Just what was it Amuné was hoping to achieve? Taliya had already told her that her efforts were moot, her visions unreliable and finicky at best. Why was the child so damned insistent on ignoring her and trying anyways? Far be it from her to keep the Ydran from doing her thing but if Amuné passed out from using her magic too much it wouldn't be on her. She had assumed that they were looking for more insight on a Rökorm and how they were supposed to kill one. If that was all Amuné wanted though then she could have just asked, Taliya knew more herself than what was written on those few pages. The girl's expression took a decidedly grim turn however which was obviously not supposed to happen, was it another vision of her friends? No, whatever she had seen was something else entirely and scared the girl enough to go utterly pale and nearly land her on her ass. The first words she uttered hadn't been lost on Taliya either, she had clearly seen something other than what she had intended. "You're asking the wrong person kiddo, I haven't got a fucking clue honestly," Taliya admitted with a scowl, "One day we're saviors and the next we're burned alive for just being Magi. Like I said whatever is going on in the Church has shit all upside down now, they're in bed with those fuckers in the companies and they're leaving us in the dust like broken tools. And the Church paints anyone who ain't with them as scum too, we're basically criminals and violent people who just want to watch the world burn." "And they're not completely wrong there, place would be better off with less people," Taliya added with a curt laugh. All this fighting was because Adelon had grown so large, there was no form of cohesion anymore. It was a lot like how her brigade of bandits had been at one point until it split in half, the less people there were the easier it was to manage. Probably the same with Magi, there were just too many of them now and they had outlived their usefulness. An axe whose edge had dulled or a sword blade snapped in two, even if not really broken they were cast aside. "If you even have a shred of smarts in that head of yours girl then you know why you don't see Magi everywhere anymore. You know why entire towns are raided and people are taken away. I've never exactly been on the right side of the law but there's a fucking line you never cross, there are just some things you don't do. Taking away children, killing entire villages, imprisoning folks just because of what they are, the Church has done all this shit and then some to people like us." Her voice grew steadily louder the more she spoke and it was all that Taliya could do was to keep from shouting. She was visibly angry though as her jaw was taut, a vein popping in her neck and her fist clenched hard around her flask, denting the container. "When a bandit's got more honor and conduct than the people running this fucking kingdom that's when you know the world's gone to shit. Suddenly the people who were criminals are the lot trying to save it, and the people who are supposed to lead us are trying to kill us." Slamming her flask on the table she broke through the table and crushed her container, spilling its contents all over her hand and the floor beneath as she threw the ruined item aside. "So to answer your question runt, you're right, Non-Magi are bad, and Magi. Don't matter what walk of life you're from, bad people are everywhere," Taliya said with a grin, "But there's thieving bad and then there's massacres, the shit the Church does. And that's what we're here for, to keep those bastards in line and remind them they can't just do whatever they fucking want with this place, this kingdom. If you're really planning on looking for your folks then buckle in for one hell of a ride because shit's only going to get worse from hereon out for you. Hell..." she paused, leaning back and wiping her hand off on a stray shirt, "It's probably going to get worse for all of us." ----- Ethan didn't know which way was up or down for a good moment as he lay on the ground, clutching at his shoulder and biting back shouts of pain. Was it broken or just dislocated? Whatever he'd done it hurt like hell and the pain was making him lightheaded, or maybe that was the fatigue from using so much magic so soon. Matters were only worse as he heard the Rökorm nearby inhaling air and preparing another blast, lifting himself up to see it aiming yet again at him. Crap, what was he supposed to do now? He didn't have much magic left in him and his arm was pretty much useless, should he just try and run again? Extending a hand and trying to muster up magic in defense he let it patter out when a heated dagger embedded itself in the Rökorm's side and caused it to stop, howling and writhing as the weapon clearly burned against its flesh. Nymira was quick to follow up her own attack and launch another fireball at it that was again evaded, the beast again turned to mist to avoid the attack. They were never going to actually kill this thing were they? "Six seconds! There's a six second window!" Six or five seconds, it was hard to count exactly when she was so focused on attacking. But that seemed to be roughly the window in between when the Rökorm could turn into mist and avoid attacks. So if they could just time their attacks right, or rather, if [i]she[/i] could time her attacks right then they would be victorious. Ethan looked to be utterly out of it now which left her to fight it on her own, assuming Kensen and Gage were still above actually fighting the Rökorm. By this time the Vazra were nearly wiped out and they had made it look easy yet she doubted that meant anything for their fight. She needed her daggers back, one of which was goodness knows where and the other on the ground near the Rökorm which had now since materialized and was preparing an attack. She'd have to take a chance and get her dagger back, otherwise she was stuck casting magic until she ran out of energy. The Rökorm's body swelled up as air was gathered and compressed and Nymira began to run towards it as it did so, headlong into what was perhaps certain death. A loud hissing sound signaled it was releasing its attack and she waited until she saw it begin to deflate, jumping into the air and twisting her body around. With less than a few centimeters of margin she managed to jump over and avoid the blast entirely, landing as it shattered a rock behind her and sprinting ahead. Two seconds. Gathering a fireball in her hand she threw it as quickly as she could, hardly worried about its potency as she simply tried to drive the Rökorm back. One second. The fireball hit the beast and caused it to writhe and try to distance itself, giving Nymira plenty of opportunity to retrieve her weapon and prepare another attack. Flipping the dagger over in her hand she saw the Rökorm's tail swing around to try and knock her off guard but she was quick enough to react, heating her blade and slicing through the tail, taking off a good length of it and splattering the ground with a thick purple blood. Hissing furiously the Rökorm turned to mist and began to move away again, doing everything it possibly could to keep away from them. ----- Should he have gone after Amuné? Taliya probably wouldn't do anything to her, rough as the woman could be even she wouldn't hurt a kid. But what had Amuné so riled up in the first place? She was acting like something bad had happened but how could she possibly know anything? Norman chalked it up to another Magi quirk and let it rest seeing as he was too busy to even consider chasing after the girl anyways. Cecil was far from destroyed but there was a lot of delicate work that needed to be done for repairs and he didn't quite trust anyone else here to handle it. Combat Machina were a bit more intricate than your typical types, their machinery had to be more durable and well made to endure the rigors they were exposed to. As such everything down to the simplest of wiring was of a higher quality than most, and while simple copper wasn't terribly good on its own he had just enough scrap in the shop to create an alloy for his uses. Forming the wires and soldering them together took mere minutes, and with the wires formed that meant the conduits throughout Cecil's body were now repaired. The shell itself would take a bit longer as he had to cast the pieces, let them cool and probably paint them to make it look like Cecil was as good as new. Making certain the wires would hold Norman found the power cell in the Machina again and activated it, watching as it came to life and power began to cycle through his body again. Satisfied that the most complicated part was finished he stepped back for a moment and gathered everything he'd need to form the shell, directing two engineers present to begin setting up everything for a cast. Just in time too as he could hear the scraping of metal against a wooden table, Cecil was coming to. "Easy there friend, I wouldn't move just yet if I were you," Norman warned as he gathered a measuring tape together and a pencil, placing the latter behind his ear as he returned to the table. A benefit of being a Machina he supposed, even while wide open there was no pain, its what made operating on them so much easier. "Looks like you took quite a beating wherever you kids were, did a number on your body. Melted shell, frayed wires, compromised conduits in a couple of spaces, not to mention you'd more or less fallen apart completely. Putting you back together was like a puzzle, I'm actually surprised these people did it right." Using the table measure around Cecil's intact arm he took rough estimates of the sizes they would need for the replacement parts and called them out to the other engineers. Clearly none of them had ever worked on a combat Machina before as they seemed clueless, so with some curt directions from Norman they were sent on their way to get to work. "You've caused one heck of a stir being here, there aren't many of your model around this area," Norman chuckled, scratching down measurements on the table where Cecil was propped, "How are your memory banks? Do you know what happened that put you in this mess?" They would need some idea for the future, maybe so he could work on a fix to prevent similar damage in the future. Leaning a bit closer he spoke in a lower tone this time, enough so that no one else in the shop would hear. "Also... We're going to need to talk about that crystal in your chest, but we'll wait. For now just sit tight and let me fix you up."