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Raven stirs as she get passed from one person to another. Meh, something's happening, whatever. The narrow yellow slits of her tired eyes seal shut again until she realizes the only other person she could be entrusted to is Alastor.

Her body stiffens as her eyes fly wide open. In a brief surge of panic, she tries to squirm out of his grip, only to decide that's a waste of precious energy and that if he decides to take her shard now, she's close enough to just claw his eyes out. That thought relaxes her quite a bit, and she curls up in his arms with a lazy yawn. "What's goin' on?"

Drake goes opposite the way she'd run and set up snares wherever he found nearby trails, dens, or food sources for small game like rabbits and squirrels. Then he returns to the clearing with dry wood and brush to start making a fire. The wind is still and air rather dry; with a little patience, he sets the fire ablaze easily. With a satisfied smile, he sits back and watches the flames lick until Victi returns with her kill. At the sight of which, he lets out a long, low whistle. "Wow, that's a beauty."

"Healthy adult male, but not too young. Perfect prey," she says as she drops it next to the fire, "Doesn't matter what world you go to, beasts like these never expect you to land on top of 'em." She stretches her arms across herself a few times, working out the discomfort of dragging a deer-sized animal most of a kilometre through a forest.

It would most likely take about an hour for them to skin, clean, and butcher the animal and begin cooking it. After that was done and they got to eating, Victi moved her mind on to their next order of business. "Sho," she starts around a moutful of barely-cooked meat, "Lets talk enchantments."

She felt a bit uneasy about the smirk of his partner. "Hmmm maybe I will take you up on that another time." She smiles before looking over at a taller building facing away from the gate. "So what's that building? It's very tall. Is it an important landmark?" She asks with what looked like general curiosity as she points over at it.

At Lisa's retort, Adriannu was about to fire back when the whirring sound made doing so impossible. Now the moment it was silent again, she'd fire back. "Oh so you couldn't just wait to see what sort of place I'd pick to stay at first before jumping to conclusions about what I might try to sneak? If you had, then we would have avoided this entire situation as I would have never suggested a tavern in the first place."

Luckily Lisa would apologize afterwards and the child's annoyed face softened at it. "Ok, I accept your apology and the marketplace will work just fine. You go to the library and try ti find something useful. Before you go through, do you have any coins on you...er non gold ones that is? If you do, then I could try buying some supplies with the excuse that my "mom" sent me to take care of the shopping because she was busy with my younger siblings. Wouldn't be the first time a kid was sent to do the errands."

After finding out the answer to her question, she would follow Lisa automatically and the Chimera didn't even get the chance to let her hand fall back to her side before Adriannu attempted to reach out to grab it. Apparently the Cathera girl didn't mind holding hands.

Drake looks up at her with his own mouth stuffed full. Before speaking, he swallows, wipes some juice from his lips with his sleeve and nods. "Yeah, if you feel up to it. What could you do?"

He stops short of listing his own ideas for enchantments, not wanting to be pushy, though he quietly hopes a new, possibly flaming or otherwise impressive magic sword is in order. His old one was dropped and probably destroyed in that disaster of a battle. He rubs the back of his hand as he recalls the memory, tracing the spot the wound used to be before Victi'd healed it.

Before they go, Lisa nods and reaches into the small satchel strapped to her belt. She fishes out a handful of copper and silver coins and offers them to Adriannu.

Assuming the girl takes them, that is when she awkwardly half-offers her hand. Just as she looks ahead and her hand starts to drop back to her side, she's surprised to feel Adriannu's fingers wrap tightly around hers. She gasps quietly, but then smiles and closes her grip gently over the Cathera's small hand.

She leads her out onto the bustling city streets and to the marketplace in complete silence, only talking if Adriannu speaks to her. When they hit the town square bordered by stalls selling a wide variety of local and imported goods alike, small colorful islands in a chaotic ocean of chattering shoppers and passersby, Lisa's grip tightens around the child's. She again suddenly really, really doesn't want to leave her alone in this loud, unfamiliar place.

She takes a breath and kneels to Adriannu's level while taking her hand in both of hers. Her face is pale, her hands clammy and shaking ever so slightly, as she asks, "Are you...sure you'll be okay here? I might be gone for awhile, and..." she squeezes her eyes shut. God, this place is so loud. So crowded. And I'm so tired, but there's so much to do.

She opens her eyes suddenly and fixes the girl with an urgent, pleading look. "Promise me you'll be careful." She smiles weakly, "You're good at that. Being careful, I mean...right?"

"Lots of things!" Victi replies, eager to do something interesting, "if we're talking weapons, things like release or drain of light and heat.... more or less fire and cold, electrical discharges, mana shells to strengthen and sharpen the blade, sound blasts on swing, kinetic capacitance for sure, it just makes everything else more efficient, various tunings of kinetic discharge, optical flares... It gets even better on armour, though. Then we can start getting into glamours, stealth enchancements, and networked kinetic capacitors, as well as layered and nested protective structures. Those are my favourites to work on, complex but elegant and using all kinds of redundancies to interlink things and net reduce the energy demands!"

Her list was by no means exhaustive, and honestly, she wasn't entirely sure what all she could do without her full setup in terms of ground-up enchanting. Having a programmable inscriber did wonders. Still, she expected she could at least provide a bit of an upgrade, and hopefully have some fun doing it.

Adriannu takes the coins Lisa offers and quickly stashes them into a small pouch that she attaches to her belt. "Thanks Lisa, I promise to only spend them on things that will be useful for our travels." She says as she puts the coins away and already starts making a mental list of things to look for at the market. Then just as Lisa's hand starts to fall back to her side, Adriannu finishes tending to the coins and thus reaches out to take it. At this the Chimera mad a small sound which confused her, but wrapped her much larger hand around her own which the child secretly had to admit felt kind of nice.

Eventually they arrived at the town square surrounding by lots of market stalls and it was here that Lisa seemed to have second thoughts. At this, Adriannu was sorely tempted to roll her eyes, but decided to go with a gentle approach this time. "Lisa, I'm probably safer in this market place then I have been during all the other trips to the one closer to our homes...er former homes." The last bit was an afterthought considering she had abandoned her cave and what had happened to the woman's cabin. "I will be a paying customer so no angry shopkeepers will be after me and I also have the magister's gift to defend myself with if need be. That's a lot more going for me then what I have previously had to work with. I will be fine, go do what you came here for and while you do that, I will prepare for our travels."

Assuming her words managed to soothe the Chimera's fears, she would promise to meet up later at the town square and promptly ran off to take care of the shopping. The first item on her mental list was some tent making supplies as being caught in the rain without shelter could be a killer. After all, there was no guarantee that they would be able to find shelter when they needed it so being able to make their own was important. Next was some extra good rope as you never knew when it would come in handy and it was useful for a lot of things. After that was some linen rolls which could be cut up for bandages should one of them get hurt and was followed up by some waterskins Next was a tinder box because while her bow drill was nice, a tinderbox was more reliable in poor weather conditions. Finally came buying some food which Adriannu made a point of sticking to dried foodstuffs that could keep for a while. This included things like dried fruit, veggies, meat, rice etc.

Ears piqued and a big smile growing on his face, Drake cuts her off after she lists what she can do to a blade. "So you can enchant a sword to catch fire?"

He even excitedly reaches over his shoulder for his sword, eager to get to work, but his hand closes around empty air. Oh... His expression darkens.

"Right, lost it." They'd have to get a new one, but it'll have to wait.

"So, let's talk body, er...armor enchantments, or maybe small stuff on my daggers?"

"Flaming swords are meh compared to other options, but.... yeah, sure, easy enoug," Victi replies, "Armour is the most fun, honestly. Lots of room to make sigils, some of the more interesting options are practical. I can honestly probably do more than you can imagine, assuming I can also make enough mana storage for it."

Her tails wag slightly as she discusses it. Really she liked amulets the most, 3D ensigilling was awesome and made large gemstones useful to work with (as well as sparkly), but armour was almost as fun.

"Daggers.... Daggers are good. More versatile than swords, especially if you're okay at throwing them, if smaller and so more limited on amounts of enchanting. We'll get you a sword, though. We can find some brigand or bandits or something to murder and loot. Anyway, anything I can do for swords I can do for smaller blades, just... less things."

"Maybe it's not practical, but a flaming sword would just be fun." Too flashy for any ambush or one-on-one match (unless flashy is the point) but fun. He plans to ask for more useful enchantments too: either body or clothing enhancements for stealth, something to improve the durability of his armor, an improvement to the efficiency of his shapeshifting for longer full shifts and tighter hybrid forms, or...

"Oh! if we're talking about throwing daggers, can you do something that helps with speed or accuracy?" He smiles again, imagining throwing blades that can punch through light armor and flesh like pudding.

"And I think I'll take you up on the offer of stealth enchantments, and what 'bout doing something for my shapeshifting?" He pauses and lays a finger on his chin with a gentle, thoughtful hum. "Either or both efficacy or tougher armor when I'm in that form."

He doesn't comment on murdering bandits for gear. He's not particularly against the idea, as long as they didn't risk the foothills that most definitely belong to Aurora's groupies.

"So are kinetic discharges and electricity, and they're a lot more efficient," comes the snarky response, "Fire gives off energy too difusely between the two forms Raw heat is better, if your weapon is made of the right materials, but not flashy."

"Yes, actually. Making them absorb some of the energy from when they move while sheathed, and then unleashing that when they stab something is an option. Accuracy is harder if you can't detect auras. I'm sure there are easier tricks for it, but everyone I knew can read see magic and read auras, so I never learned them," she answers, "the shapeshifting is interesting, actually. You miiight need to be ready to go back and forth while I scribe in two sides of a few things...."

"REN!" Naida calls for her friend. "I SCREWED UP!"

The familiar opened up her wings and zoomed through the passageways into the main cave where Ren, she hoped, would be training. Upon entering the cave, Naida fell silent; Ren sat in the middle of the room, eyes closed in concentration, working with her magic. She slowly called to water from the vases and pots surrounding the room, growing her orb of water larger and larger. The water surrounded Ren, hiding her from view. The water falls, revealing nothing but the empty room.

Ren appears through a ring of water behind Naida. "What did you do?"

"Um... Well..." Naida said, unshaken by Ren's sudden appearance because it was a constant practice. "You remember that weird thingy we picked up?

"You'll have to be more specific; we pick up a lot of 'weird thingies.'"

"The one thingy. You know, broken? Handle thing?"

"You mean the thing I told you to trash a few weeks ago?"

"Yeah. Well, it uh.. did a thing. Some frisbee looking thing showed up and a fox dude popped out of it. Basically, we gotta protect the thing."

She fills Ren in with all the details the hologram passed on; vase shard, blood magic, evil magic lady, save the world, blah blah blah.

"Oh," Naida added, "a big sack of tiny, shiny frisbees showed up with the big frisbee."

"Naida, was it gold?"

"That't the word! Yeah, gold. Not sure what to do with it, but it's there. And it's heavy."

"Yeah... Okay."

The two (okay, well, mostly Ren) made their plan: get supplies and find the other shard-bearers (strength in numbers, afterall). The closest place to a civilization Ren could teleport them to was a creek a mile or two outside of the bustling city of Telmarune. There, they could gather supplies and start their search.

They decide not to delay. Afterall, their main plans for the day were just training. As Naida packs up her "necessities" (like her snacks, her tiny stuffed animal, her thingamabobs, etc.), Ren gathers food and fills several canteens with water. The water wasn't really for drinking so much as it was for fighting and traveling.

Naida popped up in the cave. "Okay, I'm ready!"

"Naida."

"Yeah?"

"Where's the shard?"

"Under my bed."

"Do ya see a problem with that?"

"No... Oh, right!" At that, Naida flew over to her room and grabbed the shard. She stashed it in her pack. Finally, the two went through the water and appeared next to the creek, ready for the walk to town.

Brandis followed Jules' hand. "Ah! That's the scholar's tower. Formerly the mage's tower, however a group of nobles petitioned to have it changed, seeing it as troublesome that the knowledge was only being used for magic." Brandis turned back to Jules, smiling. "That said, if you have an interest in magic, that is still where you'd go. Just... watch the courtyard to the back. I'd rather not have to deal with more visitors hurt by the carelessness of the students there."


Alastor moved up, seeing a slight opportunity. Dashing quickly into the entryway, he drew a pouch of gold and raised it in front of him. As he expected, the other guard had noticed him out of the corner of his eye. Slowly shaking the gold pouch, he braced for the worst. His worries were stemmed however, as the guard gave a slight nod and turned his eyes forward again. Resting the pouch nearby, Alastor continued through the gate and began heading for the nearby back alley. He was almost in the clear.

"Well thank you for your concern, but I am a pretty strong woman. And thank you for your help!" She then hugs him trying to help distract him longer for Alastor. Once out of sight she hugs the other guard to not seem weird. "Thank you both. I hope to see you both again soon." She says with a sexy wink and wave as she heads inside, swaying her hips.

Alastor took a quick look over his shoulder to check he was in the clear. The sight of Jules hugging Brandis elicited a quick chuckle from him. The most action that guy's going to get in his life. He quickly ducked into the alleyway and waited for Jules.


Brandis stayed quiet, accepting the show of kindness for the moment. Once she'd hugged the both of them, he made a quick comment. "Your appreciation is noted, but I would like to ask that you refrain from that in future. As much as it was in good faith, I'm not supposed to accept such actions while working. That said, welcome to our city!"

His partner kept his eyes on Jules as she began to walk away. "Y'know, you could do to lighten up every now and then, Brand. It's just a hug from a pretty lady." Brandis turned to him quickly to counter. "It's a security threat. Focus on your..." Looking down, Brandis noticed the bag of gold. Picking it up, he called out to Jules. "Miss! Did you lose a bag by any chance?"

"Oh silly me. Thank you for getting this back to me." She bows a little. "So... I cant hug you both again as a thank you for giving me this back?" She asks softly as she figured Alastor paid off the one who thought she was pretty. "Its just where I'm from, hugs and cheek kisses are a form of appreciation." She says softly as she gazes between the two, winking at the other one with a coy smile.

Liliath had noticed 2 people a woman and a girl. She wasn't really sure who they were cause she didn't recgonize them. However maybe they had seen Jules or Alastor so she stood up and walked over to them. "Have you seen Jules or Alastor?"

Brandis' partner looked on with an incredulous expression, his eyes darting between Brandis and Jules before settling into an intense scowl towards Jules. "Y'know, I think I'm inclined to agree with my partner. Might be best if you stay at arm's length."

Brandis offered a slight laugh. "Good to see you taking your role seriously. As for you miss, I'm sure there are plenty of people that will be more than willing to share in the culture you bring. However, rules are rules. I'm happy to help, but I must decline."