Fantasy The Sundering

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Disciple Valerio was to earn his high mastery of teleportation. A simple yet honest test. All he had to do was "open" the path. Like the ancients before, he had to break past this reality and reach into the great unknown and craft a bridge across it. He had done this many times on the small scale. Across rooms, cellars and villages. This was the first time he was to reach the "impossible room". Pride welled up in his chest as he scratched out the last symbol on the floor with the last bit of chalk he was given for this test. Not one mistake was made, a mistake would result in there being a shortage of the material.... Odd High Disciple Artheius mentioned how he had but a speck of chalk left in his hands when he finished. Valerio was left with a pinky finger worth... bah the old man was weak and not as bright as Valerio the Prodigy Valerio thought absentmindedly as he grabbed his catalyst.

The test was simple yet elegant. Every rune, bit of chalk and scrap of knowledge was gained, earned or rewarded by his efforts of the last decade. His chalk was created by the fine minerals he found with High Disciple Baleri and the knowledge from the deepest recesses from Arch Mage Glydiss. His catalyst was close to him. A son of a minor noble his catalyst to send him to fame was his ancestor's fine gem that held the soul of a greater Daemon whos name was lost to time. The proper words of summoning said Valerio cast the gem down to break upon the foundation of his work. A great roar resounded in the confined room as a storm came into being forming a portal. Elation went through Valerio's very soul as he saw a thousand different worlds.

One was the stars themselves. Glimmering, shining and a step away from a world with flying chariots but a humanoid seemed to shine brighter then the stars almost a star herself! Another the chariots rushed about without horses as people walked in crowds large than he had ever seen, yet a shadow lingered watching, waiting and informing. Another looked much like his own, a hunter hefted a great bounty on his back headed back. Lastly was a world like the world he spent his life in, books! books the glorious books! high and low they surrounded his vision. The knowledge they must contain! Was this the impossible room? Not a room but a wealth of knowledge he had sought after? Valerio reached out his hand to grasp ahold of the greatest of these books instead he felt 5 separate sensations and with a mighty pull he grabbed the being(s?).

A loud crash and Valerio was thrown across the room. The portal no longer a wonderful view into the sight of many worlds, but the catalyst of the explosion. Five beings were thrown across the circular room all in different directions landing with a loud thud. A lightning bolt struck the wall behind each person. Valerio was able to open his eyes to see one with a lanky build with glasses and the words "Eleanor Krystal Farrow" with a book carved above it. The words were foreign in construct familiar to the Kvassian alphabet, yet a separate dialect unable to fully understand perhaps a phrase? A wolf's head above another "Ania Mercer" who looked like a woman from Venn'dar who was covered mostly but what little he saw was more muscle than he ever had. An outworldly being also appeared beautiful yet foreign tall and thin, but her skin was ruined! He could almost see though it! Her hair a color he had never seen so close before! Only the nobles could afford the color pink on their clothes, yet she had woven the color into her hair! A star laid behind her with the words "Mimi Tahitahi " The last was covered in the hide of his last kill. He only saw nice leather boots and brownish hair from beneath. The words "Aybara Wilson" and a bow was carved above him.

Before Valerio could speak, High Disciple Artheius broke the door down and emerged. His robes obscuring any features but a grey beard. "By Hasoi what have you done?"

 

[A_nonny_mouse]

It was an average day for Ania Mercer, albeit one she met under the name of 'Sophie Dowding' this morning. An average morning where she ate an average breakfast, dressed in average clothing and stepped out to go to her average job.

A job that just so happened to be at a company that had something her true employers wanted.

For Ania Mercer was an 'information gatherer' or, to put it in a less flattering way, a spy. For the moment she was on a spate of corporate spying - getting placed in a job for a company that had something her employers wanted and slowly working through the place until she found what she needed before being safely extracted and moved on. This was no different to a dozen other jobs she'd taken.

It wasn't something she particularly enjoyed if she was honest with herself. She actually preferred dealing with underworld thugs and criminals to tiptoeing around the rich corporations. At least the criminals were more likely to stab you in the FRONT and tended to be more fun. But no matter, she went where she was ordered.

She never made it to her average job...and the day suddenly became anything BUT average.

Suddenly she was spinning out of control, blinded by light and feeling like she had just fallen through a hole in the world...and then she collided with something. Hard. Hard enough to knock the wind out of her and make her vision go black for a brief few seconds.

Those seconds gave her just enough time to realise something was very wrong before she could SEE that something was very wrong. The sounds of the street were gone. The floor beneath her palm was not a sidewalk. And then she could see. She was...indoors?

She wasn't alone.

She attempted to scramble to her feet but the collision with the wall made her slower than she'd have liked. Her hand went to a concealed weapon, attempting to disguise the movement as pretending she was clutching her side...but she didn't draw it just yet. Nine times out of ten if you drew a weapon too early, you ended up using it. And she had no idea where she was.

She stiffened as another man rushed into the room, fingers twitching. What on Earth was going on?

It would turn out...that was entirely the wrong question to ask.

 

[MiraAutumn]

How long had it been, since she first started to write? It felt so long ago, when she first fell in love with bringing her stories and characters to life. She created so many of them over her lifetime, too much to even attempt to count. A small smile crept up her face.

How long had it been, since she became an author? Those anxious days of carefully monitoring her budget seem like sheer afterthoughts now. Prying her eyes off the page, she took a quick glance at her watch. "3 hours already..." In a bit of a daze, she sipped her now cold tea and looked at the sky.

How long had it been, since she became successful? It was the best feeling having readers submerge themselves in the worlds she had carefully woven through words, and becoming dear fans for it. She wanted to craft them as many stories she could throughout her lifetime.

How long had it been, since she became the happiest person in the world? A shy smile appeared on her face as she gazed upon her engagement ring. His proposal was just like him. Clumsy, panicky, but as sincere and loving as she could ever hope for. There was no way she could refuse him and his goofy, embarrassed smile.

Perhaps she deserved a little break, especially since Eleanor had been all over the place today. Breakfast with old friends, meetings with her publisher and just wandering through the city for inspiration. Heck, she was even still in her outing clothes. Her off-the-shoulder cornflower-blue jumper(or sweater) hung limply on her body, it was a size too big but it was on sale so she didn't mind. She enjoyed clothes like this merely because it showed off the intricate moon tattoo on her left shoulder. She wore cream trousers and brown boots, which would've been a little weird if she was indoors. But Eleanor frequently writes outside in the patio, since someone constantly nags her to go outside more.

With a slight chuckle, she decided to take a short walk around the garden to stretch her legs. Whilst in thought, she stepped somewhere with no grass, or floor for that matter. That was odd, she didn't remember the garden sloping or having random holes. A little confused, she fell expecting to hit the ground. But she didn't. Even more puzzled, she opened her eyes briefly to find a billion different videos playing in bubbles. They each seemed to come from completely different places, worlds even. But worse than that, she was falling past them all in a strange dimension. She shrieked and panicked, as any normal person would, before a weird sensation of her leg being grabbed caught her attention. Just as she tried to see what had caught her, her entire body was forcefully pulled towards one of the bubbles.

The sudden force made her feel sick, added to the fact that she was blinded by the brightest light she had ever seen for a moment. Without any time to recover, she was flung across someplace with great force, colliding with something painfully hard. She stopped breathing for a second, before more and more surprises scared the living daylights out of her. She heard a sound similar to a lightning bolt strike whatever was behind her, causing her to jolt in place. The sound of something breaking and falling also caught her attention, but her mind was spinning way too fast to try and comprehend that at the moment.

Her eyes stung, especially without knowing where her glasses were, and her ribs hurt, so she could tell that this wasn't a dream. But she sincerely hoped it was.

 

[Krugman]

I need a bed and warm water was the only thing on Aybara Wilson mind after spent nearly five days on forest, hunting a wild boar. He need three days to track and kill it, spent nearly a day to skin and butcher it and now he was on his way out of the forest with a full bag of boar meat and skin. He need to sold it in the village and bought a few supplies before going home. He knew his father will be waiting, five days was a long time for him to hunt a boar when he was still actively hunting.

His father was the one who taught him everything he knew, he used to believe his father was the best hunter in the village and learning everything he knew will made him the 2nd best hunter. Aybara used to hunt with his father before his father retired and let Aybara hunt alone, continuing the legacy was how his father called it. But, before his father let Aybara hunt alone he asked the other hunters in the village to bring him with them when they went hunting and told him to learn their skills to hone his own. It goes on for more than a year before his father believed he was ready to hunt alone.

Aybara absentmindedly walking through the beautiful forest when he felt something pulling him and heard a sound of something ripping. Damn was the only thing he can think while looking back and saw that his bag full of boar meat and hide was ripped apart because of a wild branch stuck into it. How am I supposed to bring this now? he hopelessly looking around to found something that he could use to bring the hide and meat. After a few minutes walking around aimlessly at last he found some leaves big enough to hold his boar hide and meat, quickly took some and brought it to where he ripped open his bag he glance at the sky and realized he only had a few hours before it would get dark and he would have difficulties getting out of the forest.

When he was in the middle of covering the hide he felt something moving under his feed, afraid it was a snake he jumped only to found his feet could not reach the ground. He looked up and realized he fell into a hole, Nice, how lucky am I. Ripped bag, and now this he thought while got up and looking around trying to found something to helped him out. And that was when he saw another hole, leading to a bright light. Thinking it was the way out, he walked to that light. But, even before he took his second step he felt something or someone pushed him and he fell towards the bright light.

Blinded, he covered his eyes.

Next second he knew, he fell into something hard with his boar hide scattered.Where am I..?

 

[Princess Roomba]

Pom stepped out of her private ISC Transport Cell in front of the city’s central warping building. She had a small compacta-backpack with her, containing some outfits and personal items, all shrunk into the average-sized white pill-shaped bag. Pom never trusted anyone with her luggage, she knew many models who had suffered from a case of “lost luggage.” The day was typical, Pom had used the warp here 20 times if not more. Today, she was traveling back to Halei to film a few episodes of “Keeping Up with the Niduinans.” Usually Pom would use a private warp, especially to her hometown, but recently warps had been having problems with malfunctioning, so she went to the assured City Warps to stay safe.

Pom made her way through the large building, getting herself a Choc (similar to a double chocolate chip frappuccino from Starbucks) on the way back. While Chocs are extremely overpriced and chocolate is actually bad for Halei’i, Pom has more than enough money to go around, and always carries around a miracle pen just in case her reaction is too severe.

Everything was going well, Pom walked into the warp, a bit smaller than she was used to but nonetheless, a warp. As the large machine started up, Pom’s grip on her bag’s straps tightened, and she braced herself for hopefully a short warp. Suddenly, her small warping tube filled with a bright light, and she felt as if she was in the air. “Shit.”

This felt different than the warps Pom had used before, she knew something was going wrong. The bright light got even brighter, and a loud strange noise filled her head before she could feel herself sail across a room and collide into a wall. Hard.

Disoriented and partially blinded, pom laid against this wall, clutching her head. Thankfully her bag softened her fall a bit, if not she’d have probably been knocked out. Just by the feel of the air and the smell of the room, Pom could tell she was NOT in Halei. “... fuck…” she mumbled through her pained groans.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

"I- the trial! I sa-" High Disciple Artheius sandals echoed as he walked across the room and slapped Dsciple Valerio to the ground. His good fell back relieving wide blue eyes and short sandy blond hair. High Disciple Artheius yelled at his junior. "You have brought beyonders to our temple! You used a demonic catalyst! I told you once and I'll tell you twice! You are to create a path not! Not!" High Disciple Artheius threw his hands up in anger before kicking his prodigy. "You were not to make another one of your experiments! Why can't you listen!"

The anger of the old man had diminished as he looked at the beyonders a scowl etched on his weathered face. Disciple Valerio slowly got to his feet. His handsome features diminished by the tears on his face and blood gushing from his nose.

"You are brilliant yet dull! I should have you killed along with these summons. A fate better than I'll give you boy."

"Master please! I can fix this" Valero's words even to himself were unconfident and weak. His own speech slowed as he tried his best not to allow his emotions fill his words. The old man ignored his protege and instead looked at the beyonders.

"Well out with it. What are your questions you beyonders are so fond of? And thanks to my young protege-" High Disciple Artheius slapped Valerio again causing blood to fly to the ground and a vague handprint of blood to be on Valerio's right cheek. "I cannot send you home... since you were pulled directly from your worlds. I offer you death in lieu of my apprentices mishap as opposed to servitude."

 

[A_nonny_mouse]

Ania watched the older man repeatedly strike the younger without reacting, not allowing herself to react before she completely understood the situation. It looked like the older had some connection with the younger, possibly a teacher or a master. By what the elder was saying the former seemed more likely - servants and slaves tended to not be involved in experiments...beyond being the subject of them.

The whole scene reminded her heavily of one she had seen at least two dozen times: an agent would screw up somehow on a mission and the punishments would usually be public...except in this instance the main players were strangers and the onlookers weren't fellow agents either. In fact...one of the onlookers didn't even appear to be human. That was a puzzle for another time though.

Her fingers twitched once more when the 'master' spoke of killing her and the other 'summons', her mind beginning to replay an old mantra: Heart, throat, base of skull, armpit, lungs, liver, femoral artery, popliteal artery. Nine targets for the blade she had hidden, each one guaranteed to down an enemy, if not kill them instantly. If she had a better understanding of what was beyond the only exit the two men would have been dead already.

She said nothing when asked if she had questions, despite having many. Talking first wasn't her style, she was a listener. Death or servitude? The idea of either would probably terrify most people. For Ania things were different. She had been a kind of slave from birth, owned by people she had never even seen. An expendable resource, she knew any mission could kill her so the idea of dying didn't particularly bother her. That isn't to say she wouldn't fight for her life and freedom but for now she would wait and see what happened next.

 

[MiraAutumn]

Clutching her side, which collided with the wall the hardest, she propped herself up with one arm as she recovered. Even before her eyes rose, she knew she was no longer on Earth. What were the chances this was a super complex trap, laid by a secret organization, in order to send Eleanor on a drug trip? Although it would've been nice if that was true, her realistic mindset was certain that wasn't the case. Although pragmatic, this scenario wasn't exactly believable either. Glancing at the mess inside the room, she first noticed that there wasn't much furniture. On the ground, there appeared to be what remained of a ritual circle of some sort, perhaps related to how she got here in the first place. All around the oddly dome-shaped room, bodies were collapsed on the side, most likely in the same situation she was in. The only exit was a single door, currently blocked by a hooded figure.

"You have brought beyonders to our temple!"

As the odd scenario played out before her, Eleanor feeling a bit like an unwanted observer, she scooted herself a bit closer to the door whilst gesturing to the others in the room. She was careful to only do so when the natives were preoccupied, which was to be honest, most of the conversation. Sounds of slapping and rage overtook the room, but she tried her best to not mind them and keep her ears open for information. It was obvious that she and the others fallen in the room were unintentionally summoned here, and using the adrenaline rush from the fear of what they would do to her as an unwanted 'beyonder', she managed to keep her head.

"I cannot send you home-"

This. Perhaps the sole reason she stayed so long, instead of bolting immediately for the door, was this. As much as she was concerned over the other beyonders, she had someone dear waiting for her back home, probably wondering where she disappeared to. Tears pricked her eyes at the injustice of it all. All sense of reason left her being, as she shot up and punched the once hooded figure. Without a word, she dashed out of the room, desperate to not only find safety, but a place to cry.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

High Disciple Artheius collapsed to the ground. The force of the punch may not have been strong, but the old man had lived far too long to simply take such a surprising act of defiance. The younger looked at the young beyonder who ran and his master on the floor bloodied. The closest thing to a father to him. The harbinger of his doom if he told the master.

Survival instincts took over as Valerio gave a swift kick to his master's head and straddled the limp body and wrapped both his hands around his throat. High Disciple Artheius struggled briefly, but the strength of youth prevailed with the power of desperation. The old man quickly died only the look of shock etched in his face.

Wiping a mix of liquid on his face of blood and tears, Valerio looked at the rest of the beyonders. The other one would be lost amongst the maze of training rooms. She would find no exit. The temple was infamous for teleportation and like the impossible room. This part of the temple was meant to only be accessed by fellow mages.

Valerio's voice was wracked with grief as he spoke. "Please trust me, we must run. What you must know is summoning is a crime here. I'm not a state sanctioned summoner. We have to escape or... you will be enslaved, killed or worse." Valerio made a point to look at the daemon. "Please" desperation filled his voice as he looked at his lingering beyonders.

 

[MiraAutumn]

Eleanor clicked her tongue. She swore she had passed by these same god dang rooms at least 5 times by now. She could tell they were the same too, since even the etchings in the timber of the doors were the same. Her tears still streamed down her face unrelentingly, despite having wiped her eyes so many times. Her glasses were fogging up too, due to being out of breath and overheating. It was like the whole world was against her, well, more like dimension in this case. Frustrated, and on the brink of just giving up and becoming a slave, she went back to the room she was summoned into and eavesdropped.

Oddly, it was incredibly quiet. She thought the old guy would've gotten up by now and started yelling again. Curiously, she took a peek through the door hinges, only to find a bloodied body on the floor, and the disciple/underling or whoever he was, standing beside him, not seeming remorseful at all. Wondering what was going on, but afraid of revealing herself in case he was going to be just like his master/superior, she stayed by the door, quietly listening.

 

[A_nonny_mouse]

Ania didn't have to wait very long for the what happens next to happen. One of the others, the one she had honestly least expected to be the one to leap forward, shot towards the elder man like a bullet and downed the man almost before she could blink. Then the woman was gone, out of the door before anybody could even try to stop her.

With a swift motion she drew her hidden knife, ready to fight the remaining man and make sure the elder didn't get up again. Planting her feet more firmly and widening her stance she got ready to strike...and then the younger man struck first, much to her surprise. She faltered but didn't relax, watching as he choked the life out of the older man.

"Please trust me, we must run." The desperation was clear in his voice, as was the grief.

As far as Ania reasoned she now had two choices. One was to kill the man and try to get out herself. This...seemed like a poor idea. She had no knowledge of this place and...something was at work here. She would call it magic for now because she didn't have another name for it. This could mean magical traps which she couldn't hope to prepare for. The other option was do as he said.

She slipped out of her fighting stance but didn't put her knife away. It didn't pay to let down your guard around the desperate.

"I'm listening." She answered tersely.

She was concerned about the one who had left, admittedly less because she might be in trouble and more that she might draw unwanted attention before they were ready for it. They might very well not have time for unnecessary arguing.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Valerio's heart raced. The one holding the knife did little to ease his worries even with her words of agreement. "This room is apart of a hall filled with similar training rooms. You can only enter and leave through teleportation! My brother owns an estate. He can protect us please work with me. I know this is a new world, but I'll explain once we are safe."

Valerio shoved his hands quickly in his robes. Ignorant of all around him, he pulled out a new catalyst. A simple one filled with his own energy. It was enough to teleport around the temple for weeks. It would be enough to send them far from this place.

"I can make a new portal to send us miles away. If we are lucky only a day away from my brother. Please, I beg you help me, and I swear on my clan's name. I'll try my best to help you start a new life here!"

 

[Princess Roomba]

Pom had sat through all of the bad decisions, people fighting for no reason, people yelling for no reason, people running for no reason, and to top it all off, it was all through her currently growing headache.

“Stupid fucking warp…” Pom said as she picked herself up to her feet, stumbling slightly. Due to her heels, she stood at nearly 7 feet tall.

“Can you shut up? I have a fucking headache… where did we warp to? I have to be in Halei in like 2 hours.” Pom asked confusingly, slowly moving towards the other standing members of the group. She assumed everyone had also been using warps that had malfunctioned.

While normally she would be in shock over the probably dead body on the ground, and the fact the the murderer was standing next to her, she was too pissed to even bother asking.

 

[Krugman]

Aybara sat there, watching as the event unfold itself. He couldn't think clearly after heard the sentence 'I cannot send you home..' He remember his father, sat there waiting at their home while Aybara was here didn't know what happened or what to do. Trying to processed what happened, he looked at his surroundings and with horror he saw a body on the floor. It was an old man with a robe, and there was a younger man stood near the body.

'Please trust me, we must run..' Aybara heard the younger speaks while looking at everyone including him. Krugman listened to him and nod, he knew that was a good move right now.

 

[A_nonny_mouse]

Ania folded her arms as she listened to the man's explanations. So she was right, running would only have resulted in getting lost and not being able to get out anyway. Of course he COULD just be a very good liar but she honestly doubted it, you don't usually go ahead and kill someone you cared about for a lie.

It was probably a good thing the man didn't seem to be paying attention because him quickly reaching into his robe nearly got him pounced on. When all he brought out was a...thing that didn't really look like a weapon...Ania relaxed a little again.

The tall creature suddenly spoke then, startling Ania a little. And what she - at least Ania was assuming it was a she - said made Ania think that maybe not everyone was keeping up with the conversation. Although if she was disorientated by the summoning...she said she had a headache.

"I...don't think we'll be going to...Halai?" She slightly mispronounced the unfamiliar name. "This looks serious, we should probably listen to him."

She was slipping easily into the role of 'quietly friendly' once more. It was her default should she find herself in a group of strangers and, possibly to her credit, wasn't far from her true feelings. They just weren't 100% genuine. And probably weren't helped overmuch by the knife still in her hands.

 

[MiraAutumn]

"I'm listening." The first words she heard were feminine but tough, most likely from one of the beyonders. Recalling her memory of what the bodies around the room looked like, she couldn't quite put a face to the voice. There was someone with a strange hairstyle, one that appeared quite plain/average and one covered by strewn bear hide. Eleanor would've guessed the voice to belong to the latter, but she could've sworn the figure appeared male. Although she wanted to peek out again and confirm, she decided not to risk it.

"You can only enter and leave through teleportation!" Ah, that made sense. Eleanor was a little miffed that she had wasted her time going round and round, especially since she had already made such a dramatic exit. Also what kind of stereotypical fantasy world was this? Teleportation? Portals? It was something straight out of a novel. Before she knew it, her tears had dried, perhaps due to the unexpectedness of the situation.

The summoners words seemed sincerely desperate, as he pleaded with the others in the room. I mean, whatever choice did they have other than to follow him? Be stuck here in these hallways forever? Making her choice, she stepped back into the room, a little worried they had left without her already. Looking around, she noticed how disheveled everyone appeared. Well, her own state must be worse considering she's been all over the place, but she hoped she didn't look too terribly haggard.

Now able to see the scene more clearly, Eleanor noticed the hooded figure she had punched had now crumpled onto the floor unmoving, with blood splattered over his head. She grew mixed feelings about her involvement in his death, but it's not like she was the one that killed him, at least, that's what she told herself. Looking at the murderer in question, she noticed his face was covered in a mix of tears and blood, which was a terrifying thing to see in real life. Scrap the fantasy world, this was now a horror story. Seeing such things first hand was sure to scar her for life.

The summoner was holding a beautiful crystal, appearing out of place with his bloody exterior. On the other hand, the plain lady from earlier was holding a knife. She must be the reason why he appears so afraid, perhaps she was the speaker from earlier too? Where did the knife even come from? Eleanor made a wary note to stop assuming things based on appearances. The lady with a strange hairstyle from earlier suddenly stood up, revealing her incredible, yet frightening height. She started blabbering about things Eleanor didn't understand, Halai? Was she from a world where warping was considered normal? Halai didn't sound like a place on Earth, that's for sure. Seeing as the woman with the knife had responded to her already, she faced the summoner.

"I will go with you." She stated, looking him straight in the eye. Eleanor could feel her nerves breaking down from this inkling of hope offered before her.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

"Yes yes! You all must go with me! Hurry!" His brain was unable to comprehend she was the one who ran out. He only felt fear rising and choking him. In a rush of adrenaline, Valerio ran out the room immediately taking a left out the door and ran down the hall. He quickly saw a teleportation point engraved into the dead end. Reaching into his robes once again, he pulled out his own secretly stashed chalk. A fail safe if he ran out during his trials.

He in a blur of motions he sketched a whole new outer ring to the teleportation point. Symbols covered the wall as he hurriedly worked the whole time he paid no attention to his followers, or who followed him. After a few minutes of work, he was finished. Stepping back, he drew the crystal and chanted "sic ego potest per viam aperire step"

A portal opened on the wall large enough for two people side by side to enter into. The portal revealed a grassy plains land void of humans, and what looked to be a keep in the distance. Grabbing onto someone, Valerio pulled whatever or whoever it was along with him. His voice echoing from the portal "Hurry the seekers will come!"

 

[Princess Roomba]

The side eye zoom shot towards the girl that mispronounced “Halei” was aggressive, and the growing darkness on her face wasn’t like a filling meter of anger.

Pom followed the panicked man and the others to the newly created portal. She had never seen someone create a portal with chalk, only through machines and powered people using their hands. ‘How cheap’ she thought.

“So... I don’t know if you’ve heard of it, but I’m on this show called Keeping Up with the Niduinans -“ you could hear how annoyed she was in her voice “- and I start filming in a few hours, so I don’t really have time to waste.” She stood with her arms crossed, staring into the window of fields.

“Just take me to your nearest warp, I’ll give you an autograph...”

 

[A_nonny_mouse]

Everything was moving at an incredible pace. They were summoned here, the one who summoned them had killed a man and not five minutes later he had run out of the room in some sort of panic. Ania glanced at the others then bolted after him, not letting what seemed to be their only way out run off and teleport away before he could get them out.

She found him busily drawing chalk symbols on the floor, what she could only assume were some kind of...teleport assisting runes? She had no idea and hoped to hell THIS spell went better than his last. The last time he had tried anything magical he had pulled through five strangers and had been forced to kill his teacher. It wasn't a good precedent.

He chanted what sounded like latin. In fact she recognised the word apirere. Not what it meant really but it had something to do with travel she believed...and then she was being tugged towards the portal. Or at least that was what he seemed to be TRYING to do. What he actually SUCCEEDED in doing was stealing her watch.

She looked down at her arm, up at the portal, down at her arm, up at the portal...she sighed and stepped through. What other choice did she have?

 

[MiraAutumn]

Being swept along by his desperation, Eleanor hurried after the robed figure towards the hallway she was just in. She personally was quite bewildered by the whole scenario, at the very least she thought they'd ask some questions about why she slapped him, or where she went, or why she should be allowed back in after running away, but nope. None of the above occurred. Kind of in a daze, she just followed the others, not expecting things to run so... smoothly all of a sudden.

It was mesmerizing watching magic happen before her very eyes, despite his hands moving way faster than she could comprehend. The drawn symbols were so intricate, yet done so quickly; this summoner was not someone to take lightly. A little intimidated, but still intrigued, she wondered if she could ever learn magic too, despite being an average human from earth.

As she watched him dive into the portal hurriedly, Eleanor noticed something shiny in his hand. A bracelet maybe? It went by too quickly to tell, but noticing the woman with the knife looking at her arm, she had an inkling of what had happened. With a slight chuckle, disregarding all the chaos that had occurred, she jumped into the magical portal.

"Ow.." Unconsciously, she yelped in pain as her legs hit the ground far faster than she expected. Personally, she thought that it would be like her time in the first portal, falling through an infinite space until pulled elsewhere. Although now that she thought about it, that was a special case wasn't it? Since they were no longer in immediate danger, the adrenaline rush subsided until she could feel pain all over her body, potentially triggered by the impact of the fall. Slowly, Eleanor rose off the ground, worried that sitting down for too long will switch her legs off.

Over time, she began to feel a little annoyed by a voice constantly rambling in her ears. "Hey, you. I don't know if you don't like paying attention or whatever, but you are unable to go home to your world, or wherever this Halei place is." She was like a fly buzzing around, whilst Eleanor was here losing her mind over the realization and brush with death. Sure, she could've said it nicer, and she definitely would have in another situation, but her normally calm attitude was not high on her list of priorities at the moment.

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

Valerio's heart slowed with the success of his portal and his brother's keep in the distance. Valerio felt weight in his hand and looked down to see an exquisitely made watch. It was the size of well an armband. It was no doubt worth a fortune. Awkwardly holding it out, a sheepish look on his face, Valerio looked for whomever it belonged to.

His eyes searched and met Eleanor's. "She is right. We are on Savos" a sarcastic grin made it's way on his face. "A world of demons, knights, cannibals and merciless killers." Valerio pointed to the keep in the distance a few hours away at most. "My brother owns these lands. He can protect us. He has a hundred men under oath, and he even has a mage under his service."

Valerio forced the thoughts of Artheius out of his head as he thought about his actions. He used the excess part of his sleeve to start wiping away the blood and dried tears away to some success. His eyes flicker about seeing the field of growing crops that reached his waist for the tallest crops with most at varying smaller lengths. Good, the workers wouldn't be out until a week from now at best.

"I can answer a few questions, but I think it would be best to reach my brother before nightfall. At night, the army comes out to hunt"

 

[Krugman]

"Yes yes! You all must go with me! Hurry!" Aybara heard the younger man talked while running, he had no choice other than follow him ran out the room. He quickly get on his feet and threw away a few boar hide that stuck on his clothes. After he got out of the room he saw something.. strange happened, the younger man pulled out something from his robe to draw something, and chant something weird.

"What are you..." before he could finished he looked at something he never ever saw, some...thing? Came up from the wall and looked like a totally different place. He stared at it with amazement, This is what magic is.. was the only thing he could think of now. Nevertheless, he walked through it.

Only after he crossed it, the sudden realization came to him. He was in a different world, a world without his beloved father whom waiting for him right now in their house probably wondering why Aybara has not come. Aybara felt emotion would come, and started to suppressed it out of habit. Averting his eyes to the young man, he heard him said something about a hundred man and a mage but he couldn't hear it clearly, so he tried to get near this man and saw him just finished wiping away blood and listening to him when he said, "I can answer a few questions, but I think it would be best to reach my brother before nightfall. At night, the army comes out to hunt."

So, someone is hunting them right now? Is it because what happened earlier? Who is this man? Aybara had a lot of questions to ask. After thinking for awhile, Krugman asked the young man, "Who are you?"

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

A look of confusion crossed Valerio's face before his brain caught up with the people he was with. He wasn't the man everyone knew him as at the temple. He was just.... a face. He gently placed a hand over his heart as he spoke.

"I'm Valerio of Clan Vyriss. I was a disciple of the lord of paths. Before that, I was a knight under The Order of Vyriss like my brother and my father and my forefathers. In fact, this land was given to us when my patriarch Vriss slew the great demon."

His eyes shone with pride as he recounted his name. It had been so long that he was allowed to say who he was. He was no longer Disciple Valerio the rising star. He was Valerio Vyriss of Clan Vryss the grand defenders of Vryssian's Keep. A.... warrior with a name not a disciple with a fate.

 

[A_nonny_mouse]

Ania quietly took back her watch but didn't examine it initially, preferring to look around. They seemed to be in a field, bearing crops that didn't look like they were fully grown but that was about as far as Ania's experience went with agriculture. For all she knew these WERE what fully mature...whatever these were looked like. The air smelled of farmland and all was silent save for the rustling of small creatures...and the voices of her new companions.

The very tall being seemed to still be confused about the whole thing and appeared to be growing angry, as was the other human - or at least apparently human - woman in the group. She had heard both speak now and thankfully everyone seemed to be speaking the same language...or something was going on that allowed them to understand each other regardless.

"She is right. We are on Savos. A world of demons, knights, cannibals and merciless killers." Well that answered the question of where they were. The name was unfamiliar so it wasn't particularly helpful but the warning was nice to have.

Ignoring the knights for the moment as they could fall into either good or bad she considered the other three. Demons, cannibals and killers. Well...she herself fell quite heavily into the latter category. She wondered what her companions would think about that.

"I can answer a few questions, but I think it would be best to reach my brother before nightfall. At night, the army comes out to hunt"

Right, they were being hunted, he had said that. Or at least he had mentioned Seekers. Ania only half paid attention to the man's introduction, filing the name away for future reference as she did her best to plan her steps for the future...

Best case scenario, they ended up safe in Valerio's brother's house and she would learn all she needed to, making more decisions from there. Trying to escape from Valerio seemed extremely stupid...but not having an escape plan anyway always made her nervous. Going for a coffee? Plan for escape should enemy spies catch up. Going to bed for the night? Lock the door but NEVER the window and make sure you know how to climb down. Complete with false handholds and little traps of course so nobody tried to climb IN that way, at least not without making quite a bit of noise. Yes, Ania was paranoid. But is it really paranoia if there WERE people out to get her?

"My name is...Ania Mercer." She had nearly given her false name, unwise considering her name had been emblazoned on the wall for all to see. She introduced herself anyway in case any present had missed it or couldn't read. "I work...worked I suppose it is now if you are to be believed...as a..." She trailed off, glancing at the alien creature and the man who looked like some kind of very old fashioned hunter then at Valerio who consistently spoke in an old fashioned way. "Woman of numbers. I dealt in numbers."

 

[TheLoyalAcorn]

"Numbers? Arthimancy? My I apologize I see now my folly." Guilt carved a brutal grimace on Valerio's face. "I see I have taken scholars from their studies. I apologize it wasn't my intention. I saw.... worlds, and it was mine for the taking! You wouldn't believe it a room filled with only books on everything! I couldn't help myself."

He looked at the varying expressions and felt like his excuse wasn't enough. These people must be so brilliant books are mere stepping stones and not the treasures they were to him. He felt even more foolish like a child grasping his words.

"I apologize nonetheless. I hope my brother can find a place worthy of your stations and not as summons."