Saving Grace [Darkened Skies Event]

[Codex]

Vaia continued to ignore the two's bicker as she searched the dead Draco's clothes. That's when a shadow formed in front of her, and Vaia raised her gaze to see Rylzyr kneeling across from her.

"Huh? I don't recognize this." She told him, reaching out for the piece of paper. She flipped it open and began to read it to herself. The note read simply:

The Void Bearer will be seen in Ketra exactly two weeks before the anniversary of the Novian's 1000 year sentence... Your orders are to capture her ALIVE. That amulet is very important, and the human may be the only one who can unlock its power. Once you have the girl in custody, you are to bring her to Blood Dust Grotto... Do not fail me... -Nazix

She read it to herself in her head, her eyes widening as they scanned the paper. What was this all about? Novian? 1000 year defeat? the amulet around her neck? Who were these people, and what did they want from her? "Th- This was on the Draco's body..." Vaia muttered silently to herself. Something bigger then her was obviously going on... Her hands shook in slight fear as they grasped the note. She silently looked down at the amulet around her neck... Something about this necklace had caught the Draconian's interest...

[You had to see it]

Mortum smirked under his helmet at the comment. He would have to deal with the mage later. Right now there was still an alarming lack of information about this whole thing. He noticed the girl was intently reading some parchment. Mortum maneuvered around her an quickly read it from behind. They now had a name and a motive to work with. This Nazix had just had a target placed on him and he didn't even know it.

"Void bearer, huh? Sounds like quite the title. Anything you care to share about that?" He said with an undertone of suspicion.

[Fukurou]

"Oh, so now you're harassing little girls," Rylzyr snorted as he crossed his arms and gazed up at Mortum, smirking. "Hmph. Typical of someone whose heart isn't even beating. Just look at her,"--he gestured at the girl, his eyes remaining steady on the bounty hunter--"Does is look like she has a fucking clue what's happening?"

Shaking his head, Rylzyr's eyes left the man and lingered on Vaia before finally resting on the note. "Anyway, may I see that?" He gently took the piece of parchment from the girl's hand and skimmed over it a couple of times. "That amulet," he finally muttered. "The void... I wonder..." Rylzyr reached out to touch the amulet, only for it to send a shock-wave of electricity through his fingers and up his arm. Cursing under his breath, Rylzyr recoiled and clutched his hand. With his eyes wide and glistening with curiosity, he gaped up at Vaia and murmured, "interesting!"

[Codex]

"I- I swear I have no idea what that means!" Vaia told the armoured man honestly. She had no idea what any of this meant, or why people were after her and the amulet... She held it steady as Rylzyr took it. She looked up at him as he observed it for a few seconds, her eyes hoping for answers that he probably wouldn't be able to give her. That's when she heard him mumble something about the void and then the amulet. He then reached out his hand, and her eyes widened! "Uhh, sir! I wouldn't do that-" She was cut short by the amulet's natural response to other people... Like always, the strange thing repelled anyone but Vaia with a volt of purple electricity. She never knew why exactly it did this, but had always assumed Xenin had placed an enchantment to protect it from getting stolen. Unbeknownst to her however, the truth was much more then that...

"Er.. S-sorry... It does that with everyone but me..." She told him, her face red with nervousness. "It's usually why I keep it under my armor so people don't try to..." 

[You had to see it]

Mortum ignored the comments made by the mage. You didn't make a good bounty hunter by being very trusting. He instead intently observed her face for any sign of deception and... nothing. "I apologize but I had to make sure." He said with a twinge of regret. He didn't want to scare her but the mage had put him in a bad mood. She was only a child after all... one that wore armor, had a most unusual blade, and a magical amulet as demonstrated by the mage. Before she had been drugged she appeared to have been alone at dark in the streets of Ketra. How incredibly innocent, he thought.

"Tell me" he said, more sympathetic this time, "Why does a girl like you need armor?"

[Fukurou]

"More importantly, why do you have that amulet?" Rylzyr asked once again. "And how in the world did you even come in possession of such an artifact?"

[Codex]

Vaia's face became hinted with annoyance at the armoured man's question. Of course, just like the rest. No one expects a little girl like Vaia to be able to fight. She faced him. "Well, if you MUST know I am a mercenary. By blade is enchanted and gives me advantages in battle most people don't have. I may be young but I wouldn't say I'm a 'little girl'" She told him, facing away as the horned man questioned her.

"Like I told you before! It was a gift from my father! A memento, n- nothing more!" She said, clutching the object with her hand.

[You had to see it]

Mortum was silent for a second. Mercenary work left terrible scars both external and internal. To do that kind of work at such a young age was unheard of. More relevant however was her response to the mage. Her response was too insistent, add on to that the stutter..."You want to try that again, without the lies?"

[Fukurou]

Without so much as even glancing away from Vaia, Rylzyr brought his arm up, blocking Mortum's face with the palm of his hand.

"You... really have no idea what that thing is, do you?"

[Codex]

Vaia opened her mouth, about to retort some sort of snarky comeback to the armoured man who seemingly accused her of lying. It was true! Vaia had no idea why everyone was so focused on the object hanging around her neck... Thay's when the horned man raised a hand in front of his face and interrupted.

"W- Well of course I do!" She said, her face getting red with nervousness "It's a memento to remember my father by... Maybe it's just worth a lot of money or something...?" She trailed off, sounding unsure.

[You had to see it]

Looking at the mages hand, Mortum thought how easy it would be to incapacitate the increasingly annoying mage. Another day unfortunately, another day. Instead he satisfied himself with grabbing Rylzyr's wrist, not hard enough to break anything, but hard enough to hurt, before pushing it down and away from his face. "Wouldn't recommend doing that to people who could snap you like a twig." He coldly stated, letting go.

Screw this thought Mortum they had an appointment with this, "Nazix", whoever he was."Fine" he said to the girl,"We should just go and ask this Nazix guy ourselves, would be rude to keep him waiting."

[Fukurou]

As Rylzyr clutched his hand from the pain of Mortum's grip, he couldn't help but chuckle at the man's threat. The mage didn't find the man the least bit frightening and he could help but find all of his attempts at intimidation to be rather amusing. "Oh how I would love to see you try," he purred as he pushed himself from his crouched position, towering over the both of them.

"Ignoring the corpse..." Rylzyr crossed his arms and turned his attention back to Vaia. "Your father didn't happen to be a mage, did he? That amulet's quite... unique for a simple memento."

[Codex]

"A m- Mage?" She questioned. Vaia was unsure on how to answer that question. While technically Xenin wasn't her father, he did raise the girl her entire life... So it should be safe to call him that! Although other people would find their relationship strange, and Vaia knew this... She put a finger to her chin and gazed upwards steadily.

"No... Not really... He's more like a... Well he's..." She stuttered, obviously unsure how to describe him without outright saying 'DRAGON.'

"Er.. He did have some magic powers... Such as flight... And uh.. Fire breath..." Her face got red.

[You had to see it]

He looked at the girl as she fumbled through her explanation with annoyance, and then confusion. She just implied that her father was a dragon which was wrong for all sorts of reasons but he really didn't want to think about that now.

"Look," he said to the girl in an annoyed tone, "as fun as sitting here all night and not getting straight answers would be, we don't have all night. The ringleader of this little operation is sitting on his ass, waiting for you. If he finds out what happened, he'll try this again but in greater force. So if you two don't mind I'll be going to have a friendly conversation with Nazix."

And with that he turned and began walking away.

[Fukurou]

"Bye," Rylzyr scoffed as he watched Mortum walk away.

"Well anyway..." Rylzyr lock eyes with Vaia, his cold gaze unreadable and unwavering. "We can discuss more about this father of yours and his supposed memento later," he said, punctuating father and memento with air quotations. "However... I'd hate to admit it but the corpse is right. Once word gets back to this--oh, what's his name--Nexas character, he'll certainly send more thugs after you and as fun as that may sound, I'm sure it will get old quite fast. Well, you can chose to go after these brutes, or..." the mage clicked his tongue and glanced over at the bounty hunter. "You could allow him to do all of the dirty work for you, but I doubt he can even find his way out of the city..."

[Codex]

"Like hell!" Vaia said angrily. She wouldn't let anyone else go confront them for her! She needed to be there for this meeting. After all, she was a skilled swords woman, and was confident she could handle it. She simply rolled her shoulder and adjusted her blade, it's faint pink glow could be seen reacting to her hands.

"If anyone's gonna find out what happened, it's gonna be me! I don't care if he comes along, but I won't let someone else do this for me." She told the horned man, before turning and quickly following the armoured man.

[You had to see it]

Like most young fighters she clearly had fire in her, he thought. In Mortum's experience this fire got most aspiring warrior's killed. Let's just hope that magic sword is enough to counteract bad decision making.

"As long as you don't do anything stupid we should get along just fine kid." he said turning his head as he walked, "Oh and you don't have to go mage, would hate to see you ruffle that expensive coat."

[Fukurou]

Rylzyr shook his head as she watched Vaia storm off. He was just about to turn and walk away when he hear Mortum's snide comment.

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," Rylzyr said as he caught up to the bounty hunter. "I can easily just buy a new one." He turned his head to meet Vaia, the smirk on his face softening ever so slightly. "Ah, where are my manners? You may call me Rylzyr. The pleasure is mine."

[Codex]

"So you're going to help us?" She asked as she noticed Rylzyr move up beside them. She wouldn't push away any extra help. She just found his personality offputting, and didn't expect him to come along.

"Oh, s- sorry! I'm Vaia. Vaia Nim!" She told him, putting a hand on her chest as she said this. All this time she had completely forgotten about their names.

[Fukurou]

"I suppose I will," he muttered half to himself.