RP:The Confrontation
This is a Mage's Guild RP.
Summary:
Quintessa decides to question fellow apprentice Karasu on the strange behaviors she has picked up on in their few months of friendship. When she realizes Karasu knows even less than she does, she goes straight to the source. The answers she finds are not what she expects them to be.
Dormitory
How bland, you think to yourself as you take in your surroundings. All around you are small cots, with cheap blankets and white sheets. They are all well cleaned though, and the cots look comfortable despite their size. At the base of each cot is a small trunk for each person to store their things in, and at the side of the bed is a small table with a candle and some individual items for each person. There are many windows, all with thin blue curtains that blow gently in the breeze through open windows. All this makes it seem as if they don't spend very much time in here. To the east is a door leading to the mage tower, and to the south is a small door heading towards the library.
Quintessa paces about her room, her dark hair bouncing with her heavy steps as she thinks about something important. If anyone could see her right now they could tell something was bothering her, but alas, she is sequestered in her room at the moment. She skulks over to her desk, ripping a piece of parchment out from under a book and slapping it down on the surface to write her message. Her quill makes quick work and when she is done the note for her friend reads 'We need to talk. -Tessa' Mismatched eyes blink at it a few times, wondering if it seemed too serious or not, but in the end it didn't matter. She sighs as she rolls up the parchment and puts her magical seal on it, letting her dark aura swallow it up before it is teleported out of immediate existence, seeking out the half-feline apprentice, Karasu. There were many things Quintessa wanted to discuss with her friend/rival, but she hadn't had the courage to confront her about it. "There's no more time to act timid," she tells herself in her mirror, tracing around her eyes with a thick lump of charcoal, "You are Arh'Nuk's Chosen. You are marked for greatness!" She slams her charcoal make-up on her desk and throws her piwafwi over her shoulders, exiting her room with haste. If anybody wanted to find her most knew she'd be found in the courtyard, blowing up bottles with firebolts or preforming martial katas with her katana. Very recently the hex blade had taken her studies seriously and it showed in her extreme progress.
Village Path
This path begins just outside of the town and leads straight to the Mage Tower. The tower is smaller than the watchtower to the south, and much odder. It appears that this tower is made completely of pure water. The windows seem to shine like glass, and probably are, but the tower is solid water, holding the other pieces by magic. From here the door looks to be made of wood, and there are no hinges you can see, but rather melded straight into the walls of the tower. The magic to create this place must have been enormous but the benefits well worth it. An impenetrable tower, unbreakable except for the man made entrances, it would be the perfect place to make a stand. And you do not doubt that the wood is also magically endowed, such a little magical effort compared to the great tower of liquid. To the west is a rustic looking library that is connected to the Mage Tower, but is made out of ordinary materials, though well fashioned, which seems to hold many books to help in magic learning. To the east is a rough cliff, and to the south is the main part of town.
Karasu was squirreled away in the safety of the library on this day, reading up on lore about lycans. No particular reason why, she would answer to any curious passerby, holding the book so high that no one could see her blushing face. Ever the schoolgirl, she walked around with a disappointed expression since the ball, though she refused to tell anyone who it was she was expecting. As she turns the page, a scroll seemingly falls from nowhere, bouncing off her nose and into her lap. "Ah." She looks around to see if she is alone before examining the seal. Tessa! Her ears go straight to attention and her tail swishes happily as she opens the scroll. Oh. Her tail slows to a stop as she puts the book away and rises to her feet. There was some things that probably needed to be talked about, but as she walked out of the library, her mind raced with more questions than answers. "Tessa!" She calls out to the hexblade, raising one arm for a wave while the other rests a hand on her hips.
"Tân!" Tessa calls out as an arc of fire whips from the blade of her normally mundane katana. "Rhew!" Fire quickly dissipates, replaced by an aura of icy mist that swirls into a gale when she swing her katana again. "Trydan!!" She roars, this time the blade is electrified, an arc of lightning sparking from the tip of her blade as she thrusts it though the empty air. As she lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding, mismatched eyes look over to see Karasu waving to her and Quintessa smiles at her friend. Of all the people who could interrupt her during her training, she was glad it was the half-feline. "Ah, it's you," The taller woman says, bringing her sword to her shoulder as she relaxes her stance. "I'm glad you came. There are some questions I have to ask you." Something is different about the hex blade today. Is it the way she carries herself? She seems more confident than usual. Is it her appearance? Though she is just in her training garb and a bit sweaty from practice, her hair is clean and her make-up perfected. She even smells of lavender. Quintessa walks to meet her friend, looking down upon her with curiosity. "I know I've never mentioned it before but you have a dark energy about you," She is very matter of fact as she speaks, not choosing to mince her words. "I've always liked it. You're a good person, yet there's this shadow that taints your aura. It makes you mysterious and interesting. At first... I- I thought I was falling in love with you..." A blush begins to burn her cheeks, but she pushes through this embarrassing bit so she can finish explaining. "But I realized something more complicated was going on." She swallows the lump that had formed in her throat, "When I saw that pulsing thing on your neck I knew for sure... Karasu, are you cursed or something?"
Karasu smiles lightly, her canines showing as she approaches. Quintessa has grown since their first meeting in Kelay, and she can't help but feel a beam of pride for her too. "A dark energy?" She echoes, tilting her head. From her expression, it seems like this might be the first she's heard of this. The statement about being in love doesn't go by unnoticed, as she returns it with a happy, albeit shy smile. The halfling has always found herself more comfortable around women than men, and thus does not devolve into a stuttering mess around them. "It's funny, I met a paladin in Cenril who said something of the same thing." Her smile falters and she looks away. "It's actually not very funny at all. I don't know what's wrong with me. Father has made me undergo private check-ups for years at my insistence, but he swears there's nothing out of the ordinary about me. Just this birthmark. I suppose you can call that a curse in itself, since it's always caused me problems."
Quintessa's look becomes serious and her gentle gaze becomes more of a glower. "Your father?" The changeling hates that word, and she cannot contain her seething hatred for those that bear it as a title. The area around the hex blade begins to darken, her sinister aura growing with her wrath. "You never told me about your father." Karasu wouldn't have to. After this conversation the changeling was going to find out everything she could about him no matter what she said. "Well, that paladin is right. I know a dark aura when I read one and when I look at you..." Tessa trails off, her eyes narrowing as she leans closer to her birthmark. "What kind of problems do you mean?" The hexblade had her own birthmarks and none of them ever gave her any trouble. They most certainly didn't pulsate during times of duress either. No, something odd was going on and Quintessa was going to figure out what no matter who tried to stop her.
The halfling inches backwards at her friend's sudden shift in demeanor. Her eyes and ears shift towards the ground, and she smoothes out an indent in the dirt with her boot. "He's kind of... in the Guild. Sometimes I think that's the only reason why I was allowed to attend here." She rolls her turtleneck down to expose the birthmark. With all the reading Quintessa has done since her arrival, there's a chance that she recognizes it as resembling a silhouette of the Eye of Vakmatharas. The placement of the mark is exactly where she had seen the pulsing during the Rynvale incident. "Some of the elders think that having this is a bad omen and didn't want me in Xalious at all. If I wasn't at the top of all my classes as a student, I wouldn't have been able to stay." Her brows furrow. "I mean, sometimes I get so angry that I just get black out mad, but I've been working on this." Perhaps Quintessa could feel eyes on her if she was so inclined, for at a window of the tower above, a man who looked jarringly like both Karasu, and moreso like the strange woman she'd met at the tavern, looks down at the two in the courtyard.
The changeling's eyes narrow when the birthmark is reveled to her. "Vakmatharas." she whispers, recognizing the symbol immediately. Almost all of the books on necromancy that she is studying reference Vakmatharas and most of those books bare this sigil. Her demeanor softens, wrath quickly replaced by anxiety and concern. "Karasu," Quintessa's eyes flicker to look at her friend's face, "I think this might be serious. You said you had checks-up? Where? Who checked up on you?" She was aware she was prying but she didn't care anymore. She wouldn't let anyone hurt or manipulate her friend in any way, shape, or form, not while she still draws breath. Tess listens closely when Karasu tells her about how she gets so angry that she blacks outs, and the hex blade nods her head in solidarity. She too had a bit of an anger problem. "Ugh, the elders can kiss my-" she stops suddenly as the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. There was a new aura nearby and it wasn't coming from one of the scrubs that studied here. It was stronger and darker. Quintessa pauses as she stands up straight, letting her aura spread out, invisibly feeling around for whomever was watching them. There, in the window, she could sense the subtle waves of magic that emit from all living and unliving practitioners of magic. Mismatched eyes look up in direction of the man's aura and she stares at him. Tess recognizes both Kanna and Karasu and she is suddenly remembers the pretty bard girl she met about a week ago. "You two have to be related," she mutters, speaking about Karasu and Kanna but it could easily be misconstrued to mean Karasu and her father. "Is that him?" she asks, her eyes narrowing at the man in the tower window. "You should introduce us." When she said the last bit she could not help but smirk, her aura twitching with her evil intentions.
Karasu picks up a shard of a glass bottle, a casualty from the frequent elemental bolt training sessions held in the courtyard. Her fingers flip it over, examining the kaleidoscope colors made through the glass and onto the ground while Quintessa asks questions. Its not that she intends to be rude, rather, that she feels the need to fidget during uncomfortable talks. This talk in particular? Extremely uncomfortable. "He says I'm not supposed to talk to other people about this. I mean, the elders treat me civilly for my father's sake, imagine how others would react. Only father examines the condition, and he says there's nothing out of the ordinary about the mark itself." She lets out a nervous laugh and begins to relay the story of how she took a swing at Magik during one of the Larketian duels, only to be ambushed by Rinn before blacking out. At least, this is as far as Zahrani would tell her. With her gaze still averted, it takes her a beat to notice the change in atmosphere. Curious eyes follow Tessa's gaze up to the window of the tower, where she can barely make out her father's outline. She gives a wave which is unreturned. "Ah, must be busy. But yes, people so say we look a like a lot." The implied comparison between the spell blade and the curious songstress goes completely unnoticed by the feline. "You should meet with him, you guys kind of have that same mysterious aura."
A mix of curiosity, resentment, and thrill bubbles around inside of Quintessa as she continues to stare up at him. "Mysterious?" she asks as she turns back to Karasu. "I never imagined myself as being mysterious. I'm just some half-human peasant that grew up in the swamps who wears her emotions on her sleeves. There's not much to know about me that you can just figure out." She had been doing some reflecting lately and had become very self critical. As much as she hated herself there were still others she hated more. Mean fathers were at the top of that list. Mismatched eyes watch Karasu fidget with the bottle, but she isn't bothered by that, it's just something that makes Karasu who she is. "You've got a lot of attitude but it isn't like you to just black out like that. I'm concerned that you don't have the entire picture." She grins at her friend "But that's fine. I'm gonna get to the bottom of this even if nothing nefarious is going on."
Guild Board & Main Quarters
Ones senses might be overwhelmed upon entering the Mages Guild inner sanctum, where a staggering collective of magical energies have been spent to imbue the lavish grounds with security, utility and beauty. The inner sanctum boasts a grand hall where council and events are hosted. It's high-vaulted ceiling is equipped with magical chandeliers that mimic the constellations of the nights sky, ever moving with the changing of seasons. These lights accentuate and complement the ancient architecture, which stands testament to the strength in arms and security of the Mages Guild. Along either side of the grand hall, open-air courtyards can be seen, filled with myriad rare and unique forms of flora and even fauna. Beyond those courtyards are the offices and quarters of higher ranking members of the guild, along with rooms used for magical ritual, or any manner of variety to suit the needs of those who rule over this domain. There is an exit via magical portal up and a door to the north.
To anyone in the Guild, Kaaname is by all standards an ordinary mage. His chestnut hair, thinned with age and now riddled with silver strands that he still leaves at shoulder-length, is pulled back with a string that sits at the base of his neck. in his office, a painted portrait of himself with a feline with an infant in her arms hangs behind his chair. The feline is a bipedal leopard with pale fur that appears lavender in the portrait. On the mahogany bookshelves are framed assignments of Karasu's that have perfect marks on them. A smaller portrait of his daughter as a child, seated in her father's grandiose chair with a comically oversized mage's robe hanging off her little frame, rests in a frame on his desk. There are chunks of pure jet and agate resting on shelves that serve dual purposes of decoration and as wards against evil. Blue-green eyes pour over documents submitted by students of the guild who submit requests for his teaching in the arcane arts. By all accounts, he is not someone who appears evil, yet there is the trace of an enchantment in the office to those who are sensitive to such changes in the environment, and the faintest sense of something sinister under the guise of an elderly instructor.
A certain hex blade is on a warpath today. Since coming to this school and learning the basics of magic, she has risen above all but the top apprentices at the tower. It isn't unusual for some of the instructors to mutter words like 'prodigy' or 'unnatural talent' when they think she can't hear them. Fools. Quintessa is always listening. Secretly, she doesn't want to disappoint them either, and in a way Karasu embodies the progress and skill the changeling wants to see in herself. However, she doesn't resent the half-feline. On the contrary, Quintessa would lay her life on the line in order to protect her dearest friend and it is that loyalty that brings her to the office of her father, Kaaname Tsuji. Her headstrong attitude quickly switches to caution as the click-click-click of her heeled boots echoes down the empty halls. The strange girl comes to a stop at his door and takes a deep breath. She could sense that something evil was being masked here, it was subtle, but she knew exactly what to look for. Pale fingers curl into a fist and rise to knock three times. Knock-knock-knock. 'What am I even going to say to him?' she wonders, thinking it was a misstep that she didn't at least practice confronting him in a mirror or something. Oh well. It's too late to turn back now.
The clicking of heels down the marble pathway alerted the Provost to Quintessa's presence before her knocks did. The timing between footfalls was too far apart to be that of his daughter, and so he stared at the door until the knocks fell. He shuffles the paperwork until the shape of the pages are perfectly aligned, then sets them at the far side of his desk before withdrawing his wand from under his sleeve. "Come in." Without an enchantment or a traced sigil in the air, he gives the wand a simple flick. The doorknob turns and the door swings open to reveal his guest. "Quintessa of the Black Pond. It is an honor to meet such a prodigal student as yourself." There is no malice in his warm voice as he welcomes her with a sweeping arm. "Please, have a seat. What can I do for you?"
Quintessa is caught off guard by his sanguine attitude but she hopes he doesn't notice. All the same she is quick to respond with her own pleasant routine. "Good afternoon, Provost Tsuji, I do hope I'm not interrupting." The hex blade may be petulant, but she's also used to fooling the old men here at the tower. The tall woman steps in and takes a seat as asked of her, not bothering to close the door behind her. "I'm sure it's no surprise that I've been spending a lot of time with your daughter. Together she and I have been completing assignments usually reserved for higher ranking members of the Mage's Guild." She scoffs at herself, gesturing to all of Karasu's accolades decorating the room, "You don't need me to speak of her accomplishments. Her skill speaks for itself." The changeling wasn't trying to fool him, she honestly felt this way about her friend. She pauses to take a breath, letting her polite smile fade. "But I'm concerned about her. There's something I think I should bring to your attention." She decided to test him, to see how much he was willing to let on without a direct confrontation, after all, she could always just call him out later if this idea totally failed. "Am I right to assume you are aware of her birthmark?"
His jovial demeanor seems to falter for a moment, barely perceptible under his smile. "You know, Karasu had quite a bit of trouble fitting in amongst her peers until you came along. She always has a smile on her face now. I am grateful she has a friend like yourself." With a chuckle at the remark of the higher assignments. "Yes, I am not surprised she jumped the gun on those assignments. How is Berrentam, by the way?" He raises an eyebrow with a smirk that mirrors the half-feline's. "I am not Daath, do not worry. What you did for that child was very commendable; I will not throw him back to the wilds if there are poachers for weaker saurians still out there. Ah, I suppose I should make a note of that for Dyraxdiin to investigate, shouldn't I...?" The wand that has stayed in his hand while he talks flicks again, and a notepad floats over from the bookshelf to him. For a moment, it seems like he intends on completely ignoring the question that Quintessa has posed while he jots down something on the pad with his other hand. With another flick of the wand, the paper tears itself out of the pad and rolls up into a neat scroll before floating out of the office and down the hall. "There. Now then." The door to the office shuts by itself with a click, and an enchantment rises from the floor to cover the door as to soundproof it. His smile does not waver, though it seems somewhat more forced than before. "Of course I am aware of the mark. What exactly is it that concerns you?" Kaaname says with a tone that indicates that she should choose her next words carefully.
"Really? I thought everyone loved Karasu. What's not to like about her? I mean, besides her consorting with werewolves, but she's young. What can you really do?" She is happy to talk about her fellow peer but when he brings up the baby dragon she visibly deflates. "Berrentam is fine," she says, "I've read Gregory Trymbul's books on Magical Beasts three times now and feel confident that he'll survive in his current care." She didn't come here to discuss dragons and the idea of talking about it any more bores her. "It's really nothing, I could kill a few poachers myself withou beingt needed to be assigned the task..." She only half pays attention to what he's talking about until the energy in the room changes. Mismatched eyes are unblinking as the door is shut behind her and a strange smirk begins to tug at the corner of Quin's mouth. "It's the eye of Vakmatharas," She says, interested to read his reaction, "Maybe the other practitioners of magic here at the tower are too foolish to recognize it, but I've been studying necromancy from both Magister Daath and Provectus Malus Larewen Dragana and I'd recognize that symbol anywhere. Furthermore-" she doesn't give him a chance to interject, "I can sense the evil. I have since the very day I met her. And others have noticed too, including a paladin that she and I know." Quintessa isn't good a picking the right things to say.
Consorting with werewolves. Consorting with werewolves? Consorting. With... "A lovely sense of humor you have." Kaaname smiles wider, though a bead of sweat has taken residence above his eyebrow; the idea of a child "consorting" with anyone is any parent's weakness. The moment fades quickly enough as Quintessa starts to speak of her concern. He regards her with a serious expression, studying her as she speaks the way she does him. "Its a rarity for someone to be so well versed in the Eye of Vakmatharas, given that almost all written history regarding that thing was destroyed during the Great Purge of Aranoch. You should know though that the Eye is little more than a myth revived by a necromancer in years of late to justify the presence of a fashion accessory." The elderly instructor folds his hands in on themselves. "My daughter is not evil for having an unfortunately shaped birthmark. This is precisely why I insisted that she go into teaching here at the Tower rather into adventuring. Persons like that so-called paladin just seek to persecute her for a perceived evil. A trick of the mind, perhaps from having to grow up in such unfortunate circumstances. Do you perhaps believe that because your own father deserved death, that I must be puppeteering my daughter for some grand evil plan?" He speaks offhandedly, yet condescendingly, his mithril eyes unwavering from the mismatched eyes of the woman seated across from him. "I will forgive this transgression against your elder because of your history, but others might not take so kindly to such implied accusations." The aura that had been so slight before slowly grows stronger, giving off the distinct impression of malice behind his words.
"Not everything was lost during the Great Purge of Aranoch," she protests. "There are documents that have been compiled and copied down. I've even begun to write my own manuscript on the subject, though, as you say, since Aranoch was banished most records have been lost, but the Naga libraries still remain and the Black Library is where I found the documents. There is even a legend I heard as a child about it!" She decides to leave out the part where it is said that the actual gem, the Eye of Vakmatharas had been taken by a mortal at least 6 years ago by a person referred to as Tenebrae. "I- I know she isn't evil. Karasu is the least evil person I know! She even wept for an enemy I had to slay because she thought there was a peaceful solution." The more that the Provost condescends to her the angrier she becomes, her aura of wraith beginning to show itself as an oppressive pressure. "I don't know what your motivations in all this are," She hisses, her sharp fingernails digging into her robes as she clenches her fists at her sides. "I don't know how you know about my father," Of course he knew, everyone talked about it behind the changeling's back, "But if my father died it is because of his own actions," Kaaname Tsuji seems to know how to erode her calm exterior. "And if you think that I care about the opinions of sheep, then you don't know as much about me as you think you do," She was fuming by this point, her aura a smoking ember all around her as it tried to push against the Provost's own influence of malice. "I want you to tell me about her 'check-ups'," the hex blade demands, "There's no way you believe this is a simple birthmark if you've been keeping track of it."
Kaaname smiles again, completely ignoring the aura that threatens to encroach on his own. "Such a clever young lady you are. Fine. No more pretense." A flick of the wand and the illusion of an elderly human fades. Before the changeling now sits a young man, easily ten or so years older than her. His complexion is pale, and his ears have a slightly tapered look to them. The Provost smiles, revealing his fangs. "I'm sure this doesn't surprise you either. I maintain this illusion for Karasu's sake, really." The vampire stands and stretches, his joints popping with each movement. "It does get tiring to keep this up. By the by, do you really think you would be let in without any sort of background check?" A slight smirk appears in his smile before his expression turns grim. "It happened in Vailkrin, about fifteen years ago now. I had just become Arcane Steward, and my first task was to investigate reports of a Lich overstepping his boundaries and experimenting on lycan stragglers. Ynntrasu, my wife, I suppose she was terrified for my sake and decided to follow me to make sure I was alright." He moves to the window and watches the courtyard, where his daughter practices her martial arts with a terrified looking elf. "You know, she was the best huntress in her tribe. She nearly killed me when we met. Still, she had never been against a vampire. I found out what was happening too late and threw myself in the way while Karasu fled, and the vampiress sired me. I don't know if that was what she intended." If he was lying, he was certainly a good one. "By the time I found Karasu, she had already been touched. I thought it was a curse, which was why I concealed it, but in later years, I've come to realize..." He smiles down at Quintessa. "Karasu was given a gift by Vakmatharas himself. The gift, I admit, comes with some side effects, but in time, she will come to accept her true calling. She faints because she resists the call of dark magic. It's only a matter of time. As a fellow follower of Vakmatharas, I think you should be happy for your dearest friend."
Quintessa's mouth almost drops open when the Provost drops the illusions and shows her his true form. Her aura fades away quickly, her surprise leaving her utterly stunned. Karasu's father was a vampire? And he was actually handsome? A blush burns at her cheeks and she stares at her lap, hoping Kaaname didn't notice. The changeling listens intently to his story as she fidgets with her robes her gaze never lifting from her legs. "Ynntrasu sounds like quite the woman... I'm sorry things happened the way they did." Her voice was calm now, the rapid waves of hostility washed away for now. "A gift?" She slowly smiles up at the vampire, trying to calm the rising of her heartbeat. Why did all of this suddenly excite her? "Of course! Karasu is poised to come into great power, I feel it now too!" Quintessa raises to meet the man, her pale fingers reaching out to grab his hand and hold it up between them. "I had my reasons to suspect you were up to something but I see now that I was wrong about you. You only want power and success for your daughter, something I wish I had gotten as a child." The hex blade is overcome with emotion and she begins to tear up, "I'm sorry," Her voice cracks and she looks away for moment to gather her composure. "I am her dearest friend," she says, smiling at the Provost once more, "And I will do whatever I can to help Karasu accept this gift. It's what I would want her to do for me." Maybe it was Kaaname's story about Karasu's mother, or maybe it was Quintessa's eagerness to be a loyal friend to the feline, but whatever it was the young girl was completely sucked in by all of it and ready to help him.
"Delightful." Kaaname looks from the infatuated hex blade to back out the window, not moving his hand as Quintessa grips it. His palm is ice cold and smooth in her own hand, just as his bright winter sky colored eyes seem to be. "All you need to do is be there for her and continue the facade that nothing is wrong. Soon enough, she will learn." There is no one around to save Quintessa from the poor agreement she is about to make, which is exactly how the Provost wants it to be. "What a lovely friend my daughter has." For an added touch of charm, he reaches his hand up and cups her cheek with one hand, smiling a cold, cruel smile. "As if Vakmatharas himself sent you to me."