Beneath the Shadows Chapter Two: Chasing Shades

[Rothene]

Oh...right. Why didn't I think of that? Thought the elven mage as he watched Linn's display of magic. He decided to blame his elders for being neglectful about the combative application of magic and focusing too much on pacification with diplomacy and good will.

"Oookaaay, so control the magic," Caslan muttered grabbing a globe of water and then having it shift around the room. With his control, the water sphere never lost any of its mass while it moved around the room, but unfortunately it moved far more slowly than the air blade Linn conjured due to its greater mass. Thinking hard about the meaning behind keeping a constant control, Caslan tried a trick where he separated the water sphere into smaller droplets, but it was in fact harder to manipulate. Then he tried a different tactic involving the water sphere hovering in place, then whip outwards swiftly before returning to its original spherical shape and then re-positioning around an imaginary target.

"Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of it," Caslan exclaimed gleefully. This way, he could now maintain the water sphere constantly tagging alongside his target to lash out at them when their guard seems down.

[Oersted]

"It was either follow orders or die," Ernce mentally repeated, glad he hadn't ever been in that scenario. He chose to keep what she said about Aldrick in mind but not address it as he wasn't too familiar with the associated name. Instead he chose to address the part about how he'd essentially badmouthed one of the legendary heroes. "Sorry about insulting Moonrider; it's a habit from being raised in Celisa to despise dark magic. I should've held my tongue."

Ernce would've liked to have stopped there but one of the mercs who he wasn't acquainted with rode up and asked about Aldrick's underling and then proceeded to ask about Moonrider and their ancestors. In his shock to the dwarf's lack of knowledge Ernce responded rather rudely. "What were you raised in the mountains or something? Moonrider is one of the legendary heroes who fought along side the other heroes 600 years ago and saved our ancestors, you know the people that lived before you."

Edited October 6, 2013 by Oersted

[Nanami Touko]

"Hahaha, Caslan, that's fantastic!" She couldn't help herself, and strode on up to the water sphere, inspecting it from all sides. "This is giving me all sorts of terrible ideas of what wind could do, or, or what we could do together! Just imagine if you could ride your water on my wind. We could slip it between enemy armor, quicker than the eye could follow, and there'd be no way to stop it! Just fantastic..." She realized how silly she probably looked, inspecting a water orb, and promptly stopped. "Ahem, right... Sorry. That was just...really, really cool. Hehe." She sat herself down again and whistled a little, turning her sight back on Caslan. "So, I'll keep practicing that shield, and you master that wonderful little water sphere you've got there. Sounds good."

[Snike]

"Not without a fee, I'd presume," Hale said icily, once Adari had put her bit in. He began to fiddle with his ring. "The necklace is from my fiancée, and the band's my engagement ring. If you're telling me that Selia- who's been missing for years- somehow ended up in the Senian military and ordered a massacre just to capture me, you're mad."

"We still have the prisoner, who described you to the ring," Andre growled. "That isn't a coincidence."

"Right, when my running into your group was by chance? I'm inclined to think it is. But I'll humor you. Bring the Senian in and have them tell you whether or not I was the target."

***

"I wanted to be like her, when I grew up...," the dwelf said after the older guard's comments about Moonrider being an interesting tale. Then, the thrall was mentioned, amidst some bickering. The younger human seemed oddly knightly for a mercenary, but then he began to insult the newcomer -an angry dwarf- and things looked like they were going to go downhill. The prisoner began to search for her weapon again, just in case. "A-anyways, the 'thing' is a woman. At least, we think she's a woman. She never speaks, from what I've seen of her, but she's always by Aldrick's side. She's creepy..."

[Rothene]

"Right. So, you sure you can remember the incantations? You can copy it from my tome if you like," Caslan offered flipping through his tome to the right page, "Then you can keep practicing until you can create the barrier without incantations. Just remember, down first then up, as my elders put it. Too many mages forget to guard their lower half and leave barriers half complete from the top."

[scorri]

"Yer fightin with tha one who's on yer side here," Adari hissed at Hale. "I don't betray someone who's fought with this band. Ever. Regardless of where yer jewelry came from, it seemed like too much of a coincidence fer us ta ignore. Even if we are wrong, can ya not see where we were comin from? Look, we just want ta figure this out. Andre... get the dwelf. I know I'm not in charge but... it will just be easier if we do it this way. No need to burn any bridges."

[eclipse]

Raelyn's observations were interrupted by a tap on the head. She looked around, but no one was in sight. The tapping happened again. It felt. . .wet. There's one guy I know of who might do this she grumbled to herself, as she slowly made her way upstairs. She heard giggling from one of the rooms, and a familiar voice. That is NOT what I expected those two to be doing! She took a quick peek into the room, and saw Caslan working with water. That explains it. Linn's attention was on a suspiciously-looking wet sphere in the room. At least his elders had good advice regarding barriers. Rather than shout (which she was sorely tempted to do), she cleared her throat loudly.

[Snike]

"I can see where you'd get the idea," Hale responded, frowning. "but I don't think you thought it through. Anyways, let's just settle this."

Andre scowled, then made a grand display of storming out of the inn, his expression resetting to neutral the moment he left the table's line of sight. A minute or so later, and he had found the group, now a Rimsky greater, in the middle of discussion.

"Alright, we're bringing her in to the inn, to answer a few questions," he said to his mercenaries. "One of you should stay behind to watch over the elf."

[Nanami Touko]

"Oh, that's an unpleasant thought. I'll make sure to remember that, yeah," she said, as she took his notebook, and began to scribble down the incantations into hers (which she had kept in the pack she'd taken from the shop, along with a quill enchanted to hold its own ink). She went back to thinking about forgetting a barrier, and wondering how many people actually were killed because of that. She shuddered. "Not a pleasant thought..."

Scribbling finished, she handed Caslan back his tome, and laid down on the bed. "I guess we don't have much else to do but wait... You can sit down, you know. Here," she said, sliding herself over, "there's plenty of room for you to sit. And when you do, why don't you...tell me some more about yourself, Caslan? We've thrown magic at each other but we haven't really spoken much, outside of that." Linn was hoping to get a chance at knowing the mage some more, when someone cleared their throat rather loudly at the door. Linn shot up, and spotted Raelyn peeking in. "Oh, hello! We were practicing some magic, if you're curious. How are things downstairs?"

[eclipse]

"Seems like the boss' temper flared at the half-elf stranger. I didn't get much else, because something dripped on my head!" She glared at the floor to make her point. "I caught a little bit of the conversation before showing up. I don't know who taught Caslan, but that's sound advice his elders gave. I guess a water barrier could dampen the force behind a blow, but how would a wind barrier work?"

[Rothene]

While Linn copied the incantations, Caslan could not help but keep looking at the female elf. He remembered, sharply about the letter he had wrote back to his family and it seems he was off to a good start. And then things went better for him. Wholly ready to accept Linn's invitation to discuss about their lives, when both of them heard Raelyn.

Turning to face Raelyn, his cheeks slightly red, Caslan could only manage, "Oh...hey Raelyn." When did she get here...and why? Then upon hearing Raelyn's explanation, the elf spared a glance to where he had let his water barrier fall earlier. Oh, dear.

"Sss...sorry about the water dripping. I...I erm...I'll be more careful next time," Caslan apologized to the human, wondering if he had offended her or not. He still remembered albeit not too strongly, Mira's cold scary hate at him just before his first battle as a mercenary.

[eclipse]

"H-hey, no need to look so dejected! I'm not upset with you!" Raelyn said hastily. "Those water spells are powerful, but they're not well-suited for sneaky operations. Especially when it's a floor that betrays you. Still, things were pretty tense down there when I left, and I'm not sure how well they'd take to it if water started dripping."

[Bluedoom]

Rimsky stared at Alfonso with a raised eyebrow, quite taken aback that he hadn't observed the thrall from earlier. Then Ernce interrupted and insulted Rimsky, to which he replied, "Sorry 'bout that but it ain't like I know nothin' 'bout the demonic war in which Titan fought those many years ago. Still surprised this man over here didn't even notice the creepy thing this girl just talked 'bout. And yeh say that thing's female? Doesn't speak? ...DAMN"

.Then Andre showed up, asking for the dwelf to come inside and be interrogated. Apparently someone needed to guard Elysia, so Rimsky decided to volunteer. He didn't have any better work as of yet. "I'll guard her boss, you bet." he assured him.

[Parrhesia]

"Caleigh," Malachi muttered, hand twitching. "Don't goin' to... heh... 's all fine... if your man tries it on wi' you I'll..."

Suddenly he jolted awake, and glanced around. Immediately he regretted this, groaning and clutching his shoulder... to his surprise, though, he was significantly less bleeding to death than he had been previously. Still hurt like hell, though.

[Toogee]

"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."

As Chandra nodded to Hale as she left (right before the questioning session), the shaman ran into Zeff. He seemed eager to help get food out, and Chandra wasn't one to refuse the help.

"Sure, I could use an extra hand. I just hope the kitchen didn't get destroyed in the battle."

Chandra was relieved to find the kitchen just as she left it. It would have been difficult preparing meals with blood spatter on the walls. Seeing that they had a lot of people to feed in a short amount of time, the shaman immediately went to leftovers.

"I think I still have enough stock to make a stew. Zeff, if you wouldn't mind, could you grab whatever vegetables look good and start chopping?" Meanwhile, Chandra went into the cold storage area (the benefits of ice magic) and grabbed a pot of the beef stock. She placed the pot into the fireplace and used a spark of her magic to start a fire. The shaman then went to grab a slab of beef before joining Zeff in the chopping duties.

"Will Aina be alright alone?" she asked as she looked around for another knife.

Edited October 6, 2013 by Toogee

[Nanami Touko]

"I see... I think I'll stay up here for now, then. Don't want to get mixed up in any of that." Laying back down, she listened to Raelyn's question, thinking about it herself. "Prrrrobably by deflecting the blow. Knocking it to the side a bit, if not entirely. Y'know, like a strong gust of wind. Would probably work best against arrows and the like, but I dunno how well it would work against other magics. Especially fire. Wouldn't want to get trapped in my own little fire vortex." She sighed. "I'll just have to be creative. Also yeah, if we're done with the practice you can probably remove that puddle, Caslan, especially if it's going all the way downstairs." Part of her mind wondered if Raelyn would stay long, but she shooed away the thought. She was enjoying this conversation!

[Ether]

"Aight, have fun." Aina replied as Zeff said his peace, leaving the blind woman without a guide or a clue in the world as to what was happening, aside from some shouting. Feeling this bloody helpless sucked.

***

As if on cue, Elysia began to stir just as the dwelf was being taken away. Still groggy, her first actions comprised of some low muttering and rubbing the sore spot on the back of her neck.

"Urgh... the hell happened?"

[eclipse]

"Wind might work well against broad weapons such as axes," Raelyn mused to herself, "but would it work against something skinny like a lance?" She tried to imagine what a localized system of high winds would look like. She'd heard patrons complain about sandstorms--wait. "Hey, do you think you could pick up some small things with your wind barrier. . .like, say, gravel?" Another idea formed in her head. "And could Caslan freeze his barrier once someone tries to strike him?"

Drunk wizards have the best ideas.

[Nanami Touko]

"Those could work, yeah. Of course, if I can just get the wind blowing fast enough, I could hold off whatever weapon tries to pass through~" she said with a small laugh. "But I doubt I'll be that good for a long, long time. For now, that idea's pretty keen, and could work well. Thanks, Raelyn." She sat herself up on the bed as to better see who she was talking to, hearing some yells from downstairs. "You can sit down if you'd like. I doubt you want to go back downstairs for all of that, either. You too, Caslan, sit. That offer to chat's still there; I don't mind talking to two people."

Edited October 6, 2013 by I have opinions

[Snike]

"You hit your head," Andre lied, omitting the fact that it has his hilt the elf's head hit, before he turned around and began to return to the inn. "Let's be off then, Alfonso and Ernce."

The dwelf, newly terrified now that the ice mage had woken up, got up and followed Harrop somewhat eagerly.

[Ether]

"Izzat right...?" Elysia mumbled, still having not shaken her grogginess.

[Oersted]

Ernce was relieved that Andre had chosen to lie rather then tell the truth and was glad to finally be able to head inside. Or he would be if he had his equipment, which unfortunately he hadn't been able to collect and would rather not leave it outside or unattended longer than necessary. "Excuse me sir," Ernce said. "As much as I'd like to head inside my weapon and shield are still out on the battlefield somewhere. I'd like to retrieve them before heading in."

[Vestige]

"I'm sure she'll be fine. Honestly, I think she'd be more bothered by my constant babying, so it might be better if I let her do her thing. Worst comes to worse, she'll just holler for someone to come by and I'll go over" he shrugged.

He rummaged around the kitchen and found a knife and any vegetables that looked decent enough. Of them, the carrots were his favorite. Easiest to peel, and easiest to chop. Removing his glove and swords, he placed them neatly in a corner where they would lie without getting in the way of the two moving around.

After washing his hands, he began to systematically peel and then chop the vegetables.

He wasn't sure what to say to the older woman, so he remained quiet as he chopped away.

Edited October 6, 2013 by Vestige

[Parrhesia]

Malachi took his skinning knife - didn't pay to be reckless - and staggered inside.

[Shin]

Being left to wander again, Aeson managed to find his way back to the group. Entering the kitchen, the priest was very surprised to see Zeff peeling vegetables. He looked over the soldier's shoulder, observing his cutting.

"If you make the pieces too big, they won't cook all the way through." Aeson laughed. "A chewy potato can put a damper on anyone's day, here, let me show you."