Beneath the Shadows Chapter Two: Chasing Shades

[Rothene]

"Ah, that makes sense, I'm probably the only water magic user in the group at the moment," Caslan stated with some measure of pride, taking Raelyn's action of looking at the ribbon as a sign that his work was accomplished wonderfully. "Well, I can't keep a girl waiting so see you around. And better keep that ribbon somewhere safe from the battle. Like in a pouch or something."

With that Caslan quickly made his way to a chair beside Linn. Beaming, Caslan greeted the others and at the same time noticed the stae of Aina's eyes, "Hey ev...Aina? What happened to you?"

Edited October 5, 2013 by Rothene

[eclipse]

He didn't notice. . .guess I was right about him being naive. She slowly raised her head, taking note of the plain pack on the ground--wait, that hadn't been there before! Hmmm. . .wonder who that belongs to?

Her eyes followed Caslan. He'd stopped to talk to Aina. Something looks off about her. . .wonder what they're saying? Ever the listener, Raelyn waited silently.

[Toogee]

"Some of them are, yes, but others are poor souls," Hale responded, looking up to see that a black-haired woman had inquired about his notes. "I don't believe we've properly met. You're right, I am Hale. If you don't mind me asking, who would you be? "

***

"Ah, I'm Chandra. I'm the cook around here." she replied to Hale. "Before that however, I had my fair share of dealings with these 'poor souls'." Since the group had seen these creatures first hand, the shaman felt safe to mention her past. Though she didn't agree with his assessment, it was clear that Hale shared a similar interest in the creatures that stalked from the shadows.

"I'm about to see if there's anything to feed the crew, but perhaps afterwards, we can swap stories about our mutual acquaintances?" Whether the offer was answered in the affirmative or negative, Chandra would disappear into the kitchen in an attempt to prep a victory meal.

[Nanami Touko]

"Let's not entertain that thought any further, Zeff. I don't think I could bring myself to fight you, or anyone else here, after all we've been through, and I hope I never have to. Can't imagine why I'd have to fight any of you, anyway." She decided that slumping herself onto the table probably wasn't the best way to have conversation, and a good stretch would probably wake her up. Of course, in a chair, this meant stretching her head back all the way over the back of the chair. The upside down view was quite disorienting, but it did give her the chance to spot Raelyn, glancing over at them. "Hello, Raelyn! Feel free to join us, if you'd like." Stretch finished, she brought herself to sitting as normally as she could on the chair.

[Ether]

"I walked into too many doorknobs, the hell do you think happened? Got gouged out by an arrow." Aina replied... was it really so difficult to figure out what had happened? She supposed there might be some shock behind it, most of them were greenhorns.

[Snike]

".. If you say so... But, I- I don't know why we were looking for him, the order came from the King," the dwelf said, calming down a bit. "Not even the commander knew why. Just A-Aldrick, and h-he killed all the villagers for it! Commander was arguing with him about it, when you all came along. A-and you know what happened from there..."

***

"Perhaps. It would be well worth my time to hear others' experiences, though that depends on how long we'll be here for," Hale responded, clasping his hands together. "Good luck with the search, either way."

[eclipse]

So, Aina's out another eye. A little politeness wouldn't kill her. . .though, perhaps she's not used to being blind just yet. Once she gets accustomed to it, she'll be a difficult target to steal from. Not that I'd do something like that, of course~! Raelyn continued to keep her mouth shut and ears open.

[Nanami Touko]

"Hmmmm." Raelyn had either ignored, or not heard the elf. Everyone was down in their spirits, as expected, and Linn couldn't stand the atmosphere. I need to ask Andre where Caslan and I can practice our magic. I'd rather not upset him about the same thing twice, especially after everything that's happened this evening. She stood and stretched again, getting all the kinks out of her arms. "I'll be right back, Caslan. Just going to ask Andre about our practice." She walked off, looking around for the half dwarf. After a few minutes of glancing around, she heard him talking to what sounded like Adari, at the top of the inn stairs.

"Excuse me, Andre," she said, staying at the bottom. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I was wondering if there would be an area for Caslan and I to practice our magic. The last time we messed around on the battlefield it upset you, and I'd rather like to avoid that again. If there's a room here that was...spared from what's happened, perhaps we could use that?"

Edited October 6, 2013 by I have opinions

[Snike]

"We haven't finished checking this floor, but sure, if you find one, I guess," Andre said, as Linn the now-blonde elf -magic, he presumed- asked if she and Caslan could train. "Keep in mind we're going to be leaving in a little while, after we see if there are any survivors and whatnot."

He and Adari just have to step out when talking to their 'guest', in that case. Not an issue.

***

Jacob woke up, with a sore chest and accompanying headache. Once he pulled himself off of the ground, the Celisan looked around to see that only a handful of his fellow Harriers remained outside. Some of them, it seemed, had gone into the inn. He quickly decided to enter the building, and, pausing as he saw the carnage, shakily made his way to a relatively blood-free table.

[Nanami Touko]

"Fantastic. I'll grab him and we'll find one." She brought her smile back, and wandered back over to the table. "Caslan, Andre's given us the go ahead to practice. We just need to find a relatively clean room upstairs, and we can use it. I mean, I'm not too fussed if there's blood, just...not too much. You stretch yourself up, I'll start looking." She turned back and left the elf to his devices (of standing and walking), and walked herself upstairs, past Andre and Adari. She walked past them quickly, not wanting to pry into their conversation.

The upstairs looked about as good as the downstairs, and smelled a little bit worse. There were a few rooms, but most of them were...ugh. Further down the hall there were a few good rooms, ones that wouldn't make them vomit, and...a boarded off door. "Huh? How curious..." Linn hadn't expected a door up here to be boarded off, especially from the outside. It didn't make much sense. "Excuse me again, Andre, why's this door boarded off?" she asked, the two just down the hall. Maybe he knows...but he did say they hadn't checked this floor. The room next to it was fine to practice in, so whether or not she got an answer, she'd leave it alone when Caslan got upstairs.

Edited October 6, 2013 by I have opinions

[Snike]

Andre shrugged.

"No idea," he admitted. " I'll find out, in a bit, but there's another thing I'd like to deal with, first. Feel free to try and break it down, if you want."

[Oersted]

Well at least Ernce had gotten more than tears from the dwelf this time. The only problem was that he found it hard to believe what the dwelf was saying. "You're saying the king issued a mission to go into Celisa and hunt down a single half-elf?" Ernce asked, skepticism obvious in his voice. "Ignoring that, do you have any idea who this Aldrick is? He must be pretty important if the king trusted only him, a filthy dark magic user, with the information."

Edited October 6, 2013 by Oersted

[Rothene]

Grabbing his pack, Caslan stood up and made his way to the upper floors, brushing past Andre and Adari. He had finally gotten used to the smell. Reaching Linn's side, Caslan raised an eyebrow as he asked pointing at the boarded room, "So, we practice behind this one?"

[eclipse]

Sorry Linn. I'm busy, and it'll take more than a suggestion to get my attention. One of her eyebrows arched when she saw Caslan pick the bag up. That wasn't the pack he came in with. . .hmmm, perhaps I misjudged him.

[Nanami Touko]

"Huh. Alright! I just might try that." Okay, Linn, concentrate... It was a bit difficult for her to do so when Caslan showed up, and asked his question, but that was fine. "You might want to stand back...!" She pushed her shoulder into him and got him out of the way, before blasting the door with all the wind magic she could! It splintered, it bent, and one of the boards went flying off! But it was still standing, and still mostly boarded off. She sighed, and shrugged. "Oh well, I tried. At least it'll be easier to open for whoever comes by next. Come on, the room next to this one's clean enough. We can practice in there."

Door takes 14 damage and is still standing!

Edited October 6, 2013 by I have opinions

[scorri]

Adari grinned. "Right. So, who gets ta play bad cop? I suppose it's more believable comin from ya since I was so friendly ta him when we first met 'im." She sighed and shook her head. "Ya always get the fun bits. Well, lets go see what I can figure out." Heading downstairs, she sat down across the table from Hale and grinned at him. "So, glad ta see yer alive. I want ta thank you fer keepin mah boss alive in that fight. He's one of the good uns and wouldn't want ta lose him. Well, 'cept when he's lost his temper, but what can ya do? Now... ya said ya were from tha desert. Did ya cross inta Senia at any point? Stir up any noise while ya were there?"

[Rothene]

"Erm...sure," Caslan said, slightly shaken at Linn's display of power. He made a mental note of triple reinforcing his water barrier, just in case.

Making their way to the empty room, Caslan took in a deep breath then told Linn, "Alright, I'll go first and teach you how to form the barrier." With barely any gesture and no words, Caslan summoned a transparent veil of water around him, "See, this barrier I formed is rather clear and thin. But I did it without any incantations, hence why it's so weak. Now I'll do it with incantations."

With that, the elven mage let the water splash down then concentrated as he recited with closed eyes, and recited some incantations, including the words down, then up and words associated with the element in particular. With the spell complete, a much thicker barrier of water formed around Caslan.

"Could you catch what I said?" Caslan asked Linn after he let the barrier fall.

[Nanami Touko]

Linn sat herself down on the bed in the room, and watched as Caslan performed his little shield incantations, rather impressed by the different between just using the element and adding the words. Woooow, he's really good at this magic business. Maybe I'll get control over mine soon enough, if he's teaching me. "Alright, I'll give it a try. I think I heard the gist of what you said. It can't be that hard." She took a deep breath, stood herself up, and concentrated. She started saying what he'd said, and she could feel the air rising up around her. This is pretty cool, actually...but keep concentrating. This isn't a walk in the park.

Whether or not she thought it was cool, it was fairly difficult for her to hold the wall up for very long, the air dissipating and blasting outwards a bit. Not enough to hurt anyone, but it did leave Linn disappointed, and sitting back on the bed. "Well, that was...something. At least I got it to work for a bit! If I keep at it, I should get it. What about you, though? It's not really fair if I just sit here and practice while you've got nothing to go with. I know you're a lot better at this than I am, but...maybe there's something I can help with?"

[Snike]

"No problem. I don't doubt that he could've handled himself, however," Hale responded, before frowning at Adari's inquiries. "...No, I went through the Titan's hills, then from there I crossed the forest of the Magus into the Dragonkin's realm, finally arriving in this land afterwards. The Kaiser's lands hold no interest for me... Why do you ask? Was there a Senian who mentioned me before they died, or something?"

"They're not dead, and they described you, right up to the ring," Andre said, speaking up for the first time that conversation. "You're their target they were supposed to find."

"... That's impossible," the half-elf said flatly, as his eyes hardened and his expression turned grim.

"Like hell it is!" the mercenary retorted, slamming the table with both his hands. "A whole village was slaughtered because of you, and you expect us to believe you have no idea why the Senians are after you?"

Hale remained silent at that question, shifting his gaze from Harrop to his ring, for the time being.

***

"Y-yes, we thought it was odd, as well, but, well, there was nothing we could do. It was either follow orders or die," the dwelf said, before moving on to the Celisan's next question. "He's some friend of General Brams, b-but he just showed up one day, a few years ago, with his creepy underling. A-and don't lump all dark magic users with monsters like him! I-I mean, the Moonrider was a dark magic user, right? And she helped save our ancestors all those years ago!"

[scorri]

"Hey, boss, relax, I've got this" She turned back to Hale and shrugged. "Look, it's ok. It's like I said earlier. He's just got a bit of a temper on him. Now... it's true that the one we captured described someone who looked a lot like ya. Half-elf, silver hair, blue necklace..." she paused, glancing significantly at his ring, "..ring. See, that's a pretty specific description and we just happened ta run into someone who fits that just a few days before this attack happens? Ya can see where we're getting a bit suspicious, ya know? But, just tell us what's up. We won't turn ya in or anything, we're not like that. Heck, we'll help protect ya if we can."

[Rothene]

When Linn let go of her wind barrier, Caslan felt the breeze and almost decided to raise a small barrier in case the less experienced spellcaster accidentally chained her barrier into an attack. Thankfully that was not the case. But it still gave Caslan an idea on having to be more careful. Mentally, he willed a few droplets to hover nearby him to make barrier forming faster in case anything happens.

"Well...I do have a problem with actually hitting moving targets with my magic," Caslan spoke sheepishly, not liking to mention what he was not good at. But he had to start mastering the finer art of aiming with magic. "Let me show you how I hit things with magic and I'll let you criticize and tell me what I'm doing wrong."

Concentrating on the puddle of water he left on the floor, the elven mage made it rise, then surge forward like an arrow with the same hitzone and similar speed towards a nearby wall creating a bruise on the wood.

[Nanami Touko]

"Alright, I'll watch," she said, not expecting that to be what he'd answer with. She expected something about getting wet or not having enough water, but aiming? It seemed weird to her, when he was already so good at magic. But she knew almost right away what he was doing wrong, and it made her laugh a little. "Sure, you'll get more power out of that, but that's your problem with your aiming. Here, watch me."

She hopped up and stood herself next to him, spinning some wind around at the other side of the room. "Now..." she said, through her concentration, "you control the element...right? So just..." she frowned a little, and the air visibly became a faint, translucent blade flying around the opposite side of the room. "There we go. Now! You're firing your water off like an arrow, but you're not an archer, unless you've got some amazing training with a bow that no one knows about. So..." She flew the air back at them, then back towards the wall, and shot it off. Just before it collided with the wood, she made it turn incredibly sharply, and fly into the opposite wall (leaving an unfortunately large dent)!

"Hah... You see? If you're in control, then hold that control until you hit what you're aiming at. I might not be good at controlling how strong it is, or making shields, but even I could figure this out. Not that I think you're stupid, just... Well, I can understand that it's not something that would come to mind right away. And it takes more out of you then just firing the magic off. But, just think of how surprised someone would be to have dodged one of your water arrow thingies, only to have it spin right back around and hit them in the back! Cool, huh?" she said, as she nudged him with her elbow. "You give it a try. It's not like it's hard."

[Bluedoom]

As Rimsky watched as Raelyn and the rest of the harriers left for the inn, he decided to stay back and watch at what the old man and the other who Andre called Ernce were doing with the prisoner and the mage girl. He hadn't observed the mage girl's brutality earlier since he was busy attending to Jacob and Raelyn.

He observed the conversation as Ernce asked the mage girl details about this so-called Aldrick. Rimsky hadn't made the connection until the girl mentioned Aldrick's 'creepy underling'. The one who had taken Rimsky out with ease.

"Sorry ter interrupt, but you talkin' about that... that THING that took me out with dark magic? And Moonrider? Ancestors? Not sure what yer goin' about here." Rimsky said, thoroughly angry with what the had just learned.

Edited October 6, 2013 by Bluedoom

[Vestige]

"Oi, Aina. I think I'll go see if I can lend Chandra a hand with that cooking. I'll be back with food when it's ready." Waiting for food was one thing, but waiting for food on an empty stomach was another. He figured he'd go help Chandra out. At the very least it would make the time pass more quickly. He got up from his chair and walked over to the back of the inn, catching up with Chandra just as she was about to head over to the kitchen.

"Hey, Chandra. You mind if I help you out? It's been a while since I've cooked something but I think I'll be able to provide you a decent amount of help."

[Xinnidy]

"Heh. I've heard of that." Alfonso mentioned, as the dwarf-elf spoke of the Moonrider. "Always seemed an interesting tale. Antar doesn't take as well to dark magic, the first time I heard her achievement, I found it an interesting twist! Dark magic, used for good -- I wish more writers had stories like this to weave!" The man said, quickly returning to his less serious mood. "... but I digress. This might not be the best moment for that." He shifted his attention to the inn, he wasn't paying enough to suspect anything, but the wait was already making him wonder what was going on there. "I hope there weren't more inside, now that I think of--" He was abruptly interrupted by the dwarf in the middle of the speech, he did not remember his name, but it's hard to miss the one pure dwarf in the group he worked with.

"I'm sorry, what?" Alfonso replied, surprised. Quite lost in his accent and anger at once. "We are on guard, nobody so much as touches those two until your commanders come back. Now, what of this 'thing' you're talking about?"