Hey listen!

GRACE UNDER FIRE

For a second, it was like none of this had ever happened. Like the best dream you've ever had, one that fled from your mind the second your eye opened, and suddenly you were hit with reality all over again. Laughing voices surrounding her, the smell of line and fresh mountain air filling her lungs. A soft, familiar touch– And then she was jerked out of it all. From that soft, gentle dream that had been the definition of perfect to Sorano. For a second, the letter mage mourned the loss, curling up into a ball in this new dream, one where she was surrounded by darkness in the middle of nowhere. Dreams were one of the only places where she ever showed emotion, the other being back in that secluded area in the Phoenix Mountains. For who knew what would get out of hand the second she let her feelings take over?

As she floated there, in that dark, dark space, the slightest whisper caught her ears. Opening red eyes in this realm of dreams, Sorano cautiously moved towards it, the sound growing louder and louder. Images swirled through her mind, the intensity and speed nearly overwhelming her organized thoughts. Through it all, she heard just three words spoken in that high, clear voice, sounding like a triangle of sorts. Come to Kyoka! Come to Kyoka! And then it was all over. One of the youngest human mages in Fairy Tail, Sorano Granon jolted awake in her bed, upsetting a tabby exceed who laid in a hammock nearby.

"Sooooraaaanoooo!!!!" she complained, curling back up into a ball, "It's the weekend for goodness sake! We don't have to work today, riiight?" The letter mage blinked at Hoshi, realizing that it was indeed Saturday and they could take the day off. They had enough money right now, anyway. But... Sorano planted a hand against her head, remembering the dream. She quickly rolled over to grab her dream journal, recording the details exactly. "Actually, Hoshi, I believe we do have a request from a spirit or something of the sort," she said calmly, letting the exceed read what she had written. A telepathic job request...well, it wasn't exactly unusual in such a magic-filled place as Fiore, but it was a little fishy. "Hey, it's worth checking out, right?"

An hour later, the duo were soaring over Fiore, with their usual preparations for a job. After having done some quick research in the guild library, they had pinpointed the location of the Wakusei Portals and were now flying fast towards it. As they neared, however, the exceed would suddenly slow. "Someone's down there," she said cautiously, glancing down at Sorano. The girl would pause, thinking, then said, "Let's check things out, anyways. It's more likely she's a wandering mage than a dark one, really. Who knows, she might even be a legal mage?" There was also the possibility that she had received the dream-sent request, but that seemed somewhat unlikely to the emotionless mage.

Landing in front of Nightshade, with the ball of light in between them, Sorano ran her gaze quickly over the figure before nodding quickly in greeting and glancing down at the glowing ball. The woman seemed focused on the ball, as well. Could this be their guide for the job? Tilting her head back up and gazing at the stranger curiously, Sorano asked, "May I inquire as to what brought you to such a location?" What if she had been summoned by the unusual dream as well.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Sorano wondered if the woman was being sarcastic or not. It seemed like that remark would seem slightly sarcastic, but then again, the Wakusei Portals and the planets they led to. Maybe there were good ones for a vacation, or maybe they were all dark and barren. It was rare for her not to have read millions of books about a place already, but she'd focused more on just Fiore in the past. She made a note to herself to get some books on the portals from the guild library when she got back. However, this woman's words piqued her interests, as it sounded suspiciously like what had happened to her.

"That's actually very interesting, as the same events occurred with me as well," Sorano said thoughtfully, thinking. "I was simply treating it like another job request, since I've had many in different forms." Honestly, she didn't think it was too weird. After all, she was emotionless and first of all, couldn't really get weirded out, and two, she'd been in way too many weird situations already. I mean, after you've gone through the Fairy Tail experience, there isn't much you're surprised by. It was such a diverse guild that anything could happen. In fact, she doubted she would be very surprised if the woman started doing the chicken dance and the ball of light turned into a giant monster that started attacking them. Nothing unusual in Fairy Tail at least.


"Well, from what I can tell with my current abilities, this ball of light has little to no emotions. It seems to be impatient, and I feel like it wants us to do something. I believe we were summoned by this, and I'm guessing it has a master controlling it, likely on Kyoka. Perhaps we are supposed to go meet it? I don't know. Why did it choose us? Are there any more people? I'm not sure either. Ah, by the way, I suppose we should introduce ourselves," Sorano would say in a cold, calm voice, then extended a hand to shake. "My name is Sorano Granon, and I'm a mage in the guild of Fairy Tail, as is Hoshi who is my exceed companion. May I inquire as to who you identify as?"

Suddenly, the ball if light made an irregular jerking motion, and flew towards the portal leading to Kyoka. Alarmed, Sorano and Hoshi would turn towards it, only to see it bobbing up and down impatiently, just barely inside. It was obvious it wanted them to follow it. Tilting her head in interest, the letter mage wondered if it would respond if she asked it a question. Where did it want them to go? What were they to do? She would probably be fine with most things it would have them do, but it was good to be cautious. She glanced back at Nightshade, almost curious as to what she would do. Would she follow? The woman's aura was mostly confused, maybe a little irritated. Who knew?

GRACE UNDER FIRE

From what Sorano had gathered so far, she decided that Nightshade was a person she might want to keep her guard up around. Despite being with a fellow legal mage which she had learned from the woman's brief introduction, Sorano wasn't one to easily trust. From her physique, she would almost certainly beat the letter mage in a physical fight. Though she stayed fit and exercised more than the average person, Sorano's physical strength was still nowhere near most mages'. She constantly had to make up for it with magic and intellect, along with teammates, which made things rather irritable. Even now, if she had been alone without Hoshi, she would have felt much more exposed.

A fashion designer, huh? It wasn't too hard to imagine, she supposed. The woman's clothes were honestly more of a mercenary's style, but who knew? No one was completely like how they looked on the outside, after all. "A fashion designer... well, I shop at mostly secondhand shops, so I suppose I wouldn't have heard of you..." the letter mage said slowly. Being someone who spent just about half their life with their nose in a book, sue barely had any fashion sense and generally wore whatever her teammates might suggest to her. Despite her rough style, even Hana, along with Chloe seemed to have a better eye for this sort of stuff, it seemed.

She had also learned that the woman used thread magic, something to keep in mind just in case she turned hostile. Her gaze slipping into that field of aural energy around people, she caught pride flickering around Nightshade briefly before she lifted her gaze again. She obviously wasn't much of an introvert, and wasn't too afraid to share her opinions bluntly. Sorano could deal with that perfectly fine. However, one thing that confused the letter mage and exceed alike was why exactly this little orb had chosen a fashion designer and a barely teenage girl for this task. It was an extremely random selection, was that the point?

Quite honestly, the letter mage had no real need to receive money from the job. Money definitely made everything easier, but she knew that her letter magic could always produce everything and anything she would ever need. Almost. Some projects would most definitely drain her of a dangerous amount of energy, but in theory, she could create anything she wished. Then, there was the kuudere's own thirst for knowledge. Having been an avid student for her entire life before magehood, the girl spent her life now working jobs and learning as !much as possible. The natural curiosity that drew mages of Fairy Tail together only increases her drive for learning.

Raising her eyebrows at the questions she was asked, Sorano could feel Nightshade trying to pull information out of her. Well, at least she underestimated Hoshi like most other mages due to the exceed's tiny size and magical aura that blended in so well with the planet it was almost nonexistent to a mage's sixth sense. Glancing back towards the thread mage, Sorano said sarcastically, with a cryptic edge, "Ah, yes, the lavender definitely smells good at this time of the year, hm? I suppose this little orb knows it as well." If Nightshade was going to hide her motives, she would gladly do so as well.

"Ehm, Sorano, we should probably get after the orb..." Hoshi stuttered in an almost nonexistent voice. Nodding briskly, the letter mage proceeded to leap through the portal, appearing in the world on the other side. Immediately, her magical power shot up, causing both to emit a gasp of surprise at the sudden boost. What was this place?

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Task number one: observe your environment. Steps for entering any potentially dangerous area given to Sorano by her first mentor flickered through the letter mage's head. Calm and calculating brown eyes flickered across the landscape, taking in the extraordinary sights. Plants and animals seemed to flourish here, as if the magical boost was affecting them as well. Sorano felt as if she had more energy than ever, as if she could run a mile without breaking into a sweat. It was simply amazing. Hoshi, for the first time in a very long time had a broad smile on, and wasn't shivering from fear of something. It seemed as if the magic boost would bring her connection to nature even closer than before, calming the usually terrified creature.

Suddenly, Sorano felt something extremely out of place in the lovely landscape, something that caused her to shudder a bit. Such a malicious presence could be felt now, piercing through all the positivity that had existed in the group before. Hoshi's smile promptly disappeared and she dug her claws into the ground nervously. The letter mage's muscles tensed, preparing for something she didn't recognize yet. Could this be what they had been sent here for? Was there something to do here that only this interesting little group could do? Or... her eyes shot to the orb. Could it have led them into a trap? But why would it want them trapped? She wasn't an especially outstanding mage after all, with a very plain magic and mediocre physical strengths at best. Perhaps Nightshade was valuable in some way, but unless there was some secret ability of she had, Sorano doubted there was any reason to trap her.

Still, she was near confident that there was going to be some fight ahead. Nightshade had obviously sensed this as well, a sword forming out of threads in her hand. Sorano's own hand would slowly reach to her bag she wore, slipping loose one of her throwing knives. Twirling it quickly in her hand to get used to it, her eyes scanned the area carefully, trying to catch any sign of movement. Suddenly, an aura flickered at the edge of her vision, and Kagayaku was released from her hand in one practiced movement. A teenaged girl, looking around sixteen years in age dodged it last second, blinking in surprise as the knife flew by her head. "Kenta! We've been spotted!" she snapped at another figure hiding in the foliage. Another person peeked out, a teenage boy of around the same age. Both sported blood red cloaks, and radiated a magical signature.

The two quickly rose up, beginning their attack on our protagonists here. Seeming to be a little less bold than his partner, the boy immediately targeted the weaker-looking opponent. The girl would move to fight Nightshade, focused and ready to fight. Sorano looked the boy up and down briefly, making a brief assessment of her opponent. Her expression was utterly emotionless, and cold seemed to radiate off of her in all directions. Deciding to make the first move, the boy lunged forward, fire shooting from his hand. "Single flame!" he yelled as he did so. So he had to speak to cast a spell? Hm, interesting... seeing as it was only one fireball, Sorano easily dodged it, diving to the ground. It would appear as though this Kenta boy was trying to test her, see how she reacted. Now that he knew she wasn't too slow an opponent, she knew he would probably try to get her to use her magic.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Sorano's greatest advantages, she knew, were probably her completely emotionless personality that allowed her to make clear and sensible choices, as well as her appearance. Seeing as she was considered very young in the world of magic, she was often underestimated. Her gaze quickly ran him up and down, observing his physique, whether he favored a side, or had a spot he didn't seem to notice as much. Just about every opponent she fought had some flaw in their defense and offense. Aha...

Brown eyes focused in on how he had almost all his concentration on her hands. A smart move for him in a way, as letter mages mostly utilized their hands. Sorano could use other limbs if she wished, but it made it more difficult to direct the spell properly. Instead, one hand behind her back made the signal for Hoshi to attack him from the back. The exceed, being small, shot into the air a second after Sorano raised her hand, as if preparing to cast a spell. As expected, the boy instinctively moved to counterattack or protect himself, not noticing the small exceed zooming overhead. Sorano them jabbed her hand towards the upper front part of his body, causing him to center in his defense there, when Hoshi struck. Letting out a caterwaul of fear or courage(either would work in Hoshi's situation), the exceed dropped onto his head.

"Ga-ah!" he yelped in surprise, reaching up and keeping his front undefended. Sorano sighed slightly. This guy wasn't very well-groomed, it seemed, as he did everything according to instinct. "Solid Script: Fire," she muttered under her breath, then "Solid Script: Water." The misty forms of the dormant spells were melded together with her hands, molded into the word 'boil'. She released the spell, watching as the steam shot out all around it, shooting the ball, enveloped with steam towards the unprotected teen. It wasn't a very typical spell she started with, but was logical in this situation where her opponent was a fire magic user. As he had been too distracted by Hoshi who barely managed to get away, he hadn't noticed how her magic worked, either. Nice.

However, he recovered quickly, suddenly forming a shield of flames around him, protecting him from another surprise attack like that. Another annoyance she had to take care of. Not having a body-repairing ability like Nightshade did, she would have to protect herself from his attacks. She wouldn't kill, but he could. That gave her a disadvantage in not being able to go all out. Then again, she had one specialty that would allow her to fulfill both parts. As her gaze slid over his aura, she quickly gestured Hoshi over. The exceed's fear was perfect for this one little thing. Placing Hoshi's paw on her shield, Sorano watched carefully as the aura slowly filled with the artificial fear that was caused by Luna. Though people around her would feel the fear as well, Nightshade and the girl's battle was happening too far to the edge of Luna's range to feel much.

His eyes widened, and his shield faltered. Sorano quickly moved up towards him, putting on speed as she neared. She wasn't sure how he would react to the fear, but in this stage, he seemed weak enough to quickly break the shield and hit a pressure point. However, as she neared, he seemed to shake off the fear a bit, a sudden burst of flames shooting towards her that she barely dodged, diving to the ground. A bit of flames till scorched her skin, and she got her teeth in pain. Shooting back up, she let her fingers flash out a word, seeing her opponent's eyes light up as he realized what her magic was. But it had come too late to notice that she had spelled out the word 'lightning'. The bolt crashed down on top of him, impacting anyone within 5 feet of it as well besides the caster. Just as it hit, his shield buckled under the weight, disappearing briefly as Sorano lunged inside, jabbing at a pressure point. A second later, he sank to the ground, unconscious.

Sorano was breathing hard, having to keep her usual iron will over her instincts to just sink down to the ground in relief and exhaustion. After all, she had a physique only slightly better than a normal girl her age. She breathed out slowly, doing a short meditative exercise to calm her breathing. Noticing that Nightshade had defeated the girl as well, she walked over to the older woman. "Their cloaks remind me of a cult or something, as red isn't a typical cloak color," she commented.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Sorano nodded slowly, finally having her breathing completely under control. There was one small thing that Nightshade had wrong, but it made sense seeing as Sorano didn't usually just up and tell someone that she was emotionless. As this was so, Sorano possessed no pride. However, in the rules she had created to follow so she wouldn't become someone who seemed completely indifferent to the world, she had included rules that went somewhere along the lines of 'pride'. It was a pretty confusing life she lived, but the rules were easy enough to enforce usually. Sorano was, however, holding back a little. Having seen from the boy's fighting, he wasn't quite as experienced as some other opponents she had gone up against. Seeing this, she had decided to conserve magical energy and wait for any tougher enemies to come out. She did, after all, have a few powerful tricks up her sleeve.

Listening to the very brief attempted questioning session, Sorano opened her mouth, about to suggest using her own abilities to persuade the girl. Being a letter mage, she had great power over words and persuasion with them. Besides, she wasn't sure how her guildmates and master would react to having heard that she let a job partner torture someone for information without asking. Just as she was about to break in, a sudden force shot at her from the front. She immediately hit the ground, rolling away as she had trained so many times before. Luckily, it never did hit, having been deflected by a shield the thread mage had created.

Slowly standing back up, Sorano's senses were on high alert. Calmly ignoring the sound of Hoshi's teeth chattering in fear, she looked around the area, switching to aural vision every now and then. Nothing in her aural vision, but something was obviously there. Either it wasn't a living thing, or it had a powerful aural shield. She patted Hoshi gently, explaining that the exceed's animal senses might be needed. The feline trembled in fear, but agreed, lifting her nose to the air and pricking her ears. "I-I smell fire..." she whispered softly, looking back at Sorano. The girl wrinkled her brow, then nodded, glancing up as she heard the thread mage's voice.

"Ah, no, it's not at all rude," Now, even if Sorano had rules to take the guise of someone with extremely subtle emotions, she would never refuse help. After all, what was the sense in not taking any? It was stupid! But then, could she trust Nightshade? Her aura didn't show the usual slight tinge of emotion that came with lying, but Nightshade seemed like she was the type who could lie skillfully and smoothly. Finally coming to a decision, she nodded slowly. "I can fight, but that would help quite a bit. Thank you."

Glancing back over, she then too began to smell the slight smell of burning. Turning to Nightshade, she told the thread mage what she knew right now. "Whatever thing hurled the fireball, it either didn't living or is extremely good at hiding itself. It seems to be burning other things as well, causing that smell. It may be a golem of sorts, but seems more elemental."

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Blinking in slight confusion at Nightshade's thinking aloud, Sorano would cautiously stand there as the woman's gaze moved quickly over her, trying to figure out what would look best. It would appear as though the woman was equally, if not more concerned about how well this clothing would work on her than how well it would protect her. Being emotionless, Sorano was extremely logical and found no logic in this but decided not to say anything. Many things she said had unexpectedly caused violent, sad, or angry results in people which she didn't understand. No, couldn't understand. Now, she would awkwardly stand as Nightshade raised a hand into the air to begin making the clothing.

To her slight relief, Sorano noticed how Nightshade seemed to be equally focused on making sure they weren't ambushed, as well as creating the outfit. However, just to be on the safe side, Sorano let a mirror form on her fingertips. She was used to working by herself, after all. Slowly, a soft tickling sensation was felt ay her side, causing Sorano to glance down and notice threads weaving themselves together into a dress over her current, rather plain one. The gray strands would slowly dye themselves a nice shade of black, tightening slightly so it fit comfortably. The majority of the dress was of that color, matching her dark hair. Then, small bows and ribbons began to adorn themselves on the dress, switching to colors that matched the unusual streaks in her hair very nicely. Tilting her head at the end result, Sorano almost found it amusing. Normally she wouldn't wear something quite like this, with the slightly poofed out sleeves and many ribbons. Not the most practical, but she supposed it would work well enough.

Listening to Nightshade's comment, the letter mage would frown slightly. Without Nightshade's direct help, it would be a bit more difficult. However, she knew that if she put her raining water spell in the back while she attacked this fire golem or elemental, it would be make things a million times easier to take care of. As the last threads swirled into place, weaving a white frill at the bottom of her skirt, her gaze now focused on her surroundings, Sorano barely noticed as Nightshade failed her first attempt at revealing the golem, then proceeded to send threads into the air to find it. After hearing the location, Sorano ran over Nightshade's plan in her head, until she felt it was good enough for now.

She peers in the direction the creature was, hands ready to unleash a chain of attacks to fell it. A fireball burst out, neatly blocked by the woman, protecting the letter mage. "Solid Script: Water!" She would call out, releasing the group I'd watery bullets that would suddenly rain done on the atronoch. During it's brief moment of confusion, she snapped out her hand with the mirror, the silvery surface suddenly growing and shattering, all ten shards flying at the elemental creature. Roaring in rage and confusion, the figure made of pure fire leapt forward, boosted by the power Kyoka fed it's inhabitants. The consistent rain definitely helped, but more would be needed. If Nightshade couldn't be of much help here, what else could she do? Not boil... storm, perhaps? Taking the chance, she cast the spell, sudden whirls of rainwater and wind wrapping around the elemental creature, sweeping up debris all around it. Before long, the atronoch was wrapped in a mini hurricane.

"It's an atronoch...A bit like a cross between elemental and golem," Sorano said softly while Hoshi did her best to regain some form of calm.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Sensing Nightshade's movement, Sorano glanced over, keeping one eye on the spells clashing against the atronoch before her. Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about the hurricane besides cancelling the spell, but the woman didn't seem to need it particularly. Threads shot out of over the mass of fire, water, and wind, diving through the eye of the hurricane in one dramatic movement. The distracted creature was certainly hit hard by this attack, writhing about in that nest of random spells shoved against each other. The letter mage was a bit alarmed when some of the threads were sent flying by the force of her miniature hurricane, things seemed to turn out okay.

The threads would tighten on the monster, constricting it's movements easily. Anyone who saw this, Sorano would think, would never see fabric and thread quite the same way ever again. Evidently Hoshi felt the same way as well, being now curled up to the side, scooching as far away from Nightshade as she could. She couldn't help it, it was simply a part of her instinct. Nightshade's threads would slam the monster against the edges of the hurricane in rapid movements, slowly weakening it with Sorano's concentration moving the spells into strategic positions to deal the most damage. Finally, the thread mage would neatly toss it out the top, the elemental creature landing hard outside of the hurricane.

"You have the honors," was heard from Nightshade, and the letter mage would comply. Though it wasn't quite weak enough to put out with any simple little attack, the atronoch was plenty weak enough for her to defeat easily. Besides, Nightshade's strength may be required elsewhere on more human enemies than this. Her magic was better for elemental creatures. Lifting a hand, she wrote out a very simple spell, likely the first attack spell she had learned, letting it grow slowly to the correct size. Suddenly, with a snap and twist of her wrist, word burst to life, slight runaway buts of the breeze licking against the edge of her hand. Flicking her wrist as she might in a game of badminton, Sorano loosed the spell, swiftly guiding her other two spells with it to land a quick final attack on the atronoch, leaving it defeated.

Looking up, she would notice than Nightshade was trying to find that curious little orb of light again. It had evidently left them, seeing as Sorano could not locate even a shadow of its aura in the area. "That would be the best course of action," came the letter mage's response, beckoning Hoshi over. As they would move onwards, both faeries would keep their eyes open for any sign of enemies or the orb. However, the powerful magical presence often interfered, being of constant annoyance to them both. It would be hard to re adapt to the world without such a burst again. It felt almost impossibly wonderful, fighting with so much power.

Suddenly pausing, Sorano would pivot around on one foot, catching a faint glimmer of light. "I think I see it!" she said calmly, breaking into a run towards it. She would glance down at the clothing Nightshade had created for her, marvelling at how odd they felt especially when moving. She decided that if she could choose, he typical clothing would probably be more likely to win. The light ahead would Bob erratically, occasionally disappearing behind a tree, rock, or some other structure that obstructed their view. see it!" she said calmly, breaking into a run towards it. She would glance down at the clothing Nightshade had created for her, marvelling at how odd they felt especially when moving. She decided that if she could choose, he typical clothing would probably be more likely to win. The light ahead would bob erratically, occasionally disappearing behind a tree, rock, or some other structure that obstructed their view.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Though Nightshade hadn't been running too fast at first, she was definitely moving now. Sorano narrowed her eyes in determination to keep up as the older figure sprinted forward, a sudden speed in her step. It was always an annoyance to the letter mage, as she was bested over and over again physically. However, she did notice how the woman's aura was tinged with great annoyance, and she realized she had never seen the woman show any emotion that would show she ever regretted much of anything. It was almost as if she had an endless supply of self-esteem. Odd. Now, it was lucky Sorano could t hear Nightshade's reasons for taking on, seeing as how much she disliked being judged for her appearance or age. If the had been voiced, there was a chance Sorano would have spent the rest of the job completely silent. And trust me... she could get surprisingly creepy for a kid when she was silent.

The light didn't help either, flickering in and out of Sorano's vision every few moments and only proceeding to infuriate her. However, she decided to reassure herself just a bit at the magical energy she had sighted coursing through Nightshade's legs. It made sense that she wanted to run fast after all, right? Hoshi, the lucky thing, had wings to propel herself forward through the air without much effort, only making the poor letter mage feel even worse. It was very annoying, and someone with emotions might have even stared this.

Suddenly, Sorano's eyes widened at the sight of multiple auras flickering amidst the brightness of magic all around them, and tried to pump her limbs harder and faster to catch up. "Wait, Nightshade-san-ah!" She barely caught herself from tripping over a root, and was forced to slow and catch her breath. By now, the thread mage had already dove into the canyon, and Sorano couldn't do much else. Staying as far away from the auras as possible, she stared downwards as Nightshade triumphantly held up the spirit thing, grinning cheerfully as she caught the attention of some not-so-welcome company.

"Well, how are you fine gentlemen, ladies, and creatures, doing today? Just thought I would uh, drop by!" the faeries heard her say uncomfortably, before a woman dressed in dark red, not unlike the previous two other humans stepped forward. "Stranger! What are you doing here? Are you a friend of ours or not?" she snapped brusquely, peering down her nose at Nightshade as if she were the grandest grand villain of them all. Sorano sighed, figuring these were the enemies they had been sent to fight. Jobs these days were all pretty much in this format. However, before the thread mage could respond, a wolf pushed its way up, sniffing at Nightshade suspiciously. A howl was emitted from her throat, having smelled the fear-scent of its allies. The rest of this assorted group obviously knew what this meant, and began to surround the mage, obviously hostile.

Sorano sighed. What a typical job this was... As a brief distraction for the people down below, she flicked her wrist in one quick movement. A mirror would be formed, shooting down to its position before the leading mage. It should paralyze her for at least a short amount of time, filling her with the fears she held. It wouldn't last, though, she knew, with that amount of power.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

One thing that Sorano had learned in her comparably short lifetime to most others of her profession, was that there was always something else you didn't know about a person. No matter how long you've been with someone, or how close you are to them, they will always end up surprising you in one way or the other. Even timid little Hoshi had astounded the  letter mage on several occasions, and there was no end to the clever little tricks her teammates and guildmates could come up with to force her to rethink their personality. Why, her opinion of the rather hyper and far too energetic Julius was almost completely different these days from her former disdainful view. And apparently, things were no different with Ms. Nightshade.

Sorano knew that the woman was no merciful goody good legal mage, of course, but the actions she took showed that she was either more malevolent, or more indifferent to others than the younger mage had previously assumed. As expected, Nightshade quickly took advantage of Sorano's little mirror trick, which though the mage quickly brushed off had left an adequate gap of time and let loose a blast of threads all around her in a dome form. Rage coursed through the woman's aura, not quite as pure and powerful a rage she had seen in her fellow faeries when they got really fired up, but powerful enough. Once again, it was lucky that the letter mage couldn't read minds as well, for her self-set rules forbid killing or serious maiming.

Focusing on the scene before her to wait for the correct moment to join in, Sorano watched as several opponents were tugged in with her and Nightshade snatched up the ball of light. Ah. Based on their circumstances and the tight grip Nightshade had on the spirit-like orb, it was easy to discern that the woman blamed it for their troubles. Thinking back through the events, Sorano knew that Nightshade may be correct in this decision. There were few in her life that the letter mage trusted, after all, and no one here besides Hoshi was included.

Speaking of the exceed, she watched in horror at the chaos erupting around her, unable to take it all in, and once more dove beneath the cover of a bush. However, a stern grip on her tail quickly pulled her back. "Hoshi, your abilities are needed," Sorano spoke sternly, and brought the tabby to her feet. She calmly watched as the warped light burst from Nightshade's hand in a wobbling flow of light, and prepared to enter combat herself.

Aiming for a part of the clearing that Nightshade was furthest from, Sorano relaxed as she fell into her rythym of magic, easily writing out words. A flow of oil dropped to the ground, causing the ground to become an easy surface for one to slip upon. While many elemental's, mages, and wolves were occupied with keeping their balance, Sorano began a speech, or story of sorts, making sure to keep her voice quiet enough so Nightshade wouldn't be influenced by it. The woman seemed strong enough to resist the illusions a letter mage's silver tongue could cause, but who knew?

"Did you know? All your lives, you have been settling on an extremely large wetland. The result of this is occurring right now, as a quicksand pit is opening up right in this clearing, and you are all sinking in it," she improvised. Suddenly, several weaker cult members suddenly began falling to the ground in slow motion, as if sinking in quicksand, and clawing at the sky, wailing to their gods or whatever. Higher level mages began resisting, working to repel the influence of her words. Many now made easy targets for Hoshi to go around, pressing a sheathed paw onto a certain vein and knocking several beings out cold. A daily efficient method, overall, but some were already fighting the power.

GRACE UNDER FIRE

Sorano would continue to ramble on for a bit, having to think a bit to come up with enough random doomsday-sounding material to keep them down. "Ah, bombs are dropping everywhere, and your legs are weighed down by weights! Um, you've broken every bone it your body, and, well, you're trapped in a block of jello?" As Hoshi rushed around frantically, trying to knock as many out as possible, relief was evident in both the girl and exceed's faces as Nightshade decided to join in on the fun and apparently knocked the resisting cult members out by using their own clothes. Sorano now was realizing what great damage threads could do to a person, and was coming to respect that lowly material that everyone seemed to take for granted. Perhaps she'd have to find a way to protect herself from her own clothes in the future? Who knew?

However glancing over at the older mage, both faeries could immediately tell that she was far from happy. Besides the fact that her aura seemed to be boiling in rage, blotting out the usual emotions of a person, a sort of feeling just seemed to radiate from around her, saying that no one here was welcome. Nope. The Hydra was no happy camper here. And soon enough, the two of them would figure out exactly what it was that this eccentric woman was so ticked off by. A sudden bright flash of light enveloped the dip, and Sorano had to take a while to finally recognize the aura's identity. Wait... could it be that little ball of light from before? It's auric identity was suddenly much more advanced in size and complexity, but still had mostly that sort of monotone in terms of emotions.

"I see the both of you defeated those who attempted to take over this world with their cult." Blinking at the sudden words that emanated from the grand source of light, Sorano wondered at why it only spoke to them now. If the thing had actually talked them through the job, they could have gotten things done so much easier! Maybe it had been deterred or something? She wouldn't know. What she did know, though, was that Nightshade wasn't at all happy with the orb's first words and she wasn't going to hesitate in showing it. Immediately bursting out angrily at the light, she barely gave it any time to feebly and awkwardly defend itself verbally before the poor thing was called out on the attack it was preparing behind its back. Once more, Sorano blinked. She wasn't quite keeping up with the onslaught of events, and it showed in her darting eyes and uncertain thumb-twiddling. When the energy attack hit, though? That was clear enough. The little orb of light was obviously an enemy!

After Nightshade easily blocked the attack, she tossed a question at Sorano which the letter mage naturally had to think about. See, one of the main annoyances with being an emotional intellectual was that decisions took ages. Being able to consider every view equally, one was bound to have a countless number of views to look at the situation at. If she agreed, would it count as breaking the Fairy Law? Sure, the orb certainly didn't seem like a monster, but it wasn't quite human, either. Perhaps it didn't die? That would make things easier for the conflicted girl, but she couldn't rely on that assumption alone. So, after an excruciatingly long period of time, she finally nodded slowly, a cautious "I suppose so," dribbling from the edge of her mouth.

A small knife slipped into her hand, one she would use to track the orb so she could track is location. Placing it inside a small mirror that seemed invisible if tilted at an angle, she sent it discreetly flying about the current opponent. Doing her best to hold the attention of the orb on the two mages, she loosened the mirror, releasing the knife so it barely grazed the orb. Though it might have seen that as an attack, it was much more tool of strategic importance than offensive use. Tossing one to Nightshade, we would explain to the woman how it would guide her in the direction of wherever the or was if it travelled too fast or could go invisible.