The other side of the looking glass -- Scatha and Barrett

[Ashari]

The portal, though thought of as intantaneous travel, could be anything but. Some people found themselves going through a great many trials to get to their destination, where as others closed their eyes, and when they opened them they were there.

For Scatha, all of her travels thus far had been quick. The sort of quick that made portals seem like the best way to get around, except for that odd skin-crawling feeling that came after. For, it was indeed unnatural to travel so quickly. Scatha would be the sort, later in life, who would tell of her numerous usages of the portals as if it were nothing. People would be amazed by it, they would think her a brave and wonderous story teller, and they would be vaguely jealous of her adventures.

Barrett on the other hand, being quite fascinated with magick, had perhaps found that magick had an equal fascination with him. He had bravely jumped into the portal before Scatha, not even realizing her hesitation. He fell into a world of colours. It was a place with no sky above him, and no ground beneath him, and yet he walked upon a surface and could sense a horizon. These colours, they swirled around him, hazey and complete at the same time. Orbs hung in the air, and darting dots left behind long tails like shooting stars. They could not be touched, and yet he felt them touching him, pulling at his red locks and caressing the hem of his shirt.

And then there was a great wash of cold, and he was completely thrust into darkness. It wasn't the darkness of the great outdoors, where the moon cast subtle light, creating variation in the depth of the black - painting the world in a myriad of grays. No, this was complete, and utter, darkness. It was cool. Not damp like a dungeon. It was dry, and cool. And the true ground that he was thrust upon (for he landed on all fours like a dog) was covered in a soft powder.

As Scatha stepped through the portal there was the briefest flash of light, one that she could not detect, for she was too busy walking into the depth of darkness. Barrett was given a view of the spectacle. It was a room with long tables, and all the tables were covered in many things, and the things all sparkled and glowed in the flash of light, before he was once again left in darkness, perhaps a blacker black than before, thanks to the contrast.

Scatha, having used the portals, was somewhat aware of their 'thrust' upon the body as she exitted it. She also didn't quite jump into the portal as Barrett had. Plus, hers had just been a continuation of steps from the Embassy into this utterly dark environment. Barrett had a pause, where he was walking through the strange technicolour world. So, as she stepped into the darkness, she would have been able to just stand, that was, until she tripped over the tall Dortman on the ground, leaving them in a tangled mass in the dust - in the dark.

[Barrett]

Barrett would have been quite impressed with the portal experience... if only it weren't so disorderly. He tried to pin down details of the colors and patterns through which the magic carried him. Anything that might help him to translate the experience into a repeatable sequence of events. Orbs, stars, lights and colors, all moving by too swiftly to form a cohesive pattern in the Querist's mind.

Perhaps meditation will draw out the pattern from my memory... Not very orderly - on the surface at-

Thump!

Barrett landed solidly, fortunate enough to maneuver hands and knees to meet the ground. There, his complaints about "Portaling" vanished in the face of a new puzzle.

Dust? Powder? Not grainy like sand. Flour? Or simply dust.
The tactile sensations took his primary attention. The temperature, humidity and air flow in the room. The substance coating the floor. He also concentrated on the smell of the place in case more might be revealed.

Indoors. Someplace secured against the elements, at least. Cool, perhaps underground? Or perhaps it is night time.

The flash of light revealed a few vague details. Suspecting it was of limited duration, Barrett simply recorded what images he saw rather than waste precious "light time" on analysis. And was rewarded with the sensation first of being kicked in the side and then of having a dead weight fall atop him. From the general limbs and curvature, he supposed it was Scatha.

"Ouch. You might be more careful walking around in the darkness, you know."
There was more laughter in his voice than actual annoyance. After all... all of those curves provided some cushioning from the impact. But being a proper gentleman, Barrett promptly disengaged rather than linger on the sensations of close contact with his bodyguard.

Well, I suppose some light would help clarify things. I doubt Scatha will enjoy trying to guess where we are from other sensory input as I do...

He reached inward to the silvery symbols that flowed in ever-changing formulae at his core. The gift of the Thinker and his primary link to the Aether.
Silver artifice... maybe a little glow. Illumination of the literal variety.
With somewhat less confusion than his initial attempt to do so at the University, Barrett wove the energy into a compact ball of light in the shape of a globe and set it hanging in the air about three paces from his outstretched hand. Or at least, he tried to...

[wyrdgirluk]

OOC : back! Sorry for any inconvenience caused...

IC : Scatha didn't care for travel by portals. It was cold and dark and full of... nothing. Just the thought of it brought her out in goosebumps, let alone actually travelling though them... and yet, here she was again, stepping into the great nothing. The only good thing about it was that you couldn't see anything, not even Scatha's eyes which remained tightly closed until

Somewhere again

Scatha's eyes flicked open as she stumbled forward from the portal, breathless and glad that it was all over... until she tripped and fell on something. Someone, she corrected herself. Barrett, judging by the size and the bones of what she had fallen on to. Well, at least its a fairly soft landing... though bits of him seem firm enough... She rolled off and sat up, blinking in darkness and the dust; "Where are we?" she asked, a little apprehensively - then sneezed, very loudly...

[Barrett]

"That's what I'm trying to find out. Amun Rah hopefully, but I would like to get a bit more specific than that... or at least confirm it."

The Aether here seemed different somehow... Barrett tried to get a better feeling for it while he reinforced the formula for his sphere of light.

"I do hope we haven't just landed in some dusty, unused dining hall in Citadel."

[wyrdgirluk]

Scatha sniffed the air around her to see if it was different from cool, clean scent of the Citadel... and sneezed again. Twice. "Someone hasn't been keeping their room tidy," she said reprovingly. This was actually a phrase that her aunt Flossie used each time she saw Scatha's room, along with other variants such as someone hasn't been keeping themselves tidy and someone hasn't brushed their hair and someone has forgotten to wash this week and in the name of the Mother, get some underwear on . Scatha peered in the darkness, trying to see if her eyes could pick out anything, then started to cautiously pat the floor around her to see if she could feel anything...

[Ashari]

The Thinker was so very far away here in Amun Rah, and Barrett found it difficult to reach the Aether. Though it was the same Aether that covered all of Tazlure, it was different here, he found new strands that hadn't been there before, and couldn't find the ones he did know, but after a good amount of managing, it came to him, and a small - weak - bubble of light formed at his hand, hovering just a small distance from it, but it wavered like a candle-flame.

However, in a completely darkened room, even the slightest bit of illumination helped immensely. They were in a huge room, the walls of which were blurred and obscured outside of their safe bubble of cool light. Long tables, ladened with treasures varying from piles of gold, to golden armorments all the way through grande necklaces and rings ran in lines up the length of the room. The floor was stone, but a layer of dust - sand dust, had accumulated. Only the finest grains had wiggled through the tight blocks, but it had been over so many generations that there was now much, especially in this end of the room which didn't seem well travelled. The portal they had stepped out of was visible. It was a beautiful piece that was enamelled with abalone shell. It curved around it perfectly, creating a myriad of colours over the smooth eliptical structure.

It was just like a huge ring with a wider base that affixed to the ground. It was nestled among great statues of geometric shapes and great colours, and had they not just stepped out of it, it would've blended in perfectly with the many other pieces surrounding it.

On the floor, Scatha found nothing but more dust that tickled her nose. All of the beautiful shinies were on top of the tables, none littered the floor, that aside from the dust, was clean.

[wyrdgirluk]

"Oh my," Scatha breathed... and then sneezed again. She scrambled to her feet, and peered at the glittering items on the table. Enough gold and jewels to buy Dort, and all the apples in it... "Do you think its real?" she said suspiciously, poking one finger into a heap of gold coins, just to make sure. "If it is, I think is jolly careless of someone to leave it unguarded. Imagine if someone came through that portal, like we did, and then took away whatever they liked. Imagine coming down here and finding everything had gone, just because you hadn't fitted a bolt on to the portal." Scatha wasn't entirely sure that you could fit a bolt onto something like the portal - it would probably drop off and fall into the nothing on the other side - but putting some kind of guard on this side of the portal seemed a fairly obvious thing to do, especially with all this stuff left lying around. Scatha strolled around, taking a closer look when a particularly glittering gem caught her eye, and then shook her head before turning her attention to the Dortman. Scatha didn't care too much for money, other than what was necessary to live - after all, what was the point of getting all this money and then hiding it in the ground - but Barrett's trick seemed to her to be far more useful. "How did you do that?" she asked, fascinated by the strange light. "Can you show me how to do that?"

[Barrett]

Barrett frowned.
The energies with which I am imbued by the Thinker seem... fainter? And even the “normal” Aether flow of the environment is different. This suggests some distance traveled. Amun Rah is certainly an option... I do recall some stories about their wizards using strange magicks. Perhaps there is a reason for it. Perhaps it is those energies that appear as “foreign” to me.

The abundance of shiny materials made it unnecessary to add more light... but the Dortman adjusted the calculations of his formula in an attempt to make the illumination more stable. It took some effort, but he resisted the urge to access Scatha’s crystal for help.
Nothing good comes of always taking the easy way out...

Once he had finished tugging at the numbers and formulae, he turned his attention to their location. And let out a tremendous groan.

“By Pan’s ponderous bollocks! They’ve sent us right into the treasury. Or some sort of reliquary. This will be difficult to explain. Assuming we’re not in the midst of some long-forgotten horde buried deep in the desert, in which case there will be no one to demand an explanation.”

“And yes, I suspect it is all quite real. Although I’d recommend not touching any of it if we can help it. If this is part of a sacred temple, the priests might get a bit touchy about it. And of course it might be guarded by spirits or spells of some sort that we just haven’t roused quite yet...”

Barrett took a moment to focus on some of the artwork and coinage, trying to find clues that might confirm or deny their location as Amun Rah. He immediately proceeded to ignore his own advice and pick up a coin or two for closer inspection.

“How to-? Oh... well that is one of the lessons that I have promised you - or part of it. Once we have a tide or three to work on meditation and such. You see, the hard part is opening oneself to perceive the energies while still maintaining a sense of self. Once one manages that, then a little bit of experimenting will start you off on the path to sorcery.”


“You don’t happen to see any doors anywhere do you? We should probably announce our presence or something .”

[wyrdgirluk]

Pan's bollocks? Scatha was quite startled to hear such words from Barrett, and faintly outraged, although she couldn't quite say why, especially since she'd been raised on a cattle farm where bullocks (and their bollocks, whilst they still had them) were an everyday fact of life, along with grass and cow shite. She gave a cursory swipe at his cheek; "Language," she said reprovingly. "There are ladies present." This was not strictly true, but Scatha wasn't going to let Barrett think he could drop his standards just because he was locked in a treasure room with a farm girl from Dort. She listened carefully to his words about the treasure, and the priests, and then a word she didn't know; meditation? Isn't that something you get given when you're not well...? That particular line of thought was abruptly ended by Barrett's excellent idea about finding a door; "Good thinking," she said cheerfully, and immediately started looking around, not just at the walls but at the faintly illuminated ceiling. "I think we should start at one wall, and then work our way round," she said finally. "That way, we are bound to find the door. After all, no-one would be so stupid as to build a treasure room without a way in, would they?"

At that point, her eye was caught by simply the prettiest thing she'd ever seen; a narrow band of wonderfully engraved gold that expanded into a high arch, from which dangled delicate strands of green stones that matched her eyes. Now that's lovely... Scatha picked it up and looked at it, slightly breathless; I know that this is... its a tar-rar. No, thats not right. Tea-rara. That's it. She pushed it on to her head, the two bunches of honeyblonde hair sticking out incongrously either side of the fabulous tiara on her head, and posed in what she thought was a stately manner; "I am the princess Scatha," she said loftily. "Any further mention of Pan's bollocks will result in the state executioner removing the said parts from whoever said it. Now, follow me and look out for doors..."

[Ashari]

Barrett could feel the illumination grow stronger before he could see it solidify into a more perfect orb. For Scatha the light around them intesified and spread into a wider warm bubble of sight.

It was then she spotted the tiara.

The piece glittered and shone, and it looked like emeralds to the more trained eyes of Barrett as he watched her place the pricy item atop her bouncy hair. It did indeed bring out the green in her eyes, perhaps alarmingly so for the young man as they nearly glowed in his magickally created ambiance.

"You ought not touch things that don't belong to you..." A woman's - no, girl's - voice cut through the dusty silence beyond what was visible to them. She spoke with a teasing tone, one that lent toward a warning. "Maybe I should tell..." There was an ominous giggle, and then infront of Scatha the sound of scuttling feet making their way between the shadow of one statue to the next, so as to stay out of the light and sight of the travelling duo.

[Barrett]

"Hmph. Lady Scatha, I had no idea a little bit of profanity would offend a lady walking about with a bullwhip. I shall endeavor to constrain my tongue to a more genteel lexicon."
Realizing that with a single light source, her strategy for finding the door was indeed sound, Barrett fell in step behind his "bodyguard".

"It wouldn't be stupid. It would be quite clever. It could be that the Portal is the only entrance or exit."
He shuddered at the thought, not at all certain that he could activate the thing.

Lost in that unpleasant scenario, he did not notice Scatha claiming her prize until she had crowned herself.
Now there's an interesting concept... I wonder what she would say if I revealed Erwin's little plan for her.

"Scatha, I think you-"
His words trailed off at the intrusion of a third person. Wearing quite an abashed look to be caught having disregarded his own warning, Barrett abruptly dropped the coin from his hand back onto the table.

Recovering his wits, it occurred to him as quite odd that such a young voice should be coming from what had been a dark and possibly well-guarded chamber.
Thief? Spirit guardian of some sort? Or just a young royal having a bit of fun?
He addressed the area from which the sounds had last come. Projecting his voice as he had once done to address a particularly rowdy table back home at the Barrel. Only his tone here was much much nicer.

"I beg your pardon, my lady. We were but trying to figure out where our travels have brought us. Besides, you must admit, the emeralds of the diadem suit her quite nicely. Is it yours, then?"

He moved about the area and kept careful track of the scuttling sounds, hoping to pinpoint a movement pattern or location.

[wyrdgirluk]

Scatha's eyes widened and her mouth dropped into a perfect O of surprise as she heard the voice. She peered into the half shadows, trying to pick something out... she could heard feet scuffling across the dusty floor, and instinctively started moving towards the sound, trying to make out whoever was talking to them. "I'm very sorry," she called out, hastily pulling the tiara from her head (and pulling a few strands of hair loose at the same time). "I was just trying it on." Scatha held the tiara out at arm's length to the shadows; "Here. You can have it back. It's not broken." A sudden thought struck her; "Who were you going to tell, anyhow...?"

[Ashari]

The voice drew silent as Barrett spoke. "Do you always use such large words to make yourself look smart?" She asked with child-like curiosity that was tinged heavily with adolescent angst and adult wisdom. "It suits you though - the melodrama of it." She let out a peal of giggles abruptly. "You two sure are an odd couple."

"No, you can have it, it does look nice on you. Consider it a gift. I'd be careful though.. some of these treasures are traps." A very young girl moved from the shadows. She was perhaps six or seven yahren, and dressed in a black wrap that wound over one shoulder, leaving the other bare in what would be a very seductive way were she a woman rather than a child. Her hair, the same color as the dress, hung in long straight locks down to her bottom with gold woven into it in plaited braids. Beads of blue dangled at the end of the braids and clinked against one another with a ceramic sound. She turned her attention to Scatha. "Put it back on." She insisted. "I think it fits better than you'd imagine." Here she looked at Barrett and he felt the slightest tingle in his mind.

"Why, I'd tell Ionis of course!" She giggled. The sound bounced off of the walls and the trinkets. "Who else would I tell that someone has magicked themselves into his private treasure room?" Long thick bangs hung down her forehead covering all the way past her eyebrows, leaving her eyes in obscure shadows. A gold armband in the shape of a snake was around her slender right arm, the one with the exposed shoulder. It had small rubies as eyes, which glittered in Barrett's flickering light. "So, are you going to explain yourselves?" Her arms crossed as she waited and she leaned against a gold statue of a man. It was one of the previous Rafaos.

[wyrdgirluk]

Scatha grinned at the girl; very pretty... and obviously very clever. I bet she knows all about potatoes... She went a little closer to the girl, and knelt down so their faces were level with each other. "If you say I should put it back on, I will," she said, and stuck the tiara back on her head. "See, now I'm a princess again - the princess Scatha. This is my servant, Barrett." Scatha winked at Barrett as she said this. "You mustn't worry about the long words he uses - they're quite harmless, and I don't understand most of them anyway, and I'm sure neither does he really." Scatha winked at the girl this time, and then positioned the tiara a little more evenly on her head. "I'm not sure you're supposed to wear these with bunches," she said cheerfully. "We were sent here, through the portal, by the Duke of Dort. We have a message to deliver... but we didn't expect to find ourselves in someones treasure room. You say this all belongs to Ionis - is he the... the..." Scatha struggled for the word; "Rafas? Rafaras? Is that the right word? And, more to the point, who are you?" Scatha smiled at the girl; "And I love your hair," she said enviously. "It must have taken ages to get all those braids in..."

[Barrett]

The impressions Barrett got of the "child's" behavior and language patterns were in stark contrast to the image that stood chatting with Scatha. He decided she was some manner of guardian.
Spirit? Or priestess? Or something else...

He stood, silent and contemplative, satisfied to let his "princess" handle the conversation for the time being. Until he felt the "tingle" in the back of his awareness. One that he equated with magic of the mind. It took all of his control not to physically recoil from the sensation. Snapping his mental shielding in place, he immersed his senses in the Aether to attempt a more detailed explanation of the entity before him. If it could pluck the thoughts from his mind, he needed to know more about it in order to determine how it might use that knowledge.

Barrett made no immediate reply to the challenge, allowing Scatha her fanciful story for the time being. The querist was still trying to determine to whom (or what) he was speaking. Lacking proof that his shielding was strong enough to keep the entity out of his mind, Barrett concentrated only on the task of identifying the girl-magus-spirit-whatever and masking any further betrayals his mind might make.

[Ashari]

As the young girl, and Barrett, moved, everyone could note the gentle shimmer on her skin. It was as if she had been bathed in golden sparkles. "It didn't take long." She replied. "It's not my real hair." Her mouth lifted in a smile.

"I think your bunches are lovely." The young girl nearly purred. There was an adult sensuality to her tone, one that spoke volumes more than her physical body. Even Scatha could feel something in the core of her body toward the small girl. For Barrett there was more of a manifestation over her.

It was what he saw in the aether, however, that was truely astonishing. It is said that when a dragon hides in human form, their true form can be seen in the aether realm as a looming scaled creature - displaying their actual body. Barrett was not faced with a dragon, however, but a swirling vortex of magick. The small creature spiralled with energies almost entirely made up of the foreign bits. But, there were strands that he did recognize in her. She glowed with elemental, particularly earth, magic. Green. It glowed right out of where her eyes would've been if he could've seen past the luminescence.

"A portal?" She looked behind them directly at the portal. "And from Erwin..." The little girl knew exactly whom Scatha spoke of, and even knew him by his first name. "Ionis is the Rafao, yes." She said. "And if you come from Erwin, then he will consider you a friend."

Even as Scatha had knelt down, she still couldn't see into the eyes of the girl. "What are your names?" She asked, and thought it only fair to answer the question she had been asked. "I am the guardian." Her attention turned to Barrett. "Your servant is a magi? Interesting..."

[Barrett]

Fascination. Patterns within patterns, changing and growing. The magic itself seemed a living creature. Or the creature seemed pure magic. Barrett had spent some time on Oracle's isle evaluating different energy associations. He had also been exposed to a manifestation of the Mother Goddess. Those experiences informed him well enough to eliminate both deity and priestess from his potential options.
An elemental? Of this place, this earth? Some relation to the gods or to... ancestor spirits? I must learn more of this place's energies if I am to be certain. However, this guardian seems on good terms with both Erwin and Ionis. I may have to trust that such a relationship would also limit her desire or ability to reveal the knowledge she has gleaned.

Satisfied that Scatha and he were in no immediate danger, Barrett returned some of his focus to the Tether.

Except it seems to have made some connection with Scatha...

Barrett frowned. Endless paranoia was not likely to be productive in this instance.

"As interesting as the fact that my bodyguard is a princess?"
The querist's voice was most carefully modulated, the question followed by a most prudent bow. There was a playful element to the creature's interactions, but he sensed that a certain amount of ceremony might be to his benefit in this exchange.

"I am Barrett Threespan and her highness here is Lady Scatha Ashtir. We have indeed been sent by our lord the most munificent and canny Furst Duke Erwin von zu Dort-Billigh to seek the advice and aid of the mysterious, most esteemed and puissant Rafao Ionis on a matter of concern to the citizens of the Empire."

"Have you a name that we might better know thee, most resplendent guardian?"

[wyrdgirluk]

Scatha's wrinkled her nose in puzzlement, although her smile still remained; she's very clever indeed... maybe there is more to this than meets the eye. Not that Scatha could actually see into the girl's eyes, despite kneeling down. It's the voice, Scatha mused to herself. It sounds like a girl, but it uses words like a grown up... how odd. "I'm glad you like my bunches," she said cheerfully. "I put my hair up like that because it keeps it out of the way, and otherwise it would look like a haystack gone wrong." She peered at the girl's lovely braided hair; "What did you mean when you said it wasn't your real hair?" she asked curiously. "It looks real enough." Scatha listened to Barrett's response to the girl - such big words! Munificent and puissant and resplendent. I wonder what they mean... - and made a mental note to ask Barrett sometime in the future, before returning her attention to the girl; "I think he's saying that we need to see Ionis. Can you take us to him, please?"

[Ashari]

The creature looked them each in turn. She didn't know how much she liked the way this was going. To Barrett, he could feel a shift in the aether, as if something were about to happen, for Scatha she watched as the little girl's hands balled into fists. "No need for such words as resplendant when talking to a child," she said. The girl was beginning to not like Barrett much.

When Scatha asked whether the girl could take them to see Ionis, she frowned. "You want to leave already?" She pouted.

"Nevamaier. You may call me Nevamaier." The girl did indeed curtsey as well, as if the custom pleased her.

"And you wish to see the Rafao on matters of the Empire? What does he care for such matters? He has already sent Isis to represent him." Her little arms crossed and her skin continued to glitter. "Perhaps if you were coming as friends from Erwin to see Ionis, then it might make matters easier. How am I to know that you are not more assassins?"

"Anochrim has already fallen, and I will not lose Ionis to violence from a warrior princess or a magi traveller."

[wyrdgirluk]

"Nevamaier... that's a pretty name," Scatha mused out loud. It was pretty, just unusual - she'd never heard it before. Having said that, Nevamaier probably thought her name was unusual, but was too well mannered to mention it. She grinned at the girl's pout; that's just what I'd have done at her age... I still do, in fact... "Oh, I don't mind staying for a while," she said cheerfully. "There are some jolly nice things to look at in here... it's just that the Duke seemed very keen for us to deliver the message to the Rafao. I can see why you wouldn't trust us, though - after all, if someone I didn't know appeared in my treasure house, and then demanded to see me straight away, I'd be jolly suspicious. But we're not carrying any weapons - nothing sharp, anyhow - unless you count this whip, and that's used mostly to frighten people away. I don't think you could kill anyone with it." Actually, Scatha had once overheard her father telling her brothers in a very low voice about a man who had been bullwhipped to death, but she thought it probably wouldn't be a suitable tale for Nevamaier. After all, when she'd overheard it, it had given her nightmares for a week. "But you can search us, if you like, just to make sure." Scatha suddenly had a spark of inspiration; "Why don't you come with us? You can keep an eye on us, and if we try and kill him you can kill us instead. And if we're not assassins, you can show us around the island, and I will teach you how to use a whip. Here -" Scatha loosened the bullwhip from her hip, and held it out, still coiled, handle first, to the girl. "You have it, just to prove I'm not here to kill your Rafao. So - once you've shown us around the treasure room - will you take us to see the Rafao? Please?"

[Barrett]

Barrett frowned. Perhaps the image of the girl was closer to the truth of her than what he imagined. He must then treat her as a person rather than an “entity”.

“It is as friends that Erwin sends us, although he felt it prudent to equip us with ‘official’ documentation. And it is the Rafao’s friendship and the loving memory of Anochrim that he hopes will motivate Ionis to aid us in our inquiry.”

“Please, Nevamaier, the burden of my task is great. It seems both impossible and dangerous. I would have the counsel of Rafao on these matters to comfort me and help me find the next part of my path.”

Experimentally, Barrett attempted to send a thought to Nevamaier. If she was “skimming” his thoughts then all he need do was relax his shield for a flicker.
Erwin sends Scatha here for her own safety, but she must not know this. And, despite my clumsy manner with you, I am no danger to Ionis. I would bring violence to no one.

[Ashari]

The way that Scatha spoke like a tidal wave made the little girl smile. It wasn't necessarily anything she said that was so amusing, but just the way she said it. Like a net thrown overboard for fish, Nevamaier tried to catch atleast some of what she said once she got going, and then all of a sudden she was having a bullwhip thrust toward her which she had to use both hands to wrap around because hers were too small. When she did grasp it, one of her little hands brushed against Scatha's and left a powdery film on the back of her hand that was the exact consistantsy of the dust which the couple had fallen into when they came out of the portal which had made for the young woman to sneeze so violently. And, honestly, had been the thing that caught Nevamaier's attention in the first place.

"You have a nice name as well, and thank you." The young girl said. "And I plan on coming with you. I can't very well just send you out into the palace all on your own, people would question you, and you'd have to keep brandishing your little papers. But why would you think I'd kill you?" She tossed in 'brandishing' for Barrett and his impressive vocabulary. Nevamaier knew many words, and if they were to get into a battle, she was quite sure she'd win. However, right now, she looked quite innocent as her question hung in the air. She was, after all, the visage of just a child. There was a danger around her, though.

Barrett had built up his little shields enough that the swirling vortex of magic didn't feel like pushing and pressuring him to get to his mind. Plus, there was always that problem of using too much power for a simple task and thusly crushing one's plaything. Nevamaier didn't want to do that, as this was perhaps the most charming pair she'd ever had stumble through the magickal looking glass. When he did lower his shield, Nevamaier felt the change, and she sought out the reasoning for it and absorbed his projected thought, as well as gleaned some other information on the subject. She is Erwin's choice for Caesari?! Haha The high-pitched and bubbly laughter filled Barrett's mind almost painfully and his orb of light sputtered and started to fade.

"I don't have to search you." She said to Scatha as she sent the message to Barrett. "We should get going then, there is plenty of time for looking at treasures later. There are plenty scattered about the palace anyway." Barrett's head thudded a bit from her intrusion, but she had quickly left his mind.

"There are weaponst that have nothing to do with metal and are just as sharp." Nevamaier glanced toward Barrett. "Your friend, for example, has a mind that could easily be a weapon were he to train it properly. But, he seems much too... what's the word?" She paused but couldn't think of it. "He doesn't seem violent." The young girl pushed the bullwhip over her arm and onto her shoulder, coating it in a thin film of sparkling dust in the process.

"So, should we go, or do you want to poke around?"

[wyrdgirluk]

Scatha glanced down at the dust that had settled on her hand; it sparkles... how odd. It's quite pretty, in a way - a bit like Nevamaier... "I'm glad you're coming with us," she grinned at the girl, straightening up. "And I was only saying you could kill us if we tried to kill your Rafao. That would be fair, I thought." Scatha knew that things were never that simple - sometimes people who should never had died were taken, like her father, whilst others like her vile aunt Morrigan just kept living. It's because death is too frightened to come and carry her away - no-one could stand that nagging for all eternity, her father's voice whispered in her head, and Scatha smiled at the memory.

Her attention was snapped back by Nevamaier's comments about Barrett; he has a mind that could easily be a weapon? Scatha glanced at the Dortman with new respect; she'd heard of people having sharp wits, but this was something she'd never considered. I suppose if he can make light using his mind, then he could do other things too... hmm. This was an unusual and quite disurbing idea; Scatha had a healthy regard for magic, and liked to keep as much distance between it and herself as possible, and here she was wandering around a treasure room with a magic crystal and something that Nevamaier called a magi. This was a new word; Scatha knew a girl in her village called Maggi, but she'd never heard the name used to describe a man. Perhaps it was a custom in Amun Rah. She added the thought to the list of questions (gradually getting longer and longer) that she was going to ask Barrett once they had a quiet moment, and then considered Nevamaier's question; "Violent? Barrett?" Scatha glanced over at him, and grinned; "No, he's not violent - he tends to leave that side of things to me."

She took a long look around the treasure room, taking in the glittering piles of coins and stones and jewellery and Mother knows what else, and shook her head; "All this money, and what good does it do, hidden in the ground... ah well. Now, if its all the same to you, I think we'd like to meet this Rafao." Scatha glanced down at the girl, and pursed her lips in puzzlement; "If you don't mind me asking, why did you say we were to call you guardian? Has the Rafao really left you to look after his treasure?" She was actually thinking that it was jolly unfair to leave any child in such a dark and dusty place, let alone make them responsible for guarding whatever was stored there, especially some as diminuative as Nevamaier. Scatha knew exactly what it was like to be small and not taken seriously, and had every sympathy for what she saw as the predicament of the glittering-skinned child. "What would you do if someone tried to steal something? Call for help...?"

[Barrett]

Barrett grimaced at the guardian's mental glee. Hopefully it was not broadcast to anyone else who might be skimming the Aether nearby...

The slight pain in his head, combined with the flickering of his magic light distracted the querist somewhat. Perhaps he had been overworking his magical "muscles" - with the failed attempt to mask the large group in the palace and his trick in the garden with Scatha and the whip earlier, not to mention the strain of his analysis of the Portals for the past two days. He reset his shields, attempting something that would be less of a drain but still at least warn him of any magical attempt to invade his mind or body. The effort took far more concentration than he wished.

His attention returned to the conversation in time to catch Scatha's questions. A quick mental "replay" brought him up to speed on what had been said recently.

Hmph. My mind a weapon... not nearly as potent as the child guardian's energy. But Scatha needn't have her nose rubbed in it. Let us see if she can figure out that puzzle on her own.

"Actually, Nevamaier didn't say we were to call her Guardian. She merely answered your question of who she was by saying that she was the guardian. Much like if you went into a tavern and asked the man behind the bar who he was and he told you he was the barkeep. He would have answered your question, but you wouldn't want to call him Barkeep - at least not if you wanted a decent conversation out of him."

And I suspect she guards far more than the treasure in this room...

He left the guardian in question to answer or evade his companion's last question. It seemed prudent.

"We probably should speak to Rafao as soon possible - at least to let him know he has visitors. Unless you've already done so?"

[wyrdgirluk]

Scatha's eyes narrowed as she listened to Barrett correct her about whether Nevamaier said she was a guardian or whether she'd said to call her a guardian; it sounded like he was explaining something to the village idiot, which Scatha most certainly was not. She tried to resist the temptation to pull a face and stick her tongue out him... and failed miserably.