Displaced
By
Faerie Knight
The life of a pathfinder was one of alternating life threatening combat and research. This was especially true for those who worked in the Dark Archive. As such Kahel was no stranger to dangerous situations. Even when working as an archivist her job was dangerous. The very fact that Kahel was a woman was proof of this. She'd been born a man after all. More then once an object recovered by other pathfinders had been accidentally triggered, thus causing an eruption of chaos. Thus it had become standard practice for Kahel to wear her armor while working in the archives.
Even so the far eastern woman had not expected a portal to appear in front of her while carrying a large stack of tomes to be studied. That she walked into this portal unintentionally was a matter of her distraction. After all, she did have trouble keeping the stack of tomes steady due to it's height. While it was true she could have stored the books in her haversack for transport, field reports had indicated placing these particular volumes in a magical storage medium was a bad idea. Those same reports didn't mention why it was a bad idea though. It was with a bit of annoyance that Kahel discovered the reason was due to the tomes becoming rather aggressive and trying to gnaw on your head if exposed to dimensional magics.
Subduing the tomes without damaging them proved quite the challenging task. After that Kahel pulled rope out from her haversack and bound them before shoving the entire lot in her pack. Shouldering the haversack once more, she looked around. I appear to be in some sort of celestial hallway. What ever means of entrance appears to have vanished as well. How annoying. I suppose there is nothing but to explore. Endless hall behind me, endless hall before me, starry sky above... reminds me of my first expedition.
Like many kitsune, Kahel often hid what she was in the guise of being human. Although in the heat of an Absalon summer this could be practical too. Walking around in a fur coat could be rather uncomfortable when it was hot out. But unlike most of her family, she tended more towards the scholarly then mercantile or physical pursuits. Which wasn't to say she wasn't a capable warrior. Just that physical activity was something she disliked and tended to avoid when possible. An understandable view when considering that she wasn't particularly strong.
It was fortunate then that her skills tended more towards less physical things. From an encyclopedic knowledge of the natural world (and plane of air) to a surprisingly deep understanding of enchanted objects for one who was not a mage, she studied many diverse things. This made her a valuable researcher. But what made her useful in the field most often was her more esoteric talents. Namely the reason why she was called Kahel the Stormbender. She could command the winds and call forth lightning at the drop of a hat. To those who understood the nature of what she did, she was known as an aerokinetic. To most though she was considered a sorcerer with limited talents.
While some would call it sacrilegious, Kahel did not worship any of the gods. Which wasn't to say she didn't believe they existed. In truth she was pretty sure they did exist. She just didn't feel the need to pay lip service to beings who in all likelihood didn't care about her. Which was why she wasn't particularly subservient when a beautiful woman appeared next to the kitsune lass. Oh, Kahel recognized the goddess of sex and vengeance. The woman's image had appeared often enough in texts she studied to not recognize the goddess.
"To what do I owe this dubious honor?" She asked of the goddess.
To her surprise the goddess laughed. "Oh my, it's not often I am scorned. Are you not worried I shall feel offended."
"Should I be?" Kahel asked. "I mean, from what the texts say it's nearly impossible to know your motivations. But one common thread can be determined. Your reasons may be unknowable, but you are likely to either try seducing me or do something in vengeance for who knows what slight you are angry about. And it's not as if I could escape from you in either case. Now again, why are you bothering me?"
"Hmm," Calistria said thoughtfully. "I think I shall keep an eye on you my little vixen. Did you not wonder why you are here? And what this place is?"
Kahel paused in thought before responding. "It's a celestial realm, but other then that no. Not really. If there's information to be found on it somewhere, I may well research this place. But practically speaking, all I need to know is there's no way back to where I came from. That, and the road must go somewhere."
Calistria laughed once more before saying "This is a road, as you surmised. One used by summons to travel to the plane of their summoner. As well as by both celestial and infernal to travel the planes. You, my oh so adorable vixen, are being summoned to be a child's familiar. But I have a better plan for you."
With that the goddess sidled up to Kahel and pulled the kitsune woman into a passionate kiss. By the time Kahel was able to pull herself out of the dazed stupor the kiss had placed her in, Calistria was gone. Kahel also discovered her cloths were gone. The chain shirt too was missing. In it's place was a chain mail bikini made from the same enchanted silver as her previous chain shirt. Which naturally raised the question of how this would actually provide any protection. Her pack had vanished as well, but had been replaced by a pouch attached to her belt. A quick investigation showed that this pouch held everything that had been in her Handy Haversack.
I wonder what that was about Kahel thought as she continued down the seemingly endless road. As she walked Kahel passed a teenage boy in odd garb. He seemed to be going the same direction, and yet at the same time he wasn't. The physics of such a thing confused the scholarly kitsune. Eventually it started to get darker. It was impossible to tell how long she'd been walking though. Then without warning the endless road vanished. In it's place Kahel found her within an exceedingly small space.
Briefly she felt the presence of another person, then that vanished. The foul stench of rotting blood hit her nose next. A light breeze was called up to keep the disgusting aroma at bay while Kahel took in her situation. Light could be seen from three narrow slits. And it felt like she was encased in metal. Even if it might get me free, blasting my way out would be a bad idea, Kahel decided right then and there. Fortunately I can hear others. So assistance is possible.
"Excuse me, but would someone mind opening this container? It's rather cramped in here." Kahel called out.
Elsewhere
In a place quite far away both distance and dimensionally a young girl blinked at the summoning circle. She had felt her call being answered. And then something happened. There had been a snapping sensation, and then nothing. And now after ten minutes of waiting her familiar still hadn't appeared. It was quite perplexing since she was clearly a mage. And the ritual had worked exactly as it was suppose to. Adding on to the confusion was that a short while later the girl everyone called "The Zero" managed to not only cause an explosion (predictable), but also summon and bind a strangely dressed commoner as her familiar.
Earth Bet
This is going to hurt, Kahel thought when it became obvious everyone was ignoring her. The only consolation was that since she wasn't in her natural form, her fur wasn't getting befouled. And sure enough she found herself twitching and screaming in pain seconds after blasting the wall with the light filled slits on it. The wall, which turned out to be a door of some sort, erupted off it's hinges in a cacophony of thunderous sound. As the door flew across the hall it struck someone with a slightly quieter clang.
"Now then, is there a particular reason I found myself trapped in a metal closet filled with rotting blood soaked objects?" Kahel demanded of those in the hall.
With her ever present breeze whipping hair all about and the crackling electricity which sparked off her skin where ever it was exposed it was a fairly intimidating sight. Not that she would be able to hear any answers just yet. By long habit Kahel had infused her blast so that it detonated with the roar of thunder. As such she was currently deafened. It only took a maybe half a minute for the ringing in her ears to fade. At which point she discovered another problem.
"You... don't understand a word I'm saying, do you?"
Most of the youth were running in a panic. A few were holding up small black or gray objects which Kahel couldn't identify. And through it all it looked like she was no where near Absalom. With a long suffering sigh she pulled out a wand and muttered the trigger words. A wave of energy flowed through her, mending some of the damage her electric bolt had caused. But she still felt a great deal of pain. It took ten minutes of muttered triggers and growing agitation before she managed to get the wand to work enough times that she was mostly recovered. By that point in time she noticed an armored man holding an unusually styled halberd.
I've never seen armor like that before. By the gods, how would you even put it on? The armored man swung his polearm, and something flew out of it. The vortex of wind surrounding Kahel caused the small projectile to veer off and strike the wall beside her though. Why does this always happen to me? She sighed and with a conscious effort of will suppressed the electricity which crackled around her. At the same time Kahel allowed the winds which surrounded her to die down. Even so she found herself having to dodge another projectile fired from the armored man's halberd.
"Why are you attacking me?" She tried asking in the most common language of her world.
When that failed to elicit a reaction of understanding she moved on to another of the many tongues she spoke. Next she attempted asking the same question in dwarven, a harsh language for a rough people. Not that dwarves were uncivilized, just that they were a warrior culture. When that didn't work either she tried the gnomish language. Again the armored man showed no sign of understanding. In fact she had to duck under a swing from his weapon. With a put upon sigh Kahel resumed her defensive screen of wind.
Moving on, she tried several of the regional languages she knew. That felt like a faint hope though. She didn't recognize the architecture around her at all. Nor had she heard of any nation who used armor like that. Still there was no sign the man could understand Kahel. In desperation she tried one last time, doubting he could understand the language of elves. Let alone that of celestial beings. It was with some amusement that Kahel noticed the man acting surprised when she spoke elvish. Perhaps he did understand that language?"
"I am a traveling scholar by trade, and warrior by necessity. The name is Kahel the Stormbender, what land might this be? I don't recognize the style of building. Nor have I heard of metal closets lining hallways."
As she spoke Kahel moved the scorched metal door she'd blown off the closet she'd found herself in. As I thought, someone was struck by it. After reaching into the pouch at her hip, the young woman withdrew a wooden stick. A few words spoken and the tip glowed with divine energy. Once that happened Kahel tapped the dark skinned girl she had accidentally hurt, causing several cracked ribs to noisily pop back into position and become whole once more. Even so the teenager looked to be in bad shape.
"This youth was injured when I escaped the befouled metal closet over there. While I have done what little I can, my resources are limited and unreliable. She needs to be tended to by a cleric." Kahel informed him in elvish.
XxXxX
He called himself Armsmaster, and he was confused. The reason for this confusion was not immediately obvious to any outside observer. Nor was the fact that he was confused something most would pick up on. His second in command had brought to him concerns regarding one of the wards. There was a pattern of behavior which he'd not noticed which indicated Shadow Stalker may have been violating her parole. Men and women, mostly men were being found with severe puncture injuries.
While Armsmaster had been aware of this, he'd disregarded the initial suspect due to her Protectorate phone never being anywhere near the scene of the crime. What Miss Militia had uncovered was that several of these suspiciously injured men and women had gained said injuries while Shadow Stalker was suppose to be on patrol with a fellow ward, usually Vista. The fact the GPS log showed Shadow Stalker's phone and com system were still in the PRT building during those patrols was enough to cause Armsmaster to start driving towards Winslow High School.
It was on his way that the PRT received calls regarding an unknown parahuman attacking the same school he was heading towards. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been as great of an emergency. Shadow Stalker was on the scene after all. That assessment got thrown out when he learned that Shadow Stalker's phone had gone dead just moments before the first call was placed. This indicated either she was the attacker, or had possibly been incapacitated by the attacker. Those phones were very durable, Armsmaster knew this because he built them.
What confused him was that the unknown parahuman was not, in fact attacking anyone when he arrived. Rather she, and it was a young woman of possibly Asian origin, was attempting to converse with people. This parahuman's costume was unusual too. She wore no mask or other means to disguise her identity. And other then a belt and large pouch at her waist, she wore a bikini made out of chainmail links. She also had in hand a possible tinkertech device shaped like a wooden stick. This she used to heal what looked to be electrical burns.
He noted the wind and electricity which surrounded the woman as he ordered "Surrender!"
When she didn't immediately comply he fired a sedative dart at the unknown parahuman. She said something, and again his translation program failed to decipher it. When the woman dodged his followup dart after she'd stopped actively using her powers it appeared far too practiced. The woman then started rotating through unknown languages one after another. Some sounded harsh and guttural, others almost musical. Eventually she used one his translator recognized. Strangely, it was a fictional language.
"I am a traveling scholar by trade, and warrior by necessity. The name is Kahel the Stormbender, what land might this be? I don't recognize the style of building. Nor have I heard of metal closets lining hallways." she said before moving a locker door to reveal an injured black girl and by all evidence healing the unconscious girl. "This youth was injured when I escaped the befouled metal closet over there. While I have done what little I can, my resources are limited and unreliable. She needs to be tended to by a cleric."
Looking in the indicated direction showed a locker that was filled with bloody tampons. Rotting bloody tampons. If this parahuman had come from within that, this was looking like a trigger event far more then an assault. Armsmaster turned over the blackened locker door and noted the name plate on it. He also noticed another thing. The teen had been struck by the locker door, something which she should have been able to dodge unless it had been right in front of her upon being launched. Since it appeared to have struck her head on...
"You can understand me, but not speak elvish. Right?" The woman asked, once more speaking the language of Tolkien's elves. Armsmaster nodded, at which point she continued. "Hmm, so possibly under the effects of a tongues spell. I assume you are one of the local guardsmen. As I mentioned, I am a scholar by trade. If you know someone who can converse in a shared language with me, I would be interested in learning more of this place."
XxXxX
Flight, for all it's usefulness was still a strange and unnatural thing for Kahel. While her connection to the elemental plane of air did allow her an instinctive knowledge of how to fly, her thoughts on the matter could be summed up quite nicely. If kitsune were meant to fly,hwe'd have been born with wings! Winds buffeted her harshly, pushing the adventurer back and forth as she followed the armored man and his strange stead. Several times she narrowly avoided hitting one of the glass and tall metal structures. Then her luck ran out when trying to round yet another corner.
With eyes wide and arms crossed in front of her head Kahel slammed into a metal pole. This dazed the young woman, almost causing her to lose focus and fall to the ground. In fact it was only the instinctive knowledge of how to fly that kept her loft after the impact. The momentary loss of concentration also caused the crackling electricity to surrounded Kahel once again. After shaking her head to remove the mental fog she started after the armored man once more. Soon enough she reached the place her escort had been heading towards. It was with a low whistle that she took in the structure.
"That has to be the most solid fortification I have ever seen or read about. The tallest too. How was it constructed?"
The armored man didn't respond. Instead he halted his steed and dismounted. Seeing this Kahel came in for a landing. Once again her inexperience with flight showed as she plowed into the ground face first. On the other hand, she didn't expect him to respond due to not knowing a shared language. It was strange though. If he was under the effects of a tongues spell, why is it he could only understand elvish? Yet another thing to research when I have a chance. Feeling hungry, she reached into the pouch at her waist and pulled out a bundle of way bread. While dry and rather bland, it at least was filling. A decent sized piece of jerky rounded out her impromptu meal. This she washed down with a pull from her water skein.
From the raised eyebrows it was like these people had never seen magical storage containers before. Soon she was sitting in what looked like a meeting room. The guardsman was presumably looking for someone who could speak with her. In the mean time Kahel decided to study one of the tomes she'd originally been transporting. Only when she reached into the pouch her hand found not the tome she expected, but a sizable group of thin books. Withdrawing them, she frowned. Don't recognize the design. And I definitely don't recognize the script. Where did they come from? And why are there so many?
There proved to be fifty of the thin books in total. All of them bound with a thin wire that spiraled through the end. They were each hand written, and it looked like the same person had written them all. The final thin book also contained a cream colored paper folder. Although the paper was stiffer then anything Kahel had ever heard of. This had more handwriting on it, and was filled with papers which looked to be forms. As well as a slew of unusually glossy pictures and more papers which looked to be a standard format. What these forms and other papers were written in, the scholarly warrior couldn't say.
Examining the unfamiliar literature was put on hold when a woman wearing a green and black patterned outfit entered the room. The woman wore a neck wrap and half mask that were both patterned with stripes of red and white. And at the woman's side was something that vaguely resembled the unreliable black powder weapons one of her fellow pathfinders favored. To her practiced eye, the other woman's outfit looked like it might be good for sneaking around in the woods. The reasoning behind such a clashing mask and neck wrap however eluded Kahel.
"So, are you the linguist?" the pathfinder asked in elvish.
From there the meeting quickly progressed. At first Kahel explained how she had arrived to much disbelief.