The Trio
Three mages stood at the center of Rockvale and were watching the flag wave through the wind. All of them knew that the color which it carried could only have been caused by the blood of men and it disgusted them as much as the sight of a battle field which they had seen plenty of times before they arrived on the Continent and while on the Continent in the Northern Countries. Despite their hopes when coming to this land, the Trio had just encountered more war and death. The worst of their encounters was of a village whose populace had been starving for weeks because of the war in their lands. The Continent, despite being spoken of as a promise land, had turned out to be nothing more than a dream for those who sought lands of golden wheat and fields of flowers in a world of rotten corn stalks and muddy fields.
But they could not reminisce on the failings of their dreams nor the recurrence of violence in every place they went.
”Tia, go to that land bridge we saw from the hill above and wait there in case the man we are looking for intends to leave. Hak, go to the bar that man had mentioned and see if the target is there. I shall search the streets. If we find the man, launch a light into the air and stall for as long as possible.” the woman with a tome said as she looked at her companions. They couldn’t let the man leave without saving the Plains even if it meant he would be trapped here with them. The Trio split up and went their separate ways to find the man and his red bird. It wasn’t long before one of them found the man in an alleyway not far from the bar.
”By chance, are you injured sir? I can help you if you wish, I am skilled in healing magics.” The woman said as she noted he was floating in the air with two women, one of which had to be the one casting the spell.
Anne/Vent & Brunhilde
A Collab Between Mag Lev and Azereiah
”Oh, uh.. I’m Anne. I… don’t really know why he saved me. I’m not special or anything.” Anne said after looking at the woman who was helping Vent almost wondering if she was crazy or just hadn’t been paying attention when she had asked earlier. After all, the really hairy person who had entered the Tavern was really off putting to look at. Anne kept walking beside the woman and would have kept walking if a voice hadn’t called out from a street to the left of the three.
”By chance, are you injured sir? I can help you if you wish, I am skilled in healing magics.”Brunhilde remembered to write down Anne's name and description in her journal this time, ignoring Anne's expression. A voice from the entrance to the alleyway caught her attention, and she turned her head towards the new person. Four ears... and
healing magic? Brunhilde had never heard of people being able to use magic for medicinal purposes before, last she remembered, and she thought she was the authority on the potential of magic. She blinked in awe. She excitedly replied before either of the others had the chance to register that someone had made the offer.
"He is, but... You said... Healing magic? That exists? Could you... er... Show me, maybe?"A moment passed and she realized that her request may have been somewhat inconsiderate. The words poured forth like a waterfall.
"I mean, please, help if you can! I'll pay if you want me to. I have money, if that'd work? I was going to take him to the apothecary, since I'm all out of medical supplies, but then you arrived, and..."The woman held up a hand a stopped Brunhilde’s line of conversation as she opened the small tome she held in her hand.
”Why, there is no need to pay me my dears. I only wish to know one thing in exchange for this healing.” The woman said as she flipped to a page. She held one hand on the page and the other against Vent’s floating body and the words on the page started to glow a bright gold. They seemed as if to flow off the page onto the hand which was on it until it the page was completely empty and the words had transferred instead to Vent. They expand until all the words which had been written in small print were covering every inch of his body. In a matter of seconds, Vent could feel a burst of energy in his body as if his fight had never happened.
”My magics are of my making you see. The words in this book don’t quite ‘heal’ for that is beyond the domain of us mortals. True healing is only available to the Gods you see. These words simply provide the energy which one’s body is missing until such a time they had recovered well enough to pay back the debt. So when your body is back to its full strength, the words will take energy equal to that which they have loaned you today.” The woman said as she closed the book and stood up. Her book held words only for ‘healing’ and could not injure people no matter what was written in there. She had tried to torture a man using the book before in order to help a town only to find that the words would not injured him nor heal him when casted with any kind of hatred.
”Now then, I must know this one thing. Are you the man who owns a red bird dear sir? My charges in the Plain of Narook need your help if this is so.” Brunhilde was furiously scribbling down every word the four-eared woman said on the subject, and described in great detail exactly what the woman and the book did. The University would be quite interested in this form of magic. She hardly noticed Vent trying to get up, and he tipped the balance of the air cushion, sending it gliding across the ground, blasting wind in every direction. At least, she didn't really notice until the levitation spell blasted over a stack of crates.
"So your healing magic is a form of energy banking... Er, one moment."She cut the power flowing to the spell holding Vent above the ground, and the cushion of air promptly dissipated. Brunhilde's journal made mention that she was alone in the Witchlands and needed to find a guide, and her excitement at the prospect of new and undiscovered magic disappeared
very quickly. She turned to Vent, who was now on the ground, covered in dust.
"I have no idea where I am or where I'm going, and I have no way to get home, so I may as well explore. You're in a town that probably wants you dead. I don't really care why she needs your help, but we both have a reason to go."Vent stood up without a struggle and brushed the dust off of his clothing as he shook his head in amusement. This woman had just asserted that she was going with the mystery woman who had essentially healed him. It was strange how, in just one day, Vent had managed to get into a fight and then catch the attention of some woman who apparently needed his help.
”It is not like I can stop you from coming anyway. You are your own person and I really don’t want to be at the wrong end of that magic you have. Anyway, yes I have a red bird but the question I have is how you know this Healer.” Vent said as he looked between the two mages. Nobody should really know of Callie’s presence unless she’d been wondering.
The woman was stifling a laugh as Vent talked for she had realized that the girl who had been holding him in the air had essentially stated that the man had no choice but to take her along. This man was certainly a man whose personality was almost heroic but whether or not he could help them was to be determined.
”Yes, my magic is essentially an energy banking system. I was taught it back in my homeland but I’ve never seen others who use it. My name is Nia, by the way. One of my companions, Tia had seen you and your bird in a vision directed to her by the Spirits which told us to seek your help. It seems that the crystals the Plains are famous for are turning a dark purple and will not tell my companions nor I why.” Nia said as she looked north west. Despite the smile on her face, a deep fear resonated inside the woman of what it would mean if they couldn’t tell what was wrong.
”If a mage doesn’t know what is wrong with the crystals then how should I? I don’t know anything about the Continent than what stories told. But, I guess I’ll see what I can do.” Vent said as he rubbed the back of his head. There was no way he could figure out what was wrong with these crystals Nia had spoken of but he wanted to see these plains for himself anyway. At that moment, Vent realized he had left his bag and gloves at the Tavern.
”I’ll be back! Left my stuff at that Tavern” Vent yelled as he ran back towards the tavern to get his supplies again.
"Crystals... Crystals... Plains of crystals, changing color...? Hm."Brunhilde pulled a book out of her backpack - an index for previous journal entries in the scroll she carried with her. The book was ridiculously thick, and she searched for mentions of rocks, crystals, and geology for a moment. End of term Geology 1770 paper, Sorviri standard year 212, the seventh day of the month of Coldsprout. Six years ago. Paper topic was the formation and structure of crystals, ranging from standard metallic and ionic crystals to the warm Water Crystals maintained by water mages in training to build focus. She scrolled at blinding speeds through her journal until she reached the text of the essay, which despite its incredible length made no mention of set crystal structures changing colors.
"Nothing here about that. Guess I have another reason to go."She bounced about excitedly, looking forward to the adventure, and noticed Anne standing off to the side. Seemed familiar. A few seconds of scrolling back to the current segment of the journal later, she saw that she knew this person.
"You coming with us? It might be fun. At least, more fun than hanging around this place."”Oh, uh… I don’t really have much of a choice do I? If I stayed here in Rockvale, I’d probably be hunt down by whoever takes control of this city now that Barrow is dead. Plus, Vent seems willing to pull me along but I don’t really want to be a burden. I don’t know how to fight or anything so I doubt I’ll really be useful on that front.” Anne replied to Brunhilde. She was unsure of where she would go after she left Rockvale. If she followed Vent, she would have just been a burden due to her lack of skills in battle and really anything on survival. The only thing Anne was good for was playing songs on the flute. Despite how little confidence Anne had in herself, she felt that it could actually turn out to be fun to learn more about the outside world.
Brunhilde tapped her foot on the vortex of air upon which she stood. Anne's apparent lack of confidence was a little saddening, and Brunhilde felt the urge to help her with that, although she had no idea how.
"Oh, come now. You wouldn't be a burden at all. But hey, if it worries you so much, we could probably find you some sort of weapon. Never too late to learn to defend yourself, and I'm sure we could find some time for practice on the road. Though... I don't really know how to fight with weapons either. Ooh~, I know! Maybe someone could teach us."She ripped open her bag and started searching through it for anything that would be of use. Her hoarder mentality sometimes came in handy. She tossed a series of knives and daggers from the earlier fight out onto the ground, some of which still had dried blood on them. The bloody ones were probably going to rust, but whatever.
"Take one. Or two. Or more. I'm not sure what these were in there for or where they came from, but I'm sure I didn't have a real use for them."Anne picked up a dagger whose blade was a mere foot and a half in length and curved after a few inches. It was an odd weapon whose origin she couldn’t place and yet it felt oddly welcome in her hand. The old, leather hilt and worn iron of the dagger’s guard felt to be perfectly fitted for the young woman’s hand even if she knew not how to use the weapon. Around this point in time, Vent returned and looked about at the dagger’s scattered across the ground.
”Where did all these weapons come from? Well, I guess it doesn’t really matter since some of these will be useful.” Vent said as he grabbed two daggers from the pile. One of the daggers was already rusted and the other was covered in blood which had turned a dull brown from drying.
As Vent finished getting the crusted blood of his new dagger, both Tia and Hak walked up to the group.
”So this is the kid who Tia’s vision told us of Nia? He seems so new to the world. What could he possibly do to save the Plains.” Hak said as he walked right up to Vent and sized him up. Vent, despite being a little over six feet, almost looked tiny compared to the nearly seven foot tall man who stood in front of him. It was obvious to anybody that Hak was no pushover and his blatant distrust of Vent was obvious from the start. He even ignored the other two women who had been standing not too far away to face down Vent.
”Let’s get going before I decide that Tia’s vision was wrong runt.” Hak said as he walked away. Vent stood still even as Tia and Nia left the alley. Anger was imprinted onto his face.
Brunhilde gave Vent a gentle push. She was irritated by the massive man's very appearance, let alone his attitude.
"Yeah, he's an asshole. No, I don't like him either. I don't really feel like having to fight anyone today, so let's get moving, aye? With any luck he'll get eaten by a bear or something on the way," she whispered.
She pulled her bag back onto her back, and tossed the remaining weapons in, save for one - a foot long, bladeless iron spike, with a very large crossguard. It was probably a makeshift weapon put together by a bored wannabe blacksmith, but it seemed like it'd be useful if she were forced to fight on the ground. A cursory glance told her she wasn't forgetting anything especially important, and she set off to follow the trio.
Anne and Vent followed behind Brunhilde as they were led out of town by the Trio. The three up ahead talked little to each other, one only occasionally mentioning to another a particular part of the landscape they liked or a ship on the horizon. As the group reached a fork in the road which separated between a road running along the coast and one running further inland, the Trio stopped and Hak turned around.
”This is where you get your last chance to leave. The Plains are a three days walk from here but the travel will be almost twelve hours a day with two meals a day. If your weak bodies can’t handle it, I’ll leave you behind just as quickly as one would a lame horse.” He said as he looked towards the Brunhilde, Anne, and Vent. He especially lingered his eyes on both Vent and Anne though quickly walked ahead of the group. Vent ran to the front and walked beside him, he wouldn’t allow the man to speak down to him without knowing the extent of his determination. Anne simply stood beside Brunhilde and looked rather nervous.
Brunhilde felt like they'd all need Anne's company to stay sane, and she thought the girl could do with a bit of adventure to toughen her up. She took Anne's hand and tugged her along.
"We're a pretty big group, and judging by how the energy in the air feels, some of us are skilled with magic, so we'll also probably be totally safe. Let me know if that asshole causes any trouble for you - I'll gladly dump him in a tree or something for you."She conjured a wind at their backs to ease the travels, and began sketching a rough map with detailed pictures in her journal. It may be helpful later on down the road. She spoke to Anne again.
"Word of warning, though. My memory isn't as good as it could be, so... If I ever seem lost and confused or anything, could you please help out a bit?"Anne simply nodded in response as she and Brunhilde brought up the rear. For a minute, she questioned if any of this was even happening or it was just a dream. But, not even a pinch woke her up so Anne just took it as reality and hoped that she really was safe.
