Border: Chapter 1

[Nightmare]

Aeron followed Adri, gazing at the architecture in amazement but at the same time, being careful not to bump into anyone or anything.

"This building is masterfully built," he said, "have you been here many times before, weather mage?"

[Rothene]

Riban was shocked that some...simpleton could have suggested what the cavalier did. Unlike the varying strength of a human carrying Tella, although admitedly, it was an impressive feat to do so, the flight of an ornithopter was smooth and comfortable, something brute force could never quite accomplish.

Feeling sad about not being able to ride Tella all the way up the tower, the short pilot grunted and grumbled as he walked up the stairs. His legs were so used to pressing and adjusting the pedastals in the ornithopter that simple steps felt foreign to him. He was impressed that he could actually keep up with the group as they climbed the stairs with having to remind himself simple motor skills of placing one leg infront of him, before following with the other.

[Inactive Account]

"A few times," Adri answered. "Mostly I was in one of the student buildings, though."

She moved to block people off from climbing too far up the stairs, and waited until everyone in the group was on a step. "Top floor, please," she said calmly once everyone was standing bemusedly, waiting for her to move.

Immediately each person on the stairs was lifted off their feet, picked up by some unseen force as the staircase began to glow. Pulled along by the invisible hands of magic, they rapidly began to ascend the stairs. Adri stood still on the moving cushion of air, her back to the railing, looking up the stairs ahead as her hair and skirt flew out to the side, caught by the speed of the ascent.

[HongLei]

quoting myself feels wierd

What is Merrena like, so we can have an idea what to expect. Also are there anything we should know to avoid unnecessary trouble

what I meant to say was "What are the people in Merrena like, so we don't accidentally offend some one. By saying something culturally offensive or something considered rude"

Lou was caught off guard by the magic, he had no idea magic could be used like this. Then decided that the Archmage is the most powerful mage so if someone pissed him off they were all screwed. "Well this sure beats the stairs," Lou said with a smile after he got over the initial shock.

[scorri]

Isra relaxed as they entered the building. The safety of their surroundings was impossible to miss. She groaned inwardly at the sight of the stairs though. Even though she loved climbing, the sheer amount of climbing that appeared to be ahead of them was daunting still. Therefore, when Adri seemingly called for a break, Isra stopped walking happily.

Since she was at the back of the group, she has just halted though, when they all started moving suddenly. The sudden motion caused her to feel as though she was about to fall, so she automatically crouched down to lower her center of balance. When it became clear that the magic would not cause her to fall, she cautiously straightened up.

This is... strange. Nice, but unsettling. I suppose it is needed though, what with the number of stairs. I can't see these mages walking up all of them when they have a way around it.

[Inactive Account]

OOC: Okay, well, not sure about editing anything in in retrospect, but for informational purposes the culture is pretty much the same as most other cities in Merenna, since Selian is so tiny. The main big cultural difference we'll be seeing will be in the Southlands, if we go there.

At the very top of the staircase, the steps ceased glowing, and everyone was lowered gently to their feet. Adri stepped out into the hallway calmly.

As the building tapered on the way up, the hallway formed a much smaller circle than the atrium had. Adri led the group around the building to the opposite side; the other half of the staircase was accessible here, and across the hall from it was the Archmage's office. The door quietly opened on the group's approach.

The office was large, round, and lined with alternating packed bookshelves and wide windows. A skylight allowed further light in, so that the room resembled a bright, airy library. Several small tables sat by the bookshelves, and at the front of the room, facing the door, there stood the Archmage's desk. The desk's surface was barely visible, covered with more books and various magical apparatuses. What little of the surface was visible seemed to have intricate silver marks covering it.

The Archmage himself was an old man, but not feeble. While his hair had fled his head, he was possessed of a beard of the sort that seemed to be required for any man sufficiently studied in the ways of magic, and his grey mage's robes were covered in magical arrays and symbols. Whether these were embroidered, or simply affixed there magically, it was hard to tell. His mage marks matched the symbols, silver patterns that tangled over both hands, glowing faintly.

He was a patient man and a good teacher, and so tried always to have time for his students. It was no surprise, then, that a handful of them were in his office now, having something explained to them. When the group entered, he turned away from them, returning to his desk. "You'll be the group in search of the Wing," he stated matter-of-factly. "Have you the documents necessary for me to give it to you?"

The letter from the Council was produced and read. "Yes, this is all in order," the Archmage confirmed. He did not lift a finger, but out of the apparent clutter on his desk rose a small, varnished wooden box. The box set itself down at the front of the desk, opening to reveal its contents: a piece of unknown material, possibly metal, bearing some resemblance to a stylized crow's wing. Affixed to the base and wrist joint of the wing were attachments that were clearly for the purpose of connecting with other pieces. The piece of the Key sat there, humming very slightly with an unknown energy, waiting for someone from the group to step forward and take it.

"Would you happen to need anything else?" the Archmage asked. The Key-finders' job ought to be easy enough, but he knew full well that nothing was ever easy enough. He didn't have to be a seer to know that the group would soon have more problems than the divisiveness and irritability that they clearly showed.

"We could probably use another person to work with," Adri said frankly. She wasn't convinced of the abilities of any of the mages the group had so far besides herself, and they were likely to need more than just a weather mage. "If you could spare anyone..."

The Archmage thought for a moment. Well, that one was competent enough, but needed to learn humility... "Zull," he called to one of the students, "you've got a new assignment. Come over here." He turned back to the group. "Anything else?"

OOC: Someone needs to actually pick up the piece of Key. Adri will do it if nobody else does.

[uguu]

"Ah, my absolute power over all the little kiddies in the academy has finally been recognized formally!" Zull shouts ~faggilly~, then turns to the group of shady passerby. "Weep in joy, for you have now received one of the absolute greatest mages in the world into your ranks! Ah, how I have been waiting to leave this academy and show any and all supposed amazing mages who I have yet to prove my objective superiority to in the rest of the world and finally be writ down into history as the greatest mage of all time! Now, peasants, you should have one of yours take the key, I fear I cannot do everything, nor do I want my hands dirtied by such a macguffin."

Zull doesn't even wait for any of them, and starts to walk out the door without even knowing what's up.

[Nightmare]

Aeron, upon hearing Zull telling them to pick the key up, stepped forward, energetically shot his hand and picked the key up. He examined it closely for a while.

"What a mysterious object...but worry not! I shall keep it safe!" He said as he placed the key firmly into a pocket of his.

[scorri]

Isra stared at the new mage that had been added to the group as he passed by them. I think this is the quickest I have ever disliked anyone. He's just so irritating and I've only seen him for 30 seconds. This should be... interesting. Hopefully he's either as good as he thinks he is, or one of us takes him down a notch or two soon. Preferably the first, but either would work. I have a feeling I'm going to just have to avoid this one.

Isra noted that the soldier now had the key. Keeping this in mind, she stepped to the side of the group so that the others could exit before she did, letting her stay in the back.

[HongLei]

Lou wasn't very thrilled with their new companion, he wondered what Adri did to the Archmage to deserve such punishment. If his behavior didn't change, Lou was wondering how bad it would look if he spiked his drink with a sedative.

"Thank you for your assistance ... Sir? (Lou doesn't know what title he should address the Archmage by)" Lou said to the Archmage.

[Rothene]

Brash young fool, thought Riban as he reached into one of his many pockets and felt his spanner. He pondered on what would this Zull's face be like if he had Tella 'kiss' his smug face passionately.

The soldier's picking the Key up, doing his job properly, I can respect that. The entire system works only when every part does its part.

Looking again at Zull, Riban immediately wrote him off as a brittle gear, as if such a thing ever existed.

[Inactive Account]

"Please tell me that wasn't the help you were going to give us," Adri asked with an expression of utmost long-suffering. She knew the Archmage would not make such a decision without a reason, but... really? Out of the corner of her eye she saw Aeron take the piece of the Key; she could at least trust him not to run off with it, she thought.

The Archmage held up a hand and whisked Zull backwards with a gesture, magic holding him in place and silent for a moment. "Zull, you're going to go with this group, and you're going to cooperate with them. You're not going to override whoever's in charge unless they're incapacitated and nobody else can do it better. ...You're not going to incapacitate anyone who's in charge in order to override them. You're not going to prevent the mission from succeeding, because if it fails then we are quite seriously all going to die, probably in painful and undignified ways.

"And," the Archmage concluded, "I'm not going to tell you what the mission is, because knowing you you'll hare off on your own and try to do the whole thing yourself. The rest of the group can tell you what they're doing when they deem it wise to do so. He's powerful enough to help you," he added to Adri, "the trouble is that he knows it." He lowered his hand, allowing Zull to move and speak again.

"If you don't need anything else at the moment, then I wish you luck," the Archmage told the group.

"Thank you," Adri said tonelessly, and turned toward the door. She assumed the others would follow.

[scorri]

As the group reached the inn where they were staying for the night, Isra thought for a moment, and then slipped away into the rest of the crowd. Sticking her hands in her pockets, and thus giving her quick access to one of her knives, she wandered around the town. She wasn't really expecting to find any sort of network of thieves, but she figured that she may as well listen to news of what was going on. As she walked around the market place, she heard rumors of increased bandit attacks, and made a mental note to mention that to someone in the party at some point. Maybe that solider, but that would require talking to him... As she had guessed, there wasn't much of interest in this town. The presence of the mages made it a fairly civil town, and she decided it wasn't worth the time to try any harder to get more information than she could overhear. So, as the sky began to darken, she made her way back to the inn for the night.

[HongLei]

Lou was curious about the city of mages and went off and explored. He looked at many of the book shops and such, only to find much to his disapointment that the books about medicine were years behind his late masters knowledge he left behind in his journals. Lou decided to go find the hospital and try to see if there were any new magical knowledge he could gain in exchange for some of his knowledge of an apothecary, seeing as his knowledge of magic needed more improvement than a Mage of his position should have.

[Inactive Account]

The inn they'd been given reservations for seemed to have been informed of the group's... eccentricity, so the staff were ready to deal with getting everyone into rooms, setting wards to make sure nobody blew each other up, and getting the ornithopter properly stored. Adri didn't even try to get everyone to eat together this time, and sank down at a table on her own. She was tempted to drown her frustrations a little, but she was hesitant to drink anything at all while the mission was still in progress.

They had gotten some work done, at least. The first piece of the Key was in their possession, safe in Aeron's theatrical but most likely competent protection. She wasn't too clear on whether they were meant to return the piece to the capital, so she decided that they would go back, just to be safe. Maybe she could get a few tips from the Council on how to manage the group.

The night wore on, and Adri was eventually able to shove aside her irritation and worries about their chances of success enough to sleep.

The next morning came all too soon, and she headed downstairs to the dining room. She'd instructed the others to meet for breakfast, but she doubted they'd show up, so she asked a staff member to go wake up anyone in the group who hadn't already done so. That was all she could really do for the moment, so she got herself some tea and waited for the others to appear.

[Nightmare]

Aeron was already awake and energetic, awaiting a hearty breakfast before they set on their journey again.

"Good morning!"

[uguu]

Zull heard knocking on the door as he woke up. He quickly put on a robe and answered it. "Sir, you have been called to eat by one of your lady friends."

"Alright!" Zull yelled, as he went to walk out the door.

"Hold on, aren't you going to put real clothes on?" asks the staff member

"You say that it's a lady friend, yes? Then she shall probably appreciate gazing upon my obvious objective superiority to all other men!"

"No, really, you're required to wear real clothes when not in your room."

Zull sighs, remembering most of the team was probably disinterested in how amazing he has never not been until proving it through other means. Soon, however! Soon all members of the team would be unable to remove themselves from him, as they would never find such a perfect being again, regardless of their sexuality. "Fine, I shall wear real clothes. What would you suggest for such a plain meeting? My creepy magecraft robe or a perfectly manly tuxedo? I have brought nothing more casual to wear, as I did not expect to require it!"

"Tuxedo, please."

After getting dressed, Zull heads down to the dining room. "Good morning, my wonderful inferiorities! Are you prepared to eat with the greatest man you shall ever meet?", yet he was unfortunately not the last one there. "How disappointing! I had hoped I did not have to overshadow any member of the group too much! My, who could be later than I?"

[Nightmare]

"Ha ha! My good companion, you have forgotten that I already overshadow you!" Aeron said as he stood over Zull, overshadowing him with his shadow.

[Inactive Account]

"Good morning," Adri replied. Aeron at least seemed to be pretty cooperative, so there was no use starting the day annoyed with him. "So today, we need to head back to the capital to--"

Her attempt to discuss the mission with Aeron immediately failed, as the first result of her summons appeared. Zull appeared (oh dear, she'd been hoping that he'd just been a hallucination) and began to make a number of loud noises that she supposed were talking. He was dressed oddly formally.

"Hello," Adri said, her tone gone flat. "You'd be surprised at how uncooperative the others can be. Don't contribute to the unhelpfulness, please. Now, I was saying--" She was cut off again as Aeron got up in an apparent attempt to intimidate Zull. She had to admit that it might work, given Aeron's bulk, and paused a moment to watch the proceedings. It was certainly unorthodox, but if Aeron got Zull to behave, she certainly couldn't complain.

[scorri]

Isra had woken up at dawn as usual, but had decided to not head down to the common room right away. So, she was in the process of checking over her equipment, specifically her four daggers, when the staff member knocked on her door. She quickly placed two of them in her bag, and hid the other two in their usual hiding places on her body and then walked over to the door and opened it.

"Yes?"

"It's been requested by the female mage that you come down to breakfast."

"Ah, of course. Thank you."

Isra picked up her pack and and did a quick check over the room to make sure she had not forgotten anything and then headed down to the dining room. She arrived just in time to hear Zull's speech. Grumbling under her breath, she grabbed herself some food and water and then went and sat at the table where Aeron and Adri were sitting, making sure to sit close enough to be able to hear what they were saying, while still staying out of reach of the soldier.

[uguu]

"It matters not if they are uncooperative, as long as I exist to do everything for them!" responds Zull to Adri. As he says this, though, Aeron steps towards him says something beautifully amazing

"Oh my~ yes, it is true that your stature is greater than my own, as is your beauteous wordplay. However, I cannot help but admit that these are merely things which I choose to be lesser at, as otherwise it would be no fun to communicate to such inferiorities!"

[Nightmare]

Aeron noticed that he had apparently interrupted Adri.

"P-please continue," he said, a bit embarrassed. He then sat and ate the whole table breakfast.

[uguu]

Zull remained afoot to emphasize his greatness as he ate breakfast

[Rothene]

Riban had slept away from Tella that night...something he had almost never done after creating her. It was a terrible way to rest, every moment he cringed in bed...tossing and turning, fearing the filthy incompetent hands of the simple layman fondling her where she's most vulnerable. He had obtained all eight minutes of sleep for the night, divided evenly among the hours he had tried to sleep.

As soon as the sun was visible, Riban rushed to check on his ornithopter, so see if she was in anyway...defiled. Seeing no signs of marks or scratches, Riban whistled to his relief, and some speck of respect he had to the people who had handled her.

***

Arriving relatively late, Riban ate his meal in silence as he watched fools measure themselves against each other. He knew that when it came to height, he would soar above them all anyway.

[HongLei]

Lou was awoken by the staff member who informed him he was summoned for breakfast. He dressed and packed up his stuff and showed uP after the Pilot Riban, since no one was talking, but no one appeared physically injured. This let him know that he missed the conflict, he said when he arrived, "Good morning everyone, I'm sorry I'm late." He then proceeded to eat breakfast. Unfortunately all of the chairs farthest from the ever so annoying Zull were taken, so he was forced to sit much closer to him than he would have preferred, making a mental note of "Early to bed, Early to rise gets you as far away from Zull as possible."