Rune_Alchemist

Legacy of Harena

"O-oh, well, alright." Marise turned to Gerald as she was pulled along by Katherine. "U-uhm, I supposed we're changing things up a little today." Gerald smiled pleasantly, holding an arm out towards the table Livia had decided to be their rest for the evening. Katherine, for the most part was oblivious to where her arm was resting as she was pulled over to the table. Ultimately, she took a seat across from the other two girls. Ah, why where her younger sisters so troubling...they were already teasing each other.

"We're the same age, Katherine." Livia replied crossing her legs as Katherine sat next to her. "Besides, if anything I'm the one who raised you. Or do you need reminding who is the one who taught you magic in the first place, hm?" She sighed in mild disappointment. "Here I had such high hopes for my sister, but she's a second-rate mage at best." Her tone was harsh, and it didn't seem like she was merely teasing.

"Aha..." Marise chuckled quietly to herself. They were difficult sisters...but well, they were her sisters and she loved them regardless. "Well, before you two both burn yourselves until your well-done how about we decide on what to eat, yes?"

Charlotte was used to listening. She knew something was up the moment they decided to apparently change their usual seat, but for the moment she said nothing, and focused back on Himeko. Well, something annoying was likely going to happen soon it seemed. Might as well enjoy what she could. Charlotte frowned, thinking. She had no idea. She had never been in a restaurant before, though she had a general idea of how they worked.

"I shall be with you lovely ladies in a moment," The same waiter that had greeted them, gave a friendly greeting before walking past the trio and to Himeko and Charlotte. "Well, it's not every day we get travelers here." He said, commenting on Himeko's robe. "But I do hope our services will be to your liking." He offered with a smile.

"Hmm...so what do you have here? We are, as you said, not from around here and are unfamiliar with your establishments cuisine." Charlotte questioned.

"Ah, well, as I thought that might be the case, here." He handed them some printed paper. Menus, that had a selection of food from their kitchens they could order, along with the price listing in coins. "Feel free to take your time deciding." He said, before casually walking over to the Fiore Sisters.

As he walked away, Charlotte turned to Himeko.

"...hmm, those three may be trouble." She commented quietly. "They were far to eager to switch from their usual seating just to sit by us."

Legacy of Harena

"Heh," Charlotte smirked confidently. "Alchemy is capable of many things." It was quite true, it could turn rock into gold - though it would be a minuscule amount. Equivalent exchange and all that. Couldn't use something lesser to make something of greater value without a lot of it. The process was also currently inefficient, she had discovered. Come to think of it, she should tell Himeko about what she could do. Would make working together a tad bit easier, at least. A thought for later though, she should find someplace good to eat.

"Well, first things first you wanted food." Charlotte scanned the immediate street. There was quite a few people milling about, and while she was disappointed by the lack of any obvious scholarly pursuits, that wasn't something that couldn't be solved by a bit of foot work. "And I'm feeling a little hungry myself."

It took a bit of walking, but they finally managed to find a respectable looking restaurant - or what Charlotte assumed to be one. She had never actually been in one before. Most meals in the tower were prepared at the dorm kitchens or were up to the individual person to take care of. Still, she was at least adept enough to know what one was.

She walked inside, followed shortly by Himeko, taking a seat at a table towards the back of the room.

"Hmm...I wonder what sorts of things they have here." Charlotte voiced in a curious tone.

It was then, three girls walked into the restaurant as well. One was dressed in a light purple dress, with black stockings and comfortable looking shoes. She was overall petite, with long black hair and the dress looked completely expensive. Another was an older looking blond, with bright blue eyes and shoulder length blond hair tied into a braid, wearing equally expensive looking dress that hung to the floor. The third, was another girl with bluish-tinted hair, long tied back into a pony tail, light airy and comfortable looking dress.

Livia

Marise

Katherine

"Ah..." The waiter at the front of the restaurant bowed respectfully at their appearance. "If it isn't the Fiore Sisters. How fare you this fine evening?"

"Ah...Gerald, pleasure to see you here." The eldest spoke up, giving the man a friendly smile. "We are doing well. I finally managed to get Livia out of the house for once." She giggled impishly, causing the one in the purple dress to roll her eyes a bit. She said nothing in reply, only walking past the waiter and the girl with the blue hair.

"We'll take our usual seats...hmm?" Livia's impatient reply was cut off by a pause and a hum, staring in Himeko's direction for a brief moment before turning back to Gerald. "...actually. Marise. How about a change of pace, hm?" There was something off about the woman in the odd dress. Without waiting for either of the other two's confirmation, she simply decided to take a seat one table over from Charlotte's and Himeko's.

"E-eh? Livia?" Marise turned to look to the third to see what she'd do.

St. Sappho Academy, Medieval Magic Academy (Invite Only)

Avaline

---

A-ah...she was holding hands with Master Luna. T-this was the first time she held hands with anyone! She'd never wash her claws again, nope. So she let Luna lead her along, without a word and doing her best to avoid injuring her with her claws. Soon, she was led to a shop of some sort. A food shop it looked like? But there were no rabbits or dear or similar things here.

"Y-yes! My tail shall stay by my side!" She pulled her hand from Luna's, gathering up her tail and holding it close to her body. "It shall not do any nefarious deeds, no!" She followed Luna inside, taking a long look around the establishment, still holding her tail and taking a long, good smell of the place. Ooh, so many new things! She was asking what she wanted? "Uhm, uhm..." Avaline quickly looked in all directions. She couldn't just say 'everything' again, could she? No no, that'd be far too obvious she didn't know what she was doing.

Ah...wait, yes!

"...I shall have whatever the other dragon has!" Hah! Yes, score one for her in the victory column. Genius. Of course, assuming Sorcha even visited here in the first place...or even had such tastes to begin with. She was smirking far to confidently as usual.

Sorcha

---

Sorcha rolled over in the bed grumpily, ignoring the knock at the door. She made sure to be careful of Sol, of course, letting the human child rest on her stomach if she so desired. For now though, the dragon was tired. Aside from the fact she was a naturally lazy creature, her ailment made it difficult to do anything for long extended periods of time without rest. The trip hadn't been difficult, but she was glad to have some much needed rest.

So Fia's knocking went either unheard, or simply ignored.

Khira

---

"I see..." Khira was mildly disappointed. She was perhaps, hoping for something a bit more grand than that. She would dislike her talents being used simply for being a body-guard or for 'cuddles' as one might say. Of course, it just seemed her Alpha was slightly slow-witted. Hum, unfortunate. She liked strong things, after all. Whether it was the mind or body. The Shellagh certainly had the latter, though the former definitely was lacking a bit at the moment.

"Food?..." Khira frowned. "Food is for sustenance, nothing more. I much more enjoy the hunt." Khira grinned, chuckling lightly to herself. "Food is only the reward for a well performed hunt...though, I am fond of the taste of roasted boar." She flashed Eith a playful smirk. "...is food and sleep the only thing this Alpha of mine does? Heh, it is a wonder you do not grow lazy and fat." It was mostly just harmless teasing, really. Khira understood at least, that until Eith had this curse of hers removed she wasn't going to be doing any major critical thinking.

Livia

---

"Oh?" Livia smirked. "Stress relief? Is my dear student feeling a bit pent up herself?" Livia traced a hand along the edge of her teacup. "Celine? Heh, she doesn't quite like it when I make a visit for such purposes. Poor dear gets quite flustered around me. I think I may have been a bit too dominant when we first met, heh." Livia chuckled, leaning back in her chair. "But do be careful, Katherine. Things may get...difficult if things continue the way they are."

She would let Katherine leave, content to leave her with those words as she leaned back in her chair. Oof, her body ached a bit.

Hm, she might not have much longer.

Oh, where did Fia run off too? She had something she should speak with her about...ah well.

"Ah...headmistress?"

"Oh? Miren? Seeing me so soon?" Miren opened the door shortly after Katherine left. "Pleasant trip, I hope?"

"Aha, w-well, it was certainly something." Miren replied with a smile. "A-about Eith, though..."

Celine & Marie

---

"Lucia-Marie." Celine stated as dryly as a water spirit could manage. "Granddaughter of one fallen angel Lucifer and current heir to the throne of hell. Don't let her cute looks fool you - she's a terrible person and has a terrible personality." Celine replied with a humph. "If I had it my way, she'd never set foot on the lake shore again, but Livia doesn't like me causing trouble." Celine sighed, walking back over to one of the dolls.

"...and I have a fairly good idea who made those dolls." Celine picked one up with a tendril of water, tossing it about for a few seconds in an irritated manner. "Why would she need more of those silly things?" Not to mention...why would they be watching mMrie? To make sure she didn't cause trouble? Unlikely. Marie didn't get uppity and most of the people on the campus liked that fake personality of hers.

Legacy of Harena

Charlotte stared at Himeko, obviously unimpressed with her display. She sighed, shaking her head as she kept walking. There were quite a few gemstones in there, though none of them were particularly valuable to her. She wasn't one for fancy jewelry and gems like such were not particularly useful in alchemy. Still, Himeko's haughty attitude was getting to her a bit. She could mess with her for a little while, couldn't she?

She did have a few chunks of actual gold on her, she just didn't want to use them.

"Yeah, not happening." Charlotte harrumphed dismissively, walking deeper into the city. The architecture here was vastly different from Astril, and it was fascinating. "I don't need your money when I can make gold from rock." A bold claim, but not a false one. She hadn't quite perfected the formula for that yet, but she could still make very realistic fools gold.

Legacy of Harena

Oh good, she hadn't noticed so she wasn't going to suddenly find herself on an impromptu flying trick. She placed the feather inside of her cloak for safe keeping along with the other items.

Hm, she'd need to test the feathers properties once she had a second to rest and perhaps find some better alchemical equipment. The two approached the city in quiet, for the most part Charlotte took in the vast, rolling plains that surrounded the city. The only plains she was used to were covered in snow and ice, so seeing something so...green, was a welcome change. Ah...she wanted to spend a few days documenting all the plants and animals, but she coudln't. Not if she wanted to achieve her goals in a timely fashion.

As they approached the city gates, they were greeted by a decent number of people moving in and out of the city. For the most part, no one paid two travelers any mind.

"I told you," Charlotte replied with a huff. "That I know only what I read. I know there's a desert supposed to the south of here but we can't very well just barrel into a desert without any preparation." She continued walking into the city proper. "We could discuss our next course of action over food, if you like." Charlotte continued. "Though, I should stress my funds are quite limited so nothing extravagant unless you're paying." If she had too, she could stay a few days and sell some of her things to people who needed them. Wouldn't be too difficult to set up a stall somewhere, perhaps.

If all else failed, she could make fools gold and sell that, though the thought left a bad taste in her mouth. Tricking people like that was something she didn't approve of.

Legacy of Harena

~Alenoa City~

Well, she knew one thing. Flying was absolutely wonderful. The air rushed past them quickly, and if she had been a little younger she would have probably not been able to keep a few shouts of excitement from escaping. Villages and landscape rushed past them. Mountains and trees, even a river. This was definitely a good choice, yes, heh. It cut down on so much travel time. What would have taken what was likely most of the day, even by horse became a quick half-hour trip at most.

When Himeko landed, Charlotte landed on the ground, a bit wobbly after being so high up. So this was a city that wasn't Astril...hm. She was mildly impressed. Despite the grandiose of it, there still didn't seem to be a building quite so high as the tower. First things first though.

"Whew, that was...enlightening." Charlotte mused to herself as Himeko took in the sight of the city. It was easy to tell she was exhausted though. It was easy enough to spot exhaustion in any creature, if one had studied it long enough. Which would also mean it'd be a perfect time to do this. "Well, I'm certain there'll be something to eat once inside. I could go for a little something myself, I suppose."

Rather nonchalantly, she plucked a feather from Himeko's wings before she had a chance to put them away.

"Right then, lets go." she started walking at a brisk pace.

Digimon: Tamer's Bureau

Again with the ripples. Now that was odd. Now the fog was ahead of them, and the fog behind them was much thicker now. They were making progress at least, but it was certainly puzzling. So far the stones had been rather straight forward, so that was good. Less work for her, but this was starting to become a little tiresome. Still, things were happening so that meant they were making progress of some sort.

"Hmm..." She took a look at the stone. Same cipher - she had practically memorized all the characters by now, so swapping out the letters for the English alphabet was easy enough, but this one was being a little trickier.

"back...forward...back?" Rachel mused quietly to herself. It could mean a number of things. It seemed the 'Forward' was on the same stone as it was last time, the only new additions being the two new phrases that spelt 'back'. Was the large 'Forward' supposed to be ignored? Perhaps it was giving a series of instructions of 'Back, then forwards, then back'. Of course, that could also be her overthinking it.

Well.

They roughly knew the path now, so long as it didn't change too much, and even a changing system like this (if it indeed, running on some sort of computer code) Could only have so many pattern layouts. Certainly it might be random, but even randomly generated things followed a patter set on based probabilities.

Tsk, if only she could get a look at the code directly then this would be easy. Well, she'd go with option A then.

"Hmm." She turned and started walking back the way they came.

"E-eh? Backwards? Really?" Rachel nodded, but didn't voice her other thoughts. "A-are you sure?..."

"No."

"B-buwh?"

"Hey, hey, don't worry I'm sure it'll be fine." Kameo grabbed Swimmon under her arm.

"Ugh, I just don't like this place."

Impmon just rolled his eyes, following after Rachel.

Legacy of Harena

Charlotte silently followed Himeko through town. She was pretty sure she had already failed at the 'drawing no attention' thing, but it was probably not exactly the best idea to point that out. The walk was pleasant, at least. It gave Charlotte a few minutes to jot down a few notes in her notebook regarding a few new species of Flora that she hadn't seen before. Hm. She'd have to see if they had any good alchemical properties at some point. A few rough sketches and small notes later she was standing in the field with Himeko.

"...they are pretty, aren't they?" Charlotte replied. "Shame there are no Moonflowers here." She rubbed the back of her head, gaze lingering on the flowers for a moment. "...I didn't see much of them either, back where I grew up. Aside from the greenhouse or the snow flowers that grew on the craggy cliffs of the mountains." She fell silent for a moment as if remembering something unpleasant before shaking her head. "but never mind that, yes, lets get going."

She let Himeko pick her up, bracing herself for the incoming flight as she wrapped her arms around the Tengu's neck. Hum, curious. She'd be able to observe the wings from here - sort of. She'd need a view of them from the back to figure out how they worked in practice. Well, no matter, she'd find out soon enough -

And in the next instant, she was in the air.

It was beautiful.

Not like the clear skies of Astril, either. The skies there were quite beautiful, if one could get past the frigidness. The Aurora, stars and skies...she had never been this high up in a scenery that wasn't arctic or tundra before.

"South west." She replied to Himeko's question. "Should be there - I've heard it was a fairly large city so we should see it from some distance away."

St. Sappho Academy, Medieval Magic Academy (Invite Only)

Avaline

---

Avaline was completely oblivious to Maoin's glaring. She was too busy trying to once again, contain her excitement. The Landwyrm looked like she was about to explode from it, letting Luna lead her out of the dorm and being at least careful of her claws so she wouldn't hurt Luna. Ooh, the human city was so fascinating! So many wonderful new things she had never seen before!

"Ah!..." Yes, well, her magnificent tail did have the tendency to get in the way of things at times. "I will...be mindful of my tail, master Luna." Her eyes lit up again as she slithered some distance away from Luna, looking in every direction and trying to decide what she wanted to do first. This place was absolutely amazing. Why so much so in fact, she couldn't even process everything nor decide what she wanted to do first.

So obviously, the correct choice was...

"Everything!" She gave Luna a hopeful look.

Sorcha

---

"Phew, good riddance that wyrms incessant chattering was getting annoying." Sorcha grumbled from under the blankets. Meanwhile, she had a kitten to attend to. Well, actually, no, she didn't want too. The dragon sighed, rolling over in bed a few times in a somewhat childish manner. "Maybe later, Maoin." She replied, wrapping a wing around Sol. "I'm tired and I think I'm going to take a nap." The dragon didn't seem too interested in bathing at the moment, but Maoin could probably get her out of the bed if she really wanted too.

Khira

---

"R-right then. I'll leave you two too it." Miren said, heading for the door that lead to downstairs. "I'll be back in a bit!" With that, Miren hopped out of the room and left the two of them alone.

"Heh," Khira stood across the room, leaning on the wall as she gave Eith a dangerously playful smirk. "So...what does my Alpha plan for in the future?" She asked, holding her arms across her chest. "A pack of three is hardly a pack at all. Or have you not planned that far ahead?" The snake looked at Eith questioningly, but it didn't seem there was any hostile intent in her words. Only mild curiosity. The Chimaera was probably used to much larger pack, when she wasn't by herself.

Livia

---

"Ah-Pardon me." The woman said, giving a slight respectful nod of her head as she left but for the most part said nothing else to Katherine.

"Fia, dear," Livia looked down at Fia with a slight frown. "Cynthia is hardly ever 'free'. Between you and her playing with the snowballs of a certain ice-woman she's been a bit behind on duties lately." She sighed, patting the girl on the head. Well this was starting to get troubling. She wanted the girl to adjust to others, but she didn't want her getting a little uppity like this. Well, she'd address the issue in a moment.

"Ah, hello Katherine. How's my favorite little student fairing? Did the trip go well?" She went on to listening to Katherines recount of the events that happened at the castle. Someone talked a dragon into attacking Marie? Now that was troubling. It would have been a good time as well, since Viatrix had made sure to prevent Marie from being able to use most of her abilities at the time. Coincidence? Likely not. Livia pursed her lips, leaning back in her chair in her usual displeased fashion as Katherine finished.

"I have some idea who it could have been. You saw her on the way out." Livia replied. "Chione Kebechet...a priestess of a certain jackal-god from the deserts, though I have a slight inkling that she's not exactly as she seems if her surname is any indication. I have Ayumi watching her for me." She glanced down to Fia before sighing. "Ahh, why can't everything be easy. I'm getting far too old for dealing with the shenanigans of demons and gods." She looked back to Katherine. "Is that all, then? I shall look into Eith's condition soon. Miren is likely already on her way here with her findings."

Celine & Marie

---

"Hm..." Celine, having now absorbed enough water to return to her original appearance after her...encounter with Katherine, gave Kozue a pursed smile. "Well. I am not doing it for you human, I am doing it for the divine spirit of that fox of yours. Helping you is just an unfortunate side effect." She sighed, brushing a loose strand of hair out of her vision. "...though I suppose if you care so much about that fox you at least know your place." She stood, walking out onto the water of the lake, the pure water rippling under her feet as she walked. "Will that be all for today, human? I am need to check on one of my followers...filthy woman needs to learn her place." She grumbled.

The only current annoyance though, was a large group of people at the lakes edge.

"Aha, hello my friends!" The voice was familiar. A certain little demon being as much of an attention whore as she could be. "Thank you all so much for coming here!" Celine grumbled. Every evening for the past few days she had been coming out here with her gaggle of blind 'fans' and just been incredibly annoying. She was currently in the middle of her usual routine. Seemed at least like it was causing Celine some annoyance.

Legacy of Harena

"E-eh?" She gave the Tengu a deadpan expression as she was lifted by her arms. "...That is not how you carry a human." Charlotte replied. Really, out of all the ways to be carried was she to be manhandled like a doll or something? She knew she wasn't the heaviest or tallest of people but this was just disrespectful. "There is-bwuh? H-hey!" She gave only a small shout of protest before being quickly shuffled into a very familiar carry.

Well...this was...slightly better? She was incredibly close to the Tengu now. Really close. Right, bad thoughts and bad brain don't go there. Well, she supposed she should have expected this situation but it was still just a tad bit uncomfortable. She was...really close to the Tengu like this. Hm. Right, stop thinking about useless things and focus on the science.

"Tsk," Charlotte replied with a huff, crossing her arms. "lets just get it over with." She could trust this tengu...probably. She was the only link she had to this 'Harena' anyways. As long as they had a mutual goal, she could trust her.