Lord of Azure Flame: Chapter 7: Injury, Exhaustion, Renewal

[Snike]

Within a minute, Kamilla had went from looking around for 'Cakie', to freaking out at the sight of the shamaness, and running off. Seeing as the latter merely walked off, Eric decided to go after the mind-wiped girl, reasoning that if left alone, she would get herself into trouble. Almost immediately after turning around to go after her, he saw that she knocked down a shaman. Running over, he lost sight of the girl.

"Sorry about that," he said, helping the man up. "She's not normally like tha-"

"HORSE LAAAADDDDY!," Kamilla shouted, from somewhere in the crowd."WAAAIIIT FOR KAMMIILLLLAAA"

"Oh dear. If you'll excuse me," the traveler said, chasing after the voice of the girl.

[Psych]

"Thanks, wait wasn't she...That means you're with... Over there...Excuse me." He said picking up his things. However, he had left a book on the ground.

Cess ran down the hall behind Kamilla, dodging the other students.

Edited June 11, 2010 by psychout50

[Inactive Account]

Kelas at least had enough wits to answer Isotov's question. "Not a student, no, I could fight that off. Damian. More like tried kill me though," she amended, her Common slipping in her agitation. "He's demon. <No doubt he's trying to get every woman around him with his spawn, resistance is just proof that they should be killed...>" She realized that she'd slipped back into her first language from people's confused looks, and struggled to put the words together in Common. "He woke me up, tried got all cozy..." As she began to realize that she could probably trust present company and calmed down the slightest bit, her Common improved again. "Then I pushed him away, and he apparently got fed up with it, because he started shooting some sort of curst magic at me. And it seems he can teleport too." She took a deep breath. "Did any of you know about this?"

Arrin's face registered confusion and horror. "That... hardly seems possible..."

OOCedit: Once again, disclaimer: <These brackets> indicate another language is being spoken; no other characters not fluent in the nomad tongue should know what's being said in them.

Edited June 11, 2010 by The Clockwork Alchemist

[Phoenix]

Isotov

Iso: ... ... ... what?

Surely they would have noticed by now if Damian was a demon ... surely Aiya would have. Something didn't add up, but the first priority was making sure Kelas was alright.

Iso: Okay just relax. There's enough of us here to protect you from him ... I think.

Irina

Once she took Kiev out of the aerie, she put all of her luggage on him and began leading him outside.

Ixion and Stephanie

Once they reached the entrance to the academy they headed outside and waited nearby the gates.

[Kanami]

As Kelas finished her explanation Eric arrived with Cess right behind him. Making sure that the shamaness wasn't around she relaxed. Tessa had apparently arrived on the scene too. Finding two people who actually answered her question she piped up "Who's Damian? And why does he scare the horse lady?" she asked the group, "And what's rape? It sounds like cake, is it like cake? Cause I wouldn't want some caking me, Kamilla not taste very nice" she said not making sense of the situation at all.

[Snike]

Eric arrived to hear the nomad part about 'Damian' being a demon and trying to seduce him/her. Remembering the soldier that was seemingly the leader of the group, Eric shook his head after (s)he asked if they knew of it. "I just met you people, so I couldn't know. But, anyways, where is he now? It might be an idea to avoid him for a while, before we really find out what's going on."

Upon hearing Kamilla ask about Damian,, he said. "Damian's a soldier, Kamilla. He scared Miss Nomad by trying to seduce her, then tried to kill her, I guess... Also, Kamilla, rape isn't like cake, and it's a bad thing that some people do to others. You wouldn't want it to happen to you, simply put."

Edited June 11, 2010 by Snike

[Inactive Account]

Fear was subsiding, giving way to anger; Kelas shook less, standing up straighter. She had been accosted, attacked, driven to hide... "Avoid? Yes, wonderful idea. And let me get my weapons. Then find who knows." Kelas spotted Morgan walking along the hallway. "You!" she shouted, making sure she was loud enough to attract the shaman's attention. "Shaman! Tell me you did not know of this!"

Arrin's head was spinning. The leader of their group, a demon? Surely he or one of the other Crimson wielders would have sensed it... or even the animals, who tended to react to such things. But Kelas... she was indestructible, afraid of nothing! What else could have caused this?

He heard Kamilla ask something. Realizing that her child's mentality could do nothing good here, he absently replied, "Nothing good, Kamilla. We'll tell you when you're... older." He realized how odd it sounded, but tried to ignore it in the interest of helping his sister.

[Kanami]

Arrin was the first to reply, and he didn't provide the answer she was looking for. "Kamilla's old enough, don't treat Kamilla like kid, you shorter then Kamilla so you even more kid then Kamilla" she looked around for someone to answer her and Eric was the unlucky one who Kamilla decided to ask directly.

"Eric, Eric, what's rape? Is it like cake?" she listened to Eric's explanation and her expression darkened a bit.

"Bad thing?" She paused thinking it over before suddenly shouting out as if she'd come up with a great idea "Did the lady rape Kamilla? Like the way the soldier tried to rape the horse lady?" she asked relating 'bad stuff' to Morgan. She didn't understand what seduce meant but it probably was something that hurt. "Killing is bad!" Kamilla continued declared, "If horse lady hasn't done anything wrong, soldier boy shouldn't hurt horse lady." She looked around not noticing anyone that looked like a soldier. "Eric, where's the soldier boy? Kamilla go teach him to be nice to the horse lady."

Edited June 11, 2010 by Kanami

[Balcerzak]

OOC: I thought Morgan was nowhere near here but...?

Tessa was a little confused herself. She had been pretty certain that rape was a kind of flower, however that didn't seem to fit the context, nor the reactions of the others. She gently grabbed Kamilla and nodded to Eric, hoping he might understand. Kelas was clearly startled, confused, and there were too many people here to agitate her at the moment.

"Kamilla honey, I have a great idea! Why don't we go look for Damian. He's tall, kind of rugged, a few scars. If you see him first, call out, okay?" Tessa said, conveniently glossing over matters of her own ignorance.

Turning to the thunder mage she added, "Arrin, fill me in on this later will you?"

Edited June 11, 2010 by Balcerzak

[Inactive Account]

OOC: I thought Morgan was looking for people, and could plausibly be anywhere. Will amend if Cynthia says otherwise.

"No." As she responded to Tessa, Kelas' voice took on an edge of steel that it had completely lacked moments ago. "Nobody is going near that thing alone. Let... let me get my bow, and we'll deal with things as a group."

[-Cynthia-]

Morgan decided to leave the room in search of Tessa. While walking the corridors of TISME, she was accosted by the nomad.

"Know about what? Have you been drinking or smoking pipeweed or somesuch? You look even worse than usual."

[Kanami]

Kamilla opened her mouth to say (Okay) but was quickly cut off by Kelas who deemed it inappropriate. She quickly tried to hide herself behind Tessa from the now 'scary horse woman' who not only sounded, but looked ready to maul anything which didn't agree with her. "Tessa, Kamilla thinks we should listen to the angry horse lady" she said cowering behind the girl.

[Psych]

Cess looked on. Sure he felt sorry for the girl, but it wasn't really any of his business. Besides, he didn't even know a Damian. He decided to go ahead and walk down to the front gate. Turning the corner, he ran into the girl from the baths.

"Oh it's you! I'm sorry about earlier."

[Inactive Account]

"Know about what your precious lance-wielder is, and does," Kelas spat, ignoring the suggestion that she might be inebriated. Morgan looked unimpressed, but there was a slight measure of bewilderment. Quickly, trying to keep from letting her Common lapse too much, Kelas explained what had happened. She braced herself for the inevitable attack to follow.

[Snike]

"No, the lady did something different. What Damian tried was worse," Eric said, right off the bat. Upon hearing the next two comments, he smiled a bit.

"If only everyone thought like that... Kamilla, we're not going anywhere near Damian, until we figure this out," he said, suddenly serious, upon hearing Kamilla's wish to go teach him a lesson. "If he really is a demon, then we'll have to be careful." Drawing his attention away from the girl was the nomad's shouting. Looking over to see who she was yelling at, the traveler recognized the shamaness heading up the hall. Act III, scene i, he thought, hoping that Kamilla wouldn't freak out again.

Tessa tried to take the girl away from the area, possibly in an attempt to defuse the situation, but the nomad stopped her, saying that she'd get her bow, and they would all deal with the demon/soldier. Stepping in, he said, "Miss, if he's that dangerous, shouldn't we keep low? Otherwise, he could rout us all."

[-Cynthia-]

"Interesting story. Damian is not a demon however. Demons cannot actually wield the Crimson Weapons, they can only act as conduits for them. Your lack of knowledge in this subject area is understandable, but I am rather disappointed in some others in the group." She glared at Arrin and Isotov. "They were either instructed poorly or have forgotten their lessons."

"Since Damian is very clearly *not* a demon, that begs the question of what actually happened. You might have had a bad dream or become extremely inebriated, but let's prepare for the worst case scenario. That would be that you came into contact with this shapeshifter we've heard about. Given the azure eyes, I would guess it is an ice demon."

"We should encounter Damian and ask him to use his Crimson Lance. If he can do it, it is not the ice demon. If not, than we should kill it. This tactic should work in identifying all possible Crimson Weapon wielder interpretations. For thse in the group not wielding Crimson Weapons, use common sense and look for big blue eyes." She gave a suspicious glare at Tessa.

Edited June 11, 2010 by -Cynthia-

[Inactive Account]

Kelas blinked, dumbfounded: had the shaman actually taken something she'd said into consideration?

"I was neither dreaming nor drunk," she stated flatly after recovering. "I'd imagine that if we looked in the stables, we'd find the ice that the thing left. I didn't rip my tunic myself, either."

She paused. "Since I'd like to be well shut of this place as much as the others, let me get my things and we'll go see what Damian's got to say for himself."

Arrin opened his mouth to protest-- he knew his lore, but was that going to help calm Kelas down?

He glared even more at the jab at Tessa-- wasn't Morgan supposed to be her friend?-- but said nothing as the group deliberated.

[Balcerzak]

Tessa was a little startled at the edge in Kelas's voice as the nomad yelled at her. It was brief however, though her mentioning a lack of weapon also reminded Tessa of her own situation. The troubadour hadn't bothered carrying anything around with her to the baths, nor for that matter would she have within TISME anyways, as it had seemed a safe and secure place.

Regardless though, Kelas's tone seemed to have also frightened Kamilla sufficiently that the woman was doing her best to hide behind Tessa, though the latter's frame being smaller than the former's probably made the effect somewhat comical to bystanders. The addled woman was clutching her clothes tightly, and prevented Tessa from trying to turn around and embrace her, hopefully calming her down somewhat.

Morgan's arrival instilled her with a bit of hope, as she was sure the shaman's level-headed demeanor and general reputation in the group would be able to help sort things out. And indeed, as the full story was recounted with more clarity and details, Morgan set forth a very believable counter-theory. Tessa felt a bit of a swelling of vicarious pride, until the shaman's final statement and actions appeared as if trying to implicate her.

The lack of faith hurt, but only for a moment, as she understood that demons wouldn't hesitate to exploit any such bonds they could, and by being ever vigilant, Morgan was simply doing the right thing. Shrugging her shoulders, she smiled. "That actually makes a lot of sense, Sis. A lot of very good points, just as one might expect from you."

No point making a fuss over it, but if pressed further she'd just have to mention that in all the records she'd read, she'd never heard of an ice demon with an affinity for healing magicks.

[Kanami]

Kamilla who'd been watching from behind noticed Morgan looking at Tessa, and was expecting Tessa to prove her innocence, but when she seem to give up Kamilla got angry.

"No, Tessa not demon, bad lady, bad! Not accusing Tessa" she demanded forgetting that she was actually supposed to be avoiding the shaman. "Tessa heal stuff and is nice, not like bad evil lady who do bad stuff to Kamilla!" she shouted throwing a hissy fit. Kamilla didn't care if the others got accused but she wasn't going to let anyone insult Tessa, Tessa was her friend, and she wasn't going to let people say bad stuff about her.

"If you do bad stuff to Tessa, Kamilla going to bite evil black lady's arm off" she said coining a new name for Morgan henceforth.

Edited June 11, 2010 by Kanami

[Snike]

"Must have been a very stupid shapeshifter, then. I mean, wasn't it the demons who scattered the Crimson Weapons? They should have known about the conjuring thing," Eric elaborated.

" Diplomacy's always nice," he added, to the nomad. "Well, if worst comes to worst, we're in a school full of mages, so if Damian is really a demon, we'll just have some fire mages roast him."

[-Cynthia-]

Morgan ignored Kamilla's rant. "If I actually thought that being in the room right now that looks like Tessa was an ice demon I would have blasted it." said Morgan matter of factly. "I am just trying to bring to attention that the traditional way of spotting an ice demon does not work very well with Tessa. Tessa's personality is rather different than an ice demon's of course, but they are rather skilled impersonators, so I suggest constant vigilance."

Edited June 11, 2010 by -Cynthia-

[Snike]

"So, blue eyes are the give away? I'll keep that in mind. So, where IS Damian, anyways?

[Kanami]

Hehe, ignore me will you?

Kamilla in a fit of rage, pointed her finger at the Shamaness, "What did evil black lady do to Kamilla!?" she demanded, keeping her distance from the woman but being assertive nonetheless. "Eric said you did bad stuff to Kamilla's parents, and Kamilla thinks you did something to Kamilla too, cause head hurts when you around"

"You lied to Kamilla, you said you Kamilla's friend, but you not Kamilla's friend, you hurt Kamilla's daddy, and made Kamilla forget mommy" she was in tears now and the entire world seemed to have gone quiet as she continued ranting. "You're an evil black lady, evil, evil evil!" she repeated pointing an accusing finger at the shamaness.

[-Cynthia-]

"Well if Eric said I did malignant things to your parents. Eric is misinformed or lying."

"As for the forgetting, yes I removed many of your memories. You would have gotten us all incarcerated or killed otherwise and it was much kinder than killing you."

[Inactive Account]

Kelas looked to the others. An argument was inevitably going to ensue between Morgan and Kamilla; Eric would probably intervene. Everyone else... "Let's get this done with, then," she sighed, glancing at each in turn and reminding herself that it was her job to protect, not be protected. "Leave them to their squabble, there's nothing we can do about it... come on. I-- I'm not doing this unarmed, regardless of what the shaman says."