The petite mage followed the blond CEO closely as they ventured deeper into the darkness. When Ruvel mentioned that he didn't have something and had stopped walking and so did she, she was a bit surprised at the coincidence that she was thinking about how he didn't have a signature and initially thought it was for something else, but with his latter words she knew that it was for what she was thinking, frankly he was quick to reassure her that he couldn't read minds and that people would usually wounder why he didn't have one.
"In all honestly, it sounds quite useful in situations, but now that I think of it it has its minuses." she said.
"While you can't be tracked by enemies, you can't be from allies as well, which makes it hard if you are ever in need of assistance or someone has to reach your location for whatever reason." She said, he probably knew all this, it was his signature after all, but she couldn't help herself.
"But i still think its more useful then anything else." She said and matched his smile with her own one. Sometimes she would wounder what her signature felt like to others, as every signature had a unique feel, sometimes they could be dark and cold and sometimes they can bright and even feel like a calm river.
She listened as he started to explain to her a bit about the mages in the company, and she was even more surprised then before when he mentioned that there was some kind of plant mage with a demon. It was a lot like her, though in her case it was more of a beast then a demon, but demon sufficed in many of the cases, for explaining that is, not that she had ever done so before to someone. She could recall only one person before that saw her beast's power and oddly enough it was again in Clover. Sara continued to listen to Ruvel as she told her more about Cirven, how he could use the same aspects of magic as her, but had apparently gone somewhere, so she wouldn't be able to get any pointers towards it.
"If I ever meet him, I will no doubt ask him, while true that it may not work for me, there's no harm for attempting to use the pointers." She said.
"You said that there was someone with a demon inside them.." She said with a small pause, contemplating if she wanted to continue, but in the end she decided to continuing
"I have something like that, more of a beast.. still trying to get him to cooperate more then he wants to currently, but I think I'll get to him one day, he used to get along with the people before me, so I have my hopes up." She told him, and felt like a weight was lifted from her shoulders one that was there from a long time, she didn't remember the last time she freely told someone about this without it being shown first, after a life or death situation.
As she had combined both parts of her magic, Ruvel had asked what happens exactly when the two touched each other, and had started listing some possibilities and she thought about it.
"I would say an equilibrium, neither is more then the other, they tend to become unstable if something like that happens. I've sort of figured out the core of it and I've yet to find a ceiling on the capabilities." She said and smiled as Ruvel also mentioned that he would help her find more about her magic in any way he could.
"I'll be counting on you then, if I ever need help wit this." She said with a warm smile.
"Magic is unpredictable, that's something I like about it, it can be everything until its true form is revealed." It was one of the things she admired in life and was thankful for having it, since not everyone in the population could utilize it, thus why people needed mages to do certain jobs that couldn't be done by the average person, that's why they were here now.
"I'm quite thankful for having magic honestly, it seems a lot more fun with it, then without it." She said and tried to look at the sky from all the branches and leafs that were stopping the moon light from lighting even a tiny bit from the dark forest, and sighed when she couldn't, the moon sky was also something that she loved as it was quite peaceful. She nodded when her partner explained to her that he preferred support over offense if they needed to fight in any way.
Her thoughts lingered towards what her life would be if she didn't have magic, if she had to guess, she would most likely be at the Ramen Shop of her adoptive Father that had taken her in after her parents were killed on that fateful night from that madman of a clown. It was good that he was an old family friend of theirs and had taken her in without a second thought and didn't let the official to take her to an orphanage. Her life had drastically changed after that and she trained even harder then what her parents used to train her, wanting to find the clown though she didn't have a single idea as to what she would do once she did. The red-golden haired mage was brought out herself out from her thoughts as Ruvel mentioned that his eyes also glowed.
"Mine glows only when I use magic, I've tried to figure out if there is a another reason for it, but it may just be a side effect of the magic itself." She said, it was something that she had no control over, well she did, but she couldn't stop it from glowing once she started using magic, the only way was to stop completely and after sometime it would just die down on itself with time.
"I'll figure it out in time i guess." She said and shrugged, there was time to think about this later, now they had to find a mysterious serial killer that was almost certainly stalking them as his current pray.
Sara listened with interest and looked at Ruvel as he explained his take on magic, being completely transparent with her on his views about it.
"I'm on the same side as you for magic, while there can be some nasty side effects from some magics, that doesn't mean that with enough practice or knowledge that they can't be removed or subdued in order for the magic to not be harmful. To me Magic is a constant flow and we just have to guide it." She said and began to follow behind Ruvel again as they started again to walk through the camp. There was also the need for Sara to decide if she wanted to take up the offer to join the trading company that Ruvel was taking care of currently. It was one of the bigger decisions that she had to make a choice on, but first she had to look up things a bit, it may not be the best place for her, and yet it could also be. It was one of the things she had to do so much research after they finished up with the job at hand. As the blond CEO paused, she mimicked and looked at him as he began to explain to her about making choices and she listened carefully as it was no doubt that he had to make the hard choices that have hardly ever come to her. As he finished Sara sighed with a smile
"Why does everything need to be hard, can't it just be easy as eating noodles." She said jokingly, even so she took in his words and thought about it.
"Well, then I'll hope that when the time comes to make those decisions, I'll be able to make what I feel is right... from everything that I've pieced from this, you can never be certain of the right decision that would lead to the best possible outcome." She said while looking at the dark road that was ahead of them.
"I can see it, without the end outcome and doing our decision we can't know what will happen after we deal with the killer, either by killing him or imprisoning him." She said and thought a bit more at what Ruvel had said to her.
"We can't know the outcome of something until its too late to change said decision.. I guess today may be the first time I'll be doing such a decision, and it seems that I'll have someone to guide me for the day." She said with a warm smile.
"If I ever do something that I end up regretting, I'll try not to be too hard on myself... there is still sometime before I get to something like that I think, I'll have some time to prepare myself for when the time comes then." She said as she had taken his words to heart, she hoped that it didn't put any pressure on him with her saying that would count on him, but then again, he was a wizard saint. There was a fairly big chance that he was used to these things already, and yet there was slight worry, Sara didn't want to bother him with even more things then he could already have on his head.
"Even in a world of magic, stories and legends, may not be true. Sometimes things can be exaggerated, but every story or legend had to start from somewhere, and by this I mean that they have some truth and should be looked into with caution." She said giving her opinion on what Ruvel had said.
"But it is true, they were teens and normal teens tend to do stuff that they shouldn't be doing to prove something to someone." She said as she looked back at Ruvel
"I don't think there have been any murders around Clover, I tend to comeback quite a bit here and check in with an old family member that took care of me. I doubt he wouldn't have told me if there was anything recent that has been happening that could result in any harm to the people of Clover." She explained, as she would have known if there was anything like this and no requests had been posted previously by the townsfolk.
"There used to be a lot of stories that would be told in order for kids to not venture out, but that would be mostly to keep them by their parents side and they were quite far fetched most teens knew them." She had heard some of the stories when she was a child and when she said that most of them were far fetched it ranged from man eating demons kidnapping children in the forest to great river beasts that could shake the ground around them. None of those stories were true, she had even ventured out once to find out if they were true when she had gotten a bit better with her magic. She looked back at Ruvel as he spoke
"If I was still a child or more so a teen I wouldn't have believed that he was still here as well, Azure Camp is quite old and its been quite sometime since it was last used." She said truthfully, but there was one total difference, unlike the other teens she had magic at her disposal and she had a better chance of either dealing with the threat or at least escape with her life.
"Some people put pressure on other people to do things, but then their are still people that don't have any of that pressure on them and are trying to prove something to people that won't care that much about it." She looked at him as he rubbed his templates and offered her to take her on one of the balls.
"I wouldn't mind coming, I would like to see what its like, but I doubt I'll like dealing with nobles that much." She said, a slight blush had also made its way as he had invited her and also told her that he would make a dress for her to use.
"Its always good to do something besides mage work or something else with the company in your case." She said thinking that it was also one of the reasons he would like tailoring, other then making clothes for his frame that is.
Sara followed behind again as Ruvel began to walk and explained some more about choices to her again.
"When you put it like that, its like every choice can turn into a hard one without one even knowing, or more like even simplest ones can have the biggest of impacts." She said as she put some thought into the words he was saying to her. It was true that she hadn't put much thought to things like this, thus making her a bit oblivious to the bigger world that was out there. She fell silent again as Ruvel spoke about redemption.
"This is mostly what I meant it by, I just couldn't explain it, some people could be beyond redemption and won't allow anyone with thoughts like that to them.... Some people can be too far gone by the time you can reach them." She said as she was finally able to explain her words from before, it was one of her more simpler problems that she could fix with more practice and it was explaining what she meant with her words, now that she had heard it from Ruvel, it was easier to explain her thoughts on the subject with his words in mind.
"Then I can't wait to meet him and possibly spar with him, and if we are even at the company I won't have to worry about damage that way." She said with slight excitement in her voice, it would be good to just spar and not worry that much about the surrounding area. It was a smart idea to make self repairing walls, especially if you had frequent spars that went out of control.
"That sounds quite nice, and like a lot more is on your shoulders at the same time, I would love to visit though, if I don't join the company that is." She said, she loved to travel around the world, so it was definitely on her list.
"I love traveling around, so I will definitely go and see the place for myself one day." She had a few places already marked that she would visit and now Tolgalen made it on that list, it was good that she had gotten her passport so she would be able to travel outside of Fiore if she ever wished so, and currently she wanted to visit the snowy and icy lands of Iceberg, for some reason she loved the snow and everything that was snowy was on her list to visit.
"I don't own one as well, I have never really gotten around those things." It wasn't that she had no expertise with technology, she just didn't go around using them, as she still hasn't found the need to have one.
"I still haven't found a use for one, so that's the main reason I haven't gotten around to get one." She said truthfully.
"I can see how people could hurt you with words alone and that in some cases, they may hurt more, but I also think they can hurt you through the people you care about." She said as she could think how they may target your closed ones to get to a person or just hurt them without actually doing anything directly to them.
"It was just a kind thing to do, that's from where I got the assumption." She said, it wasn't something that she would be able to do, as she had no such abilities, or at least didn't know of some currently.
"I don't know if I would be able to do the same thing with my magic." She said truthfully to Ruvel, she had never tried any of these things and in honestly, she never really thought about the spirits of people that were deceased and where they went, it was more and more of a realization for her on how little she knew about the bigger world.
"I agree on going slow, with the only light source coming from you, its hard to see anything else, so we would be walking in even more blind then we already are... Additionally I feel like we are being watched, but I can't pinpoint from where, its like its from everywhere and nowhere at the same time." She said, with the last point being in a lower tone as she looked to the side and to the wilderness behind the dimly lit camp, the feeling was there ever since they went away from the main building in the camp. The main problem she had with the place, is that it was soundless, there was nothing in the area, just the eerie feeling and the sound of their conversations, other then that there was nothing else that could be heard in the area around them or from the buildings, or at least to get a glimpse of the person that was hunting in the area. It was clear that at some point they would find him or he would find them, the question was when. Was he waiting for them to split up or for them to get tired, it was most likely that they could go quite a while without rest, but currently he could rest without a problem as he knew the area perfectly and they were just following the steps of the teens that were killed in Azure Camp.
Sara looked back at Ruvel as he started to explain the outfit that was worn by the small fairy that she saw. As her blonde partner stopped and continue, she could see and hear his voice trembling as he spoke. It wasn't an easy topic that they had gotten into.
"There is no need to apologize...Its the bond that matters, you don't need to be blood relatives in order to consider each other brother and sister." She said with a small smile as she remembered her adoptive father that took care of her after the massacre of her real father and mother.
"My parents were killed when I was young and I can even see the face of the person that did it still, his laughter as he did it, as well.. But I was taken in by an old family friend instead of being sent to an orphanage and the bond we formed is like the one between a father and daughter.. If its something that makes you happy and pulled you out of the pit of loneliness I can only say that its a good thing." She said her smile never leaving her face, even when she spoke about her parents being killed. It wasn't like she had forgiven the clown that had strolled into their home on the hill that night, and went ahead and murdered her parents. For some reason they had lost their magical powers and had little control over them, unlike from the stories that she had heard, and in the end she was the only one standing.
"So if she finds something useful for us, she will be able to signal us or more likely you, but still that is quite useful for us as we will at least have a direction for something then just walking in blind." She said, getting tired of them just waiting for something to happen with no direction or a hint of what that thing will be.
"That's good to keep in mind, that they are not like spiritual beings." She said as Ruvel had informed her that his summons weren't spirits or unholy beings, supernatural creatures and so on. Not everyone's magic let them tame such things to fight for them, and that's just how everything worked, some had more complex magic, and others more simple, but that that didn't make a magic stronger or weaker, it was all dependent on the user. She nodded at the afterthought that Ruvel had sent through their link.
'I tried to sense for everything in the vicinity that could give off even the tiniest magical source, but nothing came up..' She sent through the link, as she tried again expanding her senses to the maximum that she could, after which she went deep in her mindscape and looked back at the slitted red eye that was instantly looking at her.
"Can you please help, I can't sense anything in this forest." She asked the giant beast and waited patiently.
"I already assisted you and boosted your senses slightly, its either too far for you with the slight boost I can give you, or there is no source at all." He said and closed his eye. Sara exited her mindscape and did a mental sigh.
'I tried a few times as we got here, he's either to far away or without any magic.' She mentioned through their link and agreed as the other mentioned that Rune Knights weren't a walk in the park.
'If anything they would have sent more, I don't think they are the type to let things like this go, they would have most likely sent in their own higher ranked ones so they can secure the Town.' Sara agreed with Ruvel on the situation through the link.
'The other thing I can think of is that the person behind the murders chooses his victims and by this I mean that if he deems the people walking in the woods as a threat he doesn't approach them.' She said as she thought more about the situation, supposedly Azure Camp would have been secured and checked out since the first murdering that happened a while back. As he mentioned that he could be using a device Sara expanded her senses again searching for the faintest signature, if there was an item that dampened magic, it would still have to give off something on its own. She could even feel the slight boost from her companion that resided inside her, and her senses expanded to the forest around them, her eye was closed during the process and it snapped open after a second.
'I could feel something that was outside the camp.. But it was in every direction like it was either at a few places at the same time due to moving too fast or there was multiple things around the forest area as some would disappear from one place and appear at another, also the signature itself was quite faint.' She said as she was finally able to feel something in the area but it was nothing like she expected. The magical source could be felt everywhere and nowhere at the same time and it was quite faint, even with this they were at ground level again as she couldn't pinpoint a location.
The area around them was getting darker and darker, the red-haired mage looked attempted to look towards the moon sky, but with the leafs of the trees and the darkness around them nothing could be seen.
'It feels like its trying to swallow us.' She mentioned, agreeing with him that it was unnatural to be so dark, even with all the cover. It was good that they had Ruvel's pendant but it also looked like it was trying to swallow the light that was coming from him as well.
'I can help with the lighting a bit, just tell me and I'll flare my own magic.' She offered her assistance, but it could also put some trouble on them as they would be even easier to spot then they currently were. It would also let them change a bit and not force him to expand more magic for lighting the area around them, she was sure that he could do it without a problem and it was most likely taking little to nothing, but she felt bad not helping him with it and letting him take care of everything in terms of them being able to see in the darkness.
'Most likely, he wouldn't want anyone else to find the road here in the night time.' There were pretty much stuck here until they got this over with and that may take sometime.
'I think so too, there is no reason for him to let more people get in here, and if they are mages, its just going to be harder for him.' She agreed again, there was no point in him letting any more people close as currently he had two targets that had no idea from where he could strike. He had the home turf advantage and also most likely a way for him to see in this darkness clearly, it could also very well be an illusion that he could cast and that it just effected them. There was quite a few possibilities around.
It was slightly unnerving to her, them being the pray to something that they had yet to see, and it saw them perfectly. She knew that he would first play with their minds, it was evident from the journal of that girl that they had found that he would play with them, it didn't start at first, he had let them get accustomed to the area and feel like everything was just stories, it was a plus on their side that they knew the stories were true, the killed teen that they had found at the start was evidence of that, they didn't need much more then that, and the shocked teens that were in medical wards was also enough proof that there was something here, you don't get so shaken up if its not a legitimate threat to your life or someone close to you. It was going to be a while before they found him, unless they found some kind of trigger for him to come at them.
'He has most likely sensed that at least 1 of us is a mage, and with that pendant he may have guessed that you are one as well.' She said through their link, it was a plus that Ruvel's magic couldn't be sensed and there was no way to estimate how strong he actually was.
'Before we rest we should find a place that is suitable. I hope you don't mind me asking, but what are your methods of keeping us safe?' Sara asked through the link, she wanted to at least know a bit of information on the method, it was safe through the link he had established, and she wanted to know on what she would be counting.
'My tenant will wake me up if something comes up, he sleeps most of the time any way it won't hurt him to stay up while I rest.' She informed her partner that there was at least something additional that will help when they decide to rest.
'I suggest we keep them safe, its a little bit that we know and we can give them to their rightful owners or close relatives. The lodge should be that way.' She mentioned through the link and pointed in the direction of where the lodge was supposedly on the map.
'I hope we find something there, so we can stop being so clueless as there where the killer is.' She said honestly, as she hated the whole idea of them being just pray. Going closer to Ruvel she handed him the diary as he had mentioned that he had a way to keep them safe through his companions and their realms.
"I don't want to lose these, so I think keeping them safe is the best way." She said normally and not through their link and waited for her partner to do his thing, before they could start moving towards the Lodge.
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@Ruvel