sunset_horizons | 01 ❂ Mage Problems

Who: Koko Himaa and Katherine Amell
Where: Run Down Apartment, Denerim
What: The champion of the Source revealed herself to be a mage in a world that fears magic... Oops.
Warnings: General prejudices and likely a bit of a scruffle.

When the human noble had begun to stir, Koko had taken the opportunity to flee before the man could call for guards or, even worse, templars. She had, after all, been here plenty of times before to have heard of how relentless this world's religious authority treated those gifted with magical ability. Leaving the bottle of Aqua Vitae had been her only hindrance, though as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop, she could hear the clanging of sabatons beating against the dirt and cobblestone paths beneath her.

Shite, even with her careful planning, she'd lingered just a little too long. Given just enough witnesses to likely collaborate the noble's story of witchcraft. How could she have been so reckless?

Koko slipped into an abandoned apartment with the agility of a rogue, silently thanking her foresight to train with a few members of the Scions. However she did not expect someone to be waiting for there, as she was about to call upon the Crystal in her possession to hop to another reality. Hiding it within her back, she nearly jumps as a few of the local templars enter the room. How in the seven hells had they gotten here so quickly?

"Ah! What brings you lovely gentlemen to such a dilapitated place this fine day...?" she asked, clearly stalling. There was no way the man had awoken yet; she hadn't even gone a couple blocks! So then, how?

"We have reason to suspect that you may be an illegal mage," the one in the middle, clearly one of the more aggressive lot, spoke as he pointed a sword at her from across the room. "I'm afraid you'll have to come with us."

"M-me? Are you mental?" She almost looked hurt by the accusation! "Tell me, how thick would I be to have come here of my own volition were that true?"

Yet they were advancing on her, and while she could easily dispatch them all, she would rather not have the blood of those just doing their job on her hands. She backs up slowly, feigning cowardice as she neared the window once more... Hopefully the glint of the azure Crystal's light outside the window would both be a distraction and enough of a distress signal to another mage not far from here.

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She gives the sympathetic one a nod and smile in thanks for his help, and relaxes for real when they're out of the room - which, ironically, makes the tension she was hiding visible for a moment before it's gone.

"It's all fun and games until someone sees you doing something you shouldn't..." Katherine shakes her head a little. "I keep forgetting, sometimes. Your world is kinder to its mages."

"...Only if you practice within the set boundaries." Which, as she had stated before, she and her sister do not. It was with relief that she came to realize that unlike her own world, the greatsword was no sign that she was a practitioner of a forbidden art. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. "Thank you, Katherine. Don't know what I would have done without you."

Bullshite, she knew full well... and it would not have ended as bloodless. Especially if her darkside took over from her.

"What are friends for, after all? I'm surprised they're still tolerating me, honestly."

She checked her pouch to make sure her gift was still intact, then joined Koko by the wall, leaning against it.

"But please try to make sure nobody is watching when you cast anything from here on. You heard him, I can't protect you next time without making myself a target. And they're already willing to ignore the legal protection of being a Warden, I know that much."

"Probably because the young one seemed to idolize you."

"The case with Anders, correct? ...I shall exercise further precautionary measures. Though this time, I... could not help myself." Not after what she had seen, nor what had truly started that argument. Her sense of justice was far too strong, even if she answered it with embarrassment instead of the sword. "He'd witnessed one of my visions."

You had a vision...?

[She'd only seen this happen once. Briefly, and-...oh no. She's starting to get the idea of what happened. She'd made it sound like it was only mischief to thwart a bigot, but...]

How did he- did your other self compromise you?

[Ah yes, she... never explained that sometimes a little side effect occurs aside from her Esteem taking over once in a while.]

My visions have a side effect on occasion, if the other has an acute awareness. A sense of familiarity to those I accidentally see into their memories. He recognized me from them after I glimpsed him mistreating his servants in the past.

[She sighs.]

...Which is why, after a few days, I shall take on another appearance. I will not endanger you or your Order with this glamour.

[Katherine nods.] It's for the best. I wish you didn't need to maintain a glamour at all. If those templars had decided to attack...

[Well, she doesn't need her friend in that kind of situation. Whether the first thoughts upon looking at her were "qunari", "desire demon", or "what are you?", the chances of it not ending in disaster were far too slim for her liking.]

[A frown crossed her lips at the thought, something steeling within her as she finished that sentence.]

-their bones would join the countless others in my metaphorical throne of bone. Magic or no.

[She absentmindedly brushes against the one thing that remained the same in all her forms - a single, long scar on her right cheek.]

Believe me when I say that while it gets old, not being me... no one knows 'tis in everyone's best interest than I. Too many have died for such a tragic misunderstanding.

And it's too easy to run afoul of those misunderstandings here. This world is...especially unkind, I've learned, now that I've been exposed to others.

[She looks out the window, at the streets of Denerim below.]

I can't keep asking you to meet me here. Maybe I should come to Eorzea for a while instead?

[She nods but once, searching the pocket of her pack before producing a small pearl that seemed to glow faintly in the dim light of the room.]

Then, take this. In the star of mine origin, these are how many of us keep in contact.

[She holds it out to Katherine for her to take.]

A word of warning, however: Latent magic is potent in Eorzea in the form of raw aether. As a mage, you may need to acclimate and relearn to your skills.

[An enchanted piece of jewelry is nothing new. Even so, Katherine takes the pearl and inspects it, as if the Eorzean enchantment or technology might have some new light to shed on her own magical theory just by looking at it.]

I've been once before, I think it might be safe. But thank you. How do I use this?

[Then again, she hadn't arrived in her true form. Who knows how that could have changed things?]

01 ❂ Mage Problems

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