[center][img]https://i.postimg.cc/L4JY57Ms/Leon-Banner.jpg[/img]
[h1]... and the Traveller[/h1]
[@Force and Fury]

Not interacting with but in the arc:
Eun-Ji [@Medili], Carmilla [@Animus], Zarra [@BreathOfTheWoof], Dory [@Jasbraq][/center]
[hr]
Leon stumbled upon landing down in the cargo hold. He felt disoriented and dizzy to such a degree he needed to lean on a nearby crate. Were his marbles that noisy? Noisy was an understatement when his ears were still violently ringing. But no it couldn’t have been and from the looks of things, it couldn’t have been the Traveller’s agents. Could it have been a friendly fire?

He shook the concept out of his head, this was no time to dwell on the thought. Time was ticking and he didn’t need his hearing to carry out the plan. Mustering some strength and biting down on his teeth, Leon pushed himself up off the crate and took in the dark and lifeless hold.

It was hardly surprising this place was locked up tight, not so much as a rat could be seen scurrying around in the shadows. Not that he would be able to hear it. [i]ringing[/i] The only signs of movement were tiny drops of water near the side walls. As Leon watched another fall from the ceiling he expected to hear it gently splash at the bottom. [i]ringing[/i]. He snickered quietly, for what reason would he need to hear a droplet land.

Leon popped the lid off a nearby barrel with a more reserved sway than his regular galavanting and held it as if it were a seasoned dance partner in a waltz around the ship. While doing so, Leon was channelling a great deal of binding magic into the wooden disk. There was row after row of painfully generic crates and barrels in this place as was to be expected. But Leon knew not to search all of them, why would anyone keep a lyre of the gods in such a boring place. No, it would certainly be in some ornate packaging.

While the dance continued, the barrel top’s wood became more refined and the circular shape gradually moulded into an arc. It was a simple plan really, Leon intended to make a counterfeit copy of the lyre and hand that off to the rowdy mob. The Traveller’s agents would chase it in the hopes they could stop it from being destroyed, only to find out it was already too late and the broken shard of the ‘lyre’ was all that remained. Leon smiled content with his plan.

But wait, what would his team think when they see him throw their objective to the wolves. Leon simply chuckled to himself, it all sounded quite amusing really.

[color=fff200][b]“Ah-ha!”[/b][/color] In the sea of dull browns and even duller browns, a cloth of white poked over the top. The lyre was hidden, but not well hidden. Of course, Leon was chosen by fate to hold such an artefact so he expected to find it no matter how much they tucked it away.

[color=000000][b]“A bit mundane once you see it in person, isn’t it?”[/b][/color] said a voice.

Maybe it was that Leon’s ears had recovered faster than he realised, or perhaps it was that the only noises he had to reference before were the ringing and the muted fighting above. But this voice arrived into Leon’s perception clear as day causing the hairs on his arm to stand on end. He paused right before he was about to take off the cloth covering the lyre’s cage and looked around behind him.

[color=fff200][b]“Who’s there? It is rude to address someone from the shadows. Not even bothering to say hello no less.”[/b][/color] Leon could keep a visible composure despite how creeped out the situation made him feel. He was so certain he would be alone in here.

[color=000000][b]“Well then, you have my apologies.”[/b][/color] A small, dark-skinned woman stepped out of the shadows. Her hands glowed with arcane energy, providing a degree of light. [color=000000][b]“Now,”[/b][/color] she continued, unbothered, [color=000000][b]“are you going to steal that holy artifact or not?”[/b][/color]

Leon picked up the white cloth and flicked it in the figure’s general direction, unveiling the lyre in the process. With a growing smile and a chuckle he replied. [color=fff200][b]“Of course I am. The question is, who are you and why haven’t you stopped me yet? It takes quite a mage to simply appear out of nowhere.”[/b][/color]

She smiled back, and it was neither threatening nor jovial. [color=000000][b]“I’ll take your compliment in the spirit it was intended, Mr. Solaire: the spirit in which you intend [i]all[/i] of your various compliments. As for who I am?”[/b][/color] She shrugged. [color=000000][b]“Some of my friends are just outside, but don’t worry: nobody will be bothering us.”[/b][/color] It was about then that Leon noticed the cloth he’d thrown, frozen in midair, so perfectly still that it would’ve taken a profound control over kinetic magic to render it so. Were he especially perceptive, he may have noticed that the rat which had been scurrying across the floor when their exchange began was now completely still, in midstep. 

Leon had turned away for a moment to take in the sight of the lyre and begin changing his counterfeit’s colour, a speciality of his. But upon turning back he saw what had transpired, everything suspended as if frozen in time and the figure had changed in appearance. [color=fff200][b]”Ah…”[/b][/color] Leon was no fool and could put two and two together. [color=fff200][b]“Hugo, I presume.”[/b][/color] He paused thinking about it for just a bit longer. [color=fff200][b]“Wait, no. The Traveller.”[/b][/color] Mildly flustered by the mistake, he regained his composure soon after.

[color=fff200][b]“This whole show is quite impressive, but it doesn’t answer my question. Why am I still holding the lyre?”[/b][/color]

An elderly man in a bard’s getup smiled back at him. [color=000000][b]“As a performer, I think you’d know why.”[/b][/color] The Traveler threw out his arms. [color=000000][b]“The best shows - the ones they come back to see - don’t just give them what they want right away, do they?”[/b][/color] He tilted his head and grinned like a puckish old grandfather. [color=000000][b]“You make them wait for it! You make them [i]work[/i] for it. That way, once you give it to them, they’ll value it that much more.”[/b][/color] The smile fell away from his face to be replaced by a thoughtful expression. [color=000000][b]“But I suppose I [i]do[/i] owe you a resolution. Pardon my imposition, but I’d like to answer it with a question: Why do you suppose this dusty old instrument is so valuable? Why do the Rednitz want it? Why does old Hugo want it? Why do [i]you?[/i]”[/b][/color]

Leon smiled toward the Traveller, the now elderly man was speaking his language. [color=fff200][b]”I’m glad you see it that way. Because you’ll have to wait on this lyre for a while longer yet.”[/b][/color] Leon took the lyre out of the cage now holding two identical-looking objects in each hand, well identical without a magnifying glass that is. Or touching the strings, Leon still had yet to learn how to change the material properties so the strings were just incredibly thin wooden strips that looked like string.

[color=fff200][b]“The Rednitz want it for the same reason anyone else unexceptional wants it. They want to put it behind a cage as something to stare at because they believe that will bring them prestige. That being the case, I have done a pretty good job at duplicating the lyre. Don’t you think?”[/b][/color] 

There was a sizzle of Blood Magic and something subtle about the strings [i]did[/i] change. The Traveler nodded. [color=000000][b]“Only one more trick to learn,”[/b][/color] he admitted. Then, his face grew serious. [color=000000][b]“In the case of the Rednitz, you could not be more right. In the case of the Paradigm, I wish you were.”[/b][/color] He shook his head. [color=000000][b]“That object you are holding – one of them, anyhow - has the power to reconcile the magic that comes from without and the world within which we live. In layman’s terms, it can remove the madness from aberrations. It can make them [i]safe[/i] for anyone to absorb, to gain The Gift without fear of harm to their sanity. [i]Now,[/i] why do you think that Mr. Hunghorasz wants it?”[/b][/color] 

Leon saw the strings of the counterfeit change and sensed a strange camaraderie with the figure before him. Perhaps if his own goals did not differ so, he could find himself being friends with the Traveller. But then the next thing said took Leon out of any illusions of cooperation. [color=fff200][b]“Even if that were true, I don’t think many people should have the gift. Unexceptional people start fights and wage wars with mere whispers and false promises. Do you think this boat would still be floating if the riot up top was filled with mages?”[/b][/color] Leon chuckled as if it were a joke. But the Traveller could see that the boy put more weight behind that belief than simple humour.

Leon shrugged it off, trying to change the subject. [color=fff200][b]“As for Hugo, well, I can’t imagine what someone like him would want with them. I doubt he needs more power and I am frankly unsure why he doesn’t possess them already.”[/b][/color]

Slowly, ruefully, the Traveler shook his head. [color=000000][b]“That is where you are [i]wrong,[/i]”[/b][/color] he replied. [color=000000][b]“It is not the ‘unexceptional’ people who start the wars. It is the unexceptional people who die, en masse, in the wars that those with the [i]Gift[/i] start. [i]Look[/i] at the reality of the world that you live in! [i]Think[/i] through it!”[/b][/color] He’d stepped forward now, his bearing passionate. [color=000000][b]“As for your [i]jest,[/i] if this boat was filled with mages, they would not be rioting. If there was true equality and a small, select group were not simply born with advantages that allowed them to fly, to lift more than an elephant, to create flesh and stone from seemingly nothing, to [i]kill[/i] a hundred fellow human beings with the flick of a wrist, perhaps they would not assume that such an imbalance was natural, that it was their [i]right[/i] to act as gods!”[/b][/color] 

The Traveler’s image wavered and he became a small boy. [color=000000][b]“You must know of how the few conspire to breed magic into their bloodlines to the exclusion of all others. Because you are the exception, you now escape the worst of it. Think back to your childhood, though: read between the lines, Leon.”[/b][/color] He narrowed his eyes and seemed much older than he appeared. [color=000000][b]“Remember those days before your renown, before you unexpectedly manifested the Gift. Do you recall the times you slept in the wagon, the cold biting through its canvas covers, the weapons gripped in the hands of your troupe as they travelled? How about the hay beds with the roaches and rats or the bowl of porridge sacrificed by an older member when you needed more?”[/b][/color] He paused for a moment. [color=000000][b]“And what of the times you had to cede the road as some noble passed by in a coach guarded by a small army? The way you were reminded to bow your head before them? What made them [i]better[/i] than you: Leon Solaire!?”[/b][/color]

A bit of a shiver went down Leon’s spine as the Traveller described the struggles of his earlier life, twisting it into something to enrage him. But Leon simply couldn’t relate. Even when they starved for food, before his delusions of grandeur, there were always people to support him. An upstart noble could knock their egos down once in a while, but everyone would come back from it. And, as Leon started to come into his persona he felt the presence of something driving him forward. He could only look down on petty nobles, for they had no greater ambitions than holding on to prestige.

Whether this presence was real or not, Leon certainly believed it.

Leon’s mood visibly shifted to match that of the Traveller’s young form. One with conviction in his voice. [color=fff200][b]“So… whats the game plan then? Give everyone the power to kill a hundred humans and then peace eternal showers the world just because everyone's the same? We will have to agree to disagree.”[/b][/color]

Leon took both lyres and began walking to the trap door, turning away from the Traveller. [color=fff200][b]“Anyway, I’m afraid if you aren’t going to take this lyre from me, I must be on my way. The longer I wait, the more lives are on the line.”[/b][/color]

[color=000000][b]“Far be it from [i]me[/i] to impose my will upon another. Those who have come to my side have done so of their own conviction: against the world demanding they not.”[/b][/color] For a moment, reality itself seemed to flicker. Then, another version of himself was standing not a foot distant, resting a hand on his shoulder and smiling tightly. [color=000000][b]“But that is not the case for you. Is it?”[/b][/color] The ersatz Leon shook his head slightly and the smile faded. 

For a split second, there was a surge of magical power not unlike the semi-familiar feel of aberration, yet the strength of it was like peering down an abyss so vast that you could not imagine an end. [color=000000][b]“We shall speak again when you are ready to stop loving your chains… and everyone else’s.”[/b][/color] Leon felt a squeeze on his shoulder. [color=000000][b]“Farewell.”[/b][/color] Then, the Traveler was gone and the youth remained, holding a pair of Lyres in his hands. It was impossible to tell the genuine article from the reproduction. The cloth that had hung in time during the unsettling conversation fell to the floor belatedly and a startled rat scurried away.

Leon looked back to find the hold empty. He was left to think on the Traveller’s words. In another world, he would lockstep and join forces with the figure. But he couldn’t let the figure’s ideals become a reality, no matter how much conviction was behind them. Peace was the goal, that is what Leon wanted. But uncertainty took him every time.

The letter with the details of his birth sits on his desk, unopened. It is a constant reminder that Leon Solaire is a lie. He was not from the Sun, he was just some unexceptional orphan. Leon clung tightly to the lyre. If he could just take the lyre from Hugo, from the Traveller, it would prove himself exceptional. Then he could burn that letter, for it would be false.

Leon slipped the real lyre under the back of his shirt, utilizing some illusionary magic to help it stick out less. Then with an inhale, he turned his head upward. The insecure boy had gone, Leon Solaire was back. Before he climbed the stairs, he gave a flick of his wrist.

[color=fff200][b]“Fantasia!”[/b][/color]


[hr]

[hider=Summary]
Leon creates a counterfeit of the lyre.

Leon speaks with the Traveller.

Leon prepares to leave the cargo hold, casting Fantasia
[/hider]