In higher spirits [M] (scythe nova)

[Anonymous]

Christina looked to the two leftover skins they had left at the table and then back towards Marius who had begun digging for something. Shrugging her shoulders in a forgiving manner while tasting the weather, it felt nice to be outside now.

The melting sensation greatly diminished almost instantly and granted the warlock more power.

However when Conqueror pulled out a wooden board she could not help be disappointed. This man really had no concept of transportation.
Had he seriously not expected having people weaker than him tag along or was he simply oblivious to the amount of preparation he would need to actually carry out an expedition? Did she dare ask?


As far as she could see the bastard had one spirit, a spirit of fire. Fire is naturally weakened greatly in frost environments and he was going up against a spirit that might be equal to the fire spirit if given a neutral environment right?

Did he intend to use Ignis for everything, waste her energy and then meet up with Glacialis underprepared?

Fine, fine if he dies he was just a stupid fling that meant nothing to begin with. She should do like her mother and throw away useless men, their partnership was only here as a distraction anyhow.
They where only united for now because he did not now the location of his target.

This entire train of thought made her feel dirty inside but it couldn't be helped.

"Fine, Granazzar will carry everything we got so, just have Ignis bring those skins along and put them in my saddle bag."

With that said she entered the stables next-door hoping he would not be unresonable and refuse such a light request.

It was not that large a stable, only meant for eight horses to begin with and usually reserved for hunters rather than guests. So in essence the only horse present was her black haired stallion.

He looked up at her with such a bored expression, stomping impatiently on the ground.

 "Don't be so impatient, a lady takes her time."

She looked at the box containing everything she had brought with her from Jadenshine. The black carpet carrying her family sigil, the silver tree with jade coins. The dark brown saddle with silver embroidery and metal gargoyle design and then began outfitting her steed.

A horse rider that cant saddle her own horse is worthless. Or at least that was a standard she had decided upon. Mother had called it childish.

[Scythe-Nova]

Marius looked at Christina when she stepped out, he saw the dissapointment in her eyes and raised an eyebrow to it before looking at the board and then at Christina again.

-"I Guess the diffrence in travel speed would be to large"

He said and let go of the board letting it fall down into the snow again making a large puff of snow blow up into the air and then being covered with snow again very quickly in the blizzard. When she asked him to get the two skins in from the inn that he had left behind he simply snapped with his fingers and Ignis appeared inside the Inn lifing the Skins and floated out to Marius who looked at Ignis before walking into the stable and Looked at Christina.

-"That's some horse"

He said and walked up behind Christina while looking at the Horse with an calm expression before looking at Christina and waiting for her to finish saddling the horse. He then took the Soup Skins from Ignis and looked at Christina smiling somewhat.

-"So where do you want these?"

[Anonymous]

"He is family and like me he longed for a change of scenery. So we partnered up and left."


Fastening the saddle with a tight pull she could not help sigh a relief that Marius was not totally unreasonable and she had done this pretty quick with a satisfying result.

Granazzar on the other hand had begun stomping the ground and giving an angry wince as if he had just been insulted by Marius and wished him to apologize.

Marius coming into the stable with his share of the soup gave her some courage to ask questions she would not have asked before. He might appear selfish and arrogant but at the very least he wished to travel with her.

"If I may ask, Why you did not bring anything except Ignis with you from Serendipity?" She still had problems imagining his way of travelling. Did he fly that piece of wood like a witch? Unlikely, it would have had to be really fast for him to traverse all the way over from his home, like a shooting star. Those kind of speeds did not come cheap like teleportation.

"The left saddlebag is pretty much empty, though I want an even distribution of the weight. Having food at the bottom just gives us more work later on So just let me move some stuff from this one first."


So she began taking a few things out of the bag she had left on the floor. Fist sized leather pouches, filled, twisted and then the top turned against its bottom for extra protection before being tied with a blood red string for double the protection.

She put those at the bottom before pulling out skins that contained solid material. Some had several sharp parts trying to poke a hole into the leather and the others had small round balls but all of them where making the same clinking and rustling sounds.

"There you go. Now we can put the food on top."

Now that both saddlebags where half full it did not take long before hers where tucked onto the opposite side of the saddle, extra tight and doubly secured from falling off just like it`s cousin.

[Scythe-Nova]

Marius raised an eyebrow when she asked why he had only brought Ignis with him and then shrugged his shoulders and smiled somewhat.

-"Simple I don't need anything else if i need a fire for the night it's easily fixed and fire to cook freshly caught animals is no problem either, Ignis is extremly usefull for many situations."

He said and put the soup skins in the saddlebag fitting them into it snuggly, He then looked at Granazzar for a bit before he turned and began walking outside and looked at Ignis who had dug up the wooden board and held it in the air towards Marius.

-"Oh, i didn't even have to ask"

He said with a wicked smile and and grabbed hold of the board and looked back at Christina and tilted his head and smiled a bit.

-"I hope your friend isn't afraid of Fire"

[Anonymous]

"Granazzar? He doesn't fear anything." Once she sat on the saddle, the horse began trotting forward, he was impatient and Christina could feel it.


"Just until we get outside the city. We would not want to cause any incidents that gives us more attention than what we already have been given."

Resisting the wind as it tore into their faces the warlock looked towards Marius. "Lets get going."

[Scythe-Nova]

Marius smiled as she mentioned attention and began walking towards the direction that the warlocks staff had pointed out while laughing a bit muffled.

-"the Attention does not matter to me but if you say so"

He said and shrugged his shoulders and walked onwards as the wind tore against his clothes, he snapped with his fingers and a enormous aura of heat countered the wind and he no longer seemed bothered at all by the wind nor the cold.

-"Ah... that reminds me, are we not in danger of contracting the Fell in those ruins?"

[Anonymous]

"That old curse? Contained within a single city ruin by some priestesses. Not ungrateful but, priestesses? I have my doubts about the whole ordeal though never dared to check their scriptures for a thorough look on the subject."

She waved at a bypassing citizen, hiding her envy for Marius. Killing the cold with a snap of his fingers like a magician, or demigod. No, demigods did not need to snap fingers. He was not there yet.

"Goes with being a wielder of practical magic." It did not take long to reach the city boarders. She patted Granazzar while fielding the staff. "No further questions before later when night settles across this country of white?"

[Scythe-Nova]

-"...Well i have never cared for it so i would not know"

He answered very arogantly before he kept on walking alongside Christina while smiling as she asked him if he wanted to inquire something else.

-"Well not a question but i must commend your talents and stamina in bed"

He said with an amused smile and an appreciative tone as he walked on over the snow and grinned widely and somewhat perverted. Just some seconds passed and the heat field extended over Christina protecting her from the cold and the strong wind.

[Anonymous]

Her cheek`s burned, for a moment all she could do was glare not rightly knowing what to do. "So were you." The small utterance was more or less used as an excuse to run away. With a crack Granazzar was spurred into motion.

Time and place, By the goddess Marius did not know anything about either thing. How dare he just comment on her performance out of the blue like that? Caught her completely off guard, she would not look back for him. He`d either catch up or stay left behind.

With the light on the tip of her staff to lead the way her horse spurred on. His hooves not entering the snow. Riding the wind light as a feather, strong as ten stallions.

[Scythe-Nova]

-"So were you? what kind of answer is that?"

He said and looked at her before he began walking alongside her and her horse before he drifted of the ground as small flames spread across his body giving him some kind of flight, and before long he was encased in somewhat transparent flames making him float through the air besides Christina at the same pace as she held.

-"Anyways How come you were up here in the mountains to begin with?"

He asked and looked at her with a curious expression as he drifted through the air besides her.

[Anonymous]

"It's the answer you get. What did you expect details? You want to listen as I talk high and low about sex like some of my siblings? You'll get no such thing from me." and she was not going to be impressed of his surfing of the air with hot fumes bellowing from his cape.
 
"I had to get away from my mother, and any influence my family holds. That meant getting out of the province, and I wanted to practice my magic. That meant going to a place were lost or lingering souls would be common-place. Plenty of Wraiths here, and I was planning a trip out into the wilder areas to find more potent souls. Reapers, or blessed animal spirits that form their eating grounds around ancient shrines. Is  that efficient use of your spirit?"

She felt curious as to the reason for his careless disregard of mana, and the concept of trading it for power. "Energy isn't endless you know."

[Scythe-Nova]

Marius floated next to Christina and looked at her as she speak and shrugs his shoulders as she suggest how she could explain it before looking out over the frozen landscape with a distant look in his eyes.

-"When you have a force of nature at your disposal Mana is a much smaller problem than otherwise"

He turned in the air facing Christina looking at her with a somewhat curious look.

-"What kind of family do you have?"

[Anonymous]

"Nothing big really, Just a small, insignificant, lineage of magic users that nearly got lumped in with Necromancers during the great purge of Serendipity. My family is awfully boring." The warlock replied.

She really did not wish to regale to him the full family recipe, and needed time to think about what to tell Marius. "How about you tell me about your's first?"

They were making the trip in good speed, but Granazzar seemed to dislike the arctic cimate. The warhorse growled angry into the howling blizzard, foam running from his mouth already, but the spirit inside of the horse pushed the body on.

[Scythe-Nova]

-"Well The Wynters have a very very long linage of Spirit Mages, We were very connected with the royals until someone from the Branch families murdered the family head and his wife."

He shrugged slightly and floated around Christina while adjusting the heat around them both while looking at her.

-"That would be my father by the way, of course i was on a trip to Yoreqi at the time"

He gestured against the flames danging on his body with a wide grin.

-"Also the same place i bound Ignis to my will"

[Anonymous]

"Yoreqi, so you travel to foreign places often?" The young warlock, having only been in Jadenshine, and  Serendipity before travelling to Hyoite feels another sting of jealousy, but is determined not to let it ruin the mood.

"Spirit mages?" The trip would take them time, a lot of time, fortunately it would be comfortable and they had soup, plus this Marius was getting interesting. "So you deal with spirits too or just elemental spirits?"

[Scythe-Nova]

-"Yeah i had heard of many strong sprits in Yoreqi, But the most interesting was of course Ignis"

He said with a wide grin and looked at Christina as he floated through the air listening to Christina when she talked.

-"As a spirit Mage i deal with any kind of spirit, I can weave the very spiritual energy of the spirits into almost anything"

He simply said as he looked at Christina.

-"Ghosts Wraiths and even poltergeists are nothing more than tools to me, Though Elemental Spirits are much harder to work with as they are so strong, You have to deal with them in a much diffrent way..."

[Anonymous]

"Go on."Christina let him talk, especially interested in him now that their magic seemed very much alike. Yet they had obvious differences.

To appear less infatuated with him, Valtera refused to stare back except in small stolen glances. Then again the horizon that this frozen wasteland presented to them was beauty in it's own right, so not staring at the boisterous elf was easy enough.

Marius had experience in dealing with what her mother rarely ever talked about, and that intrigued her. "You should tell me the whole story of how you captured Ignis. Really I'm awfully boring in comparison."

They continued on, and there was little need to rest the first night. Granazzar was in good mood, and she had confidence on his strong back. The runes on his saddle ensured the rider would never fall off, even in their sleep.

[Scythe-Nova]

Marius looked at Christina with a grin before looking towards the horizon like her.

-"Well why not Let's see here, it was about seven years ago on Yoreqi when i heard from the locals about a very powerful spirit of Fire that had made the deeps of their largest volcano into it's home since very long ago"

marius smiled to himself as he remembered the days he spent in Yoreqi also pain stung his heart when he remembered his parents but he did not show his pain to Christina, he then looked back to her and resumed his story.

-"I knew this were great opportunity to get myself a powerful spirit Champion, It took some time to get the locals to show me a way into the volcano and to the shrine they made for the Spirit"

He Paused a bit as he looked at the horizon looking like he were reminded by something but he shook it off and continued.

-"I met Ignis for the first time that day, of course he was not going to come with me willingly so i challenged him for his power. But he did win the first day and many days more he won but one day i found something very interesting... But this story will have to wait because you will figure out the rest when capture Glacialis"

He said with a mischiveous grin and looked at christina.