The Magecraft Chronicles III Story Thread

[Mizagium]

Korath withstood Kazetama's Airstream, but not Veraask's chaos lightning. The demigod howled in pain and was flung across the house, crashing through the far wall and leaving a deep scar in the field beyond.

"Hey!" Vidalia screamed. "No fair! No fair no fair no fair!" She stamped her foot. "You told me he was unbeatable! Get up, you!" She pointed Cruor at the berserker as he fumbled his way out of the impact zone. "Get up and kill them!"

Korath got to his feet, angry. Red magic energy gathered in all six of his clenched fists. He shouted something by way of incantation, but the words were incomprehensible. Korath charged at the assembled group. The speed at which he traveled alone could have killed them, not even considering the how much power he literally held in his hands.

But something stopped him--a mass of rock had appeared between Korath and Valendis' group.

"-Shamal, the Rock Giant!" Valendis completed the summoning incantation. When Red had tossed him aside, she had evidently forgotten about him, granting him the time he needed to recall a high-level earth summon. Shamal wasn't Master Tier, however, only Advanced, but it was the best he could do without his books. Shamal, grappled with Korath, matching six arms with six arms. Korath's magic, pulsated between their interlocked hands. Shamal would not survive the encounter, but it was enough.

Valendis rushed past his stunned sister, Gram brandished and shining with holy light. "Sword of champions," he intoned, "slayer of dragons, and defender of the way: Grant me the power to smite my enemy!" Korath's grip crushed Shamal's. Valendis drove Gram home, deep into the unprotected side of Korath, the Blood Crazed. "Shamal, get out of here!" The spirit bowed quickly and vanished back to the spirit world. Korath howled in pain as Light Magic surged through his body like a poison. He wasn't able to hold it long, however, as the beast began flailing his arms about. Valendis tore Gram free, throwing something akin to blood in a wide arc, splattering a much of the living room furniture and Vidalia herself. He tried to retreat back to the group, but an errant strike from Korath propelled him through the air yet again. This time, he smacked into the front door and nearly tore it from it's hinges before sinking to the floor.

Two of Korath's arms clutched at the open wound, two more clawed at the incredibly visible light magic spreading though it, and the final two struck out randomly, tearing up the ground while he stamped about, roaring. "No, no, no, no!" Vidalia stamped her won feet. "It's not fair! I was going to win this time; I had him beat!" She wheeled and glared menacingly at Valendis, who struggled to get up.

"It's...over...Red." He kept Gram before him like a ward.

"NO! NO NO NO NO! NOTHING IS OVER! UNTIL I! SAY! SO!" She ran at him suddenly and swung Cruor, striking Gram on the flat. The collision of the two ancient magicks caused a shockwave that knocked everyone to their feet and shattered any remaining windows. Valedendis felt the breath get punched out of him and his hearing suddenly fall off. He felt limp, but maintained his grip on Gram. Something similar happened to his sister. She was screaming, but he couldn't hear her. Before he could react, another male figure appeared and scooped her up. Two swords hung at his waits and he was dressed peculiarly. He was a spirit, he knew, able to sense it. The spirit held Vidalia in a bridal carry, shouted something at him, the whispered to her. She responded. Korath disappeared behind her.

"...time, Valendis," he heard the guardian spirit say as his hearing began to return. "...find a way...protect her." Then he was gone and the ruins of the house were still and silent. Somewhere in the rubble lay the mutilated bodies of his parents. he suspected some of his ribs were cracked, as well as his sword arm and wrist. His hearing seemed to be returning so there was that, and his breath returned in short, hard rasps. Gram lay at his side, its light flickering.

And he began to cry. From pain. From betrayal. From loss. And maybe for something else he couldn't identify.

"Hush now," Hesseppatt cooed, on his shoulder softly. Raefe and Jorsin reappeared and sat with him, but didn't speak. "Do any of you have healing magic, Hesseppatt asked of the likely stunned group."

[Monika]

Lenore quickly got back to her feet with an audible sigh of relief, greatly relieved that the battle was over. "Lady Kazetama, thank you for your help," she bowed. "You may return to the Spirit Realm at your leisure."

"Thank you, Lenore, for the fighting opportunity. Wish I could've done a bit more, though. Ah, well, it was exciting all the same. I can't wait to tell Sylphie about it!" Through a magical vortex similar to the one she had emerged from, she traveled back to Mundus Spiritus.

Kazan deftly sheathed his swords and dispelled the lightning that danced around his hands. "Grrr...She got away! DAMN IT!" He beat his fist on (what was left of) one of the nearby walls, nearly destroying the already damaged piece of house.

"Kazan! Calm down!" Lenore shouted. "You bore no relation to any of these people. If anyone should be upset, it should be Valendis!" She hastily put her hand over her mouth as if she had uttered some foul curse and bowed toward Valendis battered body. "I'm...sorry, Valendis. I apologize that we were unable to do more." Lenore strode over toward Valendis, kneeling at his side. She stabbed her staff into the floor next to Valendis, placed her hands above his torso, closed her eyes and began to think. "Hmm...I've never actually used Light Magic for healing. That was always my mother's specialty, but I'll give it a try. Now, how did she do this? Oh, Divine Light from the Heavens..." As she spoke, her hands brimmed with Light Magic. She waved them over Valendis' ribs and arm, which were bathed in the same magical light. "Um, grant me the power necessary to...smite his injuries? Please?" As Lenore continued to speak, a ring of Light Magic materialized a few feet in the air above Valendis. Several rays of light were emitted from the ring at 45 degree angles, concatenating into one large beam of light which struck Valendis squarely in his chest. Soon, the entire room was bathed in a magical light, and when it finally faded, the results were...less then stellar.

Valendis was almost completely healed, more-or-less. You could tell by looking at him that his bones were no longer broken...but now he was riddled in mild (read: almost severe) second degree burns.

"Well, that could've gone better..." Lenore muttered. "How are you feeling, Valendis?" she asked sheepishly.

[Damien]

During his travels through the countryside of New Ossen, Vynalion saw, heard, AND felt a massive magical outbreak coming from a house off in the distance. It blew out the windows, so his first thought was that there may be people injured there. He set off at a sprint towards the house.

When he got close, dark, fell magical energy radiated from the house, along with the barely detectable energy of Light magic. "By Artemis," he said to himself, "I hope I'm not too late."

He burst through what remained of the door to see a motley assortment of individuals: humans of very different backgrounds, an arkarris, and a human that he almost thought was a shade, given his complexion and hair color.

"Is anyone here injured?" he asked as he scanned the room. His eyes held on Valendis, seeing his body covered in burns, as well as what seemed to be some badly reset bones.

He walked up to Valendis, knelt beside him, and began casting. "Pz yrel Vnavel ub Artemis, zuon fuoctl anel relahelt."

As he completed the spell, a soft, silver light began to emanate from his hands, irradiating Valendis's body. The bones, anesthetized by the magic, snapped and reset themselves correctly, and the burns on his body began to disappear.

"There we are," he said. "Now, that feels better, doesn't it?"

"Not that we're not grateful for what you've done here," said Izaak, "but who are you?"

"I am Vynalion Harper, Cleric and High Priest of Artemis," he replied. "And I would ask the same of you all. What are you doing here at the scene of a magical catastrophe?"

[Myrdraxxis]

"Hmmm, recovering from a battle, friend Vynalion." the arkarris studied the new arrival curiously. He recognized the name Artemis. The supposed deity of a small church within the rural areas of Arcia. While Kyros and the more urban areas remained largely atheistic or followers of the fabled Mage of the Beginning, the country areas had begun to take to other forms of religion. From what he could remember of his studies of the small religion, the church of Artemis was largely organized like that of the fledgling nation Terryna. Both organizations even hosted militant branches of "paladins". Veraask couldn't help but wonder if this supposed church of Artemis was an off-shoot of the Terrynian religion.

A musing for another time, perhaps.

"We should move on quickly." the chaos mage advised. "No telling what is out there. New Ossen this may be but..." he cast a suspicious glance into the surrounding area. "Still the Frontier. Old land, with many secrets. Dangerous ones."



Some distance away, the man continued to observe. He crushed his burnt out cigar under one foot and let out a sigh that released the tension in his body. For moment he thought he would have to step in and destroy the crazed summoner. He still suspected that this wouldn't be the end of it; after all, escaped enemies only returned stronger.

Still, he would deal with the issue as it came.

The man reached for the ring on a finger on his left hand; a small silver ring with the etched carving of a crow head. He turned the ring slightly and the air around him shimmered as the device's magic took hold.

With a loud squawk, the crow that now stood in the man's place took flight and after circling for a moment, headed back towards Arcia and Kyros.

~][~

The journey to Arcia was well underway. As promised, the airship had stopped a the border of Cerberus and deposited the hellan prisoners before moving on towards its destination.

The ship made good time across the ocean, and by Nathaniel's estimates they would be in Arcian airspace by the end of the day. Until then, the mage hunter made himself busy with discussing the situation witht he captain, training with the storm troopers or trying to get his newest additions situated.

The hellan, Denfar, was easily handled. A spellblade of some skill and apparently willing enough to follow Nathaniel's orders. Nathaniel had never carried the deep-seated hatred that a lot of Vaerians held for their hellan neighbors. He was privately glad to have another asset to the team.

He could't bring himself to think the same of Roluo and Suri. He was already displaying radical tendencies by recruiting one blood mage, but now he had a second. And a necromancer.

And to think he had once been nervous about having Ishabel the scryer in his retinue.

"I don't suppose we can just leave them in Arcia?" Nathaniel mused as he sat in his quarters, looking over the same sentence in book for the fifth time.

Ishabel, sitting nearby on his cot, flipping through another of his books, glanced up and hummed thoughtfully. "I don't think so. Even if they are a country of mages, blood mages and necromancers still aren't really liked....well anywhere." the young woman said cheerfully.

Nathaniel sighed. "I thought not." He stared at his book for a few moments then back over at his scryer. "Don't you have anything better to be doing?" he voice bordered on reproach. Nathaniel liked to think that he was a strict leader, but not a complete hard-ass.

"Not really." was the mage girl's reply. "Faust kicked me out of the cargo bay because I was distracting his men. Jerk." the scryer said, sticking out her tongue in a childish manner. Nathaniel snorted.

Faust's no-nonsense, strict disciple soldier's attitude didn't mesh very well with Ishabel's bubbly and lax demeanor. Yet somehow the two managed to look out for one another when it came down to fighting.

"Xing isn't too much of a conversationalist," Ishabel continued, "and that Deyanira girl is took busy talking to that skull of hers." Ishabel looked a little disturbed by that fact. "Those two Nostians just stick to each other and I haven't seen that hellan guy do anything but brood since he joined up. So yeah, I figured I'd just kick back here. I know you don't mind." she grinned at her boss teasingly.

Nathaniel just smiled and turned back to his book. He didn't mind really. Nathaniel had found Ishabel in a small Terrynian village, living in the streets and begging for food. Apparently, while Terryna took a very similar approach to magic as Vaer, they were a bit more...passionate about it. In Terryna any magic that wasn't classified as Light Magic was frowned upon. Ishabel, a scryer by nature, had been cast out of her family and scorned by her town.

It wasn't common for mage Hunters to recruit mages into their retinue for specific jobs (unless you were a Conservative prick like many of the older hunters. Nathaniel had seen the girl's potential and taken her back to Vaer. Ishabel's personality began to shine through after she had become certain that she could trust her new leader and soon Nathaniel found himself with something akin to an older sister rather than a subordinate.

That train of thought led Nathaniel to remember Suri's words when they first met. Nathaniel had no memory of a grandfather named Joseph, though he supposed it was possible. Nathaniel's parents had left Ossen (old Ossen) when Nathaniel was very young and truthfully the boy remembered very little of it. Now that he thought about it, his parents' decision to move to Vaer could hav been due to having family already living in the country. But why wouldn't Nathaniel have heard of this man before?

"You're doing that frown thing again, when you're thinking too hard." Ishabel chirped, making Nathaniel blink and lose his concentration.

"I suppose I'm just considering things that I've never thought much about before." he admitted.

"Your family?"

Nathaniel did a double-take at the smirking scryer. How did she always do that? "A bit, yes." he said. "I've never really thought about what family I might have outside of my parents." he said. "After they died I was taken in and apprenticed to a mage hunter. This job is all I know, and I've always kept my mind focused on it." he continued, not sure why he was saying all this.


Ishabel just listened attentively.

"I never questioned my life in Vaer or my job. I never even considered where I came from or if I had other family."

"And now you do?"

"Yes. There's this supposed grandfather that Roluo knows, and...." he trailed off.

"Deyanira." Ishabel finished. Nathaniel nodded.

"There's something odd about her. Well...besides her questionable mental health."

"She looks just like you." Ishabel said frankly. "Faust and I both think so."

Nathaniel sighed, rubbing his temples. "I can't really deny it. And something about her feels very familiar."

"So what does that mean?"

"I don't know. And I think I'm afraid to find out."

[Damien]

"I agree," said Izaak. "There's a high chance that Red and that...thing...could be back at any moment."

"That would make things more fun, don't you think?" asked Sorin.

"No," replied Vynalion. "The arkarris is right. We must leave here. If the summoner and her demon-thing come back, they will only come back stronger. Especially if she's had a chance to ward her summon from damage."

"Awww," said Sorin, disheartened.

"Is everyone else okay?" asked Vyn. "Did anyone sustain injury from the backlash of the conflicting magical energies?"

When no one answered, Vyn walked to face the group. "I feel that I've happened upon you all for a reason. It is because of this that I insist I accompany you in whatever endeavors you have, especially if it involves the crazed summoner and her minion. You may need my healing magics again."

[Mizagium]

Valendis stood when he was able. The combined healing of Lenore and Vynalion had mostly restored his vitality. Mostly. He staggered past everyone to survey the ruins of his home. Somewhere in there were his parents. At first he though about dragging them out and burying them, but then he remembered how Cruor worked. Whatever they were was trapped within that blade. Nothing remained here, only empty shells. No life. No ghosts. No souls. Only death.

"Everyone out." Words almost failed him, making him seem harsher than he meant. "Please. Out of...the house."

"Incola Mundas Spiritus, custodite mandata mea et responde mihi dicere: venerunt ad me: Novice Tier, Fire Djinni, Flambo."

A humanoid figure, about the size of a house cat materialized before him, made entirely of fire.

"What can I do ya, for?"

"Burn it." Valendis said simply.

"Uh...burn what?"

"All of it. The house. Everything."

"Aaaallll...right..." Flambo looked uncertainly around, making sure no one remained in the wreckage. "You sure?"

"Burn it all," Valendis repeated. "Then you are dismissed." Valendis turned and walked away, his three familiars at his heels, voicing concerns over his actions, but he didn't hear them. He didn't want to. He only stopped to retrieve Gram.

Flambo waited until they had all cleared the threshold before racing to the far corner, then back, then around the perimeter, spiraling inward, leaving a trail of fire behind him. When he reached his origin point, he gave the property one last flame burst before vanishing back to Mundas Spiritus.

Valendis watched his home burn for a long time.

"Let's go," he said finally. "I need to get away from here."

[Razgat]

"I'm Queen of the wooooooooorld!" Deyanira stood at the tip of the air ship with her arms stretched out and her clothes and hair flowing behind her. On her shoulder perched Steve, who she hadn't found a stick for yet. "Isn't this amazing, Steve? I've never been flying before!....No, lifting myself with blood doesn't count. That's actually not very pleasant, and it's more like surfing than flying....No, I don't really know how long it will take to get to wherever it is we're going. I guess soon? I've never been very far, no farther than I can walk really....What's that? Oh, yes, I guess I really need to find a staff for you, don't I? But my shoulder's fine for the moment, isn't it? Yes, I'm hungry, too, but you can't really eat, can you? Oh, you can? How does that work? You don't know? Well, what do you eat? You don't know that either? Well, I'm sure there's food somewhere on this ship. How else would we be able to travel so long? Let's go!"

Deyanira began to walk towards wherever she thought the kitchen might be. "I wonder if my parents are worried about me right now...They probably think I'm dead, don't they? What else could happen to a Blood Mage or Necromancer out in the middle of nowhere. You're either caught or killed by another mage. What must be going through their heads right now?...What's that, Steve? You were a mage once, too? And you lived in my country? What kind of mage? You can't say? Why not?.....Oh, using it as leverage until I feed you, huh? Fine, fine, let's get something to eat."

Deyanira continued skipping through the ship for food.

[Monika]

Unable to find words capable of adequately expressing her sorrow, Lenore solemnly hung her head and followed closely behind Valendis. After a quick glance back at the smoky conflagration that was Valendis' old home, her sorrow was quickly displaced by guilt. Not guilt from not having been able to save the family (although there was some of that, too) but guilt from the reason she had gone on this mission in the first place; a reason that even now -after all they had just been though - she could not shake from her head: Obtaining summoning knowledge. For a few seconds (although it seemed like an eternity in her mind), her desire for knowledge and the guilt that stemmed from it battled each other. Eventually, despite everything that told her not to, Lenore succumbed to her desires and ran back into the pile of burning ash.

The Divine Wind spell that Kazetama had cast during the battle had yet to fade, so Lenore was able to breathe easily enough to perform another summoning. Quietly she whispered the chant "Incola Mundas Spiritus, custodite mandata mea et responde mihi dicere: venerunt ad me: Advanced Tier Wind Faerie, Kazetama!" and, sure enough, Kazetama appeared.

"Summoning me back al-" Kazetama trailed off as she realized where she had been summoned to. "The house was a little beat up when I came, but this is just-"

"Lady Kazetama, " Lenore cut her off, "I hate to ask this of you, but you're the quickest spirit I know that could actually fit in this house."

"What's up, Lenore?" Kazetama asked, visibly perplexed by whatever had happened in between the time she had been dismissed and now.

"If you could...fly around what's left of this house and scour it for summoning books, I would appreciate it. Just please, be careful. Try not to damage anything still in tact...and if you find any corpses, treat them with the utmost respect." Lenore nearly choked as she spoke, unable to believe what she was doing.

"If it's a command, sure," Kazetama replied. "Just know that they've probably been burned to ash with the rest of the place." Not one to disobey orders, however silly they seemed, the Wind Faerie flew through the house at unparalleled speeds, lightly blowing aside ash with her Wind Magic, making sure not to destroy anything that the fire already hadn't. Within a minute or so, she had returned to Lenore's side, a stack of three differently-sized tomes in hand. "Well, I'll be. They actually survived the flames. Powerful wards are on these books, so I'm guessing they've got some sort of knowledge in them. Whether or not it's summoning knowledge is for you to find out," Kazetama smiled. "Wouldn't want to spoil the ending, since I know how much you love your books."

With a weak, half-hearted smile back, Lenore took the books from Kazetama and placed them in her backpack. "Thank you, Lady Kazetama," Lenore bowed. "You may take your leave now."

"Sure thing, Lenore. If you need anything else, well, you know how to contact me!" With a quick wave goodbye, Kazetama left through a portal back to the Spirit Realm.

Tears came to Lenore's eyes as she caught up with the rest of the group. 'I'm practically a grave robber...' she surmised.

[Damien]

Sorin caught up with Valendis, with Izaak following close at his heels.

"Are you going to be okay, Valendis?" he asked, his face showing true sincerity.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," said Izaak, pulling Sorin back to give Valendis some space. "He's a strong person. It may take him a bit, but he'll pull through, I'm sure of it."

Meanwhile, Vynalion followed at the back of the group, watching the exchange. When he noticed that one of the members of the party weren't present, he turned to look for her. He found Lenore running to catch up to the group, tears flowing from her eyes and large, ancient tomes in her arms. He caught her before she could pass him, turning her to look her in the eyes.

"Do not be ashamed, dear," he said softly. "In the search for knowledge, we must sometimes do things that we may feel are detestable. But fear not, for though you feel shame for your actions, know this: your actions here, just now, may prove to save lives later."

He smiled at her, a genuine smile that he would never give to anyone unless he truly meant what he was saying. He chuckled. "I also noticed that you attempted to heal your friend with Light magic, but it seemed you more or less...smote his wounds. If you are interested, I would be more than happy to teach you what I know of healing. I have mastered the healing of internal and external wounds, the neutralization of poisons, and the destruction of disease. I'm sure you could become quite the healer, maybe even better than I."

[Monika]

Lenore blushed, becoming mildly embarrassed as Vynalion spoke. She had been hoping that no one noticed her return with a stack of books, but that was obviously a silly notion. Clearing her throat (and mentally trying to force the blood away from her cheeks), she replied. "Thank you for the kind words, Vynalion. I will no doubt be ashamed for quite some time, but I suppose I can indeed take solace in knowing that this knowledge may eventually prove useful." Mustering enough strength for a weak smile, she turned toward Vynalion and bowed. "I am Lady Eleanora Morana of the Morana family, by the way. You may call me 'Lenore'."

Rising back to her full height, she continued. "On the subject of knowledge, I was only ever taught to use Light Magic for destroying things, as you saw. I hoped that healing amounted to 'destroying someone's injuries', but that's obviously not the case. It seems to almost work, with the side effect of major burns..." With a heavy blush returning to her cheeks, she bowed once more and said "Vynalion, I would be honored to learn the art of healing from you."

[Myrdraxxis]

Veraask could only shake his head sadly at the destruction and loss. Loss of life and knowledge. Veraask wasn't sure which one he found to be more horrid. His race had long endured hardship and death of their people, but they were very thorough in recording their knowledge for the future. Which was rather odd for a society that was built off of deceit and lies to protect themselves from widespread madness. Maybe this strange contradiction was in itself madness. Maybe the Arkarris were losing that battle.

Veraask scowled, shaking off the displeasing thought.

Now was not the time for such things in the face of a more pressing threat.

"Come." he rested a claw on Valendis' shoulder. "Let us be away from here."

The birdman reached into his cloak and withdrew a small ruby. Before they had left Kyros, Veraask had planted a waystone behind them, in case they would need a quick getaway.

He activated it now, and the stone dissolved in his hand, swirling into the air and forming a portal that opened up. "Normally my magic is a bit more...hmmm unsafe. But this spell is perfectly safe to use." As he said this, Veraask began to step through. He paused, one foot in. "But ah...just in case, don't make eye contact with anything you see on the way back."

That said, he stepped through. After a brief flash of swirling crimson light and flashing shadows (which almost seemed to move with sentience, Veraask felt the cool tiles of the Kyros Great Library under his feet again.

He let out a sigh, happy to be back in the place of knowledge. Then he blinked, clearing away the last bits of eldritch light from his vision. He -and the portal- were surrounded. A team of Arcian Mage Knights stood in a half-circle around the portal, weapons not drawn, but well within reach.

"Arkarris." One stepped forward, pulling the helm off of his head. "where are the rest of your companions? We need to speak with you."

~][~

The Sylvina entered Arcian airspace an hour later and from there began its journey east across the country, careful to skirt the capital of Kyros. It had been surprisingly easy to avoid Arcian patrols, aside from a couple of close calls.

Nathaniel and his team assembled in the cargo bay in full form.

"Our job is to investigate the whereabouts of a Vaerian spy outpost that went out of contact nearly two weeks ago. Reports from this area have been largely unimportant and calm. Intelligence received a frantic report two weeks ago before going completely silent. The investigation team sent here failed to respond."

Nathaniel paused for a moment, collecting his thoughts before continuing. "We're going in with no idea what to expect here. My superiors believe that we may be encountering something similar to the unknown in Nostia. Keep sharp and stay in teams. I want two squads. Faust, you lead the other group." The sergeant nodded sharply.

"Ishabel, Xing, with him, take three stormtroopers as well. Everyone else with me." He looked at Deyanira, Denfar, Roluo and Suri.

That said, Nathaniel turned to the nearby wall comlink and hailed the bridge. "We're ready to proceed captain."

"Roger that. Finalizing descent in thirty seconds." came the reply.

The bay rumbled the wide cargo doors began to open, exposing one side of the bay to the Arcian night air. The sun had just set, leaving them with plenty of time to complete their job and leave under the cover of darkness.

As the ship finished its descent, Nathaniel stepped off the ship, crouching low as he hit the ground. He stood quickly, drawing his pistol in one hand.

The outpost had been just beyond the edge of a small town, disguised as a simple farm. It was close enough to monitor activity while far enough away that the airship could sneak in without much notice.

"Go!"

Faust and his team swept by Nathaniel, weapons drawn and ready as they headed towards the large barn that contained the oupost's equipment. Nathaniel glanced back at his team and motioned them forward, towards the main house.

four troopers moved quickly across the field and surrounded the house as Nathaniel made his way tot he ront door. He glanced inside the nearby window, but couldn't make anything out of the darkness within. It was obvious that no one was there at the moment. No one alive at least.

He checked the door to see if the locks were still in place, and noticed that the door was cracked open, as if kicked in.

"Signs of forced entry." he noted, pushing the door open with a loud creak. Nathaniel stepped inside and nearly choked as the smell of stale blood and death struck him. Two troopers moved in beside him, the other two entering from the rear entrance.

"Faust." he spoke into his radio. "Anything?"

There was a long hiss of static before the other man's voice came through. "Nothing in the barn. Not even any equipment. Looks like it was moved out of here in a hurry."

Nathaniel frowned. "The agents here moved operations maybe?"

"Unlikely. whoever moved the stuff wasn't very delicate with it. Their data was probably compromised." Faust reported. Worry began forming in Nathaniel. This hadn't been the most active or critical listening post, but it still contained contact codes and other information that could prove to be problematic in the wrong hands.

"Keep looking."

Turning his attention back to his team, Nathaniel began moving into the house. "Spread out. There has to be something here."

[Mizagium]

"Valendis..." Jorsin tried to speak to his blood-master, but felt the words falter on his tongue. What could he say? The eldest (and now only) Gae'om stepped through the portal, minding Veraask's advice. Suddenly he was in the library again.

"Not again!" Felicia shouted at them from across the massive room. "I just cleaned the place up!" She stormed across to start shouting again, but slowed when she saw their faces. "Hey, what's wrong?" Valendis didn't answer. "What happened?"

Hesseppatt fluttered onto her shoulder. "It's...a long story. Something terrible has happened. Please, just let it be."

She nodded and said no more. Suddenly she noticed the Arcian Mage Knights surrounding them.

Valendis didn't.

-

The shadow dragon herd was slow to progress. Night came quickly and, when they finally did move on, no one felt much like traveling. Marion's customers (Telan and Jolie, as it happens) eventually warmed up to the idea of the talking dragon and joined them at the fire. Kugo, having recovered his magic reserves had flown up above the trees to scout and now descended.

"Looks like they've moved on, Professor," he said, taking a seat. He snatched up a leg of roast boar. Fezziwigg had caught a few of them. "I didn't see any dragons for some distance. Unless we get jumped in the middle of the night, we should be ok."

"Excellent. Thank you, Master Kugo. Well, Telan and Jolie, it seems as if you will be home by noon tomorrow."

Telan chuckled softly and nodded. "I don't think we'll be adventuring again anytime soon. This has been...too much."

"Oh, come now. Not all that bad, I'm sure."

He shrugged. "We're Vaerian--wanted to see the world outside the empire. Dungeoneering seemed like a good idea...and with someone like Marion." He shrugged again. "Guess not."

"That's not true," Jolie protested. "We got to explore an old tomb, meet a talking dragon, and a...well, Kugo." She beamed. "This turned out better than expected!"

That made Telan laugh. "Yeah, I guess so."

"I guess it's too bad though. Marion had already taken the treasure at the end, so even if we got through we wouldn't have come up with anything. Maybe next time we should find our own way!"

"Yeah? You think we could?"

"I mean, aside from being scared out of my mind...it was kind of fun."

Beyond the firelight, Marion scoffed and muttered, "Amateurs."

Kugo finished his meat and walked off to find her, but he misjudged the darkness and stumbled about for a minute.

"Looking for me?" She seemed to appear right behind him.

"Ah! Uh, I mean, yes." He chuckled, but she didn't, so he stopped.

"What do you want, flying man?" Her voice was low and almost a purr, the kind of purr a cat makes to warn someone to be cautious.

"I didn't think to ask before--or at all, really, but when the Professor was talking, he mentioned a place called Kyros, in a land called Arcia."

"So?"

Kugo opened and closed his mouth a few times, giving his eyes time to adjust. He saw her, lithe and powerful. Her eyes seemed to glow even in the darkness. They studied him, curious. "Where...where is that?"

She frowned, then laughed. "What do you mean? Kyros: The capital of Arcia, the largest nation in the world! Is the civil war that bad that you don't even know you're neighbor?"

"Civil war?" Kugo frowned deeply and faced Marion. "There's no civil war in Xiolin, unless the gang wars have escalated in the last few years--"

"Few years? Xiolin's been at war with itself for over a hundred years--"

"And the biggest nation in the world is Megolin--"

"Megolin hasn't existed for over two hundred years--"

"So what the hell is going on here? Where am I? When am I?"

Marion Criss paused and picked her words carefully. "What year do you think it is?"

"40 After the Severing."

Slowly, she shook her head. "It's 301 A.S."

Kugo staggered back. "No...301...no. I, I was fighting that mage thing in Nostia...and then this portal...time..."

Marion made a move towards Kugo "GET DOWN!" and pulled him to the ground. Something rushed over them and crashed into the brush. "Something's here!" Without her satchel, all she had were her claws, but Kugo recovered quickly, eager to have something else to distract him. "Blow out the fire!" He didn't ask why, but send a narrow beam of arcane energy into the firelight, sending the burning logs about and raising a cloud of dust. Telan and Jolie started coughing, but the Professor blew the dust aside with his wings.

"What is going on?" the dragon demanded.

"Company!" Marion's eyes were already adjusted to the darkness; she didn't need to accidentally look at the fire to lose her advantage. The shadowy figure appeared again, but ran away from Marion and towards Penrose. "Watch it!"

But Penrose saw it coming and lashed out with his tail, followed by a jet of fire. The shadow figure disappeared again, giving Marion and Kugo enough to time regroup with everyone. Marion dove for her satchel and pulled out the first item she could: a staff of some kind. She grunted. "Not sure that this one is." The shadow figure lunged out of the trees; she swung the staff. Rainbows and butterflies. It managed to ward off the figure. "Stupid Nostian nobles," she muttered.

A low hiss sounded through the night air. "You weren't supposed to survive..."

The five of the them waited for a long time until it became clear that the shadow wasn't going to return.

"We should move," Marion suggested. "Let's get far away from here before it comes back."

-

Somewhere else, in a mysterious lair, a group of robed men gathered...

"Have we located the source of the temporal anomaly?" One said.

"Yes," said another. "The initial rift opened up over Nostia. From the wave patterns, we estimate it to have occurred over two hundred years ago. The opened again earlier today over Elborn."

"How many went through?" asked a third.

"Two entered, but only one exited."

"Also of note," another man offered, "was that Father Time appears to have resurfaced. It seems he was living in Vaer for some time now, but we only just detected his magic earlier."

Another man whose robes were noticeably more ornate that his companions. "We cannot allow such a major temporal anomaly as this to go unchecked. Tempus will not stand for meddling in the Timestream. We will investigate the Elborn anomaly."

"And Father Time?"

"I will deal with him at a later date...Order of Tempus: Dismissed."

[Myrdraxxis]

The crow soared across the city of Kyros, past the outer districts and the city proper, lights glittering as night descended on the city. It flew to the upper city, the floating tiers and pyramids that housed the city's elite and wealthy. It flew past the great Library, still bustling with patrons even at this hour.

The crow flew until it came to a hovering platform the seemed more isolated than the others that made up the upper city, hidden int he shadow of the large fortress of Kyros' military garrison. The crow swooped and landed in the courtyard outside of the headquarters of the Arcian Mage Knights.

The crow's form shimmered and changed into that of a man, who promptly dusted himself off from the long flight and began walking towards the building. There were four Mage Knights standing guard at the door, but none of them batted an eye at this sudden appearance, nor did they try to stop the man as he passed them and entered their headquarters.

The headquarters of the Mage Knights was a good deal less ornate than the rest of Kyros, though that was to be expected of a military instillation. But the halls were not full of busy attendants or officers. In fact, they were all but deserted. The Mage Knights were an elite and very isolated branch of the Arcian military and was loath to open up to outsiders. In many ways it was still the secretive fraternity of warrior mages that it had grown from.

The man passed quickly through the halls, not stopping until he came to a halt outside a set of large double-doors. He cocked his head to the side and reached out to rap on the doors. They opened sharply just before he could do so.

They revealed a rather beautiful woman with uniquely deep azure-colored hair fixed into a tight bun with almost luminescent violet eyes that regarded him sharply.

"You're back." she said. Her voice was soft, but the man had no doubt he would have been able to hear her from all the way down the hall.

"It was a quick journey." he replied, studying the woman as she likewise studied him. The silence stretched on for a long moment before the woman finally sighed and stepped aside, waving him in.

"You're lucky he's still here to greet you at this hour." the woman spoke as the two crossed the antechamber to a smaller set of doors. She rapped on them twice.

"I don't think I've ever even seen the commander close his eyes, much less sleep." the man snorted. The woman frowned at that but didn't retort.

"Enter" he heard a voice call from beyond the doors. The woman opened them and stepped inside. The man followed.

The room was smaller than would be expected of the commander of the Mage Knights. That wasn't to say it didn't leave an impression. The walls were decorated with maps and banners of various size, as well as weapons of all forms, all of which the man did not doubt had seen battle. There was a distinct lack of accolades or medals on display, which the man thought said more about the commander than anything else in the room.

The commander himself sat behind a large wooden desk in the center of the room, framed by the large window that made up the far wall and gave the room an impressive view of the glowing city of Kyros.

The commander looked up from his work. He looked tired. That was all the man could think of to describe him. The commander was a man well into his fifties, possibly sixties. Gray hair was beginning to give way to snow white, and old facial scars of his youth were beginning to become marred by wrinkles and worry lines. Even so, his eyes were sharp as he saw the man and woman enter.

"You're back, I see." the commander said. His eyes moved to the woman. "Can you wait outside for a moment, Hecate?" he asked. The woman nodded, though hesitated at the door before closing it behind her. The man watched her leave.

"She's worried about you." he noted. The commander snorted.

"She's always worried about me. Always has been. She's a good secretary, but honestly, I can barely get any work done with her hovering."

The man doubted that the commander had any problems working, almost as highly as he doubted that Hecate was nothing more than a simple secretary. That woman sent every sense in his body screaming, and not just because she was utterly stunning to look at. It had been a long time since the man had been around something that put him on edge like the secretary Hecate did. He never voiced his concerns, because the commander seemed at ease with her, and was obviously well aware of her...uniqueness.

"I followed the arkarris, like you asked." the man said, getting down to his report. "He's gathered a few allies for himself."

"No doubt. He's not entirely subtle, that one. So, who's fool enough to go along with his schemes?"

"A rather interesting group, including the heiress of the Morana family and a Gae'om summoner."

The commander arched an eyebrow. "A Gae'om? I thought they were all living in New Ossen these days. That family was always tied to that nation. Or at last the spirit of the land." he chuckled at that, a private joke that was lost on the man.

"They went to New Ossen. Apparently to the Gae'om home." the man hesitated. "There was a psychotic blood mage there." he reported grimly. The commander's eyes narrowed.

"The damage?"

The man bowed his head. "I think it can be said that the Gae'om family is now dangerously close to extinction." he said. The commander shook his head sadly.

"Terrible."

"I almost stepped in to help, but they're proving to be a resourceful group. Valendis Gae'om is still alive, at any rate."

"Thank the Mage for small miracles." the commander muttered. The corners of the man's mouth quirked up into a small smile at that.

"So what happens now?" the man asked.

"I've already seen to it. Secundus Squad will bring them here. From there we can discuss our next step."

The man hummed thoughtfully. "Then we wait." he chuckled. "Interesting times are approaching, once again."

The commander grunted in agreement, folding his hands and resting his head on them. "All too soon, in my opinion."

[Damien]

Izaak and Sorin walked through the portal and found that those who had already returned to the library had been surrounded by Arcian Mage Knights.

"I don't think this is actually my stop," said Sorin.

"Sorin, don't do--" began Izaak.

"I'll be going now," said Sorin, interrupting him. "Vokun filok."

Shadows flowed from the surrounding area and began to encase Sorin in a sort of shadow cocoon. Once he was completely enclosed, the blob began to shrink. However, just before it shrank down to its usual, near-invisible singularity, it rapidly expanded and spat him out with a painful thud.

"Well," he said, picking himself up and dusting himself off, "that didn't go as expected."

"You idiot," said Vyn as he appeared from the portal. "They are of the Arcian Mage Knights. They have special wards in place that prevent interdimentional and interplanar travel, including magical travel across our own dimention and plane of existance." He walked up beside Veraask and looked straight at the knight who had spoken. He asked, "what seems to be the problem?"

[Razgat]

Deyanira deeply inhaled the smell she was all too familiar with. "Blood..." A sort of primal instinct pulsed inside of her, but she quickly forced it back down. Being a blood mage, she was easily attracted to blood. However, controlling that attraction proved to be a problem for some. It was easy to see how someone could go mad. Often times she felt herself slipping if she was surrounded by too much blood. Luckily, that wasn't very often.

Deyanira watched as others seemed to work around her. "Honestly, I'm not really sure about what you want me to do exactly. Track the blood?"

[Monika]

"I dunno about all this teleportation stuff, Nori," Kazan sighed, staring at the portal with a hint of distaste in his expression. "I'm certainly not afraid of it. I don't fear anything!" he smiled. "But it seems a lot less adventurous than, say...flying back on a dragon." Kazan had clearly recovered his usual, happy-go-lucky demeanor that had disappeared during the battle with Red and he was all too capable of making jokes again.

The same could not be said of Lenore, however; a few tears were still rolling down her face and - despite Vynalion's reassuring words - she still felt horrible for stealing from the Gae'om family's home. "Ixion has been through enough already, Kazan." She took a deep breath and added "We all have." before wiping the last of the tears from her eyes and walking through Veraask's portal.

"Hmm...I hope she'll be alright..."Kazan thought aloud, walking in after Lenore.

Moments later, the two were with the rest of their party, smack-dab in the middle of a circle of Mage Knights.

"Heheh. Maybe teleportation is more adventurous!" Kazan snickered as he preemptively placed his right hand on one of his swords.

[Myrdraxxis]

The Mage Knights tensed as Veraask's companions appeared from the portal, though still made no threatening moves. Ezeriah looked them over then watched the chaos portal behind them shrink and dissipate. Satisfied that no one else would be coming, the began to speak.

"I have orders from the Commander to bring you all to him." He said, his tone leaving little room for debate. Veraask stared at the mage knight, brow furrowing.

The first thing that the arkarris had done upon arriving in Kyros was to seek out the assistance of the mage knights. Such powerful and well trained warriors would be valued allies in war against the Celestials. He had been turned down, rather emphatically.

"You have been watching my movements this entire time, yes?" Veraask asked, eyes locked with Ezeriah in a fierce stare. To his credit, the mage knight didn't so much as twitch as he met the chaos sorcerer's eyes.

"I wouldn't know anything about that." he replied smoothly. "My orders are simply to escort you all to see the Commander."

Veraask stared at him for a moment longer then glanced back at Valendis and the others. The young summoner looked horrible and Veraask was loathed to put him through more...but this was too important to simply refuse.

"Very well. Lead on."

The journey to the headquarters of the Mage Knights was a quick one. Ezeriah led them on swiftly. The headquarters was filled with training mage knights, squads drilling and others returning from missions across Arcia.

They were led through the headquarters until they came to a set of large double doors. They opened as Secundus Squad approached, revealing Hecate.

The mage knights did not react as the secretary appeared, but Veraask very nearly tripped over his own feet as he saw the woman. "S-she-!" the arkarris let out a strangled gasp.

Ezeriah glanced at him in confusion for a moment before turning to Hecate. "Secundus Squad here with the group that the Commander wanted." he reported. Hecate nodded.

"He's waiting for you, go on in." She stepped aside, allowing the group to proceed. Veraask's gaze never left her as they walked by, eyes locked on the woman in horror. The woman returned the look with a piercing gaze of her own, and as the group passed her, flashed Veraask a small smirk and turned away.

Finally Veraask tore his gaze away as the doors opened and they found themselves in the office of the Commander of the Arcian Mage Knights.

The commander was indeed waiting for them, face hidden behind his hands as watched them enter. Veraask noticed another man in the far corner of the room, leaning against the wall.

"Secundus Squad reporting, sir."

"Excellent work. You are dismissed sergeant." The commander said. Ezeriah saluted sharply, turned and exited the room. The commander turned his attention back to the group.

"I apologize for this abrupt meeting, but as Veraask will attest to, time is of the essence. I am Commander Andermann, leader of the Mage Knights."

Veraask's eyes flickered to the man in the corner. Commander Anderman noticed. "And this," he extended a hand towards the man, "is Magnus. An...associate of mine who advises me on occasion."

"Important occasions." Magnus spoke up, stepping forward. "And this most certainly counts as one. How much as Veraask here told about this situation with Celestials?"

[Sariel of Tevet]

Suri and Roluo entered the house behind the group. The first room was thrashed. Nearly every piece of furniture was overturned, but other than that it was empty. Everything that had belonged to whoever was stationed here had been taken.

"Roluo, you smell that don't you? Here follow me. I want to show you something." She took off up the stairs to where the blood was calling her and Roluo followed suit. They took a few stepsdown the hallway at the top of the stairs and took a right into the bathroom. There was a man sitting on the toilet backwards, dead. His head was resting against the cold porcelain, with a pen in one hand and a bottle of bismuth in the other.

Roluo scratched his head and scrunched his brow. "I guess he must have been multitasking. Too bad they took whatever he was working on. I guess they really caught him with his pants down. What a crappy way to go you know? He may have had the runs, but he couldn't run fast enough to get away from whoever killed him. You know he may have been killed, but atleast he wasn't dethron..."

"Big baby!" Suri smacked him on the back of the head and cut him off. "You still have no respect for the dead do you? I guess I spent more time healing people in the village as a child than I did playing with cadavers like you. Now pay attention." She placed her thumb under one of her back teeth, it was filed to a point in case she ever lost her knife. Suri bit down on her thumb and drew the blood out of the wound, and guided it into the mans lacerations. "You already know that my blood has special properties. That's why I could heal people when we were kids. It is uncommon, but not rare. Turns out my great grandmother could do it as well and I found alot of interesting things in her old journals that my father found after the incident. The healing works because my blood actually amplifies all the physical traits in the body that it is running through. More productive blood and cells means faster healing. Apparently though, it still works after they are dead. I can't raise the dead like you can, but I can actually amplify your magic when you raise something if I have mixed my blood with it. It will be more susceptible to your link and you can hold it alot longer."

"Yeah ok great, I can raise this poor bastard and let him wipe and pull his pants up, and then let him die of embarrassment more slowly than usual. Big deal."

"Seriously, don't make me hit you again. Just listen. We can use blood memory right? That's why our tribe's oral tradition was always so strong. Blood mages can see memories because of blood flow to the brain, but only because it is the easiest section to get to for some reason. But my blood, can unlock the rest of the brain as well. If I keep my blood linked with his while he is raised, we can actually talk to him, the real him. Just be careful, he may freak out a little when he finds out he is dead and all, but we will be able to ask him about everything that happened and maybe even find out why it happened."

"Raise the dead guy, tell him to pull his pants up, and ask him questions. Got it. Nathaniel!! You may want to see this!!" He raised his staff and began to mumble under his breathe until the cadaver began to glow with a flash of light. He lifted his head and began to scream, "No! No no don't shoot!! Pleas..." His jaw dropped as he noticed the whip of blood flowing from Suri to his own wounds. He tried to stand but tripped up over his pants, which were still down around his ankles. He lifted his head up from the ground and whimpered, "Who are you people! What do you want?!"

Suri knelt down and placed a hand on his shoulder, "We are here with the military. We have some questions for you."

[Mizagium]

Valendis grunted. "Probably not as much as we need to know, considering the situation he's putting us in." He shifted on his feet. He hadn't forgotten about what the spirit had told him in the tomb, that his family had something to do with the Celestials. Now it seemed he would never know, unless he stuck with this arkarris. "So what do we need to know, since you're recruiting?"

[Myrdraxxis]

Magnus cleared his throat and began. "Well, truth be told our knowledge of Celestials in general is somewhat lacking seeing as they were all pretty much gone by the time humans settled Mundus Magica. They were the first race, beings of untold power that is said have rivaled that of the Mage of the Beginning himself." Magnus looked distinctly uncomfortable at that.

"No one is quite sure why their society here collapsed, but it was largely due to the Mage's interference."

"Something of a civil war." Commander Andermann added. Magnus glanced at him and nodded slowly.

"Something like that."

Veraask stared at Magnus and Andermann as they talked, a thought nagging at him. The commander claimed that Magnus was an adviser, yet something about the way they regarded each other was off somehow.

"We know that the Mage was powerful enough to fight and kill Celestials...which is remarkable seeing as they were essentially deities themselves. Many Celestials are believed to have been responsible for the founding of many old Veritan religions." The commander said. He paused for a moment. "At least, that's what some of our scholars have found."

Magnus again shot the man a look.

'They both know a lot more about this than they're letting on, and haven't revealed it to the other.' Veraask realized.

Magnus started to say something else, but Veraask cut him off. These men were wasting his time and that was something the arkarris would not abide.

"Tell me, commander." he said. "You seem to know a lot about this subject. Is that because you have a Celestial working as your secretary?"

Magnus whirled around sharply, staring at the commander. "what?!"

Ezeiah and his guards stiffened in surprise.

"I told you that he'd figure it out." And suddenly Hecate was in the room, leaning against the wall near Commander Andermann. Magnus stared at the woman while Ezeriah cursed, drawing his blade.

~][~

Nathaniel strode over to the pair and the newly reanimated soldier swiftly. Part of his wanted to wretch at the blatant desecration of life, but the more professional side quickly rationalized the act. If he hadn't known this sort of thing was going to occur, he wouldn't have kept Roluo and Suri around.

"Easy, trooper." Nathaniel said, dropping to one knee beside the panicking man. "You've had a rough time of it."

The man stared at Nathaniel. "A Mage Hunter? By the Emperor..." he sagged slightly in relief. "They finally sent someone. Thing have gone to all sorts of hell here sir."

"I can see that." Nathaniel said archly. "What happened here? Who did all this?"

The soldier shuddered. "The townspeople. They just...swarmed the farm. There were only ten of us stationed here. We never stood a chance."

Nathaniel frowned. "Untrained farmers did all this? So the Arcians figured you out?"

The man shook his head, still shivering. "We thought so too, at first.But the day before, the local constabulary went up in flames. We thought there was an accident, but then they swarmed the farm." He paused, eyes losing their focus. "They were...psychotic. Howling like animals."

Nathaniel stood, frowning thoughtfully. "Faust, what's your status?" he asked into the radio after a moment.

"Still nothing in the barn, sir. But Ishabel's picking up some rather troubling readings here."

"Form up outside the house. I know where we need to go."

This was turning out a lot stranger than Nathaniel had expected. He turned back to the reanimated soldier and looked at Suri. "Deal with this, quickly." With that, he stalked out of the house.