Lore of Leyuna RPG (FRPG)

[Hopeflower]

There's a lot of that going on today, Viho noted with a quiet sigh, but he didn't make the remark aloud. "Come in," he called instead, as evenly as he could manage.

[The Kingpin]

"I don't know what I was expecting," started the Knight as he looked up at the giant in silken robes. "But it was not that." The goliath did not look like anything the Knight had ever seen. The horn on the Experimentalist's forehead reminded him of a unicorn, but the blade like nature of it and the curve made it a more exotic trait. The The head from which it emerged was equally, at once having the features of a horse and a lion. Sharp sapphire eyes stared forward; the gaze of a hunter, with a wide nose that seemed vertically narrow. The head was, however, somewhat rectangular, narrower at the tip of the snout than at the base of the skull. The rest of the Stormweaver's form was no less alien. And yet, they seemed to fit.

Arashi's staff continued to clack with each long stride, halting only when he was a few feet from Desrium and the Knight. "Ah. I see you have company, Desrium," rumbled the Stormweaver as he looked down at the two.

[C S]

Contrary to the eccentrism of the visitor, the door opened and closed without any fanfare. The most the viking did upon entering the room was helping herself to a seat on Viho's desk, where she crossed her legs and leaned back. "You sound like you've lost a bit of your luster there," she commented. "Hard class, today?"


"Yes," was Desrium's response to that. "It is good to see you, Arashi. I doubt you came all this way to hear that."

[Hopeflower]

"No moreso than usual." Viho braced his hip against a desk in front of Evisa and folded his arms loosely. "But then, I did let them sleep in. How are things with the elementals going?"

[C S]

"I'm learning that a few of them love the snow. Not even the snowy ones, either. I'm going to have to let them out in the woods to play with it once the city's all cleared out," the viking replied. A beat passed before she added, "I can't say my bunch are the type to sleep at all, much less, sleep in."

[The Kingpin]

"Indeed. But I believe it is a matter better discussed behind closed doors," stated the Stormweaver evenly as he set his gaze on Andruil. He remembered the Knight well. A couple of years prior, he had aided him in escaping the malicious habits of a certain trickster. Whether the Knight himself remembered or not, was something he decided not to look into. At least for now. "I believe your people could do with the peace to return to their daily activities. My presence has a tendency to be a bit...disruptive."

[C S]

"I believe the best solution to that would be to go up," Desrium replied. He turned his gaze upwards to the shadows that stretched over them, the buttresses and beams. Heights had such an appeal for those who wished to gain an edge over those below.

[Hopeflower]

"At least the snow gives them something to do all night, I suppose," Viho mused. He found it hard to imagine the elementals playing like the children back home did, however.

[The Kingpin]

Arashi glanced around at the various points above the city streets that seemed viable, finally deciding on one of the highest, located between a pair of towers. "I see. Then I will meet you above," stated the Stormweaver. And with that, he dropped into something of a crouch, the muscles in his legs tensing. He then leaped hard, shooting upwards, the jump no doubt aided magically, as once he had passed his intended height, he seemed to drift towards his destination, covering more distance than his nearly vertical jump should have allowed for. His landing was slow and almost lackadaisical, as though he were a leaf in the breeze rather than a seven foot tall behemoth. Once his feet were once more on solid ground, he held his staff with both hands in front of him, his eyes lighting up as he reached out to everything around him, watching silently for any who intended to listen from the shadows.


Andruil, meanwhile, simply stared at where the Stormweaver had been, and where he'd ended up. "And I thought my jumps were impressive. Oof. I do not envy the fool whose mistakes put him on the wrong end of a kick from that." He checked his gloves, making sure they were on firmly, tightening the straps around his wrists so that they would not slip, and looked around for a route to the top. "Meet you there?" he asked the Stalwart absently, not shifting his gaze from the walls and ledges and balconies between him and the Stormweaver's position.

[C S]

"Yes," Desrium said once again. His unchanging tone did not reflect him contemplating what it would be like to be kicked by a dragon, period. It was a momentary distraction. "I will not be long," he promised before he started off towards the entrance of the chosen building. Andruil could climb up the outside without issue. That was not so where Desrium came into play. He had to take the stairs.


"Hear me out on this: by time spring comes around, we start channeling a canal to Brodudika. Maybe widen the inlet to get a proper harbor going," Evisa thought aloud, images of longboats freely sailing from the landlocked city to their icy ports to the north floating through her mind.

[Hopeflower]

Viho cocked his head, considering it, and said, "Ordinarily I'd guess it would take a lot of planning and more able hands than the city could spare right now, with the rebuilding. As it is, it's something to pitch to Desrium." He twitched his bad shoulder. "He doesn't strike me as the type to waste an opportunity."

[C S]

"Anything to keep them from getting restless once the novelty of their first winter wears off," Evisa said. "I'm not expert on them -- hard to believe, I know -- but it's something I can feel. And they can feel what I do, I've found. Anyway. I think that's why we normally don't see elementals so often, or in big groups. They find what works for them and stick with it until someone bugs them."

After another pause, she jabbed, "A little like you, now that I think about it."

[Hopeflower]

That earned Evisa a quiet laugh. "I don't know if I can say that anything I was doing before this worked, exactly," Viho replied. "But so far I haven't found a reason not to stick with teaching." His students, after all, were respectful and seemed to appreciate him taking the time to work with them individually whenever they got stuck. No doubt there would be more difficult students in the future, but that was something to deal with when it happened.

[C S]

"I'll go out on a limb and hazard that this is your calling, and that's why the other things didn't work out," Evisa replied. She tried not to think about what her previous duties entailed. She wouldn't even be in Brodudika if she had abided by them to the letter.

[Hopeflower]

"It might be." The corner of Viho's mouth pulled into a crooked, self-deprecating smile. "Or maybe this is my last chance to do something right." One couldn't cheat death forever, after all. He'd already narrowly avoided it twice in a relatively short time span.

[The Kingpin]

Andruil nodded, running up to a stack of crates at the side of one of the buildings before kicking off and onto a balcony. Heaving himself up, he turned and leapt, latching onto a windowsill with a few potential handholds in the mortar along its side. From there, he climbed, ascending to a bridge just below the one Arashi stood on. Standing on the bannister, he leapt upwards, grasping onto the ledge of the bridge above him, climbing up and over the bannister to stand beside the Stormweaver.

[C S]

"Last chance to do something right can't be what you're meant to do?" Evisa countered plainly.



Desrium's ascent was less involved.

He appeared inside the lobby of the tower and inspired an abrupt hush in the crowds of finely dressed people milling about in between bouts of business oriented discussion. His red eyes met them all as a courtesy. "Greetings," his quiet voice echoed in the room, followed by the subdued thuds of each footstep at the outskirts of the chamber. And so it was as he began up the stairs, the resounding retreat.

At the trailing edge of the sound, the chattering began anew.

[Hopeflower]

The psychomancer shrugged, letting Evisa have that point. It was another valid way of looking at things, he supposed. "Either way, I can't complain about ending up here. Hopefully one day a lot of people will be able to say the same."

[C S]

The figurative gears turned in Evisa's head, latching onto something Viho said. "More reason to get this place some boat access," she stated, her impulsiveness evolving into an actual plan she could discuss with the armored being.

[The Kingpin]

"It has been some time since we last spoke, Andruil," stated the Stormweaver, not moving from his position, still watching for potentials spies.

"I...wasn't aware I had given you my name," responded Andruil, taken somewhat by surprise.

Arashi smiled; a small and almost out-of-place expression for one so infamously morose. "You are standing next to a being who can bend the very weather to his will, and you're surprised I know your name?"

Andruil paused thoughtfully. "I suppose you have a point. But I do not recall ever speaking to you, Stormweaver. What do you mean?"

"Two years ago, in Shadepines. You were being pestered by Discord," started Arashi, noting the dawning look of realisation in Andruil's eyes.

"That was you who intervened?" he asked, taken aback by the revelation.

Arashi nodded. "I have little patience for a great many things. Tricksters who have no regard for the lives of their victims are just one example of such."

"You have my thanks...It was a dangerous time as it was. The trickster's actions had me convinced we would meet our ends there."

A thoughtful hum was his response. "Your duty is to safeguard the lives of those who cannot protect themselves. Mine is the same. My methods are simply less direct than your own."