by Itori 20th March 2017, 4:24 pm
Approaching to midnight, a night as any other in the bustling town called the Ace of Spades. People working late, people having begun the night shift, people who were enjoying themselves (and sometimes one another) during their free time before finally heading to bed to await the sun and the next day. Enough lights dotted the city to make it a beacon in the middle of the desert, its light visible even from far away over the horizon as it was no long hidden inside the bright sunlight. The moonlight, beautiful as it was, could only illuminate and paint everything in silver. And above that beacon of manmade lights there was a castle high up in the sky, floating as if straight from a story or legend, a castle containing magic and mysteries, wizards and magical creatures. The castle which was home to the renowned Sabertooth guild. For what purposes the guild hall had been raised off of the ground and hung there high up in the air one could only guess at (for the ones responsible for it had already disappeared), but that it was there was undeniable. Many wizards and magical creatures made that floating structure their home and headquarters, working together and completing missions for gains both mutual and selfish.
In one of the rooms of the large guild hall a certain woman was busy working. That room was the kitchen, and the woman was the Kitsune called Itori. It was this close to midnight, yet the fox was still busy as if it was the middle of the day. Itori didn't actually sleep very often, and got most of her rest through meditation and short naps. People with a long lifespan like her tended to either end up sleeping a lot or very little, and she wasn't sure what factors decided in which category you'd end up. All she knew was that when she was very young she followed the normal hours, but as time went on she felt less and less inclined to sleep, until eventually she at most slept half as much as most people. Of course, whether that was a good or a bad thing entirely depended on your perspective. Sleeping could be a source of comfort, satisfaction and peace, but on the other hand more time awake meant more time to do things. In Itori's case she supposed she liked the fact that more hours meant more time to cook. Itori's hunger was a thing of legends due to her rather unique metabolism, so she had to prepare a lot of food for herself (well, technically she could endure, but if it was possible to get the food she wasn't going to say no to the opportunity).
After so long of preparing so much food for herself Itori was a VERY good chef, and currently the kitchen was filled with all kinds of recipes and dishes as the Kitsune with the three tails moved about swiftly, those three silver tails trailing behind her even as she was careful to make sure that the long appendages didn't actually touch anything or knock anything over. Truth be told she should just hide them since there was no good reason to keep them out, but she was quite fond of her tails (as any Kitsune was) so she would rather just rely on her years of practice to keep accidents from happening. The air around her was filled with the scents of so many different dishes, the smells leaking out into the hallway and spreading throughout a fair portion of Sabertooth as Itori kept working. She already had plenty of dishes done, but the night was still young so there was still a lot she could prepare before she would get to the actual eating...
Itori's ears twitched and the Kitsune frowned, continuing her work even as suddenly her attention was drawn elsewhere. She moved slowly, more carefully, as she tried to figure out what she was hearing. The tune of the world (a strange phenomenon which so far as Itori knew was unique to her hearing) had shifted. The night had been peaceful, silent, safe. Suddenly however the world's background music had adopted a more ominous vibe. The music was building up, which meant that there was a climax somewhere in the near future. Itori still wasn't too good at using her peculiar hearing, so that was the most she could get out of it even though she tried to focus and sharpen her ears. Ominous, building up... depending on how strong the climax was going to be it would either be very soon or in about an hour or so, because it was building up too fast for it to be the build up for something farther away in the future. Something was going to happen... and it wasn't going to be pleasant.
Itori made sure to turn of all the stoves and ovens, removing all the unfinished food and storing them away while in the process eating from the already finished dishes. She would have to move quickly once the build up finished (she was pretty sure of that), and it wouldn't do to risk setting fire to the kitchen. It was a waste of the ingredients that she had already been using, but she wasn't so focused on food that she completely forgot what was more important. Of course, the important question was still what was going to happen, how soon and where...
At which point the climax occurred, and Itori quickly realized that storing away all the food and turning off all the kitchen appliances might not have mattered. The ground shuddered, as if the powers lifting the guild hall up into the skies were desperately trying to function, only for them to give in as Itori began to experience a sensation of vertigo. She quickly ran towards the nearest window, staring out and scanning the ground and the skies. It took a bit for her to be certain, since they were really high up, but eventually she had to conclude that they were indeed falling. The entire guild hall was.
Itori would have to think quickly. The guild hall was kept aloft by the lachrima placed in the middle of Ace of Spades. Considering its importance the guild and the town both kept a careful eye on the lachrima and made sure it wasn't in danger of failing. If it was failing something must have happened that broke it: whether it was a natural event or an orchestrated act Itori couldn't say. Regardless, either way there weren't many options left for her. She didn't have the ability to keep the guild hall aloft, and she didn't have a way to save many lives either. At best she'd be able to take a single person with her, and even then that would allow for the opportunity for something to go wrong. The Kitsune frowned as she gripped the sheath of her Shitenka. Unfortunate as it was, it seemed she would have to save her own hide and pray that the other mages of the guild would be all right. Maybe if she got down to the ground in time she might be able to do something about the lachrima, but that entirely depended on what happened. Either way, staying up here wasn't going to help.
Itori dashed through the hallways, heading for one of the courtyards that allowed the mages of Sabertooth to enjoy the night sky even here up high. As she moved her silver hair and three silver tails trailed behind her, the Kitsune constantly accelerating even as she saw her exit come closer rapidly. Slashing apart the doors Itori kept running into the courtyard, heading straight for the edge and then leaping into the open nothingness.
The guild hall may be falling, but with how high up it had started out there was still plenty of altitude for Itori to bridge before she would reach the ground. Repositioning herself so she was facing downwards as if diving Itori headed straight towards the ground, her silver hair and fur reflecting the flawless moonlight, making the Kitsune look like a streak of silver light herself as she shot towards the ground like an arrow. Once she got close enough to the ground Itori turned ethereal, her descend suddenly changing into several flowing movements before Itori was standing safely on the ground, putting her sword back in its sheath and exhaling before looking back up. It looked like her idea of combining her spirit fox abilities and swordsman skills had worked. From down here she could see the guild hall slowly falling down like a very artistic meteor. Although Itori frowned as she noticed that it didn't seem to be falling quite as fast as she would have expected. Maybe the lachrima was still functioning, or some of the other mages were trying their best to keep it aloft or at least slow its descend. Itori took a deep breath before dashing towards the centre of the Ace of Spades, heading straight for the lachrima that should be preventing this disaster to see if it was maybe something that could be fixed.