Lavina blushed at the comment of her having a nice voice and body
"How much did you see?"
She moved her arms in front of her as if to cover herself.
"I didn't think anyone could get in here, I've bathed here ever since I was a little girl and have never been disturbed once"
she looked over at the waterfall
"I guess of you want to bathe here I can't stop you, the water is refreshing."
she looked up at him
"Just please don't do anything to harm this place, the animals or the plants in it"
she started to moved as if she was going to head to the shore
"I'll leave so that you can bathe"

Xia looked at the man, and raised her brow slightly. "Uh...no." She replied, and walked towards the door. "I'll bring up something for you to eat, and a change of clothes." She looked at his dirty clothes. "I don't imagine you want to wear dirty clothes after a good rest and decent food. My name is Xia, by the way." She told him. "Mary is my foster mother, and Jim is my foster father." She added. "Don't worry, you'll be safe here." She added, then left the room, so he could get some sleep.

"I saw enough. Don't worry, I'm not a pervert - I'm prone to nosebleeds," Memoire admitted.
"And please, don't leave. I'd like to talk - been a while since I've seen a friendly face that doesn't want to secretly kill me."
He gave her a puppy dog big-blue-eyed look. "Please? I promise I won't damage anything, I've just been, well... a bit lonely."

Riastrad smiled a genuine tired smile.
"Thanks, Xia. I... appreciate...zzz..."
He went out like a light.

There was a puddle of water directly below the angels, and a drop did the reverse of what drops were meant to do - it fell upwards, hitting Animus in the nose.

Lavina blushed when he said he saw enough.
"Why would someone want to kill you?"
she tilted her head slightly and started to back to the shore
"I will stay if you wish, but I will allow you the water to yourself and sit at the shore with my back turned so that you can bathe. It would be rude of me to watch"

"OUCH!" Before Animus had any time to process what just happened, Alma grabbed him and took flight - as far away from any source of water she can manage.

"Facio! Cover my rear!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Hao-! Hao-! What do I do?! What do i do?!?!"
Ubi looked frantically at the chaos. She eventually took off in flight as fast as she could.

"Animus! Pay attention!"

"Huh?!"

"The enemy has the ability to hide in water! How will we take it out?"

"Umm...! Umm...!"
Animus was floating in the air look at the ground below him. All he saw was water. In jars, buckets, puddles in the streets, there seemed to be no escape. Does going any higher help at all? Can the enemy still strike this high? He could definitely imagine it. But how do we take out an enemy who lives in the water? Is it some spirit? Is it organic? How do we weed out? That's when it hit him. Whether it's a spirit, or an organic lifeform, it has to be susceptible to something. Water conducts electricity, and it's highly improbable that whatever is in the water will also be immune to it.
"Alma! Send a lightning bolt into every water source where that thing is!"

"I can't use magic Animus! You know that!"

Damn! I forgot she can't use magic! What about...?
"Fassy! You do it!"

"Huh?! Me?! Y-yeah I can do it!"
She held out her sword pointing at the area where the thing is still lurking in the water. A ball of electricity started forming at the tip of her sword, then...
"Fulgur Inflictum!"
The ball shot out of her sword, making her recoil back and do a backflip in the air before regaining her balance. The ball of lightning struck the area with a BZZ! and all of the water started crackling lightning.

What ever that thing is, it has to be down and out for us to observe.
"Hold on! Wait for movement!"

Alma saw Animus' nose bleeding. She smiled softly and took out a handkerchief. She whipped his nose like wiping a baby's mouth. Animus softly gasped under his breath as Alma rubbed his bloody nose.
"There, all better."

Abiron was starting to get tired of Vincent at this point. He had gone out of his way to make a contract with him and he was doing nothing with it. "Hey, Vince. Remind me again what it was you wanted me for? Because if I recall it wasn't so that way you could walk around and do nothing." Vincent stopped and looked at the ground and grabbed a big stick, ignoring Abiron's whining and continued deeper into the forest. "Hey! Are you ignoring me!? You know I just don't give contracts out right!? If you don't get started then-" "Abiron just shut up. I know what I'm doing. You told me that the more you kill the stronger your magic becomes, right? There is a group of elves and Filthborn that live in this very forest." Vincent said kneeling down and drawing some kind of circle in the dirt. "I thought that I'd use your magic to cast a dark shadow over the forest and then have you kill them. Sounds fun right?" Abiron started to laugh. "I guess I had you wrong the whole time Vincent. Never thought you'd be a racist." A grin appeared on Vincent's face. "No Abiron. I just hate everyone." He said casting the magic, creating a dark shadow over the forest.

Xia turned and closed the door, and walked downstairs.
"Xia!" Mary called from the kitchen.
Xia walked into the kitchen, and was handed a plate of food for their guest. "He's sleeping." She said as she took the plate and looked at Mary.
"Then leave it on the table beside the bed." Mary replied. "He can eat it when he wakes up."
"I suppose Jim and I aren't going hunting anymore?" Xia looked at the plate.
"He's going to catch some fish for the next few days." Mary replied. "You two can hunt another day." She added.
Without saying another word, Xia turned and walked back upstairs. She opened the door to her room, and placed the plate of food on the table, then left the room, closing the door behind her.

"Hey! Beatrice! Wait up!" Arthénive panted. The distance between the filth born on the road and the exit of the forest was wider than she had guessed, and her deciding to run the entire distance didn't help at all. "Could you at least warn me before you go flying off like that?"

Arthénice looked at the filthborn. It appeared to be male, but wasn't exactly the same as her textbooks had described. In a way, he reminded her of one of her old pets, which only lasted about three weeks each, for Arthénice was terrible at taking care of other living things.

"He said his name is Varfolomei Kami ski! Doesn't he just look like an incredibly powerful figure?! I mean look at his tough, strong skin, his large , impressive stature!..." Beatrice continued to rattle on about Varfolomei for several seconds before Arthénice was able to catch her breath. "Hello sir." She said, using her most cultured, noble voice. "I am embarking on an adventure to seek someone who I would like to share a few words with. I was wondering if you knew the fastest way to get to the capital." Beatrice began to float around the Varfo, observing his every move with an almost indecent obsession.

Before Varfo could speak, the wind suddenly began to pick up. A howling gaze blowing all through the area, the sheer force of the wind making it nearly impossible to hear any form of conversation. "Must be some sort of Wind Spirit trying to have some fun." Beatrice said. Arthénice made a gesture with her hands that essentially meant, "One second, I'm going to deal with this." Before pulling out her butterfly knife and turning towards the direction of the gale. Using her eyes of death perception, she cleanly and swiftly cut through the gale, killing it and making it disappear almost instantly. Despite only having her contracted ability for about seven hours, it was oblivious that Arthénice was incredibly skilled with her blade.

Putting away her knife, Arthénice fixed her hair slightly and turned back to Varfolomei. "I'm very sorry for that. Please, as you were saying?"


OOT: the computer code for the 'é' is ALT0233

The woman took out her knife and began slashing the air with it. Varfolomei wasn't sure what she was doing at all, perhaps she was mimicking Varfolomei? Humans can be weird sometimes. Then, Varfolomei remembered her saying that she was also going to the capital. Varfolomei replied with excitement.

"You go to Capital too? I know way to Capital, fast way to capital! I have map in head, I memorize map. Having no hand make map reading hard."

He gave out a laugh which sounded similar to a geese honk.

"Follow, I take you to capital. We travel...together?"

Then, Varfolomei also noticed that the woman seemed tired and out of breath.

"You tired? I carry, Varfolomei strong like bull."

Varfolomei turned his back to the girl and crouched down low enough for her to be able to get on his back.

Memoire rolled his eyes.
"I don't just want to bathe. I also wanted to see what the wall was for. And I'm kinda lonely, for similar reasons to the whole "people trying to kill me" thing." He lay back on the air, relaxing like it was a bed, and sank slowly into the warm water without removing his clothes, which were spotless anyway.
"I don't get to talk to people often, and elves in particular not at all. So... I would kinda like some conversation. Tell me about yourself... if you don't mind," he said, trying not to sound too needy.

The waters may have been crackling with electricity, but it was not just limited to water.
The blood on Animus's handkerchief suddenly bubbled and moved around as a big oozing droplet - then shot straight up Animus's nose where it had come from.

Riastrad slept peacefully, too tired to awake for a while.

"Tell you about myself"
at first Lavina didn't take notice of it getting dark, she assumed it was just a could passing by
"Well...I...."
With it getting darker and darker she then looked up and noticed the dark shadow her eye grew wide
"Somethings not right, I..I have to go"
she started swimming as fast as she could towards the shore as she climbed out her bare backside showed but she quickly grabbed her clothes and slipped them on, pulling her long hair out of her shirt. She looked over at Memoire
"I'm terribly sorry but I must go, something isn't right and I have to go find out what it is"
she picked up her cloak and threw it over herself

The sounds of screams could be heard in the distance. Abiron was cutting the Elves and Filthborn down one by one. "Is this seriously all you can do!? I thought this was gonna be more of a challenge!" Abiron shouted as a Fithborn ran up behind him ready to attack him. Sudden darkness weld up from under the Filthborn and engulfed him. The last thing heard from him was his screaming getting cut off. Abiron was feeling alive again as he cut down each Elf and Filthborn, feeling himself becoming more and more powerful. "Come on! Is this the best you all can do!? I'm only warming it!" Abiron shouted ending it with a powerful laugh.

"I'd be delighted to have you as a companion, Mr. Varfolemi." Arthénice said, performing as deep a curtsy as she could, trying to show respect. "It would be better if you shook his hand. In fact, could you let me possess you and shake his hand? Could you? Could you?!" Beatrice continued to berate Arthénice. As her possession only worked when both parties were in agreement, the end result was Beatrice pressing her face against Arthénice's. 

Of course, because Varfolemi couldn't see or hear Beatrice, it simply appeared as if Arthénice was yelling and punching at the air. "I'm sorry, my name is Arthénice de Rousseau. I'm a noblewoman from a small estate deep in those forests, I'd be happy to join you on your way to the Capital, but could you tell me more about yourself?" Beatrice began to bounce around excitedly in a way that wasn't fit for the forgotten war hero that she was. Regardless, Arthénice had taken a strange interest in Varfolemi.

Memoire rose from the water and flew after her, looking interested.
"What's happening? Is something wrong?" He couldn't resist a slight wolf whistle as elvish booty paraded for his view, then noticed the darkness and focused. "Gonna guess it's not simply night time all of a sudden..."

The blood drop wriggled with fright and exploded a bit, as the entity responsible for the manipulation vanished into the drains and into the sewers, having sampled the blood and having the necessary information for it's mistress.

Nearly dusk, Xia began to clean up a few things around the house. After finishing up downstairs, she went up stairs to grab another book to read from her room. She opened her bedroom door, and realized that she had almost forgotten about their guest. She quietly walked over to the small bookshelf, and ran her index fingers over the spines of the books, while she decided which book she would read.

Lavina ignored the whistle she was more focused on the screams of her people and terror came upon her
"I-It cant be..but how?"
she looked up at Memoire and shook her head
"no its not, something is causing this darkness and whatever it is, is attacking my people"
she gave him a apologetic look
"I'm sorry but I must go"
she grabbed her staff and started running into the woods. the tree limbs, vines, and plants parted as she ran through them. She ran as fast as she could until she was in her village. There was blood everywhere, she could still hear the screams and decided to follow them hoping it would lead her to the cause of this. After a few moments she was standing before the man that was brutally murdering her people. She tapped her staff on the ground causing vines to come up and wrap themselves around the man hoping for it to keep him in place.
"Why are you doing this to my people...STOP PLEASE"
she begged

"Come on! Is this the best you can do!?" Abiron shouted as he cut down another Elf. "Where's the challenge!?" As he shouted this he heard a voice from behind him yelling at him to stop. Without turning to face the voice he said "If all it took for me to stop was someone telling me to, no one here would be dead b-" Before he could finish he felt something wrap around his arms and legs, binding him in place. "What the-!?" Abiron struggled to get himself free but was unable to and stopped.

Lavina closed her eyes for a moment and breathed a sigh of relief that she was able to stop him. She then opened her eyes and gulped then started walking towards him moving in front of him in order for him to see her. She kept her distance in case he managed to snap the vines. She then asked again this time with a stern voice
"Why are you doing this? Why are you killing my people?"
she looked around at all the bloodshed
"We don't do anything to hurt anyone, but yet we are constantly being attacked by people like yourself. Please I beg you dont kill any more, we only want peace and to be able to lie our lives just like anyone else"

Abiron's face showed no anger. When Lavina looked at him, he was grinning like a madman. "Getting this close to me was a mistake." When Abiron said that a shadowed hand came out from under him and wrapped itself around her neck. "Hahahahahahaha!!! You idiot! Do you even think? Did you think this darkness was natural or something? This is MY shadow magic! I cast this darkness so I could make it stronger!" Abrion had an look of pleasure across his face. "And to answer your question, my dear, it was because I was bored."

Lavina had dropped her staff as the hand wrapped itself around her neck. She tried to grab ahold of it to pull it off.
"Stop ...please, I'll give you anything... money... land. whatever you want. Just stop hurting my people"
she used her free hand to control the vines hoping pulling him down would release the hand on her neck
"My father rules these lands and can grant you any wish.... Just please let me go and stop killing our people"

"Hey. You."
Memoire walked towards Albiron, his face stern and bordering on angry.
"How about you stop right now, hmm? I don't think you want to get hurt now, do you?"

Riastrad turned and growled in his sleep, cursing and swearing.

Scylla analysed the data Charybdis had brought her.
"The power to control angels," she mused, as Charybdis danced in her cup. "Interesting. He would be an asset to... use."
That said, she rose and moved about Theseus Mansion, the second largest building in the kingdom - the largest being Yushen Citadel, the home of the royal family - and made sure her affairs were in order. "Charybdis, see if that elf girl has come out yet. I'd be interested." Obediently, the water drop jumped from her cup into the river that naturally flowed under her mansion, and away it went.

Abiron looked Memoire and scoffed. "Don't you tell me what to do human." Abiron looked at Lavina and walked over to her but before he could make it he stumbled a bit and grabbed him head. "Shit... I took too much time..." The magic on Lavina dispelled and Abiron collapsed and fell to the ground. God damn it, I screwed up. Wasn't expecting this to happen. Looks like you have your work cut out for you Vincent.