Entrance RP: The Eclipses of Life (Zeno only)

Zeno walked out onto his balcony on the top floor of the Eclipse Soul Guildhall. The day was almost over so he decided to take a last gaze over the valley before the sun disappeared behind the mountains. He stared down the cliff and noticed a bright light shining between the trees.

Hmm.. That is odd..

Suddenly, the weather started to change abruptly. Clouds formed on a lower altitude than usual, and they seemed to be coming together above the area where the light was.

Definitely unusual..

Then, the sky darkened and a lightning bolt struck down from the clouds into the ground below.

Zeno's eyes widened in surprise briefly before he sighed.
All right... I hear you.
There had been a lot of strange magical activity in the area lately, but today Zeno had expected it to remain quiet. Nevertheless, he felt a pressing magical power coming from the thunderstruck area and he knew he had to go check it out before something bad happened. From underneath his cloak, Zeno grabbed one half of a white visage mask and put it on.

He then took a few steps backwards, then dashed forward and leapt off his balcony. In his fall down the cliff cards started swirling around him followed by arcane energy. A phantom appeared before Zeno and both of them merged halfway through the fall. Dark purple shadows erupted from Zeno's body after which the other half of the mask appeared on the other side of his face, completing the appearance.

As his fall sped up and he started to approach the ground, he slowed down.
Zeno could see a young woman on the ground, bright light coming from her and the magical circle around her. A bunch of Vulcans had her surrounded but they seemed afraid. The moment Zeno questioned why the creatures were reluctant to approach her, another lightning bolt came down from the sky and missed him by a mere five feet. Zeno released a yell in his astonishment as he quickly let himself fall.

He came down on one knee, the cloak of shadows neatly covering the ground around him. He took a deep breath to recover from the fall and looked up.
The woman was obviously responsible for this impossible storm, but she seemed out of control of her Spell, gasping for air. Another lightning bolt struck down, hitting one of the Vulcans that tried to attack her straight in the head.

That's one down... He thought to himself sarcastically.

Zeno knew he could not stay in the open like he was now, or he might get struck by lightning himself. However, he was unsure of how to approach the woman, so he decided to get rid of the Vulcans for her.

He stood up, wrapped his cloak around his arm and swung it horizontally once. Four dark purple energy bolts flew out of the cloak and hit each of the remaining Vulcans twice in the head. They crumbled to the ground, unconscious.

"Are you okay?!" He shouted loudly against the sound of the heavy rain.
Slowly, step by step, he approached her. The girl seemed lost, tired and in need of help. In other words, unpredictable.

Zeno raised his open hands to show a sign of goodwill. His flaming cloak waving in the increasingly wild wind. There was a calm expression of his face, and his steps were confident and without fear.

A lightning bolt struck exactly in between them, as if to intimidate him into coming closer, but he did not slow down even one bit.

Zeno watched the bird go at it against the sound of the storm, and he realized the bird was the girl's companion. Even though neither of them were hostile towards him, Zeno could see fear in the white haired stormcaller's eyes.
"H..Help...p-plea..se.." She begged.

The spell is draining her...

Zeno immediately extended his arms to pick her up. He breathed in through his mouth, but was suprised by the amount of moisture in the air. It was almost as if he had taken a gulp of water. "Hold still, don't trigger your spell into doing something you have no control over. Just... Keep breathing and hold on to me." He said with a deep and soothing voice in an attempt to calm her down and reassure her that he was going to help.

He picked her up in both arms and was about to dash off, but then he noticed the bird. Zeno thought the bird was probably unable to get far with such violent winds and downpour. With a faint smile he got down on one knee and lowered the girl above the ground in front of her flying pet.

"Hop on."

OOC: Raging Storm only goes on for three posts, it will be clearing up now. The lightning is gone, the winds are beginning to decrease, and the rain is starting to become a drizzle.

Alye did nothing, or couldn't do anything as the man standing over her picked her up in his arms. Even in her almost dead state, she could feel a radiating warmth from this man that she didn't quite understand but she also felt a insane amount of magic power from him as well. Who..is this man?, Alye thought to herself as she was lifted up. The man stopped as he remembered Reniro and then offered to give the 6 foot bird a ride.

Reniro's red eyes looked upon the man with a growing sense of trust. This man put his life on the line to help his Alye. He was one of the good humans. The bird tilted his head to the side to the sight of the human telling him to mount his back. Reniro reached out with one of his bright wings and patted the human male on his head, cooing at him approvingly. The bird, who was intelligent, despite his battle-hardy ways, could understand human speech, and replied accordingly. The bird flapped it's wings, sending a gentle breeze over the two and shaking off some of the rain water of it's wings. Reniro also knew the aspects of most of Alye's spells, seeing as how it was her travel companion. Reniro flapped it's wings once more and did a little jump, taking to the air almost effortlessly. While the bird did wobble in the air for a couple moments, it let out a triumphant caw and circled around the two while high enough to be above the storm but still be visible.

Pleased to have gained the trust of the bird, Zeno sprinted off while making sure his "passengers" were still comfortable. When he saw that the spell was fading, and he felt that he was out of its reach, he lifted up into the air.

Her breathing is faint... I should hurry up.

The speed of his flight increased as they traveled up the steep cliffside. The rocks and rough mountainside were blurry as they disappeared beneath Zeno and his carriage. Suddenly, they had reached the edge and a wall appeared before them. Three seconds later they landed softly on the balcony. Zeno's posession spell faded away with a soft breeze as he stepped into his room.

Quickly, he placed the girl in his bed and tucked her in to make sure she was warm. He walked over to the side of the room and filled up a glass of water to put next to her on the nightstand.

Should I... Get a Healer? He wondered as he grabbed a chair and sat down at the bedside. He turned his head towards the bird.

"You can understand me. Can you speak?" He asked quietly.

The bird spoke indeed, and Zeno could not help but give away a small smile at the confirmation of his suspicions. It was not the first time he met such a creature.

Zeno looked pensive for a second before he replied.
"Alye, is her name?.. Has she been like this before? Is there anything specific I need to do?"

His voice conveyed both calmness and concern. If the bird had been her companion for as long as he believed, then he would not be surprised if this was not the first incident.

Zeno looked into the bird's eyes in await for orders. He would do his very best to follow them and get the girl the care she needed. He was no Healer, but he would do what was necessary.

Zeno nodded in acknowledgement of Reniro's information and shook the bird's wing with two fingers and a smile.

He had understood Reniro's disappointment in his lack of Healing abilities, and so did he regret having no Healer in the immediate vicinity. What Zeno did have was experience and a collected mind. Alye's body was weakened, her immune system at a minimum point and she had very little magical energy left. Logically, her body reacted with an unstable fever that could easily overtake her and become fatal. She was, however, capable of withstanding extreme temperatures. In this state, temperature change would probably have a higher effect on her body, but she would still survive exposure to extreme temperatures.

So to beat her fever, I must turn this room into a sauna...

Zeno's eyes focused again and he let go of the bird's wing after a slightly awkward two seconds of prolonged handshaking. "Pleasure to you meet you, Reniro." He said and stood up.

With a fast pace he started to move from one side of the room to the other. First, he closed the doors to the balcony, then all the windows, then he covered Alye with all the sheets he had laying around in the room, and then he turned the heater on maximum temperature. "Now, Reniro, why don't you join me in getting that tea for her and a large bottle of water. It is about to get quite hot in here." He said and walked towards the door.

The heater started shaking and heat burst from it. Zeno had messed around with the settings and the hardware inside to make it override its limit. As Reniro hopped next to him, Zeno shut the door.

"Follow me, please." He said as if he was going to give the bird a tour of the houses. He commenced descending down the stairway. The Guild Master's quarters were located on the top floor of the tower. He had a private stairway that connected his room all the way down to his office on the second floor. It was sealed off by a metal door that required his magical signature to open. In his case, he would have to insert one of his cards into a slot next to the doorhandle. It opened normally from the other side though.

It was a rather long way down, and Zeno had been thinking about installing an elevator at some point. He sped up his descent with his cape 'cleaning' the steps behind him.

"If you'd rather not hop down every single step, you may hop on my shoulder."

The look in the bird's eyes gave away that Reniro had heard Zeno's jest, but Zeno was not sure whether the bird had understood it. The bird then gently circled his way down the stairs and landed. Zeno decided to swing his legs over the guardrail and slide down from it. Few seconds later he pushed himself off the guardrail and landed perfectly balanced next to his feathered guest.

Zeno looked Reniro in the eyes as he spoke. He hoped that if the bird had heard stories about him, they were not all the negative ones..

"The name is Zeno Sombras, and welcome to my Guildhall."

"You are quite welcome." He said as he opened the door that led to the floor above the bar.

He could feel that his plan was working. The magical power upstairs was faint, but stable. She was going to make it.. In due time. Considering their situation, an idea popped into his head. He looked in the direction of some other stairs that descended down the second floor straight into the bar. The section of the second floor they were on right now was his office and the lounge for S Rank mages, where their dangerous mission board was located.

"This way, we'll pick up some water at the bar and take the other stairway at the end of the hallway back up to the other section of the second floor." He said with a smile. This section was part of Zeno's more private area of the Guild. The stairs to his office and S Rank lounge were accessible to everyone, although lower ranked mages were technically not allowed up here. Zeno's private stairway to his chambers was sealed off by a metal door from this side, although it appeared to be a normal door from the other side. The metal door had a slot that was made for his deck of cards. In order for the door to open, he would have to insert one of his cards in the slot like a keycard.

Zeno waited for Reniro to walk towards the other flight of stairs before he would shut and lock the steel door.

As Reniro gawked about the place, Zeno shut the metal door tight. A beep from the slot above the handle confirmed it was sealed. The guildmaster then led the big bird to the end of the 'balcony' overlooking the bar. It was a platform located right above the bar, like a VIP room for himself and the S Ranks, with stairs connecting it with the bar itself. Before he went any further, Reniro told him of Alye's dark past and her need for redemption.

Altered memories... Like looking at a puzzle of over a million pieces, knowing one of them is placed wrongly, but not being able to find which one it is.

Zeno turned around and leaned against the rail of the balcony. He lowered his voice, because he knew other members might be hanging around the bar and the floor below.
"Is there any possibility for her to unlock those memories? Because she will need to learn the truth at some point, but I wouldn't want her to be by herself when she does." He stopped for a brief moment and looked up at the ceiling as if he could look straight through the structure of the building and see Alye sleeping.

"I'll take her in. The two of you can consider this place your home now. In fact, I don't think I'll allow you to refuse this offer..."

He clenched his jaws and breathed in deeply for a moment.

"She is dangerous, and I have been in a similar position myself, as I'm sure the not-so-good stories have told. It is my duty and personal obligation to make certain she does not fall onto the wrong path as I did back then. I will give her security, safety, a home, friends, anything she needs to live a comfortable and enjoyable life here. But she will need support when the time comes for her to be confronted with the unfortunate events of her past. I need to be there when she does. Loneliness is what would fuel her negative emotions to the limit. It will kill many people and it will absolutely kill her. She is a timebomb that I will need to contain and deactivate, so that her mind may be healed, her body no longer suffering from the strain of her uncontrolled magic, and her soul restored." He said with confidence behind every word.

Zeno looked the sky-blue bird straight in the eyes, in the soul, and for a brief moment allowed the bird to look into his, to see how greatly resolute he was.

Zeno listened closely and nodded quietly. A reassured look appeared on his face.
He placed a hand on what would be the right shoulder of the bird.
Good. The seal has been set carefully and is nearly impossible to break at random.

"Then you did a great job, and the two of you will have nothing to fear. Everything will be all right." He said with a friendly face.

"She is lucky to have a friend like you. Come, I'll show you her room, and then we can pick up the water on our way back to my chambers."

Zeno then turned around and jumped over the rail straight down onto one of the tables in the bar. The man preferred not to use stairs when he did not have to. Stairs felt like they were slowing him down, a feeling he had always disliked.

Zeno looked around to find that very little guildmembers were around. Those who were, however, looked at Zeno's guest with big eyes and questionmarks on their faces. Zeno made a gesture with his hand, showing that they shouldn't make a big scene and that he would answer their questions later.

The man walked through the doorway into the hall, then turned left and kept on walking straight, approaching the larger staircase in front of them further down the hallway. That staircase led up to the second floor where the bedrooms of the members who lived in the guild were located. Alye would get her very own room there.

Zeno kept a low volume as he spoke to his feathered friend.
"Everyone is dealt a different hand in life, and each holds their own problems to overcome, whether they are deserved or not. It is never fair, for some have to face more hardships than others, but those who can overcome such challenges will be much stronger than those who never had to. Even if the girl never did anything to have her life put on the line like this, with her own will and our help, she will overcome it."

He paused for a moment.

"And judging from what I saw before she collapsed.. Once she does, and grows and gains full control of herself and her powers... I think there might be very little left in this world that can take her down."

Zeno's eyes shimmered for a brief moment as a smirk appeared on his face.
"Let's go get her some water." He said with a smile and hurried back to the bar the same way they went up to Alye's future room.

The guildmaster hopped over the counter, grabbed the two largest bottles of water he could find, put them underneath his left arm as he went up the stairs and approached the metal door. With a flick of his wrist, a card appeared in his hand and he inserted it into the slot. The metal door opened with a beep and a flickering green light on the slot.

Zeno held the door open for Reniro to pass through. All the while, the gentle smile remained on his face.