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Filters

A study in the eldritch (Lunaraia;Pervy;MortalitasBorealis)



Fey bounced along, but was quickly marginally disappointed.. she had expected something more like a blow up pool. Not that portals weren't cool but..

Now she had to wonder, if this was a portal was it going to dream-fires? Or was it going somewhere else. Did fire have dreams? Luckily, her usual short attention span shook her out of her musings as her point in the line had come. "Elemental origin? I dunno.. Fiery?" Fey enthused, but apparently her necklace was proof and answer enough either way. She grinned and headed on, poking a head through the portal, before making her whole way there, not wanting to hold up the line.. though she did make a note to check out the fire-nomming contest later.

"Oooh it's so pretty!" Fey enthused, fighting an urge to peek into a vulcano (an eruption would really mess up her hair after all) As she grinned, wandering the ashen path. She kind of liked it here already. It admittedly took her a moment to realize it was a form of vulcano-waterslide.. and once she figured that out, she wanted to go on one immediatly, as much as she disliked lines. Whilest wandering to find a mostly lineless spot she happened upon the fire-elemental girl, grinning and waving.

"Hello Morragirananthaliaesxtraxia eyyyyy macarena." Fey felt like she got pretty close to the womans actual name. "I'm Feyline F. Feyling, Fey for shorts! My hobbies are fireworks and setting things ablaze." Fey chuckled at the nice seeming woman, adding: "I've been called lots of things, but not a conservative, ever. Usually a leftist voter. Well if I'd bother to vote." She chuckled, scuttling over, testing the 'water temperature' with a poking of her finger. Never once to mind things from strangers, she chuckled, picking up the drink and giving it a deep sip right away, tilting her head in moderate confusion as soon as she heard.. someone talk to her? She looked thoughtful for a moment, then, gave the woman a thumbs up "Oooh you're a ventriloquist. Very good!.. you just need a puppet now!" Then again, Fey genuinly felt like someone fiery couldn't be bad.. well there had been the vampire, but she had kicked proper behaviour into it, so that shouldn't have been a problem. Fey was not all that suspicious by nature anyway, less so of a nice, fire-girl babysitter, so she just shrugnodded. "But sure. First gotta explore though! I wanna go on the vulcano slide and try the fire-eating competition, whats that like.. oh and proper bathing, without getting all watery wet. Bleh!" Fey enthused, diving under, her fires partially merging into the lava, leaving her more nude than before, visually at least as she simply enjoyed herself for a few moments diving under and bubbling about in the Lava, resurfacing to take another sip, if the drink had been fun enough .. and splashing Flare and or Pyre if the fire-girls let down their guard.

Whilest it was great enjoyment, a part of Fey had to wonder.. how well would she do without the fire-necklace. Well, this was a dream, so she -thought- she would do fine, but whilest she could endure hotter temperatures and regenerate burns easily, she wasn't truly fireproof normally. Briefly it felt.. odd. She was usually a cheerful nature, exspecially in contrast to the quick to worry Korrie, but here she was surrounded by fire being more pure-blooded than her. Whilest perhaps she was more creative, a part of her unspokenly suspected they had greater fire-controlling abilities as well. And without her fire, what really made her.. well, her. That just left an exciteable mutated human-phoenix.. something.. She shook her head. Shouldn't think like that, should be good phoenix and rescue mistress. Wait..

Fey hesitated, not having paid proper attention to the dwarfs words (no one had fed her treats like Erfek had before after all, not her fault!) .. why were they actually relaxing and having fun in the city. She should think about rescuing owner. Owner was nice. Well, Aya propably wanted to spend the night. Couldn't rescue whilest tired. Still. Perhaps Fey could use this opportunity to humnn.. Oh!

"Say, who's the bestest fire.. firer around? I wonder if I can learn some tricksies for my journey here.. I mean.. I already know all the epic fire tricksies..." She pondered.. what did that leave. Her phoenixness needed work, sure but she didn't see any birds around.. oh! "I wonder if theres specialized fire to deal with all these eldritch folks for example." She mused. Fire wasn't equal fire, she knew that much. Depending on what you burned, fire took on different properties, and Feys ability was not fire creation, but fire-manipulation. Whilest the help of her mistress and handler had given her (awesome) permanent fires, those flames would stay similiar to their source no matter what Fey did with them.
 
Morrag blinked for a few moments as she took in Fey's response, before she gave a delighted laugh "No dear, just a bit of Telepathy, it is the perfect way to overcome language barriers, since not everyone around here speaks Ignan" her voice had the same echoing effect like before, though less pronounced and she seemed more... amused than anything as she opened her mouth and spoke openly, the voice sounding like a torrent of burning fire rather than actual words, the same language that Christine had used when she had conversed with the Fire Primal a few days earlier.

As Morrag and the girls, who had reunited as Pyre returned from the Volcano slide she had been waiting in line for, played around for a bit letting Fey enjoy the lava and enjoy her spicy drink, which had had some serious kick to it, had it been Korrie drinking it she probably would have been breathing real fire without the aid of her super power. "Well that aside, if you want to try a Volcano that badly you could try the island one" Morrag pointed to a Volcano that seemed a bit bigger than the others in the center of the pool, with a much shorter line since there were much less ground to stand on at the bottom of the Volcano itself, Morrag explained as the fire girls started to splash Lava back at Fey in retaliation for her preemptive hostilities, squealing and laughing as they went.

The kids paused and Morrag eyed Fey weirdly for a moment as she paused and started to look a little down and serious, Fey might notice an itching inside her skull for a moment as Morrag tried to formulate her answer in a way that would make sense to someone like Fey, having already some knowledge about the average attention span of fire elementals, being one herself, as well as watching over the spitfire-duo almost every day "Hmm, fire that can burn the eldritch... Not a common question that one and not one with an easy answer... tell you what little Fey, the kids told me that you want to go south, which with the boat being out of commission is not gonna happen right away, so why don't you come by my place tomorrow and I see if I can teach you a little something and if that does not work I have a friend that might" Morrag walked over to a strange bush growing not too far from the lava lake, Fey would, if she was inclined to do so probably be able to guess it was fire resistant.

Morrag broke off a branch and returned to Fey "Firethorn, a common plant in this place, it's also exceedingly resilient to fire, try and burn it" If Fey took Morrag up on the offer she would find that Morrag was not joking about the resistance of the plant, no matter what fires Fey shot at it the little branch would stubbornly refuse to burn even if Fey dumped Lava on it it would not even be singed "Most fire, be they mundane or magical cannot harm this plant, although this one can" The plant suddenly started to bend and the sound of burning could be heard from it, yet no fire could be seen, if or rather when, Fey tried to poke the stick she would feel something that in this place at least should not have been the case, the stick burnt her, even left a small burn mark even though her healing would probably fix that in short order "The Invisible Flame, I cannot guarantee you will be able to learn how to use it, but it is a flame capable of harming things that are normally resistant to fire, be it mundane or supernatural, it should as such fit your criteria, if that does not work there is an alternative, but I would rather... not do that, if I can help it, so come by my place tomorrow and I will take you to the one who taught me how to use it, it will be difficult and have only a small chance of success, but you should be able to pick up on the basics of Pyromancy at least, allowing you to create your own fires rather than rely on outside sources" the branch would crumble into ash in short order afterwards, the sound of burning dissipating, before Morrag playfully dragged Fey back to the pool and jumped in, her clothes shifting to a swimsuit as she was in the air, showing that her clothes were either magical of fire in nature "For tonight let us just enjoy ourselves, after all it's a party!" She finished her own drink and together with the kids would encircle Fey before bombarding her with a tidal wave of splashing lava from all sides, giving Fey the option of either join in on their playing or retreat from the Trio who clearly had reached a consensus about making Fey have fun whether she wanted to or not.

----

Maeve paused for a moment as Mist was mentioned "Mist? that would probably be The Nameless Mist, a powerful patron to be sure and a dangerous one, indeed it's best if you do not write down that ones name, who know what might insult it" She looked back to where they had left Korrie behind "She will be fine don't worry" she put her hands around both of the siblings as she lead them on "The tournament itself is divided into a Fighting half and a puzzle half, if you two enter together the halves will be the two of you working together to overcome your obstacles or opponents, if you enter the single version it's the same but or a singular person, effectively the fights will be 2-on-2 and the puzzles will have the two of you working together to solve them, the challenges also alternate between round, Round 1 is always a battle, Round 2 is a puzzle and so on, the only exception to this is the finals, which is always a battle no matter which round it comes into effect, Elimination in the battle rounds happens to the loser, the Puzzle rounds will eliminate everyone who can't finish it within the time limit" Maeve ushered the siblings around a corner and the siblings would be able to see stands around what was unmistakably a small arena, suddenly a fireball exploded in mid air, causing the air between the arena itself and the stands to shimmer "Ah they have started to stress test the wards, which means we are just in time, come along now!"

Maeve hurdled the siblings past a line of spectators all waiting to get inside and also part the line named "Registration" going up to the counter itself, earning a few angry looks by those waiting to register who thought Maeve was brazenly skipping the line "Hello Samuèl, is Enoch here?" The elf behind the counter looked up at Maeve with a friendly smile "Oh! hello Maeve, he is in his office, do come in" Maeve led the twins past the line and into the area behind it, giving a polite nod or a wave to the staff working the place before she stopped at an office marked Manager, a quick knock and a call to "Come in" later and the trio found themselves in the office of a rather large and jovial looking elf with wrinkled face and silvery hear, considering how old elves lived in the stories this noe was probably ancient "Hello Grandfather, I hope everything is going nice---" the conversation between the two exploded into speeds far beyond anything that the twins would be able to follow, let alone understand, apparently this rapid form of speaking was what passed for normal among elves.

About a minute later the old Elf turned his attention to the twins "So, you want to register for the tournament? Excellent, here you go!" the old elf unceremoniously dropped a pair of registration forms in front of them, which was a simple waiver of liability exempting the tournament holders from any liability for injuries, transformations or other changes to a person that happened as a result of the tournament, as well as a request for their Name, Team Name if applicable, what branch of the tournament they would be entering, Race, Gender, Magic Type, Magic Origin, Patron/Deity where applicable and finally the known limits of their power. Once done the old elf would smile at them, as he looked over their papers, then having cleared then both he and Maeve wished the twins good luck as tournament officials arrived to lead the twins to their designated waiting area as Maeve and her grandfather resumed their high speed conversation.

----

Once Korrie passed through the portal she would find herself in a nicely decorated marble hall, with sunlight shining through the windows, although this last part had to be an illusion or magic of some kind, because the light were shining in from the left-side and right-side windows simultaneously, causing crisscrossing beams of sunlight to hit the floor, lending a strange atmosphere to the room itself, the only other occupant in the chamber was what seemed to be an elderly man sitting behind a desk, writing, a pair of silver glasses on his nose as he read through what he had just written. As Korrie took her first step towards the old man she would suddenly find herself standing right in front of the desk despite the vastness of the hall between them. "Welcome, young lady, I take it you are here for some of our festival services" Once Korrie had confirmed she was there to take advantage of the flying lessons a portal would open to her left "Please, do enter the portal, your flying instructor is waiting for you" there was no hesitation or waiting in the mans demeanor, it was almost as if he already knew the answer, but had simply asked to be polite.

Once Korrie stepped through she would find herself on a small field with just one other occupant, a woman was sitting on a small rock in the middle of the field, a pleasant smile on her face, her hair was emerald green, same was her eyes and lips "Ah, welcome young student, you may call me Xia, it is not my real name, but mortal races have some issues pronouncing it correctly and it grates my ears to hear them fumble it, so Xia works fine, I hope you are ready to get started miss...?" she looked at Korrie expectantly, then once Korrie had given her own name she would give a small bow, before she went all no-nonsense and asked Korrie to demonstrate her flying skills, though as soon as Korrie got into position to take off the Xia cried out "Stop!" even if Korrie didn't try to stop herself she would find her body doing it for her, freezing in place, clearly by magic means, as Xia started to adjust Korrie's position, arm angle and how her legs were positioned on the ground "Sorry about that, just needed to correct the take off position, they way you did it would make taking off, be it from a standing or running start, way harder than it would have to be, not to mention the initial drag would lower your flight speed considerably, not bad if you are self taught, but all in all quite inefficient, now take off and I will meet you in the sky"

Korrie would find that taking off would actually be easier with the corrections that her teacher had made even as Xia smiled up to her, then with a wry grin giant draconic wings suddenly appeared on the her back and with a single flap she shot up past Korrie, who would have to work pretty hard to maintain her current route given the wind that had been generated from the movement, even as the Xia slowly flew into position beside Korrie, her wings now smaller yet giving the her a surprising amount of aerial control, as she hovered besides Korrie with only barely losing or gaining altitude between flaps "Ready to continue your lessons?" she asked with a wry grin that showed off a row of teeth that was decidedly not human.
 

"Ooh Telepathy. .. I think you might get disqualified for that. I mean from the Ventriloquists.. lodge.. club.. association.. I'ma go with lodge.. anyway, propably shouldn't do that then." She nodded sagely. "Wait.. does that mean you can read my thoughts?" She realized, suddenly trying really hard to think of something specific to test this.. but not coming up with hmnn.. yoghurt peppers.. those were delicious.. hmnnn...
So. A telepath, well, that explained the slight tingling she had felt. "Very hot language either way." She gave a thumbs up. She didn't need to speak a language to appreciate it, after all.

"Meh. I wanna do a vulcano thingie too, but there seem to be annoying lines." Fey commented, half to herself whilest slurping her drink.. she wouldn't say no to free drinks, after all! .. less so a nice drink like this. Fey relaxed a bit, reclining and clearly enjoying the spicyness. Her eyes then wandered over to the larger vulcano. "Ooh! Going big is just -mnaaah" She squirmed and ducked when splashed, retaliating in kind.. "My style." She added, curiously noting that her fire-control could affect lava too.. albeit to a much lesser degree than pure fire. Something to experiment with perhaps which she had no chance to prior, due to the deadly heat of lava. Fey stared at the fiery pool for a long moment pondering trying this versus the vulcano, only looking up when she noticed a shift in tone.. She was no good with these things.

"Yeah.. south." Fey answered, in a way that indicated to the apt listener that if anyone had told her of another direction she might have just as easily agreed. "Oh the boat is out of comission. Damn, so that's why we're relaxing right now." Fey tipped her chin. "Your place? Sounds fun! When tomorrow? We're gonna do festival stuff and then nap and then the others are gonna do lotsa boring stuff and Korrie is going to be like 'uhmnn not sure if thats safe' and Aya will be like: 'that's a green striped gnoll, be careful with those!' and Shiroi will be like 'Oh alright, let's do a strategy sister' and Kuroi will propably try to pickpoket it hearing a lot about her being thievery and.. humnn... Well, truth be told I could do with just a few hours of nap." Fey pondered for another moment. Her surroundings made her ponder if all fire elementals had her level of stamina and recovery abilities. She had seen a total of four up close and it was hard to get an average. Perhaps there was an advantage to being fire-phoenix-human hybridy after all?

"Burn a twig? Heh, even if its heat resistant, don't underestimate..." Fey grinned, pointing a simple fire arrow at the branch, which, after the first attempt turned into a fire stream. ".. alright, bit resilient.." After which Fey clasped her hands together, chanting: "Phoenix Flare!" Blasting the poor branch with a set of flame-spears, only to pout at its resilience. Truth be told she could try some more, but there seemed to be a lesson to this, so she simply peered over to complicated-name-woman.

"Humnn.. hoh is it burning now? Ow!" Fey chuckled, rubbing her finger, tilting her head. "Well, invisible is not as fun.. though if its at all similiar to my entropic infusion.. err .. hmnn." She pondered and added: "Errr, that's my name for infusing a small closed object with fire until it goes boom. Problem is that's limited in size and I need to be close and.. well things going boom get dangerous. Anyway. If it's fire, I can do it! Also, own fires and pyromancy basics sound good.. huh. Thought I was already using that. Anywhoo!" She flexed. She had learned all there was to fire, to combustions and exothermic processes manifesting in that manner, well, all that humans could teach, anyway. She watched the invisible ash-melting, pondering. Such fire would most certainly help against one of her few weaknesses, fire resistant materials.
"Weee!" Fey enthused, not opposed to fun times, but with her sudden, quickly gained and perhaps shortly lived enthusiasm for self improvement she also used the opportunity to splash into the Lava and be splashed to try and slow down the lava.. with the effect of slowing it down just before she was splashed, with an eeping and a rubbing of molten hotness from her eyes.
".. three on one is no fair. Mieeep." Fey complained. Then again. This was a chance to test out her abilities without fear of hurting anyone. With her friends, even with her enemies (usually) she held back so much.. "Feeeeey... Kamikaze splash!" She grinned, raising her hands up to the air, flames cascading up and gathering in them, creating a fireball which Fey, closing her eyes, thrust into the lava to create a fire-propelled splash, laughing energetically. "Wooooo! Hehehe! Yeah!" She cheered, with her hair fluttering in a state half on fire, half solid behind her. "Babababa!" She made, splish-splashing Flare, Pyre and finally Morrag in short bursts of cheerful fire-lava splashes, giggling and defending from their retaliation, before, after a proper burst of energy, relaxing, grinning and lying back with a hand half lifted to indicate a moment of peace, driving with a grin on her lips, doing her fair share in tiering out the twins.

"Haaah. This is rather therapeutic. Proper unleashing for a bit that is. Everything around me is usually so.. flammable." She mused, staring at the lava and twirling three of her fingers in a spherical motion, raising a flaring lava-bubble. "But 's like fire-grandpa said, can't burn it all." She nodded, and sighed for a moment, unusually contemplative. "I'm the Phoenix, I rise up from my own ashes. At the very least in this dream world, I have no doubt I'm able to survive most things not directly related to water or ice or such crap. But that also means everyone else is more vunerable than me. Including my nice owner. I want her to be safe and help me be a real proper phoenix. I didn't quite get all the stuff we're traveling to but I got that it's dangerous. Plus! There was these nightmare.. thingies and the weird thing with the many mouths. I mean, I could burn either of those, but it didn't work well. I could use stronger burning but it's all rather.. err.. friendly fire heavy. I'm not super strong or fast or tactical I'm just good at burning things. If I can't deal with a meanie, who else will?" She pondered, catching the lava-ball in between two fingers and rolling it about. "Heh. Perhaps can have fun and experiment a bit with my precision fires at the same time.. never had the opportunity or much the need to after all." She mused, then grinned at Pyre and Flare, clasping her hands and folding her fingers. "Don't tell my friends if you see them, but it's lots easier to control the fire if I wave about and chant weird names I make up. The names don't matter, it's about the idea!" She enthused, the flames around her flying up to create little orbs around her as she smirked.

"Try to dodge these! Super Phoenix ..flame barrage!" Fey enthused, twirling her fingers and releasing one fiery, lava-splashing ball after the other, chasing after the two fire girls, trying to keep the duo occupied for as long as they'd let her, in a much hotter version of a snowball fight. Morrag could easily observe Fey's precision increasing with the fireballs shrinking but growing progressively hotter after the first few shots as she twirled her hands about, one creating a new orb, the other fiering an existing one floating about her, though her left hand was worse at aiming than her right. Fey was propably not doing too bad compared to a pure fire elemental, what she, at least while holding back subconsciously lacked in raw power through her weaker bloodline, she made up for in creativity.. and tenacity. So far no one with Fey had closely observed other pyromancers, but were they would begin to tire with their flame manipulation, Fey's natural stamina just got her, literally, more fired up.
That said, Fey would slow down (and grin triumphantly) when, if she managed to 'defeat' the two fiery younglings, her flames drooping in a hint of sweat glistening on her nude if fire-clad body, evaporating where it left her, leaving the image of a hot headed beauty slowly simmering down and brushing a hand over her arm-feathers of fire with a satisfied grin.
 
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“"Taboo knowledge it is." Shiroi nodded. The two listened while Maeve explained the tournament, and eyebrows were raised at the announcement of combat rounds. "Huh, there's actual fighting involved? There ARE enchantments to prevent injury, right? Like that plane of eternal strife or whatever, where all damage was instantly regenerated and you're pretty much immortal?" The albino asked, just to make sure. It'd make sense for there to be these kinds of wards, both to protect the contestants and the audience, especially for a local festival event where you can't expect professional restraint or resilience, but it doesn't hurt to ensure they're not signing up for bloody gladiator fights. As the arena finally came into view, the siblings were taken by surprise by the explosion, though at least that proved there’s wards in place. ...Wards to protect the audience, anyway.

Following along and skipping the lines (personal connections for the win!), the two sisters were directed straight to the manager. Lots of coincidental family relations around here, Shiroi thought to herself. Not that she's complaining of course, this is definitely convenient. The two shared a collective sweatdrop as they learned Maeve's ultra fast speech isn’t a unique quirk, either what elf-speak is like or it just runs in the family, and they just stood around and waited until the elves were done, at which point they were handed their registration forms-slash-liability waivers. The sisters shared a meaningful look; a little late to back out now.

The forms were filled simply enough, the stranger questions answered as taught by Maeve, and entering together as a team. Speaking of teams though... "A team name, huh. Any ideas, sis?" Shiroi asked, and her sibling thought for a bit.

"...Something that represents us... How about The Monochrome Sisters?"

"Monochrome? Ooh, I get it. Sounds good! The Monochrome Sisters it is!" Shiroi approved with a smile and wrote that down. "And finally, known limitations. I guess that might be taken into account for puzzles. I don't think I have one besides body limitations, and your scripts have a size limit on what they affect, plus the fact you need a writing tool like your magic quill. There’s also that, think we should mention it?"

"I don’t think there's a need. Should it come to that, I think your power can compensate for it." The ravenette decided. It was partly out of paranoia, but she didn't like the idea of stating her power's most major weakness to anyone but her most trusted.

"If you say so." The albino shrugged, writing down the basic limitations and handing the finished forms back to the elderly elf. Their registration complete, they bid their thanks and good byes to Maeve and her grandpa before following the officials to the waiting area, looking around at the other contestants. Time to scout out the competition.
Meanwhile, once Korrie stepped through the portal, she found herself gazing in awe at the marble hall, though something felt a little off about it. It took her a few seconds to realize it was the sunlight coming from multiple angles, no doubt a magical effect, which only added to the mystical feeling of the place's grandiosity. Spotting the receptionist, the wyvern started heading over, only to be disoriented by the sudden spatial warp that landed her right in front of him. "Whoah... Um, yes, Korrie'd like to sign up for the flying lessons." She answered a little uncertainly, and was immediately directed towards another portal. It's almost like the receptionist knew what she wanted from the get-go, a little unnerving, but she decided to not dwell on it, giving him a quick thank you and heading through the portal.

Next thing she knew, she's now standing inside an open field, alone with a singular instructor. Do they just have enough manpower to give everyone individual tutors or is the conclave just not a very popular attraction? The woman seems to have a complete lack of draconic features too, though Korrie knew better than to trust appearances.

"It's nice to meet you Xia, Korrie’s name is Korrie." The wyvern greeted with a polite bow and a friendly (albeit a little awkward) smile, once again not even noticing the redundancy. To her slight surprise, the lesson commenced without further formalities, and Korrie quickly got into her usual immediately amateur take off position, her cheeks already reddening as she fully expected to embarrass herself. She had no delusions about her flying skills, considering she’s here taking the lesson in the first place, and sure enough she was immediately called out before she even flapped her wings. That didn’t make her feel any less sheepish though, or keep her cheeks from getting any hotter. "It's alright, Korrie's here to learn afterall." She tried to play off her own embarrassment with a smile. As she tried taking off from this corrected position though, committing it to memory, her cheerfulness became less and less forced. She got a lot more height with each flap of her wings, the improvement beyond significant with just a few simple changes. She's still no match for a true dragon though, a fact she knew and was quickly reminded of when Xia finally revealed her draconic heritage and shot past her with a single flap, making her fight to restabilize herself. "K-Korrie's ready!" She nodded, eyes wandering her tutor's more draconic form for a moment before she focused again. She's feeling a lot more confident now after her initial success, her bashfulness receding as determination to improve took over.
 
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Morrag gave an amused smile as Fey vented on the siblings, who in turn screamed in delight and upped their own attempts at defeating the fiery phoenix girl, though even with their youthful energy and eagerness they were tiring out, probably from having played all day rather than having a relaxing stroll like Fey had as she stood there, with vapor coming off of her Morrag closed in from behind and put her arms around Fey's shoulders "You are almost correct in your assessment dear, don't try to order the fire around, it doesn't like that, try suggesting instead, try to instill how much easier it would be to burn your target than what they are currently burning, it makes the fire much easier to have it do what you want, only Primals can just tell fire what to do without fire fighting back, it's a free spirited element, after all" Morrag chuckled for a bit before she led Fey towards the island Volcano and guided her up the slope so that she could see into the bubbling white-hot inferno inside. "That being said those with the right know-how can guide fire to do their bidding much more easily than others, for instance I can tame even a fiery spirit such as yours rather easily should I desire it, though it's not in my nature to do so, unless fun is involved anyway, so why don't you jump in the volcano is such a fun experience right now" as Morrag said jump in, Fey would find a familiar urge to just do as she was told settle in over her for just a moment, though she would not be able to immediately act on is as Morrag held her back still, even so after a few seconds Morrag chuckled as she let Fey go, now quite interested to see how strong the compulsion she just gave her was on the phoenix girl.

Afterwards Morrag moved a bit back to give Fey the space to either jump in or step back from the edge safely, then she jumped into one of the lava flows and slid down to the lava lake bellow where she fell in with a small tidal wave of lava submerging the siblings waiting bellow allowing Fey to make up her mind about what she wanted to do about her current position, take a trip in the volcano or slide down like Morrag had ro jump in and go for a flight and then a dip into the lake, either way Morrag would be waiting for her once she got back down, with another cup of the spicy beverage and a friendly smile.


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If the Twins had hoped to scout out the competition they would be rather disappointed as they were guided into a small room with a pair of comfortable chairs and a single plaque on the walls describing the tournament rules including the fact that killing was not impossible if enough power was used to overpower the wards. In another part of the room was a history of the competition itself, including how the ward was continually being checked and strengthened and checked prior to every competition as a mage had lost control and apparently blasted their opponent with the Dread Curse of Azathoth, with horrific results, the Mage had been disqualified and had nearly died from the strain of the spell. Another story actually had a picture, this showed a much younger Maeve holding up the trophy for the Singles bracket, with a huge grin plastered all over her face.

After a few minutes another official would come and fetch the siblings, leading them through the labyrinthine corridors one more before stopping in front of a door "Good luck out there and do enjoy yourselves" the official turned and left as the doors opened and allowed the twins to enter an arena much like the one in the deep one coliseum, only this one was open to the sky and instead of the jeering and hollering for blood from the contestants there was instead hollering and applause as the twins entered one side and a rather odd pair entered from the other, one was what appeared to be a small girl, though she never blinked and her expression was completely empty, her clothes were a simple white dress without any decorations of any sort and she moved rather mechanically. the man behind her seemed a bit.. unhinged as he were twirling his staff around, looking around with a shifty expression and being dressed rather disheveled. "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, Preliminary round of the Doubles Tournament is about to begin, on one side we have The Monochrome Sisters, on the others the Artificers, may the best team win, contestants... BEGIN!" with a roaring applause the match began... however, their opponents didn't do anything right away, but rather seemed to wait for the twins to make the first move


---

Xia gave a slight chuckle as she looked at Korrie and slowly circled her as she investigated how she flew "Alright Korrie let me see how you fly around, bob and weave a bit, gain altitude, drop altitude, fly a bit in a figure eight so I can see how you handle stuff and what might need improvement, if you would be so kind" as Korrie flew around Xia would watch intently often flying unnervingly close as she watched how Korrie moved, once she had finished all that Xia asked Korrie would once again find herself frozen though this time in mid air as Xia altered her posture a bit "You try too hard to look impressive as you fly, or maybe you are too self conscious, either way you are as stiff as a log and that makes keeping a balanced and mobile position next to impossible, loosen up a bit also use your tail and gravity to help you turn by leaning in and using your tail as a rudder, it makes it way easier to turn and helps with balance" Xia demonstrated by growing her own tail and laying her wings flat over her arms so that she had a flight position much the same as Korrie had, then proceeded to go through the same maneuvers that Korrie had done "Do not be afraid of falling out of the sky or crashing, just enjoy yourself and trust your wings to carry you as high as you could ever want to, they are a part of you and won't suddenly decide to let you plummet, after all" Xia released her hold over Korrie and flew a bit back to see how Korrie would handle the alterations she had made.
 

Fey grinned triumphantly.. and fiery, and peeked over to Morrag. "Humnn. I dun get it. It's not like I can talk with flames pretty please hello goodbye.. I mean I -can- but that gets a lot of psychiatrists really concerned really fast." She nodded.

"Well.. of course it's free spirited! What's a primal. I wanna be a primal too, yeeey!" She enthused, wandering along with Morrag.. she was curious on the vulcano anyway after all! Fey then squirmed a bit when both told to jump in and held back, it wasn't really hard to motivate her to do something she enjoyed after all anyway. That said, Fey wasn't a full blooded fire spirit so if Morrag tried to push her luck with the holding back the Phoenix would remark a sheepish: "Well don't make me push you in alongside." Before bouncing on in. Then of course, fire was innately harder to hold back than unleash and, to an expert observer, Fey's usually free spirited and fiery mental resilience didn't really work on those that knew how to properly deal with fire. It was ironic perhaps that others struggled to control Fey for exactly the same reason as Morrag had just told her on controlling fire.

Fey, naturally chose the option that looked the most wild fun, hopping into the fiery currents with a cheerful: "Wheeeeeeeee!" And trying to speed up as much as possible, which of course resulted into her travel down being shorter and her wanting to go right again.. after landing with a big, fiery splash, giggling and sinking into the lava, before re-emerging in a beautiful, if deadly display of molten rock running down her naked form and covering most of her flames.. only for them to re-ignite after a moment.

"Again!" Fey enthused, either not caring, or not complaining about the prior fun elemental control, not even giving Morrag much time to respond until she had tried the vulcano-slide at the very least another time. "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" *splash!*

Fey enthused, panting a little after first playing with the siblings and now runnning up a small mountain. "Pfeww. haah.. that was fun.. though.. what you said earlier, that means I gotta watch out not just for mean icky poopy ice and water mage guys, but also experienced pyromancers. Hrmnn.." That did make sense in a way of course. She felt certain she was more phoenix than elemental, if in part due to Christines brainwashing, but still. She had never met anyone else that could control flames, so she didn't know how much of an effect those could have on her if she didn't want to be controlled.
 
"Welp, so much for scouting out the competition." Shiroi grumbled once the officials left them be, having been led to their own little room to prepare. With nothing much better to do, the twins first examined their surroundings, checking the rules for anything Maeve missed earlier and also read some of the stories.

"The Dread Curse of A-Azathoth? That doesn't sound like what any sane individual would use in a friendly tournament..."

"Hopefully we won't run into any psychos like that today." The albino remarked, feeling a shiver down her spine as well. They have the reassurance of the prophecy that they'd at least be there for the trial for the panacea, but it's still not a pleasant thought. Thankfully there's Maeve to lighten the mood up right there, and the twins couldn't help but imagine for a moment what it'd be like if they end up in her place, their victory carved into the tournament's history. It's a nice little fantasy.

Before they could discuss any strategies though, the two were called upon into the arena, following the official into the coliseum. Having been focusing on their potential opponents, neither of the sisters were quite prepared for the cheering crowds, Kuroi uncertainly waving at some of the audience while her cat ears drooped in mild stage fright, while Shiroi did her best to simply blot out the crowds from her mind, staring forwards towards their opponents, analyzing them quickly.

A small girl, though there's something odd about her, movements wooden, and lacking the excitement or nervousness that any regular youth would feel in a situation like this. In fact, she didn’t look like she had emotions at all. That, plus the odd man she came in with as well as the team name, led to a clear conclusion.

Immediately, the albino set up a frontal barrier, a shimmering wall of transparent green just large enough to cover her person. "Sis, get behind me and make some defenses. I'll test the waters first." She whispered, the ravenette complying and getting behind her sibling for cover. Another smaller wall of hard-light gave the rune mage a surface to draw with, quickly producing a tower shield to hide herself behind. Interestingly, she could merge the energy of the wall with her own painting, costing less of her own magic to enlarge and reinforce the small drawn rectangle on rendering.

In the meantime, Shiroi summoned several small orbs of light from her palm which drifted into position outside of the barrier and launched themselves at the man like shooting stars. They were little stronger than potatoes fired out of a high-powered air cannon, if the potatoes could home in and were on fire; it'd sting and hurt, but not too dangerous even without wards. The goal’s simply to test the enemy’s defenses, whether the supposed golem girl will jump to her master's defense, what tricks they might have.
Korrie nodded, preparing herself for some aerial maneuvers. Swooping up and down as fast as she could, doing sharp turns and attempting some common flying tricks, but it was a clear strain on both body and mind, as her muscles were too rigid from unfamiliar practices, and her pride pushed her to at least try and not look like an idiot. Is this posture correct? Should she tilt her wings this way? Oh god she just messed up that figure-eight, j-just pretend you meant to do that!

And then suddenly she stopped, and her heart stopped with the rest of her as her mind instinctively envisioned the sensation of plummeting through the air. It was only when she looked down and saw the ground staying the same distance away from her that she started relaxing again, breathing a sigh of relief if she could. Though her face went red as her failures were pointed out, she did pay close attention to the dragon's instructions and demonstration, noting how the tail and wings moved, how natural it all looked.

When it came her turn to try again, she did well to follow Xia’s example, not perfectly just yet, but it was a markedly fast improvement, as her movements grew more natural and Korrie had to keep herself from getting too giddy when she noticed the improvements herself, performing a much more passable figure-eight. Let it not be said that the lazy wyvern girl can't be smart when she's truly trying, even if she doesn't know it herself. "This feels amazing!" Korrie cheered as she did a barrel roll because she could, finally stopping to hover in front of her instructor again with a bright smile. "Korrie didn't think she'd improve this fast! You'’re a great teacher Miss Xia~"
 
Morrag chuckled as she watched Fey run up the volcano again for another trip, at least she was enjoying herself, though something struck Morrag as a bit odd with what Fey had said earlier, she waited patiently for Fey to return offering her the drink so she could quench the thirst she was undoubtedly feeling by now as she leaned back towards a rock, allowing the thick flowing lava to keep her up "Indeed, powerful pyromancers can command flames rather effectively, more importantly, however, you said that you did not know what a Primal was, yet you are wearing a Fireheart, those are rare child, very rare as only Primals know how to actually create them, as for what a Primal actually is, they are, for all intents and purposes the very soul of their element, Elementals are the will of the elements, but Primals are the soul, they define their elements completely, no Elemental or Pyromancer, no matter how strong could ever hope to overpower or command a Primal of Fire, without some kind of divine level artifact to help them at any rate, to hold the favor of a Primal is enough to make even the most powerful Elemental Lord show you deference and respect, even those of opposing elements will think twice about messing with you if you do, and the necklace you are wearing are proof of such a favor, it... actually makes me jealous" Morrag reached out and carefully touched the necklace that Fey had gotten from the Primal that Christine had summoned, an expression of longing on her face, though she pulled away, and shook her head "Don't worry though I am not stupid enough to attempt to steal it, the last thing I want is an angry primal chasing after me" she chuckled as she conjured up another drink and emptied it, before she offered Fey a 3rd one.

"To return to the topic of pyromancers and controlling fire, yes, as a half-elemental you are susceptible to spells that would allow someone to control elementals and tha-" Morrags voice was drowned out by a giant fire plume shooting up in the distance the sound of the eruption reached them a moment later sending a slight vibration through the entire area "Well now, that's lucky..." as she said that the kids started hollering extaticall even as the plime of fire suddenly bent and started towards the pool area, moving in strange waving patterns as it came closer and closer, only it wans't fire, Fey's heart would probably skip a beat as the strange coud of flame came close enough to get a good view, as it wasn't fire that was approaching, but a flock of Phoenixes, dozens of them if not more whats more, they were landing all around the lake "Beautiful are they not? Phoenixes are quite rare outside of the plane of Fire, though here, in their natural home they are quite common, most people don't know this, but Phoenixes are actually elementals and are surprisingly clever, while they cannot speak, not in any way you and I can comprehend at any rate they are clever enough to understand several languages and can solve complex puzzles, not to mention their ability to resurrect themselves , which grants them literal immortality is a secret sought after by many, far, far to many" The phoenixes continued to mill around the edges of the pool, one even landing close enough for Fey to get a very good look and even stroke its plumage, should she dare to.



____

The Twins would probably be startled by the reaction of their opponents, the girl merely lifted her arm, a small orb implanted in her palm lit up and the orbs burst against a barrier that materialized from it "Threat Neutralized" her voice was calm and just as flat and emotionless as the rest of her, the man behind her chuckled "You need to do better than that to get through my defenses, I designed Gn0m3 to be the perfect defense!" he grinned like a madman as he lifted his staff and pointed it towards the barrier the twins was hiding behind "Lets see of your defenses are up to snuff as well, shall we?" with that an orb of purple energy started to gather up before it shot from his staff and collided with the twins barrier with a deafening explosion that covered the area in smoke, there was a 2nd explosion as another orb hit home, "There is more where that came from, better hurry up and do something unless you want your barrier to shatter girlie!" the man let out a mad cackle as he fired the third shot and instantly started to charge up a forth, without even checking to see if the third had hit, let alone if the barrier that had even had taken any damage from his first two hits as the smoke were still trying to scatter.

(since it's combat this part will be smaller due to more reactions being needed on both sides, sorry bout that)

___

Xia couldn't help but give a good natured laugh at the praise she was given "I would hope that I am a good teacher, I have only been teaching hatchlings such as yourself the proper way to fly for a bit over 2 millennia, after all, so I do hope you will benefit from what I attempt to teach, that being said you are a natural at this, if you had been given proper instructions from the moment you were trying to fly the first time you would have been a better flier than me by now" Her expression was mirthful as she spoke, but Korrie would get the feeling that Xia was completely honest when she spoke "Now then, with the basics out of the way, lets see if you can handle something a bit more.... advanced, shall we?" Xia snapped her fingers and several large rings appeared the ring was O shaped but had a rather distinct color pattern, if you flew at the ring with the intent of flying through it from one side, the ring would appear to be made of green flame, while the other side would showcase flames that were red.

The rings appeared all over the area, some high, other low some were moving up and down or left and right while others were hanging still and a few were even spinning around "I want you to fly through all these rings so that you fly though the side that green and emerge on the side that is red, there are no penalties from flying into the wrong side, except lost time, for now anyway, once you become more confident in your own flight skills and get more training we might indue a penalty or two, but for now just try and fly through them as quickly as possible, alright?" Xia gave Korrie a thumbs up and a friendly smile as she pulled back and down a bit, giving Korrie the opportunity to orient herself, "I will start timing you the moment you fly through the first ring, there are 30 in all, you can start at whatever ring you feel like, but the timer starts when you fly through one, regardless of which side you enter" Xia took out an hourglass and waited patiently for Korrie to start flying through the rings.
 

"Necklace? Oooh. I got that from the nice fire-grandpa... is it special? I like it, it's nice and warm, but the whole thing was a bit fuzzy. .. but they better respect the Fey. Wooo!" She flexed enthusiastically. "Though, now that I thinks about it, the entrance guy kinda oggled my necklace to.. hurmmnn.." She tilted her head at the longing touchies, narrowing her eyes. "No swiping. Is mines!" Fey insisted, whilest happily having the spicey drink.

"Anyway.. ooh whats going on? Oooh! Adorable fire birds! Awesome! It's sooo pretty!" Fey only half-listened to Morrag, curiously reaching out and pet-petting the Phoenix with cheerful enthusiasm, if it let her. "Oooooh." She made again, seeming fascinated. Well.. she didn't want to be -all- phoenix she decided then.. but half would do. "Wait what did ya say again.. immortality, oh right. You know, everyone calls me an elemental but I think I'm more phoenix than that, unless there's elementals that can heal from injuries quickly." She mused, eyeing the bird and puffing up her feathers in a clear effort to impress.. and watch the birds reaction.
 
Kuroi gaped in surprise as the attack proved completely ineffective, though Shiroi simply grimaced, having expected as much. "Weapon, hurry." She whispered back calmly, snapping her sister back to reality as another hard-light wall appeared for her to use. As soon as the man raised his staff, the albino reinforced her barrier, though that didn't stop either of them from flinching when the first projectile struck. Still, the barrier held strong under a continuous stream of energy from its caster, and as smoke started enveloping the duo, Kuroi quickly finished rendering a basic broadsword for herself. Shiroi herself smirked a little, not too bothered yet. "Heh, he talks like a game characters. Maybe he'll tell us what his weakness is too? Nah, I can figure it out myself..."

"And I'll turn their strength against them." The ravenette nodded with a small smile too, her sibling's confidence contagious. "How does 'Reflect magical attacks' and 'Shatters barriers' sound?"

"Sounds about right. Okay, get ready to split up on my signal, right after I try something..."

Maintaining the barrier with one hand, Shiroi pressed the other to the ground and started channeling energy through it towards the Artificers' location, keeping the rate of transfer controlled to make the energy pathway less visible, though the floor beneath their opponents would gradually gain a soft blue-green glow. A few projectiles pop out from the smoke cloud to slam towards Gn0m3's shields between purple blasts, exploding ineffectively against the barrier, but it was meant as nothing more than a distraction. The fifth purple blast struck, then the sixth, then the seventh, and then...

"Now!"

A streak of green traversed the ground at lightning speed towards the Artificers and activates the charged energy, detonating the area. Immediately afterwards, both sisters sprint out from the smoke screen, Shiroi to the right and Kuroi to the left, now able to inspect the extent of the damage. Should their opponents be visible, the former wastes no time laying down suppressing fire with a barrage of weak energy shots while the latter charges forward with tower shield raised, now enchanted to (hopefully) reflect whatever projectiles sent her way back at the caster, and with her sword enchanted to deal extra damage against barriers.
"Y-You really think so? Thanks!" The praise brought a blush to the wyvern girl's face, a mixture of embarrassment and elation. She's still not used to all this positive reinforcement, and while a part of her still believed Xia was exaggerating to make her feel better, those kind words certainly were not unwelcome. Korrie looked about in surprise as the next phase of her flight training began, the rings of fire coming into existence. Man, she never thought she'd actually find herself in one of these 'fly through the rings' sequences for real. "Alright, understood!" The diligent student nodded, one of the few times in her life she could be described as such, and commenced the exercise.

Though she didn't put much time into charting out the most efficient path through the course, not wanting to keep Xia waiting, she performs rather well all things considered. At the cost of a little extra time, Korrie went through all of the rings from the proper direction, except for one or two of the spinning ones that she mis-timed and couldn't stop herself fast enough. Thanks to the previous lessons, altitude adjustment and sharper turns were no longer a problem, and finally she was starting to look like a natural flyer, even if she probably didn't look very impressive going through the course, matching a talented juvenile in the eyes of true dragons. After completing the course and looking around to make sure she didn't miss any rings, Korrie returned to her instructor, feeling a little tired but still good to continue. "Korrie's done! Um, how was that?" The wyvern asked, a little nervousness worming back into her now that she's about to get her results back. Hopefully that was at least above average...
 
Fey would be delighted to realize that the phoenix didn't mind the petting at all, and with a beautiful deep chirping sound it would nuzzle back into Fey's petting hand, clearly enjoying the experience, even as small whisps of fire lifted from it's feather coat "Well Phoenixes are a type of elemental, so I guess you are not completely mistaken in your assumption" Morrag carefully started to pet a Phoenix that had landed close to her while the siblings were busy stroking the feathers of a third one, both looking absolutely psyched at the prospect of getting to pet one "I will admit that looking at you and that Phoenix I can see the resemblance, you do look somewhat like a phoenix in human form wit the fiery feathers and such" Morrag continued to slowly stroke the phoenix, before it as well as the rest of the flock took off once more clearly done with their rest and heading onward to wherever it was they were going, with one exception, the phoenix that Fey were petting had stayed behind, clearly content with staying with her rather than fly off, it seemed to have taken a liking to Fey considering how it happily snuggled into the half-elemental while giving off some happy noises of approval to her petting and her scratching.

"Well now, seems you have made a new friend, have delightful" Morrag and the siblings looked at Fey with a rather intrigued expression, "Maybe fire-Fey really is-is a half-phoenix" "Or maybe she-she is just good with birds" "Either way befriending a Phoenix is viewed as a sign of good luck, few people are able to make friends with one, let alone as fast as this, even among elementals it's rare, treat it with kindness and don't take it's friendship for granted" Morrag focused for a bit, before pulling out a small bag from literally nowhere and handed it to Fey "This bag contains Magma Seeds, it's the main diet of a Phoenix, be careful not to lose it as without this bag your friends only other option is to consume ash, meaning it will have to set things ablaze" Morrag handed Fey the bag and smiled brightly at Fey and her newfound friend "Well I think the two of you make an absolutely delightful pair now let's see..." Morrag leaned in and looked at the phoenix for a bit "Hmm your new friend is a girl, so if you decide to name her do give her an appropriate name, ok?" Morrag tried to give Feys new friend a pet herself and while it did allow her to do so it didn't show the same affection to her as it did Fey.

((I actually rolled a D20 to see how the phoenix reacted to the petting and rolled a 20, Critical Success so it's now viewing Fey as it's new BFF ))

___

As the smoke and dust from the charge in the ground dissipated the siblings would find that their opponents where mostly unphased, a bit of dirt were suck on Gn0m3's dress and the mans hear was even messier than before, but aside from that they seemed fine "Guardian Barrier successfully averted the detected energy blast there is- warning Modular Magic detected Reflection and anti-Barrier magics have been employed, recalculating tactics... calculations complete... deploying alchemical weapons" The man laughed "Clever little sneaks, too bad for you Gn0m3 can detect whatever type of magic her opponent can use and then think up a proper response" The small golem ignored the energy blasts, taking them head on as it was busy with something, then it slammed it's hands onto the ground and when it lifted them a pair of swords were in the golem's hands, one blocked the blade that Kuroi were approaching with once she swung it, while the other she tossed to the man who grabbed it out of the air and used it to start cutting the energy blasts fired at him, siphoning the magical energy from the blasts into the blade itself "Told you you had to do better than that!" the Golems attack carried a surprising amount of strength behind it, as if Kuroi's blade had been intercepted by someone at least twice her size in terms of strength, probably due to the fact that she was up against a golem and not a living person, as the energy bolts that homed in on her hit she didn't even react even though the attacks had to deal damage " fulfilling Primary Mission, disable largest threat to Creator" Gn0m3's now free hand moved past the shield and opened it's hand the sphere inside it started to glow an ominous red and Kuroi would be able to feel the heat from it, clearly some kind of fire based attack were incoming and unless he backed off or did something to prevent it she was going to take it full in the face.

with Shiroi's ranged attacks thwarted the man grinned and started to advance, despite his half-crazed look his gait was measured, clearly he was not without some experience with swords either considering how he had cut down most of the shots aimed at him, some had gotten through and he was bruised from the hits, but the majority had been consumed by the sword that Gn0m3 had handed him "Well then, since Gn0m3 is busy with your friend over there I guess I should handle you, hmm I just had a thought, after I win, how about I turn you two into golems, you would be so more useful that way, just like Gn0m3 is more useful now that she does what I want her to do, rather than have silly ideas of independence and free will" he gave a half crazed grin as he moved closer, still cutting down as many projectiles aimed his way as possible as he did, clearly intending to take the fight into Melee combat.

___

Xia looked at the hourglass as Korrie finished "Not bad at all, only a few seconds off of the average of someone who has been receiving proper training for years, I must admit your progress is astonishing, well then lets try something a bit more difficult..." The rings reappeared again but Xia did not tell Korrie to start again immediately, instead she flew behind her and chanted a spell of some kind before briefly touching both of Korrie's wings, suddenly they would feel heavier, as if invisible weights were attached to them, Korrie would still be able to fly, but it would still be pretty tough to move about properly with the extra weight "Now do the course again, same rules as before, the aim here is to be able to finish it just as fast if not faster than before, we will keep going until you either succeed or are exhausted, whichever comes first, you can begin whenever" Xia didn't mention that she had added a few rings nor that some of the rings were moving at variable speeds now, but that was because she was confident that Korrie would be able to handle whatever she threw at her, she was such an attentive little student, after all and Xia was interested to see how Korrie would adapt to this challenge, though in all honesty the main idea with this particular exercise was not to improve her flight skills, they were already great, what she lacked was wing control and strength, which she would gain from the extra weight added to her wings, all she needed now was to get used to the weight so she could fly just fine with it, then Xia would increase the weight again and rinse and repeat, if Korrie would manage to hold out this form of hellish training she would be able to get in the air and fly just as easily as Xia herself, with that thought Xia gave a causal flap and shot up above the entire area so that she could watch Korrie without being in the way, this would also force Korrie to gain altitude to get up to her to get her progress report, which was just a bit of extra training at this point.
 

"It's so fiery! Best bird!" Fey enthused, giving the bird an intense petting and listening to it's chirping, whistle-chirping back at it in turn. "Yay for fire feathers. though also kinda a dream-thingie, sadly.." Fey pondered, then aww'd and waved the fiery fowl goodbye.. though of course the bestest phoenix stayed, with Fey nuzzling it like one would a kitten. "It's a nice fire-birdie. yay!
I always got good luck. Befriended.. an.. an.. uhmnn.. what were they called again.. Greebo! Little fuzzy thing with lucky luck aura earlier. Super Lucky Phoenix Fey!" She enthused, with a bright smile.

Fey peered at the bag, shrugging, taking it with a grateful nod and trying to feed the phoenix a few of the seeds before peeking over. "How are you pulling things outta nowhere though. humnn.... whats the problem with setting things ablaze?" She tilted her head. "Nice birdie! Want some seeds? I'm Fey; What's your name?" She enthused. "I'm not giving it a name, silly Morrag. Dun own it!" She nodded. For starters, she was a pet herself, couldn't have pet-pets.

"Let's call ourselfs.. FBB's! Fire-Bird-buddies. Wooo!" She enthused, leaning back into the lava pool before pondering. "So hold on. We were in a dream-land, but now, you just said that phoenixes are around in fire-land. But considering there is a time-stuff difference between dream and other lands, uhmnnnn...." She petted the phoenix, getting bored witht thinking this through for a moment. "Is this like.. fire-dream land? I mean. Guess theres dreamy fire thingies too.. is that a dream-phoenix? Humnn.. ... Hug the pretty Phoenix!" Fey enthused, nuzzling her new friend, now that it seemed fine with her closeness.

(( Well what did you expect, sometimes the dice follows narrative rules. ^^))
 
As they burst from the smoke screen to view their handiwork, neither sister was pleased to see the explosion had done little to no damage. 'Dammit, actually thought that'd do something...' Shiroi narrowed her eyes, but proceeded with her suppressive fire anyway, while Kuroi mustered up the courage to follow through despite the primer having no effect, charging up and swinging her anti-barrier blade at the golem.

The counter-attack was... unpleasant. The ravenette winced as her blade bounced off and she staggered backwards, it was like trying to hit a stone wall, futile with her human strength. Before she could fully recover, Gn0m3's hand reached past her shield, and in that moment time slowed to a crawl for the catgirl, staring in wide-eyed horror at the reddening orb, feeling the heat and knowing what's to come. She screamed and slammed her foot into the ground, propelling herself backwards even if it means tripping over afterwards. The tower shield was raised to ward off whatever bits of fire still reached her while she scrambled backwards, dropping the sword in the process but not caring for it, there's no way she can hurt the golem with physical attacks and this frees up a hand to further enchant her shield, which she immediately does once she gets back on her feet, still backpedalling. 'Reflect physical force' gets hastily scrawled and rendered on the back of the shield; no need for an anti-fire enchantment, her ink constructs are strong against most elements.

Still, suppressing her thumping heart again, she'll need to find a way to disable the golem. Physical combat also isn't going to work, not with that strength difference, and since Gn0m3 can sense what enchantments she puts down, trickery won't work neither...

...Or will it?

Behind the tower shield, fear was quickly replaced with determination as an idea came to mind. Two more scripts were written down, left inactive, while the one against physical force fizzled out. "Dammit, already?!" Kuroi cried out loud with well feigned terror, still backpedaling away from the mighty golem girl 'helplessly', before unleashing a desperate battle cry and charging forward instead, aiming to just smash the shield against Gn0m3. She's counting on the golem to just punch both the shield and her away.

Once she gets within range though, right before she expects to feel the bone-crunching impact, she activates the two secret prompts with a shouted "PROCESS!". The two lines glow with violet light: 'Extra sticky' and 'Drain energy on contact', while the 'Reflect magic attacks' prompt fizzles out. If Gn0m3 fell for it, her fist will now be stuck to the shield like a bug on a flytrap, whatever energy powers her siphoning quickly into it. Of course, this is a 2-way street, or it would be if Kuroi couldn't just disintegrate the handle and free her own hand afterwards, backing away quickly.
While the kitty's scheme was in progress, Shiroi had her own opponent to deal with. The magic missiles continued however inefficiently, if just to keep the man occupied. He spoke... and the albino's concerned irritation slowly turned into a death glare. She wasn't as surprised with reveals like this anymore, but it angered her no less. Those other children in the cult, conditioned into obedient husks to be turned into weapons, a fate she and her sibling narrowly escaped... Who was Gn0m3 before this bastard got his hands on her? An orphan? A kidnapped child? His own daughter? If she wasn't so focused on how to make him suffer, she'd start to understand how someone lost control enough to throw a Dread Curse in a tournament.

The magical barrage stopped, and dual sabers of turquoise energy appeared in her hands. "Is that so? Awfully confident aren't you. If you really think you and golems are so great, then how about a wager? I can't speak for my sister, but if you and Gn0m3 win this round, you get me as a prize. And if I win, we get Gn0m3. How about it?" She offered loudly, enough potentially for the audience to hear as her witness, and waited for the madman to give his answer. If he rejects it at first she'll sneer and taunt him with the typical lines, that he's all talk and nothing but a coward, though if he still rejects it she'll give up on the matter. She's not too keen on the bet neither to be honest, guilty as she feels to abandon the girl.

Either way, accept or deny, Shiroi gets into a combat stance, ready to engage in melee combat... Except as soon as the man gets close (or tries to shoot her), two flowing wings of cosmic energy erupt from her back and launch her backwards with a mighty flap, sending a wave of needle-like shots at him along with the gust of wind in the process. Landing far out of reach, the swords disappears and she immediately slams both palms into the ground, forgoing any form of subtlety as numerous glowing lines criss-cross over the surface like striking serpents towards the man, ending in long sharp spikes that spear out from the ground in rapid succession under and around him, disappearing quickly once they're spent to make it harder for him to siphon them with his sword while constantly being replaced with more. All the while, even more javelins launch from her wings into the air, streaking at him from high angles to complement the low attacks. "NEVER SAID IT'S A MELEE DUEL, JACKASS! Better hope those wards are working!" She yelled with a vicious grin. Compared to those test shots before, a sustained barrage like this is actually draining her magic significantly, but if it can take the man out while he's alone then it'll be worth it. She can only hope her sibling's doing okay. 'She's resourceful. She'll be fine...'
It was hard to keep the giddiness from showing and maintain decorum, but Korrie managed, even if she was still beaming with pride. Did she really do that well? Xia's not just saying that, right? She sure sounds honest! She looked around while the rings reappeared, wondering what they'll do to up the challenge, watching curiously as Xia flew behind her and chanted some kind of spell... W-Whoah! The wyvern fumbled a bit under the sudden weight, taking a few seconds to steady herself. "Understood, ma'am!" She nodded once she's been given her instructions, and flew off to begin the course anew.

While her flight was a bit less graceful and looked more straining, the attempt before had given her time to chart a more efficient path, which almost made up for the increased clumsiness from the extra weight. Almost. She ends up having to try again, though now with more time to adjust to the new weight as well as take into account some of the changes to the course, she just barely passes her original time by mere seconds on the second try, using the power of learning and determination to make up for physical deficiencies. Sadly, muscles take a much longer time to develop than knowledge, and by the time she flies back up to Xia after her second attempt, she's sweating buckets and looks like she's at her limit. "Korrie... thinks she needs a break after that..." She admitted, struggling to stay in the air.
 
Morrag sipped her drink for a bit before she answered Fey's question "We are currently in a small plane halfway between the Plane of Fire and the Dreamlands, time here is synched up woth that of the Dreamlands themselves, but the local wildlife and nature are as on the Elemental Plane of Fire, simple yet effective compromise to allow such a thing as a Lava Bath, the local Half-Elementals petitioned the local Fire Lord for permission, who asked his Primal for permission, which allegedly went with it to the Primal Lord who gave the "Go Ahead" and so this place was made, however it's only open at special occasions like this festival, since the portal requires a lot of energy to maintain, so enjoy it while you can" Morrag finished her drink and then looked up at Fey "By the way, you said you wanted to take part in the Fire eating contest? It should start soon, so if that is the case you should probably get going" Morrag paused for a bit before she sat up and looked over to Flare and Pyre, both of which were currently just soaking in the lava with lazy smiles "Well those two are all tuckered out, so I guess it's time to take them home, seeing as we will be going part the area where the fire eating contest will take place we can show you the way, if you want" As she spoke she gently ushered the two young half-elementals towards the shore, completely disregarding any protests they voiced about wanting to stay longer.

((sorry couldn't come up with anything interesting to happen in the bath seeing as Pyre and Flare would be tuckered out after all the playing and whatnot so it seemed liek a good spot to move things along))

___

Gn0m3 didn't seem to give any reaction to Kuroi's feigned terror as she slowly walked towards her, though the catgirl would be happy to learn that her plan worked... somewhat, as the moment she got within rang her charge was stopped cold the moment she activated her other words, though not by gnomes hand, but her barrier, the moment the shield activated Gn0m3 actually gave her first indication of emotion... surprise, before the draining literally dragged the shield into her palm where it adhered itself to her barrier orb, the result was... spectacular as the shield suddenly started to twist and bulge and warp not to mention give of an incredible amount of heat as it tried to contain energies it was not designed to withstand let alone contain and with a loud bang and a shockwave that would knock both Gn0m3 and Shiroi prone the shield detonated, sending ink in all directions....

Meanwhile the crazed artificer 's insane smile became even wider as he heard what Shiroi said "Oh this is delightful, sure I accept your bet, if we lose she is not my masterpiece after all and I will have to find a new one to improve on Gn0m3's design and if I win, I can add you to the set crating the ultimate tag team of offense and defense! it's a win win situation!" he yelled loudly before he started cackling insanely, a few of the spectators looked a bit worried at the mans apparent madness, though even so they seemed to vested in the match to really react too much to his ramblings, as Shiroi started her barrage, however she was in for a nasty surprise of her own as the her opponent stuck the sword in the ground and then twisted the handle, a moment later the sword made a keening noise and all her energy attacks and even her wings just... disappeared, causing her to fall to the ground "Sword of Negation, never enter a mages tournament without one, it will absorb magical energies and once it has enough of them, which you ahve been feeding it a constant stream of, it will nullify all energies of that type within 50 ft, and it seems you are a one-trick pony when it comes to what energy you can use..." The alchemist grinned as he left the sword behind and pulled out a small dagger from his coat and approached Shiroi with a mad grin on his face "Don't you worry girl, this won't hurt... me" he chuckled to himself...

Gn0m3 slowly sat back up looking over at Kuroi she she then looked down at her palm, where her orb had been, it was not damaged, she then looked back at Kuroi before she looked over at Shiroi and calmly opened her palm pointing in their direction and fired, there was a lout keening noise the sound of warping metal then a shattering sound, and Shiroi would find her wings returned and the defenses of her adversary completely down... "... Finish that... monster..." with those words Gn0m3 once more fell to the ground, apparently unable to move properly anymore.

((sorry for a bit of narrative freedom here, but I just couldn't resist when you gave me such a perfect opportunity, besides this was supposed to be an easy fight anyway you have an entire tournament of opponents after all and no don't expect the next one to go like this))

___

As Korrie flew back up Xia could see the strain on her muscles easy enough and with a friendly smile and a nod she did a graceful dive and landed on the ground without a single sound, once Korrie landed Xia would hand her a simple lime green potion "It's a simple strength restorative that is commonly used among my kind to regain once strength after vigorous training, think of it as a reward for a job well done, it should help you get your stamina back" Once Korrie drank from the cup she would indeed find her strength returning, in full her wings regaining their prior lightness "If you would follow me, we will move on to a bit more challenging course" Xia would lead Korrie to another portal and wave Korrie through first, then step through herself, on the other side Korrie would find herself on a ledge along a long subterranean crag, the bottom disappearing into the darkness far bellow her, with a snap the rings appeared again, moving along and even disappearing into the walls, meaning timing was everything, not only that, but the corridor was so narrow that turning was out of the question unless Korrie wished to sped the time to stop completely and hover in place while slowly maneuvering herself around.

"Now then, let's resume your lessons shall we?" Xia, who was still behind Korrie started to chant again and Korrie's wings would once more feel heavy and hard to move properly, as Xia used her spell once more, although if Korriw had been able to see the sigil clearly she probably would have noticed that it seemed different, more advanced, as if more weight had been added to it than last time, despite feeling just as heavy as it had been before. "The challenge here is simple, fly through as many of the rings as you can without turning around to try again, once again you are being timed and will fly against your time once more after we finish, though the 2nd time will add even more weight to your wings, so be ready" if it was not clear to Korrie before that the gloves had just come off and she would now have to be at the top of her game to succeed.
 
With a solid thud, the shield impacted something on the other end, Kuroi peeking out from behind the rectangle of ink to see what happened. She only managed to catch a glimpse of her shield stuck to the barrier and what looked like actual emotion on the golem before finding herself dragged forward, the shield's energy siphon drawing it straight to the source. Immediately the ravenette disintegrated the handle and backed away before more of her own energy gets siphoned in, and it was a decision she did NOT regret. Strengthened though the shield may be, it was built to block, not absorb, and the catgirl found herself mesmerized for a second by the unexpected results, watching the shield contort and twist like a thrashing beast. Then she realized what's about to happen. A half-second later, it exploded.

Crying out in pain, Kuroi was launched backwards, skidding disgracefully to a halt sprawled on the ground. That HURT. It still hurts to sit up, hot ink splattered all over her, having to wipe it from her eyes. At the very least, she could see the explosion had knocked Gn0m3 down too, though she's not sure how much damage the golem actually took. How much energy did the shield siphon? Was it enough? She herself could barely fight anymore...

Their eyes met. And then Gn0m3 turned her undamaged palm towards Shiroi.
On the other side of the arena, things were going... a lot worse. Confident that the deadly two-pronged barrage would be enough to counter the madman's swordsmanship, Shiroi's supposed moment of glory was turned upside down in an instant. Suddenly, with a twist of the blade, her power just... disappeared. It was enough to leave her in shock, staring jaw-dropped, her mind blank except for the singular question: 'What the fuck just happened?' And when her opponent gave her the answer, it took her a moment just to process the reality. A Sword of Negation? Her sole ability, the power she was so proud of even when she lay on what she believed to be her deathbed, nullified just like that? Right after she tried to play heroine? The fact gradually dawned on her, and to say her blood ran cold would be an understatement. She felt worse than when she was withering in the hospital. Helpless, stupid, naive. She can't do anything like this. She should run, her sister can still fight, they'll work something out-

She looked just in time to see her sister knocked to the ground by an explosion. Her mind registered that Gn0m3 too had been sent flying, but despair told her that the golem would be fine, and her sister was down for the count. It'd be just like fate to do that wouldn't it, considering the foolish wager she just made.

She's not sure what's happening anymore. Was she backing away? Was she shivering? Was there familiar, uncaring laughter echoing somewhere in her head?

The alien voice spoke.

"Not today, vessel."

"SISTER! LOOK OUT!"

She heard her sister, still awake and well. She heard the noise that had shut down her power. And just like that, she felt her magic return. For a second, she lifted a palm and stared at the familiar wisps of magic emanating from it, small wings of energy trailing idly from her back. The weak plea of a tormented girl was transmitted straight to her mind by cosmic whimsy. The palm clenched into a fist.

With a mighty roar that resonated with something inhuman, energy erupted from the albino like a cosmic fountain, vibrant wisps of ever shifting blue and green sweeping along the floor like a cross between fire and mist, within which one could see the distant stars and galaxies, and should one peer too closely, something unspeakable somewhere beyond. Her eyes glowed with fury, arcane sigils burned bright on her skin, and the now enormous wings took on a
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. Her lips split into a grin that could match the artificer's own in madness. Maybe it was the repeated rapid shifts in emotion dealing whiplash to her mind, maybe it's the eldritch might that now flowed freer than ever before, maybe it was the high from regaining the power she had been deprived, even if ever so briefly. Either way, something seems to have snapped upstairs, and only the bright turquoise glow concealed the unhealthy glee in her eyes.

"How quickly the tide turns, wouldn't you agree?" The vessel chuckled, a faint echo in her voice that made it sound somewhat synthesized, ironically. She lifted a hand towards the man she had been terrified of less than a minute ago, and chains of light shot out from her fingers to bind him, wrapping his arms and torso in a cocoon in the blink of an eye. It was her turn to approach in a measured gait now, her other hand radiating with power. "Y'know, I really should thank you. You've taught me a very valuable lesson in arsenal variety. So, how about I return the favor and teach you something as well?" She leered, gently placing her free hand on the man's forehead, and then promptly slamming him into the ground where they're both enveloped in a pillar of light. The light wouldn't be what the madman sees though.

Instead, injected straight into his mind were horrific visions. Darkness, from which lifeless, mechanical hands emerged to grab at him, dragging him towards an operating table where he is secured; figures loomed over him, girls he could tell were golems, soulless blank eyes staring impassionately down as they brandished tools and mechanical parts, the same ones that he worked with; one particularly familiar face came into view, that of his 'masterpiece'. "It is your turn. Join us." Gn0m3 stated, and they all went to work. Flesh lost all feeling as it turned into inorganic material, implants and 'improvements' were forced upon his body, and as Gn0m3 placed a hand on his head, he could feel his mind being vacuumed away; his memories, his emotions, his ability to THINK, everything that made him who he is, disappearing, to be replaced with void. And there was nothing he could do to stop it, nothing to stop the overwhelming fear that permeated him down to his soul.

To the onlookers, it was over in seconds. The pillar of light narrowed and vanished, the energy that shrouded the floor dissipated, and the wings disappeared into the girl's back. Shiroi stood up, the final traces of arcane light fading from her eyes and skin, and looked down upon her handiwork. The deluge of magic was enough to knock the artificer out, and the whole fiasco left little more than the barest of bruises and cuts on him. But the visions, the terror of his own work she had forced upon him, won't be going away for a long, long time. She could barely remember the details of what she created herself, but hopefully it'll spare others from following Gn0m3's fate.

Revenge exacted and the adrenaline fading, Shiroi stumbled and collapsed soon after, leaving Kuroi as the sole contestant standing as she forced herself on her feet and hurried to her sibling's side.
Korrie was all too happy to follow Xia back down, grateful for the feeling of solid ground beneath her feet. She gingerly accepted the vial with a polite "Thank you" and downed the potion, stretching as she felt her vigor restored. It even undid the weight enchantment, or maybe that's just how it felt to have her stamina restored. Either way, the wyvern nodded and followed to the next course, blinking in surprise once she passed through the portal when she found herself in very different surroundings. It reminded her a bit of the tunnels they had traversed, especially the part with the river and the bottomless pit. She couldn't help but gulp when she looked down, knowing the training should be safe but kind of wanting to ask anyway.

Once again she observed while the weight enchantment was placed back on her. Was it just her imagination or did it look a little different this time? It sure doesn't feel different. "A-Alright, Korrie is ready!" The wyvern nodded, understandably a bit more nervous due to the claustrophobic surroundings and what's down below, but at this point she was determined to do Xia proud. The first attempt, despite her trying her best, was not particularly impressive, though still adequate. The attempt afterwards though, with even more weight, went surprisingly well in comparison. She spent a lot less time hesitating on whether to wait for a ring to come out of the wall or not, slowing and speeding herself up more naturally by angling herself up or down to use gravity for support, and also grew more confident after having spent some time in this new area. She'd clear her original time on the first attempt. Any more weight though and her performance starts dipping, as does her stamina again.

((Oh believe me, I am glad you took that opportunity the way you did :p))
 

Despite asking the question earlier, Fey seemed to grow bored midway through the planar explanation, commenting: "Dream-fire!.. ooh fire lord sounds cool. I wanna be a fire-lord!" She enhtused, then hesitated.. ".. unless there's paperwork involved.. .. fire-paperwork?

I did? There was a fire-eating contest? Oooh let's do that! Never tried it! Wonder if fire is delicious!" She beamed. "Oohm.. ok! Show me the way! Laters Flare and Pyre! Have a fiery one!" Fey chuckled at the younger elementals being shooed along, happy to go along herself, following after Morrag and taking a look at the fire eating.. truth be told, she didn't quite know how this would work.. and presumambly her fire-control abilities would get her disqualified. Either way, it was worth a look, so one way or the other she waved the other three fires goodbye as they departed and peered at the fiery attractions curiously. If her phoenix-friend came along she'd also make sure to give the bird a good petting along the way. "Let's see what we can do, fire-bird-friend!" She enthused.

(( all goods.. almost missed responsies here.. mieep!))
 
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Morrag chuckled in response to Fey's wish to be a Fire Lord and paused her slow and steady herding for a moment to regard the fire elemental "Fire Lord is a rather ambitious goal dear, and not an easy one I assure you, though seeing as you clealry have an elemental heritage that might be possible, eventually, with the right training and enough power, it is beyond my means though, I fear but" Morrag started towards the exit portal once more and as she did Fey would find that her new friend would perch itself gently on her shoulder, clearly intending to follow it' s newfound friend, and despite how sharp it's claws looked it would not actually grip her shoulder at all, seemingly able to keep balanced without needing to do so, upon landing the Phoenix happily nuzzled against Fey's cheek as they exited the portal and back into the streets of Ulthar, "Come along now, it's this way dear!" Morrag and the two fire elementals were already walking along, with Morrag gently corralling the two elementals, who seemed eager to run along ahead of her to get back faster, even as she called back to Fey, however before Fey could catch up a large crowd of people would cut down from a crossroad to the left and by the time they cleared the Nymph and the elementals would be gone from view, leaving Fey alone in the middle of Ulthar, without a map or a guide.

Fey would not have much time to ponder her situation, however as another crowd, this time from behind would arrive and push her and her new companion along the roads until she was pushed out into a small side alley, this left Fey with basially to choices, take her chance that the alley was leading the correct path to the fire-eating contest or the inn, or return to the street and see if she could find her way without being swept up in another crowd of celebrating people and probably wind up even more lost than she already was, either way the choices were not that simple for her, that was certain.

---

There was an uncomfortable silence as the dust settled over the arena, it seemed both the crowd and the judges were at a loss as to what had just transpired, even so as the seconds ticked past one of the announcers coughed "Sooo... err... Ladies and Gentlemen, I am... actually not certain what just happened here, but... it seems that both members of the Alchemists are down for the count and and Gerland, the Leader of the team just lost his Golem, Gn0m3 to the Monochrome sisters, such in-match bets are, ar you know, binding as per the rules of the event, as such ownership of Gn0m3 will be transferred to contestant Shiroi whom he bet with, now please everyone, give a hand to our winning team who will move on to the first round of the tournament!" The stadium erupted in cheers and applause even as Gn0m3 slowly twitched and sat back up, the exit opened up and tournament officials entered to guide the sisters and Gn0m3 back to the waiting room the sisters had used before, while Gerland was carried off somewhere, still comatose and unresponsive after what Shiroi had done to him.

As the officials left the room the Golem looked at the two sisters "Thank you for your help, I am G- no... I am Aila, Gn0m3 was what... he called me, sorry it's... difficult to speak properly after not having any ability to act on my own for... some time" Aila looked down at her hands, where the orb in her palm were already done reforming, clearly she had some kind of self restorative ability "It seems that whatever controlled my mind were an independent thing from my core systems like the barrier orb, as when I run diagnostics I get a green across the board, despite not having my mind bound any longer, or maybe it's because I haven't received any new orders" Her voice trailed off for a bit before she looked over at the twins "Either way, Ownership of me has passed to you, or so my systems tell me, so... um... would you mind if I ask what you intend to do with me?" Her voice and demeanor remained calm and collected, whether that was because she was unable to feel emotions in her current state of if she simply had enough self control to not show any was impossible to say at this time.

------

Once Korrie returned after the 2nd run Xia would applaud her, then step up and enchant her wings again, this time making them even heavier than before, as if the weight had once more doubled "This next trip is simple, just make it to the other side of this area and land, once that is done we will move on to the next part of your training" She gave Korrie a confident smile then stepped over to the edge of the platform and launched herself far into the tunnel before calmly gliding the rest of the way without even flapping once due to the sheer speed of her flight. Once Korrie made it there Xia would be waiting for her with another cup of the stamina potion "Well done so far, ready for the really hard part?" Once Korrie had confirmed that she was Xia would open another portal and step through, leaving Korrie to follow. On the other side Korrie would see that they were back in the previous room "Now then Korrie, you have mastered the strengthening course as well as the flight basics, next is speed and strength control, this is a pretty difficult thing to master, but you have already shown great promise, so I am confident that you can master it, though before that, mind stepping onto this weight? I am curious about something you see" Once Korrie did she would be in for a really big shock, or more likely think the weight was malfunctioning, as it was displaying that Korrie was weighing almost two tonne, despite this Korrie was not making any footprints on the ground or crushing the weight itself.

Once Xia saw the weight and the expression that undoubtedly would be on Korrie's face she would chuckle "Every time you took that potion you started to feel light and refreshed again, however I never ended the enchantments, every application doubled your current weight, since your arms were already incredibly strong they would handle the first doubling and the enchantment would make it so that the rest of your body would be able to handle the effect without anything going wrong, which is where the potion comes in, it was a potion of stamina restoration, yes, but it was also one of adaptation, allowing your body to adapt to that weight and grow stronger" she gave a grin "So what do you think will happen once I release those weight enchantments off of your wings and you take a flap to take off?" she paused for a theatrical effect "Here is a hint" she flapped her own wings once and shot off the ground then let herself slowly fall back to the ground "The increased strength from adapting to the weight will remain, meaning controlling yourself in the air will be much harder, on the other hand your ease of take off as well as flight speed will have increased tremendously since your wing strength are that much greater, however with this increased strength you will need to learn control or you will crush everything you try to interact with, that is the hard part of this training" Xia snapped and the same course that Korrie had flown before appeared, however something else did too, a table with a basket of eggs and a frying pan "This time it will be a bit different, you will fly through the circuit, then land and try to crack a single egg into the frying pan without crushing the egg, succeed and your training is complete, fail and you are doing it again, if you run out of eggs you will start all over again from the beginning, only you will be penalized by having more rings added, once you are all done I will use the remaining eggs, if any to cook you up a celebratory meal, sounds good? Oh... and you are still timed starting... now, good luck!" Xia started the timer again and gave Korrie a confident thumbs up.


((The part for Korrie wound up way longer than intended, that aside, Happy New Year to the both of you!!!))
 
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"Fire-Lord Fey. Wooo! .. Lofty goals are best goals, I learned that from anime!" She cheered. "I'll become a firelord and free my owner from.. uh..... the evil curse of the eldritch-monsterlord!" Fey had most certainly forgotten what precisely had happened to Christine again. Something about evil plant poison? Or was it fish poison? She needed pancakes to get better for some reason..

Fey followed after Morrag, (with a petting for her new phoenix-friend) though that revealed itself to be more complicated than anticipated when a burst of people cut off her way. Ponderously she looked back and forth, petting the Phoenix. "Well dang, now what do we do. I think it was.. that .. way." She pondered. Fey was innately opposed to back-tracking. It felt as if you just wasted your time, an attitude that had had her struggling in new places in the past, admittedly.

"Stupid crowds crowding things." She complained, deciding to continue down the small alley and see whatever could lay up ahead. She was actually no good with crowds, her only way to push through them was most certainly not non-violent after all.
"If only we had Korrie here to fly-scout.. hmnn.. oh wait! If this alley don't lead to a goal, I'll have you do a scouting. Just look for fires.. and people eating them. Can't be that hard. Actually, where is the inn..." She pondered again, then, decided one problem at a time, she'd find the inn easily enough later by finding the city-gate and following their old path from there. Or she could ask a cat. But she was better at chirping than mewling.


(( New year party woo!))
 
Even while their victory was being announced and cheers filled the air, Kuroi paid little attention to anyone other than her sibling, helping the exhausted and half-conscious albino sit up.
"Sister, are you alright?"
"Huh...?" Shiroi's eyes opened a crack, looking back up at her worried sibling and flashing her a cocky smile, as much of one as she could manage in her current state. "Didn't you see? I just went all limit-break on that asshole, I'm as fine as I can be. Looks like you won on your side too, huh?"
"Y-Yes, barely. And what's this about a bet they're talking about?" She asked, too embarrassed to explain she was probably too busy panicking to hear her sister's earlier declaration.
"Oh it's nothing, I didn't like the way he was talking about Gn0m3, so I bet him that if I won, he'd have to give her to me. And we won, so she's ours now. Annndd I may or may not have just traumatized that Artificer jackass to make him never make another golem again." Shiroi explained while the ravenette helped her up, still having to lean on her sister for support as all strength had left her legs.
"And what did you bet?"
The albino looked away. "Nothing..." She answered, feeling cold sweat form on her forehead anew when she felt her sibling's stare intensify instead.
"Sister... What did you bet?"
"L-Let's talk about this elsewhere..." The albino hastily deferred, and fortunately the ravenette accepted as much and started helping her out of the arena, looking over at the golem who has now joined their party. Her sister has a lot of explaining to do...

The journey back to the waiting room was silent, and once there, Gn0m3 was the first to speak up. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Aila." Kuroi said with a friendly smile, extending a hand towards the golem girl. "Whatever controlled your mind...? That reminds me, sister, it's about time you explained yourself, don't you think? What happened?" Her smile flatlined as she turned towards her sibling who had seemingly discovered something very interesting in the wall in the opposite direction of her sibling. She knew there was no hiding it though, so the albino sighed and spilled the beans, how she learned that Aila was a human who had been turned into that madman's golem servant, the ridiculous bet she had made, and how she would've lost it if not for whatever miracle Kuroi had worked on her end. The entire time, Kuroi listened silently, hands clenched into fists, until Shiroi finished her story. Tense silence hung in the air for a moment.
"...And do you regret making that bet?"
Shiroi paused, then turned to look her sister right in the eyes.
"No."
The silence returned for a few seconds, though Kuroi was the one who ultimately broke eye contact, sighing and leaning back, a hand on her forehead. "Geez... You're always like this, first for me, now for someone you've never even met before... Your luck won't hold out forever, sister."
"You're one to talk, who was the one who snuck into the mansion of a tycoon related to the dark arts with no thieving experience whatsoever just for a chance at saving me?" The albino smirked, "Plus, my luck already ran out this time. You're the one who saved me from being turned into a robot."
"And that was only by luck! I had no idea it would-" The ravenette paused. It was only then that she remembered that there was in fact a third person with them, probably having waited very awkwardly for their sibling argument to finish and having to listen to said ravenette chastise her sibling for saving her. Fear-induced anger was quickly replaced by embarrassment as her cheeks flushed red and the catgirl quickly got up from her seat and bowed in apology towards the golem. "I-I am so sorry, I should've left this for later... Well, we've left you waiting for long enough. Sister, what did you actually have planned for Aila if... once you've won?"
"Oh? I just thought I'd take her back to Aya and see if she knows any way to turn her back into a human. Barring that I... have no idea."
Kuroi massaged her temples some more. This sister of hers... "And what do you want to do, Aila? We may have won ownership of you, but I think you can consider yourself free. Is there anywhere you want to go, any family you want to go back to?" She asked the golem, letting the girl have a hand in deciding her own future. That was no doubt her sister's ultimate aim after all, to free the poor girl from the chains of servitude, should she so choose.
Korrie gulped upon having another weight enchantment cast on her, though she quickly relaxed when it turned out her next task was simply flying to the other side without any of the rings and tactical maneuvering. This shouldn't be too hard, she thought to herself, until her instructor made the simple trip look like even more of a cake walk, the wyvern's jaw dropping. W-Well, it's not like she's expecting to match a true dragon by the end of this, no need to feel too inadequate... Sighing, Korrie braced herself and lifted off, struggling against the pull of gravity and her own dwindling stamina to navigate her way through the path and reach the other end, which she does well enough, even if she's gasping for air by the end of it. She thanks Xia gratefully for the stamina potion and chugs it down, sighing with relief as she felt her strength return to her and stretching her limbs a bit, feeling more limber than before. "Ready as she'll ever be." She nodded with a slightly nervous smile and followed through the portal, blinking in surprise when she found herself back in the grassy valley.

The wyvern's smile turned brighter under Xia's praise, feeling pride swell up within, and she nodded to her request and stepped onto the weight, looking down at the reading. Under normal circumstances, Korrie wasn't one to really mind her weight, lazy and socially carefree as she is, but her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets this time when she saw her current weight. Her brain quickly reminded her that this was the result of all those magical enchantments placed on her, though just seeing that she weighed that much still made her feminine side feel queasy. Hey, wait, she weighs two tonnes? She's been flying while weighing two tonnes??!

Whatever amusing reaction Xia was hoping for she certainly got one out of Korrie, whose jaw remained hanging open even while the true nature of the stamina potions were revealed to her. She did pick her jaw back up from the ground before she started drooling though, listening while Xia explained the final phase of her training. She looked down at her wings with incredulous awe, and equal parts worry and excitement. Just what kind of strength is she capable of now? W-Wait, it's already started?!

((It wasn't mentioned, but I'm assuming Xia took off the weight enchantments already so Korrie could get used to flying without the weight.))

In a hurry, Korrie immediately took off with a few frantic flaps of her wings without a second thought, only to launch herself up like a rocket. Crying out in surprise, the wyvern had to struggle just to find the balance required to hover in one spot without launching up again before she could even truly start the course. The run itself was... a borderline disaster, though it was probably a funny one for onlookers. While Korrie could zip forward like a lightning bolt in straight lines now, her maneuvering was terrible with her newfound strength, and her flight path more resembled a bat with its ears plugged, flapping around in haphazard patterns while she tried not to overshoot her target.

By the time she finished the course, her control had significantly improved, though she's still going to take some time to readjust. Finally she arrived at her final test... a basket of eggs and a frying pan. Very, very carefully, Korrie picked up the first egg between the tips of two claws. So far so good... Now to crack it against the frying pan. With the utmost caution, she tapped it against the edge to no avail, not even the faintest crack. Okay, maybe a little more streng- and there's egg all over her claws. The second one at least survived until it exploded against the pan, most of its contents spilling onto the table and making a mess. Just how strong is she right now?! She might have to be the one to be careful while shaking Uncle Flint's hand! One after the other the eggs met their explosive demise at the wyvern's hands, until the second to last one, which Korrie finally cracked right without either barely leaving a dent or completely crushing the whole thing, very carefully letting the yolk and whites fall into the pan itself instead of anywhere but. "K-Korrie did it..." She declared with a sigh of relief, about to wipe the sweat from her brow until she remembered her claws are filthy with egg slime right now. "Is there a towel Korrie can use...?"

((Welcome back, Lunaraia~ and a happy new year to you both!))
 
The Alley itself stretched on for a bit before widening into a small dark square stuffed in between multiple tall buildings, the cobblestone covered ground and the small fountain in the center of the square the only thing that showed that this small place had actually been planned rather than just popped up by coincidence, Fey's phoenix companion looked around glumly, clearly not liking this place at all, even giving of a rather sad little tune, as if the gloomy air around them was making it feel ill at ease.

Once fey had had a chance to look around the most obvious thing about this square was the fact that it was completely deserted, not as much as a cat to be seen and the sounds of the festival itself were muted, clearly the festivities were not in this direction, that was for sure. If fey inspected the fountain she would find that the thing were not running and in place of water the bottom of it were filled with some kind of black sludge that clearly was not safe to touch, if the way the concoction bubbled hissed and smoked as a leaf slowly landed on the surface, only to slowly melt into the sludge without creating as much as a ripple, touching the sludge would demonstrate to Fey that it was a bad idea as the sludge was highly acidic and would cause a rather severe pain as well as eat away a bit of her skin on contact, luckily the stuff was not sticky so she would be able to remove her hand without any of it following along.

Once Fey had had enough and decided to leave, however, she would feel someone tap her on the shoulder and when she turned around she would be met with a rather strange sight, behind her was a woman that was about as tall as Fey herself with two big cat ears poking up from her hair, which was a sandy blond bob-cut on the right side and a mix of long, purple and pink striped fur on her right, this fur pattern also covered her lower arms, lower legs and long flowing tail, as well as covered her clearly human chest and crotch like a sort of natural bikini set, her eyes were a mix of lime-green and yellow and slitted, her face were split apart by a happy grin showing a set of fangs in both her upper and lower jaw, her chest was roughly C-cup and her hands and feet had small, but harp claws at the end of them, it was this claw that had tapped Fey on her shoulder. "Howdy, can't say I have seen you around here before, are you here to play with little me?" as she looked at Fey, with her head slightly tilted, still with that happy grin plastered onto her face it was as it the place subtly changed, and the dark gloomy atmosphere seemed less oppressive, yet simultaneously the Phoenix did not seem to like this newcomer at all, considering the angry hisses it was giving her, aside from the Phoenix' reaction she did seem friendly, if a bit strange though, and maybe playing with her would be fun?

-----

Aila remained patiently waiting, without moving as much as an inch as the siblings had their quarrel and when she got the apology she just waved it off "I have had to wait way longer than this while... he... did his mad projects, besides I cannot feel... impatience so it matters little to me" she answered calmly before she closed her eyes for a moment "As for your inquiry, I cannot remember where I am from or if I have any living family remaining... I vaguely remember my own name, age and that these changes were forced on me by... him" it was clear that she refused to name the crazy alchemist that had turned her into a golem, robbed her of her humanity, quite understandable given the circumstances, Aila looked down at her own body wistfully "I don't even know if I were taller than I am now, though it seems likely that I was considering my age, probably the madman's idea of a joke" She opened her eyes again, the emotionless spheres gazing at the twins with infinite calm "I think I will stick around, you guys seem nicer than... him... I can be useful to you and I do owe you quite a bit for releasing my mind from it's shackles" She rose from her chair and walked over to a small table that was ornately decorated with glyphs "How about I pull out some information about your next opponents for you, since it occurs to me that neither of you can use Glyph magic?" She turned around with a hand on the table, looking at the sisters with an inquisitive expression, awaiting their response.

---

Xia waited patiently for Korrie to finish up and once she did she gave a polite applause "A towel will not be needed" Xia sapped her fingers and the egg yolk just faded away into nothing leaving Korrie standing there completely clean once more "That was quite a show, and you have passed the flight lessons, although if you wouldn't mind indulging me how about a final round through the rings just to make sure you won't crash into anything?" Xia wouldn't mind either way it seemed more to ensure that Korrie actually had full control of her newfound strength than anything and if she actually did so she would fin Xia waiting for her with another beverage when she returned, this one had the color of orange juice, would taste like orange juice and if she asked what it was she would be told it was what it seemed to be "Orange Juice, with a slight helping of stamina potion, no strength or adaptability though, you have had enough of those I wager" Xia gave Korrie a wink and friendly smile even as she led Korrie back to the portal she had used "I do hope you enjoyed the lessons young lady and do not hesitate to pay me a visit should you ever Dream again, your company has been most pleasant compared to the spoiled hatchlings I usually have to deal with" Just as Korrie were about to leave Xia would reach over and hand her a small pendant made of gold "Hand that over to the old man at the desk it shows you have passed with flying colors, he will give you your graduation present, little something we do here" With that Korrie was ushered through the portal again and she would once more find herself back in the foyer from before, the old man with the half-moon glasses peering at her from his desk with a friendly smile.
 
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