The Zauberstein Academy of Sorcery

[Drakonspite]

Kazusa dabbed at her scars with her handkerchief to clean up the blood. She put a hand to her face and whispered a spell which summoned healing water to clean her wound. Kazusa did not have enough to skill to heal all her wounds completely but she could clean them to prevent infection. She got up and put her violin back in her case. "The Dancing Hummingbird..." She told herself as she followed the group. Her delicate skin was aching from all the wounds but if everyone else could manage, she could too. She eavesdropped in the bickering between some of the members, but not being one to jump in to fights and dramas, she kept quiet.

 

Kazusa followed Elias and the little girl to the ominous dome. The feathers around her were small and dirty, similar to the sparrows they had battled minutes ago. She pondered at why this shanty town would be the target for the demons but seeing as she did not have enough clues to find out the answer, she pushed it to the back of her mind. "Well... This is er... Nice... I guess..." She muttered awkwardly.

[Lore_Master]

Mason was stopped mid run when Rose presented a medical kit, as well as some advice about proper planning.

"Heh, if this was carpentry I would have planned for everything. You seem to forget I'm just a puppy in his new surroundings." Joked Mason as he grabbed the medical kit from Rose. It took him a few minutes to repeat the treatment process. After disinfecting the cuts, he wrapped his arms in the bandage before giving the medical kit back to Rose.

"Thank you, I owe you one." He said before catching Inanna running past him, no doubt trying to catch up to Elias.

"And for what its worth... He shouldn't have said that to you." He added, smiling sadly to Rose. Once he said that, he turned around and booked it, following Inanna.

 

The rooftops were not what Mason called stable. Luckily he was used to being on the roofs, so some careful movement was all he needed. When he finally caught up with Elias and Kazusa, he noticed the giant-bird nest. There were more feathers on the muddy ground, which just added to the bad feeling he was getting.

"Who wants to bet our flock leader is in that nest?" He said light-heartedly. He didn't want the atmosphere to overwhelm them, so he tried his best to cheer everyone up a bit before going into god-knows what.

"So... how are we getting in?" He added with a slightly confused tone.

[JaylaCaine]

Rose blushed at the defense she was getting from the two as she put the kit back. Looking towards Ianna she then spoke, " I have a second kit if you want it for your bag. Wouldn't do if I lost both of them if I have to abandon my bag for any reason? I usually over pack my mother was always a worrier and after she died I picked up her habit of how she packed for all kinds of things." Once her flustered ramblings were finished she then finished packing up the rest of her bag back up.

 

Seeing that the others were gone she shook her head, " After yelling at me and Hotaru about the dangers of this town he goes off with the first child he sees because of course children can't be possessed or capable of being evil." Shaking her head once more she then shook her head as she leaned back against the train now.

Edited January 15, 2014 by JaylaCaine

[MendezLightning]

Elias knew Rose was right and that it had been a stupid idea, but he wasn't about to admit it, especially when they had to infiltrate a giant nest. So he just pretended he didn't hear her and hoped she wouldn't stab while he slept. 'Okay, so I'm guessing there'll be more stuff like the razorbeaks in there, so there's a chance a surprise attack may work, but do we want to risk it?' he pondered to the others, as he unsheathed his rapier and tried to cover the wounds on his arms.

 

Holding the blade over the scratches, there was a bright and long spark of electricity and Elias had to grit his teeth as he cauterized his wounds.

[JaylaCaine]

Rose looked over to Elias as she then shook her head, " You can't go above and can't walk up to it, but did you ever think of going underground to get inside?" Shaking her head in disgust as he cauterized the scratches she moved forward. Pulling her bag up on her shoulder she then moved past him, " You could have asked for the first aid kit."

 

Moving her knife out she then manipulated the flames so they shone more like a flashlight. Going to a Tavern she had been to during the better months. Moving towards the back she opened the cellar and pulled the doors open, " These towns have all kinds of tunnels leading everywhere. I'm sure we can use these to get to the nest."

[MendezLightning]

'I'm a fast healer. My grandmother said it was my noble blood, but it's just a healthy lifestyle ...' he mumbled. Elias nodded in agreement. 'Then we can get our puppy, Mason, to rip open the ground beneath them ...' he added. 'Sounds good. Any objections?' he asked the others all the while edging toward the cellar doors.

[Lore_Master]

Apparently being an Earth Mage meant that people expected Mason to find hidden underground tunnels. Well that shouldn't be too hard, if he could find mineral deposits ... how hard could finding a tunnel be? With a slightly smile he approached the cellar doors before turning to the rest of the group.

"If we're going to do this, I need everyone to be one hundred percent silent. Any noise will make it harder for me." Mason explained, but leaving out the details about how he'd do it. Synaesthesia was something that you couldn't just explain in a short amount of time, or at the very least without questions.

[JaylaCaine]

Rose just shook her head as she looked to the two, " Or you could use the existing tunnel down there? That's the reason why we're at this cellar door. When I was younger my father brought me here during the better months." She then moved her knife with flames glowing before climbing down the steps. Then moving to the side as she began to go through a gap between the walls before going on through the tunnel.

[Lore_Master]

"That works too!" Mason said with a cheery smile. Granted, to him it was a rather selfish one. He didn't have to risk someone finding out about his 'condition', at least for awhile longer. But then, he just began to chuckle darkly to himself. He did have some rather skewed priorities now that he thought about it. It was rather odd that being an Earth Mage was an open secret with him, yet he was more worried about others finding out about his Synesthesia. Shaking his head, he took his first steps into the cellar.

While Rose entered into the tunnel, Mason looked at the shelves. Some of the stuff on them seemed old, judging from the amount of dust. Still, a few things caught his eyes. A couple bottles of half-finished whiskey, some decent-quality cloth and a small can of kerosene for the most part. Mason's mind was kicked into overdrive, realizing that he could make something to fight the demon with. With a slight grin, he grabbed one of the bottles and tied it to his belt with some of the cloth. He took whatever was left of the cloth and carefully dabbed parts of it with some kerosene before stuffing the cloth into the neck of the bottle, making sure there was a long enough 'tail' coming out of it. Once he was all done, he hid the bottle the best he could before entering into the tunnel.

Edited January 18, 2014 by Lore_Master

[MendezLightning]

((Sorry for not posting, I've been busy with unis and birthdays and stuff ...))

 

Elias followed Rose into the earth and moved through the cellar and into the tunnels without saying anything. For the most part, they were clean, and the dirtiest part about them were the cobwebs and dust bunnies, but as far as he could see, there was no reason whatsoever for someone not to live down here. 'Why don't the people on the surface live down here? It's cleaner, bigger and probably safer than the surface ...' he mused aloud.

 

In Rose's firelight Elias caught sight of something on the walls. With a snap of his fingers, electrical light hummed in his hand and he investigated. He then realised that the entire wall was painted with ancient, archaic paint, the brush strokes long and wide and stretched across all of the tunnel. 'Whoa ...'

[JaylaCaine]

Rose looked to the side as she noticed Mason messing with something on the walls. Shrugging she then kept moving before she then heard Elias' question on why the people didn't live down here. " A lot of people don't have sense. Then some either don't know about these tunnels or they get worried with it being underground. Who knows."

 

Moving onward she noticed a few torches on the wall and raising her knife she lit a few of them before moving on to let the others grab them if they wanted to. Seeing the walls she nodded her head, " Some of these tunnels are very old."

[MendezLightning]

Elias studied the walls closer, and noticed a running theme. Birds. Whether it was a feather here, a claw there, an angel or a hawk, there were bird motifs across the tunnel. 'I feel like whatever it is that attacked us has been here longer than suggested. These paintings have to be ... centuries old ... How can a demon exist this long without the Academy noticing? Demons aren't known for their discretion and Zauberstein would definitely have noticed ... So how have we only just been called in?' He spotted large, swooping letters that formed the words "czarodziej", "czarownica", "niebo" and "wolność". 'I don't think we're dealing with a demon ...'

[Lore_Master]

"Gotta love when they don't give you all the information" muttered Mason as he rubbed his hand along the wall. His eyes were glued to the paintings, his hands meeting up with the engraved words. His pace slowed down, his touch growing more sensitive. Whoever made this was an extremely patience person, the level of precision and care made him smile. Not to mention that he could still make out the drawings centuries later.

"I agree Elias, there is no way this can be a demon... something is up." Mason said, still refusing to take his eyes off the mural. Why make something this well-crafted for a malevolent being. He had to force himself away from the wall before turning his attention ahead.

Edited January 22, 2014 by Lore_Master

[JaylaCaine]

Rose turned as she noticed that the footsteps had stopped. Seeing them looking at the pictures on the wall she moved forward. Looking them over she then asked, " Could they be about maybe something good? Or something that was thought to be good at the time?" She then tilted her head as she pointed to one of the pictures of a humanoid figure with white wings.

[MendezLightning]

'I'm not certain, but if my Dormyelci is any good, which it isn't, "niebo" means heaven, I think. And "wolny" means free, so "wolność" could mean freedom ...' Elias looked at the paintings more closely. 'They definitely seem reverent in some way, these paintings weren't done overnight, nor by a freelancer. These were specialist paintings, done by extremely skilled and thorough people.' The curves were perfect, despite them being over bricks, and feathers still had flakes of gold leaf hanging from the wall and the tiniest of details were flawless. 'We should keep moving.'

[chicbecause]

Hotaru stayed silent through all this time. He wouldn't have been surprised if they didn't remember he was still here. He ran his fingers over the paintings on the wall. He could identify most of the birds he saw. No doubt birds seemed to be a reoccurring theme here.

They were attacked by birds when they first arrived.

Then were lead to a large birds nest.

Now they were seeing paintings of birds with words like 'freedom' and 'heaven'.

Yet no one had seemed to mention it yet.

He scoffed silently and put a hand on his sword, deciding to speak again.

"Am I the only one who has noticed this bird theme?" he asked, loud enough for everyone to here.

[JaylaCaine]

Rose looked back to Hotaru before tilting her head as he talked of the bird theme. She then began to recall all the happenings of the past before she then looked back, " I thought these were depicting an angel or maybe some winged goddess." She then lifted her flamed knife up higher to look at everything better. " I would say someone who has mastered their craft painted these."

[Lore_Master]

Mason looked over to Hotaru and Rose as the two of them talked about what the drawings represented. Hotaru chose a simple explanation, based off the experiences of the trip. To him, the whole thing was giving off a bird motif. Rose chose to be a bit more specific, she believed the figure was an angelic-like figure. Mason kept his theory tight-lipped however. It was not as romanized as Rose's, nor as generic as Hotaru's. He still needed more evidence however.

"I say we continue on and find out more about our friend here." Mason said with a small smirk as he motioned from the wall to the corridor ahead.

[MendezLightning]

Elias continued on his way, his electrical hand extinguishing so that Rose was the only light source in the tunnel. As the tunnel went on, the spectacles on the walls slowly changed, becoming more and more focused on feathers, until the tunnel was painted with continuous spirals that were matted with white feathers. 'Whatever the motif is, it's getting a little creepy. Do you think we're under the nest yet?' He looked up, hoping to see some kind of X to mark the spot they had dig through, but there was nothing.

[JaylaCaine]

(Bump

[MendezLightning]

(Screw it, let's make the nest's location obvious)

 

Elias raised his electrified hand upwards to look at the birds even more and jumped as he spotted the long, needle-like feather rachises jutting out into the tunnel. They were like roots, stabbing through the ground and hanging around them. Yet they seemed to only do this within a certain area: a large, ornate circle that was painted onto the curving roof of the tunnel. 'I think we found our nest ... Hey, Mason, do you think you can pull the earth out from under them?'