Open Chronicles Southward Bound

[Luc]

The wooden door swung open with haste, flimsy in it's movement as the rust covered hinges wined under distress. The hooded figured on the other side rushed in and closed the poor excuse for a door behind him, baring it with an equally rusted latch. The room was dark, dank, and barren, save for a single three tiered shelf in it's corner and a small canvas sack which sat beside it. Rushing over, he over turned the soil at his feet and he paused looking down. He would find no comfort of wooden boards to sleep on tonight it seemed.

Better this then a jail cell... His thoughts echoed in his head as he approached the shelf, squinting in the darkness to make out what was there. A full moon hung high over head in the sky, blessing the world below with it's silver light that poured through the gaps of the poorly constructed wooden shed. He was able to make out the contents of the shelf as he neared and he frowned.

A single book, a loaf of stale bread, and jar of some viscous milky liquid. He was told this was a rest point for weary travelers who wished to be discreet. It seemed it was more so for the destitute. His stomach rumbled in protest, prompting him to sink to the ground beside the shelf. He was hungry. Had been hungry for the better part of two days. He was tired and drained, having traveled south from Elbion on the back roads at a pace that would put a race horse to shame. A long the way, he talked little if not at all, to anyone he passed, trying his best not to garnish any attention. Books taught him that such rest stops were favored by those wishing to stay out of the watchful gaze of authorities. This was confirmed when he was pointed in the right direction by a passing vagabond. The shed was small and sat beside a wooden area and a open field. he figured if anyone approached from the field, he could flee into the woods. If his legs worked. He was so tired. His stomach rumbled again. He was so hungry.

Hand reaching inside his tunic, he removed the last of his provisions. A single red apple. Another frown marked his face as he looked to the sack. If the other items were anything to go by, he would not like what was in there. A sighing escaping his lips, he spoke out to himself.

"Well.. You always wanted to go and see the world...Bottoms down Luc the Unlucky..."

With that, he took a bite of his apple... The last of his provisions.

 

[Nayella]

The forest was quiet tonight.

A silence hung in the air, one that told a story all it's own. No wolves prowled, no fawn stirred, even the insects seemed mute. It was odd, disconcerting, though most would not even have noticed.

Nayella did, but then again she was the reason for it.

Her eyes slowly wandered over the expanse of the forest, lips thinning as she stalked her prey. Her ears seemed taught, almost perked up as she listened for the sound of a snapping twig or a crumpled leaf. The silence would bring the echo to her, or at least that had been her hope.

She'd been hunting for three days now. It had begun the other way around, a man asking too many questions in a tavern, a woman hanging up posters. Nayella had no idea who they were, what they wanted or who had sent them. She'd gotten no answers from the woman, and upon her death the man had fled.

Now she hunted.

His path had taken her straight into this forest, towards the South, towards Vel Anir. Was it a clue? A sign? She had no idea, though even here she could smell the stink of magic from him.

He was close.

 

[Luc]

Luc had learned a great many things from his master, the woman who sponsored him and pushed him upon his path of magical study. Though short, he learned a great many things during his time in the Elbion college. He was skilled in manipulating the elements, as that was where the bulk of his talent rested, potion brewing, as long as he had a recipe on hand, and hand to hand combat. Despite his aptitude for growth, there were plenty of area's he lacked skill in. For instance, he had never been trained to cover his own magical presence. He was a babe in the woods and though he thought himself hidden, he very well should have lit a fire in a open field and screamed at the top of his longs. He was a loud beacon for those with the talent to sense. Despite that, there was one thing he didn't learn from his master or in the college. It was something chipped into his soul long before those two things came around. Back when he was just Luc, the half elf in the orphanage. Survival.

Crunch, chew, swallow. Crunch, chew, swallow. Crunch, chew, swallow. He devoured the apple in record time, but by the last bite he realized something. The sound of biting into the apple was entirely to loud. He thought he had been listening before but now he was truly listening. Listening to the voice of the wind... The songs of the land... The chorus of the wild. And it wasn't what he heard that caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand... but the deafening void that brought fear to his heart. Something lurked beyond the door of the flimsy shack and it was close by. That much, he could tell.

Apple core slowly placed upon the ground beside him, Luc made not a sound as he waited with bated breath. He was not sure what his next move, but he knew in this moment of fight or flight, he was about to reveal to himself if he were a wolf or a deer.

 

[Nayella]

Nayella continued to stalk through the silence, her footfalls as quiet as a church mouse. She made almost no noise as she moved among the trees, her gaze wild and searching as she watched for her prey.

The stink of his magic was in the heir, seemingly permeating everywhere. It was some effect of his, a measure to throw her from his trail. It was in the same way that he concealed his footprints. She should have been able to track him through those, but he was more skilled than she'd first thought.

Trained somehow, though by whom she had no idea.

A frown touched her lips as she spotted something amidst the trees. It was a small thing, wooden and barely standing. The moonlight cast down upon the survivalist shack, it's rotted ceiling displayed fully. Her frown deepened as she stared at it. Would he be fool enough?

Slowly Nayella rounded the clearing, moving so that she could approach the shed from the back. As she moved her hand began to glow, a sickly pale green enveloped her palm.

As soon as she touched the disheveled wood it seemed to begin to rot away, a thousand years passing in an instant as the Blight Witch did her work.

 

[Luc]

The rot spread like poison through veins before his wide eyes he watched his shelter being stolen from him. He wondered, if but for a moment, what his eyes showed him was actually happening or perhaps he had finally given into fatigue. The side which faced the forest gave way first, prompting a part of the flimsy roof to cave in. This was enough to show him that this was indeed happening.

Backing away from the source, Luc could vaguely make out the outline of a person against the back drop of the forest. His heart pounded in his chest, each thump deafening as he tried to make out any detail despite how muted it was in the darkness. This was magic at work and in his mind, someone from Elbion had caught up to him. He could feel the panic swell up in his chest, threatening to shut down any chance of escape. He was a lost lamb, to frighten to move despite a wold barreling down in him.


Fight or flight... The words echoed in his head. It wasn't his voice he heard however. It was his masters. He knew what he had to do.

A steady breath was drawn as he gathered mana into his left palm and held it flat, pointed to the earth below his feet. A blue glow engulfed his hand and he reached out, taking hold of the element that flowed beneath them both so he could pull and tug it towards surface. The shelf was the first to respond, listing to one side as the ground beneath it grew unstable. It slowly began to sink, followed by the apple core which simply vanish under the muddy surface. In a instant he drew forth the water that settled underground to create a sinking slosh that swallowed everything in it's path.

He hoped to create a barrier between him and his attacker, growing the sink hole as he retreated through the doorway which, thanks to her rot, caused the door to fall off. As he took off into the open field, the sinkhole behind him grew in every direction for several feet, hopefully providing him enough time to put distance between him and the Blight Witch.

Though skilled, he was still a novice however and surely the Blight Witch had more tricks up her sleeve then he could imagine. One thing was for sure however, in this instance, Luc proved to be more deer then wolf.

 

[Nayella]

The ground opened up beneath her, the earth sundering itself and slowly turning into a tight spiral. The moment she felt the dirt beneath her move and shift Nayella pounced backwards, her feet carrying her in three separate leaps as the rotting shack began to fall.

A horrid creaking and broken screeching sound echoed from the rotting wood as old nails and joints broke and shattered, the earth below consuming the homely little shack.

Silently the Blight Witch tilted her head, taking another step back as the sinkhole began to rapidly grow just in front of her. On the other side she could make out a figure, his clothes shrouded in the darkness of the night, the sound of his movements depthened by the sound of rumbling earth.

The glow around her palm, it's pale and sickly green aura flickered slightly, though it did not cease.

"Stop!" Nayella's voice boomed over the sound of the shifting earth, clear through the silence of the night.

Was this her hunter?

The darkness made it difficult to tell, but he doubted that the man who'd been after her would have attempted to catch her with a sinkhole. Unless...her lips thinned, eyes darting around the clearing as she searched for something...anything that might strike at her.

Her fingers twitched, the odd aura slowly descending from her hand and touching the round. Grass and flowers began to die, slowly rotting away.

 

[Luc]

He bounded through the field, unsure of his course as he moved. His frantically looked back and forth for other threats. Surely there wouldn't just be one person chasing him. Her cry for him to stop cut through the air and for reasons he couldn't grasp he listened. He would skid to a stop to face his attacker, mana gathering at his hands and taking a faint green glimmer. Wind began to pick up around his form though for now, it was a subtle breeze.

"Who... Are you!" He called back in response.

The only reason he had not taken off was the magic she used. The rot that caused the shed to collapse or the ground to decay before him was not the type authorities from Elbion would wield. He racked his mind for answers, thinking back to his studies as he attempted to buy himself time. As he waited for a reply he gave off the impression that he truly had become a deer. He was skittish, head moving about as his gaze swept over the land just in case someone else was there.

 

[Nayella]

The plants around her died, slowly consumed by the sickly green of the touch of her magic. Power welled within her, the life of the rot.

She did not yet unleash it, instead waiting, staring over the broken earth. "You are not the one that's been following me."

Her nose crinkled at the sound of the boys voice, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up slightly. His voice was wrong. She'd heard the man who hunted her speak, it was more gruff, self assured. This boy was someone else entirely, but who? A mage, that much was clear.

Looking for her too?

Paranoia set in, her fingers crooked slightly. The magic within her swelled, slowly the rot began to crawl forth from her once more, edging through the ground and draining what lay in it's path.

"Where are you from little mage?" She took a step to the right, beginning to edge around the sinkhole.

 

[Luc]

"Wait... What?!?" He responded in utter confusion. Why was his attacker spewing nonsense of him following her? Clearly she had attacked him and was after him.

It was then that the notion that they were complete strangers simply crossing paths reared it's head. The shed he had attempted to camp in had been used for weary travelers to hide in, hence the reason why he was there. It was not strange to think that someone else could have been there before hand and thought him to be someone they wished to hide form. They were on the back roads after all.

"Up North..." he answered honestly. He wasn't entirely sure why. "And you.. Rot.. Mage?" He shouted back the only thing that came to mind when describing her, the magic she used.

While awaiting an answer, he behaved much like her. He was every weary, the weight of his lithe frame shifting back and forth from one foot to the other. He could take off at any moment... But much like her, he stood his ground and gathered mana, the winds around him increasing.

 

[Nayella]

Her steps around the sinkhole were carefully, treading towards him.

"North?" Her lips thinned. Through the darkness she could not see her ears, nor did his clothes tell her anything of worth. Gaze flickered over the young man, her fingers twitching as the boy slowly moved a little further away from her.

She mused for a moment.

He did not have the complexion of a northerner. His skin was pale, yes, but there was something wrong. He was certainly not from the islands, and the Tundra? No his clothes were all wrong for that. Elbion? Yes that had to be it, from the college. He was a mage after all.

But then what was he doing out here? Hunting for her? No. Too much of a coincidence.

It didn't matter, her fingers twitched, and the blight that had seeped into the earth finally acted. Two spindly broken vines rose up from the earth, their rotted and feted lengths lashing towards the boy in an attempt to wind around the Elves legs. Both vines stank of her magic, a pale green flowing from their expanse.

 

[Luc]

He too spent the silent moment between them trying to gather as much information as he could. There was a certain roughness to her that made him believe she was not from Elbion. She carried a certain feral like aura as well that he was able to pick up on. Lost in his thoughts, he was unprepared to defend himself when the vines broke free of the earth and reached out. He yelped in surprise as they began to wrap around his legs in a unnatural fashion. His footing snatched from him, he fell to the ground but not before the wind he had gathered acted. Slashing down, the steady current needed but a moment to strengthen and form into a blade that shot downwards.

Severing the vines, Luc fought against them in a bid to break free, hands clawing at the rotted vegetation as it oozed decay. He frantically looked up towards the witch to see if she had advanced before back to his tangled legs. This was bad. If he didn't think of something fast, she would pounced upon him. The act of freeing his legs with the wind magic spent the mana he gathered, leaving him an easy target. But there was more then one way to escape danger. His ability to use elemental would never be a crutch, meaning he wouldn't just rely on that to survive.

"W-wait!" he called out. "You mentioned something about being hunted.. I'm being hunted too.... I clearly mean you no harm, you've bested me. I think you mistook me for someone else, and I did much the same..."

As he called out to her, he held out one hand to her in a pleading fashion. The other, he purposely kept palm down against the ground. It looked as if he were using it to steady himself. He hoped that was all it looked like.

 

[Nayella]

Her fingers tightened as the vines were severed.

Head tilting to the side, she listened as the boy pleaded. Was it a trick? The mages of Elbion were all liars. Charlatans who used the spoken word to mislead and guide exactly along the path that they wanted you to go. Yet this boy was so young, too young to have perfected the craft.

Nayella scowled, though the magic around her palm did not dissipate.

Within the ground around the boy the vines continued to rove and move, though they no longer lashed towards them. Instead they seemed to writhe, like snakes waiting for a meal. For the moment they stayed, though it was clear it would only be at her behest.

"Who are you?" Nayella hissed, her voice low.

She knew that somewhere out there was a hunter still looking for her, somewhere out there was a real threat. Could this boy be of help to her? Could Luc be bait?

He would make for a good distraction at least.

 

[GreekGod]

Marius Alva Demicus marched swiftly down the lone dirt path. He was supposed to have returned to the College of Elbion weeks ago, although it wasn't unusual for him to be gone longer than planned. A lantern was hanging from his backpack, providing him with a small beam of light he could see with. As he walked steadily along, he glanced at the dark forest around him. The hair on his arm stood and he stopped moving for a moment. All was quiet except for the sound of leaves rustling in the wind and the metal pan he carried with himself shifting against the backpack where it hung. Marius continued walking, planning to make camp soon, when he heard a shrill yell. Marius froze in his step and glanced around, trying to judge the direction of the voice he heard. He was about to shrug the voice off as the sound of wind when he heard another voice. He stepped towards the voices, branches cracking under his feet as he stepped into the clearing. It appeared to be completely torn apart in what Marius recognized as magic. Marius faced the two people squared off in the center. He stared at the pair and cleared his throat loudly.

"Excuse me?" Marius said. "Is everything all right here? I heard yelling and thought I'd see if everything was alright."

Marius shifted uneasily as he took a deep breath. "Marius you idiot, mind your own business, this is how you'll die. You always march into any direction that catches your eye and you'll die because of it." He thought to himself.

 

[Luc]

Though at an distance from her, his elven eyes could clearly make out how nervous her body language was. This was not the look of someone hunting but someone who was hunted as well. The more he watched, the more he was convinced she was in the dame boat he was in.

Lifting his palm from the ground, he showed her it's glow and that he had gathered mana for an attack but it was his next action that was important. The power dissipated leaving him defenseless.

"I mean you no harm... I think we are both confused... I am being hunted and so are you... We need not waste time on each other if someone else is looking for us." He called out to her, hoping to sate her need to defend herself.

Of course, things may have worked out if it was just them there. Of course, Luc the Unlucky had a way of finding himself in the worse situation. That is why when Marius called out to them in the darkness, all he could do was curse his fate.

 

[Nayella]

The voice instantly caught all of her attention.

Nayella had spent the last five years of her life on the run. She was being hunted. Templar, Mage Hunters, Elbion, even the Dreadlord's of Vel Anir wanted her head.

All of them had sent people after her, and all of them would use every trick they knew to kill her. Paranoia was in her blood, and a sudden voice coming unexpected from the forest was enough to send a shot of panic up through her spine. In an instant the pale green glow around her hand flashed.

The broken and rotted vines that had been twisting within the grass lashed out.

In an instant they struck, rushing towards GreekGod in an effort to bind and grasp the man.

She had no idea who he was, what he was, but in that moment she didn't particularly care. The boy was no threat...at least not right now, but this new person? For all she knew he was the hunter.

 

[GreekGod]

Marius stood there awkwardly when suddenly vines shot out and wrapped around him. He quickly found himself unable to do anything but squirm as the vines grip around him tightened. He grunted with exertion as he shook his shoulders side to side.

"What are you doing! I'll leave you be just let me go! I mean you no harm!" He called out at the pair as he slumped his shoulders and gave up his struggle. He looked at the boy again and tilted his head. "Don't I know you from somewhere?" Marius tried to figure out where he knew the boy from when suddenly his eyebrows raised in shock. "Lady Eneers thief! I saw you around the college a few times and after your thievery was discovered your face stayed in my memory."

Marius wasn't sure what was happening, was this the boys ally? Was it a foe of his? All Marius was really concerned about was getting out of this place and getting back to the college so he could resume his work. He really would need to put in a word with the college about getting a guard to come with him on these journeys so he could stop being stuck in these situations.

"Look, just let me go and I'll forget I ever saw either of you, I really don't care about what you do out here."

 

[Luc]

Lady Eneer's thief.... That is what I am called now, he thought as he heard Marius. The thought was pushed aside when the witch, frighten by his appearance, lashed out and bound the college man with her vines. Caught unaware, he was helpless as she wrapped him, much like a spider catching her pray.

I could flee now... Be on my way... It is not my problem... The thoughts raced through his mind as he scrambled up to his feet and turned to flee. Yet he didn't. His feet did not move away. Instead, he moved closer and before he realized he came to a sliding halt in front of Marius, arms stretched out in either direction.

"I implore you, please stop... This is just a big mistake... This man... Is innocent... No one is hunting you.. In truth he is more likely to be after me." He called out to the witch. Hopefully she had caught the part where he called Luc a thief. "If you need assurance, undo the vines and take me with you... Just... Just leave him alone."

 

[Nayella]

Nayella peered between the of them, listening to the boy and slowly nodding her head.

This man...whoever he was, clearly hadn't been the one chasing her. The way he spoke, the way he moved...it was more than obvious. There was none of the hunter in him, none of the killing edge that had been in the woman she'd ended just a few days before.

Slowly her fingers twitched, the vines within the field died, and the Plague Witch began to take slow steps backwards. She motioned towards the boy.

Nayella didn't like this.

She felt trapped.

Two random encounters within ten minutes? To figures whom she did not know? It was too much of a coincidence. It had to be a set up to distract her, had to be something designed and engineered. Her skin crawled, and every ounce of magic she could summon filled her veins.

She had to get out of here.

 

[GreekGod]

Marius shuddered as the vines released him. He fell to the ground and waited until his muscles regained feeling before standing. When he rose up he faced the pair.

"Look, I don't know what's going on here, I'm just looking for a place to camp at for the night...I'll leave you guys...alone." As he said those last words Marius interrupted his speech as he seemed to be looking at something standing behind them. Marius shook his head slightly. "Thank you for releasing me, I shall leave now and never mention that I ran into either of-"

Marius' words were interrupted by a gasps and the sound of someone falling. If the witch and the mage turned around, they'd see a young human teen on the ground with his foot caught in a tree root. The boy was wearing the blue of a mage and Marius' face revealed a look of sadness and tension. "That's just my apprentice! Please, leave him alone! He was merely trailing a bit behind me as we walked, don't harm him!." Marius' body tensed up and he appeared to be considering running to the boy. The boy himself was struggling to get his foot freed from the root of the tree, he'd been walking along the tree line before his foot got caught, as he missed the root in the darkness and fell.

Nayella Luc

 

[Luc]

Luc the Unlucky. A name he earned simply by the grace of his luck and one that had started long before the College and carried over. Tonight was no exception, as it have proved to be ever eventuful. With the arrival of the the apprentience, Luc began to swear under his breath his icy gaze turning from Nayella to Marius. If looks could voice words, his would have said, are you serious!?

Luc's approach had grown luke warm now, not sure how the witch would have taken the arrival of yet another person. She had proven tempremental and just when the young elemental mage had believed to have calmed her, he just knew this would stir her up once more. However it wasn't the arrival of the Marius' charge that caused his step to faulter but what his sharp eyes caught beyond her fading silhouette.

Torches... And many.

HIs mind was a blur now trying to piece together what he was seeing. In the time his froze, he began to hear it. The clammer of men moving, bodies heading in one direction, their direction.

"I heard something over there!" He heard one shouting, voice cutting through the night.

Luc looked to Marius and his apprentice and decided he was to blame. He had been from the College and knew of Luc's transgression. Perhapse his arrival had been nothing more then to stall Luc for this party to happen upon them. Bastard.

His gaze fixed upon the Witch his original attacker. She had been so feral in her approach. So angry... So much like him. She to had been hunted. In that moment he made a second decision. "RUN!"

 

[Phillipa Ebonheart]

Phillipa was in the middle of the group of men approaching the source of the noise. She had not enjoyed the company the college had sent with her, a contract that had been extended via letter. They had been in charge of taking Luc back to the college while her task was to secure what Lady Eneer had lost. The dolt she was had left it in such an accessible location that even Phillipa had to shake her head at the fabricated slight of the former student trespassing in Eneer's things.

I heard something over there! One of them shouted, and she had to resist the urge to bless the idiot man with magic.

"You all go about your business as you like, but do not leave without me." Phillipa hissed aloud as she broke from the group and stalked away without a torch. Her cloak flared dramatically as some of the men scoffed. Her eyes adjusted well enough to see in the forest, and she would not suffer the dullards any longer. She rubbed her gloved hands together, the energy flowing in her fingertips as she broke the veil that kept her magical presence hidden.

She felt about in her pouch, making sure the collection of small objects was accounted for before retrieving the two daggers from a single sheath on the back of her hips. She hoped she wouldn't have to hurt the lad, but it was easier to put away the blades than draw them later.

 

[GreekGod]

Marius eyed the new-comer with surprise. "Another new person? This could not be anymore complicated." Marius eyed the daggers in her hands. "Look, me and this boy are just researchers from the College of Elbion, clearly something beyond our understanding is happening here so if you'll allow us to leave that'd really be appreciated."

As Marius waited for a reply he helped remove Serbert's foot from the root of the tree and pulled the boy to his feet, whispering something in his ear. Marius casually put his right hand on his sword and eyed all the parties in the clearing. Serbert himself cracked his fingers nervously as he glanced between Marius and the new-comer before leaning towards Marius and whispering something in his ear, Marius snorted with laughter and turned to the new-comer. "Small world professor, what are the odds of you being here by coincidence?" Marius smirked and began backing up slowly with Serbert behind him, Marius still held onto his sword in it's sheath tightly. "We'll be on our way."

 

[Nayella]

Nayella took three careful steps back...and then turned to sprint away.

One run in was bad, two? Worse, three?

That was about all that she could take. The Blight Witch doubted that she could kill them all, in fact she doubted she could kill two of them. Her magic was powerful, but it took time...and if they attacked her directly she would likely end up with a knife through her heart.

Better to fight another day.

Her powers were best at range, when surrounded by others to protect her from physical attack. Neither the boy nor the archivist and his apprentice seemed the type to attack that way...but desperation drove people to do strange things. That wasn't even mentioning the Hunter still after her.

So she ran.

The odd green aura around her fingers lashed out as she did so, plants and ancient roots squirming in rot behind her, aiming to catch anyone that followed.

 

[Luc]

Nayella had taken off and Luc wasn't to far behind her. Noticing the rot take hold in her wake, he trailed off to the side, keeping her to his left and he raced along the field.

"The forest!" He called out to the witch.

He was fairly new to this life style, but he was full away that running through an open field would only result in their capture. If they wanted to survive, getting lost among the trees would be key.

"Hurry!" He urged her on as he began to gather mana into his hand once more. If the College wanted to catch him this night, he had no intentions of making it easier for them.

 

[Phillipa Ebonheart]

"Marius. Leave, and don't mention my being here. The College doesn't like rumors." Phillipa replied flippantly, ignoring the man almost completely as she focused on Luc. The other person that seemed important turned and ran, but that was something that didn't concern her at the moment.

"Leave them be, our quarry is trying to escape." Phillipa hissed to the men, most of them moving towards Marius before her scolding remark. All of them seemed disappointed at leaving the two alone, but focused on the other two that had run.

"Luc darling! Eneer wants her things back. Hand it over and I will leave you alone!" Phillipa called as the magic found itself at her feet. Her hands were kept back as she rocketed forward after Luc, overshooting him by a small bit. The other path had magic in it clearly, but the men didn't seem to care as they split up to chase after both Luc and the other person.