Open Will Magic For Food

[Erin Stella]

Before being lifted and moved, Erin once again lost consciousness. Unlike before, however, this time she dreamed. She dreamed she was back home, on the streets of Zeltiva. A crowed of people had gathered around her and stood, waiting in hopeful anticipation. Erin was draped in one of her favorite silk dresses from home and it seemed she was wearing most if not all of her sapphire jewelry. She stood tall her arms straight out to both sides, a sly smile on her face as her eyes darted back and fourth across the crowed. Finally, she began. Rez began to pour from her body as she ignited it and moved it around the area in a beautiful and powerful display. She moved her body as if she were directing the fires but it was only to add to the show. The crowed stared with breathtaking awe at the elegance of the performance as the flames jumped and danced around the young girl. Then came the finally. Erin lifted her right arm straight into the air and looked directly up and two snakes made entirely of fire formed at her feet. The circled her body with great speed as they ascended up her. Once they reached her arm they got tighter to her body and increased speed. When they finally reached the end of her arm they both shot into the air, leaving a brief tail of fire behind them. The snakes flew through the air before colliding into each other, exploding, and forming into a stable ball of fire very much resembling a small star. The audience went while cheering. Erin tried not to reveal any kind of pride at this moment but couldn't help but smile. She reached both arms straight into the air and held out her hand as though she were physically holding the massive ball. Slowly she began lowering the ball down closer to herself, perhaps too close. Once she could feel the heat of the rez she tried to stop its motion so it would float seamlessly above her head, but it didn't listen. It continued to descend closer and closer to her. Finally, it began to burn away at her. Her whole body seemed to be aflame, but still the crowed cheered on. She cried for help but know one came; when she tried to run away from her fiery Djed she found she was unable to move her hands or feet. As the miniature star dropped to the ground to consume her entire body, she shot awake.

It was just a horrible nightmare, but unfortunately for Erin not far from the truth. Her eyes shot open and she gasped in several deep breaths. Her hands shot up to feel her face and chest, just to confirm that she could still feel and that she wasn't on fire. She then realized she couldn't pull her hands away. She glanced down and was immediately reminded that her limbs had been completely bound. Looking up, she had immediately learned why she was so hot. There she lie, staring into the burning fires of the furnace merely inches away. She could already tell that at least some of her hair had already been singed off. For a moment she simply looked on in a daze, then it hit her that she was about to be burned alive. This realization prompted one last burst of resistance from her...well, not a burst of resistance as much as a panic attack. Despite her difficulty to form even basic words before Erin let out a cry of terror louder than she had ever thought herself possible of. She frantically pulled at the ropes around her hands and feet but to no avail. She squirmed her whole body, throwing her whole mid section into the air and back onto the slab several times, until finally she through herself straight off the slab. She hit the ground with a tremendous thud and once again hitting her head on the cold, hard ground. She lie there, motionless. After a moment she vomited onto the ground beside her, but she did not pass out again. She simply stared on ahead. No thoughts. No movements. She simply waited for her executioner to return.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan’s thoughts kept repeating themselves as he waited for the Order. Start with what you know, Ethan. It was a saying from Liam Skellig, Hadyn’s older brother used to say when Ethan had the pleasure of learning something from him. I was chasing the knight down the alleyways by listening to his metal armor, that means he is a physical being, not a ghost. He must be exceptionally stronger for his size or have magic and has skill with weapons and armor. He had to have access to weapons and armor, possibly from a parent or family member. Ethan nodded at it, a team of armorsmiths took a half year to create a suit of armor, and Ethan was sure that none would have done the old style of the suit. He has to believe in the law to a zealous degree, and to disagree with the knights not to join them…. Ethan’s snorted as he heard the sounds of the Order running to him, the only man I can think of that fits half that description would be Gerald Anthonius and that was truly insane. Ethan cursed his foolish logic, feeling that even Gnora herself was laughing at him. It was then that the Knight, Ser Talber in which Ethan had no idea his name was, came into the alley. Ethan started jogging to him, instead of waiting for the Knight to come to him. Ethan feared what would happen to the young fellow who had rushed in after the Knight. “Yo there! The Rogue Knight has beaten someone and is in Li Mauta, I think he is trying to kill her.” Ethan moved to run into Li Mauta and try find to the first place that the knight would dispose of a body quickly. The furnace… Of course if the Knight asked him to explain or stopped him, Ethan would do so, he needed the knighthood to believe him. But it was his hope that the man would follow Ethan, and that Ethan would search frantically from room to room to determine where Erin was, trying to find the furnace first so that the Knight didn’t have time to dispose of the body. He was feeling very guilty about what had happened. Well not Guilty on calling the Order, that was the law and Ethan respected that, on the other hand he tried to allow Erin to escape. It wasn’t something that a good citizen would do, but Ethan would have felt bad if he didn’t at least give her the chance. No it was the appearance of the Rogue Knight and the fact that he nearly killed Erin right there and then that Ethan felt bad about. Of course, Ethan had no control over that.

[Karu]

Karu heard a scream from one of the rooms, a scream that told him the Knight really was going to kill Stella.

"Oh no! Not too late, not too late!" said Karu as he shapeshifted into falcon to move quickly.
«The scream came from the right or from the left?» before Karu reached the end of the room he was sure where she was. One of the corridors was hot like the hell, plus the sound of something hitting the ground in one of the rooms and the clinking of the armour was enought to guide Karu even when he never has been in Li Mauta before.

Instead of going against the Knight, Karu took advantage of his small falcon body to hide behind a corpse in a room just before the corner from where he could listen the Knight. If he wait until the Knight go straight past him before trying to rescue Stella, Karu has more possibilities to succeed than if he try to confront him now.

[Accolade]

Luckily for Erin, her executioner had disappeared, vanished back into the shadows from where he came. For whatever the reason, she was alone and with her would-be rescuers having not even stepped a pace inside the building, it seemed she would have to save herself.

The binding on her hands and feet were no more than cloth ripped from fabrics her attacker had found in the other room. If she wanted to escape perhaps a bit of heat would set her free? Then again, she could always use magic, the one thing that had gotten her in trouble to begin with.

Ethen wasn't so lucky, the Knights weren't in the mood to hear about superstition and as far as they were concerned, that's all the Rogue Knight was. The men would not follow a man they didn't know on a ghost hunt with no proof, but they had found blood, and that they couldn't ignore. But Ethan wasn't to be trusted so easily, one of the Knights grabbed the man and pinned him to the wall to keep a watch on him while Talber and the other entered the tall building to see what was going on for themselves.

"Why don't you start again friend? What is the meaning of this?"

Karu was safe wherever he was hiding, but if he had planned to wait until the Knight walked passed him, he could be wasting his time.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan was beside himself with worry, Erin didn’t deserve to die by the hands of the Rogue Knight, Ethan struggled against the knight to try and get him moving. Worry and concern showed on his face as he kept glancing towards the Li Mauta entrance. He had been a fool to state that he had seen the Rogue Knight. He needed the man to act, not to think he was crazy. “Ser, please I was talking to this young lady and gentlemen that just arrived in the city. When all of a sudden… this man came out of the shadows with a rusty longsword and beat the lady bloody. He picked her up and took off, we followed them as best we could to this alleyway. Please, I really don’t know if it’s the Rogue Knight, it’s just the stories everyone’s been telling made me think that. What I do know is that a young lady was beaten quickly and then hauled off to this place.” Ethan pointed to the Li Mauta, “Please, the gentleman, Karu, he’s in there and he doesn’t look like a match for the man with the sword. He can tell you exactly the same thing that I did, please, I just don’t want the young lady to be murdered.” Ethan badly wanted to take off, but he knew that the Knight was doing his job. Still he squirmed and worried about Erin, he had tried to scare her with the consequences of magic out in the open, but she still thought she was better than the law. So Ethan had called for the knighthood to determine if she was dangerous to herself or to others. Wanton disregard for people was troublesome, and even if it had been a joke on her part, she needed to be concerned about her actions. By the Gods and Goddesses, he had just been trying to do the right thing and now he may have gotten someone killed.

OOCErin asked that we skip her this round through a pm.

[Karu]

"Why cant I hear the Knight?" Karu was worried about that sudden silence. May the knight go against her again? He must act quickly, even when she could be dead at that time. Karu shapeshifted again and rushed into the room where Stella was. The heat from the fire was very intense and Stella was lying in the ground. Some of his clothes were burnt and her head and shoulder were bleeding.
"Oh, god! Stella, are you awake? Damn!" Karu took Stella over his shoulder and started to run again to the exit. «If the Knight attack us now, we are dead!» was thinking while he took the last corner before he saw some knights coming to him.
"That ghost knight or whatever he is has to be here, I heard him just a few minutes ago! He is quick but he couldnt left this building without crossing that door!" Karu tried to run again, so he could go to Ethan and ask him to lead to a doctor when the knights stopped him. One of them took Stella, while other two grabbed Karu and smashed him against the door.
"What are you doing? Go catch him, not me! And that woman needs a doctor right now!"

[Accolade]

The Knight was still unsure about Ethan's words, but he had told him enough that he felt Talber should hear his story. The Knight released Ethan from the wall, but gripped him tightly by the neck and lead him inside. Meanwhile Karu raced around the room in a panic and he was attacked. Not by the Knights, or by the Rogue Knight even, but Benoit Grivin who smacked him across his back with a shovel.

"You crazy loon. Get out of here! Get out now!" At that moment, he noticed the woman tied up on the floor and could think of only one thing a naked man could be trying to do in this situation. The nuit wasn't strong but he would smack the kelvic again and again until he was forced back out in the hallway and away from the girl.

Hearing the sounds, Talber and the other Knights raced down the hall and pulled the old Nuit off the kelvic before he bashed his skull in. With them separated, Talber was called in when one of the Knights saw the woman tied up on the floor. He untied her hands and feet and moved her to a near by chair were she could sit up.

"Miss? Miss can you hear me?"

By this time, the other Knight had arrived with Ethen and the stars of the show were all assembled on stage. Benoit Grivin was more than prepared to speak and quickly set the blame on Karu. "This man is a lunatic, I want him arrested at once. Gods know what he was planning to do with this woman!"

But Talber wasn't the caliber of Knight to shield bash then ask questions later. He would give them all a chance to speak and what they said would determine if they ended up in the tank or not. "Silence. Now I am hearing different versions of what happened here, and it's not making any sense. Now let's try this again..."

[Erin Stella]

When Erin thought she heard footsteps and voices coming from the hall she almost subconsciously moved her eyes to stare out the room's entrance. When Karu suddenly appeared Erin's eyes lit up. She didn't actually notice who it even was or that he had no clothes on, she just knew that he wasn't the same psycho that did this to her. "Help," she said, though she wasn't sure if he could hear her. Her mouth and throat were completely dry; her voice came out weak, hoarse, and raspy. She didn't think it mattered though, on account of him looking straight at her. She didn't know that another man was about to appear and start hitting Karu with a shovel. Fearing all that this might mean she once again began to panic. She wiggled around on the floor a little and tried much harder to make herself heard. "Help me!" she cried. She wasn't sure if anyone heard her that time but it didn't seem to matter because right at that moment a team of Knights showed up and stormed the hallways.

Erin simply stared in an unsure amazement as the Knights separated the squabbling men, rushed into the room, untied her, and set her down in a nearby chair. She nodded her head and gave slight noises of confirmation to let them know she was alright...or at least no dead. The only full words she said was, "I hit my head." She tried to listen to what was being said around her. When the shovel armed man began to accuse Karu of causing all this Erin's head shot up as she was suddenly reminded of her attacker.

"No," she would say in a worn, raspy voice once Knight commander had finished speaking. She struggled to stand from her chair and make her voice loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. "The street dweller didn't do anything," she gestured to Karu. "It was the giant...knight. Giant knight in old armor. He attacked me and left me here for dead. He ran out of the room when he heard you were coming." While she spoke she uneasily searched around the room as if he still might be hiding in there with them. She was still clearly afraid. Come the end of speaking she had given up on trying to stand and fell back into her chair. From there she tried to sneak a glance at each of the Knights real quick to gauge their reactions. Then she spotted Ethan. She simply glared at him but kept quiet. She would deal with him later.

[Ethan Ironhorse]

Ethan gritted his teeth as the knight grabbed him by the neck. It was a pretty shyke thing to do, but there was nothing that Ethan could do about it. He could try and fight or struggle but that would just cause the knights to hang on tighter and make him look guiltier. He had been trying to do the right thing, to a degree, and now he was accused of false reporting. As Ethan marched into Li Maurta, all he could do was hope that Karu and Erin were reasonably safe and that Karu would at least back up his story. So with anger at being humiliated by the knight Ethan went in. Shortly Ethan and the knights found Karu and Erin, but what the petch was Karu doing naked? Great the one person who could have cooperated with Ethan’s statement was naked and could conceivably be accused of beating a woman and dragging her here for some weird rape. Ethan was hoping that he would just end up in the tank. At least that way he could be released tomorrow and continue on with his life instead of be linked to a rapist. Then surprisingly Erin confirmed Ethan’s story about a knight and attacking her. Ethan let out a breath that he held, it was good that he didn’t need Karu to confirm his story. A naked man, wasn’t the best person to confirm you are telling the truth. Still the look in her eyes made Ethan think that this little girl was going to end up being beheaded no matter what he did to try and help her, maybe he just needed to leave and except that she was a lost cause. Ethan looked at the Knight, “As I said, a knight in old armor assaulted her, this man and I chased after the person. I am not sure what happened to his clothes… but he was dressed out on the street.” To Ethan this was probably the craziest thing that had happened to him sober. At this point all he wanted to do was go to his apartment and rest.

[Karu]

Karu was running with Stella when somebody hit him behind his back, making him fall to the ground.
"What the..." said Karu as he seek for the attacker. It was Benoit, who hit him with a shovel with no reason. Then the Knigts and Ethan came too. One of them was holding Ethan.
«What happened here? Knights holding Ethan, the oldman hitting me with a shovel, the Rogue Knight... What a day...»
The knigth were thinking that Karu was the one who wonded Stella, but thinking about it, the idea of a ghost knigth hitting and pulling a woman to Li Mauta while a smith and a naked strange go after him sounded too strange, even to Karu.
«I think saying Ethan and me were the good ones would be even worse. Stella must talk before I say nothing»
The knights were asking Stella about what happened and she said the truth.

Ethan spoke too. He told them again how they came to Li Mauta and about Karu clothes

"Hey! Im a Kelvic, ok? I dont want to hurt my wings, so when I shapeshift into falcon Im usually naked. Thats why I am naked, is not anything strange, and is not a reason to hit me with a shovel!" said Karu, looking to Benoit.

"If you still have a brain, think about it. I came here looking for a wounded girl who was carried here, and I was alone. How could I try anything like that thing you were thinking? Next time pay atention when somebody talk to you!"
Karu was angry with Benoit. He understood what Benoit did and why, he would have done the same, but also he received a hit with a shovel for trying to be kind and invite Ethan and Stella to eat as an apology.

He looked around the room, trying to find his clothes while he talked about the rogue knight.
"That... thing was quick, he could ran faster than us with his armor and Stella, also he was very strong, as he knocked Stella out with a strong punch, and now he vanished"