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(DF)Immeral, the Story of an Aura Reader

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8/29/2011 7:27:24   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider


 Discussion Thread

An Aura Reader


In a hut in a small village, cries of agony were heard. People would occasionally look up from their work and towards the birthing hut. Some would comment on how long this labor was as this was not a new mother and her labors were usually brief. Others would make sympathetic comments on the mother’s pain. After six hours, a small eternity in the villager’s eyes, the mid-wife exited the building and was promptly surrounded by people, both young and old, who were eager to hear about the new-born.

“It is a girl,” midwife, an old woman who was turned to when people were in need of wisdom, announced. “Unfortunately, the joy of a new life is marred by her blindness,” she added sadly. What should have been a joyous occasion was entwined with sadness, as a handicap such as this could easily give the girl, who was named Immeral, a difficult time as she aged.


Five Years Later


“It doesn’t make sense,” two girls, roughly twelve years old, were whispering to each other. “Immeral's completely blind. She should be stumbling into every obstacle in her way. So why is it that she knows her way around the village at least as well if not better than everyone else?”

“And what’s with her strange way of speaking? If she says ‘You’re an orange spiral’ one more time, I will hurt her.”

“Do you realize I can hear you both?” Immeral said, looking up from where she was sitting a few feet away. “And can I help it that every time I look in your direction you look like an orange spiral?”

“That’s it you little-”

“Hush.” The village wise-woman exited her hut and walked over. I have spent the last several years reading the old tomes in search for an answer to Immeral’s strange way of speaking and her ability to walk unhindered despite her physical handicap.

“Immeral, when you look at me, what do you see?”

“She can’t see anything. She’s blind,” one of the girls said.

“Hush!” The woman, who’s name was Myra, said. “I was asking Immeral. Now look carefully at me and tell me everything you see.”

Immeral looked at Myra and after about two minutes spoke.

“You’re a lilac spiral with silver interlinked,” she said. “Only it’s not as large as when I look at other villagers. It’s like it’s inside some sort of flame.”

“Good. And what do you see when you look at that dog?” Myra asked, pointing to a dog about three yards away.

“White wings,” Immeral said.

“Are you stupid?” One of the girls asked. “Everyone knows that dogs don’t have wings.”

“If you two can’t keep quiet, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” Myra said. “This is important for Immeral. One more thing for you to look at, and I want you to look long and hard. That tree over there. What do you see?”

“It’s a lot of white petals. Surrounding the tree,” she said after a moment’s glance.

“Anything else?” Myra asked.

“No, what should I-wait,” Immeral said, looking to the left of the tree Myra had pointed to. “That tree. The petals are silver instead of white. All of the other trees have white petals except for that one.”

“Then what I read in the tomes is correct,” Myra said. “You, Immeral, are an Aura Reader. You can see the auras of every living and non-living thing. This is why you’ve never had a problem finding your way around despite your physical blindness.”

“But what about all of the other things? The shapes and colors?” Immeral asked.

“Little is known on Aura Readers and even less is known about what they see. But what is known is that all auras are different, and aura readers can use those differences to identify what they are looking at. None would ever say exactly what it was they saw, but they would say that the color of the aura, with time using their gifts and understanding what they say, would tell them the emotion and even intent of the humans they looked at. The silver that you saw is the one color that they would give information on. Every silver aura is an aura that, to a small degree, can be manipulated. The more silver in an aura, the more that aura can be manipulated by the Reader. The silver tree you saw, it and its kind will become very important to you in time.”

“What can I do with this ability?” Immeral asked.

“That I do not know. You will have to learn and find out the extent of what you can do on your own. But I do know that you will learn and grow. In a few years you will very likely leave this village. Spend those years learning or once you leave, you will most certainly die.”

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 8/29/2011 17:37:56 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 1
8/29/2011 17:39:59   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
True Potential


As time passed, Immeral learned that her gift was largely dependent on her trusting her instincts. No one else in the village saw things the way she did, so she had to teach herself. She sarted with identifying every shape and color she saw around the village. She learned that human auras were in the shape of a spiral, animal auras are in the shape of wings, and every plant had an aura the shape of petals.

The colors identified emotions and intents, which is why plants and animals never had a color to them. All plants and animals had the same intentions--to survive. It was the human auras that were difficult for her to place she had been practicing every day and three years later still had trouble identifying emotions and intentions. When a person was just feeling one thing, or even two things, it wasn’t difficult. But most human auras were a myriad of colors and identifying the one that the person was primarily feeling proved to be more of a challenge than she thought it would be.

The one aspect of her gift that she found invaluable was the silver trees, or what she called aura trees. She remembered Myra telling her that a silver aura was one she could manipulate, and one day when she focused on the aura of the tree and willed it to move towards her, the branches of the tree itself echoed the movement, despite their being no wind at the time.

“Well it’s not much, but it’s a start,” Immeral said to herself. When she walked over to the tree, she saw a twig that had broken off of one of the branches. When she concentrated on it, for a period of a few minutes, the branch moved ever so slightly. She was determined to make the twig bend to her will every time with only a small amount of concentration.

About a week after discovering that branches and even leaves from the aura tree could move according to her will, she made a discovery. Completely on accident. She wasn’t exempt from her gift of seeing auras. Hers was usually silver, meaning her own aura could be manipulated, though she wasn’t sure why she would want to manipulate her own aura. But when she practiced her gift she saw it would turn the grey of confusion, or the orange and grey of frustration. One time, when practicing with the same twig as before, she accidentally focused too hard and saw some of her own silver aura enter it. She suddenly found the twig easy to manipulate, but she wondered if losing some of her aura was dangerous. After about ten minutes of focus, she managed to extract her aura from the twig.

“Myra,” she called, walking over to the old woman, “I need a favor from you. It’s important.”

“I will do what you need,” Myra said, sitting down.

“Thanks,” Immeral said with a grateful smile. She then focused on Myra’s aura and willed it to move. Much to her surprise the twig, which she kept with her all the time, shot forward went past Myra’s left shoulder, absorbing some of her aura as it did so, and returned to her. The second Immeral touched it, information on her aura flooded her mind. The purple of serenity, and the gold of surprise primarily. After a few moments of focus, she returned Myra’s aura to her and walked away with whispered apologies. Looking down at her hand she saw a new color in her aura--the teal of shame.

For the next few days Immeral was to ashamed, and afraid, of her abilities as an Aura Reader to practice with it. But once Myra explained that it was a natural ability of aura readers and could very well save her life in the years to come, she accepted it as part of what she could do and continued practicing.

During the festival of the fall equinox, a band of travelers came to the village, asking if they could rest for a couple of days from their traveling. Immeral tried to study their auras but couldn’t manage to look at them for more than a moment. If she tried to read them for more than two minutes she got a headache. A minute longer and she felt ill.

During the meal she finally understood what the auras were telling her.

“They’re going to rob what little we have of value!” Immeral cried out. The villagers told her to be quiet and stop insulting their guests. Then they apologized to the travelers.

“Forgive Immeral. She is but a child and has an active imagination,” the village leader, named Tom, said.

“Quite all right. Completely understandable,” one of the travelers, a mage by the look of him, said with a grin.


The Next Morning


The next morning woke the villagers with a scream from one of the women.

“Thieves! They took all of our gold and left while we slept!”

Whispers of ‘Immeral was right’ went around the village, and then the men and women who were able followed the trail left behind by the travelers. They returned that night with what they had managed to recover of their valuable items. It was only a fraction of what they had before, but it was better than nothing. While the villagers discussed what they could do to trade for at least the equivalent of what was lost back, Immeral climbed to one of the lower branches of the aura tree. For the first time she realized what she could truly do with her gift if she could learn everything there was.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 8/29/2011 17:40:30 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 2
8/30/2011 20:38:39   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
A New Weapon


Six months after they were robbed and Immeral was much better at identifying auras. In her village she could identify the person just by his or her aura as well as know what mood he or she was in. The only thing she was still having trouble with was manipulating the aura tree. She found that if she infused even a little of her aura in the small branch that fell off a few weeks prior when the twig she usually practiced with was accidentally destroyed, it would bend to her will with barely any concentration, but if she didn’t do so she was lucky if the branch would so much as twitch.

A few weeks later the village bully decided to take advantage of her blindness. Most people didn’t believe that she could actually see, just in her own way, and some would take advantage of it. Not having any escape route she willed for the aura tree to defend her. Without thinking about it or realizing it, her aura was infused inside the branch and flew towards the boy. It landed vertically in the ground and, much to her and everyone’s surprise, formed a barrier of aura. It only lasted a moment, but it was long enough for the boy, a kid about her age named Luke, to be taken away by his parents.

Immeral, in something of a trance, willed the branch to return to her, catching it on autopilot. An idea was starting to form in her mind. She looked at the ground around her from her position under the aura tree. Several branches had broken off in a recent storm. She stood up and walked to the weaponsmith. A famous man who allegedly started his own town not too long ago named Yulgar who was paying them a visit.

“May I have a bowstring?” Immeral asked him, somewhat shy around the kindly man, if only because he was new and famous.

“Here you go,” Yulgar said, giving her a bowstring and then turning back to his weapons.

“Thank you,” Immeral said, darting back to the tree. She found a branch that was able to bend and bent it into the shape of a bow, tying the string off in the notches she made with a small knife Myra gave her in the event anyone tried to give her trouble. It was too small to be of any use in protecting her, but it served the purpose she needed. Then she gathered up some sturdy branches that weren’t too thick and, after asking an archer for some spare feathers and string--and a moment of confusion as the archer laughed at her for calling it simple string--settled back down and with painstaking care started working.

Despite never having made an arrow before, she found it strangely easy. It was almost as if the branches themselves were guiding her hands as she made the arrows. The very last thing she did after making her arrows was infusing them all with her aura and doing the same to the bow for good measure. Then she realized with dismay that she didn’t have a quiver for her arrows. She decided to worry about that later and practice with her new weapon.

“I see the archers do it all the time. It shouldn’t be too difficult,” she said with confidence as she walked towards the practice grounds.

She had never been so wrong in her life. The arrow fit into the bowstring easily enough, but when she went to draw it back, her arm started shaking and the string barely moved. Even willing it to bend by using her aura wasn’t enough. When she finally got the bowstring pulled back as far as she could, her arm was shaking so badly it snapped back to it’s original position unexpectedly and so quickly it struck her arm, leaving a painful welt, and the arrow was lost somewhere.

“You’ve never used a bow before, have you,” the master archer said, walking towards her. “Though I admit, I admire your determination,” he added, looking at her arm. He put a salve on it and then told her to put on bracers. “An archer’s best friend,” he said with a smile. “When the bowstring is released it will always snap back like it did just now. Bracers protect your arm from the bowstring.” He gave her a set of bracers and showed her how to put them on. “You’ll need new ones as you grow, but these will serve you for now. I’ll teach you how to use a bow and arrow, Immeral, if you’ll tell me what interest a blind girl has in archery.”

“Because if I can master it, it will keep me safe,” Immeral said. “Watch.” With that, she focused on the arrow returning to her and caught it once it had done so. She then showed the master archer the barrier that had given her the idea earlier.

“Myra said you’d be able to do stranger things than simply tell our mood or that strangers are intent on robbing us,” the master, named Kain said. “Well, then, let’s get started. Your first lesson: how to properly draw your bow.”

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 1/22/2012 17:21:44 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 3
9/1/2011 20:29:38   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
Training


Training under Kain was perhaps the most brutal thing she had gone through in her life. For the first several weeks he seemed to have forgotten he was teaching archery entirely. He had her run laps around the grounds to make her legs stronger. And then he would have her do push-ups until she collapsed to the ground to strengthen her arms. Then he would bring her to a tree with low-enough branches and have her do pull-ups to strengthen different muscles in her arms. Finally, after four months of this he had her pick up her bow and draw the bowstring back. She almost wished he was still making her do physical exercises.

He was constantly correcting her stance and the position of her hands and arms. He would make her draw the bowstring and then hold the position for minutes at a time, until her arms were shaking and she was sure her hand would slip from the bowstring, only to have to repeat the process again moments later.

Six months after he started teaching her and she was finally told to nock an arrow and fire at a target, she was relieved because she knew she could hit the bulls-eye without difficulty. She could, but when Kain realized in an instant that she had guided the arrow to the target, he had her draw back the bowstring and hold it until she was told to relax. The process was repeated for what felt like hours.

“Guiding the arrow to the target isn’t going to teach you anything,” Kain told her once she was finally able to rest. “Only guide the arrow when you absolutely have to. Let the soreness in your arms be a lesson, Immeral. They didn’t have to be so sore, you brought it upon yourself.” He then replaced the arrows she had made from the aura tree with arrows she couldn’t manipulate and told her she would get her own arrows back at the end of the day.

Immeral was stubborn and strong-willed, but she wasn’t a fool. She knew that if she tried to guide the arrow to the target again once she got her own arrows back she would be put through this punishment. Lesson learned, she nocked an arrow, aimed as carefully as she could, and fired. The arrow wasn’t even close to the bulls-eye. It wasn’t even close to the target.The first arrow she fired went above the target, she second one, much to her surprise, shot underneath it. That was the pattern for the first day. Most of her arrows missing the target and occasionally hitting the very edges of it.

For the next four months, it seemed to be the same every time she took aim at a target. Missing most of the time and a rare hit on the edge. Kain, seeing her frustration at he apparent lack of progress pointed out that she was hitting the target most of the time and the arrows that did miss weren’t missing by as much. At the very end of practice after four months and two weeks, she finally hit near the center of the target. Her improvement from that point with the bow was slow, but it was also consistent.

Ten months after she fired an arrow for the first time under Kain, and four months after her first success at almost hitting the center, she was hitting the center of the target consistently and Kain seemed to be pleased. Then aft the end of one of his lessons, he told her to sit down as he had something to tell her.

“Immeral, you’re as proficient with a bow and arrow as you’ll ever be at this point. The only thing that could help you improve is regular practice,” he told her. “Now for you to move on to the second half of your training.” Inwardly Immeral was dismayed to hear this, certain that he was going to spend another six months under the brutal physical training.

The next day he met her at the practice grounds and then took her inside the building where he made his archery tools. For the next several hours he explained in detail each tool and pieces of equipment and what it was used for and then explained in detail the tools that were used to make them. Then he told Immeral to repeat everything he had just told her and when she messed up repeated the entire explanation. At the end of the day, when she finally was able to tell him what each and every tool was and then how it was made twice, he took her out to the grounds so she could practice her archery skills.

The next day he again led Immeral into his shop for a review of what she learned the day before and then took her into the forest. He then taught her everything he could about hunting, a process that took her roughly a month to master. After she had mastered hunting and skinning an animal, he taught her how to prepare the hide for further uses, primarily making bracers and a quiver as that was his reason for teaching her how to hunt.

Remembering everything there was to know about how to properly prepare the hide and then make what she needed from it took her another five months to gain competency in and another six to gain proficiency. Kain then taught her how to properly make a bow and arrows, which took far less time as she had made arrows from the aura tree multiple times since during the process of becoming proficient with a bow and arrow many arrows broke and needed replaced. Two years after beginning to learn under Kain, she had learned what she needed to and started learning something else: how to properly use her aura reading abilities.

While physically training with her aura was simple, mentally it was exhausting. She again found a small branch from the aura tree and, without infusing her aura into it, tried to bend it to her will. For the first month the branch barely twitched, which reminded her just how long it had been since she used her gift as an aura reader to do more than aim at a target and not hurt herself when using a knife. Abandoning the branch for the time being, she went back to the basics of her gift, identifying an aura.

Her two years under Kain taught her the importance of repeating an action multiple times and she brought that same practice into her aura reading. She would look at a crowd of people and, with a great deal of concentration isolate one individual aura. After she had one aura isolated, she would focus on it and identify each individual color, identify the meaning of the colors, and then determine which of the colors was the strongest which identified what the person was feeling. The last thing she did was study the aura and, by identifying the different feeling it gave her, identify the person who’s aura she was studying.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 1/22/2012 17:30:19 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 4
9/4/2011 1:30:02   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
A New Friend


Eleven years passed and Immeral had grown from a child who barely knew anything about what she was capable of to a person who had learned a great deal about her gifts. The problem was she knew there were still dozens of things she hadn’t learned yet and remaining in her small village wouldn’t teach her anything anymore. She had learned all her village could teach her and Myra had been hinting for the past few weeks that it was time for her to leave and learn what the actual world had to teach her.

Immeral, finally deciding to take the hint, packed her things, made certain she had enough arrows in case of emergencies, and started walking. She had heard that there was a town called ‘Falconreach’ and as most of the people who stayed at her home said they were from there or were visiting there, it seemed like a good starting point.

After roughly a week of walking, and berating herself for not asking where Falconreach was before leaving, Immeral saw someone strange. It was a woman who would look like an average human were her aura not a circle. Immeral reached for an arrow out of caution, but then noticed that the aura was the purple of happiness, and and also had the turquoise of good, so she probably wasn’t a threat.

“Hi. I’m Melissa, the purple paint fairy,” the woman said.

“I know you’re purple," Immeral said.

“I guess the purple clothing gives it away,” Melissa said with an amused laugh.

“Actually, I’m completely blind,” Immeral admitted. “I’ve been able to see auras of everyone and everything for my entire life and yours is purple. Which means happiness. Though there’s also blue, which is joy. Meaning you’re generally a very happy person with good intentions.”

“Well I’d hope so,” Melissa said. “The worst I do is paint random things purple with my purple sissy Mritha.”

“I have something of an odd request, as well as a question,” Immeral said. “The only thing I’ve seen of myself is my aura. Could you tell me what I look like?”

“Sure,” Melissa said. “You’re about my height, so roughly 5’6, and you have black hair that goes just past your shoulders.”

“Thanks,” Immeral said. “Most people only comment on how I’m blind, I’ve never actually asked anyone what I looked like.”

“Glad to help,” Melissa said. “I enjoy helping people. You also had a question?”

“Yea. Which way is Falconreach?”

“I’m actually headed that way. I’ll walk with you,” Melissa said.

“Thanks, Melissa,” Immeral said with a grateful smile.

“Everyone calls me Mel.”

“Mel it is.”

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 1/22/2012 17:33:24 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 5
9/6/2011 23:33:44   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
War


Thanks to Melissa’s help, Immeral made it to Falconreach safely and discovered that her new friend had an almost unhealthy obsession with purple. She also learned that if she didn’t want to be hit with fairy dusts it was wise to stay on her good side.

When she got to Falconreach she stood there in shock. She had heard that Falconreach was an overall happy town. But everywhere she heard and saw evidence of fighting. People were crying in pain as they fell, and others were making...things that at least used to be human fall. Instead of the normal spiral of a human, these spirals were broken, a thing she had only seen once before when someone in her village died. In the sky she saw an aura she had never seen before. It was a fang. The odd thing was, it was broken in the same way the auras of the broken spirals, skeletons, were. After a moment, she identified it as a dragon. Or at least something that used to be a dragon.

“What’s happening here?” She breathed, not even sure she could be heard.

“Haven’t you heard? There’s a war going on,” someone said, walking so quickly he was almost running over to her.

His was the strangest aura Immeral had seen yet. It was the spiral of a human, but it had the wings of an animal mixed with it.

“Hi, my name’s Therril Oreb,” he said, offering a hand.

“A human-animal?” Immeral asked in confusion.

“I shapeshift into a raven,” Therril said. “How did you know?”

“She’s an aura reader, Raven,” Melissa said. “She knows a lot of things you wouldn’t expect.”

“Oh, hi, Melissa,” Therril said, smiling and waving in greeting.

“You two know each other?” Immeral asked, mentally kicking herself for stating the obvious.

“Yea. We’re in a clan known as the Beacons of Hope.”

“Oh,” Immeral said. “So what was this about a war?”

“Someone named Sepulchure has raised an army of millions of undead,” Therril explained. “Now we’re trying to defeat him so we can keep Lore safe. Sorry, what was your name?”

“Immeral.”

“Well, I hate to be rude, Immeral, but we need to get back to the war. I only took a break to greet Melissa. You should probably get inside where it’s safe.”

“I can help,” Immeral said.

“No offense, but you’re not a fighter,” Therril said.

Without warning, Immeral brought up her bow, nocked an arrow, and let it fly, destroying a skeleton that had been charging up to Therril before returning to her waiting hand.

“I may be blind, but I’m a better shot than most people who can see, and that’s without using my aura to guide the arrow,” Immeral said. “And it looks like you could use the help.” Therril nodded, though it was somewhat reluctantly, and the three of them ran to the battlefield.

Hours later, Immeral, Therril, Melissa, and someone Immeral had met between battles named Alanna were taking shelter inside Serenity’s inn.

“You all right, Immeral? You look a little pale,” Melissa said in concern.

“I’m fine,” Immeral said weakly before promptly losing what little she had eaten in between battles, the same time she met Alanna.

“Killing someone is never easy,” Melissa said understandingly. “Your reaction isn’t uncommon,” she added, looking towards a young guardian who was still training who was also losing his lunch in a nearby patch of grass.

“Here,” Alanna said, handing Immeral a little food. “Believe it or not it helps.”

Immeral smiled gratefully as she carefully ate the food. “So Alanna, I didn’t get the chance to talk to you and learn any more than your name. And I’m curious as to why your aura has a book as well as the staff of a mage in it. I’ve only recently learned that I can identify the type of magic or fighting a person uses inside their auras, but I’ve never seen a book inside of an aura.”

“It’s because I’m a Loremaster,” Alanna said. “I know the lores of Lore and books can speak to me. I have two types of magic. My Loremaster magic, and then my other magic. That’s probably why you’re seeing two types when you look at me.”

“Interesting. Thanks for-” Immeral broke off mid-sentence and all the color left her face as she looked towards the dragon, who she learned was named Fluffy.

“What’s wrong?” Alanna asked, following her gaze. “Sepulchure,” she said angrily, noticing that Melissa and Therril looked just as angry.

“Immeral, what’s wrong?” Melissa asked in concern.

“His aura,” Immeral said weakly. “I’ve never seen so much black and maroon, hatred and evil, in an aura.” After a few moments Immeral’s color returned to her face as she held an arrow in her hand.”

“Don’t,” Melissa said. “Even if you could hit him at this distance, he’ll kill you.” After a moment, Immeral nodded slowly and replaced her arrow.

“Eventually,” she said, “he’ll come down. And when he does my arrows will be ready.”

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 1/22/2012 17:38:09 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 6
9/30/2011 14:57:06   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
A Little on Aura Reading


After countless more battles, Immeral was taking another few moments to rest, physically exhausted from aiming her bow and arrows so many times and mentally exhausted from focusing her aura so as not to hit anyone she didn’t want to and so that she could return her arrows to her.

“I haven’t felt this bad since I was first learning archery,” she said to Melissa, carefully stretching her arms. “My arms feel like jelly. Fortunately if I have to I can simply tell the arrows to go towards my target and be guaranteed to hit, but the last time I used my aura reading abilities this much I passed out from over-exhaustion.”

“Everyone needs to rest at some point,” Melissa said, a sentiment that was echoed by Therril and Alanna as they came over and sat down, offering the two food and drink that they had picked up on the way.” Immeral smiled gratefully and ate slowly, surprised that she was able to move her arms at all.

“Well at the moment I don’t have much choice,” Immeral said with a shrug. “I doubt I’ll be able to pull back my bowstring and I doubt I can do much more than simply read auras without passing out at this point.” She shakily brought her hands up and massaged her temples, the strain of using her gift having given her a headache.

“What’s it like seeing auras?” Melissa asked curiously, sprinkling some dust over Immeral to relieve her headache.

“What’s it like not seeing them?” Immeral asked, smiling gratefully at Melissa. “I’ve only ever seen auras, so I don’t know what it’s like not to and I can’t imagine not seeing auras, I’ve seen them for so long. I’m techincally blind, but Myra, the woman who told me initially what I was, told me that blindess is usually the price for being able to see what I do. Every aura reader she’s read of has been blind, and it seems a fair trade to me..”

“What all can you see?” Alanna asked.

“Every thing, alive or not, has an aura. Every aura is different,” Immeral explained. “When I was younger I simply used my ability to not run into anything. But when Myra explained what I could do and I started practicing, I slowly taught myself how to truly read auras. Every emotion is a different color, and every intention is also a different color.”

“So you can look at us and know what we’re feeling just by identifying the color?” Therril asked.

“If only it were that simple,” Immeral said. “At any given time I could see a myriad of colors, all mixed together. So I have to carefully study the aura and identify which of the multiple colors is the most prominent and that’s how I identify the emotion of the person I’m looking at. When I was younger it was more difficult, but now that I’ve had years of practice I can usually identify if a person means good or ill and what he or she is feeling within a few moments.”

“How did you know the colors and what each color meant?” Melissa asked.

“Instinct for the most part. But like with any skill I had to practice for years before I could trust that instinct immediately.” She saw the gray of confusion in Melissa, Therril, and Alanna’s auras and tried to think of a way to explain it.

“Imagine that your weapons had minds of their own,” she said after a few moments, speaking slowly as she tried to figure out the best way to explain what she meant. “Imagine that the first time you ever picked them up, you heard a whisper in your minds telling you how to use the weapon the best way. You wouldn’t immediately trust that little voice in your heads and would have to train yourself to trust your weapons as much as how to use them.” She didn’t think her explanation was the greatest, but she saw the confusion in their auras lessen slightly, so they at least understood some of what she was trying to say. “It was the same for me. My gift knew what it was doing and was trying to tell me what each color was and what it meant, I just had to teach myself to trust it.”

“How do your arrows do what you want them to?” Alanna asked.

“There is one color that, as an aura reader, I can manipulate in every living or non-living thing. Every silver color in an aura is one I can manipulate, if only slightly. Most trees have white auras, but some trees’ auras are silver. Those ‘aura trees’ as I’ve dubbed them, are trees that, to an extent, I can bend to my will. By taking a branch from one of those trees and infusing a small amount of my own aura inside, bonding the branch to me, I can command the branch to move as I will. I can also absorb another person’s aura, which gives me a fuller idea of a person once I can feel that person’s aura so clearly. The aura is returnable, but it seems to return on its own after a few minutes even if I haven’t told it to.”

“Can you manipulate Sepulchure’s aura?” Therril asked, the warrior in him trying to think of how this could be used to defeat him.

“He barely has any silver in his aura and even if his aura was one I could manipulate I wouldn’t want to,” Immeral said. “His aura has a...taint about it, for lack of a better word. I can barely look at his aura without running in terror. I don’t want to know what would happen if I tried to touch it with my mind and bend it to my will.”

“At any rate, we need to rest,” Melissa said. “The war will still be here when we wake, and we need to be at our strongest if we want to help push Sepulchure back.”

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 10/14/2011 15:09:05 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 7
10/13/2011 19:22:20   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
Power and Fear


As the days went by Immeral got used to the idea of war. She also saw more people that were identified as more Beacons. She saw one person that she was initially terrifed of because he had a wolf. But what really worried her was his aura. She couldn’t read it at all, which she wasn’t used to being unable to do. She also saw another person with a sword wearing what she guessed were robes. Then she saw two people who kept screaming about fish. She assumed that they were insane and left it at that until she was told that they weren’t, they just really liked fish.

“Maybe after the war is over you’ll be able to meet the other Beacons,” Melissa said.

“Perhaps,” Immeral said absently, focusing on an aura that she could just make out in the distance. It was one of the broken humans, which she then reminded herself were called ‘skeletons.’ She noticed that the more she focused on the aura, the more the silver stood out.

“Immeral, look out!” Therril shouted, seeing what Immeral hadn’t noticed while she was focusing on the skeletion’s aura, it was running towards her as fast as it could and Therril was too busy with other skeletons to get to her in time.

Immeral didn’t think about the arrows she had, too startled to do anything more than react.

“Stop!” She yelled, focusing as hard as she could on the silver that was almost more prominent than even the aura of the aura tree. She was completely shocked as the skeleton listened and froze. The control only lasted for a few moments, but it was enough for Immeral to will one of her arrows to fly towards it and kill it.

“Immeral, how did you do that?” Melissa asked. When Immeral looked at her she saw the gold of surprise and--faintly but still there--the yellow of fear. A glance at her hand revealed her own surprise but--far more prominently--teal, the color of shame. Whether her shame was at taking the will of another or for scaring her friend, she wasn’t sure.

“I’m not sure,” Immeral said slowly. “I just... focused on the silver in his aura and willed it to obey me when I said to stop. Don’t worry, I’ve no intention of doing it again and I certainly wouldn’t do it to you. There’s no need for fear.”

“What are you talking about? I’m not afraid,” Melissa denied.

“I’m an aura reader, Mel,” Immeral said turning around. “And auras don’t lie.” That said, she started walking towards another part of the battlefield, a dozen arrows lifting from their quiver at her unspoken command to them and flying towards the skeletons. She was going to attempt to figure out what she had done, but at the moment she needed to relieve stress, and making her arrows fly without even touching them and weave in the air was a good way for her to do it.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 1/22/2012 17:43:39 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 8
12/1/2011 21:55:22   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
Powers New and Old


She wasn’t going to do it again. She promised herself that. The problem was, now that she had done it once, all she could see was the silver in every auras. Standing out as clearly as if begging to be manipulated. Once, when she was not thinking about it, she focused on the sliver in someones aura and it moved to her will. She quickly forced herself to focus before she made someone who didn’t deserve to be controlled do something against his will.

To distract herself, she tried manipulating her own aura. She discovered that, since the aura was hers, instead of being limited to the silver in it, she could manipulate the entire aura. Manipulating her aura didn’t change the look of it, as her aura, like that of every one else, was based on her emotions. But she discovered that, much the way the stick responded to shield her years ago, when she manipulated her aura it seemed to lift from her. In theory it created a shield, but she wasn’t certain how strong it was. She decided to test it.

During a lull in the war, she walked towards her new friends, ignoring the yellow in their auras.

“I need your help with something,” she told them. She then went on to describe the shield she first made as a child and that when she focused on her aura it seemed to lift from her body in a similar looking shield.

“What I need is for you to attack me so that I know just how strong this shield is. I also want to see if I can extend it to momentarily protect others.” Her friends were, unsurprisingly, hesitant to attack her for fear of actually hurting her, but when she showed them health potions and mentioned that Alanna was a mage as well as a Loremaster, they agreed to strike her so long as they didn’t aim for vital areas.

Therril went first, quickly running towards her with his sword ready to hit her in what would be a painful if not deadly blow.

She quickly focused on her aura, willing it to move to protect her. She discovered to her surprise that it wasn’t a full-body shield, but a small raised portion of her aura that followed Therril’s sword. Much like the first time, the shield only lasted for a few seconds, so Immeral had to quickly move to avoid the blow, but she was satisfied with her shield.

Alanna attacked after Therril. Immeral discovered that a magical attack was harder to block than a physical one as a sword or fist had a set form and pattern of motion where a magical blast did not. Melissa’s fairy dusts were even harder to shield from, as their small, scattered parts were almost impossible to track. Immeral noticed that for attacks like that, the shield extended slightly up and outwards and was larger than for a sword, but she was still more vulnerable to them than she was against the physical attacks.

In between battles Immeral and her friends practiced improving her aura manipulation skills. Immeral discovered that the longest the shield ever lasted was about ten seconds. Long enough for her to have a small window to flee, but not long enough to withstand a lengthy barrage of attacks.

The next thing she worked on was extending her shield. She started with Alanna as they were about the same build so if her aura could be extended, she would have the best chance with her.

Therril and Melissa both attacked, and Immeral discovered that she couldn’t extend her own aura beyond herself, but if she launched an arrow and had it land in front of Alanna and willed it to form a shield, a weaker version of the temporary shield could form.

During a battle she saw a skeleton rush Therril from behind while he was distracted with a small hoard from his front.

“He’s too far, an arrow won’t reach in time.” She, in desperation, acted without thinking and willed the silver in his aura to move, thinking only that she had to shield her friend. To her surprise, the silver in Therril’s aura formed the same shield her own aura was forming. Therril turned around and saw a skeleton’s sword hovering inches from him and, ignoring his surprise, quickly killed it.

During the next lull Immeral told her friends what had happened and apologized for using her friend’s aura. Therril easily forgave her since her intent wasn’t to control but to protect.

“It looks like you have a new skill to master,” Melissa said.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Immeral asked. “This war isn’t getting any easier and it’s not ending any time soon.”
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 9
12/6/2011 20:04:12   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
A History Lesson


Immeral, when not fighting or resting, spent every moment training and developing her skills. She quickly found one vital flaw in her own shield. It was the same flaw every fighter faced, however. That being that she could only shield attacks that she could, in her own way, see coming. If anyone came at her from behind she would be helpless to defend herself.

When it came to multiple attacks, she still had a hard time defending herself against them. Her shield, much to her annoyance, seemed to be incredibly limited. It only lasted for a very few moments before fading, and she couldn’t immediately form a new one, as once it faded her aura tended to settle back to its original shape and form before again moving to her will. On top of that she discovered that it was not particularly strong. It could handle a blow from a sword, but if the person wielding the weapon struck repeatedly the shield would break. She attempted using her aura to grab Therril’s arm during training in an attempt to stop him, but discovered that the only way to stop him, even for a moment, from attacking was to manipulate his aura.

During a small break in training, Therril asked about her shield, curious to know if it had gotten stronger.

“As far as an actual defense goes, it’s not very viable,” she said. “It’s very temporary, and can only take so much damage before being broken.”

“I noticed, has it gotten any better against defending from multiple attacks?”

“It wasn’t meant to defend against multiple attacks,” Alanna said. “The older stories from bards spoke of aura readers sometimes. They were usually used to read their enemies as the strongest could even tell the strengths and weaknesses of their opponents. Their shield was only used as an act of desperation against melee attacks, as ranged opponents were generally taken out before their attacks could reach them as they were generally ignored due to their blindness. Those that did recognize aura readers for what they were rarely tried to kill them, as their potential to be used was large.”

“Basically they were more useful alive than dead,” Immeral said.

“Yes,” Alanna said simply. “When an aura reader would use his or her shield, it meant there was because there was no other choice and the aura reader needed the few seconds the shield would buy to flee.”

“Do you know all of the skills an aura reader had?” Immeral asked, both curious about her potential and eager to learn as much as she could.

“As far as skills go, the only ones ever written about are the ones you have discovered already. Though with practice those skills can get stronger. Your ability to read people’s intents and emotions can in time allow you to see their strengths and weaknesses. Your ability to manipulate the auras of others can in time allow you to shield your friends to the same extent as you can shield yourself, and there are stories of one aura reader who could manipulate the aura of others so well that he could even make them do his bidding as easily as he could make his own aura bend to his will, though according to lore other readers frowned on his manipulation of others. Your shield can grow to the point that it can last more than the few seconds you can maintain it now.”

“Okay, and what aren’t you telling me?” Immeral asked seeing in her friend’s aura that there was more.”

“This isn’t exactly aura reading, but a very few aura readers developed their skills so strongly that they even changed. They became seers, able to see the future and even the past sometimes. Though the stories never told just how these readers became seers. Some people believed that they became seers by constant practice, and others believed that, like the gift of aura reading they were chosen to be able to see these things.”
“Do the old stories tell how to become stronger?” Immeral asked.

“Unfortunately, no. But I’m assuming that, like with everything other skill, they became stronger with constant practice. There are no shortcuts, I’m afraid.”

“Not what I meant,” Immeral said. “Just like mages have ways to practice their spells, and sword fighters have specific moves that they constantly practice, did aura readers have specific exercises to develop their skills?”

“If they did, it was never written or spoken about. I’ve told you all that I know from the lore of aura readers.”

“Then we’ll make up exercises for you as we go,” Melissa said.

“Then let’s keep training,” Therril said, standing up and stretching.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 10/7/2012 18:53:04 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 10
1/22/2012 17:14:36   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
Training and Advice


Over the weeks, Immeral practiced diligently, though Melissa and Alanna often reminded her to rest so that she wouldn’t burn out. The first and last time she had overstrained herself she nearly fainted on the battlefield and if it wasn’t for Melissa getting her out of there probably would have.

It was slow going, however. Despite her best efforts with the aura shields, she couldn’t make it last longer than ten seconds. And her friend’s shields lasted even less time and could barely withstand even a weak blow.

During a time where she was supposed to rest, Immeral willed one of her arrows to hover a couple inches above her hand.

“Gold piece for your thoughts,” Alanna said, sitting down next to her.

“I’m not progressing at all, Lanna,” Immeral said. “It feels like I’m back with Master Kain learning to use a bow and arrow. Did I tell you he spent more than two years teaching me? I can’t afford to spend that long on this. I need to learn as much as I can as quickly as I can.”

“A friend of mine told me once that if you go at something like you only have fifteen minutes it will take all day, but if you go at it like you have all day it will take fifteen minutes,” Alanna said. “Training takes time. It takes effort, and it rarely comes easily. Forcing yourself to learn as much as you can as quickly as you can will just make you stressed out and cause you to burn out more quickly.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Immeral said with a sigh. “Patience has never been my strong point.”

“Well, let’s focus on your passive skills instead of your active ones. That way you can still do some training without burning yourself out,” Alanna suggested. She pointed at a person on the battlefield. “What can you tell about him?”

Immeral focused on the person in question for a few moments.

“He’s exhausted and running low on both physical and magical energy. He’s also privately amused at something, though I’m not sure what.” After a few more moments of focusing, she added, “I think the reason for his amusement is the irony of a necromancer like himself working alongside paladins. That’s all I can tell.”

“I may not be an aura reader, but you look pretty tired yourself.” Alanna handed her some food. “Eat this and then get some sleep. It’s late and the war and auras will be there tomorrow.” Immeral started to protest when a wave of exhaustion hit her. Wordlessly she complied with Alanna’s request.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 1/22/2012 20:55:31 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 11
2/7/2012 15:07:40   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
The Last Days

The next several days went by in much the same way. Immeral practiced with her aura reading skills whenever she wasn’t battling, and when she was battling, worked on guiding her arrows with only her mind whereas before she typically would move a hand or and arm in the direction she wanted her arrows to fly. She soon noticed that the number of enemies were lessening. Where as before she felt like for every skeleton she killed five took its place, now only one or two were taking the place of the skeletons killed.

“Do you think the war will end soon?” She asked Melissa during a small break to grab some food.

“Hopefully. The last time we destroyed all of the waves of skeletons a second wave came. I was actually heading towards Swordhaven to try and find soldiers willing to help. I was on my way back when I met you.”

Hours later, the last skeleton finally fell at the hands of a warrior whose aura she could just make out from where she was standing. Several people ran towards the tower and she joined them, swept up in the wave of motion.

As she killed yet more skeletons, she barely noticed a lone person break off from the front of the wave of people and run towards the tower. She heard the whispers of ‘good luck, hero’ ripple through the crowd even as they fought and echoed their sentiment.

After all the skeletons had again been slain, she was enjoying a brief period of respite when a dragon, larger than she had ever seen, appeared. To her shame she froze, paralyzed with fear at the size of the dragon as well as the feel its aura gave her. One of malice and hatred.

“Immeral, come on,” one of her friends said, gently herding her to shelter. “The hero can handle this.” She watched with her friends from their shelter as the hero and, to her surprise, Sepulchure, worked together to kill the massive dragon.

Then something strange happened. At least that was what she gathered from the screams of terror from the surrounding townspeople.

“There’s darkness spreading!”

“I can’t see!”

“What’s going on?”

Around her, Immeral heard those and other cries of terror, though a glance at her friends told her that, while they were uncertain, confused, and somewhat uneasy about what was going on, the lilac of serenity was the most prominent color in their auras.

“What’s going on?” She asked them.

“For months there has been a stranger outside of Falconreach selling powerful weapons,” Therril explained as he landed and shifted back into a human. “From what I could see, he merged with the fallen dragon and now darkness is spreading throughout Lore. Unlike the darkness that always comes at nightfall, this is thick, and I doubt even the brightest flame could penetrate it. People are completely blind because of it.”

“Everything looks the same to me,” Immeral said with a laugh.

“You don’t count, you’re blind,” Therril said with equal humor. “But maybe your aura reading skills can help. What all do you see?”

Immeral looked around her.

“People are scared and confused,” she said after a moment. “A few people are remaining calm and most of them are trying to calm down everyone who’s panicking.” She looked towards the door of the inn she and her friends were inside as she saw an aura come quickly towards them.

“If anyone is a mage, you’re needed around the permiter of Falconreach,” she heard the aura--man--say. “Warlic and other mages are creating a barrier of light to repel the darkness before it can reach us.”

“I thought we were already reached?” Immeral asked quietly.

“Not yet,” Therril said. It’s considerably darker than it was a few minutes ago, but not as dark as what I saw in the distance.” Immeral looked as Alanna and other mages stepped forward to volunteer their services with the barrier.

“Hopefully the hero can defeat this darkness dragon,” Therril said, a sentiment that the others around them echoed.

“In the meantime, what can we do here?” Immeral asked.

“Wait. And I guess help anyone who’s still frightened remain calm,” Melissa said.

Over the next several hours, Immeral, Melissa, Therril, and a few others comforted everyone who was uneasy. Once the darkness dragon was defeated, those who couldn’t see knew it knew from the cry of relief and victory that went up as the light, according to Therril, slowly returned to Lore and the exhausted mages made their trek back to shelter, food, and rest.

“Well, I know this wasn’t the best way for you to be introduced to Falconreach,” Melissa said. “So what will you do now that the war’s over?”

“Travel, I guess,” Immeral said. “Hopefully I can learn more about my abilities and how to control them.” She hesitated for a moment and quietly said to her friends, “I could use some company if you three aren’t bound to Falconreach. The people here will probably have a period of recovery after the war we’ve been through.”

“We’ll be glad to join you,” Alanna said, a statement that was repeated by Therril and Melissa.

“Thank you,” Immeral said with a tired smile. “I planned on leaving now, but I think I’ll wait for tomorrow instead,” she said, curling up where she was sitting and falling asleep almost immediately, vaguely aware of a blanket being placed on her by someone.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 10/7/2012 18:55:54 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 12
4/25/2012 4:54:50   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
The First Day


The next day, Immeral woke up early. Since her friends were still asleep, she silently stood up and grabbed some food from Serenity. Two hours later her friends woke up and, after taking some time to eat somehow talked her into joining the townspeople in celebrating the end of the war with them.

It ended up being noon before they were able to leave. Immeral had only been on the forest path for about five minutes when she stopped and looked around, seeming nervous.

“Something wrong?” Alanna asked, looking around as well.

“I’m not sure. I thought I heard something,” Immeral answered slowly, sounding nervous but trying to mask it.

“I didn’t hear anything unusual, and I don’t see anything,” Therril said, jumping down from a tree branch that he had climbed to for a better vantage point.

“Maybe I’m just imagining things,” Immeral said with a small smile. “The village I grew up in was in the middle of a forest clearing. I grew up hearing all sorts of animal noises. I guess the months spent in Falconreach made me used to the quiet. If I heard anything, it was probably a rabbit or something.”

“Well, just the same, it wouldn’t hurt to keep an eye out. Bandits are in this forest. You could have heard one of them,” Melissa said.

After half an hour had passed without incident, the four of them relaxed and started chatting.

“So, Immeral, we’ve spent so much time learning about your aura reading skills that we haven’t asked you anything about yourself,” Melissa said. “Where did you grow up? What was it like?”

“It’s really not all that interesting,” Immeral said shyly, not being a large talker and also not a fan of talking about herself.

“I’m sure it’s more interesting than you think,” Melissa insisted.

Immeral looked at her friend and, seeing in Melissa’s aura that she wasn’t going to let this go, let out a resigned sigh.

“I was born in a small village a few days walk of Falconreach called Kordosia, though I doubt it’s on your maps because of how small it is. I’m the youngest of four siblings, all of them brothers. My brothers are Adair, Fallon, and Aaron. They... well, they were my brothers. Obviously I was picked on by them.” Immeral laughed slightly at the memory. Her brothers were never rough with her, though she suspected it was because of her blindness. Their teasing was mostly good-natured. It didn’t hurt that she gave as good as she got.

“They were a little territorial, though,” she added with a laugh after a moment. “If someone so much as looked at me wrong and they caught it, they were on that person in a second. Claiming that the only ones who could mess with me were them.”

“How much older are they?” Alanna asked curiously.

“Adair is six years older than me, Fallon is four years older than me, and Aaron is two years older.”

“When did you discover you were an aura reader?” Therril asked.

“I always knew that I could see differently than everyone else,” Immeral started, “but when I was... I think five, maybe six, it was given a name. Myra, the woman who told me that I was an Aura Reader and could do many things, insisted that I practice my skills, a thing I rarely wanted to do.”

“What inspired you to learn archery?” Therril asked, the fighter in him dying to know why a person who technically couldn’t even see the target had the idea to pick up a weapon, especially a ranged one.

“When I was about ten, a local bully decided to pick on me. This branch from an aura tree that was, fortunately, in my village that I was practicing my skills with on manipulating silver auras shot forward and formed a barrier. The way it flew reminded me of arrows as I saw them fly through the air.”

“You were using weapons untrained?” Therril asked in shock, forgetting in his surprise that it was rude to interrupt someone.

“I think that when I was younger I did a lot of things untrained that I don’t remember. My aura reading abilities are... I think the word is instinctive. I act without thinking about it. The first bow and arrow set I made, I made without training, as if someone was guiding me through the process. That, however, was the only thing I could do instinctively as far as archery goes.” She went on to explain the torturous years of properly learning how to use a bow and arrow. She was embarrassed at some points, and at other points her tone of voice indicated just how fond some of her memories of her time under Master Kain were.

“Master Kain was rough, but I’m a better person for his teaching. He taught me a lot more than just the basics of archery and how to make some of the needed equipment. He taught me discipline. Because of him I know just how valuable repetition is in learning how to do something. I doubt I’d be half as good at reading auras as I am now if I hadn’t spent hours of every day practicing for years. Instinct only goes so far.”

“What made you leave your home?” Melissa asked, wondering why her friend left a place she was so fond of and, if her tone of voice at some points was any indication, missing.

“Experience,” Immeral said simply. “I love my home, and they’re great people, but by the time I left I could identify their auras at a glance. I knew that if I didn’t leave, I would grow complacent and when I actually needed to use my skills, they would fail me.

“So what about you three? Where did you all come from?” Immeral asked. Her three friends spent the next couple of hours telling their stories and answering questions that came up.

“So, Immeral, where are we going, anyway?” Therril asked, noticing that they had been on the forest path for several hours.

“You’re asking a blind girl who’s never been farther than Falconreach where we’re going?” Immeral asked in surprise, but also in a joking tone of voice.

“Well you’re the one in the front, we assumed you knew where you were going,” Therril replied, though as he thought about it, he realized that it was an odd decision that they had made in letting her take the lead. Quickly and quietly, he took the lead and their walking order shifted slightly so that Therril and Alanna were in the front, Immeral was behind them, and Melissa brought up the rear.

After another hour of walking, during which time Immeral and Melissa had traded places as Melissa was a slightly faster walker than Immeral was, Immeral suggested that at the next clearing they stop for the night, as the air temperature indicated that it was growing darker.

“I’m curious, how do you know that it’s getting dark?” Therril asked. “Do auras distinguish day and night or something?”

“Or something,” Immeral said with a slight laugh. “You know how people say when you’re deprived of one sense, your other senses grow stronger? Well it’s slightly true in my case. Even though I still have my own way of seeing, my ability to differentiate between air temperatures seems to be slightly better than most people’s. No matter how cold it is outside, I can always tell when the cold is because it’s just really cold or because it’s getting late.”

“Well, you’re right, it is getting late. There’s a clearing not too far ahead that we can reach before it gets too dark to see,” Alanna said. She was right and they reached it in ten minutes. Therril volunteered to collect firewood and Melissa, Alanna, and Immeral set up camp by clearing away some of the larger sticks and making a circle out of stones that they found for the fire. They then set out all of the bedding around the circle and Immeral, who was carrying the food, put it next to the fire circle.

Once Therril had returned with the firewood, he placed some of it in the circle and the rest of it to the side so that they could feed the fire when it started to die. Alanna then used her arcane powers to cast a fire spell to light the wood.

“The forest isn’t the safest place to be, so I think we should keep a watch,” Therril said as they were eating.

“Good idea,” Melissa agreed with a nod. “We should take three hour watches each. I’ll take the first one. Therril, can you take the second?” Therril nodded in agreement.

“I can take the third watch,” Immeral voluteered.

“Looks like I’m last,” Alanna said good-naturedly.

The first two watches passed without incident and when Immeral took her watch, albeit somewhat slowly as she woke up, she expected the most difficult thing she would have to do would be to tend the fire.

At the very end of her watch when she went to wake Alanna she froze and looked around, nocking an arrow and drawing her bow and lifting three more from their quiver just in case. After a moment when nothing happened and she didn’t detect any unusual auras she relaxed slightly and, after releasing the tension in her bow-string, woke Alanna and went back to bed.

It was another hour before she could relax enough to sleep.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 4/25/2012 5:03:12 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 13
5/23/2012 4:21:35   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
Syndrina


During the course of the next week, Immeral was extremely nervous and jumping at every rustle in the forest. Her friends, not knowing what was wrong, were left to try and figure out what was disturbing her. Every time they asked, however, Immeral simply shook her head and muttered something about feeling off.

After about a week had passed, however, Immeral settled down, and even managed to laugh about some of the more amusing sounds she jumped at. After a second week where the most eventful thing to happen was some bandits thinking her an easy mark, Immeral’s skittishness from before had been all but forgotten.

“How large is this forest?” Immeral asked one night as they were sitting down for lunch. “We’ve been in it for a while.”

“The well-known sections of the forest aren’t very large,” Melissa answered, “but we passed those a few days ago. Since none of us have a specific destination in mind, we thought we could explore a little since this is a huge forest.”

Immeral was about to answer when she looked up suddenly in surprise.

“An aura tree!” Was her happy exclamation. “I haven’t seen one since I left home.” She focused on the auara tree and, to the amazement of her friends, the branches moved seemingly on their own since there wasn’t the slightest breeze.

Immeral was about to comment on the aura tree when she froze and whipped around in alarm, quickly stringing her bow and lifting arrows out, actions she had done so many times that they took mere seconds.

At that same moment, the formerly peaceful clearing exploded. A dozen men, soldiers from their auras, appeared, and were led by a man whose aura she couldn’t identify, but it screamed danger.

She quickly focused her arrows on him, seeing that her friends had the soldiers. Halfway to their target, however, Immeral had the strangest feeling of detachment overtake her. Her arrows, no longer guided by her will, froze in mid-flight as Immeral struggled to command them to move. Quickly, however, she was losing more and more of her ability to fight, until only the barest part of her mind was still her own.

She tried to scream. To do anything, but nothing happened. Her arrows were still frozen, but Immeral could tell, could feel that they were only frozen because whatever held her captive willed them to. A brief glance of what she could see of her aura shocked her. Her own aura was completely intertwined with the aura of another. Then she knew.

“You’re... you’re an aura reader,” she said quietly, her shock too great for her to realize that she suddenly had her voice back.

“Obviously self-taught,” the man said with disdain. “Any trained aura reader would have known in seconds. My mistress was right. You are weak. And she knew that, like a pathetic moth to a flame, you would be drawn to the Great Tree.”

“As if there was ever any doubt,” a female voice, sickeningly sweet, said, stepping out of the tree-line. “Let the weakling see her friends, and then cover her eyes. When your control fades, I don’t want her able to manipulate anything.” Against her will, Immeral’s head turned to face her friends. All of them had fought well, as evidenced by the numerous unconscious soldiers, but there were more soldiers to replace the fallen ones and they had been overwhelmed. When she saw them, they were bound in such a way as to not be able to use any of their abilities. Whoever this woman was obviously knew them well.

Immeral felt someone moving behind her and before she knew it, a blindfold was placed over her eyes. She then felt herself moving by the will of this strange aura reader who had stripped her control away from her before she had a chance to think of fighting it.

After what felt like hours of walking, she felt the air change. It was cool and damp. She guessed that they were inside a cave of some sort.

“Tie them against the wall,” the woman said. Immeral felt herself being roughly bound as the aura reader forced her to sit against the wall and heard the muffled thuds of her friends being shoved next to her. Then in a sudden rush that nearly made her faint from shock, the feeling of detachment from her body left her and her ability to control herself returned, the aura reader having finally relinquished control of her.

“Welcome to my home, all of you,” the woman said. “My name is Syndrina, though you will soon come to call me ‘Mistress.’ Thomas, how long until they are all trained?”

“I cannot be certain, Mistress,” the aura reader who Immeral assumed was the ‘Thomas’ spoken to. “I have never tried to train an aura reader in this manner. And while she is untrained, her will is strong. I would like to start with her, as I suspect her training will be lengthy.”

Immeral, desperate to see despite the blindfold, managed to force her eyes open. The pressure of the cloth against her open eyes was painful, but she ignored it in surprise. The blindfold wasn’t very thick. The auras were unclear, but she could see the vague shapes of them, including Thomas’s.

As if sensing her eyes on him, Thomas looked in her direction and she quickly felt her control leave her again.

“The ability to control someone must be connected to the ability to see that person’s auras.” Immeral reasoned.

“I will admit, weakling, for being untrained, your control is better than I would have expected. I would not have expected you to be able to sense my men and myself three weeks ago. We had to wait for your guard to be completely down, which my Mistress brilliantly realized would be when you found the aura tree nearby. We’ve been herding you there like cattle this entire time. Fortunately for you, holding you took more energy than I expected. I cannot begin your training yet.” That said, he turned away, and Immeral let out an involuntary sigh of relief when her control returned to her.

“Immeral, what happened out there?” Melissa asked quietly. “Why did you freeze?”

“I was dominated,” Immeral said sadly, an apology in her voice. “That guy, Thomas, he’s an aura reader. My arrows weren’t halfway to him when I was his puppet.” Quickly, Immeral’s friends forgave her, realizing that it wasn’t her fault that she didn’t fight.

Therril, who was next to Immeral, asked if she could turn her left side slightly towards his back.

“Why?” Immeral asked in confusion.

“Your dagger,” Therril whispered. “If I can grab it, I might be able to cut us free.”

“They took our weapons, how was the dagger missed?” Melissa asked.

“It was probably ignored because I was dominated. I was unable to fight,” Immeral said, awkwardly angling herself so that her friend could reach the dagger. “I see your weapons,” Immeral said. “They’re just behind that rock out of sight, but their auras extent slightly upwards.”

“You can see?” Alanna asked in surprise.

“Barely, but yes. This blindfold’s not particularly thick. But how will we be able to escape with those guards in the way?”

“We’ll think of that later,” Therril said with a quiet shout of excitement when Immeral’s dagger was in his hands.

“Slowly, painstakingly, and somewhat painfully as blind hands hit her skin, Therril sliced through her ropes, Immeral taking the dagger when he had and cutting his binds. Therril was about to turn to free Alanna when Thomas returned.

“Leave us,” he barked to the guards, who Immeral suspected had fallen asleep considering that they hadn’t noticed their conversation or the ropes being cut. “I do my training with only the ones I am dominating present.” The guards jumped in surprise and walked further into the cave.

Immeral, for the third time that day, felt herself becoming detached, barely managing to whisper to Therril that she believed his ability to control them depended on his ability to see their auras as she felt herself walking towards Thomas.

Suddenly she let out a piercing scream of pain as his aura ripped through her own, a thing that she did not know could be done.

“In order to train you, I need to completely infuse your aura with my own,” Thomas said cruely. “The process is most unpleasant.”

“Hey!” Therril shouted, partially transforming himself into a raven and flying rapidly towards Thomas.

“How did you get free?” Thomas demanded, breaking his gaze from Immeral and turning towards Therril.

Immeral, her control yet again returned to her, let an arrow that she sensed behind the rock with the other weapons fly, piercing Thomas’s heart and killing him instantly.

“Let’s go!” Melissa, who Therril had quietly freed while Thomas was focused on Immeral, cried, quickly cutting Alanna’s ropes as Therril tossed them all their weapons, Immeral ripping her blindfold off as she summoned hers, manipulating them so that the quiver would go towards her instead of just her arrows.

“Everyone, stay close!” Alanna cried. Once they were all together, she teleported them away to the clearing they had been in two nights ago, collapsing from exhaustion afterwards.

Immeral, while not physically harmed beyond her injured arms, which Melissa was already wrapping so that they wouldn’t become infected, was mentally and emotionally drained, collapsed as well, vaguely aware of Melissa and Therril setting up camp and keeping watch over them both.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 5/23/2012 5:06:20 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 14
9/2/2012 17:05:20   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
Of Runes and Wolves


Immeral’s sleep was a fitful one. She constantly tossed and turned, and let out small moans that were equal parts pain and terror. She woke up with a short cry of terror and, after a few moments when she realized where she was and that Thomas wasn’t shredding her aura with his own, turned away from the fire and started retching violently.

When her stomach had finally settled, she backed herself into a tree, curled into a ball, and cried, willing her arrows to surround her in a cocoon of sorts. Her wild emotions made her control over her arrows tenuous at best, however, so many of her arrows only managed to hover for a few moments before falling uselessly.

Some of her friends tried to approach her before stepping back. There were times when you needed a shoulder to cry on, and then there were times that you needed to be alone. They wisely recognized this as one of those times where solitude is needed more than company. Immeral first needed to accept what had happened had actually happened. Then and only then could they have a chance at helping her fully recover from it.

After a few minutes, Immeral’s breath had evened out slightly, indicating that she was no longer crying, but her breathing was largely still the uneven breaths of tears. Once she had finally calmed down completely, Alanna walked over and quietly sat down next to her, offering an apple and a water canteen. Immeral gratefully accepted both with a small smile and took a small sip.

“Do you want to talk about it?” The Loremaster offered quietly. Immeral quickly shook her head.

“I’ll live. I’ve just never felt so helpless before. His aura was literally woven into mine, with his being the stronger. I was completely at his mercy. I probably would have even spoken as he willed it. That’s how helpless I was. Every move I could have made would have been at his will. To feel all of that, and be completely aware of it happening. To have your will dominated and almost completely smothered by another, until the only part of you that is still you is so small and insignificant it would never be able to fight...” she trailed off at a momentary loss for words. “That was probably the worst part. Not that I was his puppet, but that I was aware of what was going on and unable to stop it from happening.”

“When he was trying to dominate you, you screamed as if you were in pain,” Therril said. “I didn’t see any injuries, so what was happening?”

“You’re a warrior. So I imagine you’ve taken quite a few sword injuries?” Immeral asked. Therril nodded, unsure where this was going. “Imagine the worst sword injury you’ve ever taken, and then magnify it by a thousand. It felt like my aura was being shredded. Everything that made me who I am. My likes and dislikes. My hopes and dreams. Everything, was being torn apart and replaced by his aura. It wasn’t so much that my aura was being injured that hurt as the physical loss of self. I--” she broke off with a start and looked up. “Who’s there?” She demanded, five arrows at the ready as her friends also readied their weapons.

“My apologies. I did not know this campsite was taken,” a young man said, walking into the clearing in the universal sign of surrender. “My name is Faerdin. I’m a traveler who is simply looking for a place to spend the night.”

Immeral carefully studied his aura, taken aback by the strangeness of it. It seemed almost a strange cross between a warrior and a mage. The truly strange part, however, was that she could not put down a type of mage this person was. She briefly remembered the small change in Alanna’s aura when she used her magic to light a campfire. Her aura had changed to signify the fire she was wielding. The same had held true when she saw any mage use an elemental magic. This aura seemed to combine all of the elements into one, a thing which confused her.

She looked at her friends in surprise as they quickly welcomed ‘Fae’ as they called him. Obviously he was a stranger to her alone. Seeing her friends relax, she released her control over her arrows, allowing them to fall gently to the ground.

Therril turned to Immeral, remembering that the Aura Reader didn’t know their half-elf friend.

“Immeral, this is Faerdin, or Fae as most of us call him. He’s in the Beacons of Hope, too. Fae, this is Immeral.”

“Your friend is a... half warrior, half elemental mage?” Immeral guessed, trying to make sense of his aura. She didn’t sense any threat from him, however, so she relaxed slightly.

“I am a Rune Knight. I am attuned to the Elemental Planes and can use their powers at will through the magic of runes.”

“I’m an Aura Reader,” Immeral said. “I can see the auras of everything and, to an extent, manipulate them. I mainly only manipulate these arrows,” she added, willing six of them to be lifted from their quiver and hover for a moment before setting them down.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Faerdin said.

“What are you doing out here?” Therril asked, not knowing that his friend was in the area.

“Well, I was actually making camp for the evening when Blaze lifted his head and looked in this direction, apparently smelling something. Since his hackles stayed down, it obviously wasn’t a threat, so I decided to see what it was he smelled.

“Blaze is here?” Therril let out a groan. “On a leash, I hope.”

“Now you know she would never put her friend on a leash,” Faerdin replied. “I don’t see what the problem is. He never attacks anyone unprovoked.”

“You don’t sometimes look like dinner,” Therril retorted.

“Who are you talking about?” Immeral asked.

“Friends of ours,” Faerdin asked.

“A friend,” Therril clarified. Faerdin walked towards his campsite and Immeral, curious as to who everyone was talking about, followed. Therril, Alanna and Melissa, wanting to see their friends (since despite his complaints Therril had no problem with Blaze), followed as well.

When they arrived to the campsite, the first thing they saw was a huge dark gray - almost black - wolf lying on the ground. Next to him, reading a book and absently scratching him behind an ear, was a young woman.

“Hiya, Gin!” Melissa cried out in greeting.

“Hi, Mel. Hey, ‘Lanna. Hi, Therril. Who’s your friend?” Gingkage - called by many of her close friends ‘Gin’ - answered in greeting, not even looking up from her book. After she had finished a paragraph, she grabbed a bookmark, marked her place, and stood up.

“Hi. I’m Gingkage,” she said, walking over and holding out a hand. “And this,” she added indicating the wolf who had walked over with her and was now standing next to her, curiously sniffing Immeral, “is Blaze. My closest friend and companion.”

“Immeral,” Immeral answered, taking the profered hand. “How did you know we were all here.? You didn’t even look at us as we arrived.”

“Blaze told me,” Gingkage said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “He knew that Mel, ‘Lanna, and Therril were here before Faerdin did. I’d have told him, but I guess he wanted to investigate for himself. Yours was the only unfamiliar scent, Aura Reader.”

“You know?” Immeral asked in surprise.

“Only what the lore says, and then only the few stories I’ve heard. But as far as I know, Aura Readers are the only people who would have a weapon despite being blind. They’re not commonly told about, but I have heard a few stories over the years.”

After the shock of someone having heard of Aura Readers had passed, Immeral asked a question that had been pressing on her mind since she entered the clearing.

“I’m sorry, but what exactly are you? Your aura is a confusing mix of human and animal. But not quite fused the way it is for Therril. You’re not exactly a wolf, but the wolf is a part of you. The same goes for the wolf. It’s like... it’s like seeing two people having parts of the same aura, as well as their own unique auras.”

“I’m a Wolf Rider. And to explain your confusion, in part at least, Blaze and I are bonded. So he is, in a sense, as much a part of me as I am a part of him. It’s how we can communicate. It’s not exactly... telepathy, I think the word is - though I have heard people describe it as such. It’s more shared knowledge. When he becomes aware of something, I share that awareness. And when I learn something, he knows it as well. I understand him far better than any human - or elf - that I’ve ever met.”

“Ging, it’s late. We should probably gather firewood for camp tonight,” Faerdin said. “Are you all staying with us tonight?”

“Thanks, I’d be happy to,” Immeral said gratefully, a sentiment that was echoed by the others readily. Many of them were good friends and didn’t get to see nearly enough of each other.

“Well if we’re all going to have separate tasks, which would make the most sense, to be honest, I’ll find a broom for Therril,” Gingkage said with a grin.

“No! Not a broom!” Therril cried in mock horror. “I’ll help with firewood.” Within half an hour, the camp had been set up and everyone was sitting happily around the fire.

After a few hours, when they had lapsed into comfortable silence, Immeral heard someone humming softly. She quickly identified the source as being Gingkage, who was again absently scratching Blaze behind the ear. She doubted that Gingkage was even aware of the humming.

“What’s that song? I’ve never heard it before,” Immeral said, shocking Gingkage into silence.

“Song?”

“You were humming. It was a pretty tune. I’m sorry I interrupted it.”

Gingkage let out an amused laugh and grinned slightly. “Alanna would be more interested in the song, I think,” she said with a quiet laugh. “My... clan, I guess you could call it, or maybe ‘tribe’ would be more accurate, we closely guard our songs and stories. There are no written tales or songs. Many loremasters have, through the years, tried without success to get us to reveal even the smallest thing about us. The only thing we ever tell them is that we are bonded with our wolves, though how and why that bond came to be we never tell.”

“So you won’t tell us what that song was,” Immeral said, somewhat disappointed as she had hoped to learn the tune at least, and hopefully even the words.

“Sorry, but no. The secrets of the Wolf Riders will remain just that. Besides, the song doesn’t translate.”

“Wolf Riders will sometimes at least say what their songs are about,” Alanna argued. “There are some, admittedly undetailed, accounts in Book about the story behind them.”

“True enough, though you misspeak to say that it’s about the story behind them when we part any information of our songs. We’ll give the faint impressions, but only in the vaguest terms. But very well, I will give some information. If only so I can sleep tonight without constant questions.” The last bit was said with a smile, to show that the comment about the questions was said in jest, a thing that reflected in Gingkage’s aura.

“The song, if I’m correct about the song I was humming, spoke of when things were younger. Of cold winter winds, and green summers. Of snow and ice, and the freedom of song. The joy of running, and the thrill of the hunt. Just... things that we hold dear. But now, I fear, I’ve said too much. Hopefully loremasters have already gotten this small tidbit.”

“We have,” Alanna said, somewhat disappointed as she had hoped to add something new to the Register. “And I’m starting to suspect that either all of your songs are about the same thing, you only know one song, or you Wolf Riders have a set of answers that you memorize as children that you are allowed to tell people when they ask a question. Because it’s almost impossible for us to not have gotten any new information about you.”

“Whatever the answer is, Lanna, that would be telling,” Gingkage said with a laugh that was quickly followed by an exhausted yawn. “Either way, I’m tired. Are we setting up a watch?”

“That would probably be the smart option,” Melissa said. “I’ll go first.”

“Alanna and I can take the second watch together since there are a lot of us,” Therril volunteered.

“Oh no, you won’t,” Gingkage said quickly. “If we want any watching to be done, then Therril should take the second watch, followed by Fae, Immeral, or me, and then Alanna can take either the fourth or fifth watch.”

“I’ll go after Therril,” Faerdin volunteered.

“And Blaze and I will go after Fae,” Gingkage said. “Lanna, you want to go after us?” Alanna nodded her agreement and settled down to sleep.

“Looks like I’m taking the last watch,” Immeral said gratefully. She had learned the hard way that the first and last watches were the easiest, and the watches in the middle, probably because of the broken sleep, were miserable to take. The middle watch in particular was rough. She pitied Faerdin his slot. Seeing that everyone but Melissa was settling down to sleep, and being herself exhausted,, she pulled out her sleeping gear and rested.

When she woke up hours later, she wasn’t sure what had disturbed her. Looking around, she saw that it was Gingkage’s watch. As if sensing the gaze on her, the Wolf Rider turned towards her.

“Something wrong?” Gingkage asked concernedly. “You were in a dead sleep just a moment ago.”

“I’m not sure,” Immeral said slowly. “I don’t know what woke me. Just a feeling, I guess. Probably nothing more than a nightmare I don’t remember any more.”

“Don’t play down your instincts,” Gingkage said. “My life as well as Blaze’s have been saved countless times because we felt something and didn’t ignore it.”

“Do either of you feel something right now?” Immeral asked.

“It’s hard to say,” Gingkage answered slowly. “There’s something out there, but it could just be the storm that’s heading this way. I was actually debating waking someone so that that person could keep an eye out here while Blaze and I checked it out.”

“Well I’m awake now, I can keep watch,” Immeral said, yawning tiredly even as she was saying it.

“Actually, you might be able to help in a different way,” Gingkage said thoughtfully. “Lore has it that Aura Readers could see farther than people normally could. It also says that they can see the direction a threat is coming from, and the strongest were even said to be able to identify a threat long before anyone else could see it. Do you think you could tell me which direction whatever it was woke you up is coming from? Do you see anything?”

Immeral stood up and walked a short ways off. For long moments she stared in first one direction, then another, walking from place to place in the hopes of seeing more clearly. Finally she sat down dejectedly and shook her head.

“I don’t see anything,” she said sadly.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t,” Gingkage said. “Well, I’ve survived this long without the aid of an Aura Reader and I’m sure I can survive without it now. Thank you for trying,” she said, smiling gratefully as she mounted Blaze. Walking towards Alanna, he nosed the loremaster several times until she woke up.

“Your turn to watch, Lanna,” Gingkage said. “Blaze and I need to investigate something. Not sure when we’ll be back.”

“Well you obviously don’t think it’s a threat. You’re not in your armor, and your weapon’s not out,” Alanna said, rubbing her eyes to wake herself up and getting a drink of water.

“I don’t know if it is or isn’t, but a Wolf Rider is never without a weapon,” Gingkage answered, pulling a dagger from its sheath. After checking briefly to make sure that it was ready for any trouble she might come across, Gingkage gently, and with no obvious cues that Immeral could make out, turned Blaze towards the forest and took off.

After chatting for a few minutes with Alanna, Immeral quietly drifted back to sleep.

It seemed like it had only been minutes when a wolf’s howl shattered the silence.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 9/2/2012 17:47:42 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 15
9/15/2012 19:15:45   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
False Alarm?


At the howl, everyone jumped up in surprise. After a moment of disorientation, they all took off in the direction it came from.

When they arrived, they saw Blaze, with his hackles up, standing over Gingkage and snarling ferally at a human with a bow and arrow. A second glance at Gingkage revealed that she had an arrow in her shoulder and the wound was bleeding rather heavily.

“What’s going on?” Faerdin asked. “Gin’s taken shoulder wounds before and hasn’t collapsed.”

“I--it was an accident, I swear,” the archer, who on closer inspection was a young man, who couldn’t have been more than 15 stuttered, fear making him shake badly. “I was aiming for the wolf and she got in my way. And now she’s not going to make it because of the poison.”

“Blaze. Off.” Everyone jumped when Gingkage, who wasn’t unconscious even though she appeared to be, gave the firm command. Blaze, not looking away from the boy, backed down at the command.

“You’d be surprised at how little poisons affect me,” Gingkage said wearily. “Wolf Riders tend to have stronger resistance to it,” she continued, reaching into a bag that appeared at her silent command and pulling a variety of items from it, mixing them together to make a basic antidote. Once she had finished the potion, she--after a quick prayer that it would work--drank it in one swallow, pulling a face at the taste.

“That should be enough,” she said, still looking weary. “I’ll probably be sick as anything for a day or so, but I’ll live. Luckily for you I only blacked out momentarily,” she continued, glaring at the boy. “Blaze would have killed you otherwise. And if he’d died by your hand, I would have killed you. I’m still tempted to kill you, so I suggest you leave.” Properly terrorized, the boy ran off.

“Well that was annoying,” Gingkage said, sheathing her dagger. Reaching up to the arrow, she broke it off just before the fletching. “This is going to hurt,” she said resignedly. Taking a deep breath and wishing she had something to numb her arm, she pushed the arrow the rest of the way through her shoulder, only through sheer force of will keeping from crying out in pain.

“Fae, I hate to ask, but can you bandage this?” Gingkage asked, shaking slightly and holding out a bandage wrap. “I’d do it myself, but bandaging a wound with one arm is clumsy.” Without argument, Faerdin walked over and quickly wrapped the bandage tightly around her shoulder, tying it after it had been sufficiently wrapped.

“Need help up?” Faerdin asked, offering her a hand. Gingkage took it with a grateful smile and stood up, shaking but able to stand without help. She quickly mounted Blaze and leaned forward, too exhausted to properly sit on his back.

“Was that what you were looking for?” Immeral asked, wondering if that was what had the wolf and rider agitated earlier.

“I don’t think so,” Gingkage said tiredly. “But it’s hard to tell. Ask me when I’m not so exhausted.” Immeral nodded and, keeping an eye on Gingkage to make sure she didn’t fall, they all walked back to the campsite.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 9/16/2012 10:01:40 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 16
10/7/2012 22:04:23   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
Hidden Lore


Immeral wasn’t sure how Gingkage knew, but shortly after they returned to the camp, the storm she mentioned started. And it started with such a ferocity that even Immeral--who’s vision was usually unhampered by bad weather--had a hard time making anything out.

Alanna and Faerdin, with their types of magic, were the best ones for setting up the camp to be uneffected by the wind and rain, quickly erected a shelter around them that Immeral could only describe as a ‘bubble.’

“Alanna, you’re a mage. You can’t heal her?” Immeral asked, looking at Gingkage.

“I could, but then she’ll get irritated with me,” Alanna answered with a shrug. “She’s a big believer in just letting the body heal on its own. The only aid she uses is medicines like the antidote she made. Besides, I couldn’t get close enough to heal her,” she added, jerking her head towards Blaze. The wolf in question was lying in front of Gingkage and growling lowly at anyone who came close.

“Why isn’t he letting anyone near Gingkage?” Immeral asked.

“Because she’s injured,” Melissa answered. “Whenever she’s injured, Blaze won’t let anyone near her. And when he’s injured, Gin won’t let anyone come close. They’re extremely protective of each other.

“Fae. You’re her ‘wolf-buddy’ see if he’ll let you close enough to see if her antidote worked,” Melissa added, looking at Faerdin. He nodded and stood up, walking towards Gingkage.

Blaze, knowing his human’s fondness for the Rune Knight, and also liking Faerdin himself, tolerated the Half-Elf’s presence more than the others. But before Faerdin could get close enough to check on Gingkage’s wound, his hackles went up and he growled a warning to back away. Once Faerdin backed up slightly, he relaxed, only to growl again if Faerdin tried to approach.

“Well that answers that question,” Melissa said with a shrug. “If any of us could have gotten close enough to Gin to check on her, it would have been Faerdin. He loves wolves about as much as she does, and that shared love means that he can get closer to Blaze than anyone except Gin. He’s even been able to pet Blaze on occasion. And that’s not something many people can say.”

“Most people get themselves bitten when they try,” Gingkage said wearily, forcing herself up into a sitting position and wincing when she put too much pressure on her shoulder. She was paler than normal, and in obvious pain, but the few hours of rest seemed to have helped a great deal. “If you’re so worried about my antidote making skills, you’re welcome to look,” she added, adjusting slightly so that the bandage could be reached.

Alanna stood up and took a brief glance at it, quickly satisfying herself that it wasn’t infected.

“I don’t understand,” Immeral said. “Just a moment ago Blaze wasn’t letting anyone near you, why is he now?”

“Because I said they could be,” Gingkage said simply, glancing at the storm outside.

“How long has this been going on?”

“About half an hour,” Therril answered. “It should blow itself out soon. How long will you be out of it?”

“A few days, easily,” Gingkage answered, grimacing at the thought. “If I’d known what poison he used, I could have probably made a correct antidote instead of a basic one. It would have let me recover more quickly.”

“So was that kid what you and Blaze felt that was off?” Immeral asked. She personally didn’t think it was, and the storm cutting off everyone’s visibility was making her nervous, which she was trying hard to hide.

Gingkage looked closely at Immeral for a moment, long enough to make her wonder if the wolf-rider saw her anxiety, before shaking her head ‘no.’

“That kid practically peed his pants when Blaze snarled at him. I doubt anything that registers as a threat would be so easily scared.” After a moment’s hesitation as she debated whether or not to speak up, she continued.

“By the way, it’s not a good idea to hide your anxiety. If you suspect there’s a threat, we need to know about it so we can be prepared for it.” At Immeral’s look of shock, she smiled and indicated Blaze.

“I wouldn’t have known you were anxious if it weren’t for him. You did a good job of hiding it. But a wolf’s superior sense of smell found you out. He smelled your anxiety, and I was aware of it. But I think this storm works in our favor. Most people will be staying under shelter. I think it’s probably safe to sleep. I’ll take the first watch since I just woke up and have nothing better to do.”

After everyone had fallen asleep, Gingkage summoned her bag again, thought about what she wanted, and pulled out a small, well-read, and very old journal, looking at the title to confirm it was the one she wanted and breathing a thanks to the person that gifted her this bag and taught her how to use it to summon what she needed when she needed it. Even Loremasters didn’t have this book.

Information on Aura Readers.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 10/16/2012 19:58:40 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 17
10/17/2012 20:59:47   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
Nightmare


Arrows whizzed by quickly. A bowstring broke with an audible Snap! that could be heard clearly even by the figure at a distance. Swords resounded against each other with the loud crash that accompanies metal on metal. Behind her, the sound of a mage casting a spell could be heard in low mutterings. The fireball that zoomed past her was so close she was sure her hair was singed by it.

Cries of pain were everywhere. So many that she was tempted to crouch down and cover her ears, but knew even as she fought to resist the temptation that to do so wouldn’t rid her of the anguished screams. She gritted her teeth and kept focusing on her task. She had to find the weakness in this barrier. Her eyes were the only ones that could see it.

Suddenly the formerly vague and shadowy images came into sharp focus. So sharp that she heard herself cry out in surprise. Face after face whirled by her, somehow recognizable even though she knew she had never seen them before. Not like this.

She knew her friends were counting on her to find the barrier’s weakness. But despite her attempts to focus, the images flashing by her quickly were too much for her. She crouched down screaming for this to stop.

“Immeral!”

Who was that? She thought she recognized that voice. She was dimly aware of a hand on her... was that her shoulder? How could something that was part of her body feel so faint and far away? Why was this mystery person shaking her gently. And what was nudging her side?

“Immeral, wake up!”

She had to hand it to the mystery voice. It was persistent.

“Immeral! Wake up! You’re having a nightmare.”

The shaking became rougher.

“Immeral!”

Immeral woke up with a scream she desperately tried to bite back, panting hard and sweating. She quickly realized that she was trembling and tried to calm herself. Looking forward, Gingakge’s aura came into focus. So it was the wolf rider who was shaking her. Looking to her side, she saw a worried Blaze. That must have been the nudging.

“Is she all right?” That was Faerdin. Looking around, she saw that all of her friends were awake. Alanna was holding a pot of something over a fire.

“The water’s boiling,” Alanna said. Gingkage stood up and walked over, reaching into a pouch on her waist and pulling out a small pile of leaves of some sort. Quickly crushing it, she put the contents into the boiling water.

A pressure on her shoulders made Immeral look behind her with a start. Melissa had grabbed a blanket and was draping it over her.

Gingkage was cursing her stupidity at not having crushed the tea leaves earlier, but quickly accepted that there was nothing she could do about it.

“What happened?” Immeral asked, wondering what had woken all of her friends.

“I heard you moaning in your sleep,” Gingkage answered. “My attempts to wake you woke the others. Last time I had a nightmare, I insisted that someone boil water so I could make a type of tea that I find soothing. Remembering that, Faerdin and Alanna took initiative and put water on to boil.”

Therril appeared then with a small cup.

“Your bag is impossible to navigate, Ging.” He complained good-naturedly. “It took me a long time to find this cup.”

“It took just long enough,” Immeral said as she and Alanna carefully poured some of the tea into it. “And my bag couldn’t be easier to navigate.”

“You’re the only one that thinks that,” Therril said, looking with concern at Immeral. After Gingkage’s attempts to wake the girl had woken everyone, they all heard and saw how bad the nightmare must have been.

“What was it?” He asked.

“I... I’m not sure,” Immeral said slowly. The nightmare, which before had been so vivid in her mind, was fading into memory.

“That might be just as well,” Gingkage said, walking over with the cup and handing it to her, with a brief ‘careful, it’s hot’ as Immeral reached to take it.

“Considering how bad it was, maybe it’s a good thing that you don’t remember it. It means you don’t have to relive it.”

Immeral nodded, but then looked closely at Gingkage. She knew something. Or at the very least suspected it. She could tell in her aura that something was being hidden.

“What do you know?” Immeral quickly asked. “What are you hiding?”

“Found me out, huh?” Gingkage said with a sheepish grin. “Well, I’d lie, but I doubt that would do me any good. To answer your question, I don’t know anything specific. I have suspicions, yes, but I would rather keep them to myself for the time being.”

Immeral wasn’t happy with that, and from the looks of the others auras, they weren’t either. But the resolution in Gingkage’s aura said clearly that that was all she was saying on the matter, and as their friends weren’t pressing the issue, she assumed that same resolution was visible on her face.

“Weren’t you the one talking about how we shouldn’t hide anything?” Therril asked.

“It’s nothing concrete,” Gingkage insisted. “And it might not have anything to do with this. I’d rather wait and confirm a few things before voicing any suspicions.”

The others were unhappy with this, but they accepted Gingkage’s decision, grudgingly though it was.

“I don’t remember my nightmare,” Immeral said, “but I remember that it was terrible. Chaotic. There was something I was being counted on to do, and I couldn’t because of the chaos.”

“‘Make it stop. Make it stop.’ You were moaning that over and over,” Faerdin spoke up.

Immeral closed her eyes in an attempt to recall the nightmare.

“Drink the tea,” Gingkage said, voice quiet but firm. Immeral had forgotten about the rapidly cooling tea and took a sip. It was true. The tea was soothing. As Immeral drank it slowly, she found muscles relaxing that she hadn’t realized were tense.

“What did you put in this?” Immeral demanded drowsily as she yawned.

“Get some sleep, Immeral,” Gingkage said. Pain that Immeral hadn’t noticed before was suddenly visible in the older woman’s aura. Before she could comment on it, Immeral was fast asleep.

“What did you put in that tea?” Alanna asked.

“Nothing at all,” Gingkage said. “It’s a natural sedative. When mixed with other teas, it’s soothing. By itself, it’ll knock you out within a few minutes. And that said, I’m going to get some sleep myself,” as she said the last part, the pain that Gingkage had been subconciously suppressing as her friend came first came rushing to the front of her attention, causing the last few words to come out in a pained hiss. Curling up on a blanket and using Blaze as a source of warmth, Gingkage was soon asleep as well.

The others talked quietly for a while before setting up a watch and also trying to sleep, all of them looking concernedly at Immeral.

None of them would sleep well that night.
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 18
2/17/2013 20:42:10   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
History Lessons


The next morning, Immeral saw in everyone’s auras that no one had slept well. She had vague half-memories of people talking quietly and screams from outside their protective bubble. Or were those half-remembered nightmares? Unlike her, however, the lack of sleep didn’t have too noticable an effect on her companions other than being visible in their auras. Apparently long campaigns as warriors gave them an ability to ignore little sleep. But she could see that something was affecting them all. There was a shadow about their auras. They were normally cheerful, but today they were downcast. She summed it up to worry about herself and the injured Gingkage.

Hoping conversation would improve the mood, she turned towards Faerdin.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what exactly is a Rune Knight? And how did you become one?”

Faerdin’s aura seemed to shift, his expression evidently darkening. No longer was it the deep blue it had been before. Now it was a murky abyss of black, green, and orange. “A Rune Knight I was born, and always shall I be... I do not mind at all that you ask; many already have no recollection of our influence on Lore. We were all that stood between the forces that sought to disrupt the balance of the Elemental Planes, along with the Guardians and the DragonLords. The Avatars had touched us and given us a hint of their power, but in the end,” Hesitating, he murmured, “All that needs to be known is that we had been arrogant in that power, and it was our downfall. With hope, I hold that it shall not be so for long... Justice will reign.”

Immeral sat for a moment in silence, absorbing what Faerdin had said. She was reminded of a friend she had as a child. This friend had the talent of being able to talk for a long time, and not actually say anything. She knew that he was a guardian, for a sort, and that arrogance had ruined them. But she still wasn’t sure exactly what a Rune Knight was. Not wanting to seem rude, however, she left him with his thoughts and turned to Gingkage.

“What about you? Where did you come from? How did you become a Wolf Rider?”

Gingkage laughed quietly.

“I was wondering when I was going to get asked, that,” she said, amusement in her voice. “I’m afraid that I can’t tell you much, though. As I said the other night, we jealously guard our secrets. I can tell you that we live in the forest. Or, at least in a forest. We live fairly independently of others, though a very select trusted few are able to find select meeting places. Even the very few who manage to stumble upon our home are told very little.

“My village, if you can call it that, has no name. It was believed when it was first formed that to name a place is to risk its discovery. Personally I don’t hold stake in that. Naming a place doesn’t guarantee that it will be found. More so because - well, that would be going too far into the history of Wolf Riders, I suppose. As to how I became a Wolf Rider, it’s simple. Blaze chose me, and we’ve been companions ever since. Blaze is never farther than a thought away. He’s the friend I can always rely on. He’s never once failed me, and has on more than one occasion saved my life.”

“He chose you?” Immeral asked curiously. “How did he do that?” Her question was met with silence, however, and a disappointed sigh from Alanna.

“Still nothing knew to add to the Register,” she muttered in disappointment.

“Sorry, Alanna,” Gingkage said with a laugh. “But I hold the values of my people too highly to give our secrets away to anyone who asks. Immeral I could possibly tell. I know that she wouldn’t tell if I asked. The same would go for Melissa and Faerdin. But you, as a Lore Master, would feel compelled to add anything knew I could tell you to your Register. And Therril, I suspect, would tell you anything I said if you asked him to. It’s not for a lack of trust that I don’t tell you. But we enjoy our solitude. I am free to come and go as I please, and I am an oddity in that I spend more time away from home than I do with my friends and family there. But I won’t betray them by telling you our secrets.

“If you have a question on the medicinal value of a plant, I will more than happily supply you with that information. But if you wanted to know the words, or even the tune, to a children’s lullaby that I grew up hearing, I would tell you nothing. Could tell you nothing.” That said, Gingkage fell silent, absently scratching Blaze behind the ear, something Immeral suspected was a way to calm herself down, as her aura was whirling with different emotions. She was agitated, but the longer she scratched Blaze, the calmer she became.

“How much longer do you think this storm will last?” Immeral asked, more to fill an uncomfortable silence than anything else.

“I’m surprised it hasn’t blown itself out yet,” Gingkage said, looking outside at her surroundings. “But some storms are fiercer than others. I woke up briefly last night to relative peace outside. But I don’t imagine that it will continue much longer. This injury, however, will keep me relatively grounded for another day or two.”

After a moment’s pause, she looked at Immeral.

“I’m surprised you’re so anxious to continue. When you followed Faerdin here, you had all the appearances of just having gone through a traumatic experience of some kind. And those always linger in your mind. I wouldn’t be surprised if that wasn’t what caused your nightmare last night.”

Immeral, after looking at the other’s auras, realized that her friends were taking Gingkage’s words at face value. Which could only mean that her facial features gave away nothing. But her aura told Immeral everything. And what it told Immeral right at that moment was that the Wolf Rider knew something. And try as she might, Immeral could think of no reason to hide it. Not if her intentions were as good as she claimed they were.

Immeral planned on staying far away from Gingkage if she could help it.
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 19
4/21/2013 16:52:39   
  Gingkage
Wolf Rider
Dangerous Knowledge


Immeral was startled awake from a light doze by an odd ringing sound.


“What’s going on? What’s that sound?” she asked, willing four arrows to lift from the quiver in case it was an attack.


“My apologies, Immeral,” Gingkage said. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m just sharpening my dagger. There’s no threat to be found.” After a moment, Gingkage added in a slightly sharper tone, “You can put your arrows away now. It’s rude to point them at someone without cause.”


Slowly, Immeral returned her arrows, still not certain that the wolf rider could be trusted.


“Couldn’t you use magic to do that? Your aura says that you’re a magic user.”


“I could,” Gingkage agreed. “But I find it to be a pointless waste of energy. It would be quicker and easier, and I’m certain that, if I so desired, I could spell my dagger so that it never dulled, never weakened, and never tarnished. But I also would be losing something by doing so. In much the same way that you physically use your bow when you could simply will your arrows to fly, I prefer to physically sharpen my blade. I was raised to complete a task myself, instead of using a shortcut to finish it. Even when my potential as a mage was discovered, using my own skills and not my magic was stressed. The fact that it’s more rewarding to me to actually feel the whetstone in my hand, hear the ring of metal as the whetstone is run along the blade, and know that when my dagger is sharp, it is because of something that I did, and not because I used an easier way, is really just an added bonus.”


After a long moment of silence, even the ringing of the whetstone running across the dagger was gone, Gingkage sighed.


“You’re wondering why I’m hiding something.” It was said with so much certainty that Immeral knew it was pointless denying it.


“I don’t see why someone who professes to be completely trustworthy would hide information that could help us.”


“Believe me, Immeral,” Gingkage said, “if I thought it would help, I wouldn’t keep silent. Yes, I’m keeping something secret. No, I will not reveal what it is until such time as I believe that it is appropriate to mention and will do no harm. No, I will not keep this to myself forever, and no, I would not willingly keep a secret that would harm those I care about.”


Immeral’s first reaction was to say that Gingkage was lying. But her aura showed nothing but honesty in this. Either Gingkage was the greatest liar she had ever met, or she was telling the truth.


“Then why hide it at all?” Immeral demanded. “If you’re so certain that your secret isn’t dangerous, then what is the harm in telling?”


“Like you keeping the fact that you have the ability to control others by manipulating their auras from Faerdin and myself wasn’t harming anyone by your lack of sharing?” Gingkage’s question was stated in flat tones, but Immeral was shocked. She hadn’t told Gingkage that, and as far as she knew, neither had the others. So how had she known?


“I told you, I know what the lore says about Aura Readers. And I have access to lore that not even Alanna has. What I choose to reveal, and what I choose to keep to myself is my business and mine alone. Do not think that just because these are your gifts that you’re entitled to have everything you need to know handed to you on a silver platter. Or that the fact that you can read auras tells you anything about me. Keeping this information I have secret isn’t dangerous. But telling you could be the most dangerous thing I could do. There is no more dangerous a weapon than knowledge.


“Do not believe for an instant that just because you have seen war that you know anything of the world. Don’t think that your façade of courage, your seeming maturity, makes you anything more than the scared little girl leaving home for the first time that you--”


Gingkage froze, unable to speak, or even turn her head. In her rage at the wolf rider’s words, words that had angered her because she knew they were true, Immeral had lashed out in the strongest way she knew how. She grabbed Gingkage’s aura. A feral snarl from Blaze shocked her back into reality and she realized what she had done. Horrified that she would use her gift in that way, Immeral released Gingkage’s aura, pressing against the bubble and not looking at the confused auras of her friends, who had woken up at some time during the exchange.


“You proved my point,” Gingkage said quietly. “The lore I have would let me tell you how to fully control someone, how to replace their own aura with your own. In your rage just now, if you had had that knowledge, you would have done so without a moment’s hesitation. It was your lack of knowledge that kept you from doing so, not a lack of will.


“You have the skills to do many things. But you lack the wisdom to know when to use those skills and when to restrain yourself. And while skills can be taught, you cannot teach someone wisdom.”


After a moment, Gingkage continued speaking, her tone compassionate.


“Don’t feel bad about it, Immeral. I intentionally baited you into attacking me. The fault was mine, and mine alone. But it does prove that there is a skill that you need to be taught. Fortunately, it’s one that I am capable of teaching you.”


“What skill?” Immeral asked, finally looking up at Gingkage and finding, as she had said, no blame in the girl’s aura. Only understanding.


“With skills such as yours, it’s more crucial than ever that your mind be calm, and that you have the ability to quickly calm yourself down. Lashing out at someone could result in disastrous things with your powers.”


“How can you teach me to be calm?”


“I grew up in a forest, as I told you. If I wanted to survive, I needed to learn how to hunt. Much of hunting involves sitting down and not moving while you wait for your prey to come to you. Or at least hunting the way I learned it involves that. Sitting down and doing nothing is one of the most boring things you can do. If your mind wanders, you can lose the prey, which very often means losing dinner. Meditation is taught to children so that we’re able to keep our minds focused as well as able to keep still for long periods of time. Boredom can easily lead to flaring tempers, making it a practical skill to learn.


“When my skills as a mage were discovered, meditation took on another aspect. It let me tap into my skills so that I could use them. Now I can tap into my magic at will and it will respond how I need it to. But when I was first learning, it took quite some time to even feel my magic.


“While the application is different for you, the principle is the same,” Gingkage said. “And having grown up knowing at least the basics of meditation, I can teach you a little of what I know. And, Alanna, I swear if you don’t remove everything I’ve just said from your Register I’m going to burn it.” That last bit was said without Gingkage even looking at the Loremaster. And despite a strong love of books and hatred of those who harmed them in any way, protecting the secrets of her home was more important to her. While she doubted it was overly important that her being taught to meditate by people in her home, it was still not something the Loremaster was supposed to learn. What she wasn’t sure of, however, was if that Register was even capable of being harmed. It could have been an empty threat on her part. She suspected it was when Alanna made no move to remove the text that she had heard being written down.


Gingkage visibly relaxed when Alanna, with mutters of annoyance, humored her and did remove what she had just added to the register.


“About the meditation, when can I start learning?” Immeral asked.


“Not now. Right now I think we’re all too tired. First thing tomorrow - well, later today by now. The sun will rise in a couple hours.


“Oh, and Alanna,” Gingkage added, reaching into her bag and pulling out a book. “You can add this to your Register. It’s a book that I bought a few months ago on plants and their medicinal values all over Lore. I learned a few things that I didn’t know, but I’ve already written down those things. Feel free to add it to your library, or wherever you and yours keep books.” It was a gamble on Gingkage’s part, hoping to distract Alanna from the tidbit about Gingkage’s home with different Lore. She wasn’t sure if Alanna remembered everything she learned, but the gamble was worth it in her mind.

“Go back to sleep, Immeral,” Gingkage added. “Meditation’s boring to learn. I don’t want you falling asleep on me.” Reluctantly, Immeral settled back down on her bedding and, despite believing herself to be fully awake, fell asleep almost immediately.

< Message edited by Gingkage -- 4/26/2013 17:19:19 >
AQ DF MQ  Post #: 20
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