((I hope I got things just about right in YC...))
~Yulia City~
Rief
Rief's eyelids fluttered for a few moments before completely opening. Slowly, he pushed himself up to sit. He had a dizzied feeling about him, as if he had been tossed about in one of his friend Karis' Tempest spells. The feeling soon faded, though a slight nausea lingered. Once he could feel with certainty what he apparently landed on, he was surprised to find himself on a soft bed.
Out of habit (and finding much residue on them anyway), the boy removed his eyeglasses and wiped the lenses with the end of his tunic. After putting them on, he moved his legs over the edge of the bed and stared at his surroundings to get an idea of where he was. The room...it looked like a very unfamiliar style of bedroom to him. It looked cold...not very homey...the devices that provided lighting seemed odd... To him, it looked like a room made for living around or even
in one of those Alchemy Machines. He began to wonder if that vortex indeed transported him to one.
As he stood up, he worriedly looked around for his belongings. To his relief, his pack was just on the floor by the edge of the bed, and his trusty Lachesis' Rule staff was leaning against a nearby wall.
At this point, he finally realized that he had a weakened feeling about him. Not illness, just something like his powers were not at their full potential in some way. Something was amiss, and if that was what he was feeling, that could only mean one thing. He raised his arms to chest level, elbows bent and palms facing each other. A few moments after he closed his eyes in concentration, small blue orbs of light appeared in different places around his upper body; one at his shoulder, one near his heart, one at his left arm, and one at the palm of his right hand. Those orbs lifted off his body and landed in a straight row by his feet, growing and forming into curious little blue creatures that were about a foot tall, nature spirits called
Mercury Djinn. ((In GS: DD, they all have individual appearances, but there have yet to be pics found online. D: Maybe I'll draw them out sometime.))
Rief frowned worriedly and shook his head.
"Just as I thought. Sleet, Chill, Coral, Dewdrop...what happened to the rest?" At his words, his little companions looked crestfallen. Sleet, the first Djinni in the row and the first he ever had, began to pipe up in a childlike voice.
"We...don't know. They were there, and then...they're just not."Rief began to pace back and forth in slow steps, looking deep in thought.
"Do you think it was the vortex? Maybe it was a Psynergy Vortex after all...a new kind that had the power to just take them out of me..."It was at this time one of the passing healers noticed he was up. Thinking he might walk out like some of the others had earlier, she decided to take measures to prevent this and strode into his room. "Erm, greetings, sir...we're relieved to see that you've awakened just fine...but if you would please just stay put here, there needs to be a few more examinations done on you."
"E-examinations??" Rief stopped pacing to turn toward the lady. He began to blush and twiddle his fingers timidly as he looked up at her, as she was a bit taller than him.
"What kind of examinations?"The healer smiled. "Oh, don't worry! They're just to gauge your well-being, and to find---" at this point, her glance moved downward toward something that caught her eye...the Mercury Djinn. She did a double-take and stumbled a couple steps backward. The coloration and shape of the ends of their tails suggested to her that they might be poisonous creatures!
"Good heavens, what are those things?! How did you sneak them in here?!"Startled at the lady's reaction, Rief began to wave his arms in gestures that suggested she calm down.
"Whoa, whoa! There's no need to panic, ma'am! They're just my Mercury Djinn...my buddies! They're good, I swear!" The lady seemed about ready to call for backup. Though Rief was unaware that she was doing so, he knew enough to hide them from sight.
"Uh-oh. This doesn't look good. It's best that you guys stay inside now. Come on, back in," he coaxed with open arms, making beckoning gestures with his hands. The Mercury Djinn nodded, the began to float and glow. Shrinking into little orbs of light again, they were absorbed back into his body.
The healer, who had watched all of that transpire before she could actually turn away to call for backup, just stared gaping in disbelief. Did the boy just...
absorb those little monsters into his body? What
was he? Deciding that this patient likely needed special attention, she ran out of the room in search of the right people.
Rief hung his head in exasperation and sweatdropped, then went on to plop his bottom back onto the bed and sigh.
"Just where am I?" he asked himself.
"I thought Adepts were known of all over Weyard... But then again, that lady's clothing didn't look any familiar..."Azriel Serafina
At about the same time Rief woke up, Azriel stirred and awakened in her bed as well. And she was
very confused to find herself in a bedroom, as she had previously been scouring the
Balacruf Mausoleum. Two extremely different settings.
"...Huh. Did I manage to make a pretty bad fall into a trap, enough to get old man Thibault to send a search party for me?" she asked...not only to herself, but to a couple other personae that were within her. Sitting up, she slung her legs over the edge of the bed and stretched...then cringed a little, feeling soreness in some areas.
"If ya ask me, this certainly don't look like any inn room in Luin," the dark one replied.Azriel nodded as she scratched her chin.
"True, true..." Curious, she stood up and began to walk around, examining all of this room she was placed in.
"...I have a keen feeling this isn't a room somewhere in the Tethe'alla regions either..." She went on to look for her things...thankfully, her pack was upon a nearby chair, and her sheathed weapons were on top of the table it was next to. Making a satisfactory nod, she began to open her pack and look into it, making sure all her belongings were intact.
Another passing healer had seen Azriel reach for her bag, and thinking that she intended to leave as well, the healer approached her. "...Ma'am. Good to see you doing well, but please stay put in this room for just a while longer. Your examinations aren't over yet."
Azriel's little wings sprung up with an audible
fwip! at the sound of the word "examinations", which startled the healer because she wasn't aware those wings were real appendages at all! She thought they were costume accessories... And she sweatdropped when she caught Azriel glaring bitterly at her.
"Excuse me, did you just imply you were doing examinations on me when I was out cold? Because if you ask me, I've had enough of my feathers being plucked," she stated in a cold tone. She was reminded of certain scientists virtually harassing her whenever she swung by Sybak in search of a job.
The healer perceived that the girl had thought she had ended up in a scientific institution. "N-no ma'am, not examinations of that sort! We're just gauging your health! You see, when you were brought in from the surrounding oceans, you appeared to be in quite an injured state!"
Azriel's slightly widened in surprise, and she calmed down considerably.
"Oh, I...I see. Sorry about that, just had some...er...dodgy memories resurfacing there." She looked a little perplexed about something the lady said.
"The...oceans? Excuse me, ma'am, could you tell me where I am right now?"Sighing in relief that this patient had backed down from her hostility, the healer replied, "Why, you're in Yulia City. Now, someone may see you in a moment, and this'll all be over shortly if you would please cooperate. Please wait." With that, she turned and left Azriel alone.
The odd-winged girl could only stare in bewilderment as the lady left, dumbfounded at her answer.
"Y-Yulia City? I don't ever recall having heard of a place by that name..." she said to herself softly, blinking.
~Rugnica Plains~
"Hrm. Indeed..." Eloysio began with a faint smile and a bit of a chuckle, having heard Ayre's muttering and agreeing with what he said of Meltokian scholars.
"Although I'm not in the mood for a hard drink. I need some water more than anything at the moment." He stroked his chin, now noticing how unpleasantly dry his mouth was, and began to walk forth, assuming by the lad's words that he was appointed to lead the way. After listening to the man in red speak a little more, he looked over at him and said,
"I'm afraid I haven't been able to follow much of anything you've said. Er, random encounters? Level up?" õ_ó;; He may have heard a name among all his previous babble, but he wasn't entirely sure.
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