• Closed • The First Steps in a Thousand Arcs

[Rowan]

When Rowan saw Charlie's foot coming down, he thought that Amaris was going to die. Of all the deaths that one could suffer, he didn't think there was any more pathetic than being squashed like an insignificant bug under foot. He managed to slide to a stop before he crashed into it, hands raising to his face to shield his gaze but ultimately finding himself unable to look away. When it raised and their companion was not in fact squashed flat, the young man whooshed out breath in relief and then all but dived at the councillor, helping them to their feet if they needed it and ready to drag them towards safety.

Upon reaching the mouse hole, Rowan rested his hands on his sides, bending over slightly as he gasped air into his lungs, discovering that it was a little easier to breathe in that position than if he had simply stood straight. At least, there was some air to cool him, wafting on his right side so that his warmed body had some relief after that run. While he recovered, his pulse and the sound of his own ragged breathing in his ears, the blond was able to hear the boom of their much larger compatriots although it was difficult to hear just what was being said over his own bodily sounds. He did his best to quieten his breathing, straining to hear. Sephira's voice sounded deeper but it wasn't as deep as Charlie's and so he was able to discern that she believed the shop owner had done something to them. He wished that he could march out of the mouse hole and explain what was going on but he didn't really have that option; an actual mouse would be more noticeable right now than him.

However, as he glanced back towards the booming voices, his body tensed, a looming shape showing that they had other more immediate problems than informing the Element where they'd gotten to. What dropped onto the ground before them, having slid down on a silken thread, was a spider. However, even with the low lighting it was clear that it was no ordinary arachnid. Like most things in the shop, this one was wooden and given the nature of their recent host, it probably shouldn't have come as a surprise to see it. If Charlie's formal mistress had been talented enough to make something sentient and humanoid, why couldn't she make a simple spider with very nasty looking fangs?

The young man straightened, taking a cautious step backwards in case a sudden move made it lunge, fingers tightening around the hatchet that he still held in hand. A hatchet that he was now very glad hadn't been spirited away into his companion's bag like his rope.

"Amaris, we need to move slowly and-" he began to whisper but too late, the carved insect was already on the offensive, aiming for their taller companion. The young man had used a hatchet before but for practical tasks like chopping wood for his mother's fire, not as a weapon. Well, it was wooden so it wasn't that different, he guessed although the wood looked hard.

He wrapped his other hand around its handle, turning his body slightly away from the creature so that when he swung, swivelling at the hips, it'd have a bit more momentum, a slightly harder impact - at least, he hoped so! The shape of the handle helped him index where the blade was and thus, he felt confident that when he let fly, the blade would actually hit something. He swung at a slight diagonal, aiming for the top of one of its front legs, hoping that even if he didn't catch the limb, it might go up into its body. The legs were the narrowest part on the creature and likely the most vulnerable, wooden or not. He'd seen many fleshy spiders fall foul of children and cats who made their limbs buckle at unnatural angles or broke them off altogether.

"Timber!" he roared, throwing all his force, rage and frustration behind it. He had no idea if spiders could hear but if they could, he hoped that he scared the shit out of it.

[Amaris]

- common / murnasian

Had their lives flashed before their eyes? Not quite; it was more so a collection of thoughts ranging from despair and final wishes to firm wishing for otherwise. Their mind skipped from one to the next as Charlie’s foot slammed down - but not on them. Rather, it brushed past their nose and wind of the impact shook them. His foot alighted and they were off once more, aided by Rowan to the mouse hole.

Finally, or seemingly, safe, they were able to stop and catch their breath. They could hear their breathing echoing in their ears to the fast drum of their heart. Amaris would not say their thoughts on the situation. More accurately, they could not. An attempt at speech produced little more than a sharp wheezing as they hunched over and caught their breath. They needed, most importantly, to convey an idea that they might have had to regaining their rightful size, but they would not get the chance. As the words hit their tongue, something appeared and much of the light seeping into the mouse hole. Turning slowly, their eyes fell to the wooden spider and a sort of emptiness hit them.

Why must it have been a spider? The mixed blood could confidently say that they had a horrid history with spiders that were in any way larger than them. It might have been only one instance, but it was enough of an experience that would taint their outlook on arachnids. Swallowing, they watched the drip of venom from the monster’s mouth with a muted terror. A blank expression had settled over their features, changing only slightly as the creature lunged at them. Oh, yes; this was how they were to die, they supposed. So much for living the fullest of a borrowed life, a voice seemed to say. And that must have been enough to knock them from their stupor, headed towards the right with a belated mental push to their legs.

It was a fleeting trill that the idea of possibly tripping over themselves hit, but they would not allow it. Instead, they focused on running the intended course and out of the way. And perhaps they might have laughed at their companions battlecry, but couldn’t find it in themselves beyond the heaving of their chest and the burning of their limbs.

[Aegis]

Charlie's shoulders lowered it a bit into an uncomfortable relaxed state, still defensive but not nearly worried of being turned into firewood now that the woman appeared to be apologizing and not thumbing her weapon. "A soldier...?" He looked over at the counter, sighing, a weight slumping his shoulders down, "My master was a soldier once too..." He walked over to the counter, setting a wooden palm against it, when his voice deepened once more, "You've seen no war, and call yourself a soldier? Pathetic." He turned back toward Sephira, smiling softly.

"Of course I will help find your friends, though it seems quite odd for them to leave just after arriving." Looking at the mirror now, he shrugged, "The mirror has always been here, but she's fairly new, I think. Time is so tricky to keep track of here. It's a shame I don't have a potted plant or anything to help with that. She just appeared one day, and keeps trying to get out. Very handsy, but doesn't seem to have much interest in me. I call her Lucy, but truly I don't know what she is. Or that's she's even a she. She can reach out from time to time, but I don't think she can fully leave."

He walked around the shop looking about, "Maybe they went outside?" He walked over to the door and peered out, and pressed a hand to an invisible barrier in the doorway. "I'm not able to leave here. But all others can come and go as they please..." He sighed once more, "I'm sorry, I'm not sure how I can be much more help with your friends."

1 bit has passed...

Rowan's strike was true, for hitting the broad side of a barn isn't too terribly difficult. The thick teak leg caught the blade, sending heavy reverberations up through Rowan's arms, for teak is a hard wood, and cutting it down requires a bit more technique than the drunkard currently wielded. Luckily for him though, his strike wasn't deep enough to get the hatchet stuck in the wood, and it served as a warning to the spider, who halted in its attack. It stepped back from Rowan a moment, its mandibles clicking loudly, its eyes now revealed to be natural knots in the wood, immobile and yet Rowan would feel their intense gaze.

It didn't chase Amaris as they ran off, now intent on taking down this new challenger. It lunged forward several times, pulling back instantly as well, testing Rowan's defenses and reactions. Always moving, forever chittering, never breaking its gaze. It lunged again, pulled back again, but this time, it also instantly spun about, and shot a ball of webbing toward Rowan's face from its spinneret. The ball was attached to a line connecting it to the spider, which it made sure to only give enough slack to reach the prey. No need to let it run around all willy nilly once captured, right?

2 bits have passed...

Amaris' path was plunged with darkness, cobwebs littering the space, getting caught in the councilor's face and hair, occasionally finding a way into their mouth and nose. Shortly after running a bit in their panic, they'd hear a thud behind them, while simultaneously being blinded by sudden light ahead. After a few moments to adjust, it seemed Amaris had reached some sort of entrance. Before them, where the light was coming from, was a now open arch, and behind them the path now seemed to be blocked by wood. One opened while the other closed.

A mouse bounded out of the lit archway, a bit smaller than the spider, and stood up on its haunches, sniffing at the air before Amaris, and studying them with its beady little eyes. Then its mouth opened and it spoke. Truly spoke. "Welcome to my workshop. My name is Charlie, Charlie Wood. Please, come, it isn't safe here." The mouse turned tail and walked through the archway. It opened up into a massive room, large enough for full sized people to walk around in comfortably. It was impeccably clean, and filled with piles of various uncarved woods Through the middle of it, the river from outside flowed, powering several water mills, that seemed to be connected to various tools.

Should Amaris have followed, a panel would drop behind them, sealing the arch, and this other Mouse Charlie turned to them, "Did my friends find you? Is that why you're here? To help? The other talking mice? They must've, why else would an Architect be here now? It's about bloody time too, I've been waiting ages on your arrival. Where's your Sentinel? Doesn't matter. Can we get this mess sorted out so I can return to normal? It's not exactly fun being a mouse."

The mouse looked terribly annoyed, with a paw on its hip, its whiskers twitching. And further inspection of the shop revealed that it wasn't the only mouse in here. There were dozens, all busy carving, running tools, cleaning. A whole nest, possibly several nests worth of mice.

3 bits passed...

Sephira's attunement spark was able to find just enough information to determine that both Amaris and Rowan were indeed alive. But her lesser used spark wasn't quite ready to stop, for it was in ecstasy at the cacophony of foreign notes found here, and perhaps felt a little sidelined to the bigger rupturing spark. And so, it pushed on a bit, and was able to relay a bit more to Sephira, against her own will. It sent her the sense of danger the pair had been feeling when the spider found them, and that they were no longer together. It also sent her that Rowan was close, but far. Or rather... not necessarily far but... different. Far, to Rowan, but close, to Sephira.

!	Message from: Aegis
	Okeydoke, lets get this rolling again. No dice rolls needed this round, but I will allow exactly 2 questions from each of you given in PM or DM in discord. Should you receive an answer, I ask that you try to incorporate the answers into your post. Thank ya

[Rowan]

He'd swung the hatchet a little madly, his strike managing to make contact with the large target but not particularly well delivered. Rowan had never used a hatchet like this before; chopping wood for the fire hardly counted because you didn't tend to be frightened of wood or in a panic. However, his panicked blow was a glancing one, enough to send shockwaves through his arms and more terrifyingly, made the spider take notice of him. That had kind of been the idea, if only he'd thought it through. He'd wanted to turn its attention away from Amaris, to stop it attacking and it had done just that. However, he hadn't considered that the attention would have to go somewhere else.

It was staring - glaring at him in fact - and as he panicked, he glanced back, considering asking Amaris for help but they were gone. He gawked for a moment, unable to believe that they'd abandoned him while he'd been busy defending him. Perhaps it made sense. Perhaps they'd been right to run while they could.

The chittering of the spider drew his attention back, the young man realising that there was no reversing this, no turning back the clock. Instead, he would simply have to deal with the spider - on its own terms. He clasped the hatchet's handle with new determination, shuffling from side to side, staring right back at the arachnid. Staying on the move, when it made a careful lunge at him, testing his defences, he stepped back, shying away from it. It took a great deal of nerve to swing the hatchet forward a short distance, not a true swing but a threat. He had a weapon too, he wanted to remind it. When it lunged again, he roared at it, trying to intimidate it although he wasn't sure that such a thing was possible. Rowan didn't know if spider's could hear. So when he roared, he opened his mouth wide, trying to convince the spider that he was a force to be reckoned with.

When it gave its final lunge and spun, throwing webbing out, the young man did something that felt genuinely insane. Clasping the hatchet tightly, he threw himself away from it or tried to, flinging himself sideways, intending to crawl on hands and knees, but instead of trying to crawl away, he aimed for under the arachnid, thinking that it might have a hard time getting at him if he was under it. Maybe there'd be a soft spot there that he could attack with the swing of the hatchet or simply hang on for dear life so it couldn't get at him.

At least... that was his intention. As he tried to get out of its way, all he could do was curse the entire time, swearing profusely. The blond wanted to get out of this situation. He had regrets but by Syroa, he wanted to live, he needed to live. What if Amaris needed him? What if there were more of these things? At the very least, he could manage to be a distraction.

[Sephira]

Forcing herself to visibly relax, Sephira rested her palm of the hilt of Wyvern to appear as non-threatening as possible. Something was off about Charlie....something in his voice. This was now the second time that his voice had changed with little warning. She continued focusing on Attuning to the area around her, seeking out anything that hinted at Rowan or Amaris being nearby.

The Element had to bide her time until she could learn more and make a decision, so she decided to try and ply the wooden man with words as the her Spark continued to Attune to her surroundings.

“Lucy...” The mage said with a wary glance toward her mirror image. “Good to know that she can’t leave.”

When Charlie mentioned the possibility of Rowan and Amaris being outside Sephira lightly shook her head. Surely she would have seen them leave? Or perhaps the man was trying to get her to leave. Would she even be able to return if she did? This place was so strange and so unexpected she couldn't depend on anything remaining consistent for very long.

“No, I don’t think they would have left. Though...” The mage paused mid-thought, blinking frantically and feeling her breath catch in her throat as her Attunement Spark surged forward and sprinted out of her control. It was normally the most placid of her Sparks, but in this place it seemed enamored with everything it touched. Although she wrestled with the spark for a few trills Sephira was able to glean information that she might not have known if the Spark hadn’t rushed ahead to probe for information. Perhaps she tried too hard to exert control of her magic, and maybe sometimes she could trust it to occasionally act in her best interest. Those were thoughts for another day however, and she had a much more serious matter at hand.

Notes of Danger and Isolation filtered through her attunement spark jarring her with the alarming sense that Rowan and Amaris were in danger and that they had been forced to separate. The time for placid tactics was over, her companions were clearly risking serious harm and she wasn’t there to defend them.

Snapping back into the moment the mage turned back toward Charlie and scanned the area behind the counter. There was a door there that was shut and perhaps locked; she needed to get in there and check for her missing companions.

“I need to check behind that door, they could have slipped into the back of this place without me noticing. I’m hope you don’t mind.” Sephira said firmly, there wasn’t a hint of hesitation in her voice. Regardless of the shopkeeper's reservations...she was going through that door.

Gripping Wyvern tightly but leaving it sheathed the Element moved toward the door behind the counter, watching Charlie very carefully to see if he would attempt to stop her. Something was off with him, that deep voice of his left her with a foreboding since of danger. She would need to be on her guard.

Dialogue|Thoughts

[Amaris]

- common / murnasian

There had been a familiarity to the situation before Amaris had taken off. A deja vu of sorts, but it'd ended the moment they hadn't fallen. Or rather, the similarities to past events ended there. While the ice caves had seen them fall flat on their back, the same could not be said of the dark mouse hole that they ran through. The same spider elements applied, although a lot less diluted in a sense as they swatted cobwebs out of the way blindly. Regardless of the unintentional reminiscing, they would remind blind for the time being - this time darkness replaced by light following a sound behind them.

Could they be certain that things were progressing quite terribly? Yes; they could. They had split off from Rowan, leaving him to the spider - one more cowardly act to add to the list - and were now facing...a mouse. But, not just any mouse, it would seem. A talking mouse, who thought he knew them, or of them, or of their purpose in this place to begin with. Slack jawed and awed, they'd followed after him into the room, only for the hallway to be lost to them. They turned and froze at the sight of the blocked entry.

Well, there were many ways this could go. They could be killed swiftly and relatively painlessly by the mouse - Charlie Wood, his name was - or it could be a long, excruciating death. They preferred the former, but well - they would see how things played out. Turning to face Charlie, it dawned on them that he share the same name as the wooden man in the room. "Charlie? Like the wooden man in the shop Charlie?" It was an entirely irrelevant question, asked slowly and delivered with very little confidence, but it felt like making conversation and that in turn felt like something that might be needed.

Amaris was given their own bevy of questions to answer, some of which they could not answer. Friends? "No, I did not meet your friends. But, one of mine - Rowan; blonde hair, blue eyes, smaller than me - he's trapped out there with a spider. If you could help him, please, Mr. Charlie, I would indebted to you." They wrung their hands together a moment, stepping closer. "I am also not sure of what you mean by Architect and Sentinel. I am neither of those titles."

Annoyed; the mouse looked annoyed. That was never a good sign. "I can try to be of assistance to you still, though I am not sure how much I can offer." They were quick to add that on, swallowing thickly once the words had been out. There it was, their only hope that they might spared of whatever fate could await them. They just hoped that perhaps Rowan would be given some help. Or at least a quick death if it came down to it.

[Aegis]

Charlie Barkley looked at Sephira curiously, "Well... I guess you can. But my Master told me to only let apprentices beyond that door." He shrugged, "If that's what you want, feel free. I keep it unlocked. Do try not to break anything though, my apprentices would be so upset, and I'd insist that you'd have to pay for it." Charlie moved around behind the counter, bent down behind it, grabbed an object, and stood back up. It was a wooden feather duster, with bright, pink, fluffy feathers sticking out from it. "I'm going to clean up a bit, it is the strangest thing. I never need to dust when it is just me, but when I get visitors, it just gets everywhere. Give me a shout if you need any help."

He moved over to a set of shelves and began dusting away, whistling a tune that would sound familiar to Sephira, though she'd be unable to place it. A tune that reminded of a child, though not herself as a child. And also... a mother. Herself, as the mother. Beyond the door, there was a large, impeccably cleaned workshop, that was in full production, by the mice therein. It was the same room that Amaris found themselves in currently. All eyes were on Sephira as she stepped in. In a unified greeting of squeaks, "Welcome apprentice!" And then work continued.

The same Amaris that was dealing with a very impatient talking mouse.

"Yes yes, one in the same. Though for ease of clarification with the other apprentices, I am called Charlie Wood, he is Charlie Barkley." Though as Amaris continued, Charlie looked first taken aback, then confused, for a mouse. Mostly involved a raising of his "brow" and his whiskers going still. "A wooden spider? Oh dear. That's Betty, one of my creations when I was whole. We must make haste!" He quickly ran over to a nearby mouse sized trunk, and pulled out a greataxe. It was huge, for a mouse, comically large, and yet he carried it with ease.

"Come Architect! We must save your friend!"

He kicked a lever and the slide door opened, letting him out into the gap. He continued onward regardless of whether or not Amaris followed, running a full sprint on two legs, his axe over his shoulder. He hoped Betty wasn't too hungry. She got crabby when she was hungry.

Betty the wooden spider's webbing missed as Rowan dove off to the side and began his crawling underneath her. The spider was turning back around now, to face its attacker once more, when it saw motion at the bottom of its wide field of vision. And so, chittering excitedly, it lunged its mandibles downward. For while Charlie may have been a master craftsman, the man was, in fact, not the best at biology. He'd built Betty at how he thought spiders looked for the most part, but she was not entirely anatomically accurate.

The mandibles closed around Rowan's right leg, just below the knee, and squeezed in a vice like fashion. It took less than a trill. The mandibles pinched more than they cut through the leg, somewhat luckily for Rowan. It shattered the upper half of Rowan's femur, and with a pull of its head, yanked the majority of his right leg from below the knee off. The pinching action did have the saving grace of pinching off the nerves and arteries, to keep the man from bleeding out. Leg between the mandibles, Betty chittered cheerfully, and guided the leg into her awaiting maw, just in time for Charlie Wood and his greataxe arrive, and Amaris too, should she have joined him. The leg was promptly chewed on by the spider, and disappeared within it.

But Rowan did succeed in getting underneath the spider, and still had his hatchet with him.

Charlie Wood just looked on and muttered, "Oh no..." He dashed forward, "I'm sorry Betty!" It would take several long trills for him to reach Betty, but her attention was fully on him. Her covering of Rowan made it so that he couldn't be seen, so Charlie had assumed she'd just finished eating him whole. Betty's wooden underside looked the same as the rest of her body. Though there, on one of her legs, was a crack. But through the pain, the shock, it was hard to say if Rowan would see it. A chink in the armor.

!

Message from: Aegis

Sephira - Shoot me a message for a forced inclusion in your next post ;P Rowan - Still in a combat scenario Amaris - Should you follow Charlie into battle, also in a combat scenario. If not, don't worry about this comment. 3 questions each. Reminder: I strongly recommend no one assume any consequences from this thread in the timeline following this thread UNTIL this thread is completed. Because quite simply... stuff happens, one way or the other. Upon completion of this thread, then the rest can be dealt with.

[Rowan]

There were many things that Rowan had imagined encountering this trial but facing death by wooden spider while shrunk to a tiny size wasn't one of them. The young man soon wished for death.

When he threw himself out of the way, the webbing missed him, the young man registering his continued freedom even as his body flooded with adrenaline, the sound of his respiration and heartbeat taking up most of his hearing. He crawled forward as quickly as possible, the manoeuvre made slightly awkward by the hatchet to which he determinedly clung. Perhaps if he'd moved faster, abandoned the hatchet in order to do so then things might not have gone the way that they did. Unfortunately, he had made his decisions and the consequences could not be altered by what ifs.

Something came down on his leg, gripping the limb with a vice-like hold that bit into his flesh, bone shattering to cut more viciously into more flesh. His mouth opened, the scream that ripped from his throat so high and forceful that his voice broke, the sound lost although the pain did not ceased. Tears streamed down his cheeks, moisture forced out as the agony crescendoed, nausea rising in his throat. The blond was desperate to get away from it and so he forced himself forward, sobbing and lightheaded, vision a blur as he got himself under the spider. Part of him wanted to stop, lie there and simply let go but another part wanted to live and lying down like a corpse seemed like the best way to seal that as his future. His right leg was a mass of pain but adrenaline had been dumped into his system. Given the fights he'd been in, he knew how to make use of that dump, the pain temporarily lessened although when he came down from this high...

He dragged himself forward, seeking something to grasp while he also sought a target. He was going to put the hatchet to use. If the fucker was going to take his leg - the lack of drag below his right knee told him that there was nothing there any more although he was too scared to look - then he was going to take one of its own.

The trans man spotted a crack in one of the legs and knew that it was a weakness. If he could jam the blade directly into the crack it'd be great but his aim... if he hit the general area, it might still have the desired effect though. He gripped a nearby leg, wrapping his arm around it tightly, trying to give himself as stable position as possible so he could take a swing at the cracked leg. He held the handle of the hatchet firmly but not too tightly, thumb against the back of it while fingers rounded the front, the handle allowing easy indexing with the blade edge. Rowan glanced back to see how much swing room he had to work with before he drew his arm back, straightened it and swung with all its might, fully intending to bring its edge into that crack as hard as possible.

"Let's see how you like it, bitch!" he hissed, voice little more than a whisper after the scream he'd let loose. It didn't really matter if anyone heard him though although they might see the rage behind the words in his actions.

[Sephira]

It was a strange look that Charlie Barkley gave Sephira but the soldier shrugged it off all the same when the curious wooden man allowed her into the door behind the counter. He made an unusual mention that only apprentices were allowed back there but she ignored it in passing, focusing on crossing the space to the door and reaching for the handle.

Her booted feet clinked loudly against the oaken floors, echoing throughout the shop just as Charlie began to whistle a strangely familiar song. There was a song her mother had once sang to her as a child on the amber gold beaches of Faldrass, Sephira couldn’t quite remember the words but she caught herself humming it from time to time to herself. This song was so similar, but there was something off about it. It was a notable enough difference that it made the woman pause, turning her head to the side to listen briefly before wrinkling her nose in distaste. For some reason the song was very motherly sounding, in a way that made her feel as if she was the one singing that song to some nonexistent child of her own. The mage had discarded the thought of motherhood some arcs ago, ever since becoming a mage. That choice had not wavered in the least lately, especially with her Sparks continuing to grow in strength.

Pushing that thought aside with a snort of disgust the sorceress snatched open the door.
Everything happened rather quickly...somehow the room began to grow around her, and she got a strange feeling of disorientation that quickly festered in her gut. Rupturers were keenly aware of distance and the immediate space around them, and Sephira couldn’t quite cope with the change that was happening to her body. She stumbled back, before catching herself and realizing that for some silly reason she was now down on all fours.

Sephira was a mouse...

A little silky brown mouse that somehow was still wearing a set of rather dapper leather armor and who had a sword at her belt that was the size of a needle. The young mage suppressed the urge to shriek as she frantically stood up on her back legs like she might have in her previous body and looked at the tiny claws now decorating the tips of her tiny fingers. For a moment she began to tumble over backwards, losing her balance as she became accustomed to her new body before twisting around and landing again on all fours.

For several trills Sephira clambered about, getting her bearings before her new rather keen mouse ears picked up the sound of a voice.

'Come Architect we must save your friend!’

Her twitching mouse nose darted up and even with the notably poorer vision of a rodent Sephira was able to make out the image of Amaris and another mouse who was dashing off in the distance. Were they talking about Rowan?

The Element had been separated from her companions for far too long and she considered herself responsible for their safety. For a trill she stumbled after them, making a clumsy step before instinctively reaching for ether only to find that she could actually still access it while in this form. She was still a mage and that meant that she was far from useless.

Her Attunement Spark danced as she flushed it with energy before activating a net of awareness around her body known as Omnivision. Suddenly her movements became far more agile and sure, even in this body. She could ‘feel’ the floor beneath her feet and even how the individual hairs on her skin reacted with the air currents. With this at least she could do her job.

With that Sephira dashed forward on all fours, chasing after the mouse with the axe , regardless of whether or not Amaris followed. She had to find Rowan and get him out of danger, even if he was an annoying twat.

Now equipped with the knowledge that she could still access her magic the sorceress poured ether into her Rupturing Spark, setting it alight. It was rather disconcerting to see a mouse with faintly glowing crimson eyes as her witchmark awoke, but it was certainly not the strangest thing she had experienced to-trial.

A flash of red announced the blink portal that opened in front of her with a twitch of her forepaw before the little mouse leapt through and emerged just abreast of the other mouse with the axe. Sephira glanced at him briefly before her attention was taken in completely by the massive wooden spider hovering over the injured Rowan. She couldn’t quite take in the full extent of his wounds but she knew that the thin blonde twig of a man was in pain.

Her use of Omnivision lit up her surrounding environment in excellent detail, she knew exactly how far it was to the spider and what it would take to reach the beast and her companion trapped below it. Anger and frustration coursed through her veins as she tore open a Blink while drawing her needle of a sword mid-step, just before reappearing with a thrumming boom in the middle of the air right over the spider’s multiple wooden eyes. She struck downwards with an arcing slice at the arachnid’s face, hoping to blind it’s constantly moving wooden eyes and give her a chance to get Rowan out of harm’s way.

Dialogue|Thoughts

[Aegis]

The spider's leg before Rowan sheered off where it was struck, sending a crack upward through the rest of the leg. This, coupled with the spider shurking backward away from the newest attacker slashing out most of its eyes. This sent the spider stumbling backwards, off balance by the missing leg, ripping its leg from Rowan's grasp, accidentally kicking him in the chin as it did so. Charlie Wood went chasing after the spider, his great axe at the ready. He swung at the confused and mostly blinded spider, chopping deep into the top of its head and back, bringing it crashing down into the wooden floor. A massive crack split opened up along the entire length, and the creature fell apart in two halves.

It was done.

Charlie Wood looked back, seeing the light trail of blood and the missing leg from the blonde man, Rowin', like a boat. He also saw the newest apprentice, "Apprentice! You need to tie up his leg or we might lose him!" Charlie began to dig through the wooden organs and the excessive amount of unspun webbing, trying to find the leg. It was slow, arduous word, but he found it. Mangled beyond any possible recovery. He sighed, throwing the leg back down into the ichor in frustration.

He walked over to the new apprentice and Rowin', looking down at the now crippled man, "You're an idiot for fighting her by yourself. The Architect is an idiot for abandoning you. Come, let's get him to the workshop. We might be able to save him." Charlie picked up Rowin' beneath the arm pits, waiting on the apprentice to grab the legs, or what was left of them. "Stay strong. Lesser Sentinels than you have come back from worse injuries than this."

And as Charlie began the slow journey of carrying Rowan back to the mouse hole, heading back for the workshop. He was dead silent the whole way, and soon once the false walls were raised and the workshop revealed to them, he relaxed a bit. Looking around, "Huh... she was just here. Tall thing. Architects really shouldn't be running off without their Sentinels. Far too dangerous." He led the way over to a table and heaved Rowin' up and on to it.

More mice rushed over, and Charlie took charge. "Tie him down." He turned to the apprentice, "You're a Maester, yes? I saw you hopping about like one. I'm going to need to ask something of you, something that will be extremely difficult. I need you to go steal a piece of wood from Charlie Barkley out there. It needs to be off his body to work. If you can get me a big enough piece, I can help this man. Any tool here is at your disposal. But make haste, his life may depend on it."

The other mice ran ropes across Rowin's torso and arms and legs at the thigh. Charlie Wood pulled on some gloves, looking down at Rowin', "I'm sorry mate. This is gonna hurt, a lot. But I will do my best to keep you alive." Charlie offered a strap of leather to bite upon if he wanted it. One of the mice brought a tool wrap over and unfurled it on the end of the table. He pulled out a long pair of tweezers, looking back and forth from the tools to the leg, and set it back down. He then grabbed a knife. He was no doctor. He was simply a woodcarver with a small interest in biology.

Using a variety of his woodworking tools, he cut away the excess flesh and meat. He then begin to pull away the broken shards of bone out of the bit of leg left beneath the knee, setting them in a wash pan. He continued this until he realized that the entire remaining bit of bone was a goner, or at least, assumed it to be. He tied a tourniquet higher above the knee, and loosened the first. He was so focused on his work, he didn't notice Rowin's protests, if there were any.

Soon the flesh beneath the knee was removed, the meat removed. He carved back enough to expose the top of the tibia, where it roughly met the femur. Eyeballing it, he wasn't sure as to how to best separate it. He grabbed what appeared to be a small crow bar, working it into the gap between the bones. Then he smacked it with a wooden mallet, and yanked the remaining tibia out. Pouring wine over the wound he looked at the bottom of the femur, and felt it was in decent shape. He used some clean sheets as wads, holding them against the stump, "And now... we need for the Maester to return." He then asked aloud, "Anyone seen the Architect? Where'd she go?"

!	Message from: Aegis
	Rowan - 3 questions Sephira - 5 questions Amaris - You have been skipped once. Next skip will result in negative consequences IC. Following skip after that results in ejection from thread. I will post again on the 26th or after everyone posts once, whichever comes first.