[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/xh8a8v7.png[/img]

[b][i]One Week Ago - White Ocean Coast[/i][/b][/center]

The small lumpy bone felt more significant between Conata's fingers than she wanted it to be. It was barely larger than her palm, standing out from the brown rust on her skin. Even though she had forgotten about its existence until now, it was no mystery to her why it made her feel sad.

The water lapped on the beach in front of her. Conata looked up at the sunrise from her seated position on the beach. She could just throw the bone away right now. It would be gone, then. She would never turn back. Maybe then it wouldn't bother her so much.

Soft footsteps padded behind her. "Conata, Do you feel like joining us to eat?" Gio had approached. His low voice made Conata sigh and hide the bone in her closed fist.

"It is just grey rocks for breakfast again. There is little enough game out here save for birds, and I do not think anyone can be bothered this morning."

[colour=Orange]"I'm not hungry, thanks, Gio,"[/colour] Conata mumbled. She did not face him but she could hear his robes rustling to lean over, probably to see her face.

"Are you okay? You have been sitting away from camp for a while."

Conata blinked, hesitated, and curled her lips. It was no use trying to hide her feelings when they were always on display. [colour=Orange]"I found something from home,"[/colour] she said, opening her fingers to reveal the lumpy bone. [colour=Orange]"It's been in my bag all this time. Just a...goat bone from father's-...or Choukkud's flock. Back when I was small, I would chase them around for fun. This one was from the foot of the fastest one, Big Billy."[/colour]

Conata could feel Gio's sympathetic smile forming. "Feeling homesick?" he asked.

[colour=Orange]"It's not just that."[/colour] Conata rolled the bone between her fingers. [colour=Orange]"I ran away."[/colour] The rust intensified. She was finding it hard to speak, even if she was trying to hide it. [colour=Orange]"I didn't say goodbye, I didn't say sorry, I just...ran."[/colour] She began to go leaden, defeated. [colour=Orange]"They won't want to see me again. I set out without wanting to go back, but...now I realise that I can't, even if I wanted to. I've ruined things."[/colour]

Gio stood up straight again and turned his head to look back at camp. The tiny waves lapped two more times. He then exhaled through his nose and settled to be seated next to Conata. "I do not think you have ruined things," his calm voice said. "They would be sad that you ran away, but we all knew them. They loved you and raised you. They will understand."

[colour=Orange]"No, you don't understand."[/colour] Conata shook her head and peered up with a frown at Gio. [colour=Orange]"I made an agreement with Choukkud that I would wait until my seventeenth birthday to do anything like this. He promised to tell me everything he knew about where I came from. Then and no sooner."[/colour] Conata looked forward, drew up her knees, and hugged them. [colour=Orange]"What if all this turns out bad? What if I don't find Alefpria or this guy Lifprasil that's supposed to know who I am? I broke my end of the bargain with Choukkud. I...I won't have anything left."[/colour]

Gio looked down, eyeing the shapes in the sand. He spotted a discarded cockle shell and picked it up to dust the sand off against his broad azibo chest. "So, you broke a promise. He is still your father."

[colour=Orange]"What do you mean? I betrayed him."[/colour] Conata spoke muffled into one knee.

"Well..." Gio paused for a moment. His tone shifted on a tangent. "You know, I was meant to take over my father's position as the medicine man in our settlement -- Ruvac, Polia's, and mine." Gio daintily bit off half of the seashell and ground it between his back teeth while he continued. "I was scared to leave to come with Ruvac and Polia. I knew nothing of Tounic calligraphy and I did not especially need it for my duties. But my father told me that if I did not go, I would end up regretting it for the rest of my life because this was the one chance to go out and learn about such a new thing as Tounic, even if there was the chance that it was useless. He did not want me to regret taking the chance. I certainly do not regret setting out." He swallowed. "The state you left Rulanah in was one that we could all see would only make your relationship worse with your parents if you [i]stayed.[/i] Can you say that you could have stood to wait for another year and a half, getting more and more resentful?"

Conata hesitated and then shook her head. [colour=Orange]"I probably would have hated them. I hated them for trying to make me stay in the first place."[/colour]

"That would be regrettable, no? You would not be sitting here so rusted and homesick if you did not still love them a little."

[colour=Orange]"...I guess."[/colour]

"Look, I do not think Choukkud and Wutni would have wanted you to hate them. I do not believe you would have wanted to leave having hated them, either, even if you could have gotten a little more information that...well..." Gio leant in and hushed his voice. "I think this Alefpria place will have that information if someone like Majus recommends it." He straightened. "Still, they will not stay angry forever. That path will remain open if ever you need it."

Conata's rust receded somewhat, partially replaced with dull lead. [colour=Orange]"It was still a bad idea to not say goodbye. I just couldn't stand being there a day longer. The whole place made me feel so..."[/colour] She trailed off.

"I understand. We all make mistakes sometimes. Don't dwell on it if it does not help you." Gio tossed up the other half of the seashell into his mouth and chewed with a friendly grin. "As for now, you'll have plenty of time to think before making further mistakes, and even then, it is all learning. We're all learning here, really."

The lead and rust on Conata's skin began to show subtle flecks of bronze. She quirked the corner of her mouth and turned an eye to him. [colour=Orange]"How'd you get this wise, anyway?"[/colour]

"That's a long and boring story," Gio answered.

[colour=Orange]"If you say so."[/colour] Conata cringed by way of stifling a snort and shimmered with some traces of bismuth. [colour=Orange]"'It was your one chance to go out and learn about Tounic calligraphy,' was it? Here I thought you came to Rulanah so you could get the courage to tell Polia."[/colour]

Gio's smile dropped and he tensed up. In a poor effort to play the comment off, he tried looking across the sand for another seashell. "Hm? What do you...Tell her what? I do not understand." His face was flushing a deep green.

[colour=Orange]"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing."[/colour] Conata looked out to sea. Her rust was all but cleared for more iridescent bismuth. [colour=Orange]"It would be a bad idea for it to stay nothing, though. A very bad idea."[/colour]

[hr]
[centre][i][b]Present - The Hilt[/b][/i][/centre]

"This is a very bad idea, Connie!" Polia shouted. Even without speaking the djinni language, it was clear enough now that Conata had answered the lord's challenge.

Vitrum raised his sickle-bladed fists and bellowed over Polia's protests. His large, glowing mouth swung open and shouted power into a diagonal swing down.

Conata shouted right back. Her entire body wrenched around, swinging her cleaver down to meet the incoming sickle. It was thrown with such momentum that Conata's body angled forward and pirouetted with the follow-through.

[i]CRING![/i]

A spray of black shards flew and scattered on the ground. Not only was Vitrum's blow deflected by the time Conata's feet met the ground again, but one of his blades also thudded to the grass, broken off.

The cleaver did not stop as it whirled around. Conata crouched and jumped high, somersaulting forward in the air. The cleaver's point swung underneath and made a vertical oribit, before Conata uncurled and landed, throwing the cleaver over her head with both hands and a shout. The cleaver slammed into the front of Vitrum's chest, lodging into the black stone with a sharp [i]clack![/i] A large sheet of obsidian fell away from another spray of shards. He bellowed again.

Conata had to pull with all her might to release the blade. It was so heavy that it made her stumble just by bringing it back around behind her.

Vitrum was stumbling as well. He wasn't dead. She could keep this up, she thought.

With an ascending grunt, Conata hefted the blade up further to aim a cut at Vitrum's skull. She leapt forward. The blue glow of the skull grew with the black around it. She noticed the movement of his torso right before she felt a dull sound against her side. The back of Vitrum's swinging fist. He had lured her into it. After the initial jarring crunch of obsidian on metal, Conata flew a distance and hit the dirt shoulder first, rolling.

She flung a hand to the ground to lift herself up, coughing. She was too shocked to feel the pain. More thudding footsteps against the ground prompted her to stand faster. She rolled to her back, lifted her legs, and flung her body upright and standing, just in time to see Vitrum closing the distance with monstrous footsteps. Her arm ached. Behind the lord, Ruvac, Polia, and Gio were watching on helplessly. The lesser obsidian djinn still stood sentinel. Conata had dropped her cleaver.

Vitrum's remaining sickle was raised and thrown down. Conata sidestepped. It [i]thunked[/i] into the ground at the last moment. 

She needed to get at her metal again

She jumped back just as his other fist [i]wooved[/i] upwards towards her and still found air. The current it pushed flowed over her torso.

It was right over there. She just needed to...

Crackling against notions of human anatomy, Vitrum stepped forward and his arms both swung up, around, and forward to try and clap Conata between his fists. Conata jumped and reached out towards her cleaver.

[i]Crack![/i] The arms bounced apart below Conata's feet, right before she landed back on the grass below.

That's it. Split it up.

[colour=DimGray]"No djinnnn of earth moves with your finesssse!"[/colour] Vitrum stepped to follow and took another wild swing with his sickle. Conata juked underneath the massive black blade. [colour=DimGray]"It shall nnnot save you. It saved no djinn of winnnd from I!"[/colour]

Conata extended both her open hands. She then drew her elbows in while forming fists. Vitrum did not notice the pieces of metal flying in from behind him. Their combined impact threw obsidian flakes out in a spray of flakes from Vitrum's back, forcing him to stumble. He shouted in frustration.

Conata took her chance. She darted under the djinni lord's pillar-like legs, half-turning to avoid the wickedly sharp edges. She sprinted a short distance, slid to a stop, and spun around, throwing her hand out and facing the turning Vitrum.

The metal responded again, wrenching off Vitrum's back and into an orbit around Conata.

[colour=DimGray]"You would wwweather me awaaay!?"[/colour] Vitrum halted his offensive. He leant forward to face down Conata. [colour=DimGray]"No water djinnnn found my defeat eitherrr!"[/colour]

His retribution was swift. Vitrum extended his sickle arm up and drove it into the ground, much deeper this time. It sent a rumble through the earth that ended quickly with a belching soil cloud under Conata's feet. It came with an upside-down shower of obsidian shards, engulfing her.

Like so many claws raking against her metallic skin, scraping and chipping, she felt little in the way of pain but even less balance and control. She clambered for absent footing. A great spiked black fist emerged from the settling dust to change the former. It was impossible to dodge. She wrenched her eyes shut just as it knocked the wind from her.

The ground hit her in the back and she curled in pain, wheezing in a breath. She could taste dirt in her mouth, the black shards as well.

They had a different taste to what she had expected.

When the flying dirt did stop raining on the upturned ground, Conata opened her red eyes to see white scratches covering every inch of her arms and legs. Her clothing was in tatters, but for her thick leather tabard. She turned her head to behold Vitrum's eternal grin hovering over her. His hand wrapped around her torso before she could process the feeling. By the time she helplessly began thrashing and struggling, she was pulled up looking like a trapped ferret. Vitrum's grip was sure as stone.

Conata stopped and glared back at Vitrum with renewed defiance. She could not move her arms, which made manipulating her now-half-buried metal nearly impossible. She tried desperately to think of what to do.

[colour=DimGray]"You arrre defeated."[/colour] Vitrum declared. Conata's breathing hastened in a panic. [colour=DimGray]"I shall consummme you as an exammmple to all other innnterlopers."[/colour]

He hadn't trapped all of her.

[colour=Orange]"I'm not done yet, you arrogant brick!"[/colour] Conata's iron feet swung. She splayed and clenched her toes a few times. It was clumsy, but she just needed to keep the lord occupied. Just for a few moments. [colour=Orange]"You just want to keep this place all to yourself!? What do you get out of this place, huh?! You don't farm or hunt! My friends say you don't even eat like mortals! You're just being jealous and greedy!"[/colour]

[colour=DimGray]"You know nnnnothing of this place? You feel not it's powerrr? And you think it belonnngs to mortals?"[/colour] Vitrum's skull-like visage did not betray the confusion in his tone. [colour=DimGray]"You are no djinnnn. What mmmanner of creature are-"[/colour]

He spotted Conata's eyes twitching away from his face and reacted immediately. His head spun, his body turned, and he extended his free sickle hand. His sickle shattered as it felt the full impact of a solid sphere of hastily welded metal fly into his open hand with enough momentum to bend his elbow. He struggled for a moment longer, before he began to push back.

[colour=DimGray]"Haaa haaaah! Yooou would trick me like a honourless fire djinnnn!? You neither listennn nor do you learnnn!"[/colour]

That wasn't meant to happen. The sphere was meant to break his face. All of Conata's features tensed in a struggle. Vitrum was vying for control of the metal.

[colour=DimGray]"Your massstery of the earth is lackinnng, interloper!"[/colour] Vitrum rotated his skull-shaped head to face Conata again. [colour=DimGray]"Your defeat shallll remainnn!"[/colour]

This wasn't the end. It couldn't be. Conata tensed and began to glow a bright orange, pushing the metal as hard as she could. Vitrum's arm holding back the sphere began to quiver. She growled through clenched teeth. [colour=Orange][i]"I...Won't...Give...Up!"[/i][/colour]

Vitrum began to growl in his own struggle. The sphere began to heat up, steaming off the moisture the metal had picked up in the dirt. 

[colour=DimGray]"What!?"[/colour]

Obsidian stones crumbled up from Vitrum's legs and torso and ran up his arm. He tried his best to divert mass from his body to hold back the sphere. It heated to the point of bulging between his fingers. The glow of the metal in both of Vitrum's hands brought his dark features into stark contrast.

Conata's leather tabard shrivelled to black and flared with blasing orange fire. [colour=Orange]"I won't...let...you...hurt anyone else!"[/colour]

White hot gobbets of metal seeped out between the growing mass holding back the sphere and flew onto Vitrum's face and body. His face darted between the melting metal and the now white-hot Conata with bristling wire hair.

[colour=DimGray]"What mmmanner of creaturrrre are you, interloperrr?!"[/colour] Vitrum demanded.

The surrounding grass shrivelled and smoked in a ring around them. Conata's very shape was getting lost in the eyes with her blinding light and heat. [colour=Orange]"You're...about...to find out!"[/colour]

The heat intensified to the point of engulfing the area, casting deep shadows from every surrounding object. It was impossible to see anything. Conata only needed to sense the metal around her. Her last plan was desperate, but she knew what to look for. It was working.

[colour=DimGray]"WHAT ARE YOU DOINNNG!?"[/colour] Vitrum's pleas were laced in suffering and fear. He screamed. [colour=DimGray]"CEEE[/colour][colour=Gray]EEEE[/colour][colour=DarkGray]EAAA[/colour][colour=Silver]AAAA[/colour][colour=decba5]AAAA[/colour][colour=efa647]AAAR[/colour][colour=ffc766]GH!"[/colour]

A breeze began to flow as the sheer blasting heat caused nearby foliage to burst into flames.

She had never felt this kind of heat before. She might just melt.

"CONATA!" She heard Polia shout out.

Something flowed over in the universe. Conata felt something new. 

[hr]
A chill ran up Conata's upper arm. She pulled her blanket over her shoulder. It was cold all of a sudden.

"She's waking up."

"Conata? Conata, can you hear us?"

Gio and Ruvac could be in such a rush sometimes. Conata just wanted to sleep in this morning. She felt tired after...

"Connie, please be okay, please..."

[colour=Orange]"Polia?"[/colour] Conata croaked. Something had happened. Consciousness flooded back into her mind, as did the sensations of feeling, smelling, and looking. She cracked her eyes open a sliver and saw three familiar shapes. Her friends were standing over her. She winced at the sun, it was so bright. It...

The sense of feeling metal returned as well.

There was another shape was behind it. Towering. She could sense it there without even seeing it. She began to a deep breath through her nose and tried to open her eyes wider. She gasped in the rest of her lung capacity.

Standing just behind the three azibo speaking to her was a radiant humanoid figure so tall that he could look at her over Gio's head without even maintaining the proud posture that held up his build. A broad, powerful build made entirely of lustrous metal. 

[centre][hider=Conata recognised the metal as silicon. The mortar of all glass and sand.][img]http://i.imgur.com/8OFar4k.jpg[/img][/hider][/centre]

The cause of Conata's wince, she found, was not the sun, but the sun reflected off the huge figure's head and shoulder. There was something familiar about his muscular build, though he was no hain or rovaick shape. Making up his lower body were curtains of torn metal sheets in layers that obscured any legs that might have existed.

[colour=Orange]"Who are you!?"[/colour] Conata started in a panic.

The silvery giant answered in a droning hum of speech. [colour=Silver]"You knowww my nammme."[/colour]

Scraps of memory spilt out of Conata's sleep-fogged mind. Sensations. Such that she only knew through her sense for metals, not any images, sounds, nor textures. One taste. Obsidian. It tasted of silicon. The implications were too much for Conata to process. She propped herself up on one elbow and ran a hand over her face. She was a dull, wavily textured metal that yielded to the touch. A disoriented Mercury.

[colour=Orange]"I don't understand, what happened? Why are you made of metal? And...why aren't you trying to kill me?"[/colour]

Vitrum, as was confirmed by not only his speech but his height, spoke in an even tone that was hard to read. [colour=Silver]"You defeated mmme, forcing my very flickerrr into a new formmm, alike to yourrrs. I am no longer obsidiannn. Thusss your nature to me isss determinnned, for your powerrr is reserved for godsss."[/colour]

Conata lowered her brow. The only indication that any of this made sense was Majus calling her [i]demigoddess.[/i] The word repeated in her head.

[colour=Silver]"By defeating meee in a contest of elemental mmmight, you have wonnn my fealtyyy."[/colour]

The others still did not understand what Vitrum and Conata were conversing about. The language was mysterious. They exchanged worried looks. Polia spoke up in the pause between the two.

"Conata, I don't know what you did, but you and that earth djinn made a crater. With you inside of it." She had red around her eyes as if she had been crying. "We would have been burnt alive if not for Ruvac's deflection font. We went up to you two and this guy-" she pointed a thumb to Vitrum, "-appeared out of the crater, carried you out and brought you to us, pointing to get us to attend to you. You weren't hurt, but we nearly burnt ourselves checking. What's he saying? Where did he come from? What even happened and...what's going on?"

Conata took a moment to scrunch her eyes shut and collect herself. She sat up properly and held the blanket across her chest -- the intense heat from before evidently consumed her clothing. [colour=Orange]"It's the same earth djinn lord as before. His name is Vitrum, he says I changed his form and that I won his fealty, I think."[/colour] She nervously ran a hand through her wire hair and down her neck. [colour=Orange]"I'm really confused."[/colour]

Polia looked back at Vitrum with a new dose of fear. She murmured out of the corner of her mouth to Conata. "He's...not going to hurt us, is he?"

[colour=Orange]"Vitrum, you won't hurt my friends, will you?"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"I shall nnnot."[/colour]

Conata switched back to the southern rovaick tongue. [colour=Orange]"He says he won't."[/colour]

The comment did not assist Polia's anxiety, neither did it help Ruvac and Gio's, Conata noticed.

[colour=Orange]"So...where are the smaller ones?"[/colour] Conata asked her friends.

"They fled into the earth when you two...combusted," Ruvac said. "Look, if he's decided to do what you say, maybe we should just tell him to leave us alone and get going? We don't want any more trouble here."

Conata stared back at Vitrum's metallic face for a silent while.

"Conata?"

She raised her hand. [colour=Orange]"No, I want to talk to him for a while. He said some things that I want to ask about."[/colour]

Ruvac and Polia exchanged a look. Polia looked down to Conata again. "Look, Conata, even I'm scared at this point. I don't want you accidentally offending him or something. If you don't know what you did to beat him, who's to say that you can do it again if something goes wrong?"

[colour=Orange]"I don't care."[/colour] Conata faced Polia. [colour=Orange]"I have to do this. You guys can wait at the edge of the crater if you like."[/colour]

"Connie, that's days away-"

Conata lolled her head back in frustration and groaned. [colour=Orange]"Then set up camp! I'll make sure they won't attack you, I promise."[/colour] She lifted her head back up and lowered her voice again. [colour=Orange]"I'm not leaving until I talk with him."[/colour]

The three azibo all hesitated, looking around with worried brows and nervous hands wandering to sudden itches on their skins. Gio broke the silence. "Perhaps...we should grant a pair of hours, at least." He stood up. "Polia, let's trust Conata. I will set up our tents."

Ruvac reluctantly stood up as well. "Need anything else, Conata?"

Conata relaxed her face and shook her head. Ruvac turned and followed Gio.

Only Polia and Vitrum remained. Polia was looking at Conata, biting her lower lip. "Be careful, okay?" she said quickly, before standing up and following the others.

Conata nodded. That kind of recommendation from someone as outgoing as Polia resonated strongly. Once Polia had her back to her, Conata chewed the inside of her cheek. Something must have really scared her in the fight. She felt bad for making her friend so afraid.

That was soon put aside, Conata looked up at the lustrous djinni lord standing in front of her.

[colour=Orange]"Okay, Vitrum, if you say I have your fealty, I want some answers from you."[/colour] Conata sat up and wrapped the blanket more securely around her body. Her skin solidified into a defiant iron. [colour=Orange]"Can you do that for me?"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"I cannn answerrr."[/colour]

In an effort to seem more confident, Conata stood up, tying the blanket around her body like an oversized robe. She was clumsy about it, still requiring a hand to hold it up. She mildly processed how similar she felt in aesthetic to the azibo-form statue of Toun back in Rulanah. Though it was hard to feel godly when she barely stood as tall as Vitrum's legs.

[colour=Orange]"How did you know I'm a demigoddess?"[/colour] Conata began.

[colour=Silver]"I merely obserrrved the power of a god. It is obviousss to any who know what to sennnse."[/colour]

[colour=Orange]"Oh for-..."[/colour] Conata slowly let out a hiss. The first answer was already as bad as Majus' excuses for information. [colour=Orange]"I came out travelling through here to find someone who knows who my real mother and father are. Do you know who they are?"[/colour]

Vitrum clasped his hands behind his back and looked out at the obsidian spire nearby. [colour=Silver]"I knowww without certaintyyy. There are but twooo possibilities by my experiennnce."[/colour]

Conata's iron calmed to warm copper. [colour=Orange]"Go on."[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"My creator, the First Gallle. Zephyrionnn. He is the god of allll that shifts and changesss in the universe. Allll in naturrre that ebbs and flowws, that burrrns and dieees, that growwws and forrrms, is His doinnng."[/colour] Vitrum turned his new stern face down to Conata. [colour=Silver]"Youuu have great powerrr over the earthhh. Such that surpassessss great elementalll lorrrds. Such cannn be attributed to the power of our progenitorrr."[/colour]

Conata gave Vitrum a sideways look and peered down at her hand holding up the blanket. [colour=Orange]"I don't know about that. I'm only good with metals. I don't know why I was able to turn you into metal, but...you earth djinn can move around any kind of earth, can't you?"[/colour] She looked up to him again.

Vitrum nodded.

[colour=Orange]"Yeah, I don't think so. I mean, it would explain why I can speak to you, but...that's about it."[/colour] Conata tilted her head. She was feeling some warmer hope. [colour=Orange]"What's the other possibility?"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"The otherrr is what originally drew me to this placcce."[/colour] One of Vitrum's huge arms pointed out to the black spire before them. The flush metal of his body did not so much as creak, just like Conata's. A shame she wasn't just a djinn like him -- that would make things much simpler. [colour=Silver]"The one that placcced that spirrre. His mark is evidennnt all arounnnd this plateauuu. The god of honourabllle combat, to which I paid hommaaage many times in my life. Winnnd Strikerrr."[/colour]

[colour=Orange]"Wind Striker, huh? What makes you think he's my father?"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"I have spennnt centurieees honing mmmy combat abilitieees. Long ago, many djinnn such as myselllf were martialled by Vizier Ventusss, lord of all djinnnn and mmmajordomo to Zephyrionnn himself. Weee were to fight chaosss above an army of hainnn. To tear apart evilll angellls twisted by giggling corruptionnn."[/colour]

Conata listened on intently. She had never heard of evil angels before, whatever they were. However, she did know about chaos cults of Vestec. They had been the enemies of Tounic rovaick for as long as she could remember.

[colour=Silver]"After observinnng Wind Strikerrr, a god amonnngst the hainnn and a creature of unnnsurpassed courage, I followed his exammmple to perfect myselllf. I felt the callinnng of warriorhood since I first sennnsed his powerrr. The honourable protectionnn of this home of djinnnn. As I said befooore, I changed forms many timmmes and found nonnne that were without weaknnneses. Lost, I prayyyed. Winnnd Striker guided me by innnstinct to this sacred placcce. I promisssed Himmm that I would protect it from allll others to earnnn his favour and becommme the perfect warriorrr."[/colour]

[colour=Orange]"So that's why you've been killing 'interlopers,' huh?"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"Indeeeed. My powerrr grew in this placcce. My childrennn took up guardiannnship of the earth here. I waited, but Wind Strikerrr's voice has been quiet to meee as of late. Nnnow you arivvve. Conataaa, the metalll creaturrre of courage, power, and skillll. You bested meee, and I believe you were sent by Wind Strikerrr to guide meee. This new formmm is part of that guidannnce, for I have never experiennnced it beforrre."[/colour]

Conata stood still and copper, staring at the spire and pondering.

Vitrum waited patiently. Even though the silicon djinn's face was not especially emotive, it was reasonable to assume that he understood Conata's desire to think.

They stood until a breeze came by and blew some burnt grass across their vision.

Coanta blinked and then spoke. [colour=Orange]"Hey Vitrum, why do you want to become the perfect warrior, anyway?"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"It is my wish to protect the worrrld from Yivvin and Vessstec. Malnaturrre and chaosss."[/colour]

Conata gave Vitrum another fleeting glance. [colour=Orange]"Look, I don't know whether I'm the daughter of this 'Wind Striker' guy. Today has been the first I've heard of him, but...you know...I'll give you my advice if you want it."[/colour]

Vitrum caused a quiet thud against the ground as he stepped to face his body to Conata. He had feet still, it seemed. [colour=Silver]"I am swornnn to your word."[/colour]

Conata tried and failed to keep eye contact. She felt out of her element, though her skin remained a defiant iron. [colour=Orange]"First of all, stop killing everyone that comes through here. Most people just want to pass through. Let them travel. Only fight them off if they bother you. Most of them are innocent, they've got nothing to do with chaos or this 'Yivvin' thing you're on about. Keeping this whole big beautiful plateau to yourself is just greedy and mean-spirited."[/colour]

Vitrum harked without so much as a twitch.

[colour=Orange]"Secondly, if you want to protect the world, maybe you should teach what you know to others as well as continue to hone your skills fighting. The one who taught me to fight says that you have to be able to teach other people in order to know something with true mastery. Also, with more people learning how to fight, it's easier to protect the world. Back when the realta attacked, I would never have been able to protect anyone even if I was capable at the time. I lost friends because there was only one of me. On top of all that, defending this crater means you don't even get to defend the rest of the world! Let people help you. Thirdly..."[/colour] Conata stepped up closer to Vitrum, trying not to trip over the blanket around her. She flicked her fingers and pulled off a gobbet of the brittle silicon. [colour=Orange]"Find a better set of metals to make yourself from. Silicon isn't good for much on its own, it's too hard and chips away, see? Try...experimenting. Iron with some other things in it works pretty well, and there's plenty of that in the mountains. Does that all make sense?"[/colour]

She stepped back and looked up at Vitrum's face. He lifted a hand and peered down at his palm. There was conflict on his expression.

Conata's face softened and her iron gave way to copper. [colour=Orange]"Look, maybe I'm being a bit harsh. You were violent to me before, but you want to protect the world right? Protect the people living in it? You haven't given up with what you want to do after all this time, I can see that much. I admire that. You can stay here if you like, keep getting better, just...try to be nicer than you have been, okay?"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"This ordered channnge is alienn to me."[/colour] Vitrum said. Even in his droning tone, Conata could hear the conflict scraping along in his words.

[colour=Orange]"...I can try to explain it better if you like. You're the first djinn I've ever really spoken to, I don't know if...well..."[/colour] She trailed off.

[colour=Silver]"Conata, my liege ladyyy, channnge is my naturrre. I comprehennnd what you asssk. Its foreignnn countenannnce is merellly the stones to pave on my road to courrrage. My childrennn and I swear to followww your words. In your honourrr, to sealll this promise of change, I name myselfff Aeramen, Lord of the Hilt."[/colour]

The ground began to shake once more. Conata held out one arm to keep balance. She pocked with magnesium. [colour=Orange]"Is that you doing that?!"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"No, it is my childrennn. I instructed themmm to don their new formmms. They have commme back from the deep earrrth to show themselllves."[/colour] Vitrum, now Aeramen, looked out onto the clearing adjacent to where they stood just as the soil parted for hundreds of sparkling metal djinns that stepped up into ranks and files. Their forms became clearer as they all fell into place.

Each of them was made purely from a single metal each. Most were made from bronze, with some larger ones leading groups of them in iron. Three of them, the largest, were made from mithral, a metal that Conata had only seen in scraps before. However, the most surreal element of it all was their shape. Instead of the vaguely humanoid piles of obsidian that made up their previous forms, the metal that formed the djinn was shaped into lean and noticeably feminine forms. Despite the lack of definition in comparison to Aeramen, Conata could tell by the way they shaped the textured lines that were their 'hairstyles' that they were mimicking her. They did not have her eyes, face, clothes, or hands -- the ends of their arms were still axe-blade shapes -- but the army of herself was just recognisable enough.

[colour=Orange]"...Wow."[/colour] Conata stared shocked, mouth slightly parted, a mix of polished tin with scars of shining bronze. The sight before her was more metal than she had ever seen at once. Beyond the way their mimicry made her turn tin with embarrassment, the thought of all these things owing her fealty was simply overwhelming. Given what these things could do with only obsidian, she hoped that her advice to Vitrum wasn't misinterpreted for the sake of any that might anger them.

One of the mithral leaders stepped up to the pair with a large, misshapen lump of alloys in its hands. The troll-height Conata-shaped mithral djinn did not operate its vacant facial features like Aeramen, so it took Conata a moment to realise that the alloys were the metals she used to fight with just previously.

[colour=Orange]"Oh, thank you,"[/colour] Conata said, snapping out of her dumbstruck state and taking the metal in her one free hand. She put the distorted lump aside for later.

The mithral djinn did not back away just yet. It-...she revealed something in her other hand -- a fist-sized cluster of strange, dark, native metal crystals encased in a chunk of grey rock. Conata glanced between it at the djinn.

[colour=Silver]"A gift to youuu from usss, Conata, for directinnng our dessstiny forwarrrd."[/colour] Aeramen said. [colour=Silver]"The most adamant mmmetal of allll. It was the poinnnt of my fissst back when I was a djinn of deep stonnne. I could nnnot shape it to use properlyyy when I grew in powerrr and siiiize. Youuu may finnnd it more usefulll."[/colour]

[colour=Orange]"Okay..."[/colour] Conata was unsure, but she didn't turn up the opportunity to sample a new metal at the best of times. She raised a hand and flicked a finger. It did not move. She tried harder, using her whole arm. Only then did the crystal cluster move through the air to join the rest of her metal. [colour=Orange]"Woah, you weren't joking."[/colour] It felt heavy to her powers. Belligerent and adamant, like Aeramen described.

Conata brought the cluster to her hand, expecting it to be heavy to hold as well. She was surprised at how light it felt. Still, if it was that hard to move with her power,  Conata wondered if she could even shape it either. Questions for later, she supposed.

[colour=Orange]"Thanks for all this...Aeramen."[/colour] Conata looked to the djinni lord as the mithral lieutenant stepped away. She still didn't know how she should be acting. She paused and glanced over at her friends at the edge of the clearing. [colour=Orange]"So, I have to keep travelling. It feels weird to just up and leave after all this. Is there anything else you guys need from me? Are you going to be okay?"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"We shall continue with your guidannnce in our hearrrts, daughterrr of the gods. I shall pursue my quessst, you must pursue yourrrs."[/colour]

[colour=Orange]"Right,"[/colour] Conata smiled up at the silicon giant. Her tense tin gave way to some bronze. [colour=Orange]"I hope you become the best protector our world has. Just be nice, okay?"[/colour]

[colour=Silver]"I shallll, my liege."[/colour]
 
[hider=Fight choreography should not be written while under the influence of lack of sleep.]
Last time, we left Conata as she accepted a challenge from the obsidian djinni lord of the hilt; Vitrum.

Because Mutton felt that getting immediately underway with the fight would be a jarring start to a post, he instead writes a flashback scene from two weeks prior to the fight.

In this flashback, Conata is sitting on a beach with a small goat bone in her hand. She is evidently upset by this due to her rusted skin.

Gio, Conata's gentle azibo friend, comes up and asks her what's making her sad?

Conata explains that she found the bone in her bag. It belonged to a goat she liked to chase around back home when she was little. She goes on to express her sudden regret at leaving her tedar foster parents so suddenly. She thinks they will forsake her for running off against their will when she promised to wait until she was seventeen years old.

Gio reasons that Conata's foster parents more likely understand why she left. There were painful memories from the realta attack, of course, but Conata was only getting more frustrated by remaining. If she had stayed, Gio said, Conata may have ended up hating her parents. Most regrettable.

In explaining his reasoning, Gio recounts that his own father encouraged him to go out to Rulanah, even it Tounic calligraphy was unknown and not strictly needed for his magical training. Oh yeah, Gio was training to be a healer as well as studying Astartian magic.

This seems dodgy at first, but Conata understands. She slyly indicates why she understands, as she knows that Gio has feelings for Polia, Conata's sassy azibo friend.

Gio denies this and blushes like an otaku protaganist.

One cheesy segue later and we're back at the Hilt with Conata and Vitrum.

The two trade blows with brute physical power until Vitrum gets the upper hand, grabbing Conata by the arms, which apparently stops her from shaping metal.

Vitrum taunts her and declares his victory. Conata carries on, accusing Vitrum of being a dick so that he can distract her. The distraction lasts for long enough for Conata to use her feet and toes to will the metal she dropped into a big ball and tried to chuck it at Vitrum's face.

Vitrum notices, he catches the ball. Conata keeps pushing it. He then tries to control the metal itself. A clash of elemental power ensues. Conata goes a bit Super Saiyan, though the author did not intend the fight to make that many connections to Dragonball Z.

A crazy display of light and fire happens. Unwittingly, Conata taps into her divine power to not only melt the metal ball but also to do something rather painful to Vitrum. The scene cuts.

Conata wakes up with her friends calling to her. She opens her eyes and wondered what the hell happened. The first thing that seems weird is the huge man made entirely from silicon right in front of her.

It's Vitrum. Conata smelted the oxygen out of his obsidian body and made him into metal. He seems peaceful, though. In fact, Vitrum swears fealty to Conata because she defeated her.

Conata wants to know what the hell is going on, so she ignores the protests of her friends and seeks to converse with Vitrum.

A long portion of dialogue exposition occurs. Vitrum explains that he has been a worshipper of Kyre (in the form of Wind Striker) ever since he saw him when battling the eastern horde of chaos with Ventus, Teknall, and so on. He has wanted to become a perfect warrior to defend Galbar from Jvan and Vestec, hence all the different forms and cycles. He came to the Hilt because it had Kyre's power all over the place and he thought that protecting it would earn Kyre's favour.

But Kyre has been quiet lately.

Anyway, now that Conata came and defeated him, Vitrum thinks that she was sent by Kyre to guide him. This possibly means that Conata is Kyre's daughter, simply due to the fact that the only other person that Vitrum thinks would grant that kind of power is Zephyrion, and Conata doesn't think she's enough of a djinn to be his kid.

Conata is awkward but tries her best to tell Vitrum to be nice. As per her true lineage, she provides practical advice, telling Vitrum to start teaching others how to protect the planet as well, so that he isn't alone in this crater against all of Chaos and Malnature. She also tells him not to kill everyone that comes in if they're just travelling through, because that's a dick move. Finally, she adds that he probably shouldn't stay silicon, because while it's hard and doesn't melt easily, it's really brittle. If he wants to stay metal, Conata adds, he should probably try another kind.

Vitrum is a bit overwhelmed by all this. However, he is not in a position to resist via djinni pride to his new liege lady. Besides, her arguments made sense. He promises to do his best. All the change in nature, however, makes Vitrum want to change his name, so he dubs himself 'Aeramen,' in Conata's honour.

Aeramen then freaks Conata the hell out by calling up all of his lesser djinns. They emerge from the earth made out of varying kinds of metal and had shaped themselves roughly into the same proportions as Conata, making her feel painfully self-conscious.

One of them comes up and returns Conata's metal, as well as giving her a gift from Aeramen: A cluster of native adamantine crystals that once made up Aeramen's knuckle in the old days, back when it was closer to his size. He says he cannot shape it, and even Conata has a hard time moving it around with her powers. She thanks Aeramen and wonders how the hell she would use it, but it was interesting all the same.

The scene wraps up with Aeramen promising to guide Conata and her friends to the edge of the Hilt lands later.

[i]Might Summary:
Before: [/i]
Conata - L1 - 20 MP - 70 W

[b]-3 might:[/b] Rapidly smelting the arse off an earth-djinn while constrained without fireblasting everything within a kilometre radius. Metalworking reduces cost.

[b]+45 worshippers:[/b] Goblin worshippers breeding (Goblins now count 105)
[b]+260 worshippers:[/b] The djinn of the Hilt under Lord Aeramen now owe fealty to Conata

[i]After:
Conata - L1 - 17 MP - 365 W (105 goblins)[/i]
[/hider]