The City/Village/Town, Whatever we decide. The event hotspot.

[Talico]

[I like super long posts. :D Kali, Maga, or really whoever wants to can find something to post in response to this..]

For the second time that day Kae'lassa was woken up to Thunder's warm, doggy breath. The wolf was desperately licking her face, her whole figure tense and eyes distressed.
About time you came around. You need to stop passing out on me, Thunder commented, trying to sound nonchalant. Not that I'm worrying or anything.. but you really should watch out for yourself.
"How long have I been out?" she asked thickly, her words slurred. She tried to look up, but she was too weak even for that, and her head pounded and spun from that slightest effort. It was so hard to think. She laid her head back and stared up at the ceiling, willing herself to concentrate. She couldn't even dredge the small amount of power it took to speak mind-to-mind. It felt like her mind had been through a mill, and had all of the magic forced out of her through a sieve.
A while, the wolf replied. She sounded worried. The others are still out cold, except for the brown-haired one with the crow and the short pale one with the black hair. The brown-hair's stirring right now. Even though she was closest to the blast, she has no magic so she wasn't too affected. The black-hair went running off for help.
Kae'lassa closed her eyes and thought. Her mind felt sluggish, and it was hard to comprehend what Thunder was saying. She tried to find the Spirit magic in her, but she couldn't reach it, couldn't grasp it. She couldn't even tell how much other people had, or how much was in the air around her. What had the magical trap done? And why was she the only magic-user awake? She realized that the wolf was still talking. Spirit's claws, why couldn't she concentrate..?!
..feeding some of our Life force into you got you to stir, it seemed to be the only magic that worked. We could try on some of the others to see, but I feel like I'm getting pretty weak and a couple of the sparrows have already died. They're very loyal birds, they must get a respectful burial for dying so honorably, without them you might still be lying there oh-so-cold among all the others, oh please let them wake up.. Thunder was rambling, her words getting faster and more panicked as she went on.
"Wait.. hold on a second," she groaned, and Thunder promptly shut up. It was hard to even move her lips. Her voice came out raspy and rough. "Who's been helping me? How?"
When you all got thrown back, and the short black one ran off, I tried to revive you in any way I could. When I tried Healing you, you moved a little, so I think the only thing that helps is Life magic. That's why you can move, even though you're still really weak. I knew I would need help, so I went and called out near the gardens and the few remaining birds and squirrels and such and they came to give what they could, with me guiding them. Some of them gave all of their Life, for you.. her voice became mournful.
"All right then," she sighed, and tried to lift herself up again. She failed utterly. Thunder leaned against her friend's back and pushed her up into a sitting position, and lay there patiently for Kae'lassa to lean against. The mage looked around slowly, taking in everything as best she could.
A small group of animals were gathered by her head, though several small birds lay still, dead. Her human friends lay scattered around her, though Kali was sitting up, with the insistence of the crow that kept following her around. Everyone else looked so still, they looked dead. It gave her a shock of fear. Kali didn't look as weak and fatigued as Kae'lassa felt, just bruised from being thrown. Kae'lassa bet that the magic hadn't knocked Kali out, but when she hit the floor. Pieces were beginning to fall together. To check her theory, she tried to look for Spirit magic again, but couldn't. It was as if she couldn't Unmake the magic anymore. She couldn't even see it. Hopefully it was temporary. As a last test, she checked her power with Life. Though she was weak, it was still intact. She could see traces of Life in the air around her, a normal amount in Kali and the crow, a slightly low amount in Thunder and the other animals, but an alarmingly small amount in the other mages. They had to get some Life back in them, fast, or they might.. die.
"Thunder," she snapped out as fast as she could manage. "Run as fast as you can and find Maga. Tell her to find anyone, any single person, even someone she doesn't know a whit, who has talent in Life and bring them here. Quickly. I think the blast wiped out the magic, but not the force, from all the mages present.. except for Life force. Life force doesn't replenish itself given such a blow, it needs time and.. anyway, just go tell her, all I'm doing is delaying you."
The wolf nodded, gently slipped out from under Kae'lassa's head, and streaked off down the corridor.
Kae'lassa looked at the animals shyly standing near with looks of trepidation. She wished that she could talk to them, thank them, but she couldn't find her bloody Spirit powers. She suddenly remembered her Stone, nestled in her pocket. That could maybe help her regain her wits, and maybe her powers. She didn't know how damaging the blast had been.
With considerable effort, she managed to pull out the Stone. As she closed her hand around it, she felt like something clicked in her mind, and she felt sharper, less exhausted and less fatigued. Of course, she still was just as weak, she just felt stronger. She suddenly realized that she could faintly see Spirit again, in the other people and in the animals and shining brightly in the stone. She would need to figure out how to recharge it, after this escapade.
Haltingly regaining use of her power, she drew carefully on the Spirit in the Stone and used it to give the animals her thanks. A couple touched her hand in welcome and they all began to drift off, but not before giving her a couple new flows of energy.
She sat up, more easily this time and without assistance, but she doubted she had enough energy to stand. She felt helpless as she stared at the fallen mages. She tried feeding Spirit into them, but nothing happened. They didn't even move. The unconsciousness was solely from lack of energy to be awake. If the body processes had began to shut down, they didn't have too much time left.. she couldn't just sit here and do nothing!
Find a Life mage and lead them here, she ordered herself frantically. But without moving? She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and drew sharply on the Spirit magic in the Stone, as much as she could bear, and swiftly flung it out over the city, searching. It would take too much time and magic to go through each person on the streets and check if they were good at Life. It would be much easier to find a specific person... but wasn't there that one girl, Areista, who had talked with them for a little while earlier today, the cheerful one who was to be with them on the journey as their healer? She would definitely be the most help now.
Kae'lassa swiftly located the girl, emerging from one of the closer infirmaries. At least she was somewhat close to the palace. She touched her mind and spoke quickly, hoping that this wouldn't startle Areista too much.
Areista, I know this is sudden and slightly random for you, but I apologize. This is Kae'lassa, I talked with you earlier today. We need urgent help from a Life mage.. quickly. Many here are close to dying. We're in the highest eastern tower in the palace. Please come as fast as you can. You might meet an E'karasti or a wolf or both, they'll help guide you. Sorry again, but we really need you!

[Rakeri]

Rakeri was falling. Out of a very happy place. A place of no pain. No worry. No emotion. Falling back into his body. His aching body. His aching mind.

Rakeri’s thoughts continued to come in disconnected bursts. He didn’t take in his surroundings; his eyes were too sore. At least there was something casting an elongated shadow over his face, blocking his view of the blinding sun. It was a very stinky shadow, Rakeri thought. And large. Far too large and stinky to be a Numenorean. Raising his head up off the hard stone floor, he saw what was standing over him.

“A horse. Great, that’s just what I need…”

“Hey!” Kae’lassa said offensively. Rakeri hadn't noticed that she had already awoken. “That horse gave you enough Spirit and Life Force to regain consciousness. You shouldn’t be talking like that. In fact, I think you should apologize.”

“I can’t talk to horses. Only fish.”

“But I can. You just talk to me and I’ll pass the message on.”

“You want me to tell a horse ‘thank you?’ ”

“Yes, I do.”

“Um, okay… ‘Dear Mr. Horsey…’ ”

“One, you’re not writing a letter. And two, this is Jumper, a female horse.”

“Whatever. ‘Dear Mr. Horsey…’ ”

“You’re impossible.”

“I’ve been told that,” he said wryly. Pushing himself up against the wall, Rakeri stroked the horse’s fine coat. “I appreciate what you did for me,” he muttered kindly. “I may not be the biggest fan of horses, but you’re all right.”

“Thank you,” the horse replied in his mind.

Eyes widening, Rakeri quickly recoiled. “How… How… How’d it do that? Is this a Magic horse?”

“Um, nooo…” Kae’lassa said, hiding a smile behind her hand. “I opened a Link between your minds.”

“No, I would’ve noticed.”

“It happened before you woke up. It was necessary to transfer her Force to you.”

“Oh, okay. This is one of the Links where, instead of simply giving Magic to another being, you let them use yours for a long as they need it or until the Link is broken.”

“Exactly. That way, this kind horse won’t have to give up any more Magic than strictly necessary.”

“And how long will that be?”

“Until Areista arrives with more Life Magic for us.”

“Wait, why’d you ask me to pass the message on to her through you, then, if she knew what we were saying all along?” Rakeri asked as he resumed stroking his reviver.

“To pass the time. Areista might be a while.”

“Sure…” he said, still unconvinced. “Anyway, why didn’t you wait to revive me with the others?”

“In order to completely awaken the others, they need sufficient Life and Spirit Magic to replenish their Force. The first thing I though of was to use horses from the palace stables, but Jumper was the only one left. Apparently, before Rahalia went into this Door here, she sent some Ga'shanti out to gather extra provisions from the N’tulune before we start to cross The Ocean. Since I couldn’t use large animals –”

Kea’lassa was interrupted by Jumper’s irritated snort.

“The Link’s still open,” Rakeri smiled.

“Sorry, Jumper,” she consoled. “I simply meant I needed animals that have a lot of Life and Spirit Force.” She paused, but when the horse didn’t respond she continued with her explanation. “So I figured that since the palace gardens have already been emptied of all their Spirit Magic, the only way to get lots of Spirit from someplace relatively close by would be the Magic in Stones. Even though I have mine with me, it wouldn’t be nearly enough for all these people. But I knew you had one, too, and I think that together they might be enough.”

“So why didn’t you just take mine and use it to revive us by yourself?”

“Because that would’ve been rude, silly!”

This post has been edited by Talico on Aug 4 2008, 10:52 AM

[Talico]

Areista ran up to the palace gates, panting slightly. The palace guards, looking rather disoriented, made no move to stop her as she she ran into the main corridor.

Immediately she lost all sense of direction. A relatively minor mage until now, Areista had never spent much time in the palace.. how was she supposed to fine the tallest tower from inside? She spun around aimlessly in a circle, trying to find the right direction to go. Why did she always have to get lost?

Suddenly a wolf and a short, dark haired e'karasti ran into the hall, their faces lighting up when they saw her. The gray wolf immediately bounded up to her, tugging on Areista's breeches and whining impatiently. Confused, the Life mage followed after the wolf as it led her to the left and up a winding staircase..

Areista gasped at the scene before her. Several mages were scattered limply all over the floor. A horse stood in one corner, near the auburn-haired mage who must be Kae'lassa and a weakly reviving Water mage, Rakeri, who had had the Stone discussion with her earlier that day. She immediately registered the alarmingly low Life force in almost everyone there. Quickly, she knelt next to the closest body to her, a dark-haired, handsome man who she registered to be the Captain of the Guard. She pulled out her amber Life Stone, cupping it in her hands as she closed her eyes. Carefully she pulled out Life magic, coiling it into herself, as much as she could hold before gently channeling it into the unconscious body. She felt the Life force grow stronger, weak breathing growing deeper, heartbeat quickening as she restored Al'gar's Life force to a close to normal level. She had to do so gradually.. too fast or too much Life could cause a heart attack or worse.

"Kae'lassa, you'll need to give them a little Spirit for them to fully regain consciousness," she said quietly, her eyes still closed. After checking quickly for any fractures from the impact of the magic and deeming him completely healed, she turned to revive the others.

(Ok so now everyone's healed, so people can post.. I got to go.)

[Sarurun Kamui]

Kali gazed at the scene around her. It rather looked as if the Life mage were reviving everyone from the dead. She wondered if that were actually possible.
She looked at Shira, who was perched on a knee, looking at the woman who was talking with Kae'lassa. A mage, she figured from the stone in her hands.
She felt a strange, revitalizing energy filling the room, and then heard the mages around her start to breathe deeply and shift around. The magic must have knocked them all out. The Kea'datra's gift for Spirit magic must have helped her awaken earlier.
She got to her feet a bit shakily and walked over to the auburn-haired mage, stumbling slightly. Shira flew onto Kaelassa's shoulder and made a sound almost like purring.
"What's going on?" the E'karasti asked.

[Talico]

Kae'lassa smiled at the bird on her shoulder, lifting her hand carefully to stroke the bird's glossy black feathers. "Well, it seems to me that there was a magical trap on the door.. it affected those with the greatest power in magic the most. Even those who weren't magical got knocked out by the blast." She paused as she put her Stone away, having finished giving the others a boost of Spirit magic to wake them up. "Thunder found help from the animals to wake me up, and I managed to contact Areista. Without her and her Life magic, we'd all be close to dead now." She took a breath. "The question is, what do we do now? The doors are still closed."

[Sarurun Kamui]

Kali grimaced. "I'm not sure I want to try opening the door again. Chances are slight that this was a one-time trap. Is there a way someone could magically open it? Or torch it down?"

[Kshatriya]

Al'gar chuckled as he picked himself off the ground. "Torch it down, that's a good one." He sat up against a wall, then slowly pulled himself to his feet. "The only thing we really know about the door is that it reacts to a physical touch." We can't know whether or not the blast will trigger again. We can't know if it's just physical touches, or if magical probing will set it off, too. If I were the maker of this trap, then I would expect someone to use magic after the blast... So it's probably rigged to go off then, too. How exactly did Rahalia get past it?

[Candoria]

Maga frowned. "We do not know that it 'reacts' to a physical touch. We know that it did so once, and therefore we have reason to expect that it would act the same way again. However, we have no proof of that. I doubt the makers of the door would expect anyone to try to open the door physically again after that, so perhaps the trap was a one-time-only thing." She looked around at the others and tried to be tall. "We also know that Kali and I were least affected by the trap because we're not mages. Therefore, I vote that you all go somewhere safe and far away, I try to open the door again, and you come back in five minutes to see whether I'm knocked out or not." Please let them be sensible...some mages were such control freaks. Of course, she would never let anyone else do something so stupidly risky without a fight. Too bad for them if they wanted to argue, then.

[Kshatriya]

"I don't see why not," Al'gar said. "You won't lose any life magic, unlike the rest of us, so it's virtually riskless." I would love to do it myself, but even my meager skills with magic seem to classify me as a 'mage'.
"However, I will very seriously doubt the abilities of someone who makes a door with a one-time only trap. I'm more than a bit surprised nobody else has tried to get through here. But we don't seem to have a choice.

"Just one thing... If you do open the door, what will you do? Suppose a mage is required after that?"
Al'gar's question hung in the air. He was usually rash, but thanked himself for actually trying to think things through this time. </alliteration>

[Sarurun Kamui]

"Call you up?" Kali suggested. "Shira could fetch you if we succeed, or perhaps the wolf. They're fast and have loud voices."

[Kshatriya]

"There'll be about one or two minutes before anyone gets here... I'm opposed to the idea, but reasonably you two should be fine. I guess... the first trap wasn't lethal, so I doubt anymore will be." Al'gar figured that this was the only way, and the two were quite willing to go ahead with it.

[Mercelyssatyr]

Caz skidded to a halt before he ran into Areista. He blinked in surprise, then cursed. "So I take it Rahalia did come up here? What was she thinking?! I suppose our situation could be classified as an emergency, but honestly . . . she's more useful to us alive than dead." He took in the shaken expressions and saw that Kae'lassa was looking especially weakened. He hurried over to her and steadied her. "It seems one of you has already tried to open the door. Only Rahalia may enter safely." It's getting back out that she'll have trouble with, he thought to himself. Cursing again, he joined in the discussion of how to follow her through the doorway.

[Sarurun Kamui]

Kali looked at Caz and cocked her head. "I take it you know what's behind this door, then?" She was curious to know. What exactly was it, some kind of suicide chamber?

[Mercelyssatyr]

Caz shifted uncomfortably. "I'm really not suppose to know anything," he said slowly, "and I really, really shouldn't be telling you what I do know . . . . . but I guess it's kind of necessary at the moment. Besides, Rahalia herself trusts everyone here, and we'll be leaving this continent behind soon anyway . . . ." He took a deep breath. If he survived this, Rahalia might very well have his head. All of their heads. Especially if she was in a bad mood after a near-death experience. Or even if they merely interrupted her in whatever she was trying to accomplish there. Especially then. In the former situation, at least she would be grateful. Ah well . . . .

"Like I said, I don't know the details," he explained reluctantly, "but from what I've gathered, this is essentially a portal into another dimension. Not necessarily the Underworld -- in fact, I rather doubt it is -- but it is somewhere the dead can access as well as the living. Perhaps it is the resting place for those who are not truly dead and yet are no longer alive; perhaps it is a purgatory for those who left behind lives that were unfulfilled; perhaps it is merely a flimsy reality where the living and the dead may interact on mutual ground. I may even be wrong in assuming that it is not a realm of the Underworld. However, whatever this may be, I think it must be somehow associated with those who died in this past season's battle -- Kshatriya and Elenara, specifically. Though why she would seek their counsel in this situation, I do not know. It seems too extreme for her to be merely alerting them of our change in location. Whatever lies beyond that door is extremely taxing to the living spirit, and past Emperors have only used it in the greatest times of need."

[Sarurun Kamui]

"Sounds like we'll need our Life and Spirit mages. So is there a portal in the room, or is the room itself a portal? I really hope it's the former. The latter sounds too dangerous." The e'karasti studied the door. "So... do we bust it down or call the mages back to do it for us?"