The walk home.

[Kiga]

Both Kiga and Ely had stolen a chance to get away to the hot springs on this particular evening. It had been as serene as always and luckily, it was not one of those occassions where they'd been disturbed. Kiga had been working hard with his Vanguard duties about town and whilst I cannot tell you entirely what had been consuming Ely's time, I can assure you that Kiga was very excited to hear about it all.

At any rate, before they turned into prunes, both had decided it was time Kiga walked Ely home and then got on patrol. They decided to walk along the waterfront and through the docks district, which headed them on into the rather seedy part of town.

Not to worry, both Kiga and Ely were quite capable of handling themselves. What could go wrong?

[Ely]

Ely had spent most of the earlier part of the day confined to a small room in the House of Galena. There were no patients to be seen to this day, but there were always bandages and potions to make. She was not an expert at potions still the Cathian girl had an excellent memory for the properties of the various plants used.

It was not hard work. It was, however, quite messy. By the time she was finished Ely smelled and probably tasted of too many plants to name. She was thrilled when Kiga stuck his head in the doorway and suggested they spend the evening at the hot springs. Her faster heartbeat was due to the surprise, naturally. Certainly, not because they would be alone.

After a leisurely sprawl through the water she was feeling more like herself. Of course, she would have stayed in the Springs all night if that had been an option. But, that could only happen in fantasy. She started tugging on Kiga's arm as they crossed the dock.

"Kiga... slow down."

Ely was quickly getting out of breath.

[Invalid account]

As Violet was new in town, it did not take her long to get lost in the maze of buildings. She longed for the open sands at this point and was getting frustrated with herself for not buying a map.

Walking aimlessly down the road, she finds herself at a dead end. Feeling hopeless, she turns and starts to walk the way she came. She was dragging her bag across the ground behind her, her face showing her anguish. At the end of the street, she looked both ways before deciding she had no idea where she was going.

"What am I doing here?"

[Kiga]

Kiga slowed down as requested, and smiled a little. He was most always brimming with energy and whilst he wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere, it often seemed that he was. His footsteps fell in time with hers and he pressed his hip against her as they walked along.

"I'm sorry, Ely. Gee it's a nice night though."




Meanwhile, Violet's being lost and rather forlorn had attracted the attention of some altogether untoward rogues, who were hanging about the backstreets with little better to do than bother the citizenry. There weren't openly out for blood as none of these men were killers per se, but they were what you might consider hoodlums and made quiet a nuisance of themselves with their typical antics such as picking on, beating up and relieving people of their hard earned gold.

They were bullies and bullies always were on the look out for victims. Violet just happened to fit the bill, for just how a victim might look. Obviously new in town, foreign and quite delicate at first glance. They paid no heed to the strange batons she carried, as they weren't familiar with her weapons and they looked entirely harmless.

The biggest of the bunch stepped directly in front of her, the rest fanning out to reduce any option of escape she might have. He sneered as he spoke.

"Hey lady. Don't suppose you have some gold to spare, do you? The lads and I are awful thirsty and well, you look like you might want to help us out. You do want to help us out, don't you?"

His last words were emphasized and not comforting in the slightest. There were a total of eight of them and each one seemed to be rather humored at Violet's unfortunate circumstance.

[Ely]

Ely smiled at him. In truth, she knew he was not trying to out distance her, speedy movement was part of him. She had to laugh to herself, too. He had been so quiet and still the first time she had seen him. Ely cherished that image. A still Kiga was rare these days. Her fingertips slipped from his arm and she twisted the silver ring around and around her thumb.

"It's okay."

Ely waved her hand toward the eaves of the warehouse building they were passing by.

"Look. All the sparrows are asleep."

[Invalid account]

Violet replied bluntly to the man " Sorry I cannot help you, I don't have any Gold."

Hoping her slight hand movement would go unnoticed, she began to draw the light from a nearby street torch. She was thinking to herself 'if I could just intimidate these men, I might be able to get out of this without having to fight.'

So she gets into a defensive stance. Making full eye contact with the biggest guy there, her eyes start to glow bright purple.

Feeling optimistic she waited for a responce.

(Violet, I cleaned up what looked like a smart phone auto correct for you )

[Kiga]

Kiga's first reaction was to want to warble to the birds as they passed, but he held his tongue at the last moment due to them being asleep. It was late after all and well, Owls and Nightjars usually kept him company at this hour. He turned and walked backwards for a moment, still keeping pace with her and looking to the night sky. It seemed Kiga never could and never would, just walk along like everyone else.

"Huh. It seems really quiet tonight."



Violet managed to get a reaction to her glowing eye trick. The 'biggest guy' stopped for a moment and studied her, his eyebrows arched and his mouth open. When he spoke though, it was evident he was mocking her.

"Oh no, she's doing magic! What should we do, guys? I'm REALLY scared..."

He laughed then, as did his friends. With a snap of the leader's fingers, they all snapped their hands out and tore chunks of the road from the ground, to float at their sides. Uhoh.

"Yeah. You better have some gold. 'Cause the Rock Gang doesn't like people who don't pay."

The rock gang? That's a terrible name.

[Ely]

Ely glanced up to the stars. It was quiet. So quiet she could hear the soft lap of water against the dock pilings. Once upon a time you could find wide, quiet spaces in Wistvale. That, however, was no longer true. Wistvale was near to bursting at it's seams. It wasn't the sea change, either. Every district in town had some type of new construction going on.

Just recently Ely had spent the afternoon bandaging a whole group of men that were caught by a cave in beneath the town. They had been digging a new line to connect water out toward the local farms that supplied much of the fresh produce.

Ely turned her eyes from the sky and toward the docks around her. She was listening for any other sound beyond the water. Surely the sea gulls that permeated the area wouldn't be silent. They were noisy birds. But, sea gulls were nowhere near them. Odd.

"Kiga... shouldn't there be sea gulls here?"

[Invalid account]

Seeing that she had no choice but to defend herself, she started to manipulate the darkness around them, trying to hold them down using there own shadows against them. She hope that she could pin their feet to the ground.

Feeling that this might be too many for her to handle. She uses what light she had gather and flashed the gang with a blast of bright light. Hoping it blinds them enough for her to escape.
Seeing that the only way out was up, she runs towards one of the men closest to the building and tries to mount his shoulder to reach the roof.

[Kiga]

Ely's question made Kiga quite aware then off the lack of gulls. Gulls were either busy being noisy, or busy nesting along the eaves and posts about this part of town. It was odd that they hadn't spotted either, though there didn't seem to be anything ominous enough to make them vacate their homes. Perhaps they were away fishing...

"Yeah, that does seem strange."

It was at that moment that Kiga and Ely came upon the corner, just as a brilliant flash of light went off. It was followed immediately by all manner of cursing and groaning, too. Kiga was quick to turn and look down the narrow street, only to see a strange looking woman scrambling up the unwilling frame of a man who was clutching his eyes and leaning against the wall behind him. There were more men too, all grapsing at their eyes and muttering and as each one tried to spot the woman, they hurled stones and earth at her. It wasn't a complex trick but they seemed to have some magic ability and whilst their attacks were hard enough, it seemed their aim was poor after being blinded.

Violet managed to barely scramble up onto the edge of the roof as the hapless bugger she climbed up was pelted with large chunks of earth and rock. One of the men yelled louder than the others and seemed to really have to tug at his feet to lunge forward.

"GET HER!!!"

It was all very odd.

Should Ely opt to use her magic, she could clearly see flames in the lamps lighting the street nearby.

[Ely]

Ely threw up her arm to cover her eyes automatically. She managed to block some of the flash, not that it helped her to see. The world had gone white. She heard plenty of curses, some of which she wanted to use herself. It took her several more seconds before she was certain of her feet. Ely found the narrow street Kiga had run down, due in no small part, to the shouting and the feel of magic energy.

Her eyes were stinging and red. But, she saw the girl, she saw the men, and she saw Kiga; finally. She could make herself a target and that might draw the attackers attention away from the girl. It could give Kiga time to find out what the hell was going on. Ely often did not think things through completely. She was more apt to go on her feelings and her feelings were saying that one lone girl scrambling up to a roof was trying to escape something worse.

Ely flung out her hand. She had seen them, too. The brightly dancing flames inside the lanterns. They were just waiting for her to pull them free of their iron and glass cages. She snatched the closest one. The small stream of fire filled her hand, pouring from the lantern like water over a ledge.

"Hey! Let the girl be!"

Ely detested bullies. She took a deep breath, her hand was thrust out again. This time her fingers bent down into a tight fist. She pointed it at the man next to the building.

"Incendio scorpionem incendio lanterna!"

The stream of flames in her hand spread out and changed into what looked like a crossbow; if you set one on fire. A bright, hot bolt hit the ground in front of the man Violet had climbed, then another, and another. The fourth bolt hit right in front of his feet. The fire jumped to all four corners, then continued upward. The bully was suddenly caged in a fiery box that looked remarkably like the lantern from whence she had stolen the flame, if several times larger. Her eyes were stinging again.

(Thank you, Kiga!)

[Kiga]

(I am sorry! Yeesh, I feel like I am all out of practice. I should also be more considerate as a GM, I went and mentioned flames available so you can edit your post, if you like. )

[Ely]

(I edited the post, Kiga. We can continue.)

[Grayell]

(I want to say, that is a fantastic use of magic and should be commended for your creativity. I am sure Kiga will reward you a bonus, so I will leave it in his hands til you're done.)

[Percival]

Perry did not believe in fate. Co-incidence was all around, just shifting probabilities. That was about as far as his musings on metaphysics went. He'd been trying his hand at a game of liars dice with a few longshoremen at one of the quays. He'd not done amazingly, having lost some of his coin and been roundly jeered off the dock. Well, that was one more get rich quick scheme that he'd not be able to fall back on. And again it would come down to his bow to top up to coffers. Maybe another show?

So it was by co-incidence he saw Ely and Kiga ambling by. co-incidence and excellent eyesight, picking them out of the corner of the street, a goodly distance away. He considered going up to them but, well, he still felt awkward after coming back. Then he saw Kiga dart into the narrow street, with Sparky in hot pursuit. That got him striding forward. What got him moving in earnest was seeing the flare of fire being maniuplated and hearing the shouts of men, the thud of rocks, and sounds of combat joined.

Instinct kicked in, though rather than just sprint headlong into a melee he moved swiftly to get to an angle at the end of the street. Drawing and notching an arrow before even reaching the edge of the street he looked for something that would give him a higher angle on whatever was going on. In a few seconds he'd jumped up on to a lumber cart set by one of the newer constructions, giving him about eight feet of extra elevation, though probably making him a tempting target if any of them were shooters themselves. He might not even need to loose, since he knew how capable Ely was, and guessed Kiga would be.

Well, there were more there than he'd anticipated, so perhaps best to pitch in and that old familiar tingle ran along his spine, the first inkling of a combat high. Part of him, a part he wished he could ignore better, cursed that he was only carrying his target arrows, wooden shafts with a simple steel point, instead of broadheads. Another part of him, a nicer if far more cheeky part, was the one that chose the target.

Picking a lunk who had wheeled toward the fire mage he murmured under his breath "I used to be a bandit like you, until..." - grinning as he sent the arrow whistling toward the man's left knee.

(GM can decide how much gold was lost gambling, call it payment for co-incidence, which is a bit Shakespearean as a plot mover)