FFCVIII: Chapter 1: Warrior Chosen by the Crystal's Light.

[Nanami Touko]

Well... She doesn't seem pleased. The tone on their healer wasn't the best, but Severine didn't question it. Maybe she'd had a long day, or something. She let Thyme finish, and then didn't put up any resistance as she was guided along to the room. She really just wanted her arm back.

[SheWhoisWoe]

Elyne mostly ignored the mage-girl's babble about a mission. Hellish mission?...Hellion? Hellite?...Whatever. Probably not her problem. So she just helped the stone-armed one to the room, being far more gentle with her than her tone of voice would have suggested

[Ether]

L'Veyi stayed mostly silent during the various exchanges, chuckling a little bit at Severine's woes as they happened, eventually following the others along to the inn, and meeting a few... colourful characters. The Miqo'te let out a low sigh as Thyme kept spouting potentially damaging information... both she and Edward had been at the bounty board not too long ago, and could have easily passed as returning the bandercoeurl bounty, having gotten some help along the way...

But oh well. What was done was done, and all L'Veyi could hope for was that the naive mage's open stance would not bite them down the line. There was no point in avoiding her request to go up to the room now, it would seem more suspicious than anything. Allowing a slight smirk to cross her face as one of the new faces, another Miqo'te, actually, got hold of Severine's arm and began to help her up the stairs.

[Nanami Touko]

All it took was a few moments to get Severine to their room, sitting herself down on the bed and sighing, letting the rock rest against the fabric and stop weighing down on her so much. "What's your name, miss?" she asked their healer, trying to stay smiling. At least L'Veyi was there, so she wasn't surrounded by a stranger and one with a rather open mouth. Until her arm was fixed, there wasn't much she could quickly do to quiet Thyme if she started rattling off her story, once again.

[SheWhoisWoe]

"Elyne, Ma'am, yours?" Ma'am was correct for someone who was an elf, and thus almost certainly her elder by a large factor, yes? Probably. Elyne shrugged at her own thought process, taking her pack and setting it on the floor, opening a side pocket and rummaging a little, retrieving a small bottle. Quickly uncapping it, she withdrew a golden needle, and quickly pricked the elf's stoney arm with it, applying the curative fixing enchantment and finally removing the petrifaction.

[Nanami Touko]

"Severine... Don't worry about calling me ma'am. I might have been around for a while, but I'm definitely not that far gone." She chuckled a bit, watching her arm get fixed, and sighing with a smile. Her arm was still numb, but she could move it again, finally. "Thank you... Bandercoeurls are not a nice bunch. I'll be more careful next time."

[SheWhoisWoe]

Elyne's expression instantly softened with Severine's humility. Well, that was a nice surprise! "Mm'kay, Severine" she said softly, testing the name "No, they're not, you're quite lucky, really." She said, humming as she re-packed her pack, and stood up. No point to hang around, really, whatever that other mage was wanting to babble about surely couldn't have been too important, right?

[Snowy_One]

"Wait!" said Thyme, her hand reaching out to Elyne to try and get her attention without actually touching her. "Please stay. We need some help, bad, and having someone with medical abilities will be very useful to ensuring we don't die. I... I don't know what I can offer you but I'm willing to try and see if there is something I can do to help repay you and have someone with medical supplies help us."

[AnonymousSpeed]

"You're not excused, but for good reason. Why don't we head on up to the room for my friend. It's a high-priority mission and I'm ONLY allowed to tell... ummm... tell people with distinct abilities about it. Sure, you may be ragtag and strangers, but... well... it's something very important."

"Hoh! How dramatic sounding!" Yohanna chuckled, immediately more enticed. Importance, adventure, it was all very important and adventurous, just the type of thing she was so fond of. "Very well then! To the upper chamber we shall go!" Following the group upstairs, the dwarf did not involve herself in the conversation of miqo'te and elf. Such was simply not her conversation.

[SheWhoisWoe]

Elyne paused, turning her head to look at Thyme, green eyes narrowed, tail flicking angrily, and her voice cold as ice. "Mage of Hellis. I have complied with your request and fixed your friend's arm. I've little patience for a group that would demand I come in from where I was treating other people, instead of coming to me, all because they lack the ability to use magic. Your little mission from your nation of bigots and idiots is of no concern to me. Leave me be, and I shall leave you be." She practically growled. Talkative, loudmouthed, self-important....! Bah....

[Nanami Touko]

Whoa. That was a temper. "W-Wait! I... I agree that it would be useful to have someone of your ability along with us, but... We didn't call you here. The guards did. I'm sorry that you were taken away from other duties for me, but... Well, if I had known you were busy, I would've waited. And we're not on a mission from Hellis... We're... Well, we're running from Hellis, actually. I can't go until detail unless you're willing to come with us, but... While we are from Hellis, we are of it no longer, and want nothing to do with it." Hopefully that was enough to help cover themselves up. Or at least get the girl to listen, to Thyme could give her whatever talk she wanted to give.

[SheWhoisWoe]

Elyne blinked, and then blushed. Oops, she uh...Ooooopsies. She coughed, looking distinctly embarrassed "oh, uh, you're not, and you didn't...Sorry, for uh, snapping and such" She apologized "I'll listen, I guess" She said, sighing, and moving to sit on the floor by the wall, and closing her eyes. Well didn't she feel stupid, just assuming... Still had a long way to go with controlling her temper.

Edited March 22, 2016 by SheWhoisWoe

[Snowy_One]

(OOC: Sorry about this, but I'm going to say that everyone is in the room to keep things going.)

"Well, since Severine just said that we're running, I may as well show the whole truth." she said as she slowly undid the wrapping for the shard. After all, they knew they were running now and, in the worst case, once outside she became a valuable target and whoever caught her would get the shard as well keeping it out of Hellis and, hopefully, still bringing down the hammer of justice on her nation or at least bringing to light what was going on.

"I was a fifth class mage back in Hellis and about to become a fourth. I know that means nothing to you but, in terms that are no longer 'archaic' I suppose, I was almost about ready to become minor nobility. While I was up there and getting ready for the transition in status I stumbled upon something important by sheer accident. We've always assumed magic was just something that was. No mage was ever in short supply and it seemed something almost as free as the air or water. Food was a greater concern than if we would ever struggle to cast magic. I found out why. All these years, likely since Hellis was founded and possibly even before, we have been siphoning magic from... this."

She pulled back the cloth to reveal the shard of crystal, glimmering softly with its red light that seemed to flow and pulse softly.

"The fire crystal of legend! Yet even the crystal's might was not enough and it seems the mages even started to take power from the land itself. Such a thing is horrible and unacceptable! So I stole a piece of it to show to the worlds outside, worlds that should exist if everything they said is a lie, and ran away. Severine was after me until the guard turned on her as well. Elves in Hellis may not be safe but, since rank in Hellis is supposed to be determined by capability, hopefully the council will at least protect the higher-ranked ones."

[charlie_]

Carol took a seat on the edge of one of the beds as she listened to the tale. It was interesting to hear how ignorant Hellis' citizens were to the rest of the world. She knew they just sat up in their stupid floating city for the most part, but the fact that they didn't even seem to know the rest of the world still existed was pretty nuts. Kind of like storyteller herself, for blabbing about this to a stranger. She didn't even know Carol's name.

If the white mage hadn't seen the shard for herself, she probably would've just laughed it off and figured that Thyme was making it up. "How'd you manage to steal it?" she asked, curious. "Crystals are incredibly dangerous to touch, its a miracle you aren't hurt. Or worse." The burglar probably should've been dead twenty times over by now, even discounting the fact that she seemed to be telling anyone who would listen.

[Snowy_One]

"Well, when I saw what it was, I reached out to touch it to see if it was what I thought it was. Call me stupid and, in hindsight, it was. I wasn't even sure that what I was seeing was even there though or of even what it could do beyond the old stories. So, I touched it and it felt... warm. Like if a fire came alight inside me. Then I heard this loud voice in my head saying I had been chosen by the light of the crystal and Ifrit. This small ball of light then floated down, circling around the stone, until it came to rest in my hands with this shard inside of it and it gave it to me.

I didn't find out it was dangerous to touch until I was on the run and one of the guards chasing Severine and me tried to pick it up and this giant flash of light filled the area along with a nice, big, voice."

[SheWhoisWoe]

Elyne opened one eye to regard the loudmouthed mage. That..."Huh. You can hold that thing without dying? Really?" Her full attention was on Thyme now "That...Wow, really? There're prophecies about this kinda thing." She said, blinking "How'd it go...'When the Crystals choose a bearer each, Light from the depths will reach, scorching the Leeches from their seat, high above the World's teeth.' Or...Something. Vague, translated from an ancient language, applicable." She shrugged at that, still staring at Thyme. An actual chosen one! Did she have any other properties that set her apart from a non-chosen one?...Would she submit to an inspection? This could be very, very interesting..."An actual chosen one, wow." she said finally.

[Snowy_One]

"There is a prophecy about this? That... is good news. If one really does exist then it means that good things will likely happen. After all, if it doesn't come true it's not a prophecy." said Thyme with a smile. "One of the guards tried to grab it earlier and a big flash of light came out and a nice, booming, voice told him he couldn't touch it. It feels just fine to me though. Like a warm piece of fire magicite. I'd wager it functions like one as well to at least some degree. Still... I guess I would be an actual chosen one then. But, how many chosen are there?"

[Ether]

L'Veyi had already heard the gist of this previously. so she mostly sat back and watched this time around. There seemed to be some interest at least, which was always helpful. And Severine's arm had been fixed up, and was back to flesh and bone. So far, so good.

[AnonymousSpeed]

Yohanna was fascinated. Provided, she was easily fascinated, but a chunk of the Fire Crystal, a chance to get a good, long look at it...it was beautiful. Even having had many years to see and study the Earth Crystal within her native caves, she still found something spellbinding about the opportunity to see even part of another one. Even her normal Hellion hatred took a back seat to wonder. "Not all prophecies are of good things," she absently remarked, still staring into the shard's warm glow. It was then she snapped out of her trance and straightened her goggles before speaking in a bolder tone more fitting of her. "Though I am privy to the one the feline speaks of, and it does indeed foretell of such!"

A bright light, of course, that flash must have been that event! the dwarf thought, a growing feeling of contentment forming as the pieces of her little puzzle began to fit together. "I have a hypothesis!" Yohanna blurted at Thyme's question. "As the rhyme states that each crystal shall choose a bearer, and there are four crystals in the land, it stands to reason that there are most likely four chosen individuals!" After beaming in her minor display of intelligence, though, the dwarf's tone grew a bit more serious, though no less over the top. "Hark now. While it might resemble common magicite, we must not forget what it truly is. It would be quite impetuous to assume it is safe to use in the same manner."

[Snowy_One]

Thyme was about to say something before, suddenly, her eyes went wide and she looked down at the shard as if it had suddenly caught on fire. "You're right! I mean, it's not magicite. I wasn't thinking about it before on account of fleeing but I have no clue at all how this is going to affect me. Affect us. I mean, what if it slowly turns me into crystal, or gives me weird abilities? Even if it's normal, can I even switch to another magicite if this thing is bound to me? Oh my... That is a really big concern."

[SheWhoisWoe]

"A chosen for each crystal...Maybe more, I mean, who says they can only pick one each? We don't know." Elyne shrugged, eyeing the shiny warm crystal. She wasn't terribly concerned about the crystal-as-magicite thing. "I doubt it'll be much of an issue, why would the crystals be harmful to their bearers? That'd be kinda counterproductive, really. Unless it's some sort of...too much power for mortal bodies to contain kinda situation" She looked thoughtful for a moment, hand at her chin, tail flicking back and forth against the wall. "Really, all we can do, I think, is watch it, and you, and see what happens."

[Nanami Touko]

Severine did have one question for the crystal situation, since no one else had brought it up. "Do you think we should all try touching your crystal, to see if we're chosen, or whatever?" This whole thing felt farfetched, as much as she couldn't ignore some of the signs. The bursting white light, the voice, that whole situation. It was all crazy, but she'd been there, so above everyone else, she had the most reason to believe it. "Just... If we do touch it, and it starts getting all bursty white light again, we might want to be ready to shield our eyes."

[charlie_]

Carol let out a nervous laugh. "If what you're saying is true, this is pretty bad." Her posture straightened up, sitting more closely at attention. "The world depends on the crystals. If we take care of them, they take care of us. But if we don't, then, I don't even know. Some calamity? A plague?" She had no clue.

"By the sound of things, the people of Hellis are surviving in their little floating bubble by siphoning power from the crystal." She glanced at Thyme and Severine - as far as she knew, they were the only Hellions here. "Considering you didn't even know about the crystal, it sounds like there wasn't much thought given to taking care of it up there. They're just taking," she continued. "Without giving back. Yeah this is... definitely pretty bad."

Well, she'd found her source of excitement, but she would've preferred it without the threat of a prophecy dangling over them. "And you just got your arm back sweetie." She turned back to the elf. "You wouldn't want to lose it again, would you?"

[Nanami Touko]

Severine frowned at the condescending tone. "It just gets bright if you touch it and you're not." She didn't have to grace that with any further of an answer.

[Enaluxeme]

After witnessing Severine breaking free from the guards, Edward had remained aloof since they reached the inn.

At first he stood silent because he was thinking about what happened: maybe he should have helped her, instead of letting the guards take her in the first place. Yeah, that would have certainly been better to Severine's eyes. However, unlike the elf, he wasn't an high rank citizien of hellis, and while the guards didn't react to the red mage almost freezing their feets, they may have reacted to him shoving them away.

He interrupted his silence to greet the Miqo'te healer. It's totally possible that she didn't even notice, since he basically just nodded and mumbled something.

Everyone went in the room together with Severine and Elyne, so he tagged along. He didn't really enter the room though, preferring to stay in the doorway, with his ears at the ongoing conversation and his eyes at the hallway.

As he thought, there was something strange about Thyme, apart for being a fugitive from Hellis. Reflecting about it, both he and the others decided to help her after having known her for two minutes at best, even though turning her on would have been very profitable. Maybe it was the will of the crystals?

Edward was thrilled. Maybe he himself was a choosen one? Even if he wasn't, he knew that helping Thyme saving the crystals was the right thing to do, and a quest for the greater good was better than wandering the land with no purpose.