Kael reformed from the murder of crows, his shape refracting back into place, he was holding a small silve box adorned with garnets. "Here Crysa, and that makes eight. " A second figure took the box from Kael, a young man dressed from jaw to toe in ash coloured robes, Golden symbols were embroided along a tabbard he wore on the front of the same material. Kekara leaned over Crysa's shoulder. "Do you know what you're going to wish for?" Kekara made it a habit to invade personal space wherever she pleased, though the newest member didn't seem to mind all that much "Nn. " Crysa opened the box and within milliseconds she had vanished. "She'll probably be back in an hour or so, time seems to move slower there." The group dispersed and went back to their ways within the old storehouse. "Where did Amsi go after you got the box?" Kekkara seemeed to be quite interested in all of Kael and Amsi's latest missions, though he wasn't surprised, between the two of them they had superior mobility. "He said he had something to attend to." Kael raised a level of spite in his voice he reserved for when speaking with Kekkara. "I really wouldn't know, I don't make it a habit of mine to get involved with the personal matters of others."
Another member wearing a jade vest chuckled from the shadows. "Oi, you two probably shouldn't be fighting now, the boss will be here any minute." Kekkara stood up and looked around attentively. "She freaks me out, why are we following her again?" Kael ignored her and went back to reading some scrolls.
"Teh-Tora~!" The young lady around 16 or so knocked on the wooden doors of the mudbrick building that housed all the weird scrolls. Eide had met Tetra a few days ago at the docks late at night, looking for some things, Eide had recently lost her memory and couldn't remember her name. She had been hit by some sharp head pain halfway through responding with "I don't know." and it had stuck. "I have some stuff here~" Eide looked in the cart, mostly some moderately sized beams, ropes and curved glass. "They merchant will probably realise that most of those bags were filled with clay tiles soon enough, so you should probably hide this stuff quickly..." Eide knocked on the door again.
The boy covered in scarfs continued to follow Tony at a distance, though obvious he kept darting behind pillars and corners whenever the stalkee turned around. He had been doing so since the previous day when he had been pulled out of the way of some out of control horses that were passing through, the Boy had been paralyzed with fear as if he had never seen horses before, the instance was so sudden and now he was intrigued as to how this individual had known to act so quickly.
Careful. Careful. Caref- KNOCK. Suddenly caught off guard by a faint sound of what she thought was her name and a knock on a wooden surface, Tetra had nearly tossed her magnifying glass up into the air. Cautiously staring into the brass piece of machinery that had been held in place by a few clippers on her worktable, she sighed to herself softly. Nothing had been damaged.
Tetra had been practically lazing around for the most part of the day in her home. She supposed she was practically really free to do whatever she wanted to today, but got way too absorbed into dissecting and investigating the piece of clockwork, as she's gotten used to calling it, that she'd bought a few months ago off the market. It was strange... she usually understood how machinery worked very easily.. but for some reason it was virtually impossible to find out what was powering this device. It had been ticking steadily since the day she found it, as evidenced by certain arrangements of the watch's long and short hand during certain parts of the day. In fact, you could even tell what time of day it was depending on how the hands were arranged, as she soon realised.
Her mind beginning to wander off once again, she quickly got back to the real world with yet another knock at the door. She calmly put down her magnifying glass next to some instruments such as an assortment of rulers, and onto a simple sheet of papyrus, which displayed an almost complete sketch of the pocket watch. Tetra stood up and passed by her shelf filled with scrolls of all sorts, most of them detailing designs for mechanics and machines she'd made in her free time. A multitude of them were unfinished, and more haven't even been constructed in reality yet. She left her workroom, walking through some sand white hallways as she yawned to herself. Curse the human's need for sleep. Very slightly fatigued from having spent the whole of her last night piecing together a new and yet simple tool(which she eventually completed), she soon reached the door to see who had visited her today. It was a bit unusual, as she rarely had any guests.
Unlocking a metallic lock and opening the door revealed a young teenager, who looked like she was around the age of 16, next to a cart filled with all sorts of different mechanical parts. Tetra, dressed in a simple brown shirt, which almost reached up to her neck, and some dark brown pants, looked a bit confusedly at her visitor for a while, before very quickly catching her memory back.
"Hello Eide. Nice to see you again.", she spoke in a bit of a curious but polite tone, which was actually most often not the case. Tetra usually reserved a very dark and apathetic voice for most people as, well, she didn't have many friends. You could probably count her current acquaintances with just your two hands in all honesty. Feeling a little tired, she yawned softly once again, this time covering her mouth with her hand.
There he is again. I wonder when he'll stop following me... Tony thought. He had a vision yesterday, of a young boy covered in scarves being run over by a horse. Naturally, Tony did what he could to save him. Tony made sure he was okay before leaving him, only the boy followed. This was beginning to bug Tony, as the boy kept hiding as Tony looked for him.
Deciding he'd had enough, he approached the boy. But before he got all of the way there, he began having another vision. He fell to the ground and covered his ears before reverting to the fetal position, with his eyes shut tight. He had a splitting headache and felt somewhat nauseous, like in every vision. He took a deep breath just as the vision began.
An endless sea of sand manifested itself in Tony's mind. On the horizon was a tiny dot. Tony strained to see what it was, but could not perceive it. Thank you. Something had just spoken. Tony could tell it was the dot on the horizon. It had just thanked him. But why? "Wake up!..." He heard. This was different. This wasnt from the vision. The vision's voice was similar to Tony's, this one was a little kid's.
"Wake Up!... Wake Up!!!... WAKE UP!"
Tony shot up to a sitting position, hyperventilating. He was in a cold sweat. Both of which were new. Did he just have a different kind of vision? Was it a vision? No doubt, the splitting headache was always followed by a vision. But he's never come out of them hyperventilating or in a cold sweat. This was new, this one was... different, somehow.
Tony looked around to see the little boy was hugging his arm. Once the boy saw Tony was looking at him, he let go and ran off. Tony didnt bother going after him. This vision had his attention. Something was off about this one, but Tony didnt know what. He took a deep breath as he began to recall it, thinking about every part of it.
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Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
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Bright, piercing sunlight reflected off the glittering sands, a dizzying sight for any traveler unused to the ever shifting roads. For Hael, it was a boring sight, one he was supposed to be used to were his patchy memories to be trusted. Hitchhiking between various caravans, Hael slowly but surely made his way to his destination, a large city of trade and commerce. Recent days, however, have proved to be trying for this city as rumors of more and more artifacts being circulated has encouraged bandits to become more active and frequent in their attacks. Seedy fortune-seeking merchants have also been on the rise, peddling fakes to swindle the ignorant, ready to take advantage of the greedy to feed their own greed.
Hael's musings came to an end as they finally reached the gate. With nothing of true value to declare beyond his meager possessions, he was easily admitted in. Even just beyond the gates the place was already bustling with activity, other caravans present moving in and out of the city at every turn, each peddling as much of their wares as they can whilst they are on the move. Aimlessly wandering, Hael sighed deeply at his leader's vague instructions of a rendezvous point. Picking a dried fig from his low-slung pack, Hael chewed on it, mulling over his recent task. A simple smash and grab, he earned the trust of a caravan's leader easily with his experience before blowing up a storm in the night and making off with a simple, nondescript box.
Hael felt for the box, secure in its shape and weight as he continued eating, randomly twisting and turning through the winding streets. In a stroke of boredom, he turned his eyes skyward, finding a peculiar crow with one beady eye affixed to him. He shook his head, wondering how he could've missed such an easy cue. Following the trail of increasing density of the black feathered avians, he finally came upon a seemingly run down storehouse. With little ceremony, he opened the door, walking in with feigned disinterest.
He immediately came upon a boy in robes who seemed pre-occupied with reading scrolls. Another gave Hael the warm welcome he didn't expect, however. With an excited voice, she grabbed Hael by the shoulders, looking at him with a smile. "Oh hello, look who's back!" Kael merely grunted, giving a short nod in response Hael's wave. With a giggle, she continued. "Guess what, Rookie. Great news! You've been promoted!"
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Sometimes I wonder if it's all too easy.
Lying, cheating, stealing your way to victory.
Though just how far would you fall for a dream?
Eide dragged the materials inside and sat down on a round chair carved from stone. "Uf. Carrying all that junk here was tiring, hopefully there's some useful stuff there for you." Eide took a swig from her waterskin before wiping her mouth. "Did you hear about the Key, I keep hearing whispers that they are taking the kings treasure from right under his nose." Eide tapped her nose for added effect. "A bunch of those artifact things that he's been storing. I don't see what the big deal is." Eide looked around Tetra's place, it was a bit of a mess, lots of documents opened up and several boxes of more. "What is it you do with all this stuff anyways?"
The boy in the scarfs tugged at the Guy's arm. "He-.. Ahem. Hey! Are you alright? You collapsed!" The boy looked around the vacinity and waited as a couple of royal soldiers walked by. "You can see the future can't you." The young kid spoke pretty proudly but didn't sound very old, barly a teenager perhaps. He pointed towards himself with a thumb. "I have a power too. heheh" Tony couldn't see his mouth, but underneath the scarves the kid was clearly grinning.
Crysa returned in a flower of light, back in the exact same place she had been standing but an hour ago. "The prodigy is back. How did it go?" Kekara was already right up in her face wanting to know what her power was. "Odd, I thought I'd only been gone a few seconds but it's already getting dark." Crysa turned to the group and held out her hand, numerous crystals grew in the shape of a rose. "Is that all?" Prisim, the guy in the jade coloured vest, lowered his book to see the demonstration and was apparently unimpressed. "No." Crysa pointed towards Prisim who was now wrapped up in numerous thorn-covered vines made from the same elegant blue crystal. "When did.. How... Impressive." Prisim yawned as the vines retreated into nothingness. "Remind me not to get on your bad side." "PRETTY!" Kekara held up the flower from Crysa's hand to some light drifting in through a hole in the wall. "Aww man, I wish I had a power this cool."
Kael turned to the entrance and waved to a shadowy figure approaching, Kekara Tensed for a moment before letting out an obvious sigh of relief. "Sand guy." Kael ignored Kekara. "How did the mission go?" At that moment another figure approached, this time Kekara tensed for real, jumping back to near where Prisim was resting. "L..leader."
Aro walked past Hael and stood where Kekara was just standing. "Yes. How did the mission go."
...
"That bad huh?" Aro turned the empty box between her fingers. "No matter, your mission wasn't as important as the retrieval of Crysa's Artifact." Aro turned and pointed to Kael who was already holding the used artifact Crysa had just utilised. "Good." Aro turned to Crysa, her jewlery rattling with every movement. "I trust you picked an appropriate power?" Crysa used Prisim as a test subject once more, this time holding his arm above his head with thorns suspended from the ceiling. "Perfect."
"Oaky, Hael, you're teamed up with Ka- no, then your names would get confusing. You're with Prisim until furthur notice." Aro pointed at Kael. "You teach Crysa the ropes until she's ready." "Kekara you can stay here with me until Amsi returns." Kekara frowned, this was the worst possible outcome. "Can't I switch places with Prisim, I'm sure he wants to finish reading that book." "No can do, I need your power and Amsi'z in for the next raid." Kekara sat down on a rock furthest from Aro. "Okay, but you better not do anything creepy." Kekara drew in the sand with her foot, Aro's power was perhaps the scariest of all their powers, though in this country the sand kid probably had an upper hand. And Crysa's new power was already fast.
Once Eide had entered her home, and hauled in all the other items she had along with her, Tetra closed the wooden door softly, locking it back up due to her slight fear of uninvited company. She sighed to herself, the dark marks beneath her eyes clearly giving off the answer as to why she'd done that, and then sat down on another of the short cylindrical stone chairs. The cart that Eide had brought in was conveniently placed close enough for both Tetra and her visitor to examine in their positions, and as such, Tetra allowed herself to peer in and hold some of the parts to get a feel of them as Eide addressed the objects. Just as she began slipping away into the possibilities of what she could do with these, she prevented herself from doing so, and turned back to her guest.
"Ah, thanks Eide, I really appreciate it.", she said in a very genuine voice. As the conversation then went on, Tetra just quietly rose her right arm up and cupped her chin, just to make it so that things didn't look particularly too awkward. As Tetra listened intently to what her friend said, she realised that she must've been camping out in her house for quite a while, or at least, hadn't bothered to interact with a lot of people.
"The Key? I don't think I'm really familiar with them.", she spoke in a curious tone. Thinking it through over and over again didn't really bring up much. Guess I need to catch up a bit on what's been happening recently... Tetra certainly noted the part about stealing from the king though, as robbing the royalty wasn't exactly an action most would advise one to do. The mention of artifacts however, definitely caught her attention. If a group of people had access to that sort of power... they'd have an unbelievably strong army at their command... enough to conquer kingdoms with great ease... Tetra could only stare at her left hand for just a moment, wondering as to what kind of mess she might've gotten herself in. Did I lose anything that day?
"What is it you do with all this stuff anyways?", Eide asked curiously.
"Hmm?", as this was done, Tetra could only look around her house to note how seemingly chaotic things were. Things were definitely messier than she'd like it to be, but she'd been procrastinating the day when she'd finally reorganise things, mostly due to a new project she'd been working on recently. Tetra had just finished the design for a part of the machine a week ago, and got way too focused on finishing and improving it. In fact, the stuff that Eide had brought her would most definitely help in the construction of said part.
"Well, a lot of the scrolls I have here are documents which record scientific knowledge, or just works of writing. As to what I do with everything... I make stuff. Here.", Tetra pushed her hand into the pocket of her pants, fiddling around with the items inside before bringing an object out and placing it on the wooden table between Eide and her. It appeared to be a small long cylindrical object made out of dark wood. On one end was a black sharpened tip, which appeared to be made out of a different material altogether.
"It's not one of my most complex works... it's awfully simple actually. It's just some graphite placed into a hollowed out stick. It works like a quill, but it requires no ink whatsoever to function. Much more convenient, if you asked me.", using her left hand, she pushed it forward, indicating that she offered it to Eide to keep it for whatever need she had of it. Tetra thought of the demonstration as a bit mediocre in all honesty, and as such, considered displaying her latest invention instead.
"Actually... I could show you something much more fascinating. But it'd be good if you kept it a secret between us... Do you want to see it?"
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Taking a pause, Kael finally turned to Hael and addressed him properly. "Sand guy. How did the mission go?" A small sigh escaped his lips as he began before Kekara jumped all the way back to where another stood. Bringing his eyes up once more, he gave a quick scan around and saw yet another, giving a small huff at the presence of these new personas. Finally coming into his view was yet another familiar figure who appeared to spook the living daylights out of the girl who greeted him. Piercing green eyes stood out as her various accessories gave a light jingle, their golden sheen not entirely dissimilar to her hair which still looked entirely too foreign for him. "Yes. How did the mission go."
Hael rolled his eyes, feeling for the box in his bag. Pulling it out, he gave it a light toss into the air, earning a reaction out of just about everyone in the room save for Prisim and Aro. Kael bit back a remark as the answer quickly dawned on him as well, to which he sat back with mild disapproval in his eyes. Hael rolled his eyes in turn, before swiftly throwing the box at Aro. Catching it with a single hand, she began to inspect it, turning it over between her fingers. "That bad, huh?" Hael nodded in reply. "Complete bust. It wasn't a dud, but someone used it before I could get my hands on it. Shifted the blame on me. Fairly certain the fact that I had to make a quick getaway with my powers helped too." Aro shook her head in dismissal. "No matter, your mission wasn't as important as the retrieval of Crysa's Artifact." Hael suppressed a grimace, though he knew she meant nothing by it, it was still a blow to his pride to have failed the mission despite circumstances out of his control.
Aro then began to quiz the new recruit, who demonstrated her powers with ease. Hael watched, mildly impressed at the speed she could upon it, and the degree of control she had. Aro, seemingly pleased, turned to Hael once more, ready with another set of instructions. "Okay, Hael, you're teamed up with Ka- no, then your names would get confusing." Two pairs of eyes rolled at this, before Aro continued. "You're with Prisim until further notice." Aro then turned to the rest, to give them their own instructions. Hael eyed the man in the jade vest, already attempting to gauge his partner for his next mission. He was slightly bemused at the girl who greeted him - Kekara, as Aro called her - as she begged to switch with Prisim, and failing that, settled for sitting as far away as she can from Aro, contemplating her fate. Hael didn't know why her fear of Aro ran so deep, though he felt that he was perhaps biased, having never seen it in action. Finally, Hael wondered as to where Amsi had gone - it was unlike him to take so long.
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Sometimes I wonder if it's all too easy.
Lying, cheating, stealing your way to victory.
Though just how far would you fall for a dream?
Atop a building in a distant country Amsi stood watching down upon the night flames. Kael's ability was by far the most superior for transporting others long distances, but Amsi would have no way to return in a timely manner unless he found who he was looking for. "Where could he be, it's unlike him to be on a mission for more than a day." In the distance Amsi spotted it, a deep crimson light shining from the top of a distant tower. Amsi sank through the building as if it were quicksand and disappeared into the night.
Prisim walked alongside Hael out towards the west, explaining their mission. "We've gotta dig up some wrecked sandship and bring all of its contents back to the base." A green glowing tetrahedron spun in his open hand, he walked with an unamused look plastered upon his face. "I guess I'll get to show you my power. It's pretty Rad. Aro said you're good at digging so i'll take her word from it." The tetrahedron disappeared as Prisim clenched his fist. "You don't want to get caught up in that one's power." Prisim shook his head slowly, metal clips on his vest jangling as he did so. "That's how we lost the two before you and Crysa."
Eide was intrigued, she was sure she would have known plenty of secrets before she lost her memory, but this would be the first new secret since then. "Yeah, I can keep a secret, I think... I don't remember if I was good at it before, but i should be good now." Eide smiled, Tetra seemed like a good person, she hadn't met many people since waking up on the docks but most of those which she had met were paticularly salty and unable to offer her any response beyond 'get out 'the way'. Tetra was.. different.
"LET ME'OUT!" Erogrvi Smashed his fist against the walls of the cage which pulsed with life energy. "It's no use. My power lets me trap anything I want without restriction. Nothing can make it through those bars." A slender male dressed in priestly garb stood beside the cage, a single finger extended and from it stretched pulsating red energy which formed into the cage trapping Ergrvi. Ergrvi was quite the opposite of this man, a hulking mass with fists the size of this man's head. The other members of the key often joked that he wasn't even human, but spawn of a giant. "I'll make you eat those words." He reached his fingers between the bars and grabbed at the air infront of the slender priest figure. "Ha, i'd like to see you try."
Tetra smiled slightly, a bit delighted that Eide was interested in seeing her latest work. Now that she thought about it, most of the items she had built were often left in the dark of her workshop and kept to herself, with only a few people having really seen much of what she's done(such as the people who hire her). The device Tetra had in mind had just been finished last week, as she now had a lot of free time and energy to do work, especially ever since she found out about her powers months ago(which had most certainly assisted greatly in ironing out problems). She stood back up slowly, using the table in front of them for some support.
"Alright then.", she said with a gesture to Eide to follow behind her, as she pulled the rest of the items in the cart along with her, leaving the pencil on the table behind. Tetra calmly walked through a short sand white coloured hallway, before entering a big rectangular room at the end of it. Opening the door revealed a fairly large amount of space, at least half of which had already been filled up with an assortment of uncompleted machines and shelves filled with unorganised papyrus scrolls tied in different coloured ribbons. There was a short staircase which led down(as the room had been built a little deeper into the ground for more space), which Tetra used to then bring in the bundle of the parts Eide brought for her and set it by on an empty spot next to a wall.
Tetra waved her hand in her direction, indicating to come to where she had walked to and try not to get overwhelmed by the mess surrounding them. The room was certainly a little darker than the living room, with the windows being of very small sizes(and even then, most have been intentionally covered up by some of her objects). Speaking of which, inside the room laid a huge array of mechanical creations. There were some long wooden shelves topped with atypically modeled gears and metallic scraps, and even some devices which had been attached to each other, seemingly serving no purpose at the current moment. An armour stand stood ominously in a corner, only having one strange and large brass arm attached to it, which appeared overly complex with an uncountable amount of gears and mechanisms integrated into it. There were also boxes laying around, keeping more random pieces of metal and other alloys. Other unusual hunks of machinery rested on the rocky floor of the room, most of them appearing to be calmly at rest in their slumber. Anything else to note might've been a deactivated small black bricked smelter set aside at the end of the room, most likely made use of for when Tetra required personally designed metallic parts of her own.
Anyways, the eccentric engineer was currently standing next to a slightly long wooden and weathered table. Lots of other uncompleted parts and fragments of machinery had been pushed out of the way to reveal a strange brass and brown coloured device. It appeared to have a very sturdy and circular stand, most likely to hold what looked like an intricately crafted cylinder, raised horizontally and tilted slightly so that one could manage to see a hole poking out of it. It suggested that one would most likely put one's eye by it to peer into the inside. Below the cylinder was a plate of sorts, on which was placed a small dish of dirty water. It wouldn't surprise some if it was an alien device of sorts from the future, if it weren't for the human touch to it made by Tetra. However, if one dared to look into what laid inside the scope, they might've changed their mind.
In front of Tetra were pieces of papyrus, attached onto the wall with what looked like simple clamps. They displayed drawn bizarre, circular, and seemingly two-dimensional... things. Most of these sketches had been detailed to show some sort of strange anatomy within the blob's own body with labels such as 'Core?' and 'Bubbles?', almost all of them accompanied by question marks at the end. Tetra appeared to be a bit more solemn than before currently, standing out of the way if Eide approached and then speaking for a bit.
"I must warn you... what you see through the scope will be unlike anything one could possibly imagine. On the other hand, you will be one of the first humans to know about this brand new discovery!", Tetra paused a bit here, looking slightly more excited at the end of her sentence before talking again.
"And before you ask me, no, it is not some sort replica of a portal to hell, or whatever otherworldly realm that people often talk about through rumours.", she said as she took a few seconds to examine the machine once again, before getting out of the way to write a few details down in her journal as she waited for Eide to take a look.
Tony was just as clueless as he was before about the vision, when the boy came back to him. The boy commented on his collapse, before guessing he could see the future. Before Tony could reply, the boy said he had a power of his own. "Oh? And what might it be?" Tony was a little doubtful that someone as young as this boy could come across an artifact, but it was always possible.
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Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
Eide looked through the object, she felt that learning stuff was something she was interested in. "Hmm." She looked at it from the side, making sure that it wasn't just a trick with a picture placed into the device somewhere. She looked back through, the things were moving a little bit. "Yes. I've seen something like this before." She grabbed her chin and nodded definitively. "I must have seen this once before I lost my memory, because I remember seeing something like this before." Eide grabbed the dish of water and held it up to some light pouring in from a window. "But the ones I saw were moving around a lot more." Eide handed the dish back to Tetra. "Tetra, I need to find out who I am. I have all these memories, but they are not mine. Who was I?"
The kid wrapped in scarfs pointed at Tony before disappearing completely without a sound or a trace, all that was left were the footprints from where he was once standing, which slowly collapsed with the gentle wind that blew through the town. "Over here." The kid tapped on Tony's shoulder from behind. "I can't move very far yet, and I don't know how it works. You have to keep this a secret." The scarfed kid looked around suspiciously make sure there wasn't anyone looking.
-like to see you tr-" The thin figure had thought that he had completed his sentence but now was somehow watching his own body drift slowly away as his vision began to blur. "Took 'yer time Amsi." The cage had not disappeared but Amsi now stood beside Erogrvi. "Oh... it didn't disappear." "Yeah, I believe the condition is that the cage will never let me out." Ero punched at the bars which zapped at his fist. "That's cute..." Amsi grabbed one of the loose corners of Ero's shirt and the two walked through the bars which then disappeared. "It's certainly odd how some powers work, they seem to continue until their conditions are met or can no longer be met." Amsi held out his arm which flashed transparent for a moment. "Too bad my power lets me move through anything." Amsi and Ero continued to talk like the dead body behind them was nothing. "Oh, yeah, Ero, you are kind of my lift back to the hideout." Ero gave Amsi the thumbs up before picking Amsi up in one and and punching with the other. The force of Ero's punch broke the sound barrier and then his fist continued onwards, draging Erogrvi and Amsi with it. As Ero Cut through the air his spirit surrounding him in the shape of a dragon with his fist where the head formed. The two zoomed across the sky.
Tetra stood back slightly as Eide took a look at it, seemingly expecting some sort of huge reaction from her or accusations of 'witchcraft'. However, she seemed to just examine it in a bit of an intrigued manner, not appearing shaken in the least. Tetra was certainly a lot calmer that her only friend didn't start to go completely crazy about it, but it was a bit unusual. It was almost as if she had already seen such a thing. And as Eide went on to explain, it looks like she did. As she listened curiously, she accepted the dish from her, placing it down on the table beside her as carefully as possible.
Eide appeared quite concerned about this, and Tetra returned the look. She was actually genuinely hearing what she was saying. Stroking her chin slightly as she leaned on the table, she pondered on the subject deeply for a while. Eide had mentioned this once before too when they met, and it was certainly strange. She had never seen something like this before, at least with first hand experience. To be fair though, she has talked and met only a relatively small amount of people in her life. Tetra maintained a serious aura around her for a while, before snapping her fingers once.
"Maybe I can help. I do have some knowledge regarding memory. Follow me.", she gestured with her hand and then exited the room, walking back slightly faster into the living room. She picked up any of the scrolls that had fallen on the ground and placed them on the shelves, to reorganise them at a later time. After that, she quickly scanned through the colours of the ribbons holding the rolls of papyrus, opening up a few before taking out around one or two and placing it onto the table.
"Here it is...", Tetra said as she slowly untied one of the ribbons, revealing a lot more scrolls inside the roll itself. They were scanned through and put away with a surprisingly high speed, Tetra already having a natural affinity for reading and memorising in general. A few documents were immediately concluded to be unrelated, such as those titled 'Aphasia'. Others such as 'Amnesia', 'False Memory', 'Memory Erasure', and 'Repressed Memory' have been laid out clearly though. Tetra seemed to stare into them intently, before deciding to voice her opinion as she read on.
"Hmm... losing your memory... You most definitely could have some form of retrograde amnesia, where one has lost all memory from beyond a certain date. After all, you did say that your head got affected by some trauma a while back. But it gets complicated when you say that you also have memories that... aren't yours... Perhaps a combination of that and severe false memory? Either that, or it could just be something related to magic...", she slowly covered her mouth with her left hand as she ran through all the information available to her. It was here when some sort of epiphany had activated in her head. One's name... Deciding to ask a few more questions first, she then went on.
"Eide, can you tell me as much as you can about the memories you have, whether or not actually yours? Also... do you remember opening a box or container of some sort? Maybe even getting shrouded in darkness and being asked strange questions?", the questions were asked in a somewhat solemn manner, with Tetra's left elbow now placed on the table to rest itself.
The kid pointed at Tony, before disappearing. Was he a vision? No, he was wide awake, and he had left footprints. After a moment, someone tapped Tony's shoulders, and it turned out to be the kid. He then mentioned he cant go far yet. Teleportation, Tony thought. He then gave a small laugh. "That sure is a useful power." Tony commented. He then lowered his voice a little and erased his smile. "What was your price?" Tony was curious, and wouldnt press if the kid refused to tell.
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Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
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"Manual labor? What an exciting prospect." Hael replied in a dull tone, still stinging from his recent failure. He quickly changed his tune, however, finding unnecessary conflict at the moment would just cause more delays. As they began walking west, Hael continued. "Well, if it's a sandship, we may as well take the whole thing provided it's still in good condition. Otherwise, I see no way to transport all of its contents back in one go - unless you're here to remedy that?" Hael observed the tetrahedron Prisim conjured, listening to him as he gave a short and wholly uninformative description of his power, ending with a short promise to demonstrate later as he clenched his fist shut.
"I have to wonder about Aro... Why is Kekara so afraid of her?" A short exchange and Hael simply gave a simple 'huh' in response. Pondering over it for a moment, Hael picked up once more on his line of questions. "Well, good to know I'm not the only collateral damage hazard around. What is it that would allow her to cause such damage anyway? It's not so simple taking down someone blessed by an artifact."
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Sometimes I wonder if it's all too easy.
Lying, cheating, stealing your way to victory.
Though just how far would you fall for a dream?
Eide shook her head. "I don't remember much if anything. But I don't specifically remember opening a box or anything." Eide looked at the viewerer thing once more. "I only really remember waking up on the docks, but sometimes when I look at something I remember if I have seen it before." She shrugged. "I have no idea who I am really. And the only faces I remember are yours and one other girl with weird jewelery, I think she was supposed to be a pharoh or Priestess or something." Eide shrugged again.
The kid shrugged and pointed towards his feet. "No shadow. So I suppose it I gave up my shadow, I'm not sure when It happened though, I think I was opening a box mid air or something and hit my head on the way down." The kid pointed and moved once more, again checking to make sure no one else had been watching. "It's a pretty helpful power I think, It's just not very strong."
Prisim laughed. "A ruin is called a ruin for a reason." He snapped his fingers and opened his palm, in one swift motion three of the glowing tetrahedrons were spinning around his palm as if they were tops. "I'll show you my power when we're there, you're close to guessing it already though." He shut his palm and the triangles again disappeared. "Aro's power is still a little confusing, it seems she can make people disappear." Prisim looked down and kicked his feet through the sand as he walked. "Though she can do a number of other creepy things too, I don't think any member has seen her full abilities yet or she makes people not talk about it or something." Prisim waved his right arm infront of himself. "She does this one thing where she makes skeleton arms appear out of her body and grab stuff." Prisim jumped. "And this power where she jumps really high with incredible speeds that my eyes can't follow." Prisim shrugged. "Overall her abilities don't follow any discernable pattern at the moment so obviously we haven't even seen their full extent. "
The two had reached an area just outside of the town, a wooden post stuck up out of the sand, rags flailing from it as if they were a flag. "Think you can dig up this?"
Tetra scratched her head, before staring back into the mess of opened scrolls which were laid out in front of her. Most of them held relatively little information, and it was expected. Documentation of conditions and diseases related to the human brain were uncommon, due to the difficulties of comprehending the complex reactions which occurred deep within the brain. There was no real cure for these kind of things. Only speculated and inconclusive treatments exist, most of which don't work effectively for most people.
"You must have some form of retrograde amnesia then, most likely due to trauma. Most forms of amnesia eventually dissipate over time... but I'm not so sure..." She had attempted to make the best diagnosis she could from what knowledge was available to her, but it most definitely didn't help much in their current predicament. From what Eide has told her, Tetra couldn't make out much. The rich did often wear jewelry, but that piece of information was too vague to be of any real use. She rested her hand upon her mouth once again, steadying herself in the stone chair she was currently sitting on.
"Well then, I assume no one else has made any effort to show that they knew you? Where do you live then?", finding herself slightly curious, Tetra once again asked to learn more about Eide.
The boy explained he'd given up his shadow after opening a box and hitting his head. Tony knew already, but this confirmed it- he got his power from opening an artifact. "Hm." Tony said. "I gave up my shadow, too." Tony then thought of having an ally. The kid's power was useful, but it wouldnt be enough. Tony knew he'd need a larger group. His mind turned to a group he'd heard of before, the Key or something. He wasnt too sure of their motives, but they might be worth checking out.
It was then Tony realized a silence came over them. "Say, where are your parents?" Tony asked, looking around. This boy wasnt old enough to support himself. Perhaps he ran away, just like Tony did. This reminded Tony of his parents, and the first vision he ever had. He shook these thoughts out of his mind, they made him feel bad. "And, what's your name?" Tony asked.
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Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
Eide shrugged. "To be honest I don't remember much at all, but I think I know where my home is, sort of a general direction I think we could walk from here." Eide sighed. "But something is telling me not to go back there, I don't even know what there looks like..." Eide sat down again. "K, I think my surname started with K."
The kid sat down on a stone block. "c- I call myself Shadow." The kid pointed and teleported and then pointed again, quickly jumping again. "I think someone tried to make me forget my name at some point though, probably the same people that were after me." Shadow pointed towards the numerous scarf coverings. "That's why i am incognito, hiding out in disguise."
Cora continued to follow the foosteps in the sand, she came across what looked like a wooden hut that had been burnt down. "All i find is destruction in its wake, yet why do I keep following." she investigated the location some more but couldn't find anything of interest, it was like whoever had burnt down the place had done so purposefully. "As if to destroy as much evidence as possible. Perhaps evidence of a past life?" She looked up to the sun then down to her shadowless feet. "I must continue to move, I should catch up to them soon." She retrieved a stone piece from a pouch at her side and held it against the stark background that was the day's sky. "Like a piece on a board, if I continue to monitor the moves made and army of my own will fall into place."
Cora packed away the game piece and moved on through the desert, following the faint footprints that slowly began to disappear with the landscape's ever harsh winds.
Tetra rested her head on the back of her hand, using the elbow of that arm already placed on the table to support herself. She didn't have much of an idea as to how to proceed forwards in a situation like this. She supposed she could follow the lead about finding her supposed home, but Eide having an inkling feeling not to return there did speak quite a bit. Out of all she could've remembered, she seemed insistent on that. I guess that this part of her memory must've been significant enough to stay through the amnesia. It might be best to listen to its advice for now.
The letter K didn't give away much too. As Tetra rarely socialised with people in the town, she most likely had no lead whatsoever unless lots of time was invested and fervent research was done on the subject of the history of surnames in this village. And even then, it would probably not come up with a lot, considering that no one who knew Eide from before went looking for her, as far as they could tell. She then quickly caught that Eide hadn't really mentioned where she currently lived at though.
"Um, where do you stay at now then?", she asked with a slightly concerned tone in her voice.
The boy called himself Shadow, ironic considering he lost his. He teleported again as he explained he was in hiding, and that the people who were after him tried to make him forget his name. Or at least, they probably were. "Alright, good to know. My name's Tony." He replied. "But you still havent answered my question. Do you have a family?" Shadow has avoided the question, and Tony wanted to know.
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Puella Magi Madoka Magicka is an awesome, feel-good, cutesy anime. You should watch it!
Kael reformed from the murder of crows, his shape refracting back into place, he was holding a small silve box adorned with garnets. "Here Crysa, and that makes eight. " A second figure took the box from Kael, a young man dressed from jaw to toe in ash coloured robes, Golden symbols were embroided along a tabbard he wore on the front of the same material. Kekara leaned over Crysa's shoulder. "Do you know what you're going to wish for?" Kekara made it a habit to invade personal space wherever she pleased, though the newest member didn't seem to mind all that much "Nn. " Crysa opened the box and within milliseconds she had vanished. "She'll probably be back in an hour or so, time seems to move slower there." The group dispersed and went back to their ways within the old storehouse. "Where did Amsi go after you got the box?" Kekkara seemeed to be quite interested in all of Kael and Amsi's latest missions, though he wasn't surprised, between the two of them they had superior mobility. "He said he had something to attend to." Kael raised a level of spite in his voice he reserved for when speaking with Kekkara. "I really wouldn't know, I don't make it a habit of mine to get involved with the personal matters of others."
Another member wearing a jade vest chuckled from the shadows. "Oi, you two probably shouldn't be fighting now, the boss will be here any minute." Kekkara stood up and looked around attentively. "She freaks me out, why are we following her again?" Kael ignored her and went back to reading some scrolls.
"Teh-Tora~!" The young lady around 16 or so knocked on the wooden doors of the mudbrick building that housed all the weird scrolls. Eide had met Tetra a few days ago at the docks late at night, looking for some things, Eide had recently lost her memory and couldn't remember her name. She had been hit by some sharp head pain halfway through responding with "I don't know." and it had stuck. "I have some stuff here~" Eide looked in the cart, mostly some moderately sized beams, ropes and curved glass. "They merchant will probably realise that most of those bags were filled with clay tiles soon enough, so you should probably hide this stuff quickly..." Eide knocked on the door again.
The boy covered in scarfs continued to follow Tony at a distance, though obvious he kept darting behind pillars and corners whenever the stalkee turned around. He had been doing so since the previous day when he had been pulled out of the way of some out of control horses that were passing through, the Boy had been paralyzed with fear as if he had never seen horses before, the instance was so sudden and now he was intrigued as to how this individual had known to act so quickly.
Careful. Careful. Caref- KNOCK. Suddenly caught off guard by a faint sound of what she thought was her name and a knock on a wooden surface, Tetra had nearly tossed her magnifying glass up into the air. Cautiously staring into the brass piece of machinery that had been held in place by a few clippers on her worktable, she sighed to herself softly. Nothing had been damaged.
Tetra had been practically lazing around for the most part of the day in her home. She supposed she was practically really free to do whatever she wanted to today, but got way too absorbed into dissecting and investigating the piece of clockwork, as she's gotten used to calling it, that she'd bought a few months ago off the market. It was strange... she usually understood how machinery worked very easily.. but for some reason it was virtually impossible to find out what was powering this device. It had been ticking steadily since the day she found it, as evidenced by certain arrangements of the watch's long and short hand during certain parts of the day. In fact, you could even tell what time of day it was depending on how the hands were arranged, as she soon realised.
Her mind beginning to wander off once again, she quickly got back to the real world with yet another knock at the door. She calmly put down her magnifying glass next to some instruments such as an assortment of rulers, and onto a simple sheet of papyrus, which displayed an almost complete sketch of the pocket watch. Tetra stood up and passed by her shelf filled with scrolls of all sorts, most of them detailing designs for mechanics and machines she'd made in her free time. A multitude of them were unfinished, and more haven't even been constructed in reality yet. She left her workroom, walking through some sand white hallways as she yawned to herself. Curse the human's need for sleep. Very slightly fatigued from having spent the whole of her last night piecing together a new and yet simple tool(which she eventually completed), she soon reached the door to see who had visited her today. It was a bit unusual, as she rarely had any guests.
Unlocking a metallic lock and opening the door revealed a young teenager, who looked like she was around the age of 16, next to a cart filled with all sorts of different mechanical parts. Tetra, dressed in a simple brown shirt, which almost reached up to her neck, and some dark brown pants, looked a bit confusedly at her visitor for a while, before very quickly catching her memory back.
"Hello Eide. Nice to see you again.", she spoke in a bit of a curious but polite tone, which was actually most often not the case. Tetra usually reserved a very dark and apathetic voice for most people as, well, she didn't have many friends. You could probably count her current acquaintances with just your two hands in all honesty. Feeling a little tired, she yawned softly once again, this time covering her mouth with her hand.
There he is again. I wonder when he'll stop following me... Tony thought. He had a vision yesterday, of a young boy covered in scarves being run over by a horse. Naturally, Tony did what he could to save him. Tony made sure he was okay before leaving him, only the boy followed. This was beginning to bug Tony, as the boy kept hiding as Tony looked for him.
Deciding he'd had enough, he approached the boy. But before he got all of the way there, he began having another vision. He fell to the ground and covered his ears before reverting to the fetal position, with his eyes shut tight. He had a splitting headache and felt somewhat nauseous, like in every vision. He took a deep breath just as the vision began.
An endless sea of sand manifested itself in Tony's mind. On the horizon was a tiny dot. Tony strained to see what it was, but could not perceive it. Thank you. Something had just spoken. Tony could tell it was the dot on the horizon. It had just thanked him. But why? "Wake up!..." He heard. This was different. This wasnt from the vision. The vision's voice was similar to Tony's, this one was a little kid's.
"Wake Up!... Wake Up!!!... WAKE UP!"
Tony shot up to a sitting position, hyperventilating. He was in a cold sweat. Both of which were new. Did he just have a different kind of vision? Was it a vision? No doubt, the splitting headache was always followed by a vision. But he's never come out of them hyperventilating or in a cold sweat. This was new, this one was... different, somehow.
Tony looked around to see the little boy was hugging his arm. Once the boy saw Tony was looking at him, he let go and ran off. Tony didnt bother going after him. This vision had his attention. Something was off about this one, but Tony didnt know what. He took a deep breath as he began to recall it, thinking about every part of it.
Bright, piercing sunlight reflected off the glittering sands, a dizzying sight for any traveler unused to the ever shifting roads. For Hael, it was a boring sight, one he was supposed to be used to were his patchy memories to be trusted. Hitchhiking between various caravans, Hael slowly but surely made his way to his destination, a large city of trade and commerce. Recent days, however, have proved to be trying for this city as rumors of more and more artifacts being circulated has encouraged bandits to become more active and frequent in their attacks. Seedy fortune-seeking merchants have also been on the rise, peddling fakes to swindle the ignorant, ready to take advantage of the greedy to feed their own greed.
Hael's musings came to an end as they finally reached the gate. With nothing of true value to declare beyond his meager possessions, he was easily admitted in. Even just beyond the gates the place was already bustling with activity, other caravans present moving in and out of the city at every turn, each peddling as much of their wares as they can whilst they are on the move. Aimlessly wandering, Hael sighed deeply at his leader's vague instructions of a rendezvous point. Picking a dried fig from his low-slung pack, Hael chewed on it, mulling over his recent task. A simple smash and grab, he earned the trust of a caravan's leader easily with his experience before blowing up a storm in the night and making off with a simple, nondescript box.
Hael felt for the box, secure in its shape and weight as he continued eating, randomly twisting and turning through the winding streets. In a stroke of boredom, he turned his eyes skyward, finding a peculiar crow with one beady eye affixed to him. He shook his head, wondering how he could've missed such an easy cue. Following the trail of increasing density of the black feathered avians, he finally came upon a seemingly run down storehouse. With little ceremony, he opened the door, walking in with feigned disinterest.
He immediately came upon a boy in robes who seemed pre-occupied with reading scrolls. Another gave Hael the warm welcome he didn't expect, however. With an excited voice, she grabbed Hael by the shoulders, looking at him with a smile. "Oh hello, look who's back!" Kael merely grunted, giving a short nod in response Hael's wave. With a giggle, she continued. "Guess what, Rookie. Great news! You've been promoted!"
Sometimes I wonder if it's all too easy.
Lying, cheating, stealing your way to victory.
Though just how far would you fall for a dream?
Eide dragged the materials inside and sat down on a round chair carved from stone. "Uf. Carrying all that junk here was tiring, hopefully there's some useful stuff there for you." Eide took a swig from her waterskin before wiping her mouth. "Did you hear about the Key, I keep hearing whispers that they are taking the kings treasure from right under his nose." Eide tapped her nose for added effect. "A bunch of those artifact things that he's been storing. I don't see what the big deal is." Eide looked around Tetra's place, it was a bit of a mess, lots of documents opened up and several boxes of more. "What is it you do with all this stuff anyways?"
The boy in the scarfs tugged at the Guy's arm. "He-.. Ahem. Hey! Are you alright? You collapsed!" The boy looked around the vacinity and waited as a couple of royal soldiers walked by. "You can see the future can't you." The young kid spoke pretty proudly but didn't sound very old, barly a teenager perhaps. He pointed towards himself with a thumb. "I have a power too. heheh" Tony couldn't see his mouth, but underneath the scarves the kid was clearly grinning.
Crysa returned in a flower of light, back in the exact same place she had been standing but an hour ago. "The prodigy is back. How did it go?" Kekara was already right up in her face wanting to know what her power was. "Odd, I thought I'd only been gone a few seconds but it's already getting dark." Crysa turned to the group and held out her hand, numerous crystals grew in the shape of a rose. "Is that all?" Prisim, the guy in the jade coloured vest, lowered his book to see the demonstration and was apparently unimpressed. "No." Crysa pointed towards Prisim who was now wrapped up in numerous thorn-covered vines made from the same elegant blue crystal. "When did.. How... Impressive." Prisim yawned as the vines retreated into nothingness. "Remind me not to get on your bad side." "PRETTY!" Kekara held up the flower from Crysa's hand to some light drifting in through a hole in the wall. "Aww man, I wish I had a power this cool."
Kael turned to the entrance and waved to a shadowy figure approaching, Kekara Tensed for a moment before letting out an obvious sigh of relief. "Sand guy." Kael ignored Kekara. "How did the mission go?" At that moment another figure approached, this time Kekara tensed for real, jumping back to near where Prisim was resting. "L..leader."
Aro walked past Hael and stood where Kekara was just standing. "Yes. How did the mission go."
...
"That bad huh?" Aro turned the empty box between her fingers. "No matter, your mission wasn't as important as the retrieval of Crysa's Artifact." Aro turned and pointed to Kael who was already holding the used artifact Crysa had just utilised. "Good." Aro turned to Crysa, her jewlery rattling with every movement. "I trust you picked an appropriate power?" Crysa used Prisim as a test subject once more, this time holding his arm above his head with thorns suspended from the ceiling. "Perfect."
"Oaky, Hael, you're teamed up with Ka- no, then your names would get confusing. You're with Prisim until furthur notice." Aro pointed at Kael. "You teach Crysa the ropes until she's ready." "Kekara you can stay here with me until Amsi returns." Kekara frowned, this was the worst possible outcome. "Can't I switch places with Prisim, I'm sure he wants to finish reading that book." "No can do, I need your power and Amsi'z in for the next raid." Kekara sat down on a rock furthest from Aro. "Okay, but you better not do anything creepy." Kekara drew in the sand with her foot, Aro's power was perhaps the scariest of all their powers, though in this country the sand kid probably had an upper hand. And Crysa's new power was already fast.
Once Eide had entered her home, and hauled in all the other items she had along with her, Tetra closed the wooden door softly, locking it back up due to her slight fear of uninvited company. She sighed to herself, the dark marks beneath her eyes clearly giving off the answer as to why she'd done that, and then sat down on another of the short cylindrical stone chairs. The cart that Eide had brought in was conveniently placed close enough for both Tetra and her visitor to examine in their positions, and as such, Tetra allowed herself to peer in and hold some of the parts to get a feel of them as Eide addressed the objects. Just as she began slipping away into the possibilities of what she could do with these, she prevented herself from doing so, and turned back to her guest.
"Ah, thanks Eide, I really appreciate it.", she said in a very genuine voice. As the conversation then went on, Tetra just quietly rose her right arm up and cupped her chin, just to make it so that things didn't look particularly too awkward. As Tetra listened intently to what her friend said, she realised that she must've been camping out in her house for quite a while, or at least, hadn't bothered to interact with a lot of people.
"The Key? I don't think I'm really familiar with them.", she spoke in a curious tone. Thinking it through over and over again didn't really bring up much. Guess I need to catch up a bit on what's been happening recently... Tetra certainly noted the part about stealing from the king though, as robbing the royalty wasn't exactly an action most would advise one to do. The mention of artifacts however, definitely caught her attention. If a group of people had access to that sort of power... they'd have an unbelievably strong army at their command... enough to conquer kingdoms with great ease... Tetra could only stare at her left hand for just a moment, wondering as to what kind of mess she might've gotten herself in. Did I lose anything that day?
"What is it you do with all this stuff anyways?", Eide asked curiously.
"Hmm?", as this was done, Tetra could only look around her house to note how seemingly chaotic things were. Things were definitely messier than she'd like it to be, but she'd been procrastinating the day when she'd finally reorganise things, mostly due to a new project she'd been working on recently. Tetra had just finished the design for a part of the machine a week ago, and got way too focused on finishing and improving it. In fact, the stuff that Eide had brought her would most definitely help in the construction of said part.
"Well, a lot of the scrolls I have here are documents which record scientific knowledge, or just works of writing. As to what I do with everything... I make stuff. Here.", Tetra pushed her hand into the pocket of her pants, fiddling around with the items inside before bringing an object out and placing it on the wooden table between Eide and her. It appeared to be a small long cylindrical object made out of dark wood. On one end was a black sharpened tip, which appeared to be made out of a different material altogether.
"It's not one of my most complex works... it's awfully simple actually. It's just some graphite placed into a hollowed out stick. It works like a quill, but it requires no ink whatsoever to function. Much more convenient, if you asked me.", using her left hand, she pushed it forward, indicating that she offered it to Eide to keep it for whatever need she had of it. Tetra thought of the demonstration as a bit mediocre in all honesty, and as such, considered displaying her latest invention instead.
"Actually... I could show you something much more fascinating. But it'd be good if you kept it a secret between us... Do you want to see it?"
Taking a pause, Kael finally turned to Hael and addressed him properly. "Sand guy. How did the mission go?" A small sigh escaped his lips as he began before Kekara jumped all the way back to where another stood. Bringing his eyes up once more, he gave a quick scan around and saw yet another, giving a small huff at the presence of these new personas. Finally coming into his view was yet another familiar figure who appeared to spook the living daylights out of the girl who greeted him. Piercing green eyes stood out as her various accessories gave a light jingle, their golden sheen not entirely dissimilar to her hair which still looked entirely too foreign for him. "Yes. How did the mission go."
Hael rolled his eyes, feeling for the box in his bag. Pulling it out, he gave it a light toss into the air, earning a reaction out of just about everyone in the room save for Prisim and Aro. Kael bit back a remark as the answer quickly dawned on him as well, to which he sat back with mild disapproval in his eyes. Hael rolled his eyes in turn, before swiftly throwing the box at Aro. Catching it with a single hand, she began to inspect it, turning it over between her fingers. "That bad, huh?" Hael nodded in reply. "Complete bust. It wasn't a dud, but someone used it before I could get my hands on it. Shifted the blame on me. Fairly certain the fact that I had to make a quick getaway with my powers helped too." Aro shook her head in dismissal. "No matter, your mission wasn't as important as the retrieval of Crysa's Artifact." Hael suppressed a grimace, though he knew she meant nothing by it, it was still a blow to his pride to have failed the mission despite circumstances out of his control.
Aro then began to quiz the new recruit, who demonstrated her powers with ease. Hael watched, mildly impressed at the speed she could upon it, and the degree of control she had. Aro, seemingly pleased, turned to Hael once more, ready with another set of instructions. "Okay, Hael, you're teamed up with Ka- no, then your names would get confusing." Two pairs of eyes rolled at this, before Aro continued. "You're with Prisim until further notice." Aro then turned to the rest, to give them their own instructions. Hael eyed the man in the jade vest, already attempting to gauge his partner for his next mission. He was slightly bemused at the girl who greeted him - Kekara, as Aro called her - as she begged to switch with Prisim, and failing that, settled for sitting as far away as she can from Aro, contemplating her fate. Hael didn't know why her fear of Aro ran so deep, though he felt that he was perhaps biased, having never seen it in action. Finally, Hael wondered as to where Amsi had gone - it was unlike him to take so long.
Sometimes I wonder if it's all too easy.
Lying, cheating, stealing your way to victory.
Though just how far would you fall for a dream?
Atop a building in a distant country Amsi stood watching down upon the night flames. Kael's ability was by far the most superior for transporting others long distances, but Amsi would have no way to return in a timely manner unless he found who he was looking for. "Where could he be, it's unlike him to be on a mission for more than a day." In the distance Amsi spotted it, a deep crimson light shining from the top of a distant tower. Amsi sank through the building as if it were quicksand and disappeared into the night.
Prisim walked alongside Hael out towards the west, explaining their mission. "We've gotta dig up some wrecked sandship and bring all of its contents back to the base." A green glowing tetrahedron spun in his open hand, he walked with an unamused look plastered upon his face. "I guess I'll get to show you my power. It's pretty Rad. Aro said you're good at digging so i'll take her word from it." The tetrahedron disappeared as Prisim clenched his fist. "You don't want to get caught up in that one's power." Prisim shook his head slowly, metal clips on his vest jangling as he did so. "That's how we lost the two before you and Crysa."
Eide was intrigued, she was sure she would have known plenty of secrets before she lost her memory, but this would be the first new secret since then. "Yeah, I can keep a secret, I think... I don't remember if I was good at it before, but i should be good now." Eide smiled, Tetra seemed like a good person, she hadn't met many people since waking up on the docks but most of those which she had met were paticularly salty and unable to offer her any response beyond 'get out 'the way'. Tetra was.. different.
"LET ME'OUT!" Erogrvi Smashed his fist against the walls of the cage which pulsed with life energy. "It's no use. My power lets me trap anything I want without restriction. Nothing can make it through those bars." A slender male dressed in priestly garb stood beside the cage, a single finger extended and from it stretched pulsating red energy which formed into the cage trapping Ergrvi. Ergrvi was quite the opposite of this man, a hulking mass with fists the size of this man's head. The other members of the key often joked that he wasn't even human, but spawn of a giant. "I'll make you eat those words." He reached his fingers between the bars and grabbed at the air infront of the slender priest figure. "Ha, i'd like to see you try."
Tetra smiled slightly, a bit delighted that Eide was interested in seeing her latest work. Now that she thought about it, most of the items she had built were often left in the dark of her workshop and kept to herself, with only a few people having really seen much of what she's done(such as the people who hire her). The device Tetra had in mind had just been finished last week, as she now had a lot of free time and energy to do work, especially ever since she found out about her powers months ago(which had most certainly assisted greatly in ironing out problems). She stood back up slowly, using the table in front of them for some support.
"Alright then.", she said with a gesture to Eide to follow behind her, as she pulled the rest of the items in the cart along with her, leaving the pencil on the table behind. Tetra calmly walked through a short sand white coloured hallway, before entering a big rectangular room at the end of it. Opening the door revealed a fairly large amount of space, at least half of which had already been filled up with an assortment of uncompleted machines and shelves filled with unorganised papyrus scrolls tied in different coloured ribbons. There was a short staircase which led down(as the room had been built a little deeper into the ground for more space), which Tetra used to then bring in the bundle of the parts Eide brought for her and set it by on an empty spot next to a wall.
Tetra waved her hand in her direction, indicating to come to where she had walked to and try not to get overwhelmed by the mess surrounding them. The room was certainly a little darker than the living room, with the windows being of very small sizes(and even then, most have been intentionally covered up by some of her objects). Speaking of which, inside the room laid a huge array of mechanical creations. There were some long wooden shelves topped with atypically modeled gears and metallic scraps, and even some devices which had been attached to each other, seemingly serving no purpose at the current moment. An armour stand stood ominously in a corner, only having one strange and large brass arm attached to it, which appeared overly complex with an uncountable amount of gears and mechanisms integrated into it. There were also boxes laying around, keeping more random pieces of metal and other alloys. Other unusual hunks of machinery rested on the rocky floor of the room, most of them appearing to be calmly at rest in their slumber. Anything else to note might've been a deactivated small black bricked smelter set aside at the end of the room, most likely made use of for when Tetra required personally designed metallic parts of her own.
Anyways, the eccentric engineer was currently standing next to a slightly long wooden and weathered table. Lots of other uncompleted parts and fragments of machinery had been pushed out of the way to reveal a strange brass and brown coloured device. It appeared to have a very sturdy and circular stand, most likely to hold what looked like an intricately crafted cylinder, raised horizontally and tilted slightly so that one could manage to see a hole poking out of it. It suggested that one would most likely put one's eye by it to peer into the inside. Below the cylinder was a plate of sorts, on which was placed a small dish of dirty water. It wouldn't surprise some if it was an alien device of sorts from the future, if it weren't for the human touch to it made by Tetra. However, if one dared to look into what laid inside the scope, they might've changed their mind.
In front of Tetra were pieces of papyrus, attached onto the wall with what looked like simple clamps. They displayed drawn bizarre, circular, and seemingly two-dimensional... things. Most of these sketches had been detailed to show some sort of strange anatomy within the blob's own body with labels such as 'Core?' and 'Bubbles?', almost all of them accompanied by question marks at the end. Tetra appeared to be a bit more solemn than before currently, standing out of the way if Eide approached and then speaking for a bit.
"I must warn you... what you see through the scope will be unlike anything one could possibly imagine. On the other hand, you will be one of the first humans to know about this brand new discovery!", Tetra paused a bit here, looking slightly more excited at the end of her sentence before talking again.
"And before you ask me, no, it is not some sort replica of a portal to hell, or whatever otherworldly realm that people often talk about through rumours.", she said as she took a few seconds to examine the machine once again, before getting out of the way to write a few details down in her journal as she waited for Eide to take a look.
Tony was just as clueless as he was before about the vision, when the boy came back to him. The boy commented on his collapse, before guessing he could see the future. Before Tony could reply, the boy said he had a power of his own. "Oh? And what might it be?" Tony was a little doubtful that someone as young as this boy could come across an artifact, but it was always possible.
Eide looked through the object, she felt that learning stuff was something she was interested in. "Hmm." She looked at it from the side, making sure that it wasn't just a trick with a picture placed into the device somewhere. She looked back through, the things were moving a little bit. "Yes. I've seen something like this before." She grabbed her chin and nodded definitively. "I must have seen this once before I lost my memory, because I remember seeing something like this before." Eide grabbed the dish of water and held it up to some light pouring in from a window. "But the ones I saw were moving around a lot more." Eide handed the dish back to Tetra. "Tetra, I need to find out who I am. I have all these memories, but they are not mine. Who was I?"
The kid wrapped in scarfs pointed at Tony before disappearing completely without a sound or a trace, all that was left were the footprints from where he was once standing, which slowly collapsed with the gentle wind that blew through the town. "Over here." The kid tapped on Tony's shoulder from behind. "I can't move very far yet, and I don't know how it works. You have to keep this a secret." The scarfed kid looked around suspiciously make sure there wasn't anyone looking.
-like to see you tr-" The thin figure had thought that he had completed his sentence but now was somehow watching his own body drift slowly away as his vision began to blur. "Took 'yer time Amsi." The cage had not disappeared but Amsi now stood beside Erogrvi. "Oh... it didn't disappear." "Yeah, I believe the condition is that the cage will never let me out." Ero punched at the bars which zapped at his fist. "That's cute..." Amsi grabbed one of the loose corners of Ero's shirt and the two walked through the bars which then disappeared. "It's certainly odd how some powers work, they seem to continue until their conditions are met or can no longer be met." Amsi held out his arm which flashed transparent for a moment. "Too bad my power lets me move through anything." Amsi and Ero continued to talk like the dead body behind them was nothing. "Oh, yeah, Ero, you are kind of my lift back to the hideout." Ero gave Amsi the thumbs up before picking Amsi up in one and and punching with the other. The force of Ero's punch broke the sound barrier and then his fist continued onwards, draging Erogrvi and Amsi with it. As Ero Cut through the air his spirit surrounding him in the shape of a dragon with his fist where the head formed. The two zoomed across the sky.
Tetra stood back slightly as Eide took a look at it, seemingly expecting some sort of huge reaction from her or accusations of 'witchcraft'. However, she seemed to just examine it in a bit of an intrigued manner, not appearing shaken in the least. Tetra was certainly a lot calmer that her only friend didn't start to go completely crazy about it, but it was a bit unusual. It was almost as if she had already seen such a thing. And as Eide went on to explain, it looks like she did. As she listened curiously, she accepted the dish from her, placing it down on the table beside her as carefully as possible.
Eide appeared quite concerned about this, and Tetra returned the look. She was actually genuinely hearing what she was saying. Stroking her chin slightly as she leaned on the table, she pondered on the subject deeply for a while. Eide had mentioned this once before too when they met, and it was certainly strange. She had never seen something like this before, at least with first hand experience. To be fair though, she has talked and met only a relatively small amount of people in her life. Tetra maintained a serious aura around her for a while, before snapping her fingers once.
"Maybe I can help. I do have some knowledge regarding memory. Follow me.", she gestured with her hand and then exited the room, walking back slightly faster into the living room. She picked up any of the scrolls that had fallen on the ground and placed them on the shelves, to reorganise them at a later time. After that, she quickly scanned through the colours of the ribbons holding the rolls of papyrus, opening up a few before taking out around one or two and placing it onto the table.
"Here it is...", Tetra said as she slowly untied one of the ribbons, revealing a lot more scrolls inside the roll itself. They were scanned through and put away with a surprisingly high speed, Tetra already having a natural affinity for reading and memorising in general. A few documents were immediately concluded to be unrelated, such as those titled 'Aphasia'. Others such as 'Amnesia', 'False Memory', 'Memory Erasure', and 'Repressed Memory' have been laid out clearly though. Tetra seemed to stare into them intently, before deciding to voice her opinion as she read on.
"Hmm... losing your memory... You most definitely could have some form of retrograde amnesia, where one has lost all memory from beyond a certain date. After all, you did say that your head got affected by some trauma a while back. But it gets complicated when you say that you also have memories that... aren't yours... Perhaps a combination of that and severe false memory? Either that, or it could just be something related to magic...", she slowly covered her mouth with her left hand as she ran through all the information available to her. It was here when some sort of epiphany had activated in her head. One's name... Deciding to ask a few more questions first, she then went on.
"Eide, can you tell me as much as you can about the memories you have, whether or not actually yours? Also... do you remember opening a box or container of some sort? Maybe even getting shrouded in darkness and being asked strange questions?", the questions were asked in a somewhat solemn manner, with Tetra's left elbow now placed on the table to rest itself.
The kid pointed at Tony, before disappearing. Was he a vision? No, he was wide awake, and he had left footprints. After a moment, someone tapped Tony's shoulders, and it turned out to be the kid. He then mentioned he cant go far yet. Teleportation, Tony thought. He then gave a small laugh. "That sure is a useful power." Tony commented. He then lowered his voice a little and erased his smile. "What was your price?" Tony was curious, and wouldnt press if the kid refused to tell.
"Manual labor? What an exciting prospect." Hael replied in a dull tone, still stinging from his recent failure. He quickly changed his tune, however, finding unnecessary conflict at the moment would just cause more delays. As they began walking west, Hael continued. "Well, if it's a sandship, we may as well take the whole thing provided it's still in good condition. Otherwise, I see no way to transport all of its contents back in one go - unless you're here to remedy that?" Hael observed the tetrahedron Prisim conjured, listening to him as he gave a short and wholly uninformative description of his power, ending with a short promise to demonstrate later as he clenched his fist shut.
"I have to wonder about Aro... Why is Kekara so afraid of her?" A short exchange and Hael simply gave a simple 'huh' in response. Pondering over it for a moment, Hael picked up once more on his line of questions. "Well, good to know I'm not the only collateral damage hazard around. What is it that would allow her to cause such damage anyway? It's not so simple taking down someone blessed by an artifact."
Sometimes I wonder if it's all too easy.
Lying, cheating, stealing your way to victory.
Though just how far would you fall for a dream?
Eide shook her head. "I don't remember much if anything. But I don't specifically remember opening a box or anything." Eide looked at the viewerer thing once more. "I only really remember waking up on the docks, but sometimes when I look at something I remember if I have seen it before." She shrugged. "I have no idea who I am really. And the only faces I remember are yours and one other girl with weird jewelery, I think she was supposed to be a pharoh or Priestess or something." Eide shrugged again.
The kid shrugged and pointed towards his feet. "No shadow. So I suppose it I gave up my shadow, I'm not sure when It happened though, I think I was opening a box mid air or something and hit my head on the way down." The kid pointed and moved once more, again checking to make sure no one else had been watching. "It's a pretty helpful power I think, It's just not very strong."
Prisim laughed. "A ruin is called a ruin for a reason." He snapped his fingers and opened his palm, in one swift motion three of the glowing tetrahedrons were spinning around his palm as if they were tops. "I'll show you my power when we're there, you're close to guessing it already though." He shut his palm and the triangles again disappeared. "Aro's power is still a little confusing, it seems she can make people disappear." Prisim looked down and kicked his feet through the sand as he walked. "Though she can do a number of other creepy things too, I don't think any member has seen her full abilities yet or she makes people not talk about it or something." Prisim waved his right arm infront of himself. "She does this one thing where she makes skeleton arms appear out of her body and grab stuff." Prisim jumped. "And this power where she jumps really high with incredible speeds that my eyes can't follow." Prisim shrugged. "Overall her abilities don't follow any discernable pattern at the moment so obviously we haven't even seen their full extent. "
The two had reached an area just outside of the town, a wooden post stuck up out of the sand, rags flailing from it as if they were a flag. "Think you can dig up this?"
Tetra scratched her head, before staring back into the mess of opened scrolls which were laid out in front of her. Most of them held relatively little information, and it was expected. Documentation of conditions and diseases related to the human brain were uncommon, due to the difficulties of comprehending the complex reactions which occurred deep within the brain. There was no real cure for these kind of things. Only speculated and inconclusive treatments exist, most of which don't work effectively for most people.
"You must have some form of retrograde amnesia then, most likely due to trauma. Most forms of amnesia eventually dissipate over time... but I'm not so sure..." She had attempted to make the best diagnosis she could from what knowledge was available to her, but it most definitely didn't help much in their current predicament. From what Eide has told her, Tetra couldn't make out much. The rich did often wear jewelry, but that piece of information was too vague to be of any real use. She rested her hand upon her mouth once again, steadying herself in the stone chair she was currently sitting on.
"Well then, I assume no one else has made any effort to show that they knew you? Where do you live then?", finding herself slightly curious, Tetra once again asked to learn more about Eide.
The boy explained he'd given up his shadow after opening a box and hitting his head. Tony knew already, but this confirmed it- he got his power from opening an artifact. "Hm." Tony said. "I gave up my shadow, too." Tony then thought of having an ally. The kid's power was useful, but it wouldnt be enough. Tony knew he'd need a larger group. His mind turned to a group he'd heard of before, the Key or something. He wasnt too sure of their motives, but they might be worth checking out.
It was then Tony realized a silence came over them. "Say, where are your parents?" Tony asked, looking around. This boy wasnt old enough to support himself. Perhaps he ran away, just like Tony did. This reminded Tony of his parents, and the first vision he ever had. He shook these thoughts out of his mind, they made him feel bad. "And, what's your name?" Tony asked.
Eide shrugged. "To be honest I don't remember much at all, but I think I know where my home is, sort of a general direction I think we could walk from here." Eide sighed. "But something is telling me not to go back there, I don't even know what there looks like..." Eide sat down again. "K, I think my surname started with K."
The kid sat down on a stone block. "c- I call myself Shadow." The kid pointed and teleported and then pointed again, quickly jumping again. "I think someone tried to make me forget my name at some point though, probably the same people that were after me." Shadow pointed towards the numerous scarf coverings. "That's why i am incognito, hiding out in disguise."
Cora continued to follow the foosteps in the sand, she came across what looked like a wooden hut that had been burnt down. "All i find is destruction in its wake, yet why do I keep following." she investigated the location some more but couldn't find anything of interest, it was like whoever had burnt down the place had done so purposefully. "As if to destroy as much evidence as possible. Perhaps evidence of a past life?" She looked up to the sun then down to her shadowless feet. "I must continue to move, I should catch up to them soon." She retrieved a stone piece from a pouch at her side and held it against the stark background that was the day's sky. "Like a piece on a board, if I continue to monitor the moves made and army of my own will fall into place."
Cora packed away the game piece and moved on through the desert, following the faint footprints that slowly began to disappear with the landscape's ever harsh winds.
Tetra rested her head on the back of her hand, using the elbow of that arm already placed on the table to support herself. She didn't have much of an idea as to how to proceed forwards in a situation like this. She supposed she could follow the lead about finding her supposed home, but Eide having an inkling feeling not to return there did speak quite a bit. Out of all she could've remembered, she seemed insistent on that. I guess that this part of her memory must've been significant enough to stay through the amnesia. It might be best to listen to its advice for now.
The letter K didn't give away much too. As Tetra rarely socialised with people in the town, she most likely had no lead whatsoever unless lots of time was invested and fervent research was done on the subject of the history of surnames in this village. And even then, it would probably not come up with a lot, considering that no one who knew Eide from before went looking for her, as far as they could tell. She then quickly caught that Eide hadn't really mentioned where she currently lived at though.
"Um, where do you stay at now then?", she asked with a slightly concerned tone in her voice.
The boy called himself Shadow, ironic considering he lost his. He teleported again as he explained he was in hiding, and that the people who were after him tried to make him forget his name. Or at least, they probably were. "Alright, good to know. My name's Tony." He replied. "But you still havent answered my question. Do you have a family?" Shadow has avoided the question, and Tony wanted to know.