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The sage was charging a spell, but he didn't use it. It didn't matter. Whether he used it or not, the morph would be okay. He was always okay. And he would be okay until he killed that wyvern. The man's speech was pathetic; 'stop this guy from hurting Eyris'? He was the one who would SAVE Eyris. Clearly this man was confused and had no idea what he was talking about. Maybe he was actually AGAINST Siegell? Oh well, it didn't matter. He'd just kill him, kill the healer too, and...

Wait, just a moment. So, technically, these two were against Siegell. This one was a healer, and he was weak at the moment; he'd just come from a battle. So maybe.... he should just take him. Kishuna needed a healer as well, since he'd likely take damage while making his way to Siegell. And if the healer in question wanted to kill Siegell as well, then perhaps he'd help. Not that he would have any choice, though. It would be the morph's choice, if he wanted him. So, take out the swordmaster, and he could have the healer. Yes~ What a perfect plan.

The swordmaster moved forward with a sudden, uncanny speed, blade flashing out in a glimmering arc at the morph's face. Speed only a swordmaster could possess... a swordmaster, or a morph who had been created never to take a hit. Kishuna's eyes flashed crimson, smirk widening across his face; and the knife in his hand flashed up, sparks flying as it scraped along the blade of the sword. How simple, didn't the swordmaster know that a person would always protect their face? Clearly not; he was instead spinning around to hit the unprotected side. Clever...

But not clever enough.

With the quintessence of his dear friend in his body, a person whose very being was radically different than his own, Kishuna had found himself in possession of... well, some different powers. And here was the perfect time to test one of them. The morph's left arm came up in what looked like a futile attempt to block the blade; then with a soft noise, a crimson blade sprang to life above his arm, glowing with the same energies as the crimson runic circle the morph used as a Magic Seal. The blade connected with his own, and Kishuna threw his arm out, knocking it away and grinning like a maniac. "Gehehe... you clearly don't know morphs, child." As Joshua moved away, Kishuna tossed the knife into the air, switching hands; the crimson blade now appeared on his right arm, and the knife was in his left hand. "I gave you your chance, now it's my turn~" He gave a smile, then flashed forward, both blades held in front of his so that he could knock the sword aside with one and stab with the other.

((Blade reference - Link))

The smirk quickly left Joshua's face as he saw what he had hit, "...the hell?" He choked out, "Morph? what’s a morph?" Whatever it was apparently it was bad... magically so, without even a chance to comprehend what was happening the morph sprung at him using the crimson blade to knock his own skyward both blades ended up their users head’s as time seemed to move slowly for both combantants. Even as they connected Joshua was trying to lean back while keeping his feet planted, but the shock of that odd blade still had rattled him at bit and he couldn’t make it all the way back in time, so the knife scraped along the surface of his stomach heading up to his chest, taking a layer of skin off and causing minor bleeding, thankfully the knife wouldn't have been able to knock away his sword so the man was forced to use the smaller blade... had it been the opposite way Joshua would have lost a few pounds without going on a diet. With all three blade up know as the knife sailed harmlessly past his nose Joshua straightened his spine and leaned forwards.

The man was to close for Joshua to strike effectively with his sword so instead Joshua planted his free hand on the stranger's naked chest and pushed him away hard, even as the man was forced away from him Joshua was in his face.

"Who the hell?" He asked as he, rather then strike at the mans face which is what the morph may have expected from his previous lunge, dropped low and aimed a cut at his enemies knees, dropping to his own knees as he did Joshua ducked his head and rolled again to the left.

"Perfect!" He thought, now Kishuna had he followed Joshua's actions and turned to face him, his back would be to Akihi. If the morph tried to turn to stop an attack from Akihi or even look at his comrade then Joshua would be there. Shooting to his feet in his defensive stance just out of each combantants respective reach, Joshua continued his question to keep the morph's attention on him. "Are you? Who's your leader? Was it that wyvern guy I saw? What’s his name? Where can I find him? Why did you attack Eyris?" he spoke quickly firing off one question after the other. Being only a regular member of the guard Joshua wasn't told much... only to grab his sword and defend the castle some answers’ would be nice, as well as it would hopefully distract Kishuna long enough for Akihi to get the point and fry the bugger.

Two weeks had gone by since Rei had walked out that door.

Two weeks since the castle had gone up in flames and FEF had been driven out of Eyris. Tibarn sighed, slowly stroking the pelt of the Mauthe Doog who had taken up residence on top of his legs, much to the displeasure of the wooden legs of the rickety bed. Three days ago, after the terrible illness the Hawk King had developed subsided, he had finally gotten up and walked around some, but his wife and daughter still weren't letting him spend too much time out of bed.

The ragtag group had settled tentatively, at last, and were working together to survive the winter. Leon, Ayra, and Joshua took shifts keeping watch, and the Watch lieutenant kept wood in good supply with a hatchet he had found. Ayra and Joshua were able to hunt well enough for game in the snowy woods, especially with the aid of Charon.

The place was kept warm now, the door mended and broken windows boarded to seal the heat inside. Everyone was antsy. Squabbles by seemed to break out hourly, and unfortunately the cabin didn't have enough rooms for everyone to go sulk on their own.

Every other day, they'd see Siegell's soldiers marching along the path. A healthy dose of bullshit and the burning of incriminating evidence had saved them from association with FEF.

Tibarn heard Charon growl sleepily as he dragged his aching legs from under the beast and stood, feeling blood pump back to his feet with a sigh of relief. He spread one wing, then the next to hold his balance. Just recovering blood kept him down long enough, and his cough and fever hadn't helped matters. He shook his head, grumbling, and held the door frame as he stepped from the bedroom to the living room, which doubled as a kitchen.

Ayra, Maiara, Leon, Joshua, sitting, some trying to sleep, Ayra trying to entertain a bored toddler. "It's time to move on," he said. "Rei's been gone for two weeks, we can't keep waiting for him forever. It's time to start searching for other survivors. That's not gonna happen as long as we're here." He stepped forward a little more and stumbled over Maiara's bedroll, then flopped into an empty chair. "So where do we go next?"

{Amelia}

Joshua had been lying on the floor of the common room with his hat pulled down over his face. Although he had recovered from the wound that blasted Morph had gave him in his shoulder there would always be a scar...

"I've been saying for the last week that we should be going after the sage... we've waited much to long already." He mumbled from underneath his hat, "You'll never win any money if you don't place any bets... maybe that should be our first objective, Akihi said something about his friend... but when I looked I couldn't find them, maybe he wandered off or something, hell I don't know but it sure beats sitting around here, we should start with them... the Morph said he was going after Seigell and although he was crazy he might have some info for us... If we convinced him." Joshua was feeling very irritable... sitting in a cabin with the same group of people who didn't feel like gambleing for two weeks could do that to him

Joshua had searched the woods for the friend Akihi mentioned but couldn't find him... he did find a bloody patch of snow though but any foot prints had been wrecked by the snowfall. Either whoever it was had gotten up and wandered off (Hopefully still alive somewhere nearby) or he had been found by the soliders that had been persuing him (In which case he might be better off dead.)

After that he had ended up at a cabin filled with other survivors, very irritated and with a knife sticking out of his swordarm Joshua had decided to heal up a bit before looking for the sage... he had also recounted his story to Tibarn and the others. "Akihi... you saved me and now I owe you one. I'm gonna find you." He thought.

"Or if it fancies you we can charge into Eyris like a band of hero's and get cut down for our troubles. Has anyone petioned any of the other countries yet? By now they should have come to our aid if they knew... either that or they just don't care..." He pointed out bitterly.

Joshua had been lying on the floor of the common room with his hat pulled down over his face. Although he had recovered from the wound that blasted Morph had gave him in his shoulder there would always be a scar... never mind… Joshua would pay him back eventually.

He never forgot a face.

"I've been saying for the last week that we should be going after the sage... we've waited much too long already to make our move, you’ll never win any money if you don't place any bets." He mumbled from underneath his hat, "So finding more survivor’s should be our first objective, Akihi said something about his friend... but when I looked I couldn't find them, maybe he wandered off or something, hell I don't know but it sure beats sitting around here, we should start with them, besides the Morph said he was going after Seigell and although he was crazy he might have some info for us... If we knew the right way to convince him." Joshua was feeling very irritable... sitting in a cabin with the same group of people who didn't feel like gambleing for two weeks could do that to him.

Joshua had searched the woods for the friend Akihi mentioned but couldn't find him... he did find a bloody patch of snow though, but any foot prints had been wrecked by the snowfall. Either whoever it was had gotten up and wandered off (Hopefully still alive somewhere nearby) or he had been found by the soliders that had been pursuing him (In which case he might be better off dead.)

After that he had ended up at a cabin filled with other survivors, very irritated and with a knife sticking out of his sword arm Joshua had decided to heal up a bit before looking for the sage... he had also recounted his story to Tibarn and the others. "Akihi... you saved me and now I owe you one. I'm gonna find you." He thought.

"Or if it fancies you we can charge into Eyris like a band of hero's and get cut down for our troubles. Has anyone petitioned any of the other countries yet? By now they should have come to our aid if they knew... either that or they just don't care... we could do that, find out the state of the continent in relation to Learnia." He pointed out bitterly.


Jaren watched his pray hop along the snow by the nearby path, as always it stopped on the opposite side of the pathetic excuse for a road and looked at him quizzically.

"I've got you now..." He muttered under his breath slowly stalking closer to the rabbit, a little further, just a bit more and he'd be within lungeing distance... Now! Jaren leaped at the white bunny at the same second it, with powerful legs, shot off quickly into the deep of the trees as Jaren wiped the snow away from the face-plant he had just done.

Lying in the snow he glared at the retreating back of his nemisis. "Tomorrow Mr. Rabbit... you may have escaped my divine wrath today but tomorrow I'll dine on your flesh." He whispered to nobody in particular.

Jaren was on guard duty again, as he had been everyday for the past two weeks, since he had a tendency to do exactly the wrong thing at the perfectly wrong time (and did he ever know it) he tried to stay out of the cabin as often as possible for the sake of the others (And to prevent the Ayra-women from loping off his hand, on the third day of consecutive guard duty the rabbit had shown up. Jaren kind of sucked at hunting.... very badly actually... the first time he had been sent hunting he somehow managed to set off his own snare... while he was tying it, and had been jerked roughly into the air by his wrist, screaming bloody murder as his arm felt it would be torn out of his socket he had ended up scaring away all the game until the other two Swordmaster's had come to assist the myrmidon.

The second time he'd been sent out had been as bad as the first... Jaren refused to even speak about that day... lets just say it involved a bear, an improvised bear trap that had proved to be a better Jaren-trap and which left a nasty scar, a bundle of flaming sticks and a very scared Jaren.

Nobody asked him to hunt after that time and maybe for the same reason he had never been asked to chop wood... for the first few days that the rabbit had shown up on gaurd duty Jaren (whom nobody really spoke to unless they needed to) had began speaking to the bunny. It only took another day for him to realize that if he captured his new friend the others might respect him a little more...

Every day for the next week and a half Jaren had been trying to capture the rabbit (without using any trap's or any tool require a degree of competency apart from his sword) with no luck… the darned thing actually seemed to be enjoying Jaren’s sad attempts to catch it as it still came back everyday at exactly the same time.

Sighing Jaren stood back up and leaned against the tree he had almost jumped head first into, and continued watching the path for any-sign of trouble, he was smart enough to not stand on the path and in fact the only time his feet ever touched the path was when he was trying to capture the rabbit, instead he stood farther back in the woods, his blue and white clothing blending in nicely with the shade and snow. If any group went in the direction of the cabin he would dart there ahead of him and warn the inhabitants... already this had saved the group from a few nasty occurrences when Tibarn was bed-ridden.

The two weeks had gone slowly in one fashion for the morph and the young sage, but in other ways they had gone incredibly quickly. The sage had completely freaked out, of course; he'd just been kidnapped by someone who had strange powers, could negate magic, and was clearly quite dangerous. He'd nearly gone into hysterics, in fact, until Kishuna was finally able to convince him that he wasn't going to be killed. The sage calmed down then, sort of, although he was still quite confused and rather frightened of the morph.

Introductions were made, after a fashion, as were explanations from the morph; they had basically the same goal, although Kishuna's way of going about it seemed to be much more sadistic and dark than Akihi's would have been. The morph simply wanted to slaughter his way through guards and soldiers until he got to Siegell, Akihi following behind to heal him as he went. This was one thing that the sage did manage to talk him out of, more for his own sake than the morph's; they would both be killed if they just rushed in that way. So instead, the morph decided that he would train, along with the sage, and train he did.

They got sleep that night, and then for the next two weeks Kishuna ran Akihi completely ragged, what with the constant practice, stealing food so that they wouldn't go hungry, the seemingly random beatings the morph administered; the poor sage had a really rough time of it. And Kishuna liked it that way. If the sage understood that he was in control, things would go a lot more smoothly while they were working. So what he was doing could be called, he supposed, the equivalent of breaking the young man.

Two weeks, and Akihi's tome - and staff - were nearly worn out. Kishuna had thrown away his dagger long ago, opting instead to use the crimson blade formed from his life force. He wasn't entirely sure, but judging by the slight pain he felt every time the weapon contacted a surface - in most cases, some part of Akihi, it was probably good for the sage that there were Elixirs around - he figured that having the blade break on his would NOT be a good thing to have happen. So, he trained, and the blade grew brighter, and it seemed to thicken and grow.

So, today they would go out and procure more weapons and items and equipment. The idea was simple, and sound; rush the house of a well-known mage in the town, kill him, take whatever they could take. Kishuna strode along in the snow, garbed the same, expression still the same. Akihi lagged behind just a bit; after all, he was only human, and affected by the snow. The morph's hand flashed out without warning, clipping Akihi just above his ear. "Hurry up, I don't want you behind me."

The morph didn't pay any attention to the sage for a moment; then a moment later he reached out and gently ruffled the young man's hair. It wouldn't do to have him down and weak, either. He wouldn't be of any use that way. "Remember, we're doing this for the good of everyone. I get my revenge, you get your castle and your friends back, everyone ends up happy. Huh? And hey, I'll probably die in the attempt anyway, good for you, eh? You'll be free, you just have to wait a bit." Course, if he died the kid was probably gonna die with him. But hey, no reason to worry him any more right? Not that it mattered, for all the morph cared this sage could end up with horrible mental scarring. But that would be after he was done.

And here was the house. Wait, what the hell? This wasn't a house, it was a tower. That did sort of make it harder, they couldn't just take the mage from two sides. Oh well. Might as well make the best of it. The morph looked up and down the tower, and saw nothing. There were a few animals in the back yard. b*****d probably did experiments on them or something, they didn't matter. The morph shrugged, then walked up and tried the front door, a slight aura glowing around him. No traps, apparently; but the door was locked. Well, this magician didn't seem to be quite as good as the rest of the city thought he was. Hopefully he wasn't just some hack and actually had tomes in there somewhere.

So Kishuna walked back to Akihi, clamping a hand on the young man's shoulder, rather roughly. "All right, see if he's in there. I don't want him surprising us. If he notices you and tries a spell, I'll stop it from hitting you, so don't hold back."

Hmmm, maybe he'd broken the sage a little too hard. The morph watched Akihi as he moved up to the tower; his steps were hesitant and worried, as was the rest of his mood. But Kishuna just watched, arms folded silently; was it really his concern what happened to the pawns in this little game? Perhaps he wasn't the King of his side, but he was certainly a knight, at least. The black knight, perhaps.

His thoughts, to be honest, were quite close to Aki's; he'd been dead for a few centuries and a 'living dead' for another ten or so; and almost the moment he was able to possibly start reforming his life the world fell down around him. If he did not have the burning desire for revenge inside of him, he might just lay down here in the snow and fall asleep. Such a beautiful landscape, really. Kishuna was distracted momentarily by this; he turned, gazing out across the landscape to see the pure white bliss spread out before him. If only the rest of the world would take a cue from the unblemished snow. Perhaps Siegell had the right idea, but.... who said that such a tyrant deserved to rule over everyone? He'd killed people off; but he hadn't killed off enough.

The morph's eyes grew cold and distant. He would join his friend soon enough. He wasn't yet ready.... but soon. Soon he would be. And.... his thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a nearby voice, speaking to him weakly. So the mage was here? Good, good. Then they should be able to simply stroll in and take him out. Kishuna turned to Akihi, with a quiet nod. "All right, good. Let's go, then. You're the one with a decent weapon, so you get to go in first. Go on, then." The morph paused at the door, then with a well-placed kick knocked it open; it seemed the wood was relatively dry and not in the best condition. The morph bowed deeply, swinging out an arm. "After you."