BlackRoseSiren
Suicharte
Izurich
Jumbus
jasbraq
A Lowly Wretch
Force and Fury
Emeth5 pages of unfocused and disjointed notes and a single page of something comprehensible. Ingrid leaned back closing her eyes as she finally grasped something. "Finally," she leaned back against the pillar studied at.
SHRIEK
"Yes, thank you Mr. watch," she grasped a tarnished brass watch, holding it to the 5 moons to enjoy the little helper. It ticked for 4 seconds but then on the fifth,
SHRIEK
It wasn't terribly loud, but it was loud enough that she shouldn't stay near other people studying. Her ears were more sensitive to disharmonious sounds than most. It grabbed her attention with its grating sound and almost acted as an anchor. Something consistent she could try to find when her mind would 'wander'. "Last thing I need is to be kicked out of the nerd group," she shoved it into her handbag. It wasn't perfect but it worked from time to time. That and checking the time was a good way to check where she was though it was more active.
"One page is a good start," Ingrid told herself but was deeply conscious of the tens of pages she could write before. It was endlessly frustrating.
That's when she heard the centuries, walking with much agency at this time of day. It made her nervous, could they be here for her? No, they already know I'm a Sanguinaire and I haven't pushed the line recently. Even with some rationale, she kept herself guarded.
Old man Sigmund's words struck her heavily. Another daughter of the world tree was burning. It weighed on her in ways she could not describe. It was as if the grove near her home had been lit aflame. She had to go to it.
But could she? She could barely make notes, What if my mind wanders in the middle of saving someone? The thought was deeply unsettling. But Daigo's words, his taunt, were enough to spur her on. "I'll go."
SHRIEK
You arrive at the outskirts of Nipton at the Northwest evacuation camp. A few can be found wounded and being tended to, but most were mostly frightened. Nobody comes to tell you what to do or inform you of the situation, all you have is the massive inferno right before you. This giant tree, now an obelisk of orange and white in the heart of the city, blocks out the five full moons with its ceaseless discharge of smoke. It reeks everywhere.
The loud cracking of wood being burned en masse does little to hide the screams of fear and pain of the people, still trapped in their burning homes. Then there are the sporadic ‘pops’, akin to gunshots but stronger, yet also too swift and fleeting to be a cannon shot.
Rushing through the western wing of the city, Ingrid was searching for accelerant and other volatile compound. She sensed something but was unsure of herself until Roslyn's reassurance. She tended to the armory, removing the gunpowder kept inside. Was this the level of security that the Enth kept there supplies.
She froze it solid to keep it cool and prevent future explosions.
SHRIEK
She looked at her pocket watch, she was viewing the wrong thing. What has she frozen? She needed to hide it from her vision to keep it safe. She blasted the ground open with binding and kinetic and buried it like a treasure.
"Out of sight, out of mind. Out of sight, out of mind," she repeated to herself as she centered herself on the noise.
She didn’t havethe luxury to relax as she could hear the panic at the market place over the roaring fire. Along the way from the armory to the marketplace, Ingrid drew from the flames and dragged water like a snake over to the people. All the energy she built concentrated into a thin line in front of her. Tiny explosion ruptured through the water for a hundred feet, creating a field of mist. Ingrid knew she had done it this time because the futures of them burning to death here lessened.
"I will get you out of here but just be patient and wait for me to clear the way!" she yelled to everyone else. A path was made clear by Roslyn and Rikard and Ingrid guided them through until she saw the last person limp to a way out of the flames.
She finished guiding people in, "They have good binders at the camps! If you can stand the pain, let other more serious cases go first!" she directed them there. Her job in the west was done, "Alright, now to the residential area," she looked up at the burning tree. It was such a magnificent tree. Who would dare try and burn it? She wanted to go but she couldn't set it higher than the people suffering.
SH/RIE/K
Johann was, quite simply, overwhelmed It was bad enough that he considered liquidating the entire area and fleeing. Things had seemed to be under control, but then the flames redoubled in a way that was distinctly... unnatural.
He saved what he could: the large family in the large house with a wave of dirt via binding. He simply stuck with the numbers. That was when Haurah arrived: a water manipulator from the water riding a wave. She came, helped, and moved on. That was the temporal signature he'd detected!
Then, moments later, Ingrid: deliverance! "What a welcome face you are!" he crowed in the Eskandishwoman's direction.
She didn't much pay attention to it, she started to walk and next thing she was next to Johann. Her feet were wet and she had little idea what was going on. "Uh, Yeah!" was she actually here? She couldn't tell. She lost track of the timing and now she was just hoping.
She sensed the people in the cellar and in the yarn house. Close enough to each other to help both. Her scepter glowed and released immense knowledge into Ingrid's mind. Binding kinetic lifted the building and formed a slide solidified with arcane for the yarn people. Both could escape. She breathed in and held her breath. She looked at her watch. Was she even in the right time? Try all her might to know for sure but she simply had to try and stick to this future, present, or past.
She looked at Johann, "I'm going to head North! There is someone left in the inn but I trust you Johann." she smiled at him and when she turned her head she was surrounded by flames. Again she had moved without knowing it.
SH/EI/K
"FUCK!" did she go back or forward? Did she just teleport? Fuck, I don't have time. She sensed and went for whoever she could help.
She felt the burning house and the family inside. Explosions were coming and she had little time. She sucked up the entirety of the heat of the burning building, locking it place with her kinetic magic. Her manas stretched and let out the kinetic energy as she drew. It was a lot but she could handle it. "Get to safety, there is a place in the northwest!"
In the very first hours of Ardanes 24 of DZ55, two hundred and seven lives that would have surely perished on this fateful night had been stolen from the clutches of Eshiran. Young heroes, with the occasional aid from their betters, had saved lives with little direction or preparation, they bravely leapt into the maws of oblivion and fought to the bitter end. Said end came under the form of a deadly light show of explosions that swallowed almost the entirety of the east and south of Nipton.
Desmond rushed out with his legion of steeds while Johann dove into the final unchecked building in the hopes of salvaging a final life. Zeno Haurah could only delay the inevitable so long before she retreated into the river, biding her time until she would help reclaim Nipton from its infernal oppressor. Had it not been of Marco’s purging of the unidentified oval-shaped explosives into a temporal oubliette, a catastrophe few could truly imagine would have befell even those hidden in the camps.
Two hundred and seven were going to die had it not been for these heroes. And hundreds more would have been added if Zeno Marbrand and Desmond Catulus had not been there at the right time. Dozens, if not hundreds too, would have agonized until an unclean and horrible end had it not been for the relentless battle of Xiuyang and Roslyn in the rescue camps. Lost causes were not relegated to callous triage with these two - they saved all they could.
In the end, sixty-four had died. Most of them from the initial attack on the tree, others were simply unfortunate and were caught in the blaze before anyone knew what was even going on. Seven of them were soldiers with enough talent in the gift to make a difference. Nearly all died in an attempt to rescue their fellow townsfolk.
The end of the nightmare that nearly devoured the entirety of this once bustling city had begun when a new portal had opened. Arch Zeno Sigmund Bastañer, along with seasoned century Colette D’Aureville and High Zeno Giancarlo Silvestri, had joined the fight. Together with the current Zenos on sight, the toxic fumes were quickly siphoned into a rapidly formed earthen container and the flames quelled by a collective manipulation of heat to force immediate rainfall. The fire was controlled.
The clouds dispersed and the smoke, while it lingered, failed to hide the sun breaking through the horizon. The long night was finally over. Our heroes could finally rest.
The fire had started to settle and smolder on itself. The voices of the helpless were lost to the sound of cracking stone and wood. It was a helpless little world, one torn by destruction, it was consistent. She cooled a partially burnt house, entering one of the rooms to rest.
"Apologies for the intrusion," she spoke to no one.
Dust and debris were made scarce with a flick of the wrist. The time streams she could see narrowed. Some small fires might break out, maybe she would fall asleep or make a sad attempt to rebuild. The possibilities were infinite but finite now. All she had to do was keep limiting them.
Closing her eyes, pruned a few more.
Lay on the floor, feel nothing to snip any emotions. A few more options are gone.
SHRIEK...
There it was. Her pocket watch. It had stayed with her and it still worked. Every fifth second it would sound out a terrible noise. She felt it in her hand. The gentle ticks building to a misfire. It was calming.
SHRIEK...
SHRIEK...
SHRIEK...
Slowly, over the course of who knows how long, she came to know where she was. She was in the present, inside a burnt little home, lying in the room of someone who hopefully got out.
Her breathing was stifled, her dress deciding the air was too toxic to breathe. She rose, trying to remove the mask to no avail. If she wanted to remove it, she would need to go to one of the camps. "To the northeast camps, maybe I can see Rikard, Roslyn, or Desmond if I go." She took one step at a time.
Roslyn had adapted Guy's water breathing spell a bit and tried to use it to purify the air of fumes. The imperfections in the spell's alteration caused her throat to itch. She forced herself to tolerate it as her eyes flicked about. A dense haze surrounded her until she spotted a shambling shadow approach. She squinted harder and thought she recognized the person. Ingrid?
With her heart in her throat, Roslyn rushed over. Her shoes scattered cooled ashes as she tried to pull the woman to fresher air. Once there, she'd then drop the spell and check for wounds.
"You look like a mess, sit here." Her hand pointed to a fallen log. At this point, it didn't matter if she sounded bossy or overly worried. She dusted Ingrid off with kinetic and her hand, then reached for the mask. "Okay, lets get this off you. Gently."
She followed her to the save area. She was whispering a small melody as she went to keep track to the ticking. "I'm not that much of a mess," Ingrid retorted with the shake of a head, freeing some ash.
When her hand came up to her face she simply moved it to her cheek, "It will go away on it's own." She rested her head on her hand for a bit. "Did you get away—"
SHRIEK
"—unharmed." She looked into Roslyn's eyes with her own very tired eyes.
Roslyn's eyebrow arched at the retort. "Ingrid, I'm sorry to tell you this... But you kinda look like you sat in a campfire. Made my heart stop for a moment back there."
At the assurance, her panic subside a bit. She didn't spot any serious wounds much to her relief. As her hand was moved and before the Eskandish woman finished, a small shriek made her jump.
"What was that?!?" She asked while applying a chemical boost to Ingrid.
Ingrid looked ever so bluntly at Roslyn, "and you look like a chimney mouse." She rose an eyebrow and let out a scoff.
She ruffled her hair, "It's just a watch."
SHRIEK...
"A very loud one."
Roslyn blinked for a moment like her mind had stopped working. Suddenly, either due to exhaustion or Ingrid's comment, she chuckled. When it died, she countered. "True, but at least they look cute. So I'll take that as a compliment."
She gritted her teeth at the sound of the alarm again finding it irritating a bit. "What for? And how do you feel now? I tried to boost your mind a bit, but I might need to do more."
she remained sitting and stretched, "It was most definitely a compliment ash mouse."
SHRIEK...
"Can't handle a little bit of noise? feeling a little *mousy?*" Ingrid let out a laugh as she stood up. "I'm fine, truly. I rested in a house by myself, honestly."
SHRIEK...
ticking out her tongue at the teasing, Roslyn took a deep breath. Her hands pulled back when Ingrid stood up and gave herself a brief glance over. "I'm glad someone got some rest and I really look like a mess, don't I?"
She picked a bit at her sleeve as she continued. "It's not that, really. It's been a long night and sounds get on my nerves easier when I'm tired. Give me a bit to perk up my mood."
Taking a moment, she focused on her internal chemical. She soaked in the fresher feel of the change as she then bit her lip. That's when she noticed something. "You're avoiding my question, what's it for?" Her hands dusted out her skirt as she then added. "All this temporal has me itching up a storm."
With a touch of magic, Ingrid cleaned the sooty mouse to a field mouse she was. "You used too." She bopped her hair with a little bit of wind.
"Seeing you was the perk I needed," Ingrid winked and walked past her, "Come on, we have some investigating we need to do."
SHRIEK...
She yawned lazily, "Oh the pocket watch? It's just a little busted though its been useful to train. Plus I got it for a great price."
Enthish investigatory bodies and sleuthing Centuries were increasing in the charred remains of Nipton. All had the same goal, though one could only fully trust oneself, and Roslyn had so far been keen in her awareness and decision making.
A neighboring house had taken less damage than the rest - it was still cooked, but it was mostly external. Inside, Roslyn could pickup on a subtle anomaly. There were oval-shaped objects, no more than a foot long and varied in size, scattered about inside that house. She would come to find that they were the same objects that both Marco and Johann had found. The reason for their misfire was yet to be determined.
Roslyn frowned. "That is... weird."
She was no expert on fire, but she had suffered the aftermath when someone tried to set her town on fire once. Stepping away from Ingrid, she slowly walked into the neighboring house. Her eyes moved about as if expecting the place to crumble down on top of her. Oval-shaped objects caught her attention instantly. "Uh, Ingrid. I found something!"
She came near and crouched down, taking in the thing's appearance. Her hand reached out to hover above it, her magic trying to sense for heat or movement. What in the hells were these things? She questioned.
Ingrid pulled on the strands of light coming to her, unveiling a hidden world of colors and information. Sadly, it brought her nothing definitive at the time. She sighed, "Such is the nature of investigating."
SHRIEK...
Her ears perked up, "Coming." She floated over the ground, going fully sideways to slide through the doors.
"Well that seems quite alien," she hadn't seen it before but it was a little too odd to not be something.
To Roslyn, it was as alien as could be. The texture was neither metal nor wood. And it didn't feel particularly hot to the touch. They also felt a little lighter than they looked, no more than a kilogram and a half.
Ingrid, however, had a breakthrough: The shape wasn't anything she was familiar with nor the texture, at first. But as her nails grazed over the surface, little particles were stripped of the surface layer. It wasn't too dissimilar to how shed scales from a Froabas felt and react to friction, although these were clearly not from a Froabas. But by reasonable deduction, there were simply too many similarities to not determine some sort of draconic origin.
"Draconic? The seem similar to Froabas scales," Ingrid looked outside. "Maybe it was an air raid of some sort." She rolled it in her hands, becoming more perplexed.
"It's similar, but not exactly. I'm not encyclopedic when it come to dragons. Maybe some of our friends and century may be more learned than me. Maybe Rikard, he does a lot of... studying."
"Never seen a Froabas, but that's a good idea. No point in riddling this out on our own." Using kinetic, Roslyn grabbed three different sizes. "Lets try Rikard first."
She lead the way out of the house to find their other companions.
The youngest of the rescuers was crouched over a fragment from one of the exploding egg-shaped vessels. He seemed to be heating it with a sustained flame and sensing precisely. "A tethered would be just peachy right now," he mumbled as he worked. "Artificial element for sure." He scribbled on a piece of paper with a small lead.
Then, however, he paused. "Well that's not good!" The material was heating up of its own volition. The tiny fragments inside - it's 'cells' - were excited. It was - "Nope! Holy shit!" - going to blow! He tossed it away and tugged at space and time momentarily. "Fascinating..." he observed, eyes widening.
"Do we have a tethered on the scene?" Xiuyang asked the group collectively, sharing a thought with Rikard as she approached. "We may have a dragon problem. A big one."
Ingrid was frankly not scared. Things exploded all the time on her. More than most. "Ooh!" she shook Rikard's shoulder, "that's quite nifty."
SHRIEK...
"It could be blood magic, Trypano does things like this all the time, using organic materials as a base for constructs. Froabas may have just been the right material for the job." Ingrid commented to Xiuyang.
"Yes, but Trypano is weird," Xiuyang replied a bit more dismissively than she intended. "Listen, this bird saw something last night, something big in the—" "Big bird!" it interrupted. "Yes. In the sky, related to the fire." "Big bird! Big fire! Big!" It flapped its wings.
There were bits of the material all about, smoldering in little slushy heaps. Rikard tilted his head. "It's organic, but it has properties that... well..." He furrowed his brow. "They just shouldn't occur in nature. This is straight outta Trypano's book," he agreed gazing up at the sky. "A large flying animal, huh?" he responded, glancing at the remains again. "Probably draconic, like Ingrid mentioned, probably flying too high for anyone to sense it, unless..."
"Could be anything from. Dragons, birds, threshers, balloons, Zeplins, strange metal—"
SHRIEK...
"—flying contraptions that shoot explosives... Nah, not the right type of explosives."
"Unless you were a... tethered," Xiuyang finished as something conveniently caught her eye. A little too convenient, she would later realize.
Xiuyang immediately began flagging her down. "Ooooiiiii!"
"They really are everywhere now," Ingrid muttered.
As if summoned by their wishes was an obvious tethered: just look at her: all clearly using magic and not walking, just a-rollin' down the street, humming a nervous little tune, sweat beading on her forehead, skin greasy, and hair disheveled from the rescue effort. She stopped abruptly and tilted her head. "Tak?" she said, in fluent foreigner, eyes drifting towards the burning things all around.
"Guys, I think she's a Vossoriyan," Rikard murmured, "probably doesn't understand a word -"
The girl stiffened at his words, her helpful - if bemused - smile falling rapidly away. "I am... *what?*" she asked, in a bristly tone.
"Just what we needed!" Xiuyang interrupted with an invincible smile. "A thousand pardons if I'm completely off base here, but are you a Tethered?"
"Are you near Vossoria?" Ingrid asked, still more interested in where she was from. Something on her right just appeared, something gray. It stole her attention in a moment. "Maybe another bomb fell from the tree," she nudged Roslyn and headed over.
The girl blinked. "I am?" She seemed pleased. Then, came the second question. "I... am." She nodded, smiling reassuringly. "Yees, definitely. Tezered." She gestured downwards. "You see gimpy legs, yees? Haha." She shook her head in mirth.
"Vossoriya?" She glanced around. "I think we are wery far from there now, no?"
Rikard looked the girl up and down. His eyes lingered for a moment on her chest and somewhat low-cut dress. His two greatest loves made battle for his focus. Then, he blinked. "Ahem, uhhh.... yes," he replied. "So... wait." He paused. He snorted. "Oh, we're not near Vossoriya! Hah! I get it!"
Her eyes darted between the others. "Yees!" she replied, moving in closer. "I was make the joke! You like?"
Rikard blushed. "Uh... yeah. Great. Haha." He scratched at the back of his head. "So, the reason we needed a tethered is for -"
"This burning things, hmm?" She rolled forward, following Ingrid's glance to the side, and gestured at the substance on the ground. One chunk began to float upwards in a kinetic grasp. She looked to Xiuyang for confirmation.
"Uh... huh." Xiuyang offered helplessly, not really convinced on account of the girl not getting offended by her extremely blunt question like she expected—but, she was willing to let her shoot her shot. "Yes, please do." She smiled nervously, and looked to Rikard as if to wordlessly say that she needed him on standby if she screwed this up.
"We're looking to confirm the composition and properties of this material and its likely origin," Rikard elucidated.
The tethered blinked in confusion. She looked to Ingrid. "This is... *Avince* he is speaking?
Ingrid crouched near it, "Definetly not a bomb." It was a rather small aberration, a grey one. It's shape was odd, not a person but a burnt house, it looked similar to the house that she helped. Strange.
"Da," she replied.
SHRIEK...
She pulled out an item that looked like a fish from her stomach "Speak your language into this and have it translate to avincian," she tossed it to Rikard. "You know how to use it."
SHRIEK...
"A, znachytʹ, ty Vosoryanyn, tak?" She pressed her lips together in a thin line as the speaktrout was offered, eyes darting between Ingrid's stomach, confounded, and the new item. "I am work on my Avince sree months. Is good enough, no?" Then she smiled. "Sank you, zo, friend." She gestured at one of the eggs in Roslyn's grasp. "This sing, zo, is... how you say..." She rocked back and forth. Then, she paused. "I am using ze tethered sensing on her." She hummed in a low note of concentration.
"I can sense ze drakon material." She nodded. "Wery much dragon material." She blinked as Rikard held out the speaktrout. "Ah kurva. Okay. Sank you." She took it. "I have seen ziss before." She nodded, and the trout took over as she switched languages. Its voice was eminently sophisticated, in contrast to the girl's. "There is a large fossil skeleton with some scales intact. It stands in the village square in Lyubev, near my home. It has this exact pattern. It is known to be highly explosive. You are lucky to be alive."
Roslyn remained a bit quiet throughout all of this. She continued to hold the oddities in her arms as they spotted Rikard examining something. It felt wiser to wait until he finished, but she feared the trail going cold. Still, she bit her tongue and observed the ongoings. With her arms full, she felt an itch on her elbow and couldn't reach it. That's when Ingrid nudged her. Her eyes turned to the taller woman and cocked her head a bit, following them to a tether.
When the girl spoke, the mission to Vossoriya surfaced in her head. More specifically the struggle communicating with the hegelans.
"We found them in a building, but not sure why they didn't explode..." She tried to recall everything in the house best she could.
"Do you know the species?" Rikard asked excitedly.
The tethered girl considered. "Hmm." She nodded sagely. "Back home we call it somesing like..." She whispered into the speaktrout, blushing. "Beeg dead fuck-off dragon." She straightened, properly. "Well, ze peasants did." She shrugged. "Of which I am not one."
"I mean, beeg dead fuck-off drakon didn't explode for like... million years eizer." The girl shrugged.
She was squatted near it. It was too small to do much for her but every little bit could help. Roslyn could use it, she's been worried about her strength since what happened in bog. Then again, the tethered could use these and she was helping out quite a bit. She looked at the girl. But isn't she already progressed pretty far.
SHRIEK...
"Dami did not bless me with a good mind today," she yawned over the aberration.
In a sleepy eyed haze, Ingrid simply gave in. Black aberrations were easy to get but greys were not. "Hey Ms. Vossoria, there is a grey aberration here, you want it in exchange for helping us?"
SHRIEK...
"You know, one time, when I was pick turnips in ze field, we find ziss egg." She focused again, sensing. "Yes. Beeg explosiveness energy, but ziss one is dud." She rolled up, bent double, and knocked gently on it. Rikard's eyes widened and he moved to stop her. "See, nossing!" She straightened, smiled, and threw her hands out to the side like a performer.
"Well," he addressed her, "what if you heat it?" He was watching her closely.
The tethered blinked. "Well, you see what happens when you light sings on fire, little boy," she laughed, and winked. Rikard blushed.
At hearing Rikard mention heating it, Roslyn snapped her gaze into his direction. "Let's not heat it while I'm holding them, please. I've been blown up more times than I should for a life time."
It was at that moment that people's collective attention was drawn to the rare grey aberration that had spawned. They more or less all scurried over. "Slawa Menskuva," the new arrival remarked under her breath, but she would not look a gift horse in the mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise and gratitude.
Unbidden, conking Ingrid lightly on the shins, the tethered girl threw her arms around the much taller woman. "For me!?" She squeezed tightly, swinging loosely back and forth. "You are already friend! I could kiss you if I was... how you say..."
"Lesbian," interjected the speaktrout.
"Yees. Lesvyan!"
She tumbled back into her wheelchair, turned eagerly on the spot, and sucked the entire thing up in a single go. She leaned back, head lolling to the side, eyes rolled back, and patted her stomach afterwards. "Better zan home cooking." She straightened, smiled, and winked.
Rikard chuckled nervously and blushed. "Heh. Huhuh." He swallowed and smirked a little. "Learned my lesson there," he replied with the least sheepish sheepishness tone one could imagine. "I'llwaittilyou'renotthere," he slipped in quietly at the end.
Roslyn noticed the blush and it clicked to what he might've said. "Thank you, and I appreciate it. Though I do want to see it."
She hugged back and let go, "Another pretty girl saying they would kiss me if they swung that way. Such a shame." Ingrid faked sighed as she moved out of the way for the girl to take it. Also acting as a sort of guarantor against some greedy actors. The Century's were about after all.
Rikard nodded. "That is the worry. Nothing about its behaviours was natural."
The tethered girl pursed her lips, finally recovered. "Well, back home we have little kite drakon. Many many drakon." She shook her head. "Zey newer ewer come back and forss. If ziss is drakon, it is having ze rider." She glanced over the town and shuddered. "Zey have ze reason." Her gaze levered up at the tree before flicking pointedly across the others.
Ingrid looked up at the tree, sighing genuinely this time. It's large branches were blackened, leaves so thin she could see the sky through it. Something in her was inflamed that they could have been purposeful. She basked there for longer than she should have, ignoring the shriek of her watch only to come back around to it after.
SHRIEK...
Her eyes came back into focus, "We should continue searching, this was a great deal of help but we may still find out what actors were involved if we hurry."
"Ingrid," Xiuyang began, patiently. "What in the unholy fuck is that?" She pointed at the shrieking thing.
"A pocket watch?" Ingrid gave Xiuyang a worrying look. "Do... do you not know what a pocket watch is. I didn't think it was that uncommon. I can get you one back at Ersand'Enise if you want." She offered whole heartedly.
Rikard tilted his head and leaned in to examine it. "A pocketwatch with a regular alarm..." he posited, straightening. "It appears that Ingrid has given up on the concept of stealth forever," he added glumly.
"Yes, I have one. Here, you can have one that doesn't emit the screams of the damned." She pulled her own pocket watch out, returning Ingrid's sass. "You know what I'm really asking," she insisted, more stubborn than their mutual friend Roslyn.
"I'm 6'4 and blessed by Ipte, I was never going to stealth, Rikard." she strunk a joking pose and with that her outfit changed to something striking for the group. "And there's that."
SHRIEK...
"It's a little busted, alright? Every 5 seconds it makes that noise and I haven't replaced it" She waited 2 seconds.
SHRIEK...
"See?"
The tethered made the sign of the pentad and glanced around nervously. She shook her head, twisting about on the spot. "No," she corrected Xiuyang. "It is for yayechna vidʹma." She made the pentact again. "Ze egg witch."
"Uh... sure. You're the egg witch now, Ingrid. I'll allow it."
"Better than Barbarian or Sea Giant," Ingrid shrugged. "I'm still partial to Ingy."
The tethered girl's eyes darted around in alarm. "No no no," she protested. "Is to keep egg witch away!" She regarded them earnestly: Ingrid's rueful smile, Xiuyang's sarcastic mirth, and Rikard's stifled laughter. She blushed fiercely. "You know I am official student of Ersand'Enise!" she tried, twisting about and straightening proudly. "I am only making ze joke about -" Her voice dipped precipitously. "yayechna vidʹma."
Xiuyang tried to wrack her brain and remember if Ingrid ever carried such a plain-looking pocket watch before, but other thoughts clouded her mind, such as the fact that she'd asked a weird and possibly personal question and insisted on an answer when it wasn't just the two of them. Why did she do that? *Because any day now, I might never see her again,* her heart answered, and she realized she was being selfish.
"Uh, really? I've never seen you before," she replied to the girl, quickly changing the subject.
Rikard glanced Xiuyang's way and then back. "Well, as scary as... the egg witch is, I do think we should try to see if there's more to find, and be ready to fight."
"And hear I thought you were saying I could finally bewitch something," Ingrid wallowed in her failed romances and attempts. "I hope there is some fighting to wake me up, maybe a little wrestling match." She stretched to keep herself awake.
SHRIEK...
"Let's get a move on."
"Yeah, we should, uh, find someone who can like... be on dragon watch duty." She lowered her eyelids and gave Rikard, Ingrid and Roslyn a meaningful look.
The tethered girl nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Is most important job. Ziss should go to stronkest mage, yees?"
Rikard nodded in agreement, eyes flicking over the absurd foreigner. "Or the person with the longest range and greatest skill." He looked towards the tethered almost reverently.
Ingrid looked slyly at Xiuyang, "她可能是她自己, 也可能不是. 如果她是的话, 我不会冒险把它送给 Roslyn." though her response seemed to trail off as she heard the conversation with Rikard and the 'tethered'
No, I agree, the optics of giving it to anyone else would be terrible, and her information was useful. Still, assigning her as our Tethered lookout is an unconscionable risk. We should find someone we can trust. She replied to Ingrid in Rettanese, giving Rikard an invisible, disappointed side-eye.
I can see your poin—
SHRIEK...
Ingrid silenced the fish before it made an incident.
—t. My sensing range is pretty good from atomic practice and I can 'see' heat so maybe I should. Her words were quieted at the end. She seemed rather unsure if she could manage despite her words.
Roslyn had caught the look Xiuyang flashed her. She had to admit something felt off about this woman, but she couldn't place what. Part of her thought she was being paranoid and wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Upon hearing the ReTan pouring out between Ingrid and Xiuyang... Roslyn took a deep breath. She hated standing here like an idiot with no clue of what they were saying.
"Well, I think the trail is getting cold if we're just standing here." She adjusted the eggs and then floated them down onto the ground. "So we have idea where to look next for clues? Based on the possible theory we have, I don't know of any way to track a rider on a dragon. They would be long gone before the hours of Ipte ended."
"We'll have to question the locals. Thankfully wyeou saved a lot of them." Xiuyang faked a hiccup. "I'll relay my concerns to the Zenos while you do that, and then probably fall asleep under a table or something." She took a drink from her gourd.
"We haven't searched too much, Ms..." she shook her head realizing she hadn't found out her name. "My apologies, what is your name, I can't keep addressing you as Ms. Vossoriya for too much longer."
"I am from a faraway country, but I am not stupid person," the - was she Vossoriyan or not? - interjected. "You are not trusting of me." She pursed her lips and nodded. "Reasonable. Fair, even. You can call me Svitlana, or Lana." She shrugged. "Is same to me." Then, she closed her eyes and reached out. "There are still few small fires that are burn in other part of ze city." She pointed due east. She took a deep breath. "Ze tree is..." she trailed off and opened one eye, just a peep. "She is almost dead," the girl squeaked. "She is wery close." She swallowed and shook her head.
Then, she flicked some hair behind one of her great big peasant shoulders and closed both eyes again. "Then... we have ze river is not boil now, and..." She stiffened suddenly, and her eyes flew open. "Beeg drakon!" She reached down and snapped her wheels unlocked, whirling on the spot. "Beeg drakon souss!" She nodded anxiously. "He is crossing ze river!"
Roslyn rubbed the back of her neck, feeling a bit ashamed. "Roslyn." She offered her own name up as she listened to the rest. At the mention of the dragon, she glanced at her friends before she shot off toward the river.
Her jaw clenched at hearing the state of the tree. Her distrust if Svitlana was a tethered shook off and the thought of confirming the tree's state. It made her sick to her stomach. But she calmed, she needed to stay tepid, emotions were quick to throw her into a spiral. A deep breath and...
SHRIEK...
"Ingrid Penderson, Ingy for friends." she gave her name quickly. With the arrival of a dragon, Ingrid felt she needed to head off. Whether it was anger bubbling over or simply being more experienced, she began to heat her leaded box, preparing for battle.
"Wery nice to meet you," Svitlana replied hastily, but then they had bigger problems to deal with. She paused, hands on wheels. "I should stay here?" she asked bemusedly. The terrain ahead was rough and broken. A massive energy signature loomed in the distance, not that the others could sense it yet. Her arms and shoulders flexed and strained and, within moments, much of the group was moving.
youtube.com/watch?v=XCRYDMj0UIg&list=…
The group began to pull on the movement in the air to propel themselves toward to a potential suspect for the burning of the tree. Dozens of numpets, washed out of the river by rain and explosions line the way and the foreign helpers struggled to get past them. Ingrid was the first to arrive given her greater mobility and strength than the literal children and wheelchaired tethered.
Ingrid sensed a massive, hulking form. It was obese and slow-moving. It appeared to be sitting in the river and it was... eating something. Perhaps.... a horse? She did not sense a rider, though his or her energy signature may just be melding with that of the dragon at this range.
There, in the middle of a wide slow muddy river lay a vast hulking monster of a dragon. It was... a truly horrifying sight. In its mouth was not a horse, but...
An entire skuggvar.
The King Coal Toad, one of the five legendary dragons of the Twin Continents, was gorging itself on the carcass. For a moment, Ingrid could take solace in the fact that it hadn't seen her. Its vast dread maw made a horrible crunching, slurping sound as it ate.
Then, it turned: first one large round eye slid towards her. It let out a low rumbling croak. Then, the other. Then, its head. It was the largest coal toad she had ever seen: easily eighty feet in length, equally wide, and towering nearly forty feet in height. The beast's eyes were upon her.
Ingrid readied illusions for the coming battle.
The four of them stare down the hulking monster. It lets out a low rumbling warning croak.
Svitlana, thoroughly out of breath, takes a moment to catch it.
"Maybe we should've gone to get help?" Roslyn whispered, fighting not to tremble.
"Ziss," she panted, "is not ze sing tat dropped ze bomb." She shook her head, eyes wide. "I am supposed go to Ersand'Enise," she squeaked. "I am not wanting to die."
Rikard landed smoothly, writhed in lightning. "Prepare to eat shit, frog."
"I sink it already does ziss," Svitlana countered. "It is not look picky."
"It wants to eat the dead and potentially erase evidence," Ingrid's illusion began to spread out.
Svitlana made the sign of the pentad. She prayed rapidly in Menskuvan.
Rikard watched the creature closely. "I don't think it's the one that caused this, though: just an opportunist."
"Still going to create issues if it sticks around. So how do we get rid of it?" Roslyn asked.
"Drop the temperature of it and the water, it might leave," Ingrid called out to her more active members.
Svitlana regarded the other three. "Is true. When we wish for getting toad drakons off ze land, we make zem cold." She nodded, already starting to draw
Roslyn nods then inhaled, drawing all her courage. She focused on drawing all the heat from the water and air around the creature.
The illusions served to keep it on multiple targets make it feel outnumbered. Ingrid began to draw heat, trying not to freeze it but to make it uncomfortable. She wasn't stupid enough to fight it if it knew she was there…
The water temperature dropped precipitously, and Svitlana grimaced. "Ze poor plants." She shook her head. "Zey will be dying."
The king coal toad let out another rumbling croak and it was so loud and deep that each could feel it in their bones. It lifted a massive clawed webbed foot and seemed to be tensing up. "Back home," Svitlana whispered, "zey do tis as warning. Steadyyyy."
"Stand your ground," Ingrid stated rather assuredly.
The dragon eyed them and the dead skuggvar - a mighty beast in its own right - lay half-eaten at its feet. Energy began to boil. It was drawing.
"Maybe it's better to back up a bit?" Roslyn suggested.
"I spy some numpets over there. Maybe we can lure or push it over there?" Roslyn pointed over to a small island with Devilspine numpets and King numpets
Rikard nodded. He crouched low and let out a small pulse of electricity into the water.
Svitlana concentrated. Around the dragon, the river weeds grew thick and tangled. They pooled around it, sticking and constricting. It was neither elegant or fast, but it was added pressure.
Ingrid assisted, making the water behind where they wanted it to go colder to annoy it.
All at once the coal toad lifted its head, tensed up, and sprung forward in a small hop. It stepped right in the cluster of large spiny numpets and abruptly pulled its foot back. Roslyn and Svitlana used their skills in chemical magic to enhance the binding of the neurotoxins to the Koal toads nerves.
"That's for the chemical mages." Ingrid gave a thumbs up to Roslyn seeing how her plan worked.
A large angry croaking roar reverberated down the river.
While Ingrid and Svitlana were able to hunker and redirect the blast, Roslyn was blasted backward, breaking her wrist and a rib, and Rikard was hurled into a tree. His head smacked it and the world disappeared.
"Lightning boy!" shouted Svitlana, for she did not know his name. She tried to make her way over, but she was not the fastest. She stopped, then, and froze. "Rosin, are you healer?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Get Rikard!" She shouted through clenched teeth as she cradled her side, trying to steady her breath.
Ingrid merely glanced at Rikard and Roslyn's flying by. She could heal but she couldn't turn her back on the toad. "I can heal as well." She needed to keep on the aggravation and hoped it just say this as too much trouble.
Once it left, Ingrid went over to heal Rikard, "Let me help, Lana" Ingrid rested one hand on on Rikard's head the other on her staff.
The coal toad, meanwhile, with a final grumpy noise, picked the dead skuggvar up in its mouth and trundled away.
Svitlana slid out of her wheelchair and onto the ground. "If you are good healer, we heal togezer." She felt around the boy's neck and the back of his skull with practiced hands. "He's neck is not broken." She shook her head. Then, she froze. "His skull is." She swallowed, took a deep breath, and steadied herself.
"Unbind ze blood away." Svitlana, who had seemed something of a joke before, twisted Ingrid's way for a split second, a nurse in an emergency room.
Ingrid like many dozens of times before called upon the staff's power to increase her knowledge "Can do."
As Roslyn felt her body mend itself, she got onto her feet and start to move toward Rikard and the others. "How can I help?"
"You have any magnet magic?" the tethered asked Ingrid.
"Nope," She looked at Roslyn, "Any jolt might help"
"I got a little." Roslyn began to delve into her shallow knowledge of magnetic magic. She tried to pour it lightly through his veins but lacked the raw prowess to push through Rikard. Svitlana and Ingrid used what they could to assist Roslyn but things looked dire and hopeless for what felt like minutes. But eventually, his eyes began to move.
The first thing that Rikard saw when he woke up was three women leaning over him.
"Thank the Gods." Roslyn exhaled with relief.
Ingrid hugged him tightly, "How did you get sent like that!"
He sputtered and sat up. Meanwhile, on the horizon, a soft glow that had begun half an hour prior, began to spread as the sun broke through the hovering clouds.
"I was..." He glanced away.
"Trying to help me." Svitlana interrupted. "I would fly if he did not."
"I'm just happy you're not dead," Ingrid sighed a breath of relief.
"So am I," Rikard chuckled nervously, glancing at Svitlana.
"We should likely get out of here. Before something else happens." Roslyn suggested.
"Can you feel all your toes and fingers?" Ingrid asked out of concern of their novice magnetic skill.
Svitlana glanced her way for a second, something ripe on the tip of her tongue, but then she nodded. Rikard waved them off. "Yeah," he said, flexing them. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks," he added. "Let's, uh... go."
The Menskuvan nodded. "Yees, I agree." She tried to turn on the spot, got stuck for a moment, and then muscled her way out. "I sink asking ze people is best idea."
"Agreed." Roslyn pushed up onto her feet as she began to walk back toward the town, gesturing for them to come along.
Rikard nodded as well. "Right, yeah. We need to question them."
"Oh!" Svitlana asked, trying to keep up, "where you people from anyway? I am Ersand'Enise student!"
"Also a student there. Homeland is Hendland." Roslyn replied without judgement, "Though, I will note... never seen you in any class or on the grounds. I think I would remember you."
Ingrid rose, wiping a stray tear from her eye. She didn't cry but how many stories do you hear about someone dying from a little hit to the head.
SHRIEK...
Ingrid turned to Lana, "We are Ersand'Enise students, sent here to put out the fires." Ingrid smiled in such a way to where she knows she is lying.
Lana froze, mid-push. Rikard's eyes darted her way - first to her chest (very briefly), and then to her face.
The tethered's expression was inscrutable. She took another push. "Oh," she remarked, and they continued in silence for a bit. "I bet you sink I am liar, hmm?" A small smile built on her face. Her gaze went briefly to each of the other three in turn.
"Nay, but I think we need a little more information to understand. At least, I do." Roslyn said, studying her face.
"My brain is a little rattled so mind telling me what I am thinking?" Ingrid smirked at her.
They were away from the river now, and on wide blessedly *flat* flagstones. Svitlana coasted along. She was doing it. It was real. These were her classmates! She nearly popped a wheelie out of joy. "I am transfer zere for new semester!" she chirped, slowing for a moment, pivoting on the spot, and throwing her arms out to the sides. "I am just on my way!" She leaned in and lowered her voice. "Portal in Enth is cheap, you know." Her smile was huge and excited and not at all like the fine lady that the vorozhka had told her she would one day become. In this moment, however, she didn't care.
"That explains it." Roslyn smiled, pleased to find things adding up. At least mostly. "Do you know what classes you have yet or will you find out when you get there? I can loan you my notes for any we have together."
"I usually fly Jojo Express so I wouldn't know," Ingrid admitted. "Glad to have you as a peer, I'll treat you to Zenobucks when we get back."
"If we all don't fall into bed first." Roslyn pointed out, then realized one of them were in a wheel. "Sorry. Bad choice of words."
"I had my fight and my cries, I'm good for another 5 moons," Ingrid waved off the tiredness. She kept an eye on Rikard. He was rather quiet, hopefully just reflecting on his mortality and not going braindead.
"Your drooping eyes says otherwise." Roslyn countered.
"Droopy so they can keep looking at all the shorties here." Ingrid snarked back.
Rikard's gaze focused on Svitlana as she spoke and, for a moment, Nipton was not a ruin in the background, but a thriving market town. Ingrid was a yasoi he didn't know. Roslyn was... an Enthish guy. Svitlana was blonde and winking at him and... No, she wasn't Jocasta! Why was Jocasta always there, at the edge of his mind?
"Good to have you!" he remembered to reply. "You could steal my notes if I took any."
Svitlana laughed nervously. "Hah! Yes!" she responded, "I would read zem all." She stifled a yawn. "If I am not falling asleep first." She shook her head. "Into bed." She stuck her tongue out, just a tiny bit, Roslyn's way, and reached up to punch her playfully on the arm. They still had witnesses to question and it would likely eat up most of their day. At least she would enter Ersand'Enise with a bang. "Oh, you should know I am actually wery tall. *So* tall!" she shot back at Ingrid. "Too bad I cannot prove it!" she harrumphed, sticking her nose up in the air and grinning.
Roslyn rubbed her arm where Lana punched. "Ouch, that hurt. You got some power behind that arm, don't you? If I need any heavy lifting, I'll give you a summons." She teased as she returned to a more seriously topic. "I think we should start in the camps then move outward. Those who are injured might have seen something before things happened."
His gaze resting on Svitlana was worrying. A new crush or something else, Ingrid couldn't tell but he spoke so she let it slide.
SHRIEK...
"Maybe I can find out at a sleepover," Ingrid winked at her. She spoke a little more seriously, "We need to keep moving and looking for clues, I can't rest until I know what happened here." She looked grimly at the tree. "Oh the poor tree."
It was in this spirit that they made their way to the camps and set about their work with the utmost seriousness, but a bit of sunshine as well. They were good people, doing a hard job, but they were doing it well, and there was room for happiness in there.
All her classmates found themselves investigating what could have truly conspired here the previous night. Ingrid was no different except she was also spurred by a duty to inform a constable of an explosive hidden in the ground.
The late night had taken its toll, baggy eyes, messy hair shuffled into a ponytail, and a strangely clean set of clothes. She shifted her weapons further back on her belt before meeting the constable, trying her best not to spook him with the whole random raider with an axe in an Enthish city.
"Constable?" Ingrid called out to one of the few available, "I was in the western end of the city last night and I buried a few kegs of gunpowder to prevent it from exploding, I was hoping that you would come with me to oversee its retrieval."
The constable Ingrid had managed to holler was bald, slightly overweight and a good half-foot shorter than her. Some would call him the typical middle-aged Enthishman. His uniform was damaged and his shining head was smeared with charcoal. Still, he patrolled for survivors and explosives, still on duty since the fire first started.
"What's that love?" inquired the man, leaning in slightly with his ear out. "Oh, that's a pickle innit? Off we go, then."
”Thank you,” Ingrid nodded and led the way there. It was silence for a minute or 2. Ingrid was tired and struggling to come up with a line of questioning before she eventually blurted something out.
”So, what part of the city were you in last night?”
The constable was not one to ramble either, at least not after having his lungs fill with smoke all night. The foreigner could handle the chit-chat if she wanted to.
"Last night? Everywhere." he spoke, the rasp in his voice returning, with his response ending with a light cough. "Was on night duty. From start t'finish, flames and war."
Ingrid nodded while maintaining her walk, mostly noting he was on night duty. ”My peers and I from Ersand’Enise appeared in the northeast camp that had been established. Everything was already on fire by the time we came.” Ingrid walked smoothly across the ground, avoiding the occasional heap of ash.
She looked up at what remained of the tree, ”Do you think you can fill me in on what you saw before we arrived?” Ingrid asked.
Constable Dupont listened, his eyes mostly on the trail forward. A few 'uh-huhs' here and there. "Hmm." he pondered for a few seconds. "Think I was by the barracks when it happened - y'know, away from the tree. Schillinger wasn't so lucky." he stopped and pointed toward the North, where one of the armories were. "Then it all exploded. I turn around and it's all on fire." his hand ventured toward the burnt tree. "It was very dark. I know something was flying above. But nothing to see or sense."
Ingrid nodded along, briefly forming the signing the pentad at the loss of another constable. ”A lot of brave men and women were lost that night,” Ingrid sorrowfully said. She looked back up to the trail, the place was mostly destroyed by the fires raging. Luckily the armory was still standing enough for her to recollect where it was.
”A dozen or so feet below is where I encased it,” Ingrid looked for permission before she dug it up.
Dupont nodded with his lips pursed upon hearing her apologies. Soon they had arrived at the burial site of the gunpowder, where he gestured his okay for her to go about it. This woman was huge and clearly an envoy from that prodigious school, she could handle it, while he sat down for a break.
"Wasn't just the middle. It was above too." he recalled while indulging in booze in a flask. "A lot of these things fell all over. A lot in houses, those on the streets rolled into alleys mostly. Some exploded after landing."
Ingrid made careful but easy work of uncovering the gunpowder. The ground where she covered it had become strangely homogenous and dense from her lack of skill. Chunks came out one at a time to ensure no accident came about.
"We came across some inside a house that hadn't detonated. They were odd, felt like dragon scales on the outside but had something inside of them." Ingrid still pondered the nature of those things. Evidence points that it was some sort of dragon but she had never heard of a dragon with such odd scales.
"Do you remember any sound or odd feeling before everything happened?" Ingrid asked after making decent headway into the ground.
Dupont heard her but thought little of what she said. Whether it was a dragon, a man, a bird or even a God, there was little he could do about it. The titans of this world had this. When asked another question, he shrugged. "No, other than a little wind right before it happened." he shook his head in his loss for words. Then he paused. "The explosions started more on one side, I remember. Got really bad there very quickly."
"And what side was that?" Ingrid asked. She finally uncovered the gunpowder, "It'll be coming up soon." She told him. Where they were to put it was a question for him.
The constable shrugged. "Think around here?" he looked around, only to see devastation around him, though it wasn't nearly as bad as other parts of town. "Wherever it got pretty bad quick before it got better." he concluded. Not quite feeling like standing up, he gestured in dismissal. "Store 'em in one of the sheds or some'in."
Ingrid nodded her head, "Think it's a good idea to leave this much gunpowder around where anyone can grab it?" She questioned it but didn't stop doing what she was told. She placed it in a nearby shed, praying it wasn't going to be looted or set off by some kids. "Alright, you were on night shift, yeah? Do you remember what time they went off or any strange people around then?" She asked a rather large question since he seems to be enjoying his seat so much.
SHRIEK
"Yes, thank you Mr. watch," she grasped a tarnished brass watch, holding it to the 5 moons to enjoy the little helper. It ticked for 4 seconds but then on the fifth,
SHRIEK
It wasn't terribly loud, but it was loud enough that she shouldn't stay near other people studying. Her ears were more sensitive to disharmonious sounds than most. It grabbed her attention with its grating sound and almost acted as an anchor. Something consistent she could try to find when her mind would 'wander'. "Last thing I need is to be kicked out of the nerd group," she shoved it into her handbag. It wasn't perfect but it worked from time to time. That and checking the time was a good way to check where she was though it was more active.
"One page is a good start," Ingrid told herself but was deeply conscious of the tens of pages she could write before. It was endlessly frustrating.
That's when she heard the centuries, walking with much agency at this time of day. It made her nervous, could they be here for her? No, they already know I'm a Sanguinaire and I haven't pushed the line recently. Even with some rationale, she kept herself guarded.
Old man Sigmund's words struck her heavily. Another daughter of the world tree was burning. It weighed on her in ways she could not describe. It was as if the grove near her home had been lit aflame. She had to go to it.
But could she? She could barely make notes, What if my mind wanders in the middle of saving someone? The thought was deeply unsettling. But Daigo's words, his taunt, were enough to spur her on. "I'll go."
SHRIEK
You arrive at the outskirts of Nipton at the Northwest evacuation camp. A few can be found wounded and being tended to, but most were mostly frightened. Nobody comes to tell you what to do or inform you of the situation, all you have is the massive inferno right before you. This giant tree, now an obelisk of orange and white in the heart of the city, blocks out the five full moons with its ceaseless discharge of smoke. It reeks everywhere.
The loud cracking of wood being burned en masse does little to hide the screams of fear and pain of the people, still trapped in their burning homes. Then there are the sporadic ‘pops’, akin to gunshots but stronger, yet also too swift and fleeting to be a cannon shot.
Rushing through the western wing of the city, Ingrid was searching for accelerant and other volatile compound. She sensed something but was unsure of herself until Roslyn's reassurance. She tended to the armory, removing the gunpowder kept inside. Was this the level of security that the Enth kept there supplies.
She froze it solid to keep it cool and prevent future explosions.
SHRIEK
She looked at her pocket watch, she was viewing the wrong thing. What has she frozen? She needed to hide it from her vision to keep it safe. She blasted the ground open with binding and kinetic and buried it like a treasure.
"Out of sight, out of mind. Out of sight, out of mind," she repeated to herself as she centered herself on the noise.
She didn’t havethe luxury to relax as she could hear the panic at the market place over the roaring fire. Along the way from the armory to the marketplace, Ingrid drew from the flames and dragged water like a snake over to the people. All the energy she built concentrated into a thin line in front of her. Tiny explosion ruptured through the water for a hundred feet, creating a field of mist. Ingrid knew she had done it this time because the futures of them burning to death here lessened.
"I will get you out of here but just be patient and wait for me to clear the way!" she yelled to everyone else. A path was made clear by Roslyn and Rikard and Ingrid guided them through until she saw the last person limp to a way out of the flames.
She finished guiding people in, "They have good binders at the camps! If you can stand the pain, let other more serious cases go first!" she directed them there. Her job in the west was done, "Alright, now to the residential area," she looked up at the burning tree. It was such a magnificent tree. Who would dare try and burn it? She wanted to go but she couldn't set it higher than the people suffering.
SH/RIE/K
Johann was, quite simply, overwhelmed It was bad enough that he considered liquidating the entire area and fleeing. Things had seemed to be under control, but then the flames redoubled in a way that was distinctly... unnatural.
He saved what he could: the large family in the large house with a wave of dirt via binding. He simply stuck with the numbers. That was when Haurah arrived: a water manipulator from the water riding a wave. She came, helped, and moved on. That was the temporal signature he'd detected!
Then, moments later, Ingrid: deliverance! "What a welcome face you are!" he crowed in the Eskandishwoman's direction.
She didn't much pay attention to it, she started to walk and next thing she was next to Johann. Her feet were wet and she had little idea what was going on. "Uh, Yeah!" was she actually here? She couldn't tell. She lost track of the timing and now she was just hoping.
She sensed the people in the cellar and in the yarn house. Close enough to each other to help both. Her scepter glowed and released immense knowledge into Ingrid's mind. Binding kinetic lifted the building and formed a slide solidified with arcane for the yarn people. Both could escape. She breathed in and held her breath. She looked at her watch. Was she even in the right time? Try all her might to know for sure but she simply had to try and stick to this future, present, or past.
She looked at Johann, "I'm going to head North! There is someone left in the inn but I trust you Johann." she smiled at him and when she turned her head she was surrounded by flames. Again she had moved without knowing it.
SH/EI/K
"FUCK!" did she go back or forward? Did she just teleport? Fuck, I don't have time. She sensed and went for whoever she could help.
She felt the burning house and the family inside. Explosions were coming and she had little time. She sucked up the entirety of the heat of the burning building, locking it place with her kinetic magic. Her manas stretched and let out the kinetic energy as she drew. It was a lot but she could handle it. "Get to safety, there is a place in the northwest!"
Daybreak
In the very first hours of Ardanes 24 of DZ55, two hundred and seven lives that would have surely perished on this fateful night had been stolen from the clutches of Eshiran. Young heroes, with the occasional aid from their betters, had saved lives with little direction or preparation, they bravely leapt into the maws of oblivion and fought to the bitter end. Said end came under the form of a deadly light show of explosions that swallowed almost the entirety of the east and south of Nipton.
Desmond rushed out with his legion of steeds while Johann dove into the final unchecked building in the hopes of salvaging a final life. Zeno Haurah could only delay the inevitable so long before she retreated into the river, biding her time until she would help reclaim Nipton from its infernal oppressor. Had it not been of Marco’s purging of the unidentified oval-shaped explosives into a temporal oubliette, a catastrophe few could truly imagine would have befell even those hidden in the camps.
Two hundred and seven were going to die had it not been for these heroes. And hundreds more would have been added if Zeno Marbrand and Desmond Catulus had not been there at the right time. Dozens, if not hundreds too, would have agonized until an unclean and horrible end had it not been for the relentless battle of Xiuyang and Roslyn in the rescue camps. Lost causes were not relegated to callous triage with these two - they saved all they could.
In the end, sixty-four had died. Most of them from the initial attack on the tree, others were simply unfortunate and were caught in the blaze before anyone knew what was even going on. Seven of them were soldiers with enough talent in the gift to make a difference. Nearly all died in an attempt to rescue their fellow townsfolk.
The end of the nightmare that nearly devoured the entirety of this once bustling city had begun when a new portal had opened. Arch Zeno Sigmund Bastañer, along with seasoned century Colette D’Aureville and High Zeno Giancarlo Silvestri, had joined the fight. Together with the current Zenos on sight, the toxic fumes were quickly siphoned into a rapidly formed earthen container and the flames quelled by a collective manipulation of heat to force immediate rainfall. The fire was controlled.
The clouds dispersed and the smoke, while it lingered, failed to hide the sun breaking through the horizon. The long night was finally over. Our heroes could finally rest.
The fire had started to settle and smolder on itself. The voices of the helpless were lost to the sound of cracking stone and wood. It was a helpless little world, one torn by destruction, it was consistent. She cooled a partially burnt house, entering one of the rooms to rest.
"Apologies for the intrusion," she spoke to no one.
Dust and debris were made scarce with a flick of the wrist. The time streams she could see narrowed. Some small fires might break out, maybe she would fall asleep or make a sad attempt to rebuild. The possibilities were infinite but finite now. All she had to do was keep limiting them.
Closing her eyes, pruned a few more.
Lay on the floor, feel nothing to snip any emotions. A few more options are gone.
SHRIEK...
There it was. Her pocket watch. It had stayed with her and it still worked. Every fifth second it would sound out a terrible noise. She felt it in her hand. The gentle ticks building to a misfire. It was calming.
SHRIEK...
SHRIEK...
SHRIEK...
Slowly, over the course of who knows how long, she came to know where she was. She was in the present, inside a burnt little home, lying in the room of someone who hopefully got out.
Her breathing was stifled, her dress deciding the air was too toxic to breathe. She rose, trying to remove the mask to no avail. If she wanted to remove it, she would need to go to one of the camps. "To the northeast camps, maybe I can see Rikard, Roslyn, or Desmond if I go." She took one step at a time.
Roslyn had adapted Guy's water breathing spell a bit and tried to use it to purify the air of fumes. The imperfections in the spell's alteration caused her throat to itch. She forced herself to tolerate it as her eyes flicked about. A dense haze surrounded her until she spotted a shambling shadow approach. She squinted harder and thought she recognized the person. Ingrid?
With her heart in her throat, Roslyn rushed over. Her shoes scattered cooled ashes as she tried to pull the woman to fresher air. Once there, she'd then drop the spell and check for wounds.
"You look like a mess, sit here." Her hand pointed to a fallen log. At this point, it didn't matter if she sounded bossy or overly worried. She dusted Ingrid off with kinetic and her hand, then reached for the mask. "Okay, lets get this off you. Gently."
She followed her to the save area. She was whispering a small melody as she went to keep track to the ticking. "I'm not that much of a mess," Ingrid retorted with the shake of a head, freeing some ash.
When her hand came up to her face she simply moved it to her cheek, "It will go away on it's own." She rested her head on her hand for a bit. "Did you get away—"
SHRIEK
"—unharmed." She looked into Roslyn's eyes with her own very tired eyes.
Roslyn's eyebrow arched at the retort. "Ingrid, I'm sorry to tell you this... But you kinda look like you sat in a campfire. Made my heart stop for a moment back there."
At the assurance, her panic subside a bit. She didn't spot any serious wounds much to her relief. As her hand was moved and before the Eskandish woman finished, a small shriek made her jump.
"What was that?!?" She asked while applying a chemical boost to Ingrid.
Ingrid looked ever so bluntly at Roslyn, "and you look like a chimney mouse." She rose an eyebrow and let out a scoff.
She ruffled her hair, "It's just a watch."
SHRIEK...
"A very loud one."
Roslyn blinked for a moment like her mind had stopped working. Suddenly, either due to exhaustion or Ingrid's comment, she chuckled. When it died, she countered. "True, but at least they look cute. So I'll take that as a compliment."
She gritted her teeth at the sound of the alarm again finding it irritating a bit. "What for? And how do you feel now? I tried to boost your mind a bit, but I might need to do more."
she remained sitting and stretched, "It was most definitely a compliment ash mouse."
SHRIEK...
"Can't handle a little bit of noise? feeling a little *mousy?*" Ingrid let out a laugh as she stood up. "I'm fine, truly. I rested in a house by myself, honestly."
SHRIEK...
ticking out her tongue at the teasing, Roslyn took a deep breath. Her hands pulled back when Ingrid stood up and gave herself a brief glance over. "I'm glad someone got some rest and I really look like a mess, don't I?"
She picked a bit at her sleeve as she continued. "It's not that, really. It's been a long night and sounds get on my nerves easier when I'm tired. Give me a bit to perk up my mood."
Taking a moment, she focused on her internal chemical. She soaked in the fresher feel of the change as she then bit her lip. That's when she noticed something. "You're avoiding my question, what's it for?" Her hands dusted out her skirt as she then added. "All this temporal has me itching up a storm."
With a touch of magic, Ingrid cleaned the sooty mouse to a field mouse she was. "You used too." She bopped her hair with a little bit of wind.
"Seeing you was the perk I needed," Ingrid winked and walked past her, "Come on, we have some investigating we need to do."
SHRIEK...
She yawned lazily, "Oh the pocket watch? It's just a little busted though its been useful to train. Plus I got it for a great price."
Enthish investigatory bodies and sleuthing Centuries were increasing in the charred remains of Nipton. All had the same goal, though one could only fully trust oneself, and Roslyn had so far been keen in her awareness and decision making.
A neighboring house had taken less damage than the rest - it was still cooked, but it was mostly external. Inside, Roslyn could pickup on a subtle anomaly. There were oval-shaped objects, no more than a foot long and varied in size, scattered about inside that house. She would come to find that they were the same objects that both Marco and Johann had found. The reason for their misfire was yet to be determined.
Roslyn frowned. "That is... weird."
She was no expert on fire, but she had suffered the aftermath when someone tried to set her town on fire once. Stepping away from Ingrid, she slowly walked into the neighboring house. Her eyes moved about as if expecting the place to crumble down on top of her. Oval-shaped objects caught her attention instantly. "Uh, Ingrid. I found something!"
She came near and crouched down, taking in the thing's appearance. Her hand reached out to hover above it, her magic trying to sense for heat or movement. What in the hells were these things? She questioned.
Ingrid pulled on the strands of light coming to her, unveiling a hidden world of colors and information. Sadly, it brought her nothing definitive at the time. She sighed, "Such is the nature of investigating."
SHRIEK...
Her ears perked up, "Coming." She floated over the ground, going fully sideways to slide through the doors.
"Well that seems quite alien," she hadn't seen it before but it was a little too odd to not be something.
To Roslyn, it was as alien as could be. The texture was neither metal nor wood. And it didn't feel particularly hot to the touch. They also felt a little lighter than they looked, no more than a kilogram and a half.
Ingrid, however, had a breakthrough: The shape wasn't anything she was familiar with nor the texture, at first. But as her nails grazed over the surface, little particles were stripped of the surface layer. It wasn't too dissimilar to how shed scales from a Froabas felt and react to friction, although these were clearly not from a Froabas. But by reasonable deduction, there were simply too many similarities to not determine some sort of draconic origin.
"Draconic? The seem similar to Froabas scales," Ingrid looked outside. "Maybe it was an air raid of some sort." She rolled it in her hands, becoming more perplexed.
"It's similar, but not exactly. I'm not encyclopedic when it come to dragons. Maybe some of our friends and century may be more learned than me. Maybe Rikard, he does a lot of... studying."
"Never seen a Froabas, but that's a good idea. No point in riddling this out on our own." Using kinetic, Roslyn grabbed three different sizes. "Lets try Rikard first."
She lead the way out of the house to find their other companions.
The youngest of the rescuers was crouched over a fragment from one of the exploding egg-shaped vessels. He seemed to be heating it with a sustained flame and sensing precisely. "A tethered would be just peachy right now," he mumbled as he worked. "Artificial element for sure." He scribbled on a piece of paper with a small lead.
Then, however, he paused. "Well that's not good!" The material was heating up of its own volition. The tiny fragments inside - it's 'cells' - were excited. It was - "Nope! Holy shit!" - going to blow! He tossed it away and tugged at space and time momentarily. "Fascinating..." he observed, eyes widening.
"Do we have a tethered on the scene?" Xiuyang asked the group collectively, sharing a thought with Rikard as she approached. "We may have a dragon problem. A big one."
Ingrid was frankly not scared. Things exploded all the time on her. More than most. "Ooh!" she shook Rikard's shoulder, "that's quite nifty."
SHRIEK...
"It could be blood magic, Trypano does things like this all the time, using organic materials as a base for constructs. Froabas may have just been the right material for the job." Ingrid commented to Xiuyang.
"Yes, but Trypano is weird," Xiuyang replied a bit more dismissively than she intended. "Listen, this bird saw something last night, something big in the—" "Big bird!" it interrupted. "Yes. In the sky, related to the fire." "Big bird! Big fire! Big!" It flapped its wings.
There were bits of the material all about, smoldering in little slushy heaps. Rikard tilted his head. "It's organic, but it has properties that... well..." He furrowed his brow. "They just shouldn't occur in nature. This is straight outta Trypano's book," he agreed gazing up at the sky. "A large flying animal, huh?" he responded, glancing at the remains again. "Probably draconic, like Ingrid mentioned, probably flying too high for anyone to sense it, unless..."
"Could be anything from. Dragons, birds, threshers, balloons, Zeplins, strange metal—"
SHRIEK...
"—flying contraptions that shoot explosives... Nah, not the right type of explosives."
"Unless you were a... tethered," Xiuyang finished as something conveniently caught her eye. A little too convenient, she would later realize.
Xiuyang immediately began flagging her down. "Ooooiiiii!"
"They really are everywhere now," Ingrid muttered.
As if summoned by their wishes was an obvious tethered: just look at her: all clearly using magic and not walking, just a-rollin' down the street, humming a nervous little tune, sweat beading on her forehead, skin greasy, and hair disheveled from the rescue effort. She stopped abruptly and tilted her head. "Tak?" she said, in fluent foreigner, eyes drifting towards the burning things all around.
"Guys, I think she's a Vossoriyan," Rikard murmured, "probably doesn't understand a word -"
The girl stiffened at his words, her helpful - if bemused - smile falling rapidly away. "I am... *what?*" she asked, in a bristly tone.
"Just what we needed!" Xiuyang interrupted with an invincible smile. "A thousand pardons if I'm completely off base here, but are you a Tethered?"
"Are you near Vossoria?" Ingrid asked, still more interested in where she was from. Something on her right just appeared, something gray. It stole her attention in a moment. "Maybe another bomb fell from the tree," she nudged Roslyn and headed over.
The girl blinked. "I am?" She seemed pleased. Then, came the second question. "I... am." She nodded, smiling reassuringly. "Yees, definitely. Tezered." She gestured downwards. "You see gimpy legs, yees? Haha." She shook her head in mirth.
"Vossoriya?" She glanced around. "I think we are wery far from there now, no?"
Rikard looked the girl up and down. His eyes lingered for a moment on her chest and somewhat low-cut dress. His two greatest loves made battle for his focus. Then, he blinked. "Ahem, uhhh.... yes," he replied. "So... wait." He paused. He snorted. "Oh, we're not near Vossoriya! Hah! I get it!"
Her eyes darted between the others. "Yees!" she replied, moving in closer. "I was make the joke! You like?"
Rikard blushed. "Uh... yeah. Great. Haha." He scratched at the back of his head. "So, the reason we needed a tethered is for -"
"This burning things, hmm?" She rolled forward, following Ingrid's glance to the side, and gestured at the substance on the ground. One chunk began to float upwards in a kinetic grasp. She looked to Xiuyang for confirmation.
"Uh... huh." Xiuyang offered helplessly, not really convinced on account of the girl not getting offended by her extremely blunt question like she expected—but, she was willing to let her shoot her shot. "Yes, please do." She smiled nervously, and looked to Rikard as if to wordlessly say that she needed him on standby if she screwed this up.
"We're looking to confirm the composition and properties of this material and its likely origin," Rikard elucidated.
The tethered blinked in confusion. She looked to Ingrid. "This is... *Avince* he is speaking?
Ingrid crouched near it, "Definetly not a bomb." It was a rather small aberration, a grey one. It's shape was odd, not a person but a burnt house, it looked similar to the house that she helped. Strange.
"Da," she replied.
SHRIEK...
She pulled out an item that looked like a fish from her stomach "Speak your language into this and have it translate to avincian," she tossed it to Rikard. "You know how to use it."
SHRIEK...
"A, znachytʹ, ty Vosoryanyn, tak?" She pressed her lips together in a thin line as the speaktrout was offered, eyes darting between Ingrid's stomach, confounded, and the new item. "I am work on my Avince sree months. Is good enough, no?" Then she smiled. "Sank you, zo, friend." She gestured at one of the eggs in Roslyn's grasp. "This sing, zo, is... how you say..." She rocked back and forth. Then, she paused. "I am using ze tethered sensing on her." She hummed in a low note of concentration.
"I can sense ze drakon material." She nodded. "Wery much dragon material." She blinked as Rikard held out the speaktrout. "Ah kurva. Okay. Sank you." She took it. "I have seen ziss before." She nodded, and the trout took over as she switched languages. Its voice was eminently sophisticated, in contrast to the girl's. "There is a large fossil skeleton with some scales intact. It stands in the village square in Lyubev, near my home. It has this exact pattern. It is known to be highly explosive. You are lucky to be alive."
Roslyn remained a bit quiet throughout all of this. She continued to hold the oddities in her arms as they spotted Rikard examining something. It felt wiser to wait until he finished, but she feared the trail going cold. Still, she bit her tongue and observed the ongoings. With her arms full, she felt an itch on her elbow and couldn't reach it. That's when Ingrid nudged her. Her eyes turned to the taller woman and cocked her head a bit, following them to a tether.
When the girl spoke, the mission to Vossoriya surfaced in her head. More specifically the struggle communicating with the hegelans.
"We found them in a building, but not sure why they didn't explode..." She tried to recall everything in the house best she could.
"Do you know the species?" Rikard asked excitedly.
The tethered girl considered. "Hmm." She nodded sagely. "Back home we call it somesing like..." She whispered into the speaktrout, blushing. "Beeg dead fuck-off dragon." She straightened, properly. "Well, ze peasants did." She shrugged. "Of which I am not one."
"I mean, beeg dead fuck-off drakon didn't explode for like... million years eizer." The girl shrugged.
She was squatted near it. It was too small to do much for her but every little bit could help. Roslyn could use it, she's been worried about her strength since what happened in bog. Then again, the tethered could use these and she was helping out quite a bit. She looked at the girl. But isn't she already progressed pretty far.
SHRIEK...
"Dami did not bless me with a good mind today," she yawned over the aberration.
In a sleepy eyed haze, Ingrid simply gave in. Black aberrations were easy to get but greys were not. "Hey Ms. Vossoria, there is a grey aberration here, you want it in exchange for helping us?"
SHRIEK...
"You know, one time, when I was pick turnips in ze field, we find ziss egg." She focused again, sensing. "Yes. Beeg explosiveness energy, but ziss one is dud." She rolled up, bent double, and knocked gently on it. Rikard's eyes widened and he moved to stop her. "See, nossing!" She straightened, smiled, and threw her hands out to the side like a performer.
"Well," he addressed her, "what if you heat it?" He was watching her closely.
The tethered blinked. "Well, you see what happens when you light sings on fire, little boy," she laughed, and winked. Rikard blushed.
At hearing Rikard mention heating it, Roslyn snapped her gaze into his direction. "Let's not heat it while I'm holding them, please. I've been blown up more times than I should for a life time."
It was at that moment that people's collective attention was drawn to the rare grey aberration that had spawned. They more or less all scurried over. "Slawa Menskuva," the new arrival remarked under her breath, but she would not look a gift horse in the mouth. Her eyes widened in surprise and gratitude.
Unbidden, conking Ingrid lightly on the shins, the tethered girl threw her arms around the much taller woman. "For me!?" She squeezed tightly, swinging loosely back and forth. "You are already friend! I could kiss you if I was... how you say..."
"Lesbian," interjected the speaktrout.
"Yees. Lesvyan!"
She tumbled back into her wheelchair, turned eagerly on the spot, and sucked the entire thing up in a single go. She leaned back, head lolling to the side, eyes rolled back, and patted her stomach afterwards. "Better zan home cooking." She straightened, smiled, and winked.
Rikard chuckled nervously and blushed. "Heh. Huhuh." He swallowed and smirked a little. "Learned my lesson there," he replied with the least sheepish sheepishness tone one could imagine. "I'llwaittilyou'renotthere," he slipped in quietly at the end.
Roslyn noticed the blush and it clicked to what he might've said. "Thank you, and I appreciate it. Though I do want to see it."
She hugged back and let go, "Another pretty girl saying they would kiss me if they swung that way. Such a shame." Ingrid faked sighed as she moved out of the way for the girl to take it. Also acting as a sort of guarantor against some greedy actors. The Century's were about after all.
Rikard nodded. "That is the worry. Nothing about its behaviours was natural."
The tethered girl pursed her lips, finally recovered. "Well, back home we have little kite drakon. Many many drakon." She shook her head. "Zey newer ewer come back and forss. If ziss is drakon, it is having ze rider." She glanced over the town and shuddered. "Zey have ze reason." Her gaze levered up at the tree before flicking pointedly across the others.
Ingrid looked up at the tree, sighing genuinely this time. It's large branches were blackened, leaves so thin she could see the sky through it. Something in her was inflamed that they could have been purposeful. She basked there for longer than she should have, ignoring the shriek of her watch only to come back around to it after.
SHRIEK...
Her eyes came back into focus, "We should continue searching, this was a great deal of help but we may still find out what actors were involved if we hurry."
"Ingrid," Xiuyang began, patiently. "What in the unholy fuck is that?" She pointed at the shrieking thing.
"A pocket watch?" Ingrid gave Xiuyang a worrying look. "Do... do you not know what a pocket watch is. I didn't think it was that uncommon. I can get you one back at Ersand'Enise if you want." She offered whole heartedly.
Rikard tilted his head and leaned in to examine it. "A pocketwatch with a regular alarm..." he posited, straightening. "It appears that Ingrid has given up on the concept of stealth forever," he added glumly.
"Yes, I have one. Here, you can have one that doesn't emit the screams of the damned." She pulled her own pocket watch out, returning Ingrid's sass. "You know what I'm really asking," she insisted, more stubborn than their mutual friend Roslyn.
"I'm 6'4 and blessed by Ipte, I was never going to stealth, Rikard." she strunk a joking pose and with that her outfit changed to something striking for the group. "And there's that."
SHRIEK...
"It's a little busted, alright? Every 5 seconds it makes that noise and I haven't replaced it" She waited 2 seconds.
SHRIEK...
"See?"
The tethered made the sign of the pentad and glanced around nervously. She shook her head, twisting about on the spot. "No," she corrected Xiuyang. "It is for yayechna vidʹma." She made the pentact again. "Ze egg witch."
"Uh... sure. You're the egg witch now, Ingrid. I'll allow it."
"Better than Barbarian or Sea Giant," Ingrid shrugged. "I'm still partial to Ingy."
The tethered girl's eyes darted around in alarm. "No no no," she protested. "Is to keep egg witch away!" She regarded them earnestly: Ingrid's rueful smile, Xiuyang's sarcastic mirth, and Rikard's stifled laughter. She blushed fiercely. "You know I am official student of Ersand'Enise!" she tried, twisting about and straightening proudly. "I am only making ze joke about -" Her voice dipped precipitously. "yayechna vidʹma."
Xiuyang tried to wrack her brain and remember if Ingrid ever carried such a plain-looking pocket watch before, but other thoughts clouded her mind, such as the fact that she'd asked a weird and possibly personal question and insisted on an answer when it wasn't just the two of them. Why did she do that? *Because any day now, I might never see her again,* her heart answered, and she realized she was being selfish.
"Uh, really? I've never seen you before," she replied to the girl, quickly changing the subject.
Rikard glanced Xiuyang's way and then back. "Well, as scary as... the egg witch is, I do think we should try to see if there's more to find, and be ready to fight."
"And hear I thought you were saying I could finally bewitch something," Ingrid wallowed in her failed romances and attempts. "I hope there is some fighting to wake me up, maybe a little wrestling match." She stretched to keep herself awake.
SHRIEK...
"Let's get a move on."
"Yeah, we should, uh, find someone who can like... be on dragon watch duty." She lowered her eyelids and gave Rikard, Ingrid and Roslyn a meaningful look.
The tethered girl nodded enthusiastically. "Yes! Is most important job. Ziss should go to stronkest mage, yees?"
Rikard nodded in agreement, eyes flicking over the absurd foreigner. "Or the person with the longest range and greatest skill." He looked towards the tethered almost reverently.
Ingrid looked slyly at Xiuyang, "她可能是她自己, 也可能不是. 如果她是的话, 我不会冒险把它送给 Roslyn." though her response seemed to trail off as she heard the conversation with Rikard and the 'tethered'
No, I agree, the optics of giving it to anyone else would be terrible, and her information was useful. Still, assigning her as our Tethered lookout is an unconscionable risk. We should find someone we can trust. She replied to Ingrid in Rettanese, giving Rikard an invisible, disappointed side-eye.
I can see your poin—
SHRIEK...
Ingrid silenced the fish before it made an incident.
—t. My sensing range is pretty good from atomic practice and I can 'see' heat so maybe I should. Her words were quieted at the end. She seemed rather unsure if she could manage despite her words.
Roslyn had caught the look Xiuyang flashed her. She had to admit something felt off about this woman, but she couldn't place what. Part of her thought she was being paranoid and wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. Upon hearing the ReTan pouring out between Ingrid and Xiuyang... Roslyn took a deep breath. She hated standing here like an idiot with no clue of what they were saying.
"Well, I think the trail is getting cold if we're just standing here." She adjusted the eggs and then floated them down onto the ground. "So we have idea where to look next for clues? Based on the possible theory we have, I don't know of any way to track a rider on a dragon. They would be long gone before the hours of Ipte ended."
"We'll have to question the locals. Thankfully wyeou saved a lot of them." Xiuyang faked a hiccup. "I'll relay my concerns to the Zenos while you do that, and then probably fall asleep under a table or something." She took a drink from her gourd.
"We haven't searched too much, Ms..." she shook her head realizing she hadn't found out her name. "My apologies, what is your name, I can't keep addressing you as Ms. Vossoriya for too much longer."
"I am from a faraway country, but I am not stupid person," the - was she Vossoriyan or not? - interjected. "You are not trusting of me." She pursed her lips and nodded. "Reasonable. Fair, even. You can call me Svitlana, or Lana." She shrugged. "Is same to me." Then, she closed her eyes and reached out. "There are still few small fires that are burn in other part of ze city." She pointed due east. She took a deep breath. "Ze tree is..." she trailed off and opened one eye, just a peep. "She is almost dead," the girl squeaked. "She is wery close." She swallowed and shook her head.
Then, she flicked some hair behind one of her great big peasant shoulders and closed both eyes again. "Then... we have ze river is not boil now, and..." She stiffened suddenly, and her eyes flew open. "Beeg drakon!" She reached down and snapped her wheels unlocked, whirling on the spot. "Beeg drakon souss!" She nodded anxiously. "He is crossing ze river!"
Roslyn rubbed the back of her neck, feeling a bit ashamed. "Roslyn." She offered her own name up as she listened to the rest. At the mention of the dragon, she glanced at her friends before she shot off toward the river.
Her jaw clenched at hearing the state of the tree. Her distrust if Svitlana was a tethered shook off and the thought of confirming the tree's state. It made her sick to her stomach. But she calmed, she needed to stay tepid, emotions were quick to throw her into a spiral. A deep breath and...
SHRIEK...
"Ingrid Penderson, Ingy for friends." she gave her name quickly. With the arrival of a dragon, Ingrid felt she needed to head off. Whether it was anger bubbling over or simply being more experienced, she began to heat her leaded box, preparing for battle.
"Wery nice to meet you," Svitlana replied hastily, but then they had bigger problems to deal with. She paused, hands on wheels. "I should stay here?" she asked bemusedly. The terrain ahead was rough and broken. A massive energy signature loomed in the distance, not that the others could sense it yet. Her arms and shoulders flexed and strained and, within moments, much of the group was moving.
youtube.com/watch?v=XCRYDMj0UIg&list=…
The group began to pull on the movement in the air to propel themselves toward to a potential suspect for the burning of the tree. Dozens of numpets, washed out of the river by rain and explosions line the way and the foreign helpers struggled to get past them. Ingrid was the first to arrive given her greater mobility and strength than the literal children and wheelchaired tethered.
Ingrid sensed a massive, hulking form. It was obese and slow-moving. It appeared to be sitting in the river and it was... eating something. Perhaps.... a horse? She did not sense a rider, though his or her energy signature may just be melding with that of the dragon at this range.
There, in the middle of a wide slow muddy river lay a vast hulking monster of a dragon. It was... a truly horrifying sight. In its mouth was not a horse, but...
An entire skuggvar.
The King Coal Toad, one of the five legendary dragons of the Twin Continents, was gorging itself on the carcass. For a moment, Ingrid could take solace in the fact that it hadn't seen her. Its vast dread maw made a horrible crunching, slurping sound as it ate.
Then, it turned: first one large round eye slid towards her. It let out a low rumbling croak. Then, the other. Then, its head. It was the largest coal toad she had ever seen: easily eighty feet in length, equally wide, and towering nearly forty feet in height. The beast's eyes were upon her.
Ingrid readied illusions for the coming battle.
The four of them stare down the hulking monster. It lets out a low rumbling warning croak.
Svitlana, thoroughly out of breath, takes a moment to catch it.
"Maybe we should've gone to get help?" Roslyn whispered, fighting not to tremble.
"Ziss," she panted, "is not ze sing tat dropped ze bomb." She shook her head, eyes wide. "I am supposed go to Ersand'Enise," she squeaked. "I am not wanting to die."
Rikard landed smoothly, writhed in lightning. "Prepare to eat shit, frog."
"I sink it already does ziss," Svitlana countered. "It is not look picky."
"It wants to eat the dead and potentially erase evidence," Ingrid's illusion began to spread out.
Svitlana made the sign of the pentad. She prayed rapidly in Menskuvan.
Rikard watched the creature closely. "I don't think it's the one that caused this, though: just an opportunist."
"Still going to create issues if it sticks around. So how do we get rid of it?" Roslyn asked.
"Drop the temperature of it and the water, it might leave," Ingrid called out to her more active members.
Svitlana regarded the other three. "Is true. When we wish for getting toad drakons off ze land, we make zem cold." She nodded, already starting to draw
Roslyn nods then inhaled, drawing all her courage. She focused on drawing all the heat from the water and air around the creature.
The illusions served to keep it on multiple targets make it feel outnumbered. Ingrid began to draw heat, trying not to freeze it but to make it uncomfortable. She wasn't stupid enough to fight it if it knew she was there…
The water temperature dropped precipitously, and Svitlana grimaced. "Ze poor plants." She shook her head. "Zey will be dying."
The king coal toad let out another rumbling croak and it was so loud and deep that each could feel it in their bones. It lifted a massive clawed webbed foot and seemed to be tensing up. "Back home," Svitlana whispered, "zey do tis as warning. Steadyyyy."
"Stand your ground," Ingrid stated rather assuredly.
The dragon eyed them and the dead skuggvar - a mighty beast in its own right - lay half-eaten at its feet. Energy began to boil. It was drawing.
"Maybe it's better to back up a bit?" Roslyn suggested.
"I spy some numpets over there. Maybe we can lure or push it over there?" Roslyn pointed over to a small island with Devilspine numpets and King numpets
Rikard nodded. He crouched low and let out a small pulse of electricity into the water.
Svitlana concentrated. Around the dragon, the river weeds grew thick and tangled. They pooled around it, sticking and constricting. It was neither elegant or fast, but it was added pressure.
Ingrid assisted, making the water behind where they wanted it to go colder to annoy it.
All at once the coal toad lifted its head, tensed up, and sprung forward in a small hop. It stepped right in the cluster of large spiny numpets and abruptly pulled its foot back. Roslyn and Svitlana used their skills in chemical magic to enhance the binding of the neurotoxins to the Koal toads nerves.
"That's for the chemical mages." Ingrid gave a thumbs up to Roslyn seeing how her plan worked.
A large angry croaking roar reverberated down the river.
While Ingrid and Svitlana were able to hunker and redirect the blast, Roslyn was blasted backward, breaking her wrist and a rib, and Rikard was hurled into a tree. His head smacked it and the world disappeared.
"Lightning boy!" shouted Svitlana, for she did not know his name. She tried to make her way over, but she was not the fastest. She stopped, then, and froze. "Rosin, are you healer?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Get Rikard!" She shouted through clenched teeth as she cradled her side, trying to steady her breath.
Ingrid merely glanced at Rikard and Roslyn's flying by. She could heal but she couldn't turn her back on the toad. "I can heal as well." She needed to keep on the aggravation and hoped it just say this as too much trouble.
Once it left, Ingrid went over to heal Rikard, "Let me help, Lana" Ingrid rested one hand on on Rikard's head the other on her staff.
The coal toad, meanwhile, with a final grumpy noise, picked the dead skuggvar up in its mouth and trundled away.
Svitlana slid out of her wheelchair and onto the ground. "If you are good healer, we heal togezer." She felt around the boy's neck and the back of his skull with practiced hands. "He's neck is not broken." She shook her head. Then, she froze. "His skull is." She swallowed, took a deep breath, and steadied herself.
"Unbind ze blood away." Svitlana, who had seemed something of a joke before, twisted Ingrid's way for a split second, a nurse in an emergency room.
Ingrid like many dozens of times before called upon the staff's power to increase her knowledge "Can do."
As Roslyn felt her body mend itself, she got onto her feet and start to move toward Rikard and the others. "How can I help?"
"You have any magnet magic?" the tethered asked Ingrid.
"Nope," She looked at Roslyn, "Any jolt might help"
"I got a little." Roslyn began to delve into her shallow knowledge of magnetic magic. She tried to pour it lightly through his veins but lacked the raw prowess to push through Rikard. Svitlana and Ingrid used what they could to assist Roslyn but things looked dire and hopeless for what felt like minutes. But eventually, his eyes began to move.
The first thing that Rikard saw when he woke up was three women leaning over him.
"Thank the Gods." Roslyn exhaled with relief.
Ingrid hugged him tightly, "How did you get sent like that!"
He sputtered and sat up. Meanwhile, on the horizon, a soft glow that had begun half an hour prior, began to spread as the sun broke through the hovering clouds.
"I was..." He glanced away.
"Trying to help me." Svitlana interrupted. "I would fly if he did not."
"I'm just happy you're not dead," Ingrid sighed a breath of relief.
"So am I," Rikard chuckled nervously, glancing at Svitlana.
"We should likely get out of here. Before something else happens." Roslyn suggested.
"Can you feel all your toes and fingers?" Ingrid asked out of concern of their novice magnetic skill.
Svitlana glanced her way for a second, something ripe on the tip of her tongue, but then she nodded. Rikard waved them off. "Yeah," he said, flexing them. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks," he added. "Let's, uh... go."
The Menskuvan nodded. "Yees, I agree." She tried to turn on the spot, got stuck for a moment, and then muscled her way out. "I sink asking ze people is best idea."
"Agreed." Roslyn pushed up onto her feet as she began to walk back toward the town, gesturing for them to come along.
Rikard nodded as well. "Right, yeah. We need to question them."
"Oh!" Svitlana asked, trying to keep up, "where you people from anyway? I am Ersand'Enise student!"
"Also a student there. Homeland is Hendland." Roslyn replied without judgement, "Though, I will note... never seen you in any class or on the grounds. I think I would remember you."
Ingrid rose, wiping a stray tear from her eye. She didn't cry but how many stories do you hear about someone dying from a little hit to the head.
SHRIEK...
Ingrid turned to Lana, "We are Ersand'Enise students, sent here to put out the fires." Ingrid smiled in such a way to where she knows she is lying.
Lana froze, mid-push. Rikard's eyes darted her way - first to her chest (very briefly), and then to her face.
The tethered's expression was inscrutable. She took another push. "Oh," she remarked, and they continued in silence for a bit. "I bet you sink I am liar, hmm?" A small smile built on her face. Her gaze went briefly to each of the other three in turn.
"Nay, but I think we need a little more information to understand. At least, I do." Roslyn said, studying her face.
"My brain is a little rattled so mind telling me what I am thinking?" Ingrid smirked at her.
They were away from the river now, and on wide blessedly *flat* flagstones. Svitlana coasted along. She was doing it. It was real. These were her classmates! She nearly popped a wheelie out of joy. "I am transfer zere for new semester!" she chirped, slowing for a moment, pivoting on the spot, and throwing her arms out to the sides. "I am just on my way!" She leaned in and lowered her voice. "Portal in Enth is cheap, you know." Her smile was huge and excited and not at all like the fine lady that the vorozhka had told her she would one day become. In this moment, however, she didn't care.
"That explains it." Roslyn smiled, pleased to find things adding up. At least mostly. "Do you know what classes you have yet or will you find out when you get there? I can loan you my notes for any we have together."
"I usually fly Jojo Express so I wouldn't know," Ingrid admitted. "Glad to have you as a peer, I'll treat you to Zenobucks when we get back."
"If we all don't fall into bed first." Roslyn pointed out, then realized one of them were in a wheel. "Sorry. Bad choice of words."
"I had my fight and my cries, I'm good for another 5 moons," Ingrid waved off the tiredness. She kept an eye on Rikard. He was rather quiet, hopefully just reflecting on his mortality and not going braindead.
"Your drooping eyes says otherwise." Roslyn countered.
"Droopy so they can keep looking at all the shorties here." Ingrid snarked back.
Rikard's gaze focused on Svitlana as she spoke and, for a moment, Nipton was not a ruin in the background, but a thriving market town. Ingrid was a yasoi he didn't know. Roslyn was... an Enthish guy. Svitlana was blonde and winking at him and... No, she wasn't Jocasta! Why was Jocasta always there, at the edge of his mind?
"Good to have you!" he remembered to reply. "You could steal my notes if I took any."
Svitlana laughed nervously. "Hah! Yes!" she responded, "I would read zem all." She stifled a yawn. "If I am not falling asleep first." She shook her head. "Into bed." She stuck her tongue out, just a tiny bit, Roslyn's way, and reached up to punch her playfully on the arm. They still had witnesses to question and it would likely eat up most of their day. At least she would enter Ersand'Enise with a bang. "Oh, you should know I am actually wery tall. *So* tall!" she shot back at Ingrid. "Too bad I cannot prove it!" she harrumphed, sticking her nose up in the air and grinning.
Roslyn rubbed her arm where Lana punched. "Ouch, that hurt. You got some power behind that arm, don't you? If I need any heavy lifting, I'll give you a summons." She teased as she returned to a more seriously topic. "I think we should start in the camps then move outward. Those who are injured might have seen something before things happened."
His gaze resting on Svitlana was worrying. A new crush or something else, Ingrid couldn't tell but he spoke so she let it slide.
SHRIEK...
"Maybe I can find out at a sleepover," Ingrid winked at her. She spoke a little more seriously, "We need to keep moving and looking for clues, I can't rest until I know what happened here." She looked grimly at the tree. "Oh the poor tree."
It was in this spirit that they made their way to the camps and set about their work with the utmost seriousness, but a bit of sunshine as well. They were good people, doing a hard job, but they were doing it well, and there was room for happiness in there.
All her classmates found themselves investigating what could have truly conspired here the previous night. Ingrid was no different except she was also spurred by a duty to inform a constable of an explosive hidden in the ground.
The late night had taken its toll, baggy eyes, messy hair shuffled into a ponytail, and a strangely clean set of clothes. She shifted her weapons further back on her belt before meeting the constable, trying her best not to spook him with the whole random raider with an axe in an Enthish city.
"Constable?" Ingrid called out to one of the few available, "I was in the western end of the city last night and I buried a few kegs of gunpowder to prevent it from exploding, I was hoping that you would come with me to oversee its retrieval."
The constable Ingrid had managed to holler was bald, slightly overweight and a good half-foot shorter than her. Some would call him the typical middle-aged Enthishman. His uniform was damaged and his shining head was smeared with charcoal. Still, he patrolled for survivors and explosives, still on duty since the fire first started.
"What's that love?" inquired the man, leaning in slightly with his ear out. "Oh, that's a pickle innit? Off we go, then."
”Thank you,” Ingrid nodded and led the way there. It was silence for a minute or 2. Ingrid was tired and struggling to come up with a line of questioning before she eventually blurted something out.
”So, what part of the city were you in last night?”
The constable was not one to ramble either, at least not after having his lungs fill with smoke all night. The foreigner could handle the chit-chat if she wanted to.
"Last night? Everywhere." he spoke, the rasp in his voice returning, with his response ending with a light cough. "Was on night duty. From start t'finish, flames and war."
Ingrid nodded while maintaining her walk, mostly noting he was on night duty. ”My peers and I from Ersand’Enise appeared in the northeast camp that had been established. Everything was already on fire by the time we came.” Ingrid walked smoothly across the ground, avoiding the occasional heap of ash.
She looked up at what remained of the tree, ”Do you think you can fill me in on what you saw before we arrived?” Ingrid asked.
Constable Dupont listened, his eyes mostly on the trail forward. A few 'uh-huhs' here and there. "Hmm." he pondered for a few seconds. "Think I was by the barracks when it happened - y'know, away from the tree. Schillinger wasn't so lucky." he stopped and pointed toward the North, where one of the armories were. "Then it all exploded. I turn around and it's all on fire." his hand ventured toward the burnt tree. "It was very dark. I know something was flying above. But nothing to see or sense."
Ingrid nodded along, briefly forming the signing the pentad at the loss of another constable. ”A lot of brave men and women were lost that night,” Ingrid sorrowfully said. She looked back up to the trail, the place was mostly destroyed by the fires raging. Luckily the armory was still standing enough for her to recollect where it was.
”A dozen or so feet below is where I encased it,” Ingrid looked for permission before she dug it up.
Dupont nodded with his lips pursed upon hearing her apologies. Soon they had arrived at the burial site of the gunpowder, where he gestured his okay for her to go about it. This woman was huge and clearly an envoy from that prodigious school, she could handle it, while he sat down for a break.
"Wasn't just the middle. It was above too." he recalled while indulging in booze in a flask. "A lot of these things fell all over. A lot in houses, those on the streets rolled into alleys mostly. Some exploded after landing."
Ingrid made careful but easy work of uncovering the gunpowder. The ground where she covered it had become strangely homogenous and dense from her lack of skill. Chunks came out one at a time to ensure no accident came about.
"We came across some inside a house that hadn't detonated. They were odd, felt like dragon scales on the outside but had something inside of them." Ingrid still pondered the nature of those things. Evidence points that it was some sort of dragon but she had never heard of a dragon with such odd scales.
"Do you remember any sound or odd feeling before everything happened?" Ingrid asked after making decent headway into the ground.
Dupont heard her but thought little of what she said. Whether it was a dragon, a man, a bird or even a God, there was little he could do about it. The titans of this world had this. When asked another question, he shrugged. "No, other than a little wind right before it happened." he shook his head in his loss for words. Then he paused. "The explosions started more on one side, I remember. Got really bad there very quickly."
"And what side was that?" Ingrid asked. She finally uncovered the gunpowder, "It'll be coming up soon." She told him. Where they were to put it was a question for him.
The constable shrugged. "Think around here?" he looked around, only to see devastation around him, though it wasn't nearly as bad as other parts of town. "Wherever it got pretty bad quick before it got better." he concluded. Not quite feeling like standing up, he gestured in dismissal. "Store 'em in one of the sheds or some'in."
Ingrid nodded her head, "Think it's a good idea to leave this much gunpowder around where anyone can grab it?" She questioned it but didn't stop doing what she was told. She placed it in a nearby shed, praying it wasn't going to be looted or set off by some kids. "Alright, you were on night shift, yeah? Do you remember what time they went off or any strange people around then?" She asked a rather large question since he seems to be enjoying his seat so much.
The town of Nipton in Enth is ablaze and the daughter of the world tree is most likely going to burn down to nothing. Century's and students alike join Arch-Zeno Sigmund to help calm the flames and save lives. Desmond, Johann, Rikard, Ingrid, Roslyn, and Xuiyang arrive there to put an end to this calamity. The fire was put out and the lives of hundreds were saved but they were left with a mystery of what really happened here.
