Welcome to Gaia! ::

((I dunno, but it appears we've stepped into an area where the waste of the ship is collected. Bard said that a gondola appeared (that's basically a little boat) and the ship's.... computer.... (I was hoping this wouldn't become sci-fi ><) suggested that we get in.))

Aer smiled widely at Tekira, unable to conceal his soft laughter. "Me too," he replied, "me too. Of all my experiences, the one that came closest to this... was riding that gitacr. It's all magick, but I'll be damned if I know how anybody had the power or fortitude of mind to construct a ship like this." He pulled the gondola down a little further toward the ground and stepped in with one foot. He held one hand out to Tekira, to help her climb in if she wanted the help, and flashed a winning smile. It was becoming more and more obvious that, for whatever reason, he wasn't paying as much attention to Janika, even though he'd always been taught to protect women in dangerous situations. Classic sexism at work, of course, but it was his upbringing.

"Well," he said, "that voice said that this boat would take us to a cleaner place, and I can only hope it will be brighter as well. Mayhap the reason our explorations have been cloaked in darkness is because we have been walking in corridors where people were not intended to go? Well, on the bright side--if you'll excuse my pun--hopefully that portion of our journey has ended."

Tekira glanced at Aer with slight confusion for a moment, then she took his hand and climbed up, letting go once she was up and reaching out to help Janika in.
"Hopefully." she responded with a smile of her own. "Although the brighter side might be a bit less...exciting." she added, glancing at the doorway where the lightbulb thing had come through.

((OOC: Where does the computer come in? I thought this was fantasy! confused ))

Tekira's eyes widened. "Don't you dare. I said exciting, not deadly. I'm not sure how much more strain I can take." she added with the hint of a smirk. "Give Janika and I a breath between dangers, alright?"
Then she, too, glanced over at Janika. "We'd better hurry." she said as a sudden roar filled the hallway. "I think that's the water."

((And so, in the absence of Bard, I am once again forced to take liberties as to the design of his bloody ship... I, for one, am quite eager to get off this ship and back into a roleplay that is properly fantasy.))

Aer sat back in the tiny boat, to give the two women more room, and looked over to the monitor that had spoken to them, but which was now dark. Nothing was happening, though they were all fairly secure in the boat.

"Hello?" he said, more of a test than anything else, but he was surprised by the fact that he got a response. The monitor flared again and the face returned.

"Well, are we all settled in? Oh, no, no, no, no, that won't do at all, you've gotten a bit of waste on yourselves from walking around in it. Well, I'll fix that straight away if you'll just give me a moment..."

In an amazingly quick movement, a clear bubble closed over the gondola and some sort of white smoke was pumped in, and immediately sucked back out before Aer could get a whiff of whatever it was. Aer looked down to find that the slime had frozen on his boots, but when he touched it, it crumbled to dust, leaving his boots surprisingly clean.

The glass bubble opened, and Aer realized that, while the smoke had obscured his vision, the gondola had been moving quickly. It now hovered in a white room. Three beds were in the room, and there were odd-looking rectangles in the wall which suggested that the beds could be stowed easily, and there were probably more. Aer hopped easily out of the gondola, but stumbled a bit because the boat had rocked in the air. He reached back to help Tekira. This time, for whatever reason, he hadn't even glanced at Janika to see if she, too, needed help.

Tekira quietly climbed down, either not noticing or ignoring Aer's hand.
She glanced around the room uneasily. "I don't like this." she muttered, almost to herself. "It doesn't feel right."
She looked at Aer and opened her mouth to ask a question. Then she apparently thought better of it and closed her mouth again.
Sitting down on the bed farthest from the door, she rested her chin on her hands, thinking.

((Hey Bard, this is even more Wheel-ish, hehehehehehehehehehehehehehe.))

Aer lowered his hand when Tekira declined his offer of help, and turned to look around the room. She was right; something did feel... Wrong. But he couldn't place it. As he inhaled deeply and looked around for magick thread, he noticed a few that were somewhat less than ordinary. One, for example, was snaking toward him from one of the beds, almost tentatively--like a living thing. He waved at it, and it shied away. He couldn't tell what element the thread represented, but then it shot out, wrapped around his throat, and--

Aer blinked. The invisible magick thread remained twined about his throat, but he felt nothing adverse, nothing that might signal an attack. It was unsettling, but it seemed that the thread wasn't doing anything. Then, though, the thread snaked up further and eased into his mouth. He still felt nothing, but...

Spirit, he realized suddenly. That was why he couldn't identify the element of the thread--Spirit was the only element without a definite identifying trait. He felt nothing as the thread moved into his body, but he was beginning to feel very exhausted. Less cautious, too, as he moved toward the bed whence the thread had come. He vaguely noticed similar Spirit threads moving toward Janika and Tekira, but he didn't comment on them. They suddenly didn't seem very important.

"I'm very tired," Aer said softly. "I think... yes, I think I'll take advantage of one of these beds... I am so very exhausted after all that's happened..." He sat on the edge of te bed and stifled a yawn. He could barely keep his eyes open. "Please wake me if we land anywhere," were the last words Aer got out before he fell back on the bed, unconscious, the Spirit thread completely inside his body and holding him in sleep.

((Gasp! Evil sleep-inducing magic!))

((Whoo, I just noticed that two places I created are listed on the front page with my name attached to them! Yay! ^^ Well, I think it's time for me, at least, to get a new character. Enter Aer's father, Rivus! The first page says to simply describe him rather than posting a profile, so I'll save the profile for when Faey gets back. I'm prepared to play Rivus through his situations unaided, so I don't want anyone to feel obligated to put a character near him, but if you want to, you're welcome to do so.))

Rivus d'Mors pursed his lips and interlocked his fingers, resting his hands on the desk in front of him.

"Wraith," he intoned deeply, taking special care to imbue the word with a certain repugnance which he did not actually feel. "I do not know what name he is using, and I do not know the name into which he was born, but that is his name."

Chancellor Ductor leant back in his chair and eyed d'Mors plaintively. "Monsieur d'Mors," he began, but d'Mors cut him off with a wave of his hand, an act which made the door guard grunt in disapproval. Few people would deign to interrupt the Chancellor.

"I understand, Chancellor, that this Wraith has done the crown no particular disservice," d'Mors said, "but as a loyal and humble servant of the Donnol Islands, I entreat you to, please, lend me only that aid for which I have asked, barely a pittance from one such as yourself."

The Chancellor shook his head. "Why do you wish to find and arrest Wraith? You have told me of no crime, only his name."

Rivus levelled his gaze on the Chancellor. "Wraith has been running around with his ship, stealing Hearrtes, for years. Before him, there was another Wraith, and before him, another. There is no familial tie between the Wraiths. The name and the ship are not passed from father to son, but from expert to apprentice. Now, however... Wraith has become a problem."

Ductor shook his head. "How so?"

Rivus closed his eyes. "Wraith has my son. It is unlikely that Wraith will see Aer as being fit to carry the name of Wraith, but even such a small chance..."

The Chancellor's eyes sparked with greed, but he quelled the impulse. "Why is this such a bad thing, Rivus? If your son should become Wraith... Why, imagine what it would be, to have a weapon like that on our side!"

Rivus laughed softly. "I do not think you fully understand my son, Chancellor. If he should become Wraith... Our problems will only multiply."

~

Rivus straightened his jacket as he exited the Chancellor's Council Chamber, and glanced around. The foolish figurehead of a Chancellor had easily caved in to Rivus's request; he would find no resistance in getting hold of one of the new gitacrs, nor in taking it off the island of Newgate. The only thing Rivus did not like about the plan was that he had now become directly involved in it.

First, it had been simple. All he needed to do was plant the seeds of rebellion in his son. To do that, he merely had to make his son's life uncomfortable and stiff, caged, in a way, without making the boy aware of it. Aer had to believe that that was simply the way noble life was. Finally, he had snapped, just as planned, and run away. Rivus hadn't exactly planned on the loss of a gitacr--after all, Aer had been taking flying lessons for years now, though he'd never shown much aptitude for unaided magickal flight--but it hardly mattered. Immediately after realizing that Aer was gone, Rivus had nudged Wraith--a long-time contact, though no one else knew about it--in Aer's direction. Little more than a suggestion, really, but it had obviously worked, and Wraith had found Aer.

Rivus had been reasonably certain that the two would hit it off quite well--both of them were troublemakers with a love of freedom and a penchant for breaking the rules--but, apparently, according to Rivus's sources, Aer did not trust Wraith. Rivus had always hated that about his son--Aer always seemed to be able to tell, on some level, when someone was lying to him.

Well, that didn't matter either. Rivus's plans did not depend on his son becoming chummy with Wraith. Rivus's plans only depended on Aer getting aboard Wraith's ship, which had happened. All that was left was for Rivus to join the party, and then everything would be perfect.

((Le gasp! What is he planning?!))