Sorenil A World At Its Limits

He heard her doing the breathing exercises along side him. He smiled a little bit and continued, soon enough he when into a slight daze as they practiced together. He ignored any sound or movement.

Until he couldn't hear Sophia next to him and heard the slight gasping sound. When she tryed to get his attention he sighed and pull the bell away before slowly opening his eyes "What is it now-" He stopped and saw the light from where he sat "What the hell?" He questioned quietly as he put his shoes back on and grabbed his sword.

Sophia had never removed hers. She quickly but quietly made her way to the door, opening it but staying to one side. "What are these? Is it magic? Are they... looking for something?" She mused, although barely above a whisper. The fact that the shafts of light seemed to move along the road was strange. The way they moved at all was strange. Light didn't behave like that, to say nothing of changing colors on its own, dispersing and reforming. She wanted to go examine it, but it was so incomprehensible that her first thought was that it could be some trap.

The colorful streaks of light slowly shifted and undulated with different colors seemingly shifting with different patterns and shapes. While there were a good number of the lights near Sophia and Haru, they were far more sparse in the distance, maybe only a few every couple dozen feet. While most seemed to be travelling to the north, a few were travelling in other directions, sometimes vanishing in just a few moments, with a good number remaining near Sophia and even dancing around her in circles.

Well, if it was a trap, it was too late now. "If something bad comes of this, I am sorry," she said turning back to Haru. "But... I'm going to try to communicate with it." She stepped outside and walked slowly to the middle of the road.

These dancing lights reminded her of home. Of some of her earliest memories in the place which was not to be spoken of. And as if they had consciousness they had noticed her, surrounded her. Yet she did not feel threatened.

She stretched out her hands to the lights, palms upward. Her body started to faintly glow. Slowly the light extended in a small circle around her. She examined the colors and shapes, looking for some discernible pattern. But if there was one, she was unfamiliar with it. If she had any sort of psychic ability, she would have simply used her thoughts. Instead, she tried something which she was familiar with, the language of home. Her light turned a bright sunny yellow, and began to pulse in a pattern of long and short flashes.

My name is Sophia. I mean no threat or harm. I come from the world called the Game. I was brought here by the Heart of this world, and am trying to save this world. Whoever you are, I hope you can hear me. If you are able, please help us.

She repeated the message a second time, a third, each time slightly changing her technique so that maybe if the first message wasn't quite understood, it might be subsequent tries. Then she allowed her light to fade with a sigh as she watched and waited for a response. The chances were very small of it understanding her, but it was all she knew to do. Maybe. After all, her world and the prince's bore some similarities and even it seemed shared a language. Maybe she would be so fortunate in this case.

He took his swords out if the sleeve being cautious around these dancing lights. He touched one with the tip of his blade and watched as fizzled out like a dying firework. They didn't seem dangous from what he saw so he felt a little better knowing that it didn't seem harmful... At least not yet.

He looked towards Sophia went the light were circling around her and how she announced that she was gonna try communicate with it.

He keep a close eye on each of the lights, they still didn't seem like a threat so he sat on the pew. One little light flew towards him and his held his finger out. It stopped getting closer to him like it was some how looking at his finger before booping him on the nose. He was shocked and touched his nose for the light but it fizzled out of existence.

As quickly as the lights had shown up, they all vanished. With the last few remaining around Sophia vanishing into the ground. Despite her attempts to contact with the lights, she received no response nor could she perceive any attempts at response, although the ground seemed slightly damp now, with a few patches of grass having grown in size somewhat. With the vanishing of the lights, some of the clouds cleared in the night sky and the stars became more visible, although constellations were not recognizable amongst them.

She took a breath and let it out slowly. "Well, that seems to have been a big waste of energy." But she gradually noticed the changes around them, and her eyes went wide. "Wait, wait... Was that some kind of weather magic? It's like it rained or misted here, and look at the sky." She shook her head. "I don't understand at all. If the purpose was to get our attention, what was the point? But if the purpose was to water the area, why did those lights interact with us?"

"Well, one thing is for sure. I should have no trouble sleeping now."

The prince looked around as the lights flew down and seemed to die in ground. He watched with slight amazement as small bits of grass and other foliage sprouted up. Haru bent down to touch it to see if it was real...
And it was, he noticed that the ground as damp as well like someone poured water out of a watering can.

"I've never seen anything like that before... Real magic..."He was still mesmerised and stood to go check on Sophia. She looked fine to him. He glaced up at the night sky "The air feels lighter then before and it's definitely clearer," He took a deep breath in "With living in the mountains the air is always thin so you learn I should say, notice how the air changes around you, the air is less dense around here now," He says and goes back to the bed and sits down"I don't think it was trying to get our attention so to say but at least it wasn't anything harmful... And yes I agree with you. I think I'll be able to sleep easier as well,"

Nodding, Sophia returned to the bench and laid down. All that attempting to communicate with the magical lights had taken a toll on her energy. She still did not know what they were or what precisely they wanted, but it was a relief to see the ground fertile again and stars illuminating the night sky. She had almost forgotten wht they were here. But they had a journey ahead of them now, and no reason to delay resting. Closing her eyes, she took a few deep breaths and was swept away.

The night was uneventful beyond the occasional light passing by the home during the darkest hours of the night. The morning arrived with a sunrise tinted orange and magenta. Placed outside the home was a small tray of sorts with a pair of small rolls of bread and a clay bowl with water. Beneath the bowl was a piece of improvised parchment with writing on it. "Leave the bowl and tray please."

He found the bell that he had once dropped when the dancing lights appeared, Haru bent down to pick it up and tucked it away into his waist coats pocket. He watched as Sophia had fallen to sleep feeling a little guilty that he was taking the bed from her but she insisted that he must take it for his strained shoulder. He lied down on the cot, it wasn’t too comfortable but he slept in worse conditions before so he didn’t complain.
It was hard for him to fall asleep as watched the night sky through the hole in the roof, he noticed occasionally that a light would pass by the window, he guessed that it was the lights from before or someone on a night watch with a lantern, he didn’t want to investigate as he didn’t want to leave his companion alone undefended.

He woke up in morning with a yawn and rubbing his eyes, the small building was bright as the morning sun radiated through, making the room they were in a rich orange. Haru saw the tray and picked it up to put on the cot so it wasn’t on the dirty floor… well dirtier floor… he had almost stepped on the note and picked it up to read it. A small smile rested on his face, he was insanely grateful for this generosity that someone provided. The two had saw how the half destroyed city looked like it had no supplies. He turned to the bench and knelt down giving Sophia’s shoulder a little shake "Hey wake up," He half whispered, he’s voice was a bit raspy as he just woke up.

Sophia's eyes slowly slid open. "Oh dear. My body does not want to respond to me." It took some effort to get off the cot, then she stumbled a bit when trying to walk. "I used too much energy last night," she lamented with a whine in her voice, "when I should have saved it for travelling." Her eyes cleared and she noticed the tray and the note. "Hmm... Another mystery. Or rather more of the same one. How with presumably infinite possibilities can people from different worlds understand the same spoken and written speech?" She shook her head. "Well you should have most of the bread. When I'm in the sunlight I'll recover. And I don't know yet if water would affect this body well or poorly." She took one of the loaves and tore it before nibbling on it and setting the other half back down. In between chewing she stared at the inside of the bread.

He chuckled a tiny bit "Well you did you wake up, you do need to let your body to wake up with your mind," Haru shifted and stood up sitting back on the bed he slept on he wanted Sophia to have first pickings that that he could have what she wouldn’t have.
He had almost got back up to catch when he saw her stumbling but sighed in relief that she catches her self.

He watched as she caught sight of the note "Well let’s be grateful for it, it make things a lot easier for us in the long run of things," He comments "And I’ll save this half just if we get hungry travelling," Haru picked up the other half of the bread and wrapped it up in a handkerchief that he had and put it in his satchel. The prince then grabbed the other bit of bread and began to eat it, he wasn’t gonna,lie, he was really hungry. He hadn’t eaten in almost a full day. He drank about half the bowl of water and wanted to save the rest so it took something out of his cape, it was wooden and resembled a pair shape. It was a sake gourd bottle. Haru took the pin off the top, opening it and carefully poured the water in "Just so we have some for later, we don’t know how long we can go for without finding water so I’m putting it in this,"

Sophia watched the way Haru saved a portion of the bread and water for later, nodding approval. "We shouldn't waste any more time. The world needs us, and we need to find that man in blue." She got up, dusted herself off as well as she was able, and opened up the door, stopping only a moment to admire the sunrise. "Beautiful... Although I'm glad we are traveling by land and not sea. I seem to remember something about a red dawn being bad luck for sailors, or some such." Before they left she set the tray and bowl back where they had been left. "That note makes me think that crafted items might be scarce around here. If we come back this way, let's try to repay their kindness."

Once he attached the bottle back to the cape and stood up to clip it all back on. He ran hands through his hair to try and straighten it out from the bed head it was. As he did though he felt little tiny curls in his hair, he sighed as he hated how his hair curled at the ends, he had always felt like that his uneven waves looked bad on him and unprofessional for the future prince.

He shook he mind at the thought and walked over to the door ready to leave and start this journey to find this mysterious blue dressed man. He glanced over at Sophia as she spoke "We will repay them as they didn’t have to leave anything for us. We should be extremely grateful because we might not get treatment like this again you know," He mentions and opened the door, the light pooled into the room "Welp come on princess, we have no time to lose. The earlier we start the sooner we can get there,"

Outside the home in the hills to the north, a man stood atop one. While he was barely visible due to the distance, he was assuredly wearing blue clothing just as the Artisan had said. The distance while great, was manageable. A few people could be seen to the south, some moving towards the fields of grain and others milling about as the sun rose.

When Haru walked out he watched and over looked the people who where already up and working. He couldn’t imagine living a life like that, every day of his life he’s been pampered and looked after, he never really had to worry about work before so seeing the people working hard around him kind of fascinated the young prince.

Once they had left the ruined city he observed the landscape around them, for a moment he thought that he had saw someone in the distance, it must have been his mind playing tricks on him. "Honestly I sort have wished that we had some horses to travel on, it would safe our energy and we would get there quicker," He mentioned, looking down at Sophia.

"I'm barely used to walking," Sophia replied laughing. "The idea of being on top of an animal that could get spooked and go out of control doesn't seem very appealing." She looked up the hill and stopped. "There's someone up there wearing blue. I can't tell much from this distance, but maybe that's the man we are looking for. Is he waiting for us?" She picked up the pace, though it was more of a fast walk, and she kept looking down so she didn't trip over anything.

He kept on walk along side her as she expressed her worries about riding and being kicked of a horse "Well yes, there’s always that chance but when you’re actually on it. There’s a sense of freedom…" He rambled and realised that Sophia wasn’t walking next to him, he stopped and turn around to see her.

Once she mentioned the figure on the hill, so his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him, he did see something "Perhaps, the artisan did say that there was traveller before us so this guy is probably waiting for the ‘next batch’ of adventurers," He says and watched as Sophia began to walk faster but saw that she was making sure she didn’t trip "Let’s not keep him waiting,"

The sun sat high in the sky as Haru and Sophia got near the place where the man in blue had been seen. A small well maintained stone house with a thatch roof sat at the base of the hill and a gazebo made mostly of aged wood was perched at the crest of the hill. Inside the gazebo the man in blue was busy painting a landscape on a white canvas. He looked down at the two Arrivals approaching and smiled. "Hello hello hello! What brings you out to this small fragment of this once great city?" He asked, his expression betraying a warm hospitality. A path denoted by wooden planks placed at regular intervals led up the hill and to the gazebo, made from the same aged wood as the structure.