Altera Arcana IC

Sleep was not a luxury Corvus could afford tonight, the ride they'd been generously offered wasn't nearly as comfortable as his stay at the temple, or even the makeshift beds he'd make himself on his treks. Even then, sleep wasn't a nighttime companion of his for many a night outside in the untamed parts of the land. Troubled by discomfort, bugs and the looming threat of predators could keep one awake for days on end. Luckily for him, Corvus had a trick up his sleeve for just those occasions. Sleep was naught more than rest for the mind and the mind happened to be his specialty. After sitting down in the wagon and crossing his legs, the doctor would start meditating, relaxing his mind until his consciousness drifted away. He'd return later, feeling refreshed and revitalised.

It was just a few days ago when Corvus left Iblea in search of the priestess. While he hadn't expected to be back here so soon, he didn't mind as it was always a good opportunity to visit the library or the academy. There are always students willing to share some insight in spells or ideas and the books are plentiful on all kinds of information. Why Darius had a laboratory in Atvance and not here, Corvus didn't know. If there was information to be found or research to be done, one would think Iblea. Not Darius, apparently.
"If he is as dangerous as you say he is, then I'll have to continue with you. I'm a doctor and if we are to do battle again, we might not come out unharmed as we did before, Darius." Corvus said, looking over at Darius, then Calder. "I also noticed some of you had trouble sleeping. High stress situations over a long period of time will wreak havoc on body and mind. I say we go to the library. I have some spells that need refinement and we might discover something about whatever it was you saw Ace consume." Corvus spoke his mind. Whatever else the others would do didn't concern him at this time. He needed to practice healing and calming spells to keep this party alive throughout the whole endeavour, though what kind of damage they'd see he couldn't know. Not when Ace had magic noone knew of. It was his duty to care for everyone and a lack of knowledge wouldn't do.
 
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As the group approached the city of Iblea, Alicia quietly bit the inside of her cheeks. They had arrived ahead of schedule. Normally this would be a good thing, but odds were that they arrived and might even leave again before the letters she was expecting would arrive. I should've told them to send the letters further ahead of me, the avian thought to herself. Too late to do anything about that now, though. At best, she could send out another letter that told her contacts to send their responses to the next town over instead, but even that would only be a temporary fix at best. No, what she really needed was a way to make sure that no matter where she ended up being, she would still have access to her letters. ...Maybe she could find a relevant magical item somewhere? Honestly, Alicia doubted that she would find anything like that here though, not to mention that it would create another link leading towards herself, but this was still a problem she had to fix eventually.

In response to Darius, Alicia nodded. "I dare not say I know what we are facing, other than it is a force of darkness beyond my recognition," she spoke in agreement. She had no knowledge of the stench he mentioned,nor the strange orange substance, but even she had felt something was off that night. "It would be foolishness to underestimate it, no, beyond foolishness to do so if the Gods themselves are worried about it. "

Listening to Shireen's words, she couldn't help but softly shake her head. Turning to the girl, she spoke up. "I do not know if Ace is evil or merely an innocent man tangled up in all of this, but does it matter though? Maybe Ace is evil himself, maybe he's possessed, maybe he struck a deal with some kind of demon, or maybe Ace is merely a human front for the real source of evil. In all scenarios, he is an enemy we cannot hope to defeat in direct combat, and I doubt that a simple purification ritual will get rid of the evil force. If it was that simple, the Gods would have no need for us."
Turning to the group in general, she continued. "It might be unnecessary to state this, but I must urge you all to not engage Ace or his cohorts, in battle or otherwise, until we are all ready for it. Try your best to avoid conflict at any material cost. Running away from a hopeless battle is not cowardice, it is sanity."

Finally, she turned to Corvus. "The library sounds good; we might learn some vital information there. Does anyone have any objections?"
 
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The proclamation generated a few responses from the party, which Darius almost missed as his thoughts were almost lost in all the sensory input he was receiving. Things could be much worse, if he hadn't taken such precautions. His face scrunched a bit as he tried switching his focus from the prickling feeling his body was experiencing and instead back on the party, and the city before him, seeing Calder pulling ahead of everyone else. The fellow didn't seem particularly friendly, although Darius did realize there were quite a few of the party that hadn't slept well, Corvus helpfully pointed out. So perhaps that had something to do with it, but Darius couldn't say. After all, they were all strangers to one another.

Sifting through the conversation he managed to focus on, it made him feel a little better to know that his recounting of the event hadn't fallen on deaf ears. That at least they would proceed with caution and gather intelligence, maybe. "Clues? Maybe. I do have some friends at the academy. They might be able to help with research, and maybe your spells, Corvus. I delved deeply into spellcraft myself while I was there." Alicia's words had given Darius some more to think about, physical force wasn't going to work.

He thought back to the Avian that had gotten his feathers stuck together. That one seemed particularly aggressive, he'd have to be ready for that if things came down to a confrontation again. "Maybe I can convince some of the budding artificers to craft some artifacts for protection as well. Hmm...dunno how much time we'll have." His thoughts began to race as he began to process possible possibilities. What brought him back though, was the smell. The smell of a bigger city was more prominent, especially to his nostrils. Darius jerked up the scarf like garment to cover his nose and mouth. It was only going to help so much.

Noticing Calder veering toward the travelers nearing, reminded Darius of the other traveling individual that had also been heading toward Iblea with them. Turning to regard her, Darius wasn't sure how she would receive the information they had been speaking of. There was no mistaking she would have heard it.
 
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"Possessed..." Tawny murmured, thinking about what Shireen had said. It was certainly an interesting thought: Ace just being some innocent pawn in the hands of their true enemy... but... "But if he is just possessed, then, who's possessing him?" she asked. "Or what..."

"It doesn't matter what he is." Clay butted in. "Like Alicia said, our job for now is to stay safe until we have a better idea what we're up against, and a real plan for how to defeat him." he continued. "I agree, the library sounds like a good place to start."
 
Zaul nodded and smiled to the group, about to wish them well until he heard that last line. 'The throne awaits.' The words left him bewildered yet the Terran couldn't begin to fathom why. Blinking, he shook his head and turned away, only to be spoken to by the child like Avian. With a scream he jumped back, tripping over the stick he was holding and landing hard. "By the gods, you shouldn't sneak up on someone." Now normally it wasn't easy to scare Zaul, but the meeting with Ace unknowingly set him on edge. "Uh, no. I haven't," he mumbled, staring up at the boy. "M-may I ask why?"

Sateria remained quiet when with the group, listening intently to what they were saying. It seemed that whoever this ace character was, he was bad news. In any case, it could mean a reward. It could also mean death. Oh well, if there was a fight to be had, there was no way she was going to miss it.
 
Zito relaxed when Walter did and stood fluidly, putting her bow on her back. she welcomed the idea of food, and helped to forage and hunt herself as it was, technically speaking, her job. Zito listened closely to the questions and answers many other members of the party were giving but felt little motivation to ask any of her own. though she was quite curious about Dust, she felt like it might be rude of her to ask so she didn't. She welcomed the Pyran that decided to join them on the road, though she still wasn't happy with just how big their group was. it was absolutely useless for any amount of stealth, though the members of this party certainly didn't help on that front either.

she didn't feel like she needed the wagon ride, as she had gone long distances just walking before but as it was offered so took it. When night fell, she slept a little off from the group. She didn't have an issue with sleeping around many others, she had a large family after all, but she didn't know this people well enough to feel comfortable sleeping so close to them. she slipped into sleep and woke at dawn, as she usually did, and was prepared to leave when the others had risen.

She listened closely to Darius as they moved towards Iblea the next day. "I will be honest, I myself am still unconvinced but you certainly seem to be" she hummed softly "I have seen no real evidence of this but I don't trust Ace, there is something off about him" she thought back to her strange dream and shook her head "I'm dedicated now, for sure"
She also considered Shireen's possession comment but Alicia spoke first and Zito couldn't help but agree, and nodded along "I believe we should avoid any manner of confrontation with him until we know what we are up against, One cannot hope to fight an enemy they nothing about and we know less then nothing about Ace, we should stick together as much as possible"

Zito considered the library suggestion herself. it might be a good idea. She could use some help with spellcraft, perhaps she could refine what little spells she knew, or learn a bit about healing magic as it was something she had sadly neglected throughout her life. And a library would be one of the best places to find out about the potential magical explanations for Ace and why the Gods were so afraid of him. She might even be able to look up something about visions, see if perhaps hers had had any real weight to it. it simply refused to leave her mind after all. "I too think the library would be a good place to start" Zito said "I personally might want to see if I can read up on healing magic, I've very rarely used it and it very well might come in handy on this quest of ours"

She was quite interested to see yet another group of people, that were likely heading to Iblea, on the side of the road. she was not surprised, a little exasperated but not surprised, to see a couple members of the party veer towards these strangers.
 
Possession was an interesting theory and a preferred alternative of having to dispose of Ace altogether; possession meant Ace could be saved. If the party could capture and restrain him, Corvus could probably peer into his mind to try and find whatever's wrong with him. But if he's possessed then whatever that greater evil is could try and possess anyone else. Perhaps it wasn't as easy as simply overpowering Ace and his henchmen.
But was he? Corvus hadn't ever seen the man in question before, so he had no way of knowing. The only one who'd fit such a description at this point was Darius. The man seemed troubled by every little thing. Exactly how long had he gone without sleep? He was a researcher with a knack for explosions, apparently, so Corvus figured it was a lack of sleep, or was it something else after all? They'd need to have a talk in private soon.

Corvus approached Darius and put a hand on his shoulder. "I can make a few artifacts, too. I may not have officially been recognised as a student of magic anywhere, but after nine years on the road I suppose you could call me a journeyman in my field. Speaking of which, I think I'd like to have a chat with you in private, if that's alright with you." Corvus removed his hand once he told Darius this.

Immediately afterwards his eyes lit up as he moved over to Zito. "So you know healing magic, too? Oh, I can help you with that, I'll be a practice dummy!" He told her, maybe a little too giddy for a man his size. Without giving Zito any time to answer he'd partially unsheathed his sword and cut the palm of his hand on the blade. "Just like this." The hand he held out had already begun to bleed, but he held it up high so she could clearly see the cut he made, blood slowly flowing down his arm. Corvus took hold of his injured hand with the other, then with one smooth stroke of his thumb over the cut it was gone, like it had been nothing more than a stain. Only the streak of blood remained as proof that he was injured at all. "Ah, I've always found healing oneself harder than healing others. This is fantastic. I'll look forward to your progress."
Corvus retrieved a small handkerchief from his pocket to wipe away the blood, then removed his black corvenus mask and switched it for his white one.
 
Peeling his attention away from the city , Darius looked over at Corvus as he changed masks. The fellow seemed alright, concerned and helpful. "Yes that should be fine, just as soon as we find a place to rest. It seems that..." Blast! He forgot his name, smells of heat and metal. "Ah...Calder! Yes, seems to have made some friends...one of them is an herbalist?" Darius seemed he was trying to manuever his head in a way similar to a raven that has spied a shiny.
 
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