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Of Magic and Dungeons [IC/PG-16/Accepting]

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“What did I do to deserve such treatment?” Chris mused to himself as his towering breakfast was set before him. He generally found bacon too greasy for his liking, but he wasn’t about to be picky, especially when it gave him the perfect excuse to stay in one spot and keep his eyes peeled for anyone suspicious. Julian and anyone who looked like they were with Julian were his biggest people to look out for, but really anyone who dared lay eyes on him was someone to look out for.

He didn’t immediately see anyone, or at least anyone out of an ordinary for the morning. The distraction of a veritable mountain of food probably had something to do with it. It took forever to finish it, and he needed at least a few extra drinks to help keep it down. As he set down his mug for the final time, though, he did catch a glimpse of someone.

It wasn’t even someone in the room -- that was why he probably missed them before -- but a glance at the window revealed a familiar figure: the girl who had been in his room earlier. Chris felt the impulse to double-take, but he also knew if he looked away there was a pretty good chance the girl would disappear again. But that meant she noticed him looking, too. She didn’t vanish, but she did start moving away.

What was he supposed to do, not follow her? He didn’t cause a fuss or anything, but he did hurry up and out of the Drooling Dragon after the girl. “Alright,” Chris said, “What are you up to?”

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Estelle was sad to see work already finding her cousin when they'd barely had a moment together. But then the mage was struck with a frankly brilliant idea. She could just go with him to attend to his duties as the head of house Fereis. It wasn't exactly not her place to help the head of her family after all. Before letting her cousin leave she reached out to him.

"Allow me to go with you, Master Gavin." She started in an incredibly formal tone. That was until she called her cousin Master Gavin. She leaned into such that the formality became comical. "I should apologize in person for keeping you from them lest they believe you to be merely making excuses." Estelle offered her excuse to follow her cousin further. She knew the games the family played well however often she broke convention. In any other situation, simply being late to a meeting would be unlikely to cause much issue. But with Gavin's circumstances, and his youth especially, Estellise would not allow anyone any room to doubt her cousin's capabilities. Gavin smiled at her offer as a tired look set into his face as he prepared to get back to work.

"That's appreciated." he said. Campell, however, frowned at Estellise.

"I would go with myself but I have other duties to attend to. I would have thought you would as well. Ah, to be young again." he said dismissively. Estellise remained composed long enough for Campbell to leave before breaking out giggling over how serious the duo had been for the eternal amount of time that was a minute. But there was business to attend and so the mage abruptly composed herself. This definitely wasn't a game after all.

"Do be sure to let me know if I am about to stumble into confidential Fereis matters one ought not repeat to others. I do love secrets but mother has become awfully keen on when I am keeping them from her." Estelle offered while trying to remain collected. It was still clearly a tease. In everything she wanted to lift Gavin's spirits as they seemed in dire need of it.

"I sure hope it's not. Believe it or not so far I've not noticed any secrets... well, nothing that is a secret to any of the rest of the family." He paused a moment before continuing on like it was nothing. "It's odd though. I don't think I've seen the Church have this much contact before." Gavin thought aloud. Estelle was troubled but made no direct comment on it. She had several ideas but would leave her judgment until after meeting with this representative of the Church herself. For now, Estelle's focus was on keeping a smile on her cousin's face for what moments were allowed them while they walked through the halls of the estate.

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Lana

Arriving at the Tavern shortly after Chris left, not that Lana would know this, she entered it to find the place emptier than it had been when she had come in the day before. Only a few people were sitting at tables and none of them seemed particularly energetic.

Moving to the bar she realized that even Hector wasn't anywhere to be seen. He had left the bar mostly unattended, not counting one of the barmaids moving around and cleaning the tables, and she couldn't be sure how to get a hold of him.

As she sat there she noticed that there was a young, blonde, man sitting nearby and watching her. When she looked his way he smiled and waved. Then he moved over to the stool next to her and extended a hand. "Hello there. You're quite the lovely sight in such a dreary place. My name's Leo would you be so kind to grace me with yours?"


Chris

When Chris left the tavern it didn't take long to figure out where the girl had gone. Mostly because she was still there. At the corner of the road. When she noticed him noticing her she turned the corner and continued going. Prompting Chris to keep following. She stayed a distance away and wouldn't respond even if he called out to her but she never got out of sight of the young man.

There wasn't many other people out at the time and those that were didn't seem to pay them any heed. Just going about their day with the focus of people only worried about their own lives. It almost felt like Chris could get away with anything as long as he didn't disrupt their daily tasks.

The girl started to walk faster without warning and Chris had to quicken his pace to catch up. He saw her dart around a corner into an alleyway.

Before he could reach the alley he saw several people wearing hoods, the group that had heckled Hector at the bar earlier, coming from the other direction. They seemed to be heading for the alley as well and were moving at a brisk walk with determined strides. They reached it around the same time as Chris and they paused and moved towards him.

"You, what are you doing here? Get back this is official Kalo Family business. Run off now."


Estellise

Gavin led Estellise through the halls and up the overly wide staircase that led up towards what used to be his father's study and now, by virtue of inheritance, was his. He hesitated at the door with a hand raised before giving a hollow chuckle. "I still give pause before entering this room. So many years of being told to come back again later whenever I come to this room is hard to shake off."

He lowered his hand to grasp the steel doorknob and turned it. Opening the door into a small room made even smaller by the thick bookshelves covering the walls to the right and left. A desk with a high-backed chair sat at the other end and a small, round, window covered in an orange glass that cast a glow across the room. On the desk were several piles of papers and a couple open books.

Beyond that there were a few more simple chairs and a small couch closer to the door. None of which were occupied.

However there was one other person standing in the room. Near the desk and looking up at the window was an imposing woman.

She had long red hair tied into a ponytail and when she turned to look at them her orange eyes seemed to flash for a moment. The black armor she wore covered her torso, chest, and arms. It looked to be tight fitting and when she moved the armor looked to shift naturally to follow her as though it were simply a second skin.

At her side was a large, oddly shaped, blade in a dark metal sheath which had some kind of patch covering its hilt. Despite that there was some ominous feeling emanating from it.

Gavin hesitated before walking in. Estellise could tell that he was nervous but trying not to show it. "Apologies for making you wait." He moved towards his desk and turned around. "Hilda Theos, correct? When I heard a member of the church was waiting I must say I expected a priest or messenger. I certainly didn't expect a member of the family, let alone an enforcer, to come here."

The woman frowned. "That doesn't matter. Minor or major, or anything in between, I am here on behalf of the Church and therefore on the behalf of God." She looked towards Estellise.

Gavin spoke up again. "Ah, I hope you do not mind. I was speaking with my cousin when I was informed of your arrival."

Hilda continued to look at Estellise for a while. "I see." Was all she said.

"Right, so, shall we get to...whatever it is you came here for?"

Hilda looked away from Estellise. "The church sends condolences for the passing of your father. And apologies for not doing so earlier." Despite her words Hilda spoke with a complete lack of empathy. "As to why I am here it is simple. The church and the Fereis family never truly had much cooperation. I have heard your father was rather suspicious of working with others. We hope that the younger generation is more open-minded." Saying this she looked from Gavin to Estellise again with a slightly curious look in her eyes.

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The girl definitely noticed that Chris was following her, but she also didn’t seem to care? Which was weird because he totally would have cared if he was the one being followed. At the same time, though, she also managed to keep a stable distance between them, so it almost felt like he was being led rather than him giving chase.

That was fine by Chris, of course. Sure, odds were good that he was walking right into a trap, but what was he supposed to do, not walk into it? That meant giving up, and he was committed now. It also meant he didn’t have to disguise his intentions, so he kept his gaze, well, not locked on her, but always in her general direction lest she disappear.

Eventually, the game ended. She dashed ahead and ducked into an alleyway, and just as she did so, three familiar hoods came into view. They too seemed interested in that particular alcove, or at least they were interested in stopping Chris when he tried to go in. “What are you doing here?” one said. “This is official Kalo family business.”

Obviously, Chris wasn’t surprised that they acted as they did, but he did at least try to put on a good confused sort of face. “Who?” he said. “Honestly, that sounds like a made-up name. That’d be like me going around like ‘This is Ellwood family business, gimme your peaches’ or something. ‘I’m of the Chaderson clan, you must do as I say.’ Come on. I’ll let you pass because I’m nice, but you shouldn’t be acting on false authority like that.” He stepped into the alley and made an exaggeratedly gracious gesture of allowing them to pass, having gotten out of the way of the main road.

The one in front sneered and said, “You absolute buffoon. This alley is where we are heading. I’ll let you off with a warning since you are clearly from elsewhere but if you want to survive long in this city you better learn the names of the mage families here.”

“Oh, now you’re insulting me?” Chris said. “Even if the Kalo family exists, even if you really are part of them, and I’m still not convinced of either of those things, wouldn’t you think this is a rather poor showing on your part? If it were me, I would be putting on a pretty face to all passers-by, leaving us commoners content with our bread and circuses. If that facade is removed, though, as you are threatening to do, what is left but the gory violence of a small minority of haves oppressing the have-nots?”

The man laughed. “With what we have in store, it won’t matter-” he started to say, but another man placed a hand on his shoulder and cut him off, while the third then proceeded to take the lead. As he got close, Chris spotted something of a faraway look in the man’s eyes, but he started speaking before Chris could comment on it.

“We will be going down this alley,” he said. “You don’t want to be here if what we are looking for is indeed there.”

“I feel like if it’s not there you’ll still be mad at me,” Chris said. “You’d say I let whatever you’re after get away. I can imagine scenarios where that wouldn’t even be true. What if you just got the wrong alleyway, for example? All these alleyways look the same to me -- I could easily mix them up if I wasn’t paying attention -- but, like your friend said, I’m obviously new, so maybe there’s some distinguishing marker that I just can’t see? Or what if…” He didn’t actually have any other examples, so the sentence just sort of drifted off. Still, he regrouped with one final retort. “Listen, I’m just saying, if you’re going to beat me up no matter what, you should at least be upfront about it.”

“He’s stalling,” the first man said, clearly just done with the conversation. He stepped back up to the front and moved to shove Chris out of the way.

“Ah, yeah, see, just like that,” Chris said. He stepped forward, and with his right hand, he guided the shove away from his person. With his left hand, he punched the guy in the face.

That third of the trio stumbled and fell back, clutching his face. Meanwhile, the other two were already in motion, the one with a faraway look seemingly ignoring the melee and pushing forward, while the other began chanting something, with words unintelligible to Chris’ ears. The former, Chris let go for the moment. If there was magic going on, he needed to deal with that first. With as much speed as he could muster he ran up and kneed the caster in the gut.

Without even a grunt the caster doubled over as Chris hit him. His mouth opened and there seemed he had bitten his tongue, and blood came spilling out. He crumpled down to his knees and blood that had dripped onto the floor began to blacken and sizzle. It was something Chris made a note of asking Estellise about later, but he had to focus. The final man had continued down the alley. Chris gave chase, and once he was close enough, kicked the man’s knees out from under him.

The man flailed and fell to the ground, which wasn’t exactly what Chris had expected, but it did mean he could calm down and actually take in the alley if none of the Kalo goons got up right away. The alley was a lot darker than should have been normal in the morning sun, enough that Chris couldn’t actually see the end of it. There was no trace of the girl either, though that first thing probably explained the second.

Before he could investigate further, a scratching noise from the alleyway entrance caught Chris’ attention, and he turned back around to see a creature crawling towards him that, well, he wasn’t sure how he would describe it. It was almost like an upturned purple starfish, with its appendages pushing the center up until it reached a height of two feet or so.

He wasn’t sure, but Chris didn’t feel like getting close to something so foreign to him, instead opting to chuck a dagger at it. Which worked!… for a moment at least. The dagger pinned a tentacle down, but the thing just kept moving forward, eventually tearing its limb from the rest of its body and continuing on like nothing had happened.

Which was a problem because Chris didn’t have a dagger for each tentacle. His hand drifted to his other dagger out of habit anyway, but it brushed against a small bag along the way, and he remembered: Blast powder! Why deal with removing tentacles one at a time when he could do it all at once?

Aiming was a little different with a bag rather than a blade, especially with something as volatile, but he tried to get his toss as close as he could to the creature’s open maw and covered his ears. For a moment, it didn’t take, and the thing kept crawling towards him. But then…

*Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk*

The creature’s remaining tentacles flew from the body in different directions, some hitting the walls and at least one flying past Chris and deeper into the alley. They still twitched about -- even the one impaled with his dagger had a bit of life to it -- but no longer together, they could do little else. Instead of bleeding out, though, they seemed to be leaking water.

Again, that was something he’d have to ask Estellise about, Chris thought. It was a mystery for later. The more pressing mystery was, hopefully, still further down the alley.

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Lana walked into the tavern, a bit surprised at how empty the tavern seemed compared to yesterday. Not nearly as many people seemed to be here, and no one seemed particularly like conversing. Not to mention the barkeep himself wasn't here yet. Lana sighed, figuring it was early, and wondered when the others would get here. Figuring that, since she was already here she may as well wait, Lana walked over to take a seat at the bar and idle the time away. As she did, however, a handsome man made his way over and sat down next to her. The girl was curious as to who he was introducing to himself at first, but upon realizing that there was no one sitting down at the bar but them the girl blushed a bit at his greeting. Letting out a giggle she'll return his handshake saying, "name's Lana. Nice to meet you too, Leo."

"A strong handshake, impressive. Especially for someone with such a pretty smile."

Feeling a bit embarrassed at his compliment, Lana only tightened her grip on her handshake as if to further prove it. "Wellll, I work out a lot and stuff," punctuating her statement with another giggle. "You're uh, you're pretty pretty, too."

He smiled, moving a bit closer. "Why thank you. So, what're you doing in this kind of place anyway?"

"Oh well, just uh, waiting for a friend and all. I'm gonna go adventuring and stuff later."

"A friend? Is she as pretty as you?"

Nervously scratching her cheek Lana said, "well, one of them's definitely prettier then me, and the other..." Lana thought for a moment, her nervousness breaking way into a somewhat serious thought, before nodding saying, "he's good looking enough."

"Quite the group you've got there..." Leo looked over Lana's shoulder, eyes going towards the large resting near the girl. "Did you say adventuring?" 

Lana nodded, "yep. We're going to the dungeon."

"Ahhh, the dungeon." Leo says with a sigh and leaned back. "Such a shame." He muttered.

Lana tilted her head, confused for a moment before going back to normal saying, "yep. What about you? Do uh, do you do adventuring stuff?"

"Not anymore. Well, not the kind you mean." He chuckled.

Still more curious, Lana started to press, "does that mean you're retired now? Did you strike it big?"

"Oh, don't call it retired, that makes me sound old."

With a smile on her face Lana leaned back for a moment saying, "but that'd make it even cooler right? Retiring is for old folks, so doesn't that make you amazing if you can do it earlier then them?"

"Oh so you think I'm amazing do you?"

Giggling again, Lana said, "um, well, maybe. I don't know all that much about you, but you seem pretty cool Leo." 

 

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Chris

As Chris started to make his way down the alley he noticed that it seemed....normal. It ended not far from where he was standing and the most unusual thing around was a rather shocked looking cat that took off as soon as Chris started to move.

He noticed the mages had left. The one he had tripped could be seen just as he turned the corner. Clearly deciding that it wasn't worth the trouble and using the unusual creature to slip away without any risk to themselves.

The silent alley seemed to hold no secrets. There was no sign of the girl from before.

Until suddenly there was. Chris felt a tugging at his shirt and when he looked he'd see the girl standing there where she hadn't been previously. Before he could say anything to her she held a clenched hand out towards him. As if offering something to him. Regardless of if Chris took it or not the girl let go of whatever she was holding.

When Chris looked at it he'd see a strange, purple, object. It seemed to be a stone of some sort but it was softer than a stone and oddly smooth. It was colored purple and, looking closer, he'd notice it was shaped similarly to a human heart. Adding to this as he looked he would notice a slight glowing area that seemed to slowly pulse.

If he looked back towards the girl he would notice she was gone again and, once more, only a puddle of water remained.


Lana

"um, well, maybe. I don't know all that much about you, but you seem pretty cool Leo." 

Leo's smile widened. "Pleased you think so. Hey, if you're not waiting for someone maybe..." Before he could finish his sentence a large shadow passed over his face and he stopped. Looking back the two of them could see Hector standing there with a fist on one hip as he looked at Leo with narrowed eyes.

"I go out for five minutes and already you're getting into trouble." He looked at Lana. "Don't get too mixed up with this one. He may have a handsome face but his personality is rotten to the core."

Leo let out a gasp and looked shocked by Hector's words. "Hector! I didn't know...you thought my face was handsome! I'm touched, truly!"

Hector grunted and turned from him, ignoring the young man's reaction. "I'd like to think you just really like this place but something tells me you're here for a reason. If you're looking for the boy he ran off somewhere a bit ago. Don't know where and don't know when he'll be back."

"Aw, c'mon, it's not fun when you just ignore me." Leo complained. Though he kept a smile on his face while doing so.

Without looking Hector responded, "if I don't I might just end up throwing you out of here."

Leo chuckled. "I almost want to see you try." He then looked over at Lana and winked. "Sure can feel the love; no wonder I keep coming back."

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Chris cycled through checking the alleyway entrance in case of even further hostilities, looking around for, you know, the girl he had been following (more water, huh? Talk about melting under pressure), and staring at the purple heart… thing in his hand. He really couldn’t understand it, like, he knew it was important, and he knew him having it was probably going to bring more trouble, probably from the Kalo family if he had to guess, but the actual thing itself was way outside his comprehension. The only one he felt he could ask about it was Estellise, too. He wasn’t about to go to any old appraiser to talk about something this… unique.

There was also that small part of him that wondered how much it was worth, though. A small part.

“Alright,” Chris said. He wasn’t talking to anybody in particular; if he was talking to anything it was the purple heart in his hand. “I realize it might be absurd to be talking to this thing, but you might still be hanging around somewhere anyway so I gotta at least try. Um, my name is Chris. I get the feeling you’re going to keep popping up around me so figure you’ll want to know that. If you can talk, I’m sure you’ll tell me at some point? But it doesn’t have to be right away.

“I guess we should have some ground rules in the meantime?” Chris continued after a breath. “You probably shouldn’t be showing up at The Drooling Dragon, I mean, I don’t know how you get anywhere, but there’re a lot of people staying there, not to mention those goons showed up. You probably saw that too, actually. I’d say we meet up here sometime, but, like, maybe more goons than those are following you, so not here then?

“What about Riverside Church? You know where that is? Well, if you can hear this, and you feel like opening yourself up more than giving me this,” -- he held up the purple heart thing a bit -- “I’ll stop by this afternoon. I know, those might be big ifs, but, uh…”

That was really it, wasn’t it? He didn’t even know if the girl had heard any of that, or, even if she had, that she would go through with it, but at least he felt like he’d done something. Chris took a stretch, massaging his left shoulder. “If you want to see me in the meantime,” he said, “I mean, you’ve been finding me pretty well so far.”

He sighed. Why him, too? Hopefully, the universe deigned to give him an answer to that, at least. In the meantime, he pocketed the heart and started his way back to the inn.

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Estelle eyed the agent of the church with a hesitant curiosity as she spoke to her cousin. Long had the Fereis been distrustful of the church. Estellise's own mother had only ever spoken ill of them in front of her, so long as an agent of the church was not also present. Estelle tried not to hold this same view of them without reason. Their views on mages were not incredibly difficult to come across however and that had often been enough to unify the young woman's mind on the matter with that of her family. This particular visit seemed particularly insidious. She wanted very much to believe otherwise, but as Hilda spoke it seemed clear to her what the church's goal was here. They thought the Fereis weak for Gavin's inexperienced leadership and had swept in offering aid as a ploy to take control of the family. Estelle couldn't stand the thought of her cousin being taken advantage of in this way and she naturally stepped between him and Hilda without obscuring Gavin from Hilda's view.

"Thank you Miss Theos. The church's concern for our former master's passing is truly touching." Estellise began, feigning a polite kindness for she did not believe the church honestly cared. "As the church's affairs delayed the sending of this message, so too you might expect the family's mourning may delay our drastically altering our state of affairs with the other major families and the church. That our lack of cooperation in the past was at least peaceful suffices us for the moment." She spoke for her cousin. Perhaps this was out of place for her. But as the only aid present she would do her best to advise her master. Hilda raised an eyebrow at the response and looked towards Gavin.

"It, well, it's as she says. I dont think I should be... making too many changes right now." Gavin said as he glanced at Estelle for a moment.

"I think you should reconsider. Now would be the best time. You could show your strength by forging a bond that your father could not." Hilda interjected. This set Estelle on edge. This comment spoke volumes to the church's intentions here.

"You speak out of turn Miss Theos." Estellise started, a bit more serious but keeping in mind not to sound angry. "To say that our master could not forge a bond with the church would imply a failing on his part in an effort he was actively undertaking. That he would not speaks to his convictions as our leader and that the divide was intentional." she said before stepping back to stand by Gavin's side rather than before him. "But you must forgive me. I do not mean to imply any ulterior motive or ill will to you fulfilling your duty. I simply felt it wise to advise you of the particular nature of we mages. One must choose their words carefully lest they impart dishonesty where none was meant." Estelle finished with a more narrow gaze at Hilda.

"I know the nature of mages well, make no mistake." Hilda said with narrowed eyes. She sneered at Gavin and shook her head. "I see you are in no state to consider this seriously. Perhaps later, once you're more...experienced, you will understand the benefit." She looked to Estelle. "Perhaps you should speak with your...official advisors about the matter." Estellise's own glare spiked with anger for only a moment, but she controlled herself for Gavin's sake. Gavin had been incredibly passive and for good reason. Hilda Theos departed without further issue, only after Estelle was certain the woman was gone did she turn her attention back to her cousin.

"Forgive me Gavin. Perhaps she is right and I should have had mother join you here instead." The mage spoke, somewhat dejected as she reflected on the exchange. "That woman... the church thinks to exert authority over us simply because of your youth. It is not fair to put so much on you! And it is most disgraceful of the church to invoke the memory of your father to get you to agree with them..." She continued, the anger building again in her voice now instead of merely her face.

Edited by Doggo

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Lana looked back curiously as Leo was suddenly interrupted by someone appearing. Watching the antics unfold between both Hector and Leo, Lana couldn't help but smile and chuckle at it. As Leo made his comment, Lana smiled saying, "yeah, it's a wonder." Then the girl let out a sigh, leaning forward and propping her head up on both of her hands as she rested her arms on the table. "But seriously though, here I was all excited to get dungeoning again, and he leaves before I even get here. Well, I guess I should just wait here, he's bound to show back up right?" Looking towards Hector she said, "and if that's the case, I'll get something to eat while I'm waiting. I'm starving and the food's pretty good here." After placing her order with the man, the girl simply sat back in her chair and waited. 

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Estellise

"Forgive me Gavin. Perhaps she is right and I should have had mother join you here instead. That woman... the church thinks to exert authority over us simply because of your youth. It's not fair to put so much on you! And it is most disgraceful of the church to invoke the memory of your father to get you to agree with them..."

Gavin shook his head. "No, it's fine. I'm glad you were here. Honestly I didn't know what to say to her myself." His shoulders were slumped and a frown was on his face as he looked at the door without really seeing it. "I admit I don't really know what it is I should be doing. I wasn't...taught how to do this. Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be best to leave it to someone else. I'm not my father, I..."

He stood more upright as Campbell came storming into the room. "Gavin!" He said with clear frustration. "I'm told the messenger from the Church was sent off. Why so soon? I thought you were to discuss something important surely it couldn't have lasted so briefly."

"Ah...No, I sent her on her way. She wanted to discuss some kind of partnership but..."

"And you turned her down?" Campbell closed his eyes and let out a long sigh. "I know your father was rather...against the Church but, with him gone, our family is in a weak state. It would be good to at least hear them out on this matter. You do not have to go down the same path."

He paused then glanced over at Estelle. "And do you have more business here? Gavin is far too busy to allow himself be distracted at the moment. Does your mother know you were here during such a sensitive meeting?"


Lana

"and if that's the case, I'll get something to eat while I'm waiting. I'm starving and the food's pretty good here."

"Mm, alright then." Hector said, eyeing Leo for a moment, frown on his face, before going towards the kitchen. "The cook has been on a bacon kick so I won't bother asking what you want, hope that's alright."

Leo sighed as the man disappeared behind the kitchen door. "He can be such a buzzkill. Ironic for a bartender." He glanced over at Lana and smiled. "I'd reconsider this Dungeon business. No use in wasting your life away trying to get something that doesn't exist." He shrugged. "But I suppose that's your business. If you ever want to have a good time ask around and I'm sure you'll find me. I better get going. I think your friend may not be very happy to see me and I wouldn't want to embarrass him in front of a lovely lady." After a few moments he gave a salute with two fingers to his temple before starting on his way out the door. Walking backwards with as much confidence and grace as a front facing man.

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Chris kept his head on a swivel making his way back to the Drooling Dragon as he continued to keep an eye out for any more Kalo goons. There were none, fortunately, but the constant tension that there might have been meant that the walk back felt significantly longer. He did make it back eventually, though, and felt the tension in his shoulders from being on edge for so long immediately wash away, only to be brought immediately back when he spotted Leo past the threshold.

Leo, meanwhile, was not watching anywhere at all. He was with Lana (and Chris regretted not leaving a message with Hector about if any of his party showed up like she did) saying things like, “Your friend might not be happy to see me,” and “I wouldn’t want to embarrass him,” before walking backwards towards the door. Towards Chris.

Chris didn’t do anything to prevent the inevitable crash. There was a brief moment of revelation where he imagined stepping out of the way and tripping the upstart, but this was much simpler and kept the negative attention still on Leo. That didn’t mean he was quite ready for the force of the impact, though, and he was knocked back half a step.

“Who’s embarrassing who again?” Chris still managed to say. “I’m not the one not looking where I’m going.”

Leo whirled around. “Heeey, look at that,” he said. “You know, it’s pretty suspicious to appear right when someone was talking about you behind your back. Aaaanyway, I guess I'll go get going. Nice seeing you again!”

There was something pithy Chris wanted to say in response, but he managed to keep it down until Leo had left the building and was comfortably out of earshot besides. “It really isn’t,” he said, before returning his focus back to the girl at the bar. “Hey, Lana, sorry I was away. Kind of a weird morning, actually, I’ll tell you all about it when Estellise gets here, though. In the meantime, what was that guy talking to you about?”

When Hector came back with Lana’s food and said, “Hey, you can put that on my tab, okay? She doesn’t have to pay for that.”

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Estellise did her best to be happy and good natured in most of her interactions. But in the context of the profound rudeness of the church, and now Campbell's comments, an anger took hold of the noblewoman. Campbell no doubt echoed the sentiment many of the older Fereis would offer Gavin. Not one of them viewed the young man as a person, merely a figure head they had to go through to play their games. Yet the fact remained Gavin was Master now, and what he decided was supposed to hold weight.

"Gavin and I are both adults in case you have forgotten, and need not ask Mother for permission to do everything. If the Master of House Fereis wishes me present then I shall be." Estelle said with a huff as she looked to take her leave. At the door she paused briefly before turning to her cousin. "Please call on me if you ever need me." she offered meekly.

"Thankfully he has plenty of, older and more experienced, advisors to come to for anything he needs." Campbell said with a hint of smugness in his usual stern tone. Contempt flashed across the woman's face as she turned and slammed the door behind her before storming through the Fereis estate in a foul mood. Aids came to her side to invite her to breakfast despite her lateness but she refused. She wanted nothing to do with the place for the moment. And no doubt her mother was on patrol, looking to snatch her away to lecture her once she found her free of Gavin. She didn't want to give the woman the chance, not after all that. So she took her leave into the city. But due to her mood she found her efforts to greet what townsfolk she was familiar with half-hearted and insincere. Without thinking the woman's feet were taking her to where she expected to find her new friends, her only perceived hope for a single happy thing happening this day.

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Lana smiled at Hector as he mentioned the food saying, "no girl can resist a plate of bacon in the morning."  As the man left, she gave a confused look over to Leo as he tried to dissuade her from continuing her dungeoning business. She didn't really understand why he said what he did, but she at least already knew that she was getting something from the dungeon. Which meant there was probably more things she could find there of even more value then just explosive powder! And that meant, Spark or no Spark she'd be rich in no time! The girl didn't dwell on it for too long, though, as the man quickly left making her both confused again yet giggly at his exiting remark. Not soon after,  Chris came back having a minor run in with Leo, leaving the former seeming annoyed by the whole thing. 

As he sat down next to her, Lana raised an eyebrow at Chris's mention of something weird going on, curious to know more. Though, with his question coming first she smiled saying, "nothing much. He just said I was lovely and wanted to go hang out or something. Was curious about what I was doing, though he didn't seem to really care about the Dungeon all that much. If anything, he seemed to really not like the idea of me going in there at all, think it's a waste and all." The girl paused and thought about it some more again before smiling still saying, "well it is dangerous, so maybe he was just trying to keep me safe." Looking back to Chris directly the girl asked, "you two know each other?"

As Chris then went to pay for her food the girl smiled even brighter at him, sparkles clear in her eyes as she said, "you know, maybe I was wrong about you. You're a real gentleman Chris." 

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The first thing Chris said in response was “I’m going to take that as a compliment,” trying to ignore Lana’s implied previous judgment of his character. It didn’t entirely work; it sent him back to his adolescence of secret passageways and stolen pastries. There wasn’t much gentlemanly about any of that, especially the parts that he really didn’t like to think about. Really, his current career trajectory didn’t have much gentlemanliness either. He wasn’t even sure he acted all that gentlemanly outside of this one moment, and if someone asked why this time was different, all he’d really be able to do would be shrug his shoulders. It felt different, that was all.

“But Leo, we’ve, uh, we met yesterday,” Chris continued, now answering Lana’s question. “It wasn’t really that exciting of an encounter. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way, there was a fistfight, he gave me this fake gold coin” -- Chris pulled the coin out of his pocket to show her -- “that was really it. That’s why I didn’t really bring it up before. You probably know more about him than I do now.

“I dunno. Hector doesn’t like him and I figure I gotta listen to my landlord sometimes, you know? Besides, you still want to go into the Dungeon despite whatever he told you, right? So really, he’s probably worth nothing.”

The next part came almost involuntarily, though Chris still managed to at least keep his voice low, at least. “Besides, even if there is nothing at the bottom, I imagine being one of the first people to know that’ll get me what I want.” There was probably a wistful look in his eye too. But then he came back to his senses and gave Lana a smile. “The treasure would be nice too, obviously.”

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Lana listened to Chris as he explained his meeting with Leo, her face showing visible annoyance as he mentioned the man giving him a fake coin. As a girl who held money first and foremost in the world she couldn't forgive anyone who tried to get by with just fake money. With her impression of him immediately soured, the girl nodded along as Chris continued to explain his own experience with the man, saying, "you've got a point there. After all, nothing's going to stop me from reaching the bottom at all! Honestly, myth or not I'm sure there's still a bunch of riches and things that you could find in the dungeon. So I don't know why anyone who's got the skills and not a noble wouldn't look for a lucky break in it. I mean sure it's like gross and kind of dangerous and I wish I had never seen a rat that big, but it's also free." The girl nodded as she said this, as if to confirm to herself.  

Smiling over to Chris she said, "of course! We can't have any of this talk of what is or isn't at the bottom. Because for sure there's something at the bottom. Be it riches, glory and all powerful wish! Anything and everything! And we're going to be the ones to find it!" As the girl exclaimed this, psyching herself up, she paused and thought for a moment before saying, "I should've waited for Estelle to say that...well, I'll just go over it again when she gets back. For now, let's enjoy some bacon and then some dungeoning."

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Despite her mood, Estelle had still managed to take a somewhat circuitous route to the Drooling Dragon. The mage was inviting any opportunity for a happy moment to distract her, but looking for them made them flee away from her sight. In truth the frustration was simply poisoning her view of things, and she knew that much. But still she could hope. Or at least she would try to. It was not to be so ultimately she found herself at the door to the now familiar establishment and was relieved upon walking in to see Lana and Chris already sitting together. It was time to put the early morning's event behind her or so she thought. A smile worked its way slowly onto her face, struggling to maintain its balance given the lack of genuine feeling behind it. But it wouldn't do to bother her friends with the dreadful politics of the mage families and the church.

"So good to see you both." Estellise attempted a warm greeting as she moved closer to them. "No finer way to start the morning than a hearty meal hm?" she tried to laugh as she sat down with them. The soft rumbling of her own empty stomach reminded her of her folly in not eating breakfast earlier. The Fereis looked around and a thought seemed to click in her head. "Oh my, Sergei is not here too is he? Were you all waiting for me? I would hate to have been any kind of delay." Estelle spoke in concern. She seemed to have completely forgotten what she had told Lana after their first venture into the Dungeon. Had she begun reading and studying magic today she would have been hours longer before she even thought to come to the Drooling Dragon.

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Chris didn’t partake in too much bacon; he’d probably eaten half a hog already before he got called away and he hadn’t quite worked up enough appetite since. But he couldn’t deny the company was nice, and Lana’s enthusiasm was certainly infectious. He wasn’t even aware of Estellise’s presence until she made herself known. “No finer way to start the morning than a hearty meal, hm?” she said as she walked in. “Sergei is not here too, is he?”

He gave her a nod and gestured to an open seat, inviting her to join them. “I haven’t seen him yet,” Chris said. “He might not be joining us?” He was a little unsure of that second part, unable to comprehend the mercenary lifestyle that had Sergei coming and going as he pleased, but what else was there to say about it? “But that doesn’t mean we were waiting for you. At least, not for that reason. I did want to ask you something, actually.”

Now it was Chris’ turn to look around, eyeing everyone else in the room and trying to suss out any prying eyes or ears. He was comfortable enough to continue, though, and he produced the purple heart from his pocket and recounted his events of the morning. He wasn’t sure how to describe all of it, like the weird starfish creature or the exact texture of the ichor one of the Kalo goons had bled, and he wasn’t a good enough storyteller to say better than “we got in a fight,” but the important parts like the mysterious girl were things he thought he relayed well enough. The conclusion was this, though: “So yeah, Estellise, I wanted to know if you’d heard anything about the Kalo family lately, or maybe if you know what this is? And Lana, I think I just invited myself to that church you’re staying at, hope that’s okay.”

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Estelle seemed worried about Sergei's whereabouts being as yet unknown. She had hoped their group would stay together longer but even the single exploration the four of them had undertaken together was more than she could have hoped for when the idea first entered her mind. Concern for the missing ally was soon overshadowed as Chris moved to share what had happened to him in the morning. What he spoke of, and being attacked, it was all most unusual. The less than honorable display of magic was enough to be angry about. But the connection to the Kalo family, the mentioning of the church, and the bizarre heart that Chris had on his person, all of it was a bit much to take in at once. Rather than stay angry at the interaction with the church earlier she decided to focus in on the heart and what had happened surrounding it. Of course, that chosen focus brought with it a degree of repulsion.

"I can say with some degree of confidence that this... thing" Estelle started, not wanting to acknowledge the object in Chris's hand as a heart. "Is intended for summoning magic. It is not something I have studied in any great detail mind you. But still... something about it seems wrong. At the least it is not for any summoning spell I have heard of." the mage continued as she began tapping a finger on the table as she tried to think. "As for the Kalo family, they are not particularly friendly with the Fereis. Not that they are hostile either, they simple tend to keep to themselves. Most of the other families dismiss them off hand for they do little to play in the power balance of this city. Their leader however is a charming man" Estelle spoke with some degree of distraction before she focused back on her explanation. "And despite that the family interacts little with my own. The short of it is that this magic is certainly a specialty of theirs, but what they would gain from attacking you is beyond me."

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Lana smiled and waved towards Estelliese as she came in, frowning a bit as both she and Chris mentioned Sergei. Sure the man was kind of intimidating to be around, but he was still part of their first expedition into the dungeon. That made them something of companions? Or at least associates. And having one less associate to go into the dungeon with certainly didn't feel as good. Oh well, sometimes these things just couldn't be helped. Her train of thought was then turned away as Chris presented to them a foreign looking heart thing. 

The girl was a bit skeeved out that a monster like that could be just running around the streets, though calmed a bit when Estelle had pointed out that it was most likely summoning magic. After thinking on it for a bit more, though, if it was some kind of summon then that meant it could show up anywhere which was even more disgusting to think about. Once the noblewoman finished her explanation Lana, naturally, didn't have any more of a clue of what to make of the situation - though strange monster aside she also felt a familiar sense of foreboding about the strange girl that seemed to haunt him this morning. As he made his question to Lana she thought about it saying, "uh, it's probably fine? It's not my house or anything but the guy who works there is nice and if you do some work for him it should be fine. But..." The girl paused, remembering her own harrowing experience this morning, though shaking her head and saying, "yeah, it's probably fine." 

Once that was all taken care of and the group had eaten their fill, Lana smiled saying, "well, I'm ready to leave this weird morning behind and instead go into the dungeon now. Sergei doesn't seem to be showing up and I've heard it's best not to put these kinds of things off - " a thing she had heard mostly in regards to chores, "so, ready?" 

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Once everyone had finished up their tasks in the city, having eaten and discussed plans, they went straight to the area where the dungeon entrance was kept safe.

As the group entered the dungeon, this time being let in without so much as a word from the guard, they felt a strange tingling sensation. Which, as those who studied the place believed, was the dungeon's magic evaluating them and acknowledging which floor they had left it.

Once this tingling sensation left they were standing on a stone staircase which would be familiar to them. For it was identical to all the others they had encountered on their trips deeper into the dungeon.

Were they to go up the stairs instead they would find their way blocked after a short distance. The only way out from here would be to reach the portal placed at every fifth floor. At the bottom of the stairs was an opening that led to a room they hadn't seen before.

The room itself was largely empty. It had a high ceiling, which was high enough that whatever mysterious light that bathed the room didn't quite reach, and a simple dirt floor. Small patches of grass could be seen here and there but it was withered and unattended to. The edges of the room seemed to also be obscured somewhat. With a slight shadowy fog hovering around the corners. Near the other side of the room, beyond which was a doorway with a wooden door shut over it, was a stone dais. Roughly twelve feet wide at the top. On either side of it were a pair of treasure chests. One which seemed to be fully closed and the other which was open a crack.

Beyond that it seemed that the room bore no other special features. Compared to the other rooms it was surprisingly empty of monsters. Unless, that is, something was lurking in the shadowed corners.

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The Dungeon felt just familiar enough to Chris to keep him uncomfortable, like, it was just uncanny enough in its presentation that every single shadow seemed like a threat, but it was still the same sort of cavernous space that he remembered from the day before. He was cautious now for different reasons, though. His shoulder, for one, was still alright even after the scuffle that morning, but Chris still vividly remembered when it wasn’t and would like to keep it that way. The other reason was -- and he brought his hand to his pocket as he thought of it -- he had to take care of a summoning magic thing until he could figure out what was up with that whole deal.

The portal had dropped them off on a new floor, one that didn’t seem to have a ceiling, or at least not one he could see, as well as a pair of treasure chests that got Chris immediately suspicious. Yesterday, they’d had to fight through five floors of monsters to earn anything and now they were supposedly opening treasure chests right off the bat? He just didn’t buy it.

And yet, even as they got closer and he started poking around the dais proper, he still couldn’t see anything, like, overtly wrong. One of the chests was slightly ajar, sure, but in the grand scheme of things that was pretty small, he thought.

Still, “There’s no way this turns out good for us, right?” he said. “Like, I want to open these as much as you two surely do, but we’ve got to be missing something here.” He moved over to the closed chest and gave it a tap with his foot. It budged a little but didn’t do anything more than that. Was he just being silly? “I don’t know,” he said, as if in response. “At the same time if we keep going I’m sure we’ll feel worse for not knowing later. Or I will, at least. What do you think?”

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At this point it seemed Sergei would not be rejoining the group. It left a somber tone to resonate with the aggravation Estelle had already been feeling in her heart but there was little to be done about it. She couldn't force anyone to adventure with her after all. For that matter Estelle was surprised but almost happy the group seemed intent on tackling the Dungeon again. It hadn't been her intention to go today as there was much reading to catch up on. But with what all had happened, a distraction was welcomed.

Entering the dungeon was a much smoother process this time as it did not require any of Estellise posturing to the guard about their situation and aim. Instead they were allowed to pass straight in while the Dungeon took them to the sixth floor where they had left off. An oddity of the Dungeon to be sure that it remembered where they had been already, but a blessing that they need not battle through the first five floors again simply to make further progress. This sixth floor was a markedly different room than the five before it had been. Two chests stood in a somewhat dim room. The edges and ceiling of the place were shrouded in darkness, something Estelle sought to remedy as Chris began examining the treasure before them.

"In situations like these, I think it best to gather more information." Estelle replied to Chris' query as a ball of light materialized at her finger tips. It drifted through the air to the edges of the room, repelling the darkness as it went. But if there was any anticipation of uncovering a monster it would be disappointed as there was nothing in the room with them. At least on their level anyway. That they couldn't see the ceiling remained curious. Estelle stared up toward the darkness for a moment before turning back to the others.

"I advise we step away from the treasure for a moment. We may yet have unpleasant company waiting above us." the mage cautioned as the sphere of light returned to her. With a brief pause the orb regained its brilliance as Estelle topped the small bit of magic power off before sending it upwards. At first there seemed to be only a cave ceiling and stalactites. But a second look would show something indeed lurked above as things began moving between the stones. A rush of air accompanied five bizarre creatures dropping down to meet the group of adventurers. They resembled squids but were about four feet long and at the center of their tentacle like web of appendages there was a disgusting toothed mouth like a lamprey. No sooner did they land than did they begin charging the group to latch on to them. Estelle stepped back in shock and after a moment began readying her magic for offensive use.

Edited by Doggo

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With the group having gone to the dungeon, Lana briefly marveled at the experience of getting to where they were. Teleporting was, once again, a very unfamiliar feeling to her and it took her a few moments to readjust her senses once they got back to the floor they had left off on. Looking around, the girl saw the stairs behind her, briefly making her way over to them only to see that they were more for show then anything else. As she made her way back to the rest of the group, it looked like they were in a room unlike the others so far. For one, it seemed a lot darker then the others. And for another, there was already treasure here! 

Lana was eager to see what was up with those, though Chris had made the first move towards them. After he inspected them, Lana was already making her way towards them to see if she could open them but paused as the boy seemed to think that there was something up with the whole situation. Sure, as she thought about it was pretty suspicious that the treasure chests would just be lying around after they had to fight through five rooms of enemies to get their first pay day from here. But maybe it was just a welcoming gift from the dungeon? She wasn't entirely sure, but she was sure that Chris was right in that she'd regret not knowing what it was later. 

As Estellise wanted to gain more information first, though, Lana stopped herself from going straight ahead and instead stood around, clearly antsy and eyeing up the treasure chests. Slowly inching herself closer, only to step a little back as she realized she moving towards it. Eventually, though, the girl's attention was drawn by the sudden sound of things falling. Looking around, the girl's eyes snapped to the ceiling first seeing that it was in fact just a rocky ceiling. Next, her eyes went down, seeing the bizarre squid hat-looking monsters  looking towards them. Instantly recoiling in disgust, Lana shouted, "eww, what the heck are - " however as they seemed to start moving the girl cut her own comment off and drew out her axe with a small yelp. Standing between the spell caster and the monster, Lana raised her axe ready to bring it down on the first thing that got close enough to her. 

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Darkmantles. A fiendish creature that tended to dwell in ruins and caves. With the ability to camouflage themselves and a power to cast a magical darkness they were well suited for surprise attacks. Estellise's light managed to piece the magic veil and forced the creatures to attack sooner than they had intended.

As they fell it was clear that they weren't simply dropping but were in fact flying down towards them. The first to get near Lana would find her axe cutting into its leathery body. Slicing through part of the "veil" that was their tentacles. The creature didn't make much of a noise but it did recoil. It moved away from her and fell onto the ground as it suddenly found part of what kept it aloft ripped.

However the others were still diving down and another would follow up on the first's attempt to latch itself around the girl. The lamprey-like mouth opening to bite her as it tried to engulf her.

The other three floated around towards where Estellise stood and, one by one, would also try to grab hold of the girl head-first.

Over by Chris he would notice, for a moment, that the open chest rattled slightly as the Darkmantles made their attack.

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As Lana found purchase in the strange creature that was floating down towards her, she managed to back up a bit and take a deep breath as it seemed to no longer be falling towards. That was one of five immediate terrors taken care of though it was still alive and having a cut skin parasol did little to actually make the creature any less disturbing to look at. And there was hardly any a reprieve from the disturbing creatures as another one of them had seen fit to fall down on her. Looking at the sharp fangs in the center of the creature's disturbing canopy the girl had a brief shiver course through her as she hefted her axe up from its resting position from the last attack. 

There wasn't as much time now as there was the first time she had done this, which meant her swing had to be faster. Unreasonably so, at that, so she needed to create more distance first - any bit really. Hefting her axe up, the girl took two steps back causing the dark mantle to veer towards her and slow down, if only ever so slightly. As she took her second back step, the girl lifted her foot off the ground and set herself off balance as she hastily swung her axe upward and cleaved into the skin of the dark mantle again. As the creature's ability to float was severely hampered and it swerved a bit, Lana grit her teeth as she could feel her axe beginning to go over her head and bring her further backward. 

Grunting and clearly straining the girl eventually managed to shift the direction of the axe and stop forward bringing the axe in front of her again. As she did, the blade struck into the dark mantle, piercing the creature's tough skin. Rather than cleaving it in two, however, it was more akin to her swinging a large club at the creature and launching it away from her, spiking it into the ground. The creature wasn't dead yet, though it was certainly looking worse for the wear. Pumped up by her success, Lana tried to fix her balance before shouting, "take that you dastardly treasure trap!" 

 

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