Well the fight was going well, while they weren't saying all that much to each other, Aislinn and Stratos were certainly holding their own, fighting alongside each other and helping out when the other needed it. The battle would be over soon at the pace they were going. However with the quiet, Ignis still likely thinking of how to respond to Aislinns question she thought to pitch it to Stratos as well, maybe explain for herself why she was there. "So Stratos tell me." She paused slashing at a Neoshadow that stood between the two. "What made you join this little group, and why do you want to be a keyblade master is you wanted to at all? I know the exam was part of a situational thing, but was it a dream or goal of yours? If so why?" She asked him curiously between heavy breaths as she spun around and slashed at yet another heartless, making her way through the swarms. There was no more fancy showing off, Stratos was right, some of his skills were more reliable than the one that she had shown off. That was okay though, she didn't need to show off, she just needed to get things done and dealt with. As she fought Aislinn began wondering if anyone was going to return the question to her, and if they did how she would respond to it. Sure she knew her reasons, and all that but how did she put them into words properly. Aislinn couldn't help but wonder what sort of families these kids had, if any of them were fighting for their family like she was for hers. She missed her sister and her niece and Nephew dearly. Hopefully she could be back for her nieces first birthday, see the child grow up. While it was a dream of hers to be a Master of the Keyblade, it did hurt to think that obtaining that dream might mean missing watching those she cared for most growing up. However as long as they were alive, as long as they could lead safe lives she would be happy, Aislinn just hoped that was the case. Seeing how the Heartless were growing stronger when she was sucked into the realm of darkness, it wouldn't be a surprise if they had overwhelmed the front line force by now. How far could they get though? Had they reached the city yet? How many heartless even existed, for there to be this many here, were they being pulled from other worlds, was the force on her world weakened because of this battle? One could only hope for such things to come to pass. As they fought, Aislinn kept an eye on Stratos and Ignis, this time jumping int to protect Ignis's side that was left exposed for a moment. The heartless fell around her but it still wasn't enough, they still had far more to kill before it would be safe for them all to breath. The talking was just a distraction from the longevity of this battle, something to keep their minds occupied as their bodies fell into a rhythm or a dance of death. She was sure any one of these guys could fight the remaining heartless with their eyes closed if they had to, they were predictable enough in the end to not be too much of an issue when it came to killing them. All they had to do was listen and wait and they would know where the heartless were coming from. The heartless were quiet but not silent, and since they used the same patterns every attack it became easy to take them out without even thinking about it. Total Words: 618 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2400 Heartless Defeated: 11 Neoshadows 5 Shadows Heartless Injured: Neoshadow 4/15 Invisible (Scarmiglione): 25/50 Invisible (Cagnazzo): 25/50 Invisible (Barbariccia): 25/50 Enemies Remaining: 504 Shadows 287 Darkballs 189 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 4 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
Having dealt with all the last remaining Invisibles, excluding those that were actively locked in combat at the time, Aislinn turned back and made the short trip back towards Stratos and Ignis. The area around them was starting to open up more, there was room to move through, room to breath now. Heartless still swarmed them, but it didn't take a great amount of strength to get through the remaining heartless back to where they stood to help with the hoards of Neoshadows and Shadows that were around them. The two were probably capable of holding their own, but in the end if they didn't have to jump around to kill things, and the enemies just came straight to them, then Aislinn thought that was just as easy as anything else. Even as blood dripped down her arm as she went. The battle was tough and injuries becoming impossible to avoid, but even so she managed to keep herself going, the little bit of blood loss didn't bother her at all. If she was bleeding out, then there might have been a problem, but for now it was a few scratches that probably looked worse than they were with the sand that now clung to her, and the battle smearing the blood further than it would have dripped on it's own. Pulling out her old cloak, Aislinn quickly tore a piece of fabric off of it, as she swept her hair up into a pony tail, using the scrap fabric to tie it up in a little bow, keeping her hair out of her face now. She had not minded having her hair down before, but at this point it was getting in her face enough that it made battle a little more difficult as the shorter hairs pricked at her eyes. That was always the problem with long hair, while Aislinn liked to wear it down whenever she could, when she got herself stuck in situations with drawn out battles or lots of movement, it tended to get in her face and be a little annoying. She should start carrying hair ties on her, but it wasn't something that she thought about until she was in battle, and when she was out of that battle, she was too busy making sure others were alright, making sure that she was alright, to actually be bothered to remember that she needed to buy hair ties. With the hair out of her face, Aislinn got ready to jump into battle once more, seeing that the Neoshadows weren't going to stop at any point, she would have to do her best to deal with those as much as she could. There was one ability that Aislinn had been a little hesitant to use throughout the battle, simply because she never used it much, but she wanted to give it a try this time. Getting ready, Aislinn didn't use her keyblade for this attack, instead waiting for a Neoshadow to jump towards her. As it did Aislinn punched it back, causing it to fly into another Neoshadow and explode on them. With a smile she summoned her keyblade back taking the opening that came from the confusion of the heartless. Dashing between the groups on Neoshadows Aislinn slashed at those around her, Shadows and Neoshadows alike, it didn't really matter to her as long as their numbers were dwindling and nothing could bring more of them. Of course the cranky old man could, but that was not her fight to fight, the man named Shiro could handle that one, they simply had the heartless to worry about, regardless of how many there were. Total Words: 609 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2340 Heartless Defeated: 11 Neoshadows 4 Shadows Heartless Injured: Neoshadow 1/15 Invisible (Scarmiglione): 25/50 Invisible (Cagnazzo): 25/50 Invisible (Barbariccia): 25/50 Enemies Remaining: 510 Shadows 289 Darkballs 234 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 4 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
Seeing that some of the annoying big guys from the previous round of battle were still around and ever moving closer, Aislinn thought it best not to let them forget who she was and what she could do to them. Now more than ever were they in trouble, not only could she deal with one of them, but Aislinn knew that she now held the capability to deal with numerous of them, given the amount of damage she managed to deal on the Dark Side after she got the boost of power, there was not a doubt in her mind that she could take on the Invisibles without too much of an issue. How many of them at once though, that was yet to be seen, but Aislinn was looking forward to finding out. With a crack on her knuckles and a small grin, Aislinn charged into the battle ready for whatever was to come, lucky for her, three flying swords came to greet her, the dark unformed mass behind them shimmering and then starting to form. First she noticed the demon like horns, before the massive, muscled bodies, as their hands each wrapped around their swords. The Invisibles looked down at Aislinn like she was nothing more than a pesky fly to them, but boy where they ever mistaken. Taking a step back, Aislinn decided to let them feel like they were doing good. Charging at her two made an attempt to slash at Aislinn while the third planted it's sword into the ground and disappeared. For a moment Aislinn was caught off guard, a bit unsure of what to do about that until a ring of dark, unearthly fire surrounded her. Remembering this attack from earlier, Aislinn knew how she could get away from it, but with two other heartless around her, slashing at her, it was not nearly as easy to avoid such attacks. Not having much other choice, Aislinn chose to deflect the two swords coming at her from either time, pushing the heartless back and away from her, instead taking the brunt of the damage from the flaming ring, as it closed in around her form and exploded, before it returned back to where it's sword was planted in the ground. Now however it was her turn. The explosion had hurt but it was not enough to slow Aislinn down as she threw herself into the battle, letting the pain push her forward into a flurry of blows against the first Invisible that floated to her left. Although it might have tried, it was unable to deflect against her attack leaving it vulnerable to her, allowing her to take it down with ease as she moved to the next form that tried to shift out of her way, unfortunately for him it was not an option that she had given him and she stabbed through it's shimmering form before he ever faded. That brought it back to a solid state in which she could swing her keyblade over her head and take it clean off with a swipe. Turning her attention she eyed up the third one which seemed to have called for help. Now where only one Invisible once stood, there was a Neoshadow, a Dark ball, and a regular shadow standing in her way. It was all the same though, she would push through it all. Aislinn darted forward grabbing the dark ball and swinging it around, throwing it into the Neoshadow and watching them both fade away. The shadow died by the stomp of her foot leaving the Invisble a little panicked. It once again turned into a ring of fire around her, but without the threat of the other heartless around she was able to roll out of the ring, waiting just beside the sword for it to turn back into it's original form, where it met it's untimely end. Total Words: 649 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2280 Heartless Defeated: 3 Invisibles 1 Neoshadow 1 Dark ball 1 Shadow Heartless Injured: Shadow 1/3 Invisible (Scarmiglione): 25/50 Invisible (Cagnazzo): 25/50 Invisible (Barbariccia): 25/50 Enemies Remaining: 559 Shadows 289 Darkballs 263 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 4 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
The girl from before did indeed leave her alone like she had asked, but by the time Tinarah put down her violin, she looked around and felt... alone. She knew it was her own fault, she was pushing people away and putting herself in this place of loneliness. One would think that after 5 years of being alone she would be okay with it, and usually she was. However whenever she was upset and unsure she could always talk to Stamatis and he was always there for her. Now she didn't really know who she could talk to. Her violin sounded sad without the accompaniment of a piano. Looking over her shoulder she could see others talking and laughing and in general being friendly with each other, but Tinarah felt like her heart was so heavy that she couldn't and she would just bring more problems with her. Putting down her violin she stared at her hands which were shaking uncontrollably, even in her hands she could see the weight loss and how much she would need to gain back to be at full strength. Perhaps yes Thallasa was right, they needed this break, but it didn't feel safe, nothing had felt safe since she had left Stamatis and Fost. It had been no more than a month ago, but it felt like a lifetime as she had been through so much, her life had taken so many turns. Perhaps throwing her back into a mission wasn't the best of idea's though how would they know this much would go wrong? When they sent them out she was sure they thought it would be an easy clear things and help people, but it seemed that the amount of enemies they were fighting was growing and one had the power to control minds. how were they to deal with that? Nini walked up and licked Tinarah's face like she was trying to comfort the girl. Tinarah reached over and pet the cat for a moment before looking behind her and standing up. She couldn't let herself get into such a slump, she was just hurting herself more and Tinarah knew that. Walking towards where Take and Aria where, Tinarah looked up at the two, she had remembered Qamar saying Aria was making hot chocolate for everyone. "Do you mind if I have some?" She asked Aria meekly. She didn't like asking for things more taking what was offered, but this was her first step in trying not to be totally antisocial and weird.
Kiara was barely getting back up from being healed when Finlay brought a very annoying bunny over claiming he wanted to eat it. She couldn't help but laugh a little at the idea of him trying, certainly that wouldn't work out well for him knowing the rabbit he was holding. And it seemed that Oswald remembered her as well. Picking herself up off the ground, Kiara stood in the background just watching the conversation unfold. Swarms of heartless. Kiara was sure that they could handle themselves, but last time they got swarmed... Beuce lost an arm to save her. There had been so many injuries by the time that they had gotten out of there that perhaps it wasn't the best idea just to leave them. Sure Kiara didn't always act the friendliest towards the group, but she still liked them enough to not want to leave them to their deaths. Looking down at her whip that lay on the ground though... she wondered what they could do without keyblades. Either way it wasn't her decision. Or at least Kiara didn't think it was up to her until Finlay looked to her and told her it was. Why did Lea put so much faith in her, she wasn't cut out for being a leader. She wasn't cut out for anything. Either way it didn't look like she had much of a choice. "First off you don't know if you lost a friend yet, yes Yue ran in there, but Nequa and several of her lackeys were also in there. There had to be some sort of escape plan for them, so don't you dare think for a moment that Yue wasn't competent enough to figure out one for herself. I trusted her with my friends to run their Mark of Mastery Exams. If she wasn't competent enough to think of a way out, she surely wasn't competent enough to run an exam for making them into keyblade masters." Kiara paced the the girl and looked down at her. Highly trained keyblade master or not, she was not afraid of this girl. "Second is this, we know one of Nequa's lackeys are there, we know he can summon heartless. This could very likely be a trap that Nequa was setting up. It would be stupid to run in there." There was a pause for a moment, before Kiara cracked a smile. "And I am sure as hell not letting those cheery bastards have all the fun when the fool Nequa's plans and get out of the trap alive. I would never be able to live it down." Walking over Kiara picked up her whip and turned to everyone else. "Lets check on those who stayed behind, if there really are thousands of heartless we will need all the help we can get, then we set off and make sure that they knew they aren't allowed to forget about my strength even if they are masters now."
In a flash there was destruction, and a white light that streaked across the battle field. In its wake cherry blossoms that had been falling, Knowing the ability all too well, Aislinn smiled a little bit as Stratos made his way across the battle field to them in one mighty attack. Zantetsuken, it was one of the best attacks she could think of at the moment and with the amount of heartless around she knew it could be devastating to their numbers. Against one large creature it could sure as hell do some damage to it, but when creatures were as large as the darkside that they had been fighting, it wasn't enough to kill. However when you cut a straight line through a bunch of smaller heartless they all turned to black smoke before they even had the chance to move, and with this many heartless still on the battle grounds, it was hard not to hit at least a few of them in one attack. Speaking of the amount of heartless on the field, looking around Aislinn noticed how close they were getting to finishing these. She had not been the only one to gain a boost in power, and thanks to that boost, the heartless were dropping like flies. She could see parts of the ground now, they weren't just all heartless, and the shadows were having a little more trouble building sizable swarms, instead being forced to stick with smaller pairings. Invisibles still existed out there, something that Aislinn found a little uncomfortable, but there was a... boy? Maybe? In combat with four of them, and he didn't seem to want any hep. It still left eight more that needed dealt with, but until they moved a little closer, Aislinn wasn't going to rush off to deal with them after she had just arrived to help Ignis, and Stratos had come to help the both of them. Out of respect for the two, and knowing how bad these heartless could get, she would stick around for a little bit longer, though her eyes did keep drifting to the Invisibles, keeping an eye on them as they slowly moved forward. "I will never turn down the help. It keep us alive after all." And she didn't get this sort of help last time she walked into a wave of heartless, like hell she was going to turn it down now. "With such a flashy entrance I feel like I need to follow it up with something even better." Aislinn commented as she stopped for a moment. For someone who couldn't use fire her next attack was rather flashy. A small ball of fire appeared between her two hands, slowly growing bigger and bigger as she raised it over her head. The fire was hot and crackled, flames dancing off the surface of the sun like ball. When it was big enough she looked for an empty space where no one was fighting and threw it towards that area. Water sizzled and steamed as it connected with parts of the great ball of flame. Using that ability left Aislinn out of breath for a moment, but after taking her time to breath and center herself again she stood up straight and looked over at Stratos."How was that for flashy. No Zantetsuken but I did the job pretty well I think." And she didn't have to move a whole lot, give her aching body a bit of a break from combat for the moment so she could show off what she could do. Unfortunately the amount she could do that was even less than the amount she could use Zantetsuken. She would not be able to pull that stunt again this battle. Total Words: 623 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2220 Heartless Defeated: 11 Neoshadows 5 Shadows Heartless Injured: Shadow 2/3 Invisible (Scarmiglione): 25/50 Invisible (Cagnazzo): 25/50 Invisible (Barbariccia): 25/50 Enemies Remaining: Remaining: 562 Shadows 291 Darkballs 268 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 9 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
The shadows were no longer the only things to be getting to the two girls standing on the bridges. Bigger and better foes thought that they needed to try their luck against the two girls who stood side by side fighting off hoards of heartless. Aislinn after her little panic attack was not looking too hot, but she was still on her feet and still fighting. There was nothing these heartless could do to stop her from trying to fight her way through this battle The small shadow hoards turned into hoards of larger heartless, the Neoshadows returning to get revenge on what she had done to them before. It was another wave of attacks that they had to be ready for, it was these little creepers that had caused her injury before, Aislinn wasn't about to let that happen again, not if she had something to stay about it. "Be careful with these ones." Aislinn warned. It wasn't that she didn't think that Ignis could defend herself, she was more than confident the girl could, she did after all pass the Mark of Mastery with the rest of them, but she still wanted to make sure that people were okay given all that was going on, and with her own health failing a little bit at times, she didn't expect everyone to be perfect, sure they could hold their own but no one was perfect, no one got by without a scrape or two. Turning to the heartless, Aislinn prepared her keyblade for the first set of heartless that were ready to throw themselves at her. Twisting around her keyblade she brought it up to her chin as she waited quietly until one of the heartless threw itself at her, at that moment Aislinn made her attack. She didn't waste time from there, the initial attack was slow, but after that she began to strike down heartless after heartless, hardly noticing now the difference between the Shadows and the Neoshadows that flung themselves at them. They were all a blur of black and dust. It was just death and destruction as her bones ached from her attacks that were made on her before. They had slowed her down to some extent, but did not stop her, Aislinn was still fighting, and fighting hard. She was going to make it through this wave without anymore injuries. At this point Aislinn didn't know how much longer it would go on. She was not hoping, like last time that the fight was going to be over as soon as the heartless she could see was cleared out. Last time she had gotten her hopes up for a break when she was done and that break turned into just move harder creatures to fight, until the loud man managed to defeat the one summoning these things, she would not hold hope that this would be over anytime soon, she couldn't afford to delude herself like that. Knowing more were coming she would have to pace herself to the best of her ability considering the circumstance. Of course Aislinn couldn't just walk away and take a breather before walking in to fight again, she didn't have time for that, but she could not go rushing in to every battle that she saw and just took things as they came for her, it would be something she would have to learn to do. Everyone needed help but she couldn't help everyone, she had to focus on helping herself first, that was the hardest part of her. Aislinn didn't know how to focus on her own needs before others. Total Words: 616 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2160 Heartless Defeated: 11 Neoshadows 4 Shadows Heartless Injured: Shadow 1/3 Enemies Remaining: 690 Shadows 296 Darkballs 290 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 12 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
With the heartless still swarming there was not all that many choices that Aislinn had with what she was going to do. They were everywhere and they seemed to be forming bigger and bigger hordes, clambering on top of each other in order to make a giant swirling mass of heartless that was much harder to protect herself against. As Aislinn watched all this happen, fear struck at her heart. This fear however was a little different to the fear that had hit her when it came to riding the light cycles before. This one struck her to the bone paralyzed her for a moment as she gasped for air. In her mind she was pulled back to the battle field where she had stepped up to take care of the heartless, protect the front lines. Where she stood off against these same creatures. She was weaker then, and alone, the circumstance should have changed because of those factors, but she still stood frozen in fear for a good few seconds. She could see these washing over her relentlessly, she could see them clawing at her and dragging into ever growing darkness. The darkness so deep she knew that she couldn't escape no matter how hard she tried. It was a darkness that not even her keyblade could save her from. They might have been the little ones and easy to kill, however when they teamed up and started to grow, swell in size until they were the giant swirling mass in front of her, they no longer were just weak little creatures that she could take out with a swing of the sword, they were a real threat. While normally Aislinn was good at facing threats it was always different when you had faced that threat once before and lost, the fear had time to build, you knew you should be afraid of them. As they rushed into her, hitting her and knocking her to the ground, Aislinn managed to get her senses back through the pain. It snapped her brain out of the fearful state and pushed her to actually do something about the situation that she was it. It wasn't pleasant, and she now hurt like hell once again, but that just convinced her that she didn't want to die. If she let herself die now she would be in a lot more pain as the heartless did that. Pushing up through the heartless, Aislinn felt like she was swimming through the swarm as she slashed around her, catching numerous heartless with each swing. When there were that many shadows surrounding her, it was hard not to take out several at once. As the small amount of light that allowed them to see on this island broke through the darkness, Aislinn fought even harder. She wasn't going to be dragged back down, she wouldn't allow herself to get pulled back to the darkness, it was suffocating and she couldn't return there. Gasping for breath she made it back out of the swarm, shadows still surrounding her, but the cyclone form of heartless was smaller now, missing pieces and by the looks of things, there was no other shadows willing to jump in and help yet. Aislinn let out a soft groan as she stood up properly, holding onto her ribs. She wasn't bleeding badly this time, most of the damage she had taken was bludgeoning, but it still felt like every part of her was bruised. At least nothing was broken, as long as there was no broken bones she knew that she could fight through more of the heartless without too much of a problem. Total Words: 616 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2100 Heartless Defeated: 60 Shadows Heartless Injured: Enemies Remaining: 694 Shadows 296 Darkballs 312 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 12 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
So this girl called for help but then seemed to be a little stand offish with her. In the end Ignis seemed to appreciate the help that she offered, but acted like Aislinn didn't know what she was doing when she came into this. Of course Aislinn knew that it was dangerous to be in here. Of course she got the idea that when she ran into when she came here, if it was a problem she wouldn't have come running in. Aislinn wasn't fond of the way the girl was talking down to her, but she could shrug it off because in the end it didn't really matter, she was ready for the battle and would fight to the end. Flames came from the other girl, burning out a bunch of the shadows. Sometimes Aislinn missed the ability to use magic, while she wasn't that adept to it, it was certainly helpful at times when she needed to clear out mass amounts of heartless at once. Seeing other people utilize it, it made her think it would be a lot easier to get through the battles like these if she knew how to use magic, on the other hand she was a lot stronger in her current form and it was what she was used to. For the most part Aislinn didn't even want to change from what she was, she could if she really wanted to take her normal form back and cast magic, but in the middle of a battle it wasn't all that easy. She would just have to make due with the situation. As they fought Ignis started to talk up, trying to strike a conversation with her. She supposed that was good, it passed the time and maybe it would go better than her conversations with Aux. "Yeah it was quite the fight, I also jumped in and helped Stratos with his darkside, but he did most of the work, just let me get the kill. It is surprising how strong that scrawny boy is." Aislinn laughed trying her best to strike up a bit more conversation since Ignis recognized that her attempt perhaps wasn't the best way to start conversations. "So... what brought you here, to this group? What made you want to become a Master, or was that just consequence of situation?" Aislinn asked trying to get to know the people here a little better, their motives and such. It was an odd group of kids and Aislinn didn't quite understand them, but they all fought so hard she wanted to know why, what motivated these kids to keep fighting like this? Speaking of fighting, Aislinn knew that she needed to keep up with Ignis, talking was good, but she still needed to work on dealing with the heartless. Jumping around and slashing at the Shadows, she took out one after another after another of the heartless. They kept coming but for each heartless that came after her, a cloud of dust followed in her wake as she finally cleared a path so that she could be right next to Ignis and they could watch each others backs. Hopefully this time it would be better than the last time she went about watching someones back. This time hopefully she would have to take a hit like she did with the Neoshadows. At the very least she hoped Ignis would be able to help her a little more than Aux did. Aux didn't even seem to notice until a later time after Ananta ran by and healed her. She wouldn't be able to go that long without healing if she took an injury like the one she took before. Total Words: 616 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 2040 Heartless Defeated: 59 Shadows Heartless Injured: Shadow 1/3 Enemies Remaining: 810 Shadows 297 Darkballs 312 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 12 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
As Aislinn cleared out the heartless around her, she took mercy on the poor Neoshadow in front of her. Hearing the calls for help from a red haired girl in the distance, she wanted to get over and help the girl as soon as possible, but Aislinn wasn't the kind of person to leave someone suffering, even if it was the enemy, even if it seemed to be an emotionless creature created to kill. Aislinn was not convinced that the heartless were emotionless though. Perhaps their will was not their own, but looking into this ones eyes, looking at the pain she saw the hurt, even the fear as it backed off from her, she needed to do at least something to help. She couldn't just let it sit there until another person came along to kill it. It was a small amount of mercy but it was what she could offer, even after seeing how cruel the Neoshadows could be to those heartless beneath them, she was sure that the Invisibles and Darksides were just as cruel to it when they had the chance, so was the hierarchy in the Heartless ranks. Walking forward, Aislinn put a hand on the heartless's shoulder, and it surprisingly didn't attack or try to pull away. Instead it looked up at her with big yellow eyes as she took her keyblade and stabbed it through it's body, as the once solid heartless disappeared from her grasp. Looking up to the sky she watched what was left of it float away before she remembered that there was allies that really needed her help. The red head on the bridge looked like she was in real trouble. Wasting no time, Aislinn began to run, avoiding any heartless that she came across until she hit the old shack. Nimbly she jumped from the sand up to the rocky ground, from there to the shack roof up to an upper area on the island holding the bridge that lead to another smaller island with an odd shaped tree that held a star shaped fruit. "Hold on I am coming. Just wait a moment." Aislinn called out to the girl.... Ignis... if she remembered correctly. She had never actually spoken to Ignis, their paths never really crossing throughout their exam, but that didn't make her any less of an ally. A mass of heartless stood between Aislinn and Ignis. She would have to fight her way through to get to the girl, and while Aislinn didn't usually fight this many creatures at once, she would sure as hell try if it meant helping someone else out. The horde was swelling by the moment and Aislinn wasn't quite sure how to deal with it except for cloaking herself in a barrier and rushing through. Much to her surprise just by doing that took out quite a few heartless and opened a path for her to the girl. "Are you alright?" She asked as she settled down, getting surrounded herself before fully making it to the girl. She was close but a good twenty five heartless or so blocked her path their. "Well then, guess the fight isn't over." She sighed as she started to defend and strike out time and time again. The scratches on her stung as she kept attacking, gaining new scratches by the moment but at least she could manage with them as each heartless she killed seemed to be replaced by another. "Nothing is never ending." She muttered to herself to keep her from feeling like this endeavor was impossible. They would have to back off eventually. Total Words: 602 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 1980 Heartless Defeated: 1 Neoshadows 58 Shadows Heartless Injured: Shadow 2/3 Enemies Remaining: 928 Shadows 297 Darkballs 312 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 12 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
"Well that was fun. Perhaps I might have gone a little over dramatic with the way I killed the thing, but those pesky Dark Sides were starting to get on my nerves. Far too resilient for my tastes." Clapping and rubbing her hands together, Aislinn seemed to be trying to get some sand off her hands before finally giving up and rubbing them on her pants to clean them off a little bit. "So much for the new outfits. If I knew we were leaving the exam only to walk into an ambush I would have saved the shopping for later, maybe after I got home or something.... though lets face it, if I shopped at home I would end up bringing my nephew and buying more things for him than myself. Never the less, time to get back to the fighting, lets just hope the outfit doesn't get completely destroyed before the end of this, I rather liked the design and I don't think we will be returning to Shibuya any time soon for us to get new ones, nor do I want to with that crazy mathematician running around." While Aislinn was talking to Stratos she was more talking to fill the silence as her eyes drifted over the heartless before them and she analyzed what she could do to help, what would be of the most use. Normally Aislinn went for the biggest and strongest first, but perhaps her worries should turn more to the numbers for now, see if she could thin those out a little bit. Spotting a mass of Neoshadows close by, Aislinn figured they would make a nice happy medium. "Well I guess it is time to jump back into the hordes and help the others with this mess." With that Aislinn took off, but not travelling too far from her partner. She figured in a battle like this it was ill advised to go off and do things completely on her own. Dashing into the area she had noticed the Neoshadows, it wasn't long before more were starting to swarm up around her at least twelve stood tall in a circle, their jerking movements nearly in sync with each other as they stared her down. One went to jump, which only encouraged more to take after it's lead. Slashing at the one jumping from above, Aislinn managed to quickly dispatch it before another ran forward. Taking her foot she kicked it back into another causing them both to fall prone, with the moment free, she spun keeping her blade tucked close but in a defensive position as she blocked an attack from the back of her before she lashed out and stabbed at that one too. Her sides were left exposed meaning Aislinn had to move quickly, and not rely solely on the keyblade. Making use of her elbows, she would knock away heartless that were threatening her, until she had time to deal with them. Along the way she received a few scratches, but nothing as bad as when she had taken a hit to help Aux. At least these wounds were manageable. Slowly the numbers around her started to lessen to the point that she could take her time and slow down to deal with the last couple heartless remaining around her. A few more hacks and slashes and they were gone, except one that stood their staring Aislinn down with eyes that she could have sworn were full of sorrow as she notice the amount it was injured likely from her attacks when she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing, or what she was attacking. Word Count: 607 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1920 Heartless Defeated: 11 Neoshadows Heartless Injured Neoshadow 2/15 Enemies Remaining: 1093 Shadows 297 Darkballs 314 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 12 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
It was almost cute as she approached Stratos. He waved and quickly realized his mistake of not noticing her earlier. It wasn't that Aislinn minded at all, with all this chaos around it was hard to keep track of everything, but she supposed they needed to try. If she was an enemy instead of a friend, it would have been very likely that Stratos wouldn't be standing their greeting her, but instead bleeding out at her feet. All and all though she supposed it was just good that everything worked out. With a small giggle Aislinn motioned to where the other Dark side had once stood. "No problem, with that one dealt with I thought you could use a little help. It seemed as though I was wrong though, for one person you managed to do some impressive damage on that thing. I am actually quite amazed seeing how many other heartless you are fighting at the same time." She remembered he was strong from their time working together, but she had not really realized how strong this boy was until she came face to face with the creature he had been fighting, seen all the damage he had done to it in such a short period of time. It was nearly down and Stratos seemed willing to share in the glory of the kill. "Lets do this. We don't have much time to waste, lets see what you are made of." Aislinn took a step back to see what Stratos could do, give him room to do his own abilities, gauging his fighting style a little bit just out of intrigue. Though it seemed that she wasn't allowed to just watch the battle as heartless started to interfere with their battle, likely trying to protect the stronger allies. As she watched she noticed a sword fly at her and was barely able to roll out of the way before it came out of it's aetherial form and stood in front of her in the form of an Invisible Heartless, much like the ones she fought during the first wave, well at least Aislinn knew how to deal with those. Rolling out of the way of it's attacks she focused on taking it down quickly, first trying to stab at it's arms. When that didn't force it to drop their weapon she stabbed for is's chest followed by it's face. Finally the thing dropped just as Aislinn turned around, spinning her keyblade to deflect an attack from the dark ball before at last she dropped that too. Turning back to Stratos all Aislinn saw was white light followed the the complete severing of the arm. Walking back Stratos informed her it was all hers. "Thanks for saving some fun for me." She smiled as she ran forward using the energy that she was saving up to make a less flashy attack than before but an effective one. As she ran and picked up speed to most it almost looked like she blinked as she moved from where she was to the heartless in a streak of white light that pierced through it's shoulder. That was not the end though. With the help of her attack, Aislinn then had her keyblade wedged in far enough that she planted her feet on the body and started to push down and run, dragging her keyblade all the way down the creature until it finally dislodged from it's lower hip. The Darkside stood there for a moment looking stunned before the upper half of the body slid from the lower half, both tumbling forward as the darkness started to take them. Word Count: 607 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1860 Heartless Defeated: Darkside Invisible Darkball Enemies Remaining: 1146 Shadows 299 Darkballs 325 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 12 Invisibles (4 Reserved)
Wrapped up in his own battles Stratos didn't even seem to notice or care when Aislinn had approached to help him and tried to talk to him. While she supposed that was fair enough, he had a lot to focus on and seemed to be splitting his attention between the large creature and some of the smaller heartless, it still felt a little disheartening that he had not even offered as much as a wave as she joined in the battle, instead trying to take down the giant by himself. Did he know that he didn't have to do everything on his own? Did he realize that she, that they were all here to help him and he didn't have to move at near impossible speeds just to take down everything on his own. She was there to help, she wanted to help the best that she could, and seeing the damage she did to the last heartless, Aislinn believed that her help could change the tides of things at least a little more in his favour, even if he didn't want to accept it. As she prepared for the next set of attacks there was a commotion behind her. Distracted for a moment Aislinn turned to see the man who summoned the heartless, and the man who had offered to help with the fight facing off. Their battle was intense and she could see two sets of Aura's glowing around them, much like hers was glowing. As she watched their battle, Aislinn couldn't describe what happened but she was feeling stronger, more ready to fight. She was given a renewed sense of vigor as she turned her attention the the darkside that she had jumped in to help Stratos fight earlier. In that moment of awe watching the two men, it seemed that Stratos was hard at work as the Dark side was suddenly suffering a lot more than he had been before. That was fine, she was okay with the heartless being on it's last legs, but that did not mean she was just going to walk away now and continue letting Stratos fight a battle on two sides, she could help him deal with this thing first and then they would deal with the rest of the heartless she was sure. Letting the new strength fill her bones, Aislinn closed her eyes and took a moment to just breath, sensing with her mind where things were, what was going on. Just as she opened them, the hands of the heartless swept across the ground as he knelt down, exactly what she had expected. Having picked up their patterns of behavior through her last battle it was through no magical feat that she guessed what he was about to do with her eyes closed, just out of knowledge of the situation around them. Taking advantage of the arms being close to the ground, Aislinn ran forward, darting and dodging between orbs of darkness as she closed the distance between her and the enemy, taking a couple swings at it's arms while she still had the chance to do that. The creature when the stand up and Aislinn stabbed her keyblade into it's arm, holding on tight for the ride up. When she finally thought she could, she swung herself up so she was standing on the arm, and ran down, dragging her keyblade with her, leaving a devastating long gash in the heartless's arm before she turned and jumped off, narrowly avoiding it's other arm that was trying to strike at her and get her off of him, much like a person swatting at a fly. Word Count: 608 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1800 Heartless Defeated: Heartless Injured: Darkside 2: 297/1500 Enemies Remaining: 1146 Shadows 300 Darkballs 325 Neoshadows (1 Reserved) 13 Invisibles (4 Reserved) 1 Darkside
Finally the feeling of victory washed over her as the Darkside that she and Aux had worked so hard to defeat had finally fallen to one knee. After one last Zantetsuken to the face, the Darkside completely collapsed to the ground, this one dissipating a lot slower than the Neoshadows that she had been fighting before. From this one small amounts of darkness drifted from it's body as it slowly dissolved into the stormy sky ahead. Without thinking of it Aislinn found herself just watching the small particles raise to the sky, it was almost beautiful to watch in a weird way. She didn't know quite how to explain it but it was relaxing to take that moment to breath and just look at the progress that she made in that time of battle. While everyone else was bringing down the numbers substantially, it hadn't felt like she had done much, that was until the Darkside fell. This was not done however, seeing that there was another one engaged in battle. Unfortunately she was not able to use Zantetsuken again to make her way over to the other Darkside, but she could at least use barrier surge to get closer while avoiding as much damage as possible until she reached the other creature. For a moment Aislinn looked back to see if Aux was going to follow her. If he chose not to, Aislinn didn't blame him, she caught on to the fact that she accidentally weirded him out a bit during that last battle with the darkside that just fell before them. Either way she now had some other help for this one, and while it would be much easier of Aux helped she would focus her attention on the one in front of her first, and not worry about what everyone else was doing. Everyone here was perfectly capable of deciding what was best for them to do during the battle. They didn't need help deciding what to do, they could do that on their own, just like she could act for herself, and in this case she decided it was best to finish taking out the big guys first and she would do it with or without additional help. Coming up next to the boy, Aislinn gave him a bit of a wave after recovering from her little crash in with the Darkside he was fighting. "Hey. I thought you needed some help, these things are tough. So what do you say, shall we go another round partner and try to work together a little better than we did in the first round of our exam?" It wasn't that they didn't work well together, but as she had thought before she didn't have the proper time to work with him properly. They were partners but she spent more time working with Ananta and Luna. She hoped that both those girls were doing well as well. Perhaps she would have to check on them later. Now standing side by side with Stratos, Aislinn turned to the heartless. "So what do you say we make this quick?" She asked before rushing into the battle, taking advantaged of a pattern of attack she had seen it use before as it slammed it's fist in the ground. Jumping on the heartless's arm, she once again ran up the arm until she got close enough to the face to jump. When she was she jumped, smacking the heartless in the face before using the momentum to back flip as she started on her way down, making sure to make it a little extra showy just for the fun of it. Word Count: 607 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1740 Heartless Defeated: Dark Side 1 Heartless Injured: Darkside 2: 1206/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1467 Shadows 337 Darkballs 383 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 1 Darkside
Finishing her song, Tinarah was ready to start up with the next song when footsteps neared and then there was clapping. Tinarah jumped because of how close it was. She had assumed that most people knew that she didn't mind people listening but didn't like people commenting on it. Lowering her violin Tinarah heard a less familiar voice and turned to face Qamar, before turning back not bothering to look the girl in the eye as they spoke, wiping away tears from her face. The words of comfort were vague and from a girl who didn't even know her, and would never understand the struggle that she was having. Sure she heard the story of what happened to her, but knew nothing for Tinarah before all that happened, nothing of her time with the other students, nothing of her life before that. She wasn't the most easy person to talk to when her mind was nearly threatening to shut down on her as she still wasn't easily coming to terms with everything. The crash of the door behind them made Tinarah instinctively cower for a brief moment before remembering who and what she was. She wasn't the same girl that she was when Torrin threw her in the dungeon, she had gotten stronger, braver. She was able to fight, that was how she got out of there. Playing her violin down she stood up swiftly with keyblade in hand looking towards the door, only to hear Torrin's voice, which wasn't settling, but Take's was. She forced her mind back to reality of where they were, what was going on, in the process accidentally dropping her keyblade. It clattered to the floor before disappearing and Tinarah's hands shook a bit as she could just stare for a moment. It had all happened at a really bad time for her as she was already reflecting on the dark times she recently had. "Sorry. I don't... think I can talk." She didn't want to say she didn't want to talk, but she still wasn't sure about the girl. She knew that the whole thing in her room earlier was a mistake, just her reacting too harshly to things. That was not what she was holding against Qamar, but Tinarah could barely figure out how to deal with her own mind, talk to those she knew, talking with a stranger felt almost wrong. She had never been good at making friends anyways, they all just kind of adopted her, like Aria and Mika did. Mika.... oh how she missed the girl. Thinking about it Tinarah just turned away from Qamar she sat back down and started playing her violin again, this time a song for Mika. As she started to play, Nini, the small cat walked up to her and curled up in her lap. The sad meow that the cat made, let Tinarah know that she knew exactly who this song was dedicated to. It was like Nini was saying "I know I miss her too."
Nearly there, they were nearly there. She could do it, just a little further. She couldn't sing to keep herself going anymore, so she had to find other ways to push herself forward. For now just the knowledge that she was nearly there was a comfort to her in many ways, but it didn't make the exhaust any better. At least she could use the music pounding in her blood, empowering her to push her forward. Music notes floated around her as it seemed like a music score drifted around her entire body, music was certainly her power and she was going to use it to the best of her ability to make a point. No matter what that mad man in the Uniform threw at them, they could overcome it. It didn't matter how tired or hurt she was, there was always going to be something that would carry them through it, for her that was music. She used music to push her forward and she wasn't going to stop even if it annoyed Aux a little bit. The last leg of this battle was going to be long and hard but Aislinn was sure that she could do it. All she needed to do was put a little more effort into her attacks. If she could attack harder and faster they could get through this. With the music in her veins she just had to give herself over to the tune as she let the music fill her mind. Light on her feet she started the first steps towards the Darkside more like a dance than anything else. Her feet was light on the ground as she moved on the tips of her toes, spinning once... twice... and then there was an attack and Aislinn was up in the air, twisting around the hand landing on the other side. A small smile reached her face once more as she twisted and slashed out at the arm in two fluid motions. She didn't waste time skipping backwards after that, doing a back hand spring to get out of the way of a small shadow that had tried to come after her. She didn't have time to worry about the little guys just yet though as there was more pressing matters at hand with the giant heartless that seemed to nearly be on deaths door. The next set of attacks were a barrage of the dark energy orbs that came flying at her. Aislinn expertly maneuvered through and around them on light feet, dancing with an invisible partner every step of the was, like she was not a warrior but more of a dancer. The deception was a good one up until she got close, then they learned that her pirouettes were actually just a thin veil that hid the deadly blade that was coming around for a strike, upon contact she would switch directions spinning out of the way of a counter attack before bowing to her partner, the blade extending from her hand piercing her partner across from her. When her teacher had first told her how fighting and dance were one and the same, Aislinn had really wondered what she had gotten herself into with the training that she was ready to subject herself to. Now that she was here in this moment, putting all those techniques into use, she could really see how that was true, especially when it came to a woman fighting. At first that might have seemed sexist, but over time it became clear it was just how the woman's body was able to move and adapt, it was better than a males body for that, though males tended to be stronger. He was simply playing to her strengths and it was working. Word Count: 611 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1680 Heartless Defeated: Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 52/1500 Darkside 2: 1232/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1469Shadows 345 Darkballs 383 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darkside
Part of Aislinn wondered if her sisters husband was living up to protecting Sarah and the children. She knew that he would, but it was a threat that she gave him. She didn't know if at the time he was threatened by her at all. She knew that he would protect his family with his life, she did not have to worry about that, but she still meant what she said. If Aislinn was to return home and anything had happened to her sister, or her nephew, or her new born niece and Ryan was still left standing, then he would be dead, there was nothing that was going to stop that rage. Sarah was all she had left and unless she saw that he fought tooth and nail for her, then it wouldn't be good enough, a good father, a good husband or man would die before he let his family die and that was what Aislinn was fully expecting of him, anything less and he never deserved her blessing to marry Sarah in the first place. While it seemed that he was accepting her threat well enough at the time, there was always worry, worry for her family. Aislinn knew how they could be there one moment and not the next, and with the threat of heartless in her home world as it was... damn it she should have been finding a new world for them to live, not defending the one they had. Aislinn knew that alone it would be a fruitless battle, but she still fought it and she feared that it would be Sarah and her family that paid for her mistake. If it was possible she would go running back to her family and make things right, but with the heartless raging around her, it would be a bigger mistake to try and leave now, not when this many enemies threatened her and her friends. By the look of the darkside she wouldn't make it far before being knocked out of the sky by one of it's attacks anyways, so why even try when she could fight it out down here and help these kids win their battle, keep them safe. Sure she worried for her families safety, but that didn't mean that these kids didn't matter either, they needed all the help that they could get and she would give it. Given that she wanted to make this area safer and make it out of here safely, Aislinn knew that she needed to spend less time thinking and more time fighting. There were still thousands of heartless swarming and she had to do what she could to keep them at bay, starting with the big guys. They were nearly done on that side of things at least as she surged forward to take a good few strikes at the darkside that resided in front of her. Having given herself enough of a rest she began using a slashing pattern that went in a cross shaped movement as she attacked the heartless. While Aislinn knew that it would be more effective to use Zantetsuken, at the same time she didn't have the space or time for that attack, she used it when moving further distances, but when in close combat it worked better to use simple melee techniques, nothing too fancy or anything, just whatever it would take to do a decent amount of damage to the damned creature before she was forced to go back on the defense from it's attacks for a bit, taking the brunt of the damage so someone else could jump in and use that opening for their own attack. Word Count: 611 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1620 Heartless Defeated: Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 130/1500 Darkside 2: 1232/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1494 Shadows 345 Darkballs 383 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darkside
Talking about going home to Aux made Aislinn reflect on her family that she left behind, the conversation that she had with them when she had left, her nephew, no older than 5 swearing to help look after and protect his new born baby sister. She could hear him now crying to her as she went to visit her family one more time before stepping out to what she thought was going to be a war on the heartless that would lead her to seek additional help, and while in the end it accomplished that, it was not at all how Aislinn imagined that it would go. She thought when the threat was secure she would find a way off her world by some method of travel, a keyblade glider perhaps, though she still hadn't perfected the art of summoning one. She would go to other worlds and find keyblade masters and at least ask for advice on how she should deal with the situation back in her own home world. She wasn't going to drag anyone into it that didn't want to be involved but she had to at least try. Instead however she was pulled into the darkness, lost, then found by mere children that held the same weapon she did. She helped them through their situation and they helped her gain entry into the Mark of Mastery, where she learned a great deal of what she needed to know to protect her town, and more than that made new friends along the way. That being said she still could hear vividly the conversation when she left. "Auntie please don't go. I don't want you to go." A young child cried as he grabbed onto the legs of a tall dark haired woman, who soon knelt down to his level. "I have to go sweetie. Be a good boy and help dad take care of mom and your sister. Can you do that? Can you be my brave soldier?" The woman asked as she kissed the boy's head. When he nodded, she stood up to face a blonde woman with short stylish hair. "Aislinn, you don't have to do this, the kids will miss you too." The blonde woman said to her sister looking upset herself, but trying to hide it for the children. "Yes I do. What do you think I have been training for? Besides look at the state of our world. If I don't do something. If I don't find a way to stop this, everything will be lost. I have to protect you and your family." Aislinn to them looking down at the baby girl in the woman's arms. "Let someone else do it. There are plenty of strong men in this town maybe one of the-" "Sarah no. I was blessed with the power to put an end to this, now let me, please. Think of the future of your daughter." "But what about your future?" What about her future indeed. The conversation had gone on, Aislinn claimed her future was in the future of Sarah and her family, but that was no future for her. In reality that was just a future set for her sister. When their home was safe, when the kids were grown up and didn't need their Aunt looking over their shoulders all the time, then what? Aislinn had never put much thought into her own future, never let herself get all that involved with relationships, never cared. Now here she was telling these kids they could do whatever they wanted with their futures, meanwhile it was something that Aislinn couldn't live out herself. Even as the battle raged on around her and she moved forward to ensure she still had a future, she couldn't help but wonder what that future would look like. Word Count: 634 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1560 Heartless Defeated: Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 208/1500 Darkside 2: 1232/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1508 Shadows 349 Darkballs 383 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darksides
Of course he didn't like the singing that was too be expected, however the more Aislinn spoke the more that she realized that he was not totally paying attention to her. From what it seemed to her, he began to tune her out, more focusing on the battle at hand. That being said it wasn't a bad thing per say that he wanted to focus on the battle, it was a difficult battle to be had and there was a lot more that they would need to do in order to complete that battle, but Aislinn still found the talking important. She still thing her words needed to be said at some point, even if Aux didn't see it yet. She was sure, sometime in the future, Aux would see the value in her words. Perhaps he wouldn't in the end, perhaps this conversation was worth nothing at all, but Aislinn wanted to at least say that she tried. If she never did try she would regret it forever, it was a bad habit of hers. Aislinn found herself looking back on a lot of her choices with regret, the things that she didn't do. She didn't do as much as she thought she should. She thought that she should have done more for her sister, or allowed them get some help. She often wondered if her sisters life would have been better if she had taken a lot of the help offered and got them more money. It wasn't that they needed more money, they had done fine on their own, but perhaps Sarah could have finished her schooling in a better school, or gone to college. Maybe she shouldn't have left her family to pursue the keyblade, perhaps it was better if she had stayed and helped raise Elizabeth and Jonah. Maybe none of that mattered at all, perhaps she could have made a difference, perhaps if she took another route something else would have gone wrong instead. It was impossible to tell now, but regret and doubt still weighed on her as she glanced around at the people around her, bringing herself back to reality. If she didn't act soon there would be more regret weighing on her conscious if any of these kids died, not when she had the power and ability to save them. She could save them and would do it whatever the cost was to her. Diving headlong into the battle Aislinn had to run and jump over a punch from the Darkside. the thing was looking damn well bloodied at this point. They were getting to the end of the battle with the first one, glancing over she noticed that Stratos had started working on the other Darkside. That was going to make things easier when they got over to help, which was rather good. Aislinn almost looked forward to fighting with the other boy, he was a good fighter but she didn't get to work with him as much as she thought she would during the first part of the Mark of Mastery. While they might have been partners, being separated in different versions of the realms made it rather hard to work with each other. Even so he shared in the victory of the Mark of Mastery with her, and it was a great feeling. Now she was going to actually fight alongside him properly and they would earn another victory together, with the help of those around. The idea made Aislinn smile a little bit as she turned and charged in, ready to give her all in order to defeat the Darkside that was in front of her. Word Count: 609 EXP Earned: 60 EXP Total: 1500 Heartless Defeated: Heartless Injured: Darkside 1: 286/1500 Darkside 2: 1232/1500 Invisible: 22/50 Enemies Remaining: 1534 Shadows 349 Darkballs 383 Neoshadows (3 Reserved) 20 Invisibles 2 Darksides
As they ran up towards Town hall, Gavin in tow since Zephyr insisted, Thea saw all the guards and got a little nervous but still ran up towards them trying to get towards the entrance. "Let me through! Let me in. I want to make sure all my friends are okay so I can stop the flute man if he tries to take them! I am allowed in! I am a mage with Divine Rose!" Thea turned so the mark on her upper left shoulder could be seen by the men as she turned back to Gavin. "He is a mage too. Can we get in? Can we see if the kids are alright?" She asked anxiously as her eyes started to dart around the area looking for where the flute could be coming from. Renza was very eager and Everette was glad to see this. Through this entire ordeal she had been very strong. Everette couldn't help but wonder if he was that strong when he was her age, those years...before he came to Divine Rose, they were all a blank. Even his first year there, was clouded in a fog of his mind, only remembering bits and pieces and never in great detail. Where he came from and how he got there, Everette only could hope to one day find out. As they reached the small girls house she went to get them bread while Samuel explained his findings. Rubbing the back of his neck, Everette tried to think. "I am not sure how that is possible, maybe some sort of magic even? What else could have such a lasting effect. I only hope it is coming from a water source, then we at least have a starting point to look into. For now we can only keep people from dying, when we find out and deal with what is causing the sickness maybe it will fade on its own." That was best case scenario, one they could only hope for.
