Sanctuary IC

Lakeside Path - Near Chronomancer's Tower - Gensei Woods

Azeruk made a slight gasp as Amurei became nervous. Azeruk remembered that Chronux told him that in the event a nervous woman visits the tower, he should shout a message to the trees.

"I'm very sorry if I come off as crazy, but this is something that has to be done.", Azeruk said to Amurei.

Azeruk turned over to the nearest treeline, cupped his hands to his mouth, and shouted into the woods.

"Not a pawn, not a means to an end, but a solution to the problem! Turn left, not right! There's a mine next to your feet! I moved it so that you wouldn't step on it!", Azeruk shouted to the trees.

Little did Azeruk know that Chronux's message was for Aetheron, a Chronomancer hiding in the woods.

Azeruk shrugged at Amurei and walked towards the tower door. The door was gold and covered in ornate decorations. Azeruk pulled out what looked to be a golden puzzle cube.





The cube was plated in brilliant gold and had various designs on it. Azeruk placed the cube into one of the many designs on the door, which revealed one of the useless decorations to be a keyhole. Azeruk pressed the cube further into the hole, twisted the cube, then pressed the center button. After that, Azeruk turned the center button to the right at a 90 degree angle and pulled the cube out of the door. All of a sudden, the sounds of metal clicking and shifting could be heard along the sides of the door, as if something inside of the door was being moved. Once the sounds stopped, Azeruk turned the door's handle and opened it up.

"After you.", Azeruk said to Amurei as he held the door open and looked back to the treeline.

Azeruk knew that someone was watching, based on the message Chronux said for him to shout. Perhaps they would meet soon enough. Azeruk felt as if he was forgetting something, but he didn't know what it was. It had something to do with the tower, but he couldn't quite remember.

Lakeside Path - Near Chronomancer's Tower - Gensei Woods

Amurei preferred not to enter a place which she was not sure she could get out of, but Azeruk's shouting signified that there probably was someone in the trees. So she stepped within the tower and looked around at the sparse but unique furniture. She had not seen this type of furniture before. She settled in a metal chair she saw and turned to Azeruk.

"So what was that shouting about? And I assume that door is very secure? Also what is a "mine"? Is it something you built?" She fired off the questions, wanting to satisfy her own curiosity.

Tempus

"Let us not delay any further then." The Kings tone shifted to being solemn.
Aion Looked at Nera and merely nodded in agreement to what the King had said. "And let us pray that Aetheron truly is helping us..."

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Land of Cinders and Ashes

Kiara remained quiet the whole time, then when Esmererelda was finished, she whispered something under her breath, inaudible to anyone. "You don't know..." She closed her eyes. "You don't understand our fate...our curse..."
Memories of Terrisa played on her mind. Memories of a Chronomancer, a man with a silver mask, who retrieved Terrisa's body from the rubble.
Fragments of a memory as she was pulled away by Aion after she saw him...
Fragments of memories of her meeting the brother of Terrisa...
....................Fragments that never fit together...

(Note: The post is not as good as I wanted it because the crap page froze and screwed everything. this is only bits and pieces of what I can remember. I am mourning over the original post.)

Inside Chronomancer's Tower - Gensei Woods

Amurei sat down and began asking Azeruk questions, trying to satisfy her curiosity. Azeruk entered the tower and answered them.

"Well, the reason I was shouting was because Chronux told me that there will be places in time when I would have to say certain things. In this instance, Chronux told me that in the event a nervous woman visits the tower, I should shout a message to the trees. Chronux always seemed irrational, but it was always for a good reason. Anyways, the door is incredibly secure. It has 20 metal bars that lock into the wall whenever the door is locked. It's the equivalent of a vault door. As for what a mine is, it is an explosive device that you place on the ground. When a person steps on it, the mine explodes, sending out shrapnel and fire. I didn't make them, but Chronux taught me how.", Azeruk explained to Amurei.

Just then, Azeruk looked behind Amurei and remembered what he had forgotten. A feeling of dread washed over Azeruk as a 20 foot gold colored guardian stood behind Amurei, ready to kill the intruder with its axe.





"Nonono! She's a guest! Stand down!", Azeruk shouted at the guardian as he pointed at it.

The giant guardian stopped itself from bringing the blade down onto the guest and brought the axe back to its resting position.

Tempus

Nera only sighed and prepared to to go "Ok, we should go now, follow me" she said already leaving towards the exit of the castle

While she was walking through the corridor she remembered about something

Many years ago..

A much younger Nera was playing with her doll as both her parents were working in the blacksmith a floor below thei home. Both Dante and Marzia were fox hybrids and had a good job as the blacksmiths of the Yaju comunity, many came with requests of a variety of objects aside from weaponry and they had a good life with their daughter.

The little fox accidentally dropped her doll in a bucket of water and she groaned in irritation. She then took her drenched doll out of the bucket trying to dry it, but no luck.

Nera walked down the house´s stairs and saw her mother "Mama, can you help me clean Vivi? she fell in a bucket of water.." she said showing the doll

"Oh sweety.. can you wait until your father and me finish this? we are making a nice adornment for the human king" Marzia said showing the ongoing project.

Dante was bending a heated pipe for the gift. The blacksmith family as some other Yaju wanted to show the humans that they were peaceful beings too

The little vixen nodded happily "Ok Mama" she said going upstairs and put the doll in a small chair

"Ok Vivi, I have an idea, why don´t we use our secret?" she asked imagining the doll agreeing with her. Nera then took a deepbreath and touvhed the doll´s chest with her finger, at first nothing happened, but soon a trinklet of water sipped out of the doll gathering on the fox´s hand. the doll was losing the water as it formed into a small ball of liquid barely floating on Nera´s palm

"Looks like its working Vivi, but please don´t tell Mama or Papa, they say magic is a bad thing, they send kids to a bad place.. it is funny to play with water, but they must be right, right?" she said moving the water sphere in a hand and her doll on the other.

She then heard the door opening and saw her mother "Ah! Mama I didn-" she was ineterupted

"Nera? since how long can you do that?" Marzia asked pointing to the water sphere with a worried sphere

"I.. for some months.." the little fox said

The fox mother took her daughter´s shoulders "Why didn´t you tell us Nera?" she asked seeing the girl´s eyes who then panicked

"Please mama don´t send me to the bad place! I didn´t know what to do and kept it secret.. Im sorry.." Nera started sobbing

Her mother took the fox´s on her arms and hugged her "Oh sweety.. we won´t do anything like that.." she said comforting the crying girl´s back

Dante then appeared "What´s the conmotion Marzia? I heard Nera crying" he asked and his wife answered "She developed magic Dante, our daughter can control water"

The male fox sighed and closed the door

Present

The vixen got back to reality as she felt a tear passing on her cheek, she rubbed it off and looked outside

"Im going to stop this madness.." she said walking outside

Esmeralda gave out a hearty laugh as if nothing happened. As if she never told the story of Toran's past.

"Oh, dear me! How disheartening! Well, since I'll be around you, allow me to lighten the mood!"

She released a large cloud of laughing gas. Everyone in the building began laughing. Esmeralda... she was already laughing. Toran only got so much as a snicker.

Gensei Woods - Chronomancer's Tower

"An interesting toy..." Aetheron stepped out of the shadow behind the mechanical guardian, in his hand was the disarmed mine. "But nothing more." He put away the golden device in a bag. "The disciple of Chronux...ah it has been far too long..." Aetheron had a wry smile. "Alas, I have pressing business to attend to. Lady Amurei, I have a favor to ask of you..."

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Tempus

Aion placed a hand on Nera's shoulder. He didn't say anything, only looked at her with a sage understanding.

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A fragment of a memory...

A small little pendant. A brilliant blue Arcane stone was situated in it. A much younger Aion looked at his work with pride. Then he went to find his sister, whom everyone called Tina. It wasn't her real name, but Aion didn't even remember a time she was called anything else. He couldn't even remember her true name. As he left the house he saw Tina enjoying the sunlight and cool breeze. Then...
No scream. No pain. Tina looked at Aion as she fell lifeless, struck down by a spear of light. A look that begged for forgiveness. That was when Aion focused on the man that had killed his sister. The man with red eyes...
As soon as he saw him, he was gone. Only the remnants of the blue aura lingered.
--------
Another...

Aion looked at the bloodied edge of his sabre, then to his own wound, then to Dalia who was holding on to him as blood starting to trickle out of her mouth.
"A-Aion..." She looked into his eyes, pleading for him to help her understand. He looked back to his sabre. Blood from Dalia still flowing along it...
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And then another...

He stood on a platform, surrounded by fire. His eyes locked upon the man who killed his family, locked upon Revere. Sword drawn Aion asked him. "Why?" a simple question that bore the brunt of the world upon it.
"Why? To answer that, answer this: When does a man have a choice?" Revere lowered his red sabre. "My fate has already been decided. You... still have a chance."
"What are you talking about?"
"Patience, Aion... Time will give you the answers."

--------------
"Nothing is ever truly whole...Time...only gives you the pieces..."

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Land of Cinders and Ashes

Everyone was laughing. Except Dalia. She had regained consciousness from the sleeping gas and only stared off into space with her head resting on a table.
She toyed with a locket that she wore for a moment then finally got up and left the bar. She headed for the fire shrine.
No real motive anymore. No real thoughts passed through her mind. She went up to the shrine where the woman was and joined her. But rather than pray, Dalia embraced the emptiness she felt. She sat in the tranquility.
Kiara had followed her to the doorway and watched from there.

En route to gorcks camp

Nera, Aion, the king and a group of soldiers were walking towards the location of Gorck´s camp, they were on foot as request of the fox because there was the risk that the equine people would surely get insulted by seeing their related species like that

"Whatever happens, don´t attack unless it is fully necesary and if i say it, Gorck will take advantage of any chance to fault us, you soldiers will protect the king by only parrying and shielding, not killing attacks, the Yaju may follow him but we having an animal side give us the instincts of what is truly right, so if the chief goes too far, the people may see the truth and get out of the shackles of fear" the fox said guiding the group through the forest

As they were walking deeper into the forest, the vixen noticed some bird and monkey hybrids on the tree branches

"Their scout spotted us and since we aren´t armed for an assault, they will just notice the security to expect a group, not an attack squadron" Nera said eyeing the now leaving scouts

Gorck's camp

Lucas was sitting outside the armory with his new knives filling the empty sheaths on his belt and had the spares in his backpack. He was just rolling the arcane stone he had around in his hands when a group of yajus entered the armory and started arming themselves. Lucas recognised them to be part of the security group of the camp. He cast around, and finally got an explanation of what was happening from a hawk yaju.

He flew out to see for himself, he couldn't believe the king had come. And also with such a small party, a diplomatic one perhaps? And how had they found the camp? He was finally hovered above that small party, it was most definitely the king, Lucas recognised the figure who fell down the wall earlier. How they found the camp was then evident, there was a fox yaju with black fur guiding them. Under duress? it did not likely, she was leading the group. Why would she lead them here he wondered? Then he remembered he still had the arcane stone in his hands and recalled that the stones came from the bodies of abains, like those below him. He uncomfortably and quickly packed it away in his pack and flew off to join the rest of the yajus waiting for the party to arrive at the camp.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Gensei woods-Chronomancer's tower

Amurei jumped off the chair and spun to face the guardian as Azeruk shouted at it. The guardian was most definitely non-living and could have hurt her, it couldn't kill her of course, she was already dead, but it would still have been quite painful. She was about to thank Azeruk when a man with silver armor stepped out from behind the machine.

"An interesting toy...but nothing more.The disciple of Chronux...ah it has been far too long...Alas, I have pressing business to attend to. Lady Amurei, I have a favor to ask of you..."

She backed away until she was next to Azeruk, preparing her atlatl and the darts she had prepared with mud earlier as she moved. When next to him, she muttered to him, " I assume this guy is the guy you shouted at earlier? And considering how he talked to you, he is not a friend?" She then addressed the man.

" Who are you? What favor? Were you the one watching us earlier? And I don't care whether you are just extra-polite or it is idle flattery but don't bother with those things, besides I'm hardly a lady. In fact, I'm downright insulted by that term, I'm not one of those silly women with their delicate sensitivities, I can and will hurt you if you attempt to cause trouble. "

Path to the camp

Aion found himself on edge. Something was amiss.
If whom he thought was interfering...
He turned to Nera. "Slow down the pace. We're ahead of schedule..."

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Gensei Woods

"...And that is exactly why..." Aetheron smirked again. "The king of Tempus is currently en route to the Yaju camp. He seeks to negotiate a peace with them. However, the leader of the Yaju...in his current mindset would only...reject them." Aetheron paced the room as he spoke. "You researched the Yaju, you know them well enough..." He paused. "Besides, I need someone who is but a voice, rather than someone like myself of flesh and blood..." He turned towards the door. "Now you can refuse...But then..." He paused and seemed to look over his shoulder at her. "Everything as we know it will end."