No longer joking, Taeo listens to Stands on the Spiral with a very serious expression, trying to understand what death means to humans and what it might mean to him. ”Would the fey be stronger if they could die? I don’t know, it’s a funny thought. Maybe they’re stronger because they’ve ‘died’ so many times. I’ll die like other people do in this world though, I suppose...but I hope to have a good deal more fun before that happens.”
He turns to Hotuko, "Do we learn about this Spiral at your school? And about Pharasma? Cheklitre taught me lots of stuff, but the gods don't have much use for the First World, and noone in the First World really has much use for them."
He then turns to the others, considering ”Have the rest of you seen death too? Real people-death?”
He then turns to the others, considering ”Have the rest of you seen death too? Real people-death?”
"Omi was first, then Abi," Alanar responds to the First Worlder's question. "They lived a good life, and passed quietly - Omi in her sleep, Abi a few years later. Then, it was only me and my sister tending to the stall." He tells him, before getting a faraway look.
"Then there was the day that Katapesh burned..." He whispered, the burning memory vivid in his mind's eye. "...it was as beautiful as it was immense. So many just vanished within the flames. More lived long enough to feel the heat consuming their flesh. There were many screams and prayers, and many dancers amidst the inferno that spread..."
He's quiet for a brief moment, before the smile comes back on his face, though slightly more strained than before. "But, it is what it is, yes? There is no need to think of such things. We will soon be in a new place - and I will have the time to make many beautiful pieces!" He says, trying to lighten the mood again.
Aldon observes Alanar quietly as the ifrit talks, maintaining what he believes to be a respectful silence. He holds in a snort at Alanar's finishing sentence. "I don't know that it'll be all beautiful jewelry and sunshine, even at Akrabahadran."
With this, he turns towards the newcomer.
"Real-people death? Yeah, I've seen some "real-people death". Countless ones." Aldon glares for a moment at Taeo, but can't meet the half-elf's eye for long. He casts his gaze about the wagon, before settling it in the region of his knees. When he speaks again, his voice is quieter and more restrained. "My home, Vigil, was besieged by a horror more unspeakable than any you've ever seen. My people are courageous and strong, but... well, there were thousands of them. We weren't prepared. Many knights fell. But at least they got the chance to fight. Not many can count that among their blessings, these days. Seems like the world is just... just tryin' to be rid of us. Of good folks."
Aldon looks up, meeting Taeo's eyes. His expression is less angry than it was before. Now it seems frustrated, and perhaps a little hopeless. "You should hope you get back home, fairy boy. If you don't, you'd best be prepared to see real death. You won't be having fun all the time. It ain't likely that anyone will, for the time being. Maybe ever. The world's messed up, and it's going to take some serious elbow grease to mend it all."
He looks toward Hokuto, trying to maintain an even expression. "You think the world will find us, at the College?"
Shen Hua bows to Hakuto, her forehead touching the silk of her robes arrayed around her.
"My apologies Mistress."
Straightening up, Shen Hua executes a lesser bow to her fellow students.
"The people of Tian Xia put great emphasis on a person's social standing and I had commented to Mistress Hakuto that it was difficult to speak to others when one is unaware of their standing. She has reminded me that we are all students here, equals, regardless of birth or standing in the outside world."
"I apologize for my rudeness, for speaking a tongue unknown to others. I meant no slight or secrecy and simply responded to our Mistress's comment to Ilesa in our common tongue. I will redouble my efforts to master Taldan and use it exclusively in the future."
Giving a slight bow again, Shen Hua folds her hands into the long sleeves of her bright silk robes, her eyes settling on a spot three feet before her knees.
He then turns to the others, considering ”Have the rest of you seen death too? Real people-death?”
Alyona is drawn back to a night a few months ago by Taeo's question. She remembers the look of horror in her cousin's eyes as she slit the girl's femoral. She remembers the warmth of Lilia's blood pumping over her hand. She remembers feeling sick to her stomach, and powerfully aroused at the same time. She remembers all the public executions she'd witnessed in Whitethrone. All the men and women she'd seen devoured by worgs for saying or doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Looking to Taeo, she simply nods, a great well of emotion in her eyes. It's unclear whether she's angry, sad, or just tired. As the others talk of the death they have experienced, she wipes the tears from her eyes and steels her expression once again.
"The people of Tian Xia put great emphasis on a person's social standing and I had commented to Mistress Hakuto that it was difficult to speak to others when one is unaware of their standing. She has reminded me that we are all students here, equals, regardless of birth or standing in the outside world."
Alyona snorts at Shen Hua's assertion of their equality with the peasants. We'll see about that. Maybe you're willing to give up your birthright, but I'm not. It's the only thing I have left.
He then turns to the others, considering ”Have the rest of you seen death too? Real people-death?”
Erik falls silent at that, drawing his knees up to his chest, peering out at the others watchfully again. "Yep," he answers grimly. At first he seems inclined to leave it at that, but after a moment he shrugs and elaborates a bit. "Dunno how it ranks up against everyone else's disasters," he says, giving a tight, grim smile that has nothing whatsoever to do with humor, "but... livin' in Westcrown isn't exactly what it used to be." He pauses, then puts his feet back down and affects a nonchalant shrug. "So they say, anyway, and I reckon there's got to be some truth to it--it'd be hard to build a city at all if it was as bad then as it is now, what with the Thieves and Hell's Own Hardasses fightin' it out all day every day, and the food bein' short and the weather bein' bad and the bloody rats. Rats ain't--" he cuts off with a tight grimace and a wry glance to Hokuto, "--aren't--too picky about whether their meals are all the way dead yet, if they get hungry enough... and they're plenty hungry in Westcrown. "
He stops for a moment, then grins again, and this time it's a bit more like an actual smile. "I haven't seen anyone die in the past two months, though, so there's that."
With the conversations having taken more serious turns, Anlessa grimaces, letting her thoughts trail off as she looks around the spacious wagon. Still, she manages to offer a grin towards Taeo, her head canting to the side a bit. "કેટલીક ભાષાઓમાં અન્ય કરતાં વધુ મજા છે," she remarks impishly. "Not knowin' that one as well as I should, though. Language classes would be fun. Do we get t' be pickin' our classes, Miss Hokuto?"
Rather than wait for an immediate answer, though, she looks to Shen Hua and shrugs. "Havin' words all your own's the best sometimes, you know? Never thought it rude m'self." Fingers tap impatiently against the seat, lips quirking side to side - Anlessa's ready to get out and stretch, and it's obvious.
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So many questions, so many small voices all looking for answers to their own personal inquisitions. In a way it makes Hokuto proud, that the children she's gathered are so inquisitive, it's what's needed. But some questions elicit less favorable reactions, and Taeo's to the group causes Hokuto visible pause and a momentary look of distant discomfort to flash across her face. One hand comes up to touch at her cheek below her blind eye, and then quickly withdraws as she snaps out of whatever fugue she was in.
Ilesea, meanwhile, shakes her head in response to oen of the many questions. It isn't until she speaks up to Taeo that it becomes clear which. "I've-- never seen someone die," she murmurs, biting down on her bottom lip and looking anxious that she seems to be in the minority in regards to that. Hearing Ilesea speak, Hokuto looks back to the students and clears her throat.
"Courses are mandatory across all students, you'll all have the same classes. The curriculum at Akrabahadran is... time-tested." Hokuto in deeply, then exhales a calming sigh and slouches back against the cushions of the wagon. It's Aldon's question that has Hokuto considering how to answer, and instead she just smiles at the boy and turns to draw back the blue velvet curtains and take a look outside.
Through the small window, it's clear that the landscape outside has changed. While still an arid environment, the terrain is no longer flat. Instead, huge mesas of dark rock rise up from the ground, their edges eroded to irregular columns of ancient stone bristling with scrub vegetation. Some of the mesas are hundreds of feet high, and much of the land between them is shrouded in a thick fog. Moisture has collected on the outside of the window in glittering droplets and the wagon is slowly rumbling through those rolling fog banks between tall towers of the world.
The sun is setting, that much is clear, though the hazy blot of light in th sky is now tucked away behind some of the mesas, creating long shadows that turn patches of fog into impenetrable blankets of murky darkness, even to those who normally find the night a monochromatic vista. The darkflame lanterns now show their true purpose here when the wagon passes into areas of shadow, as they create a wide area of pale sapphire light, except that Alanar and Taeo can't percieve the light, and instead all they see is the fog-shrouded darkness.
"We're getting close," Hokuto intones, squinting out the window at the foggy landscape beyond.
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Alyona takes a peek out of the window as well, taking in the new scenery. "Vhat a dreadful place," she comments. "Please tell me Akrabahadran isn't in here mistress Hokuto?" It was all well and good to have magical lanterns that illuminated the fog, but the towering columns of the place still give Alyona the creeps. She snuggles closer to Taeo. "Hawe you ewer seen such a place before, King?" The nickname is out of her mouth before she even considers it. Her eyes go wide when she realizes that she's given him a name without asking first. I hope he doesn't mind. To the outside world, her eyes widening only makes her look more frightened. She tries to surreptitiously gauge the moods of the other children, ready to hide her fear if she is the only one displaying it. I can't be seen as weak. Jadwiga are never weak. Never.
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"It is," Hokuto notes with an impish smile, "But... well," the seer's hand raises and wobbles from side to side like a see-saw. "It's in this valley, but not in the fog. You'll see." Sitting up straight, Hokuto folds her hands in her lap and looks back to the students with an eager smile.
Alanar looks outside again, and finds nothing but fog, frowning deeply before remembering how the lanterns were described. "Shen Hua, Ilesea," He speaks to those seated next to him, pointing out of the drawn open curtains.
"Would you describe what you can see for me? My eyes are those that see in total darkness, and the lamps, I cannot see their light," He tells the pair, smiling again. "Oh, yes! Shen Hua, you do not need to fret over learning the tongue of trade, you are already quite good at it. I would like to learn your language instead - does Tien have many letters?" He asked of both Tien natives, wondering how long it would take him to learn.
Taeo listens as several of his classmates-to-be describe their experiences with death, and watches others turn away awkwardly. Imagining people real-dying is a little abstract for him...but the loss on peoples’ faces is not. He studies each face as they speak. Alyona says nothing, but there’s a dark world in motion behind her eyes. Taeo starts to ask her where she’s going but before he can find the words she’s steeled herself, and the conversation moves on.
When Aldon suggests Taeo would be better off back in the First World he bites his lip and nods sadly, remembering how Siobhadhg had described this material plane to him, “the place where dreary humans did dreary things and then died.” Is this what she meant? It seemed so flat when she said that but some of these humans have real...texture.
Taeo feels a tenderness toward Ilesea when she admits she’s never met Death either. He smiles at her and ducks his head down trying to catch her gaze. How do I get this one to laugh?
Feeling reflective after the other kids’ stories, he lets his head fall back against the seat and his shoulders unwind. His eyes soften as his attention goes inward, trying to solve the puzzle of this world he’s landed in -- so much more confusing than it had sounded in the stories. When the other kids cluster around the window to look out it brings him back to reality for a minute. He leans over Alyona briefly to see the desert landscape, pleased by the drama of it.
Alyona takes a peek out of the window as well, taking in the new scenery. "Vhat a dreadful place," she comments. "Please tell me Akrabahadran isn't in here mistress Hokuto?" It was all well and good to have magical lanterns that illuminated the fog, but the towering columns of the place still give Alyona the creeps. She snuggles closer to Taeo. "Hawe you ewer seen such a place before, King?" The nickname is out of her mouth before she even considers it. Her eyes go wide when she realizes that she's given him a name without asking first. I hope he doesn't mind. To the outside world, her eyes widening only makes her look more frightened. She tries to surreptitiously gauge the moods of the other children, ready to hide her fear if she is the only one displaying it. I can't be seen as weak. Jadwiga are never weak. Never.
Taeo looks back at the window at the term dreadful -- and then smiles when she calls him King. ”You don’t like it? Much of my life I’ve spent in the forests and streams of Thousandbreaths, much greener than here, but I also spent a long time traveling with Cheklitre -- my tutor -- riding on his back or walking beside him as he taught me about the World. The First World, I mean of course. We mostly followed the Witchmarket, and it took us through all kinds of places: windswept granite mountains, red desert arches, swamps with a spooky green glow." Sitting upright for a moment, he says, "You must come some day! Maybe we'll all go. I don’t expect there’s much in this plane to match the First’s vibrancy or splendor, but this desert has some of it’s own drama. I like that. Does Irissen look quite different?”
As Alyona answers, Taeo listens...but finds his eyes getting heavy as well. The motion of the wagon lulls him as this whirlwind of a day starts to get the better of him. He unselfconsciously leans against her and begins to drift off to sleep, grabbing a small handful of her jacket loosely between his thumb and forefinger as he nods off.
"You must come some day! Maybe we'll all go. I don’t expect there’s much in this plane to match the First’s vibrancy or splendor, but this desert has some of it’s own drama. I like that. Does Irissen look quite different?”
"Irrisen is covered in snow year round. It's flat in the south, and gets more mountainous as you go north towards the Crown of the Vorld. There are rivers, and many forests, mainly coniferous. Glacier Lake dominates the central portion of the country." Alyona's response is somewhat academic, as if she hadn't really seen much of Irrisen despite being raised there. She considers Taeo's suggestion she visit the first world some day. She thinks of the forboding forest overtaking her home, all the people who got caught inside and never returned. "I don't think I vill be wisiting the first vorld any time soon. The dark fey forest devouring Vhitethrone, my home, has put me off it."
The boy listens to her, and falls asleep against her side. At first Alyona is annoyed, and nearly shoves him off. He's the one who's supposed to comfort me! Then she gradually relaxes, and allows Taeo to sleep up against her. He must be exhausted, as new as all this is to me, he's in a totally different world from what he's used to. She drapes one arm across Taeo's shoulders, holding him close while he sleeps. Looking to Hokuto she says, "Mistress are ve safe here? There aren't any monsters in the mist are there?" her eyes go wide at the last thought, full of terror of dark things with gnashing teeth. Taeo and Ilesea were lucky they'd never seen death, they didn't know what there was to fear.
"I'll be happy to teach you Tian, Alanar, although perhaps we should simply begin with speaking. We don't use letters, but rather symbols, for words and you must know several thousand to be able to read. It no doubt sounds difficult, yet Tian Xia contains many great philosophers and our literature goes back many thousands of years."
Glancing outside the window, she says, "There is naught to see outside the window currently, simply fog and stone pillars. I will tell you when something of interest appears."
Erik peers out the window, noting the new terrain... initially with interest, then with a growing unease. Somehow the terrain has gotten even more desolate than the trackless desert before had been, and the sun setting behind the towering outcroppings of ancient stone casts long shadows across the world... which the swirling fog only serves to make creepier.
Never show 'em you're afraid, whispers through his mind--an old mantra, and one that's kept him alive. He squelches his unease, settling back casually into his seat. Showing fear is showing weakness, and even if you are weak, you can't ever afford to show it if you want to survive.
So he peers out the window, watching as the dark seems not to fall, but to rise from the horizon, shadows lengthening and growing deeper, and he thinks on these classmates of his.
For two months he's been traveling in their company, but somehow it isn't until now that they've actually talked much. Probably has to do with the lot of us bein' packed in close quarters and not havin' anything else to do, he thinks, faintly amused. They're interesting, at least, I'll give 'em that. If we're all gonna have the same classes, I'm probably not gonna have to worry about bein' bored. He pauses, considering. Maybe this lot's alright.
Erik's attention shifts back to the vista outside again, watching the mist swirl and eddy. Princess's got one thing right, for sure--'dreadful' ain't--isn't--the sorta word I use much, but if ever a place deserved it, this one surely does. Dreadful. Good word, that; it's got a nice ring to it, gonna have to remember that one. He pauses to consider, one eye on the princess, the other on the window, as Alyona speaks of her home--this is the first time he's really heard much about it. Irissen doesn't sound like a nice place to visit, either, if a 'dark fey forest' is eating the capital. I wonder if that ranks as more or less dreadful than this place. ...maybe I better not ask.
The talk of monsters in the mist, though... Erik doesn't like that at all. The notion is infectious, though; once you start thinking about it, it's all too easy to see suggestions of things out there in the swirling mist and the shadows. Erik shifts uneasily in his seat for a moment, scowling. "Bleh! Don't talk like that, you'll start givin' the others the spooks," he says--even though one of the only two others who seems like he even might be prone to spooking is currently curled up napping. "'Sides, so long as they stay out there in the mist, there's no reason for us to have a problem with them, is there?" Erik adds, giving the princess his best insouciant grin.
"I hawe my doubts as to the combat abilities of a mage who can't ewen cast teleport, though I suppose mistress Hokuto has managed to keep us safe so far. Maybe the old driver is a dragon in disguise," the frigid princess snarks. Alyona's rudeness is casual, as though the thought that normal ettiquette would apply to her never crossed her mind. She's much more concerned with maintaining her facade of casual indifference.
"Thousands of symbols?" Alanar looks surprised, but pleasantly so. "Each one its own word? What an amazing language!" The ifrit grins broadly, his interest peaked - who knows why, but he's gravitating closer to the Tien girls.
"You must be able to write ten times as much on a single page than in Taldane." He looks down at Ilesea, eyes focused on the halfling. "You will help me learn as well, yes? I teach you both something in return. Dance? The crafting of fine jewelry? Perhaps how to properly estimate the worth of items?" He reaches down and takes the smaller girl's hand, his own as warm as a sunbeam on a summer day.
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Content to let Shenhua discuss the intricacies of the written Tien language, Hokuto offers a slant look towards Alyona and manages just a crooked enough smile to show that she heard the comment, but little more. Something about the look implies amusement, but to which remark isn't clear. Before Hokuto has a chance to potentially elaborate on that notion, the carriage comes to a stop.
Brows furrowed, Hokuto waits and listens to the creak of the wood near the roof where the driver's seat is, then the clomping sound of boots hitting the dusty ground outside. A few moments later, the carriage door opens and the hunched old man that had been driving the carriage takes off his wide-brimmed hat revealing a mostly bald head with wisps of gray hair, bowing deeply before stepping aside.
"Nişanci," he intones, looking up with dark brown eyes to Hokuto. In return, the Tian woman slides out from her seat and gathers up her Harrow cards into their box, tucking the container into her sleeve. She then slips out of the wagon and is helped out by the old man. He looks from Hokuto the the children and asks of her, "Should they... stay inside, Nişanci?"
Hokuto bites down gently on her bottom lip and looks back to the children inside the wagon, then exhales a weary sigh. "Children," she looks around to them all, "come on out here, stretch your legs. Crowley and I need to open the way to Akrabahadran."
The Tian woman's wooden sandals scuff along the dusty ground, and the territory that the wagon stopped in could not look much more foreboding. Nestled between the jagged walls of crumbling mesas is the ruins of a village that looks to have been burned to the ground ages ago. Blackened stone, old grayed wood and empty cellar holes are all that remains of the place. The fog rolls between the buildings, their silhouettes barely visible in the gloom.
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"Don't stray from the light of the lanterns," Hokuto instructs, her expression becoming more stern in that moment. What there is to see in the light of the four lanterns is minimal. A crumbling stone wall two feet high made from packed riverstones. The cellarhole of a house mostly filled in by sand and dust. A dead tree with leafless branches grasping up at the sky, and a creaky old wooden post fence that is barely standing up.
"Do any of you need anything before we depart?" Hokuto asks of her students, while Crowley unhooks one of the lanterns from the front of the wagon.
The ifrit pauses his questioning as they stop, stepping out with the other children and attempting to peer out into the darkness. He can catch glimpses where the fog isn't completely obscuring his sight, seeing the burnt out buildings. The sight was depressing familiar. He'd seen such remains in two other cities.
"...Has the inferno come to Rahadoum as well?" The young boy whispers, a hint of fear in his voice - for all the joy fire gives him, he's seen the darkest and most destructive avatar of it in action, and that scares him immensely. "Are we safe here? Perhaps we should find a safer route..." He suggests, before glancing at his Tien friends.
Thinking it over, if it was here, Alanar would have to protect them - he wasn't fireproof, but perhaps he could resist the flames long enough to allow them to escape. Perhaps that was a foolish notion, but he had no desire to see anyone else dance with the fire.
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Hokuto frowns softly and shakes her head. "No. This... is from much longer ago. It isn't entirely safe here, no, but you're no more protected in the wagon than you are out of it." Then, looking to Crowley as he comes over with one of the lanterns she adds, "and this is the only route we can take right now."
Why it's the only route goes unsaid.
"I see..." The ifrit is not a warrior, but he understands that this is a dangerous place. He has a single trick with which to defend himself and the others, and he'd keep it ready in case he needed to use it. "Ilesea, you should stay close to me - I will protect you if I must," he assures the halfling girl. Hokuto and the driver were both probably capable, but if something wicked got past them, he would try and drive them back with fire - which meant keeping his friends out of the spread.
Of course, he may have neglected to inform certain people of that particular ability. Such was the forgetfulness of an ifrit.
Shen Hua climbs stiffly to the front of the wagon, concentrating on her numb legs and praying no one else notices. Lowering herself to a seat on the edge, she places her wooden sandals on the ground and steps into them.
Mother, thank you for not binding my feet. Father, thank you for giving me the freedom to make this journey.
Coming up behind Alanar, Shen Hua begins describing what little she can see around them. "We are in an old, abandoned village. The buildings are filled in with sand and surrounded by a low wall. There appears to be neither anything, nor anyone, here except us."
Shen Hua waits patiently beside Alanar until Hakuto indicates their next action.
Alyona gets out of the wagon, stretching and yawning cutely. She goes over to the stone wall, and hops up onto it. Walking along the edge. The little princess shows no outward fear, though she is inwardly quaking. She does carefully obey Hokuto's instructions though, staying at least two meters inside the edge of the light's radius as she walks around looking at things. "How long ago vas this place destroyed, Mistress?"
"Wouldn't stop here if it wasn't safe 'n all, but this spooks and creeps," Anlessa says as she crosses her arms, looking over Hokuto. "Wasnin' thinkin' we'll be moving on soon?" The desire to get out and stretch her legs suddenly feels like it can wait, the runaway idly playing with her hair as she watches the other's reactions. She does offer a bit of a grin towards Alanar, giving a small nod in his direction. "Nicein' of you t' do. Don't see that oft'in."
Taeo is still asleep when they wagon stops and so misses Hokuto's instructions, but the commotion of people getting out wakes him from his slumber. He follows the others out, groggily, stretching both arms overhead and then shaking like a dog to wake himself a bit more.
Like the fey who raised him, his eyes are well suited for low-light conditions...and as it is always dusk (and often foreboding) in Thousandbreaths he's more curious than spooked. Moving slowly -- still only partly awake -- he starts to explore. He lays on his belly to peer into the hole but sees nothing of much interest in it. He then hops up onto the stone wall and starts to walk atop it. Sensing the nervousness in the air (and seeing a few eyes on him) Taeo suddenly drops prone on the far side of the wall, calling "Augh!! It's got me!".
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Erik hops out of the wagon with a grin on his face... though that grin fades after a moment spent peering around, assessing their rather grim surroundings. There isn't a lot to see, really. He feels a bit let down... then again, in some cases boring is better. He leans way back, stretching, then eyes the wagon speculatively, looking for handholds--the advantages of height are a lesson he's learned well. Alanar's talk of 'protecting' them draws a faintly amused expression to Erik's face; he doesn't have many doubts that Alanar is alright at this point.
Then he hears Taeo yell.
Erik bares his teeth in a feral snarl as old reflexes kick in; they may have been lulled into a sleep during the last two months of relative comfort, but they're far from dead. The boy hisses something darkly, taking a small step forward; from someone larger, it might have served as an intimidation display, but in Erik's case it's more so that if something should come at him, he'll have a little room to maneuver--he might be able to throw himself onto his back, get under the wagon, and crawl to the other side if he's quick, or maybe he could just whirl and scramble up to the top, where he'll be harder to get to. His eyes dart from side to side, trying to see everything at once--what are Hokuto and the others doing? What's got Taeo, and are there more of them? Is there anything nearby he can defend himself with--rocks to throw, a stick to bludgeon, anything?
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Stands on the Spiral pulls his furs tighter around his shoulders as he steps out of the wagon and into the sand. He takes in surrounding not entirely unfamiliar to him. Barren rock towers layered in yellows, browns and reds bring back old memories of the Storval Plateau. The fog and the cold—and the ghastly sapphire radiance of the lanterns—do their best to paint even that breath of the familiar with unwelcoming tones.
He props himself against a wagon wheel and begins to stretch his weary muscles. When Taeo's shouts pierce the eerie barriers of fog surrounding them, he reflexively backs up against the wood paneling and listens.
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Neither Erik nor Deriku see anything other than the silhouettes of ruined stone buildings and dead trees amidst the long shadows in this mesa-surrounded valley. While daylight still shines in the sky above, the long shadows have cast the valley into darkness made thick by the fog. Whatever answer Hokuto may have given regarding how long this place had laid in ruin is cut short by Taeo's cry.
The noise elicits a gasp of genuine fear from both Hokuto and Ilesea. The young, white-haired halfling dashes behind Alanar and covers her face with her hands, trembling, while Hokuto's reaction is far more delayed. The Tian woman's concern shows brief faltering, then appears to be bolstered by the sudden appearance of a swirling black shape through the fog behind Taeo. The entity resembles a hound near five feet at the shoulder with midnight blue, hairless flesh and smoldering red eyes. Wisps of shadow emanate from its body like fingers of smoke. The creature opens its ink-drooling jaws and lets out a feral growl, lips pulling back to reveal dagger-sized teeth.
The creature springs towards Taeo with jaws snapped open, and when it comes crashing down on the boy the weightless entity explodes into a scintillating cloud of sapphire colored butterflies that whirl around the boy's body before dissipating into thin air.
Hokuto finally cracks a smile, one brow raised as she wags a finger in the air slowly in Taeo's direction. "Do not try to outprank the prankster," she admits in a sing-song tone of voice, looking largely amused with the whole situation before a side-long glance to Crowley shows that he seems largely unimpressed with the both of them.
Crowley voices his dissatisfaction by clearing his throat, dark and bushy brows furrowed as he stares at Hokuto. The dark-haired woman smiles awkwardly and scrubs one hand at the back of her neck before offering an apologetic smile to the old wagon driver. Adjusting the collar of her kimono, she looks back to the students and squints for a moment as her eyes pass over them, as if having difficulty seeing.
"Stay in the light, and no tricks," Hokuto offers in a stern tone of voice. "We'll be back as soon as we can; keep an eye on each other. Consider it your first test." Hokuto turns and nods to Crowley, and the old man holds the darkflame lantern aloft in one hand, resting the otherd on Hokuto's shoulder as if to be a guide. He leads the Tian woman off into the mists ahead of where the wagon was traveling along the dusty road, becoming mere silhouettes in the fog. The horses give disconcerted snorts and whinneys as they pass, and soon Hokuto and Crowley have disappeared from sight as the mists swallow them and the glow of their lantern both.
Once Hokuto and Crowley have vanished into the fog, Alanar glances back to check on Ilesea after having seen the girl dart behind him when Taeo and Hokuto began their escalation of pranks. But there's just scuffed dirt where she was standing, a few tendrils of mist, and nothing more.
A quick look around through the haze of the fog makes it hard to tell if she'd just stepped a few feet away. Alanar's impaired vision, however, is not at fault.
Ilesea is nowhere to be found.
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> Use minor image spell-like ability.
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Hokuto cast minor image, though without any noticable effort of movement or speech. It was either modified with metamagic, or was a spell-like ability.
Taeo lies as still as he can, grinning as he hears a few gasps from his companions. After listening in anticipation for a few long seconds he sees the enormous blue demon-dog bounding toward him. That’s from Hokuto’s, right? Just looking out for m-- ”AUUGHHHH!!!--ahh-aha-ah-hahahaHAHAHAHAHAHA” This time Taeo’s scream is genuine fear...turning into a shocked but delighted laugh as the monster dissolves into butterflies. He stands up, leaning on the wall and out of breath from shock and laughter, swatting at swirling illusory butterflies.
”Hehe (gasp) hehe.” He looks at Hokuto with new appreciation and then grins at the rest of the crew, expecting them to be as pleased with his (and Hokuto’s) antics as he is. When Hokuto scolds him, he nods but smiles at her, largely ignoring Crowley.
Erik scowls and glowers flatly at Taeo with cold annoyance, muttering something unflattering under his breath. Dumb kid thinks it's a game, he thinks, but his resentment swiftly settles into a kind of resignation. 'Course he does; maybe if he lives long enough, he'll find out otherwise. I'm not bettin' on that, though...
"Not smart," he says flatly, still staring flatly at Taeo. For a moment it looks like he might elaborate more in this vein, but then he just shakes his head and turns away, moving towards the front of the wagon and scrambling up, settling himself on top--another old habit, seeking high ground.
Aldon has dawdled slightly behind the others, waiting for them to dismount from the wagon before he gets out. The scream is the first thing that he hears that isn't at a reasonable volume, and he jumps towards the door and hangs out, one hand holding onto the frame and a foot on the step. This is just in time to hear another scream and see an explosion of butterflies before Taeo pops back up and grins at them all. It doesn't take much to put two and two together, and Aldon throws a glare towards the half-elf.
"Are you an idiot?" It seems like there should be a statement to follow-up this question, but Aldon doesn't bother with any.
He hops down from the wagon, swiping non-existent dust from his person and peering around. The place surely wasn't very pleasant, but it had a certain spooky allure to it. Reaching up and backwards, Aldon groans in appreciation at the opportunity to stretch. The last glimpses of Crowley's lantern disappear, and the atmosphere becomes slightly more eerie with the absence of the adults.
The ifrit's whole body stiffens as Taeo's scream resounds, and he brings his hands up defensively. They heat up swiftly, evaporating the water vapor around them, ready to erupt into a sheet of flame at a moment's notice. He's glad that Ilesea has taken his advice to stay behind him as that creature unlike any other comes from the mist.
When it erupts into nothing but butterflies, he's confused at first, until he realizes that was Hokuto's trick, an illusion. He relaxes instantly, shoulders slumping in relief that no danger had passed. He turns around to check on Ilesea, before pausing. Perhaps she had stepped a little into the fog. "Ilesea?" He calls out, looking around and feeling a prickle at the back of his neck. "Ilesea! Where are you?"
Hearing no immediate answer, the Katapeshi grows increasingly worried, trying to wave away the fog and clear his vision, whirling around on his feet. "Ilesea! It's safe to come out, the creature was an illusion!" He tries, a hint of desperation in his voice. "Shen Hua, do you see her? Anlessa? Aldon? Erik?" He calls out to them, starting to panic.
"I cannot find her! She was right behind me, but the fog..." He shivers slightly, afraid for the young halfling. "We must find her - she could get lost and never find us." The problem with that being that his eyes couldn't see the light that the lanterns produced. He looked at the ones on the wagon - Hokuto and Crowley took one, so there were three left. He lifted two from their places, holding one in each hand.
"We can split into two groups, and the rest, they stay here, yes? In case she comes back. Please, who will help me?" He's quite practically begging the others for their assistance - he knows he'll never find her in this fog on his own.
At first Aldon watches Alanar call around himself with only mild interest, but as his calls become more desperate, he begins to pay more attention. It's with surprise and then not a small amount of chagrin that Aldon looks about and finds that, indeed, Ilesea has disappeared.
"I don't see her." He shakes his head at Alanar's question.
He ducks low, peering under the wagon. He straightens up, shaking his head again. He didn't really think she'd be under there.
"Alanar, calm down." He rests a hand on the ifrit's shoulder as Alanar's speech becomes more fearful. "Getting scared won't help."
Aldon looks about, noticing the scuff mark and searching for any other markings.
"Maybe she followed after Hokuto? She's small... maybe we just didn't notice." Even as Aldon says this, it's obvious he finds it unlikely.
He sighs. This was bad, very bad. Rushing off into the fog, perhaps even more so. But if they didn't...
"If you're going, I'll come with you. But if we get lost too, we won't be of any use. Most likely, we'll just get all turned around and then we'll need finding. Does anyone have something we could leave behind us, to use as a trail? Maybe there's some rope in the wagon?"
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Erik is initially inclined to huff, but as it sinks in that Ilesea is gone, he comes out of it, guarded concern on his face growing rapidly into worry--Taeo may be a prankster, but Ilesea...
Why'd she wander off in a place like THIS? Erik wonders, and try as he might he can see no answer for it. From his higher vantage, he scans methodically for any traces of Ilesea... but there's only a patch of scuffed dirt where she once stood.
"Hounds and trumpets," Erik snarls under his breath. She can't be in the wagon, or Aldon would have noticed, which means that unless she jumped in a hole in the ground and pulled the hole in after her, she's somewhere out there in the mist now.
"Can't see her, even from up here," he calls down grimly... but as Alanar and Aldon start talking of going off in search of her, his expression goes sour. "Hey now, wait just a minute. The lady said our first test was to keep an eye on each other," he scowls. "I ain't too good at this schoolin' thing, but I'm pretty sure failin' the very first test is probably a bad start. You two go harin' off into the mist by yourselves and we'll all be in the brown stuff up to our necks."
He pauses for a moment. "'Sides, don't you think we should give it a minute? We're gonna feel pretty stupid if we spend an hour lookin' for her and it turns out that she was just takin' a minute to powder her nose or somethin'."
Alyona's question about the age of the ruins goes unanswered as Taeo pulls his little prank. She gasps as the fey boy disappears behind the wall of stones, and screams when the huge shadow mastiff leaps out of the mists to attack him. When Hokuto reveals that both events were mere tricks, Alyona glares at them both. As soon as Hokuto and Crowley walk away, she walks up to Taeo and slaps him. "How dare you? You scared me half to death!" Huffing in anger, she realizes a moment later that the halfling girl is gone. "Now you'we gone and driven off Ilsea as well. Remember that death you vere so interested in? You're vell on track to cause one, foolish boy." Alyona puts her hands on her hips and glares at Taeo a moment
The princess allows the full weight of her disapproval to sink in before she walks over to ShenHua and bows to her. "It could be that Ilsea is just frightened, wery near to us in the mists. Perhaps if you called out to her in Tien she might answer?"
"Wouldn't be hard to missin' or be missed here," Anlessa remarks, hands flat across her brow as she looks around the area. "Don't think it's the best idea t' be splittin' up an' going off after her, though." Hands slip into the shallow pockets of her pants, and she smiles, looking out into the mists. "Now, if we stick t'gether an' all, safin' sound we might be. Not that I'm eager t' go out int' the mists runnin'."
She looks over at Erik, giving a small shrug. "Stayin' and waitin' ain't gonna do any good, t' be sure. Miss Hokuto'll get all unhappy no matter." She looks back out into the mist, and while not eager, she certainly doesn't seem against disobeying Hokuto in favour of finding their missing peer.
Hands placed firmly on her hips, she nods once, looking back at the others. "Waitin' on findin' a plan? How're we doin' this?" A beat pauses. "Agreein' for once, Alyona," Anlessa says, looking over at Taeo. "Frightful thing t' do, y'know." She reaches over and gives the feyling a light shove with one hand, before returning to looking out in the mists.
Hearing Erik and Aldon saying ”...not smart”...”idiot...” Taeo replies with a grin, ”Oh come on, that was clever, admit it! I got you, didn’t I?” The feyling seems to be genuinely expecting a very different reaction.
Looking around for support, Taeo senses something has somehow gone sour even if he can’t understand how. Hokuto laughed. But now nobody’s laughing. Confused at people’s reactions he turns to Alyona. ”Hehehe. I got you guys good, didn’t I? And then Hokuto went after me with that demon-dog-illusion?!? I almost peed myself!”
As soon as Hokuto and Crowley walk away, she walks up to Taeo and slaps him. "How dare you? You scared me half to death!" Huffing in anger, she realizes a moment later that the halfling girl is gone. "Now you'we gone and driven off Ilsea as well. Remember that death you vere so interested in? You're vell on track to cause one, foolish boy." Alyona puts her hands on her hips and glares at Taeo a moment
The princess allows the full weight of her disapproval to sink in...
Taeo feels the floor pulled out from under him. Dizzy on his feet, deflated, his cheek stinging, Taeo's lower lip opens and closes, trying to speak. ”But I-- this was just-- I wanted to-- Ilesea’s gone? That’s not--” and then failing to find a way to bridge the gap between what he thought was happening and the reactions of these humans he just drops his chin and looks at his feet. When Anlessa shoves him, saying "Frightful thing t' do, y'know." he starts to fight back sobs. Stupid, stupid, confusing, dreary humans, just like everybody says! They don't understand-- I don't understand-- I don't--
...she walks over to ShenHua and bows to her. "It could be that Ilsea is just frightened, wery near to us in the mists. Perhaps if you called out to her in Tien she might answer?"
Latching onto practical matters, Taeo agrees, ”Yes! That’s a good idea." He calls out, increasingly anxious at the thought that she’s could be in danger because of him,
“Ithhikaawaniae,” Stands on the Spiral shakes his head at the antics of the feyling, “You attract the real monster.”
At the more pressing panic which arises shortly thereafter, he snaps his fingers twice, loudly. “Be quiet, all,” he commands in a conversational tone. He calmly moves from the wagon to stand beside the ifrit and holds him by the arm to still him.
“Stop moving. Tracks,” he explains, and begins to peer carefully around the ground where the halfling girl was last seen.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Tracking something as small and light a halfling traveling across hard, dusty ground in dense ground fog is a task that some experienced hunters would fail at. But yet Stands on Spiral finds the tiny halfling's footprints not far from where Alanar and she were originally standing. A trained eye that once followed the scrabbling claw marks of a fox through the forest for half a day now follow the tracks with as much fearful energy inherent in their creation. Low to the ground and able to see through the fog thanks to light of the blackflame lanterns, Stands on Spiral follows a few of the tracks -- not ahead, but backwards.
Ducking under the wagon like the fox that had crawled under a deadfall tree, Deriku discovers the path Ilesea scuffed in the dirt on hands and knees. Emerging on the other side of the wagon, he finds that the tracks head away from the wagon and away from the burned out remains of the village and towards a hilly area of land in the shadow of a crumbling mesa, bristling with ancient headstones and other grave markers.
Up on top of the wagon, Erik finds something not far but something very near of interest. Held down by rope netting atop the wagon are four wooden trunks, likely carrying traveling supplies belonging to Hokuto and Crowley, but also carrying some personal possessions of one or two of the students. Unfortunately, all four are secured by a lock build into the front of the chest.
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Stands on the Spiral follows the tracks as far as they take him within the light of the blackflame lanterns before stopping. He runs a hand over the stubble covering his scalp while peering off into the graveyard. Spending a moment in consideration, he calls out, not too loudly, “Ilesea, it is safe to come out. The fey was not in danger, only foolish.”
He holds a hand in the air for silence and listens for a response, or movement.
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RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4
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Silence is, for a time, what the boy recieves. At the edge of the light that cuts through fog, Deriku finds himself -- appropriately -- straddling the line between the side of the road and the edge of the burial ground. Some of the closest headstones are visible -- old, broken things that have been worn by the passage of time and the sting of windblown sand. A stunted, leafless tree bristles up from the ground a mere seven feet in height with twisting, leafless branches. The fog pools and swirls, disturbed by Deriku's movements in it.
There is no reply from Ilesea, no call back from Hokuto or Crowley either. They all should be within shouting distance given the way sound echoes through the canyon. Hokuto and Crowley should have come back by now after Taeo began screaming for Ilesea, but they haven't. They had to have heard.
But then, the Shoanti's keen hearind picks up a faint sound echoing from within the cemetary. A keening noise, a whimper; pain.
Upon hearing the whimper, he braces reflexively. Relaxing, Stands on the Spiral looks over his shoulder and calls back to the children near the wagon, “Ilesea is maybe hurt. The lanterns can be taken? Bring from wagon. Also cord, string, line for guiding.”.
He stands his ground, waiting for response from the others, but unwilling to leave hearing range of the whimpering.
“Little one,” he calls, “Stands on the Spiral hears you, can come towards him?”
Speaking in a small voice, subdued for the moment, Taeo says, "I can see well in the fog and the dusk. I'll come."
"Seemin' to me like you finally got somethin'," Anlessa says, waking over to where Deriku stands. "But needin' an' havin' all that are all different. I ain't got any string, but I'll be comin'." Hands slipped back into pockets, she looks back over her shoulder at the others. "Wishin' Miss Hokuto wasin' back now, but nope. If she's hurt, can't just stand around."
Turning back to the mists, she leans forward, eyes narrowed. "Ilesea, if that bein' you, tell us if you're fair an' fine." She rolls her shoulders a bit, staring off into the blackness. "If luck be with us, that ain't a real-like shadow dog... thing waitin' for us," she mutters under her breath.
"I'm certainly not staying here alone." Alyona says, moving to stand near Stands on the Spiral. He seems to know vhat he is doing.
"Got a rope net up here, but I don't see any cord unless it's in one of the chests," Erik calls down, knocking on one of the chests for good measure. "Maybe we can use the net to carry her if she's hurt bad," he muses, already moving to unfasten the net.
"Hrngh... gimme a second to get this blasted thing undone," Erik grumbles; it takes him a bit more than a second, but not much longer than that. He drops the net to the ground, then slides off afterwards, landing neatly beside it. He eyes the last lantern burning on the wagon, then sighs and leaves it; if anyone intends to stay with the wagon, best to leave them with at least that much light.
Erik grins momentarily to himself, in spite of the grimness of the situation. Hokuto's orders had been to 'stay in the light', not to stay with the wagon; if they keep one of the lanterns with them, that should accomplish that well enough. Of course, she'd also said 'no tricks'...
The boy shakes his head as he starts towards where he'd heard Stands on the Spiral's voice coming from; if there's a price to be paid, so be it. He moves with deliberate care, scuffing his feet along the ground as he goes to leave a clear trail back to the wagon. "On my way, Spiral; I've got the net, Alanar's got the lanterns," he calls, shuffling his way into the fog.
“Net is fine. Net can be cut, row by row, make guideline long enough for now. Tie to wagon,” he points back toward where those gathering had come from, “Carry other lanterns into darkness until just see the lantern on the wagon. More guideline, another lantern. Use line of light to sweep through boneyard.”
He looks at the children and taps Taeo on the shoulder, “Best eyes for night out front, others spread along guideline, hold on. Call down line if need to stop, or blocked, or if she is found. Not too loud. Don’t disturb the graves.”
Stands on the spiral sighs deeply and looks Taeo in the eyes, “If Taeo is lucky today, he will not have the wish fulfilled, the wish to know the death of a mortal.” Turning back to the others, he asks, “Who has knife to cut the net?”
Taeo nods at Stands on the Spiral’s suggestion that he look out from the front. ”I don’t see a need to take time cutting up a net right now. If you hear whimpering we should go toward it right away. The question is do we all go as one big group, or do we split in two? I think we might as well all stick together. It shouldn’t be hard to find our way back to the wagon, with your skill in tracking.”