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Post by Callixta Trëguere on Sept 13, 2015 13:03:40 GMT -5
The sound of snow very lightly crunching was pin-sharp in the quiet dusk outside the resort City of Tamryn. Callixta Trëguere paused, tilting her head just the slightest to listen for any sign that she wasn't alone in that expanse of perfect white. The trees, covered in iced crystals, swayed slightly and the dying rays of sunlight added a filter to the winter white that made the landscape surreal. The mage inhaled deeply and molten amber eyes surveyed her surroundings before turning to watch as the last torn piece of reality finished repairing itself― the tattered ends of where it had been forcefully shredded re-bonded fairly well considering its rough treatment. The fabric did have an uncanny way of righting itself with little encouragement once the pieces were reunited. Three jumps altogether. The limited number either spoke to the green woman's conservation of energy or to the fact that she was prepared to be tracked without difficulty. There was always the possibility that she underestimated her pursuer. The crude manner in which she tore at the planes for her use irritated the petite mage. It was efficient, but also inelegant. The possibility of backlash wasn't high enough to make the method prohibitive, but it still could potentially wreak disastrous effects if each portion of space were left switched that way― which is exactly why it had taken her this long to come back to the final destination: the mage had taken the time to painstakingly set right each spatial jump to limit the damage that had been done.
Callixta released the breath she'd been holding and refocused on her location. The City of Tamryn was very close and there were no other discrepancies in the space anywhere nearby: her quarry was either choosing to use the City as cover or else their stronghold was here. The mage had doubts about the latter and the former did create some complications. Nevertheless, the trail had ended; hopefully Søren was adequately prepared to proceed. The mage held up both hands to watch as black leather began spreading outward from the center of either palm until simple gloves covered from fingertip to elbow. Her right hand, now fully functional and whole, ran fingers through the remainder of her hair and caused jewel-toned eyes to narrow. The thick rope of a braid really had been obliterated by the heat from the Celesin whelp's explosion.
Callixta sighed.
Søren was right: they'd been unmoving and stagnant for too long. Perhaps it was time for change.
Wordlessly the mage raised her right hand and, visually, seemed to materialize a translucent, blue-tinged long knife. The weapon appeared to have no actual hilt, but the nearly transparent "blade" followed the movements of her hand as if attached somehow. Callixta raised the weapon to the nape of her neck with her right hand and used her left to gather the rest of the silvery strands together. A smooth slicing motion left her with very closely cropped hair from nape to occipital bone with a strongly angled perimeter that left the hair framing her face much longer, actually brushing the lines of her collarbone. The light blue blade dissipated into wisps of light as her hand fell to her side, her left bringing the tufts of white closer to eye-level so she could see the damage. The gloved digits clenched tightly closed over the locks as amber eyes rose to lock on the City one more time.
Her left hand dropped, releasing the hair to the chilly winds.
Business first, then time to fetch Søren.
Callixta melted back into the growing shadows.
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Post by Søren Kiirkegré on Jul 20, 2016 22:45:02 GMT -5
The three women slid into reality on the outskirts of the town on Tamryn, hands clasped carefully, with Søren and Rivea taking up position on each side of their silver-haired chauffer as if the trio were getting ready to bow after accepting a prestigious award. Unfortunately for them, there was no crowd to greet their arrival – just a fairly empty, snow-covered expanse with the town far ahead and the occasional extremely-furry rodent or chittering bird there to notice the three juggernauts who had just appeared in their midst. Søren couldn’t help but smirk, but she didn’t take any time to survey the scenery: she had a job to do, and time was off the essence.
Letting go of Callixta’s hand, the former Death Guardian walked a few paces forward in the snow before sinking down onto her knees and sitting back on her heels in the snow. Folding her hands carefully on her legs, the woman hid her red eyes behind her lids as she concentrated on her task. Those sensitive to energy, specifically the energy of life, Ether, would feel the sudden blossoming of that energy around the former Guardian, the spectral blue mists of incorporeal life unfolding around Søren’s body like a blooming flower before it could roll forward like a tsunami, uncompressing itself as it poured from the woman’s slight frame and blanketing not only the area surrounding the trio, but the town in its entirety, as well as the areas that surrounded it.
Søren’s objective was simple – find the Marru’Khyran, which would inevitably lead them to Kauvrain. In order to do so, the Counselor had to spot an irregular energy, and she knew for a fact that the Marru’Khyrans didn’t connect to Ether in the same way as normal humans. Therefore, normal people lit up within Søren’s mind as blue dots as the Ether passed round them and joined with the life energy in their bodies momentarily. Those who weren’t alive in the same way as a typical human, however, wouldn’t: both Callixta and Rivea were good examples of this very phenomenon, and to Søren’s metaphysical sense, both women show up as black voids where a person should have been. Rivea, especially, was a dramatic dead-spot in Søren’s senses, and the Counselor used that template to try and locate others who didn’t possess Ether in the same way as normal humans.
Søren smiled as she detected just that: in several places, no less. This manner of sensing wasn’t sophisticated enough to pick out individual people, mind; it only showed the woman anomalies, and Søren immediately noticed there were several. The Counselor voiced what she had found without opening her eyes.
”There’s a collection of deviances near the center of town, but there’s another outside of town also, near the underside of he mountain.”
Søren hoped Callixta had a better grasp of Tamryn’s overall geography than she had herself and could sort the information she was being given into likely places where they would find Dragos and Kauvrian. In the meantime, Søren made sure to point in the direction of the out-of-town anomaly so that Callixta would see the exact direction she was indicating: the Counselor was aware that her words were initially quite vague.
Søren ensured that she kept her eyes closed and stayed focus on keeping the anomalies inside her sights as Callixta made her decision which to pursue.
”Thoughts?”
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Post by Callixta Trëguere on Aug 3, 2016 19:21:21 GMT -5
Callixta released Rivea's hand easily, giving her a light squeeze just before doing so. Amber eyes watched Søren as she began to decompress ether over the area. It didn't take long for the mage to guess what it was the other woman was doing. While the goings on weren't spectacular to behold Callixta knew a bit of focus was required. As such, the time was taken to glance back at their petite juggernaut of an operative. Callixta was acutely aware that Rivea might become bored fairly soon if there was no clear direction. The mage flashed a brief smile before turning to the other Councilor just as she started to speak.
Her brows drew together at the mention of not just one or two, but several anomalies. That was very curious. Were there others in Tamryn connected to the Mage? Were they about to walk into a trap― was that why they had gathered here, where the residence of the assassin Fureya could be found?
"The direction you're pointing in is where the home of Fureya lies, built into the mountain Tamryn is named for. How many are there in town?"
That was quite a coincidence the more Callixta thought about it. What were the chances more beings not connected to Ether could be found in the same place their fugitives had run off to regroup.
"I don't like this."
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Rivea
Initiated
Posts: 11
Title: The Unmade
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Post by Rivea on Aug 3, 2016 19:31:50 GMT -5
If Rivea felt anything from the shift between locations, she certainly didn’t indicate it once they had arrived. When Callixta let go of her hand, the Unmade immediately stepped a few paces away in the snow, her movements exaggerated as though she thought the snowpack was exceptionally burdensome to walking around. Rivea seemed to be trying to get her bearings – what she was really doing was wondering if she could reach the very fat bird in the one nearby tree before it flew away.
Søren went to start doing something, however, and as the diminutive former Guardian kneeled down in the snow to focus, Rivea walk-stomped her way over to the woman’s right-hand side and slid down on her knees, mimicking the woman’s posture, if not her actions. That’s where Rivea would stay, even as Søren and Callixta started debating their next move. The speed of their deliberations would be the deciding factor as to whether the Unmade started building herself a small cache of tightly-packed snowballs, however – were they to take too long, poor Tamryn might find itself caught in a rain of military-grade ice-projectiles thrown like mortars from a good mile and a half away.
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Post by Søren Kiirkegré on Aug 3, 2016 19:51:39 GMT -5
Søren didn’t open her eyes as Callixta responded, or as Rivea took a spot next to her. Instead, the former Guardian intensified her focus, trying to shut out the noise and read the waves of energy she was putting out. She could get a topographical sense of the area if she focused hard enough – energy flor was interrupted, though not stopped, by walls and other physical objects, and therefore she could focus in on each of the anomalies, collecting more and more Ether around them both like an unseen, spectral cloud, giving her more details about what her energy touched.
”Both are two separate beings. Both are inside buildings, though the one in the center of town is a medium structure – densely populated. Maybe a tavern or restaurant? There’s a third being with the two in the center of town, and one of them gives off a very strange energy – their shadow is huge.”
The ‘shadow’ that Søren was referring to was the dark spot the being caused in her Ether cloud – those connected to Ether lit up as concentrations of the energy when touched by the cloud, but those without it created discernable shadows, voids where Ether should have been where other energy had taken up residence instead. One of the two in the center of town was such a void, but the second’s void actually pulled at and warped the Ether around it – the Counselor couldn’t be sure exactly why, but she had to assume something about the person’s own energy impacted the ether in some fundamental way.
”Those outside of town have similar-sized shadows, and are also in a building, but a very large one. Hardly anyone else is there with them, maybe two or three in what seems to be a large compound.”
Determining that she couldn’t likely get more information from her current sensory field, Søren left the energy in place but scaled back her attention to only monitoring the two spaces, allowing her to open her eyes and turn in place to face Callixta.
”I don’t like that there are two groups either, but I’m fairly sure the anomalies in the center of town aren’t who we are looking for. If Kauvrian had that much of an effect on Ether, you would have noticed earlier. It could just be a coincidence. Or . . . “
Søren trailed off, knowing that Callixta would understand her meaning.
There’s always the chance it’s the Mage . . .
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Post by Callixta Trëguere on Aug 3, 2016 20:24:32 GMT -5
Callixta watched Rivea plunk down next to Søren and shifted her focus back to the other Councilor. She really didn't like this situation already, but now that Søren was talking about "huge shadows" of void space the mage was beginning to get a little nervous. She knew what needed to be done if they encountered the Mage here, but that didn’t mean being face with the very real possibility didn’t turn her insides to ice. The white-haired Councilor bit her lower lip, considering their options.
"I don't want to split up, but I also don't want to be blindsided by any unknowns while we're already engaging in uncertain conditions. There are no coincidences when it comes to Achréiøs. . ."
She shook her head.
"The two outside of the town must be in the Manor. It's functionally Fureya's safehouse. I've not been inside per se, but I do have a little intel on it. The Manor is quite literally built into the side of the mountain. There's only the front facing entrance with the majority of the residence sheltered by stone and possibly built down underground."
The petite mage's arms crossed.
"There will be less collateral damage if we strike the Manor. That's more likely where Kauvrian and Corvaelan's whelp are. I don’t want to ignore the presence in the town, but checking it out might take too much time and draw too much attention."
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Post by Søren Kiirkegré on Aug 3, 2016 22:17:43 GMT -5
Søren listened carefully as Callixta deliberated their options – her fellow Counselor was quickly arriving at the same conclusion Søren herself had come to, that pursuing the lead that led out of town instead of into it was the better choice.
If Callixta’s intel was right and there was a connection between the larger, more removed building near the mountain and Fureya, then it was more likely that Kauvrian would try to use it as a sanctuary. And while there is the possibility that the other group Søren could sense was also related to the Mage in some way, she didn’t think that Achréiøs himself would likely be found in a tavern in the middle of Tamryn without causing a stir: it could just be a coincidence. Søren kept her gaze on her partner’s.
”I agree; assuming the two are unrelated, we can always try and circle back to the town later. So then, what’s our play? We can try to sneak up on them, but I’d just as soon drop right in and surprise them before they have a chance to predict where we are coming from.”
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Post by Callixta Trëguere on Aug 3, 2016 22:29:12 GMT -5
Callixta slowly nodded along with the other woman's estimation.
"I can drop us right in the middle of Fureya's living room, assuming that's what the front of the Manor actually is, but that leaves extraordinarily little time to form a plan. We'd be flying blind and more likely to make massive miscalculations. I can slip us in nearby so we can survey the Manor and form a strategy from there."
The mage glanced down at Rivea, doing a quick temperature check to make sure she was still engaged.
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Rivea
Initiated
Posts: 11
Title: The Unmade
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Post by Rivea on Aug 3, 2016 23:00:36 GMT -5
Rivea wasn’t exactly listening carefully to the strategy deliberations taking place between the two Counselors, but the Unmade did get the overall gist of what was going on. Auntie Sor-Sor could tell that there were two places where their targets might be, but one was more likely, the one outside of town. That sounded less fun, but Rivea could see how they were probably right. One thing about their conversation did stick out to Rivea, however, and it caused her to stop packing a particularly-dense snowball/ice-projectile and perk up – the name ‘Fureya.’ Rivea craned her neck and stared back up at Callixta from her spot in the snow.
“We are going to Fureya’s house? Will she be there? It’s been a while since I’ve seen her – I want to play with her again!”
Rivea remembered her time with the silver-haired woman fondly – she was really pretty, and though she liked to fight and stuff, she ended up being really accommodating, especially to the Unmade. She didn’t seem to like Dai’Shin very much though.
Moving on to tactical deliberations though, Rivea quickly changed the subject and interjected her two sense, while simultaneously hopping up to her feet so she could act out her suggestion with a few quick air-punches.
“Or, you could send me in, and I can distract them! I can appear in the middle and confuse them while you and Auntie Sor-Sor get into position and get the drop on them.”
Rivea looked from Callixta to Søren expectantly, fully aware at how genius her plan was, and eagerly awaiting the recognition that comes from such a brilliant idea.
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Post by Søren Kiirkegré on Aug 3, 2016 23:09:02 GMT -5
Søren pondered Callixta’s suggestion carefully. She was right, as usual – best not to go in totally blind. But, assuming they got close enough to plan, they also greatly increased the chance of being sensed before they got into position, alerting their enemy of the imminent attack. There was no perfectly clear option, and Søren didn’t hesitate to say as much.
”There’s no perfect plan here. We can get close and plan, but we also might get-“
Søren fell silent as she was interrupted by Rivea’s unbridled enthusiasm, first Aat The mention of Fureya, and then with her suggested plan of attack. The first did make Søren stop and wonder just how Rivea, of all people, had been introduced to Fureya, especially in some kind of positive way: Rivea and Drænník were Alpha’s top agents, and they rarely were sent to interface with anyone without the Magistrate’s explicit direction. That meant there might be a connection between Fureya and Alpha that had previously been unknown: the former Guardian shot a meaningful look to Callixta, but otherwise filed the information away for later use. Instead, Søren waited until Rivea was done to finish her earlier sentence.
”-discovered. You know, that’s a pretty good idea, especially since they haven’t seen Rivea yet, her appearance would confuse them, and potentially buy us enough time to both strategize and catch them off guard.”
Søren smiled approvingly at Rivea before turning back to her partner in crime.
”What do you think?”
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Post by Callixta Trëguere on Aug 3, 2016 23:29:50 GMT -5
Callixta's brow arced up at Rivea's response to Fureya's name. That was odd. How in the world had Drænník's pet been exposed to Fureya and, furthermore, how was it that Rivea seemed to like her. Clearly there was something else there and the mage would do her best to get more information from Rivea at a later time: now the stakes were too high to be focusing on the wrong thing. Callixta begrudgingly pushed it to the back of her mind, refocusing on the other Councilor and turning over the suggestion of dropping Rivea alone into Fureya's Manor for possible flaws.
The mage eyed Rivea before looking to Søren.
"I don't think it's the worst plan I've ever heard. If nothing else it means Kauvrian will have had very little time to recharge. Pitting her against Rivea gives us a huge advantage. And, well. We know how to work together." Callixta offered a very small grin at that before rolling her wrists.
"I think we've got ourselves a plan, little one. Are you ready?" She might have been looking at Rivea after her question, but really she might have been asking herself.
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Rivea
Initiated
Posts: 11
Title: The Unmade
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Post by Rivea on Jun 14, 2017 14:08:35 GMT -5
Rivea was not disappointed in having her expectations of recognition met by Søren and Callixta. Of course her plan was the best – it was the most fun! Rivea grinned, showing her little eyeteeth in a predatory, hyenaish way that showed just how deviously excited she was to get her hands dirty.
“Yeah! I’m ready – send me in!”
Rivea posed herself in a fighting stance and looked at Callixta expectantly.
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Post by Callixta Trëguere on Jun 14, 2017 15:17:08 GMT -5
Callixta Trëguere issued a final glance in Søren's direction as well as a long exhale. The petite mage had never been one to dash headlong into the fray without adequate preparation but the circumstances were such that options seemed to be of limited quantities. They had Rivea, sure. But there was a possibility their targets had rendezvoused with Achréiøs.
Can’t worry about that now. The Mage bridge has not presented itself for the crossing just yet.
Callixta's frame became steel as a gloved hand darted toward the tiny juggernaut and pushed her into what would most likely be the main room located just inside the entrance to Tamryn Manor. The reality bender was careful enough to ensure she was depositing Rivea into open space and not, say, the middle of a concrete wall, but that was as far as the mage could manage without following her into the blur. Satisfied with her handiwork she turned to the other woman, molten amber boring into blood red, and offered a hand. Once their hands met Callixta would step forward, gliding them both to the intended destination: in the midst of a winter-worn grove of trees located just outside the Manor's perimeter. They would be close enough to hopefully glean any developments, but far enough away that they would not be seen from the outward-facing portion of the Manor.
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