[IC] The Narrow Path

[Gardevoiran]

You make it back out into the open as you return to Maggy's magic shop.

Everyone's sitting around the table as Maggy patches her torso up. Jen is watching over the girl and keeping a watchful eye on Brock. Speaking of Brock, he's busy looking out of the window and watching the giant plant snake he called "Charlie". You could tell he really loved that snake. Aithwale sits beside Maggy, a plate of raw salmon strips beside him that he occasionally snacks on. Gobbo has a small spell book in front of him, diagrams for incantations and various spells clearly on the page.

Maggy finally speaks up to break the silence. "I guess we should explain some things, huh?"

[Skinner35]

As he sat there cleaning his arm of ash, dirt, and blood, he heard Maggie. "Yea, on both sides. We also have a few things that need explaining." He said, looking at her, then continuing on his arm. This would take a while.

[Gardevoiran]

"While you think of your question, I want to ask one." Maggy drops the tape as she looks towards Brock. "Is that really the Brock Sinclair?" The skeleton turns around and nods before bowing to Maggy. "Oh my gosh, you have no idea how much of a fan I am of your work! The work you did with chloromancy and botany was remarkable!"

"What can I say? You're welcome, Magdalene."

Jen scoffs as she holds her own hand up, whispering something to the light emanating from her palm. The Light, she always called it. She waits for an answer in the silence while Maggy continues to drone on about Brock's works.

[Skinner35]

He almost laughed at her excitement. He obviously didn't have to confirm her hopes. "Well, I do have a question. What do you know about a sorcerer named Yashar?" He asked, looking mainly at Maggie, but glancing at Aith.

[Gardevoiran]

"... we... don't like to discuss him around here..." Maggy's tone went into a more somber sense before she continued. "Yashar and my dad worked together until my father passed... the two never agreed on things. My dad taught me that the way Yashar taught was centered around fighting, when all problems could be resolved with peace. I learned a bit from both of them, nonetheless, and here I am." Maggy took a pause as Aithwale ate another piece of salmon. "We saw him a while back, but he seemed to be afraid of Papa Bear here," Maggy patted Aithwale on his furry head as the bear growled affectionately.

Jen asked a question to Maggy when she was done explaining. "To get this on a better note, what... are you? A dwarf? Elf?" Maggy thought about it for a second before finally responding. "Half gnome, half elf. They normally don't mix, and I'd say ask my parents... but..."

Parents were a bad topic. Noted.

[Skinner35]

"Well. We have to talk about him." He said, knowing that this wasn't going to be an easy conversation. "I need the two of you to join us. I plan on killing Yashar." He said, focusing his gaze on Maggie. "He wants to take control of the world with a tome that Brock created." He said, hoping that that piece of information would help.

[Gardevoiran]

"Tome? Like, 'On the Subject of Souls?'" Maggy asked aloud, looking at you and Brock. After a second of realization, Brock spoke up to answer Maggy's question with another question. "Damn, you're that much of a fan?" Maggy followed up with a nod and began to talk about the tome... or what she knew about it. "I thought you cursed that tome to where it could only be used by someone as unnatural as you... no offense."

Brock turns to you and rubs the back of his spine. "I don't know how your boner sniffed this girl out, but I like her." Jen facepalms at the attempted pun before generally disproving of Brock's actions. Brock then returned to Maggy. "I guess Yashar fell under that category, then? Although, if what Tobias here said was true, then he should be able to use it just as well." Brock pulls the tome out of his shirt, Jen's attention caught by it, and he slides it in front of you.

"If you can use it, so can Yashar."

[Skinner35]

"Trust me. Yashar is just as unnatural as Brock." He said, eyeing the tome as it sat in front of him. "Although I may be able to control this thing... I'll pass. I'm not risking my sanity." He said, sliding it away from him. "Plus, it's safer and more contained in its creators possession.' He stated, looking at Brock.

[Gardevoiran]

"You can say that all you want, but if I'm down for the count... I hope you'll make the right choice," Brock says as he reaches for the tome again, but just as his hands clasp the tome down, Jen swipes it up and holds onto the book. "No you are not," Jen authoritatively says as she holds the book tightly in her hands, refusing to let go.

"Whoa there paladin. Not even someone of your rank is safe holding it."

"I will take my chances with possessing this tome."

Maggy looks at you with an expression of uncertainty, like she didn't know what was going to happen. She didn't want her shop ruined from the fight.

The book was something Brock wanted to destroy, but at the same time, was the book truly safer in the hands of it's creator if it had the power to rule the world?

[Skinner35]

"Jen... Put the tome down." He said, preparing his revolver and metal arm, which was in the middle of being upgraded. "You don't understand how powerful that thing is." He said, eyeing her and Maggie, who he hoped was preparing some sort of detaining spell. "I'm only giving you one chance."

[Gardevoiran]

"SILENCE." Jen's body was replaced with a form of ethereal aura, similar to The Light itself, as her voice boomed through the room. It was enough to scare even Aithwale, a literal bear!

Jen dropped the book onto the floor and aimed her hands at it, a holy energy shining through her palms as the book was emblazoned in white-hot holiness. You could feel the heat against your skin as Brock covered his eyes, Jen's form blinding the both of you extremely so. If Jen was trying to demonstrate her power, it was clear that she was packing extreme heat.

A few seconds pass before Jen returns to her normal appearance, her gloves burnt off from the heat and her palms smoldering with ash. She was breathing heavily, but as the dust settled, she saw it in disbelief.

The book sat in a pile of soot, completely unharmed by the holiness used against it. "What... kind of..." Jen was cut off as she collapsed onto the ground, blood spurting out of her nose.

The only voice you could hear after the thud of Jen's body on the ground was Brock's, and only after a second or two. "That's why you leave it in my possession," he said as he scooped up the tome off the ground and put it inside of his shirt again.

[Skinner35]

In the flash, he stumbled back and raised his arm as a guard. When it ended, he struggled to regain himself, so he stayed on the ground and his vision cleared. "Maggie, help Jen. Brock, don't let that damned tome out of your possession unless needed." He said, then used the table to get himself up. "Is anything damaged?" He asked as he began collecting his tools and spare parts that he was using to upgrade his arm and put them in his backpack.

[Gardevoiran]

"Well, she wrecked the floor in this spot, but I know a guy who can fix that cheap," Maggy said as Aithwale lifted Jen up with his bear-strength and sat her upright, mainly so the blood wouldn't find a way to drown her while she was coming back to her thoughts.

Jen was awake for the moment, wiping the blood off her lip as she stared at Brock. "H... how?! Not even Deprave was able to get through that attack unscathed!" Ah, yes, that was a fight indeed. Jen coughed a small bit of blood up as Brock responded. "It's why we're going to a dwarven forge to throw it in magma, you crazy-ass paladin."

Maggy casts a small healing spell onto Jen as the paladin's palms slowly start to heal up. It was clear she was mad at both you and Brock for supporting the action of carrying that book. Well, it was, until she fell backwards into an unconscious state from a combination of overexertion and it being the dead of night.

Gobbo ran out from behind the table as he tried to cast a spell of his own onto Jen. It enveloped her in a green light, but it didn't really do anything. Still, it was better than something.

[Skinner35]

After Jen had fallen back into her sleep, Toby looked as Brock. "You do know that not any forge will destroy this right? The one that we have to go to is too far away and far too dangerous. None of us would survive. It's too risky." He said, knowing with 100% certainty that it was absolutely insane to even try, and he refused to go on another suicide mission.

[Gardevoiran]

"One specific forge will near those mountains, and in any case, it'd be a lot harder to fish a book out of a sea of magma, right?" Brock says as he pulls another bottle of alcohol out of his shirt. "Plus, you were the one to pick it up in the first place. It'll be you and me until the book is destroyed, pal. That is, unless you want Yashar to gut you like a pig for leaving the book in the hands of it's owner."

[Skinner35]

"You did hear me when I said that I plan on killing Yashar, right?" He said as he looked at Brock, then say down as he decided to continue on his arm, getting the tools and parts out, continuing his work. "Besides, that tome is safer with us than it is in some magma pit anyways."

[Gardevoiran]

"You'll need a fuckin' army to take Yashar on. He's sent literally fifty different guys to come and get my tome, and I've killed them each time," Brock said as he glanced over at Jen's body. "You also gotta think about her. If you two really came from the same world, you two should be like peas in a pod. If you go against Yashar and die... well... she'd be ruined. Not to mention I think Yashar could steamroll her in a heartbeat if he had the balls to pursue this tome as much as he-"

You hear the sudden arrival of horses into the town as Brock is interrupted. Something isn't good.

[Skinner35]

"Well. I'll do what I have to to see that monster die..." He said as Brock looked back. He quickly finished the new upgrade and stood beside Brock. "Let's get to work."

[Gardevoiran]

"Tobias, we need to handle this situation first." Maggy chimed in this time, running over to you and grabbing you by the shoulder. "Your friend is not okay. Those guys are here to kill you, her, and Brock. You guys need to cut your losses and get the hell out of here!"

Upon closer inspection, you can see she is right. The man leading the series of orcs and hirelings is dressed in the same garb Yashar's student had before his "death". His bushy hair and stitched neck revealed that this guy might actually be that student. If he was brought back from the dead, who knows what he's capable of, especially with the three staves on his back and two tomes floating around him in the air.

"We can't afford to let them get this book, Toby. We need to go," Brock said as he pulled his plant tome out, a stump rising out of nowhere and picking up Jen off the ground.

[Skinner35]

"Okay." He says as he takes out a powerful spell scroll and hands it to Maggie. "This should help take them down." He then picked up his gear and went towards the back. "I wish you the best. I hope that our paths cross again." He said, then he grabbed Gobbo and began to walk. "Brock, you know this area right?"