"It will not be that easy!" she calls out. In her voice, there is a spine-chilling tone. They messed with her family. Nempura's voice ripples the water in the area causing it to surge into a focal point about 30ft from her.
There, she lets the water loose from its solidified cube shape and allows it to pool rapidly out over the ground like a dam breaking. Hopefully, if lucky, they will hear and even see the splashing footfalls of water.
Nempura's gambit is successful: you all notice a shape of absence as the water crashes around a fleeing elenoid form, boots splashing.
"We cannot let him get away!"
You hear a pained glurk! from the empty space before you. A defensive spell of some kind--all you see is a flash of cold light--goes off,
and a few sharp ice-needles pierce Kapelo, but he avoids most of the effect.
And on the ground, face-down, lies a dying undine mage.
"Are any of them alive to question? Can someone stabilize this wizard?" Kapelo asks as he relives the Wizard of any weapons and checks for other interesting items.
She looks briefly around to see who is casting or manipulating (figuring it was Burne). As the mage falls, she's almost too happy and takes a deep breath. Despite her singing, she breathes as though she had not breathed in minutes.
"I half expect it to be Thuy due to the way she was pulling on him to leave us..." Nempura thinks to herself. "I have to see it for myself..."
For the moment, she ignores her pain. With Oak there standing guard over Burne, Nempura hobbles toward the mage and unmasks/unhoods them to reveal their face. She'll let someone else less injured rifle through their belongings. Regardless of what or who she sees, she will then hobble toward Freya with that look on her face asking for healing.
"I've left one alive for certain," she answers Kapelo. "I'm sure Freya can stabilize those who haven't died yet for questioning?" She sees he is injured as well and comments, "At least you didn't lose another finger this time..."
She shoots Burne a brief smile and tries to look less injured for his sake, but it is 100% clear from her face that she glad he is still with her.
Kapelo finds a fine dagger, a few trinkets upon a silver bracelet, and a slender white wand-
-that fires off another barrage of ice-spikes as the ifrit's unfamiliar hand activates it with obvious hostility. Ducking quickly with a fencer's grace, Kapelo evades the spell entirely.
Freya shakes her head. "We can worry about the assassin's health later. I know a bit of the Holy Technique, but actual medicine is beyond me."
The paladin will tend to the more injured between Nempura and Burne first then the other.
"We don't know if there are more lurking about the city, I believe it's best we regroup somewhere safer than the middle of the street." Focusing her senses once more, the ifrit searches the area for evil presences.
"Oak, can you grab one of them? Preferably one that is relatively unhurt. You don't just attack a noble in broad daylight, we need to move."
"Yes," she agrees with Freya as she recovers from her wounds a bit. "In where are the guards? Why have they not come at the sounds of battle?" "If anything, the streets are more silent here now than ever. They should have heard us fighting, regardless of how short the fight was."
"Yes, of course, Dame Freya."
Burne, freed from the choking spell, rises unsteadily to his feet. He grabs Nempura's shoulder. Speaking with urgency despite his injury, "Nempura, the assassins-" He coughs, clearing his throat. "This was not the only attack. I just felt...my father die. His song has been silenced..." Words fail him for a moment.
And in that moment of quiet grief, a dull roaring sound begins to fill the air, like the crowd at a brutbreve arena. Burne looks behind you, eyes wide with sudden fear, toward River. "Sóng Thần..." Outside of the town, you see a wall of water rising impossibly high, like an elemental out of legends.
Burne cradles Nempura's face in his hands, gentle but commanding, his voice stronger now. "Chi. Sing with me. Protect your friends, and help them breathe." He begins a note, tentative at first, waiting for your harmony.
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Burne's failed words break her heart and she is visibly pained in sympathy. Her hand reaches out to his chest to rest there. At that moment, she can find no word she can say to comfort him as her own heart lies strewn on the floor, broken.
She hardly hears the roaring sound as it encroaches upon them. It is only as Burne pulls to look and the appearance on his face that stirs her to turn around. "River awakens, the depths unleashed...Sóng Thần..."
Her eyes dart to Freya and Kapelo, who both come from a society that boasts in Volcano's strength, but never is heard of the great might of water. "Now you will see for yourself the power of River..."
She turns to look back at Burne and his confidence. At his command, she will nod, "Yes, my Chord."
Turning quickly, she will scream to her friends with arms beckoning them to come to her, "Come close!! Quickly!"
Burne's note is easily matched by her shortly after, with neither of them wasting a moment's time to create a protective field diversion around them. Will it be enough? She isn't sure.
"Yorse...please...even if we die here...I hope you remain to fix this world."
Yorse stirs a bit at his name being called, but he only speaks to Freya.
Am I your son?
While Freya never enjoyed swimming, she'd never been afraid of water, until now. The rising wall of water instilled a dread in her that had become familiar in recent days. But right now, when things were this tense, she didn't have time to freeze up.
Freya knew that she was no match for this otherworldly threat. All she could do was beseech her god's protection. The paladin hurriedly placed a ring of candles, light each with a snap of her fingers. The moisture in the air threatened each tiny flame, and before the Ifrit could light them all, she heard the voice of her little charge.
Kneeling in her half-finished circle, Freya pulled the goding out of its hiding place and cradled it in her arms. "I've tried to teach you what I knew of the world and the wisdom of my people, little one. Hidden you away from the ones that wanted to control or destroy you... But you're not beholden to me or anyone. I wanted you to be free to choose, choose who you wanted to be."
Sóng Thần is suspended in the air for an impossible moment, time stretched long by fear.
Nempura, Burne kisses you, the warmth and breath and sound all mingling together. Your harmony merges into a living thing, protecting the both of you with ice, mist, and stream, a sphere of song that surrounds you. But only the two of you; this is a magic that allows no outsiders.
Everyone--Kapelo, Nempura, and Oak, but especially Freya--hears Yorse say one last thing,
"Come with me. I'll be everyone's son!"
before the two ifrits, the oread, and the bird vanish from sight in a roaring red inferno that is swallowed by the tsunami with a quick puff of steam.
Nempura, the bubble of breath and melody holds true, but rather than buoyant, this magic somehow seems dense as you and Burne are pulled into the depths of Rushing Waters. Down, down.
You see a few deepwater fish, even an anglerfish...down.
Then the peaklight from above fades, and your darkvision suddenly seems inadequate in the absolute darkness. You cannot truly tell if you are still moving. You do not know what secrets are hidden down here, but you are not alone; Burne tightens his grip on you, and he sings on.