Michellin

Wanderers

"Yeah, we all saw something," Kire replied, missing the glare Ysaryn gave her. "Not sure what to make of them, though. We'll have to discuss this when we're back outside."

Behind her, the man and his son gasped, particularly at Ysaryn. Myka and Daryll had to quickly assure them that Ysaryn was their friend and not part of the strange forest and its magic. "Speaking of things I can't make sense of, for some reason they believe they're the source of this," Kire murmured. She showed them the statuette the boy had found. "Apparently, they associate it with this thing. I don't know what it is, and if it's a deity, it's not one we recognize. But yeah, let's talk about it outside the forest."

Nothing else happened on their way back to the camp. Once there, Kire gently questioned the father and son about the artifact. They didn’t know anything else about it beyond where they had discovered it. As for the trees, the boy had thought he had summoned them after dreaming about an enchanted wood, right before the forest itself shot up around them. Was this what the Seer meant by magic returning to Amria? And why was there a connection to Ruli’s world? After refilling her water at a nearby well, she returned to the others.
“Alright. What did everyone see? Did everyone else see a desert?” Kire asked.
“Yeah, I saw that. Same as the fella who wrote the letter,” Myka grunted, likewise drinking deeply from her own waterskin. “Except I didn’t take my clothes off. I realized where I was before that could happen.”
“Daryll?”

The scholar frowned, looking down at his hands. “At the beginning, I did see a desert. And a shadow passing overhead, like some giant creature was flying right above me. But—but when I turned around to look, I was back in the forest, and there was a…woman.”
“A woman?”
Daryll furrowed his brow as he tried to recall what she looked like. His thoughts kept going back to the anguish on the woman’s face, the fear in her eyes. “I don’t know who she is, but I know she needs help,” he murmured.
Kire saw that her cousin was disturbed by what he had seen. Who was she? When Daryll prodded her to tell her ow version of the visions, she looked back down at the statuette in her hands. “I saw a dragon. The shadow passing overhead. The dragon of our house,” she said, looking back up at them. “And after that, the temple on the hill at Ziad.” She frowned. “That’s all. Besides the strange feeling of—wrongness I felt about the temple. I don’t know why.”

Wanderers

“Let’s keep walking. We’ll either find the end of the forest or run into them. Either way, we’ll get our bearings back.” Kire was glad there was still some water left in the skein she brought, and she drank the rest of it. Gods, she was parched. Eventually, they came to the middle of the forest, where the trees seemed to grow closest together. She could sense Ruli and Ysaryn’s signatures a little more clearly now, and she surmised that if they continued along this way, she’d spot the two. Daryll kept quiet, his expression disturbed. “You alright?”
Daryll huffed. “I—I don’t know. Let’s talk about it later when we’ve met up with the others.”
“Hang on—look.” Kire pointed ahead of them. A man and child were cowering nearby, near the ruins of their home, where a tree had punched through. When the father and son saw their approach, they started to back away, till Kire came forward, hands raised. “ We mean you no harm,” she said. “We’ll get you out of here.”

The man kept his son behind him, shielding him, unsure if he was seeing some other illusion or if they were real people, indeed. But when it seemed that Kire and Daryll weren’t going anywhere, the man took a few tentative steps forward—and recognized Kire. Fear crossed his face and he stumbled into a bow, pulling his son down with him. “H-he didn’t mean nothin’, Your Grace,” the man said, stammering, head still bowed even as he hugged his son tight.
“It’s alright,” Kire assured, bending down on one knee, laying a hand on the man’s shoulder and another on the boy’s head. “We’ll get you out of here, and you can tell us more about what happened. You won’t be blamed for this.”
The man looked up at her touch, then spoke softly to his boy, coaxing him to show the Empress what it was he had found. “He was playin’ in the hills outside town an’ found somethin’ in the dirt. Go on, lad, show it to the Empress,” the man urged again.
The boy meekly stepped forward from his father’s arms and fished something from his pocket. It looked old. A well-worn statuette. Kire took it from him, examined the smooth stone. Time and the elements had smoothed out many of its features, but she could tell that it was a woman’s shape. Traces of rust—or perhaps, red paint—clung to what looked like the woman’s clothes. On her back, where her shoulder blades should be, looked like nubs where wings used to be. “Alright. How about you tell me the story of how you found this, and what happened after, when we’re out of here,” Kire said, smiling at the boy. “Deal?”
The boy nodded, then clung to his father again.

“Oyyy!”
Kire heard Myka’s voice calling as she jogged over towards them. “Stars above, I thought I was going crazy!” the pirate captain declared. “You two alright? Where’re the other two?”
Kire turned her head. The sickly-sweet aroma was letting up now. “That way.”

Hearing Ruli call for them confirmed it. “Here!” She called back, waving when they finally caught sight of them. “I think we better head back to camp before we run into any more surprises,” she said, looking the other two over. They didn’t look injured, just—dazed. “And then we could talk about what the fuck we just saw—sorry,” she said, clamping her hand over her mouth, remembering they had a kid along with them. “Are you two okay?” she asked softly.

Wanderers

“People who don’t have anywhere or anything else to turn to can’t always afford to leave,” Kire said about the camps. She and her family had the luck of their status and existing resources to afford to go on exile, but without this support, she wondered how they’d have survived during the war. She listened as Ruli asked Ysaryn if she could sense anything from this vantage point.
“Most of the residents reported the voices and shadows,” Myka replied. “Not all of them had the more vivid visions or hallucinations or whatever you call it—let’s say a tenth of the total population. There might be people trapped inside, too.”
Kire thought this over. “We don’t really know what we’re dealing with. Best thing to do would be to just walk in and see what they saw, I suppose. If it was a temporary effect, we should, in theory, come out alright at the end of it.”
“In theory,” Daryll muttered, though admittedly he was particularly excited. “Shall we?”

Myka and Ysaryn were right about the heat. It was humid, worse than Pokos. When they got close enough to the border of the forest, Kire inhaled, then coughed. The magic permeating the air was sweet, cloyingly so, sticking to the back of her throat, like she had drank pure syrup. A buzzing filled her ears, like being attacked by a swarm of bees. “Give—give me a minute,” she said, frowning as she shut her eyes and tried to drown out the sounds in her head. The buzzing subsided, the forest’s sweet signature lingering in her mouth, not as overwhelming as in their first approach, but just on the edge of tolerable. “Alright. Let’s go in.”
For the first several paces, nothing assailed them yet. Kire, Daryll, and Myka looked around at the trees that had grown in the middle of streets, gardens, homes. It was also eerily quiet. Kire kept swallowing, every now and then taking a gulp from her waterskin. “There’s so much raw energy flowing through here,” she commented. “But I don’t know where it’s coming from. How—"

She was walking on sand. Kire’s lips parted in surprise. It felt so real. She remembered feeling this dry, searing heat in Ziad. When she bent down to grab a fistful of sand, she could feel how hot and course they were against her calloused and scarred palm, could feel the grains running down from between her fingers. “Daryll! Ruli! Ysaryn! Myka!” she yelled, but for the moment she was alone. She could try portaling out of the desert, back to their starting point, but as insufferably hot as it was, Kire wanted to see what else was in this desert, if there were other clues. She was about to turn around and walk, try to get to one of the nearby sand dunes and, perhaps, some shade, when a great shadow passed overhead.

Kire looked up, and her heart almost stopped then and there.
Its hulking body shone with emerald and gold scales, a glittering, serpentine body, with great, leathery wings and a tail that ended in an arrow shaped tip. Dragon, she gasped. Its wings whipped up the sand around her and she shielded her face, coughing, running towards the direction of its flight while blind. When she felt the small sandstorm subside, Kire uncovered her face and looked around.

She was on top of a hill. No, not just any hill. She knew this hill. She could feel her skinned knuckles after she had punched a hole through the temple that sat on top of it, the night she met Ruli. The temple, now whole, cast a shadow over her, and despite the desert heat, she found herself shivering. The dragon was nowhere around. Why was she cold? Why did this temple fill her with dread? Kire frowned, backing away, her hand on her sword but afraid to draw it here. Unaware of her surroundings, she backed all the way to the slope of the hill and tumbled backward, crashing into a tree in the forest-town, back in Amria.

Kire panted, keeping on all fours. “Gods…all my gods….” When she finally looked up, she saw Daryll nearby, his back turned to her as he stared at something. “Daryll! Daryll did you see that?”

But Daryll wasn’t paying attention.
There was a woman in front of him. Small, draped in a tattered dress, with white and red roses embroidered all over it. She had a despairing look on her face. Or was it terror? The woman glanced down at her hands, then covered her face, sinking to her knees.
“Hello?” Daryll called, stepping closer. The woman could not hear him, did not register his call. “Do you need help?”
The woman looked up from her hands and wildly around her, not seeing him. Or not seeing any of it. Tears of fright streamed down her face, and she stood abruptly, running away.

“Wait!”
“Daryll!”
Kire grabbed him and shook him just as he was about to lunge forward. Daryll blinked, taking several moments to realize who she was. “I…I saw someone…”
“I think we’re all seeing things,” Kire said, looking around. “Where are the other three?” Their signatures were somewhere nearby, but her senses were confused, couldn’t pinpoint where exactly. Everything was confused in here.

Wanderers

The Wyvern cousins glanced at each other after Ruli spoke. "Were the rest-- did I hear right? Naked?" Daryll asked.
"Could you read it aloud for us? We can't read that," Kire explained. "Not our alphabet, but I figured you could; the characters seemed familiar, I must have seen it in your world."
When the contents of the letter had been explained, Kire frowned in thought. "Huh. That-- certainly is weird."

"But more importantly, if your alphabet suddenly manifested in someone's mind here, does that mean this outbreak of magical energy is coming from your world, or has something to do with it?" Daryll wondered aloud. "Could there be a gate at the heart of this?"

"Well, we'll know soon enough," Kire murmured before turning to Ed. "Manning the fort while we're gone?"
"As per usual," Ed smirked. "But Myka should be there to meet you. Narda's turn to stay behind the Wench and babysit the old gal."

The cousins spoke for a bit more, confirming the location and where they were supposed to meet Myka, which was the closest other town to the afflicted one. "It's a bit chilly in that region. There are extra coats if you want them," Daryll said, pointing down the alchemy chamber. Once ready to leave, Kire extended a hand to Ruli.
"Would you mind? Might need to save up on portals just in case." When he took her hand she gave his an affectionate squeeze. Location pinpointed, Ruli, Kire, Ysaryn, and Daryll disappeared into shadow.

The moment they emerged in the other town, however, Kire frowned. "Why is it so hot? It's the beginning of winter!" She unclasped the cloak she was wearing.
Not too long later, they met up with Myka, who was donning lighter clothes.
"Fancy the inexplicable summer heat, ladies and gents?" She grinned.
"From what we've been told, it's positively sweltering in the town-turned-forest. You can see it from the highest tower here. This town is currently sheltering the residents who had fled. Those who didn't want to leave their homes set up camp just outside of the forest."

She took them to the vantage point she had mentioned, and true enough, a line of verdant green occupied the horizon. Just outside it were tents from the camp Myka brought up, and in between the trees they could spot the homes of the overrun town.

"How big is the forest?" Daryll asked.
"Large as the town, and extending around a kilometer from the border on the other side," Myka noted. "No animals, no sounds. Well, unless you count the whispers."
"Whispers?" Kire frowned.
Myka shrugged. "The folk say they hear 'em, but soon forget what it was they heard. Like the guy who wrote the account of what happened to him. So far, though, the whole naked thing happened to just him and a couple of others."

Wanderers

Downstairs, Kire was nursing a few welts from sparring, while Daryll and Ed stood around the table, observing a map and some sheafs of paper with writing on it. She had leather armor on over her travelling clothes, and a thick cloak folded over a chair nearby. “Boy, you really were in a mood,” Kire muttered.
“Sorry. Just had a lot on my mind I needed to get out.”
“That’s usually me, though,” Kire replied with a smirk. “But I already had my workout today.”
“Children,” Daryll muttered, shaking his head, despite the fact that he was the junior of the three.

When she sensed the others approach, she turned towards the staircase anticipating their arrival. Once the two came into view, Kire grinned. “Hey. Afternoon.” Daryll raised his hand in greeting, while Ed nodded solemnly, his eyes on Ysaryn.
“I wasn’t sure you’d come,” he commented in Elvish.

Kire looked between the two of them; Ed told her what had happened after the quick and brutal sparring match the two of them had just before lunch. She cleared her throat and turned to Ruli. “Would you confirm something for me?” she said, taking one of the letters. “So in one of the reports, they had one of the afflicted try to write down an account of what they had seen. He had apparently had difficulty talking about what was happening. While the villager spoke common tongue well enough, he seemed to be finding it hard to understand Taakalon, despite having spoken it all his life. He wrote this, then after a few hours, he was himself again, and couldn’t understand what he had written.”

She showed the letter to Ruli. While to the Amrians around the table the script was incomprehensible, Kire recognized the characters from the signs she had seen around Cordon. To the residents of Úvano, the untidy scrawl would have been difficult to read, but still understandable: an account of how the man had fallen into some strange trance, wandered through the forest, and emerged on the other side feeling hot and stark naked, like he had walked through a desert, his clothes completely burned off.

Wanderers

It wasn’t just that. Drugged in the mines of Cordon. Locked up in Lithilote. Pulled into my world unwillingly, twice. Blood used to open the gate. But Kire kept quiet. “Fair enough.” She glanced down when he took her hand, lightly squeezing his when he brushed his thumb against her knuckles. “I know. I’ll always worry, though.” She pursed her lips. “Probably why Daryll complains a lot about my having a savior complex.” She went back to eating just as he did, liking the warmth from their joined hands. “Quite an understatement, that,” she said with a smirk at his last comment. “Fine. I should listen to the High Sorcerer after all.” She still wrinkled her nose saying it, imagining him in obnoxiously long robes and a tall hat. “I’ll come back with Ed and discuss the details of the report with him, then later after lunch I’ll meet you at the Tower. With Ysaryn, if she’s coming along.”

--

The Captain chuckled. “I’ll try and warn you.” Ed took Zeke’s hand and stood, wincing when he felt his muscles ache from the blow. “Funny, I’ll probably do the same with Kire. Though that carries the risk of being on the bad end of another tantrum, too.” He nodded when Zeke asked about going back. “I had better. I gave her a grace period to, ah, finish up business, but if I don’t remind her of work she’d probably tarry much longer.”

He started down the steps. “Things are as alright as they could be, with the exception of some new oddity Kire wants to investigate. Other than that, you can imagine mending the empire takes up a lot of time and energy. Elva has gone back to the North. She’s still the steward of the region, and with Kire back on the throne there’s no reason for that to end anytime soon, but her status there is complicated by the fact that her late husband had been the Lord of the Northern reach. Ah—that reminds me though, she did mention something about coming here sometime to exchange healing knowledge with someone named Sid. The family still gathers for dinner as often as the occasion allows, so you’ll probably see her again in the near future.”

Ed rubbed his shoulders. “I’d better go fetch my cousin before I’m tempted to just sink into bed. I’ll let Elva know you give her your regards.”

--

Ed knocked again just as they had finished their meal and started cleaning up. “You decent?” Ed called.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, come in,” Kire yelled back. Ed entered, then stepped into the kitchen. Still cleaning her plate, Kire missed the raised eyebrow Ed threw their way when he noticed the clothes Ruli was wearing. “Ruli will be joining the investigation. Possibly Ysaryn, too.”
“I…see.”
Kire noted the tone in his voice and turned around. “What happened? Did you get chewed out?”
“I got beaten very decisively at sparring.”
“You?” Kire crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes at him. “Are you unwell? Did she win fair and square?”
“I don’t know what you’re insinuating.” Ed raised a brow.
“If it was that easy to kick your ass, we should go a few rounds again later,” Kire teased, grinning. “Could finally end my losing streak with you.”
Ed snorted. “Time to go back, Akire.”
“Oh. ‘Akire’. He’s serious.” Kire turned to dry her plate properly, setting it aside. She turned to Ruli. She glanced for a moment at Ed, who rolled his eyes and looked away. Kire leaned in and gave Ruli a quick kiss. “I’ll see you later.”

Wanderers

"So that's how it is, huh," Kire said, grinning when he told her he didn't see her as Empress. "No offense taken. I rather prefer it that way, honestly." She smirked when he responded to her teasing, pulling the plates closer to her. "That would piss Daryll off, yes. But he's easy to please. Just let him join you." She grinned before starting on breakfast.

She sighed when he insisted she accept his offer of help. "I know. And I do need help, I know that, too. We make a good team, like I said. It's just--every time, you suffer the consequences of running into danger with me. I feel like with each new quest I rope you into, the consequences get worse."

--

Ed let his head fall back to the dirt as she pointed her sword at him. Do better, she said. He could see she was disappointed. Could she tell, then, that that wasn't his best? He sighed, pushing himself up to sit, watching her stroll off. "She is." He chuckled, before standing with a groan. "I'll have to apologize properly later." This is going to bruise badly.

Wanderers

Kire pouted when he insisted that she lay off the cake for breakfast, but nevertheless waited for him to heat up last night’s pork. As he busied himself, she set plates down for the both of them and reread the letter. “Aside from the peculiarity of waking up to a forest at your doorstep?” She shrugged. “Doesn’t say much in the report. Only that they’ve been ‘seeing things’, like dreams. Strange noises. Shadows.”

She considered his offer, unsure about how she felt about it. “We do make a good team,” she put in, but even as she knew this to be true, and knowing he and Ysaryn were more than capable of holding their own in a conflict, magical or not, she couldn’t help remember the terrible recovery Ruli had gone through with the poison. Asking him to help set up wards around a Palace now that they’d won it back was one thing, but jumping back into potential danger that she had no clue about was another. “I suppose…if it’s just reconnaissance for now, wouldn’t hurt to have more eyes on the thing.” She set down the papers in her hand and leaned back.

To his answer about the wards, she gasped in mock indignation. “You mean bedding the Empress of Amria isn’t compensation enough?” She chuckled, shaking her head. “That can be arranged. I was thinking more proper compensation though, as in monetary. If the previous decrees against large-scale magic and sorcery are going to be lifted—especially since we’ve been mucking about with wards, ourselves, anyway—it’d be nice to have things standardized for reference. We can talk later about pay, and goods in exchange for your services, plus covering whatever expenses are involved in the making of it.” She paused in thought. “Before the ban, this was maybe three or four generations ago, the Capital used to have a High Sorcerer employed by the Emperor.” Kire rested her chin on her hand as she watched him, smirking. “’Rulitus, High Sorcerer of Amria’.” She snorted a bit at that. “That should amuse Envy.”

--

Ed was about to answer Zeke when Ysaryn’s angry voice called out to the both of them. Ed offered no rebuttal, lips pursed as she rounded on Zeke next. He felt sorry for the man for an honest mistake. Really, you should’ve known better, he chastised himself, watching the sparring match begin. Or it wasn’t so much a sparring match as a way for Ysaryn to take her frustration out at them. Not too different from Kire there. Though Zeke was correct; Ysaryn was vicious. Ed took off his coat as he observed, then loosened the cuffs of his sleeves, rolling them up.

Zeke wasn’t a bad opponent, either. Had they had the leisure of time, and better circumstances, he would have offered to spar with him, too. Instead, he watched the two of them, noting strengths and possible weaknesses, all while wondering whether or not he should let Ysaryn win, if he had the upper hand. He couldn’t help but smirk though; seeing the elf fight, there was no guarantee at all that he would even get the opportunity to have the upper hand in this match.

When it was his turn, he sighed, taking the training sword from Zeke after giving him a pat on the shoulder. He didn’t speak, knowing anything he said now would just irritate her further, and knowing Ysaryn would launch into an attack immediately. She was quick, having the grace of Jan and the temper of Kire rolled into one, if Ed were to compare her with anybody he knew. But now that she was angry, definitely more similar to Kire there. He blocked and parried, bidding his time, keeping pace with her, until he found an opportunity to deploy a maneuver, he had learned from the Raielwen, combined with an Amrian technique.

Let her win. At the last second, he fumbled it, and he felt the hit from her sparring sword. He went down hard, wincing as he hit the ground. He hissed as he rolled onto his back, panting. “Yeah. I deserved that.”

Wanderers

“Mmm, I wouldn’t mind another one of those,” she said, grinning, as he pulled her against him. Some time later, however, Kire heard a loud knock from the front door of the house, and she groaned, collapsing onto him but unwilling to get off him. “Ysaryn,” she growled, forgetting the absence of the elf’s signature on the other side. “Maybe if we keep quiet she’ll go away,” she whispered. But when the knock game again, Kire sighed heavily. “Stay there. I’ll be back,” she said, grinning as she climbed off and quickly put on his shirt and pants, hurrying to the door.

“What the fu—oh.” Kire blushed crimson as she saw Ed on the other side. He had walked from Ruli’s house after quickly realizing it was empty. His brows were raised, his gaze momentarily noting her outfit before he cleared his throat.

“I won’t come in, don’t worry. I wouldn’t be bothering you unless it’s important.” He fished a letter from his coat pocket, handing it to her. “Remember when you told us oh so very vaguely to keep you posted about ‘anything strange’, which, given the high concentration of weirdness that’s happened to us so far, doesn’t exactly narrow the field of ‘strange phenomenon’ we should be on the lookout for?”

“Uh-huh,” Kire said, narrowing her eyes at him as she took the letter.
“We might have a lead on that. We can discuss it upon your return.” He glanced ever so slightly over Kire’s shoulder. “Say…in a half hour?” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder. “I’m going to the top of the cliffs to watch Ysaryn and Zeke spar for a bit—and possibly get chewed out to kingdom come—so I’ll wait for you there.”
“Fine. Wait. Why are you going to be chewed out?” Kire asked, and Ed waved it off.
“I’ll explain later,” he said, already on his way to the top of the cliffs.

Kire went back to her room and pouted at Ruli, shaking the letter in her hand. “Duty calls,” she said, not bothering to hide her disappointment at that. “Do we have any coffee in here? And breakfast food?” she asked as she pulled off his clothes to put on hers. “Though I suppose I can have more cake, instead.”

She wandered into the kitchen once dressed, going over the letter. “Well. It’s not people flying,” she said aloud, after her second read. “But a forest had apparently grown overnight at some town, and people behaving strangely within its vicinity. Nobody’s gone in yet to inspect it.” She sighed. “I’m going to have go in to inspect it, I suppose.”

She glanced at the letter again. "By the way, I was meaning to ask...the wards you and Gavin devised for the Palace. I was wondering if you could help do it again, only this time for protection. Like the wards Envy puts up."

Wanderers

Kire shook her head. “For a few moments, yes, it was like that, but after that was…” Her voice trailed off as she frowned, trying to put a finger on what she had felt. “Just—closeness? It’s—it’s hard to describe, especially the last. The last vision had a lot of conflicting things I can’t quite parse through. But, thing is, I think the feelings weren’t coming from either of us at all,” she said. “This might sound crazy. But…do you think we’re seeing some other version of the future?” She paused, then stifled a giggle. “Okay. Yeah. I admit, that’s crazy even for me. I sound like Elva or Daryll when they get into the herbs too much.”
She shook her head, then pushed him onto his back, leaning in for a deep kiss. “Too early for theories, I admit. Exercise first,” she said with a hungry grin.

--

“Ahhh.” Ed smirked. “Fought Kire to a draw? Hm. Interesting. Well. I taught Kire swordsmanship, so that must mean my chances are decent.” He followed along, then wondered for a moment if Ysaryn would be alright with him showing up unannounced. Then again, he might just as likely catch her ire if he had fetched Kire without showing his face at all. He almost chuckled aloud as Zeke yelled for Ysaryn, amused.

Until he saw another elf. Ed froze, and when Ysaryn appeared and their argument began, it became clear who this man was. Oh, fuck. He raised his hands and backed out of the house as Zeke pushed him. “To be fair,” he muttered back, “between you and I, I’m probably the one who should be concerned more.” He’d faced his fair share of furtive affairs and angry fathers—and one or two irate lovers—many years ago, before he grew up and out of that stage in his life.