[CENTER][h3][color=a187be]Sara, Daughter of Aliya[/color][/h3]
[img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/534948241825988611/1174472569089429534/image.png?ex=6567b7d1&is=655542d1&hm=0ac3def3fc8f9660bc4ffa5b117bd076001fdea39f99c6fc0387a65fdaacb1b6&=[/img]

Ionna [@Mcmolly][/CENTER]
As Sara punched her way through the ballroom, her glowing gauntlets drawing disproportionate attention from enemies, she tried to seek out the unaccounted-for Scions. Suddenly, she felt a wave pass through her, and she immediately knew that something was wrong because the heat from her gauntlets began to sear the flesh of her arms, causing her to drop her chain to the ground where it started burning a line into the carpet. Gritting her teeth and fighting back a scream, strangling it in her throat to a gurgling groan, Sara's first instinct was to dismiss her armor to make the hot gauntlets vanish as she had done in practice whenever her 'resist heat' spell had failed. But she was in the middle of a battle, with bullets and blades flying everywhere; dismissing her armor could mean death. So she spent the extra few seconds while the skin of her arm boiled to force herself to concentrate and recast the 'resist heat' spell. She could only tell that the spell worked because she could no longer feel the radiative heat from the glow of the gauntlets; her hands couldn't tell if the gauntlets burned anymore because now, they were simply in constant pain due to the damage they had sustained for even just a few seconds of contact with red-hot metal. Sara swallowed thickly, only now realizing the sweat that trickled from her brow from the pain she had endured.

Sara didn't know how long she stood there, grappling with the pain, trying to push it down so that she could continue with her mission. She saw the chain on the ground had dimmed slightly. Of course, whatever had canceled her 'resist heat' spell had also canceled her 'heat metal' spell, though the thermal energy that had been infused into the weapon and her gauntlets would take a good while to dissipate. As she bent down to pick up the chain, she had to try to ignore the spikes of pain whenever her fingers moved or whenever the open burns of her arms contacted the insides of the gauntlets. Sara wanted to throw up, but she had a mission, though one that was almost immediately dashed when she heard the Scion of Time announce Sir Ulysse's demise. Looking towards the direction of Lucas' voice, Sara saw the Templar of Metal dash out of the window in pursuit. Looking back in the opposite direction, she saw Scions Dom and Kaspar together. If Ionna was leaving Dom's side, then was she abandoning her duty, or did she deem them safe enough? Sara also saw Theobald near the Scions, though his focus was on the wall of ice, clearly the Scion of Water's location, and she understood. Ionna trusted Theobald to protect the others, as did Sara. With Sir Ulysse dead, Nadine was the only unaccounted for Scion. How did they manage to obscure her bright flash? How did they manage to muffle the thunder? Of all the Scions, she should have been the easiest to locate.

Did Sara now follow Ionna to search for the Scion of Lightning and disobey Dame Irina? Or was her duty to Theobald? Of course, if Nadine was lost, Sara was sure Theobald would find some way to pin the blame on her and brand her a spy or a traitor to have her dismissed, or at best, executed. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. But as much as Theobald would probably love to think that his threat cowed her into obedience, Sara's ultimate decision to pursue Nadine was not because of the order he had barked at the beginning of this chaos, but because she truly believed in the holiness of the Scions and valued them above all others. Sara was grateful for the light of Incepta. She did not see her life as one of difficulty. Hardship and proximity to the church had been her greatest teachers, blessings that many overlooked in favor of the glitter and comfort of the material. Life could have been worse. She could have been born in goddess-less Kaudus; she could have been born a weak, arrogant, and spineless noble, steeped in sin and excess, ignorant to compassion. Her life was blessed, she thought to herself, as she felt a sickening slickness slip into the space between her gauntlets and her hands which continued throbbing in pain. Was it blood or pus? She didn't care.

Making up her mind, Sara swiftly followed Ionna out the window, dashing after the lither woman. [color=a187be]"Dame Ionna!"[/color] Sara called out to get her peer's attention, almost, it seems, in revelry, [color=a187be]"WE HUNT!"[/color] This. This was Incepta's true gift to humanity that all had access to, the gift of zeal, for the heart of a believer could overcome all obstacles, all woe, and come out stronger for it. As if inspired by Incepta herself, Sara suddenly recalled another spell she had been practicing. If she was to be a good Scion, she needed to be able to keep track of Theobald under any circumstance. Fortunately, he was a large man with an imposing silhouette and a high body temperature, and she could track him, even in darkness, by casting 'detect heat'. Though she stumbled over the lines during practice, Sara's fervor allowed her to recall the spell with clarity and chant it, allowing her to peer into the cold, dark forest for signs of human activity. [color=a187be]"These infidels cannot hide from me."[/color] Now she just needed to look for anything that appeared like a person carrying another person.