~The Traveling Mage~

Gryphon walked into the cafe and, spying his colleague, walked over to him, "Kent? What are you doing here?" he asked. Gryphon gave the table adjacent to him a light pat and a small insignia appeared on it. Immediately, without drawing too much attention, Gryphon's small fuzzy friend appeared on it. It gave a huge smile and shouted loudly in a happy voice, "HI KENT!!!" Fuzzly said. Seeing the purse Kent took from the thief and mistaking it to be full of food, Fuzzly began munching on it. (But not the money yet, just the purse) "Needs salt," Fuzzly said.

 

Alek Personas and his friend Arden walk slowly into an old cafe. Alek walks up to the owner, and asks him a question. "Do you have a private room available?" He asks the man. "We don't need to stay the night, I just need someplace away from prying eyes for a rather delicate... operation. I'd be willing to pay a bit of gold to use the room for a half hour." He said. The owner looked up, noticed the 3 gold pieces in his hand, and nods towards a back room they used as a storage area. He passed them a rusty old key, and Arden took it and opened the door. Tossing his circle pendant in the air a few times. Alek thrust his arm upwards. He concentrated on touching something, though, and not with his physical form. He reached out as it to touch the Aether, but instead grasped the other side of the coin. The Nether, a realm far different in nature than earth or the Aether. He felt the familiar tug of memories past, and a flame of darkness that you could tell just by being near was not real fire blazed in the center of the room. After ten seconds, out of that fire, climbed a skeleton, with bones as rough as sandpaper, and bull's skull, and it's left hand smoking heavily. "What is your name, spirit?" Alek implored. It responded, not with words as it should be charged to, but with violence. Out of it's smoking grasp flowed a torrent of purple fire, only barely deflected by a quick ice spell from Arden. "Cryosis!" Arden had shouted, just as the purple fire had reached less that an inch from his companion's face. A beam of light blue energy had flown from his index finger and made contact with the horrid flame. Despite the fact that it would not follow directions, when Alek uttered a dismissal, the being left. Dismayed, "D***! That should have worked! I can't think of how else to go at it!" he said. After that, they both left the room wordlessly, a stench of magic reeking on their clothing. They tossed the owner the coins promised, and sat down at the nearest table.

 

Gryphon smiled, "off of a thief, eh? Is that really a wise use of your abilities, young one?" he teased of course. In all his years of being on the senior end of the council, not many others were as enthusiastic as Kent. It reminded Gryphon of him when he was younger. "You're here waiting for your new apprentice, aren't you?"
Fuzzly began bouncing up and down, trying to get the purse back. After failing he decided to look elsewhere for food. He turned to his left and began eating the salt-shaker. Once is was completely consumed in less than two seconds, Fuzzly again smiled at Kent, "A new apprentice? That sounds exciting!"

 

"Well, Arden, what do you think? I have tried moving both my astral AND physical body in so many ways, yet still control of the Nether evades me. Aether is quite powerful, but the Nether is new and unknown. Not only could that give me power over my opponents, but it could benefit all mages! But still all I can do is summon, and not command. Do you think we need the help of another summoner? I am very skilled at my trade, but maybe we need new eyes. If my theory holds true, a necromancer could also be of some help. The living form the barrier between the Aether and earth. That is well known. So what if the dead form the barrier between earth and the Nether? In that case we would need to contact someone who can command the dead in order to learn this particular art. The only reason touching the Aether opens a gateway is because it weakens our security against the Aetherlings, but how would the dead touch a barrier?" Alek asked. Arden simply shrugged his shoulders. "You forget. The most I can summon is a weak spirit of poison called Venenumaeus. You of all people know how weak he is, all he could kill is a small dog unless he caught something by surprise." Arden said. "Then I shall seek out a necromancer and hopefully a summoner, and we shall see for ourselves." He said, a bit too loudly. Anyone in the bar could have heard.

 

>Sorry it took me so long to post<

Haru sat at a table next to a window looking out on the city from inside the Cafe. He was sitting alone with a little doll on the table. The Doll was of a common summon of a rat like animal with a spiky ball at the end of it's tail. There was a piece of paper on the back, with some very careful and detailed writing on it. It was a beautiful style of calligraphy, but still wasn't good enough. All the doll would do is wag it's tail, and twitch it's from right leg. It still isn't good enough....very interesting. I will try a new spell instead next time. Haru takes the tag off it's back, and cancels the spell by simply putting an 'X' over the words. "All that is required is to create an imperfection." That's what I was always taught.

Haru notices the big group of people talking at a table a few feet away from him. He recognized one or two, but never really got to know them. He closed his eyes, picks up his cup of Jasmine Tea, and takes a long sip.

 

Many villagers socialized and joked around through the village, living happily, living peacefully. Children were running around laughing. Nobody paid attention to her as she strode into the village with her dark blue cloak belonging to her mother on. The hood resting on her shoulders as her fairly long brown hair flowed behind her as she walked. Even at the walking pace, her hair seemed to fly behind her like she was running at extreme speeds, her hair though felt like that as the girl was focussing on the breeze around her body.

It was a new cast she was working on, getting the wind to encase her body creating an invicible, strong sheild of wind. The girl stopped though as her hair settled down to its rightful spot resting on her shoulders.

She was finished with her training for the day. Everyday the girl would go out in the woods and go through intense training, ever since she was little and first gain her magic ability as a wind specialist she did. At first she'd come back exhausted, there's been times where she just crashed in the woods and wouldn't come home till the next day at the time she was suppose to come home the day before.

The girl was gifted though and with her gift from her parents, to powerful specialists themselves, she still needed to practice and harness her powers to full capabilities and as long as she was still living and breathing, that would be never.

The girl looked at the cafe in front of her, before stroding in. She didn't bother to look around the cafe, she knew there were fellow guild members there, relaxing, socializing, acting like normal mortals without any magical power gifted to them.

"Era your usual I presume?" A female employee of the cafe working behind the counter called out to her asking. The girl had to be about 19 years of age, two years older than Era's 17 years of age. The girl Era grew to knew well. She was married, forced into marriage at the age of 13 when her parents learned she was old enough to bare a child in which they believed was the right age for her marriage. So the young girl was sent out and arranged to marriage of a 32 year old man, which if she were the age she was now it wouldn't be too bad, but when the man was 32 and she was 13 years, nearly 20 years different, it was slightly strange.

The man was a knight and so her parents thought it wouldn't be bad. They were wrong as the poor young girl was very much abused by her husband. Her husband when she was 17 years of age was killed by one of the dark evil creatures, and though the fact he was killed by an evil creature, Era was fighting against, Era is happy that the girl two years older than her is now safe with a beautiful daughter from the abusive husband who thankfully was also born after the knights cruel death.


"Yes Madeline, thank you." Era said to the young woman. Era moved over to a small table located in the corner near an open window.

Era is pleased about her parents, when she was 13 years of age she was not forced to marry anyone, in fact the only thing asked of her was to join the magic guild to learn more of magic and to help fight against an evil force of dark magic. Era is still not looking for a husband or even to have a family of her own yet though. Era would be fine if she never had a family or husband, but for her parents sake, she will continue the "powerful line of magic" in her family.

"Here you go." Era looked up at the smiling blonde woman adorning the brown dress with the once white but not yellowish apron stained from coffee, wine, tea, and more.

"Thank you." Era said to Madeline. Pulling out a gold coin and handing it to Madeline as Madeline walked away. Era stuck a spoon in the tea and with deep concentration watched as the spoon began to move by a force of wind, stirring the tea.

 

The were people at the towns square talking and laughing, little kids crying and playing throughout the square. As the Children played a boy watched them from the rooftop. He watched as they ran and played, as they talked, and as they laughed.

The boy's name was Leon. Leon always watched the metropolis from the highest building. He looked down at them as they enjoyed there day.

Leon stood up on the edge of the building as he saw a girl with a blue cloak on. He then jumped off the edge of the building and then used a spell which made rain cloud appear under him. Leon landed on the rain cloud. He then made the cloud down towards the ground and as it got close enough he jumped off and then walked towards the Cafe. Leon looked at the other mages who were in the Cafe. Leon went and sat down alone.

 

Fuzzly accidently wandered over to their table and called over to Gryphon, "They're right here Gryphon!" he yelled to his friend. Gryphon walked over to the table and pulled Fuzzly away from anything Fuzzly could mistakenly eat thinking it was food.
"I'm sorry boys," Gryphon began, not sitting down yet, "I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I recognize you from the guild, but I haven't gotten to know either of you. I'm Gryphon, I'm a teacher and senior member at the guild. Anyway, as I was saying, I heard that you are in need of a summoner and a necromancer. I specialize in both those arts, and in construction if you need it. I feel I must get to know all of my students, and I feel helping you with this project will aid me in that quest." It was then that Fuzzly wiggled out of Gryphon's grip and began eating the salt and pepper shakers.

 

"Thank you Gryphon. My name is Alek Personas, specialized summoner. As you heard, I do need help from someone who knows the secrets of the dead. Someone who, like you, knows the secret of calling souls back from their slumber. I still have the room back there for another 15 minutes, why don't you follow me? If you are a circle mage I'm afraid you'll need your own summoning circle, I don't have any chalk or ink on me. If you know how to summon then this might be very helpful to you. Arden is a very good Cryomancer and Pyromancer, so even if it doesn't work and you don't have time to summon a circle, we're still safe." Alek said. "I think I did see you at the guild, actually. You were teaching a young hopeful summoning theory. I believe you were teaching about the walls between our worlds created by the living, weren't you? If so, that's good, we need an expert on summoning theory, as the ability to control them is just that right now, a theory."

 

"You needn't worry," Gryphon said, "I am a sorcerror, not a circle mage. And if worse comes to worse, I have a decent understanding of the other arts, enough to defend myself," he said, heading with them to room, Fuzzly bouncing after them. "I see you saw that lecture, yes, I truly believe that walls keep us contained in this world," he stopped and leaned closer to the two, "BUT. These walls are fragile, and must be handled with care, so whatever you are doing, it must be done with the utmost care."

 

Haru looks at Kent with the cup still at his lips creating a faint aroma start to drift around him. Haru then puts the cup down, takes the tag he had written, and tears it to pieces. "It's a failed experiment. Trying to combine four spells together to create a shorter spell. If successful, this doll could walk, think for itself, follow instructions, and levitate. Unfortunately, it wasn't." And I'm not a Lad, I'm twenty eight, and no longer a student "If you want to help, it would be appreciated, but I'm not obligating."

Haru pulls his cloak out a bit and reaches in. Inside, Kent can see rows of tags lined up on the back of the cloak itself. He then pulls out a fresh tag, his notebook, and pen/ink. He quickly flips through the notebook to a tag acting as a book mark. It was a bit less complex then the last, but it is still impressive penmanship. Haru takes the tag out of it's place, and puts it on the dolls back. The Doll sprang to life and started floating. around the both of them. "...A combination of Free will and levitation. It was successful...." He starts writing down a new spell based off letters and characters inside the notebook.

 

"Well, let's get started, shall we? You have a lot of experience touching the realm of the dead, where as while I was there I specialized in summoning, thus I only attended that guild. First I want to see if a skilled necromancer and summoner can do it before I even consider whether someone without training in necromancy can. I want you to try touching the walls of the dead, then breaching them like you would if accessing the Aether. If I am right, beyond the dead lies the Nether. Think of it like your summoning an Aetherling and raising the dead at once, only you get mixed up and try to summon the dead and raise the Aetherling. And because the Aetherlings don't physically die, you could only succeed in summoning the dead, which you fail at by reaching beyond the dead." Personas said.

 

Era didn't even need to look up when she realized who sat down in the booth near her. Her spoon stopped stirring as it gently was lowered down and rested against the porcelin cup with just a light ding.

"Good day, Leon." Era spoke up so the man who walked in and sat down would hear her. "You don't have to sit alone, you know."

Ever since he came to the guild and since he, like her, had experience before joining the guild, it allowed the two to quickly bond becoming good friends. Especially how close their powers are usually known to be. Even during team building activities of the guild the two definately did a lot better together than seperate.