A/N: Well, Chapter 5 is here, we're going to see a lot more new OCs, and some new threats. Let's get started!
8 June X820, Somewhere in Estrecho, Fiore, 4:20 PM
"Well, this is interesting..." An old man stifled a laugh as he walked out to a second-story balcony. The black snow was coming down, and covering the town. Perfect. All according to plan, of course. The man was not a mage himself, and so this blanket of obsidian scarcely bothered him. Even still, the sudden turn for the cold was less than pleasant for the Fiore native, and so he quickly returned to the lofted space, noting the guild hall in the background. "Now let's see how they handle it..." the man muttered, as he closed the door and gazed upon the machinations that made such a strange idea work flawlessly. Two seperate magical arrays. One to capture the subject's magical power, the other to bind additional barrier particles to it. After that, it was a simple matter of releasing the particles, and of course, a snow storm followed. As he walked in, the subject greeted him.
"Hey, I'm sorry, but I think I need to eat again..." the subject sighed.
The old man cracked a smile. He knew precisely why the nineteen year old woman who had become something of a roommate in the previous months. She was slight, at only five feet even. Her hair was green, wavy as it flowed down just past her shoulder blades, kept from her face by a simple plastic barette. The tiredness, and hunger both spiritual and physical were plain in her blue eyes. Despite the eyes and hair, the man assumed she was partially Encan, based on her features and shape of her eyes.
"Of course Penny," the man said, the cruel nature of his smile lost on the young woman. The man pulled an ice cream scoop out of his cloak, and walked to a freezer attached to the same Lacrima as the two arrays. He set to work and gave the subject yet another bowl of ice cream.
"Who are those people down stairs?" Penny asked, confused as she heard shouting from below, as she bit into the ice cream, which seemed to become ethereal and was sucked in.
"The people keeping us afloat..." the man sighed.
"Hang on, I need to go check on the garden," explained Adenna, as she rushed out of Margaret's kitchen, with a look of terror on her face. Margaret, curious about the situation, left her pie to bake.
As the young master followed the other woman out to the guild's garden, near the master's quarters, she noted that the temperature had dropped by tens of degrees. In the same moment, she noted that the black flakes falling from the sky were themselves cold to the touch. It wasn't ash, it was snow. "What the hell?" Margaret muttered aloud as she found Adenna, attempting to conjure her own plants. Something seemed wrong there. While Margaret had seen little of her companion's magic, what she had seen should have been stronger than this; it seemed that any plants she conjured crumbled into the barrier particles from whence they came, mere seconds after her summoning them. The culprit was obvious: the snow.
"Adenna?" Margaret called out, as she approached the other mage.
"I-I need to save it!" Adenna shouted, seemingly fighting back tears, as she attempted in vain to create foliage.
"We need to get inside. Nothing's going to happen out here," Margaret insisted, as she pulled the other mage back towards the A-Frame.
"Don't fucking make me leave it." Adenna said, pure venom in her voice.
Margaret backed off, and made a mental note not to be so pushy with the garden ever again. "
"All right, I'll see if I can fortify this against the snow..." Margaret said, trying to help.
Adenna softened for a moment. "Does planar magic work in this snow?"
"I couldn't tell you," Margaret said in turn as she attempted to activate her own magic, which formed a dark blue bubble over the garden, which stayed steady for a few seconds, and then dissolved as the snow accumulated.
Adenna glared at her. "You know what, let's come up with something inside..." She finally managed, becoming resigned to the situation.
"I'm kind of curious now, what's up with that garden?" Margaret asked, noting that Adenna seemed to have picked the vegetables for the currently cooking meat pie freshly, so it must have been something she'd maintained for a while.
"It's almost part of my identity. I grew up on a farm, and it's nice, saves us the cost of buying the vegetables that can grow around here," explained Adenna.
Margaret sighed. "I'm sorry for how curt I was earlier then, I guess I was a bit focused on the snow..."
"Hey, you couldn't have known, I forgive you," Adenna said, as she gave Margaret a reassuring hug. "I guess I didn't quite realize how important it was to me until now..."
"It's okay, we'll figure a way around this," affirmed Margaret.
"Where do we start?" Adenna responded in kind.
"Well, I'd say the first thing would be to figure out what this snow is, if there's some kind of precedent, we can figure it out, I guess we should look at the guild's historical records," Margaret explained, as the last of the snow melted, and her magical energy felt strong and stable once more. "Do you know where those would be?"
Adenna had to stifle a laugh. She had the initiative, the drive, and all, but she was still new to the guild. "I'll show you.
"Okay, just be sure to clear the snow off of you, I think it wears off if it melts..."
The hall was mostly as it had been, but as seemed almost normal at this point, there were unfamiliar figures populating the guild hall's main room. This time, it was three people; two were around Adenna's age, and the third seemed to be a small child. Standing in the front was another redhead woman, of a slightly different tone than either Margaret or Adenna. She was an average height for a woman, with hair in a long dutch braid, and was a fairly top-heavy variety of athletic. She had broader shoulders and smaller hips than one would normally see on a woman, and she seemed to be tanned from exposure to the sun. She wore an orange blouse with flower patterns and loose, high-waisted pants in a slightly darker shade of orange. Completing the ensemble was a pair of teal sandals. The second was a woman about the same height as the first, whose body was more average in build. She wore a simple blue shirt with a skull printed on it and black skinny jeans along with black combat boots. Her curly black hair reached her shoulders and seemed to complement her large brown eyes. There was snow still on her left arm, though it had begun to melt. Near the snow, the arm seemed metallic, connected by rivets, while the other parts of her arm seemed more human. The third appealed to be a young child, and yet his expression betrayed something a bit more. He was dressed in a jacket appropriate for the current weather, but out of place in Fiore's typical climate, alongside a white shirt and blue shorts. His ears were covered under blue headphones, which in turn matted a portion of his hair, a comparable shade of blue.
"New members?" Margaret asked, as the looked on the three figures before her.
"I guess so, we all saw your ad," the redhead explained. "Marina Lirion, by the way."
"Valeria Stone," the metal-armed woman said in kind.
"Nao Ecora," the child declared, perhaps a bit more dramatically than the other three.
"Okay, welcome to Phoenix Gear!" Margaret declared, as she got out the stamp to mark them. "Now, normally, I'm supposed to have you three fight established mages, but it's only Adenna and myself around right now. Everyone else is off on jobs, plus we're dealing with... something outside."
"Oh yeah, the fairies told me," Nao said, with a knowing look. "They said the place across the street was doing it..."
"For the last time, you aren't talking to fairies," Valeria sighed.
Margaret peered out of the front window, and saw, a fair distance across the way, a fairly normal, strip mall-looking building. She could just make out the sign, which she had not yet seen, and yet there it was, in bold letters: Fundamentalist Church of Enoch. "You know what, I'll allow it," she muttered, as she exited the guild hall, Adenna in tow.
Erika stared at the dying flame, the snow seeming to kill it bit by bit. She found the idea odd, but if there was one thing that was clear in this whole shitshow, it was that she'd lose the chance to figure out exactly what was going through her head, and really, when was the last time she regreted doing something? With a sigh, Erika, brought the lighter to her mouth and sucked in the flames. The heat that had welled up in her seemed to only become stronger with each morsel. Around her person, in the same brilliant moment, she saw pinkish flames rise around her body. Her clothes should have burnt off, and yet she was unharmed. Objectively, this seemed wrong, but god, nothing had felt more right. This moment, whatever it was, gave Erika a greater sense of peace and calm than she could ever remember having before. Her confidence renewed, she began following the man whom she had just seen detach and re-attach his hand, figuring that he of all people would be a mage. The road seemed dilapidated, but her own childhood was fraught with the same form of poverty. If anything, this Estrecho felt something like home. Of course, the staircase that led to the guild hall seemed to be the busiest segment of any road she had seen in this town, with a preacher speaking to the crowd.
"This guild... Enoch would only call this abominable!" The priest's voice rang out. "Magic was his gift, and there is no use for it besides bringing about his will and his kingdom unto our world!"
"Fuck are you talking about?" Hand guy stopped, undoubtedly in no mood to hear the schpiel he had undoubtedly endured countless times before.
"You know it in your heart, and on this of all days, you should know it in your mind," the preacher declared, as he pointed to the sky.
"What?"
"This strange, ashen snow. It is Enoch's wrath. The Testament of Metatron tells us that with the people turning from Enoch's word, his own wrath would return. The skies will snow black, the seas boil over, and the land swallow any it sees fit..." The man declared.
"And I find it suspicious that your little chimney there seems to be spitting out the clouds," A third voice rang out, as its owner came into view.
Margaret and Adenna walked with an odd confidence based on the seemingly apocalyptic weather, and any time the snow fell near them, it seemed to instead fly upward, landing several feet away.
"My child, we are merely keeping warm as the temperature falls," the man protested. "It is not the concern of a sinful guild's master."
"Sinful huh?" That seemed to really set Margaret off, as she raised her arm.
"Margaret, focus, we have to shut it down according to that kid," Adenna sighed. Margaret, seemingly on cue, lowered her arm, as Erika watched on in awe. It was clear that the guild master before her had the kind of strength that she was seeking. Of course, what could a mage that powerful want with someone like her? In that moment, Erika felt worthless, and yet, her feeling seemed only to push her forward. After all, if she didn't wouldn't that just prove the person she hated most right? While lost in thought, Erika nearly failed to notice that the man with the detaching hand and the guild master, along with the companion had abandoned the preacher and had entered the church.
The indoor space of the church was not at all what Margaret had expected, it was hardly the cathedral type structure she had come to think of as a church. If anything, it looked more like a hollowed-out convenience store with folding chairs put forth in rows,a cheaply made raised platform as an altar, and a priest standing at the plywood pulpit.
"Ah, repentant sinners, I hope?" The priest asked, with a wry smile.
"Not exactly..." Margaret sighed. "How about you let us see what's happening up there?" She asked, pointing to the staircase off to her right, the preacher's left.
"Enoch would not force his people to suffer his wrath, not when it is directed at those worldly sinners, this is merely our method of keeping warm," the man said, with a sneer.
"Well then, I don't see why we can't go upstairs and sort that out then," Margaret said, confidently, as she walked over to the staircase, suspecting that she may be stopped in the process.
Sure enough, only a few steps away from the stairs, the floor seemed to open, putting her seemingly in the middle of the building's foundation.
"You see?" The priest demanded. "This poor nonbeliever has fallen victim to Enoch's wrath, truly our god finds his target!"
Erika felt like she may as well melt into the floor and join Margaret. What if this guy was right? Just like that, her opportunity was gone, seemingly devoured on a cruel god's whim. All she could do was hope that god wouldn't turn its sights on her, she supposed. Just as she was about to fall on her knees, the floor broke into pieces, the stones that took its place colored dark blue, and a slightly bemused Margaret at its epicenter.
"That was nothing, just a basic architecture magic spell. Fuck, I think you may just be the weakest mage here," Margaret sighed, as she looked at the priest, closing with a stuck-out tongue.
"You take that back!" The man shouted as he raised his arm and flung a piece of rubble at the guild master, who immediately reduced it to unviable dust.
"Those are mine now, I'll let you use them only if you fight the one opponent I think is at your level..." Margaret explained.
"And who might that be?"
Margaret pointed at Erika. "You'd probably lose to her, but it would be close."
Erika's emotional cocktail continued. Now all of the sudden this strange woman whom she had heard called a guild master believed that she could take on this full-fledged mage. Sure, it seemed like her own power was there, and yet, she'd never cast a spell before, at least not on purpose. How was she supposed to beat this guy, when Margaret herself was letting him use his magic? Then again, it was like the snow outside couldn't touch her. Maybe there was something there.
"I accept!" She blurted out, as she stepped down from the small island of floor that she, Adenna, and Silvius were standing on. Margaret thought enough to spare them the destruction, she supposed.
"Very well," the priest muttered, as he waved his hand and sealed the staircase.
"Damn. Should have guessed that one," Margaret thought to herself.
"Now, to start!" The man declared, as he formed the rubble into a massive hand, and grabbed Erika using it.
"Oh god! What did I get myself into!?" Erika shouted out as the hand closed around her. Initially, it seemed like she was wrong. Guild life couldn't be for her, if this was going to happen, crushed to death by a mage that this guild master considered too weak for her to even bother fighting herself.
"Shouldn't you stop him?" Adenna asked, as Margaret looked on intently, her fists clenched, and her face difficult to read.
"I'll give this new mage a little more time," Margaret explained, as she focused her gaze on the hand.
Erika, as she began to take her mind off the fear, and in a brief moment where she may have accepted being crushed to death otherwise, she felt her old friend, her cigarette lighter, in her pocket. Wriggling her arm free, she managed to spark the lighter once more, and gorged herself on fire once more. After eating her fill, She cracked a smile, cleared her mind, and mentally pushed the fire away. In a moment, there was a brilliant burst of energy, and the hand broke back into pieces. Erika dropped to the floor in a soft landing, and turned to face the priest again. "My turn," she said, and formed a magic circle with a demonic face not unlike the one on her lighter in the center. Though she couldn't describe this spell, she ran, faster than that priest could react, and punched him in the face with a fiery fist. He went down in one hit.
"Bravo," Margaret said, as she came up to Erika, the latter's rush fading.
"How did I do that?" The younger mage muttered.
"Well I'm not quite sure myself, you're probably some kind of slayer, I guess a devil slayer based on how your magic circle looked."
Erika tripped as she walked forward. "Guess I'm still not ready to use that kind of power," she sighed.
"All right, Silvius, take her back to the guild," Margaret instructed, as she began feeling the wall where the staircase once was.
"What are you looking for?" Adenna asked.
"Trying to figure out whether he was able to restructure the building or if he just covered it up. I'm pretty sure such a rudimentary mage would only close it off..." Margaret muttered as she knocked on the wall. It sounded hollow. "I was right," she said as she coated her arm in dark blue haze and punched through the wall, exposing the staircase. She crawled through the broken wall, Adenna following close behind. The top floor proved a bit more domestic than Margaret had assumed, and was a simple scene, with the two residents simply seated at a kitchen table. Margaret though, knew better. It was clear to her that the lines drawn along the floor were there for one reason only: to collect barrier particles.
"Oh, hello," the old man said. "It's not often we have visitors up here, the church was kind enough to take us in you see..."
"Cut the crap," Margaret said, a forceful tone in her voice.
"What do you mean?" His young companion blurted out. "I've been sick for months, and he's made sure I got food and everything."
Her standing up gave Margaret a good look at how malnourished the girl seemed to be, despite the pantry near the back of the room seeming stocked to the brim. It seemed as though every stray calorie the girl ate was being used for... something else. In that moment, Margaret put two and two together, and realized that the girl was what was making the snowstorm, and the lines were sapping her eternano; aaaand she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Great...
"All right, Adenna, break up the floor," Margaret commanded, as she set her sights on the old man.
Adenna complied, growing thorn bushes from the floor, and splintering the wood. In the same moment, the machines stopped. Margaret peered out of the window. The snow was still going, but up in the sky, Margaret could see that the flow of snow from the clouds had ceased. Things would be back to normal in a few hours.
"You can't prove anything!" The man shouted, as he lunged towards the machines, seemingly desperate to destroy them. His attempte was quickly quashed, as a dark blue chain ensnared him.
Margaret reeled him in, as Penny fell to the floor, crying.
"It's okay, we'll get you looked at," Margaret promised, as she fell into the master's arms.
8 June X820, Southbound Line, Somewhere in Fiore, 5 PM.
"How far until we're there?" Zavid asked, looking out at the forest, which was turning increasingly tropical.
"Well, supposedly it should be another half hour, and from what I've heard, things will get a bit strange as we near the town's limits. Extinct animals, armies from long ago, things like that," Grace explained.
"So tell me about these rules you mentioned," Zavid said. "After all, I'm not interested in being trapped in an eternal time loop the first time I go on an S-Class job."
"Well, it should be fairly simple. Apparently, it's mostly tied to the amount of magic you use. If your barrier particles are completely replaced by those inside of the town, then you'll be trapped, the time itself will bend so that you can never leave," Grace explained.
"So you can't be there too long?"
"Yes and no, your particles won't deplete over time, and you won't really get hungry or tired. Time doesn't really pass in this place, even though it would seem to. It all comes down to using your magic."
"So it will take a bit more than just magical strength to take this mission on?" Zavid guessed.
"Exactly. The good news is all we have to do is recover an artistic plate that was left there when our client stopped there by mistake," Grace agreed.
"Good, let's hope this goes quickly then," the younger mage sighed as the train pulled in the station.
"Pulling into Harveytown now!" The conductor announced through the intercom, as the train stopped, seemingly in the middle of an empty field. As the duo disembarked, the station seemed to materialize, a modern building with shops, restaurants, and a ticket office, not unlike the station in Crocus. In the same moment, the shops disappeared, and it was a bare-bones platform, with a simple staircase going down to a ghost town, which proceeded to flicker into a bustling city.
Zavid tensed a bit as the unfamiliar setting made itself known. "I'm going to buy a lighter-I hope..." He muttered, as he did so at a stand that flickered into existance and then flickered out. The lighter itself transitioned between the form seen first and a matchbook. "All right, let's get to work Grace. Grace?" He asked, as the old woman he recognized seemed to be gone, replaced by a woman his age, blue haired, and with a double-breasted red coat.
"Sure, why not?" The now young Grace asked.
8 June X820, Ibex Skull Guild Hall, Ishvan Autonomous Region, 5 PM.
"What are you talking about? Phoenix Gear hasn't been any trouble as long as this guild has existed," the man behind the master's desk insisted. He was tall, with a bald head, and sunglasses. His build was muscular, and that seemed to be tied to his preferred style of magic. The name in front of him read "Diego Toral."
"Well my being grounded in flight tells a different story," Altair sighed, as he looked around the cramped space. A repurposed mountain cave was hardly something he was used to in a guilid hall, and the small affilate in the region seemed a bit unaccountable. There were few luxuries, and it seemed that the mages that were in this guild slept in a common set of cots behind the guild hall proper.
"What are you even here about?" Diego demanded, as he attempted to stare down the shorter man, who responded in kind by spiking his magical aura, something which put the lower-level master off of any ideas.
"Phoenix Gear is starting to become a thorn in the side of our operations, after an important message was intercepted by one of their number. As such, your attempt at an assault on the New Magic Council's constitutional revision may be threatened," Altair explained. "I am here to act as additional support, so to ensure it goes well."
"Why do we need you? We already have that special project," Diego motioned to a figure dressed as an executioner, in a black cloak and hood. Only the figure's eyes were visible. They were black and beady.
"mmm..." The figure managed.
"Kinda creeps me out, hasn't said a thing since you folks brought them here..." Diego sighed.
"I wouldn't reccommend pressing," Altair said, firmly. "As I was saying, the situation could get hairy, and our operation hinges on the constitutional renegotiation going south, so I have been assigned here to aid against the threat that Phoenix Gear presents," Altair explained.
Diego seemed to submit upon hearing that. "All right. Sherry! Show our guest his quarters!"
At that, a woman who looked to be a few years past 50 sprang up, though perhaps not as bubbly as she had once been. Sherry Blendy's red hair had faded into a partial gray, and her features were lightly wrinkled. What seemed most obvious about her though, was her eyes. There was a bit of intensity, anger, and focus that had been largely absent in her younger years. This was a woman who had been betrayed, and lost everything for it.
"Yes, of course, and what a fine fellow he is..." She muttered, seemingly sincere, and incredibly desperate. The last phrase gave Altair a chill, despite knowing that he probably outclassed her.
8 June X820, Phoenix Gear Guild Hall, Estrecho, Fiore, 5:30 PM.
"Margaret?" Penny said, as they entered the hall.
"Yes?"
"After all of that, thanks for letting me join up," she said, seemingly relieved.
"It's nothing, there wasn't much else for me to do. Just be sure you see that therapist they referred you to, you need to make sure that you're making these kinds of decisions on your own," Margaret reminded her, as the young woman's eyes quickly flitted around, seeing the new mages, and joining them at their table.
"After today, I think the fight can wait until tomorrow," Margaret sighed.
"I guess now's as good a time as any to eat..." Adenna agreed.
"Fuck!" The pie is probably burnt by now!" Margaret shouted, as she ran out the back door, followed by the S-Class mage once more.
A/N: Zavid and Grace will finally get their time in the next chapter, and don't think for a second that I've forgotten about the other mages, their stuff will be resolved next chapter! Also, Contest results:
This chapter's contest winner is: Yngvarr Frey!
Congratulations and thanks to all who submitted; the runner up will also be contacted.
Next contest: All rules apply, and I'm looking for an OC who will establish themself in the building across from the Guild Hall. They should be a business owner, and the other details are more or less up to you. Mage or not mage, for or against the guild, that much is your choice!
Now then, get your OCs in, and let's fill up the guild's roster. Until next time!
Penny Luma created by SerpentFeather.
Marina Liron created by Firealis.
Valeria Stone created by Gray Cloud 12.
Nao Ecora created by ZylerZodiac.
Diego Toral created by The Impostor.
