Fight against fantasy - IC

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

Azeruk shook his head and blinked as he came back to reality. In that split second, Azeruk made a quick sweep with his gaze, but couldn't find the time mage.

"Why do the higher-ups always run?", Azeruk remarked as he thought about the bandits.

It was common for the higher ranking bandits to send the weaker ones to do their bidding, even if they could easily do the job themselves. Perhaps it was because they were afraid of failure and death. Perhaps that was why they held such a high rank. Azeruk then turned his attention to what the woman had shown him. The woman had shown him Lake Ljost and instructed him to go there. Why would she help him? Was it a trap? Based on her words, it seemed as if she was trying to help them figure out what had happened ten years ago, but she was a member of SYSTEM. How could Azeruk trust her? It was truly a confusing predicament.

Azeruk turned around and entered his house, to prepare for the journey.

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

At one moment she was packing for their journey, the next the door was broken down, Azeruk was outside together with a stabbed commander from SYSTEM. At first Sidna had no idea about what had happened. It all happened to quick. Had Azeruk used his speed again to stab someone lurking behind the door. "What happened here? was there spies lurking behind the door trying to ambush us?". She walked out to try to identify what had happened. At the looks of it Azeruk had smashed trough the door to stab someone. She was sure of that. There was several things that didn't add up tough. While the blood on the spy looked like it was completely fresh from a few seconds ago while the blood on Azeruk looked like it had been there for a few minutes.

"Why do the higher-ups always run?". "What do you mean? Didn't you get him" Sidna said while pointing at the man. Then she began to realize that there was even more inconsistencies. Not one, but two pairs of footsteps and several other inconsistencies too. She remembered that her brother being a time mage had often played tricks on her just like this. It always felt like things went too fast. He also normally left a few inconsistencies so she could notice faster. "DID YOU FIGHT WITH A TIME MAGE?!". After calming down some she tried to find out what had happened. "Tell me just what happened. Everything. From what the time mage looked like to what he or she said."

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

Azeruk was a little surprised by Sidna's reaction. In his mind, fighting stronger opponents was a natural occurrence, one that he had always come across. Sure, he would be outmatched, but in the end, he always found a way to win. Azeruk walked over to a chair near the window and sat down tell Sidna what had happened.

"Okay. What happened was that I used my light magic to travel through the door in order to quickly kill the SYSTEM agents. In truth, I thought there was only one, but there were actually two. I was aiming for the time mage, but the man was in the way. After I killed him, she froze time and began talking to me. She said that she was glad that she didn't have to erase the old man's memories of what she was about to do, now that he was dead. She talked about how she can't rewind time past ten years ago, and that she was looking for answers. She said that she would instruct me on where to go next, then touched my head and began transmitting images through my mind. The image I saw was the image of Lake Ljost. Once I snapped back to reality, she was gone. Apparently, her name is Galdura. Does that name ring any bells?", Azeruk asked as he began pulling splinters from the door out of his skin.

The pain from removing the splinters wasn't too bad. In fact, Azeruk's injuries looked worse than they really were. It was a painful experience, but he would be fine.

Frank had arrived at his house. He was tired with obvious burn marks and wounds. He opened the door and headed to the bedroom. He knew he had to come up with an excuse tomorrow since he still works at the bar.

Suddenly, he noticed two shadows on his private island. He couldn't see them well, but he knew that they were SYSTEM based on the suits.

He walked out of his porch and began freezing parts of the lake. Though it was much harder now since he recently fought. When he finally reached the island, he stood behind one of them. He began accidentally emitting a cold atmosphere. But it didn't matter to him. He just wanted some peace. He's seen enough violence.

"You two. You are from SYSTEM, am I correct? I've already told you all that I don't remember anything. I hate to be rude, but can I ask you to leave? Unless you are just here to see the lake."

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

Sidna listened carefully to what Azeruk told her, noting the differences she noticed. "So her name is Galdura. No, never heard of her. Let me correct your story a little bit tough. As I see it the first thing she did was to freeze time around the house. For some reason she must have left you unfrozen. Secondly, how in the world does she manipulate memories. It's not supposed to be a part of time magic and not only once, but twice she talked about it. Thirdly, how old was she. Most time mages isn't even 10 years old. I doubt that SYSTEM hires girls that young."

Sidna then began packing again. "As for where we should go. I guess we just have to go to Myrkur and Lake Ljost."

Lake Ljost

When Wen Xuan began attacking her she got a little bit scared. "Hey don't point that thing at me. We're friends right? Work together on missions and that kind of stuff. I do must say that I'm suprised to find you out here. Did they send too over here too? As for my original question. Why are you sleeping on the ground."

At the same time a different person came asking the to leave. "Just a friend reunion over here. Nothing special with us. You however might be a little bit more special. You are Frank Gordon right? You have three days to get ready to travel to Mattur."

Frank was alarmed.

"M-Mattur? But... what for?"

He didn't want to leave the lake. However, if she wants him there to assist in keeping the peace there, he was willing to go. However, something caught on to him.


"... Say... how do you even know my name?"

Myrkur is a small town, but because no one would want to live there. If they lived there, they wouldn't have left. If they did, his name couldn't have spread that wide just because of a few people. As a matter of fact, there was nothing special about. He was just one of two bartenders in Myrkur.

Ljost lake

Wen Xuan calmed down slightly when he realised that she was not here for him. He glanced at the man who asked them to leave and was startled to realise that it was that bartender from earlier. His name was frank? Frank seemed to be emitting a cold aura. Wen xuan suppressed a shiver, he hated the cold, this frank must be an ice user.

Wen xuan considered the situation, neither of them seemed to recognise him, meaning that madge was probably just off flying by herself. She would find him later.

"I know nothing about this mission here concerning frank. I`m just on my way east." He was about to get going again when he heard madge`s call, he looked in the direction where it had come from, which happened to be over the lake. This reminded him of why he stayed there in the first place. "But first, i am waiting for a friend. Meanwhile, could either of you tell me about this light in the lake?"

While waiting for them to respond, he started setting up his bow as fast as he could. He`d rather be prepared rather than caught by surprise again.

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

Once Azeruk cleaned himself up, he began to pack as well. Azeruk walked into his room and grabbed a large leather bag. As soon as he grabbed the bag, Azeruk darted off to the kitchen and began to pack various nonperishable foods. Azeruk packed enough crackers, jerky, bread, apples, dried fruits, potatoes, nuts, seeds, and grains to last Sidna and himself around three weeks. Once Azeruk finished packing the food, he then walked towards one of the cupboards and pulled out two large jugs. There was no telling how long they would go before they found water, so it was important to be prepared. Azeruk walked over to the crude sink, filled up the jugs, sealed them, and put them in the bag.

Once the essentials were secured, Azeruk then focused on grabbing weapons and various objects that would help them in their journey. The first thing Azeruk did was that he walked into his room and opened his closet. Inside was a leather utility harness with many pouches and loops on it. It was originally designed for storing tools and other various work related items, but Azeruk modified it to carry larger, heavier items, like swords, bombs, spikes, materials, medicine, and other kinds of equipment. Azeruk took the utility harness and put it on. After tightening the harnes so that it fit snugly onto his torso, Azeruk then walked over to his nightstand and opened it. The inside was filled with forty throwing spikes, a pair of throwing spike wrist holders, handheld explosives, a toolkit, and heat resistant gloves. Azeruk put on the spike holders and emptied the entire nightstand onto his utility harness, putting each item where it belonged. Once that was done, Azeruk walked over to his desk, took a book full of blueprints, and stuffed it into the bag.

(That's about it. Now we leave.), Azeruk thought as he headed for the exit from his room.

Azeruk suddenly stopped, then looked over to the knight's crossbow. Should he take it? He had been trying to duplicate the metal spikes it fired, but was having a hard time trying to duplicate them. Of course, Azeruk remembered how much it helped him when he fought the bandits, so he knew how powerful a weapon it was. In the end, Azeruk decided to take he "crossbow" with him. Perhaps Sidna would know what it was really called.

"Okay, I'm ready to go.", Azeruk said to Sidna as he walked into the room she was in while he held the SYSTEM knight's "crossbow" at his side.

Frank looked to the middle of the lake. The light emitting from it was always beautiful this time around.

"... That... that is the light of Ljost, the only light that the gods have blessed Myrkur with. The light is but a mystery, even to the elders. But that light is the little light that Myrkur has. I live by this lake for several reasons. One main one being that the light here in this lake... I want to brighten Myrkur myself. The light is all that Myrkur has, and I want to make Myrukur a safer place. But if that light were ever to go out... Not only would I be devastated, but something terrible will happen. It was in a prophecy. I don't know where it is, but another reason I live here is so that I can protect the lake from evil, corrupted souls who wish to take out the light. The lake might not need a guardian or may already have a deity to do so, but I will be here to help, no matter what. So I'm sorry, SYSTEM operative, but unless you come up with a good reason to come with you to Mattur, I will not go."

Enalausir Forest - Azeruk's House

After some time Azeruk told her that he was ready to go. Now it was only about where they would go. "I suppose we just have to follow th advice we have been given. Hey could I ask a favor of you. Being a light mage and all. Do you think that you could accelerate our journey so that we don't have to sleep outside at least for now. You don't have to stress it, just keep it like that we reach the town sometime late."

Lake Ljost

Sofa just waited a little longer until thing got a little bit calmer. When asked about the lake she let Frank answer first and then she added on to what she knew as a SYSTEM member. "It's said that there is a orb deep within the lake. One that hold memories. If you ever loose a memory that's probably where it went. That's also what's keeping it shining. I'm sure you've heard the phrase "Memory is power" right? That is kind of true. Whenever we use magic we need a source from where we get out mana from. That source is normally memories and while all humans have them, normal memories are normally deemed to weak to be used. That's why there are bigger sources gidden around the world. This is one of them."

Sofa then got a little bit more serious. "As for the reason that you are called in, we have discovered that you have something that does not belong to you. You might not have picked them up on purpose, but none the less we have to remove them. Don't worry about the orb. Carrying such a object around with you would exhaust everyone."

She then turned to Wen Xuan. ""Now when did SYSTEM begin sending people on missions that far east? Just tell me that you won't get hurt. I'll be going now". And then she left.