Return of the Emblem Chapter Eleven: Unleash

[Eail]

At the telling of Amon's friend that he was alone, Alphonse's eyes narrowed at the dragon, unsheathing his sword for what would probably be the last time. If there were no reinforcements in the area there was absolutely no way they could take on this thing. Jamilla and Shaun were back up and rushing towards where the three men where.

"Listen Jamilla, take Shaun and Greta and run. Keep running until you find someone that can help. I'm... gonna try to keep this thing busy for as long as I can, might be enough time, might not, depending on if you two want to stick around or not." He said, eyeing Norbert and Amon. Alphonse knew he wasn't making it out of this situation, but he wanted the kids to make it if nothing else.

[Snike]

"I'm not here to guard a rolling armory," Axel stated, disembarking the Dauntless as well. "I'd like to grab the rod before we take off, though. It'll sting more than my lance if things come to blows, at least."

***

The threat was apparently a dragon, and they were to divide into two forces, so as to cover the Dauntless in the worst case scenario. Despite this, Raquel wanted to be part of the forward team, where she was likely to be in danger if things went downhill. With that in mind, Blake's decision was easy. He got up, exited the Dauntless, and moved over to where the forward group was forming, remaining silent for the time being. Maybe he could finally be of some positive use by taking a blow or two for his employer.

***

So there was apparently a threat ahead, and they were to split into resolution and defense squads. Grant, evidently, was suited towards the latter, so he just decided to stay put and keep his eyes on the surroundings, however futile that may be.

***

"Yeah, not feelin' it," Pete said in response to the resolution. "Can't pay me enough to take on a dragon right now, anyways."

[Mercakete]

This wouldn't do. He was trying to make an opening for this group to get to Raquel's, but one of their members was drawing attention to them. He didn't like the looks of that big, dark mass either. Stupid magic... Okay, I don't know if I'm close enough, but I'd better be! With that thought, Norbert dashed forward as quickly as he could, maces ready.

"Don't be stupid!" Whether that cry was to Amon and the other survivors of the Dragon's assaults or to the Dragon himself, Norbert didn't make clear. Instead, he focused all his energy on his sprint and preparing to strike. Once he was close enough, the presently pegasusless pegasus rider leaped up, twisted in the air and slammed his maces down with all his might and weight, aiming to cause the dragon enough pain to get his attention.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rizen just stared from her hiding place. Her rider had completely lost it. He was attacking a dragon. What was a pegasus to do?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Amon?!" Gytha couldn't believe the news Aneda delivered and was quite alarmed by it. "I know I alreada said I'd stay here, but... I'd like t' head out, too, if Amon's in trouble. Haythem'd better be helpin' 'im out!"

[Phoenix]

Dauntless

"Amon's there?!" Raquel exclaimed at Aneda's explanation. It could just be a coincidence, but she sincerely doubted that. As if she needed any more motivation to charge in and put a quick end to this dragon's rampage, Eli arrived and relayed more specifics about the situation. The dragon was definitely in the wrong here; she had no doubts about that now. Of course the news about Bert confronting the dragon was of great concern. "All he's got are some maces and a poleaxe, how is he supposed to ..."

"Probably just trying to buy some time for everyone. Best not to waste it," Reign noted.

Raquel really didn't like the idea of bringing one of the youngest members of the group to confront and possibly battle a dragon. Reign simply wasn't sold on the reasoning behind it and said, "People's personal issues with each other should be shelved during a situation like this. There's no excuse for crap like that to come up during a battle or anything close. Also, if she's really willing to follow orders then we shouldn't have to worry about the Dauntless getting brought into this." What Reign didn't mention was that he didn't actually mind whether she came or not; he simply didn't agree with the stated reasons. At least if she did as instructed, there likely wouldn't be any major problems.

Raquel then said, "No, it's up to you, Robin. It's your decision, I can't and I won't ask someone to take this kind of risk. Not to mention that if this dragon's in the military, you're fighting one of your own countrymen." 'Countrydrake' came to mind, but that sounded just as stupid as 'countryman'. She decided to think of that word as more of a general term and not imply a gender or race. "We should hurry. Axel, if you need a rod, just go grab one really quick and come on." She heard Gytha's decision change but didn't respond to it directly because she was now in the middle of starting off toward the action.

"I guess we won't be doing any formations when rushing like this," Reign quietly mused. Raquel had taken off on foot by then which more or less confirmed Reign's suspicions about not going into this in a formation. He shrugged and after a moment took off running after her. It was going to take a while to get there, but it didn't seem like there were enough mounts to carry everyone anyway.

"Hey, wait!" Shadrak grimaced. He wanted to run after them, but as he looked down the road, he feared he would be completely winded by the time they even reached the danger they were heading to face. "We're not all athletes, so I think at least some of us should get a ride ..." He tried to hide his insecurity about his own stamina as best he could for the time being. Walking miles and miles was fine; he knew how to pace himself, but sprinting just wasn't his thing.

Wreckage

She's definitely here, Amon concluded with a small relieved grin. Despite how hopeless things seemed, Amon was sure they would at least survive this ordeal. Raquel may not have had many ways of directly helping in combat, but the people fighting with her had a knack for survival, Bert especially. "Sorry to hear that," Amon called back, feigning disappointment. Goddess, I hope they get here soon ....

Wilhelm continued to taunt the dragon while Greta and Shaun got off of the wagon's roof with Jamilla's help and while that normally would have been a good thing, he was still too close to the people they were trying to save. If that singularity went off now, everyone left over there would be drawn into it and killed. Amon couldn't do much about that without some aggression and so he moved in a little closer to the dragon hoping to get its attention first. Charging it down with a knife wasn't going to work, so there was no point in getting too close, just close enough to get its attention off of anyone near the wagon.

This coincided a little too closely with Bert's plan, however, and Amon was a little surprised to find them both charging at the dragon from two different directions. Amon however, had a bad feeling that Bert was actually going to try and do something with those maces of his.

Both of their attempts, however, were quickly countered. Amon and Bert were almost instantly struck down by dark spheres that came from the dragon. Amon had no idea how he managed to hit both of them almost simultaneously while charging up the singularity on the side, but the one aimed at him came so fast that he didn't even see it coming. He was knocked onto his back and rolled a dozen feet away from the dragon, barely catching himself. "Urgh ... what was that ...?"

"Relax, I'll get to you two," Schwartz said, following up with, "right after I feed your friends to my little pet, here." Then he released the singularity and it began hastily approaching the wagon. Isis would have been the first to be consumed by the attack, but a strong wind began to pick up nearby and before long, several streams of wind magic laced with light magic began to flow around and into the singularity while also stealing away its momentum. "... what?"

By the time this happened, Greta and Shaun had made it off of the wagon and were trying to get to a safe distance despite the fact that the singularity had now stopped moving altogether. "Alphonse, we are not sacrificin' you to get away from that thing so come on," Greta yelled at him. The stream of opposing magic meanwhile, continued to flow into the spell, causing it to grow increasingly and incredibly unstable. It was going to explode in seconds.

Sighing heavily, Schwartz muttered, "Another mage ..." After that, he vanished into another warp.

Ayano came sprinting out from the woods as fast as her legs could carry her and placed herself between the singularity and Isis. Maintaining her cloaking field and handling this task would have been too much for her and she wouldn't have had the energy to spare for it either, so she focused everything she had on moving the singularity to a safe blasting distance with just her wind magic. She opened up her assault with a directed burst of magic that got the singularity heading away and upwards at a steady pace. There wasn't much time left, though. She didn't want to put herself in harm's way again, but after sensing such a massive gathering of energy, she knew if she didn't rush off ahead of the others when she did, there wouldn't have been anyone left to save when they finally arrived.

Amon had no idea who she was and so he simply gawked as she pummeled the growing singularity with wind magic. Greta stopped to look back and slowed down when she saw that the dragon was gone. "W-wait, what's goin' on now ...? Who's she and where's the dragon?"

[Snowy_One]

"Hey! I followed orders last time! I protected the Dauntless! You never said I couldn't persuade people to bring the Dauntless into battle and I kept the Dauntless safe. This time I'm promising to actually keep out of the fighting since it's a dragon and I don't want to be grilled Tia, but also don't want to deal with a grilled Robin or Raquel either!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence and mental image." replied Robin dryly. "Raquel, I would rather go. As I said before, honor is part of who I am. Protecting the innocent as best I can and the like. Though my oath to you overrides that, if keeping civilians and innocents safe requires me to fight my countrymen, I will. I will not have it said that I turned my back on the helpless."

[Snike]

"Got it," Axel said, before he reentered the Dauntless and made his way to the back. A minute later, after borrowing the rod and a few extra power sources, the somehow unshot lancer took off towards the site of the explosion, branching off into the woods, so as to cut travel time.

***

Aaand, after a bit more discussion, Raquel ran off, with just Reign dashing after her so far. Blake duly followed suit, given that, emblem or not, one guard was not enough protection for his employer to his liking.

[Snowy_One]

With Raquel having taken off, both Robin and Tia took off as well, trying their best to catch up. That would be easy for Robin, having spent a lifetime hunting in the woods, but less so for the mage girl whom had spent her lifetime with her nose in books, causing Tia to fall behind VERY fast. Yet still she kept running, hoping to catch up.

[Mercakete]

Well that wasn't what he'd expected. Norbert was blown back a fair distance by some sort of magic. He'd been somewhat disoriented by the tumbling which came with it but the only real injury he sustained by the end of it was a short-lived dizziness and some bruises. The dragon promised to fix that shortly, but something apparently went awry with his plan. He said something about another mage and then...vanished.

"Oh for Mercy's sake! He's a disappearing dragon?! How much more ridiculous can this get?!" Norbert cried out in exasperation. He'd gotten to his feet by this time and now someone was apparently helping them. Whoever she was, she was using some sort of magic or something on the dragon's magic and making it go away. He didn't recognize her, so that meant there were two possibilities. Either she was that invisible girl people were talking about before or she was some super powerful person who happened across their path. Either was just as likely as the other and frankly he didn't care. What he did care about was where that dragon had disappeared to.

Just waiting around wasn't something Norbert planned on doing so instead, keeping an eye out for big, black dragons, he quipped, "So, same old, same old, huh, Amon?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as Raquel took off, Gytha leaped off of the Dauntless and started running after her. Reign, Robin, Blake and Tia also immediately gave chase, though Tia seemed to be finding it harder to keep up. That was probably just as well. If the enemy's attention was on everyone else by the time she got there, it would be easier for her to keep hidden. As she ran, Gytha cocked her pistol, and gripped her sword, ready to use either at a moment's notice. I'm comin', Amon! Just hang on!

[Toogee]

Eli saw that Raquel had already charged ahead; the rescue mission had commenced. He decided that he would join the rescuers. His staff skills would be most needed. However, this probably wouldn’t please Lumi at all. She cared for all the pegs that came from her farm; that included Betty. Eli trotted over to Lumi to confirm his decision.

“They’re going to need healers out there, so I’m going with the rescue team. We’ll be back; we still have a conversation to finish.”

With a smile, he urged Betty to take off, shouting “Stay safe!” while flying over the camp. His flight was cut short once he heard the suggestion for rides from Shadrak. The rider slowed his speed and landed next to Shadrak.

“Hey, you needed a ride? I can’t promise a round trip though; we need to get the survivors out first.”

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

Jam listened to everything Alphonse had said, but Greta wouldn’t hear of him sacrificing himself as well. The dancer suspected the swordmaster was going to go after the dragon regardless. She didn’t feel good about Alphy’s plan either; it was very unlikely that he would make it out in one piece. Still, they had to move. In a gesture for good luck, Jam stood on her toes and kissed Alphy on the cheek.

“Whatever you do, you come back, got it? We’re not done yet. Now, come on guys.”

Jam didn’t wait for Alphonse to respond, urging Greta and Shaun forward.

[ReformBlade]

"Well, he can either go with me or with you." Aneda noted to Shadrak and the newcomer before suddenly a Mushirah showed up and just... she just had that face that screamed 'can I please have a ride? I'll pay for gas!' Not sure how that'd look as a face but that was it. "Well you kids pick who goes with who, I know I can take up to two anyway..."

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Wait, Amon's here!? Of all the strange coincidences... Veronika thought to herself, following the others in running away from the Dauntless.

Nadya

Damn fools...they get themselves outta one deathtrap just to go runnin' into another. How many times can ya tempt fate before ya end up dead? Nadya thought to herself as she waited back by the Dauntless, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.

Connor

Connor sighed as people began to leave the Dauntless. "I suppose there's no point in me going...most of what we have in the Dauntless wouldn't even scratch a dragon," he said dejectedly.

[Phoenix]

Seating

Multiple mounts were being offered which almost put a smile on Shadrak's face. Almost. The situation was a little too tense to allow for such things from him. While his first instinct was to just accept the first offer he got, when he actually got a look at Eli and more importantly, Eli's pegasus, he was surprised to see that it was a black pegasus. There was another in the group, already, but he hadn't come within five meters of it and so after several days of travel, the significance had been lost on him.

He didn't say anything on the matter, but it was a slightly intimidating creature up close, this black pegasus of Eli's. He noticed that Mushirah was also going to be riding with someone, so he decided to do the courteous thing and let her get first pick. He worded things hastily, however, since they were already lagging behind the runners. "Mushirah, who would you rather ride with right now?"

Critical

While Ayano pushed back the critically unstable singularity, Greta looked on in awe. She forgot to run for a moment. Amon on the other hand, took the time to rush over to see if Bert was alright. Once he was close enough, he said, "Nothing ever changes after getting involved with her, does it? Are you alright?"

Ayano had made as much progress as she could and gave up on pushing the singularity away once it decided to explode. She used the last of her energy to erect a barrier that would allow her to stand her ground against the blast and then crossed her wrists to shield her face. The second explosion was larger than the first, but didn't trigger an enormous tremor. Instead of powerful shock wave was unleashed that knocked Amon, Greta, and Shaun all down in an instant, and even forced the wagon back a few several meters. It would have gone further if it hadn't been secured to the dead horses still. Isis shielded her head beneath her right wing, and Haythem was flattened, ironically, just as he was beginning to haul himself up.

"Argh," Amon yelled as he was thrown to the dirt for the third time that day. That blast would have killed us if it was much closer. "... never changes at all ...."

Once the shock wave had passed, Ayano let down her barrier and fell onto her hands and knees. "Hey wait, she's hurt," Shaun piped up, having seen the whole ordeal with his own eyes. Admittedly, Greta wanted to help the woman on principle, but if that dragon was going to go after anyone next, it was going to be her, the woman who singlehandedly countered his spell and seemingly forced another temporary retreat.

Rush

Raquel was already getting tired and Reign was having a relatively easy time keeping up with her. "You're out of shape, aren't you?"

"Leave me alone, I'm just pacing myself," she shot back defensively. Before Reign could react to that, an even stronger gust of wind than what they had experienced the first time around came rushing through. Raquel, having already been off balance due to an uphill run, toppled over.

"Raquel, are you alright?!" Reign asked, having managed to only get forced down onto one knee. He helped her up before she bothered to answer.

"I'm fine. Let's get over there before anyone dies," she said. She then started off again, ignoring everything else for the time being. Reign stood by for a second, wondering if this really was a suicide mission. After all, advanced spells were being lobbed around seemingly casually and the mountainside was in danger of being completely renovated. Eventually, Reign got to running after her again.

[Mercakete]

The shockwave came as a surprise, though it really shouldn't have. Norbert was thereby blown back some yet again, though this time he rolled back onto his feet the last roll. "Urgh..." He shook his head again to quickly reorient it. This was the first time he had the chance to respond to Amon's questions. "Of course it changes: the odds of survival get lower with every passing day," he replied. Though it was a joke, Norbert still came off as miffed, which he was. "And I'm fine. Just a few bruises at most. Trust me: I've dealt with worse. ... And you should know that, too, come to think of it."

His primary concern was still the dragon, though, and that was made apparent by his continuous looking around. "Where'd that blasted animal get off to? I don't like this..." Then, a thought occurred to him and his gaze returned to the Sancturan. "Hey. You should try to help get these people away. I'll keep an eye out here and buy you as much time as I can if that scaly worm comes back. Rizen's standing by so I've got wings if I need them."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The shockwave caused Gytha to stumble some, falling to her knees, but as soon as it passed, she got right back up and kept running. Pausing wasn't an option for her, not even when Raquel and Reign did. Reign was handling Raquel's situation just fine; she had other places to be.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Mercakete

[Parrhesia]

Wilhelm was slammed to the ground, too bloody close to the explosion. Gripping his mace, but barely able to walk or see, he staggered away blindly, determined not to throw away his chance at survival.

[Snike]

There was another explosion, accompanied by a stronger gust of wind, which knocked nearly everyone on the road off-balance Blake barely avoided falling over by leaning on his staff, and by the time he recovered, Raquel and Reign were already back up and on the move. The swordsman promptly followed suit, hanging back a good five feet to give his employer and her friend some space.

***

A strong breeze came through the forest, nearly knocking Axel off-balance. That, combined with the sound of the explosion, probably meant another singularity had gone off. Or some idiot was running around with artillery. Either way, the red-armored man doubled his pace. Time was of the essence.

[Afterglimmer]

It wasn't long after Maris had starting sprinting towards the sound of the explosion before he saw flashes of light in the sky. "Good, now I know where the fun is...," he thought to himself as he charged towards where the flares had been sighted. Immediately leaving the path, he took cover behind a nearby tree and peered around it in order to get a good look at what had transpired.

The sight that greeted him was not a pleasant one. At first glance, it looked like a battle had taken place. But judging by the condition of the area as well as the people near the crashed wagon, it looked more like a massacre had taken place. From where he was hidden, two members of the group, and a wyvern were down on the ground and the rest of them, about two or three more from the angle he was at, looked like they were about to fall over dead at any given minute. He couldn't tell if there were others among them, ,or what had captured their attention, due to the wagon blocking the view.

As he slowly approached by moving from tree to tree in order to get a better understanding of the situation, another explosion sounded; much louder than the first one he had heard(most likely due to the proximity) and was almost knocked down by the shockwave. When he recovered, he saw that the wagon had been knocked back a little bit by the force of the explosion. With the wagon no longer obstructing his view, Maris now had clear sight of what was going on and silently listened in.

Edited June 23, 2013 by Mr. Raven

[Script]

A Man Called Gar

Gar followed after Raquel, and when whatever explosion happened and did a few knockings on all of them, Gar deliberately didn't bother to recover and fell unto his back. "This really isn't how I like being put on my back," he mumbled. He got up before gravity started its work of dragging him downhill, and started following again.

[Toogee]

As a second explosion sounded in the distance, Eli was growing rather impatient. People were dying, and Shadrak was busy honoring the tradition of “ladies first.”

“I hate to be pushy, but this really isn’t the time for preferences,” Eli spoke up. He was already considering flying off without them. Indeed, that girl mage Tia was falling behind the others and was becoming a prime target for getting sniped off. If anyone needed a ride…

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Jam couldn’t help but watch as the invisible mage fended off both the spell and forced the dragon to warp away. Was this finally over? Because she stopped along with Greta and Shaun, the dancer was also not far enough when the second explosion went off. She saw it coming and decided to start sprinting, but by her first step, the explosion went off. Jam was knocked onto the ground, landing on her ankle. She clenched her teeth as she held her injured leg. The dancer didn’t know if it was broken or just sprained. All she knew was running would be much harder now.

[ReformBlade]

"Man's got a point, someone get on and lets roll. You can worry about tradition and courting later." Aneda blurted out, getting impatient, though admittedly she thought the whole gesture was adorable in a way, Shadrak trying to be nice. From what Aneda had always assumed, the guy was made of extremely bitter bits and pieces of the world, so this came as a welcome surprise. I just wonder how long this'll last...

Getting the hint but still graciously accepting the ride that was given to her, Mushirah hopped on Hannah and the two rode off, Mushirah shouting back, "Sorry!" Yes, that fixed it all. Was anything broken? Maybe, but who knows with this crazy world.

[Snowy_One]

"Hey! Wait! Will one of you give me a ride? Please? I'm not as fast as them!" cried out Tia, waving her arms in the air in the hopes of attracting one of the fliers, or at least someone riding a battle-pony.

[Toogee]

Eli couldn’t help but notice that Shadrak was trying to avoid taking his offer. As he was working out the seating arrangements, the rider decided to rescind his offer in favor of answering Tia’s pleas. She seemed less picky about rides than the shaman (Shadrak). He’d either have to flag down another rider with a more comfortable ride or man up and start walking.

Eli rode along the road, quickly making up ground. He pulled his sleeve to reveal a hidden gauntlet and pressed one of the jewels. Immediately, he felt his magic pour into his muscles, empowering him for physical feats. This would be especially handy as he caught up with the young mage.

“Gotcha!” Eli said as he grabbed one of Tia’s flailing arms. He then swung her up behind him and onto Betty. He hung on to her until she regained balance.

“Keep an eye out for dragons and hang on!” When Tia was safely seated, Betty took off, flying just a few feet over everyone’s heads as they made their way to battle.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Toogee

[Snowy_One]

"Alright! Will do!" said Tia as her hands clung tightly to Eli as her tome pressed up hard against his backside. Her legs locked on as strongly as they could to the saddle as she tried her best to hold on tight.

[Ether]

"A... dragon...?" Faatina noted to herself, somewhat muted by it. So soon, so quick after her complete and utter failure in that... that strange dream? Gripping her modified lance, her knuckles growing white as she did so, Faatina urged Sharif forward.

'I can't... actually expect to do any damage, do I? I haven't... I haven't changed yet, but I... maybe I can atleast open a path for someone who can...'

***

"A dragon, huh? Good... I was needing something big and ugly to beat on." Arietta snarled, readying her maul so as to hopefully splatter some dragon brains across the Ursian mountainside.

***

What were the odds of a fucking shadow dragon appearing all the way out here? Angelica wondered to herself, though she was becoming less and less surprised as time went on... as soon as she left to look for this Emblem, everything went to shit... was this why none of the others had reported back?

Well, no time to dwell on it. Either this dragon needed to be gotten rid of, or she would just need to exeunt her pretty little ass from this hellish stage.

***

RETROSPECTIVE TIME

Zach and the hunting group had managed to bring home a sizable amount of meat from their trip, enough to feed the group for a few days. Having to take down a deer from the sky was certainly good practice as well, though, speaking of practice...

Now that his obligations were done and things were dying down for the night it was the perfect opportunity for his appointment with Kit for a new technique.

Seeing that his new teacher was off at a corner of the camp by herself, Zach went after her, giving a wave of his hand in greeting. "So... hunting is all done, can we go ahead and try out the technique you were going to be teaching me to improve my Overcast?"

"Oh, sparky." Kit replied, as Zachary made his way over to her. Standing from where she had been sitting, the fox-woman looked the sage over.

"Allow me to be frank... I don't have a technique to teach you, Zach. The only way for me to improve your casting is to get inside your head and rewire it myself. If you're okay with that, drop your barriers and relax... if not, well there is nothing I can do for you... I'm no teacher." Kit noted bluntly. What happened next was entirely up to Zachary.

"Wait so.... you mean something like mind magic right? Digging around in my head to rewire me, so... does that mean that you could teach me other stuff as well? Like... Dark magic or some other kind of stuff I wouldn't be able to learn normally!" Zach asked with genuine interest, he'd never heard of mind magic used in this kind of way.

"Anyways..." Lowering all of his magical barriers, completely opening himself to the fox woman "Go ahead, do your thing. I trust you Kit."

"Well, I could... in theory. But it would take a lot more time and would be more dangerous... this is fairly easy, I'm just refining a foundation that is already there..." Kit replied, before the distinct feeling of the man's mental and magical barriers dropping caught her attention... he had actually done it.

'He really must have nothing to lose... well, I'll know for myself soon enough.' Kit noted to herself, before unleashing her tendrils into Zachary's mind and beginning the alteration.

"Well, we've got time to test these theories, but the possibilities of transferring knowledge like this.... it's astounding." Zach mused. After seeing how the transfer went with just this adaptation of his overcast notes would need to be made, tests, more talking with Kit. So much research into the possibilities...

While he was thinking about it all Zach suddenly felt Kit's tails on his head, then a pressure coming out of them. It was... strange, nothing painful, just something like a thread being pulled under his skin.

_______

"It worked, it worked! Mom! I did it, I finally got the thunder spell to come out right!" Exclaimed the young Zachary to his mother. Pumping his fist up into the air as he cheered at his success at magic. Seeing how her son was reacting Lilly couldn't help but chuckle though. "See sweety? I told you you had the potential... You'll be a great mage some day Zach.... I know it."

A cheeky grin was on the child's face as he thumbed at his chest "Of course I'll be great! You're my mom and you're the best mage in Skotia, how could I not be amazing!"

_____

Father was supposed to be coming off of his shift today after a patrol, and teenage Zachary was eager to show his father how far he'd progressed in his studies in magic. Zach and his father might not have gotten along the best, considering he'd wanted his son to pick up a sword rather than a book, and take over the town guard rather than be a scholar. But even then he couldn't deny his son had certainly inherited the *spark* from his mother.

Coming home from his training area set up out in the woods, Zach could see that his father's horse was back... along with a few others. 'Dad probably just brought home a few friends for a game of cards or something...' Were the thoughts that crossed the teen's mind as he walked through the front door.

"Mom I'm home, is Father here?" He called out, normally his mother was there to great him after he came back from his solo practice and experimentation... nothing. Hearing the faint sound of sobbing coming from the back of the house made him concerned, walking back to see Lilly crying her eyes out on in a kitchen chair. Robin's mother Maria patting her back, The General standing off to the side looking... off.... and his father's armor... covered in blood sitting on the table.

_____

Eighteen was supposed to be the real sign of manhood in Neviskotia if you hadn't joined the Army. Zachary had just turned eighteen a week ago, there was no celebration to be had however.

"I'm sorry son... there's nothing to be done.... Your mother will be with Mercy soon, please... make your peace, talk to her... you have to." The priest told Zachary, things he already knew but didn't want to face. His mother was dying, some kind of disease that even staves couldn't fix, nor any kind of medicine that they knew of. The only thing that could be done was to ease her pain.... and Zach was thankful for that much.

Entering her bedroom to see his frail mother, still beautiful even as she lay on her deathbed. Grabbing a stool and sitting down next to the woman that had given everything to him he clasped her hand in his own, feeling how cold she was....

And for the first time in years, Zachary Fairweather wept.'

______

His mothers funeral, leaving Ohka, meeting Kerrigan and the cult, finding out about Lia and resolving to save her, meeting the group, Lia's death.... All of it flowed from Zach's mind into the tendrils as his memories were spilled.

So that was what made him tick, huh? After sifting through the man's head and retaining whatever she thought might be useful for her own, and doing as she had promised, altering and improving the thunder sage's knowledge of his overcast technique, Kit pulled away from the man, giving him a teasing grin.

"That should be it. Well then, still remember who you are?"

"Yeah I...." Clutching at his head after Kit had finished rooting around in there. "Kit what the hell was all that, why did I have to remember that stuff.... just... is that gonna happen every time or what?" That kind of thing had the potential to be a deal breaker, all of his worst memories coming to life again wasn't an enjoyable experience at all.

"Did it even work?"

"Did you expect nothing to become unsettled with someone in your head? That which is most prominent in your mind floated to the surface when it couldn't tell what was happening." Kit replied, pulling her tails away from the man.

"It should have, though the only way to be sure is to try it and find out." Kit continued.

"I just didn't expect that stuff to come up of all things. Maybe some stupid little memories here and there, but not the worst moments in my life..." Letting out a sigh, Zach stopped rubbing his head. "Well, might as well try out my new trick right?"

Digging out his tome and taking a breath Zach started to form a spell just aiming up into the air. Overcasting as he normally would but... feeling a major difference in the power of his technique, he could do so much more now.... pouring absolutely everything into the now visible lightning crackling around his hands he finally let it go.

Without a doubt the largest bolt of lightning the sage had ever created shot into the air, the sound of the thunder coming off of it nearly deafening. Staring in amazement at what he'd just produced... Zach suddenly let out a cheer the likes of which he hadn't done since his first successful spell. "That was amazing, I've never done anything like that before!" Turning around and hugging the fox woman in thanks.

"I owe you a ton Kit, thank you so much for this!"

"Yeah, well... you're not so bad, kid. You'd better make good use of that, y'hear me? Next time I come here I need someone to point to when they try to shoo me off because they think I'm not helping." Kit replied, as the thunder sage began his ecstatic celebration.

"Might wanna try and not wake up anyone who managed to stay asleep through that thunder clap."

"Not so bad eh? Be honest with me Kit, how good am I? For a human at least, I know.... I know I can't ever be ass good as another species, but at least for humans I want the be the best there is.... do I even have the potential to be great?" He asked, before realizing what exactly she said

"Next time? Does that mean that you're gonna be leaving soon?" A small tinge of sadness present in his voice.

"For your level of practice... I suppose you could be considered a bit above what I've seen for average human mages... but to be the strongest human I have to say I'm doubtful... but then, it depends on who is alive when you yourself have accrued all of your knowledge near the end of your years." Kit replied, not surprised at his pursuit of his plateau, so much as asking her opinion on the matter.

"But everyone defines greatness differently. You will likely never even conquer thunder magic completely in your lifetime, because of your study in fire... human lives are too short for that. Your magnum opus as a magician will most likely be how many types of anima that you can bring yourself to be considered an elite in... but you will likely never master a single one." Kit told the man straight... she felt generous today, better to bring him to reality now than leave him clinging to a false hope... then he seemed to clue in that her departure would be fairly soon.

"Well, yes. To be frank, there are very few in your merry group on friends that don't wish to see me cast off, you must have noticed. Even if they were all buddy-buddy with me, I do have things of my own that I need to... take care of. Raquel no longer has her Emblem shard, and the energies of it are now dormant within her... I should be able to keep tabs on it so long as I check in every once in a while."

"Well... hey, everyone needs some kind of goal in life right? Even if mine isn't attainable, it's pretty much all I have going for me.... kinda funny though ya know? I want all this power, but there really isn't anything to do with it once this whole thing with Raquel is over. Hell I don't even feel any kind of loyalty to my own country to sign up for the army like my Mother did. The only reason I feel like Skotia is my best bet is just because of the dragons, they have so much knowledge about magic.... the things I could learn would be astounding if one would actually take me on."

When Kit told him that he couldn't even master thunder in his lifetime, Zach grew quiet for a few moments, before chuckling. "Kerrigan... that bastard managed to screw me over one last time eh? Told him I didn't care to learn about fire... just wanted to keep with Thunder and master it... I'm even better than he was now, so I guess in the end the only thing he really helped me out with was Lia... inadvertently. Guess if I can't remove my knowledge of fire to make more room for thunder I might as well see how far the rabbit hole goes with Anima then."

"Try... try not to go too long without checking in a bit okay? Despite how... for a lack of a better term, fucked up, our relationship is. I consider you to be a friend Kit, maybe one of the few I actually have left. If nothing else maybe I can fill you in on what's going on with this bunch from time to time."

"The quest for knowledge is a noble one, even if you can see no notable end to it." Kit replied, before Zach lamented about his own humanity.

"I suppose it's possible to erase your knowledge of fire magic, but not today... I don't have the time for something like that at the moment, and it's probably something you should think over... and I can't guarantee that it will have any noticeable effect." Kit continued, before Zach made... some sort of confession, it could be called.

"Well, I'll try to keep it in mind, but I tend to find myself all over Sardius... I'll step in when I feel Raquel around."

"Noted." Zach replied with a nod about thinking about the possibility of erasing his knowledge of fire. Memories were... a difficult thing, and losing them and knowing they were lost was probably a very concerning experience.

"So does that mean you're about to leave right now?" He asked, considering she said that they didn't have enough time to do anything else. He was... actually hoping she'd stick around a bit and they could have an actual conversation about magic, rather than just tendrils going inside his mind.

"I don't necessarily need to leave this minute, but chances are I will be gone before the end of tomorrow." Kit replied, with a swish of her tails.

"So... would you mind if we just talked for a bit about magic? Even if you don't use anima, there's probably a ton of stuff that I could learn from you. Aside from that dragon Fyodor back in Chokusabe you're certainly the most powerful magic user I've ever gotten to talk to." Zach asked, eyes unconsciously following her swishing tail, those things were so weird, but so interesting at the same time...

Edited June 24, 2013 by Ether

[Phoenix]

Hitchhiking

"Hey, wait ..." Shadrak stopped himself short, wondering why Eli had rode off without anyone at all. He sighed, wondering if he should just stay and guard the Dauntless this time. Would it make a difference if he stayed or went? After all, if they really needed him for this, then this was probably going to be worse than their recent battle with the organization and that was quite a fight. A small part of him was wishing he could climb up to the roof of the Dauntless and ask Kit to take him over there since he couldn't, in good conscience, just sit back and wait. Another option would have been Raquel herself; she possessed a rescue staff. Unfortunately, she had rushed off ahead already. It hadn't even occurred to him that Luka was also a rescue staff owner, and so he resigned himself to trying to head up the road on foot. He didn't walk, but he didn't run either. If he tired himself out on the way there, he would just be dead weight at best, and literally dead at worst.

Recharge

Raquel pressed herself as far as she could but eventually fell onto her hands and knees and began panting. Reign caught up shortly thereafter and said, "Want me to carry you the rest of the way?" He sounded pretty genuine despite his calm tone, but Raquel knew better.

"Stoooop," she groaned in frustration. "I just need to catch my breath. This is a longer run than I thought it would be. I should have realized it when that guy came riding in on a horse ..."

"Yeah, yo- ..." Reign paused when Raquel began to give off a faint golden glow.

"Okay, that was fast. I can keep going now." Raquel stood back up and prepared to start running again.

"Raquel, you're glowing again."

"What?!" As soon as Raquel noticed it herself, the glow faded. She felt completely fine and ready to run again, but they had lost some time just standing there, needless to say. "Well I'm pretty sure it's why I'm fine now, so let's go. Come on, hurry!"

Like I can't keep up if you get another head start? "Coming."

"Okay, as soon as we get there, our attackers need to secure the area while our healers tend to whoever's hurt. I might be able to warp someone closer if I need t-" "How are you going to do that without your warp staff?" Reign interrupted. He didn't normally do that, but the longer he waited to ask, the further away from her staff she was getting. If they were going to go back for it, now was the time.

"I ... oh crap." Raquel wasn't sure heading back now was such a good idea, and she also wasn't sure if it was just due to the distance or due to the urgency and wanting to see Amon with her own eyes. Either way, her pace began to slow again, though this time due to uncertainty and not fatigue.

Reprieve

Amon hauled himself up once again and approached Bert. "We've already had some casualties so we need to get everyone else out of here. I need to ... I need to help Haythem with Isis somehow. We can't just leave her here."

Greta still wanted to help the woman but noticed Haythem emerging from the dirt much closer to them and decided to help him first. His injuries were more visible and she certainly felt guilty for having run him over with her wagon. That was one hell of an introduction. "Hey, hey, don't move around so much. You got run over and smacked down hard, okay?!" she yelled as she approached him.

"Oh ... hello, Miss Greta ..." he absentmindedly greeted her. He was still slightly out of it from the looks of things and standing up so fast may have been part of the reason.

"Just Greta, Haythem; we've been over this," she said as she forced him to sit back down.

Shaun meanwhile, could only stand by waiting. He didn't have any salves on him this time, so he couldn't help anyone, it seemed. "S-should we really just run away and not wait for'em, Jamilla?"

[-Cynthia-]

Veronika

Veronika noticed Raquel fall to her knees during the run. She briefly considered either helping her up or asking her to stay back, but Reign seemed to be doing the former and there was little time for an argument. She silently cursed those with mounts. If this truly is a Neviskotian dragon and we can negotiate, they could screw this up by aggravating the dragon early- I must get there as quickly as possible, she thought to herself, increasing her pace to reach the situation as quickly as possible.