Carantathraiel

Wanderers

In an involuntary action, Envy flinched when Narda first touched him, though no more than snapping he arm before his torso. He exhaled, nodding, though he still seemed distracted, his brow still dotted in sweat. He shifted his arms again, as if his skin were crawling beneath the fabric of his tunic. "I know." He said, though his voice was soft.

Ruli nodded, his thoughts returning to her admission over breakfast, where she had said the Seer warned her to be prepared. This had to be it. He studied her, sure she thought the same. The panic of her people; afraid of their neighbors and of themselves. Their own family members. Fear would spread faster than the plague.
Ysaryn shrugged upon hearing Daryll's question. "I did not know what I could do until only recently, but there -"
"Its detectable at birth." Ruli said, then he froze and glanced up when Ysaryn gave him a funny look.
Envy, blinking back into the present at that convenient moment, cleared his throat. "Its common in my clan to display the instinct of it immediately." Ruli glanced at the Kartaian, then down at the ground, his mind wandering. "Often, those who fail to display talents are used as grunts."
Ysaryn's gaze shifted from Envy, to Ruli for a moment, noting the lost expression on Ruli's face.

"We'll make wards quickly." Envy said, sensing Ruli's distress and answering. "We brought supplies, as well as more of the medicinal leaves." The large elf inhaled, sweat still lingering on his face and along his spine. Mentioning it seemed to make Ruli remember, and he straightened and held up the canvas pouch he'd filled with leaves, as well as a few clippings of the trees themselves. "Gavin?" Envy said, turning toward the young man to request he begin. "Ruli? You, too. Time is the essence, here."

Ysaryn still circled, trying to see if she could find any tell. "Will suppressing be good?" She wondered suddenly. Ruli, on the way out of the tent with Gavin, turned.
"Why would it not be?"
The elf furrowed her brow, then gestured and switched tongues. "Fire burns. If it does not get out, it will still burn."
Ruli hissed, turning to look at Envy for his thoughts. The idea of burning flames still seemed to make the elf uncomfortable. "Can we be sure they'll all manifest fire? Kire," He switched tongues again, looking to the empress. "Etta had a fever? But you're sure she won't be pyrokinetic?"

Wanderers

Ysaryn kept swatting the flames, the blanket smoking and singed by the time she stopped, the flames snuffed out. She looked up, wide-eyed, at the boy, Kire, Ruli. "What fuck!?" She shouted.
"Ysaryn!" Ruli snapped back at her, his eyes on the boy, who stared fearfully at his hands.

In a blink, Kire, Daryll, and the boy were gone. Ysaryn hissed, looking frustrated. Ruli turned toward Envy, whose back had hit the canvas wall. "Envy, relax." Ruli urged. "The fire is ou-"

And they were back, the smell of water filling the tent. Ysaryn froze, leering at them, blanket raised in her arms as if waiting for the fire to reappear.
Ruli wasn't sure what to focus on. The soaked trio, the pale boy, the nervous Kartaian. As Kire spoke to the boy, apologizing and handing him to the healers for tending, Ruli turned to Envy. "Breath. The flames are gone."
Envy took in an uneasy breath, nodding. "We'll make a charm to - for him." He said, still pressed against the tent wall. Ruli knew he'd have left the tent if the sunlight didn't make him just as uncomfortable. That, and he knew Envy's instinct to help and solve problems was holding him here.

Kire vanished, and Ruli breathed steadily, calmingly, for a moment before he swallowed his worry for the young Wyvern. "It shouldn't happen," Ruli voiced, trying to think. "Kire can suddenly smell Etta's magic. Her signature. Now the boy ..."
"It is waking up." Ysaryn breathed, lowering the blanket, but her eyes were still on the boy; waiting.
"Is that even possible?" Ruli asked, turning to Envy. But the Kartaian wasn't collected yet, his milky eyes still wide, his brow sweating. "Envy, can magic just manifest in people?" Ruli pressed, hoping to distract him.
"Uh." Envy reached up to scratch at his face, along one of the wrinkled scars that marred him.

Kire's return was another distraction, and Ruli turned toward her, sighing in relief when she said Etta was fine. "Kire," Ruli began. "Etta suddenly developing magic, enough for you to sense, its understandable. Being a Wyvern and all. But the boy," Ruli gestured, watching the child shiver beneath the towel as the healers inspected him. "It can't be a coincidence."

Wanderers

The Kartaian nodded, while Ruli glanced around the camp, already mentally tallying what they'd need, and how to best approach the matter. As they decided to split up, they loitered briefly while Gavin and Envy both took their own estimations, before Ruli brought them to the gate, and then through to Úvano.

Once there, Ruli took off for the desert, circling the edge for a while as he gathered the leaves he needed. He had to hunt the trees down, jogging across the sand often to dwindle the time it would take. He knew where a line of them stood, but he didn't dare travel too close to Ziad, fearing the Kartaians. It wasn't like he couldn't avoid them, -or fight, with the sword Kire had given him strapped to his hip- but he feared that they'd somehow track him to the seaside cliffs.

He was longer than intended in gathering supplies, returning to Úvano to find the other two waiting for him. He gathered them, and brought them back to Amria, and to the camp, just in time to see the bed catch fire.
"What the-" He shouted.
Envy, feeling the flames, hearing the scream, tensed and retreated.
"Put it out!" Ysaryn shouted, bending to gather a blanket from another cot, ripping it from another patient before she began to swat at the flames with it to suffocate them. "Get the boy!"

Wanderers

He waited as his words were translated, then stepped back to let the healers take over and decide who would receive what. He stepped back beside Envy, Ysaryn the only one of the three of them still making her rounds. As the woman expressed her relief when given the stone, Ruli turned toward Envy, who must have sensed his attention. The Kartaian nodded, frowning slightly.
That the effects of the fevers and voices were dimmed by the presence of their charms was good for the ill, but not great news overall. Whatever Solaralai was using to reach into Amria, divine or not, was also strong magic.

"We can work on a few more." Envy offered, while Ruli quietly watched. "Cater them to the effects."
"Could you not make ward around tree?" Ysaryn asked, pausing next to one of the women in the back. She breathed deeply a few times, studying the woman. "This one has an infection. Unrelated, I believe. Pleasure area." She wiggled her fingers over her own groin before she moved on.
Ruli glanced toward Kire, eyebrows raised. "I'll let you translate that however you want." He cleared his throat.
"She may just be pregnant." Ysaryn added, circling the next cot. "Humans smell so foul all the time, its hard to tell the difference between good or bad, at times."
"Ed is such a lucky guy." Ruli snorted, and she offered him a dark look.

Kire's joke made Ruli smirk at her, before he chuckled at Gavin's response to it. He studied Kire for a moment, admiring the way she faced this uncertainty with her head high, her mouth set in determination as she fought to understand what was happening to her people. She didn't send people to do it for her. She was here, among the stricken.
Ysaryn's softly cleared throat tore his eyes off the empress, and he glanced at the elf to see her smirking at him. He gave a quick shake of the head, hoping she wouldn't tease him for whatever she saw in his face.

Just then, Kire looked around at him, and Ruli wiped his expression into neutrality. "Yeah, we'll bring more. Might take me a bit to travel around and gather them." He offered, watching as she inhaled in a similar way as Ysaryn and turned toward the boy. He and Envy both tilted their heads at once. "Burning pine?"
Envy inhaled deeply, remaining where he was. "No." He admitted. He shifted his weight, clearly desiring to get closer, to inspect, but also far too aware of his appearance to approach an nervous child.
"Only sweat." Ysaryn answered, circling back to the boy to inhale the air as she passed, to avoid surrounding the child. Another shake of her head. "I want this skill of Kirai's. To smell magic."
"You could smell Etta." Ruli pointed out.
The elf clicked her tongue. "No. I could smell her blood. Strong blood, in that one. Just as I can smell whatever your blood is."
Ruli frowned at her, then looked back toward Kire.
"Gavin and I can work on a few more charms, and discuss the possibility of circling the forest." Envy said, changing the topic. "But I'm hesitant without knowing more about it. If it is growing, if it will change its temperament when it senses what we're doing." If she changes her temperament, he meant. "It might be wiser to ward the camp."
"The locals may not welcome more magic." Ruli offered. "Especially if the forest is telling them not to let ours near."

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Wanderers

As Kire objected to her word of choice, Ysaryn fluttered her lashes at her. "Do you think she's jealous?" She sang teasingly in Ruli's direction.
"No, I think she's nervous." He answered. "And rightfully so."
The elf clicked her tongue and moved away from Etta. "Worry warts."
Ruli winked at Etta again. "You'll do fine." He promised.

Neither he nor Envy made a move when their payment was brought out, though Ysaryn eased closer to Gavin as he counted, her eyebrows high. "What is this?"
"We're being paid for the work." Ruli said. "Don't you even!" He cut off the elf as she smirked in his direction, her mouth opening for what was undoubtedly an inappropriate remark in front of the younger cousins. "I asked for fabrics. If you behave, some may make it to you."
Her expression twitched, the elf visibly torn between her remark and her desire for new clothing. "Tch." She hissed, moving away again.

A quick trip back home to deliver their payment into Envy's chambers for later dispersal, and they were back, Ruli rolling his shoulders. He raised, in his hand, a small pouch, within were the leaves he'd mentioned earlier. It wasn't much, he informed Kire, but he could always wander back toward the desert for more supplies, if it was necessary.
Envy, too, raised his hand to display two smooth stones with carved runes on their faces. "They're generic." He mentioned. "But we may see if these help prevent visions."
Ruli's face twisted, announcing another argument that had happened while they were back in Úvano. "We tought, maybe, we could give them to the healers. Maybe it would give those effected some reprieve."
Envy's face, too, twitched, but he made no argument over handing them out.

The urgency in the men's faces sent tension through their shoulders when they emerged. Envy shifted uncomfortably, feeling the sunlight on his skin again, and didn't settle when the man mentioned that the forest was calling to those effected. Slightly, his head tilted, pointing his ears toward the trees, even if all he could hear was the rustling of their leaves. "I don't like the scent."
"Nor do we." Ysaryn answered, squaring her own shoulders, her eyes on the trees as if waiting for them to launch an attack. Even as they walked, her eyes never left the forest.
Ruli, however, glanced at Gavin, observing the way he followed Ysaryn's gaze, and the expression he wore.

As they met with Myka, Ruli took in her worried stature and frowned, looking past her to the camp when she said they feared the plague. That was not something he'd considered, nor how it would effect him, Envy, or Ysaryn, who weren't born to this world. Would their slight differences in immunities make them more susceptible? Or less so?
A glance to both the two elves said they weren't bothering with such thoughts.
"We brought items from our world to see if they'd help, by slim chance." The Kartaian offered, gesturing toward Ruli, who raised his satchel of leaves.

As they were permitted inside to take a look, Ysaryn paced in slow circles, breathing deeply in hopes of trying to gauge some clue through their scents. After taking the two charms from Envy, Ruli approached the healers and handed over them and the leaves. "Have them tuck a leaf beneath their tongue. It'll help with hydration." He instructed, unsure if they'd need his words translated. He also explained the stones, asking for one to be given to one of the more effected, to see if it would help clear the haze.
All of it a shot in the dark, but any answers would be helpful.

He glanced to Ysaryn, who was still circling, yet unable to discern any sort of foul illness beyond the sweat of fever. Then behind him to Envy, who was still; listening.

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Wanderers

"This is relatively new." Envy commented. "Originally, it was something that only Ruli or myself could sense. As a spider feels when its web is harassed."
"We had the idea when we moved to the cliffs, and we needed more people to alert."
Envy nodded. "Half useless if Ruli is out and my blind self is trying to locate an intruder." He chuckled. "Amusing, though, sure."
"And terrifying for the intruder." Ruli added. "Seeing you come flailing through the caves."

As the others moved through, Kire included, to see how bright the wards were illuminated, if at all, was amusing. Ysaryn chuckled, amused, she winked at Ed as he strolled though uneventfully. "Elvish is your only mystical talent, then." she teased.

However, when the conversation turned to Etta, the fuchia-eyed elf arched a brow. "I had wondered why I am not smelling strawberries." She offered, smiling. "You are not yet in bloom." The elf smiled at Etta.
"Indeed." Ruli grinned. "Don't be afraid, though. It's not like you have a shortage of people available to help, should you need. And you will." He added, slightly more stern in tone. "Magic is never easy, do not pretend that you're fine I'd you're not. Promise?"

Ysaryn inhaled, sniffing Etta curiously. "Mmm. And you will be strong." She winked. "I cannot wait to see what blossoms in you."
"You sound like you want to eat her." Ruli warned.
"Do you not sense it?" Ysaryn glanced at him. "Like a fruit tree, giving off its scent before it yields. It is interesting."

Wanderers

"Hardly." Ruli muttered. With your complexion, you'd be lovely with brown hair, too. Just not red."
Ysaryn chuckled. "Sometimes, I question you sexuality."
"Bite me." He retorted, turning to Gavin and joining him to work.

He took his directions from Gavin, without guiding him until he was asked. Once, Gavin nearly made a mistake on a ward, and Ruli was preparing to point it out, only to have Gavin realize the mistake on his own.
Not that it would have summoned some multi-headed demon, but it would have made the wards ineffective.

They used tools to cut into the palace walls in certain areas, filling the holes with the limestone chunks Ruli fetched from the quarry. Their additions seemed to melt into the original structure, blending perfectly to hide the wards, making it difficult for any potential saboteurs to disable them.
Can't destroy what you can't see.

"Well, we thought of that." Envy said, hands on his hips as he 'watched' Ruli and Gavin finish. "Those types of charms are still magic. They hide the wearer, however, they use magic to do so. It won't light up the wards, but it will still make them glow. Go ahead, walk through them. Let's see how much magic you have." He said with s grin.

"You first." Ruli said to Ysaryn with a grin.
She shrugged and strolled in through one of the open archways, turning to watch as the lines embedded within the walls lit up with the brightness of a torch. She grinned.
Until Ruli stepped in after her, and they illuminated far more brightly, enough to cast a glow on the ground.
"Show off." The elf grumbled at him, and Ruli chuckled.

"Judging by Ysaryn's remarks, its working." Envy said. "We thought we could make it glow based on how powerful the passer is. Kire will likely create a beacon."
"That will show you." Ysaryn muttered to Ruli, who grinned and wandered back toward Narda and the others.
"Even if we Walk or Kire portals, it will work. We hope." Ruli added, turning to wink at Gavin. "If you want secrecy in your portalling, we'll find a designated room to work on, make a 'hole' for discretionary travel."
"As for the hiding charms, even if Narda were to stroll through carrying one, it should glow. Any sort of magical item. Clothing, animals, weapons. We may need to touch it up after a few weeks, so keep your eye out for anything that seems dull or slow."

Wanderers

Ruli's eyebrow rose at Etta's portion of an inquiry, glancing at Ysaryn who burst into laughter. He looked curiously between Kire, Etta, and the elf for a moment before he shrugged, deciding that it wasn't his business to pry into whatever had the women in high spirits. "Sure." He agreed to their quick little detour. He took her offered hand, and the location, and took them to the quarry.

Immediately upon emerging, Ruli glanced at her, trying to see if any hint of a vision was written on her countenance; a distant gaze, a puzzled frown. But she merely blinked. Sighing, Ruli went to work when the foreman arrived, explaining that he only needed small chunks, overseeing the chiseling as they helped him obtain what he needed. More conveniently, they placed the stone chunks in a crate for him, which made the journey back a bit less quick, with the added weight he was lugging through the emptiness of the shadows.

"Her men are apparently quite efficient." Ruli commented, setting down the crate and letting Gavin pick through it and get to work. Envy's head tilted from where the elf sat, listening to Gavin work. Ruli watched from over Gavin's shoulder, only turning his attention toward Kire when she mentioned the vision at last.

Red hair.

Gods above, that felt so familiar. Like he'd dreamt it. But how? No scar, red hair. Not enough to be Akuma, no feeling of remorse and ice filled his stomach at the faded memory of red hair.
So why?
Ruli stared at her, blinking, struggling to recall. "Red hair." He said aloud, hoping it would shake something loose. Barely, he recalled seeing someone with red hair, as he held something ... something important.
"Ruli?" Envy's voice came, intrigued by his foster-son's tone.
Ruli closed his eyes and rubbed his face. "No. I don't know. It just sounds odd. You're better as a blonde."
Ysaryn snorted softly. "Red hair is far better."