Fire Emblem On The Forums: Ashes (IC)

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

"Well I can help you practice on land first." Saffron offered. "Pegasus riding feels a lot like horse riding except... It's in the sky, way more dangerous and you will have trouble breathing the cold air. Unlike horses, we don't condition the Pegasus to the rider the rider has to get used to the Pegasus. If you practice enough maybe you will be Dragao's first Pegasus dancer one day."

[Bfroger6]

Klaren kept his head down. Even as the damning light faded, the pressure remained, for the weight of it all had now been tightly bound to his soul. But he tried to at least quiet himself down as Mayanna started apologizing. Even if she didn't actually mean it all...and would later reject him all over again. Each new word she said carried more pain for him, and not the good kind of pain, but the pain of distrust, the pain of growing ever more distant...

"W-why would you want..." *sniff* "...to even know..." He tried to keep his voice from shaking through the tears, but couldn't. It only drove them out faster. "...I-I don't want..." *sniff* "...to bother anyone, especially you, mi- Mayanna...so I'll just leave now... D-don't...f-follow me..." *sniff* The monk had to gather every ounce of his strenght to get back onto shaky feet. He didn't look at Mayanna or Equis as he did so, and he left the journal lying on the ground as Mayanna began gathering the torn pages. He didn't seem to notice he left it, or maybe he just didn't want to take it from her now... So he quickly turned around and ran off, away from the nun and the wyvern rider, and away from the pain.

The number printed on the journal was 120 in a perchy handwriting.

[Sutoratosu]

"Klaren, wait!" It was no use, the monk was already gone... honestly, Maya didn't know whether trying to catch up with him would only make things worse...but no point in risking it; she'd probably done more than enough damage already. She sighed, part in shame, part in anger at herself, but mostly in perplexion of how to fix this...ironic, given her intentions were to, in a way, break him down in the first place. Just...not like this. Not like this at all.

"By the goddess, Ecquis...what have I done?" She said, turning to the rider. "I...I never expected him to just completely fall apart. Get scared, yes, that's what I wanted but...to just crumble like that. Perhaps I really did misjudge everything about him; I kept thinking of him as some deviant, putting on an act or something, hiding something just under the surface and feigning that...I don't even know what to call it anymore. But really... he almost seems like a child. I... I don't think he even really considers or knows just how what he says and does comes off sometimes- and that just makes what I've done here even worse..."

[Zetaark]

"If the issue was that Klaren wasn't aware of how his actions came off to other people, shouldn't that have been the goal of this endeavor? To get him to understand that?" Ecquis asked Maya, seeing that this event went in a completely different direction.

"I've not spoken to Klaren much, but from what I could tell from him through the conversation we did have, and from his journal, he doesn't seem to be a terrible person. Actually, reading his journal showed me that he actually respects all of us quite a bit. Granted, he has some strange tendencies, but I think that could be said of anyone," Ecquis said, recalling his reading of one of Klaren's journals. Thinking on it, every mention of one of the people in this group present there all had a respectful tone attributed to them. Ecquis didn't know how Klaren would respond later to something like this.

"Your original intentions weren't to harm Klaren, but his behavior seemed to cause you to end up harming hiim, even if it wasn't physical. Klaren however, won't see what the point of this was, not like this. All he saw was someone else being angry at him and hurting him. I don't know much about Klaren's past, but given this reaction, something else must have happened to make him respond like this. On top of that, it seems that Klaren respected you quite a bit. Seeing someone who he looked up to so much suddenly doing something like this...I'm not too surprised he would have this sort of reaction." he said, walking up to Maya.

"Still though, if you truly feel bad about your actions now, you can do something about it. Perhaps not now, but later when Klaren has calmed down a bit, you can explain things properly to him. Try and have a talk with him and let him know exactly what it is you want him to know. Then maybe you can settle these matters. And if you ever have trouble and need help with anything, I'll do anything I can to assist you," Ecquis said, smiling at the woman before him. He knew that Maya wasn't necessarily an evil person, so perhaps she and Klaren could settle their differences at some point in the future. Or at the very least understand the other's viewpoint.

"So then Mayanna, what do you want to do now? Do you want to leave things as they are now, or do you want to try to fix things from here?"

[Sutoratosu]

"...I'm not walking away." She finally said, gripping her staff firm. "I can't. What I did here... a member of the actual Dragaon Church probably wouldn't bat an eye at it, given how... unusual Klaren is. And that's precisely why I have to try and fix it. I let myself think I was better than him somehow, that I somehow couldn't be wrong about my convictions, simply because I served the goddess... and in doing that, I've betrayed not only everything I was taught, but the man who taught me it as well. And I've betrayed my father even more, using this staff as a weapon against someone innocent... So no. I won't leave this be, Ecquis. I'm going to try and right what I made wrong here, one way, or another..."

[Zetaark]

"That's good to hear. I'll still be here for you if you need any help along the way," Ecquis said, pleased at Maya's decision to try and fix things. Granted, this was just the easy part of trying to fix this. Ecquis figured that he may have to talk to Klaren to find out more of what his life was like. Still though, one question was still present, and Ecquis figured he might as well get an answer.

"Incidentally, what exactly...DID you do to Klaren? You seemed to be using your healing staff, but Klaren certainly looked to be in pain. I'm a bit curious as to how something like that even works," Ecquis asked, honestly confused at what he saw moments before. Ecquis had never heard of healing magic hurting people, but it wouldn't be the first time Ecquis has encountered something he knew nothing about.

[Sutoratosu]

"O...oh. You uh...want to know about that..." She hesitated for a bit, staring down in the gem atop the length of pearly oak she carried. The thing seemed to almost flare to life again in those few indecisive moments... "Well...it's...hard to explain to someone who hasn't actually studied some type of magic, but... you know how Anima and Darkness and Light all form a circle with one another, one school trumping the other, in a cycle? and how Staffs are said to exist outside that balancing cycle altogether? well um... that's because that those three are all driven by spirits, the mage themselves, they can't actually... directly control fire or lightning or darkness... but what they can do, is utter the right words to order the spirits related to those elements to do it for them- infact, words of command are really all that's inside most tomes... I'll show you."

And like that, she had pulled an ratty black book from her sleeve, an ungodly symbol emblazoned upon it's weather beaten face in rich gold, pages yellowed with both age and extensive study. On it's pages sat a strange and alien tongue, coupled here and there with various notes and annotations in Common Dragoan... well, that being if various was enough to describe how they practically occupied about as much space as the actual printed text itself. Maya doubted Ecquis could read anything in the dark tongue... though she could've read the thing cover to cover and recite every last one, if she wanted, without his many translations... which she didn't. and never would want to do anyway.

"This... was Freyl's, long ago..." she explained with a sigh, almost hiding a bit of shame in the mere words "he took up the darkness as a means to an end... he said he'd never let it consume him, that he'd put it down and leave it all behind if it ever started to do more harm than good... but there were somedays where I wondered if it wasn't already too late for him." She shook her head, turning away the memory before it could take hold. "But...that's not the point here. You probably don't recognize anything but what he wrote in the margins and inbetween the lines. That's because normal language simply doesn't work on the spirits, if you don't address them in their own tongue, they either won't respond or won't understand, and you'll get nowhere. Staffs though... they function completely differently. There are no spirits imbued into them, or any specific words that have the be known to spur them to action... only the power of the goddess herself, a blessing held inside orbs like these-"

This time it was a small, emerald gem the gleamed in the waning light that she produced for Ecquis to see, different from the azure hue of the one fixed to her staff currently. She had put the book back in it's hiding place in the same motion, looking at him "Each one of them has a different type of blessing... some of them unlock doors or create protective barriers, some heal wounds and cure illness, and others still... do the opposite and inflict maladies as divine punishment. We don't rely on spirits to bring her power out of the orb though, only our own willpower, tempered by our faith in her... if you have faith but lack the will to control it, you'll still be able to spur it out, but you'll end up being unable to direct it and just causing a chaotic mess of energy, waste it's charge till you either stopped or there was nothing left. And if you have willpower but no faith, the orbs won't even respond to you at all, just sit there inert."

Again, like the book, the orb vanished into her sleeve again. "But it's because we don't rely on spirits that we have alot more direct control over the energy released. We have to literally guide it ourselves, know what we need it to do and how we need it to do. Say like back when Meredith nearly went down against Maris, or I healed you and Morgan... I wouldn't have been able to do that if I didn't know the body or how it worked. I would never have been able to recognize what the feedback the magic was giving me meant, or known where to direct the healing the most in order to save you.

but there's something else to it too... and that's where the answer lies. With healing staves, we're more or less stitching your bodies back together using her raw power and our own raw focus... I've just... figured out there was...other stuff I could do while I was in there too, if I controlled it in a certain way... use it on someone's mind as well as their bodies. Calm them down by trying to stay calm myself, turn pain into bliss by blocking their sense of the wound and replacing it with a new one..."

She turned from him, walking a few feet away as she paused, wringing her hands up and down the staff's length...there was shame in her eyes... "and I figured out how to do the opposite too... more by simply letting my emotions get the better of me, than actually trying to torture someone... I can make a person feel even worse than they actually are, manipulate their senses so that it feels like things are getting even worse, even as their being healed... I can make them feel like their being crushed, that it's hopeless, like they can't even breath, slowly drowning in it all... I can even make them feel pain that was never there to begin with; it's all in their head...and the body does the rest on it's own and acts like it's been hurt when it's completely fine."

[Zetaark]

"Well, that makes some sense...I think," Ecquis replied after hearing Maya's explanation. Though Ecquis had learned about the fundamentals of magic and how it worked through his travels, he never did look into it very much. Ecquis was also somewhat surprised that she had her brother's tome with her this entire time, though that was a question that could be saved for later. For now, Ecquis was still sort of curious about the effects this method of...healing would possess.

"I think I understand how this process would work, but I'm still somewhat curious on its effects. Perhaps a demonstration would help me understand exactly what effects this would have on a person?" Ecquis decided to ask. While asking for a demonstration of something like this probably wasn't the best of ideas, Ecquis' curiosity was something that was very hard to stop. Also, he trusted that Maya would be able to control herself now that she has calmed down.

[Sutoratosu]

"N...no...no, no, no..." she said, backing up, shaking her head, "I...really don't think that's a good idea. Besides... you saw what I did to klaren, didn't you? Wasn't that demonstration enough..." She looked at him for a moment... that way he was so nonchalant about it, unflinching at the potential risks...her expression changed like clockwork as she sighed in defeat.

"...wait...let me guess. No...it wasn't, not for you right? You actually want to experience this first hand, see it for yourself? A...are you sure? This... isn't a joke, Ecquis. The pain will feel virtually indistinguishable from an actual injury, and the sensation might linger for a little bit in your head, even after I stop..."

[Zetaark]

"I'm quite aware of the risks involved. And all things considered, at this point in time I trust you enough to not make the effects too long lasting," Ecquis says with a chuckle. "And besides, maybe it will help you out with managing the effects of this little trick perhaps. I'm not completely sure on that, but it doesn't hurt to try...well not much anyhow," Ecquis says with a slight grin, knowing that he'll be the one experiencing pain.

"But yes, I am prepared, so you may start whenever you're ready," Ecquis finishes, with a neutral expression back on his face.

[Sutoratosu]

The girl stared at him a few seconds, still in disbelief that he'd actually want to go through with this, till finally she sighed and readied the staff as the orb again flared.

"Fine...if you're this sure about it..."

"I don't even know if it'll work, when I try it outside of anger. Most of the time it's a reflexive thing...but fine. Don't say I didn't try to warn you. Now..."

a small swirling of radiance emerged as the crystal burned, quickly beginning to surround Ecquis. Rather than pain or crushing doubt though, all the man felt as the incorporeal energy penetrated his entire being was a wave of restraint and apprehension...the very same that racked Maya herself as she wove the energy, oh so careful to avoid assaulting his mind with anything that would actually cause harm. Perhaps it wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting, but it would have to be enough

"I...I can't..." She muttered, turning her eyes away as the light began to die, and the sensation with it, "It's bad enough when I do it to one of you out of anger, I... I'm not proud, when it happens, not to you all. Honestly, there's only one person I really want to inflict this on...alright, well two...alright, fine, maybe make that a few... but not you all, we're supposed to be allies, not enemies. But I'm...just so used to doing this that it's become second nature by now, both the good and the bad of it... and sometimes my personal feelings seep into it whether I intend them to or not. Probably like you just felt..."

[Zetaark]

After Maya began, what Ecquis felt was less of actual pain and more of conflicting feelings. He could feel that the magic affecting him wasn't quite in the same vein as what affected Klaren, even though the methods were...mostly the same. Still, this told Ecquis a lot about how Maya felt about him and the rest of the group as a whole.

"Yes, I think that demonstration answered all of my questions," Ecquis told Maya, chuckling a bit. "It seems to me that the way it affects people is mainly based on how you feel about them at the time. That would explain the response that Klaren gave and what I felt just now," Ecquis stated, offering his own explanation of how the mechanics of this healing worked.

"And in regards to what I felt, I can tell that you don't want to hurt any of us. If you did, I may have ended up in a slightly worse state than this," Ecquis told her. He did briefly wonder how the sister before him did see him, but he figured he could ask about that later.

"As for the people you do want to inflict this on, make sure you don't get too caught up in it. You wouldn't want it to somehow end up like this. Granted, I don't really know the story behind it, but if you're ever willing to talk to me about it, I'll be here for you. And depending on things, I may be willing to lend a hand," Ecquis added, chuckling a bit. This event has had quite a few turns, but somehow it's managed to work out for the most part. Though...

"As...a final question, are the feelings you can infuse within your healing limited at all?" Ecquis asked, honestly curious as to how much the staff will carry over.

Edited October 9, 2016 by Zetaark

[Marcello]

Terrin nodded briefly at Meredith before she made her excuse, walking over to Sven to leave the women to it. Noticing he had enjoyed having his chin scratched, Terrin did the same to Sven. "Good boy, you're far nicer and more impressive than Lindl's beast." He whispered, before noticing a clearly distressed Klaren in the distance. "Listen boy, we should leave those two alone, but how do you fancy helping cheer somebody else up?" The mage whispered gently once more, before he ran off towards Klaren, not waiting for a response, hoping Sven would follow.

[Zetaark]

Sven enjoyed the scratching that Terrin gave, though he still preferred Meredith's work. Still, he wasn't bad at it, so Sven didn't mind. After seeing Terrin walk over to the monk, Sven decided to follow and see what was going on.

[Chevaleresse]

Hoshiko started to breathe a sigh of relief before catching herself. She just sort of looked awkwardly at the soldier sitting next to her, not entirely certain of what to say. She's probably just going to lecture me on how silly and foolish I am. . .

[Bfroger6]

Klaren didn't seem to notice Terrin was following him along with another wyvern. He wasn't going to stop anyways, even if Terrin decided to call out to him.

Right now, he didn't even know whether to trust him or not.

[Sutoratosu]

"Not...really." She said, starting to get just a bit weary at how curious the rider was about all this. Well, she guessed...she couldn't really blame him for it. Afterall, she was probably the first person to ever use a Healing staff to torture someone, or even if not the first, at the very least one of the few clergy you'd see walking around who had figured out how to do it... "though, obviously it's not like I've gone experimenting with how far I can push someone until they break- I'm a sister for Goddess sake, not a sorceress. But... I haven't found anything I can't make someone else feel, so far... there once this archer, who k... no. Nevermind. It's best you don't hear that story. In hindsight, I'm not very proud of that one either; how he ended up was even worse than Klaren when I was done with him...even with what he'd done, that punishment I gave him might've outweighed the crime. Just yet another time when I let my emotions drive me too far."

[Zetaark]

"I see," Ecquis remarked, noting that she seemed to be getting a bit tired of all of this. It seemed she had other concerns as well, but Ecquis didn't feel that he was in any position to ask about those things quite yet. Especially what she had mentioned about an archer. Given some of the things he had heard, Ecquis had a few suspicions, but again, now was certainly not the time to mention any of them.

"Well, if you ever need anything, I'll certainly be around. And I'm sure Morgan wouldn't mind listening to you either. Just remember that, ok?" Ecquis told her. Ecquis knew the feeling of not having anyone being around for you all too well, and he wanted to at least make sure he could be there for someone else.

"Now then, shall we head back to the camp?"

[Sutoratosu]

"I'll try to keep that in mind then...thanks." She said simply, glancing at the wyvern. Honestly she'd forgotten Morgan was still there. "And it's not like much more to keep us here. Besides, they'll get curious and come looking if we tarry too long, and I need to start thinking about just how I'm going to try and undo all this anyway. So... lead the way, I suppose... "

[Zetaark]

"Very well. Morgan, time to head back," Ecquis says, leading Maya and Morgan back towards the camp.

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

Well, that took an eternity. You think "Take the Wyvern back to his master" was simple enough. Eh, it's fine. probably just had to get the thunder spirits to explain it to him... and they probably missed the first time.

Meredith didn't really say much of anything for awhile. She just sat there staring at the night sky, looking at the stars circling in the distance. They were quite the beauty. She could've gotta lost within it given the chance. The sky was like an ocean of stars. Stunningly white pearls that swirled in the inky depths. After awhile she laid down on her back, just staring up at the sky.

"Hey, you know. When I was little, I used to look up at the stars all the time. In fairy tales, they always said great heros were remembered among the stars. So, I always looked up there, wondering if it was true. However, I did it for another reason as well. I always thought it was unfair that all the heros in the tales I heard growing up were about men. The only strong female icon we ever had was the goddess. Otherwise all her strongest heros in the tales of old were men. It was frustrating to me, so as a little girl... I vowed that I'd be one of them. That one day... I'd be a hero worthy of being remembered in the stars. One day, I'd be a hero that could inspire young girls to greatness as well." she didn't really stop to look over at the girl but she kept looking up. The stars, were beautiful tonight. She wondered if she'd be able to see any of the constellations of these supposed heroes tonight. A more somber look came over her face though.

"However, I found being a hero wasn't what I wanted. It, wasn't really what I was striving for. I was told I was one, but I sure as hell didn't feel like one. I still don't. Because I promised I'd protect the people of Dragao. My countrymen. And yet, the very reason I was called a hero was for slaughtering them by my own hand. I had to... otherwise I'd not even be here... I'd be dead. However, I'm not sure the lives this world lost will ever make up for mine staying in it. At the very least I suppose... I knew that this... wasn't what I wanted. I didn't want to be the kind of hero they made me."

[InnocentSerenity]

Luka’s eyes gleamed with joy, excited to learn how to gracefully dance atop a Pegasus. “Ohoho, the guys back home are gonna be so dang jealous when I fly in, dancing on a Pegasus!” The mental image of drawing in the envy of all of the people back home brought joy to the Dancer’s face.

“Perhaps you could teach me, then? Not tonight, obviously. Grumpy is probably tired after today.” Luka's voice held a rather cheery tone as the prospect of riding a pretty pegasus came to mind.

[Chevaleresse]

"I just . . . I don't know. I feel like the Goddess sent me here with a purpose, she wants me to help make things right here. Maybe it was even because of this stuff with the undead and all that but. . ." She started to choke up a bit. "I'm completely useless on the battlefield no matter how hard I try. And I'm not sure what else I'm supposed to do. If being a hero is bad or if I'm just not good enough to be one then what am I supposed to do? I'm just not getting any better and I don't have anything else I can do to help. . ."

[Raindrop Valkyrie]

"What do you want to do? If it wasn't for the goddess, if it wasn't for being her chosen hero as you say, what would you, Hoshiko want? What you you do?" Meredith asked. She was always rather concerned for the young one despite how she had acted in the past. She was young, and she feared for her for that reason. Meredith always hated that people of her age were forced into fighting. It made her sick knowing what the drafts were recruiting young people into the Dragao army.

"Would you still choose to fight, would you still have found your way to my little group of misfits? Eh... really, no matter what you answer, I know you're worthy of it. Those that are not wouldn't have these feelings. They'd never once question it, their actions, or stop to think how they effect others around them. That alone is enough to convince me. We all find our time Hot Shot, you're hardly useless, you're just starting to bloom. I accepted you for a reason. I saw that potential."

[Chevaleresse]

"I don't know. . . I would probably still be hunting and protecting my village in Yukihana from raiders." She looked down. "I still don't know. . . everyone else is getting stronger and I'm just sort of coasting along." She was quiet for a moment, but had an odd expression on her face, looking. . . conflicted? "Uhm, maybe. . . No, it's silly, nevermind. . ."