Summoning XV: My First Fatal

[janestarz]

My memory of this event is rather disjointed, so you'll just have to do with some scenes. I can't remember the difference between Saturdaynight or Sundaynight anyway. I guess Frankie doesn't either.

The Sum was good enough, despite my body chickening out on me. The food we had on Fridaynight (MacDonald's junk food) caused a huge cramp in my bowels, which didn't help matters. My black boots are never as comfortable as my brown boots, but when I switched shoes I realised my smallest toe on my right foot was trying to squeeze its way under the other toes, causing more discomfort if just in a different spot. And then there was my back, protesting under a heavy quiver bristling with arrows, a sword and a bow. I don't have a great posture to start with, but the bowcase hanging from just my shoulders and being unsupported by the rest of my back didn't help matters.

However, this didn't spoil much of my fun as I just took it easy. I sat down for a while or I would clean up the kitchen. As it was, Rakoth, Bart and Mort went gallivanting off after their latest fun idea most of the time, while Danara, Choris, Logan and myself did our own things. Truth be told, we all did our own thing most of the time, though I opted to tag along with Mort or Bart often enough if only to cover their backs.

Here's a few of the memorable scenes...

A rolling gait, her bow in hand, Frankie approached the mage's guild. Like so many things on the Vortex it had moved in the past few months, but she was happy to note Ziggy still there, sitting on one of the benches in front of the guild.
"Haven't seen you in a while." the mage said, running a palm over his hair to make sure it wouldn't fluff. The mage's long hair and square glasses made him look like a book enthusiast, which he probably was.
"Yeah..." Frankie replied. "I was on a mission. Guard duty. Nothing important. How's things here?"
"Oh, all is well." Ziggy replied vaguely. The statement seemed a stretch for the ever-changing world, but the guild continued, and so would her lessons. Half an hour later, after being grilled if she had practiced and how, Frankie found herself trying to 'scoop' some magic...
"Now, if you can feel the flow of the raw energy of the earth, you can try and take some of it. And when it's inside you, you'll feel it wants to go somewhere. You're not used to creating your own little pool of mana yet, so you can try focusing the magic in a certain direction. Try to shape it with your intentions. And when you're ready, you can say the incantation."
"What's that?" Frankie fiddled with a knife. It was all very interesting, but it sounded hard.
"It's a combination of words that are fixed. They help the magic flow."
After practicing the tongue-breaking incantation, Frankie was told to focus, to scoop some of the energy, and to do the spell. It was hard enough to control the raw earth magic she took from the energy flows so deeply buried in the soil, never mind forming to strange words with her tongue. After stumbling a few times, she managed to finally, finally, cast her very first spell. The sword Ziggy had enchanted with fire magic moments before, glowed brightly as the wave of magic she sent out hit its surface.
"Whoa..." Frankie whispered.

* * * * *

Frankie followed the swaying white tail suspended from the reindeer's skin on Bart's shoulders in the darkness. Bart was taller than she was, and a priest to boot, but he needed someone to watch his back in the night. From the corner of the field some shouts came. "Undead!"
Bart stopped and Frankie stood next to him. She'd doffed the heavy quiver with arrows and her bowcase earlier as twilight turned to darkness, and was stuck with her sword and her knives. Good, sharp knives, but as useless as cake batter when it came to undead. She held her sword up to Bart. "This won't do much against undead;" she said.
Bart took the sharp blade between his hands and murmured a prayer. "It's a holy blade now, but the spell will last only five minutes." he said pointedly.
"I'll go and find me someone big." Frankie grinned, bouncing on her toes. She glanced at the undead and watched their slow movements. Bart pushed her shoulder. "Go on;" he urged her.
"That's a big one, isn't it?" Frankie pointed. From a throne near the gates of Faction Metal a dark shape rose. It was a threatening shadow in the dark, large enough to look Frankie in the eye, and it commanded the undead to attack.
At Barts aknowledgement, Frankie stepped forward, between the rows of undead, and came up to the large hulking shape. Her sword slashed its chest, the holy power of Amraphen leaving a mark.
A short incantation whispered in the dark, and suddenly Frankie was overwhelmed by fright. She turned, ready to run to the edge of the forest, but Bart intercepted her. He wrapped his arms around her and prayed aloud, a plea to remove the fear. Then he turned her around. "He's over there."

Again Frankie approached the necromancer, again she slashed at his body and yet again the necromancer murmured a spell that made her want to run away. Bart caught her arm, calmed her emotions with another spell, and turned her around. When Frankie didn't move right away, he gave her a little push. Frankie stepped in, ready to sever the necromancer's head from its body, but the creature was faster. With an iron grip he held on to her hair for mere seconds, and then he suddenly let go.

Frankie dropped her guard as a terrible feeling started to creep under the skin of her face, like a thousand beetles running around. Then it felt like gnawing creatures, biting and eating at her face. She screamed, dropping her sword so she could tear at her face with her nails. She fell to the ground, writhing, screaming, every breath in her body spent in that agony....until the screams stopped and she breathed no more...

Bart had caught her, so she wouldn't fall too hard, and he was at her side. Not knowing what else to do, he started a chant to grant his fallen comrade Sanctuary, in the hopes of extending her life. On the other side of Frankie, someone cast Resilience to strengthen Frankie as well, but he continued his chanting.
A healer dropped to her knees next to Frankie, and checked her injuries, slapping the hands away from Frankie's face. Another healer approached, and set her hand over Frankie's nose. They focused their healing, trying to undo the damage of the Death Parasite, to heal the fatal wounds.
"Breathe!" the female healer shouted. "Breathe, damn you!"
With a gasp, Frankie came to. Her hand gripped a dagger while the other carefully checked her facial skin. It seemed to be whole again, and the pain had stopped. Bart helped her up.

* * * * *

After Saturday's magic lesson with Ziggy, Frankie had been informed that she would now be taught by Kalor. He was a battle mage, and Frankie could at least stomach him. He wore bright brown colours and a sword. In the end, he shifted her to Ekitch. When she arrived at the mage's guild he was busy, but he instructed her that evening to find people who could tell her which five spells beginning Earth Mages could do and how they perceived them. Kalor, who had not heard about this assignment, happily answered Frankie's questions and corrected some of her pronounciation difficulties.
"You don't speak high-Vortexian?" he asked her. Frankie shook her head. "Nope."
"It's 'Mend'." Kalor said. "Mend. Em-Ee-En-Dee." He mimicked the letters with his hand, writing it in the air mirrored so she could read it."
"Emmy-emdee. What's that?" Frankie looked puzzled.
"Tripod, Eej, Bipod...don't tell me you can't read!"

* * * * *

"Blood for BOBO!!!" The people rushing out of the undergrowth and onto the field screamed at the top of their lungs. Wildly they swung their weapons, hitting people or not, enticing them to fight. Frankie circled around the altar of the Gods, loosing an arrow which hit one of the archers that was attacking them in his butt cheek. She stuck close to Mort and Bart, who went to take a peek near the portal. Somehow the archer she had hit earlier had circled around, and he returned the favor in much the same spot as she had hit him.

After the fight was over, she limped over to Segred. The arrow didn't have barbs, and she'd pulled it out but she was bleeding from the wound and a limp would slow her down. In the rush to the fight, she'd left her belt with all ten of her daggers in the camp - they'd been preparing the evening meal, and they got in the way however much she liked them.
"Can you heal me?" she asked Segred. She seemed to remember him helping a wounded person several months ago, but he said he wasn't able to heal her.
"I've been hit in my ass." Frankie rubbed the spot, the pain intensifying. Okay, no rubbing. Healing would be needed soon.
"Well, maybe it was a poison arrow. Shall I suck the poison out?" Segred smiled.

Rakoth stepped closer and put a hand on Segred's shoulder. "It's been nice knowing you, mate."
Frankie fumbled at where her belt would be, but she noticed Bart turning so she could slip the knife from his belt. With one fluid motion, she placed a well-deserved cut on Segred's belly.
He clasped his hands over the wound, stepping back and half turning away from her. But Frankie wasn't done yet. She'd shifted the dagger to her left hand, in which she still held her bow, and drew the bowstring to her cheek in a fluid motion. The arrow she loosed at Segred found the gap in his armour, burying itself deep into his left kidney.
"That's what you get for saying such stupid things when I'm not carrying my knives. I use the other weapons."
She turned her back on him, and returned the dagger to Bart. "Thanks."
Then she limped over the field to the Mage's guild. A plump woman there offered healing. "I've got one hole too many in my ass!" Frankie said.
"Normally, I'd rub the wound if I were healing it, but I won't do that now." the healer said, and set to work.

* * * * *

The Elemental stomped into Faction Gargoyle. Everyone scrambled. It was breakfast time, and Frankie held on to her coffee as she gathered with the others. Aphazel spoke with the elemental. It spoke of killing brothers, and called forward three of the culprits who would have done the deed.
Rakoth's face was murder. He'd instigated the attack on Seraph, he'd testified that Seraph had appeared in Luna's realm of the dead unwanted, he'd asked Tiara to help. They had checked with Aphazel, and Seraph no longer had been a part of the faction. But Tiara, Lucca, and the third of the wolf clan were singled out.
Rakoth moved, and in a split second all of Gargoyle was behind the three. "Loyalty." Aphazel told the elemental. Prajul joined in. "We are all brothers, steadfast and loyal. Courageous. That which makes us Gargoyle."
Despite all of Gargoyle joining Tiara and the others, they were still expelled from the faction, and their earth magic taken away.

* * * * *

Ekitch crossed his legs under him, and Frankie did the same. They sat in front of the Mage's Guild, facing eachother. Frankie's back was mostly hidden by the Guild tent, and she could even see most of the Pentagon from where she was sitting.
Ekitch spread his hands. "Well, did you finish the task I set you?" he asked.
"Yes! Yes. I did ask around after the five spells." Frankie said, taking her fingerless leather gloves off. The blood on them was probably her own, from that fight with the necromancer, but they were warm in the sun. Ekitch waited, and Frankie rattled the spells off.
"Well, there's Stick. But it's not really called stick. It makes a wooden object out of something sharp."
"It's called Blunt." Ekitch said.
"Right, Blunttt." Frankie's pronounciation was still horrible. "Then there's Earf Shield, where there's earth to shield you. Uh, there's Detect Majick. I been practicing that with Ziggy, right here, yesterday."
"And how did that work out for you?"
"Oh, it was cool. It was kinda hard, but it was a good lesson. And I did it!" Frankie said, excitedly. She sheathed the knife she'd been fondling. Ziggy was kind of a push-over kind of mage, but Ekitch was from her own faction and he looked more sturdy and imposing. She wasn't sure he'd teach her magic if she was playing with her knives, because he didn't look to impressed by them.
"Uh, and then...there's Ai-on Will." Frankie said, swallowing the hard 'r' completely.
"Iron Will." Ekitch corrected her. "What does that do?"
"Er..." Frankie tried to remember. When she failed, Ekitch explained. "It makes you able to shield your mind from fearsome spells."
"I could have used that yesterday." Frankie said morosely, fingering her face. She told Ekitch what had happened, but he soon returned to the lesson. "What's the last spell?"
Frankie dug in her memory, but couldn't remember.
"Mend." Ekitch said.
"I should have known that!" Frankie said. "Aphazel used it on our bench this morning. It had been broken by the Champion's axe."
"Well, then you know what it does. Let's start with Earth Shield. You have tried to gather some raw earth energy yesterday, and that's what I need you to do today. Except now I want you to let the energy form a barrier on your skin. You can do that by touching yourself and saying the incantation when you meld the energy into your spell. The incantation is as follows: 'By the powers of Earth, let the Earth shield me'. Can you say that?"

Frankie repeated the incantation and then Ekitch told her to draw the energy from the ground. She shifted a bit, placed both hands in the grass before her, and focused. The energy was below the surface and if she looked really, really hard, she could see it. And grab it. She focused, unblinking, at the energy below the surface.
She was distracted by footsteps in the grass behind her. Focusing on the here and now, she watched the feet approach in her peripheral vision. The feet walked on and didn't stop, but from the corner of her eye, she saw the hands of Ekitch move too. He pointedly pointed towards the ground. Frankie apologised, and continued her work. When she finally had the magic, she carefully lifted her hand from the ground. The mana stuck to her fingers, her hand, no, the flesh under her skin. She placed the hand on her chest and said; "By the powers of Earf, let the Earf field me."
She closed one eye and twitched an eyebrow. Nothing seemed to happen, except that all the magic she had had in her hands had twisted into little grains of sand and exploded away from her.
"Your incantation was wrong." Ekitch said. "You said 'field' instead of 'shield'. Try again."
After successfully casting the Earth shield spell, they discussed what happened to the mana when her spell failed. Ekitch warned her that focus was important, and that losing your concentration while casting a spell would have the same effect.

"Next is Iron Will." Ekitch said. "This is a little more complicated. The spell works in two parts. First, you cast the spell on yourself. You can't tell if it works, because you can't see it like with Earth Shield or Stoneskin, which you might learn if you've advanced some more. But trust me, it'll be there when you need it. The second part comes into play at that moment. If someone casts a fear spell on you, you can activate the Iron Will by this incantation: "By my Iron Will, I defy your spell. Now, repeat after me. I want you to get the incantation right, because this is the last spell we'll try today."

Frankie practiced, closing her eyes a few times to form the unfamiliar words. Then, with Ekitch' permission, she cast the spell on herself. "I don't feel anything;" she said. "But I didn't feel the sand exploding from me either."
Ekitch nodded. "Your incantation was correct. The spell should have taken hold on you. Now, for the next part, I will cast a fear spell on you, and you must be able to remember the second part. Or you will run away from me."
Frankie grinned nervously, and started to take off her belt. "I'll get rid of these then. I'm not sure how I'll react to a fear spell, but I don't want you to get hurt. My reflexes might be..."
"Best if you stay seated. That way, if you bolt, you can't get away too quickly and I might nullify the fear effects if you forget the incantation." Ekitch said. Frankie pushed her bowcase and the belt with her daggers away so she couldn't reach them instantaneously, and closed her eyes to practice the incantation in her head.
"Okay. I'm ready." she said.
Ekitch nodded. He cast his spell, touching Frankie's arm, and she felt the fear rising. But she was prepared, after that necromancer. Even if Ekitch was more imposing than Ziggy, she could master her fear and she said her incantation, forcing her muscles to obey and not run away just yet.
A great feeling of victory replaced her fear, as the spell bounced off the shield she had called to protect her mind. She did it!

* * * * *

The path that led to faction Leviathan was one of the most dark on the Vortex. Large branches hung overhead, and Frankie led Segred towards the main field with the Pentagon. From the other side people approached, a large number of them. Segred warned her, but she'd already heard them coming. She whispered to Segred to hide in the undergrowth - he wouldn't see her hand signals, and even if he did, he probably didn't understand them anyway - and he ducked under a tree, hiding his grey robes behind bushes. Frankie crouched on the side of the path, tucking her scarf over her face and staying as still as she could. The group passed to her left, none of them noticed her.
When they had left, Frankie and Segred continued.
"We could always claim we spent some time in the bushes." Segred smiled. He seemed to find it amusing that his fellows thought he was courting the Pathfinder.
"I would be more subtle than that." Frankie said. "I can be very subtle. Effective, yes. But subtle as well." When Segred didn't answer, she asked him for his hand. He extended it towards her.
Using one of her smaller knives, Frankie stuck the tip into Segred's index finger, lightning fast. It was a deep wound, and would heal slowly.
"Bloody hell! What was that for?!" Segred asked.
"When it starts to get infected, it'll throb. That way you'll think of me every time it hurts." Frankie smiled in the dark.

* * * * *

Logan had been appointed Champion for Faction Gargoyle, and he and some of the other faction members had a fun time with it. They'd conquered the Leviathan champion, and the boy had been a prisoner in Gargoyle since dinner time. Even Logan was limited in his movement, as faction members insisted on accompanying him across the Vortex -- even to go to the loo!
After dinner, Mort and Frankie decided to pay Leviathan's DGO a visit, as Mort still needed something translated. They went over to the boy champion.
"Wanna come along?" Frankie asked him. "We're going to Leviathan."
"Yeah, you're welcome to walk with us if you're afraid to get snitched by another faction." Mort joined in.
"No, no, that's alright. I kinda like it here." the boy said. "Besides, they won't come for me. If I'm here, another faction can't conquer me. So they let me stay."
Frankie looked at Logan. "That's stupid. Why are you playing this game again?"

* * * * *

From the Pentagon rose a familiar shape. Frankie scrambled from her seat near the mage's guild and bolted towards faction Gargoyle. "The elemental prince is coming." she informed the people at the gate. They mustered, waiting for him to arrive. The elemental had been there two days earlier, and now he had returned. Frankie was curious, and so were many others.
The elemental stood in the center of the faction, and looked around at the faction members. "You fought well." his words came out disjointed, his stone jaw locking. "You promise largest stone. You conquer largest stone."
Cheers rose, for Gargoyle, for Tekton. Frankie mulled over the name for the elemental prince. She felt an affinity for the elemental, after they had all formed a great circle, linking with Armandis, and then linking with Tekton the elemental prince. The energy had been greater than anything she'd ever tasted before.
They accompanied Tekton back to the Pentagon, an honour guard for their prince. Tiara and the wolf clan smiling wryly. They had been accepted back in the faction, and they had been sworn to the element once more. Brothers again.

* * * * *

Fun fun scenes. There were other things too. How we won the 'champion's game' and claimed the biggest stone. How we wove between the fire elementals in the champion's battle to get to Leviathan without being attacked. The great shots I made with my bow, and being complimented on my archery skills (of course, Tiara only knows me as a shy scribe). How Lyssa and Helena help Frankie to pick on Segred, and how all of the DGO thinks we're courting while only Mort so far has named the 'relationship' we have correctly. How I realised that Segred not reacting to my punches and jibes got boring, but Frankie would never ever get bored by it and would continue regardless. How Lyssa stabbed Segred for me, and then I told her off for touching Segred.
There was more play with the Pathfinders too. Rakoth and his masks. Mort and the die that calls forth robbers who are waiting for a task. How they managed to kill Seraph. The play with riftie and Kalor and Ekitch. Cooking, camping...

A good event, all in all. I hope my writings do it justice. I had fun. Can't wait to see Frankie get the hang of slowly torturing Segred earth magic.