Quest Accepted:
Maybe I'm A Lion
Over a week had passed since the fateful encounter in the ancient ruins. For the sisters, the time spent within Tristain was not spent idle. The first few days were spend within the city proper, Louise herself refusing the aid of a traditional water mage and insisting on Eleanor using the odd heretical magicks gained from the voice and enchanted tome Eleanor kept secret from the Institute.
'It feels better than water magic,' Eleanor massaged the bridge of her nose as she recalled Louise's words. She glanced out the window of the carriage to observe Louise still in the guard uniform, an odd visored hat upon her head, jogging along at a brisk pace. An uncharacteristic choice alternative to riding in the carriage she insisted she hated on principle.
After a surprisingly quick recovery, they spent an afternoon in the shopping district, where excitedly Louise picked up a weird 'hat' that seemed to be a cross between a helmet and turban with a visor that covered the top half of her face but used a network of small holes to filter out sunlight while allowing near unhindered sight. The merchant insisted it was imported from the Holy Lands of the southeastern deserts. Though, Eleanor reasoned that it was simply an eccentric design with an outlandish sales pitch. Louise didn't seem to care and the elder sister caved in to the pouting that ensued.
While Louise had also insisted on visiting the town guard once more, Eleanor took to studying the tome in private. She made astounding progress in deciphering the contents despite not being a linguist but rather more a historian in practice. Throughout this, the voice had remained silent, perhaps even dormant.
What Louise spent the time with the town guard actually doing was still a mystery to Eleanor, but the time to take to the road finally arrived. They couldn't simply put off returning to the Valliere estate indefinitely.
Eleanor returned her focus to the tome that sat on her lap, sheets of paper containing detailed notes on the subject matter within the tome littered about on the plush leather seating around her.
"All this and I'm still barely scratching the surface," she sighed as she adjusted her freshly repaired glasses.
The subjects within the tome were diverse and varied in the extreme, often changing within the same page or even paragraph in some cases. From mathematics, to biology, to astronomy, it contained it all. She currently had hit a piece of text that seemed to be part of an incomplete bestiary and was quite a hurdle to translate with much of it being words with no Halkegenian equivalent.
'Just what is a Tonberry?" She turned the page and almost immediately started taking notes, 'come to think of it...whatever happened to that green creature?'
Louise huffed harshly with her hair set in a low ponytail waving in tune with each jarring step as she struggled to keep up with the accursed carriage. Her brief revisit to the town guards had surprised everyone involved. Her insistence on receiving a crash course in combat training was more surprising still. Yet, the kind Captain Weston yielded rather quickly to her badgering. Those few days spent with them were harsh, but rewarding. She found she had picked up the more academic aspects at an unprecedented speed, as if she were gifted in the subjects.
The more physical and practical of the training was, of course, a painful affair for one of her poor fitness. The efforts of the Captain did provide her with a baseline to work from as well as a regimen to follow to improve. It was a shame Jason and Ellie were sent on patrol in the neighboring areas. She would have loved to meet them again.
Her choice to jog instead of taking the carriage was actually in part for the purpose of bettering her physique and not just an aversion to the wheeled abomination. Not that her sister had fully understood, but Louise felt compelled to train herself. A repeat of the bandit ambush and the skirmish with monsters will not occur if Louise had any say in it. Should such a thing happen, she'd be prepared.
She could feel the presence of the voice in the back of her mind express approval without words. The foreboding sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach seemed to be quelled by her efforts as well. Furthermore, she was anxious to see what Cattlya had to say about the changes. Whether it be Louise's own change in focus and drive or Eleanor's quite evident mellowing out.
She let herself form a goofy grin as the visor flopped down over eyes at the thought, since in Eleanor's infinite wisdom she deemed it appropriate to make a short detour into the middle sister's fiefdom.
"Boss? Are y' sure dis is wise?" Random Bandit 'A' gulped as he hobbled up behind a rather massive musclebound man with several others in tow.
"Shut it, fucking scab!" The Boss scowled.
"B-but...deh be Vallieres!" Random bandit 'B' stammered as he itched his crotch with an anxious fury.
The Boss simply stared at the underlings in raw disdain.
"What? A Valliere killed me brother! They WILL pay for it! But first I wan tah send a message," He turned away to look over the sprawling farmland before them with a vicious grin.
Random Bandit 'A' squinted at the farmland.
"Ahn how we know 't was dem anyway Boss?"
"Well, dat was easy you daft twat! Isn't dat right boy?" He tugged at a rope held in his left hand, the resulting yelp and thump caused the lackeys to huff a short laugh.
"P-please...no more...let her go...," a young man wearing what was once the pristine blue colors of a guard uniform struggled to stand, his limbs resisting the effort with great pain and his one good eye held back tears that welled in its corners.
The Boss once again took to staring out at the land before him.
"What about ret...retri...retriboatian,? Random Bandit 'B' attempted to speak.
"Retribution, you whoreson! An' let them try," the Boss gripped the black crystalline stone he held in his right harder, the vicious grin only growing wider and wilder with every second that passed.
With a sudden jerk of the rope and a nod, the Boss signaled his ragtag 'army' to move on. The Random Bandit's 'A' and 'B' waving and shouting behind them, rallying the force numbering close to a hundred that cheered as they 'marched' on.
"Urk...ugh...," Louise whimpered in while trying her damnedest not to wretch further.
Eleanor rubbed circled on her youngest sister's back, who had taken to laying stomach first upon the elder sister's lap.
"Honestly, I saw this coming. Didn't I warned you about pushing yourself too far?" Eleanor grinned in amusement as Louise grumbled expletives under her breath.
When Louise had collapsed in a fit of vomiting on the side of the road, it was all Eleanor could do to refrain from laughing at her sister's suffering. After several bouts of 'I told you so''s and much coaxing, she had managed to get the younger girl to finally rest and finish the final stretch of their journey in the relative comfort of the carriage despite Louise's protests. An awkward silence prevailed with only the clatter of wooden wheels and the scratchy sound of Eleanor's writings keeping the duo company.
"So, why the sudden interest in your physical health?"
Louise glanced back from the corner of her eye at her sister before heaving a deep sigh.
"I...I still can't use magic, and...well, with the things that have happened...," Louise poked at her spiffy hat that lay off to the side of the seat.
"Ah."
Eleanor could see where her sister was coming from to an extent. What worried her though was that ever since the incident in the ruins, she herself felt her own magic diminish in proportion to her new studies. She was sure that whatever effected Louise before wasn't anything contagious. When she tried to 'confront' the Voice about it, no words were forthcoming but only a sense of confusion creeped into the back of her mind. The worry over heretical magics and the fallout that accompanied was not far behind.
'Something to ruminate on I suppose,' Eleanor adjusted her glasses once more before allowing a mischievous thought strike her.
Setting aside the tome to free up her hands she slowly positioned them to Louise's sides before making a surprise attack. Fingers gently dug into the flanks and ribs of the smaller girl, causing a startled yelp. With some wiggling fingers and flexing hands, Louise was reduced into a blob of giggles as she flailed helplessly under Eleanor's swift assault.
"Bua~ Sis! Baha~S-stop! Pfftfftfftha~"
As suddenly as she began she ceased, allowing Louise to roll over and flop onto the carriage floor in exhaustion.
"You jerk," Louise huffed.
At that Eleanor guffawed and crossed her legs with a smug look on her face. She quite enjoyed the new dynamic that started to form between herself and her sister. Once of good natured ribbing instead of outright insults, playful rough housing instead of maliciousness, and what she hoped was a healthy amount of affection. The latter she had seen the middle sister engage in of her own accord, yet she wasn't quite sure anymore just how pure Cattlya really was after asking Louise to try treating her as she did Cattlya. The thought caused her to blush slightly before regaining composure, thankful that Louise decided to spend her time of exhaustion face down on the floor instead of facing her elder sister.
Redirecting her thoughts to Cattlya, she wondered what the middle sister was up to. Looking out the window to see that they indeed had already crossed the threshold of La Fontaine long ago. The vast fields of farmland and orchards were a point of pride that took second place only to Cattlya's extensive 'collection of friends' that she kept at the manor.
A sudden jolt of the carriage coming to a halt caused Eleanor to brace herself and Louise to find herself flung harshly into the front of the cabin with a thump.
"AGH! What!? No! NOT AGAIN!" Louise exclaimed as she scrambled to her knees, her hands darting quickly to her daggers.
Eleanor held a hand up to quell Louise's panic as she stood to open up the small window in the front to speak with the driver.
"Driver! What's happened? Why'd you stop?" She struggled to keep her voice even and calm.
"M-ma'am...I see...smoke...," the driver spoke slowly as if in disbelief.
"WHAT?"
Now the panic that Louise felt was shared with Eleanor as she opened the door window and stuck her head out. The view she now witnessed was accompanied by faint yelling and screaming in the distance that set her heart racing.
"Damnit! Driver, get us there now!"
"Oh no, I'm not getting near that! If you want to risk your hide then feel free, but I'm turning around here!" He looked back, his face having lost all color moments ago.
"Grr, FINE!" Eleanor grabbed her tome and kicked open the door to jump out.
Louise followed suit and gasped as she finally seen what Eleanor had, going pale just as the driver did, panic and worry worming its way into her.
"Get out of here then, don't expect to be paid for this by the way," Eleanor growled at the driver as she banged on the side of the carriage.
She no longer cared about the little bit of luggage they carried as the carriage turned and with as much haste as the driver could muster, departed from whence they came. All that mattered to the sisters at this point was a single driving thought they shared in their minds.
'Please, be ok...'
Chaos reigned all about the La Fontaine manor as many peasant took refuge within, more still trickling in from the outskirts of small township. Many sported wounds of some sort, some with burns, and a smaller few having more grievous injuries.
"W-what is going on?" Cattlya darted about in confusion, helping some of the more debilitated of the injured as well as the youths that staggered to her doorstep.
"M-my lady, it seems...that bandits are r-raiding the plantation," a maid helped her pull a panicked boy from the ground where he stumbled and fell.
"B-bandits!?"
Cattlya could scarcely believe such a thing. The fiefdom of La Fontaine enjoyed the protection of the Valliere estate, being a direct family offshoot thanks to her early inheritance. Such criminal actions were met with inevitable retaliation, most certainly leading to a death sentence of sorts since her mother would invariably take the law into her own hands in such a case. Even without extensive posting of guards, simply the thought of earning the Heavy Wind's ire was enough to discourage and prevent nearly all violent crime, and a vast majority of others, even the most minor of domestic arguments were resolved peacefully in fear of Valliere intervention.
From beyond the smoke that slowly encompassed the manor the silhouettes of dozens of men slowly poured into view.
"Oi! Bring out the Valliere! I got a grievance tah take up wit them!" A massive hulk of a man casually walked into view in front of the bandit mob.
'What? Why?' Cattlya's eyes widened at the statement.
The maid from earlier tugged at her arm as another man took her other and pulled her towards the manor door.
"What yeh don't want to play with me? What a horrible host yeh are," the man grinned.
"W-what is it you want!?" Cattlya struggled against the pull of the man and maid.
"Oh, yeh should ask meh brother 'bout it, wait, one of you KILLED HIM!" The man scowled.
'What? So it isn't something like ransom...it's a personal vendetta?'
Cattlya was to say the least stunned at the statement. Her parents haven't so much as left the Valliere estate ground in years aside from invites to the capitol, and her sisters were preoccupied at their respective institutions of learning. This man couldn't really have any case against them, and certainly no reason to take such a risk in attacking a Valliere holding.
"CATTLYAAA~"
A familiar voice called out, causing those present to face the source. An out of breath Louise dashed into the stomach of the middle sister, causing her to fall back into the grip of the ones that held her in place.
"Louise?" She gasped as she stared in confusion at the oddly garbed little sister.
"A-are you alright?" An equally out of breath Eleanor jogged into view, ignoring the mob not far off.
"Eleanor?"
"Shit-stains?" The man deadpanned, "Since I've teh fortune of yah three bein' all here."
He pulled on a rope he held in his left hand, forcing a younger man to stumble into view, yelping in pain.
"Which one," he jerked his head towards the group of sisters.
Louise looked to the young man, her face twisting in horror as she found she recognized the battered face. The sharp pain of a headache jabbed into her forehead as her vision blurred.
The sun was setting, bringing bright yellows and orange to half the sky as the other half succumbed to the violets of the coming night. A young couple wearing blue uniforms made themselves comfortable under a great tree just outside the brush on the far outskirts of the capital city Tristain. The young woman giggled softly as the young man pulled her to his side sitting under the tree.
"Hmm," she nuzzled into the crook of his neck happily.
"Heh, you sure we should be doing this on patrol, Ellie?" The young man leaned his head over hers.
"Oh, come on, Old Man Weston knows about us, I can see it when he smiles every time we leave together. Don't worry about it Jason," Ellie wrapped an arm around Jason's chest in assurance.
A wide smile stretched across Jason's face as he tightened his hold on Ellie.
"If you say so," he said softly as he kissed her forehead.
They remained this way for several minutes before Ellie gently slipped from Jason's grip, positioning herself over him, straddling his lap.
"You know, I joined the guard in hopes for a stepping stone to a more exciting life outside of the family farm...I didn't expect to find you," She gently pulled herself atop Jason, forcing him to lay on the ground.
He gazed back into her eyes, so full of life and love that he couldn't help but drown out the world around him.
"Ellie...," he whispered as she smiled down at him.
But then the light that shown in her eyes disappeared, replaced by a dull blank stare as her mouth opened slightly as a thud echoed in his ears.
"Ellie!?"
She slumped to his chest, limp in his arms. Behind her stood a massive man with a large tree felling ax held in the aftermath of the butt of it being slammed into Ellie's head. Horror dawned on Jason as he felt the back of her head for damage.
"Yeh a member of the guard, aye?" The man grinned, "I've some questions fer ya."
"J-Jason?" Louise mumbled as she rubbed her head to mitigate the ache.
The young man sobbed.
"Ah, wouldn't o' guessed, it was the wee one then," the man narrowed his gaze at Louise and pointed at her, "yeh killed my brother, little bitch!"
"W-what?" She searched memories of the weeks past, with only a single moment bringing the conclusion she needed, "You...your his brother? He wanted to ransom me off, and was about to let one his lackeys...have his way with me!"
Eleanor and Cattlya were stunned in shock. Eleanor had only heard of the event second hand from the letter, but certain details were left out for Louise's sake, and this news was thus far unheard of for Cattlya who had to fight off a fainting spell from the very idea.
"Aye? Then yeh shoulda just went along with it then," the man dismissed her anger.
Louise had to suppress her rising anger, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
"Where's Ellie?"
The man and Jason had a turn at shock. Certainly the girl shouldn't know the circumstances of the guard's capture to find her. The Boss of the bandits was the first to recover.
"Eh, worried more 'bout another than yerself? Me boys back at camp are taking fine care o' her, believe me," the wicked grin returned to his face, causing Jason and Louise to cringe in disgust and anger, "Now, give yerself over and I'll let these twats go."
"Louise," Eleanor placed a hand on her shoulder.
Shrugging off the hand, Louise grasped the grips of her mismatched daggers, drawing them slowly. Her eyes hidden as she allowed the visor of her hat to cover them, she tilted her face up slightly in derision towards the bandit boss.
"Cattlya?"
"Y-yes?" The middle sister gulped at being addressed, her younger sister scaring her much more than she should.
"Get inside...Eleanor...get ready..."
The eldest sister took a deep breath as she nodded slightly, pushing Cattlya further into the arms of the peasant man and maid.
"Go on, you heard her, get her inside now!" Eleanor all but screamed as her grip on her tome tightened.
The bandit boss eyed the daggers and the two sisters with curiousity.
"Oh? Yeh looking for a fight then? Fine, 'ave it yer way then!" He signaled his lackeys to attack.
At the signal, several men darted forward in cruel joy towards the sisters, expecting them to cower at their advance. Instead they were met with a bolt of light that sent one flying to his back, skidding several feet before coming to a halt. Life having left him the moment he was sent airborne. In shock, the men looked to their fallen comrade before turning back to see the eldest sister holding a glowing tome with a grim expression on her face.
"I'm going to give you the courtesy of surrendering yourself right now for your own crimes, worm," she growled.
The Boss blinked in confusion before breaking out into a fit of laughter.
"Oi, what fucked up magic was dat? No matter, git em, forget takin' em alive, just kill em!"
"Big mistake...," Louise mumbled as she took off into a dash, confronting the renewed charge.
Ducking at attack from a bandit and making a few passing slashes at their legs causing them to fall in pain, she twirled a dagger to hold it by the blade. Winding back a moment she let the blade loose in a throw towards the Boss. In reflex he made to dodge it, but found that the twirling blade missed it's mark by a fair distance.
"Haha! What yeh aiming at welp?"
Then a realization dawned on him as her twisted to the side to find that the rope holding his captive was severed.
"Jason! Run!"
The shocked guardsman shook out of his stupor and darted passed the injured bandits and into the relative safety of the manor.
"Well...don't yeh tink yer clever...," the Boss chuckled in amusement as he pulled his axe from his back, "dat don't change a thing though."
More bandits came forth from behind the veil of smoke to join their boss, whatever deeds they were preoccupied with complete. They took to fanning out around the duo with blades and torches, murder in their eyes.
The yelling and screaming of the men outside echoed in the entrance of the manor, causing the residents to murmur in worry. Cattlya toyed with the red stone she had placed in a silver chain around her neck gifted to her by her bird friend. Her sisters had taken to fighting off the bandits just outside as she was forced to watch in horror from the window nearby. How her cherished little sister had become so proficient with blades was beyond her and the bizarre magic her elder sister wielded confounded her. Her fear only grew exponentially as news from the peasants reached her that what few guards she had within her territory were either still occupied in fighting bandits or the fire, injured within the manor, or dead. The dread at the thought of the fates she, her sisters, and the residence of her territory faced at the hands of bandits ate away at her resolve.
A scream resounded behind her as a maid found the grinning face of a bandit in another window.
"They...they're setting fire to the manor!?" A peasant exclaimed as the smell of smoke finally reached her nose.
Another peasant had tried to make his escape through the back, attempted to pass through the window in the kitchen, only to be speared through with only a pained screamed as he died.
'They've trapped us in here!' Cattlya's eyes widened in fear.
Death by bandit or fire. A horrible choice was presented to them. Many had simply collapsed to their knees in despair.
'NO,' she turned her attention back out the window to find her sisters fighting a losing battle cornered against the manor's front door.
Louise couldn't make any progress towards the Boss as she was forced to protect Eleanor who could scarcely manage to mend the wounds that were inflicted on the youngest sibling and still dodge the attacks on her own person.
Tears welled up in Cattlya's eyes as she watched Louise take each painful cut inflicted on her with stride as Eleanor tried her damnedest to mitigate said wounds with strange green light. The fervor of the two sisters causing her heart to ache as she knew she had no means of aiding them. She couldn't so much as cast a single spell without succumbing to her mysterious ailment, nor could she wield a blade to any degree that wouldn't actually hinder them instead.
'No...I...I have to do something...'
Her heartbeat thumped and echoed in her head, making her deaf to the sad voice in the back of her mind as she gripped the stone hanging from her neck tighter.
She fell to her knees, her hands clasped in prayer. Yet no divine intervention seemed forthcoming. She pounded a fist into the floor, shocking the bystanders around her. The fist unfolded as it came up to grasp at her aching forehead. The throbbing of the blood that rushed through her still masked the now panicking voice as she pulled herself to her feet and slowly turned to face the black suit of armor given to her by the local blacksmith.
Her eyes narrowed on the massive battleaxe as a trembling hand reached out to it. She grasped the long shaft and tugged on it, eliciting a frustrated grunt as it resisted her with its weight. She pulled harder, and harder still as the armor finally released its hold, toppling over to the ground and sending her sprawling on her back with the axe's shaft wedging between her bust. Midst the scattered remains of the armor she struggled to stand, kicking off her heeled shoes in the process and pulling the lighter end of the axe up with her.
The throbbing and voice stopped as she took a firm grip of the shaft and visions of a diminutive pointy ears 'man' flooded her mind. Garbed in bright yellow, he defended the prone form of another such being that lay unmoving behind him. Rage consumed him as he swung an axe as large as himself at creatures that would only be found in her most terrible nightmares. The visions faded as she fully took hold of the massive black battleaxe with both hands and started to drag it towards the manor's doors.
A sorrowful voice echoed in the minds of the three sisters.
Sorry, I'm so sorry. Forgive me, forgive me.
Cattlya hefted the axe in a wide arc, the collision with the doors shattering them into oblivion.
(The Black Mages - Maybe I'm A Lion – FFVIII)
The doors shattered from within, causing the two sisters to stumble forward and the bandits to back off in surprise. Standing in the doorway was Cattlya, panting heavily, blood speckled on her bust and lower lips dyed red with the fluid. Her eyes alight with a fury previously foreign to the kind and gentle soul. She grit her teeth as she lower her head.
"Cattlya?" Louise quietly whimpered.
The middle sister breathed as deep as she could before letting out a bloodcurdling scream, charging forward at the nearest bandit with a battleaxe somehow held aloft in her frail arms. The bandit was split in half, shoulder to groin, by the strike. Blood splattering across the front of Cattlya's body. Once more she panted heavily, her eyes focusing on the Boss with an unrelenting bloodlust.
I'm sorry!
Again, Cattlya charge forth, this time towards the Boss with an unfortunate bandit stepping before her causing her to bury the blade deep within his abdomen.
I didn't mean for this to happen!
Her hair flared out around her in a bloody mane as her legs gave out beneath her. Only the healing light of Eleanor kept her from losing conciousness.
"Cattlya! Stop!" Louise darted to her side, taking down the few bandits that saw fit to try to capitalize on the weak middle sister's collapse.
"Ah...," she coughed, blood expelled in a mist on the ground below Cattlya, "I...seem to have lost myself for a moment."
"What happened to you?" Louise asked quietly as she tried pull her sister to her feet.
Cattlya weakly pushed Louise away when she found her footing once again. Her left hand fished out a small bird shaped whistle from her long skirt.
"I...can't...stand to see...you hurt...I...have to fight too."
Without allowing Louise to respond, Cattlya blew into the whistle as hard as she could, the shrill noise carrying loud and far.
"BOKO!" She panted as she screamed, "HELP!"
The Boss huffed in amusement as he stepped forward only to be interrupted as a massive red bird crashed into one of his lackeys before him, its beak tearing into the bandit's chest with unbridled fury.
Boko...," Cattlya cooed as the bird ceased the brutality and walked up to the woman, gently nuzzling its bloodied beak to her face as she caressed its head.
The morbid scene set everyone on edge.
Boko moved behind Cattlya and gently slid the woman over its head and onto its back, letting her settle in with her battleaxe hanging at her side.
"I don't care who you are...or why you're here," she coughed, "but you hurt my people, you set fire to my land," she coughed once more, blood trickling from her mouth,"and you hurt my beloved sisters...for that you die..."
"Bloody upstart bitch!" The Boss gripped a black crystal in his right hand, a dark mist enveloping him as he did so.
Combat resumed around them, Louise forcing bandit to keep a distance as Eleanor focused entirely on keeping Cattlya from dying, be it from blade or from illness. For the most part, the terror instilled by Cattlya's out of character actions and the massive bird brought the focus of the Boss and bandits squarely on her, a state that worked greatly in favor of Louise as she retrieved her second dagger and proceeded to cut down the distracted bandits one by one.
Cattlya, acting as a cavalry of sorts with Boko, managed to achieve a level of agility unheard of for mounted warriors. No longer hindered by having to provide all the strength and force to swing the axe all by herself, she clashed she the increasingly infuriated Boss. Boko nimbly jumped out of reach of his blade when he swung at Cattlya and following up by darting in close as inertia hindered his movements, allowing Cattlya to strike with impunity.
Whatever power the dark crystal held brought about subtle bestial changes in the Boss. His muscles bulging, his skin taking an increasingly ashen hue, and the wild strikes coming faster with more force behind them.
Silence slowly descended on the dueling bandit Boss and mounting Cattlya. The came to a halt as they surveyed the surroundings. Only the roar of the fires and the countless dead bodies of bandits greeted them as Louise and Eleanor took to flanking the Boss, weapons ready to strike at the slightest movement.
In a final fit of rage, the bandit Boss lunged at Cattlya only to feel the biting sting of two daggers planting themselves into his back, followed by his vision being blurred as extreme nausea and pain fanned out over his body. Falling to his knees, he growled up at Cattlya who stared at him in disgust. Nothing else followed as his head rolled on the blood soaked earth, the black crystal falling to the ground, shattering.
The sisters simply remained in place, unsure what to think of what just happened as Cattlya stared at the bloody black axe she held with shaking hands. She felt the strength that once surged through her fade from her body, her eyes rolled in her head, and she toppled from the back of Boko unconscious with blood flowing from her mouth and nose.
"CATTLYA!" The remaining sisters screamed in startled worry, rushing to her side.
Please...forgive me.
Eleanor would spend the greater part of the night constantly using her gift of healing to keep the frail sister alive and Louise crying at her side.
From the shadows of the nearby wood, masked in the smoke and darkness, a hooded man with a half face mask watched the battle and aftermath unfold.
"Master was right...so the Light HAS returned. Hmm, it was wise to give that brigand some power, but it wasn't enough. Oh well, food for thought, we'll just have to do better next time," a half-hearted smile on his face quickly disappeared as he turned and vanished into the coming night.
Louise
LVL16 Rogue (power leveling much?)
Hyur Midlander (Miqote Seeker of the Sun)
Likes sharp things, both her sisters, head pats, and murderous red birds that protect Cattlya
Eleanor
LVL17 Arcanist
Hyur Midlander (Roegadyn Sea Wolf)
Still hasn't summoned a Carbuncle
Likes long walks on the beach, her sisters, weird creatures that aren't trying to eat her.
Cattlya
LVL6 Marauder (LVL 38 under effects of the ECHO)
Hyur Midlander (Lalafell Plainsfolk)
Likes her sisters, animals (especially giant red birds), head pats (giving and receiving), and offering BLOOD TO THE BLOOD GOD!