Sanctuary IC

[Cucoo5]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

"Some...some events." Aion emphasized, holding the wheat stalk. "The fun part is figuring out which." He placed the end of the wheat stalk back in his mouth. "And then I wonder why I even bother." Aion leaned against the nearby pole. "War is inevitable. As long as greed exists that will never change. The only thing to hope for is: 'How do we delay the inevitable?' And then prod at fate. Ha...fate, here I talk about it as though it exists now." Aion then drew a connection to what the voice of the little girl said..."Play my game of fate..."
He looked to the red stone in the crosstree of Mercurius. He recalled how the gem had slowly formed overtime and had just realized it had fully formed just recently. "Maybe..." He turned his attention back to Nera. "So what's your bets? What happens next?"

[Kristia]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

Nera thought about it "Right now the biggest thing that may happen is how the diferent species shall act, the humans, abains and the Yaju have always been on dispute, but I hope they move on from the past and live in equality" she said lokoing at the sky

"Even the undead have a chance to, I just know there is a person behind all of this" the fox pointed out

"But it has been only a day, even the next five minutes can change everything"

[Cucoo5]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

Aion had started flipping a coin distractedly while Nera was speaking.

"Even the undead have a chance to, I just know there is a person behind all of this" the fox pointed out.

Aion caught the coin mid fall. He held it in his fist.

"But it has been only a day, even the next five minutes can change everything"

Aion didn't move much, his gaze remained transfixed upon some random object. "Who do you think is behind the undead? What do you think their motives would be...?"

[Kristia]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

THinking about it, the fox said "The necromancers are almost gone, but they were went so far to something of this scale, someone must be the puppeteer controlling the strings of the undead and he or she must have a big reason for doing this"

finishing her apple, Nera continued "People hate Nechromancers from bad moments in the past and those who had that magic through the time were shunned by society. A person might have used that hatred to create an army so big"

Nera then looked at the horizon "Maybe one day, species will see the reality that we are all similar" she trailed off in the end

[S121]

Chronomancer's Tower - Gensei Woods

Azeruk had heard of the legend from Chronux before, but what exactly did it have to do with the current situation? Why did he even remotely care about what this man had to say? He trespassed into Azeruk's house to ask Amurei and Azeruk to do something. Azeruk didn't really like how the man tried to embellish his request with theatrical words. Usually, someone would only do that if they were trying to convince others to think or help in a certain way, one that wasn't always beneficial to all parties involved. Perhaps the reason he didn't like it was because he was so used to Chronux's straight-forward approach to explaining things.

"Yes, I have heard of it before. Not to be rude, but could you get to the point? You are trespassing, and I still don't have very much of a reason to trust you. I don't even know your name.", Azeruk calmly said to the man.

[Cucoo5]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

"Huh, funny...I forgot bout that with necromancers." Aion slid to the ground and propped himself so he was laying in the grass. Wheat stalk still in his mouth. His mind trailed off and he started to speak unknowingly. "I never really got used to being one of the Guardians of Time..."

[Kristia]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

One of Neraīs ears perked up hearing him saying being a guardian "Impressive, being a mercenary who is also a guardian? quite a story you have, would you mind talking about it?" she asked

"You can say it or not if you want to, but I can tell you why they see me as a traitor here if you do" she offered

[Cucoo5]

Gensei Woods - Chronomancer's Tower

Aetheron removed the gauntlet from his left hand. "Everyone has ears...yet the deaf man hears more." He then turned and showed Azeruk the brand of the Guardians of Time. "Sol and Luna were my disciples." Aetheron put his gauntlet back on. "However, they defied not me, but the master of all Guardians of Time." He turned back to the doorway. "I hoped they would be the ones to defeat the curse of the inevitable destruction. I hoped to prolong the end. The end of all we know...no it is not change. It is the end of our existence."

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

"Hmm?!" Aion snapped to again. "Oh...did I...sigh..." Aion pushed himself into a sitting position. ".....tell no one, ok?" Aion unwrapped his left hand. "I am supposed to be a Guardian of Time...Guardian of the Halls of Time to be exact." He showed Nera the emblem that seemed to be partially embedded crystal in his palm. "I'm supposed to be one to protect the flow of events...but..."
Aion sat back looking out into space. "some of the things I had to do...I questioned it. Why did I have to be the one to carry Mercurius?" He paused. "Have you heard of The tale of Heaven's Forge? I have yet to meet someone that has not even heard the term used before, even if they don't know the story behind it..."

[Kristia]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

"A guardian of the time, huh? a big role for a person, but seeing how fast you recovered during the battle in Tempus, Im sure you are speaking with honesty" the fox said looking at the symbol in the abainīs hand

Hearing the question about a heaven Forge made Nera to think about it, yet she had no knowledge of it and even less of the story behind it "Well.. I have no knowledge about that story or place, never had the chance to read human/abain history books" she said with an apologetic tone

[bookdragon2000]

Gensei woods-near chronomancer's tower

Amurei finally calmed down, but she now sat on the stump of a tree that she had knocked down. She felt embarrassed at her earlier behavior, she hardly ever lost control, that was a terrible time to lose it. She now considered whether to go back, she still wanted to find someone who knew her in the past, but then the Yajus seem like a lost hope. From what she heard from that man with the silver armor, the Yaju leader was not one that would take kindly to outsiders. Azeruk knew CHronux and is his disciple. But that was not much of a link. Maybe she should give up on this goal and try for one of her projects.

She decided on that course of action, she turned away from the tower and headed north, towards the land of cinders and ashes and ultimately towards her goal: Mt Ventus, where the wind shrine resided. The priest there might help her learn better techniques to control her emotions and also...she had wanted to study those ancient books for a while...

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________

Gensei woods-Yaju camp

Lucas watched as the king's party left Gorck's tent. He watched for a short while as the fox yaju and an abain argued. Then he flew into the tent, he knew that Gorck would hear him easily, he was not one of those silent fliers like the owls, so he did not bother to announce his presence. But Gorck must have been strongly affected by the entirely meeting, for he stood staring into space for a while before he noticed Lucas' presence.

"What do you want Lucas? He asked. Lucas quickly explained that he wanted to continue his earlier mission and go after the books, but he wanted to succeed this time, so he requested permission not just to go, but to also bring along a few others that could help him defeat or at least bypass general Dante as well as to deal with the other generals if required, but it would be primarily a stealth mission, so he only needed a few powerful warriors to bypass Dante and bring only one or two stealthy Yajus inside with him. The rest of the group could then return to the camp.

Gorck seemed to debate over the pros and cons of this plan for a while, and then finally he delivered his surprising verdict: "No, if we fight the undead here, we could get to the books eventually when we drive them back and when finally they have no where else to go."

Lucas quickly countered: "But if we allow them to keep possession of the books, they would be a lot harder to stop, and we might not even be able to do so due to our lack of magic users."

"That won't be a problem, the abains will be with us and they can solve that problem." Gorck said. So this was why he was so distracted, the new alliance with the abains.

" I don't like leaving a job undone, I will go regardless what ever you say. Some here will help me, you know that some do not like you, they merely believe you are the best way to deal with the undead threat, me included. Besides, it will make scant difference whether I stayed or not, I would be more use in this mission. And you forget, I am not part of this tribe, I only joined to help against the undead threat. If I believe that this way ceases to be the best way to oppose the undead threat, I will just leave and recruit others on my own." Lucas began flying back out of the tent and was surprised but managed to dodge Gorck's hammer swing.

" You insolent little bird, you bird yaju are a pain, why won't you all stand still to be hit. But you've got guts, go ahead, just be quick about it." Gorck visibly forced out. Well at least Gorck was seeing sense now. Lucas nodded his thanks and left the tent, he immediately started by searching for a few strong warriors. He found one of them within a short distance of the tent, that was not surprising, most of those in the camp were gathered in the area due to the king's party. He dropped down in front of the powerful bear Yaju and started speaking to him.

[Cucoo5]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

"Heaven's Forge. One thing that the books never speak of is its link between the Halls of Time and the War of the Fates." Aion unlatched Mercuius from his belt and held the sheathed blade in his hands. "Even though to anyone that sees this...all they see is a sword, a weapon...In reality...This is one of the Three Keys of Heaven's Forge. This is Mercurius. This is the sword said to have only existed in legends and myths. Some call it the Sword of Light, others the Sword of Shadows. In the end it is but the cursed Blade of Fate." Aion then paused. "It's...a part of me..." He looked closely at the peculiar red gem in the crosstree. The harder he looked, the more he thought it reminded him of blood...

"There's a history book dedicated to Heaven's Forge, but it lacks certain details that I know of being a Guardian. Heck, there's some details I don't know of about the Guardians." He rested Mercurius in his lap and looked at Nera again. "Like this supposed 'Goddess of Inevitable Destruction,' who was said to be the original owner..."

"Section 3 - Paragraph 7...The Goddess of Bounded Time...known to most as...Inevitable Destruction...various depictions...true identity...unknown..."
"...The one whose toy you took without MY PERMISSION!..."

Aion looked back to the hilt of Mercurius. "How did the story go?...the story of the War of the Fates, I mean...It saw the end of all the celestials, right?"

[Kristia]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

Hearing the story of how the sword was a key and how an ancient war of celestial beings made the fox chuckle a bit "War is war, be it a local type or a celestial one, it all starts with a disagreement. It can end in a simple conversation, but it can go as long as hatred guides the battle."

She then looked at the weapon "However you see that tool of yours depend on how you use it, it can be something to protect as a key you say, but it can also be something of destruction as it has the shape and sharpness of a sword, take foor example mine" Nera said unsheating her layered steel sword

"This tool is just an extension of me, its purpose is choosen by the user, not by the tool itself, you can tell me the legends and stories of your sword or key, but right now it is just that, an extension of your own persona, be it to protect or to destroy in both the beings in both ends of it, you shall also be affected in how you use your extension" the vixen trailed off looking at the shine in the edge of her weapon and put it back on its sheat

[Cucoo5]

Gensei Woods - Yaju Camp

"...Your will defines the blade..." Aion frowned at the response. It echoed what Aetheron had said long ago...but it wasn't the same. He looked at the occasional Yaju that passed by. Aion noted the looks of contempt but paid them no mind. "...Do you think all of the celestials are gone?"

[Kristia]

Yaju camp

"That is something I donīt know Aion, Celestials were beings of inmense power as our books descrbed them, but to know the reality of them needs someone who witnessed the wars by himself or herself, but if they are still roaming around us, let them be, they have the same rights to live as us" Nera said closing her eyes and relaxing her mind

"Besides, we arenīt dependant of them, we have our on pros and cons as species, we might be stronger or weaker than the celestials, but we wonīt let a higher being contol our fates" the fox said with her eyes still closed

[wonderweiss]

Esmeralda heard the conversation.

"Eleos? Is he a yaju?"

Toran thought to himself, then spoke to Esmeralda.

"... Indeed. Quite possibly a cross between a human and a dog, a blood-hound to be more exact based on the given information. Now, as far as which blood-hound it's crossed with..."

"Oh, don't strain yourself, Toran dearest," Esmeralda interrupted. "We may or may not find out soon, so just calm yourself! We're focused on this arcane stone collector, remember?"

Toran paused, then nodded in agreement. "Very well."

Esmeralda kept on walking. Then, she shot up.

"Oh my! I almost forgot! Your arcane stone, how is it, how is it treating you?!"

Toran looked at his arm. "Well, so far, I'm feeling-"

"Oh, spare me the estimates, give me an analysis!" She said, feeling impatient.

"... Right. It's been a while since I've done so. Analysis: Signs of uncontrolled magic, none, signs of uncontrolled self-being, once, status of magic when in an uncontrolled self-being, moderately above average, signs of retaliation, none, signs of failure, none, overall status, improving."

Esmeralda thought to herself. "Hmm... it's settled, no magic for two days!"

Toran jumped back. "T-two days?! But I should be able to-"

Esmeralda turned around and gave him a whack on the head with her fan. "That's what the others before you said before the stone either retaliated or backfired on them. You said that status of magic is moderately above average when you are unstable. But remember, we don't look for improvement, we want to keep it leveled. If not, what happens if you are uncontrolled and your arcane stone becomes uncontrolled with it? You'll destroy yourself, for god's sake!"