Back in the distance, Akira was still carving her path through the cities alleyways and a warehouse of sorts, ending the threat that those posed that chose to mess with the greater balance of all things and leaving behind a trail of scorched foodsteps together with the occasional body and the clear signs of a lightning impact. Naturally, her enemies didnt go down without a fight and as such, Akira still needed considerable to to make progress, seeing the sheer numbers, unwavering morale and skills that her opponents posessed. Much less like a cult and more like an army that had expected to be attacked as their pursued their plans.

Still, despite the challenge, they needed to seize existing, if not for Akira's will, then for the locals of this town. While they hadnt made their move yet, the signs were clear. Stashes of weapons, armor and even semi-magical artifacts amassed and readily stored, like an armory, ready to be unleashed at a moments notice against anyone that defied them. Knowing the pattern that they had been operating under before, Akira guessed that their first target would be guards and servants of the city, taking them off whenever possible without losses. Then, after the town was weakened enough, they would initiate a riot, spreading their illusions and lies like poison amongst the poculate and lastly... they would aim for the heart. 

Letting the hidden insults pass him as he continued his watch, the men efentually let out a long and low sigh as he mumbled: "Its your grave then...", before coughing slightly and looking away from the window for a few seconds to catch Cadreinth's gaze once more, presenting him with a question: "When was the last time you saw something like that then? Or... lets ask something else: Those storms happened recently, right? Havent seen anything like that for the whole 20 years i am living here, except for the past few weeks."

Pausing and taking a sip from his beverage, before giving the window another careful glance, he looked back to Cadreinth briefly and added: "Point is... this storm... the lightning... it kills. I saw it in front of my own eyes. If you see it as a joke, then go ahead. Just follow the direction of where the lightning comes down and you will see what i mean. Its your funeral, not mine."

Nodding as the woman seemed to see some mistake in herself, Akira eventualy agreed on the proposition which was made. Indeed she would have to see for herself.

"Indeed. In order to have certainty, you will have to investigate. I will aid you temporarily in your endeavour. Preapre yourself and take what you need. We will depart, once you are ready."

Looking away from the window as he was spoken to, the man's eyes slowly got wider as he got torn out of his thoughts. Looking at Cadreith with suspicion and even fear in the corners of his eyes for a few seconds, he calmed down quickly and caught himself once more as he answered reluctantly: "I-... i just dont like lightning anymore, is all."

Looking back to the window again but moving his hand towards the chair close to him, he offered a seat next to him as she continued: "I saw some things... just know. When you see something like that, you shouldnt go outside until it passes... trust me."

"In this case, i owe you my thanks, friend.", Akira stated as she brought her hands together in front of her once more giving the same respectful nod as she had given before.

Entering the library now fully, Akira stared at the sign for a couple of seconds before she eventually gave off a slight shrug. It didnt matter. If those were this houses rules, she would obey them as a guest should do. Searching for a place that gave off heat in order for her to dry up as time progressed, her eyes wandered through the room and its decoration, ultimatively landing on Winifred once more, her search failing to spot the desired object. A development which warranted further questions. Taking a step towards the librarian and giving off another sentence in her usual, somewhat authoretarian and somewhat soothing tone, she asked: "You seem to be well invested in your work. is there any topic in particular, which you aim to preserve for generations to come?", deciding to engage in smalltalk first, before asking for a warm place to stay at.

Sorcery. A tool made by the truly powerful ones, which allowed them to influence mortals without their direct interference. After all, Sorcery was pure power, in whatever form and situation it came to play. And if there was one thing that every mortal she ever met had wanted, it had been power. The power to control the destiny of others or, in the case of the stronger minded individuals, the power to control their own destiny, free from others secret schemes. For Akira, power was a momentary construct. Always used situational and in order to fulfil her goal. Sadly, the mortals she was pursuing as of late didnt see power, or sorcery as the same thing and fell back into the old cycle, getting corrupted by the forces they were able to conjure and shifting the balance. And while Akira wasnt exactly able to tell how their doings were influencing the world around them, everything within her felt that they needed to be stopped.

Naturally, such a strong feeling of dread warranted nothing less then a response which was equally as destructive as it was intense, which in turn certainly had made thetownsfolk share one or another story of her.

Usually it started with clouds. A bad weather which was approaching, carrying the scent of autumn with it as silent indicator of what was coming, that being a time where all things were tested. Would they prevail? Or would they perish under the forces of nature? The next indicator was rain. While slow and soft at first and starting to rain down harder and harder up to the point where it was raining literal buckets as time progressed, it was the only mercy that the goddess of thunder and fire was able to give. A quiet vow to only destroy what needed to seize existing. And finally, it was Akira herself, standing in the rain, completely drenched, cltohes hanging down from her body and not distinguishable from nothing more then a mere beggar, wouldnt it have been for the glowing eyes, which seemed to radiate determination and the glowing tatoo's on her arms.

After that... the inevitable happened, and as the fight ensued in the alleyways of one of Jadenshine's less fortuante districts, her fight was already drawing attention by looks alone. Naturally, the people which werent directly involved werent too eager to stand in the way and sought out a place that gave them the feeling of being protected and sheltered. And what better place was there then the tavern, to get this kind of feeling?

Inside the tavern, Cadreinth's wait was cut short by the sounds of men approaching the door, trying to make an effort to cross the distance as quick as possible. As soon as the door opened and the rain could be seen behind them as sthe scuddled inside, the reason for this phenomenon could be seen easily. The weather had changed within minutes.

Once inside, the men made an effort rid themselfes of their drenched, cold overcoats and hanged them near the fire as they talked to each other:

1: "Bloody friggin hell! I swear it was sunny just an hour ago or so!"
2: "You tell me... tis' is the third time this week that this happens. It almost feels
   like someone cursed this town!"
4: "Oh shut it, both of you... weather always had been like this, this time of the
   year."

As the trio talked to each other and their babbling seemed to rail off to become a full fledged argument, only interrupted by ordering beverage from the tavern keeper, the third one remained oddly quiet, looking out of the window towards the south as if he was expecting something to happen. Finally when lightning struck, he was prepared, and his expression had changed to an unpleased one, even before the thunder could be heard.

"I see. A peciluar situation.", Akira answered, thinking about what had been told and what was to expect, before asking: "In a way it seems as if you and your friend have disturbed the balance. Whether this is in the greater sense, or a more local one, remains to be seen, but it is unwise to interfere with beings which are beyond ones understanding."

While what Akira said sounded harsh, it included herself as well. She knew fairly little about dragons in particular and about this part of the world as well. THe only thing that she knew for sure was, that propper dragons were quite rare and held power, which meant that in some way they were included in the balance of all things, either on the side of forces which were considered good or bad.

"However, the way the dragon appeared exactly does not seem like anything that i know of. As such, personal investigation may be the only thing we can do about this."

Standing patiently in the rain and waiting for a sign, one that was coming sooner then she had expected, Akira saw herself invited in. Opening the door made of heavy and sturdy wood and entering the doorway, she quickly closed it, keeping the colth that the rain carried with it outside, before she spoke out to the woman which was only a few meters away from her: "Greetings stranger, my name is lady Akira. I hope that my appearance does not come at an unfortunate moment. I had hoped to seek shelter from the rain for a while.", as she brought her balled fist and palm, which was pointed towards the heavens, together, indcating a slight bow with her head at the same time.

As for her being completely soaked, she prefered to wait for an positive answer. After all, there was no use in getting dry, only to be turned away and told to leave.

As Akira stood there, she probably either was an imposing, or sorry sight to behold, unclear whether she was just a fancy beggar or actually someone that didnt care about appearances.

Sitting down next to the distressed woman, Akira mustered her as she began to tell her tale, as to why she was in the mountains, and even more importantly, how her friend had been taken away from her. Leaning back and and watching her with a thoughtful expression for a few moments, Akira finally stated: "It seems like you had quite the journey. It is good to see that you remained unscathed from this encounter, as your actions might be able to save your friend.", before chaning her tone to a more questioning one: "As far as i have been told, dragons are rather elusive, rarely stepping in front of mortals at all, even less so leaving behind survivors. As such, the question we might need to ask is, was there any reason for the dragon to be there and make an appearance? Beyond that: Why did the dragon take your friend away, instead of killing him? There must be some deeper plot to uncover, in this regard."

As goddess of thunder and fire, devoted to keeping the balance of all things there were in the greater scheme of things, Akira spent a great amount of time on the road, wandering the country and trying to do her duty whenever needed, even if she usually liked to let the mortals deal with the consequences of their choices themselfes. After all, there hardly was a true balance to things, when it was dependant on a single being keeping the scales in the middle by force. No. Instead, she made it so mortals kept the balance themselfes.

Regardless of that, her journey usually attracted quite the negative attention, especially from folks which tended to work outside, or were in the farming buisiness, seeing how Akira tended to drag bad weather with her, as if it was her shadow, always one step behind her and often ranging between a soft and warm rain, to small storms. It simply was something that she wasnt able to change, even if she understood the reason for this effect perfectly fine. And while Akira normally wasnt particularely bothered by her clothes being soaking wet and her walking around in them, she still had a body which was able to feel and had its needs, such as the occasional comfort of a warm, dry place to sleep or stay in for a while.

It was this very reason that made her approach the strange building which was located in the middle of a dense forrest, equally covered and protected by nature's gifts. And who knew? Maybe there was more to this library then the eye could tell just by the looks of it.

Standing in front of the massive frontal door now, her face half covered under a hood and her arms and the tatoos on them exposed, two glowing eyes fixated at the opening, she rose her arm and knocked three times, with just the right amount of force that she imagined would be necessary, to be heard inside.

Ever since Akira had ascended to actual godhod, it had came weird to her how the tatoo's on her arms were dragon-shaped. She certainly had been called a dragon of sorts before, always had been adept in the art of fire magic and on top of that had kept her vow, something that multiple people considered to be paladin-like or maybe even equal to a dragons nature, however, this hardly qualified as her actually being connected to dragons.

And despite her having an idea as to why she looked the way she looked today, that being that in her village gods always had been associated with dragons, there only was one certain way to find out. Now, while Akira was knowledgeable, she had a flaw which came to sight in form of her knowing little about actual, real dragons. She certainly knew that the dragons that inhibitet this world could be titanic, almost gargantuan beings with powers which often made them local deities or the likes, however her godly intuition told her that it didnt even come close to the things that actual gods could do. She also had heard that the moods of dragons could be rather excentric, depending on the color their scales had, however, neither the townspeople, nor the scholars she had had the pleasure to converse with had been able to give her more information about this matter and as such, she had only been left with a single possible choice, that being to venture out and find them on her own.

As time preogressed, her travels brought her to the city of Stonepeak, a town which was famous for being the last civilised place before the mountainous terrain and the dangers the lurked beyond proved any effort to colonise the place futile. As such, the town itself was built like a fortress of sorts, both with vast supplies for travelers, adventurers or anyone else that had enough coins to spare, as well as with defenses which were sure to defend its inhabitants from the dangers around.

Once inside the city, her appearence had drawn in the attention of its inhabitants. After all, not everyday one could be seen with bright clowing eyes and having walked the road that lead to the town, both unarmed and unscaped. Luckily, the attention she had gained had inspired quite a number of the town inhabitants to invite her into the tavern, where Akira would share stories from her time, in exchange for information about her targets. Eventually, she regularely attracted enough customers that she was offered a simple room and meals, depending on the mood of the establishments owner. Accepting them graciously and with humility, Akira conitnued her investigation until someday a woman entered the tavern, making quite the scene for herself, clearly in some sort of distress.

Akira, agitiated by such a display of emotions stood up, ready to help a stranger in need, until it became appearent, that the situation wasnt as dire as it seemed initially. Excusing herself from the people she had sat with so far, giving them a sign of respect along the way, Akira approached the stranger that had sat herself at the bar from behind and was already able to hear a part of what had moved her here to this place. Finally, as she stood next to the stranger, Akira brought her fist and palm together, adressing them: "Greetings stranger. My name is lady Akira, god of thunder and fire, and i have heard of the troubles that guided you here. If you will, i would be eager to listen in to your story."

Bad weather seemed to follow Akira as persistently as her very own shadow, as she traversed the country. In older times, her mere appearance had given the forrest she had chosen as her residence a nickname by the locals, who associated it with bad omens and the likes. Naturally, her presence nowadays had a similar effect, and even while she certainly couldnt change it, she still had her eye on the sky occasionally, flashing a smile once she saw naturally generated rain for once. A type of weather she wasnt responsible for.

However, the smile faded once she got closer. Initially, there hadnt been many signs of the scene that now unfolded before her eyes. Just the smell of blood could be noticed from afar, iron laying heavy in the air as the mortal shells slowly released the souls trapped within towards a better place. After that it was the smell of burning wood, and lastly it was blood, covering the ground to form a grotesque scene in front of Akira.

Standing in the middle of the onslaught, her eyes seemed to glow brighter then they had before as she was lost in her thoughts. This wasnt just. This wasnt fair. This wasnt in balance with the world as a whole. Who had the right to decide that it was their time yet? Who had dared to commit this heineous act at all?! Regardless of who did it, someone would have to pay for it, one way or another.

It was at this moment, that something tore Akia out of her thoughts. A mere cough. Nothing more then a silent, unspoken plea for help of relief. A sign that someone still lived on this battlefield. Sprinting over to the source of the sound, Akira found exactly what she had expected. One of the merchants, still holding on to dear live. Coming to a stop and kneeling down next to him, Akira's eyes flew over the man's wounds, until she found the source of his problems. Calming him down, she placed one of her hands on his shoulder, holding him down, as the other one began to become engulved in a blue flame. Finally she told him: "Fear not, friend, as you are save with me. Please... forgive me, but this will save your life.", pressing the burning hot hand into the wound, cauterising it.

After the largest threat to his health was dealt with, Akira gave him a few moments to gather himself, waiting patiently and keeping her hand on his shoulder, showing him that she came here to stay. Showing him that she would protect him if needed. Ultimatively the question had to be asked however, and so, with a heart full of righteous anger and sadness she asked: "Tell me, what happened here?"

__________________QUICK STATS
Name Akira
Age unknown
GenderFemale
SpeciesMinor god, human appearance
EthnicityRulastina
Height1.73 meters
Occupation Peacekeeper and scholar
Residence Serendipity

__________________IN-DEPTH STUFF

Physical Description


Personality
Akira is a fair and generally gentle being that tries to not let her past experiences dedicate her future actions. Overall she tries to keep the balance in all things, which leads to interesting interactions from time to time, where others which do not know of that vow, are confronted with Akira's personality and the likes. Despite her godhood, she is not to high to help people in the simplest of ways. Neither is she too high to take lives where she deems it necessary.

Dspite her friendliness, she can get across as brutal from time to time, especially in times where she does her duty. Akira's interest in the world of mortals and the butterfly effect which can sometimes be seen life in action make her an attendive observer or listener, that is bringing up a great deal of patience in most situations. Furthermore she sees anothe beings efforts and effects and usually comments on them accordingly.

One of her more negative traits is that she tends to speak in a, for most humans, weird way. Futhermore she is willing to help most people, but, unless absolutely necessary, wont accept help in most cases. Another negative thing which may not be directly associated to her personality is, that clouds and generally bad weather seems to follow her, ranging from rain to small thunderstorms.

Strengths: Compassion, Loyalty, Honesty, Politeness, intelligence
Weaknesses: strong sense of duty, being dramatic from times to times, untrusting

Magic/Abilities
Avatar of fire and Tunder:
Akira is a physical embodyment of fire and lightning, hence her being named as the god of fire and thunder. She is able to use fire and lightning to archieve various effects masterfully, of which most are useful for combat or travel. Furthermore her abilities grant her a very high resilience against most forms of damage, making her a fearsome close quarter combatant.

Invunerability to fire and lightning:
Being an avatar of those two elements, Akira is immune against any attacks made with fire or lightning, even if it is enhanced by demonic or holy magic.

Combat prowess:
Akira was a melee fighter even before she ascended to godhood. When her abilites grew stronger, so did her combat prowess and while she doesnt use any sort of weapon in her fighting style, her tankyness and magical abilities which she can use both in melee as well as over ranges make her a dangerous fighter. Beyond that, she is quite fast and stronger then she looks like.

Immortality:
While her physical form isnt invunerable, she in the greater sense is. When her body is destroyed, it will reform after a while at a random place. Reviving her can also be forced by creating an incredibly hot fire or through very intense lightning storms. Aside from that, she does not seem to age.

Relationships
None so far. Her former ones have deceased since quite a time sadly.

History
Originally Akira was a wandering sholar with a vow which forbid her from killing anyone, wandering the country of Rulastinia in the attempt to increase her knowledge.

The decision to wander the lands and to have her vow was due to her childhood, in which she already was adept in fire magic from the time she was a toddler and used  it once in a fatal accident which nearly claimed the life of one of her playmates, scarring him in the process. While her village did not  hold a grudge against her and the person she hurt even forgave her, she was plagued by a deep guilt about what happened and as such she ventured out in order to get away from the place where she hurt another being so much, and eager to maybe find a cure for what she had done to him.

During her travels, Akira gained a multitude of knowledge, ranging from conventional healing and herbal knowledge up to tactical and economical knowledge in a limited sense. However, the cure she sought was nowhere to be found and in the end she returned back to her village, empty handed, yet useful.

There she stayed for a few years, until her usefulness eclipsed in the way that she saved her friend from being killed by a stranger on the street, potentially robbing him. Taking a knive to the chest and with the light fading her eyes as was, a voice called out to her. She had two coices: Either to break her vow and replace it with a new one, or to die and have her friend potentially die with her.

The choice she had been given had been a simple one: Kill the person that killed her, and vow to preserve the balance of all things, or die. Back then the choice had been easy. After all, she was going to die. So what was bad about saving a friend? What was bad to keep things in balance? After all, in this situation, it was a life for a life. She couldnt have imagined what followed however.

As the light finally faded from her eyes, her body was taken to a small shrine, where her family mourned her for days, before her body was sont on its way towards a better place. Putting her on the pyre and igniting the wood, her body turned to ash and smoke as the fire slowly consumed it, burning blue from the sheer heat it generated. At the time the fire burnt the hottest, a humanoid figure could be seen standing in the midst of the flames, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of what was her old life. 

Indeed two mortal lifes were taken, but a god was born out of this sacrifice. While Akira didnt understand what or who saved her, she suddenly was blessed with more then just another chance to live. She had been given additional powers as well, together with glowing tatoos which resembled dragons on her arms of her eyes glowing brightly even in the darkest night.

Whether this was a reward for her keeping her vow for so long, or the humility she had had so far, or maybe even was a gift in order to help her  keep the vow she had taken, she didnt know, but regardless of that, one thing remained crystal clear. Something or someone had chosen her. Had put a bit of trust, however minisule it actually was, in her to be a good person. To keep the balance of all things.

Setting out from the place that would have been her tomb under normal circumstances, Akira traveled the country for a sizeable amount of time, taking out threats behind the scenes as they developed, before she took rest in the mountains, living in solitude. It came to her that her was to solve things often wasnt the particularely right one and that actions had consequences beyond her prediction and imagination. Finally she was ready to return once more to the world of mortals.

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