• Closed • Ignis Internum

[Elisabeth Black]

54 Vhalar, Arc 720.

Elisabeth had an issue. Ever since the Umbral Caverns, she had nightmares frequently of Flameborn and it was getting old quickly. Fire was something she hadn’t ever been afraid of but seeing monsters of fire come to life in front of her had caused something inside of her to break – just a little. Her mind was screaming about something she couldn’t even begin to fix and it was causing issues in other aspects of her life.

She needed help. The problem was she didn’t know many people that she thought could help her with this particular problem. Everyone was either too busy or Elisabeth didn’t know them well enough to ask. There was a trust component in play as well since – to her – it was a very sensitive issue. She had considered asking Varlum, but he just seemed to have too much going on.

Praetorum had trained her and others several trials ago using fire. She had done fine, able to keep it together at the moment…but an idea began to form. After the session, she went to him privately, explaining her issue. He had thought about it and determined that she needed to face it head-on if she were to make any progress addressing it. Prae had told her that he would let her know when and where she was to meet him for some additional training, and that’s where she found herself – the main courtyard of the fortress.

Fire. Elisabeth wondered how she had gotten herself in the position she was in. She had always been so self-assured about most everything and something as little as fire had wholly upended her mind to the point of nightly horrors played out in the theater of her mind – the one place she had always felt safe.

[Praetorum]

Bingo, Prae thought, as Suspicion latched on to a new frequency. Flying over the stormwastes with Sivan, Prae watched the wormernickel wriggle its way into the ground, and disappear. For a burrowing creature, a place like the stormlands was perfect for hiding—except there was no hiding from an attuner once he'd caught the creature's frequency.


Now assured that he could find the nickel again, Praetorum tugged lightly as Sivan's reins, guiding her away away from the stormwastes, and back towards the fort. He had someone to pick up. 



He'd told Elisa some trials ago that the best way for her to face her fear of fire would be to very literally face it in battle, and win. That had not been strictly true. Prae had seen people confront their fears before in the legion, and it generally ended in one of two ways; either they were able to find some measure of control over themselves, or they realized they weren't suited for the legion and left. 


The legion trained discipline so more trainees would do the former, but they didn't have the time for Prae to teach Elisa the iron discipline of the imperial legion, so it was all or nothing; she would come out of this either stronger, or shattered. Both options were preferable, in Prae's eyes, to the alternative, of her freezing up in a real battle, risking herself and those around her. 


Personally, though, Prae had high hopes for her. She'd sought him out first, despite her fear, and he thought he saw in her the potential for a warrior with an iron will. He only hoped this war wouldn't crush her before she could achieve that potential. 



Soon, he was over the courtyard, and carefully spiraling down to meet Elisa. Sivan landed with a slightly uncomfortable bounce, and Prae shifted in his saddle to make space in front of him as Sivan trotted to the center of the courtyard.. "Come up." Prae said, offering a hand and tail to Elisabeth. "It's a good day, both to fly and fight."

[Elisabeth Black]

54 Vhalar, Arc 720.

Elisabeth wasn’t looking in the skies for Praetorum. She would have never expected him to arrive in the manner he did. But as she turned, she watched with wide sapphire eyes as the creature spiraled out of the sky towards her position in the courtyard. She smiled widely as she noted Prae upon the creature, running up to the pair as they landed. There was no hesitation as she shifted her weapon to her back and took his hand. Using his tail as a support, she quickly scrambled up to meet him, settling where he indicated. “What is this magnificent creature? We are going to fly? Really? I’ve never flown before.”

Sometimes in this new world, she felt like a child again. Each new discovery filled her with a sense of wonder, even if sometimes they weren’t so wonderful. Each new discovery offered her the chance to learn and know more. And who wouldn’t relish the chance to fly?

She wasn’t exactly sure how to show the creature affection and respect, but her hands found their way to whatever bare skin she could find, mimicking what she had done with horses and time or two, stroking with a light, calming motion.

Turning to regard Prae, she gave him a smile, arching her eyebrow gently. “Where are we going?”

She knew she wasn’t necessarily going to like the answer, but she had asked him for help. And help was what she was going to get – she knew that. Elisabeth was determined to see it through and do what needed to be done so she could fix whatever had gone haywire in her mind. She wanted more than anything to face her fears. She did it on a nightly basis almost but still, that hadn’t been enough. She prayed that whatever Prae had come up with…would be.

[Praetorum]

Prae couldn't help but smile slightly at how enthusiastic Elisa was about Sivan. Sometimes people were intimidated by her glare and sharp teeth—not without reason, given her temperament—but Elisabeth seemed nothing but fascinated. "Her name is Sivan, and yes, we are going to fly." He told her, helping onto the saddle in front of him. He was more used to Sneabru sitting behind him, but in this case, he wanted to be able to point out the nickel to her before they landed, and it would be easier to talk to her when she was in front of him. "She'd a Kheledzan, from Ivorian. I'd be careful with her for now; they can get aggressive if people they don't recognize get too close, and as well trained as she is, sometimes you just can't fight nature. But as long as you don't try to pat her near the head, you'll be fine while I'm here." 



Curling his tail around, Prae wrapped it around Elisa's waist, keeping a secure hold on her as he nudged at Sivan's sides, urging her forwards. The courtyard was large enough for the kheledzan to easily get the run up she needed to take off, and within moments, they were in the air, flying back towards the stormwastes. "We're going to fight a nickel. Or, you are. I don't know what your first experience with them was like, but I expect it was intense and chaotic. This time, you're going to fight a wormernickel one on one. I will be standing by to keep it from hurting you, to talk you through your fear, and to encourage you, but you're going to be the one to kill it."



He gave her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. "I'm afraid there's a lot of this I can't help you with; I'm not much for helping people understand themselves, and it's been a long time since I've felt the way you have. But I can keep you safe, and give you the time to identify and through your feelings. And if you wanted, I could teach you to develop a sort of focus in battle. It wouldn't help with the fear overall, but it'll let you push it away for a little while."


They were getting close now. Prae couldn't see anything, but Suspicion had never been mistaken before. Patting Sivan's flank, Prae guided her down to land, and helped Elisa down, before guiding her to a flat area nearby. The wormernickel was about a hundred feet below them, but Prae didn't tell her that. Instead, he stepped back. "Ready?"

[Elisabeth Black]

54 Vhalar, Arc 720.

She listened to everything Prae said about Sivan, taking particular note of the fact that the breed was from Ivorian. It was important to know where she could and couldn’t touch so Elisabeth was appreciative of the information.

Snuggling into the saddle, the young woman made sure she was comfortable, finding herself wrapped by Prae’s tail. Once they were airborne, she found herself torn between just appreciating the view and listening to the information he gave her regarding their destination. As always, work came first. “A nickel? I….the first time, there was wormerickels and a few others. Intense and chaotic are good words. I…hadn’t been working with a sword for very long. I only arrived in Rharne just before Vhalar began. I went to buy a dress for the Ball, got invited to a meeting where…bad things happened, and then found myself on the way out to Storm’s Edge. The next trial, I was exploring the Umbral Caverns. That’s how fast it all happened.”

Maybe if she explained to him just how fast things had been coming at her, he would see the problem. But then again, she knew there was only one way out of the mess – straight through it. Elisabeth wasn’t afraid of fighting or getting hurt…but something about fire had stuck with her ever since the Caverns. When faced with it, she could do what needed to be done. It was the aftermath that worried her – the scars on her mind.

They descended quickly with Prae helping her down off Sivan. “The first time, we dipped our weapons in Brightgleam Water. Will that make a difference today?” Straightening her leather vest and arm guards, she took a deep breath and kept her eyes open, allowing him to lead her where he wanted her to be. Unsheathing her sword, she glanced at him and nodded, followed by a verbal confirmation. “Ready…”

[Praetorum]

Prae winced as he listened to Elisa explain how her first fight had gone. If he ever found out who'd let an inexperienced civilian join in on a dangerous mission, he was going to have some strong words with them. "Well then, feel free to take this one slowly. These things are... not stupid, but they are predictable, in certain ways. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in your first fight, I'm guessing you couldn't do much more than react? People were fighting, fire was flying, and you were just trying to stay alive?" It took experience to be able to treat combat like a fight you could control, and not a disaster to survive.

"I'm going to draw some runes on you, enhance your mind and body, alright?" He quickly drew a rune of resistance on her back, a rune of twofold sight and eightfold focus on her head, as well as runes of threefold strength, threefold speed, and fourfold endurance on her limbs.


"When you start fighting, try to think about what feels good, what feels bad, where you're scared, and so on. If possible, say it out loud. Like I said, I don't know how much I can help, but we can talk it through." Prae told her. "It will be harder to fight the nickel without that  brightgleam water, but it's still very doable. Look for weaknesses and test them out before you start fighting at full strength."



And with that, Praetorum sank silently into the ground, and let the earth carry him towards the wormernickel beneath them. As he did, he sent a faint tremor through the earth towards it, trying to catch its attention. Something in its frequency shifted, and Prae felt the distance between them start to shorten faster. Perfect.


Coming to a stop, Prae shifted his focus from attunement to defiance, his spark reaching out to listen. All at once, his mind filled with every movement within two hundred feet; the wind blowing across the dusty surface, the puff of breath from Elisa and Sivan, and of course, the parting of the earth under him as something tunneled rapidly towards him. 



He waited a heartbeat longer for it to close in, then shot upwards, matching his speed to the wormernickel's so as not to lose it. Elisa was almost directly above him, so he angled his approach to the side, and was glad to see the worm following hot on his heels. They were getting close now—only fifty, thirty, ten feet from the surface, and then...


The earth rumbled, and then Prae burst from the ground about seven feet from Elisa, passing through the dirt and rock and soil as if it were water, before rising high into the air. Then, a trill later, another figure erupted from the same spot—a long, writhing mass of stone and lava, capped with a spike of rock. Unlike Prae, it only made it a foot or so off the ground before flopping back into the dirt, head turning this way and that. 



Seeming to realize that it wasn't going to be able to reach Prae, it locked its attention onto the next enemy it saw: turning towards Elisa, it reared back, looking for all the world like it was taking a deep breath, before shooting a jet of flame at her.

[Elisabeth Black]

54 Vhalar, Arc 720.

Elisabeth listened as he talked. He seemed to know exactly how her first experience went. Nodding her head, she just absorbed the information he gave her. He wanted her to be aware of her thoughts and feelings as she fought…and it sounded like good advice. Instead of reacting, this time, she was going to have time to think. Prae asked her permission to draw runes on her, to boost her physical capabilities, which she happily granted.

She watched in awe as he sunk into the ground and nervously waited. He hadn’t really explained what he was going to do or what she was facing, other than a nickel, so she stayed on guard. Part of her wished she had taken Balthazar up on some of those brawling combat lessons but no matter. She had what she needed – that wasn’t the problem. The problem…was learning to coexist with fire.

It wasn’t long before the earth beneath her feet began to rumble. Looking down, she held her ground and wondered what was happening…just as Prae broke the surface and flew up into the air. Elisabeth couldn’t be concerned with him – she had other matters to deal with for a wormernickel followed quickly. Wormernickel. She had seen them – in the caverns. It hadn’t been the event that set off her current issues but had certainly exasperated them. That is what she would be facing off against.

But she didn’t have her sword alone. She was armed with a bit of knowledge too. That she had gotten from Faith and the Command Central. Striking directly was useless because of the hard exterior, but worms had plates so stabbing between them was possible – if one could get close though. A longsword would have helped but she couldn’t think about that then. Work with what one has.

She knew that certain forms of nickels had human levels of intelligence. Elisabeth was unsure if the worms were one of them but that’s what the data collected had shown. The spike in the top of the head – she had known about that too.

And she knew about their ability to shoot fire, so when the jet came her direction, she wasn’t surprised. Instinct kicked in, throwing herself to the side and rolling away. It wasn't pretty but it got the job done and was enough to evade. Just evading the creature wasn't enough though. She had to attack.

Digging in, she started her run. Slashing wasn’t going to get her anywhere as her sword would just bounce off the hard surfaces. Moving her sword to a hand hold that would allow for piercing, she ran for the back of the worm. She would attack the head if necessary, but she needed to get to a place with less surface to scorch her with. Oh yeah, she knew about their abilities to melt – she had seen that for herself. Approaching the worm, she positioned her sword to strike between two plates, and tried to wedge it in. Test your theories and reassess.

Maybe her mind would see her through it after all...

It was just the first step.

[Praetorum]

Still floating in the air, Prae had a bird's eye view of the fight below. He'd prepared to dance the jet of flame away if it looked like Elisa was about to freeze up, but he was pleased to see that she had both the nerve and the reflexes to throw herself out of danger while still keeping hold of her weapon. 



She started circling around the creature, avoiding its head and going for the other end—not a bad idea, but he wondered if she was watching out for the tail as well, or if she felt that the worm's weapons were all concentrated on its head. Combat was always something of a juggling act, trying to figure out which part of something's body was least likely to be used, or least effective as a weapon in that moment. And for a snake like creature, such as the wormernickel, almost every part of it could be used to attack, one way or another.


Sure enough, as Elisa jabbed experimentally at a gap in the worm's stone plates—the wound almost immediately spurting out... blood or magma or something like that—its tail started to lash furiously, not specifically aiming for Elisa, but still sweeping a wide enough area that she would have to retreat in order to avoid getting hit. 



Then, the worm turned around, and started to burrow back into the ground—it was a quick digger, but it was lengthy enough that Elisa would have time to get in an attack or two. 



Within moments, it was out of sight; but Prae could still feel the earth shifting where it burrowed, could feel it make a sharp turn to surge back upwards to try and skewer Elisa from below. 



Watching carefully, Praetorum called for the wind to gather near Elisa, not doing anything just yet, but still unmistakably there. He would give her time to try and avoid the attack on her own, but if she couldn't react quick enough, the wind would pick her up and drag her out of the way of the attack, before gently depositing her back on the ground. The wind would also keep the blood and magma off her. Between his wind, and the runes he'd already put on her, it should be enough. He'd said he would keep her safe, and he'd meant it.

[Elisabeth Black]

54 Vhalar, Arc 720.

Elisabeth knew where Prae was and most likely what he was doing. To be fair, it was a great place to get a good view of the action. It was training so for him to tell her what she did right and wrong, he needed to see everything.

Her problems were just starting. The young woman was aware that the entity of the worm’s body could be used for attacking – the head was the most problematic. But just when she thought she was making headway, the tail began its wild thrashing. Cursing, she withdrew backward swiftly to regroup. Once she made it to safety, Elisabeth noted quickly that it was beginning to go back underground. Knowing that she wouldn’t be able to sense where it would reemerge, she immediately ran back into the fray and took her shots while the dangerous head was otherwise occupied in the ground. Her sword immediately found a space between the plates and dug in, careful to avoid touching the worm. A second jab was managed before the worm vanished completely.

Now, she had a big problem.

With no way to tell where the worm was, she would have to use her brain to figure out where it would most likely show up. It could sense her; she was sure of that. That meant it would come straight for her. But if she ran, it would likely just keep following her, so she needed to make sure it was close before running so it didn’t have time to alter course. She remembered the rumbling she had felt when it had emerged from the ground before and concentrated. Waiting, waiting, waiting…. until the very first tremble in the ground beneath her feet…then sprinting out of the way, clearing the immediate area.

The worm, as predicted, exploded from the ground where she had stood moments prior, lifting a foot up in the air and slamming down, looking for its target. Gaining precious trills while the worm extracted itself from the land, Elisabeth dashed back towards the creature, making sure to stay to the side so she would have clear warning of an attack by the head, and stabbed the flameborn once again, between the plates, putting all her strength into it.

Knowing her attack options were limited, it felt like a good time to call in a favor from her hovering mentor, yelling as loud as she could. "Hey Prae!!!! Got any other ideas? This is kinda my only one...but I figure you don't want to be here all trial....."

[Praetorum]

It seemed his caution wasn't necessary, as Elisa stilled, seemingly waiting for something, before darting out of the way of the attacking worm. Prae nodded at that, but kept the wind waiting near her, just in case. She had a good temperament for combat, able to focus on what needed to be done in the moment and able to think on her feet, but he was well aware that she was still inexperienced.


And, it seemed, a little overeager. "You're doing fine. Those aren't shallow wounds you're leaving there." Prae laughed, drifting a little closer. "Normally I'd tell you to aim for the vitals, but I'm not sure where this thing keeps its organs, so you'll just have to keep plugging away at it. You have a relatively short blade against an armored opponent—there's no trick to winning this fight. You just have to keep attacking, and not get hit."


As if punctuating his point, the worm tried to slap at her with its tail, and simultaneously curl around to impale her. Not an inescapable attack, but a tricky one, so Prae didn't give Elisa the chance to fail, the wind lifting her up and dragging her back a few feet. 



"Remember, the point of this isn't to kill this nickel—it's to help you feel in control of yourself. You've seen just about every attack it has at its disposal. You don't need to be in a rush to kill it. It's... hmm." Prae considered for a moment how to explain what he wanted her to learn. "A bit like music?" He tried. "Try to get into a rhythm, if that makes sense. There's a calm place in your mind where you don't need to think of anything except the fight you're in, and I think you'd find it helpful if you could find it."