Sanctuary IC

[Cucoo5]

Land of Cinders and Ashes

Kiara and Dalia looked at each other and burst into a fit of giggles at the others' speculation on what Eleos was. The giggles intensified as they watched Toran reaction to Esmerelda.
"Gee, looks like we don't have to worry 'bout a certain someone knocking their limbs off now! Hehehehe!"
"Be nice now to Tor-Tor, Dalia!"
"PFFFFFFT Tor-Tor?! Oh that's just too much! Hahaha!" Dalia then suppressed her laughter. "Alright, I got a good feeling about...KENJI!" She pointed off in the opposite direction of where Kenji was.
"Dalia~ I think you mean this way."
"Oh R-Right! I was...AHEM...just testing you, young one!"
"Suuuuure~"
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Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

"Hmph. Yeah...you're right. But sometimes I wonder if it really is that simple." Aion got up. "Alright, time to get paid then I get to hunt down my team." He placed the sheathed sword across his shoulders and rested his arms over it stretching. "Besides, knowing Starla, she'll be all over my case for taking this job. Ha...I swear she treats us like children..."
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Kenji - Beach
A gentle sea breeze, the sun started to rise higher in the sky, a virtual paradise. For Eleos, it was the easy life. He lay beneath a palm tree with his hat pushed over his eyes. Starla sat nearby in the sands of the beach, a casting circle drawn out in the sand. She was watching energy flowing from the Arcane Stones of her Star Pendant to the various sigils. She kept the flow constant. Even though she could not directly use any of the magic, she was looking for ways to improve her ability to summon spirits that can use the various spells. She watched the energy slowly shift intently, looking for any signs that may reveal a solution. She jotted down notes in her book as she focused the energy.

[wonderweiss]

Esmeralda laughed with them.

"Oh, please, he'll get his leg torn off anyways! Just you wait! Isn't that right... Tor-Tor?!"

Toran blushed in embarrassment and anger. "Sh-shut up, at least I'm nearly invincible... Tor-Tor... how degrading for one of my stature..."

Esmeralda held him close to her chest. "Oh, don't worry, we didn't mean it, Toran dearest."

Toran's face then turned red as a tomato, though. "... Uh, Esmeralda... your breasts..."

Esmeralda had him buried in her chest. She let go. "Oh, sorry, how unladylike!... But you know... you will be seeing more of it once we're marrie-"

"Moving along! Let's go!" Toran walked in the direction Kiara pointed to. Esmeralda followed.

"Well, if he does get his limbs torn off, let's hope that his right arm doesn't get torn off. Now that would be devastating."

[S121]

(Sorry for the short post, but this is part of a conversation. Azeruk is not asking for much.)

Chronomancer's Tower - Gensei Woods

Azeruk was a little puzzled by the man's words and was beginning to get a little impatient with the man. The man said was that there was a curse that would bring the end, but still gave no indication of who he was. Azeruk still had very little to trust in. In Azeruk's mind, people who were reluctant to give their names only meant that they had something to hide, and were not to be trusted.

"And I still don't know your name... As for this curse, can you explain further, maybe tell me what the catalyst is? Maybe you can give me more details?", Azeruk asked the man.

[Cucoo5]

Chronomancer's Tower - Gensei Woods

"If I were to speak my name, thus tell it to you directly..." His words seemed to cut the air with a preciseness that would make any man on edge. "You would find yourself hunted by forces I myself dare not tempt."
He turned to the doorway once again. "...However, Chronux did study the Legend of the Guadians of Time...I would assume a book may contain certain details..." Aetheron paused before opening the door. "...Also I would also venture a guess that he would also have notes on people he encountered during his life. Sometimes, Chronomancers do that in order to make connections that otherwise would be unperceivable..." He slightly turned back to Azeruk. "It may contain information also of Lady Amurei..."

[S121]

Chronomancer's Tower - Gensei Woods

Azeruk finally understood why the man couldn't say his name, but right now, he was thinking about this "curse" that the man spoke of. Azeruk still only had the smallest bits and pieces of the puzzle, causing the whole encounter to not make any sense.

"Well that's a start. At least I now know that you can't say your name. Can you tell me more about this 'curse'? What's causing it? Is there a way to stop it?", Azeruk asked the man in a curious tone.

[Kristia]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

Nera was pondering the situation.

Both the king and the chief were in good terms as the rhinoceros made a seal of approval, right now the Humans, the abains and the Yaju were in a trusty truce for atleast the war to end.

Now the fox had to face another task, what to do with the obvious bad feeling she have, most Yaju accpeted the idea, but they still pointed daggers at her back because of her supposed treason

"If you donīt mind, I would like to follow you and your group, you guys seem to have quite a big deal to face, here I know Iīll wake with a sword or dagger close to my troath, so what you say?" she asked to Aion

[bookdragon2000]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

Lucas sighed as he flew back to Gorck's tent to inform the bear Yaju, called yuklan, he had sent here earlier as a place to meet. He now informed Yuklan about the new meeting place in front of the armory. Lucas had just managed to recruit two tiger Yajus who happened to be brother and sister, they were called Braelon and lindy, but they had balked when he told them to meet next to Gorck's tent. They said they did not want to be near that "traitor" and those humans and abains. He had just redirected them to the armory. Yuklan grumbled a bit but set off for the armory.

He now debated about who else he should invite to join this group. The three warriors should be sufficient for this mission without affecting the rest of the tribe too much. So now the question was who should come along with him past Dante. Preferably someone also stealthy. Just then he noticed a few Yajus looking at him curiously. He supposed they had a reason too, he had been flying all over the camp for a while, trying to find people to join his group. He wanted to set off as fast as possible. So he decided to make use of this attention.

"Erm... Anyone interested in going after the books stolen by that necromancer? Preferably you should be quite stealthy, just come to the armory if you are interested." He called out to the yaju around. He immediately flew towards the armory as a wave of discussions broke out. He was a new addition to this tribe as he had said to Gorck, but he did have Gorck's authorisation he supposed. But he still felt ill at ease, he hated speaking to large groups or being the target of the attention of many, he preferred staying unnoticed in the background. But this was much faster than going around asking.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________

Land of cinders and ashes

Amurei paused at the outskirts of the town, she vividly remembered what had happened here earlier when she reentered this world of the living. For a moment, she stood still, assuaged by those memories, then she shook her head mentally. "This is why I need to go to Mt ventus, I really need to learn to control myself." she muttered to herself. Sometimes when struck by certain thoughts,insights,memories etc, she just froze in place until she had fully processed it. She was not sure why she did so, maybe the priests at Mt Ventus could help.

She was racing through the town using the speed which she had used to traverse the woods to quickly, when she stopped at the sight of a zombie, what was one of them doing here? But he was surrounded by some humans and abains and they were not fighting. In fact, the zombie seemed to be conversing with them. "Huh, never thought zombies could be that smart, they usually just have enough intelligence to follow orders and move." She muttered to herself. Just then she realised that some locals were giving her weird looks. After all, she had blurred into place and was standing there looking insubstantial, not at all normal.

She moved on, deciding to just continue and get to her goal. But she could not resist taking a slightly closer look at the strange zombie. She did so in a slightly unorthodox way though, as she wanted to continue and yet take a closer look, she simply faded till she was barely visible and sped straight through the group, snatching a quick look and taking note of as many things as possible about the zombie. She was careful to avoid the zombie though, she could not just go though him as she could go through the others.

She noticed that he seemed to be in good condition, probably did not die that long ago. He seemed to be quite close to one of the women in the group, or was it the other way around? But what really caught her attention was a vague glow coming from him that her eyes barely picked up. So he had an arcane stone, interesting, but not any of her business at the moment. She returned to the matter at hand and sped straight towards the mountain in the distance, much faster than a normal being could move. She left a little trace behind her, but even so, the wind from her passage caused a few pieces of debris to stir a bit.

[wonderweiss]

Toran looked at his arm.

"Yes, that would be a bad thing. After all, this is a-"

Then, he felt something rush by him.

"... something's watching..."

"What is it, Toran dearest?" Asked Esmeralda.

"... Nothing. Quite possibly either a light mage speeding by or my imagination."

"Ah. Are you sure it was a light mage?" wondered Esmeralda. She grabbed a hold of Toran's arm. "I mean, you have to be sure. What if the stone is finally acting up?"

Toran looked at his arm. "... well, I just rip it off and throw it on the ground and watch the show. I mean, I, being a zombie, can handle such pains. Plus, you've been around your sister long enough to know how to fix it."

"I know, but it's not easy at all, not at all. Not even for her. I mean, it hasn't been done before, and the reason is obvious. I mean, who would want an unstable artificial arcane stone anyways?"

[Cucoo5]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

Aion leaned back with a broad smile on his face. "I don't know..." He said sarcastically. "The team is already such a ragtag group..." Aion waved his hand in a broad arc. He paused and chuckled. "Sure, you can join up."

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Gensei Woods - Chronomancer's Tower

Aetheron kept his back to the boy. "There is no one curse. There is no one thing to blame. If you seek to help, look through Chronux's work. You'll find answers. Though..." He turned as he walked out the door. "I would again...suggest you aid Lady Amurei who has left for Mount Ventus." And with that he closed the door behind him.

-----------------
Land of Cinders and Ashes

Arke started to glow on Amurei's approach and reached a peak when she passed through the group, however only Kiara noticed it. Then as Amurei left for the mountain, the sword had only a faint glow left. It could detect the trail Amurei had left.
"Dalia...your sword..."
"Hmm?" Dalia turned to Kiara then looked at Arke. "Huh...? It's...glowing...?" She unlatched the blade from her belt and held it. as she moved it, the glow faded and strengthened based on which way the tip was facing. "...well this is interesting..."

[wonderweiss]

Toran looked at the blade in astonishment.

"Impressive... I have never seen a blade of this type. Esmeralda, do you have information on it?"

"Another time, Toran dearest," Esmeralda replied. "It really doesn't matter at the moment. Right now the only thing that matters is where that there blade is facing."

Esmeralda leaned towards Kiara.

"Truth be told, he may seem to be the smartest zombie in Lore, but that isn't entirely true. He has enhanced learning and self being. I'm the one who taught him everything he knows!"

"Esmeralda, you don't have to be a genius to hear as well as I do," Toran said.

"... Well, he is still very smart. After all, he has yet to learn everything else before he is the smartest creature in all of Lore."

[Cucoo5]

Land of Cinders and Ashes

Dalia unsheathed the golden blade. Light particles played along its edge and the ancient writings along the fluted channel seemed to glow faintly. "The fact that Arke is reacting to something..." Dalia turned to Kiara. "Find Starla. Bring her here." Kiara nodded and headed off in the direction of Kenji as though this was a simple errand. Dalia then turned to Esmerelda. "I'm not one-hundred percent savvy on sacred sword mumbo-jumbo...but I know Arke. I know the legends tied to this sword. And I know that I should never take anything it does lightly..." Dalia remembered the first time Arke glowed like this...the time when she met Aion on that one mission... "So want to find out what it's going to lead us to?"

[wonderweiss]

Esmeralda followed Kiara.

"Toran, you stay with Dalia and help her out. You two need to bond, after all."

Toran nodded. He faced Dalia.

"Well then, back to square one, huh? Don't worry, I won't kill ya. But I do need a weapon... Maybe... Just this one time..."

Toran tried to summon an earth blade, but suddenly, he fell on his knees, grabbing his head in pain. The pain faded away shortly.

"... Damn, that's right, we bonded. Can't deny an order... Oh well. I should be alright, what with me being a zombie. Lead the way."

[Cucoo5]

Land of Cinders and Ashes

Kiara noticed that Esmerelda decided to follow her. "Oh? You don't want to stay with Toran?" She then tilted her head. "You know, I'm actually a part of this one guy's team. The leader's name is Aion. He and Dalia never saw eye to eye...especially now that...well...Aion did "kill" her. But one of the Elder Guardians of Time saved her. Aion doesn't know yet." Kiara continued to skip along. "I hope all of the others are still in Kenji. Starla did say she wanted to study the forest so they may have started to travel to Gensei."

Dalia shook her head. "So your lover is going that way?" She turned to Toran. "Well this will be interesting..." Dalia shifted Arke so that its glow reached its peak. it was pointing roughly for Mount Ventus. "Alright so this way." She then paused for a moment. "Oh and about your Arcane stone, I overheard, it's unstable?" Dalia held the flat of Arke towards Toran. "Leme tell you about this sword. It's one of the three Keys of Heaven's Forge. It has the ability to seal energy. So...it might be able to create a small seal to keep your magic in check from getting the better of you."

[Kristia]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

Nera made a small smirk at the Abainīs acceptance "Guess we will make a good team then, Iīll just need to deal with something first" she excused herself and walked towards the center of the Yaju camp

As she walked deeper, the other hybrids noticed her and kept murmuring the same words of traitor and related

"Heh.. they call me traitor even though they donīt know what I did, but surely they would do it if they knew" the fox chuckled

Now she was on the center of the camp and many Yaju gathered to loathe her

"I see all of you are here to get a piece of me, but im not coming in terms of battling my own kind, right now we have a bigger problem than our local issues, the undead have gone on a full scaled war against everyone, and I mean all species, the humans, the abains and the Yaju are in more danger for every inocent that dies and becomes another soldier of the undead army." Nera said and then unsheated her steel sword impaling it on the surface

"Im not coming here for forgiveness of any sort, Im coming here to request you to ignore our species issues and fight for the equality of all of us" she growled with a serious stare from her purple eyes

Many Yaju were rather stunned by her words while others were whispering little things. The black vixen took her sword and walked towards the mercenary

"I hope those thick heads think now, so what is the plan?"

[Cucoo5]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

Aion stood with his arms crossed and smiling. "You are determined, I'll give you that. Bound determined to get that message across to everyone." He chuckled. "While ya did that I got my pay from the King. Now we head for Kenji, where my team is." Aion started to walk in the general direction of Kenji. "I don't think we'll be able to get supplies here so we'll travel light. Shouldn't be that long anyways to get to Kenji from here..."