[b][center]Scipio - Chapter 1: To Drink from the Fountain[/center][/b]

It had been four days of barely speaking to one another, as it appeared Edith was fleeting and vagrant. If Scipio had known any better, he might have supposed she traversed the entirety of the Sphere in those long, drawn-out days. Scipio's greetings were met with indifference, and the one time he managed to get her attention in hopes of initiating a game of chess, she turned tail and made off into the distance.

The final day, however, Edith had seemingly become impatient, itching with anticipation to leave the sphere and for Urborg; she stayed at the farmer's -Durn- house from ignition to extinguishing. She couldn't avoid Scipio's games then.

"Don't expect to get any satisfaction if you win," she grumbled, sitting down before the chess pieces set up perfectly on the table before her.

Scipio smiled thinly. "This is the wrong game to play for satisfaction my dear. Chess is a game of the mind. You play in order to understand how your opponent thinks. If you can do that, you win." His hand hovered over the pieces that covered the board, moving from one end to the other slowly, stopping to pick up a black pawn, move it two spaces towards the center, and set it down on the board. Laying his head on his hand, silver eyes peering between the pieces across the monochrome field, he asked the small girl on the other side, "You know the rules right?"

"More or less," she responded, sounding quite unsure herself. She eyed a particular pawn and moved it a single space forward. "But don't go easy on me."

"I wouldn't dare," he responed. Actually, he had planned on doing just that, but she didn't need to know that. Without lifting his head, Scipio picked up on hand and gestured towards his left knight. It moved on its own, two spaces forward and one to the right.

Edith looked to the self-perpetuating knight with wonder underneath her mask, and then up to Scipio. "No need for parlor tricks spiderman," she said spitefully. The tiny girl reached for another pawn and moved it forward. Several turns later, the two were matched rather poorly; Edith was clearly on the losing side, but not by much. She had lost a few pieces, and Scipio but one. She continued on unabated, but the speed at which she made decisions indicated little consideration was taken in them.

"If this game was a real war, you would have died already," he said, having shifted his head onto his other hand when the first had fallen asleep. He really needed to get away from this sedentary Sphere. "Too rash, too bold, no strategy." Scipio slid his bishop from one end of the board to the other, taking Edith's other knight. "I truly hope this isn't how you are in real battle."

"It's worked for me thus far," she retorted, moving another piece to its certain doom, "I haven't exactly fought in a battle with multiple pieces anyways." She picked up her king piece and held it tightly before practically slamming it back onto its original position. "If it were your king versus my king, though, I think this'd be an entirely different situation." Edith's face was invisible to Scipio, but anyone could tell she appeared quite smug underneath it.

"Oh, would it?" Scipio mused. "Maybe you're right, but in chess when two kings go at it, neither side wins, not really. It's just mutual destruction at that point." He picked up the black queen from where it had sat unmoved for the entirety of the game and moved it next to Edith's white king. One square away diagonally was the black bishop he had moved two turns ago. "Check," he said flatly. She could get out of it, but only if she was willing to sacrifice her queen to destroy his.

"[i]Till the last man[/i]," Edith whispered to herself, moving the king into safety, and thus surrendering the queen to Scipio. She leaned back and sighed heavily, quickly seeming uninterested in the game. Her breath practically spoke, 'defeat me and be done with it'.

"The king is misrepresented in chess. Should he not be more powerful, like the queen? No good king sits idly by in war. He fights, not runs away."

Scipio leaned back, attention lost from the game. There was no point once his opponent gave up. "You think so?" he yawned. "What I never understood about chess is why the king's defeat ends the game. A war never ends with the king's death. That has a nasty tendency of starting wars far more often than stopping them." He shook his head. "But no, this is just a game. If it was played like a real war, there would be no end to it unless each and every piece on the enemy's side was wiped out." He paused. "It really is a terrible game." With one move, he set his pawn on the far side of the board, exchanged it for his queen, and said, "Checkmate."

Edith sighed again, as if it weren't already obvious she gave up. She slapped her hands onto the chair's armrest and lifted up and away. "Silly game," she grumbled, walking away, presumably to sleep. The Urborg airship would arrive the morning after.

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The morning of truth, when the ship from Urborg would arrive on the tiny agrarian Sphere, had finally arrived. Eager and impatient, Edith had risen from bed first and awaited Scipio outside, her gear packed up and stuffed into a bag slung across her breast. When Scipio presented himself, he found Edith tapping her foot impatiently, arms crossed. His arrival was met with a sigh heavy enough to instill depression in any common man.

"You finally ready to go?" she asked in annoyance.

Scipio walked slowly, relaxed, up to his small travelling companion. "Yes, I think so," he said. He looked back over his shoulder at the rural Sphere he was leaving behind. It had been better than most of the other Spheres he had visited, but he didn't think he would miss it much. He preferred more urban settings; places where things happened.

Scipio had no luggage, nor any packs or bags. He travelled light, bringing only the clothes on his back - very nice clothes mind you - and the money he kept in the pockets that lined the inside of what he wore. "Is it here yet?" he asked Edith, completely brushing aside her annoyance.

With a single thumb thrown over her shoulder, Edith pointed out a barely visible dot in the distant sky. It was clearly travelling, moving closer to the surface of the sphere a ways away. Turning, Edith made for the airship's inevitable landing spot, a tiny patch of stone amidst a flat meadow.

Traveling along a worn path of sandy dirt, the pair found their way to the ship's field, a measly thing that could have barely been called a landing spot. Given the quietness of the sphere, and the few passengers it ever took on board, it was never necessary for the ships to get anything but the smallest welcome. A single post sign along the path stated in fading paint the various ships that arrived there, and on which days and times.

Urborg's time was upon them.

The ship was minuscule, likely incapable of holding much more than a dozen individuals, though it was apparently well-kept despite this. No doubt a result of Bulwark's adherence to cleanliness and positive appearances. Edith approached as she pulled out a small ticket, practically waving it at the ship as if hoping they'd accept her in that instant.

The back of the ship opened up with a lowering rampart leading up into the cabin. At the top of the ramp stood a single individual clad in civilian clothing. Only the sword at his side made him seem anything less than the easiest pilot to trample over. For a moment, almost, Edith truly considered hijacking it and leaving the bearded man on the agrarian sphere. But that wouldn't look good in the Drider's eyes, she thought, and he was paying anyways. No need to stir trouble when there wasn't even an issue with money to begin with.

The man accepted her ticket with a smile, though granted a strange look as she walked past, out of his gaze. As Scipio approached, he failed to lose his expression of surprise in time to present himself properly. It was just too strange at that point. A masked Minou and a nobleman? Who the hell was he taking on board? Nevertheless, he accepted his ticket and continued to wait for any other passengers.

Edith sat in one of the seats lining the tiny cabin's interior with a huff, as if practicing for the long journey ahead.

"Relax," Scipio told his companion, "no amount of impatience will make us get there any sooner. Might as well just relax and make the best of the trip." The Drider's smile faltered for a moment, and he leaned back with a quiet groan. When whatever it had been passed, he pulled a white flask from inside his jacket pocket and drank from it. It was the first time he had eaten or drank anything in Edith's presence. "I don't do flying particularly well," he explained with a sheepish grin.

Replacing the flask, Scipio lay on his back across four of the cabin's seats. He sincerely hoped that no one else would be joining them aboard the ship. He didn't particularly care for crowds, especially not ones in small, confined spaces.

"I'd disagree," Edith responded, "but that'd mean doing something foolish." Edith ears perked up as Scipio's white flask made an appearance. She hadn't really seen him consume much on the Sphere prior, and him having a seemingly special canister for [i]something[/i] piqued her curiosity. Was it alcohol? The man's appearance was most curious of all, not to mention what little of his powers she experienced. What a well-dressed man like him was looking for in her own quarry was a mystery.

"Say," she opened up, "what are you even after?" She awaited a response, but given her memory of consistently stern expressions on his part, she figured he wasn't the type to disclose such information so carelessly. "If you tell, I will as well."

The silver-eyed Drider looked at his masked companion and then stared out the cabin's window. "Hm, it's hard to say. What I'm after and why I'm on this ship with you to find where Kyarian went are two entirely separate matters. To me, finding him is merely a temporary distraction. No, not so. That implies I don't care what I discover either way." Scipio almost smiled at a memory of his mentor scolding him for his coldness. "I merely want to take Kyarian back to his home. He hasn't seen it in so long." 

He looked back at Edith. "After that, my goals become quite vague," he said simply. "I'm not trying to be difficult, I merely am uncertain as to where the trail leads until I've arrived there, only then to find it was never there to begin with." A gentle smile as he ran his hand over his face. "I guess that wouldn't make sense though."

Behind the mask, Edith appeared almost dumbfounded, though in a unsatisfactory way.

"I was expecting something more adventurous," she said, "would have made my response seem less profound. It's like I've been cheated somehow." She practically threw herself back into the seat and sighed. It took a minute, but she eventually succumbed and held up her end of the deal.

"My teacher was betrayed, and I seek revenge," she started, though quickly finished, "that's all I'll say. Sufficient." The ship had begun to lift off amidst their conversation, a hum growing in the engine compartment. With its small size, the airship quickly took off into the sky.

Scipio laughed softly. "No, I'm not adventurer, but a cheater I have been called on occasion. Though Kyarian wouldn't have called himself an adventurer either, but his tales would have convinced you otherwise." Scipio's quiet laugh faded into silence, the hum of the ship's motion being the only sound in the cabin. The Drider moved his hands through the air above his face, wisps of white pouring from his fingertips and shaping into a humanoid puppet holding a thin blade. As Scipio's fingers danced, the puppet swordsman darted through the air between the two, slicing, blocking, dodging imaginary combatants.

"And then he went seeking revenge," the silver-eyed puppeteer said softly, raising his other hand. White arm-like tentacles reached up and wrapped around the puppet's ankles, tripping it and causing it to drop its sword, which fell apart into wisps of white thread. More reaching tendrils took the puppet's arms, and another wrapped around its neck. Scipio looked over at his short companion. "You see the point to this show?" he asked, spreading the fingers of both hands. The puppet was ripped apart by the white tentacles, the entire show disintegrating to nothing but a white head, which fell into Scipio's outstreched hand. He changed the face on the head into Edith's mask and tossed it to its rightful owner, solidifying the malleable silk into something more similar to stone as he did.

Edith surveyed the trinket quickly before clenching it in her hands and turning to Scipio with what he could only guess was a look of hatred.

"Revenge is a word," she seemed to pause, gathering her thoughts, "because it has come about. It has been achieved. I won't necessarily fall to the same fate as your Kyarian." She pocketed the solidified silk mask and leaned back again. "I mean no disrespect, but I believe myself to be of a greater skill in dealing with this particular individual."

Scipio just shrugged and turned his head away from the masked Minou. He wasn't going to try to dissuade her from her vengeance if she didn't want to be dissuaded. But at least he had tried a little. He hadn't thought to ask Kyarian to not go seeking his revenge. If Edith considered her skill above and beyond that of the Drider Guardsman, then she was either of frightnening caliber or simply arrogant. Scipio hadn't seen her do anything particularly impressive as of yet, so the latter was more likely, but he would give her the benefit of the doubt for now.

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Edith and Scipio had fallen to silence for much of the trip's remainder, and given the length of it, made for an altogether awkward experience, at least in Edith's mind. She was visibly attempting to dissuade herself from trying to strike up another conversation, staring out the window, fiddling, or seemingly napping. It was difficult to tell under her mask.

Scipio, however, without such a guise, was obviously asleep but moments into the flight. Edith caught herself observing the man quite thoroughly, though never stopped holding some anxiety; the gods only knew when he might wake, or if he was simply feigning it.

A bump in the flight, and a shift in its orientation signalled that the ship had arrived at Urborg. Edith jumped to look out the window, and Scipio was roused from his slumber. A treeline stretched far out into the horizon, obscured by a faint mist. Urborg, evidently then, was a lush jungle world with nary a view of the ground beneath.

Throughout the flight, the duo's pilot had remained seemingly silent, or at the very least quieted by the metal door between the cabin and the pilot's seat, but as they began to descend, it became apparent his voice was quite different; they could hear it.

The pilot was seemingly shouting, but through the door, it was only a muffled rage. Edith gave a short glance in the door's direction, but ignored much of it, intent on observing the outside world from above. However, her gaze was interrupted with something entirely different than simple jungle.

A beam of light shone upwards from the treeline, barely missing their ship. It flashed for a second before fading away, and suddenly the ship veered to the side as if out of control. Edith gripped the seat she was in and cried out. The ship was tilted, diving sideways towards the treeline, but still maintained a semblance of manageability. They weren't falling out of the sky, but with the continued appearance of bright lights, it seemed like they might be soon.

Scipio yawned as he woke up. "Morning," he said sleepily, though much of the haze was an act. The ship tilted again, and Scipio stood and walked over to the window just in time to see yet another beam of light fly towards the ship. "Hm, I wonder if that's their way of saying go away," he mused. As the ship tilted in the opposite direction the Drider had no problem keeping upright where he stood. "Do you think we should jump ship?" he asked his masked companion.

"Are you insane?!" she yelled, tensing up in her seat as she practically melded with the very ship, "I dunno about you, but I don't exactly fall gracefully! Or safely for that matter!"

"Oh come now, it isn't that far. Though I doubt I could take the pilot as well. That would be problematic, he could very well ruin my reputation by saying I left him to die alone." Scipio thought on it as the ship leaned one way and then the other. "You know, we aren't even sure if these lights are truly dangerous. It may just be this Sphere's version of fireworks or a light show. I've been to many Spheres with such practices-"

Scipio stopped as one of the lights passed through the ship's hull. In a split second moving from the side and into the cabin like a phantasmal beacon cutting through the steel. The moment it had reached the center of the cabin, everything vanished before their eyes. The front half of the ship was torn from their own in a fiery explosion, and their mode of levitation was instantly lost. They were falling likes stones, but a couple hundred feet from the earth.

"Well, that was convenient. No need to worry about the pilot ruining my reputation anymore." Scipio somehow remained upright as the entire cabit spun and fell, as if his feet were welded to the floor. "We should be going now I think," he said as the cabin filled with white. Threads found Edith and pulled her to the Drider's arms as he leapt into open air. As soon as he was clear of the falling ship, Scipio streched out his eight spider legs. White silk formed a canopy detween the ends of the legs and shaped into a white parachute. Scipio laughed, "I love flying! What about you?"

Edith cared little for the structural integrity of Scipio's clothing, and gripped it as if it were but a tiny string holding her above the abyss. Were in not for the fact that he tailored his own clothing, he'd have been nude. Edith replied to Scipio's joke with terrified squeals, though soon they died down and became mild mumbles as she realized her safety was secured.

Edith lowered her head as the remains of the ship fell but a dozen feet to their side, caving in on itself below the treeline and finally exploding in a flash of green haze. A flock of birds squawked and flew off from the crash. The daredevil and his cargo soon floated to the sanctity of hard ground as well, brushing past large leaves dripping with moisture.

Edith immediately disembarked with a rough push upon Scipio, and quickly checked her backside to ensure the sword was still there. She let off a few obscenities under her breath, and paced around a couple times, as if to gain her bearings again.

Scipio checked over himself as well and repaired his poor clothes. Behind him, the silk parachute unwove itself and disintegrated into individual threads. "Well, something tells me we're not welcome here. I wonder why they were shooting at us. Maybe they found out who we are and why we're here, and maybe they're associates of Kyarian's prey, and maybe that makes them enemies." Scipio's silver eyes narrowed, becoming dangerous, as he said the last part. "Maybe we should go introduce ourselves," he suggested lightly.

"Seems a little far-fetched that they know who we were, holed up inside that cabin," Edith proclaimed, now much less frantic than before. "But nevertheless, they are most certainly not friendly." Edith lightly touched her sword and looked about, her ears twitching underneath her yellow hood. "Given how close the lights were, I'd say the culprits are real close by. We should get moving, find civilization. I don't suppose you also have super vision and know where to go?" she said sarcastically.

"No clue at all," he said, shrugging nonchalantly. "And the super vision is also unfortunately a no, though my night vision isn't bad." Scipio looked around, "Too bad it isn't night." His eight spider legs were still unfolded, and he used them to jump from the ground onto the side of a massive tree trunk. "I could climb this tree here and see if I see anything," he suggested.

"Be my guest. Seems like there're a few trees in the way," she remarked.

"No harm in trying," Scipio said, his long arachnid legs making him look very much like a massive spider as he moved up the tree's thick trunk. He stopped halfway up and yelled down at Edith, "Oh yes, if you happen to get attacked by anyone, or if something big, which in your case is relative, tries to eat you and you can't deal with it on your own, just yell real loud. I may choose to hear you." It was hard to tell if he was joking or not, as the next second he had disappeared through the canopy.

The climb was dominated by vines and leaves capable of serving as Scipio's personal hammock, and his ability to remain dry was shattered. By the time he had reached the treeline, the material was practically sticking to his skin. At the top, little was visible beyond a vast surface of green, though a certain, peculiar feature had caught his eye off in the distance. A grey crag, jutting above the jungle's grasp, layered with a soft mist. But in particular, a small gleam that shimmered on its peaks was most notable.

The silver eyed Drider took a mental picture of what he saw, though up above the treetops it was difficult to judge distance or direction. He didn't bother speculating as to what he was seeing, he'd seen far to many strange things on various Spheres to be suprised by much. The thought did pop into his head though that he could be looking at the thing that had fired upon the ship. Regardless, it was a landmark. Scipio tried to keep his body oriented towards the structure he had seen as he descended back through the canopy, though it was difficult going simply navigating at all through the dense foliage. He fell the last couple dozen feet to the ground, his long legs bending to set him down lightly on the forest floor.

Scipio turned to face Edith, about to relay his findings to the Minou, though found his gaze pulled much higher than the girl's height.

Just behind her, pressed against her back, was an unknown individual. He held a blade against her neck, pressing her outwards towards Scipio, clearly threatening him with violence. There were several men, in fact, surrounding Scipio in a half-circle around the jungle clearing, armed with longswords and formidable black armor.

Edith was silent, though let out an occasional grunt of discomfort and anger. Scipio could tell under her mask that she was seriously considering trying her luck in her captor's grasp.

"Pretty prinny for a crash survivor," the captor remarked, gesturing towards Scipio's clothing.

Scipio looked down at himself, soaked from his trip into the treetops. "My my, I am a mess," he said. "I suppose you wouldn't allow me a minute to clean myself up? Appearances are the most imporantant thing, after all." Scipio channeled the Seer aspect, listening for heartbeats. He heard his own, but he muffled that one, and he heard Edith's, now familiar to him and also easily pushed out of his attention. All of the other heartbeats belonged to these new men. He pushed himself to differentiate each individual beating, to determine just how outnumbered he was.

Five heartbeats, he determined... and yet he saw six men before him.

"I don't mind. It's nice to see some cleanliness on this Sphere once in awhile," the captor stated. As Scipio's attention was turned slightly to him, he deduced the missing heartbeat; Edith's holder lacked one, as far as Scipio's abilities led him.

Scipio nodded thanks to the man. "Finally a criminal with some class. The last person who tried to kill me certainly couldn't have cared less what I looked like." His soaked clothing seemed to shrink suddenly, retracting and molding to the Drider's skin, squeezing the water out from between the fabric and his body. The material then balooned outwards, a ripple running from top to bottom pushing the water off. Scipio ran his hand through his hair, likewise pushing the water out with a comb of miniscule white threads. "Ah, that is much better. So, about this whole hostage situation."

"Indeed. About this hostage situation," the man began, "Thank you for confirming that it's a hostage situation, and we're not just wasting our time with this midget." The man pressed the blade slightly closer. "There won't be any negotiation. You're going to turn around and keep marching in that direction until we tell you to stop."

With his chin, again, he gestured to Scipio, staring at his spider legs. "Those legs tell me I'd be better off taking you into camp for a conversation, rather than offing you both right here."

"That is true. It isn't often a Drider is captured, especially in recent years. I bet I'm worth a fortune." Scipio laughed. "But you know, something about walking towards what may or may not be imminent death or enslavement just doesn't sit right with me." He looked at Edith's captor, if not his own, and asked, "Do you know the one problem that every hostage situation has in common?"

Without waiting for an answer, Scipio channeled three different aspects, Weaving and Manipulating and Changing to make a white bow and arrow appear in his hands. "It's the hostage." He shot Edith through the heart, the massive arrow lodging itself with both ends visible on either side of her body, the tip pointing out her back stained red. "I guess this isn't a hostage situation anymore," Scipio commented lazily, the white bow disappating from before him.

Without much of a glance, the man seemingly realized his mistake, and simply pushed Edith to the ground, who was much too stunned to voice herself otherwise.

"I suppose it wasn't in the first place," the man grumbled, "But this will end all the same." Rolling his shoulders, it had become apparent to both Scipio and the five other soldiers that a fight was about to take place.

"Pulled apart at the legs or not, Miss Ariek will enjoy seeing your body."