Pax RP

"It's a glorified camp site, not a capital, to be precise. For now, at least." Dravlin said. "For the most part, the 'normal' people gather around because with so many adventurers, they can stave off the beasts that hunt almost every night. For the most part, the leader sleeps during the day so she can keep watch at night. But still, seeing as the 'celestial winds' are still going on, the place is gathering in size. Major woodcutting operations, plenty of construction. . .Some Ordo Novus went by there to explain farming to the populace awhile back. But really, it's very informally governed. That will have to change soon, or there will be small civil wars once it becomes a city in truth."

"You know, Markus, you could probably just find someone incredibly paranoid about the war and convince them that they need your protection. Morally questionable, but easy money for a mercenary." Drevlin said, tilting his head.

"Lady. . Swix, was it? Would you mind if I asked exactly what you are?" He asked. "I noticed that the 'celestial wind' that blew you in was very strange. . .and normally the Aeloci don't allow such strange winds."

Markus listened to Dravlin, and decided he liked him.

"Heh heh, well someone's always out to get someone else. I doubt I'd even be lieing to them... much." Markus replied with a small smirk. "And if I can wander around during the day, all the better."

He was feeling a little better now. Clearly his situation wasn't going to be as bad as he thought.

'Lady Swix' almost stopped dead in her tracks when Markus mentioned 'a woman clad in blue', a flash of recognition showing in her hazel eyes. It couldn't be, could it? But if the dragon was here, then why couldn't she be here too? Shaking her head slightly, the woman kept walking and resolved to be more careful about where she got her paper out.

Now resuming her rhythm, ES seemed a bit taken aback by Drevlins question about 'what' she was, not least because that's what she'd been considering asking him, and considered her response during the mercenarys talking to him.

"How long have you got?" she said, leaving a pause afterwards on purpose "If by 'what' you mean my species, then you can call me a 'Split Humanoid'. That is I'm not human, even though I often look like one and we have the same internal structure. But that's where the similarity ends. When we reach a certain mental state, we split-one will be a sickeningly sweet goody goody, with all the mercy and selflessness that goes with it" she sounded entirely disgusted by this though and seemed to have to pause so the hateful words had faded away before she spoke again "the other is like me. I am the darkness incarnate that existed within our once-shared souls-before the split"
She finished here, letting her words sink in and wondering if she should use the metaphor of looking in the mirror and seeing another person looking back at you-except in her case it was physical rather than metaphysical."I was told once it's because of our proximity to some sort of Immortal war, but I'm not really sure about that" here, she was smoothly lying through her teeth to them both, but that was more because she had to than because she wanted to "But, what, exactly, I am also ties into what and who exactly, I work for, which I can't tell you. Save that that little display of mine back there is but a fraction of the power that granted it me" she smiled darkly, her very expression seeming to banish the fading light from her features. But those that dared look closer would find the smile entirely humourless, she wasn't finding this at all amusing "So I guess you could say I am..." a what? Minion, servant... perhaps some would even term her a slave? Some would definitely call her a fool for getting herself in this position in the first place. No, she thought, she liked the first one better "let's say I'm a minion of darkness, that seems more appropriate"
She seemed to have finished at this point, but then tilted her head slightly and smiled again, this time the humour had come back "I could show you, but I doubt either of you would want to take such a dangerous risk for curiousity..." she stopped there, letting the 'offer' hang in the air, not asking anymore questions of her own. She was curious to see just what sort of lengths the veiled being would go to for a greater understanding.

Markus took in the new information on Swix, just listening to her explanation of herself and silently walking alongside her.

"Minion of darkness. Why am I not surprised?"

Drevlin clapped his hands, almost hopping up and down. "A demonstration? I'd love one! No matter the risks." He said, nodding. "I could just run very, very far away and look very close. In trade, I'll tell you what I am!"

"Alright" she said, a little bit slowly, though it was quite refreshing to see someone willing to take it this far she was nonetheless a little puzzled by Drevlins eagerness. Brushing it aside as unfounded wariness of this new place, and noticing the mercenary had been completely silent during their exchange she continued "that sounds fine Drevlin. Now then, it'd be much better for me to do this outside the 'Encampment' so..."
The woman looked around them, trying to find a relatively clear spot to do this from. She would've been entirely willing to just give her 'demonstration' right next to them and watch them run from that-but she'd already decided that she didn't want to get into a fight for no good reason and though she wouldn't have been much surprised if Drevlin could teleport away to a safe distance, Markus might not be able to do the same. She should give them at least a bit of a headstart. Spotting what she needed a little to the side of them, ES dropped back from the group and walked backwards into the clearing until she stood in the centre of it-it definitely wasn't big enough, and they were definitely still too close, but it was the best she could do at the time "Drevlin" she said, her voice oddly silky as a darkness deeper than the night began to bleed through her skin. Within a matter of seconds she looked like a living shadow of herself, only her hazel eyes showing any signs of colour, including her red bag "Markus..." tendrils only a few centimetres in length and a few centimetres apart now covered her entire body, but they weren't there for much other than show at this point in time. Even her hair was covered in the darkness and tiny extra appendages. A bit much maybe, but the veiled being seemed to want the whole show and Swix was going to give him one. Behind her not one but four of the much larger, much more dangerous tendrils shot out of her back with some speed, three times the width of her arms, roughly six feet in length already and continuing their rapid growth outwards "Run"

Both for the sake of speed and to try and give an accurate demonstration ES was exerting no control over the extra limbs whatsoever, so they writhed around chaotically, marring the ground, making scars in the trees they got too close to and just generally causing untold damage to the area around her. One of them even snatched a sleeping predatory beast from it's bed and smacked it around both the trunks and the ground before tossing it's limp body back behind the woman.

Had she not moved away it was highly likely that they'd have been tossed around like ragdolls rather than the beast-which might concievably still happen if they didn't manage to quickly get far enough away from the dark limbs.

Markus threw a vile look at Drevlin and yelled at him.
"YOU HAD TO BLOODY ASK DIDN'T YOU?!"

At which point he ran for cover, diving over a large rock. Keeping as small as possible he tried to remember why he was with them in the first place.
"They were there... nice one Markus, real smart. A pretty woman and a guy who thinks your way and you trust them enough to travel with them? IDIOT!"

Markus tried to dispel these thoughts and work out a plan. She was flailing these tendrils around, dark as the night and had killed whatever was nearby. He had to do something. The world seemed to slow as he loaded his bow, jumped up from his cover, shot at Swix and dove right back into cover. There wasn't much in the way of aiming, he just hoped he hit a non lethal area.

"Sorry Swix, I'm sure you're lovely and all, but try being less murderous in the future..."

"That's bloody brilliant!" Dravlin exclaimed, leaning forward. He leaped out of the way, just as one of the smaller tendrils shot out at him. The veiled figure started running backward, keeping a close eye on the epicenter of the writhing, shadowy tendrils.

"Lady Swix is astounding, is she not?" Dravlin said, nudging Markus. He was too closely keeping watch on the epicenter to notice the mercenary's crossbow firing.

In the centre of the writhing dark mass ES was actually enjoying herself, death and destruction were two things she revelled in. She heard Markus' yell at Drevlin of course, how could she not? His yelling cut straight through the sounds of her shadowy limbs tearing up the place-and making her frown a little. It wasn't like she hadn't warned them, so why was he yelling when they were still too close? ES shook her head as a writhing tendril coiled around a nearby tree, apparentlly trying to either uproot it or break it in two Drevlins exclamation was unfortunately lost on her due to the sounds of rending earth and cracking wood, but not his running backwards. No, she was quite fascinated by that, watching the veiled being with a bit of a smirk on her very dark face as she saw her suspicions about him were right-he could easily handle himself around her in an unexpected way.

This mutual admiration and the fact her field of vision was constantly being obscured meant that she didn't see the crossbow being fired, nor the bolt speeding through the chaotic mass of flailing tendrils until it was far too late. The bolt pierced her left shoulder, found soft flesh and continued through until the sharp tip came out behind her. She had only half expected such a thing to happen so screamed in pain and surprise when it hit. The three large tendrils stopped, trembled slightly and then receded back from whence they came. The one that had been wrapped around the tree gave it a particularly violent yank, partially uprooting along with splitting the trunk round the middle, before it too receded. The tiny limbs seemed to melt back into the darkness that surrounded her body, which too slowly gave way to her far more human looking self. Evil Swix was staring at the bolt that had just gone right through both sides of her flesh, tentatively touching it to see if she dare pull it out. Her body protested with sharp pains that brought tears to her eyes, so she decided to leave it there for the time being. Besides, the destruction she'd caused meant the land around her was unstable, she'd better get out of there before something collapsed.

So she hopped from one stable looking patch of ground to the other until she'd cleared it, wincing at every muscle twinge that caused sharp pains to shoot from her shoulder whenever she was forced to move her arm.

Once out of most of the destruction the woman rather protectively held her injured shoulder, uselessly. Standing next to the rock Markus had been hiding behind (not knowing that's where he had taken cover), she spoke a bit louder than normal. "You know, you could've just asked me to stop rather than" she gestured with her right arm at the bolt, gritting her teeth with the pain the sudden movement had caused and holding her injured shoulder again "doing this"

Well there was one thing that she'd got out of that-Markus was indeed a good shot with his bow.

Markus slowly rose, making a point of showing he was currently unarmed.

"When you see a large mass of tentacles destroying everything in sight, you don't tend to ask politely for them to stop, at least not where I come from." Markus Explained. "And I am sorry for that. At least it did it's purpose."

Whilst Markus genuinely was sorry for having to shoot Swix, at least in his opinion, he was inwardly somewhat pleased with the shot.

"Heh heh, if only Aditha could see this."

Markus then focused on the bolt.

"Right, now I have some medical experience, enough at least to make sure you don't bleed to death, so unless either of you have any true healing abilities I'd strongly suggest you let me bandage you up." He considered the bolt for a moment. "I could probably even take it out. That or we need to get to a medic... right about now."

"We don't shoot friends, Markus." Dravlin said, disapprovingly.

Then, he turned to Swix. Oddly, he didn't seem worried about 'Lady Swix's' injury, instead appraising it as one would a jigsaw puzzle. The bolt had penetrated directly through her shoulder; The crossbow Markus carried must have a significant more power than Dravlin thought it would.

"That was splendid, Lady Swix. You must hold some primordial force of darkness inside of you. Difficult to control, but incredibly powerful. It must have it's own opinion on how to do things, though. Probably just a 'rend and tear and rip and rend and tear' mantra. But onto your wound. The only method that I know of, to heal an injury of that magnitude is blood magic. However, I cannot use my own blood for such a thing." The veiled figure drew a small, curved knife. "Markus? Come here for a moment. It's time for you to make reparations for the injury you caused."

The woman in the black dress watched Markus as he rose from the rock he'd been behind, slightly accusingly, though the majority of it evaporated when he explained, apologised and even suggested that he bandage it up. She was about to say something when Drevlin appeared, complimenting her on her display and giving his observation of it, making her bite back a rather sarcastic reply just because she decided she liked the guy now. Did he really think she didn't know that? Of course it was difficult to control, had always been, especially the larger ones, and the fact that she'd met.... well, that wasn't important right now, Instead she just nodded with a slightly more pleased smile before he turned to the mercenary and mentioned 'blood magic' before producing a small knife and asking Markus to make reparations for the damage he'd done. She'd shrug, but that was liable to send more pain that could be avoided through her.

"I don't know anything about true healing" she finally answered, a little late but late was better than never "and I don't know much about blood magic either, but right now I'll take any help I can get. Especially if either of you think that there's a danger of my bleeding to death. I'd rather not leave the mortal coil at this moment, thank you very much"

Swix sat down on the floor at this point, still holding her shoulder. She pulled her hand away from the area and briefly looked at the red blood that covered it before putting it back, waiting for the two of them to make up their minds about what they were doing. Though she quite liked the idea of Markus making reparations involving Drevlins blade, she certainly wasn't going to ask him to do it. Not if he didn't want to anyway, at least she'd get some help with this one way or the other.

Markus looked at Dravlin, and nodded.

"Of course, I admit it was more of a reflex reaction than a rational decision. You must understand though that something that does that" He explained, pointing to the destruction. "Is rarely a friend. At least in my experience."

Markus studied the knife for a few moments.

"Before I do let you take a knife to my person however, please explain thoroughly and truthfully what you will do, and what will happen. I don't mind a prick of the finger or even a slice into my hand, but I don't want a limb missing or an organ gone."

Markus considered himself to be many things, but stupid wasn't one of them. Others may call it paranioa, Markus called it "experience".

"And before anything, will it deal with the bolt itself?"

Dravlin nodded, then tilted his head, and started talking, as if he were reciting to himself.
"The bolt will be burned away, it's component parts converted into energy to fuel the healing. Simply what I will do, is cut a ritual circle into the donor's shoulder, and use his blood to mark the identical ritual circle onto the recipient's shoulder, around the wound. It will use the energy of the bolt, a small amount of the donor's lifeforce, and other various ambient energies to patch up the recipient's wound. If she has muscle damage, it will heal that as well." Dravlin explained, turning to Swix and back to Markus at choice points to make sure they understood. "The donor's lifeforce will return over time, as if he were healing a wound with his own body, but without the downsides such as bleeding out or muscle damage. Such thaumaturgy won't leave any arcane 'connections' between the donor or recipient, but it will make such a ritual easier if you shoot anyone else I'll need to heal." This last part was directed at Markus, with a slight bit of rancor.

"So." Dravlin said, the curved knife quivering. He seemed to grin. "Are we ready?"

"I'm right here you know." the woman piped up, shifting her position slightly on the ground "If you're going to refer to me as a thing, you could at least keep your voice down" She noticed the hurt tone had come through far clearer than her indignation and turned from them in embarrassment at her sudden emotional slip, intently sudying a patch of grass. Even after listening to the veiled beings explanation so intently and interestedly, she still felt the need to say something 'Bad Swix' she chastised herself 'don't go losing your head because someone said something you didn't like'