Fathomless Sunset - Letramenia

[DeletedUser]

Arkadi was up early, as their great leaders announced that they had oh great things to do this day. He was still disappointed at the results of the fight last night. If he had been able to attain closure then it would have been much more solid. Sprinting to his feet he sprinted to the river, away from the others, who were gathering fish. Breathing lighlty from the exercise, he gently lowered his right hand into the surface of the river, and watched as around it the salt spread to swallow up the peaceful waters of this section of the river. Happy with his work he s=plunged his face into the river to wash, and drink some. The salt felt coarsely refreshing against the side of his throat as it trickled down. After shaking off what water remained from his head he refilled his water skin and headed back to the clearing to see what the mighty tree crusaders had to say.

 

[Apelatia]

The Upper Room

As the black liquid trickled down Akana's throat, it seemed to have no immediate effect, aside from the horrible, almost bile-like taste. Certainly, this was not a pleasant substance to drink. It was perhaps twenty seconds later though, that the seemingly nonexistent side-effects began to occur. Firstly, Akana's head began to spin, causing her eyes to form multiple copies of the room, Kaiden and the bowl itself and also inducing dizziness upon her. This was not all though, soon her balance began to decrease at a dramatic rate, causing her legs to weaken and eventually topple... Things were certainly not looking good...

Jokir

The woman appeared to be even more shocked when Jokir mentioned the fact that there were two others in the tower besides himself. "Trespassers indeed, it seems!" She responded to that particular comment, though she showed no reaction to her new-found knowledge of Jokir's name. Whether she recognised it at all, it would be impossible to tell, as she kept her face impassive. After Jokir had finished speaking, the woman stood there for a few moments, eyeing him sternly. "I will believe you...Jokir, and would have invited you to eat breakfast with me, if not for the fact that I am unable to feed three. One mouth would have been all I could provide for." Here, she sighed. "My name, you ask for? Very well, I will give it to you. My name is Silicea, Guardian of the Ancient Outpost, and I do not take intrusions lightly..."Nevertheless, I will give to you a gift. As long as you will promise to leave and take your companions with you. Also, some advice. Go to Grelin. Take the southern road once you read the distant crossing whence you came, and you will reach it. Do not go to Cecia... In that place dwells evil beyond your imagining... I would stay far from that place if I were you. Whatever stories you have heard of a 'City of Light', that time is long past..."

Here she proceeded into the side room, knelt down and fumbled around under the bed for a short while before exclaiming, "Aha!" It appeared that she had found what it was that she had been searching for. Gliding back across the room towards him gracefully, she placed in his hands a small necklace. Hanging from the necklace was a small wooden square, on which lay an intricate carving of a small bird sat in a nest. Having placed the gift in the man's hands, she stood across from him, fumbling with a small cluster of hairs that had escaped her bun. "It was good to meet you Jokir... Now please, take your gift and your friends and depart. Do not return to this place."


Gemina

"Yes...There was a picture of Finadil back at home... It's a nice enough place, and relatively pretty too, though as with any large settlement, there are those who would seek to prey upon the livelihoods of those that dwell there..." Once she had finished her statement, Gemina sat in silence, watching Whisper as she cooked a meal of fish using a most unique method, enjoying the aroma that wafted its way up from the fire. Once the younger woman had finished cooking, Gemina took her own fish and kudzu leaf package and ate at a fairly normal pace, allowing herself to savour the taste of the fish. Once she had finished, she paused, then addressed Whisper, "You are most apt at cooking Whisper... You're going to have to teach me some time. Although, I doubt I could be taught to grow plants like you do. It's a special gift indeed. The majority of Arína were blessed with more combat-based abilities, but yours is most remarkable..." During this time, she avoided meeting Arkadi's eyes. She was uncomfortable around him, and was unsure how she would go about teaching him. He seemed too...arrogant for her liking, though she knew Mezonas would likely have come across many such as him in his time. She would leave the salt-man for him...

Once those that had eaten had enjoyed their fill, Mezonas walked up to where Iatairris was still fast asleep. Summoning a small orb of water, he allowed it to float in the air, before causing it to drop rapidly onto the girl's upturned face. Both the sting from the impact and the coldness of the water were sure to be able to wake her up. As soon as she was aware, Mezonas spoke, "It's time for us to leave here Iatairris. We're going far today, so I suggest you get ready."

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

Iatairris yelped as the water struck her face, though rather than bolting upright she rolled over, grumbling "Oh come on, five more minutes…you had me up in the middle of the night after all…" Mezonas' informing her they were leaving soon, though, dispelled any wishful fancies. "Awww…that's not fair…" she pouted, reluctantly sitting up and clearing her face of the remaining moisture. "I've never been woken up by water before…that's quite effective though." It seemed as though the exuberant girl was slightly subdued at the moment, likely due to needing to wake up. "Ooh, breakfast!" she exclaimed upon seeing the food Whisper had prepared, before turning back to Mezonas, a pleading expression on her face. "Please, pleasepleaseplease tell me I have enough time to eat…" Without waiting for a response, she plowed ahead, "I'll be quick, promise!" Following this she jumped up and ran for the remaining fish, digging in with gusto. Mouth full to bursting, she asked, "Whrrr rr wmm gooong?" Realizing she wasn't going to be understood this way, she swallowed the mouthful and tried again, "Where are we going?" As she ate she got more and more animated, saying how good the food was similarly to the previous day. Upon finishing her meal, she grinned and exclaimed happily, "ready!"

 

[DeletedUser13682]

The drops fell into Akana’s mouth, and for a moment, nothing happened. It had no taste. Then the aftertaste kicked in. It was extremely bitter, worse than the nimbusearbh drink her home village had used to treat a swamp sickness, made from lemon juice and a powdered tree bark. The first time she had that drink, she very nearly threw it up immediately. This time was no different. Akana began hacking and dry heaving, trying to get that taste out of her mouth, as her knife fell to the ground. She didn’t want to vomit, however, and was also trying to keep that fluid from rising back up. Akana heard Kaiden ask if it tasted nice, the sarcasm evident in his voice. She would have attacked him for that, but she could hardly move, and he was offering water, so it was alright.

Akana began to head toward Kaiden, reaching out for the water. As she neared Kaiden, a strange thing began to happen. She saw two Kaidens, then four, eight, more! The entire room and everything in it seemed to multiply exponentially. To add to this problem, Akana suddenly found herself unable to stand straight. She reached out for the bowl to regain her balance, or at least steady herself, but found nothing but air. That couldn’t hold her up, so Akana fell, letting out a yelp as the ground neared. Though Akana didn’t reach the bowl with her hand, she reached it with her head, causing a dull thunk, knocking her unconscious and spilling the black liquid over her and the floor around her. The last thing Akana saw before she lost consciousness was millions of black dots quickly covering her vision, preparing to engulf the entire world, starting with her.

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Kaiden's initial amusement over Red's rather foolish act of tasting the braziers contents turned to that of weary annoyance; the kind displayed by someone watching their drunken friend staggering into a wall. Moving over to where she lay within a pool of the noxious liquid he quickly places the dropped knife into the top of his boot before then lifting the girl; quietly cursing her and the mess that they would need to clear up if their presence within the tower was to remain unknown.
Half carrying half dragging the dead weight that was Red he starts heading downstairs quietly speaking to her as he went "Come on Red lets go outside and make you sick ok?" it wouldn't be a pleasant process but hopefully it would serve as a valuable lesson "Jokir! a little help please!" he shouted as he continued down the stairs "...Red's been rather foolish and I could...." the words died in his throat as he saw the assassin stood speaking with an unknown woman.
Knowing that he was completely at the woman’s mercy should she prove to be hostile he gives her a wary look before speaking in a calm, level voice "my friend is...unwell...I am taking her outside ok?" as he edged his way towards the door he offers Jokir a glare that told him they would be having words one job Damn it Jokir, I gave you one job!
Once they were outside he takes Red a little way into the field surrounding the tower before dropping her onto her knees. Sweeping her hair out of away he then sticks his fingers down the back of her throat; holding her in such a way so that the resulting mess would end up on the grass and not on her clothes "Come on Red, spit it all up and then we'll have a nice drink of water"

 

[Apelatia]

Mezonas

It was with great gusto that Iatairris went from describing how waking someone up with water was effective, to asking if there was time for her to eat breakfast, to talking whilst eating breakfast with her mouth full... It was all a little too hard to keep up with, and so Mezonas resigned himself to staying silent for the present, though that wasn't all too difficult, as he had spent the better part of half a century alone. His problem was not Iatairris. She was eager, and that was good. The one who was problematic was Arkadi. That one, he was unsure what to do with... He would have to think further on the matter...

Once breakfast had been concluded, Gemina stood up and gathered up her few belongings, before saying, "It's time to go. Let us be off. We need to travel far today. If you have any urgent questions, ask them now. It will take two days for us to reach Finadil, and we will have to join the East road if we are to travel as swiftly as possible. The problem is that while we are on that road, running will be a problem, as those who are not Arína will wonder why a group of people that appear to be teenagers are running headlong down a rather long road... We'll have to think on what to do. Any ideas, while we jog?"


Silicea

It was as she was preparing to turn her back on Jokir that the two 'friends' made their way down from the upper room, and although, one seemed to be unconscious, Silicea's face remained as impassive as ever. Once the pair had departed the outpost, she began to walk upstairs, plainly going to see if what had occurred was what she believed had occurred...

---

As Kaiden, stuck his fingers down Akana's through to cause her to expel it from her body the less pleasant way, the effects suddenly began to wear off again, causing a return to consciousness, and a gradual return of both balance and vision, though it would take at least twenty minutes for the woman to fully recover. The effects of the strange substance only appeared to be short-term, though still horrible enough...

 

[DeletedUser13682]

”You’ve been working too hard, Akana. Take a break. Your final isn’t for another three months.” Akana set the file down next to her current project, and accepted the proffered glass, its contents filtering orange light through the glass. “Thanks Pomu. This from the orchard?” Pomu nodded. “Of course. Don’t worry. It’s nothing hard this time. Passing out on the job once is embarrassing enough. Twice, well I couldn’t handle that amount of scorn. Yeep!” Pomu dodged a fairly well thrown spanner and retaliated with a covering barrage of acorns as he retreated to safe cover behind the clock tower. “Alright, Akana. I concede, and I’m sorry.” Akana found it nearly impossible to stay upset at Pomu whenever he used that fish eating grin. “Alright, but I expect you to bring some of that hard cider to the tavern this weekend, Pomu. One only turns 21 but a single time.” Akana stood on top of the bench she was sitting on and struck an epic pose, hands on hips, and gazing into the middle distance next to her left shoulder, the slight breeze causing her hair to flutter behind her. “Sure, I’ll bring a barrel or two, if only to protect myself from your wrath.”

Akana awoke from her memory with Kaiden’s hand jammed down her throat (what kind of trick was he playing at?), forcing her to vomit the contents of that terrible porter from her stomach. As she did so, her vision returned to normal, though still blurred by tears brought from the purging, and her balance quickly righting itself, though Akana did still feel weaker than normal. As soon as she felt able to, Akana pushed Kaiden away, and lifted herself onto her feet. “Bakafir! Why have you your fingers down my throat to jam? I am fine, I need not to purge. Still…” Akana seemed to switch gears from anger to humble admission. “You have me to help,” Akana admitted, while rubbing her hair and looking down at the dirt. “I thank you.”

About this time, Akana noticed that her armour and clothes were now much darker than they originally were. The leather armour was stained a much darker shade of brown and her normally burgundy clothes had taken on the appearance of very dark grey, usually called black. She sighed at the mess she had made; that ‘scientific curiosity’ as to the quality of a local brew had gotten the best of her, and now her clothes had paid the price. They would probably need replacing soon, though the leather would probably survive with a good cleaning. Until she could find new clothes, she would have to do with cleaning out as much of that brew as she could. “Know about you a river nearby? I must my clothes to wash.”

 

[DeletedUser28032]

Kaiden stood impassively as Red understandably cursed him for what he had done to her; wiping his hand across the back of his trousers as he does before then giving a single nod of his head in reply to her rather reluctant thank you “A bit of borderlands wisdom for you, if you don’t know what it is then don’t eat it” he said with a half smile on his face as he gave her his water skin knowing that at the very least she would want to rinse out her mouth; listening quietly as she asked if her knew of a stream in which she could wash her clothes. Kaiden was no expert but to his uneducated eye they looked to be ruined to him…well…the armour of which he did have some knowledge could probably be saved but not even he would wear clothes that filthy “No, but I am sure we’ll find something…however we have something more important to deal with, it would seem that whilst we were upstairs Jokir managed to let some woman sneak up on him” he said in a tone of voice that showed he wasn’t impressed with the assassin.
Pulling Red’s dagger from his boot he hands the weapon over to the girl once she had had her fill of water before approaching the tower once again; keeping a wary eye out for the towers occupant as he prepared to enter
As soon as he caught sight of Jokir, Kaiden strode up to the assassin and hit him square in the jaw “I told you to keep watch you useless cretin!” he growled furiously wanting to scream and shout but knowing that to do so would only attract the mysterious woman’s attention away from wherever she currently was “…next time somebody turns up you bloody warns us! Now who the hell is she and how much trouble are we in?” he figured it couldn’t be too bad else they’d be dead already, but considering the towers strange properties they could be in a completely different danger altogether.
Kaiden impatiently waited for Jokir to say what he had to say wanting to leave this place as soon as possible lest they be in some kind of trap; every muscle in his body tense and ready to act should either the woman or Jokir be foolish enough to try anything violent “come on, let’s get out of here… we might be able to reach Cecia before night hits us if we’re lucky”

 

[DeletedUser31931]

Jokir watched silently as Red and Kaiden hurried out and Kaiden glared at Jokir. Knowing that the ranger would probably loose his temper, Jokir said "Thank you for your gift. I shall go tend to my friend and then we will leave once she is better." As he went to go outside he saw her move off upstairs. As he slipped outside he felt his powers slowly return to him, ever so slightly. He had a plan in his mind in case Kaiden did loose his temper and that was good enough for him. As Akana recovered Kaiden stood back and then turned and marched at Jokir, his intent as plain as day. As Kaiden went to punch Jokir in the jaw, 'Jokir' melted into shadows which slipped into the man as he stepped out from the shadow of the wall. That little trick had cost him a small amount of energy but it was better than coming to blows with Kaiden. "We are in no trouble whatsoever, and it would do you to think rationally before you declare me a useless inbred." Jokir paused for a second intending to let this sink in. "I had the situation under control, when she entered I eyed her up and she posed no threat, I talked with her and she was polite and civil. She gave me a gift and meanwhile told us to avoid Cecia Town saying we will find naught but death there. Anyway, I couldn't warn you, you were upstairs, the point of me being there was to deal with any intruder."

 

[DeletedUser13682]

Kaiden offered Akana a piece of advice, along with his canteen, an animal skin or bladder formed device. Akana had gone through many of those, after her first canteen, a lacced Parkenite canteen. It lasted for nearly 50 years, but Akana had let it fall into a fire and it produced a small explosion. The ability to make it had been lost to Akana when she lost her village, so she was forced to make new canteens from animals. They never lasted as long as her orginal, but they were still watertight and didn’t contaminate the water. “I have it not to eat. I have it to drink,” Akana responded with a small smile before using some of the water to clear out the horrible taste in her mouth, probably from the black liquid mixing with her vomit. As she handed back the canteen, Kaiden regrettably said he knew of no nearby stream. That meant Akana would either have to go a while in these clothes covered in multiple revolting fluids that emanated a horrendous smell, or forego the clothes altogether.

Considering the options, as much as Akana hated being in these nearly ruined things, she hated even more having to travel even a moment with those two bakafir wearing, well, nothing. Akana sighed, both at having to stay in the rot and at the fact that Jokir had met another person. “I doubt not I her a scare to cause. Have I correct?” Before Kaiden left to confront Jokir, he handed Akana her knife, that aerodynamic curiosity that had nearly taken her life. After a moment of steeling herself to the presentation of her temporary appearance, Akana followed Kaiden back to the tower. When she arrived, she found Kaiden and Jokir arguing outside the tower, over the woman who appeared. She looked around, and could see no other there. “Where is the woman?” Akana asked, before sticking her head inside the tower. “Hello! Woman, are you here?” Akana called out, holding her knife behind the doorframe, ready to counter should this woman prove hostile.

 

[DeletedUser]

"The problem is that while we are on that road, running will be a problem, as those who are not Arína will wonder why a group of people that appear to be teenagers are running headlong down a rather long road... We'll have to think on what to do. Any ideas, while we jog?"
Arkadi finished eating and stood up, playing with his kukri, flipping it between his hands. "No need for ideas. let people stare, those who know nothing will shake their heads, those who do will leave us alone. Either way, doesn't affect us. Why are we still talking about this?" With that Arkadi sheathed his blade, turned and set off at a jog Eastwards. The holy crusaders always seemed to want to complicate things. What was so difficult about run there, kill them, loot the bodies, go away?

 

[DeletedUser28032]

"No your job is to warn us so that we don't blunder into an ambush totally unprepared!" Kaiden retorted; Jokir's little disappearing trick doing little to soothe the rangers temper "...you shout, you do bird calls, you go upstairs and talk to us, it doesn't matter so long as you actually warn us!" your lucky we aren't in the borderlands else you'd be hanging from a tree right about now Kaiden silently fumed as he listened to what the assassin had to say about not going to Cecia "that sounds like a good enough reason to go and check it out to me, the whole reason we're out here is to prove whether Mezonas was telling the truth or not...this army of his has so far proved elusive so why not go and see if Cecia really is inhabited by demons? At least we'd know one way or another" and then we can decide what to do about it...if anything at all.

 

[Apelatia]

Finadil

After three days of travelling, the group of travellers reached the edge of the forest. For some, it would be the first glimpse of the world outside the boughs of the trees... Having travelled north from their campsite, the group had soon reached one of the more used roads of the forest realm, that which ran from Finadil itself in a southerly direction before turning east soon after reaching the relative safety of the trees. From there it ran straight to another of the larger dwellings of the Dark Forest, the poorly-constructed town south of the Borderlands, Mulush. Despite the relatively busy road, the group of Arína met next to no trouble on the first stage of their journey. Journeying during the day, and resting at night, breaks were only taken to eat and also to spar occasionally, though Mezonas made sure to conduct the training exercises outside the range of sight and hearing. Dueling was an interesting experience for the company, as the assortment of different weapons carried made each fight a completely unique experience to the last. During these instances, use of elemental abilities was prohibited, for the sake of preserving energy. All in all though, the time passed without much incidence.

Now they stood on the edge of the tree boundary, overlooking a large, circular valley. There were three main features to the area down the gentle slope before them. The most prominent of these was most certainly the large, glistening lake which covered approximately three-quarters of the total area. Out of the lake, to the west, flowed a vibrant river, which followed the foothills of the other large obstacle facing the group. At the northern end of the valley lay the front of a range of tall, foreboding, mountains. The third feature was the town which lay to the east of the lake. Lacking any sort of defence in the form of walls, Finadil looked to be rather exposed to any sort of invasion. Perhaps they were simply hoping that their fate would not be similar to that of Cecia... Either way, what it lacked in defence it certainly made up for in grandeur. With houses made of white stone mined from the mountains to the north and a majestic palace that dominated the skyline, Finadil was a sight to behold.

With her shoulder bag secure over her shoulder, Gemina turned back to face the group that she had been walking at the head of. "It's quite an impressive sight isn't it? What with the lake and the greenness of the place, I think it's quite pretty. We have two choices tonight... Either we camp away from the road as we have been doing until now, or we can make the short trip down to the town and find lodgings for ourselves... If we are to take the latter option though, we'll need to move quickly before the sun sets... So, any thoughts?"


Silicea

It was a mess, that was for sure. A mess that she would have to clean up. How stupid could someone be? Upon seeing a sacred offering in the form of a black liquid, who went and drank it, before spilling the rest over the floor? Shaking her head silently, she resolved to return upstairs once she had made sure that the intruders had departed. Turning around, she paced down the stairs to find the other man and woman, the second of which was calling for someone. She soon realised that she was the 'Woman', and continued making her way down the stairs, having stopped briefly to contemplate her predicament. Seeing Akana in the doorway, she gave the other a weary look, before speaking in a voice that indicated that she was not in the mood for playing games. "I have spoken to your companion already. Please leave. I need to get to work on clearing the mess that you have created in my dwelling." Giving Akana a more stern look, she continued, "I have given advice to your friend. Now, please leave me in peace."

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

The following three days were rather interesting for Iatairris…traveling with her newfound friends, getting to experience even more of the world…it was all so exciting! The only thing she didn't like about this experience was dueling. Mezonas had restricted any use of their elemental power outside of summoning their weapon, and this turned her into a somewhat clumsy fighter. Having been completely self-taught, and with only a couple of years to learn what she could do, she had adopted a style that relied primarily on using her dominance over crystals to do things…her staff/lance combo was somewhat unwieldy too…much more suited to defense than offense. She'd thoroughly lost every duel she'd been in as a result, and though most people would have been discouraged by this, she simply shrugged off the defeats like she did everything else.

They eventually arrived at a really nice looking city…Flinada…no, Fidanal…no, Finadil, the others had called it. Iatairris was entranced by how clean the buildings looked, it was truly an impressive sight for someone as young as she was. Gemina asked if they wanted to continue sleeping outdoors, or to try to find a place inside, which got the young girl all excited. "Ooh, can we sleep in one of those buildings! They look reallllly pretty, I'd love to see what they're like on the inside! I'll hep pay…oh wait, I don't have any money…maybe I could wash dishes to help defray the cost? No wait, we don't have time to waste…OOH! I know, we could collect food before the sun goes down and use that to pay! Can we?"

 

[DeletedUser13682]

After a minute of calling out, the woman came down the stairs, the owner of the house probably. She appeared innocent and weaponless, but very irritated. She guessed that the woman had discovered the mess Akana had made. She tucked her knife into her belt and fully walked into the room. Head bowed down, and hand running through hair in embarrassment, Akana spoke to the woman. “My actions do me sorrow,” Akana began. “I believed the liquid an alcohol to be. I have responsibility for the spill. Please, I ask you the spill to clean to help. Please, allow me this penance.” Akana stood there, waiting for a reply, the embarrassment from her mistake causing her face to grow redder by the second. She hoped the woman would respond soon, and allow her to atone for the grievous mistake she had made. Thinking back on it, Akana didn’t really know why she had decided to try the brew, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Scientific curiosity worked in mysterious ways sometimes.

 

[DeletedUser]

Finadill. A pretty city hoping that its trade and 'culture' would suffice in place of guards and walls. So far, that plan had worked. That said though, appearances could be deceiving, and Arkadi knew from experience that Finadil wasn't necessarily as peaceful and inviting as it seemed to the average traveler.
Their glorious leaders were asking the group if they would rather explore the town and find lodgings for the night, or stay in the forests and camp. The annoying girl was speaking to fast again,n desperate to go in the city. Arkadi meanwhile wasn't necessarily so keen. However... he was somewhat interested to see how the chosen leaf saviour Mezonas would react amidst a hive of scum, stone and villainy.
And so, it was only after raising his hood, and bringing up a kerchief to cover some of his face that Arkadi spoke. "I'm fine with going in there. Just don't call be by my name. Or say it. Or whisper it anytime I and other people or around."

 

[DeletedUser28032]

The woman was understandably less than impressed to see them telling them that she'd already spoken with that fool Jokir and that they should leave as she had a rather large mess to clean up. It was at this point much to Kaiden’s dismay that Red offered to clean up the mess as way of apology meaning that they would be stuck here for several hours as she did so which was something that Kaiden was not prepared to do "Red, no doubt the offer is appreciated but we have a long way to go if we're to reach Cecia before night fall...besides which she has already bid us to leave several times now" he said hoping that Red would get the hint and simply say goodbye to the woman "Also as you pointed out we could do with finding you a stream and we can't do that whilst we're still here can we?" it was time they were gone and away from this accursed tower and back on the road to Cecia.

 

[Apelatia]

Finadil

Gemina listened bemusedly to Iatairris' babbling, but refrained from commenting until Arkadi had also spoken. Once he had done so, she crossed her arms and smiled mischievously at him, before speaking, "Your reputation proceeds you now, does it Arkadi? If I remember correctly, the letter I sent to you was far to the east of here, across the entirety of the Dark Forest... I'm interested to know why exactly you'd not want your name to be known... However, if you wish that we don't call you Arkadi while we are here in Finadil, we will honour your request." This said, she turned around again to look upon Finadil, before pacing forwards. It was not long though, before she again stopped. After laughing softly, she spoke again. "Seeing as we won't be able to call you by your real name while we are here, we will need something to know you by... How about 'Salty'? Yes, I think that would be most appropriate. Salty it is." This said, Gemina began to skip gently down the dirt track.

Mezonas then turned to Iatairris. "Don't worry about money, Irris. I did think ahead before starting out on this trip. We have enough funds to be able to stay wherever we like. Now, let's get going, so that we can reach the city before night falls."

Silicea

The tall woman seemed angry at first, but her face soon melted into a kind expression. Walking over to the liquid-covered mess that was Akana, she placed her left hand on the other woman's shoulder, before speaking. "I am happy to clean the mess up myself. Don't worry about it. I've had to do this before, you know... It doesn't take me very long." Silicea then removed her hand, before pacing backwards. "If you really insist on repaying your debt, I would ask one thing of you. Do not go near the forsaken town that lies beyond the forest. Cecia is filled with evil that you cannot imagine, and I do not want the three of you to end up in a prison cell..." Silicea smiled again, before saying to Akana, "There is a small stream to the southeast of here. You can wash yourself there. I don't have spare clothes, so you'll have to make do with washing what you are currently wearing. I'm sure you'll be fine though. I will bid you farewell here!" This said, the mysterious woman retreated inside the tower, before closing it behind her. Now, the trio would have to decide on what to do.

 

[DeletedUser13682]

The woman was surprisingly nice to Akana, even after she had spilled the liquid all over herself and the upstairs room. Kaiden seemed very anxious to leave; he kept bringing up reasons why they should go; the woman asked them to leave, Akana needed to clean up, they needed to reach Cecia. The woman seemed to agree with Kaiden, though she did so in a much nicer manner. The frustration she had shown earlier had melted into kindness and understanding. Maybe Akana’s scientific curiosity struck a chord with the tower’s inhabitant. She assured Akana that she had to clean up the bitumen like substance before and told Akana of a nearby stream where she could clean herself up. This had happened before? There were more who drank of the liquid?

Before Akana could satiate her desire to know more, the woman retreated to her tower, leaving a warning to not enter Cecia Town, lest they end up in a prison cell. But why would that happen? Was Cecia really filled with some unimaginable evil? Was such a thing possible? Was there really an evil? Akana had so many more questions now, but with the door firmly shut, and the other members of Akana’s group anxious to leave, Akana had to take this temporary loss and head out. “We leave now here,” Akana announced, turning around and walking away from the tower. Some of her pride had returned with the passage of time and the knowledge of a river nearby. “We head now toward the river. I must myself to clean to attempt.” Akana headed toward the southeast, the promise of that river having put a spring in her step and a smile on her face.

 

[Deleted User - 819397]

"Woo hoo!" Itatairris exclaimed, jumping into the air. "Oh, I'm so excited…I've always wanted to stay in a hotel! It's always seemed so luxurious…I can't wait!" The excited girl took off, laughing happily. This had all been so much fun…she'd met new friends, they'd gone on an adventure, and now she'd be able to sleep in a hotel…it was all too much! She still wasn't sure about this whole immortality thing, but she wasn't going to let something like that stop her from having fun…otherwise who knew what'd happen? You had to have fun in life, otherwise you weren't really living!