gets back to the hole that was the door to the destroyed hangar.
"Shut up..."
He pushes it back down into his pocket.
"Is everyone ok? I got to the headmaster's office, and he said everything was fine. What happened? Is there anything I can do for you?"
He asks Ardiente, as he's the one on the floor.
"You, Jeran? I can mix up healing potions if you need one."
"Okie Dokie."
Sara stands still while he inspects the connection. It starts at Sara, goes towards Lang and wraps around him like a peg before going and making a connection to the hungry owl.
Serrin ignores Lim's yelling. Sure he might be able to fly, but he was no firebird. And while the shadowy young lady was very much *nothing* even close to your typical firebird, she *loved* flying.
Which is how she found herself winging through the halls, as fast as she could fly. She was a pretty adept flier, ducking and dodging students, making sure Lim didn't bump into anybody.
Then, she rounded a corner, and ran smack dab into the chest of a rather massive, rainbow bird. Now normally, when somebody is flying, be they animal or mage, and then run into somebody, they tend to stumble. Or get hurt. Even knocked out.
Serrin, however, was anything but normal. So it was that when she ran headlong into this immense snakey-birdy thing, she exploded into a swarm of shadow bats.
Unfortunately, this dropped poor Lim-Mor a good ten feet onto the ground, at the feet of whoever this bird snake person was.