NationStates Jolt Archive

With naught but the gentle howling of the wind in the dim black midnight sky, Midchilda rests after another hard days work. A small island nation, the serene republic had always been an insignificant factor in the world; occasionally selling high quality trout abroad. Meanwhile tourists seeking a quiet scenic getaway would enjoy the white pristine beaches of it’s coasts, the more rowdy tourists would be staying near the coast allowing the city centre a bit of peace and quiet with no more then the occasional passing car travelling through the area… seemingly nothing ever happened in Midchilda and tonight should have been no exception.

Unfortunately even in the peaceful, almost crimeless paradise of Midchilda trouble stirred.
BANG.
Suddenly the calm whistle of the sea winds are overwhelmed by a loud explosion on the east side of the city library, a billowing cloud of dust expands and rises from the building obscuring the area completely. Dogs now barking in the distance and a few car alarms sounding off in the nearby car park, the dust settles to reveal a tall, slim masked figure walking out of a reasonably sized hole in the wall, now surrounded by debris. In the silhouette’s hands is a small wooden box, though the dim lights don’t allow for much more then a dark outline of the criminal, it looks around before mumbling something to itself in a masculine voice. Clearing the rubble the thief takes a moment to stop and look at his prize. A bright purple light flows out from the hinged lid as he slowly opens it revealing him to be a masked man wearing some casual black trousers and a closed leather jacket, but in contract to his normal clothes is his white face mask. Shaped like a shield to cover the entirety of his face, two red stripes crawl halfway diagonally from each side of the lower portion of the mark almost reaching the sharp thin eye slits. On the forehead a single yellow gem sits above his eyes in the perfect middle. Flowing around the mask is his brown hair, not quite long enough to make a pony tail but enough to offer a small amount of fringe now basking in purple light. Looking into the lined box itself, it holds a large, hand-sized purple teardrop gem, positively glowing from an unknown source of power. The gem is protected by a soft red cushioning designed to keep it in place. Sirens can now be heard in the distance, the man now content with his treasure closes the box and braces himself towards the ground for a moment. Again he mumbles some words to himself quietly; this time producing the effect of a dark blue magical circle appearing around his feet going out perhaps a couple metres, runes flow around the edges in a slow orbit before he finally pushes up into the sky and takes off at a amazing pace, leaving the library behind.

Just skimming the rooftops of nearby buildings the burglar carefully flees the scene of the crime; the magic circle dimmed the instant he took off with no more then a slight sparkle in his wake unnoticeable to the naked eye at this range, his flight is no faster then a cruising car as he takes care not to be seen. Suddenly he halts midair, returning to a standing position while still holding his preciously loot. Looking back to west he braces himself again before a strong windblast billows past him harmlessly. The sky now has a red hue to it and the sounds of the fuss he created in his wake are now dulled, barely audible as if muffled by a pane of glass.

“A barrier already?” He says to himself, staring into the distance. Changing his stance a little though still floating several metres above a row of shops, he passes the wooden box from one hand to the other and starts to mumble incoherently again, the dark blue magic circle once again taking effect. To the west where the thief is staring, a pink light rushes towards him, slowly getting brighter before finally revealing a small bright white figure that starts to slow down, stopping just a couple hundred metres away above him, hanging in the dark red sky. A young girl now stares at him, barely looking to be in her teens wearing a long white dress with blue trimmings and matching shoes, her top half is clearly defined by a matching white jacket with similar blue trimmings, slightly raised shoulder pads and all topped off with a neat red bow just above her chest. Unlike the man she doesn’t bother to disguise herself, her light auburn hair flows in the wind, just long enough to make a couple pig tails with a couple white ribbons. One could mistake the dress for an elaborate school uniform if it not for the long white and pink stave in her hands. At the end of the staff a golden c-shaped half loop of metal held a fist sized red glowing gem in place with before reaching out a little past the gem at the end of the c. Towards the main shaft on each side of the loop were what looked like pistons pointing diagonally outwards to form a kind of Y from the main shaft. A little further down the shaft away from the end was what closely resembled a golden rifle clip and what was obviously a port for the casing to leave. Finally, on each of her white boots, a pair of pink magical wings seems to be keeping her afloat, flapping when she changes direction and/or velocity. All in all it looked like something from a children’s cartoon warped in a rather unexpected direction… all this said, however, the thief seems unfazed by her appearance, more concerned perhaps about her eventual arrival then anything else.

“Please, slowly descend to the ground, drop the Lost Logia and come quietly.” She called over to him, her voice confirmed her apparently youth, probably in her early teens. Despite the young pitch her voice was calm and confident; a touch of kindness suggesting she meant no harm but firm enough to hint that she was capable enforcing her request if needed. “I’d rather we didn’t fight.”

Not saying a word the man just shakes his head, his expression impossible to see underneath his white mask. Instead he reaches into his pocket with his free hand and starts to draw, to which the girl starts her to fly up with a slight pink flow of energy trailing behind her, her stave changes form as it’s c shaped end shifts to something like a u with one end longer then the other, the opening in the loop pointing up.

“Excelion Mode” In a clear, yet slightly broken English voice, the staff’s artificial intelligence declares it’s successful change to it’s master who is already starting to aim the top end of the staff towards her target, holding it in two hand bracing it almost like a firearm. Below the man also starts to make his move, dashing to the side evasively much faster then he was travelling before, his own blue trail forming slightly from his body. He pulls out a card from his pocket, uttering a word as the wind rushes by him changing the card into a large ball of fire. Before he gets chance to act further though, the girl shouts out.

“Raging Heart, shoot!” Momentarily pink energy collects by her stave, just in front of the end and then instantaneously blasts off into a long beam of light towards the criminal. Quickly he frees his hand by throwing the ball of flaming into the oncoming shot and pulls up another brighter magical circle around his hand forming a large circular shield. The fireball is quickly overwhelmed by the flow of energy flying towards him, but thankfully seems to have taken away from of its punch as it flows around his protective shield before finally dissipating harmlessly, his hand smoking slightly from the work. Meanwhile his opponent’s staff opens its two pistons and releases some steam. Taking advantage of the opening provided he quickly flies up the path towards her with blinding speed, slightly surprised the girl pulls up her hand and cries out in anticipation of the blow.

“Protection” The staff calls out, as thought interpreting her actions a round transparent red field forms from her hand and around the girls body in a perfect spherical shape. As though to power the barrier, the staff eats a round from it’s clip and ejects the casing with a small amount of smoke. A loud thud and crackle is heard from the mans kick, seemingly glowing with energy itself as it meets the barrier and is repelled slightly, the field resonates from the heavy blow and he twirls around again for another go. Quickly the girl dashes to the side and attempts to smack him around the head with her staff, which he aptly dodges.

“Flash Move” Again, the staff calls out and the pink energy wins on the magic girls boots grow larger and fly her back a small distance almost instantaneously to attempt to regain distance, seemingly all her powers work in complete unison as though her staff is listening to her will alone. Unsurprised but annoyed, the man quickly decides to open the box and grasps the gem.

“No!” The girl in the white dress calls out, her face wrought with concern more then anger. She lines up her staff again, this time taking a moment to aim, without a word the lower portion of the stave extends and the clip starts loading in round after round, the red gem glowing brighter all the more. As masked man throws away the box and start chanting again, energy starts to collect at the end of her staff. The man prepares to defend himself again, this time drawing energy from the gem.

“Please, just drop the Chaos Seed…” She pleads, her voice sincerely worried. Her determination can be clearly seen in her eyes. “If you don’t I’ll be forced to destroy it and I don’t know exactly how it will react, but I will not allow you to abuse the lost logia, I will not allow more innocents to be harmed in their wake. So please… just surrender.”

Again, he just shakes his head without saying a word and rises the hand holding the gem in defiance letting off a thin burst of energy at her, to which she attempts to dodge. “Flash Move” The staff calls out again, the girl herself breaks her stance and pulls up a hand to call up her own pink magic circle in an attempt to defend against the on coming blast, only to result in the circle shattering like a pane of glass.

“Eii!” She calls out, her barrier jackets shoulder pad is torn with a small trickle of blood flowing down her arm. Despite the danger, she closes her eyes and mumbles something to herself, before opening them again and aiming once more. This time a magic circle forms around her feet much wider then the previous ones which form during her magic.

The man raises his hand again for another shot, however it’s quickly drawn up before he can fire and bound above his head as several smaller pink magical circles appear and disappear around him. “Damn! A Bind!?” He shouts, breaking his silence. He struggles with for a moment and raises his free hand before that too is bound within a small pink ring of energy.

“Let go of the Chaos Seed, please!” Again, she cries out to him, despite the determination in her face. The large magical circle still lying beneath her, the arcane runes orbiting as she once again aims her staff. Drawing pink sparkles from the air as it starts to collect collection and reuse of the magical energy left over by previous attacks dispersed in the combat airspace. A large ball of energy builds up at the end of her stave slowly growing larger with time. Begrudgingly the man lets go of the gem, understanding her intention and starts to drop, still bound by her spell.

Ignoring him she finally calls out the command word requires to activate the spell, the collected energy now larger then she is. “Starlight Breaker!” With the activation she pierces it with a blinding flash as all the energy is directed to the direction of her staff in a huge torrent of magical force. Fortunately the barrier set up helps to localise and help conceal the more blatant parts of her fight as well as to block her opponents escape route. However, as the light converges and forms everything into a large coherent beam it breaks through and shatters the Chaos Seed, flowing further up into the sky and into the barrier which also shatters and dissipates the rest of the effect flows high into the sky before harmlessly (at least she hopes) dimming into nothing.

Meanwhile, the thief takes this time to break his bind, smiling under his mask as he forms a magic circle during his quick descent, sensing what was already occurring above long before the enforcer would work it out. Research made a lot of difference. Though much less subtle and potentially traceable, he forms up a transportation spell to take him any where else but here… even if they did trace the spell, he can quickly move on before they catch up to him and with any luck there’s too much magic in the area to properly get a lock.

The girl however, watched the night sky for a moment, attempting to catch a gleam of any remains of the Chaos Seed before looking for her opponent. He was long gone, the night was something of a net loss for her people, but it was better then allowing it into someone else’s hands. With that, she set up a Area Search spell with the help of her staff before finally going back to report to her elders.



High up in the red hues of dawn, small purple shards no larger then the sizes of a fingernail started to fall back down towards the earth. Still glowing with malevolent energy each one radiated a certain… yearning, they wanted to be whole again, to be complete and fulfil their purpose. As they continued their planet fall, however, they starts to separate further, unable to be bound by will alone the sheer forces pulls them away from one another on the paths to many different regions of the world. The main body of the gem still fell towards Midchilda in pieces that would land all over the island in the ground and ocean alike. The rest however were scatted about the globe as different forces dragged them and pulled them around… but it didn’t matter. They wanted to be found and even if it took weeks, months, years, decades or even centuries they would eventually find their way into the hands or paws of living beings, beings with desires and dreams that could be bent into one purpose. To be whole again. In order to achieve this they were by themselves useful powerful artefacts… nothing quiet like the complete article, but enough to imbue others with their a certain degree of power, able to strengthen ones magical abilities, power magical devices or even imbue someone without the ability to form their spirit into magic the means to do so. One way or another they would become whole again… it was just a matter of time.

[OOC Thread for Questions and Answers] (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=512379)
[Detailed OOC Explaination of what others may have observed about the above incident.] (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showpost.php?p=12136760&postcount=2)

The previous nights events little more then sparkles floating down from the sky, morning breaks apart the deep red cloudy skies and Midchilda wakes up to bright dawn. The local police had gone home empty handed; convinced that the cities library was the victim of a high profile international thief and the news stations were eagerly camping outside the station in anticipation for a mid-morning statement… but they were the only ones, the rest of the sleepy island nation slowly rose to their pleasant humdrum lives, mostly unaware of the nights events.

The day was Tuesday, a work day for some and a school day for others like Melissa Bannings, now in her first year in high school. The late dawn of winter broke through her curtains, softly illuminating the room in a pale yellow before finally an electronic musical tune started to play from a phone on the desk next to Melissa’s bed. Stirring for a moment the short auburn haired girl finally made a pathetic grab for her mobile before it got any louder. Sitting up Melissa rubs her eyes and turns to her desk where she laid her phone to rest again. “Good morning, Raging Heart.” In a little padded wicker basket, almost as though it’s for a very small animal, a necklace rests in some yellow padding. It was a simple necklace; a thin golden chain with a simple latch, attached to the chain hung a thumbnail sized ruby-red globe, opaque and kind of glass like so it almost looked cheap, certainly not a precious stone to anyone but the owner. As to be expected, there was no reply but Melissa seemed happy anyways, smiling as she put on some slippers and prepared for the morning ritual of getting ready for school.

Twenty minutes later Melissa came down stairs to her family wearing her everyday school uniform. As many of the better schools in Midchilda, Melissa’s school made no exception in having its own simple but dashing uniform; everyone wore a beige blazer with a simple white shirt underneath. Styles depended on your sex, for girls they had a thin bow with colour depending on the year they were in, Melissa wore a thin red bow to signify her being a freshmen. Boys instead wore ties with a similar colour system. The real difference of course came with the lower half of the body, really, it was enough to convince most people that sexism was still rampant even today as the girls were encouraged (though not forced) to wear plaited skirts and the boys were given trousers without the option of a skirt (though no one asked for one). Both were the same dull dark brown. Being winter some of the girls chose to where the trousers, others simply wore tights or simple chose to tough it out. Melissa chose the tights. Around her neck the chain of her necklace would be seen, though the rest of it was concealed under her shirt as one might expect on a uniform.

“Morning everyone!” she called out, her family ran a small café, Midori-ya just outside of the city centre near the coast so the table was spread with a reasonable selection of breakfasts to choose from. Across from Melissa sat her older sister, Clair who turned nineteen last month, unlike Melissa her hair was longer and a darker brown from the father’s side, a tall thin girl her wore glasses and practiced martial arts with her older brother, Carl who sat next to her. Carl himself was the first born of the family and very similar to his father with his short, dark brown hair and relatively lean build. Both older siblings were still in education like Melissa, Clair in college and Carl in university, all relatively close to their home. Thanks to the often busy environment of the shop, often everyone pitched in to help out and helped one another where possible. Breakfast was surprisingly enjoyable at home as many of the others worked late in the café, practiced their hobbies or studied late at night so there wasn’t much else opportunity to see how the others were doing.

“Good morning Melissa, did you sleep well?” her father asked, like Carl he was fairly tall, around six feet tall and build a little stockier, he too used to practice martial arts, however due to a injury he long ago took up a safer more relaxing profession of running a café. Melissa nodded with a smile, though she was betrayed by a slight yawn. A little embarrassed she replied “Well enough, I was working hard on my studies until late.”

“Fair enough, but don’t work too hard… you’ve got to enjoy yourself while you’ve still got your youth.” her father lectured, flipping a small pancake at the stove. Passing some more batter to her husband, Melissa’s mother took the opportunity to take over the conversation. Like Melissa her long past shoulder-length hair was a lighter brown. “So, are you going anywhere with Rebecca later tonight, Melissa?” Again, the young girl nodded as she finished off the last bits of her toast before replying. “I’m going to her house later to study, I remember saying something about it the other night.”

“How is she these days? I’m always surprised at how quiet she is for someone her age…” Mother continued to pry. Melissa simple shrugged it off. “Same as ever really, she’s not the outgoing type of person but she looks after me never the less. She replied with a smile. Rebecca has been her friend for several months now and had helped her through a lot despite the fact she was several years older then Melissa. The rest of the breakfast went as it always did; small talk about one another’s lives and a leisurely meal before finally grabbing her things and making her way to School.

Melissa arrived at the high school gates ten minutes before registration began, as one might expect the white main building wasn’t much to really look at, several stories high with large windows lining each floor allowing light into the classrooms, a average high-school. Other students of different ages flowed around her taking their time and talking about the little nothings that made up student life. No wanting to waste much time, Melissa headed straight for class to meet up with her friends.


The morning went along as usual; top in the class at mathematics Melissa easily drifted through the lesson still a little tired. The mental exercises helped bring her up to her normal cheery self before the lunch bell finally sounded. Parting with her class mates Melissa made her way to the same spot near the field she usually hung out, taking a seat on a bench while waiting for her friend, Rebecca. As usual the tall blond girl made her appearance in the distance. Melissa waves her over like usual as she closes in with a shy smile.

Despite her somewhat quiet demeanour, Rebecca was quite the athlete in comparison to both Melissa and the rest of her classmates with the figure to match, like Melissa she wore the knee length skirt with tights underneath to keep her warm in the winter, unlike Melissa her thin neck ribbon was blue, the colour for third year students. Currently she kept her long blonde hair in a neat pony tail tied up with a thin black ribbon as it reached down her back, many thought it impractical given her keen interest in sports, but she refused to cut it for reasons she wouldn’t explain to anyone. It was understandable she was quite popular among other students, but for the most part she kept her distance from most but her closest friends.

The two sat down and said their hellos before finally tucking into their lunches, watching the other students go by as they ate. For most of the lunch they made small talk about their classes; both were fairly successful students, but each excelling in their own way. Melissa was surprisingly intelligent for her age and scored high in many of her classes, both of them were rather good at Math but Melissa seemed to do well in many of her other classes where Rebecca would score slightly above average… however, Melissa wasn’t really as physically fit or talented in sports as Rebecca and was just about able to sidestep the occasional dodge ball and keep up with other girls.

Lunch nearly over and many of the nearby crowds dispersing, Rebecca changed the subject in a slightly hushed voice. “So… about last night…” she started, her expression showing a hint of concern. “How bad was it?”

Melissa paused for a moment, her ever-present smile dampened slightly. “… it could have gone a lot better, the thief escaped from my clutches while I fought to control the blast; he could be anywhere now and area is practically overflowing with the remaining energy signature left over from the Seed’s destruction. Bal doubts we’ll be able to separate any of it enough to get a clear reading.” Melissa sighed to herself for a moment before continuing, renewing her smile artificially. “Still… Bal says it’s not really my fault and that I did everything I could to keep it from getting into the wrong hands, if I had waited for backup the chances are we may not have caught up to him before something even worse happened...”

“But you aren’t convinced?” Rebecca asked, her voice sincere. She knew how Melissa felt; it was unfortunately common among these days, especially among the more idealistic enforcers. Melissa nodded ever so slightly in acknowledgement. “Looking back at how I handled it, I can see where I went wrong… Starlight Breaker needs a lot of effort to properly control and focus, even more so when near something as powerful as the Seed. Had I refined it more I may have been able to finish channelling it earlier and concentrated on pursuit…”

“Mel…” Rebecca interrupted. “don’t worry about it so much, like Bal said, you did everything you could and the worse was avoided.” Rebecca smiled as if to put it all behind her before lifting up her voice to continue. “Anyways, that’s what tonight is all about. The other can deal with the investigation for now, but in the mean time you should rebuild your confidence... can’t have my partner give up on me now, can I?”

As if the conversation never happened, Melissa’s expression returned to its normal cheery self. “Of course, I can’t wait!” she said happily. Rebecca simply nodded before finally getting up. “Come on, we better get going or we’ll be late for class.”


The rest of the afternoon went by rather quietly for the two, their studies could probably be described as slightly dull and rather uninteresting, the normal mundane life of your average student as they listened to the science of the world simplified and repeated until they remembered it without question. Education wasn’t bad in Midchilda, even with the limited resources of the barely first world island nation had they managed to fund a relatively competent system of school. Education was pretty important to the socialistic government of Midchilda. Finally, the sun started to set and the lessons slowly came to an end, leaving towards the gate Melissa split up with her friends to meet with Rebecca as they had agreed the previous day.

“So, what’s the plan for tonight then, Mel?” Rebecca asked after all the customary greetings were out of the way. The pair had made a point of getting the local train out towards Melissa’s place, a little way out of the city which still had many people wandering around at this time of year. Though it was getting dark the local parks were still rather safe in Midchida, especially away from all the tourists. It would offer the two some nice open grounds away from others in which to train. Melissa had made the point of taking out her necklace and was now wearing it outside on top of her uniform, the red gem still dim in the dark as the thin gold necklace shone slightly as they passed under the lights. “I was thinking of starting slow with some control exercises, followed by you helping me set up a special barrier for some test firing…” she replied, smirking ever so slightly.

“Er… ok… if you are sure you.” Rebecca replied timidly. ‘Test firing’ with Melissa was always rather complicated, like Rebecca she liked to perfect her own way of magic and stay keen and ready, it was practically a hobby for the two of them and provided good relaxation. However, Melissa was perhaps a little too keen at times and it was not completely uncommon to see minor training accidents as a result, though she really didn’t mean any harm. Still, it was better then her doing it alone, and it worked both ways as they would take turns to help one another.

“Here we are.” Melissa stated simply. The park was a fairly simple open affair, a couple small open fields, a play area for little children and trees all around the edges to offer the feeling of being in the wilderness. Currently the pair were just off one of the fields by one of the lamps illuminating the park, they placed their bags on one of the benches looking out into the field and looked around for the moment to see if the area was clear. “Could you set up the barrier while I get ready, Reby?” Rebecca nodded, grasping a triangular piece of golden metal she pulled out from her blazer pocket.

Walking a short distance away from Rebecca, who was now chanting to herself, Melissa grasps her necklace tight. “Lets go Raging Heart.” Slowly she lifts the red gem in her hands and gently kisses it before starting her own incantation. “The wind is in the sky and the stars in the heavens, the bright shining light is in my arms and a resolute heart beats within my chest. Raging Heart! Set up!” As she calls out the tell tail pink magical circle forms around her feet further lighting the area in a magenta glow. Around her the dark purple hue of a barrier dulls the night sky and faintly glows of magical power. Suddenly, the red gem, Raging Heart calls out in activation.

“Stand by, ready, set up!” surprisingly the female voice sounds like that of the artificial intelligence of a computer, the English slightly broken and without empathy. Without any more hesitation, Melissa throws the now glowing gem into the sky as she herself is lifted from the ground by an unseen force before floating in place. Without warning or care for public decency laws, her uniform starts to layer by layer blink out of existence, leaving naught but her modest underwear and bra. Just as suddenly as the clothes disappeared pink threads of energy form around her hands and waist and quickly form her white and blue dress along with jacket. Next her white boots are formed from more magical thread before the final touches are added as a large red bow closes off the jacket and is perfectly tied by an unseen force.

Meanwhile, in the air Raging Heart, the red bauble from her necklace grows into a larger palm sized version of itself before forming the crescent in which it sits on top of her staff. From here the main body of the stave magically forms from pink energy with golden mechanical clip and all before spinning to the ground towards Melissa’s waiting hand. Inherently she catches it first time and gives it a quick twirl before finally standing still, transformation complete.

In the background, Rebecca stood unimpressed. Still in her own school outfit with an expression which obviously wasn’t surprise. “Do you really need to do that? I’ve seen you just use the command line and skip the whole sequence when we’re in a hurry…” she said, critically. Melissa pouted a little. “I’ve got to show proper respect to Raging Heart. She tries so hard, I bet Baradiche would wish you would say the incantation sometimes too.”

“Ok ok…”” Rebecca replied dismissingly. “In any case, Baradiche knows I look after him. Now come on, lets get this thing started with something small to warm you up and then we can start the more serious training…”

OOC: Edited... I hope this is something more like what you would be looking for.

Hidden among the backstreets, as the city had built around them over centuries, they had become reasonably forgotten. Lost powers of ages ago, they were the authority of Magic within the jurisdiction of all Unione territories. Similar to The Gentle Dawn in nature, The Priority of Dimashq were much responsible for the stability of the Magic Realms within this nation. As such they kept themselves in much secrecy, and if discovered by the official government they would most likely be hunted as enemies of the state, terrorists, which they were not. As such, wars fought between individuals and opposing sides were kept silent, far from the public eye and knowledge. In the meantime, peace had been achieved over the lands, and the Priority concerned itself more with the going-ons of foreigners.

"Grand Elder," a young mage presented herself to a private meeting. "I am detecting several disturbances... from a young nation by the name of Midchilda. I have reason to believe that it is threatening... it is a strong force."

The elder nodded, his wisdom ever increasing, "Then it is as true as I had feared. I have picked up some strong ripples coming from that nation just recently, it concerns me; given that we have had no prior knowledge of any significant there. I want you to investigate."

The mage nodded, "Very well. I will travel there on the next aircraft available. I haven't any reason to believe this has become an emergency, yet. But whatever it is, it was quite forceful in nature, and hostile to my listening of it."

With that, she turned and left the room. The elder nodded silently to himself, trying to listen further... but there was nothing to be listening to. Only silence. It was always interesting in the meantime, when one of his students picked up on something he was listening to himself. It was a sign that they were growing, and growing stronger. Good for the future of the Priority, although some elders would have disagreed; their argument being that magic should be kept in the hands of only the oldest and trustworthy of individuals. The school was indeed something for much controversy, but that was a problem for another time. Margaret would be arriving in Midchilda very soon, and from there she would contact him.

There are five Silent Halls in the Shadow Palace, deep beneath the earth; each lit only by a single candle, attended only by a single watcher. Their attention rests utterly on the still flame, and upon the shadows that flame casts.

Through the shadows they see the world; wherever a scrap of darkness falls their eyes may look out. The world is wide, but their minds are drawn always to the spark and flare of the supernatural, the Light that may be yet another of their enemies descending to earth.

As one the watchers feel it, as far away a great and blazing Light burns against the shrouding darkness. It is not the greater brilliance of their foes, but it bears investigation all the same; for their Enemy is cunning, and may turn anything It can against them. It is a difficult task, to oppose a God.

As one watcher rises, another appears to take his place. The watch must never falter.

The watcher steps into the shadows, shifting his sight from here to there; a moment later his body follows, and he stands beside the Lady whose domain this magic is. The Lady Tenebral of the Secular Arcana lost her name very young, a prodigy within the Shadow Palace; but even her title would be scarcely recognised, among the Lords of Night who rule the world above. The Secular Arcana is a lesser threat.

"Lady Tenebral," the watcher says.

"Watcher." The Lady adds nothing else; the watcher knows he is to report forthwith.

"An instance of the thirteenth category of the Secular Arcana, Lady. In a place called ... Midchilda."

"I see." He knows the Lady does, her eyes looking out upon the distant isle. "Return to your watch; as yet it need not concern us."

"Yes, Lady."

When he is gone the Lady Tenebral frowns, examining far Midchilda. She spoke the truth to the watcher; the serene republic does not concern the Shadow Palace yet. But she feels that soon enough it shall.

Flying into Midchilda was a fairly easy affair as a tourist; the peaceful little island chain was quite the enjoyable holiday location for many holidaymakers, even at this cold time of the year. The travel restrictions were fairly easy going thanks to a large portion of the nation’s income coming from travellers from abroad, only a few basic checks were being made at the airports to keep contraband such as firearms out, so for the most part with turbulence aside it would be a fairly easy going trip for Margaret.

Getting closer to the country itself it becomes easier, for those attuned to the flow of mana, to notice a fairly strong magical background count emanating from all around Midchilda in seemingly random places. The strongest of which was further into the capital itself in the inner city; the strong residual magical aura could easily be felt from the air on the approach and formed a blob like semi-sphere with a odd high concentration slightly off 45 degrees off to the side up into the sky, early signs pointed to a certain degree of dissipation so it was obviously recent, however the actual specific signatures were hard to pinpoint at this range, even as strong as they are. To complicate matters further, there were many other areas with above average background counts both inside and outside of the capital city… not nearly as strong or recent, but they weren’t normal in a supposedly mundane nation.

In any case, it was early days yet. Landing at the airport, Margaret was allowed through security without incident and given some local tourist papers and booklets. The hardest question she was ask would probably be “Are you here on business or pleasure?” from the customs officer, but otherwise she was left to her own vices.

Like many holiday locations, Midchilda had tons of options for the traveller, from cheap holiday inns to fancy and expensive hotels, all dotted around the local attractions; mostly the nearby seaside, but also some hot springs further to the north outside of the city. The tanned locals are English speaking and fairly helpful, tourists were good money and though they weren’t always a good influence, the simple people of Midchilda liked to hear about the outside world. A cool wind was blowing gently from the south and the sun was shining for what it was worth at this early time of the year.

Margaret breathed deeply, taking in the new air. For what she had seen, Midchilda was quite a nice place. Holidaymakers throughout the area she was taken, she paid her fee to the taxi driver and turned to meet her new home; home for at least a couple of weeks anyway, provided she didn't identify the source of strange ripples immediately of course. A cheap almost run-down inn, it was only natural for her to wish she was staying somewhere much more luxurious and five star... but alas, she had been given instructions to keep a low profile until she either made friends with any of the locals, or until it was safe to make her presence known at least. She kept her own powers somewhat muffled, especially because she was within a foreign territory.

Walking up to reception and getting a key was no problem, the biggest part of her problem was dragging her bags to the room with her - she had not been used to 'struggling' per say, she had always had her magic to assist if she needed it. Nonetheless, she got there in the end, a beige colored door that was simply marked 45.

"Curiouser and curiouser," she muttered under her breath, as she closed her eyes and felt the air around her. She had begun to detect further ripples coming from a place not far from here. Something was happening right now, though, nothing like the hostility they had all felt back from the Union.

Opening her eyes, she ignored it and entered the room. The room itself was neat-ish. It consisted of the main room, which included a bed, mini-kitchen, an older model T.V., a bathroom... and a table with two chairs. All pretty standard for a place like this, it made for much more of a base than a place you'd like to stay for the whole day. In the meantime, the bed was made and the benches wiped clean... and aside from the cobwebs and occasional dead bug that existed... it was alright.

Remembering what the elder had instructed, she concentrated lightly and sent him a message.

"I have arrived in Midchilda, and will begin investigating tomorrow night. Everything seems normal, aside from the occasional and seemingly random signatures I can feel from time to time. I haven't had much contact with the locals as of yet, but I am sure if they're out there... we'll be meeting with soon enough."

Meanwhile the pair of teens finished their preparations for Melissa’s training session, the evening sky dimly lit from the minor flow of the magical barrier erected to properly contain and conceal their practice. Not quite as large and encompassing as the barrier used on the barrier used on the night the Seed was destroyed, but it was clearly reinforced and concentrated slightly more then usual. The very nature of these magical barriers were designed to protect the mundane citizens of Midchilda; aside from providing a physical barrier of which to potentially entrap others and force a confrontation, the barrier also shifted the battlefield ever so slightly from normal space so as to not to endanger people accidentally caught inside… unfortunately it was a rather dodgy method at best as even the slightest amount of un-awaken magical potential was enough to shift the person along with the fighting mages and neither girl understood completely how the spell actually worked. They simply knew the basics, it took a fair bit of time and effort to fully erect on… though it was possible to hurry one and allow support mages to reinforce it, very little was truly certain when it came to magic. The barrier itself would, even at low force, take a reasonable amount of punishment to actually breach and as such there were special magics designed entirely for that for that purpose, though it still took a little concentration. Outside of the barrier, the area would seem normal as it looped it’s original state and run it’s own reality until the barrier was dropped or destroyed… then both realities would merge and any damage caused within the barrier would be instantly noticeable; another downside of the barriers in a sense. Usually one would make the effort to repair any damage before the barrier was dropped so not to cause any incidents later on but situations were never entirely sympathetic to such needs.

Looking upon her work, Rebecca turned back to the Melissa who was now wearing her clear white dress complete with magical staff. The young girl stood bold with a bright smile on her face, the dress billowing slightly with the gentle wind; to Rebecca this was Mel at her most natural, the anticipation of the moment in her eyes just before she would take off into the air like a creature born to fly. The dress was a interesting little oddity, each mage upon receiving their magical device would imagine their armour and weapon which would then take form based on their wishes. As could be expected, this made each made unique as their ‘barrier jackets’ would represent a certain degree of their personality. The barrier jacket itself, for Melissa her long white dress, is entirely formed from the mages spiritual energy which is channelled through their magical devices, for Melissa her red gem ‘Raging Heart’. Unlike actual physical armour, each barrier jacket represented the passive defensive magic protecting the mage… the material itself didn’t offer protection but instead a very close personal field surrounding the mage. Exactly how much protection the jacket provided itself depended on the mage, though often heavier protection would be represented by a more restrictive looking barrier jacket. All said and done, however, the barrier jacket was merely a last line of defence and compared to more active methods like shielding and barriers it wasn’t any where near as effective. Mostly they served to protect their user from environmental effects.

“Ready?” Rebecca asked, still standing in her school uniform. Melissa simply nodded as brilliant pink energy formed a pair of wings on each of her white boots. “Let me warm up a little, then we’ll start off with the basic control exercises before moving up to the main event.” Mel replied. With that she took to the sky with near perfect manoeuvrability, the little wings occasionally flapping as she went. On the ground Rebecca closed her eyes and placed her hand on her chest, reciting something to herself before a clear bright yellow magic circle formed at her feet. Finally, she holds out her hand and points it up to the sky, another smaller yellow magic circle forms just in front of her palm before several tiny bolts of energy materialise by the circle.

“Ready?!” She called out. As if to confirm her readied status, Melissa pointed her staff at Rebecca from her now high above position in the night sky, glowing magenta energy forming at the tip. “Ready!” she called back. Suddenly the small bolts that Rebecca had been charging up until that point where now charging towards Melissa, each of their paths slowly diverging and splitting up into different non-direct routes. Meanwhile, Melissa herself fired what could only be described as a small torrent of brilliant pink bolts from Raging Heart, which instinctively called out. “Devine Shooter”. Both mages closed their eyes and began what could basically be described as a magical game of tag. Rebecca’s goal was to attempt to hit Melissa without having her bolts intercepted by one of the many small balls of energy fired from Mel’s staff. Melissa on the other hand had to control each and every one of her bolts to protect herself by cancelling out the others effect… though she had more bolts to use the fact that she was controlling all of them at once provided the real challenge. Even trickier was to use some of the bolts to prepare a small counter attack on the other mage, while using just enough to intercept the oncoming attack and the remainder could be used to flack and attack the opposing mage from behind… enough to distract them for a real attack.

Many of the two mages training sessions went like this; practicing some of the more basic magics as well as developing their own methods from time to time. Sometimes they would mock fight, other times one would support the other as they further refined their techniques. Tonight it was Melissa’s turn to work on her control so as to further build her confidence. Meanwhile the game of tag in the air was coming to a close as Melissa with the clear advantage of being fully suited up eventually took them all down with relative ease… it was a rather basic exercise after all. For a little while longer the pair worked on similar exercises with similar results, sometimes it would take longer as Rebecca would find ways to confuse and distract Melissa, but ultimately it wasn’t really her area of expertise. Mel was the ‘shooter’ of the pair.

Slowly floating down and approaching Rebecca, Melissa smirk was clearly visible as she landed in front of her. Rebecca already knew where this was going, but obliged her by listening to her request anyways. “I think that’s enough control exercises for the night, can you help me further reinforce the barrier?” Mel’s voice was innocent enough, but her intent was clear. Regardless Rebecca simply shrugged and agreed without too much resistance. “Alright, but don’t push yourself, ok? You remember how draining this can be…”

Melissa simply nodded and quickly dismissed the comment keen to get on to the main reason she was here. The pair stood by one another and started another round of quiet chanting, their own individual magic circles forming around their feet before extending larger then usual several metres in each direction. The dim night sky glowed a little more as the concentrated magical barrier was further reinforced. The flow of magic probably a little more noticeable to the magically sensitive… but it didn’t matter too much; they didn’t need to maintain it for too long. The job done, Melissa stopped her chanting and took a look around at their work. “That should do the job… will you be alright maintaining it, Reby?” Rebecca simply nodded from within her circle, her eyes still closed.

“Ok… now, just in case I’ll put up a small protective barrier around you. You’re at the further point from where I’ll be aiming so there shouldn’t be any trouble, but it doesn’t hurt to make sure.” Melissa stated attempting to reassure Rebecca. Pointing her magical staff at her for a moment, a small semi-sphere of pink light forms itself around the school-girl before Raging Heart calls out “Round Shield ” to confirm the action. Then quietly she takes off to the sky a little distance away from her friend before levelling her staff.

Shouting down to Rebecca, Melissa explains what she’s going to do. “This is a variant on Starlight Breaker, I’m going to attempt to channel it faster using the Belka cartridge system to load all the shells at once to simulate the collection of energy usually required…” Down below Rebecca suddenly opened her eyes, barely keeping her concentration enough to continue to maintain the barrier. “…this way I should be able to channel it faster without the long wait time.” Melissa continued.

“Wait… what?!” Rebecca shouted out in near abject horror. Knowing her partners personality and determination, she redoubled her efforts on the barrier. “Don’t worry about it… Raging Heart is confident I can pull it off, right?” Melissa replies, looking down at her staff. “It can be done, as for my master.” It replied in it’s rather broken English. Melissa simply smiled, her confidence assured by the support of her weapon. Re-levelling her weapon, she started to concentrate on her target. Like most of her more powerful magic a large magical circle again formed at the base of her feet, this time extending a small distance over ten metres across in diameter, the arcane symbols orbiting the circle in a bright magenta light. Meanwhile around her staff small magic rings appeared and started to spin orbiting the central body, a larger one at the front and a small one at the back. The main body itself had extended in length a little so the entire staff was longer then Melissa was tall.

“Raging Heart, cartridge load!” Melissa finally calls out, her staff repeats the command in confirmation before it starts to quickly chew through it’s magazine, bolt after bolt like a automatic weapon. At the front of the staff a large concentration of energy starts to form as each round adds more and more magic into the light converging effect of the charge. Finally, the clip empty the staff’s twin pistons at its head release large billowing jets of steam outwards to the side that throw Melissa’s hair back before finally settling down prepared. The large concentration of magic now held in its own magical circle, Melissa pulls back the staff before finally striking the huge ball of energy with the tip.

“Starlight Breaker, Shooot!” A massive beam forms directly opposite from where the concentration of magic was struck, further channelled by Melissa’s staff and concentration. There is no further directing it, as she simply lacked the energy to make such a direct change to its course. All she could do was try focus and maintain the beam... which is how it went for a couple seconds before it finally hit the barrier. For a moment it looked like the barrier would hold, it had been specially strengthened for the test… however something quickly occurred to Rebecca the instant it struck; how exactly efficient was the barrier at absorbing the effect? At that moment she stopped maintaining it and allowed it to weaken and shatter, changing her stance to quickly protect herself with her hands, a small magical circle forming from them like a shield.

As the beam hit the barrier, the result was instantly clear to both the girls who quickly stopped their channelling and took protective measures as the energy was both absorbed and partially deflected back inside before finally being freed out into the night sky in a bright flash. Hopefully the locals would think it was fireworks, but regardless the two would have to report the incident to the others. The backwash hit Melissa fully who had the sense of presence enough to form a quick shoddy shield which shattered and blasted her back down to the ground rather harshly. When the now much weakened and dissipated backwash reached Rebecca the effect was barely enough to stress the protective field placed around her. The dim purple hue of the barrier now gone, all the sounds of the suburbs gently flowed back in and the park could be seen in its normal yellow streetlight lit way. The damage to the park was pretty insubstantial, the fortunate thing about many of the mana-powered magics of the Midchilda mages was that you have to concentrate the force to actually cause physical damage… otherwise it was more of a concussive force. Some of the trees were a bit bent but the only real damage was a small trail of ground dug up from where Melissa had crashed.

“Melissa, are you ok?!” Rebecca shouted, leaving the safety of her field which disappeared as soon as she left it. Melissa audibly groaned from her position, lying on her back in the dirt she attempted to get up before grunting and falling back down. “Could be better…” she replied. Reaching her position, Rebecca gave her a quick look over before finally helping her to stand and supporting her friend.

“Looks like the barrier jacket absorbed most of the impact, but you definitely should rest it off and take it easy for a while… what the hell were you thinking?” She asked, almost annoyed. Melissa half heartedly smiled and shrugged. “If I had perfected my channelling technique before last night I could have saved the rest of the girls any more trouble… but you’re right, that was stupid of me. I’m sorry I put you in danger.”

“Don’t worry about it… just be more careful, ok? You need to worry more about your own health more then you need to worry about others. Now come on, lets get back to my place and do some actual studying.”

"Unca Obhie! I found you a pretty stone!"

Obheth hunkered down to look at the stone his niece Therassalia was holding up; some kind of purple crystal, forcibly shorn from some larger rock, perhaps ... a jeweler by trade, Obheth couldn't recognise this stone.

"It's very pretty," he agreed. She deposited it in his palm with a five-year-old's careful solemnity. The gem caught a spark of moonlight as he turned it which seemed to linger even after he'd taken it into shadow.

"And in return ... would you like an icecream, Thera?"

The answer to that was yes, of course. They went to find a vendor to fulfill his niece's desire.

---

Althenessa regarded her purchase and smiled. The jeweler she'd gone to was held in high regard among the Court of Night, and although she'd paid more than she would have liked, she was sure that Athorian would like it.

She hoped he'd like it; lately it seemed he'd been paying less and less attention to her, and was always off hunting or gaming or drinking with his friends. Her father had been delighted when the priests had approved their marriage. It was a good match - Athorian after all was a High Lord of Night - and she'd been so proud to have caught the dashing, daring, handsome High Lord Abhansseidh, the most eligible bachelor of the Spires of Night. But her mother had warned her that Athorian's gaze would wander once the flush of new love wore off, and although Althenessa had called her a hateful cynic, she was beginning to fear that her mother had been right.

It felt ... unfair to have to catch his attention with trinkets; hadn't he sworn to honor and cherish her all her days? Certainly she still loved him; Athorian was like a demigod, impossible not to adore. But she sat on the edge of their bed, holding the necklace she'd bought and waiting for him to arrive home, and wondered if it had been her he loved, or merely the thrill of the chase.

He came home early today, as if warned somehow that his wife was waiting, and she rose to give him her most winning smile.

"I bought you a present, 'Rian," she told him, reaching up to put the chain over his head. He was tall enough that she could tuck her head under his jaw, but he ducked his head obligingly.

Athorian looked down at the gem hanging at his chest - and at her, visible in the same angle.

"I think you bought me two presents," he replied, examining what she wore under her sheer robe, and favored her with one of his wide, leonine grins.

"Perhaps I did," she said, smiling impishly up at him. "Did you bring anything for me?"

"Perhaps I did," he rumbled in reply, and pulled her close.

Althenessa reached up to begin unwrapping her gift, and soon enough her desire was fulfilled.

---

Sometime later, in the lazy early hours of the night, Athorian rolled over to grace her with his smile.

"You know," he said, "We don't do that often enough."

I do know that, Althenessa thought, but murmured something wordless, a "Go on".

"How would you like a holiday? A second honeymoon, of sorts? I've been meaning to spend more time with you, 'Nessa."

"That," she replied, "Would be lovely."

---

"Here, here, here - and here."

The Lady Tenebral examined the locations the Watcher had indicated on the maps.

"Hmm. The park downriver, the buisness district, the Spires of Night ... and Midchilda. And it's related to the earlier thirteenth category instance?"

"Yes, Lady. The echo in the shadow realm is identical. We've been tracking it, and we think - we're sure - that it left Midnight, and came to Midchilda, aboard a civilian version of our own fast-response planes. An AMC-39, to be precise. It's registered owner is High Lord Athorian Abhansseidh."

The Lady Tenebral allows no emotion to show. The nobility! she thinks. Ingrate meddling arrogant fools! And that international playboy Abhansseidh to boot!

"I see," she says. A noble with something related to a thirteenth category instance ... she doesn't need the headache. Not with the Lord Tenebral of the Accursed prophesying the Bright Messenger's return.

"We'll have to send someone from the Jade Dance Circle, then. Kailanneth adh Shirathaval."

---

Adept Kailanneth was not, and would never be, a Watcher; peering through the shadows into High Lord Abhansseidh's five-star suite made her feel uncomfortably voyeuristic. She was thankful that her Lieutenants were managing a good three-shift watch on the High Lord and his wife, excusing her of the duty of observing them.

Her plane had set down early in the afternoon, leaving the Shadowborn jet-lagged; in the normal course of events they would rise at dusk and retire at dawn. Walking in the daylight was unpleasant, not least for the heavy cassocks, masks, and gloves that the sunlight necessitated.

She wondered what the Midchildans thought of them, robed and masked in black on a sunny day - there was no Shadowborn ghetto or expatriate community on the island, or no doubt an adept from the local chapter house would have been sent in her place. The proprietor of the small hotel they were lodged in had insisted they remove their masks, but there was no danger in that while they were indoors. He'd blanched at their albino features and amber, catlike eyes, though, and Kailanneth suspected he wished he hadn't insisted now.

There was no time to wonder about civilians, though - throughout the day she'd felt the echo of magic use near and far in the city, occluded by the fading ring of what must be the category thirteen instance reported by the Palace Watchers. Nothing she'd felt had been quite that strong, thankfully, but it was disturbing. Come morning she'd venture out to investigate.

It was night when Margaret had emerged from her room... not quite having gotten adjusted to the hours here in Midchilda, it didnt seem to bother her in the least that it was well past Eleven o' Clock when she had left for the skies above this city - the largest source by far of ripples within the space-time and magic continuum within the nation. Granted, the stongest waves had ceased not long after they had been 'sensed' by herself and the elder she had spoken with about them, but there were some still existing in the wake of its aftermath. As for now the area 'glowed' as if it were an iron sword just pulled from the heat of fire itself. For this reason, it was an easy to find location. Margaret who would have normally obeyed the laws of her school chose to ignore them here in the foriegn land. It didn't matter so much if they were felt by observers, although much of what she did probably wouldn't be noticed by anyone.

Closing her eyes she levitated well above the city below, the wind gently blowing through her dark brown hair. She concentrated, feeling its source... Something had been destroyed here... and stolen.... Frowning, it was indeed a mess if anything... much of what there was to listen to was scrambled with either useless or unrelated information. But she sensed something new; a fight between Good and Evil perhaps? Or perhaps not, it could have simply been a fight between two individuals... but they certainly had some strong powers.

Curious indeed, the presense of magic was not known to exist on Midchilda beforehand... it was odd that any existance that had been so before had not been felt by the Priority in some way or another. Nevertheless, she found it impossible to discern whether they were natives or visitors to the island-nation.

When she opened her eyes, she hadn't even noticed that she had been up-side down this whole time. And quickly made her escape back to the Hotel to process this new information further - by air of course. Flying wasn't something Margaret was able to enjoy often.

As Margaret finished investigating the fight scene before flying off, two others stood a little way away from the east side of the library on the public side of the police line that had been put in place. Were it not for the time of night the two wouldn’t look out of place in the slightest; one was a young woman looking to be in her late twenties with long red hair tied into a pony tail going past her shoulders, the other looked more like her sibling or perhaps even her daughter no older then twelve with her own darker red long hair tied into plaited pig tails. They were both casually dressed so not to draw any more attention to themselves then necessary; the only noticeable oddity was that each of them wore a necklace outside of their clothes around their necks, both very similar except for the symbol they each carried, a sword for the older woman and a hammer for the girl. Currently the younger girl was concentrating with her eyes closed in the direction of the debris while the other kept watch.

“I’m having a hard time distinguishing his signature from the Seed’s… it’s not as bad here at least but it’s very faint, I can’t even tell if it’s Midchildian or Belkan.” she stated, opening her eyes and turning to her older partner.

“To use the Seed like Melissa described would suggest he has some skill, I’d say he probably made a point of muddying his signature, at the very least we’re dealing with a rogue mage that knows about us. Still, we’re going to need to know more…” The older woman looked around for a moment before continuing. “Coast looks clear enough, could you try again with a active search?”

The girl nodded and then grasped on to her necklace. “Graf Eisen, set up.” A red light started the shine through her closed hand which then quickly materialised into a long metal shaft with crimson trimmings, finally the end is formed revealing a t-shaped mallet with a short spike continuing past, the main red section below the head had a strange port for loading cartridges. Holding Graf Eisen, the girl went back to concentrating. Understanding what was about to happen, the older woman took a step back as a triangular magic pattern formed under the girls feet as she positioned the large hammer so that the hammer end pointed the floor, spike just above the ground. For a moment she gathers a small degree of energy flowing both red and white into the end of the staff.

“Eisengeheul!” The device barked in its male electronic voice as the girl drives the mallet’s head into the ground breaking the concrete underneath before exploding in a torrent of wind and magical energy. To the ear in the dead of night it was like a minor shatter followed by a sudden rush of wind… magically however it was the equivalent of a violent active ping on sonar radar as the burst of energy flew outwards eventually dissipating high in the sky… easily enough to cover several blocks. All the while the girl concentrated, occasionally muttering to herself as the field expanded and weakened. Again, she opened her eyes and turned to her senior.

“Ugh… I think I have something but it’s strange…” Now propping herself up with her mallet, the girl looked a little disoriented. “Aside from Melissa’s signature and the Chaos Seed’s signature, which were hard enough to separate as it is, there are two others. First the older one is most likely our rogue-mage’s, it’s very faint and it has been overwhelmed by the Seed. From what I can tell it’s feels like a variant on Midchildian… beyond that though I really couldn’t say, could be that he just walked here instead of using transportation magic, the rest is horribly muddled.”

“Hm… makes sense I suppose, he’s made all this effort to conceal his identity he wouldn’t be so foolish as to leave a trail we could possibly track. What about this other signature? Melissa didn’t say anything about a third person…”

“It’s very recent, no more then ten, fifteen minutes old… near the fight Melissa had and heading south. It was very faint; I could barely notice it with all the interference. Strangest of all… it doesn’t feel like any kind of magic I’ve encountered before, it suggest transportation of some kind, but its all wrong.”

“Wait, fifteen minutes ago?” The older woman suddenly got much more active and paid a lot more attention. “Damn, you should have said right away… go home for the night, Vicky, I’ll have one of the other girls escort you just in-case our rogue picked up your howl, I’ll speak to you later.”

“Ok Sam, be careful.” she replied dutifully. With that the two separated, each moving fairly quickly on foot in opposite directions, Samantha started to go down her mental list of everyone’s location before remembering something. Rebecca, where are you now? She thought out loud telepathically, walking with haste south. I’m with Melissa over by the Heritage Tram Station, why, what’s wrong? The reply took a moment as it usually does with telepathy, sorting out exactly what you’re going to say and getting used to the sudden conversation that just interrupted you was rather distracting. I’m following a possible lead on last nights events; it’s heading in your direction. Could you suit up and confront them as I catch up? She asked, the voices were clear in one another’s heads. Ok, Sam, but I think it would be best that Melissa doesn’t come, she’s pretty worn out from her training tonight and is pushing herself hard enough as it is… Rebecca replied in a slightly sad tone. Understood, I shouldn’t need both of you. Good hunting and watch the skies.


Both girls sitting down at the tram station, Rebecca store into the distance as she finished her ‘conversation’ with Samantha, Melissa now back in her school uniform and looking high into the sky, looking at all the stars contently. Her discussion now over, Rebecca got up and turned to her friend.

“Sam just asked for some help on a possible lead, hopefully nothing too important. Will you be ok getting back home?” she asked politely with a smile. Melissa belatedly nodded, visibly drained. Rebecca continued, starting to walk out of the station. “Call me if you have any trouble, this shouldn’t take long.”

Finding a clear spot, Rebecca started pulled her pendant out from her pocket, a golden coloured triangle with a small circle in the middle. Grasping on to it, she called out. “Bardiche, set up!” A bright yellow magical circle forms around her feet and for a moment she’s lifted into the air by the magical power, quickly, avoiding a long drawn out transformation sequence her school uniform is replaced by matter of quick materialisation of her barrier jacket in its place, a stark contrast to Melissa’s in many respects. As the ‘armour’ forms from her feet up to her head, Rebecca’s shoes are now metallic boots stopping just above the ankles, followed are a black pair of thigh highs with a red trim stopping midway up the top leg just below the short white skirt which frankly is more of decoration for the large red belt around the waist. Her top half is covered by a form fitting black swimsuit like top with red trimmings that reaches up to her neck; the arms are bare until they reach a pair of short black gloves. Finally as if to top the outrageous outfit off, she wears a black cape with a large neck fold (currently up) the inside of the cloak is crimson. Strangely Rebecca doesn’t seem to mind it too much as her staff formed in her hands, like her outfit it too is mostly black, the main shaft metallic in nature with the end clearly forming a axe head with a large yellow gem, must like Melissa’s red gem. Like the other devices it has a cartridge system located below the head, in this case it’s a revolver mechanism concealed slightly by a tube like case. On the back on the one-headed axe is the same sort of venting system Melissa device seems to have.

Sudden change now completed, Rebecca sets off into the sky, a slight yellow trail behind her. Like Margaret she’s flying high so not to be seen by the local population… but unfortunately she’s never been quite as subtle.

RevTerr had absolutely nothing to do with Midchilda, except, maybe, the similarities: both islands, both pleasurable. Midchilda had magic, RevTerr had the Cats, and the way that they where really part of day-to-day life. Not that anyone would treasure their droppings or use them in oracles (anymore), but a cat was considered to be a revterran’s best friend.
RevTerr did not have connections with Midchilda, apart from the occasional tourists visiting each other. But planes did carried revterrans to the neighborhood countries. Revterrans, and their lovely companions.
It was noted immediately. As the planes approached Midchilda, the cats where beginning to sniff the air, and gather around at portholes looking toward east, west, north, or wherever that country would be at that time. For an outsider, this might be… uncomfortable. For a revterran, it was extremely uncomfortable.
So, one day, this day, the RevTerran National Television (TVRev) sent a freelancer, named Trion Dim, to investigate. The guy arrived in Midchilda's capital city carrying three cats, Daris, Matis and Taris (all having miniature cameras and tracking devices), and some electronic equipment, among which one could find the RIK, Revterr’s all-purpose PDA. Nothing illegal, of course, as this was just a feature report.
Trion was sleeping at T-0, where the Museum explosion occurred.

Trion’s RIKLog, T+2:03
I had the most freaking night of my life.... at around two o'clock, local time, something woke me up, I think an explosion of some kind, close by. And when I woke up I found that all the cats where staring at me. You know that stare that says "Come", well, there where three cats that looked at me, in the dark, three pair of eyes. I literary froze. The cats meowed and went at the window, witch I have closed earlier. I opened it, and then all three of them run out of the room. I immediately started the CatCams.... the cats went to what I think it a local Museum. A guy blew his way in (well, actually, they said at the tv that he blew his way out of there — that was the explosion that woke me). Well, the cats looked around that place for a few moments, and then they literary stared at the sky for half an hour. After that they returned home and went to sleep, like nothing happened. I have been looking at the images for the last hour, there is nothing there, except for occasional meteors and, I think, video-parasites. I'll investigate them later in the morning.

Trion’s RIKLog, T+5:27
Ok... I am running....Running and recording. It is morning, and the cats woke me up about an hour ago. Again, that "follow me" look, which, I admit, scares the Cat out of me. I got dressed, got my RIK and... here I am, chasing my cats. I have a sort of map, which show me that I'm heading south, through a forest. The cats are definitely looking for something.

Trion’s RIKLog, T+6:00
Ok.... we have reached a clearance and my cats scattered, leaving me breathless and stunt... I followed Daris for a couple of minutes, but he climbed into a tree so fast I thought something was chasing it (which, of course, added more to my freakiness). Daris is not meowing danger, not saying anything, and I'm not gonna waste any defensive hand on activating the RIK and the CatCAm. It's one of those moments when you discover that birds are not singing, visibility is not that good around and you... AHHHHH!!!!!

Trion literary jumped away a couple of meters, while kicking hard the thing that landed on his shoulder. Only after finally looking, he realized that it was just Daris. The kicked cat elegantly turned into the air, and, after a tumble, she landed safely. After a disapprovingly meow and a glance, the cat "signaled" again to be followed.

They found Matis and Taris after another kilometer, staring at a mid-size rock that was placed in the middle of a stream. The rock had a rather umbrella-like shape, so one could reach it's top only from above. It was clear that Taris, still wet, attempted to get there, but failed.
Trion entered the water who was barely 30cm deep and reached the rock, while filming with the RIK. There didn't seem to be anything different with this rock except... wait a minute... what's this? Trion picked the small finger-nail sized red sparkling jewel hidden in the moss.
Ouch! Taris's nails where penetrating deep Trion's pants, almost hurting him, which was strange for a revterran cat. And yet, this cat was determined to climb out of the water and higher on Trion. The man stood bewildered as the cat climbed on his pants and from there on the rock. At this point the cat executed a perfect jump, from the rock toward Trion's hand, swallowing in mid-air the jewel and the landing in then water.

Trion’s RIKLog, T+9:00
We're back to the hotel and I'm trying to make some sense. So Taris used me to get that jewel, so he could reach it and eat it. He seems perfectly normal, and refused any purgative I tried to give to him. I'm gonna try to look at the CatCam's recording to see... oh, no, they want to be followed again.

That is strange.

The thoughts filtered through the female's mind as she sat upon a hilltop facing eastward. Opening her eyes, she watched the skies, scanning for anything out of the ordinary. Yet, she knew she had sensed something, something far away, something that had enough power in whatever it was that had been done to travel the great distances to where she was now.

A butterfly on one side of the world can form a hurricane on the opposite side of the world.

Silently, she rose to her feet and closed her eyes, visualizing the energy lanes around her, seeking the one that would lead her to the area of which the disruption had taken place. Her mind grasped one at last and upon opening her eyes, there was a small spherical portal growing rapidly in size, its outer surface looking very much like a liquid mirror. Without hesitation, she stepped forward into the liquid, watching as her foot disappeared momentarily, followed closely by her leg and the rest of her body.

Traveling the lanes of the earth is no easy task, for if one loses their concentration, they could literally end up anywhere. Each lane was very narrow, very slippery. Such fluidity is what kept the world together as it was known. Sacrifices had to be made to maintain such.

Somewhere in Midchilda

At first, it seemed to any observers that the pebbles on the ground were becoming defiant of gravity, rising slowly until they merged together and suddenly flashed none too softly into a silvery sphere. The world surrounding the sphere reflected as easily as it had done the first time and was only broken with the silent entry of the traveler. Within moments of arriving, the lane had closed, resuming its natural course.

Scanning the area carefully, the female shifted several visual screens, searching for various indicators. Off in the distance to her north, there was a residual flare of recent arcane usage, or rather, disruption.

Moving toward it, she ignored the various looks of those that looked her way and saw her garb, her hair that seemed afire, and the strange, aged look in her youthful appearance.

OOC: I Hope this is OK Midchilda. If not, I'll edit or retract it if you TG me or let me know in some way. Just a note, Yédor is tropical so my character isn't suicidally risking hypothermia.

IC:

<<Night the Chaos Seed was Destroyed>>

Kyle Keflavik floated in the waters outside his home in Yedor. Actually, it would be more accurate to say he filled it as it filled him. This was his home, his element. The power in his heart, the Heart of the Ocean, pulsed and flowed around him, reaching out into the oceans of the world, making him part of them, and they of he. He siged as he felt the caress of warm energy from a reef far away, as it momentarily thawed the cold ache in his own heart. Of course, that was why he spent so much time there, floating in the water. The living energy drew his mind from his own sorrow, his own lonliness, his own desire to be whole and complete again.

As if responding to his train of thought, his heart ghosted into one of the deep ocean trenches. A place of darkness that reminded him why humans truly feared the dark. That darkness was itself alive in its own twisted way, feeding off of sorrow and despair. The darkness took him in, as he knew it would. It whispered to his mind, whispered dark thoughts that Kyle still believed. "It's your fault," it whispered. "Your fault he's dead. You let him love you, love a freak."

Kyle didn't respond to the darkness. He knew it was true, that the Marmée Noir was right, but it had been 3 years of happiness amidst an imperfect life. He had wanted to be normal so very much. He wouldn't do it again, though. It wasn't worth the price, the pain that came with it. Content that it had done its bit of damage for the day to what was left of a lonely man's soul. Kyle let it recede. He could still take his solice in the ocean. There was something both solitary and communal, living but eternal, even more fundemental than the darkness. He could let it comfort him, for it had been there long before him, and would be long after. It was inconceivable that anything could happen to the ocean to deprive it of all life.

His placid meditations, however, ended abruptly when the ocean changed. It drew his attention and gave him sight to someplace far away. A place that screamed with energy at that instance. He was suddenly aware of aural colors, one pink, and one purple. He saw the pink pulse into the purple shattering it and throwing its energy outward. He quickly moved his own shields into place to resist its energy, visualizing a blazing herat of fire suddenly encased in everlasting ice that didn't melt. Even then, he still felt the power wave press against his shields as it washed over the world and dissipated. As he lowered his shields, the vision receded and he pulled his thoughts back into himself. To have buffeted his shields from that great a distance, the power released must have been great indeed. He opened his eyes and saw that his chest was ablaze in ice blue flame, his heart had been awakened by the power. Most intriguing indeed.

<<Planetfall of the Shards>>

Hours later, after daybreak, Kyle was back at the beach, this time prepared for magical work. He wanted more information about what had happened at night, and he was reasonably sure the waters of the world could tell him what he wanted to know. He threw the towel he had worn to cover himself for modesty away from him and moved into the water chanting under his breath. He stopped walking into the water as soon as it was deep enough to cover him to mid-stomach. As he stopped a hazy blue ring radiated out from around him into the water. He closed his eyes and held his hands over his chest and gasped as a shimmering blue crystaline heart poured from his body. This was no previous night where he passively allowed his power to wonder. No, this time he was in control and he would search.

He flung a tendril of power out recalling how the wave of energy had felt. He began searching with that tendril of power for the remnants of the night. He picked up a trail, faintly, but there. Nearby by any account, in the water, and moving. He raised an eyebrow and touched it with with his power. He almost immediately wished he hadn't. The Heart of the Ocean blazed between his ands and the power he was touching flashed instantly bright to his magical sense and captured his mind, drawing him in. He could feel it inside his head. It wasn't words exactly, but he understood. Longing. Incompleteness. A pang of sympathy moved through him as he isolated its location.

<<In Midchilda, illegally>>

Kyle stepped through the portal his Spatial Formation ability had formed. He looked around the small alley he had appeared in. Thankfully, there didn't appear to be anyone who had seen his sudden appearance. He smiled as he moved onto the main streets. This place was the source of the power he had felt. It stood to reason that if there were more strange shards, they should either be here, or would soon congregate there. He simply had to find them.

He eyed a group of masked and robed figures on the street. To his mind, that just didn't look natural. It certainly didn't fit in with what he saw on the street in general. He set off to follow them on a whim, deciding that their strangeness deserved some sort of investigation at the least. On his right ear, an earing with a fingernail sized purple sliver as a gem gleamed in the late afternoon sun, the only indication that Kyle was anything other than his perfectly normal abnormal self.

OOC: Midnight, I hope you don't mind me deciding to pay attention to your kittie-men. I will change it if you like. Anywho, as a strict note, I treated the shards as if they have their own will, although Kyle isn't so much under its control as a sympathetic sould who happens to want much the same thing (although I imagine their ideas of what the entails are somewhat different) that the shard was capable of forming some sort of agreement with...

"We've been sensing the echoes of the Secret Art all day, all over the city. As yet the cause remains clouded, but it is only a matter of time ..."

Kailanneth nods. Shanessel is the strongest of her Lieutenants; she trusts his senses as she would her own. She has not ordered any of them to spend their shifts away from the observation of the High Lord in watching the city, but Shanessel is always helpful beyond the call of duty.

It is, indeed, only a matter of time until they are near enough to one of these events to pinpoint its cause. It seems likely that that cause will be a person, and when they find such a one, Kailanneth has some questions to ask them ...

"I'll come with you," she says, gathering up her cassock and other paraphernalia for an expedition outside the hotel. "Zoraina, where's the High Lord at?"

"Out and about." Zoraina is on shift, tracking Athorian and his wife through the shadows of the city, and her voice is a murmur. "Corner of River Street and Third North."

"Excellent. We can follow him on our rounds."

Out on the streets the Shadowborn make an odd sight, too strange to be tourists, not fashionable enough to be goths; natives and other foreigners shift aside almost unconsciously before Kailanneth and Shanessel in their unrelieved black, with the silver wings of the Fallen encircling their necks and the ash staves of their office in their hands.

In the shadow realm those other citizens are as grey and formless as the surrounding buildings. The Shadowborn are darker forms ... and in the skies are traces of light, the dissipating echoes of magic use. Actual mages shine like candles in the dark.

"There," Shanessel whispers in the Shadow Tongue, "That man with the earring. He feels ... very like Athorian."

"Yes. There must be more of those gems - I hadn't anticipated that. Worrying."

Kailanneth does not turn - in the shadow realm she can see him clearly without the necessity of turning her head - but she focuses her perception on him. If there are others bearing gems like Athorian's, this mission has just grown a great deal more complicated.

OOC: No problem, MFZ. A note or two; the only catlike attribute to my Shadowborn is their eyes. RevTerr is the one with the psychic cats or whatever they are. You're near Kailanneth and her Lieutenant Shanessel; Kailanneth's other two Lieutenants are back at their hotel. One is sleeping and the other is keeping an eye on Athorian through the shadow realm.

Snugly in the possession of their new masters, the newly discovered fragments of the Seed hum ever so slightly in the presence of magical energy barely noticeable to the most sensitive of hearing. The different shapes of the shards are many and varied, but the colour and the overall feel is generally the same, for a crystal they are each oddly warm, around body temperature regardless of whether they are left on the side of a drawer or in the tight embrace of their owner. The gems themselves are a nice opaque violet amethyst colour, all of which were fairly small and exceptionally resistant to attempts to try and shape them into anything other then their original form.

As observed by Trion, the RevTerran freelance reporter the gem didn’t suffocate or noticeably harm Ril in any way; the hard shard went down smoothly like a pill. Perhaps the cat knew what it was doing, it’s hard to say, but it seemed to dissolve into the pet like candy. Meanwhile, each of the Seeds flowed the slightest amount of magic when in contact with their living holders, practically impossible to notice beyond an intimate range the trickle of magical energy served to form a minor connection to its carrier… with concentration and will it’s possible to build upon the connection and draw more and more energy from the shard, or perhaps even visa versa and flow energy into the gem itself. When this connection is strengthened the gem glows slightly with a purple hue, brighter with as more energy is drawn out of it or flown into it. The exact application of this could probably be explored; educated guesses have probably already been made by those already experienced in such trinkets. Consuming the gem has a similar albeit more instant effect of building this connection to the point where essentially both signatures become one and the same, though similar to their original. The long term implications of use, however, are still not fully understood... but from time to time hear the slightest of whisper undecipherable amidst the torrent of normal thoughts. The Shards bide their time, hoping to be reunited, to fulfil their purpose.

High up in the sky the cool night winds blow roughly against Rebecca as she rushes North with a keen eye and Bardiche, her black metal axe companion held tightly in her hand. Normally the temperatures at this height would be rather cold for a seventeen year old teen, especially one wearing thigh highs with a short skirt like she was, but the warm radiance of the barrier jacket’s field made things a lot more tolerable and allowed Rebecca the joy of being able to see where she is going, not that it made too much difference at this right, everything looked kind of the same, people no more then ants. Instead Rebecca concentrated more on feeling the local mana-spheres flow of magic, the natural radiance that comes from all life and attempting to feel abnormalities. The sense couldn’t be described as a sight or sound but perhaps more like intuition. Like intuition it wasn’t always reliable and could be tricked, but it really came into it’s own during combat where the more harmful magic was hard to conceal and it provided a kind of 360 sense.

Currently things were oddly calm in the flow, a mage probably wouldn’t be all that noticeable unless they were actively using their magic or were exceptionally powerful. Melissa was considered to be one of the stronger mages among the girls, usually potent for her age though most mages in Midchilda cap out at around twenty years old and loose that potency with age. When Melissa was living her normal life it would be hard to ‘sense’ her beyond several feet, at least, not without some kind of magical assistance… however, during her peak after donning her Barrier Jacket, she and Rebecca could easily sense one another from a couple blocks away and further with a little concentration, assuming they weren’t actively channelling a effect. Midchildian magic wasn’t overly subtle unfortunately; in the flow of mana they radiated additional magic into the area, either a very small amount of a fairly large amount depending on how active they are. Currently Rebecca was trying to conserve the amount of mana that was flowing from her barrier jacket, but it wasn’t very effective.

Getting closer to the city, she decided to try and hug the tall buildings to stay out of sight but maybe help her to pick up whom ever this contact was, she wished she was given more information, but it seemed that there simply wasn’t any more information to give. Someone had used some unfamiliar magic and Vicky had picked it up, rather faint… though that was no indication of power, so caution was being taken. Annoyingly she wasn’t finding much, so in desperation she decided to stop on the top of a row of buildings and look around her. If they were using transportation magic then maybe they were flying like her. Would they still be flying South or would they have reached their destination? Rebecca shook her head. Sorry Sam, I’ve reached Belford Road and I’ve still not seen anyone… I’ll try looking around a bit. Sam didn’t reply, Rebecca shrugged with the assumption she got it but was busy and continued to look around. By this time the roads were pretty much clear so she could afford to be a little more careless in her movements, concentrating more to try and get a lead.


While Rebecca hunted for her prey, Samantha walked with haste to the location of where the magic was supposed to have been used… in hindsight she probably should have asked Victoria to come along with her, but the young girl was tired from the magic she had used during the investigation earlier and frankly this was no time for twelve year olds to be up… not that it stopped the Dawn before. The streets weren’t quite empty at this point, some locals were returning home from nights out for an early rise the next day and the odd taxi roamed the roads. However, as she approached the city centre a bit off from the original fight she noticed a couple men staring at an oddly dressed woman as she walked along the side-street, she was quite stunning in her own right so it wasn’t surprising that she got some looks, but her outfit looked like something one of the cos-playing tourists might wear… not quite as outlandish as some the girls barrier jackets, but it certainly brought about a fantasy feel that didn’t fit a inner city setting, meanwhile her hair was a outrageous fire red that practically seemed alight, certainly grabbed attention.

Walking towards her, Samantha slowly took her necklace off holding the sword pendant tightly in her hand as she crossed over the road to enter the side-street that headed up towards the distortion caused by Melissa’s fighting. What little magical intuition Sam had wasn’t helping her a lot at the moment, probably not close enough to be sure… but the more mundane gut feeling had her curious, a suppressed purple light trying to flow from her closed hand.

Glancing at her watch, Margaret pulled a face as she realized how long it was taking her to fly back to the Hotel, where she would further communicate with the elder at home as to her findings. Not entirely detailed, she hoped to return there later after receiving some degree of advice. She had found however, that there was some kind of a fight, and that an unrecognizable power had been destroyed during it, somehow. She assumed that one of these combatants may have been in the possession of this 'power', and the other was seeking it from them. Without any actual knowledge, this is all she could gather for now. Perhaps later, she planned to make contact with some of the local signatures she had been picking up on, but as they said... curiosity killed the cat. And Margaret hardly wanted to be dead, caution would have to be a certainty.

Almost forgetting a need to hide her location from said locals, she burst in energy, propelling her forward at even greater speeds. Timing was most important to her now, and when you're flying at just under the speed of sound, it's very hard to concentrate on what might be happening around you let alone hide your signatures at this point. She hadn't even realized that Rebecca was hunting her as if she were some kind of prey, not even considering that she had been indeed picked up by some of the locals.

Interestingly enough, Rebecca had been flying on a course to intercept her, whether she realized it or not. Below her, the signs of civilization picked up again... albeit, several kilometers beneath.

Suddenly Rebecca felt a sharp peak in magical energy high up in the sky quickly accelerating past her position. Cursing to herself, Rebecca braced against the floor before darting off into the dim mid-night blue sky, a bright yellow trail following her wake. Speed was of the essence so there wasn’t much point in trying to conceal herself; the mage she was following seemed to be rushing and it would take more effort to catch up to her. Fortunately the main reason Rebecca’s barrier jacket was so sleek in the first place was her speed and agility. Concentrating further for a moment, Rebecca mumbles to herself “Barrier Jacket, Bardiche.” As if to acknowledge her command, Bardiche calls out “Sonic Form” in it’s monotone male voice. The large yellow gem on Bardiche pulses for a moment before the revolver mechanism below the axe head spins and hammers a cartridge with a slight burst of steam, moments after Rebecca bursts a crackling yellow energy that quickly dims to show her cloak and skirt has dematerialised and been replaced by a single black form fitting outfit that stops at the knees and shoulders, the red belt still hanging uselessly around waist. Both gauntlets and boots now sport a pair of bright yellow energy wings to help power her way.

Dead weight now dropped and defence significantly sacrificed for speed, Rebecca pushes on to catch up with the magical contact. Unfortunately seeing as the other mage is flying just below the speed of sound, Rebecca is forced to break the sound barrier… it was probably pretty clear she was coming now. As the distance shortens the choices on exactly how to actually get the person to stop start to concern her; shouting at this speed and distance was probably useless… hell, she she’d have to slow down just for the opportunity, where as firing a bolt of energy as a warning shot was inherently hostile and she wanted to question the mage, not start a fight. A barrier was pretty much out of the question right now as well… they were both moving too fast and even if she overtook the mage the problem presented itself as to whether she could set it up before the mage flew past the zone.

Approaching the mage from behind and a little off to the side, as the distance shortened further Rebecca could make out a pair of legs trailing a knee high billowing black dress, more detail became clear and it was blatantly obvious that it was a young woman, several years older the Rebecca with long dark brown hair flowing behind her. Rebecca moved to overtake her and fly close, with any luck they would stop and take notice and something could be done from then on.

Kyle frowned. He had stayed a fair distance from the cloaked figures and tried to be descrete in tailing them. He had even made an effort to dress like the locals, the internet being an amazing tool. Of course, he had no way of knowing that Kailanneth and Shanessel could see him as he truly was.

Thus, he was a little confused as to why they had slowed or stopped and appeared to be having some secret conversation. Unfortunately, without a path through water, ice, or steam to connect them, he had no way of knowing about what with any certainty. He frowned even harder. He hadn't noticed them so much as turn at all to look at anything, at any point. Not to look at a street sign, or the people, or him and yet, they moved with complete purpose, as if they had no doubts as to where they were going. Interesting indeed. He wondered if they were in some way cursed themselves.

He thought a test might be in order. After all, he had been hadn't been able to find anything else in the short time he'd been there, and the remaining signatures of the events were fading fast. He needed information, and if nothing else, a little flex of power might attract anything that passed for local magical enforcement, not that he had heard or been able to find record of any official one.

Kyle thought for a moment about something he could do. He was a capable of controlling any form of water or even creating water to craft an attack. Still, causing a massive Tsunami was flat out. So was casting Melancholic Aqua Melody or any of his outright offensive attacks. He didn't want to outright kill or seriously harm anyone. He smiled.

He ducked into another dark alley so he could perform his dastardly deed. He muttered, "Great spirit of the waters of the world, flow through your conduit. I am the Heart of Man that so asks, the Heart of Sorrow that so begs, the Heart of the Ocean that so commands!" In response to his words his aura pulsed around and over him and took its distinctive shape. He was covered in the thick, ocean blue covering as it formed a sort of suit over him, albeit with barbie doll body line feminine features, such as breasts. He was soon entirely covered in his aura except for a small place over his heart chakra point that was completely void. Within that void floated his blue crystal.

"Ocean Fog Obscure!" He called out holding his hands in front of him, forming a small bubble of pale blue energy between them. He then moved his hands outward away from himself causing the bubble to burst sending out fog around him. He was satisfied with his work. He had done it a little shoddily, but he hadn't really wanted the full effect of very localized, impenetrable fog. This botched version should serve to cover maybe a block or two in dense fog, depending on the wind, for 20 or 30 minutes before dissipating.


OOC: Well, hopefully I've established that Kyle is a bit morally questionable and not the brightest crayon in the box...

Trion's RIKLog, t+1 day
It is night, and the day didn't bring any answers. The cats where somehow... unsettled, with strange bursts of "follow me"s followed by sky gazing. At one point I thought I saw some fireworks but I doubt that's what my cats are looking for. In the rest of the time I did some television filming around. As far as I now, my briefing was right: there is no reason for revterran cats to behave differently, no magic power, no strange magnetic fluctuations, no nothing (at least not civilian).
Anyway, less then an hour ago the cats suddently became... defensive: they've sniffed the air, had a sort of council between them, and Daris and Matis left in a hurry, apparently in different directions. Daris is somwehere in the city, covered in some sort of fog. I lost all signals from Matis, while he was racing south, I hope he's alright and he'll be able to come back to the hotel by himself. As for Taris, he cuddled in my arms, but he looks somehow... on guard. Not from me, but I don't know from what.

Many strange things were going on in this unknown nation, from the bursts of energy to the fog bank that had appeared instantaneously. Immediately, she had known someone had triggered the fog, for the weather conditions did not fit such an occurrence at this time. Slipping into the fog that seemed to surround a number of block, she was ever alert. Her white, loose flowing clothing hung silently over her more snug apparel that hugged her tone features. The fog merged with her clothing, making her seem to almost disappear in its camouflage.

She had noted; with sensitive elven hearing; the footsteps minutes earlier, quiet, yet pursuing her. When there was a flare of energy sensed behind her, she recognized it as potentially offensive and instinctively took evasive action.

In a mere moment, she was gone from sight, silence in her wake.

As the girl holding the pendant continued looking, obvious perplexion at the disappearance, a shadow passed behind her and spoke quietly. Her eyes, jade in color, were alight with warning, and spoke of an silent confidence that was undeniable. She stood at an angle, her hand behind her subtly gathering energy from around her, keeping their presence hidden within her fingers and under her white cloak.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

As she followed the strange foreigner from a short distance away Samantha had already tensed up in preparation, her senses keenly alert to her surroundings. Given the strange occurrences such as the discovery of another unknown mage and what was now shaping up to be very un-seasonal thick fog it wasn’t much of a surprise that either of the women were taking care… but as they continued on and visibility hit an all low, it seemed fitting that her mark would choose this moment to disappear from view.

Looking around for a moment, Sam then continued to walk on understanding her limitations… the outsider was either long gone or preparing an ambush, either way there was no use in rushing about like an idiot, it wasn’t her style. Instead Samantha listened out for movement just in case when suddenly a voice burst out from behind her.

"Is there something I can help you with?" It said. Sam’s intuition of magical energy wasn’t nearly as keen as the other girls; her age and techniques didn’t allow for the same sensitivity, many older mages in Midchilda lost some of their edge... but she wasn’t completely helpless or ignorant. Whoever the woman was she wasn’t right behind her at least, Samantha was sure she wasn’t that unaware.

“I don’t know, who’s asking?” she replied nonchalantly, stopping for a moment. She didn’t turn around to look at the woman; instead she concentrated on her existing senses and remained still, her hand still glowing ever so slightly with a lavender hue. In an astral sense it wasn’t overly subtle, the flow of mana would be clear to any mage but the magic itself was un-aspected to any type of magic as though it was simply a power source or a conduit. It wouldn’t be surprising if the woman knew her nature and given the fog and the slip it seemed clear that Sam’s gut instinct was right too. All that remained was to figure out this girl’s intentions and this way it would be instantly clear if they were hostile, even if it was dangerous… but for now she wanted to talk.

“We don’t normally get fog this far into the city… it’s not particularly cold tonight either, what do you think is causing it?” She continued, acting out the humble local, it was a sham at this point, but for all intents and purposes it was true enough. Samantha waited for the strangers reply, knees and joints prepared to dodge one way or another and her trusty pendant in her hand.

Of course, when it came to somebody approaching you directly... Margaret was not so blind. She turned to beside herself, looking directly at a much younger girl than she was. Dressed rather light, and flying at over the speed of sound, Margaret felt it was safe to assume that this was not any regular local. And they were not acting entirely hostile, it seemed that she cared more for getting her attention than attacking her. Fair enough.

Margaret communicated that she would be stopping, and did... rather suddenly. The unfortunate effect from this however was that something flying at about the speed of sound stopping suddenly was not natural - not that it had any negative effects on Margaret of course, but that it may or may not have had any effect on the natural environment around her.

Rebecca had stopped also, and merely hovered easily within shouting distance. Something was to be said for awkward run-ins.

"Uh, hello..." greeted Margaret, a little unsure of this individual. "I wasn't expecting anyone... such as yourself."

She remained cautious, and ready - albeit not in a way that would cause grief to the young girl. She looked precious, delicate... although intuition told her this was not probably entirely the case. Like the Poisen Dart Frog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_dart_frog), she was cute... beautiful, but most likely very deadly.

"Fallen Lords!"

Kailanneth scowled, surrounded suddenly by impenetrable fog. It is a relief to be out of the sun, now a dim glow high above, but the mist frays and dissipates the shadows upon which Adhrazal's Gift is built. It can only mean one thing ...

"Hostile!" she hisses to Shanessel. Someone knows who and what they are - which is not unthinkable, given their attire - but that someone also knows precisely how to dull the edge of Shadowborn magic, and has done so. Without the darkness they cannot even step through shadows to escape.

But she is an Adept of the Jade Dance Circle, and not without power even at this point.

"The best defense is a good offense," she suggests, and feels the crackle of immanent force in the air as her collection of charms and amulets spark into life. Glyphs of the shadow tongue burn along the length of her staff for an instant before they flare and fade like sparks from a fire. Shanessel nods, and does likewise.

"And now," Kailanneth mutters to herself, "We will find out just who it is you serve, mage."

She steps forward, staff at the ready, and breaks into a run. Swings left into the alleyway, towards the bright flare in the shadow realm that is the enemy spellcaster. Her staff cuts the fog in a whirring, lethal arc -

OOC: Fun fun fun! Another note; between themselves the Shadowborn do not speak English/Common/Whatever the lingua franca is.

The elven woman studied the girl's countenance for a moment, then replied whilst deliberately avoiding the question. "You don't strike me as the kind that would be stupid enough to attack me without reason."

She moved forward, keeping a wide berth nevertheless as she circled the girl and gazed into her eyes. "You would have done that already a while back when I was not aware of your presence."

As a measure of some trust and perhaps even her confidence, the woman drew her hand free and brought it into view, displaying the emerald green sphere that spun slowly in her command. The girl watched as the sphere moved upward from her palm and small tendrils of arcane energy within the sphere began to overtake and overwhelm the green tendrils. Momentarily, a small sun hovered between them.

"I trust you'll not offend me." the woman stated. The sphere glowed brighter slowly, then flashed momentarily into nothingness. With it, a burst of heat spread outward and dissolved the fog surrounding them, a circle of clear air in the midst of a large unnatural fog.

"Disengage your artifact." she suggested, "Then we'll talk."

Watching as the other woman came into view, circling into a position where they could talk, Samantha remained poised to defend herself before finally entering a slightly more casual stance. Finally, her hand dimmed from its bright lavender shine, but not completely.

“I have more honour then to stab a unsuspecting person in the back, if I intended to fight you I would have called you out from the start…” Samantha shuck her head for a moment and then sighed, her tension melting away. For what little it was worth, the pendant stopped glowing in her hand. “In any case, I’ve not activated my ‘artefact’ yet. I’d show you Laevatein’s true form but I doubt that would help us right now.”

Looking the foreigner once over with a different eye, Samantha noticed the woman’s strange ears. They were hard to spot without taking a moment to properly look at the girl’s face, but there was a certain pointed-ness about them like the kind of ears one would expect to see in a fantasy convention, only a lot more subtle. Everything about this mage said ‘Outsider’ from her look to her technique… even this close Samantha could tell the difference, both Belkan and Midchildian magic had a certain feel to it and was a lot more pronounced like it didn’t want to be suppressed. In comparison Sam had made a point of dressing down this evening and was wearing the basic jeans and black top combination, her oddest feature being her light, pinkish long red hair, tied into a pony tail down her back just past her shoulders.

“Look, I’m Samantha Ranch, I suppose you could call me something of a local ‘enforcer’ around here. Can we talk now?”

As suddenly as she had given chase, both Rebecca and the mage in black stopped suddenly, followed by another minor sonic boom with fortunately little effect thanks to the ungodly height the two of them where flying at… it was for the better really, there were enough flashy effects being thrown around for tonight without adding several more loud explosions to the mix.

Both mages now hovered high above city, dim lights illuminating the now black landscape below as the pair stared at one another, not entirely sure what to make of the other. "Uh, hello..." The woman in black called out to Rebecca in a rather unsure, perhaps timid voice. "I wasn't expecting anyone... such as yourself."

“Uh… Hi!” Rebecca replied, the woman’s unsure voice had put her at ease and unfortunately brought Rebecca back to normal tendencies. The situation suddenly became uncomfortable for Rebecca and she started to feel rather silly in what could barely be described as a black swimsuit with metal boots and gauntlets, a heavy black axe in her hand that was now being held with the blade pointing down in a hopefully non-threatening manner. She imagined it would be different from this and maybe the girl would have shown her some sass…

“I don’t suppose you’re a…” Rebecca started to ask before realising her mistake. A red heat started to rise up in her and before she knew it her face had gone red with embarrassment. Attempting to shake it off, Rebecca continued with a more realistic approach, keeping in mind her actual mission. “Of course you are… err… I don’t suppose you could come with me and answer a few questions, starting with who you are and what you are doing here?”

The Austarian laughed outwardly, realizing Rebecca's awkwardness was surpassing even her own. She stopped quickly, trying to not be rude.

"My name is Margaret," winking she continued. "I come from... another place than here. But myself and others were listening to frequencies in the area, when we detected a ripple... a strong one at that."

Handing over a small piece of paper, on it was quickly scribbled some coordinates. "I'm sure that if you live here, you might have some idea of what happened."

Crossing her legs, Margaret kind of 'sat' in the air... resting somewhat. There was certainly no need to be afraid of the Midchildan, she was just as timid as she were.

She steps forward, staff at the ready, and breaks into a run. Swings left into the alleyway, towards the bright flare in the shadow realm that is the enemy spellcaster. Her staff cuts the fog in a whirring, lethal arc.


Kyle, who was quite immune to the effects of his own magic, was slightly taken aback by the reaction of his quarry. As far he he knew, he hadn't done anything *that* hostile, but then again, he didn't know that his fog was obscuring their magic either. This was altogether an unfortunate turn of events. He really couldn't afford the attention that a full out battle between mages would draw, being in Midchilda illegally and such, not to mention the bad publicity.

Having overthought the situation somewhat, his attempt at doding was less than an austere success. True, he got to keep all of his anatomy intact, but the staff had grazed has aura, which both hurt like hell, and produced a similar scratch across his chest. He called out in English, "Hey! Hey! Is that really necessary? I'd prefer not to harm anyone, if reasonably possible." He then repeated the phrase, very quickly, in French, Esperanto, and the three Minbari languages, hoping to brain attached to the staff understood at least one of them. Assuming it did, it could prove to be a most interesting conversation. He was, at least, rather curious about how they could still see through his fog.

OOC: Quote included to help prevent confusion.

That the mage behind this fog would go to such trouble to cast it and then not wish the confrontation he invites is surprising. Kailanneth brings her staff to a halt, but remains ready to use it again - this man may be lying to gain time, after all, or for some other reason of his own. The secular arcana is seldom so simple as the bloody-handed vengeance of the divine.

"Is it not neccessary?" she asks, in French - the tongue she knows as Galmarine. "You tell me then, mage - what reason have you for this damnable fog?"

Rebecca frowned a little as Margaret laughed, misunderstanding the context. It was short lived however as the older woman went on to introduce herself and answer her question, explaining she was from somewhere other then Midchilda and that herself and others picked up the disturbances. Admittedly she had left all the details out, trust was in limited supply at the moment it seemed and not without good reason, still the woman seemed a lot more relaxed as she even winked during her introduction.

Margaret then went on to hand over a small piece of paper with some numbers written on down, it was clear even to Rebecca that they were supposed to be co-ordinates… but frankly geography wasn’t one of Rebecca’s strong points. "I'm sure that if you live here, you might have some idea of what happened." the mage in black went on to ask.

Confused for a moment, Rebecca considered the co-ordinates that were jotted down for a moment before answering. “I’m not actually sure where that is… but I suppose I can tell you that a fair distance over there…” she pointed South from where she was originally flying from “We were training and had a minor accident, it wasn’t suppose to flare out into the sky like it did...” Rebecca started to blush again before quickly regaining her posture, she still wasn’t sure herself how much this woman could be trusted.

“…but you probably didn’t come all this way here for that as it only really happened a few hours ago. You’re probably here about the other incident that happened the other day… I’m not sure how much I can tell you about that, but I’m also looking into the circumstances of that incident. Just hold with me for a moment.” Rebecca had quickly returned from her shy teen persona back to the serious tone of the mage with an axe. Floating high in the sky with the other foreign mage who was now kind of sitting on air, Rebecca herself was standing, the little yellow energy wings on her gauntlets and boots flapping from time to time as she looked to the side as though thinking. Finally she nodded to herself and looked back towards Margaret.

“I don’t suppose you’d mind joining me back to the ground? It’s up to you but if you come with me I can introduce you to Bal and she’ll explain a little more about the incident that happened the other day…” The teen smiled, start to float backwards down towards the ground at walking pace. “I’m Rebecca by the way, pleased to meet you Margaret.”

Kyle raised a brow quizically at the Cloaked person, "The fog? What's damnable about it, you don't appear to have any more trouble seeing through it than I do, which is a problem in itself, but I digress. It's nothing more than a simple distraction. Is it more than that for you? Fine, let us be without it."*

The hydromance waved his hand lightly and the fog immediately surrounding himself and the Shadowborn receded several feet restoring the normal conditions of day within a circle of roughly a metre in diameter. In the now restored natural lighting Kyle's aura receded somewhat, until it was a mere ghost of a feminine form over his own clearly masculine one, although to one with enough juice, the effect was really rather lost anyway.

"So, now, in the name of Suijin**, would you care to explain what in the world you know about what's going on here?"

OOC: Sorry it took awhile to get back to you... Got hit with Biology in the real world :headbang: . Anywho the notes:
* Assume Kyle is speaking in French. I would have written the dialogue in French, but I'd have had to put the translation in a note anyway.
**Suijin-san is the Shinto storm god. Kyle considers him something of a patron, despite the fact that his magic takes a feminine form.

OOC: Due to how far this RP has already progressed, I'm just going to go ahead and RP my character as if she had already been on the island for a while as, IMHO, it would slow things down if I made a post where she was en route. I hope that's alright.

IC: Seth yawned. She had been up all the night before studing a map she had gotten of the city from the tourist center. Originally, she had entered the nation of Midchilda to obtain native teas to add to her stock. She sold and bought tea all over the place in order to help with tuition of the medical school she was currently taking a sabatical from.

"Hmm," she thought with a yawn as she traced her finger along a particular road said to be heavy in the trade of local and foriegn teas, "I really should get some sleep tonight. Still, I'll check to make sure this street has what its supposed to have before I head back."

Of course, after sensing the after glow of the area that still hadn't one-hundred percent faded from the shattering of the Chaos Seed a few days back, she made no attempt at hiding her aura. If a local with the ability to sense her aura wanted to make contact, they would. Until then, she would go about her buisness.

OOC: I know, not my best work, but I left it open ended for anyone in the area who has any form of 'gift' to sense her and eventually meet up with her.

Watching as the other woman came into view, circling into a position where they could talk, Samantha remained poised to defend herself before finally entering a slightly more casual stance. Finally, her hand dimmed from its bright lavender shine, but not completely.

“I have more honor then to stab a unsuspecting person in the back, if I intended to fight you I would have called you out from the start…” Samantha shuck her head for a moment and then sighed, her tension melting away. For what little it was worth, the pendant stopped glowing in her hand. “In any case, I’ve not activated my ‘artifact’ yet. I’d show you Laevatein’s true form but I doubt that would help us right now.”

Looking the foreigner once over with a different eye, Samantha noticed the woman’s strange ears. They were hard to spot without taking a moment to properly look at the girl’s face, but there was a certain pointedness about them like the kind of ears one would expect to see in a fantasy convention, only a lot more subtle. Everything about this mage said ‘Outsider’ from her look, to her technique… even this close Samantha could tell the difference, both Belkan and Midchildian magic had a certain feel to it and was a lot more pronounced like it didn’t want to be suppressed. In comparison Sam had made a point of dressing down this evening and was wearing the basic jeans and black top combination, her oddest feature being her light, pinkish long red hair, tied into a pony tail down her back just past her shoulders.

“Look, I’m Samantha Ranch, I suppose you could call me something of a local ‘enforcer’ around here. Can we talk now?”


"Very well then, Samantha Ranch." the woman replied quietly, her composure measured and yet still guarded. Although the girl had claimed to be an enforcer, she wondered just how developed her magical abilities in the raw really were. She also knew that in some places, calling oneself an enforcer was a kinder way of saying they were part of a mafia. As a result, the woman had remained cautious.

Looking around the area, she studied the shop signs and buildings, looking for a place to eat. "Perhaps we could continue this over a bite to eat?" she asked, turning her gaze back to the girl. "I've always made it a point to try the native foods of other nations I visit."

Walking toward one of the shops, one of few that seemed it were still open at this hour, she looked sideways at the girl whom had continued with her. "Perhaps you can explain to me what is going on around here? I sensed, from my home, a rather prominent fluctuation not far from here. I've reason to believe that such a display of power is necessary to be investigated and if necessary curtailed or otherwise locked up."

OOC: Feel free to describe the restaurant they're in. It is, after all, your nation...

Rebecca frowned a little as Margaret laughed, misunderstanding the context. It was short lived however as the older woman went on to introduce herself and answer her question, explaining she was from somewhere other then Midchilda and that herself and others picked up the disturbances. Admittedly she had left all the details out, trust was in limited supply at the moment it seemed and not without good reason, still the woman seemed a lot more relaxed as she even winked during her introduction.

Margaret then went on to hand over a small piece of paper with some numbers written on down, it was clear even to Rebecca that they were supposed to be co-ordinates… but frankly geography wasn’t one of Rebecca’s strong points. "I'm sure that if you live here, you might have some idea of what happened." the mage in black went on to ask.

Confused for a moment, Rebecca considered the co-ordinates that were jotted down for a moment before answering. “I’m not actually sure where that is… but I suppose I can tell you that a fair distance over there…” she pointed South from where she was originally flying from “We were training and had a minor accident, it wasn’t suppose to flare out into the sky like it did...” Rebecca started to blush again before quickly regaining her posture, she still wasn’t sure herself how much this woman could be trusted.

“…but you probably didn’t come all this way here for that as it only really happened a few hours ago. You’re probably here about the other incident that happened the other day… I’m not sure how much I can tell you about that, but I’m also looking into the circumstances of that incident. Just hold with me for a moment.” Rebecca had quickly returned from her shy teen persona back to the serious tone of the mage with an axe. Floating high in the sky with the other foreign mage who was now kind of sitting on air, Rebecca herself was standing, the little yellow energy wings on her gauntlets and boots flapping from time to time as she looked to the side as though thinking. Finally she nodded to herself and looked back towards Margaret.

“I don’t suppose you’d mind joining me back to the ground? It’s up to you but if you come with me I can introduce you to Bal and she’ll explain a little more about the incident that happened the other day…” The teen smiled, start to float backwards down towards the ground at walking pace. “I’m Rebecca by the way, pleased to meet you Margaret.”

Margaret took her extended hand gently, "You can call me Maggie, if you like."

"And sure," she replied shaking her head nonchalantly. "I'll be happy to visit Bal with you if you like." She smiled apoligetically. "I'm sorry, I'm not exactly accustom to the way you do things around here; your local protocol, if you will."

Now hovering in a more upright position, she motioned with her hands, "Please, I will follow your lead."

Continuing to walk along side the yet un-named mage, Sam listened to her explanation as she returned her necklace back to its original place around her neck. Though the two didn’t entirely trust one another it had reached a point where there wasn’t really any need to remain tensed for a fight; first encounters always proved to be a rather chaotic mess. The local food courts actually open at this time of night were rather limited but still offered something of a selection of foods ranging from the unhealthy kebabs, fast food and curry houses to slightly more homely cafes and diners. The more ‘native’ restaurants and food joints were long closed at this point, the dishes available more suited for certain times of the day then a late night snack. Never the less, the pair finally settled down in a reasonable corner café, not too fancy but comfortable and above all not crowded in the slightest, Samantha sat with a cup of coffee but wasn’t really in the mood for any actual food.

“Hmm, can’t say I disagree with your reasoning. The… artefact, I suppose you could call it that, is something we came across quite some time ago and came to the same conclusion that in the wrong hands it could do significant damage. For this reason we’ve kept it under lock and key in a low profile but rather safe place… or so we thought.” Sam shrugged, looking out into the street for a moment before continuing. “This latest incident, this ‘display of power’ is the end result of a conflict between one of our people and a mage who’s identity we’re still uncertain of. This mage stole the artefact and was then cornered by one of us, a battle ensued and in the process the artefact was destroyed in order to stop it falling into the wrong hands. Unfortunately given the nature of artefacts as I’m sure you understand, it didn’t go quietly.

“That’s the gist of it I believe. You’ll have to forgive me for not filling you in on all the details, but frankly I still don’t even know your name, let alone if I can trust that you aren’t in some way involved...” The young woman sighed, taking the pause to sip her coffee before wrapping her explaination up. “For this reason I’ve been asked to see if you’d like a chance to meet our founder. She’s rather interested in all the foreign interest we seem to have brought down upon ourselves… seems you aren’t the only mage visiting Midchilda over this incident. Either way it’s up to you, I’m not here to drag you away or punish you for being awakened, we’re looking for answers too and we’d much rather co-operate with others then compete.”

Picking up speed so as to get ground level before dawn, Rebecca smiled in a content manner as she escorted the newcomer back down to earth. “Oh, we don’t really have any protocols so much… to be honest you’re the first mage I’ve met that wasn’t local.” Oddly Rebecca’s words came through clearly despite the rushing wind of the pairs flight, most likely a convenient magical effect associated with the teenage mage. As she spoke, Rebecca couldn’t help but examine Margaret’s clothes in a strangely fascinated way, as though they were unnatural. “It would be nice to learn more about your way of magic sometime, it has a strange feel and look to it I can’t quite get used to. You don’t seem to have a Barrier Jacket as far as I can tell… but then, I suppose you may not even need one.”

A short light conversation later and the pair were finally approaching the ground near a small inner city park clearly devoid of any life at this late time of early morning. As Rebecca landed her foot on the ground a dim yellow ring rose around her quickly and replaced her formfitting black barrier jacket with her normal school clothes she was wearing the night before, returning her to a slightly out of place high-school girl look. As far as Rebecca was concerned this was completely normal and didn’t even warrant noticing. She beckoned her new adult friend to follow her on foot.

“It’s not far from here now, it’s just on third street. You’ll like Bal, she’s a good person at heart, very friendly… well, usually.” She continued, gossiping as she went, now comfortable enough to settle into normal patterns. The area was getting further and further into Midchilda’s financial centre, at least what passed for business in these parts. There weren’t really any towers in Midchilda as the economy simply wasn’t good enough for people to invest in those kinds of buildings, but none the less the majority of buildings in the area clearly housed office space, Rebecca didn’t seem to really mind though. Soon enough, the pair reached a particular brick building; it was fairly old but had a certain degree of class with blinded windows looking out to the street. On a plaque next to a pair of lit up double glass doors was a sign which clearly read ‘Midchildian Society of Archaeology and Antiquities’. It was clearly odd in itself that such a place was still open at such a time of night, let alone that a school girl would just enter nonchalantly and simply nod at the doorman, who in turn simply nodded back, smiling in a non-threatening manner clearly pleased to see the two women.

“Bal is just waiting for you in her office, Rebecca. Anytime you’re ready really, I think she’s expecting someone else to turn up too.” He said in a friendly manner. He was a fairly old man, a little over middle age and looked like he’d been in this kind of job most of his life and got to know people, otherwise he seemed completely and utterly mundane in what was a fairly standard suit for the job of meeting and greeting people.

“Thanks Bill.” She replied, continuing to lead Maggie to a the stairs. The building seemed to only have four or five floors, there was still an elevator in the hall but it was a fairly old thing with an old gate mechanism, Rebecca just walked by it instead. Two floors up she finally led the foreign mage to a single wooden door before knocking.

“Come on in…” a adult female voice called. Rebecca opens the door for Margaret revealing a mostly wooden office complete with large oak desk, complete looking hefty bookcase and the kind of decoration one would expect from an anthropologist, with strange masks and odd status littering the room on various walls and shelves. Standing in front of the desk is a middle-aged woman with long thick unrestrained blond hair flowing down her dark red suit with a smart skirt that stops just above the knees. Most noticeably the woman has a thin scar coming down from her left deep blue eye.

"Ah… welcome to Midchilda, Margaret. Would you like a drink before we start? I’m currently waiting for an answer on another guest, it seems like you aren’t the only newcomer around this evening." The woman smirked, turning to a kettle she had on the side before starting to pour herself out a cup of tea in a rather ordinary looking mug. It had rabbits on it. "Oh, and you may call me Bal if you like… everyone else with our expertise does. I don’t suppose you have any official title you’d like me to use?"

"Be assured that I can see you through fog, fire, light or darkness," Kailanneth replies, "But there are things I cannot do, with your fog making dim all shadows."

She demonstrates by pulling his shadow out from under him; it wavers and streams away from Kyle's feet, coiling around her fist and arm. The more martial Circles of the Shadow Palace may deride the Jade Dance as overly showy, but Kailanneth and her ilk are mages as well as Shadowborn; they understand that symbols are how one shapes the world. Appearance is everything.

Kailanneth opens her fist and the shadow streams away, retaking its place at its owners' feet.

"As for what is going on, I think that you can better answer that than I - I am on the business of the Shadow Palace, tracking one who bears a gem like yours."

She indicates the purple stone at Kyle's ear.

Following Rebecca to the antique shop, Maggie nodded to her as she had shown a desire to learn more about where she had come from; converying a message of 'perhaps' more than a definite yes or no. Truth be told, it was entirely dependant on whether she could establish these people as trustworthy or not. The elders would sure not appreciate it if she had compromised hundreds of years of hard-working, laying low, and keeping their levels of magical activity to as minimum as possible. It was known for the most part that there were others out and about - those not quite wise enough to co-exist in peace with the people around them; it was even best that the presense of a magical college in the Austar Union was left unspoken. That said, when they had landed and Rebecca had changed into a school uniform; it became fairly obvious that they too preferred to exist as an underground society in Midchilda, albeit not as 'nazi' about keeping their activity a secret.

Perhaps they are in a similar position that we were a few hundred years ago., thought Margaret to herself. If they are, then I suppose it would be arrogant or us to not help them.

She smiled to the doorman and followed Rebecca inside and around the back. And being left alone with the older woman, she smiled politely and tried to hide her surprise that Bal had seemed to already know her name.

I suppose she must have told her...

"Grazie, Bal," she replied peacefully. "I don't have any official titles, just yet." She smiled. "But you can call me Maggie if you prefer. And if you have any water that would be wonderful."

Taking a seat on a much comfortable looking chair, she sat with both legs together, and hands resting lightly upon her lap.

OOC: Not a problem, Mid. This'll give me a chance to explore a little bit on my own. Still, if anyone's up to 'bumping' into my character, feel free to. Would be interesting, also, to see what would happen if someone tried to follow her, see who and what she was. Of course, I may just have her wonder, find a shard, and end up in front of the Midchildian Society of Archaeology and Antiquities looking for someone to help her read the map.

IC: Seth spread the map against a convenient tree as she tried to make sense of the local language and the convoluted streets. It took a few moments, but she soon felt a sharp pricking sensation in her left palm. Lifting it up, she looked under it and saw a purple shard of crystal with a flickering aura embedded into the wood. She knew it would have taken quite tremendous force to embed it into the trunk like that. More so than an average human could muster with their hands. Wrenching it out, she tucked it away safely in a secret compartment inside a pendent (http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o293/True_Human_Empire/Symbols/TrinityBloodNecklace.jpg) she wore on a chain around her neck.

OOC: I know, I know. Pretty lousy compared to what I can do. But its the best I can offer right now under the circumstances.

Continuing to walk along side the yet unnamed mage, Sam listened to her explanation as she returned her necklace back to its original place around her neck. Though the two didn’t entirely trust one another it had reached a point where there wasn’t really any need to remain tensed for a fight; first encounters always proved to be a rather chaotic mess. The local food courts actually open at this time of night were rather limited but still offered something of a selection of foods ranging from the unhealthy kebabs, fast food and curry houses to slightly more homely cafes and diners. The more ‘native’ restaurants and food joints were long closed at this point, the dishes available more suited for certain times of the day then a late night snack. Never the less, the pair finally settled down in a reasonable corner café, not too fancy but comfortable and above all not crowded in the slightest, Samantha sat with a cup of coffee but wasn’t really in the mood for any actual food.

“Hmm, can’t say I disagree with your reasoning. The… artifact, I suppose you could call it that, is something we came across quite some time ago and came to the same conclusion that in the wrong hands it could do significant damage. For this reason we’ve kept it under lock and key in a low profile, but rather safe place… or so we thought.” Sam shrugged, looking out into the street for a moment before continuing. “This latest incident, this ‘display of power’ is the end result of a conflict between one of our people and a mage who’s identity we’re still uncertain of. This mage stole the artifact and was then cornered by one of us, a battle ensued and in the process the artifact was destroyed in order to stop it falling into the wrong hands. Unfortunately given the nature of artifacts as I’m sure you understand, it didn’t go quietly.

“That’s the gist of it I believe. You’ll have to forgive me for not filling you in on all the details, but frankly I still don’t even know your name, let alone if I can trust that you aren’t in some way involved...” The young woman sighed, taking the pause to sip her coffee before wrapping her explanation up. “For this reason I’ve been asked to see if you’d like a chance to meet our founder. She’s rather interested in all the foreign interest we seem to have brought down upon ourselves… seems you aren’t the only mage visiting Midchilda over this incident. Either way it’s up to you, I’m not here to drag you away or punish you for being awakened, we’re looking for answers too and we’d much rather co-operate with others then compete."

While also sipping through her own cup of coffee, not desiring the junk food of the late night food courts, she nodded as she listened through the information given. She smiled politely at the mention of being "awakened". It seemed that this young girl hardly understood the race that now sat across from her. Dispensing that side thought, she instead spoke,

"My apologies then. I have a habit of revealing as little information as possible about myself. There is a reason for this, well, several reasons. However, for your sake, my name is Aeris. My last name you need not know. You may however, be interested to know that I have at my disposal a vast array of resources to assist in recovering this artifact."

She took another sip of her coffee before continuing, "That brings me to my next point. You say you're interested in having assistance, or rather, cooperation as you've called it, yet you've not told me the real importance of such an artifact. What makes it so dangerous? Secondly, whom is this founder you speak of and what exactly have they founded?"

Samantha frowned as she was given her answer. Aside from the feeling that this woman wasn’t really listening to her it was becoming increasingly clear that this wasn’t going to be a simple matter of sharing information but more like give-take, Aeris seemed to be pumping her for information.

“I would have thought it would have been enough at this early stage to know that the artefact was clearly powerful and dangerous and that we had made a point to destroy it in order to protect the nation we cherish, hopefully though those actions we have stopped or at least set back the thieves agenda…”

Samantha looked over the woman she was speaking to again, trying to gouge her feelings and work out how genuine she was; Bal always seemed better at this sort of thing, or at least had more faith in people. It was in vain however as Aeris was as poker faced as she had started out as. There were still questions about her real motives in Sam’s mind; clearly she was here because of the Chaos Seed incident, that much was truth and needed no real thinking about. The real sticker was whether she’s here on interest or whether she was somehow involved in the underlying scheme behind the theft. Currently there wasn’t enough information to go on to make conclusions either way. As much as it annoyed her, she decided to show a little more trust.

“Very well, as a offering I’ll tell you a little more about who we are and what we lost. Bal would have probably preferred to tell you herself but I suppose things are never quite as simple as we would like. Afterwards you can either come with me to see what I’m talking about or you can get some sleep… it sure is late enough.”

“I’m a member of the Gentle Dawn, I suppose you could call us a voluntary group of magic users who protect Midchilda from magical danger… mostly that means we look out for strange occurrences around the Islands and help newly awakened magic users to properly control and manage their powers without harming others. Bal is our leader and founder, though we don’t like to have any official titles… many of us consider one another to be like family or friends; we look out for one another and hold no real power over one another. It’s enough that you ask and someone is willing to help.” Samantha brightened up slightly as she spoke of her comrades, her usual harsh face melting away somewhat as she reminisced.

“Tonight I was out investigating the ‘Chaos Seed Incident’, it’s the unofficial name we’ve given to what happened the other night, we translated the name of the artefact to be the Chaos Seed, it’s not something newly created… few of the truly potent devices in Midchilda are, but I won’t go into that for now as I’d rather we kept some secrets until I know a little more about you. Still, it’s hard to describe exactly what the Seed is without going into greater detail about us at some point… but think of it as a artefact which generates large amounts of raw mana (I imagine you know what that is) that could be used for practically any magical effect you can produce. We don’t know it’s original purpose and frankly given exactly how much raw power it’s capable of producing we felt it was best kept under lock and key.”

Samantha sighed; having let it all out, well most of it… she didn’t have to tell this girl everything. “We probably got off lucky when it was destroyed. We originally chose not to destroy the gem because we didn’t know what would happen… it’s my personal belief that due to the manner in which it was destroyed the energy held up inside it at the time was concentrated into the focussed blast effect of Melissa’s spell causing it to flow almost harmlessly up into the atmosphere… regardless the thief doesn’t have it and with any luck whatever they were planning is now ruined.”

Samantha started to get up, leaving some change on the table for her drink. “If you have any more questions you’re welcome to come with me and ask Bal about it. Otherwise I’m going to go home and get some sleep, I get the feeling tomorrow is going to be another long day.”

Bal smiled, walking around her desk before reaching down to small fridge at the back of the room next to a wooden drinks cabinet. Inside were some mineral water, a few bottles of milk, a bottle of wine and several cans of beer, a little unusual but neither Bal or Rebecca seemed to notice. Opening the icebox she pulled out some ice cubes and set them inside a couple glasses from the top of the drinks cabinet before finally pouring out a drink for all three of them and handing them out. Finally she sat down on her own large leather chair while Rebecca remained standing respectfully.

“That’s okay, Maggie, we don’t really use any titles here either; many of the others like Rebecca help out voluntarily of their own lives to help out where they can. It’s how we do things both professionally and otherwise… it’s who we are.” Bal smiled sincerely, though some might consider it slightly off-putting due to her scar and the way she never broke eye contact.

“I don’t like secrets, that’s why I asked Rebecca to bring you here. This way I can tell you who we are and our intentions so that we can fully understand one another and find common ground upon which to build trust and friendship.

“So to introduce you properly, I’m the founder and first member of the Gentle Dawn, a group of mages, like Rebecca here, who each contribute time and effort to help out others like us who suddenly awaken to our magical powers. We each have our stories and not all of them are pleasant, that why we feel we have to help one another. That was my original intention, myself and my friends wanted to protect those we loved most and over time our support group has grown to the point where we can understand more about our origins and protect the nation from larger magical threats instead of working alone as we previously did.”

Meanwhile Rebecca simply listened to Bal seemingly content to remain standing as she quietly sipped on her water. She had heard it several times before as new girls joined the group and subconsciously added the bits Bal was skipping from the speech.

“Of course, we hide our nature from the world in order to protect ourselves and prevent panic as I hope you already understand, coming from a group yourself. Officially I’m the director for the Midchildian Society of Archaeology and Antiquities… it’s my actual job and it’s surprisingly related to what I do in the Gentle Dawn. We dig things up and some of them aren’t mundane, those that we find to be dangerous we put away in safe keeping… unfortunately we lost perhaps the most powerful artefact we’ve ever uncovered to a theft recently. The very incident you are here to see me about. During the theft one of our mages uncovered the act and did her best to stop the man, ending in the destruction of the artefact and the large eruption of magic you probably felt. Now we intend to capture the man responsible and learn what his motives are.”

Bal took a long sip of her drink to compensate for her speech before finishing. “I’d go into further detail but I want to know if my other guest is coming or not so I don’t spend too long going over the same thing. Not everyone in the Dawn thinks in the same way I do, even though we’re the closest of friends Sam and I see differently on many things, but she means well.”

Absorbing the information given like water to a sponge, Aeris made sure to highlight mentally the important facts as they were received. As Samantha spoke, she recalled the surreal stories that had surrounded her uncle, Sigrun, infamous sword, a sword that seemed to channel his fortitude, and even at time, his anger. It was a sword that had never been taken lightly, for although its design was simple, it held secrets that were very rarely revealed, even by him. Some said that the sword was a remnant of his vampiric days, other said it was forged as a trustworthy accessory of warfare in his return from death. Whatever the reason for its existence, it was a weapon of notable interest, much like this artifact that Samantha now described.

At least the sword is hidden well. she thought as she looked over at Samantha. She nodded as the girl finished speaking, "Such artifacts are rare, and yet not so rare. I have had my share of dealings with them in my time. Perhaps you should know then that it is likely the artifact was not destroyed, but rather broken into pieces. How many pieces, I cannot say, for each artifact is unique in it's own regard. If someone manages to relocate all the pieces again, the artifact will reseal itself and return to its former strength."

Looking out into the streets as another person walked by quickly, the person wrapped up in a bundle of clothes, his footsteps clacking against the pavement. She looked back at her again, "You have nothing to fear of me for I too belong to a protective society; a clan that has now existed for more than a few centuries. The Celadrin Clan. Headed by Liam Celadrin, a powerful seraphim tasked to ensure this world survives for better or worse."

She finished the coffee and left some money on the table. It was Tarlachian currency, but as soon as it touched the table, there was a low green glow, before it shifted to Michildan currency.

"I have a feeling you're going to need some experienced help with this situation. I am offering such now. You are free to accept or deny such."

Samantha eyed the fake change for a moment considering what had been said. It seemed like she had gotten her answer in a rather indirect way and at least she knew more then she did a minute ago, even if she would have to leave it to others to confirm the mage’s theory. Looking back up at Aeris, Samantha smirked.

“We’d gladly accept any help you can offer. As much as I would like to think that we can look after ourselves I’m constantly being reminded that we are still a fairly young group that has been around for barely more then a couple generations.” Samantha then reached into her pocket and pulled out a rather mangled piece of white card. “But I wouldn’t underestimate the Dawn. I know it’s a bit of a mess but it’s the only contact card I’ve got, just give that number a call any time you want to talk to one of us… seeya around, Aeris.”

Matis left the hotel in a hurry, sniffing the air. A new kind of Scent revealed to him, but not something that his whiskers were picking, but somehow... different. Why this special Scent, the cat didn't know, but it demanded attention, just like Midchilda itself was demanding attention as it was traveling by plane around it. With the Scent, came a hunger. Since the red gem's digestion, a new sensation of desire to eat-a-special-treat invaded the cat. And yet, with it came a warning: like a grass that it was ate by the felines to clean their stomach, only to be regurgitated afterwards, this hunger bored a warning!
The hunger will be paid attention to later. This Scent, this Trace needed to be followed. So the cat ran, faster, and faster, jumped on a fence and from there all up to a tree. Matis barely touched it, as it just needed a place to land for a blink of an eye... a new jump, on a fence, then another, on the fence across the street, then high on a house... a new jump, on a porch, then again on another house, faster, and faster…

Meanwhile, Daris was in the middle of his own Trace quest, as it was feeling his way amid a very dense fog…. It was a weird one, not as revterran fogs, not as normal fogs should feel… lots of Traces, generating the Fog, embracing it or just moving amid it. Just like Daris… Yes, Traces have been generated here…. other Traces…. Daris’s target was here, along with another powerfull one….. And somewhere in the distance, a new Trace emerged…. Daris chose to stay on the current one, as it was getting closer and closer.
The fog disrupted the other senses, so the voice took the cat by surprise:
Is there something I can help you with?
Daris desire to become invisible became true… literary.
I don’t know, who’s asking?
We don’t normally get fog this far into the city… it’s not particularly cold tonight either, what do you think is causing it?
Daris assessed the situation… the voices were farther than he previously thought them to be… The scare paid him a trick.
I have more honor then to stab a unsuspecting person in the back, if I intended to fight you I would have called you out from the start. Look, I’m Samantha Ranch, I suppose you could call me something of a local ‘enforcer’ around here. Can we talk now?
Very well then, Samantha Ranch. Perhaps we could continue this over a bite to eat? I've always made it a point to try the native foods of other nations I visit.

The cat followed the two girls from distance. The fog was still dense, but that proved to be in Daris best interest. Without it, one could have see the CatCam and the tracking device floating above the earth. After all, Daris was invisible. He’s equipment wasn’t.

Meanwhile, far away, Matis was about to give up his now supersonic target when the trace suddenly became more intense. The target, and a new Trace, flew above him, heading back to the city. Matis was too tired to follow back at that speed. He climbed up to a tree, and start meowing.

Matis was too far from the hotel for a video link to be established without a ComSattelite above, so, when the CatCam begun broadcasting again, it was only audio. Trion didn’t understand a thing. But Taris woke up, and jumped through the window. He sniffed his way on an interception course all the way toward a small inner city park. And from then, towards a fairly old brick building with blinded windows looking out to the street.

Meanwhile, Matis begun to investigate that hunger.

OOC: Not fake change. It's a small spell that would recognize currency laid on that table before, and assume the proper variables to make the currency laid down by Aeris as legitimate. Think of it as a magical form of currency exchange.

IC:

"May the wind be at your back." Aeris replied with a smile and nod, watching as the girl left the cafe. She glanced down at the card in hand, studying for a brief moment the worn edges, the crumpled folds that it held. It seemed to her that the girl did not often hand out cards like such.

It also told her something regarding the girl's habits. If she was careless in the caring of a card to be given to potential contacts, she would be careless in other venues much like the attempted sneaking the girl had tried to use on her.

At least she recognized such distasteful condition. Aeris thought to herself as she rose to her feet and departed out the door. As she walked to a nearby fountain, she looked down into the water, watching the reflection of the stars overhead. Exhaling silently, she froze as her elven hearing picked up the sounds of faint breathing.

She turned and began scanning the area carefully, her eyes resting in each of the shadows, finding nothing before they moved on. The remaining fog was annoying for it obscured what remained to be the last unknown areas, impenetrable to her eyes. With such annoyance, she finally spoke loud enough for any nearby to hear.

"Reveal yourself. I know you're there." she commanded.

Kyle watched as the mage played with his shadow with some mild internal discomfort. He inwardly thought, "Great... A dark spellcaster." Outwardly he cocked his head slightly, "Perhaps I should have left the fog."

He sighed inwardly and pulled all his energy back into himself regaining his normal appearance. Still, appearances could be deceiving, as he certainly didn't leave himself unprotected from attack. His mind ran quickly to think 'ice' throwing up a moderate, but invisible, mental barrier around himself.

"Well, as far as it goes, I couldn't begin to tell you what's happened here beyond what I'm sure you are perfectly capable of and have figured out on your own, and if you haven't, then I see no reason to help you. As for the gem on my ear, I am also looking for further pieces of it." With that Kyle stopped talking, not willing to give any further information without something in return.

OOC: Sorry about taking so long...I had 8 pages of French to write when you replied :mp5:

Margaret nodded thoughtfully as Bal explained herself.

"I apologize if I have not been so forthcoming Bal," she gulped, her face reading of guilt. "Unfortunately, there's not much I'm allowed to say without clearance from my Seniors."

Shrugging it off, she smiled. "What I can tell you however, is that I come from a group similar to your own - we have by default emerged as an authority within the magical realms of my nation. Unfortunately, to manage a balance of peace and to hold off from being noticed by the order of a perhaps suspicious government, we have been forced into hiding. We keep contact mostly with those we need to, and those who might seek to upset the balance know we are there, they simply might not know where we are exactly."

"Anyhow, we are a peaceful organization, and as you said so yourself; I came with the intentions of investigating various spikes of energy coming from Midchilda. Obviously, it must have been the destruction of your artifact that I had noticed - I can try to lend a hand, if you wish."

Margaret furrowed her brow, and for a few seconds she appeared to concentrate.

Teacher, these people seem to be like us - albeit struggling with their own kind of terrorism. Do I have permission to identify us?

Keep details to a minimum, do not give away our specific location, but dropping our name should be well enough.

"Apologies, Madam Bal," she smiled again. "I have just been informed that I do have permission to reveal myself. I come from an organization you may or may not have heard of; The Priority of Dimashq, of which I am a student. To give you some idea, we are primarily located within the Austar Union."

Daris was outside of the cafeteria when he almost lost the Trace... not many people at that hour, but still the powers were not under control, and the other senses screamed for attention. So when Aeris did that currency spell, the cat was happy again… the Trace appeared!!!
Still, Daris did not enter the cafeteria, as the girls where leaving… the cat followed them, fighting the same questions that troubled (?!) Matis earlier… what’s with this new found Trace discovering ability and… this hunger.

seeya around, Aeris
May the wind be at your back

Ok, they are splitting… Though the Trace was stronger now with the non-native one (due to casting that spell earlier), Daris was preparing to follow the first target, when the curiosity got the better of him: this new comer had slightly... different-shaped ears, a somehow different appearance, and who knows when he will be able to see another of her kind. So, the cat estimated when will Sam be in a couple a minutes, and where will Aeris be in 10 seconds.
The fog probably played him a trick, again. His target become aware that something was up and began looking around. Daris became one with the fog and stuck himself after a tree for cover.
Reveal yourself. I know you're there!

Meanwhile, Taris arrived in front of the building, but was not so eager to enter it. There was a man outside, rather height placed windows, and no more Traces. Again, the curiosity kicked in, and, not sensing any danger, the cat targeted a window and jumped his way up there. Once inside a dark room filled with cabinets, Taris let his normal vision to guide him through the halls. As the gentle breeze flew a piece of paper at Tatis, one could have notice that the flyer was pushed away from the cat just when it was about to touch his fur.

Rather far away from all this, Matis was digging another red-glowing stone.

A small creature, or a well disguised breathing pattern. Aeris thought as she looked around some more. Whoever, or whatever it is, doesn't want to be seen obviously.

She turned away again, looking down into the water fountain. Draw them out slowly. she thought to herself, approving of the plan as she walked away from the breathing, away from the fountain.

There was a distinct flutter of something falling from her robe for a moment, spinning about carelessly until it settled upon the ground. Upon closer inspection, one would find that it was a strange leaf of sorts, native only to one place in this world.

She herself moved toward a dock, descending a set of stairs until she was out of sight. There, she remained for a moment, before turning back and discreetly peering from behind a pillar, her eyes watching the area she had left.

Daris saw Aeris leaving and decided not to follow her. But, as the curious cats often do, he approached the fountain to get a better “grip” on the smell. Beside that habit, there was actually something strange about that place where the non-midchildian stood…. Like a Trace and yet not a Trace… So Daris, now without his fog-like cloak, left his cover, rather curious than “on the hunt”.
A… leaf?!

"At present, then, I have no quarrel with you. Should you cross us ... that will change, of course. Good day."

Kailanneth inclines her head slightly, the barest nod to the foreign hydromancer, and steps back into the fog.

"He has more of what we seek!" Shanessel hissed in the Shadow Tongue. "Why did you leave without it?"

"He seeks them too," she replied. "I'm minded to let him spend his energy finding them - we can always take them from him later. It's no harm to him, and our need's the greater."

Shanessel nods; it's likely the whole of the Shadow Palace knows what's coming, foretold by the statisticians and the oracles. The end of their world must be prevented at any cost.

As soon as the feline approached the leaf and sniffed gently, it suddenly found it's head wrapped in the leaf, blinding the cat. Strange as it was, it also stretched and bound the two front legs together, disabling it's potential to escape.

"Well, seems I'm not the only one curious to find out what's going on here." a feminine voice spoke from above the cat, "You should be careful little one. Curiosity killed the cat you know."

Picking the feline up by the scruff, she removed the leaf and pocketed it. She turned the feline to face her, holding her far enough to keep from being scratched or bitten.

"Lucky for you, I'm not Curiosity."

A voice spoke inside the cat's mind, a voice that sounded exactly like Aeris's spoken voice. It is clear you are no ordinary cat. By what are you called and whom do you work for?

A smile crossed Aeris's face as she gazed upon the cat, taking a chance to cradle the feline in her arms, an indication she meant no harm. A moment later, her other hand stroked its fur, sliding around the equipment nestled in the harness, and down the length of its tail.

I mean you no harm, unless you give me a reason. I am Aeris.

MIIIAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Daris’s scream rippled through Midchilda. It wasn’t sound, because his mouth was moufled by the leafy trap. But pain, fear, desire not to feel trap.
Matis felt it. It took him a second to figure out where the scream came. Then another one to realize his options….New possibilities rose into his mind, as something was almost taking control over him… A new Matis, less cute-cuddling cat and more of a fighter emerged, and with a jump, Matis leaped from the top of the three directly in the square.
He landed, saw Aeris carrying Daris and reacted: he raised his fur, arched his back, and in that split second he needed to make his appearance more impressive and threatening he actually got bigger; tree-size bigger. And the threatening growl that Matis made broke the windows of the nearby buildings

Briskly walking down the series of side streets towards her apartment, Samantha looked distantly into the shadows staring at no particular thing as she went. Concentration wasn’t really needed between veterans, but there was a lot on her mind.

So that’s all there is to it, Bal. I’d say she was interested but she wasn’t too keen on coming to see you, seemed sincere enough though, if not extremely arrogant. Next time you can talk to her yourself. Samantha yawned, through no sound was made her voice and fed up tone clearly transmitted to its destination. Very well, Sam. Thanks for trying at least; I can understand your apprehension but you know why we must give them the benefit of the doubt and open our arms. Samantha nodded at this, despite being on her own, her eyes became dull and her expression cold. Yes, you don’t need to remind me, I’ll never forget. You have my sword and vigilance regardless of our guests’ choices, of that you can rely. She now held her head up and stared up into the sky, then closing her eyes and listening to the wind flow gently down the streets.

“Goodnight Bal” she said to herself. Continuing home.

Back at the Society, Bal listened intently to Margaret explain her circumstances, smiling as the young woman referred to her a ‘madam Bal’ but decided against commenting on it. She had to admit she had never really heard of Austar Union before. Perhaps it had been on the news a while ago but she couldn’t even begin to form details of the mystery country, she’d have to ask someone about it if only out of interest’s sake. Her conversation with Samantha was long complete; telepathic communication between one another was one of the easiest abilities Midchildian mages acquired, in comparison flight required a certain degree of experience and potential, the pair could easily multi-task while communicating in such a way. Margaret finished revealing her organisational ties and in return Bal continued to smile, perhaps a little more sincere now.

“Thanks for your offer, we would gladly appreciate help.” She replied contently. “Now allow me to explain a little more about the incident on the whole, starting with the information you already know and fill in the details as we go…” Bal then continued to describe the Chaos Seed incident much in the same way Samantha had explained it to Aeris, firstly describing the gem, its appearance and it’s basic abilities before explaining a little more about what happened to it. However, the explanation varied a little on Seed…


“We also suspect that the Seed itself may have some basic form of intelligence... to be honest we hadn’t quite had the chance to actually find out. You see, in order to safely manage the amount of raw mana it is capable of producing ‘artefacts’ such as this one often have their own artificial intelligence imbued upon them… Melissa, would you mind showing Margaret Bardiche?”

During the whole conversation Melissa had long ago blanked out, taking the time to look about the room as she always did while up here. Now suddenly being addressed she jumped a little before smiling cutely and drawing up her dark metal axe. Bardiche was a slight oddity in the way it looked like a well made toy, no actual weapon would be coloured in the same manner but it was clearly a solid axe with a large round yellow gem that made most of the midsection between the head and the top of the axe, out of the back opposite the edge were two small black cylinder shapes that looked a little like pistons. Close up Margaret could probably see that directly below the gem and the head of the axe inside another thick cylinder was something of a revolver mechanism, complete with six slots currently filled with cartridges of some kind, one was missing.

“Here you go, Margaret.” she said, handing the axe over. It was surprisingly light for what felt metallic. “How are you feeling, Bardiche?”

“All systems green, Sir.” As the broken English male voice replied, the yellow gem pulsed to each word. Without her weapon, Rebecca’s aura hadn’t changed as she still radiated a small amount of magic, even without her barrier jacket. The girl smiled at the reply. “Good boy.”

“Not all of our mages have intelligent devices. They are rather tricky and have some rather specific requirements for us. We can’t swap devices and usually only the master of each device is capable of using them. Of course, the Chaos Seed is the exception, from our studies we haven’t really quite worked out it’s purpose… it could be a extremely powerful battery for all we know, but it never distinguished between owners like other artefacts we’ve found, most of which can’t ever be activated.”

Bal shrugged. “I only wish I knew more about our rogue mage. He knew exactly where it was and targeted the Seed alone, he’s done his research and he may even know more about it then we do. It’s a rather messy affair frankly and I’ve even had to resort to looking at our own, something I’m not proud of but it would be foolish to ignore the possibility… even though I trust them all explicitly.” The older woman signed, brushing her hand against her scar as she did so. “So yes, any help would be welcome… you’ll understand why I won’t reveal every little detail, but I’ll answer any more questions you have.”

MIIIAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Daris’s scream rippled through Midchilda. It wasn’t sound, because his mouth was moufled by the leafy trap. But pain, fear, desire not to feel trap.
Matis felt it. It took him a second to figure out where the scream came. Then another one to realize his options….New possibilities rose into his mind, as something was almost taking control over him… A new Matis, less cute-cuddling cat and more of a fighter emerged, and with a jump, Matis leaped from the top of the three directly in the square.

He landed, saw Aeris carrying Daris and reacted: he raised his fur, arched his back, and in that split second he needed to make his appearance more impressive and threatening he actually got bigger; tree-size bigger. And the threatening growl that Matis made broke the windows of the nearby buildings

Aeris was stunned to see another feline nearby literally grow exponentially, and it took her a moment to take in what had happened. The cat's spittle flew onto her as it hissed with warning. Wiping the spittle from her face, she looked down at the feline in her arms and held up her hand, indicating a desire to not escalate this into a fight.

"Calm yourself!" she commanded, her confidence returned, her mind naturally clicking into semi-battle mode. However, she would try to disarm this situation if she could. "I am not hurting your friend!"

She set the feline in her arm down onto the ground, kneeling to remove the leaf with a tap on the nose, and all the while, watching the monstrous cat. Once that was done, the leaf was deposited into her pocket, and she rose to her feet again. Her hands held out, holding nothing, palms open.

"I was merely asking your friend for identification."

As soon as he was free, Daris jumped directly on the back of Matis, with almost anti-gravitational force.
Without losing sight of Aeris, Matis, looked around. It was bound for someone to appear, and staying this tall would mean recognition. So, as fast as he got big, Matis lost height back to his original size. Still, at the end of the fur, each piece of hair looked like it was ending in a small dot-sized flame.... For another second his eyes kept throwing flames, then they recovered their original cat look. Daris landed safely near Matis, 10 meters in front of Aeris
At first, the elf felt like a TV set was finding its stations inside her head, on her telepathic nerves. Then, after a moment, she saw herself speaking:
I am Aeris
Matis answered a male face, looking from an upper view to what seemed to be Aeris’s viewing point
I am Aeris
Matis
Daris said the same voice, and the imagine of –probably-the other cat, appeared.
Matis
Daris
Telepathy, when doubled by empathy, made those symbols we call words and languages meaningless. But it seemed that Matis didn’t know that, nor cared.
After that short intro, Aeris saw herself surrounded by a sort of colored aura, a gassy shield emanating from her, and felt...curiosity from her counterpart.

Taris felt Daris's scream too, but he was too far away to answer. Plus, Matis’s “I’m coming in fast and strong!” was very clear. So this cat kept exploring the second floor of the Institute’s building. He ignored the papers, the mugs and even the kitchen, while looking upstairs. Taris sit a while directly beneath Bal’s room, feeling the magic that surrounded the place where the meeting was held. In the end, he will have to use the stairs to get there. The activation of Barniche made Taris hurry, as the curiosity to unravel these Traces was rising to its peak. In a minute, the cat found the stairs, climbed to the next floor and found Bal’s office. Taris pushed the door slightly, and inserted his head.

<snip>

"I see," Margaret replied, twirling the axe between her fingers. "Do you think then, that some of these ‘artefacts’ may belong to individuals with their power not yet realized?"

"Nevertheless, with the Seed now destroyed I suppose the greatest mission of today would be to find out who wanted the Seed itself, whether they knew what it was or whether they represented an overzealous collector with as little knowledge as we have." Smiling, she shrugged. "It might help by revisiting the site while remnants of this mystery person still exists - with any luck there exists some kind of trail that we can follow. Or clues as to what he was carrying with him at the time which could elude to his identity."

"It's worth a try. But to pick up anything at this point I might need someone to come along - combing our efforts can lead to the discovery of even the weakest elements, I have found. Just myself, and one or two others should do the trick."

Bal tilted her head to the side when questioned about the artefacts and their masters as if to give it some thought for a moment. Meanwhile Rebecca retrieved her axe back from the kind foreigner. Bal answered the question hesitantly.

“Sort of… we find it’s more of a matter of compatibility between personalities and types, but that’s only true for intelligent devices which are rather rare and are quite a burden on their users. As I said before the Seed is rather unique in the way that it doesn’t seem to link itself with any one master and doesn’t require any understanding or abilities in magic to use, perhaps the first magical artefact of it’s type we’ve encountered with such dangerous properties… but I suppose that’s not quite so important at the moment.”

The door creaked ever so slightly, solid though it was it had been left slightly ajar as Rebecca led Margaret into the room. The two mages didn’t seem to notice.

“No, I think it would probably be for the best if we all get some rest at the very least. We can try again tomorrow together with clear heads and a better understanding of our positions. I can check through our client list tomorrow morning and see if that brings up any more leads. Your suggestion as to some kind of collector is a angle I hadn’t considered yet.” The older woman smiled before looking over to Rebecca who was now listening intently. “…and Rebecca, you have school tomorrow. Sorry to have kept you up so late, I’ll have to make it up to you some time, but before that could you see to our little guest?”

“Huh?” The teen looked confused for a moment before following Bal’s gaze towards the door where a small cat poked it’s head into the room, it’s little furry face filled with curiosity. Rebecca couldn’t help but give out an adoring “Awwww….”

To free her hands, the young mage’s axe returned to its inactive form, a golden triangular broach that Rebecca instantly pocketed. Moving towards the door with both arms ready to pick up the adorable cat, the girl stopped dead in her tracks about a foot away from the little beast. Instantly she took a step back quickly grasping her broach again and changing to a defensive stance, her legs bent with the choice of fight or flight.

“Bal, something isn’t right with this cat, it’s awakened!” She called out, her eyes not leaving the feline, her hand glowing with anticipation.

((OOC: I’d like to start rapping this night up as it seems I’ve stretched it out a little more then I’ve intended to and I imagine many of us would like to move on from this introduction phase. That said, I don’t mind playing this out a bit longer if the majority are happy to do so, but I figure people may want to move on and get the main ‘hunt’ started.))

...or something like that went through Taris's head, as the Traces he was investigating became suddenly not so friendly. The room that was as filled with magic like it was with light became dangerous, as the person who was approaching him with arms opened at first entered a threatening posture.
“Bal, something isn’t right with this cat, it’s awakened!”
The girl, that had emanated so much affection, was now covered in Traces, and in an offensive mood. Still remembering Daris's scream, Taris pull his head of the room and raced for the exit.

As the cat bolted out of the door, Rebecca visibly settled down, the pale yellow glow from her broach now dimming slowly as she looked over to Bal for instruction. Though a little surprised, the middle-aged woman hadn’t moved from her seat.

“Follow it out, get a feel for it’s presence but don’t get too close. I’d rather not force a confrontation, especially until we know its motives… assuming it even has any beyond pure curiosity.” She said calmly. Rebecca nodded before speeding out of the room after the cat, following what little signature she had picked up. Unfortunately the urban indoors environment limited Rebecca to using her own athletic ability and even if she did happen to be one of the best runners in her school the fact remained that this was a small agile feline with twice as many legs and a tail for balance, so before long she had lost the cat and it’s magical signature. Concentrating Rebecca managed to pick up a scent of sorts, but it was fast fading with the very minute amount of energy the creature was using. Instead of following any further Rebecca followed her orders and made a point of memorising the feel of the magic. It seemed somehow familiar, but also kind of alien. Whatever the cat was, it would likely be gone now; she wouldn’t be finding it anytime soon unless it used a lot more magical energy. It wasn’t so much hostility she conducted her business in, but more surprise mixed with a strong feeling of protecting ones family, something a particularity sensitive empathic being may pick up from the building in general.

Bal, I’ve lost the familiar, sorry. She thought, telepathically speaking to the leader of the Dawn as she looked around the second floor. Don’t worry about it, Rebbeca. Has Bardiche recorded the creatures signature? A concerned voice replied. Yeah, I think so. It felt kind of odd… anyways, do you think it will be ok if I go home now? Rebecca replied. Sure, just be careful just in case. I trust you’ll be alright, goodnight. Goodnight, Bal.

Bal leaned back on her chair and sighed. “Sorry about all this, it seems we’re rather popular tonight. Do you have any more questions, Margaret?”

In the middle of the plaza, Matis was watching Aeris, but Daris was watching Matis. Around the rescue cat’s neck 6 red gems were slowly rotating and pulsating, like a live necklace. A sensation of hunger stroke Daris. Aeris was a threat alright, but something inside him was demanding him to pay attention to those gems.

Meanwhile, Taris was fast retracing his steps back to the window he used to get in. He arrived to the second floor, but in haste missed the right room, and slammed a shut door. He heard Rebecca running on the corridor, and frenetically slammed into doors to find his way.
Miauu, he whined.

Matis felt the whine and Taris's destination, and decided to help.

In the back of the Institute building a small area of air decided to move inside itself. The hole in space tunneled itself until it reach the Plaza; it engulfed Matis and Daris, and transported them in the back of the Institute building.
Just then, Taris, who, in the meantime, got back on his tracks, flew through the window, but landed incredibly gentle, between them.
Matis, turned around and headed for the hotel at a very slow pace. He was extremely and abnormally tired, and more than that, he was feeling his partners gaze on his gems.
After a few meters, Matis collapsed, unable to do anything but breathe. The other cats lifted him telekinetically, and resumed their way toward the hotel.
The hunger issue will be solved there.

Maggie watched all the procedings rather unbothered by what was going on, albeit a little curious as to questions regarding the who, what, where, when, and why surrounding the cat-creature that had visited ever so briefly.

Turning to Bal, she gave a warm smile. "No, thank you. I should be on my way then; getting myself a good night sleep will help all the more for tomorrow."

"Is there anything else I can help you with at all?"

Bal thought about it for a moment before shaking her head.

“No that I can think of. We’ll look at all the facts again tomorrow with a fresh mind, I’m sure we’ll find something if we work together… ahh, that’s something. How would you prefer I contact you? The girls and I prefer to contact one another using a very basic form of telepathy, but I understand you may not trust us enough yet.” She said, her tone polite so as to indicate that she didn’t mind if the lack of trust was still the case. “If you would prefer we can exchange mobile numbers or failing that I can give you a phone for the express purpose of contacting us...”

Bal smiled for a moment, amused with a thought. “Oddly enough that’s how we usually start out with new members still getting used to their growing powers. As I’m sure you can understand, it’s a rather confusing process that isn’t helped by adolescence, every little bit we can do to avoid unfortunately misunderstanding… in any case it’s up to you. I don’t think any of us can read minds so it’s more down to preference and trust.”

((I really wouldn't worry about the timing, frankly I was supposed to move on to the next day yesterday, but I got lazy and decided to play Uplink instead... I understand that things are slow right now so I understand if people get bored and do something else.))

((Additional: I hope you guys liek reading... sorry about the length of this one.))

Eventually the long night finally draws to an end as Bal and Margaret finish their conversation and work out how they are going to contact one another. Tired from what has proven to have been a long nights work, Rebecca quietly enters her home and makes her way to bed before the night sky turns into the dawn of a new day. All in all things were looking up for her comrades as they had made at least one new friend and another potential ally, hopefully all for the better in the upcoming investigation. Too exhausted to look back on the day in detail, the blond teen soon falls into a peaceful slumber, her golden broach set carefully on the bedside table.

Quietly the gentle black curtain of the night sky draws to the west without incident, slowly revealing a dim red hue among the clouds in an otherwise twilight sky. A little distance from the mainland on one of the many smaller islands to the east, the Xendric Expedition rose to an early start. The campsite was a rather basic affair, the normal large canvas tents with sturdy fixtures in a fairly large clearing they had marked out sometime ago after the initial sweep. Barely several miles across, Xendric, the name apparently given to the island long ago by the ancient Midchildian civilisation, was a warm temperate climate with a reasonable size of woodland so far untapped by the nation proper. Already the historians and archaeologists had sections of land marked out and slowly unearthed in a precise systematic manner towards the east end of the clearing, the rest was taken up by the expedition themselves easily numbering in several dozen professional men and women, not all of whom were from Midchildia.

First to rise was Professor Becksworth himself, a tall refined man looking to be in his early fifties, his short clean hair a dull silver colour along with his trim and proper moustache. As if following some kind of convention he had made the choice to get the clothes more suitable for exploring exotic jungles, complete with a beige helmet. Setting a mirror on a tree stump near the edge of the clearing the senior set about shaving with a traditional straight razor before finally clearing up and going back towards another tent neighbouring his.

“Come along now, Francesca, we have a big day ahead of us!” he stated in a firm voice. By this time many of his colleagues had woken up and were preparing breakfast. The surrounding forest itself on the edges of the clearing was mostly evergreen, forming a sparse canopy around the parameter of the site before getting thicker as you further explore the forest. No one really worried too much about the local wildlife, though a few predators weren’t uncommon on some of these wilder regions, they tended to avoid humans and just in case the Expedition had a few trained experts on site with a small range of hunting gear.

Content he’d woken the girl, the Professor made his way to the camp’s food area; several large folding tables had been set up for people to come and go as they like as they collected breakfast, a mostly fried meal as usual which helped to keep most of the staff happy as others settled for toast or cereal. A little later a young girl seemingly aged around twelve approached the table, bowl in hand. Most of the staff simply smiled and wished her good morning. Finally she sat down next to the professor.

“Good morning, my little angel, did you sleep well?” he asked in a much more sincere voice. The girl’s hair was fashioned into a plait so as to keep it long but out of the way. Similar to her father she had made a point of wearing practical beige shorts and shirt to go with the boots practically everyone in the camp was wearing. She nodded in reply looking a little bothered. “Yes Father”

“Good good, today we’ll be having another go at section B5 as the scans looked promising there yesterday. Did you finish off the work Ms Jones set you before going to sleep?” Again, she looked a little bothered, answered politely enough. “I finished it in the evening, Father, like you asked.”

“Good girl, your mother would be proud.” He finished, so as to get back to eating his fried sausages. Stirring the remains of her cereal in ponder, Francesca finally asked; “Dad, do you think we’ll really find anything interesting, like back over at Xental?”

The old man stopped for a moment in thought, not sure exactly how to answer the question. It wasn’t that his daughter wasn’t interested in his profession; that was why she was here with him with a private tutor and not in some school, but it was more that she was keen on the stranger finds that were few and far between. “Who knows… sometimes these things surprise us. We’ll just have to hold on to the anticipation, shouldn’t we?”

Francesca simply nodded, finishing her cereal by supping at the remains of the milk. Just as she was getting up, one of the younger archaeologists run over to the table the Professor was sitting. “Professor, I think you should see this… something has landed at the far eastern side of the camp, just past the trees.”

The old man didn’t rush to get up, reaching for his glasses that hung around his neck he carefully placed them on his nose before addressing the young man.

“We’re not Meteorologists, Simon. We have more important things to do then gawk at some rock that the heavens decided to throw back at us, surely you can just take a note of it and tell them about it when we get back… be damned if I’m letting them take over my site-”

“Beg your pardon, Professor, but I really think you should look at this… it looks like one of those gems we often see on jewellery-”

“Hwhat!?” Becksworth replied in an outburst that carefully pronounced the ‘h’. It wasn’t often the others saw the Professor confused but it was clearly similar to the Professor annoyed, so the young man carefully tried to navigate it as the Professor continued “Alright, you’d better show me. Come along Francesca, I imagine you would like to see this too.”

The young girl smiled and hopped over to her father’s side, Simon looked a little shocked at the development. “Are you sure that’s wise? Professor, sir?” He asked, trying to be respectful. “It seemed to glow… it could be radioactive or something.”

“Simon, this is your first expedition with me isn’t it? Yes, I thought so…look you’re a bright kid back at home so I’ll cut you some slack, but let me worry about the safety of my own daughter, she’s had just as much experience in the field as most of the men and women around you…” slowly the Professor ran out of steam mid-sentence as he re-processed the words he was mostly ignoring in the first place. “On second thought, just in case go and fetch a rad-counter. Can’t be too careful.”

Simon simply nodded. It wasn’t long before he and a large portion of the camp were at the site, a little off from the clearing amongst the trees. Undergrowth wasn’t really much of a problem and as they approached it became clear that a section of the ground had been damaged slightly with the planet fall. The professor refrained from asking what Simon was doing when he discovered the sight as it was fairly obvious at this time in the morning and young ladies were present.

“So like I thought, no real radioactive presence?” The professor asked in a now perfectly calm voice. Simon nodded, giving a quick yes to the man. “A little higher then normal, but a within safe boundaries. To be expected I suppose…” It wasn’t easy to spot at first, the actual impact was barely more then a small hole that could have been dug up by a animal… however in the centre was a small purple gem ever so slightly glowing. Had it been full daylight at the time it wouldn’t have been obvious.

“Yes yes, good man. Hmm… you’re right. It does look a little Midchildian in nature, though it’s doesn’t look crafted, more like a shard from something. I say, this is a little oddity. Simon, it’s your find so you and Jenny go get some gear to set up a section around the site. The rest of you I’d like you to get back to your assigned sections. As much as I love the open air away from the city we can’t stay here forever.”

A little disappointed, the others took off to their jobs and finally Professor Becksworth was alone with his daughter who was staring at the tiny gem in wonder, slowly walking around the hole to get a look from different angles. It was the Professor who first spoke in a quiet almost hushed voice. “So, Francesca, what do you make of this?”

The young girl took her eyes off the gem for a moment so as to answer her father, she was clearly excited. “Definitely magical. I couldn’t feel it until we got closer, but it’s clearly some kind of artefact… maybe a device, but it doesn’t look right.”

“Really, that powerful?” He asked in amazement. Francesca didn’t seem too impressed by this comment. “Yes Father, if I can feel it un-activated at this range then it’s that powerful. It’s strange.”

“Is it dangerous?” Francesca shrugged. “Can’t tell, I don’t have enough experience with devices to really say, usually they need someone like me to do anything at all, but I can’t say with surety that this is one of those. It seems broken, probably best no one touches it for now and I’ll see if I can get a hold of someone with a bit more experience.”

“Hm… ok. I imagine Simon won’t like to hear that much, but I suppose we could probably say it’s too delicate to handle directly. Can you… do anything with it?” The professor asked, respectfully.

“… I’m not sure. I’d really like to ask for help on this one. I’ve got a funny feeling about it, this one isn’t like that one we found at Xental.” The Professor simply nodded at his daughters reply. It was beyond him, he knew when to step back when there was a more qualified person at hand... but he too could feel a certain wonder about it, like he should hold it himself, that alone scared him. He shook his head for a moment, removing the feeling.

“Ok then… ah, welcome back, Simon. Here, let me help you with that.” Slowly but surely, the four of them started to prepare the area for examination.

An hour later the small group had clear most of the undergrowth near the sit itself and made a point of cleaning up a bit. As a matter of practice they set up a normal square section around the gem as they normally would despite the fact it was probably going to be the only thing around. A bit of careful digging had been done to make sure it wasn’t part of something larger that had shattered on impact but to no avail. There wasn’t really much to the site besides the gem itself.

“How long do you reckon its been there, Professor?” Simon asked, his head cocked to the side slightly as he started at the gem. The earth around it had been dug up leaving almost a flat surface around where the gem sat.

“Judging on the site as we got to it, I’d say it was probably fairly recent… if it had been here more then a week the wildlife and natural weathering would have changed the site more. I’m no woodsman mind…” He replied rather basically.

“Anyways, professor, would you mind if I collected it now? Probably best we don’t leave it out here… we’ve took pictures of the original site and got all the details, feels like a waste not to have a proper look at it later.” The young man continued.

“Yes yes, Simon.” Becksworth replied, glancing at his daughters expression. “Just take care not to touch it and collect the ground it’s resting on. It looks rather delicate and frankly it has me a little worried.”

“Understood, Sir.”

The group once against observed how the gem shone more as Simon approached it, it was almost eerie in the way it would react to people, it was fortunate perhaps that Francesca kept her distance or they would notice it reacting more to her presence. Carefully working at the ground around the gem, Simon carefully lifted the earth it was resting in and placed it all inside a container set aside. Quickly placing the whole container down in such a way not to shake it too much, he backed off a little and shuddered a little.

“Ugh, that thing gives me the creeps. Probably been watching too many old sci-fi films lately… but I can’t get over the feeling of being watched.” He stated, mostly to himself. Jenny, the worker who was asked to assist nodded. “I must confess I’ve been feeling a bit like that too… it’s just too strange dealing with something from the sky and not the ground…”

“Never mind, chaps.” The professor said regardless of the fact only he and Simon were male. “We’re all done now, we can put this away in storage and let the experts worry about it when we get back. Good work.”

However, when they returned to the main site, everything was eerily quiet. Much of the Expedition had stopped to see what was going on, but not towards the group, but instead the storage tent where a commotion had started…

“Hey! You can’t go in there! Who are you?” Called out one of the workers, out of view, but only for a moment as he literally flew out of the tent and into one of the sections where worried co-workers quickly checked on his condition.

Walking out of the tent was a huge man, stooping his back in order to exit the tent he easily towered over others near by, his long brown rain coat open and flowing slightly behind him, on his chest he seemed to be wearing some kind of metallic armour, maybe a breastplate of some kind but it was covered by much of his coat, it was the only part of him visibly armoured that the others could see. Just as odd was his head; the man was clearly a bruiser with a couple scars to match, under his nose was a thick bushy moustache that some may mock were it not for his size… but perhaps most notable of all were the pair of almost dog like ears poking out from his wild hair. It was the only animalistic feature about the man.

The commotion started to build up as the others started to wonder how to deal with the strange brute, who simply looked at the man he just threw with disdain before returning into the tent followed by the sounds of crashing and destruction.

“What the hell? Who is that man?” The professor asked a man nearest to him. The middle aged guy he asked simply shrugged.

“I don’t know Professor… apparently he just wandered into the camp from nowhere and entered our storage tent. Frankly he seems a bit crazed, but I’ve never seen him before… or anyone like him for that matter.”

“I can’t be having with this… where’s security? What are they doing about this?” the Professor asked in his normal agitated tone. It usually worked.

“Well… one of them was that poor man he just threw out, the other I believe is getting the rifle-”

“Won’t work.” Francesca interrupted. The two men looked down at her surprised, before the other man could counter her father butted in knowing better then to doubt his daughter.

“Come now dear, lets get you out of the way of all this nastiness.” He said, motioning her to walk along side him away from the others and away from the commotion. “So he’s… err… awakened?”

The young girl nodded, her face concerned and serious. “Without a doubt. Normally I couldn’t be sure without being closer but I can feel a certain degree of mana flowing from him, like a barrier jacket… only he’s Belkan so it’s his ‘armour’.”

“Belkan?”

“One of the two main schools of magic that I know of… same as me…” she paused to look at her father more closely for a moment, considering something seriously. “I’m going to call for help. I’d rather avoid it but if he starts hurting people seriously I’d like to step in…”

“Francesca, no… I can’t just stand back and let you do something so crazy; the man is thrice your size for god’s sake. Even if you are… awakened.”

“But Dad, I can’t just stand by and watch people get hurt…” she complained. “Anyways, I’m telling the others… with any luck they will arrive in time before it gets to that stage, but Father, don’t worry about me so much, I’m more capable then you think. Size isn’t as important as his ability to use his magic… if his size is just compensating of his lack of talent then it’s no match at all. Even if he is good, I can stall him long enough to get assistance… it’s more important that we don’t let him hurt the others who can’t defend themselves.”

The Professor considered this for a moment before asking one last question. “If you get in trouble, can you get away… promise me that if its too much you won’t force it. You’ll back off even if I’m in danger.”

“… Yes Father. I promise… but if you’re in danger I’m taking you with me, ok?”

“Ok…”

With that Francesca concentrated on sending a telepathic message to everyone she knew in the Dawn. Help, over at Xendric Island… a rogue mage is attacking our expedition, please, send help as soon as possible.


Meanwhile it wasn’t long before the man finally got bored with rummaging through the expeditions storage, leaving to find a man pointing a hunting rifle at him.

“Sir, I’ll have to ask you to leave the premises please.” The man said through the false confidence of a firearm. He wasn’t an amateur, though he’d never had to pull a gun on another human before the man had a certain level of training and knew what his job was, even if security was more designed against animals in this case as they hadn’t planned on the possibility of some stranger finding them away from civilisation.

In return the hulking brute simply smiled at him. “The Seed fragments… where are you keeping them?” He asked in a surprisingly normal not too deep voice, he didn’t sound like the brute everyone had expected and pronounced himself clearly without raising his voice too much… it was almost daunting.

“Sir, please put your hands clearly in the air and leave our camp!” The guard repeated, unnerved by the lack of reaction to his previous warning.

The brute shrugged and started to move towards the man at walking pace, it took three steps before the security guard finally fired to the loud sharp sound of a ping as the bullet ricocheted from his armour and away into the air. The brute didn’t even break his pace while the guard quickly cocked his rifle for another round. The others who had been watching at a distance took the chance to get a lot more distance. Again, he fired at the man, this time trying for the head… but for some reason it just ricocheted just in front of him with another loud ping.

Failing, the man dropped his rifle and broke into a run to escape the looming terror that approached. He only got a short distance, looking back as he ran, before a loud thud could be heard from in front of him as the brute had leapt in one bound to intercept and lift him up. “Argggg!”

“Now I’ll ask again. Where are you keeping the fragments of the Chaos Seed? You guys are connected to the Dawn, right, so you must be trying to clean this up. Where are they?” The brute held the man in his tree-trunk arm by the throat, not quite choking him.

“*cough* I don’t… know…*cough* what… you’re… talking about.” He managed to barely get out. Finally the Brute dropped him to the ground, content for the moment.

“Who’s in charge here? You must know that much at least…” He asked, again, not raising his voice.

“Leave that man alone!” A young girls voice shouted out from behind him. Many of the others had escaped into the forest, the Professor encouraging them to leave while making up some lie about his daughter already running off into the forest… it was the best he could do for the time being but he didn’t want any more strange rumours about the girl then already existed.

The brute turned to see Francesca. He didn’t seem too surprised; in fact he smiled again as is amused. “Ah, I figured they would have someone like you around… I would have figured it would be someone older, but it can’t be helped.”

“Just leave the others alone… they don’t know anything, they can’t hurt you, or is that something you’re proud of?” She asked, almost spitefully towards the end.

“No, I have more honour then that. Otherwise this one wouldn’t still be breathing… but you, on the other hand, are fair game.” He smiled crackling his knuckles for a moment. “So, where are the fragments?”

“I don’t know of any fragments of the Chaos Seed… it was supposed to be destroyed.” she replied in annoyance. The brute shook his head.

“Hah, don’t mess with me little girl. You couldn’t be that stupid… the Seed is more resilient then that.” As he watched her reaction it dawned on him. “No wait… you can’t be serious? You actually thought that the seed could be destroyed like that? Don’t get me wrong… even I could feel that blast, but if you even knew half it’s histor-”

Then he burst out laughing. “Oh that’s precious… ah well. Never mind. In any case I can’t let you leave. Not now... so, will you come willingly?”

“Of course not… you had to ask?” She replied, almost irritated.

“Well; a guy can hope. Ok. Lets do this.”

Back at on the mainland of Midchilda, morning broke as usual, the portentous red sky even visible in the inner city. Life continued on as usual as the locals got up for work, went out fishing, catering to the tourists and otherwise enjoyed their daily lives. Meanwhile, for the less normal individuals a bit before ten O’clock the presence of a large magical barrier could be felt as it was erected around the Island of Xendric.

((For what it's worth, if for some crazy reason you aren't in this thread but have read up to here and are interested in joining, feel free as I've left it open for a reason. Here is the OOC thread (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=512379) if you want to check anything with me first or otherwise deal with OOC matters.))

“Sixth seat Zætsu Aramaki.”
“Yes lieutenant Shūhei Hisagi.” Zætsu replied as he looked over at his commanding officer.
“You are tasked to travel to a place known as Midchilda to investigate an unexpected and abnormally high burst of spirit energy. We don’t want another outbreak similar to the Bountou incident and for whatever reason there isn’t aren’t any Shinigami as until know there has been very few Hollow attacks. We’ll see you when you return, and make sure you take a gigai, an ample supply of gikongan as well as the rest of the stuff you usually forget.”
“Yes lieutenant-san.”

With that settled Zætsu made sure to collect his gear and most importantly his Zanpakutō and headed throught the gate from Soul Society to the real world.

****************

Almost immediately after arriving his phone rang giving him directions to a nearby hollow. It seemed that it had arrived only moments after he did and was heading in the general direction of at least two people that were spiritually aware, but it also was going in circles which meant it was likely chasing a soul first. As he had remembered to get some gikongan he popped one out of it's dispencer and downed the small piece of soul candy.

Popping out of the faux body that was his gigai and with a few words to the effect of 'Sit' and 'Stay' he sped toward the hollow.

****************

The hollow was a small one, lizard-like and six-legged, howling its mindless wail as it chased the soul it was trying to devour. The little boy was dodging frantically but it was only a matter of time before caught and turned into a hollow in its own right, or that had been its fate before Zætsu's arrival. With a single slash he purified the monster and with a faint tap from the hilt he preformed soul burial on the boy's soul sending the now purified hollow and soul to Soul Society.

That task settled, he headed off to investigate the spiritually aware and see if they were related to his mission or just regular, so to speak, humans.

****************

The man standing of about average height, or would be if he were standing instead being crouched on a branch, dressed in a white undershirt with black kimono and hakama and white sash with a katana watched the large man face off with a young girl. He was trying to figure out what was happening and from the looks of it they'd be the only two who'd notice him.

“I’m not getting any more replies… Melissa said in a concerned voice, looking deep into the bathroom mirror. Standing next to her reflection senor student and best friend, Rebecca seemed to share her concern.

“Me neither. I doubt she’s blocking us intentionally which leads me to believe she’s in serious trouble.” Rebecca looked down in deep thought. As soon as the pair heard the distress call, they each made their excuses and met up with one another in the girl’s bathroom to discuss a plan of action. After all, the two girls were still both in school. “She did say something about a rogue mage, it’s entirely possible he’s blocking our attempts to contact her, or he’s had the time to prepare some kind of barrier.”

“Then we can’t afford to waste any more time!” Melissa pulled at her tall friend. “You’re the fastest; if we go together we should be there in a couple minutes…”

“You know Bal wouldn’t agree, she’s doing her best to deal with it herself-”

“Yes, but if they’re in a barrier the translocation spell will fail, we don’t even know how large the barrier is and every minute they are working on it is another moment that mage could harm her and escape, I can’t just let that go.” The younger Melissa pleaded.

“Alright, but you’ll have to hold on tight… I can’t manoeuvre as well with the additional weight.” Quietly the pair left the building before changing into their barrier jackets and taking off into the sky before they were seen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just five minutes earlier at Xendric…

Facing off against one another for a moment, both the large man and the young girl stared at one another, almost as though they were waiting for the other to flinch. It was a rather odd scene; the young girl seemed more at home in a private school for young ladies of high stature then she did squaring off against a man three times her size, meanwhile the man himself was nothing out of the ordinary; his unusual size was easily accountable as large men existed around the world, even seven foot tall broad shouldered men like himself… however, it was more his choice of looks, the brown long coat was understandable enough, but the breastplate he wore underneath it made him look like someone playing out a inquisitor of old, stranger still were the tufty ears among his rough hair making him almost bestial. Neither reacted first, instead seemingly acting in unison.

“Silberschlange, unravel!” the brute called out, holding out his right arm. Underneath him on the ground, a silver magical triangle formed flowing with a bright white light along all the mystical marks within it, fitting its triangular shape. His large coat simply disintegrated to completely reveal his breastplate and arms, each of which had a long thick length of chain wrapped around them with the right side now unravelling.

“Diamantschilder, defend me!” Francesca shouted, her German a little off. In the same manner, a green magical triangle formed beneath her with an eerie jade life emanating from the runes within. Quickly a green pulse flows up her body from the markings on the ground and as it flows upwards replaces her exploring gear with something more resembling a Chinese martial arts outfit made of light weight material. The dark red outfit was rather simple, the long sleeves opened up towards the end revealing a pair of crystalline bracers underneath.

The brute’s chain flowed along his right arm through his palm before stopping on the ground, revealing a long length of heavy chain at his feat one end firmly held in his hand and still wrapped around his arm. It’s then the rest of his body became more light before flashing brightly, instantly replacing the remainder of his clothing to full plate, his head remained unchanged, without a helmet though his ears were now more pronounced. Down his back a short red cloak now flowed, if only to keep him from looking entirely metallic. Both transformations were complete, barely taking any real time.

“Good to see other Belkan mages still exist, I apologise for not introducing myself earlier.” With a slight tinkle of metal, the man bowed smartly. “I am Brenus Hothgar, Knight of the Thunderous Sky.”

A little surprised, the girl returned the bow. “Francesca Becksworth, mage of the Gentle Dawn” It felt strange to her describing herself that way, but anything that would buy her more time was worth doing. Brenus seemed a little confused at her reply.

“… you wouldn’t consider yourself a Knight for the Dawn?” He asked, starting to spin his chain idly. Along the silver coloured length were sharp spikes on each individual loop… it seemed to have grown them when she wasn’t looking. The fact it was named alone meant she knew what it was and it wasn’t inspiring a lot of confidence. “Interesting… but no matter, enough formalities, have at you!”

Rolling quickly to the side, Francesca dodged the obvious slow swing of the man’s chain preparing herself for a fast counter attack, however, before she even completely rested her footing the chain came at her again much faster, the first strike clearly designed more to give her the chance to know the fight had started proper. Falling backwards into a flip, the young girl made the effort to get some distance as each strike flew in at a different angle at tremendous speed. With the final attempt to slam her, Francesca leaped high up into the air towards the tree line, resting herself upon a branch as she landed soft as a feather.

Getting a good look at Brenus, she watched for a moment as he settled down into a neutral spin. The two compared one another for a moment, the girl was certainly faster but that didn’t come at a lot of surprise.

Holding her arms together quickly, a harsh foreign voice sudden called out from her bracers. “Pointe de Foudre” A green aura shines from her clothing before she quickly leaps down back to ground level. Brenus simply chuckles and picks up the pace again with his chain, motioning her to come to him with his free head.

Dashing at the man with an inhuman speed, Francesca simply ducks and weaves around the chain as she approaches. Equally fast she makes a final jump for the attack which Brenus quickly raises his left hand to block with a magic circle. A heavy backlash of magical energy flows from the blow as it impacts the shield and Brenus trying to stand firm is ground backwards a could yards, his feet firmly standing strong on a small trail of dirt which gave way. Now the chain moving unnaturally tries to wrap around the girl who has stopped momentarily from the strike, falling and rolling back she quickly attempts to avoid its grasp before leaping up into the sky through the coils and landing back near the tree line, breathing heavily.

Suddenly, from further within the forest itself, a dark wave passes over the two fighting, along with anyone else still within the area. The sounds of nature are now muffled and an eerie silence now presides over the battlefield. Above and all around the sky is no longer blue with patches of grey clouds, but instead a dark purple hue overwhelms the horizon. Though the camp remains the same, only the two of them and the unknown interloper are present.

“About time the Barrier was set up. Can’t have you flying away now can we?” The knight stated as if to boast. His hand seemed to smoke a little slightly. Meanwhile Francesca had caught her breath and was re-evaluating her situation.

"Bounto, no not Bounto, not Quincy either. What are they." Zætsu asked himself as he watched the two face off. They were most certainly spiritually aware however and human. Had he been in the 12th he'd be reporting to his captain right away but at it was he was content to watch what they were doing.

They both seemed to prefere some form of kidō, but it wasn't like any he'd seen before. As it was he doubted they were anything like the Bounto or Quincy nor, he believed, was thier ability the result of the explosion but they might be responsible or know of what happened.

Hopping off his branch, he walked toward the two to get a better view and ask them a couple questions. Pausing just far enought away that if either demonstrated the kind of speed the girl had used he'd be able to react in time he asked, "Do either of you know about the recent, massive, burst of spirit energy?"

Trion's RIKlog, 06:08 Midchilda standard time.
Again, I woke up staring into some big cat eyes. This time, the subject of Daris's and Taris's attention was Matis, who was sleeping like a baby. I couldn't find anything wrong with him so I let him sleep. Something odd happened, though. At one point I tried to wake him up; he didn't move, but a sort of necklace of gems, very similar with those discovered yesterday appeared. But the image was kind of out of focus, like a bad hologram, and, as I looked closer, it seemed that the gems were rotating around the neck, entering and exiting the bed. I didn't dare touching them, as they got more intensely colored as I approached my hand. Interesting though, the other two cats were in the "I want that" mode, but before they could get closer the necklace blinked for a minute and disappeared, like it lost power or something.
I injected Matis some nutrients and now I'm going to look for his equipment. He seems to have dropped it, but I have a good lock on it's Tracker.

Trion's RIKlog, 09:51 Midchilda standard time.
I got Matis's equipment back. Almost had to wrestle a cleaning man, but in the end, he was kind enough to give me back "that gizmo I was so sure it was in his pocket".
And I got time to look over the CatCams recordings last night. It was weird. Apparently Daris followed someone. He got into a plaza, and then.... I know it sounds crazy, but got attacked by a sort of leaf he was smelling. I'm looking at what Matis recorded; up to a point, it looks like he was in some sort of forest, also around the plaza, because, in an instant, he jumped directly in front of whoever attacked Daris (a girl, I think). Something happened and Matis's equipment felt and something big blocked the rest of the view, but I could hear a big roar or something like that. When the image was back, all I could see was the girl leaving. Daris's camera, however, caught interesting moments: when he got out of that trap, he jumped on top of something really big, and fury, with something glowing red somewhere near the CatCam. I don't know what to make of it. Daris jumped off that high place, and landed near what it appeared to be Matis. After a short while, the scenery change, and Daris and Matis arrived in front of the building near Taris. I know what I just wrote; but the fact is that Daris and Matis were filming the same direction and the same girl. In Matis's recording the girl can be seen going away from the camera, in Daris's recording a building appears in front of him. Again, no explanation.
At the same time with the plaza incidents, Taris was entering a building, rather old by its look (I must point out that he apparently jumped from ground to a window 2 levels high). Lots of dark and unusable images, it seemed Taris looked into lots of room. He reaches one, I think he poke is head in, and I could make out a discussion between some persons about a search. Someone approached Taris, but he(she?) got back stating "This one was awakened".
Taris run like hell afterwards, and, in the end, got outside (and... I don't now; it looked like he jumped 2 floors and landed like a feather).
A few minutes ago I looked again at what the CatCams recorded in my room: I'm pretty sure that what I saw was a form of mimesis, a very god one. Matis (or, the gem inside him —no, I'm not loosing my mind, at most I’m just giving in to my science-ficton. readings, although I saw something similar, but at a different level, home, on Gabi Island); so Matis used it to fool the others that it had a whole necklace of these weird stones, stones that moved by themselves (special effect? could these stones really move? could someone owing a stone actually move rocks?). The images were so convincing that the other cats acted like they saw fishes (similar smell/frequency/spectrum/radiation?)
I know I'm rather incoherent, but I'm attaching images to prove my sayings (duh! that's why I'm using the RIK to log stuff). I'm missing something. I've spent a day in Midchilda, and I'm positive that something is happening here. But what could be so hidden to involve some cats? What sort of mice live in this country, because I have a hard time believing that my cats are involved in a conspiracy or sort.

Wait, I got to catch this... Taris and Daris are sniffing the air.... something is happening. And they're off the window, and running way to fast for me to catch them...
And this is Matis, sleeping like a baby...

The two cats landed in the back of the hotel, but they didn't stay on the ground for more, as they were receiving strange sensations from the east. Something was happening somewhere there, and the temptation was to great. None of the cats wanted to go there, at least not alone, especially after what happened to both just hours before. So they decided to go together, by the new means of transportation they were capable of. Daris bended space 100 meters away from the distortion and 5 meters in the way, but as he soon found out, that was a tricky thing: they found themselves 5 meters above sea levels and falling fast.

Back at the hotel, Matis's consciousness begun to wake up inside his still limb body. The regeneration process was well on his way, as the body was assimilating new way of producing energy.

The splash took the two cats by surprise. A sort of bubbled engulfed them after a few seconds of disarray, and, as Taris's commanded, it lifted them above the water. This Tracy shield around the island emanated from somewhere on the land, but that lost importance to the fireworks of Traces somewhere north of that point. So the cats moved towards there as fast as possible. The "move" order made them fly. The "as fast as possible" translated into supersonic. Dodging barriers restraints as well as physical ones, the two cats bang-landed on top of a tree overseeing the camp site, opposite to Zætsu.

Unsure of the new arrival as he jumped down a little distance behind her, Francesca quickly leapt to the side so she could face both Brenus and the mysterious interloper. With a look of desperation, the young girl wasn’t entirely sure how to react… the fact he was even here meant he was at least in some minor way unnatural, the barrier now surrounding and locking them all in was designed so that only awakened individuals would be trapped within, mundane creatures and humans would inhabit their own normal space away from harm and unable to see the destruction until after the barrier had collapsed. It was a frightening thing meeting an unknown mage; their motives and abilities completely hidden, could this man be friend or foe?

Keeping his distance, seemingly peaceful in his stance and inquiry, Francesca calmed down a little though remained cautious of the individual. More concerning for the time being was the problem of the Barrier… ritual magic wasn’t her speciality, it was in fact one of her poorest aspects in part due to her nature. However, how did Brenus manage to quickly set up such a complicated prison during their fight? Could the man have delayed the barrier? Was he more prepared then he seemed?

As she pondered this, watching her opponent(s) without answering the dark strangers request. Brenus took little time working out what had to be done. Smiling all the while as his spiked chain continued to spin at a slight angle in front of him, his weapon seemed to announce something in a more gentle Germanic voice.

“Stahlklauen” it said softly, glowing white light with every syllable. Suddenly, the knight drove his weapon into the ground where another triangular magical rune appeared in preparation.

As suddenly as he had driven his chain into the runes on the ground, three new lengths of brilliant white energy chains flew out of the earth underneath Francesca, the first binding her left leg tightly up to the knee ripping into the silken tread of her trousers. The second attempted to lash at her and bind her right arm but was quickly dodged despite difficulties in her mobility. The final chain approached from behind as if to strangle her, unable to completely dodge the girl was forced to parry with her bracer only to result in her left arm becoming bound with a struggle.

In response to the man’s question he to was answered with a threesome of magical chains, each attempting to bind and lockdown their prey as they sprouted from the ground with undetermined length and extraordinary speed.

As soon as the chains burst from the ground to effect the binding of the girl, Zætsu leapt back. He wasn't sure what kind of game these two were playing but had anticipated that they might not like someone else's presence and or he might get caught in cross-fire.

Backpeddling further as the chain seemed to follow, he decided to at least see about eliminating the man's arms. As he planned on using one of the simplest kidō, that didn't need an incantation for full effectiveness, he simply looked at the chain-wielder and called out. "Bakudō # 1, Restrain."

The man would find his arms being wrenched behind his back and while possible to be broken out of, especially by one with strong enought spirit energy, Zætsu figured it should provide a decent hinderance so he could figure out precisely why he'd been attacked for asking a question. Should the man prove intractable however, he was always ready to step up the level of the binding spell he'd used.

Leaping back to avoid the grasping chains, he ultimately had to back peddle and dodge the chains a little over fifteen foot as they continued to flow out from the ground with a similar length to the mans own weapon. Watching the fast man in a black kimono weave his way out of reach in slight surprise, the knight pulled his heavy flail from the ground and started to spin his weapon around to gain momentum again.

“Perceptive little bastard, aren’t we..?” he growled, considering his new opponent. Without warning the chains wrapped around his arms begun to glow brighter and the light movement of his right arm used to keep the momentum of his chain running just halted to a full stop as an unseen pressure pulled back on his arms. With the sudden stop the end of his chain flew off behind him with the pull and dragged into the ground to a complete stop. He could feel the pull of the effect trying to twist his arms, but for the moment Brenus resisted with brute force. “What’s this, a bind? No… not quite. Silberschlange!”

“Eisenherzwoge” Came a familiar soft voice as the chain around his arms glowed to sound of its artificial female voice. As if to answer its master the chain burst in another bright white light of magical power, quickly breaking the effect.

Meanwhile, Francesca took advantage of the distraction and was now concentrating on her escape. “Diamantstoß” In a similar manner to the knights weapon, her weapon quickly and harshly called out to it’s master in a more male artificial voice, instantly flowing a large amount of green tinted mana towards her free leg before focusing it around various edges much like a blade. Quickly the girl cut the phantom chain entrapping her leg in two to which it loosened and fell to the ground. It wasn’t long after that she made short work of the remaining chains, revealing one of her cuffs to be missing and fully displaying the bright crystalline bracer underneath. Mana now stopped flowing to her leg as the glow dimmed and disappeared to flow up her arm and repair the damage to her outfit perfectly. She now looked over towards the enemy of her enemy before considering where to go from here… it seemed Brenus was paying much less attention to her now, but she dismissed the idea of fleeing just yet.

However, assuming the stranger hadn’t attacked him during the mild distraction. The Knight simply stood and watched him, looking a little more receptive having not even returned his weapon into a neutral spin.

"Strong fellow, not many humans have anything nearing the spirit force to break a bakudō kidō, even a basic one." Zætsu thought to himself as his hand drifted to his hilt. In these cases it was better to be ready as the man might be more hostile than trying to utilize his own type of bakudō on a new arrival.

It seemed the girl had utilized the distraction caused by his spell to free herself. Running his hand throught his white hair, much like Captains Hitsugaya and Ukitake but a fair amount longer and swept back, he looked from the one to the other and decided to reiterate his question.

"Do either of you know about that recent, unusually high, burst of spirit energy?" He asked as he noticed the two felines. He hadn't noticed them before but that was normal. From what he had gathered about former Captain Shihouin and her ability to turn into a cat, being a cat would mask even a captain's spirit force.