Marked Ones: Origins [IC | Urban Fantasy]

[Khasinkonia]

Hlaing Muireall Tamboli
Lynwood Academy

She seemed aggressively handicapped, although I’d probably get tired of being pandered too myself if I was crippled. Even so, she was definitely assuming the worst. Apparently she’d seen a lot, though it was believable enough considering the bairn had plenty of evident scarring on the outside, and scars like that often had emotional scarring tied to them, if I understood scars. She asked for help at the end of her wee rant, anyway, making her original point a bit null.

“Aye,” I nodded, “Whole hall still haes plenty of rooms. A’m Hlaing Muireall Tamboli, by the way. Me mum calls me Moira, an’ me dad calls me Hlaing, though ye’re welcome tae find some ither nickname if ye like. Say, ye seem like a nice neighbour. Wad ye like tae get a room next tae one another?”

[Faal Lot Himdah]

Kana "Gyges" Kaleikaumaka
The Friendly Neighbour?
Lynwood Academy

---

"Moira or Hlaing... I'm welcome to find some other nickname... Umm..." Kana thought before sighing, "I've never thought of a nickname before, nor have I ever called anyone by a nickname. That just seems to be the sort of things friends do. But what would I know? Little ol' friendless me... Wait, are you sure you want me to take the room next to you? Look, you seem nice and all, but..."

"No offense, I'm not here to find friends." Kana said and looked at Hlaing, "Hlaing, I am not as nice as I seem..."

---

Escanor Elwyn Banaing and Ryder Elne Banaing
A Deadly Deck
Lynwood Academy

---

"Card manipulation and elemental summoning." Escanor spoke, "At least that's what it looks like to me. As for whacking someone with your cane. Have you ever looked into martial arts? There are multiple martial arts that teach you to fight effectively with a cane or stick-like instrament. Jogo do Pau, Juego del Palo, Canne de Combat, Palcaty, and Bartitsu just to name a few."

"Ah, Bartitsu." Ryder said with a chuckle, "A hybridized martial art made by our people, the British, because coming up with something unique is not are specialty. Oh, by the way, we've been trained in multiple martial arts since childhood. Hence why we know this."

[Forest State]

Mors Desuper
✬✬✬
I. Roman Holiday

Written by Forest State and Lunas Legion

Rome. The eternal city, and a location that was significant to mages. The Church of Light had a large presence here, and several magical battles had taken place here through the years. It was a place where a number of magical discoveries had been made, and there were plenty of notable mages who were proud to say that they were from this city. The two mages that were driving slowly through one of the denser parts of the city, however, weren’t locals.

Cassandra Renata Miniati de Avella and Chelsea Bianchi-Costa de Inferenza were from up north, particularly, from the semi-independent enclave of Church City, some distance to the northeast from Milan. That was to say, they were inquisitors who were here with the Holy Inquisition, on business.

But as the two inquisitors arrived in the downtown area where they were meant to investigate, which was taped off by the authorities because it was considered an active crime scene, it was hard to believe that around fifty or so people had died here only a couple of days ago. Even if there were still bloodstains on the stone ground, with St. Peter’s Basilica towering over the surroundings just off in the distance, beyond the area that was now a crime scene. The attack had happened not far from it, which was a bit ironic or unsettling. Churches tended to be safe places, after all. An attack right here showed that the perpetrator was… Especially bold.

The authorities didn’t know how the attack happened, either. Or even who did it. What they did know was that it was magical in nature and that they believed it was connected to Stefanos Kokonis, a wanted dark mage that was responsible for a number of murders in southern Europe in the past months. But it looked like he had taken his murders from Greece to Italy, where he had allegedly been sighted only about a week ago. The motive for those murders was unknown, but with magic being involved, it was likely some arcane secret that the regular world lacked proper knowledge about.

“Whoever did this attacked strongly and didn’t even work much to cover their tracks,” said Cassandra, clenching her fists as she stood in the middle of the blood stained plaza, reaching out with her mind to feel for traces of what had happened. Magic usually left traces of some sort. Stronger magic left stronger traces, if not covered up properly. The mage that had carried out this attack hadn’t been concerned with the latter. “They’re bold, I’ll admit that-” She froze. Another presence could be detected. Magical in nature. Not one that they could see, but one that they would certainly feel, because the one causing said presence was somewhere near here.

They had just entered the area, and they weren’t concerned with concealing themselves either. Instead of being the typical presence that a mage would have, this person, or thing was… Distinctly dark, and it typically took a lot of darkness to change one’s very presence like that in a way that could be detected by others. It was possible it wasn’t even a human at all that had appeared, seemingly close to them from what they could detect.

“Do you feel that, too?” asked Cassandra, spinning around to look for the person or thing that had appeared but not seeing anything. The magical energy in the air was certainly darker than the traces that were left from the mysterious murders, which had worn off in the past couple of days.

"Of course." Chelsea replied, her voice curt as she slowly lowered a hand to her hips, grasping the grip of her Contender as her eyes moved warily, turning her head just the slightest fraction where necessary.

The air was dark and tainted, too dark and tainted to be residue from the murders. "There's something here with us. Probably not human." She finished, stressing the probably, a finger straying to the trigger of her Contender as she spoke, ready to draw and fire at the slightest provocation. She didn't need to tell Cass to keep an eye out; they were both Inquisitors, after all. They both knew their job.

The air seemed even darker as Cassandra turned back around slowly, her hand moving to the twelve gauge shotgun that was hanging at her side. She picked it up slowly and carefully, making sure that it was loaded before raising it up in a stance where she could fire it as soon as an enemy came into view. She wouldn’t have to wait long for that to happen, as both her and Chelsea heard the sound of.. Fluttering wings? The dark figure appeared as a swarm of bats, emerging into the plaza from one of the streets and then shifting into a human looking form, even when there were other people around beyond the area that had been roped off. It was a bold move, because the woman looked very demonic based on her means of entry, and those types generally didn’t like to reveal themselves publicly.

Revealing themselves would just mean they’d set the authorities after them, after all. The woman was dressed in black, in tight clothes that were also made of light material that offered great mobility, while she had one gauntlet on her right wrist that had what looked like a crystal embedded in it. That would offer a power boost to the one that used it, most likely, at least until it ran out of energy. The woman’s entrance had been demonic but her appearance was hardly that of a monster, with fire red hair that didn’t look natural but didn’t look inhuman either.

Her eyes, however, were a deeper shade of red that would make it harder to consider her a regular human. That, paired with the entrance, suggested some kind of demonic origin. She didn’t have a weapon on her at the moment but she didn’t allow that to discourage her from talking. “You’ve come here to interrupt, eh? You should both leave now, and you can live to tell the tale to your superiors in Church City,” she said, her voice sounding normal enough. Still, she spoke with an absolute confidence, which was worrying given her words.

"We can see about that, if you want." Chelsea said, drawing her Contender in a fluid motion to point it up at the probable daemon, but she wasn't ruling that it was a daemon for sure. She wasn't exactly stupid, but the woman's confidence could be a bluff, or it might not be; she had to assume it wasn't. She wasn't attacking either, nor did she seem to have a weapon beyond the power-amplifying gauntlet, which was seemingly in conflict with her confident tone of voice.

"What are we interrupting precisely, if I may be so bold as to ask?" Chelsea asked, her aim not wavering.

“You, an inquisitor of all people, would ask that? Perhaps you haven’t studied your own legends enough or you just aren’t thinking, if you can’t put two and two together. But even if you do… I would say it’s too late for you to step in,” said the woman, pacing and summoning a sword into her right hand that was long and made out of black metal. She didn’t advance yet, however, and she offered a glare as she stopped pacing, turning on her heels to face the two inquisitors. “You can make things so much easier by simply leaving. And hey, you wouldn’t want civilians getting hurt, would you?”

"There's a great many of our legends out there." Chelsea said in reply, an undercurrent of anger and irritation in her voice. She considered herself fairly learned in such matters; she'd have to look through the family library whenever she returned home. "It's hard to pick something out in particular when you know so many."

She was quite keen that they left; a bluff, perhaps? She hated uncertainty like this. She let out a long breath as her left hand came to rest on the pommel of her own sword.

"Cass, your thoughts?" Chelsea asked, her voice low and not taking her eyes off of the daemon, her Contender aimed unwavering at the daemon's center-mass.

Cassandra stared at the woman with the sword and pondered the situation. She wasn’t aware specifically of what the woman was talking about, but she had some ideas in her mind about where this could be headed. “I don’t exactly know what we’re interrupting but I believe it might have something to do with the murders from a couple of days ago, which could have been for the purpose of harvesting souls and storing the mana extracted from them inside of the crystal on her arm… What she needs that much mana for, I don’t know, but I doubt it’s-”

She was cut off when she was sent flying through the air, hit by an attack from someone behind them that had only just revealed themselves. Someone that had actually tried to stay hidden, unlike the woman. The attack from the cloaked figure was electric based, dark lightning hitting Cass squarely in the back and sending her rolling across the ground when she impacted it, dropping her shotgun. It wasn’t too serious of a blow, but it had caught her off guard. The figure that had fired the lightning, meanwhile, reached for a pistol and leveled it at Chelsea, and at the same time, his accomplice charged with unnatural speed.

“Chelsea, move!” shouted Cassandra, seeing that she had both a pistol pointed at her back and an enemy charging with a sword to her front. If she stayed where she was, she was going to get hit by one of the two. She would take a few moments to recover, however, and as she stood up to join the fight, she ended up falling back down to her knees to catch her breath. Being hit with magical lightning took a lot out of someone, especially when they weren’t guarding against it at all.

Chelsea moved as soon as Cass' voice cut off unexpectedly, pulling the trigger on her Contender and firing at the woman, leaping to one side and holstering her Contender as she did so, her other hand moving to draw her sword as she focused her magic, creating a faintly-glowing shield of light around herself for protection as she settled into a guard stance with her swordd, her eyes moving between the woman with the sword and the second figure, eyeing them both up.

The situation wasn't exactly good by any stretch, but she wasn't going to abandon Cass. She'd have to trust in her own magic to protect her long enough so they could withdraw. Two versus two wasn't an unfair fight, which meant it was a bad fight.

The shot from the Contender seemed to hit the woman, but it didn’t have enough stopping power to take down someone like her. She definitely wasn’t human. She went airborne, using some element of her powers to physically enhance herself enough to jump high into the air, and it would take her a few seconds before she would come down next to Chelsea. The man in the cloak, on the other hand, was a bit more pragmatic and lowered his pistol upon seeing the shield go up, instead focusing on a combustion spell that formed a ball of energy in the air. That ball of energy was then sent flying along the ground towards Chelsea… And it would explode when it was close enough to her, on the signal of the one who had created it.

Chelsea spat out a muffled curse as her shot impacted but did nothing. Right, okay. She had a few seconds until she had to fight the sword-wielder, the cloaked man was using more traditional magic against her. Pick a threat, neutralise it, move on. She stepped backwards quickly, trying to get out of the path of the explosive ball; if she had to, she'd sacrifice her shield to contain it, but she'd much rather not do that. As she stepped back, Chelsea angled herself towards where the daemon would land, swinging her sword in a carefully controlled arc, aiming to strike her as she landed.

The concussive blast of energy went off but wouldn’t be strong enough to do much from the range that Chelsea was at. The bigger threat was the woman that had went into the air, but she came down in the path of Chelsea’s blade and some damage was finally made as she shifted but couldn’t avoid the blow fully, the blade slicing into her leg and causing her to drop to the ground on one knee, still holding her own sword before charging forward and pushing herself with her good leg, taking a wide swing at Chelsea. She was hurt, but she was still coming forward in spite of it, at which point Cassandra was getting back on her feet.

Cassandra took one more deep breath before running into the battle zone, staggering every so often. She put up a small shield in front of her, immediately blocking a second lightning attack like the first one from the hooded figure, and she would chase after that man… Who moved quicker than she did and stayed out of her range when she attacked with a newly formed short sword made from hard light. She swung again, and the man ducked underneath after leaning back and out of range, driving a spinning kick into her stomach that was enhanced by magic. She went flying backwards. Whoever they were fighting wasn’t going to crumble just because the opposition was well trained, that was now for sure.

Chelsea wasn't able to bring her sword back up in time to block the strike, the sword instead slicing into her shield of light, which flickered noticably under the strike, but barely held up.

Chelsea stepped backwards yet again, bringing her sword back up, her eyes briefly flicking over towards Cass who'd been thrown back. They were outmatched here for sure. She began to move backwards, slowly and warily towards where Cass had landed, not making any offensive moves. They needed to regroup, withdraw, report and return with reinforcements.

The demoness was going to come again, but she seemed distracted by the fact that there were now sirens in the distance and that the summoner was flashing a hand signal to her. One that was telling her to back away. “Go. Finish what we started,” said the summoner, and the demoness nodded before taking a step backwards as a pair of wings emerged on her back, seemingly coming out of thin air as she restored them to herself using her magic. She flew a few feet in the air before changing her direction and lifting off further, accelerating towards the basilica that was just off in the distance, not far from the square. That basilica wasn’t roped off, and so there were people still in the area, who were noticing the fight by now and trying to get away. The sudden appearance of the flying demon only caused more screams and sped that up.

On the other hand, the summoner stood in a fighting stance and turned back towards Chelsea and Cassandra, raising a hand and preparing a strong spell that would encompass the entire area. “Night mother, may you use your power to cover over the sun itself!” the summoner shouted, and the immediate area from the basilica to the square was covered in a deep darkness, one that even light magic would have a hard time finding visibility in. It was a simple trick, but one that made this fight much harder. The two inquisitors would have to rely entirely on their magical senses and not on their physical ones, which were obscured by the pitch black.

Chelsea paused, stopping to take a breath as the daemoness fell backwards, flying off back towards the basilica. Fuck. She paused, taking the brief lull in the battle as time to reload her Contender before the summoner shouted out a spell and everything went dark, but for a small sphere around her, lit by the faint light of her shield.

She lifted a hand from her Contender as she slowly edged forwards, listening carefully and keeping her breathing slow as she placed both her hands on her sword's hilt, moving in the direction of the basilica. It might be dark, but darkness did not mean one couldn't hear. If the summoner engaged her, then Cass would hopefully hear and move to deal with the daemoness, and vice versa. Right now whatever she was doing was the priority.

Cassandra cast a quick spell to light up the immediate area around her but that wasn’t much use with the darkness covering everything but the few feet around her. Whoever was fighting her right now was really good, and she had to reach out with her senses to detect him based on his magic, not her eyes. And fighting that way was hard for someone that wasn’t used to it. She knew she had slacked on training in that area, and now she was regretting it. But still, she moved to cut off the summoner from following Chelsea.

Chelsea had enough to deal with without worrying about the summoner coming from behind her. When Chelsea entered the basilica, she would have to work to find the demoness that had disappeared into the throngs of people that were in the building still. Those people, however, seemed to be clearing out and they were clearing out from a specific area, which would give some hint of where the demoness actually was. She seemed to be moving through the building towards the center, underneath the famous dome. However, both Chelsea and the demoness felt a sudden striking sensation, as if they weren’t the only magic users in the area, and more importantly, like the other magic user was stronger than both of them combined.

Chelsea made it to the basilica without incident, entering with her weapons held at the ready. And the place was filled with people. Just brilliant. She hated fighting with crowds around. With civilians around in general. She took a brief moment to evaluate the situation, surveying the inside of the basilica, before she spotted the rough source of where people were fleeing from and broke into a run, wading through the crowd after the demoness, towards the central dome of the basilica.

And then magic washed over her. Not a spell, but a wave of presence. Was... She too late? That presence was beyond her. She shook her head. No. She had a job to do still, and she'd do it. She pressed onwards towards the center, after the demoness.

The crowd had parted by now and most of them were out of the general area, leaving Chelsea standing face to face with the demoness that she had been chasing through the area. That demoness dug in with her stance, putting her weight on her feet and holding her sword in front of her like she expected an attack to come at any moment. “I believe we’re running out of time, so if you want to have this fight, let’s get it over with quickly,” she said, in a voice that was calm and devoid of any fear. “After all, I’m here for business, not to play around.”

"Gladly." Chelsea said in response, her voice cold and emotionless as she raised her Contender in one swift move and fired, the shot echoing throughout the basilica. She was already moving forwards even as she lowered her gun, sliding it back into its holster as she charged forwards, a furious prayer whispered under her breath as her she placed her newly freed hand on the grip of her sword, making a carefully-controlled swing from her right, aiming to carve the demoness in half.

The demoness was already rolling to the side when the shot was fired, estimating when Chelsea would pull the trigger and timing her move correctly. She found herself headed into the path of Chelsea’s blade but ducked under it and went as low as possible, taking a backwards swing with her own sword that would miss wide and high once she stood once again. However, their duel wouldn’t be a one versus one for long, as this was when Cassandra appeared in the doorway of the large room, eventually locating where the battle was taking place and dashing over to Chelsea. She wasn’t even paying attention to the other combatant, but gesturing towards the outside.

“Whatever that other presence is, Chelsea, we need to get the hell out of here,” she said, grabbing Chelsea by the arm despite her being in the middle of a battle. Cassandra didn’t care about that, her only goal was to evacuate the area. Because she had felt the presence too and it gave her… What could only be described as a sinking feeling, like they were around something that was out of their level and that they wouldn’t be able to win if they remained.

"There's two of us and only one of her. We can finish her off before the other presence arrives. We don't know what it even is yet." Chelsea said, bringing her sword back up into a guard position with only one hand on her sword while Cass held her other arm, not turning to look back at Cass and keeping her eyes focused on their opponent. But she made no moves to resume the offensive, instead carefully eyeing up her opponent. She wasn't sure how long they had left, but she'd make good use of that time. "I assume you dealt with the summoner?"

The demoness also felt the presence, which caused her to relent in her attacks as she held her sword at her side and took a look around the large area under the dome, trying to determine where it was coming from. “You bitch!” she shouted at Chelsea with a feral anger, almost hissing and flashing teeth that were like that of an animal. Well, it was often said that many demons were more animal than similar to humans, and that made sense right now, as her eyes seemed to flash with primal anger too. “You’re ruining all of our work for what? To uphold the values of your false goddess? If you knew anything at all, you wouldn’t fight in the name of the usurper, and if you did, it would mean that you have no heart,” she continued, her voice full of anger and emotion.

“You will die because of this,” she said, and the crystal on her wrist started to glow as she worked on channeling the energy. What she didn’t notice, however, was that a fourth powerful figure had materialized behind her, floating off of the ground in the air and wearing armor that seemed… Physically impossible. Almost as if it was invisible while not being invisible at the same time, the edges being visible to everyone in the room but the entire thing seeming like it was translucent in a way, while still hiding the wearer underneath. Whoever had forged this armor seemed to be on another level when it came to magic.

“Chelsea, get down!” screamed Cassandra, pushing her mentor to the ground and covering her body with her own as she worked on putting up the quickest shield that she could manage. There were… Almost fireworks. Magical energy of bright colors, of white and green and red and pink, exploded around them as a mass attack was launched all at one time, striking from range and hitting both the area around Cassandra and the spot where the demoness had been standing and charging her own attack. Each attack would sent parts of the stone floor flying into the air, some high enough to hit the dome and chip the elaborate paintings on the underside of it, and all of them, even the ones that were distant, put a strain on the shield that Cassandra had put up.

But she didn’t care. Didn’t even care if this impossible attacker killed her. She was going to protect her mentor’s life with her own, and getting out of here and figuring out just who was attacking all of them was second to that.

Chelsea just grunted in response, shutting her eyes to avoid looking at what she imagined being within a fireworks display must look like, the kaleidoscope of colours almost blinding before she shut it out as she reshaped her own shield, expanding it over herself and Cass atop her, stripping away the unnecessary parts facing downwards towards the floor, pouring all of her mana that she had left into reinforcing that single bulwark in case Cass couldn't hold hers up. She wasn't letting either of them die. Not today, not here. Whoever they'd been facing was utterly irrelevant now, why, whatever they'd been doing; those were problems for afterwards. Survival came first.

There were more and more explosions, each one of them a bright color, and Cassandra felt her shield breaking down and eventually felt herself exposed to the effects of them as she was sometimes hit with rubble and tiny pieces of stone which had been effectively turned into shrapnel. It was daytime right now, but somehow everything was bright enough that it seemed like watching fireworks at night, and even when she wasn’t looking at the explosions per say, she could see the reflections of the flashing colors on the stone floor, each new color indicating that another part of the ground had been obliterated. Of course, there was also plenty of smoke now covering the area, drifting slowly away from the figure that had attacked them.

“Chelsea…” she said in a weak voice, blood running down her back from where she had been struck by a large piece of rubble. Her face was dirty now with dirt and dust from the effects of the explosions, and she opened her eyes slowly after closing them to take a deep breath and recover a bit. She didn’t even know if Chelsea was alive underneath her, and she had to make sure of that before anything else happened. Suddenly, however, there was a voice from above them.

The demoness was somehow still standing, her outfit burnt and shredded and her hair singed and her skin cut, but she was still standing and she was offering her hand, even as she struggled to not collapse. “Get up,” she growled, but she didn’t seem to have hostile intent. If she wanted to just kill them, she could have did that already. She had her weapon on her, but it was sheathed at her side rather than in her hands. Apparently, she really did want to help them up, for whatever reason, before the smoke cleared and they found themselves as targets once again.

"I'm fine." Chelsea said as she opened her eyes, looking around from underneath Cass. She couldn't tell what shape Cass was in from her current position. She blinked as the demoness emerged, looking up at her, hesitating for a second, shifting first to a crouching position to position Cass' injured form so that she was lying over her shoulder as she grabbed her sword from where she'd dropped it, eyeing the demoness warily before she sheathed us.

"I suppose someone else finished our interruption for us?" Chelsea asked, looking around briefly. The place was a wreck, and as much as she might despise demons for all manner of reasons, she was in no position to restart their fight now, nor was she about to endanger Cass. Discretion was the better part of valour, as much as she might hate it.

“Your own goddamn side did this. Maybe if you use half your brain someday and consider things from more than one side, you’ll see that you aren’t the saints that you think you are. And you’ll see that they don’t give a shit about you,” the demoness said, giving Chelsea a slight glare before turning to face the wall of dust, of which their enemy was likely positioned behind. She gritted her teeth, putting some of the energy from the crystal into summoning another weapon, a second sword that was just as long as the first one. She drew both of them at the same time, glaring into the dust and readying herself for an attack. “Go. Survive this day with a lesson learned,” she said.

Cassandra… Wasn’t in a good state. She had blood running down her face, too, and it seemed like the more time went by, the more blood covered her body. She just made an “ngh” sound as Chelsea put her over her shoulder, one that was a sound of pain. “Chelsea… I don’t want to die yet… I still have something to tell you,” she managed to say, her voice strained with each word. She needed healing, definitely, but they wouldn’t be able to think about that until they were outside the basilica, which was now a battlefield between the mysterious stranger and the duo that they had originally came here for.

Chelsea said nothing, simply nodding in acknowledgement. She couldn't bring herself to say thanks as she stood up and turned, slowly walking out of the basilica as she heard the sounds of distant fighting behind her as she walked. That... That wasn't her problem. Not anymore. Let them fight.

"You're not dying Cass." Chelsea said, shaking her head. "You can tell me whatever it is once we're away from here and I'm healing you."

✬✬✬

[Khasinkonia]

Hlaing Muireall Tamboli
Lynwood Academy

"Right, so the thing is, A winnae be stayin' in me own room," I replied. An idea popped into my head, and it seemed like a good way to win some goodwill from this bairn, or at least a bit of respect. It'd be something nice to have with at least someone here, considering how cutthroat it was all shaping up to be.

"Dinnae make a difference whether me neighbour is the Virgin Mary or Pol Pot, because me power is tae make doors tha' link twa places through space. Whit A'm offerin' ye no is A gie ye me room, an' connect it wi' a door, while A hae me own door tae me home. Ye can take or leave me offer, but it stands. A'm offerin' ye the ability tae double yer space, since A dinnae need me room, an' you could maybe use it."

[Forest State]

Mors Desuper
✬✬✬
Roman Holiday Interlude.

[Lessoni]

Ikram was just done unpacking his things when he heard a voice from behind him. "Oh, ahhhh", he turned around to face Jack. "Hi and I do not think so". "I have not seen a nest of pests in here, though there are some good-sized holes in the walls that a rat could go through. But I know how to deal with pests, comes with my upbringing". Ikram stopped a moment to think and spoke in a friendly tone. "I should introduce myself before I continue. I am Ikram of clan el-Amara, Nice to meet you Jack". Ikram reached out to Jack with his right hand for a handshake.

Jack

Jack took Ikram's hand and shook. He liked this guy. He seemed well mannered and a tad... exotic.

"If you don't mind me asking, where are you from? I'm guessing somewhere in the middle east, from your name, but please do correct me if I'm wrong. And what's your magic? Mine's electricity and... I'm sorry, I'm bombarding you here. I just think we should know a little about each other if we'll be fighting side by side and whatnot. And if I'm honest, I haven't really talked to too many people in a while. I'm a bit rusty at it.", said Jack.

[Union Princes]

Samuel Storm

Everything seemed to be in order, his bed was made, his dresser packed, and the beside drawer was in order.

It almost felt like home to Sam.

That’s when his mind wandered to what hat happened earlier, the confrontation in particular.

After calming down earlier, he had come to realize that he was in the wrong, not in confronting the jerk, but in the timing of it, as the situation had already cooled down.

And that of course was when his mind drifted to before the confrontation, to the girl he had been taking to, and he realized he hadn’t finished talking to her.

As he exited his room, he immediately spotted her in the hall checking out the rooms.

Walking up to her, he cleared his throat to get her attention.

“Um...hey, it’s me again, sorry about earlier, I shouldn’t of jumped in after everything had cooler off and I’m sorry.”

Then realizing he still didn’t know her name, he said,”What’s your name by the way?”

Sienna had underestimated her ability to choose a room that was quick and easy to fix. Every room she examined had their own set of flaws ranging from a hole in the wall, a hole in the door, a hole in the roof, or a rat or spider nest. She doesn't want to do pest control if it comes down to her room but she may have to in order to prevent further infestations.

The wide brim of her hat prevented Sienna from seeing the face of the person approaching her. When he apologized for what happened earlier, she looked up and saw Sam. At least he saw error in his ways and wanted to start over.

"I'm Sienna." she answered after accepting his apology. "Sienna Rioux. Yours?"

[Revlona]

Samuel Storm

Sienna.

That was a pretty name.

“I’m Sam, Samuel Storm is my full name” he said in response to her question

“Do you need help finding a room? I could clear some of the pests out of theses better looking ones if you want” he said with a smile

[Union Princes]

Samuel Storm

Sienna.

That was a pretty name.

“I’m Sam, Samuel Storm is my full name” he said in response to her question

“Do you need help finding a room? I could clear some of the pests out of theses better looking ones if you want” he said with a smile

"Really?" Sienna was surprised, "Thank you. I would probably start clearing out the spiders than the rats to make it easier for the rest of us."

She directed him to a room that had several spots of spider eggs and webs. "Try not to burn the whole building down."

[Revlona]

Samuel Storm

As she lead him to the room he was to clear, he couldn’t help but admire her from behind, she was beautiful, simply put.

“Don’t worry I’ll be careful” he said as he began to regulate his breathing.

Urging the mana to his finger tips, he sent several small controlled torrents of flames throughout the room, quickly burning away all the webbing and spiders.

“There you go, do you need help unpacking?” He asked her

[Lunas Legion]

Sahara Meads

Sahara hummed to herself as she walked, not paying any mind to the various raised voices she heard as she wandered away from the main courtyard. Rule number one, unless you were dragged in, it was best to never get involved, never be curious. Curiosity killed the cat, after all, and playing it safe was almost always the best option. Even if one had no 'safe' option, then one just took the least riskiest.

The books she'd read called it Occam's Razor or something. Simplest thing is usually the best. Although here, it was the safest thing was the best. Rock turned to wooden floors as she entered one of the buildings, the floorboards creaking under her sneakers as she walked. Not rotten, thank God. Rotten wood was always an annoying thing, mostly because you risked it collapsing under you while you slept.

She started at the near end, sliding open doors and giving rooms quick glances, assessing how livable they were. Anything with spider eggs, in any quantity, was right out, which rules out the first room she entered. The next had rotten floorboards, the third... Puddles. She moved on quickly. She passed at least two more, she wasn't really counting, not really, before she found one she'd call... Well, compared to some of the places she'd stayed, it was a hotel. Sure, there were cracks in the walls, and it was filled with dust, but this room was better than some of the places she'd lived before.

Hell, it had a roof. That wasn't always the case.

She pulled the door shut behind her, kicking at the dust on the floor. She could clean up later. She pulled her rucksack off her back, swinging it around to set it down on the floor before she set to unpacking, still humming contently to herself.

[Theyra]

Jack

Jack took Ikram's hand and shook. He liked this guy. He seemed well mannered and a tad... exotic.

"If you don't mind me asking, where are you from? I'm guessing somewhere in the middle east, from your name, but please do correct me if I'm wrong. And what's your magic? Mine's electricity and... I'm sorry, I'm bombarding you here. I just think we should know a little about each other if we'll be fighting side by side and whatnot. And if I'm honest, I haven't really talked to too many people in a while. I'm a bit rusty at it.", said Jack.

"I do not mind if you ask and you are right about me being from the middle east. I am from Jordan and for my magic. Unlike yours which is elemental based, my magic is based on runes. Mainly for attack and support capabilities. I imagine that we will be both dishing out the damage and mind I ask where you are from? Ikram shook a bit and pulled his hood over his head. "The cold I am not used to and I hope I will get used to it. I would think with my well.... unofficial profession that the temperature would not be a problem for me".

So far Ikram thought Jack was good guy and hoped the rest of the people here are good too.

[Forest State]

Aureo Mercurius

“All of the questions that you could ask and you simply ask how I knew? Well, Gabriella, I think you already know near the back of your mind what the answer to that is. You of all people should know that I’m aware of these things because I’ve been blessed by the Light Goddess, who you already know reads hearts. Even you can’t dispute that fact, you can only try to ignore it because ignoring it would be the more convenient option for someone like you who has… Considerable fears,” said Aureo, still holding Gabriella as he took her into the main building, heading up the stairs to get into the upper level that had some rooms that might also be suitable for staying in.

It would be better to find a room that was away from the rest of the Marked, from the ones that were… Commoners. And not particularly good commoners that were worthy of respect, either. They were ones that made him wonder how they had even been marked, if they couldn’t even handle the events of the courtyard introduction without nearly getting themselves killed. “As I said, I don’t care about those things, however. So you should be glad.”

He stopped, arriving at an empty room that overlooked the courtyard, which was larger than the dorm rooms. “This is where we’ll stay,” he claimed, still holding Gabriella as he stepped inside. “Away from the others, and a bit larger.”

[Lessoni]

"I do not mind if you ask and you are right about me being from the middle east. I am from Jordan and for my magic. Unlike yours which is elemental based, my magic is based on runes. Mainly for attack and support capabilities. I imagine that we will be both dishing out the damage and mind I ask where you are from? Ikram shook a bit and pulled his hood over his head. "The cold I am not used to and I hope I will get used to it. I would think with my well.... unofficial profession that the temperature would not be a problem for me".

So far Ikram thought Jack was good guy and hoped the rest of the people here are good too.

"Chicago. Not the coldest place on Earth, but it does have a way of building up a guy's cold tolerance, especially sleeping in back alleys. And at worst, I do this."

Jack flexed his muscles and let a low current of electricity flow through him, careful to not let it arc and shock Ikram. It warmed his body better than any fire could, and Jack was once again grateful for the versatility of his powers.

"So, what's this "unofficial profession" you mentioned? Were you a merc or something? Totally fine if you were, a guy's gotta do what he has to do to survive. But, you've got me more than a litlle curious. Feel free to stay mum about it if you want."

[Lunas Legion]

Gabriella Sara Bianchi-Costa de Inferenza

Gabriella said nothing in response; she'd known the answer, deep down, but she'd just wanted to confirm that it actually was the case. It was one thing to know it, but it was another thing entirely to hear someone else say it to you.

Instead, she moved on to slightly more urgent topics of immediate importance. The room, from what she could see some form of attic-type room that overlooked the courtyard, seemed... Habitable enough, nowhere near what she was used to, but she could survive at least.

"Can you, um, put me down?" She asked, peering over her shoulder. "And since you carried me off, all my stuff's down in the courtyard, so do you mind if I ask you to go down and get it for me? I have a few other things to ask if you don't mind too, mostly about why you're so interested in me. I... Never thought of myself as being that special, really. Especially not special enough to attract, well, any of this attention." She waved her Marked hand vaguely around. "It's strange and I... I'm not sure if I like it or not, or if I deserve it."

[Theyra]

"Chicago. Not the coldest place on Earth, but it does have a way of building up a guy's cold tolerance, especially sleeping in back alleys. And at worst, I do this."

Jack flexed his muscles and let a low current of electricity flow through him, careful to not let it arc and shock Ikram. It warmed his body better than any fire could, and Jack was once again grateful for the versatility of his powers.

"So, what's this "unofficial profession" you mentioned? Were you a merc or something? Totally fine if you were, a guy's gotta do what he has to do to survive. But, you've got me more than a little curious. Feel free to stay mum about it if you want."

"No, no, no, nothing like that. I was a more like an archaeologist, my clan is very much into preserving history and I have traveled around. Though I have met some mercs, on the opposite end of things as some of the magical artifacts my family was trying to find would fetch a good prize to shady individuals". The thoughts of the last two years made Ikram of dealing with mercs and trying in vain to find the ones would keep hiring them left him feeling bad. He spoke with discomfort, "I would rather not talk of that more since mercs have been more of a problem than normal for my family for some time. I had some close calls and..... I need to stop now. Just no more talk about this and let's talk about better things".

[Durmatagno]

Aria Liva

Aria broke away from everyone else to claim and begin working on her own room. Her time on the farm would probably help here, she didn't particularly care what room she got, she just made sure she would set up near Niki. With what amounted to a coin toss, Aria opened the door to one of her rooms and looked around. Most of the wood, including the door, needed to be replaced. The freeze-thaw cycle without proper maintenance had rotted it away pretty good, though such things would be fairly easy to get. Most of the metal seemed in decent condition, nothing to-.....

Aria stopped, freezing in place as she heard a primal, angry growling. From underneath the remains of the old bet, a pair of golden orbs glared out at her, and claw flashed out, warning her to back away. She slowly crouched, summoning her mana and some of the basic animal magic she knew, locking eyes with the beast. It slowly calmed, eventually a yellow and brown head poked out from under the bed, still wary but growing curious as Aria used her magic to slowly change it's attitude to her. An Asian Golden Cat, not exactly it's normal environment, but shelter was shelter, and it couldn't be picky. After a few more moments, Aria extended a calm hand, and the cat stepped forward some more, sniffing at her hand before growling and backing away again. It didn't claw or bite, could be worse. She'd never used this magic on something so....solitary, and wild, mostly just street animals.

She rose, keeping her eyes locked on the cat, and slowly set down her gear, she didn't want to startle it, but she also needed to get to work. After a moment, when it curled up, still watching her, but no longer angry or scared, she slowly shut the door behind her, and got to work on the opposite side of the room, saving what she could and scrapping the rest. Every now and then she sent another pulse of magic at the cat, probably using more than a better mage of this kind would, but so long as it worked, it worked. Besides, she'd never owned a cat, a twenty pound wildcat would be a good place to start. As the beast closed it's eyes,and went back to it's nap she'd interrupted, she opened the door to start moving junked furniture out, careful not to wake her soon to be tamed pet.

[Forest State]

Aureo Mercurius

“What’s not interesting when it comes to the heiress of one of the oldest families in the Holy Inquisition. Such a family may be below me, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t find it particularly… Interesting to observe, shall we say? I could say the same thing about you and your situation. Mainly, I mean that I find you amusing. That, and out of everyone here, you’re one of the few that cares about the more important things such as the art of magic or the goddess that grants this power in the first place. If I am going to remain here, I would much rather do it around someone like you than the rest,” said Aureo, while surveying the room. There was no bed, but that could be solved later. Moving one out of one of the unused dorm rooms would be possible, even if carrying it up the stairs would… Take some time.

Aureo set Gabriella down, desummoning the armor and allowing it to disappear along with the swords, so he was standing there in the leather jacket that he had been wearing before. He spun their positions so Gabriella was facing the wall, and backed her into it. Wasn’t hard, with the big disparity in size between them. One of his hands as he did so was placed on her hip, sliding under her skirt as he smirked. “And hey… I can probably help you with that problem of yours,” he stated, before stepping back and moving to get her things from the courtyard.

Reinheld

After the introductions, Reinheld headed to the dorms where the students would be staying, walking the halls to see if there was anything that needed to be tended to there. She was also wanting to talk to one student that she hadn’t been able to properly talk to before the introduction, and now was a decent time for that. She was looking for Aria, but she found that Aria was already busy with something, looking at a large cat. Well, that wasn’t going to discourage Reinheld.

She approached as quietly as an assassin, moving behind Aria and putting her arm around her neck in the way that a friend might, leaning on her after appearing out of nowhere. Reinheld was a confident one around strangers, that was for sure. “So,” she started, speaking in a low but deep voice. “You’re the one that’s been taking care of my baby?” she asked. She knew that Niki had likely told Aria of her, but on the other hand, she had remained in Russia rather than Canada and she had never actually met Aria. She was quite interested in seeing the one that Niki had grown up with, and hearing what that person knew of what her daughter had been like.

[Durmatagno]

Aira Liva

Aria didn't jump, if it had been someone out to get her she'd already be dead, but she still broke contact with the cat, it was pacified for now anyway, to turn her head and look at who was on her. Reinhild, not so surprising considering she'd talked about Aria 'taking care of her baby', which could only mean Niki's mother. Aria had heard a bit about her, and was still curious, having never met her herself. Aria chuckled quietly to not wake the cat.

"I helped her where I could, but I swear she's taken more care of me than I have her, had to heal me more times than I care to admit."

Aria had seen Reinhild earlier, assembled with the rest of the staff, but that didn't mean she'd gotten a good look at her, she'd been distracted by the other Marked showing up. Now was as good a time as any, even if what she knew about Reinhild, for instance being Niki's mother, made things a little more awkward.

"Besides, I did what any good friend would do for her."

[Lunas Legion]

Gabriella Sara Bianchi-Costa de Inferenza

She wasn't entirely sure what to say to that. She'd had her fair share of adjectives applied to her, most of them good, a few of them not so much, but amusing? She'd never been called amusing. She certainly wouldn't call it amusing, there was nothing funny about it, nothing at all. So she settled for glaring at the back of Aureo's head in annoyance instead, as if she was trying to bore a hole through it with the force of her glare.

And then she was finally set down on the floor, and she allowed herself to finally breathe a low breath of relief as Aureo disarmed himself. Well, at least he wasn't going to kill anyone soon. And then she was spun around, her back against the wall, one of his hands on her hip. She gave a faintly irritated glare up at him as he slid a hand under her skirt. She squirmed slightly before he stepped back and finally left. She would've objected more, but, well, it was probably best not to offend him too much.

And it wasn't every day you got to meet someone who showed quite literally every sign of being some form of divine herald from your goddess.

She stepped forwards, away from the all, sighing. She didn't want his help with her problems. She was doing just fine. Perfectly fine. Nothing at all was wrong.

[Lessoni]

"No, no, no, nothing like that. I was a more like an archaeologist, my clan is very much into preserving history and I have traveled around. Though I have met some mercs, on the opposite end of things as some of the magical artifacts my family was trying to find would fetch a good prize to shady individuals". The thoughts of the last two years made Ikram of dealing with mercs and trying in vain to find the ones would keep hiring them left him feeling bad. He spoke with discomfort, "I would rather not talk of that more since mercs have been more of a problem than normal for my family for some time. I had some close calls and..... I need to stop now. Just no more talk about this and let's talk about better things".

Jack, seeing he had hit a sensitive point, rushed to apologize.

"Oh jeez, I'm sorry man. Sounds rough. So... how did your family get into retrieving artifacts? Bit of an odd family business, if you don't mind me saying."

Jack internally cursed himself for avoiding most social contact in the past year. That was gonna come back to haunt him, he could already tell.

[Union Princes]

Samuel Storm

As she lead him to the room he was to clear, he couldn’t help but admire her from behind, she was beautiful, simply put.

“Don’t worry I’ll be careful” he said as he began to regulate his breathing.

Urging the mana to his finger tips, he sent several small controlled torrents of flames throughout the room, quickly burning away all the webbing and spiders.

“There you go, do you need help unpacking?” He asked her

"Oh, please." Sienna waved at him, "There's no need. I can do it myself." She placed her suitcase and her luggage bag on top of an old bed frame. "i suggest checking your room for any pests. I only have so much bug bite medicine to spare at the moment."

Sienna then examined the chipped floor, splintered walls, and the decaying paint in her chosen room. She huffed realizing that could not rest until the entire dorm was renovated with modern plumbing, ventilation, and electricity. But hey, at least they get to do a makeover with paint. Maybe I could install a skylight in the roof Sienna thought as she looked up at the fragile ceiling. It looked like it was ready to collapse any second now.

[Revlona]

Samuel Storm

Nodding to sienna as she basically thanked him and said she wouldn’t need any more help. She was warming to him, that was obvious, how warm Sam couldn’t guess.

“Welp, time to go make some more friends” he muttered to himself as he left Siennas room and made his way down the hall.

He stopped in front of a set of doors, he though her could hear muffled movement from one of the doors and decided to check it out.

Placing his hand on the doorknob he was about to enter when he thought better and knocked. “Hello? Is anyone in there?” He asked

[Lunas Legion]

Sahara Meads

Sahara's head jerked up as she heard a knock at the door, a faint voice on the other side. She rolled her eyes as she stood up, knocking over her still mostly-full rucksack as she did so. She wasn't going to get her clothes out of that, they lived in there. Her sleeping bag, still rolled up, was set down on the floor, a small assortment of random things she'd... 'Acquired' over the years forming a pile next to her rucksack. A bottle and a can opener, her Swiss Army knife and her so-called 'fighting' knife, a fleece that she wore inside her coat when it got really cold or wet or something, a few slightly rusty lockpicks.

It was all she needed really.

With a faint, under-her-breath growl of irritation she stood up, the floor creaking uneasily beneath her as she walked over, sliding the door open with an annoyed glare at the guy on the other side.

"What?"

[Revlona]

Samuel Storm

Sam jerked back a tiny bit in surprise as the door suddenly slid open and a white haired girl demanded what he wanted.

“Oh, sorry for bothering you, I was just wondering if you needed any help clearing the pests or anything else,” Sam said before his eyes slid past the girl into her room.

He noticed the small amount of personal things and decided that the girl must be used to living on the road.

“Uh, the names Sam by the way” he said