"A wandering mind is as venomous as a wandering spider."
It was a cold day in the peaceful village that Ariadne arrived in, the townsfolk had put up a little job on the quest board that said some mysterious fog had appeared in the village and people were getting scared. To Ariadne, fog didn't seem that scary I mean it's just fog! Until she heard that people were seeing figures they'd never seen before in the fog and hearing voices. While Ariadne did believe in ghosts because her own guildmate controlled ghosts and possibly spoke to them? She wasn't for sure about that last part because she never really dug deep into spectra's magic but she had seen it in action plenty of times. It was fascinating to say the least but if she didn't be careful the she would get distracted. It was truly amazing how sometimes spirits of the afterlife try and come back to see their loved ones, though sometimes our love for the ones we've lost can keep them from going on into the afterlife. So that could possibly be the case here, spirits of the undead clinging to their past because a few family members can't let them go.. But that wouldn't explain this strange fog. It wasn't even suppose to be cold but somehow the fog had made for a chilling morning and Ariadne didn't even bring a jacket.
Though something was different about the fog that had encased this town, it seemed that it had magical properties? The villagers here didn't practice magic so maybe they couldn't sense it but Ariadne did. Something drew her deeper into the fog.. A strong magical presence? Just then, Ariadne heard a young girl's voice laughing and playing as she turned and saw a young woman carrying her toddler. Nothing out of the ordinary, she just doesn't remember them being there.. That was until the two of them simply vanished into the fog, it was as if they were never there at all. This was getting creepy even for Ariadne and if she wasn't careful she could possibly end up the same way as them. Ariadne just took a deep breath, moving into the fog and looking for its source but with how much there was and since fog wasn't exactly traceable by a source she just kept going in circles, it was almost as if someone didn't want her to find the center and they were shifting the fog. She thought about this for a moment before throwing the thought out, there was nobody in this village who knew how to practice magic! That's what she had been told and lying to her was dangerous so unless there's some secret villager then she was sure nobody here could be doing this. Weather in this area was probably just unpredictable and that's what she was going to stick with.
She wanted to do this quest with Spectra but spectra didn't want to visit the dirty old village because of their last jungle quest! I mean sure the jungle was dirty and they almost died but overall it was a very nice bonding experience and they got some jewel but not enough for her to buy a good magical weapon. She will need to do a few more before she can get something really good! That way she can finally be more useful to her guild and more importantly her team, there was one other member of spectra and Ariadne's little crew and that girl's name was Jaqueline! She was quite the beautiful young woman and smart too but she had been sort of busy with the past weeks so that meant that Ariadne and spectra had to do quests alone. It's okay though! The two didn't mind doing them even if they got on each other's nerves, she saw Jaqueline and Spectra as the sisters she never had, even if one sister tried destroying her home and killing all her family but again that's a story for a different time! Ariadne had to focus too, she kept getting lost in her own thoughts and it was almost as if the fog had something to do with it? She usually didn't think about stupid shit like this but something about the fog clouded her eyes and her mind.
It had to be magical but if she couldn't find the source then she wouldn't be able to do anything with this information. Her eyes wondered over to a little pathway in the fog, it was not super noticeable but if you looked hard enough you would be able to see that the fog seemed less dense in that area. The young spider queen continued her journey through the thick fog, her eyes blinked multiple times so she didn't get blinded by the fog and eventually she could've sworn she saw an elderly woman in the fog but it was quickly covered by another layer of the thick vapor. Ariadne sent multiple webs in that direction and they latched onto something! With a quick tug, the threads pulled whatever object she had grabbed towards her and she found that it was an elderly woman instead of a horrifying beast? The woman looked at Ariadne with clouded eyes. "Hello, I am Yuma." Ariadne didn't really care what the woman's name was but she did wonder what the hell the woman was doing out in the fog all alone until she put the pieces together and figured out that this woman was the source of the magical vapor. "Why are you doing this? Your little magic trick is disturbing the rest of the village and I was hired to get rid of it." Ariadne boasted proudly, hoping this would be over quickly because honestly, hurting old women wasn't usually her type of fighting and doing so would be sort of rude plus disturbing for her.
As Ariadne asked the question, the old woman simply sighed and explained to her the tragic story of how she grew up a lonely old bitch with no friends because they all died. Terribly sad but Ariadne was mostly thinking about what she was going to eat for dinner, she had heard about that new steak place and that sounded pretty good but was she really in the mood for steak? When the sound of lonely old woman voice died down, Ariadne figured the sob story was over and simply said. "How sad, I'd cry if the Botox let me." Of course the old woman didn't understand because look at her, old and winkled.. Gross. Anyways! The old woman told Ariadne about a lost form of magic that was very useful and multi purpose; Fog magic! She offered to teach it to Ariadne so that the old woman's legacy could live on, explaining to her the uses of the magic and how dangerous it could be if used in the wrong hands Yeah yeah.
The training began! Ariadne had to learn how to use the magic of the old woman but it wasn't going to be easy, Ariadne would have to train everyday but the elderly woman promised to teach her the basics and everything else Ariadne would have to figure out on her own. She told Ariadne that fog is something that you have to move with, delicate and free like a spirit and that if you lose control you could end up crushing yourself or those around you. Fluctuating between a heavy fog and a thin fog wouldn't be easy either, hiding in the fog was a main strength of this magic and that's what they focused on for a long while too! If Ariadne learned how to do this then she would be a great master of stealth, being able to cast illusionary fog and hiding in it to make sure she wasn't spotted by nearby enemies. Sometimes the fog could be used to find her friends if she developed it good enough, the magic was mostly used to hide secret villages or to keep evil spirits out of sacred places but the woman had learned it to protect herself from any dark guild members that dared trespass into her village.
She was exiled from the nearby village because she killed the man who murdered her son, he had been set free because a lack of proof but she knew that justice had to be served and Ariadne admired that, she would've done the same thing if someone she loved was murdered, and not only that but if the murderer was set free then she would have to hunt him down! It had been four hours since Ariadne arrived in this smelly place but she was starting to realize that even if the fog was creepy and ominous, that's what people thought of her spiders but she found the beauty in things others didn't! Fog could remind someone of nostalgic days of going to school or a lovely day of cold air on your face as you walk out into the front yard to play. It overall reminded her of home.. She did miss her parents sometimes but home was gone and those that she once knew as townspeople were nothing more than zombies of their former self.
She still holds some resentment for what spectra's family did but overall realized that there is nothing she can do to change it so while she can forgive, she can never forget. It reminds her too much of the painful things she had to endure just to get her freedom, though maybe it was a good thing that this all happened because along the way, she met a lovely new friend who also wanted to escape the place she lived. It wasn't easy to move on but Ariadne had managed due to the past regrets she had and they motivated her to not hold onto this anger that wouldn't let her grow. This old woman reminded her a lot of her grandmother, her granny would always take care of her and find ways to shield her from others harsh judgement, sometimes she would even come to the tea parties she had with her stuffed animals and spiders, never showing disgust or remorse. Those days were in the past and after her grandma died, it was too much to bare for her so she stopped playing with her dolls and instead went into a deep depression that the name calling and teasing of others didn't help.
As she was about to think more of her sad sob story, Yuma, the elderly woman mentioned something that caught her eye! She could induce fear in others by making them see their worst fear or even give the illusion that she was more powerful than she really was, the truth to using fog magic was making the enemy see what they want to see instead of making them see what you want, if they think they've won then they let their guard down and that means she can win against even strong opponents with trickery and deceit! Something she was well versed in as she had to use it to escape multiple dangers on the daily such as spectra's singing, she usually just kept secret earplugs in her ear and clapped whenever she thought it was over! Even if it wasn't over, she sometimes actually listened when spectra talked about random shit that Ariadne only sometimes cared about. Friendship is a beautiful thing and this fog is really making her distracted.
That was another aspect of this strange magic, clouding the minds of others so that their focus is dimmed down and their sense of judgement may be altered, not controlled but altered to where paranoia can be induced and anxiety may happen. Their basic training was coming to an end as Ariadne had learned the basics of the magic, understanding that controlling the fog was something that would take time and for now she should just learn to generate and move within it, doing a swift style of movement that didn't make her too noticeable if she kept light on her feet. The old woman gave her a smile, saying one last thing. "My legacy lives on through you, Ariadne Grekos." with that, the old woman had vanished into fog and Ariadne left, the fog in the village slowly dispersed and she went back to the guild.
WC: 2,066/2,000
TWC: 2,066/2,000
