World Walk

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Skye pressed her advantage, casting several wind spells in rapid succession, repeatedly smashing her opponent into the wall. He crumpled. She rushed toward him to finish him off, to hear a hushed chanting as he reached his body. Realizing too late, she collapsed with a scream as searing pain like nothing she'd ever felt wracked her body. It began around her chest and spread, feeling like she was being stabbed with a thousand razor sharp needles all at once. It steadily grew worse. Beginning to sob, she curled up into the fetal position, now oblivious of the battle around her. Her sword clattered out of her hand. Her opponent unsteadily rose, shaking and favoring a leg. He picked up his weapon again.

The spear-user twirled it through the air as he cast another spell, cloaking him in an aura of flame that made close combat extremely risky. He lunged for Taras, bringing his spear down for another attack.

Laurelle and Demi found a cozy hideout nestled into the rock at the end of the tunnel. It contained several side rooms of storage, filled with Alixien Talents, mostly silver, but some gold too. At least a couple hundred silver and a few dozen gold. In the main room, there was general living amenities, a bed, a wardrobe, etcetera. Laurelle's focus however, was the desk. It had various stacks of papers scattered around on it. She sifted through them until she found the correct folder. She held it up triumphantly. "I think it's time to leave." She warped back to the office in the material plane.
 
Taras hissed a curse through gritted teeth as Skye began to suffer from what seemed like a fairly high-level pain spell. This needed to end, quickly. He brought his sword upward to meet the spear and ran into the spearman with an armored shoulder as he muttered a water spell. After an explosion of moisture appeared to blast the spearman back temporarily in a hiss of steam, Taras kneed him back and brought down his sword. The guard tried to block with his spear, but the shaft broke helplessly under the podao's weight. He ended up striking the man in the collar, knocking him down. Feeling more tired but determined not to miss a beat, Taras began a long, repetitive incantation as he dashed towards the guard who had inflicted the pain spell on Skye. Defeat the sorcerer and his sorcery dies as well, he recalled as he made a dramatic slash— but it was only a feint. The real damage was dealt when he yelled the last syllable of his incantation, and a multitude of sharpened blades of ice appeared behind him, steaming in their coldness, and ran the guard through mercilessly.

"Skye!" Demi ignored Taras for the time being as she rushed to help the keeled-over Skye after warping back to the material plane. "You okay?" She clearly wasn't, so Demi murmured the incantation for a water spell that worked to soothe whomever it was cast on of pain spells... although the spell that Skye had endured seemed especially painful. Taras, aware of what Demi was doing, momentarily patrolled the room to make sure it was free of any hostiles still standing (it seemed that way).
 
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Skye slowly came back to her senses, her mind taking a moment to process the fact that she was no longer in pain. She gradually stopped crying, her tears mixing with the water running down her face and armor, the result of Demi's spell. She stood up unsteadily, picking her sword up again and finding solace in the solid, heavy feel of the blade in her hands. Realizing that Demi was worriedly hovering over her, Skye turned to her and shakily said. "Y-yeah... I think so, now." She forced a smile. "I think it's time to make do on that promise."

Laurelle thumbed through the papers, glancing over the contents. She was no scholar, but she could tell it was pretty advanced stuff. What benefit it would have, she didn't know, but there was some pretty complicated magical theory in there. Closing the folder, she turned to Taras. "So. What's your story? You're a Knight, right? Or you used to be. I don't see how a Knight would end up a mercenary if he still had his old job."
 
"Already?" Demi replied with a chuckle, leaning against one of the few intact boxes in the room. The soothing spell was one she didn't cast often, and she was always surprised by the amount of magical stamina it expended, even for herself. "Sounds good to me, but let's get our payment from Hawke first."

Taras, meanwhile, plopped down on a pile of rice, which was surprisingly sturdy. Probably an "efficient" variety that tastes like wood chips but lasts for ages, he figured, his sword once again resting upon his shoulder. "A knight," he echoed. "I decided several days ago that if a knight is supposed to smile and nod as his commander leaves a fellow knight to die and orders a retreat when the enemy's vulnerable point is wide open... then I'm no knight." He cleared his throat and nodded after a moment. "It's good to see you're still in one piece, Skye. I feared the worst when I found Keyer and his comrades already dead." He looked to Demi. "And Demi, I had guessed you were going to see Magus, but..."

Demi looked at the floor blankly.
 
"Y-yeah, of course..." Skye said. She wasn't exhausted, but she felt drained anyway. She looked at Taras, realization flashing in her mind as he spoke. "...Dead?" She whispered. Realizing he hadn't heard her, she said it again, louder. "...We--I only killed Keyer. We left most of the other guards battered, but alive." If he was telling the truth, someone else had come through there not long after they did. But...who?

Laurelle laughed mirthlessly at Taras' explanation. "Arandish 'knights' aren't much better." She commented. "Chivalry's dead, no matter where you go." Her viewpoint was perhaps a little cynical, but she was a thief. And the fact that she showed more restraint than most "knights" said a lot about the world.
 
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"What?" Taras raised an eyebrow. "They were dead when I got there. Succumbed to their injuries, maybe?"

"You're an awfully fast traveler to just end up here by chance, Taras," Demi said, still detached. She didn't intend on letting him get close to her again.
"Nice to see you again too, Demi," Taras replied. "I presumably can't go back to the knights, not after what I've done. After sniffing around Keyer's little shack and finding an empty cell, I figured the only thing I had left to do was travel to meet Magus as well."

Demi's eyes widened. "You're... going to meet Magus too?" It was a silly thought at first, since Taras was obviously more of a swordsman who happened to use spells than a mage. But it filled Demi with dread.
 
Laurelle shrugged. "It seems like everyone's doing that nowadays." She said. "Even with how little information we were given about what he wants to talk about. That's not very relevant right now, though. We need to go see Hawke." She looked at Taras. "I bet you're going to want to come with us, but that's up to Demi and Skye. They're the ones who have a history with you. Don't think you'll have much luck with them, though." Her thoughts going back to the knight, she looked around the room at the corpses splayed about, blood staining the floor. Such lack of restraint...

Skye didn't answer. She was thinking about what could have happened in Keyer's fortress. Maybe the king had sent another dispatch of knights to clear them out? Maybe someone from this city? But if the killer had been going east from Cygnus, they would have run into them. Could they have passed through during the night? Unlikely. They would have seen the light (who travels at night without one?) and neither her nor Laurelle had seen anything of the sort. She shook her head, her mind returning to the present. She avoided looking at the bodies. Now that the adrenaline rush had worn off, she didn't want to see the blood. Some soldier she was.
 
"I would appreciate if you let me," Taras said after experimentally tasting a few grains of the rice. It was as he predicted it would be: terrible. "I presumably won't be getting any payment after turning my coat, but I'm sick of this city anyway." He refrained from mentioning the original reason why he'd stayed at all: necessity. "Well?" He looked at Demi, awaiting judgment.
"Fine," Demi said, hating the idea but knowing that Taras would be a powerful ally to take along. "But if I go somewhere, you're not going to follow me."
"I get it, I get it," Taras replied. "Don't worry; I'll let you have your space."
Demi doubted that, somehow. "So are we ready?"
 
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Laurelle raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. She had expected her friend to deny the former-knight's request. She refrained from commenting, however.
"Let's get back to Hawke, then." She said. She decided not to mention the fact that he was probably sleeping. She doubted he'd mind being woke up for this, though. He seemed fairly eager at the prospect of getting his research back.

As they left the building, Skye almost died. She was the first to step outside, to have a knife fly from the darkness. If not for her armor, it would have buried itself in her chest. She drew her sword and spoke a shield spell, the familiar oval of light flashing to life around her. Laurelle followed suit, although she was tired and it wasn't a very strong spell. She stepped behind Skye and cast a light spell, illuminating the entire block. All of the pedestrians that had occupied the area were gone; the only other figure was a woman in lavender, standing in the shadow of a doorway. The knife she had just used to attack hovered obediently next to her head. She was surrounded by a healthy flickering pink light, and she looked rather cross. Her hands quickly danced in the motions of another spell, and Laurelle's illumination was snuffed out, casting them into darkness again. Skye threw a blast of wind at their foe's presumed location, but it hit nothing. Their assailant had moved. Cursing, the wind mage cast a wind wall surrounding the group to ward off any other projectiles.
 
Ah, shit. Here I was thinking she had left. After thinking for a moment, Taras cast a spell to summon a freezing rain in a radius around the group. It was a fairly taxing spell, but on the other hand it would be easily detectable if the woman in lavender was in the area— which she would have to step through to get to the group. Meanwhile, Demi prepared a ward, staff flickering.
 
Lavender cursed as she ducked back around the alley, putting a fair amount of distance between herself and the group as she circled around the warehouse to flank them. She hadn't been careful enough; her first strike had hit the knight and served to do nothing but alert the group of her presence. Sticking close to the wall, she turned the corner to see the area blanketted in a sheet of freezing rain; the ground was already being coated with ice. They hadn't seen her in her current position yet, but they would if they moved any farther. She needed a plan. She had the defensive advantage in that she had a heavily reinforced ward up, but they outnumbered her four to one. She couldn't fight them head-on. And the wind wall made her standard projectiles useless. Hit-and-run was her only real chance.

Laurelle began casting a stronger light spell that would permeate the area with a perpetually self renewing illumination that wouldn't be countered by a darkness spell so easily. She knew that their opponent had the advantage as long as they couldn't see her. Even as she finished her spell, she caught sight of a sleek cloud of blackness sailing through the air toward her. She briefly stepped back into the warehouse and out of the way, causing the spell to strike the pavement and fizzle. Negative, or anti-life magic. They were dealing with an experienced mage. Looking around, she caught sight of Lavender dashing behind the cover of another building, deprived of her magical darkness. She raised her hand to cast a spell, but was suddenly blown backwards by an unseen force. She slammed into the wall, sliding to the ground. She vaguely registered a tremendous magical sound, although nothing like Skye's translocation earlier. She struggled to stand up, breathing heavily and seeing double, the wind knocked out of her. She watched in horror as part of the street itself rose up, forming the shape of a twenty foot tall earthen humanoid and leaving a hole just as deep in the ground. An earth elemental. This was getting tricky.

Lavender dashed down the alleyways, away from the group. Her initial plan had failed, but she had had the idea of summoning--it was a lengthy and extremely tiring spell, but it would keep them busy so she could get away. She had to remember she wasn't an assassin anymore. She was a very important person in a very important (and lucrative) organization, and unnecessarily putting herself at risk wasn't on the agenda. Ol' blue will want to hear about this... She thought, not looking forward to the meeting.
 
"We fighting this thing?" Taras asked in disbelief after shaking his head in frustration. Of course they were going to. It would probably be bad to leave it to rampage throughout the city, after all. If this thing's made of earth, then... He murmured another spell for freezing rain, but concentrated on the elemental this time. More accurately, it was very cold rain that would freeze— and expand— after seeping into the earth elemental. Now he just needed to hope that the elemental would crack up in the same way as dried soil as his vision went dark for a moment and he stumbled from using so much magic in such a short time.
Demi didn't bother to cast any lightning magic: unless the earth elemental was made of metal, which it was not, it would probably have no effect. Instead, she ran over to Laurelle as she summoned a shield of wind, which served to blow whatever rain missed the elemental back up into it. She honestly had no idea how to block against the thing as she took Laurelle's arm to help her off the ground, hopefully the elemental got the chance to swing at them.
 
Laurelle accepted Demi's aid, looping her arm around her friend's neck. As her vision slowly cleared, she looked down to make sure there were no obvious injuries. She was disappointed. Her leg was bent at an odd angle. It didn't hurt, but she was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to twist that way. I can set it later. She thought, knowing she had to help fight now. She ran over her reportoire of spells in her mind, looking for something to harm the earth elemental severely. It wouldn't be affected by light, since it didn't see in the traditional sense, and it couldn't feel pain. Like me. Fire, no. Dark, no. Then she realized that Taras' rain was slowly beginning to seep into the elemental and break it up, causing it to crack and pieces to fall off. Just have to stall it. She began casting a fairly lengthy incantation, still leaning on Demi, that would put up a wall of force between them. Hopefully Skye and Taras could hold it off until then.

Skye had no idea what to do. She had never fought a creature like this before. She was fairly certain that her wind spells and her sword would be useless against it. The thing had to be so heavy it wouldn't even budge under a gale. Think, think, think, Skye. She mentally muttered to herself. She dodged out of the way as the elemental brought its earthen fist down on the road where she had been standing, cracking the pavement. She watched the ice crawl up its hand, the rain slowly freezing it. It gave her an idea. "Taras, get its attention!" She shouted.
 
"Sure thing," Taras said before rushing the elemental, swinging his sword into the thing's leg and muttering an incantation. The sword did little but scatter a cloud of dirt from the elemental; a loud crack sounded afterward as something seemed to pound against it, creating a loud magical noise despite his less-than-strong connection to his dimension. It was a force spell of his own, and it noticeably tired Taras as he stumbled onto the elemental's leg, murmuring in an attempt to invoke a ward against physical damage as he hoped that Skye had had the finishing blow in mind. They weren't exactly great friends, but they were knights from the same platoon and knights trusted each other. He pushed the question of whether or not they were still knights out of his mind.
Demi wasn't faring much better: the wind barrier had been a risky move as she and Laurelle barely supported each other by leaning against one another and she hoped that their combined efforts would be enough to defend themselves.
 
The elemental turned to Taras, swinging its massive earthen arm toward him. While it wasn't paying attention to her, Skye sheathed her sword and ran to its side, moving to flank it. Taking a deep breath, she jumped and cast a wind spell in mid air, tossing her upwards in an arc to land in a heap on the flat top of the elemental. It didn't notice her at first (or at least didn't take action) and focused on Taras. Feeling tired but toughing it out, Skye spoke a charm that Laurelle used often: A strength enhancer. Her gauntleted hand became encased in a shimmering white field of power. Pulling her fist back, she struck the elemental's "head" with all her might, her unbreakable Focus unyielding and absorbing the recoil. Her empowered hand smashed apart the smooth, flat outer surface of rock. Beneath, it was partially soil and thinner, cracked rock. The perfect environment for Taras' rain to seep into. Ignoring the ice forming on her armor and bare face, she struck again and again, methodically shearing off its protective top. It finally took notice of her, stamping its foot and attempting to shake her off. There was little to hold onto, but Skye did her best with her left hand as she continued striking with her right. Having hit the weaker stone beneath, her attacks had become a serious threat to the elemental. It suddenly raised an arm and smoothly bashed her off its head, causing her to sail through the air and smash into the side of the building, slumping to the ground. Her ward took the brunt of the impact but shattered completely when she hit the building. She slid over, falling roughly onto her side, unconscious. The rain continued to freeze over her.
 
Taras felt the wind knocked out of him as the elemental's arm ran into his chest. His magical barrier took a large amount of the damage before breaking, but he still felt himself lifted off the ground before sliding to a stop after several meters. He made an incantation to superfreeze whatever water had seeped into the elemental already.
"Finish it off..." Taras finished the incantation before his body failed him. For all his might and tact, he had used too much magic at the same time, and the sight of Demi and Laurelle became dim.
 
The earth elemental began to fall apart, chunks of stone cracking and breaking off, falling to the ground. Ignoring its rapid destruction, advancing toward Taras with surprising speed. Its legs came apart as it walked, and it ultimately fell and smashed into the ground in front of the ice mage. Bending its makeshift head, it raised a stone fist to crush him. Before it could, the water that had seeped into its arm flash-froze and expanded, instantly shattering the appendage. Bits of rock and soil rained on the knight, but nothing that could seriously injure him. The rest of the elemental followed suit, collapsing into a stunted mass of ice and rock before breaking apart completely, dead.

Laurelle stopped her chanting as she witnessed the beast fall. Moving on as fast as she could, supported by Demi as she was, she made her way to wear Skye lay under a layer of ice that had coated her after she fell. She knelt, still keeping one arm on the lightning mage for steadiness, and cast a cantrip that warmed her palm. She ran her hand along the knight, thawing the ice where she touched. It ran off of her in rivulets of water, pooling on the ground. Laurelle checked her friend's pulse and examined her for any obvious broken bones, but found nothing. Satisfied Skye would recover, she moved to Taras, who wasn't as frozen as the other knight had been. Finding him still conscious (barely), she asked. "Are you seriously injured? Broken ribs?" There was no obvious external injury, but it was hard to tell through his armor.

With Taras' concentration broken, the freezing storm around sputtered out, spitting a few last petulant drops to earth before dying completely. It had left the entire block an ice rink, however; a thin layer of ice coated everything exposed to the sky, and the group themselves had fared little better in that regard. The magically-frozen land was beautiful, in a way, the silver light reflecting off the ice and casting gleaming white pillars into the air, like banshees dancing amidst the fog.
 
Taras coughed, not because his breathing was blocked but because he was trying to stop himself from slipping out of consciousness. "Maybe," he muttered unhelpfully, a hand slowly reeling in his sword, which was still connected to his bracer.
"Still overestimating yourself... Nothing's changed, huh?" Demi asked him with scarcely-masked concern.
"A little too much is... just enough for me." It was such a stereotypical one-liner that Demi would have burst out laughing had Taras not been in the process of blacking out as he said it.

At this point, Demi noticed that Skye had also been knocked unconscious. "Hey, Laurelle... Are you good enough to go see Hawke and— actually, we should warp. Before we all go out and just end up laying here in the street..." Demi fell down herself, slipping on the ice to fall next to Skye as she had been going to check if she was okay.
 
Laurelle nodded. Fashioning a makeshift cane with a force spell, she limped over to Skye, dragging her over to Taras. As soon as Demi joined her, she carried the group to Prismsphere with a thought.

They appeared just outside the Spire, Laurelle's personal abode. The pink grass, waving in the wind, and bright white light that permeated the air was a stark contrast to the dark night of Cygnus and its frozen street. Exhausted by all the spells she had cast recently, the light mage bent the terrain to her will with a thought, using a wave of soil and grass to carry her unconscious friends into the tower. She generated soft cushions beneath them, giving them a decent place to lay until they woke up. She turned to Demi, letting her cane vanish. She to simply lean on her friend for support, but she underestimated her exhaustion. As soon as she took her weight off her good leg, she fell roughly into the lightning mage's arms. Her broken leg bent as she did so, but Laurelle noticed not, insensitive to pain. Almost too tired to think now, she murmured. "Wake me up...in the morning..." and passed out against Demi, now the only conscious member of the group.
 
What do I do now?!

Demi collapsed herself as she held Laurelle in her arms, the light mage's leg clearly bent at an angle that legs were not meant to bend to. "If I remember right, this place..." Demi's thoughts were confirmed as they sounded themselves out for her, the self-consciousness to mute them not being there. "Please... heal... leg..." she thought uselessly. The thought was probably too vague to have any effect, and she also wasn't sure if it would have an effect upon another person rather than the dimension.

"Morning?... But... how do I know when..." She passed out helplessly.
How much time would pass in Prismsphere versus the real world as the entire party slept, she had no idea.
 
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