Eternity RPC Board
Oh no.
"Ah- Well- Yes, of course!" Elke stuttered. "Pardon, Miss; I didn't mean to imply that you had not..." she paused, mustering up all the tact in her being, and continued, "completed your task to the fullest extent." On the contrary - Elke herself had seen the gored heap of a creature with her own eyes. It had been quite dead, indeed.
She felt flush with embarrassment now. Although not normally one to blush easily, the sick-hot feeling of carnation pink on her cheeks could not be ignored. This was different than any past faux pas. This wasn't at all like the time she had tripped over her own boots in front of a packed Tier Two Spellcasting lecture hall and spilled her books everywhere directly following a longwinded presentation on stealth and cloaking spells. No, no one remembered that incident save for her. That had been a silly but forgettable blunder. This was a tragedy - a suicide. She had insulted her idol. She had insulted Nevina.
"I-It's just," she carried on, tiptoeing through her choice of words with extreme caution. "It's not a typical precognitive divination. I know a spell that will allow me to see the trail of a man that has passed from an area or from the living." Or, in this case, "Well, maybe not strictly man."
Deciding she would look much more professional and far less like a lunatic if she could only just show Nevina what she meant, Elke gave a quick scan of their surroundings and then spun on her heels and made a beeline for a patch of meadow where soft, white clover blossoms fluttered under the teasing hand of the wind. She looked up. Fluffy clouds not grey enough to hold rain formed an incomplete halo around the sun. Ushered by the windy altitudes, they would soon be forming a veil. This would do just fine.
Lowering herself to her knees in the soft flowers, Elke was elbow-deep in one of her satchels and searching diligently. Her fingers brushed a smooth, hard object and wrapped instinctively around it. A pristinely polished stone, nearly black but a deep burgundy in angles struck by the sun, wrapped in curling thorn vines made of twisted sterling threads now oxidized into a brassy coal color lay in her palm. Within the gem were starburst fissures, almost as if the stone had been chipped away from the inside, visible as bright red scars. This was one of her favorite talismans: a red beryl forged from the heat of a salamander's flame breath and infused with the essence of the famed white wizard Egrimm whose story was whispered in the quiet corners of the university library. Egrimm was accredited with casting spells so powerful that he was known to sweat blood. The bauble had cost the student a fair bit of coin - the value of an entire summer's work - but it had been worth it for, if nothing else, the conversation it garnered.
Talisman laid out neatly in the center of the clover patch, Elke leaned forward on her knees and placed her hands around the item, forefingers and thumbs creating a triangle to frame it. She did her best to recall the steps exactly as they had been taught to her; the last thing she needed now was to botch a fairly simple spell and come across as incompetent in front of the one person whose opinion mattered most. Leaning deeper into her kneel, her forehead lowered and touched the stone. The sharp, braided wires with silver thorns nipped the pale skin of her forehead as she pressed, drawing out microdroplets of blood. As the metal vines drew Elke's energy into the gemstone nucleus, the clover blossoms upon which it rested began to wilt, creamy petals turning a dingy brown and plump leaves becoming papery and crinkled. The effect radiated outward from the stone, the entire swath of clovers drying up as if after a long drought. As the perimeter of the clover patch was drained of its lost reserves of life, the sun became darkened by the clouds and the core of the wine red gem began to shine ever so slightly.
With little grace, Elke sat up rigidly, eyes clenched shut at first but slowly opening. Hands still placed with purpose around the gleaming talisman, she looked around, scanning the riverbank, the path she and Nevina had taken where they'd left behind the decaying settlement, the forest meandering on ahead of them. Unblinking, the young woman fixed her stare upon a cluster of myrtle trees with peeling sheets of bark just beyond Nevina. Her eyes followed something invisible along the river, stopping when it stopped and tracking its movements. They were certainly going the right direction.
Snap!
Elke whipped around, quickly pulling herself to her feet. Her eyes flicked side to side quickly until something drew them. She looked back to the river, and then away from it, and then back. The stone glowed and glittered in its bed of dead blossoms, and as the sun began to peek from behind the ever-lumbering onward clouds, it gave a sharp crack. The shining light died abruptly, replaced by a new fissure that smoldered with a dying light like old campfire embers.
Elke blinked in the bright sun and scratched lightly at the itchy prickles left behind on her forehead. She was silent as she bent to pick up the talisman and brush the dead leaves from its sterling filigree.
Placing the item away for future use, she returned to Nevina's side. Quiet still, she visibly pondered the answers from her divination, puckering her lips thoughtfully and keeping her eyes on the leaf-littered trail.
After some time, she broached the subject of her thoughts. "Are werewolves very fast, Miss Nevina?" Memories from her divination sequences were always a little hazy, memories foggy as the energy used was not fully her own and thus she could not take full ownership of the visions, but she distinctly remembered the flickers of an entity - or entities- in front of and behind her, perhaps not simultaneously, but in rapid succession. "Or... Do you think it's possible there was a second one? A second werewolf traveling with the one that you... removed?"
"Ah- Well- Yes, of course!" Elke stuttered. "Pardon, Miss; I didn't mean to imply that you had not..." she paused, mustering up all the tact in her being, and continued, "completed your task to the fullest extent." On the contrary - Elke herself had seen the gored heap of a creature with her own eyes. It had been quite dead, indeed.
She felt flush with embarrassment now. Although not normally one to blush easily, the sick-hot feeling of carnation pink on her cheeks could not be ignored. This was different than any past faux pas. This wasn't at all like the time she had tripped over her own boots in front of a packed Tier Two Spellcasting lecture hall and spilled her books everywhere directly following a longwinded presentation on stealth and cloaking spells. No, no one remembered that incident save for her. That had been a silly but forgettable blunder. This was a tragedy - a suicide. She had insulted her idol. She had insulted Nevina.
"I-It's just," she carried on, tiptoeing through her choice of words with extreme caution. "It's not a typical precognitive divination. I know a spell that will allow me to see the trail of a man that has passed from an area or from the living." Or, in this case, "Well, maybe not strictly man."
Deciding she would look much more professional and far less like a lunatic if she could only just show Nevina what she meant, Elke gave a quick scan of their surroundings and then spun on her heels and made a beeline for a patch of meadow where soft, white clover blossoms fluttered under the teasing hand of the wind. She looked up. Fluffy clouds not grey enough to hold rain formed an incomplete halo around the sun. Ushered by the windy altitudes, they would soon be forming a veil. This would do just fine.
Lowering herself to her knees in the soft flowers, Elke was elbow-deep in one of her satchels and searching diligently. Her fingers brushed a smooth, hard object and wrapped instinctively around it. A pristinely polished stone, nearly black but a deep burgundy in angles struck by the sun, wrapped in curling thorn vines made of twisted sterling threads now oxidized into a brassy coal color lay in her palm. Within the gem were starburst fissures, almost as if the stone had been chipped away from the inside, visible as bright red scars. This was one of her favorite talismans: a red beryl forged from the heat of a salamander's flame breath and infused with the essence of the famed white wizard Egrimm whose story was whispered in the quiet corners of the university library. Egrimm was accredited with casting spells so powerful that he was known to sweat blood. The bauble had cost the student a fair bit of coin - the value of an entire summer's work - but it had been worth it for, if nothing else, the conversation it garnered.
Talisman laid out neatly in the center of the clover patch, Elke leaned forward on her knees and placed her hands around the item, forefingers and thumbs creating a triangle to frame it. She did her best to recall the steps exactly as they had been taught to her; the last thing she needed now was to botch a fairly simple spell and come across as incompetent in front of the one person whose opinion mattered most. Leaning deeper into her kneel, her forehead lowered and touched the stone. The sharp, braided wires with silver thorns nipped the pale skin of her forehead as she pressed, drawing out microdroplets of blood. As the metal vines drew Elke's energy into the gemstone nucleus, the clover blossoms upon which it rested began to wilt, creamy petals turning a dingy brown and plump leaves becoming papery and crinkled. The effect radiated outward from the stone, the entire swath of clovers drying up as if after a long drought. As the perimeter of the clover patch was drained of its lost reserves of life, the sun became darkened by the clouds and the core of the wine red gem began to shine ever so slightly.
With little grace, Elke sat up rigidly, eyes clenched shut at first but slowly opening. Hands still placed with purpose around the gleaming talisman, she looked around, scanning the riverbank, the path she and Nevina had taken where they'd left behind the decaying settlement, the forest meandering on ahead of them. Unblinking, the young woman fixed her stare upon a cluster of myrtle trees with peeling sheets of bark just beyond Nevina. Her eyes followed something invisible along the river, stopping when it stopped and tracking its movements. They were certainly going the right direction.
Snap!
Elke whipped around, quickly pulling herself to her feet. Her eyes flicked side to side quickly until something drew them. She looked back to the river, and then away from it, and then back. The stone glowed and glittered in its bed of dead blossoms, and as the sun began to peek from behind the ever-lumbering onward clouds, it gave a sharp crack. The shining light died abruptly, replaced by a new fissure that smoldered with a dying light like old campfire embers.
Elke blinked in the bright sun and scratched lightly at the itchy prickles left behind on her forehead. She was silent as she bent to pick up the talisman and brush the dead leaves from its sterling filigree.
Placing the item away for future use, she returned to Nevina's side. Quiet still, she visibly pondered the answers from her divination, puckering her lips thoughtfully and keeping her eyes on the leaf-littered trail.
After some time, she broached the subject of her thoughts. "Are werewolves very fast, Miss Nevina?" Memories from her divination sequences were always a little hazy, memories foggy as the energy used was not fully her own and thus she could not take full ownership of the visions, but she distinctly remembered the flickers of an entity - or entities- in front of and behind her, perhaps not simultaneously, but in rapid succession. "Or... Do you think it's possible there was a second one? A second werewolf traveling with the one that you... removed?"