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Training for A War; The Gray Bender, Ch. 5
Topic Started: Jul 23 2005, 08:15 PM (309 Views)
Markhatesorange
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Quiniera Castle sat atop a mountain deep within the sunny territory of Andalucia, newly named the Socialist Dominion of Andalucia. After being told that she would have to marry the Prince of Portugal, Amara refused out of her love for another and to prove her point to the Spanish King, made her territory withdraw from the Spanish Federation. The Andalucians, fiercly loyal to their princess and territory before the King himself, withdrew with her. Spain, however, had made its displeasure known. And Amara wanted to be ready.

"This looks good," she nodded to the armory attendent, who presented her with a silver-handled oaken bow and a quiver. "I hope I can make good use of this," she turned to her new found friend and her old friend. "Either of you know anything about archery?"
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Relen
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"I do. I'm proficient with any weapon on Earth." Eli told Amara, perusing the items around him.

Eli looked over the armory for a second. Nothing there really interested him - he already had his sword, but they didn't have any assault rifles of the caliber he preferred. Silently, he carved the transport circle image in the air with his mind, slicing throught what appeared to be plain air with his left index claw. he reached his hand in, and pulled out an M-16 assault rifle with an attached M-203 grenade launcher. The M-16 had no clips inside it, and the M-203 had no grenades. Placing these on the floor, he poked his head through the gap. It looked like hsi ehad had vanished into thin air. Eli had just infact poked his head into the Makai to talk with the Armorer.

Inaudible as it was to the others, he had an animated conversation with the youkai.

"Yo, I need four mags for an M-16 of 5.52 Blade, as well as three mags of 9 millimetre Blade, as well as an ammo belt." Eli said as he reached a hand through and pulled out an M-9 Beretta sidearm with waist holster. Blade rounds were essentially HVAP (high-velocity, armor-piercing) rounds.

"Coming up, Prince-Emperor." the youkai said, looking through the ammunition room for the required items. He came out with two pistol magazines and three magazines for the M-16, loaded.

"Here you are, sir. Would you like a case?" he asked.

"Actually, yes. Give me a Class B case with no weapons, but five M-203 frag rounds." Eli said. A Class B was a case for an M-16 with M-203, an M-9 place, enough space for three clips and boxes of each, the required amount of M-203 grenades and a cleaning kit.

"Thank you, Armorer." Eli said as he pulled himself and the case out of the hole, sealing it up behind him.

"Well, I have my equipment. As you can see, I like my guns and swords." he told the assembled, opening the case. He donned the belt, and attached the M-9 holster to it. Placing one clip into the M-9 and M-16 each, he put th M-9 into the holster and shouldered the M-16, after inspecting both and declaring them to be clean. He placed the other clips and grenades onto the ammo belt and declared himself finished. He opened another portal and tossed the case through, sealing it up again.

"I'd say I'm done."
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Markhatesorange
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Amara nodded and smiled at Eli. He did seem to like guns, told by the display of armor he was wearing in pure lead magazines. Everyone had their prefered weapon. She was skilled in the use of a rapier, and perhaps soon in a bow, and he was obviously skilled with swords and guns. She took out an arrow and strung it as best as she knew how and aimed it outside the walls. But then she had a thought. "I wonder..."

She began to quickly concentrate, closing her eyes and focusing upon the arrow head, her left hand upon the bottom silver hand, her right upon the tail of the arrow she had strung. It was tight in place, ready to be placed. Everyone watching wondered why she didn't release. She pictured the arrowhead in her mind, and then tried to spark in the air, like she always did with firebending, then opened her eyes. It had worked. A flare was on the arrowhead. She quickly released the arrow into the moat below them.

"I never thought that would be possible..." Amara looked with shock. "Bending enhancing weaponary..."
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Relen
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"Yeah. Ki, my hatred powers which are currently sealed...A lot of things can be imbued with a special property. I'll demonstrate."

Eli raised the M-16 to his right shoulder, and turned off the safety and set the fire mode to single shot. He looked out the window and saw a tree in the distance, a perfect target. Eli concentrated, and imbued the firearm with black Youki, so that there would burn a column of black wherever the shot hit. The M-16 itself was glowing a demonic black, as it were.

"Now watch the tree."

Eli pulled the trigger gently, a single bullet streaking out towards the tree. You could see the path it took by the black line left hanging in the air - these were excellent tracer rounds. And because it was in daytime, it was clearer to see black Youki than white Reiki.

As soon as the bullet impacted, about 3/4 of a second later, the black column appeared.

"See, Amara, things like this are commonplace. My sword, for instance, has six elements inside it and can generate a sort of field around itself, essentially widening the blade by an inch ither side in those elements..."

Eli stopped and turned the safety back on. Somehow, he came to a thought.

"You...do have an armed force, right? And they are equipped with a large variety of modern firearms, right? And the are TRAINED, right?" Eli said. If Andalucia came under attack, he couldn't fight off all of Spain's legions alone. As good as he was, he did need support sometimes.
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Markhatesorange
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Eli's questions were excellently placed, but his worries would be set to rest. "Andalucia has some of the best militants in the history of this area. In fact, it is Andalucia that sends the best men and women to serve in the Spanish military, but they have all come back now that the Dominion has been established. We are well armed and prepared for invasion, if such a thing occurs." Just then, Amara remembered something. About the strange dream she had. "You know, to change the subject, I had a very odd dream last night...something about sagedom. It was odd, but dreams tend to be that way."
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Abadon XXX
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Darksong: o.o get outtah mah head!

*prior to the castle*

Cyrus was looking down at the silver ring in his hand as he recalled how he gained this. He risked a lot to keep himself safe, along with Yuri. He was in the hospital between the time the ceremony and when he had to back to Spain. This ring would be a symbol of what he cared deeply for: his friends, family, and the woman that he loved. He slipped it onto his finger as he walked into the castle.

*right now*

"I don't know much about archery. I'm more of a melee weapons user." The gem in his gauntlet shone a little as he looked at it. He did have several weapons armed within the gem surprisingly. Not to mention he possessed the lore weapon the Golden Axe. But now he had his mask and ring coupled with the crest that he now wore around his neck. "I'm ready as well." He watched with interest as Amara used her element bending on the arrow. It was pretty impressive.
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Relen
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"A dream...about sagedom...being a Sage."

Eli also had a very similar dream.

"Let me guess...You were met by this old person who talked about you being the next Sage and then showed you a place where you had to go and guard, and then talked about allying with the other Sages."

Eli was extremely logical. He could recall absolutely random things, and use them in any situation. And this was fitting too well! It was clear to him that she was another Sage, due to every piece of information fitting in place immediately.

"I don't know what Sage you are, Miss Amara, but I can tell you I'm the Fire Sage. And you're quite right, the dream was quite odd."

He couldn't believe it. One of the Sages was Amara. This would be a lot easier than he expected.
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Markhatesorange
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Amara was just as shocked as Eli had been. Both of them, sages? They had met by chance, come to Andalucia together by chance, and now this all because she made a slip about her dream? Everything he recanted was true. She had seen her grandfather, who told her she was the Sage of Light, guardian of the element of pure order and light, and destined to be the protector of its house, the sacred Temple of Light.

She began to say more about this, to get more open as she aimed an arrow at the black streak on the tree, with an idea in her head about it as well. "I'm the Sage of Light, according to my dream...it was an odd dream, but it still felt so real and I believe it was real in a sense...we are being told to unify and conquer whatever it is that is threatening the elemental houses and thusly the entire world..." as she spoke, a shimmering light surrounded the arrow head and she released it effortlessly. She was already starting to get the hang of it. She was a quick learner, after all. When the arrow hit, the black streak seemed to disappear and the tree even looked healthier.

"Light...it has a certain creationary power to it...I've always believed in it so much...maybe that's why I was chosen to be its protector."
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Relen
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"Fire..."

Eli reached out with his mind, seeing a tree beside the one the two had just been demonstrating their powers on. He reached out, and used the invisible powers of Psynergy on the tree. It looked like it was burning, and it was, but people wouldn't realise that - except for another Adept, which no human aside from another one was, or a member of the Verita race.

"Fire is the destructive power that can bring end to life, building and world alike. As a demon, I'm naturally attuned to fire...it is something I revel in. My Masters and Mistresses smile their favour upon me and command me to destroy. But fire is one of my greatest allies."

Eli recalled a lesson he had learned from his grandfather aloud.

"An ally is the most valuable thing one can have in warfare. More than food, more than shelter, and more than a weapon, an ally can save your life. Treat them well."

Eli rested his hands against the window, looking directly out. No longer was any form of smile upon his face.

"I sense a war coming...no...Many wars. Absolute death and destruction, and great evil..."

There must have been traces of the Jedi powers left in him. That was totally uncharacteristic of him.

"My fire...none can see...But my fire has the ability to be greater than all fier...One day, I will learn to be the absolute master of my fire..."
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Markhatesorange
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Amara could not indeed see the fire that Eli had created with his psyenergy powers. However, being an element bender of all elements, she could sense that the tree was burning, that fire had engulfed it, despite the fact that it was unseen, it was still felt. "However, there are still the other sages...somewhere amidst this world lies the Sage of Water," Amara lifted some of the water in the moat and slashed it against the tree, quelling the unseeable flames. Amara began to go into the story of the Legend of the Sages, that she had been taught so well by the books, her only momento of her parents...

"Legend says that the water sages are water nymphs, living in bodies of water and able to not only control the element excellently, but also to become apart of the water itself. The Cold Keep, the legendary house of Water, lies deep within the cold Antartic."

She continued to now include the next element in the order. "The Sages of Air have always been two, passed through a tribe of Europeans living within the vast expanses of the Asian mountains, able to control the four winds with little to no effort. Each Sage controlled two of the winds: one the north and the west, the other the east and the south. Their elemental house, The Labyrinthe of Gales, lies on top of a high mountain in Asia."

The next element in the order was related to Eli himself. "An enormous power lay within the continent of Australia, where an almost demonic ancestery gave birth to the line of the Sages of Fire. They were powerful persons, ambitious leaders who with their power and might brought unity to some of the most warring tribes in the land. The Fire Sage will always be a descendant of this race, but never within the same family."

The final of the actual elements was next in the order. "Deep within the first place where the Europeans first landed on shore in the Western World was where the Earthen Dungeon, home to the sacred power of Earth, lay. The Earth Sage not only could feel the ground beneath him, but also within the plant life around him. The Earth Sages, the Greens, guarded their temple with a pride found in no other family."

And, of course, the energies. "The light, representive of unadulterated order, was one of the most powerful elements known to mankind. Its power was manifested to hold not only order, but control over all of the elements, even shadow itself. The Skyia family, a dynasty within the Spanish royal family, was assigned to be the keeper of the sacred Amulet of Light, the symbol of the Sages of Light. The Temple of Light, built far from Spain just beyond the vast jungles in South America, housed the sacred amulet."

And the final element. "Shadow, representitive of unadulterated chaos, was equal in power to its light counterpart. When light and shadow combine, they are one of the most powerful combinations. Alone, they can only be 50% of what they could be. The Legend says that the Sage of Shadow, someone who has been deeply hurt in the past, will unify with the Sage of Light at the time of destiny to overthrow a great evil which threatens the world and way of life in which we live it."

Amara finished, but hastened to add something else. "Maybe the legend will give us some clues as to where we should look to find the other sages. The legend also speaks of a squire as well, in a seperate chapter from the one I recited...I wonder who he is too..."
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Relen
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"I don't see how that works, Miss Amara."

It didn't. Eli was half-demon - with the demon side coming wholly from the Makai. The human side, though? Could one of his ancestors been Australian? He never did meet his grandparents.

"There's a way it works, though...It refer to hanyou in their entirety, and essentially says that if you're partly Australian and part-demon, you could be the Fire Sage."

With a small grin, he continued.

"It's about a one in a million chance to do as such. To my knowledge, there's no Australian demon clans...not anymore, anyway. I've been studying the world over for clans, and surprisingly, there's not as much as I hoped."

When he looked, he found about six clans worledwide. Then there was that hidden place he was told about by that Yue An guy...that random place where he wasn't sure where it was anymore. Regardless, there were hardly any demons in the Ningenkai, most preferring to live on Elemental Planes, in the Underworld, or in the Makai and other such demon realms.

"You know what I think? Let's go find the other Sages. If I'm right, we all had the dreams at the same time. They won't be hard to find...I mean, a water nymph? There's bound to be HALF these people at AHS, knowing our stupid, STUPID luck. And if not...we could probably find these places. I could use my fighter to find them from the air if we can't do it on foot, even..."

So many possibilities, and an ambiguous amount of time. Not fun.
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Markhatesorange
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Amara considered Eli's initial thought. "Yes, and I think we should go to find the Water Sage first...she will be the easiest to find. Although, from what I know about nyaids, I have no idea how we will transport her," Amara did smile a little, and then turned to Cyrus. "Will you come with us and help us search? Three heads are better than two. And I'll leave one of the guards in charge of Quiniera...and I think that this should probably be the home base of sorts for the sages...for the nymph herself, there's a lake within the walls. And to be honest," Amara said, looking into the distance "I don't believe Spain is going to invade anytime soon. Andalucia is too strong compared to the rest of the provinces. We have a very strong position." She nodded to both Eli and Cyrus, and was still giddy about having found another sage just by coincidence. "There are two major bodies of water at Anime High School from what I remember...shall we search the lake or the waterfall...if there was going to be a water nymph around there, she'd be in one of those two locations. Any ideas?" She asked, strapping her bow to her back, prepared to face anything now. She was fully armed: A bow, a large quiver, a Spanish rapier and a dagger secured to her belt.
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Abadon XXX
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Darksong: o.o get outtah mah head!

"Darkness..."

Cyrus is lost in thought as he pulled his mask off of his belt and examined it. "Darkness is always considered to be evil. But I always thought that darkness and light have no relation to good and evil. They are weapons, much like a sword or a gun." He put it back on the belt and then looked at the ring again in thought. He remembered it all too well. Acheron used her darkness as a weapon of death. He will use it to defend and protect all that he holds close to him.

He then recalled something that Eli said. He dreamed about a specific place. This couldn't be a coincidence, for he too dreamed of something like that too. But his was some kind of cavern, hidden beneath the sands of the middle east. He didn't know who the squire was, but then again that person must be close to the sages. "I say that we should check the lake first, but Amara..." he trailed off as he spoke to her in private. "You two were the only ones who had dreams like this. I dreamt of a cave, but it held a dark curse in it. Is the temple of shadow a cave?"
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Relen
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"If we're using Quinera as a base, you won't mind if I commandeer a small portion of the grounds outside the castle walls? I do have responsibilities to take care of, of course. Like you, Amara - I have my duty to my people. The architecture will not be anything like you've seen, of course - but don't mind it. It's gotta serve a number of purposes."

He did have a number of purposes to serve. One was to continue the runnings of the Empire. The second was somewhere to keep the Aethersprite, and the last as somewhere that he could at least, temporarily, have an Inner Sanctum on Earth. And when he did that, he'd have to recreate it one day as his home...somewhere.

Eli then began plotting a map of the AHS campus in his mind, figuring some notable things that would aid them in their search.

"First things first. We'll need to draw upon every available resource we have. But I'd say, should we start at AHS..yeah, the Lake. Nobody could live in the Waterfall. I know a guy who tried, but that kinda failed horribly, he moved to the lake. Good guy, half-jellyfish."

He nodded to Cyrus after his spiel on darkness.

Another warrior type. Good.

"An element is not just a tool. To become truly powerful, one must learn to embrace his equipment and become one with it. When one can do so, one will know what power is."

Eli knew this lesson all to well - hence why he welcomed Shinsoku as an open power within him.

"Now, if you don't mind, I have a construction team to order in."

Eli reached into the Makai, and puleld out a sheet of A4 paper and a pencil, sketching out the required building.
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Markhatesorange
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Amara shrugged and nodded to Eli. It was all right for him to construct. After all, it was HER castle. She was the ruler of it. She could do whatever she wanted with it. She could paint the walls purple and no one could tell her she'd made a mistake. Well, almost no one. She would've told herself many times if she had done that. While purple was a lovely color, not so much for walls.

Suddenly, Amara had a thought. Nathan could be in incredible danger. If the King found out who she was in love with, which it was quite easy for him to do, after all, many AHS students vacationed in Spain...she quickly called out for one of her handmaids.

"Quickly," she told the girl robbed in deep blue, the color of Andalucia, "Take this message to Nathan Paine. You should be able to find him somewhere in Tokyo or on the Anime High School campus. It is too dangerous for me to look exactly for him myself, but I need you to warn him that he is in grave danger, that the Spanish military may be looking for him because of recent events." She went into a description, as much as she could remember about Nathan, and the handmaiden nodded.

"Yes, your majesty. I will see to it that he knows."

"Thank you," as the handmaiden went out of the castle and off into the distance, escorted by two guardsmen, she turned to Eli and Cyrus. "We absolutely need to find the Water Sage...now, Eli, if you have some things to do, we'll wait for you there. But come to the lake as soon as possible. Cyrus and I will stay in Tokyo while you wait."

The newly crowned Princess and ruler of Andalucia stared off at her kingdom and its neighbors: Spain, Portugal and France. So many politics...so much shit floating. But she had a feeling it would all turn out all right in the end...she just hoped, even after the incident between them when they had first met, that Nathan was all right...despite all that happened, she was in love with him.
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