escordvi | closed ⚡🪶 and forevermore, i'll be chasing the storm we had.

[She sees his hard look, and meets it with her own, a little bit of desperation behind the steel she matches his gaze with.]

Does the cost matter? It's not as if we—I have much of a choice.

[She has no place to go back to. If the rifts take her, then what becomes of her? Does she disappear into the aether? Does she land in another world entirely? She doesn't have that much more to lose when it comes to paying a price for magic.]

It does if it costs you.

[There's something of a pleading look to her as his hands tighten around her.]

I'm not saying don't do it. For all we know that may be the only way. But before you do should you manage to get it first, we need to try and find out about it and not just rush at it. That's all.

And...

[Her voice breaks, something like guilt and worry lodging in her throat. She steels herself before it can strain any further.]

...if there is a cost, then what?

...We talk about it.

[Her eyes harden even further, if such a thing were possible, but the way her hands squeeze his sides is completely at odds with the look she's giving him.]

So that you might pay it instead.

[There's just a slight stiffening before he sighs.]

I didn't say that.

[She stares at him for a good long while, the silence thick in the air despite whatever is happening outside. Her eyes bear down on him, trying to see through that expression of his right down to his very aether to read him.]

You don't have to.

[But there's a soft clearing of a throat beside them, some fumbling, and then the soft cling of a coin being dropped and then picked back up, and Benedikta turns to see the sprite staring right up at them with shimmering eyes, like it's about to cry???

Her fingers give his sides one last squeeze before she steps back.]

We grab what we can, and leave.

[He just stares right back at her... But she's right. He would pay it instead if he could. He wouldn't go so far as give his own life—would kind of defeat the purpose. But if it was something that would negatively affect her, then he would take that role instead. She's bloodied her hands enough, she didn't need to anymore.

So he doesn't say anything, just watches her before he turns to grab what he had set aside when he went to her. But before he can say something, there's a loud crash from the outside.]

Bloody hell was that—

[She's already kneeling down to pocket some jewels when she sees something tucked between the shelf and the chest, and when she picks it up...

A knife? But it isn't made of metal... rather, it's made of... is this bone? Bone that's been honed into a sharp edge that it might as well be made of steel? Her eyes narrow down at it, and at the blood-red jewels that line its hilt, because what in the world would anyone do with a knife like this?

...

She's about to turn around to show it to him and ask him that very question when that crash interrupts her, and she jolts to her feet.

The sprite near the door quivers and rushes to hide behind Cid's legs.

"The horse! It's angry again!"]

[Cid just looks over at Benedikta before he feels his aether fluctuating where Ixion must be, the sound of lightning crackling outside.

Shoving the last few items into his bag, he steps forward.]

Better get out of here before it tries to get in.

Shit.

[And that's when she feels Suparna's connection disappear, with only Chirada remaining.]

Suparna is gone.

[She moves with him, the sprite crackling as it scurries along behind Benedikta as they make their way back into the tunnel and through the other room.

Only to find—]

What the!?

[—the massive horse in the center of the room ramming its head against the stone altar. Chirada is there with Ixion, the winged egi trying to get a hold on it, but it kicks back its legs and sends her flying back towards the pool of lava.]

[He's also puzzled, and Ixion isn't trying to stop the fire horse and instead... Actually tries to attack the altar with it??

But then there's a voice squeaking at their feet as the sprite hides behind Cid's boot again.

"It hates this place... It always gets so angry and sad. It's scary!"]

Hates...?

[There's another loud shrill as it smashes its hooves and even its head against the altar, yet despite the force it does nothing. Only Ixion's rogue bolt manages to crack it, but still it's not much. In fact, it reels back as if in pain, whirling onto Ixion as if... Affronted??

With a shake of is head, it whirls around and dashes back to the lava, jumping into and disappearing into it. From all of the movement, more of the floor is shown, the strange markings in dark red more visible.

But...

...

What the hell did they just witness.]

[Benedikta just watches in silence at the scene in front of them, as both the horse and Ixion try to shatter the altar. Even Chirada is confused, not sure what she should do from here, so she dismisses her egi with a wave of her hand.

And then it does the unexpected: it turns and rushes away, leaping into the lava and vanishing, leaving them all behind as if it hadn't been there at all.

What the hell did they just witness indeed.]

What was that?

[The fire sprite steps out from behind Cid's boots, clutching the coin as if it were its safety net. "It does that sometimes. It comes out of the lava, attacks the altar, and then goes back. But sometimes it attacks people, too. Even us."

Well, that doesn't make it any less confusing.

Benedikta turns to Cid, then to Ixion.]

And what of your horse? He was doing the same...

[Cid is just watching all this puzzled before Ixion suddenly poofs to his small form and flies wearily to Benedikta and plops on her head.

Oy.

Aren't you his egi—]

Not really sure, but there must be something about that altar. Acting in solidarity, perhaps?

[She starts at the buzz of static that suddenly envelops the top of her head, Ixion making her hair stand up on end again as he curls up there. But besides her light bristling and that look she shoots Cid because this is his egi, she doesn't bother trying to move him.]

Solidarity of what, exactly?

A glance down to the fire sprite, and then to said altar.]

You mentioned that it does this a lot? Why?

[She wanders over to it, and stares at the strange marks on the floor.

"I don't know why. No one knows why, but Miss Windy Lady, you shouldn't get too close!"]

[Hearing that, Cid will reach out and grab Benedikta's arm, pulling her back as Ixion suddenly flies up.]

Why? I noticed the coloring of the floor... That's not red paint, is it.

[The little sprite weps and shakes its head.

"No... It's..." And then a shudder.]

Blood.

[Benedikta finishes the sentence without hesitating, giving Cid a look when he pulls her back as her feet kick at some of the markings on the floor, like she's trying to scrape it off with her boot. But it's well on there, as suspected, and the fire sprite rushes up to try and swat her foot back.]

Some ritual of sorts?

[But what does the horse have to do with it, she wonders?

As she reaches up to grab Ixion in her hands and hold him.]

[Look he doesn't want some weird thing happening if she steps into that area okok.

There's a neigh if surprise, but the little egi just rests content in her hands.

...

Hey, you're his egi, aren't you—]

Either it doesn't like it so close to its home, or it's somehow connected to it. You saw it, too, didn't you? How it didn't damage the altar at all but Ixion was able to crack it a little.

[Benedikta looks down at the little horned egi in her hands, a brow raised.]

I assumed that it was just the horn...

[Did Ixions bushy lightning tail wag a little bit? Maybe. There's definitely a look of pride as it neighs.

...

Seriously whose egi—

Cid furrows his brows as he steps closer to it, edging around the circle.]

But not even its hooves? There's not a scratch or dent to it.

Edited 2024-01-26 16:28 (UTC)

[Her egi now—

"It has been trying that for so long... but could never move or break it," the sprite explains as it shakes its head, watching where Cid's feet walk with wariness.]

Either the horse is weak, or there is something preventing it from breaking it.

[Whatever that means, she has no idea.

But as her eyes scan the blood on the ground, she remembers that she'd tucked something away into her satchel. Her free hand reaches down into it and pulls out the bone knife she'd discovered in the other room, turning it over so that the red jewels shimmer in the light.]

I found this, too.

[Cid inspects the broken alter a little more closely. Black rock... Obsidian?

He then looks over and eyes widen a bit.]

I found a dagger as well, but made of something different. Reckon they were used here?

[Knives and daggers are often used FL for rituals, which this is looking more and more like, and not unheard of to have different ones for certain purposes...]

This is no ordinary dagger.

[She holds it out to him, keeping Ixion carefully balanced in her hand, and he will see that the blade itself is not made of steel, but of carved and sharpened bone.]

I would assume so. [Her nose wrinkles.] Given the blood on the floor.

[He's returned so he can take a closer look.]

Bone, eh? And likely from a particular beast.

[Hmmm.]

This is the one I found.

[He pulls out the silk cloth bundle and reveals the dark blade, it also showing blood stains.]

I'm not an expert, but this must have been some kind of blood ritual. For what, though, not sure I want to know. Didn't seem to end well for them.

[A jerk of his head to the aged remains.]

[A beast... Well, that's a much more optimistic way to look at it compared to what she had been thinking... Blood rituals tend to be as dark as they come. The kind of magick that she would not want to dabble in.

But it's when she sees the blood stained onto his that her breath finally catches, the disgust twisting tight in her stomach. She knows exactly what these must have been used for, and the evidence is laid out pretty clearly around this altar.]

Clearly the horse didn't like it either.

[She shakes her head.]

I've a feeling there is more to this all, but I would rather not stay to find out.

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